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Corrections to official ENDF/B Evaluation Releases for SCALE Nuclear Data

The official ENDF/B nuclear data evaluation releases in the past two decades have incrementally incorporated more detailed information, new nuclide evaluations, and very often have improved the accuracy of radiation transport codes when modeling shielding, fission reactors, criticality benchmarks, and fusion systems. However, like any large collaborative data compilation, these releases have all included small errors. This report documents the small corrections to ENDF/B releases ENDF/B-VII.1, ENDF/B-VIII.0, and ENDF/B-VIII.1 that have been applied during nuclear data processing to produce data libraries for the SCALE code system.

Brown, Jesse M. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (OR↗

Utah FORGE: TEM and Gravity Data

This submission includes a gravity data in text format and as a GIS point shapefile and transient electromagnetic (TEM) raw data. Each text file additionally contains location data (UTM Zone 12, NAD83) and elevation (meters) data for that station. The gravity data shapefile was in part downloaded from PACES, University of Texas at El Paso, http://gis.utep.edu/subpages/GMData.html, and in part collected by the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) as part of the DOE GTO supported Utah FORGE geothermal energy project near Milford, Utah. The PACES data were examined and scrubbed to eliminate any questionable data. A 2.67 g/cm^3 reduction density was used for the Bouguer correction. The attribute table column headers for the gravity data shapefile are explained below. There is also metadata attached to the GIS shapefile. name: the individual gravity station name. HAE: height above ellipsoid [meter] NGVD29: vertical datum for geoid [meter] obs: observed gravity ERRG: gravity measurement error [mGal] IZTC: inner zone terrain correction [mGal] OZTC: outer zone terrain correction [mGal] Gfa: free air gravity gSBGA: Bouguer horizontal slab sCBGA: Complete Bouguer anomaly

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

On the validity of the basis set superposition error and complete basis set limit extrapolations for the binding energy of the formic acid dimer

We report the variation of the binding energy of the Formic Acid Dimer with the size of the basis set at the Coupled Cluster with iterative Singles, Doubles and perturbatively connected Triple replacements [CCSD(T)] level of theory, estimate the Complete Basis Set (CBS) limit, and examine the validity of the Basis Set Superposition Error (BSSE)-correction for this quantity that was previously challenged by Kalescky, Kraka, and Cremer (KKC) [J. Chem. Phys. 140, 084315 (2014)]. Our results indicate that the BSSE correction, including terms that account for the substantial geometry change of the monomers due to the formation of two strong hydrogen bonds in the dimer, is indeed valid for obtaining accurate estimates for the binding energy of this system as it exhibits the expected decrease with increasing basis set size. We attribute the discrepancy between our current results and those of KKC to their use of a valence basis set in conjunction with the correlation of all electrons (i.e., including the 1s of C and O). We further show that the use of a core-valence set in conjunction with all electron correlation converges faster to the CBS limit as the BSSE correction is less than half than the valence electron/valence basis set case. The uncorrected and BSSE-corrected binding energies were found to produce the same (within 0.1 kcal/mol) CBS limits. We obtain CCSD(T)/CBS best estimates for D{sub e} = − 16.1 ± 0.1 kcal/mol and for D{sub 0} = − 14.3 ± 0.1 kcal/mol, the later in excellent agreement with the experimental value of −14.22 ± 0.12 kcal/mol.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Spectral Fidelity of Earth's Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems

The Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) investigation will create global maps of spectral surface reflectance and emissivity at a cadence of 16 days or better, with coverage to address global questions about Earth's geology, cryosphere and ecosystems. The revolutionary potential poses a commensurate challenge: creating contiguous maps free from regional biases induced by atmosphere, observation geometry, or inversion error. This will require an accurate calibration with precise knowledge of each channel's spectral response. In this work, we quantify the impact of spectral calibration on SBG's aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem objectives. We find that contemporary algorithms for ecosystem trait retrieval demand more accurate spectral calibration than historical missions. Errors due to drift or spatial nonuniformity in the wavelength calibration that have previously been considered acceptable can cause systematic errors larger than the instrument noise and of the same order as the variability SBG aims to measure. Moreover, their impact on atmospheric correction can induce climate-dependent systematic errors that thwart comparisons between ecosystems. These results underscore the importance of spectral response accuracy in SBG mission design.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

SU-E-T-375: Evaluation of a MapCHECK2(tm) Planar 2-D Diode Array for High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy Treatment Delivery Verifications

Purpose: Despite improvements of HDR brachytherapy delivery systems, verification of source position is still typically based on the length of the wire reeled out relative to the parked position. Yet, the majority of errors leading to medical events in HDR treatments continue to be classified as missed targets or wrong treatment sites. We investigate the feasibility of using dose maps acquired with a two-dimensional diode array to independently verify the source locations, dwell times, and dose during an HDR treatment. Methods: Custom correction factors were integrated into frame-by-frame raw counts recorded for a Varian VariSource™ HDR afterloader Ir-192 source located at various distances in air and in solid water from a MapCHECK2™ diode array. The resultant corrected counts were analyzed to determine the dwell position locations and doses delivered. The local maxima of polynomial equations fitted to the extracted dwell dose profiles provided the X and Y coordinates while the distance to the source was determined from evaluation of the full width at half maximum (FWHM). To verify the approach, the experiment was repeated as the source was moved through dwell positions at various distances along an inclined plane, mimicking a vaginal cylinder treatment. Results: Dose map analysis was utilized to provide the coordinates of the source and dose delivered over each dwell position. The accuracy in determining source dwell positions was found to be +/−1.0 mm of the preset values, and doses within +/−3% of those calculated by the BrachyVision™ treatment planning system for all measured distances. Conclusion: Frame-by-frame data furnished by a 2 -D diode array can be used to verify the dwell positions and doses delivered by the HDR source over the course of treatment. Our studies have verified that measurements provided by the MapCHECK2™ can be used as a routine QA tool for HDR treatment delivery verification.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Tensor-decomposition techniques for ab initio nuclear structure calculations: From chiral nuclear potentials to ground-state energies

The computational resources needed to generate the ab initio solution of the nuclear many-body problem for increasing mass number and/or accuracy necessitates innovative developments to improve upon (i) the storage of many-body operators and (ii) the scaling of many-body methods used to evaluate nuclear observables. The storing and efficient handling of many-body operators with high particle ranks is currently one of the major bottlenecks limiting the applicability range of ab initio studies with respect to mass number and accuracy. Recently, the application of tensor decomposition techniques to many-body tensors has proven highly beneficial to reduce the computational cost of ab initio calculations in quantum chemistry and solid-state physics. The impact of applying state-of-the-art tensor factorization techniques to modern nuclear Hamiltonians derived from chiral effective field theory is investigated. Subsequently, the error induced by the tensor decomposition of the input Hamiltonian on ground-state energies of closed-shell nuclei calculated via second-order many-body perturbation theory is benchmarked. The first proof-of-principles application of tensor-decomposition techniques to the nuclear Hamiltonian is performed. Two different tensor formats are investigated by systematically benchmarking the approximation error on matrix elements stored in various bases of interest. The analysis is achieved while including normal-ordered three-nucleon interactions that are nowadays used as input to the most advanced ab initio calculations in medium-mass nuclei. With the aid of the factorized Hamiltonian, the second-order perturbative correction to ground-state energies is decomposed and the scaling properties of the underlying tensor network are discussed. The employed tensor formats are found to lead to an efficient data compression of two-body matrix elements of the nuclear Hamiltonian. In particular, the sophisticated tensor hypercontraction scheme yields low tensor ranks with respect to both harmonic-oscillator and Hartree-Fock single-particle bases. It is found that the tensor rank depends on the two-body total angular momentum J for which one performs the decomposition, which is itself directly related to the sparsity of the corresponding tensor. Furthermore, including normal-ordered two-body contributions originating from three-body interactions does not compromise the efficient data compression. Ultimately, the use of factorized matrix elements authorizes controlled approximations of the exact second-order ground-state energy corrections. In particular, a small enough error is obtained from low-rank factorizations in He4,O16, and Ca40. It is presently demonstrated that tensor-decomposition techniques can be efficiently applied to systematically approximate the nuclear many-body Hamiltonian in terms of lower-rank tensors. Beyond the input Hamiltonian, tensor-decomposition techniques can be envisioned to scale down the cost of state-of-the-art nonperturbative many-body methods in order to extend ab initio studies to (i) higher precisions, (ii) larger masses, and (iii) nuclei of doubly open-shell character.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Potential benefits of dosimetric VMAT tracking verified with 3D film measurements

Purpose: To evaluate three different plan adaptation strategies using 3D film-stack dose measurements of both focal boost and hypofractionated prostate VMAT treatments. The adaptation strategies (a couch shift, geometric tracking, and dosimetric tracking) were applied for three realistic intrafraction prostate motions. Methods: A focal boost (35 × 2.2 and 35 × 2.7 Gy) and a hypofractionated (5 × 7.25 Gy) prostate VMAT plan were created for a heterogeneous phantom that allows for internal prostate motion. For these plans geometric tracking and dosimetric tracking were evaluated by ionization chamber (IC) point dose measurements (zero-D) and measurements using a stack of EBT3 films (3D). The geometric tracking applied translations, rotations, and scaling of the MLC aperture in response to realistic prostate motions. The dosimetric tracking additionally corrected the monitor units to resolve variations due to difference in depth, tissue heterogeneity, and MLC-aperture. The tracking was based on the positions of four fiducial points only. The film measurements were compared to the gold standard (i.e., IC measurements) and the planned dose distribution. Additionally, the 3D measurements were converted to dose volume histograms, tumor control probability, and normal tissue complication probability parameters (DVH/TCP/NTCP) as a direct estimate of clinical relevance of the proposed tracking. Results: Compared to the planned dose distribution, measurements without prostate motion and tracking showed already a reduced homogeneity of the dose distribution. Adding prostate motion further blurs the DVHs for all treatment approaches. The clinical practice (no tracking) delivered the dose distribution inside the PTV but off target (CTV), resulting in boost dose errors up to 10%. The geometric and dosimetric tracking corrected the dose distribution’s position. Moreover, the dosimetric tracking could achieve the planned boost DVH, but not the DVH of the more homogeneously irradiated prostate. A drawback of both the geometric and dosimetric tracking was a reduced MLC blocking caused by the rotational component of the MLC aperture corrections. Because of the used CTV to PTV margins and the high doses in the considered fractionation schemes, the TCP differed less than 0.02 from the planned value for all targets and all correction methods. The rectal NTCP constraints, however, could not be realized using any of these methods. Conclusions: The geometric and dosimetric tracking use only a limited input, but they deposit the dose distribution with higher geometric accuracy than the clinical practice. The latter case has boost dose errors up to 10%. The increased accuracy has a modest impact [Δ(NT)CP < 0.02] because of the applied margins and the high dose levels used. To allow further margin reduction tracking methods are vital. The proposed methodology could further be improved by implementing a rotational correction using collimator rotations.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Local bounds preserving stabilization for continuous Galerkin discretization of hyperbolic systems

The objective of this paper is to present a local bounds preserving stabilized finite element scheme for hyperbolic systems on unstructured meshes based on continuous Galerkin (CG) discretization in space. A CG semi-discrete scheme with low order artificial dissipation that satisfies the local extremum diminishing (LED) condition for systems is used to discretize a system of conservation equations in space. The low order artificial diffusion is based on approximate Riemann solvers for hyperbolic conservation laws. In this case we consider both Rusanov and Roe artificial diffusion operators. In the Rusanov case, two designs are considered, a nodal based diffusion operator and a local projection stabilization operator. The result is a discretization that is LED and has first order convergence behavior. To achieve high resolution, limited antidiffusion is added back to the semi-discrete form where the limiter is constructed from a linearity preserving local projection stabilization operator. The procedure follows the algebraic flux correction procedure usually used in flux corrected transport algorithms. To further deal with phase errors (or terracing) common in FCT type methods, high order background dissipation is added to the antidiffusive correction. The resulting stabilized semi-discrete scheme can be discretized in time using a wide variety of time integrators. Numerical examples involving nonlinear scalar Burgers equation, and several shock hydrodynamics simulations for the Euler system are considered to demonstrate the performance of the method. In conclusion, for time discretization, Crank–Nicolson scheme and backward Euler scheme are utilized.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Consistent structures and interactions by density functional theory with small atomic orbital basis sets

A density functional theory (DFT) based composite electronic structure approach is proposed to efficiently compute structures and interaction energies in large chemical systems. It is based on the well-known and numerically robust Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhoff (PBE) generalized-gradient-approximation in a modified global hybrid functional with a relatively large amount of non-local Fock-exchange. The orbitals are expanded in Ahlrichs-type valence-double zeta atomic orbital (AO) Gaussian basis sets, which are available for many elements. In order to correct for the basis set superposition error (BSSE) and to account for the important long-range London dispersion effects, our well-established atom-pairwise potentials are used. In the design of the new method, particular attention has been paid to an accurate description of structural parameters in various covalent and non-covalent bonding situations as well as in periodic systems. Together with the recently proposed three-fold corrected (3c) Hartree-Fock method, the new composite scheme (termed PBEh-3c) represents the next member in a hierarchy of “low-cost” electronic structure approaches. They are mainly free of BSSE and account for most interactions in a physically sound and asymptotically correct manner. PBEh-3c yields good results for thermochemical properties in the huge GMTKN30 energy database. Furthermore, the method shows excellent performance for non-covalent interaction energies in small and large complexes. For evaluating its performance on equilibrium structures, a new compilation of standard test sets is suggested. These consist of small (light) molecules, partially flexible, medium-sized organic molecules, molecules comprising heavy main group elements, larger systems with long bonds, 3d-transition metal systems, non-covalently bound complexes (S22 and S66×8 sets), and peptide conformations. For these sets, overall deviations from accurate reference data are smaller than for various other tested DFT methods and reach that of triple-zeta AO basis set second-order perturbation theory (MP2/TZ) level at a tiny fraction of computational effort. Periodic calculations conducted for molecular crystals to test structures (including cell volumes) and sublimation enthalpies indicate very good accuracy competitive to computationally more involved plane-wave based calculations. PBEh-3c can be applied routinely to several hundreds of atoms on a single processor and it is suggested as a robust “high-speed” computational tool in theoretical chemistry and physics.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Robust Resilient Signal Reconstruction under Adversarial Attacks

We consider the problem of signal reconstruction for a system under sparse signal corruption by a malicious agent. The reconstruction problem follows the standard error coding problem that has been studied extensively in the literature. We include a new challenge of robust estimation of the attack support. The problem is then cast as a constrained optimization problem merging promising techniques in the area of deep learning and estimation theory. A pruning algorithm is developed to reduce the "false positive" uncertainty of data-driven attack localization results, thereby improving the probability of correct signal reconstruction. Sufficient conditions for the correct reconstruction and the associated reconstruction error bounds are obtained for both exact and inexact attack support estimation. Moreover, a simulation of a water distribution system is presented to validate the proposed techniques.

Robust, Signal reconstruction, Resilient estimator↗

Influence of the nanoparticles agglomeration state in the quantum-confinement effects: Experimental evidences

The agglomeration state facilitates particle-particle interaction which produces important effects in the phonon confinement effects at the nanoscale. A partial phonon transmission between close nanoparticles yields a lower momentum conservation relaxation than in a single isolated nanoparticle. It means a larger red shift and broadening of the Raman modes than the expected ones for Raman quantum confinement effects. This particle-particle interaction can drive to error when Raman responses are used to estimate the size of the nanoscaled materials. In this work different corrections are suggested to overtake this source of error.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

CCN data from TAMU TRACER campaign in the Houston TX region from July to September 2022

During TRACER, the Texas A&M Rapid Onsite Atmospheric Measurements Van (ROAM-V) was deployed to capture airmasses behind (maritime) and ahead (continental) of the passage of the sea-breeze front through Houston. On select sampling days, ROAM-V sampled in the morning/mid-day on the coast and then transited to a second inland site for the afternoon/evening. The suite of instruments deployed on ROAM-V included a Condensation Particle Counter (CPC; GRIMM Model 5.403 CPC), Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS; TSI 3750 detector, TSI 3082 classifier, TSI 3088 neutralizer, TSI 3081A Differential Mobility Analyzer), Cloud Condensation Nuclei counter (Droplet Measurement Technologies CCN Counter), micro pulse lidar (Droplet Measurement Technologies Micro Pulse LiDAR (miniMPL)), and a Davis Rotating Uniform size-cut Monitor (DRUM; DRUMAir 4-DRUM). Before sampling at each location, the latitude and longitude were recorded using the GPS on the phone application “My Altitude”. Onboard the ROAM-V, aerosol samples are drawn through a shared isokinetic inlet at a flow rate ranging from 3.5 to 7.0 LPM. A portion of this flow is directed through a cyclone impactor (Brechtel, Inc. Model SCC 0.732) and 0.5 LPM is directed to the CCN. To calculate particle losses, we used a two-step method. First, the measured SMPS size distributions were used to calculate particle loss through the inlet during sampling. Second, the corrected SMPS data was used to calculate the average of the total losses per scan down the CCN line. Then, the correction was applied to the CCN data. This calculation was done separately for each deployment location due to changes in the measured size distributions between locations. Particle loss from diffusion (based on Kesten, 1991 and Gormley, 1949), inertial impaction in 90-degree bends (based on Aerosol Measurement, 2011 and Crane, 1977), and cyclone impactor efficiency (based on Dirgo, 1985) were included in the loss calculation. When the SMPS was not sampling at a location (in the case of an instrument malfunction or operator error), the reported CPC data was corrected with an average of the total losses for the entire campaign at the specified deployment location (e.g., if we needed to correct Galveston data, then the average of all calculated losses at Galveston was taken). These flatline corrections were used for all data on 22/07/13, 22/07/20, 22/07/22, and the data from Galveston on 22/08/09. The supersaturation uncertainty is estimated conservatively at +/- 0.03%, where variation in the inlet temperature, pressure, and calibration technique prevents a more accurate measurement. Confidence in the reported supersaturation measurements is based on a pre-campaign calibration (following the methods from our previous work and Deng, 2014 based on Rose, 2008) in addition to inter-comparisons with the DOE for two days (22/08/18 and 22/09/01) where TAMU was co-located with AMF1. The inter-comparisons show good agreement between our instrument and the DOEs instrument on both days at all supersaturations. After the last inter-comparison on 22/09/01, there was no indication of a malfunction by our instrument through the rest of the campaign. Unfortunately, the instrument was dropped during demobilization. A post-campaign calibration was conducted, which showed a substantial departure from the pre-campaign calibration. The drop may have damaged the instrument’s ability to produce the desired supersaturations. Therefore, we do consider the data after 22/09/01 to be correct, but it should be used with caution. The CCN counter sampled for 3 minutes at each supersaturation setpoint (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2%). At the end of a cycle, the instrument was set to 0.01% supersaturation for 5 minutes. The data is comprised of the last 60 seconds of each supersaturation set point (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2%) to ensure the instrument stabilized and was able to reach thermal equilibrium. We removed the data during the periods where there were operational difficulties, setup, or maintenance. This data was collected for ARM Field Campaign AFC07055 and supported by DOE ASR grant DE-SC0021047. For any further questions, please feel free to contact the instrument PI, Sarah D. Brooks, sbrooks@tamu.edu. Rose et. al. Calibration and Measurement Uncertainties of a Continuous-Flow Cloud Condensation Nuclei Counter (DMT-CCNC): CCN Activation of Ammonium Sulfate and Sodium Chloride Aerosol Particles in Theory and Experiment. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 1153-1179, 2008. Deng et. al. Using Raman Microspectroscopy to Determine Chemical Composition and Mixing State of Airborne Marine Aerosols over the Pacific Ocean. Aerosol Science and Technology, Vol 48, Issue 2, 2014. Kesten et. al. Calibration of a TSI Model 3025 Ultrafine Condensation Particle Counter. Aerosol Science and Technology, 15:2, 107-111, 1991. Gormley et. al. Diffusion from a Stream Flowing through a Cylindrical Tube. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol 52, 163-169, 1948. Aerosol Measurement: Principles, Techniques, and Applications, Third Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2011. Crane et. al. Inertial Deposition of Particles in a Bent Pipe. Journal of Aerosol Science, Vol 8, 161-170, 1977. Dirgo et. al. Cyclone Collection Efficiency: Comparison of Experimental Results with Theoretical Predictions. Aerosol Science and Technology, 4:4, 401-415, 1985.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

CPC data from TAMU TRACER campaign in the Houston, TX region from July to September 2022

During TRACER, the Texas A&M Rapid Onsite Atmospheric Measurements Van (ROAM-V) was deployed to capture airmasses behind (maritime) and ahead (continental) of the passage of the sea-breeze front through Houston. On select sampling days, ROAM-V sampled in the morning/mid-day on the coast and then transited to a second inland site for the afternoon/evening. The suite of instruments deployed on ROAM-V included a Condensation Particle Counter (CPC; GRIMM Model 5.403 CPC), Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS; TSI 3750 detector, TSI 3082 classifier, TSI 3088 neutralizer, TSI 3081A Differential Mobility Analyzer), Cloud Condensation Nuclei counter (Droplet Measurement Technologies CCN Counter), micro pulse lidar (Droplet Measurement Technologies Micro Pulse LiDAR (miniMPL)), and a Davis Rotating Uniform size-cut Monitor (DRUM; DRUMAir 4-DRUM). Before sampling at each location, the latitude and longitude were recorded using the GPS on the phone application “My Altitude”. Onboard the ROAM-V, aerosol samples are drawn through a shared isokinetic inlet at a flow rate ranging from 3.5 to 7.0 LPM. A portion of this flow is directed through a cyclone impactor (Brechtel, Inc. Model SCC 0.732) and 0.3 LPM is directed to the CPC. To correct the data for particle losses, we used a two-step method. First, the measured SMPS size distributions were used to calculate total particle loss through the inlet for every SMPS scan at a single deployment location. Second, the CPC data was corrected for particle losses using the average of the total losses per scan. This calculation was done separately for each deployment location due to changes in the measured size distributions between locations. Particle loss from diffusion (based on Kesten, 1991 and Gormley, 1949), inertial impaction in 90-degree bends (based on Aerosol Measurement, 2011 and Crane, 1977), and cyclone impactor efficiency (based on Dirgo, 1985) were included in the loss calculation. When the SMPS was not sampling at a location (in the case of an instrument malfunction or operator error), the reported CPC data was corrected with an average of the total losses for the entire campaign at the specified deployment location (e.g., if we needed to correct Galveston data, then the average of all calculated losses at Galveston was taken). These flatline corrections were used for all data on 22/07/13, 22/07/20, 22/07/22, and the data from Galveston on 22/08/09. An additional flatline correction of 14% was applied to all CPC data based on laboratory calibration prior to and after the campaign. In laboratory calibrations, we identified that for the same sample of air the field CPC (GRIMM Model 5.403 CPC) undercounted the total concentration of particles by 14% compared to the ground truth laboratory CPC (TSI Model 3750). This data was collected for ARM Field Campaign AFC07055 and supported by DOE ASR grant DE-SC0021047. For any further questions, please feel free to contact the instrument PI, Sarah D. Brooks, sbrooks@tamu.edu. Kesten et. al. Calibration of a TSI Model 3025 Ultrafine Condensation Particle Counter. Aerosol Science and Technology, 15:2, 107-111, 1991. Gormley et. al. Diffusion from a Stream Flowing through a Cylindrical Tube. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol 52, 163-169, 1948. Aerosol Measurement: Principles, Techniques, and Applications, Third Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2011. Crane et. al. Inertial Deposition of Particles in a Bent Pipe. Journal of Aerosol Science, Vol 8, 161-170, 1977. Dirgo et. al. Cyclone Collection Efficiency: Comparison of Experimental Results with Theoretical Predictions. Aerosol Science and Technology, 4:4, 401-415, 1985.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Rapid estimation of earthquake locations using waveform traveltimes

SUMMARY We introduce a new approach for locating earthquakes using arrival times derived from waveforms. The most costly computational step of the algorithm scales as the number of stations in the active seismographic network. In this approach, a variation on existing grid search methods, a series of full waveform simulations are conducted for all receiver locations, with sources positioned successively at each station. The traveltime field over the region of interest is calculated by applying a phase picking algorithm to the numerical wavefields produced from each simulation. An event is located by subtracting the stored traveltime field from the arrival time at each station. This provides a shifted and time-reversed traveltime field for each station. The shifted and time-reversed fields all approach the origin time of the event at the source location. The mean or median value at the source location thus approximates the event origin time. Measures of dispersion about this mean or median time at each grid point, such as the sample standard error and the average deviation, are minimized at the correct source position. Uncertainty in the event position is provided by the contours of standard error defined over the grid. An application of this technique to a synthetic data set indicates that the approach provides stable locations even when the traveltimes are contaminated by additive random noise containing a significant number of outliers and velocity model errors. It is found that the waveform-based method out-performs one based upon the eikonal equation for a velocity model with rapid spatial variations in properties due to layering. A comparison with conventional location algorithms in both a laboratory and field setting demonstrates that the technique performs at least as well as existing techniques.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

The hadronic corrections to muonic hydrogen Lamb shift from ChPT and the proton radius

We obtain a model independent expression for the muonic hydrogen Lamb shift. The leading hadronic effects are controlled by the chiral theory, which allows for their model independent determination. We give their complete expression including the pion and Delta particles. Out of this analysis and the experimental measurement of the muonic hydrogen Lamb shift we determine the electromagnetic proton radius: r{sub p} = 0.8412(15) fm. This number is at 6.8σ variance with respect to the CODATA value. The parametric control of the uncertainties allows us to obtain a model independent determination of the error, which is dominated by hadronic effects.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

First evaluation of the feasibility of MLC tracking using ultrasound motion estimation

Purpose: To quantify the performance of the Clarity ultrasound (US) imaging system (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden) for real-time dynamic multileaf collimator (MLC) tracking. Methods: The Clarity calibration and quality assurance phantom was mounted on a motion platform moving with a periodic sine wave trajectory. The detected position of a 30 mm hypoechogenic sphere within the phantom was continuously reported via Clarity’s real-time streaming interface to an in-house tracking and delivery software and subsequently used to adapt the MLC aperture. A portal imager measured MV treatment field/MLC apertures and motion platform positions throughout each experiment to independently quantify system latency and geometric error. Based on the measured range of latency values, a prostate stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) delivery was performed with three realistic motion trajectories. The dosimetric impact of system latency on MLC tracking was directly measured using a 3D dosimeter mounted on the motion platform. Results: For 2D US imaging, the overall system latency, including all delay times from the imaging and delivery chain, ranged from 392 to 424 ms depending on the lateral sector size. For 3D US imaging, the latency ranged from 566 to 1031 ms depending on the elevational sweep. The latency-corrected geometric root-mean squared error was below 0.75 mm (2D US) and below 1.75 mm (3D US). For the prostate SBRT delivery, the impact of a range of system latencies (400–1000 ms) on the MLC tracking performance was minimal in terms of gamma failure rate. Conclusions: Real-time MLC tracking based on a noninvasive US input is technologically feasible. Current system latencies are higher than those for x-ray imaging systems, but US can provide full volumetric image data and the impact of system latency was measured to be small for a prostate SBRT case when using a US-like motion input.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Density functional theory and chromium: Insights from the dimers

The binding in small Cr clusters is re-investigated, where the correct description of the dimer in three charge states is used as criterion to assign the most suitable density functional theory approximation. The difficulty in chromium arises from the subtle interplay between energy gain from hybridization and energetic cost due to exchange between s and d based molecular orbitals. Variations in published bond lengths and binding energies are shown to arise from insufficient numerical representation of electron density and Kohn-Sham wave-functions. The best functional performance is found for gradient corrected (GGA) functionals and meta-GGAs, where we find severe differences between functionals from the same family due to the importance of exchange. Only the “best fit” from Bayesian error estimation is able to predict the correct energetics for all three charge states unambiguously. With this knowledge, we predict small bond-lengths to be exclusively present in Cr{sub 2} and Cr{sub 2}{sup −}. Already for the dimer cation, solely long bond-lengths appear, similar to what is found in the trimer and in chromium bulk.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗