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At least 289 records · Page 16

Multi-element flow-driven spectral chaos (ME-FSC) method for uncertainty quantification of dynamical systems

The flow-driven spectral chaos (FSC) is a recently developed method for tracking and quantifying uncertainties in the long-time response of stochastic dynamical systems using the spectral approach. The method uses a novel concept called enriched stochastic flow maps as a means to construct an evolving finite-dimensional random function space that is both accurate and computationally efficient in time. In this paper, we present a multi-element version of the FSC method (the ME-FSC method for short) to tackle (mainly) those dynamical systems that are inherently discontinuous over the probability space. In ME-FSC, the random domain is partitioned into several elements, and then the problem is solved separately on each random element using the FSC method. Subsequently, results are aggregated to compute the probability moments of interest using the law of total probability. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the ME-FSC method in dealing with discontinuities and long-time integration of stochastic dynamical systems, four representative numerical examples are presented in this paper, including the Van-der-Pol oscillator problem and the Kraichnan-Orszag three-mode problem. Results show that the ME-FSC method is capable of solving problems that have strong nonlinear dependencies over the probability space, both reliably and at low computational cost.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Effects of surface runoff and infiltration partition methods on hydrological modeling: A comparison of four schemes in two watersheds in the Northeastern US

The ratio according to which the precipitation/snowmelt is divided into surface and subsurface water is of primary importance to watershed scale hydrological modeling. The present study compared four different surface runoff and infiltration partition methods in the Richards-equation-based SWAT model (RSWAT), i.e., daily curve number method (DC-RSWAT), hourly curve number method (HC-RSWAT), Green-Ampt method (GA-RSWAT), and effective infiltration capacity method (EIC-RSWAT). These four versions of RSWAT and a daily-curve-number-based SWAT (DC-SWAT) were used to simulate daily flow rate (from 2001 to 2015) at the outlets of the Tuckahoe Creek Watershed (TCW) and Greensboro Watershed (GW) of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Parameter sensitivity analysis, calibration, and prediction uncertainty analysis were conducted. The results indicate that surface runoff and infiltration partition methods have pronounced impacts on model performance. Comparative analysis showed that DC-RSWAT outperformed other versions of RSWAT for both calibration (from 2001 to2007) and validation (from 2008 to 2015) periods in the two test watersheds. In general, DC-RSWAT achieved more accurate deterministic flow simulation and reliable uncertainty estimation than other versions. As such, daily-curve-number method is recommended for surface runoff and infiltration partition in RSWAT for simulating stream flow.

hydrology, modeling, streamflow↗

Development of a rapid viability RT-PCR (RV-RT-PCR) method to detect infectious SARS-CoV-2 from swabs

Since the rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, its causative virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to spread and increase the number of fatalities. To expedite studies on understanding potential surface transmission of the virus and to aid environmental epidemiological investigations, here we developed a rapid viability reverse transcriptase PCR (RV-RT-PCR) method that detects viable (infectious) SARS-CoV-2 from swab samples in <1 day compared to several days required by current gold-standard cell-culture-based methods. The method integrates cell-culture-based viral enrichment in a 96-well plate format with gene-specific RT-PCR-based analysis before and after sample incubation to determine the cycle threshold (C T ) difference (ΔC T ). An algorithm based on ΔC T ≥ 6 representing ~ 2-log or more increase in SARS-CoV-2 RNA following enrichment determines the presence of infectious virus. The RV-RT-PCR method with 2-hr viral infection and 9-hr post-infection incubation periods includes ultrafiltration to concentrate virions, resulting in detection of <50 SARS-CoV-2 virions in swab samples in 17 h (for a batch of 12 swabs), compared to days typically required by the cell-culture-based method. The SARS-CoV-2 RV-RT-PCR method may also be useful in clinical sample analysis and antiviral drug testing, and could serve as a model for developing rapid methods for other viruses of concern.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

A Poisson equation method for prescribing fully developed non-Newtonian inlet conditions for computational fluid dynamics simulations in models of arbitrary cross-section

Prescribing inlet boundary conditions for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of internal flow in complex geometries such as anatomical vascular models is challenging. In the absence of patient-specific inlet velocity data, a common approach for long blood vessels is to assume that the inlet flow is fully developed. In vessels of irregular cross section, however, prescribing fully developed conditions is complicated due to the lack of a general closed-form analytical solution. In this study, we develop a simple Poisson equation method for prescribing fully developed inlet conditions for the flow of either Newtonian or non-Newtonian fluids in CFD models of arbitrary cross-section. We first derive the generalized Poisson equation for fully developed flow of a non-Newtonian fluid and we then develop and verify a methodology for numerically computing the solution on any planar boundary domain. In addition, we develop a simple extension of the method for prescribing a non-orthogonal inlet velocity that represents fully developed flow from an upstream tube that is connected to the CFD inlet at a non-orthogonal angle. This may be used to investigate a common source of uncertainty in CFD simulations of internal flow that is due to a lack of information concerning the exact streamwise flow direction at the inlets. Comparison to several Newtonian and non-Newtonian benchmark verification solutions shows the method to be extremely accurate. As a practical demonstration case, we use the method to prescribe fully developed conditions on multiple non-circular inlets for the non-Newtonian flow of blood in a patient-specific model of the inferior vena cava (IVC). Finally, we further demonstrate the utility of the method by performing a sensitivity study using the patient-specific IVC model, wherein we investigate the influence of inlet velocity flow direction on the non-Newtonian IVC hemodynamics. Given its simplicity and computational efficiency, the method is shown to be far superior to alternative approaches for prescribing fully developed inlet conditions in such complicated geometries. In conclusion, to facilitate the adoption of our Poisson equation method, we have distributed our OpenFOAM source code and the associated test cases from this study as open-source software.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Development of a high-throughput method for processing sponge-stick samples to detect viable Bacillus anthracis spores

Since the national validation of the sponge-stick based method for detection of Bacillus anthracis spores in environmental samples, there have not been focused efforts to address the low throughput nature of the method, which processes only one sample at one time. Sample processing remains a serious bottleneck for rapidly analyzing large numbers of samples expected from a biological warfare attack. Therefore, we developed a high-throughput method to simultaneously process multiple sponge-stick samples to be better prepared for rapid response and recovery after wide area anthrax incidents. In this method, sponges are placed in 50 mL tubes containing 25 mL extraction buffer and shaken to release spores, after which the suspension is recovered for analysis. Here, we determined that an additional extraction step, conducted in the same tubes with 10 mL buffer, further increased spore recovery from sponge-stick by approximately 10 %. We determined that orbital shaking and multi-tube vortexing were both more effective than reciprocating shaking for recovering spores. We conducted simultaneous processing of up to 12 sponge-stick samples and demonstrated comparable spore recovery efficiencies to the traditional low-throughput stomacher-based method (approximately 60 % recovery at 10 2 -spore level and 75 % recovery at 10 4 -spore level for both methods in three replicate experiments, P > 0.05 for two-tailed t-tests for each experiment and spore level). We also demonstrated that our high-throughput method could be integrated with Rapid Viability-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RV-PCR) analysis and could detect levels as low as 40 spores per sponge even when challenged by a PCR particulate contaminant.

Anthrax↗

Comparison of gamma-ray spectral analysis methods for thick-walled UF 6 cylinders

Three data analysis methods were compared for gamma ray spectra collected by planar and coaxial high-purity germanium detectors (HPGe) on thick-walled uranium hexafluoride cylinders. The cylinder contents range from natural to low-enriched uranium (4.95% 235 U). Each spectrum was analyzed with the traditional 185.7 keV enrichment meter method, a 185.7/1001 keV ratio method, and the Fixed Energy Response Function Analysis with Multiple Efficiency (FRAM) software that utilizes low- and high-energy gamma rays and X-rays. When results for all cylinders were compared, the enrichment meter method and the 185.7/1001 keV peak ratio method consistently provided the most accurate data for all detector types. The error on the enrichment calculations analyzed with FRAM did not meet the international target value whereas those calculated with the enrichment meter and ratio method did. Enrichments calculated by FRAM were found to skew to higher values on natural uranium and to lower values on low-enriched uranium. FRAM calculated the least-precise enrichments; replicate analyses of single cylinders resulted in 235 U values that varied by as much as 19%. FRAM does have the significant advantages in that it does not require the use of calibration cylinders, infinite thickness criteria are not necessary, and it can be applied to any HPGe detector. Finally, if calibration cylinders are available, the enrichment meter and 185.7/1001 peak ratio are the recommended methods as they are the most accurate and precise.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

252 Cf yield calibration method for nuclear material accountancy and safeguards practitioners

Californium-252 is an isotope commonly encapsulated as a physically small but strong spontaneous fission neutron source for applications in industry, academia, and research. Within the nuclear safeguards community, a well-characterized 252 Cf source is often used as an accessible alternative for plutonium in calibrations measurements, which require the absolute source strength. Current methods of source strength quantification can provide an accurate estimate, approximately 1% uncertainty under optimal conditions, but are typically costly and time consuming. An alternative method was developed to determine 252 Cf source strength using passive neutron correlation counting (PNCC). The PNCC method enables institutions and facilities to perform 252 Cf source calibration measurements in-house using detection systems that are common within the nuclear safeguards community. This novel method was previously successfully demonstrated using neutron multiplicity well counters. However, the previous evaluation utilized detection systems with high neutron detection efficiencies, greater than 60%. The purpose of the current study is to extend the previous evaluation and demonstrate the feasibility of the PNCC 252 Cf calibration method for suite of coincidence counters with lower neutron detection efficiencies, between 15% and 35%, which are more commonly encountered in the field, as well as to provide a step-by-step guide to using the method. The neutron source used in this evaluation was previously certified by the National Institutes of Science and Technology (NIST), which provides a reference for the accuracy of the PNCC method. In conclusion, the present source yield calculations demonstrate excellent agreement with a NIST calibration technique and achieve a standard uncertainty below the target 1%.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

High precision tests of QCD without scale or scheme ambiguities: The 40th anniversary of the Brodsky–Lepage–Mackenzie method

A key issue in making precise predictions in QCD is the uncertainty in setting the renormalization scale μ r and thus determining the correct values of the QCD running coupling α s (μ r ) at each order in the perturbative expansion of a QCD observable. It has often been conventional to simply set the renormalization scale to the typical scale of the process Q and vary it in the range μ r $\in$ [Q/2, 2Q] in order to estimate the theoretical error. This is the practice of Conventional Scale Setting (CSS). The resulting CSS prediction will however depend on the theorist’s choice of renormalization scheme and the resulting pQCD series will diverge factorially. It will also disagree with renormalization scale setting used in QED and electroweak theory thus precluding grand unification. A solution to the renormalization scale-setting problem is offered by the Principle of Maximum Conformality (PMC), which provides a systematic way to eliminate the renormalization scale-and-scheme dependence in perturbative calculations. The PMC method has rigorous theoretical foundations, it satisfies Renormalization Group Invariance (RGI) and preserves all self-consistency conditions derived from the renormalization group. The PMC cancels the renormalon growth, reduces to the Gell-Mann–Low scheme in the N c → 0 Abelian limit and leads to scale- and scheme-invariant results. The PMC has now been successfully applied to many high-energy processes. In this article we summarize recent developments and results in solving the renormalization scale and scheme ambiguities in perturbative QCD. In particular, we present a recently developed method the PMC ∞ and its applications, comparing the results with CSS. The method preserves the property of renormalizable SU(N)/U(1) gauge theories defined as Intrinsic Conformality (iCF). This property underlies the scale invariance of physical observables and leads to a remarkably efficient method to solve the conventional renormalization scale ambiguity at every order in pQCD. This new method reflects the underlying conformal properties displayed by pQCD at NNLO, eliminates the scheme dependence of pQCD predictions and is consistent with the general properties of the PMC. A new method to identify conformal and β-terms, which can be applied either to numerical or to theoretical calculations is also shown. We present results for the thrust and C-parameter distributions in e + e - annihilation showing errors and comparison with the CSS. We also show results for a recent innovative comparison between the CSS and the PMC ∞ applied to the thrust distribution investigating both the QCD conformal window and the QED N c → 0 limit. In order to determine the thrust distribution along the entire renormalization group flow from the highest energies to zero energy, we consider the number of flavors near the upper boundary of the conformal window. In this flavor-number regime the theory develops a perturbative infrared interacting fixed point. These results show that PMC ∞ leads to higher precision and introduces new interesting features in the PMC. In fact, this method preserves with continuity the position of the peak, showing perfect agreement with the experimental data already at NNLO. We also show a detailed comparison of the PMC ∞ with the other PMC approaches: the multi-scale-setting approach (PMCm) and the single-scale-setting approach (PMCs) by comparing their predictions for three important fully integrated quantities R e+e- , R$_Τ$ and Γ (H→$b\bar{b}$) up to the four-loop accuracy.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Harmonizing solar induced fluorescence across spatial scales, instruments, and extraction methods using proximal and airborne remote sensing: A multi-scale study in a soybean field

Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has been widely used to track vegetation photosynthesis at different scales ranging from in-situ measurements to satellite products. Airborne platforms sample SIF data at a spatial scale intermediate between in-situ and satellite, matching that of ground measurement (e.g. flux tower footprints and other field sampling), enabling us to explore causes of SIF variation and validate satellite-based SIF products. However, harmonizing SIF across sensors and platforms (correcting for systematic errors to yield a consistent, comparable SIF product) is challenging because SIF can be retrieved in different absorption windows, with different instruments and methods complicating the comparison between different observational levels (i.e., ground, airborne, satellites) and between sites equipped with different instruments with varying optical properties (spectral resolution and sampling intervals, spatial resolution). Additionally, the spatial and temporal variability of atmospheric properties can influence the retrieval of the weak SIF signal. Because of these complications, direct comparisons of airborne and ground SIF across scales are rarely attempted. Here, in this study, we combined airborne SIF data with simultaneous ‘ground truth’ data collected by stationary and mobile platforms in a soybean field in Nebraska, USA. In this effort, we tested several SIF extraction methods, including Fraunhofer Line Discrimination (FLD), improved Fraunhofer Line Discrimination (iFLD), Spectral Fitting Method (SFM), SpecFit, and a Singular Vector Decomposition (SVD) method. The SpecFit method was sensitive to the 715–740 nm water bands and removing the water bands in the fitting process yielded better agreement between the airborne and ground SIF spectra. Accurate estimation of the ground level downwelling irradiance obtained by ground measurements over a calibration target improved agreement between airborne and ground SIF retrievals at the O 2 A band, and allowed us to derive a SIF dataset with improved agreement across platforms and sampling scales. This experimental approach provided a method for generating comparable SIF signals across instruments, methods and platforms, which is critical to understanding the SIF-GPP relationship at different scales and to cross-validate the diversity of platforms used for satellite products calibration and validation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Benchmarking Concentration and Extraction Methods for Wastewater-Based Surveillance of Eight Human Respiratory Viruses: Implications for Rapid Application to Novel Pathogens

To provide early warning and support a rapid response to a novel virus through wastewater surveillance, it would be ideal to understand in advance which concentration and extraction methods are likely to be effective for dPCR-based methods, depending on virus characteristics. In this study, we spiked raw wastewater samples with eight human respiratory viruses and processed them with four methods that concentrate and/or extract nucleic acids from both liquid and solid fractions (Promega, Nanotrap, and InnovaPrep) or only the solid fraction of wastewater (Solids). Our findings provide encouraging evidence that all four methods combined with dPCR could detect an emerging virus in wastewater, although they differed in sensitivity. The pattern of recovery efficiency for adenoviruses, coronaviruses, and influenza A viruses was consistent across methods, with Promega producing higher median recovery efficiencies, while distinct patterns were observed for coxsackieviruses. We also normalized the concentration data with two endogenous fecal indicators, PMMoV and Carjivirus (formerly crAssphage). We found that normalization could reduce method-associated differences if the indicator exhibited a recovery pattern similar to that of the target virus. These findings can guide the selection of concentration and extraction methods for wastewater monitoring based on the properties of target viruses, thus enhancing pandemic preparedness.

Biological and medical sciences↗

Toward a QUBO-Based Density Matrix Electronic Structure Method

Density matrix electronic structure theory is used in many quantum chemistry methods to “alleviate” the computational cost that arises from directly using wave functions. Although density matrix based methods are computationally more efficient than wave function based methods, significant computational effort is involved. Because the Schrödinger equation needs to be solved as an eigenvalue problem, the time-to-solution scales cubically with the system size in mean-field type approaches such as Hartree–Fock and density functional theory and is solved as many times in order to reach charge or field self-consistency. We hereby propose and study a method to compute the density matrix by using a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) solver. This method could be useful to solve the problem with quantum computers and, more specifically, quantum annealers. Our proposed approach is based on a direct construction of the density matrix using a QUBO eigensolver. We explore the main parameters of the algorithm focusing on precision and efficiency. We show that, while direct construction of the density matrix using a QUBO formulation is possible, the efficiency and precision have room for improvement. Moreover, calculations performed with quantum annealing on D-Wave’s new Advantage quantum computer are compared with results obtained with classical simulated annealing, further highlighting some problems of the proposed method. Finally, we also suggest alternative methods that could lead to a more efficient QUBO-based density matrix construction.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The Effective Fragment Molecular Orbital Method: Achieving High Scalability and Accuracy for Large Systems

The effective fragment molecular orbital (EFMO) method has been developed to predict the total energy of a very large molecular system accurately (with respect to the underlying quantum mechanical method) and efficiently by taking advantage of the locality of strong chemical interactions and employing a two-level hierarchical parallelism. The accuracy of the EFMO method is partly attributed to the accurate and robust intermolecular interaction prediction between distant fragments, in particular, the many-body polarization and dispersion effects, which require the generation of static and dynamic polarizability tensors by solving the coupled perturbed Hartree–Fock (CPHF) and time-dependent HF (TDHF) equations, respectively. Solving the CPHF and TDHF equations is the main EFMO computational bottleneck due to the inefficient (serial) and I/O-intensive implementation of the CPHF and TDHF solvers. In this work, the efficiency and scalability of the EFMO method are significantly improved with a new CPU memory-based implementation for solving the CPHF and TDHF equations that are parallelized by either message passing interface (MPI) or hybrid MPI/OpenMP. Here, the accuracy of the EFMO method is demonstrated for both covalently bonded systems and noncovalently bound molecular clusters by systematically examining the effects of basis sets and a key distance-related cutoff parameter, R cut . R cut determines whether a fragment pair (dimer) is treated by the chosen ab initio method or calculated using the effective fragment potential (EFP) method (separated dimers). Decreasing the value of Rcut increases the number of separated (EFP) dimers, thereby decreasing the computational effort. It is demonstrated that excellent accuracy (<1 kcal/mol error per fragment) can be achieved when using a sufficiently large basis set with diffuse functions coupled with a small R cut value. With the new parallel implementation, the total EFMO wall time is substantially reduced, especially with a high number of MPI ranks. Given a sufficient workload, nearly ideal strong scaling is achieved for the CPHF and TDHF parts of the calculation. For the first time, EFMO calculations with the inclusion of long-range polarization and dispersion interactions on a hydrated mesoporous silica nanoparticle with explicit water solvent molecules (more than 15k atoms) are achieved on a massively parallel supercomputer using nearly 1000 physical nodes. In addition, EFMO calculations on the carbinolamine formation step of an amine-catalyzed aldol reaction at the nanoscale with explicit solvent effects are presented.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Physics-Informed Neural Network Method for Forward and Backward Advection-Dispersion Equations

Advection-dispersion equations (ADEs) are commonly used to describe transport phenomena in porous media. Even though mature discretization-based numerical methods for ADEs exist, some challenges still remain, especially when it comes to solving advection-dominated forward ADEs and diffusion-dominated backward ADEs. The latter problem usually arises in the source identification context and leads to numerically unstable grid-based solutions that require a form of regularization or should be treated as an inverse problem that is computationally more expensive because it requires solving the forward problem multiple times. In this study, we propose a discretization-free approach based on the physics-informed neural network (PINN) method for solving coupled ADE and Darcy flow equations with space-dependent hydraulic conductivity. In this approach, the hydraulic conductivity, hydraulic head, and concentration fields are approximated with deep neural networks (DNNs). We assume that the conductivity field is given by its values on a grid, and we use these values to train the conductivity DNN. The head and concentration DNNs are trained by minimizing the residuals of the flow equation and ADE and using the initial and boundary conditions as additional constraints. The PINN method is applied to one- and two-dimensional forward ADE problems, where its performance for various P\'{e}clet numbers ($Pe$) is compared with the analytical and numerical solutions. We find that the PINN method is accurate with errors of less than 1\% and outperforms some conventional discretization-based methods for $Pe$ larger that 100. Next, we demonstrate that the PINN method remains accurate for the backward ADEs, with the relative errors in most cases staying under 5\% compared to the reference concentration field. Finally, we show that when available, the concentration measurements can be easily incorporated in the PINN method and significantly improve (by more than 50\% in the considered cases) the accuracy of the PINN solution of the backward ADE.

He, Qizhi↗

Spanning the Gap From Bulk to Bin: A Novel Spectral Microphysics Method

Microphysics methods for climate models and numerical weather prediction typically track one, two, or three moments of a droplet size distribution for various categories of liquid, ice, and aerosol. Such methods rely on conversion parameters between these categories, which introduces uncertainty into predictions. While higher-fidelity options such as bin and Lagrangian schemes exist, they require too many degrees of freedom for climate modeling applications and introduce numerical challenges. Here we introduce a flexible spectral microphysics method based on collocation of basis functions. This method generalizes to a linear bulk scheme when using few basis functions and to a smoothed bin scheme with more degrees of freedom. Tested in an idealized box setting, the method improves spectral accuracy for droplet collision-coalescence and may eliminate the need for precipitation autoconversion rates required by bulk methods; furthermore, it generalizes well to multimodal distributions with less complexity than a bin method. The potential to extend this collocation representation to multiple hydrometeor classes suggests a path forward to unify liquid, ice, and aerosol microphysics in a single, flexible, computational framework for climate modeling.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Assessment of Extinction‐, Satellite‐, and Model‐Based Vertical Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) Retrieval Methods Using Airborne CCN Measurements Over the Southern Great Plains

Abstract Accurate estimates of the vertical profile of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration are crucial to better quantify aerosol‐cloud interactions. We assessed the correlation between the vertical CCN concentrations obtained from extinction‐, satellite‐, and model‐based retrieval methods and airborne CCN concentrations collected at 0.24% supersaturation within the 3, 9, 27, and 81 km regions centered over the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility Southern Great Plains (SGP) site during the spring and summer of 2016. The extinction profiles at a wavelength 355 nm were provided by the ground‐based Raman lidar. Our analysis showed moderate correlation between dry‐corrected extinction and airborne CCN data. We found the retrieved number concentration of CCN (RNCCN) method showed regression best‐fit slopes close to unity and consistent prediction errors for the majority of the data. The Lenhardt et al. (2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt‐16‐2037‐2023 ) method showed similar conclusions but only during spring, whereas the Mamouri and Ansmann (2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp‐16‐5905‐2016 ) method showed poor correlation. The Shinozuka et al. (2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp‐15‐7585‐2015 ) satellite‐based method exhibited reasonable agreement during summer but poor correlation during periods where both high (∼1,400 #/cm 3 ) and low (∼50 #/cm 3 ) airborne CCN concentrations were observed. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service reanalysis modeled 3‐D CCN data set showed a moderate to weak positive correlation but performed poorly at high airborne CCN concentrations. Our analysis suggests the extinction‐based RNCCN method performed better than other methods across most observation periods under the diverse meteorological conditions observed at the SGP site.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Online energy consumption forecast for battery electric buses using a learning-free algebraic method

Accurately predicting the energy consumption plays a vital role in battery electric buses (BEBs) route planning and deployment. Based on the algebraic derivative estimation, we present a novel method to forecast the energy consumption in real time. In contrast to the mainstream machine-learning-based methods, the proposed method does not require access to the historical energy consumption data. It eliminates the time-consuming and computationally expensive offline training. Consequently, its prediction performance is not constrained by the quantity and quality of the training data. Moreover, the method can swiftly adapt to new situations not included in the previous driving cycles, which makes it especially suitable for emerging transport modes, e.g., on-demand transit services. In addition, its online execution only involves algebraic calculations, yielding superior calculation efficiency. Using real-world data, we comprehensively compare the performance of the proposed learning-free algebraic method with multiple representative machine-learning-based methods. Finally, the advantages and limitations of the proposed method are discussed in detail.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Toward DMRG-tailored coupled cluster method in the 4c-relativistic domain

There are three essential problems in computational relativistic chemistry: Electrons moving at relativistic speeds, close lying states, and dynamical correlation. Currently available quantum-chemical methods are capable of solving systems with one or two of these issues. However, there is a significant class of molecules in which all the three effects are present. These are the heavier transition metal compounds, lanthanides, and actinides with open d or f shells. For such systems, sufficiently accurate numerical methods are not available, which hinders the application of theoretical chemistry in this field. In this paper, we combine two numerical methods in order to address this challenging class of molecules. These are the relativistic versions of coupled cluster methods and the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first relativistic implementation of the coupled cluster method externally corrected by DMRG. The method brings a significant reduction of computational costs as we demonstrate on the system of TlH, AsH, and SbH.

Brandejs, Jan (ORCID:0000000221073095)↗

Scalable ab initio fragmentation methods based on a truncated expansion of the non-orthogonal molecular orbital model

An alternative formulation of the non-orthogonal molecular orbital model of electronic structure theory is developed based on the expansion of the inverse molecular orbital overlap matrix. From this model, a hierarchy of ab initio fragment-based quantum chemistry methods, referred to as the nth-order expanded non-orthogonal molecular orbital methods, are developed using a minimal number of approximations, each of which is frequently employed in intermolecular interaction theory. These novel methods are compared to existing fragment-based quantum chemistry methods, and the implications of those significant differences, where they exist, between the methods developed herein and those already existing methods are examined in detail. Computational complexities and theoretical scaling are also analyzed and discussed. Future extensions for the hierarchy of methods, to account for additional intrafragment and interfragment interactions, are outlined.

Westheimer, Bryce M. (ORCID:0000000267645714)↗