Toward benchmarking in catalysis science: Best practices, challenges, and opportunities

DOE PAGES

Bligaard, Thomas; Bullock, R. Morris; Campbell, Charles T.; ...

2016-03-07

Benchmarking is a community-based and (preferably) community-driven activity involving consensus-based decisions on how to make reproducible, fair, and relevant assessments. In catalysis science, important catalyst performance metrics include activity, selectivity, and the deactivation profile, which enable comparisons between new and standard catalysts. Benchmarking also requires careful documentation, archiving, and sharing of methods and measurements, to ensure that the full value of research data can be realized. Beyond these goals, benchmarking presents unique opportunities to advance and accelerate understanding of complex reaction systems by combining and comparing experimental information from multiple, in situ and operando techniques with theoretical insights derived frommore » calculations characterizing model systems. This Perspective describes the origins and uses of benchmarking and its applications in computational catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, molecular catalysis, and electrocatalysis. As a result, it also discusses opportunities and challenges for future developments in these fields.« less

An Integrative Approach to Archival Outreach: A Case Study of Becoming Part of the Constituents' Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rettig, Patricia J.

2007-01-01

Archival outreach, an essential activity for any repository, should focus on what constituents are already doing and capitalize on existing venues related to the repository's subject area. The Water Resources Archive at Colorado State University successfully undertook this integrative approach to outreach. Detailed in the article are outreach…

Benchmarking expert system tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Riley, Gary

1988-01-01

As part of its evaluation of new technologies, the Artificial Intelligence Section of the Mission Planning and Analysis Div. at NASA-Johnson has made timing tests of several expert system building tools. Among the production systems tested were Automated Reasoning Tool, several versions of OPS5, and CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System), an expert system builder developed by the AI section. Also included in the test were a Zetalisp version of the benchmark along with four versions of the benchmark written in Knowledge Engineering Environment, an object oriented, frame based expert system tool. The benchmarks used for testing are studied.

PH5 for integrating and archiving different data types

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azevedo, Steve; Hess, Derick; Beaudoin, Bruce

2016-04-01

PH5 is IRIS PASSCAL's file organization of HDF5 used for seismic data. The extensibility and portability of HDF5 allows the PH5 format to evolve and operate on a variety of platforms and interfaces. To make PH5 even more flexible, the seismic metadata is separated from the time series data in order to achieve gains in performance as well as ease of use and to simplify user interaction. This separation affords easy updates to metadata after the data are archived without having to access waveform data. To date, PH5 is currently used for integrating and archiving active source, passive source, and onshore-offshore seismic data sets with the IRIS Data Management Center (DMC). Active development to make PH5 fully compatible with FDSN web services and deliver StationXML is near completion. We are also exploring the feasibility of utilizing QuakeML for active seismic source representation. The PH5 software suite, PIC KITCHEN, comprises in-field tools that include data ingestion (e.g. RefTek format, SEG-Y, and SEG-D), meta-data management tools including QC, and a waveform review tool. These tools enable building archive ready data in-field during active source experiments greatly decreasing the time to produce research ready data sets. Once archived, our online request page generates a unique web form and pre-populates much of it based on the metadata provided to it from the PH5 file. The data requester then can intuitively select the extraction parameters as well as data subsets they wish to receive (current output formats include SEG-Y, SAC, mseed). The web interface then passes this on to the PH5 processing tools to generate the requested seismic data, and e-mail the requester a link to the data set automatically as soon as the data are ready. PH5 file organization was originally designed to hold seismic time series data and meta-data from controlled source experiments using RefTek data loggers. The flexibility of HDF5 has enabled us to extend the use of PH5 in several

Medical information, communication, and archiving system (MICAS): Phase II integration and acceptance testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Edward M.; Wandtke, John; Robinson, Arvin E.

1999-07-01

The Medical Information, Communication and Archive System (MICAS) is a multi-modality integrated image management system that is seamlessly integrated with the Radiology Information System (RIS). This project was initiated in the summer of 1995 with the first phase being installed during the first half of 1997 and the second phase installed during the summer of 1998. Phase II enhancements include a permanent archive, automated workflow including modality worklist, study caches, NT diagnostic workstations with all components adhering to Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standards. This multi-vendor phased approach to PACS implementation is designed as an enterprise-wide PACS to provide images and reports throughout our healthcare network. MICAS demonstrates that aa multi-vendor open system phased approach to PACS is feasible, cost-effective, and has significant advantages over a single vendor implementation.

Supporting users through integrated retrieval, processing, and distribution systems at the land processes distributed active archive center

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kalvelage, T.; Willems, Jennifer

2003-01-01

The design of the EOS Data and Information Systems (EOSDIS) to acquire, archive, manage and distribute Earth observation data to the broadest possible user community was discussed. A number of several integrated retrieval, processing and distribution capabilities have been explained. The value of these functions to the users were described and potential future improvements were laid out for the users. The users were interested in acquiring the retrieval, processing and archiving systems integrated so that they can get the data they want in the format and delivery mechanism of their choice.

Integral Full Core Multi-Physics PWR Benchmark with Measured Data

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

Forget, Benoit; Smith, Kord; Kumar, Shikhar

In recent years, the importance of modeling and simulation has been highlighted extensively in the DOE research portfolio with concrete examples in nuclear engineering with the CASL and NEAMS programs. These research efforts and similar efforts worldwide aim at the development of high-fidelity multi-physics analysis tools for the simulation of current and next-generation nuclear power reactors. Like all analysis tools, verification and validation is essential to guarantee proper functioning of the software and methods employed. The current approach relies mainly on the validation of single physic phenomena (e.g. critical experiment, flow loops, etc.) and there is a lack of relevantmore » multiphysics benchmark measurements that are necessary to validate high-fidelity methods being developed today. This work introduces a new multi-cycle full-core Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) depletion benchmark based on two operational cycles of a commercial nuclear power plant that provides a detailed description of fuel assemblies, burnable absorbers, in-core fission detectors, core loading and re-loading patterns. This benchmark enables analysts to develop extremely detailed reactor core models that can be used for testing and validation of coupled neutron transport, thermal-hydraulics, and fuel isotopic depletion. The benchmark also provides measured reactor data for Hot Zero Power (HZP) physics tests, boron letdown curves, and three-dimensional in-core flux maps from 58 instrumented assemblies. The benchmark description is now available online and has been used by many groups. However, much work remains to be done on the quantification of uncertainties and modeling sensitivities. This work aims to address these deficiencies and make this benchmark a true non-proprietary international benchmark for the validation of high-fidelity tools. This report details the BEAVRS uncertainty quantification for the first two cycle of operations and serves as the final report of the

An integrity measure to benchmark quantum error correcting memories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Xiaosi; de Beaudrap, Niel; O'Gorman, Joe; Benjamin, Simon C.

2018-02-01

Rapidly developing experiments across multiple platforms now aim to realise small quantum codes, and so demonstrate a memory within which a logical qubit can be protected from noise. There is a need to benchmark the achievements in these diverse systems, and to compare the inherent power of the codes they rely upon. We describe a recently introduced performance measure called integrity, which relates to the probability that an ideal agent will successfully ‘guess’ the state of a logical qubit after a period of storage in the memory. Integrity is straightforward to evaluate experimentally without state tomography and it can be related to various established metrics such as the logical fidelity and the pseudo-threshold. We offer a set of experimental milestones that are steps towards demonstrating unconditionally superior encoded memories. Using intensive numerical simulations we compare memories based on the five-qubit code, the seven-qubit Steane code, and a nine-qubit code which is the smallest instance of a surface code; we assess both the simple and fault-tolerant implementations of each. While the ‘best’ code upon which to base a memory does vary according to the nature and severity of the noise, nevertheless certain trends emerge.

Water level ingest, archive and processing system - an integral part of NOAA's tsunami database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McLean, S. J.; Mungov, G.; Dunbar, P. K.; Price, D. J.; Mccullough, H.

2013-12-01

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) and collocated World Data Service for Geophysics (WDS) provides long-term archive, data management, and access to national and global tsunami data. Archive responsibilities include the NOAA Global Historical Tsunami event and runup database, damage photos, as well as other related hazards data. Beginning in 2008, NGDC was given the responsibility of archiving, processing and distributing all tsunami and hazards-related water level data collected from NOAA observational networks in a coordinated and consistent manner. These data include the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) data provided by the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC), coastal-tide-gauge data from the National Ocean Service (NOS) network and tide-gauge data from the two National Weather Service (NWS) Tsunami Warning Centers (TWCs) regional networks. Taken together, this integrated archive supports tsunami forecast, warning, research, mitigation and education efforts of NOAA and the Nation. Due to the variety of the water level data, the automatic ingest system was redesigned, along with upgrading the inventory, archive and delivery capabilities based on modern digital data archiving practices. The data processing system was also upgraded and redesigned focusing on data quality assessment in an operational manner. This poster focuses on data availability highlighting the automation of all steps of data ingest, archive, processing and distribution. Examples are given from recent events such as the October 2012 hurricane Sandy, the Feb 06, 2013 Solomon Islands tsunami, and the June 13, 2013 meteotsunami along the U.S. East Coast.

Results Oriented Benchmarking: The Evolution of Benchmarking at NASA from Competitive Comparisons to World Class Space Partnerships

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bell, Michael A.

1999-01-01

Informal benchmarking using personal or professional networks has taken place for many years at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recognized early on, the need to formalize the benchmarking process for better utilization of resources and improved benchmarking performance. The need to compete in a faster, better, cheaper environment has been the catalyst for formalizing these efforts. A pioneering benchmarking consortium was chartered at KSC in January 1994. The consortium known as the Kennedy Benchmarking Clearinghouse (KBC), is a collaborative effort of NASA and all major KSC contractors. The charter of this consortium is to facilitate effective benchmarking, and leverage the resulting quality improvements across KSC. The KBC acts as a resource with experienced facilitators and a proven process. One of the initial actions of the KBC was to develop a holistic methodology for Center-wide benchmarking. This approach to Benchmarking integrates the best features of proven benchmarking models (i.e., Camp, Spendolini, Watson, and Balm). This cost-effective alternative to conventional Benchmarking approaches has provided a foundation for consistent benchmarking at KSC through the development of common terminology, tools, and techniques. Through these efforts a foundation and infrastructure has been built which allows short duration benchmarking studies yielding results gleaned from world class partners that can be readily implemented. The KBC has been recognized with the Silver Medal Award (in the applied research category) from the International Benchmarking Clearinghouse.

'Wasteaware' benchmark indicators for integrated sustainable waste management in cities.

PubMed

Wilson, David C; Rodic, Ljiljana; Cowing, Michael J; Velis, Costas A; Whiteman, Andrew D; Scheinberg, Anne; Vilches, Recaredo; Masterson, Darragh; Stretz, Joachim; Oelz, Barbara

2015-01-01

This paper addresses a major problem in international solid waste management, which is twofold: a lack of data, and a lack of consistent data to allow comparison between cities. The paper presents an indicator set for integrated sustainable waste management (ISWM) in cities both North and South, to allow benchmarking of a city's performance, comparing cities and monitoring developments over time. It builds on pioneering work for UN-Habitat's solid waste management in the World's cities. The comprehensive analytical framework of a city's solid waste management system is divided into two overlapping 'triangles' - one comprising the three physical components, i.e. collection, recycling, and disposal, and the other comprising three governance aspects, i.e. inclusivity; financial sustainability; and sound institutions and proactive policies. The indicator set includes essential quantitative indicators as well as qualitative composite indicators. This updated and revised 'Wasteaware' set of ISWM benchmark indicators is the cumulative result of testing various prototypes in more than 50 cities around the world. This experience confirms the utility of indicators in allowing comprehensive performance measurement and comparison of both 'hard' physical components and 'soft' governance aspects; and in prioritising 'next steps' in developing a city's solid waste management system, by identifying both local strengths that can be built on and weak points to be addressed. The Wasteaware ISWM indicators are applicable to a broad range of cities with very different levels of income and solid waste management practices. Their wide application as a standard methodology will help to fill the historical data gap. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hospital benchmarking: are U.S. eye hospitals ready?

PubMed

de Korne, Dirk F; van Wijngaarden, Jeroen D H; Sol, Kees J C A; Betz, Robert; Thomas, Richard C; Schein, Oliver D; Klazinga, Niek S

2012-01-01

Benchmarking is increasingly considered a useful management instrument to improve quality in health care, but little is known about its applicability in hospital settings. The aims of this study were to assess the applicability of a benchmarking project in U.S. eye hospitals and compare the results with an international initiative. We evaluated multiple cases by applying an evaluation frame abstracted from the literature to five U.S. eye hospitals that used a set of 10 indicators for efficiency benchmarking. Qualitative analysis entailed 46 semistructured face-to-face interviews with stakeholders, document analyses, and questionnaires. The case studies only partially met the conditions of the evaluation frame. Although learning and quality improvement were stated as overall purposes, the benchmarking initiative was at first focused on efficiency only. No ophthalmic outcomes were included, and clinicians were skeptical about their reporting relevance and disclosure. However, in contrast with earlier findings in international eye hospitals, all U.S. hospitals worked with internal indicators that were integrated in their performance management systems and supported benchmarking. Benchmarking can support performance management in individual hospitals. Having a certain number of comparable institutes provide similar services in a noncompetitive milieu seems to lay fertile ground for benchmarking. International benchmarking is useful only when these conditions are not met nationally. Although the literature focuses on static conditions for effective benchmarking, our case studies show that it is a highly iterative and learning process. The journey of benchmarking seems to be more important than the destination. Improving patient value (health outcomes per unit of cost) requires, however, an integrative perspective where clinicians and administrators closely cooperate on both quality and efficiency issues. If these worlds do not share such a relationship, the added

An XMM-Newton Science Archive for next decade, and its integration into ESASky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loiseau, N.; Baines, D.; Rodriguez, P.; Salgado, J.; Sarmiento, M.; Colomo, E.; Merin, B.; Giordano, F.; Racero, E.; Migliari, S.

2016-06-01

We will present a roadmap for the next decade improvements of the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA), as planned for an always faster and more user friendly access to all XMM-Newton data. This plan includes the integration of the Upper Limit server, an interactive visualization of EPIC and RGS spectra, on-the-fly data analysis, among other advanced features. Within this philosophy XSA is also being integrated into ESASky, the science-driven discovery portal for all the ESA Astronomy Missions. A first public beta release of the ESASky service has been already released at the end of 2015. It is currently featuring an interface for exploration of the multi-wavelength sky and for single and/or multiple target searches of science-ready data. The system offers progressive multi-resolution all-sky projections of full mission datasets using a new generation of HEALPix projections called HiPS, developed at the CDS; detailed geometrical footprints to connect the all-sky mosaics to individual observations; and direct access to science-ready data at the underlying mission-specific science archives. New XMM-Newton EPIC and OM all-sky HiPS maps, catalogues and links to the observations are available through ESASky, together with INTEGRAL, HST, Herschel, Planck and other future data.

A web-based system architecture for ontology-based data integration in the domain of IT benchmarking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pfaff, Matthias; Krcmar, Helmut

2018-03-01

In the domain of IT benchmarking (ITBM), a variety of data and information are collected. Although these data serve as the basis for business analyses, no unified semantic representation of such data yet exists. Consequently, data analysis across different distributed data sets and different benchmarks is almost impossible. This paper presents a system architecture and prototypical implementation for an integrated data management of distributed databases based on a domain-specific ontology. To preserve the semantic meaning of the data, the ITBM ontology is linked to data sources and functions as the central concept for database access. Thus, additional databases can be integrated by linking them to this domain-specific ontology and are directly available for further business analyses. Moreover, the web-based system supports the process of mapping ontology concepts to external databases by introducing a semi-automatic mapping recommender and by visualizing possible mapping candidates. The system also provides a natural language interface to easily query linked databases. The expected result of this ontology-based approach of knowledge representation and data access is an increase in knowledge and data sharing in this domain, which will enhance existing business analysis methods.

‘Wasteaware’ benchmark indicators for integrated sustainable waste management in cities

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

Wilson, David C., E-mail: waste@davidcwilson.com; Rodic, Ljiljana; Cowing, Michael J.

Highlights: • Solid waste management (SWM) is a key utility service, but data is often lacking. • Measuring their SWM performance helps a city establish priorities for action. • The Wasteaware benchmark indicators: measure both technical and governance aspects. • Have been developed over 5 years and tested in more than 50 cities on 6 continents. • Enable consistent comparison between cities and countries and monitoring progress. - Abstract: This paper addresses a major problem in international solid waste management, which is twofold: a lack of data, and a lack of consistent data to allow comparison between cities. The papermore » presents an indicator set for integrated sustainable waste management (ISWM) in cities both North and South, to allow benchmarking of a city’s performance, comparing cities and monitoring developments over time. It builds on pioneering work for UN-Habitat’s solid waste management in the World’s cities. The comprehensive analytical framework of a city’s solid waste management system is divided into two overlapping ‘triangles’ – one comprising the three physical components, i.e. collection, recycling, and disposal, and the other comprising three governance aspects, i.e. inclusivity; financial sustainability; and sound institutions and proactive policies. The indicator set includes essential quantitative indicators as well as qualitative composite indicators. This updated and revised ‘Wasteaware’ set of ISWM benchmark indicators is the cumulative result of testing various prototypes in more than 50 cities around the world. This experience confirms the utility of indicators in allowing comprehensive performance measurement and comparison of both ‘hard’ physical components and ‘soft’ governance aspects; and in prioritising ‘next steps’ in developing a city’s solid waste management system, by identifying both local strengths that can be built on and weak points to be addressed. The Wasteaware ISWM

Implementation of Benchmarking Transportation Logistics Practices and Future Benchmarking Organizations

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

Thrower, A.W.; Patric, J.; Keister, M.

2008-07-01

The purpose of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management's (OCRWM) Logistics Benchmarking Project is to identify established government and industry practices for the safe transportation of hazardous materials which can serve as a yardstick for design and operation of OCRWM's national transportation system for shipping spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The project will present logistics and transportation practices and develop implementation recommendations for adaptation by the national transportation system. This paper will describe the process used to perform the initial benchmarking study, highlight interim findings, and explain how thesemore » findings are being implemented. It will also provide an overview of the next phase of benchmarking studies. The benchmarking effort will remain a high-priority activity throughout the planning and operational phases of the transportation system. The initial phase of the project focused on government transportation programs to identify those practices which are most clearly applicable to OCRWM. These Federal programs have decades of safe transportation experience, strive for excellence in operations, and implement effective stakeholder involvement, all of which parallel OCRWM's transportation mission and vision. The initial benchmarking project focused on four business processes that are critical to OCRWM's mission success, and can be incorporated into OCRWM planning and preparation in the near term. The processes examined were: transportation business model, contract management/out-sourcing, stakeholder relations, and contingency planning. More recently, OCRWM examined logistics operations of AREVA NC's Business Unit Logistics in France. The next phase of benchmarking will focus on integrated domestic and international commercial radioactive logistic operations. The prospective companies represent large scale shippers and have vast

The XMM-Newton Science Archive and its integration into ESASky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loiseau, N.; Baines, D.; Colomo, E.; Giordano, F.; Merín, B.; Racero, E.; Rodríguez, P.; Salgado, J.; Sarmiento, M.

2017-07-01

We describe the variety of functionalities of the XSA (XMM-Newton Science Archive) that allow to search and access the XMM-Newton data and catalogues. The web interface http://nxsa.esac.esa.int/ is very flexible allowing different kinds of searches by a single position or target name, or by a list of targets, with several selecting options (target type, text in the abstract, etc.), and with several display options. The resulting data can be easily broadcast to Virtual Observatory (VO) facilities for a first look analysis, or for cross-matching the results with info from other observatories. Direct access via URL or command line are also possible for scripts usage, or to link XMM-Newton data from other interfaces like Vizier, ADS, etc. The full metadata content of the XSA can be queried through the TAP (Table access Protocol) via ADQL (Astronomical Data Query Language). We present also the roadmap for future improvements of the XSA including the integration of the Upper Limit server, the on-the-fly data analysis, and the interactive visualization of EPIC sources spectra and light curves and RGS spectra, among other advanced features. Within this modern visualization philosophy XSA is also being integrated into ESASky (http://sky.esa.int). ESASky is the science-driven multi-wavelength discovery portal for all the ESA Astronomy Missions (Integral, HST, Herschel, Suzaku, Planck, etc.), and other space and ground telescope data. The system offers progressive multi-resolution all-sky projections of full mission datasets using HiPS, a new generation of HEALPix projections developed by CDS, precise footprints to connect to individual observations, and direct access to science-ready data from the underlying mission specific science archives. XMM-Newton EPIC and OM all-sky HiPS maps, catalogues and links to the observations are available through ESASky.

Montreal Archive of Sleep Studies: an open-access resource for instrument benchmarking and exploratory research.

PubMed

O'Reilly, Christian; Gosselin, Nadia; Carrier, Julie; Nielsen, Tore

2014-12-01

Manual processing of sleep recordings is extremely time-consuming. Efforts to automate this process have shown promising results, but automatic systems are generally evaluated on private databases, not allowing accurate cross-validation with other systems. In lacking a common benchmark, the relative performances of different systems are not compared easily and advances are compromised. To address this fundamental methodological impediment to sleep study, we propose an open-access database of polysomnographic biosignals. To build this database, whole-night recordings from 200 participants [97 males (aged 42.9 ± 19.8 years) and 103 females (aged 38.3 ± 18.9 years); age range: 18-76 years] were pooled from eight different research protocols performed in three different hospital-based sleep laboratories. All recordings feature a sampling frequency of 256 Hz and an electroencephalography (EEG) montage of 4-20 channels plus standard electro-oculography (EOG), electromyography (EMG), electrocardiography (ECG) and respiratory signals. Access to the database can be obtained through the Montreal Archive of Sleep Studies (MASS) website (http://www.ceams-carsm.ca/en/MASS), and requires only affiliation with a research institution and prior approval by the applicant's local ethical review board. Providing the research community with access to this free and open sleep database is expected to facilitate the development and cross-validation of sleep analysis automation systems. It is also expected that such a shared resource will be a catalyst for cross-centre collaborations on difficult topics such as improving inter-rater agreement on sleep stage scoring. © 2014 European Sleep Research Society.

Limitations of Community College Benchmarking and Benchmarks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bers, Trudy H.

2006-01-01

This chapter distinguishes between benchmarks and benchmarking, describes a number of data and cultural limitations to benchmarking projects, and suggests that external demands for accountability are the dominant reason for growing interest in benchmarking among community colleges.

Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) implementation, integration & benefits in an integrated health system.

PubMed

Mansoori, Bahar; Erhard, Karen K; Sunshine, Jeffrey L

2012-02-01

The availability of the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) has revolutionized the practice of radiology in the past two decades and has shown to eventually increase productivity in radiology and medicine. PACS implementation and integration may bring along numerous unexpected issues, particularly in a large-scale enterprise. To achieve a successful PACS implementation, identifying the critical success and failure factors is essential. This article provides an overview of the process of implementing and integrating PACS in a comprehensive health system comprising an academic core hospital and numerous community hospitals. Important issues are addressed, touching all stages from planning to operation and training. The impact of an enterprise-wide radiology information system and PACS at the academic medical center (four specialty hospitals), in six additional community hospitals, and in all associated outpatient clinics as well as the implications on the productivity and efficiency of the entire enterprise are presented. Copyright © 2012 AUR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Image dissemination and archiving.

PubMed

Robertson, Ian

2007-08-01

Images generated as part of the sonographic examination are an integral part of the medical record and must be retained according to local regulations. The standard medical image format, known as DICOM (Digital Imaging and COmmunications in Medicine) makes it possible for images from many different imaging modalities, including ultrasound, to be distributed via a standard internet network to distant viewing workstations and a central archive in an almost seamless fashion. The DICOM standard is a truly universal standard for the dissemination of medical images. When purchasing an ultrasound unit, the consumer should research the unit's capacity to generate images in a DICOM format, especially if one wishes interconnectivity with viewing workstations and an image archive that stores other medical images. PACS, an acronym for Picture Archive and Communication System refers to the infrastructure that links modalities, workstations, the image archive, and the medical record information system into an integrated system, allowing for efficient electronic distribution and storage of medical images and access to medical record data.

Ontology for Semantic Data Integration in the Domain of IT Benchmarking.

PubMed

Pfaff, Matthias; Neubig, Stefan; Krcmar, Helmut

2018-01-01

A domain-specific ontology for IT benchmarking has been developed to bridge the gap between a systematic characterization of IT services and their data-based valuation. Since information is generally collected during a benchmark exercise using questionnaires on a broad range of topics, such as employee costs, software licensing costs, and quantities of hardware, it is commonly stored as natural language text; thus, this information is stored in an intrinsically unstructured form. Although these data form the basis for identifying potentials for IT cost reductions, neither a uniform description of any measured parameters nor the relationship between such parameters exists. Hence, this work proposes an ontology for the domain of IT benchmarking, available at https://w3id.org/bmontology. The design of this ontology is based on requirements mainly elicited from a domain analysis, which considers analyzing documents and interviews with representatives from Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Information and Communications Technology companies over the last eight years. The development of the ontology and its main concepts is described in detail (i.e., the conceptualization of benchmarking events, questionnaires, IT services, indicators and their values) together with its alignment with the DOLCE-UltraLite foundational ontology.

The new European Hubble archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Marchi, Guido; Arevalo, Maria; Merin, Bruno

2016-01-01

The European Hubble Archive (hereafter eHST), hosted at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre, has been released for public use in October 2015. The eHST is now fully integrated with the other ESA science archives to ensure long-term preservation of the Hubble data, consisting of more than 1 million observations from 10 different scientific instruments. The public HST data, the Hubble Legacy Archive, and the high-level science data products are now all available to scientists through a single, carefully designed and user friendly web interface. In this talk, I will show how the the eHST can help boost archival research, including how to search on sources in the field of view thanks to precise footprints projected onto the sky, how to obtain enhanced previews of imaging data and interactive spectral plots, and how to directly link observations with already published papers. To maximise the scientific exploitation of Hubble's data, the eHST offers connectivity to virtual observatory tools, easily integrates with the recently released Hubble Source Catalog, and is fully accessible through ESA's archives multi-mission interface.

Archive and records management-Fiscal year 2010 offline archive media trade study

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bodoh, Tom; Boettcher, Ken; Gacke, Ken; Greenhagen, Cheryl; Engelbrecht, Al

2010-01-01

This document is a trade study comparing offline digital archive storage technologies. The document compares and assesses several technologies and recommends which technologies could be deployed as the next generation standard for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Archives must regularly migrate to the next generation of digital archive technology, and the technology selected must maintain data integrity until the next migration. This document is the fiscal year 2010 (FY10) revision of a study completed in FY01 and revised in FY03, FY04, FY06, and FY08.

The Role of Data Archives in Synoptic Solar Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reardon, Kevin

The detailed study of solar cycle variations requires analysis of recorded datasets spanning many years of observations, that is, a data archive. The use of digital data, combined with powerful database server software, gives such archives new capabilities to provide, quickly and flexibly, selected pieces of information to scientists. Use of standardized protocols will allow multiple databases, independently maintained, to be seamlessly joined, allowing complex searches spanning multiple archives. These data archives also benefit from being developed in parallel with the telescope itself, which helps to assure data integrity and to provide close integration between the telescope and archive. Development of archives that can guarantee long-term data availability and strong compatibility with other projects makes solar-cycle studies easier to plan and realize.

The French Astronomical Archives Alidade Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Debarbat, S.; Bobis, L.

2004-12-01

The present state of Alidade, an archival project of Paris Observatory, including not only archival papers, but also instruments, documents, iconography, paintings etc., of various institutions, is described. Documents and collections, e.g. from donations or purchases, are still integrated into the archives, and selected material is displayed in temporary exhibits at the Observatory. Modern uses of old material are briefly mentioned

A Web Resource for Standardized Benchmark Datasets, Metrics, and Rosetta Protocols for Macromolecular Modeling and Design.

PubMed

Ó Conchúir, Shane; Barlow, Kyle A; Pache, Roland A; Ollikainen, Noah; Kundert, Kale; O'Meara, Matthew J; Smith, Colin A; Kortemme, Tanja

2015-01-01

The development and validation of computational macromolecular modeling and design methods depend on suitable benchmark datasets and informative metrics for comparing protocols. In addition, if a method is intended to be adopted broadly in diverse biological applications, there needs to be information on appropriate parameters for each protocol, as well as metrics describing the expected accuracy compared to experimental data. In certain disciplines, there exist established benchmarks and public resources where experts in a particular methodology are encouraged to supply their most efficient implementation of each particular benchmark. We aim to provide such a resource for protocols in macromolecular modeling and design. We present a freely accessible web resource (https://kortemmelab.ucsf.edu/benchmarks) to guide the development of protocols for protein modeling and design. The site provides benchmark datasets and metrics to compare the performance of a variety of modeling protocols using different computational sampling methods and energy functions, providing a "best practice" set of parameters for each method. Each benchmark has an associated downloadable benchmark capture archive containing the input files, analysis scripts, and tutorials for running the benchmark. The captures may be run with any suitable modeling method; we supply command lines for running the benchmarks using the Rosetta software suite. We have compiled initial benchmarks for the resource spanning three key areas: prediction of energetic effects of mutations, protein design, and protein structure prediction, each with associated state-of-the-art modeling protocols. With the help of the wider macromolecular modeling community, we hope to expand the variety of benchmarks included on the website and continue to evaluate new iterations of current methods as they become available.

Supporting users through integrated retrieval, processing, and distribution systems at the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kalvelage, Thomas A.; Willems, Jennifer

2005-01-01

The US Geological Survey's EROS Data Center (EDC) hosts the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC). The LP DAAC supports NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), which is a series of polar-orbiting and low inclination satellites for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and oceans. The EOS Data and Information Systems (EOSDIS) was designed to acquire, archive, manage and distribute Earth observation data to the broadest possible user community.The LP DAAC is one of four DAACs that utilize the EOSDIS Core System (ECS) to manage and archive their data. Since the ECS was originally designed, significant changes have taken place in technology, user expectations, and user requirements. Therefore the LP DAAC has implemented additional systems to meet the evolving needs of scientific users, tailored to an integrated working environment. These systems provide a wide variety of services to improve data access and to enhance data usability through subsampling, reformatting, and reprojection. These systems also support the wide breadth of products that are handled by the LP DAAC.The LP DAAC is the primary archive for the Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data; it is the only facility in the United States that archives, processes, and distributes data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission/Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra spacecraft; and it is responsible for the archive and distribution of “land products” generated from data acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites.

Assessment of the monitoring and evaluation system for integrated community case management (ICCM) in Ethiopia: a comparison against global benchmark indicators.

PubMed

Mamo, Dereje; Hazel, Elizabeth; Lemma, Israel; Guenther, Tanya; Bekele, Abeba; Demeke, Berhanu

2014-10-01

Program managers require feasible, timely, reliable, and valid measures of iCCM implementation to identify problems and assess progress. The global iCCM Task Force developed benchmark indicators to guide implementers to develop or improve monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. To assesses Ethiopia's iCCM M&E system by determining the availability and feasibility of the iCCM benchmark indicators. We conducted a desk review of iCCM policy documents, monitoring tools, survey reports, and other rele- vant documents; and key informant interviews with government and implementing partners involved in iCCM scale-up and M&E. Currently, Ethiopia collects data to inform most (70% [33/47]) iCCM benchmark indicators, and modest extra effort could boost this to 83% (39/47). Eight (17%) are not available given the current system. Most benchmark indicators that track coordination and policy, human resources, service delivery and referral, supervision, and quality assurance are available through the routine monitoring systems or periodic surveys. Indicators for supply chain management are less available due to limited consumption data and a weak link with treatment data. Little information is available on iCCM costs. Benchmark indicators can detail the status of iCCM implementation; however, some indicators may not fit country priorities, and others may be difficult to collect. The government of Ethiopia and partners should review and prioritize the benchmark indicators to determine which should be included in the routine M&E system, especially since iCCMdata are being reviewed for addition to the HMIS. Moreover, the Health Extension Worker's reporting burden can be minimized by an integrated reporting approach.

Benchmark matrix and guide: Part III.

PubMed

1992-01-01

The final article in the "Benchmark Matrix and Guide" series developed by Headquarters Air Force Logistics Command completes the discussion of the last three categories that are essential ingredients of a successful total quality management (TQM) program. Detailed behavioral objectives are listed in the areas of recognition, process improvement, and customer focus. These vertical categories are meant to be applied to the levels of the matrix that define the progressive stages of the TQM: business as usual, initiation, implementation, expansion, and integration. By charting the horizontal progress level and the vertical TQM category, the quality management professional can evaluate the current state of TQM in any given organization. As each category is completed, new goals can be defined in order to advance to a higher level. The benchmarking process is integral to quality improvement efforts because it focuses on the highest possible standards to evaluate quality programs.

Integrating CFD, CAA, and Experiments Towards Benchmark Datasets for Airframe Noise Problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Choudhari, Meelan M.; Yamamoto, Kazuomi

2012-01-01

Airframe noise corresponds to the acoustic radiation due to turbulent flow in the vicinity of airframe components such as high-lift devices and landing gears. The combination of geometric complexity, high Reynolds number turbulence, multiple regions of separation, and a strong coupling with adjacent physical components makes the problem of airframe noise highly challenging. Since 2010, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has organized an ongoing series of workshops devoted to Benchmark Problems for Airframe Noise Computations (BANC). The BANC workshops are aimed at enabling a systematic progress in the understanding and high-fidelity predictions of airframe noise via collaborative investigations that integrate state of the art computational fluid dynamics, computational aeroacoustics, and in depth, holistic, and multifacility measurements targeting a selected set of canonical yet realistic configurations. This paper provides a brief summary of the BANC effort, including its technical objectives, strategy, and selective outcomes thus far.

The Army Pollution Prevention Program: Improving Performance Through Benchmarking.

DTIC Science & Technology

1995-06-01

Washington, DC 20503. 1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave Blank) 2. REPORT DATE June 1995 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Final 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE...unlimited 12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE 13. ABSTRACT (Maximum 200 words) This report investigates the feasibility of using benchmarking as a method for...could use to determine to what degree it should integrate benchmarking with other quality management tools to support the pollution prevention program

Benchmark matrix and guide: Part II.

PubMed

1991-01-01

In the last issue of the Journal of Quality Assurance (September/October 1991, Volume 13, Number 5, pp. 14-19), the benchmark matrix developed by Headquarters Air Force Logistics Command was published. Five horizontal levels on the matrix delineate progress in TQM: business as usual, initiation, implementation, expansion, and integration. The six vertical categories that are critical to the success of TQM are leadership, structure, training, recognition, process improvement, and customer focus. In this issue, "Benchmark Matrix and Guide: Part II" will show specifically how to apply the categories of leadership, structure, and training to the benchmark matrix progress levels. At the intersection of each category and level, specific behavior objectives are listed with supporting behaviors and guidelines. Some categories will have objectives that are relatively easy to accomplish, allowing quick progress from one level to the next. Other categories will take considerable time and effort to complete. In the next issue, Part III of this series will focus on recognition, process improvement, and customer focus.

Dose-Response Analysis of RNA-Seq Profiles in Archival ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Use of archival resources has been limited to date by inconsistent methods for genomic profiling of degraded RNA from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples. RNA-sequencing offers a promising way to address this problem. Here we evaluated transcriptomic dose responses using RNA-sequencing in paired FFPE and frozen (FROZ) samples from two archival studies in mice, one 20 years old. Experimental treatments included 3 different doses of di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate or dichloroacetic acid for the recently archived and older studies, respectively. Total RNA was ribo-depleted and sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq platform. In the recently archived study, FFPE samples had 35% lower total counts compared to FROZ samples but high concordance in fold-change values of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (r2 = 0.99), highly enriched pathways (90% overlap with FROZ), and benchmark dose estimates for preselected target genes (2% difference vs FROZ). In contrast, older FFPE samples had markedly lower total counts (3% of FROZ) and poor concordance in global DEGs and pathways. However, counts from FFPE and FROZ samples still positively correlated (r2 = 0.84 across all transcripts) and showed comparable dose responses for more highly expressed target genes. These findings highlight potential applications and issues in using RNA-sequencing data from FFPE samples. Recently archived FFPE samples were highly similar to FROZ samples in sequencing q

Implementation and validation of a conceptual benchmarking framework for patient blood management.

PubMed

Kastner, Peter; Breznik, Nada; Gombotz, Hans; Hofmann, Axel; Schreier, Günter

2015-01-01

Public health authorities and healthcare professionals are obliged to ensure high quality health service. Because of the high variability of the utilisation of blood and blood components, benchmarking is indicated in transfusion medicine. Implementation and validation of a benchmarking framework for Patient Blood Management (PBM) based on the report from the second Austrian Benchmark trial. Core modules for automatic report generation have been implemented with KNIME (Konstanz Information Miner) and validated by comparing the output with the results of the second Austrian benchmark trial. Delta analysis shows a deviation <0.1% for 95% (max. 1.4%). The framework provides a reliable tool for PBM benchmarking. The next step is technical integration with hospital information systems.

European distributed seismological data archives infrastructure: EIDA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clinton, John; Hanka, Winfried; Mazza, Salvatore; Pederson, Helle; Sleeman, Reinoud; Stammler, Klaus; Strollo, Angelo

2014-05-01

The European Integrated waveform Data Archive (EIDA) is a distributed Data Center system within ORFEUS that (a) securely archives seismic waveform data and related metadata gathered by European research infrastructures, and (b) provides transparent access to the archives for the geosciences research communities. EIDA was founded in 2013 by ORFEUS Data Center, GFZ, RESIF, ETH, INGV and BGR to ensure sustainability of a distributed archive system and the implementation of standards (e.g. FDSN StationXML, FDSN webservices) and coordinate new developments. Under the mandate of the ORFEUS Board of Directors and Executive Committee the founding group is responsible for steering and maintaining the technical developments and organization of the European distributed seismic waveform data archive and the integration within broader multidisciplanry frameworks like EPOS. EIDA currently offers uniform data access to unrestricted data from 8 European archives (www.orfeus-eu.org/eida), linked by the Arclink protocol, hosting data from 75 permanent networks (1800+ stations) and 33 temporary networks (1200+) stations). Moreover, each archive may also provide unique, restricted datasets. A webinterface, developed at GFZ, offers interactive access to different catalogues (EMSC, GFZ, USGS) and EIDA waveform data. Clients and toolboxes like arclink_fetch and ObsPy can connect directly to any EIDA node to collect data. Current developments are directed to the implementation of quality parameters and strong motion parameters.

Thought Experiment to Examine Benchmark Performance for Fusion Nuclear Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murata, Isao; Ohta, Masayuki; Kusaka, Sachie; Sato, Fuminobu; Miyamaru, Hiroyuki

2017-09-01

There are many benchmark experiments carried out so far with DT neutrons especially aiming at fusion reactor development. These integral experiments seemed vaguely to validate the nuclear data below 14 MeV. However, no precise studies exist now. The author's group thus started to examine how well benchmark experiments with DT neutrons can play a benchmarking role for energies below 14 MeV. Recently, as a next phase, to generalize the above discussion, the energy range was expanded to the entire region. In this study, thought experiments with finer energy bins have thus been conducted to discuss how to generally estimate performance of benchmark experiments. As a result of thought experiments with a point detector, the sensitivity for a discrepancy appearing in the benchmark analysis is "equally" due not only to contribution directly conveyed to the deterctor, but also due to indirect contribution of neutrons (named (A)) making neutrons conveying the contribution, indirect controbution of neutrons (B) making the neutrons (A) and so on. From this concept, it would become clear from a sensitivity analysis in advance how well and which energy nuclear data could be benchmarked with a benchmark experiment.

Archive Inventory Management System (AIMS) — A Fast, Metrics Gathering Framework for Validating and Gaining Insight from Large File-Based Data Archives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verma, R. V.

2018-04-01

The Archive Inventory Management System (AIMS) is a software package for understanding the distribution, characteristics, integrity, and nuances of files and directories in large file-based data archives on a continuous basis.

Benchmark problems for numerical implementations of phase field models

DOE PAGES

Jokisaari, A. M.; Voorhees, P. W.; Guyer, J. E.; ...

2016-10-01

Here, we present the first set of benchmark problems for phase field models that are being developed by the Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). While many scientific research areas use a limited set of well-established software, the growing phase field community continues to develop a wide variety of codes and lacks benchmark problems to consistently evaluate the numerical performance of new implementations. Phase field modeling has become significantly more popular as computational power has increased and is now becoming mainstream, driving the need for benchmark problems to validate and verifymore » new implementations. We follow the example set by the micromagnetics community to develop an evolving set of benchmark problems that test the usability, computational resources, numerical capabilities and physical scope of phase field simulation codes. In this paper, we propose two benchmark problems that cover the physics of solute diffusion and growth and coarsening of a second phase via a simple spinodal decomposition model and a more complex Ostwald ripening model. We demonstrate the utility of benchmark problems by comparing the results of simulations performed with two different adaptive time stepping techniques, and we discuss the needs of future benchmark problems. The development of benchmark problems will enable the results of quantitative phase field models to be confidently incorporated into integrated computational materials science and engineering (ICME), an important goal of the Materials Genome Initiative.« less

The Planetary Archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Penteado, Paulo F.; Trilling, David; Szalay, Alexander; Budavári, Tamás; Fuentes, César

2014-11-01

We are building the first system that will allow efficient data mining in the astronomical archives for observations of Solar System Bodies. While the Virtual Observatory has enabled data-intensive research making use of large collections of observations across multiple archives, Planetary Science has largely been denied this opportunity: most astronomical data services are built based on sky positions, and moving objects are often filtered out.To identify serendipitous observations of Solar System objects, we ingest the archive metadata. The coverage of each image in an archive is a volume in a 3D space (RA,Dec,time), which we can represent efficiently through a hierarchical triangular mesh (HTM) for the spatial dimensions, plus a contiguous time interval. In this space, an asteroid occupies a curve, which we determine integrating its orbit into the past. Thus when an asteroid trajectory intercepts the volume of an archived image, we have a possible observation of that body. Our pipeline then looks in the archive's catalog for a source with the corresponding coordinates, to retrieve its photometry. All these matches are stored into a database, which can be queried by object identifier.This database consists of archived observations of known Solar System objects. This means that it grows not only from the ingestion of new images, but also from the growth in the number of known objects. As new bodies are discovered, our pipeline can find archived observations where they could have been recorded, providing colors for these newly-found objects. This growth becomes more relevant with the new generation of wide-field surveys, particularly LSST.We also present one use case of our prototype archive: after ingesting the metadata for SDSS, 2MASS and GALEX, we were able to identify serendipitous observations of Solar System bodies in these 3 archives. Cross-matching these occurrences provided us with colors from the UV to the IR, a much wider spectral range than that

Phase field benchmark problems for dendritic growth and linear elasticity

DOE PAGES

Jokisaari, Andrea M.; Voorhees, P. W.; Guyer, Jonathan E.; ...

2018-03-26

We present the second set of benchmark problems for phase field models that are being jointly developed by the Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) along with input from other members in the phase field community. As the integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach to materials design has gained traction, there is an increasing need for quantitative phase field results. New algorithms and numerical implementations increase computational capabilities, necessitating standard problems to evaluate their impact on simulated microstructure evolution as well as their computational performance. We propose one benchmark problem formore » solidifiication and dendritic growth in a single-component system, and one problem for linear elasticity via the shape evolution of an elastically constrained precipitate. We demonstrate the utility and sensitivity of the benchmark problems by comparing the results of 1) dendritic growth simulations performed with different time integrators and 2) elastically constrained precipitate simulations with different precipitate sizes, initial conditions, and elastic moduli. As a result, these numerical benchmark problems will provide a consistent basis for evaluating different algorithms, both existing and those to be developed in the future, for accuracy and computational efficiency when applied to simulate physics often incorporated in phase field models.« less

Phase field benchmark problems for dendritic growth and linear elasticity

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

Jokisaari, Andrea M.; Voorhees, P. W.; Guyer, Jonathan E.

We present the second set of benchmark problems for phase field models that are being jointly developed by the Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) along with input from other members in the phase field community. As the integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach to materials design has gained traction, there is an increasing need for quantitative phase field results. New algorithms and numerical implementations increase computational capabilities, necessitating standard problems to evaluate their impact on simulated microstructure evolution as well as their computational performance. We propose one benchmark problem formore » solidifiication and dendritic growth in a single-component system, and one problem for linear elasticity via the shape evolution of an elastically constrained precipitate. We demonstrate the utility and sensitivity of the benchmark problems by comparing the results of 1) dendritic growth simulations performed with different time integrators and 2) elastically constrained precipitate simulations with different precipitate sizes, initial conditions, and elastic moduli. As a result, these numerical benchmark problems will provide a consistent basis for evaluating different algorithms, both existing and those to be developed in the future, for accuracy and computational efficiency when applied to simulate physics often incorporated in phase field models.« less

Social Science Data Archives and Libraries: A View to the Future.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Barton M.

1982-01-01

Discusses factors militating against integration of social science data archives and libraries in near future, noting usage of materials, access requisite skills of librarians, economic stability of archives, existing structures which manage social science data archives. Role of librarians, data access tools, and cataloging of machine-readable…

An overview on integrated data system for archiving and sharing marine geology and geophysical data in Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (KIOST)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, Sang-Hwa; Kim, Sung Dae; Park, Hyuk Min; Lee, SeungHa

2016-04-01

We established and have operated an integrated data system for managing, archiving and sharing marine geology and geophysical data around Korea produced from various research projects and programs in Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (KIOST). First of all, to keep the consistency of data system with continuous data updates, we set up standard operating procedures (SOPs) for data archiving, data processing and converting, data quality controls, and data uploading, DB maintenance, etc. Database of this system comprises two databases, ARCHIVE DB and GIS DB for the purpose of this data system. ARCHIVE DB stores archived data as an original forms and formats from data providers for data archive and GIS DB manages all other compilation, processed and reproduction data and information for data services and GIS application services. Relational data management system, Oracle 11g, adopted for DBMS and open source GIS techniques applied for GIS services such as OpenLayers for user interface, GeoServer for application server, PostGIS and PostgreSQL for GIS database. For the sake of convenient use of geophysical data in a SEG Y format, a viewer program was developed and embedded in this system. Users can search data through GIS user interface and save the results as a report.

The NAS parallel benchmarks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, David (Editor); Barton, John (Editor); Lasinski, Thomas (Editor); Simon, Horst (Editor)

1993-01-01

A new set of benchmarks was developed for the performance evaluation of highly parallel supercomputers. These benchmarks consist of a set of kernels, the 'Parallel Kernels,' and a simulated application benchmark. Together they mimic the computation and data movement characteristics of large scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications. The principal distinguishing feature of these benchmarks is their 'pencil and paper' specification - all details of these benchmarks are specified only algorithmically. In this way many of the difficulties associated with conventional benchmarking approaches on highly parallel systems are avoided.

A Novel Image Retrieval Based on Visual Words Integration of SIFT and SURF

PubMed Central

Ali, Nouman; Bajwa, Khalid Bashir; Sablatnig, Robert; Chatzichristofis, Savvas A.; Iqbal, Zeshan; Rashid, Muhammad; Habib, Hafiz Adnan

2016-01-01

With the recent evolution of technology, the number of image archives has increased exponentially. In Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR), high-level visual information is represented in the form of low-level features. The semantic gap between the low-level features and the high-level image concepts is an open research problem. In this paper, we present a novel visual words integration of Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF). The two local features representations are selected for image retrieval because SIFT is more robust to the change in scale and rotation, while SURF is robust to changes in illumination. The visual words integration of SIFT and SURF adds the robustness of both features to image retrieval. The qualitative and quantitative comparisons conducted on Corel-1000, Corel-1500, Corel-2000, Oliva and Torralba and Ground Truth image benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed visual words integration. PMID:27315101

Benchmarking and Performance Measurement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Town, J. Stephen

This paper defines benchmarking and its relationship to quality management, describes a project which applied the technique in a library context, and explores the relationship between performance measurement and benchmarking. Numerous benchmarking methods contain similar elements: deciding what to benchmark; identifying partners; gathering…

The NAS parallel benchmarks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, D. H.; Barszcz, E.; Barton, J. T.; Carter, R. L.; Lasinski, T. A.; Browning, D. S.; Dagum, L.; Fatoohi, R. A.; Frederickson, P. O.; Schreiber, R. S.

1991-01-01

A new set of benchmarks has been developed for the performance evaluation of highly parallel supercomputers in the framework of the NASA Ames Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Program. These consist of five 'parallel kernel' benchmarks and three 'simulated application' benchmarks. Together they mimic the computation and data movement characteristics of large-scale computational fluid dynamics applications. The principal distinguishing feature of these benchmarks is their 'pencil and paper' specification-all details of these benchmarks are specified only algorithmically. In this way many of the difficulties associated with conventional benchmarking approaches on highly parallel systems are avoided.

How to achieve and prove performance improvement - 15 years of experience in German wastewater benchmarking.

PubMed

Bertzbach, F; Franz, T; Möller, K

2012-01-01

This paper shows the results of performance improvement, which have been achieved in benchmarking projects in the wastewater industry in Germany over the last 15 years. A huge number of changes in operational practice and also in achieved annual savings can be shown, induced in particular by benchmarking at process level. Investigation of this question produces some general findings for the inclusion of performance improvement in a benchmarking project and for the communication of its results. Thus, we elaborate on the concept of benchmarking at both utility and process level, which is still a necessary distinction for the integration of performance improvement into our benchmarking approach. To achieve performance improvement via benchmarking it should be made quite clear that this outcome depends, on one hand, on a well conducted benchmarking programme and, on the other, on the individual situation within each participating utility.

Virtual Globes and Glacier Research: Integrating research, collaboration, logistics, data archival, and outreach into a single tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nolan, M.

2006-12-01

Virtual Globes are a paradigm shift in the way earth sciences are conducted. With these tools, nearly all aspects of earth science can be integrated from field science, to remote sensing, to remote collaborations, to logistical planning, to data archival/retrieval, to PDF paper retriebal, to education and outreach. Here we present an example of how VGs can be fully exploited for field sciences, using research at McCall Glacier, in Arctic Alaska.

Benchmarking: A Method for Continuous Quality Improvement in Health

PubMed Central

Ettorchi-Tardy, Amina; Levif, Marie; Michel, Philippe

2012-01-01

Benchmarking, a management approach for implementing best practices at best cost, is a recent concept in the healthcare system. The objectives of this paper are to better understand the concept and its evolution in the healthcare sector, to propose an operational definition, and to describe some French and international experiences of benchmarking in the healthcare sector. To this end, we reviewed the literature on this approach's emergence in the industrial sector, its evolution, its fields of application and examples of how it has been used in the healthcare sector. Benchmarking is often thought to consist simply of comparing indicators and is not perceived in its entirety, that is, as a tool based on voluntary and active collaboration among several organizations to create a spirit of competition and to apply best practices. The key feature of benchmarking is its integration within a comprehensive and participatory policy of continuous quality improvement (CQI). Conditions for successful benchmarking focus essentially on careful preparation of the process, monitoring of the relevant indicators, staff involvement and inter-organizational visits. Compared to methods previously implemented in France (CQI and collaborative projects), benchmarking has specific features that set it apart as a healthcare innovation. This is especially true for healthcare or medical–social organizations, as the principle of inter-organizational visiting is not part of their culture. Thus, this approach will need to be assessed for feasibility and acceptability before it is more widely promoted. PMID:23634166

Benchmarking: a method for continuous quality improvement in health.

PubMed

Ettorchi-Tardy, Amina; Levif, Marie; Michel, Philippe

2012-05-01

Benchmarking, a management approach for implementing best practices at best cost, is a recent concept in the healthcare system. The objectives of this paper are to better understand the concept and its evolution in the healthcare sector, to propose an operational definition, and to describe some French and international experiences of benchmarking in the healthcare sector. To this end, we reviewed the literature on this approach's emergence in the industrial sector, its evolution, its fields of application and examples of how it has been used in the healthcare sector. Benchmarking is often thought to consist simply of comparing indicators and is not perceived in its entirety, that is, as a tool based on voluntary and active collaboration among several organizations to create a spirit of competition and to apply best practices. The key feature of benchmarking is its integration within a comprehensive and participatory policy of continuous quality improvement (CQI). Conditions for successful benchmarking focus essentially on careful preparation of the process, monitoring of the relevant indicators, staff involvement and inter-organizational visits. Compared to methods previously implemented in France (CQI and collaborative projects), benchmarking has specific features that set it apart as a healthcare innovation. This is especially true for healthcare or medical-social organizations, as the principle of inter-organizational visiting is not part of their culture. Thus, this approach will need to be assessed for feasibility and acceptability before it is more widely promoted.

Using Web-Based Peer Benchmarking to Manage the Client-Based Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raska, David; Keller, Eileen Weisenbach; Shaw, Doris

2013-01-01

The complexities of integrating client-based projects into marketing courses provide challenges for the instructor but produce richness of context and active learning for the student. This paper explains the integration of Web-based peer benchmarking as a means of improving student performance on client-based projects within a single semester in…

The ``One Archive'' for JWST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greene, G.; Kyprianou, M.; Levay, K.; Sienkewicz, M.; Donaldson, T.; Dower, T.; Swam, M.; Bushouse, H.; Greenfield, P.; Kidwell, R.; Wolfe, D.; Gardner, L.; Nieto-Santisteban, M.; Swade, D.; McLean, B.; Abney, F.; Alexov, A.; Binegar, S.; Aloisi, A.; Slowinski, S.; Gousoulin, J.

2015-09-01

The next generation for the Space Telescope Science Institute data management system is gearing up to provide a suite of archive system services supporting the operation of the James Webb Space Telescope. We are now completing the initial stage of integration and testing for the preliminary ground system builds of the JWST Science Operations Center which includes multiple components of the Data Management Subsystem (DMS). The vision for astronomical science and research with the JWST archive introduces both solutions to formal mission requirements and innovation derived from our existing mission systems along with the collective shared experience of our global user community. We are building upon the success of the Hubble Space Telescope archive systems, standards developed by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance, and collaborations with our archive data center partners. In proceeding forward, the “one archive” architectural model presented here is designed to balance the objectives for this new and exciting mission. The STScI JWST archive will deliver high quality calibrated science data products, support multi-mission data discovery and analysis, and provide an infrastructure which supports bridges to highly valued community tools and services.

Benchmarking in emergency health systems.

PubMed

Kennedy, Marcus P; Allen, Jacqueline; Allen, Greg

2002-12-01

This paper discusses the role of benchmarking as a component of quality management. It describes the historical background of benchmarking, its competitive origin and the requirement in today's health environment for a more collaborative approach. The classical 'functional and generic' types of benchmarking are discussed with a suggestion to adopt a different terminology that describes the purpose and practicalities of benchmarking. Benchmarking is not without risks. The consequence of inappropriate focus and the need for a balanced overview of process is explored. The competition that is intrinsic to benchmarking is questioned and the negative impact it may have on improvement strategies in poorly performing organizations is recognized. The difficulty in achieving cross-organizational validity in benchmarking is emphasized, as is the need to scrutinize benchmarking measures. The cost effectiveness of benchmarking projects is questioned and the concept of 'best value, best practice' in an environment of fixed resources is examined.

Benchmarking reference services: step by step.

PubMed

Buchanan, H S; Marshall, J G

1996-01-01

This article is a companion to an introductory article on benchmarking published in an earlier issue of Medical Reference Services Quarterly. Librarians interested in benchmarking often ask the following questions: How do I determine what to benchmark; how do I form a benchmarking team; how do I identify benchmarking partners; what's the best way to collect and analyze benchmarking information; and what will I do with the data? Careful planning is a critical success factor of any benchmarking project, and these questions must be answered before embarking on a benchmarking study. This article summarizes the steps necessary to conduct benchmarking research. Relevant examples of each benchmarking step are provided.

A Privacy-Preserving Platform for User-Centric Quantitative Benchmarking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herrmann, Dominik; Scheuer, Florian; Feustel, Philipp; Nowey, Thomas; Federrath, Hannes

We propose a centralised platform for quantitative benchmarking of key performance indicators (KPI) among mutually distrustful organisations. Our platform offers users the opportunity to request an ad-hoc benchmarking for a specific KPI within a peer group of their choice. Architecture and protocol are designed to provide anonymity to its users and to hide the sensitive KPI values from other clients and the central server. To this end, we integrate user-centric peer group formation, exchangeable secure multi-party computation protocols, short-lived ephemeral key pairs as pseudonyms, and attribute certificates. We show by empirical evaluation of a prototype that the performance is acceptable for reasonably sized peer groups.

Benchmarking nitrogen removal suspended-carrier biofilm systems using dynamic simulation.

PubMed

Vanhooren, H; Yuan, Z; Vanrolleghem, P A

2002-01-01

We are witnessing an enormous growth in biological nitrogen removal from wastewater. It presents specific challenges beyond traditional COD (carbon) removal. A possibility for optimised process design is the use of biomass-supporting media. In this paper, attached growth processes (AGP) are evaluated using dynamic simulations. The advantages of these systems that were qualitatively described elsewhere, are validated quantitatively based on a simulation benchmark for activated sludge treatment systems. This simulation benchmark is extended with a biofilm model that allows for fast and accurate simulation of the conversion of different substrates in a biofilm. The economic feasibility of this system is evaluated using the data generated with the benchmark simulations. Capital savings due to volume reduction and reduced sludge production are weighed out against increased aeration costs. In this evaluation, effluent quality is integrated as well.

HyspIRI Low Latency Concept and Benchmarks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mandl, Dan

2010-01-01

Topics include HyspIRI low latency data ops concept, HyspIRI data flow, ongoing efforts, experiment with Web Coverage Processing Service (WCPS) approach to injecting new algorithms into SensorWeb, low fidelity HyspIRI IPM testbed, compute cloud testbed, open cloud testbed environment, Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF) and OCC collaboration with Starlight, delay tolerant network (DTN) protocol benchmarking, and EO-1 configuration for preliminary DTN prototype.

Improving predictions of large scale soil carbon dynamics: Integration of fine-scale hydrological and biogeochemical processes, scaling, and benchmarking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riley, W. J.; Dwivedi, D.; Ghimire, B.; Hoffman, F. M.; Pau, G. S. H.; Randerson, J. T.; Shen, C.; Tang, J.; Zhu, Q.

2015-12-01

Numerical model representations of decadal- to centennial-scale soil-carbon dynamics are a dominant cause of uncertainty in climate change predictions. Recent attempts by some Earth System Model (ESM) teams to integrate previously unrepresented soil processes (e.g., explicit microbial processes, abiotic interactions with mineral surfaces, vertical transport), poor performance of many ESM land models against large-scale and experimental manipulation observations, and complexities associated with spatial heterogeneity highlight the nascent nature of our community's ability to accurately predict future soil carbon dynamics. I will present recent work from our group to develop a modeling framework to integrate pore-, column-, watershed-, and global-scale soil process representations into an ESM (ACME), and apply the International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) package for evaluation. At the column scale and across a wide range of sites, observed depth-resolved carbon stocks and their 14C derived turnover times can be explained by a model with explicit representation of two microbial populations, a simple representation of mineralogy, and vertical transport. Integrating soil and plant dynamics requires a 'process-scaling' approach, since all aspects of the multi-nutrient system cannot be explicitly resolved at ESM scales. I will show that one approach, the Equilibrium Chemistry Approximation, improves predictions of forest nitrogen and phosphorus experimental manipulations and leads to very different global soil carbon predictions. Translating model representations from the site- to ESM-scale requires a spatial scaling approach that either explicitly resolves the relevant processes, or more practically, accounts for fine-resolution dynamics at coarser scales. To that end, I will present recent watershed-scale modeling work that applies reduced order model methods to accurately scale fine-resolution soil carbon dynamics to coarse-resolution simulations. Finally, we

The KMAT: Benchmarking Knowledge Management.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Jager, Martha

Provides an overview of knowledge management and benchmarking, including the benefits and methods of benchmarking (e.g., competitive, cooperative, collaborative, and internal benchmarking). Arthur Andersen's KMAT (Knowledge Management Assessment Tool) is described. The KMAT is a collaborative benchmarking tool, designed to help organizations make…

A benchmark for fault tolerant flight control evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smaili, H.; Breeman, J.; Lombaerts, T.; Stroosma, O.

2013-12-01

A large transport aircraft simulation benchmark (REconfigurable COntrol for Vehicle Emergency Return - RECOVER) has been developed within the GARTEUR (Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe) Flight Mechanics Action Group 16 (FM-AG(16)) on Fault Tolerant Control (2004 2008) for the integrated evaluation of fault detection and identification (FDI) and reconfigurable flight control strategies. The benchmark includes a suitable set of assessment criteria and failure cases, based on reconstructed accident scenarios, to assess the potential of new adaptive control strategies to improve aircraft survivability. The application of reconstruction and modeling techniques, based on accident flight data, has resulted in high-fidelity nonlinear aircraft and fault models to evaluate new Fault Tolerant Flight Control (FTFC) concepts and their real-time performance to accommodate in-flight failures.

Benchmarks for target tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dunham, Darin T.; West, Philip D.

2011-09-01

The term benchmark originates from the chiseled horizontal marks that surveyors made, into which an angle-iron could be placed to bracket ("bench") a leveling rod, thus ensuring that the leveling rod can be repositioned in exactly the same place in the future. A benchmark in computer terms is the result of running a computer program, or a set of programs, in order to assess the relative performance of an object by running a number of standard tests and trials against it. This paper will discuss the history of simulation benchmarks that are being used by multiple branches of the military and agencies of the US government. These benchmarks range from missile defense applications to chemical biological situations. Typically, a benchmark is used with Monte Carlo runs in order to tease out how algorithms deal with variability and the range of possible inputs. We will also describe problems that can be solved by a benchmark.

Architecture and evolution of Goddard Space Flight Center Distributed Active Archive Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bedet, Jean-Jacques; Bodden, Lee; Rosen, Wayne; Sherman, Mark; Pease, Phil

1994-01-01

The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) has been developed to enhance Earth Science research by improved access to remote sensor earth science data. Building and operating an archive, even one of a moderate size (a few Terabytes), is a challenging task. One of the critical components of this system is Unitree, the Hierarchical File Storage Management System. Unitree, selected two years ago as the best available solution, requires constant system administrative support. It is not always suitable as an archive and distribution data center, and has moderate performance. The Data Archive and Distribution System (DADS) software developed to monitor, manage, and automate the ingestion, archive, and distribution functions turned out to be more challenging than anticipated. Having the software and tools is not sufficient to succeed. Human interaction within the system must be fully understood to improve efficiency to improve efficiency and ensure that the right tools are developed. One of the lessons learned is that the operability, reliability, and performance aspects should be thoroughly addressed in the initial design. However, the GSFC DAAC has demonstrated that it is capable of distributing over 40 GB per day. A backup system to archive a second copy of all data ingested is under development. This backup system will be used not only for disaster recovery but will also replace the main archive when it is unavailable during maintenance or hardware replacement. The GSFC DAAC has put a strong emphasis on quality at all level of its organization. A Quality team has also been formed to identify quality issues and to propose improvements. The DAAC has conducted numerous tests to benchmark the performance of the system. These tests proved to be extremely useful in identifying bottlenecks and deficiencies in operational procedures.

Benchmarking and the laboratory

PubMed Central

Galloway, M; Nadin, L

2001-01-01

This article describes how benchmarking can be used to assess laboratory performance. Two benchmarking schemes are reviewed, the Clinical Benchmarking Company's Pathology Report and the College of American Pathologists' Q-Probes scheme. The Clinical Benchmarking Company's Pathology Report is undertaken by staff based in the clinical management unit, Keele University with appropriate input from the professional organisations within pathology. Five annual reports have now been completed. Each report is a detailed analysis of 10 areas of laboratory performance. In this review, particular attention is focused on the areas of quality, productivity, variation in clinical practice, skill mix, and working hours. The Q-Probes scheme is part of the College of American Pathologists programme in studies of quality assurance. The Q-Probes scheme and its applicability to pathology in the UK is illustrated by reviewing two recent Q-Probe studies: routine outpatient test turnaround time and outpatient test order accuracy. The Q-Probes scheme is somewhat limited by the small number of UK laboratories that have participated. In conclusion, as a result of the government's policy in the UK, benchmarking is here to stay. Benchmarking schemes described in this article are one way in which pathologists can demonstrate that they are providing a cost effective and high quality service. Key Words: benchmarking • pathology PMID:11477112

Benchmarking for Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Norman, Ed.; Lund, Helen, Ed.

The chapters in this collection explore the concept of benchmarking as it is being used and developed in higher education (HE). Case studies and reviews show how universities in the United Kingdom are using benchmarking to aid in self-regulation and self-improvement. The chapters are: (1) "Introduction to Benchmarking" (Norman Jackson…

Databases and archiving for cryoEM

PubMed Central

Patwardhan, Ardan; Lawson, Catherine L.

2017-01-01

Cryo-EM in structural biology is currently served by three public archives – EMDB for 3DEM reconstructions, PDB for models built from 3DEM reconstructions and EMPIAR for the raw 2D image data used to obtain the 3DEM reconstructions. These archives play a vital role for both the structural community and the wider biological community in making the data accessible so that results may be reused, reassessed and integrated with other structural and bioinformatics resources. The important role of the archives is underpinned by the fact that many journals mandate the deposition of data to PDB and EMDB on publication. The field is currently undergoing transformative changes where on the one hand high-resolution structures are becoming a routine occurrence while on the other hand electron tomography is enabling the study of macromolecules in the cellular context. Concomitantly the archives are evolving to best serve their stakeholder communities. In this chapter we describe the current state of the archives, resources available for depositing, accessing, searching, visualising and validating data, on-going community-wide initiatives and opportunities and challenges for the future. PMID:27572735

Overview of TPC Benchmark E: The Next Generation of OLTP Benchmarks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hogan, Trish

Set to replace the aging TPC-C, the TPC Benchmark E is the next generation OLTP benchmark, which more accurately models client database usage. TPC-E addresses the shortcomings of TPC-C. It has a much more complex workload, requires the use of RAID-protected storage, generates much less I/O, and is much cheaper and easier to set up, run, and audit. After a period of overlap, it is expected that TPC-E will become the de facto OLTP benchmark.

Encoding color information for visual tracking: Algorithms and benchmark.

PubMed

Liang, Pengpeng; Blasch, Erik; Ling, Haibin

2015-12-01

While color information is known to provide rich discriminative clues for visual inference, most modern visual trackers limit themselves to the grayscale realm. Despite recent efforts to integrate color in tracking, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of the role color information can play. In this paper, we attack this problem by conducting a systematic study from both the algorithm and benchmark perspectives. On the algorithm side, we comprehensively encode 10 chromatic models into 16 carefully selected state-of-the-art visual trackers. On the benchmark side, we compile a large set of 128 color sequences with ground truth and challenge factor annotations (e.g., occlusion). A thorough evaluation is conducted by running all the color-encoded trackers, together with two recently proposed color trackers. A further validation is conducted on an RGBD tracking benchmark. The results clearly show the benefit of encoding color information for tracking. We also perform detailed analysis on several issues, including the behavior of various combinations between color model and visual tracker, the degree of difficulty of each sequence for tracking, and how different challenge factors affect the tracking performance. We expect the study to provide the guidance, motivation, and benchmark for future work on encoding color in visual tracking.

The Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment Archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koss, Matthew

2009-03-01

The growth of dendrites is governed by the interplay between two simple and familiar processes---the irreversible diffusion of energy, and the reversible work done in the formation of new surface area. To advance our understanding of these processes, NASA sponsored a project that flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia is 1994, 1996, and 1997 to record and analyze benchmark data in an apparent-microgravity ``laboratory.'' In this laboratory, energy transfer by gravity driven convection was essentially eliminated and one could test independently, for the first time, both components of dendritic growth theory. The analysis of this data shows that although the diffusion of energy can be properly accounted for, the results from interfacial physics appear to be in disagreement and alternate models should receive increased attention. Unfortunately, currently and for the foreseeable future, there is no access or financial support to develop and conduct additional experiments of this type. However, the benchmark data of 35mm photonegatives, video, and all supporting instrument data are now available at the IDGE Archive at the College of the Holy Cross. This data may still have considerable relevance to researchers working specifically with dendritic growth, and more generally those working in the synthesis, growth & processing of materials, multiscale computational modeling, pattern formation, and systems far from equilibrium.

Benchmarking reference services: an introduction.

PubMed

Marshall, J G; Buchanan, H S

1995-01-01

Benchmarking is based on the common sense idea that someone else, either inside or outside of libraries, has found a better way of doing certain things and that your own library's performance can be improved by finding out how others do things and adopting the best practices you find. Benchmarking is one of the tools used for achieving continuous improvement in Total Quality Management (TQM) programs. Although benchmarking can be done on an informal basis, TQM puts considerable emphasis on formal data collection and performance measurement. Used to its full potential, benchmarking can provide a common measuring stick to evaluate process performance. This article introduces the general concept of benchmarking, linking it whenever possible to reference services in health sciences libraries. Data collection instruments that have potential application in benchmarking studies are discussed and the need to develop common measurement tools to facilitate benchmarking is emphasized.

Benchmarking in Academic Pharmacy Departments

PubMed Central

Chisholm-Burns, Marie; Nappi, Jean; Gubbins, Paul O.; Ross, Leigh Ann

2010-01-01

Benchmarking in academic pharmacy, and recommendations for the potential uses of benchmarking in academic pharmacy departments are discussed in this paper. Benchmarking is the process by which practices, procedures, and performance metrics are compared to an established standard or best practice. Many businesses and industries use benchmarking to compare processes and outcomes, and ultimately plan for improvement. Institutions of higher learning have embraced benchmarking practices to facilitate measuring the quality of their educational and research programs. Benchmarking is used internally as well to justify the allocation of institutional resources or to mediate among competing demands for additional program staff or space. Surveying all chairs of academic pharmacy departments to explore benchmarking issues such as department size and composition, as well as faculty teaching, scholarly, and service productivity, could provide valuable information. To date, attempts to gather this data have had limited success. We believe this information is potentially important, urge that efforts to gather it should be continued, and offer suggestions to achieve full participation. PMID:21179251

Benchmarking in academic pharmacy departments.

PubMed

Bosso, John A; Chisholm-Burns, Marie; Nappi, Jean; Gubbins, Paul O; Ross, Leigh Ann

2010-10-11

Benchmarking in academic pharmacy, and recommendations for the potential uses of benchmarking in academic pharmacy departments are discussed in this paper. Benchmarking is the process by which practices, procedures, and performance metrics are compared to an established standard or best practice. Many businesses and industries use benchmarking to compare processes and outcomes, and ultimately plan for improvement. Institutions of higher learning have embraced benchmarking practices to facilitate measuring the quality of their educational and research programs. Benchmarking is used internally as well to justify the allocation of institutional resources or to mediate among competing demands for additional program staff or space. Surveying all chairs of academic pharmacy departments to explore benchmarking issues such as department size and composition, as well as faculty teaching, scholarly, and service productivity, could provide valuable information. To date, attempts to gather this data have had limited success. We believe this information is potentially important, urge that efforts to gather it should be continued, and offer suggestions to achieve full participation.

Benchmarking: applications to transfusion medicine.

PubMed

Apelseth, Torunn Oveland; Molnar, Laura; Arnold, Emmy; Heddle, Nancy M

2012-10-01

Benchmarking is as a structured continuous collaborative process in which comparisons for selected indicators are used to identify factors that, when implemented, will improve transfusion practices. This study aimed to identify transfusion medicine studies reporting on benchmarking, summarize the benchmarking approaches used, and identify important considerations to move the concept of benchmarking forward in the field of transfusion medicine. A systematic review of published literature was performed to identify transfusion medicine-related studies that compared at least 2 separate institutions or regions with the intention of benchmarking focusing on 4 areas: blood utilization, safety, operational aspects, and blood donation. Forty-five studies were included: blood utilization (n = 35), safety (n = 5), operational aspects of transfusion medicine (n = 5), and blood donation (n = 0). Based on predefined criteria, 7 publications were classified as benchmarking, 2 as trending, and 36 as single-event studies. Three models of benchmarking are described: (1) a regional benchmarking program that collects and links relevant data from existing electronic sources, (2) a sentinel site model where data from a limited number of sites are collected, and (3) an institutional-initiated model where a site identifies indicators of interest and approaches other institutions. Benchmarking approaches are needed in the field of transfusion medicine. Major challenges include defining best practices and developing cost-effective methods of data collection. For those interested in initiating a benchmarking program, the sentinel site model may be most effective and sustainable as a starting point, although the regional model would be the ideal goal. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

FireHose Streaming Benchmarks

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

Karl Anderson, Steve Plimpton

2015-01-27

The FireHose Streaming Benchmarks are a suite of stream-processing benchmarks defined to enable comparison of streaming software and hardware, both quantitatively vis-a-vis the rate at which they can process data, and qualitatively by judging the effort involved to implement and run the benchmarks. Each benchmark has two parts. The first is a generator which produces and outputs datums at a high rate in a specific format. The second is an analytic which reads the stream of datums and is required to perform a well-defined calculation on the collection of datums, typically to find anomalous datums that have been created inmore » the stream by the generator. The FireHose suite provides code for the generators, sample code for the analytics (which users are free to re-implement in their own custom frameworks), and a precise definition of each benchmark calculation.« less

The Impact of Computerization on Archival Finding Aids: A RAMP Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kitching, Christopher

This report is based on a questionnaire sent to 32 selected National Archives and on interviews with archivists from eight countries. Geared to the needs of developing countries, the report covers: (1) the impact of computerization on finding aids; (2) advantages and problems of computerization, including enhanced archival control, integration of…

Clinical experiences with an ASP model backup archive for PACS images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Brent J.; Cao, Fei; Documet, Luis; Huang, H. K.; Muldoon, Jean

2003-05-01

Last year we presented a Fault-Tolerant Backup Archive using an Application Service Provider (ASP) model for disaster recovery. The purpose of this paper is to update and provide clinical experiences related towards implementing the ASP model archive solution for short-term backup of clinical PACS image data as well as possible applications other than disaster recovery. The ASP backup archive provides instantaneous, automatic backup of acquired PACS image data and instantaneous recovery of stored PACS image data all at a low operational cost and with little human intervention. This solution can be used for a variety of scheduled and unscheduled downtimes that occur on the main PACS archive. A backup archive server with hierarchical storage was implemented offsite from the main PACS archive location. Clinical data from a hospital PACS is sent to this ASP storage server in parallel to the exams being archived in the main server. Initially, connectivity between the main archive and the ASP storage server is established via a T-1 connection. In the future, other more cost-effective means of connectivity will be researched such as the Internet 2. We have integrated the ASP model backup archive with a clinical PACS at Saint John's Health Center and has been operational for over 6 months. Pitfalls encountered during integration with a live clinical PACS and the impact to clinical workflow will be discussed. In addition, estimations of the cost of establishing such a solution as well as the cost charged to the users will be included. Clinical downtime scenarios, such as a scheduled mandatory downtime and an unscheduled downtime due to a disaster event to the main archive, were simulated and the PACS exams were sent successfully from the offsite ASP storage server back to the hospital PACS in less than 1 day. The ASP backup archive was able to recover PACS image data for comparison studies with no complex operational procedures. Furthermore, no image data loss was

ESA Science Archives, VO tools and remote Scientific Data reduction in Grid Architectures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arviset, C.; Barbarisi, I.; de La Calle, I.; Fajersztejn, N.; Freschi, M.; Gabriel, C.; Gomez, P.; Guainazzi, M.; Ibarra, A.; Laruelo, A.; Leon, I.; Micol, A.; Parrilla, E.; Ortiz, I.; Osuna, P.; Salgado, J.; Stebe, A.; Tapiador, D.

2008-08-01

This paper presents the latest functionalities of the ESA Science Archives located at ESAC, Spain, in particular, the following archives : the ISO Data Archive (IDA {http://iso.esac.esa.int/ida}), the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA {http://xmm.esac.esa.int/xsa}), the Integral SOC Science Data Archive (ISDA {http://integral.esac.esa.int/isda}) and the Planetary Science Archive (PSA {http://www.rssd.esa.int/psa}), both the classical and the map-based Mars Express interfaces. Furthermore, the ESA VOSpec {http://esavo.esac.esa.int/vospecapp} spectra analysis tool is described, which allows to access and display spectral information from VO resources (both real observational and theoretical spectra), including access to Lines database and recent analysis functionalities. In addition, we detail the first implementation of RISA (Remote Interface for Science Analysis), a web service providing remote users the ability to create fully configurable XMM-Newton data analysis workflows, and to deploy and run them on the ESAC Grid. RISA makes fully use of the inter-operability provided by the SIAP (Simple Image Access Protocol) services as data input, and at the same time its VO-compatible output can directly be used by general VO-tools.

Benchmarking in pathology: development of an activity-based costing model.

PubMed

Burnett, Leslie; Wilson, Roger; Pfeffer, Sally; Lowry, John

2012-12-01

Benchmarking in Pathology (BiP) allows pathology laboratories to determine the unit cost of all laboratory tests and procedures, and also provides organisational productivity indices allowing comparisons of performance with other BiP participants. We describe 14 years of progressive enhancement to a BiP program, including the implementation of 'avoidable costs' as the accounting basis for allocation of costs rather than previous approaches using 'total costs'. A hierarchical tree-structured activity-based costing model distributes 'avoidable costs' attributable to the pathology activities component of a pathology laboratory operation. The hierarchical tree model permits costs to be allocated across multiple laboratory sites and organisational structures. This has enabled benchmarking on a number of levels, including test profiles and non-testing related workload activities. The development of methods for dealing with variable cost inputs, allocation of indirect costs using imputation techniques, panels of tests, and blood-bank record keeping, have been successfully integrated into the costing model. A variety of laboratory management reports are produced, including the 'cost per test' of each pathology 'test' output. Benchmarking comparisons may be undertaken at any and all of the 'cost per test' and 'cost per Benchmarking Complexity Unit' level, 'discipline/department' (sub-specialty) level, or overall laboratory/site and organisational levels. We have completed development of a national BiP program. An activity-based costing methodology based on avoidable costs overcomes many problems of previous benchmarking studies based on total costs. The use of benchmarking complexity adjustment permits correction for varying test-mix and diagnostic complexity between laboratories. Use of iterative communication strategies with program participants can overcome many obstacles and lead to innovations.

Alternative industrial carbon emissions benchmark based on input-output analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Mengyao; Ji, Xi

2016-12-01

Some problems exist in the current carbon emissions benchmark setting systems. The primary consideration for industrial carbon emissions standards highly relate to direct carbon emissions (power-related emissions) and only a portion of indirect emissions are considered in the current carbon emissions accounting processes. This practice is insufficient and may cause double counting to some extent due to mixed emission sources. To better integrate and quantify direct and indirect carbon emissions, an embodied industrial carbon emissions benchmark setting method is proposed to guide the establishment of carbon emissions benchmarks based on input-output analysis. This method attempts to link direct carbon emissions with inter-industrial economic exchanges and systematically quantifies carbon emissions embodied in total product delivery chains. The purpose of this study is to design a practical new set of embodied intensity-based benchmarks for both direct and indirect carbon emissions. Beijing, at the first level of carbon emissions trading pilot schemes in China, plays a significant role in the establishment of these schemes and is chosen as an example in this study. The newly proposed method tends to relate emissions directly to each responsibility in a practical way through the measurement of complex production and supply chains and reduce carbon emissions from their original sources. This method is expected to be developed under uncertain internal and external contexts and is further expected to be generalized to guide the establishment of industrial benchmarks for carbon emissions trading schemes in China and other countries.

Benchmarking, benchmarks, or best practices? Applying quality improvement principles to decrease surgical turnaround time.

PubMed

Mitchell, L

1996-01-01

The processes of benchmarking, benchmark data comparative analysis, and study of best practices are distinctly different. The study of best practices is explained with an example based on the Arthur Andersen & Co. 1992 "Study of Best Practices in Ambulatory Surgery". The results of a national best practices study in ambulatory surgery were used to provide our quality improvement team with the goal of improving the turnaround time between surgical cases. The team used a seven-step quality improvement problem-solving process to improve the surgical turnaround time. The national benchmark for turnaround times between surgical cases in 1992 was 13.5 minutes. The initial turnaround time at St. Joseph's Medical Center was 19.9 minutes. After the team implemented solutions, the time was reduced to an average of 16.3 minutes, an 18% improvement. Cost-benefit analysis showed a potential enhanced revenue of approximately $300,000, or a potential savings of $10,119. Applying quality improvement principles to benchmarking, benchmarks, or best practices can improve process performance. Understanding which form of benchmarking the institution wishes to embark on will help focus a team and use appropriate resources. Communicating with professional organizations that have experience in benchmarking will save time and money and help achieve the desired results.

The Semantic Mapping of Archival Metadata to the CIDOC CRM Ontology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bountouri, Lina; Gergatsoulis, Manolis

2011-01-01

In this article we analyze the main semantics of archival description, expressed through Encoded Archival Description (EAD). Our main target is to map the semantics of EAD to the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC CRM) ontology as part of a wider integration architecture of cultural heritage metadata. Through this analysis, it is concluded…

Benchmarking Using Basic DBMS Operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crolotte, Alain; Ghazal, Ahmad

The TPC-H benchmark proved to be successful in the decision support area. Many commercial database vendors and their related hardware vendors used these benchmarks to show the superiority and competitive edge of their products. However, over time, the TPC-H became less representative of industry trends as vendors keep tuning their database to this benchmark-specific workload. In this paper, we present XMarq, a simple benchmark framework that can be used to compare various software/hardware combinations. Our benchmark model is currently composed of 25 queries that measure the performance of basic operations such as scans, aggregations, joins and index access. This benchmark model is based on the TPC-H data model due to its maturity and well-understood data generation capability. We also propose metrics to evaluate single-system performance and compare two systems. Finally we illustrate the effectiveness of this model by showing experimental results comparing two systems under different conditions.

Benchmarking Tool Kit.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canadian Health Libraries Association.

Nine Canadian health libraries participated in a pilot test of the Benchmarking Tool Kit between January and April, 1998. Although the Tool Kit was designed specifically for health libraries, the content and approach are useful to other types of libraries as well. Used to its full potential, benchmarking can provide a common measuring stick to…

Benchmarking Discount Rate in Natural Resource Damage Assessment with Risk Aversion.

PubMed

Wu, Desheng; Chen, Shuzhen

2017-08-01

Benchmarking a credible discount rate is of crucial importance in natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) and restoration evaluation. This article integrates a holistic framework of NRDA with prevailing low discount rate theory, and proposes a discount rate benchmarking decision support system based on service-specific risk aversion. The proposed approach has the flexibility of choosing appropriate discount rates for gauging long-term services, as opposed to decisions based simply on duration. It improves injury identification in NRDA since potential damages and side-effects to ecosystem services are revealed within the service-specific framework. A real embankment case study demonstrates valid implementation of the method. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

Getting Personal: Personal Archives in Archival Programs and Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Douglas, Jennifer

2017-01-01

In 2001, Catherine Hobbs referred to silences around personal archives, suggesting that these types of archives were not given as much attention as organizational archives in the development of archival theory and methodology. The aims of this article are twofold: 1) to investigate the extent to which such silences exist in archival education…

ELAPSE - NASA AMES LISP AND ADA BENCHMARK SUITE: EFFICIENCY OF LISP AND ADA PROCESSING - A SYSTEM EVALUATION

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, G. J.

1994-01-01

One area of research of the Information Sciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center is devoted to the analysis and enhancement of processors and advanced computer architectures, specifically in support of automation and robotic systems. To compare systems' abilities to efficiently process Lisp and Ada, scientists at Ames Research Center have developed a suite of non-parallel benchmarks called ELAPSE. The benchmark suite was designed to test a single computer's efficiency as well as alternate machine comparisons on Lisp, and/or Ada languages. ELAPSE tests the efficiency with which a machine can execute the various routines in each environment. The sample routines are based on numeric and symbolic manipulations and include two-dimensional fast Fourier transformations, Cholesky decomposition and substitution, Gaussian elimination, high-level data processing, and symbol-list references. Also included is a routine based on a Bayesian classification program sorting data into optimized groups. The ELAPSE benchmarks are available for any computer with a validated Ada compiler and/or Common Lisp system. Of the 18 routines that comprise ELAPSE, provided within this package are 14 developed or translated at Ames. The others are readily available through literature. The benchmark that requires the most memory is CHOLESKY.ADA. Under VAX/VMS, CHOLESKY.ADA requires 760K of main memory. ELAPSE is available on either two 5.25 inch 360K MS-DOS format diskettes (standard distribution) or a 9-track 1600 BPI ASCII CARD IMAGE format magnetic tape. The contents of the diskettes are compressed using the PKWARE archiving tools. The utility to unarchive the files, PKUNZIP.EXE, is included. The ELAPSE benchmarks were written in 1990. VAX and VMS are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

NASA Software Engineering Benchmarking Effort

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Godfrey, Sally; Rarick, Heather

2012-01-01

Benchmarking was very interesting and provided a wealth of information (1) We did see potential solutions to some of our "top 10" issues (2) We have an assessment of where NASA stands with relation to other aerospace/defense groups We formed new contacts and potential collaborations (1) Several organizations sent us examples of their templates, processes (2) Many of the organizations were interested in future collaboration: sharing of training, metrics, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) appraisers, instructors, etc. We received feedback from some of our contractors/ partners (1) Desires to participate in our training; provide feedback on procedures (2) Welcomed opportunity to provide feedback on working with NASA

Benchmarking Gas Path Diagnostic Methods: A Public Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simon, Donald L.; Bird, Jeff; Davison, Craig; Volponi, Al; Iverson, R. Eugene

2008-01-01

Recent technology reviews have identified the need for objective assessments of engine health management (EHM) technology. The need is two-fold: technology developers require relevant data and problems to design and validate new algorithms and techniques while engine system integrators and operators need practical tools to direct development and then evaluate the effectiveness of proposed solutions. This paper presents a publicly available gas path diagnostic benchmark problem that has been developed by the Propulsion and Power Systems Panel of The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) to help address these needs. The problem is coded in MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc.) and coupled with a non-linear turbofan engine simulation to produce "snap-shot" measurements, with relevant noise levels, as if collected from a fleet of engines over their lifetime of use. Each engine within the fleet will experience unique operating and deterioration profiles, and may encounter randomly occurring relevant gas path faults including sensor, actuator and component faults. The challenge to the EHM community is to develop gas path diagnostic algorithms to reliably perform fault detection and isolation. An example solution to the benchmark problem is provided along with associated evaluation metrics. A plan is presented to disseminate this benchmark problem to the engine health management technical community and invite technology solutions.

Collected notes from the Benchmarks and Metrics Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Drummond, Mark E.; Kaelbling, Leslie P.; Rosenschein, Stanley J.

1991-01-01

In recent years there has been a proliferation of proposals in the artificial intelligence (AI) literature for integrated agent architectures. Each architecture offers an approach to the general problem of constructing an integrated agent. Unfortunately, the ways in which one architecture might be considered better than another are not always clear. There has been a growing realization that many of the positive and negative aspects of an architecture become apparent only when experimental evaluation is performed and that to progress as a discipline, we must develop rigorous experimental methods. In addition to the intrinsic intellectual interest of experimentation, rigorous performance evaluation of systems is also a crucial practical concern to our research sponsors. DARPA, NASA, and AFOSR (among others) are actively searching for better ways of experimentally evaluating alternative approaches to building intelligent agents. One tool for experimental evaluation involves testing systems on benchmark tasks in order to assess their relative performance. As part of a joint DARPA and NASA funded project, NASA-Ames and Teleos Research are carrying out a research effort to establish a set of benchmark tasks and evaluation metrics by which the performance of agent architectures may be determined. As part of this project, we held a workshop on Benchmarks and Metrics at the NASA Ames Research Center on June 25, 1990. The objective of the workshop was to foster early discussion on this important topic. We did not achieve a consensus, nor did we expect to. Collected here is some of the information that was exchanged at the workshop. Given here is an outline of the workshop, a list of the participants, notes taken on the white-board during open discussions, position papers/notes from some participants, and copies of slides used in the presentations.

LBT Distributed Archive: Status and Features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knapic, C.; Smareglia, R.; Thompson, D.; Grede, G.

2011-07-01

After the first release of the LBT Distributed Archive, this successful collaboration is continuing within the LBT corporation. The IA2 (Italian Center for Astronomical Archive) team had updated the LBT DA with new features in order to facilitate user data retrieval while abiding by VO standards. To facilitate the integration of data from any new instruments, we have migrated to a new database, developed new data distribution software, and enhanced features in the LBT User Interface. The DBMS engine has been changed to MySQL. Consequently, the data handling software now uses java thread technology to update and synchronize the main storage archives on Mt. Graham and in Tucson, as well as archives in Trieste and Heidelberg, with all metadata and proprietary data. The LBT UI has been updated with additional features allowing users to search by instrument and some of the more important characteristics of the images. Finally, instead of a simple cone search service over all LBT image data, new instrument specific SIAP and cone search services have been developed. They will be published in the IVOA framework later this fall.

The Isprs Benchmark on Indoor Modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khoshelham, K.; Díaz Vilariño, L.; Peter, M.; Kang, Z.; Acharya, D.

2017-09-01

Automated generation of 3D indoor models from point cloud data has been a topic of intensive research in recent years. While results on various datasets have been reported in literature, a comparison of the performance of different methods has not been possible due to the lack of benchmark datasets and a common evaluation framework. The ISPRS benchmark on indoor modelling aims to address this issue by providing a public benchmark dataset and an evaluation framework for performance comparison of indoor modelling methods. In this paper, we present the benchmark dataset comprising several point clouds of indoor environments captured by different sensors. We also discuss the evaluation and comparison of indoor modelling methods based on manually created reference models and appropriate quality evaluation criteria. The benchmark dataset is available for download at: benchmark-on-indoor-modelling.html"target="_blank">http://www2.isprs.org/commissions/comm4/wg5/benchmark-on-indoor-modelling.html.

Developing Benchmarks for Solar Radio Bursts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biesecker, D. A.; White, S. M.; Gopalswamy, N.; Black, C.; Domm, P.; Love, J. J.; Pierson, J.

2016-12-01

Solar radio bursts can interfere with radar, communication, and tracking signals. In severe cases, radio bursts can inhibit the successful use of radio communications and disrupt a wide range of systems that are reliant on Position, Navigation, and Timing services on timescales ranging from minutes to hours across wide areas on the dayside of Earth. The White House's Space Weather Action Plan has asked for solar radio burst intensity benchmarks for an event occurrence frequency of 1 in 100 years and also a theoretical maximum intensity benchmark. The solar radio benchmark team was also asked to define the wavelength/frequency bands of interest. The benchmark team developed preliminary (phase 1) benchmarks for the VHF (30-300 MHz), UHF (300-3000 MHz), GPS (1176-1602 MHz), F10.7 (2800 MHz), and Microwave (4000-20000) bands. The preliminary benchmarks were derived based on previously published work. Limitations in the published work will be addressed in phase 2 of the benchmark process. In addition, deriving theoretical maxima requires additional work, where it is even possible to, in order to meet the Action Plan objectives. In this presentation, we will present the phase 1 benchmarks and the basis used to derive them. We will also present the work that needs to be done in order to complete the final, or phase 2 benchmarks.

TRIPOLI-4® - MCNP5 ITER A-lite neutronic model benchmarking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jaboulay, J.-C.; Cayla, P.-Y.; Fausser, C.; Lee, Y.-K.; Trama, J.-C.; Li-Puma, A.

2014-06-01

The aim of this paper is to present the capability of TRIPOLI-4®, the CEA Monte Carlo code, to model a large-scale fusion reactor with complex neutron source and geometry. In the past, numerous benchmarks were conducted for TRIPOLI-4® assessment on fusion applications. Experiments (KANT, OKTAVIAN, FNG) analysis and numerical benchmarks (between TRIPOLI-4® and MCNP5) on the HCLL DEMO2007 and ITER models were carried out successively. In this previous ITER benchmark, nevertheless, only the neutron wall loading was analyzed, its main purpose was to present MCAM (the FDS Team CAD import tool) extension for TRIPOLI-4®. Starting from this work a more extended benchmark has been performed about the estimation of neutron flux, nuclear heating in the shielding blankets and tritium production rate in the European TBMs (HCLL and HCPB) and it is presented in this paper. The methodology to build the TRIPOLI-4® A-lite model is based on MCAM and the MCNP A-lite model (version 4.1). Simplified TBMs (from KIT) have been integrated in the equatorial-port. Comparisons of neutron wall loading, flux, nuclear heating and tritium production rate show a good agreement between the two codes. Discrepancies are mainly included in the Monte Carlo codes statistical error.

Benchmark Evaluation of the HTR-PROTEUS Absorber Rod Worths (Core 4)

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

John D. Bess; Leland M. Montierth

2014-06-01

PROTEUS was a zero-power research reactor at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland. The critical assembly was constructed from a large graphite annulus surrounding a central cylindrical cavity. Various experimental programs were investigated in PROTEUS; during the years 1992 through 1996, it was configured as a pebble-bed reactor and designated HTR-PROTEUS. Various critical configurations were assembled with each accompanied by an assortment of reactor physics experiments including differential and integral absorber rod measurements, kinetics, reaction rate distributions, water ingress effects, and small sample reactivity effects [1]. Four benchmark reports were previously prepared and included in the March 2013 editionmore » of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments (IRPhEP Handbook) [2] evaluating eleven critical configurations. A summary of that effort was previously provided [3] and an analysis of absorber rod worth measurements for Cores 9 and 10 have been performed prior to this analysis and included in PROTEUS-GCR-EXP-004 [4]. In the current benchmark effort, absorber rod worths measured for Core Configuration 4, which was the only core with a randomly-packed pebble loading, have been evaluated for inclusion as a revision to the HTR-PROTEUS benchmark report PROTEUS-GCR-EXP-002.« less

Benchmarking the Multidimensional Stellar Implicit Code MUSIC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goffrey, T.; Pratt, J.; Viallet, M.; Baraffe, I.; Popov, M. V.; Walder, R.; Folini, D.; Geroux, C.; Constantino, T.

2017-04-01

We present the results of a numerical benchmark study for the MUltidimensional Stellar Implicit Code (MUSIC) based on widely applicable two- and three-dimensional compressible hydrodynamics problems relevant to stellar interiors. MUSIC is an implicit large eddy simulation code that uses implicit time integration, implemented as a Jacobian-free Newton Krylov method. A physics based preconditioning technique which can be adjusted to target varying physics is used to improve the performance of the solver. The problems used for this benchmark study include the Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, and the decay of the Taylor-Green vortex. Additionally we show a test of hydrostatic equilibrium, in a stellar environment which is dominated by radiative effects. In this setting the flexibility of the preconditioning technique is demonstrated. This work aims to bridge the gap between the hydrodynamic test problems typically used during development of numerical methods and the complex flows of stellar interiors. A series of multidimensional tests were performed and analysed. Each of these test cases was analysed with a simple, scalar diagnostic, with the aim of enabling direct code comparisons. As the tests performed do not have analytic solutions, we verify MUSIC by comparing it to established codes including ATHENA and the PENCIL code. MUSIC is able to both reproduce behaviour from established and widely-used codes as well as results expected from theoretical predictions. This benchmarking study concludes a series of papers describing the development of the MUSIC code and provides confidence in future applications.

Design and Application of a Community Land Benchmarking System for Earth System Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mu, M.; Hoffman, F. M.; Lawrence, D. M.; Riley, W. J.; Keppel-Aleks, G.; Koven, C. D.; Kluzek, E. B.; Mao, J.; Randerson, J. T.

2015-12-01

Benchmarking has been widely used to assess the ability of climate models to capture the spatial and temporal variability of observations during the historical era. For the carbon cycle and terrestrial ecosystems, the design and development of an open-source community platform has been an important goal as part of the International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) project. Here we developed a new benchmarking software system that enables the user to specify the models, benchmarks, and scoring metrics, so that results can be tailored to specific model intercomparison projects. Evaluation data sets included soil and aboveground carbon stocks, fluxes of energy, carbon and water, burned area, leaf area, and climate forcing and response variables. We used this system to evaluate simulations from the 5th Phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) with prognostic atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the period from 1850 to 2005 (i.e., esmHistorical simulations archived on the Earth System Grid Federation). We found that the multi-model ensemble had a high bias in incoming solar radiation across Asia, likely as a consequence of incomplete representation of aerosol effects in this region, and in South America, primarily as a consequence of a low bias in mean annual precipitation. The reduced precipitation in South America had a larger influence on gross primary production than the high bias in incoming light, and as a consequence gross primary production had a low bias relative to the observations. Although model to model variations were large, the multi-model mean had a positive bias in atmospheric carbon dioxide that has been attributed in past work to weak ocean uptake of fossil emissions. In mid latitudes of the northern hemisphere, most models overestimate latent heat fluxes in the early part of the growing season, and underestimate these fluxes in mid-summer and early fall, whereas sensible heat fluxes show the opposite trend.

Closed-Loop Neuromorphic Benchmarks

PubMed Central

Stewart, Terrence C.; DeWolf, Travis; Kleinhans, Ashley; Eliasmith, Chris

2015-01-01

Evaluating the effectiveness and performance of neuromorphic hardware is difficult. It is even more difficult when the task of interest is a closed-loop task; that is, a task where the output from the neuromorphic hardware affects some environment, which then in turn affects the hardware's future input. However, closed-loop situations are one of the primary potential uses of neuromorphic hardware. To address this, we present a methodology for generating closed-loop benchmarks that makes use of a hybrid of real physical embodiment and a type of “minimal” simulation. Minimal simulation has been shown to lead to robust real-world performance, while still maintaining the practical advantages of simulation, such as making it easy for the same benchmark to be used by many researchers. This method is flexible enough to allow researchers to explicitly modify the benchmarks to identify specific task domains where particular hardware excels. To demonstrate the method, we present a set of novel benchmarks that focus on motor control for an arbitrary system with unknown external forces. Using these benchmarks, we show that an error-driven learning rule can consistently improve motor control performance across a randomly generated family of closed-loop simulations, even when there are up to 15 interacting joints to be controlled. PMID:26696820

Availability of Neutronics Benchmarks in the ICSBEP and IRPhEP Handbooks for Computational Tools Testing

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

Bess, John D.; Briggs, J. Blair; Ivanova, Tatiana

2017-02-01

In the past several decades, numerous experiments have been performed worldwide to support reactor operations, measurements, design, and nuclear safety. Those experiments represent an extensive international investment in infrastructure, expertise, and cost, representing significantly valuable resources of data supporting past, current, and future research activities. Those valuable assets represent the basis for recording, development, and validation of our nuclear methods and integral nuclear data [1]. The loss of these experimental data, which has occurred all too much in the recent years, is tragic. The high cost to repeat many of these measurements can be prohibitive, if not impossible, to surmount.more » Two international projects were developed, and are under the direction of the Organisation for Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD NEA) to address the challenges of not just data preservation, but evaluation of the data to determine its merit for modern and future use. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) was established to identify and verify comprehensive critical benchmark data sets; evaluate the data, including quantification of biases and uncertainties; compile the data and calculations in a standardized format; and formally document the effort into a single source of verified benchmark data [2]. Similarly, the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) was established to preserve integral reactor physics experimental data, including separate or special effects data for nuclear energy and technology applications [3]. Annually, contributors from around the world continue to collaborate in the evaluation and review of select benchmark experiments for preservation and dissemination. The extensively peer-reviewed integral benchmark data can then be utilized to support nuclear design and safety analysts to validate the analytical tools, methods, and data needed for next

The HIPPO Project Archive: Carbon Cycle and Greenhouse Gas Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christensen, S. W.; Aquino, J.; Hook, L.; Williams, S. F.

2012-12-01

The HIAPER (NSF/NCAR Gulfstream V Aircraft) Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) project measured a comprehensive suite of atmospheric trace gases and aerosols pertinent to understanding the global carbon cycle from the surface to the tropopause and approximately pole-to-pole over the Pacific Ocean. Flights took place over five missions during different seasons from 2009 to 2011. Data and documentation are available to the public from two archives: (1) NCAR's Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) provides complete aircraft and flight operational data, and (2) the U.S. DOE's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) provides integrated measurement data products. The integrated products are more generally useful for secondary analyses. Data processing is nearing completion, although improvements to the data will continue to evolve and analyses will continue many years into the future. Periodic new releases of integrated measurement (merged) products will be generated by EOL when individual measurement data have been updated as directed by the Lead Principal Investigator. The EOL and CDIAC archives will share documentation and supplemental links and will ensure that the latest versions of data products are available to users of both archives. The EOL archive (http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/hippo/) provides the underlying investigator-provided data, including supporting data sets (e.g. operational satellite, model output, global observations, etc.), and ancillary flight operational information including field catalogs, data quality reports, software, documentation, publications, photos/imagery, and other detailed information about the HIPPO missions. The CDIAC archive provides integrated measurement data products, user documentation, and metadata through the HIPPO website (http://hippo.ornl.gov). These merged products were derived by consistently combining the aircraft state parameters for position, time, temperature, pressure, and wind speed with meteorological

Research on computer systems benchmarking

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Alan Jay (Principal Investigator)

1996-01-01

This grant addresses the topic of research on computer systems benchmarking and is more generally concerned with performance issues in computer systems. This report reviews work in those areas during the period of NASA support under this grant. The bulk of the work performed concerned benchmarking and analysis of CPUs, compilers, caches, and benchmark programs. The first part of this work concerned the issue of benchmark performance prediction. A new approach to benchmarking and machine characterization was reported, using a machine characterizer that measures the performance of a given system in terms of a Fortran abstract machine. Another report focused on analyzing compiler performance. The performance impact of optimization in the context of our methodology for CPU performance characterization was based on the abstract machine model. Benchmark programs are analyzed in another paper. A machine-independent model of program execution was developed to characterize both machine performance and program execution. By merging these machine and program characterizations, execution time can be estimated for arbitrary machine/program combinations. The work was continued into the domain of parallel and vector machines, including the issue of caches in vector processors and multiprocessors. All of the afore-mentioned accomplishments are more specifically summarized in this report, as well as those smaller in magnitude supported by this grant.

Results of the GABLS3 diurnal-cycle benchmark for wind energy applications

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

Rodrigo, J. Sanz; Allaerts, D.; Avila, M.

We present results of the GABLS3 model intercomparison benchmark revisited for wind energy applications. The case consists of a diurnal cycle, measured at the 200-m tall Cabauw tower in the Netherlands, including a nocturnal low-level jet. The benchmark includes a sensitivity analysis of WRF simulations using two input meteorological databases and five planetary boundary-layer schemes. A reference set of mesoscale tendencies is used to drive microscale simulations using RANS k-ϵ and LES turbulence models. The validation is based on rotor-based quantities of interest. Cycle-integrated mean absolute errors are used to quantify model performance. The results of the benchmark are usedmore » to discuss input uncertainties from mesoscale modelling, different meso-micro coupling strategies (online vs offline) and consistency between RANS and LES codes when dealing with boundary-layer mean flow quantities. Altogether, all the microscale simulations produce a consistent coupling with mesoscale forcings.« less

Results of the GABLS3 diurnal-cycle benchmark for wind energy applications

DOE PAGES

Rodrigo, J. Sanz; Allaerts, D.; Avila, M.; ...

2017-06-13

We present results of the GABLS3 model intercomparison benchmark revisited for wind energy applications. The case consists of a diurnal cycle, measured at the 200-m tall Cabauw tower in the Netherlands, including a nocturnal low-level jet. The benchmark includes a sensitivity analysis of WRF simulations using two input meteorological databases and five planetary boundary-layer schemes. A reference set of mesoscale tendencies is used to drive microscale simulations using RANS k-ϵ and LES turbulence models. The validation is based on rotor-based quantities of interest. Cycle-integrated mean absolute errors are used to quantify model performance. The results of the benchmark are usedmore » to discuss input uncertainties from mesoscale modelling, different meso-micro coupling strategies (online vs offline) and consistency between RANS and LES codes when dealing with boundary-layer mean flow quantities. Altogether, all the microscale simulations produce a consistent coupling with mesoscale forcings.« less

School Culture Benchmarks: Bridges and Barriers to Successful Bullying Prevention Program Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coyle, H. Elizabeth

2008-01-01

A substantial body of research indicates that positive school culture benchmarks are integrally tied to the success of school reform and change in general. Additionally, an emerging body of research suggests a similar role for school culture in effective implementation of school violence prevention and intervention efforts. However, little…

Radiation Embrittlement Archive Project

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

Klasky, Hilda B; Bass, Bennett Richard; Williams, Paul T

2013-01-01

The Radiation Embrittlement Archive Project (REAP), which is being conducted by the Probabilistic Integrity Safety Assessment (PISA) Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory under funding from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission s (NRC) Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, aims to provide an archival source of information about the effect of neutron radiation on the properties of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels. Specifically, this project is an effort to create an Internet-accessible RPV steel embrittlement database. The project s website, https://reap.ornl.gov, provides information in two forms: (1) a document archive with surveillance capsule(s) reports and related technical reports, in PDF format,more » for the 104 commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the United States, with similar reports from other countries; and (2) a relational database archive with detailed information extracted from the reports. The REAP project focuses on data collected from surveillance capsule programs for light-water moderated, nuclear power reactor vessels operated in the United States, including data on Charpy V-notch energy testing results, tensile properties, composition, exposure temperatures, neutron flux (rate of irradiation damage), and fluence, (Fast Neutron Fluence a cumulative measure of irradiation for E>1 MeV). Additionally, REAP contains data from surveillance programs conducted in other countries. REAP is presently being extended to focus on embrittlement data analysis, as well. This paper summarizes the current status of the REAP database and highlights opportunities to access the data and to participate in the project.« less

BAO Plate Archive Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mickaelian, A. M.; Gigoyan, K. S.; Gyulzadyan, M. V.; Paronyan, G. M.; Abrahamyan, H. V.; Andreasyan, H. R.; Azatyan, N. M.; Kostandyan, G. R.; Samsonyan, A. L.; Mikayelyan, G. A.; Farmanyan, S. V.; Harutyunyan, V. L.

2017-12-01

We present the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory (BAO) Plate Archive Project that is aimed at digitization, extraction and analysis of archival data and building an electronic database and interactive sky map. BAO Plate Archive consists of 37,500 photographic plates and films, obtained with 2.6m telescope, 1m and 0.5m Schmidt telescopes and other smaller ones during 1947-1991. The famous Markarian Survey (or the First Byurakan Survey, FBS) 2000 plates were digitized in 2002-2005 and the Digitized FBS (DFBS, www.aras.am/Dfbs/dfbs.html) was created. New science projects have been conducted based on this low-dispersion spectroscopic material. Several other smaller digitization projects have been carried out as well, such as part of Second Byurakan Survey (SBS) plates, photographic chain plates in Coma, where the blazar ON 231 is located and 2.6m film spectra of FBS Blue Stellar Objects. However, most of the plates and films are not digitized. In 2015, we have started a project on the whole BAO Plate Archive digitization, creation of electronic database and its scientific usage. Armenian Virtual Observatory (ArVO, www.aras.am/Arvo/arvo.htm) database will accommodate all new data. The project runs in collaboration with the Armenian Institute of Informatics and Automation Problems (IIAP) and will continues during 4 years in 2015-2018. The final result will be an Electronic Database and online Interactive Sky map to be used for further research projects. ArVO will provide all standards and tools for efficient usage of the scientific output and its integration in international databases.

Making Benchmark Testing Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herman, Joan L.; Baker, Eva L.

2005-01-01

Many schools are moving to develop benchmark tests to monitor their students' progress toward state standards throughout the academic year. Benchmark tests can provide the ongoing information that schools need to guide instructional programs and to address student learning problems. The authors discuss six criteria that educators can use to…

HS06 Benchmark for an ARM Server

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kluth, Stefan

2014-06-01

We benchmarked an ARM cortex-A9 based server system with a four-core CPU running at 1.1 GHz. The system used Ubuntu 12.04 as operating system and the HEPSPEC 2006 (HS06) benchmarking suite was compiled natively with gcc-4.4 on the system. The benchmark was run for various settings of the relevant gcc compiler options. We did not find significant influence from the compiler options on the benchmark result. The final HS06 benchmark result is 10.4.

A new UKIDSS proper motion survey and key early results, including new benchmark systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, L.; Lucas, P.; Burningham, B.; Jones, H.; Pinfield, D.; Smart, R.; Andrei, A.

We present a proper motion catalogue for the 1500 deg2 of 2 epoch J-band UKIDSS Large Area Survey (LAS) data, which includes 120,000 stellar sources with motions detected above the 5sigma level. Our upper limit on proper motion detection is 3\\farcs3 yr-1 and typical uncertainties are of order 10 mas yr-1 for bright sources from data with a modest 1.8-7.0 year epoch baseline. We developed a bespoke proper motion pipeline which applies a source-unique second order polynomial transformation to UKIDSS array coordinates to counter potential local non-uniformity in the focal plane. Our catalogue agrees well with the proper motion data supplied in the current WFCAM Science Archive (WSA) tenth data release (DR10) catalogue where there is overlap, and in various optical catalogues, but it benefits from some improvements, such as a larger matching radius and relative to absolute proper motion correction. We present proper motion results for 128 T dwarfs in the UKIDSS LAS and key early results of projects utilising our catalogue, in particular searches for brown dwarf benchmark systems through cross matches with existing proper motion catalogues. We report the discovery of two new T dwarf benchmark systems.

NAS Grid Benchmarks. 1.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanderWijngaart, Rob; Frumkin, Michael; Biegel, Bryan A. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

We provide a paper-and-pencil specification of a benchmark suite for computational grids. It is based on the NAS (NASA Advanced Supercomputing) Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) and is called the NAS Grid Benchmarks (NGB). NGB problems are presented as data flow graphs encapsulating an instance of a slightly modified NPB task in each graph node, which communicates with other nodes by sending/receiving initialization data. Like NPB, NGB specifies several different classes (problem sizes). In this report we describe classes S, W, and A, and provide verification values for each. The implementor has the freedom to choose any language, grid environment, security model, fault tolerance/error correction mechanism, etc., as long as the resulting implementation passes the verification test and reports the turnaround time of the benchmark.

Gaia archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hypki, Arkadiusz; Brown, Anthony

2016-06-01

The Gaia archive is being designed and implemented by the DPAC Consortium. The purpose of the archive is to maximize the scientific exploitation of the Gaia data by the astronomical community. Thus, it is crucial to gather and discuss with the community the features of the Gaia archive as much as possible. It is especially important from the point of view of the GENIUS project to gather the feedback and potential use cases for the archive. This paper presents very briefly the general ideas behind the Gaia archive and presents which tools are already provided to the community.

The Zoo, Benchmarks & You: How To Reach the Oregon State Benchmarks with Zoo Resources.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

2002

This document aligns Oregon state educational benchmarks and standards with Oregon Zoo resources. Benchmark areas examined include English, mathematics, science, social studies, and career and life roles. Brief descriptions of the programs offered by the zoo are presented. (SOE)

A Seafloor Benchmark for 3-dimensional Geodesy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chadwell, C. D.; Webb, S. C.; Nooner, S. L.

2014-12-01

We have developed an inexpensive, permanent seafloor benchmark to increase the longevity of seafloor geodetic measurements. The benchmark provides a physical tie to the sea floor lasting for decades (perhaps longer) on which geodetic sensors can be repeatedly placed and removed with millimeter resolution. Global coordinates estimated with seafloor geodetic techniques will remain attached to the benchmark allowing for the interchange of sensors as they fail or become obsolete, or for the sensors to be removed and used elsewhere, all the while maintaining a coherent series of positions referenced to the benchmark. The benchmark has been designed to free fall from the sea surface with transponders attached. The transponder can be recalled via an acoustic command sent from the surface to release from the benchmark and freely float to the sea surface for recovery. The duration of the sensor attachment to the benchmark will last from a few days to a few years depending on the specific needs of the experiment. The recovered sensors are then available to be reused at other locations, or again at the same site in the future. Three pins on the sensor frame mate precisely and unambiguously with three grooves on the benchmark. To reoccupy a benchmark a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) uses its manipulator arm to place the sensor pins into the benchmark grooves. In June 2014 we deployed four benchmarks offshore central Oregon. We used the ROV Jason to successfully demonstrate the removal and replacement of packages onto the benchmark. We will show the benchmark design and its operational capabilities. Presently models of megathrust slip within the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) are mostly constrained by the sub-aerial GPS vectors from the Plate Boundary Observatory, a part of Earthscope. More long-lived seafloor geodetic measures are needed to better understand the earthquake and tsunami risk associated with a large rupture of the thrust fault within the Cascadia subduction zone

The Concepts "Benchmarks and Benchmarking" Used in Education Planning: Teacher Education as Example

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steyn, H. J.

2015-01-01

Planning in education is a structured activity that includes several phases and steps that take into account several kinds of information (Steyn, Steyn, De Waal & Wolhuter, 2002: 146). One of the sets of information that are usually considered is the (so-called) "benchmarks" and "benchmarking" regarding the focus of a…

Benchmark Dose Software (BMDS) Development and ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This report is intended to provide an overview of beta version 1.0 of the implementation of a model of repeated measures data referred to as the Toxicodiffusion model. The implementation described here represents the first steps towards integration of the Toxicodiffusion model into the EPA benchmark dose software (BMDS). This version runs from within BMDS 2.0 using an option screen for making model selection, as is done for other models in the BMDS 2.0 suite. This report is intended to provide an overview of beta version 1.0 of the implementation of a model of repeated measures data referred to as the Toxicodiffusion model.

Translational benchmark risk analysis

PubMed Central

Piegorsch, Walter W.

2010-01-01

Translational development – in the sense of translating a mature methodology from one area of application to another, evolving area – is discussed for the use of benchmark doses in quantitative risk assessment. Illustrations are presented with traditional applications of the benchmark paradigm in biology and toxicology, and also with risk endpoints that differ from traditional toxicological archetypes. It is seen that the benchmark approach can apply to a diverse spectrum of risk management settings. This suggests a promising future for this important risk-analytic tool. Extensions of the method to a wider variety of applications represent a significant opportunity for enhancing environmental, biomedical, industrial, and socio-economic risk assessments. PMID:20953283

Validation of Shielding Analysis Capability of SuperMC with SINBAD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Chaobin; Yang, Qi; Wu, Bin; Han, Yuncheng; Song, Jing

2017-09-01

Abstract: The shielding analysis capability of SuperMC was validated with the Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive Database (SINBAD). The SINBAD was compiled by RSICC and NEA, it includes numerous benchmark experiments performed with the D-T fusion neutron source facilities of OKTAVIAN, FNS, IPPE, etc. The results from SuperMC simulation were compared with experimental data and MCNP results. Very good agreement with deviation lower than 1% was achieved and it suggests that SuperMC is reliable in shielding calculation.

Archive of observations of periodic comet Crommelin made during its 1983-84 apparition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sekanina, Z. (Editor); Aronsson, M.

1985-01-01

This is an archive of 680 reduced observations of Periodic Comet Crommelin made during its 1984 apparition. The archive integrates reports by members of the eight networks of the International Halley Watch (IHW) and presents the results of a trial run designed to test the preparedness of the IHW organization for the current apparition of Periodic Comet Halley.

Medical school benchmarking - from tools to programmes.

PubMed

Wilkinson, Tim J; Hudson, Judith N; Mccoll, Geoffrey J; Hu, Wendy C Y; Jolly, Brian C; Schuwirth, Lambert W T

2015-02-01

Benchmarking among medical schools is essential, but may result in unwanted effects. To apply a conceptual framework to selected benchmarking activities of medical schools. We present an analogy between the effects of assessment on student learning and the effects of benchmarking on medical school educational activities. A framework by which benchmarking can be evaluated was developed and applied to key current benchmarking activities in Australia and New Zealand. The analogy generated a conceptual framework that tested five questions to be considered in relation to benchmarking: what is the purpose? what are the attributes of value? what are the best tools to assess the attributes of value? what happens to the results? and, what is the likely "institutional impact" of the results? If the activities were compared against a blueprint of desirable medical graduate outcomes, notable omissions would emerge. Medical schools should benchmark their performance on a range of educational activities to ensure quality improvement and to assure stakeholders that standards are being met. Although benchmarking potentially has positive benefits, it could also result in perverse incentives with unforeseen and detrimental effects on learning if it is undertaken using only a few selected assessment tools.

Developing and Trialling an independent, scalable and repeatable IT-benchmarking procedure for healthcare organisations.

PubMed

Liebe, J D; Hübner, U

2013-01-01

Continuous improvements of IT-performance in healthcare organisations require actionable performance indicators, regularly conducted, independent measurements and meaningful and scalable reference groups. Existing IT-benchmarking initiatives have focussed on the development of reliable and valid indicators, but less on the questions about how to implement an environment for conducting easily repeatable and scalable IT-benchmarks. This study aims at developing and trialling a procedure that meets the afore-mentioned requirements. We chose a well established, regularly conducted (inter-) national IT-survey of healthcare organisations (IT-Report Healthcare) as the environment and offered the participants of the 2011 survey (CIOs of hospitals) to enter a benchmark. The 61 structural and functional performance indicators covered among others the implementation status and integration of IT-systems and functions, global user satisfaction and the resources of the IT-department. Healthcare organisations were grouped by size and ownership. The benchmark results were made available electronically and feedback on the use of these results was requested after several months. Fifty-ninehospitals participated in the benchmarking. Reference groups consisted of up to 141 members depending on the number of beds (size) and the ownership (public vs. private). A total of 122 charts showing single indicator frequency views were sent to each participant. The evaluation showed that 94.1% of the CIOs who participated in the evaluation considered this benchmarking beneficial and reported that they would enter again. Based on the feedback of the participants we developed two additional views that provide a more consolidated picture. The results demonstrate that establishing an independent, easily repeatable and scalable IT-benchmarking procedure is possible and was deemed desirable. Based on these encouraging results a new benchmarking round which includes process indicators is currently

HPC Analytics Support. Requirements for Uncertainty Quantification Benchmarks

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

Paulson, Patrick R.; Purohit, Sumit; Rodriguez, Luke R.

2015-05-01

This report outlines techniques for extending benchmark generation products so they support uncertainty quantification by benchmarked systems. We describe how uncertainty quantification requirements can be presented to candidate analytical tools supporting SPARQL. We describe benchmark data sets for evaluating uncertainty quantification, as well as an approach for using our benchmark generator to produce data sets for generating benchmark data sets.

BENCHMARK DOSE TECHNICAL GUIDANCE DOCUMENT ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for the Agency on the application of the benchmark dose approach in determining the point of departure (POD) for health effects data, whether a linear or nonlinear low dose extrapolation is used. The guidance includes discussion on computation of benchmark doses and benchmark concentrations (BMDs and BMCs) and their lower confidence limits, data requirements, dose-response analysis, and reporting requirements. This guidance is based on today's knowledge and understanding, and on experience gained in using this approach.

Issues in Benchmark Metric Selection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crolotte, Alain

It is true that a metric can influence a benchmark but will esoteric metrics create more problems than they will solve? We answer this question affirmatively by examining the case of the TPC-D metric which used the much debated geometric mean for the single-stream test. We will show how a simple choice influenced the benchmark and its conduct and, to some extent, DBMS development. After examining other alternatives our conclusion is that the “real” measure for a decision-support benchmark is the arithmetic mean.

Benchmarking clinical photography services in the NHS.

PubMed

Arbon, Giles

2015-01-01

Benchmarking is used in services across the National Health Service (NHS) using various benchmarking programs. Clinical photography services do not have a program in place and services have to rely on ad hoc surveys of other services. A trial benchmarking exercise was undertaken with 13 services in NHS Trusts. This highlights valuable data and comparisons that can be used to benchmark and improve services throughout the profession.

Method and system for benchmarking computers

DOEpatents

Gustafson, John L.

1993-09-14

A testing system and method for benchmarking computer systems. The system includes a store containing a scalable set of tasks to be performed to produce a solution in ever-increasing degrees of resolution as a larger number of the tasks are performed. A timing and control module allots to each computer a fixed benchmarking interval in which to perform the stored tasks. Means are provided for determining, after completion of the benchmarking interval, the degree of progress through the scalable set of tasks and for producing a benchmarking rating relating to the degree of progress for each computer.

Archive & Data Management Activities for ISRO Science Archives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thakkar, Navita; Moorthi, Manthira; Gopala Krishna, Barla; Prashar, Ajay; Srinivasan, T. P.

2012-07-01

ISRO has kept a step ahead by extending remote sensing missions to planetary and astronomical exploration. It has started with Chandrayaan-1 and successfully completed the moon imaging during its life time in the orbit. Now, in future ISRO is planning to launch Chandrayaan-2 (next moon mission), Mars Mission and Astronomical mission ASTROSAT. All these missions are characterized by the need to receive process, archive and disseminate the acquired science data to the user community for analysis and scientific use. All these science missions will last for a few months to a few years but the data received are required to be archived, interoperable and requires a seamless access to the user community for the future. ISRO has laid out definite plans to archive these data sets in specified standards and develop relevant access tools to be able to serve the user community. To achieve this goal, a Data Center is set up at Bangalore called Indian Space Science Data Center (ISSDC). This is the custodian of all the data sets of the current and future science missions of ISRO . Chandrayaan-1 is the first among the planetary missions launched/to be launched by ISRO and we had taken the challenge and developed a system for data archival and dissemination of the payload data received. For Chandrayaan-1 the data collected from all the instruments are processed and is archived in the archive layer in the Planetary Data System (PDS 3.0) standards, through the automated pipeline. But the dataset once stored is of no use unless it is made public, which requires a Web-based dissemination system that can be accessible to all the planetary scientists/data users working in this field. Towards this, a Web- based Browse and Dissemination system has been developed, wherein users can register and search for their area of Interest and view the data archived for TMC & HYSI with relevant Browse chips and Metadata of the data. Users can also order the data and get it on their desktop in the PDS

The Self-Organized Archive: SPASE, PDS and Archive Cooperatives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

King, T. A.; Hughes, J. S.; Roberts, D. A.; Walker, R. J.; Joy, S. P.

2005-05-01

Information systems with high quality metadata enable uses and services which often go beyond the original purpose. There are two types of metadata: annotations which are items that comment on or describe the content of a resource and identification attributes which describe the external properties of the resource itself. For example, annotations may indicate which columns are present in a table of data, whereas an identification attribute would indicate source of the table, such as the observatory, instrument, organization, and data type. When the identification attributes are collected and used as the basis of a search engine, a user can constrain on an attribute, the archive can then self-organize around the constraint, presenting the user with a particular view of the archive. In an archive cooperative where each participating data system or archive may have its own metadata standards, providing a multi-system search engine requires that individual archive metadata be mapped to a broad based standard. To explore how cooperative archives can form a larger self-organized archive we will show how the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) data model will allow different systems to create a cooperative and will use Planetary Data System (PDS) plus existing space physics activities as a demonstration.

Outcome of the First wwPDB Hybrid/Integrative Methods Task Force Workshop

PubMed Central

Sali, Andrej; Berman, Helen M.; Schwede, Torsten; Trewhella, Jill; Kleywegt, Gerard; Burley, Stephen K.; Markley, John; Nakamura, Haruki; Adams, Paul; Bonvin, Alexandre M.J.J.; Chiu, Wah; Dal Peraro, Matteo; Di Maio, Frank; Ferrin, Thomas E.; Grünewald, Kay; Gutmanas, Aleksandras; Henderson, Richard; Hummer, Gerhard; Iwasaki, Kenji; Johnson, Graham; Lawson, Catherine L.; Meiler, Jens; Marti-Renom, Marc A.; Montelione, Gaetano T.; Nilges, Michael; Nussinov, Ruth; Patwardhan, Ardan; Rappsilber, Juri; Read, Randy J.; Saibil, Helen; Schröder, Gunnar F.; Schwieters, Charles D.; Seidel, Claus A. M.; Svergun, Dmitri; Topf, Maya; Ulrich, Eldon L.; Velankar, Sameer; Westbrook, John D.

2016-01-01

Summary Structures of biomolecular systems are increasingly computed by integrative modeling that relies on varied types of experimental data and theoretical information. We describe here the proceedings and conclusions from the first wwPDB Hybrid/Integrative Methods Task Force Workshop held at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, UK, October 6 and 7, 2014. At the workshop, experts in various experimental fields of structural biology, experts in integrative modeling and visualization, and experts in data archiving addressed a series of questions central to the future of structural biology. How should integrative models be represented? How should the data and integrative models be validated? What data should be archived? How should the data and models be archived? What information should accompany the publication of integrative models? PMID:26095030

Challenges for Data Archival Centers in Evolving Environmental Sciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Y.; Cook, R. B.; Gu, L.; Santhana Vannan, S. K.; Beaty, T.

2015-12-01

Environmental science has entered into a big data era as enormous data about the Earth environment are continuously collected through field and airborne missions, remote sensing observations, model simulations, sensor networks, etc. An open-access and open-management data infrastructure for data-intensive science is a major grand challenge in global environmental research (BERAC, 2010). Such an infrastructure, as exemplified in EOSDIS, GEOSS, and NSF EarthCube, will provide a complete lifecycle of environmental data and ensures that data will smoothly flow among different phases of collection, preservation, integration, and analysis. Data archival centers, as the data integration units closest to data providers, serve as the source power to compile and integrate heterogeneous environmental data into this global infrastructure. This presentation discusses the interoperability challenges and practices of geosciences from the aspect of data archival centers, based on the operational experiences of the NASA-sponsored Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC) and related environmental data management activities. Specifically, we will discuss the challenges to 1) encourage and help scientists to more actively share data with the broader scientific community, so that valuable environmental data, especially those dark data collected by individual scientists in small independent projects, can be shared and integrated into the infrastructure to tackle big science questions; 2) curate heterogeneous multi-disciplinary data, focusing on the key aspects of identification, format, metadata, data quality, and semantics to make them ready to be plugged into a global data infrastructure. We will highlight data curation practices at the ORNL DAAC for global campaigns such as BOREAS, LBA, SAFARI 2000; and 3) enhance the capabilities to more effectively and efficiently expose and deliver "big" environmental data to broad range of users and systems

Simple, Script-Based Science Processing Archive

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lynnes, Christopher; Hegde, Mahabaleshwara; Barth, C. Wrandle

2007-01-01

The Simple, Scalable, Script-based Science Processing (S4P) Archive (S4PA) is a disk-based archival system for remote sensing data. It is based on the data-driven framework of S4P and is used for data transfer, data preprocessing, metadata generation, data archive, and data distribution. New data are automatically detected by the system. S4P provides services such as data access control, data subscription, metadata publication, data replication, and data recovery. It comprises scripts that control the data flow. The system detects the availability of data on an FTP (file transfer protocol) server, initiates data transfer, preprocesses data if necessary, and archives it on readily available disk drives with FTP and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) access, allowing instantaneous data access. There are options for plug-ins for data preprocessing before storage. Publication of metadata to external applications such as the Earth Observing System Clearinghouse (ECHO) is also supported. S4PA includes a graphical user interface for monitoring the system operation and a tool for deploying the system. To ensure reliability, S4P continuously checks stored data for integrity, Further reliability is provided by tape backups of disks made once a disk partition is full and closed. The system is designed for low maintenance, requiring minimal operator oversight.

Resonance Parameter Adjustment Based on Integral Experiments

DOE PAGES

Sobes, Vladimir; Leal, Luiz; Arbanas, Goran; ...

2016-06-02

Our project seeks to allow coupling of differential and integral data evaluation in a continuous-energy framework and to use the generalized linear least-squares (GLLS) methodology in the TSURFER module of the SCALE code package to update the parameters of a resolved resonance region evaluation. We recognize that the GLLS methodology in TSURFER is identical to the mathematical description of a Bayesian update in SAMMY, the SAMINT code was created to use the mathematical machinery of SAMMY to update resolved resonance parameters based on integral data. Traditionally, SAMMY used differential experimental data to adjust nuclear data parameters. Integral experimental data, suchmore » as in the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments Project, remain a tool for validation of completed nuclear data evaluations. SAMINT extracts information from integral benchmarks to aid the nuclear data evaluation process. Later, integral data can be used to resolve any remaining ambiguity between differential data sets, highlight troublesome energy regions, determine key nuclear data parameters for integral benchmark calculations, and improve the nuclear data covariance matrix evaluation. Moreover, SAMINT is not intended to bias nuclear data toward specific integral experiments but should be used to supplement the evaluation of differential experimental data. Using GLLS ensures proper weight is given to the differential data.« less

Benchmarking initiatives in the water industry.

PubMed

Parena, R; Smeets, E

2001-01-01

Customer satisfaction and service care are every day pushing professionals in the water industry to seek to improve their performance, lowering costs and increasing the provided service level. Process Benchmarking is generally recognised as a systematic mechanism of comparing one's own utility with other utilities or businesses with the intent of self-improvement by adopting structures or methods used elsewhere. The IWA Task Force on Benchmarking, operating inside the Statistics and Economics Committee, has been committed to developing a general accepted concept of Process Benchmarking to support water decision-makers in addressing issues of efficiency. In a first step the Task Force disseminated among the Committee members a questionnaire focused on providing suggestions about the kind, the evolution degree and the main concepts of Benchmarking adopted in the represented Countries. A comparison among the guidelines adopted in The Netherlands and Scandinavia has recently challenged the Task Force in drafting a methodology for a worldwide process benchmarking in water industry. The paper provides a framework of the most interesting benchmarking experiences in the water sector and describes in detail both the final results of the survey and the methodology focused on identification of possible improvement areas.

The ESA Gaia Archive: Data Release 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salgado, J.; González-Núñez, J.; Gutiérrez-Sánchez, R.; Segovia, J. C.; Durán, J.; Hernández, J. L.; Arviset, C.

2017-10-01

The ESA Gaia mission is producing the most accurate source catalogue in astronomy to date. This represents a challenge in archiving to make the information and data accessible to astronomers in an efficient way, due to the size and complexity of the data. Also, new astronomical missions, taking larger and larger volumes of data, are reinforcing this change in the development of archives. Archives, as simple applications to access data, are evolving into complex data centre structures where computing power services are available for users and data mining tools are integrated into the server side. In the case of astronomy missions that involve the use of large catalogues, such as Gaia (or Euclid to come), the common ways to work on the data need to be changed to the following paradigm: "move the code close to the data". This implies that data mining functionalities are becoming a must to allow for the maximum scientific exploitation of the data. To enable these capabilities, a TAP+ interface, crossmatch capabilities, full catalogue histograms, serialisation of intermediate results in cloud resources, such as VOSpace etc., have been implemented for the Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1), to enable the exploitation of these science resources by the community without any bottlenecks in the connection bandwidth. We present the architecture, infrastructure and tools already available in the Gaia Archive DR1 (http://archives.esac.esa.int/gaia/) and we describe the capabilities and infrastructure.

Benchmarking--Measuring and Comparing for Continuous Improvement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henczel, Sue

2002-01-01

Discussion of benchmarking focuses on the use of internal and external benchmarking by special librarians. Highlights include defining types of benchmarking; historical development; benefits, including efficiency, improved performance, increased competitiveness, and better decision making; problems, including inappropriate adaptation; developing a…

EPA's Benchmark Dose Modeling Software

EPA Science Inventory

The EPA developed the Benchmark Dose Software (BMDS) as a tool to help Agency risk assessors facilitate applying benchmark dose (BMD) method’s to EPA’s human health risk assessment (HHRA) documents. The application of BMD methods overcomes many well know limitations ...

42 CFR 440.330 - Benchmark health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Benchmark health benefits coverage. 440.330 Section 440.330 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... Benchmark-Equivalent Coverage § 440.330 Benchmark health benefits coverage. Benchmark coverage is health...

ICSBEP Benchmarks For Nuclear Data Applications

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

Briggs, J. Blair

2005-05-24

The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) was initiated in 1992 by the United States Department of Energy. The ICSBEP became an official activity of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) -- Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995. Representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, the Russian Federation, Hungary, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro (formerly Yugoslavia), Kazakhstan, Spain, Israel, Brazil, Poland, and the Czech Republic are now participating. South Africa, India, China, and Germany are considering participation. The purpose of the ICSBEP is to identify, evaluate, verify, and formally document a comprehensive andmore » internationally peer-reviewed set of criticality safety benchmark data. The work of the ICSBEP is published as an OECD handbook entitled ''International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments.'' The 2004 Edition of the Handbook contains benchmark specifications for 3331 critical or subcritical configurations that are intended for use in validation efforts and for testing basic nuclear data. New to the 2004 Edition of the Handbook is a draft criticality alarm / shielding type benchmark that should be finalized in 2005 along with two other similar benchmarks. The Handbook is being used extensively for nuclear data testing and is expected to be a valuable resource for code and data validation and improvement efforts for decades to come. Specific benchmarks that are useful for testing structural materials such as iron, chromium, nickel, and manganese; beryllium; lead; thorium; and 238U are highlighted.« less

Serious injuries: an additional indicator to fatalities for road safety benchmarking.

PubMed

Shen, Yongjun; Hermans, Elke; Bao, Qiong; Brijs, Tom; Wets, Geert

2015-01-01

Almost all of the current road safety benchmarking studies focus entirely on fatalities, which, however, represent only one measure of the magnitude of the road safety problem. The main objective of this article was to investigate the possibility of including the number of serious injuries in addition to the number of fatalities for road safety benchmarking and to further illuminate its impact on the countries' rankings. We introduced the technique of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to the road safety domain and developed a DEA-based road safety model (DEA-RS) in this study. Moreover, we outlined different types of possible weight restrictions and adopted 2 of them to indicate the relationship between road fatalities and serious injuries for the sake of rational benchmarking. One was a relative weight restriction based on the information of their shadow price, and the other was a virtual weight restriction using a priori knowledge about the importance level of these 2 aspects. By computing the most optimal road safety risk scores of 10 European countries based on the different models, we found that United Kingdom was the only best-performing country no matter which model was utilized. However, countries such as The Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland were no longer best-performing when the serious injuries were integrated. On the contrary, Spain, which ranked almost at the bottom among all of the countries when only the number of road fatalities was considered, became a relatively well-performing country when integrating its number of serious injuries in the evaluation. In general, no matter whether the country's road safety ranking was improved or deteriorated, most of the countries achieved a higher risk score when the number of serious injuries was included, which implied that compared to the road fatalities, more policy attention has to be paid to improve the situation of serious injuries in most countries. Given the importance of considering the serious

Cancer Digital Slide Archive: an informatics resource to support integrated in silico analysis of TCGA pathology data

PubMed Central

Gutman, David A; Cobb, Jake; Somanna, Dhananjaya; Park, Yuna; Wang, Fusheng; Kurc, Tahsin; Saltz, Joel H; Brat, Daniel J; Cooper, Lee A D

2013-01-01

Background The integration and visualization of multimodal datasets is a common challenge in biomedical informatics. Several recent studies of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data have illustrated important relationships between morphology observed in whole-slide images, outcome, and genetic events. The pairing of genomics and rich clinical descriptions with whole-slide imaging provided by TCGA presents a unique opportunity to perform these correlative studies. However, better tools are needed to integrate the vast and disparate data types. Objective To build an integrated web-based platform supporting whole-slide pathology image visualization and data integration. Materials and methods All images and genomic data were directly obtained from the TCGA and National Cancer Institute (NCI) websites. Results The Cancer Digital Slide Archive (CDSA) produced is accessible to the public (http://cancer.digitalslidearchive.net) and currently hosts more than 20 000 whole-slide images from 22 cancer types. Discussion The capabilities of CDSA are demonstrated using TCGA datasets to integrate pathology imaging with associated clinical, genomic and MRI measurements in glioblastomas and can be extended to other tumor types. CDSA also allows URL-based sharing of whole-slide images, and has preliminary support for directly sharing regions of interest and other annotations. Images can also be selected on the basis of other metadata, such as mutational profile, patient age, and other relevant characteristics. Conclusions With the increasing availability of whole-slide scanners, analysis of digitized pathology images will become increasingly important in linking morphologic observations with genomic and clinical endpoints. PMID:23893318

Outcome of the First wwPDB Hybrid/Integrative Methods Task Force Workshop.

PubMed

Sali, Andrej; Berman, Helen M; Schwede, Torsten; Trewhella, Jill; Kleywegt, Gerard; Burley, Stephen K; Markley, John; Nakamura, Haruki; Adams, Paul; Bonvin, Alexandre M J J; Chiu, Wah; Peraro, Matteo Dal; Di Maio, Frank; Ferrin, Thomas E; Grünewald, Kay; Gutmanas, Aleksandras; Henderson, Richard; Hummer, Gerhard; Iwasaki, Kenji; Johnson, Graham; Lawson, Catherine L; Meiler, Jens; Marti-Renom, Marc A; Montelione, Gaetano T; Nilges, Michael; Nussinov, Ruth; Patwardhan, Ardan; Rappsilber, Juri; Read, Randy J; Saibil, Helen; Schröder, Gunnar F; Schwieters, Charles D; Seidel, Claus A M; Svergun, Dmitri; Topf, Maya; Ulrich, Eldon L; Velankar, Sameer; Westbrook, John D

2015-07-07

Structures of biomolecular systems are increasingly computed by integrative modeling that relies on varied types of experimental data and theoretical information. We describe here the proceedings and conclusions from the first wwPDB Hybrid/Integrative Methods Task Force Workshop held at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, UK, on October 6 and 7, 2014. At the workshop, experts in various experimental fields of structural biology, experts in integrative modeling and visualization, and experts in data archiving addressed a series of questions central to the future of structural biology. How should integrative models be represented? How should the data and integrative models be validated? What data should be archived? How should the data and models be archived? What information should accompany the publication of integrative models? Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Benchmarking gate-based quantum computers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Michielsen, Kristel; Nocon, Madita; Willsch, Dennis; Jin, Fengping; Lippert, Thomas; De Raedt, Hans

2017-11-01

With the advent of public access to small gate-based quantum processors, it becomes necessary to develop a benchmarking methodology such that independent researchers can validate the operation of these processors. We explore the usefulness of a number of simple quantum circuits as benchmarks for gate-based quantum computing devices and show that circuits performing identity operations are very simple, scalable and sensitive to gate errors and are therefore very well suited for this task. We illustrate the procedure by presenting benchmark results for the IBM Quantum Experience, a cloud-based platform for gate-based quantum computing.

Machine characterization and benchmark performance prediction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saavedra-Barrera, Rafael H.

1988-01-01

From runs of standard benchmarks or benchmark suites, it is not possible to characterize the machine nor to predict the run time of other benchmarks which have not been run. A new approach to benchmarking and machine characterization is reported. The creation and use of a machine analyzer is described, which measures the performance of a given machine on FORTRAN source language constructs. The machine analyzer yields a set of parameters which characterize the machine and spotlight its strong and weak points. Also described is a program analyzer, which analyzes FORTRAN programs and determines the frequency of execution of each of the same set of source language operations. It is then shown that by combining a machine characterization and a program characterization, we are able to predict with good accuracy the run time of a given benchmark on a given machine. Characterizations are provided for the Cray-X-MP/48, Cyber 205, IBM 3090/200, Amdahl 5840, Convex C-1, VAX 8600, VAX 11/785, VAX 11/780, SUN 3/50, and IBM RT-PC/125, and for the following benchmark programs or suites: Los Alamos (BMK8A1), Baskett, Linpack, Livermore Loops, Madelbrot Set, NAS Kernels, Shell Sort, Smith, Whetstone and Sieve of Erathostenes.

Data catalog for JPL Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Digby, Susan

1995-01-01

The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) archive at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory contains satellite data sets and ancillary in-situ data for the ocean sciences and global-change research to facilitate multidisciplinary use of satellite ocean data. Geophysical parameters available from the archive include sea-surface height, surface-wind vector, surface-wind speed, surface-wind stress vector, sea-surface temperature, atmospheric liquid water, integrated water vapor, phytoplankton pigment concentration, heat flux, and in-situ data. PO.DAAC is an element of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System and is the United States distribution site for TOPEX/POSEIDON data and metadata.

Computational Chemistry Comparison and Benchmark Database

National Institute of Standards and Technology Data Gateway

SRD 101 NIST Computational Chemistry Comparison and Benchmark Database (Web, free access)   The NIST Computational Chemistry Comparison and Benchmark Database is a collection of experimental and ab initio thermochemical properties for a selected set of molecules. The goals are to provide a benchmark set of molecules for the evaluation of ab initio computational methods and allow the comparison between different ab initio computational methods for the prediction of thermochemical properties.

Internal Benchmarking for Institutional Effectiveness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ronco, Sharron L.

2012-01-01

Internal benchmarking is an established practice in business and industry for identifying best in-house practices and disseminating the knowledge about those practices to other groups in the organization. Internal benchmarking can be done with structures, processes, outcomes, or even individuals. In colleges or universities with multicampuses or a…

Benchmark for Strategic Performance Improvement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gohlke, Annette

1997-01-01

Explains benchmarking, a total quality management tool used to measure and compare the work processes in a library with those in other libraries to increase library performance. Topics include the main groups of upper management, clients, and staff; critical success factors for each group; and benefits of benchmarking. (Author/LRW)

Beyond Benchmarking: Value-Adding Metrics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitz-enz, Jac

2007-01-01

HR metrics has grown up a bit over the past two decades, moving away from simple benchmarking practices and toward a more inclusive approach to measuring institutional performance and progress. In this article, the acknowledged "father" of human capital performance benchmarking provides an overview of several aspects of today's HR metrics…

The NAS kernel benchmark program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, D. H.; Barton, J. T.

1985-01-01

A collection of benchmark test kernels that measure supercomputer performance has been developed for the use of the NAS (Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation) program at the NASA Ames Research Center. This benchmark program is described in detail and the specific ground rules are given for running the program as a performance test.

How Benchmarking and Higher Education Came Together

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levy, Gary D.; Ronco, Sharron L.

2012-01-01

This chapter introduces the concept of benchmarking and how higher education institutions began to use benchmarking for a variety of purposes. Here, benchmarking is defined as a strategic and structured approach whereby an organization compares aspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of another organization or set of organizations to…

Benchmarks--Standards Comparisons. Math Competencies: EFF Benchmarks Comparison [and] Reading Competencies: EFF Benchmarks Comparison [and] Writing Competencies: EFF Benchmarks Comparison.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kent State Univ., OH. Ohio Literacy Resource Center.

This document is intended to show the relationship between Ohio's Standards and Competencies, Equipped for the Future's (EFF's) Standards and Components of Performance, and Ohio's Revised Benchmarks. The document is divided into three parts, with Part 1 covering mathematics instruction, Part 2 covering reading instruction, and Part 3 covering…

PACS archive upgrade and data migration: clinical experiences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Brent J.; Documet, Luis; Sarti, Dennis A.; Huang, H. K.; Donnelly, John

2002-05-01

Saint John's Health Center PACS data volumes have increased dramatically since the hospital became filmless in April of 1999. This is due in part of continuous image accumulation, and the integration of a new multi-slice detector CT scanner into PACS. The original PACS archive would not be able to handle the distribution and archiving load and capacity in the near future. Furthermore, there is no secondary copy backup of all the archived PACS image data for disaster recovery purposes. The purpose of this paper is to present a clinical and technical process template to upgrade and expand the PACS archive, migrate existing PACs image data to the new archive, and provide a back-up and disaster recovery function not currently available. Discussion of the technical and clinical pitfalls and challenges involved in this process will be presented as well. The server hardware configuration was upgraded and a secondary backup implemented for disaster recovery. The upgrade includes new software versions, database reconfiguration, and installation of a new tape jukebox to replace the current MOD jukebox. Upon completion, all PACS image data from the original MOD jukebox was migrated to the new tape jukebox and verified. The migration was performed during clinical operation continuously in the background. Once the data migration was completed the MOD jukebox was removed. All newly acquired PACS exams are now archived to the new tape jukebox. All PACs image data residing on the original MOD jukebox have been successfully migrated into the new archive. In addition, a secondary backup of all PACS image data has been implemented for disaster recovery and has been verified using disaster scenario testing. No PACS image data was lost during the entire process and there was very little clinical impact during the entire upgrade and data migration. Some of the pitfalls and challenges during this upgrade process included hardware reconfiguration for the original archive server, clinical

Benchmarking infrastructure for mutation text mining

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Experimental research on the automatic extraction of information about mutations from texts is greatly hindered by the lack of consensus evaluation infrastructure for the testing and benchmarking of mutation text mining systems. Results We propose a community-oriented annotation and benchmarking infrastructure to support development, testing, benchmarking, and comparison of mutation text mining systems. The design is based on semantic standards, where RDF is used to represent annotations, an OWL ontology provides an extensible schema for the data and SPARQL is used to compute various performance metrics, so that in many cases no programming is needed to analyze results from a text mining system. While large benchmark corpora for biological entity and relation extraction are focused mostly on genes, proteins, diseases, and species, our benchmarking infrastructure fills the gap for mutation information. The core infrastructure comprises (1) an ontology for modelling annotations, (2) SPARQL queries for computing performance metrics, and (3) a sizeable collection of manually curated documents, that can support mutation grounding and mutation impact extraction experiments. Conclusion We have developed the principal infrastructure for the benchmarking of mutation text mining tasks. The use of RDF and OWL as the representation for corpora ensures extensibility. The infrastructure is suitable for out-of-the-box use in several important scenarios and is ready, in its current state, for initial community adoption. PMID:24568600

Benchmarking infrastructure for mutation text mining.

PubMed

Klein, Artjom; Riazanov, Alexandre; Hindle, Matthew M; Baker, Christopher Jo

2014-02-25

Experimental research on the automatic extraction of information about mutations from texts is greatly hindered by the lack of consensus evaluation infrastructure for the testing and benchmarking of mutation text mining systems. We propose a community-oriented annotation and benchmarking infrastructure to support development, testing, benchmarking, and comparison of mutation text mining systems. The design is based on semantic standards, where RDF is used to represent annotations, an OWL ontology provides an extensible schema for the data and SPARQL is used to compute various performance metrics, so that in many cases no programming is needed to analyze results from a text mining system. While large benchmark corpora for biological entity and relation extraction are focused mostly on genes, proteins, diseases, and species, our benchmarking infrastructure fills the gap for mutation information. The core infrastructure comprises (1) an ontology for modelling annotations, (2) SPARQL queries for computing performance metrics, and (3) a sizeable collection of manually curated documents, that can support mutation grounding and mutation impact extraction experiments. We have developed the principal infrastructure for the benchmarking of mutation text mining tasks. The use of RDF and OWL as the representation for corpora ensures extensibility. The infrastructure is suitable for out-of-the-box use in several important scenarios and is ready, in its current state, for initial community adoption.

Benchmarking: A Process for Improvement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peischl, Thomas M.

One problem with the outcome-based measures used in higher education is that they measure quantity but not quality. Benchmarking, or the use of some external standard of quality to measure tasks, processes, and outputs, is partially solving that difficulty. Benchmarking allows for the establishment of a systematic process to indicate if outputs…

Benchmarking in national health service procurement in Scotland.

PubMed

Walker, Scott; Masson, Ron; Telford, Ronnie; White, David

2007-11-01

The paper reports the results of a study on benchmarking activities undertaken by the procurement organization within the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland, namely National Procurement (previously Scottish Healthcare Supplies Contracts Branch). NHS performance is of course politically important, and benchmarking is increasingly seen as a means to improve performance, so the study was carried out to determine if the current benchmarking approaches could be enhanced. A review of the benchmarking activities used by the private sector, local government and NHS organizations was carried out to establish a framework of the motivations, benefits, problems and costs associated with benchmarking. This framework was used to carry out the research through case studies and a questionnaire survey of NHS procurement organizations both in Scotland and other parts of the UK. Nine of the 16 Scottish Health Boards surveyed reported carrying out benchmarking during the last three years. The findings of the research were that there were similarities in approaches between local government and NHS Scotland Health, but differences between NHS Scotland and other UK NHS procurement organizations. Benefits were seen as significant and it was recommended that National Procurement should pursue the formation of a benchmarking group with members drawn from NHS Scotland and external benchmarking bodies to establish measures to be used in benchmarking across the whole of NHS Scotland.

HEASARC - The High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smale, Alan P.

2011-01-01

The High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) is NASA's archive for high-energy astrophysics and cosmic microwave background (CMB) data, supporting the broad science goals of NASA's Physics of the Cosmos theme. It provides vital scientific infrastructure to the community by standardizing science data formats and analysis programs, providing open access to NASA resources, and implementing powerful archive interfaces. Over the next five years the HEASARC will ingest observations from up to 12 operating missions, while serving data from these and over 30 archival missions to the community. The HEASARC archive presently contains over 37 TB of data, and will contain over 60 TB by the end of 2014. The HEASARC continues to secure major cost savings for NASA missions, providing a reusable mission-independent framework for reducing, analyzing, and archiving data. This approach was recognized in the NRC Portals to the Universe report (2007) as one of the HEASARC's great strengths. This poster describes the past and current activities of the HEASARC and our anticipated developments in coming years. These include preparations to support upcoming high energy missions (NuSTAR, Astro-H, GEMS) and ground-based and sub-orbital CMB experiments, as well as continued support of missions currently operating (Chandra, Fermi, RXTE, Suzaku, Swift, XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL). In 2012 the HEASARC (which now includes LAMBDA) will support the final nine-year WMAP data release. The HEASARC is also upgrading its archive querying and retrieval software with the new Xamin system in early release - and building on opportunities afforded by the growth of the Virtual Observatory and recent developments in virtual environments and cloud computing.

Treatment planning for spinal radiosurgery : A competitive multiplatform benchmark challenge.

PubMed

Moustakis, Christos; Chan, Mark K H; Kim, Jinkoo; Nilsson, Joakim; Bergman, Alanah; Bichay, Tewfik J; Palazon Cano, Isabel; Cilla, Savino; Deodato, Francesco; Doro, Raffaela; Dunst, Jürgen; Eich, Hans Theodor; Fau, Pierre; Fong, Ming; Haverkamp, Uwe; Heinze, Simon; Hildebrandt, Guido; Imhoff, Detlef; de Klerck, Erik; Köhn, Janett; Lambrecht, Ulrike; Loutfi-Krauss, Britta; Ebrahimi, Fatemeh; Masi, Laura; Mayville, Alan H; Mestrovic, Ante; Milder, Maaike; Morganti, Alessio G; Rades, Dirk; Ramm, Ulla; Rödel, Claus; Siebert, Frank-Andre; den Toom, Wilhelm; Wang, Lei; Wurster, Stefan; Schweikard, Achim; Soltys, Scott G; Ryu, Samuel; Blanck, Oliver

2018-05-25

To investigate the quality of treatment plans of spinal radiosurgery derived from different planning and delivery systems. The comparisons include robotic delivery and intensity modulated arc therapy (IMAT) approaches. Multiple centers with equal systems were used to reduce a bias based on individual's planning abilities. The study used a series of three complex spine lesions to maximize the difference in plan quality among the various approaches. Internationally recognized experts in the field of treatment planning and spinal radiosurgery from 12 centers with various treatment planning systems participated. For a complex spinal lesion, the results were compared against a previously published benchmark plan derived for CyberKnife radiosurgery (CKRS) using circular cones only. For two additional cases, one with multiple small lesions infiltrating three vertebrae and a single vertebra lesion treated with integrated boost, the results were compared against a benchmark plan generated using a best practice guideline for CKRS. All plans were rated based on a previously established ranking system. All 12 centers could reach equality (n = 4) or outperform (n = 8) the benchmark plan. For the multiple lesions and the single vertebra lesion plan only 5 and 3 of the 12 centers, respectively, reached equality or outperformed the best practice benchmark plan. However, the absolute differences in target and critical structure dosimetry were small and strongly planner-dependent rather than system-dependent. Overall, gantry-based IMAT with simple planning techniques (two coplanar arcs) produced faster treatments and significantly outperformed static gantry intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and multileaf collimator (MLC) or non-MLC CKRS treatment plan quality regardless of the system (mean rank out of 4 was 1.2 vs. 3.1, p = 0.002). High plan quality for complex spinal radiosurgery was achieved among all systems and all participating centers in this

Benchmark Factors in Student Retention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waggener, Anna T.; Smith, Constance K.

The first purpose of this study was to identify significant factors affecting the first benchmark in retaining students in college--the decision to enroll in the first fall semester after orientation. The second purpose was to examine enrollment decisions at the second benchmark--the decision to re-enroll in the second fall semester after freshman…

Applying the SERENITY Methodology to the Domain of Trusted Electronic Archiving

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Porekar, Jan; Klobučar, Tomaž; Šaljič, Svetlana; Gabrijelčič, Dušan

We present the application of the SERENITY methodology to the domain of long-term trusted electronic archiving, sometimes also referred to as trusted digital notary services. We address the SERENITY approach from thepoint of view of a company providing security solutions in the mentioned domain and adopt the role of a solution developer. In this chapter we show a complete vertical slice through the trusted archiving domain providing: (i) the relevant S&D properties, (ii) the S&D classes and S&D patterns on both organizational and technical level, (iii) describe how S&D patterns are integrated into a trusted longterm archiving service using the SERENITY Run-Time Framework (SRF). At the end of the chapter we put in perspective what a solution developer can learn from the process of capturing security knowledge according to SERENITY methodology and we discuss how existing implementations of archiving services can benefit from SERENITY approach in the future.

SP2Bench: A SPARQL Performance Benchmark

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, Michael; Hornung, Thomas; Meier, Michael; Pinkel, Christoph; Lausen, Georg

A meaningful analysis and comparison of both existing storage schemes for RDF data and evaluation approaches for SPARQL queries necessitates a comprehensive and universal benchmark platform. We present SP2Bench, a publicly available, language-specific performance benchmark for the SPARQL query language. SP2Bench is settled in the DBLP scenario and comprises a data generator for creating arbitrarily large DBLP-like documents and a set of carefully designed benchmark queries. The generated documents mirror vital key characteristics and social-world distributions encountered in the original DBLP data set, while the queries implement meaningful requests on top of this data, covering a variety of SPARQL operator constellations and RDF access patterns. In this chapter, we discuss requirements and desiderata for SPARQL benchmarks and present the SP2Bench framework, including its data generator, benchmark queries and performance metrics.

The archiving of meteor research information

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nechitailenko, V. A.

1987-01-01

The results obtained over the past years under GLOBMET are not reviewed but some of the problems the solution of which will guide further development of meteor investigation and international cooperation in this field for the near term are discussed. The main attention is paid to problems which the meteor community itself can solve, or at least expedite. Most of them are more or less connected with the problem of information archiving. Information archiving deals with methods and techniques of solving two closely connected groups of problems. The first is the analysis of data and information as an integral part of meteor research and deals with the solution of certain methodological problems. The second deals with gathering data and information for the designing of models of the atmosphere and/or meteor complex and its utilization. These problem solutions are discussed.

Benchmark problems and solutions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tam, Christopher K. W.

1995-01-01

The scientific committee, after careful consideration, adopted six categories of benchmark problems for the workshop. These problems do not cover all the important computational issues relevant to Computational Aeroacoustics (CAA). The deciding factor to limit the number of categories to six was the amount of effort needed to solve these problems. For reference purpose, the benchmark problems are provided here. They are followed by the exact or approximate analytical solutions. At present, an exact solution for the Category 6 problem is not available.

42 CFR 440.335 - Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. 440... and Benchmark-Equivalent Coverage § 440.335 Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. (a) Aggregate actuarial value. Benchmark-equivalent coverage is health benefits coverage that has an aggregate...

42 CFR 440.335 - Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. 440... and Benchmark-Equivalent Coverage § 440.335 Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. (a) Aggregate actuarial value. Benchmark-equivalent coverage is health benefits coverage that has an aggregate...

Defining core elements and outstanding practice in Nutritional Science through collaborative benchmarking.

PubMed

Samman, Samir; McCarthur, Jennifer O; Peat, Mary

2006-01-01

Benchmarking has been adopted by educational institutions as a potentially sensitive tool for improving learning and teaching. To date there has been limited application of benchmarking methodology in the Discipline of Nutritional Science. The aim of this survey was to define core elements and outstanding practice in Nutritional Science through collaborative benchmarking. Questionnaires that aimed to establish proposed core elements for Nutritional Science, and inquired about definitions of " good" and " outstanding" practice were posted to named representatives at eight Australian universities. Seven respondents identified core elements that included knowledge of nutrient metabolism and requirement, food production and processing, modern biomedical techniques that could be applied to understanding nutrition, and social and environmental issues as related to Nutritional Science. Four of the eight institutions who agreed to participate in the present survey identified the integration of teaching with research as an indicator of outstanding practice. Nutritional Science is a rapidly evolving discipline. Further and more comprehensive surveys are required to consolidate and update the definition of the discipline, and to identify the optimal way of teaching it. Global ideas and specific regional requirements also need to be considered.

Benchmarking specialty hospitals, a scoping review on theory and practice.

PubMed

Wind, A; van Harten, W H

2017-04-04

Although benchmarking may improve hospital processes, research on this subject is limited. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of publications on benchmarking in specialty hospitals and a description of study characteristics. We searched PubMed and EMBASE for articles published in English in the last 10 years. Eligible articles described a project stating benchmarking as its objective and involving a specialty hospital or specific patient category; or those dealing with the methodology or evaluation of benchmarking. Of 1,817 articles identified in total, 24 were included in the study. Articles were categorized into: pathway benchmarking, institutional benchmarking, articles on benchmark methodology or -evaluation and benchmarking using a patient registry. There was a large degree of variability:(1) study designs were mostly descriptive and retrospective; (2) not all studies generated and showed data in sufficient detail; and (3) there was variety in whether a benchmarking model was just described or if quality improvement as a consequence of the benchmark was reported upon. Most of the studies that described a benchmark model described the use of benchmarking partners from the same industry category, sometimes from all over the world. Benchmarking seems to be more developed in eye hospitals, emergency departments and oncology specialty hospitals. Some studies showed promising improvement effects. However, the majority of the articles lacked a structured design, and did not report on benchmark outcomes. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of benchmarking to improve quality in specialty hospitals, robust and structured designs are needed including a follow up to check whether the benchmark study has led to improvements.

The ISO Data Archive and Interoperability with Other Archives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salama, Alberto; Arviset, Christophe; Hernández, José; Dowson, John; Osuna, Pedro

The ESA's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), an unprecedented observatory for infrared astronomy launched in November 1995, successfully made nearly 30,000 scientific observations in its 2.5-year mission. The ISO data can be retrieved from the ISO Data Archive, available at ISO Data Archive , and comprised of about 150,000 observations, including parallel and serendipity mode observations. A user-friendly Java interface permits queries to the database and data retrieval. The interface currently offers a wide variety of links to other archives, such as name resolution with NED and SIMBAD, access to electronic articles from ADS and CDS/VizieR, and access to IRAS data. In the past year development has been focused on improving the IDA interoperability with other astronomical archives, either by accessing other relevant archives or by providing direct access to the ISO data for external services. A mechanism of information transfer has been developed, allowing direct query to the IDA via a Java Server Page, returning quick look ISO images and relevant, observation-specific information embedded in an HTML page. This method has been used to link from the CDS/Vizier Data Centre and ADS, and work with IPAC to allow access to the ISO Archive from IRSA, including display capabilities of the observed sky regions onto other mission images, is in progress. Prospects for further links to and from other archives and databases are also addressed.

A benchmark for subduction zone modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Keken, P.; King, S.; Peacock, S.

2003-04-01

Our understanding of subduction zones hinges critically on the ability to discern its thermal structure and dynamics. Computational modeling has become an essential complementary approach to observational and experimental studies. The accurate modeling of subduction zones is challenging due to the unique geometry, complicated rheological description and influence of fluid and melt formation. The complicated physics causes problems for the accurate numerical solution of the governing equations. As a consequence it is essential for the subduction zone community to be able to evaluate the ability and limitations of various modeling approaches. The participants of a workshop on the modeling of subduction zones, held at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, MI, USA in 2002, formulated a number of case studies to be developed into a benchmark similar to previous mantle convection benchmarks (Blankenbach et al., 1989; Busse et al., 1991; Van Keken et al., 1997). Our initial benchmark focuses on the dynamics of the mantle wedge and investigates three different rheologies: constant viscosity, diffusion creep, and dislocation creep. In addition we investigate the ability of codes to accurate model dynamic pressure and advection dominated flows. Proceedings of the workshop and the formulation of the benchmark are available at www.geo.lsa.umich.edu/~keken/subduction02.html We strongly encourage interested research groups to participate in this benchmark. At Nice 2003 we will provide an update and first set of benchmark results. Interested researchers are encouraged to contact one of the authors for further details.

XWeB: The XML Warehouse Benchmark

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahboubi, Hadj; Darmont, Jérôme

With the emergence of XML as a standard for representing business data, new decision support applications are being developed. These XML data warehouses aim at supporting On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) operations that manipulate irregular XML data. To ensure feasibility of these new tools, important performance issues must be addressed. Performance is customarily assessed with the help of benchmarks. However, decision support benchmarks do not currently support XML features. In this paper, we introduce the XML Warehouse Benchmark (XWeB), which aims at filling this gap. XWeB derives from the relational decision support benchmark TPC-H. It is mainly composed of a test data warehouse that is based on a unified reference model for XML warehouses and that features XML-specific structures, and its associate XQuery decision support workload. XWeB's usage is illustrated by experiments on several XML database management systems.

Benchmarking: your performance measurement and improvement tool.

PubMed

Senn, G F

2000-01-01

Many respected professional healthcare organizations and societies today are seeking to establish data-driven performance measurement strategies such as benchmarking. Clinicians are, however, resistant to "benchmarking" that is based on financial data alone, concerned that it may be adverse to the patients' best interests. Benchmarking of clinical procedures that uses physician's codes such as Current Procedural Terminology (CPTs) has greater credibility with practitioners. Better Performers, organizations that can perform procedures successfully at lower cost and in less time, become the "benchmark" against which other organizations can measure themselves. The Better Performers' strategies can be adopted by other facilities to save time or money while maintaining quality patient care.

Benchmark Airport Charges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

deWit, A.; Cohn, N.

1999-01-01

The Netherlands Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) commissioned Hague Consulting Group (HCG) to complete a benchmark study of airport charges at twenty eight airports in Europe and around the world, based on 1996 charges. This study followed previous DGCA research on the topic but included more airports in much more detail. The main purpose of this new benchmark study was to provide insight into the levels and types of airport charges worldwide and into recent changes in airport charge policy and structure, This paper describes the 1996 analysis. It is intended that this work be repeated every year in order to follow developing trends and provide the most up-to-date information possible.

Benchmark Airport Charges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

de Wit, A.; Cohn, N.

1999-01-01

The Netherlands Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) commissioned Hague Consulting Group (HCG) to complete a benchmark study of airport charges at twenty eight airports in Europe and around the world, based on 1996 charges. This study followed previous DGCA research on the topic but included more airports in much more detail. The main purpose of this new benchmark study was to provide insight into the levels and types of airport charges worldwide and into recent changes in airport charge policy and structure. This paper describes the 1996 analysis. It is intended that this work be repeated every year in order to follow developing trends and provide the most up-to-date information possible.

42 CFR 440.330 - Benchmark health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Benchmark-Equivalent Coverage § 440.330 Benchmark health benefits coverage. Benchmark coverage is health...) Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan Equivalent Coverage (FEHBP—Equivalent Health Insurance Coverage). A benefit plan equivalent to the standard Blue Cross/Blue Shield preferred provider option service benefit...

42 CFR 440.330 - Benchmark health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... Benchmark-Equivalent Coverage § 440.330 Benchmark health benefits coverage. Benchmark coverage is health...) Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan Equivalent Coverage (FEHBP—Equivalent Health Insurance Coverage). A benefit plan equivalent to the standard Blue Cross/Blue Shield preferred provider option service benefit...

42 CFR 440.330 - Benchmark health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... Benchmark-Equivalent Coverage § 440.330 Benchmark health benefits coverage. Benchmark coverage is health...) Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan Equivalent Coverage (FEHBP—Equivalent Health Insurance Coverage). A benefit plan equivalent to the standard Blue Cross/Blue Shield preferred provider option service benefit...

42 CFR 440.330 - Benchmark health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Benchmark-Equivalent Coverage § 440.330 Benchmark health benefits coverage. Benchmark coverage is health...) Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan Equivalent Coverage (FEHBP—Equivalent Health Insurance Coverage). A benefit plan equivalent to the standard Blue Cross/Blue Shield preferred provider option service benefit...

(abstract) Satellite Physical Oceanography Data Available From an EOSDIS Archive

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Digby, Susan A.; Collins, Donald J.

1996-01-01

The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory archives and distributes data as part of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Products available from JPL are largely satellite derived and include sea-surface height, surface-wind speed and vectors, integrated water vapor, atmospheric liquid water, sea-surface temperature, heat flux, and in-situ data as it pertains to satellite data. Much of the data is global and spans fourteen years.There is email access, a WWW site, product catalogs, and FTP capabilities. Data is free of charge.

40 CFR 141.172 - Disinfection profiling and benchmarking.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... benchmarking. 141.172 Section 141.172 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED... Disinfection-Systems Serving 10,000 or More People § 141.172 Disinfection profiling and benchmarking. (a... sanitary surveys conducted by the State. (c) Disinfection benchmarking. (1) Any system required to develop...

Raising Quality and Achievement. A College Guide to Benchmarking.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owen, Jane

This booklet introduces the principles and practices of benchmarking as a way of raising quality and achievement at further education colleges in Britain. Section 1 defines the concept of benchmarking. Section 2 explains what benchmarking is not and the steps that should be taken before benchmarking is initiated. The following aspects and…

Benchmarking forensic mental health organizations.

PubMed

Coombs, Tim; Taylor, Monica; Pirkis, Jane

2011-04-01

This paper describes the forensic mental health forums that were conducted as part of the National Mental Health Benchmarking Project (NMHBP). These forums encouraged participating organizations to compare their performance on a range of key performance indicators (KPIs) with that of their peers. Four forensic mental health organizations took part in the NMHBP. Representatives from these organizations attended eight benchmarking forums at which they documented their performance against previously agreed KPIs. They also undertook three special projects which explored some of the factors that might explain inter-organizational variation in performance. The inter-organizational range for many of the indicators was substantial. Observing this led participants to conduct the special projects to explore three factors which might help explain the variability - seclusion practices, delivery of community mental health services, and provision of court liaison services. The process of conducting the special projects gave participants insights into the practices and structures employed by their counterparts, and provided them with some important lessons for quality improvement. The forensic mental health benchmarking forums have demonstrated that benchmarking is feasible and likely to be useful in improving service performance and quality.

How to Advance TPC Benchmarks with Dependability Aspects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Almeida, Raquel; Poess, Meikel; Nambiar, Raghunath; Patil, Indira; Vieira, Marco

Transactional systems are the core of the information systems of most organizations. Although there is general acknowledgement that failures in these systems often entail significant impact both on the proceeds and reputation of companies, the benchmarks developed and managed by the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) still maintain their focus on reporting bare performance. Each TPC benchmark has to pass a list of dependability-related tests (to verify ACID properties), but not all benchmarks require measuring their performances. While TPC-E measures the recovery time of some system failures, TPC-H and TPC-C only require functional correctness of such recovery. Consequently, systems used in TPC benchmarks are tuned mostly for performance. In this paper we argue that nowadays systems should be tuned for a more comprehensive suite of dependability tests, and that a dependability metric should be part of TPC benchmark publications. The paper discusses WHY and HOW this can be achieved. Two approaches are introduced and discussed: augmenting each TPC benchmark in a customized way, by extending each specification individually; and pursuing a more unified approach, defining a generic specification that could be adjoined to any TPC benchmark.

A Methodology for Benchmarking Relational Database Machines,

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-01-01

user benchmarks is to compare the multiple users to the best-case performance The data for each query classification coll and the performance...called a benchmark. The term benchmark originates from the markers used by sur - veyors in establishing common reference points for their measure...formatted databases. In order to further simplify the problem, we restrict our study to those DBMs which support the relational model. A sur - vey

The MCNP6 Analytic Criticality Benchmark Suite

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

Brown, Forrest B.

2016-06-16

Analytical benchmarks provide an invaluable tool for verifying computer codes used to simulate neutron transport. Several collections of analytical benchmark problems [1-4] are used routinely in the verification of production Monte Carlo codes such as MCNP® [5,6]. Verification of a computer code is a necessary prerequisite to the more complex validation process. The verification process confirms that a code performs its intended functions correctly. The validation process involves determining the absolute accuracy of code results vs. nature. In typical validations, results are computed for a set of benchmark experiments using a particular methodology (code, cross-section data with uncertainties, and modeling)more » and compared to the measured results from the set of benchmark experiments. The validation process determines bias, bias uncertainty, and possibly additional margins. Verification is generally performed by the code developers, while validation is generally performed by code users for a particular application space. The VERIFICATION_KEFF suite of criticality problems [1,2] was originally a set of 75 criticality problems found in the literature for which exact analytical solutions are available. Even though the spatial and energy detail is necessarily limited in analytical benchmarks, typically to a few regions or energy groups, the exact solutions obtained can be used to verify that the basic algorithms, mathematics, and methods used in complex production codes perform correctly. The present work has focused on revisiting this benchmark suite. A thorough review of the problems resulted in discarding some of them as not suitable for MCNP benchmarking. For the remaining problems, many of them were reformulated to permit execution in either multigroup mode or in the normal continuous-energy mode for MCNP. Execution of the benchmarks in continuous-energy mode provides a significant advance to MCNP verification methods.« less

Protein Models Docking Benchmark 2

PubMed Central

Anishchenko, Ivan; Kundrotas, Petras J.; Tuzikov, Alexander V.; Vakser, Ilya A.

2015-01-01

Structural characterization of protein-protein interactions is essential for our ability to understand life processes. However, only a fraction of known proteins have experimentally determined structures. Such structures provide templates for modeling of a large part of the proteome, where individual proteins can be docked by template-free or template-based techniques. Still, the sensitivity of the docking methods to the inherent inaccuracies of protein models, as opposed to the experimentally determined high-resolution structures, remains largely untested, primarily due to the absence of appropriate benchmark set(s). Structures in such a set should have pre-defined inaccuracy levels and, at the same time, resemble actual protein models in terms of structural motifs/packing. The set should also be large enough to ensure statistical reliability of the benchmarking results. We present a major update of the previously developed benchmark set of protein models. For each interactor, six models were generated with the model-to-native Cα RMSD in the 1 to 6 Å range. The models in the set were generated by a new approach, which corresponds to the actual modeling of new protein structures in the “real case scenario,” as opposed to the previous set, where a significant number of structures were model-like only. In addition, the larger number of complexes (165 vs. 63 in the previous set) increases the statistical reliability of the benchmarking. We estimated the highest accuracy of the predicted complexes (according to CAPRI criteria), which can be attained using the benchmark structures. The set is available at http://dockground.bioinformatics.ku.edu. PMID:25712716

[Do you mean benchmarking?].

PubMed

Bonnet, F; Solignac, S; Marty, J

2008-03-01

The purpose of benchmarking is to settle improvement processes by comparing the activities to quality standards. The proposed methodology is illustrated by benchmark business cases performed inside medical plants on some items like nosocomial diseases or organization of surgery facilities. Moreover, the authors have built a specific graphic tool, enhanced with balance score numbers and mappings, so that the comparison between different anesthesia-reanimation services, which are willing to start an improvement program, is easy and relevant. This ready-made application is even more accurate as far as detailed tariffs of activities are implemented.

A New Archive of UKIRT Legacy Data at CADC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bell, G. S.; Currie, M. J.; Redman, R. O.; Purves, M.; Jenness, T.

2014-05-01

We describe a new archive of legacy data from the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC) containing all available data from the Cassegrain instruments. The desire was to archive the raw data in as close to the original format as possible, so where the data followed our current convention of having a single data file per observation, it was archived without alteration, except for minor fixes to headers of data in FITS format to allow it to pass fitsverify and be accepted by CADC. Some of the older data comprised multiple integrations in separate files per observation, stored in either Starlink NDF or Figaro DST format. These were placed inside HDS container files, and DST files were rearranged into NDF format. The describing the observations is ingested into the CAOM-2 repository via an intermediate MongoDB header database, which will also be used to guide the ORAC-DR pipeline in generating reduced data products.

Auto-consistent test of Galaxy star formation histories derived from resolved stellar population and integral spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodrigues, M.; Patricio, V.; Rothberg, B.; Sanchez-Janssen, R.; Vale Asari, N.

We present the first results of our observational project 'Starfish' (STellar Population From Integrated Spectrum). The goal of this project is to calibrate, for the first time, the properties of stellar populations derived from integrated spectra with the same properties derived from direct imaging of stellar populations in the same set of galaxies. These properties include the star-formation history (SFH), stellar mass, age, and metallicity. To date, such calibrations have been demonstrated only in star clusters, globular clusters with single stellar populations, not in complex and composite objects such as galaxies. We are currently constructing a library of integrated spectra obtained from a sample of 38 nearby dwarf galaxies obtained with GEMINI/GMOS-N&S (25h) and VLT/VIMOS-IFU (43h). These are to be compared with color magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of the same galaxies constructed from archival HST imaging sensitive to at least 1.5 magnitudes below the tip of the red giant branch. From this comparison we will assess the systematics and uncertainties from integrated spectral techniques. The spectra library will be made publicly available to the community via a dedicated web-page and Vizier database. This dataset will provide a unique benchmark for testing fitting procedures and stellar population models for both nearby and distant galaxies. http://www.sc.eso.org/˜marodrig/Starfish/

VLBA Archive &Distribution Architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wells, D. C.

1994-01-01

Signals from the 10 antennas of NRAO's VLBA [Very Long Baseline Array] are processed by a Correlator. The complex fringe visibilities produced by the Correlator are archived on magnetic cartridges using a low-cost architecture which is capable of scaling and evolving. Archive files are copied to magnetic media to be distributed to users in FITS format, using the BINTABLE extension. Archive files are labelled using SQL INSERT statements, in order to bind the DBMS-based archive catalog to the archive media.

Benchmarking, Total Quality Management, and Libraries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaughnessy, Thomas W.

1993-01-01

Discussion of the use of Total Quality Management (TQM) in higher education and academic libraries focuses on the identification, collection, and use of reliable data. Methods for measuring quality, including benchmarking, are described; performance measures are considered; and benchmarking techniques are examined. (11 references) (MES)

Using natural archives to track sources and long-term trends of pollution: an introduction

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jules Blais,; Rosen, Michael R.; John Smol,

2015-01-01

This book explores the myriad ways that environmental archives can be used to study the distribution and long-term trajectories of contaminants. The volume first focuses on reviews that examine the integrity of the historic record, including factors related to hydrology, post-depositional diffusion, and mixing processes. This is followed by a series of chapters dealing with the diverse archives available for long-term studies of environmental pollution.

Radiation Detection Computational Benchmark Scenarios

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

Shaver, Mark W.; Casella, Andrew M.; Wittman, Richard S.

2013-09-24

Modeling forms an important component of radiation detection development, allowing for testing of new detector designs, evaluation of existing equipment against a wide variety of potential threat sources, and assessing operation performance of radiation detection systems. This can, however, result in large and complex scenarios which are time consuming to model. A variety of approaches to radiation transport modeling exist with complementary strengths and weaknesses for different problems. This variety of approaches, and the development of promising new tools (such as ORNL’s ADVANTG) which combine benefits of multiple approaches, illustrates the need for a means of evaluating or comparing differentmore » techniques for radiation detection problems. This report presents a set of 9 benchmark problems for comparing different types of radiation transport calculations, identifying appropriate tools for classes of problems, and testing and guiding the development of new methods. The benchmarks were drawn primarily from existing or previous calculations with a preference for scenarios which include experimental data, or otherwise have results with a high level of confidence, are non-sensitive, and represent problem sets of interest to NA-22. From a technical perspective, the benchmarks were chosen to span a range of difficulty and to include gamma transport, neutron transport, or both and represent different important physical processes and a range of sensitivity to angular or energy fidelity. Following benchmark identification, existing information about geometry, measurements, and previous calculations were assembled. Monte Carlo results (MCNP decks) were reviewed or created and re-run in order to attain accurate computational times and to verify agreement with experimental data, when present. Benchmark information was then conveyed to ORNL in order to guide testing and development of hybrid calculations. The results of those ADVANTG calculations were then sent to

Benchmarking Helps Measure Union Programs, Operations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mann, Jerry

2001-01-01

Explores three examples of benchmarking by college student unions. Focuses on how a union can collect information from other unions for use as benchmarking standards for the purposes of selling a concept or justifying program increases, or for comparing a union's financial performance to other unions. (EV)

Revenues and Expenditures: Peer and Benchmark Comparisons, University of Hawai'i, Fiscal Year 1994-95.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawaii Univ., Honolulu.

The University of Hawaii's (UH) three university and seven community college campuses are compared with benchmark and peer group institutions with regard to selected financial measures. The primary data sources for this report were the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Finance Survey, Fiscal Year 1994-95. Tables show data on…

Benchmark Study of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing | Advanced

Science.gov Websites

Manufacturing Research | NREL Benchmark Study of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing Benchmark Study of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing Through a first-of-its-kind benchmark study, the Clean Energy Technology End Product.' The study examined four clean energy technologies: wind turbine components

Benchmarking: contexts and details matter.

PubMed

Zheng, Siyuan

2017-07-05

Benchmarking is an essential step in the development of computational tools. We take this opportunity to pitch in our opinions on tool benchmarking, in light of two correspondence articles published in Genome Biology.Please see related Li et al. and Newman et al. correspondence articles: www.dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-017-1256-5 and www.dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-017-1257-4.

Diagnostic Algorithm Benchmarking

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Poll, Scott

2011-01-01

A poster for the NASA Aviation Safety Program Annual Technical Meeting. It describes empirical benchmarking on diagnostic algorithms using data from the ADAPT Electrical Power System testbed and a diagnostic software framework.

My Dream Archive

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phelps, Christopher

2007-01-01

In this article, the author shares his experience as he traveled from island to island with a single objective--to reach the archives. He found out that not all archives are the same. In recent months, his daydreaming in various facilities has yielded a recurrent question on what would constitute the Ideal Archive. What follows, in no particular…

The Operation and Architecture of the Keck Observatory Archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berriman, G. B.; Gelino, C. R.; Laity, A.; Kong, M.; Swain, M.; Holt, J.; Goodrich, R.; Mader, J.; Tran, H. D.

2014-05-01

The Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and the W. M. Keck Observatory (WMKO) are collaborating to build an archive for the twin 10-m Keck Telescopes, located near the summit of Mauna Kea. The Keck Observatory Archive (KOA) takes advantage of IPAC's long experience with managing and archiving large and complex data sets from active missions and serving them to the community; and of the Observatory's knowledge of the operation of its sophisticated instrumentation and the organization of the data products. By the end of 2013, KOA will contain data from all eight active observatory instruments, with an anticipated volume of 28 TB. The data include raw science and observations, quick look products, weather information, and, for some instruments, reduced and calibrated products. The goal of including data from all instruments is the cumulation of a rapid expansion of the archive's holdings, and already data from four new instruments have been added since October 2012. One more active instrument, the integral field spectrograph OSIRIS, is scheduled for ingestion in December 2013. After preparation for ingestion into the archive, the data are transmitted electronically from WMKO to IPAC for curation in the physical archive. This process includes validation of the science and content of the data and verification that data were not corrupted in transmission. The archived data include both newly-acquired observations and all previously acquired observations. The older data extends back to the date of instrument commissioning; for some instruments, such as HIRES, these data can extend as far back as 1994. KOA will continue to ingest all newly obtained observations, at an anticipated volume of 4 TB per year, and plans to ingest data from two decommissioned instruments. Access to these data is governed by a data use policy that guarantees Principal Investigators (PI) exclusive access to their data for at least 18 months, and allows for extensions as granted by

Will Today's Electronic Journals Be Accessible in the 23rd Century: Issues in Long-Term Archiving (SIG STI, IFP)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lippert, Margaret

2000-01-01

This abstract of a planned session on access to scientific and technical journals addresses policy and standard issues related to long-term archives; digital archiving models; economic factors; hardware and software issues; multi-publisher electronic journal content integration; format considerations; and future data migration needs. (LRW)

MoMaS reactive transport benchmark using PFLOTRAN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, H.

2017-12-01

MoMaS benchmark was developed to enhance numerical simulation capability for reactive transport modeling in porous media. The benchmark was published in late September of 2009; it is not taken from a real chemical system, but realistic and numerically challenging tests. PFLOTRAN is a state-of-art massively parallel subsurface flow and reactive transport code that is being used in multiple nuclear waste repository projects at Sandia National Laboratories including Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and Used Fuel Disposition. MoMaS benchmark has three independent tests with easy, medium, and hard chemical complexity. This paper demonstrates how PFLOTRAN is applied to this benchmark exercise and shows results of the easy benchmark test case which includes mixing of aqueous components and surface complexation. Surface complexations consist of monodentate and bidentate reactions which introduces difficulty in defining selectivity coefficient if the reaction applies to a bulk reference volume. The selectivity coefficient becomes porosity dependent for bidentate reaction in heterogeneous porous media. The benchmark is solved by PFLOTRAN with minimal modification to address the issue and unit conversions were made properly to suit PFLOTRAN.

Benchmarking hypercube hardware and software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grunwald, Dirk C.; Reed, Daniel A.

1986-01-01

It was long a truism in computer systems design that balanced systems achieve the best performance. Message passing parallel processors are no different. To quantify the balance of a hypercube design, an experimental methodology was developed and the associated suite of benchmarks was applied to several existing hypercubes. The benchmark suite includes tests of both processor speed in the absence of internode communication and message transmission speed as a function of communication patterns.

Electronic signatures for long-lasting storage purposes in electronic archives.

PubMed

Pharow, Peter; Blobel, Bernd

2005-03-01

Communication and co-operation in healthcare and welfare require a certain set of trusted third party (TTP) services describing both status and relation of communicating principals as well as their corresponding keys and attributes. Additional TTP services are needed to provide trustworthy information about dynamic issues of communication and co-operation such as time and location of processes, workflow relations, and system behaviour. Legal and ethical requirements demand securely stored patient information and well-defined access rights. Among others, electronic signatures based on asymmetric cryptography are important means for securing the integrity of a message or file as well as for accountability purposes including non-repudiation of both origin and receipt. Electronic signatures along with certified time stamps or time signatures are especially important for electronic archives in general, electronic health records (EHR) in particular, and especially for typical purposes of long-lasting storage. Apart from technical storage problems (e.g. lifetime of the storage devices, interoperability of retrieval and presentation software), this paper identifies mechanisms of e.g. re-signing and re-stamping of data items, files, messages, sets of archived items or documents, archive structures, and even whole archives.

HEASARC Software Archive

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

White, Nicholas (Technical Monitor); Murray, Stephen S.

2003-01-01

multiple world coordinate systems, three dimensional event file binning, image smoothing, region groups and tags, the ability to save images in a number of image formats (such as JPEG, TIFF, PNG, FITS), improvements in support for integrating external analysis tools, and support for the virtual observatory. In particular, a full-featured web browser has been implemented within D S 9 . This provides support for full access to HEASARC archive sites such as SKYVIEW and W3BROWSE, in addition to other astronomical archives sites such as MAST, CHANDRA, ADS, NED, SIMBAD, IRAS, NVRO, SA0 TDC, and FIRST. From within DS9, the archives can be searched, and FITS images, plots, spectra, and journal abstracts can be referenced, downloaded and displayed The web browser provides the basis for the built-in help facility. All DS9 documentation, including the reference manual, FAQ, Know Features, and contact information is now available to the user without the need for external display applications. New versions of DS9 maybe downloaded and installed using this facility. Two important features used in the analysis of high energy astronomical data have been implemented in the past year. The first is support for binning photon event data in three dimensions. By binning the third dimension in time or energy, users are easily able to detect variable x-ray sources and identify other physical properties of their data. Second, a number of fast smoothing algorithms have been implemented in DS9, which allow users to smooth their data in real time. Algorithms for boxcar, tophat, and gaussian smoothing are supported.

Benchmarking for Excellence and the Nursing Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sleboda, Claire

1999-01-01

Nursing is a service profession. The services provided are essential to life and welfare. Therefore, setting the benchmark for high quality care is fundamental. Exploring the definition of a benchmark value will help to determine a best practice approach. A benchmark is the descriptive statement of a desired level of performance against which quality can be judged. It must be sufficiently well understood by managers and personnel in order that it may serve as a standard against which to measure value.

Toward Scalable Benchmarks for Mass Storage Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miller, Ethan L.

1996-01-01

This paper presents guidelines for the design of a mass storage system benchmark suite, along with preliminary suggestions for programs to be included. The benchmarks will measure both peak and sustained performance of the system as well as predicting both short- and long-term behavior. These benchmarks should be both portable and scalable so they may be used on storage systems from tens of gigabytes to petabytes or more. By developing a standard set of benchmarks that reflect real user workload, we hope to encourage system designers and users to publish performance figures that can be compared with those of other systems. This will allow users to choose the system that best meets their needs and give designers a tool with which they can measure the performance effects of improvements to their systems.

Benchmarking and validation activities within JEFF project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cabellos, O.; Alvarez-Velarde, F.; Angelone, M.; Diez, C. J.; Dyrda, J.; Fiorito, L.; Fischer, U.; Fleming, M.; Haeck, W.; Hill, I.; Ichou, R.; Kim, D. H.; Klix, A.; Kodeli, I.; Leconte, P.; Michel-Sendis, F.; Nunnenmann, E.; Pecchia, M.; Peneliau, Y.; Plompen, A.; Rochman, D.; Romojaro, P.; Stankovskiy, A.; Sublet, J. Ch.; Tamagno, P.; Marck, S. van der

2017-09-01

The challenge for any nuclear data evaluation project is to periodically release a revised, fully consistent and complete library, with all needed data and covariances, and ensure that it is robust and reliable for a variety of applications. Within an evaluation effort, benchmarking activities play an important role in validating proposed libraries. The Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion (JEFF) Project aims to provide such a nuclear data library, and thus, requires a coherent and efficient benchmarking process. The aim of this paper is to present the activities carried out by the new JEFF Benchmarking and Validation Working Group, and to describe the role of the NEA Data Bank in this context. The paper will also review the status of preliminary benchmarking for the next JEFF-3.3 candidate cross-section files.

Clinical experience with a high-performance ATM-connected DICOM archive for cardiology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Solomon, Harry P.

1997-05-01

A system to archive large image sets, such as cardiac cine runs, with near realtime response must address several functional and performance issues, including efficient use of a high performance network connection with standard protocols, an architecture which effectively integrates both short- and long-term mass storage devices, and a flexible data management policy which allows optimization of image distribution and retrieval strategies based on modality and site-specific operational use. Clinical experience with such as archive has allowed evaluation of these systems issues and refinement of a traffic model for cardiac angiography.

Fermilab History and Archives Project | Home

Science.gov Websites

Fermilab History and Archives Project Fermilab History and Archives Project Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Home About the Archives History & Archives Online Request Contact Us Site Index SEARCH the site: History & Archives Project Fermilab History and Archives Project The History of

Benchmarking short sequence mapping tools

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The development of next-generation sequencing instruments has led to the generation of millions of short sequences in a single run. The process of aligning these reads to a reference genome is time consuming and demands the development of fast and accurate alignment tools. However, the current proposed tools make different compromises between the accuracy and the speed of mapping. Moreover, many important aspects are overlooked while comparing the performance of a newly developed tool to the state of the art. Therefore, there is a need for an objective evaluation method that covers all the aspects. In this work, we introduce a benchmarking suite to extensively analyze sequencing tools with respect to various aspects and provide an objective comparison. Results We applied our benchmarking tests on 9 well known mapping tools, namely, Bowtie, Bowtie2, BWA, SOAP2, MAQ, RMAP, GSNAP, Novoalign, and mrsFAST (mrFAST) using synthetic data and real RNA-Seq data. MAQ and RMAP are based on building hash tables for the reads, whereas the remaining tools are based on indexing the reference genome. The benchmarking tests reveal the strengths and weaknesses of each tool. The results show that no single tool outperforms all others in all metrics. However, Bowtie maintained the best throughput for most of the tests while BWA performed better for longer read lengths. The benchmarking tests are not restricted to the mentioned tools and can be further applied to others. Conclusion The mapping process is still a hard problem that is affected by many factors. In this work, we provided a benchmarking suite that reveals and evaluates the different factors affecting the mapping process. Still, there is no tool that outperforms all of the others in all the tests. Therefore, the end user should clearly specify his needs in order to choose the tool that provides the best results. PMID:23758764

Benchmarking on Tsunami Currents with ComMIT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharghi vand, N.; Kanoglu, U.

2015-12-01

There were no standards for the validation and verification of tsunami numerical models before 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Even, number of numerical models has been used for inundation mapping effort, evaluation of critical structures, etc. without validation and verification. After 2004, NOAA Center for Tsunami Research (NCTR) established standards for the validation and verification of tsunami numerical models (Synolakis et al. 2008 Pure Appl. Geophys. 165, 2197-2228), which will be used evaluation of critical structures such as nuclear power plants against tsunami attack. NCTR presented analytical, experimental and field benchmark problems aimed to estimate maximum runup and accepted widely by the community. Recently, benchmark problems were suggested by the US National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program Mapping & Modeling Benchmarking Workshop: Tsunami Currents on February 9-10, 2015 at Portland, Oregon, USA (http://nws.weather.gov/nthmp/index.html). These benchmark problems concentrated toward validation and verification of tsunami numerical models on tsunami currents. Three of the benchmark problems were: current measurement of the Japan 2011 tsunami in Hilo Harbor, Hawaii, USA and in Tauranga Harbor, New Zealand, and single long-period wave propagating onto a small-scale experimental model of the town of Seaside, Oregon, USA. These benchmark problems were implemented in the Community Modeling Interface for Tsunamis (ComMIT) (Titov et al. 2011 Pure Appl. Geophys. 168, 2121-2131), which is a user-friendly interface to the validated and verified Method of Splitting Tsunami (MOST) (Titov and Synolakis 1995 J. Waterw. Port Coastal Ocean Eng. 121, 308-316) model and is developed by NCTR. The modeling results are compared with the required benchmark data, providing good agreements and results are discussed. Acknowledgment: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant

Benchmarking child and adolescent mental health organizations.

PubMed

Brann, Peter; Walter, Garry; Coombs, Tim

2011-04-01

This paper describes aspects of the child and adolescent benchmarking forums that were part of the National Mental Health Benchmarking Project (NMHBP). These forums enabled participating child and adolescent mental health organizations to benchmark themselves against each other, with a view to understanding variability in performance against a range of key performance indicators (KPIs). Six child and adolescent mental health organizations took part in the NMHBP. Representatives from these organizations attended eight benchmarking forums at which they documented their performance against relevant KPIs. They also undertook two special projects designed to help them understand the variation in performance on given KPIs. There was considerable inter-organization variability on many of the KPIs. Even within organizations, there was often substantial variability over time. The variability in indicator data raised many questions for participants. This challenged participants to better understand and describe their local processes, prompted them to collect additional data, and stimulated them to make organizational comparisons. These activities fed into a process of reflection about their performance. Benchmarking has the potential to illuminate intra- and inter-organizational performance in the child and adolescent context.

Benchmarks: The Development of a New Approach to Student Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larter, Sylvia

The Toronto Board of Education Benchmarks are libraries of reference materials that demonstrate student achievement at various levels. Each library contains video benchmarks, print benchmarks, a staff handbook, and summary and introductory documents. This book is about the development and the history of the benchmark program. It has taken over 3…

42 CFR 457.430 - Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. 457... STATES State Plan Requirements: Coverage and Benefits § 457.430 Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. (a) Aggregate actuarial value. Benchmark-equivalent coverage is health benefits coverage that has...

42 CFR 457.430 - Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. 457... STATES State Plan Requirements: Coverage and Benefits § 457.430 Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. (a) Aggregate actuarial value. Benchmark-equivalent coverage is health benefits coverage that has...

42 CFR 457.430 - Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. 457... STATES State Plan Requirements: Coverage and Benefits § 457.430 Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. (a) Aggregate actuarial value. Benchmark-equivalent coverage is health benefits coverage that has...

42 CFR 440.335 - Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. 440.335 Section 440.335 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND... and Benchmark-Equivalent Coverage § 440.335 Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. (a...

42 CFR 440.335 - Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. 440.335 Section 440.335 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND... and Benchmark-Equivalent Coverage § 440.335 Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage. (a...

PDS: A Performance Database Server

DOE PAGES

Berry, Michael W.; Dongarra, Jack J.; Larose, Brian H.; ...

1994-01-01

The process of gathering, archiving, and distributing computer benchmark data is a cumbersome task usually performed by computer users and vendors with little coordination. Most important, there is no publicly available central depository of performance data for all ranges of machines from personal computers to supercomputers. We present an Internet-accessible performance database server (PDS) that can be used to extract current benchmark data and literature. As an extension to the X-Windows-based user interface (Xnetlib) to the Netlib archival system, PDS provides an on-line catalog of public domain computer benchmarks such as the LINPACK benchmark, Perfect benchmarks, and the NAS parallelmore » benchmarks. PDS does not reformat or present the benchmark data in any way that conflicts with the original methodology of any particular benchmark; it is thereby devoid of any subjective interpretations of machine performance. We believe that all branches (research laboratories, academia, and industry) of the general computing community can use this facility to archive performance metrics and make them readily available to the public. PDS can provide a more manageable approach to the development and support of a large dynamic database of published performance metrics.« less

(Per)Forming Archival Research Methodologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaillet, Lynee Lewis

2012-01-01

This article raises multiple issues associated with archival research methodologies and methods. Based on a survey of recent scholarship and interviews with experienced archival researchers, this overview of the current status of archival research both complicates traditional conceptions of archival investigation and encourages scholars to adopt…

Home - Libraries, Archives, & Museums - Libraries, Archives, & Museums at

Science.gov Websites

Alaska State Library Skip to main content State of Alaska myAlaska Departments State Employees Statewide Links × Upcoming Holiday Closure for Memorial Day The Alaska State Libraries, Archives, & Tuesday, May 29. Department of Education and Early Development Alaska State Libraries, Archives, and

Taking the Battle Upstream: Towards a Benchmarking Role for NATO

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

Benchmark.........................................................................................14 Figure 8. World Bank Benchmarking Work on Quality...Search of a Benchmarking Theory for the Public Sector.” 16     Figure 8. World Bank Benchmarking Work on Quality of Governance One of the most...the Ministries of Defense in the countries in which it works ). Another interesting innovation is that for comparison purposes, McKinsey categorized

The BepiColombo Archive Core System (BACS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macfarlane, A. J.; Osuna, P.; Pérez-López, F.; Vallejo, J. C.; Martinez, S.; Arviset, C.; Casale, M.

2015-09-01

BepiColombo is an interdisciplinary ESA mission to explore the planet Mercury in cooperation with JAXA. The mission consists of two separate orbiters: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), which are dedicated to the detailed study of the planet and its magnetosphere. The MPO scientific payload comprises 11 instruments covering different scientific disciplines developed by several European teams. The MPO science operations will be prepared by the MPO Science Ground Segment (SGS) located at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Madrid. The BepiColombo Archive Core System (BACS) will be the central archive in which all mission operational data will be stored and is being developed by the Science Archives and Virtual Observatory Team (SAT) also at ESAC. The BACS will act as one of the modular subsystems within the BepiColombo Science Operations Control System (BSCS), (Vallejo 2014; Pérez-López 2014) which is under the responsibility of the SGS, with the purpose of facilitating the information exchange of data and metadata between the other subsystems of the BSCS as well as with the MPO Instrument Teams. This paper gives an overview of the concept and design of the BACS and how it integrates into the science ground segment workflow.

New Developments At The Science Archives Of The NASA Exoplanet Science Institute

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berriman, G. Bruce

2018-06-01

The NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) at Caltech/IPAC is the science center for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program and as such, NExScI operates three scientific archives: the NASA Exoplanet Archive (NEA) and Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program Website (ExoFOP), and the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA).The NASA Exoplanet Archive supports research and mission planning by the exoplanet community by operating a service that provides confirmed and candidate planets, numerous project and contributed data sets and integrated analysis tools. The ExoFOP provides an environment for exoplanet observers to share and exchange data, observing notes, and information regarding the Kepler, K2, and TESS candidates. KOA serves all raw science and calibration observations acquired by all active and decommissioned instruments at the W. M. Keck Observatory, as well as reduced data sets contributed by Keck observers.In the coming years, the NExScI archives will support a series of major endeavours allowing flexible, interactive analysis of the data available at the archives. These endeavours exploit a common infrastructure based upon modern interfaces such as JuypterLab and Python. The first service will enable reduction and analysis of precision radial velocity data from the HIRES Keck instrument. The Exoplanet Archive is developing a JuypterLab environment based on the HIRES PRV interactive environment. Additionally, KOA is supporting an Observatory initiative to develop modern, Python based pipelines, and as part of this work, it has delivered a NIRSPEC reduction pipeline. The ensemble of pipelines will be accessible through the same environments.

Human Health Benchmarks for Pesticides

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Advanced testing methods now allow pesticides to be detected in water at very low levels. These small amounts of pesticides detected in drinking water or source water for drinking water do not necessarily indicate a health risk. The EPA has developed human health benchmarks for 363 pesticides to enable our partners to better determine whether the detection of a pesticide in drinking water or source waters for drinking water may indicate a potential health risk and to help them prioritize monitoring efforts.The table below includes benchmarks for acute (one-day) and chronic (lifetime) exposures for the most sensitive populations from exposure to pesticides that may be found in surface or ground water sources of drinking water. The table also includes benchmarks for 40 pesticides in drinking water that have the potential for cancer risk. The HHBP table includes pesticide active ingredients for which Health Advisories or enforceable National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (e.g., maximum contaminant levels) have not been developed.

A new numerical benchmark of a freshwater lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stoeckl, L.; Walther, M.; Graf, T.

2016-04-01

A numerical benchmark for 2-D variable-density flow and solute transport in a freshwater lens is presented. The benchmark is based on results of laboratory experiments conducted by Stoeckl and Houben (2012) using a sand tank on the meter scale. This benchmark describes the formation and degradation of a freshwater lens over time as it can be found under real-world islands. An error analysis gave the appropriate spatial and temporal discretization of 1 mm and 8.64 s, respectively. The calibrated parameter set was obtained using the parameter estimation tool PEST. Comparing density-coupled and density-uncoupled results showed that the freshwater-saltwater interface position is strongly dependent on density differences. A benchmark that adequately represents saltwater intrusion and that includes realistic features of coastal aquifers or freshwater lenses was lacking. This new benchmark was thus developed and is demonstrated to be suitable to test variable-density groundwater models applied to saltwater intrusion investigations.

Evaluation of control strategies using an oxidation ditch benchmark.

PubMed

Abusam, A; Keesman, K J; Spanjers, H; van, Straten G; Meinema, K

2002-01-01

This paper presents validation and implementation results of a benchmark developed for a specific full-scale oxidation ditch wastewater treatment plant. A benchmark is a standard simulation procedure that can be used as a tool in evaluating various control strategies proposed for wastewater treatment plants. It is based on model and performance criteria development. Testing of this benchmark, by comparing benchmark predictions to real measurements of the electrical energy consumptions and amounts of disposed sludge for a specific oxidation ditch WWTP, has shown that it can (reasonably) be used for evaluating the performance of this WWTP. Subsequently, the validated benchmark was then used in evaluating some basic and advanced control strategies. Some of the interesting results obtained are the following: (i) influent flow splitting ratio, between the first and the fourth aerated compartments of the ditch, has no significant effect on the TN concentrations in the effluent, and (ii) for evaluation of long-term control strategies, future benchmarks need to be able to assess settlers' performance.

Benchmarking to improve the quality of cystic fibrosis care.

PubMed

Schechter, Michael S

2012-11-01

Benchmarking involves the ascertainment of healthcare programs with most favorable outcomes as a means to identify and spread effective strategies for delivery of care. The recent interest in the development of patient registries for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) has been fueled in part by an interest in using them to facilitate benchmarking. This review summarizes reports of how benchmarking has been operationalized in attempts to improve CF care. Although certain goals of benchmarking can be accomplished with an exclusive focus on registry data analysis, benchmarking programs in Germany and the United States have supplemented these data analyses with exploratory interactions and discussions to better understand successful approaches to care and encourage their spread throughout the care network. Benchmarking allows the discovery and facilitates the spread of effective approaches to care. It provides a pragmatic alternative to traditional research methods such as randomized controlled trials, providing insights into methods that optimize delivery of care and allowing judgments about the relative effectiveness of different therapeutic approaches.

Benchmarking monthly homogenization algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venema, V. K. C.; Mestre, O.; Aguilar, E.; Auer, I.; Guijarro, J. A.; Domonkos, P.; Vertacnik, G.; Szentimrey, T.; Stepanek, P.; Zahradnicek, P.; Viarre, J.; Müller-Westermeier, G.; Lakatos, M.; Williams, C. N.; Menne, M.; Lindau, R.; Rasol, D.; Rustemeier, E.; Kolokythas, K.; Marinova, T.; Andresen, L.; Acquaotta, F.; Fratianni, S.; Cheval, S.; Klancar, M.; Brunetti, M.; Gruber, C.; Prohom Duran, M.; Likso, T.; Esteban, P.; Brandsma, T.

2011-08-01

The COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action ES0601: Advances in homogenization methods of climate series: an integrated approach (HOME) has executed a blind intercomparison and validation study for monthly homogenization algorithms. Time series of monthly temperature and precipitation were evaluated because of their importance for climate studies and because they represent two important types of statistics (additive and multiplicative). The algorithms were validated against a realistic benchmark dataset. The benchmark contains real inhomogeneous data as well as simulated data with inserted inhomogeneities. Random break-type inhomogeneities were added to the simulated datasets modeled as a Poisson process with normally distributed breakpoint sizes. To approximate real world conditions, breaks were introduced that occur simultaneously in multiple station series within a simulated network of station data. The simulated time series also contained outliers, missing data periods and local station trends. Further, a stochastic nonlinear global (network-wide) trend was added. Participants provided 25 separate homogenized contributions as part of the blind study as well as 22 additional solutions submitted after the details of the imposed inhomogeneities were revealed. These homogenized datasets were assessed by a number of performance metrics including (i) the centered root mean square error relative to the true homogeneous value at various averaging scales, (ii) the error in linear trend estimates and (iii) traditional contingency skill scores. The metrics were computed both using the individual station series as well as the network average regional series. The performance of the contributions depends significantly on the error metric considered. Contingency scores by themselves are not very informative. Although relative homogenization algorithms typically improve the homogeneity of temperature data, only the best ones improve precipitation data

29 CFR 1952.153 - Compliance staffing benchmarks.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... further revision of its benchmarks to 64 safety inspectors and 50 industrial hygienists. After opportunity... Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... benchmarks of 50 safety and 27 health compliance officers. After opportunity for public comment and service...

29 CFR 1952.153 - Compliance staffing benchmarks.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... further revision of its benchmarks to 64 safety inspectors and 50 industrial hygienists. After opportunity... Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... benchmarks of 50 safety and 27 health compliance officers. After opportunity for public comment and service...

29 CFR 1952.153 - Compliance staffing benchmarks.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... further revision of its benchmarks to 64 safety inspectors and 50 industrial hygienists. After opportunity... Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... benchmarks of 50 safety and 27 health compliance officers. After opportunity for public comment and service...

29 CFR 1952.153 - Compliance staffing benchmarks.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... further revision of its benchmarks to 64 safety inspectors and 50 industrial hygienists. After opportunity... Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... benchmarks of 50 safety and 27 health compliance officers. After opportunity for public comment and service...

29 CFR 1952.153 - Compliance staffing benchmarks.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... further revision of its benchmarks to 64 safety inspectors and 50 industrial hygienists. After opportunity... Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... benchmarks of 50 safety and 27 health compliance officers. After opportunity for public comment and service...

Integration of a Zero-footprint Cloud-based Picture Archiving and Communication System with Customizable Forms for Radiology Research and Education.

PubMed

Hostetter, Jason; Khanna, Nishanth; Mandell, Jacob C

2018-06-01

The purpose of this study was to integrate web-based forms with a zero-footprint cloud-based Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) to create a tool of potential benefit to radiology research and education. Web-based forms were created with a front-end and back-end architecture utilizing common programming languages including Vue.js, Node.js and MongoDB, and integrated into an existing zero-footprint cloud-based PACS. The web-based forms application can be accessed in any modern internet browser on desktop or mobile devices and allows the creation of customizable forms consisting of a variety of questions types. Each form can be linked to an individual DICOM examination or a collection of DICOM examinations. Several uses are demonstrated through a series of case studies, including implementation of a research platform for multi-reader multi-case (MRMC) studies and other imaging research, and creation of an online Objective Structure Clinical Examination (OSCE) and an educational case file. Copyright © 2018 The Association of University Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Python/Lua Benchmarks

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

Busby, L.

This is an adaptation of the pre-existing Scimark benchmark code to a variety of Python and Lua implementations. It also measures performance of the Fparser expression parser and C and C++ code on a variety of simple scientific expressions.

Methodology and issues of integral experiments selection for nuclear data validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tatiana, Ivanova; Ivanov, Evgeny; Hill, Ian

2017-09-01

Nuclear data validation involves a large suite of Integral Experiments (IEs) for criticality, reactor physics and dosimetry applications. [1] Often benchmarks are taken from international Handbooks. [2, 3] Depending on the application, IEs have different degrees of usefulness in validation, and usually the use of a single benchmark is not advised; indeed, it may lead to erroneous interpretation and results. [1] This work aims at quantifying the importance of benchmarks used in application dependent cross section validation. The approach is based on well-known General Linear Least Squared Method (GLLSM) extended to establish biases and uncertainties for given cross sections (within a given energy interval). The statistical treatment results in a vector of weighting factors for the integral benchmarks. These factors characterize the value added by a benchmark for nuclear data validation for the given application. The methodology is illustrated by one example, selecting benchmarks for 239Pu cross section validation. The studies were performed in the framework of Subgroup 39 (Methods and approaches to provide feedback from nuclear and covariance data adjustment for improvement of nuclear data files) established at the Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Cooperation (WPEC) of the Nuclear Science Committee under the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA/OECD).

BIOREL: the benchmark resource to estimate the relevance of the gene networks.

PubMed

Antonov, Alexey V; Mewes, Hans W

2006-02-06

The progress of high-throughput methodologies in functional genomics has lead to the development of statistical procedures to infer gene networks from various types of high-throughput data. However, due to the lack of common standards, the biological significance of the results of the different studies is hard to compare. To overcome this problem we propose a benchmark procedure and have developed a web resource (BIOREL), which is useful for estimating the biological relevance of any genetic network by integrating different sources of biological information. The associations of each gene from the network are classified as biologically relevant or not. The proportion of genes in the network classified as "relevant" is used as the overall network relevance score. Employing synthetic data we demonstrated that such a score ranks the networks fairly in respect to the relevance level. Using BIOREL as the benchmark resource we compared the quality of experimental and theoretically predicted protein interaction data.

Benchmarking image fusion system design parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howell, Christopher L.

2013-06-01

A clear and absolute method for discriminating between image fusion algorithm performances is presented. This method can effectively be used to assist in the design and modeling of image fusion systems. Specifically, it is postulated that quantifying human task performance using image fusion should be benchmarked to whether the fusion algorithm, at a minimum, retained the performance benefit achievable by each independent spectral band being fused. The established benchmark would then clearly represent the threshold that a fusion system should surpass to be considered beneficial to a particular task. A genetic algorithm is employed to characterize the fused system parameters using a Matlab® implementation of NVThermIP as the objective function. By setting the problem up as a mixed-integer constraint optimization problem, one can effectively look backwards through the image acquisition process: optimizing fused system parameters by minimizing the difference between modeled task difficulty measure and the benchmark task difficulty measure. The results of an identification perception experiment are presented, where human observers were asked to identify a standard set of military targets, and used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the benchmarking process.

An Integrated Development Environment for Adiabatic Quantum Programming

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

Humble, Travis S; McCaskey, Alex; Bennink, Ryan S

2014-01-01

Adiabatic quantum computing is a promising route to the computational power afforded by quantum information processing. The recent availability of adiabatic hardware raises the question of how well quantum programs perform. Benchmarking behavior is challenging since the multiple steps to synthesize an adiabatic quantum program are highly tunable. We present an adiabatic quantum programming environment called JADE that provides control over all the steps taken during program development. JADE captures the workflow needed to rigorously benchmark performance while also allowing a variety of problem types, programming techniques, and processor configurations. We have also integrated JADE with a quantum simulation enginemore » that enables program profiling using numerical calculation. The computational engine supports plug-ins for simulation methodologies tailored to various metrics and computing resources. We present the design, integration, and deployment of JADE and discuss its use for benchmarking adiabatic quantum programs.« less

THE PANCHROMATIC STARBURST IRREGULAR DWARF SURVEY (STARBIRDS): OBSERVATIONS AND DATA ARCHIVE

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

McQuinn, Kristen B. W.; Mitchell, Noah P.; Skillman, Evan D., E-mail: kmcquinn@astro.umn.edu

2015-06-22

Understanding star formation in resolved low mass systems requires the integration of information obtained from observations at different wavelengths. We have combined new and archival multi-wavelength observations on a set of 20 nearby starburst and post-starburst dwarf galaxies to create a data archive of calibrated, homogeneously reduced images. Named the panchromatic “STARBurst IRregular Dwarf Survey” archive, the data are publicly accessible through the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. This first release of the archive includes images from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer Telescope (GALEX), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (Spitzer) Multiband Imaging Photometer instrument. The datamore » sets include flux calibrated, background subtracted images, that are registered to the same world coordinate system. Additionally, a set of images are available that are all cropped to match the HST field of view. The GALEX and Spitzer images are available with foreground and background contamination masked. Larger GALEX images extending to 4 times the optical extent of the galaxies are also available. Finally, HST images convolved with a 5″ point spread function and rebinned to the larger pixel scale of the GALEX and Spitzer 24 μm images are provided. Future additions are planned that will include data at other wavelengths such as Spitzer IRAC, ground-based Hα, Chandra X-ray, and Green Bank Telescope H i imaging.« less

The Digital Slide Archive: A Software Platform for Management, Integration, and Analysis of Histology for Cancer Research.

PubMed

Gutman, David A; Khalilia, Mohammed; Lee, Sanghoon; Nalisnik, Michael; Mullen, Zach; Beezley, Jonathan; Chittajallu, Deepak R; Manthey, David; Cooper, Lee A D

2017-11-01

Tissue-based cancer studies can generate large amounts of histology data in the form of glass slides. These slides contain important diagnostic, prognostic, and biological information and can be digitized into expansive and high-resolution whole-slide images using slide-scanning devices. Effectively utilizing digital pathology data in cancer research requires the ability to manage, visualize, share, and perform quantitative analysis on these large amounts of image data, tasks that are often complex and difficult for investigators with the current state of commercial digital pathology software. In this article, we describe the Digital Slide Archive (DSA), an open-source web-based platform for digital pathology. DSA allows investigators to manage large collections of histologic images and integrate them with clinical and genomic metadata. The open-source model enables DSA to be extended to provide additional capabilities. Cancer Res; 77(21); e75-78. ©2017 AACR . ©2017 American Association for Cancer Research.

Benchmark Evaluation of HTR-PROTEUS Pebble Bed Experimental Program

DOE PAGES

Bess, John D.; Montierth, Leland; Köberl, Oliver; ...

2014-10-09

Benchmark models were developed to evaluate 11 critical core configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS pebble bed experimental program. Various additional reactor physics measurements were performed as part of this program; currently only a total of 37 absorber rod worth measurements have been evaluated as acceptable benchmark experiments for Cores 4, 9, and 10. Dominant uncertainties in the experimental keff for all core configurations come from uncertainties in the ²³⁵U enrichment of the fuel, impurities in the moderator pebbles, and the density and impurity content of the radial reflector. Calculations of k eff with MCNP5 and ENDF/B-VII.0 neutron nuclear data aremore » greater than the benchmark values but within 1% and also within the 3σ uncertainty, except for Core 4, which is the only randomly packed pebble configuration. Repeated calculations of k eff with MCNP6.1 and ENDF/B-VII.1 are lower than the benchmark values and within 1% (~3σ) except for Cores 5 and 9, which calculate lower than the benchmark eigenvalues within 4σ. The primary difference between the two nuclear data libraries is the adjustment of the absorption cross section of graphite. Simulations of the absorber rod worth measurements are within 3σ of the benchmark experiment values. The complete benchmark evaluation details are available in the 2014 edition of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments.« less

The design and implementation of the HY-1B Product Archive System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Shibin; Liu, Wei; Peng, Hailong

2010-11-01

Product Archive System (PAS), as a background system, is the core part of the Product Archive and Distribution System (PADS) which is the center for data management of the Ground Application System of HY-1B satellite hosted by the National Satellite Ocean Application Service of China. PAS integrates a series of updating methods and technologies, such as a suitable data transmittal mode, flexible configuration files and log information in order to make the system with several desirable characteristics, such as ease of maintenance, stability, minimal complexity. This paper describes seven major components of the PAS (Network Communicator module, File Collector module, File Copy module, Task Collector module, Metadata Extractor module, Product data Archive module, Metadata catalogue import module) and some of the unique features of the system, as well as the technical problems encountered and resolved.

CALIPSO Borehole Instrumentation Project at Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat, BWI: Data Acquisition, Telemetry, Integration, and Archival Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mattioli, G. S.; Linde, A. T.; Sacks, I. S.; Malin, P. E.; Shalev, E.; Elsworth, D.; Hidayat, D.; Voight, B.; Young, S. R.; Dunkley, P. N.; Herd, R.; Norton, G.

2003-12-01

The CALIPSO Project (Caribbean Andesite Lava Island-volcano Precision Seismo-geodetic Observatory) has greatly enhanced the monitoring and scientific infrastructure at the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat with the recent installation of an integrated array of borehole and surface geophysical instrumentation at four sites. Each site was designed to be sufficiently hardened to withstand extreme meteorological events (e.g. hurricanes) and only require minimum routine maintenance over an expected observatory lifespan of >30 y. The sensor package at each site includes: a single-component, very broad band, Sacks-Evertson strainmeter, a three-component seismometer ( ˜Hz to 1 kHz), a Pinnacle Technologies series 5000 tiltmeter, and a surface Ashtech u-Z CGPS station with choke ring antenna, SCIGN mount and radome. This instrument package is similar to that envisioned by the Plate Boundary Observatory for deployment on EarthScope target volcanoes in western North America and thus the CALIPSO Project may be considered a prototype PBO installation with real field testing on a very active and dangerous volcano. Borehole sites were installed in series and data acquisition began immediately after the sensors were grouted into position at 200 m depth, with the first completed at Trants (5.8 km from dome) in 12-02, then Air Studios (5.2 km), Geralds (9.4 km), and Olveston (7.0 km) in 3-03. Analog data from the strainmeter (50 Hz sync) and seismometer (200 Hz) were initially digitized and locally archived using RefTek 72A-07 data acquisition systems (DAS) on loan from the PASSCAL instrument pool. Data were downloaded manually to a laptop approximately every month from initial installation until August 2003, when new systems were installed. Approximately 0.2 Tb of raw data in SEGY format have already been acquired and are currently archived at UARK for analysis by the CALIPSO science team. The July 12th dome collapse and vulcanian explosion events were recorded at 3 of the 4

SOCR data dashboard: an integrated big data archive mashing medicare, labor, census and econometric information.

PubMed

Husain, Syed S; Kalinin, Alexandr; Truong, Anh; Dinov, Ivo D

Intuitive formulation of informative and computationally-efficient queries on big and complex datasets present a number of challenges. As data collection is increasingly streamlined and ubiquitous, data exploration, discovery and analytics get considerably harder. Exploratory querying of heterogeneous and multi-source information is both difficult and necessary to advance our knowledge about the world around us. We developed a mechanism to integrate dispersed multi-source data and service the mashed information via human and machine interfaces in a secure, scalable manner. This process facilitates the exploration of subtle associations between variables, population strata, or clusters of data elements, which may be opaque to standard independent inspection of the individual sources. This a new platform includes a device agnostic tool (Dashboard webapp, http://socr.umich.edu/HTML5/Dashboard/) for graphical querying, navigating and exploring the multivariate associations in complex heterogeneous datasets. The paper illustrates this core functionality and serviceoriented infrastructure using healthcare data (e.g., US data from the 2010 Census, Demographic and Economic surveys, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Center for Medicare Services) as well as Parkinson's Disease neuroimaging data. Both the back-end data archive and the front-end dashboard interfaces are continuously expanded to include additional data elements and new ways to customize the human and machine interactions. A client-side data import utility allows for easy and intuitive integration of user-supplied datasets. This completely open-science framework may be used for exploratory analytics, confirmatory analyses, meta-analyses, and education and training purposes in a wide variety of fields.

An automated benchmarking platform for MHC class II binding prediction methods.

PubMed

Andreatta, Massimo; Trolle, Thomas; Yan, Zhen; Greenbaum, Jason A; Peters, Bjoern; Nielsen, Morten

2018-05-01

Computational methods for the prediction of peptide-MHC binding have become an integral and essential component for candidate selection in experimental T cell epitope discovery studies. The sheer amount of published prediction methods-and often discordant reports on their performance-poses a considerable quandary to the experimentalist who needs to choose the best tool for their research. With the goal to provide an unbiased, transparent evaluation of the state-of-the-art in the field, we created an automated platform to benchmark peptide-MHC class II binding prediction tools. The platform evaluates the absolute and relative predictive performance of all participating tools on data newly entered into the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB) before they are made public, thereby providing a frequent, unbiased assessment of available prediction tools. The benchmark runs on a weekly basis, is fully automated, and displays up-to-date results on a publicly accessible website. The initial benchmark described here included six commonly used prediction servers, but other tools are encouraged to join with a simple sign-up procedure. Performance evaluation on 59 data sets composed of over 10 000 binding affinity measurements suggested that NetMHCIIpan is currently the most accurate tool, followed by NN-align and the IEDB consensus method. Weekly reports on the participating methods can be found online at: http://tools.iedb.org/auto_bench/mhcii/weekly/. mniel@bioinformatics.dtu.dk. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Informatics in radiology (infoRAD): A complete continuous-availability PACS archive server.

PubMed

Liu, Brent J; Huang, H K; Cao, Fei; Zhou, Michael Z; Zhang, Jianguo; Mogel, Greg

2004-01-01

The operational reliability of the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) server in a filmless hospital environment is always a major concern because server failure could cripple the entire PACS operation. A simple, low-cost, continuous-availability (CA) PACS archive server was designed and developed. The server makes use of a triple modular redundancy (TMR) system with a simple majority voting logic that automatically identifies a faulty module and removes it from service. The remaining two modules continue normal operation with no adverse effects on data flow or system performance. In addition, the server is integrated with two external mass storage devices for short- and long-term storage. Evaluation and testing of the server were conducted with laboratory experiments in which hardware failures were simulated to observe recovery time and the resumption of normal data flow. The server provides maximum uptime (99.999%) for end users while ensuring the transactional integrity of all clinical PACS data. Hardware failure has only minimal impact on performance, with no interruption of clinical data flow or loss of data. As hospital PACS become more widespread, the need for CA PACS solutions will increase. A TMR CA PACS archive server can reliably help achieve CA in this setting. Copyright RSNA, 2004

Autosophy: an alternative vision for satellite communication, compression, and archiving

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holtz, Klaus; Holtz, Eric; Kalienky, Diana

2006-08-01

Satellite communication and archiving systems are now designed according to an outdated Shannon information theory where all data is transmitted in meaningless bit streams. Video bit rates, for example, are determined by screen size, color resolution, and scanning rates. The video "content" is irrelevant so that totally random images require the same bit rates as blank images. An alternative system design, based on the newer Autosophy information theory, is now evolving, which transmits data "contend" or "meaning" in a universally compatible 64bit format. This would allow mixing all multimedia transmissions in the Internet's packet stream. The new systems design uses self-assembling data structures, which grow like data crystals or data trees in electronic memories, for both communication and archiving. The advantages for satellite communication and archiving may include: very high lossless image and video compression, unbreakable encryption, resistance to transmission errors, universally compatible data formats, self-organizing error-proof mass memories, immunity to the Internet's Quality of Service problems, and error-proof secure communication protocols. Legacy data transmission formats can be converted by simple software patches or integrated chipsets to be forwarded through any media - satellites, radio, Internet, cable - without needing to be reformatted. This may result in orders of magnitude improvements for all communication and archiving systems.

Using Benchmarking To Influence Tuition and Fee Decisions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hubbell, Loren W. Loomis; Massa, Robert J.; Lapovsky, Lucie

2002-01-01

Discusses the use of benchmarking in managing enrollment. Using a case study, illustrates how benchmarking can help administrators develop strategies for planning and implementing admissions and pricing practices. (EV)

[A new concept for integration of image databanks into a comprehensive patient documentation].

PubMed

Schöll, E; Holm, J; Eggli, S

2001-05-01

Image processing and archiving are of increasing importance in the practice of modern medicine. Particularly due to the introduction of computer-based investigation methods, physicians are dealing with a wide variety of analogue and digital picture archives. On the other hand, clinical information is stored in various text-based information systems without integration of image components. The link between such traditional medical databases and picture archives is a prerequisite for efficient data management as well as for continuous quality control and medical education. At the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Berne, a software program was developed to create a complete multimedia electronic patient record. The client-server system contains all patients' data, questionnaire-based quality control, and a digital picture archive. Different interfaces guarantee the integration into the hospital's data network. This article describes our experiences in the development and introduction of a comprehensive image archiving system at a large orthopedic center.

Lessons learned from planetary science archiving

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zender, J.; Grayzeck, E.

2006-01-01

The need for scientific archiving of past, current, and future planetary scientific missions, laboratory data, and modeling efforts is indisputable. To quote from a message by G. Santayama carved over the entrance of the US Archive in Washington DC “Those who can not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” The design, implementation, maintenance, and validation of planetary science archives are however disputed by the involved parties. The inclusion of the archives into the scientific heritage is problematic. For example, there is the imbalance between space agency requirements and institutional and national interests. The disparity of long-term archive requirements and immediate data analysis requests are significant. The discrepancy between the space missions archive budget and the effort required to design and build the data archive is large. An imbalance exists between new instrument development and existing, well-proven archive standards. The authors present their view on the problems and risk areas in the archiving concepts based on their experience acquired within NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS) and ESA’s Planetary Science Archive (PSA). Individual risks and potential problem areas are discussed based on a model derived from a system analysis done upfront. The major risk for a planetary mission science archive is seen in the combination of minimal involvement by Mission Scientists and inadequate funding. The authors outline how the risks can be reduced. The paper ends with the authors view on future planetary archive implementations including the archive interoperability aspect.

Paediatric International Nursing Study: using person-centred key performance indicators to benchmark children's services.

PubMed

McCance, Tanya; Wilson, Val; Kornman, Kelly

2016-07-01

The aim of the Paediatric International Nursing Study was to explore the utility of key performance indicators in developing person-centred practice across a range of services provided to sick children. The objective addressed in this paper was evaluating the use of these indicators to benchmark services internationally. This study builds on primary research, which produced indicators that were considered novel both in terms of their positive orientation and use in generating data that privileges the patient voice. This study extends this research through wider testing on an international platform within paediatrics. The overall methodological approach was a realistic evaluation used to evaluate the implementation of the key performance indicators, which combined an integrated development and evaluation methodology. The study involved children's wards/hospitals in Australia (six sites across three states) and Europe (seven sites across four countries). Qualitative and quantitative methods were used during the implementation process, however, this paper reports the quantitative data only, which used survey, observations and documentary review. The findings demonstrate the quality of care being delivered to children and their families across different international sites. The benchmarking does, however, highlight some differences between paediatric and general hospitals, and between the different key performance indicators across all the sites. The findings support the use of the key performance indicators as a novel method to benchmark services internationally. Whilst the data collected across 20 paediatric sites suggest services are more similar than different, benchmarking illuminates variations that encourage a critical dialogue about what works and why. The transferability of the key performance indicators and measurement framework across different settings has significant implications for practice. The findings offer an approach to benchmarking and celebrating

The last Deglaciation in the Mediterranean region: a multi-archives synthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bazin, Lucie; Siani, Giuseppe; Landais, Amaelle; Bassinot, Frank; Genty, Dominique; Govin, Aline; Michel, Elisabeth; Nomade, Sebastien; Waelbroeck, Claire

2016-04-01

Multiple proxies record past climatic changes in different climate archives. These proxies are influenced by different component of the climate system and bring complementary information on past climate variability. The major limitation when combining proxies from different archives comes from the coherency of their chronologies. Indeed, each climate archives possess their own dating methods, not necessarily coherent with each other's. Consequently, when we want to assess the latitudinal changes and mechanisms behind a climate event, we often have to rely on assumptions of synchronisation between the different archives, such as synchronous temperature changes during warming events (Austin and Hibbert 2010). Recently, a dating method originally developed to produce coherent chronologies for ice cores (Datice,Lemieux-Dudon et al., 2010) has been adapted in order to integrate different climate archives (ice cores, sediment cores and speleothems (Lemieux-Dudon et al., 2015, Bazin et al., in prep)). In this presentation we present the validation of this multi-archives dating tool with a first application covering the last Deglaciation in the Mediterranean region. For this experiment, we consider the records from Monticchio, the MD90-917, Tenaghi Philippon and Lake Orhid sediment cores as well as continuous speleothems from Sofular, Soreq and La Mine caves. Using the Datice dating tool, and with the identification of common tephra layers between the cores considered, we are able to produce a multi-archives coherent chronology for this region, independently of any climatic assumption. Using this common chronological framework, we show that the usual climatic synchronisation assumptions are not valid over this region for the last glacial-interglacial transition. Finally, we compare our coherent Mediterranean chronology with Greenland ice core records in order to discuss the sequence of events of the last Deglaciation between these two regions.

PMLB: a large benchmark suite for machine learning evaluation and comparison.

PubMed

Olson, Randal S; La Cava, William; Orzechowski, Patryk; Urbanowicz, Ryan J; Moore, Jason H

2017-01-01

The selection, development, or comparison of machine learning methods in data mining can be a difficult task based on the target problem and goals of a particular study. Numerous publicly available real-world and simulated benchmark datasets have emerged from different sources, but their organization and adoption as standards have been inconsistent. As such, selecting and curating specific benchmarks remains an unnecessary burden on machine learning practitioners and data scientists. The present study introduces an accessible, curated, and developing public benchmark resource to facilitate identification of the strengths and weaknesses of different machine learning methodologies. We compare meta-features among the current set of benchmark datasets in this resource to characterize the diversity of available data. Finally, we apply a number of established machine learning methods to the entire benchmark suite and analyze how datasets and algorithms cluster in terms of performance. From this study, we find that existing benchmarks lack the diversity to properly benchmark machine learning algorithms, and there are several gaps in benchmarking problems that still need to be considered. This work represents another important step towards understanding the limitations of popular benchmarking suites and developing a resource that connects existing benchmarking standards to more diverse and efficient standards in the future.

47 CFR 69.108 - Transport rate benchmark.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Transport rate benchmark. 69.108 Section 69.108... Computation of Charges § 69.108 Transport rate benchmark. (a) For transport charges computed in accordance... interoffice transmission using the telephone company's DS1 special access rates. (b) Initial transport rates...

47 CFR 69.108 - Transport rate benchmark.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Transport rate benchmark. 69.108 Section 69.108... Computation of Charges § 69.108 Transport rate benchmark. (a) For transport charges computed in accordance... interoffice transmission using the telephone company's DS1 special access rates. (b) Initial transport rates...

Electric-Drive Vehicle Thermal Performance Benchmarking | Transportation

Science.gov Websites

studies are as follows: Characterize the thermal resistance and conductivity of various layers in the Research | NREL Electric-Drive Vehicle Thermal Performance Benchmarking Electric-Drive Vehicle Thermal Performance Benchmarking A photo of the internal components of an automotive inverter. NREL

Revenues and Expenditures: Peer and Benchmark Comparisons--University of Hawai'i Community Colleges, Fiscal Year 1995-96.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawaii Univ., Honolulu. Institutional Research Office.

This report presents information comparing the University of Hawaii Community Colleges (UHCC) to benchmark and peer-group institutions on selected financial measures. The primary data sources for this report were the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Finance Survey for the 1995-1996 fiscal year and the IPEDS Fall Enrollment…

The Rosetta Science Archive: Status and Plans for Enhancing the Archive Content

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heather, David; Barthelemy, Maud; Besse, Sebastien; Fraga, Diego; Grotheer, Emmanuel; O'Rourke, Laurence; Taylor, Matthew; Vallat, Claire

2017-04-01

On 30 September 2016, Rosetta completed its incredible mission by landing on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Although this marked an end to the spacecraft's active operations, intensive work is still ongoing with instrument teams preparing their final science data deliveries for ingestion into ESA's Planetary Science Archive (PSA). In addition, ESA is establishing contracts with some instrument teams to enhance their data and documentation in an effort to provide the best long-term archive possible for the Rosetta mission. Currently, the majority of teams have delivered all of their data from the nominal mission (end of 2015), and are working on their remaining increments from the 1-year mission extension. The aim is to complete the nominal archiving with data from the complete mission by the end of this year, when a full mission archive review will be held. This review will assess the complete data holdings from Rosetta and ensure that the archive is ready for the long-term. With the resources from the operational mission coming to an end, ESA has established a number of 'enhanced archiving' contracts to ensure that the best possible data are delivered to the archive before instrument teams disband. Updates are focused on key aspects of an instrument's calibration or the production of higher level data / information, and are therefore specific to each instrument's needs. These contracts are currently being kicked off, and will run for various lengths depending upon the activities to be undertaken. The full 'archive enhancement' process will run until September 2019, when the post operations activities for Rosetta will end. Within these contracts, most instrument teams will work on providing a Science User Guide for their data, as well as updating calibrations. Several teams will also be delivering higher level and derived products. For example, the VIRTIS team will be updating both their spectral and geometrical calibrations, and will aim to

Unstructured Adaptive (UA) NAS Parallel Benchmark. Version 1.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feng, Huiyu; VanderWijngaart, Rob; Biswas, Rupak; Mavriplis, Catherine

2004-01-01

We present a complete specification of a new benchmark for measuring the performance of modern computer systems when solving scientific problems featuring irregular, dynamic memory accesses. It complements the existing NAS Parallel Benchmark suite. The benchmark involves the solution of a stylized heat transfer problem in a cubic domain, discretized on an adaptively refined, unstructured mesh.

[Quality of DNA from archival pathological samples of gallbladder cancer].

PubMed

Roa, Iván; de Toro, Gonzalo; Sánchez, Tamara; Slater, Jeannie; Ziegler, Anne Marie; Game, Anakaren; Arellano, Leonardo; Schalper, Kurt; de Aretxabala, Xabier

2013-12-01

The quality of the archival samples stored at pathology services could be a limiting factor for molecular biology studies. To determine the quality of DNA extracted from gallbladder cancer samples at different institutions. One hundred ninety four samples coming from five medical centers in Chile, were analyzed. DNA extraction was quantified determining genomic DNA concentration. The integrity of DNA was determined by polymerase chain reaction amplification of different length fragments of a constitutive gene (β-globin products of 110, 268 and 501 base pairs). The mean DNA concentration obtained in 194 gallbladder cancer samples was 48 ± 43.1 ng/µl. In 22% of samples, no amplification was achieved despite obtaining a mean DNA concentration of 58.3 ng/ul. In 81, 67 and 22% of samples, a DNA amplification of at least 110, 268 or 501 base pairs was obtained, respectively. No differences in DNA concentration according to the source of the samples were demonstrated. However, there were marked differences in DNA integrity among participating centers. Samples from public hospitals were of lower quality than those from private clinics. Despite some limitations, in 80% of cases, the integrity of DNA in archival samples from pathology services in our country would allow the use of molecular biology techniques.

BENCHMARKING SUSTAINABILITY ENGINEERING EDUCATION

EPA Science Inventory

The goals of this project are to develop and apply a methodology for benchmarking curricula in sustainability engineering and to identify individuals active in sustainability engineering education.

Archiving Derrida

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Marla

2003-01-01

Derrida's archive, broadly speaking, is brilliantly mad, for he digs exegetically into the most difficult textual material and combines the most unlikely texts--from Socrates to Freud, from postcards to encyclopedias, from madness(es) to the archive, from primal scenes to death. In this paper, the author would like to do a brief study of the…

The NAS Computational Aerosciences Archive

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miceli, Kristina D.; Globus, Al; Lasinski, T. A. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

performed by NAS staff members and collaborators. Visual results, which may be available in the form of images, animations, and/or visualization scripts, are generated by researchers with respect to a certain research project, depicting dataset features that were determined important by the investigating researcher. For example, script files for visualization systems (e.g. FAST, PLOT3D, AVS) are provided to create visualizations on the user's local workstation to elucidate the key points of the numerical study. Users can then interact with the data starting where the investigator left off. Datasets are intended to give researchers an opportunity to understand previous work, 'mine' solutions for new information (for example, have you ever read a paper thinking "I wonder what the helicity density looks like?"), compare new techniques with older results, collaborate with remote colleagues, and perform validation. Supporting meta-information associated with the research projects is also important to provide additional context for research projects. This may include information such as the software used in the simulation (e.g. grid generators, flow solvers, visualization). In addition to serving the CAS research community, the information archive will also be helpful to students, visualization system developers and researchers, and management. Students (of any age) can use the data to study fluid dynamics, compare results from different flow solvers, learn about meshing techniques, etc., leading to better informed individuals. For these users it is particularly important that visualization be integrated into dataset archives. Visualization researchers can use dataset archives to test algorithms and techniques, leading to better visualization systems, Management can use the data to figure what is really going on behind the viewgraphs. All users will benefit from fast, easy, and convenient access to CFD datasets. The CAS information archive hopes to serve as a useful resource to

JPL Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) data availability, version 1-94

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) archive at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) includes satellite data sets for the ocean sciences and global-change research to facilitate multidisciplinary use of satellite ocean data. Parameters include sea-surface height, surface-wind vector, sea-surface temperature, atmospheric liquid water, and integrated water vapor. The JPL PO.DAAC is an element of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) and is the United States distribution site for Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX)/POSEIDON data and metadata.

Performance Evaluation of Supercomputers using HPCC and IMB Benchmarks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saini, Subhash; Ciotti, Robert; Gunney, Brian T. N.; Spelce, Thomas E.; Koniges, Alice; Dossa, Don; Adamidis, Panagiotis; Rabenseifner, Rolf; Tiyyagura, Sunil R.; Mueller, Matthias;

Social Media and Archives: A Survey of Archive Users

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Washburn, Bruce; Eckert, Ellen; Proffitt, Merrilee

2013-01-01

In April and May of 2012, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Research conducted a survey of users of archives to learn more about their habits and preferences. In particular, they focused on the roles that social media, recommendations, reviews, and other forms of user-contributed annotation play in archival research. OCLC surveyed faculty,…

Status of worldwide Landsat archive

USGS Publications Warehouse

Warriner, Howard W.

1987-01-01

In cooperation with the International Landsat community, and through the Landsat Technical Working Group (LTWG), NOAA is assembling information about the status of the Worldwide Landsat Archive. During LTWG 9, member nations agreed to participate in a survey of International Landsat data holding and of their archive experiences with Landsat data. The goal of the effort was two-fold; one, to document the Landsat archive to date, and, two, to ensure that specific nations' experience with long-term Landsat archival problems were available to others. The survey requested details such as amount of data held, the format of the archive holdings by Spacecraft/Sensor, and acquisition years; the estimated costs to accumulated process, and replace the data (if necessary); the storage space required, and any member nation's plans that would establish the insurance of continuing quality. As a group, the LTWG nations are concerned about the characteristics and reliability of long-term magnetic media storage. Each nation's experience with older data retrieval is solicited in the survey. This information will allow nations to anticipate and plan for required changes to their archival holdings. Also solicited were reports of any upgrades to a nation's archival system that are currently planned and all results of attempts to reduce archive holdings including methodology, current status, and the planned access rates and product support that are anticipated for responding to future archival usage.

The GTC Public Archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alacid, J. Manuel; Solano, Enrique

2015-12-01

The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) archive is operational since November 2011. The archive, maintained by the Data Archive Unit at CAB in the framework of the Spanish Virtual Observatory project, provides access to both raw and science ready data and has been designed in compliance with the standards defined by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) to guarantee a high level of data accessibility and handling. In this presentation I will describe the main capabilities the GTC archive offers to the community, in terms of functionalities and data collections, to carry out an efficient scientific exploitation of GTC data.

Sequoia Messaging Rate Benchmark

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

Friedley, Andrew

2008-01-22

The purpose of this benchmark is to measure the maximal message rate of a single compute node. The first num_cores ranks are expected to reside on the 'core' compute node for which message rate is being tested. After that, the next num_nbors ranks are neighbors for the first core rank, the next set of num_nbors ranks are neighbors for the second core rank, and so on. For example, testing an 8-core node (num_cores = 8) with 4 neighbors (num_nbors = 4) requires 8 + 8 * 4 - 40 ranks. The first 8 of those 40 ranks are expected tomore » be on the 'core' node being benchmarked, while the rest of the ranks are on separate nodes.« less

Using a health promotion model to promote benchmarking.

PubMed

Welby, Jane

2006-07-01

The North East (England) Neonatal Benchmarking Group has been established for almost a decade and has researched and developed a substantial number of evidence-based benchmarks. With no firm evidence that these were being used or that there was any standardisation of neonatal care throughout the region, the group embarked on a programme to review the benchmarks and determine what evidence-based guidelines were needed to support standardisation. A health promotion planning model was used by one subgroup to structure the programme; it enabled all members of the sub group to engage in the review process and provided the motivation and supporting documentation for implementation of changes in practice. The need for a regional guideline development group to complement the activity of the benchmarking group is being addressed.

New Reactor Physics Benchmark Data in the March 2012 Edition of the IRPhEP Handbook

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

John D. Bess; J. Blair Briggs; Jim Gulliford

2012-11-01

The International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) was established to preserve integral reactor physics experimental data, including separate or special effects data for nuclear energy and technology applications. Numerous experiments that have been performed worldwide, represent a large investment of infrastructure, expertise, and cost, and are valuable resources of data for present and future research. These valuable assets provide the basis for recording, development, and validation of methods. If the experimental data are lost, the high cost to repeat many of these measurements may be prohibitive. The purpose of the IRPhEP is to provide an extensively peer-reviewed set ofmore » reactor physics-related integral data that can be used by reactor designers and safety analysts to validate the analytical tools used to design next-generation reactors and establish the safety basis for operation of these reactors. Contributors from around the world collaborate in the evaluation and review of selected benchmark experiments for inclusion in the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments (IRPhEP Handbook) [1]. Several new evaluations have been prepared for inclusion in the March 2012 edition of the IRPhEP Handbook.« less

A Field-Based Aquatic Life Benchmark for Conductivity in ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA announced the availability of the final report, A Field-Based Aquatic Life Benchmark for Conductivity in Central Appalachian Streams. This report describes a method to characterize the relationship between the extirpation (the effective extinction) of invertebrate genera and salinity (measured as conductivity) and from that relationship derives a freshwater aquatic life benchmark. This benchmark of 300 µS/cm may be applied to waters in Appalachian streams that are dominated by calcium and magnesium salts of sulfate and bicarbonate at circum-neutral to mildly alkaline pH. This report provides scientific evidence for a conductivity benchmark in a specific region rather than for the entire United States.

Using benchmarks for radiation testing of microprocessors and FPGAs

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

Quinn, Heather; Robinson, William H.; Rech, Paolo

Performance benchmarks have been used over the years to compare different systems. These benchmarks can be useful for researchers trying to determine how changes to the technology, architecture, or compiler affect the system's performance. No such standard exists for systems deployed into high radiation environments, making it difficult to assess whether changes in the fabrication process, circuitry, architecture, or software affect reliability or radiation sensitivity. In this paper, we propose a benchmark suite for high-reliability systems that is designed for field-programmable gate arrays and microprocessors. As a result, we describe the development process and report neutron test data for themore » hardware and software benchmarks.« less

Using benchmarks for radiation testing of microprocessors and FPGAs

DOE PAGES

Quinn, Heather; Robinson, William H.; Rech, Paolo; ...

2015-12-17

Performance benchmarks have been used over the years to compare different systems. These benchmarks can be useful for researchers trying to determine how changes to the technology, architecture, or compiler affect the system's performance. No such standard exists for systems deployed into high radiation environments, making it difficult to assess whether changes in the fabrication process, circuitry, architecture, or software affect reliability or radiation sensitivity. In this paper, we propose a benchmark suite for high-reliability systems that is designed for field-programmable gate arrays and microprocessors. As a result, we describe the development process and report neutron test data for themore » hardware and software benchmarks.« less

Standardised Benchmarking in the Quest for Orthologs

PubMed Central

Altenhoff, Adrian M.; Boeckmann, Brigitte; Capella-Gutierrez, Salvador; Dalquen, Daniel A.; DeLuca, Todd; Forslund, Kristoffer; Huerta-Cepas, Jaime; Linard, Benjamin; Pereira, Cécile; Pryszcz, Leszek P.; Schreiber, Fabian; Sousa da Silva, Alan; Szklarczyk, Damian; Train, Clément-Marie; Bork, Peer; Lecompte, Odile; von Mering, Christian; Xenarios, Ioannis; Sjölander, Kimmen; Juhl Jensen, Lars; Martin, Maria J.; Muffato, Matthieu; Gabaldón, Toni; Lewis, Suzanna E.; Thomas, Paul D.; Sonnhammer, Erik; Dessimoz, Christophe

2016-01-01

The identification of evolutionarily related genes across different species—orthologs in particular—forms the backbone of many comparative, evolutionary, and functional genomic analyses. Achieving high accuracy in orthology inference is thus essential. Yet the true evolutionary history of genes, required to ascertain orthology, is generally unknown. Furthermore, orthologs are used for very different applications across different phyla, with different requirements in terms of the precision-recall trade-off. As a result, assessing the performance of orthology inference methods remains difficult for both users and method developers. Here, we present a community effort to establish standards in orthology benchmarking and facilitate orthology benchmarking through an automated web-based service (http://orthology.benchmarkservice.org). Using this new service, we characterise the performance of 15 well-established orthology inference methods and resources on a battery of 20 different benchmarks. Standardised benchmarking provides a way for users to identify the most effective methods for the problem at hand, sets a minimal requirement for new tools and resources, and guides the development of more accurate orthology inference methods. PMID:27043882

Benchmarking CRISPR on-target sgRNA design.

PubMed

Yan, Jifang; Chuai, Guohui; Zhou, Chi; Zhu, Chenyu; Yang, Jing; Zhang, Chao; Gu, Feng; Xu, Han; Wei, Jia; Liu, Qi

2017-02-15

CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-based gene editing has been widely implemented in various cell types and organisms. A major challenge in the effective application of the CRISPR system is the need to design highly efficient single-guide RNA (sgRNA) with minimal off-target cleavage. Several tools are available for sgRNA design, while limited tools were compared. In our opinion, benchmarking the performance of the available tools and indicating their applicable scenarios are important issues. Moreover, whether the reported sgRNA design rules are reproducible across different sgRNA libraries, cell types and organisms remains unclear. In our study, a systematic and unbiased benchmark of the sgRNA predicting efficacy was performed on nine representative on-target design tools, based on six benchmark data sets covering five different cell types. The benchmark study presented here provides novel quantitative insights into the available CRISPR tools. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Algorithm and Architecture Independent Benchmarking with SEAK

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

Tallent, Nathan R.; Manzano Franco, Joseph B.; Gawande, Nitin A.

2016-05-23

Many applications of high performance embedded computing are limited by performance or power bottlenecks. We have designed the Suite for Embedded Applications & Kernels (SEAK), a new benchmark suite, (a) to capture these bottlenecks in a way that encourages creative solutions; and (b) to facilitate rigorous, objective, end-user evaluation for their solutions. To avoid biasing solutions toward existing algorithms, SEAK benchmarks use a mission-centric (abstracted from a particular algorithm) and goal-oriented (functional) specification. To encourage solutions that are any combination of software or hardware, we use an end-user black-box evaluation that can capture tradeoffs between performance, power, accuracy, size, andmore » weight. The tradeoffs are especially informative for procurement decisions. We call our benchmarks future proof because each mission-centric interface and evaluation remains useful despite shifting algorithmic preferences. It is challenging to create both concise and precise goal-oriented specifications for mission-centric problems. This paper describes the SEAK benchmark suite and presents an evaluation of sample solutions that highlights power and performance tradeoffs.« less

The Panchromatic STARBurst IRregular Dwarf Survey (STARBIRDS): Observations and Data Archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McQuinn, Kristen B. W.; Mitchell, Noah P.; Skillman, Evan D.

2015-06-01

Understanding star formation in resolved low mass systems requires the integration of information obtained from observations at different wavelengths. We have combined new and archival multi-wavelength observations on a set of 20 nearby starburst and post-starburst dwarf galaxies to create a data archive of calibrated, homogeneously reduced images. Named the panchromatic “STARBurst IRregular Dwarf Survey” archive, the data are publicly accessible through the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. This first release of the archive includes images from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer Telescope (GALEX), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (Spitzer) Multiband Imaging Photometer instrument. The data sets include flux calibrated, background subtracted images, that are registered to the same world coordinate system. Additionally, a set of images are available that are all cropped to match the HST field of view. The GALEX and Spitzer images are available with foreground and background contamination masked. Larger GALEX images extending to 4 times the optical extent of the galaxies are also available. Finally, HST images convolved with a 5″ point spread function and rebinned to the larger pixel scale of the GALEX and Spitzer 24 μm images are provided. Future additions are planned that will include data at other wavelengths such as Spitzer IRAC, ground-based Hα, Chandra X-ray, and Green Bank Telescope H i imaging. Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA), and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA).

Cassini Archive Tracking System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Conner, Diane; Sayfi, Elias; Tinio, Adrian

2006-01-01

The Cassini Archive Tracking System (CATS) is a computer program that enables tracking of scientific data transfers from originators to the Planetary Data System (PDS) archives. Without CATS, there is no systematic means of locating products in the archive process or ensuring their completeness. By keeping a database of transfer communications and status, CATS enables the Cassini Project and the PDS to efficiently and accurately report on archive status. More importantly, problem areas are easily identified through customized reports that can be generated on the fly from any Web-enabled computer. A Web-browser interface and clearly defined authorization scheme provide safe distributed access to the system, where users can perform functions such as create customized reports, record a transfer, and respond to a transfer. CATS ensures that Cassini provides complete science archives to the PDS on schedule and that those archives are available to the science community by the PDS. The three-tier architecture is loosely coupled and designed for simple adaptation to multimission use. Written in the Java programming language, it is portable and can be run on any Java-enabled Web server.

Quality management benchmarking: FDA compliance in pharmaceutical industry.

PubMed

Jochem, Roland; Landgraf, Katja

2010-01-01

By analyzing and comparing industry and business best practice, processes can be optimized and become more successful mainly because efficiency and competitiveness increase. This paper aims to focus on some examples. Case studies are used to show knowledge exchange in the pharmaceutical industry. Best practice solutions were identified in two companies using a benchmarking method and five-stage model. Despite large administrations, there is much potential regarding business process organization. This project makes it possible for participants to fully understand their business processes. The benchmarking method gives an opportunity to critically analyze value chains (a string of companies or players working together to satisfy market demands for a special product). Knowledge exchange is interesting for companies that like to be global players. Benchmarking supports information exchange and improves competitive ability between different enterprises. Findings suggest that the five-stage model improves efficiency and effectiveness. Furthermore, the model increases the chances for reaching targets. The method gives security to partners that did not have benchmarking experience. The study identifies new quality management procedures. Process management and especially benchmarking is shown to support pharmaceutical industry improvements.

Fermilab History and Archives Project | Norman F. Ramsey

Science.gov Websites

Fermilab History and Archives Project Fermilab History and Archives Project Fermilab History and Archives Project Home About the Archives History and Archives Online Request Contact Us History & ; Archives Project Fermilab History and Archives Project Norman F. Ramsey Back to History and Archives

The LCOGT Observation Portal, Data Pipeline and Science Archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lister, Tim; LCOGT Science Archive Team

2014-01-01

Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT) is building and deploying a world-wide network of optical telescopes dedicated to time-domain astronomy. During 2012-2013, we successfully deployed and commissioned nine new 1m telescopes at McDonald Observatory (Texas), CTIO (Chile), SAAO (South Africa) and Siding Spring Observatory (Australia). New, improved cameras and additional telescopes will be deployed during 2014. To enable the diverse LCOGT user community of scientific and educational users to request observations on the LCOGT Network and to see their progress and get access to their data, we have developed an Observation Portal system. This Observation Portal integrates proposal submission and observation requests with seamless access to the data products from the data pipelines in near-realtime and long-term products from the Science Archive. We describe the LCOGT Observation Portal and the data pipeline, currently in operation, which makes use of the ORAC-DR automated recipe-based data reduction pipeline and illustrate some of the new data products. We also present the LCOGT Science Archive, which is being developed in partnership with the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and show some of the new features the Science Archive provides.

Cross-industry benchmarking: is it applicable to the operating room?

PubMed

Marco, A P; Hart, S

2001-01-01

The use of benchmarking has been growing in nonmedical industries. This concept is being increasingly applied to medicine as the industry strives to improve quality and improve financial performance. Benchmarks can be either internal (set by the institution) or external (use other's performance as a goal). In some industries, benchmarking has crossed industry lines to identify breakthroughs in thinking. In this article, we examine whether the airline industry can be used as a source of external process benchmarking for the operating room.

The national hydrologic bench-mark network

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cobb, Ernest D.; Biesecker, J.E.

1971-01-01

The United States is undergoing a dramatic growth of population and demands on its natural resources. The effects are widespread and often produce significant alterations of the environment. The hydrologic bench-mark network was established to provide data on stream basins which are little affected by these changes. The network is made up of selected stream basins which are not expected to be significantly altered by man. Data obtained from these basins can be used to document natural changes in hydrologic characteristics with time, to provide a better understanding of the hydrologic structure of natural basins, and to provide a comparative base for studying the effects of man on the hydrologic environment. There are 57 bench-mark basins in 37 States. These basins are in areas having a wide variety of climate and topography. The bench-mark basins and the types of data collected in the basins are described.

Structural biology data archiving - where we are and what lies ahead.

PubMed

Kleywegt, Gerard J; Velankar, Sameer; Patwardhan, Ardan

2018-05-10

For almost 50 years, structural biology has endeavoured to conserve and share its experimental data and their interpretations (usually, atomistic models) through global public archives such as the Protein Data Bank, Electron Microscopy Data Bank and Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank (BMRB). These archives are treasure troves of freely accessible data that document our quest for molecular or atomic understanding of biological function and processes in health and disease. They have prepared the field to tackle new archiving challenges as more and more (combinations of) techniques are being utilized to elucidate structure at ever increasing length scales. Furthermore, the field has made substantial efforts to develop validation methods that help users to assess the reliability of structures and to identify the most appropriate data for their needs. In this Review, we present an overview of public data archives in structural biology and discuss the importance of validation for users and producers of structural data. Finally, we sketch our efforts to integrate structural data with bioimaging data and with other sources of biological data. This will make relevant structural information available and more easily discoverable for a wide range of scientists. © 2018 The Authors. FEBS Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Statistical Analysis of NAS Parallel Benchmarks and LINPACK Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meuer, Hans-Werner; Simon, Horst D.; Strohmeier, Erich; Lasinski, T. A. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

In the last three years extensive performance data have been reported for parallel machines both based on the NAS Parallel Benchmarks, and on LINPACK. In this study we have used the reported benchmark results and performed a number of statistical experiments using factor, cluster, and regression analyses. In addition to the performance results of LINPACK and the eight NAS parallel benchmarks, we have also included peak performance of the machine, and the LINPACK n and n(sub 1/2) values. Some of the results and observations can be summarized as follows: 1) All benchmarks are strongly correlated with peak performance. 2) LINPACK and EP have each a unique signature. 3) The remaining NPB can grouped into three groups as follows: (CG and IS), (LU and SP), and (MG, FT, and BT). Hence three (or four with EP) benchmarks are sufficient to characterize the overall NPB performance. Our poster presentation will follow a standard poster format, and will present the data of our statistical analysis in detail.

Performance Characteristics of the Multi-Zone NAS Parallel Benchmarks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jin, Haoqiang; VanderWijngaart, Rob F.

2003-01-01

We describe a new suite of computational benchmarks that models applications featuring multiple levels of parallelism. Such parallelism is often available in realistic flow computations on systems of grids, but had not previously been captured in bench-marks. The new suite, named NPB Multi-Zone, is extended from the NAS Parallel Benchmarks suite, and involves solving the application benchmarks LU, BT and SP on collections of loosely coupled discretization meshes. The solutions on the meshes are updated independently, but after each time step they exchange boundary value information. This strategy provides relatively easily exploitable coarse-grain parallelism between meshes. Three reference implementations are available: one serial, one hybrid using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) and OpenMP, and another hybrid using a shared memory multi-level programming model (SMP+OpenMP). We examine the effectiveness of hybrid parallelization paradigms in these implementations on three different parallel computers. We also use an empirical formula to investigate the performance characteristics of the multi-zone benchmarks.

Archiving Space Geodesy Data for 20+ Years at the CDDIS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Noll, Carey E.; Dube, M. P.

2004-01-01

Since 1982, the Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS) has supported the archive and distribution of geodetic data products acquired by NASA programs. These data include GPS (Global Positioning System), GLONASS (GLObal NAvigation Satellite System), SLR (Satellite Laser Ranging), VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry), and DORIS (Doppler Orbitography and Radiolocation Integrated by Satellite). The data archive supports NASA's space geodesy activities through the Solid Earth and Natural Hazards (SENH) program. The CDDIS data system and its archive have become increasingly important to many national and international programs, particularly several of the operational services within the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), including the International GPS Service (IGS), the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS), the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS), the International DORIS Service (IDS), and the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS). The CDDIS provides easy and ready access to a variety of data sets, products, and information about these data. The specialized nature of the CDDIS lends itself well to enhancement and thus can accommodate diverse data sets and user requirements. All data sets and metadata extracted from these data sets are accessible to scientists through ftp and the web; general information about each data set is accessible via the web. The CDDIS, including background information about the system and its user communities, the computer architecture, archive contents, available metadata, and future plans will be discussed.

Length of stay benchmarks for inpatient rehabilitation after stroke.

PubMed

Meyer, Matthew; Britt, Eileen; McHale, Heather A; Teasell, Robert

2012-01-01

In Canada, no standardized benchmarks for length of stay (LOS) have been established for post-stroke inpatient rehabilitation. This paper describes the development of a severity specific median length of stay benchmarking strategy, assessment of its impact after one year of implementation in a Canadian rehabilitation hospital, and establishment of updated benchmarks that may be useful for comparison with other facilities across Canada. Patient data were retrospectively assessed for all patients admitted to a single post-acute stroke rehabilitation unit in Ontario, Canada between April 2005 and March 2008. Rehabilitation Patient Groups (RPGs) were used to establish stratified median length of stay benchmarks for each group that were incorporated into team rounds beginning in October 2009. Benchmark impact was assessed using mean LOS, FIM(®) gain, and discharge destination for each RPG group, collected prospectively for one year, compared against similar information from the previous calendar year. Benchmarks were then adjusted accordingly for future use. Between October 2009 and September 2010, a significant reduction in average LOS was noted compared to the previous year (35.3 vs. 41.2 days; p < 0.05). Reductions in LOS were noted in each RPG group including statistically significant reductions in 4 of the 7 groups. As intended, reductions in LOS were achieved with no significant reduction in mean FIM(®) gain or proportion of patients discharged home compared to the previous year. Adjusted benchmarks for LOS ranged from 13 to 48 days depending on the RPG group. After a single year of implementation, severity specific benchmarks helped the rehabilitation team reduce LOS while maintaining the same levels of functional gain and achieving the same rate of discharge to the community. © 2012 Informa UK, Ltd.

Fingerprinting sea-level variations in response to continental ice loss: a benchmark exercise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barletta, Valentina R.; Spada, Giorgio; Riva, Riccardo E. M.; James, Thomas S.; Simon, Karen M.; van der Wal, Wouter; Martinec, Zdenek; Klemann, Volker; Olsson, Per-Anders; Hagedoorn, Jan; Stocchi, Paolo; Vermeersen, Bert

2013-04-01

Understanding the response of the Earth to the waxing and waning ice sheets is crucial in various contexts, ranging from the interpretation of modern satellite geodetic measurements to the projections of future sea level trends in response to climate change. All the processes accompanying Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) can be described solving the so-called Sea Level Equation (SLE), an integral equation that accounts for the interactions between the ice sheets, the solid Earth, and the oceans. Modern approaches to the SLE are based on various techniques that range from purely analytical formulations to fully numerical methods. Here we present the results of a benchmark exercise of independently developed codes designed to solve the SLE. The study involves predictions of current sea level changes due to present-day ice mass loss. In spite of the differences in the methods employed, the comparison shows that a significant number of GIA modellers can reproduce their sea-level computations within 2% for well defined, large-scale present-day ice mass changes. Smaller and more detailed loads need further and dedicated benchmarking and high resolution computation. This study shows how the details of the implementation and the inputs specifications are an important, and often underappreciated, aspect. Hence this represents a step toward the assessment of reliability of sea level projections obtained with benchmarked SLE codes.

Combining Phase Identification and Statistic Modeling for Automated Parallel Benchmark Generation

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

Jin, Ye; Ma, Xiaosong; Liu, Qing Gary

2015-01-01

Parallel application benchmarks are indispensable for evaluating/optimizing HPC software and hardware. However, it is very challenging and costly to obtain high-fidelity benchmarks reflecting the scale and complexity of state-of-the-art parallel applications. Hand-extracted synthetic benchmarks are time-and labor-intensive to create. Real applications themselves, while offering most accurate performance evaluation, are expensive to compile, port, reconfigure, and often plainly inaccessible due to security or ownership concerns. This work contributes APPRIME, a novel tool for trace-based automatic parallel benchmark generation. Taking as input standard communication-I/O traces of an application's execution, it couples accurate automatic phase identification with statistical regeneration of event parameters tomore » create compact, portable, and to some degree reconfigurable parallel application benchmarks. Experiments with four NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) and three real scientific simulation codes confirm the fidelity of APPRIME benchmarks. They retain the original applications' performance characteristics, in particular the relative performance across platforms.« less

Benchmarking biology research organizations using a new, dedicated tool.

PubMed

van Harten, Willem H; van Bokhorst, Leonard; van Luenen, Henri G A M

2010-02-01

International competition forces fundamental research organizations to assess their relative performance. We present a benchmark tool for scientific research organizations where, contrary to existing models, the group leader is placed in a central position within the organization. We used it in a pilot benchmark study involving six research institutions. Our study shows that data collection and data comparison based on this new tool can be achieved. It proved possible to compare relative performance and organizational characteristics and to generate suggestions for improvement for most participants. However, strict definitions of the parameters used for the benchmark and a thorough insight into the organization of each of the benchmark partners is required to produce comparable data and draw firm conclusions.

Satellite Remote Sensing is Key to Water Cycle Integrator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koike, T.

2016-12-01

To promote effective multi-sectoral, interdisciplinary collaboration based on coordinated and integrated efforts, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is now developing a "GEOSS Water Cycle Integrator (WCI)", which integrates "Earth observations", "modeling", "data and information", "management systems" and "education systems". GEOSS/WCI sets up "work benches" by which partners can share data, information and applications in an interoperable way, exchange knowledge and experiences, deepen mutual understanding and work together effectively to ultimately respond to issues of both mitigation and adaptation. (A work bench is a virtual geographical or phenomenological space where experts and managers collaborate to use information to address a problem within that space). GEOSS/WCI enhances the coordination of efforts to strengthen individual, institutional and infrastructure capacities, especially for effective interdisciplinary coordination and integration. GEOSS/WCI archives various satellite data to provide various hydrological information such as cloud, rainfall, soil moisture, or land-surface snow. These satellite products were validated using land observation in-situ data. Water cycle models can be developed by coupling in-situ and satellite data. River flows and other hydrological parameters can be simulated and validated by in-situ data. Model outputs from weather-prediction, seasonal-prediction, and climate-prediction models are archived. Some of these model outputs are archived on an online basis, but other models, e.g., climate-prediction models are archived on an offline basis. After models are evaluated and biases corrected, the outputs can be used as inputs into the hydrological models for predicting the hydrological parameters. Additionally, we have already developed a data-assimilation system by combining satellite data and the models. This system can improve our capability to predict hydrological phenomena. The WCI can provide better

EPA and EFSA approaches for Benchmark Dose modeling

EPA Science Inventory

Benchmark dose (BMD) modeling has become the preferred approach in the analysis of toxicological dose-response data for the purpose of deriving human health toxicity values. The software packages most often used are Benchmark Dose Software (BMDS, developed by EPA) and PROAST (de...

Discovering and Implementing Best Practices to Strengthen SEAs: Collaborative Benchmarking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Building State Capacity and Productivity Center, 2013

2013-01-01

This paper is written for state educational agency (SEA) leaders who are considering the benefits of collaborative benchmarking, and it addresses the following questions: (1) What does benchmarking of best practices entail?; (2) How does "collaborative benchmarking" enhance the process?; (3) How do SEAs control the process so that "their" needs…

40 CFR 141.543 - How is the disinfection benchmark calculated?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 24 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false How is the disinfection benchmark... Disinfection-Systems Serving Fewer Than 10,000 People Disinfection Benchmark § 141.543 How is the disinfection benchmark calculated? If your system is making a significant change to its disinfection practice, it must...

40 CFR 141.543 - How is the disinfection benchmark calculated?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false How is the disinfection benchmark... Disinfection-Systems Serving Fewer Than 10,000 People Disinfection Benchmark § 141.543 How is the disinfection benchmark calculated? If your system is making a significant change to its disinfection practice, it must...

40 CFR 141.543 - How is the disinfection benchmark calculated?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 24 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false How is the disinfection benchmark... Disinfection-Systems Serving Fewer Than 10,000 People Disinfection Benchmark § 141.543 How is the disinfection benchmark calculated? If your system is making a significant change to its disinfection practice, it must...

40 CFR 141.543 - How is the disinfection benchmark calculated?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false How is the disinfection benchmark... Disinfection-Systems Serving Fewer Than 10,000 People Disinfection Benchmark § 141.543 How is the disinfection benchmark calculated? If your system is making a significant change to its disinfection practice, it must...

Benchmarking can add up for healthcare accounting.

PubMed

Czarnecki, M T

1994-09-01

In 1993, a healthcare accounting and finance benchmarking survey of hospital and nonhospital organizations gathered statistics about key common performance areas. A low response did not allow for statistically significant findings, but the survey identified performance measures that can be used in healthcare financial management settings. This article explains the benchmarking process and examines some of the 1993 study's findings.

Ethics and Truth in Archival Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tesar, Marek

2015-01-01

The complexities of the ethics and truth in archival research are often unrecognised or invisible in educational research. This paper complicates the process of collecting data in the archives, as it problematises notions of ethics and truth in the archives. The archival research took place in the former Czechoslovakia and its turbulent political…

Towards the Interoperability of Web, Database, and Mass Storage Technologies for Petabyte Archives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, Reagan; Marciano, Richard; Wan, Michael; Sherwin, Tom; Frost, Richard

1996-01-01

At the San Diego Supercomputer Center, a massive data analysis system (MDAS) is being developed to support data-intensive applications that manipulate terabyte sized data sets. The objective is to support scientific application access to data whether it is located at a Web site, stored as an object in a database, and/or storage in an archival storage system. We are developing a suite of demonstration programs which illustrate how Web, database (DBMS), and archival storage (mass storage) technologies can be integrated. An application presentation interface is being designed that integrates data access to all of these sources. We have developed a data movement interface between the Illustra object-relational database and the NSL UniTree archival storage system running in a production mode at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. With this interface, an Illustra client can transparently access data on UniTree under the control of the Illustr DBMS server. The current implementation is based on the creation of a new DBMS storage manager class, and a set of library functions that allow the manipulation and migration of data stored as Illustra 'large objects'. We have extended this interface to allow a Web client application to control data movement between its local disk, the Web server, the DBMS Illustra server, and the UniTree mass storage environment. This paper describes some of the current approaches successfully integrating these technologies. This framework is measured against a representative sample of environmental data extracted from the San Diego Ba Environmental Data Repository. Practical lessons are drawn and critical research areas are highlighted.

Sequence of events from the onset to the demise of the Last Interglacial: Evaluating strengths and limitations of chronologies used in climatic archives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Govin, A.; Capron, E.; Tzedakis, P. C.; Verheyden, S.; Ghaleb, B.; Hillaire-Marcel, C.; St-Onge, G.; Stoner, J. S.; Bassinot, F.; Bazin, L.; Blunier, T.; Combourieu-Nebout, N.; El Ouahabi, A.; Genty, D.; Gersonde, R.; Jimenez-Amat, P.; Landais, A.; Martrat, B.; Masson-Delmotte, V.; Parrenin, F.; Seidenkrantz, M.-S.; Veres, D.; Waelbroeck, C.; Zahn, R.

2015-12-01

The Last Interglacial (LIG) represents an invaluable case study to investigate the response of components of the Earth system to global warming. However, the scarcity of absolute age constraints in most archives leads to extensive use of various stratigraphic alignments to different reference chronologies. This feature sets limitations to the accuracy of the stratigraphic assignment of the climatic sequence of events across the globe during the LIG. Here, we review the strengths and limitations of the methods that are commonly used to date or develop chronologies in various climatic archives for the time span (∼140-100 ka) encompassing the penultimate deglaciation, the LIG and the glacial inception. Climatic hypotheses underlying record alignment strategies and the interpretation of tracers are explicitly described. Quantitative estimates of the associated absolute and relative age uncertainties are provided. Recommendations are subsequently formulated on how best to define absolute and relative chronologies. Future climato-stratigraphic alignments should provide (1) a clear statement of climate hypotheses involved, (2) a detailed understanding of environmental parameters controlling selected tracers and (3) a careful evaluation of the synchronicity of aligned paleoclimatic records. We underscore the need to (1) systematically report quantitative estimates of relative and absolute age uncertainties, (2) assess the coherence of chronologies when comparing different records, and (3) integrate these uncertainties in paleoclimatic interpretations and comparisons with climate simulations. Finally, we provide a sequence of major climatic events with associated age uncertainties for the period 140-105 ka, which should serve as a new benchmark to disentangle mechanisms of the Earth system's response to orbital forcing and evaluate transient climate simulations.

Benchmarks for Evaluation of Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS)

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-01-01

publications: [1] E. Arikan , Attack Profiling for DDoS Benchmarks, MS Thesis, University of Delaware, August 2006. [2] J. Mirkovic, A. Hussain, B. Wilson...Sigmetrics 2007, June 2007 [5] J. Mirkovic, E. Arikan , S. Wei, S. Fahmy, R. Thomas, and P. Reiher Benchmarks for DDoS Defense Evaluation, Proceedings of the...Security Experimentation, June 2006. [9] J. Mirkovic, E. Arikan , S. Wei, S. Fahmy, R. Thomas, P. Reiher, Benchmarks for DDoS Defense Evaluation

Automating Data Submission to a National Archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Work, T. T.; Chandler, C. L.; Groman, R. C.; Allison, M. D.; Gegg, S. R.; Biological; Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office

2010-12-01

In late 2006, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Biological and Chemical Oceanographic Data Management Office (BCO-DMO) at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to work closely with investigators to manage oceanographic data generated from their research projects. One of the final data management tasks is to ensure that the data are permanently archived at the U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) or other appropriate national archiving facility. In the past, BCO-DMO submitted data to NODC as an email with attachments including a PDF file (a manually completed metadata record) and one or more data files. This method is no longer feasible given the rate at which data sets are contributed to BCO-DMO. Working with collaborators at NODC, a more streamlined and automated workflow was developed to keep up with the increased volume of data that must be archived at NODC. We will describe our new workflow; a semi-automated approach for contributing data to NODC that includes a Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) compliant Extensible Markup Language (XML) metadata file accompanied by comma-delimited data files. The FGDC XML file is populated from information stored in a MySQL database. A crosswalk described by an Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) is used to transform the XML formatted MySQL result set to a FGDC compliant XML metadata file. To ensure data integrity, the MD5 algorithm is used to generate a checksum and manifest of the files submitted to NODC for permanent archive. The revised system supports preparation of detailed, standards-compliant metadata that facilitate data sharing and enable accurate reuse of multidisciplinary information. The approach is generic enough to be adapted for use by other data management groups.

A Competitive Benchmarking Study of Noncredit Program Administration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alstete, Jeffrey W.

1996-01-01

A benchmarking project to measure administrative processes and financial ratios received 57 usable replies from 300 noncredit continuing education programs. Programs with strong financial surpluses were identified and their processes benchmarked (including response to inquiries, registrants, registrant/staff ratio, new courses, class size,…

The Learning Organisation: Results of a Benchmarking Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zairi, Mohamed

1999-01-01

Learning in corporations was assessed using these benchmarks: core qualities of creative organizations, characteristic of organizational creativity, attributes of flexible organizations, use of diversity and conflict, creative human resource management systems, and effective and successful teams. These benchmarks are key elements of the learning…

Surveys and Benchmarks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bers, Trudy

2012-01-01

Surveys and benchmarks continue to grow in importance for community colleges in response to several factors. One is the press for accountability, that is, for colleges to report the outcomes of their programs and services to demonstrate their quality and prudent use of resources, primarily to external constituents and governing boards at the state…

Qualitative Comparison of IGRA and ESRL Radiosonde Archived Databases

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walker, John R.

2014-01-01

Multiple databases of atmospheric profile information are freely available to individuals and groups such as the Natural Environments group. Two of the primary database archives provided by NOAA that are most frequently used are those from the Earth Science Research Laboratory (ESRL) and the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA). Inquiries have been made as to why one database is used as opposed to the other, yet to the best of knowledge, no formal comparison has been performed. The goal of this study is to provide a qualitative comparison of the ESRL and IGRA radiosonde databases. For part of this analyses, 14 upper air observation sites were selected. These sites all have the common attribute of having been used or are planned for use in the development of Range Reference Atmospheres (RRAs) in support of NASA's and DOD's current and future goals.

The Model Averaging for Dichotomous Response Benchmark Dose (MADr-BMD) Tool

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Providing quantal response models, which are also used in the U.S. EPA benchmark dose software suite, and generates a model-averaged dose response model to generate benchmark dose and benchmark dose lower bound estimates.

Clinical experiences utilizing wireless remote control and an ASP model backup archive for a disaster recovery event

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Brent J.; Documet, Luis; Documet, Jorge; Huang, H. K.; Muldoon, Jean

2004-04-01

An Application Service Provider (ASP) archive model for disaster recovery for Saint John"s Health Center (SJHC) clinical PACS data has been implemented using a Fault-Tolerant Archive Server at the Image Processing and Informatics Laboratory, Marina del Rey, CA (IPIL) since mid-2002. The purpose of this paper is to provide clinical experiences with the implementation of an ASP model backup archive in conjunction with handheld wireless technologies for a particular disaster recovery scenario, an earthquake, in which the local PACS archive and the hospital are destroyed and the patients are moved from one hospital to another. The three sites involved are: (1) SJHC, the simulated disaster site; (2) IPIL, the ASP backup archive site; and (3) University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center (UCLA), the relocated patient site. An ASP backup archive has been established at IPIL to receive clinical PACS images daily using a T1 line from SJHC for backup and disaster recovery storage. Procedures were established to test the network connectivity and data integrity on a regular basis. In a given disaster scenario where the local PACS archive has been destroyed and the patients need to be moved to a second hospital, a wireless handheld device such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) can be utilized to route images to the second hospital site with a PACS and reviewed by radiologists. To simulate this disaster scenario, a wireless network was implemented within the clinical environment in all three sites: SJHC, IPIL, and UCLA. Upon executing the disaster scenario, the SJHC PACS archive server simulates a downtime disaster event. Using the PDA, the radiologist at UCLA can query the ASP backup archive server at IPIL for PACS images and route them directly to UCLA. Implementation experiences integrating this solution within the three clinical environments as well as the wireless performance are discussed. A clinical downtime disaster scenario was implemented and successfully

A MySQL Based EPICS Archiver

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

Christopher Slominski

2009-10-01

Archiving a large fraction of the EPICS signals within the Jefferson Lab (JLAB) Accelerator control system is vital for postmortem and real-time analysis of the accelerator performance. This analysis is performed on a daily basis by scientists, operators, engineers, technicians, and software developers. Archiving poses unique challenges due to the magnitude of the control system. A MySQL Archiving system (Mya) was developed to scale to the needs of the control system; currently archiving 58,000 EPICS variables, updating at a rate of 11,000 events per second. In addition to the large collection rate, retrieval of the archived data must also bemore » fast and robust. Archived data retrieval clients obtain data at a rate over 100,000 data points per second. Managing the data in a relational database provides a number of benefits. This paper describes an archiving solution that uses an open source database and standard off the shelf hardware to reach high performance archiving needs. Mya has been in production at Jefferson Lab since February of 2007.« less

Developing a benchmark for emotional analysis of music

PubMed Central

Yang, Yi-Hsuan; Soleymani, Mohammad

2017-01-01

Music emotion recognition (MER) field rapidly expanded in the last decade. Many new methods and new audio features are developed to improve the performance of MER algorithms. However, it is very difficult to compare the performance of the new methods because of the data representation diversity and scarcity of publicly available data. In this paper, we address these problems by creating a data set and a benchmark for MER. The data set that we release, a MediaEval Database for Emotional Analysis in Music (DEAM), is the largest available data set of dynamic annotations (valence and arousal annotations for 1,802 songs and song excerpts licensed under Creative Commons with 2Hz time resolution). Using DEAM, we organized the ‘Emotion in Music’ task at MediaEval Multimedia Evaluation Campaign from 2013 to 2015. The benchmark attracted, in total, 21 active teams to participate in the challenge. We analyze the results of the benchmark: the winning algorithms and feature-sets. We also describe the design of the benchmark, the evaluation procedures and the data cleaning and transformations that we suggest. The results from the benchmark suggest that the recurrent neural network based approaches combined with large feature-sets work best for dynamic MER. PMID:28282400

Decoys Selection in Benchmarking Datasets: Overview and Perspectives

PubMed Central

Réau, Manon; Langenfeld, Florent; Zagury, Jean-François; Lagarde, Nathalie; Montes, Matthieu

2018-01-01

Virtual Screening (VS) is designed to prospectively help identifying potential hits, i.e., compounds capable of interacting with a given target and potentially modulate its activity, out of large compound collections. Among the variety of methodologies, it is crucial to select the protocol that is the most adapted to the query/target system under study and that yields the most reliable output. To this aim, the performance of VS methods is commonly evaluated and compared by computing their ability to retrieve active compounds in benchmarking datasets. The benchmarking datasets contain a subset of known active compounds together with a subset of decoys, i.e., assumed non-active molecules. The composition of both the active and the decoy compounds subsets is critical to limit the biases in the evaluation of the VS methods. In this review, we focus on the selection of decoy compounds that has considerably changed over the years, from randomly selected compounds to highly customized or experimentally validated negative compounds. We first outline the evolution of decoys selection in benchmarking databases as well as current benchmarking databases that tend to minimize the introduction of biases, and secondly, we propose recommendations for the selection and the design of benchmarking datasets. PMID:29416509

Developing a benchmark for emotional analysis of music.

PubMed

Aljanaki, Anna; Yang, Yi-Hsuan; Soleymani, Mohammad

2017-01-01

Music emotion recognition (MER) field rapidly expanded in the last decade. Many new methods and new audio features are developed to improve the performance of MER algorithms. However, it is very difficult to compare the performance of the new methods because of the data representation diversity and scarcity of publicly available data. In this paper, we address these problems by creating a data set and a benchmark for MER. The data set that we release, a MediaEval Database for Emotional Analysis in Music (DEAM), is the largest available data set of dynamic annotations (valence and arousal annotations for 1,802 songs and song excerpts licensed under Creative Commons with 2Hz time resolution). Using DEAM, we organized the 'Emotion in Music' task at MediaEval Multimedia Evaluation Campaign from 2013 to 2015. The benchmark attracted, in total, 21 active teams to participate in the challenge. We analyze the results of the benchmark: the winning algorithms and feature-sets. We also describe the design of the benchmark, the evaluation procedures and the data cleaning and transformations that we suggest. The results from the benchmark suggest that the recurrent neural network based approaches combined with large feature-sets work best for dynamic MER.

A large-scale benchmark of gene prioritization methods.

PubMed

Guala, Dimitri; Sonnhammer, Erik L L

2017-04-21

In order to maximize the use of results from high-throughput experimental studies, e.g. GWAS, for identification and diagnostics of new disease-associated genes, it is important to have properly analyzed and benchmarked gene prioritization tools. While prospective benchmarks are underpowered to provide statistically significant results in their attempt to differentiate the performance of gene prioritization tools, a strategy for retrospective benchmarking has been missing, and new tools usually only provide internal validations. The Gene Ontology(GO) contains genes clustered around annotation terms. This intrinsic property of GO can be utilized in construction of robust benchmarks, objective to the problem domain. We demonstrate how this can be achieved for network-based gene prioritization tools, utilizing the FunCoup network. We use cross-validation and a set of appropriate performance measures to compare state-of-the-art gene prioritization algorithms: three based on network diffusion, NetRank and two implementations of Random Walk with Restart, and MaxLink that utilizes network neighborhood. Our benchmark suite provides a systematic and objective way to compare the multitude of available and future gene prioritization tools, enabling researchers to select the best gene prioritization tool for the task at hand, and helping to guide the development of more accurate methods.

Integrated control/structure optimization by multilevel decomposition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zeiler, Thomas A.; Gilbert, Michael G.

1990-01-01

A method for integrated control/structure optimization by multilevel decomposition is presented. It is shown that several previously reported methods were actually partial decompositions wherein only the control was decomposed into a subsystem design. One of these partially decomposed problems was selected as a benchmark example for comparison. The system is fully decomposed into structural and control subsystem designs and an improved design is produced. Theory, implementation, and results for the method are presented and compared with the benchmark example.

Integrated control/structure optimization by multilevel decomposition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zeiler, Thomas A.; Gilbert, Michael G.

1990-01-01

A method for integrated control/structure optimization by multilevel decomposition is presented. It is shown that several previously reported methods were actually partial decompositions wherein only the control was decomposed into a subsystem design. One of these partially decomposed problems was selected as a benchmark example for comparison. The present paper fully decomposes the system into structural and control subsystem designs and produces an improved design. Theory, implementation, and results for the method are presented and compared with the benchmark example.

NAS Grid Benchmarks: A Tool for Grid Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frumkin, Michael; VanderWijngaart, Rob F.; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

We present an approach for benchmarking services provided by computational Grids. It is based on the NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) and is called NAS Grid Benchmark (NGB) in this paper. We present NGB as a data flow graph encapsulating an instance of an NPB code in each graph node, which communicates with other nodes by sending/receiving initialization data. These nodes may be mapped to the same or different Grid machines. Like NPB, NGB will specify several different classes (problem sizes). NGB also specifies the generic Grid services sufficient for running the bench-mark. The implementor has the freedom to choose any specific Grid environment. However, we describe a reference implementation in Java, and present some scenarios for using NGB.

Seismo-acoustic ray model benchmarking against experimental tank data.

PubMed

Camargo Rodríguez, Orlando; Collis, Jon M; Simpson, Harry J; Ey, Emanuel; Schneiderwind, Joseph; Felisberto, Paulo

2012-08-01

Acoustic predictions of the recently developed traceo ray model, which accounts for bottom shear properties, are benchmarked against tank experimental data from the EPEE-1 and EPEE-2 (Elastic Parabolic Equation Experiment) experiments. Both experiments are representative of signal propagation in a Pekeris-like shallow-water waveguide over a non-flat isotropic elastic bottom, where significant interaction of the signal with the bottom can be expected. The benchmarks show, in particular, that the ray model can be as accurate as a parabolic approximation model benchmarked in similar conditions. The results of benchmarking are important, on one side, as a preliminary experimental validation of the model and, on the other side, demonstrates the reliability of the ray approach for seismo-acoustic applications.

Protein Data Bank (PDB): The Single Global Macromolecular Structure Archive

PubMed Central

Burley, Stephen K.; Berman, Helen M.; Kleywegt, Gerard J.; Markley, John L.; Nakamura, Haruki; Velankar, Sameer

2018-01-01

The Protein Data Bank (PDB)—the single global repository of experimentally determined 3D structures of biological macromolecules and their complexes—was established in 1971, becoming the first open-access digital resource in the biological sciences. The PDB archive currently houses ~130,000 entries (May 2017). It is managed by the Worldwide Protein Data Bank organization (wwPDB; wwpdb.org), which includes the RCSB Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB; rcsb.org), the Protein Data Bank Japan (PDBj; pdbj.org), the Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe; pdbe.org), and BioMagResBank (BMRB; www.bmrb.wisc.edu). The four wwPDB partners operate a unified global software system that enforces community-agreed data standards and supports data Deposition, Biocuration, and Validation of ~11,000 new PDB entries annually (deposit.wwpdb.org). The RCSB PDB currently acts as the archive keeper, ensuring disaster recovery of PDB data and coordinating weekly updates. wwPDB partners disseminate the same archival data from multiple FTP sites, while operating complementary websites that provide their own views of PDB data with selected value-added information and links to related data resources. At present, the PDB archives experimental data, associated metadata, and 3D-atomic level structural models derived from three well-established methods: crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), and electron microscopy (3DEM). wwPDB partners are working closely with experts in related experimental areas (small-angle scattering, chemical cross-linking/mass spectrometry, Forster energy resonance transfer or FRET, etc.) to establish a federation of data resources that will support sustainable archiving and validation of 3D structural models and experimental data derived from integrative or hybrid methods. PMID:28573592

Protein Data Bank (PDB): The Single Global Macromolecular Structure Archive.

PubMed

Burley, Stephen K; Berman, Helen M; Kleywegt, Gerard J; Markley, John L; Nakamura, Haruki; Velankar, Sameer

2017-01-01

The Protein Data Bank (PDB)--the single global repository of experimentally determined 3D structures of biological macromolecules and their complexes--was established in 1971, becoming the first open-access digital resource in the biological sciences. The PDB archive currently houses ~130,000 entries (May 2017). It is managed by the Worldwide Protein Data Bank organization (wwPDB; wwpdb.org), which includes the RCSB Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB; rcsb.org), the Protein Data Bank Japan (PDBj; pdbj.org), the Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe; pdbe.org), and BioMagResBank (BMRB; www.bmrb.wisc.edu). The four wwPDB partners operate a unified global software system that enforces community-agreed data standards and supports data Deposition, Biocuration, and Validation of ~11,000 new PDB entries annually (deposit.wwpdb.org). The RCSB PDB currently acts as the archive keeper, ensuring disaster recovery of PDB data and coordinating weekly updates. wwPDB partners disseminate the same archival data from multiple FTP sites, while operating complementary websites that provide their own views of PDB data with selected value-added information and links to related data resources. At present, the PDB archives experimental data, associated metadata, and 3D-atomic level structural models derived from three well-established methods: crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), and electron microscopy (3DEM). wwPDB partners are working closely with experts in related experimental areas (small-angle scattering, chemical cross-linking/mass spectrometry, Forster energy resonance transfer or FRET, etc.) to establish a federation of data resources that will support sustainable archiving and validation of 3D structural models and experimental data derived from integrative or hybrid methods.

Design and implementation of scalable tape archiver

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nemoto, Toshihiro; Kitsuregawa, Masaru; Takagi, Mikio

1996-01-01

In order to reduce costs, computer manufacturers try to use commodity parts as much as possible. Mainframes using proprietary processors are being replaced by high performance RISC microprocessor-based workstations, which are further being replaced by the commodity microprocessor used in personal computers. Highly reliable disks for mainframes are also being replaced by disk arrays, which are complexes of disk drives. In this paper we try to clarify the feasibility of a large scale tertiary storage system composed of 8-mm tape archivers utilizing robotics. In the near future, the 8-mm tape archiver will be widely used and become a commodity part, since recent rapid growth of multimedia applications requires much larger storage than disk drives can provide. We designed a scalable tape archiver which connects as many 8-mm tape archivers (element archivers) as possible. In the scalable archiver, robotics can exchange a cassette tape between two adjacent element archivers mechanically. Thus, we can build a large scalable archiver inexpensively. In addition, a sophisticated migration mechanism distributes frequently accessed tapes (hot tapes) evenly among all of the element archivers, which improves the throughput considerably. Even with the failures of some tape drives, the system dynamically redistributes hot tapes to the other element archivers which have live tape drives. Several kinds of specially tailored huge archivers are on the market, however, the 8-mm tape scalable archiver could replace them. To maintain high performance in spite of high access locality when a large number of archivers are attached to the scalable archiver, it is necessary to scatter frequently accessed cassettes among the element archivers and to use the tape drives efficiently. For this purpose, we introduce two cassette migration algorithms, foreground migration and background migration. Background migration transfers cassettes between element archivers to redistribute frequently accessed

Simple Benchmark Specifications for Space Radiation Protection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Singleterry, Robert C. Jr.; Aghara, Sukesh K.

2013-01-01

This report defines space radiation benchmark specifications. This specification starts with simple, monoenergetic, mono-directional particles on slabs and progresses to human models in spacecraft. This report specifies the models and sources needed to what the team performing the benchmark needs to produce in a report. Also included are brief descriptions of how OLTARIS, the NASA Langley website for space radiation analysis, performs its analysis.

A Programming Model Performance Study Using the NAS Parallel Benchmarks

DOE PAGES

Shan, Hongzhang; Blagojević, Filip; Min, Seung-Jai; ...

2010-01-01

Harnessing the power of multicore platforms is challenging due to the additional levels of parallelism present. In this paper we use the NAS Parallel Benchmarks to study three programming models, MPI, OpenMP and PGAS to understand their performance and memory usage characteristics on current multicore architectures. To understand these characteristics we use the Integrated Performance Monitoring tool and other ways to measure communication versus computation time, as well as the fraction of the run time spent in OpenMP. The benchmarks are run on two different Cray XT5 systems and an Infiniband cluster. Our results show that in general the threemore » programming models exhibit very similar performance characteristics. In a few cases, OpenMP is significantly faster because it explicitly avoids communication. For these particular cases, we were able to re-write the UPC versions and achieve equal performance to OpenMP. Using OpenMP was also the most advantageous in terms of memory usage. Also we compare performance differences between the two Cray systems, which have quad-core and hex-core processors. We show that at scale the performance is almost always slower on the hex-core system because of increased contention for network resources.« less

IT-benchmarking of clinical workflows: concept, implementation, and evaluation.

PubMed

Thye, Johannes; Straede, Matthias-Christopher; Liebe, Jan-David; Hübner, Ursula

2014-01-01

Due to the emerging evidence of health IT as opportunity and risk for clinical workflows, health IT must undergo a continuous measurement of its efficacy and efficiency. IT-benchmarks are a proven means for providing this information. The aim of this study was to enhance the methodology of an existing benchmarking procedure by including, in particular, new indicators of clinical workflows and by proposing new types of visualisation. Drawing on the concept of information logistics, we propose four workflow descriptors that were applied to four clinical processes. General and specific indicators were derived from these descriptors and processes. 199 chief information officers (CIOs) took part in the benchmarking. These hospitals were assigned to reference groups of a similar size and ownership from a total of 259 hospitals. Stepwise and comprehensive feedback was given to the CIOs. Most participants who evaluated the benchmark rated the procedure as very good, good, or rather good (98.4%). Benchmark information was used by CIOs for getting a general overview, advancing IT, preparing negotiations with board members, and arguing for a new IT project.

Benchmarking the cost efficiency of community care in Australian child and adolescent mental health services: implications for future benchmarking.

PubMed

Furber, Gareth; Brann, Peter; Skene, Clive; Allison, Stephen

2011-06-01

The purpose of this study was to benchmark the cost efficiency of community care across six child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) drawn from different Australian states. Organizational, contact and outcome data from the National Mental Health Benchmarking Project (NMHBP) data-sets were used to calculate cost per "treatment hour" and cost per episode for the six participating organizations. We also explored the relationship between intake severity as measured by the Health of the Nations Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) and cost per episode. The average cost per treatment hour was $223, with cost differences across the six services ranging from a mean of $156 to $273 per treatment hour. The average cost per episode was $3349 (median $1577) and there were significant differences in the CAMHS organizational medians ranging from $388 to $7076 per episode. HoNOSCA scores explained at best 6% of the cost variance per episode. These large cost differences indicate that community CAMHS have the potential to make substantial gains in cost efficiency through collaborative benchmarking. Benchmarking forums need considerable financial and business expertise for detailed comparison of business models for service provision.

A benchmarking method to measure dietary absorption efficiency of chemicals by fish.

PubMed

Xiao, Ruiyang; Adolfsson-Erici, Margaretha; Åkerman, Gun; McLachlan, Michael S; MacLeod, Matthew

2013-12-01

Understanding the dietary absorption efficiency of chemicals in the gastrointestinal tract of fish is important from both a scientific and a regulatory point of view. However, reported fish absorption efficiencies for well-studied chemicals are highly variable. In the present study, the authors developed and exploited an internal chemical benchmarking method that has the potential to reduce uncertainty and variability and, thus, to improve the precision of measurements of fish absorption efficiency. The authors applied the benchmarking method to measure the gross absorption efficiency for 15 chemicals with a wide range of physicochemical properties and structures. They selected 2,2',5,6'-tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB53) and decabromodiphenyl ethane as absorbable and nonabsorbable benchmarks, respectively. Quantities of chemicals determined in fish were benchmarked to the fraction of PCB53 recovered in fish, and quantities of chemicals determined in feces were benchmarked to the fraction of decabromodiphenyl ethane recovered in feces. The performance of the benchmarking procedure was evaluated based on the recovery of the test chemicals and precision of absorption efficiency from repeated tests. Benchmarking did not improve the precision of the measurements; after benchmarking, however, the median recovery for 15 chemicals was 106%, and variability of recoveries was reduced compared with before benchmarking, suggesting that benchmarking could account for incomplete extraction of chemical in fish and incomplete collection of feces from different tests. © 2013 SETAC.

Incorporating Oracle on-line space management with long-term archival technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moran, Steven M.; Zak, Victor J.

1996-01-01

The storage requirements of today's organizations are exploding. As computers continue to escalate in processing power, applications grow in complexity and data files grow in size and in number. As a result, organizations are forced to procure more and more megabytes of storage space. This paper focuses on how to expand the storage capacity of a Very Large Database (VLDB) cost-effectively within a Oracle7 data warehouse system by integrating long term archival storage sub-systems with traditional magnetic media. The Oracle architecture described in this paper was based on an actual proof of concept for a customer looking to store archived data on optical disks yet still have access to this data without user intervention. The customer had a requirement to maintain 10 years worth of data on-line. Data less than a year old still had the potential to be updated thus will reside on conventional magnetic disks. Data older than a year will be considered archived and will be placed on optical disks. The ability to archive data to optical disk and still have access to that data provides the system a means to retain large amounts of data that is readily accessible yet significantly reduces the cost of total system storage. Therefore, the cost benefits of archival storage devices can be incorporated into the Oracle storage medium and I/O subsystem without loosing any of the functionality of transaction processing, yet at the same time providing an organization access to all their data.

Benchmarks for Psychotherapy Efficacy in Adult Major Depression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minami, Takuya; Wampold, Bruce E.; Serlin, Ronald C.; Kircher, John C.; Brown, George S.

2007-01-01

This study estimates pretreatment-posttreatment effect size benchmarks for the treatment of major depression in adults that may be useful in evaluating psychotherapy effectiveness in clinical practice. Treatment efficacy benchmarks for major depression were derived for 3 different types of outcome measures: the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression…

[Benchmarking and other functions of ROM: back to basics].

PubMed

Barendregt, M

2015-01-01

Since 2011 outcome data in the Dutch mental health care have been collected on a national scale. This has led to confusion about the position of benchmarking in the system known as routine outcome monitoring (rom). To provide insight into the various objectives and uses of aggregated outcome data. A qualitative review was performed and the findings were analysed. Benchmarking is a strategy for finding best practices and for improving efficacy and it belongs to the domain of quality management. Benchmarking involves comparing outcome data by means of instrumentation and is relatively tolerant with regard to the validity of the data. Although benchmarking is a function of rom, it must be differentiated form other functions from rom. Clinical management, public accountability, research, payment for performance and information for patients are all functions of rom which require different ways of data feedback and which make different demands on the validity of the underlying data. Benchmarking is often wrongly regarded as being simply a synonym for 'comparing institutions'. It is, however, a method which includes many more factors; it can be used to improve quality and has a more flexible approach to the validity of outcome data and is less concerned than other rom functions about funding and the amount of information given to patients. Benchmarking can make good use of currently available outcome data.

The Ethics of Archival Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKee, Heidi A.; Porter, James E.

2012-01-01

What are the key ethical issues involved in conducting archival research? Based on examination of cases and interviews with leading archival researchers in composition, this article discusses several ethical questions and offers a heuristic to guide ethical decision making. Key to this process is recognizing the person-ness of archival materials.…

Earth observation archive activities at DRA Farnborough

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Palmer, M. D.; Williams, J. M.

1993-01-01

Space Sector, Defence Research Agency (DRA), Farnborough have been actively involved in the acquisition and processing of Earth Observation data for over 15 years. During that time an archive of over 20,000 items has been built up. This paper describes the major archive activities, including: operation and maintenance of the main DRA Archive, the development of a prototype Optical Disc Archive System (ODAS), the catalog systems in use at DRA, the UK Processing and Archive Facility for ERS-1 data, and future plans for archiving activities.

Gaia Data Release 1. The archive visualisation service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moitinho, A.; Krone-Martins, A.; Savietto, H.; Barros, M.; Barata, C.; Falcão, A. J.; Fernandes, T.; Alves, J.; Silva, A. F.; Gomes, M.; Bakker, J.; Brown, A. G. A.; González-Núñez, J.; Gracia-Abril, G.; Gutiérrez-Sánchez, R.; Hernández, J.; Jordan, S.; Luri, X.; Merin, B.; Mignard, F.; Mora, A.; Navarro, V.; O'Mullane, W.; Sagristà Sellés, T.; Salgado, J.; Segovia, J. C.; Utrilla, E.; Arenou, F.; de Bruijne, J. H. J.; Jansen, F.; McCaughrean, M.; O'Flaherty, K. S.; Taylor, M. B.; Vallenari, A.

2017-09-01

searches. Integration of the Aladin Lite and JS9 applications add support to the visualisation of HiPS and FITS maps. The production of the all-sky source density map that became the iconic image of Gaia DR1 is described in detail. Conclusions: On the day of DR1, over seven thousand users accessed the Gaia Archive visualisation portal. The system, running on a single machine, proved robust and did not fail while enabling thousands of users to visualise and explore the over one billion sources in DR1. There are still several limitations, most noticeably that users may only choose from a list of pre-computed visualisations. Thus, other visualisation applications that can complement the archive service are examined. Finally, development plans for Data Release 2 are presented.

Benchmarking with the BLASST Sessional Staff Standards Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luzia, Karina; Harvey, Marina; Parker, Nicola; McCormack, Coralie; Brown, Natalie R.

2013-01-01

Benchmarking as a type of knowledge-sharing around good practice within and between institutions is increasingly common in the higher education sector. More recently, benchmarking as a process that can contribute to quality enhancement has been deployed across numerous institutions with a view to systematising frameworks to assure and enhance the…

Neutron Reference Benchmark Field Specification: ACRR Free-Field Environment (ACRR-FF-CC-32-CL).

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

Vega, Richard Manuel; Parma, Edward J.; Griffin, Patrick J.

2015-07-01

This report was put together to support the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) REAL- 2016 activity to validate the dosimetry community’s ability to use a consistent set of activation data and to derive consistent spectral characterizations. The report captures details of integral measurements taken in the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) central cavity free-field reference neutron benchmark field. The field is described and an “a priori” calculated neutron spectrum is reported, based on MCNP6 calculations, and a subject matter expert (SME) based covariance matrix is given for this “a priori” spectrum. The results of 31 integral dosimetry measurements in themore » neutron field are reported.« less

Thermal Performance Benchmarking: Annual Report

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

Moreno, Gilbert

2016-04-08

The goal for this project is to thoroughly characterize the performance of state-of-the-art (SOA) automotive power electronics and electric motor thermal management systems. Information obtained from these studies will be used to: Evaluate advantages and disadvantages of different thermal management strategies; establish baseline metrics for the thermal management systems; identify methods of improvement to advance the SOA; increase the publicly available information related to automotive traction-drive thermal management systems; help guide future electric drive technologies (EDT) research and development (R&D) efforts. The performance results combined with component efficiency and heat generation information obtained by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) maymore » then be used to determine the operating temperatures for the EDT components under drive-cycle conditions. In FY15, the 2012 Nissan LEAF power electronics and electric motor thermal management systems were benchmarked. Testing of the 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid power electronics thermal management system started in FY15; however, due to time constraints it was not possible to include results for this system in this report. The focus of this project is to benchmark the thermal aspects of the systems. ORNL's benchmarking of electric and hybrid electric vehicle technology reports provide detailed descriptions of the electrical and packaging aspects of these automotive systems.« less

NASA's Astrophysics Data Archives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasan, H.; Hanisch, R.; Bredekamp, J.

2000-09-01

The NASA Office of Space Science has established a series of archival centers where science data acquired through its space science missions is deposited. The availability of high quality data to the general public through these open archives enables the maximization of science return of the flight missions. The Astrophysics Data Centers Coordinating Council, an informal collaboration of archival centers, coordinates data from five archival centers distiguished primarily by the wavelength range of the data deposited there. Data are available in FITS format. An overview of NASA's data centers and services is presented in this paper. A standard front-end modifyer called `Astrowbrowse' is described. Other catalog browsers and tools include WISARD and AMASE supported by the National Space Scince Data Center, as well as ISAIA, a follow on to Astrobrowse.

Comparison of Origin 2000 and Origin 3000 Using NAS Parallel Benchmarks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turney, Raymond D.

2001-01-01

This report describes results of benchmark tests on the Origin 3000 system currently being installed at the NASA Ames National Advanced Supercomputing facility. This machine will ultimately contain 1024 R14K processors. The first part of the system, installed in November, 2000 and named mendel, is an Origin 3000 with 128 R12K processors. For comparison purposes, the tests were also run on lomax, an Origin 2000 with R12K processors. The BT, LU, and SP application benchmarks in the NAS Parallel Benchmark Suite and the kernel benchmark FT were chosen to determine system performance and measure the impact of changes on the machine as it evolves. Having been written to measure performance on Computational Fluid Dynamics applications, these benchmarks are assumed appropriate to represent the NAS workload. Since the NAS runs both message passing (MPI) and shared-memory, compiler directive type codes, both MPI and OpenMP versions of the benchmarks were used. The MPI versions used were the latest official release of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks, version 2.3. The OpenMP versiqns used were PBN3b2, a beta version that is in the process of being released. NPB 2.3 and PBN 3b2 are technically different benchmarks, and NPB results are not directly comparable to PBN results.

Astronomical Surveys, Catalogs, Databases, and Archives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mickaelian, A. M.

2016-06-01

All-sky and large-area astronomical surveys and their cataloged data over the whole range of electromagnetic spectrum are reviewed, from γ-ray to radio, such as Fermi-GLAST and INTEGRAL in γ-ray, ROSAT, XMM and Chandra in X-ray, GALEX in UV, SDSS and several POSS I and II based catalogues (APM, MAPS, USNO, GSC) in optical range, 2MASS in NIR, WISE and AKARI IRC in MIR, IRAS and AKARI FIS in FIR, NVSS and FIRST in radio and many others, as well as most important surveys giving optical images (DSS I and II, SDSS, etc.), proper motions (Tycho, USNO, Gaia), variability (GCVS, NSVS, ASAS, Catalina, Pan-STARRS) and spectroscopic data (FBS, SBS, Case, HQS, HES, SDSS, CALIFA, GAMA). Most important astronomical databases and archives are reviewed as well, including Wide-Field Plate DataBase (WFPDB), ESO, HEASARC, IRSA and MAST archives, CDS SIMBAD, VizieR and Aladin, NED and HyperLEDA extragalactic databases, ADS and astro-ph services. They are powerful sources for many-sided efficient research using Virtual Observatory tools. Using and analysis of Big Data accumulated in astronomy lead to many new discoveries.

Benchmarking road safety performance: Identifying a meaningful reference (best-in-class).

PubMed

Chen, Faan; Wu, Jiaorong; Chen, Xiaohong; Wang, Jianjun; Wang, Di

2016-01-01

For road safety improvement, comparing and benchmarking performance are widely advocated as the emerging and preferred approaches. However, there is currently no universally agreed upon approach for the process of road safety benchmarking, and performing the practice successfully is by no means easy. This is especially true for the two core activities of which: (1) developing a set of road safety performance indicators (SPIs) and combining them into a composite index; and (2) identifying a meaningful reference (best-in-class), one which has already obtained outstanding road safety practices. To this end, a scientific technique that can combine the multi-dimensional safety performance indicators (SPIs) into an overall index, and subsequently can identify the 'best-in-class' is urgently required. In this paper, the Entropy-embedded RSR (Rank-sum ratio), an innovative, scientific and systematic methodology is investigated with the aim of conducting the above two core tasks in an integrative and concise procedure, more specifically in a 'one-stop' way. Using a combination of results from other methods (e.g. the SUNflower approach) and other measures (e.g. Human Development Index) as a relevant reference, a given set of European countries are robustly ranked and grouped into several classes based on the composite Road Safety Index. Within each class the 'best-in-class' is then identified. By benchmarking road safety performance, the results serve to promote best practice, encourage the adoption of successful road safety strategies and measures and, more importantly, inspire the kind of political leadership needed to create a road transport system that maximizes safety. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

OWL2 benchmarking for the evaluation of knowledge based systems.

PubMed

Khan, Sher Afgun; Qadir, Muhammad Abdul; Abbas, Muhammad Azeem; Afzal, Muhammad Tanvir

2017-01-01

OWL2 semantics are becoming increasingly popular for the real domain applications like Gene engineering and health MIS. The present work identifies the research gap that negligible attention has been paid to the performance evaluation of Knowledge Base Systems (KBS) using OWL2 semantics. To fulfil this identified research gap, an OWL2 benchmark for the evaluation of KBS is proposed. The proposed benchmark addresses the foundational blocks of an ontology benchmark i.e. data schema, workload and performance metrics. The proposed benchmark is tested on memory based, file based, relational database and graph based KBS for performance and scalability measures. The results show that the proposed benchmark is able to evaluate the behaviour of different state of the art KBS on OWL2 semantics. On the basis of the results, the end users (i.e. domain expert) would be able to select a suitable KBS appropriate for his domain.

Benchmarking and beyond. Information trends in home care.

PubMed

Twiss, Amanda; Rooney, Heather; Lang, Christine

2002-11-01

With today's benchmarking concepts and tools, agencies have the unprecedented opportunity to use information as a strategic advantage. Because agencies are demanding more and better information, benchmark functionality has grown increasingly sophisticated. Agencies now require a new type of analysis, focused on high-level executive summaries while reducing the current "data overload."

SODA: Smart Objects, Dumb Archives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nelson, Michael L.; Maly, Kurt; Zubair, Mohammad; Shen, Stewart N. T.

2004-01-01

We present the Smart Object, Dumb Archive (SODA) model for digital libraries (DLs). The SODA model transfers functionality traditionally associated with archives to the archived objects themselves. We are exploiting this shift of responsibility to facilitate other DL goals, such as interoperability, object intelligence and mobility, and heterogeneity. Objects in a SODA DL negotiate presentation of content and handle their own terms and conditions. In this paper we present implementations of our smart objects, buckets, and our dumb archive (DA). We discuss the status of buckets and DA and how they are used in a variety of DL projects.

NASA ARCH- A FILE ARCHIVAL SYSTEM FOR THE DEC VAX

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scott, P. J.

1994-01-01

The function of the NASA ARCH system is to provide a permanent storage area for files that are infrequently accessed. The NASA ARCH routines were designed to provide a simple mechanism by which users can easily store and retrieve files. The user treats NASA ARCH as the interface to a black box where files are stored. There are only five NASA ARCH user commands, even though NASA ARCH employs standard VMS directives and the VAX BACKUP utility. Special care is taken to provide the security needed to insure file integrity over a period of years. The archived files may exist in any of three storage areas: a temporary buffer, the main buffer, and a magnetic tape library. When the main buffer fills up, it is transferred to permanent magnetic tape storage and deleted from disk. Files may be restored from any of the three storage areas. A single file, multiple files, or entire directories can be stored and retrieved. archived entities hold the same name, extension, version number, and VMS file protection scheme as they had in the user's account prior to archival. NASA ARCH is capable of handling up to 7 directory levels. Wildcards are supported. User commands include TEMPCOPY, DISKCOPY, DELETE, RESTORE, and DIRECTORY. The DIRECTORY command searches a directory of savesets covering all three archival areas, listing matches according to area, date, filename, or other criteria supplied by the user. The system manager commands include 1) ARCHIVE- to transfer the main buffer to duplicate magnetic tapes, 2) REPORTto determine when the main buffer is full enough to archive, 3) INCREMENT- to back up the partially filled main buffer, and 4) FULLBACKUP- to back up the entire main buffer. On-line help files are provided for all NASA ARCH commands. NASA ARCH is written in DEC VAX DCL for interactive execution and has been implemented on a DEC VAX computer operating under VMS 4.X. This program was developed in 1985.

Smart Objects, Dumb Archives: A User-Centric, Layered Digital Library Framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maly, Kurt; Nelson, Michael L.; Zubair, Mohammad

1999-01-01

Currently, there exist a large number of superb digital libraries, all of which are, unfortunately, vertically integrated and all presenting a monolithic interface to their users. Ideally, a user would want to locate resources from a variety of digital libraries dealing only with one interface. A number of approaches exist to this interoperability issue exist including: defining a universal protocol for all libraries to adhere to; or developing mechanisms to translate between protocols. The approach we illustrate in this paper is to push down the level of universal protocols to one for digital object communication and for communication for simple archives. This approach creates the opportunity for digital library service providers to create digital libraries tailored to the needs of user communities drawing from available archives and individual publishers who adhere to this standard. We have created a reference implementation based on the hyper text transfer protocol (http) with the protocols being derived from the Dienst protocol. We have created a special class of digital objects called buckets and a number of archives based on a NASA collection and NSF funded projects. Starting from NCSTRL we have developed a set of digital library services called NCSTRL+ and have created digital libraries for researchers, educators and students that can each draw on all the archives and individually created buckets.

Benchmarking strategies for measuring the quality of healthcare: problems and prospects.

PubMed

Lovaglio, Pietro Giorgio

2012-01-01

Over the last few years, increasing attention has been directed toward the problems inherent to measuring the quality of healthcare and implementing benchmarking strategies. Besides offering accreditation and certification processes, recent approaches measure the performance of healthcare institutions in order to evaluate their effectiveness, defined as the capacity to provide treatment that modifies and improves the patient's state of health. This paper, dealing with hospital effectiveness, focuses on research methods for effectiveness analyses within a strategy comparing different healthcare institutions. The paper, after having introduced readers to the principle debates on benchmarking strategies, which depend on the perspective and type of indicators used, focuses on the methodological problems related to performing consistent benchmarking analyses. Particularly, statistical methods suitable for controlling case-mix, analyzing aggregate data, rare events, and continuous outcomes measured with error are examined. Specific challenges of benchmarking strategies, such as the risk of risk adjustment (case-mix fallacy, underreporting, risk of comparing noncomparable hospitals), selection bias, and possible strategies for the development of consistent benchmarking analyses, are discussed. Finally, to demonstrate the feasibility of the illustrated benchmarking strategies, an application focused on determining regional benchmarks for patient satisfaction (using 2009 Lombardy Region Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire) is proposed.

BEST Winery Guidebook: Benchmarking and Energy and Water SavingsTool for the Wine Industry

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

Galitsky, Christina; Worrell, Ernst; Radspieler, Anthony

2005-10-15

Not all industrial facilities have the staff or the opportunity to perform a detailed audit of their operations. The lack of knowledge of energy efficiency opportunities provides an important barrier to improving efficiency. Benchmarking has demonstrated to help energy users understand energy use and the potential for energy efficiency improvement, reducing the information barrier. In California, the wine making industry is not only one of the economic pillars of the economy; it is also a large energy consumer, with a considerable potential for energy-efficiency improvement. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Fetzer Vineyards developed an integrated benchmarking and self-assessment tool formore » the California wine industry called ''BEST''(Benchmarking and Energy and water Savings Tool) Winery. BEST Winery enables a winery to compare its energy efficiency to a best practice winery, accounting for differences in product mix and other characteristics of the winery. The tool enables the user to evaluate the impact of implementing energy and water efficiency measures. The tool facilitates strategic planning of efficiency measures, based on the estimated impact of the measures, their costs and savings. BEST Winery is available as a software tool in an Excel environment. This report serves as background material, documenting assumptions and information on the included energy and water efficiency measures. It also serves as a user guide for the software package.« less

Benchmark Dataset for Whole Genome Sequence Compression.

PubMed

C L, Biji; S Nair, Achuthsankar

2017-01-01

The research in DNA data compression lacks a standard dataset to test out compression tools specific to DNA. This paper argues that the current state of achievement in DNA compression is unable to be benchmarked in the absence of such scientifically compiled whole genome sequence dataset and proposes a benchmark dataset using multistage sampling procedure. Considering the genome sequence of organisms available in the National Centre for Biotechnology and Information (NCBI) as the universe, the proposed dataset selects 1,105 prokaryotes, 200 plasmids, 164 viruses, and 65 eukaryotes. This paper reports the results of using three established tools on the newly compiled dataset and show that their strength and weakness are evident only with a comparison based on the scientifically compiled benchmark dataset. The sample dataset and the respective links are available @ https://sourceforge.net/projects/benchmarkdnacompressiondataset/.

Scalable randomized benchmarking of non-Clifford gates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cross, Andrew; Magesan, Easwar; Bishop, Lev; Smolin, John; Gambetta, Jay

Randomized benchmarking is a widely used experimental technique to characterize the average error of quantum operations. Benchmarking procedures that scale to enable characterization of n-qubit circuits rely on efficient procedures for manipulating those circuits and, as such, have been limited to subgroups of the Clifford group. However, universal quantum computers require additional, non-Clifford gates to approximate arbitrary unitary transformations. We define a scalable randomized benchmarking procedure over n-qubit unitary matrices that correspond to protected non-Clifford gates for a class of stabilizer codes. We present efficient methods for representing and composing group elements, sampling them uniformly, and synthesizing corresponding poly (n) -sized circuits. The procedure provides experimental access to two independent parameters that together characterize the average gate fidelity of a group element. We acknowledge support from ARO under Contract W911NF-14-1-0124.

Implementation of NAS Parallel Benchmarks in Java

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frumkin, Michael; Schultz, Matthew; Jin, Hao-Qiang; Yan, Jerry

2000-01-01

A number of features make Java an attractive but a debatable choice for High Performance Computing (HPC). In order to gauge the applicability of Java to the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) we have implemented NAS Parallel Benchmarks in Java. The performance and scalability of the benchmarks point out the areas where improvement in Java compiler technology and in Java thread implementation would move Java closer to Fortran in the competition for CFD applications.

Data Race Benchmark Collection

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

Liao, Chunhua; Lin, Pei-Hung; Asplund, Joshua

2017-03-21

This project is a benchmark suite of Open-MP parallel codes that have been checked for data races. The programs are marked to show which do and do not have races. This allows them to be leveraged while testing and developing race detection tools.

The Medical Library Association Benchmarking Network: development and implementation.

PubMed

Dudden, Rosalind Farnam; Corcoran, Kate; Kaplan, Janice; Magouirk, Jeff; Rand, Debra C; Smith, Bernie Todd

2006-04-01

This article explores the development and implementation of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Benchmarking Network from the initial idea and test survey, to the implementation of a national survey in 2002, to the establishment of a continuing program in 2004. Started as a program for hospital libraries, it has expanded to include other nonacademic health sciences libraries. The activities and timelines of MLA's Benchmarking Network task forces and editorial board from 1998 to 2004 are described. The Benchmarking Network task forces successfully developed an extensive questionnaire with parameters of size and measures of library activity and published a report of the data collected by September 2002. The data were available to all MLA members in the form of aggregate tables. Utilization of Web-based technologies proved feasible for data intake and interactive display. A companion article analyzes and presents some of the data. MLA has continued to develop the Benchmarking Network with the completion of a second survey in 2004. The Benchmarking Network has provided many small libraries with comparative data to present to their administrators. It is a challenge for the future to convince all MLA members to participate in this valuable program.

Archives: New Horizons in Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bobis, L.; Laurenceau, A.

2010-10-01

The scientific archives in the Paris Observatory's library date back to the XVIIth century. In addition to the preservation and the valorisation of these historic archives, the library is also responsible for the efficient and timely management of contemporary documents to ensure their optimum conservation and identification once they become historical. Oral, iconographic and electronic documents complement these paper archives.

Integrating the IA2 Astronomical Archive in the VO: The VO-Dance Engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molinaro, M.; Laurino, O.; Smareglia, R.

2012-09-01

Virtual Observatory (VO) protocols and standards are getting mature and the astronomical community asks for astrophysical data to be easily reachable. This means data centers have to intensify their efforts to provide the data they manage not only through proprietary portals and services but also through interoperable resources developed on the basis of the IVOA (International Virtual Observatory Alliance) recommendations. Here we present the work and ideas developed at the IA2 (Italian Astronomical Archive) data center hosted by the INAF-OATs (Italian Institute for Astrophysics - Trieste Astronomical Observatory) to reach this goal. The core point is the development of an application that from existing DB and archive structures can translate their content to VO compliant resources: VO-Dance (written in Java). This application, in turn, relies on a database (potentially DBMS independent) to store the translation layer information of each resource and auxiliary content (UCDs, field names, authorizations, policies, etc.). The last token is an administrative interface (currently developed using the Django python framework) to allow the data center administrators to set up and maintain resources. This deployment, platform independent, with database and administrative interface highly customizable, means the package, when stable and easily distributable, can be also used by single astronomers or groups to set up their own resources from their public datasets.

Implementation and verification of global optimization benchmark problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Posypkin, Mikhail; Usov, Alexander

2017-12-01

The paper considers the implementation and verification of a test suite containing 150 benchmarks for global deterministic box-constrained optimization. A C++ library for describing standard mathematical expressions was developed for this purpose. The library automate the process of generating the value of a function and its' gradient at a given point and the interval estimates of a function and its' gradient on a given box using a single description. Based on this functionality, we have developed a collection of tests for an automatic verification of the proposed benchmarks. The verification has shown that literary sources contain mistakes in the benchmarks description. The library and the test suite are available for download and can be used freely.

Memory-Intensive Benchmarks: IRAM vs. Cache-Based Machines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Biswas, Rupak; Gaeke, Brian R.; Husbands, Parry; Li, Xiaoye S.; Oliker, Leonid; Yelick, Katherine A.; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The increasing gap between processor and memory performance has lead to new architectural models for memory-intensive applications. In this paper, we explore the performance of a set of memory-intensive benchmarks and use them to compare the performance of conventional cache-based microprocessors to a mixed logic and DRAM processor called VIRAM. The benchmarks are based on problem statements, rather than specific implementations, and in each case we explore the fundamental hardware requirements of the problem, as well as alternative algorithms and data structures that can help expose fine-grained parallelism or simplify memory access patterns. The benchmarks are characterized by their memory access patterns, their basic control structures, and the ratio of computation to memory operation.

Global Conflicts On-line: Technoliteracy and Developing an Internet-Based Conflict Archive.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tuathail, Gearoid O; McCormack, Derek

1998-01-01

Reflects on the experience of teaching a large undergraduate course on the geography of global conflict. A World Wide Web site featuring an archive of conflicts around the globe was designed and integrated into the course. Discusses issues concerning the design and maintenance of the Web site and its usefulness as a learning resource. (MJP)

New NAS Parallel Benchmarks Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yarrow, Maurice; Saphir, William; VanderWijngaart, Rob; Woo, Alex; Kutler, Paul (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

NPB2 (NAS (NASA Advanced Supercomputing) Parallel Benchmarks 2) is an implementation, based on Fortran and the MPI (message passing interface) message passing standard, of the original NAS Parallel Benchmark specifications. NPB2 programs are run with little or no tuning, in contrast to NPB vendor implementations, which are highly optimized for specific architectures. NPB2 results complement, rather than replace, NPB results. Because they have not been optimized by vendors, NPB2 implementations approximate the performance a typical user can expect for a portable parallel program on distributed memory parallel computers. Together these results provide an insightful comparison of the real-world performance of high-performance computers. New NPB2 features: New implementation (CG), new workstation class problem sizes, new serial sample versions, more performance statistics.

Community archiving of imaging studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fritz, Steven L.; Roys, Steven R.; Munjal, Sunita

1996-05-01

The quantity of image data created in a large radiology practice has long been a challenge for available archiving technology. Traditional methods ofarchiving the large quantity of films generated in radiology have relied on warehousing in remote sites, with courier delivery of film files for historical comparisons. A digital community archive, accessible via a wide area network, represents a feasible solution to the problem of archiving digital images from a busy practice. In addition, it affords a physician caring for a patient access to imaging studies performed at a variety ofhealthcare institutions without the need to repeat studies. Security problems include both network security issues in the WAN environment and access control for patient, physician and imaging center. The key obstacle to developing a community archive is currently political. Reluctance to participate in a community archive can be reduced by appropriate design of the access mechanisms.

Development and application of freshwater sediment-toxicity benchmarks for currently used pesticides

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nowell, Lisa H.; Norman, Julia E.; Ingersoll, Christopher G.; Moran, Patrick W.

2016-01-01

Sediment-toxicity benchmarks are needed to interpret the biological significance of currently used pesticides detected in whole sediments. Two types of freshwater sediment benchmarks for pesticides were developed using spiked-sediment bioassay (SSB) data from the literature. These benchmarks can be used to interpret sediment-toxicity data or to assess the potential toxicity of pesticides in whole sediment. The Likely Effect Benchmark (LEB) defines a pesticide concentration in whole sediment above which there is a high probability of adverse effects on benthic invertebrates, and the Threshold Effect Benchmark (TEB) defines a concentration below which adverse effects are unlikely. For compounds without available SSBs, benchmarks were estimated using equilibrium partitioning (EqP). When a sediment sample contains a pesticide mixture, benchmark quotients can be summed for all detected pesticides to produce an indicator of potential toxicity for that mixture. Benchmarks were developed for 48 pesticide compounds using SSB data and 81 compounds using the EqP approach. In an example application, data for pesticides measured in sediment from 197 streams across the United States were evaluated using these benchmarks, and compared to measured toxicity from whole-sediment toxicity tests conducted with the amphipod Hyalella azteca (28-d exposures) and the midge Chironomus dilutus (10-d exposures). Amphipod survival, weight, and biomass were significantly and inversely related to summed benchmark quotients, whereas midge survival, weight, and biomass showed no relationship to benchmarks. Samples with LEB exceedances were rare (n = 3), but all were toxic to amphipods (i.e., significantly different from control). Significant toxicity to amphipods was observed for 72% of samples exceeding one or more TEBs, compared to 18% of samples below all TEBs. Factors affecting toxicity below TEBs may include the presence of contaminants other than pesticides, physical

Contributions to Integral Nuclear Data in ICSBEP and IRPhEP since ND 2013

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

Bess, John D.; Briggs, J. Blair; Gulliford, Jim

2016-09-01

The status of the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) and the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) was last discussed directly with the international nuclear data community at ND2013. Since ND2013, integral benchmark data that are available for nuclear data testing has continued to increase. The status of the international benchmark efforts and the latest contributions to integral nuclear data for testing is discussed. Select benchmark configurations that have been added to the ICSBEP and IRPhEP Handbooks since ND2013 are highlighted. The 2015 edition of the ICSBEP Handbook now contains 567 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 4,874more » critical, near-critical, or subcritical configurations, 31 criticality alarm placement/shielding configuration with multiple dose points apiece, and 207 configurations that have been categorized as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications. The 2015 edition of the IRPhEP Handbook contains data from 143 different experimental series that were performed at 50 different nuclear facilities. Currently 139 of the 143 evaluations are published as approved benchmarks with the remaining four evaluations published in draft format only. Measurements found in the IRPhEP Handbook include criticality, buckling and extrapolation length, spectral characteristics, reactivity effects, reactivity coefficients, kinetics, reaction-rate distributions, power distributions, isotopic compositions, and/or other miscellaneous types of measurements for various types of reactor systems. Annual technical review meetings for both projects were held in April 2016; additional approved benchmark evaluations will be included in the 2016 editions of these handbooks.« less

The COROT Archive at LAEFF

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velasco, Almudena; Gutiérrez, Raúl; Solano, Enrique; García-Torres, Miguel; López, Mauro; Sarro, Luis Manuel

We describe here the main capabilities of the COROT archive. The archive (http://sdc.laeff.inta.es/corotfa/jsp/searchform.jsp), managed at LAEFF in the framework of the Spanish Virtual Observatory (http://svo.laeff.inta.es), has been developed following the standards and requirements defined by IVOA (http://www.ivoa.net). The COROT archive at LAEFF will be publicly available by the end of 2008.

The extreme ultraviolet explorer archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polomski, E.; Drake, J. J.; Dobson, C.; Christian, C.

1993-09-01

The Extreme Ultrviolet Explorer (EUVE) public archive was created to handle the storage, maintenance, and distribution of EUVE data and ancillary documentation, information, and software. Access to the archive became available to the public on July 17, 1992, only 40 days after the launch of the EUVE satellite. A brief overview of the archive's contents and the various methods of access will be described.

Benchmarking in Education: Tech Prep, a Case in Point. IEE Brief Number 8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inger, Morton

Benchmarking is a process by which organizations compare their practices, processes, and outcomes to standards of excellence in a systematic way. The benchmarking process entails the following essential steps: determining what to benchmark and establishing internal baseline data; identifying the benchmark; determining how that standard has been…

Earth Science Data Archive and Access at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leptoukh, Gregory

1999-01-01

The Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC), as an integral part of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), is the official source of data for several important earth remote sensing missions. These include the Sea-viewing Wide-Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) launched in August 1997, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) launched in November 1997, and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) scheduled for launch in mid 1999 as part of the EOS AM-1 instrumentation package. The data generated from these missions supports a host of users in the hydrological, land biosphere and oceanographic research and applications communities. The volume and nature of the data present unique challenges to an Earth science data archive and distribution system such as the DAAC. The DAAC system receives, archives and distributes a large number of standard data products on a daily basis, including data files that have been reprocessed with updated calibration data or improved analytical algorithms. A World Wide Web interface is provided allowing interactive data selection and automatic data subscriptions as distribution options. The DAAC also creates customized and value-added data products, which allow additional user flexibility and reduced data volume. Another significant part of our overall mission is to provide ancillary data support services and archive support for worldwide field campaigns designed to validate the results from the various satellite-derived measurements. In addition to direct data services, accompanying documentation, WWW links to related resources, support for EOSDIS data formats, and informed response to inquiries are routinely provided to users. The current GDAAC WWW search and order system is being restructured to provide users with a simplified, hierarchical access to data. Data Browsers have been developed for several data sets to aid users in ordering data. These Browsers allow users to specify

Harmonising and linking biomedical and clinical data across disparate data archives to enable integrative cross-biobank research

PubMed Central

Spjuth, Ola; Krestyaninova, Maria; Hastings, Janna; Shen, Huei-Yi; Heikkinen, Jani; Waldenberger, Melanie; Langhammer, Arnulf; Ladenvall, Claes; Esko, Tõnu; Persson, Mats-Åke; Heggland, Jon; Dietrich, Joern; Ose, Sandra; Gieger, Christian; Ried, Janina S; Peters, Annette; Fortier, Isabel; de Geus, Eco JC; Klovins, Janis; Zaharenko, Linda; Willemsen, Gonneke; Hottenga, Jouke-Jan; Litton, Jan-Eric; Karvanen, Juha; Boomsma, Dorret I; Groop, Leif; Rung, Johan; Palmgren, Juni; Pedersen, Nancy L; McCarthy, Mark I; van Duijn, Cornelia M; Hveem, Kristian; Metspalu, Andres; Ripatti, Samuli; Prokopenko, Inga; Harris, Jennifer R

2016-01-01

A wealth of biospecimen samples are stored in modern globally distributed biobanks. Biomedical researchers worldwide need to be able to combine the available resources to improve the power of large-scale studies. A prerequisite for this effort is to be able to search and access phenotypic, clinical and other information about samples that are currently stored at biobanks in an integrated manner. However, privacy issues together with heterogeneous information systems and the lack of agreed-upon vocabularies have made specimen searching across multiple biobanks extremely challenging. We describe three case studies where we have linked samples and sample descriptions in order to facilitate global searching of available samples for research. The use cases include the ENGAGE (European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology) consortium comprising at least 39 cohorts, the SUMMIT (surrogate markers for micro- and macro-vascular hard endpoints for innovative diabetes tools) consortium and a pilot for data integration between a Swedish clinical health registry and a biobank. We used the Sample avAILability (SAIL) method for data linking: first, created harmonised variables and then annotated and made searchable information on the number of specimens available in individual biobanks for various phenotypic categories. By operating on this categorised availability data we sidestep many obstacles related to privacy that arise when handling real values and show that harmonised and annotated records about data availability across disparate biomedical archives provide a key methodological advance in pre-analysis exchange of information between biobanks, that is, during the project planning phase. PMID:26306643

Benchmarking Strategies for Measuring the Quality of Healthcare: Problems and Prospects

PubMed Central

Lovaglio, Pietro Giorgio

2012-01-01

Over the last few years, increasing attention has been directed toward the problems inherent to measuring the quality of healthcare and implementing benchmarking strategies. Besides offering accreditation and certification processes, recent approaches measure the performance of healthcare institutions in order to evaluate their effectiveness, defined as the capacity to provide treatment that modifies and improves the patient's state of health. This paper, dealing with hospital effectiveness, focuses on research methods for effectiveness analyses within a strategy comparing different healthcare institutions. The paper, after having introduced readers to the principle debates on benchmarking strategies, which depend on the perspective and type of indicators used, focuses on the methodological problems related to performing consistent benchmarking analyses. Particularly, statistical methods suitable for controlling case-mix, analyzing aggregate data, rare events, and continuous outcomes measured with error are examined. Specific challenges of benchmarking strategies, such as the risk of risk adjustment (case-mix fallacy, underreporting, risk of comparing noncomparable hospitals), selection bias, and possible strategies for the development of consistent benchmarking analyses, are discussed. Finally, to demonstrate the feasibility of the illustrated benchmarking strategies, an application focused on determining regional benchmarks for patient satisfaction (using 2009 Lombardy Region Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire) is proposed. PMID:22666140

MIPS bacterial genomes functional annotation benchmark dataset.

PubMed

Tetko, Igor V; Brauner, Barbara; Dunger-Kaltenbach, Irmtraud; Frishman, Goar; Montrone, Corinna; Fobo, Gisela; Ruepp, Andreas; Antonov, Alexey V; Surmeli, Dimitrij; Mewes, Hans-Wernen

2005-05-15

Any development of new methods for automatic functional annotation of proteins according to their sequences requires high-quality data (as benchmark) as well as tedious preparatory work to generate sequence parameters required as input data for the machine learning methods. Different program settings and incompatible protocols make a comparison of the analyzed methods difficult. The MIPS Bacterial Functional Annotation Benchmark dataset (MIPS-BFAB) is a new, high-quality resource comprising four bacterial genomes manually annotated according to the MIPS functional catalogue (FunCat). These resources include precalculated sequence parameters, such as sequence similarity scores, InterPro domain composition and other parameters that could be used to develop and benchmark methods for functional annotation of bacterial protein sequences. These data are provided in XML format and can be used by scientists who are not necessarily experts in genome annotation. BFAB is available at http://mips.gsf.de/proj/bfab

Legacy data center integration into distributed data federations: The World Data Center for Climate (WDCC) experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kindermann, Stephan; Berger, Katharina; Toussaint, Frank

2014-05-01

The integration of well-established legacy data centers into newly developed data federation infrastructures is a key requirement to enhance climate data access based on widely agreed interfaces. We present the approach taken to integrate the ICSU World Data Center for Climate (WDCC) located in Hamburg, Germany into the European ENES climate data Federation which is part of the international ESGF data federation. The ENES / ESGF data federation hosts petabytes of climate model data and provides scalable data search and access services across the worldwide distributed data centers. Parts of the data provided by the ENES / ESGF data federation is also long term archived and curated at the WDCC data archive, allowing e.g. for DOI based data citation. An integration of the WDCC into the ENES / ESGF federation allows end users to search and access WDCC data using consistent interfaces worldwide. We will summarize the integration approach we have taken for WDCC legacy system and ESGF infrastructure integration. On the technical side we describe the provisioning of ESGF consistent metadata and data interfaces as well as the security infrastructure adoption. On the non-technical side we describe our experiences in integrating a long-term archival center with costly quality assurance procedures with an integrated distributed data federation putting emphasis on providing early and consistent data search and access services to scientists. The experiences were gained in the process of curating ESGF hosted CMIP5 data at the WDCC. Approximately one petabyte of CMIP5 data which was used for the IPCC climate report is being replicated and archived at the WDCC.

42 CFR 440.335 - Benchmark-equivalent health benefits coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

...) Aggregate actuarial value. Benchmark-equivalent coverage is health benefits coverage that has an aggregate... planning services and supplies and other appropriate preventive services, as designated by the Secretary... State for purposes of comparison in establishing the aggregate actuarial value of the benchmark...

The Gaia Archive at ESAC: a VO-inside archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez-Nunez, J.

2015-12-01

The ESDC (ESAC Science Data Center) is one of the active members of the IVOA (International Virtual Observatory Alliance) that have defined a set of standards, libraries and concepts that allows to create flexible,scalable and interoperable architectures on the data archives development. In the case of astronomy science that involves the use of big catalogues, as in Gaia or Euclid, TAP, UWS and VOSpace standards can be used to create an architecture that allows the explotation of this valuable data from the community. Also, new challenges arise like the implementation of the new paradigm "move code close to the data", what can be partially obtained by the extension of the protocols (TAP+, UWS+, etc) or the languages (ADQL). We explain how we have used VO standards and libraries for the Gaia Archive that, not only have producing an open and interoperable archive but, also, minimizing the developement on certain areas. Also we will explain how we have extended these protocols and the future plans.

An efficient, modular and simple tape archiving solution for LHC Run-3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murray, S.; Bahyl, V.; Cancio, G.; Cano, E.; Kotlyar, V.; Kruse, D. F.; Leduc, J.

2017-10-01

The IT Storage group at CERN develops the software responsible for archiving to tape the custodial copy of the physics data generated by the LHC experiments. Physics run 3 will start in 2021 and will introduce two major challenges for which the tape archive software must be evolved. Firstly the software will need to make more efficient use of tape drives in order to sustain the predicted data rate of 150 petabytes per year as opposed to the current 50 petabytes per year. Secondly the software will need to be seamlessly integrated with EOS, which has become the de facto disk storage system provided by the IT Storage group for physics data. The tape storage software for LHC physics run 3 is code named CTA (the CERN Tape Archive). This paper describes how CTA will introduce a pre-emptive drive scheduler to use tape drives more efficiently, will encapsulate all tape software into a single module that will sit behind one or more EOS systems, and will be simpler by dropping support for obsolete backwards compatibility.

Benchmarking in pathology: development of a benchmarking complexity unit and associated key performance indicators.

PubMed

Neil, Amanda; Pfeffer, Sally; Burnett, Leslie

2013-01-01

This paper details the development of a new type of pathology laboratory productivity unit, the benchmarking complexity unit (BCU). The BCU provides a comparative index of laboratory efficiency, regardless of test mix. It also enables estimation of a measure of how much complex pathology a laboratory performs, and the identification of peer organisations for the purposes of comparison and benchmarking. The BCU is based on the theory that wage rates reflect productivity at the margin. A weighting factor for the ratio of medical to technical staff time was dynamically calculated based on actual participant site data. Given this weighting, a complexity value for each test, at each site, was calculated. The median complexity value (number of BCUs) for that test across all participating sites was taken as its complexity value for the Benchmarking in Pathology Program. The BCU allowed implementation of an unbiased comparison unit and test listing that was found to be a robust indicator of the relative complexity for each test. Employing the BCU data, a number of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were developed, including three that address comparative organisational complexity, analytical depth and performance efficiency, respectively. Peer groups were also established using the BCU combined with simple organisational and environmental metrics. The BCU has enabled productivity statistics to be compared between organisations. The BCU corrects for differences in test mix and workload complexity of different organisations and also allows for objective stratification into peer groups.

Archival Information Management System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1995-02-01

management system named Archival Information Management System (AIMS), designed to meet the audit trail requirement for studies completed under the...are to be archived to the extent that future reproducibility and interrogation of results will exist. This report presents a prototype information

Developing and Managing a Local Digital Archive for Integrated Access to Journals and Other Publications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stackpole, Laurie

2001-01-01

The Naval Research Laboratory Library has made significant progress providing its distributed user community with a single point-of-access to information needed to support scientific research through TORPEDO "Ultra," a digital archive that in many respects functions as an electronic counterpart of a traditional library. It consists of…

Test One to Test Many: A Unified Approach to Quantum Benchmarks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bai, Ge; Chiribella, Giulio

2018-04-01

Quantum benchmarks are routinely used to validate the experimental demonstration of quantum information protocols. Many relevant protocols, however, involve an infinite set of input states, of which only a finite subset can be used to test the quality of the implementation. This is a problem, because the benchmark for the finitely many states used in the test can be higher than the original benchmark calculated for infinitely many states. This situation arises in the teleportation and storage of coherent states, for which the benchmark of 50% fidelity is commonly used in experiments, although finite sets of coherent states normally lead to higher benchmarks. Here, we show that the average fidelity over all coherent states can be indirectly probed with a single setup, requiring only two-mode squeezing, a 50-50 beam splitter, and homodyne detection. Our setup enables a rigorous experimental validation of quantum teleportation, storage, amplification, attenuation, and purification of noisy coherent states. More generally, we prove that every quantum benchmark can be tested by preparing a single entangled state and measuring a single observable.

The Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peeples, M.; Tumlinson, J.; Fox, A.; Aloisi, A.; Fleming, S.; Jedrzejewski, R.; Oliveira, C.; Ayres, T.; Danforth, C.; Keeney, B.; Jenkins, E.

2017-04-01

With no future space ultraviolet instruments currently planned, the data from the UV spectrographs aboard the Hubble Space Telescope have a legacy value beyond their initial science goals. The goal of the Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive(HSLA) is to provide to the community new science-grade combined spectra for all publicly available data obtained by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS)and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). These data are packaged into "smart archives" according to target type and scientific themes to facilitate the construction of archival samples for common science uses. A new "quick look" capability makes the data easy for users to quickly access, assess the quality of,and download for archival science. The first generation of these products for the far-ultraviolet (FUV) modes of COS was made available online via the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) in early 2016 and updated in early 2017; future releases will include COS/NUV and STIS/UV data.

Teaching Benchmark Strategy for Fifth-Graders in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Der-Ching; Lai, M. L.

2013-01-01

The key purpose of this study was how we taught the use of benchmark strategy when comparing fraction for fifth-graders in Taiwan. 26 fifth graders from a public elementary in south Taiwan were selected to join this study. Results of this case study showed that students had a much progress on the use of benchmark strategy when comparing fraction…

A generic archive protocol and an implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jordan, J. M.; Jennings, D. G.; Mcglynn, T. A.; Ruggiero, N. G.; Serlemitsos, T. A.

1992-01-01

Archiving vast amounts of data has become a major part of every scientific space mission today. The Generic Archive/Retrieval Services Protocol (GRASP) addresses the question of how to archive the data collected in an environment where the underlying hardware archives may be rapidly changing. GRASP is a device independent specification defining a set of functions for storing and retrieving data from an archive, as well as other support functions. GRASP is divided into two levels: the Transfer Interface and the Action Interface. The Transfer Interface is computer/archive independent code while the Action Interface contains code which is dedicated to each archive/computer addressed. Implementations of the GRASP specification are currently available for DECstations running Ultrix, Sparcstations running SunOS, and microVAX/VAXstation 3100's. The underlying archive is assumed to function as a standard Unix or VMS file system. The code, written in C, is a single suite of files. Preprocessing commands define the machine unique code sections in the device interface. The implementation was written, to the greatest extent possible, using only ANSI standard C functions.

7 CFR 1709.5 - Determination of energy cost benchmarks.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Determination of energy cost benchmarks. 1709.5... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.5 Determination of energy cost benchmarks. (a) The Administrator shall establish, using the most...

7 CFR 1709.5 - Determination of energy cost benchmarks.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Determination of energy cost benchmarks. 1709.5... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.5 Determination of energy cost benchmarks. (a) The Administrator shall establish, using the most...

7 CFR 1709.5 - Determination of energy cost benchmarks.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Determination of energy cost benchmarks. 1709.5... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.5 Determination of energy cost benchmarks. (a) The Administrator shall establish, using the most...

7 CFR 1709.5 - Determination of energy cost benchmarks.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Determination of energy cost benchmarks. 1709.5... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.5 Determination of energy cost benchmarks. (a) The Administrator shall establish, using the most...

7 CFR 1709.5 - Determination of energy cost benchmarks.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Determination of energy cost benchmarks. 1709.5... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.5 Determination of energy cost benchmarks. (a) The Administrator shall establish, using the most...

Nomenclatural Benchmarking: The roles of digital typification and telemicroscopy

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The process of nomenclatural benchmarking is the examination of type specimens of all available names to ascertain which currently accepted species the specimen bearing the name falls within. We propose a strategy for addressing four challenges for nomenclatural benchmarking. First, there is the mat...

International land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Package v002.00

DOE Data Explorer

Collier, Nathaniel [Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Hoffman, Forrest M. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Mu, Mingquan [University of California, Irvine; Randerson, James T. [University of California, Irvine; Riley, William J. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

2016-05-09

As a contribution to International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Project, we are providing new analysis approaches, benchmarking tools, and science leadership. The goal of ILAMB is to assess and improve the performance of land models through international cooperation and to inform the design of new measurement campaigns and field studies to reduce uncertainties associated with key biogeochemical processes and feedbacks. ILAMB is expected to be a primary analysis tool for CMIP6 and future model-data intercomparison experiments. This team has developed initial prototype benchmarking systems for ILAMB, which will be improved and extended to include ocean model metrics and diagnostics.

International land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Package v001.00

DOE Data Explorer

Mu, Mingquan [University of California, Irvine; Randerson, James T. [University of California, Irvine; Riley, William J. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Hoffman, Forrest M. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory

2016-05-02

As a contribution to International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Project, we are providing new analysis approaches, benchmarking tools, and science leadership. The goal of ILAMB is to assess and improve the performance of land models through international cooperation and to inform the design of new measurement campaigns and field studies to reduce uncertainties associated with key biogeochemical processes and feedbacks. ILAMB is expected to be a primary analysis tool for CMIP6 and future model-data intercomparison experiments. This team has developed initial prototype benchmarking systems for ILAMB, which will be improved and extended to include ocean model metrics and diagnostics.

About Fermilab - History and Archives Project

Science.gov Websites

Fermilab Organization Chart Diversity Architecture History and Archives Project Sustainability Nature Accommodations Recreation Architecture & History Nature/Ecology Order Fermilab Merchandise Online Education K Fermilab History and Archives Project Archives Project main page | Fermilab History main page A Brief

The Medical Library Association Benchmarking Network: development and implementation*

PubMed Central

Dudden, Rosalind Farnam; Corcoran, Kate; Kaplan, Janice; Magouirk, Jeff; Rand, Debra C.; Smith, Bernie Todd

2006-01-01

Objective: This article explores the development and implementation of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Benchmarking Network from the initial idea and test survey, to the implementation of a national survey in 2002, to the establishment of a continuing program in 2004. Started as a program for hospital libraries, it has expanded to include other nonacademic health sciences libraries. Methods: The activities and timelines of MLA's Benchmarking Network task forces and editorial board from 1998 to 2004 are described. Results: The Benchmarking Network task forces successfully developed an extensive questionnaire with parameters of size and measures of library activity and published a report of the data collected by September 2002. The data were available to all MLA members in the form of aggregate tables. Utilization of Web-based technologies proved feasible for data intake and interactive display. A companion article analyzes and presents some of the data. MLA has continued to develop the Benchmarking Network with the completion of a second survey in 2004. Conclusions: The Benchmarking Network has provided many small libraries with comparative data to present to their administrators. It is a challenge for the future to convince all MLA members to participate in this valuable program. PMID:16636702

Modification and benchmarking of MCNP for low-energy tungsten spectra.

PubMed

Mercier, J R; Kopp, D T; McDavid, W D; Dove, S B; Lancaster, J L; Tucker, D M

2000-12-01

The MCNP Monte Carlo radiation transport code was modified for diagnostic medical physics applications. In particular, the modified code was thoroughly benchmarked for the production of polychromatic tungsten x-ray spectra in the 30-150 kV range. Validating the modified code for coupled electron-photon transport with benchmark spectra was supplemented with independent electron-only and photon-only transport benchmarks. Major revisions to the code included the proper treatment of characteristic K x-ray production and scoring, new impact ionization cross sections, and new bremsstrahlung cross sections. Minor revisions included updated photon cross sections, electron-electron bremsstrahlung production, and K x-ray yield. The modified MCNP code is benchmarked to electron backscatter factors, x-ray spectra production, and primary and scatter photon transport.

The General Concept of Benchmarking and Its Application in Higher Education in Europe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nazarko, Joanicjusz; Kuzmicz, Katarzyna Anna; Szubzda-Prutis, Elzbieta; Urban, Joanna

2009-01-01

The purposes of this paper are twofold: a presentation of the theoretical basis of benchmarking and a discussion on practical benchmarking applications. Benchmarking is also analyzed as a productivity accelerator. The authors study benchmarking usage in the private and public sectors with due consideration of the specificities of the two areas.…

The GTC scientific archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gutiérrez, R.; Solano, E.

2011-11-01

At present, data management in telescopes ofclass 8-10 meters is very inefficient. The Gran Telescopio Canarias(GTC) scientific archive that is being developed by the Centro deAstrobiología (CAB) in the framework of the Spanish Virtual Observatoryis aimed at avoiding this situation, providing the telescope with anarchive accessible via internet, guaranteeing the accessibility,efficiency, visibility and data security demanded by a telescope of itsentity. The GTC archive will also be adapted to the standards defined bythe International Virtual Observatory, maximizing the visibility of thedata produced by the telescope. The main characteristics of the GTCscientific archive are described in this poster.

A Background to Motion Picture Archives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fletcher, James E.; Bolen, Donald L., Jr.

The emphasis of archives is on the maintenance and preservation of materials for scholarly research and professional reference. Archives may be established as separate entities or as part of a library or museum. Film archives may include camera originals (positive and negative), sound recordings, outtakes, scripts, contracts, advertising…

Benchmarking neuromorphic vision: lessons learnt from computer vision

PubMed Central

Tan, Cheston; Lallee, Stephane; Orchard, Garrick

2015-01-01

Neuromorphic Vision sensors have improved greatly since the first silicon retina was presented almost three decades ago. They have recently matured to the point where they are commercially available and can be operated by laymen. However, despite improved availability of sensors, there remains a lack of good datasets, while algorithms for processing spike-based visual data are still in their infancy. On the other hand, frame-based computer vision algorithms are far more mature, thanks in part to widely accepted datasets which allow direct comparison between algorithms and encourage competition. We are presented with a unique opportunity to shape the development of Neuromorphic Vision benchmarks and challenges by leveraging what has been learnt from the use of datasets in frame-based computer vision. Taking advantage of this opportunity, in this paper we review the role that benchmarks and challenges have played in the advancement of frame-based computer vision, and suggest guidelines for the creation of Neuromorphic Vision benchmarks and challenges. We also discuss the unique challenges faced when benchmarking Neuromorphic Vision algorithms, particularly when attempting to provide direct comparison with frame-based computer vision. PMID:26528120

Benchmarking FEniCS for mantle convection simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vynnytska, L.; Rognes, M. E.; Clark, S. R.

2013-01-01

This paper evaluates the usability of the FEniCS Project for mantle convection simulations by numerical comparison to three established benchmarks. The benchmark problems all concern convection processes in an incompressible fluid induced by temperature or composition variations, and cover three cases: (i) steady-state convection with depth- and temperature-dependent viscosity, (ii) time-dependent convection with constant viscosity and internal heating, and (iii) a Rayleigh-Taylor instability. These problems are modeled by the Stokes equations for the fluid and advection-diffusion equations for the temperature and composition. The FEniCS Project provides a novel platform for the automated solution of differential equations by finite element methods. In particular, it offers a significant flexibility with regard to modeling and numerical discretization choices; we have here used a discontinuous Galerkin method for the numerical solution of the advection-diffusion equations. Our numerical results are in agreement with the benchmarks, and demonstrate the applicability of both the discontinuous Galerkin method and FEniCS for such applications.

A One-group, One-dimensional Transport Benchmark in Cylindrical Geometry

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

Barry Ganapol; Abderrafi M. Ougouag

A 1-D, 1-group computational benchmark in cylndrical geometry is described. This neutron transport benchmark is useful for evaluating reactor concepts that possess azimuthal symmetry such as a pebble-bed reactor.

Key performance indicators to benchmark hospital information systems - a delphi study.

PubMed

Hübner-Bloder, G; Ammenwerth, E

2009-01-01

To identify the key performance indicators for hospital information systems (HIS) that can be used for HIS benchmarking. A Delphi survey with one qualitative and two quantitative rounds. Forty-four HIS experts from health care IT practice and academia participated in all three rounds. Seventy-seven performance indicators were identified and organized into eight categories: technical quality, software quality, architecture and interface quality, IT vendor quality, IT support and IT department quality, workflow support quality, IT outcome quality, and IT costs. The highest ranked indicators are related to clinical workflow support and user satisfaction. Isolated technical indicators or cost indicators were not seen as useful. The experts favored an interdisciplinary group of all the stakeholders, led by hospital management, to conduct the HIS benchmarking. They proposed benchmarking activities both in regular (annual) intervals as well as at defined events (for example after IT introduction). Most of the experts stated that in their institutions no HIS benchmarking activities are being performed at the moment. In the context of IT governance, IT benchmarking is gaining importance in the healthcare area. The found indicators reflect the view of health care IT professionals and researchers. Research is needed to further validate and operationalize key performance indicators, to provide an IT benchmarking framework, and to provide open repositories for a comparison of the HIS benchmarks of different hospitals.

A proposed benchmark problem for cargo nuclear threat monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wesley Holmes, Thomas; Calderon, Adan; Peeples, Cody R.; Gardner, Robin P.

2011-10-01

There is currently a great deal of technical and political effort focused on reducing the risk of potential attacks on the United States involving radiological dispersal devices or nuclear weapons. This paper proposes a benchmark problem for gamma-ray and X-ray cargo monitoring with results calculated using MCNP5, v1.51. The primary goal is to provide a benchmark problem that will allow researchers in this area to evaluate Monte Carlo models for both speed and accuracy in both forward and inverse calculational codes and approaches for nuclear security applications. A previous benchmark problem was developed by one of the authors (RPG) for two similar oil well logging problems (Gardner and Verghese, 1991, [1]). One of those benchmarks has recently been used by at least two researchers in the nuclear threat area to evaluate the speed and accuracy of Monte Carlo codes combined with variance reduction techniques. This apparent need has prompted us to design this benchmark problem specifically for the nuclear threat researcher. This benchmark consists of conceptual design and preliminary calculational results using gamma-ray interactions on a system containing three thicknesses of three different shielding materials. A point source is placed inside the three materials lead, aluminum, and plywood. The first two materials are in right circular cylindrical form while the third is a cube. The entire system rests on a sufficiently thick lead base so as to reduce undesired scattering events. The configuration was arranged in such a manner that as gamma-ray moves from the source outward it first passes through the lead circular cylinder, then the aluminum circular cylinder, and finally the wooden cube before reaching the detector. A 2 in.×4 in.×16 in. box style NaI (Tl) detector was placed 1 m from the point source located in the center with the 4 in.×16 in. side facing the system. The two sources used in the benchmark are 137Cs and 235U.

Provenance tracking for scientific software toolchains through on-demand release and archiving

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ham, David

2017-04-01

There is an emerging consensus that published computational science results must be backed by a provenance chain tying results to the exact versions of input data and the code which generated them. There is also now an impressive range of web services devoted to revision control of software, and the archiving in citeable form of both software and input data. However, much scientific software itself builds on libraries and toolkits, and these themselves have dependencies. Further, it is common for cutting edge research to depend on the latest version of software in online repositories, rather than the official release version. This creates a situation in which an author who wishes to follow best practice in recording the provenance chain of their results must archive and cite unreleased versions of a series of dependencies. Here, we present an alternative which toolkit authors can easily implement to provide a semi-automatic mechanism for creating and archiving custom software releases of the precise version of a package used in a particular simulation. This approach leverages the excellent services provided by GitHub and Zenodo to generate a connected set of citeable DOIs for the archived software. We present the integration of this workflow into the Firedrake automated finite element framework as a practical example of this approach in use on a complex geoscientific tool chain in practical use.

Internet FAQ Archives - Online Education - faqs.org

Science.gov Websites

faqs.org Internet FAQ Archives - Online Education faqs.org faqs.org - Internet FAQ Archives Internet FAQ Archives Online Education Internet RFC Index Usenet FAQ Index Other FAQs Documents Tools IFC Rated FAQs Internet RFC/STD/FYI/BCP Archives The Internet RFC series of documents is also available from

Building a COTS archive for satellite data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Singer, Ken; Terril, Dave; Kelly, Jack; Nichols, Cathy

1994-01-01

The goal of the NOAA/NESDIS Active Archive was to provide a method of access to an online archive of satellite data. The archive had to manage and store the data, let users interrogate the archive, and allow users to retrieve data from the archive. Practical issues of the system design such as implementation time, cost and operational support were examined in addition to the technical issues. There was a fixed window of opportunity to create an operational system, along with budget and staffing constraints. Therefore, the technical solution had to be designed and implemented subject to constraint imposed by the practical issues. The NOAA/NESDIS Active Archive came online in July of 1994, meeting all of its original objectives.

Technical Report: Installed Cost Benchmarks and Deployment Barriers for

Science.gov Websites

Cost Benchmarks and Deployment Barriers for Residential Solar Photovoltaics with Energy Storage Q1 2016 Installed Cost Benchmarks and Deployment Barriers for Residential Solar with Energy Storage Researchers from NREL published a report that provides detailed component and system-level cost breakdowns for

What Are the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks? Information Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ACT, Inc., 2013

2013-01-01

The ACT College Readiness Benchmarks are the minimum ACT® college readiness assessment scores required for students to have a high probability of success in credit-bearing college courses--English Composition, social sciences courses, College Algebra, or Biology. This report identifies the College Readiness Benchmarks on the ACT Compass scale…

Apples to Oranges: Benchmarking Vocational Education and Training Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bogetoft, Peter; Wittrup, Jesper

2017-01-01

This paper discusses methods for benchmarking vocational education and training colleges and presents results from a number of models. It is conceptually difficult to benchmark vocational colleges. The colleges typically offer a wide range of course programmes, and the students come from different socioeconomic backgrounds. We solve the…

Archival of Amateur Observations in Support to ESA/Rosetta Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shirinian, R.; Yanamandra-Fisher, P. A.; Buratti, B. J.

2016-12-01

The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (CG) has included a global ground-based observing campaign consisting of both professional and amateur observers. While professional observers have access to world class observatories with multi-spectral instruments, amateur observers use smaller aperture telescopes that mainly cover the optical spectrum. Amateur observers however, have the advantage of being able to observe as needed since their time is not competed by other observers as it is in professional facilities. This allows amateurs to create a temporal baseline of observations throughout a mission to complement professional observations with context. The Rosetta mission has had an active amateur observer campaign for over 2 years, from January 2014 to August 2016 and has nearly 150 active observers from around the globe. As the Rosetta mission and its observer campaign come to an end in September 2016, an important goal of the project is the collection and archival of the amateur observational data. The ESA's Planetary Science Archive (PSA) has created a unique system that provides firewalled user-specific directories for amateur observers to upload and archive their data, allowing professionals and amateurs to crowdsource data for future science analyses. Possible future science products could include analysis of luminosity, dust cover, position angle, and tail length, all of which can be analyzed over time due to the consistent amateur data taken for over two years. A challenge for the project is that amateur observers have varying amounts of data, ranging from a few megabytes to several gigabytes. Our project addresses the retrieval of amateur observations, renaming, reformatting, and upload to the PSA. The final steps of the archival of amateur observations are the quality check of the data, some of the possible analyses, and identification of data that can be integrated with professional data analysis. The unique

Stewardship of very large digital data archives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Savage, Patric

1991-01-01

An archive is a permanent store. There are relatively few very large digital data archives in existence. Most business records are expired within five or ten years. Many kinds of business records that do have long lives are embedded in data bases that are continually updated and re-issued cyclically. Also, a great deal of permanent business records are actually archived as microfilm, fiche, or optical disk images - their digital version being an operational convenience rather than an archive. The problems forseen in stewarding the very large digital data archives that will accumulate during the mission of the Earth Observing System (EOS) are addressed. It focuses on the function of shepherding archived digital data into an endless future. Stewardship entails storing and protecting the archive and providing meaningful service to the community of users. The steward will (1) provide against loss due to physical phenomena; (2) assure that data is not lost due to storage technology obsolescence; and (3) maintain data in a current formatting methodology.

Benchmarking multimedia performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zandi, Ahmad; Sudharsanan, Subramania I.

1998-03-01

With the introduction of faster processors and special instruction sets tailored to multimedia, a number of exciting applications are now feasible on the desktops. Among these is the DVD playback consisting, among other things, of MPEG-2 video and Dolby digital audio or MPEG-2 audio. Other multimedia applications such as video conferencing and speech recognition are also becoming popular on computer systems. In view of this tremendous interest in multimedia, a group of major computer companies have formed, Multimedia Benchmarks Committee as part of Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. to address the performance issues of multimedia applications. The approach is multi-tiered with three tiers of fidelity from minimal to full compliant. In each case the fidelity of the bitstream reconstruction as well as quality of the video or audio output are measured and the system is classified accordingly. At the next step the performance of the system is measured. In many multimedia applications such as the DVD playback the application needs to be run at a specific rate. In this case the measurement of the excess processing power, makes all the difference. All these make a system level, application based, multimedia benchmark very challenging. Several ideas and methodologies for each aspect of the problems will be presented and analyzed.

Benchmarks Momentum on Increase

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNeil, Michele

2008-01-01

No longer content with the patchwork quilt of assessments used to measure states' K-12 performance, top policy groups are pushing states toward international benchmarking as a way to better prepare students for a competitive global economy. The National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the standards-advocacy…

Benchmarks: WICHE Region 2012

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2013

2013-01-01

Benchmarks: WICHE Region 2012 presents information on the West's progress in improving access to, success in, and financing of higher education. The information is updated annually to monitor change over time and encourage its use as a tool for informed discussion in policy and education communities. To establish a general context for the…

Kaiser Permanente's performance improvement system, Part 1: From benchmarking to executing on strategic priorities.

PubMed

Schilling, Lisa; Chase, Alide; Kehrli, Sommer; Liu, Amy Y; Stiefel, Matt; Brentari, Ruth

2010-11-01

By 2004, senior leaders at Kaiser Permanente, the largest not-for-profit health plan in the United States, recognizing variations across service areas in quality, safety, service, and efficiency, began developing a performance improvement (PI) system to realizing best-in-class quality performance across all 35 medical centers. MEASURING SYSTEMWIDE PERFORMANCE: In 2005, a Web-based data dashboard, "Big Q," which tracks the performance of each medical center and service area against external benchmarks and internal goals, was created. PLANNING FOR PI AND BENCHMARKING PERFORMANCE: In 2006, Kaiser Permanente national and regional continued planning the PI system, and in 2007, quality, medical group, operations, and information technology leaders benchmarked five high-performing organizations to identify capabilities required to achieve consistent best-in-class organizational performance. THE PI SYSTEM: The PI system addresses the six capabilities: leadership priority setting, a systems approach to improvement, measurement capability, a learning organization, improvement capacity, and a culture of improvement. PI "deep experts" (mentors) consult with national, regional, and local leaders, and more than 500 improvement advisors are trained to manage portfolios of 90-120 day improvement initiatives at medical centers. Between the second quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, performance across all Kaiser Permanente medical centers improved on the Big Q metrics. The lessons learned in implementing and sustaining PI as it becomes fully integrated into all levels of Kaiser Permanente can be generalized to other health care systems, hospitals, and other health care organizations.

A review on the benchmarking concept in Malaysian construction safety performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishak, Nurfadzillah; Azizan, Muhammad Azizi

2018-02-01

Construction industry is one of the major industries that propels Malaysia's economy in highly contributes to our nation's GDP growth, yet the high fatality rates on construction sites have caused concern among safety practitioners and the stakeholders. Hence, there is a need of benchmarking in performance of Malaysia's construction industry especially in terms of safety. This concept can create a fertile ground for ideas, but only in a receptive environment, organization that share good practices and compare their safety performance against other benefit most to establish improvement in safety culture. This research was conducted to study the awareness important, evaluate current practice and improvement, and also identify the constraint in implement of benchmarking on safety performance in our industry. Additionally, interviews with construction professionals were come out with different views on this concept. Comparison has been done to show the different understanding of benchmarking approach and how safety performance can be benchmarked. But, it's viewed as one mission, which to evaluate objectives identified through benchmarking that will improve the organization's safety performance. Finally, the expected result from this research is to help Malaysia's construction industry implement best practice in safety performance management through the concept of benchmarking.

HST archive primer, version 4.1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fruchter, A. (Editor); Baum, S. (Editor)

1994-01-01

This version of the HST Archive Primer provides the basic information a user needs to know to access the HST archive via StarView the new user interface to the archive. Using StarView, users can search for observations interest, find calibration reference files, and retrieve data from the archive. Both the terminal version of StarView and the X-windows version feature a name resolver which simplifies searches of the HST archive based on target name. In addition, the X-windows version of StarView allows preview of all public HST data; compressed versions of public images are displayed via SAOIMAGE, while spectra are plotted using the public plotting package, XMGR. Finally, the version of StarView described here features screens designed for observers preparing Cycle 5 HST proposals.

Nomenclatural benchmarking: the roles of digital typification and telemicroscopy

PubMed Central

Wheeler, Quentin; Bourgoin, Thierry; Coddington, Jonathan; Gostony, Timothy; Hamilton, Andrew; Larimer, Roy; Polaszek, Andrew; Schauff, Michael; Solis, M. Alma

2012-01-01

Abstract Nomenclatural benchmarking is the periodic realignment of species names with species theories and is necessary for the accurate and uniform use of Linnaean binominals in the face of changing species limits. Gaining access to types, often for little more than a cursory examination by an expert, is a major bottleneck in the advance and availability of biodiversity informatics. For the nearly two million described species it has been estimated that five to six million name-bearing type specimens exist, including those for synonymized binominals. Recognizing that examination of types in person will remain necessary in special cases, we propose a four-part strategy for opening access to types that relies heavily on digitization and that would eliminate much of the bottleneck: (1) modify codes of nomenclature to create registries of nomenclatural acts, such as the proposed ZooBank, that include a requirement for digital representations (e-types) for all newly described species to avoid adding to backlog; (2) an “r” strategy that would engineer and deploy a network of automated instruments capable of rapidly creating 3-D images of type specimens not requiring participation of taxon experts; (3) a “K” strategy using remotely operable microscopes to engage taxon experts in targeting and annotating informative characters of types to supplement and extend information content of rapidly acquired e-types, a process that can be done on an as-needed basis as in the normal course of revisionary taxonomy; and (4) creation of a global e-type archive associated with the commissions on nomenclature and species registries providing one-stop-shopping for e-types. We describe a first generation implementation of the “K” strategy that adapts current technology to create a network of Remotely Operable Benchmarkers Of Types (ROBOT) specifically engineered to handle the largest backlog of types, pinned insect specimens. The three initial instruments will be in the

Benchmarking homogenization algorithms for monthly data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venema, V. K. C.; Mestre, O.; Aguilar, E.; Auer, I.; Guijarro, J. A.; Domonkos, P.; Vertacnik, G.; Szentimrey, T.; Stepanek, P.; Zahradnicek, P.; Viarre, J.; Müller-Westermeier, G.; Lakatos, M.; Williams, C. N.; Menne, M. J.; Lindau, R.; Rasol, D.; Rustemeier, E.; Kolokythas, K.; Marinova, T.; Andresen, L.; Acquaotta, F.; Fratianni, S.; Cheval, S.; Klancar, M.; Brunetti, M.; Gruber, C.; Prohom Duran, M.; Likso, T.; Esteban, P.; Brandsma, T.

2012-01-01

The COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action ES0601: advances in homogenization methods of climate series: an integrated approach (HOME) has executed a blind intercomparison and validation study for monthly homogenization algorithms. Time series of monthly temperature and precipitation were evaluated because of their importance for climate studies and because they represent two important types of statistics (additive and multiplicative). The algorithms were validated against a realistic benchmark dataset. The benchmark contains real inhomogeneous data as well as simulated data with inserted inhomogeneities. Random independent break-type inhomogeneities with normally distributed breakpoint sizes were added to the simulated datasets. To approximate real world conditions, breaks were introduced that occur simultaneously in multiple station series within a simulated network of station data. The simulated time series also contained outliers, missing data periods and local station trends. Further, a stochastic nonlinear global (network-wide) trend was added. Participants provided 25 separate homogenized contributions as part of the blind study. After the deadline at which details of the imposed inhomogeneities were revealed, 22 additional solutions were submitted. These homogenized datasets were assessed by a number of performance metrics including (i) the centered root mean square error relative to the true homogeneous value at various averaging scales, (ii) the error in linear trend estimates and (iii) traditional contingency skill scores. The metrics were computed both using the individual station series as well as the network average regional series. The performance of the contributions depends significantly on the error metric considered. Contingency scores by themselves are not very informative. Although relative homogenization algorithms typically improve the homogeneity of temperature data, only the best ones improve precipitation data

Effects of benchmarking on the quality of type 2 diabetes care: results of the OPTIMISE (Optimal Type 2 Diabetes Management Including Benchmarking and Standard Treatment) study in Greece

PubMed Central

Tsimihodimos, Vasilis; Kostapanos, Michael S.; Moulis, Alexandros; Nikas, Nikos; Elisaf, Moses S.

2015-01-01

Objectives: To investigate the effect of benchmarking on the quality of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) care in Greece. Methods: The OPTIMISE (Optimal Type 2 Diabetes Management Including Benchmarking and Standard Treatment) study [ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00681850] was an international multicenter, prospective cohort study. It included physicians randomized 3:1 to either receive benchmarking for glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) treatment targets (benchmarking group) or not (control group). The proportions of patients achieving the targets of the above-mentioned parameters were compared between groups after 12 months of treatment. Also, the proportions of patients achieving those targets at 12 months were compared with baseline in the benchmarking group. Results: In the Greek region, the OPTIMISE study included 797 adults with T2DM (570 in the benchmarking group). At month 12 the proportion of patients within the predefined targets for SBP and LDL-C was greater in the benchmarking compared with the control group (50.6 versus 35.8%, and 45.3 versus 36.1%, respectively). However, these differences were not statistically significant. No difference between groups was noted in the percentage of patients achieving the predefined target for HbA1c. At month 12 the increase in the percentage of patients achieving all three targets was greater in the benchmarking (5.9–15.0%) than in the control group (2.7–8.1%). In the benchmarking group more patients were on target regarding SBP (50.6% versus 29.8%), LDL-C (45.3% versus 31.3%) and HbA1c (63.8% versus 51.2%) at 12 months compared with baseline (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). Conclusion: Benchmarking may comprise a promising tool for improving the quality of T2DM care. Nevertheless, target achievement rates of each, and of all three, quality indicators were suboptimal, indicating there are still unmet needs in the management of T2DM. PMID:26445642

PID controller tuning using metaheuristic optimization algorithms for benchmark problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gholap, Vishal; Naik Dessai, Chaitali; Bagyaveereswaran, V.

2017-11-01

This paper contributes to find the optimal PID controller parameters using particle swarm optimization (PSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm. The algorithms were developed through simulation of chemical process and electrical system and the PID controller is tuned. Here, two different fitness functions such as Integral Time Absolute Error and Time domain Specifications were chosen and applied on PSO, GA and SA while tuning the controller. The proposed Algorithms are implemented on two benchmark problems of coupled tank system and DC motor. Finally, comparative study has been done with different algorithms based on best cost, number of iterations and different objective functions. The closed loop process response for each set of tuned parameters is plotted for each system with each fitness function.

Providing comprehensive and consistent access to astronomical observatory archive data: the NASA archive model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McGlynn, Thomas; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Accomazzi, Alberto; Smale, Alan; White, Richard L.; Donaldson, Thomas; Aloisi, Alessandra; Dower, Theresa; Mazzerella, Joseph M.; Ebert, Rick; Pevunova, Olga; Imel, David; Berriman, Graham B.; Teplitz, Harry I.; Groom, Steve L.; Desai, Vandana R.; Landry, Walter

2016-07-01

Since the turn of the millennium a constant concern of astronomical archives have begun providing data to the public through standardized protocols unifying data from disparate physical sources and wavebands across the electromagnetic spectrum into an astronomical virtual observatory (VO). In October 2014, NASA began support for the NASA Astronomical Virtual Observatories (NAVO) program to coordinate the efforts of NASA astronomy archives in providing data to users through implementation of protocols agreed within the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA). A major goal of the NAVO collaboration has been to step back from a piecemeal implementation of IVOA standards and define what the appropriate presence for the US and NASA astronomy archives in the VO should be. This includes evaluating what optional capabilities in the standards need to be supported, the specific versions of standards that should be used, and returning feedback to the IVOA, to support modifications as needed. We discuss a standard archive model developed by the NAVO for data archive presence in the virtual observatory built upon a consistent framework of standards defined by the IVOA. Our standard model provides for discovery of resources through the VO registries, access to observation and object data, downloads of image and spectral data and general access to archival datasets. It defines specific protocol versions, minimum capabilities, and all dependencies. The model will evolve as the capabilities of the virtual observatory and needs of the community change.

Providing Comprehensive and Consistent Access to Astronomical Observatory Archive Data: The NASA Archive Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGlynn, Thomas; Guiseppina, Fabbiano A; Accomazzi, Alberto; Smale, Alan; White, Richard L.; Donaldson, Thomas; Aloisi, Alessandra; Dower, Theresa; Mazzerella, Joseph M.; Ebert, Rick;

Benchmarking methods and data sets for ligand enrichment assessment in virtual screening.

PubMed

Xia, Jie; Tilahun, Ermias Lemma; Reid, Terry-Elinor; Zhang, Liangren; Wang, Xiang Simon

2015-01-01

Retrospective small-scale virtual screening (VS) based on benchmarking data sets has been widely used to estimate ligand enrichments of VS approaches in the prospective (i.e. real-world) efforts. However, the intrinsic differences of benchmarking sets to the real screening chemical libraries can cause biased assessment. Herein, we summarize the history of benchmarking methods as well as data sets and highlight three main types of biases found in benchmarking sets, i.e. "analogue bias", "artificial enrichment" and "false negative". In addition, we introduce our recent algorithm to build maximum-unbiased benchmarking sets applicable to both ligand-based and structure-based VS approaches, and its implementations to three important human histone deacetylases (HDACs) isoforms, i.e. HDAC1, HDAC6 and HDAC8. The leave-one-out cross-validation (LOO CV) demonstrates that the benchmarking sets built by our algorithm are maximum-unbiased as measured by property matching, ROC curves and AUCs. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Benchmarking Methods and Data Sets for Ligand Enrichment Assessment in Virtual Screening

PubMed Central

Xia, Jie; Tilahun, Ermias Lemma; Reid, Terry-Elinor; Zhang, Liangren; Wang, Xiang Simon

2014-01-01

Retrospective small-scale virtual screening (VS) based on benchmarking data sets has been widely used to estimate ligand enrichments of VS approaches in the prospective (i.e. real-world) efforts. However, the intrinsic differences of benchmarking sets to the real screening chemical libraries can cause biased assessment. Herein, we summarize the history of benchmarking methods as well as data sets and highlight three main types of biases found in benchmarking sets, i.e. “analogue bias”, “artificial enrichment” and “false negative”. In addition, we introduced our recent algorithm to build maximum-unbiased benchmarking sets applicable to both ligand-based and structure-based VS approaches, and its implementations to three important human histone deacetylase (HDAC) isoforms, i.e. HDAC1, HDAC6 and HDAC8. The Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation (LOO CV) demonstrates that the benchmarking sets built by our algorithm are maximum-unbiased in terms of property matching, ROC curves and AUCs. PMID:25481478

Benchmarking of vertically-integrated CO2 flow simulations at the Sleipner Field, North Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cowton, L. R.; Neufeld, J. A.; White, N. J.; Bickle, M. J.; Williams, G. A.; White, J. C.; Chadwick, R. A.

2018-06-01

Numerical modeling plays an essential role in both identifying and assessing sub-surface reservoirs that might be suitable for future carbon capture and storage projects. Accuracy of flow simulations is tested by benchmarking against historic observations from on-going CO2 injection sites. At the Sleipner project located in the North Sea, a suite of time-lapse seismic reflection surveys enables the three-dimensional distribution of CO2 at the top of the reservoir to be determined as a function of time. Previous attempts have used Darcy flow simulators to model CO2 migration throughout this layer, given the volume of injection with time and the location of the injection point. Due primarily to computational limitations preventing adequate exploration of model parameter space, these simulations usually fail to match the observed distribution of CO2 as a function of space and time. To circumvent these limitations, we develop a vertically-integrated fluid flow simulator that is based upon the theory of topographically controlled, porous gravity currents. This computationally efficient scheme can be used to invert for the spatial distribution of reservoir permeability required to minimize differences between the observed and calculated CO2 distributions. When a uniform reservoir permeability is assumed, inverse modeling is unable to adequately match the migration of CO2 at the top of the reservoir. If, however, the width and permeability of a mapped channel deposit are allowed to independently vary, a satisfactory match between the observed and calculated CO2 distributions is obtained. Finally, the ability of this algorithm to forecast the flow of CO2 at the top of the reservoir is assessed. By dividing the complete set of seismic reflection surveys into training and validation subsets, we find that the spatial pattern of permeability required to match the training subset can successfully predict CO2 migration for the validation subset. This ability suggests that it

Requirements for benchmarking personal image retrieval systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouguet, Jean-Yves; Dulong, Carole; Kozintsev, Igor; Wu, Yi

2006-01-01

It is now common to have accumulated tens of thousands of personal ictures. Efficient access to that many pictures can only be done with a robust image retrieval system. This application is of high interest to Intel processor architects. It is highly compute intensive, and could motivate end users to upgrade their personal computers to the next generations of processors. A key question is how to assess the robustness of a personal image retrieval system. Personal image databases are very different from digital libraries that have been used by many Content Based Image Retrieval Systems.1 For example a personal image database has a lot of pictures of people, but a small set of different people typically family, relatives, and friends. Pictures are taken in a limited set of places like home, work, school, and vacation destination. The most frequent queries are searched for people, and for places. These attributes, and many others affect how a personal image retrieval system should be benchmarked, and benchmarks need to be different from existing ones based on art images, or medical images for examples. The attributes of the data set do not change the list of components needed for the benchmarking of such systems as specified in2: - data sets - query tasks - ground truth - evaluation measures - benchmarking events. This paper proposed a way to build these components to be representative of personal image databases, and of the corresponding usage models.

Long-term data archiving

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

Moore, David Steven

2009-01-01

Long term data archiving has much value for chemists, not only to retain access to research and product development records, but also to enable new developments and new discoveries. There are some recent regulatory requirements (e.g., FDA 21 CFR Part 11), but good science and good business both benefit regardless. A particular example of the benefits of and need for long term data archiving is the management of data from spectroscopic laboratory instruments. The sheer amount of spectroscopic data is increasing at a scary rate, and the pressures to archive come from the expense to create the data (or recreatemore » it if it is lost) as well as its high information content. The goal of long-term data archiving is to save and organize instrument data files as well as any needed meta data (such as sample ID, LIMS information, operator, date, time, instrument conditions, sample type, excitation details, environmental parameters, etc.). This editorial explores the issues involved in long-term data archiving using the example of Raman spectral databases. There are at present several such databases, including common data format libraries and proprietary libraries. However, such databases and libraries should ultimately satisfy stringent criteria for long term data archiving, including readability for long times into the future, robustness to changes in computer hardware and operating systems, and use of public domain data formats. The latter criterion implies the data format should be platform independent and the tools to create the data format should be easily and publicly obtainable or developable. Several examples of attempts at spectral libraries exist, such as the ASTM ANDI format, and the JCAMP-DX format. On the other hand, proprietary library spectra can be exchanged and manipulated using proprietary tools. As the above examples have deficiencies according to the three long term data archiving criteria, Extensible Markup Language (XML; a product of the World Wide

The SCALE Verified, Archived Library of Inputs and Data - VALID

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

Marshall, William BJ J; Rearden, Bradley T

The Verified, Archived Library of Inputs and Data (VALID) at ORNL contains high quality, independently reviewed models and results that improve confidence in analysis. VALID is developed and maintained according to a procedure of the SCALE quality assurance (QA) plan. This paper reviews the origins of the procedure and its intended purpose, the philosophy of the procedure, some highlights of its implementation, and the future of the procedure and associated VALID library. The original focus of the procedure was the generation of high-quality models that could be archived at ORNL and applied to many studies. The review process associated withmore » model generation minimized the chances of errors in these archived models. Subsequently, the scope of the library and procedure was expanded to provide high quality, reviewed sensitivity data files for deployment through the International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments (IHECSBE). Sensitivity data files for approximately 400 such models are currently available. The VALID procedure and library continue fulfilling these multiple roles. The VALID procedure is based on the quality assurance principles of ISO 9001 and nuclear safety analysis. Some of these key concepts include: independent generation and review of information, generation and review by qualified individuals, use of appropriate references for design data and documentation, and retrievability of the models, results, and documentation associated with entries in the library. Some highlights of the detailed procedure are discussed to provide background on its implementation and to indicate limitations of data extracted from VALID for use by the broader community. Specifically, external users of data generated within VALID must take responsibility for ensuring that the files are used within the QA framework of their organization and that use is appropriate. The future plans for the VALID library include expansion to include additional

The Rosetta Science Archive: Status and Plans for Completing and Enhancing the Archive Content

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heather, D.; Barthelemy, M.; Fraga, D.; Grotheer, E.; O'Rourke, L.; Taylor, M.

2017-09-01

On 30 September 2016, Rosetta's signal flat-lined, confirming that the spacecraft had completed its incredible mission by landing on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Although this marked an end to the spacecraft's active operations, intensive work is still on-going with instrument teams preparing their final science data increments for delivery and ingestion into ESA's Planetary Science Archive (PSA). In addition to this, ESA is establishing contracts with a number of instrument teams to enhance and improve their data and documentation in an effort to provide the best long- term archive possible for the Rosetta mission. This presentation will outline the current status of the Rosetta archive, as well as highlighting some of the 'enhanced archiving' activities planned and underway with the various instrument teams on Rosetta to ensure the scientific legacy of the mission.

Toxicological benchmarks for screening potential contaminants of concern for effects on aquatic biota: 1996 revision

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

Suter, G.W. II; Tsao, C.L.

1996-06-01

This report presents potential screening benchmarks for protection of aquatic life form contaminants in water. Because there is no guidance for screening for benchmarks, a set of alternative benchmarks is presented herein. This report presents the alternative benchmarks for chemicals that have been detected on the Oak Ridge Reservation. It also presents the data used to calculate the benchmarks and the sources of the data. It compares the benchmarks and discusses their relative conservatism and utility. Also included is the updates of benchmark values where appropriate, new benchmark values, secondary sources are replaced by primary sources, and a more completemore » documentation of the sources and derivation of all values are presented.« less

Implementation of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks in Java

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frumkin, Michael A.; Schultz, Matthew; Jin, Haoqiang; Yan, Jerry; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Several features make Java an attractive choice for High Performance Computing (HPC). In order to gauge the applicability of Java to Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), we have implemented the NAS (NASA Advanced Supercomputing) Parallel Benchmarks in Java. The performance and scalability of the benchmarks point out the areas where improvement in Java compiler technology and in Java thread implementation would position Java closer to Fortran in the competition for CFD applications.

Radio data archiving system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knapic, C.; Zanichelli, A.; Dovgan, E.; Nanni, M.; Stagni, M.; Righini, S.; Sponza, M.; Bedosti, F.; Orlati, A.; Smareglia, R.

2016-07-01

Radio Astronomical Data models are becoming very complex since the huge possible range of instrumental configurations available with the modern Radio Telescopes. What in the past was the last frontiers of data formats in terms of efficiency and flexibility is now evolving with new strategies and methodologies enabling the persistence of a very complex, hierarchical and multi-purpose information. Such an evolution of data models and data formats require new data archiving techniques in order to guarantee data preservation following the directives of Open Archival Information System and the International Virtual Observatory Alliance for data sharing and publication. Currently, various formats (FITS, MBFITS, VLBI's XML description files and ancillary files) of data acquired with the Medicina and Noto Radio Telescopes can be stored and handled by a common Radio Archive, that is planned to be released to the (inter)national community by the end of 2016. This state-of-the-art archiving system for radio astronomical data aims at delegating as much as possible to the software setting how and where the descriptors (metadata) are saved, while the users perform user-friendly queries translated by the web interface into complex interrogations on the database to retrieve data. In such a way, the Archive is ready to be Virtual Observatory compliant and as much as possible user-friendly.

Astronomical Archive at Tartu Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Annuk, K.

2007-10-01

Archiving astronomical data is important task not only at large observatories but also at small observatories. Here we describe the astronomical archive at Tartu Observatory. The archive consists of old photographic plate images, photographic spectrograms, CCD direct--images and CCD spectroscopic data. The photographic plate digitizing project was started in 2005. An on-line database (based on MySQL) was created. The database includes CCD data as well photographic data. A PHP-MySQL interface was written for access to all data.

Selection and implementation of a distributed phased archive for a multivendor incremental approach to PACS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Edward M.; Wandtke, John; Robinson, Arvin E.

1999-07-01

The selection criteria for the archive were based on the objectives of the Medical Information, Communication and Archive System (MICAS), a multi-vendor incremental approach to PACS. These objectives include interoperability between all components, seamless integration of the Radiology Information System (RIS) with MICAS and eventually other hospital databases, all components must demonstrate DICOM compliance prior to acceptance and automated workflow that can be programmed to meet changes in the healthcare environment. The long-term multi-modality archive is being implemented in 3 or more phases with the first phase designed to provide a 12 to 18 month storage solution. This decision was made because the cost per GB of storage is rapidly decreasing and the speed at which data can be retrieved is increasing with time. The open-solution selected allows incorporation of leading edge, 'best of breed' hardware and software and provides maximum jukeboxes, provides maximum flexibility of workflow both within and outside of radiology. The selected solution is media independent, supports multiple jukeboxes, provides expandable storage capacity and will provide redundancy and fault tolerance at minimal cost. Some of the required attributes of the archive include scalable archive strategy, virtual image database with global query and object-oriented database. The selection process took approximately 10 months with Cemax-Icon being the vendor selected. Prior to signing a purchase order, Cemax-Icon performed a site survey, agreed upon the acceptance test protocol and provided a written guarantee of connectivity between their archive and the imaging modalities and other MICAS components.

Benchmarking of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis practice with ENT.UK guidelines.

PubMed

Al-Qahtani, Ali S

2017-05-01

The aim of this study was to benchmark our guidelines of prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in ENT surgical population against ENT.UK guidelines, and also to encourage healthcare providers to utilize benchmarking as an effective method of improving performance. The study design is prospective descriptive analysis. The setting of this study is tertiary referral centre (Assir Central Hospital, Abha, Saudi Arabia). In this study, we are benchmarking our practice guidelines of the prevention of VTE in the ENT surgical population against that of ENT.UK guidelines to mitigate any gaps. ENT guidelines 2010 were downloaded from the ENT.UK Website. Our guidelines were compared with the possibilities that either our performance meets or fall short of ENT.UK guidelines. Immediate corrective actions will take place if there is quality chasm between the two guidelines. ENT.UK guidelines are evidence-based and updated which may serve as role-model for adoption and benchmarking. Our guidelines were accordingly amended to contain all factors required in providing a quality service to ENT surgical patients. While not given appropriate attention, benchmarking is a useful tool in improving quality of health care. It allows learning from others' practices and experiences, and works towards closing any quality gaps. In addition, benchmarking clinical outcomes is critical for quality improvement and informing decisions concerning service provision. It is recommended to be included on the list of quality improvement methods of healthcare services.

Transportation plan repository and archive.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-04-01

This project created a repository and archive for transportation planning documents in Texas within the : established Texas A&M Repository (http://digital.library.tamu.edu). This transportation planning archive : and repository provides ready access ...

Issues in benchmarking human reliability analysis methods : a literature review.

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

Lois, Erasmia; Forester, John Alan; Tran, Tuan Q.

There is a diversity of human reliability analysis (HRA) methods available for use in assessing human performance within probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). Due to the significant differences in the methods, including the scope, approach, and underlying models, there is a need for an empirical comparison investigating the validity and reliability of the methods. To accomplish this empirical comparison, a benchmarking study is currently underway that compares HRA methods with each other and against operator performance in simulator studies. In order to account for as many effects as possible in the construction of this benchmarking study, a literature review was conducted,more » reviewing past benchmarking studies in the areas of psychology and risk assessment. A number of lessons learned through these studies are presented in order to aid in the design of future HRA benchmarking endeavors.« less

Issues in Benchmarking Human Reliability Analysis Methods: A Literature Review

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

Ronald L. Boring; Stacey M. L. Hendrickson; John A. Forester

There is a diversity of human reliability analysis (HRA) methods available for use in assessing human performance within probabilistic risk assessments (PRA). Due to the significant differences in the methods, including the scope, approach, and underlying models, there is a need for an empirical comparison investigating the validity and reliability of the methods. To accomplish this empirical comparison, a benchmarking study comparing and evaluating HRA methods in assessing operator performance in simulator experiments is currently underway. In order to account for as many effects as possible in the construction of this benchmarking study, a literature review was conducted, reviewing pastmore » benchmarking studies in the areas of psychology and risk assessment. A number of lessons learned through these studies are presented in order to aid in the design of future HRA benchmarking endeavors.« less

Benchmarking of Heavy Ion Transport Codes

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

Remec, Igor; Ronningen, Reginald M.; Heilbronn, Lawrence

Accurate prediction of radiation fields generated by heavy ion interactions is important in medical applications, space missions, and in designing and operation of rare isotope research facilities. In recent years, several well-established computer codes in widespread use for particle and radiation transport calculations have been equipped with the capability to simulate heavy ion transport and interactions. To assess and validate these capabilities, we performed simulations of a series of benchmark-quality heavy ion experiments with the computer codes FLUKA, MARS15, MCNPX, and PHITS. We focus on the comparisons of secondary neutron production. Results are encouraging; however, further improvements in models andmore » codes and additional benchmarking are required.« less

Using natural archives to track sources and long-term trends of pollution: some final thoughts and suggestions for future directions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Blais, Jules M.; Rosen, Michael R.; Smol, John P.

2015-01-01

Newly produced, as well as some so-called legacy contaminants, continue to be released into the environment at an accelerated rate. Given the general lack of integrated, direct monitoring programs, the use of natural archival records of contaminants will almost certainly continue to increase. We conclude this volume with a short chapter highlighting some of our final thoughts, with a focus on a call to action to develop and apply methodologies to assess the fidelity of the archival record.

NAS Parallel Benchmark Results 11-96. 1.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, David H.; Bailey, David; Chancellor, Marisa K. (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

The NAS Parallel Benchmarks have been developed at NASA Ames Research Center to study the performance of parallel supercomputers. The eight benchmark problems are specified in a "pencil and paper" fashion. In other words, the complete details of the problem to be solved are given in a technical document, and except for a few restrictions, benchmarkers are free to select the language constructs and implementation techniques best suited for a particular system. These results represent the best results that have been reported to us by the vendors for the specific 3 systems listed. In this report, we present new NPB (Version 1.0) performance results for the following systems: DEC Alpha Server 8400 5/440, Fujitsu VPP Series (VX, VPP300, and VPP700), HP/Convex Exemplar SPP2000, IBM RS/6000 SP P2SC node (120 MHz), NEC SX-4/32, SGI/CRAY T3E, SGI Origin200, and SGI Origin2000. We also report High Performance Fortran (HPF) based NPB results for IBM SP2 Wide Nodes, HP/Convex Exemplar SPP2000, and SGI/CRAY T3D. These results have been submitted by Applied Parallel Research (APR) and Portland Group Inc. (PGI). We also present sustained performance per dollar for Class B LU, SP and BT benchmarks.

Engine Benchmarking - Final CRADA Report

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

Wallner, Thomas

Detailed benchmarking of the powertrains of three light-duty vehicles was performed. Results were presented and provided to CRADA partners. The vehicles included a MY2011 Audi A4, a MY2012 Mini Cooper and a MY2014 Nissan Versa.

[Benchmarking of university trauma centers in Germany. Research and teaching].

PubMed

Gebhard, F; Raschke, M; Ruchholtz, S; Meffert, R; Marzi, I; Pohlemann, T; Südkamp, N; Josten, C; Zwipp, H

2011-07-01

Benchmarking is a very popular business process and meanwhile is used in research as well. The aim of the present study is to elucidate key numbers of German university trauma departments regarding research and teaching. The data set is based upon the monthly reports given by the administration in each university. As a result the study shows that only well-known parameters such as fund-raising and impact factors can be used to benchmark university-based trauma centers. The German federal system does not allow a nationwide benchmarking.

Benchmarking for maximum value.

PubMed

Baldwin, Ed

2009-03-01

Speaking at the most recent Healthcare Estates conference, Ed Baldwin, of international built asset consultancy EC Harris LLP, examined the role of benchmarking and market-testing--two of the key methods used to evaluate the quality and cost-effectiveness of hard and soft FM services provided under PFI healthcare schemes to ensure they are offering maximum value for money.

MARC calculations for the second WIPP structural benchmark problem

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

Morgan, H.S.

1981-05-01

This report describes calculations made with the MARC structural finite element code for the second WIPP structural benchmark problem. Specific aspects of problem implementation such as element choice, slip line modeling, creep law implementation, and thermal-mechanical coupling are discussed in detail. Also included are the computational results specified in the benchmark problem formulation.

Local implementation of the Essence of Care benchmarks.

PubMed

Jones, Sue

To understand clinical practice benchmarking from the perspective of nurses working in a large acute NHS trust and to determine whether the nurses perceived that their commitment to Essence of Care led to improvements in care, the factors that influenced their role in the process and the organisational factors that influenced benchmarking. An ethnographic case study approach was adopted. Six themes emerged from the data. Two organisational issues emerged: leadership and the values and/or culture of the organisation. The findings suggested that the leadership ability of the Essence of Care link nurses and the value placed on this work by the organisation were key to the success of benchmarking. A model for successful implementation of the Essence of Care is proposed based on the findings of this study, which lends itself to testing by other organisations.

Benchmarking for On-Scalp MEG Sensors.

PubMed

Xie, Minshu; Schneiderman, Justin F; Chukharkin, Maxim L; Kalabukhov, Alexei; Riaz, Bushra; Lundqvist, Daniel; Whitmarsh, Stephen; Hamalainen, Matti; Jousmaki, Veikko; Oostenveld, Robert; Winkler, Dag

2017-06-01

We present a benchmarking protocol for quantitatively comparing emerging on-scalp magnetoencephalography (MEG) sensor technologies to their counterparts in state-of-the-art MEG systems. As a means of validation, we compare a high-critical-temperature superconducting quantum interference device (high T c SQUID) with the low- T c SQUIDs of an Elekta Neuromag TRIUX system in MEG recordings of auditory and somatosensory evoked fields (SEFs) on one human subject. We measure the expected signal gain for the auditory-evoked fields (deeper sources) and notice some unfamiliar features in the on-scalp sensor-based recordings of SEFs (shallower sources). The experimental results serve as a proof of principle for the benchmarking protocol. This approach is straightforward, general to various on-scalp MEG sensors, and convenient to use on human subjects. The unexpected features in the SEFs suggest on-scalp MEG sensors may reveal information about neuromagnetic sources that is otherwise difficult to extract from state-of-the-art MEG recordings. As the first systematically established on-scalp MEG benchmarking protocol, magnetic sensor developers can employ this method to prove the utility of their technology in MEG recordings. Further exploration of the SEFs with on-scalp MEG sensors may reveal unique information about their sources.

The JPL ASTER Volcano Archive: the development and capabilities of a 15 year global high resolution archive of volcano data.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linick, J. P.; Pieri, D. C.; Sanchez, R. M.

2014-12-01

The physical and temporal systematics of the world's volcanic activity is a compelling and productive arena for the exercise of orbital remote sensing techniques, informing studies ranging from basic volcanology to societal risk. Comprised of over 160,000 frames and spanning 15 years of the Terra platform mission, the ASTER Volcano Archive (AVA: http://ava.jpl.nasa.gov) is the world's largest (100+Tb) high spatial resolution (15-30-90m/pixel), multi-spectral (visible-SWIR-TIR), downloadable (kml enabled) dedicated archive of volcano imagery. We will discuss the development of the AVA, and describe its growing capability to provide new easy public access to ASTER global volcano remote sensing data. AVA system architecture is designed to facilitate parameter-based data mining, and for the implementation of archive-wide data analysis algorithms. Such search and analysis capabilities exploit AVA's unprecedented time-series data compilations for over 1,550 volcanoes worldwide (Smithsonian Holocene catalog). Results include thermal anomaly detection and mapping, as well as detection of SO2 plumes from explosive eruptions and passive SO2 emissions confined to the troposphere. We are also implementing retrospective ASTER image retrievals based on volcanic activity reports from Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers (VAACs) and the US Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA). A major planned expansion of the AVA is currently underway, with the ingest of the full 1972-present LANDSAT, and NASA EO-1, volcano imagery for comparison and integration with ASTER data. Work described here is carried out under contract to NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as part of the California Institute of Technology.

Modelling anaerobic co-digestion in Benchmark Simulation Model No. 2: Parameter estimation, substrate characterisation and plant-wide integration.

PubMed

Arnell, Magnus; Astals, Sergi; Åmand, Linda; Batstone, Damien J; Jensen, Paul D; Jeppsson, Ulf

2016-07-01

Anaerobic co-digestion is an emerging practice at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to improve the energy balance and integrate waste management. Modelling of co-digestion in a plant-wide WWTP model is a powerful tool to assess the impact of co-substrate selection and dose strategy on digester performance and plant-wide effects. A feasible procedure to characterise and fractionate co-substrates COD for the Benchmark Simulation Model No. 2 (BSM2) was developed. This procedure is also applicable for the Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1). Long chain fatty acid inhibition was included in the ADM1 model to allow for realistic modelling of lipid rich co-substrates. Sensitivity analysis revealed that, apart from the biodegradable fraction of COD, protein and lipid fractions are the most important fractions for methane production and digester stability, with at least two major failure modes identified through principal component analysis (PCA). The model and procedure were tested on bio-methane potential (BMP) tests on three substrates, each rich on carbohydrates, proteins or lipids with good predictive capability in all three cases. This model was then applied to a plant-wide simulation study which confirmed the positive effects of co-digestion on methane production and total operational cost. Simulations also revealed the importance of limiting the protein load to the anaerobic digester to avoid ammonia inhibition in the digester and overloading of the nitrogen removal processes in the water train. In contrast, the digester can treat relatively high loads of lipid rich substrates without prolonged disturbances. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Vision of Archival Education at the Millennium.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tibbo, Helen R.

1997-01-01

Issues critical to the development of an archival education degree program are discussed including number of credit hours and courses. Archival educators continue to revise the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Master's of Archival Studies (M.A.S.) guidelines as higher education and the world changes. Archival educators must cooperate with…

Integrated manufacturing approach to attain benchmark team performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shau-Ron; Nguyen, Andrew; Naguib, Hussein

1994-09-01

A Self-Directed Work Team (SDWT) was developed to transfer a polyimide process module from the research laboratory to our wafer fab facility for applications in IC specialty devices. The SDWT implemented processes and tools based on the integration of five manufacturing strategies for continuous improvement. These were: Leadership Through Quality (LTQ), Total Productive Maintenance (TMP), Cycle Time Management (CTM), Activity-Based Costing (ABC), and Total Employee Involvement (TEI). Utilizing these management techniques simultaneously, the team achieved six sigma control of all critical parameters, increased Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) from 20% to 90%, reduced cycle time by 95%, cut polyimide manufacturing cost by 70%, and improved its overall team member skill level by 33%.

Toxicological Benchmarks for Screening Potential Contaminants of Concern for Effects on Terrestrial Plants

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

Suter, G.W. II

1993-01-01

One of the initial stages in ecological risk assessment for hazardous waste sites is screening contaminants to determine which of them are worthy of further consideration as contaminants of potential concern. This process is termed contaminant screening. It is performed by comparing measured ambient concentrations of chemicals to benchmark concentrations. Currently, no standard benchmark concentrations exist for assessing contaminants in soil with respect to their toxicity to plants. This report presents a standard method for deriving benchmarks for this purpose (phytotoxicity benchmarks), a set of data concerning effects of chemicals in soil or soil solution on plants, and a setmore » of phytotoxicity benchmarks for 38 chemicals potentially associated with United States Department of Energy (DOE) sites. In addition, background information on the phytotoxicity and occurrence of the chemicals in soils is presented, and literature describing the experiments from which data were drawn for benchmark derivation is reviewed. Chemicals that are found in soil at concentrations exceeding both the phytotoxicity benchmark and the background concentration for the soil type should be considered contaminants of potential concern.« less

ASP archiving solution of regional HUSpacs.

PubMed

Pohjonen, Hanna; Kauppinen, Tomi; Ahovuo, Juhani

2004-09-01

The application service provider (ASP) model is not novel, but widely used in several non-health care-related business areas. In this article, ASP is described as a potential solution for long-term and back-up archiving of the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS). HUSpacs is a regional PACS for 21 HUS hospitals serving altogether 1.4 million citizens. The ultimate goal of this study was to define the specifications for the ASP archiving service and to compare different commercial options for archiving solutions (costs derived by unofficial requests for proposal): in-house PACS components, the regional ASP concept and the hospital-based ASP concept. In conclusion, the large scale of the HUS installation enables a cost-effective regional ASP archiving, resulting in a four to five times more economical solution than hospital-based ASP.

STScI Archive Manual, Version 7.0

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Padovani, Paolo

1999-06-01

The STScI Archive Manual provides information a user needs to know to access the HST archive via its two user interfaces: StarView and a World Wide Web (WWW) interface. It provides descriptions of the StarView screens used to access information in the database and the format of that information, and introduces the use to the WWW interface. Using the two interfaces, users can search for observations, preview public data, and retrieve data from the archive. Using StarView one can also find calibration reference files and perform detailed association searches. With the WWW interface archive users can access, and obtain information on, all Multimission Archive at Space Telescope (MAST) data, a collection of mainly optical and ultraviolet datasets which include, amongst others, the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) Final Archive. Both interfaces feature a name resolver which simplifies searches based on target name.

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: A prototype data archive for Big Science exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Konstantopoulos, I. S.; Green, A. W.; Foster, C.; Scott, N.; Allen, J. T.; Fogarty, L. M. R.; Lorente, N. P. F.; Sweet, S. M.; Hopkins, A. M.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Bryant, J. J.; Croom, S. M.; Goodwin, M.; Lawrence, J. S.; Owers, M. S.; Richards, S. N.

2015-11-01

We describe the data archive and database for the SAMI Galaxy Survey, an ongoing observational program that will cover ≈3400 galaxies with integral-field (spatially-resolved) spectroscopy. Amounting to some three million spectra, this is the largest sample of its kind to date. The data archive and built-in query engine use the versatile Hierarchical Data Format (HDF5), which precludes the need for external metadata tables and hence the setup and maintenance overhead those carry. The code produces simple outputs that can easily be translated to plots and tables, and the combination of these tools makes for a light system that can handle heavy data. This article acts as a contextual companion to the SAMI Survey Database source code repository, samiDB, which is freely available online and written entirely in Python. We also discuss the decisions related to the selection of tools and the creation of data visualisation modules. It is our aim that the work presented in this article-descriptions, rationale, and source code-will be of use to scientists looking to set up a maintenance-light data archive for a Big Science data load.