Sample records for computer oriented energy

  1. Cloudbus Toolkit for Market-Oriented Cloud Computing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buyya, Rajkumar; Pandey, Suraj; Vecchiola, Christian

    This keynote paper: (1) presents the 21st century vision of computing and identifies various IT paradigms promising to deliver computing as a utility; (2) defines the architecture for creating market-oriented Clouds and computing atmosphere by leveraging technologies such as virtual machines; (3) provides thoughts on market-based resource management strategies that encompass both customer-driven service management and computational risk management to sustain SLA-oriented resource allocation; (4) presents the work carried out as part of our new Cloud Computing initiative, called Cloudbus: (i) Aneka, a Platform as a Service software system containing SDK (Software Development Kit) for construction of Cloud applications and deployment on private or public Clouds, in addition to supporting market-oriented resource management; (ii) internetworking of Clouds for dynamic creation of federated computing environments for scaling of elastic applications; (iii) creation of 3rd party Cloud brokering services for building content delivery networks and e-Science applications and their deployment on capabilities of IaaS providers such as Amazon along with Grid mashups; (iv) CloudSim supporting modelling and simulation of Clouds for performance studies; (v) Energy Efficient Resource Allocation Mechanisms and Techniques for creation and management of Green Clouds; and (vi) pathways for future research.

  2. Object-oriented numerical computing C++

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Vanrosendale, John

    1994-01-01

    An object oriented language is one allowing users to create a set of related types and then intermix and manipulate values of these related types. This paper discusses object oriented numerical computing using C++.

  3. Bibliography. Computer-Oriented Projects, 1987.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Richard L., Comp.

    1988-01-01

    Provides an annotated list of references on computer-oriented projects. Includes information on computers; hands-on versus simulations; games; instruction; students' attitudes and learning styles; artificial intelligence; tutoring; and application of spreadsheets. (RT)

  4. Computer Oriented Exercises on Attitudes and U.S. Gasoline Consumption, Attitude. Student Guide. Computer Technology Program Environmental Education Units.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Northwest Regional Educational Lab., Portland, OR.

    This is the student guide in a set of five computer-oriented environmental/energy education units. Contents of this guide present: (1) the three gasoline consumption-reducing options for which attitudes are to be explored; (2) exercises; and (3) appendices including an energy attitudes survey. (MR)

  5. SOLINS- SOLAR INSOLATION MODEL FOR COMPUTING AVAILABLE SOLAR ENERGY TO A SURFACE OF ARBITRARY ORIENTATION

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Smith, J. H.

    1994-01-01

    This computer program, SOLINS, was developed to aid engineers and solar system designers in the accurate modeling of the average hourly solar insolation on a surface of arbitrary orientation. The program can be used to study insolation problems specific to residential and commercial applications where the amount of space available for solar collectors is limited by shadowing problems, energy output requirements, and costs. For tandem rack arrays, SOLINS will accommodate the use of augmentation reflectors built into the support structure to increase insolation values at the collector surface. As the use of flat plate solar collectors becomes more prevalent in the building industry, the engineer and designer must have the capability to conduct extensive sensitivity analyses on the orientation and location of solar collectors. SOLINS should prove to be a valuable aid in this area of engineering. SOLINS uses a modified version of the National Bureau of Standards model to calculate the direct, diffuse, and reflected components of total insolation on a tilted surface with a given azimuthal orientation. The model is based on the work of Liu and Jordan with corrections by Kusuda and Ishii to account for early morning and late afternoon errors. The model uses a parametric description of the average day solar climate to generate monthly average day profiles by hour of the insolation level on the collector surface. The model includes accommodation of user specified ground and landscape reflectivities at the collector site. For roof or ground mounted, tilted arrays, SOLINS will calculate insolation including the effects of shadowing and augmentation reflectors. The user provides SOLINS with data describing the array design, array orientation, the month, the solar climate parameter, the ground reflectance, and printout control specifications. For the specified array and environmental conditions, SOLINS outputs the hourly insolation the array will receive during an average day

  6. Opportunities for Computational Discovery in Basic Energy Sciences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pederson, Mark

    2011-03-01

    An overview of the broad-ranging support of computational physics and computational science within the Department of Energy Office of Science will be provided. Computation as the third branch of physics is supported by all six offices (Advanced Scientific Computing, Basic Energy, Biological and Environmental, Fusion Energy, High-Energy Physics, and Nuclear Physics). Support focuses on hardware, software and applications. Most opportunities within the fields of~condensed-matter physics, chemical-physics and materials sciences are supported by the Officeof Basic Energy Science (BES) or through partnerships between BES and the Office for Advanced Scientific Computing. Activities include radiation sciences, catalysis, combustion, materials in extreme environments, energy-storage materials, light-harvesting and photovoltaics, solid-state lighting and superconductivity.~ A summary of two recent reports by the computational materials and chemical communities on the role of computation during the next decade will be provided. ~In addition to materials and chemistry challenges specific to energy sciences, issues identified~include a focus on the role of the domain scientist in integrating, expanding and sustaining applications-oriented capabilities on evolving high-performance computing platforms and on the role of computation in accelerating the development of innovative technologies. ~~

  7. Computer Literacy Project. A General Orientation in Basic Computer Concepts and Applications.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murray, David R.

    This paper proposes a two-part, basic computer literacy program for university faculty, staff, and students with no prior exposure to computers. The program described would introduce basic computer concepts and computing center service programs and resources; provide fundamental preparation for other computer courses; and orient faculty towards…

  8. Computer Oriented Exercises on Attitudes and U.S. Gasoline Consumption, Attitude. Teacher Guide. Computer Technology Program Environmental Education Units.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Northwest Regional Educational Lab., Portland, OR.

    This is the teacher's guide to accompany the student guide which together comprise one of five computer-oriented environmental/energy education units. This unit is concerned with the attitude of people toward gasoline shortages and different steps the government could take to reduce gasoline consumption. Through the exercises, part of which make…

  9. A fiber orientation-adapted integration scheme for computing the hyperelastic Tucker average for short fiber reinforced composites

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Goldberg, Niels; Ospald, Felix; Schneider, Matti

    2017-10-01

    In this article we introduce a fiber orientation-adapted integration scheme for Tucker's orientation averaging procedure applied to non-linear material laws, based on angular central Gaussian fiber orientation distributions. This method is stable w.r.t. fiber orientations degenerating into planar states and enables the construction of orthotropic hyperelastic energies for truly orthotropic fiber orientation states. We establish a reference scenario for fitting the Tucker average of a transversely isotropic hyperelastic energy, corresponding to a uni-directional fiber orientation, to microstructural simulations, obtained by FFT-based computational homogenization of neo-Hookean constituents. We carefully discuss ideas for accelerating the identification process, leading to a tremendous speed-up compared to a naive approach. The resulting hyperelastic material map turns out to be surprisingly accurate, simple to integrate in commercial finite element codes and fast in its execution. We demonstrate the capabilities of the extracted model by a finite element analysis of a fiber reinforced chain link.

  10. Object-oriented Tools for Distributed Computing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Adler, Richard M.

    1993-01-01

    Distributed computing systems are proliferating, owing to the availability of powerful, affordable microcomputers and inexpensive communication networks. A critical problem in developing such systems is getting application programs to interact with one another across a computer network. Remote interprogram connectivity is particularly challenging across heterogeneous environments, where applications run on different kinds of computers and operating systems. NetWorks! (trademark) is an innovative software product that provides an object-oriented messaging solution to these problems. This paper describes the design and functionality of NetWorks! and illustrates how it is being used to build complex distributed applications for NASA and in the commercial sector.

  11. Generic, Type-Safe and Object Oriented Computer Algebra Software

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kredel, Heinz; Jolly, Raphael

    Advances in computer science, in particular object oriented programming, and software engineering have had little practical impact on computer algebra systems in the last 30 years. The software design of existing systems is still dominated by ad-hoc memory management, weakly typed algorithm libraries and proprietary domain specific interactive expression interpreters. We discuss a modular approach to computer algebra software: usage of state-of-the-art memory management and run-time systems (e.g. JVM) usage of strongly typed, generic, object oriented programming languages (e.g. Java) and usage of general purpose, dynamic interactive expression interpreters (e.g. Python) To illustrate the workability of this approach, we have implemented and studied computer algebra systems in Java and Scala. In this paper we report on the current state of this work by presenting new examples.

  12. The Riesz transform and simultaneous representations of phase, energy and orientation in spatial vision.

    PubMed

    Langley, Keith; Anderson, Stephen J

    2010-08-06

    To represent the local orientation and energy of a 1-D image signal, many models of early visual processing employ bandpass quadrature filters, formed by combining the original signal with its Hilbert transform. However, representations capable of estimating an image signal's 2-D phase have been largely ignored. Here, we consider 2-D phase representations using a method based upon the Riesz transform. For spatial images there exist two Riesz transformed signals and one original signal from which orientation, phase and energy may be represented as a vector in 3-D signal space. We show that these image properties may be represented by a Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of the higher-order derivatives of the original and the Riesz transformed signals. We further show that the expected responses of even and odd symmetric filters from the Riesz transform may be represented by a single signal autocorrelation function, which is beneficial in simplifying Bayesian computations for spatial orientation. Importantly, the Riesz transform allows one to weight linearly across orientation using both symmetric and asymmetric filters to account for some perceptual phase distortions observed in image signals - notably one's perception of edge structure within plaid patterns whose component gratings are either equal or unequal in contrast. Finally, exploiting the benefits that arise from the Riesz definition of local energy as a scalar quantity, we demonstrate the utility of Riesz signal representations in estimating the spatial orientation of second-order image signals. We conclude that the Riesz transform may be employed as a general tool for 2-D visual pattern recognition by its virtue of representing phase, orientation and energy as orthogonal signal quantities.

  13. An Introductory Course on Service-Oriented Computing for High Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tsai, W. T.; Chen, Yinong; Cheng, Calvin; Sun, Xin; Bitter, Gary; White, Mary

    2008-01-01

    Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) is a new computing paradigm that has been adopted by major computer companies as well as government agencies such as the Department of Defense for mission-critical applications. SOC is being used for developing Web and electronic business applications, as well as robotics, gaming, and scientific applications. Yet,…

  14. The computational worm: spatial orientation and its neuronal basis in C. elegans.

    PubMed

    Lockery, Shawn R

    2011-10-01

    Spatial orientation behaviors in animals are fundamental for survival but poorly understood at the neuronal level. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans orients to a wide range of stimuli and has a numerically small and well-described nervous system making it advantageous for investigating the mechanisms of spatial orientation. Recent work by the C. elegans research community has identified essential computational elements of the neural circuits underlying two orientation strategies that operate in five different sensory modalities. Analysis of these circuits reveals novel motifs including simple circuits for computing temporal derivatives of sensory input and for integrating sensory input with behavioral state to generate adaptive behavior. These motifs constitute hypotheses concerning the identity and functionality of circuits controlling spatial orientation in higher organisms. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Calculus: A Computer Oriented Presentation, Part 1 [and] Part 2.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stenberg, Warren; Walker, Robert J.

    Parts one and two of a one-year computer-oriented calculus course (without analytic geometry) are presented. The ideas of calculus are introduced and motivated through computer (i.e., algorithmic) concepts. An introduction to computing via algorithms and a simple flow chart language allows the book to be self-contained, except that material on…

  16. The Global Energy Situation on Earth, Student Guide. Computer Technology Program Environmental Education Units.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Northwest Regional Educational Lab., Portland, OR.

    This is the student guide in a set of five computer-oriented environmental/energy education units. Contents of this guide are: (1) Introduction to the unit; (2) The "EARTH" program; (3) Exercises; and (4) Sources of information on the energy crisis. This guide supplements a simulation which allows students to analyze different aspects of…

  17. Computational Algorithmization: Limitations in Problem Solving Skills in Computational Sciences Majors at University of Oriente

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Castillo, Antonio S.; Berenguer, Isabel A.; Sánchez, Alexander G.; Álvarez, Tomás R. R.

    2017-01-01

    This paper analyzes the results of a diagnostic study carried out with second year students of the computational sciences majors at University of Oriente, Cuba, to determine the limitations that they present in computational algorithmization. An exploratory research was developed using quantitative and qualitative methods. The results allowed…

  18. The Global Energy Situation on Earth, Teacher Guide. Computer Technology Program Environmental Education Units.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Northwest Regional Educational Lab., Portland, OR.

    This is the teacher's guide to accompany the student guide which together comprise one of five computer-oriented environmental/energy education units. This unit is organized around a computerized data base of information related to global energy use. The data is organized on a country-by-country basis for the 83 largest countries in the world. For…

  19. Application-oriented offloading in heterogeneous networks for mobile cloud computing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tseng, Fan-Hsun; Cho, Hsin-Hung; Chang, Kai-Di; Li, Jheng-Cong; Shih, Timothy K.

    2018-04-01

    Nowadays Internet applications have become more complicated that mobile device needs more computing resources for shorter execution time but it is restricted to limited battery capacity. Mobile cloud computing (MCC) is emerged to tackle the finite resource problem of mobile device. MCC offloads the tasks and jobs of mobile devices to cloud and fog environments by using offloading scheme. It is vital to MCC that which task should be offloaded and how to offload efficiently. In the paper, we formulate the offloading problem between mobile device and cloud data center and propose two algorithms based on application-oriented for minimum execution time, i.e. the Minimum Offloading Time for Mobile device (MOTM) algorithm and the Minimum Execution Time for Cloud data center (METC) algorithm. The MOTM algorithm minimizes offloading time by selecting appropriate offloading links based on application categories. The METC algorithm minimizes execution time in cloud data center by selecting virtual and physical machines with corresponding resource requirements of applications. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism not only minimizes total execution time for mobile devices but also decreases their energy consumption.

  20. Simulating complex intracellular processes using object-oriented computational modelling.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Colin G; Goldman, Jacki P; Gullick, William J

    2004-11-01

    The aim of this paper is to give an overview of computer modelling and simulation in cellular biology, in particular as applied to complex biochemical processes within the cell. This is illustrated by the use of the techniques of object-oriented modelling, where the computer is used to construct abstractions of objects in the domain being modelled, and these objects then interact within the computer to simulate the system and allow emergent properties to be observed. The paper also discusses the role of computer simulation in understanding complexity in biological systems, and the kinds of information which can be obtained about biology via simulation.

  1. E-Governance and Service Oriented Computing Architecture Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tejasvee, Sanjay; Sarangdevot, S. S.

    2010-11-01

    E-Governance is the effective application of information communication and technology (ICT) in the government processes to accomplish safe and reliable information lifecycle management. Lifecycle of the information involves various processes as capturing, preserving, manipulating and delivering information. E-Governance is meant to transform of governance in better manner to the citizens which is transparent, reliable, participatory, and accountable in point of view. The purpose of this paper is to attempt e-governance model, focus on the Service Oriented Computing Architecture (SOCA) that includes combination of information and services provided by the government, innovation, find out the way of optimal service delivery to citizens and implementation in transparent and liable practice. This paper also try to enhance focus on the E-government Service Manager as a essential or key factors service oriented and computing model that provides a dynamically extensible structural design in which all area or branch can bring in innovative services. The heart of this paper examine is an intangible model that enables E-government communication for trade and business, citizen and government and autonomous bodies.

  2. Computer Science Majors: Sex Role Orientation, Academic Achievement, and Social Cognitive Factors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Chris; Garavalia, Linda S.; Fritts, Mary Lou Hines; Olson, Elizabeth A.

    2006-01-01

    This study examined the sex role orientations endorsed by 188 male and female students majoring in computer science, a male-dominated college degree program. The relations among sex role orientation and academic achievement and social cognitive factors influential in career decision-making self-efficacy were explored. Findings revealed that…

  3. An Object-Oriented Approach to Writing Computational Electromagnetics Codes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zimmerman, Martin; Mallasch, Paul G.

    1996-01-01

    Presently, most computer software development in the Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) community employs the structured programming paradigm, particularly using the Fortran language. Other segments of the software community began switching to an Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm in recent years to help ease design and development of highly complex codes. This paper examines design of a time-domain numerical analysis CEM code using the OOP paradigm, comparing OOP code and structured programming code in terms of software maintenance, portability, flexibility, and speed.

  4. Shifting forest value orientations in the United States, 1980-2001: A computer content analysis

    Treesearch

    David N. Bengston; Trevor J. Webb; David P. Fan

    2004-01-01

    This paper examines three forest value orientations - clusters of interrelated values and basic beliefs about forests - that emerged from an analysis of the public discourse about forest planning, management, and policy in the United States. The value orientations include anthropocentric, biocentric, and moral/spiritual/aesthetic orientations toward forests. Computer...

  5. Service-oriented Software Defined Optical Networks for Cloud Computing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Yuze; Li, Hui; Ji, Yuefeng

    2017-10-01

    With the development of big data and cloud computing technology, the traditional software-defined network is facing new challenges (e.g., ubiquitous accessibility, higher bandwidth, more flexible management and greater security). This paper proposes a new service-oriented software defined optical network architecture, including a resource layer, a service abstract layer, a control layer and an application layer. We then dwell on the corresponding service providing method. Different service ID is used to identify the service a device can offer. Finally, we experimentally evaluate that proposed service providing method can be applied to transmit different services based on the service ID in the service-oriented software defined optical network.

  6. An Object-oriented Computer Code for Aircraft Engine Weight Estimation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tong, Michael T.; Naylor, Bret A.

    2008-01-01

    Reliable engine-weight estimation at the conceptual design stage is critical to the development of new aircraft engines. It helps to identify the best engine concept amongst several candidates. At NASA Glenn (GRC), the Weight Analysis of Turbine Engines (WATE) computer code, originally developed by Boeing Aircraft, has been used to estimate the engine weight of various conceptual engine designs. The code, written in FORTRAN, was originally developed for NASA in 1979. Since then, substantial improvements have been made to the code to improve the weight calculations for most of the engine components. Most recently, to improve the maintainability and extensibility of WATE, the FORTRAN code has been converted into an object-oriented version. The conversion was done within the NASA s NPSS (Numerical Propulsion System Simulation) framework. This enables WATE to interact seamlessly with the thermodynamic cycle model which provides component flow data such as airflows, temperatures, and pressures, etc. that are required for sizing the components and weight calculations. The tighter integration between the NPSS and WATE would greatly enhance system-level analysis and optimization capabilities. It also would facilitate the enhancement of the WATE code for next-generation aircraft and space propulsion systems. In this paper, the architecture of the object-oriented WATE code (or WATE++) is described. Both the FORTRAN and object-oriented versions of the code are employed to compute the dimensions and weight of a 300- passenger aircraft engine (GE90 class). Both versions of the code produce essentially identical results as should be the case. Keywords: NASA, aircraft engine, weight, object-oriented

  7. A computational model of in vitro angiogenesis based on extracellular matrix fibre orientation.

    PubMed

    Edgar, Lowell T; Sibole, Scott C; Underwood, Clayton J; Guilkey, James E; Weiss, Jeffrey A

    2013-01-01

    Recent interest in the process of vascularisation within the biomedical community has motivated numerous new research efforts focusing on the process of angiogenesis. Although the role of chemical factors during angiogenesis has been well documented, the role of mechanical factors, such as the interaction between angiogenic vessels and the extracellular matrix, remains poorly understood. In vitro methods for studying angiogenesis exist; however, measurements available using such techniques often suffer from limited spatial and temporal resolutions. For this reason, computational models have been extensively employed to investigate various aspects of angiogenesis. This paper outlines the formulation and validation of a simple and robust computational model developed to accurately simulate angiogenesis based on length, branching and orientation morphometrics collected from vascularised tissue constructs. Microvessels were represented as a series of connected line segments. The morphology of the vessels was determined by a linear combination of the collagen fibre orientation, the vessel density gradient and a random walk component. Excellent agreement was observed between computational and experimental morphometric data over time. Computational predictions of microvessel orientation within an anisotropic matrix correlated well with experimental data. The accuracy of this modelling approach makes it a valuable platform for investigating the role of mechanical interactions during angiogenesis.

  8. Method for Statically Checking an Object-oriented Computer Program Module

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bierhoff, Kevin M. (Inventor); Aldrich, Jonathan (Inventor)

    2012-01-01

    A method for statically checking an object-oriented computer program module includes the step of identifying objects within a computer program module, at least one of the objects having a plurality of references thereto, possibly from multiple clients. A discipline of permissions is imposed on the objects identified within the computer program module. The permissions enable tracking, from among a discrete set of changeable states, a subset of states each object might be in. A determination is made regarding whether the imposed permissions are violated by a potential reference to any of the identified objects. The results of the determination are output to a user.

  9. Strategy Generalization across Orientation Tasks: Testing a Computational Cognitive Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gunzelmann, Glenn

    2008-01-01

    Humans use their spatial information processing abilities flexibly to facilitate problem solving and decision making in a variety of tasks. This article explores the question of whether a general strategy can be adapted for performing two different spatial orientation tasks by testing the predictions of a computational cognitive model. Human…

  10. Stress and performance: do service orientation and emotional energy moderate the relationship?

    PubMed

    Smith, Michael R; Rasmussen, Jennifer L; Mills, Maura J; Wefald, Andrew J; Downey, Ronald G

    2012-01-01

    The current study examines the moderating effect of customer service orientation and emotional energy on the stress-performance relationship for 681 U.S. casual dining restaurant employees. Customer service orientation was hypothesized to moderate the stress-performance relationship for Front-of-House (FOH) workers. Emotional energy was hypothesized to moderate stress-performance for Back-of-House (BOH) workers. Contrary to expectations, customer service orientation failed to moderate the effects of stress on performance for FOH employees, but the results supported that customer service orientation is likely a mediator of the relationship. However, the hypothesis was supported for BOH workers; emotional energy was found to moderate stress performance for these employees. This finding suggests that during times of high stress, meaningful, warm, and empathetic relationships are likely to impact BOH workers' ability to maintain performance. These findings have real-world implications in organizational practice, including highlighting the importance of developing positive and meaningful social interactions among workers and facilitating appropriate person-job fits. Doing so is likely to help in alleviating worker stress and is also likely to encourage worker performance.

  11. Research on the Orientation and Application of Distributed Energy Storage in Energy Internet

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zeng, Ming; Zhou, Pengcheng; Li, Ran; Zhou, Jingjing; Chen, Tao; Li, Zhe

    2018-01-01

    Energy storage is indispensable resources to achieve a high proportion of new energy power consumption in electric power system. As an important support to energy Internet, energy storage system can achieve a variety of energy integration operation to ensure maximum energy efficiency. In this paper, firstly, the SWOT analysis method is used to express the internal and external advantages and disadvantages of distributed energy storage participating in the energy Internet. Secondly, the function orientation of distributed energy storage in energy Internet is studied, based on which the application modes of distributed energy storage in virtual power plant, community energy storage and auxiliary services are deeply studied. Finally, this paper puts forward the development strategy of distributed energy storage which is suitable for the development of China’s energy Internet, and summarizes and prospects the application of distributed energy storage system.

  12. A Practice-Oriented Bifurcation Analysis for Pulse Energy Converters: A Stability Margin

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kolokolov, Yury; Monovskaya, Anna

    The popularity of systems of pulse energy conversion (PEC-systems) for practical applications is due to the heightened efficiency of energy conversion processes with comparatively simple realizations. Nevertheless, a PEC-system represents a nonlinear object with a variable structure, and the bifurcation analysis remains the basic tool to describe PEC dynamics evolution. The paper is devoted to the discussion on whether the scientific viewpoint on the natural nonlinear dynamics evolution can be involved in practical applications. We focus on the problems connected with stability boundaries of an operating regime. The results of both small-signal analysis and computational bifurcation analysis are considered in the parametrical space in comparison with the results of the experimental identification of the zonal heterogeneity of the operating process. This allows to propose an adapted stability margin as a sufficiently safe distance before the point after which the operating process begins to lose the stability. Such stability margin can extend the permissible operating domain in the parametrical space at the expense of using cause-and-effect relations in the context of natural regularities of nonlinear dynamics. Reasoning and discussion are based on the experimental and computational results for a synchronous buck converter with a pulse-width modulation. The presented results can be useful, first of all, for PEC-systems with significant variation of equivalent inductance and/or capacity. We believe that the discussion supports a viewpoint by which the contemporary methods of the computational and experimental bifurcation analyses possess both analytical abilities and experimental techniques for promising solutions which could be practice-oriented for PEC-systems.

  13. Grain Boundary Plane Orientation Fundamental Zones and Structure-Property Relationships

    PubMed Central

    Homer, Eric R.; Patala, Srikanth; Priedeman, Jonathan L.

    2015-01-01

    Grain boundary plane orientation is a profoundly important determinant of character in polycrystalline materials that is not well understood. This work demonstrates how boundary plane orientation fundamental zones, which capture the natural crystallographic symmetries of a grain boundary, can be used to establish structure-property relationships. Using the fundamental zone representation, trends in computed energy, excess volume at the grain boundary, and temperature-dependent mobility naturally emerge and show a strong dependence on the boundary plane orientation. Analysis of common misorientation axes even suggests broader trends of grain boundary energy as a function of misorientation angle and plane orientation. Due to the strong structure-property relationships that naturally emerge from this work, boundary plane fundamental zones are expected to simplify analysis of both computational and experimental data. This standardized representation has the potential to significantly accelerate research in the topologically complex and vast five-dimensional phase space of grain boundaries. PMID:26498715

  14. Grain boundary plane orientation fundamental zones and structure-property relationships

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

    Homer, Eric R.; Patala, Srikanth; Priedeman, Jonathan L.

    2015-10-26

    Grain boundary plane orientation is a profoundly important determinant of character in polycrystalline materials that is not well understood. This work demonstrates how boundary plane orientation fundamental zones, which capture the natural crystallographic symmetries of a grain boundary, can be used to establish structure-property relationships. Using the fundamental zone representation, trends in computed energy, excess volume at the grain boundary, and temperature-dependent mobility naturally emerge and show a strong dependence on the boundary plane orientation. Analysis of common misorientation axes even suggests broader trends of grain boundary energy as a function of misorientation angle and plane orientation. Due to themore » strong structure-property relationships that naturally emerge from this work, boundary plane fundamental zones are expected to simplify analysis of both computational and experimental data. This standardized representation has the potential to significantly accelerate research in the topologically complex and vast five-dimensional phase space of grain boundaries.« less

  15. Grating Oriented Line-Wise Filtration (GOLF) for Dual-Energy X-ray CT

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xi, Yan; Cong, Wenxiang; Harrison, Daniel; Wang, Ge

    2017-12-01

    In medical X-ray Computed Tomography (CT), the use of two distinct X-ray source spectra (energies) allows dose-reduction and material discrimination relative to that achieved with only one source spectrum. Existing dual-energy CT methods include source kVp-switching, double-layer detection, dual-source gantry, and two-pass scanning. Each method suffers either from strong spectral correlation or patient-motion artifacts. To simultaneously address these problems, we propose to improve CT data acquisition with the Grating Oriented Line-wise Filtration (GOLF) method, a novel X-ray filter that is placed between the source and patient. GOLF uses a combination of absorption and filtering gratings that are moved relative to each other and in synchronization with the X-ray tube kVp-switching process and/or the detector view-sampling process. Simulation results show that GOLF can improve the spectral performance of kVp-switching to match that of dual-source CT while avoiding patient motion artifacts and dual imaging chains. Although significant flux is absorbed by this pre-patient filter, the proposed GOLF method is a novel path for cost-effectively extracting dual-energy or multi-energy data and reducing radiation dose with or without kVp switching.

  16. Grating Oriented Line-Wise Filtration (GOLF) for Dual-Energy X-ray CT

    PubMed Central

    Xi, Yan; Cong, Wenxiang; Harrison, Daniel

    2017-01-01

    In medical X-ray Computed Tomography (CT), the use of two distinct X-ray source spectra (energies) allows dose-reduction and material discrimination relative to that achieved with only one source spectrum. Existing dual-energy CT methods include source kVp-switching, double-layer detection, dual-source gantry, and two-pass scanning. Each method suffers either from strong spectral correlation or patient-motion artifacts. To simultaneously address these problems, we propose to improve CT data acquisition with the Grating Oriented Line-wise Filtration (GOLF) method, a novel X-ray filter that is placed between the source and patient. GOLF uses a combination of absorption and filtering gratings that are moved relative to each other and in synchronization with the X-ray tube kVp-switching process and/or the detector view-sampling process. Simulation results show that GOLF can improve the spectral performance of kVp-switching to match that of dual-source CT while avoiding patient motion artifacts and dual imaging chains. Although significant flux is absorbed by this pre-patient filter, the proposed GOLF method is a novel path for cost-effectively extracting dual-energy or multi-energy data and reducing radiation dose with or without kVp switching. PMID:29333113

  17. Computer Programming Games and Gender Oriented Cultural Forms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    AlSulaiman, Sarah Abdulmalik

    I present the design and evaluation of two games designed to help elementary and middle school students learn computer programming concepts. The first game was designed to be "gender neutral", aligning with might be described as a consensus opinion on best practices for computational learning environments. The second game, based on the cultural form of dress up dolls was deliberately designed to appeal to females. I recruited 70 participants in an international two-phase study to investigate the relationship between games, gender, attitudes towards computer programming, and learning. My findings suggest that while the two games were equally effective in terms of learning outcomes, I saw differences in motivation between players of the two games. Specifically, participants who reported a preference for female- oriented games were more motivated to learn about computer programming when they played a game that they perceived as designed for females. In addition, I describe how the two games seemed to encourage different types of social activity between players in a classroom setting. Based on these results, I reflect on the strategy of exclusively designing games and activities as "gender neutral", and suggest that employing cultural forms, including gendered ones, may help create a more productive experience for learners.

  18. Some Specifications for a Computer-Oriented First Course in Electrical Engineering.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Commission on Engineering Education, Washington, DC.

    Reported are specifications for a computer-oriented first course in electrical engineering giving new direction to the development of texts and alternative courses of study. Guidelines for choice of topics, a statement of fundamental concepts, pitfalls to avoid, and some sample course outlines are given. The study of circuits through computer…

  19. An Object-Oriented Computer Code for Aircraft Engine Weight Estimation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tong, Michael T.; Naylor, Bret A.

    2009-01-01

    Reliable engine-weight estimation at the conceptual design stage is critical to the development of new aircraft engines. It helps to identify the best engine concept amongst several candidates. At NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), the Weight Analysis of Turbine Engines (WATE) computer code, originally developed by Boeing Aircraft, has been used to estimate the engine weight of various conceptual engine designs. The code, written in FORTRAN, was originally developed for NASA in 1979. Since then, substantial improvements have been made to the code to improve the weight calculations for most of the engine components. Most recently, to improve the maintainability and extensibility of WATE, the FORTRAN code has been converted into an object-oriented version. The conversion was done within the NASA's NPSS (Numerical Propulsion System Simulation) framework. This enables WATE to interact seamlessly with the thermodynamic cycle model which provides component flow data such as airflows, temperatures, and pressures, etc., that are required for sizing the components and weight calculations. The tighter integration between the NPSS and WATE would greatly enhance system-level analysis and optimization capabilities. It also would facilitate the enhancement of the WATE code for next-generation aircraft and space propulsion systems. In this paper, the architecture of the object-oriented WATE code (or WATE++) is described. Both the FORTRAN and object-oriented versions of the code are employed to compute the dimensions and weight of a 300-passenger aircraft engine (GE90 class). Both versions of the code produce essentially identical results as should be the case.

  20. RF induced energy for partially implanted catheters: a computational study

    PubMed Central

    Lucano, Elena; Liberti, Micaela; Lloyd, Tom; Apollonio, Francesca; Wedan, Steve; Kainz, Wolfgang; Angelone, Leonardo M.

    2018-01-01

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a radiological imaging technique widely used in clinical practice. MRI has been proposed to guide the catheters for interventional procedures, such as cardiac ablation. However, there are risks associated with this procedure, such as RF-induced heating of tissue near the catheters. The aim of this study is to develop a quantitative RF-safety method for patients with partially implanted leads at 64 MHz. RF-induced heating is related to the electric field incident along the catheter, which in turns depends on several variables, including the position of the RF feeding sources and the orientation of the polarization, which are however often unknown. This study evaluates the electric field profile along the lead trajectory using simulations with an anatomical human model landmarked at the heart. The energy absorbed in the volume near the tip of ageneric partially implanted lead was computed for all source positions and field orientation. The results showed that varying source positions and field orientation may result in changes of up to 18% for the E-field magnitude and up to 60% for the 10g-averaged specific absorption rate (SAR) in the volume surrounding the tip of the lead. PMID:28268553

  1. Secondary iris recognition method based on local energy-orientation feature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huo, Guang; Liu, Yuanning; Zhu, Xiaodong; Dong, Hongxing

    2015-01-01

    This paper proposes a secondary iris recognition based on local features. The application of the energy-orientation feature (EOF) by two-dimensional Gabor filter to the extraction of the iris goes before the first recognition by the threshold of similarity, which sets the whole iris database into two categories-a correctly recognized class and a class to be recognized. Therefore, the former are accepted and the latter are transformed by histogram to achieve an energy-orientation histogram feature (EOHF), which is followed by a second recognition with the chi-square distance. The experiment has proved that the proposed method, because of its higher correct recognition rate, could be designated as the most efficient and effective among its companion studies in iris recognition algorithms.

  2. Energies and 2'-Hydroxyl Group Orientations of RNA Backbone Conformations. Benchmark CCSD(T)/CBS Database, Electronic Analysis, and Assessment of DFT Methods and MD Simulations.

    PubMed

    Mládek, Arnošt; Banáš, Pavel; Jurečka, Petr; Otyepka, Michal; Zgarbová, Marie; Šponer, Jiří

    2014-01-14

    Sugar-phosphate backbone is an electronically complex molecular segment imparting RNA molecules high flexibility and architectonic heterogeneity necessary for their biological functions. The structural variability of RNA molecules is amplified by the presence of the 2'-hydroxyl group, capable of forming multitude of intra- and intermolecular interactions. Bioinformatics studies based on X-ray structure database revealed that RNA backbone samples at least 46 substates known as rotameric families. The present study provides a comprehensive analysis of RNA backbone conformational preferences and 2'-hydroxyl group orientations. First, we create a benchmark database of estimated CCSD(T)/CBS relative energies of all rotameric families and test performance of dispersion-corrected DFT-D3 methods and molecular mechanics in vacuum and in continuum solvent. The performance of the DFT-D3 methods is in general quite satisfactory. The B-LYP-D3 method provides the best trade-off between accuracy and computational demands. B3-LYP-D3 slightly outperforms the new PW6B95-D3 and MPW1B95-D3 and is the second most accurate density functional of the study. The best agreement with CCSD(T)/CBS is provided by DSD-B-LYP-D3 double-hybrid functional, although its large-scale applications may be limited by high computational costs. Molecular mechanics does not reproduce the fine energy differences between the RNA backbone substates. We also demonstrate that the differences in the magnitude of the hyperconjugation effect do not correlate with the energy ranking of the backbone conformations. Further, we investigated the 2'-hydroxyl group orientation preferences. For all families, we conducted a QM and MM hydroxyl group rigid scan in gas phase and solvent. We then carried out set of explicit solvent MD simulations of folded RNAs and analyze 2'-hydroxyl group orientations of different backbone families in MD. The solvent energy profiles determined primarily by the sugar pucker match well with the

  3. Forest value orientations in Australia: an application of computer content analysis

    Treesearch

    Trevor J. Webb; David N. Bengston; David P. Fan

    2008-01-01

    This article explores the expression of three forest value orientations that emerged from an analysis of Australian news media discourse about the management of Australian native forests from August 1, 1997 through December 31, 2004. Computer-coded content analysis was used to measure and track the relative importance of commodity, ecological and moral/spiritual/...

  4. The Use of Computer Vision Algorithms for Automatic Orientation of Terrestrial Laser Scanning Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Markiewicz, Jakub Stefan

    2016-06-01

    The paper presents analysis of the orientation of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data. In the proposed data processing methodology, point clouds are considered as panoramic images enriched by the depth map. Computer vision (CV) algorithms are used for orientation, which are applied for testing the correctness of the detection of tie points and time of computations, and for assessing difficulties in their implementation. The BRISK, FASRT, MSER, SIFT, SURF, ASIFT and CenSurE algorithms are used to search for key-points. The source data are point clouds acquired using a Z+F 5006h terrestrial laser scanner on the ruins of Iłża Castle, Poland. Algorithms allowing combination of the photogrammetric and CV approaches are also presented.

  5. Development of a Dynamically Configurable, Object-Oriented Framework for Distributed, Multi-modal Computational Aerospace Systems Simulation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Afjeh, Abdollah A.; Reed, John A.

    2003-01-01

    The following reports are presented on this project:A first year progress report on: Development of a Dynamically Configurable,Object-Oriented Framework for Distributed, Multi-modal Computational Aerospace Systems Simulation; A second year progress report on: Development of a Dynamically Configurable, Object-Oriented Framework for Distributed, Multi-modal Computational Aerospace Systems Simulation; An Extensible, Interchangeable and Sharable Database Model for Improving Multidisciplinary Aircraft Design; Interactive, Secure Web-enabled Aircraft Engine Simulation Using XML Databinding Integration; and Improving the Aircraft Design Process Using Web-based Modeling and Simulation.

  6. Preferred orientation of albumin adsorption on a hydrophilic surface from molecular simulation.

    PubMed

    Hsu, Hao-Jen; Sheu, Sheh-Yi; Tsay, Ruey-Yug

    2008-12-01

    In general, non-specific protein adsorption follows a two-step procedure, i.e. first adsorption onto a surface in native form, and a subsequent conformational change on the surface. In order to predict the subsequent conformational change, it is important to determine the preferred orientation of an adsorbed protein in the first step of the adsorption. In this work, a method based on finding the global minimum of the interaction potential energy of an adsorbed protein has been developed to delineate the preferred orientations for the adsorption of human serum albumin (HSA) on a model surface with a hydrophilic self-assembled monolayer (SAM). For computational efficiency, solvation effects were greatly simplified by only including the dampening of electrostatic effects while neglecting contributions due to the competition of water molecules for the functional groups on the surface. A contour map obtained by systematic rotation of a molecule in conjunction with perpendicular motion to the surface gives the minimum interaction energy of the adsorbed molecule at various adsorption orientations. Simulation results show that for an -OH terminated SAM surface, a "back-on" orientation of HSA is the preferred orientation. The projection area of this adsorption orientation corresponds with the "triangular-side-on" adsorption of a heart shaped HSA molecule. The method proposed herein is able to provide results which are consistent with those predicted by Monte Carlo (MC) simulations with a substantially less computing cost. The high computing efficiency of the current method makes it possible to be implemented as a design tool for the control of protein adsorption on surfaces; however, before this can be fully realized, these methods must be further developed to enable interaction free energy to be calculated in place of potential energy, along with a more realistic representation of solvation effects.

  7. Strategy generalization across orientation tasks: testing a computational cognitive model.

    PubMed

    Gunzelmann, Glenn

    2008-07-08

    Humans use their spatial information processing abilities flexibly to facilitate problem solving and decision making in a variety of tasks. This article explores the question of whether a general strategy can be adapted for performing two different spatial orientation tasks by testing the predictions of a computational cognitive model. Human performance was measured on an orientation task requiring participants to identify the location of a target either on a map (find-on-map) or within an egocentric view of a space (find-in-scene). A general strategy instantiated in a computational cognitive model of the find-on-map task, based on the results from Gunzelmann and Anderson (2006), was adapted to perform both tasks and used to generate performance predictions for a new study. The qualitative fit of the model to the human data supports the view that participants were able to tailor a general strategy to the requirements of particular spatial tasks. The quantitative differences between the predictions of the model and the performance of human participants in the new experiment expose individual differences in sample populations. The model provides a means of accounting for those differences and a framework for understanding how human spatial abilities are applied to naturalistic spatial tasks that involve reasoning with maps. 2008 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  8. An Object-Oriented Network-Centric Software Architecture for Physical Computing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Palmer, Richard

    1997-08-01

    Recent developments in object-oriented computer languages and infrastructure such as the Internet, Web browsers, and the like provide an opportunity to define a more productive computational environment for scientific programming that is based more closely on the underlying mathematics describing physics than traditional programming languages such as FORTRAN or C++. In this talk I describe an object-oriented software architecture for representing physical problems that includes classes for such common mathematical objects as geometry, boundary conditions, partial differential and integral equations, discretization and numerical solution methods, etc. In practice, a scientific program written using this architecture looks remarkably like the mathematics used to understand the problem, is typically an order of magnitude smaller than traditional FORTRAN or C++ codes, and hence easier to understand, debug, describe, etc. All objects in this architecture are ``network-enabled,'' which means that components of a software solution to a physical problem can be transparently loaded from anywhere on the Internet or other global network. The architecture is expressed as an ``API,'' or application programmers interface specification, with reference embeddings in Java, Python, and C++. A C++ class library for an early version of this API has been implemented for machines ranging from PC's to the IBM SP2, meaning that phidentical codes run on all architectures.

  9. Advanced Computing Technologies for Rocket Engine Propulsion Systems: Object-Oriented Design with C++

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bekele, Gete

    2002-01-01

    This document explores the use of advanced computer technologies with an emphasis on object-oriented design to be applied in the development of software for a rocket engine to improve vehicle safety and reliability. The primary focus is on phase one of this project, the smart start sequence module. The objectives are: 1) To use current sound software engineering practices, object-orientation; 2) To improve on software development time, maintenance, execution and management; 3) To provide an alternate design choice for control, implementation, and performance.

  10. Energy consumption program: A computer model simulating energy loads in buildings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stoller, F. W.; Lansing, F. L.; Chai, V. W.; Higgins, S.

    1978-01-01

    The JPL energy consumption computer program developed as a useful tool in the on-going building modification studies in the DSN energy conservation project is described. The program simulates building heating and cooling loads and computes thermal and electric energy consumption and cost. The accuracy of computations are not sacrificed, however, since the results lie within + or - 10 percent margin compared to those read from energy meters. The program is carefully structured to reduce both user's time and running cost by asking minimum information from the user and reducing many internal time-consuming computational loops. Many unique features were added to handle two-level electronics control rooms not found in any other program.

  11. PNNL streamlines energy-guzzling computers

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

    Beckman, Mary T.; Marquez, Andres

    In a room the size of a garage, two rows of six-foot-tall racks holding supercomputer hard drives sit back-to-back. Thin tubes and wires snake off the hard drives, slithering into the corners. Stepping between the rows, a rush of heat whips around you -- the air from fans blowing off processing heat. But walk farther in, between the next racks of hard drives, and the temperature drops noticeably. These drives are being cooled by a non-conducting liquid that runs right over the hardworking processors. The liquid carries the heat away in tubes, saving the air a few degrees. This ismore » the Energy Smart Data Center at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The bigger, faster, and meatier supercomputers get, the more energy they consume. PNNL's Andres Marquez has developed this test bed to learn how to train the behemoths in energy efficiency. The work will help supercomputers perform better as well. Processors have to keep cool or suffer from "thermal throttling," says Marquez. "That's the performance threshold where the computer is too hot to run well. That threshold is an industry secret." The center at EMSL, DOE's national scientific user facility at PNNL, harbors several ways of experimenting with energy usage. For example, the room's air conditioning is isolated from the rest of EMSL -- pipes running beneath the floor carry temperature-controlled water through heat exchangers to cooling towers outside. "We can test whether it's more energy efficient to cool directly on the processing chips or out in the water tower," says Marquez. The hard drives feed energy and temperature data to a network server running specially designed software that controls and monitors the data center. To test the center’s limits, the team runs the processors flat out – not only on carefully controlled test programs in the Energy Smart computers, but also on real world software from other EMSL research, such as regional weather forecasting models. Marquez's group is also

  12. Bilingual Academic Computer and Technology Oriented Program. Project COM-TECH, 1987-1988.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Berney, Tomi D.; Plotkin, Donna

    The Bilingual Computer and Technology Oriented Program (COM-TECH) completed the final year of a 3-year funding cycle. The project's primary goal was to provide bilingual individualized instruction, using an enrichment approach, to Spanish- and Haitian Creole/French-speaking students of varying levels of native and English second-language (ESL)…

  13. Energy Consumption Management of Virtual Cloud Computing Platform

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Lin

    2017-11-01

    For energy consumption management research on virtual cloud computing platforms, energy consumption management of virtual computers and cloud computing platform should be understood deeper. Only in this way can problems faced by energy consumption management be solved. In solving problems, the key to solutions points to data centers with high energy consumption, so people are in great need to use a new scientific technique. Virtualization technology and cloud computing have become powerful tools in people’s real life, work and production because they have strong strength and many advantages. Virtualization technology and cloud computing now is in a rapid developing trend. It has very high resource utilization rate. In this way, the presence of virtualization and cloud computing technologies is very necessary in the constantly developing information age. This paper has summarized, explained and further analyzed energy consumption management questions of the virtual cloud computing platform. It eventually gives people a clearer understanding of energy consumption management of virtual cloud computing platform and brings more help to various aspects of people’s live, work and son on.

  14. A Computational Study of How Orientation Bias in the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus Can Give Rise to Orientation Selectivity in Primary Visual Cortex

    PubMed Central

    Kuhlmann, Levin; Vidyasagar, Trichur R.

    2011-01-01

    Controversy remains about how orientation selectivity emerges in simple cells of the mammalian primary visual cortex. In this paper, we present a computational model of how the orientation-biased responses of cells in lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) can contribute to the orientation selectivity in simple cells in cats. We propose that simple cells are excited by lateral geniculate fields with an orientation-bias and disynaptically inhibited by unoriented lateral geniculate fields (or biased fields pooled across orientations), both at approximately the same retinotopic co-ordinates. This interaction, combined with recurrent cortical excitation and inhibition, helps to create the sharp orientation tuning seen in simple cell responses. Along with describing orientation selectivity, the model also accounts for the spatial frequency and length–response functions in simple cells, in normal conditions as well as under the influence of the GABAA antagonist, bicuculline. In addition, the model captures the response properties of LGN and simple cells to simultaneous visual stimulation and electrical stimulation of the LGN. We show that the sharp selectivity for stimulus orientation seen in primary visual cortical cells can be achieved without the excitatory convergence of the LGN input cells with receptive fields along a line in visual space, which has been a core assumption in classical models of visual cortex. We have also simulated how the full range of orientations seen in the cortex can emerge from the activity among broadly tuned channels tuned to a limited number of optimum orientations, just as in the classical case of coding for color in trichromatic primates. PMID:22013414

  15. Computing in high-energy physics

    DOE PAGES

    Mount, Richard P.

    2016-05-31

    I present a very personalized journey through more than three decades of computing for experimental high-energy physics, pointing out the enduring lessons that I learned. This is followed by a vision of how the computing environment will evolve in the coming ten years and the technical challenges that this will bring. I then address the scale and cost of high-energy physics software and examine the many current and future challenges, particularly those of management, funding and software-lifecycle management. Lastly, I describe recent developments aimed at improving the overall coherence of high-energy physics software.

  16. Computing in high-energy physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mount, Richard P.

    2016-04-01

    I present a very personalized journey through more than three decades of computing for experimental high-energy physics, pointing out the enduring lessons that I learned. This is followed by a vision of how the computing environment will evolve in the coming ten years and the technical challenges that this will bring. I then address the scale and cost of high-energy physics software and examine the many current and future challenges, particularly those of management, funding and software-lifecycle management. Finally, I describe recent developments aimed at improving the overall coherence of high-energy physics software.

  17. Computing in high-energy physics

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

    Mount, Richard P.

    I present a very personalized journey through more than three decades of computing for experimental high-energy physics, pointing out the enduring lessons that I learned. This is followed by a vision of how the computing environment will evolve in the coming ten years and the technical challenges that this will bring. I then address the scale and cost of high-energy physics software and examine the many current and future challenges, particularly those of management, funding and software-lifecycle management. Lastly, I describe recent developments aimed at improving the overall coherence of high-energy physics software.

  18. It Takes a Village: Supporting Inquiry- and Equity-Oriented Computer Science Pedagogy through a Professional Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ryoo, Jean; Goode, Joanna; Margolis, Jane

    2015-01-01

    This article describes the importance that high school computer science teachers place on a teachers' professional learning community designed around an inquiry- and equity-oriented approach for broadening participation in computing. Using grounded theory to analyze four years of teacher surveys and interviews from the Exploring Computer Science…

  19. Simple estimation of Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) orientation factor distribution in membranes.

    PubMed

    Loura, Luís M S

    2012-11-19

    Because of its acute sensitivity to distance in the nanometer scale, Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) has found a large variety of applications in many fields of chemistry, physics, and biology. One important issue regarding the correct usage of FRET is its dependence on the donor-acceptor relative orientation, expressed as the orientation factor k(2). Different donor/acceptor conformations can lead to k(2) values in the 0 ≤ k(2) ≤ 4 range. Because the characteristic distance for FRET, R(0), is proportional to (k(2))1/6, uncertainties in the orientation factor are reflected in the quality of information that can be retrieved from a FRET experiment. In most cases, the average value of k(2) corresponding to the dynamic isotropic limit ( = 2/3) is used for computation of R(0) and hence donor-acceptor distances and acceptor concentrations. However, this can lead to significant error in unfavorable cases. This issue is more critical in membrane systems, because of their intrinsically anisotropic nature and their reduced fluidity in comparison to most common solvents. Here, a simple numerical simulation method for estimation of the probability density function of k(2) for membrane-embedded donor and acceptor fluorophores in the dynamic regime is presented. In the simplest form, the proposed procedure uses as input the most probable orientations of the donor and acceptor transition dipoles, obtained by experimental (including linear dichroism) or theoretical (such as molecular dynamics simulation) techniques. Optionally, information about the widths of the donor and/or acceptor angular distributions may be incorporated. The methodology is illustrated for special limiting cases and common membrane FRET pairs.

  20. Incorporation of the TIP4P water model into a continuum solvent for computing solvation free energy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Pei-Kun

    2014-10-01

    The continuum solvent model is one of the commonly used strategies to compute solvation free energy especially for large-scale conformational transitions such as protein folding or to calculate the binding affinity of protein-protein/ligand interactions. However, the dielectric polarization for computing solvation free energy from the continuum solvent is different than that obtained from molecular dynamic simulations. To mimic the dielectric polarization surrounding a solute in molecular dynamic simulations, the first-shell water molecules was modeled using a charge distribution of TIP4P in a hard sphere; the time-averaged charge distribution from the first-shell water molecules were estimated based on the coordination number of the solute, and the orientation distribution of the first-shell waters and the intermediate water molecules were treated as that of a bulk solvent. Based on this strategy, an equation describing the solvation free energy of ions was derived.

  1. Feasibility Computer Applications to Mission-Oriented Training in the Aircraft Armament Systems Specialist Career-Field.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1980-01-01

    necessary and identify by block number) on-the-job training task proficiency mission-oriented training training management aircraft armament systems...as was the training itself, to determine the feasibility of applying state-of-the-art computer technology to the problems of management and...62 Measures Used in Rank-ordering Functions ........ ........... 63 Computer-Supportable Functions ........ .. 63 Instructional Management

  2. Atlas of optimal coil orientation and position for TMS: A computational study.

    PubMed

    Gomez-Tames, Jose; Hamasaka, Atsushi; Laakso, Ilkka; Hirata, Akimasa; Ugawa, Yoshikazu

    2018-04-17

    Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) activates target brain structures in a non-invasive manner. The optimal orientation of the TMS coil for the motor cortex is well known and can be estimated using motor evoked potentials. However, there are no easily measurable responses for activation of other cortical areas and the optimal orientation for these areas is currently unknown. This study investigated the electric field strength, optimal coil orientation, and relative locations to optimally stimulate the target cortex based on computed electric field distributions. A total of 518,616 stimulation scenarios were studied using realistic head models (2401 coil locations × 12 coil angles × 18 head models). Inter-subject registration methods were used to generate an atlas of optimized TMS coil orientations on locations on the standard brain. We found that the maximum electric field strength is greater in primary somatosensory cortex and primary motor cortex than in other cortical areas. Additionally, a universal optimal coil orientation applicable to most subjects is more feasible at the primary somatosensory cortex and primary motor cortex. We confirmed that optimal coil angle follows the anatomical shape of the hand motor area to realize personalized optimization of TMS. Finally, on average, the optimal coil positions for TMS on the scalp deviated 5.5 mm from the scalp points with minimum cortex-scalp distance. This deviation was minimal at the premotor cortex and primary motor cortex. Personalized optimal coil orientation is preferable for obtaining the most effective stimulation. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  3. High Performance Computing Meets Energy Efficiency - Continuum Magazine |

    Science.gov Websites

    NREL High Performance Computing Meets Energy Efficiency High Performance Computing Meets Energy turbines. Simulation by Patrick J. Moriarty and Matthew J. Churchfield, NREL The new High Performance Computing Data Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) hosts high-speed, high-volume data

  4. Teaching computer interfacing with virtual instruments in an object-oriented language.

    PubMed Central

    Gulotta, M

    1995-01-01

    LabVIEW is a graphic object-oriented computer language developed to facilitate hardware/software communication. LabVIEW is a complete computer language that can be used like Basic, FORTRAN, or C. In LabVIEW one creates virtual instruments that aesthetically look like real instruments but are controlled by sophisticated computer programs. There are several levels of data acquisition VIs that make it easy to control data flow, and many signal processing and analysis algorithms come with the software as premade VIs. In the classroom, the similarity between virtual and real instruments helps students understand how information is passed between the computer and attached instruments. The software may be used in the absence of hardware so that students can work at home as well as in the classroom. This article demonstrates how LabVIEW can be used to control data flow between computers and instruments, points out important features for signal processing and analysis, and shows how virtual instruments may be used in place of physical instrumentation. Applications of LabVIEW to the teaching laboratory are also discussed, and a plausible course outline is given. PMID:8580361

  5. Teaching computer interfacing with virtual instruments in an object-oriented language.

    PubMed

    Gulotta, M

    1995-11-01

    LabVIEW is a graphic object-oriented computer language developed to facilitate hardware/software communication. LabVIEW is a complete computer language that can be used like Basic, FORTRAN, or C. In LabVIEW one creates virtual instruments that aesthetically look like real instruments but are controlled by sophisticated computer programs. There are several levels of data acquisition VIs that make it easy to control data flow, and many signal processing and analysis algorithms come with the software as premade VIs. In the classroom, the similarity between virtual and real instruments helps students understand how information is passed between the computer and attached instruments. The software may be used in the absence of hardware so that students can work at home as well as in the classroom. This article demonstrates how LabVIEW can be used to control data flow between computers and instruments, points out important features for signal processing and analysis, and shows how virtual instruments may be used in place of physical instrumentation. Applications of LabVIEW to the teaching laboratory are also discussed, and a plausible course outline is given.

  6. Computer-oriented emissions inventory procedure for urban and industrial sources

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

    Runca, E.; Zannetti, P.; Melli, P.

    1978-06-01

    A knowledge of the rate of emission of atmospheric pollutants is essential for the enforcement of air quality control policies. A computer-oriented emission inventory procedure has been developed and applied to Venice, Italy. By using optically readable forms this procedure avoids many of the errors inherent in the transcription and punching steps typical of approaches applied so far. Moreover, this procedure allows an easy updating of the inventory. Emission patterns of SO/sub 2/ in the area of Venice showed that the total urban emissions were about 6% of those emitted by industrial sources.

  7. Energy-efficient quantum computing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ikonen, Joni; Salmilehto, Juha; Möttönen, Mikko

    2017-04-01

    In the near future, one of the major challenges in the realization of large-scale quantum computers operating at low temperatures is the management of harmful heat loads owing to thermal conduction of cabling and dissipation at cryogenic components. This naturally raises the question that what are the fundamental limitations of energy consumption in scalable quantum computing. In this work, we derive the greatest lower bound for the gate error induced by a single application of a bosonic drive mode of given energy. Previously, such an error type has been considered to be inversely proportional to the total driving power, but we show that this limitation can be circumvented by introducing a qubit driving scheme which reuses and corrects drive pulses. Specifically, our method serves to reduce the average energy consumption per gate operation without increasing the average gate error. Thus our work shows that precise, scalable control of quantum systems can, in principle, be implemented without the introduction of excessive heat or decoherence.

  8. COMPLEAT (Community-Oriented Model for Planning Least-Cost Energy Alternatives and Technologies): A planning tool for publicly owned electric utilities. [Community-Oriented Model for Planning Least-Cost Energy Alternatives and Technologies (Compleat)

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

    Not Available

    1990-09-01

    COMPLEAT takes its name, as an acronym, from Community-Oriented Model for Planning Least-Cost Energy Alternatives and Technologies. It is an electric utility planning model designed for use principally by publicly owned electric utilities and agencies serving such utilities. As a model, COMPLEAT is significantly more full-featured and complex than called out in APPA's original plan and proposal to DOE. The additional complexity grew out of a series of discussions early in the development schedule, in which it became clear to APPA staff and advisors that the simplicity characterizing the original plan, while highly desirable in terms of utility applications, wasmore » not achievable if practical utility problems were to be addressed. The project teams settled on Energy 20/20, an existing model developed by Dr. George Backus of Policy Assessment Associates, as the best candidate for the kinds of modifications and extensions that would be required. The remainder of the project effort was devoted to designing specific input data files, output files, and user screens and to writing and testing the compute programs that would properly implement the desired features around Energy 20/20 as a core program. This report presents in outline form, the features and user interface of COMPLEAT.« less

  9. Seed robustness of oriented relative fuzzy connectedness: core computation and its applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tavares, Anderson C. M.; Bejar, Hans H. C.; Miranda, Paulo A. V.

    2017-02-01

    In this work, we present a formal definition and an efficient algorithm to compute the cores of Oriented Relative Fuzzy Connectedness (ORFC), a recent seed-based segmentation technique. The core is a region where the seed can be moved without altering the segmentation, an important aspect for robust techniques and reduction of user effort. We show how ORFC cores can be used to build a powerful hybrid image segmentation approach. We also provide some new theoretical relations between ORFC and Oriented Image Foresting Transform (OIFT), as well as their cores. Experimental results among several methods show that the hybrid approach conserves high accuracy, avoids the shrinking problem and provides robustness to seed placement inside the desired object due to the cores properties.

  10. A Riemannian framework for orientation distribution function computing.

    PubMed

    Cheng, Jian; Ghosh, Aurobrata; Jiang, Tianzi; Deriche, Rachid

    2009-01-01

    Compared with Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), High Angular Resolution Imaging (HARDI) can better explore the complex microstructure of white matter. Orientation Distribution Function (ODF) is used to describe the probability of the fiber direction. Fisher information metric has been constructed for probability density family in Information Geometry theory and it has been successfully applied for tensor computing in DTI. In this paper, we present a state of the art Riemannian framework for ODF computing based on Information Geometry and sparse representation of orthonormal bases. In this Riemannian framework, the exponential map, logarithmic map and geodesic have closed forms. And the weighted Frechet mean exists uniquely on this manifold. We also propose a novel scalar measurement, named Geometric Anisotropy (GA), which is the Riemannian geodesic distance between the ODF and the isotropic ODF. The Renyi entropy H1/2 of the ODF can be computed from the GA. Moreover, we present an Affine-Euclidean framework and a Log-Euclidean framework so that we can work in an Euclidean space. As an application, Lagrange interpolation on ODF field is proposed based on weighted Frechet mean. We validate our methods on synthetic and real data experiments. Compared with existing Riemannian frameworks on ODF, our framework is model-free. The estimation of the parameters, i.e. Riemannian coordinates, is robust and linear. Moreover it should be noted that our theoretical results can be used for any probability density function (PDF) under an orthonormal basis representation.

  11. Dual-Energy Computed Tomography in Cardiothoracic Vascular Imaging.

    PubMed

    De Santis, Domenico; Eid, Marwen; De Cecco, Carlo N; Jacobs, Brian E; Albrecht, Moritz H; Varga-Szemes, Akos; Tesche, Christian; Caruso, Damiano; Laghi, Andrea; Schoepf, Uwe Joseph

    2018-07-01

    Dual energy computed tomography is becoming increasingly widespread in clinical practice. It can expand on the traditional density-based data achievable with single energy computed tomography by adding novel applications to help reach a more accurate diagnosis. The implementation of this technology in cardiothoracic vascular imaging allows for improved image contrast, metal artifact reduction, generation of virtual unenhanced images, virtual calcium subtraction techniques, cardiac and pulmonary perfusion evaluation, and plaque characterization. The improved diagnostic performance afforded by dual energy computed tomography is not associated with an increased radiation dose. This review provides an overview of dual energy computed tomography cardiothoracic vascular applications. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Computing arbitrary defect structures on arbitrary lattices on arbitrary geometries from arbitrary energies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Allen, Brian; Travesset, Alex

    2004-03-01

    Dislocations and disclinations play a fundamental role in the properties of two dimensional crystals. In this talk, it will be shown that a general computational framework can be developed by combining previous work of Seung and Nelson* and modern advances in objected oriented design. This allows separating the problem into independent classes such as: geometry (sphere, plane, torus..), lattice (triangular, square, etc..), type of defect (dislocation, disclinations, etc..), boundary conditions, type of order (crystalline, hexatic) or energy functional. As applications, the ground state of crystals in several geometries will be discussed. Experimental examples with colloidal particles will be shown. *S. Seung and D. Nelson, Phys. Rev. A 38, 1005 (1988)

  13. Computed Potential Energy Surfaces and Minimum Energy Pathways for Chemical Reactions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Walch, Stephen P.; Langhoff, S. R. (Technical Monitor)

    1994-01-01

    Computed potential energy surfaces are often required for computation of such parameters as rate constants as a function of temperature, product branching ratios, and other detailed properties. For some dynamics methods, global potential energy surfaces are required. In this case, it is necessary to obtain the energy at a complete sampling of all the possible arrangements of the nuclei, which are energetically accessible, and then a fitting function must be obtained to interpolate between the computed points. In other cases, characterization of the stationary points and the reaction pathway connecting them is sufficient. These properties may be readily obtained using analytical derivative methods. We have found that computation of the stationary points/reaction pathways using CASSCF/derivative methods, followed by use of the internally contracted CI method to obtain accurate energetics, gives usefull results for a number of chemically important systems. The talk will focus on a number of applications including global potential energy surfaces, H + O2, H + N2, O(3p) + H2, and reaction pathways for complex reactions, including reactions leading to NO and soot formation in hydrocarbon combustion.

  14. Two-dimensional radiant energy array computers and computing devices

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schaefer, D. H.; Strong, J. P., III (Inventor)

    1976-01-01

    Two dimensional digital computers and computer devices operate in parallel on rectangular arrays of digital radiant energy optical signal elements which are arranged in ordered rows and columns. Logic gate devices receive two input arrays and provide an output array having digital states dependent only on the digital states of the signal elements of the two input arrays at corresponding row and column positions. The logic devices include an array of photoconductors responsive to at least one of the input arrays for either selectively accelerating electrons to a phosphor output surface, applying potentials to an electroluminescent output layer, exciting an array of discrete radiant energy sources, or exciting a liquid crystal to influence crystal transparency or reflectivity.

  15. The impact of goal-oriented task design on neurofeedback learning for brain-computer interface control.

    PubMed

    McWhinney, S R; Tremblay, A; Boe, S G; Bardouille, T

    2018-02-01

    Neurofeedback training teaches individuals to modulate brain activity by providing real-time feedback and can be used for brain-computer interface control. The present study aimed to optimize training by maximizing engagement through goal-oriented task design. Participants were shown either a visual display or a robot, where each was manipulated using motor imagery (MI)-related electroencephalography signals. Those with the robot were instructed to quickly navigate grid spaces, as the potential for goal-oriented design to strengthen learning was central to our investigation. Both groups were hypothesized to show increased magnitude of these signals across 10 sessions, with the greatest gains being seen in those navigating the robot due to increased engagement. Participants demonstrated the predicted increase in magnitude, with no differentiation between hemispheres. Participants navigating the robot showed stronger left-hand MI increases than those with the computer display. This is likely due to success being reliant on maintaining strong MI-related signals. While older participants showed stronger signals in early sessions, this trend later reversed, suggesting greater natural proficiency but reduced flexibility. These results demonstrate capacity for modulating neurofeedback using MI over a series of training sessions, using tasks of varied design. Importantly, the more goal-oriented robot control task resulted in greater improvements.

  16. Computing the Rotational Diffusion of Biomolecules via Molecular Dynamics Simulation and Quaternion Orientations.

    PubMed

    Chen, Po-Chia; Hologne, Maggy; Walker, Olivier

    2017-03-02

    Rotational diffusion (D rot ) is a fundamental property of biomolecules that contains information about molecular dimensions and solute-solvent interactions. While ab initio D rot prediction can be achieved by explicit all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, this is hindered by both computational expense and limitations in water models. We propose coarse-grained force fields as a complementary solution, and show that the MARTINI force field with elastic networks is sufficient to compute D rot in >10 proteins spanning 5-157 kDa. We also adopt a quaternion-based approach that computes D rot orientation directly from autocorrelations of best-fit rotations as used in, e.g., RMSD algorithms. Over 2 μs trajectories, isotropic MARTINI+EN tumbling replicates experimental values to within 10-20%, with convergence analyses suggesting a minimum sampling of >50 × τ theor to achieve sufficient precision. Transient fluctuations in anisotropic tumbling cause decreased precision in predictions of axisymmetric anisotropy and rhombicity, the latter of which cannot be precisely evaluated within 2000 × τ theor for GB3. Thus, we encourage reporting of axial decompositions D x , D y , D z to ease comparability between experiment and simulation. Where protein disorder is absent, we observe close replication of MARTINI+EN D rot orientations versus CHARMM22*/TIP3p and experimental data. This work anticipates the ab initio prediction of NMR-relaxation by combining coarse-grained global motions with all-atom local motions.

  17. Trainable multiscript orientation detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Van Beusekom, Joost; Rangoni, Yves; Breuel, Thomas M.

    2010-01-01

    Detecting the correct orientation of document images is an important step in large scale digitization processes, as most subsequent document analysis and optical character recognition methods assume upright position of the document page. Many methods have been proposed to solve the problem, most of which base on ascender to descender ratio computation. Unfortunately, this cannot be used for scripts having no descenders nor ascenders. Therefore, we present a trainable method using character similarity to compute the correct orientation. A connected component based distance measure is computed to compare the characters of the document image to characters whose orientation is known. This allows to detect the orientation for which the distance is lowest as the correct orientation. Training is easily achieved by exchanging the reference characters by characters of the script to be analyzed. Evaluation of the proposed approach showed accuracy of above 99% for Latin and Japanese script from the public UW-III and UW-II datasets. An accuracy of 98.9% was obtained for Fraktur on a non-public dataset. Comparison of the proposed method to two methods using ascender / descender ratio based orientation detection shows a significant improvement.

  18. Building a Prototype of LHC Analysis Oriented Computing Centers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bagliesi, G.; Boccali, T.; Della Ricca, G.; Donvito, G.; Paganoni, M.

    2012-12-01

    A Consortium between four LHC Computing Centers (Bari, Milano, Pisa and Trieste) has been formed in 2010 to prototype Analysis-oriented facilities for CMS data analysis, profiting from a grant from the Italian Ministry of Research. The Consortium aims to realize an ad-hoc infrastructure to ease the analysis activities on the huge data set collected at the LHC Collider. While “Tier2” Computing Centres, specialized in organized processing tasks like Monte Carlo simulation, are nowadays a well established concept, with years of running experience, site specialized towards end user chaotic analysis activities do not yet have a defacto standard implementation. In our effort, we focus on all the aspects that can make the analysis tasks easier for a physics user not expert in computing. On the storage side, we are experimenting on storage techniques allowing for remote data access and on storage optimization on the typical analysis access patterns. On the networking side, we are studying the differences between flat and tiered LAN architecture, also using virtual partitioning of the same physical networking for the different use patterns. Finally, on the user side, we are developing tools and instruments to allow for an exhaustive monitoring of their processes at the site, and for an efficient support system in case of problems. We will report about the results of the test executed on different subsystem and give a description of the layout of the infrastructure in place at the site participating to the consortium.

  19. Comparison between measured and computed magnetic flux density distribution of simulated transformer core joints assembled from grain-oriented and non-oriented electrical steel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shahrouzi, Hamid; Moses, Anthony J.; Anderson, Philip I.; Li, Guobao; Hu, Zhuochao

    2018-04-01

    The flux distribution in an overlapped linear joint constructed in the central region of an Epstein Square was studied experimentally and results compared with those obtained using a computational magnetic field solver. High permeability grain-oriented (GO) and low permeability non-oriented (NO) electrical steels were compared at a nominal core flux density of 1.60 T at 50 Hz. It was found that the experimental results only agreed well at flux densities at which the reluctance of different paths of the flux are similar. Also it was revealed that the flux becomes more uniform when the working point of the electrical steel is close to the knee point of the B-H curve of the steel.

  20. Energy expenditure in adolescents playing new generation computer games.

    PubMed

    Graves, Lee; Stratton, Gareth; Ridgers, N D; Cable, N T

    2008-07-01

    To compare the energy expenditure of adolescents when playing sedentary and new generation active computer games. Cross sectional comparison of four computer games. Setting Research laboratories. Six boys and five girls aged 13-15 years. Participants were fitted with a monitoring device validated to predict energy expenditure. They played four computer games for 15 minutes each. One of the games was sedentary (XBOX 360) and the other three were active (Wii Sports). Predicted energy expenditure, compared using repeated measures analysis of variance. Mean (standard deviation) predicted energy expenditure when playing Wii Sports bowling (190.6 (22.2) kl/kg/min), tennis (202.5 (31.5) kl/kg/min), and boxing (198.1 (33.9) kl/kg/min) was significantly greater than when playing sedentary games (125.5 (13.7) kl/kg/min) (P<0.001). Predicted energy expenditure was at least 65.1 (95% confidence interval 47.3 to 82.9) kl/kg/min greater when playing active rather than sedentary games. Playing new generation active computer games uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games but not as much energy as playing the sport itself. The energy used when playing active Wii Sports games was not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children.

  1. Orientation diffusions.

    PubMed

    Perona, P

    1998-01-01

    Diffusions are useful for image processing and computer vision because they provide a convenient way of smoothing noisy data, analyzing images at multiple scales, and enhancing discontinuities. A number of diffusions of image brightness have been defined and studied so far; they may be applied to scalar and vector-valued quantities that are naturally associated with intervals of either the real line, or other flat manifolds. Some quantities of interest in computer vision, and other areas of engineering that deal with images, are defined on curved manifolds;typical examples are orientation and hue that are defined on the circle. Generalizing brightness diffusions to orientation is not straightforward, especially in the case where a discrete implementation is sought. An example of what may go wrong is presented.A method is proposed to define diffusions of orientation-like quantities. First a definition in the continuum is discussed, then a discrete orientation diffusion is proposed. The behavior of such diffusions is explored both analytically and experimentally. It is shown how such orientation diffusions contain a nonlinearity that is reminiscent of edge-process and anisotropic diffusion. A number of open questions are proposed at the end.

  2. An object-oriented computational model to study cardiopulmonary hemodynamic interactions in humans.

    PubMed

    Ngo, Chuong; Dahlmanns, Stephan; Vollmer, Thomas; Misgeld, Berno; Leonhardt, Steffen

    2018-06-01

    This work introduces an object-oriented computational model to study cardiopulmonary interactions in humans. Modeling was performed in object-oriented programing language Matlab Simscape, where model components are connected with each other through physical connections. Constitutive and phenomenological equations of model elements are implemented based on their non-linear pressure-volume or pressure-flow relationship. The model includes more than 30 physiological compartments, which belong either to the cardiovascular or respiratory system. The model considers non-linear behaviors of veins, pulmonary capillaries, collapsible airways, alveoli, and the chest wall. Model parameters were derisved based on literature values. Model validation was performed by comparing simulation results with clinical and animal data reported in literature. The model is able to provide quantitative values of alveolar, pleural, interstitial, aortic and ventricular pressures, as well as heart and lung volumes during spontaneous breathing and mechanical ventilation. Results of baseline simulation demonstrate the consistency of the assigned parameters. Simulation results during mechanical ventilation with PEEP trials can be directly compared with animal and clinical data given in literature. Object-oriented programming languages can be used to model interconnected systems including model non-linearities. The model provides a useful tool to investigate cardiopulmonary activity during spontaneous breathing and mechanical ventilation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Accelerating molecular Monte Carlo simulations using distance and orientation dependent energy tables: tuning from atomistic accuracy to smoothed “coarse-grained” models

    PubMed Central

    Lettieri, S.; Zuckerman, D.M.

    2011-01-01

    Typically, the most time consuming part of any atomistic molecular simulation is due to the repeated calculation of distances, energies and forces between pairs of atoms. However, many molecules contain nearly rigid multi-atom groups such as rings and other conjugated moieties, whose rigidity can be exploited to significantly speed up computations. The availability of GB-scale random-access memory (RAM) offers the possibility of tabulation (pre-calculation) of distance and orientation-dependent interactions among such rigid molecular bodies. Here, we perform an investigation of this energy tabulation approach for a fluid of atomistic – but rigid – benzene molecules at standard temperature and density. In particular, using O(1) GB of RAM, we construct an energy look-up table which encompasses the full range of allowed relative positions and orientations between a pair of whole molecules. We obtain a hardware-dependent speed-up of a factor of 24-50 as compared to an ordinary (“exact”) Monte Carlo simulation and find excellent agreement between energetic and structural properties. Second, we examine the somewhat reduced fidelity of results obtained using energy tables based on much less memory use. Third, the energy table serves as a convenient platform to explore potential energy smoothing techniques, akin to coarse-graining. Simulations with smoothed tables exhibit near atomistic accuracy while increasing diffusivity. The combined speed-up in sampling from tabulation and smoothing exceeds a factor of 100. For future applications greater speed-ups can be expected for larger rigid groups, such as those found in biomolecules. PMID:22120971

  4. The Effect of a Graph-Oriented Computer-Assisted Project-Based Learning Environment on Argumentation Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hsu, P. -S.; Van Dyke, M.; Chen, Y.; Smith, T. J.

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to explore how seventh graders in a suburban school in the United States developed argumentation skills and science knowledge in a project-based learning environment that incorporated a graph-oriented, computer-assisted application. A total of 54 students (three classes) comprised this treatment…

  5. Computed reconstruction of spatial ammonoid-shell orientation captured from digitized grinding and landmark data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lukeneder, Susanne; Lukeneder, Alexander; Weber, Gerhard W.

    2014-03-01

    The internal orientation of fossil mass occurrences can be exploited as useful source of information about their primary depositional conditions. A series of studies, using different kinds of fossils, especially those with elongated shape (e.g., elongated gastropods), deal with their orientation and the subsequent reconstruction of the depositional conditions (e.g., paleocurrents and transport mechanisms). However, disk-shaped fossils like planispiral cephalopods or gastropods were used, up to now, with caution for interpreting paleocurrents. Moreover, most studies just deal with the topmost surface of such mass occurrences, due to the easier accessibility. Within this study, a new method for three-dimensional reconstruction of the internal structure of a fossil mass occurrence and the subsequent calculation of its spatial shell orientation is established. A 234 million-years-old (Carnian, Triassic) monospecific mass occurrence of the ammonoid Kasimlarceltites krystyni from the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, embedded in limestone, is used for this pilot study. Therefore, a 150×45×140 mm3 block of the ammonoid bearing limestone bed has been grinded to 70 slices, with a distance of 2 mm between each slice. By using a semi-automatic region growing algorithm of the 3D-visualization software Amira, ammonoids of a part of this mass occurrence were segmented and a 3D-model reconstructed. Landmarks, trigonometric and vector-based calculations were used to compute the diameters and the spatial orientation of each ammonoid. The spatial shell orientation was characterized by dip and dip-direction and aperture direction of the longitudinal axis, as well as by dip and azimuth of an imaginary sagittal-plane through each ammonoid. The exact spatial shell orientation was determined for a sample of 675 ammonoids, and their statistical orientation analyzed (i.e., NW/SE). The study combines classical orientation analysis with modern 3D-visualization techniques, and establishes a novel

  6. A SUGGESTED CURRICULUM GUIDE FOR ELECTRO-MECHANICAL TECHNOLOGY ORIENTED SPECIFICALLY TO THE COMPUTER AND BUSINESS MACHINE FIELDS. INTERIM REPORT.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    LESCARBEAU, ROLAND F.; AND OTHERS

    A SUGGESTED POST-SECONDARY CURRICULUM GUIDE FOR ELECTRO-MECHANICAL TECHNOLOGY ORIENTED SPECIFICALLY TO THE COMPUTER AND BUSINESS MACHINE FIELDS WAS DEVELOPED BY A GROUP OF COOPERATING INSTITUTIONS, NOW INCORPORATED AS TECHNICAL EDUCATION CONSORTIUM, INCORPORATED. SPECIFIC NEEDS OF THE COMPUTER AND BUSINESS MACHINE INDUSTRY WERE DETERMINED FROM…

  7. Integrating Clinical Trial Imaging Data Resources Using Service-Oriented Architecture and Grid Computing

    PubMed Central

    Cladé, Thierry; Snyder, Joshua C.

    2010-01-01

    Clinical trials which use imaging typically require data management and workflow integration across several parties. We identify opportunities for all parties involved to realize benefits with a modular interoperability model based on service-oriented architecture and grid computing principles. We discuss middleware products for implementation of this model, and propose caGrid as an ideal candidate due to its healthcare focus; free, open source license; and mature developer tools and support. PMID:20449775

  8. High-Performance Computing Data Center | Energy Systems Integration

    Science.gov Websites

    Facility | NREL High-Performance Computing Data Center High-Performance Computing Data Center The Energy Systems Integration Facility's High-Performance Computing Data Center is home to Peregrine -the largest high-performance computing system in the world exclusively dedicated to advancing

  9. Computer simulated building energy consumption for verification of energy conservation measures in network facilities

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Plankey, B.

    1981-01-01

    A computer program called ECPVER (Energy Consumption Program - Verification) was developed to simulate all energy loads for any number of buildings. The program computes simulated daily, monthly, and yearly energy consumption which can be compared with actual meter readings for the same time period. Such comparison can lead to validation of the model under a variety of conditions, which allows it to be used to predict future energy saving due to energy conservation measures. Predicted energy saving can then be compared with actual saving to verify the effectiveness of those energy conservation changes. This verification procedure is planned to be an important advancement in the Deep Space Network Energy Project, which seeks to reduce energy cost and consumption at all DSN Deep Space Stations.

  10. Spatial orientation and mechanical properties of the human trachea: a computed tomography study.

    PubMed

    Zanella, Alberto; Cressoni, Massimo; Ferlicca, Daniela; Chiurazzi, Chiara; Epp, Myra; Rovati, Cristina; Chiumello, Davide; Pesenti, Antonio; Gattinoni, Luciano; Kolobow, Theodor

    2015-04-01

    The literature generally describes the trachea as oriented toward the right and back, but there is very little detailed characterization. Therefore, the aim of this study was to precisely determine the spatial orientation and to better characterize the physical properties of the human trachea. We analyzed lung computed tomography scans of 68 intubated and mechanically ventilated subjects suffering from acute lung injury/ARDS at airway pressures (Paw) of 5, 15, and 45 cm H2O. At each Paw, the inner edge of the trachea from the subglottal space to the carina was captured. Tracheal length and diameter were measured. Tracheal orientation and compliance were estimated from processing barycenter and surface tracheal sections. Tracheal orientation at a Paw of 5 cm H2O showed a 4.2 ± 5.3° angle toward the right and a 20.6 ± 6.9° angle downward toward the back, which decreased significantly while increasing Paw (19.4 ± 6.9° at 15 cm H2O and 17.1 ± 6.8° at 45 cm H2O, P < .001). Tracheal compliance was 0.0113 ± 0.0131 mL/cm H2O/cm of trachea length from 5 to 15 cm H2O and 0.004 ± 0.0041 mL/cm H2O/cm of trachea length from 15 to 45 cm H2O (P < .001). Tracheal diameter was 19.6 ± 3.4 mm on the medial-lateral axis and 21.0 ± 4.3 mm on the sternal-vertebral axis. The trachea is oriented downward toward the back at a 20.6 ± 6.9° angle and slightly toward the right at a 4.2 ± 5.3° angle. Understanding tracheal orientation may help in enhancing postural drainage and respiratory physiotherapy, and knowing the physical properties of the trachea may aid in endotracheal tube cuff design. Copyright © 2015 by Daedalus Enterprises.

  11. Development of a KSC test and flight engineering oriented computer language, Phase 1

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Case, C. W.; Kinney, E. L.; Gyure, J.

    1970-01-01

    Ten, primarily test oriented, computer languages reviewed during the phase 1 study effort are described. Fifty characteristics of ATOLL, ATLAS, and CLASP are compared. Unique characteristics of the other languages, including deficiencies, problems, safeguards, and checking provisions are identified. Programming aids related to these languages are reported, and the conclusions resulting from this phase of the study are discussed. A glossary and bibliography are included. For the reports on phase 2 of the study, see N71-35027 and N71-35029.

  12. It takes a village: supporting inquiry- and equity-oriented computer science pedagogy through a professional learning community

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ryoo, Jean; Goode, Joanna; Margolis, Jane

    2015-10-01

    This article describes the importance that high school computer science teachers place on a teachers' professional learning community designed around an inquiry- and equity-oriented approach for broadening participation in computing. Using grounded theory to analyze four years of teacher surveys and interviews from the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, this article describes how participating in professional development activities purposefully aimed at fostering a teachers' professional learning community helps ECS teachers make the transition to an inquiry-based classroom culture and break professional isolation. This professional learning community also provides experiences that challenge prevalent deficit notions and stereotypes about which students can or cannot excel in computer science.

  13. A Practice-Oriented Bifurcation Analysis for Pulse Energy Converters. Part 2: An Operating Regime

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kolokolov, Yury; Monovskaya, Anna

    The paper continues the discussion on bifurcation analysis for applications in practice-oriented solutions for pulse energy conversion systems (PEC-systems). Since a PEC-system represents a nonlinear object with a variable structure, then the description of its dynamics evolution involves bifurcation analysis conceptions. This means the necessity to resolve the conflict-of-units between the notions used to describe natural evolution (i.e. evolution of the operating process towards nonoperating processes and vice versa) and the notions used to describe a desirable artificial regime (i.e. an operating regime). We consider cause-effect relations in the following sequence: nonlinear dynamics-output signal-operating characteristics, where these characteristics include stability and performance. Then regularities of nonlinear dynamics should be translated into regularities of the output signal dynamics, and, after, into an evolutional picture of each operating characteristic. In order to make the translation without losses, we first take into account heterogeneous properties within the structures of the operating process in the parametrical (P-) and phase (X-) spaces, and analyze regularities of the operating stability and performance on the common basis by use of the modified bifurcation diagrams built in joint PX-space. Then, the correspondence between causes (degradation of the operating process stability) and effects (changes of the operating characteristics) is decomposed into three groups of abnormalities: conditionally unavoidable abnormalities (CU-abnormalities); conditionally probable abnormalities (CP-abnormalities); conditionally regular abnormalities (CR-abnormalities). Within each of these groups the evolutional homogeneity is retained. After, the resultant evolution of each operating characteristic is naturally aggregated through the superposition of cause-effect relations in accordance with each of the abnormalities. We demonstrate that the practice-oriented

  14. Computational Modeling of Magnetically Actuated Propellant Orientation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hochstein, John I.

    1996-01-01

    sufficient performance to support cryogenic propellant management tasks. In late 1992, NASA MSFC began a new investigation in this technology commencing with the design of the Magnetically-Actuated Propellant Orientation (MAPO) experiment. A mixture of ferrofluid and water is used to simulate the paramagnetic properties of LOX and the experiment is being flown on the KC-135 aircraft to provide a reduced gravity environment. The influence of a 0.4 Tesla ring magnet on flow into and out of a subscale Plexiglas tank is being recorded on video tape. The most efficient approach to evaluating the feasibility of MAPO is to compliment the experimental program with development of a computational tool to model the process of interest. The goal of the present research is to develop such a tool. Once confidence in its fidelity is established by comparison to data from the MAPO experiment, it can be used to assist in the design of future experiments and to study the parameter space of the process. Ultimately, it is hoped that the computational model can serve as a design tool for full-scale spacecraft applications.

  15. Computational Approaches to Spatial Orientation: From Transfer Functions to Dynamic Bayesian Inference

    PubMed Central

    MacNeilage, Paul R.; Ganesan, Narayan; Angelaki, Dora E.

    2008-01-01

    Spatial orientation is the sense of body orientation and self-motion relative to the stationary environment, fundamental to normal waking behavior and control of everyday motor actions including eye movements, postural control, and locomotion. The brain achieves spatial orientation by integrating visual, vestibular, and somatosensory signals. Over the past years, considerable progress has been made toward understanding how these signals are processed by the brain using multiple computational approaches that include frequency domain analysis, the concept of internal models, observer theory, Bayesian theory, and Kalman filtering. Here we put these approaches in context by examining the specific questions that can be addressed by each technique and some of the scientific insights that have resulted. We conclude with a recent application of particle filtering, a probabilistic simulation technique that aims to generate the most likely state estimates by incorporating internal models of sensor dynamics and physical laws and noise associated with sensory processing as well as prior knowledge or experience. In this framework, priors for low angular velocity and linear acceleration can explain the phenomena of velocity storage and frequency segregation, both of which have been modeled previously using arbitrary low-pass filtering. How Kalman and particle filters may be implemented by the brain is an emerging field. Unlike past neurophysiological research that has aimed to characterize mean responses of single neurons, investigations of dynamic Bayesian inference should attempt to characterize population activities that constitute probabilistic representations of sensory and prior information. PMID:18842952

  16. Assigning Main Orientation to an EOH Descriptor on Multispectral Images.

    PubMed

    Li, Yong; Shi, Xiang; Wei, Lijun; Zou, Junwei; Chen, Fang

    2015-07-01

    This paper proposes an approach to compute an EOH (edge-oriented histogram) descriptor with main orientation. EOH has a better matching ability than SIFT (scale-invariant feature transform) on multispectral images, but does not assign a main orientation to keypoints. Alternatively, it tends to assign the same main orientation to every keypoint, e.g., zero degrees. This limits EOH to matching keypoints between images of translation misalignment only. Observing this limitation, we propose assigning to keypoints the main orientation that is computed with PIIFD (partial intensity invariant feature descriptor). In the proposed method, SIFT keypoints are detected from images as the extrema of difference of Gaussians, and every keypoint is assigned to the main orientation computed with PIIFD. Then, EOH is computed for every keypoint with respect to its main orientation. In addition, an implementation variant is proposed for fast computation of the EOH descriptor. Experimental results show that the proposed approach performs more robustly than the original EOH on image pairs that have a rotation misalignment.

  17. Application of Real-World Problems in Computer Science Education: Teachers' Beliefs, Motivational Orientations and Practices

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ferreira, Deller James; Ambrósio, Ana Paula Laboissière; Melo, Tatiane F. N.

    2018-01-01

    This article describes how it is due to the fact that computer science is present in many activities of daily life, students need to develop skills to solve problems to improve the lives of people in general. This article investigates correlations between teachers' motivational orientations, beliefs and practices with respect to the application of…

  18. Spin-neurons: A possible path to energy-efficient neuromorphic computers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sharad, Mrigank; Fan, Deliang; Roy, Kaushik

    2013-12-01

    Recent years have witnessed growing interest in the field of brain-inspired computing based on neural-network architectures. In order to translate the related algorithmic models into powerful, yet energy-efficient cognitive-computing hardware, computing-devices beyond CMOS may need to be explored. The suitability of such devices to this field of computing would strongly depend upon how closely their physical characteristics match with the essential computing primitives employed in such models. In this work, we discuss the rationale of applying emerging spin-torque devices for bio-inspired computing. Recent spin-torque experiments have shown the path to low-current, low-voltage, and high-speed magnetization switching in nano-scale magnetic devices. Such magneto-metallic, current-mode spin-torque switches can mimic the analog summing and "thresholding" operation of an artificial neuron with high energy-efficiency. Comparison with CMOS-based analog circuit-model of a neuron shows that "spin-neurons" (spin based circuit model of neurons) can achieve more than two orders of magnitude lower energy and beyond three orders of magnitude reduction in energy-delay product. The application of spin-neurons can therefore be an attractive option for neuromorphic computers of future.

  19. Energy Use and Power Levels in New Monitors and Personal Computers

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

    Roberson, Judy A.; Homan, Gregory K.; Mahajan, Akshay

    2002-07-23

    Our research was conducted in support of the EPA ENERGY STAR Office Equipment program, whose goal is to reduce the amount of electricity consumed by office equipment in the U.S. The most energy-efficient models in each office equipment category are eligible for the ENERGY STAR label, which consumers can use to identify and select efficient products. As the efficiency of each category improves over time, the ENERGY STAR criteria need to be revised accordingly. The purpose of this study was to provide reliable data on the energy consumption of the newest personal computers and monitors that the EPA can usemore » to evaluate revisions to current ENERGY STAR criteria as well as to improve the accuracy of ENERGY STAR program savings estimates. We report the results of measuring the power consumption and power management capabilities of a sample of new monitors and computers. These results will be used to improve estimates of program energy savings and carbon emission reductions, and to inform rev isions of the ENERGY STAR criteria for these products. Our sample consists of 35 monitors and 26 computers manufactured between July 2000 and October 2001; it includes cathode ray tube (CRT) and liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, Macintosh and Intel-architecture computers, desktop and laptop computers, and integrated computer systems, in which power consumption of the computer and monitor cannot be measured separately. For each machine we measured power consumption when off, on, and in each low-power level. We identify trends in and opportunities to reduce power consumption in new personal computers and monitors. Our results include a trend among monitor manufacturers to provide a single very low low-power level, well below the current ENERGY STAR criteria for sleep power consumption. These very low sleep power results mean that energy consumed when monitors are off or in active use has become more important in terms of contribution to the overall unit energy consumption

  20. Computational study on the interactions and orientation of monoclonal human immunoglobulin G on a polystyrene surface

    PubMed Central

    Javkhlantugs, Namsrai; Bayar, Hexig; Ganzorig, Chimed; Ueda, Kazuyoshi

    2013-01-01

    Having a theoretical understanding of the orientation of immunoglobulin on an immobilized solid surface is important in biomedical pathogen-detecting systems and cellular analysis. Despite the stable adsorption of immunoglobulin on a polystyrene (PS) surface that has been applied in many kinds of immunoassays, there are many uncertainties in antibody-based clinical and biological experimental methods. To understand the binding mechanism and physicochemical interactions between immunoglobulin and the PS surface at the atomic level, we investigated the binding behavior and interactions of the monoclonal immunoglobulin G (IgG) on the PS surface using the computational method. In our docking simulation with the different arrangement of translational and rotational orientation of IgG onto the PS surface, three typical orientation patterns of the immunoglobulin G on the PS surface were found. We precisely analyzed these orientation patterns and clarified how the immunoglobulin G interacts with the PS surface at atomic scale in the beginning of the adsorption process. Major driving forces for the adsorption of IgG onto the PS surface come from serine (Ser), aspartic acid (Asp), and glutamic acid (Glu) residues. PMID:23874096

  1. Analytic computation of average energy of neutrons inducing fission

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

    Clark, Alexander Rich

    2016-08-12

    The objective of this report is to describe how I analytically computed the average energy of neutrons that induce fission in the bare BeRP ball. The motivation of this report is to resolve a discrepancy between the average energy computed via the FMULT and F4/FM cards in MCNP6 by comparison to the analytic results.

  2. Spin-neurons: A possible path to energy-efficient neuromorphic computers

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

    Sharad, Mrigank; Fan, Deliang; Roy, Kaushik

    Recent years have witnessed growing interest in the field of brain-inspired computing based on neural-network architectures. In order to translate the related algorithmic models into powerful, yet energy-efficient cognitive-computing hardware, computing-devices beyond CMOS may need to be explored. The suitability of such devices to this field of computing would strongly depend upon how closely their physical characteristics match with the essential computing primitives employed in such models. In this work, we discuss the rationale of applying emerging spin-torque devices for bio-inspired computing. Recent spin-torque experiments have shown the path to low-current, low-voltage, and high-speed magnetization switching in nano-scale magnetic devices.more » Such magneto-metallic, current-mode spin-torque switches can mimic the analog summing and “thresholding” operation of an artificial neuron with high energy-efficiency. Comparison with CMOS-based analog circuit-model of a neuron shows that “spin-neurons” (spin based circuit model of neurons) can achieve more than two orders of magnitude lower energy and beyond three orders of magnitude reduction in energy-delay product. The application of spin-neurons can therefore be an attractive option for neuromorphic computers of future.« less

  3. Computed Potential Energy Surfaces and Minimum Energy Pathway for Chemical Reactions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Walch, Stephen P.; Langhoff, S. R. (Technical Monitor)

    1994-01-01

    Computed potential energy surfaces are often required for computation of such observables as rate constants as a function of temperature, product branching ratios, and other detailed properties. We have found that computation of the stationary points/reaction pathways using CASSCF/derivative methods, followed by use of the internally contracted CI method with the Dunning correlation consistent basis sets to obtain accurate energetics, gives useful results for a number of chemically important systems. Applications to complex reactions leading to NO and soot formation in hydrocarbon combustion are discussed.

  4. A Learning Framework for Control-Oriented Modeling of Buildings

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

    Rubio-Herrero, Javier; Chandan, Vikas; Siegel, Charles M.

    Buildings consume a significant amount of energy worldwide. Several building optimization and control use cases require models of energy consumption which are control oriented, have high predictive capability, imposes minimal data pre-processing requirements, and have the ability to be adapted continuously to account for changing conditions as new data becomes available. Data driven modeling techniques, that have been investigated so far, while promising in the context of buildings, have been unable to simultaneously satisfy all the requirements mentioned above. In this context, deep learning techniques such as Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) hold promise, empowered by advanced computational capabilities and bigmore » data opportunities. In this paper, we propose a deep learning based methodology for the development of control oriented models for building energy management and test in on data from a real building. Results show that the proposed methodology outperforms other data driven modeling techniques significantly. We perform a detailed analysis of the proposed methodology along dimensions such as topology, sensitivity, and downsampling. Lastly, we conclude by envisioning a building analytics suite empowered by the proposed deep framework, that can drive several use cases related to building energy management.« less

  5. Effect of residual stress on energy storage property in PbZrO3 antiferroelectric thin films with different orientations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ge, Jun; Remiens, Denis; Costecalde, Jean; Chen, Ying; Dong, Xianlin; Wang, Genshui

    2013-10-01

    The effect of residual stress on energy storage property was investigated for a series of PbZrO3 thin films on SrTiO3 and Si substrates. Compressive or tensile residual stress influences the critical electric field EA for the ferroelectric-to-antiferroelectric phase transition, thus for films with (110)/(101) orientation, energy density W of films on SrTiO3 is 38% larger than films on Si; in contrast, (001)-oriented PbZrO3 films on SrTiO3 show slightly smaller W compared to films on Si. We conclude that the different responses of W to stress are related to the different constrain states in films with different orientations.

  6. Energy--What to Do until the Computer Comes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnston, Archie B.

    Drawing from Tallahassee Community College's (TCC's) experiences with energy conservation, this paper offers suggestions for reducing energy costs through computer-controlled systems and other means. After stating the energy problems caused by TCC's multi-zone heating and cooling system, the paper discusses the five-step process by which TCC…

  7. Predicting helix orientation for coiled-coil dimers

    PubMed Central

    Apgar, James R.; Gutwin, Karl N.; Keating, Amy E.

    2008-01-01

    The alpha-helical coiled coil is a structurally simple protein oligomerization or interaction motif consisting of two or more alpha helices twisted into a supercoiled bundle. Coiled coils can differ in their stoichiometry, helix orientation and axial alignment. Because of the near degeneracy of many of these variants, coiled coils pose a challenge to fold recognition methods for structure prediction. Whereas distinctions between some protein folds can be discriminated on the basis of hydrophobic/polar patterning or secondary structure propensities, the sequence differences that encode important details of coiled-coil structure can be subtle. This is emblematic of a larger problem in the field of protein structure and interaction prediction: that of establishing specificity between closely similar structures. We tested the behavior of different computational models on the problem of recognizing the correct orientation - parallel vs. antiparallel - of pairs of alpha helices that can form a dimeric coiled coil. For each of 131 examples of known structure, we constructed a large number of both parallel and antiparallel structural models and used these to asses the ability of five energy functions to recognize the correct fold. We also developed and tested three sequenced-based approaches that make use of varying degrees of implicit structural information. The best structural methods performed similarly to the best sequence methods, correctly categorizing ∼81% of dimers. Steric compatibility with the fold was important for some coiled coils we investigated. For many examples, the correct orientation was determined by smaller energy differences between parallel and antiparallel structures distributed over many residues and energy components. Prediction methods that used structure but incorporated varying approximations and assumptions showed quite different behaviors when used to investigate energetic contributions to orientation preference. Sequence based methods were

  8. Sink-oriented Dynamic Location Service Protocol for Mobile Sinks with an Energy Efficient Grid-Based Approach.

    PubMed

    Jeon, Hyeonjae; Park, Kwangjin; Hwang, Dae-Joon; Choo, Hyunseung

    2009-01-01

    Sensor nodes transmit the sensed information to the sink through wireless sensor networks (WSNs). They have limited power, computational capacities and memory. Portable wireless devices are increasing in popularity. Mechanisms that allow information to be efficiently obtained through mobile WSNs are of significant interest. However, a mobile sink introduces many challenges to data dissemination in large WSNs. For example, it is important to efficiently identify the locations of mobile sinks and disseminate information from multi-source nodes to the multi-mobile sinks. In particular, a stationary dissemination path may no longer be effective in mobile sink applications, due to sink mobility. In this paper, we propose a Sink-oriented Dynamic Location Service (SDLS) approach to handle sink mobility. In SDLS, we propose an Eight-Direction Anchor (EDA) system that acts as a location service server. EDA prevents intensive energy consumption at the border sensor nodes and thus provides energy balancing to all the sensor nodes. Then we propose a Location-based Shortest Relay (LSR) that efficiently forwards (or relays) data from a source node to a sink with minimal delay path. Our results demonstrate that SDLS not only provides an efficient and scalable location service, but also reduces the average data communication overhead in scenarios with multiple and moving sinks and sources.

  9. Evaluating Computer-Generated Domain-Oriented Vocabularies.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Damerau, Fred J.

    1990-01-01

    Discusses methods for automatically compiling domain-oriented vocabularies in natural language systems and describes techniques for evaluating the quality of the resulting word lists. A study is described that used subject headings from Grolier's Encyclopedia and the United Press International newswire, and filters for removing high frequency…

  10. 10 CFR 434.511 - Orientation and shape.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Orientation and shape. 434.511 Section 434.511 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ENERGY CONSERVATION ENERGY CODE FOR NEW FEDERAL COMMERCIAL AND MULTI-FAMILY HIGH RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS Building Energy Cost Compliance Alternative § 434.511 Orientation and shape. 511.1 The...

  11. 10 CFR 434.511 - Orientation and shape.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Orientation and shape. 434.511 Section 434.511 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ENERGY CONSERVATION ENERGY CODE FOR NEW FEDERAL COMMERCIAL AND MULTI-FAMILY HIGH RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS Building Energy Cost Compliance Alternative § 434.511 Orientation and shape. 511.1The...

  12. 10 CFR 434.511 - Orientation and shape.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Orientation and shape. 434.511 Section 434.511 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ENERGY CONSERVATION ENERGY CODE FOR NEW FEDERAL COMMERCIAL AND MULTI-FAMILY HIGH RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS Building Energy Cost Compliance Alternative § 434.511 Orientation and shape. 511.1The...

  13. 10 CFR 434.511 - Orientation and shape.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Orientation and shape. 434.511 Section 434.511 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ENERGY CONSERVATION ENERGY CODE FOR NEW FEDERAL COMMERCIAL AND MULTI-FAMILY HIGH RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS Building Energy Cost Compliance Alternative § 434.511 Orientation and shape. 511.1The...

  14. Terminal-oriented computer-communication networks.

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schwartz, M.; Boorstyn, R. R.; Pickholtz, R. L.

    1972-01-01

    Four examples of currently operating computer-communication networks are described in this tutorial paper. They include the TYMNET network, the GE Information Services network, the NASDAQ over-the-counter stock-quotation system, and the Computer Sciences Infonet. These networks all use programmable concentrators for combining a multiplicity of terminals. Included in the discussion for each network is a description of the overall network structure, the handling and transmission of messages, communication requirements, routing and reliability consideration where applicable, operating data and design specifications where available, and unique design features in the area of computer communications.

  15. Energy level alignment at planar organic heterojunctions: influence of contact doping and molecular orientation.

    PubMed

    Opitz, Andreas

    2017-04-05

    Planar organic heterojunctions are widely used in photovoltaic cells, light-emitting diodes, and bilayer field-effect transistors. The energy level alignment in the devices plays an important role in obtaining the aspired gap arrangement. Additionally, the π-orbital overlap between the involved molecules defines e.g. the charge-separation efficiency in solar cells due to charge-transfer effects. To account for both aspects, direct/inverse photoemission spectroscopy and near edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy were used to determine the energy level landscape and the molecular orientation at prototypical planar organic heterojunctions. The combined experimental approach results in a comprehensive model for the electronic and morphological characteristics of the interface between the two investigated molecular semiconductors. Following an introduction on heterojunctions used in devices and on energy levels of organic materials, the energy level alignment of planar organic heterojunctions will be discussed. The observed energy landscape is always determined by the individual arrangement between the energy levels of the molecules and the work function of the electrode. This might result in contact doping due to Fermi level pinning at the electrode for donor/acceptor heterojunctions, which also improves the solar cell efficiency. This pinning behaviour can be observed across an unpinned interlayer and results in charge accumulation at the donor/acceptor interface, depending on the transport levels of the respective organic semiconductors. Moreover, molecular orientation will affect the energy levels because of the anisotropy in ionisation energy and electron affinity and is influenced by the structural compatibility of the involved molecules at the heterojunction. High structural compatibility leads to π-orbital stacking between different molecules at a heterojunction, which is of additional interest for photovoltaic active interfaces and for ground

  16. Simulated quantum computation of molecular energies.

    PubMed

    Aspuru-Guzik, Alán; Dutoi, Anthony D; Love, Peter J; Head-Gordon, Martin

    2005-09-09

    The calculation time for the energy of atoms and molecules scales exponentially with system size on a classical computer but polynomially using quantum algorithms. We demonstrate that such algorithms can be applied to problems of chemical interest using modest numbers of quantum bits. Calculations of the water and lithium hydride molecular ground-state energies have been carried out on a quantum computer simulator using a recursive phase-estimation algorithm. The recursive algorithm reduces the number of quantum bits required for the readout register from about 20 to 4. Mappings of the molecular wave function to the quantum bits are described. An adiabatic method for the preparation of a good approximate ground-state wave function is described and demonstrated for a stretched hydrogen molecule. The number of quantum bits required scales linearly with the number of basis functions, and the number of gates required grows polynomially with the number of quantum bits.

  17. Working with Computers: Computer Orientation for Foreign Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barlow, Michael

    Designed as a resource for foreign students, this book includes instructions not only on how to use computers, but also on how to use them to complete academic work more efficiently. Part I introduces the basic operations of mainframes and microcomputers and the major areas of computing, i.e., file management, editing, communications, databases,…

  18. Energy efficient hybrid computing systems using spin devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sharad, Mrigank

    Emerging spin-devices like magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ's), spin-valves and domain wall magnets (DWM) have opened new avenues for spin-based logic design. This work explored potential computing applications which can exploit such devices for higher energy-efficiency and performance. The proposed applications involve hybrid design schemes, where charge-based devices supplement the spin-devices, to gain large benefits at the system level. As an example, lateral spin valves (LSV) involve switching of nanomagnets using spin-polarized current injection through a metallic channel such as Cu. Such spin-torque based devices possess several interesting properties that can be exploited for ultra-low power computation. Analog characteristic of spin current facilitate non-Boolean computation like majority evaluation that can be used to model a neuron. The magneto-metallic neurons can operate at ultra-low terminal voltage of ˜20mV, thereby resulting in small computation power. Moreover, since nano-magnets inherently act as memory elements, these devices can facilitate integration of logic and memory in interesting ways. The spin based neurons can be integrated with CMOS and other emerging devices leading to different classes of neuromorphic/non-Von-Neumann architectures. The spin-based designs involve `mixed-mode' processing and hence can provide very compact and ultra-low energy solutions for complex computation blocks, both digital as well as analog. Such low-power, hybrid designs can be suitable for various data processing applications like cognitive computing, associative memory, and currentmode on-chip global interconnects. Simulation results for these applications based on device-circuit co-simulation framework predict more than ˜100x improvement in computation energy as compared to state of the art CMOS design, for optimal spin-device parameters.

  19. Parallel Computing:. Some Activities in High Energy Physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Willers, Ian

    This paper examines some activities in High Energy Physics that utilise parallel computing. The topic includes all computing from the proposed SIMD front end detectors, the farming applications, high-powered RISC processors and the large machines in the computer centers. We start by looking at the motivation behind using parallelism for general purpose computing. The developments around farming are then described from its simplest form to the more complex system in Fermilab. Finally, there is a list of some developments that are happening close to the experiments.

  20. The effects of collision orientation and energy dependence in multinucleon transfer reactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Jingjing; Li, Cheng; Wen, Peiwei; Zhang, Feng-Shou

    2018-05-01

    Multinucleon transfer (MNT) reaction 136Xe+208Pb near Coulomb barrier energies are investigated within the dinuclear system (DNS) model. It is found that the collision orientation has an important influence on the mass distributions attributed to the depth of pocket in the driving potential. The calculation results of the isotopic production show that the energy dependence in neutron-deficient side is more sensitive than that in neutron-rich side. The production of the N = 126 isotones are calculated by GRAZING model, DNS+GEMINI model, and ImQMD+GEMINI model, respectively. It demonstrates that MNT reaction is a promising way to produce neutron-rich isotopes in the region of the neutron shell closure N = 126.

  1. Advanced computational simulations of water waves interacting with wave energy converters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pathak, Ashish; Freniere, Cole; Raessi, Mehdi

    2017-03-01

    Wave energy converter (WEC) devices harness the renewable ocean wave energy and convert it into useful forms of energy, e.g. mechanical or electrical. This paper presents an advanced 3D computational framework to study the interaction between water waves and WEC devices. The computational tool solves the full Navier-Stokes equations and considers all important effects impacting the device performance. To enable large-scale simulations in fast turnaround times, the computational solver was developed in an MPI parallel framework. A fast multigrid preconditioned solver is introduced to solve the computationally expensive pressure Poisson equation. The computational solver was applied to two surface-piercing WEC geometries: bottom-hinged cylinder and flap. Their numerically simulated response was validated against experimental data. Additional simulations were conducted to investigate the applicability of Froude scaling in predicting full-scale WEC response from the model experiments.

  2. Orientation-modulated attention effect on visual evoked potential: Application for PIN system using brain-computer interface.

    PubMed

    Wilaiprasitporn, Theerawit; Yagi, Tohru

    2015-01-01

    This research demonstrates the orientation-modulated attention effect on visual evoked potential. We combined this finding with our previous findings about the motion-modulated attention effect and used the result to develop novel visual stimuli for a personal identification number (PIN) application based on a brain-computer interface (BCI) framework. An electroencephalography amplifier with a single electrode channel was sufficient for our application. A computationally inexpensive algorithm and small datasets were used in processing. Seven healthy volunteers participated in experiments to measure offline performance. Mean accuracy was 83.3% at 13.9 bits/min. Encouraged by these results, we plan to continue developing the BCI-based personal identification application toward real-time systems.

  3. Laminar and orientation-dependent characteristics of spatial nonlinearities: implications for the computational architecture of visual cortex.

    PubMed

    Victor, Jonathan D; Mechler, Ferenc; Ohiorhenuan, Ifije; Schmid, Anita M; Purpura, Keith P

    2009-12-01

    A full understanding of the computations performed in primary visual cortex is an important yet elusive goal. Receptive field models consisting of cascades of linear filters and static nonlinearities may be adequate to account for responses to simple stimuli such as gratings and random checkerboards, but their predictions of responses to complex stimuli such as natural scenes are only approximately correct. It is unclear whether these discrepancies are limited to quantitative inaccuracies that reflect well-recognized mechanisms such as response normalization, gain controls, and cross-orientation suppression or, alternatively, imply additional qualitative features of the underlying computations. To address this question, we examined responses of V1 and V2 neurons in the monkey and area 17 neurons in the cat to two-dimensional Hermite functions (TDHs). TDHs are intermediate in complexity between traditional analytic stimuli and natural scenes and have mathematical properties that facilitate their use to test candidate models. By exploiting these properties, along with the laminar organization of V1, we identify qualitative aspects of neural computations beyond those anticipated from the above-cited model framework. Specifically, we find that V1 neurons receive signals from orientation-selective mechanisms that are highly nonlinear: they are sensitive to phase correlations, not just spatial frequency content. That is, the behavior of V1 neurons departs from that of linear-nonlinear cascades with standard modulatory mechanisms in a qualitative manner: even relatively simple stimuli evoke responses that imply complex spatial nonlinearities. The presence of these findings in the input layers suggests that these nonlinearities act in a feedback fashion.

  4. Developing an orientation program.

    PubMed

    Edwards, K

    1999-01-01

    When the local area experienced tremendous growth and change, the radiology department at Maury Hospital in Columbia, Tennessee looked seriously at its orientation process in preparation for hiring additional personnel. It was an appropriate time for the department to review its orientation process and to develop a manual to serve as both a tool for supervisors and an ongoing reference for new employees. To gather information for the manual, supervisors were asked to identify information they considered vital for new employees to know concerning the daily operations of the department, its policies and procedures, the organizational structure of the hospital, and hospital and departmental computer systems. That information became the basis of the orientation manual, and provided an introduction to the hospital and radiology department; the structure of the organization; an overview of the radiology department; personnel information; operating procedures and computer systems; and various policies and procedures. With the manual complete, the radiology department concentrated on an orientation process that would meet the needs of supervisors who said they had trouble remembering the many details necessary to teach new employees. A pre-orientation checklist was developed, which contained the many details supervisors must handle between the time an employee is hired and arrives for work. The next step was the creation of a checklist for use by the supervisor during a new employee's first week on the job. A final step in the hospital's orientation program is to have each new employee evaluate the entire orientation process. That information is then used to update and revise the manual.

  5. Computed potential energy surfaces for chemical reactions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Walch, Stephen P.

    1994-01-01

    Quantum mechanical methods have been used to compute potential energy surfaces for chemical reactions. The reactions studied were among those believed to be important to the NASP and HSR programs and included the recombination of two H atoms with several different third bodies; the reactions in the thermal Zeldovich mechanism; the reactions of H atom with O2, N2, and NO; reactions involved in the thermal De-NO(x) process; and the reaction of CH(squared Pi) with N2 (leading to 'prompt NO'). These potential energy surfaces have been used to compute reaction rate constants and rates of unimolecular decomposition. An additional application was the calculation of transport properties of gases using a semiclassical approximation (and in the case of interactions involving hydrogen inclusion of quantum mechanical effects).

  6. Non-Boolean computing with nanomagnets for computer vision applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bhanja, Sanjukta; Karunaratne, D. K.; Panchumarthy, Ravi; Rajaram, Srinath; Sarkar, Sudeep

    2016-02-01

    The field of nanomagnetism has recently attracted tremendous attention as it can potentially deliver low-power, high-speed and dense non-volatile memories. It is now possible to engineer the size, shape, spacing, orientation and composition of sub-100 nm magnetic structures. This has spurred the exploration of nanomagnets for unconventional computing paradigms. Here, we harness the energy-minimization nature of nanomagnetic systems to solve the quadratic optimization problems that arise in computer vision applications, which are computationally expensive. By exploiting the magnetization states of nanomagnetic disks as state representations of a vortex and single domain, we develop a magnetic Hamiltonian and implement it in a magnetic system that can identify the salient features of a given image with more than 85% true positive rate. These results show the potential of this alternative computing method to develop a magnetic coprocessor that might solve complex problems in fewer clock cycles than traditional processors.

  7. Object-Oriented Modeling of an Energy Harvesting System Based on Thermoelectric Generators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nesarajah, Marco; Frey, Georg

    This paper deals with the modeling of an energy harvesting system based on thermoelectric generators (TEG), and the validation of the model by means of a test bench. TEGs are capable to improve the overall energy efficiency of energy systems, e.g. combustion engines or heating systems, by using the remaining waste heat to generate electrical power. Previously, a component-oriented model of the TEG itself was developed in Modelica® language. With this model any TEG can be described and simulated given the material properties and the physical dimension. Now, this model was extended by the surrounding components to a complete model of a thermoelectric energy harvesting system. In addition to the TEG, the model contains the cooling system, the heat source, and the power electronics. To validate the simulation model, a test bench was built and installed on an oil-fired household heating system. The paper reports results of the measurements and discusses the validity of the developed simulation models. Furthermore, the efficiency of the proposed energy harvesting system is derived and possible improvements based on design variations tested in the simulation model are proposed.

  8. Evaluation of the large scale computing needs of the energy research program and how to meet them. Final report

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

    Miller, B.

    The Energy Research program may be on the verge of abdicating an important role it has traditionally played in the development and use of state-of-the-art computer systems. The lack of easy access to Class VI systems coupled to the easy availability of local, user-friendly systems is conspiring to drive many investigators away from forefront research in computational science and in the use of state-of-the-art computers for more discipline-oriented problem solving. The survey conducted under the auspices of this contract clearly demonstrates a significant suppressed demand for actual Class VI hours totaling the full capacity of one such system. The currentmore » usage is about a factor of 15 below this level. There is also a need for about 50% more capacity in the current mini/midi availability. Meeting the needs of the ER community for this level of computing power and capacity is most probably best achieved through the establishment of a central Class VI capability at some site linked through a nationwide network to the various ER laboratories and universities and interfaced with the local user-friendly systems at those remote sites.« less

  9. Groucho: An Energy Conservation Computer Game.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Canipe, Stephen L.

    Groucho is a computer game designed to teach energy conservation concepts to upper elementary and junior high school students. The game is written in Applesoft Basic for the Apple II microcomputer. A complete listing of the program is provided. The game utilizes low resolution graphics to reward students for correct answers to 10 questions…

  10. A ferrofluid based energy harvester: Computational modeling, analysis, and experimental validation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Qi; Alazemi, Saad F.; Daqaq, Mohammed F.; Li, Gang

    2018-03-01

    A computational model is described and implemented in this work to analyze the performance of a ferrofluid based electromagnetic energy harvester. The energy harvester converts ambient vibratory energy into an electromotive force through a sloshing motion of a ferrofluid. The computational model solves the coupled Maxwell's equations and Navier-Stokes equations for the dynamic behavior of the magnetic field and fluid motion. The model is validated against experimental results for eight different configurations of the system. The validated model is then employed to study the underlying mechanisms that determine the electromotive force of the energy harvester. Furthermore, computational analysis is performed to test the effect of several modeling aspects, such as three-dimensional effect, surface tension, and type of the ferrofluid-magnetic field coupling on the accuracy of the model prediction.

  11. Recovery Act - CAREER: Sustainable Silicon -- Energy-Efficient VLSI Interconnect for Extreme-Scale Computing

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

    Chiang, Patrick

    2014-01-31

    The research goal of this CAREER proposal is to develop energy-efficient, VLSI interconnect circuits and systems that will facilitate future massively-parallel, high-performance computing. Extreme-scale computing will exhibit massive parallelism on multiple vertical levels, from thou­ sands of computational units on a single processor to thousands of processors in a single data center. Unfortunately, the energy required to communicate between these units at every level (on­ chip, off-chip, off-rack) will be the critical limitation to energy efficiency. Therefore, the PI's career goal is to become a leading researcher in the design of energy-efficient VLSI interconnect for future computing systems.

  12. Quantification of Energy Release in Composite Structures

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Minnetyan, Levon

    2003-01-01

    Energy release rate is usually suggested as a quantifier for assessing structural damage tolerance. Computational prediction of energy release rate is based on composite mechanics with micro-stress level damage assessment, finite element structural analysis and damage progression tracking modules. This report examines several issues associated with energy release rates in composite structures as follows: Chapter I demonstrates computational simulation of an adhesively bonded composite joint and validates the computed energy release rates by comparison with acoustic emission signals in the overall sense. Chapter II investigates the effect of crack plane orientation with respect to fiber direction on the energy release rates. Chapter III quantifies the effects of contiguous constraint plies on the residual stiffness of a 90 ply subjected to transverse tensile fractures. Chapter IV compares ICAN and ICAN/JAVA solutions of composites. Chapter V examines the effects of composite structural geometry and boundary conditions on damage progression characteristics.

  13. Quantification of Energy Release in Composite Structures

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Minnetyan, Levon; Chamis, Christos C. (Technical Monitor)

    2003-01-01

    Energy release rate is usually suggested as a quantifier for assessing structural damage tolerance. Computational prediction of energy release rate is based on composite mechanics with micro-stress level damage assessment, finite element structural analysis and damage progression tracking modules. This report examines several issues associated with energy release rates in composite structures as follows: Chapter I demonstrates computational simulation of an adhesively bonded composite joint and validates the computed energy release rates by comparison with acoustic emission signals in the overall sense. Chapter II investigates the effect of crack plane orientation with respect to fiber direction on the energy release rates. Chapter III quantifies the effects of contiguous constraint plies on the residual stiffness of a 90 deg ply subjected to transverse tensile fractures. Chapter IV compares ICAN and ICAN/JAVA solutions of composites. Chapter V examines the effects of composite structural geometry and boundary conditions on damage progression characteristics.

  14. Convolutional networks for fast, energy-efficient neuromorphic computing.

    PubMed

    Esser, Steven K; Merolla, Paul A; Arthur, John V; Cassidy, Andrew S; Appuswamy, Rathinakumar; Andreopoulos, Alexander; Berg, David J; McKinstry, Jeffrey L; Melano, Timothy; Barch, Davis R; di Nolfo, Carmelo; Datta, Pallab; Amir, Arnon; Taba, Brian; Flickner, Myron D; Modha, Dharmendra S

    2016-10-11

    Deep networks are now able to achieve human-level performance on a broad spectrum of recognition tasks. Independently, neuromorphic computing has now demonstrated unprecedented energy-efficiency through a new chip architecture based on spiking neurons, low precision synapses, and a scalable communication network. Here, we demonstrate that neuromorphic computing, despite its novel architectural primitives, can implement deep convolution networks that (i) approach state-of-the-art classification accuracy across eight standard datasets encompassing vision and speech, (ii) perform inference while preserving the hardware's underlying energy-efficiency and high throughput, running on the aforementioned datasets at between 1,200 and 2,600 frames/s and using between 25 and 275 mW (effectively >6,000 frames/s per Watt), and (iii) can be specified and trained using backpropagation with the same ease-of-use as contemporary deep learning. This approach allows the algorithmic power of deep learning to be merged with the efficiency of neuromorphic processors, bringing the promise of embedded, intelligent, brain-inspired computing one step closer.

  15. Control of Rotational Energy and Angular Momentum Orientation with an Optical Centrifuge

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ogden, Hannah M.; Murray, Matthew J.; Mullin, Amy S.

    2017-04-01

    We use an optical centrifuge to trap and spin molecules to an angular frequency of 30 THz with oriented angular momenta and extremely high rotational energy and then investigate their subsequent collision dynamics with transient high resolution IR spectroscopy. The optical centrifuge is formed by combining oppositely-chirped pulses of 800 nm light, and overlapping them spatially and temporally. Polarization-sensitive Doppler-broadened line profiles characterize the anisotropic kinetic energy release of the super rotor molecules, showing that they behave like molecular gyroscopes. Studies are reported for collisions of CO2 super rotors with CO2, He and Ar. These studies reveal how mass, velocity and rotational adiabaticity impact the angular momentum relaxation and reorientation. Quantum scattering calculations provide insight into the J-specific collision cross sections that control the relaxation. NSF-CHE 105 8721.

  16. Orientation selective deep brain stimulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lehto, Lauri J.; Slopsema, Julia P.; Johnson, Matthew D.; Shatillo, Artem; Teplitzky, Benjamin A.; Utecht, Lynn; Adriany, Gregor; Mangia, Silvia; Sierra, Alejandra; Low, Walter C.; Gröhn, Olli; Michaeli, Shalom

    2017-02-01

    Objective. Target selectivity of deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy is critical, as the precise locus and pattern of the stimulation dictates the degree to which desired treatment responses are achieved and adverse side effects are avoided. There is a clear clinical need to improve DBS technology beyond currently available stimulation steering and shaping approaches. We introduce orientation selective neural stimulation as a concept to increase the specificity of target selection in DBS. Approach. This concept, which involves orienting the electric field along an axonal pathway, was tested in the corpus callosum of the rat brain by freely controlling the direction of the electric field on a plane using a three-electrode bundle, and monitoring the response of the neurons using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Computational models were developed to further analyze axonal excitability for varied electric field orientation. Main results. Our results demonstrated that the strongest fMRI response was observed when the electric field was oriented parallel to the axons, while almost no response was detected with the perpendicular orientation of the electric field relative to the primary fiber tract. These results were confirmed by computational models of the experimental paradigm quantifying the activation of radially distributed axons while varying the primary direction of the electric field. Significance. The described strategies identify a new course for selective neuromodulation paradigms in DBS based on axonal fiber orientation.

  17. Highly Oriented Graphene Sponge Electrode for Ultra High Energy Density Lithium Ion Hybrid Capacitors.

    PubMed

    Ahn, Wook; Lee, Dong Un; Li, Ge; Feng, Kun; Wang, Xiaolei; Yu, Aiping; Lui, Gregory; Chen, Zhongwei

    2016-09-28

    Highly oriented rGO sponge (HOG) can be easily synthesized as an effective anode for application in high-capacity lithium ion hybrid capacitors. X-ray diffraction and morphological analyses show that successfully exfoliated rGO sponge on average consists of 4.2 graphene sheets, maintaining its three-dimensional structure with highly oriented morphology even after the thermal reduction procedure. Lithium-ion hybrid capacitors (LIC) are fabricated in this study based on a unique cell configuration which completely eliminates the predoping process of lithium ions. The full-cell LIC consisting of AC/HOG-Li configuration has resulted in remarkably high energy densities of 231.7 and 131.9 Wh kg(-1) obtained at 57 W kg(-1) and 2.8 kW kg(-1). This excellent performance is attributed to the lithium ion diffusivity related to the intercalation reaction of AC/HOG-Li which is 3.6 times higher that of AC/CG-Li. This unique cell design and configuration of LIC presented in this study using HOG as an effective anode is an unprecedented example of performance enhancement and improved energy density of LIC through successful increase in cell operation voltage window.

  18. Piezoelectric energy harvesting computer controlled test bench

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vázquez-Rodriguez, M.; Jiménez, F. J.; de Frutos, J.; Alonso, D.

    2016-09-01

    In this paper a new computer controlled (C.C.) laboratory test bench is presented. The patented test bench is made up of a C.C. road traffic simulator, C.C. electronic hardware involved in automating measurements, and test bench control software interface programmed in LabVIEW™. Our research is focused on characterizing electronic energy harvesting piezoelectric-based elements in road traffic environments to extract (or "harvest") maximum power. In mechanical to electrical energy conversion, mechanical impacts or vibrational behavior are commonly used, and several major problems need to be solved to perform optimal harvesting systems including, but no limited to, primary energy source modeling, energy conversion, and energy storage. It is described a novel C.C. test bench that obtains, in an accurate and automatized process, a generalized linear equivalent electrical model of piezoelectric elements and piezoelectric based energy store harvesting circuits in order to scale energy generation with multiple devices integrated in different topologies.

  19. Piezoelectric energy harvesting computer controlled test bench.

    PubMed

    Vázquez-Rodriguez, M; Jiménez, F J; de Frutos, J; Alonso, D

    2016-09-01

    In this paper a new computer controlled (C.C.) laboratory test bench is presented. The patented test bench is made up of a C.C. road traffic simulator, C.C. electronic hardware involved in automating measurements, and test bench control software interface programmed in LabVIEW™. Our research is focused on characterizing electronic energy harvesting piezoelectric-based elements in road traffic environments to extract (or "harvest") maximum power. In mechanical to electrical energy conversion, mechanical impacts or vibrational behavior are commonly used, and several major problems need to be solved to perform optimal harvesting systems including, but no limited to, primary energy source modeling, energy conversion, and energy storage. It is described a novel C.C. test bench that obtains, in an accurate and automatized process, a generalized linear equivalent electrical model of piezoelectric elements and piezoelectric based energy store harvesting circuits in order to scale energy generation with multiple devices integrated in different topologies.

  20. Computing energy levels of CH4, CHD3, CH3D, and CH3F with a direct product basis and coordinates based on the methyl subsystem.

    PubMed

    Zhao, Zhiqiang; Chen, Jun; Zhang, Zhaojun; Zhang, Dong H; Wang, Xiao-Gang; Carrington, Tucker; Gatti, Fabien

    2018-02-21

    Quantum mechanical calculations of ro-vibrational energies of CH 4 , CHD 3 , CH 3 D, and CH 3 F were made with two different numerical approaches. Both use polyspherical coordinates. The computed energy levels agree, confirming the accuracy of the methods. In the first approach, for all the molecules, the coordinates are defined using three Radau vectors for the CH 3 subsystem and a Jacobi vector between the remaining atom and the centre of mass of CH 3 . Euler angles specifying the orientation of a frame attached to CH 3 with respect to a frame attached to the Jacobi vector are used as vibrational coordinates. A direct product potential-optimized discrete variable vibrational basis is used to build a Hamiltonian matrix. Ro-vibrational energies are computed using a re-started Arnoldi eigensolver. In the second approach, the coordinates are the spherical coordinates associated with four Radau vectors or three Radau vectors and a Jacobi vector, and the frame is an Eckart frame. Vibrational basis functions are products of contracted stretch and bend functions, and eigenvalues are computed with the Lanczos algorithm. For CH 4 , CHD 3 , and CH 3 D, we report the first J > 0 energy levels computed on the Wang-Carrington potential energy surface [X.-G. Wang and T. Carrington, J. Chem. Phys. 141(15), 154106 (2014)]. For CH 3 F, the potential energy surface of Zhao et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 144, 204302 (2016)] was used. All the results are in good agreement with experimental data.

  1. Computing energy levels of CH4, CHD3, CH3D, and CH3F with a direct product basis and coordinates based on the methyl subsystem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhao, Zhiqiang; Chen, Jun; Zhang, Zhaojun; Zhang, Dong H.; Wang, Xiao-Gang; Carrington, Tucker; Gatti, Fabien

    2018-02-01

    Quantum mechanical calculations of ro-vibrational energies of CH4, CHD3, CH3D, and CH3F were made with two different numerical approaches. Both use polyspherical coordinates. The computed energy levels agree, confirming the accuracy of the methods. In the first approach, for all the molecules, the coordinates are defined using three Radau vectors for the CH3 subsystem and a Jacobi vector between the remaining atom and the centre of mass of CH3. Euler angles specifying the orientation of a frame attached to CH3 with respect to a frame attached to the Jacobi vector are used as vibrational coordinates. A direct product potential-optimized discrete variable vibrational basis is used to build a Hamiltonian matrix. Ro-vibrational energies are computed using a re-started Arnoldi eigensolver. In the second approach, the coordinates are the spherical coordinates associated with four Radau vectors or three Radau vectors and a Jacobi vector, and the frame is an Eckart frame. Vibrational basis functions are products of contracted stretch and bend functions, and eigenvalues are computed with the Lanczos algorithm. For CH4, CHD3, and CH3D, we report the first J > 0 energy levels computed on the Wang-Carrington potential energy surface [X.-G. Wang and T. Carrington, J. Chem. Phys. 141(15), 154106 (2014)]. For CH3F, the potential energy surface of Zhao et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 144, 204302 (2016)] was used. All the results are in good agreement with experimental data.

  2. Mentat: An object-oriented macro data flow system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Grimshaw, Andrew S.; Liu, Jane W. S.

    1988-01-01

    Mentat, an object-oriented macro data flow system designed to facilitate parallelism in distributed systems, is presented. The macro data flow model is a model of computation similar to the data flow model with two principal differences: the computational complexity of the actors is much greater than in traditional data flow systems, and there are persistent actors that maintain state information between executions. Mentat is a system that combines the object-oriented programming paradigm and the macro data flow model of computation. Mentat programs use a dynamic structure called a future list to represent the future of computations.

  3. P-S & S-P Elastic Wave Conversions from Linear Arrays of Oriented Microcracks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jiang, L.; Modiriasari, A.; Bobet, A.; Pyrak-Nolte, L. J.

    2017-12-01

    Natural and induced processes can produce oriented mechanical discontinuities such as en echelon cracks, fractures and faults. Previous research has shown that compressional to shear (P-S) wave conversions occur at normal incidence to a fracture because of cross-coupling fracture compliances (Nakagawa et al., 2000). Here, experiments and computer simulation are presented to demonstrate the link among cross-coupling stiffness, microcrack orientation and energy partitioning among P, S, and P-S/S-P waves. A FormLabs 2 3D printer was used to fabricate 7 samples (50 mm x 50 mm x 100 mm) with linear arrays of microcracks oriented at 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 900 with a print resolution of 0.025 mm. The microcracks were elliptical in cross-sections (2 mm long by 1 mm wide), through the 50 mm thickness of sample, and spaced 3 mm (center-to-center for adjacent cracks). A 25 mm length of each sample contained no microcracks to act as a reference material. Broadband transducers (0.2-1.5 MHz) were used to transmit and receive P and polarized S wave signals that were propagated at normal incidence to the linear array of microcracks. P-wave amplitude increased, while S-wave amplitude remained relatively constant, as the microcrack orientation increased from 0o to 90o. At normal incidence, P-S and S-P wave conversions emerged and increased in amplitude as the crack inclination increased from 00 to 450. From 450 to 900, the amplitude of these converted modes decreased. Between negative and positive crack angles, the P-to-S and S-to-P waves were 1800 phase reversed. The observed energy partitioning matched the computed compliances obtained from numerical simulations with ABAQUS. The cross-coupling compliance for cracks inclined at 450 was found to be the smallest magnitude. 3D printing enabled the study of microstructural effects on macro-scale wave measurements. Information on the orientation of microcracks or even en echelon fractures and faults is contained in P-S conversions

  4. Task-Oriented Training with Computer Games for People with Rheumatoid Arthritis or Hand Osteoarthritis: A Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.

    PubMed

    Srikesavan, Cynthia Swarnalatha; Shay, Barbara; Szturm, Tony

    2016-09-13

    To examine the feasibility of a clinical trial on a novel, home-based task-oriented training with conventional hand exercises in people with rheumatoid arthritis or hand osteoarthritis. To explore the experiences of participants who completed their respective home exercise programmes. Thirty volunteer participants aged between 30 and 60 years and diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis or hand osteoarthritis were proposed for a single-center, assessor-blinded, randomized controlled trial ( ClinicalTrials.gov : NCT01635582). Participants received task-oriented training with interactive computer games and objects of daily life or finger mobility and strengthening exercises. Both programmes were home based and were done four sessions per week with 20 minutes each session for 6 weeks. Major feasibility outcomes were number of volunteers screened, randomized, and retained; completion of blinded assessments, exercise training, and home exercise sessions; equipment and data management; and clinical outcomes of hand function. Reaching the recruitment target in 18 months and achieving exercise compliance >80% were set as success criteria. Concurrent with the trial, focus group interviews explored experiences of those participants who completed their respective programmes. After trial initiation, revisions in inclusion criteria were required to promote recruitment. A total of 17 participants were randomized and 15 were retained. Completion of assessments, exercise training, and home exercise sessions; equipment and data collection and management demonstrated excellent feasibility. Both groups improved in hand function outcomes and exercise compliance was above 85%. Participants perceived both programmes as appropriate and acceptable. Participants who completed task-oriented training also agreed that playing different computer games was enjoyable, engaging, and motivating. Findings demonstrate initial evidence on recruitment, feasibility of trial procedures, and acceptability of

  5. Measurement of user performance and attitudes assists the initial design of a computer user display and orientation method.

    PubMed

    Chase, C R; Ashikaga, T; Mazuzan, J E

    1994-07-01

    The objective of our study was to assess the acceptability of a proposed user interface to visually interfaced computer-assisted anesthesia record (VISI-CAARE), before the application was begun. The user interface was defined as the user display and its user orientation methods. We designed methods to measure user performance and attitude toward two different anesthesia record procedures: (1) the traditional pen and paper anesthetic record procedure of our hospital, and (2) VISI-CAARE. Performance measurements included the reaction speed (identifying the type and time of an event) and completion speed (describing the event). Performance also included accuracy of the recorded time of the event and accuracy of the description. User attitude was measured by (1) the physician's rating on a scale of 0 to 9 of the potential usefulness of computers in anesthesia care; (2) willingness to use the future application in the clinical environment; and (3) user suggestions for change. These measurements were used in a randomized trial of 21 physicians, of which data from 20 were available. After exposure to VISI-CAARE, the experimental subjects' ranking of computer usefulness in anesthesia care improved significantly (4.2 +/- 1.1 to 7.6 +/- 1.5, p = 0.0001), as did controls' (5.2 +/- 2.6 to 8 +/- 1.5, p = 0.0019). All the volunteers were willing to try the proposed prototype clinically, when it was ready. VISI-CAARE exposure was associated with faster and more accurate reaction to events over the traditional pen and paper machine, and slower and more accurate description of events in an artificial mock setting. VISI-CAARE 1.1 demonstrated significant improvements in both reaction speed and completion speed over VISI-CAARE 1.0, after changes were made to the user display and orientation methods. With graphic user interface prototyping environments, one can obtain preliminary user attitude and performance data, even before application programming is begun. This may be helpful in

  6. Development of a Dynamically Configurable,Object-Oriented Framework for Distributed, Multi-modal Computational Aerospace Systems Simulation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Afjeh, Abdollah A.; Reed, John A.

    2003-01-01

    This research is aimed at developing a neiv and advanced simulation framework that will significantly improve the overall efficiency of aerospace systems design and development. This objective will be accomplished through an innovative integration of object-oriented and Web-based technologies ivith both new and proven simulation methodologies. The basic approach involves Ihree major areas of research: Aerospace system and component representation using a hierarchical object-oriented component model which enables the use of multimodels and enforces component interoperability. Collaborative software environment that streamlines the process of developing, sharing and integrating aerospace design and analysis models. . Development of a distributed infrastructure which enables Web-based exchange of models to simplify the collaborative design process, and to support computationally intensive aerospace design and analysis processes. Research for the first year dealt with the design of the basic architecture and supporting infrastructure, an initial implementation of that design, and a demonstration of its application to an example aircraft engine system simulation.

  7. Convolutional networks for fast, energy-efficient neuromorphic computing

    PubMed Central

    Esser, Steven K.; Merolla, Paul A.; Arthur, John V.; Cassidy, Andrew S.; Appuswamy, Rathinakumar; Andreopoulos, Alexander; Berg, David J.; McKinstry, Jeffrey L.; Melano, Timothy; Barch, Davis R.; di Nolfo, Carmelo; Datta, Pallab; Amir, Arnon; Taba, Brian; Flickner, Myron D.; Modha, Dharmendra S.

    2016-01-01

    Deep networks are now able to achieve human-level performance on a broad spectrum of recognition tasks. Independently, neuromorphic computing has now demonstrated unprecedented energy-efficiency through a new chip architecture based on spiking neurons, low precision synapses, and a scalable communication network. Here, we demonstrate that neuromorphic computing, despite its novel architectural primitives, can implement deep convolution networks that (i) approach state-of-the-art classification accuracy across eight standard datasets encompassing vision and speech, (ii) perform inference while preserving the hardware’s underlying energy-efficiency and high throughput, running on the aforementioned datasets at between 1,200 and 2,600 frames/s and using between 25 and 275 mW (effectively >6,000 frames/s per Watt), and (iii) can be specified and trained using backpropagation with the same ease-of-use as contemporary deep learning. This approach allows the algorithmic power of deep learning to be merged with the efficiency of neuromorphic processors, bringing the promise of embedded, intelligent, brain-inspired computing one step closer. PMID:27651489

  8. Direct computation of general chemical energy differences: Application to ionization potentials, excitation, and bond energies.

    PubMed

    Beste, A; Harrison, R J; Yanai, T

    2006-08-21

    Chemists are mainly interested in energy differences. In contrast, most quantum chemical methods yield the total energy which is a large number compared to the difference and has therefore to be computed to a higher relative precision than would be necessary for the difference alone. Hence, it is desirable to compute energy differences directly, thereby avoiding the precision problem. Whenever it is possible to find a parameter which transforms smoothly from an initial to a final state, the energy difference can be obtained by integrating the energy derivative with respect to that parameter (cf. thermodynamic integration or adiabatic connection methods). If the dependence on the parameter is predominantly linear, accurate results can be obtained by single-point integration. In density functional theory and Hartree-Fock, we applied the formalism to ionization potentials, excitation energies, and chemical bond breaking. Example calculations for ionization potentials and excitation energies showed that accurate results could be obtained with a linear estimate. For breaking bonds, we introduce a nongeometrical parameter which gradually turns the interaction between two fragments of a molecule on. The interaction changes the potentials used to determine the orbitals as well as the constraint on the orbitals to be orthogonal.

  9. The Role of Energy Reservoirs in Distributed Computing: Manufacturing, Implementing, and Optimizing Energy Storage in Energy-Autonomous Sensor Nodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cowell, Martin Andrew

    The world already hosts more internet connected devices than people, and that ratio is only increasing. These devices seamlessly integrate with peoples lives to collect rich data and give immediate feedback about complex systems from business, health care, transportation, and security. As every aspect of global economies integrate distributed computing into their industrial systems and these systems benefit from rich datasets. Managing the power demands of these distributed computers will be paramount to ensure the continued operation of these networks, and is elegantly addressed by including local energy harvesting and storage on a per-node basis. By replacing non-rechargeable batteries with energy harvesting, wireless sensor nodes will increase their lifetimes by an order of magnitude. This work investigates the coupling of high power energy storage with energy harvesting technologies to power wireless sensor nodes; with sections covering device manufacturing, system integration, and mathematical modeling. First we consider the energy storage mechanism of supercapacitors and batteries, and identify favorable characteristics in both reservoir types. We then discuss experimental methods used to manufacture high power supercapacitors in our labs. We go on to detail the integration of our fabricated devices with collaborating labs to create functional sensor node demonstrations. With the practical knowledge gained through in-lab manufacturing and system integration, we build mathematical models to aid in device and system design. First, we model the mechanism of energy storage in porous graphene supercapacitors to aid in component architecture optimization. We then model the operation of entire sensor nodes for the purpose of optimally sizing the energy harvesting and energy reservoir components. In consideration of deploying these sensor nodes in real-world environments, we model the operation of our energy harvesting and power management systems subject to

  10. Statistical energy analysis computer program, user's guide

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Trudell, R. W.; Yano, L. I.

    1981-01-01

    A high frequency random vibration analysis, (statistical energy analysis (SEA) method) is examined. The SEA method accomplishes high frequency prediction of arbitrary structural configurations. A general SEA computer program is described. A summary of SEA theory, example problems of SEA program application, and complete program listing are presented.

  11. Large Scale Computing and Storage Requirements for High Energy Physics

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

    Gerber, Richard A.; Wasserman, Harvey

    2010-11-24

    The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) is the leading scientific computing facility for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, providing high-performance computing (HPC) resources to more than 3,000 researchers working on about 400 projects. NERSC provides large-scale computing resources and, crucially, the support and expertise needed for scientists to make effective use of them. In November 2009, NERSC, DOE's Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), and DOE's Office of High Energy Physics (HEP) held a workshop to characterize the HPC resources needed at NERSC to support HEP research through the next three to five years. Themore » effort is part of NERSC's legacy of anticipating users needs and deploying resources to meet those demands. The workshop revealed several key points, in addition to achieving its goal of collecting and characterizing computing requirements. The chief findings: (1) Science teams need access to a significant increase in computational resources to meet their research goals; (2) Research teams need to be able to read, write, transfer, store online, archive, analyze, and share huge volumes of data; (3) Science teams need guidance and support to implement their codes on future architectures; and (4) Projects need predictable, rapid turnaround of their computational jobs to meet mission-critical time constraints. This report expands upon these key points and includes others. It also presents a number of case studies as representative of the research conducted within HEP. Workshop participants were asked to codify their requirements in this case study format, summarizing their science goals, methods of solution, current and three-to-five year computing requirements, and software and support needs. Participants were also asked to describe their strategy for computing in the highly parallel, multi-core environment that is expected to dominate HPC architectures over the next few years. The report

  12. Computational materials design for energy applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ozolins, Vidvuds

    2013-03-01

    General adoption of sustainable energy technologies depends on the discovery and development of new high-performance materials. For instance, waste heat recovery and electricity generation via the solar thermal route require bulk thermoelectrics with a high figure of merit (ZT) and thermal stability at high-temperatures. Energy recovery applications (e.g., regenerative braking) call for the development of rapidly chargeable systems for electrical energy storage, such as electrochemical supercapacitors. Similarly, use of hydrogen as vehicular fuel depends on the ability to store hydrogen at high volumetric and gravimetric densities, as well as on the ability to extract it at ambient temperatures at sufficiently rapid rates. We will discuss how first-principles computational methods based on quantum mechanics and statistical physics can drive the understanding, improvement and prediction of new energy materials. We will cover prediction and experimental verification of new earth-abundant thermoelectrics, transition metal oxides for electrochemical supercapacitors, and kinetics of mass transport in complex metal hydrides. Research has been supported by the US Department of Energy under grant Nos. DE-SC0001342, DE-SC0001054, DE-FG02-07ER46433, and DE-FC36-08GO18136.

  13. Antifreeze Proteins at the Ice/Water Interface: Three Calculated Discriminating Properties for Orientation of Type I Proteins

    PubMed Central

    Wierzbicki, Andrzej; Dalal, Pranav; Cheatham, Thomas E.; Knickelbein, Jared E.; Haymet, A. D. J.; Madura, Jeffry D.

    2007-01-01

    Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) protect many plants and organisms from freezing in low temperatures. Of the different AFPs, the most studied AFP Type I from winter flounder is used in the current computational studies to gain molecular insight into its adsorption at the ice/water interface. Employing molecular dynamics simulations, we calculate the free energy difference between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic faces of the protein interacting with ice. Furthermore, we identify three properties of Type I “antifreeze” proteins that discriminate among these two orientations of the protein at the ice/water interface. The three properties are: the “surface area” of the protein; a measure of the interaction of the protein with neighboring water molecules as determined by the number of hydrogen bond count, for example; and the side-chain orientation angles of the threonine residues. All three discriminants are consistent with our free energy results, which clearly show that the hydrophilic protein face orientations toward the ice/water interface, as hypothesized from experimental and ice/vacuum simulations, are incorrect and support the hypothesis that the hydrophobic face is oriented toward the ice/water interface. The adsorption free energy is calculated to be 2–3 kJ/mol. PMID:17526572

  14. Computation of free energy profiles with parallel adaptive dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lelièvre, Tony; Rousset, Mathias; Stoltz, Gabriel

    2007-04-01

    We propose a formulation of an adaptive computation of free energy differences, in the adaptive biasing force or nonequilibrium metadynamics spirit, using conditional distributions of samples of configurations which evolve in time. This allows us to present a truly unifying framework for these methods, and to prove convergence results for certain classes of algorithms. From a numerical viewpoint, a parallel implementation of these methods is very natural, the replicas interacting through the reconstructed free energy. We demonstrate how to improve this parallel implementation by resorting to some selection mechanism on the replicas. This is illustrated by computations on a model system of conformational changes.

  15. Group-oriented coordination models for distributed client-server computing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Adler, Richard M.; Hughes, Craig S.

    1994-01-01

    This paper describes group-oriented control models for distributed client-server interactions. These models transparently coordinate requests for services that involve multiple servers, such as queries across distributed databases. Specific capabilities include: decomposing and replicating client requests; dispatching request subtasks or copies to independent, networked servers; and combining server results into a single response for the client. The control models were implemented by combining request broker and process group technologies with an object-oriented communication middleware tool. The models are illustrated in the context of a distributed operations support application for space-based systems.

  16. Electrostatic orientation of the electron-transfer complex between plastocyanin and cytochrome c.

    PubMed

    Roberts, V A; Freeman, H C; Olson, A J; Tainer, J A; Getzoff, E D

    1991-07-15

    To understand the specificity and efficiency of protein-protein interactions promoting electron transfer, we evaluated the role of electrostatic forces in precollision orientation by the development of two new methods, computer graphics alignment of protein electrostatic fields and a systematic orientational search of intermolecular electrostatic energies for two proteins at present separation distances. We applied these methods to the plastocyanin/cytochrome c interaction, which is faster than random collision, but too slow for study by molecular dynamics techniques. Significant electrostatic potentials were concentrated on one-fourth (969 A2) of the plastocyanin surface, with the greatest negative potential centered on the Tyr-83 hydroxyl within the acidic patch, and on one-eighth (632 A2) of the cytochrome c surface, with the greatest positive potential centered near the exposed heme edge. Coherent electrostatic fields occurred only over these regions, suggesting that local, rather than global, charge complementarity controls productive recognition. The three energetically favored families of pre-collision orientations all directed the positive region surrounding the heme edge of cytochrome c toward the acidic patch of plastocyanin but differed in heme plane orientation. Analysis of electrostatic fields, electrostatic energies of precollision orientations with 12 and 6 A separation distances, and surface topographies suggested that the favored orientations should converge to productive complexes promoting a single electron-transfer pathway from the cytochrome c heme edge to Tyr-83 of plastocyanin. Direct interactions of the exposed Cu ligand in plastocyanin with the cytochrome c heme edge are not unfavorable sterically or electrostatically but should occur no faster than randomly, indicating that this is not the primary pathway for electron transfer.

  17. Distributed Object Oriented Programming

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1990-02-01

    of the object oriented model of computation. Therefore, object oriented programming can provide the programmer with good conceptual tools to divide his...LABOR SALES-COMMISSION). The symbol + refers to the addition function and takes any number of numeric arguments. The third subtype of list forms is the...2) ’(:SEND-DONE) (SEWF (AREF OBJECT-i1-MESSAGES-SENT 2) ’(PROGN (FORMAT T "-s methd completely executed instr-ptr -s-V NAME %INSTR-PTR%) (INCF

  18. Object-oriented design for accelerator control

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

    Stok, P.D.V. van der; Berk, F. van den; Deckers, R.

    1994-02-01

    An object-oriented design for the distributed computer control system of the accelerator ring EUTERPE is presented. Because of the experimental nature of the ring, flexibility is of the utmost importance. The object-oriented principles have contributed considerably to the flexibility of the design incorporating multiple views, multi-level access and distributed surveillance.

  19. Energy-Aware Computation Offloading of IoT Sensors in Cloudlet-Based Mobile Edge Computing.

    PubMed

    Ma, Xiao; Lin, Chuang; Zhang, Han; Liu, Jianwei

    2018-06-15

    Mobile edge computing is proposed as a promising computing paradigm to relieve the excessive burden of data centers and mobile networks, which is induced by the rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT). This work introduces the cloud-assisted multi-cloudlet framework to provision scalable services in cloudlet-based mobile edge computing. Due to the constrained computation resources of cloudlets and limited communication resources of wireless access points (APs), IoT sensors with identical computation offloading decisions interact with each other. To optimize the processing delay and energy consumption of computation tasks, theoretic analysis of the computation offloading decision problem of IoT sensors is presented in this paper. In more detail, the computation offloading decision problem of IoT sensors is formulated as a computation offloading game and the condition of Nash equilibrium is derived by introducing the tool of a potential game. By exploiting the finite improvement property of the game, the Computation Offloading Decision (COD) algorithm is designed to provide decentralized computation offloading strategies for IoT sensors. Simulation results demonstrate that the COD algorithm can significantly reduce the system cost compared with the random-selection algorithm and the cloud-first algorithm. Furthermore, the COD algorithm can scale well with increasing IoT sensors.

  20. Dual-energy computed tomography for the detection of focal liver lesions.

    PubMed

    Lago, K N; Vallejos, J; Capuñay, C; Salas, E; Reynoso, E; Carpio, J B; Carrascosa, P M

    To qualitatively and quantitatively explore the spectral study of focal liver lesions, comparing it with the usual polychromatic assessment with single-energy computed tomography. We prospectively studied 50 patients with at least one focal liver lesion who were referred for abdominal multidetector computed tomography with intravenous contrast material. The portal phase was acquired with dual energy sources. The density of the lesions and of the surrounding liver parenchyma was measured both in the baseline polychromatic acquisition and in the posterior monochromatic reconstructions at 40 keV, 70 keV, and 140 keV. Spectral curves were traced and the dual-energy indices and contrast-to-noise ratio were calculated. Lastly, the quality of the images and the detectability of the lesions were assessed qualitatively. Densitometric differences between the different types of lesions (avascular and vascularized) and the liver were greater at low energy levels (left side of the spectral curve) than in the polychromatic evaluation. In the subjective assessment, the 40keV energy level had the greatest lesion detectability. Monochromatic spectral study with dual-energy computed tomography provides better lesion detectability at 40keV compared to that provided by the ordinary polychromatic evaluation. Copyright © 2017 SERAM. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  1. Energy intensity of computer manufacturing: hybrid assessment combining process and economic input-output methods.

    PubMed

    Williams, Eric

    2004-11-15

    The total energy and fossil fuels used in producing a desktop computer with 17-in. CRT monitor are estimated at 6400 megajoules (MJ) and 260 kg, respectively. This indicates that computer manufacturing is energy intensive: the ratio of fossil fuel use to product weight is 11, an order of magnitude larger than the factor of 1-2 for many other manufactured goods. This high energy intensity of manufacturing, combined with rapid turnover in computers, results in an annual life cycle energy burden that is surprisingly high: about 2600 MJ per year, 1.3 times that of a refrigerator. In contrast with many home appliances, life cycle energy use of a computer is dominated by production (81%) as opposed to operation (19%). Extension of usable lifespan (e.g. by reselling or upgrading) is thus a promising approach to mitigating energy impacts as well as other environmental burdens associated with manufacturing and disposal.

  2. Impact of office productivity cloud computing on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

    PubMed

    Williams, Daniel R; Tang, Yinshan

    2013-05-07

    Cloud computing is usually regarded as being energy efficient and thus emitting less greenhouse gases (GHG) than traditional forms of computing. When the energy consumption of Microsoft's cloud computing Office 365 (O365) and traditional Office 2010 (O2010) software suites were tested and modeled, some cloud services were found to consume more energy than the traditional form. The developed model in this research took into consideration the energy consumption at the three main stages of data transmission; data center, network, and end user device. Comparable products from each suite were selected and activities were defined for each product to represent a different computing type. Microsoft provided highly confidential data for the data center stage, while the networking and user device stages were measured directly. A new measurement and software apportionment approach was defined and utilized allowing the power consumption of cloud services to be directly measured for the user device stage. Results indicated that cloud computing is more energy efficient for Excel and Outlook which consumed less energy and emitted less GHG than the standalone counterpart. The power consumption of the cloud based Outlook (8%) and Excel (17%) was lower than their traditional counterparts. However, the power consumption of the cloud version of Word was 17% higher than its traditional equivalent. A third mixed access method was also measured for Word which emitted 5% more GHG than the traditional version. It is evident that cloud computing may not provide a unified way forward to reduce energy consumption and GHG. Direct conversion from the standalone package into the cloud provision platform can now consider energy and GHG emissions at the software development and cloud service design stage using the methods described in this research.

  3. Computer Architecture for Energy Efficient SFQ

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-08-27

    IBM Corporation (T.J. Watson Research Laboratory) 1101 Kitchawan Road Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 -0000 2 ABSTRACT Number of Papers published in peer...accomplished during this ARO-sponsored project at IBM Research to identify and model an energy efficient SFQ-based computer architecture. The... IBM Windsor Blue (WB), illustrated schematically in Figure 2. The basic building block of WB is a "tile" comprised of a 64-bit arithmetic logic unit

  4. Free energy minimization to predict RNA secondary structures and computational RNA design.

    PubMed

    Churkin, Alexander; Weinbrand, Lina; Barash, Danny

    2015-01-01

    Determining the RNA secondary structure from sequence data by computational predictions is a long-standing problem. Its solution has been approached in two distinctive ways. If a multiple sequence alignment of a collection of homologous sequences is available, the comparative method uses phylogeny to determine conserved base pairs that are more likely to form as a result of billions of years of evolution than by chance. In the case of single sequences, recursive algorithms that compute free energy structures by using empirically derived energy parameters have been developed. This latter approach of RNA folding prediction by energy minimization is widely used to predict RNA secondary structure from sequence. For a significant number of RNA molecules, the secondary structure of the RNA molecule is indicative of its function and its computational prediction by minimizing its free energy is important for its functional analysis. A general method for free energy minimization to predict RNA secondary structures is dynamic programming, although other optimization methods have been developed as well along with empirically derived energy parameters. In this chapter, we introduce and illustrate by examples the approach of free energy minimization to predict RNA secondary structures.

  5. Computer usage and national energy consumption: Results from a field-metering study

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

    Desroches, Louis-Benoit; Fuchs, Heidi; Greenblatt, Jeffery

    The electricity consumption of miscellaneous electronic loads (MELs) in the home has grown in recent years, and is expected to continue rising. Consumer electronics, in particular, are characterized by swift technological innovation, with varying impacts on energy use. Desktop and laptop computers make up a significant share of MELs electricity consumption, but their national energy use is difficult to estimate, given uncertainties around shifting user behavior. This report analyzes usage data from 64 computers (45 desktop, 11 laptop, and 8 unknown) collected in 2012 as part of a larger field monitoring effort of 880 households in the San Francisco Baymore » Area, and compares our results to recent values from the literature. We find that desktop computers are used for an average of 7.3 hours per day (median = 4.2 h/d), while laptops are used for a mean 4.8 hours per day (median = 2.1 h/d). The results for laptops are likely underestimated since they can be charged in other, unmetered outlets. Average unit annual energy consumption (AEC) for desktops is estimated to be 194 kWh/yr (median = 125 kWh/yr), and for laptops 75 kWh/yr (median = 31 kWh/yr). We estimate national annual energy consumption for desktop computers to be 20 TWh. National annual energy use for laptops is estimated to be 11 TWh, markedly higher than previous estimates, likely reflective of laptops drawing more power in On mode in addition to greater market penetration. This result for laptops, however, carries relatively higher uncertainty compared to desktops. Different study methodologies and definitions, changing usage patterns, and uncertainty about how consumers use computers must be considered when interpreting our results with respect to existing analyses. Finally, as energy consumption in On mode is predominant, we outline several energy savings opportunities: improved power management (defaulting to low-power modes after periods of inactivity as well as power scaling), matching the rated

  6. Evaluation of reinitialization-free nonvolatile computer systems for energy-harvesting Internet of things applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Onizawa, Naoya; Tamakoshi, Akira; Hanyu, Takahiro

    2017-08-01

    In this paper, reinitialization-free nonvolatile computer systems are designed and evaluated for energy-harvesting Internet of things (IoT) applications. In energy-harvesting applications, as power supplies generated from renewable power sources cause frequent power failures, data processed need to be backed up when power failures occur. Unless data are safely backed up before power supplies diminish, reinitialization processes are required when power supplies are recovered, which results in low energy efficiencies and slow operations. Using nonvolatile devices in processors and memories can realize a faster backup than a conventional volatile computer system, leading to a higher energy efficiency. To evaluate the energy efficiency upon frequent power failures, typical computer systems including processors and memories are designed using 90 nm CMOS or CMOS/magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) technologies. Nonvolatile ARM Cortex-M0 processors with 4 kB MRAMs are evaluated using a typical computing benchmark program, Dhrystone, which shows a few order-of-magnitude reductions in energy in comparison with a volatile processor with SRAM.

  7. Object-oriented Technology for Compressor Simulation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Drummond, C. K.; Follen, G. J.; Cannon, M. R.

    1994-01-01

    An object-oriented basis for interdisciplinary compressor simulation can, in principle, overcome several barriers associated with the traditional structured (procedural) development approach. This paper presents the results of a research effort with the objective to explore the repercussions on design, analysis, and implementation of a compressor model in an object oriented (OO) language, and to examine the ability of the OO system design to accommodate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code for compressor performance prediction. Three fundamental results are that: (1) the selection of the object oriented language is not the central issue; enhanced (interdisciplinary) analysis capability derives from a broader focus on object-oriented technology; (2) object-oriented designs will produce more effective and reusable computer programs when the technology is applied to issues involving complex system inter-relationships (more so than when addressing the complex physics of an isolated discipline); and (3) the concept of disposable prototypes is effective for exploratory research programs, but this requires organizations to have a commensurate long-term perspective. This work also suggests that interdisciplinary simulation can be effectively accomplished (over several levels of fidelity) with a mixed language treatment (i.e., FORTRAN-C++), reinforcing the notion the OO technology implementation into simulations is a 'journey' in which the syntax can, by design, continuously evolve.

  8. Memory device for two-dimensional radiant energy array computers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schaefer, D. H.; Strong, J. P., III (Inventor)

    1977-01-01

    A memory device for two dimensional radiant energy array computers was developed, in which the memory device stores digital information in an input array of radiant energy digital signals that are characterized by ordered rows and columns. The memory device contains a radiant energy logic storing device having a pair of input surface locations for receiving a pair of separate radiant energy digital signal arrays and an output surface location adapted to transmit a radiant energy digital signal array. A regenerative feedback device that couples one of the input surface locations to the output surface location in a manner for causing regenerative feedback is also included

  9. Specificity of V1-V2 Orientation Networks in the Primate Visual Cortex

    PubMed Central

    Roe, Anna W.; Ts'o, Daniel Y.

    2015-01-01

    The computation of texture and shape involves integration of features of various orientations. Orientation networks within V1 tend to involve cells which share similar orientation selectivity. However, emergent properties in V2 require the integration of multiple orientations. We now show that, unlike interactions within V1, V1-V2 orientation interactions are much less synchronized and are not necessarily orientation dependent. We find V1-V2 orientation networks are of two types: a more tightly synchronized, orientation-preserving network and a less synchronized orientation-diverse network. We suggest that such diversity of V1-V2 interactions underlies the spatial and functional integration required for computation of higher order contour and shape in V2. PMID:26314798

  10. Computational design of cyclic peptides for the customized oriented immobilization of globular proteins.

    PubMed

    Soler, Miguel A; Rodriguez, Alex; Russo, Anna; Adedeji, Abimbola Feyisara; Dongmo Foumthuim, Cedrix J; Cantarutti, Cristina; Ambrosetti, Elena; Casalis, Loredana; Corazza, Alessandra; Scoles, Giacinto; Marasco, Daniela; Laio, Alessandro; Fortuna, Sara

    2017-01-25

    The oriented immobilization of proteins, key for the development of novel responsive biomaterials, relies on the availability of effective probes. These are generally provided by standard approaches based on in vivo maturation and in vitro selection of antibodies and/or aptamers. These techniques can suffer technical problems when a non-immunogenic epitope needs to be targeted. Here we propose a strategy to circumvent this issue by in silico design. In our method molecular binders, in the form of cyclic peptides, are computationally evolved by stochastically exploring their sequence and structure space to identify high-affinity peptides for a chosen epitope of a target globular protein: here a solvent-exposed site of β2-microglobulin (β2m). Designed sequences were screened by explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations (MD) followed by experimental validation. Five candidates gave dose-response surface plasmon resonance signals with dissociation constants in the micromolar range. One of them was further analyzed by means of isothermal titration calorimetry, nuclear magnetic resonance, and 250 ns of MD. Atomic-force microscopy imaging showed that this peptide is able to immobilize β2m on a gold surface. In short, we have shown by a variety of experimental techniques that it is possible to capture a protein through an epitope of choice by computational design.

  11. Passive orientation apparatus

    DOEpatents

    Spletzer, Barry L.; Fischer, Gary J.; Martinez, Michael A.

    2001-01-01

    An apparatus that can return a payload to a known orientation after unknown motion, without requiring external power or complex mechanical systems. The apparatus comprises a faceted cage that causes the system to rest in a stable position and orientation after arbitrary motion. A gimbal is mounted with the faceted cage and holds the payload, allowing the payload to move relative to the stable faceted cage. The payload is thereby placed in a known orientation by the interaction of gravity with the geometry of the faceted cage, the mass of the system, and the motion of the payload and gimbal. No additional energy, control, or mechanical actuation is required. The apparatus is suitable for use in applications requiring positioning of a payload to a known orientation after arbitrary or uncontrolled motion, including remote sensing and mobile robot applications.

  12. Proceedings of the third annual Nevada energy forum and exposition

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

    Not Available

    1984-01-01

    This book presents the papers given at a forum on energy conservation. The papers include subjects on the following topics: third party financing; heat recovery and indirect evaporative cooling; computer literacy; practical power factor survey methodology; the measured energy performance of buildings; casino cogeneration; employees and energy conservation; daylighting; infrared heating; peak shaving and cogeneration. These subjects were orientated toward the management, purchasing and engineering professions and coincided with the forum goal of promoting energy conservation literacy.

  13. Evaluation of Building Energy Saving Through the Development of Venetian Blinds' Optimal Control Algorithm According to the Orientation and Window-to-Wall Ratio

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kwon, Hyuk Ju; Yeon, Sang Hun; Lee, Keum Ho; Lee, Kwang Ho

    2018-02-01

    As various studies focusing on building energy saving have been continuously conducted, studies utilizing renewable energy sources, instead of fossil fuel, are needed. In particular, studies regarding solar energy are being carried out in the field of building science; in order to utilize such solar energy effectively, solar radiation being brought into the indoors should be acquired and blocked properly. Blinds are a typical solar radiation control device that is capable of controlling indoor thermal and light environments. However, slat-type blinds are manually controlled, giving a negative effect on building energy saving. In this regard, studies regarding the automatic control of slat-type blinds have been carried out for the last couple of decades. Therefore, this study aims to provide preliminary data for optimal control research through the controlling of slat angle in slat-type blinds by comprehensively considering various input variables. The window area ratio and orientation were selected as input variables. It was found that an optimal control algorithm was different among each window-to-wall ratio and window orientation. In addition, through comparing and analyzing the building energy saving performance for each condition by applying the developed algorithms to simulations, up to 20.7 % energy saving was shown in the cooling period and up to 12.3 % energy saving was shown in the heating period. In addition, building energy saving effect was greater as the window area ratio increased given the same orientation, and the effects of window-to-wall ratio in the cooling period were higher than those of window-to-wall ratio in the heating period.

  14. Task-oriented situation recognition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bauer, Alexander; Fischer, Yvonne

    2010-04-01

    From the advances in computer vision methods for the detection, tracking and recognition of objects in video streams, new opportunities for video surveillance arise: In the future, automated video surveillance systems will be able to detect critical situations early enough to enable an operator to take preventive actions, instead of using video material merely for forensic investigations. However, problems such as limited computational resources, privacy regulations and a constant change in potential threads have to be addressed by a practical automated video surveillance system. In this paper, we show how these problems can be addressed using a task-oriented approach. The system architecture of the task-oriented video surveillance system NEST and an algorithm for the detection of abnormal behavior as part of the system are presented and illustrated for the surveillance of guests inside a video-monitored building.

  15. Essentials and Perspectives of Computational Modelling Assistance for CNS-oriented Nanoparticle-based Drug Delivery Systems.

    PubMed

    Kisała, Joanna; Heclik, Kinga I; Pogocki, Krzysztof; Pogocki, Dariusz

    2018-05-16

    The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a complex system controlling two-way substances traffic between circulatory (cardiovascular) system and central nervous system (CNS). It is almost perfectly crafted to regulate brain homeostasis and to permit selective transport of molecules that are essential for brain function. For potential drug candidates, the CNS-oriented neuropharmaceuticals as well as for those of primary targets in the periphery, the extent to which a substance in the circulation gains access to the CNS seems crucial. With the advent of nanopharmacology the problem of the BBB permeability for drug nano-carriers gains new significance. Compare to some other fields of medicinal chemistry, the computational science of nanodelivery is still prematured to offer the black-box type solutions, especially for the BBB-case. However, even its enormous complexity can be spell out the physical principles, and as such subjected to computation. Basic understanding of various physico-chemical parameters describing the brain uptake is required to take advantage of their usage for the BBB-nanodelivery. This mini-review provides a sketchy introduction into essential concepts allowing application of computational simulation to the BBB-nanodelivery design. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

  16. Implementing an Affordable High-Performance Computing for Teaching-Oriented Computer Science Curriculum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abuzaghleh, Omar; Goldschmidt, Kathleen; Elleithy, Yasser; Lee, Jeongkyu

    2013-01-01

    With the advances in computing power, high-performance computing (HPC) platforms have had an impact on not only scientific research in advanced organizations but also computer science curriculum in the educational community. For example, multicore programming and parallel systems are highly desired courses in the computer science major. However,…

  17. Secure Distributed Detection under Energy Constraint in IoT-Oriented Sensor Networks.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Guomei; Sun, Hao

    2016-12-16

    We study the secure distributed detection problems under energy constraint for IoT-oriented sensor networks. The conventional channel-aware encryption (CAE) is an efficient physical-layer secure distributed detection scheme in light of its energy efficiency, good scalability and robustness over diverse eavesdropping scenarios. However, in the CAE scheme, it remains an open problem of how to optimize the key thresholds for the estimated channel gain, which are used to determine the sensor's reporting action. Moreover, the CAE scheme does not jointly consider the accuracy of local detection results in determining whether to stay dormant for a sensor. To solve these problems, we first analyze the error probability and derive the optimal thresholds in the CAE scheme under a specified energy constraint. These results build a convenient mathematic framework for our further innovative design. Under this framework, we propose a hybrid secure distributed detection scheme. Our proposal can satisfy the energy constraint by keeping some sensors inactive according to the local detection confidence level, which is characterized by likelihood ratio. In the meanwhile, the security is guaranteed through randomly flipping the local decisions forwarded to the fusion center based on the channel amplitude. We further optimize the key parameters of our hybrid scheme, including two local decision thresholds and one channel comparison threshold. Performance evaluation results demonstrate that our hybrid scheme outperforms the CAE under stringent energy constraints, especially in the high signal-to-noise ratio scenario, while the security is still assured.

  18. Secure Distributed Detection under Energy Constraint in IoT-Oriented Sensor Networks

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Guomei; Sun, Hao

    2016-01-01

    We study the secure distributed detection problems under energy constraint for IoT-oriented sensor networks. The conventional channel-aware encryption (CAE) is an efficient physical-layer secure distributed detection scheme in light of its energy efficiency, good scalability and robustness over diverse eavesdropping scenarios. However, in the CAE scheme, it remains an open problem of how to optimize the key thresholds for the estimated channel gain, which are used to determine the sensor’s reporting action. Moreover, the CAE scheme does not jointly consider the accuracy of local detection results in determining whether to stay dormant for a sensor. To solve these problems, we first analyze the error probability and derive the optimal thresholds in the CAE scheme under a specified energy constraint. These results build a convenient mathematic framework for our further innovative design. Under this framework, we propose a hybrid secure distributed detection scheme. Our proposal can satisfy the energy constraint by keeping some sensors inactive according to the local detection confidence level, which is characterized by likelihood ratio. In the meanwhile, the security is guaranteed through randomly flipping the local decisions forwarded to the fusion center based on the channel amplitude. We further optimize the key parameters of our hybrid scheme, including two local decision thresholds and one channel comparison threshold. Performance evaluation results demonstrate that our hybrid scheme outperforms the CAE under stringent energy constraints, especially in the high signal-to-noise ratio scenario, while the security is still assured. PMID:27999282

  19. Computing local edge probability in natural scenes from a population of oriented simple cells

    PubMed Central

    Ramachandra, Chaithanya A.; Mel, Bartlett W.

    2013-01-01

    A key computation in visual cortex is the extraction of object contours, where the first stage of processing is commonly attributed to V1 simple cells. The standard model of a simple cell—an oriented linear filter followed by a divisive normalization—fits a wide variety of physiological data, but is a poor performing local edge detector when applied to natural images. The brain's ability to finely discriminate edges from nonedges therefore likely depends on information encoded by local simple cell populations. To gain insight into the corresponding decoding problem, we used Bayes's rule to calculate edge probability at a given location/orientation in an image based on a surrounding filter population. Beginning with a set of ∼ 100 filters, we culled out a subset that were maximally informative about edges, and minimally correlated to allow factorization of the joint on- and off-edge likelihood functions. Key features of our approach include a new, efficient method for ground-truth edge labeling, an emphasis on achieving filter independence, including a focus on filters in the region orthogonal rather than tangential to an edge, and the use of a customized parametric model to represent the individual filter likelihood functions. The resulting population-based edge detector has zero parameters, calculates edge probability based on a sum of surrounding filter influences, is much more sharply tuned than the underlying linear filters, and effectively captures fine-scale edge structure in natural scenes. Our findings predict nonmonotonic interactions between cells in visual cortex, wherein a cell may for certain stimuli excite and for other stimuli inhibit the same neighboring cell, depending on the two cells' relative offsets in position and orientation, and their relative activation levels. PMID:24381295

  20. Industrial Technology Orientation Curriculum Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Illinois State Board of Education, Springfield. Dept. of Adult, Vocational and Technical Education.

    The four courses in this guide were designed to meet the specifications for the career orientation level of Illinois' Education for Employment Curriculum Model. These orientation-level courses can be taken by high school students in any sequence: (1) communication technology; (2) energy utilization technology; (3) production technology; and (4)…

  1. Object-Oriented Programming in High Schools the Turing Way.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holt, Richard C.

    This paper proposes an approach to introducing object-oriented concepts to high school computer science students using the Object-Oriented Turing (OOT) language. Students can learn about basic object-oriented (OO) principles such as classes and inheritance by using and expanding a collection of classes that draw pictures like circles and happy…

  2. The updated algorithm of the Energy Consumption Program (ECP): A computer model simulating heating and cooling energy loads in buildings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lansing, F. L.; Strain, D. M.; Chai, V. W.; Higgins, S.

    1979-01-01

    The energy Comsumption Computer Program was developed to simulate building heating and cooling loads and compute thermal and electric energy consumption and cost. This article reports on the new additional algorithms and modifications made in an effort to widen the areas of application. The program structure was rewritten accordingly to refine and advance the building model and to further reduce the processing time and cost. The program is noted for its very low cost and ease of use compared to other available codes. The accuracy of computations is not sacrificed however, since the results are expected to lie within + or - 10% of actual energy meter readings.

  3. Can computed crystal energy landscapes help understand pharmaceutical solids?

    PubMed Central

    Price, Sarah L.; Braun, Doris E.; Reutzel-Edens, Susan M.

    2017-01-01

    Computational crystal structure prediction (CSP) methods can now be applied to the smaller pharmaceutical molecules currently in drug development. We review the recent uses of computed crystal energy landscapes for pharmaceuticals, concentrating on examples where they have been used in collaboration with industrial-style experimental solid form screening. There is a strong complementarity in aiding experiment to find and characterise practically important solid forms and understanding the nature of the solid form landscape. PMID:27067116

  4. Solving difficult problems creatively: a role for energy optimised deterministic/stochastic hybrid computing

    PubMed Central

    Palmer, Tim N.; O’Shea, Michael

    2015-01-01

    How is the brain configured for creativity? What is the computational substrate for ‘eureka’ moments of insight? Here we argue that creative thinking arises ultimately from a synergy between low-energy stochastic and energy-intensive deterministic processing, and is a by-product of a nervous system whose signal-processing capability per unit of available energy has become highly energy optimised. We suggest that the stochastic component has its origin in thermal (ultimately quantum decoherent) noise affecting the activity of neurons. Without this component, deterministic computational models of the brain are incomplete. PMID:26528173

  5. Radiology image orientation processing for workstation display

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chang, Chung-Fu; Hu, Kermit; Wilson, Dennis L.

    1998-06-01

    Radiology images are acquired electronically using phosphor plates that are read in Computed Radiology (CR) readers. An automated radiology image orientation processor (RIOP) for determining the orientation for chest images and for abdomen images has been devised. In addition, the chest images are differentiated as front (AP or PA) or side (Lateral). Using the processing scheme outlined, hospitals will improve the efficiency of quality assurance (QA) technicians who orient images and prepare the images for presentation to the radiologists.

  6. Theoretical basis of the DOE-2 building energy use analysis program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Curtis, R. B.

    1981-04-01

    A user-oriented, public domain, computer program was developed that will enable architects and engineers to perform design and retrofit studies of the energy-use of buildings under realistic weather conditions. The DOE-2.1A has been named by the US DOE as the standard evaluation technique for the Congressionally mandated building energy performance standards (BEPS). A number of program design decisions were made that determine the breadth of applicability of DOE-2.1. Such design decisions are intrinsic to all building energy use analysis computer programs and determine the types of buildings or the kind of HVAC systems that can be modeled. In particular, the weighting factor method used in DOE-2 has both advantages and disadvantages relative to other computer programs.

  7. Nuclear Computational Low Energy Initiative (NUCLEI)

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

    Reddy, Sanjay K.

    This is the final report for University of Washington for the NUCLEI SciDAC-3. The NUCLEI -project, as defined by the scope of work, will develop, implement and run codes for large-scale computations of many topics in low-energy nuclear physics. Physics to be studied include the properties of nuclei and nuclear decays, nuclear structure and reactions, and the properties of nuclear matter. The computational techniques to be used include Quantum Monte Carlo, Configuration Interaction, Coupled Cluster, and Density Functional methods. The research program will emphasize areas of high interest to current and possible future DOE nuclear physics facilities, including ATLAS andmore » FRIB (nuclear structure and reactions, and nuclear astrophysics), TJNAF (neutron distributions in nuclei, few body systems, and electroweak processes), NIF (thermonuclear reactions), MAJORANA and FNPB (neutrino-less double-beta decay and physics beyond the Standard Model), and LANSCE (fission studies).« less

  8. Dual-Energy Computed Tomography: Image Acquisition, Processing, and Workflow.

    PubMed

    Megibow, Alec J; Kambadakone, Avinash; Ananthakrishnan, Lakshmi

    2018-07-01

    Dual energy computed tomography has been available for more than 10 years; however, it is currently on the cusp of widespread clinical use. The way dual energy data are acquired and assembled must be appreciated at the clinical level so that the various reconstruction types can extend its diagnostic power. The type of scanner that is present in a given practice dictates the way in which the dual energy data can be presented and used. This article compares and contrasts how dual source, rapid kV switching, and spectral technologies acquire and present dual energy reconstructions to practicing radiologists. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Low-Energy Truly Random Number Generation with Superparamagnetic Tunnel Junctions for Unconventional Computing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vodenicarevic, D.; Locatelli, N.; Mizrahi, A.; Friedman, J. S.; Vincent, A. F.; Romera, M.; Fukushima, A.; Yakushiji, K.; Kubota, H.; Yuasa, S.; Tiwari, S.; Grollier, J.; Querlioz, D.

    2017-11-01

    Low-energy random number generation is critical for many emerging computing schemes proposed to complement or replace von Neumann architectures. However, current random number generators are always associated with an energy cost that is prohibitive for these computing schemes. We introduce random number bit generation based on specific nanodevices: superparamagnetic tunnel junctions. We experimentally demonstrate high-quality random bit generation that represents an orders-of-magnitude improvement in energy efficiency over current solutions. We show that the random generation speed improves with nanodevice scaling, and we investigate the impact of temperature, magnetic field, and cross talk. Finally, we show how alternative computing schemes can be implemented using superparamagentic tunnel junctions as random number generators. These results open the way for fabricating efficient hardware computing devices leveraging stochasticity, and they highlight an alternative use for emerging nanodevices.

  10. Motivation and Performance within a Collaborative Computer-Based Modeling Task: Relations between Students' Achievement Goal Orientation, Self-Efficacy, Cognitive Processing, and Achievement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sins, Patrick H. M.; van Joolingen, Wouter R.; Savelsbergh, Elwin R.; van Hout-Wolters, Bernadette

    2008-01-01

    Purpose of the present study was to test a conceptual model of relations among achievement goal orientation, self-efficacy, cognitive processing, and achievement of students working within a particular collaborative task context. The task involved a collaborative computer-based modeling task. In order to test the model, group measures of…

  11. Computing the Energy Cost of the Information Transmitted by Model Biological Neurons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Torrealdea, F. J.; Sarasola, C.; d'Anjou, A.; Moujahid, A.

    2009-08-01

    We assign an energy function to a Hindmarsh-Rose model of a neuron and use it to compute values of average energy consumption during its signalling activity. We also compute values of information entropy of an isolated neuron and of mutual information between two electrically coupled neurons. We find that for the isolated neuron the chaotic signaling regime is the one with the biggest ratio of information entropy to energy consumption. We also find that in the case of electrically coupled neurons there are values of the coupling strength at which the mutual information to energy consumption ratio is maximum, that is, that transmitting at that coupling conditions is energetically less expensive.

  12. A computationally efficient technique to model depth, orientation and alignment via ray tracing in acoustic power transfer systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Christensen, David B.; Basaeri, Hamid; Roundy, Shad

    2017-12-01

    In acoustic power transfer systems, a receiver is displaced from a transmitter by an axial depth, a lateral offset (alignment), and a rotation angle (orientation). In systems where the receiver’s position is not fixed, such as a receiver implanted in biological tissue, slight variations in depth, orientation, or alignment can cause significant variations in the received voltage and power. To address this concern, this paper presents a computationally efficient technique to model the effects of depth, orientation, and alignment via ray tracing (DOART) on received voltage and power in acoustic power transfer systems. DOART combines transducer circuit equivalent models, a modified version of Huygens principle, and ray tracing to simulate pressure wave propagation and reflection between a transmitter and a receiver in a homogeneous medium. A reflected grid method is introduced to calculate propagation distances, reflection coefficients, and initial vectors between a point on the transmitter and a point on the receiver for an arbitrary number of reflections. DOART convergence and simulation time per data point is discussed as a function of the number of reflections and elements chosen. Finally, experimental data is compared to DOART simulation data in terms of magnitude and shape of the received voltage signal.

  13. Object-oriented analysis and design: a methodology for modeling the computer-based patient record.

    PubMed

    Egyhazy, C J; Eyestone, S M; Martino, J; Hodgson, C L

    1998-08-01

    The article highlights the importance of an object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD) methodology for the computer-based patient record (CPR) in the military environment. Many OOAD methodologies do not adequately scale up, allow for efficient reuse of their products, or accommodate legacy systems. A methodology that addresses these issues is formulated and used to demonstrate its applicability in a large-scale health care service system. During a period of 6 months, a team of object modelers and domain experts formulated an OOAD methodology tailored to the Department of Defense Military Health System and used it to produce components of an object model for simple order processing. This methodology and the lessons learned during its implementation are described. This approach is necessary to achieve broad interoperability among heterogeneous automated information systems.

  14. New Ro-Vibrational Kinetic Energy Operators using Polyspherical Coordinates for Polyatomic Molecules

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schwenke, David W.; Kwak, Dochan (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    We illustrate how one can easily derive kinetic energy operators for polyatomic molecules using polyspherical coordinates with very general choices for z-axis embeddings arid angles used to specify relative orientations of internal vectors. Computer algebra is not required.

  15. Energy and time determine scaling in biological and computer designs.

    PubMed

    Moses, Melanie; Bezerra, George; Edwards, Benjamin; Brown, James; Forrest, Stephanie

    2016-08-19

    Metabolic rate in animals and power consumption in computers are analogous quantities that scale similarly with size. We analyse vascular systems of mammals and on-chip networks of microprocessors, where natural selection and human engineering, respectively, have produced systems that minimize both energy dissipation and delivery times. Using a simple network model that simultaneously minimizes energy and time, our analysis explains empirically observed trends in the scaling of metabolic rate in mammals and power consumption and performance in microprocessors across several orders of magnitude in size. Just as the evolutionary transitions from unicellular to multicellular animals in biology are associated with shifts in metabolic scaling, our model suggests that the scaling of power and performance will change as computer designs transition to decentralized multi-core and distributed cyber-physical systems. More generally, a single energy-time minimization principle may govern the design of many complex systems that process energy, materials and information.This article is part of the themed issue 'The major synthetic evolutionary transitions'. © 2016 The Author(s).

  16. Economic impacts of short-rotation woody crops for energy or oriented strand board: a Minnesota case study

    Treesearch

    William F. Lazarus; Douglas G. Tiffany; Ronald S. Zalesny Jr.; Don E. Riemenschneider

    2011-01-01

    Short-rotation woody crops (SRWC) such as hybrid poplars are becoming increasingly competitive with agriculture on marginal land. The trees can be grown for energy and for traditional uses such as oriented strandboard. Using IMPLAN (Impact Analysis for Planning) software, we modeled the impacts of shifting land use from hay and pasture for cow-calf beef operations to...

  17. Rheological study of two-dimensional very anisometric colloidal particle suspensions: from shear-induced orientation to viscous dissipation.

    PubMed

    Philippe, A M; Baravian, C; Bezuglyy, V; Angilella, J R; Meneau, F; Bihannic, I; Michot, L J

    2013-04-30

    In the present study, we investigate the evolution with shear of the viscosity of aqueous suspensions of size-selected natural swelling clay minerals for volume fractions extending from isotropic liquids to weak nematic gels. Such suspensions are strongly shear-thinning, a feature that is systematically observed for suspensions of nonspherical particles and that is linked to their orientational properties. We then combined our rheological measurements with small-angle X-ray scattering experiments that, after appropriate treatment, provide the orientational field of the particles. Whatever the clay nature, particle size, and volume fraction, this orientational field was shown to depend only on a nondimensional Péclet number (Pe) defined for one isolated particle as the ratio between hydrodynamic energy and Brownian thermal energy. The measured orientational fields were then directly compared to those obtained for infinitely thin disks through a numerical computation of the Fokker-Plank equation. Even in cases where multiple hydrodynamic interactions dominate, qualitative agreement between both orientational fields is observed, especially at high Péclet number. We have then used an effective approach to assess the viscosity of these suspensions through the definition of an effective volume fraction. Using such an approach, we have been able to transform the relationship between viscosity and volume fraction (ηr = f(φ)) into a relationship that links viscosity with both flow and volume fraction (ηr = f(φ, Pe)).

  18. Orientation decoding: Sense in spirals?

    PubMed

    Clifford, Colin W G; Mannion, Damien J

    2015-04-15

    The orientation of a visual stimulus can be successfully decoded from the multivariate pattern of fMRI activity in human visual cortex. Whether this capacity requires coarse-scale orientation biases is controversial. We and others have advocated the use of spiral stimuli to eliminate a potential coarse-scale bias-the radial bias toward local orientations that are collinear with the centre of gaze-and hence narrow down the potential coarse-scale biases that could contribute to orientation decoding. The usefulness of this strategy is challenged by the computational simulations of Carlson (2014), who reported the ability to successfully decode spirals of opposite sense (opening clockwise or counter-clockwise) from the pooled output of purportedly unbiased orientation filters. Here, we elaborate the mathematical relationship between spirals of opposite sense to confirm that they cannot be discriminated on the basis of the pooled output of unbiased or radially biased orientation filters. We then demonstrate that Carlson's (2014) reported decoding ability is consistent with the presence of inadvertent biases in the set of orientation filters; biases introduced by their digital implementation and unrelated to the brain's processing of orientation. These analyses demonstrate that spirals must be processed with an orientation bias other than the radial bias for successful decoding of spiral sense. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Computational Analysis on Performance of Thermal Energy Storage (TES) Diffuser

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adib, M. A. H. M.; Adnan, F.; Ismail, A. R.; Kardigama, K.; Salaam, H. A.; Ahmad, Z.; Johari, N. H.; Anuar, Z.; Azmi, N. S. N.

    2012-09-01

    Application of thermal energy storage (TES) system reduces cost and energy consumption. The performance of the overall operation is affected by diffuser design. In this study, computational analysis is used to determine the thermocline thickness. Three dimensional simulations with different tank height-to-diameter ratio (HD), diffuser opening and the effect of difference number of diffuser holes are investigated. Medium HD tanks simulations with double ring octagonal diffuser show good thermocline behavior and clear distinction between warm and cold water. The result show, the best performance of thermocline thickness during 50% time charging occur in medium tank with height-to-diameter ratio of 4.0 and double ring octagonal diffuser with 48 holes (9mm opening ~ 60%) acceptable compared to diffuser with 6mm ~ 40% and 12mm ~ 80% opening. The conclusion is computational analysis method are very useful in the study on performance of thermal energy storage (TES).

  20. Aspect-Oriented Subprogram Synthesizes UML Sequence Diagrams

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barry, Matthew R.; Osborne, Richard N.

    2006-01-01

    The Rational Sequence computer program described elsewhere includes a subprogram that utilizes the capability for aspect-oriented programming when that capability is present. This subprogram is denoted the Rational Sequence (AspectJ) component because it uses AspectJ, which is an extension of the Java programming language that introduces aspect-oriented programming techniques into the language

  1. Analytical Computation of Energy-Energy Correlation at Next-to-Leading Order in QCD

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dixon, Lance J.; Luo, Ming-xing; Shtabovenko, Vladyslav; Yang, Tong-Zhi; Zhu, Hua Xing

    2018-03-01

    The energy-energy correlation (EEC) between two detectors in e+e- annihilation was computed analytically at leading order in QCD almost 40 years ago, and numerically at next-to-leading order (NLO) starting in the 1980s. We present the first analytical result for the EEC at NLO, which is remarkably simple, and facilitates analytical study of the perturbative structure of the EEC. We provide the expansion of the EEC in the collinear and back-to-back regions through next-to-leading power, information which should aid resummation in these regions.

  2. Feasibility of dual-energy computed tomography in radiation therapy planning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sheen, Heesoon; Shin, Han-Back; Cho, Sungkoo; Cho, Junsang; Han, Youngyih

    2017-12-01

    In this study, the noise level, effective atomic number ( Z eff), accuracy of the computed tomography (CT) number, and the CT number to the relative electron density EDconversion curve were estimated for virtual monochromatic energy and polychromatic energy. These values were compared to the theoretically predicted values to investigate the feasibility of the use of dual-energy CT in routine radiation therapy planning. The accuracies of the parameters were within the range of acceptability. These results can serve as a stepping stone toward the routine use of dual-energy CT in radiotherapy planning.

  3. Aspect-Oriented Programming

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Elrad, Tzilla (Editor); Filman, Robert E. (Editor); Bader, Atef (Editor)

    2001-01-01

    Computer science has experienced an evolution in programming languages and systems from the crude assembly and machine codes of the earliest computers through concepts such as formula translation, procedural programming, structured programming, functional programming, logic programming, and programming with abstract data types. Each of these steps in programming technology has advanced our ability to achieve clear separation of concerns at the source code level. Currently, the dominant programming paradigm is object-oriented programming - the idea that one builds a software system by decomposing a problem into objects and then writing the code of those objects. Such objects abstract together behavior and data into a single conceptual and physical entity. Object-orientation is reflected in the entire spectrum of current software development methodologies and tools - we have OO methodologies, analysis and design tools, and OO programming languages. Writing complex applications such as graphical user interfaces, operating systems, and distributed applications while maintaining comprehensible source code has been made possible with OOP. Success at developing simpler systems leads to aspirations for greater complexity. Object orientation is a clever idea, but has certain limitations. We are now seeing that many requirements do not decompose neatly into behavior centered on a single locus. Object technology has difficulty localizing concerns invoking global constraints and pandemic behaviors, appropriately segregating concerns, and applying domain-specific knowledge. Post-object programming (POP) mechanisms that look to increase the expressiveness of the OO paradigm are a fertile arena for current research. Examples of POP technologies include domain-specific languages, generative programming, generic programming, constraint languages, reflection and metaprogramming, feature-oriented development, views/viewpoints, and asynchronous message brokering. (Czarneclu and

  4. A shared computer-based problem-oriented patient record for the primary care team.

    PubMed

    Linnarsson, R; Nordgren, K

    1995-01-01

    1. INTRODUCTION. A computer-based patient record (CPR) system, Swedestar, has been developed for use in primary health care. The principal aim of the system is to support continuous quality improvement through improved information handling, improved decision-making, and improved procedures for quality assurance. The Swedestar system has evolved during a ten-year period beginning in 1984. 2. SYSTEM DESIGN. The design philosophy is based on the following key factors: a shared, problem-oriented patient record; structured data entry based on an extensive controlled vocabulary; advanced search and query functions, where the query language has the most important role; integrated decision support for drug prescribing and care protocols and guidelines; integrated procedures for quality assurance. 3. A SHARED PROBLEM-ORIENTED PATIENT RECORD. The core of the CPR system is the problem-oriented patient record. All problems of one patient, recorded by different members of the care team, are displayed on the problem list. Starting from this list, a problem follow-up can be made, one problem at a time or for several problems simultaneously. Thus, it is possible to get an integrated view, across provider categories, of those problems of one patient that belong together. This shared problem-oriented patient record provides an important basis for the primary care team work. 4. INTEGRATED DECISION SUPPORT. The decision support of the system includes a drug prescribing module and a care protocol module. The drug prescribing module is integrated with the patient records and includes an on-line check of the patient's medication list for potential interactions and data-driven reminders concerning major drug problems. Care protocols have been developed for the most common chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes, and hypertension. The patient records can be automatically checked according to the care protocols. 5. PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE. The Swedestar system has been implemented in a

  5. Highly efficient hybrid energy generator: coupled organic photovoltaic device and randomly oriented electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) nanofiber.

    PubMed

    Park, Boongik; Lee, Kihwan; Park, Jongjin; Kim, Jongmin; Kim, Ohyun

    2013-03-01

    A hybrid architecture consisting of an inverted organic photovoltaic device and a randomly-oriented electrospun PVDF piezoelectric device was fabricated as a highly-efficient energy generator. It uses the inverted photovoltaic device with coupled electrospun PVDF nanofibers as tandem structure to convert solar and mechanical vibrations energy to electricity simultaneously or individually. The power conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic device was also significantly improved up to 4.72% by optimized processes such as intrinsic ZnO, MoO3 and active layer. A simple electrospinning method with the two electrode technique was adopted to achieve a high voltage of - 300 mV in PVDF piezoelectric fibers. Highly-efficient HEG using voltage adder circuit provides the conceptual possibility of realizing multi-functional energy generator whenever and wherever various energy sources are available.

  6. Inertial Orientation Trackers with Drift Compensation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Foxlin, Eric M.

    2008-01-01

    A class of inertial-sensor systems with drift compensation has been invented for use in measuring the orientations of human heads (and perhaps other, similarly sized objects). These systems can be designed to overcome some of the limitations of prior orientation-measuring systems that are based, variously, on magnetic, optical, mechanical-linkage, and acoustical principles. The orientation signals generated by the systems of this invention could be used for diverse purposes, including controlling head-orientation-dependent virtual reality visual displays or enabling persons whose limbs are paralyzed to control machinery by means of head motions. The inventive concept admits to variations too numerous to describe here, making it necessary to limit this description to a typical system, the selected aspects of which are illustrated in the figure. A set of sensors is mounted on a bracket on a band or a cap that gently but firmly grips the wearer s head to be tracked. Among the sensors are three drift-sensitive rotationrate sensors (e.g., integrated-circuit angular- rate-measuring gyroscopes), which put out DC voltages nominally proportional to the rates of rotation about their sensory axes. These sensors are mounted in mutually orthogonal orientations for measuring rates of rotation about the roll, pitch, and yaw axes of the wearer s head. The outputs of these rate sensors are conditioned and digitized, and the resulting data are fed to an integrator module implemented in software in a digital computer. In the integrator module, the angular-rate signals are jointly integrated by any of several established methods to obtain a set of angles that represent approximately the orientation of the head in an external, inertial coordinate system. Because some drift is always present as a component of an angular position computed by integrating the outputs of angular-rate sensors, the orientation signal is processed further in a drift-compensator software module.

  7. Plasma-electric field controlled growth of oriented graphene for energy storage applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ghosh, Subrata; Polaki, S. R.; Kamruddin, M.; Jeong, Sang Mun; (Ken Ostrikov, Kostya

    2018-04-01

    It is well known that graphene grows as flat sheets aligned with the growth substrate. Oriented graphene structures typically normal to the substrate have recently attracted major attention. Most often, the normal orientation is achieved in a plasma-assisted growth and is believed to be due to the plasma-induced in-built electric field, which is usually oriented normal to the substrate. This work focuses on the effect of an in-built electric field on the growth direction, morphology, interconnectedness, structural properties and also the supercapacitor performance of various configurations of graphene structures and reveals the unique dependence of these features on the electric field orientation. It is shown that tilting of growth substrates from parallel to the normal direction with respect to the direction of in-built plasma electric field leads to the morphological transitions from horizontal graphene layers, to oriented individual graphene sheets and then interconnected 3D networks of oriented graphene sheets. The revealed transition of the growth orientation leads to a change in structural properties, wetting nature, types of defect in graphitic structures and also affects their charge storage capacity when used as supercapacitor electrodes. This simple and versatile approach opens new opportunities for the production of potentially large batches of differently oriented and structured graphene sheets in one production run.

  8. Orientational imaging of a single plasmonic nanoparticle using dark-field hyperspectral imaging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mehta, Nishir; Mahigir, Amirreza; Veronis, Georgios; Gartia, Manas Ranjan

    2017-08-01

    Orientation of plasmonic nanostructures is an important feature in many nanoscale applications such as catalyst, biosensors DNA interactions, protein detections, hotspot of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and fluorescence resonant energy transfer (FRET) experiments. However, due to diffraction limit, it is challenging to obtain the exact orientation of the nanostructure using standard optical microscope. Hyperspectral Imaging Microscopy is a state-of-the-art visualization technology that combines modern optics with hyperspectral imaging and computer system to provide the identification and quantitative spectral analysis of nano- and microscale structures. In this work, initially we use transmitted dark field imaging technique to locate single nanoparticle on a glass substrate. Then we employ hyperspectral imaging technique at the same spot to investigate orientation of single nanoparticle. No special tagging or staining of nanoparticle has been done, as more likely required in traditional microscopy techniques. Different orientations have been identified by carefully understanding and calibrating shift in spectral response from each different orientations of similar sized nanoparticles. Wavelengths recorded are between 300 nm to 900 nm. The orientations measured by hyperspectral microscopy was validated using finite difference time domain (FDTD) electrodynamics calculations and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The combination of high resolution nanometer-scale imaging techniques and the modern numerical modeling capacities thus enables a meaningful advance in our knowledge of manipulating and fabricating shaped nanostructures. This work will advance our understanding of the behavior of small nanoparticle clusters useful for sensing, nanomedicine, and surface sciences.

  9. Influence of the interplanetary magnetic field orientation on polar cap ion trajectories - Energy gain and drift effects

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Delcourt, D. C.; Horwitz, J. L.; Swinney, K. R.

    1988-01-01

    The influence of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) orientation on the transport of low-energy ions injected from the ionosphere is investigated using three-dimensional particle codes. It is shown that, unlike the auroral zone outflow, the ions originating from the polar cap region exhibit drastically different drift paths during southward and northward IMF. During southward IMF orientation, a 'two-cell' convection pattern prevails in the ionosphere, and three-dimensional simulations of ion trajectories indicate a preferential trapping of the light ions H(+) in the central plasma sheet, due to the wide azimuthal dispersion of the heavy ions, O(+). In contrast, for northward IMF orientation, the 'four-cell' potential distribution predicted in the ionosphere imposes a temporary ion drift toward higher L shells in the central polar cap. In this case, while the light ions can escape into the magnetotail, the heavy ions can remain trapped, featuring more intense acceleration (from a few electron volts up to the keV range) followed by precipitation at high invariant latitudes, as a consequence of their further travel into the tail.

  10. Orientation/Time Management Skill Training Lesson: Development and Evaluation

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1979-07-01

    instructional environment. This Orientation/ Time Management lesson provides students with appropriate role models for increasing acceptance of their...time savings can be obtained by a combination of this type of orientation and time management skill training with a computer-based progress targeting

  11. Solid liquid interfacial free energies of benzene

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Azreg-Aı¨nou, M.

    2007-02-01

    In this work we determine for the range of melting temperatures 284.6⩽T⩽306.7 K, corresponding to equilibrium pressures 20.6⩽P⩽102.9 MPa, the benzene solid-liquid interfacial free energy by a cognitive approach including theoretical and experimental physics, mathematics, computer algebra (MATLAB), and some results from molecular dynamics computer simulations. From a theoretical and mathematical points of view, we deal with the elaboration of an analytical expression for the internal energy derived from a unified solid-liquid-vapor equation of state and with the elaboration of an existing statistical model for the entropy drop of the melt near the solid-liquid interface. From an experimental point of view, we will use our results obtained in collaboration with colleagues concerning the supercooled liquid benzene. Of particular interest for this work is the existing center-of-mass radial distribution function of benzene at 298 K obtained by computer simulation. Crystal-orientation-independent and minimum interfacial free energies are calculated and shown to increase slightly with the above temperatures. Both crystal-orientation-independent and minimum free energies agree with existing calculations and with rare existing experimental data. Taking into account the fact that the extent of supercooling is generally admitted as a constant, we determine the limits of supercooling by which we explore the behavior of the critical nucleus radius which is shown to decrease in terms of the above temperatures. The radius of the, and the number of molecules per, critical nucleus are shown to assume the average values of 20.2 A˚ and 175 with standard deviations of 0.16 Å and 4.5, respectively.

  12. Layer-oriented simulation tool.

    PubMed

    Arcidiacono, Carmelo; Diolaiti, Emiliano; Tordi, Massimiliano; Ragazzoni, Roberto; Farinato, Jacopo; Vernet, Elise; Marchetti, Enrico

    2004-08-01

    The Layer-Oriented Simulation Tool (LOST) is a numerical simulation code developed for analysis of the performance of multiconjugate adaptive optics modules following a layer-oriented approach. The LOST code computes the atmospheric layers in terms of phase screens and then propagates the phase delays introduced in the natural guide stars' wave fronts by using geometrical optics approximations. These wave fronts are combined in an optical or numerical way, including the effects of wave-front sensors on measurements in terms of phase noise. The LOST code is described, and two applications to layer-oriented modules are briefly presented. We have focus on the Multiconjugate adaptive optics demonstrator to be mounted upon the Very Large Telescope and on the Near-IR-Visible Adaptive Interferometer for Astronomy (NIRVANA) interferometric system to be installed on the combined focus of the Large Binocular Telescope.

  13. Computationally efficient characterization of potential energy surfaces based on fingerprint distances

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

    Schaefer, Bastian; Goedecker, Stefan, E-mail: stefan.goedecker@unibas.ch

    2016-07-21

    An analysis of the network defined by the potential energy minima of multi-atomic systems and their connectivity via reaction pathways that go through transition states allows us to understand important characteristics like thermodynamic, dynamic, and structural properties. Unfortunately computing the transition states and reaction pathways in addition to the significant energetically low-lying local minima is a computationally demanding task. We here introduce a computationally efficient method that is based on a combination of the minima hopping global optimization method and the insight that uphill barriers tend to increase with increasing structural distances of the educt and product states. This methodmore » allows us to replace the exact connectivity information and transition state energies with alternative and approximate concepts. Without adding any significant additional cost to the minima hopping global optimization approach, this method allows us to generate an approximate network of the minima, their connectivity, and a rough measure for the energy needed for their interconversion. This can be used to obtain a first qualitative idea on important physical and chemical properties by means of a disconnectivity graph analysis. Besides the physical insight obtained by such an analysis, the gained knowledge can be used to make a decision if it is worthwhile or not to invest computational resources for an exact computation of the transition states and the reaction pathways. Furthermore it is demonstrated that the here presented method can be used for finding physically reasonable interconversion pathways that are promising input pathways for methods like transition path sampling or discrete path sampling.« less

  14. Evaluation of Head Orientation and Neck Muscle EMG Signals as Command Inputs to a Human-Computer Interface for Individuals with High Tetraplegia

    PubMed Central

    Williams, Matthew R.; Kirsch, Robert F.

    2013-01-01

    We investigated the performance of three user interfaces for restoration of cursor control in individuals with tetraplegia: head orientation, EMG from face and neck muscles, and a standard computer mouse (for comparison). Subjects engaged in a 2D, center-out, Fitts’ Law style task and performance was evaluated using several measures. Overall, head orientation commanded motion resembled mouse commanded cursor motion (smooth, accurate movements to all targets), although with somewhat lower performance. EMG commanded movements exhibited a higher average speed, but other performance measures were lower, particularly for diagonal targets. Compared to head orientation, EMG as a cursor command source was less accurate, was more affected by target direction and was more prone to overshoot the target. In particular, EMG commands for diagonal targets were more sequential, moving first in one direction and then the other rather than moving simultaneous in the two directions. While the relative performance of each user interface differs, each has specific advantages depending on the application. PMID:18990652

  15. Efficient free energy calculations of quantum systems through computer simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Antonelli, Alex; Ramirez, Rafael; Herrero, Carlos; Hernandez, Eduardo

    2009-03-01

    In general, the classical limit is assumed in computer simulation calculations of free energy. This approximation, however, is not justifiable for a class of systems in which quantum contributions for the free energy cannot be neglected. The inclusion of quantum effects is important for the determination of reliable phase diagrams of these systems. In this work, we present a new methodology to compute the free energy of many-body quantum systems [1]. This methodology results from the combination of the path integral formulation of statistical mechanics and efficient non-equilibrium methods to estimate free energy, namely, the adiabatic switching and reversible scaling methods. A quantum Einstein crystal is used as a model to show the accuracy and reliability the methodology. This new method is applied to the calculation of solid-liquid coexistence properties of neon. Our findings indicate that quantum contributions to properties such as, melting point, latent heat of fusion, entropy of fusion, and slope of melting line can be up to 10% of the calculated values using the classical approximation. [1] R. M. Ramirez, C. P. Herrero, A. Antonelli, and E. R. Hernández, Journal of Chemical Physics 129, 064110 (2008)

  16. A computational procedure for multibody systems including flexible beam dynamics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Downer, J. D.; Park, K. C.; Chiou, J. C.

    1990-01-01

    A computational procedure suitable for the solution of equations of motions for flexible multibody systems has been developed. The flexible beams are modeled using a fully nonlinear theory which accounts for both finite rotations and large deformations. The present formulation incorporates physical measures of conjugate Cauchy stress and covariant strain increments. As a consequence, the beam model can easily be interfaced with real-time strain measurements and feedback control systems. A distinct feature of the present work is the computational preservation of total energy for undamped systems; this is obtained via an objective strain increment/stress update procedure combined with an energy-conserving time integration algorithm which contains an accurate update of angular orientations. The procedure is demonstrated via several example problems.

  17. Computer-Controlled System for Plasma Ion Energy Auto-Analyzer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Xian-qiu; Chen, Jun-fang; Jiang, Zhen-mei; Zhong, Qing-hua; Xiong, Yu-ying; Wu, Kai-hua

    2003-02-01

    A computer-controlled system for plasma ion energy auto-analyzer was technically studied for rapid and online measurement of plasma ion energy distribution. The system intelligently controls all the equipments via a RS-232 port, a printer port and a home-built circuit. The software designed by Lab VIEW G language automatically fulfils all of the tasks such as system initializing, adjustment of scanning-voltage, measurement of weak-current, data processing, graphic export, etc. By using the system, a few minutes are taken to acquire the whole ion energy distribution, which rapidly provides important parameters of plasma process techniques based on semiconductor devices and microelectronics.

  18. Online SVT Commissioning and Monitoring using a Service-Oriented Architecture Framework

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ruger, Justin; Gotra, Yuri; Weygand, Dennis; Ziegler, Veronique; Heddle, David; Gore, David

    2014-03-01

    Silicon Vertex Tracker detectors are devices used in high energy experiments for precision measurement of charged tracks close to the collision point. Early detection of faulty hardware is essential and therefore code development of monitoring and commissioning software is essential. The computing framework for the CLAS12 experiment at Jefferson Lab is a service-oriented architecture that allows efficient data-flow from one service to another through loose coupling. I will present the strategy and development of services for the CLAS12 Silicon Tracker data monitoring and commissioning within this framework, as well as preliminary results using test data.

  19. BigData and computing challenges in high energy and nuclear physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Klimentov, A.; Grigorieva, M.; Kiryanov, A.; Zarochentsev, A.

    2017-06-01

    In this contribution we discuss the various aspects of the computing resource needs experiments in High Energy and Nuclear Physics, in particular at the Large Hadron Collider. This will evolve in the future when moving from LHC to HL-LHC in ten years from now, when the already exascale levels of data we are processing could increase by a further order of magnitude. The distributed computing environment has been a great success and the inclusion of new super-computing facilities, cloud computing and volunteering computing for the future is a big challenge, which we are successfully mastering with a considerable contribution from many super-computing centres around the world, academic and commercial cloud providers. We also discuss R&D computing projects started recently in National Research Center ``Kurchatov Institute''

  20. Soft-error tolerance and energy consumption evaluation of embedded computer with magnetic random access memory in practical systems using computer simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nebashi, Ryusuke; Sakimura, Noboru; Sugibayashi, Tadahiko

    2017-08-01

    We evaluated the soft-error tolerance and energy consumption of an embedded computer with magnetic random access memory (MRAM) using two computer simulators. One is a central processing unit (CPU) simulator of a typical embedded computer system. We simulated the radiation-induced single-event-upset (SEU) probability in a spin-transfer-torque MRAM cell and also the failure rate of a typical embedded computer due to its main memory SEU error. The other is a delay tolerant network (DTN) system simulator. It simulates the power dissipation of wireless sensor network nodes of the system using a revised CPU simulator and a network simulator. We demonstrated that the SEU effect on the embedded computer with 1 Gbit MRAM-based working memory is less than 1 failure in time (FIT). We also demonstrated that the energy consumption of the DTN sensor node with MRAM-based working memory can be reduced to 1/11. These results indicate that MRAM-based working memory enhances the disaster tolerance of embedded computers.

  1. Rock climbing: A local-global algorithm to compute minimum energy and minimum free energy pathways.

    PubMed

    Templeton, Clark; Chen, Szu-Hua; Fathizadeh, Arman; Elber, Ron

    2017-10-21

    The calculation of minimum energy or minimum free energy paths is an important step in the quantitative and qualitative studies of chemical and physical processes. The computations of these coordinates present a significant challenge and have attracted considerable theoretical and computational interest. Here we present a new local-global approach to study reaction coordinates, based on a gradual optimization of an action. Like other global algorithms, it provides a path between known reactants and products, but it uses a local algorithm to extend the current path in small steps. The local-global approach does not require an initial guess to the path, a major challenge for global pathway finders. Finally, it provides an exact answer (the steepest descent path) at the end of the calculations. Numerical examples are provided for the Mueller potential and for a conformational transition in a solvated ring system.

  2. Cloud computing for energy management in smart grid - an application survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Naveen, P.; Kiing Ing, Wong; Kobina Danquah, Michael; Sidhu, Amandeep S.; Abu-Siada, Ahmed

    2016-03-01

    The smart grid is the emerging energy system wherein the application of information technology, tools and techniques that make the grid run more efficiently. It possesses demand response capacity to help balance electrical consumption with supply. The challenges and opportunities of emerging and future smart grids can be addressed by cloud computing. To focus on these requirements, we provide an in-depth survey on different cloud computing applications for energy management in the smart grid architecture. In this survey, we present an outline of the current state of research on smart grid development. We also propose a model of cloud based economic power dispatch for smart grid.

  3. Energy star. (Latest citations from the Computer database). Published Search

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

    NONE

    The bibliography contains citations concerning a collaborative effort between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and private industry to reduce electrical power consumed by personal computers and related peripherals. Manufacturers complying with EPA guidelines are officially recognized by award of a special Energy Star logo, and are referred to in official documents as a vendor of green computers. (Contains 50-250 citations and includes a subject term index and title list.) (Copyright NERAC, Inc. 1995)

  4. Energy star. (Latest citations from the Computer database). Published Search

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

    Not Available

    The bibliography contains citations concerning a collaborative effort between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and private industry to reduce electrical power consumed by personal computers and related peripherals. Manufacturers complying with EPA guidelines are officially recognized by award of a special Energy Star logo, and are referred to in official documents as a vendor of green computers. (Contains a minimum of 81 citations and includes a subject term index and title list.)

  5. Energy star. (Latest citations from the Computer database). Published Search

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

    NONE

    The bibliography contains citations concerning a collaborative effort between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and private industry to reduce electrical power consumed by personal computers and related peripherals. Manufacturers complying with EPA guidelines are officially recognized by award of a special Energy Star logo, and are referred to in official documents as a vendor of green computers. (Contains a minimum of 234 citations and includes a subject term index and title list.)

  6. 10 CFR 434.511 - Orientation and shape.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Orientation and shape. 434.511 Section 434.511 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ENERGY CONSERVATION ENERGY CODE FOR NEW FEDERAL COMMERCIAL AND MULTI-FAMILY HIGH RISE... ft. except for dwelling units in hotels/motels and multi-family high-rise residential buildings where...

  7. Orientation dependence in fluorescent energy transfer between Cy3 and Cy5 terminally attached to double-stranded nucleic acids

    PubMed Central

    Iqbal, Asif; Arslan, Sinan; Okumus, Burak; Wilson, Timothy J.; Giraud, Gerard; Norman, David G.; Ha, Taekjip; Lilley, David M. J.

    2008-01-01

    We have found that the efficiency of fluorescence resonance energy transfer between Cy3 and Cy5 terminally attached to the 5′ ends of a DNA duplex is significantly affected by the relative orientation of the two fluorophores. The cyanine fluorophores are predominantly stacked on the ends of the helix in the manner of an additional base pair, and thus their relative orientation depends on the length of the helix. Observed fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) efficiency depends on the length of the helix, as well as its helical periodicity. By changing the helical geometry from B form double-stranded DNA to A form hybrid RNA/DNA, a marked phase shift occurs in the modulation of FRET efficiency with helix length. Both curves are well explained by the standard geometry of B and A form helices. The observed modulation for both polymers is less than that calculated for a fully rigid attachment of the fluorophores. However, a model involving lateral mobility of the fluorophores on the ends of the helix explains the observed experimental data. This has been further modified to take account of a minor fraction of unstacked fluorophore observed by fluorescent lifetime measurements. Our data unequivocally establish that Förster transfer obeys the orientation dependence as expected for a dipole–dipole interaction. PMID:18676615

  8. Minimizing the Free Energy: A Computer Method for Teaching Chemical Equilibrium Concepts.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heald, Emerson F.

    1978-01-01

    Presents a computer method for teaching chemical equilibrium concepts using material balance conditions and the minimization of the free energy. Method for the calculation of chemical equilibrium, the computer program used to solve equilibrium problems and applications of the method are also included. (HM)

  9. Functional implications of orientation maps in primary visual cortex

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Koch, Erin; Jin, Jianzhong; Alonso, Jose M.; Zaidi, Qasim

    2016-11-01

    Stimulus orientation in the primary visual cortex of primates and carnivores is mapped as iso-orientation domains radiating from pinwheel centres, where orientation preferences of neighbouring cells change circularly. Whether this orientation map has a function is currently debated, because many mammals, such as rodents, do not have such maps. Here we show that two fundamental properties of visual cortical responses, contrast saturation and cross-orientation suppression, are stronger within cat iso-orientation domains than at pinwheel centres. These differences develop when excitation (not normalization) from neighbouring oriented neurons is applied to different cortical orientation domains and then balanced by inhibition from un-oriented neurons. The functions of the pinwheel mosaic emerge from these local intra-cortical computations: Narrower tuning, greater cross-orientation suppression and higher contrast gain of iso-orientation cells facilitate extraction of object contours from images, whereas broader tuning, greater linearity and less suppression of pinwheel cells generate selectivity for surface patterns and textures.

  10. Insights on Supporting Learning during Computing Science and Engineering Students' Transition to University: A Design-Oriented, Mixed Methods Exploration of Instructor and Student Perspectives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guloy, Sheryl; Salimi, Farimah; Cukierman, Diana; McGee Thompson, Donna

    2017-01-01

    Using a design-based orientation, this mixed-method study explored ways to support computing science and engineering students whose study strategies may be inadequate to meet coursework expectations. Learning support workshops, paired with university courses, have been found to assist students as they transition to university learning, thereby…

  11. Money for Research, Not for Energy Bills: Finding Energy and Cost Savings in High Performance Computer Facility Designs

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

    Drewmark Communications; Sartor, Dale; Wilson, Mark

    2010-07-01

    High-performance computing facilities in the United States consume an enormous amount of electricity, cutting into research budgets and challenging public- and private-sector efforts to reduce energy consumption and meet environmental goals. However, these facilities can greatly reduce their energy demand through energy-efficient design of the facility itself. Using a case study of a facility under design, this article discusses strategies and technologies that can be used to help achieve energy reductions.

  12. SIVEH: numerical computing simulation of wireless energy-harvesting sensor nodes.

    PubMed

    Sanchez, Antonio; Blanc, Sara; Climent, Salvador; Yuste, Pedro; Ors, Rafael

    2013-09-04

    The paper presents a numerical energy harvesting model for sensor nodes, SIVEH (Simulator I-V for EH), based on I-V hardware tracking. I-V tracking is demonstrated to be more accurate than traditional energy modeling techniques when some of the components present different power dissipation at either different operating voltages or drawn currents. SIVEH numerical computing allows fast simulation of long periods of time-days, weeks, months or years-using real solar radiation curves. Moreover, SIVEH modeling has been enhanced with sleep time rate dynamic adjustment, while seeking energy-neutral operation. This paper presents the model description, a functional verification and a critical comparison with the classic energy approach.

  13. Protocols Utilizing Constant pH Molecular Dynamics to Compute pH-Dependent Binding Free Energies

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    In protein–ligand binding, the electrostatic environments of the two binding partners may vary significantly in bound and unbound states, which may lead to protonation changes upon binding. In cases where ligand binding results in a net uptake or release of protons, the free energy of binding is pH-dependent. Nevertheless, conventional free energy calculations and molecular docking protocols typically do not rigorously account for changes in protonation that may occur upon ligand binding. To address these shortcomings, we present a simple methodology based on Wyman’s binding polynomial formalism to account for the pH dependence of binding free energies and demonstrate its use on cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) host–guest systems. Using constant pH molecular dynamics and a reference binding free energy that is taken either from experiment or from thermodynamic integration computations, the pH-dependent binding free energy is determined. This computational protocol accurately captures the large pKa shifts observed experimentally upon CB[7]:guest association and reproduces experimental binding free energies at different levels of pH. We show that incorrect assignment of fixed protonation states in free energy computations can give errors of >2 kcal/mol in these host–guest systems. Use of the methods presented here avoids such errors, thus suggesting their utility in computing proton-linked binding free energies for protein–ligand complexes. PMID:25134690

  14. Energy and time determine scaling in biological and computer designs

    PubMed Central

    Bezerra, George; Edwards, Benjamin; Brown, James; Forrest, Stephanie

    2016-01-01

    Metabolic rate in animals and power consumption in computers are analogous quantities that scale similarly with size. We analyse vascular systems of mammals and on-chip networks of microprocessors, where natural selection and human engineering, respectively, have produced systems that minimize both energy dissipation and delivery times. Using a simple network model that simultaneously minimizes energy and time, our analysis explains empirically observed trends in the scaling of metabolic rate in mammals and power consumption and performance in microprocessors across several orders of magnitude in size. Just as the evolutionary transitions from unicellular to multicellular animals in biology are associated with shifts in metabolic scaling, our model suggests that the scaling of power and performance will change as computer designs transition to decentralized multi-core and distributed cyber-physical systems. More generally, a single energy–time minimization principle may govern the design of many complex systems that process energy, materials and information. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The major synthetic evolutionary transitions’. PMID:27431524

  15. Computational predictions of the tensile properties of electrospun fiber meshes: effect of fiber diameter and fiber orientation

    PubMed Central

    Stylianopoulos, Triantafyllos; Bashur, Chris A.; Goldstein, Aaron S.; Guelcher, Scott A.; Barocas, Victor H.

    2008-01-01

    The mechanical properties of biomaterial scaffolds are crucial for their efficacy in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. At the microscopic scale, the scaffold must be sufficiently rigid to support cell adhesion, spreading, and normal extracellular matrix deposition. Concurrently, at the macroscopic scale the scaffold must have mechanical properties that closely match those of the target tissue. The achievement of both goals may be possible by careful control of the scaffold architecture. Recently, electrospinning has emerged as an attractive means to form fused fiber scaffolds for tissue engineering. The diameter and relative orientation of fibers affect cell behavior, but their impact on the tensile properties of the scaffolds has not been rigorously characterized. To examine the structure-property relationship, electrospun meshes were made from a polyurethane elastomer with different fiber diameters and orientations and mechanically tested to determine the dependence of the elastic modulus on the mesh architecture. Concurrently, a multiscale modeling strategy developed for type I collagen networks was employed to predict the mechanical behavior of the polyurethane meshes. Experimentally, the measured elastic modulus of the meshes varied from 0.56 to 3.0 MPa depending on fiber diameter and the degree of fiber alignment. Model predictions for tensile loading parallel to fiber orientation agreed well with experimental measurements for a wide range of conditions when a fitted fiber modulus of 18 MPa was used. Although the model predictions were less accurate in transverse loading of anisotropic samples, these results indicate that computational modeling can assist in design of electrospun artificial tissue scaffolds. PMID:19627797

  16. Fiber orientation interpolation for the multiscale analysis of short fiber reinforced composite parts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Köbler, Jonathan; Schneider, Matti; Ospald, Felix; Andrä, Heiko; Müller, Ralf

    2018-06-01

    For short fiber reinforced plastic parts the local fiber orientation has a strong influence on the mechanical properties. To enable multiscale computations using surrogate models we advocate a two-step identification strategy. Firstly, for a number of sample orientations an effective model is derived by numerical methods available in the literature. Secondly, to cover a general orientation state, these effective models are interpolated. In this article we develop a novel and effective strategy to carry out this interpolation. Firstly, taking into account symmetry arguments, we reduce the fiber orientation phase space to a triangle in R^2 . For an associated triangulation of this triangle we furnish each node with an surrogate model. Then, we use linear interpolation on the fiber orientation triangle to equip each fiber orientation state with an effective stress. The proposed approach is quite general, and works for any physically nonlinear constitutive law on the micro-scale, as long as surrogate models for single fiber orientation states can be extracted. To demonstrate the capabilities of our scheme we study the viscoelastic creep behavior of short glass fiber reinforced PA66, and use Schapery's collocation method together with FFT-based computational homogenization to derive single orientation state effective models. We discuss the efficient implementation of our method, and present results of a component scale computation on a benchmark component by using ABAQUS ®.

  17. Fiber orientation interpolation for the multiscale analysis of short fiber reinforced composite parts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Köbler, Jonathan; Schneider, Matti; Ospald, Felix; Andrä, Heiko; Müller, Ralf

    2018-04-01

    For short fiber reinforced plastic parts the local fiber orientation has a strong influence on the mechanical properties. To enable multiscale computations using surrogate models we advocate a two-step identification strategy. Firstly, for a number of sample orientations an effective model is derived by numerical methods available in the literature. Secondly, to cover a general orientation state, these effective models are interpolated. In this article we develop a novel and effective strategy to carry out this interpolation. Firstly, taking into account symmetry arguments, we reduce the fiber orientation phase space to a triangle in R^2 . For an associated triangulation of this triangle we furnish each node with an surrogate model. Then, we use linear interpolation on the fiber orientation triangle to equip each fiber orientation state with an effective stress. The proposed approach is quite general, and works for any physically nonlinear constitutive law on the micro-scale, as long as surrogate models for single fiber orientation states can be extracted. To demonstrate the capabilities of our scheme we study the viscoelastic creep behavior of short glass fiber reinforced PA66, and use Schapery's collocation method together with FFT-based computational homogenization to derive single orientation state effective models. We discuss the efficient implementation of our method, and present results of a component scale computation on a benchmark component by using ABAQUS ®.

  18. High Performance Object-Oriented Scientific Programming in Fortran 90

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Norton, Charles D.; Decyk, Viktor K.; Szymanski, Boleslaw K.

    1997-01-01

    We illustrate how Fortran 90 supports object-oriented concepts by example of plasma particle computations on the IBM SP. Our experience shows that Fortran 90 and object-oriented methodology give high performance while providing a bridge from Fortran 77 legacy codes to modern programming principles. All of our object-oriented Fortran 90 codes execute more quickly thatn the equeivalent C++ versions, yet the abstraction modelling capabilities used for scentific programming are comparably powereful.

  19. Liquid rocket performance computer model with distributed energy release

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Combs, L. P.

    1972-01-01

    Development of a computer program for analyzing the effects of bipropellant spray combustion processes on liquid rocket performance is described and discussed. The distributed energy release (DER) computer program was designed to become part of the JANNAF liquid rocket performance evaluation methodology and to account for performance losses associated with the propellant combustion processes, e.g., incomplete spray gasification, imperfect mixing between sprays and their reacting vapors, residual mixture ratio striations in the flow, and two-phase flow effects. The DER computer program begins by initializing the combustion field at the injection end of a conventional liquid rocket engine, based on injector and chamber design detail, and on propellant and combustion gas properties. It analyzes bipropellant combustion, proceeding stepwise down the chamber from those initial conditions through the nozzle throat.

  20. Connecting Free Energy Surfaces in Implicit and Explicit Solvent: an Efficient Method to Compute Conformational and Solvation Free Energies

    PubMed Central

    Deng, Nanjie; Zhang, Bin W.; Levy, Ronald M.

    2015-01-01

    The ability to accurately model solvent effects on free energy surfaces is important for understanding many biophysical processes including protein folding and misfolding, allosteric transitions and protein-ligand binding. Although all-atom simulations in explicit solvent can provide an accurate model for biomolecules in solution, explicit solvent simulations are hampered by the slow equilibration on rugged landscapes containing multiple basins separated by barriers. In many cases, implicit solvent models can be used to significantly speed up the conformational sampling; however, implicit solvent simulations do not fully capture the effects of a molecular solvent, and this can lead to loss of accuracy in the estimated free energies. Here we introduce a new approach to compute free energy changes in which the molecular details of explicit solvent simulations are retained while also taking advantage of the speed of the implicit solvent simulations. In this approach, the slow equilibration in explicit solvent, due to the long waiting times before barrier crossing, is avoided by using a thermodynamic cycle which connects the free energy basins in implicit solvent and explicit solvent using a localized decoupling scheme. We test this method by computing conformational free energy differences and solvation free energies of the model system alanine dipeptide in water. The free energy changes between basins in explicit solvent calculated using fully explicit solvent paths agree with the corresponding free energy differences obtained using the implicit/explicit thermodynamic cycle to within 0.3 kcal/mol out of ~3 kcal/mol at only ~8 % of the computational cost. We note that WHAM methods can be used to further improve the efficiency and accuracy of the explicit/implicit thermodynamic cycle. PMID:26236174

  1. Connecting free energy surfaces in implicit and explicit solvent: an efficient method to compute conformational and solvation free energies.

    PubMed

    Deng, Nanjie; Zhang, Bin W; Levy, Ronald M

    2015-06-09

    The ability to accurately model solvent effects on free energy surfaces is important for understanding many biophysical processes including protein folding and misfolding, allosteric transitions, and protein–ligand binding. Although all-atom simulations in explicit solvent can provide an accurate model for biomolecules in solution, explicit solvent simulations are hampered by the slow equilibration on rugged landscapes containing multiple basins separated by barriers. In many cases, implicit solvent models can be used to significantly speed up the conformational sampling; however, implicit solvent simulations do not fully capture the effects of a molecular solvent, and this can lead to loss of accuracy in the estimated free energies. Here we introduce a new approach to compute free energy changes in which the molecular details of explicit solvent simulations are retained while also taking advantage of the speed of the implicit solvent simulations. In this approach, the slow equilibration in explicit solvent, due to the long waiting times before barrier crossing, is avoided by using a thermodynamic cycle which connects the free energy basins in implicit solvent and explicit solvent using a localized decoupling scheme. We test this method by computing conformational free energy differences and solvation free energies of the model system alanine dipeptide in water. The free energy changes between basins in explicit solvent calculated using fully explicit solvent paths agree with the corresponding free energy differences obtained using the implicit/explicit thermodynamic cycle to within 0.3 kcal/mol out of ∼3 kcal/mol at only ∼8% of the computational cost. We note that WHAM methods can be used to further improve the efficiency and accuracy of the implicit/explicit thermodynamic cycle.

  2. CALCULATION OF GAMMA SPECTRA IN A PLASTIC SCINTILLATOR FOR ENERGY CALIBRATIONAND DOSE COMPUTATION.

    PubMed

    Kim, Chankyu; Yoo, Hyunjun; Kim, Yewon; Moon, Myungkook; Kim, Jong Yul; Kang, Dong Uk; Lee, Daehee; Kim, Myung Soo; Cho, Minsik; Lee, Eunjoong; Cho, Gyuseong

    2016-09-01

    Plastic scintillation detectors have practical advantages in the field of dosimetry. Energy calibration of measured gamma spectra is important for dose computation, but it is not simple in the plastic scintillators because of their different characteristics and a finite resolution. In this study, the gamma spectra in a polystyrene scintillator were calculated for the energy calibration and dose computation. Based on the relationship between the energy resolution and estimated energy broadening effect in the calculated spectra, the gamma spectra were simply calculated without many iterations. The calculated spectra were in agreement with the calculation by an existing method and measurements. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  3. Design oriented structural analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Giles, Gary L.

    1994-01-01

    Desirable characteristics and benefits of design oriented analysis methods are described and illustrated by presenting a synoptic description of the development and uses of the Equivalent Laminated Plate Solution (ELAPS) computer code. ELAPS is a design oriented structural analysis method which is intended for use in the early design of aircraft wing structures. Model preparation is minimized by using a few large plate segments to model the wing box structure. Computational efficiency is achieved by using a limited number of global displacement functions that encompass all segments over the wing planform. Coupling with other codes is facilitated since the output quantities such as deflections and stresses are calculated as continuous functions over the plate segments. Various aspects of the ELAPS development are discussed including the analytical formulation, verification of results by comparison with finite element analysis results, coupling with other codes, and calculation of sensitivity derivatives. The effectiveness of ELAPS for multidisciplinary design application is illustrated by describing its use in design studies of high speed civil transport wing structures.

  4. Determining the phonon energy of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite by scanning tunneling microscope light emission spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Uehara, Yoichi; Michimata, Junichi; Watanabe, Shota; Katano, Satoshi; Inaoka, Takeshi

    2018-03-01

    We have investigated the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) light emission spectra of isolated single Ag nanoparticles lying on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). The STM light emission spectra exhibited two types of spectral structures (step-like and periodic). Comparisons of the observed structures and theoretical predictions indicate that the phonon energy of the ZO mode of HOPG [M. Mohr et al., Phys. Rev. B 76, 035439 (2007)] can be determined from the energy difference between the cutoff of STM light emission and the step in the former structure, and from the period of the latter structure. Since the role of the Ag nanoparticles does not depend on the substrate materials, this method will enable the phonon energies of various materials to be measured by STM light emission spectroscopy. The spatial resolution is comparable to the lateral size of the individual Ag nanoparticles (that is, a few nm).

  5. Verification of a VRF Heat Pump Computer Model in EnergyPlus

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

    Nigusse, Bereket; Raustad, Richard

    2013-06-15

    This paper provides verification results of the EnergyPlus variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heat pump computer model using manufacturer's performance data. The paper provides an overview of the VRF model, presents the verification methodology, and discusses the results. The verification provides quantitative comparison of full and part-load performance to manufacturer's data in cooling-only and heating-only modes of operation. The VRF heat pump computer model uses dual range bi-quadratic performance curves to represent capacity and Energy Input Ratio (EIR) as a function of indoor and outdoor air temperatures, and dual range quadratic performance curves as a function of part-load-ratio for modeling part-loadmore » performance. These performance curves are generated directly from manufacturer's published performance data. The verification compared the simulation output directly to manufacturer's performance data, and found that the dual range equation fit VRF heat pump computer model predicts the manufacturer's performance data very well over a wide range of indoor and outdoor temperatures and part-load conditions. The predicted capacity and electric power deviations are comparbale to equation-fit HVAC computer models commonly used for packaged and split unitary HVAC equipment.« less

  6. Quantitative Comparison of Virtual Monochromatic Images of Dual Energy Computed Tomography Systems: Beam Hardening Artifact Correction and Variance in Computed Tomography Numbers: A Phantom Study.

    PubMed

    Wu, Rongli; Watanabe, Yoshiyuki; Satoh, Kazuhiko; Liao, Yen-Peng; Takahashi, Hiroto; Tanaka, Hisashi; Tomiyama, Noriyuki

    2018-05-21

    The aim of this study was to quantitatively compare the reduction in beam hardening artifact (BHA) and variance in computed tomography (CT) numbers of virtual monochromatic energy (VME) images obtained with 3 dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) systems at a given radiation dose. Five different iodine concentrations were scanned using dual-energy and single-energy (120 kVp) modes. The BHA and CT number variance were evaluated. For higher iodine concentrations, 40 and 80 mgI/mL, BHA on VME imaging was significantly decreased when the energy was higher than 50 keV (P = 0.003) and 60 keV (P < 0.001) for GE, higher than 80 keV (P < 0.001) and 70 keV (P = 0.002) for Siemens, and higher than 40 keV (P < 0.001) and 60 keV (P < 0.001) for Toshiba, compared with single-energy CT imaging. Virtual monochromatic energy imaging can decrease BHA and improve CT number accuracy in different dual-energy computed tomography systems, depending on energy levels and iodine concentrations.

  7. Contour-based object orientation estimation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alpatov, Boris; Babayan, Pavel

    2016-04-01

    Real-time object orientation estimation is an actual problem of computer vision nowadays. In this paper we propose an approach to estimate an orientation of objects lacking axial symmetry. Proposed algorithm is intended to estimate orientation of a specific known 3D object, so 3D model is required for learning. The proposed orientation estimation algorithm consists of 2 stages: learning and estimation. Learning stage is devoted to the exploring of studied object. Using 3D model we can gather set of training images by capturing 3D model from viewpoints evenly distributed on a sphere. Sphere points distribution is made by the geosphere principle. It minimizes the training image set. Gathered training image set is used for calculating descriptors, which will be used in the estimation stage of the algorithm. The estimation stage is focusing on matching process between an observed image descriptor and the training image descriptors. The experimental research was performed using a set of images of Airbus A380. The proposed orientation estimation algorithm showed good accuracy (mean error value less than 6°) in all case studies. The real-time performance of the algorithm was also demonstrated.

  8. Strong Recurrent Networks Compute the Orientation-Tuning of Surround Modulation in Primate V1

    PubMed Central

    Shushruth, S.; Mangapathy, Pradeep; Ichida, Jennifer M.; Bressloff, Paul C.; Schwabe, Lars; Angelucci, Alessandra

    2012-01-01

    In macaque primary visual cortex (V1) neuronal responses to stimuli inside the receptive field (RF) are modulated by stimuli in the RF surround. This modulation is orientation-specific. Previous studies suggested that for some cells this specificity may not be fixed, but changes with the stimulus orientation presented to the RF. We demonstrate, in recording studies, that this tuning behavior is instead highly prevalent in V1 and, in theoretical work, that it arises only if V1 operates in a regime of strong local recurrence. Strongest surround suppression occurs when the stimuli in the RF and the surround are iso-oriented, and strongest facilitation when the stimuli are cross-oriented. This is the case even when the RF is sub-optimally activated by a stimulus of non-preferred orientation, but only if this stimulus can activate the cell when presented alone. This tuning behavior emerges from the interaction of lateral inhibition (via the surround pathways), which is tuned to the RF’s preferred orientation, with weakly-tuned, but strong, local recurrent connections, causing maximal withdrawal of recurrent excitation at the feedforward input orientation. Thus, horizontal and feedback modulation of strong recurrent circuits allows the tuning of contextual effects to change with changing feedforward inputs. PMID:22219292

  9. SIVEH: Numerical Computing Simulation of Wireless Energy-Harvesting Sensor Nodes

    PubMed Central

    Sanchez, Antonio; Blanc, Sara; Climent, Salvador; Yuste, Pedro; Ors, Rafael

    2013-01-01

    The paper presents a numerical energy harvesting model for sensor nodes, SIVEH (Simulator I–V for EH), based on I–V hardware tracking. I–V tracking is demonstrated to be more accurate than traditional energy modeling techniques when some of the components present different power dissipation at either different operating voltages or drawn currents. SIVEH numerical computing allows fast simulation of long periods of time—days, weeks, months or years—using real solar radiation curves. Moreover, SIVEH modeling has been enhanced with sleep time rate dynamic adjustment, while seeking energy-neutral operation. This paper presents the model description, a functional verification and a critical comparison with the classic energy approach. PMID:24008287

  10. A novel task-oriented optimal design for P300-based brain-computer interfaces.

    PubMed

    Zhou, Zongtan; Yin, Erwei; Liu, Yang; Jiang, Jun; Hu, Dewen

    2014-10-01

    Objective. The number of items of a P300-based brain-computer interface (BCI) should be adjustable in accordance with the requirements of the specific tasks. To address this issue, we propose a novel task-oriented optimal approach aimed at increasing the performance of general P300 BCIs with different numbers of items. Approach. First, we proposed a stimulus presentation with variable dimensions (VD) paradigm as a generalization of the conventional single-character (SC) and row-column (RC) stimulus paradigms. Furthermore, an embedding design approach was employed for any given number of items. Finally, based on the score-P model of each subject, the VD flash pattern was selected by a linear interpolation approach for a certain task. Main results. The results indicate that the optimal BCI design consistently outperforms the conventional approaches, i.e., the SC and RC paradigms. Specifically, there is significant improvement in the practical information transfer rate for a large number of items. Significance. The results suggest that the proposed optimal approach would provide useful guidance in the practical design of general P300-based BCIs.

  11. A novel task-oriented optimal design for P300-based brain-computer interfaces

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Zongtan; Yin, Erwei; Liu, Yang; Jiang, Jun; Hu, Dewen

    2014-10-01

    Objective. The number of items of a P300-based brain-computer interface (BCI) should be adjustable in accordance with the requirements of the specific tasks. To address this issue, we propose a novel task-oriented optimal approach aimed at increasing the performance of general P300 BCIs with different numbers of items. Approach. First, we proposed a stimulus presentation with variable dimensions (VD) paradigm as a generalization of the conventional single-character (SC) and row-column (RC) stimulus paradigms. Furthermore, an embedding design approach was employed for any given number of items. Finally, based on the score-P model of each subject, the VD flash pattern was selected by a linear interpolation approach for a certain task. Main results. The results indicate that the optimal BCI design consistently outperforms the conventional approaches, i.e., the SC and RC paradigms. Specifically, there is significant improvement in the practical information transfer rate for a large number of items. Significance. The results suggest that the proposed optimal approach would provide useful guidance in the practical design of general P300-based BCIs.

  12. Computing conformational free energy differences in explicit solvent: An efficient thermodynamic cycle using an auxiliary potential and a free energy functional constructed from the end points.

    PubMed

    Harris, Robert C; Deng, Nanjie; Levy, Ronald M; Ishizuka, Ryosuke; Matubayasi, Nobuyuki

    2017-06-05

    Many biomolecules undergo conformational changes associated with allostery or ligand binding. Observing these changes in computer simulations is difficult if their timescales are long. These calculations can be accelerated by observing the transition on an auxiliary free energy surface with a simpler Hamiltonian and connecting this free energy surface to the target free energy surface with free energy calculations. Here, we show that the free energy legs of the cycle can be replaced with energy representation (ER) density functional approximations. We compute: (1) The conformational free energy changes for alanine dipeptide transitioning from the right-handed free energy basin to the left-handed basin and (2) the free energy difference between the open and closed conformations of β-cyclodextrin, a "host" molecule that serves as a model for molecular recognition in host-guest binding. β-cyclodextrin contains 147 atoms compared to 22 atoms for alanine dipeptide, making β-cyclodextrin a large molecule for which to compute solvation free energies by free energy perturbation or integration methods and the largest system for which the ER method has been compared to exact free energy methods. The ER method replaced the 28 simulations to compute each coupling free energy with two endpoint simulations, reducing the computational time for the alanine dipeptide calculation by about 70% and for the β-cyclodextrin by > 95%. The method works even when the distribution of conformations on the auxiliary free energy surface differs substantially from that on the target free energy surface, although some degree of overlap between the two surfaces is required. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  13. ASR4: A computer code for fitting and processing 4-gage anelastic strain recovery data

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

    Warpinski, N.R.

    A computer code for analyzing four-gage Anelastic Strain Recovery (ASR) data has been modified for use on a personal computer. This code fits the viscoelastic model of Warpinski and Teufel to measured ASR data, calculates the stress orientation directly, and computes stress magnitudes if sufficient input data are available. The code also calculates the stress orientation using strain-rosette equations, and its calculates stress magnitudes using Blanton's approach, assuming sufficient input data are available. The program is written in FORTRAN, compiled with Ryan-McFarland Version 2.4. Graphics use PLOT88 software by Plotworks, Inc., but the graphics software must be obtained by themore » user because of licensing restrictions. A version without graphics can also be run. This code is available through the National Energy Software Center (NESC), operated by Argonne National Laboratory. 5 refs., 3 figs.« less

  14. An energy-efficient failure detector for vehicular cloud computing.

    PubMed

    Liu, Jiaxi; Wu, Zhibo; Dong, Jian; Wu, Jin; Wen, Dongxin

    2018-01-01

    Failure detectors are one of the fundamental components for maintaining the high availability of vehicular cloud computing. In vehicular cloud computing, lots of RSUs are deployed along the road to improve the connectivity. Many of them are equipped with solar battery due to the unavailability or excess expense of wired electrical power. So it is important to reduce the battery consumption of RSU. However, the existing failure detection algorithms are not designed to save battery consumption RSU. To solve this problem, a new energy-efficient failure detector 2E-FD has been proposed specifically for vehicular cloud computing. 2E-FD does not only provide acceptable failure detection service, but also saves the battery consumption of RSU. Through the comparative experiments, the results show that our failure detector has better performance in terms of speed, accuracy and battery consumption.

  15. An energy-efficient failure detector for vehicular cloud computing

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Jiaxi; Wu, Zhibo; Wu, Jin; Wen, Dongxin

    2018-01-01

    Failure detectors are one of the fundamental components for maintaining the high availability of vehicular cloud computing. In vehicular cloud computing, lots of RSUs are deployed along the road to improve the connectivity. Many of them are equipped with solar battery due to the unavailability or excess expense of wired electrical power. So it is important to reduce the battery consumption of RSU. However, the existing failure detection algorithms are not designed to save battery consumption RSU. To solve this problem, a new energy-efficient failure detector 2E-FD has been proposed specifically for vehicular cloud computing. 2E-FD does not only provide acceptable failure detection service, but also saves the battery consumption of RSU. Through the comparative experiments, the results show that our failure detector has better performance in terms of speed, accuracy and battery consumption. PMID:29352282

  16. Computed crystal energy landscapes for understanding and predicting organic crystal structures and polymorphism.

    PubMed

    Price, Sarah Sally L

    2009-01-20

    The phenomenon of polymorphism, the ability of a molecule to adopt more than one crystal structure, is a well-established property of crystalline solids. The possible variations in physical properties between polymorphs make the reliable reproduction of a crystalline form essential for all research using organic materials, as well as quality control in manufacture. Thus, the last two decades have seen both an increase in interest in polymorphism and the availability of the computer power needed to make the computational prediction of organic crystal structures a practical possibility. In the past decade, researchers have made considerable improvements in the theoretical basis for calculating the sets of structures that are within the energy range of possible polymorphism, called crystal energy landscapes. It is common to find that a molecule has a wide variety of ways of packing with lattice energy within a few kilojoules per mole of the most stable structure. However, as we develop methods to search for and characterize "all" solid forms, it is also now usual for polymorphs and solvates to be found. Thus, the computed crystal energy landscape reflects and to an increasing extent "predicts" the emerging complexity of the solid state observed for many organic molecules. This Account will discuss the ways in which the calculation of the crystal energy landscape of a molecule can be used as a complementary technique to solid form screening for polymorphs. Current methods can predict the known crystal structure, even under "blind test" conditions, but such successes are generally restricted to those structures that are the most stable over a wide range of thermodynamic conditions. The other low-energy structures can be alternative polymorphs, which have sometimes been found in later experimental studies. Examining the computed structures reveals the various compromises between close packing, hydrogen bonding, and pi-pi stacking that can result in energetically feasible

  17. Orientation-dependent energy level alignment and film growth of 2,7-diocty[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene (C8-BTBT) on HOPG

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lyu, Lu; Niu, Dongmei; Xie, Haipeng; Cao, Ningtong; Zhang, Hong; Zhang, Yuhe; Liu, Peng; Gao, Yongli

    2016-01-01

    Combining ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray diffraction measurements, we performed a systematic investigation on the correlation of energy level alignment, film growth, and molecular orientation of 2,7-diocty[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene (C8-BTBT) on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The molecules lie down in the first layer and then stand up from the second layer. The ionization potential shows a sharp decrease from the lying down region to the standing up region. When C8-BTBT molecules start standing up, unconventional energy level band-bending-like shifts are observed as the film thickness increases. These shifts are ascribed to gradual decreasing of the molecular tilt angle about the substrate normal with the increasing film thickness.

  18. Orientation-dependent energy level alignment and film growth of 2,7-diocty[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene (C8-BTBT) on HOPG.

    PubMed

    Lyu, Lu; Niu, Dongmei; Xie, Haipeng; Cao, Ningtong; Zhang, Hong; Zhang, Yuhe; Liu, Peng; Gao, Yongli

    2016-01-21

    Combining ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray diffraction measurements, we performed a systematic investigation on the correlation of energy level alignment, film growth, and molecular orientation of 2,7-diocty[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene (C8-BTBT) on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The molecules lie down in the first layer and then stand up from the second layer. The ionization potential shows a sharp decrease from the lying down region to the standing up region. When C8-BTBT molecules start standing up, unconventional energy level band-bending-like shifts are observed as the film thickness increases. These shifts are ascribed to gradual decreasing of the molecular tilt angle about the substrate normal with the increasing film thickness.

  19. Monte Carlo Computational Modeling of the Energy Dependence of Atomic Oxygen Undercutting of Protected Polymers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Banks, Bruce A.; Stueber, Thomas J.; Norris, Mary Jo

    1998-01-01

    A Monte Carlo computational model has been developed which simulates atomic oxygen attack of protected polymers at defect sites in the protective coatings. The parameters defining how atomic oxygen interacts with polymers and protective coatings as well as the scattering processes which occur have been optimized to replicate experimental results observed from protected polyimide Kapton on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) mission. Computational prediction of atomic oxygen undercutting at defect sites in protective coatings for various arrival energies was investigated. The atomic oxygen undercutting energy dependence predictions enable one to predict mass loss that would occur in low Earth orbit, based on lower energy ground laboratory atomic oxygen beam systems. Results of computational model prediction of undercut cavity size as a function of energy and defect size will be presented to provide insight into expected in-space mass loss of protected polymers with protective coating defects based on lower energy ground laboratory testing.

  20. Comparison of energy expenditure in adolescents when playing new generation and sedentary computer games: cross sectional study

    PubMed Central

    2007-01-01

    Objective To compare the energy expenditure of adolescents when playing sedentary and new generation active computer games. Design Cross sectional comparison of four computer games. Setting Research laboratories. Participants Six boys and five girls aged 13-15 years. Procedure Participants were fitted with a monitoring device validated to predict energy expenditure. They played four computer games for 15 minutes each. One of the games was sedentary (XBOX 360) and the other three were active (Wii Sports). Main outcome measure Predicted energy expenditure, compared using repeated measures analysis of variance. Results Mean (standard deviation) predicted energy expenditure when playing Wii Sports bowling (190.6 (22.2) kJ/kg/min), tennis (202.5 (31.5) kJ/kg/min), and boxing (198.1 (33.9) kJ/kg/min) was significantly greater than when playing sedentary games (125.5 (13.7) kJ/kg/min) (P<0.001). Predicted energy expenditure was at least 65.1 (95% confidence interval 47.3 to 82.9) kJ/kg/min greater when playing active rather than sedentary games. Conclusions Playing new generation active computer games uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games but not as much energy as playing the sport itself. The energy used when playing active Wii Sports games was not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children. PMID:18156227

  1. Comparison of energy expenditure in adolescents when playing new generation and sedentary computer games: cross sectional study.

    PubMed

    Graves, Lee; Stratton, Gareth; Ridgers, N D; Cable, N T

    2007-12-22

    To compare the energy expenditure of adolescents when playing sedentary and new generation active computer games. Cross sectional comparison of four computer games. Research laboratories. Six boys and five girls aged 13-15 years. Procedure Participants were fitted with a monitoring device validated to predict energy expenditure. They played four computer games for 15 minutes each. One of the games was sedentary (XBOX 360) and the other three were active (Wii Sports). Predicted energy expenditure, compared using repeated measures analysis of variance. Mean (standard deviation) predicted energy expenditure when playing Wii Sports bowling (190.6 (22.2) kJ/kg/min), tennis (202.5 (31.5) kJ/kg/min), and boxing (198.1 (33.9) kJ/kg/min) was significantly greater than when playing sedentary games (125.5 (13.7) kJ/kg/min) (P<0.001). Predicted energy expenditure was at least 65.1 (95% confidence interval 47.3 to 82.9) kJ/kg/min greater when playing active rather than sedentary games. Playing new generation active computer games uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games but not as much energy as playing the sport itself. The energy used when playing active Wii Sports games was not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children.

  2. Orientation-Selective Retinal Circuits in Vertebrates

    PubMed Central

    Antinucci, Paride; Hindges, Robert

    2018-01-01

    Visual information is already processed in the retina before it is transmitted to higher visual centers in the brain. This includes the extraction of salient features from visual scenes, such as motion directionality or contrast, through neurons belonging to distinct neural circuits. Some retinal neurons are tuned to the orientation of elongated visual stimuli. Such ‘orientation-selective’ neurons are present in the retinae of most, if not all, vertebrate species analyzed to date, with species-specific differences in frequency and degree of tuning. In some cases, orientation-selective neurons have very stereotyped functional and morphological properties suggesting that they represent distinct cell types. In this review, we describe the retinal cell types underlying orientation selectivity found in various vertebrate species, and highlight their commonalities and differences. In addition, we discuss recent studies that revealed the cellular, synaptic and circuit mechanisms at the basis of retinal orientation selectivity. Finally, we outline the significance of these findings in shaping our current understanding of how this fundamental neural computation is implemented in the visual systems of vertebrates. PMID:29467629

  3. Orientation-Selective Retinal Circuits in Vertebrates.

    PubMed

    Antinucci, Paride; Hindges, Robert

    2018-01-01

    Visual information is already processed in the retina before it is transmitted to higher visual centers in the brain. This includes the extraction of salient features from visual scenes, such as motion directionality or contrast, through neurons belonging to distinct neural circuits. Some retinal neurons are tuned to the orientation of elongated visual stimuli. Such 'orientation-selective' neurons are present in the retinae of most, if not all, vertebrate species analyzed to date, with species-specific differences in frequency and degree of tuning. In some cases, orientation-selective neurons have very stereotyped functional and morphological properties suggesting that they represent distinct cell types. In this review, we describe the retinal cell types underlying orientation selectivity found in various vertebrate species, and highlight their commonalities and differences. In addition, we discuss recent studies that revealed the cellular, synaptic and circuit mechanisms at the basis of retinal orientation selectivity. Finally, we outline the significance of these findings in shaping our current understanding of how this fundamental neural computation is implemented in the visual systems of vertebrates.

  4. Computational design of RNAs with complex energy landscapes.

    PubMed

    Höner zu Siederdissen, Christian; Hammer, Stefan; Abfalter, Ingrid; Hofacker, Ivo L; Flamm, Christoph; Stadler, Peter F

    2013-12-01

    RNA has become an integral building material in synthetic biology. Dominated by their secondary structures, which can be computed efficiently, RNA molecules are amenable not only to in vitro and in vivo selection, but also to rational, computation-based design. While the inverse folding problem of constructing an RNA sequence with a prescribed ground-state structure has received considerable attention for nearly two decades, there have been few efforts to design RNAs that can switch between distinct prescribed conformations. We introduce a user-friendly tool for designing RNA sequences that fold into multiple target structures. The underlying algorithm makes use of a combination of graph coloring and heuristic local optimization to find sequences whose energy landscapes are dominated by the prescribed conformations. A flexible interface allows the specification of a wide range of design goals. We demonstrate that bi- and tri-stable "switches" can be designed easily with moderate computational effort for the vast majority of compatible combinations of desired target structures. RNAdesign is freely available under the GPL-v3 license. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings through Context-Aware Social Computing

    PubMed Central

    García, Óscar; Alonso, Ricardo S.; Prieto, Javier; Corchado, Juan M.

    2017-01-01

    The challenge of promoting behavioral changes in users that leads to energy savings in public buildings has become a complex task requiring the involvement of multiple technologies. Wireless sensor networks have a great potential for the development of tools, such as serious games, that encourage acquiring good energy and healthy habits among users in the workplace. This paper presents the development of a serious game using CAFCLA, a framework that allows for integrating multiple technologies, which provide both context-awareness and social computing. Game development has shown that the data provided by sensor networks encourage users to reduce energy consumption in their workplace and that social interactions and competitiveness allow for accelerating the achievement of good results and behavioral changes that favor energy savings. PMID:28398237

  6. Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings through Context-Aware Social Computing.

    PubMed

    García, Óscar; Alonso, Ricardo S; Prieto, Javier; Corchado, Juan M

    2017-04-11

    The challenge of promoting behavioral changes in users that leads to energy savings in public buildings has become a complex task requiring the involvement of multiple technologies. Wireless sensor networks have a great potential for the development of tools, such as serious games, that encourage acquiring good energy and healthy habits among users in the workplace. This paper presents the development of a serious game using CAFCLA, a framework that allows for integrating multiple technologies, which provide both context-awareness and social computing. Game development has shown that the data provided by sensor networks encourage users to reduce energy consumption in their workplace and that social interactions and competitiveness allow for accelerating the achievement of good results and behavioral changes that favor energy savings.

  7. View southeast of computer controlled energy monitoring system. System replaced ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    View southeast of computer controlled energy monitoring system. System replaced strip chart recorders and other instruments under the direct observation of the load dispatcher. - Thirtieth Street Station, Load Dispatch Center, Thirtieth & Market Streets, Railroad Station, Amtrak (formerly Pennsylvania Railroad Station), Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA

  8. Methods for Efficiently and Accurately Computing Quantum Mechanical Free Energies for Enzyme Catalysis.

    PubMed

    Kearns, F L; Hudson, P S; Boresch, S; Woodcock, H L

    2016-01-01

    Enzyme activity is inherently linked to free energies of transition states, ligand binding, protonation/deprotonation, etc.; these free energies, and thus enzyme function, can be affected by residue mutations, allosterically induced conformational changes, and much more. Therefore, being able to predict free energies associated with enzymatic processes is critical to understanding and predicting their function. Free energy simulation (FES) has historically been a computational challenge as it requires both the accurate description of inter- and intramolecular interactions and adequate sampling of all relevant conformational degrees of freedom. The hybrid quantum mechanical molecular mechanical (QM/MM) framework is the current tool of choice when accurate computations of macromolecular systems are essential. Unfortunately, robust and efficient approaches that employ the high levels of computational theory needed to accurately describe many reactive processes (ie, ab initio, DFT), while also including explicit solvation effects and accounting for extensive conformational sampling are essentially nonexistent. In this chapter, we will give a brief overview of two recently developed methods that mitigate several major challenges associated with QM/MM FES: the QM non-Boltzmann Bennett's acceptance ratio method and the QM nonequilibrium work method. We will also describe usage of these methods to calculate free energies associated with (1) relative properties and (2) along reaction paths, using simple test cases with relevance to enzymes examples. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Magnetic Flux Circulation During Dawn-Dusk Oriented Interplanetary Magnetic Field

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mitchell, E. J.; Lopez, R. E.; Fok, M.-C.; Deng, Y.; Wiltberger, M.; Lyon, J.

    2010-01-01

    Magnetic flux circulation is a primary mode of energy transfer from the solar wind into the ionosphere and inner magnetosphere. For southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), magnetic flux circulation is described by the Dungey cycle (dayside merging, night side reconnection, and magnetospheric convection), and both the ionosphere and inner magnetosphere receive energy. For dawn-dusk oriented IMF, magnetic flux circulation is not well understood, and the inner magnetosphere does not receive energy. Several models have been suggested for possible reconnection patterns; the general pattern is: dayside merging; reconnection on the dayside or along the dawn/dusk regions; and, return flow on dayside only. These models are consistent with the lack of energy in the inner magnetosphere. We will present evidence that the Dungey cycle does not explain the energy transfer during dawn-dusk oriented IMF. We will also present evidence of how magnetic flux does circulate during dawn-dusk oriented IMF, specifically how the magnetic flux reconnects and circulates back.

  10. Input-output oriented computation algorithms for the control of large flexible structures

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Minto, K. D.

    1989-01-01

    An overview is given of work in progress aimed at developing computational algorithms addressing two important aspects in the control of large flexible space structures; namely, the selection and placement of sensors and actuators, and the resulting multivariable control law design problem. The issue of sensor/actuator set selection is particularly crucial to obtaining a satisfactory control design, as clearly a poor choice will inherently limit the degree to which good control can be achieved. With regard to control law design, the researchers are driven by concerns stemming from the practical issues associated with eventual implementation of multivariable control laws, such as reliability, limit protection, multimode operation, sampling rate selection, processor throughput, etc. Naturally, the burden imposed by dealing with these aspects of the problem can be reduced by ensuring that the complexity of the compensator is minimized. Our approach to these problems is based on extensions to input/output oriented techniques that have proven useful in the design of multivariable control systems for aircraft engines. In particular, researchers are exploring the use of relative gain analysis and the condition number as a means of quantifying the process of sensor/actuator selection and placement for shape control of a large space platform.

  11. Computationally Efficient Characterization of Potential Energy Surfaces Based on Fingerprint Distances

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schaefer, Bastian; Goedecker, Stefan; Goedecker Group Team

    Based on Lennard-Jones, Silicon, Sodium-Chloride and Gold clusters, it was found that uphill barrier energies of transition states between directly connected minima tend to increase with increasing structural differences of the two minima. Based on this insight it also turned out that post-processing minima hopping data at a negligible computational cost allows to obtain qualitative topological information on potential energy surfaces that can be stored in so called qualitative connectivity databases. These qualitative connectivity databases are used for generating fingerprint disconnectivity graphs that allow to obtain a first qualitative idea on thermodynamic and kinetic properties of a system of interest. This research was supported by the NCCR MARVEL, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Computer time was provided by the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) under Project ID No. s499.

  12. 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

  13. Analyzing high energy physics data using database computing: Preliminary report

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Baden, Andrew; Day, Chris; Grossman, Robert; Lifka, Dave; Lusk, Ewing; May, Edward; Price, Larry

    1991-01-01

    A proof of concept system is described for analyzing high energy physics (HEP) data using data base computing. The system is designed to scale up to the size required for HEP experiments at the Superconducting SuperCollider (SSC) lab. These experiments will require collecting and analyzing approximately 10 to 100 million 'events' per year during proton colliding beam collisions. Each 'event' consists of a set of vectors with a total length of approx. one megabyte. This represents an increase of approx. 2 to 3 orders of magnitude in the amount of data accumulated by present HEP experiments. The system is called the HEPDBC System (High Energy Physics Database Computing System). At present, the Mark 0 HEPDBC System is completed, and can produce analysis of HEP experimental data approx. an order of magnitude faster than current production software on data sets of approx. 1 GB. The Mark 1 HEPDBC System is currently undergoing testing and is designed to analyze data sets 10 to 100 times larger.

  14. Wind Energy Conversion System Analysis Model (WECSAM) computer program documentation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Downey, W. T.; Hendrick, P. L.

    1982-07-01

    Described is a computer-based wind energy conversion system analysis model (WECSAM) developed to predict the technical and economic performance of wind energy conversion systems (WECS). The model is written in CDC FORTRAN V. The version described accesses a data base containing wind resource data, application loads, WECS performance characteristics, utility rates, state taxes, and state subsidies for a six state region (Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana). The model is designed for analysis at the county level. The computer model includes a technical performance module and an economic evaluation module. The modules can be run separately or together. The model can be run for any single user-selected county within the region or looped automatically through all counties within the region. In addition, the model has a restart capability that allows the user to modify any data-base value written to a scratch file prior to the technical or economic evaluation.

  15. Optimized diffusion gradient orientation schemes for corrupted clinical DTI data sets.

    PubMed

    Dubois, J; Poupon, C; Lethimonnier, F; Le Bihan, D

    2006-08-01

    A method is proposed for generating schemes of diffusion gradient orientations which allow the diffusion tensor to be reconstructed from partial data sets in clinical DT-MRI, should the acquisition be corrupted or terminated before completion because of patient motion. A general energy-minimization electrostatic model was developed in which the interactions between orientations are weighted according to their temporal order during acquisition. In this report, two corruption scenarios were specifically considered for generating relatively uniform schemes of 18 and 60 orientations, with useful subsets of 6 and 15 orientations. The sets and subsets were compared to conventional sets through their energy, condition number and rotational invariance. Schemes of 18 orientations were tested on a volunteer. The optimized sets were similar to uniform sets in terms of energy, condition number and rotational invariance, whether the complete set or only a subset was considered. Diffusion maps obtained in vivo were close to those for uniform sets whatever the acquisition time was. This was not the case with conventional schemes, whose subset uniformity was insufficient. With the proposed approach, sets of orientations responding to several corruption scenarios can be generated, which is potentially useful for imaging uncooperative patients or infants.

  16. Variation of relative intensities between surface and bulk plasmon losses due to crystal orientations for aluminium in low energy electron reflection loss spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ichinokawa, T.; Le Gressus, C.; Mogami, A.; Pellerin, F.; Massignon, D.

    The contrast change of secondary electron images due to the crystal orientations is observed by the ultra high vacuum scanning electron microscope (UHV-SEM) for crystal grains of clean surface of polycrystalline Al in the primary energy Ep of 200 eV to 5 KeV. The low energy electron loss spectra are measured by the cylindrical mirror analyzer. The relative intensity ratio between surface and bulk plasmon loss spectra was dependent on the crystal orientations. The SEM images taken by the surface and bulk plasmon signals at Ep = 230 eV show the inverse contrast depending on the grains. The inversion of the relative intensities between the surface and bulk plasmon losses is explained qualitatively by taking into account of variation of the penetration depth of the incident beam caused by the electron channeling.

  17. Variation of relative intensities between surface and bulk plasmon losses due to crystal orientations for aluminium in low energy electron reflection loss spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ichinokawa, T.; Le Gressus, C.; Mogami, A.; Pellerin, F.; Massignon, D.

    1981-10-01

    The contrast change of secondary electron images due to the crystal orientations is observed by the ultra high vacuum scanning electron microscope (UHV-SEM) for crystal grains of clean surface of polycrystalline Al in the primary energy Ep of 200 eV to 5 keV. The low energy electron loss spectra are measured by the cylindrical mirror analyzer. The relative intensity ratio between surface and bulk plasmon loss spectra was dependent on the crystal orientations. The SEM images taken by the surface and bulk plasmon signals at Ep = 230 eV show the inverse contrast depending on the grains. The inversion of the relative intensities between the surface and bulk plasmon losses is explained qualitatively by taking into account of variation of the penetration depth of the incident beam caused by the electron channeling.

  18. Orientation-dependent energy level alignment and film growth of 2,7-diocty[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene (C8-BTBT) on HOPG

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

    Lyu, Lu; Niu, Dongmei, E-mail: mayee@csu.edu.cnmailto; Xie, Haipeng

    Combining ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray diffraction measurements, we performed a systematic investigation on the correlation of energy level alignment, film growth, and molecular orientation of 2,7-diocty[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene (C8-BTBT) on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The molecules lie down in the first layer and then stand up from the second layer. The ionization potential shows a sharp decrease from the lying down region to the standing up region. When C8-BTBT molecules start standing up, unconventional energy level band-bending-like shifts are observed as the film thickness increases. These shifts are ascribed to gradual decreasing of the molecularmore » tilt angle about the substrate normal with the increasing film thickness.« less

  19. A Software Rejuvenation Framework for Distributed Computing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chau, Savio

    2009-01-01

    A performability-oriented conceptual framework for software rejuvenation has been constructed as a means of increasing levels of reliability and performance in distributed stateful computing. As used here, performability-oriented signifies that the construction of the framework is guided by the concept of analyzing the ability of a given computing system to deliver services with gracefully degradable performance. The framework is especially intended to support applications that involve stateful replicas of server computers.

  20. Computed potential energy surfaces for chemical reactions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Walch, Stephen P.

    1988-01-01

    The minimum energy path for the addition of a hydrogen atom to N2 is characterized in CASSCF/CCI calculations using the (4s3p2d1f/3s2p1d) basis set, with additional single point calculations at the stationary points of the potential energy surface using the (5s4p3d2f/4s3p2d) basis set. These calculations represent the most extensive set of ab initio calculations completed to date, yielding a zero point corrected barrier for HN2 dissociation of approx. 8.5 kcal mol/1. The lifetime of the HN2 species is estimated from the calculated geometries and energetics using both conventional Transition State Theory and a method which utilizes an Eckart barrier to compute one dimensional quantum mechanical tunneling effects. It is concluded that the lifetime of the HN2 species is very short, greatly limiting its role in both termolecular recombination reactions and combustion processes.

  1. Computer Controlled Portable Greenhouse Climate Control System for Enhanced Energy Efficiency

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Datsenko, Anthony; Myer, Steve; Petties, Albert; Hustek, Ryan; Thompson, Mark

    2010-04-01

    This paper discusses a student project at Kettering University focusing on the design and construction of an energy efficient greenhouse climate control system. In order to maintain acceptable temperatures and stabilize temperature fluctuations in a portable plastic greenhouse economically, a computer controlled climate control system was developed to capture and store thermal energy incident on the structure during daylight periods and release the stored thermal energy during dark periods. The thermal storage mass for the greenhouse system consisted of a water filled base unit. The heat exchanger consisted of a system of PVC tubing. The control system used a programmable LabView computer interface to meet functional specifications that minimized temperature fluctuations and recorded data during operation. The greenhouse was a portable sized unit with a 5' x 5' footprint. Control input sensors were temperature, water level, and humidity sensors and output control devices were fan actuating relays and water fill solenoid valves. A Graphical User Interface was developed to monitor the system, set control parameters, and to provide programmable data recording times and intervals.

  2. Orientations of dendritic growth during solidification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Dong Nyung

    2017-03-01

    Dendrites are crystalline forms which grow far from the limit of stability of the plane front and adopt an orientation which is as close as possible to the heat flux direction. Dendritic growth orientations for cubic metals, bct Sn, and hcp Zn, can be controlled by thermal conductivity, Young's modulus, and surface energy. The control factors have been elaborated. Since the dendrite is a single crystal, its properties such as thermal conductivity that influences the heat flux direction, the minimum Young's modulus direction that influences the strain energy minimization, and the minimum surface energy plane that influences the crystal/liquid interface energy minimization have been proved to control the dendritic growth direction. The dendritic growth directions of cubic metals are determined by the minimum Young's modulus direction and/or axis direction of symmetry of the minimum crystal surface energy plane. The dendritic growth direction of bct Sn is determined by its maximum thermal conductivity direction and the minimum surface energy plane normal direction. The primary dendritic growth direction of hcp Zn is determined by its maximum thermal conductivity direction and the minimum surface energy plane normal direction and the secondary dendrite arm direction of hcp Zn is normal to the primary dendritic growth direction.

  3. Free surface profiles in river flows: Can standard energy-based gradually-varied flow computations be pursued?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cantero, Francisco; Castro-Orgaz, Oscar; Garcia-Marín, Amanda; Ayuso, José Luis; Dey, Subhasish

    2015-10-01

    Is the energy equation for gradually-varied flow the best approximation for the free surface profile computations in river flows? Determination of flood inundation in rivers and natural waterways is based on the hydraulic computation of flow profiles. This is usually done using energy-based gradually-varied flow models, like HEC-RAS, that adopts a vertical division method for discharge prediction in compound channel sections. However, this discharge prediction method is not so accurate in the context of advancements over the last three decades. This paper firstly presents a study of the impact of discharge prediction on the gradually-varied flow computations by comparing thirteen different methods for compound channels, where both energy and momentum equations are applied. The discharge, velocity distribution coefficients, specific energy, momentum and flow profiles are determined. After the study of gradually-varied flow predictions, a new theory is developed to produce higher-order energy and momentum equations for rapidly-varied flow in compound channels. These generalized equations enable to describe the flow profiles with more generality than the gradually-varied flow computations. As an outcome, results of gradually-varied flow provide realistic conclusions for computations of flow in compound channels, showing that momentum-based models are in general more accurate; whereas the new theory developed for rapidly-varied flow opens a new research direction, so far not investigated in flows through compound channels.

  4. Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling Simulator for Real Workflows Energy-Aware Management in Green Cloud Computing

    PubMed Central

    Cotes-Ruiz, Iván Tomás; Prado, Rocío P.; García-Galán, Sebastián; Muñoz-Expósito, José Enrique; Ruiz-Reyes, Nicolás

    2017-01-01

    Nowadays, the growing computational capabilities of Cloud systems rely on the reduction of the consumed power of their data centers to make them sustainable and economically profitable. The efficient management of computing resources is at the heart of any energy-aware data center and of special relevance is the adaptation of its performance to workload. Intensive computing applications in diverse areas of science generate complex workload called workflows, whose successful management in terms of energy saving is still at its beginning. WorkflowSim is currently one of the most advanced simulators for research on workflows processing, offering advanced features such as task clustering and failure policies. In this work, an expected power-aware extension of WorkflowSim is presented. This new tool integrates a power model based on a computing-plus-communication design to allow the optimization of new management strategies in energy saving considering computing, reconfiguration and networks costs as well as quality of service, and it incorporates the preeminent strategy for on host energy saving: Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS). The simulator is designed to be consistent in different real scenarios and to include a wide repertory of DVFS governors. Results showing the validity of the simulator in terms of resources utilization, frequency and voltage scaling, power, energy and time saving are presented. Also, results achieved by the intra-host DVFS strategy with different governors are compared to those of the data center using a recent and successful DVFS-based inter-host scheduling strategy as overlapped mechanism to the DVFS intra-host technique. PMID:28085932

  5. Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling Simulator for Real Workflows Energy-Aware Management in Green Cloud Computing.

    PubMed

    Cotes-Ruiz, Iván Tomás; Prado, Rocío P; García-Galán, Sebastián; Muñoz-Expósito, José Enrique; Ruiz-Reyes, Nicolás

    2017-01-01

    Nowadays, the growing computational capabilities of Cloud systems rely on the reduction of the consumed power of their data centers to make them sustainable and economically profitable. The efficient management of computing resources is at the heart of any energy-aware data center and of special relevance is the adaptation of its performance to workload. Intensive computing applications in diverse areas of science generate complex workload called workflows, whose successful management in terms of energy saving is still at its beginning. WorkflowSim is currently one of the most advanced simulators for research on workflows processing, offering advanced features such as task clustering and failure policies. In this work, an expected power-aware extension of WorkflowSim is presented. This new tool integrates a power model based on a computing-plus-communication design to allow the optimization of new management strategies in energy saving considering computing, reconfiguration and networks costs as well as quality of service, and it incorporates the preeminent strategy for on host energy saving: Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS). The simulator is designed to be consistent in different real scenarios and to include a wide repertory of DVFS governors. Results showing the validity of the simulator in terms of resources utilization, frequency and voltage scaling, power, energy and time saving are presented. Also, results achieved by the intra-host DVFS strategy with different governors are compared to those of the data center using a recent and successful DVFS-based inter-host scheduling strategy as overlapped mechanism to the DVFS intra-host technique.

  6. Task-oriented training with computer gaming in people with rheumatoid arthritisor osteoarthritis of the hand: study protocol of a randomized controlled pilot trial.

    PubMed

    Srikesavan, Cynthia Swarnalatha; Shay, Barbara; Robinson, David B; Szturm, Tony

    2013-03-09

    Significant restriction in the ability to participate in home, work and community life results from pain, fatigue, joint damage, stiffness and reduced joint range of motion and muscle strength in people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis of the hand. With modest evidence on the therapeutic effectiveness of conventional hand exercises, a task-oriented training program via real life object manipulations has been developed for people with arthritis. An innovative, computer-based gaming platform that allows a broad range of common objects to be seamlessly transformed into therapeutic input devices through instrumentation with a motion-sense mouse has also been designed. Personalized objects are selected to target specific training goals such as graded finger mobility, strength, endurance or fine/gross dexterous functions. The movements and object manipulation tasks that replicate common situations in everyday living will then be used to control and play any computer game, making practice challenging and engaging. The ongoing study is a 6-week, single-center, parallel-group, equally allocated and assessor-blinded pilot randomized controlled trial. Thirty people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis affecting the hand will be randomized to receive either conventional hand exercises or the task-oriented training. The purpose is to determine a preliminary estimation of therapeutic effectiveness and feasibility of the task-oriented training program. Performance based and self-reported hand function, and exercise compliance are the study outcomes. Changes in outcomes (pre to post intervention) within each group will be assessed by paired Student t test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test and between groups (control versus experimental) post intervention using unpaired Student t test or Mann-Whitney U test. The study findings will inform decisions on the feasibility, safety and completion rate and will also provide preliminary data on the treatment effects of the task-oriented

  7. Task-oriented training with computer gaming in people with rheumatoid arthritisor osteoarthritis of the hand: study protocol of a randomized controlled pilot trial

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Significant restriction in the ability to participate in home, work and community life results from pain, fatigue, joint damage, stiffness and reduced joint range of motion and muscle strength in people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis of the hand. With modest evidence on the therapeutic effectiveness of conventional hand exercises, a task-oriented training program via real life object manipulations has been developed for people with arthritis. An innovative, computer-based gaming platform that allows a broad range of common objects to be seamlessly transformed into therapeutic input devices through instrumentation with a motion-sense mouse has also been designed. Personalized objects are selected to target specific training goals such as graded finger mobility, strength, endurance or fine/gross dexterous functions. The movements and object manipulation tasks that replicate common situations in everyday living will then be used to control and play any computer game, making practice challenging and engaging. Methods/Design The ongoing study is a 6-week, single-center, parallel-group, equally allocated and assessor-blinded pilot randomized controlled trial. Thirty people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis affecting the hand will be randomized to receive either conventional hand exercises or the task-oriented training. The purpose is to determine a preliminary estimation of therapeutic effectiveness and feasibility of the task-oriented training program. Performance based and self-reported hand function, and exercise compliance are the study outcomes. Changes in outcomes (pre to post intervention) within each group will be assessed by paired Student t test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test and between groups (control versus experimental) post intervention using unpaired Student t test or Mann–Whitney U test. Discussion The study findings will inform decisions on the feasibility, safety and completion rate and will also provide preliminary

  8. Female and Male Adolescents' Subjective Orientations to Mathematics and the Influence of Those Orientations on Postsecondary Majors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Perez-Felkner, Lara; McDonald, Sarah-Kathryn; Schneider, Barbara; Grogan, Erin

    2012-01-01

    Although important strides toward gender parity have been made in several scientific fields, women remain underrepresented in the physical sciences, engineering, mathematics, and computer sciences (PEMCs). This study examines the effects of adolescents' subjective orientations, course taking, and academic performance on the likelihood of majoring…

  9. Information Sources on Computer Literacy.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ossman, Marian R.

    1984-01-01

    Cites books, journals, articles, and speeches covering the gamut from computer literacy as a national crisis to a current listing of popular computer camps, educational computing, library role, and staff training. Primary focus is on microcomputers, but several less recent articles are oriented to computers in general. (MBR)

  10. Energy conservation and analysis and evaluation. [specifically at Slidell Computer Complex

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1976-01-01

    The survey assembled and made recommendations directed at conserving utilities and reducing the use of energy at the Slidell Computer Complex. Specific items included were: (1) scheduling and controlling the use of gas and electricity, (2) building modifications to reduce energy, (3) replacement of old, inefficient equipment, (4) modifications to control systems, (5) evaluations of economizer cycles in HVAC systems, and (6) corrective settings for thermostats, ductstats, and other temperature and pressure control devices.

  11. Free energy computations employing Jarzynski identity and Wang – Landau algorithm

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

    Kalyan, M. Suman, E-mail: maroju.sk@gmail.com; Murthy, K. P. N.; School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, India – 500046

    We introduce a simple method to compute free energy differences employing Jarzynski identity in conjunction with Wang – Landau algorithm. We demonstrate this method on Ising spin system by comparing the results with those obtained from canonical sampling.

  12. The Effect of Planetary Albedo on Solar Orientation of Spacecraft

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fontana, Anthony

    1967-01-01

    The analytical expression for the solar orientation error caused by planetary albedo is derived. A typical solar sensor output characteristic is assumed and a computer solution to the analytical is obtained. The computer results are presented for a spacecraft in the vicinity of Earth, Venus, Mars, and the Moon. Each planetary body is assumed to be a spherical diffuse reflector with cylindrical shadows and a constant albedo. The data generated herein permit the selection of an appropriate coarse-sensor to fine-sensor switching angle for solar orientation control systems and facilitate the the interpretation of solar-referenced scientific experiment data.

  13. Computer Series 41: Potential-Energy Surfaces and Transition-State Theory.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moss, S. J.; Coady, C. J.

    1983-01-01

    Describes computer programs involving the London-Eyring-Polany-Sato method (LEPS). The programs provide a valuable means of introducing students to potential energy surfaces and to the foundations of transition state theory. Program listings (with copies of student scripts) or programs on DOS 3.3 disc are available from authors. (JN)

  14. Irregular large-scale computed tomography on multiple graphics processors improves energy-efficiency metrics for industrial applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jimenez, Edward S.; Goodman, Eric L.; Park, Ryeojin; Orr, Laurel J.; Thompson, Kyle R.

    2014-09-01

    This paper will investigate energy-efficiency for various real-world industrial computed-tomography reconstruction algorithms, both CPU- and GPU-based implementations. This work shows that the energy required for a given reconstruction is based on performance and problem size. There are many ways to describe performance and energy efficiency, thus this work will investigate multiple metrics including performance-per-watt, energy-delay product, and energy consumption. This work found that irregular GPU-based approaches1 realized tremendous savings in energy consumption when compared to CPU implementations while also significantly improving the performance-per- watt and energy-delay product metrics. Additional energy savings and other metric improvement was realized on the GPU-based reconstructions by improving storage I/O by implementing a parallel MIMD-like modularization of the compute and I/O tasks.

  15. A service-oriented data access control model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meng, Wei; Li, Fengmin; Pan, Juchen; Song, Song; Bian, Jiali

    2017-01-01

    The development of mobile computing, cloud computing and distributed computing meets the growing individual service needs. Facing with complex application system, it's an urgent problem to ensure real-time, dynamic, and fine-grained data access control. By analyzing common data access control models, on the basis of mandatory access control model, the paper proposes a service-oriented access control model. By regarding system services as subject and data of databases as object, the model defines access levels and access identification of subject and object, and ensures system services securely to access databases.

  16. Aesthetic judgement of orientation in modern art.

    PubMed

    Mather, George

    2012-01-01

    When creating an artwork, the artist makes a decision regarding the orientation at which the work is to be hung based on their aesthetic judgement and the message conveyed by the piece. Is the impact or aesthetic appeal of a work diminished when it is hung at an incorrect orientation? To investigate this question, Experiment 1 asked whether naïve observers can appreciate the correct orientation (as defined by the artist) of 40 modern artworks, some of which are entirely abstract. Eighteen participants were shown 40 paintings in a series of trials. Each trial presented all four cardinal orientations on a computer screen, and the participant was asked to select the orientation that was most attractive or meaningful. Results showed that the correct orientation was selected in 48% of trials on average, significantly above the 25% chance level, but well below perfect performance. A second experiment investigated the extent to which the 40 paintings contained recognisable content, which may have mediated orientation judgements. Recognition rates varied from 0% for seven of the paintings to 100% for five paintings. Orientation judgements in Experiment 1 correlated significantly with "meaningful" content judgements in Experiment 2: 42% of the variance in orientation judgements in Experiment 1 was shared with recognition of meaningful content in Experiment 2. For the seven paintings in which no meaningful content at all was detected, 41% of the variance in orientation judgements was shared with variance in a physical measure of image content, Fourier amplitude spectrum slope. For some paintings, orientation judgements were quite consistent, despite a lack of meaningful content. The origin of these orientation judgements remains to be identified.

  17. Improved prediction of antibody VL–VH orientation

    PubMed Central

    Marze, Nicholas A.; Lyskov, Sergey; Gray, Jeffrey J.

    2016-01-01

    Antibodies are important immune molecules with high commercial value and therapeutic interest because of their ability to bind diverse antigens. Computational prediction of antibody structure can quickly reveal valuable information about the nature of these antigen-binding interactions, but only if the models are of sufficient quality. To achieve high model quality during complementarity-determining region (CDR) structural prediction, one must account for the VL–VH orientation. We developed a novel four-metric VL–VH orientation coordinate frame. Additionally, we extended the CDR grafting protocol in RosettaAntibody with a new method that diversifies VL–VH orientation by using 10 VL–VH orientation templates rather than a single one. We tested the multiple-template grafting protocol on two datasets of known antibody crystal structures. During the template-grafting phase, the new protocol improved the fraction of accurate VL–VH orientation predictions from only 26% (12/46) to 72% (33/46) of targets. After the full RosettaAntibody protocol, including CDR H3 remodeling and VL–VH re-orientation, the new protocol produced more candidate structures with accurate VL–VH orientation than the standard protocol in 43/46 targets (93%). The improved ability to predict VL–VH orientation will bolster predictions of other parts of the paratope, including the conformation of CDR H3, a grand challenge of antibody homology modeling. PMID:27276984

  18. Mechanisms of two-color laser-induced field-free molecular orientation.

    PubMed

    Spanner, Michael; Patchkovskii, Serguei; Frumker, Eugene; Corkum, Paul

    2012-09-14

    Two mechanisms of two-color (ω+2ω) laser-induced field-free molecular orientation, based on the hyperpolarizability and ionization depletion, are explored and compared. The CO molecule is used as a computational example. While the hyperpolarizability mechanism generates small amounts of orientation at intensities below the ionization threshold, ionization depletion quickly becomes the dominant mechanism as soon as ionizing intensities are reached. Only the ionization mechanism leads to substantial orientation (e.g., on the order of ≳0.1). For intensities typical of laser-induced molecular alignment and orientation experiments, the two mechanisms lead to robust, characteristic timings of the field-free orientation wave-packet revivals relative to the alignment revivals and the revival time. The revival timings can be used to detect the active orientation mechanism experimentally.

  19. Multi-Objective Approach for Energy-Aware Workflow Scheduling in Cloud Computing Environments

    PubMed Central

    Kadima, Hubert; Granado, Bertrand

    2013-01-01

    We address the problem of scheduling workflow applications on heterogeneous computing systems like cloud computing infrastructures. In general, the cloud workflow scheduling is a complex optimization problem which requires considering different criteria so as to meet a large number of QoS (Quality of Service) requirements. Traditional research in workflow scheduling mainly focuses on the optimization constrained by time or cost without paying attention to energy consumption. The main contribution of this study is to propose a new approach for multi-objective workflow scheduling in clouds, and present the hybrid PSO algorithm to optimize the scheduling performance. Our method is based on the Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) technique to minimize energy consumption. This technique allows processors to operate in different voltage supply levels by sacrificing clock frequencies. This multiple voltage involves a compromise between the quality of schedules and energy. Simulation results on synthetic and real-world scientific applications highlight the robust performance of the proposed approach. PMID:24319361

  20. Multi-objective approach for energy-aware workflow scheduling in cloud computing environments.

    PubMed

    Yassa, Sonia; Chelouah, Rachid; Kadima, Hubert; Granado, Bertrand

    2013-01-01

    We address the problem of scheduling workflow applications on heterogeneous computing systems like cloud computing infrastructures. In general, the cloud workflow scheduling is a complex optimization problem which requires considering different criteria so as to meet a large number of QoS (Quality of Service) requirements. Traditional research in workflow scheduling mainly focuses on the optimization constrained by time or cost without paying attention to energy consumption. The main contribution of this study is to propose a new approach for multi-objective workflow scheduling in clouds, and present the hybrid PSO algorithm to optimize the scheduling performance. Our method is based on the Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) technique to minimize energy consumption. This technique allows processors to operate in different voltage supply levels by sacrificing clock frequencies. This multiple voltage involves a compromise between the quality of schedules and energy. Simulation results on synthetic and real-world scientific applications highlight the robust performance of the proposed approach.

  1. Background - oriented schlieren analysis of shockwave propagation from encased and uncased explosives

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Romo, Cynthia Paulinne

    High speed digital video images of encased and uncased large-scale explosions of Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil (ANFO), and Composition C-4 (C-4) at different masses were analyzed using the background oriented schlieren visualization technique. The encased explosions for ANFO and C-4 took place in the form of car bombs and pipe bombs respectively. The data obtained from the video footage were used to produce shock wave radius vs time profiles, as well as Mach number vs shock wave position profiles. The experimentally measured shock wave data for each explosive material were scaled using Sachs' scaling laws to a 1 kilogram charge at normal temperature and pressure. The results of C-4 were compared to literature, while the results of scaled ANFO were compared to each other, and to the results obtained during the uncased detonations. The comparison between the scaled profiles gathered from the encased and uncased detonations resulted in the identification of the relative amount of energy lost due to the fragmentation of the case. The C-4 profiles were compared to those obtained from computational simulations performed via CTH. The C-4 results showed an agreement in the data reported in literature and that obtained using the background-oriented schlieren (BOS) technique, as well as a good overall agreement with the profiles obtained computationally.

  2. Computational model for noncontact atomic force microscopy: energy dissipation of cantilever.

    PubMed

    Senda, Yasuhiro; Blomqvist, Janne; Nieminen, Risto M

    2016-09-21

    We propose a computational model for noncontact atomic force microscopy (AFM) in which the atomic force between the cantilever tip and the surface is calculated using a molecular dynamics method, and the macroscopic motion of the cantilever is modeled by an oscillating spring. The movement of atoms in the tip and surface is connected with the oscillating spring using a recently developed coupling method. In this computational model, the oscillation energy is dissipated, as observed in AFM experiments. We attribute this dissipation to the hysteresis and nonconservative properties of the interatomic force that acts between the atoms in the tip and sample surface. The dissipation rate strongly depends on the parameters used in the computational model.

  3. Computation of Calcium Score with Dual Energy CT: A Phantom Study

    PubMed Central

    Kumar, Vidhya; Min, James K.; He, Xin; Raman, Subha V.

    2016-01-01

    Dual energy computed tomography (DECT) improves material and tissue characterization compared to single energy CT (SECT); we sought to validate coronary calcium quantification in advancing cardiovascular DECT. In an anthropomorphic phantom, agreement between measurements was excellent, and Bland-Altman analysis demonstrated minimal bias. Compared to the known calcium mass for each phantom, calcium mass by DECT was highly accurate. Noncontrast DECT yields accurate calcium measures, and warrants consideration in cardiac protocols for additional tissue characterizations. PMID:27680414

  4. Orientational anisotropy and interfacial transport in polycrystals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moghadam, M. M.; Rickman, J. M.; Harmer, M. P.; Chan, H. M.

    2016-04-01

    Interfacial diffusion is governed to a large degree by geometric parameters that are determined by crystallographic orientation. In this study, we assess the impact of orientational anisotropy on mass transport at internal interfaces, focusing on the role of preferred crystallographic orientation (i.e., texture) on mass diffusion in a polycrystal. More specifically, we perform both numerical and analytical studies of steady-state diffusion for polycrystals having various grain-orientation distributions. By relating grain misorientation to grain-boundary energies and, via the Borisov relation, to the diffusivity, we link microstructure variability to kinetics. Our aim is to correlate shape features of the orientation distribution, such as the location and shapes of peaks, with the calculated effective diffusivity. Finally, we discuss the role of crystallographic constraints, such as those associated with grain junctions, in determining the effective diffusivity of a polycrystal.

  5. Ontology-Oriented Programming for Biomedical Informatics.

    PubMed

    Lamy, Jean-Baptiste

    2016-01-01

    Ontologies are now widely used in the biomedical domain. However, it is difficult to manipulate ontologies in a computer program and, consequently, it is not easy to integrate ontologies with databases or websites. Two main approaches have been proposed for accessing ontologies in a computer program: traditional API (Application Programming Interface) and ontology-oriented programming, either static or dynamic. In this paper, we will review these approaches and discuss their appropriateness for biomedical ontologies. We will also present an experience feedback about the integration of an ontology in a computer software during the VIIIP research project. Finally, we will present OwlReady, the solution we developed.

  6. Aiding Design of Wave Energy Converters via Computational Simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jebeli Aqdam, Hejar; Ahmadi, Babak; Raessi, Mehdi; Tootkaboni, Mazdak

    2015-11-01

    With the increasing interest in renewable energy sources, wave energy converters will continue to gain attention as a viable alternative to current electricity production methods. It is therefore crucial to develop computational tools for the design and analysis of wave energy converters. A successful design requires balance between the design performance and cost. Here an analytical solution is used for the approximate analysis of interactions between a flap-type wave energy converter (WEC) and waves. The method is verified using other flow solvers and experimental test cases. Then the model is used in conjunction with a powerful heuristic optimization engine, Charged System Search (CSS) to explore the WEC design space. CSS is inspired by charged particles behavior. It searches the design space by considering candidate answers as charged particles and moving them based on the Coulomb's laws of electrostatics and Newton's laws of motion to find the global optimum. Finally the impacts of changes in different design parameters on the power takeout of the superior WEC designs are investigated. National Science Foundation, CBET-1236462.

  7. Computational assessment of several hydrogen-free high energy compounds.

    PubMed

    Tan, Bisheng; Huang, Ming; Long, Xinping; Li, Jinshan; Fan, Guijuan

    2016-01-01

    Tetrazino-tetrazine-tetraoxide (TTTO) is an attractive high energy compound, but unfortunately, it is not yet experimentally synthesized so far. Isomerization of TTTO leads to its five isomers, bond-separation energies were empolyed to compare the global stability of six compounds, it is found that isomer 1 has the highest bond-separation energy (1204.6kJ/mol), compared with TTTO (1151.2kJ/mol); thermodynamic properties of six compounds were theoretically calculated, including standard formation enthalpies (solid and gaseous), standard fusion enthalpies, standard vaporation enthalpies, standard sublimation enthalpies, lattice energies and normal melting points, normal boiling points; their detonation performances were also computed, including detonation heat (Q, cal/g), detonation velocity (D, km/s), detonation pressure (P, GPa) and impact sensitivity (h50, cm), compared with TTTO (Q=1311.01J/g, D=9.228km/s, P=40.556GPa, h50=12.7cm), isomer 5 exhibites better detonation performances (Q=1523.74J/g, D=9.389km/s, P=41.329GPa, h50= 28.4cm). Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Issues in undergraduate education in computational science and high performance computing

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

    Marchioro, T.L. II; Martin, D.

    1994-12-31

    The ever increasing need for mathematical and computational literacy within their society and among members of the work force has generated enormous pressure to revise and improve the teaching of related subjects throughout the curriculum, particularly at the undergraduate level. The Calculus Reform movement is perhaps the best known example of an organized initiative in this regard. The UCES (Undergraduate Computational Engineering and Science) project, an effort funded by the Department of Energy and administered through the Ames Laboratory, is sponsoring an informal and open discussion of the salient issues confronting efforts to improve and expand the teaching of computationalmore » science as a problem oriented, interdisciplinary approach to scientific investigation. Although the format is open, the authors hope to consider pertinent questions such as: (1) How can faculty and research scientists obtain the recognition necessary to further excellence in teaching the mathematical and computational sciences? (2) What sort of educational resources--both hardware and software--are needed to teach computational science at the undergraduate level? Are traditional procedural languages sufficient? Are PCs enough? Are massively parallel platforms needed? (3) How can electronic educational materials be distributed in an efficient way? Can they be made interactive in nature? How should such materials be tied to the World Wide Web and the growing ``Information Superhighway``?« less

  9. Market penetration of energy supply technologies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Condap, R. J.

    1980-03-01

    Techniques to incorporate the concepts of profit-induced growth and risk aversion into policy-oriented optimization models of the domestic energy sector are examined. After reviewing the pertinent market penetration literature, simple mathematical programs in which the introduction of new energy technologies is constrained primarily by the reinvestment of profits are formulated. The main results involve the convergence behavior of technology production levels under various assumptions about the form of the energy demand function. Next, profitability growth constraints are embedded in a full-scale model of U.S. energy-economy interactions. A rapidly convergent algorithm is developed to utilize optimal shadow prices in the computation of profitability for individual technologies. Allowance is made for additional policy variables such as government funding and taxation. The result is an optimal deployment schedule for current and future energy technologies which is consistent with the sector's ability to finance capacity expansion.

  10. PREFACE: International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP'07)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sobie, Randall; Tafirout, Reda; Thomson, Jana

    2007-07-01

    The 2007 International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP) was held on 2-7 September 2007 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. CHEP is a major series of international conferences for physicists and computing professionals from the High Energy and Nuclear Physics community, Computer Science and Information Technology. The CHEP conference provides an international forum to exchange information on computing experience and needs for the community, and to review recent, ongoing, and future activities. The CHEP'07 conference had close to 500 attendees with a program that included plenary sessions of invited oral presentations, a number of parallel sessions comprising oral and poster presentations, and an industrial exhibition. Conference tracks covered topics in Online Computing, Event Processing, Software Components, Tools and Databases, Software Tools and Information Systems, Computing Facilities, Production Grids and Networking, Grid Middleware and Tools, Distributed Data Analysis and Information Management and Collaborative Tools. The conference included a successful whale-watching excursion involving over 200 participants and a banquet at the Royal British Columbia Museum. The next CHEP conference will be held in Prague in March 2009. We would like thank the sponsors of the conference and the staff at the TRIUMF Laboratory and the University of Victoria who made the CHEP'07 a success. Randall Sobie and Reda Tafirout CHEP'07 Conference Chairs

  11. Asynchronous Data Retrieval from an Object-Oriented Database

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gilbert, Jonathan P.; Bic, Lubomir

    We present an object-oriented semantic database model which, similar to other object-oriented systems, combines the virtues of four concepts: the functional data model, a property inheritance hierarchy, abstract data types and message-driven computation. The main emphasis is on the last of these four concepts. We describe generic procedures that permit queries to be processed in a purely message-driven manner. A database is represented as a network of nodes and directed arcs, in which each node is a logical processing element, capable of communicating with other nodes by exchanging messages. This eliminates the need for shared memory and for centralized control during query processing. Hence, the model is suitable for implementation on a multiprocessor computer architecture, consisting of large numbers of loosely coupled processing elements.

  12. Developing Formal Object-oriented Requirements Specifications: A Model, Tool and Technique.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jackson, Robert B.; And Others

    1995-01-01

    Presents a formal object-oriented specification model (OSS) for computer software system development that is supported by a tool that automatically generates a prototype from an object-oriented analysis model (OSA) instance, lets the user examine the prototype, and permits the user to refine the OSA model instance to generate a requirements…

  13. Comparing alchemical and physical pathway methods for computing the absolute binding free energy of charged ligands.

    PubMed

    Deng, Nanjie; Cui, Di; Zhang, Bin W; Xia, Junchao; Cruz, Jeffrey; Levy, Ronald

    2018-06-13

    Accurately predicting absolute binding free energies of protein-ligand complexes is important as a fundamental problem in both computational biophysics and pharmaceutical discovery. Calculating binding free energies for charged ligands is generally considered to be challenging because of the strong electrostatic interactions between the ligand and its environment in aqueous solution. In this work, we compare the performance of the potential of mean force (PMF) method and the double decoupling method (DDM) for computing absolute binding free energies for charged ligands. We first clarify an unresolved issue concerning the explicit use of the binding site volume to define the complexed state in DDM together with the use of harmonic restraints. We also provide an alternative derivation for the formula for absolute binding free energy using the PMF approach. We use these formulas to compute the binding free energy of charged ligands at an allosteric site of HIV-1 integrase, which has emerged in recent years as a promising target for developing antiviral therapy. As compared with the experimental results, the absolute binding free energies obtained by using the PMF approach show unsigned errors of 1.5-3.4 kcal mol-1, which are somewhat better than the results from DDM (unsigned errors of 1.6-4.3 kcal mol-1) using the same amount of CPU time. According to the DDM decomposition of the binding free energy, the ligand binding appears to be dominated by nonpolar interactions despite the presence of very large and favorable intermolecular ligand-receptor electrostatic interactions, which are almost completely cancelled out by the equally large free energy cost of desolvation of the charged moiety of the ligands in solution. We discuss the relative strengths of computing absolute binding free energies using the alchemical and physical pathway methods.

  14. Method for computing energy release rate using the elastic work factor approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rhee, K. Y.; Ernst, H. A.

    1992-01-01

    The elastic work factor eta(el) concept was applied to composite structures for the calculation of total energy release rate by using a single specimen. Cracked lap shear specimens with four different unidirectional fiber orientation were used to examine the dependence of eta(el) on the material properties. Also, three different thickness ratios (lap/strap) were used to determine how geometric conditions affect eta(el). The eta(el) values were calculated in two different ways: compliance method and crack closure method. The results show that the two methods produce comparable eta(el) values and, while eta(el) is affected significantly by geometric conditions, it is reasonably independent of material properties for the given geometry. The results also showed that the elastic work factor can be used to calculate total energy release rate using a single specimen.

  15. A Cross-Cultural Study of the Effect of a Graph-Oriented Computer-Assisted Project-Based Learning Environment on Middle School Students' Science Knowledge and Argumentation Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hsu, P.-S.; Van Dyke, M.; Chen, Y.; Smith, T. J.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore how seventh graders in a suburban school in the United States and sixth graders in an urban school in Taiwan developed argumentation skills and science knowledge in a project-based learning environment that incorporated a graph-oriented, computer-assisted application (GOCAA). A total of 42…

  16. On-line computer system for use with low- energy nuclear physics experiments is reported

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gemmell, D. S.

    1969-01-01

    Computer program handles data from low-energy nuclear physics experiments which utilize the ND-160 pulse-height analyzer and the PHYLIS computing system. The program allows experimenters to choose from about 50 different basic data-handling functions and to prescribe the order in which these functions will be performed.

  17. Reducing Vehicle Weight and Improving U.S. Energy Efficiency Using Integrated Computational Materials Engineering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Joost, William J.

    2012-09-01

    Transportation accounts for approximately 28% of U.S. energy consumption with the majority of transportation energy derived from petroleum sources. Many technologies such as vehicle electrification, advanced combustion, and advanced fuels can reduce transportation energy consumption by improving the efficiency of cars and trucks. Lightweight materials are another important technology that can improve passenger vehicle fuel efficiency by 6-8% for each 10% reduction in weight while also making electric and alternative vehicles more competitive. Despite the opportunities for improved efficiency, widespread deployment of lightweight materials for automotive structures is hampered by technology gaps most often associated with performance, manufacturability, and cost. In this report, the impact of reduced vehicle weight on energy efficiency is discussed with a particular emphasis on quantitative relationships determined by several researchers. The most promising lightweight materials systems are described along with a brief review of the most significant technical barriers to their implementation. For each material system, the development of accurate material models is critical to support simulation-intensive processing and structural design for vehicles; improved models also contribute to an integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach for addressing technical barriers and accelerating deployment. The value of computational techniques is described by considering recent ICME and computational materials science success stories with an emphasis on applying problem-specific methods.

  18. Updated energy budgets for neural computation in the neocortex and cerebellum

    PubMed Central

    Howarth, Clare; Gleeson, Padraig; Attwell, David

    2012-01-01

    The brain's energy supply determines its information processing power, and generates functional imaging signals. The energy use on the different subcellular processes underlying neural information processing has been estimated previously for the grey matter of the cerebral and cerebellar cortex. However, these estimates need reevaluating following recent work demonstrating that action potentials in mammalian neurons are much more energy efficient than was previously thought. Using this new knowledge, this paper provides revised estimates for the energy expenditure on neural computation in a simple model for the cerebral cortex and a detailed model of the cerebellar cortex. In cerebral cortex, most signaling energy (50%) is used on postsynaptic glutamate receptors, 21% is used on action potentials, 20% on resting potentials, 5% on presynaptic transmitter release, and 4% on transmitter recycling. In the cerebellar cortex, excitatory neurons use 75% and inhibitory neurons 25% of the signaling energy, and most energy is used on information processing by non-principal neurons: Purkinje cells use only 15% of the signaling energy. The majority of cerebellar signaling energy use is on the maintenance of resting potentials (54%) and postsynaptic receptors (22%), while action potentials account for only 17% of the signaling energy use. PMID:22434069

  19. Nanostructured carbon films with oriented graphitic planes

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

    Teo, E. H. T.; Kalish, R.; Kulik, J.

    2011-03-21

    Nanostructured carbon films with oriented graphitic planes can be deposited by applying energetic carbon bombardment. The present work shows the possibility of structuring graphitic planes perpendicular to the substrate in following two distinct ways: (i) applying sufficiently large carbon energies for deposition at room temperature (E>10 keV), (ii) utilizing much lower energies for deposition at elevated substrate temperatures (T>200 deg. C). High resolution transmission electron microscopy is used to probe the graphitic planes. The alignment achieved at elevated temperatures does not depend on the deposition angle. The data provides insight into the mechanisms leading to the growth of oriented graphiticmore » planes under different conditions.« less

  20. Studies of human dynamic space orientation using techniques of control theory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Young, L. R.

    1974-01-01

    Studies of human orientation and manual control in high order systems are summarized. Data cover techniques for measuring and altering orientation perception, role of non-visual motion sensors, particularly the vestibular and tactile sensors, use of motion cues in closed loop control of simple stable and unstable systems, and advanced computer controlled display systems.

  1. Career Oriented Mathematics, Teacher's Manual. [Includes Mastering Computational Skill: A Use-Based Program; Owning an Automobile and Driving as a Career; Retail Sales; Measurement; and Area-Perimeter.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mahaffey, Michael L.; McKillip, William D.

    This manual is designed for teachers using the Career Oriented Mathematics units on owning an automobile and driving as a career, retail sales, measurement, and area-perimeter. The volume begins with a discussion of the philosophy and scheduling of the program which is designed to improve students' attitudes and ability in computation by…

  2. Object-oriented design and implementation of CFDLab: a computer-assisted learning tool for fluid dynamics using dual reciprocity boundary element methodology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Friedrich, J.

    1999-08-01

    As lecturers, our main concern and goal is to develop more attractive and efficient ways of communicating up-to-date scientific knowledge to our students and facilitate an in-depth understanding of physical phenomena. Computer-based instruction is very promising to help both teachers and learners in their difficult task, which involves complex cognitive psychological processes. This complexity is reflected in high demands on the design and implementation methods used to create computer-assisted learning (CAL) programs. Due to their concepts, flexibility, maintainability and extended library resources, object-oriented modeling techniques are very suitable to produce this type of pedagogical tool. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) enjoys not only a growing importance in today's research, but is also very powerful for teaching and learning fluid dynamics. For this purpose, an educational PC program for university level called 'CFDLab 1.1' for Windows™ was developed with an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for multitasking and point-and-click operations. It uses the dual reciprocity boundary element method as a versatile numerical scheme, allowing to handle a variety of relevant governing equations in two dimensions on personal computers due to its simple pre- and postprocessing including 2D Laplace, Poisson, diffusion, transient convection-diffusion.

  3. Computation of Hemagglutinin Free Energy Difference by the Confinement Method

    PubMed Central

    2017-01-01

    Hemagglutinin (HA) mediates membrane fusion, a crucial step during influenza virus cell entry. How many HAs are needed for this process is still subject to debate. To aid in this discussion, the confinement free energy method was used to calculate the conformational free energy difference between the extended intermediate and postfusion state of HA. Special care was taken to comply with the general guidelines for free energy calculations, thereby obtaining convergence and demonstrating reliability of the results. The energy that one HA trimer contributes to fusion was found to be 34.2 ± 3.4kBT, similar to the known contributions from other fusion proteins. Although computationally expensive, the technique used is a promising tool for the further energetic characterization of fusion protein mechanisms. Knowledge of the energetic contributions per protein, and of conserved residues that are crucial for fusion, aids in the development of fusion inhibitors for antiviral drugs. PMID:29151344

  4. Supporting Abstraction Processes in Problem Solving through Pattern-Oriented Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Muller, Orna; Haberman, Bruria

    2008-01-01

    Abstraction is a major concept in computer science and serves as a powerful tool in software development. Pattern-oriented instruction (POI) is a pedagogical approach that incorporates patterns in an introductory computer science course in order to structure the learning of algorithmic problem solving. This paper examines abstraction processes in…

  5. The role of computer-aided 3D surgery and stereolithographic modelling for vector orientation in premaxillary and trans-sinusoidal maxillary distraction osteogenesis.

    PubMed

    Varol, Altan; Basa, Selçuk

    2009-06-01

    Maxillary distraction osteogenesis is a challenging procedure when it is performed with internal submerged distractors due to obligation of setting accurate distraction vectors. Five patients with severe maxillary retrognathy were planned with Mimics 10.01 CMF and Simplant 10.01 software. Distraction vectors and rods of distractors were arranged in 3D environment and on STL models. All patients were operated under general anaesthesia and complete Le Fort I downfracture was performed. All distractions were performed according to orientated vectors. All patients achieved stable occlusion and satisfactory aesthetic outcome at the end of the treatment period. Preoperative bending of internal maxillary distractors prevents significant loss of operation time. 3D computer-aided surgical simulation and model surgery provide accurate orientation of distraction vectors for premaxillary and internal trans-sinusoidal maxillary distraction. Combination of virtual surgical simulation and stereolithographic models surgery can be validated as an effective method of preoperative planning for complicated maxillofacial surgery cases.

  6. Analytical Computation of Energy-Energy Correlation at Next-to-Leading Order in QCD [The Energy-Energy Correlation at Next-to-Leading Order in QCD, Analytically

    DOE PAGES

    Dixon, Lance J.; Luo, Ming-xing; Shtabovenko, Vladyslav; ...

    2018-03-09

    Here, the energy-energy correlation (EEC) between two detectors in e +e – annihilation was computed analytically at leading order in QCD almost 40 years ago, and numerically at next-to-leading order (NLO) starting in the 1980s. We present the first analytical result for the EEC at NLO, which is remarkably simple, and facilitates analytical study of the perturbative structure of the EEC. We provide the expansion of the EEC in the collinear and back-to-back regions through next-to-leading power, information which should aid resummation in these regions.

  7. Analytical Computation of Energy-Energy Correlation at Next-to-Leading Order in QCD [The Energy-Energy Correlation at Next-to-Leading Order in QCD, Analytically

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

    Dixon, Lance J.; Luo, Ming-xing; Shtabovenko, Vladyslav

    Here, the energy-energy correlation (EEC) between two detectors in e +e – annihilation was computed analytically at leading order in QCD almost 40 years ago, and numerically at next-to-leading order (NLO) starting in the 1980s. We present the first analytical result for the EEC at NLO, which is remarkably simple, and facilitates analytical study of the perturbative structure of the EEC. We provide the expansion of the EEC in the collinear and back-to-back regions through next-to-leading power, information which should aid resummation in these regions.

  8. Development of a methodology to compute solvation free energies on the basis of the theory of energy representation for solutions represented with a polarizable force field.

    PubMed

    Suzuoka, Daiki; Takahashi, Hideaki; Ishiyama, Tatsuya; Morita, Akihiro

    2012-12-07

    We have developed a method of molecular simulations utilizing a polarizable force field in combination with the theory of energy representation (ER) for the purpose of establishing an efficient and accurate methodology to compute solvation free energies. The standard version of the ER method is, however, based on the assumption that the solute-solvent interaction is pairwise additive for its construction. A crucial step in the present method is to introduce an intermediate state in the solvation process to treat separately the many-body interaction associated with the polarizable model. The intermediate state is chosen so that the solute-solvent interaction can be formally written in the pairwise form, though the solvent molecules are interacting with each other with polarizable charges dependent on the solvent configuration. It is, then, possible to extract the free energy contribution δμ due to the many-body interaction between solute and solvent from the total solvation free energy Δμ. It is shown that the free energy δμ can be computed by an extension of the recent development implemented in quantum mechanical∕molecular mechanical simulations. To assess the numerical robustness of the approach, we computed the solvation free energies of a water and a methanol molecule in water solvent, where two paths for the solvation processes were examined by introducing different intermediate states. The solvation free energies of a water molecule associated with the two paths were obtained as -5.3 and -5.8 kcal∕mol. Those of a methanol molecule were determined as -3.5 and -3.7 kcal∕mol. These results of the ER simulations were also compared with those computed by a numerically exact approach. It was demonstrated that the present approach produces the solvation free energies in comparable accuracies to simulations of thermodynamic integration (TI) method within a tenth of computational time used for the TI simulations.

  9. Understanding the oriented-attachment growth of nanocrystals from an energy point of view: a review

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lv, Weiqiang; He, Weidong; Wang, Xiaoning; Niu, Yinghua; Cao, Huanqi; Dickerson, James H.; Wang, Zhiguo

    2014-02-01

    Since Penn et al. first discovered the oriented attachment growth of crystals, the oriented attachment mechanism has now become a major research focus in the crystal field, and extensive efforts have been carried out over the past decade to systematically investigate the growth mechanism and the statistical kinetic models. However, most of the work mainly focuses on the experimental results on the oriented attachment growth. In contrast to the previous reviews, our review provides an overview of the recent theoretical advances in oriented attachment kinetics combined with experimental evidences. After a brief introduction to the van der Waals interaction and Coulombic interaction in a colloidal system, the correlation between the kinetic models of oriented attachment growth and the interactions is then our focus. The impact of in situ experimental observation techniques on the study of oriented attachment growth is examined with insightful examples. In addition, the advances in theoretical simulations mainly investigating the thermodynamic origin of these interactions at the atomic level are reviewed. This review seeks to understand the oriented attachment crystal growth from a kinetic point of view and provide a quantitative methodology to rationally design an oriented attachment system with pre-evaluated crystal growth parameters.

  10. Improving Thermal Performance of a Residential Building, Related to Its Orientations - A Case Study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akshaya, S.; Harish, S.; Arthy, R.; Muthu, D.; Venkatasubramanian, C.

    2017-07-01

    Urban planners and stakeholders require knowledge about the effectiveness of city-scale climate adaptation measures in order to develop climate resilient cities and to push forward the political process for the implementation of climate adaptation strategies. This study examines the impact of modifications in orientation of buildings with respect to heat load. Heat load calculation is a mathematical process to determine the best capacity, application and style of HVAC system. The purpose is to ensure energy efficiency while also maximizing comfort inside the building. This study of load calculation is essential for a building because it helps to pick the best orientation and focuses to find an orientation that will reduce energy due to direct solar radiation. One of the factors affecting this assessment is the latitude of the location. The heat gain is effective through walls and fenestration. Improper management through ineffective orientation of the building’s natural heat gain leads to excessive consumption of energy in the form of CL. The total heat gain for the above factors is calculated with the equations and assumptions as per ASHRAE code. After the calculation of heat load for different orientations, the best suited orientation of the building is found. By altering the building to suitable orientation, the dependence on electrical equipment can be minimized and thereby helps in energy conservation.

  11. Atomistic simulation of orientation dependence in shock-induced initiation of pentaerythritol tetranitrate.

    PubMed

    Shan, Tzu-Ray; Wixom, Ryan R; Mattsson, Ann E; Thompson, Aidan P

    2013-01-24

    The dependence of the reaction initiation mechanism of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) on shock orientation and shock strength is investigated with molecular dynamics simulations using a reactive force field and the multiscale shock technique. In the simulations, a single crystal of PETN is shocked along the [110], [001], and [100] orientations with shock velocities in the range 3-10 km/s. Reactions occur with shock velocities of 6 km/s or stronger, and reactions initiate through the dissociation of nitro and nitrate groups from the PETN molecules. The most sensitive orientation is [110], while [100] is the most insensitive. For the [001] orientation, PETN decomposition via nitro group dissociation is the dominant reaction initiation mechanism, while for the [110] and [100] orientations the decomposition is via mixed nitro and nitrate group dissociation. For shock along the [001] orientation, we find that CO-NO(2) bonds initially acquire more kinetic energy, facilitating nitro dissociation. For the other two orientations, C-ONO(2) bonds acquire more kinetic energy, facilitating nitrate group dissociation.

  12. Time Orientation and Human Performance

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2004-06-01

    Work with Computing Systems 2004. H.M. Khalid, M.G. Helander, A.W. Yeo (Editors) . Kuala Lumpur: Damai Sciences. 1 Time Orientation and Human...Multi-tasking. 1 . Introduction With increased globalization, understanding the various cultures and people’s attitudes and behaviours is crucial...reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching

  13. Computational Modelling of Materials for Wind Turbine Blades: Selected DTU Wind Energy Activities.

    PubMed

    Mikkelsen, Lars Pilgaard; Mishnaevsky, Leon

    2017-11-08

    Computational and analytical studies of degradation of wind turbine blade materials at the macro-, micro-, and nanoscale carried out by the modelling team of the Section Composites and Materials Mechanics, Department of Wind Energy, DTU, are reviewed. Examples of the analysis of the microstructural effects on the strength and fatigue life of composites are shown. Computational studies of degradation mechanisms of wind blade composites under tensile and compressive loading are presented. The effect of hybrid and nanoengineered structures on the performance of the composite was studied in computational experiments as well.

  14. Computational Modelling of Materials for Wind Turbine Blades: Selected DTU Wind Energy Activities

    PubMed Central

    2017-01-01

    Computational and analytical studies of degradation of wind turbine blade materials at the macro-, micro-, and nanoscale carried out by the modelling team of the Section Composites and Materials Mechanics, Department of Wind Energy, DTU, are reviewed. Examples of the analysis of the microstructural effects on the strength and fatigue life of composites are shown. Computational studies of degradation mechanisms of wind blade composites under tensile and compressive loading are presented. The effect of hybrid and nanoengineered structures on the performance of the composite was studied in computational experiments as well. PMID:29117138

  15. Förster resonance energy transfer: Role of diffusion of fluorophore orientation and separation in observed shifts of FRET efficiency

    DOE PAGES

    Wallace, Bram; Atzberger, Paul J.; D’Auria, Sabato

    2017-05-19

    Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is a widely used single-molecule technique for measuring nanoscale distances from changes in the non-radiative transfer of energy between donor and acceptor fluorophores. For macromolecules and complexes this observed transfer efficiency is used to infer changes in molecular conformation under differing experimental conditions. But, sometimes shifts are observed in the FRET efficiency even when there is strong experimental evidence that the molecular conformational state is unchanged. Here, we investigate ways in which such discrepancies can arise from kinetic effects. We show that significant shifts can arise from the interplay between excitation kinetics, orientation diffusion ofmore » fluorophores, separation diffusion of fluorophores, and non-emitting quenching.« less

  16. Förster resonance energy transfer: Role of diffusion of fluorophore orientation and separation in observed shifts of FRET efficiency

    PubMed Central

    Wallace, Bram

    2017-01-01

    Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is a widely used single-molecule technique for measuring nanoscale distances from changes in the non-radiative transfer of energy between donor and acceptor fluorophores. For macromolecules and complexes this observed transfer efficiency is used to infer changes in molecular conformation under differing experimental conditions. However, sometimes shifts are observed in the FRET efficiency even when there is strong experimental evidence that the molecular conformational state is unchanged. We investigate ways in which such discrepancies can arise from kinetic effects. We show that significant shifts can arise from the interplay between excitation kinetics, orientation diffusion of fluorophores, separation diffusion of fluorophores, and non-emitting quenching. PMID:28542211

  17. Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of Swimmer's Hand Velocity, Orientation, and Shape: Contributions to Hydrodynamics

    PubMed Central

    Bilinauskaite, Milda; Mantha, Vishveshwar Rajendra; Rouboa, Abel Ilah; Ziliukas, Pranas; Silva, Antonio Jose

    2013-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to determine the hydrodynamic characteristics of swimmer's scanned hand models for various combinations of both the angle of attack and the sweepback angle and shape and velocity of swimmer's hand, simulating separate underwater arm stroke phases of freestyle (front crawl) swimming. Four realistic 3D models of swimmer's hand corresponding to different combinations of separated/closed fingers positions were used to simulate different underwater front crawl phases. The fluid flow was simulated using FLUENT (ANSYS, PA, USA). Drag force and drag coefficient were calculated using (computational fluid dynamics) CFD in steady state. Results showed that the drag force and coefficient varied at the different flow velocities on all shapes of the hand and variation was observed for different hand positions corresponding to different stroke phases. The models of the hand with thumb adducted and abducted generated the highest drag forces and drag coefficients. The current study suggests that the realistic variation of both the orientation angles influenced higher values of drag, lift, and resultant coefficients and forces. To augment resultant force, which affects swimmer's propulsion, the swimmer should concentrate in effectively optimising achievable hand areas during crucial propulsive phases. PMID:23691493

  18. Linearly polarized pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 microchip laser for Ince-Gaussian laser modes with controllable orientations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    He, Hong-Sen; Zhang, Ming-Ming; Dong, Jun; Ueda, Ken-Ichi

    2016-12-01

    A tilted, linearly polarized laser diode end-pumped Cr4+:YAG passively Q-switched a-cut Nd:YVO4 microchip laser for generating numerous Ince-Gaussian (IG) laser modes with controllable orientations has been demonstrated by selecting the crystalline orientation of an a-cut Nd:YVO4 crystal. The same IG laser mode with different orientations has been achieved with the same absorbed pump power in a passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 microchip laser under linearly polarized pumping when the incident pump power and the crystalline orientation of an a-cut Nd:YVO4 crystal are both properly selected. The significant improvement of pulsed laser performance of controllable IG modes has been achieved by selecting the crystalline orientation of an a-cut Nd:YVO4 crystal. The maximum pulse energy is obtained along the a-axis of an a-cut Nd:YVO4 crystal and the highest peak power is achieved along the c-axis of an a-cut Nd:YVO4 crystal, respectively, which has potential applications on quantum computation and optical manipulation. The generation of controllable IG laser modes in microchip lasers under linearly polarized pumping provides a convenient and universal way to control IG laser mode numbers with anisotropic crystal as a gain medium.

  19. A 4-cylinder Stirling engine computer program with dynamic energy equations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Daniele, C. J.; Lorenzo, C. F.

    1983-01-01

    A computer program for simulating the steady state and transient performance of a four cylinder Stirling engine is presented. The thermodynamic model includes both continuity and energy equations and linear momentum terms (flow resistance). Each working space between the pistons is broken into seven control volumes. Drive dynamics and vehicle load effects are included. The model contains 70 state variables. Also included in the model are piston rod seal leakage effects. The computer program includes a model of a hydrogen supply system, from which hydrogen may be added to the system to accelerate the engine. Flow charts are provided.

  20. Dynamic electronic institutions in agent oriented cloud robotic systems.

    PubMed

    Nagrath, Vineet; Morel, Olivier; Malik, Aamir; Saad, Naufal; Meriaudeau, Fabrice

    2015-01-01

    The dot-com bubble bursted in the year 2000 followed by a swift movement towards resource virtualization and cloud computing business model. Cloud computing emerged not as new form of computing or network technology but a mere remoulding of existing technologies to suit a new business model. Cloud robotics is understood as adaptation of cloud computing ideas for robotic applications. Current efforts in cloud robotics stress upon developing robots that utilize computing and service infrastructure of the cloud, without debating on the underlying business model. HTM5 is an OMG's MDA based Meta-model for agent oriented development of cloud robotic systems. The trade-view of HTM5 promotes peer-to-peer trade amongst software agents. HTM5 agents represent various cloud entities and implement their business logic on cloud interactions. Trade in a peer-to-peer cloud robotic system is based on relationships and contracts amongst several agent subsets. Electronic Institutions are associations of heterogeneous intelligent agents which interact with each other following predefined norms. In Dynamic Electronic Institutions, the process of formation, reformation and dissolution of institutions is automated leading to run time adaptations in groups of agents. DEIs in agent oriented cloud robotic ecosystems bring order and group intellect. This article presents DEI implementations through HTM5 methodology.

  1. A charge- and energy-conserving implicit, electrostatic particle-in-cell algorithm on mapped computational meshes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chacón, L.; Chen, G.; Barnes, D. C.

    2013-01-01

    We describe the extension of the recent charge- and energy-conserving one-dimensional electrostatic particle-in-cell algorithm in Ref. [G. Chen, L. Chacón, D.C. Barnes, An energy- and charge-conserving, implicit electrostatic particle-in-cell algorithm, Journal of Computational Physics 230 (2011) 7018-7036] to mapped (body-fitted) computational meshes. The approach maintains exact charge and energy conservation properties. Key to the algorithm is a hybrid push, where particle positions are updated in logical space, while velocities are updated in physical space. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated with a challenging numerical test case, the ion acoustic shock wave. The generalization of the approach to multiple dimensions is outlined.

  2. Outer Membrane Protein Folding and Topology from a Computational Transfer Free Energy Scale.

    PubMed

    Lin, Meishan; Gessmann, Dennis; Naveed, Hammad; Liang, Jie

    2016-03-02

    Knowledge of the transfer free energy of amino acids from aqueous solution to a lipid bilayer is essential for understanding membrane protein folding and for predicting membrane protein structure. Here we report a computational approach that can calculate the folding free energy of the transmembrane region of outer membrane β-barrel proteins (OMPs) by combining an empirical energy function with a reduced discrete state space model. We quantitatively analyzed the transfer free energies of 20 amino acid residues at the center of the lipid bilayer of OmpLA. Our results are in excellent agreement with the experimentally derived hydrophobicity scales. We further exhaustively calculated the transfer free energies of 20 amino acids at all positions in the TM region of OmpLA. We found that the asymmetry of the Gram-negative bacterial outer membrane as well as the TM residues of an OMP determine its functional fold in vivo. Our results suggest that the folding process of an OMP is driven by the lipid-facing residues in its hydrophobic core, and its NC-IN topology is determined by the differential stabilities of OMPs in the asymmetrical outer membrane. The folding free energy is further reduced by lipid A and assisted by general depth-dependent cooperativities that exist between polar and ionizable residues. Moreover, context-dependency of transfer free energies at specific positions in OmpLA predict regions important for protein function as well as structural anomalies. Our computational approach is fast, efficient and applicable to any OMP.

  3. Simple prescription for computing the interparticle potential energy for D-dimensional gravity systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Accioly, Antonio; Helayël-Neto, José; Barone, F. E.; Herdy, Wallace

    2015-02-01

    A straightforward prescription for computing the D-dimensional potential energy of gravitational models, which is strongly based on the Feynman path integral, is built up. Using this method, the static potential energy for the interaction of two masses is found in the context of D-dimensional higher-derivative gravity models, and its behavior is analyzed afterwards in both ultraviolet and infrared regimes. As a consequence, two new gravity systems in which the potential energy is finite at the origin, respectively, in D = 5 and D = 6, are found. Since the aforementioned prescription is equivalent to that based on the marriage between quantum mechanics (to leading order, i.e., in the first Born approximation) and the nonrelativistic limit of quantum field theory, and bearing in mind that the latter relies basically on the calculation of the nonrelativistic Feynman amplitude ({{M}NR}), a trivial expression for computing {{M}NR} is obtained from our prescription as an added bonus.

  4. Computations of Lifshitz-van der Waals interaction energies between irregular particles and surfaces at all separations for resuspension modelling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Priye, Aashish; Marlow, William H.

    2013-10-01

    The phenomenon of particle resuspension plays a vital role in numerous fields. Among many aspects of particle resuspension dynamics, a dominant concern is the accurate description and formulation of the van der Waals (vdW) interactions between the particle and substrate. Current models treat adhesion by incorporating a material-dependent Hamaker's constant which relies on the heuristic Hamaker's two-body interactions. However, this assumption of pairwise summation of interaction energies can lead to significant errors in condensed matter as it does not take into account the many-body interaction and retardation effects. To address these issues, an approach based on Lifshitz continuum theory of vdW interactions has been developed to calculate the principal many-body interactions between arbitrary geometries at all separation distances to a high degree of accuracy through Lifshitz's theory. We have applied this numerical implementation to calculate the many-body vdW interactions between spherical particles and surfaces with sinusoidally varying roughness profile and also to non-spherical particles (cubes, cylinders, tetrahedron etc) orientated differently with respect to the surface. Our calculations revealed that increasing the surface roughness amplitude decreases the adhesion force and non-spherical particles adhere to the surfaces more strongly when their flatter sides are oriented towards the surface. Such practical shapes and structures of particle-surface systems have not been previously considered in resuspension models and this rigorous treatment of vdW interactions provides more realistic adhesion forces between the particle and the surface which can then be coupled with computational fluid dynamics models to improve the predictive capabilities of particle resuspension dynamics.

  5. Equilibrium of fluid membranes endowed with orientational order

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar Alageshan, Jaya; Chakrabarti, Buddhapriya; Hatwalne, Yashodhan

    2017-04-01

    Minimization of the low-temperature elastic free-energy functional of orientationlly ordered membranes involves independent variation of the membrane-shape, while keeping the orientational order on it (its texture) fixed. We propose an operational, coordinate-independent method for implementing such a variation. Using the Nelson-Peliti formulation of elasticity that emphasizes the interplay between geometry, topology, and thermal fluctuations of orientationally ordered membranes, we minimize the elastic free energy to obtain equations governing their equilibrium shape, together with associated free boundary conditions. Our results are essential for understanding and predicting equilibrium shapes as well as textures of membranes and vesicles; particularly under conditions in which shape deformations are large.

  6. Computer-Oriented Calculus Courses Using Finite Differences.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gordon, Sheldon P.

    The so-called discrete approach in calculus instruction involves introducing topics from the calculus of finite differences and finite sums, both for motivation and as useful tools for applications of the calculus. In particular, it provides an ideal setting in which to incorporate computers into calculus courses. This approach has been…

  7. Object oriented development of engineering software using CLIPS

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yoon, C. John

    1991-01-01

    Engineering applications involve numeric complexity and manipulations of a large amount of data. Traditionally, numeric computation has been the concern in developing an engineering software. As engineering application software became larger and more complex, management of resources such as data, rather than the numeric complexity, has become the major software design problem. Object oriented design and implementation methodologies can improve the reliability, flexibility, and maintainability of the resulting software; however, some tasks are better solved with the traditional procedural paradigm. The C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS), with deffunction and defgeneric constructs, supports the procedural paradigm. The natural blending of object oriented and procedural paradigms has been cited as the reason for the popularity of the C++ language. The CLIPS Object Oriented Language's (COOL) object oriented features are more versatile than C++'s. A software design methodology based on object oriented and procedural approaches appropriate for engineering software, and to be implemented in CLIPS was outlined. A method for sensor placement for Space Station Freedom is being implemented in COOL as a sample problem.

  8. 3D Fiber Orientation Simulation for Plastic Injection Molding

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lin, Baojiu; Jin, Xiaoshi; Zheng, Rong; Costa, Franco S.; Fan, Zhiliang

    2004-06-01

    Glass fiber reinforced polymer is widely used in the products made using injection molding processing. The distribution of fiber orientation inside plastic parts has direct effects on quality of molded parts. Using computer simulation to predict fiber orientation distribution is one of most efficient ways to assist engineers to do warpage analysis and to find a good design solution to produce high quality plastic parts. Fiber orientation simulation software based on 2-1/2D (midplane /Dual domain mesh) techniques has been used in industry for a decade. However, the 2-1/2D technique is based on the planar Hele-Shaw approximation and it is not suitable when the geometry has complex three-dimensional features which cannot be well approximated by 2D shells. Recently, a full 3D simulation software for fiber orientation has been developed and integrated into Moldflow Plastics Insight 3D simulation software. The theory for this new 3D fiber orientation calculation module is described in this paper. Several examples are also presented to show the benefit in using 3D fiber orientation simulation.

  9. A comparison of paper-and-pencil and computerized forms of Line Orientation and Enhanced Cued Recall Tests.

    PubMed

    Aşkar, Petek; Altun, Arif; Cangöz, Banu; Cevik, Vildan; Kaya, Galip; Türksoy, Hasan

    2012-04-01

    The purpose of this study was to assess whether a computerized battery of neuropsychological tests could produce similar results as the conventional forms. Comparisons on 77 volunteer undergraduates were carried out with two neuropsychological tests: Line Orientation Test and Enhanced Cued Recall Test. Firstly, students were assigned randomly across the test medium (paper-and-pencil versus computerized). Secondly, the groups were given the same test in the other medium after a 30-day interval between tests. Results showed that the Enhanced Cued Recall Test-Computer-based did not correlate with the Enhanced Cued Recall Test-Paper-and-pencil results. Line Orientation Test-Computer-based scores, on the other hand, did correlate significantly with the Line Orientation Test-Paper-and-pencil version. In both tests, scores were higher on paper-and-pencil tests compared to computer-based tests. Total score difference between modalities was statistically significant for both Enhanced Cued Recall Tests and for the Line Orientation Test. In both computer-based tests, it took less time for participants to complete the tests.

  10. Web-Based Seamless Migration for Task-Oriented Mobile Distance Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhang, Degan; Li, Yuan-chao; Zhang, Huaiyu; Zhang, Xinshang; Zeng, Guangping

    2006-01-01

    As a new kind of computing paradigm, pervasive computing will meet the requirements of human being that anybody maybe obtain services in anywhere and at anytime, task-oriented seamless migration is one of its applications. Apparently, the function of seamless mobility is suitable for mobile services, such as mobile Web-based learning. In this…

  11. ICT Oriented toward Nyaya: Community Computing in India's Slums

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Byker, Erik J.

    2014-01-01

    In many schools across India, access to information and communication technology (ICT) is still a rare privilege. While the Annual Status of Education Report in India (2013) showed a marginal uptick in the amount of computers, the opportunities for children to use those computers have remained stagnant. The lack of access to ICT is especially…

  12. Optimal estimator model for human spatial orientation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Borah, J.; Young, L. R.; Curry, R. E.

    1979-01-01

    A model is being developed to predict pilot dynamic spatial orientation in response to multisensory stimuli. Motion stimuli are first processed by dynamic models of the visual, vestibular, tactile, and proprioceptive sensors. Central nervous system function is then modeled as a steady-state Kalman filter which blends information from the various sensors to form an estimate of spatial orientation. Where necessary, this linear central estimator has been augmented with nonlinear elements to reflect more accurately some highly nonlinear human response characteristics. Computer implementation of the model has shown agreement with several important qualitative characteristics of human spatial orientation, and it is felt that with further modification and additional experimental data the model can be improved and extended. Possible means are described for extending the model to better represent the active pilot with varying skill and work load levels.

  13. Protection of Computer Programs--A Dilemma.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carnahan, William H.

    Computer programs, as legitimate original inventions or creative written expressions, are entitled to patent or copyright protection. Understanding the legal implications of this concept is crucial to both computer programmers and their employers in our increasingly computer-oriented way of life. Basically the copyright or patent procedure…

  14. Orientation selectivity of synaptic input to neurons in mouse and cat primary visual cortex.

    PubMed

    Tan, Andrew Y Y; Brown, Brandon D; Scholl, Benjamin; Mohanty, Deepankar; Priebe, Nicholas J

    2011-08-24

    Primary visual cortex (V1) is the site at which orientation selectivity emerges in mammals: visual thalamus afferents to V1 respond equally to all stimulus orientations, whereas their target V1 neurons respond selectively to stimulus orientation. The emergence of orientation selectivity in V1 has long served as a model for investigating cortical computation. Recent evidence for orientation selectivity in mouse V1 opens cortical computation to dissection by genetic and imaging tools, but also raises two essential questions: (1) How does orientation selectivity in mouse V1 neurons compare with that in previously described species? (2) What is the synaptic basis for orientation selectivity in mouse V1? A comparison of orientation selectivity in mouse and in cat, where such measures have traditionally been made, reveals that orientation selectivity in mouse V1 is weaker than in cat V1, but that spike threshold plays a similar role in narrowing selectivity between membrane potential and spike rate. To uncover the synaptic basis for orientation selectivity, we made whole-cell recordings in vivo from mouse V1 neurons, comparing neuronal input selectivity-based on membrane potential, synaptic excitation, and synaptic inhibition-to output selectivity based on spiking. We found that a neuron's excitatory and inhibitory inputs are selective for the same stimulus orientations as is its membrane potential response, and that inhibitory selectivity is not broader than excitatory selectivity. Inhibition has different dynamics than excitation, adapting more rapidly. In neurons with temporally modulated responses, the timing of excitation and inhibition was different in mice and cats.

  15. Orientation Selectivity of Synaptic Input to Neurons in Mouse and Cat Primary Visual Cortex

    PubMed Central

    Tan (陈勇毅), Andrew Y. Y.; Brown, Brandon D.; Scholl, Benjamin; Mohanty, Deepankar; Priebe, Nicholas J.

    2011-01-01

    Primary visual cortex (V1) is the site at which orientation selectivity emerges in mammals: visual thalamus afferents to V1 respond equally to all stimulus orientations whereas their target V1 neurons respond selectively to stimulus orientation. The emergence of orientation selectivity in V1 has long served as a model for investigating cortical computation. Recent evidence for orientation selectivity in mouse V1 opens cortical computation to dissection by genetic and imaging tools, but also raises two essential questions: 1) how does orientation selectivity in mouse V1 neurons compare with that in previously described species? 2) what is the synaptic basis for orientation selectivity in mouse V1? A comparison of orientation selectivity in mouse and in cat, where such measures have traditionally been made, reveals that orientation selectivity in mouse V1 is weaker than in cat V1, but that spike threshold plays a similar role in narrowing selectivity between membrane potential and spike rate. To uncover the synaptic basis for orientation selectivity, we made whole-cell recordings in vivo from mouse V1 neurons, comparing neuronal input selectivity - based on membrane potential, synaptic excitation, and synaptic inhibition - to output selectivity based on spiking. We found that a neuron's excitatory and inhibitory inputs are selective for the same stimulus orientations as is its membrane potential response, and that inhibitory selectivity is not broader than excitatory selectivity. Inhibition has different dynamics than excitation, adapting more rapidly. In neurons with temporally modulated responses, the timing of excitation and inhibition was different in mice and cats. PMID:21865476

  16. Snow Crystal Orientation Effects on the Scattering of Passive Microwave Radiation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Foster, J. L.; Barton, J. S.; Chang, A. T. C.; Hall, D. K.

    1999-01-01

    For this study, consideration is given to the role crystal orientation plays in scattering and absorbing microwave radiation. A discrete dipole scattering model is used to measure the passive microwave radiation, at two polarizations (horizontal and vertical), scattered by snow crystals oriented in random and non random positions, having various sizes (ranging between 1 micrometers to 10,000 micrometers in radius), and shapes (including spheroids, cylinders, hexagons). The model results demonstrate that for the crystal sizes typically found in a snowpack, crystal orientation is insignificant compared to crystal size in terms of scattering microwave energy in the 8,100 gm (37 GHz) region of the spectrum. Therefore, the assumption used in radiative transfer approaches, where snow crystals are modeled as randomly oriented spheres, is adequate to account for the transfer of microwave energy emanating from the ground and passing through a snowpack.

  17. Computing the universe: how large-scale simulations illuminate galaxies and dark energy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    O'Shea, Brian

    2015-04-01

    High-performance and large-scale computing is absolutely to understanding astronomical objects such as stars, galaxies, and the cosmic web. This is because these are structures that operate on physical, temporal, and energy scales that cannot be reasonably approximated in the laboratory, and whose complexity and nonlinearity often defies analytic modeling. In this talk, I show how the growth of computing platforms over time has facilitated our understanding of astrophysical and cosmological phenomena, focusing primarily on galaxies and large-scale structure in the Universe.

  18. Aligned 1-D nanorods of a π-gelator exhibit molecular orientation and excitation energy transport different from entangled fiber networks.

    PubMed

    Sakakibara, Keita; Chithra, Parayalil; Das, Bidisa; Mori, Taizo; Akada, Misaho; Labuta, Jan; Tsuruoka, Tohru; Maji, Subrata; Furumi, Seiichi; Shrestha, Lok Kumar; Hill, Jonathan P; Acharya, Somobrata; Ariga, Katsuhiko; Ajayaghosh, Ayyappanpillai

    2014-06-18

    Linear π-gelators self-assemble into entangled fibers in which the molecules are arranged perpendicular to the fiber long axis. However, orientation of gelator molecules in a direction parallel to the long axes of the one-dimensional (1-D) structures remains challenging. Herein we demonstrate that, at the air-water interface, an oligo(p-phenylenevinylene)-derived π-gelator forms aligned nanorods of 340 ± 120 nm length and 34 ± 5 nm width, in which the gelator molecules are reoriented parallel to the long axis of the rods. The orientation change of the molecules results in distinct excited-state properties upon local photoexcitation, as evidenced by near-field scanning optical microscopy. A detailed understanding of the mechanism by which excitation energy migrates through these 1-D molecular assemblies might help in the design of supramolecular structures with improved charge-transport properties.

  19. Computing the Free Energy Barriers for Less by Sampling with a Coarse Reference Potential while Retaining Accuracy of the Target Fine Model.

    PubMed

    Plotnikov, Nikolay V

    2014-08-12

    Proposed in this contribution is a protocol for calculating fine-physics (e.g., ab initio QM/MM) free-energy surfaces at a high level of accuracy locally (e.g., only at reactants and at the transition state for computing the activation barrier) from targeted fine-physics sampling and extensive exploratory coarse-physics sampling. The full free-energy surface is still computed but at a lower level of accuracy from coarse-physics sampling. The method is analytically derived in terms of the umbrella sampling and the free-energy perturbation methods which are combined with the thermodynamic cycle and the targeted sampling strategy of the paradynamics approach. The algorithm starts by computing low-accuracy fine-physics free-energy surfaces from the coarse-physics sampling in order to identify the reaction path and to select regions for targeted sampling. Thus, the algorithm does not rely on the coarse-physics minimum free-energy reaction path. Next, segments of high-accuracy free-energy surface are computed locally at selected regions from the targeted fine-physics sampling and are positioned relative to the coarse-physics free-energy shifts. The positioning is done by averaging the free-energy perturbations computed with multistep linear response approximation method. This method is analytically shown to provide results of the thermodynamic integration and the free-energy interpolation methods, while being extremely simple in implementation. Incorporating the metadynamics sampling to the algorithm is also briefly outlined. The application is demonstrated by calculating the B3LYP//6-31G*/MM free-energy barrier for an enzymatic reaction using a semiempirical PM6/MM reference potential. These modifications allow computing the activation free energies at a significantly reduced computational cost but at the same level of accuracy compared to computing full potential of mean force.

  20. Computing the Free Energy Barriers for Less by Sampling with a Coarse Reference Potential while Retaining Accuracy of the Target Fine Model

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    Proposed in this contribution is a protocol for calculating fine-physics (e.g., ab initio QM/MM) free-energy surfaces at a high level of accuracy locally (e.g., only at reactants and at the transition state for computing the activation barrier) from targeted fine-physics sampling and extensive exploratory coarse-physics sampling. The full free-energy surface is still computed but at a lower level of accuracy from coarse-physics sampling. The method is analytically derived in terms of the umbrella sampling and the free-energy perturbation methods which are combined with the thermodynamic cycle and the targeted sampling strategy of the paradynamics approach. The algorithm starts by computing low-accuracy fine-physics free-energy surfaces from the coarse-physics sampling in order to identify the reaction path and to select regions for targeted sampling. Thus, the algorithm does not rely on the coarse-physics minimum free-energy reaction path. Next, segments of high-accuracy free-energy surface are computed locally at selected regions from the targeted fine-physics sampling and are positioned relative to the coarse-physics free-energy shifts. The positioning is done by averaging the free-energy perturbations computed with multistep linear response approximation method. This method is analytically shown to provide results of the thermodynamic integration and the free-energy interpolation methods, while being extremely simple in implementation. Incorporating the metadynamics sampling to the algorithm is also briefly outlined. The application is demonstrated by calculating the B3LYP//6-31G*/MM free-energy barrier for an enzymatic reaction using a semiempirical PM6/MM reference potential. These modifications allow computing the activation free energies at a significantly reduced computational cost but at the same level of accuracy compared to computing full potential of mean force. PMID:25136268

  1. Orientation of doubly rotated quartz plates.

    PubMed

    Sherman, J R

    1989-01-01

    A derivation from classical spherical trigonometry of equations to compute the orientation of doubly-rotated quartz blanks from Bragg X-ray data is discussed. These are usually derived by compact and efficient vector methods, which are reviewed briefly. They are solved by generating a quadratic equation with numerical coefficients. Two methods exist for performing the computation from measurements against two planes: a direct solution by a quadratic equation and a process of convergent iteration. Both have a spurious solution. Measurement against three lattice planes yields a set of three linear equations the solution of which is an unambiguous result.

  2. Energy scaling advantages of resistive memory crossbar based computation and its application to sparse coding

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

    Agarwal, Sapan; Quach, Tu -Thach; Parekh, Ojas

    In this study, the exponential increase in data over the last decade presents a significant challenge to analytics efforts that seek to process and interpret such data for various applications. Neural-inspired computing approaches are being developed in order to leverage the computational properties of the analog, low-power data processing observed in biological systems. Analog resistive memory crossbars can perform a parallel read or a vector-matrix multiplication as well as a parallel write or a rank-1 update with high computational efficiency. For an N × N crossbar, these two kernels can be O(N) more energy efficient than a conventional digital memory-basedmore » architecture. If the read operation is noise limited, the energy to read a column can be independent of the crossbar size (O(1)). These two kernels form the basis of many neuromorphic algorithms such as image, text, and speech recognition. For instance, these kernels can be applied to a neural sparse coding algorithm to give an O(N) reduction in energy for the entire algorithm when run with finite precision. Sparse coding is a rich problem with a host of applications including computer vision, object tracking, and more generally unsupervised learning.« less

  3. Energy scaling advantages of resistive memory crossbar based computation and its application to sparse coding

    DOE PAGES

    Agarwal, Sapan; Quach, Tu -Thach; Parekh, Ojas; ...

    2016-01-06

    In this study, the exponential increase in data over the last decade presents a significant challenge to analytics efforts that seek to process and interpret such data for various applications. Neural-inspired computing approaches are being developed in order to leverage the computational properties of the analog, low-power data processing observed in biological systems. Analog resistive memory crossbars can perform a parallel read or a vector-matrix multiplication as well as a parallel write or a rank-1 update with high computational efficiency. For an N × N crossbar, these two kernels can be O(N) more energy efficient than a conventional digital memory-basedmore » architecture. If the read operation is noise limited, the energy to read a column can be independent of the crossbar size (O(1)). These two kernels form the basis of many neuromorphic algorithms such as image, text, and speech recognition. For instance, these kernels can be applied to a neural sparse coding algorithm to give an O(N) reduction in energy for the entire algorithm when run with finite precision. Sparse coding is a rich problem with a host of applications including computer vision, object tracking, and more generally unsupervised learning.« less

  4. The Layer-Oriented Approach to Declarative Languages for Biological Modeling

    PubMed Central

    Raikov, Ivan; De Schutter, Erik

    2012-01-01

    We present a new approach to modeling languages for computational biology, which we call the layer-oriented approach. The approach stems from the observation that many diverse biological phenomena are described using a small set of mathematical formalisms (e.g. differential equations), while at the same time different domains and subdomains of computational biology require that models are structured according to the accepted terminology and classification of that domain. Our approach uses distinct semantic layers to represent the domain-specific biological concepts and the underlying mathematical formalisms. Additional functionality can be transparently added to the language by adding more layers. This approach is specifically concerned with declarative languages, and throughout the paper we note some of the limitations inherent to declarative approaches. The layer-oriented approach is a way to specify explicitly how high-level biological modeling concepts are mapped to a computational representation, while abstracting away details of particular programming languages and simulation environments. To illustrate this process, we define an example language for describing models of ionic currents, and use a general mathematical notation for semantic transformations to show how to generate model simulation code for various simulation environments. We use the example language to describe a Purkinje neuron model and demonstrate how the layer-oriented approach can be used for solving several practical issues of computational neuroscience model development. We discuss the advantages and limitations of the approach in comparison with other modeling language efforts in the domain of computational biology and outline some principles for extensible, flexible modeling language design. We conclude by describing in detail the semantic transformations defined for our language. PMID:22615554

  5. The layer-oriented approach to declarative languages for biological modeling.

    PubMed

    Raikov, Ivan; De Schutter, Erik

    2012-01-01

    We present a new approach to modeling languages for computational biology, which we call the layer-oriented approach. The approach stems from the observation that many diverse biological phenomena are described using a small set of mathematical formalisms (e.g. differential equations), while at the same time different domains and subdomains of computational biology require that models are structured according to the accepted terminology and classification of that domain. Our approach uses distinct semantic layers to represent the domain-specific biological concepts and the underlying mathematical formalisms. Additional functionality can be transparently added to the language by adding more layers. This approach is specifically concerned with declarative languages, and throughout the paper we note some of the limitations inherent to declarative approaches. The layer-oriented approach is a way to specify explicitly how high-level biological modeling concepts are mapped to a computational representation, while abstracting away details of particular programming languages and simulation environments. To illustrate this process, we define an example language for describing models of ionic currents, and use a general mathematical notation for semantic transformations to show how to generate model simulation code for various simulation environments. We use the example language to describe a Purkinje neuron model and demonstrate how the layer-oriented approach can be used for solving several practical issues of computational neuroscience model development. We discuss the advantages and limitations of the approach in comparison with other modeling language efforts in the domain of computational biology and outline some principles for extensible, flexible modeling language design. We conclude by describing in detail the semantic transformations defined for our language.

  6. Dual-energy computed tomography for detection of coronary artery disease

    PubMed Central

    Danad, Ibrahim; Ó Hartaigh, Bríain; Min, James K.

    2016-01-01

    Recent technological advances in computed tomography (CT) technology have fulfilled the prerequisites for the cardiac application of dual-energy CT (DECT) imaging. By exploiting the unique characteristics of materials when exposed to two different x-ray energies, DECT holds great promise for the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease. It allows for the assessment of myocardial perfusion to discern the hemodynamic significance of coronary disease and possesses high accuracy for the detection and characterization of coronary plaques, while facilitating reductions in radiation dose. As such, DECT enabled cardiac CT to advance beyond the mere detection of coronary stenosis expanding its role in the evaluation and management of coronary atherosclerosis. PMID:26549789

  7. Reflection of Low Energy Positrons from the Surface of Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite and Single Layer Graphene.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Imam, S. K.; Chirayath, V. A.; Chrysler, M. D.; Fairchild, A. J.; Gladen, R. W.; Koymen, A. R.; Weiss, A. H.; UT Arlington Positron Surface Laboratory Team

    A time of flight positron annihilation induced Auger electron spectrometer (TOF-PAES) was utilized to measure the reflection of positrons as a function of incident positron energy (0 to 10 eV) from the surface of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and from a single layer graphene (SLG) on a Cu foil. A NaI scintillation detector was used to measure the annihilation gamma from the reflected positrons as a function of incident positron kinetic energy. The annihilation of the positrons on HOPG and SLG were simultaneously measured using another NaI detector near the sample. The Auger electrons emitted as a result of the annihilation of positrons from the surface of the sample were also measured concurrently. As the positron kinetic energy was increased, the number of reflected positrons calculated from the intensity under the annihilation gamma peak showed a steady decrease. The positronium formation measured at the sample using the gamma spectrum showed a peak at 6 eV. The intensity of the carbon KVV Auger peak showed a dip at the same energy. The correlation of the three signals, intensity of reflected positrons, positrons annihilating at the sample and the Auger intensity are discussed for both samples. This work was supported by NSF Grant No. DMR 1508719 and DMR 1338130.

  8. The effective molarity (EM)--a computational approach.

    PubMed

    Karaman, Rafik

    2010-08-01

    The effective molarity (EM) for 12 intramolecular S(N)2 processes involving the formation of substituted aziridines and substituted epoxides were computed using ab initio and DFT calculation methods. Strong correlation was found between the calculated effective molarity and the experimentally determined values. This result could open a door for obtaining EM values for intramolecular processes that are difficult to be experimentally provided. Furthermore, the calculation results reveal that the driving forces for ring-closing reactions in the two different systems are proximity orientation of the nucleophile to the electrophile and the ground strain energies of the products and the reactants. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Computational Cardiac Anatomy Using MRI

    PubMed Central

    Beg, Mirza Faisal; Helm, Patrick A.; McVeigh, Elliot; Miller, Michael I.; Winslow, Raimond L.

    2005-01-01

    Ventricular geometry and fiber orientation may undergo global or local remodeling in cardiac disease. However, there are as yet no mathematical and computational methods for quantifying variation of geometry and fiber orientation or the nature of their remodeling in disease. Toward this goal, a landmark and image intensity-based large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping (LDDMM) method to transform heart geometry into common coordinates for quantification of shape and form was developed. Two automated landmark placement methods for modeling tissue deformations expected in different cardiac pathologies are presented. The transformations, computed using the combined use of landmarks and image intensities, yields high-registration accuracy of heart anatomies even in the presence of significant variation of cardiac shape and form. Once heart anatomies have been registered, properties of tissue geometry and cardiac fiber orientation in corresponding regions of different hearts may be quantified. PMID:15508155

  10. Phase behavior and orientational ordering in block copolymers doped with anisotropic nanoparticles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Osipov, M. A.; Gorkunov, M. V.; Berezkin, A. V.; Kudryavtsev, Y. V.

    2018-04-01

    A molecular field theory and coarse-grained computer simulations with dissipative particle dynamics have been used to study the spontaneous orientational ordering of anisotropic nanoparticles in the lamellar and hexagonal phases of diblock copolymers and the effect of nanoparticles on the phase behavior of these systems. Both the molecular theory and computer simulations indicate that strongly anisotropic nanoparticles are ordered orientationally mainly in the boundary region between the domains and the nematic order parameter possesses opposite signs in adjacent domains. The orientational order is induced by the boundary and by the interaction between nanoparticles and the monomer units in different domains. In simulations, sufficiently long and strongly selective nanoparticles are ordered also inside the domains. The nematic order parameter and local concentration profiles of nanoparticles have been calculated numerically using the model of a nanoparticle with two interaction centers and also determined using the results of computer simulations. A number of phase diagrams have been obtained which illustrate the effect of nanoparticle selectivity and molar fraction of the stability ranges of various phases. Different morphologies have been identified by analyzing the static structure factor and a phase diagram has been constructed in coordinates' nanoparticle concentration-copolymer composition. Orientational ordering of even a small fraction of nanoparticles may result in a significant increase of the dielectric anisotropy of a polymer nanocomposite, which is important for various applications.

  11. A Novel Cost Based Model for Energy Consumption in Cloud Computing

    PubMed Central

    Horri, A.; Dastghaibyfard, Gh.

    2015-01-01

    Cloud data centers consume enormous amounts of electrical energy. To support green cloud computing, providers also need to minimize cloud infrastructure energy consumption while conducting the QoS. In this study, for cloud environments an energy consumption model is proposed for time-shared policy in virtualization layer. The cost and energy usage of time-shared policy were modeled in the CloudSim simulator based upon the results obtained from the real system and then proposed model was evaluated by different scenarios. In the proposed model, the cache interference costs were considered. These costs were based upon the size of data. The proposed model was implemented in the CloudSim simulator and the related simulation results indicate that the energy consumption may be considerable and that it can vary with different parameters such as the quantum parameter, data size, and the number of VMs on a host. Measured results validate the model and demonstrate that there is a tradeoff between energy consumption and QoS in the cloud environment. Also, measured results validate the model and demonstrate that there is a tradeoff between energy consumption and QoS in the cloud environment. PMID:25705716

  12. A novel cost based model for energy consumption in cloud computing.

    PubMed

    Horri, A; Dastghaibyfard, Gh

    2015-01-01

    Cloud data centers consume enormous amounts of electrical energy. To support green cloud computing, providers also need to minimize cloud infrastructure energy consumption while conducting the QoS. In this study, for cloud environments an energy consumption model is proposed for time-shared policy in virtualization layer. The cost and energy usage of time-shared policy were modeled in the CloudSim simulator based upon the results obtained from the real system and then proposed model was evaluated by different scenarios. In the proposed model, the cache interference costs were considered. These costs were based upon the size of data. The proposed model was implemented in the CloudSim simulator and the related simulation results indicate that the energy consumption may be considerable and that it can vary with different parameters such as the quantum parameter, data size, and the number of VMs on a host. Measured results validate the model and demonstrate that there is a tradeoff between energy consumption and QoS in the cloud environment. Also, measured results validate the model and demonstrate that there is a tradeoff between energy consumption and QoS in the cloud environment.

  13. Depth profiling of high energy nitrogen ions implanted in the <1 0 0>, <1 1 0> and randomly oriented silicon crystals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Erić, M.; Petrović, S.; Kokkoris, M.; Lagoyannis, A.; Paneta, V.; Harissopulos, S.; Telečki, I.

    2012-03-01

    This work reports on the experimentally obtained depth profiles of 4 MeV 14N2+ ions implanted in the <1 0 0>, <1 1 0> and randomly oriented silicon crystals. The ion fluence was 1017 particles/cm2. The nitrogen depth profiling has been performed using the Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA) method, via the study of 14N(d,α0)12C and 14N(d,α1)12C nuclear reactions, and with the implementation of SRIM 2010 and SIMNRA computer simulation codes. For the randomly oriented silicon crystal, change of the density of silicon matrix and the nitrogen "bubble" formation have been proposed as the explanation for the difference between the experimental and simulated nitrogen depth profiles. During the implantation, the RBS/C spectra were measured on the nitrogen implanted and on the virgin crystal spots. These spectra provide information on the amorphization of the silicon crystals induced by the ion implantation.

  14. Orientation During Initial Learning and Subsequent Discrimination of Faces

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cohen, Malcolm M.; Holton, Emily M. (Technical Monitor)

    1997-01-01

    Discrimination of facial features degrades with stimulus rotation (e.g., the "Margaret Thatcher" effect). Thirty-two observers learned to discriminate between two upright, or two inverted, faces. Images, erect and rotated by +/-45deg, +/-90deg, +/-135deg and 180deg about the line of sight, were presented on a computer screen. Initial discriminative reaction times increased with stimulus rotation only for observers who learned the upright faces. Orientation during learning is critical in identifying faces subsequently seen at different orientations.

  15. Solar Orientations of Bronze Age Shrines in Gournia, Crete

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Henriksson, G.; Blomberg, M.

    2009-08-01

    The measurements of orientations at Gournia are part of the Uppsala University project to investigate the nature of Minoan astronomy. The town is typical of Minoan settlements and therefore was chosen for the selection of representative buildings from different kinds of Minoan sites. We use classical archaeoastronomical methods and our own computer programs for calculation of the positions of the sun, moon and stars in the Aegean Bronze Age. We discovered that Gournia is the fourth Minoan site with shrines that are oriented to sunrise at lunar month intervals with respect to the equinoxes. There is also a Mycenaean shrine in the town and we compared its orientation to Mycenaean buildings of the same type in Crete.

  16. Second-order oriented partial-differential equations for denoising in electronic-speckle-pattern interferometry fringes.

    PubMed

    Tang, Chen; Han, Lin; Ren, Hongwei; Zhou, Dongjian; Chang, Yiming; Wang, Xiaohang; Cui, Xiaolong

    2008-10-01

    We derive the second-order oriented partial-differential equations (PDEs) for denoising in electronic-speckle-pattern interferometry fringe patterns from two points of view. The first is based on variational methods, and the second is based on controlling diffusion direction. Our oriented PDE models make the diffusion along only the fringe orientation. The main advantage of our filtering method, based on oriented PDE models, is that it is very easy to implement compared with the published filtering methods along the fringe orientation. We demonstrate the performance of our oriented PDE models via application to two computer-simulated and experimentally obtained speckle fringes and compare with related PDE models.

  17. Computer Simulation in Predicting Biochemical Processes and Energy Balance at WWTPs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Drewnowski, Jakub; Zaborowska, Ewa; Hernandez De Vega, Carmen

    2018-02-01

    Nowadays, the use of mathematical models and computer simulation allow analysis of many different technological solutions as well as testing various scenarios in a short time and at low financial budget in order to simulate the scenario under typical conditions for the real system and help to find the best solution in design or operation process. The aim of the study was to evaluate different concepts of biochemical processes and energy balance modelling using a simulation platform GPS-x and a comprehensive model Mantis2. The paper presents the example of calibration and validation processes in the biological reactor as well as scenarios showing an influence of operational parameters on the WWTP energy balance. The results of batch tests and full-scale campaign obtained in the former work were used to predict biochemical and operational parameters in a newly developed plant model. The model was extended with sludge treatment devices, including anaerobic digester. Primary sludge removal efficiency was found as a significant factor determining biogas production and further renewable energy production in cogeneration. Water and wastewater utilities, which run and control WWTP, are interested in optimizing the process in order to save environment, their budget and decrease the pollutant emissions to water and air. In this context, computer simulation can be the easiest and very useful tool to improve the efficiency without interfering in the actual process performance.

  18. Object-oriented Persistent Homology

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Bao; Wei, Guo-Wei

    2015-01-01

    Persistent homology provides a new approach for the topological simplification of big data via measuring the life time of intrinsic topological features in a filtration process and has found its success in scientific and engineering applications. However, such a success is essentially limited to qualitative data classification and analysis. Indeed, persistent homology has rarely been employed for quantitative modeling and prediction. Additionally, the present persistent homology is a passive tool, rather than a proactive technique, for classification and analysis. In this work, we outline a general protocol to construct object-oriented persistent homology methods. By means of differential geometry theory of surfaces, we construct an objective functional, namely, a surface free energy defined on the data of interest. The minimization of the objective functional leads to a Laplace-Beltrami operator which generates a multiscale representation of the initial data and offers an objective oriented filtration process. The resulting differential geometry based object-oriented persistent homology is able to preserve desirable geometric features in the evolutionary filtration and enhances the corresponding topological persistence. The cubical complex based homology algorithm is employed in the present work to be compatible with the Cartesian representation of the Laplace-Beltrami flow. The proposed Laplace-Beltrami flow based persistent homology method is extensively validated. The consistence between Laplace-Beltrami flow based filtration and Euclidean distance based filtration is confirmed on the Vietoris-Rips complex for a large amount of numerical tests. The convergence and reliability of the present Laplace-Beltrami flow based cubical complex filtration approach are analyzed over various spatial and temporal mesh sizes. The Laplace-Beltrami flow based persistent homology approach is utilized to study the intrinsic topology of proteins and fullerene molecules. Based on a

  19. Numerical prediction of fiber orientation in injection-molded short-fiber/thermoplastic composite parts with experimental validation

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

    Thi, Thanh Binh Nguyen; Morioka, Mizuki; Yokoyama, Atsushi

    Numerical prediction of the fiber orientation in the short-glass fiber (GF) reinforced polyamide 6 (PA6) composites with the fiber weight concentration of 30%, 50%, and 70% manufactured by the injection molding process is presented. And the fiber orientation was also directly observed and measured through X-ray computed tomography. During the injection molding process of the short-fiber/thermoplastic composite, the fiber orientation is produced by the flow states and the fiber-fiber interaction. Folgar and Tucker equation is the well known for modeling the fiber orientation in a concentrated suspension. They included into Jeffrey’s equation a diffusive type of term by introducing amore » phenomenological coefficient to account for the fiber-fiber interaction. Our developed model for the fiber-fiber interaction was proposed by modifying the rotary diffusion term of the Folgar-Tucker equation. This model was presented in a conference paper of the 29{sup th} International Conference of the Polymer Processing Society published by AIP conference proceeding. For modeling fiber interaction, the fiber dynamic simulation was introduced in order to obtain a global fiber interaction coefficient, which is sum function of the fiber concentration, aspect ratio, and angular velocity. The fiber orientation is predicted by using the proposed fiber interaction model incorporated into a computer aided engineering simulation package C-Mold. An experimental program has been carried out in which the fiber orientation distribution has been measured in 100 x 100 x 2 mm injection-molded plate and 100 x 80 x 2 mm injection-molded weld by analyzed with a high resolution 3D X-ray computed tomography system XVA-160α, and calculated by X-ray computed tomography imaging. The numerical prediction shows a good agreement with experimental validation. And the complex fiber orientation in the injection-molded weld was investigated.« less

  20. Numerical prediction of fiber orientation in injection-molded short-fiber/thermoplastic composite parts with experimental validation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thi, Thanh Binh Nguyen; Morioka, Mizuki; Yokoyama, Atsushi; Hamanaka, Senji; Yamashita, Katsuhisa; Nonomura, Chisato

    2015-05-01

    Numerical prediction of the fiber orientation in the short-glass fiber (GF) reinforced polyamide 6 (PA6) composites with the fiber weight concentration of 30%, 50%, and 70% manufactured by the injection molding process is presented. And the fiber orientation was also directly observed and measured through X-ray computed tomography. During the injection molding process of the short-fiber/thermoplastic composite, the fiber orientation is produced by the flow states and the fiber-fiber interaction. Folgar and Tucker equation is the well known for modeling the fiber orientation in a concentrated suspension. They included into Jeffrey's equation a diffusive type of term by introducing a phenomenological coefficient to account for the fiber-fiber interaction. Our developed model for the fiber-fiber interaction was proposed by modifying the rotary diffusion term of the Folgar-Tucker equation. This model was presented in a conference paper of the 29th International Conference of the Polymer Processing Society published by AIP conference proceeding. For modeling fiber interaction, the fiber dynamic simulation was introduced in order to obtain a global fiber interaction coefficient, which is sum function of the fiber concentration, aspect ratio, and angular velocity. The fiber orientation is predicted by using the proposed fiber interaction model incorporated into a computer aided engineering simulation package C-Mold. An experimental program has been carried out in which the fiber orientation distribution has been measured in 100 x 100 x 2 mm injection-molded plate and 100 x 80 x 2 mm injection-molded weld by analyzed with a high resolution 3D X-ray computed tomography system XVA-160α, and calculated by X-ray computed tomography imaging. The numerical prediction shows a good agreement with experimental validation. And the complex fiber orientation in the injection-molded weld was investigated.

  1. Storm orientation impacts on atmospheric river induced precipitation efficiency

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mehran, A.; Lettenmaier, D. P.

    2016-12-01

    Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) along the Pacific North coast are often associated with heavy winter precipitation and flooding. We analyze 35 years (1981 2016) of landfalling ARs over a transect along the U.S. West Coast consisting of four river basins from coastal Washington to Southern California (Chehalis, Russian, Santa Ana, and Santa Margarita Rivers) to assess the impact of storm orientation on precipitation rainout efficiency. We define precipitation rainout efficiency as the correlation coefficient between the net integrated vapor transport and precipitation rate. We use 6-hourly climate data from the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) for each of the landfalling ARs. We compute storm orientation from CFSR wind vectors (daily averaged over atmospheric levels between 1000 hPa and 300 hPa) associated with each AR event. We also compute integrated vapor transport (IVT) by multiplying precipitable water by the wind vector and compare with daily averaged precipitation averaged over the river basins, where daily precipitation is taken from Parameter-Elevation Relationships on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) to evaluate the impact of storm orientation on rainfall efficiency. We calculate the local topographic orientation of each river basin (slope and aspect) from ArcGIS, which we related to storm orientation. To evaluate the impact of storm orientation on rainout efficiency over the Russian River basin (Northern California), we first calculated approaching IVT (for all of AR induced precipitations from 1981 to 2016) and daily averaged precipitation rate. Next, we calculated the correlation coefficient between IVT and precipitation rate (for all AR induced rainouts over the Russian River basin). Finally, by considering the local topographical changes (slope and aspect from ArcGIS) and integrating them into an effective IVT, we compared the correlation coefficients between actual and effective IVT and basin-average precipitation. We find that over the Russian

  2. Conductivity of Nanowire Arrays under Random and Ordered Orientation Configurations

    PubMed Central

    Jagota, Milind; Tansu, Nelson

    2015-01-01

    A computational model was developed to analyze electrical conductivity of random metal nanowire networks. It was demonstrated for the first time through use of this model that a performance gain in random metal nanowire networks can be achieved by slightly restricting nanowire orientation. It was furthermore shown that heavily ordered configurations do not outperform configurations with some degree of randomness; randomness in the case of metal nanowire orientations acts to increase conductivity. PMID:25976936

  3. Analytic computation of energy derivatives - Relationships among partial derivatives of a variationally determined function

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    King, H. F.; Komornicki, A.

    1986-01-01

    Formulas are presented relating Taylor series expansion coefficients of three functions of several variables, the energy of the trial wave function (W), the energy computed using the optimized variational wave function (E), and the response function (lambda), under certain conditions. Partial derivatives of lambda are obtained through solution of a recursive system of linear equations, and solution through order n yields derivatives of E through order 2n + 1, extending Puley's application of Wigner's 2n + 1 rule to partial derivatives in couple perturbation theory. An examination of numerical accuracy shows that the usual two-term second derivative formula is less stable than an alternative four-term formula, and that previous claims that energy derivatives are stationary properties of the wave function are fallacious. The results have application to quantum theoretical methods for the computation of derivative properties such as infrared frequencies and intensities.

  4. Path Integral Computation of Quantum Free Energy Differences Due to Alchemical Transformations Involving Mass and Potential.

    PubMed

    Pérez, Alejandro; von Lilienfeld, O Anatole

    2011-08-09

    Thermodynamic integration, perturbation theory, and λ-dynamics methods were applied to path integral molecular dynamics calculations to investigate free energy differences due to "alchemical" transformations. Several estimators were formulated to compute free energy differences in solvable model systems undergoing changes in mass and/or potential. Linear and nonlinear alchemical interpolations were used for the thermodynamic integration. We find improved convergence for the virial estimators, as well as for the thermodynamic integration over nonlinear interpolation paths. Numerical results for the perturbative treatment of changes in mass and electric field strength in model systems are presented. We used thermodynamic integration in ab initio path integral molecular dynamics to compute the quantum free energy difference of the isotope transformation in the Zundel cation. The performance of different free energy methods is discussed.

  5. Computational Fluid Dynamics Investigation of Human Aspiration in Low Velocity Air: Orientation Effects on Nose-Breathing Simulations

    PubMed Central

    Anderson, Kimberly R.; Anthony, T. Renée

    2014-01-01

    An understanding of how particles are inhaled into the human nose is important for developing samplers that measure biologically relevant estimates of exposure in the workplace. While previous computational mouth-breathing investigations of particle aspiration have been conducted in slow moving air, nose breathing still required exploration. Computational fluid dynamics was used to estimate nasal aspiration efficiency for an inhaling humanoid form in low velocity wind speeds (0.1–0.4 m s−1). Breathing was simplified as continuous inhalation through the nose. Fluid flow and particle trajectories were simulated over seven discrete orientations relative to the oncoming wind (0, 15, 30, 60, 90, 135, 180°). Sensitivities of the model simplification and methods were assessed, particularly the placement of the recessed nostril surface and the size of the nose. Simulations identified higher aspiration (13% on average) when compared to published experimental wind tunnel data. Significant differences in aspiration were identified between nose geometry, with the smaller nose aspirating an average of 8.6% more than the larger nose. Differences in fluid flow solution methods accounted for 2% average differences, on the order of methodological uncertainty. Similar trends to mouth-breathing simulations were observed including increasing aspiration efficiency with decreasing freestream velocity and decreasing aspiration with increasing rotation away from the oncoming wind. These models indicate nasal aspiration in slow moving air occurs only for particles <100 µm. PMID:24665111

  6. Towards a general object-oriented software development methodology

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Seidewitz, ED; Stark, Mike

    1986-01-01

    Object diagrams were used to design a 5000 statement team training exercise and to design the entire dynamics simulator. The object diagrams are also being used to design another 50,000 statement Ada system and a personal computer based system that will be written in Modula II. The design methodology evolves out of these experiences as well as the limitations of other methods that were studied. Object diagrams, abstraction analysis, and associated principles provide a unified framework which encompasses concepts from Yourdin, Booch, and Cherry. This general object-oriented approach handles high level system design, possibly with concurrency, through object-oriented decomposition down to a completely functional level. How object-oriented concepts can be used in other phases of the software life-cycle, such as specification and testing is being studied concurrently.

  7. Energy Conservation Using Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling for Computational Cloud

    PubMed Central

    Florence, A. Paulin; Shanthi, V.; Simon, C. B. Sunil

    2016-01-01

    Cloud computing is a new technology which supports resource sharing on a “Pay as you go” basis around the world. It provides various services such as SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS. Computation is a part of IaaS and the entire computational requests are to be served efficiently with optimal power utilization in the cloud. Recently, various algorithms are developed to reduce power consumption and even Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) scheme is also used in this perspective. In this paper we have devised methodology which analyzes the behavior of the given cloud request and identifies the associated type of algorithm. Once the type of algorithm is identified, using their asymptotic notations, its time complexity is calculated. Using best fit strategy the appropriate host is identified and the incoming job is allocated to the victimized host. Using the measured time complexity the required clock frequency of the host is measured. According to that CPU frequency is scaled up or down using DVFS scheme, enabling energy to be saved up to 55% of total Watts consumption. PMID:27239551

  8. Energy Conservation Using Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling for Computational Cloud.

    PubMed

    Florence, A Paulin; Shanthi, V; Simon, C B Sunil

    2016-01-01

    Cloud computing is a new technology which supports resource sharing on a "Pay as you go" basis around the world. It provides various services such as SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS. Computation is a part of IaaS and the entire computational requests are to be served efficiently with optimal power utilization in the cloud. Recently, various algorithms are developed to reduce power consumption and even Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) scheme is also used in this perspective. In this paper we have devised methodology which analyzes the behavior of the given cloud request and identifies the associated type of algorithm. Once the type of algorithm is identified, using their asymptotic notations, its time complexity is calculated. Using best fit strategy the appropriate host is identified and the incoming job is allocated to the victimized host. Using the measured time complexity the required clock frequency of the host is measured. According to that CPU frequency is scaled up or down using DVFS scheme, enabling energy to be saved up to 55% of total Watts consumption.

  9. Mechanisms of Regulating Tissue Elongation in Drosophila Wing: Impact of Oriented Cell Divisions, Oriented Mechanical Forces, and Reduced Cell Size

    PubMed Central

    Li, Yingzi; Naveed, Hammad; Kachalo, Sema; Xu, Lisa X.; Liang, Jie

    2014-01-01

    Regulation of cell growth and cell division plays fundamental roles in tissue morphogenesis. However, the mechanisms of regulating tissue elongation through cell growth and cell division are still not well understood. The wing imaginal disc of Drosophila provides a model system that has been widely used to study tissue morphogenesis. Here we use a recently developed two-dimensional cellular model to study the mechanisms of regulating tissue elongation in Drosophila wing. We simulate the effects of directional cues on tissue elongation. We also computationally analyze the role of reduced cell size. Our simulation results indicate that oriented cell divisions, oriented mechanical forces, and reduced cell size can all mediate tissue elongation, but they function differently. We show that oriented cell divisions and oriented mechanical forces act as directional cues during tissue elongation. Between these two directional cues, oriented mechanical forces have a stronger influence than oriented cell divisions. In addition, we raise the novel hypothesis that reduced cell size may significantly promote tissue elongation. We find that reduced cell size alone cannot drive tissue elongation. However, when combined with directional cues, such as oriented cell divisions or oriented mechanical forces, reduced cell size can significantly enhance tissue elongation in Drosophila wing. Furthermore, our simulation results suggest that reduced cell size has a short-term effect on cell topology by decreasing the frequency of hexagonal cells, which is consistent with experimental observations. Our simulation results suggest that cell divisions without cell growth play essential roles in tissue elongation. PMID:24504016

  10. Evaluation of Emerging Energy-Efficient Heterogeneous Computing Platforms for Biomolecular and Cellular Simulation Workloads.

    PubMed

    Stone, John E; Hallock, Michael J; Phillips, James C; Peterson, Joseph R; Luthey-Schulten, Zaida; Schulten, Klaus

    2016-05-01

    Many of the continuing scientific advances achieved through computational biology are predicated on the availability of ongoing increases in computational power required for detailed simulation and analysis of cellular processes on biologically-relevant timescales. A critical challenge facing the development of future exascale supercomputer systems is the development of new computing hardware and associated scientific applications that dramatically improve upon the energy efficiency of existing solutions, while providing increased simulation, analysis, and visualization performance. Mobile computing platforms have recently become powerful enough to support interactive molecular visualization tasks that were previously only possible on laptops and workstations, creating future opportunities for their convenient use for meetings, remote collaboration, and as head mounted displays for immersive stereoscopic viewing. We describe early experiences adapting several biomolecular simulation and analysis applications for emerging heterogeneous computing platforms that combine power-efficient system-on-chip multi-core CPUs with high-performance massively parallel GPUs. We present low-cost power monitoring instrumentation that provides sufficient temporal resolution to evaluate the power consumption of individual CPU algorithms and GPU kernels. We compare the performance and energy efficiency of scientific applications running on emerging platforms with results obtained on traditional platforms, identify hardware and algorithmic performance bottlenecks that affect the usability of these platforms, and describe avenues for improving both the hardware and applications in pursuit of the needs of molecular modeling tasks on mobile devices and future exascale computers.

  11. Evaluation of Emerging Energy-Efficient Heterogeneous Computing Platforms for Biomolecular and Cellular Simulation Workloads

    PubMed Central

    Stone, John E.; Hallock, Michael J.; Phillips, James C.; Peterson, Joseph R.; Luthey-Schulten, Zaida; Schulten, Klaus

    2016-01-01

    Many of the continuing scientific advances achieved through computational biology are predicated on the availability of ongoing increases in computational power required for detailed simulation and analysis of cellular processes on biologically-relevant timescales. A critical challenge facing the development of future exascale supercomputer systems is the development of new computing hardware and associated scientific applications that dramatically improve upon the energy efficiency of existing solutions, while providing increased simulation, analysis, and visualization performance. Mobile computing platforms have recently become powerful enough to support interactive molecular visualization tasks that were previously only possible on laptops and workstations, creating future opportunities for their convenient use for meetings, remote collaboration, and as head mounted displays for immersive stereoscopic viewing. We describe early experiences adapting several biomolecular simulation and analysis applications for emerging heterogeneous computing platforms that combine power-efficient system-on-chip multi-core CPUs with high-performance massively parallel GPUs. We present low-cost power monitoring instrumentation that provides sufficient temporal resolution to evaluate the power consumption of individual CPU algorithms and GPU kernels. We compare the performance and energy efficiency of scientific applications running on emerging platforms with results obtained on traditional platforms, identify hardware and algorithmic performance bottlenecks that affect the usability of these platforms, and describe avenues for improving both the hardware and applications in pursuit of the needs of molecular modeling tasks on mobile devices and future exascale computers. PMID:27516922

  12. High-End Computing for Incompressible Flows

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kwak, Dochan; Kiris, Cetin

    2001-01-01

    The objective of the First MIT Conference on Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics (June 12-14, 2001) is to bring together industry and academia (and government) to nurture the next generation in computational mechanics. The objective of the current talk, 'High-End Computing for Incompressible Flows', is to discuss some of the current issues in large scale computing for mission-oriented tasks.

  13. Recursive computer architecture for VLSI

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

    Treleaven, P.C.; Hopkins, R.P.

    1982-01-01

    A general-purpose computer architecture based on the concept of recursion and suitable for VLSI computer systems built from replicated (lego-like) computing elements is presented. The recursive computer architecture is defined by presenting a program organisation, a machine organisation and an experimental machine implementation oriented to VLSI. The experimental implementation is being restricted to simple, identical microcomputers each containing a memory, a processor and a communications capability. This future generation of lego-like computer systems are termed fifth generation computers by the Japanese. 30 references.

  14. Computational predictions of energy materials using density functional theory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jain, Anubhav; Shin, Yongwoo; Persson, Kristin A.

    2016-01-01

    In the search for new functional materials, quantum mechanics is an exciting starting point. The fundamental laws that govern the behaviour of electrons have the possibility, at the other end of the scale, to predict the performance of a material for a targeted application. In some cases, this is achievable using density functional theory (DFT). In this Review, we highlight DFT studies predicting energy-related materials that were subsequently confirmed experimentally. The attributes and limitations of DFT for the computational design of materials for lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen production and storage materials, superconductors, photovoltaics and thermoelectric materials are discussed. In the future, we expect that the accuracy of DFT-based methods will continue to improve and that growth in computing power will enable millions of materials to be virtually screened for specific applications. Thus, these examples represent a first glimpse of what may become a routine and integral step in materials discovery.

  15. Measured energy savings and performance of power-managed personal computers and monitors

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

    Nordman, B.; Piette, M.A.; Kinney, K.

    1996-08-01

    Personal computers and monitors are estimated to use 14 billion kWh/year of electricity, with power management potentially saving $600 million/year by the year 2000. The effort to capture these savings is lead by the US Environmental Protection Agency`s Energy Star program, which specifies a 30W maximum demand for the computer and for the monitor when in a {open_quote}sleep{close_quote} or idle mode. In this paper the authors discuss measured energy use and estimated savings for power-managed (Energy Star compliant) PCs and monitors. They collected electricity use measurements of six power-managed PCs and monitors in their office and five from two othermore » research projects. The devices are diverse in machine type, use patterns, and context. The analysis method estimates the time spent in each system operating mode (off, low-, and full-power) and combines these with real power measurements to derive hours of use per mode, energy use, and energy savings. Three schedules are explored in the {open_quotes}As-operated,{close_quotes} {open_quotes}Standardized,{close_quotes} and `Maximum` savings estimates. Energy savings are established by comparing the measurements to a baseline with power management disabled. As-operated energy savings for the eleven PCs and monitors ranged from zero to 75 kWh/year. Under the standard operating schedule (on 20% of nights and weekends), the savings are about 200 kWh/year. An audit of power management features and configurations for several dozen Energy Star machines found only 11% of CPU`s fully enabled and about two thirds of monitors were successfully power managed. The highest priority for greater power management savings is to enable monitors, as opposed to CPU`s, since they are generally easier to configure, less likely to interfere with system operation, and have greater savings. The difficulties in properly configuring PCs and monitors is the largest current barrier to achieving the savings potential from power management.« less

  16. Overt attention toward oriented objects in free-viewing barn owls.

    PubMed

    Harmening, Wolf Maximilian; Orlowski, Julius; Ben-Shahar, Ohad; Wagner, Hermann

    2011-05-17

    Visual saliency based on orientation contrast is a perceptual product attributed to the functional organization of the mammalian brain. We examined this visual phenomenon in barn owls by mounting a wireless video microcamera on the owls' heads and confronting them with visual scenes that contained one differently oriented target among similarly oriented distracters. Without being confined by any particular task, the owls looked significantly longer, more often, and earlier at the target, thus exhibiting visual search strategies so far demonstrated in similar conditions only in primates. Given the considerable differences in phylogeny and the structure of visual pathways between owls and humans, these findings suggest that orientation saliency has computational optimality in a wide variety of ecological contexts, and thus constitutes a universal building block for efficient visual information processing in general.

  17. Java and its future in biomedical computing.

    PubMed Central

    Rodgers, R P

    1996-01-01

    Java, a new object-oriented computing language related to C++, is receiving considerable attention due to its use in creating network-sharable, platform-independent software modules (known as "applets") that can be used with the World Wide Web. The Web has rapidly become the most commonly used information-retrieval tool associated with the global computer network known as the Internet, and Java has the potential to further accelerate the Web's application to medical problems. Java's potentially wide acceptance due to its Web association and its own technical merits also suggests that it may become a popular language for non-Web-based, object-oriented computing. PMID:8880677

  18. Goal-oriented explicit residual-type error estimates in XFEM

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rüter, Marcus; Gerasimov, Tymofiy; Stein, Erwin

    2013-08-01

    A goal-oriented a posteriori error estimator is derived to control the error obtained while approximately evaluating a quantity of engineering interest, represented in terms of a given linear or nonlinear functional, using extended finite elements of Q1 type. The same approximation method is used to solve the dual problem as required for the a posteriori error analysis. It is shown that for both problems to be solved numerically the same singular enrichment functions can be used. The goal-oriented error estimator presented can be classified as explicit residual type, i.e. the residuals of the approximations are used directly to compute upper bounds on the error of the quantity of interest. This approach therefore extends the explicit residual-type error estimator for classical energy norm error control as recently presented in Gerasimov et al. (Int J Numer Meth Eng 90:1118-1155, 2012a). Without loss of generality, the a posteriori error estimator is applied to the model problem of linear elastic fracture mechanics. Thus, emphasis is placed on the fracture criterion, here the J-integral, as the chosen quantity of interest. Finally, various illustrative numerical examples are presented where, on the one hand, the error estimator is compared to its finite element counterpart and, on the other hand, improved enrichment functions, as introduced in Gerasimov et al. (2012b), are discussed.

  19. High-Performance Computing Systems and Operations | Computational Science |

    Science.gov Websites

    NREL Systems and Operations High-Performance Computing Systems and Operations NREL operates high-performance computing (HPC) systems dedicated to advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. Capabilities NREL's HPC capabilities include: High-Performance Computing Systems We operate

  20. Incident Energy Focused Design and Validation for the Floating Potential Probe

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fincannon, James

    2002-01-01

    Utilizing the spacecraft shadowing and incident energy analysis capabilities of the NASA Glenn Research Center Power and Propulsion Office's SPACE System Power Analysis for Capability Evaluation) computer code, this paper documents the analyses for various International Space Station (ISS) Floating Potential Probe (EPP) preliminary design options. These options include various solar panel orientations and configurations as well as deployment locations on the ISS. The incident energy for the final selected option is characterized. A good correlation between the predicted data and on-orbit operational telemetry is demonstrated. Minor deviations are postulated to be induced by degradation or sensor drift.

  1. Orientation selectivity in the visual cortex of the nine-banded armadillo

    PubMed Central

    Scholl, Benjamin; Rylee, Johnathan; Luci, Jeffrey J.; Priebe, Nicholas J.

    2017-01-01

    Orientation selectivity in primary visual cortex (V1) has been proposed to reflect a canonical computation performed by the neocortical circuitry. Although orientation selectivity has been reported in all mammals examined to date, the degree of selectivity and the functional organization of selectivity vary across mammalian clades. The differences in degree of orientation selectivity are large, from reports in marsupials that only a small subset of neurons are selective to studies in carnivores, in which it is rare to find a neuron lacking selectivity. Furthermore, the functional organization in cortex varies in that the primate and carnivore V1 is characterized by an organization in which nearby neurons share orientation preference while other mammals such as rodents and lagomorphs either lack or have only extremely weak clustering. To gain insight into the evolutionary emergence of orientation selectivity, we examined the nine-banded armadillo, a species within the early placental clade Xenarthra. Here we use a combination of neuroimaging, histological, and electrophysiological methods to identify the retinofugal pathways, locate V1, and for the first time examine the functional properties of V1 neurons in the armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) V1. Individual neurons were strongly sensitive to the orientation and often the direction of drifting gratings. We uncovered a wide range of orientation preferences but found a bias for horizontal gratings. The presence of strong orientation selectivity in armadillos suggests that the circuitry responsible for this computation is common to all placental mammals. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The current study shows that armadillo primary visual cortex (V1) neurons share the signature properties of V1 neurons of primates, carnivorans, and rodents. Furthermore, these neurons exhibit a degree of selectivity for stimulus orientation and motion direction similar to that found in primate V1. Our findings in armadillo visual cortex suggest that

  2. Strategic directions of computing at Fermilab

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wolbers, Stephen

    1998-05-01

    Fermilab computing has changed a great deal over the years, driven by the demands of the Fermilab experimental community to record and analyze larger and larger datasets, by the desire to take advantage of advances in computing hardware and software, and by the advances coming from the R&D efforts of the Fermilab Computing Division. The strategic directions of Fermilab Computing continue to be driven by the needs of the experimental program. The current fixed-target run will produce over 100 TBytes of raw data and systems must be in place to allow the timely analysis of the data. The collider run II, beginning in 1999, is projected to produce of order 1 PByte of data per year. There will be a major change in methodology and software language as the experiments move away from FORTRAN and into object-oriented languages. Increased use of automation and the reduction of operator-assisted tape mounts will be required to meet the needs of the large experiments and large data sets. Work will continue on higher-rate data acquisition systems for future experiments and projects. R&D projects will be pursued as necessary to provide software, tools, or systems which cannot be purchased or acquired elsewhere. A closer working relation with other high energy laboratories will be pursued to reduce duplication of effort and to allow effective collaboration on many aspects of HEP computing.

  3. Obtaining Approximate Values of Exterior Orientation Elements of Multi-Intersection Images Using Particle Swarm Optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, X.; Li, S. W.

    2012-07-01

    In this paper, an efficient global optimization algorithm in the field of artificial intelligence, named Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), is introduced into close range photogrammetric data processing. PSO can be applied to obtain the approximate values of exterior orientation elements under the condition that multi-intersection photography and a small portable plane control frame are used. PSO, put forward by an American social psychologist J. Kennedy and an electrical engineer R.C. Eberhart, is a stochastic global optimization method based on swarm intelligence, which was inspired by social behavior of bird flocking or fish schooling. The strategy of obtaining the approximate values of exterior orientation elements using PSO is as follows: in terms of image coordinate observed values and space coordinates of few control points, the equations of calculating the image coordinate residual errors can be given. The sum of absolute value of each image coordinate is minimized to be the objective function. The difference between image coordinate observed value and the image coordinate computed through collinear condition equation is defined as the image coordinate residual error. Firstly a gross area of exterior orientation elements is given, and then the adjustment of other parameters is made to get the particles fly in the gross area. After iterative computation for certain times, the satisfied approximate values of exterior orientation elements are obtained. By doing so, the procedures like positioning and measuring space control points in close range photogrammetry can be avoided. Obviously, this method can improve the surveying efficiency greatly and at the same time can decrease the surveying cost. And during such a process, only one small portable control frame with a couple of control points is employed, and there are no strict requirements for the space distribution of control points. In order to verify the effectiveness of this algorithm, two experiments are

  4. Bessel Fourier Orientation Reconstruction (BFOR): An Analytical Diffusion Propagator Reconstruction for Hybrid Diffusion Imaging and Computation of q-Space Indices

    PubMed Central

    Hosseinbor, A. Pasha; Chung, Moo K.; Wu, Yu-Chien; Alexander, Andrew L.

    2012-01-01

    The ensemble average propagator (EAP) describes the 3D average diffusion process of water molecules, capturing both its radial and angular contents. The EAP can thus provide richer information about complex tissue microstructure properties than the orientation distribution function (ODF), an angular feature of the EAP. Recently, several analytical EAP reconstruction schemes for multiple q-shell acquisitions have been proposed, such as diffusion propagator imaging (DPI) and spherical polar Fourier imaging (SPFI). In this study, a new analytical EAP reconstruction method is proposed, called Bessel Fourier orientation reconstruction (BFOR), whose solution is based on heat equation estimation of the diffusion signal for each shell acquisition, and is validated on both synthetic and real datasets. A significant portion of the paper is dedicated to comparing BFOR, SPFI, and DPI using hybrid, non-Cartesian sampling for multiple b-value acquisitions. Ways to mitigate the effects of Gibbs ringing on EAP reconstruction are also explored. In addition to analytical EAP reconstruction, the aforementioned modeling bases can be used to obtain rotationally invariant q-space indices of potential clinical value, an avenue which has not yet been thoroughly explored. Three such measures are computed: zero-displacement probability (Po), mean squared displacement (MSD), and generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA). PMID:22963853

  5. Automatic image orientation detection via confidence-based integration of low-level and semantic cues.

    PubMed

    Luo, Jiebo; Boutell, Matthew

    2005-05-01

    Automatic image orientation detection for natural images is a useful, yet challenging research topic. Humans use scene context and semantic object recognition to identify the correct image orientation. However, it is difficult for a computer to perform the task in the same way because current object recognition algorithms are extremely limited in their scope and robustness. As a result, existing orientation detection methods were built upon low-level vision features such as spatial distributions of color and texture. Discrepant detection rates have been reported for these methods in the literature. We have developed a probabilistic approach to image orientation detection via confidence-based integration of low-level and semantic cues within a Bayesian framework. Our current accuracy is 90 percent for unconstrained consumer photos, impressive given the findings of a psychophysical study conducted recently. The proposed framework is an attempt to bridge the gap between computer and human vision systems and is applicable to other problems involving semantic scene content understanding.

  6. Amino acids at water-vapor interfaces: surface activity and orientational ordering.

    PubMed

    Vöhringer-Martinez, Esteban; Toro-Labbé, Alejandro

    2010-10-14

    The surface activity and orientational ordering of amino acids at water-vapor interfaces were studied with molecular dynamics simulations in combination with thermodynamic integration and umbrella sampling. Asparagine, representing amino acids with polar side chains, displays no surface activity. Tryptophan, in contrast, with its hydrophobic indole ring as side chain unveils a free energy minimum at the water-vapor interface, which lies 6 kJ/mol under the hydration free energy. To study the orientational ordering of tryptophan along the interface, the order parameter was calculated. At the free energy minimum and at the Gibbs dividing surface, the order parameter reveals a parallel alignment of the indole ring with the water surface exposing the π-system to electrophiles in the hydrophobic phase and indicating polarization dependent spectroscopy. In the vicinity of this position a perpendicular orientation is obtained. The surface excess, calculated from the potential of mean force along the interface, is in excellent agreement with experimental measurements.

  7. Optical method for the determination of grain orientation in films

    DOEpatents

    Maris, Humphrey J.

    2001-01-01

    A method for the determination of grain orientation in a film sample is provided comprising the steps of measuring a first transient optical response of the film and determining the contribution to the transient optical response arising from a change in the energy distribution of the electrons in the sample, determining the contribution to the transient optical response arising from a propagating strain pulse within the sample, and determining the contribution to the transient optical response arising from a change in sample temperature of the sample. The grain orientation of the sample may be determined using the contributions to the transient optical response arising from the change in the energy distribution of the electrons, the propagating strain pulse, and the change in sample temperature. Additionally, a method for determination of the thickness of a film sample is provided. The grain orientation of the sample is first determined. The grain orientation, together with the velocity of sound and a propagation time of a strain pulse through the sample are then used to determine the thickness of the film sample.

  8. Optical method for the determination of grain orientation in films

    DOEpatents

    Maris, Humphrey J.

    2003-05-13

    A method for the determination of grain orientation in a film sample is provided comprising the steps of measuring a first transient optical response of the film and determining the contribution to the transient optical response arising from a change in the energy distribution of the electrons in the sample, determining the contribution to the transient optical response arising from a propagating strain pulse within the sample, and determining the contribution to the transient optical response arising from a change in sample temperature of the sample. The grain orientation of the sample may be determined using the contributions to the transient optical response arising from the change in the energy distribution of the electrons, the propagating strain pulse, and the change in sample temperature. Additionally, a method for determination of the thickness of a film sample is provided. The grain orientation of the sample is first determined. The grain orientation, together with the velocity of sound and a propagation time of a strain pulse through the sample are then used to determine the thickness of the film sample.

  9. Object-Oriented Algorithm For Evaluation Of Fault Trees

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Patterson-Hine, F. A.; Koen, B. V.

    1992-01-01

    Algorithm for direct evaluation of fault trees incorporates techniques of object-oriented programming. Reduces number of calls needed to solve trees with repeated events. Provides significantly improved software environment for such computations as quantitative analyses of safety and reliability of complicated systems of equipment (e.g., spacecraft or factories).

  10. A structurally oriented simulation system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Aran, Z.

    1973-01-01

    The computer program SOSS (Structurally Oriented Simulation System) is designed to be used as an experimental aid in the study of reliable systems. Basically, SOSS can simulate the structure and behavior of a discrete-time, finite-state, time-invariant system at various levels of structural definition. A general description of the program is given along with its modes of operation, command language of the basic system, future features to be incorporated in SOSS, and an example of usage.

  11. Independent-Trajectory Thermodynamic Integration: a practical guide to protein-drug binding free energy calculations using distributed computing.

    PubMed

    Lawrenz, Morgan; Baron, Riccardo; Wang, Yi; McCammon, J Andrew

    2012-01-01

    The Independent-Trajectory Thermodynamic Integration (IT-TI) approach for free energy calculation with distributed computing is described. IT-TI utilizes diverse conformational sampling obtained from multiple, independent simulations to obtain more reliable free energy estimates compared to single TI predictions. The latter may significantly under- or over-estimate the binding free energy due to finite sampling. We exemplify the advantages of the IT-TI approach using two distinct cases of protein-ligand binding. In both cases, IT-TI yields distributions of absolute binding free energy estimates that are remarkably centered on the target experimental values. Alternative protocols for the practical and general application of IT-TI calculations are investigated. We highlight a protocol that maximizes predictive power and computational efficiency.

  12. Moment-Preserving Computational Approach for High Energy Charged Particle Transport

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-05-16

    Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5776 AFRL /RVBXR 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S REPORT NUMBER(S) AFRL -RV-PS-TR-2016-0102 12. DISTRIBUTION / AVAILABILITY...VA 22060-6218 1 cy AFRL /RVIL Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5776 2 cys Official Record Copy AFRL /RVBXR/Adrian Wheelock 1 cy Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. 78 ... AFRL -RV-PS- AFRL -RV-PS- TR-2016-0102 TR-2016-0102 MOMENT-PRESERVING COMPUTATIONAL APPROACH FOR HIGH ENERGY CHARGED PARTICLE TRANSPORT Anil

  13. Quantum computing applied to calculations of molecular energies: CH2 benchmark.

    PubMed

    Veis, Libor; Pittner, Jiří

    2010-11-21

    Quantum computers are appealing for their ability to solve some tasks much faster than their classical counterparts. It was shown in [Aspuru-Guzik et al., Science 309, 1704 (2005)] that they, if available, would be able to perform the full configuration interaction (FCI) energy calculations with a polynomial scaling. This is in contrast to conventional computers where FCI scales exponentially. We have developed a code for simulation of quantum computers and implemented our version of the quantum FCI algorithm. We provide a detailed description of this algorithm and the results of the assessment of its performance on the four lowest lying electronic states of CH(2) molecule. This molecule was chosen as a benchmark, since its two lowest lying (1)A(1) states exhibit a multireference character at the equilibrium geometry. It has been shown that with a suitably chosen initial state of the quantum register, one is able to achieve the probability amplification regime of the iterative phase estimation algorithm even in this case.

  14. Federal High Performance Computing and Communications Program. The Department of Energy Component.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Department of Energy, Washington, DC. Office of Energy Research.

    This report, profusely illustrated with color photographs and other graphics, elaborates on the Department of Energy (DOE) research program in High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC). The DOE is one of seven agency programs within the Federal Research and Development Program working on HPCC. The DOE HPCC program emphasizes research in…

  15. Computing and Systems Applied in Support of Coordinated Energy, Environmental, and Climate Planning

    EPA Science Inventory

    This talk focuses on how Dr. Loughlin is applying Computing and Systems models, tools and methods to more fully understand the linkages among energy systems, environmental quality, and climate change. Dr. Loughlin will highlight recent and ongoing research activities, including: ...

  16. Bonded half planes containing an arbitrarily oriented crack

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Erdogan, F.; Aksogan, O.

    1973-01-01

    The plane elastostatic problem for two bonded half planes containing an arbitrarily oriented crack in the neighborhood of the interface is considered. Using Mellin transforms, the problem is formulated as a system of singular integral equations. The equations are solved for various crack orientations, material combinations, and external loads. The numerical results given include the stress intensity factors, tHe strain energy release rates, and tHe probable cleavage angles giving the direction of crack propagation.

  17. The Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation Enabling Computational Technologies FY09 Report

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

    Diachin, L F; Garaizar, F X; Henson, V E

    2009-10-12

    In this document we report on the status of the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Enabling Computational Technologies (ECT) effort. In particular, we provide the context for ECT In the broader NEAMS program and describe the three pillars of the ECT effort, namely, (1) tools and libraries, (2) software quality assurance, and (3) computational facility (computers, storage, etc) needs. We report on our FY09 deliverables to determine the needs of the integrated performance and safety codes (IPSCs) in these three areas and lay out the general plan for software quality assurance to meet the requirements of DOE andmore » the DOE Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI). We conclude with a brief description of our interactions with the Idaho National Laboratory computer center to determine what is needed to expand their role as a NEAMS user facility.« less

  18. Fixation orientation in ankle fractures with syndesmosis injury.

    PubMed

    Nimick, Craig J; Collman, David R; Lagaay, Pieter

    2013-01-01

    Accurate reduction of the syndesmosis has been shown to be an important prognostic factor for functional outcome in ankle injuries that disrupt the syndesmosis. The purpose of the present case series was to assess the fixation orientation and the position of the fibula within the tibial incisura after open reduction and internal fixation of ankle fractures with syndesmosis injury. Computed tomography was used to assess the accuracy of the reduction. Twelve patients were included in the present case series. A ratio representing the relationship between the tibia and fibula and the orientation of the syndesmotic fixation was measured preoperatively and postoperatively and compared with the uninjured contralateral ankle, representing the patient's normal anatomy. The measurements were accomplished electronically to one tenth of 1 mm using Stentor Intelligent Informatics, I-site, version 3.3.1 (Phillips Electronics; Andover, MA). Posteriorly oriented syndesmotic fixation caused posterior translation of the fibula with respect to the tibia and anteriorly oriented syndesmotic fixation caused anterior translation. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  19. Towards sustainable infrastructure management: knowledge-based service-oriented computing framework for visual analytics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vatcha, Rashna; Lee, Seok-Won; Murty, Ajeet; Tolone, William; Wang, Xiaoyu; Dou, Wenwen; Chang, Remco; Ribarsky, William; Liu, Wanqiu; Chen, Shen-en; Hauser, Edd

    2009-05-01

    Infrastructure management (and its associated processes) is complex to understand, perform and thus, hard to make efficient and effective informed decisions. The management involves a multi-faceted operation that requires the most robust data fusion, visualization and decision making. In order to protect and build sustainable critical assets, we present our on-going multi-disciplinary large-scale project that establishes the Integrated Remote Sensing and Visualization (IRSV) system with a focus on supporting bridge structure inspection and management. This project involves specific expertise from civil engineers, computer scientists, geographers, and real-world practitioners from industry, local and federal government agencies. IRSV is being designed to accommodate the essential needs from the following aspects: 1) Better understanding and enforcement of complex inspection process that can bridge the gap between evidence gathering and decision making through the implementation of ontological knowledge engineering system; 2) Aggregation, representation and fusion of complex multi-layered heterogeneous data (i.e. infrared imaging, aerial photos and ground-mounted LIDAR etc.) with domain application knowledge to support machine understandable recommendation system; 3) Robust visualization techniques with large-scale analytical and interactive visualizations that support users' decision making; and 4) Integration of these needs through the flexible Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) framework to compose and provide services on-demand. IRSV is expected to serve as a management and data visualization tool for construction deliverable assurance and infrastructure monitoring both periodically (annually, monthly, even daily if needed) as well as after extreme events.

  20. Scattering from randomly oriented circular discs with application to vegetation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Karam, M. A.; Fung, A. K.

    1984-01-01

    A vegetation layer is modeled by a collection of randomly oriented circular discs over a half space. The backscattering coefficient from such a half space is computed using the radiative transfer theory. It is shown that significantly different results are obtained from this theory as compared with some earlier investigations using the same modeling approach but with restricted disc orientations. In particular, the backscattered cross polarized returns cannot have a fast increasing angular trend which is inconsistent with measurements. By setting the appropriate angle of orientation to zero the theory reduces to previously published results. Comparisons are shown with measurements taken from milo, corn and wheat and good agreements are obtained for both polarized and cross polarized returns.

  1. Scattering from randomly oriented circular discs with application to vegetation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Karam, M. A.; Fung, A. K.

    1983-01-01

    A vegetation layer is modeled by a collection of randomly oriented circular discs over a half space. The backscattering coefficient from such a half space is computed using the radiative transfer theory. It is shown that significantly different results are obtained from this theory as compared with some earlier investigations using the same modeling approach but with restricted disc orientations. In particular, the backscattered cross-polarized returns cannot have a fast increasing angular trend which is inconsistent with measurements. By setting the appropriate angle of orientation to zero the theory reduces to previously published results. Comparisons are shown with measurements taken from milo, corn and wheat and good agreements are obtained for both polarized and cross-polarized returns.

  2. Computational Evaluation of Latent Heat Energy Storage Using a High Temperature Phase Change Material

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-05-01

    thermal energy storage system using molten silicon as a phase change material. A cylindrical receiver, absorber, converter system was evaluated using...temperature operation. This work computationally evaluates a thermal energy storage system using molten silicon as a phase change material. A cylindrical... salts ) offering a low power density and a low thermal conductivity, leading to a limited rate of charging and discharging (4). A focus on

  3. Aspects on Teaching/Learning with Object Oriented Programming for Entry Level Courses of Engineering.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Oliveira, Clara Amelia; Conte, Marcos Fernando; Riso, Bernardo Goncalves

    This work presents a proposal for Teaching/Learning, on Object Oriented Programming for Entry Level Courses of Engineering and Computer Science, on University. The philosophy of Object Oriented Programming comes as a new pattern of solution for problems, where flexibility and reusability appears over the simple data structure and sequential…

  4. Simulation of orientational coherent effects via Geant4

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bagli, E.; Asai, M.; Brandt, D.; Dotti, A.; Guidi, V.; Verderi, M.; Wright, D.

    2017-10-01

    Simulation of orientational coherent effects via Geant4 beam manipulation of high-and very-high-energy particle beams is a hot topic in accelerator physics. Coherent effects of ultra-relativistic particles in bent crystals allow the steering of particle trajectories thanks to the strong electrical field generated between atomic planes. Recently, a collimation experiment with bent crystals was carried out at the CERN-LHC, paving the way to the usage of such technology in current and future accelerators. Geant4 is a widely used object-oriented tool-kit for the Monte Carlo simulation of the interaction of particles with matter in high-energy physics. Moreover, its areas of application include also nuclear and accelerator physics, as well as studies in medical and space science. We present the first Geant4 extension for the simulation of orientational effects in straight and bent crystals for high energy charged particles. The model allows the manipulation of particle trajectories by means of straight and bent crystals and the scaling of the cross sections of hadronic and electromagnetic processes for channeled particles. Based on such a model, an extension of the Geant4 toolkit has been developed. The code and the model have been validated by comparison with published experimental data regarding the deflection efficiency via channeling and the variation of the rate of inelastic nuclear interactions.

  5. Ultra-low-energy analog straintronics using multiferroic composites

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Roy, Kuntal

    2014-03-01

    Multiferroic devices, i.e., a magnetostrictive nanomagnet strain-coupled with a piezoelectric layer, are promising as binary switches for ultra-low-energy digital computing in beyond Moore's law era [Roy, K. Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 173110 (2013), Roy, K. et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 063108 (2011), Phys. Rev. B 83, 224412 (2011), Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group) 3, 3038 (2013), J. Appl. Phys. 112, 023914 (2012)]. We show here that such multiferroic devices, apart from performing digital computation, can be also utilized for analog computing purposes, e.g., voltage amplification, filter etc. The analog computing capability is conceived by considering that magnetization's mean orientation shifts gradually although nanomagnet's potential minima changes abruptly. Using tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) measurement, a continuous output voltage while varying the input voltage can be produced. Stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation in the presence of room-temperature (300 K) thermal fluctuations is solved to demonstrate the analog computing capability of such multiferroic devices. This work was supported in part by FAME, one of six centers of STARnet, a Semiconductor Research Corporation program sponsored by MARCO and DARPA.

  6. Computational scheme for pH-dependent binding free energy calculation with explicit solvent.

    PubMed

    Lee, Juyong; Miller, Benjamin T; Brooks, Bernard R

    2016-01-01

    We present a computational scheme to compute the pH-dependence of binding free energy with explicit solvent. Despite the importance of pH, the effect of pH has been generally neglected in binding free energy calculations because of a lack of accurate methods to model it. To address this limitation, we use a constant-pH methodology to obtain a true ensemble of multiple protonation states of a titratable system at a given pH and analyze the ensemble using the Bennett acceptance ratio (BAR) method. The constant pH method is based on the combination of enveloping distribution sampling (EDS) with the Hamiltonian replica exchange method (HREM), which yields an accurate semi-grand canonical ensemble of a titratable system. By considering the free energy change of constraining multiple protonation states to a single state or releasing a single protonation state to multiple states, the pH dependent binding free energy profile can be obtained. We perform benchmark simulations of a host-guest system: cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) and benzimidazole (BZ). BZ experiences a large pKa shift upon complex formation. The pH-dependent binding free energy profiles of the benchmark system are obtained with three different long-range interaction calculation schemes: a cutoff, the particle mesh Ewald (PME), and the isotropic periodic sum (IPS) method. Our scheme captures the pH-dependent behavior of binding free energy successfully. Absolute binding free energy values obtained with the PME and IPS methods are consistent, while cutoff method results are off by 2 kcal mol(-1) . We also discuss the characteristics of three long-range interaction calculation methods for constant-pH simulations. © 2015 The Protein Society.

  7. Grand Challenges of Advanced Computing for Energy Innovation Report from the Workshop Held July 31-August 2, 2012

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

    Larzelere, Alex R.; Ashby, Steven F.; Christensen, Dana C.

    2013-03-06

    On July 31-August 2 of 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) held a workshop entitled Grand Challenges of Advanced Computing for Energy Innovation. This workshop built on three earlier workshops that clearly identified the potential for the Department and its national laboratories to enable energy innovation. The specific goal of the workshop was to identify the key challenges that the nation must overcome to apply the full benefit of taxpayer-funded advanced computing technologies to U.S. energy innovation in the ways that the country produces, moves, stores, and uses energy. Perhaps more importantly, the workshop also developed a set ofmore » recommendations to help the Department overcome those challenges. These recommendations provide an action plan for what the Department can do in the coming years to improve the nation’s energy future.« less

  8. Network Computing Infrastructure to Share Tools and Data in Global Nuclear Energy Partnership

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Guehee; Suzuki, Yoshio; Teshima, Naoya

    CCSE/JAEA (Center for Computational Science and e-Systems/Japan Atomic Energy Agency) integrated a prototype system of a network computing infrastructure for sharing tools and data to support the U.S. and Japan collaboration in GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership). We focused on three technical issues to apply our information process infrastructure, which are accessibility, security, and usability. In designing the prototype system, we integrated and improved both network and Web technologies. For the accessibility issue, we adopted SSL-VPN (Security Socket Layer-Virtual Private Network) technology for the access beyond firewalls. For the security issue, we developed an authentication gateway based on the PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) authentication mechanism to strengthen the security. Also, we set fine access control policy to shared tools and data and used shared key based encryption method to protect tools and data against leakage to third parties. For the usability issue, we chose Web browsers as user interface and developed Web application to provide functions to support sharing tools and data. By using WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) function, users can manipulate shared tools and data through the Windows-like folder environment. We implemented the prototype system in Grid infrastructure for atomic energy research: AEGIS (Atomic Energy Grid Infrastructure) developed by CCSE/JAEA. The prototype system was applied for the trial use in the first period of GNEP.

  9. Computer Instructional Aids for Undergraduate Control Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Volz, Richard A.; And Others

    Engineering is coming to rely more and more heavily upon the computer for computations, analyses, and graphic displays which aid the design process. A general purpose simulation system, the Time-shared Automatic Control Laboratory (TACL), and a set of computer-aided design programs, Control Oriented Interactive Graphic Analysis and Design…

  10. Design of object-oriented distributed simulation classes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schoeffler, James D. (Principal Investigator)

    1995-01-01

    Distributed simulation of aircraft engines as part of a computer aided design package is being developed by NASA Lewis Research Center for the aircraft industry. The project is called NPSS, an acronym for 'Numerical Propulsion Simulation System'. NPSS is a flexible object-oriented simulation of aircraft engines requiring high computing speed. It is desirable to run the simulation on a distributed computer system with multiple processors executing portions of the simulation in parallel. The purpose of this research was to investigate object-oriented structures such that individual objects could be distributed. The set of classes used in the simulation must be designed to facilitate parallel computation. Since the portions of the simulation carried out in parallel are not independent of one another, there is the need for communication among the parallel executing processors which in turn implies need for their synchronization. Communication and synchronization can lead to decreased throughput as parallel processors wait for data or synchronization signals from other processors. As a result of this research, the following have been accomplished. The design and implementation of a set of simulation classes which result in a distributed simulation control program have been completed. The design is based upon MIT 'Actor' model of a concurrent object and uses 'connectors' to structure dynamic connections between simulation components. Connectors may be dynamically created according to the distribution of objects among machines at execution time without any programming changes. Measurements of the basic performance have been carried out with the result that communication overhead of the distributed design is swamped by the computation time of modules unless modules have very short execution times per iteration or time step. An analytical performance model based upon queuing network theory has been designed and implemented. Its application to realistic configurations has

  11. Design of Object-Oriented Distributed Simulation Classes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schoeffler, James D.

    1995-01-01

    Distributed simulation of aircraft engines as part of a computer aided design package being developed by NASA Lewis Research Center for the aircraft industry. The project is called NPSS, an acronym for "Numerical Propulsion Simulation System". NPSS is a flexible object-oriented simulation of aircraft engines requiring high computing speed. It is desirable to run the simulation on a distributed computer system with multiple processors executing portions of the simulation in parallel. The purpose of this research was to investigate object-oriented structures such that individual objects could be distributed. The set of classes used in the simulation must be designed to facilitate parallel computation. Since the portions of the simulation carried out in parallel are not independent of one another, there is the need for communication among the parallel executing processors which in turn implies need for their synchronization. Communication and synchronization can lead to decreased throughput as parallel processors wait for data or synchronization signals from other processors. As a result of this research, the following have been accomplished. The design and implementation of a set of simulation classes which result in a distributed simulation control program have been completed. The design is based upon MIT "Actor" model of a concurrent object and uses "connectors" to structure dynamic connections between simulation components. Connectors may be dynamically created according to the distribution of objects among machines at execution time without any programming changes. Measurements of the basic performance have been carried out with the result that communication overhead of the distributed design is swamped by the computation time of modules unless modules have very short execution times per iteration or time step. An analytical performance model based upon queuing network theory has been designed and implemented. Its application to realistic configurations has not

  12. EDITORIAL: Optical orientation Optical orientation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    SAME ADDRESS *, Yuri; Landwehr, Gottfried

    2008-11-01

    priority of the discovery in the literature, which was partly caused by the existence of the Iron Curtain. I had already enjoyed contact with Boris in the 1980s when the two volumes of Landau Level Spectroscopy were being prepared [2]. He was one of the pioneers of magneto-optics in semiconductors. In the 1950s the band structure of germanium and silicon was investigated by magneto-optical methods, mainly in the United States. No excitonic effects were observed and the band structure parameters were determined without taking account of excitons. However, working with cuprous oxide, which is a direct semiconductor with a relative large energy gap, Zakharchenya and his co-worker Seysan showed that in order to obtain correct band structure parameters, it is necessary to take excitons into account [3]. About 1970 Boris started work on optical orientation. Early work by Hanle in Germany in the 1920s on the depolarization of luminescence in mercury vapour by a transverse magnetic field was not appreciated for a long time. Only in the late 1940s did Kastler and co-workers in Paris begin a systematic study of optical pumping, which led to the award of a Nobel prize. The ideas of optical pumping were first applied by Georges Lampel to solid state physics in 1968. He demonstrated optical orientation of free carriers in silicon. The detection method was nuclear magnetic resonance; optically oriented free electrons dynamically polarized the 29Si nuclei of the host lattice. The first optical detection of spin orientation was demonstrated by with the III-V semiconductor GaSb by Parsons. Due to the various interaction mechanisms of spins with their environment, the effects occurring in semiconductors are naturally more complex than those in atoms. Optical detection is now the preferred method to detect spin alignment in semiconductors. The orientation of spins in crystals pumped with circularly polarized light is deduced from the degree of circular polarization of the recombination

  13. Implementation of Virtualization Oriented Architecture: A Healthcare Industry Case Study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rao, G. Subrahmanya Vrk; Parthasarathi, Jinka; Karthik, Sundararaman; Rao, Gvn Appa; Ganesan, Suresh

    This paper presents a Virtualization Oriented Architecture (VOA) and an implementation of VOA for Hridaya - a Telemedicine initiative. Hadoop Compute cloud was established at our labs and jobs which require a massive computing capability such as ECG signal analysis were submitted and the study is presented in this current paper. VOA takes advantage of inexpensive community PCs and provides added advantages such as Fault Tolerance, Scalability, Performance, High Availability.

  14. Beam hardening artifact reduction using dual energy computed tomography: implications for myocardial perfusion studies

    PubMed Central

    Carrascosa, Patricia; Cipriano, Silvina; De Zan, Macarena; Deviggiano, Alejandro; Capunay, Carlos; Cury, Ricardo C.

    2015-01-01

    Background Myocardial computed tomography perfusion (CTP) using conventional single energy (SE) imaging is influenced by the presence of beam hardening artifacts (BHA), occasionally resembling perfusion defects and commonly observed at the left ventricular posterobasal wall (PB). We therefore sought to explore the ability of dual energy (DE) CTP to attenuate the presence of BHA. Methods Consecutive patients without history of coronary artery disease who were referred for computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) due to atypical chest pain and a normal stress-rest SPECT and had absence or mild coronary atherosclerosis constituted the study population. The study group was acquired using DE and the control group using SE imaging. Results Demographical characteristics were similar between groups, as well as the heart rate and the effective radiation dose. Myocardial signal density (SD) levels were evaluated in 280 basal segments among the DE group (140 PB segments for each energy level from 40 to 100 keV; and 140 reference segments), and in 40 basal segments (at the same locations) among the SE group. Among the DE group, myocardial SD levels and myocardial SD ratio evaluated at the reference segment were higher at low energy levels, with significantly lower SD levels at increasing energy levels. Myocardial signal-to-noise ratio was not significantly influenced by the energy level applied, although 70 keV was identified as the energy level with the best overall signal-to-noise ratio. Significant differences were identified between the PB segment and the reference segment among the lower energy levels, whereas at ≥70 keV myocardial SD levels were similar. Compared to DE reconstructions at the best energy level (70 keV), SE acquisitions showed no significant differences overall regarding myocardial SD levels among the reference segments. Conclusions BHA that influence the assessment of myocardial perfusion can be attenuated using DE at 70 keV or higher. PMID

  15. Time-dependent analysis of the mixed-field orientation of molecules without rotational symmetry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thesing, Linda V.; Küpper, Jochen; González-Férez, Rosario

    2017-06-01

    We present a theoretical study of the mixed-field orientation of molecules without rotational symmetry. The time-dependent one-dimensional and three-dimensional orientation of a thermal ensemble of 6-chloropyridazine-3-carbonitrile molecules in combined linearly or elliptically polarized laser fields and tilted dc electric fields is computed. The results are in good agreement with recent experimental results of one-dimensional orientation for weak dc electric fields [J. L. Hansen, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 234313 (2013)]. Moreover, they predict that using elliptically polarized laser fields or strong dc fields, three-dimensional orientation is obtained. The field-dressed dynamics of excited rotational states is characterized by highly non-adiabatic effects. We analyze the sources of these non-adiabatic effects and investigate their impact on the mixed-field orientation for different field configurations in mixed-field-orientation experiments.

  16. Thrifty: An Exascale Architecture for Energy Proportional Computing

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

    Torrellas, Josep

    2014-12-23

    The objective of this project is to design different aspects of a novel exascale architecture called Thrifty. Our goal is to focus on the challenges of power/energy efficiency, performance, and resiliency in exascale systems. The project includes work on computer architecture (Josep Torrellas from University of Illinois), compilation (Daniel Quinlan from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), runtime and applications (Laura Carrington from University of California San Diego), and circuits (Wilfred Pinfold from Intel Corporation). In this report, we focus on the progress at the University of Illinois during the last year of the grant (September 1, 2013 to August 31, 2014).more » We also point to the progress in the other collaborating institutions when needed.« less

  17. Energy-discrimination x-ray computed tomography system utilizing a scanning cadmium-telluride detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sato, Eiichi; Abduraxit, Ablajan; Enomoto, Toshiyuki; Watanabe, Manabu; Hitomi, Keitaro; Takahashi, Kiyomi; Sato, Shigehiro; Ogawa, Akira; Onagawa, Jun

    2010-04-01

    An energy-discrimination K-edge x-ray computed tomography (CT) system is useful for controlling the image contrast of a target region by selecting both the photon energy and the energy width. The CT system has an oscillation-type linear cadmium telluride (CdTe) detectror. CT is performed by repeated linear scans and rotations of an object. Penetrating x-ray photons from the object are detected by a CdTe detector, and event signals of x-ray photons are produced using charge-sensitive and shaping amplifiers. Both photon energy and energy width are selected out using a multichannel analyzer, and the number of photons is counted by a counter card. In energy-discrimination CT, the tube voltage and tube current were 80 kV and 20 μA, respectively, and the x-ray intensity was 1.92 μGy/s at a distance of 1.0 m from the source and a tube voltage of 80 kV. The energy-discrimination CT was carried out by selecting x-ray photon energies.

  18. Rigorous theory of molecular orientational nonlinear optics

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

    Kwak, Chong Hoon, E-mail: chkwak@ynu.ac.kr; Kim, Gun Yeup

    2015-01-15

    Classical statistical mechanics of the molecular optics theory proposed by Buckingham [A. D. Buckingham and J. A. Pople, Proc. Phys. Soc. A 68, 905 (1955)] has been extended to describe the field induced molecular orientational polarization effects on nonlinear optics. In this paper, we present the generalized molecular orientational nonlinear optical processes (MONLO) through the calculation of the classical orientational averaging using the Boltzmann type time-averaged orientational interaction energy in the randomly oriented molecular system under the influence of applied electric fields. The focal points of the calculation are (1) the derivation of rigorous tensorial components of the effective molecularmore » hyperpolarizabilities, (2) the molecular orientational polarizations and the electronic polarizations including the well-known third-order dc polarization, dc electric field induced Kerr effect (dc Kerr effect), optical Kerr effect (OKE), dc electric field induced second harmonic generation (EFISH), degenerate four wave mixing (DFWM) and third harmonic generation (THG). We also present some of the new predictive MONLO processes. For second-order MONLO, second-order optical rectification (SOR), Pockels effect and difference frequency generation (DFG) are described in terms of the anisotropic coefficients of first hyperpolarizability. And, for third-order MONLO, third-order optical rectification (TOR), dc electric field induced difference frequency generation (EFIDFG) and pump-probe transmission are presented.« less

  19. Computer Series, 29: Bits and Pieces, 10.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moore, John W., Ed.

    1982-01-01

    Describes computer programs (available from authors) including molecular input to computer, programs for quantum chemistry, library orientation to technical literature, plotting potentiometric titration data, simulating oscilloscope curves, organic qualitative analysis with dynamic graphics, extended Huckel calculations, and calculator programs…

  20. Monte Carlo method for computing density of states and quench probability of potential energy and enthalpy landscapes.

    PubMed

    Mauro, John C; Loucks, Roger J; Balakrishnan, Jitendra; Raghavan, Srikanth

    2007-05-21

    The thermodynamics and kinetics of a many-body system can be described in terms of a potential energy landscape in multidimensional configuration space. The partition function of such a landscape can be written in terms of a density of states, which can be computed using a variety of Monte Carlo techniques. In this paper, a new self-consistent Monte Carlo method for computing density of states is described that uses importance sampling and a multiplicative update factor to achieve rapid convergence. The technique is then applied to compute the equilibrium quench probability of the various inherent structures (minima) in the landscape. The quench probability depends on both the potential energy of the inherent structure and the volume of its corresponding basin in configuration space. Finally, the methodology is extended to the isothermal-isobaric ensemble in order to compute inherent structure quench probabilities in an enthalpy landscape.

  1. Prediction of protein orientation upon immobilization on biological and nonbiological surfaces

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Talasaz, Amirali H.; Nemat-Gorgani, Mohsen; Liu, Yang; Ståhl, Patrik; Dutton, Robert W.; Ronaghi, Mostafa; Davis, Ronald W.

    2006-10-01

    We report on a rapid simulation method for predicting protein orientation on a surface based on electrostatic interactions. New methods for predicting protein immobilization are needed because of the increasing use of biosensors and protein microarrays, two technologies that use protein immobilization onto a solid support, and because the orientation of an immobilized protein is important for its function. The proposed simulation model is based on the premise that the protein interacts with the electric field generated by the surface, and this interaction defines the orientation of attachment. Results of this model are in agreement with experimental observations of immobilization of mitochondrial creatine kinase and type I hexokinase on biological membranes. The advantages of our method are that it can be applied to any protein with a known structure; it does not require modeling of the surface at atomic resolution and can be run relatively quickly on readily available computing resources. Finally, we also propose an orientation of membrane-bound cytochrome c, a protein for which the membrane orientation has not been unequivocally determined. electric double layer | electrostatic simulations | orientation flexibility

  2. Object-Oriented/Data-Oriented Design of a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Algorithm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Liechty, Derek S.

    2014-01-01

    Over the past decade, there has been much progress towards improved phenomenological modeling and algorithmic updates for the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, which provides a probabilistic physical simulation of gas Rows. These improvements have largely been based on the work of the originator of the DSMC method, Graeme Bird. Of primary importance are improved chemistry, internal energy, and physics modeling and a reduction in time to solution. These allow for an expanded range of possible solutions In altitude and velocity space. NASA's current production code, the DSMC Analysis Code (DAC), is well-established and based on Bird's 1994 algorithms written in Fortran 77 and has proven difficult to upgrade. A new DSMC code is being developed in the C++ programming language using object-oriented and data-oriented design paradigms to facilitate the inclusion of the recent improvements and future development activities. The development efforts on the new code, the Multiphysics Algorithm with Particles (MAP), are described, and performance comparisons are made with DAC.

  3. Orientation-dependent structural and photocatalytic properties of LaCoO3 epitaxial nano-thin films

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Yan-ping; Hu, Hai-long; Xie, Rui-shi; Ma, Guo-hua; Huo, Ji-chuan; Wang, Hai-bin

    2018-01-01

    LaCoO3 epitaxial films were grown on (100), (110) and (111) oriented LaAlO3 substrates by the polymer-assisted deposition method. Crystal structure measurement and cross-section observation indicate that all the LaCoO3 films are epitaxially grown in accordance with the orientation of LaAlO3 substrates, with biaxial compressive strain in the ab plane. Owing to the different strain directions of CoO6 octahedron, the mean Co–O bond length increases by different amounts in (100), (110) and (111) oriented films compared with that of bulk LaCoO3, and the (100) oriented LaCoO3 has the largest increase. Photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange indicates that the order of photocatalytic activity of the three oriented films is (100) > (111) > (110). Combined with analysis of electronic nature and band structure for LaCoO3 films, it is found that the change of the photocatalytic activity is closely related to the crystal field splitting energy of Co3+ and Co–O binding energy. The increase in the mean Co–O bond length will decrease the crystal field splitting energy of Co3+ and Co–O binding energy and further reduce the value of band gap energy, thus improving the photocatalytic activity. This may also provide a clue for expanding the visible-light-induced photocatalytic application of LaCoO3. PMID:29515854

  4. Orientation-dependent structural and photocatalytic properties of LaCoO3 epitaxial nano-thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Yan-ping; Liu, Hai-feng; Hu, Hai-long; Xie, Rui-shi; Ma, Guo-hua; Huo, Ji-chuan; Wang, Hai-bin

    2018-02-01

    LaCoO3 epitaxial films were grown on (100), (110) and (111) oriented LaAlO3 substrates by the polymer-assisted deposition method. Crystal structure measurement and cross-section observation indicate that all the LaCoO3 films are epitaxially grown in accordance with the orientation of LaAlO3 substrates, with biaxial compressive strain in the ab plane. Owing to the different strain directions of CoO6 octahedron, the mean Co-O bond length increases by different amounts in (100), (110) and (111) oriented films compared with that of bulk LaCoO3, and the (100) oriented LaCoO3 has the largest increase. Photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange indicates that the order of photocatalytic activity of the three oriented films is (100) > (111) > (110). Combined with analysis of electronic nature and band structure for LaCoO3 films, it is found that the change of the photocatalytic activity is closely related to the crystal field splitting energy of Co3+ and Co-O binding energy. The increase in the mean Co-O bond length will decrease the crystal field splitting energy of Co3+ and Co-O binding energy and further reduce the value of band gap energy, thus improving the photocatalytic activity. This may also provide a clue for expanding the visible-light-induced photocatalytic application of LaCoO3.

  5. Orientation-dependent structural and photocatalytic properties of LaCoO3 epitaxial nano-thin films.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Yan-Ping; Liu, Hai-Feng; Hu, Hai-Long; Xie, Rui-Shi; Ma, Guo-Hua; Huo, Ji-Chuan; Wang, Hai-Bin

    2018-02-01

    LaCoO 3 epitaxial films were grown on (100), (110) and (111) oriented LaAlO 3 substrates by the polymer-assisted deposition method. Crystal structure measurement and cross-section observation indicate that all the LaCoO 3 films are epitaxially grown in accordance with the orientation of LaAlO 3 substrates, with biaxial compressive strain in the ab plane. Owing to the different strain directions of CoO 6 octahedron, the mean Co-O bond length increases by different amounts in (100), (110) and (111) oriented films compared with that of bulk LaCoO 3 , and the (100) oriented LaCoO 3 has the largest increase. Photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange indicates that the order of photocatalytic activity of the three oriented films is (100) > (111) > (110). Combined with analysis of electronic nature and band structure for LaCoO 3 films, it is found that the change of the photocatalytic activity is closely related to the crystal field splitting energy of Co 3+ and Co-O binding energy. The increase in the mean Co-O bond length will decrease the crystal field splitting energy of Co 3+ and Co-O binding energy and further reduce the value of band gap energy, thus improving the photocatalytic activity. This may also provide a clue for expanding the visible-light-induced photocatalytic application of LaCoO 3 .

  6. Capsule endoscope localization based on computer vision technique.

    PubMed

    Liu, Li; Hu, Chao; Cai, Wentao; Meng, Max Q H

    2009-01-01

    To build a new type of wireless capsule endoscope with interactive gastrointestinal tract examination, a localization and orientation system is needed for tracking 3D location and 3D orientation of the capsule movement. The magnetic localization and orientation method produces only 5 DOF, but misses the information of rotation angle along capsule's main axis. In this paper, we presented a complementary orientation approach for the capsule endoscope, and the 3D rotation can be determined by applying computer vision technique on the captured endoscopic images. The experimental results show that the complementary orientation method has good accuracy and high feasibility.

  7. System Architecture Development for Energy and Water Infrastructure Data Management and Geovisual Analytics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berres, A.; Karthik, R.; Nugent, P.; Sorokine, A.; Myers, A.; Pang, H.

    2017-12-01

    Building an integrated data infrastructure that can meet the needs of a sustainable energy-water resource management requires a robust data management and geovisual analytics platform, capable of cross-domain scientific discovery and knowledge generation. Such a platform can facilitate the investigation of diverse complex research and policy questions for emerging priorities in Energy-Water Nexus (EWN) science areas. Using advanced data analytics, machine learning techniques, multi-dimensional statistical tools, and interactive geovisualization components, such a multi-layered federated platform is being developed, the Energy-Water Nexus Knowledge Discovery Framework (EWN-KDF). This platform utilizes several enterprise-grade software design concepts and standards such as extensible service-oriented architecture, open standard protocols, event-driven programming model, enterprise service bus, and adaptive user interfaces to provide a strategic value to the integrative computational and data infrastructure. EWN-KDF is built on the Compute and Data Environment for Science (CADES) environment in Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

  8. The role played by self-orientational properties in nematics of colloids with molecules axially symmetric.

    PubMed

    Alarcón-Waess, O

    2010-04-14

    The self-orientational structure factor as well as the short-time self-orientational diffusion coefficient is computed for colloids composed by nonspherical molecules. To compute the short-time dynamics the hydrodynamic interactions are not taken into account. The hard molecules with at least one symmetry axis considered are: rods, spherocylinders, and tetragonal parallelepipeds. Because both orientational properties in study are written in terms of the second and fourth order parameters, these automatically hold the features of the order parameters. That is, they present a discontinuity for first order transitions, determining in this way the spinodal line. In order to analyze the nematic phase only, we choose the appropriate values for the representative quantities that characterize the molecules. Different formalisms are used to compute the structural properties: de Gennes-Landau approach, Smoluchowski equation and computer simulations. Some of the necessary inputs are taken from literature. Our results show that the self-orientational properties play an important role in the characterization and the localization of axially symmetric phases. While the self-structure decreases throughout the nematics, the short-time self-diffusion does not decrease but rather increases. We study the evolution of the second and fourth order parameters; we find different responses for axial and biaxial nematics, predicting the possibility of a biaxial nematics in tetragonal parallelepiped molecules. By considering the second order in the axial-biaxial phase transition, with the support of the self-orientational structure factor, we are able to propose the density at which this occurs. The short-time dynamics is able to predict a different value in the axial and the biaxial phases. Because the different behavior of the fourth order parameter, the diffusion coefficient is lower for a biaxial phase than for an axial one. Therefore the self-structure factor is able to localize

  9. What is Aspect-Oriented Programming, Revisited

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Filman, Robert E.; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    For the Advanced Separation of Concerns workshop at OOPSLA 2000 in Minneapolis, Dan Friedman and I wrote a paper that argued that the distinguishing characteristic of Aspect-Oriented Programming systems (qua programming systems) is that they provide quantification and obliviousness. In this paper, I expand on the themes of our Minneapolis workshop paper, respond to some of the comments we've received on that paper, and provide a computational formalization of the notion of quantification.

  10. An algorithm for automatic target recognition using passive radar and an EKF for estimating aircraft orientation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ehrman, Lisa M.

    2005-07-01

    Rather than emitting pulses, passive radar systems rely on "illuminators of opportunity," such as TV and FM radio, to illuminate potential targets. These systems are attractive since they allow receivers to operate without emitting energy, rendering them covert. Until recently, most of the research regarding passive radar has focused on detecting and tracking targets. This dissertation focuses on extending the capabilities of passive radar systems to include automatic target recognition. The target recognition algorithm described in this dissertation uses the radar cross section (RCS) of potential targets, collected over a short period of time, as the key information for target recognition. To make the simulated RCS as accurate as possible, the received signal model accounts for aircraft position and orientation, propagation losses, and antenna gain patterns. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) estimates the target's orientation (and uncertainty in the estimate) from velocity measurements obtained from the passive radar tracker. Coupling the aircraft orientation and state with the known antenna locations permits computation of the incident and observed azimuth and elevation angles. The Fast Illinois Solver Code (FISC) simulates the RCS of potential target classes as a function of these angles. Thus, the approximated incident and observed angles allow the appropriate RCS to be extracted from a database of FISC results. Using this process, the RCS of each aircraft in the target class is simulated as though each is executing the same maneuver as the target detected by the system. Two additional scaling processes are required to transform the RCS into a power profile (magnitude only) simulating the signal in the receiver. First, the RCS is scaled by the Advanced Refractive Effects Prediction System (AREPS) code to account for propagation losses that occur as functions of altitude and range. Then, the Numerical Electromagnetic Code (NEC2) computes the antenna gain pattern

  11. Fast Computation of Solvation Free Energies with Molecular Density Functional Theory: Thermodynamic-Ensemble Partial Molar Volume Corrections.

    PubMed

    Sergiievskyi, Volodymyr P; Jeanmairet, Guillaume; Levesque, Maximilien; Borgis, Daniel

    2014-06-05

    Molecular density functional theory (MDFT) offers an efficient implicit-solvent method to estimate molecule solvation free-energies, whereas conserving a fully molecular representation of the solvent. Even within a second-order approximation for the free-energy functional, the so-called homogeneous reference fluid approximation, we show that the hydration free-energies computed for a data set of 500 organic compounds are of similar quality as those obtained from molecular dynamics free-energy perturbation simulations, with a computer cost reduced by 2-3 orders of magnitude. This requires to introduce the proper partial volume correction to transform the results from the grand canonical to the isobaric-isotherm ensemble that is pertinent to experiments. We show that this correction can be extended to 3D-RISM calculations, giving a sound theoretical justification to empirical partial molar volume corrections that have been proposed recently.

  12. A Decade of Mobile Computing for Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jenny, Frederick J.

    2005-01-01

    This paper describes the mobile computing at Grove City College, a small, private, liberal arts institution in Western Pennsylvania. They have entered their second decade of mobile computing for students in the school of about 2200. Each incoming freshman receives a laptop computing and inkjet printer during the fall orientation, all a benefit of…

  13. Manage Energy with Computers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    American School and University, 1982

    1982-01-01

    Computerized energy management at Drew University (New Jersey) is accomplished by direct digital control in which microprocessor controllers control, monitor, and carry out energy management functions at the equipment level. (Author/MLF)

  14. Object-Oriented Implementation of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks using Charm++

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Krishnan, Sanjeev; Bhandarkar, Milind; Kale, Laxmikant V.

    1996-01-01

    This report describes experiences with implementing the NAS Computational Fluid Dynamics benchmarks using a parallel object-oriented language, Charm++. Our main objective in implementing the NAS CFD kernel benchmarks was to develop a code that could be used to easily experiment with different domain decomposition strategies and dynamic load balancing. We also wished to leverage the object-orientation provided by the Charm++ parallel object-oriented language, to develop reusable abstractions that would simplify the process of developing parallel applications. We first describe the Charm++ parallel programming model and the parallel object array abstraction, then go into detail about each of the Scalar Pentadiagonal (SP) and Lower/Upper Triangular (LU) benchmarks, along with performance results. Finally we conclude with an evaluation of the methodology used.

  15. Block Oriented Simulation System (BOSS)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ratcliffe, Jaimie

    1988-01-01

    Computer simulation is assuming greater importance as a flexible and expedient approach to modeling system and subsystem behavior. Simulation has played a key role in the growth of complex, multiple access space communications such as those used by the space shuttle and the TRW-built Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS). A powerful new simulator for use in designing and modeling the communication system of NASA's planned Space Station is being developed. Progress to date on the Block (Diagram) Oriented Simulation System (BOSS) is described.

  16. Cloud computing security.

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

    Shin, Dongwan; Claycomb, William R.; Urias, Vincent E.

    Cloud computing is a paradigm rapidly being embraced by government and industry as a solution for cost-savings, scalability, and collaboration. While a multitude of applications and services are available commercially for cloud-based solutions, research in this area has yet to fully embrace the full spectrum of potential challenges facing cloud computing. This tutorial aims to provide researchers with a fundamental understanding of cloud computing, with the goals of identifying a broad range of potential research topics, and inspiring a new surge in research to address current issues. We will also discuss real implementations of research-oriented cloud computing systems for bothmore » academia and government, including configuration options, hardware issues, challenges, and solutions.« less

  17. PRaVDA: High Energy Physics towards proton Computed Tomography

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Price, T.; PRaVDA Consortium

    2016-07-01

    Proton radiotherapy is an increasingly popular modality for treating cancers of the head and neck, and in paediatrics. To maximise the potential of proton radiotherapy it is essential to know the distribution, and more importantly the proton stopping powers, of the body tissues between the proton beam and the tumour. A stopping power map could be measured directly, and uncertainties in the treatment vastly reduce, if the patient was imaged with protons instead of conventional x-rays. Here we outline the application of technologies developed for High Energy Physics to provide clinical-quality proton Computed Tomography, in so reducing range uncertainties and enhancing the treatment of cancer.

  18. Fast computation of high energy elastic collision scattering angle for electric propulsion plume simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Araki, Samuel J.

    2016-11-01

    In the plumes of Hall thrusters and ion thrusters, high energy ions experience elastic collisions with slow neutral atoms. These collisions involve a process of momentum exchange, altering the initial velocity vectors of the collision pair. In addition to the momentum exchange process, ions and atoms can exchange electrons, resulting in slow charge-exchange ions and fast atoms. In these simulations, it is particularly important to accurately perform computations of ion-atom elastic collisions in determining the plume current profile and assessing the integration of spacecraft components. The existing models are currently capable of accurate calculation but are not fast enough such that the calculation can be a bottleneck of plume simulations. This study investigates methods to accelerate an ion-atom elastic collision calculation that includes both momentum- and charge-exchange processes. The scattering angles are pre-computed through a classical approach with ab initio spin-orbit free potential and are stored in a two-dimensional array as functions of impact parameter and energy. When performing a collision calculation for an ion-atom pair, the scattering angle is computed by a table lookup and multiple linear interpolations, given the relative energy and randomly determined impact parameter. In order to further accelerate the calculations, the number of collision calculations is reduced by properly defining two cut-off cross-sections for the elastic scattering. In the MCC method, the target atom needs to be sampled; however, it is confirmed that initial target atom velocity does not play a significant role in typical electric propulsion plume simulations such that the sampling process is unnecessary. With these implementations, the computational run-time to perform a collision calculation is reduced significantly compared to previous methods, while retaining the accuracy of the high fidelity models.

  19. Dynamic VMs placement for energy efficiency by PSO in cloud computing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dashti, Seyed Ebrahim; Rahmani, Amir Masoud

    2016-03-01

    Recently, cloud computing is growing fast and helps to realise other high technologies. In this paper, we propose a hieratical architecture to satisfy both providers' and consumers' requirements in these technologies. We design a new service in the PaaS layer for scheduling consumer tasks. In the providers' perspective, incompatibility between specification of physical machine and user requests in cloud leads to problems such as energy-performance trade-off and large power consumption so that profits are decreased. To guarantee Quality of service of users' tasks, and reduce energy efficiency, we proposed to modify Particle Swarm Optimisation to reallocate migrated virtual machines in the overloaded host. We also dynamically consolidate the under-loaded host which provides power saving. Simulation results in CloudSim demonstrated that whatever simulation condition is near to the real environment, our method is able to save as much as 14% more energy and the number of migrations and simulation time significantly reduces compared with the previous works.

  20. Orientational Order on Surfaces: The Coupling of Topology, Geometry, and Dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nestler, M.; Nitschke, I.; Praetorius, S.; Voigt, A.

    2018-02-01

    We consider the numerical investigation of surface bound orientational order using unit tangential vector fields by means of a gradient flow equation of a weak surface Frank-Oseen energy. The energy is composed of intrinsic and extrinsic contributions, as well as a penalization term to enforce the unity of the vector field. Four different numerical discretizations, namely a discrete exterior calculus approach, a method based on vector spherical harmonics, a surface finite element method, and an approach utilizing an implicit surface description, the diffuse interface method, are described and compared with each other for surfaces with Euler characteristic 2. We demonstrate the influence of geometric properties on realizations of the Poincaré-Hopf theorem and show examples where the energy is decreased by introducing additional orientational defects.

  1. New Computational Approach to Electron Transport in Irregular Graphene Nanostructures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mason, Douglas; Heller, Eric; Prendergast, David; Neaton, Jeffrey

    2009-03-01

    For novel graphene devices of nanoscale-to-macroscopic scale, many aspects of their transport properties are not easily understood due to difficulties in fabricating devices with regular edges. Here we develop a framework to efficiently calculate and potentially screen electronic transport properties of arbitrary nanoscale graphene device structures. A generalization of the established recursive Green's function method is presented, providing access to arbitrary device and lead geometries with substantial computer-time savings. Using single-orbital nearest-neighbor tight-binding models and the Green's function-Landauer scattering formalism, we will explore the transmission function of irregular two-dimensional graphene-based nanostructures with arbitrary lead orientation. Prepared by LBNL under contract DE-AC02-05CH11231 and supported by the U.S. Dept. of Energy Computer Science Graduate Fellowship under grant DE-FG02-97ER25308.

  2. Computational Science News | Computational Science | NREL

    Science.gov Websites

    -Cooled High-Performance Computing Technology at the ESIF February 28, 2018 NREL Launches New Website for High-Performance Computing System Users The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Computational Science Center has launched a revamped website for users of the lab's high-performance computing (HPC

  3. The neural code for face orientation in the human fusiform face area.

    PubMed

    Ramírez, Fernando M; Cichy, Radoslaw M; Allefeld, Carsten; Haynes, John-Dylan

    2014-09-03

    Humans recognize faces and objects with high speed and accuracy regardless of their orientation. Recent studies have proposed that orientation invariance in face recognition involves an intermediate representation where neural responses are similar for mirror-symmetric views. Here, we used fMRI, multivariate pattern analysis, and computational modeling to investigate the neural encoding of faces and vehicles at different rotational angles. Corroborating previous studies, we demonstrate a representation of face orientation in the fusiform face-selective area (FFA). We go beyond these studies by showing that this representation is category-selective and tolerant to retinal translation. Critically, by controlling for low-level confounds, we found the representation of orientation in FFA to be compatible with a linear angle code. Aspects of mirror-symmetric coding cannot be ruled out when FFA mean activity levels are considered as a dimension of coding. Finally, we used a parametric family of computational models, involving a biased sampling of view-tuned neuronal clusters, to compare different face angle encoding models. The best fitting model exhibited a predominance of neuronal clusters tuned to frontal views of faces. In sum, our findings suggest a category-selective and monotonic code of face orientation in the human FFA, in line with primate electrophysiology studies that observed mirror-symmetric tuning of neural responses at higher stages of the visual system, beyond the putative homolog of human FFA. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/3412155-13$15.00/0.

  4. Computational Science in Armenia (Invited Talk)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marandjian, H.; Shoukourian, Yu.

    This survey is devoted to the development of informatics and computer science in Armenia. The results in theoretical computer science (algebraic models, solutions to systems of general form recursive equations, the methods of coding theory, pattern recognition and image processing), constitute the theoretical basis for developing problem-solving-oriented environments. As examples can be mentioned: a synthesizer of optimized distributed recursive programs, software tools for cluster-oriented implementations of two-dimensional cellular automata, a grid-aware web interface with advanced service trading for linear algebra calculations. In the direction of solving scientific problems that require high-performance computing resources, examples of completed projects include the field of physics (parallel computing of complex quantum systems), astrophysics (Armenian virtual laboratory), biology (molecular dynamics study of human red blood cell membrane), meteorology (implementing and evaluating the Weather Research and Forecast Model for the territory of Armenia). The overview also notes that the Institute for Informatics and Automation Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia has established a scientific and educational infrastructure, uniting computing clusters of scientific and educational institutions of the country and provides the scientific community with access to local and international computational resources, that is a strong support for computational science in Armenia.

  5. Interaction Entropy: A New Paradigm for Highly Efficient and Reliable Computation of Protein-Ligand Binding Free Energy.

    PubMed

    Duan, Lili; Liu, Xiao; Zhang, John Z H

    2016-05-04

    Efficient and reliable calculation of protein-ligand binding free energy is a grand challenge in computational biology and is of critical importance in drug design and many other molecular recognition problems. The main challenge lies in the calculation of entropic contribution to protein-ligand binding or interaction systems. In this report, we present a new interaction entropy method which is theoretically rigorous, computationally efficient, and numerically reliable for calculating entropic contribution to free energy in protein-ligand binding and other interaction processes. Drastically different from the widely employed but extremely expensive normal mode method for calculating entropy change in protein-ligand binding, the new method calculates the entropic component (interaction entropy or -TΔS) of the binding free energy directly from molecular dynamics simulation without any extra computational cost. Extensive study of over a dozen randomly selected protein-ligand binding systems demonstrated that this interaction entropy method is both computationally efficient and numerically reliable and is vastly superior to the standard normal mode approach. This interaction entropy paradigm introduces a novel and intuitive conceptual understanding of the entropic effect in protein-ligand binding and other general interaction systems as well as a practical method for highly efficient calculation of this effect.

  6. Earth Reflected Solar Radiation Incident upon an Arbitrarily Oriented Spinning Flat Plate

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cunningham, Fred G.

    1963-01-01

    A general derivation is given for the earth reflected solar radiation input to a flat plate--a solar cell paddle, for example--which is spinning about an axis coincident with the axis of symmetry of the satellite to which it is affixed. The resulting equations are written for the general case so that arbitrary orientations of the spin axis with respect to the earth-satellite line and arbitrary orientations of the normal to the plate with respect to the spin axis can be treated. No attempt is made to perform the resulting integrations because of the complexity of the equations; nor is there any attempt to delineate the integration limits for the general case. However, the equations governing these limits are given. The appendixes contain: the results, in graphical form, of two representative examples; the general computer program for the calculation is given in Fortran notation; and the results of a calculation of the distribution of albedo energy on the proposed Echo II satellite. The value of the mean solar constant used is 1.395 times 10 (sup 4) ergs per centimeters-squared per second; the mean albedo of the earth is assumed to be 0.34; and the earth is assumed to be a diffuse reflector.

  7. Computing the absolute Gibbs free energy in atomistic simulations: Applications to defects in solids

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Bingqing; Ceriotti, Michele

    2018-02-01

    The Gibbs free energy is the fundamental thermodynamic potential underlying the relative stability of different states of matter under constant-pressure conditions. However, computing this quantity from atomic-scale simulations is far from trivial, so the potential energy of a system is often used as a proxy. In this paper, we use a combination of thermodynamic integration methods to accurately evaluate the Gibbs free energies associated with defects in crystals, including the vacancy formation energy in bcc iron, and the stacking fault energy in fcc nickel, iron, and cobalt. We quantify the importance of entropic and anharmonic effects in determining the free energies of defects at high temperatures, and show that the potential energy approximation as well as the harmonic approximation may produce inaccurate or even qualitatively wrong results. Our calculations manifest the necessity to employ accurate free energy methods such as thermodynamic integration to estimate the stability of crystallographic defects at high temperatures.

  8. Predicting bending stiffness of randomly oriented hybrid panels

    Treesearch

    Laura Moya; William T.Y. Tze; Jerrold E. Winandy

    2010-01-01

    This study was conducted to develop a simple model to predict the bending modulus of elasticity (MOE) of randomly oriented hybrid panels. The modeling process involved three modules: the behavior of a single layer was computed by applying micromechanics equations, layer properties were adjusted for densification effects, and the entire panel was modeled as a three-...

  9. Study Orientation Ply of Fiberglass on Blade Salt Water Pump Windmill using Abaqus

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Badruzzaman, B.; Sifa, A.

    2018-02-01

    Windmill is one tool to generate energy from wind energy is converted into energy motion, salt production process still using traditional process by utilizing windmill to move sea water to salt field With a windmill driven water system, a horizontal axis type windmill with an average windmill height of 3-4 m, with a potential wind speed of 5-9 m / s, the amount of blade used for salt water pumps as much as 4 blades, one of the main factor of the windmill component is a blade, blade designed for the needs of a salt water pump by using fiberglass material. On layer orientation 0°,30°,45°,60° and 90° with layer number 10 and layer thickness 2 mm, the purpose of this study was to determine the strength of fiberglass that was influenced by the orientation of the layer, and to determine the orientation of fiberglass layer before making. This method used Finite Element Analysis method using ABAQUS, with homogenous and heterogeneous layer parameters. The simulation result shows the difference in von misses value at an angle of 0°, 30°, 45°,60° homogeneous value is greater than heterogeneous value, whereas in orientation 90 heterogeneous values have value 1,689e9 Pa, greater than homogenous 90 orientation value of 1,296e9 Pa.

  10. A virtual library of constrained cyclic tetrapeptides that mimics all four side-chain orientations for over half the reverse turns in the protein data bank.

    PubMed

    Arbor, Sage; Marshall, Garland R

    2009-02-01

    Reverse turns are often recognition sites for protein/protein interactions and, therefore, valuable potential targets for determining recognition motifs in development of potential therapeutics. A virtual combinatorial library of cyclic tetrapeptides (CTPs) was generated and the bonds in the low-energy structures were overlapped with canonical reverse-turn Calpha-Cbeta bonds (Tran et al., J Comput Aided Mol Des 19(8):551-566, 2005) to determine the utility of CTPs as reverse-turn peptidomimetics. All reverse turns in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) with a crystal structures resolution < or = 3.0 A were classified into the same known canonical reverse-turn Calpha-Cbeta bond clusters (Tran et al., J Comput Aided Mol Des 19(8):551-566, 2005). CTP reverse-turn mimics were compiled that mimicked both the relative orientations of three of the four as well as all four Calpha-Cbeta bonds in the reverse turns of the PDB. 54% of reverse turns represented in the PDB had eight or more CTPs structures that mimicked the orientation of all four of the Calpha-Cbeta bonds in the reverse turn.

  11. Molecular orientation distributions during injection molding of liquid crystalline polymers: Ex situ investigation of partially filled moldings

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

    Fang, Jun; Burghardt, Wesley R.; Bubeck, Robert A.

    The development of molecular orientation in thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers (TLCPs) during injection molding has been investigated using two-dimensional wide-angle X-ray scattering coordinated with numerical computations employing the Larson-Doi polydomain model. Orientation distributions were measured in 'short shot' moldings to characterize structural evolution prior to completion of mold filling, in both thin and thick rectangular plaques. Distinct orientation patterns are observed near the filling front. In particular, strong extension at the melt front results in nearly transverse molecular alignment. Far away from the flow front shear competes with extension to produce complex spatial distributions of orientation. The relative influence ofmore » shear is stronger in the thin plaque, producing orientation along the filling direction. Exploiting an analogy between the Larson-Doi model and a fiber orientation model, we test the ability of process simulation tools to predict TLCP orientation distributions during molding. Substantial discrepancies between model predictions and experimental measurements are found near the flow front in partially filled short shots, attributed to the limits of the Hele-Shaw approximation used in the computations. Much of the flow front effect is however 'washed out' by subsequent shear flow as mold filling progresses, leading to improved agreement between experiment and corresponding numerical predictions.« less

  12. Energy distribution in disordered elastic networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Plaza, Gustavo R.

    2010-09-01

    Disordered networks are found in many natural and artificial materials, from gels or cytoskeletal structures to metallic foams or bones. Here, the energy distribution in this type of networks is modeled, taking into account the orientation of the struts. A correlation between the orientation and the energy per unit volume is found and described as a function of the connectivity in the network and the relative bending stiffness of the struts. If one or both parameters have relatively large values, the struts aligned in the loading direction present the highest values of energy. On the contrary, if these have relatively small values, the highest values of energy can be reached in the struts oriented transversally. This result allows explaining in a simple way remodeling processes in biological materials, for example, the remodeling of trabecular bone and the reorganization in the cytoskeleton. Additionally, the correlation between the orientation, the affinity, and the bending-stretching ratio in the network is discussed.

  13. Residential Consumer-Centric Demand-Side Management Based on Energy Disaggregation-Piloting Constrained Swarm Intelligence: Towards Edge Computing.

    PubMed

    Lin, Yu-Hsiu; Hu, Yu-Chen

    2018-04-27

    The emergence of smart Internet of Things (IoT) devices has highly favored the realization of smart homes in a down-stream sector of a smart grid. The underlying objective of Demand Response (DR) schemes is to actively engage customers to modify their energy consumption on domestic appliances in response to pricing signals. Domestic appliance scheduling is widely accepted as an effective mechanism to manage domestic energy consumption intelligently. Besides, to residential customers for DR implementation, maintaining a balance between energy consumption cost and users’ comfort satisfaction is a challenge. Hence, in this paper, a constrained Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based residential consumer-centric load-scheduling method is proposed. The method can be further featured with edge computing. In contrast with cloud computing, edge computing—a method of optimizing cloud computing technologies by driving computing capabilities at the IoT edge of the Internet as one of the emerging trends in engineering technology—addresses bandwidth-intensive contents and latency-sensitive applications required among sensors and central data centers through data analytics at or near the source of data. A non-intrusive load-monitoring technique proposed previously is utilized to automatic determination of physical characteristics of power-intensive home appliances from users’ life patterns. The swarm intelligence, constrained PSO, is used to minimize the energy consumption cost while considering users’ comfort satisfaction for DR implementation. The residential consumer-centric load-scheduling method proposed in this paper is evaluated under real-time pricing with inclining block rates and is demonstrated in a case study. The experimentation reported in this paper shows the proposed residential consumer-centric load-scheduling method can re-shape loads by home appliances in response to DR signals. Moreover, a phenomenal reduction in peak power

  14. Comparative Validity and Reproducibility Study of Various Landmark-Oriented Reference Planes in 3-Dimensional Computed Tomographic Analysis for Patients Receiving Orthognathic Surgery

    PubMed Central

    Lin, Hsiu-Hsia; Chuang, Ya-Fang; Weng, Jing-Ling; Lo, Lun-Jou

    2015-01-01

    Background Three-dimensional computed tomographic imaging has become popular in clinical evaluation, treatment planning, surgical simulation, and outcome assessment for maxillofacial intervention. The purposes of this study were to investigate whether there is any correlation among landmark-based horizontal reference planes and to validate the reproducibility and reliability of landmark identification. Materials and Methods Preoperative and postoperative cone-beam computed tomographic images of patients who had undergone orthognathic surgery were collected. Landmark-oriented reference planes including the Frankfort horizontal plane (FHP) and the lateral semicircular canal plane (LSP) were established. Four FHPs were defined by selecting 3 points from the orbitale, porion, or midpoint of paired points. The LSP passed through both the lateral semicircular canal points and nasion. The distances between the maxillary or mandibular teeth and the reference planes were measured, and the differences between the 2 sides were calculated and compared. The precision in locating the landmarks was evaluated by performing repeated tests, and the intraobserver reproducibility and interobserver reliability were assessed. Results A total of 30 patients with facial deformity and malocclusion—10 patients with facial symmetry, 10 patients with facial asymmetry, and 10 patients with cleft lip and palate—were recruited. Comparing the differences among the 5 reference planes showed no statistically significant difference among all patient groups. Regarding intraobserver reproducibility, the mean differences in the 3 coordinates varied from 0 to 0.35 mm, with correlation coefficients between 0.96 and 1.0, showing high correlation between repeated tests. Regarding interobserver reliability, the mean differences among the 3 coordinates varied from 0 to 0.47 mm, with correlation coefficients between 0.88 and 1.0, exhibiting high correlation between the different examiners. Conclusions The

  15. Comparative validity and reproducibility study of various landmark-oriented reference planes in 3-dimensional computed tomographic analysis for patients receiving orthognathic surgery.

    PubMed

    Lin, Hsiu-Hsia; Chuang, Ya-Fang; Weng, Jing-Ling; Lo, Lun-Jou

    2015-01-01

    Three-dimensional computed tomographic imaging has become popular in clinical evaluation, treatment planning, surgical simulation, and outcome assessment for maxillofacial intervention. The purposes of this study were to investigate whether there is any correlation among landmark-based horizontal reference planes and to validate the reproducibility and reliability of landmark identification. Preoperative and postoperative cone-beam computed tomographic images of patients who had undergone orthognathic surgery were collected. Landmark-oriented reference planes including the Frankfort horizontal plane (FHP) and the lateral semicircular canal plane (LSP) were established. Four FHPs were defined by selecting 3 points from the orbitale, porion, or midpoint of paired points. The LSP passed through both the lateral semicircular canal points and nasion. The distances between the maxillary or mandibular teeth and the reference planes were measured, and the differences between the 2 sides were calculated and compared. The precision in locating the landmarks was evaluated by performing repeated tests, and the intraobserver reproducibility and interobserver reliability were assessed. A total of 30 patients with facial deformity and malocclusion--10 patients with facial symmetry, 10 patients with facial asymmetry, and 10 patients with cleft lip and palate--were recruited. Comparing the differences among the 5 reference planes showed no statistically significant difference among all patient groups. Regarding intraobserver reproducibility, the mean differences in the 3 coordinates varied from 0 to 0.35 mm, with correlation coefficients between 0.96 and 1.0, showing high correlation between repeated tests. Regarding interobserver reliability, the mean differences among the 3 coordinates varied from 0 to 0.47 mm, with correlation coefficients between 0.88 and 1.0, exhibiting high correlation between the different examiners. The 5 horizontal reference planes were reliable and

  16. Estimation of relative free energies of binding using pre-computed ensembles based on the single-step free energy perturbation and the site-identification by Ligand competitive saturation approaches.

    PubMed

    Raman, E Prabhu; Lakkaraju, Sirish Kaushik; Denny, Rajiah Aldrin; MacKerell, Alexander D

    2017-06-05

    Accurate and rapid estimation of relative binding affinities of ligand-protein complexes is a requirement of computational methods for their effective use in rational ligand design. Of the approaches commonly used, free energy perturbation (FEP) methods are considered one of the most accurate, although they require significant computational resources. Accordingly, it is desirable to have alternative methods of similar accuracy but greater computational efficiency to facilitate ligand design. In the present study relative free energies of binding are estimated for one or two non-hydrogen atom changes in compounds targeting the proteins ACK1 and p38 MAP kinase using three methods. The methods include standard FEP, single-step free energy perturbation (SSFEP) and the site-identification by ligand competitive saturation (SILCS) ligand grid free energy (LGFE) approach. Results show the SSFEP and SILCS LGFE methods to be competitive with or better than the FEP results for the studied systems, with SILCS LGFE giving the best agreement with experimental results. This is supported by additional comparisons with published FEP data on p38 MAP kinase inhibitors. While both the SSFEP and SILCS LGFE approaches require a significant upfront computational investment, they offer a 1000-fold computational savings over FEP for calculating the relative affinities of ligand modifications once those pre-computations are complete. An illustrative example of the potential application of these methods in the context of screening large numbers of transformations is presented. Thus, the SSFEP and SILCS LGFE approaches represent viable alternatives for actively driving ligand design during drug discovery and development. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  17. Factors Affecting Energy Barriers for Pyramidal Inversion in Amines and Phosphines: A Computational Chemistry Lab Exercise

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Montgomery, Craig D.

    2013-01-01

    An undergraduate exercise in computational chemistry that investigates the energy barrier for pyramidal inversion of amines and phosphines is presented. Semiempirical calculations (PM3) of the ground-state and transition-state energies for NR[superscript 1]R[superscript 2]R[superscript 3] and PR[superscript 1]R[superscript 2]R[superscript 3] allow…

  18. Object-oriented design and programming in medical decision support.

    PubMed

    Heathfield, H; Armstrong, J; Kirkham, N

    1991-12-01

    The concept of object-oriented design and programming has recently received a great deal of attention from the software engineering community. This paper highlights the realisable benefits of using the object-oriented approach in the design and development of clinical decision support systems. These systems seek to build a computational model of some problem domain and therefore tend to be exploratory in nature. Conventional procedural design techniques do not support either the process of model building or rapid prototyping. The central concepts of the object-oriented paradigm are introduced, namely encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism, and their use illustrated in a case study, taken from the domain of breast histopathology. In particular, the dual roles of inheritance in object-oriented programming are examined, i.e., inheritance as a conceptual modelling tool and inheritance as a code reuse mechanism. It is argued that the use of the former is not entirely intuitive and may be difficult to incorporate into the design process. However, inheritance as a means of optimising code reuse offers substantial technical benefits.

  19. Utility of single-energy and dual-energy computed tomography in clot characterization: An in-vitro study

    PubMed Central

    Michalak, Gregory; Kadirvel, Ramanathan; Dai, Daying; Gilvarry, Michael; Duffy, Sharon; Kallmes, David F; McCollough, Cynthia; Leng, Shuai

    2017-01-01

    Background and purpose Because computed tomography (CT) is the most commonly used imaging modality for the evaluation of acute ischemic stroke patients, developing CT-based techniques for improving clot characterization could prove useful. The purpose of this in-vitro study was to determine which single-energy or dual-energy CT techniques provided optimum discrimination between red blood cell (RBC) and fibrin-rich clots. Materials and methods Seven clot types with varying fibrin and RBC densities were made (90% RBC, 99% RBC, 63% RBC, 36% RBC, 18% RBC and 0% RBC with high and low fibrin density) and their composition was verified histologically. Ten of each clot type were created and scanned with a second generation dual source scanner using three single (80 kV, 100 kV, 120 kV) and two dual-energy protocols (80/Sn 140 kV and 100/Sn 140 kV). A region of interest (ROI) was placed over each clot and mean attenuation was measured. Receiver operating characteristic curves were calculated at each energy level to determine the accuracy at differentiating RBC-rich clots from fibrin-rich clots. Results Clot attenuation increased with RBC content at all energy levels. Single-energy at 80 kV and 120 kV and dual-energy 80/Sn 140 kV protocols allowed for distinguishing between all clot types, with the exception of 36% RBC and 18% RBC. On receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the 80/Sn 140 kV dual-energy protocol had the highest area under the curve for distinguishing between fibrin-rich and RBC-rich clots (area under the curve 0.99). Conclusions Dual-energy CT with 80/Sn 140 kV had the highest accuracy for differentiating RBC-rich and fibrin-rich in-vitro thrombi. Further studies are needed to study the utility of non-contrast dual-energy CT in thrombus characterization in acute ischemic stroke. PMID:28604189

  20. Energy effects associated with e-commerce: a case-study concerning online sales of personal computers in The Netherlands.

    PubMed

    Reijnders, L; Hoogeveen, M J

    2001-07-01

    The introduction of e-commerce is changing purchase and distribution patterns dramatically. One of the observed effects is that logistics become more efficient as products are directly shipped from a manufacturer or wholesaler to an end-user. Another effect is that market transparency increases, which has a downward pressure on prices of many products sold via the Internet. This article addresses the energy implications of e-commerce at the micro level. This is done by quantifying the transport related energy savings in the case of a Dutch online computer reseller and by assessing the extra energy expenditure associated with increased buying power of online buyers. It is found that energy use per article sold by the online computer reseller is lower. However, taking into account indirect effects such as increased consumer buying power, there are scenarios that lead to an overall increase in energy use.

  1. Sensitivity of planetary cruise navigation to earth orientation calibration errors

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Estefan, J. A.; Folkner, W. M.

    1995-01-01

    A detailed analysis was conducted to determine the sensitivity of spacecraft navigation errors to the accuracy and timeliness of Earth orientation calibrations. Analyses based on simulated X-band (8.4-GHz) Doppler and ranging measurements acquired during the interplanetary cruise segment of the Mars Pathfinder heliocentric trajectory were completed for the nominal trajectory design and for an alternative trajectory with a longer transit time. Several error models were developed to characterize the effect of Earth orientation on navigational accuracy based on current and anticipated Deep Space Network calibration strategies. The navigational sensitivity of Mars Pathfinder to calibration errors in Earth orientation was computed for each candidate calibration strategy with the Earth orientation parameters included as estimated parameters in the navigation solution. In these cases, the calibration errors contributed 23 to 58% of the total navigation error budget, depending on the calibration strategy being assessed. Navigation sensitivity calculations were also performed for cases in which Earth orientation calibration errors were not adjusted in the navigation solution. In these cases, Earth orientation calibration errors contributed from 26 to as much as 227% of the total navigation error budget. The final analysis suggests that, not only is the method used to calibrate Earth orientation vitally important for precision navigation of Mars Pathfinder, but perhaps equally important is the method for inclusion of the calibration errors in the navigation solutions.

  2. Comparative assessment of computational methods for the determination of solvation free energies in alcohol-based molecules.

    PubMed

    Martins, Silvia A; Sousa, Sergio F

    2013-06-05

    The determination of differences in solvation free energies between related drug molecules remains an important challenge in computational drug optimization, when fast and accurate calculation of differences in binding free energy are required. In this study, we have evaluated the performance of five commonly used polarized continuum model (PCM) methodologies in the determination of solvation free energies for 53 typical alcohol and alkane small molecules. In addition, the performance of these PCM methods, of a thermodynamic integration (TI) protocol and of the Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) and generalized Born (GB) methods, were tested in the determination of solvation free energies changes for 28 common alkane-alcohol transformations, by the substitution of an hydrogen atom for a hydroxyl substituent. The results show that the solvation model D (SMD) performs better among the PCM-based approaches in estimating solvation free energies for alcohol molecules, and solvation free energy changes for alkane-alcohol transformations, with an average error below 1 kcal/mol for both quantities. However, for the determination of solvation free energy changes on alkane-alcohol transformation, PB and TI yielded better results. TI was particularly accurate in the treatment of hydroxyl groups additions to aromatic rings (0.53 kcal/mol), a common transformation when optimizing drug-binding in computer-aided drug design. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  3. Service-Oriented Architecture for NVO and TeraGrid Computing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jacob, Joseph; Miller, Craig; Williams, Roy; Steenberg, Conrad; Graham, Matthew

    2008-01-01

    The National Virtual Observatory (NVO) Extensible Secure Scalable Service Infrastructure (NESSSI) is a Web service architecture and software framework that enables Web-based astronomical data publishing and processing on grid computers such as the National Science Foundation's TeraGrid. Characteristics of this architecture include the following: (1) Services are created, managed, and upgraded by their developers, who are trusted users of computing platforms on which the services are deployed. (2) Service jobs can be initiated by means of Java or Python client programs run on a command line or with Web portals. (3) Access is granted within a graduated security scheme in which the size of a job that can be initiated depends on the level of authentication of the user.

  4. Rotation-invariant features for multi-oriented text detection in natural images.

    PubMed

    Yao, Cong; Zhang, Xin; Bai, Xiang; Liu, Wenyu; Ma, Yi; Tu, Zhuowen

    2013-01-01

    Texts in natural scenes carry rich semantic information, which can be used to assist a wide range of applications, such as object recognition, image/video retrieval, mapping/navigation, and human computer interaction. However, most existing systems are designed to detect and recognize horizontal (or near-horizontal) texts. Due to the increasing popularity of mobile-computing devices and applications, detecting texts of varying orientations from natural images under less controlled conditions has become an important but challenging task. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to detect texts of varying orientations. Our algorithm is based on a two-level classification scheme and two sets of features specially designed for capturing the intrinsic characteristics of texts. To better evaluate the proposed method and compare it with the competing algorithms, we generate a comprehensive dataset with various types of texts in diverse real-world scenes. We also propose a new evaluation protocol, which is more suitable for benchmarking algorithms for detecting texts in varying orientations. Experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that our system compares favorably with the state-of-the-art algorithms when handling horizontal texts and achieves significantly enhanced performance on variant texts in complex natural scenes.

  5. A Service-oriented Approach towards Context-aware Mobile Learning Management Systems

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-07-01

    towards a pervasive university. Keywords-context-aware computing, service-oriented archi- tecture, mobile computing, elearning , learn management sys- tem I...usage of device- specific features provide support for various ubiquitous and pervasive eLearning scenarios [2][3]. By knowing where the user currently...data from the mobile device towards a context-aware mobile LMS. II. BASIC CONCEPTS For a better understanding of the presented eLearning sce- narios

  6. User's manual: Computer-aided design programs for inductor-energy-storage dc-to-dc electronic power converters

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Huffman, S.

    1977-01-01

    Detailed instructions on the use of two computer-aided-design programs for designing the energy storage inductor for single winding and two winding dc to dc converters are provided. Step by step procedures are given to illustrate the formatting of user input data. The procedures are illustrated by eight sample design problems which include the user input and the computer program output.

  7. The Use of Object-Oriented Analysis Methods in Surety Analysis

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

    Craft, Richard L.; Funkhouser, Donald R.; Wyss, Gregory D.

    1999-05-01

    Object-oriented analysis methods have been used in the computer science arena for a number of years to model the behavior of computer-based systems. This report documents how such methods can be applied to surety analysis. By embodying the causality and behavior of a system in a common object-oriented analysis model, surety analysts can make the assumptions that underlie their models explicit and thus better communicate with system designers. Furthermore, given minor extensions to traditional object-oriented analysis methods, it is possible to automatically derive a wide variety of traditional risk and reliability analysis methods from a single common object model. Automaticmore » model extraction helps ensure consistency among analyses and enables the surety analyst to examine a system from a wider variety of viewpoints in a shorter period of time. Thus it provides a deeper understanding of a system's behaviors and surety requirements. This report documents the underlying philosophy behind the common object model representation, the methods by which such common object models can be constructed, and the rules required to interrogate the common object model for derivation of traditional risk and reliability analysis models. The methodology is demonstrated in an extensive example problem.« less

  8. An ARM data-oriented diagnostics package to evaluate the climate model simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, C.; Xie, S.

    2016-12-01

    A set of diagnostics that utilize long-term high frequency measurements from the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program is developed for evaluating the regional simulation of clouds, radiation and precipitation in climate models. The diagnostics results are computed and visualized automatically in a python-based package that aims to serve as an easy entry point for evaluating climate simulations using the ARM data, as well as the CMIP5 multi-model simulations. Basic performance metrics are computed to measure the accuracy of mean state and variability of simulated regional climate. The evaluated physical quantities include vertical profiles of clouds, temperature, relative humidity, cloud liquid water path, total column water vapor, precipitation, sensible and latent heat fluxes, radiative fluxes, aerosol and cloud microphysical properties. Process-oriented diagnostics focusing on individual cloud and precipitation-related phenomena are developed for the evaluation and development of specific model physical parameterizations. Application of the ARM diagnostics package will be presented in the AGU session. This work is performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344, IM release number is: LLNL-ABS-698645.

  9. Computational issues in complex water-energy optimization problems: Time scales, parameterizations, objectives and algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Efstratiadis, Andreas; Tsoukalas, Ioannis; Kossieris, Panayiotis; Karavokiros, George; Christofides, Antonis; Siskos, Alexandros; Mamassis, Nikos; Koutsoyiannis, Demetris

    2015-04-01

    Modelling of large-scale hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) is a challenging task, for which several open computational issues exist. HRES comprise typical components of hydrosystems (reservoirs, boreholes, conveyance networks, hydropower stations, pumps, water demand nodes, etc.), which are dynamically linked with renewables (e.g., wind turbines, solar parks) and energy demand nodes. In such systems, apart from the well-known shortcomings of water resources modelling (nonlinear dynamics, unknown future inflows, large number of variables and constraints, conflicting criteria, etc.), additional complexities and uncertainties arise due to the introduction of energy components and associated fluxes. A major difficulty is the need for coupling two different temporal scales, given that in hydrosystem modeling, monthly simulation steps are typically adopted, yet for a faithful representation of the energy balance (i.e. energy production vs. demand) a much finer resolution (e.g. hourly) is required. Another drawback is the increase of control variables, constraints and objectives, due to the simultaneous modelling of the two parallel fluxes (i.e. water and energy) and their interactions. Finally, since the driving hydrometeorological processes of the integrated system are inherently uncertain, it is often essential to use synthetically generated input time series of large length, in order to assess the system performance in terms of reliability and risk, with satisfactory accuracy. To address these issues, we propose an effective and efficient modeling framework, key objectives of which are: (a) the substantial reduction of control variables, through parsimonious yet consistent parameterizations; (b) the substantial decrease of computational burden of simulation, by linearizing the combined water and energy allocation problem of each individual time step, and solve each local sub-problem through very fast linear network programming algorithms, and (c) the substantial

  10. Computing resonance energies, widths, and wave functions using a Lanczos method in real arithmetic.

    PubMed

    Tremblay, Jean Christophe; Carrington, Tucker

    2005-06-22

    We introduce new ideas for calculating resonance energies and widths. It is shown that a non-Hermitian-Lanczos approach can be used to compute eigenvalues of H+W, where H is the Hamiltonian and W is a complex absorbing potential (CAP), without evaluating complex matrix-vector products. This is done by exploiting the link between a CAP-modified Hamiltonian matrix and a real but nonsymmetric matrix U suggested by Mandelshtam and Neumaier [J. Theor. Comput. Chem. 1, 1 (2002)] and using a coupled-two-term Lanczos procedure. We use approximate resonance eigenvectors obtained from the non-Hermitian-Lanczos algorithm and a very good CAP to obtain very accurate energies and widths without solving eigenvalue problems for many values of the CAP strength parameter and searching for cusps. The method is applied to the resonances of HCO. We compare properties of the method with those of established approaches.

  11. Ambulatory position and orientation tracking fusing magnetic and inertial sensing.

    PubMed

    Roetenberg, Daniel; Slycke, Per J; Veltink, Peter H

    2007-05-01

    This paper presents the design and testing of a portable magnetic system combined with miniature inertial sensors for ambulatory 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) human motion tracking. The magnetic system consists of three orthogonal coils, the source, fixed to the body and 3-D magnetic sensors, fixed to remote body segments, which measure the fields generated by the source. Based on the measured signals, a processor calculates the relative positions and orientations between source and sensor. Magnetic actuation requires a substantial amount of energy which limits the update rate with a set of batteries. Moreover, the magnetic field can easily be disturbed by ferromagnetic materials or other sources. Inertial sensors can be sampled at high rates, require only little energy and do not suffer from magnetic interferences. However, accelerometers and gyroscopes can only measure changes in position and orientation and suffer from integration drift. By combing measurements from both systems in a complementary Kalman filter structure, an optimal solution for position and orientation estimates is obtained. The magnetic system provides 6 DOF measurements at a relatively low update rate while the inertial sensors track the changes position and orientation in between the magnetic updates. The implemented system is tested against a lab-bound camera tracking system for several functional body movements. The accuracy was about 5 mm for position and 3 degrees for orientation measurements. Errors were higher during movements with high velocities due to relative movement between source and sensor within one cycle of magnetic actuation.

  12. Controlled transition dipole alignment of energy donor and energy acceptor molecules in doped organic crystals, and the effect on intermolecular Förster energy transfer.

    PubMed

    Wang, Huan; Yue, Bailing; Xie, Zengqi; Gao, Bingrong; Xu, Yuanxiang; Liu, Linlin; Sun, Hongbo; Ma, Yuguang

    2013-03-14

    The orientation factor κ(2) ranging from 0 to 4, which depends on the relative orientation of the transition dipoles of the energy donor (D) and the energy acceptor (A) in space, is one of the pivotal factors deciding the efficiency and directionality of resonance energy transfer (RET) in a D-A molecular system. In this work, tetracene (Tc) and pentacene (Pc) are successfully doped in a trans-1,4-distyrylbenzene (DSB) crystalline lattice to form definite D-A mutually perpendicular transition dipole orientations. The cross D-A dipole arrangement results in an extremely small orientation factor, which is about two orders smaller than that in the disordered films. The energy transfer properties from the host (DSB) to the guest (Tc/Pc) were investigated in detail by steady-state as well as time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. Our experimental research results show that the small value of κ(2) allows less or partial energy transfer from the host (DSB) to the guest (Tc) in a wide range of guest concentration, with the Förster distance of around 1.5 nm. By controlling the doping concentrations in the Tc and Pc doubly doped DSB crystals, we demonstrate, as an example, for the first time the application of the restricted energy transfer by D-A cross transition dipole arrangement for preparation of a large-size, white-emissive organic crystal with the CIE coordinates of (0.36, 0.37) approaching an ideal white light. In contrast, Tc is also doped in an anthracene crystalline lattice to form head-to-tail D-A transition dipole alignment, which is proved to be highly effective to promote the intermolecular energy transfer. In this doped system, the orientation factor is relatively large and the Förster distance is around 7 nm.

  13. An Ada Object Oriented Missile Flight Simulation

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1991-09-01

    identify by block number) This thesis uses the Ada programming language in the design and development of an air-to-air missile flight simulation with...object oriented techniques and sound software engineering principles. The simulation is designed to be more understandable, modifiable, efficient and...Department of Computer Science ii ABSTRACT This thesis uses the Ada programming language in the design and development of an air-to-air missile flight

  14. Orientation selectivity in a multi-gated organic electrochemical transistor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gkoupidenis, Paschalis; Koutsouras, Dimitrios A.; Lonjaret, Thomas; Fairfield, Jessamyn A.; Malliaras, George G.

    2016-06-01

    Neuromorphic devices offer promising computational paradigms that transcend the limitations of conventional technologies. A prominent example, inspired by the workings of the brain, is spatiotemporal information processing. Here we demonstrate orientation selectivity, a spatiotemporal processing function of the visual cortex, using a poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) organic electrochemical transistor with multiple gates. Spatially distributed inputs on a gate electrode array are found to correlate with the output of the transistor, leading to the ability to discriminate between different stimuli orientations. The demonstration of spatiotemporal processing in an organic electronic device paves the way for neuromorphic devices with new form factors and a facile interface with biology.

  15. Task-Oriented Spoken Dialog System for Second-Language Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kwon, Oh-Woog; Kim, Young-Kil; Lee, Yunkeun

    2016-01-01

    This paper introduces a Dialog-Based Computer Assisted second-Language Learning (DB-CALL) system using task-oriented dialogue processing technology. The system promotes dialogue with a second-language learner for a specific task, such as purchasing tour tickets, ordering food, passing through immigration, etc. The dialog system plays a role of a…

  16. Toward a Unified Sub-symbolic Computational Theory of Cognition

    PubMed Central

    Butz, Martin V.

    2016-01-01

    This paper proposes how various disciplinary theories of cognition may be combined into a unifying, sub-symbolic, computational theory of cognition. The following theories are considered for integration: psychological theories, including the theory of event coding, event segmentation theory, the theory of anticipatory behavioral control, and concept development; artificial intelligence and machine learning theories, including reinforcement learning and generative artificial neural networks; and theories from theoretical and computational neuroscience, including predictive coding and free energy-based inference. In the light of such a potential unification, it is discussed how abstract cognitive, conceptualized knowledge and understanding may be learned from actively gathered sensorimotor experiences. The unification rests on the free energy-based inference principle, which essentially implies that the brain builds a predictive, generative model of its environment. Neural activity-oriented inference causes the continuous adaptation of the currently active predictive encodings. Neural structure-oriented inference causes the longer term adaptation of the developing generative model as a whole. Finally, active inference strives for maintaining internal homeostasis, causing goal-directed motor behavior. To learn abstract, hierarchical encodings, however, it is proposed that free energy-based inference needs to be enhanced with structural priors, which bias cognitive development toward the formation of particular, behaviorally suitable encoding structures. As a result, it is hypothesized how abstract concepts can develop from, and thus how they are structured by and grounded in, sensorimotor experiences. Moreover, it is sketched-out how symbol-like thought can be generated by a temporarily active set of predictive encodings, which constitute a distributed neural attractor in the form of an interactive free-energy minimum. The activated, interactive network attractor

  17. Using an internal coordinate Gaussian basis and a space-fixed Cartesian coordinate kinetic energy operator to compute a vibrational spectrum with rectangular collocation.

    PubMed

    Manzhos, Sergei; Carrington, Tucker

    2016-12-14

    We demonstrate that it is possible to use basis functions that depend on curvilinear internal coordinates to compute vibrational energy levels without deriving a kinetic energy operator (KEO) and without numerically computing coefficients of a KEO. This is done by using a space-fixed KEO and computing KEO matrix elements numerically. Whenever one has an excellent basis, more accurate solutions to the Schrödinger equation can be obtained by computing the KEO, potential, and overlap matrix elements numerically. Using a Gaussian basis and bond coordinates, we compute vibrational energy levels of formaldehyde. We show, for the first time, that it is possible with a Gaussian basis to solve a six-dimensional vibrational Schrödinger equation. For the zero-point energy (ZPE) and the lowest 50 vibrational transitions of H 2 CO, we obtain a mean absolute error of less than 1 cm -1 ; with 200 000 collocation points and 40 000 basis functions, most errors are less than 0.4 cm -1 .

  18. Using an internal coordinate Gaussian basis and a space-fixed Cartesian coordinate kinetic energy operator to compute a vibrational spectrum with rectangular collocation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Manzhos, Sergei; Carrington, Tucker

    2016-12-01

    We demonstrate that it is possible to use basis functions that depend on curvilinear internal coordinates to compute vibrational energy levels without deriving a kinetic energy operator (KEO) and without numerically computing coefficients of a KEO. This is done by using a space-fixed KEO and computing KEO matrix elements numerically. Whenever one has an excellent basis, more accurate solutions to the Schrödinger equation can be obtained by computing the KEO, potential, and overlap matrix elements numerically. Using a Gaussian basis and bond coordinates, we compute vibrational energy levels of formaldehyde. We show, for the first time, that it is possible with a Gaussian basis to solve a six-dimensional vibrational Schrödinger equation. For the zero-point energy (ZPE) and the lowest 50 vibrational transitions of H2CO, we obtain a mean absolute error of less than 1 cm-1; with 200 000 collocation points and 40 000 basis functions, most errors are less than 0.4 cm-1.

  19. Energy-discriminating X-ray computed tomography system utilizing a cadmium telluride detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sato, Eiichi; Abderyim, Purkhet; Enomoto, Toshiyuki; Watanabe, Manabu; Hitomi, Keitaro; Takahasi, Kiyomi; Sato, Shigehiro; Ogawae, Akira; Onagawa, Jun

    2010-07-01

    An energy-discriminating K-edge X-ray computed tomography (CT) system is useful for increasing contrast resolution of a target region utilizing contrast media and for reducing the absorbed dose for patients. The CT system is of the first-generation type with a cadmium telluride (CdTe) detector, and a projection curve is obtained by translation scanning using the CdTe detector in conjunction with an x-stage. An object is rotated by the rotation step angle using a turntable between the translation scans. Thus, CT is carried out by repeating the translation scanning and the rotation of an object. Penetrating X-ray photons from the object are detected by the CdTe detector, and event signals of X-ray photons are produced using charge-sensitive and shaping amplifiers. Both the photon energy and the energy width are selected by use of a multi-channel analyzer, and the number of photons is counted by a counter card. Demonstration of enhanced iodine K-edge X-ray CT was carried out by selecting photons with energies just beyond the iodine K-edge energy of 33.2 keV.

  20. Computational Examination of Orientation-Dependent Morphological Evolution during the Electrodeposition and Electrodissolution of Magnesium

    DOE PAGES

    DeWitt, S.; Hahn, N.; Zavadil, K.; ...

    2015-12-30

    Here a new model of electrodeposition and electrodissolution is developed and applied to the evolution of Mg deposits during anode cycling. The model captures Butler-Volmer kinetics, facet evolution, the spatially varying potential in the electrolyte, and the time-dependent electrolyte concentration. The model utilizes a diffuse interface approach, employing the phase field and smoothed boundary methods. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of magnesium deposited on a gold substrate show the formation of faceted deposits, often in the form of hexagonal prisms. Orientation-dependent reaction rate coefficients were parameterized using the experimental SEM images. Three-dimensional simulations of the growth of magnesium deposits yieldmore » deposit morphologies consistent with the experimental results. The simulations predict that the deposits become narrower and taller as the current density increases due to the depletion of the electrolyte concentration near the sides of the deposits. Increasing the distance between the deposits leads to increased depletion of the electrolyte surrounding the deposit. Two models relating the orientation-dependence of the deposition and dissolution reactions are presented. Finally, the morphology of the Mg deposit after one deposition-dissolution cycle is significantly different between the two orientation-dependence models, providing testable predictions that suggest the underlying physical mechanisms governing morphology evolution during deposition and dissolution.« less