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At least 991 records · Page 55

Satellite cell proliferation in adult skeletal muscle

Novel methods of retroviral-mediated gene transfer for the in vivo corporation and stable expression of eukaryotic or prokaryotic foreign genes in tissues of living animals is described. More specifically, methods of incorporating foreign genes into mitotically active cells are disclosed. The constitutive and stable expression of E. coli .beta.-galactosidase gene under the promoter control of the Moloney murine leukemia virus long terminal repeat is employed as a particularly preferred embodiment, by way of example, establishes the model upon which the incorporation of a foreign gene into a mitotically-active living eukaryotic tissue is based. Use of the described methods in therapeutic treatments for genetic diseases, such as those muscular degenerative diseases, is also presented. In muscle tissue, the described processes result in genetically-altered satellite cells which proliferate daughter myoblasts which preferentially fuse to form a single undamaged muscle fiber replacing damaged muscle tissue in a treated animal. The retroviral vector, by way of example, includes a dystrophin gene construct for use in treating muscular dystrophy. The present invention also comprises an experimental model utilizable in the study of the physiological regulation of skeletal muscle gene expression in intact animals.

Booth, Frank W.↗

Calibrating a 3-Axis Accelerometer Instrument with a Less Accurate Calibration Device Part 1: Mathematical Methodology

A three-axis accelerometer instrument (3xAI) can provide the angular attitude of a 3D object using the gravity vector (g) as the sole reference. Calibrating such an instrument requires placing it at known (to some accuracy plus uncertainty) angular articulations with respect to g. This paper will show a potential process for calibrating a 3xAI by using a 2-axis rotary system (calibration device) to provide these articulations. Any calibration device (CD) with such capacity will contain internal misalignments. These misalignments, even if made relatively small or approximated to zero in the kinematics model (KM), can be detrimental to the calibration of the instrument when high measurement accuracy is required. This is especially true if the selected set of articulations chosen for calibration do not include their symmetrical counterpoints (a point where the misalignment has equal magnitude but is opposite in direction to a point chosen). The consequence of not including the combination, point and counterpoint, for any misalignment involved in the calibration, results in a biased instrument. This paper will demonstrate a calibration of the instrument using symbolic math resulting in a closed-form solution of the instrument coefficients. The main objective is to show the impact of all the CD misalignments to the instrument coefficients. This process is the basis for a more sophisticated method (shown in a future paper) for obtaining the instrument coefficients while simultaneously obtaining an estimate of the calibration device internal misalignments.

Angle↗

SVM-Based Synchronized Fault Detection for 100% Renewable Microgrids: Preprint

Traditional protection schemes face significant challenges when applied to microgrids with high penetrations of renewables with inverter-based resources (IBRs). The proliferation of advanced sensing and communication technologies has generated copious data, offering an opportunity to overcome these limitations using data-driven machine learning approaches. This work proposes a novel approach based on a support vector machine (SVM) for detecting faults within a 100% renewable microgrid. The approach encompasses a systematic offline training stage for the development of a linear SVM-based fault detection algorithm. This process covers offline data collection from the microgrid under study, the extraction of features such as positive- and negative-sequence components and the total harmonic distortion of the voltage and current measurements of the relays, and the design of the linear SVM-based classifier. During the online implementation, however, different classifiers can exhibit asynchronicity in detecting the fault inception at different subcycle-to-cycle period-level delays. To circumvent this asynchronicity issue, a separate algorithm is developed for each relay to estimate the fault inception time as close to the real fault time. The performance of the proposed SVM-based synchronized fault detection method is evaluated using online time-domain simulation studies on a microgrid test system. The results corroborate the reliability of the fault detection scheme when tested under various fault cases (fault types, locations, and impedances) and non-fault cases during both grid-tied and islanded operation modes.

100% microgrid↗

Infrared and radar fusion detection method based on heterogeneous data preprocessing

The difficulty in infrared and radar fusion target detection lies in the pre-processing steps such as sample reduction and feature reduction of heterogeneous sensors. For the problem of data volume redundancy, HVS sample reduction is proposed to reduce the amount of data in the infrared data set. Infrared and radar joint feature vectors are constructed through nearest neighbor data association. For the problem of feature redundancy, a weighted mutual information feature selection method based on prior information is proposed according to the difference of feature sources. The fusion data set is then used for classification. The experiments show that the HVS-based sample reduction and the prior weighted feature selection achieved a higher detection probability and a shorter detection time, and improved the robustness in the case of large differences between the training set and the test set.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Development of Short-Term Forecasting Models Using Plant Asset Data and Feature Selection

Nuclear power plants collect and store large volumes of heterogeneous data from various components and systems. With recent advances in machine learning (ML) techniques, these data can be leveraged to develop diagnostic and short-term forecasting models to better predict future equipment condition. Maintenance operations can then be planned in advance whenever degraded performance is predicted, thus resulting in fewer unplanned outages and the optimization of maintenance activities. This enables lower maintenance costs and improves the overall economics of nuclear power. This paper focuses on developing a short-term forecasting process that leverages a feature selection process to distill large volumes of heterogeneous data and predict specific equipment parameters. A variety of feature selection methods, including Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) and variance inflation factor (VIF), were used to select the optimal features as inputs for three ML methods: long short-term memory (LSTM) networks, support vector regression (SVR), and random forest (RF). Each combination of model and input features was used to predict a pump bearing temperature both 1 and 24 hours in advance, based on actual plant system data. The optimal inputs for the LSTM and SVR were selected using the SHAP values, while the optimal input for the RF consisted solely of the response variable itself. Each model produced similar 1-hour-ahead predictions, with root mean square errors (RMSEs) of roughly 0.006. For the 24-hour-ahead predictions, differences could be seen between LSTM, SVR, and RF, as reflected by model performances of 0.036 +- 0.014, 0.0026 +- 0, and 0.063 +- 0.004 RMSE, respectively. As big data and continuous online monitoring become more widely available, the proposed feature selection process can be used for many applications beyond the prediction of process parameters within nuclear infrastructure.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Classification and regression models of audio and vibration signals for machine state monitoring in precision machining systems

Here we present a data-driven method for monitoring machine status in manufacturing processes. Audio and vibration data from precision machining are used for inference in two operating scenarios: (a) variable machine health states (anomaly detection); and (b) settings of machine operation (state estimation). Audio and vibration signals are first processed through Fast Fourier Transform and Principal Component Analysis to extract transformed and informative features. These features are then used in the training of classification and regression models for machine state monitoring. Specifically, three classifiers (K-nearest neighbors, convolutional neural networks and support vector machines) and two regressors (support vector regression and neural network regression) were explored, in terms of their accuracy in machine state prediction. It is shown that the audio and vibration signals are sufficiently rich in information about the machine that 100% state classification accuracy could be accomplished. Data fusion was also explored, showing overall superior accuracy of data-driven regression models.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Identification of Flux Rope Orientation via Neural Networks

Geomagnetic disturbance forecasting is based on the identification of solar wind structures and accurate determination of their magnetic field orientation. For nowcasting activities, this is currently a tedious and manual process. Focusing on the main driver of geomagnetic disturbances, the twisted internal magnetic field of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), we explore a convolutional neural network’s (CNN) ability to predict the embedded magnetic flux rope’s orientation once it has been identified from in situ solar wind observations. Our work uses CNNs trained with magnetic field vectors from analytical flux rope data. The simulated flux ropes span many possible spacecraft trajectories and flux rope orientations. We train CNNs first with full duration flux ropes and then again with partial duration flux ropes. The former provides us with a baseline of how well CNNs can predict flux rope orientation while the latter provides insights into real-time forecasting by exploring how accuracy is affected by percentage of flux rope observed. The process of casting the physics problem as a machine learning problem is discussed as well as the impacts of different factors on prediction accuracy such as flux rope fluctuations and different neural network topologies. Finally, results from evaluating the trained network against observed ICMEs from Wind during 1995–2015 are presented.

Thomas Narock↗

Double Diffusive Convection in Materials Processing

A great number of crystals grown in space are plagued by convective motions which contribute to structural flaws. The character of these instabilities is not well understood but is associated with density variations in the presence of residual gravity (g-jitter). As a specific example, past HgCdTe crystal growth space experiments by Lehoczky and co-workers indicate radial compositional asymmetry in the grown crystals. In the case of HgCdTe the rejected component into the melt upon solidification is HgTe which is denser than the melt. The space grown crystals indicate the presence of three dimensional flow with the heavier HgTe-rich material clearly aligned with the residual gravity (0.55-1.55 micro g) vector. This flow stems from double-diffusive convection, namely, thermal and solutal buoyancy driven flow in the melt. The study of double-diffusive convection is multi-faceted and rather vast. In our investigation, we seek to focus on one specific aspect of this discipline that is of direct relevance to materials processing especially crystal growth, namely, the side ways heating regime. This problem has been widely studied, both experimentally and numerically, in the context of solar ponds wherein the system is characterized by a linear salt (solutal) gradient with an imposed lateral temperature gradient. The induced flow instabilities arise from the wide disparity between the fluid thermal diffusivity and the solute diffusivity. The extension of the analysis to practical crystal growth applications has however not been rigorously made and understood. One subtle but important difference in crystal growth systems is the fact that die system solute gradient is non-linear (typically exponential). Besides, the crystal growth problem has the added complexities of solidification, both lateral and longitudinal thermal gradients and segregation phenomena in systems where binary and ternary compounds are being grown. This paper treats the side ways heating problem alone in a model fluid system. Results from detailed numerical calculations, mainly two dimensional are provided. The interactions between a non-linear solute gradient and an imposed transverse thermal gradient are investigated. The buoyancy effects are treated in the traditional Boussinesq approximation and also in a more complete density formulation to address recent concerns of the first approach especially in simulations of the system response in a reduced gravity environment. Detailed flow, temperature and solute field plots along with heat and mass transfer results are presented in the paper. Implications to practical crystal growth systems as discerned from the modeling results are also explored and reported.

Ramachandra, Narayanan↗

Analytics-at-scale of Sensor Data for Digital Monitoring in Nuclear Plants (3 rd Annual Report)

Nuclear power plants collect and store large volumes of heterogeneous data from various components and systems. With recent advances in machine learning (ML) techniques, these data can be leveraged to develop diagnostic and short-term forecasting models to better predict future equipment condition. Maintenance operations can then be planned in advance whenever degraded performance is predicted, thus resulting in fewer unplanned outages and the optimization of maintenance activities. This enables lower maintenance costs and improves the overall economics of nuclear power. This report primarily focuses on developing a short-term forecasting process that leverages a feature selection process to distill large volumes of heterogeneous data and predict specific equipment parameters. A variety of feature selection methods, including Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) and variance inflation factor (VIF), were used to select the optimal features as inputs for three ML methods: long short-term memory (LSTM) networks, support vector regression (SVR), and random forest (RF). Each combination of model and input features was used to predict a pump bearing temperature both 1 and 24 hours in advance, based on actual plant system data. The optimal inputs for the LSTM and SVR were selected using the SHAP values, while the optimal input for the RF consisted solely of the response variable itself. Each model produced similar 1-hour-ahead predictions, with root mean square errors (RMSEs) of roughly 0.006. For the 24-hour-ahead predictions, differences could be seen between LSTM, SVR, and RF, as reflected by model performances of 0.036 ± 0.014, 0.0026 ± 0, and 0.063 ± 0.004 RMSE, respectively. As big data and continuous online monitoring become more widely available, the proposed feature selection process can be used for many applications beyond the prediction of process parameters within nuclear infrastructure. This report summarizes the Fiscal Year 2021 research progress encompassing the (1) data cleaning and feature selection necessary for ML applications; (2) development of short-term forecasting models to predict future plant process parameters for both single and multiple time steps ahead; and (3) validation of the feature selection methods and short-term forecasting models given new data from different systems.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Method for providing a polarization filter for processing synthetic aperture radar image data

A polarization filter can maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of a polarimetric SAR and help discriminate between targets or enhance image features, e.g., enhance contract between different types of target. The method disclosed is based on the Stokes matrix/Stokes vector representation, so the targets of interest can be extended targets, and the method can also be applied to the case of bistatic polarimetric radars.

Dubois, Pascale C.↗

Delaunay walk for fast nearest neighbor: accelerating correspondence matching for ICP

Point set registration algorithms such as Iterative Closest Point (ICP) are commonly utilized in time-constrained environments like robotics. Finding the nearest neighbor of a point in a reference 3D point set is a common operation in ICP and frequently consumes at least 90% of the computation time. We introduce a novel approach to performing the distance-based nearest neighbor step based on Delaunay triangulation. This greedy algorithm finds the nearest neighbor of a query point by traversing the edges of the Delaunay triangulation created from a reference 3D point set. Our work integrates the Delaunay traversal into the correspondences search of ICP and exploits the iterative aspect of ICP by caching previous correspondences to expedite each iteration. An algorithmic analysis and comparison is conducted showing an order of magnitude speedup for both serial and vector processor implementation.

3d point cloud processing↗

DNA-assembled superconducting 3D nanoscale architectures

Studies of nanoscale superconducting structures have revealed various physical phenomena and led to the development of a wide range of applications. Most of these studies concentrated on one- and two-dimensional structures due to the lack of approaches for creation of fully engineered three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures. Here, we present a ‘bottom-up’ method to create 3D superconducting nanostructures with prescribed multiscale organization using DNA-based self-assembly methods. We assemble 3D DNA superlattices from octahedral DNA frames with incorporated nanoparticles, through connecting frames at their vertices, which result in cubic superlattices with a 48 nm unit cell. The superconductive superlattice is formed by converting a DNA superlattice first into highly-structured 3D silica scaffold, to turn it from a soft and liquid-environment dependent macromolecular construction into a solid structure, following by its coating with superconducting niobium (Nb). Through low-temperature electrical characterization we demonstrate that this process creates 3D arrays of Josephson junctions. This approach may be utilized in development of a variety of applications such as 3D Superconducting Quantum interference Devices (SQUIDs) for measurement of the magnetic field vector, highly sensitive Superconducting Quantum Interference Filters (SQIFs), and parametric amplifiers for quantum information systems.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Topology-imprinting in nonlinear metasurfaces

Flat optical components, or metasurfaces, have transformed optical imaging, data storage, information processing, and biomedical applications by providing unprecedented control over light-matter interactions. These nano-engineered structures enable compact, multidimensional manipulation of light’s amplitude, phase, polarization, and wavefront, producing scalar and vector beams with unique properties such as orbital angular momentum and knotted topologies. This flexibility has potential applications in optical communication and imaging, particularly in complex environments such as atmospheric turbulence and undersea scattering. However, designing metasurfaces for shorter wavelengths, such as visible and ultraviolet light, remains challenging due to fabrication limitations and material absorption. Here, we introduce an innovative concept called topology imprinting using judiciously designed all-dielectric nonlinear optical metasurfaces to replicate desired waveforms at fundamental and harmonic frequencies, opening promising avenues for advanced photonic applications.

42 ENGINEERING↗

FLASH: FPGA-Accelerated Smart Switches with GCN Case Study

Some communication switches, e.g., the Mellanox SHArP and those in the IBM BlueGene clusters, are augmented to process packets at the application level with fixed-function collectives. This approach, however, lacks flexibility, which limits their applicability in diverse and dynamic workloads. Recently, a new type of programmable packet processor, which uses high-level languages, e.g., P4, has emerged as possible candidates. P4-based switches, however, fall short in certain applications, including machine learning, where capabilities not currently supported by P4 are needed. These include more complex calculation, such as sparse computation and fused multiply-accumulate, data-intensive floating point operations, data reuse, and significant memory. The problem addressed here is that such a switch augmentation needs to support: a large amount of state, significant flexible compute capability, and ease of programming, all while maintaining full functionality, including ensuring high throughput, and demonstrating utility. In this work, we propose a programmable look-aside-type accelerator that can be embedded into, or attached to, existing communication switch pipelines and that is capable of processing packets at line-rate. The proposed in-switch accelerator is based on mixing an ISA (subset of RISC-V instructions) with dataflow graphs (found in CGRAs). To augment performance, vector instructions are also supported. To facilitate usability, we have developed a complete toolchain to compile user-provided C/C++ codes to appropriate back-end instructions for configuring the accelerator. While this approach is flexible enough to support various workloads, in this paper, we consider Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) as a case study. Experimental results show that this approach considerably improves the performance of distributed GCN applications.

Haghi, Pouya↗

A study of geomagnetic storms

The interplanetary energy flux is estimated on the basis of the Poynting flux and its variations with the rate of energy dissipation in terms of: (1) the ring-current particle injection, (2) Joule dissipation in the ionosphere, and (3) auroral particle injection for 15 major geomagnetic storms. A relationship, in terms of the angle between the interplanetary magnetic field vector and the magnetospheric field vector, is defined by which the growth of geomagnetic storms is closely associated with the Poynting flux. It is found that the energy flux that enters the magnetosphere is dissipated through intramagnetospheric substorm processes. Geomagnetic storm phenomena represent the combined influence of such effects.

Perreault, P.↗

A multigrid algorithm for steady transonic potential flows around aerofoils using Newton iteration

The application of multigrid relaxation to transonic potential flow calculation was investigated. Conservative potential flows around aerofoils were taken as test problems. The solution algorithm was based on Newton iteration. It was found that the iteration to the circulation has to be kept outside the multigrid algorithm. To obtain meaningful norms of residuals, difference formulas with asymptotic scaling were introduced. Nonlinear instability problems were solved by upwind differencing using mass flux vector splitting instead of artificial viscosity or artificial density. It is suggested that the algorithms efficiency be increased by improving the iteration on the shock positions even though this is a highly nonlinear process.

Boestoel, J. W.↗

Shock drift acceleration in the presence of waves

Attention is given to the initial results of a model designed to study the modification of the scatter-free, shock drift acceleration of energetic test particles by wave activity in the vicinity of a quasi-perpendicular, fast-mode MHD shock. It is emphasized that the concept of magnetic moment conservation is a valid approximation only in the perpendicular and nearly perpendicular regimes, when the angle theta-Bn between the shock normal and the upstream magnetic field vector is in the range from 70 deg to 90 deg. The present investigation is concerned with one step in a program which is being developed to combine the shock drift and diffusive processes at a shock of arbitrary theta-Bn.

Decker, R. B.↗

The SAMEX Vector Magnetograph: A Design Study for a Space-Based Solar Vector Magnetograph

This report presents the results of a pre-phase A study performed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) for the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory (AFGL) to develop a design concept for a space-based solar vector magnetograph and hydrogen-alpha telescope. These are two of the core instruments for a proposed Air Force mission, the Solar Activities Measurement Experiments (SAMEX). This mission is designed to study the processes which give rise to activity in the solar atmosphere and to develop techniques for predicting solar activity and its effects on the terrestrial environment.

Hagyard, M. J.↗