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Experimental circuits faster than simulation programs run on digital computers. Serial shift register routes clock pulses C1 to neurons in sequence. Clock pulses C2 interrogate neurons. Neuron interconnection information stored in simulated synapses. Can be expanded to greater complexity.
A series of intelligent tutoring systems, or intelligent maintenance simulators, is being developed based on expert and novice problem solving data. A graded series of authentic troubleshooting problems provides the curriculum, and adaptive instructional treatments foster active learning in trainees who engage in extensive fault isolation practice and thus in conditionalizing what they know. A proof of concept training study involving human tutoring was conducted as a precursor to the computer tutors to assess this integrated, problem based approach to task analysis and instruction. Statistically significant improvements in apprentice technicians' troubleshooting efficiency were achieved after approximately six hours of training.
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Electrostatic waves driven by an electron beam in an ambient magnetized plasma were studied using a quasi-1D PIC simulation of electron plasma waves (i.e., Langmuir waves). The results disclose the presence of a process for moving wave energy from frequencies and wavenumbers predicted by linear theory to the Langmuir-like frequencies during saturation of the instability. A decay process for producing backward propagating Langmuir-like waves, along with low-frequency waves, is observed. The simulation results, however, indicate that the backscattering process is not the conventional Langmuir wave decay. Electrostatic waves near multiples of the electron plasma frequency are generated by wave-wave coupling during the nonlinear stage of the simulations, confirming the suggestion of Klimas (1983).
This study employs electron-scale gyrokinetic simulations to investigate the electron temperature gradient (ETG) driven instabilities, turbulence, and transport in the pedestal region of the National Spherical Torus Experiment, comparing non-lithiated (narrow pedestal) and lithiated (wide pedestal) scenarios. Our findings reveal that, in the non-lithiated case, a branch of strongly unstable ETG modes exhibiting finite parallel magnetic field fluctuations ($\delta B_{\parallel} \neq 0$) emerges at the pedestal top and upper density pedestal region. This branch is uncovered only when $\delta B_{\parallel}$ is retained in the simulations and is associated with substantial electrostatic electron heat flux. This region of strong ETG transport corresponds to the only region in the plasma where the pressure gradient is far below the critical gradient for kinetic ballooning modes. We investigated the origin of this finite $\delta B_{\parallel}$ ETG branch by analyzing the gyrokinetic field equations. Nonlinear saturation is also analyzed and contrasted for simulations with and without $\delta B_{\parallel}$. In contrast with the nonlithiated case, ETG modes in the lithiated case produce substantial transport in the steep gradient region, but are negligible at the pedestal top.
By analyzing CRRES and GOES observations on Aug. 27 1991, Tan et al. [2004] reported evidence of magnetospheric relativistic electron acceleration by resonant interactions with PC5 ULF waves. The event showed strong ULF wave activities after a storm sudden commencement (SSC) and energetic electron fluxes were enhanced in 2 hours. The electron flux peak observed in energy channels (0.6 - 1.1 MeV) were modulated by local electric field observed by CRRES. In this study, we set up a drift-resonant interaction model between ULF wave and magnetospheric relativistic electrons to model the observed electron flux in the event. In this model, the poloidal mode wave is concentrated in the dayside and the toroidal mode wave is concentrated in two flanks. The toroidal mode waves in the dawn and dusk flanks are in anti-phase. We found that electron can be accelerated jointly by the poloidal wave in the dayside and toroidal wave in flanks. The dayside poloidal wave serves as the dominant source of electron acceleration. The simulated electron flux variations agree well with observations both in fine details and long period behavior. These agreements in electron behavior indicate that the ULF wave plays an important role in accelerating MeV relativistic electrons around the geosynchronous orbit.
Zeolites are nanoporous crystalline materials critical for diverse industrial applications, yet their growth mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, this study presents a novel integrated framework combining experimental synthesis, high-resolution imaging, coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, and computer vision to uncover the mechanisms of growth of SSZ-24, a 1D channel zeolite. We demonstrate how synthesis conditions, such as temperature and reactant concentration, govern crystal anisotropy and surface roughness with growth dynamics differing markedly by crystallographic orientation. Along the channels, growth involves minimal energy barriers and rapid nucleation, resulting in rough surfaces. In contrast, growth perpendicular to the channels requires cooperative molecular organization and is highly sensitive to thermodynamic and kinetic conditions, yielding smooth anisotropic surfaces under low driving forces. By simulating transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images, we bridge molecular-scale simulations with experimental observations, identifying distinct growth mechanisms along different crystal planes. This work offers molecular-level insights into zeolite crystallization, advancing the rational design of nanoporous materials. The integration of cross-disciplinary methodologies establishes a transformative framework for optimizing zeolite synthesis, with implications for broader classes of materials.
Techniques are being investigated to aid in distinguishing between electrons and the large background of interacting protons which simulate electron-induced electromagnetic cascades. For cosmic ray primaries, incident on the HECRE ionization spectrometer, statistical criteria are employed to test the cascade curves with the incident energy and starting point as free parameters. The physical significance of the distribution of apparent cascade starting points is being studied using Monte Carlo 100-GeV protons. The proposed use of a CsI detector module (totally-active and high Z) to further discriminate against protons is described.
We investigated how the rise rate and decay rate of solar flares affect the thermosphere and ionosphere responses to them. Model simulations and data analysis were conducted for two flares of similar magnitude (X6.2 and X5.4) that had the same location on the solar limb, but the X6.2 flare had longer rise and decay times. Simulated total electron content (TEC) enhancements from the X6.2 and X5.4 flares were 6 total electron content units (TECU) and approximately 2 TECU, and the simulated neutral density enhancements were approximately 15% -20% and approximately 5%, respectively, in reasonable agreement with observations. Additional model simulations showed that for idealized flares with the same magnitude and location, the thermosphere and ionosphere responses changed significantly as a function of rise and decay rates. The Neupert Effect, which predicts that a faster flare rise rate leads to a larger EUV enhancement during the impulsive phase, caused a larger maximum ion production enhancement. In addition, model simulations showed that increased E x B plasma transport due to conductivity increases during the flares caused a significant equatorial anomaly feature in the electron density enhancement in the F region but a relatively weaker equatorial anomaly feature in TEC enhancement, owing to dominant contributions by photochemical production and loss processes. The latitude dependence of the thermosphere response correlated well with the solar zenith angle effect, whereas the latitude dependence of the ionosphere response was more complex, owing to plasma transport and the winter anomaly.
Electronic instrument designed to simulate dynamic output of integrated-circuit piezoelectric acceleration or pressure transducer. Operates in conjunction with external signal-conditioning circuit, generating square-wave signal of known amplitude for use in calibrating signal-conditioning circuit. Instrument also useful as special-purpose square-wave generator in other applications.
Substantial benefits of a full authority digital electronic engine control on an air breathing engine were demonstrated repeatedly in simulation studies, ground engine tests, and engine altitude test facilities. A digital engine electronic control system showed improvements in efficiency, performance, and operation. An additional benefit of full authority digital controls is the capability of detecting and correcting failures and providing engine health diagnostics.
Measured ionospheric electron content and peak electron concentration data are introduced into a numerical simulation of the ionosphere to yield values of induced plasma drifts and exospheric neutral temperatures consistent with the observations. Data collected on 23-24 March 1970 on the East Coast of the U.S.A. are analyzed and the results are in agreement with incoherent radar measurements at Millstone Hill, Massachusetts. Neutral winds and meridional exospheric temperature gradients that give rise to the computed plasma drifts are calculated through the use of a dynamic model of the thermosphere.
We present an ab initio framework for simulating polariton transport dynamics based on the classical path approximation (CPA). The quantum dynamics of polariton transport involves simulating many electronic degrees of freedom, making a fully ab initio dynamics simulation computationally expensive. We demonstrate that the CPA, which removes the need for excited-state nuclear gradients, is well-suited for polaritonic systems because collective light–matter coupling leads to vanishing excited-state forces. Benchmark comparisons between CPA and full evaluation of the excited-state forces show excellent agreement for polariton transport results in model light–matter systems such as polariton group velocities and mean-squared displacements. Ab initio simulations of polariton transport using CPA reproduce key physical trends that are observed in experiments with BODIPY molecules. Our work establishes the CPA as a highly efficient tool for ab initio investigations of transport and energy flow in hybrid light–matter systems.
Electronics Boxes with high heat dissipations use a thermal interface material to increase heat transfer to the radiator in a vacuum/space environment. There are lots of materials to choose from, but for Spacecraft applications, there are more than high heat transfer metrics which must be met. Contamination (both particle generation and outgassing), ease of cutting, and removal are just as important metrics in material selection. However, vendor data of material thermal conductance is usually based on a 1" X 1" piece of material under high uniform pressures. Large Electronics boxes almost never have optimal pressures, as they are bolted along the perimeter and leave gaps in the center regions. In order to characterize the relative thermal conductance for large Electronics boxes, an 8" X 8" plate was fabricated to simulate an electronics box bottom and bolted around the perimeter to a cold plate. Various thermal interface materials were inserted between the box and cold plate, and overall thermal conductance's were calculated. A table was generated which compares the full gamut of thermal interface materials for large boxes, from a dry joint to a wet joint. Materials were placed in order of high to low conductance's, so an engineer can compare the benefit of each material in a real-world scenario.
We develop a new procedure that combines the kinetic orbit runaway electron code (KORC) and the NIMROD extended-magnetohydrodynamic code to simulate runaway electrons (REs) in the post-disruption plateau. KORC integrates guiding-center orbits, with a barycentric-based binary search strategy providing initial guesses for the Newton–Raphson logical-to-physical coordinate inversion, ensuring reliable particle-to-mesh mapping in NIMROD, whose fields remain static for the present study. Samples are drawn in accord with experimental parallel current profiles of RE beams during the plateau phase. Deposition in NIMROD is verified through comparison with a Python-based finite-element code that ensures periodicity in the poloidal direction and continuity at the magnetic axis. Accurate representation of near-axis fields requires finer mesh resolution to prevent under- and overshoots in current density from orbit inaccuracies. Yet, at a fixed particle count, increasing mesh resolution amplifies statistical noise in the deposited fields. An orbit-averaging method accumulates partial current deposits over multiple kinetic steps and reduces the statistical noise with little added computational cost. By coupling kinetic routines from KORC directly into the NIMROD codebase, these developments lay essential groundwork for future self-consistent KORC–NIMROD coupling.
The presence of sulfur mass-independent fractionation (S-MIF) in sediments more than 2.45 x 10(exp 9) years old is thought to be evidence for an early anoxic atmosphere. Photolysis of sulfur dioxide (SO2) by UV light with lambda < 220 nm has been shown in models and some initial laboratory studies to create a S-MIF; however, sulfur must leave the atmosphere in at least two chemically different forms to preserve any S-MIF signature. Two commonly cited examples of chemically different sulfur species that could have exited the atmosphere are elemental sulfur (S8) and sulfuric acid (H2S04) aerosols. Here, we use real-time aerosol mass spectrometry to directly detect the sulfur-containing aerosols formed when SO2 either photolyzes at wavelengths from 115 to 400 nm, to simulate the UV solar spectrum, or interacts with high-energy electrons, to simulate lightning. We found that sulfur-containing aerosols form under all laboratory conditions. Further, the addition of a reducing gas, in our experiments hydrogen (H2) or methane (CH4), increased the formation of S8. With UV photolysis, formation of S8 aerosols is highly dependent on the initial SO2 pressure; and S8 is only formed at a 2% SO2 mixing ratio and greater in the absence of a reductant, and at a 0.2% SO2 mixing ratio and greater in the presence of 1000 ppmv CH4. We also found that organosulfur compounds are formed from the photolysis of CH4 and moderate amounts of SO2, The implications for sulfur aerosols on early Earth are discussed.
Modeling the various properties of liquid water, particularly its reactivity, has been a longstanding challenge for simulation methods. Recently, ab initio simulations based on density functional theory (DFT) have come to the fore as tenable methods for calculating the properties and reactivity of water, with varying degrees of success for different exchange-correlation functionals. In particular, hybrid-GGA and meta-GGA functionals have been shown to reproduce many of the structural, dynamical, and energetic properties of water to a high degree of accuracy relative to their computational cost. Here, we show that the dual descriptor (DD) measure of nucleophilicity and electrophilicity, which is sometimes used to elucidate organic chemistry reaction mechanisms, can also be used to characterize the reactivity of DFTsimulated liquid water. The DD is especially apt for understanding the reactivity of excess electrons with water as its calculation explicitly involves adding and removing an excess electron from a reference system. We use the DD to explore the reactivity of water simulated using three different DFT functionals: the LDA functional (LDA), a hybrid-GGA functional (PBE0), and a hybrid meta- GGA functional (SCAN0). Using the DD, we show that the SCAN0 functional with the standard 25% Hartree–Fock exchange produces simulated liquid water with many regions that are far more reactive than either PBE0 or LDA. To understand the implications of these highly reactive regions, we then add a strong nucleophile in the form of an excess electron and find that although PBE0 and LDA predict stable hydrated electrons, the excess electron reacts nearly instantaneously with SCAN0 water via proton abstraction to form a hydrogen atom and hydroxide ion. We show that the DD provides the ability to not only predict whether or not liquid water will react with a hydrated electron but also which particular waters will be involved solely from analyzing pure water configurations generated with each functional. We rationalize this result in terms of the known trap-seeking behavior of injected hydrated electrons, which are able to find the most electronegative region in bulk water. These results highlight the utility of the dual descriptor as a fast and interpretable method for investigating condensed-phase reactivity with excess electrons.