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At least 397 records · Page 22

A Planning Tool for Estimating Waste Generated by a Radiological Incident and Subsequent Decontamination Efforts - 13569

Management of debris and waste from a wide-area radiological incident would probably constitute a significant percentage of the total remediation cost and effort. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Waste Estimation Support Tool (WEST) is a unique planning tool for estimating the potential volume and radioactivity levels of waste generated by a radiological incident and subsequent decontamination efforts. The WEST was developed to support planners and decision makers by generating a first-order estimate of the quantity and characteristics of waste resulting from a radiological incident. The tool then allows the user to evaluate the impact of various decontamination/demolition strategies on the waste types and volumes generated. WEST consists of a suite of standalone applications and Esri{sup R} ArcGIS{sup R} scripts for rapidly estimating waste inventories and levels of radioactivity generated from a radiological contamination incident as a function of user-defined decontamination and demolition approaches. WEST accepts Geographic Information System (GIS) shape-files defining contaminated areas and extent of contamination. Building stock information, including square footage, building counts, and building composition estimates are then generated using the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) Hazus{sup R}-MH software. WEST then identifies outdoor surfaces based on the application of pattern recognition to overhead aerial imagery. The results from the GIS calculations are then fed into a Microsoft Excel{sup R} 2007 spreadsheet with a custom graphical user interface where the user can examine the impact of various decontamination/demolition scenarios on the quantity, characteristics, and residual radioactivity of the resulting waste streams. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Damage Mechanism Evaluation of Large-Scale Concrete Structures Affected by Alkali-Silica Reaction Using Acoustic Emission

Alkali-silica reaction has caused damage to concrete structures, endangering structural serviceability and integrity. This is of concern in sensitive structures such as nuclear power plants. In this study, acoustic emission (AE) was employed as a structural health monitoring strategy in large-scale, reinforced concrete specimens affected by alkali-silica reaction with differing boundary conditions resembling the common conditions found in nuclear containments. An agglomerative hierarchical algorithm was utilized to classify the AE data based on energy-frequency based features. The AE signals were transferred into the frequency domain and the energies in several frequency bands were calculated and normalized to the total energy of signals. Principle component analysis was used to reduce feature redundancy. Then the selected principal components were considered as features in an input of the pattern recognition algorithm. The sensor located in the center of the confined specimen registered the largest portion of AE energy release, while in the unconfined specimen the energy is distributed more uniformly. This confirms the results of the volumetric strain, which shows that the expansion in the confined specimen is oriented along the thickness of the specimen.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Upper bounds on Shannon and Renyi entropies for central potentials

The Renyi and Shannon entropies are information-theoretic measures, which have enabled to formulate the position-momentum uncertainty principle in a much more adequate and stringent way than the (variance-based) Heisenberg-like relation. Moreover, they are closely related to various energetic density functionals of quantum systems. Here we derive upper bounds on these quantities in terms of the second-order moment <r{sup 2}> for general central potentials. This improves previous results of this type. The proof uses the Renyi maximization procedure with a covariance constraint due to Costa et al. [in Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Energy Minimization Methods in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (EMMCVPR), edited by A.Rangarajan, M.A. T.Figueiredo, and J.Zerubia (Springer-Verlag, Lisbon, 2003), [Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 52, 211 (2003).]] The contributions to these bounds coming from the radial and angular parts of the physical wave functions are taken into account. Finally, the application to the d-dimensional (d{>=} 3) hydrogenic and oscillator-like systems is provided.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Global proteomic analysis of two tick-borne emerging zoonotic agents: Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Ehrlichia chaffeensis

Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Ehrlichia chaffeensis are obligatory intracellular {alpha}-proteobacteria that infect human leukocytes and cause potentially fatal emerging zoonoses. In the present study, we determined global protein expression profiles of these bacteria cultured in the human promyelocytic leukemia cell line, HL-60. Mass spectrometric (MS) analyses identified a total of 1,212 A. phagocytophilum and 1,021 E. chaffeensis proteins, representing 89.3 and 92.3% of the predicted bacterial proteomes, respectively. Nearly all bacterial proteins ({approx}99%) with known functions were expressed, whereas only approximately 80% of hypothetical proteins were detected in infected human cells. Quantitative MS/MS analyses indicated that highly expressed proteins in both bacteria included chaperones, enzymes involved in biosynthesis and metabolism, and outer membrane proteins, such as A. phagocytophilum P44 and E. chaffeensis P28/OMP-1. Among 113 A. phagocytophilum p44 paralogous genes, 110 of them were expressed and 88 of them were encoded by pseudogenes. In addition, bacterial infection of HL-60 cells up-regulated the expression of human proteins involved mostly in cytoskeleton components, vesicular trafficking, cell signaling, and energy metabolism, but down regulated some pattern recognition receptors involved in innate immunity. Our proteomics data represent a comprehensive analysis of A. phagocytophilum and E. chaffeensis proteomes, and provide a quantitative view of human host protein expression profiles regulated by bacterial infection. The availability of these proteomic data will provide new insights into biology and pathogenesis of these obligatory intracellular pathogens.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

An "artificial retina" processor for track reconstruction at the full LHC crossing rate

Here, we present the latest results of an R&D; study for a specialized processor capable of reconstructing, in a silicon pixel detector, high-quality tracks from high-energy collision events at 40 MHz. The processor applies a highly parallel pattern-recognition algorithm inspired to quick detection of edges in mammals visual cortex. After a detailed study of a real-detector application, demonstrating that online reconstruction of offline-quality tracks is feasible at 40 MHz with sub-microsecond latency, we are implementing a prototype using common high-bandwidth FPGA devices.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Prognostics and Life Beyond 60 Years for Nuclear Power Plants

Safe, secure, reliable and sustainable energy supply is vital for advanced and industrialized life styles. To meet growing energy demand there is interest in longer term operation (LTO) for the existing nuclear power plant fleet and enhancing capabilities in new build. There is increasing use of condition based maintenance (CBM) for active components and growing interest in deploying on-line monitoring instead of periodic in service inspection (ISI) for passive systems. Opportunities exist to move beyond monitoring and diagnosis based on pattern recognition and anomaly detection to prognostics with the ability to provide an estimate of remaining useful life (RUL). The adoption of digital I&C systems provides a framework within which added functionality including on-line monitoring can be deployed, and used to maintain and even potentially enhance safety, while at the same time improving planning and reducing both operations and maintenance costs.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Low power, lightweight vapor sensing using arrays of conducting polymer composite chemically-sensitive resistors

Arrays of broadly responsive vapor detectors can be used to detect, identify, and quantify vapors and vapor mixtures. One implementation of this strategy involves the use of arrays of chemically-sensitive resistors made from conducting polymer composites. Sorption of an analyte into the polymer composite detector leads to swelling of the film material. The swelling is in turn transduced into a change in electrical resistance because the detector films consist of polymers filled with conducting particles such as carbon black. The differential sorption, and thus differential swelling, of an analyte into each polymer composite in the array produces a unique pattern for each different analyte of interest, Pattern recognition algorithms are then used to analyze the multivariate data arising from the responses of such a detector array. Chiral detector films can provide differential detection of the presence of certain chiral organic vapor analytes. Aspects of the spaceflight qualification and deployment of such a detector array, along with its performance for certain analytes of interest in manned life support applications, are reviewed and summarized in this article.

NASA Discipline Life Sciences Technologies↗

Automatic Estimation of Volcanic Ash Plume Height using WorldView-2 Imagery

We explore the use of machine learning, computer vision, and pattern recognition techniques to automatically identify volcanic ash plumes and plume shadows, in WorldView-2 imagery. Using information of the relative position of the sun and spacecraft and terrain information in the form of a digital elevation map, classification, the height of the ash plume can also be inferred. We present the results from applying this approach to six scenes acquired on two separate days in April and May of 2010 of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption in Iceland. These results show rough agreement with ash plume height estimates from visual and radar based measurements.

pattern recognition↗

64x64 Analog Input Array for 3-Dimensional Neural Network Processor

In pattern recognition and classification for spatio-temporal problems, one of the most challenging tasks is to provide a good and valid solution in real-time. Because of time constraints, software-based neural network approaches may not be suitable for practical use. Hardware solutions seem to be good candidates for this class of problems. Currently, the Three Dimensional Analog Neural Network (3-DANN) is an effective approach to solving spatio-temporal problems in three-dimensional hardware.

spatio-temporal 3-DANN Three Dimensional Analog Ne↗

The fundamental role of symmetry in nuclear models

The purpose of these lectures is to illustrate how symmetry and pattern recognition play essential roles in the progression from experimental observation to an understanding of nuclear phenomena in terms of interacting neutrons and protons. We do not discuss weak interactions nor relativistic and sub-nucleon degrees of freedom. The explicit use of symmetry and the power of algebraic methods, in combination with analytical and geometrical methods are illustrated by their use in deriving a shell-model description of nuclear rotational dynamics and the structure of deformed nuclei.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

A new APDS approach - alarm processing based on alarm prioritization - 201

We take for granted that the advances in technology bring improvements to the conditions in which humans perform activities associated to them. Is that the case for digital alarm systems in nuclear power plants? The answer is not that simple. A review of the related literature, shows that still, the single most significant problem with alarm systems, is the large number of alarm messages presented to the operator at once. This is an issue that affects analog I and C control rooms with conventional annunciators and gets aggravated in digital I and C based control rooms. Digital alarm systems present the alarms in the form of lists in computer screens. This kind of presentation forces the operator to scroll or navigate pages to review the active alarms. Also, the alarm lists do not allow the operator to apply the pattern recognition practices acquired during training when using with fixed position alarm systems. An Alarm Processing and Diagnostic System (APDS) facilitates the alarm monitoring task by applying alarm reduction techniques based on alarm priorities. It allows the operators to focus on the most important alarms during plant upsets. A new generation of APDS should be based in an improved alarm analysis methodology. To develop such methodology, Tecnatom reviewed applicable standards and our own alarm analysis experiences. This paper documents the process and conclusions of the methodology development. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗

Welding Defect Classification from Simulated Ultrasonic Signals

Nondestructive testing is widely used to detect and to size up discontinuities embedded in a material. Among the several ultrasonic techniques, time of flight diffraction (TOFD) combines high speed inspection, high sizing reliability and low rate of incorrect results. However, the classification of defects through ultrasound signals acquired by the TOFD technique depends heavily on the knowledge and experience of the operator and thus, this classification is still frequently questioned. Besides, this task requires long processing time due to the large amount of data to be analyzed. Nevertheless, computational tools for pattern recognition can be employed to analyze a high amount of data with large efficiency. In the present work, simulation of ultrasound propagation in two-dimensional media containing, each one, different kinds of modeled discontinuities which mimic defects in welded joints were performed. Clustering (k-means) and classification (principal component analysis and k-nearest neighbors) algorithms were employed to associate each simulated ultrasound signal with its corresponding modeled defects. The results for each method were analyzed, discussed and compared. The results are very promising.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Prognostics and Life Beyond 60 for Nuclear Power Plants

Safe, secure, reliable and sustainable energy supply is vital for advanced and industrialized life styles. To meet growing energy demand there is interest in longer term operation (LTO) for the existing nuclear power plant fleet and enhancing capabilities in new build. There is increasing use of condition based maintenance (CBM) for active components and periodic in service inspection (ISI) for passive systems: there is growing interest in deploying on-line monitoring. Opportunities exist to move beyond monitoring and diagnosis based on pattern recognition and anomaly detection to and prognostics with the ability to provide an estimate of remaining useful life (RUL). The adoption of digital I&C systems provides a framework within which added functionality including on-line monitoring can be deployed, and used to maintain and even potentially enhance safety, while at the same time improving planning and reducing both operations and maintenance costs.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

The artificial retina processor for track reconstruction at the LHC crossing rate

We present results of an R&D study for a specialized processor capable of precisely reconstructing, in pixel detectors, hundreds of charged-particle tracks from high-energy collisions at 40 MHz rate. We apply a highly parallel pattern-recognition algorithm, inspired by studies of the processing of visual images by the brain as it happens in nature, and describe in detail an efficient hardware implementation in high-speed, high-bandwidth FPGA devices. This is the first detailed demonstration of reconstruction of offline-quality tracks at 40 MHz and makes the device suitable for processing Large Hadron Collider events at the full crossing frequency.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Partial homogeneity based high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectra under inhomogeneous magnetic fields

In nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique, it is of great necessity and importance to obtain high-resolution spectra, especially under inhomogeneous magnetic fields. In this study, a method based on partial homogeneity is proposed for retrieving high-resolution one-dimensional NMR spectra under inhomogeneous fields. Signals from series of small voxels, which characterize high resolution due to small sizes, are recorded simultaneously. Then, an inhomogeneity correction algorithm is developed based on pattern recognition to correct the influence brought by field inhomogeneity automatically, thus yielding high-resolution information. Experiments on chemical solutions and fish spawn were carried out to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. The proposed method serves as a single radiofrequency pulse high-resolution NMR spectroscopy under inhomogeneous fields and may provide an alternative of obtaining high-resolution spectra of in vivo living systems or chemical-reaction systems, where performances of conventional techniques are usually degenerated by field inhomogeneity.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Both RIG-I and MDA5 detect alphavirus replication in concentration-dependent mode

Alphaviruses are a family of positive-strand RNA viruses that circulate on all continents between mosquito vectors and vertebrate hosts. Despite a significant public health threat, their biology is not sufficiently investigated, and the mechanisms of alphavirus replication and virus–host interaction are insufficiently understood. In this study, we have applied a variety of experimental systems to further understand the mechanism by which infected cells detect replicating alphaviruses. Our new data strongly suggest that activation of the antiviral response by alphavirus-infected cells is determined by the integrity of viral genes encoding proteins with nuclear functions, and by the presence of two cellular pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), RIG-I and MDA5. No type I IFN response is induced in their absence. The presence of either of these PRRs is sufficient for detecting virus replication. However, type I IFN activation in response to pathogenic alphaviruses depends on the basal levels of RIG-I or MDA5. - Highlights: • Both RIG-I and MDA5 detect alphavirus replication. • Alphavirus-induced transcriptional shutoff affects type I IFN induction. • Sensing of alphavirus replication by RIG-I and MDA5 depends on their concentrations. • High basal level of RIG-I and MDA5 allows IFN induction by pathogenic alphaviruses. • This dependence determines the discrepancy between the in vivo and in vitro data.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Possibilistic clustering for shape recognition

Clustering methods have been used extensively in computer vision and pattern recognition. Fuzzy clustering has been shown to be advantageous over crisp (or traditional) clustering in that total commitment of a vector to a given class is not required at each iteration. Recently fuzzy clustering methods have shown spectacular ability to detect not only hypervolume clusters, but also clusters which are actually 'thin shells', i.e., curves and surfaces. Most analytic fuzzy clustering approaches are derived from Bezdek's Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) algorithm. The FCM uses the probabilistic constraint that the memberships of a data point across classes sum to one. This constraint was used to generate the membership update equations for an iterative algorithm. Unfortunately, the memberships resulting from FCM and its derivatives do not correspond to the intuitive concept of degree of belonging, and moreover, the algorithms have considerable trouble in noisy environments. Recently, we cast the clustering problem into the framework of possibility theory. Our approach was radically different from the existing clustering methods in that the resulting partition of the data can be interpreted as a possibilistic partition, and the membership values may be interpreted as degrees of possibility of the points belonging to the classes. We constructed an appropriate objective function whose minimum will characterize a good possibilistic partition of the data, and we derived the membership and prototype update equations from necessary conditions for minimization of our criterion function. In this paper, we show the ability of this approach to detect linear and quartic curves in the presence of considerable noise.

Keller, James M.↗

Possibilistic clustering for shape recognition

Clustering methods have been used extensively in computer vision and pattern recognition. Fuzzy clustering has been shown to be advantageous over crisp (or traditional) clustering in that total commitment of a vector to a given class is not required at each iteration. Recently fuzzy clustering methods have shown spectacular ability to detect not only hypervolume clusters, but also clusters which are actually 'thin shells', i.e., curves and surfaces. Most analytic fuzzy clustering approaches are derived from Bezdek's Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) algorithm. The FCM uses the probabilistic constraint that the memberships of a data point across classes sum to one. This constraint was used to generate the membership update equations for an iterative algorithm. Unfortunately, the memberships resulting from FCM and its derivatives do not correspond to the intuitive concept of degree of belonging, and moreover, the algorithms have considerable trouble in noisy environments. Recently, the clustering problem was cast into the framework of possibility theory. Our approach was radically different from the existing clustering methods in that the resulting partition of the data can be interpreted as a possibilistic partition, and the membership values may be interpreted as degrees of possibility of the points belonging to the classes. An appropriate objective function whose minimum will characterize a good possibilistic partition of the data was constructed, and the membership and prototype update equations from necessary conditions for minimization of our criterion function were derived. The ability of this approach to detect linear and quartic curves in the presence of considerable noise is shown.

Keller, James M.↗