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DOE OSTI2016

IMPETUS: New cloudy’s radiative tables for accretion onto a galaxy black hole

We present digital tables for the radiative terms that appear in the energy and momentum equations used to simulate the accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of galaxies. Cooling and heating rates and radiative accelerations are calculated with two different Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs). One SED is composed of an accretion disk + [X-ray]-power law, while the other is made of an accretion disk + [Corona]-bremsstrahlung with T{sub X}=1.16×10{sup 8} K, where pre-computed conditions of adiabatic expansion are included. Quantifications of different physical mechanisms at operation are presented, showing discrepancies and similarities between both SEDs in different ranges of fundamental physical parameters (i.e., ionization parameter, density, and temperature). With the recent discovery of outflows originating at sub-parsec scales, these tables may provide a useful tool for modeling gas accretion processes onto an SMBH.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2014

Methodology for the Incorporation of Passive Component Aging Modeling into the RAVEN/ RELAP-7 Environment

Passive system, structure and components (SSCs) will degrade over their operation life and this degradation may cause to reduction in the safety margins of a nuclear power plant. In traditional probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) using the event-tree/fault-tree methodology, passive SSC failure rates are generally based on generic plant failure data and the true state of a specific plant is not reflected realistically. To address aging effects of passive SSCs in the traditional PRA methodology [1] does consider physics based models that account for the operating conditions in the plant, however, [1] does not include effects of surveillance/inspection. This paper represents an overall methodology for the incorporation of aging modeling of passive components into the RAVEN/RELAP-7 environment which provides a framework for performing dynamic PRA. Dynamic PRA allows consideration of both epistemic and aleatory uncertainties (including those associated with maintenance activities) in a consistent phenomenological and probabilistic framework and is often needed when there is complex process/hardware/software/firmware/ human interaction [2]. Dynamic PRA has gained attention recently due to difficulties in the traditional PRA modeling of aging effects of passive components using physics based models and also in the modeling of digital instrumentation and control systems. RAVEN (Reactor Analysis and Virtual control Environment) [3] is a software package under development at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) as an online control logic driver and post-processing tool. It is coupled to the plant transient code RELAP-7 (Reactor Excursion and Leak Analysis Program) also currently under development at INL [3], as well as RELAP 5 [4]. The overall methodology aims to: • Address multiple aging mechanisms involving large number of components in a computational feasible manner where sequencing of events is conditioned on the physical conditions predicted in a simulation environment such as RELAP-7. • Identify the risk-significant passive components, their failure modes and anticipated rates of degradation • Incorporate surveillance and maintenance activities and their effects into the plant state and into component aging progress. • Asses aging affects in a dynamic simulation environment 1. C. L. SMITH, V. N. SHAH, T. KAO, G. APOSTOLAKIS, “Incorporating Ageing Effects into Probabilistic Risk Assessment –A Feasibility Study Utilizing Reliability Physics Models,” NUREG/CR-5632, USNRC, (2001). 2. T. ALDEMIR, “A Survey of Dynamic Methodologies for Probabilistic Safety Assessment of Nuclear Power Plants, Annals of Nuclear Energy, 52, 113-124, (2013). 3. C. RABITI, A. ALFONSI, J. COGLIATI, D. MANDELLI and R. KINOSHITA “Reactor Analysis and Virtual Control Environment (RAVEN) FY12 Report,” INL/EXT-12-27351, (2012). 4. D. ANDERS et.al, "RELAP-7 Level 2 Milestone Report: Demonstration of a Steady State Single Phase PWR Simulation with RELAP-7," INL/EXT-12-25924, (2012).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2026

Three-Qubit Encoding in Ytterbium-171 Atoms for Simulating 1+1D Quantum Chromodynamics

Simulating nuclear matter described by quantum chromodynamics using quantum computers is notoriously inefficient because of the assortment of quark degrees of freedom such as matter/antimatter, flavor, color, and spin. Here, we propose to address this resource efficiency challenge by encoding three qubits within individual ytterbium-171 atoms of a neutral atom quantum processor. The three qubits are encoded in three distinct sectors: an electronic “clock” transition, the spin-1/2 nucleus, and the lowest two motional states in one radial direction of the harmonic trapping potential. We develop a family of composite sideband pulses and demonstrate a universal gate set and readout protocol for this three-qubit system. We then apply it to single-flavor quantum chromodynamics in 1+1D axial gauge for which the three qubits directly represent the occupancy of quarks in the three colors. We show that two atoms are sufficient to simulate both vacuum persistence oscillations and a screened hadron-number transition. We consider resource requirements and connections to error detection/correction. Our work is a step toward resource-efficient digital simulation of nuclear matter and opens new opportunities for versatile qubit encoding in neutral atom quantum processors.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

A novel approach to assess the treatment response using Gaussian random field in PET

Purpose: The assessment of early therapeutic response to anticancer therapy is vital for treatment planning and patient management in clinic. With the development of personal treatment plan, the early treatment response, especially before any anatomically apparent changes after treatment, becomes urgent need in clinic. Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging serves an important role in clinical oncology for tumor detection, staging, and therapy response assessment. Many studies on therapy response involve interpretation of differences between two PET images, usually in terms of standardized uptake values (SUVs). However, the quantitative accuracy of this measurement is limited. This work proposes a statistically robust approach for therapy response assessment based on Gaussian random field (GRF) to provide a statistically more meaningful scale to evaluate therapy effects. Methods: The authors propose a new criterion for therapeutic assessment by incorporating image noise into traditional SUV method. An analytical method based on the approximate expressions of the Fisher information matrix was applied to model the variance of individual pixels in reconstructed images. A zero mean unit variance GRF under the null hypothesis (no response to therapy) was obtained by normalizing each pixel of the post-therapy image with the mean and standard deviation of the pretherapy image. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation, where XCAT phantoms (128{sup 2} pixels) with lesions of various diameters (2–6 mm), multiple tumor-to-background contrasts (3–10), and different changes in intensity (6.25%–30%) were used. The receiver operating characteristic curves and the corresponding areas under the curve were computed for both the proposed method and the traditional methods whose figure of merit is the percentage change of SUVs. The formula for the false positive rate (FPR) estimation was developed for the proposed therapy response assessment utilizing local average method based on random field. The accuracy of the estimation was validated in terms of Euler distance and correlation coefficient. Results: It is shown that the performance of therapy response assessment is significantly improved by the introduction of variance with a higher area under the curve (97.3%) than SUVmean (91.4%) and SUVmax (82.0%). In addition, the FPR estimation serves as a good prediction for the specificity of the proposed method, consistent with simulation outcome with ∼1 correlation coefficient. Conclusions: In this work, the authors developed a method to evaluate therapy response from PET images, which were modeled as Gaussian random field. The digital phantom simulations demonstrated that the proposed method achieved a large reduction in statistical variability through incorporating knowledge of the variance of the original Gaussian random field. The proposed method has the potential to enable prediction of early treatment response and shows promise for application to clinical practice. In future work, the authors will report on the robustness of the estimation theory for application to clinical practice of therapy response evaluation, which pertains to binary discrimination tasks at a fixed location in the image such as detection of small and weak lesion.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

DOE OSTI2015

WE-G-207-04: Non-Local Total-Variation (NLTV) Combined with Reweighted L1-Norm for Compressed Sensing Based CT Reconstruction

Purpose: Compressed sensing (CS) has been used for CT (4DCT/CBCT) reconstruction with few projections to reduce dose of radiation. Total-variation (TV) in L1-minimization (min.) with local information is the prevalent technique in CS, while it can be prone to noise. To address the problem, this work proposes to apply a new image processing technique, called non-local TV (NLTV), to CS based CT reconstruction, and incorporate reweighted L1-norm into it for more precise reconstruction. Methods: TV minimizes intensity variations by considering two local neighboring voxels, which can be prone to noise, possibly damaging the reconstructed CT image. NLTV, contrarily, utilizes more global information by computing a weight function of current voxel relative to surrounding search area. In fact, it might be challenging to obtain an optimal solution due to difficulty in defining the weight function with appropriate parameters. Introducing reweighted L1-min., designed for approximation to ideal L0-min., can reduce the dependence on defining the weight function, therefore improving accuracy of the solution. This work implemented the NLTV combined with reweighted L1-min. by Split Bregman Iterative method. For evaluation, a noisy digital phantom and a pelvic CT images are employed to compare the quality of images reconstructed by TV, NLTV and reweighted NLTV. Results: In both cases, conventional and reweighted NLTV outperform TV min. in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and root-mean squared errors of the reconstructed images. Relative to conventional NLTV, NLTV with reweighted L1-norm was able to slightly improve SNR, while greatly increasing the contrast between tissues due to additional iterative reweighting process. Conclusion: NLTV min. can provide more precise compressed sensing based CT image reconstruction by incorporating the reweighted L1-norm, while maintaining greater robustness to the noise effect than TV min.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2012

Recovery Act: SeaMicro Volume Server Power Reduction Research Development

Cloud data centers are projected to be the fastest growing segment of the server market through 2015, according to IDC. Increasingly people and businesses rely on the Cloud to deliver digital content quickly and efficiently. Recovery Act funding from the Department of Energy has helped SeaMicro's technologies enhance the total cost of operation, performance and energy efficiency in large data center and Cloud environments. SeaMicro's innovative supercomputer fabric connects thousands of processor cores, memory, storage and input/output traffic. The company's fabric supports multiple processor instruction sets. Current systems featuring SeaMicro technology typically use one quarter the power and take one sixth the space of traditional servers with the same compute performance, yet deliver up to 12 times the bandwidth per core. Mozilla and eHarmony are two customers successfully using SeaMicro's technology. Numerous non-public customers have been successfully using the SeaMicro product in test and production facilities. As a result of the Recovery Act funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 50 direct jobs were created at SeaMicro. To date, they primarily have been high-value, engineering jobs. Hardware, software and manufacturing engineering positions have been created, as well as sales and sales engineering. The positions have allowed SeaMicro to significantly accelerate engineering development and accelerate commercialization. As a result, commercialization and delivery to market are months ahead of initial schedule. Additional jobs were indirectly created through the development of the SeaMicro product. Through many years of research and hard work prior to receipt of public funding, SeaMicro was awarded 2 patents for its work. SeaMicro's product led the way for industry leaders to reconsider the market for low power servers and create new product lines. With valuable support of the U.S. Department of Energy and through SeaMicro's product, the market has been reshaped by the company's unique approach and ground breaking technology.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2015

TU-A-304-00: Imaging, Treatment Planning, and QA for Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT)

Increased use of SBRT and hypo fractionation in radiation oncology practice has posted a number of challenges to medical physicist, ranging from planning, image-guided patient setup and on-treatment monitoring, to quality assurance (QA) and dose delivery. This symposium is designed to provide updated knowledge necessary for the safe and efficient implementation of SBRT in various linac platforms, including the emerging digital linacs equipped with high dose rate FFF beams. Issues related to 4D CT, PET and MRI simulations, 3D/4D CBCT guided patient setup, real-time image guidance during SBRT dose delivery using gated/un-gated VMAT or IMRT, and technical advancements in QA of SBRT (in particular, strategies dealing with high dose rate FFF beams) will be addressed. The symposium will help the attendees to gain a comprehensive understanding of the SBRT workflow and facilitate their clinical implementation of the state-of-art imaging and planning techniques. Learning Objectives: Present background knowledge of SBRT, describe essential requirements for safe implementation of SBRT, and discuss issues specific to SBRT treatment planning and QA. Update on the use of multi-dimensional (3D and 4D) and multi-modality (CT, beam-level X-ray imaging, pre- and on-treatment 3D/4D MRI, PET, robotic ultrasound, etc.) for reliable guidance of SBRT. Provide a comprehensive overview of emerging digital linacs and summarize the key geometric and dosimetric features of the new generation of linacs for substantially improved SBRT. Discuss treatment planning and quality assurance issues specific to SBRT. Research grant from Varian Medical Systems.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Demonstration of Model-Based Design for Digital Controller Using Formal Methods

This report describes work originally performed in FY19 that assembled a workflow enabling formal verification of high-consequence digital controllers. The approach builds on an engineering analysis strategy using multiple abstraction levels (Model-Based Design) and performs exhaustive formal analysis of appropriate levels – here, state machines and C code – to assure always/never properties of digital logic that cannot be verified by testing alone. The operation of the workflow is illustrated using example models and code, including expected failures of verification when properties are violated.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2025

Business Case Analysis for Artificial Intelligence-Large Language Model Technology Integration

AI-assisted processes are expected to enhance operational efficiency and improve decision-making, supporting the long-term economic viability of nuclear power plants. However, detailed business analyses of AI-generated cost savings are rarely performed. Given the recent industry interest in Large Language Model (LLM), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program has conducted a comprehensive business case analysis of LLM Artificial Intelligence (AI) implementation in nuclear plant engineering workflows. The research employed three complementary business case approaches to evaluate impact of an LLM, using three representative engineering processes as use-cases: Boric Acid Corrosion (BAC) Evaluations, Maintenance Rule Evaluations, and 10 CFR 50.59 Screenings. Through detailed workload analyses and structured interviews, the study quantified significant efficiency improvements ranging from 11% to 59% across these processes. The research further considers how these efficiency gains could translate into tangible reliability improvements through enhanced engineering capacity. Analysis of historical plant trip data indicates that enabling engineers to focus on proactive reliability activities could provide substantial financial benefits through avoided outages, potentially generating greater value than the direct efficiency improvements alone. By documenting successful applications, implementation challenges, and strategic opportunities, this research provides nuclear utilities with a practical framework for evaluating the value of AI technology to support long-term operations through advanced digital technologies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2021

First Digit Oscillations

The frequency of the first digits of numbers drawn from an exponential probability density oscillate around the Benford frequencies. Analysis, simulations and empirical evidence show that datasets must have at least 10,000 entries for these oscillations to emerge from finite-sample noise. Anecdotal evidence from population data is provided.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2017

Analysis of, and defense against, spurious actuations and other incorrect behaviors of digital control systems - 390

Modern digital instrumentation and control (I and C) systems offer nearly unlimited functional capability. However, the complexity of their design (including their system software and application software) is significantly higher than that of conventional, hardwired systems, to the point that it is generally impossible to demonstrate that there are no residual design errors, even when the best development and verification techniques have been applied. When activated by specific conditions, design errors could result in systematic failures, i.e., failures that occur deterministically each time and wherever an activating condition is present. Redundancy could be defeated when the same design error affects multiple channels or systems, and the activating condition affects several of these channels or systems. In the case of safety I and C systems, most of the functions are poised protection functions that must be actuated when and only when a demand situation occurs in the plant. In nuclear power plants, the most dangerous failure mode for such functions generally is failure to actuate, and many measures are taken to protect from such failure mode. This paper considers the other failure modes of safety I and C functions, and also the failure modes of the other I and C functions that are less important to safety. It is not limited to poised functions, and considers other types of functions such as regulation functions or human interface functions. It proposes a framework for analyzing and providing defense against spurious actuations and other incorrect behaviors from digital I and C systems directly interacting with the plant process or with operators: these might be useful for example to justify that design bases for reactor protection are adequate, or to ensure plant performance and availability. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Image Registration of Cone-Beam Computer Tomography and Preprocedural Computer Tomography Aids in Localization of Adrenal Veins and Decreasing Radiation Dose in Adrenal Vein Sampling

PurposeWe assessed whether image registration of cone-beam computed tomography (CT) (CBCT) and contrast-enhanced CT (CE-CT) images indicating the locations of the adrenal veins can aid in increasing the success rate of first-attempts adrenal vein sampling (AVS) and therefore decreasing patient radiation dose.Materials and Methods CBCT scans were acquired in the interventional suite (Philips Allura Xper FD20) and rigidly registered to the vertebra in previously acquired CE-CT. Adrenal vein locations were marked on the CT image and superimposed with live fluoroscopy and digital-subtraction angiography (DSA) to guide the AVS. Seventeen first attempts at AVS were performed with image registration and retrospectively compared with 15 first attempts without image registration performed earlier by the same 2 interventional radiologists. First-attempt AVS was considered successful when both adrenal vein samples showed representative cortisol levels. Sampling time, dose-area product (DAP), number of DSA runs, fluoroscopy time, and skin dose were recorded.ResultsWithout image registration, the first attempt at sampling was successful in 8 of 15 procedures indicating a success rate of 53.3 %. This increased to 76.5 % (13 of 17) by adding CBCT and CE-CT image registration to AVS procedures (p = 0.266). DAP values (p = 0.001) and DSA runs (p = 0.026) decreased significantly by adding image registration guidance. Sampling and fluoroscopy times and skin dose showed no significant changes.ConclusionGuidance based on registration of CBCT and previously acquired diagnostic CE-CT can aid in enhancing localization of the adrenal veins thereby increasing the success rate of first-attempt AVS with a significant decrease in the number of used DSA runs and, consequently, radiation dose required.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

DOE OSTI2017

FDTD modeling of induced polarization phenomena in transient electromagnetics

The finite-difference time-domain scheme is augmented in order to treat the modelling of transient electromagnetic signals containing induced polarization effects from 3-D distributions of polarizable media. Compared to the non-dispersive problem, the discrete dispersive Maxwell system contains costly convolution operators. Key components to our solution for highly digitized model meshes are Debye decomposition and composite memory variables. We revert to the popular Cole-Cole model of dispersion to describe the frequency-dependent behaviour of electrical conductivity. Its inversely Laplace-transformed Debye decomposition results in a series of time convolutions between electric field and exponential decay functions, with the latter reflecting each Debye constituents' individual relaxation time. Finally, these function types in the discrete-time convolution allow for their substitution by memory variables, annihilating the otherwise prohibitive computing demands. Numerical examples demonstrate the efficiency and practicality of our algorithm.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

A machine learning approach to determine the elastic properties of printed fiber-reinforced polymers

This work focuses on the simultaneous determination of the elastic constants and the fiber orientation state for a short fiber-reinforced polymer composite by performing a minimum of experimental tests. Here we introduce a methodology that enables the inverse determination of fiber orientation state and the in-situ polymer properties by performing tensile tests at the composite coupon level. We demonstrate the approach for the extrusion deposition additive manufacturing (EDAM) process to illustrate one application of the methodology, but the development is such that it can be applied to short fiber-reinforced polymer (SFRP) systems processed via other methods. Currently, developing composites additive manufacturing digital twins require extensive material characterization. In particular, the mechanical characterization of the orthotropic elastic properties of a composite involves extensive sample preparation and testing, therefore the elasticity tensor is generally populated using a micromechanics model. This, however, requires measuring the fiber orientation state in addition to knowing the constituent material properties. Experimentally measuring the fiber orientation state can be tedious and time consuming. Further, optical methods are limited to resolving the orientation of cylindrical fibers or cluster of non-cylindrical fibers, and computed tomography (CT) methods scan regions of volume that are much smaller than a full printed bead. Therefore, we propose a methodology, accelerated by machine learning, to identify the anisotropic mechanical properties and fiber orientation state at the same time. Early results show that inference of the fiber orientation and composite properties is possible with as few as three tensile tests. Our results show that a combination of the choice of the micromechanics model and reliable set of experiments can yield the nine elastic constants, as well as, the fiber orientation state.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2014

TU-A-18C-01: ACR Accreditation Updates in CT, Ultrasound, Mammography and MRI

A goal of an imaging accreditation program is to ensure adequate image quality, verify appropriate staff qualifications, and to assure patient and personnel safety. Currently, more than 35,000 facilities in 10 modalities have been accredited by the American College of Radiology (ACR), making the ACR program one of the most prolific accreditation options in the U.S. In addition, the ACR is one of the accepted accreditations required by some state laws, CMS/MIPPA insurance and others. Familiarity with the ACR accreditation process is therefore essential to clinical diagnostic medical physicists. Maintaining sufficient knowledge of the ACR program must include keeping up-to-date as the various modality requirements are refined to better serve the goals of the program and to accommodate newer technologies and practices. This session consists of presentations from authorities in four ACR accreditation modality programs, including magnetic resonance imaging, mammography, ultrasound, and computed tomography. Each speaker will discuss the general components of the modality program and address any recent changes to the requirements. Learning Objectives: To understand the requirements of the ACR MR accreditation program. The discussion will include accreditation of whole-body general purpose magnets, dedicated extremity systems well as breast MRI accreditation. Anticipated updates to the ACR MRI Quality Control Manual will also be reviewed. To understand the current ACR MAP Accreditation requirement and present the concepts and structure of the forthcoming ACR Digital Mammography QC Manual and Program. To understand the new requirements of the ACR ultrasound accreditation program, and roles the physicist can play in annual equipment surveys and setting up and supervising the routine QC program. To understand the requirements of the ACR CT accreditation program, including updates to the QC manual as well as updates through the FAQ process.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2015

TU-A-304-01: Introduction and Workflow of Image-Guided SBRT

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2016

Filtered-backprojection reconstruction for a cone-beam computed tomography scanner with independent source and detector rotations

Purpose: A new cone-beam CT scanner for image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) can independently rotate the source and the detector along circular trajectories. Existing reconstruction algorithms are not suitable for this scanning geometry. The authors propose and evaluate a three-dimensional (3D) filtered-backprojection reconstruction for this situation. Methods: The source and the detector trajectories are tuned to image a field-of-view (FOV) that is offset with respect to the center-of-rotation. The new reconstruction formula is derived from the Feldkamp algorithm and results in a similar three-step algorithm: projection weighting, ramp filtering, and weighted backprojection. Simulations of a Shepp Logan digital phantom were used to evaluate the new algorithm with a 10 cm-offset FOV. A real cone-beam CT image with an 8.5 cm-offset FOV was also obtained from projections of an anthropomorphic head phantom. Results: The quality of the cone-beam CT images reconstructed using the new algorithm was similar to those using the Feldkamp algorithm which is used in conventional cone-beam CT. The real image of the head phantom exhibited comparable image quality to that of existing systems. Conclusions: The authors have proposed a 3D filtered-backprojection reconstruction for scanners with independent source and detector rotations that is practical and effective. This algorithm forms the basis for exploiting the scanner’s unique capabilities in IGRT protocols.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2012

Cyber Security Audit and Attack Detection Toolkit

This goal of this project was to develop cyber security audit and attack detection tools for industrial control systems (ICS). Digital Bond developed and released a tool named Bandolier that audits ICS components commonly used in the energy sector against an optimal security configuration. The Portaledge Project developed a capability for the PI Historian, the most widely used Historian in the energy sector, to aggregate security events and detect cyber attacks.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗