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At least 361 records · Page 20

UrbanPop: A spatial microsimulation framework for exploring demographic influences on human dynamics

Ensuring the social equity of planning measures in social systems requires an understanding of human dynamics, particularly how individual relationships, activities, and interactions intersect with individual needs. Spatial microsimulation models (SMSMs) support planning for human security goals by representing human dynamics through realistic, georeferenced synthetic populations, that a) provide a complete representation of social systems while b) also protecting individual privacy. In this paper, we present UrbanPop, an open and reproducible SMSM framework for analysis of human dynamics with high spatial, temporal, and demographic resolution. UrbanPop creates synthetic populations of demographically detailed worker and student agents, positioning them first at probable nighttime locations (home), then moving them to probable daytime locations (work/school). Summary aggregations of these populations match the granular detail available at the census block group level in the American Community Survey Summary File (SF), providing realistic approximations of the actual population. UrbanPop users can select particular demographic traits important in their application, resulting in a highly tailored agent population. We first lay out UrbanPop's baseline methodology, including population synthesis, activity modeling, and diagnostics, then demonstrate these capabilities by developing case studies of shifting population distributions and high-risk populations in Knox County, TN during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Diagnostics of Data-Driven Models: Uncertainty Quantification of PM7 Semi-Empirical Quantum Chemical Method

Abstract We report an evaluation of a semi-empirical quantum chemical method PM7 from the perspective of uncertainty quantification. Specifically, we apply Bound-to-Bound Data Collaboration, an uncertainty quantification framework, to characterize (a) variability of PM7 model parameter values consistent with the uncertainty in the training data and (b) uncertainty propagation from the training data to the model predictions. Experimental heats of formation of a homologous series of linear alkanes are used as the property of interest. The training data are chemically accurate , i.e., they have very low uncertainty by the standards of computational chemistry. The analysis does not find evidence of PM7 consistency with the entire data set considered as no single set of parameter values is found that captures the experimental uncertainties of all training data. A set of parameter values for PM7 was able to capture the training data within ±1 kcal/mol, but not to the smaller level of uncertainty in the reported data. Nevertheless, PM7 was found to be consistent for subsets of the training data. In such cases, uncertainty propagation from the chemically accurate training data to the predicted values preserves error within bounds of chemical accuracy if predictions are made for the molecules of comparable size. Otherwise, the error grows linearly with the relative size of the molecules.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Measurements of low-energy electron reflection at a plasma boundary

It is demonstrated that low-energy (<3 eV) electron reflection from a solid surface in contact with a low-temperature plasma can have significant variation with time. An uncontaminated, i.e., “clean,” metallic surface (just after heating up to glow) in a plasma environment may have practically no reflection of low-energy incident electrons. However, a contaminated, i.e., “dirty,” surface (in some time after cleaning by heating) that has a few monolayers of absorbent can reflect low-energy incident electrons and therefore significantly affect the net electron current collected by the surface. This effect may significantly change plasma properties and should be taken into account in plasma experiments and models. A diagnostic method is demonstrated for measurements of low-energy electron absorption coefficient in plasmas with a mono-energetic electron group.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Numerical modelling of nonlinear full-wave acoustic propagation

The various model equations of nonlinear acoustics are arrived at by making assumptions which permit the observation of the interaction with propagation of either single or joint effects. We present here a form of the conservation equations of fluid dynamics which are deduced using slightly less restrictive hypothesis than those necessary to obtain the well known Westervelt equation. This formulation accounts for full wave diffraction, nonlinearity, and thermoviscous dissipative effects. A two-dimensional, finite-volume method using Roe’s linearisation has been implemented to obtain numerically the solution of the proposed equations. This code, which has been written for parallel execution on a GPU, can be used to describe moderate nonlinear phenomena, at low Mach numbers, in domains as large as 100 wave lengths. Applications range from models of diagnostic and therapeutic HIFU, to parametric acoustic arrays and nonlinear propagation in acoustic waveguides. Examples related to these applications are shown and discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

An updated technique to obtain explosive kinetics data on microsecond timescales

There are few techniques available for chemists to obtain time-to-explosion data with known temperature inputs at the early stages of the design and synthesis of new explosives. In the 1960s, a technique was developed to rapidly heat milligram-quantities of confined explosives to ~1000 K on microsecond timescales. Wenograd loaded explosives inside stainless steel hypodermic needles, connected them to a fireset and rapidly discharged a capacitor through the steel. He obtained the temperature by measuring the needle resistance in a Wheatstone bridge arrangement and the time to explosion from a needle rupture. However, owing to the narrow-gauge needles used in the original research, the experiment was only possible with melt-castable explosives; it was never replicated, and modern diagnostics are now available with advances beyond the 1960s. Here, we report the development of the High Explosives Initiation Time (HEIT) test, which utilizes a 250 J pulsed power system to heat the needles. This work extends the Wenograd approach by using optical diagnostics, computational modeling, and advanced techniques to measure needle resistance and needle rupture. Preliminary rate information for pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) will be presented.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

SYSTEMATIC CALCULATIONS OF ENERGY LEVELS AND TRANSITION RATES OF C-LIKE IONS WITH Z = 13-36

Based on systematic calculations using a combined relativistic configuration interaction and a many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) approach, we provide a complete and consistent data set for 46 levels belonging to the 2s {sup 2}2p {sup 2}, 2s2p {sup 3}, 2p {sup 4}, 2s {sup 2}2p3s, 2s {sup 2}2p3p, and 2s {sup 2}2p3d configurations in C-like ions with 13 ≤ Z ≤ 36. The data set includes energy levels as well as electric dipole, magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole, and magnetic quadrupole transition properties. Extensive comparisons with available observed and calculated results are made and indicate that the present MBPT calculations are highly accurate. The present data set can be used reliably for many purposes, such as the line identification of observed spectra, and modeling and diagnostics of astrophysical and fusion plasmas.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Systematic calculations of energy levels and transition rates of BE-like ions with Z = 10–30 using a combined configuration interaction and many-body perturbation theory approach

We report calculations of energy levels and radiative rates for transitions among the lowest 116 fine-structure levels arising from the n⩽5 configurations in Be-like ions with Z = 10–30. The wavelengths, oscillator strengths, line strengths, and radiative rates for all possible electric dipole, magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole, and magnetic quadrupole transitions among the 116 levels have been calculated using the combined configuration interaction and many-body perturbation method. The accuracy of the results is determined through extensive comparisons with existing laboratory measurements and theoretical results. The present complete set of results should be of great help in line identification and the interpretation of spectra, as well as in the modeling and diagnostics of astrophysical and fusion plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Effects of drifts on scrape-off layer transport in W7-X

Abstract Drifts affect particle, momentum, and energy transport in the scrape-off layer (SOL) of tokamaks and stellarators, altering plasma flows and creating asymmetries between divertors. To understand how drifts affect SOL transport in the W7-X island divertor, an experiment was performed to compare plasmas with matched core parameters but opposite magnetic field directions, and therefore opposite drift transport directions. Parallel flow measurements made with coherence imaging spectroscopy are interpreted with the aid of a diagnostic forward model and a 1D simple SOL model that includes the E × B drift. In low-density plasmas ( n ‾ e < 2 × 10 19 m −3 ), the poloidal E × B drift induces a large poloidal density asymmetry within the island SOL, as measured by divertor Langmuir probes. This in turn causes the parallel flow stagnation point to shift from the position halfway between targets to the X-point in the drift direction, leading to near-unidirectional flow throughout the SOL. As density increases, the effects of the poloidal E × B drift decrease substantially, resulting in a smaller density asymmetry and the development of a counter-streaming flow pattern. For the entire density range probed in this experiment ( n ‾ e = 1.5 − 6 × 10 19 m −3 ), the experimental observations are more consistent with the effects of the poloidal E × B drift than the radial E × B drift.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Quantifying correlated truncation errors in effective field theory

Effective field theories (EFTs) organize the description of complex systems into an infinite sequence of decreasing importance. Predictions are made with a finite number of terms, which induces a truncation error that is often left unquantified. Here, we formalize the notion of EFT convergence and propose a Bayesian truncation error model for predictions that are correlated across the independent variables, e.g., energy or scattering angle. Central to our approach are Gaussian processes that encode both the naturalness and correlation structure of EFT coefficients. Our use of Gaussian processes permits efficient and accurate assessment of credible intervals, allows EFT fits to easily include correlated theory errors, and provides analytic posteriors for physical EFT-related quantities such as the expansion parameter. Furthermore, we demonstrate that model-checking diagnostics—applied to the case of multiple curves—are powerful tools for EFT validation. As an example, we assess a set of nucleon-nucleon scattering observables in chiral EFT. In an effort to be self-contained, appendices include thorough derivations of our statistical results. Our methods are packaged in Python code, called gsum, that is available for download on GitHub.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Sirepo - Warp

Sirepo is an open source framework for cloud computing. The graphical user interface (GUI) for Sirepo, also known as the client, executes in any HTML5 compliant web browser on any computing platform, including tablets. The client is built in JavaScript, making use of the following open source libraries: Bootstrap, which is fundamental for cross-platform web applications; AngularJS, which provides a model–view–controller (MVC) architecture and GUI components; and D3.js, which provides interactive plots and data-driven transformations. The Sirepo server is built on the following Python technologies: Flask, which is a lightweight framework for web development; Jin-ja, which is a secure and widely used templating language; and Werkzeug, a utility library that is compliant with the WSGI standard. We use Nginx as the HTTP server and proxy, which provides a scalable event-driven architecture. The physics codes supported by Sirepo execute inside a Docker container. One of the codes supported by Sirepo is Warp. Warp is a particle-in-cell (PIC) code de-signed to simulate high-intensity charged particle beams and plasmas in both the electrostatic and electromagnetic regimes, with a wide variety of integrated physics models and diagnostics. At pre-sent, Sirepo supports a small subset of Warp’s capabilities. Warp is open source and is part of the Berkeley Lab Accelerator Simulation Toolkit.

Nagler, Robert↗

HyMARC (Sandia) Annual Report

The Sandia HyMARC team continued its development of new synthetic, modeling, and diagnostic tools that are providing new insights into all major classes of storage materials, ranging from relatively simple systems such as PdHx and MgH2, to exceptionally complex ones, such as the metal borohydrides, as well as materials thought to be very well-understood, such as Ti-doped NaAlH4. This unprecedented suite of capabilities, capable of probing all relevant length scales within storage materials, is already having a significant impact, as they are now being used by both Seedling projects and collaborators at other laboratories within HyMARC. We expect this impact to grow as new Seedling projects begin and through collaborations with other scientists outside HyMARC. In the coming year, Sandia efforts will focus on the highest impact problems, in coordination with the other HyMARC National Laboratory partners, to provide the foundational science necessary to accelerate the discovery of new hydrogen storage materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Shock and Detonation Physics Group (M-9) [Slides]

Integrating experimental results, research, diagnostics, and models to produce innovative answers to current and future shock and detonation physics problems in service to the Nation.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

Improving the interface processes in the DOE/ACME model (Final Report)

This is the Final Report of our 4-year Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project (3 years for the original project + 1-year no-cost extension). The overall objective of our project is to improve the interface processes in the E3SM. Two overarching questions have been addressed: 1) What are the major deficiencies of the (land-atmosphere, ocean-atmosphere, land-ocean, and snow-sea ice) interface processes in E3SM? 2) How can we improve the treatment of these deficiencies in E3SM? Four tasks have been carried out: to evaluate and improve the land–atmosphere coupling in E3SM; to evaluate and improve the ocean–atmosphere coupling in E3SM; to evaluate and improve the land–ocean coupling in E3SM; and to evaluate and improve the snow–sea ice coupling in E3SM.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Extended calculations with spectroscopic accuracy: Energy levels and transition properties for the fluorine-like isoelectronic sequence with Z = 24–30

We have performed extensive multiconfiguration Dirac–Hartree–Fock calculations and second-order many-body perturbation calculations for F-like ions with Z = 24–30. Energy levels and transition rates for electric dipole (E1), electric-quadrupole (E2), electric-octupole (E3), magnetic dipole (M1), and magnetic-quadrupole (M2) transitions, as well as radiative lifetimes, are provided for the lowest 200 levels belonging to the 1s{sup 2}2s{sup 2}2p{sup 5}, 1s{sup 2}2s2p{sup 6}, 1s{sup 2}2s{sup 2}2p{sup 4}3l, 1s{sup 2}2s2p{sup 5}3l, 1s{sup 2}2p{sup 6}3l, and 1s{sup 2}2s{sup 2}2p{sup 4}4l configurations of each ion. The results from the two sets of calculations are in excellent agreement. Extensive comparisons are also made with other theoretical results and observed data from the CHIANTI and NIST databases. The present energies and wavelengths are believed to be accurate enough to aid line identifications involving the n = 3 and n = 4 configurations, for which observations are largely missing. The calculated wavelengths and transition data will be useful in the modeling and diagnostics of astrophysical and fusion plasmas.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Observational and theoretical evidence in support of a significant in-situ photochemical source of tropospheric ozone

The latitudinal and seasonal variation of ozone in the troposphere is discussed. Of particular interest is the asymmetrical behavior of this gas with respect to the two hemispheres. These asymmetries, when coupled with a diagnostic photochemical model of the troposphere, lends support to the view that ozone cannot be viewed as an inert tracer of stratospheric origin. In the calculations it is noted that it is likely that the budgets of carbon monoxide and tropospheric ozone may be quite dependent on each other and the calculations are discussed in light of the uncertainty which currently exists about representative global tropospheric background concentrations of the nitrogen oxides. In addition, the seasonal variation of excess (C-14)O2 (a stratospheric tracer) is examined and compared with the seasonal ozone variation during the same period of observations at the same location and altitudes. The distinct maxima for ozone found during the summer in the lower troposphere are not present for the (C-14)O2 data. This finding likewise suggests that photochemical processes taking place in the troposphere are an important source term for tropospheric ozone.

Fishman, J.↗

An overview of general aviation propulsion research programs at NASA Lewis Research Center

The review covers near-term improvements for current-type piston engines, as well as studies and limited corroborative research on several advanced g/a engine concepts, including diesels, small turboprops and both piston and rotary stratified-charge engines. Also described is basic combustion research, cycle modeling and diagnostic instrumentation work that is required to make new engines a reality.

Willis, E. A.↗