Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Model Counting”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,621 records · Page 90

Chemical Quantification of Atomic-Scale EDS Maps under Thin Specimen Conditions

We report our effort to quantify atomic-scale chemical maps obtained by collecting energy-dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS) using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) (STEM-EDS). Under a thin specimen condition and when the EDS scattering potential is localized, the X-ray counts from atomic columns can be properly counted by fitting Gaussian peaks at the atomic columns, and can then be used for site-by-site chemical quantification. The effects of specimen thickness and X-ray energy on the Gaussian peak-width are investigated by using SrTiO 3 (STO) as a model specimen. The relationship between the peak-width and spatial-resolution of an EDS map is also studied. Furthermore, the method developed by this work is applied to study a Sm-doped STO thin film and antiphase boundaries present within the STO film. We find that Sm atoms occupy both Sr and Ti sites but preferably the Sr sites, and Sm atoms are relatively depleted at the antiphase boundaries likely due to the effect of strain.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Effect of defocusing on picosecond laser-coupling into gold cones

Here, we show that defocusing of the laser in the interaction of a picosecond duration, 1.053 μm wavelength, high energy pulse with a cone-wire target does not significantly affect the laser energy coupling efficiency, but does result in a drop in the fast electron effective temperature. This may be beneficial for fast ignition, since not only were more electrons with lower energies seen in the experiment but also the lower prepulse intensity will reduce the amount of preplasma present on arrival of the main pulse, reducing the distance the hot electrons have to travel. We used the Vulcan Petawatt Laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and gold cone targets with approximately 1 mm long, 40 μm diameter copper wires attached to their tip. Diagnostics included a quartz crystal imager, a pair of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite crystal spectrometers and a calibrated CCD operating in the single photon counting regime, all of which looked at the copper K{sub α} emission from the wire. A short pulse optical probe, delayed 400 ps relative to the main pulse was employed to diagnose the extent of plasma expansion around the wire. A ray-tracing code modeled the change in intensity on the interior surface of the cone with laser defocusing. Using a model for the wire copper K{sub α} emission coupled to a hybrid Vlasov-Fokker-Planck code, we ran a series of simulations, holding the total energy in electrons constant whilst varying the electron temperature, which support the experimental conclusions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

SUZAKU VIEW OF X-RAY SPECTRAL VARIABILITY OF THE RADIO GALAXY CENTAURUS A: PARTIAL COVERING ABSORBER, REFLECTOR, AND POSSIBLE JET COMPONENT

We observed a nearby radio galaxy, Centaurus A (Cen A), three times with Suzaku in 2009 and measured the wide-band X-ray spectral variability more accurately than previous measurements. The Cen A was in an active phase in 2009, and the flux became higher by a factor of 1.5-2.0 and the spectrum became harder than that in 2005. The Fe-K line intensity increased by 20%-30% from 2005 to 2009. The correlation of the count rate between the XIS 3-8 keV and PIN 15-40 keV band showed a complex behavior with a deviation from a linear relation. The wide-band X-ray continuum in 2-200 keV can be fitted with an absorbed power-law model plus a reflection component, or a power law with a partial covering Compton-thick absorption. The difference spectra between high and low flux periods in each observation were reproduced by a power law with a partial covering Compton-thick absorption. Such a Compton-thick partial covering absorber was observed for the first time in Cen A. The power-law photon index of the difference spectra in 2009 is almost the same as that of the time-averaged spectra in 2005, but steeper by {approx}0.2 than that of the time-averaged spectra in 2009. This suggests an additional hard power-law component with a photon index of <1.6 in 2009. This hard component could be a lower part of the inverse-Compton-scattered component from the jet, whose gamma-ray emission has recently been detected with the Fermi Large Area Telescope.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Impact of property covariance on cluster weak lensing scaling relations

ABSTRACT We present an investigation into a hitherto unexplored systematic that affects the accuracy of galaxy cluster mass estimates with weak gravitational lensing. Specifically, we study the covariance between the weak lensing signal, ΔΣ, and the ‘true’ cluster galaxy number count, Ngal, as measured within a spherical volume that is void of projection effects. By quantifying the impact of this covariance on mass calibration, this work reveals a significant source of systematic uncertainty. Using the MDPL2 simulation with galaxies traced by the SAGE semi-analytic model, we measure the intrinsic property covariance between these observables within the three-dimensional vicinity of the cluster, spanning a range of dynamical mass and redshift values relevant for optical cluster surveys. Our results reveal a negative covariance at small radial scales (R ≲ R200c) and a null covariance at large scales (R ≳ R200c) across most mass and redshift bins. We also find that this covariance results in a $2{\!-\!}3~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ bias in the halo mass estimates in most bins. Furthermore, by modelling Ngal and ΔΣ as multi-(log)-linear equations of secondary halo properties, we provide a quantitative explanation for the physical origin of the negative covariance at small scales. Specifically, we demonstrate that the Ngal–ΔΣ covariance can be explained by the secondary properties of haloes that probe their formation history. We attribute the difference between our results and the positive bias seen in other works with (mock)-cluster finders to projection effects. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for the covariance between observables in cluster mass estimation, which is crucial for obtaining accurate constraints on cosmological parameters.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

The effect of selection – a tale of cluster mass measurement bias induced by correlation and projection

ABSTRACT Cosmology analyses using galaxy clusters by the Dark Energy Survey have recently uncovered an issue of a previously unknown selection effect affecting weak-lensing mass estimates. In this letter, we use the Illustris-TNG simulation to demonstrate that selecting on galaxy counts induces a selection effect because of projection and correlation between different observables. We compute the weak-lensing-like projected mass estimations of dark matter haloes and examine their projected subhalo counts. In the two-dimensional (2D) projected space, haloes that are measured as more massive than truth have higher subhalo counts. Thus, projection along the line of sight creates cluster observables that are correlated with cluster mass measurement deviations, which in turn creates a mass measurement bias when the clusters are selected by this correlated observable. We demonstrate that the bias is predicted in a forward model using the observable-mass measurement correlation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Evaluation of internal contamination levels after a radiological dispersal device incident using portal monitors

Following a radioactive dispersal device (RDD) incident, it may be necessary to evaluate the internal contamination levels of a large number of potentially affected individuals to determine if immediate medical follow-up is necessary. Since the current laboratory capacity to screen for internal contamination is limited, rapid field screening methods can be useful in prioritizing individuals. This study evaluated the suitability of a radiation portal monitor for such screening. A model of the portal monitor was created for use with models of six anthropomorphic phantoms in Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code Version 5 (MCNP) X-5 Monte Carlo Team (MCNP A General Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code Version 5. LA-CP-03-0245. Vol. 2. Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2004.). The count rates of the portal monitor were simulated for inhalation and ingestion of likely radionuclides from an RDD for each of the phantoms. The time-dependant organ concentrations of the radionuclides were determined using Dose and Risk Calculation Software Eckerman, Leggett, Cristy, Nelson, Ryman, Sjoreen and Ward (Dose and Risk Calculation Software Ver. 8.4. ORNL/TM-2001/190. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2006.). Portal monitor count rates corresponding to a committed effective dose E(50) of 10 mSv are reported.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

Some Considerations for Chelation Treatment and Surgical Excision Following Incorporation of Plutonium in Wounds

After a plutonium-contaminated wound, the role of an internal dosimetrist is to inform the patient and the physician of the dosimetric considerations. The doses averted due to medical treatments (excision or chelation) are higher if the treatments are administered early; therefore, the internal dosimetrist needs to rely on limited information on wound counts and process knowledge for advising the physician. For this study, several wound cases in the literature were reviewed to obtain estimates of the efficacies of surgical excision and chelation treatment after plutonium-contaminated wounds. The dose coefficients calculated by coupling the NCRP 156 wound model with the systemic model were used to derive the decision guidelines that may indicate medical treatment based on 1) the concept of saved doses proposed by the NCRP 156 wound model, 2) the limits recommended by the CEC/DOE guidebook, and 3) the Clinical Decision Guidelines proposed in NCRP Report No. 161. These guidelines by themselves, however, are of limited use for several reasons, including 1) large uncertainties associated with wound measurements, 2) exposure to forms of radionuclides that cannot be assigned to a single category in the NCRP 156 framework, 3) inability of the NCRP 156 model to explain some of the wound cases in the literature, 4) neglect of the local doses to the wound site and the pathophysiological response of the tissue, 5) poorly understood relationship between effective doses and risks of late health effects, and 6) disregard of the psychological aspects of radionuclide intake.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

The enigmatic Galactic Center excess: Spurious point sources and signal mismodeling

The Galactic Center GeV excess (GCE) has garnered great interest as a possible signal of either dark matter annihilation or some novel astrophysical phenomenon, such as a new population of gamma-ray emitting pulsars. In a companion paper, we showed that in a 10° radius region of interest (ROI) surrounding the Galactic Center, apparent evidence for GCE point sources (PSs) from non-Poissonian template fitting (NPTF) is actually an artifact of unmodeled north-south asymmetry of the GCE. In this work, we develop a simplified analytic description of how signal mismodeling can drive an apparent preference for a PS population, and demonstrate how the behavior pointed out in the companion paper also appears in simpler simulated datasets that contain no PS signals at all. We explore the generality of this behavior in the real gamma-ray data, and discuss the implications for past and future studies using NPTF techniques. While the drop in PS preference once north-south asymmetry is included is not ubiquitous in larger ROIs, we show that any overly-rigid signal model is expected to yield a spurious PS signal that can appear very convincing: as well as apparent significance comparable to what one would expect from a true PS population, the signal can exhibit stability against a range of variations in the analysis, and a source count function that is very consistent with previous apparent NPTF-based detections of a GCE PS population. This contrasts with previously studied forms of systematic mismodeling which are unlikely to mimic a PS population in the same way. Finally, in the light of this observation, and its explicit realization in the region where the GCE is brightest, we argue that a dominantly smooth origin for the GCE is not in tension with existing NPTF analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Constraints on f ( R ) gravity from thermal-Sunyaev-Zel’dovich-effect-selected SPT galaxy clusters and weak lensing mass calibration from DES and HST

We present constraints on the f ( R ) gravity model using a sample of 1005 galaxy clusters in the redshift range 0.25–1.78 that have been selected through the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect from South Pole Telescope data and subjected to optical and near-infrared confirmation with the multicomponent matched filter algorithm. We employ weak gravitational lensing mass calibration from the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data for 688 clusters at z < 0.95 and from the Hubble Space Telescope for 39 clusters with 0.6 < z < 1.7 . Our cluster sample is a powerful probe of f ( R ) gravity, because this model predicts a scale-dependent enhancement in the growth of structure, which impacts the halo mass function (HMF) at cluster mass scales. To account for these modified gravity effects on the HMF, our analysis employs a semianalytical approach calibrated with numerical simulations. Combining calibrated cluster counts with primary cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization anisotropy measurements from the Planck 2018 release, we derive robust constraints on the f ( R ) parameter f R 0 . Our results, log 10 | f R 0 | < − 5.32 at the 95% credible level, are the tightest current constraints on f ( R ) gravity from cosmological scales. This upper limit rules out f ( R ) -like deviations from general relativity that result in more than a ∼ 20 % enhancement of the cluster population on mass scales M 200 c > 3 × 10 14 M ⊙ . Published by the American Physical Society 2025

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Scalability Analysis of Quantum Models for Stress and Emotion Detection

Stress and emotion detection from high-dimensional physiological signals is a challenging task, particularly when aiming for accurate classification across diverse behavioral states. Quantum machine learning (QML) is promising for modeling such high-dimensional data, but scalability is limited by qubit resources and the exponential cost of classical statevector simulation. This work studies the scalability of quantum support vector machines (QSVMs) for binary stress detection and three-class emotion recognition (Negative/Neutral/Positive) under varying qubit counts and angle-encoding strategies. We also present a comparison study with one-feature-per-qubit (1:1) and two-features-per-qubit (2:1) mappings. Experiments are executed on HPC infrastructure using NVIDIA CUDA-Q to evaluate performance, variance, and class-dependent separability at higher-qubit setups. Results show that larger Hilbert spaces can improve peak accuracy but may increase instability. At the same time, dense 2:1 encoding yields more consistent stress detection performance. For emotion recognition, scaling improves discrimination for classes like Negative and Positive more than Neutral. We find that effective QML scaling is task-dependent and benefits more from encoding design than simply increasing qubit count.

Onim, Md. Saif Hassan [University of Tennessee, Kn↗

Signal-to-noise ratios in IUE SWP-LO spectra of chromospheric emission-line sources

The short-wavelength-prime (SWP) detector of the International Ultraviolet Explorer should operate near the photon-counting limit, but the noise levels in flat-field images are several times higher. The exaggerated noise can be traced to the incomplete removal of the pixel-to-pixel granularity of the television frames by the prevailing spectral image processing system. An empirical noise model for the current-epoch photometric linearization strategy and one for a hypothetical processing system that achieves complete flat fielding of the raw images are derived. A formula is then proposed to predict the signal-to-noise ratio in the measured flux of an emission line (possibly superimposed on a smooth continuum) in an IUE low-dispersion (5 A resolution) far-ultraviolet (1150 A-1950 A) spectrum as recorded with the SWP camera. For illustration, the formula is specialized to the important C IV 1549 A feature of F-K stars. The S/N relation permits one to determine sensitivity limits, upper limits in faint exposures, and optimum exposure times.

Ayres, Thomas R.↗

Increasing Density and Reducing Costs of Data Acquisition

There are a number of reasons why it is important to increase the density of data acquisition functions. Sensor fusion seeks to integrate large numbers of sensors into a decision network. Addition of health monitoring functions may incur additional sensor requirements. But at the same time, it is important to reduce the per-channel costs of data acquisition systems. Often the most significant cost is the management of data acquisition networks, which incurs substantial costs associated with transducer installation, configuration, calibration, and maintenance. Alternatives that lower the cost of the transducer system and reduce the data acquisition system channel count will directly impact initial system costs. Other techniques that affect maintenance and operating costs will contribute to reducing life cycle costs. This paper describes work undertaken to explore alternative architectures for lowering the cost per transducer function using a MEMS-based accelerometer as the model.

Schmalzel, J. L.↗

Fundamentals of Free-Space Optical Communications

Free-space optical communication systems potentially gain many dBs over RF systems. There is no upper limit on the theoretically achievable photon efficiency when the system is quantum-noise-limited: a) Intensity modulations plus photon counting can achieve arbitrarily high photon efficiency, but with sub-optimal spectral efficiency. b) Quantum-ideal number states can achieve the ultimate capacity in the limit of perfect transmissivity. Appropriate error correction codes are needed to communicate reliably near the capacity limits. Poisson-modeled noises, detector losses, and atmospheric effects must all be accounted for: a) Theoretical models are used to analyze performance degradations. b) Mitigation strategies derived from this analysis are applied to minimize these degradations.

deep space communications↗

Phase transition energetics-based mass loss modeling of chondritic Near Earth Objects

Mitigating potentially hazardous asteroids relies on accurate knowledge of their composition and critical physical characteristics such as shape and mass. Ground-based observatories and sample return missions in recent years have focused on such characterization to track Near Earth Objects. Historically, entry speeds of asteroids or mass change due to break-up/airburst have been considered in risk assessment studies as critical parameters. To this effect, most hydrocode simulations that consider energy deposition techniques rely on gross meteor modeling with simplistic spherical shapes while neglecting heat of ablation considerations. This is the general approach for fragment-cloud, pancake and hybrid fragmentation models. Alternatively, aerothermal fragmentation modeling that accounts for meteoritic shape change have typically focused on environmental modeling to understand break-up points primarily due to radiative heating. A physics-based risk assessment could benefit by modeling the environment and material response of typical meteoroidal materials as precursors to fragmentation. A greater focus on the material response to applied environmental heating will be emphasized here. This work presents a forward analysis of thermal and material response of stony meteorites by ac-counting for mass loss and shape change effects through a boundary layer formalism. This allows for simulations starting from simplistic shapes that could eventually lead to alterations in contours due to ablation. These effects would be characterized through phase transitions of the surface, such as melting and vaporization, in response to aerodynamic heating. Coupled ablation and radiative heating effects have been found to lead to reduced heat transfer coefficients in the computation of meteor mass loss rates. This has the potential to increase ground damage footprints for hazardous impacts. The effort here quantifies the heat transfer coefficient by accounting for ablation assisted by phase transition. The melt and vaporization mediated ablation of chondritic meteors provides essential recession estimates based upon surface environments. The altered mass due to such phenomena would be presented for a H-chondrite meteoritic sample.

Pratibha Raghunandan↗

On The Ultimate Fate of Interplanetary Dust

Interplanetary dust is interesting both from a physical point of view and from the awareness that the population poses a substantial collision risk to manned and unmanned spacecraft alike. Insight into the time evolution of the population gives important insights into solar system formation and, we argue, will offer clues as to the behavior of solar cycles predating modern ways of viewing the sun (e.g., sun spot counting, magnetograms, etc.). In addition, knowing how the dust population moves under the variety of forces each grain experiences will inform and better prepare manned and robotic spacecraft missions to mitigate the risk posed by dust. With these aims in mind, we developed a simple dynamical model for dust motion based on the work of Czechowski and Mann [1]. A byproduct of that development is a clear analytic model that demonstrates how the interplay of the Poynting-Robertson and Lorenz perturbation forces on the Keplerian motion of charged dust grains around the Sun can result in dust populations that move inward, outward, or remain confined in annular rings about the Sun. The timing of any of these behaviors is strongly dependent on the physical properties of the grain (mass, charge and reflectivity) and the evolution of the Sun’s dipole field.

Force models↗

Estimating a Service-Life Distribution Based on Production Counts and a Failure Database

A manufacturer wanted to compare the service-life distributions of two similar products. These concern product lifetimes after installation (not manufacture). For each product, there were available production counts and an imperfect database providing information on failing units. In the real case, these units were expensive repairable units warrantied against repairs. Failure (of interest here) was relatively rare and driven by a different mode/mechanism than ordinary repair events (not of interest here). Approach: Data models for the service life based on a standard parametric lifetime distribution and a related limited failure population were developed. These models were used to develop expressions for the likelihood of the available data that properly accounts for information missing in the failure database. Results: A Bayesian approach was employed to obtain estimates of model parameters (with associated uncertainty) in order to investigate characteristics of the service-life distribution. Custom software was developed and is included as Supplemental Material to this case study. One part of a responsible approach to the original case was a simulation experiment used to validate the correctness of the software and the behavior of the statistical methodology before using its results in the application, and an example of such an experiment is included here. Because of confidentiality issues that prevent use of the original data, simulated data with characteristics like the manufacturer’s proprietary data are used to illustrate some aspects of our real analyses. Lastly, we also note that, although this case focuses on rare and complete product failure, the statistical methodology provided is directly applicable to more standard warranty data problems involving typically much larger warranty databases where entries are warranty claims (often for repairs) rather than reports of complete failures.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Analysis of Texture Using the Fractal Model

Properties such as the fractal dimension (FD) can be used for feature extraction and classification of regions within an image. The FD measures the degree of roughness of a surface, so this number is used to characterize a particular region, in order to differentiate it from another. There are two basic approaches discussed in the literature to measure FD: the blanket method, and the box counting method. Both attempt to measure FD by estimating the change in surface area with respect to the change in resolution. We tested both methods but box counting resulted computationally faster and gave better results. Differential Box Counting (DBC) was used to segment a collage containing three textures. The FD is independent of directionality and brightness so five features were used derived from the original image to account for directionality and gray level biases. FD can not be measured on a point, so we use a window that slides across the image giving values of FD to the pixel on the center of the window. Windowing blurs the boundaries of adjacent classes, so an edge-preserving, feature-smoothing algorithm is used to improve classification within segments and to make the boundaries sharper. Segmentation using DBC was 90.8910 accurate.

Navas, William↗

Applying Modern Analytical Techniques to the Apollo Samples: A Potential Model for Future Sample Return Missions

From 1969-1972 the Apollo missions collected 382 kg of lunar samples from six distinct locations on the Moon. Studies of the Apollo sample suite have shaped our understanding of the formation and early evolution of the Earth-Moon system, and have had important implications for studies of the other terrestrial planets (e.g., through the calibration of the crater counting record). Despite nearly 50 years of research on Apollo samples, scientists are still developing new theories about the origin and evolution of the Moon. In order to resolve these questions, scientists need access to new lunar samples, particularly new plutonic samples. Although no new large plutonic samples (i.e., hand-samples) remain to be discovered in the Apollo sample collection, there are many large polymict breccias in the Apollo collection containing relatively large (1 cm or larger) previously identified plutonic clasts, as well as a large number of unclassified lithic clasts. In addition, new, previously unidentified plutonic clasts are potentially discoverable within these breccias. The question becomes how to non-destructively locate and identify new lithic clasts of interest while minimizing the contamination and physical degradation of the samples.

Zeigler, Ryan A.↗