Sample records for accelerator simulation paradigm

  1. Commnity Petascale Project for Accelerator Science And Simulation: Advancing Computational Science for Future Accelerators And Accelerator Technologies

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

    Spentzouris, Panagiotis; /Fermilab; Cary, John

    The design and performance optimization of particle accelerators are essential for the success of the DOE scientific program in the next decade. Particle accelerators are very complex systems whose accurate description involves a large number of degrees of freedom and requires the inclusion of many physics processes. Building on the success of the SciDAC-1 Accelerator Science and Technology project, the SciDAC-2 Community Petascale Project for Accelerator Science and Simulation (ComPASS) is developing a comprehensive set of interoperable components for beam dynamics, electromagnetics, electron cooling, and laser/plasma acceleration modelling. ComPASS is providing accelerator scientists the tools required to enable the necessarymore » accelerator simulation paradigm shift from high-fidelity single physics process modeling (covered under SciDAC1) to high-fidelity multiphysics modeling. Our computational frameworks have been used to model the behavior of a large number of accelerators and accelerator R&D experiments, assisting both their design and performance optimization. As parallel computational applications, the ComPASS codes have been shown to make effective use of thousands of processors.« less

  2. Community Petascale Project for Accelerator Science and Simulation: Advancing Computational Science for Future Accelerators and Accelerator Technologies

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

    Spentzouris, P.; /Fermilab; Cary, J.

    The design and performance optimization of particle accelerators are essential for the success of the DOE scientific program in the next decade. Particle accelerators are very complex systems whose accurate description involves a large number of degrees of freedom and requires the inclusion of many physics processes. Building on the success of the SciDAC-1 Accelerator Science and Technology project, the SciDAC-2 Community Petascale Project for Accelerator Science and Simulation (ComPASS) is developing a comprehensive set of interoperable components for beam dynamics, electromagnetics, electron cooling, and laser/plasma acceleration modelling. ComPASS is providing accelerator scientists the tools required to enable the necessarymore » accelerator simulation paradigm shift from high-fidelity single physics process modeling (covered under SciDAC1) to high-fidelity multiphysics modeling. Our computational frameworks have been used to model the behavior of a large number of accelerators and accelerator R&D experiments, assisting both their design and performance optimization. As parallel computational applications, the ComPASS codes have been shown to make effective use of thousands of processors. ComPASS is in the first year of executing its plan to develop the next-generation HPC accelerator modeling tools. ComPASS aims to develop an integrated simulation environment that will utilize existing and new accelerator physics modules with petascale capabilities, by employing modern computing and solver technologies. The ComPASS vision is to deliver to accelerator scientists a virtual accelerator and virtual prototyping modeling environment, with the necessary multiphysics, multiscale capabilities. The plan for this development includes delivering accelerator modeling applications appropriate for each stage of the ComPASS software evolution. Such applications are already being used to address challenging problems in accelerator design and optimization. The Com

  3. Effects of Frequency and Motion Paradigm on Perception of Tilt and Translation During Periodic Linear Acceleration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Beaton, K. H.; Holly, J. E.; Clement, G. R.; Wood, Scott J.

    2009-01-01

    Previous studies have demonstrated an effect of frequency on the gain of tilt and translation perception. Results from different motion paradigms are often combined to extend the stimulus frequency range. For example, Off-Vertical Axis Rotation (OVAR) and Variable Radius Centrifugation (VRC) are useful to test low frequencies of linear acceleration at amplitudes that would require impractical sled lengths. The purpose of this study was to compare roll-tilt and lateral translation motion perception in 12 healthy subjects across four paradigms: OVAR, VRC, sled translation and rotation about an earth-horizontal axis. Subjects were oscillated in darkness at six frequencies from 0.01875 to 0.6 Hz (peak acceleration equivalent to 10 deg, less for sled motion below 0.15 Hz). Subjects verbally described the amplitude of perceived tilt and translation, and used a joystick to indicate the direction of motion. Consistent with previous reports, tilt perception gain decreased as a function of stimulus frequency in the motion paradigms without concordant canal tilt cues (OVAR, VRC and Sled). Translation perception gain was negligible at low stimulus frequencies and increased at higher frequencies. There were no significant differences between the phase of tilt and translation, nor did the phase significantly vary across stimulus frequency. There were differences in perception gain across the different paradigms. Paradigms that included actual tilt stimuli had the larger tilt gains, and paradigms that included actual translation stimuli had larger translation gains. In addition, the frequency at which there was a crossover of tilt and translation gains appeared to vary across motion paradigm between 0.15 and 0.3 Hz. Since the linear acceleration in the head lateral plane was equivalent across paradigms, differences in gain may be attributable to the presence of linear accelerations in orthogonal directions and/or cognitive aspects based on the expected motion paths.

  4. A New Paradigm for Flare Particle Acceleration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guidoni, Silvina E.; Karpen, Judith T.; DeVore, C. Richard

    2017-08-01

    The mechanism that accelerates particles to the energies required to produce the observed high-energy impulsive emission and its spectra in solar flares is not well understood. Here, we propose a first-principle-based model of particle acceleration that produces energy spectra that closely resemble those derived from hard X-ray observations. Our mechanism uses contracting magnetic islands formed during fast reconnection in solar flares to accelerate electrons, as first proposed by Drake et al. (2006) for kinetic-scale plasmoids. We apply these ideas to MHD-scale islands formed during fast reconnection in a simulated eruptive flare. A simple analytic model based on the particles’ adiabatic invariants is used to calculate the energy gain of particles orbiting field lines in our ultrahigh-resolution, 2.5D, MHD numerical simulation of a solar eruption (flare + coronal mass ejection). Then, we analytically model electrons visiting multiple contracting islands to account for the observed high-energy flare emission. Our acceleration mechanism inherently produces sporadic emission because island formation is intermittent. Moreover, a large number of particles could be accelerated in each macroscopic island, which may explain the inferred rates of energetic-electron production in flares. We conclude that island contraction in the flare current sheet is a promising candidate for electron acceleration in solar eruptions. This work was supported in part by the NASA LWS and H-SR programs..

  5. Development of a neural net paradigm that predicts simulator sickness

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

    Allgood, G.O.

    1993-03-01

    A disease exists that affects pilots and aircrew members who use Navy Operational Flight Training Systems. This malady, commonly referred to as simulator sickness and whose symptomatology closely aligns with that of motion sickness, can compromise the use of these systems because of a reduced utilization factor, negative transfer of training, and reduction in combat readiness. A report is submitted that develops an artificial neural network (ANN) and behavioral model that predicts the onset and level of simulator sickness in the pilots and aircrews who sue these systems. It is proposed that the paradigm could be implemented in real timemore » as a biofeedback monitor to reduce the risk to users of these systems. The model captures the neurophysiological impact of use (human-machine interaction) by developing a structure that maps the associative and nonassociative behavioral patterns (learned expectations) and vestibular (otolith and semicircular canals of the inner ear) and tactile interaction, derived from system acceleration profiles, onto an abstract space that predicts simulator sickness for a given training flight.« less

  6. 20th Space Simulation Conference: The Changing Testing Paradigm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stecher, Joseph L., III (Compiler)

    1998-01-01

    The Institute of Environmental Sciences' Twentieth Space Simulation Conference, "The Changing Testing Paradigm" provided participants with a forum to acquire and exchange information on the state-of-the-art in space simulation, test technology, atomic oxygen, program/system testing, dynamics testing, contamination, and materials. The papers presented at this conference and the resulting discussions carried out the conference theme "The Changing Testing Paradigm."

  7. 20th Space Simulation Conference: The Changing Testing Paradigm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stecher, Joseph L., III (Compiler)

    1999-01-01

    The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology's Twentieth Space Simulation Conference, "The Changing Testing Paradigm" provided participants with a forum to acquire and exchange information on the state-of-the-art in space simulation, test technology, atomic oxygen, program/system testing, dynamics testing, contamination, and materials. The papers presented at this conference and the resulting discussions carried out the conference theme "The Changing Testing Paradigm."

  8. Superconducting accelerator magnet technology in the 21st century: A new paradigm on the horizon?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gourlay, S. A.

    2018-06-01

    Superconducting magnets for accelerators were first suggested in the mid-60's and have since become one of the major components of modern particle colliders. Technological progress has been slow but steady for the last half-century, based primarily on Nb-Ti superconductor. That technology has reached its peak with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Despite the superior electromagnetic properties of Nb3Sn and adoption by early magnet pioneers, it is just now coming into use in accelerators though it has not yet reliably achieved fields close to the theoretical limit. The discovery of the High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) in the late '80's created tremendous excitement, but these materials, with tantalizing performance at high fields and temperatures, have not yet been successfully developed into accelerator magnet configurations. Thanks to relatively recent developments in both Bi-2212 and REBCO, and a more focused international effort on magnet development, the situation has changed dramatically. Early optimism has been replaced with a reality that could create a new paradigm in superconducting magnet technology. Using selected examples of magnet technology from the previous century to define the context, this paper will describe the possible innovations using HTS materials as the basis for a new paradigm.

  9. AESS: Accelerated Exact Stochastic Simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jenkins, David D.; Peterson, Gregory D.

    2011-12-01

    The Stochastic Simulation Algorithm (SSA) developed by Gillespie provides a powerful mechanism for exploring the behavior of chemical systems with small species populations or with important noise contributions. Gene circuit simulations for systems biology commonly employ the SSA method, as do ecological applications. This algorithm tends to be computationally expensive, so researchers seek an efficient implementation of SSA. In this program package, the Accelerated Exact Stochastic Simulation Algorithm (AESS) contains optimized implementations of Gillespie's SSA that improve the performance of individual simulation runs or ensembles of simulations used for sweeping parameters or to provide statistically significant results. Program summaryProgram title: AESS Catalogue identifier: AEJW_v1_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEJW_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: University of Tennessee copyright agreement No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 10 861 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 394 631 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C for processors, CUDA for NVIDIA GPUs Computer: Developed and tested on various x86 computers and NVIDIA C1060 Tesla and GTX 480 Fermi GPUs. The system targets x86 workstations, optionally with multicore processors or NVIDIA GPUs as accelerators. Operating system: Tested under Ubuntu Linux OS and CentOS 5.5 Linux OS Classification: 3, 16.12 Nature of problem: Simulation of chemical systems, particularly with low species populations, can be accurately performed using Gillespie's method of stochastic simulation. Numerous variations on the original stochastic simulation algorithm have been developed, including approaches that produce results with statistics that exactly match the chemical master equation (CME) as well as other approaches that approximate the CME. Solution

  10. Translational Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex and Motion Perception During Interaural Linear Acceleration: Comparison of Different Motion Paradigms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Beaton, K. H.; Holly, J. E.; Clement, G. R.; Wood, S. J.

    2011-01-01

    The neural mechanisms to resolve ambiguous tilt-translation motion have been hypothesized to be different for motion perception and eye movements. Previous studies have demonstrated differences in ocular and perceptual responses using a variety of motion paradigms, including Off-Vertical Axis Rotation (OVAR), Variable Radius Centrifugation (VRC), translation along a linear track, and tilt about an Earth-horizontal axis. While the linear acceleration across these motion paradigms is presumably equivalent, there are important differences in semicircular canal cues. The purpose of this study was to compare translation motion perception and horizontal slow phase velocity to quantify consistencies, or lack thereof, across four different motion paradigms. Twelve healthy subjects were exposed to sinusoidal interaural linear acceleration between 0.01 and 0.6 Hz at 1.7 m/s/s (equivalent to 10 tilt) using OVAR, VRC, roll tilt, and lateral translation. During each trial, subjects verbally reported the amount of perceived peak-to-peak lateral translation and indicated the direction of motion with a joystick. Binocular eye movements were recorded using video-oculography. In general, the gain of translation perception (ratio of reported linear displacement to equivalent linear stimulus displacement) increased with stimulus frequency, while the phase did not significantly vary. However, translation perception was more pronounced during both VRC and lateral translation involving actual translation, whereas perceptions were less consistent and more variable during OVAR and roll tilt which did not involve actual translation. For each motion paradigm, horizontal eye movements were negligible at low frequencies and showed phase lead relative to the linear stimulus. At higher frequencies, the gain of the eye movements increased and became more inphase with the acceleration stimulus. While these results are consistent with the hypothesis that the neural computational strategies for

  11. GPU accelerated particle visualization with Splotch

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rivi, M.; Gheller, C.; Dykes, T.; Krokos, M.; Dolag, K.

    2014-07-01

    Splotch is a rendering algorithm for exploration and visual discovery in particle-based datasets coming from astronomical observations or numerical simulations. The strengths of the approach are production of high quality imagery and support for very large-scale datasets through an effective mix of the OpenMP and MPI parallel programming paradigms. This article reports our experiences in re-designing Splotch for exploiting emerging HPC architectures nowadays increasingly populated with GPUs. A performance model is introduced to guide our re-factoring of Splotch. A number of parallelization issues are discussed, in particular relating to race conditions and workload balancing, towards achieving optimal performances. Our implementation was accomplished by using the CUDA programming paradigm. Our strategy is founded on novel schemes achieving optimized data organization and classification of particles. We deploy a reference cosmological simulation to present performance results on acceleration gains and scalability. We finally outline our vision for future work developments including possibilities for further optimizations and exploitation of hybrid systems and emerging accelerators.

  12. Quality assurance paradigms for artificial intelligence in modelling and simulation

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

    Oren, T.I.

    1987-04-01

    New classes of quality assurance concepts and techniques are required for the advanced knowledge-processing paradigms (such as artificial intelligence, expert systems, or knowledge-based systems) and the complex problems that only simulative systems can cope with. A systematization of quality assurance problems as well as examples are given to traditional and cognizant quality assurance techniques in traditional and cognizant modelling and simulation.

  13. Modeling target normal sheath acceleration using handoffs between multiple simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McMahon, Matthew; Willis, Christopher; Mitchell, Robert; King, Frank; Schumacher, Douglass; Akli, Kramer; Freeman, Richard

    2013-10-01

    We present a technique to model the target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) process using full-scale LSP PIC simulations. The technique allows for a realistic laser, full size target and pre-plasma, and sufficient propagation length for the accelerated ions and electrons. A first simulation using a 2D Cartesian grid models the laser-plasma interaction (LPI) self-consistently and includes field ionization. Electrons accelerated by the laser are imported into a second simulation using a 2D cylindrical grid optimized for the initial TNSA process and incorporating an equation of state. Finally, all of the particles are imported to a third simulation optimized for the propagation of the accelerated ions and utilizing a static field solver for initialization. We also show use of 3D LPI simulations. Simulation results are compared to recent ion acceleration experiments using SCARLET laser at The Ohio State University. This work was performed with support from ASOFR under contract # FA9550-12-1-0341, DARPA, and allocations of computing time from the Ohio Supercomputing Center.

  14. Graphics Processing Unit Acceleration of Gyrokinetic Turbulence Simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hause, Benjamin; Parker, Scott

    2012-10-01

    We find a substantial increase in on-node performance using Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) acceleration in gyrokinetic delta-f particle-in-cell simulation. Optimization is performed on a two-dimensional slab gyrokinetic particle simulation using the Portland Group Fortran compiler with the GPU accelerator compiler directives. We have implemented the GPU acceleration on a Core I7 gaming PC with a NVIDIA GTX 580 GPU. We find comparable, or better, acceleration relative to the NERSC DIRAC cluster with the NVIDIA Tesla C2050 computing processor. The Tesla C 2050 is about 2.6 times more expensive than the GTX 580 gaming GPU. Optimization strategies and comparisons between DIRAC and the gaming PC will be presented. We will also discuss progress on optimizing the comprehensive three dimensional general geometry GEM code.

  15. Measuring listening effort: driving simulator vs. simple dual-task paradigm

    PubMed Central

    Wu, Yu-Hsiang; Aksan, Nazan; Rizzo, Matthew; Stangl, Elizabeth; Zhang, Xuyang; Bentler, Ruth

    2014-01-01

    Objectives The dual-task paradigm has been widely used to measure listening effort. The primary objectives of the study were to (1) investigate the effect of hearing aid amplification and a hearing aid directional technology on listening effort measured by a complicated, more real world dual-task paradigm, and (2) compare the results obtained with this paradigm to a simpler laboratory-style dual-task paradigm. Design The listening effort of adults with hearing impairment was measured using two dual-task paradigms, wherein participants performed a speech recognition task simultaneously with either a driving task in a simulator or a visual reaction-time task in a sound-treated booth. The speech materials and road noises for the speech recognition task were recorded in a van traveling on the highway in three hearing aid conditions: unaided, aided with omni directional processing (OMNI), and aided with directional processing (DIR). The change in the driving task or the visual reaction-time task performance across the conditions quantified the change in listening effort. Results Compared to the driving-only condition, driving performance declined significantly with the addition of the speech recognition task. Although the speech recognition score was higher in the OMNI and DIR conditions than in the unaided condition, driving performance was similar across these three conditions, suggesting that listening effort was not affected by amplification and directional processing. Results from the simple dual-task paradigm showed a similar trend: hearing aid technologies improved speech recognition performance, but did not affect performance in the visual reaction-time task (i.e., reduce listening effort). The correlation between listening effort measured using the driving paradigm and the visual reaction-time task paradigm was significant. The finding showing that our older (56 to 85 years old) participants’ better speech recognition performance did not result in reduced

  16. Acceleration of discrete stochastic biochemical simulation using GPGPU.

    PubMed

    Sumiyoshi, Kei; Hirata, Kazuki; Hiroi, Noriko; Funahashi, Akira

    2015-01-01

    For systems made up of a small number of molecules, such as a biochemical network in a single cell, a simulation requires a stochastic approach, instead of a deterministic approach. The stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA) simulates the stochastic behavior of a spatially homogeneous system. Since stochastic approaches produce different results each time they are used, multiple runs are required in order to obtain statistical results; this results in a large computational cost. We have implemented a parallel method for using SSA to simulate a stochastic model; the method uses a graphics processing unit (GPU), which enables multiple realizations at the same time, and thus reduces the computational time and cost. During the simulation, for the purpose of analysis, each time course is recorded at each time step. A straightforward implementation of this method on a GPU is about 16 times faster than a sequential simulation on a CPU with hybrid parallelization; each of the multiple simulations is run simultaneously, and the computational tasks within each simulation are parallelized. We also implemented an improvement to the memory access and reduced the memory footprint, in order to optimize the computations on the GPU. We also implemented an asynchronous data transfer scheme to accelerate the time course recording function. To analyze the acceleration of our implementation on various sizes of model, we performed SSA simulations on different model sizes and compared these computation times to those for sequential simulations with a CPU. When used with the improved time course recording function, our method was shown to accelerate the SSA simulation by a factor of up to 130.

  17. Acceleration of discrete stochastic biochemical simulation using GPGPU

    PubMed Central

    Sumiyoshi, Kei; Hirata, Kazuki; Hiroi, Noriko; Funahashi, Akira

    2015-01-01

    For systems made up of a small number of molecules, such as a biochemical network in a single cell, a simulation requires a stochastic approach, instead of a deterministic approach. The stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA) simulates the stochastic behavior of a spatially homogeneous system. Since stochastic approaches produce different results each time they are used, multiple runs are required in order to obtain statistical results; this results in a large computational cost. We have implemented a parallel method for using SSA to simulate a stochastic model; the method uses a graphics processing unit (GPU), which enables multiple realizations at the same time, and thus reduces the computational time and cost. During the simulation, for the purpose of analysis, each time course is recorded at each time step. A straightforward implementation of this method on a GPU is about 16 times faster than a sequential simulation on a CPU with hybrid parallelization; each of the multiple simulations is run simultaneously, and the computational tasks within each simulation are parallelized. We also implemented an improvement to the memory access and reduced the memory footprint, in order to optimize the computations on the GPU. We also implemented an asynchronous data transfer scheme to accelerate the time course recording function. To analyze the acceleration of our implementation on various sizes of model, we performed SSA simulations on different model sizes and compared these computation times to those for sequential simulations with a CPU. When used with the improved time course recording function, our method was shown to accelerate the SSA simulation by a factor of up to 130. PMID:25762936

  18. Accelerated GPU based SPECT Monte Carlo simulations.

    PubMed

    Garcia, Marie-Paule; Bert, Julien; Benoit, Didier; Bardiès, Manuel; Visvikis, Dimitris

    2016-06-07

    Monte Carlo (MC) modelling is widely used in the field of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) as it is a reliable technique to simulate very high quality scans. This technique provides very accurate modelling of the radiation transport and particle interactions in a heterogeneous medium. Various MC codes exist for nuclear medicine imaging simulations. Recently, new strategies exploiting the computing capabilities of graphical processing units (GPU) have been proposed. This work aims at evaluating the accuracy of such GPU implementation strategies in comparison to standard MC codes in the context of SPECT imaging. GATE was considered the reference MC toolkit and used to evaluate the performance of newly developed GPU Geant4-based Monte Carlo simulation (GGEMS) modules for SPECT imaging. Radioisotopes with different photon energies were used with these various CPU and GPU Geant4-based MC codes in order to assess the best strategy for each configuration. Three different isotopes were considered: (99m) Tc, (111)In and (131)I, using a low energy high resolution (LEHR) collimator, a medium energy general purpose (MEGP) collimator and a high energy general purpose (HEGP) collimator respectively. Point source, uniform source, cylindrical phantom and anthropomorphic phantom acquisitions were simulated using a model of the GE infinia II 3/8" gamma camera. Both simulation platforms yielded a similar system sensitivity and image statistical quality for the various combinations. The overall acceleration factor between GATE and GGEMS platform derived from the same cylindrical phantom acquisition was between 18 and 27 for the different radioisotopes. Besides, a full MC simulation using an anthropomorphic phantom showed the full potential of the GGEMS platform, with a resulting acceleration factor up to 71. The good agreement with reference codes and the acceleration factors obtained support the use of GPU implementation strategies for improving computational

  19. Kinetic Simulations of Particle Acceleration at Shocks

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

    Caprioli, Damiano; Guo, Fan

    2015-07-16

    Collisionless shocks are mediated by collective electromagnetic interactions and are sources of non-thermal particles and emission. The full particle-in-cell approach and a hybrid approach are sketched, simulations of collisionless shocks are shown using a multicolor presentation. Results for SN 1006, a case involving ion acceleration and B field amplification where the shock is parallel, are shown. Electron acceleration takes place in planetary bow shocks and galaxy clusters. It is concluded that acceleration at shocks can be efficient: >15%; CRs amplify B field via streaming instability; ion DSA is efficient at parallel, strong shocks; ions are injected via reflection and shockmore » drift acceleration; and electron DSA is efficient at oblique shocks.« less

  20. Accelerating Monte Carlo simulations of photon transport in a voxelized geometry using a massively parallel graphics processing unit.

    PubMed

    Badal, Andreu; Badano, Aldo

    2009-11-01

    It is a known fact that Monte Carlo simulations of radiation transport are computationally intensive and may require long computing times. The authors introduce a new paradigm for the acceleration of Monte Carlo simulations: The use of a graphics processing unit (GPU) as the main computing device instead of a central processing unit (CPU). A GPU-based Monte Carlo code that simulates photon transport in a voxelized geometry with the accurate physics models from PENELOPE has been developed using the CUDATM programming model (NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, CA). An outline of the new code and a sample x-ray imaging simulation with an anthropomorphic phantom are presented. A remarkable 27-fold speed up factor was obtained using a GPU compared to a single core CPU. The reported results show that GPUs are currently a good alternative to CPUs for the simulation of radiation transport. Since the performance of GPUs is currently increasing at a faster pace than that of CPUs, the advantages of GPU-based software are likely to be more pronounced in the future.

  1. Accelerating Climate Simulations Through Hybrid Computing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zhou, Shujia; Sinno, Scott; Cruz, Carlos; Purcell, Mark

    2009-01-01

    Unconventional multi-core processors (e.g., IBM Cell B/E and NYIDIDA GPU) have emerged as accelerators in climate simulation. However, climate models typically run on parallel computers with conventional processors (e.g., Intel and AMD) using MPI. Connecting accelerators to this architecture efficiently and easily becomes a critical issue. When using MPI for connection, we identified two challenges: (1) identical MPI implementation is required in both systems, and; (2) existing MPI code must be modified to accommodate the accelerators. In response, we have extended and deployed IBM Dynamic Application Virtualization (DAV) in a hybrid computing prototype system (one blade with two Intel quad-core processors, two IBM QS22 Cell blades, connected with Infiniband), allowing for seamlessly offloading compute-intensive functions to remote, heterogeneous accelerators in a scalable, load-balanced manner. Currently, a climate solar radiation model running with multiple MPI processes has been offloaded to multiple Cell blades with approx.10% network overhead.

  2. The Particle Accelerator Simulation Code PyORBIT

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

    Gorlov, Timofey V; Holmes, Jeffrey A; Cousineau, Sarah M

    2015-01-01

    The particle accelerator simulation code PyORBIT is presented. The structure, implementation, history, parallel and simulation capabilities, and future development of the code are discussed. The PyORBIT code is a new implementation and extension of algorithms of the original ORBIT code that was developed for the Spallation Neutron Source accelerator at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The PyORBIT code has a two level structure. The upper level uses the Python programming language to control the flow of intensive calculations performed by the lower level code implemented in the C++ language. The parallel capabilities are based on MPI communications. The PyORBIT ismore » an open source code accessible to the public through the Google Open Source Projects Hosting service.« less

  3. Wavelet and Multiresolution Analysis for Finite Element Networking Paradigms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kurdila, Andrew J.; Sharpley, Robert C.

    1999-01-01

    This paper presents a final report on Wavelet and Multiresolution Analysis for Finite Element Networking Paradigms. The focus of this research is to derive and implement: 1) Wavelet based methodologies for the compression, transmission, decoding, and visualization of three dimensional finite element geometry and simulation data in a network environment; 2) methodologies for interactive algorithm monitoring and tracking in computational mechanics; and 3) Methodologies for interactive algorithm steering for the acceleration of large scale finite element simulations. Also included in this report are appendices describing the derivation of wavelet based Particle Image Velocity algorithms and reduced order input-output models for nonlinear systems by utilizing wavelet approximations.

  4. Using Kokkos for Performant Cross-Platform Acceleration of Liquid Rocket Simulations

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-05-08

    NUMBER (Include area code) 08 May 2017 Briefing Charts 05 April 2017 - 08 May 2017 Using Kokkos for Performant Cross-Platform Acceleration of Liquid ...ERC Incorporated RQRC AFRL-West Using Kokkos for Performant Cross-Platform Acceleration of Liquid Rocket Simulations 2DISTRIBUTION A: Approved for... Liquid Rocket Combustion Simulation SPACE simulation of rotating detonation engine (courtesy of Dr. Christopher Lietz) 3DISTRIBUTION A: Approved

  5. Fully Implict Magneto-hydrodynamics Simulations of Coaxial Plasma Accelerators

    DOE PAGES

    Subramaniam, Vivek; Raja, Laxminarayan L.

    2017-01-05

    The resistive Magneto-Hydrodynamic (MHD) model describes the behavior of a strongly ionized plasma in the presence of external electric and magnetic fields. We developed a fully implicit MHD simulation tool to solve the resistive MHD governing equations in the context of a cell-centered finite-volume scheme. The primary objective of this study is to use the fully-implicit algorithm to obtain insights into the plasma acceleration and jet formation processes in Coaxial Plasma accelerators; electromagnetic acceleration devices that utilize self-induced magnetic fields to accelerate thermal plasmas to large velocities. We also carry out plasma-surface simulations in order to study the impact interactionsmore » when these high velocity plasma jets impinge on target material surfaces. Scaling studies are carried out to establish some basic functional relationships between the target-stagnation conditions and the current discharged between the coaxial electrodes.« less

  6. On the application of accelerated molecular dynamics to liquid water simulations.

    PubMed

    de Oliveira, César Augusto F; Hamelberg, Donald; McCammon, J Andrew

    2006-11-16

    Our group recently proposed a robust bias potential function that can be used in an efficient all-atom accelerated molecular dynamics (MD) approach to simulate the transition of high energy barriers without any advance knowledge of the potential-energy landscape. The main idea is to modify the potential-energy surface by adding a bias, or boost, potential in regions close to the local minima, such that all transitions rates are increased. By applying the accelerated MD simulation method to liquid water, we observed that this new simulation technique accelerates the molecular motion without losing its microscopic structure and equilibrium properties. Our results showed that the application of a small boost energy on the potential-energy surface significantly reduces the statistical inefficiency of the simulation while keeping all the other calculated properties unchanged. On the other hand, although aggressive acceleration of the dynamics simulation increases the self-diffusion coefficient of water molecules greatly and dramatically reduces the correlation time of the simulation, configurations representative of the true structure of liquid water are poorly sampled. Our results also showed the strength and robustness of this simulation technique, which confirm this approach as a very useful and promising tool to extend the time scale of the all-atom simulations of biological system with explicit solvent models. However, we should keep in mind that there is a compromise between the strength of the boost applied in the simulation and the reproduction of the ensemble average properties.

  7. GPU Accelerated DG-FDF Large Eddy Simulator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Inkarbekov, Medet; Aitzhan, Aidyn; Sammak, Shervin; Givi, Peyman; Kaltayev, Aidarkhan

    2017-11-01

    A GPU accelerated simulator is developed and implemented for large eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent flows. The filtered density function (FDF) is utilized for modeling of the subgrid scale quantities. The filtered transport equations are solved via a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) and the FDF is simulated via particle based Lagrangian Monte-Carlo (MC) method. It is demonstrated that the GPUs simulations are of the order of 100 times faster than the CPU-based calculations. This brings LES of turbulent flows to a new level, facilitating efficient simulation of more complex problems. The work at Al-Faraby Kazakh National University is sponsored by MoES of RK under Grant 3298/GF-4.

  8. Accelerating sino-atrium computer simulations with graphic processing units.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Hong; Xiao, Zheng; Lin, Shien-fong

    2015-01-01

    Sino-atrial node cells (SANCs) play a significant role in rhythmic firing. To investigate their role in arrhythmia and interactions with the atrium, computer simulations based on cellular dynamic mathematical models are generally used. However, the large-scale computation usually makes research difficult, given the limited computational power of Central Processing Units (CPUs). In this paper, an accelerating approach with Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) is proposed in a simulation consisting of the SAN tissue and the adjoining atrium. By using the operator splitting method, the computational task was made parallel. Three parallelization strategies were then put forward. The strategy with the shortest running time was further optimized by considering block size, data transfer and partition. The results showed that for a simulation with 500 SANCs and 30 atrial cells, the execution time taken by the non-optimized program decreased 62% with respect to a serial program running on CPU. The execution time decreased by 80% after the program was optimized. The larger the tissue was, the more significant the acceleration became. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed GPU-accelerating methods and their promising applications in more complicated biological simulations.

  9. Accelerating Monte Carlo simulations of photon transport in a voxelized geometry using a massively parallel graphics processing unit

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

    Badal, Andreu; Badano, Aldo

    Purpose: It is a known fact that Monte Carlo simulations of radiation transport are computationally intensive and may require long computing times. The authors introduce a new paradigm for the acceleration of Monte Carlo simulations: The use of a graphics processing unit (GPU) as the main computing device instead of a central processing unit (CPU). Methods: A GPU-based Monte Carlo code that simulates photon transport in a voxelized geometry with the accurate physics models from PENELOPE has been developed using the CUDA programming model (NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, CA). Results: An outline of the new code and a sample x-raymore » imaging simulation with an anthropomorphic phantom are presented. A remarkable 27-fold speed up factor was obtained using a GPU compared to a single core CPU. Conclusions: The reported results show that GPUs are currently a good alternative to CPUs for the simulation of radiation transport. Since the performance of GPUs is currently increasing at a faster pace than that of CPUs, the advantages of GPU-based software are likely to be more pronounced in the future.« less

  10. SU-E-T-512: Electromagnetic Simulations of the Dielectric Wall Accelerator

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

    Uselmann, A; Mackie, T

    Purpose: To characterize and parametrically study the key components of a dielectric wall accelerator through electromagnetic modeling and particle tracking. Methods: Electromagnetic and particle tracking simulations were performed using a commercial code (CST Microwave Studio, CST Inc.) utilizing the finite integration technique. A dielectric wall accelerator consists of a series of stacked transmission lines sequentially fired in synchrony with an ion pulse. Numerous properties of the stacked transmission lines, including geometric, material, and electronic properties, were analyzed and varied in order to assess their impact on the transverse and axial electric fields. Additionally, stacks of transmission lines were simulated inmore » order to quantify the parasitic effect observed in closely packed lines. Particle tracking simulations using the particle-in-cell method were performed on the various stacks to determine the impact of the above properties on the resultant phase space of the ions. Results: Examination of the simulation results show that novel geometries can shape the accelerating pulse in order to reduce the energy spread and increase the average energy of accelerated ions. Parasitic effects were quantified for various geometries and found to vary with distance from the end of the transmission line and along the beam axis. An optimal arrival time of an ion pulse relative to the triggering of the transmission lines for a given geometry was determined through parametric study. Benchmark simulations of single transmission lines agree well with published experimental results. Conclusion: This work characterized the behavior of the transmission lines used in a dielectric wall accelerator and used this information to improve them in novel ways. Utilizing novel geometries, we were able to improve the accelerating gradient and phase space of the accelerated particle bunch. Through simulation, we were able to discover and optimize design issues with the

  11. WarpIV: In situ visualization and analysis of ion accelerator simulations

    DOE PAGES

    Rubel, Oliver; Loring, Burlen; Vay, Jean -Luc; ...

    2016-05-09

    The generation of short pulses of ion beams through the interaction of an intense laser with a plasma sheath offers the possibility of compact and cheaper ion sources for many applications--from fast ignition and radiography of dense targets to hadron therapy and injection into conventional accelerators. To enable the efficient analysis of large-scale, high-fidelity particle accelerator simulations using the Warp simulation suite, the authors introduce the Warp In situ Visualization Toolkit (WarpIV). WarpIV integrates state-of-the-art in situ visualization and analysis using VisIt with Warp, supports management and control of complex in situ visualization and analysis workflows, and implements integrated analyticsmore » to facilitate query- and feature-based data analytics and efficient large-scale data analysis. WarpIV enables for the first time distributed parallel, in situ visualization of the full simulation data using high-performance compute resources as the data is being generated by Warp. The authors describe the application of WarpIV to study and compare large 2D and 3D ion accelerator simulations, demonstrating significant differences in the acceleration process in 2D and 3D simulations. WarpIV is available to the public via https://bitbucket.org/berkeleylab/warpiv. The Warp In situ Visualization Toolkit (WarpIV) supports large-scale, parallel, in situ visualization and analysis and facilitates query- and feature-based analytics, enabling for the first time high-performance analysis of large-scale, high-fidelity particle accelerator simulations while the data is being generated by the Warp simulation suite. Furthermore, this supplemental material https://extras.computer.org/extra/mcg2016030022s1.pdf provides more details regarding the memory profiling and optimization and the Yee grid recentering optimization results discussed in the main article.« less

  12. Temporal acceleration of spatially distributed kinetic Monte Carlo simulations

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

    Chatterjee, Abhijit; Vlachos, Dionisios G.

    The computational intensity of kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulation is a major impediment in simulating large length and time scales. In recent work, an approximate method for KMC simulation of spatially uniform systems, termed the binomial {tau}-leap method, was introduced [A. Chatterjee, D.G. Vlachos, M.A. Katsoulakis, Binomial distribution based {tau}-leap accelerated stochastic simulation, J. Chem. Phys. 122 (2005) 024112], where molecular bundles instead of individual processes are executed over coarse-grained time increments. This temporal coarse-graining can lead to significant computational savings but its generalization to spatially lattice KMC simulation has not been realized yet. Here we extend the binomial {tau}-leapmore » method to lattice KMC simulations by combining it with spatially adaptive coarse-graining. Absolute stability and computational speed-up analyses for spatial systems along with simulations provide insights into the conditions where accuracy and substantial acceleration of the new spatio-temporal coarse-graining method are ensured. Model systems demonstrate that the r-time increment criterion of Chatterjee et al. obeys the absolute stability limit for values of r up to near 1.« less

  13. Simulations of Biased Agonists in the β2 Adrenergic Receptor with Accelerated Molecular Dynamics

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    The biased agonism of the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), where in addition to a traditional G protein-signaling pathway a GPCR promotes intracellular signals though β-arrestin, is a novel paradigm in pharmacology. Biochemical and biophysical studies have suggested that a GPCR forms a distinct ensemble of conformations signaling through the G protein and β-arrestin. Here we report on the dynamics of the β2 adrenergic receptor bound to the β-arrestin and G protein-biased agonists and the empty receptor to further characterize the receptor conformational changes caused by biased agonists. We use conventional and accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) simulations to explore the conformational transitions of the GPCR from the active state to the inactive state. We found that aMD simulations enable monitoring of the transition within the nanosecond time scale while capturing the known microscopic characteristics of the inactive states, such as the ionic lock, the inward position of F6.44, and water clusters. Distinct conformational states are shown to be stabilized by each biased agonist. In particular, in simulations of the receptor with the β-arrestin-biased agonist N-cyclopentylbutanepherine, we observe a different pattern of motions in helix 7 when compared to simulations with the G protein-biased agonist salbutamol that involves perturbations of the network of interactions within the NPxxY motif. Understanding the network of interactions induced by biased ligands and the subsequent receptor conformational shifts will lead to development of more efficient drugs. PMID:23879802

  14. A seat cushion to provide realistic acceleration cues for aircraft simulators

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ashworth, B. R.

    1976-01-01

    A seat cushion to provide acceleration cues for aircraft simulator pilots was built, performance tested, and evaluated. The four cell seat, using a thin air cushion with highly responsive pressure control, attempts to reproduce the same events which occur in an aircraft seat under acceleration loading. The pressure controller provides seat cushion responses which are considered adequate for current high performance aircraft simulations. The initial tests of the seat cushions have resulted in excellent pilot opinion of the cushion's ability to provide realistic and useful cues to the simulator pilot.

  15. Bacterial cells enhance laser driven ion acceleration

    PubMed Central

    Dalui, Malay; Kundu, M.; Trivikram, T. Madhu; Rajeev, R.; Ray, Krishanu; Krishnamurthy, M.

    2014-01-01

    Intense laser produced plasmas generate hot electrons which in turn leads to ion acceleration. Ability to generate faster ions or hotter electrons using the same laser parameters is one of the main outstanding paradigms in the intense laser-plasma physics. Here, we present a simple, albeit, unconventional target that succeeds in generating 700 keV carbon ions where conventional targets for the same laser parameters generate at most 40 keV. A few layers of micron sized bacteria coating on a polished surface increases the laser energy coupling and generates a hotter plasma which is more effective for the ion acceleration compared to the conventional polished targets. Particle-in-cell simulations show that micro-particle coated target are much more effective in ion acceleration as seen in the experiment. We envisage that the accelerated, high-energy carbon ions can be used as a source for multiple applications. PMID:25102948

  16. Multigrid accelerated simulations for Twisted Mass fermions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bacchio, Simone; Alexandrou, Constantia; Finkerath, Jacob

    2018-03-01

    Simulations at physical quark masses are affected by the critical slowing down of the solvers. Multigrid preconditioning has proved to deal effectively with this problem. Multigrid accelerated simulations at the physical value of the pion mass are being performed to generate Nf = 2 and Nf = 2 + 1 + 1 gauge ensembles using twisted mass fermions. The adaptive aggregation-based domain decomposition multigrid solver, referred to as DD-αAMG method, is employed for these simulations. Our simulation strategy consists of an hybrid approach of different solvers, involving the Conjugate Gradient (CG), multi-mass-shift CG and DD-αAMG solvers. We present an analysis of the multigrid performance during the simulations discussing the stability of the method. This significant speeds up the Hybrid Monte Carlo simulation by more than a factor 4 at physical pion mass compared to the usage of the CG solver.

  17. Beam dynamics simulation of a double pass proton linear accelerator

    DOE PAGES

    Hwang, Kilean; Qiang, Ji

    2017-04-03

    A recirculating superconducting linear accelerator with the advantage of both straight and circular accelerator has been demonstrated with relativistic electron beams. The acceleration concept of a recirculating proton beam was recently proposed and is currently under study. In order to further support the concept, the beam dynamics study on a recirculating proton linear accelerator has to be carried out. In this paper, we study the feasibility of a two-pass recirculating proton linear accelerator through the direct numerical beam dynamics design optimization and the start-to-end simulation. This study shows that the two-pass simultaneous focusing without particle losses is attainable including fullymore » 3D space-charge effects through the entire accelerator system.« less

  18. Effects of dimensionality on kinetic simulations of laser-ion acceleration in the transparency regime

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stark, D. J.; Yin, L.; Albright, B. J.; Guo, F.

    2017-05-01

    A particle-in-cell study of laser-ion acceleration mechanisms in the transparency regime illustrates how two-dimensional (2D) S and P simulations (laser polarization in and out of the simulation plane, respectively) capture different physics characterizing these systems, visible in their entirety often in cost-prohibitive three-dimensional (3D) simulations. The electron momentum anisotropy induced in the target by a laser pulse is dramatically different in the two 2D cases, manifested in differences in target expansion timescales, electric field strengths, and density thresholds for the onset of relativistically induced transparency. In particular, 2D-P simulations exhibit dramatically greater electron heating in the simulation plane, whereas 2D-S ones show a much more isotropic energy distribution, similar to 3D. An ion trajectory analysis allows one to isolate the fields responsible for ion acceleration and to characterize the acceleration regimes in time and space. The artificial longitudinal electron heating in 2D-P exaggerates the effectiveness of target-normal sheath acceleration into its dominant acceleration mechanism throughout the laser-plasma interaction, whereas 2D-S and 3D both have sizable populations accelerated preferentially during transparency.

  19. Effects of dimensionality on kinetic simulations of laser-ion acceleration in the transparency regime

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

    Stark, David James; Yin, Lin; Albright, Brian James

    2017-05-03

    A particle-in-cell study of laser-ion acceleration mechanisms in the transparency regime illustrates how two-dimensional (2D) S and P simulations (laser polarization in and out of the simulation plane, respectively) capture different physics characterizing these systems, visible in their entirety in often cost-prohibitive three-dimensional (3D) simulations. The electron momentum anisotropy induced in the target by the laser pulse is dramatically different in the two 2D cases, manifested in differences in target expansion timescales, electric field strengths, and density thresholds for the onset of relativistically induced transparency. In particular, 2D-P simulations exhibit dramatically greater electron heating in the simulation plane, whereas 2D-Smore » ones show a much more isotropic energy distribution, similar to 3D. An ion trajectory analysis allows one to isolate the fields responsible for ion acceleration and to characterize the acceleration regimes in time and space. The artificial longitudinal electron heating in 2D-P exaggerates the effectiveness of target-normal sheath acceleration into its dominant acceleration mechanism throughout the laser-plasma interaction, whereas 2D-S and 3D both have sizable populations accelerated preferentially during transparency.« less

  20. Fast Acceleration of 2D Wave Propagation Simulations Using Modern Computational Accelerators

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Wei; Xu, Lifan; Cavazos, John; Huang, Howie H.; Kay, Matthew

    2014-01-01

    Recent developments in modern computational accelerators like Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and coprocessors provide great opportunities for making scientific applications run faster than ever before. However, efficient parallelization of scientific code using new programming tools like CUDA requires a high level of expertise that is not available to many scientists. This, plus the fact that parallelized code is usually not portable to different architectures, creates major challenges for exploiting the full capabilities of modern computational accelerators. In this work, we sought to overcome these challenges by studying how to achieve both automated parallelization using OpenACC and enhanced portability using OpenCL. We applied our parallelization schemes using GPUs as well as Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) coprocessor to reduce the run time of wave propagation simulations. We used a well-established 2D cardiac action potential model as a specific case-study. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study auto-parallelization of 2D cardiac wave propagation simulations using OpenACC. Our results identify several approaches that provide substantial speedups. The OpenACC-generated GPU code achieved more than speedup above the sequential implementation and required the addition of only a few OpenACC pragmas to the code. An OpenCL implementation provided speedups on GPUs of at least faster than the sequential implementation and faster than a parallelized OpenMP implementation. An implementation of OpenMP on Intel MIC coprocessor provided speedups of with only a few code changes to the sequential implementation. We highlight that OpenACC provides an automatic, efficient, and portable approach to achieve parallelization of 2D cardiac wave simulations on GPUs. Our approach of using OpenACC, OpenCL, and OpenMP to parallelize this particular model on modern computational accelerators should be applicable to other computational models of wave propagation in

  1. DIFFUSIVE SHOCK ACCELERATION SIMULATIONS OF RADIO RELICS

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

    Kang, Hyesung; Ryu, Dongsu; Jones, T. W., E-mail: kang@uju.es.pusan.ac.kr, E-mail: ryu@canopus.cnu.ac.kr, E-mail: twj@msi.umn.edu

    2012-09-01

    Recent radio observations have identified a class of structures, so-called radio relics, in clusters of galaxies. The radio emission from these sources is interpreted as synchrotron radiation from GeV electrons gyrating in {mu}G-level magnetic fields. Radio relics, located mostly in the outskirts of clusters, seem to associate with shock waves, especially those developed during mergers. In fact, they seem to be good structures to identify and probe such shocks in intracluster media (ICMs), provided we understand the electron acceleration and re-acceleration at those shocks. In this paper, we describe time-dependent simulations for diffusive shock acceleration at weak shocks that aremore » expected to be found in ICMs. Freshly injected as well as pre-existing populations of cosmic-ray (CR) electrons are considered, and energy losses via synchrotron and inverse Compton are included. We then compare the synchrotron flux and spectral distributions estimated from the simulations with those in two well-observed radio relics in CIZA J2242.8+5301 and ZwCl0008.8+5215. Considering that CR electron injection is expected to be rather inefficient at weak shocks with Mach number M {approx}< a few, the existence of radio relics could indicate the pre-existing population of low-energy CR electrons in ICMs. The implication of our results on the merger shock scenario of radio relics is discussed.« less

  2. Graphics Processing Unit Acceleration of Gyrokinetic Turbulence Simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hause, Benjamin; Parker, Scott; Chen, Yang

    2013-10-01

    We find a substantial increase in on-node performance using Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) acceleration in gyrokinetic delta-f particle-in-cell simulation. Optimization is performed on a two-dimensional slab gyrokinetic particle simulation using the Portland Group Fortran compiler with the OpenACC compiler directives and Fortran CUDA. Mixed implementation of both Open-ACC and CUDA is demonstrated. CUDA is required for optimizing the particle deposition algorithm. We have implemented the GPU acceleration on a third generation Core I7 gaming PC with two NVIDIA GTX 680 GPUs. We find comparable, or better, acceleration relative to the NERSC DIRAC cluster with the NVIDIA Tesla C2050 computing processor. The Tesla C 2050 is about 2.6 times more expensive than the GTX 580 gaming GPU. We also see enormous speedups (10 or more) on the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge with Kepler K20 GPUs. Results show speed-ups comparable or better than that of OpenMP models utilizing multiple cores. The use of hybrid OpenACC, CUDA Fortran, and MPI models across many nodes will also be discussed. Optimization strategies will be presented. We will discuss progress on optimizing the comprehensive three dimensional general geometry GEM code.

  3. The United States Particle Accelerator School: Educating the Next Generation of Accelerator Scientists and Engineers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barletta, William A.

    2009-03-01

    Only a handful of universities in the US offer any formal training in accelerator science. The United States Particle Accelerator School (USPAS) is National Graduate Educational Program that has developed a highly successful educational paradigm that, over the past twenty-years, has granted more university credit in accelerator/beam science and technology than any university in the world. Sessions are held twice annually, hosted by major US research universities that approve course credit, certify the USPAS faculty, and grant course credit. The USPAS paradigm is readily extensible to other rapidly developing, cross-disciplinary research areas such as high energy density physics.

  4. Multi-species first-principles simulations of particle acceleration at shocks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Caprioli, Damiano

    Astrophysical shocks are known to be prominent sources of non-thermal particles and emission. In particular, strong shocks at supernova remnant blast waves are thought to accelerate Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) up to about 10^17eV via diffusive shock acceleration (DSA). The chemical composition of Galactic CRs, now measured with great accuracy by payloads and satellites, is reminiscent of that of the typical interstellar medium, although with some significant deviations. Observations reveal: 1) an electron/proton ratio of about 1% at about 10 GeV, (2) a general enhancement of the refractory elements relative to the volatile ones, (3) among the volatile elements, an enhancement of the heavier elements relative to the lighter ones, and (4) a discrepant hardening of CR nuclei heavier than hydrogen. Such peculiar trends contain precious information about the dependence of the acceleration process on the particle mass/charge ratio, a trend that has no theoretical counterpart in the DSA theory, yet. Building on our recent successes in modeling electron and proton DSA at non-relativistic astrophysical shocks via first-principles kinetic simulations, we will perform multispecies particle-in-cells simulations of such systems also including nuclei heavier than hydrogen, in order to investigate thermalization, injection, and acceleration of species with different mass/charge ratio. We will also analyze how the simulation outputs compare with the observed CR abundances, in order to build a model for DSA that accounts for the relative acceleration efficiency of energetic electrons, protons, and heavier ions. Finally, we will assess the possible contribution of accelerated heavy ions, especially helium, to the generation of magnetic turbulence via CR-driven instabilities - crucial to foster rapid particle energgization- and to the hadronic gamma-ray emission from young supernova remnants.

  5. Electron Acceleration in the Magnetotail during Substorms in Semi-Global PIC Simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Richard, R. L.; Schriver, D.; Ashour-Abdalla, M.; El-Alaoui, M.; Lapenta, G.; Walker, R. J.

    2015-12-01

    To understand the acceleration of electrons during a substorm reconnection event we have applied a semi-global particle in cell (PIC) simulation box embedded within a global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of Earth's magnetosphere for an event on February 15, 2008. The MHD results were used to populate the PIC simulation and to set the boundary conditions. In the magnetotail we found that a series of dipolarizations formed due to unsteady reconnection. We also found that the most energetic electrons were in the separatrices far from the x-point. We attributed the acceleration to a streaming instability in the separatrices. To further understand electron acceleration we have applied the large scale kinetic (LSK) technique in which tens- to hundreds- of thousands of electrons are followed within the electric and magnetic fields from the PIC simulations., Electrons are already included in the PIC simulation, but the LSK simulations will allow selected individual particles to be followed and analyzed. Initially we performed electron LSK calculations in a two dimensional version of the PIC simulation in which electrons were allowed to move in the ignorable cross tail direction. These LSK calculations showed that electrons gained energy primarily for two reasons: (1) acceleration by the average dawn to dusk electric field and (2) acceleration by intense but localized electric field structures. The overall electron transport was more dawnward than duskward due to the average electric field. At the same time electrons typically moved away from the reconnection region in both the earthward and tailward directions. Superimposed on this large-scale transport was motion in both the dusk and dawn directions across the tail because of the electric field structures, which were particularly intense in the separatrices. LSK calculations are now being carried out by using the full three-dimensional magnetic and electric fields from the PIC simulation and these results will be

  6. Accelerated Aging of the M119 Simulator

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bixon, Eric R.

    2000-01-01

    This paper addresses the storage requirement, shelf life, and the reliability of M119 Whistling Simulator. Experimental conditions have been determined and the data analysis has been completed for the accelerated testing of the system. A general methodology to evaluate the shelf life of the system as a function of the storage time, temperature, and relative humidity is discussed.

  7. Chemical Enhancements in Shock-Accelerated Particles: Ab initio Simulations.

    PubMed

    Caprioli, Damiano; Yi, Dennis T; Spitkovsky, Anatoly

    2017-10-27

    We study the thermalization, injection, and acceleration of ions with different mass/charge ratios, A/Z, in nonrelativistic collisionless shocks via hybrid (kinetic ions-fluid electrons) simulations. In general, ions thermalize to a postshock temperature proportional to A. When diffusive shock acceleration is efficient, ions develop a nonthermal tail whose extent scales with Z and whose normalization is enhanced as (A/Z)^{2} so that incompletely ionized heavy ions are preferentially accelerated. We discuss how these findings can explain observed heavy-ion enhancements in Galactic cosmic rays.

  8. Simulation Studies of the Dielectric Grating as an Accelerating and Focusing Structure

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

    Soong, Ken; Peralta, E.A.; Byer, R.L.

    A grating-based design is a promising candidate for a laser-driven dielectric accelerator. Through simulations, we show the merits of a readily fabricated grating structure as an accelerating component. Additionally, we show that with a small design perturbation, the accelerating component can be converted into a focusing structure. The understanding of these two components is critical in the successful development of any complete accelerator. The concept of accelerating electrons with the tremendous electric fields found in lasers has been proposed for decades. However, until recently the realization of such an accelerator was not technologically feasible. Recent advances in the semiconductor industry,more » as well as advances in laser technology, have now made laser-driven dielectric accelerators imminent. The grating-based accelerator is one proposed design for a dielectric laser-driven accelerator. This design, which was introduced by Plettner, consists of a pair of opposing transparent binary gratings, illustrated in Fig. 1. The teeth of the gratings serve as a phase mask, ensuring a phase synchronicity between the electromagnetic field and the moving particles. The current grating accelerator design has the drive laser incident perpendicular to the substrate, which poses a laser-structure alignment complication. The next iteration of grating structure fabrication seeks to monolithically create an array of grating structures by etching the grating's vacuum channel into a fused silica wafer. With this method it is possible to have the drive laser confined to the plane of the wafer, thus ensuring alignment of the laser-and-structure, the two grating halves, and subsequent accelerator components. There has been previous work using 2-dimensional finite difference time domain (2D-FDTD) calculations to evaluate the performance of the grating accelerator structure. However, this work approximates the grating as an infinite structure and does not accurately model a

  9. Classical-trajectory simulation of accelerating neutral atoms with polarized intense laser pulses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xia, Q. Z.; Fu, L. B.; Liu, J.

    2013-03-01

    In the present paper, we perform the classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulation of the complex dynamics of accelerating neutral atoms with linearly or circularly polarized intense laser pulses. Our simulations involve the ion motion as well as the tunneling ionization and the scattering dynamics of valence electron in the combined Coulomb and electromagnetic fields, for both helium (He) and magnesium (Mg). We show that for He atoms, only linearly polarized lasers can effectively accelerate the atoms, while for Mg atoms, we find that both linearly and circularly polarized lasers can successively accelerate the atoms. The underlying mechanism is discussed and the subcycle dynamics of accelerating trajectories is investigated. We have compared our theoretical results with a recent experiment [Eichmann Nature (London)NATUAS0028-083610.1038/nature08481 461, 1261 (2009)].

  10. Dynamic Monte Carlo simulations of radiatively accelerated GRB fireballs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chhotray, Atul; Lazzati, Davide

    2018-05-01

    We present a novel Dynamic Monte Carlo code (DynaMo code) that self-consistently simulates the Compton-scattering-driven dynamic evolution of a plasma. We use the DynaMo code to investigate the time-dependent expansion and acceleration of dissipationless gamma-ray burst fireballs by varying their initial opacities and baryonic content. We study the opacity and energy density evolution of an initially optically thick, radiation-dominated fireball across its entire phase space - in particular during the Rph < Rsat regime. Our results reveal new phases of fireball evolution: a transition phase with a radial extent of several orders of magnitude - the fireball transitions from Γ ∝ R to Γ ∝ R0, a post-photospheric acceleration phase - where fireballs accelerate beyond the photosphere and a Thomson-dominated acceleration phase - characterized by slow acceleration of optically thick, matter-dominated fireballs due to Thomson scattering. We quantify the new phases by providing analytical expressions of Lorentz factor evolution, which will be useful for deriving jet parameters.

  11. Simulations of laser-driven ion acceleration from a thin CH target

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Park, Jaehong; Bulanov, Stepan; Ji, Qing; Steinke, Sven; Treffert, Franziska; Vay, Jean-Luc; Schenkel, Thomas; Esarey, Eric; Leemans, Wim; Vincenti, Henri

    2017-10-01

    2D and 3D computer simulations of laser driven ion acceleration from a thin CH foil using code WARP were performed. As the foil thickness varies from a few nm to μm, the simulations confirm that the acceleration mechanism transitions from the RPA (radiation pressure acceleration) to the TNSA (target normal sheath acceleration). In the TNSA regime, with the CH target thickness of 1 μ m and a pre-plasma ahead of the target, the simulations show the production of the collimated proton beam with the maximum energy of about 10 MeV. This agrees with the experimental results obtained at the BELLA laser facility (I 5 × 18 W / cm2 , λ = 800 nm). Furthermore, the maximum proton energy dependence on different setups of the initialization, i.e., different angles of the laser incidence from the target normal axis, different gradient scales and distributions of the pre-plasma, was explored. This work was supported by LDRD funding from LBNL, provided by the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, and used resources of the NERSC, a DOE office of Science User Facility supported by the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

  12. Mean-state acceleration of cloud-resolving models and large eddy simulations

    DOE PAGES

    Jones, C. R.; Bretherton, C. S.; Pritchard, M. S.

    2015-10-29

    In this study, large eddy simulations and cloud-resolving models (CRMs) are routinely used to simulate boundary layer and deep convective cloud processes, aid in the development of moist physical parameterization for global models, study cloud-climate feedbacks and cloud-aerosol interaction, and as the heart of superparameterized climate models. These models are computationally demanding, placing practical constraints on their use in these applications, especially for long, climate-relevant simulations. In many situations, the horizontal-mean atmospheric structure evolves slowly compared to the turnover time of the most energetic turbulent eddies. We develop a simple scheme to reduce this time scale separation to accelerate themore » evolution of the mean state. Using this approach we are able to accelerate the model evolution by a factor of 2–16 or more in idealized stratocumulus, shallow and deep cumulus convection without substantial loss of accuracy in simulating mean cloud statistics and their sensitivity to climate change perturbations. As a culminating test, we apply this technique to accelerate the embedded CRMs in the Superparameterized Community Atmosphere Model by a factor of 2, thereby showing that the method is robust and stable to realistic perturbations across spatial and temporal scales typical in a GCM.« less

  13. 3-D RPIC simulations of relativistic jets: Particle acceleration, magnetic field generation, and emission

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nishikawa, K.-I.

    2006-01-01

    Nonthermal radiation observed from astrophysical systems containing (relativistic) jets and shocks, e.g., supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei (AGNs), gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and Galactic microquasar systems usually have power-law emission spectra. Fermi acceleration is the mechanism usually assumed for the acceleration of particles in astrophysical environments. Recent PIC simulations using injected relativistic electron-ion (electro-positron) jets show that acceleration occurs within the downstream jet, rather than by the scattering of particles back and forth across the shock as in Fermi acceleration. Shock acceleration is a ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability, other two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the .shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. The simulation results show that the Weibel instability is responsible for generating and amplifying highly nonuniform, small-scale magnetic fields. These magnetic fields contribute to the electron's transverse deflection behind the jet head. The "jitter" radiation from deflected electrons has different properties than synchrotron radiation which is calculated in a uniform magnetic field. This jitter radiation may be important to understanding the complex time evolution and/or spectral structure in gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, and supernova remnants. We will review recent PIC simulations which show particle acceleration in jets.

  14. Monte Carlo simulations of particle acceleration at oblique shocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Baring, Matthew G.; Ellison, Donald C.; Jones, Frank C.

    1994-01-01

    The Fermi shock acceleration mechanism may be responsible for the production of high-energy cosmic rays in a wide variety of environments. Modeling of this phenomenon has largely focused on plane-parallel shocks, and one of the most promising techniques for its study is the Monte Carlo simulation of particle transport in shocked fluid flows. One of the principal problems in shock acceleration theory is the mechanism and efficiency of injection of particles from the thermal gas into the accelerated population. The Monte Carlo technique is ideally suited to addressing the injection problem directly, and previous applications of it to the quasi-parallel Earth bow shock led to very successful modeling of proton and heavy ion spectra, as well as other observed quantities. Recently this technique has been extended to oblique shock geometries, in which the upstream magnetic field makes a significant angle Theta(sub B1) to the shock normal. Spectral resutls from test particle Monte Carlo simulations of cosmic-ray acceleration at oblique, nonrelativistic shocks are presented. The results show that low Mach number shocks have injection efficiencies that are relatively insensitive to (though not independent of) the shock obliquity, but that there is a dramatic drop in efficiency for shocks of Mach number 30 or more as the obliquity increases above 15 deg. Cosmic-ray distributions just upstream of the shock reveal prominent bumps at energies below the thermal peak; these disappear far upstream but might be observable features close to astrophysical shocks.

  15. Accelerated molecular dynamics simulations of protein folding.

    PubMed

    Miao, Yinglong; Feixas, Ferran; Eun, Changsun; McCammon, J Andrew

    2015-07-30

    Folding of four fast-folding proteins, including chignolin, Trp-cage, villin headpiece and WW domain, was simulated via accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD). In comparison with hundred-of-microsecond timescale conventional molecular dynamics (cMD) simulations performed on the Anton supercomputer, aMD captured complete folding of the four proteins in significantly shorter simulation time. The folded protein conformations were found within 0.2-2.1 Å of the native NMR or X-ray crystal structures. Free energy profiles calculated through improved reweighting of the aMD simulations using cumulant expansion to the second-order are in good agreement with those obtained from cMD simulations. This allows us to identify distinct conformational states (e.g., unfolded and intermediate) other than the native structure and the protein folding energy barriers. Detailed analysis of protein secondary structures and local key residue interactions provided important insights into the protein folding pathways. Furthermore, the selections of force fields and aMD simulation parameters are discussed in detail. Our work shows usefulness and accuracy of aMD in studying protein folding, providing basic references in using aMD in future protein-folding studies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  16. Automated detection and analysis of particle beams in laser-plasma accelerator simulations

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

    Ushizima, Daniela Mayumi; Geddes, C.G.; Cormier-Michel, E.

    Numerical simulations of laser-plasma wakefield (particle) accelerators model the acceleration of electrons trapped in plasma oscillations (wakes) left behind when an intense laser pulse propagates through the plasma. The goal of these simulations is to better understand the process involved in plasma wake generation and how electrons are trapped and accelerated by the wake. Understanding of such accelerators, and their development, offer high accelerating gradients, potentially reducing size and cost of new accelerators. One operating regime of interest is where a trapped subset of electrons loads the wake and forms an isolated group of accelerated particles with low spread inmore » momentum and position, desirable characteristics for many applications. The electrons trapped in the wake may be accelerated to high energies, the plasma gradient in the wake reaching up to a gigaelectronvolt per centimeter. High-energy electron accelerators power intense X-ray radiation to terahertz sources, and are used in many applications including medical radiotherapy and imaging. To extract information from the simulation about the quality of the beam, a typical approach is to examine plots of the entire dataset, visually determining the adequate parameters necessary to select a subset of particles, which is then further analyzed. This procedure requires laborious examination of massive data sets over many time steps using several plots, a routine that is unfeasible for large data collections. Demand for automated analysis is growing along with the volume and size of simulations. Current 2D LWFA simulation datasets are typically between 1GB and 100GB in size, but simulations in 3D are of the order of TBs. The increase in the number of datasets and dataset sizes leads to a need for automatic routines to recognize particle patterns as particle bunches (beam of electrons) for subsequent analysis. Because of the growth in dataset size, the application of machine learning techniques

  17. Combining Diffusive Shock Acceleration with Acceleration by Contracting and Reconnecting Small-scale Flux Ropes at Heliospheric Shocks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    le Roux, J. A.; Zank, G. P.; Webb, G. M.; Khabarova, O. V.

    2016-08-01

    Computational and observational evidence is accruing that heliospheric shocks, as emitters of vorticity, can produce downstream magnetic flux ropes and filaments. This led Zank et al. to investigate a new paradigm whereby energetic particle acceleration near shocks is a combination of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) with downstream acceleration by many small-scale contracting and reconnecting (merging) flux ropes. Using a model where flux-rope acceleration involves a first-order Fermi mechanism due to the mean compression of numerous contracting flux ropes, Zank et al. provide theoretical support for observations that power-law spectra of energetic particles downstream of heliospheric shocks can be harder than predicted by DSA theory and that energetic particle intensities should peak behind shocks instead of at shocks as predicted by DSA theory. In this paper, a more extended formalism of kinetic transport theory developed by le Roux et al. is used to further explore this paradigm. We describe how second-order Fermi acceleration, related to the variance in the electromagnetic fields produced by downstream small-scale flux-rope dynamics, modifies the standard DSA model. The results show that (I) this approach can qualitatively reproduce observations of particle intensities peaking behind the shock, thus providing further support for the new paradigm, and (II) stochastic acceleration by compressible flux ropes tends to be more efficient than incompressible flux ropes behind shocks in modifying the DSA spectrum of energetic particles.

  18. The Q continuum simulation: Harnessing the power of GPU accelerated supercomputers

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

    Heitmann, Katrin; Frontiere, Nicholas; Sewell, Chris

    2015-08-01

    Modeling large-scale sky survey observations is a key driver for the continuing development of high-resolution, large-volume, cosmological simulations. We report the first results from the "Q Continuum" cosmological N-body simulation run carried out on the GPU-accelerated supercomputer Titan. The simulation encompasses a volume of (1300 Mpc)(3) and evolves more than half a trillion particles, leading to a particle mass resolution of m(p) similar or equal to 1.5 . 10(8) M-circle dot. At thismass resolution, the Q Continuum run is currently the largest cosmology simulation available. It enables the construction of detailed synthetic sky catalogs, encompassing different modeling methodologies, including semi-analyticmore » modeling and sub-halo abundance matching in a large, cosmological volume. Here we describe the simulation and outputs in detail and present first results for a range of cosmological statistics, such as mass power spectra, halo mass functions, and halo mass-concentration relations for different epochs. We also provide details on challenges connected to running a simulation on almost 90% of Titan, one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, including our usage of Titan's GPU accelerators.« less

  19. Acceleration of Radiance for Lighting Simulation by Using Parallel Computing with OpenCL

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

    Zuo, Wangda; McNeil, Andrew; Wetter, Michael

    2011-09-06

    We report on the acceleration of annual daylighting simulations for fenestration systems in the Radiance ray-tracing program. The algorithm was optimized to reduce both the redundant data input/output operations and the floating-point operations. To further accelerate the simulation speed, the calculation for matrix multiplications was implemented using parallel computing on a graphics processing unit. We used OpenCL, which is a cross-platform parallel programming language. Numerical experiments show that the combination of the above measures can speed up the annual daylighting simulations 101.7 times or 28.6 times when the sky vector has 146 or 2306 elements, respectively.

  20. Understanding Sgr A* with PIC Simulations of Particle Acceleration in Magnetic Reconnection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ozel, Feryal

    2017-09-01

    Sgr A* has been the subject of intense observational studies with Chandra. In the proposed work, we will investigate magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in low-luminosity black hole accretion flows using a combination of GRMHD and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. We will use the PIC simulations to understand how particles are accelerated when magnetic energy is dissipated and quantify the resulting electron energy distributions. Incorporating the results of the microphysical studies into the global simulations of Sgr A*, we will investigate the origin of the intense X-ray flares observed with Chandra. We will also study how these processes affect the 1.3 mm image size in preparation for the upcoming simultaneous Chandra and EHT observations of Sgr A*.

  1. COMBINING DIFFUSIVE SHOCK ACCELERATION WITH ACCELERATION BY CONTRACTING AND RECONNECTING SMALL-SCALE FLUX ROPES AT HELIOSPHERIC SHOCKS

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

    Le Roux, J. A.; Zank, G. P.; Webb, G. M.

    2016-08-10

    Computational and observational evidence is accruing that heliospheric shocks, as emitters of vorticity, can produce downstream magnetic flux ropes and filaments. This led Zank et al. to investigate a new paradigm whereby energetic particle acceleration near shocks is a combination of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) with downstream acceleration by many small-scale contracting and reconnecting (merging) flux ropes. Using a model where flux-rope acceleration involves a first-order Fermi mechanism due to the mean compression of numerous contracting flux ropes, Zank et al. provide theoretical support for observations that power-law spectra of energetic particles downstream of heliospheric shocks can be harder thanmore » predicted by DSA theory and that energetic particle intensities should peak behind shocks instead of at shocks as predicted by DSA theory. In this paper, a more extended formalism of kinetic transport theory developed by le Roux et al. is used to further explore this paradigm. We describe how second-order Fermi acceleration, related to the variance in the electromagnetic fields produced by downstream small-scale flux-rope dynamics, modifies the standard DSA model. The results show that (i) this approach can qualitatively reproduce observations of particle intensities peaking behind the shock, thus providing further support for the new paradigm, and (ii) stochastic acceleration by compressible flux ropes tends to be more efficient than incompressible flux ropes behind shocks in modifying the DSA spectrum of energetic particles.« less

  2. A multiscale approach to accelerate pore-scale simulation of porous electrodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zheng, Weibo; Kim, Seung Hyun

    2017-04-01

    A new method to accelerate pore-scale simulation of porous electrodes is presented. The method combines the macroscopic approach with pore-scale simulation by decomposing a physical quantity into macroscopic and local variations. The multiscale method is applied to the potential equation in pore-scale simulation of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) catalyst layer, and validated with the conventional approach for pore-scale simulation. Results show that the multiscale scheme substantially reduces the computational cost without sacrificing accuracy.

  3. Microparticle accelerator of unique design. [for micrometeoroid impact and cratering simulation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Vedder, J. F.

    1978-01-01

    A microparticle accelerator has been devised for micrometeoroid impact and cratering simulation; the device produces high-velocity (0.5-15 km/sec), micrometer-sized projectiles of any cohesive material. In the source, an electrodynamic levitator, single particles are charged by ion bombardment in high vacuum. The vertical accelerator has four drift tubes, each initially at a high negative voltage. After injection of the projectile, each tube is grounded in turn at a time determined by the voltage and charge/mass ratio to give four acceleration stages with a total voltage equivalent to about 1.7 MV.

  4. Wave-Particle Interactions and Particle Acceleration in Turbulent Plasmas: Hybrid Simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kucharek, Harald; Pogorelov, Nikolai; Mueller, Hans; Gamayunov, Konstantin; Farrugia, Charles

    2015-04-01

    Wave-particle interactions and acceleration processes are present in all key regions inside and outside of the heliosphere. Spacecraft observations measure ion distributions and accelerated ion populations, which are the result of one or several processes. For instance STEREO measures energetic particles associated with interplanetary discontinuities and in the solar wind. Voyager and IBEX provide unique data of energetic particles from the termination shock and the inner and outer heliopause. The range of plasma conditions covered by observations is enormous. However, the physical processes causing particle acceleration and wave-particle interaction and determining the particle distributions are still unknown. Currently two mechanisms, the so-called pumping mechanism (Fisk and Gloeckler, 2010) and merging/contracting island (Fermo, Drake & Swisdak, 2010) are discussed as promising models. In order to determine these individual processes, numerical models or theoretical considerations are needed. Hybrid simulations, which include all kinetic processes self-consistently on the ion level, are a very proven, powerful tool to investigate wave-particle interaction, turbulence, and phase-space evolution of pickup and solar wind ions. In the framework of this study we performed 3D multi-species hybrid simulations for an ion/ion beam instability to study the temporal evolution of ion distributions, their stability, and the influence of self-generated waves. We investigated the energization of ions downstream of interplanetary discontinuities and shocks and downstream of the termination shock, the turbulence, and growth rate of instabilities and compared the results with theoretical predictions. The simulations show that ions can be accelerated downstream of collisionless shocks by trapping of charged particles in coherent wave fronts.

  5. Kinetic Simulations of Plasma Energization and Particle Acceleration in Interacting Magnetic Flux Ropes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Du, S.; Guo, F.; Zank, G. P.; Li, X.; Stanier, A.

    2017-12-01

    The interaction between magnetic flux ropes has been suggested as a process that leads to efficient plasma energization and particle acceleration (e.g., Drake et al. 2013; Zank et al. 2014). However, the underlying plasma dynamics and acceleration mechanisms are subject to examination of numerical simulations. As a first step of this effort, we carry out 2D fully kinetic simulations using the VPIC code to study the plasma energization and particle acceleration during coalescence of two magnetic flux ropes. Our analysis shows that the reconnection electric field and compression effect are important in plasma energization. The results may help understand the energization process associated with magnetic flux ropes frequently observed in the solar wind near the heliospheric current sheet.

  6. Particle-in-cell simulation of x-ray wakefield acceleration and betatron radiation in nanotubes

    DOE PAGES

    Zhang, Xiaomei; Tajima, Toshiki; Farinella, Deano; ...

    2016-10-18

    Though wakefield acceleration in crystal channels has been previously proposed, x-ray wakefield acceleration has only recently become a realistic possibility since the invention of the single-cycled optical laser compression technique. We investigate the acceleration due to a wakefield induced by a coherent, ultrashort x-ray pulse guided by a nanoscale channel inside a solid material. By two-dimensional particle-in-cell computer simulations, we show that an acceleration gradient of TeV/cm is attainable. This is about 3 orders of magnitude stronger than that of the conventional plasma-based wakefield accelerations, which implies the possibility of an extremely compact scheme to attain ultrahigh energies. In additionmore » to particle acceleration, this scheme can also induce the emission of high energy photons at ~O(10–100) MeV. Here, our simulations confirm such high energy photon emissions, which is in contrast with that induced by the optical laser driven wakefield scheme. In addition to this, the significantly improved emittance of the energetic electrons has been discussed.« less

  7. Balancing a simulated inverted pendulum through motor imagery: an EEG-based real-time control paradigm.

    PubMed

    Yue, Jingwei; Zhou, Zongtan; Jiang, Jun; Liu, Yadong; Hu, Dewen

    2012-08-30

    Most brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are non-time-restraint systems. However, the method used to design a real-time BCI paradigm for controlling unstable devices is still a challenging problem. This paper presents a real-time feedback BCI paradigm for controlling an inverted pendulum on a cart (IPC). In this paradigm, sensorimotor rhythms (SMRs) were recorded using 15 active electrodes placed on the surface of the subject's scalp. Subsequently, common spatial pattern (CSP) was used as the basic filter to extract spatial patterns. Finally, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to translate the patterns into control commands that could stabilize the simulated inverted pendulum. Offline trainings were employed to teach the subjects to execute corresponding mental tasks, such as left/right hand motor imagery. Five subjects could successfully balance the online inverted pendulum for more than 35s. The results demonstrated that BCIs are able to control nonlinear unstable devices. Furthermore, the demonstration and extension of real-time continuous control might be useful for the real-life application and generalization of BCI. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Commentary on a participatory inquiry paradigm used to assess EOL simulation participant outcomes and design.

    PubMed

    Gannon, Jane M

    2017-11-20

    Care at the end-of-life has attracted global attention, as health care workers struggle with balancing cure based care with end-of-life care, and knowing when to transition from the former to the latter. Simulation is gaining in popularity as an education strategy to facilitate health care provider decision-making by improving communication skills with patients and family members. This commentary focuses on the authors' simulation evaluation process. When data were assessed using a participatory inquiry paradigm, the evaluation revealed far more than a formative or summative evaluation of participant knowledge and skills in this area of care. Consequently, this assessment strategy has ramifications for best practices for simulation design and evaluation.

  9. GPU-accelerated phase-field simulation of dendritic solidification in a binary alloy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yamanaka, Akinori; Aoki, Takayuki; Ogawa, Satoi; Takaki, Tomohiro

    2011-03-01

    The phase-field simulation for dendritic solidification of a binary alloy has been accelerated by using a graphic processing unit (GPU). To perform the phase-field simulation of the alloy solidification on GPU, a program code was developed with computer unified device architecture (CUDA). In this paper, the implementation technique of the phase-field model on GPU is presented. Also, we evaluated the acceleration performance of the three-dimensional solidification simulation by using a single NVIDIA TESLA C1060 GPU and the developed program code. The results showed that the GPU calculation for 5763 computational grids achieved the performance of 170 GFLOPS by utilizing the shared memory as a software-managed cache. Furthermore, it can be demonstrated that the computation with the GPU is 100 times faster than that with a single CPU core. From the obtained results, we confirmed the feasibility of realizing a real-time full three-dimensional phase-field simulation of microstructure evolution on a personal desktop computer.

  10. Design of Accelerator Online Simulator Server Using Structured Data

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

    Shen, Guobao; /Brookhaven; Chu, Chungming

    2012-07-06

    Model based control plays an important role for a modern accelerator during beam commissioning, beam study, and even daily operation. With a realistic model, beam behaviour can be predicted and therefore effectively controlled. The approach used by most current high level application environments is to use a built-in simulation engine and feed a realistic model into that simulation engine. Instead of this traditional monolithic structure, a new approach using a client-server architecture is under development. An on-line simulator server is accessed via network accessible structured data. With this approach, a user can easily access multiple simulation codes. This paper describesmore » the design, implementation, and current status of PVData, which defines the structured data, and PVAccess, which provides network access to the structured data.« less

  11. Rethinking the solar flare paradigm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    D, B. MELROSE

    2018-07-01

    It is widely accepted that solar flares involve release of magnetic energy stored in the solar corona above an active region, but existing models do not include the explicitly time-dependent electrodynamics needed to describe such energy release. A flare paradigm is discussed that includes the electromotive force (EMF) as the driver of the flare, and the flare-associated current that links different regions where magnetic reconnection, electron acceleration, the acceleration of mass motions and current closure occur. The EMF becomes localized across regions where energy conversion occurs, and is involved in energy propagation between these regions.

  12. Accelerated molecular dynamics: A promising and efficient simulation method for biomolecules

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hamelberg, Donald; Mongan, John; McCammon, J. Andrew

    2004-06-01

    Many interesting dynamic properties of biological molecules cannot be simulated directly using molecular dynamics because of nanosecond time scale limitations. These systems are trapped in potential energy minima with high free energy barriers for large numbers of computational steps. The dynamic evolution of many molecular systems occurs through a series of rare events as the system moves from one potential energy basin to another. Therefore, we have proposed a robust bias potential function that can be used in an efficient accelerated molecular dynamics approach to simulate the transition of high energy barriers without any advance knowledge of the location of either the potential energy wells or saddle points. In this method, the potential energy landscape is altered by adding a bias potential to the true potential such that the escape rates from potential wells are enhanced, which accelerates and extends the time scale in molecular dynamics simulations. Our definition of the bias potential echoes the underlying shape of the potential energy landscape on the modified surface, thus allowing for the potential energy minima to be well defined, and hence properly sampled during the simulation. We have shown that our approach, which can be extended to biomolecules, samples the conformational space more efficiently than normal molecular dynamics simulations, and converges to the correct canonical distribution.

  13. Acceleration of block-matching algorithms using a custom instruction-based paradigm on a Nios II microprocessor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    González, Diego; Botella, Guillermo; García, Carlos; Prieto, Manuel; Tirado, Francisco

    2013-12-01

    This contribution focuses on the optimization of matching-based motion estimation algorithms widely used for video coding standards using an Altera custom instruction-based paradigm and a combination of synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) with on-chip memory in Nios II processors. A complete profile of the algorithms is achieved before the optimization, which locates code leaks, and afterward, creates a custom instruction set, which is then added to the specific design, enhancing the original system. As well, every possible memory combination between on-chip memory and SDRAM has been tested to achieve the best performance. The final throughput of the complete designs are shown. This manuscript outlines a low-cost system, mapped using very large scale integration technology, which accelerates software algorithms by converting them into custom hardware logic blocks and showing the best combination between on-chip memory and SDRAM for the Nios II processor.

  14. MO-F-16A-02: Simulation of a Medical Linear Accelerator for Teaching Purposes

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

    Carlone, M; Lamey, M; Anderson, R

    Purpose: Detailed functioning of linear accelerator physics is well known. Less well developed is the basic understanding of how the adjustment of the linear accelerator's electrical components affects the resulting radiation beam. Other than the text by Karzmark, there is very little literature devoted to the practical understanding of linear accelerator functionality targeted at the radiotherapy clinic level. The purpose of this work is to describe a simulation environment for medical linear accelerators with the purpose of teaching linear accelerator physics. Methods: Varian type lineacs were simulated. Klystron saturation and peak output were modelled analytically. The energy gain of anmore » electron beam was modelled using load line expressions. The bending magnet was assumed to be a perfect solenoid whose pass through energy varied linearly with solenoid current. The dose rate calculated at depth in water was assumed to be a simple function of the target's beam current. The flattening filter was modelled as an attenuator with conical shape, and the time-averaged dose rate at a depth in water was determined by calculating kerma. Results: Fifteen analytical models were combined into a single model called SIMAC. Performance was verified systematically by adjusting typical linac control parameters. Increasing klystron pulse voltage increased dose rate to a peak, which then decreased as the beam energy was further increased due to the fixed pass through energy of the bending magnet. Increasing accelerator beam current leads to a higher dose per pulse. However, the energy of the electron beam decreases due to beam loading and so the dose rate eventually maximizes and the decreases as beam current was further increased. Conclusion: SIMAC can realistically simulate the functionality of a linear accelerator. It is expected to have value as a teaching tool for both medical physicists and linear accelerator service personnel.« less

  15. GAPD: a GPU-accelerated atom-based polychromatic diffraction simulation code.

    PubMed

    E, J C; Wang, L; Chen, S; Zhang, Y Y; Luo, S N

    2018-03-01

    GAPD, a graphics-processing-unit (GPU)-accelerated atom-based polychromatic diffraction simulation code for direct, kinematics-based, simulations of X-ray/electron diffraction of large-scale atomic systems with mono-/polychromatic beams and arbitrary plane detector geometries, is presented. This code implements GPU parallel computation via both real- and reciprocal-space decompositions. With GAPD, direct simulations are performed of the reciprocal lattice node of ultralarge systems (∼5 billion atoms) and diffraction patterns of single-crystal and polycrystalline configurations with mono- and polychromatic X-ray beams (including synchrotron undulator sources), and validation, benchmark and application cases are presented.

  16. GeNN: a code generation framework for accelerated brain simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yavuz, Esin; Turner, James; Nowotny, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    Large-scale numerical simulations of detailed brain circuit models are important for identifying hypotheses on brain functions and testing their consistency and plausibility. An ongoing challenge for simulating realistic models is, however, computational speed. In this paper, we present the GeNN (GPU-enhanced Neuronal Networks) framework, which aims to facilitate the use of graphics accelerators for computational models of large-scale neuronal networks to address this challenge. GeNN is an open source library that generates code to accelerate the execution of network simulations on NVIDIA GPUs, through a flexible and extensible interface, which does not require in-depth technical knowledge from the users. We present performance benchmarks showing that 200-fold speedup compared to a single core of a CPU can be achieved for a network of one million conductance based Hodgkin-Huxley neurons but that for other models the speedup can differ. GeNN is available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows platforms. The source code, user manual, tutorials, Wiki, in-depth example projects and all other related information can be found on the project website http://genn-team.github.io/genn/.

  17. GeNN: a code generation framework for accelerated brain simulations.

    PubMed

    Yavuz, Esin; Turner, James; Nowotny, Thomas

    2016-01-07

    Large-scale numerical simulations of detailed brain circuit models are important for identifying hypotheses on brain functions and testing their consistency and plausibility. An ongoing challenge for simulating realistic models is, however, computational speed. In this paper, we present the GeNN (GPU-enhanced Neuronal Networks) framework, which aims to facilitate the use of graphics accelerators for computational models of large-scale neuronal networks to address this challenge. GeNN is an open source library that generates code to accelerate the execution of network simulations on NVIDIA GPUs, through a flexible and extensible interface, which does not require in-depth technical knowledge from the users. We present performance benchmarks showing that 200-fold speedup compared to a single core of a CPU can be achieved for a network of one million conductance based Hodgkin-Huxley neurons but that for other models the speedup can differ. GeNN is available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows platforms. The source code, user manual, tutorials, Wiki, in-depth example projects and all other related information can be found on the project website http://genn-team.github.io/genn/.

  18. GeNN: a code generation framework for accelerated brain simulations

    PubMed Central

    Yavuz, Esin; Turner, James; Nowotny, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    Large-scale numerical simulations of detailed brain circuit models are important for identifying hypotheses on brain functions and testing their consistency and plausibility. An ongoing challenge for simulating realistic models is, however, computational speed. In this paper, we present the GeNN (GPU-enhanced Neuronal Networks) framework, which aims to facilitate the use of graphics accelerators for computational models of large-scale neuronal networks to address this challenge. GeNN is an open source library that generates code to accelerate the execution of network simulations on NVIDIA GPUs, through a flexible and extensible interface, which does not require in-depth technical knowledge from the users. We present performance benchmarks showing that 200-fold speedup compared to a single core of a CPU can be achieved for a network of one million conductance based Hodgkin-Huxley neurons but that for other models the speedup can differ. GeNN is available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows platforms. The source code, user manual, tutorials, Wiki, in-depth example projects and all other related information can be found on the project website http://genn-team.github.io/genn/. PMID:26740369

  19. Using Equation-Free Computation to Accelerate Network-Free Stochastic Simulation of Chemical Kinetics.

    PubMed

    Lin, Yen Ting; Chylek, Lily A; Lemons, Nathan W; Hlavacek, William S

    2018-06-21

    The chemical kinetics of many complex systems can be concisely represented by reaction rules, which can be used to generate reaction events via a kinetic Monte Carlo method that has been termed network-free simulation. Here, we demonstrate accelerated network-free simulation through a novel approach to equation-free computation. In this process, variables are introduced that approximately capture system state. Derivatives of these variables are estimated using short bursts of exact stochastic simulation and finite differencing. The variables are then projected forward in time via a numerical integration scheme, after which a new exact stochastic simulation is initialized and the whole process repeats. The projection step increases efficiency by bypassing the firing of numerous individual reaction events. As we show, the projected variables may be defined as populations of building blocks of chemical species. The maximal number of connected molecules included in these building blocks determines the degree of approximation. Equation-free acceleration of network-free simulation is found to be both accurate and efficient.

  20. Requirements analysis for a hardware, discrete-event, simulation engine accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Taylor, Paul J., Jr.

    1991-12-01

    An analysis of a general Discrete Event Simulation (DES), executing on the distributed architecture of an eight mode Intel PSC/2 hypercube, was performed. The most time consuming portions of the general DES algorithm were determined to be the functions associated with message passing of required simulation data between processing nodes of the hypercube architecture. A behavioral description, using the IEEE standard VHSIC Hardware Description and Design Language (VHDL), for a general DES hardware accelerator is presented. The behavioral description specifies the operational requirements for a DES coprocessor to augment the hypercube's execution of DES simulations. The DES coprocessor design implements the functions necessary to perform distributed discrete event simulations using a conservative time synchronization protocol.

  1. Simulation of Cosmic Ray Acceleration, Propagation and Interaction in SNR Environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, S. H.; Kamae, T.; Ellison, D. C.

    2007-07-01

    Recent studies of young supernova remnants (SNRs) with Chandra, XMM, Suzaku and HESS have revealed complex morphologies and spectral features of the emission sites. The critical question of the relative importance of the two competing gamma-ray emission mechanisms in SNRs; inverse-Compton scattering by high-energy electrons and pion production by energetic protons, may be resolved by GLAST-LAT. To keep pace with the improved observations, we are developing a 3D model of particle acceleration, diffusion, and interaction in a SNR where broad-band emission from radio to multi-TeV energies, produced by shock accelerated electrons and ions, can be simulated for a given topology of shock fronts, magnetic field, and ISM densities. The 3D model takes as input, the particle spectra predicted by a hydrodynamic simulation of SNR evolution where nonlinear diffusive shock acceleration is coupled to the remnant dynamics (e.g., Ellison, Decourchelle & Ballet; Ellison & Cassam-Chenai Ellison, Berezhko & Baring). We will present preliminary models of the Galactic Ridge SNR RX J1713-3946 for selected choices of SNR parameters, magnetic field topology, and ISM density distributions. When constrained by broad-band observations, our models should predict the extent of coupling between spectral shape and morphology and provide direct information on the acceleration efficiency of cosmic-ray electrons and ions in SNRs.

  2. Accelerating Climate and Weather Simulations through Hybrid Computing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zhou, Shujia; Cruz, Carlos; Duffy, Daniel; Tucker, Robert; Purcell, Mark

    2011-01-01

    Unconventional multi- and many-core processors (e.g. IBM (R) Cell B.E.(TM) and NVIDIA (R) GPU) have emerged as effective accelerators in trial climate and weather simulations. Yet these climate and weather models typically run on parallel computers with conventional processors (e.g. Intel, AMD, and IBM) using Message Passing Interface. To address challenges involved in efficiently and easily connecting accelerators to parallel computers, we investigated using IBM's Dynamic Application Virtualization (TM) (IBM DAV) software in a prototype hybrid computing system with representative climate and weather model components. The hybrid system comprises two Intel blades and two IBM QS22 Cell B.E. blades, connected with both InfiniBand(R) (IB) and 1-Gigabit Ethernet. The system significantly accelerates a solar radiation model component by offloading compute-intensive calculations to the Cell blades. Systematic tests show that IBM DAV can seamlessly offload compute-intensive calculations from Intel blades to Cell B.E. blades in a scalable, load-balanced manner. However, noticeable communication overhead was observed, mainly due to IP over the IB protocol. Full utilization of IB Sockets Direct Protocol and the lower latency production version of IBM DAV will reduce this overhead.

  3. Forward and adjoint spectral-element simulations of seismic wave propagation using hardware accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peter, Daniel; Videau, Brice; Pouget, Kevin; Komatitsch, Dimitri

    2015-04-01

    Improving the resolution of tomographic images is crucial to answer important questions on the nature of Earth's subsurface structure and internal processes. Seismic tomography is the most prominent approach where seismic signals from ground-motion records are used to infer physical properties of internal structures such as compressional- and shear-wave speeds, anisotropy and attenuation. Recent advances in regional- and global-scale seismic inversions move towards full-waveform inversions which require accurate simulations of seismic wave propagation in complex 3D media, providing access to the full 3D seismic wavefields. However, these numerical simulations are computationally very expensive and need high-performance computing (HPC) facilities for further improving the current state of knowledge. During recent years, many-core architectures such as graphics processing units (GPUs) have been added to available large HPC systems. Such GPU-accelerated computing together with advances in multi-core central processing units (CPUs) can greatly accelerate scientific applications. There are mainly two possible choices of language support for GPU cards, the CUDA programming environment and OpenCL language standard. CUDA software development targets NVIDIA graphic cards while OpenCL was adopted mainly by AMD graphic cards. In order to employ such hardware accelerators for seismic wave propagation simulations, we incorporated a code generation tool BOAST into an existing spectral-element code package SPECFEM3D_GLOBE. This allows us to use meta-programming of computational kernels and generate optimized source code for both CUDA and OpenCL languages, running simulations on either CUDA or OpenCL hardware accelerators. We show here applications of forward and adjoint seismic wave propagation on CUDA/OpenCL GPUs, validating results and comparing performances for different simulations and hardware usages.

  4. Monte Carlo simulations of particle acceleration at oblique shocks: Including cross-field diffusion

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Baring, M. G.; Ellison, D. C.; Jones, F. C.

    1995-01-01

    The Monte Carlo technique of simulating diffusive particle acceleration at shocks has made spectral predictions that compare extremely well with particle distributions observed at the quasi-parallel region of the earth's bow shock. The current extension of this work to compare simulation predictions with particle spectra at oblique interplanetary shocks has required the inclusion of significant cross-field diffusion (strong scattering) in the simulation technique, since oblique shocks are intrinsically inefficient in the limit of weak scattering. In this paper, we present results from the method we have developed for the inclusion of cross-field diffusion in our simulations, namely model predictions of particle spectra downstream of oblique subluminal shocks. While the high-energy spectral index is independent of the shock obliquity and the strength of the scattering, the latter is observed to profoundly influence the efficiency of injection of cosmic rays into the acceleration process.

  5. Benchmarking shielding simulations for an accelerator-driven spallation neutron source

    DOE PAGES

    Cherkashyna, Nataliia; Di Julio, Douglas D.; Panzner, Tobias; ...

    2015-08-09

    The shielding at an accelerator-driven spallation neutron facility plays a critical role in the performance of the neutron scattering instruments, the overall safety, and the total cost of the facility. Accurate simulation of shielding components is thus key for the design of upcoming facilities, such as the European Spallation Source (ESS), currently in construction in Lund, Sweden. In this paper, we present a comparative study between the measured and the simulated neutron background at the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source (SINQ), at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Villigen, Switzerland. The measurements were carried out at several positions along the SINQ monolithmore » wall with the neutron dosimeter WENDI-2, which has a well-characterized response up to 5 GeV. The simulations were performed using the Monte-Carlo radiation transport code Geant4, and include a complete transport from the proton beam to the measurement locations in a single calculation. An agreement between measurements and simulations is about a factor of 2 for the points where the measured radiation dose is above the background level, which is a satisfactory result for such simulations spanning many energy regimes, different physics processes and transport through several meters of shielding materials. The neutrons contributing to the radiation field emanating from the monolith were confirmed to originate from neutrons with energies above 1 MeV in the target region. The current work validates Geant4 as being well suited for deep-shielding calculations at accelerator-based spallation sources. We also extrapolate what the simulated flux levels might imply for short (several tens of meters) instruments at ESS.« less

  6. Fatigue-test acceleration with flight-by-flight loading and heating to simulate supersonic-transport operation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Imig, L. A.; Garrett, L. E.

    1973-01-01

    Possibilities for reducing fatigue-test time for supersonic-transport materials and structures were studied in tests with simulated flight-by-flight loading. In order to determine whether short-time tests were feasible, the results of accelerated tests (2 sec per flight) were compared with the results of real-time tests (96 min per flight). The effects of design mean stress, the stress range for ground-air-ground cycles, simulated thermal stress, the number of stress cycles in each flight, and salt corrosion were studied. The flight-by-flight stress sequences were applied to notched sheet specimens of Ti-8Al-1Mo-1V and Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloys. A linear cumulative-damage analysis accounted for large changes in stress range of the simulated flights but did not account for the differences between real-time and accelerated tests. The fatigue lives from accelerated tests were generally within a factor of two of the lives from real-time tests; thus, within the scope of the investigation, accelerated testing seems feasible.

  7. Monte Carlo radiotherapy simulations of accelerated repopulation and reoxygenation for hypoxic head and neck cancer

    PubMed Central

    Harriss-Phillips, W M; Bezak, E; Yeoh, E K

    2011-01-01

    Objective A temporal Monte Carlo tumour growth and radiotherapy effect model (HYP-RT) simulating hypoxia in head and neck cancer has been developed and used to analyse parameters influencing cell kill during conventionally fractionated radiotherapy. The model was designed to simulate individual cell division up to 108 cells, while incorporating radiobiological effects, including accelerated repopulation and reoxygenation during treatment. Method Reoxygenation of hypoxic tumours has been modelled using randomised increments of oxygen to tumour cells after each treatment fraction. The process of accelerated repopulation has been modelled by increasing the symmetrical stem cell division probability. Both phenomena were onset immediately or after a number of weeks of simulated treatment. Results The extra dose required to control (total cell kill) hypoxic vs oxic tumours was 15–25% (8–20 Gy for 5×2 Gy per week) depending on the timing of accelerated repopulation onset. Reoxygenation of hypoxic tumours resulted in resensitisation and reduction in total dose required by approximately 10%, depending on the time of onset. When modelled simultaneously, accelerated repopulation and reoxygenation affected cell kill in hypoxic tumours in a similar manner to when the phenomena were modelled individually; however, the degree was altered, with non-additive results. Simulation results were in good agreement with standard linear quadratic theory; however, differed for more complex comparisons where hypoxia, reoxygenation as well as accelerated repopulation effects were considered. Conclusion Simulations have quantitatively confirmed the need for patient individualisation in radiotherapy for hypoxic head and neck tumours, and have shown the benefits of modelling complex and dynamic processes using Monte Carlo methods. PMID:21933980

  8. Two-stage light-gas magnetoplasma accelerator for hypervelocity impact simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khramtsov, P. P.; Vasetskij, V. A.; Makhnach, A. I.; Grishenko, V. M.; Chernik, M. Yu; Shikh, I. A.; Doroshko, M. V.

    2016-11-01

    The development of macroparticles acceleration methods for high-speed impact simulation in a laboratory is an actual problem due to increasing of space flights duration and necessity of providing adequate spacecraft protection against micrometeoroid and space debris impacts. This paper presents results of experimental study of a two-stage light- gas magnetoplasma launcher for acceleration of a macroparticle, in which a coaxial plasma accelerator creates a shock wave in a high-pressure channel filled with light gas. Graphite and steel spheres with diameter of 2.5-4 mm were used as a projectile and were accelerated to the speed of 0.8-4.8 km/s. A launching of particle occurred in vacuum. For projectile velocity control the speed measuring method was developed. The error of this metod does not exceed 5%. The process of projectile flight from the barrel and the process of a particle collision with a target were registered by use of high-speed camera. The results of projectile collision with elements of meteoroid shielding are presented. In order to increase the projectile velocity, the high-pressure channel should be filled with hydrogen. However, we used helium in our experiments for safety reasons. Therefore, we can expect that the range of mass and velocity of the accelerated particles can be extended by use of hydrogen as an accelerating gas.

  9. 3-D RPIC Simulations of Relativistic Jets: Particle Acceleration, Magnetic Field Generation, and Emission

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nishikawa, K.-I.; Mizuno, Y.; Hardee, P.; Hededal, C. B.; Fishman, G. J.

    2006-01-01

    Recent PIC simulations using injected relativistic electron-ion (electro-positron) jets into ambient plasmas show that acceleration occurs in relativistic shocks. The Weibel instability created in shocks is responsible for particle acceleration, and generation and amplification of highly inhomogeneous, small-scale magnetic fields. These magnetic fields contribute to the electron's transverse deflection in relativistic jets. The "jitter" radiation from deflected electrons has different properties than the synchrotron radiation which is calculated in a uniform magnetic field. This jitter radiation may be important to understand the complex time evolution and spectral structure in relativistic jets and gamma-ray bursts. We will present recent PIC simulations which show particle acceleration and magnetic field generation. We will also calculate associated self-consistent emission from relativistic shocks.

  10. 3D Resistive MHD Simulations of Formation, Compression, and Acceleration of Compact Tori

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Woodruff, Simon; Meyer, Thomas; Stuber, James; Romero-Talamas, Carlos; Brown, Michael; Kaur, Manjit; Schaffner, David

    2017-10-01

    We present results from extended resistive 3D MHD simulations (NIMROD) pertaining to a new formation method for toroidal plasmas using a reconnection region that forms in a radial implosion, and results from the acceleration of CTs along a drift tube that are accelerated by a coil and are allowed to go tilt unstable and form a helical minimum energy state. The new formation method results from a reconnection region that is generated between two magnetic compression coils that are ramped to 320kV in 2 μs. When the compressing field is aligned anti-parallel to a pre-existing CT, a current sheet and reconnection region forms that accelerates plasma radially inwards up to 500km/s which stagnates and directed energy converts to thermal, raising temperatures to 500eV. When field is aligned parallel to the pre-existing CT, the configuration can be accelerated along a drift tube. For certain ratios of magnetic field to density, the CT goes tilt-unstable forming a twisted flux rope, which can also be accelerated and stagnated on an end wall, where temperature and field increases as the plasma compresses. We compare simulation results with adiabatic scaling relations. Work supported by ARPA-E ALPHA program and DARPA.

  11. Accelerating gravitational microlensing simulations using the Xeon Phi coprocessor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, B.; Kantowski, R.; Dai, X.; Baron, E.; Van der Mark, P.

    2017-04-01

    Recently Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have been used to speed up very CPU-intensive gravitational microlensing simulations. In this work, we use the Xeon Phi coprocessor to accelerate such simulations and compare its performance on a microlensing code with that of NVIDIA's GPUs. For the selected set of parameters evaluated in our experiment, we find that the speedup by Intel's Knights Corner coprocessor is comparable to that by NVIDIA's Fermi family of GPUs with compute capability 2.0, but less significant than GPUs with higher compute capabilities such as the Kepler. However, the very recently released second generation Xeon Phi, Knights Landing, is about 5.8 times faster than the Knights Corner, and about 2.9 times faster than the Kepler GPU used in our simulations. We conclude that the Xeon Phi is a very promising alternative to GPUs for modern high performance microlensing simulations.

  12. DEM simulation of granular flows in a centrifugal acceleration field

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cabrera, Miguel Angel; Peng, Chong; Wu, Wei

    2017-04-01

    The main purpose of mass-flow experimental models is abstracting distinctive features of natural granular flows, and allow its systematic study in the laboratory. In this process, particle size, space, time, and stress scales must be considered for the proper representation of specific phenomena [5]. One of the most challenging tasks in small scale models, is matching the range of stresses and strains among the particle and fluid media observed in a field event. Centrifuge modelling offers an alternative to upscale all gravity-driven processes, and it has been recently employed in the simulation of granular flows [1, 2, 3, 6, 7]. Centrifuge scaling principles are presented in Ref. [4], collecting a wide spectrum of static and dynamic models. However, for the case of kinematic processes, the non-uniformity of the centrifugal acceleration field plays a major role (i.e., Coriolis and inertial effects). In this work, we discuss a general formulation for the centrifugal acceleration field, implemented in a discrete element model framework (DEM), and validated with centrifuge experimental results. Conventional DEM simulations relate the volumetric forces as a function of the gravitational force Gp = mpg. However, in the local coordinate system of a rotating centrifuge model, the cylindrical centrifugal acceleration field needs to be included. In this rotating system, the centrifugal acceleration of a particle depends on the rotating speed of the centrifuge, as well as the position and speed of the particle in the rotating model. Therefore, we obtain the formulation of centrifugal acceleration field by coordinate transformation. The numerical model is validated with a series of centrifuge experiments of monodispersed glass beads, flowing down an inclined plane at different acceleration levels and slope angles. Further discussion leads to the numerical parameterization necessary for simulating equivalent granular flows under an augmented acceleration field. The premise of

  13. Particle-in-cell/accelerator code for space-charge dominated beam simulation

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

    2012-05-08

    Warp is a multidimensional discrete-particle beam simulation program designed to be applicable where the beam space-charge is non-negligible or dominant. It is being developed in a collaboration among LLNL, LBNL and the University of Maryland. It was originally designed and optimized for heave ion fusion accelerator physics studies, but has received use in a broader range of applications, including for example laser wakefield accelerators, e-cloud studies in high enery accelerators, particle traps and other areas. At present it incorporates 3-D, axisymmetric (r,z) planar (x-z) and transverse slice (x,y) descriptions, with both electrostatic and electro-magnetic fields, and a beam envelope model.more » The code is guilt atop the Python interpreter language.« less

  14. MAGNETIC-ISLAND CONTRACTION AND PARTICLE ACCELERATION IN SIMULATED ERUPTIVE SOLAR FLARES

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

    Guidoni, S. E.; DeVore, C. R.; Karpen, J. T.

    The mechanism that accelerates particles to the energies required to produce the observed high-energy impulsive emission in solar flares is not well understood. Drake et al. proposed a mechanism for accelerating electrons in contracting magnetic islands formed by kinetic reconnection in multi-layered current sheets (CSs). We apply these ideas to sunward-moving flux ropes (2.5D magnetic islands) formed during fast reconnection in a simulated eruptive flare. A simple analytic model is used to calculate the energy gain of particles orbiting the field lines of the contracting magnetic islands in our ultrahigh-resolution 2.5D numerical simulation. We find that the estimated energy gainsmore » in a single island range up to a factor of five. This is higher than that found by Drake et al. for islands in the terrestrial magnetosphere and at the heliopause, due to strong plasma compression that occurs at the flare CS. In order to increase their energy by two orders of magnitude and plausibly account for the observed high-energy flare emission, the electrons must visit multiple contracting islands. This mechanism should produce sporadic emission because island formation is intermittent. Moreover, a large number of particles could be accelerated in each magnetohydrodynamic-scale island, which may explain the inferred rates of energetic-electron production in flares. We conclude that island contraction in the flare CS is a promising candidate for electron acceleration in solar eruptions.« less

  15. Magnetic-Island Contraction and Particle Acceleration in Simulated Eruptive Solar Flares

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Guidoni, S. E.; Devore, C. R.; Karpen, J. T.; Lynch, B. J.

    2016-01-01

    The mechanism that accelerates particles to the energies required to produce the observed high-energy impulsive emission in solar flares is not well understood. Drake et al. proposed a mechanism for accelerating electrons in contracting magnetic islands formed by kinetic reconnection in multi-layered current sheets (CSs). We apply these ideas to sunward-moving flux ropes (2.5D magnetic islands) formed during fast reconnection in a simulated eruptive flare. A simple analytic model is used to calculate the energy gain of particles orbiting the field lines of the contracting magnetic islands in our ultrahigh-resolution 2.5D numerical simulation. We find that the estimated energy gains in a single island range up to a factor of five. This is higher than that found by Drake et al. for islands in the terrestrial magnetosphere and at the heliopause, due to strong plasma compression that occurs at the flare CS. In order to increase their energy by two orders of magnitude and plausibly account for the observed high-energy flare emission, the electrons must visit multiple contracting islands. This mechanism should produce sporadic emission because island formation is intermittent. Moreover, a large number of particles could be accelerated in each magneto hydro dynamic-scale island, which may explain the inferred rates of energetic-electron production in flares. We conclude that island contraction in the flare CS is a promising candidate for electron acceleration in solar eruptions.

  16. Effects of dimensionality and laser polarization on kinetic simulations of laser-ion acceleration in the transparency regime

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stark, David; Yin, Lin; Albright, Brian; Guo, Fan

    2017-10-01

    The often cost-prohibitive nature of three-dimensional (3D) kinetic simulations of laser-plasma interactions has resulted in heavy use of two-dimensional (2D) simulations to extract physics. However, depending on whether the polarization is modeled as 2D-S or 2D-P (laser polarization in and out of the simulation plane, respectively), different results arise. In laser-ion acceleration in the transparency regime, VPIC particle-in-cell simulations show that 2D-S and 2D-P capture different physics that appears in 3D simulations. The electron momentum distribution is virtually two-dimensional in 2D-P, unlike the more isotropic distributions in 2D-S and 3D, leading to greater heating in the simulation plane. As a result, target expansion time scales and density thresholds for the onset of relativistic transparency differ dramatically between 2D-S and 2D-P. The artificial electron heating in 2D-P exaggerates the effectiveness of target-normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) into its dominant acceleration mechanism, whereas 2D-S and 3D both have populations accelerated preferentially during transparency to higher energies than those of TNSA. Funded by the LANL Directed Research and Development Program.

  17. Man-systems evaluation of moving base vehicle simulation motion cues. [human acceleration perception involving visual feedback

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kirkpatrick, M.; Brye, R. G.

    1974-01-01

    A motion cue investigation program is reported that deals with human factor aspects of high fidelity vehicle simulation. General data on non-visual motion thresholds and specific threshold values are established for use as washout parameters in vehicle simulation. A general purpose similator is used to test the contradictory cue hypothesis that acceleration sensitivity is reduced during a vehicle control task involving visual feedback. The simulator provides varying acceleration levels. The method of forced choice is based on the theory of signal detect ability.

  18. A Selective Review of Simulated Driving Studies: Combining Naturalistic and Hybrid Paradigms, Analysis Approaches, and Future Directions

    PubMed Central

    Calhoun, V. D.; Pearlson, G. D.

    2011-01-01

    Naturalistic paradigms such as movie watching or simulated driving that mimic closely real-world complex activities are becoming more widely used in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies both because of their ability to robustly stimulate brain connectivity and the availability of analysis methods which are able to capitalize on connectivity within and among intrinsic brain networks identified both during a task and in resting fMRI data. In this paper we review over a decade of work from our group and others on the use of simulated driving paradigms to study both the healthy brain as well as the effects of acute alcohol administration on functional connectivity during such paradigms. We briefly review our initial work focused on the configuration of the driving simulator and the analysis strategies. We then describe in more detail several recent studies from our group including a hybrid study examining distracted driving and compare resulting data with those from a separate visual oddball task. The analysis of these data were performed primarily using a combination of group independent component analysis (ICA) and the general linear model (GLM) and in the various studies we highlight novel findings which result from an analysis of either 1) within-network connectivity, 2) inter-network connectivity, also called functional network connectivity, or 3) the degree to which the modulation of the various intrinsic networks were associated with the alcohol administration and the task context. Despite the fact that the behavioral effects of alcohol intoxication are relatively well known, there is still much to discover on how acute alcohol exposure modulates brain function in a selective manner, associated with behavioral alterations. Through the above studies, we have learned more regarding the impact of acute alcohol intoxication on organization of the brain’s intrinsic connectivity networks during performance of a complex, real-world cognitive operation

  19. Accelerating Wright–Fisher Forward Simulations on the Graphics Processing Unit

    PubMed Central

    Lawrie, David S.

    2017-01-01

    Forward Wright–Fisher simulations are powerful in their ability to model complex demography and selection scenarios, but suffer from slow execution on the Central Processor Unit (CPU), thus limiting their usefulness. However, the single-locus Wright–Fisher forward algorithm is exceedingly parallelizable, with many steps that are so-called “embarrassingly parallel,” consisting of a vast number of individual computations that are all independent of each other and thus capable of being performed concurrently. The rise of modern Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and programming languages designed to leverage the inherent parallel nature of these processors have allowed researchers to dramatically speed up many programs that have such high arithmetic intensity and intrinsic concurrency. The presented GPU Optimized Wright–Fisher simulation, or “GO Fish” for short, can be used to simulate arbitrary selection and demographic scenarios while running over 250-fold faster than its serial counterpart on the CPU. Even modest GPU hardware can achieve an impressive speedup of over two orders of magnitude. With simulations so accelerated, one can not only do quick parametric bootstrapping of previously estimated parameters, but also use simulated results to calculate the likelihoods and summary statistics of demographic and selection models against real polymorphism data, all without restricting the demographic and selection scenarios that can be modeled or requiring approximations to the single-locus forward algorithm for efficiency. Further, as many of the parallel programming techniques used in this simulation can be applied to other computationally intensive algorithms important in population genetics, GO Fish serves as an exciting template for future research into accelerating computation in evolution. GO Fish is part of the Parallel PopGen Package available at: http://dl42.github.io/ParallelPopGen/. PMID:28768689

  20. Accelerated path-integral simulations using ring-polymer interpolation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buxton, Samuel J.; Habershon, Scott

    2017-12-01

    Imaginary-time path-integral (PI) molecular simulations can be used to calculate exact quantum statistical mechanical properties for complex systems containing many interacting atoms and molecules. The limiting computational factor in a PI simulation is typically the evaluation of the potential energy surface (PES) and forces at each ring-polymer "bead"; for an n-bead ring-polymer, a PI simulation is typically n times greater than the corresponding classical simulation. To address the increased computational effort of PI simulations, several approaches have been developed recently, most notably based on the idea of ring-polymer contraction which exploits either the separation of the PES into short-range and long-range contributions or the availability of a computationally inexpensive PES which can be incorporated to effectively smooth the ring-polymer PES; neither approach is satisfactory in applications to systems modeled by PESs given by on-the-fly ab initio calculations. In this article, we describe a new method, ring-polymer interpolation (RPI), which can be used to accelerate PI simulations without any prior assumptions about the PES. In simulations of liquid water modeled by an empirical PES (or force field) under ambient conditions, where quantum effects are known to play a subtle role in influencing experimental observables such as radial distribution functions, we find that RPI can accurately reproduce the results of fully-converged PI simulations, albeit with far fewer PES evaluations. This approach therefore opens the possibility of large-scale PI simulations using ab initio PESs evaluated on-the-fly without the drawbacks of current methods.

  1. Real-time cavity simulator-based low-level radio-frequency test bench and applications for accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qiu, Feng; Michizono, Shinichiro; Miura, Takako; Matsumoto, Toshihiro; Liu, Na; Wibowo, Sigit Basuki

    2018-03-01

    A Low-level radio-frequency (LLRF) control systems is required to regulate the rf field in the rf cavity used for beam acceleration. As the LLRF system is usually complex, testing of the basic functions or control algorithms of this system in real time and in advance of beam commissioning is strongly recommended. However, the equipment necessary to test the LLRF system, such as superconducting cavities and high-power rf sources, is very expensive; therefore, we have developed a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based cavity simulator as a substitute for real rf cavities. Digital models of the cavity and other rf systems are implemented in the FPGA. The main components include cavity baseband models for the fundamental and parasitic modes, a mechanical model of the Lorentz force detuning, and a model of the beam current. Furthermore, in our simulator, the disturbance model used to simulate the power-supply ripples and microphonics is also carefully considered. Based on the presented cavity simulator, we have established an LLRF system test bench that can be applied to different cavity operational conditions. The simulator performance has been verified by comparison with real cavities in KEK accelerators. In this paper, the development and implementation of this cavity simulator is presented first, and the LLRF test bench based on the presented simulator is constructed. The results are then compared with those for KEK accelerators. Finally, several LLRF applications of the cavity simulator are illustrated.

  2. Extraordinary Tools for Extraordinary Science: The Impact ofSciDAC on Accelerator Science&Technology

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

    Ryne, Robert D.

    2006-08-10

    Particle accelerators are among the most complex and versatile instruments of scientific exploration. They have enabled remarkable scientific discoveries and important technological advances that span all programs within the DOE Office of Science (DOE/SC). The importance of accelerators to the DOE/SC mission is evident from an examination of the DOE document, ''Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook''. Of the 28 facilities listed, 13 involve accelerators. Thanks to SciDAC, a powerful suite of parallel simulation tools has been developed that represent a paradigm shift in computational accelerator science. Simulations that used to take weeks or more now takemore » hours, and simulations that were once thought impossible are now performed routinely. These codes have been applied to many important projects of DOE/SC including existing facilities (the Tevatron complex, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider), facilities under construction (the Large Hadron Collider, the Spallation Neutron Source, the Linac Coherent Light Source), and to future facilities (the International Linear Collider, the Rare Isotope Accelerator). The new codes have also been used to explore innovative approaches to charged particle acceleration. These approaches, based on the extremely intense fields that can be present in lasers and plasmas, may one day provide a path to the outermost reaches of the energy frontier. Furthermore, they could lead to compact, high-gradient accelerators that would have huge consequences for US science and technology, industry, and medicine. In this talk I will describe the new accelerator modeling capabilities developed under SciDAC, the essential role of multi-disciplinary collaboration with applied mathematicians, computer scientists, and other IT experts in developing these capabilities, and provide examples of how the codes have been used to support DOE/SC accelerator projects.« less

  3. Simulation of PEP-II Accelerator Backgrounds Using TURTLE

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

    Barlow, R.J.; Fieguth, T.; /SLAC

    2006-02-15

    We present studies of accelerator-induced backgrounds in the BaBar detector at the SLAC B-Factory, carried out using LPTURTLE, a modified version of the DECAY TURTLE simulation package. Lost-particle backgrounds in PEP-II are dominated by a combination of beam-gas bremstrahlung, beam-gas Coulomb scattering, radiative-Bhabha events and beam-beam blow-up. The radiation damage and detector occupancy caused by the associated electromagnetic shower debris can limit the usable luminosity. In order to understand and mitigate such backgrounds, we have performed a full program of beam-gas and luminosity-background simulations, that include the effects of the detector solenoidal field, detailed modeling of limiting apertures in bothmore » collider rings, and optimization of the betatron collimation scheme in the presence of large transverse tails.« less

  4. GPU-accelerated Tersoff potentials for massively parallel Molecular Dynamics simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nguyen, Trung Dac

    2017-03-01

    The Tersoff potential is one of the empirical many-body potentials that has been widely used in simulation studies at atomic scales. Unlike pair-wise potentials, the Tersoff potential involves three-body terms, which require much more arithmetic operations and data dependency. In this contribution, we have implemented the GPU-accelerated version of several variants of the Tersoff potential for LAMMPS, an open-source massively parallel Molecular Dynamics code. Compared to the existing MPI implementation in LAMMPS, the GPU implementation exhibits a better scalability and offers a speedup of 2.2X when run on 1000 compute nodes on the Titan supercomputer. On a single node, the speedup ranges from 2.0 to 8.0 times, depending on the number of atoms per GPU and hardware configurations. The most notable features of our GPU-accelerated version include its design for MPI/accelerator heterogeneous parallelism, its compatibility with other functionalities in LAMMPS, its ability to give deterministic results and to support both NVIDIA CUDA- and OpenCL-enabled accelerators. Our implementation is now part of the GPU package in LAMMPS and accessible for public use.

  5. Radiation belt electron acceleration during the 17 March 2015 geomagnetic storm: Observations and simulations

    DOE PAGES

    Li, W.; Ma, Q.; Thorne, R. M.; ...

    2016-06-10

    Various physical processes are known to cause acceleration, loss, and transport of energetic electrons in the Earth's radiation belts, but their quantitative roles in different time and space need further investigation. During the largest storm over the past decade (17 March 2015), relativistic electrons experienced fairly rapid acceleration up to ~7 MeV within 2 days after an initial substantial dropout, as observed by Van Allen Probes. In the present paper, we evaluate the relative roles of various physical processes during the recovery phase of this large storm using a 3-D diffusion simulation. By quantitatively comparing the observed and simulated electronmore » evolution, we found that chorus plays a critical role in accelerating electrons up to several MeV near the developing peak location and produces characteristic flat-top pitch angle distributions. By only including radial diffusion, the simulation underestimates the observed electron acceleration, while radial diffusion plays an important role in redistributing electrons and potentially accelerates them to even higher energies. Moreover, plasmaspheric hiss is found to provide efficient pitch angle scattering losses for hundreds of keV electrons, while its scattering effect on > 1 MeV electrons is relatively slow. Although an additional loss process is required to fully explain the overestimated electron fluxes at multi-MeV, the combined physical processes of radial diffusion and pitch angle and energy diffusion by chorus and hiss reproduce the observed electron dynamics remarkably well, suggesting that quasi-linear diffusion theory is reasonable to evaluate radiation belt electron dynamics during this big storm.« less

  6. Radiation belt electron acceleration during the 17 March 2015 geomagnetic storm: Observations and simulations

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

    Li, W.; Ma, Q.; Thorne, R. M.

    Various physical processes are known to cause acceleration, loss, and transport of energetic electrons in the Earth's radiation belts, but their quantitative roles in different time and space need further investigation. During the largest storm over the past decade (17 March 2015), relativistic electrons experienced fairly rapid acceleration up to ~7 MeV within 2 days after an initial substantial dropout, as observed by Van Allen Probes. In the present paper, we evaluate the relative roles of various physical processes during the recovery phase of this large storm using a 3-D diffusion simulation. By quantitatively comparing the observed and simulated electronmore » evolution, we found that chorus plays a critical role in accelerating electrons up to several MeV near the developing peak location and produces characteristic flat-top pitch angle distributions. By only including radial diffusion, the simulation underestimates the observed electron acceleration, while radial diffusion plays an important role in redistributing electrons and potentially accelerates them to even higher energies. Moreover, plasmaspheric hiss is found to provide efficient pitch angle scattering losses for hundreds of keV electrons, while its scattering effect on > 1 MeV electrons is relatively slow. Although an additional loss process is required to fully explain the overestimated electron fluxes at multi-MeV, the combined physical processes of radial diffusion and pitch angle and energy diffusion by chorus and hiss reproduce the observed electron dynamics remarkably well, suggesting that quasi-linear diffusion theory is reasonable to evaluate radiation belt electron dynamics during this big storm.« less

  7. On magnetic field amplification and particle acceleration near non-relativistic astrophysical shocks: particles in MHD cells simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    van Marle, Allard Jan; Casse, Fabien; Marcowith, Alexandre

    2018-01-01

    We present simulations of magnetized astrophysical shocks taking into account the interplay between the thermal plasma of the shock and suprathermal particles. Such interaction is depicted by combining a grid-based magnetohydrodynamics description of the thermal fluid with particle in cell techniques devoted to the dynamics of suprathermal particles. This approach, which incorporates the use of adaptive mesh refinement features, is potentially a key to simulate astrophysical systems on spatial scales that are beyond the reach of pure particle-in-cell simulations. We consider in this study non-relativistic shocks with various Alfvénic Mach numbers and magnetic field obliquity. We recover all the features of both magnetic field amplification and particle acceleration from previous studies when the magnetic field is parallel to the normal to the shock. In contrast with previous particle-in-cell-hybrid simulations, we find that particle acceleration and magnetic field amplification also occur when the magnetic field is oblique to the normal to the shock but on larger time-scales than in the parallel case. We show that in our simulations, the suprathermal particles are experiencing acceleration thanks to a pre-heating process of the particle similar to a shock drift acceleration leading to the corrugation of the shock front. Such oscillations of the shock front and the magnetic field locally help the particles to enter the upstream region and to initiate a non-resonant streaming instability and finally to induce diffuse particle acceleration.

  8. Experiments in sensing transient rotational acceleration cues on a flight simulator

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Parrish, R. V.

    1979-01-01

    Results are presented for two transient motion sensing experiments which were motivated by the identification of an anomalous roll cue (a 'jerk' attributed to an acceleration spike) in a prior investigation of realistic fighter motion simulation. The experimental results suggest the consideration of several issues for motion washout and challenge current sensory system modeling efforts. Although no sensory modeling effort is made it is argued that such models must incorporate the ability to handle transient inputs of short duration (some of which are less than the accepted latency times for sensing), and must represent separate channels for rotational acceleration and velocity sensing.

  9. Toward a new paradigm of DNA writing using a massively parallel sequencing platform and degenerate oligonucleotide

    PubMed Central

    Hwang, Byungjin; Bang, Duhee

    2016-01-01

    All synthetic DNA materials require prior programming of the building blocks of the oligonucleotide sequences. The development of a programmable microarray platform provides cost-effective and time-efficient solutions in the field of data storage using DNA. However, the scalability of the synthesis is not on par with the accelerating sequencing capacity. Here, we report on a new paradigm of generating genetic material (writing) using a degenerate oligonucleotide and optomechanical retrieval method that leverages sequencing (reading) throughput to generate the desired number of oligonucleotides. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the feasibility of our concept in digital information storage in DNA. In simulation, the ability to store data is expected to exponentially increase with increase in degenerate space. The present study highlights the major framework change in conventional DNA writing paradigm as a sequencer itself can become a potential source of making genetic materials. PMID:27876825

  10. Toward a new paradigm of DNA writing using a massively parallel sequencing platform and degenerate oligonucleotide.

    PubMed

    Hwang, Byungjin; Bang, Duhee

    2016-11-23

    All synthetic DNA materials require prior programming of the building blocks of the oligonucleotide sequences. The development of a programmable microarray platform provides cost-effective and time-efficient solutions in the field of data storage using DNA. However, the scalability of the synthesis is not on par with the accelerating sequencing capacity. Here, we report on a new paradigm of generating genetic material (writing) using a degenerate oligonucleotide and optomechanical retrieval method that leverages sequencing (reading) throughput to generate the desired number of oligonucleotides. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the feasibility of our concept in digital information storage in DNA. In simulation, the ability to store data is expected to exponentially increase with increase in degenerate space. The present study highlights the major framework change in conventional DNA writing paradigm as a sequencer itself can become a potential source of making genetic materials.

  11. Extraordinary tools for extraordinary science: the impact of SciDAC on accelerator science and technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ryne, Robert D.

    2006-09-01

    Particle accelerators are among the most complex and versatile instruments of scientific exploration. They have enabled remarkable scientific discoveries and important technological advances that span all programs within the DOE Office of Science (DOE/SC). The importance of accelerators to the DOE/SC mission is evident from an examination of the DOE document, ''Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook.'' Of the 28 facilities listed, 13 involve accelerators. Thanks to SciDAC, a powerful suite of parallel simulation tools has been developed that represent a paradigm shift in computational accelerator science. Simulations that used to take weeks or more now take hours, and simulations that were once thought impossible are now performed routinely. These codes have been applied to many important projects of DOE/SC including existing facilities (the Tevatron complex, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider), facilities under construction (the Large Hadron Collider, the Spallation Neutron Source, the Linac Coherent Light Source), and to future facilities (the International Linear Collider, the Rare Isotope Accelerator). The new codes have also been used to explore innovative approaches to charged particle acceleration. These approaches, based on the extremely intense fields that can be present in lasers and plasmas, may one day provide a path to the outermost reaches of the energy frontier. Furthermore, they could lead to compact, high-gradient accelerators that would have huge consequences for US science and technology, industry, and medicine. In this talk I will describe the new accelerator modeling capabilities developed under SciDAC, the essential role of multi-disciplinary collaboration with applied mathematicians, computer scientists, and other IT experts in developing these capabilities, and provide examples of how the codes have been used to support DOE/SC accelerator projects.

  12. Simulation of launch and re-entry acceleration profiles for testing of shuttle and unmanned microgravity research payloads

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cassanto, J. M.; Ziserman, H. I.; Chapman, D. K.; Korszun, Z. R.; Todd, P.

    Microgravity experiments designed for execution in Get-Away Special canisters, Hitchhiker modules, and Reusable Re-entry Satellites will be subjected to launch and re-entry accelerations. Crew-dependent provisions for preventing acceleration damage to equipment or products will not be available for these payloads during flight; therefore, the effects of launch and re-entry accelerations on all aspects of such payloads must be evaluated prior to flight. A procedure was developed for conveniently simulating the launch and re-entry acceleration profiles of the Space Shuttle (3.3 and 1.7 × g maximum, respectively) and of two versions of NASA's proposed materials research Re-usable Re-entry Satellite (8 × g maximum in one case and 4 × g in the other). By using the 7 m centrifuge of the Gravitational Plant Physiology Laboratory in Philadelphia it was found possible to simulate the time dependence of these 5 different acceleration episodes for payload masses up to 59 kg. A commercial low-cost payload device, the “Materials Dispersion Apparatus” of Instrumentation Technology Associates was tested for (1) integrity of mechanical function, (2) retention of fluid in its compartments, and (3) integrity of products under simulated re-entry g-loads. In particular, the sharp rise from 1 g to maximum g-loading that occurs during re-entry in various unmanned vehicles was successfully simulated, conditions were established for reliable functioning of the MDA, and crystals of 5 proteins suspended in compartments filled with mother liquor were subjected to this acceleration load.

  13. Radio Evolution of Supernova Remnants Including Nonlinear Particle Acceleration: Insights from Hydrodynamic Simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pavlović, Marko Z.; Urošević, Dejan; Arbutina, Bojan; Orlando, Salvatore; Maxted, Nigel; Filipović, Miroslav D.

    2018-01-01

    We present a model for the radio evolution of supernova remnants (SNRs) obtained by using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations coupled with nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic-ray (CR) acceleration in SNRs. We model the radio evolution of SNRs on a global level by performing simulations for a wide range of the relevant physical parameters, such as the ambient density, supernova (SN) explosion energy, acceleration efficiency, and magnetic field amplification (MFA) efficiency. We attribute the observed spread of radio surface brightnesses for corresponding SNR diameters to the spread of these parameters. In addition to our simulations of Type Ia SNRs, we also considered SNR radio evolution in denser, nonuniform circumstellar environments modified by the progenitor star wind. These simulations start with the mass of the ejecta substantially higher than in the case of a Type Ia SN and presumably lower shock speed. The magnetic field is understandably seen as very important for the radio evolution of SNRs. In terms of MFA, we include both resonant and nonresonant modes in our large-scale simulations by implementing models obtained from first-principles, particle-in-cell simulations and nonlinear magnetohydrodynamical simulations. We test the quality and reliability of our models on a sample consisting of Galactic and extragalactic SNRs. Our simulations give Σ ‑ D slopes between ‑4 and ‑6 for the full Sedov regime. Recent empirical slopes obtained for the Galactic samples are around ‑5, while those for the extragalactic samples are around ‑4.

  14. A hierarchical exact accelerated stochastic simulation algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Orendorff, David; Mjolsness, Eric

    2012-12-01

    A new algorithm, "HiER-leap" (hierarchical exact reaction-leaping), is derived which improves on the computational properties of the ER-leap algorithm for exact accelerated simulation of stochastic chemical kinetics. Unlike ER-leap, HiER-leap utilizes a hierarchical or divide-and-conquer organization of reaction channels into tightly coupled "blocks" and is thereby able to speed up systems with many reaction channels. Like ER-leap, HiER-leap is based on the use of upper and lower bounds on the reaction propensities to define a rejection sampling algorithm with inexpensive early rejection and acceptance steps. But in HiER-leap, large portions of intra-block sampling may be done in parallel. An accept/reject step is used to synchronize across blocks. This method scales well when many reaction channels are present and has desirable asymptotic properties. The algorithm is exact, parallelizable and achieves a significant speedup over the stochastic simulation algorithm and ER-leap on certain problems. This algorithm offers a potentially important step towards efficient in silico modeling of entire organisms.

  15. Inductive ion acceleration and heating in picket fence geometry: Theory and simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leboeuf, J. N.; Dawson, J. M.; Ratliff, S. T.; Rhodes, M.; Luhmann, N. C., Jr.

    1982-11-01

    Particle simulations and analytic theory confirm the experimental observation of preferential ion acceleration and heating by an inductive electric field Edc in picket-fence geometry. The ions which are unmagnetized over most of the current channel are freely accelerated by the inductive field; the magnetized electrons are tied to the field lines and do not run away as long as the binding ev×B/c force is greater than the detrapping inductive force eEdc. Consequently, most of the current is carried by the ions which are also Ohmically heated.

  16. Simulation Accelerator

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1998-01-01

    Under a NASA SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research) contract, (NAS5-30905), EAI Simulation Associates, Inc., developed a new digital simulation computer, Starlight(tm). With an architecture based on the analog model of computation, Starlight(tm) outperforms all other computers on a wide range of continuous system simulation. This system is used in a variety of applications, including aerospace, automotive, electric power and chemical reactors.

  17. Particle acceleration in regions of magnetic flux emergence: a statistical approach using test-particle- and MHD-simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vlahos, Loukas; Archontis, Vasilis; Isliker, Heinz

    We consider 3D nonlinear MHD simulations of an emerging flux tube, from the convection zone into the corona, focusing on the coronal part of the simulations. We first analyze the statistical nature and spatial structure of the electric field, calculating histograms and making use of iso-contour visualizations. Then test-particle simulations are performed for electrons, in order to study heating and acceleration phenomena, as well as to determine HXR emission. This study is done by comparatively exploring quiet, turbulent explosive, and mildly explosive phases of the MHD simulations. Also, the importance of collisional and relativistic effects is assessed, and the role of the integration time is investigated. Particular aim of this project is to verify the quasi- linear assumptions made in standard transport models, and to identify possible transport effects that cannot be captured with the latter. In order to determine the relation of our results to Fermi acceleration and Fokker-Planck modeling, we determine the standard transport coefficients. After all, we find that the electric field of the MHD simulations must be downscaled in order to prevent an un-physically high degree of acceleration, and the value chosen for the scale factor strongly affects the results. In different MHD time-instances we find heating to take place, and acceleration that depends on the level of MHD turbulence. Also, acceleration appears to be a transient phenomenon, there is a kind of saturation effect, and the parallel dynamics clearly dominate the energetics. The HXR spectra are not yet really compatible with observations, we have though to further explore the scaling of the electric field and the integration times used.

  18. A new paradigm for reproducing and analyzing N-body simulations of planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rein, Hanno; Tamayo, Daniel

    2017-05-01

    The reproducibility of experiments is one of the main principles of the scientific method. However, numerical N-body experiments, especially those of planetary systems, are currently not reproducible. In the most optimistic scenario, they can only be replicated in an approximate or statistical sense. Even if authors share their full source code and initial conditions, differences in compilers, libraries, operating systems or hardware often lead to qualitatively different results. We provide a new set of easy-to-use, open-source tools that address the above issues, allowing for exact (bit-by-bit) reproducibility of N-body experiments. In addition to generating completely reproducible integrations, we show that our framework also offers novel and innovative ways to analyse these simulations. As an example, we present a high-accuracy integration of the Solar system spanning 10 Gyr, requiring several weeks to run on a modern CPU. In our framework, we can not only easily access simulation data at predefined intervals for which we save snapshots, but at any time during the integration. We achieve this by integrating an on-demand reconstructed simulation forward in time from the nearest snapshot. This allows us to extract arbitrary quantities at any point in the saved simulation exactly (bit-by-bit), and within seconds rather than weeks. We believe that the tools we present in this paper offer a new paradigm for how N-body simulations are run, analysed and shared across the community.

  19. Standardization of accelerator irradiation procedures for simulation of neutron induced damage in reactor structural materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shao, Lin; Gigax, Jonathan; Chen, Di; Kim, Hyosim; Garner, Frank A.; Wang, Jing; Toloczko, Mychailo B.

    2017-10-01

    Self-ion irradiation is widely used as a method to simulate neutron damage in reactor structural materials. Accelerator-based simulation of void swelling, however, introduces a number of neutron-atypical features which require careful data extraction and, in some cases, introduction of innovative irradiation techniques to alleviate these issues. We briefly summarize three such atypical features: defect imbalance effects, pulsed beam effects, and carbon contamination. The latter issue has just been recently recognized as being relevant to simulation of void swelling and is discussed here in greater detail. It is shown that carbon ions are entrained in the ion beam by Coulomb force drag and accelerated toward the target surface. Beam-contaminant interactions are modeled using molecular dynamics simulation. By applying a multiple beam deflection technique, carbon and other contaminants can be effectively filtered out, as demonstrated in an irradiation of HT-9 alloy by 3.5 MeV Fe ions.

  20. Quench simulations for superconducting elements in the LHC accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sonnemann, F.; Schmidt, R.

    2000-08-01

    The design of the protection system for the superconducting elements in an accelerator such as the large Hadron collider (LHC), now under construction at CERN, requires a detailed understanding of the thermo-hydraulic and electrodynamic processes during a quench. A numerical program (SPQR - simulation program for quench research) has been developed to evaluate temperature and voltage distributions during a quench as a function of space and time. The quench process is simulated by approximating the heat balance equation with the finite difference method in presence of variable cooling and powering conditions. The simulation predicts quench propagation along a superconducting cable, forced quenching with heaters, impact of eddy currents induced by a magnetic field change, and heat transfer through an insulation layer into helium, an adjacent conductor or other material. The simulation studies allowed a better understanding of experimental quench data and were used for determining the adequate dimensioning and protection of the highly stabilised superconducting cables for connecting magnets (busbars), optimising the quench heater strip layout for the main magnets, and studying quench back by induced eddy currents in the superconductor. After the introduction of the theoretical approach, some applications of the simulation model for the LHC dipole and corrector magnets are presented and the outcome of the studies is compared with experimental data.

  1. [AUTONOMIC CONTROL OF HEART RATE, BLOOD LACTATE AND ACCELERATION DURING COMBAT SIMULATION IN TAEKWONDO ELITE ATHLETES].

    PubMed

    Cerda-Kohler, Hugo; Aguayo Fuentealba, Juan Carlos; Francino Barrera, Giovanni; Guajardo-Sandoval, Adrián; Jorquera Aguilera, Carlos; Báez-San Martín, Eduardo

    2015-09-01

    the aim of the study was to measure the heart rate recovery, blood lactate and movement acceleration during simulated taekwondo competition. twelve male subjects who belong to the national team, with at least five years of experience participated in this research. They performed a simulated combat to evaluate the following variables: (i) Blood lactate after one minute recovery between each round, (ii) Heart rate recovery (HRR) at thirty and sixty seconds in each minute rest between rounds, (iii) Peak acceleration (ACCp) in each round performed. The significance level was set at p < 005. the results showed no significant differences between winners and losers in the HRR at both, thirty and sixty seconds (p > 0.05), blood lactate (p > 0.05), peak acceleration (p > 0.05) and the average acceleration of combat (p = 0.18). There was no correlation between delta lactate and ACCp (r = 0.01; p = 0.93), delta lactate and HRR (r = -0.23; p = 0.18), and ACCp and HRR (r = 0.003; p = 0.98). these data suggest that studied variables would not be decisive in the simulated combat outcomes. Other factors such as technical-tactical or psychological variables could have a significant impact on athletic performance. Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

  2. GPU-accelerated depth map generation for X-ray simulations of complex CAD geometries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grandin, Robert J.; Young, Gavin; Holland, Stephen D.; Krishnamurthy, Adarsh

    2018-04-01

    Interactive x-ray simulations of complex computer-aided design (CAD) models can provide valuable insights for better interpretation of the defect signatures such as porosity from x-ray CT images. Generating the depth map along a particular direction for the given CAD geometry is the most compute-intensive step in x-ray simulations. We have developed a GPU-accelerated method for real-time generation of depth maps of complex CAD geometries. We preprocess complex components designed using commercial CAD systems using a custom CAD module and convert them into a fine user-defined surface tessellation. Our CAD module can be used by different simulators as well as handle complex geometries, including those that arise from complex castings and composite structures. We then make use of a parallel algorithm that runs on a graphics processing unit (GPU) to convert the finely-tessellated CAD model to a voxelized representation. The voxelized representation can enable heterogeneous modeling of the volume enclosed by the CAD model by assigning heterogeneous material properties in specific regions. The depth maps are generated from this voxelized representation with the help of a GPU-accelerated ray-casting algorithm. The GPU-accelerated ray-casting method enables interactive (> 60 frames-per-second) generation of the depth maps of complex CAD geometries. This enables arbitrarily rotation and slicing of the CAD model, leading to better interpretation of the x-ray images by the user. In addition, the depth maps can be used to aid directly in CT reconstruction algorithms.

  3. Standardization of accelerator irradiation procedures for simulation of neutron induced damage in reactor structural materials

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

    Shao, Lin; Gigax, Jonathan; Chen, Di

    Self-ion irradiation is widely used as a method to simulate neutron damage in reactor structural materials. Accelerator-based simulation of void swelling, however, introduces a number of neutron-atypical features which require careful data extraction and in some cases introduction of innovative irradiation techniques to alleviate these issues. We briefly summarize three such atypical features: defect imbalance effects, pulsed beam effects, and carbon contamination. The latter issue has just been recently recognized as being relevant to simulation of void swelling and is discussed here in greater detail. It is shown that carbon ions are entrained in the ion beam by Coulomb forcemore » drag and accelerated toward the target surface. Beam-contaminant interactions are modeled using molecular dynamics simulation. By applying a multiple beam deflection technique, carbon and other contaminants can be effectively filtered out, as demonstrated in an irradiation of HT-9 alloy by 3.5 MeV Fe ions.« less

  4. Standardization of accelerator irradiation procedures for simulation of neutron induced damage in reactor structural materials

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

    Shao, Lin; Gigax, Jonathan; Chen, Di

    Self-ion irradiation is widely used as a method to simulate neutron damage in reactor structural materials. Accelerator-based simulation of void swelling, however, introduces a number of neutron-atypical features which require careful data extraction and, in some cases, introduction of innovative irradiation techniques to alleviate these issues. In this paper, we briefly summarize three such atypical features: defect imbalance effects, pulsed beam effects, and carbon contamination. The latter issue has just been recently recognized as being relevant to simulation of void swelling and is discussed here in greater detail. It is shown that carbon ions are entrained in the ion beammore » by Coulomb force drag and accelerated toward the target surface. Beam-contaminant interactions are modeled using molecular dynamics simulation. Finally, by applying a multiple beam deflection technique, carbon and other contaminants can be effectively filtered out, as demonstrated in an irradiation of HT-9 alloy by 3.5 MeV Fe ions.« less

  5. Standardization of accelerator irradiation procedures for simulation of neutron induced damage in reactor structural materials

    DOE PAGES

    Shao, Lin; Gigax, Jonathan; Chen, Di; ...

    2017-06-12

    Self-ion irradiation is widely used as a method to simulate neutron damage in reactor structural materials. Accelerator-based simulation of void swelling, however, introduces a number of neutron-atypical features which require careful data extraction and, in some cases, introduction of innovative irradiation techniques to alleviate these issues. In this paper, we briefly summarize three such atypical features: defect imbalance effects, pulsed beam effects, and carbon contamination. The latter issue has just been recently recognized as being relevant to simulation of void swelling and is discussed here in greater detail. It is shown that carbon ions are entrained in the ion beammore » by Coulomb force drag and accelerated toward the target surface. Beam-contaminant interactions are modeled using molecular dynamics simulation. Finally, by applying a multiple beam deflection technique, carbon and other contaminants can be effectively filtered out, as demonstrated in an irradiation of HT-9 alloy by 3.5 MeV Fe ions.« less

  6. Toward GPGPU accelerated human electromechanical cardiac simulations

    PubMed Central

    Vigueras, Guillermo; Roy, Ishani; Cookson, Andrew; Lee, Jack; Smith, Nicolas; Nordsletten, David

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, we look at the acceleration of weakly coupled electromechanics using the graphics processing unit (GPU). Specifically, we port to the GPU a number of components of Heart—a CPU-based finite element code developed for simulating multi-physics problems. On the basis of a criterion of computational cost, we implemented on the GPU the ODE and PDE solution steps for the electrophysiology problem and the Jacobian and residual evaluation for the mechanics problem. Performance of the GPU implementation is then compared with single core CPU (SC) execution as well as multi-core CPU (MC) computations with equivalent theoretical performance. Results show that for a human scale left ventricle mesh, GPU acceleration of the electrophysiology problem provided speedups of 164 × compared with SC and 5.5 times compared with MC for the solution of the ODE model. Speedup of up to 72 × compared with SC and 2.6 × compared with MC was also observed for the PDE solve. Using the same human geometry, the GPU implementation of mechanics residual/Jacobian computation provided speedups of up to 44 × compared with SC and 2.0 × compared with MC. © 2013 The Authors. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PMID:24115492

  7. Accelerating cardiac bidomain simulations using graphics processing units.

    PubMed

    Neic, A; Liebmann, M; Hoetzl, E; Mitchell, L; Vigmond, E J; Haase, G; Plank, G

    2012-08-01

    Anatomically realistic and biophysically detailed multiscale computer models of the heart are playing an increasingly important role in advancing our understanding of integrated cardiac function in health and disease. Such detailed simulations, however, are computationally vastly demanding, which is a limiting factor for a wider adoption of in-silico modeling. While current trends in high-performance computing (HPC) hardware promise to alleviate this problem, exploiting the potential of such architectures remains challenging since strongly scalable algorithms are necessitated to reduce execution times. Alternatively, acceleration technologies such as graphics processing units (GPUs) are being considered. While the potential of GPUs has been demonstrated in various applications, benefits in the context of bidomain simulations where large sparse linear systems have to be solved in parallel with advanced numerical techniques are less clear. In this study, the feasibility of multi-GPU bidomain simulations is demonstrated by running strong scalability benchmarks using a state-of-the-art model of rabbit ventricles. The model is spatially discretized using the finite element methods (FEM) on fully unstructured grids. The GPU code is directly derived from a large pre-existing code, the Cardiac Arrhythmia Research Package (CARP), with very minor perturbation of the code base. Overall, bidomain simulations were sped up by a factor of 11.8 to 16.3 in benchmarks running on 6-20 GPUs compared to the same number of CPU cores. To match the fastest GPU simulation which engaged 20 GPUs, 476 CPU cores were required on a national supercomputing facility.

  8. Accelerating Cardiac Bidomain Simulations Using Graphics Processing Units

    PubMed Central

    Neic, Aurel; Liebmann, Manfred; Hoetzl, Elena; Mitchell, Lawrence; Vigmond, Edward J.; Haase, Gundolf

    2013-01-01

    Anatomically realistic and biophysically detailed multiscale computer models of the heart are playing an increasingly important role in advancing our understanding of integrated cardiac function in health and disease. Such detailed simulations, however, are computationally vastly demanding, which is a limiting factor for a wider adoption of in-silico modeling. While current trends in high-performance computing (HPC) hardware promise to alleviate this problem, exploiting the potential of such architectures remains challenging since strongly scalable algorithms are necessitated to reduce execution times. Alternatively, acceleration technologies such as graphics processing units (GPUs) are being considered. While the potential of GPUs has been demonstrated in various applications, benefits in the context of bidomain simulations where large sparse linear systems have to be solved in parallel with advanced numerical techniques are less clear. In this study, the feasibility of multi-GPU bidomain simulations is demonstrated by running strong scalability benchmarks using a state-of-the-art model of rabbit ventricles. The model is spatially discretized using the finite element methods (FEM) on fully unstructured grids. The GPU code is directly derived from a large pre-existing code, the Cardiac Arrhythmia Research Package (CARP), with very minor perturbation of the code base. Overall, bidomain simulations were sped up by a factor of 11.8 to 16.3 in benchmarks running on 6–20 GPUs compared to the same number of CPU cores. To match the fastest GPU simulation which engaged 20GPUs, 476 CPU cores were required on a national supercomputing facility. PMID:22692867

  9. Accelerating atomistic simulations through self-learning bond-boost hyperdynamics

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

    Perez, Danny; Voter, Arthur F

    2008-01-01

    By altering the potential energy landscape on which molecular dynamics are carried out, the hyperdynamics method of Voter enables one to significantly accelerate the simulation state-to-state dynamics of physical systems. While very powerful, successful application of the method entails solving the subtle problem of the parametrization of the so-called bias potential. In this study, we first clarify the constraints that must be obeyed by the bias potential and demonstrate that fast sampling of the biased landscape is key to the obtention of proper kinetics. We then propose an approach by which the bond boost potential of Miron and Fichthorn canmore » be safely parametrized based on data acquired in the course of a molecular dynamics simulation. Finally, we introduce a procedure, the Self-Learning Bond Boost method, in which the parametrization is step efficiently carried out on-the-fly for each new state that is visited during the simulation by safely ramping up the strength of the bias potential up to its optimal value. The stability and accuracy of the method are demonstrated.« less

  10. LEGO - A Class Library for Accelerator Design and Simulation

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

    Cai, Yunhai

    1998-11-19

    An object-oriented class library of accelerator design and simulation is designed and implemented in a simple and modular fashion. All physics of single-particle dynamics is implemented based on the Hamiltonian in the local frame of the component. Symplectic integrators are used to approximate the integration of the Hamiltonian. A differential algebra class is introduced to extract a Taylor map up to arbitrary order. Analysis of optics is done in the same way both for the linear and non-linear cases. Recently, Monte Carlo simulation of synchrotron radiation has been added into the library. The code is used to design and simulatemore » the lattices of the PEP-II and SPEAR3. And it is also used for the commissioning of the PEP-II. Some examples of how to use the library will be given.« less

  11. Accelerating 3D Hall MHD Magnetosphere Simulations with Graphics Processing Units

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bard, C.; Dorelli, J.

    2017-12-01

    The resolution required to simulate planetary magnetospheres with Hall magnetohydrodynamics result in program sizes approaching several hundred million grid cells. These would take years to run on a single computational core and require hundreds or thousands of computational cores to complete in a reasonable time. However, this requires access to the largest supercomputers. Graphics processing units (GPUs) provide a viable alternative: one GPU can do the work of roughly 100 cores, bringing Hall MHD simulations of Ganymede within reach of modest GPU clusters ( 8 GPUs). We report our progress in developing a GPU-accelerated, three-dimensional Hall magnetohydrodynamic code and present Hall MHD simulation results for both Ganymede (run on 8 GPUs) and Mercury (56 GPUs). We benchmark our Ganymede simulation with previous results for the Galileo G8 flyby, namely that adding the Hall term to ideal MHD simulations changes the global convection pattern within the magnetosphere. Additionally, we present new results for the G1 flyby as well as initial results from Hall MHD simulations of Mercury and compare them with the corresponding ideal MHD runs.

  12. The simulated gambling paradigm applied to young adults: an examination of university students' performance.

    PubMed

    Caroselli, Jerome Silvio; Hiscock, Merrill; Scheibel, Randall S; Ingram, Fred

    2006-01-01

    Simulated gambling tasks have become popular as sensitive tools for identifying individuals with real-time impairment in decision making. Various clinical samples, especially patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, perform poorly on these tasks. The patients typically persist in choosing risky (disadvantageous) card decks instead of switching to safer (advantageous) decks. In terms of Damasio's (1994) somatic marker hypothesis, the poor performance stems from defective integration of emotional and rational aspects of decision making. Less information is available about performance in healthy populations, particularly young adults. After administering a computerized gambling task to 141 university students, we found that individuals in this population also tend to prefer disadvantageous decks to advantageous decks. The results indicate that performance is governed primarily by the frequency of positive outcomes on a trial-by-trial basis rather than by the accumulation of winnings in the longer term. These findings are discussed in light of the cognitive literature pertaining to the simulated gambling paradigm.

  13. Simulating synchrotron radiation in accelerators including diffuse and specular reflections

    DOE PAGES

    Dugan, G.; Sagan, D.

    2017-02-24

    An accurate calculation of the synchrotron radiation flux within the vacuum chamber of an accelerator is needed for a number of applications. These include simulations of electron cloud effects and the design of radiation masking systems. To properly simulate the synchrotron radiation, it is important to include the scattering of the radiation at the vacuum chamber walls. To this end, a program called synrad3d has been developed which simulates the production and propagation of synchrotron radiation using a collection of photons. Photons generated by a charged particle beam are tracked from birth until they strike the vacuum chamber wall wheremore » the photon is either absorbed or scattered. Both specular and diffuse scattering is simulated. If a photon is scattered, it is further tracked through multiple encounters with the wall until it is finally absorbed. This paper describes the synrad3d program, with a focus on the details of its scattering model, and presents some examples of the program’s use.« less

  14. Load management strategy for Particle-In-Cell simulations in high energy particle acceleration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beck, A.; Frederiksen, J. T.; Dérouillat, J.

    2016-09-01

    In the wake of the intense effort made for the experimental CILEX project, numerical simulation campaigns have been carried out in order to finalize the design of the facility and to identify optimal laser and plasma parameters. These simulations bring, of course, important insight into the fundamental physics at play. As a by-product, they also characterize the quality of our theoretical and numerical models. In this paper, we compare the results given by different codes and point out algorithmic limitations both in terms of physical accuracy and computational performances. These limitations are illustrated in the context of electron laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). The main limitation we identify in state-of-the-art Particle-In-Cell (PIC) codes is computational load imbalance. We propose an innovative algorithm to deal with this specific issue as well as milestones towards a modern, accurate high-performance PIC code for high energy particle acceleration.

  15. Accelerated molecular dynamics simulations of ligand binding to a muscarinic G-protein-coupled receptor.

    PubMed

    Kappel, Kalli; Miao, Yinglong; McCammon, J Andrew

    2015-11-01

    Elucidating the detailed process of ligand binding to a receptor is pharmaceutically important for identifying druggable binding sites. With the ability to provide atomistic detail, computational methods are well poised to study these processes. Here, accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) is proposed to simulate processes of ligand binding to a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), in this case the M3 muscarinic receptor, which is a target for treating many human diseases, including cancer, diabetes and obesity. Long-timescale aMD simulations were performed to observe the binding of three chemically diverse ligand molecules: antagonist tiotropium (TTP), partial agonist arecoline (ARc) and full agonist acetylcholine (ACh). In comparison with earlier microsecond-timescale conventional MD simulations, aMD greatly accelerated the binding of ACh to the receptor orthosteric ligand-binding site and the binding of TTP to an extracellular vestibule. Further aMD simulations also captured binding of ARc to the receptor orthosteric site. Additionally, all three ligands were observed to bind in the extracellular vestibule during their binding pathways, suggesting that it is a metastable binding site. This study demonstrates the applicability of aMD to protein-ligand binding, especially the drug recognition of GPCRs.

  16. A Multi-Paradigm Modeling Framework to Simulate Dynamic Reciprocity in a Bioreactor

    PubMed Central

    Kaul, Himanshu; Cui, Zhanfeng; Ventikos, Yiannis

    2013-01-01

    Despite numerous technology advances, bioreactors are still mostly utilized as functional black-boxes where trial and error eventually leads to the desirable cellular outcome. Investigators have applied various computational approaches to understand the impact the internal dynamics of such devices has on overall cell growth, but such models cannot provide a comprehensive perspective regarding the system dynamics, due to limitations inherent to the underlying approaches. In this study, a novel multi-paradigm modeling platform capable of simulating the dynamic bidirectional relationship between cells and their microenvironment is presented. Designing the modeling platform entailed combining and coupling fully an agent-based modeling platform with a transport phenomena computational modeling framework. To demonstrate capability, the platform was used to study the impact of bioreactor parameters on the overall cell population behavior and vice versa. In order to achieve this, virtual bioreactors were constructed and seeded. The virtual cells, guided by a set of rules involving the simulated mass transport inside the bioreactor, as well as cell-related probabilistic parameters, were capable of displaying an array of behaviors such as proliferation, migration, chemotaxis and apoptosis. In this way the platform was shown to capture not only the impact of bioreactor transport processes on cellular behavior but also the influence that cellular activity wields on that very same local mass transport, thereby influencing overall cell growth. The platform was validated by simulating cellular chemotaxis in a virtual direct visualization chamber and comparing the simulation with its experimental analogue. The results presented in this paper are in agreement with published models of similar flavor. The modeling platform can be used as a concept selection tool to optimize bioreactor design specifications. PMID:23555740

  17. The 3-D numerical simulation research of vacuum injector for linear induction accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Dagang; Xie, Mengjun; Tang, Xinbing; Liao, Shuqing

    2017-01-01

    Simulation method for voltage in-feed and electron injection of vacuum injector is given, and verification of the simulated voltage and current is carried out. The numerical simulation for the magnetic field of solenoid is implemented, and a comparative analysis is conducted between the simulation results and experimental results. A semi-implicit difference algorithm is adopted to suppress the numerical noise, and a parallel acceleration algorithm is used for increasing the computation speed. The RMS emittance calculation method of the beam envelope equations is analyzed. In addition, the simulated results of RMS emittance are compared with the experimental data. Finally, influences of the ferromagnetic rings on the radial and axial magnetic fields of solenoid as well as the emittance of beam are studied.

  18. Sustained Accelerated Idioventricular Rhythm in a Centrifuge-Simulated Suborbital Spaceflight.

    PubMed

    Suresh, Rahul; Blue, Rebecca S; Mathers, Charles; Castleberry, Tarah L; Vanderploeg, James M

    2017-08-01

    Hypergravitational exposures during human centrifugation are known to provoke dysrhythmias, including sinus dysrhythmias/tachycardias, premature atrial/ventricular contractions, and even atrial fibrillations or flutter patterns. However, events are generally short-lived and resolve rapidly after cessation of acceleration. This case report describes a prolonged ectopic ventricular rhythm in response to high G exposure. A previously healthy 30-yr-old man voluntarily participated in centrifuge trials as a part of a larger study, experiencing a total of 7 centrifuge runs over 48 h. Day 1 consisted of two +Gz runs (peak +3.5 Gz, run 2) and two +Gx runs (peak +6.0 Gx, run 4). Day 2 consisted of three runs approximating suborbital spaceflight profiles (combined +Gx and +Gz). Hemodynamic data collected included blood pressure, heart rate, and continuous three-lead electrocardiogram. Following the final acceleration exposure of the last Day 2 run (peak +4.5 Gx and +4.0 Gz combined, resultant +6.0 G), during a period of idle resting centrifuge activity (resultant vector +1.4 G), the subject demonstrated a marked change in his three-lead electrocardiogram from normal sinus rhythm to a wide-complex ectopic ventricular rhythm at a rate of 91-95 bpm, consistent with an accelerated idioventricular rhythm (AIVR). This rhythm was sustained for 2 m, 24 s before reversion to normal sinus. The subject reported no adverse symptoms during this time. While prolonged, the dysrhythmia was asymptomatic and self-limited. AIVR is likely a physiological response to acceleration and can be managed conservatively. Vigilance is needed to ensure that AIVR is correctly distinguished from other, malignant rhythms to avoid inappropriate treatment and negative operational impacts.Suresh R, Blue RS, Mathers C, Castleberry TL, Vanderploeg JM. Sustained accelerated idioventricular rhythm in a centrifuge-simulated suborbital spaceflight. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(8):789-793.

  19. Experimental and Simulated Characterization of a Beam Shaping Assembly for Accelerator- Based Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (AB-BNCT)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Burlon, Alejandro A.; Girola, Santiago; Valda, Alejandro A.; Minsky, Daniel M.; Kreiner, Andrés J.

    2010-08-01

    In the frame of the construction of a Tandem Electrostatic Quadrupole Accelerator facility devoted to the Accelerator-Based Boron Neutron Capture Therapy, a Beam Shaping Assembly has been characterized by means of Monte-Carlo simulations and measurements. The neutrons were generated via the 7Li(p, n)7Be reaction by irradiating a thick LiF target with a 2.3 MeV proton beam delivered by the TANDAR accelerator at CNEA. The emerging neutron flux was measured by means of activation foils while the beam quality and directionality was evaluated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The parameters show compliance with those suggested by IAEA. Finally, an improvement adding a beam collimator has been evaluated.

  20. Accelerating simulation for the multiple-point statistics algorithm using vector quantization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zuo, Chen; Pan, Zhibin; Liang, Hao

    2018-03-01

    Multiple-point statistics (MPS) is a prominent algorithm to simulate categorical variables based on a sequential simulation procedure. Assuming training images (TIs) as prior conceptual models, MPS extracts patterns from TIs using a template and records their occurrences in a database. However, complex patterns increase the size of the database and require considerable time to retrieve the desired elements. In order to speed up simulation and improve simulation quality over state-of-the-art MPS methods, we propose an accelerating simulation for MPS using vector quantization (VQ), called VQ-MPS. First, a variable representation is presented to make categorical variables applicable for vector quantization. Second, we adopt a tree-structured VQ to compress the database so that stationary simulations are realized. Finally, a transformed template and classified VQ are used to address nonstationarity. A two-dimensional (2D) stationary channelized reservoir image is used to validate the proposed VQ-MPS. In comparison with several existing MPS programs, our method exhibits significantly better performance in terms of computational time, pattern reproductions, and spatial uncertainty. Further demonstrations consist of a 2D four facies simulation, two 2D nonstationary channel simulations, and a three-dimensional (3D) rock simulation. The results reveal that our proposed method is also capable of solving multifacies, nonstationarity, and 3D simulations based on 2D TIs.

  1. Direct numerical simulation of incompressible acceleration-driven variable-density turbulence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gat, Ilana; Matheou, Georgios; Chung, Daniel; Dimotakis, Paul

    2015-11-01

    Fully developed turbulence in variable-density flow driven by an externally imposed acceleration field, e.g., gravity, is fundamental in many applications, such as inertial confinement fusion, geophysics, and astrophysics. Aspects of this turbulence regime are poorly understood and are of interest to fluid modeling. We investigate incompressible acceleration-driven variable-density turbulence by a series of direct numerical simulations of high-density fluid in-between slabs of low-density fluid, in a triply-periodic domain. A pseudo-spectral numerical method with a Helmholtz-Hodge decomposition of the pressure field, which ensures mass conservation, is employed, as documented in Chung & Pullin (2010). A uniform dynamic viscosity and local Schmidt number of unity are assumed. This configuration encapsulates a combination of flow phenomena in a temporally evolving variable-density shear flow. Density ratios up to 10 and Reynolds numbers in the fully developed turbulent regime are investigated. The temporal evolution of the vertical velocity difference across the shear layer, shear-layer growth, mean density, and Reynolds number are discussed. Statistics of Lagrangian accelerations of fluid elements and of vorticity as a function of the density ratio are also presented. This material is based upon work supported by the AFOSR, the DOE, the NSF GRFP, and Caltech.

  2. Protecting High Energy Barriers: A New Equation to Regulate Boost Energy in Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

    PubMed

    Sinko, William; de Oliveira, César Augusto F; Pierce, Levi C T; McCammon, J Andrew

    2012-01-10

    Molecular dynamics (MD) is one of the most common tools in computational chemistry. Recently, our group has employed accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) to improve the conformational sampling over conventional molecular dynamics techniques. In the original aMD implementation, sampling is greatly improved by raising energy wells below a predefined energy level. Recently, our group presented an alternative aMD implementation where simulations are accelerated by lowering energy barriers of the potential energy surface. When coupled with thermodynamic integration simulations, this implementation showed very promising results. However, when applied to large systems, such as proteins, the simulation tends to be biased to high energy regions of the potential landscape. The reason for this behavior lies in the boost equation used since the highest energy barriers are dramatically more affected than the lower ones. To address this issue, in this work, we present a new boost equation that prevents oversampling of unfavorable high energy conformational states. The new boost potential provides not only better recovery of statistics throughout the simulation but also enhanced sampling of statistically relevant regions in explicit solvent MD simulations.

  3. 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

    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

  4. Mass-Discrepancy Acceleration Relation: A Natural Outcome of Galaxy Formation in Cold Dark Matter Halos.

    PubMed

    Ludlow, Aaron D; Benítez-Llambay, Alejandro; Schaller, Matthieu; Theuns, Tom; Frenk, Carlos S; Bower, Richard; Schaye, Joop; Crain, Robert A; Navarro, Julio F; Fattahi, Azadeh; Oman, Kyle A

    2017-04-21

    We analyze the total and baryonic acceleration profiles of a set of well-resolved galaxies identified in the eagle suite of hydrodynamic simulations. Our runs start from the same initial conditions but adopt different prescriptions for unresolved stellar and active galactic nuclei feedback, resulting in diverse populations of galaxies by the present day. Some of them reproduce observed galaxy scaling relations, while others do not. However, regardless of the feedback implementation, all of our galaxies follow closely a simple relationship between the total and baryonic acceleration profiles, consistent with recent observations of rotationally supported galaxies. The relation has small scatter: Different feedback implementations-which produce different galaxy populations-mainly shift galaxies along the relation rather than perpendicular to it. Furthermore, galaxies exhibit a characteristic acceleration g_{†}, above which baryons dominate the mass budget, as observed. These observations, consistent with simple modified Newtonian dynamics, can be accommodated within the standard cold dark matter paradigm.

  5. Simulations of radiation pressure ion acceleration with the VEGA Petawatt laser

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stockhausen, Luca C.; Torres, Ricardo; Conejero Jarque, Enrique

    2016-09-01

    The Spanish Pulsed Laser Centre (CLPU) is a new high-power laser facility for users. Its main system, VEGA, is a CPA Ti:Sapphire laser which, in its final phase, will be able to reach Petawatt peak powers in pulses of 30 fs with a pulse contrast of 1 :1010 at 1 ps. The extremely low level of pre-pulse intensity makes this system ideally suited for studying the laser interaction with ultrathin targets. We have used the particle-in-cell (PIC) code OSIRIS to carry out 2D simulations of the acceleration of ions from ultrathin solid targets under the unique conditions provided by VEGA, with laser intensities up to 1022 W cm-2 impinging normally on 20 - 60 nm thick overdense plasmas, with different polarizations and pre-plasma scale lengths. We show how signatures of the radiation pressure-dominated regime, such as layer compression and bunch formation, are only present with circular polarization. By passively shaping the density gradient of the plasma, we demonstrate an enhancement in peak energy up to tens of MeV and monoenergetic features. On the contrary linear polarization at the same intensity level causes the target to blow up, resulting in much lower energies and broader spectra. One limiting factor of Radiation Pressure Acceleration is the development of Rayleigh-Taylor like instabilities at the interface of the plasma and photon fluid. This results in the formation of bubbles in the spatial profile of laser-accelerated proton beams. These structures were previously evidenced both experimentally and theoretically. We have performed 2D simulations to characterize this bubble-like structure and report on the dependency on laser and target parameters.

  6. Enhanced quasi-static particle-in-cell simulation of electron cloud instabilities in circular accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Feng, Bing

    Electron cloud instabilities have been observed in many circular accelerators around the world and raised concerns of future accelerators and possible upgrades. In this thesis, the electron cloud instabilities are studied with the quasi-static particle-in-cell (PIC) code QuickPIC. Modeling in three-dimensions the long timescale propagation of beam in electron clouds in circular accelerators requires faster and more efficient simulation codes. Thousands of processors are easily available for parallel computations. However, it is not straightforward to increase the effective speed of the simulation by running the same problem size on an increasingly number of processors because there is a limit to domain size in the decomposition of the two-dimensional part of the code. A pipelining algorithm applied on the fully parallelized particle-in-cell code QuickPIC is implemented to overcome this limit. The pipelining algorithm uses multiple groups of processors and optimizes the job allocation on the processors in parallel computing. With this novel algorithm, it is possible to use on the order of 102 processors, and to expand the scale and the speed of the simulation with QuickPIC by a similar factor. In addition to the efficiency improvement with the pipelining algorithm, the fidelity of QuickPIC is enhanced by adding two physics models, the beam space charge effect and the dispersion effect. Simulation of two specific circular machines is performed with the enhanced QuickPIC. First, the proposed upgrade to the Fermilab Main Injector is studied with an eye upon guiding the design of the upgrade and code validation. Moderate emittance growth is observed for the upgrade of increasing the bunch population by 5 times. But the simulation also shows that increasing the beam energy from 8GeV to 20GeV or above can effectively limit the emittance growth. Then the enhanced QuickPIC is used to simulate the electron cloud effect on electron beam in the Cornell Energy Recovery Linac

  7. Acceleration of Monte Carlo simulation of photon migration in complex heterogeneous media using Intel many-integrated core architecture.

    PubMed

    Gorshkov, Anton V; Kirillin, Mikhail Yu

    2015-08-01

    Over two decades, the Monte Carlo technique has become a gold standard in simulation of light propagation in turbid media, including biotissues. Technological solutions provide further advances of this technique. The Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor is a new type of accelerator for highly parallel general purpose computing, which allows execution of a wide range of applications without substantial code modification. We present a technical approach of porting our previously developed Monte Carlo (MC) code for simulation of light transport in tissues to the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor. We show that employing the accelerator allows reducing computational time of MC simulation and obtaining simulation speed-up comparable to GPU. We demonstrate the performance of the developed code for simulation of light transport in the human head and determination of the measurement volume in near-infrared spectroscopy brain sensing.

  8. MABE multibeam accelerator

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

    Hasti, D.E.; Ramirez, J.J.; Coleman, P.D.

    1985-01-01

    The Megamp Accelerator and Beam Experiment (MABE) was the technology development testbed for the multiple beam, linear induction accelerator approach for Hermes III, a new 20 MeV, 0.8 MA, 40 ns accelerator being developed at Sandia for gamma-ray simulation. Experimental studies of a high-current, single-beam accelerator (8 MeV, 80 kA), and a nine-beam injector (1.4 MeV, 25 kA/beam) have been completed, and experiments on a nine-beam linear induction accelerator are in progress. A two-beam linear induction accelerator is designed and will be built as a gamma-ray simulator to be used in parallel with Hermes III. The MABE pulsed power systemmore » and accelerator for the multiple beam experiments is described. Results from these experiments and the two-beam design are discussed. 11 refs., 6 figs.« less

  9. Simulations of Flame Acceleration and DDT in Mixture Composition Gradients

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zheng, Weilin; Kaplan, Carolyn; Houim, Ryan; Oran, Elaine

    2017-11-01

    Unsteady, multidimensional, fully compressible numerical simulations of methane-air in an obstructed channel with spatial gradients in equivalence ratios have been carried to determine the effects of the gradients on flame acceleration and transition to detonation. Results for gradients perpendicular to the propagation direction were considered here. A calibrated, optimized chemical-diffusive model that reproduces correct flame and detonation properties for methane-air over a range of equivalence ratios was derived from a combination of a genetic algorithm with a Nelder-Mead optimization scheme. Inhomogeneous mixtures of methane-air resulted in slower flame acceleration and longer distance to DDT. Detonations were more likely to decouple into a flame and a shock under sharper concentration gradients. Detailed analyses of temperature and equivalence ratio illustrated that vertical gradients can greatly affect the formation of hot spots that initiate detonation by changing the strength of leading shock wave and local equivalence ratio near the base of obstacles. This work is supported by the Alpha Foundation (Grant No. AFC215-20).

  10. The Soil Carbon Paradigm Shift: Triangulating Theories, Measurements, and Models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Blankinship, J. C.; Crow, S. E.; Schimel, J.; Sierra, C. A.; Schaedel, C.; Plante, A. F.; Thompson, A.; Berhe, A. A.; Druhan, J. L.; Heckman, K. A.; Keiluweit, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Marin-Spiotta, E.; Rasmussen, C.; Wagai, R.; Wieder, W. R.

    2016-12-01

    Predicting global responses of soil carbon (C) to environmental change remains confounded by a number of paradigms that have emerged from separate approaches. A prevailing paradigm in biogeochemistry interprets soil C as discrete pools based on estimated or measured turnover times (e.g., CENTURY model). An alternative is emerging that envisions the stabilization of soil C in tension between decomposition by microbial agents and protection by physical and chemical mechanisms. We propose an approach to bridge the gap between different paradigms, and to improve soil C forecasting by conceptualizing each paradigm as a triangle composed of three nodes: theory, analytical measurement, and numerical model. Paradigms tend to emerge from what can either be represented in models or measured using analytical instruments. But they gain power when all three elements are integrated in a balanced trinity. Our goal was to compare how theory, measurement, and model fit together in our understanding of soil C to learn from past successes, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current paradigms, and guide development of new understanding. We used a case-study approach to analyze each corner of the paradigm-triangle: i) paradigms that have strong theory but are constrained by weak linkages with measurements or models, ii) paradigms with robust models that have weak linkages with theory or measurements, and iii) paradigms with many measurements but little theoretical support or ability to be parameterized in numerical models. We conclude that established models like CENTURY dominate because theory and measurements that underlie the model form strong linkages that previously created a balanced triangle. Evolving paradigms based on physical protection and microbial agency are still struggling to gain traction because the theory is challenging to represent in models. The explicit examination of the strengths of emerging paradigms can, therefore, help refine and accelerate our ability

  11. On the Use of Accelerated Molecular Dynamics to Enhance Configurational Sampling in Ab Initio Simulations.

    PubMed

    Bucher, Denis; Pierce, Levi C T; McCammon, J Andrew; Markwick, Phineus R L

    2011-04-12

    We have implemented the accelerated molecular dynamics approach (Hamelberg, D.; Mongan, J.; McCammon, J. A. J. Chem. Phys. 2004, 120 (24), 11919) in the framework of ab initio MD (AIMD). Using three simple examples, we demonstrate that accelerated AIMD (A-AIMD) can be used to accelerate solvent relaxation in AIMD simulations and facilitate the detection of reaction coordinates: (i) We show, for one cyclohexane molecule in the gas phase, that the method can be used to accelerate the rate of the chair-to-chair interconversion by a factor of ∼1 × 10(5), while allowing for the reconstruction of the correct canonical distribution of low-energy states; (ii) We then show, for a water box of 64 H(2)O molecules, that A-AIMD can also be used in the condensed phase to accelerate the sampling of water conformations, without affecting the structural properties of the solvent; and (iii) The method is then used to compute the potential of mean force (PMF) for the dissociation of Na-Cl in water, accelerating the convergence by a factor of ∼3-4 compared to conventional AIMD simulations.(2) These results suggest that A-AIMD is a useful addition to existing methods for enhanced conformational and phase-space sampling in solution. While the method does not make the use of collective variables superfluous, it also does not require the user to define a set of collective variables that can capture all the low-energy minima on the potential energy surface. This property may prove very useful when dealing with highly complex multidimensional systems that require a quantum mechanical treatment.

  12. Lattice Boltzmann accelerated direct simulation Monte Carlo for dilute gas flow simulations.

    PubMed

    Di Staso, G; Clercx, H J H; Succi, S; Toschi, F

    2016-11-13

    Hybrid particle-continuum computational frameworks permit the simulation of gas flows by locally adjusting the resolution to the degree of non-equilibrium displayed by the flow in different regions of space and time. In this work, we present a new scheme that couples the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) with the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method in the limit of isothermal flows. The former handles strong non-equilibrium effects, as they typically occur in the vicinity of solid boundaries, whereas the latter is in charge of the bulk flow, where non-equilibrium can be dealt with perturbatively, i.e. according to Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics. The proposed concurrent multiscale method is applied to the dilute gas Couette flow, showing major computational gains when compared with the full DSMC scenarios. In addition, it is shown that the coupling with LB in the bulk flow can speed up the DSMC treatment of the Knudsen layer with respect to the full DSMC case. In other words, LB acts as a DSMC accelerator.This article is part of the themed issue 'Multiscale modelling at the physics-chemistry-biology interface'. © 2016 The Author(s).

  13. Adaptive accelerated ReaxFF reactive dynamics with validation from simulating hydrogen combustion.

    PubMed

    Cheng, Tao; Jaramillo-Botero, Andrés; Goddard, William A; Sun, Huai

    2014-07-02

    We develop here the methodology for dramatically accelerating the ReaxFF reactive force field based reactive molecular dynamics (RMD) simulations through use of the bond boost concept (BB), which we validate here for describing hydrogen combustion. The bond order, undercoordination, and overcoordination concepts of ReaxFF ensure that the BB correctly adapts to the instantaneous configurations in the reactive system to automatically identify the reactions appropriate to receive the bond boost. We refer to this as adaptive Accelerated ReaxFF Reactive Dynamics or aARRDyn. To validate the aARRDyn methodology, we determined the detailed sequence of reactions for hydrogen combustion with and without the BB. We validate that the kinetics and reaction mechanisms (that is the detailed sequences of reactive intermediates and their subsequent transformation to others) for H2 oxidation obtained from aARRDyn agrees well with the brute force reactive molecular dynamics (BF-RMD) at 2498 K. Using aARRDyn, we then extend our simulations to the whole range of combustion temperatures from ignition (798 K) to flame temperature (2998K), and demonstrate that, over this full temperature range, the reaction rates predicted by aARRDyn agree well with the BF-RMD values, extrapolated to lower temperatures. For the aARRDyn simulation at 798 K we find that the time period for half the H2 to form H2O product is ∼538 s, whereas the computational cost was just 1289 ps, a speed increase of ∼0.42 trillion (10(12)) over BF-RMD. In carrying out these RMD simulations we found that the ReaxFF-COH2008 version of the ReaxFF force field was not accurate for such intermediates as H3O. Consequently we reoptimized the fit to a quantum mechanics (QM) level, leading to the ReaxFF-OH2014 force field that was used in the simulations.

  14. Beam dynamics simulations of post low energy beam transport section in RAON heavy ion accelerator

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

    Jin, Hyunchang, E-mail: hcjin@ibs.re.kr; Jang, Ji-Ho; Jang, Hyojae

    RAON (Rare isotope Accelerator Of Newness) heavy ion accelerator of the rare isotope science project in Daejeon, Korea, has been designed to accelerate multiple-charge-state beams to be used for various science programs. In the RAON accelerator, the rare isotope beams which are generated by an isotope separation on-line system with a wide range of nuclei and charges will be transported through the post Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT) section to the Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ). In order to transport many kinds of rare isotope beams stably to the RFQ, the post LEBT should be devised to satisfy the requirement ofmore » the RFQ at the end of post LEBT, simultaneously with the twiss parameters small. We will present the recent lattice design of the post LEBT in the RAON accelerator and the results of the beam dynamics simulations from it. In addition, the error analysis and correction in the post LEBT will be also described.« less

  15. Early Experiences Porting the NAMD and VMD Molecular Simulation and Analysis Software to GPU-Accelerated OpenPOWER Platforms

    PubMed Central

    Stone, John E.; Hynninen, Antti-Pekka; Phillips, James C.; Schulten, Klaus

    2017-01-01

    All-atom molecular dynamics simulations of biomolecules provide a powerful tool for exploring the structure and dynamics of large protein complexes within realistic cellular environments. Unfortunately, such simulations are extremely demanding in terms of their computational requirements, and they present many challenges in terms of preparation, simulation methodology, and analysis and visualization of results. We describe our early experiences porting the popular molecular dynamics simulation program NAMD and the simulation preparation, analysis, and visualization tool VMD to GPU-accelerated OpenPOWER hardware platforms. We report our experiences with compiler-provided autovectorization and compare with hand-coded vector intrinsics for the POWER8 CPU. We explore the performance benefits obtained from unique POWER8 architectural features such as 8-way SMT and its value for particular molecular modeling tasks. Finally, we evaluate the performance of several GPU-accelerated molecular modeling kernels and relate them to other hardware platforms. PMID:29202130

  16. Measurement of performance using acceleration control and pulse control in simulated spacecraft docking operations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Brody, Adam R.; Ellis, Stephen R.

    1992-01-01

    Nine commercial airline pilots served as test subjects in a study to compare acceleration control with pulse control in simulated spacecraft maneuvers. Simulated remote dockings of an orbital maneuvering vehicle (OMV) to a space station were initiated from 50, 100, and 150 meters along the station's -V-bar (minus velocity vector). All unsuccessful missions were reflown. Five way mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) with one between factor, first mode, and four within factors (mode, bloch, range, and trial) were performed on the data. Recorded performance measures included mission duration and fuel consumption along each of the three coordinate axes. Mission duration was lower with pulse mode, while delta V (fuel consumption) was lower with acceleration mode. Subjects used more fuel to travel faster with pulse mode than with acceleration mode. Mission duration, delta V, X delta V, Y delta V., and Z delta V all increased with range. Subjects commanded the OMV to 'fly' at faster rates from further distances. These higher average velocities were paid for with increased fuel consumption. Asymmetrical transfer was found in that the mode transitions could not be predicted solely from the mission duration main effect. More testing is advised to understand the manual control aspects of spaceflight maneuvers better.

  17. Self-consistent core-pedestal transport simulations with neural network accelerated models

    DOE PAGES

    Meneghini, Orso; Smith, Sterling P.; Snyder, Philip B.; ...

    2017-07-12

    Fusion whole device modeling simulations require comprehensive models that are simultaneously physically accurate, fast, robust, and predictive. In this paper we describe the development of two neural-network (NN) based models as a means to perform a snon-linear multivariate regression of theory-based models for the core turbulent transport fluxes, and the pedestal structure. Specifically, we find that a NN-based approach can be used to consistently reproduce the results of the TGLF and EPED1 theory-based models over a broad range of plasma regimes, and with a computational speedup of several orders of magnitudes. These models are then integrated into a predictive workflowmore » that allows prediction with self-consistent core-pedestal coupling of the kinetic profiles within the last closed flux surface of the plasma. Finally, the NN paradigm is capable of breaking the speed-accuracy trade-off that is expected of traditional numerical physics models, and can provide the missing link towards self-consistent coupled core-pedestal whole device modeling simulations that are physically accurate and yet take only seconds to run.« less

  18. Self-consistent core-pedestal transport simulations with neural network accelerated models

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

    Meneghini, Orso; Smith, Sterling P.; Snyder, Philip B.

    Fusion whole device modeling simulations require comprehensive models that are simultaneously physically accurate, fast, robust, and predictive. In this paper we describe the development of two neural-network (NN) based models as a means to perform a snon-linear multivariate regression of theory-based models for the core turbulent transport fluxes, and the pedestal structure. Specifically, we find that a NN-based approach can be used to consistently reproduce the results of the TGLF and EPED1 theory-based models over a broad range of plasma regimes, and with a computational speedup of several orders of magnitudes. These models are then integrated into a predictive workflowmore » that allows prediction with self-consistent core-pedestal coupling of the kinetic profiles within the last closed flux surface of the plasma. Finally, the NN paradigm is capable of breaking the speed-accuracy trade-off that is expected of traditional numerical physics models, and can provide the missing link towards self-consistent coupled core-pedestal whole device modeling simulations that are physically accurate and yet take only seconds to run.« less

  19. Self-consistent core-pedestal transport simulations with neural network accelerated models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meneghini, O.; Smith, S. P.; Snyder, P. B.; Staebler, G. M.; Candy, J.; Belli, E.; Lao, L.; Kostuk, M.; Luce, T.; Luda, T.; Park, J. M.; Poli, F.

    2017-08-01

    Fusion whole device modeling simulations require comprehensive models that are simultaneously physically accurate, fast, robust, and predictive. In this paper we describe the development of two neural-network (NN) based models as a means to perform a snon-linear multivariate regression of theory-based models for the core turbulent transport fluxes, and the pedestal structure. Specifically, we find that a NN-based approach can be used to consistently reproduce the results of the TGLF and EPED1 theory-based models over a broad range of plasma regimes, and with a computational speedup of several orders of magnitudes. These models are then integrated into a predictive workflow that allows prediction with self-consistent core-pedestal coupling of the kinetic profiles within the last closed flux surface of the plasma. The NN paradigm is capable of breaking the speed-accuracy trade-off that is expected of traditional numerical physics models, and can provide the missing link towards self-consistent coupled core-pedestal whole device modeling simulations that are physically accurate and yet take only seconds to run.

  20. Particle acceleration with anomalous pitch angle scattering in 2D magnetohydrodynamic reconnection simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Borissov, A.; Kontar, E. P.; Threlfall, J.; Neukirch, T.

    2017-09-01

    The conversion of magnetic energy into other forms (such as plasma heating, bulk plasma flows, and non-thermal particles) during solar flares is one of the outstanding open problems in solar physics. It is generally accepted that magnetic reconnection plays a crucial role in these conversion processes. In order to achieve the rapid energy release required in solar flares, an anomalous resistivity, which is orders of magnitude higher than the Spitzer resistivity, is often used in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of reconnection in the corona. The origin of Spitzer resistivity is based on Coulomb scattering, which becomes negligible at the high energies achieved by accelerated particles. As a result, simulations of particle acceleration in reconnection events are often performed in the absence of any interaction between accelerated particles and any background plasma. This need not be the case for scattering associated with anomalous resistivity caused by turbulence within solar flares, as the higher resistivity implies an elevated scattering rate. We present results of test particle calculations, with and without pitch angle scattering, subject to fields derived from MHD simulations of two-dimensional (2D) X-point reconnection. Scattering rates proportional to the ratio of the anomalous resistivity to the local Spitzer resistivity, as well as at fixed values, are considered. Pitch angle scattering, which is independent of the anomalous resistivity, causes higher maximum energies in comparison to those obtained without scattering. Scattering rates which are dependent on the local anomalous resistivity tend to produce fewer highly energised particles due to weaker scattering in the separatrices, even though scattering in the current sheet may be stronger when compared to resistivity-independent scattering. Strong scattering also causes an increase in the number of particles exiting the computational box in the reconnection outflow region, as opposed to along the

  1. Partnering with patients to promote holistic diabetes management: changing paradigms.

    PubMed

    Lorenzo, Lenora

    2013-07-01

    To provide a review of best practice for clinical management of diabetes mellitus (DM) for nurse practitioners (NPs) and accelerate incorporation of key findings into current practice. A search was conducted in Pub Med, Ovid, CINAHL, and Cochrane's Database of Systematic Reviews. There are many challenges for DM care identified in the current health system. There is a great need to change care paradigms to engage patients in partnership for enhanced management and self-management in DM. A review of the best practice evidence revealed numerous models of care, strategies, and tools available to enhance diabetes care and promote health and well-being. The primary focus of this article is to engage NP clinicians to incorporate new strategies to augment management and improve clinical outcomes. Incorporation of best practice for DM management may accelerate the paradigm shift to more patient-focused care. Engaged, informed, and activated patients along with clinicians working in partnerships may enhance clinical outcomes. ©2013 The Author ©2013 American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

  2. Electron acceleration in the Solar corona - 3D PiC code simulations of guide field reconnection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alejandro Munoz Sepulveda, Patricio

    2017-04-01

    The efficient electron acceleration in the solar corona detected by means of hard X-ray emission is still not well understood. Magnetic reconnection through current sheets is one of the proposed production mechanisms of non-thermal electrons in solar flares. Previous works in this direction were based mostly on test particle calculations or 2D fully-kinetic PiC simulations. We have now studied the consequences of self-generated current-aligned instabilities on the electron acceleration mechanisms by 3D magnetic reconnection. For this sake, we carried out 3D Particle-in-Cell (PiC) code numerical simulations of force free reconnecting current sheets, appropriate for the description of the solar coronal plasmas. We find an efficient electron energization, evidenced by the formation of a non-thermal power-law tail with a hard spectral index smaller than -2 in the electron energy distribution function. We discuss and compare the influence of the parallel electric field versus the curvature and gradient drifts in the guiding-center approximation on the overall acceleration, and their dependence on different plasma parameters.

  3. Collaborative Research: Simulation of Beam-Electron Cloud Interactions in Circular Accelerators Using Plasma Models

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

    Katsouleas, Thomas; Decyk, Viktor

    Final Report for grant DE-FG02-06ER54888, "Simulation of Beam-Electron Cloud Interactions in Circular Accelerators Using Plasma Models" Viktor K. Decyk, University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547 The primary goal of this collaborative proposal was to modify the code QuickPIC and apply it to study the long-time stability of beam propagation in low density electron clouds present in circular accelerators. The UCLA contribution to this collaborative proposal was in supporting the development of the pipelining scheme for the QuickPIC code, which extended the parallel scaling of this code by two orders of magnitude. The USC work was as describedmore » here the PhD research for Ms. Bing Feng, lead author in reference 2 below, who performed the research at USC under the guidance of the PI Tom Katsouleas and the collaboration of Dr. Decyk The QuickPIC code [1] is a multi-scale Particle-in-Cell (PIC) code. The outer 3D code contains a beam which propagates through a long region of plasma and evolves slowly. The plasma response to this beam is modeled by slices of a 2D plasma code. This plasma response then is fed back to the beam code, and the process repeats. The pipelining is based on the observation that once the beam has passed a 2D slice, its response can be fed back to the beam immediately without waiting for the beam to pass all the other slices. Thus independent blocks of 2D slices from different time steps can be running simultaneously. The major difficulty was when particles at the edges needed to communicate with other blocks. Two versions of the pipelining scheme were developed, for the the full quasi-static code and the other for the basic quasi-static code used by this e-cloud proposal. Details of the pipelining scheme were published in [2]. The new version of QuickPIC was able to run with more than 1,000 processors, and was successfully applied in modeling e-clouds by our collaborators in this proposal [3-8]. Jean-Luc Vay at Lawrence

  4. Accelerated simulation of stochastic particle removal processes in particle-resolved aerosol models

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

    Curtis, J.H.; Michelotti, M.D.; Riemer, N.

    2016-10-01

    Stochastic particle-resolved methods have proven useful for simulating multi-dimensional systems such as composition-resolved aerosol size distributions. While particle-resolved methods have substantial benefits for highly detailed simulations, these techniques suffer from high computational cost, motivating efforts to improve their algorithmic efficiency. Here we formulate an algorithm for accelerating particle removal processes by aggregating particles of similar size into bins. We present the Binned Algorithm for particle removal processes and analyze its performance with application to the atmospherically relevant process of aerosol dry deposition. We show that the Binned Algorithm can dramatically improve the efficiency of particle removals, particularly for low removalmore » rates, and that computational cost is reduced without introducing additional error. In simulations of aerosol particle removal by dry deposition in atmospherically relevant conditions, we demonstrate about 50-times increase in algorithm efficiency.« less

  5. Simulations of ion acceleration from ultrathin targets with the VEGA petawatt laser

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stockhausen, Luca C.; Torres, Ricardo; Conejero Jarque, Enrique

    2015-05-01

    The Spanish Pulsed Laser Centre (CLPU) is a new high-power laser facility for users. Its main system, VEGA, is a CPA Ti:Sapphire laser which, in its final phase, will be able to reach petawatt peak powers in pulses of 30 fs with a pulse contrast of 1 : 1010 at 1 ps. The extremely low level of pre-pulse intensity makes this system ideally suited for studying the laser interaction with ultrathin targets. We have used the particle-in-cell (PIC) code OSIRIS to carry out 2D simulations of the acceleration of ions from ultrathin solid targets under the unique conditions provided by VEGA, with laser intensities up to 1022Wcm-2 impinging normally on 5 - 40 nm thick overdense plasmas, with different polarizations and pre-plasma scale lengths. We show how signatures of the radiation pressure dominated regime, such as layer compression and bunch formation, are only present with circular polarization. By passively shaping the density gradient of the plasma, we demonstrate an enhancement in peak energy up to tens of MeV and monoenergetic features. On the contrary linear polarization at the same intensity level causes the target to blow up, resulting in much lower energies and broader spectra. One limiting factor of Radiation Pressure Acceleration is the development of Rayleigh-Taylor like instabilities at the interface of the plasma and photon fluid. This results in the formation of bubbles in the spatial profile of laser-accelerated proton beams. These structures were previously evidenced both experimentally and theoretically. We have performed 2D simulations to characterize this bubble-like structure and report on the dependency on laser and target parameters.

  6. Requirements for Simulating Space Radiation With Particle Accelerators

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schimmerling, W.; Wilson, J. W.; Cucinotta, F.; Kim, M-H Y.

    2004-01-01

    Interplanetary space radiation consists of fully ionized nuclei of atomic elements with high energy for which only the few lowest energy ions can be stopped in shielding materials. The health risk from exposure to these ions and their secondary radiations generated in the materials of spacecraft and planetary surface enclosures is a major limiting factor in the management of space radiation risk. Accurate risk prediction depends on a knowledge of basic radiobiological mechanisms and how they are modified in the living tissues of a whole organism. To a large extent, this knowledge is not currently available. It is best developed at ground-based laboratories, using particle accelerator beams to simulate the components of space radiation. Different particles, in different energy regions, are required to study different biological effects, including beams of argon and iron nuclei in the energy range 600 to several thousand MeV/nucleon and carbon beams in the energy range of approximately 100 MeV/nucleon to approximately 1000 MeV/nucleon. Three facilities, one each in the United States, in Germany and in Japan, currently have the partial capability to satisfy these constraints. A facility has been proposed using the Brookhaven National Laboratory Booster Synchrotron in the United States; in conjunction with other on-site accelerators, it will be able to provide the full range of heavy ion beams and energies required. International cooperation in the use of these facilities is essential to the development of a safe international space program.

  7. Accelerating rejection-based simulation of biochemical reactions with bounded acceptance probability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thanh, Vo Hong; Priami, Corrado; Zunino, Roberto

    2016-06-01

    Stochastic simulation of large biochemical reaction networks is often computationally expensive due to the disparate reaction rates and high variability of population of chemical species. An approach to accelerate the simulation is to allow multiple reaction firings before performing update by assuming that reaction propensities are changing of a negligible amount during a time interval. Species with small population in the firings of fast reactions significantly affect both performance and accuracy of this simulation approach. It is even worse when these small population species are involved in a large number of reactions. We present in this paper a new approximate algorithm to cope with this problem. It is based on bounding the acceptance probability of a reaction selected by the exact rejection-based simulation algorithm, which employs propensity bounds of reactions and the rejection-based mechanism to select next reaction firings. The reaction is ensured to be selected to fire with an acceptance rate greater than a predefined probability in which the selection becomes exact if the probability is set to one. Our new algorithm improves the computational cost for selecting the next reaction firing and reduces the updating the propensities of reactions.

  8. GPU-accelerated Red Blood Cells Simulations with Transport Dissipative Particle Dynamics.

    PubMed

    Blumers, Ansel L; Tang, Yu-Hang; Li, Zhen; Li, Xuejin; Karniadakis, George E

    2017-08-01

    Mesoscopic numerical simulations provide a unique approach for the quantification of the chemical influences on red blood cell functionalities. The transport Dissipative Particles Dynamics (tDPD) method can lead to such effective multiscale simulations due to its ability to simultaneously capture mesoscopic advection, diffusion, and reaction. In this paper, we present a GPU-accelerated red blood cell simulation package based on a tDPD adaptation of our red blood cell model, which can correctly recover the cell membrane viscosity, elasticity, bending stiffness, and cross-membrane chemical transport. The package essentially processes all computational workloads in parallel by GPU, and it incorporates multi-stream scheduling and non-blocking MPI communications to improve inter-node scalability. Our code is validated for accuracy and compared against the CPU counterpart for speed. Strong scaling and weak scaling are also presented to characterizes scalability. We observe a speedup of 10.1 on one GPU over all 16 cores within a single node, and a weak scaling efficiency of 91% across 256 nodes. The program enables quick-turnaround and high-throughput numerical simulations for investigating chemical-driven red blood cell phenomena and disorders.

  9. Accelerating rejection-based simulation of biochemical reactions with bounded acceptance probability

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

    Thanh, Vo Hong, E-mail: vo@cosbi.eu; Priami, Corrado, E-mail: priami@cosbi.eu; Department of Mathematics, University of Trento, Trento

    Stochastic simulation of large biochemical reaction networks is often computationally expensive due to the disparate reaction rates and high variability of population of chemical species. An approach to accelerate the simulation is to allow multiple reaction firings before performing update by assuming that reaction propensities are changing of a negligible amount during a time interval. Species with small population in the firings of fast reactions significantly affect both performance and accuracy of this simulation approach. It is even worse when these small population species are involved in a large number of reactions. We present in this paper a new approximatemore » algorithm to cope with this problem. It is based on bounding the acceptance probability of a reaction selected by the exact rejection-based simulation algorithm, which employs propensity bounds of reactions and the rejection-based mechanism to select next reaction firings. The reaction is ensured to be selected to fire with an acceptance rate greater than a predefined probability in which the selection becomes exact if the probability is set to one. Our new algorithm improves the computational cost for selecting the next reaction firing and reduces the updating the propensities of reactions.« less

  10. Moving alcohol prevention research forward-Part I: introducing a complex systems paradigm.

    PubMed

    Apostolopoulos, Yorghos; Lemke, Michael K; Barry, Adam E; Lich, Kristen Hassmiller

    2018-02-01

    The drinking environment is a complex system consisting of a number of heterogeneous, evolving and interacting components, which exhibit circular causality and emergent properties. These characteristics reduce the efficacy of commonly used research approaches, which typically do not account for the underlying dynamic complexity of alcohol consumption and the interdependent nature of diverse factors influencing misuse over time. We use alcohol misuse among college students in the United States as an example for framing our argument for a complex systems paradigm. A complex systems paradigm, grounded in socio-ecological and complex systems theories and computational modeling and simulation, is introduced. Theoretical, conceptual, methodological and analytical underpinnings of this paradigm are described in the context of college drinking prevention research. The proposed complex systems paradigm can transcend limitations of traditional approaches, thereby fostering new directions in alcohol prevention research. By conceptualizing student alcohol misuse as a complex adaptive system, computational modeling and simulation methodologies and analytical techniques can be used. Moreover, use of participatory model-building approaches to generate simulation models can further increase stakeholder buy-in, understanding and policymaking. A complex systems paradigm for research into alcohol misuse can provide a holistic understanding of the underlying drinking environment and its long-term trajectory, which can elucidate high-leverage preventive interventions. © 2017 Society for the Study of Addiction.

  11. Prospects for Accelerator Technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Todd, Alan

    2011-02-01

    Accelerator technology today is a greater than US$5 billion per annum business. Development of higher-performance technology with improved reliability that delivers reduced system size and life cycle cost is expected to significantly increase the total accelerator technology market and open up new application sales. Potential future directions are identified and pitfalls in new market penetration are considered. Both of the present big market segments, medical radiation therapy units and semiconductor ion implanters, are approaching the "maturity" phase of their product cycles, where incremental development rather than paradigm shifts is the norm, but they should continue to dominate commercial sales for some time. It is anticipated that large discovery-science accelerators will continue to provide a specialty market beset by the unpredictable cycles resulting from the scale of the projects themselves, coupled with external political and economic drivers. Although fraught with differing market entry difficulties, the security and environmental markets, together with new, as yet unrealized, industrial material processing applications, are expected to provide the bulk of future commercial accelerator technology growth.

  12. Acquisition, retention and transfer of simulated laparoscopic tasks using fNIR and a contextual interference paradigm.

    PubMed

    Shewokis, Patricia A; Shariff, Faiz U; Liu, Yichuan; Ayaz, Hasan; Castellanos, Andres; Lind, D Scott

    2017-02-01

    Using functional near infrared spectroscopy, a noninvasive, optical brain imaging tool that monitors changes in hemodynamics within the prefrontal cortex (PFC), we assessed performance and cognitive effort during the acquisition, retention and transfer of multiple simulated laparoscopic tasks by novice learners within a contextual interference paradigm. Third-year medical students (n = 10) were randomized to either a blocked or random practice schedule. Across 3 days, students performed 108 acquisition trials of 3 laparoscopic tasks on the LapSim ® simulator followed by delayed retention and transfer tests. Performance metrics (Global score, Total time) and hemodynamic responses (total hemoglobin (μm)) were assessed during skill acquisition, retention and transfer. All acquisition tasks resulted in significant practice schedule X trial block interactions for the left medial anterior PFC. During retention and transfer, random performed the skills in less time and had lower total hemoglobin change in the right dorsolateral PFC than blocked. Compared with blocked, random practice resulted in enhanced learning through better performance and less cognitive load for retention and transfer of simulated laparoscopic tasks. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Simulating the formation of cosmic structure.

    PubMed

    Frenk, C S

    2002-06-15

    A timely combination of new theoretical ideas and observational discoveries has brought about significant advances in our understanding of cosmic evolution. Computer simulations have played a key role in these developments by providing the means to interpret astronomical data in the context of physical and cosmological theory. In the current paradigm, our Universe has a flat geometry, is undergoing accelerated expansion and is gravitationally dominated by elementary particles that make up cold dark matter. Within this framework, it is possible to simulate in a computer the emergence of galaxies and other structures from small quantum fluctuations imprinted during an epoch of inflationary expansion shortly after the Big Bang. The simulations must take into account the evolution of the dark matter as well as the gaseous processes involved in the formation of stars and other visible components. Although many unresolved questions remain, a coherent picture for the formation of cosmic structure is now beginning to emerge.

  14. GPU Accelerated Vector Median Filter

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Aras, Rifat; Shen, Yuzhong

    2011-01-01

    Noise reduction is an important step for most image processing tasks. For three channel color images, a widely used technique is vector median filter in which color values of pixels are treated as 3-component vectors. Vector median filters are computationally expensive; for a window size of n x n, each of the n(sup 2) vectors has to be compared with other n(sup 2) - 1 vectors in distances. General purpose computation on graphics processing units (GPUs) is the paradigm of utilizing high-performance many-core GPU architectures for computation tasks that are normally handled by CPUs. In this work. NVIDIA's Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) paradigm is used to accelerate vector median filtering. which has to the best of our knowledge never been done before. The performance of GPU accelerated vector median filter is compared to that of the CPU and MPI-based versions for different image and window sizes, Initial findings of the study showed 100x improvement of performance of vector median filter implementation on GPUs over CPU implementations and further speed-up is expected after more extensive optimizations of the GPU algorithm .

  15. The joint center for energy storage research: A new paradigm for battery research and development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Crabtree, George

    2015-03-01

    The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) seeks transformational change in transportation and the electricity grid driven by next generation high performance, low cost electricity storage. To pursue this transformative vision JCESR introduces a new paradigm for battery research: integrating discovery science, battery design, research prototyping and manufacturing collaboration in a single highly interactive organization. This new paradigm will accelerate the pace of discovery and innovation and reduce the time from conceptualization to commercialization. JCESR applies its new paradigm exclusively to beyond-lithium-ion batteries, a vast, rich and largely unexplored frontier. This review presents JCESR's motivation, vision, mission, intended outcomes or legacies and first year accomplishments.

  16. Internet of Things: a possible change in the distributed modeling and simulation architecture paradigm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Riecken, Mark; Lessmann, Kurt; Schillero, David

    2016-05-01

    The Data Distribution Service (DDS) was started by the Object Management Group (OMG) in 2004. Currently, DDS is one of the contenders to support the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial IOT (IIoT). DDS has also been used as a distributed simulation architecture. Given the anticipated proliferation of IoT and II devices, along with the explosive growth of sensor technology, can we expect this to have an impact on the broader community of distributed simulation? If it does, what is the impact and which distributed simulation domains will be most affected? DDS shares many of the same goals and characteristics of distributed simulation such as the need to support scale and an emphasis on Quality of Service (QoS) that can be tailored to meet the end user's needs. In addition, DDS has some built-in features such as security that are not present in traditional distributed simulation protocols. If the IoT and II realize their potential application, we predict a large base of technology to be built around this distributed data paradigm, much of which could be directly beneficial to the distributed M&S community. In this paper we compare some of the perceived gaps and shortfalls of current distributed M&S technology to the emerging capabilities of DDS built around the IoT. Although some trial work has been conducted in this area, we propose a more focused examination of the potential of these new technologies and their applicability to current and future problems in distributed M&S. The Internet of Things (IoT) and its data communications mechanisms such as the Data Distribution System (DDS) share properties in common with distributed modeling and simulation (M&S) and its protocols such as the High Level Architecture (HLA) and the Test and Training Enabling Architecture (TENA). This paper proposes a framework based on the sensor use case for how the two communities of practice (CoP) can benefit from one another and achieve greater capability in practical distributed

  17. Rapid acceleration of outer radiation belt electrons associated with solar wind pressure pulse: Simulation study with Arase and Van Allen Probe observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hayashi, M.; Yoshizumi, M.; Saito, S.; Matsumoto, Y.; Kurita, S.; Teramoto, M.; Hori, T.; Matsuda, S.; Shoji, M.; Machida, S.; Amano, T.; Seki, K.; Higashio, N.; Mitani, T.; Takashima, T.; Kasahara, Y.; Kasaba, Y.; Yagitani, S.; Ishisaka, K.; Tsuchiya, F.; Kumamoto, A.; Matsuoka, A.; Shinohara, I.; Blake, J. B.; Fennell, J. F.; Claudepierre, S. G.

    2017-12-01

    Relativistic electron fluxes of the outer radiation belt rapidly change in response to solar wind variations. One of the shortest acceleration processes of electrons in the outer radiation belt is wave-particle interactions between drifting electrons and fast-mode waves induced by compression of the dayside magnetopause caused by interplanetary shocks. In order to investigate this process by a solar wind pressure pulse, we perform a code-coupling simulation using the GEMSIS-RB test particle simulation (Saito et al., 2010) and the GEMSIS-GM global MHD magnetosphere simulation (Matsumoto et al., 2010). As a case study, an interplanetary pressure pulse with the enhancement of 5 nPa is used as the up-stream condition. In the magnetosphere, the fast mode waves with the azimuthal electric field ( negative 𝐸𝜙 : |𝐸&;#120601;| 10 mV/m, azimuthal mode number : m ≤ 2) propagates from the dayside to nightside, interacting with electrons. From the simulation results, we derived effective acceleration model and condition : The electrons whose drift velocities vd ≥ (π/2)Vfast are accelerated efficiently. On December 20, 2016, the Arase (ERG) satellite was launched , allowing more accurate multi-point simultaneous observation with other satellites. We will compare our simulation results with observations from Arase and Van Allen Probes, and investigate the acceleration condition of relativistic electrons associated with storm sudden commencement (SSC).

  18. Turbomachinery computational fluid dynamics: asymptotes and paradigm shifts.

    PubMed

    Dawes, W N

    2007-10-15

    This paper reviews the development of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) specifically for turbomachinery simulations and with a particular focus on application to problems with complex geometry. The review is structured by considering this development as a series of paradigm shifts, followed by asymptotes. The original S1-S2 blade-blade-throughflow model is briefly described, followed by the development of two-dimensional then three-dimensional blade-blade analysis. This in turn evolved from inviscid to viscous analysis and then from steady to unsteady flow simulations. This development trajectory led over a surprisingly small number of years to an accepted approach-a 'CFD orthodoxy'. A very important current area of intense interest and activity in turbomachinery simulation is in accounting for real geometry effects, not just in the secondary air and turbine cooling systems but also associated with the primary path. The requirements here are threefold: capturing and representing these geometries in a computer model; making rapid design changes to these complex geometries; and managing the very large associated computational models on PC clusters. Accordingly, the challenges in the application of the current CFD orthodoxy to complex geometries are described in some detail. The main aim of this paper is to argue that the current CFD orthodoxy is on a new asymptote and is not in fact suited for application to complex geometries and that a paradigm shift must be sought. In particular, the new paradigm must be geometry centric and inherently parallel without serial bottlenecks. The main contribution of this paper is to describe such a potential paradigm shift, inspired by the animation industry, based on a fundamental shift in perspective from explicit to implicit geometry and then illustrate this with a number of applications to turbomachinery.

  19. Scaling, Similarity, and the Fourth Paradigm for Hydrology

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Peters-Lidard, Christa D.; Clark, Martyn; Samaniego, Luis; Verhoest, Niko E. C.; van Emmerik, Tim; Uijlenhoet, Remko; Achieng, Kevin; Franz, Trenton E.; Woods, Ross

    2017-01-01

    In this synthesis paper addressing hydrologic scaling and similarity, we posit that roadblocks in the search for universal laws of hydrology are hindered by our focus on computational simulation (the third paradigm), and assert that it is time for hydrology to embrace a fourth paradigm of data-intensive science. Advances in information-based hydrologic science, coupled with an explosion of hydrologic data and advances in parameter estimation and modelling, have laid the foundation for a data-driven framework for scrutinizing hydrological scaling and similarity hypotheses. We summarize important scaling and similarity concepts (hypotheses) that require testing, describe a mutual information framework for testing these hypotheses, describe boundary condition, state flux, and parameter data requirements across scales to support testing these hypotheses, and discuss some challenges to overcome while pursuing the fourth hydrological paradigm. We call upon the hydrologic sciences community to develop a focused effort towards adopting the fourth paradigm and apply this to outstanding challenges in scaling and similarity.

  20. Simulation prediction and experiment setup of vacuum laser acceleration at Brookhaven National Lab-Accelerator Test Facility

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shao, L.; Cline, D.; Ding, X.; Ho, Y. K.; Kong, Q.; Xu, J. J.; Pogorelsky, I.; Yakimenko, V.; Kusche, K.

    2013-02-01

    This paper presents the pre-experiment plan and prediction of the first stage of vacuum laser acceleration (VLA) collaborating by UCLA, Fudan University and ATF-BNL. This first stage experiment is a proof-of-principle to support our previously posted novel VLA theory. Simulations show that based on ATF's current experimental conditions the electron beam with initial energy of 15 MeV can get net energy gain from an intense CO2 laser beam. The difference in electron beam energy spread is observable by the ATF beam line diagnostics system. Further, this energy spread expansion effect increases along with an increase in laser intensity. The proposal has been approved by the ATF committee and the experiment will be our next project.

  1. Mixed-field GCR Simulations for Radiobiological Research using Ground Based Accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Myung-Hee Y.; Rusek, Adam; Cucinotta, Francis

    Space radiation is comprised of a large number of particle types and energies, which have differential ionization power from high energy protons to high charge and energy (HZE) particles and secondary neutrons produced by galactic cosmic rays (GCR). Ground based accelerators such as the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) are used to simulate space radiation for radiobiology research and dosimetry, electronics parts, and shielding testing using mono-energetic beams for single ion species. As a tool to support research on new risk assessment models, we have developed a stochastic model of heavy ion beams and space radiation effects, the GCR Event-based Risk Model computer code (GERMcode). For radiobiological research on mixed-field space radiation, a new GCR simulator at NSRL is proposed. The NSRL-GCR simulator, which implements the rapid switching mode and the higher energy beam extraction to 1.5 GeV/u, can integrate multiple ions into a single simulation to create GCR Z-spectrum in major energy bins. After considering the GCR environment and energy limitations of NSRL, a GCR reference field is proposed after extensive simulation studies using the GERMcode. The GCR reference field is shown to reproduce the Z and LET spectra of GCR behind shielding within 20 percents accuracy compared to simulated full GCR environments behind shielding. A major challenge for space radiobiology research is to consider chronic GCR exposure of up to 3-years in relation to simulations with cell and animal models of human risks. We discuss possible approaches to map important biological time scales in experimental models using ground-based simulation with extended exposure of up to a few weeks and fractionation approaches at a GCR simulator.

  2. Mixed-field GCR Simulations for Radiobiological Research Using Ground Based Accelerators

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kim, Myung-Hee Y.; Rusek, Adam; Cucinotta, Francis A.

    2014-01-01

    Space radiation is comprised of a large number of particle types and energies, which have differential ionization power from high energy protons to high charge and energy (HZE) particles and secondary neutrons produced by galactic cosmic rays (GCR). Ground based accelerators such as the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) are used to simulate space radiation for radiobiology research and dosimetry, electronics parts, and shielding testing using mono-energetic beams for single ion species. As a tool to support research on new risk assessment models, we have developed a stochastic model of heavy ion beams and space radiation effects, the GCR Event-based Risk Model computer code (GERMcode). For radiobiological research on mixed-field space radiation, a new GCR simulator at NSRL is proposed. The NSRL-GCR simulator, which implements the rapid switching mode and the higher energy beam extraction to 1.5 GeV/u, can integrate multiple ions into a single simulation to create GCR Z-spectrum in major energy bins. After considering the GCR environment and energy limitations of NSRL, a GCR reference field is proposed after extensive simulation studies using the GERMcode. The GCR reference field is shown to reproduce the Z and LET spectra of GCR behind shielding within 20% accuracy compared to simulated full GCR environments behind shielding. A major challenge for space radiobiology research is to consider chronic GCR exposure of up to 3-years in relation to simulations with cell and animal models of human risks. We discuss possible approaches to map important biological time scales in experimental models using ground-based simulation with extended exposure of up to a few weeks and fractionation approaches at a GCR simulator.

  3. GPU accelerated simulations of 3D deterministic particle transport using discrete ordinates method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gong, Chunye; Liu, Jie; Chi, Lihua; Huang, Haowei; Fang, Jingyue; Gong, Zhenghu

    2011-07-01

    Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), originally developed for real-time, high-definition 3D graphics in computer games, now provides great faculty in solving scientific applications. The basis of particle transport simulation is the time-dependent, multi-group, inhomogeneous Boltzmann transport equation. The numerical solution to the Boltzmann equation involves the discrete ordinates ( Sn) method and the procedure of source iteration. In this paper, we present a GPU accelerated simulation of one energy group time-independent deterministic discrete ordinates particle transport in 3D Cartesian geometry (Sweep3D). The performance of the GPU simulations are reported with the simulations of vacuum boundary condition. The discussion of the relative advantages and disadvantages of the GPU implementation, the simulation on multi GPUs, the programming effort and code portability are also reported. The results show that the overall performance speedup of one NVIDIA Tesla M2050 GPU ranges from 2.56 compared with one Intel Xeon X5670 chip to 8.14 compared with one Intel Core Q6600 chip for no flux fixup. The simulation with flux fixup on one M2050 is 1.23 times faster than on one X5670.

  4. Transfer of training and simulator qualification or myth and folklore in helicopter simulation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dohme, Jack

    1992-01-01

    Transfer of training studies at Fort Rucker using the backward-transfer paradigm have shown that existing flight simulators are not entirely adequate for meeting training requirements. Using an ab initio training research simulator, a simulation of the UH-1, training effectiveness ratios were developed. The data demonstrate it to be a cost-effective primary trainer. A simulator qualification method was suggested in which a combination of these transfer-of-training paradigms is used to determine overall simulator fidelity and training effectiveness.

  5. Ion Transport and Acceleration at Dipolarization Fronts: High-Resolution MHD/Test-Particle Simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ukhorskiy, A. Y.; Sorathia, K.; Merkin, V. G.; Sitnov, M. I.; Mitchell, D. G.; Wiltberger, M. J.; Lyon, J.

    2017-12-01

    Much of plasma heating and transport from the magnetotail into the inner magnetosphere occurs in the form of mesoscale discrete injections associated with sharp dipolarizations of magnetic field (dipolarization fronts). In this study we investigate the mechanisms of ion acceleration at dipolarization fronts in a high-resolution global magnetospheric MHD model (LFM). We use large-scale three-dimensional test-particle simulations (CHIMP) to address the following science questions: 1) what are the characteristic scales of dipolarization regions that can stably trap ions? 2) what role does the trapping play in ion transport and acceleration? 3) how does it depend on particle energy and distance from Earth? 4) to what extent ion acceleration is adiabatic? High-resolution LFM was run using idealized solar wind conditions with fixed nominal values of density and velocity and a southward IMF component of -5 nT. To simulate ion interaction with dipolarization fronts, a large ensemble of test particles distributed in energy, pitch-angle, and gyrophase was initialized inside one of the LFM dipolarization channels in the magnetotail. Full Lorentz ion trajectories were then computed over the course of the front inward propagation from the distance of 17 to 6 Earth radii. A large fraction of ions with different initial energies stayed in phase with the front over the entire distance. The effect of magnetic trapping at different energies was elucidated with a correlation of the ion guiding center and the ExB drift velocities. The role of trapping in ion energization was quantified by comparing the partial pressure of ions that exhibit trapping to the pressure of all trapped ions.

  6. GPU-Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulation to Study Liquid Crystal Phase Transition Using Coarse-Grained Gay-Berne Anisotropic Potential.

    PubMed

    Chen, Wenduo; Zhu, Youliang; Cui, Fengchao; Liu, Lunyang; Sun, Zhaoyan; Chen, Jizhong; Li, Yunqi

    2016-01-01

    Gay-Berne (GB) potential is regarded as an accurate model in the simulation of anisotropic particles, especially for liquid crystal (LC) mesogens. However, its computational complexity leads to an extremely time-consuming process for large systems. Here, we developed a GPU-accelerated molecular dynamics (MD) simulation with coarse-grained GB potential implemented in GALAMOST package to investigate the LC phase transitions for mesogens in small molecules, main-chain or side-chain polymers. For identical mesogens in three different molecules, on cooling from fully isotropic melts, the small molecules form a single-domain smectic-B phase, while the main-chain LC polymers prefer a single-domain nematic phase as a result of connective restraints in neighboring mesogens. The phase transition of side-chain LC polymers undergoes a two-step process: nucleation of nematic islands and formation of multi-domain nematic texture. The particular behavior originates in the fact that the rotational orientation of the mesogenes is hindered by the polymer backbones. Both the global distribution and the local orientation of mesogens are critical for the phase transition of anisotropic particles. Furthermore, compared with the MD simulation in LAMMPS, our GPU-accelerated code is about 4 times faster than the GPU version of LAMMPS and at least 200 times faster than the CPU version of LAMMPS. This study clearly shows that GPU-accelerated MD simulation with GB potential in GALAMOST can efficiently handle systems with anisotropic particles and interactions, and accurately explore phase differences originated from molecular structures.

  7. Simulation of 20-year deterioration of acrylic IOLs using severe accelerated deterioration tests.

    PubMed

    Kawai, Kenji; Hayakawa, Kenji; Suzuki, Takahiro

    2012-09-20

    To investigate IOL deterioration by conducting severe accelerated deterioration testing of acrylic IOLs. Department of Ophthalmology, Tokai University School of Medicine Methods: Severe accelerated deterioration tests performed on 7 types of acrylic IOLs simulated 20 years of deterioration. IOLs were placed in a screw tube bottle containing ultra-pure water and kept in an oven (100°C) for 115 days. Deterioration was determined based the outer appearance of the IOL in water and under air-dried conditions using an optical microscope. For accelerated deterioration of polymeric material, the elapse of 115 days was considered to be equivalent to 20 years based on the Arrhenius equation. All of the IOLs in the hydrophobic acrylic group except for AU6 showed glistening-like opacity. The entire optical sections of MA60BM and SA60AT became yellowish white in color. Hydrophilic acrylic IOL HP60M showed no opacity at any of the time points examined. Our data based on accelerated testing showed differences in water content to play a major role in transparency. There were differences in opacity among manufacturers. The method we have used for determining the relative time of IOL deterioration might not represent the exact clinical setting, but the appearance of the materials would presumably be very similar to that seen in patients.

  8. Using the Statecharts paradigm for simulation of patient flow in surgical care.

    PubMed

    Sobolev, Boris; Harel, David; Vasilakis, Christos; Levy, Adrian

    2008-03-01

    Computer simulation of patient flow has been used extensively to assess the impacts of changes in the management of surgical care. However, little research is available on the utility of existing modeling techniques. The purpose of this paper is to examine the capacity of Statecharts, a system of graphical specification, for constructing a discrete-event simulation model of the perioperative process. The Statecharts specification paradigm was originally developed for representing reactive systems by extending the formalism of finite-state machines through notions of hierarchy, parallelism, and event broadcasting. Hierarchy permits subordination between states so that one state may contain other states. Parallelism permits more than one state to be active at any given time. Broadcasting of events allows one state to detect changes in another state. In the context of the peri-operative process, hierarchy provides the means to describe steps within activities and to cluster related activities, parallelism provides the means to specify concurrent activities, and event broadcasting provides the means to trigger a series of actions in one activity according to transitions that occur in another activity. Combined with hierarchy and parallelism, event broadcasting offers a convenient way to describe the interaction of concurrent activities. We applied the Statecharts formalism to describe the progress of individual patients through surgical care as a series of asynchronous updates in patient records generated in reaction to events produced by parallel finite-state machines representing concurrent clinical and managerial activities. We conclude that Statecharts capture successfully the behavioral aspects of surgical care delivery by specifying permissible chronology of events, conditions, and actions.

  9. The joint center for energy storage research: A new paradigm for battery research and development

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

    Crabtree, George

    2015-03-30

    The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) seeks transformational change in transportation and the electricity grid driven by next generation high performance, low cost electricity storage. To pursue this transformative vision JCESR introduces a new paradigm for battery research: integrating discovery science, battery design, research prototyping and manufacturing collaboration in a single highly interactive organization. This new paradigm will accelerate the pace of discovery and innovation and reduce the time from conceptualization to commercialization. JCESR applies its new paradigm exclusively to beyond-lithium-ion batteries, a vast, rich and largely unexplored frontier. This review presents JCESR's motivation, vision, mission, intended outcomesmore » or legacies and first year accomplishments.« less

  10. Changing the Paradigm: Simulation, a Method of First Resort

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-09-01

    Environment xvii USAF United States Air Force USD(I) Under Secretary of Defense (Intelligence) V&V Verification and Validation VIC Vector -in...continued use throughout the operations research community, and is perhaps best known from Harvey Wagner’s seminal textbook Principles of Operations...pages 887 and 890 of Harvey Wagner’s seminal textbook Principles of Operations Research (Wagner, 1969). Why was this the paradigm of the time? Was

  11. Accelerating molecular dynamic simulation on the cell processor and Playstation 3.

    PubMed

    Luttmann, Edgar; Ensign, Daniel L; Vaidyanathan, Vishal; Houston, Mike; Rimon, Noam; Øland, Jeppe; Jayachandran, Guha; Friedrichs, Mark; Pande, Vijay S

    2009-01-30

    Implementation of molecular dynamics (MD) calculations on novel architectures will vastly increase its power to calculate the physical properties of complex systems. Herein, we detail algorithmic advances developed to accelerate MD simulations on the Cell processor, a commodity processor found in PlayStation 3 (PS3). In particular, we discuss issues regarding memory access versus computation and the types of calculations which are best suited for streaming processors such as the Cell, focusing on implicit solvation models. We conclude with a comparison of improved performance on the PS3's Cell processor over more traditional processors. (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  12. Direct and accelerated parameter mapping using the unscented Kalman filter.

    PubMed

    Zhao, Li; Feng, Xue; Meyer, Craig H

    2016-05-01

    To accelerate parameter mapping using a new paradigm that combines image reconstruction and model regression as a parameter state-tracking problem. In T2 mapping, the T2 map is first encoded in parameter space by multi-TE measurements and then encoded by Fourier transformation with readout/phase encoding gradients. Using a state transition function and a measurement function, the unscented Kalman filter can describe T2 mapping as a dynamic system and directly estimate the T2 map from the k-space data. The proposed method was validated with a numerical brain phantom and volunteer experiments with a multiple-contrast spin echo sequence. Its performance was compared with a conjugate-gradient nonlinear inversion method at undersampling factors of 2 to 8. An accelerated pulse sequence was developed based on this method to achieve prospective undersampling. Compared with the nonlinear inversion reconstruction, the proposed method had higher precision, improved structural similarity and reduced normalized root mean squared error, with acceleration factors up to 8 in numerical phantom and volunteer studies. This work describes a new perspective on parameter mapping by state tracking. The unscented Kalman filter provides a highly accelerated and efficient paradigm for T2 mapping. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  13. Perspectives on Emerging/Novel Computing Paradigms and Future Aerospace Workforce Environments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Noor, Ahmed K.

    2003-01-01

    The accelerating pace of the computing technology development shows no signs of abating. Computing power reaching 100 Tflop/s is likely to be reached by 2004 and Pflop/s (10(exp 15) Flop/s) by 2007. The fundamental physical limits of computation, including information storage limits, communication limits and computation rate limits will likely be reached by the middle of the present millennium. To overcome these limits, novel technologies and new computing paradigms will be developed. An attempt is made in this overview to put the diverse activities related to new computing-paradigms in perspective and to set the stage for the succeeding presentations. The presentation is divided into five parts. In the first part, a brief historical account is given of development of computer and networking technologies. The second part provides brief overviews of the three emerging computing paradigms grid, ubiquitous and autonomic computing. The third part lists future computing alternatives and the characteristics of future computing environment. The fourth part describes future aerospace workforce research, learning and design environments. The fifth part lists the objectives of the workshop and some of the sources of information on future computing paradigms.

  14. Acceleration and sensitivity analysis of lattice kinetic Monte Carlo simulations using parallel processing and rate constant rescaling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Núñez, M.; Robie, T.; Vlachos, D. G.

    2017-10-01

    Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulation provides insights into catalytic reactions unobtainable with either experiments or mean-field microkinetic models. Sensitivity analysis of KMC models assesses the robustness of the predictions to parametric perturbations and identifies rate determining steps in a chemical reaction network. Stiffness in the chemical reaction network, a ubiquitous feature, demands lengthy run times for KMC models and renders efficient sensitivity analysis based on the likelihood ratio method unusable. We address the challenge of efficiently conducting KMC simulations and performing accurate sensitivity analysis in systems with unknown time scales by employing two acceleration techniques: rate constant rescaling and parallel processing. We develop statistical criteria that ensure sufficient sampling of non-equilibrium steady state conditions. Our approach provides the twofold benefit of accelerating the simulation itself and enabling likelihood ratio sensitivity analysis, which provides further speedup relative to finite difference sensitivity analysis. As a result, the likelihood ratio method can be applied to real chemistry. We apply our methodology to the water-gas shift reaction on Pt(111).

  15. Start-to-end simulations for beam dynamics in the injector system of the KHIMA heavy ion accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Yumi; Kim, Eun-San; Kim, Chanmi; Bahng, Jungbae; Li, Zhihui; Hahn, Garam

    2017-07-01

    The Korea Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator (KHIMA) project has been developed for cancer therapy. The injector system consists of a low energy beam transport (LEBT) line, a radio-frequency quadrupole, a drift tube linac with two tanks, and a medium energy beam transport (MEBT) line with a charge stripper section. The injector system transports and accelerates the 12C4+ beam that is produced from electron cyclotron resonance ion source up to 7 MeV/u, respectively. The 12C6+ beam, which is transformed by a charge stripper from the 12C4+ beam, is injected into a synchrotron and accelerated up to 430 MeV/u. The lattice for the injector system was designed to optimize the beam parameters and to meet beam requirements for the synchrotron. We performed start-to-end simulations from the LEBT line to the MEBT line to confirm that the required design goals of the beam and injector system were met. Our simulation results indicate that our design achieves the required performance and a good transmission efficiency of 90%. We present the lattice design and beam dynamics for the injector system in the KHIMA project.

  16. On magnetic field amplification and particle acceleration near non-relativistic collisionless shocks: Particles in MHD Cells simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Casse, F.; van Marle, A. J.; Marcowith, A.

    2018-01-01

    We present simulations of magnetized astrophysical shocks taking into account the interplay between the thermal plasma of the shock and supra-thermal particles. Such interaction is depicted by combining a grid-based magneto-hydrodynamics description of the thermal fluid with particle-in-cell techniques devoted to the dynamics of supra-thermal particles. This approach, which incorporates the use of adaptive mesh refinement features, is potentially a key to simulate astrophysical systems on spatial scales that are beyond the reach of pure particle-in-cell simulations. We consider non-relativistic super-Alfénic shocks with various magnetic field obliquity. We recover all the features from previous studies when the magnetic field is parallel to the normal to the shock. In contrast with previous particle-in-cell and hybrid simulations, we find that particle acceleration and magnetic field amplification also occur when the magnetic field is oblique to the normal to the shock but on larger timescales than in the parallel case. We show that in our oblique shock simulations the streaming of supra-thermal particles induces a corrugation of the shock front. Such oscillations of both the shock front and the magnetic field then locally helps the particles to enter the upstream region and to initiate a non-resonant streaming instability and finally to induce diffuse particle acceleration.

  17. Accelerating Project and Process Improvement using Advanced Software Simulation Technology: From the Office to the Enterprise

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-04-29

    Technology: From the Office Larry Smith Software Technology Support Center to the Enterprise 517 SMXS/MXDEA 6022 Fir Avenue Hill AFB, UT 84056 801...2010 to 00-00-2010 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Accelerating Project and Process Improvement using Advanced Software Simulation Technology: From the Office to

  18. GPU-Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulation to Study Liquid Crystal Phase Transition Using Coarse-Grained Gay-Berne Anisotropic Potential

    PubMed Central

    Cui, Fengchao; Liu, Lunyang; Sun, Zhaoyan; Chen, Jizhong; Li, Yunqi

    2016-01-01

    Gay-Berne (GB) potential is regarded as an accurate model in the simulation of anisotropic particles, especially for liquid crystal (LC) mesogens. However, its computational complexity leads to an extremely time-consuming process for large systems. Here, we developed a GPU-accelerated molecular dynamics (MD) simulation with coarse-grained GB potential implemented in GALAMOST package to investigate the LC phase transitions for mesogens in small molecules, main-chain or side-chain polymers. For identical mesogens in three different molecules, on cooling from fully isotropic melts, the small molecules form a single-domain smectic-B phase, while the main-chain LC polymers prefer a single-domain nematic phase as a result of connective restraints in neighboring mesogens. The phase transition of side-chain LC polymers undergoes a two-step process: nucleation of nematic islands and formation of multi-domain nematic texture. The particular behavior originates in the fact that the rotational orientation of the mesogenes is hindered by the polymer backbones. Both the global distribution and the local orientation of mesogens are critical for the phase transition of anisotropic particles. Furthermore, compared with the MD simulation in LAMMPS, our GPU-accelerated code is about 4 times faster than the GPU version of LAMMPS and at least 200 times faster than the CPU version of LAMMPS. This study clearly shows that GPU-accelerated MD simulation with GB potential in GALAMOST can efficiently handle systems with anisotropic particles and interactions, and accurately explore phase differences originated from molecular structures. PMID:26986851

  19. Toward a new paradigm in hospital-based pediatric education: the development of an onsite simulator program.

    PubMed

    Weinstock, Peter H; Kappus, Liana J; Kleinman, Monica E; Grenier, Barry; Hickey, Patricia; Burns, Jeffrey P

    2005-11-01

    The low incidence of crises in pediatrics, coupled with logistic issues and restricted work hours for trainees, hinders opportunities for frequent practice of crisis management and teamwork skills. We hypothesized that a dedicated simulator suite contiguous to the intensive care unit (ICU) would enhance the frequency and breadth of critical-incident training for a range of clinicians. Descriptive study. A tertiary-care pediatric teaching hospital. A realistic pediatric simulator suite was constructed 100 feet from the ICU, at a total base cost of $290,000. The simulation room is an exact replica of an ICU bed space, incorporating high-fidelity mannequin simulators. To capture an even wider audience, a portable unit was also created. Leaders from seven departments-critical care, cardiac intensive care, emergency medicine, transport medicine, anesthesia, respiratory care, and general pediatrics-completed instructor training to ensure effective debriefing techniques. Pediatric staff, including 100% of critical care fellows, 86% of nurses, 90% of respiratory therapists, and 74% of pediatric house staff, participated in >1500 learning encounters per year. All individuals were trained during their normal workday in the hospital. Courses in crisis resource management, skills acquisition, annual review, orientation, and trauma management (1,116, 98, 90, 60, and 60 encounters per year, respectively) were all designed by a multidisciplinary committee to ensure goal-directed education to a range of audiences. Annual costs were on par with those at other centers (approximately 44 dollars per trainee encounter). An onsite and comprehensive simulation program can significantly increase the opportunities for clinicians from multiple disciplines, in the course of their daily routines, to repetitively practice responses to pediatric medical crises. After an initial capital investment, the training appears to be cost-effective. Hospital-based simulator suites may point the way

  20. Accelerated prompt gamma estimation for clinical proton therapy simulations.

    PubMed

    Huisman, Brent F B; Létang, J M; Testa, É; Sarrut, D

    2016-11-07

    There is interest in the particle therapy community in using prompt gammas (PGs), a natural byproduct of particle treatment, for range verification and eventually dose control. However, PG production is a rare process and therefore estimation of PGs exiting a patient during a proton treatment plan executed by a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation converges slowly. Recently, different approaches to accelerating the estimation of PG yield have been presented. Sterpin et al (2015 Phys. Med. Biol. 60 4915-46) described a fast analytic method, which is still sensitive to heterogeneities. El Kanawati et al (2015 Phys. Med. Biol. 60 8067-86) described a variance reduction method (pgTLE) that accelerates the PG estimation by precomputing PG production probabilities as a function of energy and target materials, but has as a drawback that the proposed method is limited to analytical phantoms. We present a two-stage variance reduction method, named voxelized pgTLE (vpgTLE), that extends pgTLE to voxelized volumes. As a preliminary step, PG production probabilities are precomputed once and stored in a database. In stage 1, we simulate the interactions between the treatment plan and the patient CT with low statistic MC to obtain the spatial and spectral distribution of the PGs. As primary particles are propagated throughout the patient CT, the PG yields are computed in each voxel from the initial database, as a function of the current energy of the primary, the material in the voxel and the step length. The result is a voxelized image of PG yield, normalized to a single primary. The second stage uses this intermediate PG image as a source to generate and propagate the number of PGs throughout the rest of the scene geometry, e.g. into a detection device, corresponding to the number of primaries desired. We achieved a gain of around 10 3 for both a geometrical heterogeneous phantom and a complete patient CT treatment plan with respect to analog MC, at a convergence level of 2% relative

  1. Accelerated prompt gamma estimation for clinical proton therapy simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huisman, Brent F. B.; Létang, J. M.; Testa, É.; Sarrut, D.

    2016-11-01

    There is interest in the particle therapy community in using prompt gammas (PGs), a natural byproduct of particle treatment, for range verification and eventually dose control. However, PG production is a rare process and therefore estimation of PGs exiting a patient during a proton treatment plan executed by a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation converges slowly. Recently, different approaches to accelerating the estimation of PG yield have been presented. Sterpin et al (2015 Phys. Med. Biol. 60 4915-46) described a fast analytic method, which is still sensitive to heterogeneities. El Kanawati et al (2015 Phys. Med. Biol. 60 8067-86) described a variance reduction method (pgTLE) that accelerates the PG estimation by precomputing PG production probabilities as a function of energy and target materials, but has as a drawback that the proposed method is limited to analytical phantoms. We present a two-stage variance reduction method, named voxelized pgTLE (vpgTLE), that extends pgTLE to voxelized volumes. As a preliminary step, PG production probabilities are precomputed once and stored in a database. In stage 1, we simulate the interactions between the treatment plan and the patient CT with low statistic MC to obtain the spatial and spectral distribution of the PGs. As primary particles are propagated throughout the patient CT, the PG yields are computed in each voxel from the initial database, as a function of the current energy of the primary, the material in the voxel and the step length. The result is a voxelized image of PG yield, normalized to a single primary. The second stage uses this intermediate PG image as a source to generate and propagate the number of PGs throughout the rest of the scene geometry, e.g. into a detection device, corresponding to the number of primaries desired. We achieved a gain of around 103 for both a geometrical heterogeneous phantom and a complete patient CT treatment plan with respect to analog MC, at a convergence level of 2% relative

  2. A linear accelerator for simulated micrometeors.

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Slattery, J. C.; Becker, D. G.; Hamermesh, B.; Roy, N. L.

    1973-01-01

    Review of the theory, design parameters, and construction details of a linear accelerator designed to impart meteoric velocities to charged microparticles in the 1- to 10-micron diameter range. The described linac is of the Sloan Lawrence type and, in a significant departure from conventional accelerator practice, is adapted to single particle operation by employing a square wave driving voltage with the frequency automatically adjusted from 12.5 to 125 kHz according to the variable velocity of each injected particle. Any output velocity up to about 30 km/sec can easily be selected, with a repetition rate of approximately two particles per minute.

  3. 2D hydrodynamic simulations of a variable length gas target for density down-ramp injection of electrons into a laser wakefield accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kononenko, O.; Lopes, N. C.; Cole, J. M.; Kamperidis, C.; Mangles, S. P. D.; Najmudin, Z.; Osterhoff, J.; Poder, K.; Rusby, D.; Symes, D. R.; Warwick, J.; Wood, J. C.; Palmer, C. A. J.

    2016-09-01

    In this work, two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic simulations of a variable length gas cell were performed using the open source fluid code OpenFOAM. The gas cell was designed to study controlled injection of electrons into a laser-driven wakefield at the Astra Gemini laser facility. The target consists of two compartments: an accelerator and an injector section connected via an aperture. A sharp transition between the peak and plateau density regions in the injector and accelerator compartments, respectively, was observed in simulations with various inlet pressures. The fluid simulations indicate that the length of the down-ramp connecting the sections depends on the aperture diameter, as does the density drop outside the entrance and the exit cones. Further studies showed, that increasing the inlet pressure leads to turbulence and strong fluctuations in density along the axial profile during target filling, and consequently, is expected to negatively impact the accelerator stability.

  4. Issues for Simulation of Galactic Cosmic Ray Exposures for Radiobiological Research at Ground-Based Accelerators

    PubMed Central

    Kim, Myung-Hee Y.; Rusek, Adam; Cucinotta, Francis A.

    2015-01-01

    For radiobiology research on the health risks of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) ground-based accelerators have been used with mono-energetic beams of single high charge, Z and energy, E (HZE) particles. In this paper, we consider the pros and cons of a GCR reference field at a particle accelerator. At the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL), we have proposed a GCR simulator, which implements a new rapid switching mode and higher energy beam extraction to 1.5 GeV/u, in order to integrate multiple ions into a single simulation within hours or longer for chronic exposures. After considering the GCR environment and energy limitations of NSRL, we performed extensive simulation studies using the stochastic transport code, GERMcode (GCR Event Risk Model) to define a GCR reference field using 9 HZE particle beam–energy combinations each with a unique absorber thickness to provide fragmentation and 10 or more energies of proton and 4He beams. The reference field is shown to well represent the charge dependence of GCR dose in several energy bins behind shielding compared to a simulated GCR environment. However, a more significant challenge for space radiobiology research is to consider chronic GCR exposure of up to 3 years in relation to simulations with animal models of human risks. We discuss issues in approaches to map important biological time scales in experimental models using ground-based simulation, with extended exposure of up to a few weeks using chronic or fractionation exposures. A kinetics model of HZE particle hit probabilities suggests that experimental simulations of several weeks will be needed to avoid high fluence rate artifacts, which places limitations on the experiments to be performed. Ultimately risk estimates are limited by theoretical understanding, and focus on improving knowledge of mechanisms and development of experimental models to improve this understanding should remain the highest priority for space radiobiology research. PMID:26090339

  5. An Adiabatic Phase-Matching Accelerator

    DOE PAGES

    Lemery, Francois; Floettmann, Klaus; Piot, Philippe; ...

    2018-05-25

    We present a general concept to accelerate non-relativistic charged particles. Our concept employs an adiabatically-tapered dielectric-lined waveguide which supports accelerating phase velocities for synchronous acceleration. We propose an ansatz for the transient field equations, show it satisfies Maxwell's equations under an adiabatic approximation and find excellent agreement with a finite-difference time-domain computer simulation. The fields were implemented into the particle-tracking program {\\sc astra} and we present beam dynamics results for an accelerating field with a 1-mm-wavelength and peak electric field of 100~MV/m. The numerical simulations indicate that amore » $$\\sim 200$$-keV electron beam can be accelerated to an energy of $$\\sim10$$~MeV over $$\\sim 10$$~cm. The novel scheme is also found to form electron beams with parameters of interest to a wide range of applications including, e.g., future advanced accelerators, and ultra-fast electron diffraction.« less

  6. An Adiabatic Phase-Matching Accelerator

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

    Lemery, Francois; Floettmann, Klaus; Piot, Philippe

    2017-12-22

    We present a general concept to accelerate non-relativistic charged particles. Our concept employs an adiabatically-tapered dielectric-lined waveguide which supports accelerating phase velocities for synchronous acceleration. We propose an ansatz for the transient field equations, show it satisfies Maxwell's equations under an adiabatic approximation and find excellent agreement with a finite-difference time-domain computer simulation. The fields were implemented into the particle-tracking program {\\sc astra} and we present beam dynamics results for an accelerating field with a 1-mm-wavelength and peak electric field of 100~MV/m. The numerical simulations indicate that amore » $$\\sim 200$$-keV electron beam can be accelerated to an energy of $$\\sim10$$~MeV over $$\\sim 10$$~cm. The novel scheme is also found to form electron beams with parameters of interest to a wide range of applications including, e.g., future advanced accelerators, and ultra-fast electron diffraction.« less

  7. Geomagnetic acceleration and rapid hydromagnetic wave dynamics in advanced numerical simulations of the geodynamo

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aubert, Julien

    2018-04-01

    Geomagnetic secular acceleration, the second temporal derivative of Earth's magnetic field, is a unique window on the dynamics taking place in Earth's core. In this study, the behaviours of the secular acceleration and underlying core dynamics are examined in new numerical simulations of the geodynamo that are dynamically closer to Earth's core conditions than earlier models. These new models reside on a theoretical path in parameter space connecting the region where most classical models are found to the natural conditions. The typical time scale for geomagnetic acceleration is found to be invariant along this path, at a value close to 10 years that matches Earth's core estimates. Despite this invariance, the spatio-temporal properties of secular acceleration show significant variability along the path, with an asymptotic regime of rapid rotation reached after 30% of this path (corresponding to a model Ekman number E = 3 - 7). In this regime, the energy of secular acceleration is entirely found at periods longer than that of planetary rotation, and the underlying flow acceleration patterns acquire a two-dimensional columnar structure representative of the rapid rotation limit. The spatial pattern of the secular acceleration at the core-mantle boundary shows significant localisation of energy within an equatorial belt. Rapid hydromagnetic wave dynamics is absent at the start of the path because of insufficient time scale separation with convective processes, weak forcing and excessive damping but can be clearly exhibited in the asymptotic regime. This study reports on ubiquitous axisymmetric geostrophic torsional waves of weak amplitude relatively to convective transport, and also stronger, laterally limited, quasi-geostrophic Alfvén waves propagating in the cylindrical radial direction from the tip of convective plumes towards the core-mantle boundary. In a system similar to Earth's core where the typical Alfvén velocity is significantly larger than the typical

  8. Geomagnetic acceleration and rapid hydromagnetic wave dynamics in advanced numerical simulations of the geodynamo

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aubert, Julien

    2018-07-01

    Geomagnetic secular acceleration, the second temporal derivative of the Earth's magnetic field, is a unique window on the dynamics taking place in the Earth's core. In this study, the behaviours of the secular acceleration and underlying core dynamics are examined in new numerical simulations of the geodynamo that are dynamically closer to the Earth's core conditions than earlier models. These new models reside on a theoretical path in parameter space connecting the region where most classical models are found to the natural conditions. The typical timescale for geomagnetic acceleration is found to be invariant along this path, at a value close to 10 yr that matches the Earth's core estimates. Despite this invariance, the spatio-temporal properties of secular acceleration show significant variability along the path, with an asymptotic regime of rapid rotation reached after 30 per cent of this path (corresponding to a model Ekman number E = 3 × 10-7). In this regime, the energy of secular acceleration is entirely found at periods longer than that of planetary rotation, and the underlying flow acceleration patterns acquire a 2-D columnar structure representative of the rapid rotation limit. The spatial pattern of the secular acceleration at the core-mantle boundary shows significant localization of energy within an equatorial belt. Rapid hydromagnetic wave dynamics is absent at the start of the path because of insufficient timescale separation with convective processes, weak forcing and excessive damping but can be clearly exhibited in the asymptotic regime. This study reports on ubiquitous axisymmetric geostrophic torsional waves of weak amplitude relatively to convective transport, and also stronger, laterally limited, quasi-geostrophic Alfvén waves propagating in the cylindrical radial direction from the tip of convective plumes towards the core-mantle boundary. In a system similar to the Earth's core where the typical Alfvén velocity is significantly larger

  9. A Numerical Method for the Simulation of Skew Brownian Motion and its Application to Diffusive Shock Acceleration of Charged Particles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McEvoy, Erica L.

    Stochastic differential equations are becoming a popular tool for modeling the transport and acceleration of cosmic rays in the heliosphere. In diffusive shock acceleration, cosmic rays diffuse across a region of discontinuity where the up- stream diffusion coefficient abruptly changes to the downstream value. Because the method of stochastic integration has not yet been developed to handle these types of discontinuities, I utilize methods and ideas from probability theory to develop a conceptual framework for the treatment of such discontinuities. Using this framework, I then produce some simple numerical algorithms that allow one to incorporate and simulate a variety of discontinuities (or boundary conditions) using stochastic integration. These algorithms were then modified to create a new algorithm which incorporates the discontinuous change in diffusion coefficient found in shock acceleration (known as Skew Brownian Motion). The originality of this algorithm lies in the fact that it is the first of its kind to be statistically exact, so that one obtains accuracy without the use of approximations (other than the machine precision error). I then apply this algorithm to model the problem of diffusive shock acceleration, modifying it to incorporate the additional effect of the discontinuous flow speed profile found at the shock. A steady-state solution is obtained that accurately simulates this phenomenon. This result represents a significant improvement over previous approximation algorithms, and will be useful for the simulation of discontinuous diffusion processes in other fields, such as biology and finance.

  10. BrainFrame: a node-level heterogeneous accelerator platform for neuron simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smaragdos, Georgios; Chatzikonstantis, Georgios; Kukreja, Rahul; Sidiropoulos, Harry; Rodopoulos, Dimitrios; Sourdis, Ioannis; Al-Ars, Zaid; Kachris, Christoforos; Soudris, Dimitrios; De Zeeuw, Chris I.; Strydis, Christos

    2017-12-01

    Objective. The advent of high-performance computing (HPC) in recent years has led to its increasing use in brain studies through computational models. The scale and complexity of such models are constantly increasing, leading to challenging computational requirements. Even though modern HPC platforms can often deal with such challenges, the vast diversity of the modeling field does not permit for a homogeneous acceleration platform to effectively address the complete array of modeling requirements. Approach. In this paper we propose and build BrainFrame, a heterogeneous acceleration platform that incorporates three distinct acceleration technologies, an Intel Xeon-Phi CPU, a NVidia GP-GPU and a Maxeler Dataflow Engine. The PyNN software framework is also integrated into the platform. As a challenging proof of concept, we analyze the performance of BrainFrame on different experiment instances of a state-of-the-art neuron model, representing the inferior-olivary nucleus using a biophysically-meaningful, extended Hodgkin-Huxley representation. The model instances take into account not only the neuronal-network dimensions but also different network-connectivity densities, which can drastically affect the workload’s performance characteristics. Main results. The combined use of different HPC technologies demonstrates that BrainFrame is better able to cope with the modeling diversity encountered in realistic experiments while at the same time running on significantly lower energy budgets. Our performance analysis clearly shows that the model directly affects performance and all three technologies are required to cope with all the model use cases. Significance. The BrainFrame framework is designed to transparently configure and select the appropriate back-end accelerator technology for use per simulation run. The PyNN integration provides a familiar bridge to the vast number of models already available. Additionally, it gives a clear roadmap for extending the platform

  11. BrainFrame: a node-level heterogeneous accelerator platform for neuron simulations.

    PubMed

    Smaragdos, Georgios; Chatzikonstantis, Georgios; Kukreja, Rahul; Sidiropoulos, Harry; Rodopoulos, Dimitrios; Sourdis, Ioannis; Al-Ars, Zaid; Kachris, Christoforos; Soudris, Dimitrios; De Zeeuw, Chris I; Strydis, Christos

    2017-12-01

    The advent of high-performance computing (HPC) in recent years has led to its increasing use in brain studies through computational models. The scale and complexity of such models are constantly increasing, leading to challenging computational requirements. Even though modern HPC platforms can often deal with such challenges, the vast diversity of the modeling field does not permit for a homogeneous acceleration platform to effectively address the complete array of modeling requirements. In this paper we propose and build BrainFrame, a heterogeneous acceleration platform that incorporates three distinct acceleration technologies, an Intel Xeon-Phi CPU, a NVidia GP-GPU and a Maxeler Dataflow Engine. The PyNN software framework is also integrated into the platform. As a challenging proof of concept, we analyze the performance of BrainFrame on different experiment instances of a state-of-the-art neuron model, representing the inferior-olivary nucleus using a biophysically-meaningful, extended Hodgkin-Huxley representation. The model instances take into account not only the neuronal-network dimensions but also different network-connectivity densities, which can drastically affect the workload's performance characteristics. The combined use of different HPC technologies demonstrates that BrainFrame is better able to cope with the modeling diversity encountered in realistic experiments while at the same time running on significantly lower energy budgets. Our performance analysis clearly shows that the model directly affects performance and all three technologies are required to cope with all the model use cases. The BrainFrame framework is designed to transparently configure and select the appropriate back-end accelerator technology for use per simulation run. The PyNN integration provides a familiar bridge to the vast number of models already available. Additionally, it gives a clear roadmap for extending the platform support beyond the proof of concept, with improved

  12. Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulations with the AMOEBA Polarizable Force Field on Graphics Processing Units

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    The accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) method has recently been shown to enhance the sampling of biomolecules in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, often by several orders of magnitude. Here, we describe an implementation of the aMD method for the OpenMM application layer that takes full advantage of graphics processing units (GPUs) computing. The aMD method is shown to work in combination with the AMOEBA polarizable force field (AMOEBA-aMD), allowing the simulation of long time-scale events with a polarizable force field. Benchmarks are provided to show that the AMOEBA-aMD method is efficiently implemented and produces accurate results in its standard parametrization. For the BPTI protein, we demonstrate that the protein structure described with AMOEBA remains stable even on the extended time scales accessed at high levels of accelerations. For the DNA repair metalloenzyme endonuclease IV, we show that the use of the AMOEBA force field is a significant improvement over fixed charged models for describing the enzyme active-site. The new AMOEBA-aMD method is publicly available (http://wiki.simtk.org/openmm/VirtualRepository) and promises to be interesting for studying complex systems that can benefit from both the use of a polarizable force field and enhanced sampling. PMID:24634618

  13. [A simulation study with finite element model on the unequal loss of peripheral vision caused by acceleration].

    PubMed

    Geng, Xiaoqi; Liu, Xiaoyu; Liu, Songyang; Xu, Yan; Zhao, Xianliang; Wang, Jie; Fan, Yubo

    2017-04-01

    An unequal loss of peripheral vision may happen with high sustaining multi-axis acceleration, leading to a great potential flight safety hazard. In the present research, finite element method was used to study the mechanism of unequal loss of peripheral vision. Firstly, a 3D geometric model of skull was developed based on the adult computer tomography (CT) images. The model of double eyes was created by mirroring with the previous right eye model. Then, the double-eye model was matched to the skull model, and fat was filled between eyeballs and skull. Acceleration loads of head-to-foot (G z ), right-to-left (G y ), chest-to-back (G x ) and multi-axis directions were applied to the current model to simulate dynamic response of retina by explicit dynamics solution. The results showed that the relative strain of double eyes was 25.7% under multi-axis acceleration load. Moreover, the strain distributions showed a significant difference among acceleration loaded in different directions. It indicated that a finite element model of double eyes was an effective means to study the mechanism of an unequal loss of peripheral vision at sustaining high multi-axis acceleration.

  14. Self-optimized construction of transition rate matrices from accelerated atomistic simulations with Bayesian uncertainty quantification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Swinburne, Thomas D.; Perez, Danny

    2018-05-01

    A massively parallel method to build large transition rate matrices from temperature-accelerated molecular dynamics trajectories is presented. Bayesian Markov model analysis is used to estimate the expected residence time in the known state space, providing crucial uncertainty quantification for higher-scale simulation schemes such as kinetic Monte Carlo or cluster dynamics. The estimators are additionally used to optimize where exploration is performed and the degree of temperature acceleration on the fly, giving an autonomous, optimal procedure to explore the state space of complex systems. The method is tested against exactly solvable models and used to explore the dynamics of C15 interstitial defects in iron. Our uncertainty quantification scheme allows for accurate modeling of the evolution of these defects over timescales of several seconds.

  15. Three-dimensional simulations of ion acceleration from a foil irradiated by a short-pulse laser.

    PubMed

    Pukhov, A

    2001-04-16

    Using 3D particle-in-cell simulations we study ion acceleration from a foil irradiated by a laser pulse at 10(19) W/cm(2) intensity. At the front side, the laser ponderomotive force pushes electrons inwards, thus creating the electric field by charge separation, which drags the ions. At the back side of the foil, the ions are accelerated by space charge of the hot electrons exiting into vacuum, as suggested by Hatchett et al. [Phys. Plasmas 7, 2076 (2000)]. The transport of hot electrons through the overdense plasma and their exit into vacuum are strongly affected by self-generated magnetic fields. The fast ions emerge from the rear surface in cones similar to those detected by Clark et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 670 (2000)].

  16. A traveling-wave forward coupler design for a new accelerating mode in a silicon woodpile accelerator

    DOE PAGES

    Wu, Ziran; Lee, Chunghun H.; Wootton, Kent P.; ...

    2016-03-01

    Silicon woodpile photonic crystals provide a base structure that can be used to build a three-dimensional dielectric waveguide system for high-gradient laser driven acceleration. A new woodpile waveguide design that hosts a phase synchronous, centrally confined accelerating mode is proposed. Comparing with previously discovered silicon woodpile accelerating modes, this mode shows advantages in terms of better electron beam loading and higher achievable acceleration gradient. Several traveling-wave coupler design schemes developed for multi-cell RF cavity accelerators are adapted to the woodpile power coupler design for this new accelerating mode. Design of a forward coupled, highly efficient silicon woodpile accelerator is achieved.more » Simulation shows high efficiency of over 75% of the drive laser power coupled to this fundamental accelerating mode, with less than 15% backward wave scattering. The estimated acceleration gradient, when the coupler structure is driven at the damage threshold fluence of silicon at its operating 1.506 μm wavelength, can reach 185 MV/m. Lastly, a 17-layer woodpile waveguide structure was successfully fabricated, and the measured bandgap is in excellent agreement with simulation.« less

  17. A traveling-wave forward coupler design for a new accelerating mode in a silicon woodpile accelerator

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

    Wu, Ziran; Lee, Chunghun H.; Wootton, Kent P.

    Silicon woodpile photonic crystals provide a base structure that can be used to build a three-dimensional dielectric waveguide system for high-gradient laser driven acceleration. A new woodpile waveguide design that hosts a phase synchronous, centrally confined accelerating mode is proposed. Comparing with previously discovered silicon woodpile accelerating modes, this mode shows advantages in terms of better electron beam loading and higher achievable acceleration gradient. Several traveling-wave coupler design schemes developed for multi-cell RF cavity accelerators are adapted to the woodpile power coupler design for this new accelerating mode. Design of a forward coupled, highly efficient silicon woodpile accelerator is achieved.more » Simulation shows high efficiency of over 75% of the drive laser power coupled to this fundamental accelerating mode, with less than 15% backward wave scattering. The estimated acceleration gradient, when the coupler structure is driven at the damage threshold fluence of silicon at its operating 1.506 μm wavelength, can reach 185 MV/m. Lastly, a 17-layer woodpile waveguide structure was successfully fabricated, and the measured bandgap is in excellent agreement with simulation.« less

  18. Essential energy space random walk via energy space metadynamics method to accelerate molecular dynamics simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Hongzhi; Min, Donghong; Liu, Yusong; Yang, Wei

    2007-09-01

    To overcome the possible pseudoergodicity problem, molecular dynamic simulation can be accelerated via the realization of an energy space random walk. To achieve this, a biased free energy function (BFEF) needs to be priori obtained. Although the quality of BFEF is essential for sampling efficiency, its generation is usually tedious and nontrivial. In this work, we present an energy space metadynamics algorithm to efficiently and robustly obtain BFEFs. Moreover, in order to deal with the associated diffusion sampling problem caused by the random walk in the total energy space, the idea in the original umbrella sampling method is generalized to be the random walk in the essential energy space, which only includes the energy terms determining the conformation of a region of interest. This essential energy space generalization allows the realization of efficient localized enhanced sampling and also offers the possibility of further sampling efficiency improvement when high frequency energy terms irrelevant to the target events are free of activation. The energy space metadynamics method and its generalization in the essential energy space for the molecular dynamics acceleration are demonstrated in the simulation of a pentanelike system, the blocked alanine dipeptide model, and the leucine model.

  19. Accelerated Monte Carlo Simulation on the Chemical Stage in Water Radiolysis using GPU

    PubMed Central

    Tian, Zhen; Jiang, Steve B.; Jia, Xun

    2018-01-01

    The accurate simulation of water radiolysis is an important step to understand the mechanisms of radiobiology and quantitatively test some hypotheses regarding radiobiological effects. However, the simulation of water radiolysis is highly time consuming, taking hours or even days to be completed by a conventional CPU processor. This time limitation hinders cell-level simulations for a number of research studies. We recently initiated efforts to develop gMicroMC, a GPU-based fast microscopic MC simulation package for water radiolysis. The first step of this project focused on accelerating the simulation of the chemical stage, the most time consuming stage in the entire water radiolysis process. A GPU-friendly parallelization strategy was designed to address the highly correlated many-body simulation problem caused by the mutual competitive chemical reactions between the radiolytic molecules. Two cases were tested, using a 750 keV electron and a 5 MeV proton incident in pure water, respectively. The time-dependent yields of all the radiolytic species during the chemical stage were used to evaluate the accuracy of the simulation. The relative differences between our simulation and the Geant4-DNA simulation were on average 5.3% and 4.4% for the two cases. Our package, executed on an Nvidia Titan black GPU card, successfully completed the chemical stage simulation of the two cases within 599.2 s and 489.0 s. As compared with Geant4-DNA that was executed on an Intel i7-5500U CPU processor and needed 28.6 h and 26.8 h for the two cases using a single CPU core, our package achieved a speed-up factor of 171.1-197.2. PMID:28323637

  20. Simulation of Fast Neutronics in an Accelerator-Driven Sub-Critical Core

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gwyn Rosaire, C.; Sattarov, Akhdiyor; McIntyre, Peter; Tsvetkov, Pavel

    2011-10-01

    Accelerator-driven subcritical fission in a molten salt core (ADSMS) is being developed as a technology for green nuclear power. ADSMS burns its fertile fuel to completion, it cannot melt down, and it destroys long-lived minor actinides. The ADSMS core consists of a vessel filled with a molten salt eutectic of UCl3 and NaCl. The fast neutronics of ADSMS makes possible two unique benefits: isobreeding, a steady-state equilibrium in which ^238U is bred to ^239Pu and the ^239Pu fissions, and destruction of minor actinides, in which fission of the intermediary nuclides dominates of breeding. Results of simulations of the fast neutronics in the ADSMS core will be presented.

  1. Mechanisms and Simulation of accelerated shrinkage of continental glaciers: a case study of Urumqi Glacier No. 1 Eastern Tianshan, Central Asia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Zhongqin; Ren, Jiawen; Li, Huilin; Wang, Puyu; Wang, Feiteng

    2016-04-01

    Similar to most mountain glaciers in the world, Urumqi Glacier No. 1 (UG1), the best observed glacier in China with continued glaciological and climatological monitoring records of longer than 50 years has experienced an accelerated recession during the past several decades. The purpose of this study is to investigate the acceleration of recession. By taking UG1 as an example, we analyze the generic mechanisms of acceleration of shrinkage of continental mountain glaciers. The results indicate that the acceleration of mass loss of UG1 commenced first in 1985 and second in 1996 and that the latter was more vigorous. The air temperature rises during melting season, the ice temperature augment of the glacier and the albedo reduction on the glacier surface are considered responsible for the accelerated recession. In addition, the simulations of the accelerated shrinkage of UG1 are introduced.

  2. 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.

  3. Assessment of the utility of contact-based restraints in accelerating the prediction of protein structure using molecular dynamics simulations.

    PubMed

    Raval, Alpan; Piana, Stefano; Eastwood, Michael P; Shaw, David E

    2016-01-01

    Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is a well-established tool for the computational study of protein structure and dynamics, but its application to the important problem of protein structure prediction remains challenging, in part because extremely long timescales can be required to reach the native structure. Here, we examine the extent to which the use of low-resolution information in the form of residue-residue contacts, which can often be inferred from bioinformatics or experimental studies, can accelerate the determination of protein structure in simulation. We incorporated sets of 62, 31, or 15 contact-based restraints in MD simulations of ubiquitin, a benchmark system known to fold to the native state on the millisecond timescale in unrestrained simulations. One-third of the restrained simulations folded to the native state within a few tens of microseconds-a speedup of over an order of magnitude compared with unrestrained simulations and a demonstration of the potential for limited amounts of structural information to accelerate structure determination. Almost all of the remaining ubiquitin simulations reached near-native conformations within a few tens of microseconds, but remained trapped there, apparently due to the restraints. We discuss potential methodological improvements that would facilitate escape from these near-native traps and allow more simulations to quickly reach the native state. Finally, using a target from the Critical Assessment of protein Structure Prediction (CASP) experiment, we show that distance restraints can improve simulation accuracy: In our simulations, restraints stabilized the native state of the protein, enabling a reasonable structural model to be inferred. © 2015 The Authors Protein Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Protein Society.

  4. Accelerated Monte Carlo simulation on the chemical stage in water radiolysis using GPU

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tian, Zhen; Jiang, Steve B.; Jia, Xun

    2017-04-01

    The accurate simulation of water radiolysis is an important step to understand the mechanisms of radiobiology and quantitatively test some hypotheses regarding radiobiological effects. However, the simulation of water radiolysis is highly time consuming, taking hours or even days to be completed by a conventional CPU processor. This time limitation hinders cell-level simulations for a number of research studies. We recently initiated efforts to develop gMicroMC, a GPU-based fast microscopic MC simulation package for water radiolysis. The first step of this project focused on accelerating the simulation of the chemical stage, the most time consuming stage in the entire water radiolysis process. A GPU-friendly parallelization strategy was designed to address the highly correlated many-body simulation problem caused by the mutual competitive chemical reactions between the radiolytic molecules. Two cases were tested, using a 750 keV electron and a 5 MeV proton incident in pure water, respectively. The time-dependent yields of all the radiolytic species during the chemical stage were used to evaluate the accuracy of the simulation. The relative differences between our simulation and the Geant4-DNA simulation were on average 5.3% and 4.4% for the two cases. Our package, executed on an Nvidia Titan black GPU card, successfully completed the chemical stage simulation of the two cases within 599.2 s and 489.0 s. As compared with Geant4-DNA that was executed on an Intel i7-5500U CPU processor and needed 28.6 h and 26.8 h for the two cases using a single CPU core, our package achieved a speed-up factor of 171.1-197.2.

  5. Accelerated Monte Carlo simulation on the chemical stage in water radiolysis using GPU.

    PubMed

    Tian, Zhen; Jiang, Steve B; Jia, Xun

    2017-04-21

    The accurate simulation of water radiolysis is an important step to understand the mechanisms of radiobiology and quantitatively test some hypotheses regarding radiobiological effects. However, the simulation of water radiolysis is highly time consuming, taking hours or even days to be completed by a conventional CPU processor. This time limitation hinders cell-level simulations for a number of research studies. We recently initiated efforts to develop gMicroMC, a GPU-based fast microscopic MC simulation package for water radiolysis. The first step of this project focused on accelerating the simulation of the chemical stage, the most time consuming stage in the entire water radiolysis process. A GPU-friendly parallelization strategy was designed to address the highly correlated many-body simulation problem caused by the mutual competitive chemical reactions between the radiolytic molecules. Two cases were tested, using a 750 keV electron and a 5 MeV proton incident in pure water, respectively. The time-dependent yields of all the radiolytic species during the chemical stage were used to evaluate the accuracy of the simulation. The relative differences between our simulation and the Geant4-DNA simulation were on average 5.3% and 4.4% for the two cases. Our package, executed on an Nvidia Titan black GPU card, successfully completed the chemical stage simulation of the two cases within 599.2 s and 489.0 s. As compared with Geant4-DNA that was executed on an Intel i7-5500U CPU processor and needed 28.6 h and 26.8 h for the two cases using a single CPU core, our package achieved a speed-up factor of 171.1-197.2.

  6. Direct Laser Acceleration in Laser Wakefield Accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shaw, J. L.; Froula, D. H.; Marsh, K. A.; Joshi, C.; Lemos, N.

    2017-10-01

    The direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) has been investigated. We show that when there is a significant overlap between the drive laser and the trapped electrons in a LWFA cavity, the accelerating electrons can gain energy from the DLA mechanism in addition to LWFA. The properties of the electron beams produced in a LWFA, where the electrons are injected by ionization injection, have been investigated using particle-in-cell (PIC) code simulations. Particle tracking was used to demonstrate the presence of DLA in LWFA. Further PIC simulations comparing LWFA with and without DLA show that the presence of DLA can lead to electron beams that have maximum energies that exceed the estimates given by the theory for the ideal blowout regime. The magnitude of the contribution of DLA to the energy gained by the electron was found to be on the order of the LWFA contribution. The presence of DLA in a LWFA can also lead to enhanced betatron oscillation amplitudes and increased divergence in the direction of the laser polarization. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.

  7. Cybermaterials: materials by design and accelerated insertion of materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xiong, Wei; Olson, Gregory B.

    2016-02-01

    Cybermaterials innovation entails an integration of Materials by Design and accelerated insertion of materials (AIM), which transfers studio ideation into industrial manufacturing. By assembling a hierarchical architecture of integrated computational materials design (ICMD) based on materials genomic fundamental databases, the ICMD mechanistic design models accelerate innovation. We here review progress in the development of linkage models of the process-structure-property-performance paradigm, as well as related design accelerating tools. Extending the materials development capability based on phase-level structural control requires more fundamental investment at the level of the Materials Genome, with focus on improving applicable parametric design models and constructing high-quality databases. Future opportunities in materials genomic research serving both Materials by Design and AIM are addressed.

  8. Accelerated rescaling of single Monte Carlo simulation runs with the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).

    PubMed

    Yang, Owen; Choi, Bernard

    2013-01-01

    To interpret fiber-based and camera-based measurements of remitted light from biological tissues, researchers typically use analytical models, such as the diffusion approximation to light transport theory, or stochastic models, such as Monte Carlo modeling. To achieve rapid (ideally real-time) measurement of tissue optical properties, especially in clinical situations, there is a critical need to accelerate Monte Carlo simulation runs. In this manuscript, we report on our approach using the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to accelerate rescaling of single Monte Carlo runs to calculate rapidly diffuse reflectance values for different sets of tissue optical properties. We selected MATLAB to enable non-specialists in C and CUDA-based programming to use the generated open-source code. We developed a software package with four abstraction layers. To calculate a set of diffuse reflectance values from a simulated tissue with homogeneous optical properties, our rescaling GPU-based approach achieves a reduction in computation time of several orders of magnitude as compared to other GPU-based approaches. Specifically, our GPU-based approach generated a diffuse reflectance value in 0.08ms. The transfer time from CPU to GPU memory currently is a limiting factor with GPU-based calculations. However, for calculation of multiple diffuse reflectance values, our GPU-based approach still can lead to processing that is ~3400 times faster than other GPU-based approaches.

  9. Design of four-beam IH-RFQ linear accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ikeda, Shota; Murata, Aki; Hayashizaki, Noriyosu

    2017-09-01

    The multi-beam acceleration method is an acceleration technique for low-energy high-intensity heavy ion beams, which involves accelerating multiple beams to decrease space charge effects, and then integrating these beams by a beam funneling system. At the Tokyo Institute of Technology a two beam IH-RFQ linear accelerator was developed using a two beam laser ion source with direct plasma injection scheme. This system accelerated a carbon ion beam with a current of 108 mA (54 mA/channel × 2) from 5 up to 60 keV/u. In order to demonstrate that a four-beam IH-RFQ linear accelerator is suitable for high-intensity heavy ion beam acceleration, we have been developing a four-beam prototype. A four-beam IH-RFQ linear accelerator consists of sixteen RFQ electrodes (4 × 4 set) with stem electrodes installed alternately on the upper and lower ridge electrodes. As a part of this development, we have designed a four-beam IH-RFQ linear accelerator using three dimensional electromagnetic simulation software and beam tracking simulation software. From these simulation results, we have designed the stem electrodes, the center plate and the side shells by evaluating the RF properties such as the resonance frequency, the power loss and the electric strength distribution between the RFQ electrodes.

  10. Synchronous acceleration with tapered dielectric-lined waveguides

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lemery, F.; Floettmann, K.; Piot, P.; Kärtner, F. X.; Aßmann, R.

    2018-05-01

    We present a general concept to accelerate nonrelativistic charged particles. Our concept employs an adiabatically-tapered dielectric-lined waveguide which supports accelerating phase velocities for synchronous acceleration. We propose an ansatz for the transient field equations, show it satisfies Maxwell's equations under an adiabatic approximation and find excellent agreement with a finite-difference time-domain computer simulation. The fields were implemented into the particle-tracking program astra and we present beam dynamics results for an accelerating field with a 1-mm-wavelength and peak electric field of 100 MV /m . Numerical simulations indicate that a ˜200 -keV electron beam can be accelerated to an energy of ˜10 MeV over ˜10 cm with parameters of interest to a wide range of applications including, e.g., future advanced accelerators, and ultra-fast electron diffraction.

  11. Ponderomotive Acceleration in Coronal Loops

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dahlburg, Russell B.; Laming, J. Martin; Taylor, Brian; Obenschain, Keith

    2017-08-01

    Ponderomotive acceleration has been asserted to be a cause of the First Ionization Potential (FIP) effect, the by now well known enhancement in abundance by a factor of 3-4 over photospheric values of elements in the solar corona with FIP less than about 10 eV. It is shown here by means of numerical simulations that ponderomotive acceleration occurs in solar coronal loops, with the appropriate magnitude and direction, as a ``byproduct'' of coronal heating. The numerical simulations are performed with the HYPERION code, which solves the fully compressible three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic equations including nonlinear thermal conduction and optically thin radiation. Numerical simulations of a coronal loops with an axial magnetic field from 0.005 Teslas to 0.02 Teslas and lengths from 25000 km to 75000 km are presented. In the simulations the footpoints of the axial loop magnetic field are convected by random, large-scale motions. There is a continuous formation and dissipation of field-aligned current sheets which act to heat the loop. As a consequence of coronal magnetic reconnection, small scale, high speed jets form. The familiar vortex quadrupoles form at reconnection sites. Between the magnetic footpoints and the corona the reconnection flow merges with the boundary flow. It is in this region that the ponderomotive acceleration occurs. Mirroring the character of the coronal reconnection, the ponderomotive acceleration is also found to be intermittent.

  12. A Hybrid Method for Accelerated Simulation of Coulomb Collisions in a Plasma

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

    Caflisch, R; Wang, C; Dimarco, G

    2007-10-09

    If the collisional time scale for Coulomb collisions is comparable to the characteristic time scales for a plasma, then simulation of Coulomb collisions may be important for computation of kinetic plasma dynamics. This can be a computational bottleneck because of the large number of simulated particles and collisions (or phase-space resolution requirements in continuum algorithms), as well as the wide range of collision rates over the velocity distribution function. This paper considers Monte Carlo simulation of Coulomb collisions using the binary collision models of Takizuka & Abe and Nanbu. It presents a hybrid method for accelerating the computation of Coulombmore » collisions. The hybrid method represents the velocity distribution function as a combination of a thermal component (a Maxwellian distribution) and a kinetic component (a set of discrete particles). Collisions between particles from the thermal component preserve the Maxwellian; collisions between particles from the kinetic component are performed using the method of or Nanbu. Collisions between the kinetic and thermal components are performed by sampling a particle from the thermal component and selecting a particle from the kinetic component. Particles are also transferred between the two components according to thermalization and dethermalization probabilities, which are functions of phase space.« less

  13. 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)…

  14. A divide-conquer-recombine algorithmic paradigm for large spatiotemporal quantum molecular dynamics simulations

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

    Shimojo, Fuyuki; Hattori, Shinnosuke; Department of Physics, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-8555

    We introduce an extension of the divide-and-conquer (DC) algorithmic paradigm called divide-conquer-recombine (DCR) to perform large quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) simulations on massively parallel supercomputers, in which interatomic forces are computed quantum mechanically in the framework of density functional theory (DFT). In DCR, the DC phase constructs globally informed, overlapping local-domain solutions, which in the recombine phase are synthesized into a global solution encompassing large spatiotemporal scales. For the DC phase, we design a lean divide-and-conquer (LDC) DFT algorithm, which significantly reduces the prefactor of the O(N) computational cost for N electrons by applying a density-adaptive boundary condition at themore » peripheries of the DC domains. Our globally scalable and locally efficient solver is based on a hybrid real-reciprocal space approach that combines: (1) a highly scalable real-space multigrid to represent the global charge density; and (2) a numerically efficient plane-wave basis for local electronic wave functions and charge density within each domain. Hybrid space-band decomposition is used to implement the LDC-DFT algorithm on parallel computers. A benchmark test on an IBM Blue Gene/Q computer exhibits an isogranular parallel efficiency of 0.984 on 786 432 cores for a 50.3 × 10{sup 6}-atom SiC system. As a test of production runs, LDC-DFT-based QMD simulation involving 16 661 atoms is performed on the Blue Gene/Q to study on-demand production of hydrogen gas from water using LiAl alloy particles. As an example of the recombine phase, LDC-DFT electronic structures are used as a basis set to describe global photoexcitation dynamics with nonadiabatic QMD (NAQMD) and kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) methods. The NAQMD simulations are based on the linear response time-dependent density functional theory to describe electronic excited states and a surface-hopping approach to describe transitions between the excited states. A

  15. Simulation of diatomic gas-wall interaction and accommodation coefficients for negative ion sources and accelerators.

    PubMed

    Sartori, E; Brescaccin, L; Serianni, G

    2016-02-01

    Particle-wall interactions determine in different ways the operating conditions of plasma sources, ion accelerators, and beams operating in vacuum. For instance, a contribution to gas heating is given by ion neutralization at walls; beam losses and stray particle production-detrimental for high current negative ion systems such as beam sources for fusion-are caused by collisional processes with residual gas, with the gas density profile that is determined by the scattering of neutral particles at the walls. This paper shows that Molecular Dynamics (MD) studies at the nano-scale can provide accommodation parameters for gas-wall interactions, such as the momentum accommodation coefficient and energy accommodation coefficient: in non-isothermal flows (such as the neutral gas in the accelerator, coming from the plasma source), these affect the gas density gradients and influence efficiency and losses in particular of negative ion accelerators. For ideal surfaces, the computation also provides the angular distribution of scattered particles. Classical MD method has been applied to the case of diatomic hydrogen molecules. Single collision events, against a frozen wall or a fully thermal lattice, have been simulated by using probe molecules. Different modelling approximations are compared.

  16. Simulation of diatomic gas-wall interaction and accommodation coefficients for negative ion sources and accelerators

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

    Sartori, E., E-mail: emanuele.sartori@igi.cnr.it; Serianni, G.; Brescaccin, L.

    2016-02-15

    Particle-wall interactions determine in different ways the operating conditions of plasma sources, ion accelerators, and beams operating in vacuum. For instance, a contribution to gas heating is given by ion neutralization at walls; beam losses and stray particle production—detrimental for high current negative ion systems such as beam sources for fusion—are caused by collisional processes with residual gas, with the gas density profile that is determined by the scattering of neutral particles at the walls. This paper shows that Molecular Dynamics (MD) studies at the nano-scale can provide accommodation parameters for gas-wall interactions, such as the momentum accommodation coefficient andmore » energy accommodation coefficient: in non-isothermal flows (such as the neutral gas in the accelerator, coming from the plasma source), these affect the gas density gradients and influence efficiency and losses in particular of negative ion accelerators. For ideal surfaces, the computation also provides the angular distribution of scattered particles. Classical MD method has been applied to the case of diatomic hydrogen molecules. Single collision events, against a frozen wall or a fully thermal lattice, have been simulated by using probe molecules. Different modelling approximations are compared.« less

  17. Fully accelerating quantum Monte Carlo simulations of real materials on GPU clusters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Esler, Kenneth

    2011-03-01

    Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) has proved to be an invaluable tool for predicting the properties of matter from fundamental principles, combining very high accuracy with extreme parallel scalability. By solving the many-body Schrödinger equation through a stochastic projection, it achieves greater accuracy than mean-field methods and better scaling with system size than quantum chemical methods, enabling scientific discovery across a broad spectrum of disciplines. In recent years, graphics processing units (GPUs) have provided a high-performance and low-cost new approach to scientific computing, and GPU-based supercomputers are now among the fastest in the world. The multiple forms of parallelism afforded by QMC algorithms make the method an ideal candidate for acceleration in the many-core paradigm. We present the results of porting the QMCPACK code to run on GPU clusters using the NVIDIA CUDA platform. Using mixed precision on GPUs and MPI for intercommunication, we observe typical full-application speedups of approximately 10x to 15x relative to quad-core CPUs alone, while reproducing the double-precision CPU results within statistical error. We discuss the algorithm modifications necessary to achieve good performance on this heterogeneous architecture and present the results of applying our code to molecules and bulk materials. Supported by the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DOE-DE-FG05-08OR23336 and by the NSF under No. 0904572.

  18. Magnetohydrodynamic simulation study of plasma jets and plasma-surface contact in coaxial plasma accelerators

    DOE PAGES

    Subramaniam, Vivek; Raja, Laxminarayan L.

    2017-06-13

    Recent experiments by Loebner et al. [IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 44, 1534 (2016)] studied the effect of a hypervelocity jet emanating from a coaxial plasma accelerator incident on target surfaces in an effort to mimic the transient loading created during edge localized mode disruption events in fusion plasmas. In this study, we present a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical model to simulate plasma jet formation and plasma-surface contact in this coaxial plasma accelerator experiment. The MHD system of equations is spatially discretized using a cell-centered finite volume formulation. The temporal discretization is performed using a fully implicit backward Euler scheme and themore » resultant stiff system of nonlinear equations is solved using the Newton method. The numerical model is employed to obtain some key insights into the physical processes responsible for the generation of extreme stagnation conditions on the target surfaces. Simulations of the plume (without the target plate) are performed to isolate and study phenomena such as the magnetic pinch effect that is responsible for launching pressure pulses into the jet free stream. The simulations also yield insights into the incipient conditions responsible for producing the pinch, such as the formation of conductive channels. The jet-target impact studies indicate the existence of two distinct stages involved in the plasma-surface interaction. A fast transient stage characterized by a thin normal shock transitions into a pseudo-steady stage that exhibits an extended oblique shock structure. A quadratic scaling of the pinch and stagnation conditions with the total current discharged between the electrodes is in qualitative agreement with the results obtained in the experiments. Finally, this also illustrates the dominant contribution of the magnetic pressure term in determining the magnitude of the quantities of interest.« less

  19. Magnetohydrodynamic simulation study of plasma jets and plasma-surface contact in coaxial plasma accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Subramaniam, Vivek; Raja, Laxminarayan L.

    2017-06-01

    Recent experiments by Loebner et al. [IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 44, 1534 (2016)] studied the effect of a hypervelocity jet emanating from a coaxial plasma accelerator incident on target surfaces in an effort to mimic the transient loading created during edge localized mode disruption events in fusion plasmas. In this paper, we present a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical model to simulate plasma jet formation and plasma-surface contact in this coaxial plasma accelerator experiment. The MHD system of equations is spatially discretized using a cell-centered finite volume formulation. The temporal discretization is performed using a fully implicit backward Euler scheme and the resultant stiff system of nonlinear equations is solved using the Newton method. The numerical model is employed to obtain some key insights into the physical processes responsible for the generation of extreme stagnation conditions on the target surfaces. Simulations of the plume (without the target plate) are performed to isolate and study phenomena such as the magnetic pinch effect that is responsible for launching pressure pulses into the jet free stream. The simulations also yield insights into the incipient conditions responsible for producing the pinch, such as the formation of conductive channels. The jet-target impact studies indicate the existence of two distinct stages involved in the plasma-surface interaction. A fast transient stage characterized by a thin normal shock transitions into a pseudo-steady stage that exhibits an extended oblique shock structure. A quadratic scaling of the pinch and stagnation conditions with the total current discharged between the electrodes is in qualitative agreement with the results obtained in the experiments. This also illustrates the dominant contribution of the magnetic pressure term in determining the magnitude of the quantities of interest.

  20. Magnetohydrodynamic simulation study of plasma jets and plasma-surface contact in coaxial plasma accelerators

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

    Subramaniam, Vivek; Raja, Laxminarayan L.

    Recent experiments by Loebner et al. [IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 44, 1534 (2016)] studied the effect of a hypervelocity jet emanating from a coaxial plasma accelerator incident on target surfaces in an effort to mimic the transient loading created during edge localized mode disruption events in fusion plasmas. In this study, we present a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical model to simulate plasma jet formation and plasma-surface contact in this coaxial plasma accelerator experiment. The MHD system of equations is spatially discretized using a cell-centered finite volume formulation. The temporal discretization is performed using a fully implicit backward Euler scheme and themore » resultant stiff system of nonlinear equations is solved using the Newton method. The numerical model is employed to obtain some key insights into the physical processes responsible for the generation of extreme stagnation conditions on the target surfaces. Simulations of the plume (without the target plate) are performed to isolate and study phenomena such as the magnetic pinch effect that is responsible for launching pressure pulses into the jet free stream. The simulations also yield insights into the incipient conditions responsible for producing the pinch, such as the formation of conductive channels. The jet-target impact studies indicate the existence of two distinct stages involved in the plasma-surface interaction. A fast transient stage characterized by a thin normal shock transitions into a pseudo-steady stage that exhibits an extended oblique shock structure. A quadratic scaling of the pinch and stagnation conditions with the total current discharged between the electrodes is in qualitative agreement with the results obtained in the experiments. Finally, this also illustrates the dominant contribution of the magnetic pressure term in determining the magnitude of the quantities of interest.« less

  1. Finite element simulation of structural performance on flexible pavements with stabilized base/treated subbase materials under accelerated loading : tech summary.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2011-12-01

    Accelerated pavement testing (APT) has been increasingly used by state highway agencies in recent years for evaluating pavement : design and performance through applying a simulative heavy vehicular load to the pavement section under controlled fi el...

  2. Cross-Paradigm Simulation Modeling: Challenges and Successes

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-12-01

    is also highlighted. 2.1 Discrete-Event Simulation Discrete-event simulation ( DES ) is a modeling method for stochastic, dynamic models where...which almost anything can be coded; models can be incredibly detailed. Most commercial DES software has a graphical interface which allows the user to...results. Although the above definition is the commonly accepted definition of DES , there are two different worldviews that dominate DES modeling today: a

  3. Modelling of proton acceleration in application to a ground level enhancement

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Afanasiev, A.; Vainio, R.; Rouillard, A. P.; Battarbee, M.; Aran, A.; Zucca, P.

    2018-06-01

    Context. The source of high-energy protons (above 500 MeV) responsible for ground level enhancements (GLEs) remains an open question in solar physics. One of the candidates is a shock wave driven by a coronal mass ejection, which is thought to accelerate particles via diffusive-shock acceleration. Aims: We perform physics-based simulations of proton acceleration using information on the shock and ambient plasma parameters derived from the observation of a real GLE event. We analyse the simulation results to find out which of the parameters are significant in controlling the acceleration efficiency and to get a better understanding of the conditions under which the shock can produce relativistic protons. Methods: We use the results of the recently developed technique to determine the shock and ambient plasma parameters, applied to the 17 May 2012 GLE event, and carry out proton acceleration simulations with the Coronal Shock Acceleration (CSA) model. Results: We performed proton acceleration simulations for nine individual magnetic field lines characterised by various plasma conditions. Analysis of the simulation results shows that the acceleration efficiency of the shock, i.e. its ability to accelerate particles to high energies, tends to be higher for those shock portions that are characterised by higher values of the scattering-centre compression ratio rc and/or the fast-mode Mach number MFM. At the same time, the acceleration efficiency can be strengthened by enhanced plasma density in the corresponding flux tube. The simulations show that protons can be accelerated to GLE energies in the shock portions characterised by the highest values of rc. Analysis of the delays between the flare onset and the production times of protons of 1 GV rigidity for different field lines in our simulations, and a subsequent comparison of those with the observed values indicate a possibility that quasi-perpendicular portions of the shock play the main role in producing relativistic

  4. In-Storage Embedded Accelerator for Sparse Pattern Processing

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-08-13

    performance of RAM disk. Since this configuration offloads most of processing onto the FPGA, the host software consists of only two threads for...more. Fig. 13. Document Processed vs CPU Threads Note that BlueDBM efficiency comes from our in-store processing paradigm that uses the FPGA...In-Storage Embedded Accelerator for Sparse Pattern Processing Sang-Woo Jun*, Huy T. Nguyen#, Vijay Gadepally#*, and Arvind* #MIT Lincoln Laboratory

  5. Intermittency of acceleration in isotropic turbulence.

    PubMed

    Lee, Sang; Lee, Changhoon

    2005-05-01

    The intermittency of acceleration is investigated for isotropic turbulence using direct numerical simulation. Intermittently found acceleration of large magnitude always points towards the rotational axis of a vortex filament, indicating that the intermittency of acceleration is associated with the rotational motion of the vortices that causes centripetal acceleration, which is consistent with the reported result for the near-wall turbulence. Furthermore, investigation on movements of such vortex filaments provides some insights into the dynamics of local dissipation, enstrophy and acceleration. Strong dissipation partially covering the edge of a vortex filament shows weak correlation with enstrophy, while it is strongly correlated with acceleration.

  6. Synchronous acceleration with tapered dielectric-lined waveguides

    DOE PAGES

    Lemery, Francois; Floettmann, Klaus; Piot, Philippe; ...

    2018-05-25

    Here, we present a general concept to accelerate non-relativistic charged particles. Our concept employs an adiabatically-tapered dielectric-lined waveguide which supports accelerating phase velocities for synchronous acceleration. We propose an ansatz for the transient field equations, show it satisfies Maxwell's equations under an adiabatic approximation and find excellent agreement with a finite-difference time-domain computer simulation. The fields were implemented into the particle-tracking program {\\sc astra} and we present beam dynamics results for an accelerating field with a 1-mm-wavelength and peak electric field of 100~MV/m. The numerical simulations indicate that amore » $$\\sim 200$$-keV electron beam can be accelerated to an energy of $$\\sim10$$~MeV over $$\\sim 10$$~cm. The novel scheme is also found to form electron beams with parameters of interest to a wide range of applications including, e.g., future advanced accelerators, and ultra-fast electron diffraction.« less

  7. Challenging the paradigm of singularity excision in gravitational collapse.

    PubMed

    Baiotti, Luca; Rezzolla, Luciano

    2006-10-06

    A paradigm deeply rooted in modern numerical relativity calculations prescribes the removal of those regions of the computational domain where a physical singularity may develop. We here challenge this paradigm by performing three-dimensional simulations of the collapse of uniformly rotating stars to black holes without excision. We show that this choice, combined with suitable gauge conditions and the use of minute numerical dissipation, improves dramatically the long-term stability of the evolutions. In turn, this allows for the calculation of the waveforms well beyond what was previously possible, providing information on the black-hole ringing and setting a new mark on the present knowledge of the gravitational-wave emission from the stellar collapse to a rotating black hole.

  8. Perceptual crossing: the simplest online paradigm

    PubMed Central

    Auvray, Malika; Rohde, Marieke

    2012-01-01

    Researchers in social cognition increasingly realize that many phenomena cannot be understood by investigating offline situations only, focusing on individual mechanisms and an observer perspective. There are processes of dynamic emergence specific to online situations, when two or more persons are engaged in a real-time interaction that are more than just the sum of the individual capacities or behaviors, and these require the study of online social interaction. Auvray et al.'s (2009) perceptual crossing paradigm offers possibly the simplest paradigm for studying such online interactions: two persons, a one-dimensional space, one bit of information, and a yes/no answer. This study has provoked a lot of resonance in different areas of research, including experimental psychology, computer/robot modeling, philosophy, psychopathology, and even in the field of design. In this article, we review and critically assess this body of literature. We give an overview of both behavioral experimental research and simulated agent modeling done using the perceptual crossing paradigm. We discuss different contexts in which work on perceptual crossing has been cited. This includes the controversy about the possible constitutive role of perceptual crossing for social cognition. We conclude with an outlook on future research possibilities, in particular those that could elucidate the link between online interaction dynamics and individual social cognition. PMID:22723776

  9. Electron acceleration via magnetic island coalescence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shinohara, I.; Yumura, T.; Tanaka, K. G.; Fujimoto, M.

    2009-06-01

    Electron acceleration via fast magnetic island coalescence that happens as quick magnetic reconnection triggering (QMRT) proceeds has been studied. We have carried out a three-dimensional full kinetic simulation of the Harris current sheet with a large enough simulation run for two magnetic islands coalescence. Due to the strong inductive electric field associated with the non-linear evolution of the lower-hybrid-drift instability and the magnetic island coalescence process observed in the non-linear stage of the collisionless tearing mode, electrons are significantly accelerated at around the neutral sheet and the subsequent X-line. The accelerated meandering electrons generated by the non-linear evolution of the lower-hybrid-drift instability are resulted in QMRT, and QMRT leads to fast magnetic island coalescence. As a whole, the reconnection triggering and its transition to large-scale structure work as an effective electron accelerator.

  10. Modular Energy-Efficient and Robust Paradigms for a Disaster-Recovery Process over Wireless Sensor Networks.

    PubMed

    Razaque, Abdul; Elleithy, Khaled

    2015-07-06

    Robust paradigms are a necessity, particularly for emerging wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. The lack of robust and efficient paradigms causes a reduction in the provision of quality of service (QoS) and additional energy consumption. In this paper, we introduce modular energy-efficient and robust paradigms that involve two archetypes: (1) the operational medium access control (O-MAC) hybrid protocol and (2) the pheromone termite (PT) model. The O-MAC protocol controls overhearing and congestion and increases the throughput, reduces the latency and extends the network lifetime. O-MAC uses an optimized data frame format that reduces the channel access time and provides faster data delivery over the medium. Furthermore, O-MAC uses a novel randomization function that avoids channel collisions. The PT model provides robust routing for single and multiple links and includes two new significant features: (1) determining the packet generation rate to avoid congestion and (2) pheromone sensitivity to determine the link capacity prior to sending the packets on each link. The state-of-the-art research in this work is based on improving both the QoS and energy efficiency. To determine the strength of O-MAC with the PT model; we have generated and simulated a disaster recovery scenario using a network simulator (ns-3.10) that monitors the activities of disaster recovery staff; hospital staff and disaster victims brought into the hospital. Moreover; the proposed paradigm can be used for general purpose applications. Finally; the QoS metrics of the O-MAC and PT paradigms are evaluated and compared with other known hybrid protocols involving the MAC and routing features. The simulation results indicate that O-MAC with PT produced better outcomes.

  11. Clarifying the Narrative Paradigm.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fisher, Walter R.

    1989-01-01

    Replies to Rowland's article (same issue) on Fisher's views of the narrative paradigm. Clarifies the narrative paradigm by discussing three senses in which "narration" can be understood, and by indicating what the narrative paradigm is not. (SR)

  12. Accelerated path integral methods for atomistic simulations at ultra-low temperatures

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

    Uhl, Felix, E-mail: felix.uhl@rub.de; Marx, Dominik; Ceriotti, Michele

    2016-08-07

    Path integral methods provide a rigorous and systematically convergent framework to include the quantum mechanical nature of atomic nuclei in the evaluation of the equilibrium properties of molecules, liquids, or solids at finite temperature. Such nuclear quantum effects are often significant for light nuclei already at room temperature, but become crucial at cryogenic temperatures such as those provided by superfluid helium as a solvent. Unfortunately, the cost of converged path integral simulations increases significantly upon lowering the temperature so that the computational burden of simulating matter at the typical superfluid helium temperatures becomes prohibitive. Here we investigate how accelerated pathmore » integral techniques based on colored noise generalized Langevin equations, in particular the so-called path integral generalized Langevin equation thermostat (PIGLET) variant, perform in this extreme quantum regime using as an example the quasi-rigid methane molecule and its highly fluxional protonated cousin, CH{sub 5}{sup +}. We show that the PIGLET technique gives a speedup of two orders of magnitude in the evaluation of structural observables and quantum kinetic energy at ultralow temperatures. Moreover, we computed the spatial spread of the quantum nuclei in CH{sub 4} to illustrate the limits of using such colored noise thermostats close to the many body quantum ground state.« less

  13. Numerical simulation of particle jet formation induced by shock wave acceleration in a Hele-Shaw cell

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Osnes, A. N.; Vartdal, M.; Pettersson Reif, B. A.

    2018-05-01

    The formation of jets from a shock-accelerated cylindrical shell of particles, confined in a Hele-Shaw cell, is studied by means of numerical simulation. A number of simulations have been performed, systematically varying the coupling between the gas and solid phases in an effort to identify the primary mechanism(s) responsible for jet formation. We find that coupling through drag is sufficient for the formation of jets. Including the effect of particle volume fraction and particle collisions did not alter the general behaviour, but had some influence on the length, spacing and number of jets. Furthermore, we find that the jet selection process starts early in the dispersal process, during the initial expansion of the particle layer.

  14. Improved Reweighting of Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulations for Free Energy Calculation.

    PubMed

    Miao, Yinglong; Sinko, William; Pierce, Levi; Bucher, Denis; Walker, Ross C; McCammon, J Andrew

    2014-07-08

    Accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) simulations greatly improve the efficiency of conventional molecular dynamics (cMD) for sampling biomolecular conformations, but they require proper reweighting for free energy calculation. In this work, we systematically compare the accuracy of different reweighting algorithms including the exponential average, Maclaurin series, and cumulant expansion on three model systems: alanine dipeptide, chignolin, and Trp-cage. Exponential average reweighting can recover the original free energy profiles easily only when the distribution of the boost potential is narrow (e.g., the range ≤20 k B T) as found in dihedral-boost aMD simulation of alanine dipeptide. In dual-boost aMD simulations of the studied systems, exponential average generally leads to high energetic fluctuations, largely due to the fact that the Boltzmann reweighting factors are dominated by a very few high boost potential frames. In comparison, reweighting based on Maclaurin series expansion (equivalent to cumulant expansion on the first order) greatly suppresses the energetic noise but often gives incorrect energy minimum positions and significant errors at the energy barriers (∼2-3 k B T). Finally, reweighting using cumulant expansion to the second order is able to recover the most accurate free energy profiles within statistical errors of ∼ k B T, particularly when the distribution of the boost potential exhibits low anharmonicity (i.e., near-Gaussian distribution), and should be of wide applicability. A toolkit of Python scripts for aMD reweighting "PyReweighting" is distributed free of charge at http://mccammon.ucsd.edu/computing/amdReweighting/.

  15. Improved Reweighting of Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulations for Free Energy Calculation

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    Accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) simulations greatly improve the efficiency of conventional molecular dynamics (cMD) for sampling biomolecular conformations, but they require proper reweighting for free energy calculation. In this work, we systematically compare the accuracy of different reweighting algorithms including the exponential average, Maclaurin series, and cumulant expansion on three model systems: alanine dipeptide, chignolin, and Trp-cage. Exponential average reweighting can recover the original free energy profiles easily only when the distribution of the boost potential is narrow (e.g., the range ≤20kBT) as found in dihedral-boost aMD simulation of alanine dipeptide. In dual-boost aMD simulations of the studied systems, exponential average generally leads to high energetic fluctuations, largely due to the fact that the Boltzmann reweighting factors are dominated by a very few high boost potential frames. In comparison, reweighting based on Maclaurin series expansion (equivalent to cumulant expansion on the first order) greatly suppresses the energetic noise but often gives incorrect energy minimum positions and significant errors at the energy barriers (∼2–3kBT). Finally, reweighting using cumulant expansion to the second order is able to recover the most accurate free energy profiles within statistical errors of ∼kBT, particularly when the distribution of the boost potential exhibits low anharmonicity (i.e., near-Gaussian distribution), and should be of wide applicability. A toolkit of Python scripts for aMD reweighting “PyReweighting” is distributed free of charge at http://mccammon.ucsd.edu/computing/amdReweighting/. PMID:25061441

  16. Angular velocities, angular accelerations, and coriolis accelerations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Graybiel, A.

    1975-01-01

    Weightlessness, rotating environment, and mathematical analysis of Coriolis acceleration is described for man's biological effective force environments. Effects on the vestibular system are summarized, including the end organs, functional neurology, and input-output relations. Ground-based studies in preparation for space missions are examined, including functional tests, provocative tests, adaptive capacity tests, simulation studies, and antimotion sickness.

  17. OpenMP-accelerated SWAT simulation using Intel C and FORTRAN compilers: Development and benchmark

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ki, Seo Jin; Sugimura, Tak; Kim, Albert S.

    2015-02-01

    We developed a practical method to accelerate execution of Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) using open (free) computational resources. The SWAT source code (rev 622) was recompiled using a non-commercial Intel FORTRAN compiler in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Linux platform, and newly named iOMP-SWAT in this study. GNU utilities of make, gprof, and diff were used to develop the iOMP-SWAT package, profile memory usage, and check identicalness of parallel and serial simulations. Among 302 SWAT subroutines, the slowest routines were identified using GNU gprof, and later modified using Open Multiple Processing (OpenMP) library in an 8-core shared memory system. In addition, a C wrapping function was used to rapidly set large arrays to zero by cross compiling with the original SWAT FORTRAN package. A universal speedup ratio of 2.3 was achieved using input data sets of a large number of hydrological response units. As we specifically focus on acceleration of a single SWAT run, the use of iOMP-SWAT for parameter calibrations will significantly improve the performance of SWAT optimization.

  18. Accelerating the Gillespie Exact Stochastic Simulation Algorithm using hybrid parallel execution on graphics processing units.

    PubMed

    Komarov, Ivan; D'Souza, Roshan M

    2012-01-01

    The Gillespie Stochastic Simulation Algorithm (GSSA) and its variants are cornerstone techniques to simulate reaction kinetics in situations where the concentration of the reactant is too low to allow deterministic techniques such as differential equations. The inherent limitations of the GSSA include the time required for executing a single run and the need for multiple runs for parameter sweep exercises due to the stochastic nature of the simulation. Even very efficient variants of GSSA are prohibitively expensive to compute and perform parameter sweeps. Here we present a novel variant of the exact GSSA that is amenable to acceleration by using graphics processing units (GPUs). We parallelize the execution of a single realization across threads in a warp (fine-grained parallelism). A warp is a collection of threads that are executed synchronously on a single multi-processor. Warps executing in parallel on different multi-processors (coarse-grained parallelism) simultaneously generate multiple trajectories. Novel data-structures and algorithms reduce memory traffic, which is the bottleneck in computing the GSSA. Our benchmarks show an 8×-120× performance gain over various state-of-the-art serial algorithms when simulating different types of models.

  19. Simulation study of the sub-terawatt laser wakefield acceleration operated in self-modulated regime

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hsieh, C.-Y.; Lin, M.-W.; Chen, S.-H.

    2018-02-01

    Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) can be accomplished by introducing a sub-terawatt (TW) laser pulse into a thin, high-density gas target. In this way, the self-focusing effect and the self-modulation that happened on the laser pulse produce a greatly enhanced laser peak intensity that can drive a nonlinear plasma wave to accelerate electrons. A particle-in-cell model is developed to study sub-TW LWFA when a 0.6-TW laser pulse interacts with a dense hydrogen plasma. Gas targets having a Gaussian density profile or a flat-top distribution are defined for investigating the properties of sub-TW LWFA when conducting with a gas jet or a gas cell. In addition to using 800-nm laser pulses, simulations are performed with 1030-nm laser pulses, as they represent a viable approach to realize the sub-TW LWFA driven by high-frequency, diode-pumped laser systems. The peak density which allows the laser peak power PL˜2 Pc r of self-focusing critical power is favourable for conducting sub-TW LWFA. Otherwise, an excessively high peak density can induce an undesired filament effect which rapidly disintegrates the laser field envelope and violates the process of plasma wave excitation. The plateau region of a flat-top density distribution allows the self-focusing and the self-modulation of the laser pulse to develop, from which well-established plasma bubbles can be produced to accelerate electrons. The process of electron injection is complicated in such high-density plasma conditions; however, increasing the length of the plateau region represents a straightforward method to realize the injection and acceleration of electrons within the first bubble, such that an improved LWFA performance can be accomplished.

  20. Particle Acceleration and Fractional Transport in Turbulent Reconnection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Isliker, Heinz; Pisokas, Theophilos; Vlahos, Loukas; Anastasiadis, Anastasios

    2017-11-01

    We consider a large-scale environment of turbulent reconnection that is fragmented into a number of randomly distributed unstable current sheets (UCSs), and we statistically analyze the acceleration of particles within this environment. We address two important cases of acceleration mechanisms when particles interact with the UCS: (a) electric field acceleration and (b) acceleration by reflection at contracting islands. Electrons and ions are accelerated very efficiently, attaining an energy distribution of power-law shape with an index 1-2, depending on the acceleration mechanism. The transport coefficients in energy space are estimated from test-particle simulation data, and we show that the classical Fokker-Planck (FP) equation fails to reproduce the simulation results when the transport coefficients are inserted into it and it is solved numerically. The cause for this failure is that the particles perform Levy flights in energy space, while the distributions of the energy increments exhibit power-law tails. We then use the fractional transport equation (FTE) derived by Isliker et al., whose parameters and the order of the fractional derivatives are inferred from the simulation data, and solving the FTE numerically, we show that the FTE successfully reproduces the kinetic energy distribution of the test particles. We discuss in detail the analysis of the simulation data and the criteria that allow one to judge the appropriateness of either an FTE or a classical FP equation as a transport model.

  1. Particle Acceleration and Fractional Transport in Turbulent Reconnection

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

    Isliker, Heinz; Pisokas, Theophilos; Vlahos, Loukas

    We consider a large-scale environment of turbulent reconnection that is fragmented into a number of randomly distributed unstable current sheets (UCSs), and we statistically analyze the acceleration of particles within this environment. We address two important cases of acceleration mechanisms when particles interact with the UCS: (a) electric field acceleration and (b) acceleration by reflection at contracting islands. Electrons and ions are accelerated very efficiently, attaining an energy distribution of power-law shape with an index 1–2, depending on the acceleration mechanism. The transport coefficients in energy space are estimated from test-particle simulation data, and we show that the classical Fokker–Planckmore » (FP) equation fails to reproduce the simulation results when the transport coefficients are inserted into it and it is solved numerically. The cause for this failure is that the particles perform Levy flights in energy space, while the distributions of the energy increments exhibit power-law tails. We then use the fractional transport equation (FTE) derived by Isliker et al., whose parameters and the order of the fractional derivatives are inferred from the simulation data, and solving the FTE numerically, we show that the FTE successfully reproduces the kinetic energy distribution of the test particles. We discuss in detail the analysis of the simulation data and the criteria that allow one to judge the appropriateness of either an FTE or a classical FP equation as a transport model.« less

  2. Simulation of Cascaded Longitudinal-Space-Charge Amplifier at the Fermilab Accelerator Science & Technology (Fast) Facility

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

    Halavanau, A.; Piot, P.

    2015-12-01

    Cascaded Longitudinal Space Charge Amplifiers (LSCA) have been proposed as a mechanism to generate density modulation over a board spectral range. The scheme has been recently demonstrated in the optical regime and has confirmed the production of broadband optical radiation. In this paper we investigate, via numerical simulations, the performance of a cascaded LSCA beamline at the Fermilab Accelerator Science & Technology (FAST) facility to produce broadband ultraviolet radiation. Our studies are carried out using elegant with included tree-based grid-less space charge algorithm.

  3. Accelerating the Design of Solar Thermal Fuel Materials through High Throughput Simulations

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

    Liu, Y; Grossman, JC

    2014-12-01

    Solar thermal fuels (STF) store the energy of sunlight, which can then be released later in the form of heat, offering an emission-free and renewable solution for both solar energy conversion and storage. However, this approach is currently limited by the lack of low-cost materials with high energy density and high stability. In this Letter, we present an ab initio high-throughput computational approach to accelerate the design process and allow for searches over a broad class of materials. The high-throughput screening platform we have developed can run through large numbers of molecules composed of earth-abundant elements and identifies possible metastablemore » structures of a given material. Corresponding isomerization enthalpies associated with the metastable structures are then computed. Using this high-throughput simulation approach, we have discovered molecular structures with high isomerization enthalpies that have the potential to be new candidates for high-energy density STF. We have also discovered physical principles to guide further STF materials design through structural analysis. More broadly, our results illustrate the potential of using high-throughput ab initio simulations to design materials that undergo targeted structural transitions.« less

  4. Accelerating the design of solar thermal fuel materials through high throughput simulations.

    PubMed

    Liu, Yun; Grossman, Jeffrey C

    2014-12-10

    Solar thermal fuels (STF) store the energy of sunlight, which can then be released later in the form of heat, offering an emission-free and renewable solution for both solar energy conversion and storage. However, this approach is currently limited by the lack of low-cost materials with high energy density and high stability. In this Letter, we present an ab initio high-throughput computational approach to accelerate the design process and allow for searches over a broad class of materials. The high-throughput screening platform we have developed can run through large numbers of molecules composed of earth-abundant elements and identifies possible metastable structures of a given material. Corresponding isomerization enthalpies associated with the metastable structures are then computed. Using this high-throughput simulation approach, we have discovered molecular structures with high isomerization enthalpies that have the potential to be new candidates for high-energy density STF. We have also discovered physical principles to guide further STF materials design through structural analysis. More broadly, our results illustrate the potential of using high-throughput ab initio simulations to design materials that undergo targeted structural transitions.

  5. Phantom-GRAPE: Numerical software library to accelerate collisionless N-body simulation with SIMD instruction set on x86 architecture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tanikawa, Ataru; Yoshikawa, Kohji; Nitadori, Keigo; Okamoto, Takashi

    2013-02-01

    We have developed a numerical software library for collisionless N-body simulations named "Phantom-GRAPE" which highly accelerates force calculations among particles by use of a new SIMD instruction set extension to the x86 architecture, Advanced Vector eXtensions (AVX), an enhanced version of the Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE). In our library, not only the Newton's forces, but also central forces with an arbitrary shape f(r), which has a finite cutoff radius rcut (i.e. f(r)=0 at r>rcut), can be quickly computed. In computing such central forces with an arbitrary force shape f(r), we refer to a pre-calculated look-up table. We also present a new scheme to create the look-up table whose binning is optimal to keep good accuracy in computing forces and whose size is small enough to avoid cache misses. Using an Intel Core i7-2600 processor, we measure the performance of our library for both of the Newton's forces and the arbitrarily shaped central forces. In the case of Newton's forces, we achieve 2×109 interactions per second with one processor core (or 75 GFLOPS if we count 38 operations per interaction), which is 20 times higher than the performance of an implementation without any explicit use of SIMD instructions, and 2 times than that with the SSE instructions. With four processor cores, we obtain the performance of 8×109 interactions per second (or 300 GFLOPS). In the case of the arbitrarily shaped central forces, we can calculate 1×109 and 4×109 interactions per second with one and four processor cores, respectively. The performance with one processor core is 6 times and 2 times higher than those of the implementations without any use of SIMD instructions and with the SSE instructions. These performances depend only weakly on the number of particles, irrespective of the force shape. It is good contrast with the fact that the performance of force calculations accelerated by graphics processing units (GPUs) depends strongly on the number of particles

  6. Particle Acceleration and Heating Processes at the Dayside Magnetopause

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berchem, J.; Lapenta, G.; Richard, R. L.; El-Alaoui, M.; Walker, R. J.; Schriver, D.

    2017-12-01

    It is well established that electrons and ions are accelerated and heated during magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause. However, a detailed description of the actual physical mechanisms driving these processes and where they are operating is still incomplete. Many basic mechanisms are known to accelerate particles, including resonant wave-particle interactions as well as stochastic, Fermi, and betatron acceleration. In addition, acceleration and heating processes can occur over different scales. We have carried out kinetic simulations to investigate the mechanisms by which electrons and ions are accelerated and heated at the dayside magnetopause. The simulation model uses the results of global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to set the initial state and the evolving boundary conditions of fully kinetic implicit particle-in-cell (iPic3D) simulations for different solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field conditions. This approach allows us to include large domains both in space and energy. In particular, some of these regional simulations include both the magnetopause and bow shock in the kinetic domain, encompassing range of particle energies from a few eV in the solar wind to keV in the magnetospheric boundary layer. We analyze the results of the iPic3D simulations by discussing wave spectra and particle velocity distribution functions observed in the different regions of the simulation domain, as well as using large-scale kinetic (LSK) computations to follow particles' time histories. We discuss the relevance of our results by comparing them with local observations by the MMS spacecraft.

  7. Monte Carlo simulation for Neptun 10 PC medical linear accelerator and calculations of output factor for electron beam

    PubMed Central

    Bahreyni Toossi, Mohammad Taghi; Momennezhad, Mehdi; Hashemi, Seyed Mohammad

    2012-01-01

    Aim Exact knowledge of dosimetric parameters is an essential pre-requisite of an effective treatment in radiotherapy. In order to fulfill this consideration, different techniques have been used, one of which is Monte Carlo simulation. Materials and methods This study used the MCNP-4Cb to simulate electron beams from Neptun 10 PC medical linear accelerator. Output factors for 6, 8 and 10 MeV electrons applied to eleven different conventional fields were both measured and calculated. Results The measurements were carried out by a Wellhofler-Scanditronix dose scanning system. Our findings revealed that output factors acquired by MCNP-4C simulation and the corresponding values obtained by direct measurements are in a very good agreement. Conclusion In general, very good consistency of simulated and measured results is a good proof that the goal of this work has been accomplished. PMID:24377010

  8. The Role of Substorms in Storm-time Particle Acceleration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Daglis, Ioannis A.; Kamide, Yohsuke

    The terrestrial magnetosphere has the capability to rapidly accelerate charged particles up to very high energies over relatively short times and distances. Acceleration of charged particles is an essential ingredient of both magnetospheric substorms and space storms. In the case of space storms, the ultimate result is a bulk flow of electric charge through the inner magnetosphere, commonly known as the ring current. Syun-Ichi Akasofu and Sydney Chapman, two of the early pioneers in space physics, postulated that the bulk acceleration of particles during storms is rather the additive result of partial acceleration during consecutive substorms. This paradigm has been heavily disputed during recent years. The new case is that substorm acceleration may be sufficient to produce individual high-energy particles that create auroras and possibly harm spacecraft, but it cannot produce the massive acceleration that constitutes a storm. This paper is a critical review of the long-standing issue of the storm-substorm relationship, or—in other words—the capability or necessity of substorms in facilitating or driving the build-up of the storm-time ring current. We mainly address the physical effect itself, i.e. the bulk acceleration of particles, and not the diagnostic of the process, i.e. the Dst index, which is rather often the case. Within the framework of particle acceleration, substorms retain their storm-importance due to the potential of substorm-induced impulsive electric fields in obtaining the massive ion acceleration needed for the storm-time ring current buildup.

  9. Modular Energy-Efficient and Robust Paradigms for a Disaster-Recovery Process over Wireless Sensor Networks

    PubMed Central

    Razaque, Abdul; Elleithy, Khaled

    2015-01-01

    Robust paradigms are a necessity, particularly for emerging wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. The lack of robust and efficient paradigms causes a reduction in the provision of quality of service (QoS) and additional energy consumption. In this paper, we introduce modular energy-efficient and robust paradigms that involve two archetypes: (1) the operational medium access control (O-MAC) hybrid protocol and (2) the pheromone termite (PT) model. The O-MAC protocol controls overhearing and congestion and increases the throughput, reduces the latency and extends the network lifetime. O-MAC uses an optimized data frame format that reduces the channel access time and provides faster data delivery over the medium. Furthermore, O-MAC uses a novel randomization function that avoids channel collisions. The PT model provides robust routing for single and multiple links and includes two new significant features: (1) determining the packet generation rate to avoid congestion and (2) pheromone sensitivity to determine the link capacity prior to sending the packets on each link. The state-of-the-art research in this work is based on improving both the QoS and energy efficiency. To determine the strength of O-MAC with the PT model; we have generated and simulated a disaster recovery scenario using a network simulator (ns-3.10) that monitors the activities of disaster recovery staff; hospital staff and disaster victims brought into the hospital. Moreover; the proposed paradigm can be used for general purpose applications. Finally; the QoS metrics of the O-MAC and PT paradigms are evaluated and compared with other known hybrid protocols involving the MAC and routing features. The simulation results indicate that O-MAC with PT produced better outcomes. PMID:26153768

  10. Simulation study of accelerator based quasi-mono-energetic epithermal neutron beams for BNCT.

    PubMed

    Adib, M; Habib, N; Bashter, I I; El-Mesiry, M S; Mansy, M S

    2016-01-01

    Filtered neutron techniques were applied to produce quasi-mono-energetic neutron beams in the energy range of 1.5-7.5 keV at the accelerator port using the generated neutron spectrum from a Li (p, n) Be reaction. A simulation study was performed to characterize the filter components and transmitted beam lines. The feature of the filtered beams is detailed in terms of optimal thickness of the primary and additive components. A computer code named "QMNB-AS" was developed to carry out the required calculations. The filtered neutron beams had high purity and intensity with low contamination from the accompanying thermal, fast neutrons and γ-rays. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Electrostatic design and beam transport for a folded tandem electrostatic quadrupole accelerator facility for accelerator-based boron neutron capture therapy.

    PubMed

    Vento, V Thatar; Bergueiro, J; Cartelli, D; Valda, A A; Kreiner, A J

    2011-12-01

    Within the frame of an ongoing project to develop a folded Tandem-Electrostatic-Quadrupole (TESQ) accelerator facility for Accelerator-Based Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (AB-BNCT), we discuss here the electrostatic design of the machine, including the accelerator tubes with electrostatic quadrupoles and the simulations for the transport and acceleration of a high intensity beam. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Beam-driven acceleration in ultra-dense plasma media

    DOE PAGES

    Shin, Young-Min

    2014-09-15

    Accelerating parameters of beam-driven wakefield acceleration in an extremely dense plasma column has been analyzed with the dynamic framed particle-in-cell plasma simulator, and compared with analytic calculations. In the model, a witness beam undergoes a TeV/m scale alternating potential gradient excited by a micro-bunched drive beam in a 10 25 m -3 and 1.6 x 10 28 m -3 plasma column. The acceleration gradient, energy gain, and transformer ratio have been extensively studied in quasi-linear, linear-, and blowout-regimes. The simulation analysis indicated that in the beam-driven acceleration system a hollow plasma channel offers 20 % higher acceleration gradient by enlargingmore » the channel radius (r) from 0.2 Ap to 0.6 .Ap in a blowout regime. This paper suggests a feasibility of TeV/m scale acceleration with a hollow crystalline structure (e.g. nanotubes) of high electron plasma density.« less

  13. Experimental signatures of direct-laser-acceleration-assisted laser wakefield acceleration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shaw, J. L.; Lemos, N.; Marsh, K. A.; Froula, D. H.; Joshi, C.

    2018-04-01

    The direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) operating in the forced or quasi-blowout regimes has been investigated through experiment and simulation. When there is a significant overlap between the trapped electrons and the drive laser in a LWFA cavity, the resulting electrons can gain energy from both the LWFA and the DLA mechanisms. Experimental work investigates the properties of the electron beams produced in a LWFA with ionization injection by dispersing those beams in the direction perpendicular to the laser polarization. These electron beams show certain spectral features that are characteristic of DLA. These characteristic features are reproduced using particle-in-cell simulations, where particle tracking was used to elucidate the roles of LWFA and DLA to the energy gain of the electrons in this experimental regime and to demonstrate that such spectral features are definitive signatures of the presence of DLA in LWFA.

  14. Magnetogasdynamic compression of a coaxial plasma accelerator flow for micrometeoroid simulation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Igenbergs, E. B.; Shriver, E. L.

    1974-01-01

    A new configuration of a coaxial plasma accelerator with self-energized magnetic compressor coil attached is described. It is shown that the circuit may be treated theoretically by analyzing an equivalent circuit mesh. The results obtained from the theoretical analysis compare favorably with the results measured experimentally. Using this accelerator configuration, glass beads of 125 micron diameter were accelerated to velocities as high as 11 kilometers per second, while 700 micron diameter glass beads were accelerated to velocities as high as 5 kilometers per second. The velocities are within the hypervelocity regime of meteoroids.

  15. Simulated Prompt Acceleration of Multi-MeV Electrons by the 17 March 2015 Interplanetary Shock

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hudson, Mary; Jaynes, Allison; Kress, Brian; Li, Zhao; Patel, Maulik; Shen, Xiao-Chen; Thaller, Scott; Wiltberger, Michael; Wygant, John

    2017-10-01

    Prompt enhancement of relativistic electron flux at L = 3-5 has been reported from Van Allen Probes Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT) measurements associated with the 17 March 2015 interplanetary shock compression of the dayside magnetosphere. Acceleration by ˜1 MeV is inferred on less than a drift timescale as seen in prior shock compression events, which launch a magnetosonic azimuthal electric field impulse tailward. This impulse propagates from the dayside around the flanks accelerating electrons in drift resonance at the dusk flank. Such longitudinally localized acceleration events produce a drift echo signature which was seen at >1 MeV energy on both Van Allen Probe spacecraft, with sustained observations by Probe B outbound at L = 5 at 2100 MLT at the time of impulse arrival, measured by the Electric Fields and Waves instrument. MHD test particle simulations are presented which reproduce drift echo features observed in the REPT measurements at Probe B, including the energy and pitch angle dependence of drift echoes observed. While the flux enhancement was short lived for this event due to subsequent inward motion of the magnetopause, stronger events with larger electric field impulses, as observed in March 1991 and the Halloween 2003 storm, produce enhancements which can be quantified by the inward radial transport and energization determined by the induction electric field resulting from dayside compression.

  16. Vertical accelerator device to apply loads simulating blast environments in the military to human surrogates.

    PubMed

    Yoganandan, Narayan; Pintar, Frank A; Schlick, Michael; Humm, John R; Voo, Liming; Merkle, Andrew; Kleinberger, Michael

    2015-09-18

    The objective of the study was to develop a simple device, Vertical accelerator (Vertac), to apply vertical impact loads to Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) or dummy surrogates because injuries sustained in military conflicts are associated with this vector; example, under-body blasts from explosive devices/events. The two-part mechanically controlled device consisted of load-application and load-receiving sections connected by a lever arm. The former section incorporated a falling weight to impact one end of the lever arm inducing a reaction at the other/load-receiving end. The "launch-plate" on this end of the arm applied the vertical impact load/acceleration pulse under different initial conditions to biological/physical surrogates, attached to second section. It is possible to induce different acceleration pulses by using varying energy absorbing materials and controlling drop height and weight. The second section of Vertac had the flexibility to accommodate different body regions for vertical loading experiments. The device is simple and inexpensive. It has the ability to control pulses and flexibility to accommodate different sub-systems/components of human surrogates. It has the capability to incorporate preloads and military personal protective equipment (e.g., combat helmet). It can simulate vehicle roofs. The device allows for intermittent specimen evaluations (x-ray and palpation, without changing specimen alignment). The two free but interconnected sections can be used to advance safety to military personnel. Examples demonstrating feasibilities of the Vertac device to apply vertical impact accelerations using PMHS head-neck preparations with helmet and booted Hybrid III dummy lower leg preparations under in-contact and launch-type impact experiments are presented. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  17. Coupling and decoupling of the accelerating units for pulsed synchronous linear accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shen, Yi; Liu, Yi; Ye, Mao; Zhang, Huang; Wang, Wei; Xia, Liansheng; Wang, Zhiwen; Yang, Chao; Shi, Jinshui; Zhang, Linwen; Deng, Jianjun

    2017-12-01

    A pulsed synchronous linear accelerator (PSLA), based on the solid-state pulse forming line, photoconductive semiconductor switch, and high gradient insulator technologies, is a novel linear accelerator. During the prototype PSLA commissioning, the energy gain of proton beams was found to be much lower than expected. In this paper, the degradation of the energy gain is explained by the circuit and cavity coupling effect of the accelerating units. The coupling effects of accelerating units are studied, and the circuit topologies of these two kinds of coupling effects are presented. Two methods utilizing inductance and membrane isolations, respectively, are proposed to reduce the circuit coupling effects. The effectiveness of the membrane isolation method is also supported by simulations. The decoupling efficiency of the metal drift tube is also researched. We carried out the experiments on circuit decoupling of the multiple accelerating cavity. The result shows that both circuit decoupling methods could increase the normalized voltage.

  18. Proposal of a critical test of the Navier-Stokes-Fourier paradigm for compressible fluid continua.

    PubMed

    Brenner, Howard

    2013-01-01

    A critical, albeit simple experimental and/or molecular-dynamic (MD) simulation test is proposed whose outcome would, in principle, establish the viability of the Navier-Stokes-Fourier (NSF) equations for compressible fluid continua. The latter equation set, despite its longevity as constituting the fundamental paradigm of continuum fluid mechanics, has recently been criticized on the basis of its failure to properly incorporate volume transport phenomena-as embodied in the proposed bivelocity paradigm [H. Brenner, Int. J. Eng. Sci. 54, 67 (2012)]-into its formulation. Were the experimental or simulation results found to accord, even only qualitatively, with bivelocity predictions, the temperature distribution in a gas-filled, thermodynamically and mechanically isolated circular cylinder undergoing steady rigid-body rotation in an inertial reference frame would not be uniform; rather, the temperature would be higher at the cylinder wall than along the axis of rotation. This radial temperature nonuniformity contrasts with the uniformity of the temperature predicted by the NSF paradigm for these same circumstances. Easily attainable rates of rotation in centrifuges and readily available tools for measuring the expected temperature differences render experimental execution of the proposed scheme straightforward in principle. As such, measurement-via experiment or MD simulation-of, say, the temperature difference ΔT between the gas at the wall and along the axis of rotation would provide quantitative tests of both the NSF and bivelocity hydrodynamic models, whose respective solutions for the stated set of circumstances are derived in this paper. Independently of the correctness of the bivelocity model, any temperature difference observed during the proposed experiment or simulation, irrespective of magnitude, would preclude the possibility of the NSF paradigm being correct for fluid continua, except for incompressible flows.

  19. Modeling laser-plasma acceleration in the laboratory frame

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

    None

    2011-01-01

    A simulation of laser-plasma acceleration in the laboratory frame. Both the laser and the wakefield buckets must be resolved over the entire domain of the plasma, requiring many cells and many time steps. While researchers often use a simulation window that moves with the pulse, this reduces only the multitude of cells, not the multitude of time steps. For an artistic impression of how to solve the simulation by using the boosted-frame method, watch the video "Modeling laser-plasma acceleration in the wakefield frame".

  20. A self-paced brain-computer interface for controlling a robot simulator: an online event labelling paradigm and an extended Kalman filter based algorithm for online training.

    PubMed

    Tsui, Chun Sing Louis; Gan, John Q; Roberts, Stephen J

    2009-03-01

    Due to the non-stationarity of EEG signals, online training and adaptation are essential to EEG based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. Self-paced BCIs offer more natural human-machine interaction than synchronous BCIs, but it is a great challenge to train and adapt a self-paced BCI online because the user's control intention and timing are usually unknown. This paper proposes a novel motor imagery based self-paced BCI paradigm for controlling a simulated robot in a specifically designed environment which is able to provide user's control intention and timing during online experiments, so that online training and adaptation of the motor imagery based self-paced BCI can be effectively investigated. We demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed paradigm with an extended Kalman filter based method to adapt the BCI classifier parameters, with experimental results of online self-paced BCI training with four subjects.

  1. Accelerated Fractional Ventilation Imaging with Hyperpolarized Gas MRI

    PubMed Central

    Emami, Kiarash; Xu, Yinan; Hamedani, Hooman; Profka, Harrilla; Kadlecek, Stephen; Xin, Yi; Ishii, Masaru; Rizi, Rahim R.

    2013-01-01

    PURPOSE To investigate the utility of accelerated imaging to enhance multi-breath fractional ventilation (r) measurement accuracy using HP gas MRI. Undersampling shortens the breath-hold time, thereby reducing the O2-induced signal decay and allows subjects to maintain a more physiologically relevant breathing pattern. Additionally it may improve r estimation accuracy by reducing RF destruction of HP gas. METHODS Image acceleration was achieved by using an 8-channel phased array coil. Undersampled image acquisition was simulated in a series of ventilation images and images were reconstructed for various matrix sizes (48–128) using GRAPPA. Parallel accelerated r imaging was also performed on five mechanically ventilated pigs. RESULTS Optimal acceleration factor was fairly invariable (2.0–2.2×) over the range of simulated resolutions. Estimation accuracy progressively improved with higher resolutions (39–51% error reduction). In vivo r values were not significantly different between the two methods: 0.27±0.09, 0.35±0.06, 0.40±0.04 (standard) versus 0.23±0.05, 0.34±0.03, 0.37±0.02 (accelerated); for anterior, medial and posterior slices, respectively, whereas the corresponding vertical r gradients were significant (P < 0.001): 0.021±0.007 (standard) versus 0.019±0.005 (accelerated) [cm−1]. CONCLUSION Quadruple phased array coil simulations resulted in an optimal acceleration factor of ~2× independent of imaging resolution. Results advocate undersampled image acceleration to improve accuracy of fractional ventilation measurement with HP gas MRI. PMID:23400938

  2. The aortic reservoir-wave as a paradigm for arterial haemodynamics: insights from three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction simulations in a model of aortic coarctation.

    PubMed

    Segers, Patrick; Taelman, Liesbeth; Degroote, Joris; Bols, Joris; Vierendeels, Jan

    2015-03-01

    The reservoir-wave paradigm considers aortic pressure as the superposition of a 'reservoir pressure', directly related to changes in reservoir volume, and an 'excess' component ascribed to wave dynamics. The change in reservoir pressure is assumed to be proportional to the difference between aortic inflow and outflow (i.e. aortic volume changes), an assumption that is virtually impossible to validate in vivo. The aim of this study is therefore to apply the reservoir-wave paradigm to aortic pressure and flow waves obtained from three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction simulations in a model of a normal aorta, aortic coarctation (narrowed descending aorta) and stented coarctation (stiff segment in descending aorta). We found no unequivocal relation between the intraaortic volume and the reservoir pressure for any of the simulated cases. When plotted in a pressure-volume diagram, hysteresis loops are found that are looped in a clockwise way indicating that the reservoir pressure is lower than the pressure associated with the change in volume. The reservoir-wave analysis leads to very high excess pressures, especially for the coarctation models, but to surprisingly little changes of the reservoir component despite the impediment of the buffer capacity of the aorta. With the observation that reservoir pressure is not related to the volume in the aortic reservoir in systole, an intrinsic assumption in the wave-reservoir concept is invalidated and, consequently, also the assumption that the excess pressure is the component of pressure that can be attributed to wave travel and reflection.

  3. A Novel Distributed Privacy Paradigm for Visual Sensor Networks Based on Sharing Dynamical Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luh, William; Kundur, Deepa; Zourntos, Takis

    2006-12-01

    Visual sensor networks (VSNs) provide surveillance images/video which must be protected from eavesdropping and tampering en route to the base station. In the spirit of sensor networks, we propose a novel paradigm for securing privacy and confidentiality in a distributed manner. Our paradigm is based on the control of dynamical systems, which we show is well suited for VSNs due to its low complexity in terms of processing and communication, while achieving robustness to both unintentional noise and intentional attacks as long as a small subset of nodes are affected. We also present a low complexity algorithm called TANGRAM to demonstrate the feasibility of applying our novel paradigm to VSNs. We present and discuss simulation results of TANGRAM.

  4. The effectiveness of wrist guards for reducing wrist and elbow accelerations resulting from simulated forward falls.

    PubMed

    Burkhart, Timothy A; Andrews, David M

    2010-08-01

    The effectiveness of wrist guards and modifying elbow posture for reducing impact-induced accelerations at the wrist and elbow, for the purpose of decreasing upper extremity injury risk during forward fall arrest, has not yet been documented in living people. A seated human pendulum was used to simulate the impact conditions consistent with landing on outstretched arms during a forward fall. Accelerometers measured the wrist and elbow response characteristics of 28 subjects following impacts with and without a wrist guard, and with elbows straight or slightly bent. Overall, the wrist guard was very effective, with significant reductions in peak accelerations at the elbow in the axial and off-axis directions, and in the off-axis direction at the wrist by almost 50%. The effect of elbow posture as an intervention strategy was mixed; a change in magnitude and direction of the acceleration response was documented at the elbow, while there was little effect at the wrist. Unique evidence was presented in support of wrist guard use in activities like in-line skating where impacts to the hands are common. The elbow response clearly shows that more proximal anatomical structures also need to be monitored when assessing the effectiveness of injury prevention strategies.

  5. Multi-beam linear accelerator EVT

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Teryaev, Vladimir E.; Kazakov, Sergey Yu.; Hirshfield, Jay L.

    2016-09-01

    A novel electron multi-beam accelerator is presented. The accelerator, short-named EVT (Electron Voltage Transformer) belongs to the class of two-beam accelerators. It combines an RF generator and essentially an accelerator within the same vacuum envelope. Drive beam-lets and an accelerated beam are modulated in RF modulators and then bunches pass into an accelerating structure, comprising uncoupled with each other and inductive tuned cavities, where the energy transfer from the drive beams to the accelerated beam occurs. A phasing of bunches is solved by choice correspond distances between gaps of the adjacent cavities. Preliminary results of numerical simulations and the initial specification of EVT operating in S-band, with a 60 kV gun and generating a 2.7 A, 1.1 MV beam at its output is presented. A relatively high efficiency of 67% and high design average power suggest that EVT can find its use in industrial applications.

  6. Multi-beam linear accelerator EVT

    DOE PAGES

    Teryaev, Vladimir E.; Kazakov, Sergey Yu.; Hirshfield, Jay L.

    2016-03-29

    A novel electron multi-beam accelerator is presented. The accelerator, short-named EVT (Electron Voltage Transformer) belongs to the class of two-beam accelerators. It combines an RF generator and essentially an accelerator within the same vacuum envelope. Drive beam-lets and an accelerated beam are modulated in RF modulators and then bunches pass into an accelerating structure, comprising uncoupled with each other and inductive tuned cavities, where the energy transfer from the drive beams to the accelerated beam occurs. A phasing of bunches is solved by choice correspond distances between gaps of the adjacent cavities. Preliminary results of numerical simulations and the initialmore » specification of EVT operating in S-band, with a 60 kV gun and generating a 2.7 A, 1.1 MV beam at its output is presented. Furthermore, a relatively high efficiency of 67% and high design average power suggest that EVT can find its use in industrial applications.« less

  7. Shock experiments and numerical simulations on low energy portable electrically exploding foil accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saxena, A. K.; Kaushik, T. C.; Gupta, Satish C.

    2010-03-01

    Two low energy (1.6 and 8 kJ) portable electrically exploding foil accelerators are developed for moderately high pressure shock studies at small laboratory scale. Projectile velocities up to 4.0 km/s have been measured on Kapton flyers of thickness 125 μm and diameter 8 mm, using an in-house developed Fabry-Pérot velocimeter. An asymmetric tilt of typically few milliradians has been measured in flyers using fiber optic technique. High pressure impact experiments have been carried out on tantalum, and aluminum targets up to pressures of 27 and 18 GPa, respectively. Peak particle velocities at the target-glass interface as measured by Fabry-Pérot velocimeter have been found in good agreement with the reported equation of state data. A one-dimensional hydrodynamic code based on realistic models of equation of state and electrical resistivity has been developed to numerically simulate the flyer velocity profiles. The developed numerical scheme is validated against experimental and simulation data reported in literature on such systems. Numerically computed flyer velocity profiles and final flyer velocities have been found in close agreement with the previously reported experimental results with a significant improvement over reported magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Numerical modeling of low energy systems reported here predicts flyer velocity profiles higher than experimental values, indicating possibility of further improvement to achieve higher shock pressures.

  8. Nanosatellites : A paradigm change for space weather studies.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barthelemy, Mathieu

    2016-04-01

    Nanosatellites are changing the paradigm of space exploration and engineering. The past 15 years have seen a growing activity in this field, with a marked acceleration in the last 3 years. Whereas the educational value of nanosatellites is well recognized, their scientific and technological use is potentially extremely rich but not fully explored. Conventional attitudes towards space engineering need to be reviewed in light of the capabilities and characteristics of these miniature devices that enable approaches and applications not possible with traditional satellite platforms. After an evaluation of the past and near future nanosatellites missions in the domain of space weather and from the example of the Zegrensat/ATISE mission, we will give some perspectives on the possibilities opened by these small satellites.

  9. CHANGING OUR DIAGNOSTIC PARADIGM: MOVEMENT SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC CLASSIFICATION

    PubMed Central

    Kamonseki, Danilo H.; Staker, Justin L.; Lawrence, Rebekah L.; Braman, Jonathan P.

    2017-01-01

    Proper diagnosis is a first step in applying best available treatments, and prognosticating outcomes for clients. Currently, the majority of musculoskeletal diagnoses are classified according to pathoanatomy. However, the majority of physical therapy treatments are applied toward movement system impairments or pain. While advocated within the physical therapy profession for over thirty years, diagnostic classification within a movement system framework has not been uniformly developed or adopted. We propose a basic framework and rationale for application of a movement system diagnostic classification for atraumatic shoulder pain conditions, as a case for the broader development of movement system diagnostic labels. Shifting our diagnostic paradigm has potential to enhance communication, improve educational efficiency, facilitate research, directly link to function, improve clinical care, and accelerate preventive interventions. PMID:29158950

  10. Organizational Paradigm Shifts.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    National Association of College and University Business Officers, Washington, DC.

    This collection of essays explores a new paradigm of higher education. The first essay, "Beyond Re-engineering: Changing the Organizational Paradigm" (L. Edwin Coate), suggests a model of quality process management and a structure for managing organizational change. "Thinking About Consortia" (Mary Jo Maydew) discusses…

  11. Electron Heating and Acceleration in a Reconnecting Magnetotail

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    El-Alaoui, M.; Zhou, M.; Lapenta, G.; Berchem, J.; Richard, R. L.; Schriver, D.; Walker, R. J.

    2017-12-01

    Electron heating and acceleration in the magnetotail have been investigated intensively. A major site for this process is the reconnection region. However, where and how the electrons are accelerated in a realistic three-dimensional X-line geometry is not fully understood. In this study, we employed a three-dimensional implicit particle-in-cell (iPIC3D) simulation and large-scale kinetic (LSK) simulation to address these problems. We modeled a magnetotail reconnection event observed by THEMIS in an iPIC3D simulation with initial and boundary conditions given by a global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of Earth's magnetosphere. The iPIC3D simulation system includes the region of fast outflow emanating from the reconnection site that drives dipolarization fronts. We found that current sheet electrons exhibit elongated (cigar-shaped) velocity distributions with a higher parallel temperature. Using LSK we then followed millions of test electrons using the electromagnetic fields from iPIC3D. We found that magnetotail reconnection can generate power law spectra around the near-Earth X-line. A significant number of electrons with energies higher than 50 keV are produced. We identified several acceleration mechanisms at different locations that were responsible for energizing these electrons: non-adiabatic cross-tail drift, betatron and Fermi acceleration. Relative contributions to the energy gain of these high energy electrons from the different mechanisms will be discussed.

  12. GPU accelerated Monte Carlo simulation of Brownian motors dynamics with CUDA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Spiechowicz, J.; Kostur, M.; Machura, L.

    2015-06-01

    This work presents an updated and extended guide on methods of a proper acceleration of the Monte Carlo integration of stochastic differential equations with the commonly available NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units using the CUDA programming environment. We outline the general aspects of the scientific computing on graphics cards and demonstrate them with two models of a well known phenomenon of the noise induced transport of Brownian motors in periodic structures. As a source of fluctuations in the considered systems we selected the three most commonly occurring noises: the Gaussian white noise, the white Poissonian noise and the dichotomous process also known as a random telegraph signal. The detailed discussion on various aspects of the applied numerical schemes is also presented. The measured speedup can be of the astonishing order of about 3000 when compared to a typical CPU. This number significantly expands the range of problems solvable by use of stochastic simulations, allowing even an interactive research in some cases.

  13. The effect of stochastic re-acceleration on the energy spectrum of shock-accelerated protons

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

    Afanasiev, Alexandr; Vainio, Rami; Kocharov, Leon

    2014-07-20

    The energy spectra of particles in gradual solar energetic particle (SEP) events do not always have a power-law form attributed to the diffusive shock acceleration mechanism. In particular, the observed spectra in major SEP events can take the form of a broken (double) power law. In this paper, we study the effect of a process that can modify the power-law spectral form produced by the diffusive shock acceleration: the stochastic re-acceleration of energetic protons by enhanced Alfvénic turbulence in the downstream region of a shock wave. There are arguments suggesting that this process can be important when the shock propagatesmore » in the corona. We consider a coronal magnetic loop traversed by a shock and perform Monte Carlo simulations of interactions of shock-accelerated protons with Alfvén waves in the loop. The wave-particle interactions are treated self-consistently, so the finiteness of the available turbulent energy is taken into account. The initial energy spectrum of particles is taken to be a power law. The simulations reveal that the stochastic re-acceleration leads either to the formation of a spectrum that is described in a wide energy range by a power law (although the resulting power-law index is different from the initial one) or to a broken power-law spectrum. The resulting spectral form is determined by the ratio of the energy density of shock-accelerated protons to the wave energy density in the shock's downstream region.« less

  14. Acceleration and Pickup Ring of Energetic Electrons Observed in Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection Simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ping, Y. L.; Zhong, J. Y.; Wang, X. G.; Sheng, Z. M.; Zhao, G.

    2017-11-01

    Pickup ring of energetic electrons found in relativistic magnetic reconnection (MR) driven by two relativistic intense femtosecond laser pulses is investigated by particle simulation in 3D geometry. Magnetic reconnection processes and configurations are characterized by plasma current density distributions at different axial positions. Two helical structures associated with the circular polarization of laser pulses break down in the reconnection processes to form a current sheet between them, where energetic electrons are found to pile up and the outflow relativistic electron jets are observed. In the field line diffusion region, electrons are accelerated to multi-MeV with a flatter power-law spectrum due to MR. The development of the pickup ring of energetic electrons is strongly dependent upon laser peak intensities.

  15. A novel electron accelerator for MRI-Linac radiotherapy.

    PubMed

    Whelan, Brendan; Gierman, Stephen; Holloway, Lois; Schmerge, John; Keall, Paul; Fahrig, Rebecca

    2016-03-01

    MRI guided radiotherapy is a rapidly growing field; however, current electron accelerators are not designed to operate in the magnetic fringe fields of MRI scanners. As such, current MRI-Linac systems require magnetic shielding, which can degrade MR image quality and limit system flexibility. The purpose of this work was to develop and test a novel medical electron accelerator concept which is inherently robust to operation within magnetic fields for in-line MRI-Linac systems. Computational simulations were utilized to model the accelerator, including the thermionic emission process, the electromagnetic fields within the accelerating structure, and resulting particle trajectories through these fields. The spatial and energy characteristics of the electron beam were quantified at the accelerator target and compared to published data for conventional accelerators. The model was then coupled to the fields from a simulated 1 T superconducting magnet and solved for cathode to isocenter distances between 1.0 and 2.4 m; the impact on the electron beam was quantified. For the zero field solution, the average current at the target was 146.3 mA, with a median energy of 5.8 MeV (interquartile spread of 0.1 MeV), and a spot size diameter of 1.5 mm full-width-tenth-maximum. Such an electron beam is suitable for therapy, comparing favorably to published data for conventional systems. The simulated accelerator showed increased robustness to operation in in-line magnetic fields, with a maximum current loss of 3% compared to 85% for a conventional system in the same magnetic fields. Computational simulations suggest that replacing conventional DC electron sources with a RF based source could be used to develop medical electron accelerators which are robust to operation in in-line magnetic fields. This would enable the development of MRI-Linac systems with no magnetic shielding around the Linac and reduce the requirements for optimization of magnetic fringe field, simplify design of

  16. A novel electron accelerator for MRI-Linac radiotherapy

    PubMed Central

    Whelan, Brendan; Gierman, Stephen; Holloway, Lois; Schmerge, John; Keall, Paul; Fahrig, Rebecca

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: MRI guided radiotherapy is a rapidly growing field; however, current electron accelerators are not designed to operate in the magnetic fringe fields of MRI scanners. As such, current MRI-Linac systems require magnetic shielding, which can degrade MR image quality and limit system flexibility. The purpose of this work was to develop and test a novel medical electron accelerator concept which is inherently robust to operation within magnetic fields for in-line MRI-Linac systems. Methods: Computational simulations were utilized to model the accelerator, including the thermionic emission process, the electromagnetic fields within the accelerating structure, and resulting particle trajectories through these fields. The spatial and energy characteristics of the electron beam were quantified at the accelerator target and compared to published data for conventional accelerators. The model was then coupled to the fields from a simulated 1 T superconducting magnet and solved for cathode to isocenter distances between 1.0 and 2.4 m; the impact on the electron beam was quantified. Results: For the zero field solution, the average current at the target was 146.3 mA, with a median energy of 5.8 MeV (interquartile spread of 0.1 MeV), and a spot size diameter of 1.5 mm full-width-tenth-maximum. Such an electron beam is suitable for therapy, comparing favorably to published data for conventional systems. The simulated accelerator showed increased robustness to operation in in-line magnetic fields, with a maximum current loss of 3% compared to 85% for a conventional system in the same magnetic fields. Conclusions: Computational simulations suggest that replacing conventional DC electron sources with a RF based source could be used to develop medical electron accelerators which are robust to operation in in-line magnetic fields. This would enable the development of MRI-Linac systems with no magnetic shielding around the Linac and reduce the requirements for optimization of

  17. Formation of electrostatic structures by wakefield acceleration in ultrarelativistic plasma flows: Electron acceleration to cosmic ray energies

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

    Dieckmann, M.E.; Shukla, P.K.; Eliasson, B.

    2006-06-15

    The ever increasing performance of supercomputers is now enabling kinetic simulations of extreme astrophysical and laser produced plasmas. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of relativistic shocks have revealed highly filamented spatial structures and their ability to accelerate particles to ultrarelativistic speeds. However, these PIC simulations have not yet revealed mechanisms that could produce particles with tera-electron volt energies and beyond. In this work, PIC simulations in one dimension (1D) of the foreshock region of an internal shock in a gamma ray burst are performed to address this issue. The large spatiotemporal range accessible to a 1D simulation enables the self-consistent evolutionmore » of proton phase space structures that can accelerate particles to giga-electron volt energies in the jet frame of reference, and to tens of tera-electron volt in the Earth's frame of reference. One potential source of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays may thus be the thermalization of relativistically moving plasma.« less

  18. An Integrative Paradigm

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hammack, Phillip L.

    2005-01-01

    Through the application of life course theory to the study of sexual orientation, this paper specifies a new paradigm for research on human sexual orientation that seeks to reconcile divisions among biological, social science, and humanistic paradigms. Recognizing the historical, social, and cultural relativity of human development, this paradigm…

  19. EDITORIAL: Laser and plasma accelerators Laser and plasma accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bingham, Robert

    2009-02-01

    This special issue on laser and plasma accelerators illustrates the rapid advancement and diverse applications of laser and plasma accelerators. Plasma is an attractive medium for particle acceleration because of the high electric field it can sustain, with studies of acceleration processes remaining one of the most important areas of research in both laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. The rapid advance in laser and accelerator technology has led to the development of terawatt and petawatt laser systems with ultra-high intensities and short sub-picosecond pulses, which are used to generate wakefields in plasma. Recent successes include the demonstration by several groups in 2004 of quasi-monoenergetic electron beams by wakefields in the bubble regime with the GeV energy barrier being reached in 2006, and the energy doubling of the SLAC high-energy electron beam from 42 to 85 GeV. The electron beams generated by the laser plasma driven wakefields have good spatial quality with energies ranging from MeV to GeV. A unique feature is that they are ultra-short bunches with simulations showing that they can be as short as a few femtoseconds with low-energy spread, making these beams ideal for a variety of applications ranging from novel high-brightness radiation sources for medicine, material science and ultrafast time-resolved radiobiology or chemistry. Laser driven ion acceleration experiments have also made significant advances over the last few years with applications in laser fusion, nuclear physics and medicine. Attention is focused on the possibility of producing quasi-mono-energetic ions with energies ranging from hundreds of MeV to GeV per nucleon. New acceleration mechanisms are being studied, including ion acceleration from ultra-thin foils and direct laser acceleration. The application of wakefields or beat waves in other areas of science such as astrophysics and particle physics is beginning to take off, such as the study of cosmic accelerators considered

  20. Accelerating population balance-Monte Carlo simulation for coagulation dynamics from the Markov jump model, stochastic algorithm and GPU parallel computing

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

    Xu, Zuwei; Zhao, Haibo, E-mail: klinsmannzhb@163.com; Zheng, Chuguang

    2015-01-15

    This paper proposes a comprehensive framework for accelerating population balance-Monte Carlo (PBMC) simulation of particle coagulation dynamics. By combining Markov jump model, weighted majorant kernel and GPU (graphics processing unit) parallel computing, a significant gain in computational efficiency is achieved. The Markov jump model constructs a coagulation-rule matrix of differentially-weighted simulation particles, so as to capture the time evolution of particle size distribution with low statistical noise over the full size range and as far as possible to reduce the number of time loopings. Here three coagulation rules are highlighted and it is found that constructing appropriate coagulation rule providesmore » a route to attain the compromise between accuracy and cost of PBMC methods. Further, in order to avoid double looping over all simulation particles when considering the two-particle events (typically, particle coagulation), the weighted majorant kernel is introduced to estimate the maximum coagulation rates being used for acceptance–rejection processes by single-looping over all particles, and meanwhile the mean time-step of coagulation event is estimated by summing the coagulation kernels of rejected and accepted particle pairs. The computational load of these fast differentially-weighted PBMC simulations (based on the Markov jump model) is reduced greatly to be proportional to the number of simulation particles in a zero-dimensional system (single cell). Finally, for a spatially inhomogeneous multi-dimensional (multi-cell) simulation, the proposed fast PBMC is performed in each cell, and multiple cells are parallel processed by multi-cores on a GPU that can implement the massively threaded data-parallel tasks to obtain remarkable speedup ratio (comparing with CPU computation, the speedup ratio of GPU parallel computing is as high as 200 in a case of 100 cells with 10 000 simulation particles per cell). These accelerating approaches of PBMC

  1. Large-scale particle acceleration by magnetic reconnection during solar flares

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, X.; Guo, F.; Li, H.; Li, G.; Li, S.

    2017-12-01

    Magnetic reconnection that triggers explosive magnetic energy release has been widely invoked to explain the large-scale particle acceleration during solar flares. While great efforts have been spent in studying the acceleration mechanism in small-scale kinetic simulations, there have been rare studies that make predictions to acceleration in the large scale comparable to the flare reconnection region. Here we present a new arrangement to study this problem. We solve the large-scale energetic-particle transport equation in the fluid velocity and magnetic fields from high-Lundquist-number MHD simulations of reconnection layers. This approach is based on examining the dominant acceleration mechanism and pitch-angle scattering in kinetic simulations. Due to the fluid compression in reconnection outflows and merging magnetic islands, particles are accelerated to high energies and develop power-law energy distributions. We find that the acceleration efficiency and power-law index depend critically on upstream plasma beta and the magnitude of guide field (the magnetic field component perpendicular to the reconnecting component) as they influence the compressibility of the reconnection layer. We also find that the accelerated high-energy particles are mostly concentrated in large magnetic islands, making the islands a source of energetic particles and high-energy emissions. These findings may provide explanations for acceleration process in large-scale magnetic reconnection during solar flares and the temporal and spatial emission properties observed in different flare events.

  2. Electron and Ion Acceleration Associated with Magnetotail Reconnection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liang, Haoming

    This dissertation is dedicated to understanding electron and ion acceleration associated with magnetotail reconnection during substorms by using numerical simulations. Electron dynamics were investigated by using the UCLA global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model and large scale kinetic (LSK) simulations. The neutral line configurations and magnetotail flows modify the amounts of the adiabatic and non-adiabatic acceleration that electrons undergo. This causes marked differences in the temperature anisotropy for different substorms. In particular, one substorm event analyzed shows T⊥ > T∥ (T⊥ / T ∥ ≈ 2.3)at -10RE while another shows T ∥ > T⊥ (T ⊥ / T∥ ≈ 0.8), where T⊥ and T∥ (second order moments of the distribution functions) are defined with respect to the magnetic field. These differences determine the subsequent acceleration of the energetic electrons in the inner magnetosphere. Whether the acceleration is mostly parallel or perpendicular is determined by the location of dayside reconnection. A 2.5D implicit Particle-in-Cell simulation was used to study the effects produced by oxygen ions on magnetotail reconnection, and the associated acceleration of protons and oxygen ions. The inertia of oxygen ions reduces the reconnection rate and slows down the earthward propagation of dipolarization fronts (DFs). An ambipolar electric field in the oxygen diffusion region contributes to the smaller reconnection rate. This change in the reconnection rate affects the ion acceleration. In particular 67% of protons and 58% of oxygen ions were accelerated in the exhaust (between the X-point and the DF) in a simulation corresponding to a magnetic storm in which there was a 50% concentration of oxygen ions. In addition, 42% of lobe oxygen-ions are accelerated locally by the Hall electric field, far away from the X-point without entering the exhaust. Protons at the same locations experience Ex B drift. This finding extends previous knowledge that oxygen and

  3. Intermittent nature of acceleration in near wall turbulence.

    PubMed

    Lee, Changhoon; Yeo, Kyongmin; Choi, Jung-Il

    2004-04-09

    Using direct numerical simulation of a fully developed turbulent channel flow, we investigate the behavior of acceleration near a solid wall. We find that acceleration near the wall is highly intermittent and the intermittency is in large part associated with the near wall organized coherent turbulence structures. We also find that acceleration of large magnitude is mostly directed towards the rotation axis of the coherent vortical structures, indicating that the source of the intermittent acceleration is the rotational motion associated with the vortices that causes centripetal acceleration.

  4. 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.

  5. Λ CDM is Consistent with SPARC Radial Acceleration Relation

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

    Keller, B. W.; Wadsley, J. W., E-mail: kellerbw@mcmaster.ca

    2017-01-20

    Recent analysis of the Spitzer Photometry and Accurate Rotation Curve (SPARC) galaxy sample found a surprisingly tight relation between the radial acceleration inferred from the rotation curves and the acceleration due to the baryonic components of the disk. It has been suggested that this relation may be evidence for new physics, beyond Λ CDM . In this Letter, we show that 32 galaxies from the MUGS2 match the SPARC acceleration relation. These cosmological simulations of star-forming, rotationally supported disks were simulated with a WMAP3 Λ CDM cosmology, and match the SPARC acceleration relation with less scatter than the observational data.more » These results show that this acceleration relation is a consequence of dissipative collapse of baryons, rather than being evidence for exotic dark-sector physics or new dynamical laws.« less

  6. Generation of nanosecond neutron pulses in vacuum accelerating tubes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Didenko, A. N.; Shikanov, A. E.; Rashchikov, V. I.; Ryzhkov, V. I.; Shatokhin, V. L.

    2014-06-01

    The generation of neutron pulses with a duration of 1-100 ns using small vacuum accelerating tubes is considered. Two physical models of acceleration of short deuteron bunches in pulse neutron generators are described. The dependences of an instantaneous neutron flux in accelerating tubes on the parameters of pulse neutron generators are obtained using computer simulation. The results of experimental investigation of short-pulse neutron generators based on the accelerating tube with a vacuum-arc deuteron source, connected in the circuit with a discharge peaker, and an accelerating tube with a laser deuteron source, connected according to the Arkad'ev-Marx circuit, are given. In the experiments, the neutron yield per pulse reached 107 for a pulse duration of 10-100 ns. The resultant experimental data are in satisfactory agreement with the results of computer simulation.

  7. Superfluid--Solid Quantum Phase Transitions and Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson Paradigm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kuklov, A. B.; Prokof'ev, N. V.

    2005-03-01

    We study superfluid (SF)--solid zero-temperature transitions in 2d lattice boson/spin models by Worm-Algorithm Monte Carlo simulations. The SF -- Valence Bond Solid (VBS) transition was recently argued to be generically of II order in violation of the Ginzburg-Landau- Wilson (GLW) paradigm [1]. We simulate the J-current model on lattices up to 64x64x64, and observe that SF- columnar VBS and SF-checkerboard solid transitions are typically weak I-order ones and in small systems they may be confused with the continuous or high-symmetry points [2]. Thus, in the simulated model, the SF-VBS transition proceeds in agreement with the GLW paradigm. We explain this by dominance of standard particle and hole excitations, as opposed to fractionalized (spinon) excitations [1]. We developed a technique based on tunneling events (instantons) in the insulating phase which reveals charges of the revelant long-wave modes. While in 1d systems spinons are clearly seen in tunneling events, in two spatial dimensions tunneling is solely controlled by particles and holes in our system. This work is supported by NSF grant ITR-405460001 and PSC-CUNY- 665560035. [1] T. Senthil, A. Vishwanath, L. Balents, S. Sachdev, and M.P.A. Fisher, Science 303, 1490 (2004); [2] A.B. Kuklov, N.V. Prokof'ev, B.V. Svistunov, condmat/0406061; PRL, to be published.

  8. Geospace simulations using modern accelerator processor technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Germaschewski, K.; Raeder, J.; Larson, D. J.

    2009-12-01

    OpenGGCM (Open Geospace General Circulation Model) is a well-established numerical code simulating the Earth's space environment. The most computing intensive part is the MHD (magnetohydrodynamics) solver that models the plasma surrounding Earth and its interaction with Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind flowing in from the sun. Like other global magnetosphere codes, OpenGGCM's realism is currently limited by computational constraints on grid resolution. OpenGGCM has been ported to make use of the added computational powerof modern accelerator based processor architectures, in particular the Cell processor. The Cell architecture is a novel inhomogeneous multicore architecture capable of achieving up to 230 GFLops on a single chip. The University of New Hampshire recently acquired a PowerXCell 8i based computing cluster, and here we will report initial performance results of OpenGGCM. Realizing the high theoretical performance of the Cell processor is a programming challenge, though. We implemented the MHD solver using a multi-level parallelization approach: On the coarsest level, the problem is distributed to processors based upon the usual domain decomposition approach. Then, on each processor, the problem is divided into 3D columns, each of which is handled by the memory limited SPEs (synergistic processing elements) slice by slice. Finally, SIMD instructions are used to fully exploit the SIMD FPUs in each SPE. Memory management needs to be handled explicitly by the code, using DMA to move data from main memory to the per-SPE local store and vice versa. We use a modern technique, automatic code generation, which shields the application programmer from having to deal with all of the implementation details just described, keeping the code much more easily maintainable. Our preliminary results indicate excellent performance, a speed-up of a factor of 30 compared to the unoptimized version.

  9. Acceleration of the matrix multiplication of Radiance three phase daylighting simulations with parallel computing on heterogeneous hardware of personal computer

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

    Zuo, Wangda; McNeil, Andrew; Wetter, Michael

    2013-05-23

    Building designers are increasingly relying on complex fenestration systems to reduce energy consumed for lighting and HVAC in low energy buildings. Radiance, a lighting simulation program, has been used to conduct daylighting simulations for complex fenestration systems. Depending on the configurations, the simulation can take hours or even days using a personal computer. This paper describes how to accelerate the matrix multiplication portion of a Radiance three-phase daylight simulation by conducting parallel computing on heterogeneous hardware of a personal computer. The algorithm was optimized and the computational part was implemented in parallel using OpenCL. The speed of new approach wasmore » evaluated using various daylighting simulation cases on a multicore central processing unit and a graphics processing unit. Based on the measurements and analysis of the time usage for the Radiance daylighting simulation, further speedups can be achieved by using fast I/O devices and storing the data in a binary format.« less

  10. Achieving Rigorous Accelerated Conformational Sampling in Explicit Solvent.

    PubMed

    Doshi, Urmi; Hamelberg, Donald

    2014-04-03

    Molecular dynamics simulations can provide valuable atomistic insights into biomolecular function. However, the accuracy of molecular simulations on general-purpose computers depends on the time scale of the events of interest. Advanced simulation methods, such as accelerated molecular dynamics, have shown tremendous promise in sampling the conformational dynamics of biomolecules, where standard molecular dynamics simulations are nonergodic. Here we present a sampling method based on accelerated molecular dynamics in which rotatable dihedral angles and nonbonded interactions are boosted separately. This method (RaMD-db) is a different implementation of the dual-boost accelerated molecular dynamics, introduced earlier. The advantage is that this method speeds up sampling of the conformational space of biomolecules in explicit solvent, as the degrees of freedom most relevant for conformational transitions are accelerated. We tested RaMD-db on one of the most difficult sampling problems - protein folding. Starting from fully extended polypeptide chains, two fast folding α-helical proteins (Trpcage and the double mutant of C-terminal fragment of Villin headpiece) and a designed β-hairpin (Chignolin) were completely folded to their native structures in very short simulation time. Multiple folding/unfolding transitions could be observed in a single trajectory. Our results show that RaMD-db is a promisingly fast and efficient sampling method for conformational transitions in explicit solvent. RaMD-db thus opens new avenues for understanding biomolecular self-assembly and functional dynamics occurring on long time and length scales.

  11. Application of Plasma Waveguides to High Energy Accelerators

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

    Milchberg, Howard M

    2013-03-30

    The eventual success of laser-plasma based acceleration schemes for high-energy particle physics will require the focusing and stable guiding of short intense laser pulses in reproducible plasma channels. For this goal to be realized, many scientific issues need to be addressed. These issues include an understanding of the basic physics of, and an exploration of various schemes for, plasma channel formation. In addition, the coupling of intense laser pulses to these channels and the stable propagation of pulses in the channels require study. Finally, new theoretical and computational tools need to be developed to aid in the design and analysismore » of experiments and future accelerators. Here we propose a 3-year renewal of our combined theoretical and experimental program on the applications of plasma waveguides to high-energy accelerators. During the past grant period we have made a number of significant advances in the science of laser-plasma based acceleration. We pioneered the development of clustered gases as a new highly efficient medium for plasma channel formation. Our contributions here include theoretical and experimental studies of the physics of cluster ionization, heating, explosion, and channel formation. We have demonstrated for the first time the generation of and guiding in a corrugated plasma waveguide. The fine structure demonstrated in these guides is only possible with cluster jet heating by lasers. The corrugated guide is a slow wave structure operable at arbitrarily high laser intensities, allowing direct laser acceleration, a process we have explored in detail with simulations. The development of these guides opens the possibility of direct laser acceleration, a true miniature analogue of the SLAC RF-based accelerator. Our theoretical studies during this period have also contributed to the further development of the simulation codes, Wake and QuickPIC, which can be used for both laser driven and beam driven plasma based acceleration

  12. A Coupled Multiphysics Approach for Simulating Induced Seismicity, Ground Acceleration and Structural Damage

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Podgorney, Robert; Coleman, Justin; Wilkins, Amdrew; Huang, Hai; Veeraraghavan, Swetha; Xia, Yidong; Permann, Cody

    2017-04-01

    Numerical modeling has played an important role in understanding the behavior of coupled subsurface thermal-hydro-mechanical (THM) processes associated with a number of energy and environmental applications since as early as the 1970s. While the ability to rigorously describe all key tightly coupled controlling physics still remains a challenge, there have been significant advances in recent decades. These advances are related primarily to the exponential growth of computational power, the development of more accurate equations of state, improvements in the ability to represent heterogeneity and reservoir geometry, and more robust nonlinear solution schemes. The work described in this paper documents the development and linkage of several fully-coupled and fully-implicit modeling tools. These tools simulate: (1) the dynamics of fluid flow, heat transport, and quasi-static rock mechanics; (2) seismic wave propagation from the sources of energy release through heterogeneous material; and (3) the soil-structural damage resulting from ground acceleration. These tools are developed in Idaho National Laboratory's parallel Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment, and are integrated together using a global implicit approach. The governing equations are presented, the numerical approach for simultaneously solving and coupling the three coupling physics tools is discussed, and the data input and output methodology is outlined. An example is presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the coupled multiphysics approach. The example involves simulating a system conceptually similar to the geothermal development in Basel Switzerland, and the resultant induced seismicity, ground motion and structural damage is predicted.

  13. Community Project for Accelerator Science and Simulation (ComPASS) Final Report

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

    Cary, John R.; Cowan, Benjamin M.; Veitzer, S. A.

    2016-03-04

    Tech-X participated across the full range of ComPASS activities, with efforts in the Energy Frontier primarily through modeling of laser plasma accelerators and dielectric laser acceleration, in the Intensity Frontier primarily through electron cloud modeling, and in Uncertainty Quantification being applied to dielectric laser acceleration. In the following we present the progress and status of our activities for the entire period of the ComPASS project for the different areas of Energy Frontier, Intensity Frontier and Uncertainty Quantification.

  14. Health Inequities: Evaluation of Two Paradigms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ashcroft, Rachelle

    2010-01-01

    Social work practice in health is shaped by underlying paradigms. To effectively target health inequities, practitioners need to consider appropriate paradigms. In this exploration of how six health paradigms shape theory and practice, the two health paradigms that most attended to health inequalities are social determinants of health and…

  15. The Investment Paradigm

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Perna, Mark C.

    2005-01-01

    Is marketing an expense or an investment? Most accountants will claim that marketing is an expense, and clearly that seems true when cutting the checks to fund these efforts. When it is done properly, marketing is the best investment. A key principle to Smart Marketing is the Investment Paradigm. The Investment Paradigm is understanding that every…

  16. Near-realtime simulations of biolelectric activity in small mammalian hearts using graphical processing units

    PubMed Central

    Vigmond, Edward J.; Boyle, Patrick M.; Leon, L. Joshua; Plank, Gernot

    2014-01-01

    Simulations of cardiac bioelectric phenomena remain a significant challenge despite continual advancements in computational machinery. Spanning large temporal and spatial ranges demands millions of nodes to accurately depict geometry, and a comparable number of timesteps to capture dynamics. This study explores a new hardware computing paradigm, the graphics processing unit (GPU), to accelerate cardiac models, and analyzes results in the context of simulating a small mammalian heart in real time. The ODEs associated with membrane ionic flow were computed on traditional CPU and compared to GPU performance, for one to four parallel processing units. The scalability of solving the PDE responsible for tissue coupling was examined on a cluster using up to 128 cores. Results indicate that the GPU implementation was between 9 and 17 times faster than the CPU implementation and scaled similarly. Solving the PDE was still 160 times slower than real time. PMID:19964295

  17. "Light sail" acceleration reexamined.

    PubMed

    Macchi, Andrea; Veghini, Silvia; Pegoraro, Francesco

    2009-08-21

    The dynamics of the acceleration of ultrathin foil targets by the radiation pressure of superintense, circularly polarized laser pulses is investigated by analytical modeling and particle-in-cell simulations. By addressing self-induced transparency and charge separation effects, it is shown that for "optimal" values of the foil thickness only a thin layer at the rear side is accelerated by radiation pressure. The simple "light sail" model gives a good estimate of the energy per nucleon, but overestimates the conversion efficiency of laser energy into monoenergetic ions.

  18. Electron linear accelerator system for natural rubber vulcanization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rimjaem, S.; Kongmon, E.; Rhodes, M. W.; Saisut, J.; Thongbai, C.

    2017-09-01

    Development of an electron accelerator system, beam diagnostic instruments, an irradiation apparatus and electron beam processing methodology for natural rubber vulcanization is underway at the Plasma and Beam Physics Research Facility, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. The project is carried out with the aims to improve the qualities of natural rubber products. The system consists of a DC thermionic electron gun, 5-cell standing-wave radio-frequency (RF) linear accelerator (linac) with side-coupling cavities and an electron beam irradiation apparatus. This system is used to produce electron beams with an adjustable energy between 0.5 and 4 MeV and a pulse current of 10-100 mA at a pulse repetition rate of 20-400 Hz. An average absorbed dose between 160 and 640 Gy is expected to be archived for 4 MeV electron beam when the accelerator is operated at 400 Hz. The research activities focus firstly on assembling of the accelerator system, study on accelerator properties and electron beam dynamic simulations. The resonant frequency of the RF linac in π/2 operating mode is 2996.82 MHz for the operating temperature of 35 °C. The beam dynamic simulations were conducted by using the code ASTRA. Simulation results suggest that electron beams with an average energy of 4.002 MeV can be obtained when the linac accelerating gradient is 41.7 MV/m. The rms transverse beam size and normalized rms transverse emittance at the linac exit are 0.91 mm and 10.48 π mm·mrad, respectively. This information can then be used as the input data for Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the electron beam penetration depth and dose distribution in the natural rubber latex. The study results from this research will be used to define optimal conditions for natural rubber vulcanization with different electron beam energies and doses. This is very useful for development of future practical industrial accelerator units.

  19. EDITORIAL: Laser and Plasma Accelerators Workshop, Kardamyli, Greece, 2009 Laser and Plasma Accelerators Workshop, Kardamyli, Greece, 2009

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bingham, Bob; Muggli, Patric

    2011-01-01

    The Laser and Plasma Accelerators Workshop 2009 was part of a very successful series of international workshops which were conceived at the 1985 Laser Acceleration of Particles Workshop in Malibu, California. Since its inception, the workshop has been held in Asia and in Europe (Kardamyli, Kyoto, Presqu'ile de Giens, Portovenere, Taipei and the Azores). The purpose of the workshops is to bring together the most recent results in laser wakefield acceleration, plasma wakefield acceleration, laser-driven ion acceleration, and radiation generation produced by plasma-based accelerator beams. The 2009 workshop was held on 22-26 June in Kardamyli, Greece, and brought together over 80 participants. (http://cfp.ist.utl.pt/lpaw09/). The workshop involved five main themes: • Laser plasma electron acceleration (experiment/theory/simulation) • Computational methods • Plasma wakefield acceleration (experiment/theory/simulation) • Laser-driven ion acceleration • Radiation generation and application. All of these themes are covered in this special issue of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. The topic and application of plasma accelerators is one of the success stories in plasma physics, with laser wakefield acceleration of mono-energetic electrons to GeV energies, of ions to hundreds of MeV, and electron-beam-driven wakefield acceleration to 85 GeV. The accelerating electric field in the wake is of the order 1 GeV cm-1, or an accelerating gradient 1000 times greater than in conventional accelerators, possibly leading to an accelerator 1000 times smaller (and much more affordable) for the same energy. At the same time, the electron beams generated by laser wakefield accelerators have very good emittance with a correspondingly good energy spread of about a few percent. They also have the unique feature in being ultra-short in the femtosecond scale. This makes them attractive for a variety of applications, ranging from material science to ultra-fast time

  20. High Performance Computing Modeling Advances Accelerator Science for High-Energy Physics

    DOE PAGES

    Amundson, James; Macridin, Alexandru; Spentzouris, Panagiotis

    2014-07-28

    The development and optimization of particle accelerators are essential for advancing our understanding of the properties of matter, energy, space, and time. Particle accelerators are complex devices whose behavior involves many physical effects on multiple scales. Therefore, advanced computational tools utilizing high-performance computing are essential for accurately modeling them. In the past decade, the US Department of Energy's SciDAC program has produced accelerator-modeling tools that have been employed to tackle some of the most difficult accelerator science problems. The authors discuss the Synergia framework and its applications to high-intensity particle accelerator physics. Synergia is an accelerator simulation package capable ofmore » handling the entire spectrum of beam dynamics simulations. Our authors present Synergia's design principles and its performance on HPC platforms.« less

  1. Reactor for simulation and acceleration of solar ultraviolet damage

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Laue, E.; Gupta, A.

    1979-01-01

    An environmental test chamber providing acceleration of UV radiation and precise temperature control (+ or -)1 C was designed, constructed and tested. This chamber allows acceleration of solar ultraviolet up to 30 suns while maintaining temperature of the absorbing surface at 30 C - 60 C. This test chamber utilizes a filtered medium pressure mercury arc as the source of radiation, and a combination of selenium radiometer and silicon radiometer to monitor solar ultraviolet (295-340 nm) and total radiant power output, respectively. Details of design and construction and operational procedures are presented along with typical test data.

  2. Accelerating large-scale simulation of seismic wave propagation by multi-GPUs and three-dimensional domain decomposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Okamoto, Taro; Takenaka, Hiroshi; Nakamura, Takeshi; Aoki, Takayuki

    2010-12-01

    We adopted the GPU (graphics processing unit) to accelerate the large-scale finite-difference simulation of seismic wave propagation. The simulation can benefit from the high-memory bandwidth of GPU because it is a "memory intensive" problem. In a single-GPU case we achieved a performance of about 56 GFlops, which was about 45-fold faster than that achieved by a single core of the host central processing unit (CPU). We confirmed that the optimized use of fast shared memory and registers were essential for performance. In the multi-GPU case with three-dimensional domain decomposition, the non-contiguous memory alignment in the ghost zones was found to impose quite long time in data transfer between GPU and the host node. This problem was solved by using contiguous memory buffers for ghost zones. We achieved a performance of about 2.2 TFlops by using 120 GPUs and 330 GB of total memory: nearly (or more than) 2200 cores of host CPUs would be required to achieve the same performance. The weak scaling was nearly proportional to the number of GPUs. We therefore conclude that GPU computing for large-scale simulation of seismic wave propagation is a promising approach as a faster simulation is possible with reduced computational resources compared to CPUs.

  3. INJECTION TO RAPID DIFFUSIVE SHOCK ACCELERATION AT PERPENDICULAR SHOCKS IN PARTIALLY IONIZED PLASMAS

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

    Ohira, Yutaka, E-mail: ohira@phys.aoyama.ac.jp

    2016-08-10

    We present a three-dimensional hybrid simulation of a collisionless perpendicular shock in a partially ionized plasma for the first time. In this simulation, the shock velocity and upstream ionization fraction are v {sub sh} ≈ 1333 km s{sup −1} and f {sub i} ∼ 0.5, which are typical values for isolated young supernova remnants (SNRs) in the interstellar medium. We confirm previous two-dimensional simulation results showing that downstream hydrogen atoms leak into the upstream region and are accelerated by the pickup process in the upstream region, and large magnetic field fluctuations are generated both in the upstream and downstream regions.more » In addition, we find that the magnetic field fluctuations have three-dimensional structures and the leaking hydrogen atoms are injected into the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) at the perpendicular shock after the pickup process. The observed DSA can be interpreted as shock drift acceleration with scattering. In this simulation, particles are accelerated to v ∼ 100 v {sub sh} ∼ 0.3 c within ∼100 gyroperiods. The acceleration timescale is faster than that of DSA in parallel shocks. Our simulation results suggest that SNRs can accelerate cosmic rays to 10{sup 15.5} eV (the knee) during the Sedov phase.« less

  4. From Axenic to Mixed Cultures: Technological Advances Accelerating a Paradigm Shift in Microbiology.

    PubMed

    Nai, Corrado; Meyer, Vera

    2018-06-01

    Since the onset of microbiology in the late 19th century, scientists have been growing microorganisms almost exclusively as pure cultures, resulting in a limited and biased view of the microbial world. Only a paradigm shift in cultivation techniques - from axenic to mixed cultures - can allow a full comprehension of the (chemical) communication of microorganisms, with profound consequences for natural product discovery, microbial ecology, symbiosis, and pathogenesis, to name a few areas. Three main technical advances during the last decade are fueling the realization of this revolution in microbiology: microfluidics, next-generation 3D-bioprinting, and single-cell metabolomics. These technological advances can be implemented for large-scale, systematic cocultivation studies involving three or more microorganisms. In this review, we present recent trends in microbiology tools and discuss how these can be employed to decode the chemical language that microorganisms use to communicate. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Data-driven Simulations of Magnetic Connectivity in Behind-the-Limb Gamma-ray Flares and Associated Coronal Mass Ejections

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jin, M.; Petrosian, V.; Liu, W.; Nitta, N.; Omodei, N.; Rubio da Costa, F.; Effenberger, F.; Li, G.; Pesce-Rollins, M.

    2017-12-01

    Recent Fermi detection of high-energy gamma-ray emission from the behind-the-limb (BTL) solar flares pose a puzzle on the particle acceleration and transport mechanisms in such events. Due to the large separation between the flare site and the location of gamma-ray emission, it is believed that the associated coronal mass ejections (CMEs) play an important role in accelerating and subsequently transporting particles back to the Sun to produce obseved gamma-rays. We explore this scenario by simulating the CME associated with a well-observed flare on 2014 September 1 about 40 degrees behind the east solar limb and by comparing the simulation and observational results. We utilize a data-driven global magnetohydrodynamics model (AWSoM: Alfven-wave Solar Model) to track the dynamical evolution of the global magnetic field during the event and investigate the magnetic connectivity between the CME/CME-driven shock and the Fermi emission region. Moreover, we derive the time-varying shock parameters (e.g., compression ratio, Alfven Mach number, and ThetaBN) over the area that is magnetically connected to the visible solar disk where Fermi gamma-ray emission originates. Our simulation shows that the visible solar disk develops connections both to the flare site and to the CME-driven shock during the eruption, which indicate that the CME's interaction with the global solar corona is critical for understanding such Fermi BTL events and gamma-ray flares in general. We discuss the causes and implications of Fermi BTL events, in the framework of a potential shift of paradigm on particle acceleration in solar flares/CMEs.

  6. Drag and drop simulation: from pictures to full three-dimensional simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bergmann, Michel; Iollo, Angelo

    2014-11-01

    We present a suite of methods to achieve ``drag and drop'' simulation, i.e., to fully automatize the process to perform thee-dimensional flow simulations around a bodies defined by actual images of moving objects. The overall approach requires a skeleton graph generation to get level set function from pictures, optimal transportation to get body velocity on the surface and then flow simulation thanks to a cartesian method based on penalization. We illustrate this paradigm simulating the swimming of a mackerel fish.

  7. Method for computationally efficient design of dielectric laser accelerator structures

    DOE PAGES

    Hughes, Tyler; Veronis, Georgios; Wootton, Kent P.; ...

    2017-06-22

    Here, dielectric microstructures have generated much interest in recent years as a means of accelerating charged particles when powered by solid state lasers. The acceleration gradient (or particle energy gain per unit length) is an important figure of merit. To design structures with high acceleration gradients, we explore the adjoint variable method, a highly efficient technique used to compute the sensitivity of an objective with respect to a large number of parameters. With this formalism, the sensitivity of the acceleration gradient of a dielectric structure with respect to its entire spatial permittivity distribution is calculated by the use of onlymore » two full-field electromagnetic simulations, the original and ‘adjoint’. The adjoint simulation corresponds physically to the reciprocal situation of a point charge moving through the accelerator gap and radiating. Using this formalism, we perform numerical optimizations aimed at maximizing acceleration gradients, which generate fabricable structures of greatly improved performance in comparison to previously examined geometries.« less

  8. Astrophysical particle acceleration mechanisms in colliding magnetized laser-produced plasmas

    DOE PAGES

    Fox, W.; Park, J.; Deng, W.; ...

    2017-08-11

    Significant particle energization is observed to occur in numerous astrophysical environments, and in the standard models, this acceleration occurs alongside energy conversion processes including collisionless shocks or magnetic reconnection. Recent platforms for laboratory experiments using magnetized laser-produced plasmas have opened opportunities to study these particle acceleration processes in the laboratory. Through fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate acceleration mechanisms in experiments with colliding magnetized laser-produced plasmas, with geometry and parameters matched to recent high-Mach number reconnection experiments with externally controlled magnetic fields. 2-D simulations demonstrate significant particle acceleration with three phases of energization: first, a “direct” Fermi acceleration driven bymore » approaching magnetized plumes; second, x-line acceleration during magnetic reconnection of anti-parallel fields; and finally, an additional Fermi energization of particles trapped in contracting and relaxing magnetic islands produced by reconnection. Furthermore, the relative effectiveness of these mechanisms depends on plasma and magnetic field parameters of the experiments.« less

  9. Driver-witness electron beam acceleration in dielectric mm-scale capillaries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lekomtsev, K.; Aryshev, A.; Tishchenko, A. A.; Shevelev, M.; Lyapin, A.; Boogert, S.; Karataev, P.; Terunuma, N.; Urakawa, J.

    2018-05-01

    We investigated a corrugated mm-scale capillary as a compact accelerating structure in the driver-witness acceleration scheme, and suggested a methodology to measure the acceleration of the witness bunch. The accelerating fields produced by the driver bunch and the energy spread of the witness bunch in a corrugated capillary and in a capillary with a constant inner radius were measured and simulated for both on-axis and off-axis beam propagation. Our simulations predicted a change in the accelerating field structure for the corrugated capillary. Also, an approximately twofold increase of the witness bunch energy gain on the first accelerating cycle was expected for both capillaries for the off-axis beam propagation. These results were confirmed in the experiment, and the maximum measured acceleration of 170 keV /m at 20 pC driver beam charge was achieved for off-axis beam propagation. The driver bunch showed an increase in energy spread of up to 11%, depending on the capillary geometry and beam propagation, with a suppression of the longitudinal energy spread in the witness bunch of up to 15%.

  10. The Reception Learning Paradigm.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Novak, Joseph D.

    1979-01-01

    Presented is a paradigm for science education research. The paradigm advances the reception learning theory, where regularities to be learned are presented explicitly to the learner. A tool for the study of knowledge production in science education, the Gowin "V," is presented. (RE)

  11. Advanced Beamline Design for Fermilab's Advanced Superconducting Test Accelerator

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

    Prokop, Christopher

    2014-01-01

    The Advanced Superconducting Test Accelerator (ASTA) at Fermilab is a new electron accelerator currently in the commissioning stage. In addition to testing superconducting accelerating cavities for future accelerators, it is foreseen to support a variety of Advanced Accelerator R&D (AARD) experiments. Producing the required electron bunches with the expected flexibility is challenging. The goal of this dissertation is to explore via numerical simulations new accelerator beamlines that can enable the advanced manipulation of electron bunches. The work especially includes the design of a low-energy bunch compressor and a study of transverse-to-longitudinal phase space exchangers.

  12. Advanced Accelerators: Particle, Photon and Plasma Wave Interactions

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

    Williams, Ronald L.

    2017-06-29

    The overall objective of this project was to study the acceleration of electrons to very high energies over very short distances based on trapping slowly moving electrons in the fast moving potential wells of large amplitude plasma waves, which have relativistic phase velocities. These relativistic plasma waves, or wakefields, are the basis of table-top accelerators that have been shown to accelerate electrons to the same high energies as kilometer-length linear particle colliders operating using traditional decades-old acceleration techniques. The accelerating electrostatic fields of the relativistic plasma wave accelerators can be as large as GigaVolts/meter, and our goal was to studymore » techniques for remotely measuring these large fields by injecting low energy probe electron beams across the plasma wave and measuring the beam’s deflection. Our method of study was via computer simulations, and these results suggested that the deflection of the probe electron beam was directly proportional to the amplitude of the plasma wave. This is the basis of a proposed diagnostic technique, and numerous studies were performed to determine the effects of changing the electron beam, plasma wave and laser beam parameters. Further simulation studies included copropagating laser beams with the relativistic plasma waves. New interesting results came out of these studies including the prediction that very small scale electron beam bunching occurs, and an anomalous line focusing of the electron beam occurs under certain conditions. These studies were summarized in the dissertation of a graduate student who obtained the Ph.D. in physics. This past research program has motivated ideas for further research to corroborate these results using particle-in-cell simulation tools which will help design a test-of-concept experiment in our laboratory and a scaled up version for testing at a major wakefield accelerator facility.« less

  13. Investigations into dual-grating THz-driven accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wei, Y.; Ischebeck, R.; Dehler, M.; Ferrari, E.; Hiller, N.; Jamison, S.; Xia, G.; Hanahoe, K.; Li, Y.; Smith, J. D. A.; Welsch, C. P.

    2018-01-01

    Advanced acceleration technologies are receiving considerable interest in order to miniaturize future particle accelerators. One such technology is the dual-grating dielectric structures, which can support accelerating fields one to two orders of magnitude higher than the metal RF cavities in conventional accelerators. This opens up the possibility of enabling high accelerating gradients of up to several GV/m. This paper investigates numerically a quartz dual-grating structure which is driven by THz pulses to accelerate electrons. Geometry optimizations are carried out to achieve the trade-offs between accelerating gradient and vacuum channel gap. A realistic electron bunch available from the future Compact Linear Accelerator for Research and Applications (CLARA) is loaded into an optimized 100-period dual-grating structure for a detailed wakefield study. A THz pulse is then employed to interact with this CLARA bunch in the optimized structure. The computed beam quality is analyzed in terms of emittance, energy spread and loaded accelerating gradient. The simulations show that an accelerating gradient of 348 ± 12 MV/m with an emittance growth of 3.0% can be obtained.

  14. Earthquake Dynamics in Laboratory Model and Simulation - Accelerated Creep as Precursor of Instabilities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grzemba, B.; Popov, V. L.; Starcevic, J.; Popov, M.

    2012-04-01

    Shallow earthquakes can be considered as a result of tribological instabilities, so called stick-slip behaviour [1,2], meaning that sudden slip occurs at already existing rupture zones. From a contact mechanics point of view it is clear, that no motion can arise completely sudden, the material will always creep in an existing contact in the load direction before breaking loose. If there is a measureable creep before the instability, this could serve as a precursor. To examine this theory in detail, we built up an elementary laboratory model with pronounced stick-slip behaviour. Different material pairings, such as steel-steel, steel-glass and marble-granite, were analysed at different driving force rates. The displacement was measured with a resolution of 8 nm. We were able to show that a measureable accelerated creep precedes the instability. Near the instability, this creep is sufficiently regular to serve as a basis for a highly accurate prediction of the onset of macroscopic slip [3]. In our model a prediction is possible within the last few percents of the preceding stick time. We are hopeful to extend this period. Furthermore, we showed that the slow creep as well as the fast slip can be described very well by the Dieterich-Ruina-friction law, if we include the contribution of local contact rigidity. The simulation meets the experimental curves over five orders of magnitude. This friction law was originally formulated for rocks [4,5] and takes into account the dependency of the coefficient of friction on the sliding velocity and on the contact history. The simulations using the Dieterich-Ruina-friction law back up the observation of a universal behaviour of the creep's acceleration. We are working on several extensions of our model to more dimensions in order to move closer towards representing a full three-dimensional continuum. The first step will be an extension to two degrees of freedom to analyse the interdependencies of the instabilities. We also plan

  15. Understanding paradigms used for nursing research.

    PubMed

    Weaver, Kathryn; Olson, Joanne K

    2006-02-01

    The aims of this paper are to add clarity to the discussion about paradigms for nursing research and to consider integrative strategies for the development of nursing knowledge. Paradigms are sets of beliefs and practices, shared by communities of researchers, which regulate inquiry within disciplines. The various paradigms are characterized by ontological, epistemological and methodological differences in their approaches to conceptualizing and conducting research, and in their contribution towards disciplinary knowledge construction. Researchers may consider these differences so vast that one paradigm is incommensurable with another. Alternatively, researchers may ignore these differences and either unknowingly combine paradigms inappropriately or neglect to conduct needed research. To accomplish the task of developing nursing knowledge for use in practice, there is a need for a critical, integrated understanding of the paradigms used for nursing inquiry. We describe the evolution and influence of positivist, postpositivist, interpretive and critical theory research paradigms. Using integrative review, we compare and contrast the paradigms in terms of their philosophical underpinnings and scientific contribution. A pragmatic approach to theory development through synthesis of cumulative knowledge relevant to nursing practice is suggested. This requires that inquiry start with assessment of existing knowledge from disparate studies to identify key substantive content and gaps. Knowledge development in under-researched areas could be accomplished through integrative strategies that preserve theoretical integrity and strengthen research approaches associated with various philosophical perspectives. These strategies may include parallel studies within the same substantive domain using different paradigms; theoretical triangulation to combine findings from paradigmatically diverse studies; integrative reviews; and mixed method studies. Nurse scholars are urged to

  16. Advancing Clinical Proteomics via Analysis Based on Biological Complexes: A Tale of Five Paradigms.

    PubMed

    Goh, Wilson Wen Bin; Wong, Limsoon

    2016-09-02

    Despite advances in proteomic technologies, idiosyncratic data issues, for example, incomplete coverage and inconsistency, resulting in large data holes, persist. Moreover, because of naïve reliance on statistical testing and its accompanying p values, differential protein signatures identified from such proteomics data have little diagnostic power. Thus, deploying conventional analytics on proteomics data is insufficient for identifying novel drug targets or precise yet sensitive biomarkers. Complex-based analysis is a new analytical approach that has potential to resolve these issues but requires formalization. We categorize complex-based analysis into five method classes or paradigms and propose an even-handed yet comprehensive evaluation rubric based on both simulated and real data. The first four paradigms are well represented in the literature. The fifth and newest paradigm, the network-paired (NP) paradigm, represented by a method called Extremely Small SubNET (ESSNET), dominates in precision-recall and reproducibility, maintains strong performance in small sample sizes, and sensitively detects low-abundance complexes. In contrast, the commonly used over-representation analysis (ORA) and direct-group (DG) test paradigms maintain good overall precision but have severe reproducibility issues. The other two paradigms considered here are the hit-rate and rank-based network analysis paradigms; both of these have good precision-recall and reproducibility, but they do not consider low-abundance complexes. Therefore, given its strong performance, NP/ESSNET may prove to be a useful approach for improving the analytical resolution of proteomics data. Additionally, given its stability, it may also be a powerful new approach toward functional enrichment tests, much like its ORA and DG counterparts.

  17. Generating clock signals for a cycle accurate, cycle reproducible FPGA based hardware accelerator

    DOEpatents

    Asaad, Sameth W.; Kapur, Mohit

    2016-01-05

    A method, system and computer program product are disclosed for generating clock signals for a cycle accurate FPGA based hardware accelerator used to simulate operations of a device-under-test (DUT). In one embodiment, the DUT includes multiple device clocks generating multiple device clock signals at multiple frequencies and at a defined frequency ratio; and the FPG hardware accelerator includes multiple accelerator clocks generating multiple accelerator clock signals to operate the FPGA hardware accelerator to simulate the operations of the DUT. In one embodiment, operations of the DUT are mapped to the FPGA hardware accelerator, and the accelerator clock signals are generated at multiple frequencies and at the defined frequency ratio of the frequencies of the multiple device clocks, to maintain cycle accuracy between the DUT and the FPGA hardware accelerator. In an embodiment, the FPGA hardware accelerator may be used to control the frequencies of the multiple device clocks.

  18. Macrostrategies: Creating Paradigm-versus-Paradigm Thinking.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hill, Larry K.

    1991-01-01

    Responds to "macrostrategies" concept in counseling advanced in previous articles by Herr, Ivey and Rigazio-DiGilio, and Dinkmeyer relative to broadening the service delivery perspective of the profession and thereby sustaining its heritage. Claims this work contributes significantly to strengthening a paradigm shift in that direction.…

  19. Passive motion paradigm: an alternative to optimal control.

    PubMed

    Mohan, Vishwanathan; Morasso, Pietro

    2011-01-01

    IN THE LAST YEARS, OPTIMAL CONTROL THEORY (OCT) HAS EMERGED AS THE LEADING APPROACH FOR INVESTIGATING NEURAL CONTROL OF MOVEMENT AND MOTOR COGNITION FOR TWO COMPLEMENTARY RESEARCH LINES: behavioral neuroscience and humanoid robotics. In both cases, there are general problems that need to be addressed, such as the "degrees of freedom (DoFs) problem," the common core of production, observation, reasoning, and learning of "actions." OCT, directly derived from engineering design techniques of control systems quantifies task goals as "cost functions" and uses the sophisticated formal tools of optimal control to obtain desired behavior (and predictions). We propose an alternative "softer" approach passive motion paradigm (PMP) that we believe is closer to the biomechanics and cybernetics of action. The basic idea is that actions (overt as well as covert) are the consequences of an internal simulation process that "animates" the body schema with the attractor dynamics of force fields induced by the goal and task-specific constraints. This internal simulation offers the brain a way to dynamically link motor redundancy with task-oriented constraints "at runtime," hence solving the "DoFs problem" without explicit kinematic inversion and cost function computation. We argue that the function of such computational machinery is not only restricted to shaping motor output during action execution but also to provide the self with information on the feasibility, consequence, understanding and meaning of "potential actions." In this sense, taking into account recent developments in neuroscience (motor imagery, simulation theory of covert actions, mirror neuron system) and in embodied robotics, PMP offers a novel framework for understanding motor cognition that goes beyond the engineering control paradigm provided by OCT. Therefore, the paper is at the same time a review of the PMP rationale, as a computational theory, and a perspective presentation of how to develop it for designing

  20. The Importance of Simulation Workflow and Data Management in the Accelerated Climate Modeling for Energy Project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bader, D. C.

    2015-12-01

    The Accelerated Climate Modeling for Energy (ACME) Project is concluding its first year. Supported by the Office of Science in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), its vision is to be "an ongoing, state-of-the-science Earth system modeling, modeling simulation and prediction project that optimizes the use of DOE laboratory resources to meet the science needs of the nation and the mission needs of DOE." Included in the "laboratory resources," is a large investment in computational, network and information technologies that will be utilized to both build better and more accurate climate models and broadly disseminate the data they generate. Current model diagnostic analysis and data dissemination technologies will not scale to the size of the simulations and the complexity of the models envisioned by ACME and other top tier international modeling centers. In this talk, the ACME Workflow component plans to meet these future needs will be described and early implementation examples will be highlighted.

  1. Fluctuation Flooding Method (FFM) for accelerating conformational transitions of proteins.

    PubMed

    Harada, Ryuhei; Takano, Yu; Shigeta, Yasuteru

    2014-03-28

    A powerful conformational sampling method for accelerating structural transitions of proteins, "Fluctuation Flooding Method (FFM)," is proposed. In FFM, cycles of the following steps enhance the transitions: (i) extractions of largely fluctuating snapshots along anisotropic modes obtained from trajectories of multiple independent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and (ii) conformational re-sampling of the snapshots via re-generations of initial velocities when re-starting MD simulations. In an application to bacteriophage T4 lysozyme, FFM successfully accelerated the open-closed transition with the 6 ns simulation starting solely from the open state, although the 1-μs canonical MD simulation failed to sample such a rare event.

  2. Fluctuation Flooding Method (FFM) for accelerating conformational transitions of proteins

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Harada, Ryuhei; Takano, Yu; Shigeta, Yasuteru

    2014-03-01

    A powerful conformational sampling method for accelerating structural transitions of proteins, "Fluctuation Flooding Method (FFM)," is proposed. In FFM, cycles of the following steps enhance the transitions: (i) extractions of largely fluctuating snapshots along anisotropic modes obtained from trajectories of multiple independent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and (ii) conformational re-sampling of the snapshots via re-generations of initial velocities when re-starting MD simulations. In an application to bacteriophage T4 lysozyme, FFM successfully accelerated the open-closed transition with the 6 ns simulation starting solely from the open state, although the 1-μs canonical MD simulation failed to sample such a rare event.

  3. Accelerated molecular dynamics simulations of the octopamine receptor using GPUs: discovery of an alternate agonist-binding position.

    PubMed

    Kastner, Kevin W; Izaguirre, Jesús A

    2016-10-01

    Octopamine receptors (OARs) perform key biological functions in invertebrates, making this class of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) worth considering for insecticide development. However, no crystal structures and very little research exists for OARs. Furthermore, GPCRs are large proteins, are suspended in a lipid bilayer, and are activated on the millisecond timescale, all of which make conventional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations infeasible, even if run on large supercomputers. However, accelerated Molecular Dynamics (aMD) simulations can reduce this timescale to even hundreds of nanoseconds, while running the simulations on graphics processing units (GPUs) would enable even small clusters of GPUs to have processing power equivalent to hundreds of CPUs. Our results show that aMD simulations run on GPUs can successfully obtain the active and inactive state conformations of a GPCR on this reduced timescale. Furthermore, we discovered a potential alternate active-state agonist-binding position in the octopamine receptor which has yet to be observed and may be a novel GPCR agonist-binding position. These results demonstrate that a complex biological system with an activation process on the millisecond timescale can be successfully simulated on the nanosecond timescale using a simple computing system consisting of a small number of GPUs. Proteins 2016; 84:1480-1489. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Numerical simulations of the superdetonative ram accelerator combusting flow field

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Soetrisno, Moeljo; Imlay, Scott T.; Roberts, Donald W.

    1993-01-01

    The effects of projectile canting and fins on the ram accelerator combusting flowfield and the possible cause of the ram accelerator unstart are investigated by performing axisymmetric, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional calculations. Calculations are performed using the INCA code for solving Navier-Stokes equations and a guasi-global combustion model of Westbrook and Dryer (1981, 1984), which includes N2 and nine reacting species (CH4, CO, CO2, H2, H, O2, O, OH, and H2O), which are allowed to undergo a 12-step reaction. It is found that, without canting, interactions between the fins, boundary layers, and combustion fronts are insufficient to unstart the projectile at superdetonative velocities. With canting, the projectile will unstart at flow conditions where it appears to accelerate without canting. Unstart occurs at some critical canting angle. It is also found that three-dimensionality plays an important role in the overall combustion process.

  5. Giga-electronvolt electrons due to a transition from laser wakefield acceleration to plasma wakefield acceleration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Masson-Laborde, P. E.; Mo, M. Z.; Ali, A.; Fourmaux, S.; Lassonde, P.; Kieffer, J. C.; Rozmus, W.; Teychenné, D.; Fedosejevs, R.

    2014-12-01

    We show through experiments that a transition from laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) regime to a plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) regime can drive electrons up to energies close to the GeV level. Initially, the acceleration mechanism is dominated by the bubble created by the laser in the nonlinear regime of LWFA, leading to an injection of a large number of electrons. After propagation beyond the depletion length, leading to a depletion of the laser pulse, whose transverse ponderomotive force is not able to sustain the bubble anymore, the high energy dense bunch of electrons propagating inside bubble will drive its own wakefield by a PWFA regime. This wakefield will be able to trap and accelerate a population of electrons up to the GeV level during this second stage. Three dimensional particle-in-cell simulations support this analysis and confirm the scenario.

  6. A heterogeneous system based on GPU and multi-core CPU for real-time fluid and rigid body simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    da Silva Junior, José Ricardo; Gonzalez Clua, Esteban W.; Montenegro, Anselmo; Lage, Marcos; Dreux, Marcelo de Andrade; Joselli, Mark; Pagliosa, Paulo A.; Kuryla, Christine Lucille

    2012-03-01

    Computational fluid dynamics in simulation has become an important field not only for physics and engineering areas but also for simulation, computer graphics, virtual reality and even video game development. Many efficient models have been developed over the years, but when many contact interactions must be processed, most models present difficulties or cannot achieve real-time results when executed. The advent of parallel computing has enabled the development of many strategies for accelerating the simulations. Our work proposes a new system which uses some successful algorithms already proposed, as well as a data structure organisation based on a heterogeneous architecture using CPUs and GPUs, in order to process the simulation of the interaction of fluids and rigid bodies. This successfully results in a two-way interaction between them and their surrounding objects. As far as we know, this is the first work that presents a computational collaborative environment which makes use of two different paradigms of hardware architecture for this specific kind of problem. Since our method achieves real-time results, it is suitable for virtual reality, simulation and video game fluid simulation problems.

  7. Particle Acceleration, Magnetic Field Generation and Emission from Relativistic Jets

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nishikawa, K.-I.; Hardee, P.; Hededal, C.; Mizuno, Yosuke; Fishman, G. Jerry; Hartmann, D. H.

    2006-01-01

    Nonthermal radiation observed from astrophysical systems containing relativistic jets and shocks, e.g., active galactic nuclei (AGNs), gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), supernova remnants, and Galactic microquasar systems usually have power-law emission spectra. Fermi acceleration is the mechanism usually assumed for the acceleration of particles in astrophysical environments. Recent PIC simulations using injected relativistic electron-ion (electro-positron) jets show that particle acceleration occurs within the downstream jet, rather than by the scattering of particles back and forth across the shock as in Fermi acceleration. Shock acceleration' is a ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability, other two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. The simulation results show that the Weibel instability is responsible for generating and amplifying highly nonuniform, small-scale magnetic fields. These magnetic fields contribute to the electron's transverse deflection behind the jet head. The "jitter" radiation from deflected electrons has different spectral properties than synchrotron radiation which is calculated in a uniform magnetic field. This jitter radiation may be important to understanding the complex time evolution and/or spectral structure in gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, and supernova remnants. We will review recent PIC simulations of relativistic jets and try to make a connection with observations.

  8. A Refined Computer Harassment Paradigm: Validation, and Test of Hypotheses about Target Characteristics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Siebler, Frank; Sabelus, Saskia; Bohner, Gerd

    2008-01-01

    A refined computer paradigm for assessing sexual harassment is presented, validated, and used for testing substantive hypotheses. Male participants were given an opportunity to send sexist jokes to a computer-simulated female chat partner. In Study 1 (N = 44), the harassment measure (number of sexist jokes sent) correlated positively with…

  9. Experimental simulation of the Unruh effect on an NMR quantum simulator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jin, FangZhou; Chen, HongWei; Rong, Xing; Zhou, Hui; Shi, MingJun; Zhang, Qi; Ju, ChenYong; Cai, YiFu; Luo, ShunLong; Peng, XinHua; Du, JiangFeng

    2016-03-01

    The Unruh effect is one of the most fundamental manifestations of the fact that the particle content of a field theory is observer dependent. However, there has been so far no experimental verification of this effect, as the associated temperatures lie far below any observable threshold. Recently, physical phenomena, which are of great experimental challenge, have been investigated by quantum simulations in various fields. Here we perform a proof-of-principle simulation of the evolution of fermionic modes under the Unruh effect with a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum simulator. By the quantum simulator, we experimentally demonstrate the behavior of Unruh temperature with acceleration, and we further investigate the quantum correlations quantified by quantum discord between two fermionic modes as seen by two relatively accelerated observers. It is shown that the quantum correlations can be created by the Unruh effect from the classically correlated states. Our work may provide a promising way to explore the quantum physics of accelerated systems.

  10. An accelerated algorithm for discrete stochastic simulation of reaction-diffusion systems using gradient-based diffusion and tau-leaping.

    PubMed

    Koh, Wonryull; Blackwell, Kim T

    2011-04-21

    Stochastic simulation of reaction-diffusion systems enables the investigation of stochastic events arising from the small numbers and heterogeneous distribution of molecular species in biological cells. Stochastic variations in intracellular microdomains and in diffusional gradients play a significant part in the spatiotemporal activity and behavior of cells. Although an exact stochastic simulation that simulates every individual reaction and diffusion event gives a most accurate trajectory of the system's state over time, it can be too slow for many practical applications. We present an accelerated algorithm for discrete stochastic simulation of reaction-diffusion systems designed to improve the speed of simulation by reducing the number of time-steps required to complete a simulation run. This method is unique in that it employs two strategies that have not been incorporated in existing spatial stochastic simulation algorithms. First, diffusive transfers between neighboring subvolumes are based on concentration gradients. This treatment necessitates sampling of only the net or observed diffusion events from higher to lower concentration gradients rather than sampling all diffusion events regardless of local concentration gradients. Second, we extend the non-negative Poisson tau-leaping method that was originally developed for speeding up nonspatial or homogeneous stochastic simulation algorithms. This method calculates each leap time in a unified step for both reaction and diffusion processes while satisfying the leap condition that the propensities do not change appreciably during the leap and ensuring that leaping does not cause molecular populations to become negative. Numerical results are presented that illustrate the improvement in simulation speed achieved by incorporating these two new strategies.

  11. Accounting for the fringe magnetic field from the bending magnet in a Monte Carlo accelerator treatment head simulation.

    PubMed

    O'Shea, Tuathan P; Foley, Mark J; Faddegon, Bruce A

    2011-06-01

    Monte Carlo (MC) simulation can be used for accurate electron beam treatment planning and modeling. Measurement of large electron fields, with the applicator removed and secondary collimator wide open, has been shown to provide accurate simulation parameters, including asymmetry in the measured dose, for the full range of clinical field sizes and patient positions. Recently, disassembly of the treatment head of a linear accelerator has been used to refine the simulation of the electron beam, setting tightly measured constraints on source and geometry parameters used in simulation. The simulation did not explicitly include the known deflection of the electron beam by a fringe magnetic field from the bending magnet, which extended into the treatment head. Instead, the secondary scattering foil and monitor chamber were unrealistically laterally offset to account for the beam deflection. This work is focused on accounting for this fringe magnetic field in treatment head simulation. The magnetic field below the exit window of a Siemens Oncor linear accelerator was measured with a Tesla-meter from 0 to 12 cm from the exit window and 1-3 cm off-axis. Treatment head simulation was performed with the EGSnrc/BEAMnrc code, modified to incorporate the effect of the magnetic field on charged particle transport. Simulations were used to analyze the sensitivity of dose profiles to various sources of asymmetry in the treatment head. This included the lateral spot offset and beam angle at the exit window, the fringe magnetic field and independent lateral offsets of the secondary scattering foil and electron monitor chamber. Simulation parameters were selected within the limits imposed by measurement uncertainties. Calculated dose distributions were then compared with those measured in water. The magnetic field was a maximum at the exit window, increasing from 0.006 T at 6 MeV to 0.020 T at 21 MeV and dropping to approximately 5% of the maximum at the secondary scattering foil. It

  12. A Theoretical Analysis of the Perceptual Span based on SWIFT Simulations of the n + 2 Boundary Paradigm

    PubMed Central

    Risse, Sarah; Hohenstein, Sven; Kliegl, Reinhold; Engbert, Ralf

    2014-01-01

    Eye-movement experiments suggest that the perceptual span during reading is larger than the fixated word, asymmetric around the fixation position, and shrinks in size contingent on the foveal processing load. We used the SWIFT model of eye-movement control during reading to test these hypotheses and their implications under the assumption of graded parallel processing of all words inside the perceptual span. Specifically, we simulated reading in the boundary paradigm and analysed the effects of denying the model to have valid preview of a parafoveal word n + 2 two words to the right of fixation. Optimizing the model parameters for the valid preview condition only, we obtained span parameters with remarkably realistic estimates conforming to the empirical findings on the size of the perceptual span. More importantly, the SWIFT model generated parafoveal processing up to word n + 2 without fitting the model to such preview effects. Our results suggest that asymmetry and dynamic modulation are plausible properties of the perceptual span in a parallel word-processing model such as SWIFT. Moreover, they seem to guide the flexible distribution of processing resources during reading between foveal and parafoveal words. PMID:24771996

  13. Paradigms for machine learning

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schlimmer, Jeffrey C.; Langley, Pat

    1991-01-01

    Five paradigms are described for machine learning: connectionist (neural network) methods, genetic algorithms and classifier systems, empirical methods for inducing rules and decision trees, analytic learning methods, and case-based approaches. Some dimensions are considered along with these paradigms vary in their approach to learning, and the basic methods are reviewed that are used within each framework, together with open research issues. It is argued that the similarities among the paradigms are more important than their differences, and that future work should attempt to bridge the existing boundaries. Finally, some recent developments in the field of machine learning are discussed, and their impact on both research and applications is examined.

  14. Particle Acceleration, Magnetic Field Generation in Relativistic Shocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nishikawa, Ken-Ichi; Hardee, P.; Hededal, C. B.; Richardson, G.; Sol, H.; Preece, R.; Fishman, G. J.

    2005-01-01

    Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability, two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated particle acceleration associated with a relativistic jet front propagating through an ambient plasma with and without initial magnetic fields. We find only small differences in the results between no ambient and weak ambient parallel magnetic fields. Simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the collisionless shock front accelerates particles perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation direction. New simulations with an ambient perpendicular magnetic field show the strong interaction between the relativistic jet and the magnetic fields. The magnetic fields are piled up by the jet and the jet electrons are bent, which creates currents and displacement currents. At the nonlinear stage, the magnetic fields are reversed by the current and the reconnection may take place. Due to these dynamics the jet and ambient electron are strongly accelerated in both parallel and perpendicular directions.

  15. Heavy ion acceleration in the radiation pressure acceleration and breakout afterburner regimes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petrov, G. M.; McGuffey, C.; Thomas, A. G. R.; Krushelnick, K.; Beg, F. N.

    2017-07-01

    We present a theoretical study of heavy ion acceleration from ultrathin (20 nm) gold foil irradiated by high-intensity sub-picosecond lasers. Using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, three laser systems are modeled that cover the range between femtosecond and picosecond pulses. By varying the laser pulse duration we observe a transition from radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) to the relativistic induced transparency (RIT) regime for heavy ions akin to light ions. The underlying physics of beam formation and acceleration is similar for light and heavy ions, however, nuances of the acceleration process make the heavy ions more challenging. A more detailed study involving variation of peak laser intensity I 0 and pulse duration τFWHM revealed that the transition point from RPA to RIT regime depends on the peak laser intensity on target and occurs for pulse duration {τ }{{F}{{W}}{{H}}{{M}}}{{R}{{P}}{{A}}\\to {{R}}{{I}}{{T}}}[{{f}}{{s}}]\\cong 210/\\sqrt{{I}0[{{W}} {{{cm}}}-2]/{10}21}. The most abundant gold ion and charge-to-mass ratio are Au51+ and q/M ≈ 1/4, respectively, half that of light ions. For ultrathin foils, on the order of one skin depth, we established a linear scaling of the maximum energy per nucleon (E/M)max with (q/M)max, which is more favorable than the quadratic one found previously. The numerical simulations predict heavy ion beams with very attractive properties for applications: high directionality (<10° half-angle), high fluxes (>1011 ions sr-1) and energy (>20 MeV/nucleon) from laser systems delivering >20 J of energy on target.

  16. Experimental Characterization of a Plasma Deflagration Accelerator for Simulating Fusion Wall Response to Disruption Events

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Underwood, Thomas; Loebner, Keith; Cappelli, Mark

    2016-10-01

    In this work, the suitability of a pulsed deflagration accelerator to simulate the interaction of edge-localized modes with plasma first wall materials is investigated. Experimental measurements derived from a suite of diagnostics are presented that focus on the both the properties of the plasma jet and the manner in which such jets couple with material interfaces. Detailed measurements of the thermodynamic plasma state variables within the jet are presented using a quadruple Langmuir probe operating in current-saturation mode. This data in conjunction with spectroscopic measurements of H α Stark broadening via a fast-framing, intensified CCD camera provide spatial and temporal measurements of how the plasma density and temperature scale as a function of input energy. Using these measurements, estimates for the energy flux associated with the deflagration accelerator are found to be completely tunable over a range spanning 150 MW m-2 - 30 GW m-2. The plasma-material interface is investigated using tungsten tokens exposed to the plasma plume under variable conditions. Visualizations of resulting shock structures are achieved through Schlieren cinematography and energy transfer dynamics are discussed by presenting temperature measurements of exposed materials. This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Stewardship Science Academic Program in addition to the National Defense Science Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

  17. Transient aerodynamic characteristics of vans during the accelerated overtaking process

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Li-ning; Wang, Xing-shen; Du, Guang-sheng; Liu, Zheng-gang; Lei, Li

    2018-04-01

    This paper studies the influence of the accelerated overtaking process on the vehicles' transient aerodynamic characteristics, through 3-D numerical simulations with dynamic meshes and sliding interface technique. Numerical accuracy is verified by experimental results. The aerodynamic characteristics of vehicles in the uniform overtaking process and the accelerated overtaking process are compared. It is shown that the speed variation of the overtaking van would influence the aerodynamic characteristics of the two vans, with greater influence on the overtaken van than on the overtaking van. The simulations of three different accelerated overtaking processes show that the greater the acceleration of the overtaking van, the larger the aerodynamic coefficients of the overtaken van. When the acceleration of the overtaking van increases by 1 m/s2, the maximum drag force, side force and yawing moment coefficients of the overtaken van all increase by more than 6%, to seriously affect the power performance and the stability of the vehicles. The analysis of the pressure fields under different accelerated conditions reveals the cause of variations of the aerodynamic characteristics of vehicles.

  18. Estimating degradation in real time and accelerated stability tests with random lot-to-lot variation: a simulation study.

    PubMed

    Magari, Robert T

    2002-03-01

    The effect of different lot-to-lot variability levels on the prediction of stability are studied based on two statistical models for estimating degradation in real time and accelerated stability tests. Lot-to-lot variability is considered as random in both models, and is attributed to two sources-variability at time zero, and variability of degradation rate. Real-time stability tests are modeled as a function of time while accelerated stability tests as a function of time and temperatures. Several data sets were simulated, and a maximum likelihood approach was used for estimation. The 95% confidence intervals for the degradation rate depend on the amount of lot-to-lot variability. When lot-to-lot degradation rate variability is relatively large (CV > or = 8%) the estimated confidence intervals do not represent the trend for individual lots. In such cases it is recommended to analyze each lot individually. Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmaceutical Association J Pharm Sci 91: 893-899, 2002

  19. Nonlinear dynamics of autonomous vehicles with limits on acceleration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Davis, L. C.

    2014-07-01

    The stability of autonomous vehicle platoons with limits on acceleration and deceleration is determined. If the leading-vehicle acceleration remains within the limits, all vehicles in the platoon remain within the limits when the relative-velocity feedback coefficient is equal to the headway time constant [k=1/h]. Furthermore, if the sensitivity α>1/h, no collisions occur. String stability for small perturbations is assumed and the initial condition is taken as the equilibrium state. Other values of k and α that give stability with no collisions are found from simulations. For vehicles with non-negligible mechanical response, simulations indicate that the acceleration-feedback-control gain might have to be dynamically adjusted to obtain optimal performance as the response time changes with engine speed. Stability is demonstrated for some perturbations that cause initial acceleration or deceleration greater than the limits, yet do not cause collisions.

  20. Anderson Acceleration for Fixed-Point Iterations

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

    Walker, Homer F.

    The purpose of this grant was to support research on acceleration methods for fixed-point iterations, with applications to computational frameworks and simulation problems that are of interest to DOE.

  1. Global Acceleration of Coronal Mass Ejections

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gopalswamy, Nat; Lara, Alejandro; Lepping, Ronald; Kaiser, Michael; Berdichevsky, Daniel; St. Cyr, O. Chris; Lazarus, Al

    1999-01-01

    Using the observed relation between speeds of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) near the Sun and in the solar wind, we estimate a global acceleration acting on the CMEs. Our study quantifies the qualitative results of Gosling [1997] and numerical simulations that CMEs at 1 AU with speeds closer to the solar wind. We found a linear relation between the global acceleration and the initial speed of the CMEs and the absolute value of the acceleration is similar to the slow solar wind acceleration. Our study naturally divides CMEs into fast and slow ones, the dividing line being the solar wind speed. Our results have important implications to space weather prediction models which need to incorporate this effect in estimating the CME arrival time at 1 AU. We show that the arrival times of CMEs at 1 AU are drastically different from the zero acceleration case.

  2. The menopausal mouse: a new neural paradigm of a distressing human condition.

    PubMed

    Danilovich, Natalia; Sairam, M Ram; Maysinger, Dusica

    2003-08-26

    Progressive and long-term sex hormone imbalance in the FSH-R haploinsufficient menopausal mouse leads to degenerative changes in the CNS associated with increased anxiety. The brain region most affected by aging in these mice is the hippocampus. Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) enzymatic activity and synapsin immunoreactivity are reduced at 20 months of age. Neurons in the dentate gyrus show signs of progressive degenerative changes, hypertrophy and glyosis, and subsequent cell shrinkage and death. These results suggest that the menopausal mouse mimics degenerative changes in the hippocampus of hormonally imbalanced aging humans. We propose using this animal model to test the effectiveness of potential therapeutics in paradigms of accelerated aging.

  3. Emotional states of drivers and the impact on speed, acceleration and traffic violations - a simulator study.

    PubMed

    Roidl, Ernst; Frehse, Berit; Höger, Rainer

    2014-09-01

    Maladjusted driving, such as aggressive driving and delayed reactions, is seen as one cause of traffic accidents. Such behavioural patterns could be influenced by strong emotions in the driver. The causes of emotions in traffic are divided into two distinct classes: personal factors and properties of the specific driving situation. In traffic situations, various appraisal factors are responsible for the nature and intensity of experienced emotions. These include whether another driver was accountable, whether goals were blocked and whether progress and safety were affected. In a simulator study, seventy-nine participants took part in four traffic situations which each elicited a different emotion. Each situation had critical elements (e.g. slow car, obstacle on the street) based on combinations of the appraisal factors. Driving parameters such as velocity, acceleration, and speeding, together with the experienced emotions, were recorded. Results indicate that anger leads to stronger acceleration and higher speeds even for 2 km beyond the emotion-eliciting event. Anxiety and contempt yielded similar but weaker effects, yet showed the same negative and dangerous driving pattern as anger. Fright correlated with stronger braking momentum and lower speeds directly after the critical event. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  4. The single lineup paradigm: A new way to manipulate target presence in eyewitness identification experiments.

    PubMed

    Oriet, Chris; Fitzgerald, Ryan J

    2018-02-01

    The suspect in eyewitness lineups may be guilty or innocent. These possibilities are traditionally simulated in eyewitness identification studies using a dual-lineup paradigm: All witnesses observe the same perpetrator and then receive one of two lineups. In this paradigm, the suspect's guilt is manipulated by including the perpetrator in one lineup and an innocent suspect in the other. The lineup is then filled with people matched to either the suspect (resulting in different fillers in perpetrator-present and perpetrator-absent lineups) or to the perpetrator (resulting in the same fillers in each lineup). An inescapable feature of the dual-lineup paradigm is that the perpetrator-present and perpetrator-absent lineups differ not only in the suspect's guilt, but also in their composition. Here, we describe a single-lineup paradigm: Subjects observe one of two perpetrators and then all subjects receive the same lineup containing one of the perpetrators. This alternative paradigm allows manipulation of the suspect's guilt without changing the lineup's composition. In three experiments, we applied the single-lineup paradigm to explore suspect-filler similarity and consistently found that increasing similarity reduced perpetrator identifications but did little to prevent innocent suspect misidentifications. Conversely, when fillers were matched to the perpetrator using a dual-lineup paradigm, increasing similarity reduced identification of perpetrators and innocent suspects. This finding suggests that the effect of filler similarity may depend on the person to whom the fillers are matched. We suggest that the single-lineup paradigm is a more ecologically valid and better controlled approach to creating suspect-matched lineups in laboratory investigations of eyewitness memory than existing procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  5. Physical and digital simulations for IVA robotics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hinman, Elaine; Workman, Gary L.

    1992-01-01

    Space based materials processing experiments can be enhanced through the use of IVA robotic systems. A program to determine requirements for the implementation of robotic systems in a microgravity environment and to develop some preliminary concepts for acceleration control of small, lightweight arms has been initiated with the development of physical and digital simulation capabilities. The physical simulation facilities incorporate a robotic workcell containing a Zymark Zymate II robot instrumented for acceleration measurements, which is able to perform materials transfer functions while flying on NASA's KC-135 aircraft during parabolic manuevers to simulate reduced gravity. Measurements of accelerations occurring during the reduced gravity periods will be used to characterize impacts of robotic accelerations in a microgravity environment in space. Digital simulations are being performed with TREETOPS, a NASA developed software package which is used for the dynamic analysis of systems with a tree topology. Extensive use of both simulation tools will enable the design of robotic systems with enhanced acceleration control for use in the space manufacturing environment.

  6. Electron heating and acceleration during magnetic reconnection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dahlin, Joel

    2017-10-01

    Magnetic reconnection is thought to be an important driver of energetic particles in a variety of astrophysical phenomena such as solar flares and magnetospheric storms. However, the observed fraction of energy imparted to a nonthermal component can vary widely in different regimes. We use kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to demonstrate the important role of the non-reversing (guide) field in controlling the efficiency of electron acceleration in collisionless reconnection. In reconnection where the guide field is smaller than the reconnecting component, the dominant electron accelerator is a Fermi-type mechanism that preferentially energizes the most energetic particles. In strong guide field reconnection, the field-line contraction that drives the Fermi mechanism becomes weak. Instead, parallel electric fields are primarily responsible for driving electron heating but are ineffective in driving the energetic component of the spectrum. Three-dimensional simulations reveal that the stochastic magnetic field that develops during 3D guide field reconnection plays a vital role in particle acceleration and transport. The reconnection outflows that drive Fermi acceleration also expel accelerating particles from energization regions. In 2D reconnection, electrons are trapped in island cores and acceleration ceases, whereas in 3D the stochastic magnetic field enables energetic electrons to leak out of islands and freely sample regions of energy release. A finite guide field is required to break initial 2D symmetry and facilitate escape from island structures. We show that reconnection with a guide field comparable to the reconnecting field generates the greatest number of energetic electrons, a regime where both (a) the Fermi mechanism is an efficient driver and (b) energetic electrons may freely access acceleration sites. These results have important implications for electron acceleration in solar flares and reconnection-driven dissipation in turbulence.

  7. Giga-electronvolt electrons due to a transition from laser wakefield acceleration to plasma wakefield acceleration

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

    Masson-Laborde, P. E., E-mail: paul-edouard.masson-laborde@cea.fr; Teychenné, D.; Mo, M. Z.

    2014-12-15

    We show through experiments that a transition from laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) regime to a plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) regime can drive electrons up to energies close to the GeV level. Initially, the acceleration mechanism is dominated by the bubble created by the laser in the nonlinear regime of LWFA, leading to an injection of a large number of electrons. After propagation beyond the depletion length, leading to a depletion of the laser pulse, whose transverse ponderomotive force is not able to sustain the bubble anymore, the high energy dense bunch of electrons propagating inside bubble will drive its ownmore » wakefield by a PWFA regime. This wakefield will be able to trap and accelerate a population of electrons up to the GeV level during this second stage. Three dimensional particle-in-cell simulations support this analysis and confirm the scenario.« less

  8. Oxygen acceleration in magnetotail reconnection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liang, Haoming; Lapenta, Giovanni; Walker, Raymond J.; Schriver, David; El-Alaoui, Mostafa; Berchem, Jean

    2017-01-01

    Motivated by the observed high concentration of oxygen ions in the magnetotail during enhanced geomagnetic activity, we investigated the oxygen acceleration in magnetotail reconnection by using 2.5-D implicit particle-in-cell simulations. We found that lobe oxygen ions can enter the downstream outflow region, i.e., the outflow region downstream of the dipolarization fronts (DFs) or the reconnection jet fronts. Without entering the reconnection exhaust, they are accelerated by the Hall electric field. They can populate the downstream outflow region before the DFs arrive there. This acceleration is in addition to acceleration in the exhaust by the Hall and reconnection electric fields. Oxygen ions in the preexisting current sheet are reflected by the propagating DF creating a reflected beam with a hook shape in phase space. This feature can be applied to deduce a history of the DF speed. However, it is difficult to observe for protons because their typical thermal velocity in the plasma sheet is comparable those of the DF and the reflection speed. The oxygen ions from the lobes and the preexisting current sheet form multiple beams in the distribution function in front of the DF. By comparing oxygen concentrations of 50%, 5%, and 0% with the same current sheet thickness, we found that the DF thickness is proportional to the oxygen concentration in the preexisting current sheet. All the simulation results can be used to compare with the observations from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission.

  9. Monte Carlo simulation of collisionless shocks showing preferential acceleration of high A/Z particles. [in cosmic rays

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ellison, D. C.; Jones, F. C.; Eichler, D.

    1981-01-01

    A collisionless quasi-parallel shock is simulated by Monte Carlo techniques. The scattering of all velocity particles from thermal to high energy is assumed to occur so that the mean free path is directly proportional to velocity times the mass-to-charge-ratio, and inversely proporational to the plasma density. The shock profile and velocity spectra are obtained, showing preferential acceleration of high A/Z particles relative to protons. The inclusion of the back pressure of the scattering particles on the inflowing plasma produces a smoothing of the shock profile, which implies that the spectra are steeper than for a discontinuous shock.

  10. Particle acceleration in laser-driven magnetic reconnection

    DOE PAGES

    Totorica, S. R.; Abel, T.; Fiuza, F.

    2017-04-03

    Particle acceleration induced by magnetic reconnection is thought to be a promising candidate for producing the nonthermal emissions associated with explosive phenomena such as solar flares, pulsar wind nebulae, and jets from active galactic nuclei. Laboratory experiments can play an important role in the study of the detailed microphysics of magnetic reconnection and the dominant particle acceleration mechanisms. We have used two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to study particle acceleration in high Lundquist number reconnection regimes associated with laser-driven plasma experiments. For current experimental conditions, we show that nonthermal electrons can be accelerated to energies more than an order ofmore » magnitude larger than the initial thermal energy. The nonthermal electrons gain their energy mainly from the reconnection electric field near the X points, and particle injection into the reconnection layer and escape from the finite system establish a distribution of energies that resembles a power-law spectrum. Energetic electrons can also become trapped inside the plasmoids that form in the current layer and gain additional energy from the electric field arising from the motion of the plasmoid. We compare simulations for finite and infinite periodic systems to demonstrate the importance of particle escape on the shape of the spectrum. Based on our findings, we provide an analytical estimate of the maximum electron energy and threshold condition for observing suprathermal electron acceleration in terms of experimentally tunable parameters. We also discuss experimental signatures, including the angular distribution of the accelerated particles, and construct synthetic detector spectra. Finally, these results open the way for novel experimental studies of particle acceleration induced by reconnection.« less

  11. Comparisons of musculoskeletal complaints and data entry between a sitting and a sit-stand workstation paradigm.

    PubMed

    Husemann, Britta; Von Mach, Carolin Yvonne; Borsotto, Daniel; Zepf, Kirsten Isabel; Scharnbacher, Jutta

    2009-06-01

    Seated working positions are often regarded as a cause for discomfort in the musculoskeletal system. Performing work in different working positions--that is, alternating between sitting and standing (sit-stand workstation paradigm)--could help reduce physical complaints. The questions were whether performing office work partly in a standing position leads to reduced complaints and whether standing would change the efficiency of data entry office work. We investigated the effect of a sit-stand workstation paradigmd during experimental data entry office work on physical and psychological complaints and data entry efficiency by conducting a randomized controlled trial with 60 male participants ages 18 to 35 years. In this experiment, musculoskeletal complaints were reduced by a sit-stand workstation paradigm. A trend could be identified indicating a small but nonsignificant loss of efficiency in data entry while standing. A sit-stand workstation paradigm reduces musculoskeletal complaints without considerably affecting data entry efficiency under the presented study conditions (young male participants, short duration, fixed and controlled sit-stand workstation paradigm, simulated experimental working condition). According to the present data, implementing a sit-stand workstation paradigm can be an effective workplace health intervention to reduce musculoskeletal complaints. This experiment encourages further studies on the effectiveness of a sit-stand workstation paradigm. Experimental research and field studies that prove the reduction of complaints when introducing a sit-stand workstation paradigm in the workplace could be the basis for evidence-based recommendations regarding such interventions.

  12. Rapid acceleration of protons upstream of earthward propagating dipolarization fronts

    PubMed Central

    Ukhorskiy, AY; Sitnov, MI; Merkin, VG; Artemyev, AV

    2013-01-01

    [1] Transport and acceleration of ions in the magnetotail largely occurs in the form of discrete impulsive events associated with a steep increase of the tail magnetic field normal to the neutral plane (Bz), which are referred to as dipolarization fronts. The goal of this paper is to investigate how protons initially located upstream of earthward moving fronts are accelerated at their encounter. According to our analytical analysis and simplified two-dimensional test-particle simulations of equatorially mirroring particles, there are two regimes of proton acceleration: trapping and quasi-trapping, which are realized depending on whether the front is preceded by a negative depletion in Bz. We then use three-dimensional test-particle simulations to investigate how these acceleration processes operate in a realistic magnetotail geometry. For this purpose we construct an analytical model of the front which is superimposed onto the ambient field of the magnetotail. According to our numerical simulations, both trapping and quasi-trapping can produce rapid acceleration of protons by more than an order of magnitude. In the case of trapping, the acceleration levels depend on the amount of time particles stay in phase with the front which is controlled by the magnetic field curvature ahead of the front and the front width. Quasi-trapping does not cause particle scattering out of the equatorial plane. Energization levels in this case are limited by the number of encounters particles have with the front before they get magnetized behind it. PMID:26167430

  13. Impact of Different Visual Field Testing Paradigms on Sample Size Requirements for Glaucoma Clinical Trials.

    PubMed

    Wu, Zhichao; Medeiros, Felipe A

    2018-03-20

    Visual field testing is an important endpoint in glaucoma clinical trials, and the testing paradigm used can have a significant impact on the sample size requirements. To investigate this, this study included 353 eyes of 247 glaucoma patients seen over a 3-year period to extract real-world visual field rates of change and variability estimates to provide sample size estimates from computer simulations. The clinical trial scenario assumed that a new treatment was added to one of two groups that were both under routine clinical care, with various treatment effects examined. Three different visual field testing paradigms were evaluated: a) evenly spaced testing, b) United Kingdom Glaucoma Treatment Study (UKGTS) follow-up scheme, which adds clustered tests at the beginning and end of follow-up in addition to evenly spaced testing, and c) clustered testing paradigm, with clusters of tests at the beginning and end of the trial period and two intermediary visits. The sample size requirements were reduced by 17-19% and 39-40% using the UKGTS and clustered testing paradigms, respectively, when compared to the evenly spaced approach. These findings highlight how the clustered testing paradigm can substantially reduce sample size requirements and improve the feasibility of future glaucoma clinical trials.

  14. Prolonged electron accelerations at a high-Mach-number, quasi-perpendicular shock

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Matsumoto, Y.; Amano, T.; Kato, T.; Hoshino, M.

    2016-12-01

    Elucidating acceleration mechanisms of charged particles have been of great interests in laboratory, space, and astrophysical plasmas. Among other mechanisms, a collision-less shock is thought as an efficient particle accelerator. The idea has been strengthened by radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray observations of astrophysical objects such as supernova remnant shocks, where it has been indicated that protons and electrons are efficiently accelerated to TeV energies at such very strong shock waves. Efficient electron accelerations at high-Mach-number shocks was also suggested recently by in-situ measurements at the Saturn's bow shock. Motivated by these circumstances, laboratory experiments using high-power laser facilities emerge to provide a new platform to tackle these problems.Numerical simulations have revealed that electrons can be efficiently heated and accelerated via so-called the shock surfing acceleration mechanism in which electron-scale Buneman instability played key roles. Recently, Matsumoto et al. [2015] proposed a stochastic acceleration mechanism by turbulent reconnection in the shock transition region through excitation of the ion Weibel instability. In order to deal with the two different acceleration mechanisms in a self-consistent system, we examined 3D PIC simulations of a quasi-perpendicular, high-Mach-number shock. We successfully followed a long term evolution in which two different acceleration mechanisms coexist in the 3D shock structure. The Buneman instability is strongly excited ahead of the shock front in the same manner as have been found in 2D simulations. The surfing acceleration is found to be very effective in the present 3D system. In the transition region, the ion-beam Weibel instability generated strong magnetic field turbulence in 3D space. Energetic electrons, which initially experienced the surfing acceleration, undergo pitch-angle diffusion by interacting with the turbulent fields and thus stay in the upstream regions. The ion

  15. Acceleration techniques for dependability simulation. M.S. Thesis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barnette, James David

    1995-01-01

    As computer systems increase in complexity, the need to project system performance from the earliest design and development stages increases. We have to employ simulation for detailed dependability studies of large systems. However, as the complexity of the simulation model increases, the time required to obtain statistically significant results also increases. This paper discusses an approach that is application independent and can be readily applied to any process-based simulation model. Topics include background on classical discrete event simulation and techniques for random variate generation and statistics gathering to support simulation.

  16. Accelerator Test of an Imaging Calorimeter

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Christl, Mark J.; Adams, James H., Jr.; Binns, R. W.; Derrickson, J. H.; Fountain, W. F.; Howell, L. W.; Gregory, J. C.; Hink, P. L.; Israel, M. H.; Kippen, R. M.; hide

    2001-01-01

    The Imaging Calorimeter for ACCESS (ICA) utilizes a thin sampling calorimeter concept for direct measurements of high-energy cosmic rays. The ICA design uses arrays of small scintillating fibers to measure the energy and trajectory of the produced cascades. A test instrument has been developed to study the performance of this concept at accelerator energies and for comparison with simulations. Two test exposures have been completed using a CERN test beam. Some results from the accelerator tests are presented.

  17. Acceleration environment of payloads while being handled by the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Turnbull, J. F.

    1983-01-01

    Described in this paper is the method used in the Draper Remote Manipulator System (RMS) Simulation to compute linear accelerations at the point on the SPAS01 payload where its accelerometers are mounted. Simulated accelerometer output for representative on-orbit activities is presented. The objectives of post-flight analysis of SPAS01 data are discussed. Finally, the point is made that designers of acceleration-dependent payloads may have an interest in the capability of simulating the acceleration environment of payloads while under the control of the overall Payload Deployment and retrieval System (PDRS) that includes the Orbiter and its attitude control system as well as the Remote Manipulator Arm.

  18. Establishing the Biodynamics Data Resource (BDR): Human Volunteer Impact Acceleration Research Data in the BDR

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-10-01

    accelerations (+Z) were applied to HRVs in the supine position to mimic the acceleration of an ejection seat , while runs simulating aircraft crashes were...Naval Biodynamics Laboratory, 1985). The vertical testing provided a more authentic ejection seat simulation than was achievable using axial...impact acceleration exposures with hundreds of human research volunteers. The resulting volumes of kinematic and physiological data serve as a

  19. Optimizing laser-driven proton acceleration from overdense targets

    PubMed Central

    Stockem Novo, A.; Kaluza, M. C.; Fonseca, R. A.; Silva, L. O.

    2016-01-01

    We demonstrate how to tune the main ion acceleration mechanism in laser-plasma interactions to collisionless shock acceleration, thus achieving control over the final ion beam properties (e. g. maximum energy, divergence, number of accelerated ions). We investigate this technique with three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations and illustrate a possible experimental realisation. The setup consists of an isolated solid density target, which is preheated by a first laser pulse to initiate target expansion, and a second one to trigger acceleration. The timing between the two laser pulses allows to access all ion acceleration regimes, ranging from target normal sheath acceleration, to hole boring and collisionless shock acceleration. We further demonstrate that the most energetic ions are produced by collisionless shock acceleration, if the target density is near-critical, ne ≈ 0.5 ncr. A scaling of the laser power shows that 100 MeV protons may be achieved in the PW range. PMID:27435449

  20. NBodyLab Simulation Experiments with GRAPE-6a AND MD-GRAPE2 Acceleration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Johnson, V.; Ates, A.

    2005-12-01

    NbodyLab is an astrophysical N-body simulation testbed for student research. It is accessible via a web interface and runs as a backend framework under Linux. NbodyLab can generate data models or perform star catalog lookups, transform input data sets, perform direct summation gravitational force calculations using a variety of integration schemes, and produce analysis and visualization output products. NEMO (Teuben 1994), a popular stellar dynamics toolbox, is used for some functions. NbodyLab integrators can optionally utilize two types of low-cost desktop supercomputer accelerators, the newly available GRAPE-6a (125 Gflops peak) and the MD-GRAPE2 (64-128 Gflops peak). The initial version of NBodyLab was presented at ADASS 2002. This paper summarizes software enhancements developed subsequently, focusing on GRAPE-6a related enhancements, and gives examples of computational experiments and astrophysical research, including star cluster and solar system studies, that can be conducted with the new testbed functionality.

  1. Vlasov simulations of electron acceleration by radio frequency heating near the upper hybrid layer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Najmi, A.; Eliasson, B.; Shao, X.; Milikh, G.; Sharma, A. S.; Papadopoulos, K.

    2017-10-01

    It is shown by using a combination of Vlasov and test particles simulations that the electron distribution function resulting from energization due to Upper Hybrid (UH) plasma turbulence depends critically on the closeness of the pump wave to the double resonance, defined as ω ≈ ωUH ≈ nωce, where n is an integer. For pump frequencies, away from the double resonance, the electron distribution function is very close to Maxwellian, while as the pump frequency approaches the double resonance, it develops a high energy tail. The simulations show turbulence involving coupling between Lower Hybrid (LH) and UH waves, followed by excitation of Electron Bernstein (EB) modes. For the particular case of a pump with frequency between n = 3 and n = 4, the EB modes cover the range from the first to the 5th mode. The simulations show that when the injected wave frequency is between the 3rd and 4th harmonics of the electron cyclotron frequency, bulk electron heating occurs due to the interaction between the electrons and large amplitude EB waves, primarily on the first EB branch leading to an essentially thermal distribution. On the other hand, when the frequency is slightly above the 4th electron cyclotron harmonic, the resonant interaction is predominantly due to the UH branch and leads to a further acceleration of high-velocity electrons and a distribution function with a suprathermal tail of energetic electrons. The results are consistent with ionospheric experiments and relevant to the production of Artificial Ionospheric Plasma Layers.

  2. 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.

  3. Improved protocol and data analysis for accelerated shelf-life estimation of solid dosage forms.

    PubMed

    Waterman, Kenneth C; Carella, Anthony J; Gumkowski, Michael J; Lukulay, Patrick; MacDonald, Bruce C; Roy, Michael C; Shamblin, Sheri L

    2007-04-01

    To propose and test a new accelerated aging protocol for solid-state, small molecule pharmaceuticals which provides faster predictions for drug substance and drug product shelf-life. The concept of an isoconversion paradigm, where times in different temperature and humidity-controlled stability chambers are set to provide a critical degradant level, is introduced for solid-state pharmaceuticals. Reliable estimates for temperature and relative humidity effects are handled using a humidity-corrected Arrhenius equation, where temperature and relative humidity are assumed to be orthogonal. Imprecision is incorporated into a Monte-Carlo simulation to propagate the variations inherent in the experiment. In early development phases, greater imprecision in predictions is tolerated to allow faster screening with reduced sampling. Early development data are then used to design appropriate test conditions for more reliable later stability estimations. Examples are reported showing that predicted shelf-life values for lower temperatures and different relative humidities are consistent with the measured shelf-life values at those conditions. The new protocols and analyses provide accurate and precise shelf-life estimations in a reduced time from current state of the art.

  4. EFFECTS OF LASER RADIATION ON MATTER: Simulation of photon acceleration upon irradiation of a mylar target by femtosecond laser pulses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Andreev, Stepan N.; Rukhadze, Anri A.; Tarakanov, V. P.; Yakutov, B. P.

    2010-01-01

    Acceleration of protons is simulated by the particle-in-cell (PIC) method upon irradiation of mylar targets of different thicknesses by femtosecond plane-polarised pulsed laser radiation and at different angles of radiation incidence on the target. The comparison of the results of calculations with the experimental data obtained in recent experiments shows their good agreement. The optimal angle of incidence (458) at which the proton energy achieves its absolute maximum is obtained.

  5. Engineering paradigms and anthropogenic global change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bohle, Martin

    2016-04-01

    This essay discusses 'paradigms' as means to conceive anthropogenic global change. Humankind alters earth-systems because of the number of people, the patterns of consumption of resources, and the alterations of environments. This process of anthropogenic global change is a composite consisting of societal (in the 'noosphere') and natural (in the 'bio-geosphere') features. Engineering intercedes these features; e.g. observing stratospheric ozone depletion has led to understanding it as a collateral artefact of a particular set of engineering choices. Beyond any specific use-case, engineering works have a common function; e.g. civil-engineering intersects economic activity and geosphere. People conceive their actions in the noosphere including giving purpose to their engineering. The 'noosphere' is the ensemble of social, cultural or political concepts ('shared subjective mental insights') of people. Among people's concepts are the paradigms how to shape environments, production systems and consumption patterns given their societal preferences. In that context, engineering is a means to implement a given development path. Four paradigms currently are distinguishable how to make anthropogenic global change happening. Among the 'engineering paradigms' for anthropogenic global change, 'adaptation' is a paradigm for a business-as-usual scenario and steady development paths of societies. Applying this paradigm implies to forecast the change to come, to appropriately design engineering works, and to maintain as far as possible the current production and consumption patterns. An alternative would be to adjust incrementally development paths of societies, namely to 'dovetail' anthropogenic and natural fluxes of matter and energy. To apply that paradigm research has to identify 'natural boundaries', how to modify production and consumption patterns, and how to tackle process in the noosphere to render alterations of common development paths acceptable. A further alternative

  6. Novel, Moon and Mars, partial gravity simulation paradigms and their effects on the balance between cell growth and cell proliferation during early plant development.

    PubMed

    Manzano, Aránzazu; Herranz, Raúl; den Toom, Leonardus A; Te Slaa, Sjoerd; Borst, Guus; Visser, Martijn; Medina, F Javier; van Loon, Jack J W A

    2018-01-01

    Clinostats and Random Positioning Machine (RPM) are used to simulate microgravity, but, for space exploration, we need to know the response of living systems to fractional levels of gravity (partial gravity) as they exist on Moon and Mars. We have developed and compared two different paradigms to simulate partial gravity using the RPM, one by implementing a centrifuge on the RPM (RPM HW ), the other by applying specific software protocols to driving the RPM motors (RPM SW ). The effects of the simulated partial gravity were tested in plant root meristematic cells, a system with known response to real and simulated microgravity. Seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana were germinated under simulated Moon (0.17  g ) and Mars (0.38  g ) gravity. In parallel, seeds germinated under simulated microgravity (RPM), or at 1  g control conditions. Fixed root meristematic cells from 4-day grown seedlings were analyzed for cell proliferation rate and rate of ribosome biogenesis using morphometrical methods and molecular markers of the regulation of cell cycle and nucleolar activity. Cell proliferation appeared increased and cell growth was depleted under Moon gravity, compared with the 1  g control. The effects were even higher at the Moon level than at simulated microgravity, indicating that meristematic competence (balance between cell growth and proliferation) is also affected at this gravity level. However, the results at the simulated Mars level were close to the 1  g static control. This suggests that the threshold for sensing and responding to gravity alteration in the root would be at a level intermediate between Moon and Mars gravity. Both partial g simulation strategies seem valid and show similar results at Moon g -levels, but further research is needed, in spaceflight and simulation facilities, especially around and beyond Mars g levels to better understand more precisely the differences and constrains in the use of these facilities for the space biology community.

  7. A gas-dynamical approach to radiation pressure acceleration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schmidt, Peter; Boine-Frankenheim, Oliver

    2016-06-01

    The study of high intensity ion beams driven by high power pulsed lasers is an active field of research. Of particular interest is the radiation pressure acceleration, for which simulations predict narrow band ion energies up to GeV. We derive a laser-piston model by applying techniques for non-relativistic gas-dynamics. The model reveals a laser intensity limit, below which sufficient laser-piston acceleration is impossible. The relation between target thickness and piston velocity as a function of the laser pulse length yields an approximation for the permissible target thickness. We performed one-dimensional Particle-In-Cell simulations to confirm the predictions of the analytical model. These simulations also reveal the importance of electromagnetic energy transport. We find that this energy transport limits the achievable compression and rarefies the plasma.

  8. Possibility for ultra-bright electron beam acceleration in dielectric wakefield accelerators

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

    Simakov, Evgenya I.; Carlsten, Bruce E.; Shchegolkov, Dmitry Yu.

    2012-12-21

    We describe a conceptual proposal to combine the Dielectric Wakefield Accelerator (DWA) with the Emittance Exchanger (EEX) to demonstrate a high-brightness DWA with a gradient of above 100 MV/m and less than 0.1% induced energy spread in the accelerated beam. We currently evaluate the DWA concept as a performance upgrade for the future LANL signature facility MaRIE with the goal of significantly reducing the electron beam energy spread. The preconceptual design for MaRIE is underway at LANL, with the design of the electron linear accelerator being one of the main research goals. Although generally the baseline design needs to bemore » conservative and rely on existing technology, any future upgrade would immediately call for looking into the advanced accelerator concepts capable of boosting the electron beam energy up by a few GeV in a very short distance without degrading the beam's quality. Scoping studies have identified large induced energy spreads as the major cause of beam quality degradation in high-gradient advanced accelerators for free-electron lasers. We describe simulations demonstrating that trapezoidal bunch shapes can be used in a DWA to greatly reduce the induced beam energy spread, and, in doing so, also preserve the beam brightness at levels never previously achieved. This concept has the potential to advance DWA technology to a level that would make it suitable for the upgrades of the proposed Los Alamos MaRIE signature facility.« less

  9. MO-DE-BRA-02: SIMAC: A Simulation Tool for Teaching Linear Accelerator Physics

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

    Carlone, M; Harnett, N; Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

    Purpose: The first goal of this work is to develop software that can simulate the physics of linear accelerators (linac). The second goal is to show that this simulation tool is effective in teaching linac physics to medical physicists and linac service engineers. Methods: Linacs were modeled using analytical expressions that can correctly describe the physical response of a linac to parameter changes in real time. These expressions were programmed with a graphical user interface in order to produce an environment similar to that of linac service mode. The software, “SIMAC”, has been used as a learning aid in amore » professional development course 3 times (2014 – 2016) as well as in a physics graduate program. Exercises were developed to supplement the didactic components of the courses consisting of activites designed to reinforce the concepts of beam loading; the effect of steering coil currents on beam symmetry; and the relationship between beam energy and flatness. Results: SIMAC was used to teach 35 professionals (medical physicists; regulators; service engineers; 1 week course) as well as 20 graduate students (1 month project). In the student evaluations, 85% of the students rated the effectiveness of SIMAC as very good or outstanding, and 70% rated the software as the most effective part of the courses. Exercise results were collected showing that 100% of the students were able to use the software correctly. In exercises involving gross changes to linac operating points (i.e. energy changes) the majority of students were able to correctly perform these beam adjustments. Conclusion: Software simulation(SIMAC), can be used to effectively teach linac physics. In short courses, students were able to correctly make gross parameter adjustments that typically require much longer training times using conventional training methods.« less

  10. Detection of linear ego-acceleration from optic flow.

    PubMed

    Festl, Freya; Recktenwald, Fabian; Yuan, Chunrong; Mallot, Hanspeter A

    2012-07-20

    Human observers are able to estimate various ego-motion parameters from optic flow, including rotation, translational heading, time-to-collision (TTC), time-to-passage (TTP), etc. The perception of linear ego-acceleration or deceleration, i.e., changes of translational velocity, is less well understood. While time-to-passage experiments indicate that ego-acceleration is neglected, subjects are able to keep their (perceived) speed constant under changing conditions, indicating that some sense of ego-acceleration or velocity change must be present. In this paper, we analyze the relation of ego-acceleration estimates and geometrical parameters of the environment using simulated flights through cylindrical and conic (narrowing or widening) corridors. Theoretical analysis shows that a logarithmic ego-acceleration parameter, called the acceleration rate ρ, can be calculated from retinal acceleration measurements. This parameter is independent of the geometrical layout of the scene; if veridical ego-motion is known at some instant in time, acceleration rate allows updating of ego-motion without further depth-velocity calibration. Results indicate, however, that subjects systematically confuse ego-acceleration with corridor narrowing and ego-deceleration with corridor widening, while veridically judging ego-acceleration in straight corridors. We conclude that judgments of ego-acceleration are based on first-order retinal flow and do not make use of acceleration rate or retinal acceleration.

  11. GPU-accelerated algorithms for many-particle continuous-time quantum walks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Piccinini, Enrico; Benedetti, Claudia; Siloi, Ilaria; Paris, Matteo G. A.; Bordone, Paolo

    2017-06-01

    Many-particle continuous-time quantum walks (CTQWs) represent a resource for several tasks in quantum technology, including quantum search algorithms and universal quantum computation. In order to design and implement CTQWs in a realistic scenario, one needs effective simulation tools for Hamiltonians that take into account static noise and fluctuations in the lattice, i.e. Hamiltonians containing stochastic terms. To this aim, we suggest a parallel algorithm based on the Taylor series expansion of the evolution operator, and compare its performances with those of algorithms based on the exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian or a 4th order Runge-Kutta integration. We prove that both Taylor-series expansion and Runge-Kutta algorithms are reliable and have a low computational cost, the Taylor-series expansion showing the additional advantage of a memory allocation not depending on the precision of calculation. Both algorithms are also highly parallelizable within the SIMT paradigm, and are thus suitable for GPGPU computing. In turn, we have benchmarked 4 NVIDIA GPUs and 3 quad-core Intel CPUs for a 2-particle system over lattices of increasing dimension, showing that the speedup provided by GPU computing, with respect to the OPENMP parallelization, lies in the range between 8x and (more than) 20x, depending on the frequency of post-processing. GPU-accelerated codes thus allow one to overcome concerns about the execution time, and make it possible simulations with many interacting particles on large lattices, with the only limit of the memory available on the device.

  12. Mountain hydrology, snow color, and the fourth paradigm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dozier, Jeff

    2011-10-01

    The world's mountain ranges accumulate substantial snow, whose melt produces the bulk of runoff and often combines with rain to cause floods. Worldwide, inadequate understanding and a reliance on sparsely distributed observations limit our ability to predict seasonal and paroxysmal runoff as climate changes, ecosystems adapt, populations grow, land use evolves, and societies make choices. To improve assessments of snow accumulation, melt, and runoff, scientists and community planners can take advantage of two emerging trends: (1) an ability to remotely sense snow properties from satellites at a spatial scale appropriate for mountain regions (10- to 100-meter resolution, coverage of the order of 100,000 square kilometers) and a daily temporal scale appropriate for the dynamic nature of snow and (2) The Fourth Paradigm [Hey et al., 2009], which posits a new scientific approach in which insight is discovered through the manipulation of large data sets as the evolutionary step in scientific thinking beyond the first three paradigms: empiricism, analyses, and simulation. The inspiration for the book's title comes from pioneering computer scientist Jim Gray, based on a lecture he gave at the National Academy of Sciences 3 weeks before he disappeared at sea.

  13. A detailed examination of laser-ion acceleration mechanisms in the relativistic transparency regime using tracers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stark, David J.; Yin, Lin; Albright, Brian J.; Nystrom, William; Bird, Robert

    2018-04-01

    We present a particle-in-cell study of linearly polarized laser-ion acceleration systems, in which we use both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) simulations to characterize the ion acceleration mechanisms in targets which become transparent to the laser pulse during irradiation. First, we perform a target length scan to optimize the peak ion energies in both 2D and 3D, and the predictive capabilities of 2D simulations are discussed. Tracer analysis allows us to isolate the acceleration into stages of target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA), hole boring (HB), and break-out afterburner (BOA) acceleration, which vary in effectiveness based on the simulation parameters. The thinnest targets reveal that enhanced TNSA is responsible for accelerating the most energetic ions, whereas the thickest targets have ions undergoing successive phases of HB and TNSA (in 2D) or BOA and TNSA (in 3D); HB is not observed to be a dominant acceleration mechanism in the 3D simulations. It is in the intermediate optimal regime, both when the laser breaks through the target with appreciable amplitude and when there is enough plasma to form a sustained high density flow, that BOA is most effective and is responsible for the most energetic ions. Eliminating the transverse laser spot size effects by performing a plane wave simulation, we can isolate with greater confidence the underlying physics behind the ion dynamics we observe. Specifically, supplemented by wavelet and FFT analyses, we match the post-transparency BOA acceleration with a wave-particle resonance with a high-amplitude low-frequency electrostatic wave of increasing phase velocity, consistent with that predicted by the Buneman instability.

  14. [New paradigm for soil and water conservation: a method based on watershed process modeling and scenario analysis].

    PubMed

    Zhu, A-Xing; Chen, La-Jiao; Qin, Cheng-Zhi; Wang, Ping; Liu, Jun-Zhi; Li, Run-Kui; Cai, Qiang-Guo

    2012-07-01

    With the increase of severe soil erosion problem, soil and water conservation has become an urgent concern for sustainable development. Small watershed experimental observation is the traditional paradigm for soil and water control. However, the establishment of experimental watershed usually takes long time, and has the limitations of poor repeatability and high cost. Moreover, the popularization of the results from the experimental watershed is limited for other areas due to the differences in watershed conditions. Therefore, it is not sufficient to completely rely on this old paradigm for soil and water loss control. Recently, scenario analysis based on watershed modeling has been introduced into watershed management, which can provide information about the effectiveness of different management practices based on the quantitative simulation of watershed processes. Because of its merits such as low cost, short period, and high repeatability, scenario analysis shows great potential in aiding the development of watershed management strategy. This paper elaborated a new paradigm using watershed modeling and scenario analysis for soil and water conservation, illustrated this new paradigm through two cases for practical watershed management, and explored the future development of this new soil and water conservation paradigm.

  15. Response to Elvira Panaiotidi, "The Nature of Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts in Music Education"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kurkul, Wenyi W.

    2005-01-01

    In her paper, Panaiotidi discusses the debate over the approaches in music education by Reimer and Elliott in the context of paradigm shifts. The term, "paradigm shift," was introduced by Thomas Kuhn in 1962 in his highly influential book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." In this article, the author believes that what…

  16. Gravitational acceleration as a cue for absolute size and distance?

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hecht, H.; Kaiser, M. K.; Banks, M. S.

    1996-01-01

    When an object's motion is influenced by gravity, as in the rise and fall of a thrown ball, the vertical component of acceleration is roughly constant at 9.8 m/sec2. In principle, an observer could use this information to estimate the absolute size and distance of the object (Saxberg, 1987a; Watson, Banks, von Hofsten, & Royden, 1992). In five experiments, we examined people's ability to utilize the size and distance information provided by gravitational acceleration. Observers viewed computer simulations of an object rising and falling on a trajectory aligned with the gravitational vector. The simulated objects were balls of different diameters presented across a wide range of simulated distances. Observers were asked to identify the ball that was presented and to estimate its distance. The results showed that observers were much more sensitive to average velocity than to the gravitational acceleration pattern. Likewise, verticality of the motion and visibility of the trajectory's apex had negligible effects on the accuracy of size and distance judgments.

  17. Quasi-monoenergetic protons accelerated by laser radiation pressure and shocks in thin gaseous targets

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

    He Minqing; Shao Xi; Liu Chuansheng

    Recent experiments and simulations have demonstrated effective CO{sub 2} laser acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic protons from thick gaseous hydrogen target (of thickness tens of laser wavelengths) via hole boring and shock accelerations. We present here an alternative novel acceleration scheme by combining laser radiation pressure acceleration with shock acceleration of protons in a thin gaseous target of thickness several laser wavelengths. The laser pushes the thin gaseous plasma forward while compressing it with protons trapped in it. We demonstrated the combined acceleration with two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation and obtained quasi-monoenergetic protons {approx}44 MeV in a gas target of thickness twice of themore » laser wavelength irradiated by circularly polarized CO{sub 2} laser with normalized laser amplitude a{sub 0}=10.« less

  18. Finite element analyses of a linear-accelerator electron gun

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

    Iqbal, M., E-mail: muniqbal.chep@pu.edu.pk, E-mail: muniqbal@ihep.ac.cn; Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049; Wasy, A.

    Thermo-structural analyses of the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider (BEPCII) linear-accelerator, electron gun, were performed for the gun operating with the cathode at 1000 °C. The gun was modeled in computer aided three-dimensional interactive application for finite element analyses through ANSYS workbench. This was followed by simulations using the SLAC electron beam trajectory program EGUN for beam optics analyses. The simulations were compared with experimental results of the assembly to verify its beam parameters under the same boundary conditions. Simulation and test results were found to be in good agreement and hence confirmed the design parameters under the defined operating temperature. The gunmore » is operating continuously since commissioning without any thermal induced failures for the BEPCII linear accelerator.« less

  19. Finite element analyses of a linear-accelerator electron gun

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Iqbal, M.; Wasy, A.; Islam, G. U.; Zhou, Z.

    2014-02-01

    Thermo-structural analyses of the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider (BEPCII) linear-accelerator, electron gun, were performed for the gun operating with the cathode at 1000 °C. The gun was modeled in computer aided three-dimensional interactive application for finite element analyses through ANSYS workbench. This was followed by simulations using the SLAC electron beam trajectory program EGUN for beam optics analyses. The simulations were compared with experimental results of the assembly to verify its beam parameters under the same boundary conditions. Simulation and test results were found to be in good agreement and hence confirmed the design parameters under the defined operating temperature. The gun is operating continuously since commissioning without any thermal induced failures for the BEPCII linear accelerator.

  20. Finite element analyses of a linear-accelerator electron gun.

    PubMed

    Iqbal, M; Wasy, A; Islam, G U; Zhou, Z

    2014-02-01

    Thermo-structural analyses of the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider (BEPCII) linear-accelerator, electron gun, were performed for the gun operating with the cathode at 1000 °C. The gun was modeled in computer aided three-dimensional interactive application for finite element analyses through ANSYS workbench. This was followed by simulations using the SLAC electron beam trajectory program EGUN for beam optics analyses. The simulations were compared with experimental results of the assembly to verify its beam parameters under the same boundary conditions. Simulation and test results were found to be in good agreement and hence confirmed the design parameters under the defined operating temperature. The gun is operating continuously since commissioning without any thermal induced failures for the BEPCII linear accelerator.

  1. Electron acceleration by turbulent plasmoid reconnection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, X.; Büchner, J.; Widmer, F.; Muñoz, P. A.

    2018-04-01

    In space and astrophysical plasmas, like in planetary magnetospheres, as that of Mercury, energetic electrons are often found near current sheets, which hint at electron acceleration by magnetic reconnection. Unfortunately, electron acceleration by reconnection is not well understood yet, in particular, acceleration by turbulent plasmoid reconnection. We have investigated electron acceleration by turbulent plasmoid reconnection, described by MHD simulations, via test particle calculations. In order to avoid resolving all relevant turbulence scales down to the dissipation scales, a mean-field turbulence model is used to describe the turbulence of sub-grid scales and their effects via a turbulent electromotive force (EMF). The mean-field model describes the turbulent EMF as a function of the mean values of current density, vorticity, magnetic field as well as of the energy, cross-helicity, and residual helicity of the turbulence. We found that, mainly around X-points of turbulent reconnection, strongly enhanced localized EMFs most efficiently accelerated electrons and caused the formation of power-law spectra. Magnetic-field-aligned EMFs, caused by the turbulence, dominate the electron acceleration process. Scaling the acceleration processes to parameters of the Hermean magnetotail, electron energies up to 60 keV can be reached by turbulent plasmoid reconnection through the thermal plasma.

  2. A new paradigm (Westphal-Paradigm) to study the neural correlates of panic disorder with agoraphobia.

    PubMed

    Wittmann, A; Schlagenhauf, F; John, T; Guhn, A; Rehbein, H; Siegmund, A; Stoy, M; Held, D; Schulz, I; Fehm, L; Fydrich, T; Heinz, A; Bruhn, H; Ströhle, A

    2011-04-01

    Agoraphobia (with and without panic disorder) is a highly prevalent and disabling anxiety disorder. Its neural complexity can be characterized by specific cues in fMRI studies. Therefore, we developed a fMRI paradigm with agoraphobia-specific stimuli. Pictures of potential agoraphobic situations were generated. Twenty-six patients, suffering from panic disorder and agoraphobia, and 22 healthy controls rated the pictures with respect to arousal, valence, and agoraphobia-related anxiety. The 96 pictures, which discriminated best between groups were chosen, split into two parallel sets and supplemented with matched neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System. Reliability, criterion, and construct validity of the picture set were determined in a second sample (44 patients, 28 controls). The resulting event-related "Westphal-Paradigm" with cued and uncued pictures was tested in a fMRI pilot study with 16 patients. Internal consistency of the sets was very high; parallelism was given. Positive correlations of picture ratings with Mobility Inventory and Hamilton anxiety scores support construct validity. FMRI data revealed activations in areas associated with the fear circuit including amygdala, insula, and hippocampal areas. Psychometric properties of the Westphal-Paradigm meet necessary quality requirements for further scientific use. The paradigm reliably produces behavioral and fMRI patterns in response to agoraphobia-specific stimuli. To our knowledge, it is the first fMRI paradigm with these properties. This paradigm can be used to further characterize the functional neuroanatomy of panic disorder and agoraphobia and might be useful to contribute data to the differentiation of panic disorder and agoraphobia as related, but conceptually different clinical disorders.

  3. Passive Motion Paradigm: An Alternative to Optimal Control

    PubMed Central

    Mohan, Vishwanathan; Morasso, Pietro

    2011-01-01

    In the last years, optimal control theory (OCT) has emerged as the leading approach for investigating neural control of movement and motor cognition for two complementary research lines: behavioral neuroscience and humanoid robotics. In both cases, there are general problems that need to be addressed, such as the “degrees of freedom (DoFs) problem,” the common core of production, observation, reasoning, and learning of “actions.” OCT, directly derived from engineering design techniques of control systems quantifies task goals as “cost functions” and uses the sophisticated formal tools of optimal control to obtain desired behavior (and predictions). We propose an alternative “softer” approach passive motion paradigm (PMP) that we believe is closer to the biomechanics and cybernetics of action. The basic idea is that actions (overt as well as covert) are the consequences of an internal simulation process that “animates” the body schema with the attractor dynamics of force fields induced by the goal and task-specific constraints. This internal simulation offers the brain a way to dynamically link motor redundancy with task-oriented constraints “at runtime,” hence solving the “DoFs problem” without explicit kinematic inversion and cost function computation. We argue that the function of such computational machinery is not only restricted to shaping motor output during action execution but also to provide the self with information on the feasibility, consequence, understanding and meaning of “potential actions.” In this sense, taking into account recent developments in neuroscience (motor imagery, simulation theory of covert actions, mirror neuron system) and in embodied robotics, PMP offers a novel framework for understanding motor cognition that goes beyond the engineering control paradigm provided by OCT. Therefore, the paper is at the same time a review of the PMP rationale, as a computational theory, and a perspective presentation of

  4. Particle Acceleration and Magnetic Field Generation in Electron-Positron Relativistic Shocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nishikawa, K.-L.; Hardee, P.; Richardson, G.; Preece, R.; Sol, H.; Fishman, G. J.

    2004-01-01

    Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated particle acceleration associated with a relativistic electron-positron jet front propagating into an ambient electron-positron plasma with and without initial magnetic fields. We find small differences in the results for no ambient and modest ambient magnetic fields. Simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the collisionless shock front accelerates jet and ambient particles both perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation direction. The non-linear fluctuation amplitudes of densities, currents, electric, and magnetic fields in the electron-positron shock are larger than those found in the electron-ion shock studied in a previous paper at the comparable simulation time. This comes from the fact that both electrons and positrons contribute to generation of the Weibel instability. Additionally, we have performed simulations with different electron skin depths. We find that growth times scale inversely with the plasma frequency, and the sizes of structures created by the Weibel instability scale proportional to the electron skin depth. This is the expected result and indicates that the simulations have sufficient grid resolution. While some Fermi acceleration may occur at the jet front, the majority of electron and positron acceleration takes place behind the jet front and cannot be characterized as Fermi acceleration. The simulation results show that the Weibel instability is responsible for generating and amplifying nonuniform: small-scale magnetic fields which contribute to the electron's (positron's) transverse deflection behind the jet head. This small scale magnetic field structure

  5. Particle Acceleration and Magnetic Field Generation in Electron-Positron Relativistic Shocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nishikawa, K.-I.; Hardee, P.; Richardson, G.; Preece, R.; Sol, H.; Fishman, G. J.

    2005-01-01

    Shock acceleration is a ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel, and other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a three-dimensional relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated particle acceleration associated with a relativistic electron-positron jet front propagating into an ambient electron-positron plasma with and without initial magnetic fields. We find small differences in the results for no ambient and modest ambient magnetic fields. New simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the collisionless shock front accelerates jet and ambient particles both perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation direction. Furthermore, the nonlinear fluctuation amplitudes of densities, currents, and electric and magnetic fields in the electron-positron shock are larger than those found in the electron-ion shock studied in a previous paper at a comparable simulation time. This comes from the fact that both electrons and positrons contribute to generation of the Weibel instability. In addition, we have performed simulations with different electron skin depths. We find that growth times scale inversely with the plasma frequency, and the sizes of structures created by tine Weibel instability scale proportionally to the electron skin depth. This is the expected result and indicates that the simulations have sufficient grid resolution. While some Fermi acceleration may occur at the jet front, the majority of electron and positron acceleration takes place behind the jet front and cannot be characterized as Fermi acceleration. The simulation results show that the Weibel instability is responsible for generating and amplifying nonuniform, small-scale magnetic fields, which contribute to the electron s (positron s) transverse deflection behind the jet head. This

  6. The design of a simulated in-line side-coupled 6 MV linear accelerator waveguide.

    PubMed

    St Aubin, Joel; Steciw, Stephen; Fallone, B G

    2010-02-01

    The design of a 3D in-line side-coupled 6 MV linac waveguide for medical use is given, and the effect of the side-coupling and port irises on the radio frequency (RF), beam dynamics, and dosimetric solutions is examined. This work was motivated by our research on a linac-MR hybrid system, where accurate electron trajectory information for a clinical medical waveguide in the presence of an external magnetic field was needed. For this work, the design of the linac waveguide was generated using the finite element method. The design outlined here incorporates the necessary geometric changes needed to incorporate a full-end accelerating cavity with a single-coupling iris, a waveguide-cavity coupling port iris that allows power transfer into the waveguide from the magnetron, as well as a method to control the RF field magnitude within the first half accelerating cavity into which the electrons from the gun are injected. With the full waveguide designed to resonate at 2998.5 +/- 0.1 MHz, a full 3D RF field solution was obtained. The accuracy of the 3D RF field solution was estimated through a comparison of important linac parameters (Q factor, shunt impedance, transit time factor, and resonant frequency) calculated for one accelerating cavity with the benchmarked program SUPERFISH. It was found that the maximum difference between the 3D solution and SUPERFISH was less than 0.03%. The eigenvalue solver, which determines the resonant frequencies of the 3D side-coupled waveguide simulation, was shown to be highly accurate through a comparison with lumped circuit theory. Two different waveguide geometries were examined, one incorporating a 0.5 mm first side cavity shift and another with a 1.5 mm first side cavity shift. The asymmetrically placed side-coupling irises and the port iris for both models were shown to introduce asymmetries in the RF field large enough to cause a peak shift and skewing (center of gravity minus peak shift) of an initially cylindrically uniform

  7. Indirect adaptive soft computing based wavelet-embedded control paradigms for WT/PV/SOFC in a grid/charging station connected hybrid power system.

    PubMed

    Mumtaz, Sidra; Khan, Laiq; Ahmed, Saghir; Bader, Rabiah

    2017-01-01

    This paper focuses on the indirect adaptive tracking control of renewable energy sources in a grid-connected hybrid power system. The renewable energy systems have low efficiency and intermittent nature due to unpredictable meteorological conditions. The domestic load and the conventional charging stations behave in an uncertain manner. To operate the renewable energy sources efficiently for harvesting maximum power, instantaneous nonlinear dynamics should be captured online. A Chebyshev-wavelet embedded NeuroFuzzy indirect adaptive MPPT (maximum power point tracking) control paradigm is proposed for variable speed wind turbine-permanent synchronous generator (VSWT-PMSG). A Hermite-wavelet incorporated NeuroFuzzy indirect adaptive MPPT control strategy for photovoltaic (PV) system to extract maximum power and indirect adaptive tracking control scheme for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is developed. A comprehensive simulation test-bed for a grid-connected hybrid power system is developed in Matlab/Simulink. The robustness of the suggested indirect adaptive control paradigms are evaluated through simulation results in a grid-connected hybrid power system test-bed by comparison with conventional and intelligent control techniques. The simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed control paradigms.

  8. Indirect adaptive soft computing based wavelet-embedded control paradigms for WT/PV/SOFC in a grid/charging station connected hybrid power system

    PubMed Central

    Khan, Laiq; Ahmed, Saghir; Bader, Rabiah

    2017-01-01

    This paper focuses on the indirect adaptive tracking control of renewable energy sources in a grid-connected hybrid power system. The renewable energy systems have low efficiency and intermittent nature due to unpredictable meteorological conditions. The domestic load and the conventional charging stations behave in an uncertain manner. To operate the renewable energy sources efficiently for harvesting maximum power, instantaneous nonlinear dynamics should be captured online. A Chebyshev-wavelet embedded NeuroFuzzy indirect adaptive MPPT (maximum power point tracking) control paradigm is proposed for variable speed wind turbine-permanent synchronous generator (VSWT-PMSG). A Hermite-wavelet incorporated NeuroFuzzy indirect adaptive MPPT control strategy for photovoltaic (PV) system to extract maximum power and indirect adaptive tracking control scheme for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is developed. A comprehensive simulation test-bed for a grid-connected hybrid power system is developed in Matlab/Simulink. The robustness of the suggested indirect adaptive control paradigms are evaluated through simulation results in a grid-connected hybrid power system test-bed by comparison with conventional and intelligent control techniques. The simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed control paradigms. PMID:28877191

  9. Insulin adsorption on crystalline SiO2: Comparison between polar and nonpolar surfaces using accelerated molecular-dynamics simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nejad, Marjan A.; Mücksch, Christian; Urbassek, Herbert M.

    2017-02-01

    Adsorption of insulin on polar and nonpolar surfaces of crystalline SiO2 (cristobalite and α -quartz) is studied using molecular dynamics simulation. Acceleration techniques are used in order to sample adsorption phase space efficiently and to identify realistic adsorption conformations. We find major differences between the polar and nonpolar surfaces. Electrostatic interactions govern the adsorption on polar surfaces and can be described by the alignment of the protein dipole with the surface dipole; hence spreading of the protein on the surface is irrelevant. On nonpolar surfaces, on the other hand, van-der-Waals interaction dominates, inducing surface spreading of the protein.

  10. Studying Supernovae under the Current Paradigm

    DOE PAGES

    Fryer, Chris L.

    2016-10-27

    Abstract The convection-enhanced paradigm behind core-collapse supernovae (SNe) invokes a multi-physics model where convection above the proto-neutron star is able to convert the energy released in the collapse to produce the violent explosions observed as SNe. Over the past decade, the evidence in support of this engine has grown, including constraints placed by SN neutrinos, energies, progenitors and remnants. Although considerable theoretical work remains to utilize this data, our understanding of normal SNe is advancing. To achieve a deeper level of understanding, we must find ways to compare detailed simulations with the increasing set of observational data. Here we reviewmore » the current constraints and how we can apply our current understanding to broaden our understanding of these powerful engines.« less

  11. Studying Supernovae under the Current Paradigm

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

    Fryer, Chris L.

    Abstract The convection-enhanced paradigm behind core-collapse supernovae (SNe) invokes a multi-physics model where convection above the proto-neutron star is able to convert the energy released in the collapse to produce the violent explosions observed as SNe. Over the past decade, the evidence in support of this engine has grown, including constraints placed by SN neutrinos, energies, progenitors and remnants. Although considerable theoretical work remains to utilize this data, our understanding of normal SNe is advancing. To achieve a deeper level of understanding, we must find ways to compare detailed simulations with the increasing set of observational data. Here we reviewmore » the current constraints and how we can apply our current understanding to broaden our understanding of these powerful engines.« less

  12. Electron Surfing Acceleration in High Mach Number Shocks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hoshino, M.; Amano, T.; Matsumoto, Y.

    2016-12-01

    Many energetic events associated with shock waves have been argued in this context of the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA), and the origin of high-energy particles observed in astrophysical shocks are believed to be attributed to DSA. However, electron nonthermal acceleration still remains an unresolved issue of considerable interest. While cosmic rays of supernova remnant shocks with power-law spectra are believed to be produced by DSA, energetic electrons with a power-law energy spectrum are rarely ever observed at interplanetary shocks and at planetary bow shocks (e.g., Lario et al. 2003), and the diffusive-type acceleration seems to be necessarily malfunctioning in the heliosphere. The malfunctioning reason is thought to be a lack of pre-acceleration mechanism of supra-thermal electrons.In this presentation, we propose that the supra-thermal electrons can be generated by the mechanism of shock surfing acceleration (SSA) in a high Mach number magnetosonic shock. In the surfing mechanism, a series of large-amplitude electrostatic waves are excited by Buneman instability in the foot region under the interaction between the reflected ions and the incoming electrons, and it is argued that the electrons trapped in the electrostatic waves can be accelerated up to a relativistic energy (Hoshino and Shimada, 2002). Since the electron SSA has been studied based on one- or two-dimensional PIC simulations so far, SSA in three-dimensional system is questionable and remains an open question. We discuss based on our theoretical model and three-dimensional PIC simulation with a high-performance computing that the efficiency of SSA in three-dimensional system remains amazingly strong and plays an important role on the electron pre-acceleration/injection problem.

  13. Plasma Radiation and Acceleration Effectiveness of CME-driven Shocks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gopalswamy, N.; Schmidt, J. M.

    2008-05-01

    CME-driven shocks are effective radio radiation generators and accelerators for Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs). We present simulated 3 D time-dependent radio maps of second order plasma radiation generated by CME- driven shocks. The CME with its shock is simulated with the 3 D BATS-R-US CME model developed at the University of Michigan. The radiation is simulated using a kinetic plasma model that includes shock drift acceleration of electrons and stochastic growth theory of Langmuir waves. We find that in a realistic 3 D environment of magnetic field and solar wind outflow of the Sun the CME-driven shock shows a detailed spatial structure of the density, which is responsible for the fine structure of type II radio bursts. We also show realistic 3 D reconstructions of the magnetic cloud field of the CME, which is accelerated outward by magnetic buoyancy forces in the diverging magnetic field of the Sun. The CME-driven shock is reconstructed by tomography using the maximum jump in the gradient of the entropy. In the vicinity of the shock we determine the Alfven speed of the plasma. This speed profile controls how steep the shock can grow and how stable the shock remains while propagating away from the Sun. Only a steep shock can provide for an effective particle acceleration.

  14. Plasma radiation and acceleration effectiveness of CME-driven shocks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schmidt, Joachim

    CME-driven shocks are effective radio radiation generators and accelerators for Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs). We present simulated 3 D time-dependent radio maps of second order plasma radiation generated by CME-driven shocks. The CME with its shock is simulated with the 3 D BATS-R-US CME model developed at the University of Michigan. The radiation is simulated using a kinetic plasma model that includes shock drift acceleration of electrons and stochastic growth theory of Langmuir waves. We find that in a realistic 3 D environment of magnetic field and solar wind outflow of the Sun the CME-driven shock shows a detailed spatial structure of the density, which is responsible for the fine structure of type II radio bursts. We also show realistic 3 D reconstructions of the magnetic cloud field of the CME, which is accelerated outward by magnetic buoyancy forces in the diverging magnetic field of the Sun. The CME-driven shock is reconstructed by tomography using the maximum jump in the gradient of the entropy. In the vicinity of the shock we determine the Alfven speed of the plasma. This speed profile controls how steep the shock can grow and how stable the shock remains while propagating away from the Sun. Only a steep shock can provide for an effective particle acceleration.

  15. A new learning paradigm: learning using privileged information.

    PubMed

    Vapnik, Vladimir; Vashist, Akshay

    2009-01-01

    In the Afterword to the second edition of the book "Estimation of Dependences Based on Empirical Data" by V. Vapnik, an advanced learning paradigm called Learning Using Hidden Information (LUHI) was introduced. This Afterword also suggested an extension of the SVM method (the so called SVM(gamma)+ method) to implement algorithms which address the LUHI paradigm (Vapnik, 1982-2006, Sections 2.4.2 and 2.5.3 of the Afterword). See also (Vapnik, Vashist, & Pavlovitch, 2008, 2009) for further development of the algorithms. In contrast to the existing machine learning paradigm where a teacher does not play an important role, the advanced learning paradigm considers some elements of human teaching. In the new paradigm along with examples, a teacher can provide students with hidden information that exists in explanations, comments, comparisons, and so on. This paper discusses details of the new paradigm and corresponding algorithms, introduces some new algorithms, considers several specific forms of privileged information, demonstrates superiority of the new learning paradigm over the classical learning paradigm when solving practical problems, and discusses general questions related to the new ideas.

  16. Computer modeling of test particle acceleration at oblique shocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Decker, Robert B.

    1988-01-01

    The present evaluation of the basic techniques and illustrative results of charged particle-modeling numerical codes suitable for particle acceleration at oblique, fast-mode collisionless shocks emphasizes the treatment of ions as test particles, calculating particle dynamics through numerical integration along exact phase-space orbits. Attention is given to the acceleration of particles at planar, infinitessimally thin shocks, as well as to plasma simulations in which low-energy ions are injected and accelerated at quasi-perpendicular shocks with internal structure.

  17. Evaluating Brain-Computer Interface Performance in an ALS Population: Checkerboard and Color Paradigms.

    PubMed

    Ryan, David B; Colwell, Kenneth A; Throckmorton, Chandra S; Collins, Leslie M; Caves, Kevin; Sellers, Eric W

    2018-03-01

    The objective of this study was to investigate the performance of 3 brain-computer interface (BCI) paradigms in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) population (n = 11). Using a repeated-measures design, participants completed 3 BCI conditions: row/column (RCW), checkerboard (CBW), and gray-to-color (CBC). Based on previous studies, it is hypothesized that the CBC and CBW conditions will result in higher accuracy, information transfer rate, waveform amplitude, and user preference over the RCW condition. An offline dynamic stopping simulation will also increase information transfer rate. Higher mean accuracy was observed in the CBC condition (89.7%), followed by the CBW (84.3%) condition, and lowest in the RCW condition (78.7%); however, these differences did not reach statistical significance ( P = .062). Eight of the eleven participants preferred the CBC and the remaining three preferred the CBW conditions. The offline dynamic stopping simulation significantly increased information transfer rate ( P = .005) and decreased accuracy ( P < .000). The findings of this study suggest that color stimuli provide a modest improvement in performance and that participants prefer color stimuli over monochromatic stimuli. Given these findings, BCI paradigms that use color stimuli should be considered for individuals who have ALS.

  18. The search for understanding: the role of paradigms.

    PubMed

    Kelly, Marcella; Dowling, Maura; Millar, Michelle

    2018-03-16

    Kuhn's ( 1962 ) acknowledgement of a paradigm as a way that scientists make sense of their world and its reality gave recognition to the idea of 'paradigm shift'. This shift exposes the transience of paradigm development shaped by societal and scientific evolution. This ongoing evolutionary development provides the researcher with many paradigms to consider regarding how research is undertaken and the search for understanding achieved. An understanding of paradigm development is necessary when planning a study and can shape the search for understanding. It is hoped that the discussion presented here will assist novice and experienced researchers in articulating the rationales for their paradigm choices. An overview of the dominant paradigms is presented, reflecting ongoing paradigm development shaped by ontological, epistemological and methodological perspectives. Potential paradigm choices that shape research aims, objectives and focus in the search for understanding are considered. The inherent debates about paradigm shift, division, war and synthesis leave the researcher many perspectives to consider. Articulating the world views underpinning constructivism, interpretivism and pragmatism is particularly challenging because of the blurring of boundaries between them. The evolutionary nature of paradigmatic development has provided nurse researchers with the opportunity for methodological openness to the myriad research approaches, methods and designs that they may choose to answer their research question. However, it is imperative that researchers consider their ontological stances and the nature of their research questions. This is challenging in constructivism, interpretivism and pragmatism, where there is often an overlap of paradigm world views. ©2018 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

  19. An Eastern Paradigm of Evaluation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Russon, Craig

    2008-01-01

    Teaching on the philosophies of evaluation as part of a pilot introductory course of a new diploma programme jointly sponsored by the United Nations (UN) Evaluation Group and the United Nations Staff College, the author compared and contrasted the "rationalistic" paradigm with the "naturalistic" paradigm on the basis of ontology, epistemology, and…

  20. Ostracism Online: A social media ostracism paradigm.

    PubMed

    Wolf, Wouter; Levordashka, Ana; Ruff, Johanna R; Kraaijeveld, Steven; Lueckmann, Jan-Matthis; Williams, Kipling D

    2015-06-01

    We describe Ostracism Online, a novel, social media-based ostracism paradigm designed to (1) keep social interaction experimentally controlled, (2) provide researchers with the flexibility to manipulate the properties of the social situation to fit their research purposes, (3) be suitable for online data collection, (4) be convenient for studying subsequent within-group behavior, and (5) be ecologically valid. After collecting data online, we compared the Ostracism Online paradigm with the Cyberball paradigm (Williams & Jarvis Behavior Research Methods, 38, 174-180, 2006) on need-threat and mood questionnaire scores (van Beest & Williams Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 91, 918-928, 2006). We also examined whether ostracized targets of either paradigm would be more likely to conform to their group members than if they had been included. Using a Bayesian analysis of variance to examine the individual effects of the different paradigms and to compare these effects across paradigms, we found analogous effects on need-threat and mood. Perhaps because we examined conformity to the ostracizers (rather than neutral sources), neither paradigm showed effects of ostracism on conformity. We conclude that Ostracism Online is a cost-effective, easy to use, and ecologically valid research tool for studying the psychological and behavioral effects of ostracism.

  1. Accelerated Adaptive MGS Phase Retrieval

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lam, Raymond K.; Ohara, Catherine M.; Green, Joseph J.; Bikkannavar, Siddarayappa A.; Basinger, Scott A.; Redding, David C.; Shi, Fang

    2011-01-01

    The Modified Gerchberg-Saxton (MGS) algorithm is an image-based wavefront-sensing method that can turn any science instrument focal plane into a wavefront sensor. MGS characterizes optical systems by estimating the wavefront errors in the exit pupil using only intensity images of a star or other point source of light. This innovative implementation of MGS significantly accelerates the MGS phase retrieval algorithm by using stream-processing hardware on conventional graphics cards. Stream processing is a relatively new, yet powerful, paradigm to allow parallel processing of certain applications that apply single instructions to multiple data (SIMD). These stream processors are designed specifically to support large-scale parallel computing on a single graphics chip. Computationally intensive algorithms, such as the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), are particularly well suited for this computing environment. This high-speed version of MGS exploits commercially available hardware to accomplish the same objective in a fraction of the original time. The exploit involves performing matrix calculations in nVidia graphic cards. The graphical processor unit (GPU) is hardware that is specialized for computationally intensive, highly parallel computation. From the software perspective, a parallel programming model is used, called CUDA, to transparently scale multicore parallelism in hardware. This technology gives computationally intensive applications access to the processing power of the nVidia GPUs through a C/C++ programming interface. The AAMGS (Accelerated Adaptive MGS) software takes advantage of these advanced technologies, to accelerate the optical phase error characterization. With a single PC that contains four nVidia GTX-280 graphic cards, the new implementation can process four images simultaneously to produce a JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) wavefront measurement 60 times faster than the previous code.

  2. GeV Electrons due to a Transition from Laser Wakefield Acceleration to Plasma Wakefield Acceleration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mo, M. Z.; Masson-Laborde, P.-E.; Ali, A.; Fourmaux, S.; Lassonde, P.; Kieffer, J.-C.; Rozmus, W.; Teychenné, D.; Fedosejevs, R.

    2014-10-01

    The Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA) experiments performed with the 200 TW laser system located at the Canadian Advanced Laser Light Source facility at INRS, Varennes (Québec) observed at relatively high plasma densities (1 × 1019cm-3) electron bunches of GeV energy gain, more than double of the predicted energy using Lu's scaling law. This energy boost phenomena can be attributed to a transition from LWFA regime to a plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) regime. In the first stage, the acceleration mechanism is dominated by the bubble created by the laser in the regime of LWFA, leading to an injection of a large number of electrons. After propagation beyond the depletion length, where the laser pulse is depleted and it can no longer sustain the bubble anymore, the dense bunch of high energy electrons propagating inside the bubble will drive its own wakefield in the PWFA regime that can trap and accelerate a secondary population of electrons up to the GeV level. 3D particle-in-cell simulations support this analysis, and confirm the scenario.

  3. Effort-Based Decision-Making Paradigms for Clinical Trials in Schizophrenia: Part 1—Psychometric Characteristics of 5 Paradigms

    PubMed Central

    Reddy, L. Felice; Horan, William P.; Barch, Deanna M.; Buchanan, Robert W.; Dunayevich, Eduardo; Gold, James M.; Lyons, Naomi; Marder, Stephen R.; Treadway, Michael T.; Wynn, Jonathan K.; Young, Jared W.; Green, Michael F.

    2015-01-01

    Impairments in willingness to exert effort contribute to the motivational deficits characteristic of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of 5 new or adapted paradigms to determine their suitability for use in clinical trials of schizophrenia. This study included 94 clinically stable participants with schizophrenia and 40 healthy controls. The effort-based decision-making battery was administered twice to the schizophrenia group (baseline, 4-week retest) and once to the control group. The 5 paradigms included 1 that assesses cognitive effort, 1 perceptual effort, and 3 that assess physical effort. Each paradigm was evaluated on (1) patient vs healthy control group differences, (2) test-retest reliability, (3) utility as a repeated measure (ie, practice effects), and (4) tolerability. The 5 paradigms showed varying psychometric strengths and weaknesses. The Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task showed the best reliability and utility as a repeated measure, while the Grip Effort Task had significant patient-control group differences, and superior tolerability and administration duration. The other paradigms showed weaker psychometric characteristics in their current forms. These findings highlight challenges in adapting effort and motivation paradigms for use in clinical trials. PMID:26142081

  4. Frost Induces Respiration and Accelerates Carbon Depletion in Trees.

    PubMed

    Sperling, Or; Earles, J Mason; Secchi, Francesca; Godfrey, Jessie; Zwieniecki, Maciej A

    2015-01-01

    Cellular respiration depletes stored carbohydrates during extended periods of limited photosynthesis, e.g. winter dormancy or drought. As respiration rate is largely a function of temperature, the thermal conditions during such periods may affect non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) availability and, ultimately, recovery. Here, we surveyed stem responses to temperature changes in 15 woody species. For two species with divergent respirational response to frost, P. integerrima and P. trichocarpa, we also examined corresponding changes in NSC levels. Finally, we simulated respiration-induced NSC depletion using historical temperature data for the western US. We report a novel finding that tree stems significantly increase respiration in response to near freezing temperatures. We observed this excess respiration in 13 of 15 species, deviating 10% to 170% over values predicted by the Arrhenius equation. Excess respiration persisted at temperatures above 0 °C during warming and reoccurred over multiple frost-warming cycles. A large adjustment of NSCs accompanied excess respiration in P. integerrima, whereas P. trichocarpa neither excessively respired nor adjusted NSCs. Over the course of the years included in our model, frost-induced respiration accelerated stem NSC consumption by 8.4 mg (glucose eq.) cm(-3) yr(-1) on average in the western US, a level of depletion that may continue to significantly affect spring NSC availability. This novel finding revises the current paradigm of low temperature respiration kinetics.

  5. Frost Induces Respiration and Accelerates Carbon Depletion in Trees

    PubMed Central

    Sperling, Or; Earles, J. Mason; Secchi, Francesca; Godfrey, Jessie; Zwieniecki, Maciej A.

    2015-01-01

    Cellular respiration depletes stored carbohydrates during extended periods of limited photosynthesis, e.g. winter dormancy or drought. As respiration rate is largely a function of temperature, the thermal conditions during such periods may affect non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) availability and, ultimately, recovery. Here, we surveyed stem responses to temperature changes in 15 woody species. For two species with divergent respirational response to frost, P. integerrima and P. trichocarpa, we also examined corresponding changes in NSC levels. Finally, we simulated respiration-induced NSC depletion using historical temperature data for the western US. We report a novel finding that tree stems significantly increase respiration in response to near freezing temperatures. We observed this excess respiration in 13 of 15 species, deviating 10% to 170% over values predicted by the Arrhenius equation. Excess respiration persisted at temperatures above 0°C during warming and reoccurred over multiple frost-warming cycles. A large adjustment of NSCs accompanied excess respiration in P. integerrima, whereas P. trichocarpa neither excessively respired nor adjusted NSCs. Over the course of the years included in our model, frost-induced respiration accelerated stem NSC consumption by 8.4 mg (glucose eq.) cm-3 yr-1 on average in the western US, a level of depletion that may continue to significantly affect spring NSC availability. This novel finding revises the current paradigm of low temperature respiration kinetics. PMID:26629819

  6. The Digital Twin Paradigm for Future NASA and U.S. Air Force Vehicles

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Glaessgen, Edward H.; Stargel, D. S.

    2012-01-01

    Future generations of NASA and U.S. Air Force vehicles will require lighter mass while being subjected to higher loads and more extreme service conditions over longer time periods than the present generation. Current approaches for certification, fleet management and sustainment are largely based on statistical distributions of material properties, heuristic design philosophies, physical testing and assumed similitude between testing and operational conditions and will likely be unable to address these extreme requirements. To address the shortcomings of conventional approaches, a fundamental paradigm shift is needed. This paradigm shift, the Digital Twin, integrates ultra-high fidelity simulation with the vehicle s on-board integrated vehicle health management system, maintenance history and all available historical and fleet data to mirror the life of its flying twin and enable unprecedented levels of safety and reliability.

  7. Accurate acceleration of kinetic Monte Carlo simulations through the modification of rate constants.

    PubMed

    Chatterjee, Abhijit; Voter, Arthur F

    2010-05-21

    We present a novel computational algorithm called the accelerated superbasin kinetic Monte Carlo (AS-KMC) method that enables a more efficient study of rare-event dynamics than the standard KMC method while maintaining control over the error. In AS-KMC, the rate constants for processes that are observed many times are lowered during the course of a simulation. As a result, rare processes are observed more frequently than in KMC and the time progresses faster. We first derive error estimates for AS-KMC when the rate constants are modified. These error estimates are next employed to develop a procedure for lowering process rates with control over the maximum error. Finally, numerical calculations are performed to demonstrate that the AS-KMC method captures the correct dynamics, while providing significant CPU savings over KMC in most cases. We show that the AS-KMC method can be employed with any KMC model, even when no time scale separation is present (although in such cases no computational speed-up is observed), without requiring the knowledge of various time scales present in the system.

  8. Particle Acceleration, Magnetic Field Generation, and Emission in Relativistic Shocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nishikawa, Ken-IchiI.; Hededal, C.; Hardee, P.; Richardson, G.; Preece, R.; Sol, H.; Fishman, G.

    2004-01-01

    Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability, two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (m) code, we have investigated particle acceleration associated with a relativistic jet front propagating through an ambient plasma with and without initial magnetic fields. We find only small differences in the results between no ambient and weak ambient parallel magnetic fields. Simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the collisionless shock front accelerates particles perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation direction. New simulations with an ambient perpendicular magnetic field show the strong interaction between the relativistic jet and the magnetic fields. The magnetic fields are piled up by the jet and the jet electrons are bent, which creates currents and displacement currents. At the nonlinear stage, the magnetic fields are reversed by the current and the reconnection may take place. Due to these dynamics the jet and ambient electron are strongly accelerated in both parallel and perpendicular directions.

  9. Plasma Wake-field Acceleration in the Blow-out Regime

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barov, Nikolai; Rosenzweig, James

    1999-11-01

    Recent experiments at Argonne National Laboratory, investigating the blow-out regime of the plasma wake-field accelerator, are discussed. These experiments achieved stable underdense (beam denser than the ambient plasma density) beam transport, and measured average acceleration of 25 MV/m, corresponding to peak wave fields of over 60 MVm. A comparison of the results to simulation is given, and the physics of the system is discussed. Potential for improvements in performance and achieved acceleration gradient, as well as accelerated beam quality are examined within the context of the next generation of experiments at the Fermilab Test Facility. The status of these experiments will be given.

  10. Innovation of IT metasystems by means of event-driven paradigm using QDMS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nedic, Vladimir; Despotovic, Danijela; Cvetanovic, Slobodan; Despotovic, Milan; Eric, Milan

    2016-10-01

    Globalisation of world economy brings new and more complex demands to business systems. In order to respond to these trends, business systems apply new paradigms that are inevitable reflecting on management metasystems - quality assurance (QA), as well as on information technology (IT) metasystems. Small and medium enterprises (in particular in food industry) do not have possibilities to access external resources to the extent that could provide adequate keeping up with these trends. That raises the question how to enhance synergetic effect of interaction between existing QA and IT metasystems in order to overcome resource gap and achieve set goals by internal resources. The focus of this article is to propose a methodology for utilisation of potential of quality assurance document management system (QDMS) as prototypical platform for initiating, developing, testing and improving new functionalities that are required by IT as support for buiness system management. In that way QDMS plays a role of catalyst that not only accelerates but could also enhance selectivity of the reactions of QA and IT metasystems and direct them on finding new functionalities based on event-driven paradigm. The article tries to show the process of modelling, development and implementation of a possible approach to this problem through conceptual survey and practical solution in the food industry.

  11. Paradigms for environmentally conscious manufacturing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Edinbarough, Immanuel A.; Wells, Wayne E.

    2004-12-01

    There are several stories involving the industries that pledge themselves for the environmentally conscious manufacturing practices. Paradigms for environmentally conscious manufacturing are associated with one of the aspects of environmental quality, protection, resource management, commitment or sustainability. The engineering rules of thumb that can easily be adopted by aspiring companies need identification. The underlying thread that unifies the efforts of environmentally conscious manufacturing companies, in offering the environmentally safe products to the world, is grouped and presented in the paper as paradigms for successful practices. The various ways in which a start up company, that wants to excel in environmentally conscious manufacturing, can position itself based on the paradigms is also discussed in the paper.

  12. Efficient Optical Energy Harvesting in Self-Accelerating Beams

    PubMed Central

    Bongiovanni, Domenico; Hu, Yi; Wetzel, Benjamin; Robles, Raul A.; Mendoza González, Gregorio; Marti-Panameño, Erwin A.; Chen, Zhigang; Morandotti, Roberto

    2015-01-01

    We report the experimental observation of energetically confined self-accelerating optical beams propagating along various convex trajectories. We show that, under an appropriate transverse compression of their spatial spectra, these self-accelerating beams can exhibit a dramatic enhancement of their peak intensity and a significant decrease of their transverse expansion, yet retaining both the expected acceleration profile and the intrinsic self-healing properties. We found our experimental results to be in excellent agreement with the numerical simulations. We expect further applications in such contexts where power budget and optimal spatial confinement can be important limiting factors. PMID:26299360

  13. Solving the problem of negative populations in approximate accelerated stochastic simulations using the representative reaction approach.

    PubMed

    Kadam, Shantanu; Vanka, Kumar

    2013-02-15

    Methods based on the stochastic formulation of chemical kinetics have the potential to accurately reproduce the dynamical behavior of various biochemical systems of interest. However, the computational expense makes them impractical for the study of real systems. Attempts to render these methods practical have led to the development of accelerated methods, where the reaction numbers are modeled by Poisson random numbers. However, for certain systems, such methods give rise to physically unrealistic negative numbers for species populations. The methods which make use of binomial variables, in place of Poisson random numbers, have since become popular, and have been partially successful in addressing this problem. In this manuscript, the development of two new computational methods, based on the representative reaction approach (RRA), has been discussed. The new methods endeavor to solve the problem of negative numbers, by making use of tools like the stochastic simulation algorithm and the binomial method, in conjunction with the RRA. It is found that these newly developed methods perform better than other binomial methods used for stochastic simulations, in resolving the problem of negative populations. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Discrete Event-based Performance Prediction for Temperature Accelerated Dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Junghans, Christoph; Mniszewski, Susan; Voter, Arthur; Perez, Danny; Eidenbenz, Stephan

    2014-03-01

    We present an example of a new class of tools that we call application simulators, parameterized fast-running proxies of large-scale scientific applications using parallel discrete event simulation (PDES). We demonstrate our approach with a TADSim application simulator that models the Temperature Accelerated Dynamics (TAD) method, which is an algorithmically complex member of the Accelerated Molecular Dynamics (AMD) family. The essence of the TAD application is captured without the computational expense and resource usage of the full code. We use TADSim to quickly characterize the runtime performance and algorithmic behavior for the otherwise long-running simulation code. We further extend TADSim to model algorithm extensions to standard TAD, such as speculative spawning of the compute-bound stages of the algorithm, and predict performance improvements without having to implement such a method. Focused parameter scans have allowed us to study algorithm parameter choices over far more scenarios than would be possible with the actual simulation. This has led to interesting performance-related insights into the TAD algorithm behavior and suggested extensions to the TAD method.

  15. Information processing as a paradigm for decision making.

    PubMed

    Oppenheimer, Daniel M; Kelso, Evan

    2015-01-03

    For decades, the dominant paradigm for studying decision making--the expected utility framework--has been burdened by an increasing number of empirical findings that question its validity as a model of human cognition and behavior. However, as Kuhn (1962) argued in his seminal discussion of paradigm shifts, an old paradigm cannot be abandoned until a new paradigm emerges to replace it. In this article, we argue that the recent shift in researcher attention toward basic cognitive processes that give rise to decision phenomena constitutes the beginning of that replacement paradigm. Models grounded in basic perceptual, attentional, memory, and aggregation processes have begun to proliferate. The development of this new approach closely aligns with Kuhn's notion of paradigm shift, suggesting that this is a particularly generative and revolutionary time to be studying decision science.

  16. Undersampling strategies for compressed sensing accelerated MR spectroscopic imaging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vidya Shankar, Rohini; Hu, Houchun Harry; Bikkamane Jayadev, Nutandev; Chang, John C.; Kodibagkar, Vikram D.

    2017-03-01

    Compressed sensing (CS) can accelerate magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI), facilitating its widespread clinical integration. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of different undersampling strategy on CS-MRSI reconstruction quality. Phantom data were acquired on a Philips 3 T Ingenia scanner. Four types of undersampling masks, corresponding to each strategy, namely, low resolution, variable density, iterative design, and a priori were simulated in Matlab and retrospectively applied to the test 1X MRSI data to generate undersampled datasets corresponding to the 2X - 5X, and 7X accelerations for each type of mask. Reconstruction parameters were kept the same in each case(all masks and accelerations) to ensure that any resulting differences can be attributed to the type of mask being employed. The reconstructed datasets from each mask were statistically compared with the reference 1X, and assessed using metrics like the root mean square error and metabolite ratios. Simulation results indicate that both the a priori and variable density undersampling masks maintain high fidelity with the 1X up to five-fold acceleration. The low resolution mask based reconstructions showed statistically significant differences from the 1X with the reconstruction failing at 3X, while the iterative design reconstructions maintained fidelity with the 1X till 4X acceleration. In summary, a pilot study was conducted to identify an optimal sampling mask in CS-MRSI. Simulation results demonstrate that the a priori and variable density masks can provide statistically similar results to the fully sampled reference. Future work would involve implementing these two masks prospectively on a clinical scanner.

  17. SIMULATION OF ENERGETIC PARTICLE TRANSPORT AND ACCELERATION AT SHOCK WAVES IN A FOCUSED TRANSPORT MODEL: IMPLICATIONS FOR MIXED SOLAR PARTICLE EVENTS

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

    Kartavykh, Y. Y.; Dröge, W.; Gedalin, M.

    2016-03-20

    We use numerical solutions of the focused transport equation obtained by an implicit stochastic differential equation scheme to study the evolution of the pitch-angle dependent distribution function of protons in the vicinity of shock waves. For a planar stationary parallel shock, the effects of anisotropic distribution functions, pitch-angle dependent spatial diffusion, and first-order Fermi acceleration at the shock are examined, including the timescales on which the energy spectrum approaches the predictions of diffusive shock acceleration theory. We then consider the case that a flare-accelerated population of ions is released close to the Sun simultaneously with a traveling interplanetary shock formore » which we assume a simplified geometry. We investigate the consequences of adiabatic focusing in the diverging magnetic field on the particle transport at the shock, and of the competing effects of acceleration at the shock and adiabatic energy losses in the expanding solar wind. We analyze the resulting intensities, anisotropies, and energy spectra as a function of time and find that our simulations can naturally reproduce the morphologies of so-called mixed particle events in which sometimes the prompt and sometimes the shock component is more prominent, by assuming parameter values which are typically observed for scattering mean free paths of ions in the inner heliosphere and energy spectra of the flare particles which are injected simultaneously with the release of the shock.« less

  18. Tilt perception during dynamic linear acceleration.

    PubMed

    Seidman, S H; Telford, L; Paige, G D

    1998-04-01

    Head tilt is a rotation of the head relative to gravity, as exemplified by head roll or pitch from the natural upright orientation. Tilt stimulates both the otolith organs, owing to shifts in gravitational orientation, and the semicircular canals in response to head rotation, which in turn drive a variety of behavioral and perceptual responses. Studies of tilt perception typically have not adequately isolated otolith and canal inputs or their dynamic contributions. True tilt cannot readily dissociate otolith from canal influences. Alternatively, centrifugation generates centripetal accelerations that simulate tilt, but still entails a rotatory (canal) stimulus during important periods of the stimulus profiles. We reevaluated the perception of head tilt in humans, but limited the stimulus to linear forces alone, thus isolating the influence of otolith inputs. This was accomplished by employing a centrifugation technique with a variable-radius spinning sled. This allowed us to accelerate the sled to a constant angular velocity (128 degrees/s), with the subject centered, and then apply dynamic centripetal accelerations after all rotatory perceptions were extinguished. These stimuli were presented in the subjects' naso-occipital axis by translating the subjects 50 cm eccentrically either forward or backward. Centripetal accelerations were thus induced (0.25 g), which combined with gravity to yield a dynamically shifting gravitoinertial force simulating pitch-tilt, but without actually rotating the head. A magnitude-estimation task was employed to characterize the dynamic perception of pitch-tilt. Tilt perception responded sluggishly to linear acceleration, typically reaching a peak after 10-30 s. Tilt perception also displayed an adaptation phenomenon. Adaptation was manifested as a per-stimulus decline in perceived tilt during prolonged stimulation and a reversal aftereffect upon return to zero acceleration (i.e., recentering the subject). We conclude that otolith

  19. Accelerating functional verification of an integrated circuit

    DOEpatents

    Deindl, Michael; Ruedinger, Jeffrey Joseph; Zoellin, Christian G.

    2015-10-27

    Illustrative embodiments include a method, system, and computer program product for accelerating functional verification in simulation testing of an integrated circuit (IC). Using a processor and a memory, a serial operation is replaced with a direct register access operation, wherein the serial operation is configured to perform bit shifting operation using a register in a simulation of the IC. The serial operation is blocked from manipulating the register in the simulation of the IC. Using the register in the simulation of the IC, the direct register access operation is performed in place of the serial operation.

  20. Electric-car simulation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chapman, C. P.; Slusser, R. A.

    1980-01-01

    PARAMET, interactive simulation program for parametric studies of electric vehicles, guides user through simulation by menu and series of prompts for input parameters. Program considers aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance, linear and rotational acceleration, and road gradient as forces acting on vehicle.

  1. Klynac: Compact Linear Accelerator with Integrated Power Supply

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malyzhenkov, A. V.

    Accelerators and accelerator-based light sources have a wide range of applications in science, engineering technology and medicine. Today the scientific community is working towards improving the quality of the accelerated beam and its parameters, while trying to develop technology for reducing accelerator size. This work describes a design of a compact linear accelerator (linac) prototype: resonant Klynac device, which is a combined linear accelerator and its power supply - klystron. The intended purpose of a Klynac device is to provide a compact and inexpensive alternative to a conventional 1 to 6 MeV accelerator, which typically requires a separate RF source, accelerator itself and all the associated hardware. Because the Klynac is a single structure, it has the potential to be much less sensitive to temperature variations than a system with separate klystron and linac. We start by introducing a simplified theoretical model for a Klynac device. We then demonstrate how a prototype is designed step-by-step using Particle-In-Cell simulation studies for mono-resonant and bi-resonant structures. Finally, we discuss design options from a stability point of view and required input power as well as behavior of competing modes for the actual built device.

  2. Diffusive Shock Acceleration and Reconnection Acceleration Processes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zank, G. P.; Hunana, P.; Mostafavi, P.; Le Roux, J. A.; Li, Gang; Webb, G. M.; Khabarova, O.; Cummings, A.; Stone, E.; Decker, R.

    2015-12-01

    Shock waves, as shown by simulations and observations, can generate high levels of downstream vortical turbulence, including magnetic islands. We consider a combination of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) and downstream magnetic-island-reconnection-related processes as an energization mechanism for charged particles. Observations of electron and ion distributions downstream of interplanetary shocks and the heliospheric termination shock (HTS) are frequently inconsistent with the predictions of classical DSA. We utilize a recently developed transport theory for charged particles propagating diffusively in a turbulent region filled with contracting and reconnecting plasmoids and small-scale current sheets. Particle energization associated with the anti-reconnection electric field, a consequence of magnetic island merging, and magnetic island contraction, are considered. For the former only, we find that (i) the spectrum is a hard power law in particle speed, and (ii) the downstream solution is constant. For downstream plasmoid contraction only, (i) the accelerated spectrum is a hard power law in particle speed; (ii) the particle intensity for a given energy peaks downstream of the shock, and the distance to the peak location increases with increasing particle energy, and (iii) the particle intensity amplification for a particular particle energy, f(x,c/{c}0)/f(0,c/{c}0), is not 1, as predicted by DSA, but increases with increasing particle energy. The general solution combines both the reconnection-induced electric field and plasmoid contraction. The observed energetic particle intensity profile observed by Voyager 2 downstream of the HTS appears to support a particle acceleration mechanism that combines both DSA and magnetic-island-reconnection-related processes.

  3. Design, modeling and simulations of a Cabinet Safe System for a linear particle accelerator of intermediate-low energy by optimization of the beam optics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maidana, Carlos Omar

    As part of an accelerator based Cargo Inspection System, studies were made to develop a Cabinet Safe System by Optimization of the Beam Optics of Microwave Linear Accelerators of the IAC-Varian series working on the S-band and standing wave pi/2 mode. Measurements, modeling and simulations of the main subsystems were done and a Multiple Solenoidal System was designed. This Cabinet Safe System based on a Multiple Solenoidal System minimizes the radiation field generated by the low efficiency of the microwave accelerators by optimizing the RF waveguide system and by also trapping secondaries generated in the accelerator head. These secondaries are generated mainly due to instabilities in the exit window region and particles backscattered from the target. The electron gun was also studied and software for its right mechanical design and for its optimization was developed as well. Besides the standard design method, an optimization of the injection process is accomplished by slightly modifying the gun configuration and by placing a solenoid on the waist position while avoiding threading the cathode with the magnetic flux generated. The Multiple Solenoidal System and the electron gun optimization are the backbone of a Cabinet Safe System that could be applied not only to the 25 MeV IAC-Varian microwave accelerators but, by extension, to machines of different manufacturers as well. Thus, they constitute the main topic of this dissertation.

  4. Effort-Based Decision-Making Paradigms for Clinical Trials in Schizophrenia: Part 1—Psychometric Characteristics of 5 Paradigms.

    PubMed

    Reddy, L Felice; Horan, William P; Barch, Deanna M; Buchanan, Robert W; Dunayevich, Eduardo; Gold, James M; Lyons, Naomi; Marder, Stephen R; Treadway, Michael T; Wynn, Jonathan K; Young, Jared W; Green, Michael F

    2015-09-01

    Impairments in willingness to exert effort contribute to the motivational deficits characteristic of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of 5 new or adapted paradigms to determine their suitability for use in clinical trials of schizophrenia. This study included 94 clinically stable participants with schizophrenia and 40 healthy controls. The effort-based decision-making battery was administered twice to the schizophrenia group (baseline, 4-week retest) and once to the control group. The 5 paradigms included 1 that assesses cognitive effort, 1 perceptual effort, and 3 that assess physical effort. Each paradigm was evaluated on (1) patient vs healthy control group differences, (2) test-retest reliability, (3) utility as a repeated measure (ie, practice effects), and (4) tolerability. The 5 paradigms showed varying psychometric strengths and weaknesses. The Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task showed the best reliability and utility as a repeated measure, while the Grip Effort Task had significant patient-control group differences, and superior tolerability and administration duration. The other paradigms showed weaker psychometric characteristics in their current forms. These findings highlight challenges in adapting effort and motivation paradigms for use in clinical trials. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center 2015.

  5. Fuzzy Hybrid Deliberative/Reactive Paradigm (FHDRP)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sarmadi, Hengameth

    2004-01-01

    This work aims to introduce a new concept for incorporating fuzzy sets in hybrid deliberative/reactive paradigm. After a brief review on basic issues of hybrid paradigm the definition of agent-based fuzzy hybrid paradigm, which enables the agents to proceed and extract their behavior through quantitative numerical and qualitative knowledge and to impose their decision making procedure via fuzzy rule bank, is discussed. Next an example performs a more applied platform for the developed approach and finally an overview of the corresponding agents architecture enhances agents logical framework.

  6. Radiation from Accelerated Particles in Shocks and Reconnections

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nishikawa, K. I.; Choi, E. J.; Min, K. W.; Niemiec, J.; Zhang, B.; Hardee, P.; Mizuno, Y.; Medvedev, M.; Nordlund, A.; Frederiksen, J.; hide

    2012-01-01

    Plasma instabilities are responsible not only for the onset and mediation of collisionless shocks but also for the associated acceleration of particles. We have investigated particle acceleration and shock structure associated with an unmagnetized relativistic electron-positron jet propagating into an unmagnetized electron-positron plasma. Cold jet electrons are thermalized and slowed while the ambient electrons are swept up to create a partially developed hydrodynamic-like shock structure. In the leading shock, electron density increases by a factor of about 3.5 in the simulation frame. Strong electromagnetic fields are generated in the trailing shock and provide an emission site. These magnetic fields contribute to the electrons transverse deflection and, more generally, relativistic acceleration behind the shock. We have calculated, self-consistently, the radiation from electrons accelerated in the turbulent magnetic fields. We found that the synthetic spectra depend on the Lorentz factor of the jet, its thermal temperature and strength of the generated magnetic fields. Our initial results of a jet-ambient interaction with anti-parallelmagnetic fields show pile-up of magnetic fields at the colliding shock, which may lead to reconnection and associated particle acceleration. We will investigate the radiation in a transient stage as a possible generation mechanism of precursors of prompt emission. In our simulations we calculate the radiation from electrons in the shock region. The detailed properties of this radiation are important for understanding the complex time evolution and spectral structure in gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, and supernova remnants.

  7. Ion pre-acceleration in fully self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations of supercritical perpendicular reforming shocks in multiple ion species plasmas

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

    Rekaa, V. L.; Chapman, S. C.; Dendy, R. O., E-mail: v.l.rekaa@fys.uio.no

    2014-08-10

    Supernova remnant and heliopause termination shock plasmas may contain significant populations of minority heavy ions, with relative number densities n{sub α}/n{sub i} up to 50%. Preliminary kinetic simulations of collisionless shocks in these environments showed that the reformation cycle and acceleration mechanisms at quasi-perpendicular shocks can depend on the value of n{sub α}/n{sub i} . Shock reformation unfolds on ion spatio-temporal scales, requiring fully kinetic simulations of particle dynamics, together with the self-consistent electric and magnetic fields. This paper presents the first set of particle-in-cell simulations for two ion species, protons (n{sub p} ) and α-particles (n{sub α}), with differingmore » mass and charge-to-mass ratios, that spans the entire range of n{sub α}/n{sub i} from 0% to 100%. The interplay between the differing gyro length scales and timescales of the ion species is crucial to the time-evolving phenomenology of the shocks, the downstream turbulence, and the particle acceleration at different n{sub α}/n{sub i} . We show how the overall energization changes with n{sub α}/n{sub i} , and relate this to the processes individual ions undergo in the shock region and in the downstream turbulence, and to the power spectra of magnetic field fluctuations. The crossover between shocks dominated by the respective ion species happens when n{sub α}/n{sub i} = 25%, and minority ion energization is strongest in this regime. Energization of the majority ion species scales with injection energy. The power spectrum of the downstream turbulence includes peaks at sequential ion cyclotron harmonics, suggestive of ion ring-beam collective instability.« less

  8. Advanced Accelerator Development Strategy Report: DOE Advanced Accelerator Concepts Research Roadmap Workshop

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

    None, None

    Over a full two day period, February 2–3, 2016, the Office of High Energy Physics convened a workshop in Gaithersburg, MD to seek community input on development of an Advanced Accelerator Concepts (AAC) research roadmap. The workshop was in response to a recommendation by the HEPAP Accelerator R&D Subpanel [1] [2] to “convene the university and laboratory proponents of advanced acceleration concepts to develop R&D roadmaps with a series of milestones and common down selection criteria towards the goal for constructing a multi-TeV e+e– collider” (the charge to the workshop can be found in Appendix A). During the workshop, proponentsmore » of laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (LWFA), particle-beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA), and dielectric wakefield acceleration (DWFA), along with a limited number of invited university and laboratory experts, presented and critically discussed individual concept roadmaps. The roadmap workshop was preceded by several preparatory workshops. The first day of the workshop featured presentation of three initial individual roadmaps with ample time for discussion. The individual roadmaps covered a time period extending until roughly 2040, with the end date assumed to be roughly appropriate for initial operation of a multi-TeV e+e– collider. The second day of the workshop comprised talks on synergies between the roadmaps and with global efforts, potential early applications, diagnostics needs, simulation needs, and beam issues and challenges related to a collider. During the last half of the day the roadmaps were revisited but with emphasis on the next five to ten years (as specifically requested in the charge) and on common challenges. The workshop concluded with critical and unanimous endorsement of the individual roadmaps and an extended discussion on the characteristics of the common challenges. (For the agenda and list of participants see Appendix B.)« less

  9. Enabling More than Moore: Accelerated Reliability Testing and Risk Analysis for Advanced Electronics Packaging

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ghaffarian, Reza; Evans, John W.

    2014-01-01

    For five decades, the semiconductor industry has distinguished itself by the rapid pace of improvement in miniaturization of electronics products-Moore's Law. Now, scaling hits a brick wall, a paradigm shift. The industry roadmaps recognized the scaling limitation and project that packaging technologies will meet further miniaturization needs or ak.a "More than Moore". This paper presents packaging technology trends and accelerated reliability testing methods currently being practiced. Then, it presents industry status on key advanced electronic packages, factors affecting accelerated solder joint reliability of area array packages, and IPC/JEDEC/Mil specifications for characterizations of assemblies under accelerated thermal and mechanical loading. Finally, it presents an examples demonstrating how Accelerated Testing and Analysis have been effectively employed in the development of complex spacecraft thereby reducing risk. Quantitative assessments necessarily involve the mathematics of probability and statistics. In addition, accelerated tests need to be designed which consider the desired risk posture and schedule for particular project. Such assessments relieve risks without imposing additional costs. and constraints that are not value added for a particular mission. Furthermore, in the course of development of complex systems, variances and defects will inevitably present themselves and require a decision concerning their disposition, necessitating quantitative assessments. In summary, this paper presents a comprehensive view point, from technology to systems, including the benefits and impact of accelerated testing in offsetting risk.

  10. Educational Simulation in Practice: A Teaching Experience Using a Flight Simulator

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ruiz, Sergio; Aguado, Carlos; Moreno, Romualdo

    2014-01-01

    The use of appropriate Educational Simulation systems (software and hardware for learning purposes) may contribute to the application of the "Learning by Doing" (LbD) paradigm in classroom, thus helping the students to assimilate the theoretical concepts of a subject and acquire certain pre-defined competencies in a more didactical way.…

  11. Distribution uniformity of laser-accelerated proton beams

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Jun-Gao; Zhu, Kun; Tao, Li; Xu, Xiao-Han; Lin, Chen; Ma, Wen-Jun; Lu, Hai-Yang; Zhao, Yan-Ying; Lu, Yuan-Rong; Chen, Jia-Er; Yan, Xue-Qing

    2017-09-01

    Compared with conventional accelerators, laser plasma accelerators can generate high energy ions at a greatly reduced scale, due to their TV/m acceleration gradient. A compact laser plasma accelerator (CLAPA) has been built at the Institute of Heavy Ion Physics at Peking University. It will be used for applied research like biological irradiation, astrophysics simulations, etc. A beamline system with multiple quadrupoles and an analyzing magnet for laser-accelerated ions is proposed here. Since laser-accelerated ion beams have broad energy spectra and large angular divergence, the parameters (beam waist position in the Y direction, beam line layout, drift distance, magnet angles etc.) of the beamline system are carefully designed and optimised to obtain a radially symmetric proton distribution at the irradiation platform. Requirements of energy selection and differences in focusing or defocusing in application systems greatly influence the evolution of proton distributions. With optimal parameters, radially symmetric proton distributions can be achieved and protons with different energy spread within ±5% have similar transverse areas at the experiment target. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11575011, 61631001) and National Grand Instrument Project (2012YQ030142)

  12. Essential energy space random walks to accelerate molecular dynamics simulations: Convergence improvements via an adaptive-length self-healing strategy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zheng, Lianqing; Yang, Wei

    2008-07-01

    Recently, accelerated molecular dynamics (AMD) technique was generalized to realize essential energy space random walks so that further sampling enhancement and effective localized enhanced sampling could be achieved. This method is especially meaningful when essential coordinates of the target events are not priori known; moreover, the energy space metadynamics method was also introduced so that biasing free energy functions can be robustly generated. Despite the promising features of this method, due to the nonequilibrium nature of the metadynamics recursion, it is challenging to rigorously use the data obtained at the recursion stage to perform equilibrium analysis, such as free energy surface mapping; therefore, a large amount of data ought to be wasted. To resolve such problem so as to further improve simulation convergence, as promised in our original paper, we are reporting an alternate approach: the adaptive-length self-healing (ALSH) strategy for AMD simulations; this development is based on a recent self-healing umbrella sampling method. Here, the unit simulation length for each self-healing recursion is increasingly updated based on the Wang-Landau flattening judgment. When the unit simulation length for each update is long enough, all the following unit simulations naturally run into the equilibrium regime. Thereafter, these unit simulations can serve for the dual purposes of recursion and equilibrium analysis. As demonstrated in our model studies, by applying ALSH, both fast recursion and short nonequilibrium data waste can be compromised. As a result, combining all the data obtained from all the unit simulations that are in the equilibrium regime via the weighted histogram analysis method, efficient convergence can be robustly ensured, especially for the purpose of free energy surface mapping.

  13. Combustion in an acceleration field: A survey of Soviet literature

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Radloff, S. J.; Osborn, J. R.

    1980-01-01

    The effect of an acceleration field on the burning rate of a solid propellant was measured from -900g's to +1000g's using both double base and ammonium perchlorate based propellants. The acceleration fields were simulated using a centrifuge device and the burning rate was recorded. Both metalized and non-metalized variations of each propellant were tested and it was found that acceleration fields affect the burning rate. For the most part the theoretical predictions and the experimental results agreed.

  14. Energetic ion acceleration at collisionless shocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Decker, R. B.; Vlahos, L.

    1985-01-01

    An example is presented from a test particle simulation designed to study ion acceleration at oblique turbulent shocks. For conditions appropriate at interplanetary shocks near 1 AU, it is found that a shock with theta sub B n = 60 deg is capable of producing an energy spectrum extending from 10 keV to approx. 1 MeV in approx 1 hour. In this case total energy gains result primarily from several separate episodes of shock drift acceleration, each of which occurs when particles are scattered back to the shock by magnetic fluctuations in the shock vicinity.

  15. Evaluation of asymmetric quadrupoles for a non-scaling fixed field alternating gradient accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Sang-Hun; Park, Sae-Hoon; Kim, Yu-Seok

    2017-12-01

    A non-scaling fixed field alternating gradient (NS-FFAG) accelerator was constructed, which employs conventional quadrupoles. The possible demerit is the beam instability caused by the variable focusing strength when the orbit radius of the beam changes. To overcome this instability, it was suggested that the asymmetric quadrupole has different current flows in each coil. The magnetic field of the asymmetric quadrupole was found to be more similar to the magnetic field required for the FFAG accelerator than the constructed NS-FFAG accelerator. In this study, a simulation of the beam dynamics was carried out to evaluate the improvement to the beam stability for the NS-FFAG accelerator using the SIMION program. The beam dynamics simulation was conducted with the `hard edge' model; it ignored the fringe field at the end of the magnet. The magnetic field map of the suggested magnet was created using the SIMION program. The lattices for the simulation combined the suggested magnets. The magnets were evaluated for beam stability in the lattices through the SIMION program.

  16. Striving for Better Medical Education: the Simulation Approach.

    PubMed

    Sakakushev, Boris E; Marinov, Blagoi I; Stefanova, Penka P; Kostianev, Stefan St; Georgiou, Evangelos K

    2017-06-01

    Medical simulation is a rapidly expanding area within medical education due to advances in technology, significant reduction in training hours and increased procedural complexity. Simulation training aims to enhance patient safety through improved technical competency and eliminating human factors in a risk free environment. It is particularly applicable to a practical, procedure-orientated specialties. Simulation can be useful for novice trainees, experienced clinicians (e.g. for revalidation) and team building. It has become a cornerstone in the delivery of medical education, being a paradigm shift in how doctors are educated and trained. Simulation must take a proactive position in the development of metric-based simulation curriculum, adoption of proficiency benchmarking definitions, and should not depend on the simulation platforms used. Conversely, ingraining of poor practice may occur in the absence of adequate supervision, and equipment malfunction during the simulation can break the immersion and disrupt any learning that has occurred. Despite the presence of high technology, there is a substantial learning curve for both learners and facilitators. The technology of simulation continues to advance, offering devices capable of improved fidelity in virtual reality simulation, more sophisticated procedural practice and advanced patient simulators. Simulation-based training has also brought about paradigm shifts in the medical and surgical education arenas and ensured that the scope and impact of simulation will continue to broaden.

  17. Constraint methods that accelerate free-energy simulations of biomolecules.

    PubMed

    Perez, Alberto; MacCallum, Justin L; Coutsias, Evangelos A; Dill, Ken A

    2015-12-28

    Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of biomolecules are critical for generating narratives about biological mechanisms. The power of atomistic simulations is that these are physics-based methods that satisfy Boltzmann's law, so they can be used to compute populations, dynamics, and mechanisms. But physical simulations are computationally intensive and do not scale well to the sizes of many important biomolecules. One way to speed up physical simulations is by coarse-graining the potential function. Another way is to harness structural knowledge, often by imposing spring-like restraints. But harnessing external knowledge in physical simulations is problematic because knowledge, data, or hunches have errors, noise, and combinatoric uncertainties. Here, we review recent principled methods for imposing restraints to speed up physics-based molecular simulations that promise to scale to larger biomolecules and motions.

  18. A new compact structure for a high intensity low-energy heavy-ion accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Zhi-Jun; He, Yuan; A. Kolomiets, A.; Liu, Shu-Hui; Du, Xiao-Nan; Jia, Huan; Li, Chao; Wang, Wang-Sheng; Chen, Xi-Meng

    2013-12-01

    A new compact accelerating structure named Hybrid RFQ is proposed to accelerate a high-intensity low-energy heavy ion beam in HISCL (High Intensive heavy ion SuperConducting Linear accelerator), which is an injector of HIAF (Heavy Ion Advanced Research Facility). It is combined by an alternative series of acceleration gaps and RFQ sections. The proposed structure has a high accelerating ability compared with a conventional RFQ and is more compact than traditional DTLs. A Hybrid RFQ is designed to accelerate 238U34+ from 0.38 MeV/u to 1.33 MeV/u. The operation frequency is described to be 81.25 MHz at CW (continuous wave) mode. The design beam current is 1.0 mA. The results of beam dynamics and RF simulation of the Hybrid RFQ show that the structure has a good performance at the energy range for ion acceleration. The emittance growth is less than 5% in both directions and the RF power is less than 150 kW. In this paper, the results of beam dynamics and RF simulation of the Hybrid RFQ are presented.

  19. Experimental evidence of space charge driven resonances in high intensity linear accelerators

    DOE PAGES

    Jeon, Dong -O

    2016-01-12

    In the construction of high intensity accelerators, it is the utmost goal to minimize the beam loss by avoiding or minimizing contributions of various halo formation mechanisms. As a halo formation mechanism, space charge driven resonances are well known for circular accelerators. However, the recent finding showed that even in linear accelerators the space charge potential can excite the 4σ = 360° fourth order resonance [D. Jeon et al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 12, 054204 (2009)]. This study increased the interests in space charge driven resonances of linear accelerators. Experimental studies of the space charge driven resonances of highmore » intensity linear accelerators are rare as opposed to the multitude of simulation studies. This paper presents an experimental evidence of the space charge driven 4σ ¼ 360° resonance and the 2σ x(y) – 2σ z = 0 resonance of a high intensity linear accelerator through beam profile measurements from multiple wire-scanners. Moreover, measured beam profiles agree well with the characteristics of the space charge driven 4σ = 360° resonance and the 2σ x(y) – 2σ z = 0 resonance that are predicted by the simulation.« less

  20. Paradigm Shifts in Ophthalmic Diagnostics*

    PubMed Central

    Sebag, J.; Sadun, Alfredo A.; Pierce, Eric A.

    2016-01-01

    Purpose Future advances in ophthalmology will see a paradigm shift in diagnostics from a focus on dysfunction and disease to better measures of psychophysical function and health. Practical methods to define genotypes will be increasingly important and non-invasive nanotechnologies are needed to detect molecular changes that predate histopathology. Methods This is not a review nor meant to be comprehensive. Specific topics have been selected to illustrate the principles of important paradigm shifts that will influence the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. It is our impression that future evaluation of vision will go beyond visual acuity to assess ocular health in terms of psychophysical function. The definition of disease will incorporate genotype into what has historically been a phenotype-centric discipline. Non-invasive nanotechnologies will enable a paradigm shift from disease detection on a cellular level to a sub-cellular molecular level. Results Vision can be evaluated beyond visual acuity by measuring contrast sensitivity, color vision, and macular function, as these provide better insights into the impact of aging and disease. Distortions can be quantified and the psychophysical basis of vision can be better evaluated than in the past by designing tests that assess particular macular cell function(s). Advances in our understanding of the genetic basis of eye diseases will enable better characterization of ocular health and disease. Non-invasive nanotechnologies can assess molecular changes in the lens, vitreous, and macula that predate visible pathology. Oxygen metabolism and circulatory physiology are measurable indices of ocular health that can detect variations of physiology and early disease. Conclusions This overview of paradigm shifts in ophthalmology suggests that the future will see significant improvements in ophthalmic diagnostics. The selected topics illustrate the principles of these paradigm shifts and should serve as a guide to further

  1. The Failure of Progressive Paradigm Reversal

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guthrie, Gerard

    2017-01-01

    The student-centred, progressive paradigm has not had sustained success in changing teacher-centred, formalistic practices in "developing" country classrooms. Does "Gestalt-switch" and paradigm reversal demonstrate that progressive theory has realigned with formalistic reality, or has it remained axiomatic in the research and…

  2. Acceleration of the Fast Solar Wind by Solitary Waves in Coronal Holes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ofman, Leon

    2001-01-01

    The purpose of this investigation is to develop a new model for the acceleration of the fast solar wind by nonlinear. time-dependent multidimensional MHD simulations of waves in solar coronal holes. Preliminary computational studies indicate that nonlinear waves are generated in coronal holes by torsional Alfv\\'{e}n waves. These waves in addition to thermal conduction may contribute considerably to the accelerate the solar wind. Specific goals of this proposal are to investigate the generation of nonlinear solitary-like waves and their effect on solar wind acceleration by numerical 2.5D MHD simulation of coronal holes with a broad range of plasma and wave parameters; to study the effect of random disturbances at the base of a solar coronal hole on the fast solar wind acceleration with a more advanced 2.5D MHD model and to compare the results with the available observations; to extend the study to a full 3D MHD simulation of fast solar wind acceleration with a more realistic model of a coronal hole and solar boundary conditions. The ultimate goal of the three year study is to model the, fast solar wind in a coronal hole, based on realistic boundary conditions in a coronal hole near the Sun, and the coronal hole structure (i.e., density, temperature. and magnetic field geometry,) that will become available from the recently launched SOHO spacecraft.

  3. Acceleration of the Fast Solar Wind by Solitary Waves in Coronal Holes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ofman, Leon

    2000-01-01

    The purpose of this investigation is to develop a new model for the acceleration of the fast solar wind by nonlinear, time-dependent multidimensional MHD simulations of waves in solar coronal holes. Preliminary computational studies indicate that solitary-like waves are generated in coronal holes nonlinearly by torsional Alfven waves. These waves in addition to thermal conduction may contribute considerably to the accelerate the solar wind. Specific goals of this proposal are to investigate the generation of nonlinear solitary-like waves and their effect on solar wind acceleration by numerical 2.5D MHD simulation of coronal holes with a broad range of plasma and wave parameters; to study the effect of random disturbances at the base of a solar coronal hole on the fast solar wind acceleration with a more advanced 2.5D MHD model and to compare the results with the available observations; to extend the study to a full 3D MHD simulation of fast solar wind acceleration with a more realistic model of a coronal hole and solar boundary conditions. The ultimate goal of the three year study is to model the fast solar wind in a coronal hole, based on realistic boundary conditions in a coronal hole near the Sun, and the coronal hole structure (i.e., density, temperature, and magnetic field geometry) that will become available from the recently launched SOHO spacecraft.

  4. Particle Acceleration and Magnetic Field Generation in Electron-Positron Relativistic Shocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nishikawa, K.-I.; Hardee, P.; Richardson, G.; Preece, R.; Sol, H.; Fishman, G. J.

    2004-01-01

    Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated particle acceleration associated with a relativistic electron-positron jet front propagating into an ambient electron-positron plasma with and without initial magnetic fields. We find small differences in the results for no ambient and modest ambient magnetic fields. Simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the collisionless shock front accelerates jet and ambient particles both perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation direction. The non-linear fluctuation amplitudes of densities, currents, electric, and magnetic fields in the electron-positron shock are larger than those found in the electron-ion shock studied in a previous paper. This comes from the fact that both electrons and positrons contribute to generation of the Weibel instability. Additionally, we have performed simulations with different electron skin depths. We find that growth times scale inversely with the plasma frequency, and the sizes of structures created by the Weibel instability scale proportional to the electron skin depth. This is the expected result and indicates that the simulations have sufficient grid resolution. While some Fermi acceleration may occur at the jet front, the majority of electron and positron acceleration takes place behind the jet front and cannot be characterized as Fermi acceleration. The simulation results show that the Weibel instability is responsible for generating and amplifying nonuniform, small-scale magnetic fields which contribute to the electron's (positron's) transverse deflection behind the jet head. This small scale magnetic field structure is appropriate to the generation

  5. Analysis of flame acceleration in open or vented obstructed pipes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bychkov, Vitaly; Sadek, Jad; Akkerman, V'yacheslav

    2017-01-01

    While flame propagation through obstacles is often associated with turbulence and/or shocks, Bychkov et al. [V. Bychkov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 164501 (2008), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.164501] have revealed a shockless, conceptually laminar mechanism of extremely fast flame acceleration in semiopen obstructed pipes (one end of a pipe is closed; a flame is ignited at the closed end and propagates towards the open one). The acceleration is devoted to a powerful jet flow produced by delayed combustion in the spaces between the obstacles, with turbulence playing only a supplementary role in this process. In the present work, this formulation is extended to pipes with both ends open in order to describe the recent experiments and modeling by Yanez et al. [J. Yanez et al., arXiv:1208.6453] as well as the simulations by Middha and Hansen [P. Middha and O. R. Hansen, Process Safety Prog. 27, 192 (2008) 10.1002/prs.10242]. It is demonstrated that flames accelerate strongly in open or vented obstructed pipes and the acceleration mechanism is similar to that in semiopen ones (shockless and laminar), although acceleration is weaker in open pipes. Starting with an inviscid approximation, we subsequently incorporate hydraulic resistance (viscous forces) into the analysis for the sake of comparing its role to that of a jet flow driving acceleration. It is shown that hydraulic resistance is actually not required to drive flame acceleration. In contrast, this is a supplementary effect, which moderates acceleration. On the other hand, viscous forces are nevertheless an important effect because they are responsible for the initial delay occurring before the flame acceleration onset, which is observed in the experiments and simulations. Accounting for this effect provides good agreement between the experiments, modeling, and the present theory.

  6. ATOM - Accelerating therapeutics through opportunities in medicine

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

    Mcmahon, Benjamin Hamilton; Dotson, Paul Jeffrey

    Create a new paradigm of drug discovery that would reduce the time from an identified drug target to clinical candidate from the current ~6 years to just 12 months. ATOM will develop, test, and validate a multidisciplinary approach to drug discovery in which modern science, technology and engineering, supercomputing, simulations, data science, and artificial intelligence are highly integrated into a single drug-discovery platform that can ultimately be shared with the drug development community at-large.

  7. Design of an 81.25 MHz continuous-wave radio-frequency quadrupole accelerator for Low Energy Accelerator Facility

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ma, Wei; Lu, Liang; Xu, Xianbo; Sun, Liepeng; Zhang, Zhouli; Dou, Weiping; Li, Chenxing; Shi, Longbo; He, Yuan; Zhao, Hongwei

    2017-03-01

    An 81.25 MHz continuous wave (CW) radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator has been designed for the Low Energy Accelerator Facility (LEAF) at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS). In the CW operating mode, the proposed RFQ design adopted the conventional four-vane structure. The main design goals are providing high shunt impendence with low power losses. In the electromagnetic (EM) design, the π-mode stabilizing loops (PISLs) were optimized to produce a good mode separation. The tuners were also designed and optimized to tune the frequency and field flatness of the operating mode. The vane undercuts were optimized to provide a flat field along the RFQ cavity. Additionally, a full length model with modulations was set up for the final EM simulations. Following the EM design, thermal analysis of the structure was carried out. In this paper, detailed EM design and thermal simulations of the LEAF-RFQ will be presented and discussed. Structure error analysis was also studied.

  8. Acceleration modules in linear induction accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Shao-Heng; Deng, Jian-Jun

    2014-05-01

    The Linear Induction Accelerator (LIA) is a unique type of accelerator that is capable of accelerating kilo-Ampere charged particle current to tens of MeV energy. The present development of LIA in MHz bursting mode and the successful application into a synchrotron have broadened LIA's usage scope. Although the transformer model is widely used to explain the acceleration mechanism of LIAs, it is not appropriate to consider the induction electric field as the field which accelerates charged particles for many modern LIAs. We have examined the transition of the magnetic cores' functions during the LIA acceleration modules' evolution, distinguished transformer type and transmission line type LIA acceleration modules, and re-considered several related issues based on transmission line type LIA acceleration module. This clarified understanding should help in the further development and design of LIA acceleration modules.

  9. Development of hardware accelerator for molecular dynamics simulations: a computation board that calculates nonbonded interactions in cooperation with fast multipole method.

    PubMed

    Amisaki, Takashi; Toyoda, Shinjiro; Miyagawa, Hiroh; Kitamura, Kunihiro

    2003-04-15

    Evaluation of long-range Coulombic interactions still represents a bottleneck in the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of biological macromolecules. Despite the advent of sophisticated fast algorithms, such as the fast multipole method (FMM), accurate simulations still demand a great amount of computation time due to the accuracy/speed trade-off inherently involved in these algorithms. Unless higher order multipole expansions, which are extremely expensive to evaluate, are employed, a large amount of the execution time is still spent in directly calculating particle-particle interactions within the nearby region of each particle. To reduce this execution time for pair interactions, we developed a computation unit (board), called MD-Engine II, that calculates nonbonded pairwise interactions using a specially designed hardware. Four custom arithmetic-processors and a processor for memory manipulation ("particle processor") are mounted on the computation board. The arithmetic processors are responsible for calculation of the pair interactions. The particle processor plays a central role in realizing efficient cooperation with the FMM. The results of a series of 50-ps MD simulations of a protein-water system (50,764 atoms) indicated that a more stringent setting of accuracy in FMM computation, compared with those previously reported, was required for accurate simulations over long time periods. Such a level of accuracy was efficiently achieved using the cooperative calculations of the FMM and MD-Engine II. On an Alpha 21264 PC, the FMM computation at a moderate but tolerable level of accuracy was accelerated by a factor of 16.0 using three boards. At a high level of accuracy, the cooperative calculation achieved a 22.7-fold acceleration over the corresponding conventional FMM calculation. In the cooperative calculations of the FMM and MD-Engine II, it was possible to achieve more accurate computation at a comparable execution time by incorporating larger nearby

  10. Reaching extended length-scales with temperature-accelerated dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Amar, Jacques G.; Shim, Yunsic

    2013-03-01

    In temperature-accelerated dynamics (TAD) a high-temperature molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is used to accelerate the search for the next low-temperature activated event. While TAD has been quite successful in extending the time-scales of simulations of non-equilibrium processes, due to the fact that the computational work scales approximately as the cube of the number of atoms, until recently only simulations of relatively small systems have been carried out. Recently, we have shown that by combining spatial decomposition with our synchronous sublattice algorithm, significantly improved scaling is possible. However, in this approach the size of activated events is limited by the processor size while the dynamics is not exact. Here we discuss progress in developing an alternate approach in which high-temperature parallel MD along with localized saddle-point (LSAD) calculations, are used to carry out TAD simulations without restricting the size of activated events while keeping the dynamics ``exact'' within the context of harmonic transition-state theory. In tests of our LSAD method applied to Ag/Ag(100) annealing and Cu/Cu(100) growth simulations we find significantly improved scaling of TAD, while maintaining a negligibly small error in the energy barriers. Supported by NSF DMR-0907399.

  11. Energy sweep compensation of induction accelerators

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

    Sampayan, S.E.; Caporaso, G.J.; Chen, Y-J

    1990-09-12

    The ETA-II linear induction accelerator (LIA) is designed to drive a microwave free electron laser (FEL). Beam energy sweep must be limited to {plus minus}1% for 50 ns to limit beam corkscrew motion and ensure high power FEL output over the full duration of the beam flattop. To achieve this energy sweep requirement, we have implemented a pulse distribution system and are planning implementation of a tapered pulse forming line (PFL) in the pulse generators driving acceleration gaps. The pulse distribution system assures proper phasing of the high voltage pulse to the electron beam. Additionally, cell-to-cell coupling of beam inducedmore » transients is reduced. The tapered PFL compensates for accelerator cell and loading nonlinearities. Circuit simulations show good agreement with preliminary data and predict the required energy sweep requirement can be met.« less

  12. Large-Scale Conformational Changes of Trypanosoma cruzi Proline Racemase Predicted by Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulation

    PubMed Central

    McCammon, J. Andrew

    2011-01-01

    Chagas' disease, caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), is a life-threatening illness affecting 11–18 million people. Currently available treatments are limited, with unacceptable efficacy and safety profiles. Recent studies have revealed an essential T. cruzi proline racemase enzyme (TcPR) as an attractive candidate for improved chemotherapeutic intervention. Conformational changes associated with substrate binding to TcPR are believed to expose critical residues that elicit a host mitogenic B-cell response, a process contributing to parasite persistence and immune system evasion. Characterization of the conformational states of TcPR requires access to long-time-scale motions that are currently inaccessible by standard molecular dynamics simulations. Here we describe advanced accelerated molecular dynamics that extend the effective simulation time and capture large-scale motions of functional relevance. Conservation and fragment mapping analyses identified potential conformational epitopes located in the vicinity of newly identified transient binding pockets. The newly identified open TcPR conformations revealed by this study along with knowledge of the closed to open interconversion mechanism advances our understanding of TcPR function. The results and the strategy adopted in this work constitute an important step toward the rationalization of the molecular basis behind the mitogenic B-cell response of TcPR and provide new insights for future structure-based drug discovery. PMID:22022240

  13. Large-scale conformational changes of Trypanosoma cruzi proline racemase predicted by accelerated molecular dynamics simulation.

    PubMed

    de Oliveira, César Augusto F; Grant, Barry J; Zhou, Michelle; McCammon, J Andrew

    2011-10-01

    Chagas' disease, caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), is a life-threatening illness affecting 11-18 million people. Currently available treatments are limited, with unacceptable efficacy and safety profiles. Recent studies have revealed an essential T. cruzi proline racemase enzyme (TcPR) as an attractive candidate for improved chemotherapeutic intervention. Conformational changes associated with substrate binding to TcPR are believed to expose critical residues that elicit a host mitogenic B-cell response, a process contributing to parasite persistence and immune system evasion. Characterization of the conformational states of TcPR requires access to long-time-scale motions that are currently inaccessible by standard molecular dynamics simulations. Here we describe advanced accelerated molecular dynamics that extend the effective simulation time and capture large-scale motions of functional relevance. Conservation and fragment mapping analyses identified potential conformational epitopes located in the vicinity of newly identified transient binding pockets. The newly identified open TcPR conformations revealed by this study along with knowledge of the closed to open interconversion mechanism advances our understanding of TcPR function. The results and the strategy adopted in this work constitute an important step toward the rationalization of the molecular basis behind the mitogenic B-cell response of TcPR and provide new insights for future structure-based drug discovery.

  14. Astrophysical ZeV acceleration in the jets from an accreting blackhole

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tajima, Toshiki; Ebisuzaki, Toshikazu; Mizuta, Akira

    2017-10-01

    An accreting blackhole produces extreme amplitude Alfven waves whose wavelength (wave packet) size is characterized by its clumsiness. The ponderomotive force driven by the bow wake of these Alfven waves propagates along the AGN (blazar) jet, and accelerates protons/nuclei to extreme energies beyond Zetta-electron volt (ZeV = 1021 eV). Such acceleration is linear and does not suffer from the multiple scattering/bending involved in the Fermi acceleration that causes excessive synchrotron radiation loss beyond 1019 eV. This bow wake acceleration was confirmed one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. General relativistic Magneto-hydrodynamics simulations also show the intermittent eruptions of electro-magnetic waves from the innermost region of the accretion disk around a black hole. The production rate of ultra-high energy cosmic rays in M82 starburst galaxy is estimated from its gamma-ray luminosity and is found to be consistent with the observed flux of the northern hot spot by Telescope Array. We will discuss the possible acceleration in an intermediate mass black hole candidate M82 X-1 and the magnetic bending in the cosmological filaments in the local super cluster.

  15. Inductive and electrostatic acceleration in relativistic jet-plasma interactions.

    PubMed

    Ng, Johnny S T; Noble, Robert J

    2006-03-24

    We report on the observation of rapid particle acceleration in numerical simulations of relativistic jet-plasma interactions and discuss the underlying mechanisms. The dynamics of a charge-neutral, narrow, electron-positron jet propagating through an unmagnetized electron-ion plasma was investigated using a three-dimensional, electromagnetic, particle-in-cell computer code. The interaction excited magnetic filamentation as well as electrostatic plasma instabilities. In some cases, the longitudinal electric fields generated inductively and electrostatically reached the cold plasma-wave-breaking limit, and the longitudinal momentum of about half the positrons increased by 50% with a maximum gain exceeding a factor of 2 during the simulation period. Particle acceleration via these mechanisms occurred when the criteria for Weibel instability were satisfied.

  16. Rethinking School Effectiveness and Improvement: A Question of Paradigms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wrigley, Terry

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to contribute to progressive school change by developing a more systematic critique of school effectiveness (SE) and school improvement (SI) as paradigms. Diverse examples of paradigms and paradigm change in non-educational fields are used to create a model of paradigms for application to SE and SI, and to explore…

  17. Dusty-Plasma Particle Accelerator

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Foster, John E.

    2005-01-01

    A dusty-plasma apparatus is being investigated as means of accelerating nanometer- and micrometer-sized particles. Applications for the dusty-plasma particle accelerators fall into two classes: Simulation of a variety of rapidly moving dust particles and micrometeoroids in outer-space environments that include micrometeoroid streams, comet tails, planetary rings, and nebulae and Deposition or implantation of nanoparticles on substrates for diverse industrial purposes that could include hardening, increasing thermal insulation, altering optical properties, and/or increasing permittivities of substrate materials. Relative to prior apparatuses used for similar applications, dusty-plasma particle accelerators offer such potential advantages as smaller size, lower cost, less complexity, and increased particle flux densities. A dusty-plasma particle accelerator exploits the fact that an isolated particle immersed in plasma acquires a net electric charge that depends on the relative mobilities of electrons and ions. Typically, a particle that is immersed in a low-temperature, partially ionized gas, wherein the average kinetic energy of electrons exceeds that of ions, causes the particle to become negatively charged. The particle can then be accelerated by applying an appropriate electric field. A dusty-plasma particle accelerator (see figure) includes a plasma source such as a radio-frequency induction discharge apparatus containing (1) a shallow cup with a biasable electrode to hold the particles to be accelerated and (2) a holder for the substrate on which the particles are to impinge. Depending on the specific design, a pair of electrostatic-acceleration grids between the substrate and discharge plasma can be used to both collimate and further accelerate particles exiting the particle holder. Once exposed to the discharge plasma, the particles in the cup quickly acquire a negative charge. Application of a negative voltage pulse to the biasable electrode results in the

  18. Multi-paradigm simulation at nanoscale: Methodology and application to functional carbon material

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Haibin

    2012-12-01

    Multiparadigm methods to span the scales from quantum mechanics to practical issues of functional nanoassembly and nanofabrication are enabling first principles predictions to guide and complement the experimental developments by designing and optimizing computationally the materials compositions and structures to assemble nanoscale systems with the requisite properties. In this talk, we employ multi-paradigm approaches to investigate functional carbon materials with versatile character, including fullerene, carbon nanotube (CNT), graphene, and related hybrid structures, which have already created an enormous impact on next generation nano devices. The topics will cover the reaction dynamics of C60 dimerization and the more challenging complex tubular fullerene formation process in the peapod structures; the computational design of a new generation of peapod nano-oscillators, the predicted magnetic state in Nano Buds; opto-electronic properties of graphene nanoribbons; and disorder / vibronic effects on transport in carbonrich materials.

  19. Biomedical and development paradigms in AIDS prevention.

    PubMed Central

    Wolffers, I.

    2000-01-01

    In the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic different approaches can be distinguished, reflecting professional backgrounds, world views and political interests. One important distinction is between the biomedical and the development paradigms. The biomedical paradigm is characterized by individualization and the concept of "risk". This again is related to the concept of the market where health is a product of services and progress a series of new discoveries that can be marketed. The development paradigm is characterized by participation of the different stakeholders and by community work. The concept "vulnerability" is important in the development paradigm and emphasis is placed on efforts to decrease this vulnerability in a variety of sustainable ways. Biomedical technology is definitely one of the tools in these efforts. In the beginning of the pandemic the biomedical approach was important for the discovery of the virus and understanding its epidemiology. Later, stakeholders became involved. In the light of absence of treatment or vaccines, the development paradigm became more important and the two approaches were more in balance. However, since the reports about effective treatment of AIDS and hope of development of vaccines, the biomedical paradigm has become a leading principle in many HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. There is a need for a better balance between the two paradigms. Especially in developing countries, where it is not realistic to think that sustainable biomedical interventions can be organized on a short-term basis, it would be counterproductive to base our efforts to deal with HIV/AIDS exclusively on the biomedical approach. PMID:10743300

  20. Cluster analysis of accelerated molecular dynamics simulations: A case study of the decahedron to icosahedron transition in Pt nanoparticles.

    PubMed

    Huang, Rao; Lo, Li-Ta; Wen, Yuhua; Voter, Arthur F; Perez, Danny

    2017-10-21

    Modern molecular-dynamics-based techniques are extremely powerful to investigate the dynamical evolution of materials. With the increase in sophistication of the simulation techniques and the ubiquity of massively parallel computing platforms, atomistic simulations now generate very large amounts of data, which have to be carefully analyzed in order to reveal key features of the underlying trajectories, including the nature and characteristics of the relevant reaction pathways. We show that clustering algorithms, such as the Perron Cluster Cluster Analysis, can provide reduced representations that greatly facilitate the interpretation of complex trajectories. To illustrate this point, clustering tools are used to identify the key kinetic steps in complex accelerated molecular dynamics trajectories exhibiting shape fluctuations in Pt nanoclusters. This analysis provides an easily interpretable coarse representation of the reaction pathways in terms of a handful of clusters, in contrast to the raw trajectory that contains thousands of unique states and tens of thousands of transitions.

  1. Cluster analysis of accelerated molecular dynamics simulations: A case study of the decahedron to icosahedron transition in Pt nanoparticles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Rao; Lo, Li-Ta; Wen, Yuhua; Voter, Arthur F.; Perez, Danny

    2017-10-01

    Modern molecular-dynamics-based techniques are extremely powerful to investigate the dynamical evolution of materials. With the increase in sophistication of the simulation techniques and the ubiquity of massively parallel computing platforms, atomistic simulations now generate very large amounts of data, which have to be carefully analyzed in order to reveal key features of the underlying trajectories, including the nature and characteristics of the relevant reaction pathways. We show that clustering algorithms, such as the Perron Cluster Cluster Analysis, can provide reduced representations that greatly facilitate the interpretation of complex trajectories. To illustrate this point, clustering tools are used to identify the key kinetic steps in complex accelerated molecular dynamics trajectories exhibiting shape fluctuations in Pt nanoclusters. This analysis provides an easily interpretable coarse representation of the reaction pathways in terms of a handful of clusters, in contrast to the raw trajectory that contains thousands of unique states and tens of thousands of transitions.

  2. KLYNAC: Compact linear accelerator with integrated power supply

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

    Malyzhenkov, Alexander

    Accelerators and accelerator-based light sources have a wide range of applications in science, engineering technology and medicine. Today the scienti c community is working towards improving the quality of the accelerated beam and its parameters while trying to develop technology for reducing accelerator size. This work describes a design of a compact linear accelerator (linac) prototype, resonant Klynac device, which is a combined linear accelerator and its power supply - klystron. The intended purpose of a Klynac device is to provide a compact and inexpensive alternative to a conventional 1 to 6 MeV accelerator, which typically requires a separate RFmore » source, an accelerator itself and all the associated hardware. Because the Klynac is a single structure, it has the potential to be much less sensitive to temperature variations than a system with separate klystron and linac. We start by introducing a simpli ed theoretical model for a Klynac device. We then demonstrate how a prototype is designed step-by-step using particle-in-cell simulation studies for mono- resonant and bi-resonant structures. Finally, we discuss design options from a stability point of view and required input power as well as behavior of competing modes for the actual built device.« less

  3. TAMU: A New Space Mission Operations Paradigm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Meshkat, Leila; Ruszkowski, James; Haensly, Jean; Pennington, Granvil A.; Hogle, Charles

    2011-01-01

    The Transferable, Adaptable, Modular and Upgradeable (TAMU) Flight Production Process (FPP) is a model-centric System of System (SoS) framework which cuts across multiple organizations and their associated facilities, that are, in the most general case, in geographically diverse locations, to develop the architecture and associated workflow processes for a broad range of mission operations. Further, TAMU FPP envisions the simulation, automatic execution and re-planning of orchestrated workflow processes as they become operational. This paper provides the vision for the TAMU FPP paradigm. This includes a complete, coherent technique, process and tool set that result in an infrastructure that can be used for full lifecycle design and decision making during any flight production process. A flight production process is the process of developing all products that are necessary for flight.

  4. Translating genomic information into clinical medicine: lung cancer as a paradigm.

    PubMed

    Levy, Mia A; Lovly, Christine M; Pao, William

    2012-11-01

    We are currently in an era of rapidly expanding knowledge about the genetic landscape and architectural blueprints of various cancers. These discoveries have led to a new taxonomy of malignant diseases based upon clinically relevant molecular alterations in addition to histology or tissue of origin. The new molecularly based classification holds the promise of rational rather than empiric approaches for the treatment of cancer patients. However, the accelerated pace of discovery and the expanding number of targeted anti-cancer therapies present a significant challenge for healthcare practitioners to remain informed and up-to-date on how to apply cutting-edge discoveries into daily clinical practice. In this Perspective, we use lung cancer as a paradigm to discuss challenges related to translating genomic information into the clinic, and we present one approach we took at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center to address these challenges.

  5. Design Considerations of a Novel Two-Beam Accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luginsland, John William

    This thesis reports the design study of a new type of charged particle accelerator called the Twobetron. The accelerator consists of two beams of electrons traveling through a series of pillbox cavities. The power of a high current annular beam excites an electromagnetic mode in the cavities, which, in turn, drives a low current on-axis pencil beam to high energy. We focus on the design considerations that would make use of existing pulsed power systems, for a proof-of-principle experiment. Potential applications of this new device include radiotherapy, materials processing, and high energy accelerators. The first phase of the research involves analytic description of the accelerating process. This reveals the problem of phase slippage. Derbenev's proposed cure of beam radius modulation is analyzed. Further studies include the effect of initial phase and secondary beam loading. Scaling laws to characterize the Twobetron's performance are derived. Computer simulation is performed to produce a self-consistent analysis of the dynamics of the space charge and its interaction with the accelerator structure. Particle -in-cell simulations answer several questions concerning beam stability, cavity modes, and the nature of the structure. Specifically, current modulation on the primary beam is preserved in the simulations. However, these simulations also revealed that mode competition and significant cavity coupling are serious issues that need to be addressed. Also considered is non-axisymmetric instability on the driver beam of the Twobetron, in particular, the beam breakup instability (BBU), which is known to pose a serious threat to linear accelerators in general. We extend the classical analysis of BBU to annular beams. The effect of higher order non-axisymmetric modes is also examined. It is shown that annular beams are more stable than pencil beams to BBU in general. Our analysis also reveals that the rf magnetic field is more important than the rf electric field in

  6. Effects of laser polarization on electrostatic shock ion acceleration in near-critical plasmas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Young-Kuk; Kang, Teyoun; Hur, Min Sup

    2016-10-01

    Collisionless electrostatic shock ion acceleration has become a major regime of laser-driven ion acceleration owing to generation of quasi-monoenergetic ion beams from moderate parametric conditions of lasers and plasmas in comparison with target-normal-sheath-acceleration or radiation pressure acceleration. In order to construct the shock, plasma heating is an essential condition for satisfying Mach number condition 1.5 acceleration could be achieved via electron heating by relativistic transparency of a circularly polarized (CP) laser pulse. This is different from the usual method of shock generation via the electron heating by oscillating ponderomotive force of a linearly polarized laser pulse. In this poster we show one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation result to compare LP-shock with CP-shock ion acceleration for a broad range of parameters. As the main result, the CP-shock could be formed at lower density plasmas than the LP-shock due to the efficient density compression of CP pulses. This leads to higher shock velocity and ion energy. Comparison of other detailed characteristics such as transmittance, scale length dependence, and other results from the simulations is presented. In addition, two-dimensional simulation is also discussed in association with Weibel instability. This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program (NRF- 2013R1A1A2006353) and the Creative Allied Project (CAP-15-06-ETRI).

  7. Automatic Beam Path Analysis of Laser Wakefield Particle Acceleration Data

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

    Rubel, Oliver; Geddes, Cameron G.R.; Cormier-Michel, Estelle

    2009-10-19

    Numerical simulations of laser wakefield particle accelerators play a key role in the understanding of the complex acceleration process and in the design of expensive experimental facilities. As the size and complexity of simulation output grows, an increasingly acute challenge is the practical need for computational techniques that aid in scientific knowledge discovery. To that end, we present a set of data-understanding algorithms that work in concert in a pipeline fashion to automatically locate and analyze high energy particle bunches undergoing acceleration in very large simulation datasets. These techniques work cooperatively by first identifying features of interest in individual timesteps,more » then integrating features across timesteps, and based on the information derived perform analysis of temporally dynamic features. This combination of techniques supports accurate detection of particle beams enabling a deeper level of scientific understanding of physical phenomena than hasbeen possible before. By combining efficient data analysis algorithms and state-of-the-art data management we enable high-performance analysis of extremely large particle datasets in 3D. We demonstrate the usefulness of our methods for a variety of 2D and 3D datasets and discuss the performance of our analysis pipeline.« less

  8. Olfactory Cued Learning Paradigm.

    PubMed

    Liu, Gary; McClard, Cynthia K; Tepe, Burak; Swanson, Jessica; Pekarek, Brandon; Panneerselvam, Sugi; Arenkiel, Benjamin R

    2017-05-05

    Sensory stimulation leads to structural changes within the CNS (Central Nervous System), thus providing the fundamental mechanism for learning and memory. The olfactory circuit offers a unique model for studying experience-dependent plasticity, partly due to a continuous supply of integrating adult born neurons. Our lab has recently implemented an olfactory cued learning paradigm in which specific odor pairs are coupled to either a reward or punishment to study downstream circuit changes. The following protocol outlines the basic set up for our learning paradigm. Here, we describe the equipment setup, programming of software, and method of behavioral training.

  9. Accelerating Calculations of Reaction Dissipative Particle Dynamics in LAMMPS

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-05-17

    order reaction mechanism, the best acceleration was 6.1 times. For a larger, more chemically detailed mechanism, the best acceleration exceeded 60 times...simulations at previously inaccessible scales. A principle feature of DPD-RX is its ability to model chemical reactions within each CG particle. The...change in composition due to chemical reactions is described by a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) that are evaluated at each DPD time

  10. Model and system learners, optimal process constructors and kinetic theory-based goal-oriented design: A new paradigm in materials and processes informatics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abisset-Chavanne, Emmanuelle; Duval, Jean Louis; Cueto, Elias; Chinesta, Francisco

    2018-05-01

    Traditionally, Simulation-Based Engineering Sciences (SBES) has relied on the use of static data inputs (model parameters, initial or boundary conditions, … obtained from adequate experiments) to perform simulations. A new paradigm in the field of Applied Sciences and Engineering has emerged in the last decade. Dynamic Data-Driven Application Systems [9, 10, 11, 12, 22] allow the linkage of simulation tools with measurement devices for real-time control of simulations and applications, entailing the ability to dynamically incorporate additional data into an executing application, and in reverse, the ability of an application to dynamically steer the measurement process. It is in that context that traditional "digital-twins" are giving raise to a new generation of goal-oriented data-driven application systems, also known as "hybrid-twins", embracing models based on physics and models exclusively based on data adequately collected and assimilated for filling the gap between usual model predictions and measurements. Within this framework new methodologies based on model learners, machine learning and kinetic goal-oriented design are defining a new paradigm in materials, processes and systems engineering.

  11. Demography of Genotypes: Failure of the Limited Life-Span Paradigm in Drosophila melanogaster

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Curtsinger, James W.; Fukui, Hidenori H.; Townsend, David R.; Vaupel, James W.

    1992-10-01

    Experimental systems that are amenable to genetic manipulation can be used to address fundamental questions about genetic and nongenetic determinants of longevity. Analysis of large cohorts of ten genotypes of Drosophila melanogaster raised under conditions that favored extended survival has revealed variation between genotypes in both the slope and location of age-specific mortality curves. More detailed examination of a single genotype showed that the mortality trajectory was best fit by a two-stage Gompertz model, with no age-specific increase in mortality rates beyond 30 days after emergence. These results are contrary to the limited life-span paradigm, which postulates well-defined, genotype-specific limits on life-span and brief periods of intense and rapidly accelerating mortality rates at the oldest ages.

  12. Miniature piezoelectric triaxial accelerometer measures cranial accelerations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Deboo, G. J.; Rogallo, V. L.

    1966-01-01

    Tiny triaxial accelerometer whose sensing elements are piezoelectric ceramic beams measures human cranial accelerations when a subject is exposed to a centrifuge or other simulators of g environments. This device could be considered for application in dental, medical, and automotive safety research.

  13. Studying astrophysical particle acceleration with laser-driven plasmas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fiuza, Frederico

    2016-10-01

    The acceleration of non-thermal particles in plasmas is critical for our understanding of explosive astrophysical phenomena, from solar flares to gamma ray bursts. Particle acceleration is thought to be mediated by collisionless shocks and magnetic reconnection. The microphysics underlying these processes and their ability to efficiently convert flow and magnetic energy into non-thermal particles, however, is not yet fully understood. By performing for the first time ab initio 3D particle-in-cell simulations of the interaction of both magnetized and unmagnetized laser-driven plasmas, it is now possible to identify the optimal parameters for the study of particle acceleration in the laboratory relevant to astrophysical scenarios. It is predicted for the Omega and NIF laser conditions that significant non-thermal acceleration can occur during magnetic reconnection of laser-driven magnetized plasmas. Electrons are accelerated by the electric field near the X-points and trapped in contracting magnetic islands. This leads to a power-law tail extending to nearly a hundred times the thermal energy of the plasma and that contains a large fraction of the magnetic energy. The study of unmagnetized interpenetrating plasmas also reveals the possibility of forming collisionless shocks mediated by the Weibel instability on NIF. Under such conditions, both electrons and ions can be energized by scattering out of the Weibel-mediated turbulence. This also leads to power-law spectra that can be detected experimentally. The resulting experimental requirements to probe the microphysics of plasma particle acceleration will be discussed, paving the way for the first experiments of these important processes in the laboratory. As a result of these simulations and theoretical analysis, there are new experiments being planned on the Omega, NIF, and LCLS laser facilities to test these theoretical predictions. This work was supported by the SLAC LDRD program and DOE Office of Science, Fusion

  14. Efficient Actor Recovery Paradigm for Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks

    PubMed Central

    Mahjoub, Reem K.; Elleithy, Khaled

    2017-01-01

    The actor nodes are the spine of wireless sensor and actor networks (WSANs) that collaborate to perform a specific task in an unverified and uneven environment. Thus, there is a possibility of high failure rate in such unfriendly scenarios due to several factors such as power consumption of devices, electronic circuit failure, software errors in nodes or physical impairment of the actor nodes and inter-actor connectivity problem. Therefore, it is extremely important to discover the failure of a cut-vertex actor and network-disjoint in order to improve the Quality-of-Service (QoS). In this paper, we propose an Efficient Actor Recovery (EAR) paradigm to guarantee the contention-free traffic-forwarding capacity. The EAR paradigm consists of a Node Monitoring and Critical Node Detection (NMCND) algorithm that monitors the activities of the nodes to determine the critical node. In addition, it replaces the critical node with backup node prior to complete node-failure which helps balancing the network performance. The packets are handled using Network Integration and Message Forwarding (NIMF) algorithm that determines the source of forwarding the packets; either from actor or sensor. This decision-making capability of the algorithm controls the packet forwarding rate to maintain the network for a longer time. Furthermore, for handling the proper routing strategy, Priority-Based Routing for Node Failure Avoidance (PRNFA) algorithm is deployed to decide the priority of the packets to be forwarded based on the significance of information available in the packet. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed EAR paradigm, the proposed algorithms were tested using OMNET++ simulation. PMID:28420102

  15. Efficient Actor Recovery Paradigm for Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks.

    PubMed

    Mahjoub, Reem K; Elleithy, Khaled

    2017-04-14

    The actor nodes are the spine of wireless sensor and actor networks (WSANs) that collaborate to perform a specific task in an unverified and uneven environment. Thus, there is a possibility of high failure rate in such unfriendly scenarios due to several factors such as power consumption of devices, electronic circuit failure, software errors in nodes or physical impairment of the actor nodes and inter-actor connectivity problem. Therefore, it is extremely important to discover the failure of a cut-vertex actor and network-disjoint in order to improve the Quality-of-Service (QoS). In this paper, we propose an Efficient Actor Recovery (EAR) paradigm to guarantee the contention-free traffic-forwarding capacity. The EAR paradigm consists of a Node Monitoring and Critical Node Detection (NMCND) algorithm that monitors the activities of the nodes to determine the critical node. In addition, it replaces the critical node with backup node prior to complete node-failure which helps balancing the network performance. The packets are handled using Network Integration and Message Forwarding (NIMF) algorithm that determines the source of forwarding the packets; either from actor or sensor. This decision-making capability of the algorithm controls the packet forwarding rate to maintain the network for a longer time. Furthermore, for handling the proper routing strategy, Priority-Based Routing for Node Failure Avoidance (PRNFA) algorithm is deployed to decide the priority of the packets to be forwarded based on the significance of information available in the packet. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed EAR paradigm, the proposed algorithms were tested using OMNET++ simulation.

  16. The Underlying Social Dynamics of Paradigm Shifts.

    PubMed

    Rodriguez-Sickert, Carlos; Cosmelli, Diego; Claro, Francisco; Fuentes, Miguel Angel

    2015-01-01

    We develop here a multi-agent model of the creation of knowledge (scientific progress or technological evolution) within a community of researchers devoted to such endeavors. In the proposed model, agents learn in a physical-technological landscape, and weight is attached to both individual search and social influence. We find that the combination of these two forces together with random experimentation can account for both i) marginal change, that is, periods of normal science or refinements on the performance of a given technology (and in which the community stays in the neighborhood of the current paradigm); and ii) radical change, which takes the form of scientific paradigm shifts (or discontinuities in the structure of performance of a technology) that is observed as a swift migration of the knowledge community towards the new and superior paradigm. The efficiency of the search process is heavily dependent on the weight that agents posit on social influence. The occurrence of a paradigm shift becomes more likely when each member of the community attaches a small but positive weight to the experience of his/her peers. For this parameter region, nevertheless, a conservative force is exerted by the representatives of the current paradigm. However, social influence is not strong enough to seriously hamper individual discovery, and can act so as to empower successful individual pioneers who have conquered the new and superior paradigm.

  17. The Underlying Social Dynamics of Paradigm Shifts

    PubMed Central

    Claro, Francisco; Fuentes, Miguel Angel

    2015-01-01

    We develop here a multi-agent model of the creation of knowledge (scientific progress or technological evolution) within a community of researchers devoted to such endeavors. In the proposed model, agents learn in a physical-technological landscape, and weight is attached to both individual search and social influence. We find that the combination of these two forces together with random experimentation can account for both i) marginal change, that is, periods of normal science or refinements on the performance of a given technology (and in which the community stays in the neighborhood of the current paradigm); and ii) radical change, which takes the form of scientific paradigm shifts (or discontinuities in the structure of performance of a technology) that is observed as a swift migration of the knowledge community towards the new and superior paradigm. The efficiency of the search process is heavily dependent on the weight that agents posit on social influence. The occurrence of a paradigm shift becomes more likely when each member of the community attaches a small but positive weight to the experience of his/her peers. For this parameter region, nevertheless, a conservative force is exerted by the representatives of the current paradigm. However, social influence is not strong enough to seriously hamper individual discovery, and can act so as to empower successful individual pioneers who have conquered the new and superior paradigm. PMID:26418255

  18. Flow characteristics in a canine aneurysm model: A comparison of 4D accelerated phase-contrast MR measurements and computational fluid dynamics simulations

    PubMed Central

    Jiang, Jingfeng; Johnson, Kevin; Valen-Sendstad, Kristian; Mardal, Kent-Andre; Wieben, Oliver; Strother, Charles

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: Our purpose was to compare quantitatively velocity fields in and around experimental canine aneurysms as measured using an accelerated 4D PC-MR angiography (MRA) method and calculated based on animal-specific CFD simulations. Methods: Two animals with a surgically created bifurcation aneurysm were imaged using an accelerated 4D PC-MRA method. Meshes were created based on the geometries obtained from the PC-MRA and simulations using “subject-specific” pulsatile velocity waveforms and geometries were then solved using a commercial CFD solver. Qualitative visual assessments and quantitative comparisons of the time-resolved velocity fields obtained from the PC-MRA measurements and the CFD simulations were performed using a defined similarity metric combining both angular and magnitude differences of vector fields. Results: PC-MRA and image-based CFD not only yielded visually consistent representations of 3D streamlines in and around both aneurysms, but also showed good agreement with regard to the spatial velocity distributions. The estimated similarity between time-resolved velocity fields from both techniques was reasonably high (mean value >0.60; one being the highest and zero being the lowest). Relative differences in inflow and outflow zones among selected planes were also reasonable (on the order of 10%–20%). The correlation between CFD-calculated and PC-MRA-measured time-averaged wall shear stresses was low (0.22 and 0.31, p < 0.001). Conclusions: In two experimental canine aneurysms, PC-MRA and image-based CFD showed favorable agreement in intra-aneurismal velocity fields. Combining these two complementary techniques likely will further improve the ability to characterize and interpret the complex flow that occurs in human intracranial aneurysms. PMID:22047395

  19. Monte Carlo simulations for 20 MV X-ray spectrum reconstruction of a linear induction accelerator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Yi; Li, Qin; Jiang, Xiao-Guo

    2012-09-01

    To study the spectrum reconstruction of the 20 MV X-ray generated by the Dragon-I linear induction accelerator, the Monte Carlo method is applied to simulate the attenuations of the X-ray in the attenuators of different thicknesses and thus provide the transmission data. As is known, the spectrum estimation from transmission data is an ill-conditioned problem. The method based on iterative perturbations is employed to derive the X-ray spectra, where initial guesses are used to start the process. This algorithm takes into account not only the minimization of the differences between the measured and the calculated transmissions but also the smoothness feature of the spectrum function. In this work, various filter materials are put to use as the attenuator, and the condition for an accurate and robust solution of the X-ray spectrum calculation is demonstrated. The influences of the scattering photons within different intervals of emergence angle on the X-ray spectrum reconstruction are also analyzed.

  20. Plasma production for electron acceleration by resonant plasma wave

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anania, M. P.; Biagioni, A.; Chiadroni, E.; Cianchi, A.; Croia, M.; Curcio, A.; Di Giovenale, D.; Di Pirro, G. P.; Filippi, F.; Ghigo, A.; Lollo, V.; Pella, S.; Pompili, R.; Romeo, S.; Ferrario, M.

    2016-09-01

    Plasma wakefield acceleration is the most promising acceleration technique known nowadays, able to provide very high accelerating fields (10-100 GV/m), enabling acceleration of electrons to GeV energy in few centimeter. However, the quality of the electron bunches accelerated with this technique is still not comparable with that of conventional accelerators (large energy spread, low repetition rate, and large emittance); radiofrequency-based accelerators, in fact, are limited in accelerating field (10-100 MV/m) requiring therefore hundred of meters of distances to reach the GeV energies, but can provide very bright electron bunches. To combine high brightness electron bunches from conventional accelerators and high accelerating fields reachable with plasmas could be a good compromise allowing to further accelerate high brightness electron bunches coming from LINAC while preserving electron beam quality. Following the idea of plasma wave resonant excitation driven by a train of short bunches, we have started to study the requirements in terms of plasma for SPARC_LAB (Ferrario et al., 2013 [1]). In particular here we focus on hydrogen plasma discharge, and in particular on the theoretical and numerical estimates of the ionization process which are very useful to design the discharge circuit and to evaluate the current needed to be supplied to the gas in order to have full ionization. Eventually, the current supplied to the gas simulated will be compared to that measured experimentally.