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At least 487 records · Page 27
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-T-291: Dosimetric Accuracy of Multitarget Single Isocenter Radiosurgery

Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy of single-isocenter multiple-target VMAT radiosurgery (SIMT-VMAT-SRS) by analysis of pre-treatment verification measurements. Methods: Our QA procedure used a phantom having a coronal plane for EDR2 film and a 0.125 cm3 ionization chamber. Film measurements were obtained for the largest and smallest targets for each plan. An ionization chamber measurement (ICM) was obtained for sufficiently large targets. Films were converted to dose using a patient-specific calibration curve and compared to treatment planning system calculations. Alignment error was estimated using image registration. The gamma index was calculated for 3%/3 and 3%/1 mm criteria. The median dose in the target region and, for plans having an ICM, the average dose in the central 5 mm was calculated. Results: The average equivalent target diameter of the 48 targets was 15 mm (3–43 mm). Twenty of the 24 plans had an ICM for the plan corresponding to the largest target (diameter 11–43 mm) with a mean ratio of chamber reading to expected dose (ED) and the mean ratio of film to ED (averaged over the central 5 mm) was 1.001 (0.025 SD) and 1.000 (0.029 SD), respectively. For all plans, the mean film to ED (from the median dose in the target region) was 0.997 (0.027 SD). The mean registration vector was (0.15,0.29) mm, with an average magnitude of 0.96 mm. Before (after) registration, the average fraction of pixels having gamma < 1 was 99.3% (99.6%) and 89.1% (97.6%) for 3%/3mm and 3%/1mm, respectively. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate dosimetric accuracy of SIMT-VMAT-SRS for targets as small as 3 mm. Film dosimetry provides accurate assessment of the absolute dose delivered to targets too small for an ionization chamber measurement; however, the relatively large registration vector indicates that image-guidance should replace laser-based setup for patient-specific evaluation of geometric accuracy.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

POLARIZED LINE FORMATION IN MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MEDIA. III. HANLE EFFECT WITH PARTIAL FREQUENCY REDISTRIBUTION

In two previous papers, we solved the polarized radiative transfer (RT) equation in multi-dimensional (multi-D) geometries with partial frequency redistribution as the scattering mechanism. We assumed Rayleigh scattering as the only source of linear polarization (Q/I, U/I) in both these papers. In this paper, we extend these previous works to include the effect of weak oriented magnetic fields (Hanle effect) on line scattering. We generalize the technique of Stokes vector decomposition in terms of the irreducible spherical tensors T{sup K}{sub Q}, developed by Anusha and Nagendra, to the case of RT with Hanle effect. A fast iterative method of solution (based on the Stabilized Preconditioned Bi-Conjugate-Gradient technique), developed by Anusha et al., is now generalized to the case of RT in magnetized three-dimensional media. We use the efficient short-characteristics formal solution method for multi-D media, generalized appropriately to the present context. The main results of this paper are the following: (1) a comparison of emergent (I, Q/I, U/I) profiles formed in one-dimensional (1D) media, with the corresponding emergent, spatially averaged profiles formed in multi-D media, shows that in the spatially resolved structures, the assumption of 1D may lead to large errors in linear polarization, especially in the line wings. (2) The multi-D RT in semi-infinite non-magnetic media causes a strong spatial variation of the emergent (Q/I, U/I) profiles, which is more pronounced in the line wings. (3) The presence of a weak magnetic field modifies the spatial variation of the emergent (Q/I, U/I) profiles in the line core, by producing significant changes in their magnitudes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Fast Quasi-Static Time-Series (QSTS) for yearlong PV impact studies using vector quantization

The rapidly growing penetration levels of distributed photovoltaic (PV) systems requires more comprehensive studies to understand their impact on distribution feeders. IEEE P.1547 highlights the need for Quasi-Static Time Series (QSTS) simulation in conducting distribution impact studies for distributed resource interconnection. Unlike conventional scenario-based simulation, the time series simulation can realistically assess time-dependent impacts such as the operation of various controllable elements (e.g. voltage regulating tap changers) or impacts of power fluctuations. However, QSTS simulations are still not widely used in the industry because of the computational burden associated with running yearlong simulations at a 1-s granularity, which is needed to capture device controller effects responding to PV variability. This study presents a novel algorithm that reduces the number of times that the non-linear 3-phase unbalanced AC power flow must be solved by storing and reassigning power flow solutions as it progresses through the simulation. Each unique power flow solution is defined by a set of factors affecting the solution that can easily be queried. We demonstrate a computational time reduction of 98.9% for a yearlong simulation at 1-s resolution with minimal errors for metrics including: number of tap changes, capacitor actions, highest and lowest voltage on the feeder, line losses, and ANSI voltage violations. Finally, the key contribution of this work is the formulation of an algorithm capable of: (i) drastically reducing the computational time of QSTS simulations, (ii) accurately modeling distribution system voltage-control elements with hysteresis, and (iii) efficiently compressing result time series data for post-simulation analysis.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Superluminal Labview Code

This labview code is used to set the phase and amplitudes on the 72 antenna of the superluminal machine, and to map out the radiation patter from the superluminal antenna.Each antenna radiates a modulated signal consisting of two separate frequencies, in the range of 2 GHz to 2.8 GHz. The phases and amplitudes from each antenna are controlled by a pair of AD8349 vector modulators (VMs). These VMs set the phase and amplitude of a high frequency signal using a set of four DC inputs, which are controlled by Linear Technologies LTC1990 digital to analog converters (DACs). The labview code controls these DACs through an 8051 microcontroller.This code also monitors the phases and amplitudes of the 72 channels. Near each antenna, there is a coupler that channels a portion of the power into a binary network. Through a labview controlled switching array, any of the 72 coupled signals can be channeled in to the Tektronix TDS 7404 digital oscilloscope. Then the labview code takes an FFT of the signal, and compares it to the FFT of a reference signal in the oscilloscope to determine the magnitude and phase of each sideband of the signal. The code compensates for phase and amplitude errors introduced by differences in cable lengths.The labview code sets each of the 72 elements to a user determined phase and amplitude. For each element, the code runs an iterative procedure, where it adjusts the DACs until the correct phases and amplitudes have been reached.

Wheat, Robert↗
DOE OSTI2020

OGLE-2017-BLG-0406: Spitzer Microlens Parallax Reveals Saturn-mass Planet Orbiting M-dwarf Host in the Inner Galactic Disk

We report the discovery and analysis of the planetary microlensing event OGLE-2017-BLG-0406, which was observed both from the ground and by the Spitzer satellite in a solar orbit. At high magnification, the anomaly in the light curve was densely observed by ground-based-survey and follow-up groups, and it was found to be explained by a planetary lens with a planet/host mass ratio of q=7.0×10{sup −4} from the light-curve modeling. The ground-only and Spitzer-“only” data each provide very strong one-dimensional (1D) constraints on the 2D microlens parallax vector π{sub E}. When combined, these yield a precise measurement of π{sub E} and of the masses of the host M{sub host}=0.56±0.07 M{sub ⊙} and planet M {sub planet} = 0.41 ± 0.05 M {sub Jup}. The system lies at a distance D {sub L} = 5.2 ± 0.5 kpc from the Sun toward the Galactic bulge, and the host is more likely to be a disk population star according to the kinematics of the lens. The projected separation of the planet from the host is a{sub ⊥}=3.5±0.3 au (i.e., just over twice the snow line). The Galactic-disk kinematics are established in part from a precise measurement of the source proper motion based on OGLE-IV data. By contrast, the Gaia proper-motion measurement of the source suffers from a catastrophic 10σ error.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Learning an Eddy Viscosity Model Using Shrinkage and Bayesian Calibration: A Jet-in-Crossflow Case Study

In this paper, we demonstrate a statistical procedure for learning a high-order eddy viscosity model (EVM) from experimental data and using it to improve the predictive skill of a Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulator. The method is tested in a three-dimensional (3D), transonic jet-in-crossflow (JIC) configuration. The process starts with a cubic eddy viscosity model (CEVM) developed for incompressible flows. It is fitted to limited experimental JIC data using shrinkage regression. The shrinkage process removes all the terms from the model, except an intercept, a linear term, and a quadratic one involving the square of the vorticity. The shrunk eddy viscosity model is implemented in an RANS simulator and calibrated, using vorticity measurements, to infer three parameters. The calibration is Bayesian and is solved using a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. A 3D probability density distribution for the inferred parameters is constructed, thus quantifying the uncertainty in the estimate. The phenomenal cost of using a 3D flow simulator inside an MCMC loop is mitigated by using surrogate models (“curve-fits”). A support vector machine classifier (SVMC) is used to impose our prior belief regarding parameter values, specifically to exclude nonphysical parameter combinations. The calibrated model is compared, in terms of its predictive skill, to simulations using uncalibrated linear and CEVMs. Finally, we find that the calibrated model, with one quadratic term, is more accurate than the uncalibrated simulator. The model is also checked at a flow condition at which the model was not calibrated.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-J-94: Geometric and Dosimetric Evaluation of Deformation Image Registration Algorithms Using Virtual Phantoms Generated From Patients with Lung Cancer

Purpose: To generate virtual phantoms with clinically relevant deformation and use them to objectively evaluate geometric and dosimetric uncertainties of deformable image registration (DIR) algorithms. Methods: Ten lung cancer patients undergoing adaptive 3DCRT planning were selected. For each patient, a pair of planning CT (pCT) and replanning CT (rCT) were used as the basis for virtual phantom generation. Manually adjusted meshes were created for selected ROIs (e.g. PTV, lungs, spinal cord, esophagus, and heart) on pCT and rCT. The mesh vertices were input into a thin-plate spline algorithm to generate a reference displacement vector field (DVF). The reference DVF was used to deform pCT to generate a simulated replanning CT (srCT) that was closely matched to rCT. Three DIR algorithms (Demons, B-Spline, and intensity-based) were applied to these ten virtual phantoms. The images, ROIs, and doses were mapped from pCT to srCT using the DVFs computed by these three DIRs and compared to those mapped using the reference DVF. Results: The average Dice coefficients for selected ROIs were from 0.85 to 0.96 for Demons, from 0.86 to 0.97 for intensity-based, and from 0.76 to 0.95 for B-Spline. The average Hausdorff distances for selected ROIs were from 2.2 to 5.4 mm for Demons, from 2.3 to 6.8 mm for intensity-based, and from 2.4 to 11.4 mm for B-Spline. The average absolute dose errors for selected ROIs were from 0.2 to 0.6 Gy for Demons, from 0.1 to 0.5 Gy for intensity-based, and from 0.5 to 1.5 Gy for B-Spline. Conclusion: Virtual phantoms were modeled after patients with lung cancer and were clinically relevant for adaptive radiotherapy treatment replanning. Virtual phantoms with known DVFs serve as references and can provide a fair comparison when evaluating different DIRs. Demons and intensity-based DIRs were shown to have smaller geometric and dosimetric uncertainties than B-Spline. Z Shen: None; K Bzdusek: an employee of Philips Healthcare; J Greskovich: None; P Xia: received research grants from Philips Healthcare and Siemens Healthcare.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

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↗
DOE OSTI2016

TH-CD-207A-03: A Surface Deformation Driven Respiratory Model for Organ Motion Tracking in Lung Cancer Radiotherapy

Purpose: To propose and validate a novel real-time surface-mesh-based internal organ-external surface motion and deformation tracking method for lung cancer radiotherapy. Methods: Deformation vector fields (DVFs) which characterizes the internal and external motion are obtained by registering the internal organ and tumor contours and external surface meshes to a reference phase in the 4D CT images using a recent developed local topology preserved non-rigid point matching algorithm (TOP). A composite matrix is constructed by combing the estimated internal and external DVFs. Principle component analysis (PCA) is then applied on the composite matrix to extract principal motion characteristics and finally yield the respiratory motion model parameters which correlates the internal and external motion and deformation. The accuracy of the respiratory motion model is evaluated using a 4D NURBS-based cardiac-torso (NCAT) synthetic phantom and three lung cancer cases. The center of mass (COM) difference is used to measure the tumor motion tracking accuracy, and the Dice’s coefficient (DC), percent error (PE) and Housdourf’s distance (HD) are used to measure the agreement between the predicted and ground truth tumor shape. Results: The mean COM is 0.84±0.49mm and 0.50±0.47mm for the phantom and patient data respectively. The mean DC, PE and HD are 0.93±0.01, 0.13±0.03 and 1.24±0.34 voxels for the phantom, and 0.91±0.04, 0.17±0.07 and 3.93±2.12 voxels for the three lung cancer patients, respectively. Conclusions: We have proposed and validate a real-time surface-mesh-based organ motion and deformation tracking method with an internal-external motion modeling. The preliminary results conducted on a synthetic 4D NCAT phantom and 4D CT images from three lung cancer cases show that the proposed method is reliable and accurate in tracking both the tumor motion trajectory and deformation, which can serve as a potential tool for real-time organ motion and deformation monitoring in lung cancer radiotherapy. This work is supported in part by grant from VARIAN MEDICAL SYSTEMS INC, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no 81428019 and no 81301940), the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (2015A030313302)and the 2015 Pearl River S&T Nova Program of Guangzhou (201506010096).

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Modeling and Simulation of Xe-100-type Pebble Bed Gas-Cooled Reactor with SCALE

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) to accelerate the deployment of advanced reactor concepts. Awardees of ARDP funds are expected to demonstrate the operation of an advanced reactor within 7 years of receiving the award. X-Energy’s advanced reactor concept, the Xe-100, was selected as one of two advanced reactor concepts to receive funding to demonstrate the operation of its high-temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed reactor before the end of this decade. As a result of this push to bring advanced reactors to maturation and commercialization, transition and deployment scenario studies are being performed under the Systems Analysis and Integration (SA&I) campaign within the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) to evaluate the transition of the current US commercial fleet of light-water reactors (LWRs) to a future fleet of advanced reactors consisting of a mix of ARDP type reactor concepts and advanced LWRs. To accurately evaluate the front- and back-end resource requirements, it is important to perform reactor physics calculations to determine the discharge burnup and isotopic content, fuel residence time, as well as other parameters. For this purpose, a summer project funded by the SA&I campaign allowed for the setup of SCALE models for full-core Xe-100 type high-temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed reactor and a Xe-100 type slice using publicly available information. The core-averaged equilibrium compositions and zone-wise equilibrium compositions for the slice and 3D models, respectively, were obtained following an iterative depletion method developed by Bostelmann et al. using SCALE’s reactor physics sequence TRITON. The slice model was used with TRITON to generate burnup-dependent cross section libraries at different temperatures which can be used with SCALE’s ORIGAMI code to rapidly determine fuel inventory and therefore to perform quick sensitivity studies on parameters such as the pebble location in the core. The SCALE/TRITON transport and depletion calculation for the Xe-100 type slice model indicates that the isotopic concentrations are in good agreement at 1,300 effective full power days (EFPD) for 235 U. An analysis of 236 U results match 239 Pu results would seem to indicate a typographical error in Mulder and Boyes wherein the reported results of 236 U and 239 Pu are reversed. In addition to SCALE/TRITON calculations, a new capability within SCALE/ORIGAMI for the simulation of pebble-bed reactors was used to study the burnup sensitivity with respect to the pebble pathway through the core. The SCALE/ORIGAMI results show that pebbles that travel closer to the reflector for the entire depletion history have a higher burnup than pebbles that travel through the middle of the core because of the higher thermal to fast flux ratio near the reflector. Consequently, a pebble’s burnup is strongly affected by the pebble’s pathway for each pass. Additional phenomena such as temperature distributions in the core and different travel times of the pebbles in the individual radial zones further affect the burnup distribution. The sensitivity of the discharge vector to the pebble pathways taken during each pass can be evaluated in the future using SCALE/ORIGAMI now that the SCALE inputs have been established.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Few-view cone-beam CT reconstruction with deformed prior image

Purpose: Prior images can be incorporated into the image reconstruction process to improve the quality of subsequent cone-beam CT (CBCT) images from sparse-view or low-dose projections. The purpose of this work is to develop a deformed prior image-based reconstruction (DPIR) strategy to mitigate the deformation between the prior image and the target image. Methods: The deformed prior image is obtained by a projection-based registration approach. Specifically, the deformation vector fields used to deform the prior image are estimated through iteratively matching the forward projection of the deformed prior image and the measured on-treatment projections. The deformed prior image is then used as the prior image in the standard prior image constrained compressed sensing (PICCS) algorithm. A simulation study on an XCAT phantom and a clinical study on a head-and-neck cancer patient were conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed DPIR strategy. Results: The deformed prior image matches the geometry of the on-treatment CBCT more closely as compared to the original prior image. Consequently, the performance of the DPIR strategy from few-view projections is improved in comparison to the standard PICCS algorithm, based on both visual inspection and quantitative measures. In the XCAT phantom study using 20 projections, the average root mean squared error is reduced from 14% in PICCS to 10% in DPIR, and the average universal quality index increases from 0.88 in PICCS to 0.92 in DPIR. Conclusions: The present DPIR approach provides a practical solution to the mismatch problem between the prior image and target image, which improves the performance of the original PICCS algorithm for CBCT reconstruction from few-view or low-dose projections.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Experimental and CFD Studies of Coolant Flow Mixing within Scaled Models of the Upper and Lower Plenums of NGNP Gas-Cooled Reactors

A 1/16th scaled VHTR experimental model was constructed and the preliminary test was performed in this study. To produce benchmark data for CFD validation in the future, the facility was first run at partial operation with five pipes being heated. PIV was performed to extract the vector velocity field for three adjacent naturally convective jets at statistically steady state. A small recirculation zone was found between the pipes, and the jets entered the merging zone at 3 cm from the pipe outlet but diverged as the flow approached the top of the test geometry. Turbulence analysis shows the turbulence intensity peaked at 41-45% as the jets mixed. A sensitivity analysis confirmed that 1000 frames were sufficient to measure statistically steady state. The results were then validated by extracting the flow rate from the PIV jet velocity profile, and comparing it with an analytic flow rate and ultrasonic flowmeter; all flow rates lie within the uncertainty of the other two methods for Tests 1 and 2. This test facility can be used for further analysis of naturally convective mixing, and eventually produce benchmark data for CFD validation for the VHTR during a PCC or DCC accident scenario. Next, a PTV study of 3000 images (1500 image pairs) were used to quantify the velocity field in the upper plenum. A sensitivity analysis confirmed that 1500 frames were sufficient to precisely estimate the flow. Subsequently, three (3, 9, and 15 cm) Y-lines from the pipe output were extracted to consider the output differences between 50 to 1500 frames. The average velocity field and standard deviation error that accrued in the three different tests were calculated to assess repeatability. The error was varied, from 1 to 14%, depending on Y-elevation. The error decreased as the flow moved farther from the output pipe. In addition, turbulent intensity was calculated and found to be high near the output. Reynolds stresses and turbulent intensity were used to validate the data by comparing it with benchmark data. The experimental data gave the same pattern as the benchmark data. A turbulent single buoyant jet study was performed for the case of LOFC in the upper plenum of scaled VHTR. Time-averaged profiles show that 3,000 frames of images were sufficient for the study up to second-order statistics. Self-similarity is an important feature of jets since the behavior of jets is independent of Reynolds number and a sole function of geometry. Self-similarity profiles were well observed in the axial velocity and velocity magnitude profile regardless of z/D where the radial velocity did not show any similarity pattern. The normal components of Reynolds stresses have self-similarity within the expected range. The study shows that large vortices were observed close to the dome wall, indicating that the geometry of the VHTR has a significant impact on its safety and performance. Near the dome surface, large vortices were shown to inhibit the flows, resulting in reduced axial jet velocity. The vortices that develop subsequently reduce the Reynolds stresses that develop and the impact on the integrity of the VHTR upper plenum surface. Multiple jets study, including two, three and five jets, were investigated.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Closed-Form Approximation of the Total Variation Proximal Operator

Total variation (TV) is a widely used function for regularizing imaging inverse problems that is particularly appropriate for images whose underlying structure is piecewise constant. TV regularized optimization problems are typically solved using proximal methods, but the way in which they are applied is constrained by the absence of a closed-form expression for the proximal operator of the TV function. A closed-form approximation of the TV proximal operator has previously been proposed, but its accuracy was not theoretically explored in detail. Here, we address this gap by making several new theoretical contributions, proving that the approximation leads to a proximal operator of some convex function, it is equivalent to a gradient descent step on a smoothed version of TV, and that its error can be fully characterized and controlled with its scaling parameter. We experimentally validate our theoretical results on image denoising and sparse-view computed tomography (CT) image reconstruction.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Modeling Cooperative Threads to Project GPU Performance for Adaptive Parallelism

Most accelerators, such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and vector processors, are particularly suitable for accelerating massively parallel workloads. On the other hand, conventional workloads are developed for multi-core parallelism, which often scale to only a few dozen OpenMP threads. When hardware threads significantly outnumber the degree of parallelism in the outer loop, programmers are challenged with efficient hardware utilization. A common solution is to further exploit the parallelism hidden deep in the code structure. Such parallelism is less structured: parallel and sequential loops may be imperfectly nested within each other, neigh boring inner loops may exhibit different concurrency patterns (e.g. Reduction vs. Forall), yet have to be parallelized in the same parallel section. Many input-dependent transformations have to be explored. A programmer often employs a larger group of hardware threads to cooperatively walk through a smaller outer loop partition and adaptively exploit any encountered parallelism. This process is time-consuming and error-prone, yet the risk of gaining little or no performance remains high for such workloads. To reduce risk and guide implementation, we propose a technique to model workloads with limited parallelism that can automatically explore and evaluate transformations involving cooperative threads. Eventually, our framework projects the best achievable performance and the most promising transformations without implementing GPU code or using physical hardware. We envision our technique to be integrated into future compilers or optimization frameworks for autotuning.

Meng, Jiayuan↗
DOE OSTI2015

Synchronized multiartifact reduction with tomographic reconstruction (SMART-RECON): A statistical model based iterative image reconstruction method to eliminate limited-view artifacts and to mitigate the temporal-average artifacts in time-resolved CT

Purpose: In x-ray computed tomography (CT), a violation of the Tuy data sufficiency condition leads to limited-view artifacts. In some applications, it is desirable to use data corresponding to a narrow temporal window to reconstruct images with reduced temporal-average artifacts. However, the need to reduce temporal-average artifacts in practice may result in a violation of the Tuy condition and thus undesirable limited-view artifacts. In this paper, the authors present a new iterative reconstruction method, synchronized multiartifact reduction with tomographic reconstruction (SMART-RECON), to eliminate limited-view artifacts using data acquired within an ultranarrow temporal window that severely violates the Tuy condition. Methods: In time-resolved contrast enhanced CT acquisitions, image contrast dynamically changes during data acquisition. Each image reconstructed from data acquired in a given temporal window represents one time frame and can be denoted as an image vector. Conventionally, each individual time frame is reconstructed independently. In this paper, all image frames are grouped into a spatial–temporal image matrix and are reconstructed together. Rather than the spatial and/or temporal smoothing regularizers commonly used in iterative image reconstruction, the nuclear norm of the spatial–temporal image matrix is used in SMART-RECON to regularize the reconstruction of all image time frames. This regularizer exploits the low-dimensional structure of the spatial–temporal image matrix to mitigate limited-view artifacts when an ultranarrow temporal window is desired in some applications to reduce temporal-average artifacts. Both numerical simulations in two dimensional image slices with known ground truth and in vivo human subject data acquired in a contrast enhanced cone beam CT exam have been used to validate the proposed SMART-RECON algorithm and to demonstrate the initial performance of the algorithm. Reconstruction errors and temporal fidelity of the reconstructed images were quantified using the relative root mean square error (rRMSE) and the universal quality index (UQI) in numerical simulations. The performance of the SMART-RECON algorithm was compared with that of the prior image constrained compressed sensing (PICCS) reconstruction quantitatively in simulations and qualitatively in human subject exam. Results: In numerical simulations, the 240{sup ∘} short scan angular span was divided into four consecutive 60{sup ∘} angular subsectors. SMART-RECON enables four high temporal fidelity images without limited-view artifacts. The average rRMSE is 16% and UQIs are 0.96 and 0.95 for the two local regions of interest, respectively. In contrast, the corresponding average rRMSE and UQIs are 25%, 0.78, and 0.81, respectively, for the PICCS reconstruction. Note that only one filtered backprojection image can be reconstructed from the same data set with an average rRMSE and UQIs are 45%, 0.71, and 0.79, respectively, to benchmark reconstruction accuracies. For in vivo contrast enhanced cone beam CT data acquired from a short scan angular span of 200{sup ∘}, three 66{sup ∘} angular subsectors were used in SMART-RECON. The results demonstrated clear contrast difference in three SMART-RECON reconstructed image volumes without limited-view artifacts. In contrast, for the same angular sectors, PICCS cannot reconstruct images without limited-view artifacts and with clear contrast difference in three reconstructed image volumes. Conclusions: In time-resolved CT, the proposed SMART-RECON method provides a new method to eliminate limited-view artifacts using data acquired in an ultranarrow temporal window, which corresponds to approximately 60{sup ∘} angular subsectors.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

TH-CD-202-06: A Method for Characterizing and Validating Dynamic Lung Density Change During Quiet Respiration

Purpose: To obtain a functional relationship that calibrates the lung tissue density change under free breathing conditions through correlating Jacobian values to the Hounsfield units. Methods: Free-breathing lung computed tomography images were acquired using a fast helical CT protocol, where 25 scans were acquired per patient. Using a state-of-the-art deformable registration algorithm, a set of the deformation vector fields (DVF) was generated to provide spatial mapping from the reference image geometry to the other free-breathing scans. These DVFs were used to generate Jacobian maps, which estimate voxelwise volume change. Subsequently, the set of 25 corresponding Jacobian and voxel intensity in Hounsfield units (HU) were collected and linear regression was performed based on the mass conservation relationship to correlate the volume change to density change. Based on the resulting fitting coefficients, the tissues were classified into parenchymal (Type I), vascular (Type II), and soft tissue (Type III) types. These coefficients modeled the voxelwise density variation during quiet breathing. The accuracy of the proposed method was assessed using mean absolute difference in HU between the CT scan intensities and the model predicted values. In addition, validation experiments employing a leave-five-out method were performed to evaluate the model accuracy. Results: The computed mean model errors were 23.30±9.54 HU, 29.31±10.67 HU, and 35.56±20.56 HU, respectively, for regions I, II, and III, respectively. The cross validation experiments averaged over 100 trials had mean errors of 30.02 ± 1.67 HU over the entire lung. These mean values were comparable with the estimated CT image background noise. Conclusion: The reported validation experiment statistics confirmed the lung density modeling during free breathing. The proposed technique was general and could be applied to a wide range of problem scenarios where accurate dynamic lung density information is needed. This work was supported in part by NIH R01 CA0096679.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Drag Coefficient Analysis of Arbitrary Fragment Geometry with Emphasis on Meshing Sensitivity Studies.

This report characterizes Mach number effects in the hypersonic range from Mach 3 to Mach 7 for an arbitrary, computationally generated fragment. Force and moment coefficients in the x, y, z direction were successfully obtained and resulting trends were compared with theoretical expectations. Three orientations were tested in the form of unit vectors: [1,0,0], [0,1,0], and [0,0,1]; these represent the i, j, k principle axes. The final results ultimately showcased a trend very similar to that shown in previous literature — drag coefficients for a given orientation decreased with increasing Mach number by a very small amount in the hypersonic range. It was therefore concluded that the aerodynamic quantities used to obtain the fragment trajectory at low hypersonic Mach numbers (such as Mach 3) can be used to characterize the aerodynamic qualities at higher hypersonic Mach numbers (Mach 5, 7) with a reasonably small margin. A sensitivity study was also conducted which ultimately defined drag effects as a result of changing grid spacing and normal extrusion parameters for the unstructured tetrahedral mesh used in the simulation. Further work can be done in the form of experimental validation, specifically with regards to wind tunnels and ballistic range testing. Error can be reduced by testing more mesh variabilities and capturing a larger amount of fragment orientations. The results for force and moment characteristics dependent on meshing parameters and high Mach numbers are satisfactory and consistent with expected trends.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-J-119: Head-And-Neck Digital Phantoms for Geometric and Dosimetric Uncertainty Evaluation of CT-CBCT Deformable Image Registration

Purpose: To evaluate geometric and dosimetric uncertainties of CT-CBCT deformable image registration (DIR) algorithms using digital phantoms generated from real patients. Methods: We selected ten H&N cancer patients with adaptive IMRT. For each patient, a planning CT (CT1), a replanning CT (CT2), and a pretreatment CBCT (CBCT1) were used as the basis for digital phantom creation. Manually adjusted meshes were created for selected ROIs (e.g. PTVs, brainstem, spinal cord, mandible, and parotids) on CT1 and CT2. The mesh vertices were input into a thin-plate spline algorithm to generate a reference displacement vector field (DVF). The reference DVF was applied to CBCT1 to create a simulated mid-treatment CBCT (CBCT2). The CT-CBCT digital phantom consisted of CT1 and CBCT2, which were linked by the reference DVF. Three DIR algorithms (Demons, B-Spline, and intensity-based) were applied to these ten digital phantoms. The images, ROIs, and volumetric doses were mapped from CT1 to CBCT2 using the DVFs computed by these three DIRs and compared to those mapped using the reference DVF. Results: The average Dice coefficients for selected ROIs were from 0.83 to 0.94 for Demons, from 0.82 to 0.95 for B-Spline, and from 0.67 to 0.89 for intensity-based DIR. The average Hausdorff distances for selected ROIs were from 2.4 to 6.2 mm for Demons, from 1.8 to 5.9 mm for B-Spline, and from 2.8 to 11.2 mm for intensity-based DIR. The average absolute dose errors for selected ROIs were from 0.7 to 2.1 Gy for Demons, from 0.7 to 2.9 Gy for B- Spline, and from 1.3 to 4.5 Gy for intensity-based DIR. Conclusion: Using clinically realistic CT-CBCT digital phantoms, Demons and B-Spline were shown to have similar geometric and dosimetric uncertainties while intensity-based DIR had the worst uncertainties. CT-CBCT DIR has the potential to provide accurate CBCT-based dose verification for H&N adaptive radiotherapy. Z Shen: None; K Bzdusek: an employee of Philips Healthcare; S Koyfman: None; P Xia: received research grants from Philips Healthcare and Siemens Healthcare.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗