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At least 937 records · Page 52

Visualizations to Aid Decision-Making in the ACCP Value Framework

NASA’s priorities for Earth Science are informed by the 2017-2027 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. In that document, five Designated Observables are identified as priorities for research, two of which are Aerosols, and Clouds, Convection, and Precipitation. NASA is addressing these two Designated Observables by a combined study (the Aerosols, Clouds, Convection, and Precipitation, or ACCP, study). In this context of the ACCP study’s multiple objectives and multiple stakeholders, heuristic-based approaches are insufficient to assess candidate observing system concepts due to the complexity of the decision problem. For the ACCP study, this complexity in assessment is such that absent a structured approach that permits understanding of the steps leading to a decision, the decision risks being made on an incomplete basis. While prose and numeric data both have their place in effective communication, visualizations play an important part not only in presenting information, but also in structuring conversations around that information. Each of the visualizations developed for the ACCP Value Framework serve at least one of several functions: it structures communication about a method or process, it facilitates the elicitation and aggregation of data, or it summarizes complex information to enable analysis. Thus, these visualizations can present information, structure conversations, or do both.

Christopher A Jones↗

Congo Basin, a neglected world heritage

The Congo Basin has received little attention, climatically speaking, compared to the Amazon Basin and even other parts of Africa. This world’s second largest forest has distinct meteorological characteristics, and its ecosystem is controlled by complex interactions between many climatic phenomena that act across scales(Fig. 1). Due to its location, the Congo rainforest also contributes to processes responsible for interhemispheric climatic communications in Africa. At the larger scale, the basin regulates the global tropical circulation by serving as one of the world’s most convectively active regions. Therefore, the Congo Basin offers a unique natural laboratory for climate science explorations and the implications for people and ecosystems. But, why this green heart of Africa has been neglected and what we should do about it?

Amin Dezfuli↗

Capturing, Analyzing, Maintaining, and Disseminating Shape Memory Material Data Between Information Management Systems

With an increased demand on reducing the time, cost, and effort to develop new materials, Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) has received widespread attention in various engineering disciplines as a catalyst for significantly reducing experimental testing during the material design process. An ICME approach to design can enable ‘fit-for-purpose’ materials to be realized in engineering applications by incorporating well-understood process-property-performance relationships between the various length and time scales in a material’s structure, enabling material optimization. However, such an approach requires validated multiscale models at the various length scales for a material, which in turn requires a large amount of data, a robust means of storing the data, and the ability to link data to developed material models. The NASA Vision 2040 [1] has identified nine key elements to enabling ICME approaches in system level design, with one being “Data, Information, and Visualization”, thus outlining the importance of a robust information management system for ICME. As the relationship between microstructure, properties, and material performance become better understood and incorporated into multiscale models that can be leveraged in application design, the emergence of new materials with application-driven properties can be realized. One such new material class that has seen growing attention are shape memory materials (SMM), in which a material can transition between a deformed and undeformed state via a reversible phase transformation when subject to a thermal, mechanical, or magnetic load [2]. SMMs have been used widely in aerospace and biomedical industries, including applications such as actuators, low-shock mechanisms, medical staples, braces, and stents [3, 4]. These materials exhibit unique behavior due to their ability to transition between phases, and thus the mechanisms that enable this transition must be captured in a data information management system and incorporated into SMM material models. At NASA Glenn Research Center, the Shape Memory Materials Database (SMMD) Tool has been developed to capture the necessary information that governs SMM material behavior and provide users the ability to select and visualize various SMMs for a specific application [5]. The database contains point-wise data for published SMM materials, along with the pedigree metadata for traceability necessary for a robust information management system. The database is also capable of storing in-house test data performed at NASA GRC by interacting with the developed Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Analytics tool to extract the necessary point-wise values and populate the database. Although the SMMD Tool offers its users a single, authoritative source for SMM material data that is critical for model development and material design, the full material pedigree of the in-house test data for SMMs is not currently captured and is out of the scope for the SMMD tool. In this work, the schema for capturing SMM test data within the larger NASA GRC ICME Schema [6, 7, 8, 9] will be developed and implemented for thermomechanical tests conducted at NASA GRC. The developed schema will not only store the relevant data needed for the SMMD tool, but also the material pedigree (i.e., production of the bulk material, bulk material analysis, sample cut-out diagrams, sample fabrication procedure, etc.), test pedigree (i.e., test equipment used, measurement systems used, raw test data), and analysis pedigree (i.e., how the data in the SMMD tool is calculated). Furthermore, a Python-based framework will be developed to seamlessly interact between the SMA Analytics and SMMD tools, which will write the full dataset and associated metadata to the GRC Information Management System before passing the required point-wise data to the SMMD tool. Data informatics is a key element of the NASA Vision 2040, which requires not only that data is stored and maintained throughout the material lifecycle, but that the data is also accessible and reusable such that material development efforts can be minimized. Therefore, for an ICME design approach to be realized, a centralized information management system that drives the ICME process must be able to communicate with other databases. The work that will be presented in this presentation will therefore not only demonstrate the ability of NASA GRC’s information management system to capture SMM data, but also its ability to interact with pre-existing tools specialized for such materials.

Data management↗

Electronic device and method for compressing sampled data

An electronic device for compressing sampled data comprises a memory element and a processing element. The memory element is configured to store sampled data points and sampled times. The processing element is in electronic communication with the memory element and is configured to receive a plurality of sampled data points, a slope for each sampled data point in succession, the slope being a value of a change between the sampled data point and its successive sampled data point, and store the sampled data point in the memory element when the slope changes in value from a previous sampled data point.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Electronic device and method for compressing sampled data

An electronic device for compressing sampled data comprises a memory element and a processing element. The memory element is configured to store sampled data points and sampled times. The processing element is in electronic communication with the memory element and is configured to receive a plurality of sampled data points, a slope for each sampled data point in succession, the slope being a value of a change between the sampled data point and its successive sampled data point, and store the sampled data point in the memory element when the slope changes in value from a previous sampled data point.

Morrow, Mitchell Hedges↗

Electronic device and method for compressing sampled data

An electronic device for compressing sampled data comprises a memory element and a processing element. The memory element is configured to store sampled data points and sampled times. The processing element is in electronic communication with the memory element and is configured to receive a plurality of sampled data points, a slope for each sampled data point in succession, the slope being a value of a change between the sampled data point and its successive sampled data point, and store the sampled data point in the memory element when the slope changes in value from a previous sampled data point.

Tohlen, Michael Aaron↗

Electronic device and method for compressing sampled data

An electronic device for compressing sampled data comprises a memory element and a processing element. The memory element is configured to store sampled data points and sampled times. The processing element is in electronic communication with the memory element and is configured to receive a plurality of sampled data points, a slope for each sampled data point in succession, the slope being a value of a change between the sampled data point and its successive sampled data point, and store the sampled data point in the memory element when the slope changes in value from a previous sampled data point.

Morrow, Mitchell Hedges↗

Map reduce using coordination namespace hardware acceleration

A system and method for supporting data MapReduce operations in a tuple space/coordinated namespace (CNS) extended memory storage architecture. The system-wide CNS provides an efficient means for storing and communicating data generated by local processes running at the nodes, and coordinated to provide MapReduce operations in a multi-nodal system. A hardware accelerated mechanism supports map reduce sorting/shuffle operations and reduce operations according to an aggregate function. Local processes running at a node generate a tuple corresponding to data generated by a process, each tuple having a tuple name and tuple data value corresponding to the generated data. Each tuple is processed and stored at the node or another node, dependent upon its tuple name. Tuple records associated with a tuple name are accumulated at one or more nodes according to a linked list structure at each that is accessible via a hash table index pointer at the node.

Jacob, Philip↗

Discrete-Time Demodulator Architectures for Free-Space Broadband Optical Pulse-Position Modulation

The objective of this work is to develop discrete-time demodulator architectures for broadband optical pulse-position modulation (PPM) that are capable of processing Nyquist or near-Nyquist data rates. These architectures are motivated by the numerous advantages of realizing communications demodulators in digital very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits. The architectures are developed within a framework that encompasses a large body of work in optical communications, synchronization, and multirate discrete-time signal processing and are constrained by the limitations of the state of the art in digital hardware. This work attempts to create a bridge between theoretical communication algorithms and analysis for deep-space optical PPM and modern digital VLSI. The primary focus of this work is on the synthesis of discrete-time processing architectures for accomplishing the most fundamental functions required in PPM demodulators, post-detection filtering, synchronization, and decision processing. The architectures derived are capable of closely approximating the theoretical performance of the continuous-time algorithms from which they are derived. The work concludes with an outline of the development path that leads to hardware.

Gray, A. A.↗

Implementing High-Performance Geometric Multigrid Solver with Naturally Grained Messages

Structured-grid linear solvers often require manually packing and unpacking of communication data to achieve high performance.Orchestrating this process efficiently is challenging, labor-intensive, and potentially error-prone.In this paper, we explore an alternative approach that communicates the data with naturally grained messagesizes without manual packing and unpacking. This approach is the distributed analogue of shared-memory programming, taking advantage of the global addressspace in PGAS languages to provide substantial programming ease. However, its performance may suffer from the large number of small messages. We investigate theruntime support required in the UPC ++ library for this naturally grained version to close the performance gap between the two approaches and attain comparable performance at scale using the High-Performance Geometric Multgrid (HPGMG-FV) benchmark as a driver.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The application of automated operations at the Institutional Processing Center

The JPL Institutional and Mission Computing Division, Communications, Computing and Network Services Section, with its mission contractor, OAO Corporation, have for some time been applying automation to the operation of JPL's Information Processing Center (IPC). Automation does not come in one easy to use package. Automation for a data processing center is made up of many different software and hardware products supported by trained personnel. The IPC automation effort formally began with console automation, and has since spiraled out to include production scheduling, data entry, report distribution, online reporting, failure reporting and resolution, documentation, library storage, and operator and user education, while requiring the interaction of multi-vendor and locally developed software. To begin the process, automation goals are determined. Then a team including operations personnel is formed to research and evaluate available options. By acquiring knowledge of current products and those in development, taking an active role in industry organizations, and learning of other data center's experiences, a forecast can be developed as to what direction technology is moving. With IPC management's approval, an implementation plan is developed and resources identified to test or implement new systems. As an example, IPC's new automated data entry system was researched by Data Entry, Production Control, and Advance Planning personnel. A proposal was then submitted to management for review. A determination to implement the new system was made and elements/personnel involved with the initial planning performed the implementation. The final steps of the implementation were educating data entry personnel in the areas effected and procedural changes necessary to the successful operation of the new system.

Barr, Thomas H.↗

Remediation of uranium impacted sediments in a watercourse

In 2009, remediation was initiated for a non-operational fuel cycle facility previously used for government contract work located in Windsor, Connecticut, USA. Radiological contaminants consisted primarily of high enriched uranium (HEU). Other radionuclides encountered in relatively minor amounts in certain areas of the clean-up included Co-60, Cs- 137, Ra-226, Th-232 and low enriched uranium (LEU).Between 2009 and the spring of 2011, remediation efforts were focused on demolition of contaminated buildings and removal of contaminated soil. In the late spring of 2011, the last phase of remediation commenced involving the removal of contaminated sediments from portions of a 1,200 meter long gaining stream. Planning and preparation for remediation of the stream began in 2009 with submittal of permit applications to undertake construction activities in a wetland area. The permitting process was lengthy and involved securing permits from multiple agencies. However, early and frequent communication with stakeholders played an integral role in efficiently obtaining the permit approvals. Frequent communication with stakeholders throughout the planning and remediation process also proved to be a key factor in timely completion of the project. The remediation of the stream involved the use of temporary bladder berms to divert surface water flow, water diversion piping, a sediment vacuum removal system, excavation of sediments using small front-end loaders, sediment dewatering, and waste packaging, transportation and disposal. Many safeguards were employed to protect several species of concern in the work area, water management during project activities, challenges encountered during the project, methods of Final Status Survey, and stream restoration. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Simultaneous iterations algorithm for general eigenvalue problems on parallel processors

The method of simultaneous iteration with shift is extended to extraction of m-eigenpairs of a general eigenvalue problem of large order n in a parallel processing environment. The algorithm combines the power method and the Jacobi technique, and reduces to performing four basic operations. Parallel implementation of the algorithm is discussed in detail. The analysis accounts for computation and communication costs, and utilizes a parallel processing architecture of the ensemble type. Expressions for the computational efficiency and speedup are defined as a function of the problem and hardware parameters. Selected representative problems exhibit efficiencies ranging from 60 to 98 percent.

Utku, S.↗

Inter-computer communication architecture for a mixed redundancy distributed system

The triply redundant intercomputer network for the Advanced Information Processing System (AIPS), an architecture developed to serve as the core avionics system for a broad range of aerospace vehicles, is discussed. The AIPS intercomputer network provides a high-speed, Byzantine-fault-resilient communication service between processing sites, even in the presence of arbitrary failures of simplex and duplex processing sites on the IC network. The IC network contention poll has evolved from the Laning Poll. An analysis of the failure modes and effects and a simulation of the AIPS contention poll, demonstrate the robustness of the system.

Lala, Jaynarayan H.↗

Optimizing point‐to‐point communication between adaptive MPI endpoints in shared memory

Summary Adaptive MPI is an implementation of the MPI standard that supports the virtualization of ranks as user‐level threads, rather than OS processes. In this work, we optimize the communication performance of AMPI based on the locality of the endpoints communicating within a cluster of SMP nodes. We differentiate between point‐to‐point messages with both endpoints co‐located on the same execution unit and point‐to‐point messages with both endpoints residing in the same process but not on the same execution unit. We demonstrate how the messaging semantics of Charm++ enable and hinder AMPI's implementation in different ways, and we motivate extensions to Charm++ to address the limitations. Using the OSU micro‐benchmark suite, we show that our locality‐aware design offers lower latency, higher bandwidth, and reduced memory footprint for applications.

White, Sam↗

High Temperature Wireless Communication And Electronics For Harsh Environment Applications

In order for future aerospace propulsion systems to meet the increasing requirements for decreased maintenance, improved capability, and increased safety, the inclusion of intelligence into the propulsion system design and operation becomes necessary. These propulsion systems will have to incorporate technology that will monitor propulsion component conditions, analyze the incoming data, and modify operating parameters to optimize propulsion system operations. This implies the development of sensors, actuators, and electronics, with associated packaging, that will be able to operate under the harsh environments present in an engine. However, given the harsh environments inherent in propulsion systems, the development of engine-compatible electronics and sensors is not straightforward. The ability of a sensor system to operate in a given environment often depends as much on the technologies supporting the sensor element as the element itself. If the supporting technology cannot handle the application, then no matter how good the sensor is itself, the sensor system will fail. An example is high temperature environments where supporting technologies are often not capable of operation in engine conditions. Further, for every sensor going into an engine environment, i.e., for every new piece of hardware that improves the in-situ intelligence of the components, communication wires almost always must follow. The communication wires may be within or between parts, or from the engine to the controller. As more hardware is added, more wires, weight, complexity, and potential for unreliability is also introduced. Thus, wireless communication combined with in-situ processing of data would significantly improve the ability to include sensors into high temperature systems and thus lead toward more intelligent engine systems. NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is presently leading the development of electronics, communication systems, and sensors capable of prolonged stable operation in harsh 500C environments. This has included world record operation of SiC-based transistor technology (including packaging) that has demonstrated continuous electrical operation at 500C for over 2000 hours. Based on SiC electronics, development of high temperature wireless communication has been on-going. This work has concentrated on maturing the SiC electronic devices for communication purposes as well as the passive components such as resistors and capacitors needed to enable a high temperature wireless system. The objective is to eliminate wires associated with high temperature sensors which add weight to a vehicle and can be a cause of sensor unreliability. This paper discusses the development of SiC based electronics and wireless communications technology for harsh environment applications such as propulsion health management systems and in Venus missions. A brief overview of the future directions in sensor technology is given including maturing of near-room temperature "Lick and Stick" leak sensor technology for possible implementation in the Crew Launch Vehicle program. Then an overview of high temperature electronics and the development of high temperature communication systems is presented. The maturity of related technologies such as sensor and packaging will also be discussed. It is concluded that a significant component of efforts to improve the intelligence of harsh environment operating systems is the development and implementation of high temperature wireless technology

Hunter, G. W.↗

On-board switching and processing

Findings from NASA's space electronics division's (SED's) advanced systems studies related to future communications satellite services that will require onboard switching and processing technology are reviewed. SED's digital signal switching and processing technology program is reviewed. This program responds to specific systems technology development needs for enabling commercial development of future satellite services. The technologies include: modulators, demodulators, and forward error-correction hardware for space- and ground-based applications; onboard information switching and processing, onboard network control, and health monitoring; and cost-efficient ground terminals. The in-house systems integration, test, and evaluation (SITE) project, which includes a laboratory testbed for evaluating technology in a simulated systems environment, is reviewed.

Harrold, Joseph L.↗