Extra Bits on SRAM and DRAM Errors - More Data from the Field.
Abstract not provided.
Ferreira, Kurt Brian↗
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TH-CD-207A-11: Sensitivity Analysis of Action Limits for Real-Time EPID-Based Delivery Verification System Using Artificial Clinical Relevant Error Simulations
Purpose: A real-time patient treatment delivery verification system using EPID (Watchdog) has been developed as an advanced patient safety tool. In a pilot study data was acquired for 119 prostate and head and neck (HN) IMRT patient deliveries to generate body-site specific action limits using statistical process control. The purpose of this study is to determine the sensitivity of Watchdog to detect clinically significant errors during treatment delivery. Methods: Watchdog utilizes a physics-based model to generate a series of predicted transit cine EPID images as a reference data set, and compares these in real-time to measured transit cine-EPID images acquired during treatment using chi comparison (4%, 4mm criteria) after the initial 2s of treatment to allow for dose ramp-up. Four study cases were used; dosimetric (monitor unit) errors in prostate (7 fields) and HN (9 fields) IMRT treatments of (5%, 7%, 10%) and positioning (systematic displacement) errors in the same treatments of (5mm, 7mm, 10mm). These errors were introduced by modifying the patient CT scan and re-calculating the predicted EPID data set. The error embedded predicted EPID data sets were compared to the measured EPID data acquired during patient treatment. The treatment delivery percentage (measured from 2s) where Watchdog detected the error was determined. Results: Watchdog detected all simulated errors for all fields during delivery. The dosimetric errors were detected at average treatment delivery percentage of (4%, 0%, 0%) and (7%, 0%, 0%) for prostate and HN respectively. For patient positional errors, the average treatment delivery percentage was (52%, 43%, 25%) and (39%, 16%, 6%). Conclusion: These results suggest that Watchdog can detect significant dosimetric and positioning errors in prostate and HN IMRT treatments in real-time allowing for treatment interruption. Displacements of the patient require longer to detect however incorrect body site or very large geographic misses will be detected rapidly.
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
MO-D-BRD-02: In Memoriam of Bengt Bjarngard: SBRT II: Small Field Dosimetry - TG155
Specialized radiation treatment such as SRS/SRT. SBRT, IMRT, VMAT, Tomotherapy, CyberKnife and Gamma Knife use small fields or combination of small fields where dosimetry is challenging and uncertain due to non-equilibrium conditions such as longitudinal and lateral disequilibrium. Additionally the primary photon fluence is greatly affected by the obstruction of the source size by the jaws creating a large dose gradient across the field. Electronic equilibrium is a phenomenon associated with the range of secondary particles which depend on the beam energy, photon spectrum and the composition of the medium. Additionally, the finite size of detectors creates volume averaging and fluence perturbations especially in small fields. The IAEA/AAPM has provided a frame work for non-compliant reference dosimetry in small fields1. The AAPM TG-1552 has adopted this frame work to provide guidelines in relative dosimetry. This course provides the insight of TG-155 that defines small field, provides recommendations for suitable detectors and associated correction factors to convert reading to dose. Recommendations of a good working practice for relative dosimetry measurements (PDD, TMR, output factor, etc.) and dose calculations based on the new formulation is are elaborated. It also discusses beam modeling and dose calculations as a critical step in clinical utilization of small field radiotherapy. Small errors in beam data, approximations in dose algorithms, or misaligned of detectors and field settings can propagate into large errors in planned and delivered dose. The modeling and treatment planning aspects of small field dosimetry are reviewed with emphasis on the most critical parts for ensuring accurate and safe radiation therapy. Discussion on k(fmsr, fclin) for commercially available detectors are also provided.1 P. Alfonso, P. Andreo, R. Capote, M. S. Huq, W. Kilby, P. Kjall, T. R. Mackie, H. Palmans, K. Rosser, J. Seuntjens, W. Ullrich and S. Vatnitsky, “A new formalism for reference dosimetry of small and nonstandard fields,” Med Phys 35, 5179–5186 (2008).2 I. J. Das, P. Francescon, A. Ahnesjo, M. M. Aspradakis, C. W. Cheng, G. X. Ding, G. S. Ibbott, M. Oldham, M. S. Huq, C. S. Reft and S. O.A., “Task Group 155 report: Small fields and non-equilibrium condition photon beam dosimetry,” Med Phys (under review). Learning Objectives: Physics of cavity theory for non-equilibrium condition and definition of small fields Description of absolute and relative dosimetry in the context of TG-155 Choice of detector in small field dosimetry, perturbations and corrections (K(fmsr, fclin)) for accurate dosimetry Understand the advantages and limitations of commercially available detectors for small field dosimetry.
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
A fast multigrid-based electromagnetic eigensolver for curved metal boundaries on the Yee mesh
For embedded boundary electromagnetics using the Dey–Mittra (Dey and Mittra, 1997) [1] algorithm, a special grad–div matrix constructed in this work allows use of multigrid methods for efficient inversion of Maxwell’s curl–curl matrix. Efficient curl–curl inversions are demonstrated within a shift-and-invert Krylov-subspace eigensolver (open-sourced at ([ofortt]https://github.com/bauerca/maxwell[cfortt])) on the spherical cavity and the 9-cell TESLA superconducting accelerator cavity. The accuracy of the Dey–Mittra algorithm is also examined: frequencies converge with second-order error, and surface fields are found to converge with nearly second-order error. In agreement with previous work (Nieter et al., 2009) [2], neglecting some boundary-cut cell faces (as is required in the time domain for numerical stability) reduces frequency convergence to first-order and surface-field convergence to zeroth-order (i.e. surface fields do not converge). Additionally and importantly, neglecting faces can reduce accuracy by an order of magnitude at low resolutions.
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
Designing dynamically corrected gates robust to multiple noise sources using geometric space curves
Noise-induced gate errors remain one of the main obstacles to realizing a broad range of quantum information technologies. Dynamical error suppression using carefully designed control schemes is critical for overcoming this challenge. Such schemes must be able to correct against multiple noise sources simultaneously afflicting a qubit to reach error-correction thresholds. Here we present a general framework for designing control fields that simultaneously suppress both noise in the fields themselves as well as transverse dephasing noise. Using the recently developed space curve quantum control formalism, in which robust quantum evolution is mapped to closed geometric curves in a multidimensional Euclidean space, we derive the minimal conditions necessary to guarantee the simultaneous cancellation of both types of noise to leading order. In particular, we find that the cancellation of control field noise requires the derivative of the space curve to have zero-area projections, which is a much more subtle property compared to the closed-curve condition needed to suppress transverse dephasing. We present several techniques for solving both these conditions simultaneously and provide explicit examples of error-resistant control fields. Finally, our work also sheds light on the relation between holonomic evolution and the suppression of control field errors.
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
ON ESTIMATING FORCE-FREENESS BASED ON OBSERVED MAGNETOGRAMS
It is a common practice in the solar physics community to test whether or not measured photospheric or chromospheric vector magnetograms are force-free, using the Maxwell stress as a measure. Some previous studies have suggested that magnetic fields of active regions in the solar chromosphere are close to being force-free whereas there is no consistency among previous studies on whether magnetic fields of active regions in the solar photosphere are force-free or not. Here we use three kinds of representative magnetic fields (analytical force-free solutions, modeled solar-like force-free fields, and observed non-force-free fields) to discuss how measurement issues such as limited field of view (FOV), instrument sensitivity, and measurement error could affect the estimation of force-freeness based on observed magnetograms. Unlike previous studies that focus on discussing the effect of limited FOV or instrument sensitivity, our calculation shows that just measurement error alone can significantly influence the results of estimates of force-freeness, due to the fact that measurement errors in horizontal magnetic fields are usually ten times larger than those in vertical fields. This property of measurement errors, interacting with the particular form of a formula for estimating force-freeness, would result in wrong judgments of the force-freeness: a truly force-free field may be mistakenly estimated as being non-force-free and a truly non-force-free field may be estimated as being force-free. Our analysis calls for caution when interpreting estimates of force-freeness based on measured magnetograms, and also suggests that the true photospheric magnetic field may be further away from being force-free than it currently appears to be.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
SU-G-JeP3-01: A Method to Quantify Lung SBRT Target Localization Accuracy Based On Digitally Reconstructed Fluoroscopy
Purpose: To develop a methodology based on digitally-reconstructed-fluoroscopy (DRF) to quantitatively assess target localization accuracy of lung SBRT, and to evaluate using both a dynamic digital phantom and a patient dataset. Methods: For each treatment field, a 10-phase DRF is generated based on the planning 4DCT. Each frame is pre-processed with a morphological top-hat filter, and corresponding beam apertures are projected to each detector plane. A template-matching algorithm based on cross-correlation is used to detect the tumor location in each frame. Tumor motion relative beam aperture is extracted in the superior-inferior direction based on each frame’s impulse response to the template, and the mean tumor position (MTP) is calculated as the average tumor displacement. The DRF template coordinates are then transferred to the corresponding MV-cine dataset, which is retrospectively filtered as above. The treatment MTP is calculated within each field’s projection space, relative to the DRF-defined template. The field’s localization error is defined as the difference between the DRF-derived-MTP (planning) and the MV-cine-derived-MTP (delivery). A dynamic digital phantom was used to assess the algorithm’s ability to detect intra-fractional changes in patient alignment, by simulating different spatial variations in the MV-cine and calculating the corresponding change in MTP. Inter-and-intra-fractional variation, IGRT accuracy, and filtering effects were investigated on a patient dataset. Results: Phantom results demonstrated a high accuracy in detecting both translational and rotational variation. The lowest localization error of the patient dataset was achieved at each fraction’s first field (mean=0.38mm), with Fx3 demonstrating a particularly strong correlation between intra-fractional motion-caused localization error and treatment progress. Filtering significantly improved tracking visibility in both the DRF and MV-cine images. Conclusion: We have developed and evaluated a methodology to quantify lung SBRT target localization accuracy based on digitally-reconstructed-fluoroscopy. Our approach may be useful in potentially reducing treatment margins to optimize lung SBRT outcomes. R01-184173.
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
Estimation of Errors in Stress Distributions Computed in Finite Element Simulations of Polycrystals
The accuracy of the stresses predicted from crystal plasticity-based finite element formulation depends on estimation and control of the errors associated with the discretization. In the current work, the errors in the stress distribution are estimated in virtual polycrystalline samples of α-phase titanium (hexagonal close-packed phase of Ti–6Al– 4 V). To estimate the error, the stress field, which does not possess inter-element continuity, is smoothed over a grain using an L 2 projection, thereby providing continuous stress distributions with inter-element continuity. The differences between the continuous (smooth) and discontinuous (raw) stress fields are calculated at individual Gauss quadrature points and used to estimate errors for corresponding elements and grains. Error estimations are performed for a Voronoi-tessellated microstructure, an equiaxed microstructure, and two microstructures with varying grain sizes for tensile loading extending into the fully plastic regime (≈ 5% extension). Magnitudes of the errors are found to depend on microstructural characteristics, particularly the shape and size of grains. Samples having variations in grain size or having less spherical grains exhibited higher errors than samples with uniformly sized, equiaxed grains, with the size variations having a more pronounced effect. In conclusion, errors correlate with proximity to grain boundaries at small (elastic) strains and with deformation-induced features (deformation bands) at large strains.
42 ENGINEERING↗
Erratum: 'Axion Emission from a Magnetized Neutron Gas'
No abstract prepared.
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
Stellarator Simplification using Permanent Magnets (PM4Stell)
This Report describes the design and prototyping of an array of rare-Earth permanent magnets to form a stellarator. This effort was motivated by the hypothesis that the usage of permanent magnets, rather than electromagnetic coils with complex geometry, could reduce the cost of stellarator construction and thereby make increase the feasibility of the stellarator as a technology for a fusion-based power plant. In this project, we have developed novel methods for specifying the positions, shapes, and polarizations of the magnets in the array, and have developed designs for mounting structures and tooling for assembly. We have also performed detailed finite-element modeling to qualify the accuracy of the magnetic field produced by the magnet array as designed, and to confirm that the structure can withstand the forces between the magnets. We have also developed techniques for measuring the magnetic field produced by the array once constructed, as well as for correcting errors in the field arising from misalignments and offsets within the tolerances for mounting and fabrication. Finally, we have constructed a tabletop prototype of a section of the array to qualify the concept for assembling and mounting magnets within the array.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
Stellarator Simplification using Permanent Magnets (PM4Stell)
This Report describes the design and prototyping of an array of rare-Earth permanent magnets to form a stellarator. This effort was motivated by the hypothesis that the usage of permanent magnets, rather than electromagnetic coils with complex geometry, could reduce the cost of stellarator construction and thereby make increase the feasibility of the stellarator as a technology for a fusion-based power plant. In this project, we have developed novel methods for specifying the positions, shapes, and polarizations of the magnets in the array, and have developed designs for mounting structures and tooling for assembly. We have also performed detailed finite-element modeling to qualify the accuracy of the magnetic field produced by the magnet array as designed, and to confirm that the structure can withstand the forces between the magnets. We have also developed techniques for measuring the magnetic field produced by the array once constructed, as well as for correcting errors in the field arising from misalignments and offsets within the tolerances for mounting and fabrication. Finally, we have constructed a tabletop prototype of a section of the array to qualify the concept for assembling and mounting magnets within the array.
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
Beam optics and the pp2pp experiment at RHIC
The newly installed forward detector system at the STAR experiment at RHIC measures small angle elastic and inelastic scattering of polarized protons on polarized protons. The detector system makes use of a pair of Roman Pot (RP) detectors, instrumented with silicon detectors, and located on either side of the STAR intersection region downstream of the DX and D0 dipoles and quadrupole triplets. The parallel to point optics is designed so that scattering angles are determined from position measurements at the RP's with small error. The RP setup allows measurement of position and angle for a subset of the scattered protons. With this position/angle correlations at the RP's can be compared with optics model predictions to get a measure of the accuracy of the quadrupole triplet current settings. The current in each quadrupole in the triplets is comprised of sums and differences of up to six power supplies and an overall 1% error in the triplet field strengths results in a 4% error in four-momentum transfer squared. This technique is also useful to check the polarity of the skew elements located in each quadrupole triplet. Results of the analysis will be presented.
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
MO-FG-CAMPUS-TeP1-01: An Efficient Method of 3D Patient Dose Reconstruction Based On EPID Measurements for Pre-Treatment Patient Specific QA
Purpose: To demonstrate an efficient and clinically relevant patient specific QA method by reconstructing 3D patient dose from 2D EPID images for IMRT plans. Also to determine the usefulness of 2D QA metrics when assessing 3D patient dose deviations. Methods: Using the method developed by King et al (Med Phys 39(5),2839–2847), EPID images of IMRT fields were acquired in air and converted to dose at 10 cm depth (SAD setup) in a flat virtual water phantom. Each EPID measured dose map was then divided by the corresponding treatment planning system (TPS) dose map calculated with an identical setup, to derive a 2D “error matrix”. For each field, the error matrix was used to adjust the doses along the respective ray lines in the original patient 3D dose. All field doses were combined to derive a reconstructed 3D patient dose for quantitative analysis. A software tool was developed to efficiently implement the entire process and was tested with a variety of IMRT plans for 2D (virtual flat phantom) and 3D (in-patient) QA analysis. Results: The method was tested on 60 IMRT plans. The mean (± standard deviation) 2D gamma (2%,2mm) pass rate (2D-GPR) was 97.4±3.0% and the mean 2D gamma index (2D-GI) was 0.35±0.06. The 3D PTV mean dose deviation was 1.8±0.8%. The analysis showed very weak correlations between both the 2D-GPR and 2D-GI when compared with PTV mean dose deviations (R2=0.3561 and 0.3632 respectively). Conclusion: Our method efficiently calculates 3D patient dose from 2D EPID images, utilising all of the advantages of an EPID-based dosimetry system. In this study, the 2D QA metrics did not predict the 3D patient dose deviation. This tool allows reporting of the 3D volumetric dose parameters thus providing more clinically relevant patient specific QA.
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
Development of Real-Time Quantitative Safety Evaluation Method for Nuclear Power Plants
Human operators involved with large process control systems such as nuclear power plants (NPPs) perform significant roles in the operation of systems. In this reason, deficiencies in human factors such as poor HSI (Human System Interface) design, procedure, and training, are significant contributing factors to NPPs incidents and accidents. In this regard, many kinds of studies including human reliability analysis (HRA), operation support system, automation, have been conducted in order to reduce human errors. Among these fields of studies, automation has its own specialty since it mainly focuses on eliminating the human error-inducing tasks to reduce human error, while other topics are primarily focusing on reducing human error by aiding human operators during operation. It is commonly believed that replacing human operators to the automated system would guarantee greater efficiency, lower workloads, and fewer human errors. However, these beliefs are not always true in large and complex systems such as NPP, since excessive automation can generate new roles for human operators, change human operators' activities in unexpected ways, and inducing 'out-of-the-loop' (OOTL) problem. Especially, although human error probability drastically increases during abnormal situations in NPP due to overload of information, high workload, and short time available for diagnosis, automation is not actively adopted since conventional machine learning techniques are neither capable nor reliable to handle overwhelmingly complex abnormal situations in NPP. Recently, newly developed 'deep learning' techniques have been actively applied to many fields, and some of these studies proved that the artificial intelligences (AI) based on deep learning techniques show better performance than that of human being. In 2015, deep Q-network (DQN) which is one of the deep learning techniques was developed and applied to train AI that automatically plays various Atari 2800 games, and this AI surpassed the human-level playing in many kind of games. Also in 2016, 'AlphaGo', which was developed by 'Google Deepmind' based on deep learning technique to play the game of Go, was defeated Se-dol Lee who is the World Go champion with score of 4:1. In the point of view that the game of Go is considered as one of the challenging area in machine learning field, it is verified that these new machine learning techniques can perform well, even better than the human being in high-complexity tasks. Previously, most of AI applications in nuclear field were focusing on supporting human operators' tasks such as diagnosis and decision making by rapid classification and prediction, based on fixed training data sets. However, it is expected that AI can be applied to solve more complicated problems (i.e. automation during abnormal states in NPP) by adopting advanced machine learning methodologies. In order to apply the automation system in NPP, firstly it is needed to evaluate the status of the plant quantitatively in real-time, since the information about which state is better (i.e. safe) or worse (i.e. unsafe) is essential for training properly working automation AI. Currently, there are several methodologies for NPP safety evaluation such as probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), safety performance indicator (SPI). However, existing methodologies are not feasible for development of automated system since they are not capable for the cases which are not included in the underlying model, not able to consider delicate changes in the NPP, and hard to evaluate in real-time. Therefore, development of new NPP safety evaluation methodology which can cover previously mentioned requirements is needed to conduct the study on NPP automation further. In this study, the concept of early warning score (EWS) in medical field was adopted to develop the methodology which can evaluate the safety level of the NPP quantitatively and in real-time. (authors)
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
Neutron field reconstruction with consideration of the spatial correlation of the cross-section value error
A method for reconstructing the neutron field in a reactor with consideration of the spatial correlation of the cross-section value error was analyzed. It was shown that this method is more accurate than the classical approach to reconstruction. An efficient way of using this technique was proposed. The efficiency for the RBMK critical test facility was estimated.
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
SU-E-T-439: Fundamental Verification of Respiratory-Gated Spot Scanning Proton Beam Therapy
Purpose: The spot-scanning proton beam irradiation with respiratory gating technique provides quite well dose distribution and requires both dosimetric and geometric verification prior to clinical implementation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of gating irradiation as a fundamental verification. Methods: We evaluated field width, flatness, symmetry, and penumbra in the gated and non-gated proton beams. The respiration motion was distinguished into 3 patterns: 10, 20, and 30 mm. We compared these contents between the gated and non-gated beams. A 200 MeV proton beam from PROBEAT-III unit (Hitachi Co.Ltd) was used in this study. Respiratory gating irradiation was performed by Quasar phantom (MODUS medical devices) with a combination of dedicated respiratory gating system (ANZAI Medical Corporation). For radiochromic film dosimetry, the calibration curve was created with Gafchromic EBT3 film (Ashland) on FilmQA Pro 2014 (Ashland) as film analysis software. Results: The film was calibrated at the middle of spread out Bragg peak in passive proton beam. The field width, flatness and penumbra in non-gated proton irradiation with respiratory motion were larger than those of reference beam without respiratory motion: the maximum errors of the field width, flatness and penumbra in respiratory motion of 30 mm were 1.75% and 40.3% and 39.7%, respectively. The errors of flatness and penumbra in gating beam (motion: 30 mm, gating rate: 25%) were 0.0% and 2.91%, respectively. The results of symmetry in all proton beams with gating technique were within 0.6%. Conclusion: The field width, flatness, symmetry and penumbra were improved with the gating technique in proton beam. The spot scanning proton beam with gating technique is feasible for the motioned target.
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
Effect of MLC leaf position, collimator rotation angle, and gantry rotation angle errors on intensity-modulated radiotherapy plans for nasopharyngeal carcinoma
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of multileaf collimator (MLC) leaf position, collimator rotation angle, and accelerator gantry rotation angle errors on intensity-modulated radiotherapy plans for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. To compare dosimetric differences between the simulating plans and the clinical plans with evaluation parameters, 6 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma were selected for simulation of systematic and random MLC leaf position errors, collimator rotation angle errors, and accelerator gantry rotation angle errors. There was a high sensitivity to dose distribution for systematic MLC leaf position errors in response to field size. When the systematic MLC position errors were 0.5, 1, and 2 mm, respectively, the maximum values of the mean dose deviation, observed in parotid glands, were 4.63%, 8.69%, and 18.32%, respectively. The dosimetric effect was comparatively small for systematic MLC shift errors. For random MLC errors up to 2 mm and collimator and gantry rotation angle errors up to 0.5°, the dosimetric effect was negligible. We suggest that quality control be regularly conducted for MLC leaves, so as to ensure that systematic MLC leaf position errors are within 0.5 mm. Because the dosimetric effect of 0.5° collimator and gantry rotation angle errors is negligible, it can be concluded that setting a proper threshold for allowed errors of collimator and gantry rotation angle may increase treatment efficacy and reduce treatment time.
61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
Effect of Diode Field on Time-Resolved Photoluminescence of CdTe-Based Solar Cells
Not provided.
Energy & Fuels↗