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At least 1,009 records · Page 56

Hybrid Gibbs Sampling and MCMC for CMB Analysis at Small Angular Scales

A) Gibbs Sampling has now been validated as an efficient, statistically exact, and practically useful method for "low-L" (as demonstrated on WMAP temperature polarization data). B) We are extending Gibbs sampling to directly propagate uncertainties in both foreground and instrument models to total uncertainty in cosmological parameters for the entire range of angular scales relevant for Planck. C) Made possible by inclusion of foreground model parameters in Gibbs sampling and hybrid MCMC and Gibbs sampling for the low signal to noise (high-L) regime. D) Future items to be included in the Bayesian framework include: 1) Integration with Hybrid Likelihood (or posterior) code for cosmological parameters; 2) Include other uncertainties in instrumental systematics? (I.e. beam uncertainties, noise estimation, calibration errors, other).

Gibbs sampling↗

Data-Driven Strategies for Accelerated Materials Design

The ongoing revolution of the natural sciences by the advent of machine learning and artificial intelligence sparked significant interest in the material science community in recent years. The intrinsically high dimensionality of the space of realizable materials makes traditional approaches ineffective for large-scale explorations. Modern data science and machine learning tools developed for increasingly complicated problems are an attractive alternative. An imminent climate catastrophe calls for a clean energy transformation by overhauling current technologies within only several years of possible action available. Tackling this crisis requires the development of new materials at an unprecedented pace and scale. For example, organic photovoltaics have the potential to replace existing silicon-based materials to a large extent and open up new fields of application. In recent years, organic light-emitting diodes have emerged as state-of-the-art technology for digital screens and portable devices and are enabling new applications with flexible displays. Reticular frameworks allow the atom-precise synthesis of nanomaterials and promise to revolutionize the field by the potential to realize multifunctional nanoparticles with applications from gas storage, gas separation, and electrochemical energy storage to nanomedicine. In the recent decade, significant advances in all these fields have been facilitated by the comprehensive application of simulation and machine learning for property prediction, property optimization, and chemical space exploration enabled by considerable advances in computing power and algorithmic efficiency. In this Account, we review the most recent contributions of our group in this thriving field of machine learning for material science. We start with a summary of the most important material classes our group has been involved in, focusing on small molecules as organic electronic materials and crystalline materials. Specifically, we highlight the data-driven approaches we employed to speed up discovery and derive material design strategies. Subsequently, our focus lies on the data-driven methodologies our group has developed and employed, elaborating on high-throughput virtual screening, inverse molecular design, Bayesian optimization, and supervised learning. We discuss the general ideas, their working principles, and their use cases with examples of successful implementations in data-driven material discovery and design efforts. Furthermore, we elaborate on potential pitfalls and remaining challenges of these methods. Finally, we provide a brief outlook for the field as we foresee increasing adaptation and implementation of large scale data-driven approaches in material discovery and design campaigns.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Almost medium-free measurement of the Hoyle state direct-decay component with a TPC

The structure of the Hoyle state, a highly α -clustered state at 7.65 MeV in 12 C, has long been the subject of debate. Understanding if the system comprises of three weakly interacting α particles in the 0s orbital, known as an α-condensate state, is possible by studying the decay branches of the Hoyle state. The direct decay of the Hoyle state into three α particles, rather than through the 8 Be ground state, can be identified by studying the energy partition of the three α particles arising from the decay. This paper provides details on the breakup mechanism of the Hoyle stating using a new experimental technique. Method: By using β-delayed charged-particle spectroscopy of 12 N using the Texas active target time-projection chamber, a high-sensitivity measurement of the direct 3α decay ratio can be performed without contributions from pileup events. A Bayesian approach to understanding the contribution of the direct components via a likelihood function shows that the direct component is <0.043% at the 95% confidence level. This value is in agreement with several other studies, and, here, we can demonstrate that a small nonsequential component with a decay fraction of about 10 –4 is most likely. Here, the measurement of the non-sequential component of the Hoyle state decay is performed in an almost medium-free reaction for the first time. The derived upper limit is in agreement with previous studies and demonstrates sensitivity to the absolute branching ratio. Further experimental studies would need to be combined with robust microscopic theoretical understanding of the decay dynamics to provide additional insight into the idea of the Hoyle state as an α condensate.

6 ≤ A ≤ 19↗

Real-time Event Detection Using Rank Signatures of Real-world PMU Data

Timely detection of power system events is a crucial task, which can facilitate the implementation of remedial actions to improve reliability, resiliency, and security of the system. Meanwhile, the widespread deployment of phasor measurement units (PMUs) makes it possible to develop data-driven event detection techniques. However, relying purely on data without incorporating domain knowledge for the event detection task in power systems poses substantial security and stability risks due to issues associated with data misinterpretation and model accuracy. In this regard, we propose a real-time event detection method using real-world PMU data by incorporating domain knowledge to adequately capture the event signatures. Specifically, we track the change in rank signatures of PMU data to accurately localize the events. To optimize the detection process, we incorporate an offline Bayesian optimization algorithm to tune the parameters by efficiently searching for the best values. The experiments using the real-world PMU dataset from a U.S. interconnection show that the proposed event detection approach can efficiently detect the events from PMU data streams with high accuracy.

Ghasemkhani, Amir↗

Understanding Material Strength Variabilities and Uncertainties for Component Qualification (2020 LDRD Final Report)

At its core, material specification and materials qualification require an understanding of the uncertainties in relation to a given performance metric. When simulations are used to inform the design and evaluation of these metrics, it is essential to understand the uncertainties in the underlying models and parameters that feed into those simulations. In this work, we have created a statistical framework to address uncertainties in the materials strength modeling used in integrated simulations. The framework is based on the Bayesian methodology, which allows for uncertainties to be updated as new data become available. The results of this work show how model parameters and their uncertainties can be updated as new and different types of strength data are added, as well as methods for determining which future experiment has the greatest potential to reduce the uncertainty. The statistical framework developed in this project will be utilized to assess and propagate the uncertainties in the strength models used in the programmatic simulations and to create a way to formally update those uncertainties as new data become available.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Correlations between the Neutron Star Mass–Radius Relation and the Equation of State of Dense Matter

We develop an analytic method of inverting the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff relations to high accuracy. In principle, a specified energy density–pressure relation gives a unique mass–radius (M–R) relation and vice versa. Our method is developed from the strong correlations that are shown to exist between the neutron star mass–radius curve and the equation of state (EOS) or pressure–energy density relation. Selecting points that have masses equal to fixed fractions of the maximum mass, we find a semi-universal power-law relation between the central energy densities, pressures, sound speeds, chemical potentials, and number densities of those stars, with the maximum mass and the radii of one or more fractional maximum mass points. Rms fitting accuracies, for EOSs without large first-order phase transitions, are typically 0.5% for all quantities at all mass points. The method also works well, although less accurately, in reconstructing the EOS of hybrid stars with first-order phase transitions. These results permit, in effect, an analytic method of inverting an arbitrary M–R curve to yield its underlying EOS. We discuss applications of this inversion technique to the inference of the dense matter EOS from measurements of neutron star masses and radii as a possible alternative to traditional Bayesian approaches.

Bayesian statistics↗

Modeling the Swift BAT Trigger Algorithm with Machine Learning

To draw inferences about gamma-ray burst (GRB) source populations based on Swift observations, it is essential to understand the detection efficiency of the Swift burst alert telescope (BAT). This study considers the problem of modeling the Swift BAT triggering algorithm for long GRBs, a computationally expensive procedure, and models it using machine learning algorithms. A large sample of simulated GRBs from Lien et al. (2014) is used to train various models: random forests, boosted decision trees (with AdaBoost), support vector machines, and artificial neural networks. The best models have accuracies of approximately greater than 97% (approximately less than 3% error), which is a significant improvement on a cut in GRB flux which has an accuracy of 89:6% (10:4% error). These models are then used to measure the detection efficiency of Swift as a function of redshift z, which is used to perform Bayesian parameter estimation on the GRB rate distribution. We find a local GRB rate density of eta(sub 0) approximately 0.48(+0.41/-0.23) Gpc(exp -3) yr(exp -1) with power-law indices of eta(sub 1) approximately 1.7(+0.6/-0.5) and eta(sub 2) approximately -5.9(+5.7/-0.1) for GRBs above and below a break point of z(sub 1) approximately 6.8(+2.8/-3.2). This methodology is able to improve upon earlier studies by more accurately modeling Swift detection and using this for fully Bayesian model fitting. The code used in this is analysis is publicly available online.

gamma rays: general↗

A Singular Value Decomposition Framework for Retrievals with Vertical Distribution Information from Greenhouse Gas Column Absorption Spectroscopy Measurements

We review the singular value decomposition (SVD) framework and use it for quantifying and discerning vertical information in greenhouse gas retrievals from column integrated absorption measurements. While the commonly used traditional Bayesian optimal estimation (OE) assumes a prior distribution in order to regularize the inversion problem, the SVD approach identifies principal components that can be retrieved from the measurement without explicitly specifying a prior mean and prior covariance matrix. We review the SVD method, explicitly recognize the use of an uninformative prior and show it to incur no bias from the choice of the prior. We also make the connection between the SVD method and the pseudo-inverse, which makes it more intuitive and easy to understand. We illustrate the use of the SVD method on an integrated path differential absorption CO2 lidar measurement model and verify our derivations and bias-free properties versus optimal estimation using numerical simulations. In contrast, traditional OE retrievals exhibit bias when the prior mean used in the retrieval differs from the true mean. Hence, the SVD method is particularly useful for situations in which knowledge of the prior mean and prior covariance of the true state (e.g., greenhouse gas profiles) is inadequate.

Ramanathan, Anand K.↗

Behavior modeling for cybersecurity

In this paper, we elaborate on the key actors within the context of the cyber world at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and use Bayesian Belief Networks to represent the causal and probabilistic relationships between the various elements that affect an actor and the likelihood of exploits and adverse consequences that can occur due to an exploit. We assess the effectiveness of each of the mitigative methods and the sensitivity of the system to each of the aggravating as well as mitigative factors. We use a combination of objective incident data and Subject Matter Expert knowledge as input to these models.

King, James↗

Inferring pesticide toxicity to honey bees from a field‐based feeding study using a colony model and Bayesian inference

Abstract Honey bees are crucial pollinators for agricultural crops but are threatened by a multitude of stressors including exposure to pesticides. Linking our understanding of how pesticides affect individual bees to colony‐level responses is challenging because colonies show emergent properties based on complex internal processes and interactions among individual bees. Agent‐based models that simulate honey bee colony dynamics may be a tool for scaling between individual and colony effects of a pesticide. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are developing the VarroaPop + Pesticide model, which simulates the dynamics of honey bee colonies and how they respond to multiple stressors, including weather, Varroa mites, and pesticides. To evaluate this model, we used Approximate Bayesian Computation to fit field data from an empirical study where honey bee colonies were fed the insecticide clothianidin. This allowed us to reproduce colony feeding study data by simulating colony demography and mortality from ingestion of contaminated food. We found that VarroaPop + Pesticide was able to fit general trends in colony population size and structure and reproduce colony declines from increasing clothianidin exposure. The model underestimated adverse effects at low exposure (36 µg/kg), however, and overestimated recovery at the highest exposure level (140 µg/kg), for the adult and pupa endpoints, suggesting that mechanisms besides oral toxicity‐induced mortality may have played a role in colony declines. The VarroaPop + Pesticide model estimates an adult oral LD 50 of 18.9 ng/bee (95% CI 10.1–32.6) based on the simulated feeding study data, which falls just above the 95% confidence intervals of values observed in laboratory toxicology studies on individual bees. Overall, our results demonstrate a novel method for analyzing colony‐level data on pesticide effects on bees and making inferences on pesticide toxicity to individual bees.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

a priori uncertainty quantification of reacting turbulence closure models using Bayesian neural networks

While many physics-based closure model forms have been posited for the sub-filter scale (SFS) in large eddy simulation (LES), vast amounts of data available from direct numerical simulations (DNS) create opportunities to leverage data-driven modeling techniques. Albeit flexible, data-driven models still depend on the dataset and the functional form of the model chosen. Increased adoption of such models requires reliable uncertainty estimates both in the data-informed and out-of-distribution regimes. Here, in this work, we employ Bayesian neural networks (BNNs) to capture both epistemic and aleatoric uncertainties in a reacting flow model. In particular, we model the filtered progress variable scalar dissipation rate which plays a key role in the dynamics of turbulent premixed flames. We demonstrate that BNN models can provide unique insights about the structure of uncertainty of the data-driven closure models. We also propose a method for the incorporation of out-of-distribution information in a BNN, which can be used for out-of-distribution query detection. The efficacy of the model is demonstrated by a priori evaluation on a dataset consisting of a variety of flame conditions and fuels.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Understanding the role of segmentation on process-structure–property predictions made via machine learning

Here, the present study investigated the effect of porosity surface determination methods on performance of machine learning models used to predict the tensile properties of AlSi10Mg processed by laser powder bed fusion from micro-computed tomography data. Machine learning models applied in this work include support vector machines, neural networks, decision trees, and Bayesian classifiers. The effects of isosurface thresholding and local gradient approaches for porosity segmentation, as well as image filtering schemes, on model precision were evaluated for samples produced under differing levels of global energy density.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

BASS: An R Package for Fitting and Performing Sensitivity Analysis of Bayesian Adaptive Spline Surfaces

In this work, we present the R package BASS as a tool for nonparametric regression. The primary focus of the package is fitting fully Bayesian adaptive spline surface (BASS) models and performing global sensitivity analyses of these models. The BASS framework is similar to that of Bayesian multivariate adaptive regression splines (BMARS) from Denison, Mallick, and Smith (1998), but with many added features. The software is built to efficiently handle significant amounts of data with many continuous or categorical predictors and with functional response. Under our Bayesian framework, most priors are automatic but these can be modified by the user to focus on parsimony and the avoidance of overfitting. If directed to do so, the software uses parallel tempering to improve the reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (RJMCMC) methods used to perform inference. We discuss the implementation of these features and present the performance of BASS in a number of analyses of simulated and real data.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Interpolating Fields of Carbon Monoxide Data Using a Hybrid Statistical-Physical Model

Atmospheric Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a pollutant gas of which the US congress has mandated regular monitoring, and satellite sensors can be used to retrieve regional concentrations of CO over several vertical layers. However, CO at cloudy locations cannot be observed and have to be estimated from the observed data set, resulting in an interpolation problem. The current state-of-the-art solution is to combine prior information, computed by a deterministic physical model, with observations. However, the deterministic model may introduce uncertainties that do not derive from the data. While sharing certain features with the physical model, this paper presents a Bayesian hierarchical model for interpolating CO on a 3-dimensional spatial grid, across time. To our knowledge such a model has not been considered before. The model is applied to a hypothetical air-quality monitoring scenario, and is compared to existing interpolation methods. The results provide motivation for the use of the statistical model for regional to local applications.

Arellano, A. A.↗

Evaluating Coastal Landscape Response to Sea-Level Rise in the Northeastern United States - Approach and Methods

The U.S. Geological Survey is examining effects of future sea-level rise on the coastal landscape from Maine to Virginia by producing spatially explicit, probabilistic predictions using sea-level projections, vertical land movement rates (due to isostacy), elevation data, and land-cover data. Sea-level-rise scenarios used as model inputs are generated by using multiple sources of information, including Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 models following representative concentration pathways 4.5 and 8.5 in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report. A Bayesian network is used to develop a predictive coastal response model that integrates the sea-level, elevation, and land-cover data with assigned probabilities that account for interactions with coastal geomorphology as well as the corresponding ecological and societal systems it supports. The effects of sea-level rise are presented as (1) level of landscape submergence and (2) coastal response type characterized as either static (that is, inundation) or dynamic (that is, landform or landscape change). Results are produced at a spatial scale of 30 meters for four decades (the 2020s, 2030s, 2050s, and 2080s). The probabilistic predictions can be applied to landscape management decisions based on sea-level-rise effects as well as on assessments of the prediction uncertainty and need for improved data or fundamental understanding. This report describes the methods used to produce predictions, including information on input datasets; the modeling approach; model outputs; data-quality-control procedures; and information on how to access the data and metadata online.

terrain↗

Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Models for Day-Ahead Photovoltaic Power Production Forecasting

A main challenge for integrating the intermittent photovoltaic (PV) power generation remains the accuracy of day-ahead forecasts and the establishment of robust performing methods. The purpose of this work is to address these technological challenges by evaluating the day-ahead PV production forecasting performance of different machine learning models under different supervised learning regimes and minimal input features. Specifically, the day-ahead forecasting capability of Bayesian neural network (BNN), support vector regression (SVR), and regression tree (RT) models was investigated by employing the same dataset for training and performance verification, thus enabling a valid comparison. The training regime analysis demonstrated that the performance of the investigated models was strongly dependent on the timeframe of the train set, training data sequence, and application of irradiance condition filters. Furthermore, accurate results were obtained utilizing only the measured power output and other calculated parameters for training. Consequently, useful information is provided for establishing a robust day-ahead forecasting methodology that utilizes calculated input parameters and an optimal supervised learning approach. Finally, the obtained results demonstrated that the optimally constructed BNN outperformed all other machine learning models achieving forecasting accuracies lower than 5%.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Health Management and Prognostics for Electric Aircraft Powertrain

W and c Any air borne vehicle needs incorporating safety as key parameter of measure, and inclusion of autonomy raises the critical need for safety under autonomous operations. Management of faults and component degradation is key as complexity in autonomous operations grow over the period of time. Therefore, in addition to basic operational requirements, an autonomous electric vehicle should be able to make accurate estimates of its current system health and take the correct decisions to complete its mission successfully. Real-time safety and state-awareness tools are therefore essential for the vehicle to be able to reach its destination in a safe and successful manner. The need for safety assurance and health management capabilities is particularly relevant for aircraft electric propulsion systems, which are relatively new and with limited historical to learn. They are critical systems requiring high power density along with reliability, resilience, efficient management of weight, and operational costs. A model- based fault diagnosis and prognostics approach of complex critical systems can successfully accomplish the safety and state awareness goal for such electric propulsion systems, enabling autonomous decision making capability for safe and efficient operation. To identify critical components in the system a Qualitative Bayesian approach using FMECA is implemented. This requires the assessment of some quantities representing the state of the electric unmanned aerial systems (e-UAS), as well as look-ahead forecasts of such states during the entire flight, presented in form of safety metrics (SM). In-service data and performance data gathered from degraded components sup- ports diagnostic and prognostic methods for these systems, but this data can be difficult to obtain as weight and packaging restrictions reduce redundancy and instrumentation on-board the vehicle. Therefore, an model-based framework should be capable or operating with limited data. In addition to data scarcity, the variability of such complex critical systems re- quires the model-based framework to reason in the presence of uncertainty, such as sensor noise, and modeling imperfections. Quantification of errors and uncertainties in the measured states and quantities is therefore a fundamental step for a precise estimation of such SMs; un-modeled uncertainty may result in erroneous state assessment and un- reliable predictions of future states of e-UAVs. Typical, centralized model-based schemes suffer from inherent disadvantages such as computational complexity, single point of failure, and scalability issues, and therefore may fail in such a complex scenario. This paper presents a methodology for developing a system level diagnostics and prognostics approach using a Qualitative Bayesian FMECA approach along with a formal uncertainty management framework for an e-UAS. In this work we demonstrate the efficacy of the framework to predict effects of sub-system level degradation on vehicle operation incorporating uncertainty management to predict future behavior under different operating conditions.

Kulkarni, Chetan↗