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At least 1,315 records · Page 73

Remote Sensing of Dipole Rings

Historical satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) data are reanalyzed with a zebra color palette and a thermal separatrix method. The new results from this reanalysis are as follows: (a) Thirteen observational sequences of six rings from the Gulf Stream and the Brazil Current, which have historically been interpreted as solitary vortices or monopoles are shown to have a dipolar character; (b) some of these dipole rings have been observed in the open ocean, thereby eliminating the possibility that they are sustained by topographic interactions with the continental slope; (c) whether interacting with other features or evolving as isolated circulations, dipoles are seen to rotate within a relatively narrow range of approximately 4-8 deg/day (interacting) and 10-11 deg/day (isolated); and (d) feature tracking delineates energetic fluid in both vortices and eliminates the possibility of interpreting dipole rings as transient features produced by active monopoles and patches of entrained fluid.

Hooker, Stanford B.↗

A Proposed Landing Site for the 2001 Lander in a Hematite-Rich Region in Sinus Meridiani

The Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument on the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) mission has identified an accumulation of crystalline hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) that covers an area with very sharp boundaries approximately 350 by 350-750 km in size centered near 2 S latitude between 0 and 5 W longitude (Sinus Meridiani). The depth and shape of the hematite fundamental bands in the TES spectra show that the hematite is relatively coarse grained (> 5-10 microns). The spectrally-derived areal abundance of hematite varies with particle size from approx. 10% for particles > 30 microns in diameter to 40-60% for unpacked 10 micron powders. The hematite in Sinus Meridiani is thus distinct from the fine-grained (diameter < 5-10 microns), red, crystalline hematite considered, on the basis of visible and near-IR data, to be a minor spectral component in Martian bright regions. A map of the hematite index has been constructed using TES data from 11 orbits, including the six in which hematite was detected and five orbits that passed nearby that showed no evidence of hematite. The boundaries of the hematite-rich region are sharp at spatial scales of about 10 km. Within this region there are spatial variations in spectral band depth of a factor of two to three. At the present time the hematite-rich region has not been completely mapped. However, by using the bounding orbits to the east and west in which hematite was not detected, we can establish that this region covers an area that is between 350 and 750 km in length and over -350 km in width (1.2 x 10(exp 5) to 2.6 x 10(exp 5 sq km). The hematite-rich surface discovered by TES closely corresponds with smooth-surfaced unit ('sm') that appears to be the surface of a layered sequence. The presence of small mesas superposed on 'sm' and the degraded nature of the small impact craters suggests that material has been removed from this unit. These layered materials do not appear to be primary volcanic products (i.e., lava flows) because there are no associated lava flow lobes, fronts or pressure ridges; there are no fissures or calderae, nor any other features that can be interpreted as volcanic within 'sm'. Bowl-shaped depressions in 'sm' and the remnant mesas on top of a portion of this unit suggest that deflation has removed material that was once above the present surface of 'sm'. The most likely cause of the deflation is wind, which suggests that the layered materials are relatively friable. In summary, Sinus Meridiani hematite is closely associated with a smooth, layered, friable surface that is interpreted to be sedimentary in origin.

Christensen, Philip R.↗

TraceContract: A Scala DSL for Trace Analysis

In this paper we describe TRACECONTRACT, an API for trace analysis, implemented in the SCALA programming language. We argue that for certain forms of trace analysis the best weapon is a high level programming language augmented with constructs for temporal reasoning. A trace is a sequence of events, which may for example be generated by a running program, instrumented appropriately to generate events. The API supports writing properties in a notation that combines an advanced form of data parameterized state machines with temporal logic. The implementation utilizes SCALA's support for defining internal Domain Specific Languages (DSLs). Furthermore SCALA's combination of object oriented and functional programming features, including partial functions and pattern matching, makes it an ideal host language for such an API.

log file analysis↗

TU-AB-BRA-01: Abdominal Synthetic CT Generation in Support of Liver SBRT Dose Calculation

Purpose: To demonstrate and validate a technique for generating MRI-derived synthetic CT volumes (MRCTs) in support of adaptive liver SBRT. Methods: Under IRB approval, ten hepatocellular carcinoma patients were scanned using a single MR sequence (T1 Dixon-VIBE), yielding inherently-registered water, fat, and T1-weighted images. Air-containing voxels were identified by intensity thresholding. The envelope of the anterior vertebral bodies was segmented from the fat image by fitting a shape model to vertebral body candidate voxels, then using level sets to expand the contour outward. Fuzzy-C-Means (FCM) was then used to classify each non-air voxel in the image as fat, water, bone, or marrow. Bone and marrow only were classified within the vertebral body envelope. The MRCT was created by integrating the product of the FCM class probability with the assigned class density for each voxel. The resulting MRCTs were deformably aligned with planning CTs and 2-ARC SBRT VMAT plans were optimized on the MRCT density maps. Fluence was copied onto the CT density grids and dose recalculated. Results: The MRCTs faithfully reproduced most of the features visible in the corresponding CT image volumes, with exceptions of ribs and posterior spinous processes. The liver, vertebral bodies, kidneys, spleen and cord all had median HU differences of less than 75 between MRCT and CT images. PTV D99% values had an average 0.2% difference (standard deviation: 0.46%) between calculations on MRCT and CT density grids. The maximum difference in dose to 0.1cc of the PTV was 0.25% (std:0.49%). OAR dose differences were similarly small (mean:0.03Gy, std:0.26Gy). The largest normal tissue complication percentage (NTCP) difference was 1.48% (mean:0.06%, std:0.54%). Conclusions: MRCTs from a single abdominal imaging sequence are promising for use in SBRT dose calculation. Future work will focus on extending models to better define bones in the upper abdomen. Supported by NIHR01EB016079 and NIH1L30CA199594-01.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

A Comprehensive Methodology to Evaluate Losses and Process Variations in Silicon Solar Cell Manufacturing

Novel, high-throughput metrology methods are used in this paper for detailed performance loss analysis of approximately 400 industrial crystalline silicon solar cells, all coming from the same production line. The characterization sequence combines traditional global cell measurements (e.g., current-voltage, Suns-VOC) with camera-based cell imaging of voltage distribution and power dissipation from photoluminescence and lock-in thermography, respectively. Spatial variations in current collection are visualized using a high-speed external quantum efficiency and reflectance measurement technique. A nondestructive transfer length method (TLM) measurement technique is also implemented, featuring circular TLM structures hidden within the busbars of the cells. The variance of individual loss parameters and their impact on cell performance are quantified for this large group of cells. Based on correlations performed across parameters, recombination losses in the bulk and rear surface of the cell are shown to be the primary limiting factor for the cell efficiency. The nature of these distributions and correlations provide important insights about loss mechanisms in industrial solar cells, helping to prioritize efforts for optimizing the performance of the production line. Additionally, many of the parameters extracted from these techniques can be tied back to incoming material quality issues (e.g., poor bulk carrier lifetime, nonuniform wafer doping) and to individual unit processes (e.g., texturing, phosphorus diffusion, silicon nitride deposition, metallization), allowing the data to be used directly for process control in manufacturing. All of the datasets are made available for download.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Deciphering Natural Allelic Variation in Switchgrass for Biomass Yield and Quality Using a Nested Association Mapping Population

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a C4 grass with high biomass yield potential and a model species for bioenergy feedstock development. Understanding the genetic basis of quantitative traits is essential to facilitate genome-enabled breeding programs. The nested association mapping (NAM) analysis combines the best features of both bi-parental and association analyses and can provide high power and high resolution in QTL detection and will ensure significant improvements in biomass yield and quality. To develop a NAM population of switchgrass, 15 highly diverse genotypes with specific characteristics were selected from a diversity panel and crossed to a recurrent parent, AP13, a genotype selected for whole genome sequencing and parent of a mapping population. Ten genotypes from each of the 15 F1 families were then chain crossed. Progenies form each family were randomly selected to develop the NAM population. The switchgrass NAM population consists of a total of 2000 genotypes from 15 families. All the progenies, founder parents, F1 parents (n=2350) were evaluated in replicated field trials at Ardmore, OK and Knoxville, TN. Phenotypic data on plant height, tillering ability, regrowth, flowering time, and biomass yield were collected. Dried biomass samples were also analyzed using prediction equations of NIRS at the Noble Foundation and for lignin content, S/G ratio, and sugar release characteristics at the NREL. Genomic shotgun sequencing of 15 switchgrass NAM founder parental genomes at JGI produced 28-66 Gb high-quality sequence data. Alignment of these sequences with the reference genome, AP13 (v3.0), revealed that up to 99% of the genomic sequences mapped to the reference genome. A total of 2,149 individuals from NAM populations were sequenced by exome capture and two sets of 15 SNP matrices (one for each family) were generated. QTL associated with important traits have been identified and verified in breeding populations. The QTL detected and their associated markers can be used in molecular breeding programs to facilitate development of improved switchgrass cultivars for biofuel production.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Models for Day-Ahead Photovoltaic Power Production Forecasting

A main challenge for integrating the intermittent photovoltaic (PV) power generation remains the accuracy of day-ahead forecasts and the establishment of robust performing methods. The purpose of this work is to address these technological challenges by evaluating the day-ahead PV production forecasting performance of different machine learning models under different supervised learning regimes and minimal input features. Specifically, the day-ahead forecasting capability of Bayesian neural network (BNN), support vector regression (SVR), and regression tree (RT) models was investigated by employing the same dataset for training and performance verification, thus enabling a valid comparison. The training regime analysis demonstrated that the performance of the investigated models was strongly dependent on the timeframe of the train set, training data sequence, and application of irradiance condition filters. Furthermore, accurate results were obtained utilizing only the measured power output and other calculated parameters for training. Consequently, useful information is provided for establishing a robust day-ahead forecasting methodology that utilizes calculated input parameters and an optimal supervised learning approach. Finally, the obtained results demonstrated that the optimally constructed BNN outperformed all other machine learning models achieving forecasting accuracies lower than 5%.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Generalized similarity for accretion/decretion disks

Decretion (or external) disks are gas disks freely expanding to large radii due to their internal stresses. They are expected to naturally arise in tidal disruption events, around Be stars, in mass-losing post-main-sequence binaries, as a result of supernova fallback, etc. Their evolution is theoretically understood in two regimes: when the central object does not exert torque on the disk (a standard assumption for conventional accretion disks) or when no mass inflow (or outflow) occurs at the disk center. However, many astrophysical objects—circumbinary disks, Be stars, neutron stars accreting in a propeller regime, etc.—feature non-zero torque simultaneously with the non-zero accretion (or ejection of mass) at the disk center. We provide a general description for the evolution of such disks (both linear and nonlinear) in the self-similar regime, to which the disk should asymptotically converge with time. We identify a similarity parameter λ, which is uniquely related to the degree, to which the central mass accretion is suppressed by the non-zero central torque. The known decretion disk solutions correspond to the two discrete values of λ, while our new solutions cover a continuum of its physically allowed values, corresponding to either accretion or mass ejection by the central object. A direct relationship between λ and central M-dot and torque is also established. We describe the time evolution of the various disk characteristics for different λ, and show that the observable properties (spectrum and luminosity evolution) of the decretion disks, in general, are different from the standard accretion disks with no central torque.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The solar XUV He I and He II emission lines. I - Intensities and gross center-to-limb behavior

The center-to-limb variation of the He II 304- and 256-A lines and He I 584- and 537-A lines is derived for different solar features, but averaged over the chromospheric supergranulation structure. The general trend is for limb brightening in quiet-sun regions, limb neutrality in unipolar magnetic regions (UMR), and limb darkening in polar coronal holes. The center-to-limb behavior in these optically thick emission lines indicates collisional excitation and decreasing transition-region temperature gradients with respect to optical depth in the sequence quiet sun to UMR to coronal hole.

Mango, S. A.↗

Mission telemetry system monitor: A real-time knowledge-based system

The Galileo Mission Telemetry System (MTS) has a cluster of computer subsystems configured as a star network. The MTS handles the real-time processing of spacecraft telemetry and ground monitor data. Large volumes of status and fault messages are generated as a result of changes in the system environment. These messages are triggered by the conditions that exist on any one particular subsystem or device. The order of message generation is in time sequence and does not always correlate to the function sequence of active processes. A significant number of messages provide context with varying degrees of uncertainty. As such, highly skilled telemetry controllers are required to regularly go through high volumes of messages generated by the MTS to identify, diagnose, and isolate faults. A knowledge-based system prototype is being developed to monitor the Galileo Mission Telemetry System performance. The system design approach features temporal reasoning, uncertainty management, and intelligent graphic user interfaces.

Mouneimne, Samih A.↗

How to securely replicate services (preliminary version)

A method is presented for constructing replicated services that retain their availability and integrity despite several servers and clients being corrupted by an intruder, in addition to others failing benignly. More precisely, a service is replicated by 'n' servers in such a way that a correct client will accept a correct server's response if, for some prespecified parameter, k, at least k servers are correct and fewer than k servers are correct. The issue of maintaining causality among client requests is also addressed. A security breach resulting from an intruder's ability to effect a violation of causality in the sequence of requests processed by the service is illustrated. An approach to counter this problem is proposed that requires that fewer than k servers are corrupt and, to ensure liveness, that k is less than or = n - 2t, where t is the assumed maximum total number of both corruptions and benign failures suffered by servers in any system run. An important and novel feature of these schemes is that the client need not be able to identify or authenticate even a single server. Instead, the client is required only to possess at most two public keys for the service.

Reiter, Michael↗

Cyclic Oxidation Modeling and Life Prediction

The cyclic oxidation process can be described as an iterative scale growth and spallation sequence by a number of similar models. Model input variable include oxide scale type and growth parameters, spalling geometry, spall constant, and cycle duration. Outputs include net weight change, the amounts of retained and spalled oxide, the total oxygen and metal consumed, and the terminal rates of weight loss and metal consumption. All models and their variations produce a number of similar characteristic features. In general, spalling and material consumption increase to a steady state rate, at which point the retained scale approaches a constant and the rate of weight loss becomes linear. For one model, this regularity was demonstrated as dimensionless, universal expressions, obtained by normalizing the variables by critical performance factors. These insights were enabled through the use of the COSP for Windows cyclic oxidation spalling program.

Smialek, James L.↗

Predicting river turbidity in Pine Island Bayou using machine learning techniques coupled with variational mode decomposition

Elevated turbidity levels pose significant public health risks by facilitating the transport of harmful pollutants, including metals, organic compounds, and pathogenic microorganisms into the surface water. These conditions create serious challenges for public recreational water use and drinking water treatment, leading to economic losses and health risks. This study utilizes water monitoring data in Pine Island Bayou, Texas, and develops a Sequence-to-Sequence (S2S) model to predict turbidity using Attention-based Gated Recurrent Units with Encoder-Decoder (AT-GRU-ED) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), coupled with Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD). Compared to the model without VMD, the model demonstrates satisfactory 72-hour turbidity prediction performance, achieving MAEs of 2.60 and 3.29 NTU (reductions of 53% and 58%), RMSEs of 21.08 and 31.49 NTU (reductions of 82% and 80%), and R² values of 0.96 and 0.84 on the validation and test sets, respectively. Feature importance analysis reveals that water temperature is the dominant factor influencing seasonal turbidity patterns, while real-time hourly rainfall significantly contributes to short-term variability. Turbidity typically peaks within 48 hours after rainfall events due to lagged effects from surface runoff and upstream flow. Findings suggest suspending recreational water use and water supply pumping for three days after heavy rainfall can benefit public health and improve water treatment processes. Discharges above 100 m3/s are found to accelerate sediment dilution and transport, reducing turbidity levels more quickly after the peak. In conclusion, the proposed model demonstrates reliable 72-hour turbidity prediction, supporting decision-making for water treatment plant operations and providing early warning for public recreational water use.

Deep learning↗

Grazing-Incidence Texture Tomography and Diffuse Reflectivity Tomography of an Organic Semiconductor Device Array

The use of grazing-incidence scattering methods for the characterization of 2D patterned organic thin films is limited due to the elongated 1D footprint of the X-ray beam on the sample. However, this characteristic feature can be turned into an advantage, when combined with tomographic reconstruction. In this pilot study we show, how the use of a chosen texture reflection and a diffuse reflectivity signal can each provide 2D images of the deposits, simultaneously revealing the organic film's crystal orientation and the location of the metal electrodes in a field-effect transistor structure from a single sequence of diffraction images.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Chapter 16: Connecting Microbial Genotype with Phenotype in the Omics Era

Although rational design-based metabolic engineering has been applied widely to obtain promising microbial biocatalysts, conventional strategies such as adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) and mutagenesis are still efficient approaches to improve microorganisms for exceptional features such as a broad spectrum of substrate utilization, robustness of cell growth, as well as high titer, yield, and productivity of the target products. In this chapter, we describe the procedure to generate mutant strains with desired phenotypes using ALE and a new mutagenesis approach of Atmosphere and Room Temperature Plasma (ARTP). In addition, we discuss the methodology to combine next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based genome-resequencing and RNA-Seq transcriptomics approaches to characterize the mutant strains and connect the phenotypes with their corresponding genotypic changes.

adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE)↗

Towards data-driven constitutive modelling for granular materials via micromechanics-informed deep learning

The analytical description of path-dependent elastic-plastic responses of a granular system is highly complicated because of continuously evolving microstructures and strain localisation within the system undergoing deformation. This study offers an alternative to the current analytical paradigm by developing micromechanics-informed machine-learning based constitutive modelling approaches for granular materials. A set of critical variables associated with the constitutive behaviour of granular materials are identified through an incremental stress-strain relationship analysis. Depending on the strategy to exploit the priori micromechanical knowledge, three different training strategies are explored. The first model uses only the measurable external variables to make stress predictions; the second model utilises a directed graph to link all the external strain sequences and internal microstructural evolution variables into a single prediction model comprised of a series of sub-mappings, and the third model explicitly integrates the physically important non-temporal properties with external strain paths into training through an enhanced Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU). These three models show satisfactory agreement with unseen test specimens based on multi-directional loading cases. The basic features and potential applications of each model are explained. Lastly, the key factors for constitutive training and limitations of the current work are also discussed in detail.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Viral phylogenomics using an alignment-free method: A three-step approach to determine optimal length of k-mer

The development of rapid, economical genome sequencing has shed new light on the classification of viruses. As of October 2016, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database contained >2 million viral genome sequences and a reference set of ~4000 viral genome sequences that cover a wide range of known viral families. Whole-genome sequences can be used to improve viral classification and provide insight into the viral tree of life . However, due to the lack of evolutionary conservation amongst diverse viruses, it is not feasible to build a viral tree of life using traditional phylogenetic methods based on conserved proteins. In this study, we used an alignment-free method that uses k-mers as genomic features for a large-scale comparison of complete viral genomes available in RefSeq. To determine the optimal feature length, k (an essential step in constructing a meaningful dendrogram), we designed a comprehensive strategy that combines three approaches: (1) cumulative relative entropy, (2) average number of common features among genomes, and (3) the Shannon diversity index. This strategy was used to determine k for all 3,905 complete viral genomes in RefSeq. Lastly, the resulting dendrogram shows consistency with the viral taxonomy of the ICTV and the Baltimore classification of viruses.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Some new techniques for processing remotely obtained images by self-generated spectral masks.

An extension of a new technique that makes possible parallel, simultaneous processing of remotely obtained images is presented. The technique holds out promise for automatic onboard classification of data. The central feature involves the generation of binary masks, directly from the image, based on object reflectance data, that group objects into equivalence classes. These masks, called equivalence class masks, can be used in various logical combinations to isolate classes of objects with a priori known reflectance or radiance signatures. Experimental verification of the technique is furnished for simple scenes. A computational scheme, based on a sequence of integrated irradiance measurements on the image, that makes it possible to identify objects within an equivalence class is suggested.

Stark, H.↗