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At least 901 records · Page 50

Image segmentation by hierarchial agglomeration of polygons using ecological statistics

A method for rapid hierarchical image segmentation based on perceptually driven contour completion and scene statistics is disclosed. The method begins with an initial fine-scale segmentation of an image, such as obtained by perceptual completion of partial contours into polygonal regions using region-contour correspondences established by Delaunay triangulation of edge pixels as implemented in VISTA. The resulting polygons are analyzed with respect to their size and color/intensity distributions and the structural properties of their boundaries. Statistical estimates of granularity of size, similarity of color, texture, and saliency of intervening boundaries are computed and formulated into logical (Boolean) predicates. The combined satisfiability of these Boolean predicates by a pair of adjacent polygons at a given segmentation level qualifies them for merging into a larger polygon representing a coarser, larger-scale feature of the pixel image and collectively obtains the next level of polygonal segments in a hierarchy of fine-to-coarse segmentations. The iterative application of this process precipitates textured regions as polygons with highly convolved boundaries and helps distinguish them from objects which typically have more regular boundaries. The method yields a multiscale decomposition of an image into constituent features that enjoy a hierarchical relationship with features at finer and coarser scales. This provides a traversable graph structure from which feature content and context in terms of other features can be derived, aiding in automated image understanding tasks. The method disclosed is highly efficient and can be used to decompose and analyze large images.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Method of resource-limited device and device class identification using system and function call tracing techniques, performance, and statistical analysis

Methods for cyber physical systems device classification are provided. A method can include receiving system and function calls and parameters and a device performance index from an unknown CPS device and a device performance index of similar class of CPS devices, calculating an autocorrelation value between different realizations of the system and function calls and parameters of the known CPS device, determining whether the autocorrelation value is greater than a threshold amount, and storing the system and function calls and parameters and the device performance characteristics of the known CPS device in the database. A method can also include calculating a correlation between system and function calls and parameters of an unknown CPS device and known CPS devices classes included in the database, as well as determining whether the maximum correlation is also greater than a threshold amount.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

An overview of component qualification using Bayesian statistics and energy methods.

The below overview is designed to give the reader a limited understanding of Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood (MLE) estimation; a basic understanding of some of the mathematical tools to evaluate the quality of an estimation; an introduction to energy methods and a limited discussion of damage potential. This discussion then goes on to presented a limited presentation as to how energy methods and Bayesian estimation are used together to qualify components. Example problems with solutions have been supplied as a learning aid. Bold letters are used to represent random variables. Un-bolded letter represent deterministic values. A concluding section presents a discussion of attributes and concerns.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

An Investigation of the Overlap Between the Statistical Discrete Gust and the Power Spectral Density Analysis Methods

The results of a NASA investigation of a claimed Overlap between two gust response analysis methods: the Statistical Discrete Gust (SDG) Method and the Power Spectral Density (PSD) Method are presented. The claim is that the ratio of an SDG response to the corresponding PSD response is 10.4. Analytical results presented for several different airplanes at several different flight conditions indicate that such an Overlap does appear to exist. However, the claim was not met precisely: a scatter of up to about 10 percent about the 10.4 factor can be expected.

Perry, Boyd, III↗

Quasi-classical description of molecular dynamics based on Egorov's theorem

Egorov's theorem on the classical propagation of quantum observables is related to prominent quasi-classical descriptions of quantum molecular dynamics as the linearized semiclassical initial value representation, the Wigner phase space method, or the statistical quasiclassical method. The error estimates show that different accuracies are achievable for the computation of expectation values and position densities. Numerical experiments for a Morse model of diatomic iodine and confined Henon–Heiles systems in various dimensions illustrate the theoretical results.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Probabilistic precipitation and temperature downscaling of the Twentieth Century Reanalysis over France

This work proposes a daily high-resolution probabilistic reconstruction of precipitation and temperature fields in France over the 1871–2012 period built on the NOAA Twentieth Century global extended atmospheric reanalysis (20CR). The objective is to fill in the spatial and temporal data gaps in surface observations in order to improve our knowledge on the local-scale climate variability from the late nineteenth century onwards. The SANDHY (Stepwise ANalogue Downscaling method for HYdrology) statistical downscaling method, initially developed for quantitative precipitation forecast, is used here to bridge the scale gap between large-scale 20CR predictors and local-scale predictands from the Safran high-resolution near-surface reanalysis, available from 1958 onwards only. SANDHY provides a daily ensemble of 125 analogue dates over the 1871–2012 period for 608 climatically homogeneous zones paving France. Large precipitation biases in intermediary seasons are shown to occur in regions with high seasonal asymmetry like the Mediterranean. Moreover, winter and summer temperatures are respectively over- and under-estimated over the whole of France. Two analogue subselection methods are therefore developed with the aim of keeping the structure of the SANDHY method unchanged while reducing those seasonal biases. The calendar selection keeps the analogues closest to the target calendar day. The stepwise selection applies two new analogy steps based on similarity of the sea surface temperature (SST) and the large-scale 2 m temperature ( T ). Comparisons to the Safran reanalysis over 1959–2007 and to homogenized series over the whole twentieth century show that biases in the interannual cycle of precipitation and temperature are reduced with both methods. The stepwise subselection moreover leads to a large improvement of interannual correlation and reduction of errors in seasonal temperature time series. When the calendar subselection is an easily applicable method suitable in a quantitative precipitation forecast context, the stepwise subselection method allows for potential season shifts and SST trends and is therefore better suited for climate reconstructions and climate change studies. Furthermore, the probabilistic downscaling of 20CR over the period 1871–2012 with the SANDHY probabilistic downscaling method combined with the stepwise subselection thus constitutes a perfect framework for assessing the recent observed meteorological events but also future events projected by climate change impact studies and putting them in a historical perspective.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Probabilistic finite elements for fatigue and fracture analysis

Attenuation is focused on the development of Probabilistic Finite Element Method (PFEM), which combines the finite element method with statistics and reliability methods, and its application to linear, nonlinear structural mechanics problems and fracture mechanics problems. The computational tool based on the Stochastic Boundary Element Method is also given for the reliability analysis of a curvilinear fatigue crack growth. The existing PFEM's have been applied to solve for two types of problems: (1) determination of the response uncertainty in terms of the means, variance and correlation coefficients; and (2) determination the probability of failure associated with prescribed limit states.

Belytschko, Ted↗

A Statistical Approach for the Concurrent Coupling of Molecular Dynamics and Finite Element Methods

Molecular dynamics (MD) methods are opening new opportunities for simulating the fundamental processes of material behavior at the atomistic level. However, increasing the size of the MD domain quickly presents intractable computational demands. A robust approach to surmount this computational limitation has been to unite continuum modeling procedures such as the finite element method (FEM) with MD analyses thereby reducing the region of atomic scale refinement. The challenging problem is to seamlessly connect the two inherently different simulation techniques at their interface. In the present work, a new approach to MD-FEM coupling is developed based on a restatement of the typical boundary value problem used to define a coupled domain. The method uses statistical averaging of the atomistic MD domain to provide displacement interface boundary conditions to the surrounding continuum FEM region, which, in return, generates interface reaction forces applied as piecewise constant traction boundary conditions to the MD domain. The two systems are computationally disconnected and communicate only through a continuous update of their boundary conditions. With the use of statistical averages of the atomistic quantities to couple the two computational schemes, the developed approach is referred to as an embedded statistical coupling method (ESCM) as opposed to a direct coupling method where interface atoms and FEM nodes are individually related. The methodology is inherently applicable to three-dimensional domains, avoids discretization of the continuum model down to atomic scales, and permits arbitrary temperatures to be applied.

Saether, E.↗

The Effects of Different Lattice Codes on Results of Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis

According to the UAM ('Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling') benchmark, uncertainties in the LWR system calculations at all stages should be determined and quantified. As the neutronics calculations are prerequisite for the predictions of the reactor system, and the uncertainties introduced by the neutronics calculations would be propagated to the subsequent calculations, hence uncertainty analysis has been firstly focused on the neutronics phase to quantify the uncertainties of the reactor-physics predictions in UAM. For the lattice physics, the objective of uncertainty analysis is focused on uncertainty quantifications of the few-group constants; for the core physics, uncertainties of the core steady-state stand-alone neutronics calculations are focused on. Based on the previous researches, the nuclear-data uncertainty has been treated as one of the most significant source of uncertainty and received the most focus. In the previous works, the domestic code UNICORN has the capability of performing sensitivity analysis and uncertainty analysis using the direct numerical perturbation (DNP) method and statistical sampling (SS) method. In this paper, the capability of the UNICORN code has been improved. The domestic lattice code NECP-CACTI has been added in UNICORN to perform the lattice calculations, with DRAGON5.0 and NECP-CACTI available for lattice calculations. For DRAGON5.0 and NECP-CACTI, all the methods and technologies are shared in UNICORN. Therefore, the effects of different lattice codes on the results of sensitivity and uncertainty analysis have been researched and determined in this paper. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

An investigation of the 'Overlap' between the Statistical-Discrete-Gust and the Power-Spectral-Density analysis methods

This paper presents the results of a NASA investigation of a claimed 'Overlap' between two gust response analysis methods: the Statistical Discrete Gust (SDG) method and the Power Spectral Density (PSD) method. The claim is that the ratio of an SDG response to the corresponding PSD response is 10.4. Analytical results presented in this paper for several different airplanes at several different flight conditions indicate that such an 'Overlap' does appear to exist. However, the claim was not met precisely: a scatter of up to about 10 percent about the 10.4 factor can be expected.

Perry, Boyd, III↗

Publishing unbinned differential cross section results

Machine learning tools have empowered a qualitatively new way to perform differential cross section measurements whereby the data are unbinned, possibly in many dimensions. Unbinned measurements can enable, improve, or at least simplify comparisons between experiments and with theoretical predictions. Furthermore, many-dimensional measurements can be used to define observables after the measurement instead of before. There is currently no community standard for publishing unbinned data. While there are also essentially no measurements of this type public, unbinned measurements are expected in the near future given recent methodological advances. The purpose of this paper is to propose a scheme for presenting and using unbinned results, which can hopefully form the basis for a community standard to allow for integration into analysis workflows. This is foreseen to be the start of an evolving community dialogue, in order to accommodate future developments in this field that is rapidly evolving.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Signal detection amid noise with known statistics

Conventional methods of signal detection are based on the comparison of a local signal-to-noise ratio S/N to some threshold value. We present a new method that compares instead the histogram of the data with the one expected for background noise alone. Signals are detected from discrepancies between the two. We expect it to be applicable in the detection of signals from any data whose background statistics is known. To illustrate the method, we apply it to the case of photon-limited imaging data where the underlying background is Poissonian. Numerical simulations are used to check the efficiency of our method, finding that for signals with low S/N (less than 5), it detects signals with a higher degree of reliability than the conventional method.

Zepka, A. F.↗

Radar prediction of absolute rain fade distributions for earth-satellite paths and general methods for extrapolation of fade statistics to other locations

The first absolute rain fade distribution method described establishes absolute fade statistics at a given site by means of a sampled radar data base. The second method extrapolates absolute fade statistics from one location to another, given simultaneously measured fade and rain rate statistics at the former. Both methods employ similar conditional fade statistic concepts and long term rain rate distributions. Probability deviations in the 2-19% range, with an 11% average, were obtained upon comparison of measured and predicted levels at given attenuations. The extrapolation of fade distributions to other locations at 28 GHz showed very good agreement with measured data at three sites located in the continental temperate region.

Goldhirsh, J.↗

Incorporating Snow Albedo Feedback into Downscaled Temperature and Snow Cover Projections for California’s Sierra Nevada

California’s Sierra Nevada is a high-elevation mountain range with significant seasonal snow cover. Under anthropogenic climate change, amplification of the warming is expected to occur at elevations near snow margins due to snow albedo feedback. However, climate change projections for the Sierra Nevada made by global climate models (GCMs) and statistical downscaling methods miss this key process. Dynamical downscaling simulates the additional warming due to snow albedo feedback. Ideally, dynamical downscaling would be applied to a large ensemble of 30 or more GCMs to project ensemble-mean outcomes and intermodel spread, but this is far too computationally expensive. To approximate the results that would occur if the entire GCM ensemble were dynamically downscaled, a hybrid dynamical–statistical downscaling approach is used. First, dynamical downscaling is used to reconstruct the historical climate of the 1981–2000 period and then to project the future climate of the 2081–2100 period based on climate changes from five GCMs. Next, a statistical model is built to emulate the dynamically downscaled warming and snow cover changes for any GCM. This statistical model is used to produce warming and snow cover loss projections for all available CMIP5 GCMs. These projections incorporate snow albedo feedback, so they capture the local warming enhancement (up to 3°C) from snow cover loss that other statistical methods miss. Capturing these details may be important for accurately projecting impacts on surface hydrology, water resources, and ecosystems

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗