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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,027 records · Page 57
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

SWAP-Assembler: scalable and efficient genome assembly towards thousands of cores

Background: There is a widening gap between the throughput of massive parallel sequencing machines and the ability to analyze these sequencing data. Traditional assembly methods requiring long execution time and large amount of memory on a single workstation limit their use on these massive data. Results: This paper presents a highly scalable assembler named as SWAP-Assembler for processing massive sequencing data using thousands of cores, where SWAP is an acronym for Small World Asynchronous Parallel model. In the paper, a mathematical description of multi-step bi-directed graph (MSG) is provided to resolve the computational interdependence on merging edges, and a highly scalable computational framework for SWAP is developed to automatically preform the parallel computation of all operations. Graph cleaning and contig extension are also included for generating contigs with high quality. Experimental results show that SWAP-Assembler scales up to 2048 cores on Yanhuang dataset using only 26 minutes, which is better than several other parallel assemblers, such as ABySS, Ray, and PASHA. Results also show that SWAP-Assembler can generate high quality contigs with good N50 size and low error rate, especially it generated the longest N50 contig sizes for Fish and Yanhuang datasets. Conclusions: In this paper, we presented a highly scalable and efficient genome assembly software, SWAPAssembler. Compared with several other assemblers, it showed very good performance in terms of scalability and contig quality. This software is available at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/swapassembler

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Dairy Analytics and Nutrient Analysis (DANA) Prototype System User Manual

This document is a user manual for the Dairy Analytics and Nutrient Analysis (DANA) model. DANA provides an analysis of dairy anaerobic digestion technology and allows users to calculate biogas production, co-product valuation, capital costs, expenses, revenue and financial metrics, for user customizable scenarios, dairy and digester types. The model provides results for three anaerobic digester types; Covered Lagoons, Modified Plug Flow, and Complete Mix, and three main energy production technologies; electricity generation, renewable natural gas generation, and compressed natural gas generation. Additional options include different dairy types, bedding types, backend treatment type as well as numerous production, and economic parameters. DANA’s goal is to extend the National Market Value of Anaerobic Digester Products analysis (informa economics, 2012; Innovation Center, 2011) to include a greater and more flexible set of regional digester scenarios and to provide a modular framework for creation of a tool to support farmer and investor needs. Users can set up scenarios from combinations of existing parameters or add new parameters, run the model and view a variety of reports, charts and tables that are automatically produced and delivered over the web interface. DANA is based in the INL’s analysis architecture entitled Generalized Environment for Modeling Systems (GEMS) , which offers extensive collaboration, analysis, and integration opportunities and greatly speeds the ability construct highly scalable web delivered user-oriented decision tools. DANA’s approach uses server-based data processing and web-based user interfaces, rather a client-based spreadsheet approach. This offers a number of benefits over the client-based approach. Server processing and storage can scale up to handle a very large number of scenarios, so that analysis of county, even field level, across the whole U.S., can be performed. Server based databases allow dairy and digester parameters be held and managed in a single managed data repository, while allows users to customize standard values and perform individual analysis. Server-based calculations can be easily extended, versions and upgrades managed, and any changes are immediately available to all users. This user manual describes how to use and/or modify input database tables, run DANA, view and modify reports.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS1976

The development and flight test of an electronic integrated propulsion control system

Advanced technical features of the electronic integrated propulsion control system (IPCS) and flight evaluation tests of IPCS (F-111E with TF30-P-9 engines as test vehicle) are described. Nine baseline flight tests and 15 IPCS flight tests were conducted. Instrumentation, data acquisition and data processing systems, software maintenance procedures, flight test procedures, flight safety criteria, flight test results, and ground and flight testing of the aircraft system are described. Advantages conferred by IPCS include: faster accelerations (both gas generator and afterburner performance), better thrust and flight control, reduced flight idle thrust, reduced engine ground trim, extended service ceiling, automatic stall detection, and stall recovery detection.

Johnson, H. J.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Geometric representation methods for multi-type self-defining remote sensing data sets

Efficient and convenient representation of remote sensing data is highly important for an effective utilization. The task of merging different data types is currently dealt with by treating each case as an individual problem. A description is provided of work which is carried out to standardize the multidata merging process. The basic concept of the new approach is that of the self-defining data set (SDDS). The creation of a standard is proposed. This standard would be such that data which may be of interest in a large number of earth resources remote sensing applications would be in a format which allows convenient and automatic merging. Attention is given to details regarding the multidata merging problem, a geometric description of multitype data sets, image reconstruction from track-type data, a data set generation system, and an example multitype data set.

Anuta, P. E.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Satellite radar altimetry over ice. Volume 1: Processing and corrections of Seasat data over Greenland

The data-processing methods and ice data products derived from Seasat radar altimeter measurements over the Greenland ice sheet and surrounding sea ice are documented. The corrections derived and applied to the Seasat radar altimeter data over ice are described in detail, including the editing and retracking algorithm to correct for height errors caused by lags in the automatic range tracking circuit. The methods for radial adjustment of the orbits and estimation of the slope-induced errors are given.

Zwally, H. Jay↗
DOE OSTI2016

Computer systems for annotation of single molecule fragments

There are provided computer systems for visualizing and annotating single molecule images. Annotation systems in accordance with this disclosure allow a user to mark and annotate single molecules of interest and their restriction enzyme cut sites thereby determining the restriction fragments of single nucleic acid molecules. The markings and annotations may be automatically generated by the system in certain embodiments and they may be overlaid translucently onto the single molecule images. An image caching system may be implemented in the computer annotation systems to reduce image processing time. The annotation systems include one or more connectors connecting to one or more databases capable of storing single molecule data as well as other biomedical data. Such diverse array of data can be retrieved and used to validate the markings and annotations. The annotation systems may be implemented and deployed over a computer network. They may be ergonomically optimized to facilitate user interactions.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2021

Surface Melting Over the Greenland Ice Sheet Derived From Enhanced Resolution Passive Microwave Brightness Temperatures (1979–2019)

Surface melting is a major component of the Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance, and it affects sea level rise through direct runoff and the modulation of ice dynamics and hydrological processes, supraglacially, englacially and subglacially. Passive microwave (PMW) brightness temperature observations are of paramount importance in studying the spatial and temporal evolution of surface melting due to their long temporal coverage (1979–present) and high temporal resolution (daily). However, a major limitation of PMW datasets has been the relatively coarse spatial resolution, which has historically been of the order of tens of kilometers. Here, we use a newly released PMW dataset (37 GHz, horizontal polarization) made available through a NASA “Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments” (MeASUREs) program to study the spatiotemporal evolution of surface melting over the Greenland ice sheet at an enhanced spatial resolution of 3.125 km. We assess the outputs of different detection algorithms using data collected by automatic weather stations (AWSs) and the outputs of the Modèle Atmosphérique Régional (MAR) regional climate model. We found that sporadic melting is well captured using a dynamic algorithm based on the outputs of the Microwave Emission Model of Layered Snowpack (MEMLS), whereas a fixed threshold of 245 K is capable of detecting persistent melt. Our results indicate that, during the reference period from 1979 to 2019 (from 1988 to 2019), surface melting over the ice sheet increased in terms of both duration, up to 4.5 (2.9) d per decade, and extension, up to 6.9 % (3.6 %) of the entire ice sheet surface extent per decade, according to the MEMLS algorithm. Furthermore, the melting season started up to 4.0 (2.5) d earlier and ended 7.0 (3.9) d later per decade. We also explored the information content of the enhanced-resolution dataset with respect to the one at 25 km and MAR outputs using a semi-variogram approach. We found that the enhanced product is more sensitive to local-scale processes, thereby confirming the potential of this new enhanced product for monitoring surface melting over Greenland at a higher spatial resolution than the historical products and for monitoring its impact on sea level rise. This offers the opportunity to improve our understanding of the processes driving melting, to validate modeled melt extent at high resolution and, potentially, to assimilate these data in climate models.

Surface melting↗
NASA NTRS1976

Development of an optimal automatic control law and filter algorithm for steep glideslope capture and glideslope tracking

A digital automatic control law to capture a steep glideslope and track the glideslope to a specified altitude is developed for the longitudinal/vertical dynamics of a CTOL aircraft using modern estimation and control techniques. The control law uses a constant gain Kalman filter to process guidance information from the microwave landing system, and acceleration from body mounted accelerometer data. The filter outputs navigation data and wind velocity estimates which are used in controlling the aircraft. Results from a digital simulation of the aircraft dynamics and the control law are presented for various wind conditions.

Halyo, N.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Off-line programming motion and process commands for robotic welding of Space Shuttle main engines

The off-line-programming software and hardware being developed for robotic welding of the Space Shuttle main engine are described and illustrated with diagrams, drawings, graphs, and photographs. The menu-driven workstation-based interactive programming system is designed to permit generation of both motion and process commands for the robotic workcell by weld engineers (with only limited knowledge of programming or CAD systems) on the production floor. Consideration is given to the user interface, geometric-sources interfaces, overall menu structure, weld-parameter data base, and displays of run time and archived data. Ongoing efforts to address limitations related to automatic-downhand-configuration coordinated motion, a lack of source codes for the motion-control software, CAD data incompatibility, interfacing with the robotic workcell, and definition of the welding data base are discussed.

Ruokangas, C. C.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Weighted slit extraction of low-dispersion IUE spectral data

The weighted slit extraction has been chosen by the IUE project as the standard extraction for low-dispersion spectra in the final IUE archives. In order to properly weight the data within the extraction slit and obtain the optimal evaluation of the true spectrum, a noise model is derived for IUE data. The exclusion of cosmic rays is demonstrated and the improvement in signal-to-noise ratio is quantified for spectra taken with a wide range of flux level. Problematic spectra, such as trailed spectra, multiple spectra, discontinuous spectra, and emission-line spectra, are extracted to demonstrate the robust nature of the method. Comparisons are made between the standard IUE Standard Image Processing System (IUESIPS) extraction, nonstandard narrow slit extraction, trailed IUESIPS extraction, and weighted extraction for these data. Other weighted slit extractions are briefly discussed. The advantages of the weighted slit extraction are: (1) the extraction improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectrum while conserving total flux; (2) most of the cosmic rays are automatically removed; (3) the output includes an error estimate for each point in the flux spectrum; and (4) the algorithm can be run in a batch mode that requires no special input parameters.

Kinney, A. L.↗
NASA NTRS2001

The AutoBayes Program Synthesis System: System Description

AUTOBAYES is a fully automatic program synthesis system for the statistical data analysis domain. Its input is a concise description of a data analysis problem in the form of a statistical model; its output is optimized and fully documented C/C++ code which can be linked dynamically into the Matlab and Octave environments. AUTOBAYES synthesizes code by a schema-guided deductive process. Schemas (i.e., code templates with associated semantic constraints) are applied to the original problem and recursively to emerging subproblems. AUTOBAYES complements this approach by symbolic computation to derive closed-form solutions whenever possible. In this paper, we concentrate on the interaction between the symbolic computations and the deductive synthesis process. A statistical model specifies for each problem variable (i.e., data or parameter) its properties and dependencies in the form of a probability distribution, A typical data analysis task is to estimate the best possible parameter values from the given observations or measurements. The following example models normal-distributed data but takes prior information (e.g., from previous experiments) on the data's mean value and variance into account.

Fischer, Bernd↗
NASA NTRS2010

Flash LIDAR Emulator for HIL Simulation

NASA's Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project is building a system for detecting hazards and automatically landing controlled vehicles safely anywhere on the Moon. The Flash Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) sensor is used to create on-the-fly a 3D map of the unknown terrain for hazard detection. As part of the ALHAT project, a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation testbed was developed to test the data processing, guidance, and navigation algorithms in real-time to prove their feasibility for flight. Replacing the Flash LIDAR camera with an emulator in the testbed provided a cheaper, safer, more feasible way to test the algorithms in a controlled environment. This emulator must have the same hardware interfaces as the LIDAR camera, have the same performance characteristics, and produce images similar in quality to the camera. This presentation describes the issues involved and the techniques used to create a real-time flash LIDAR emulator to support HIL simulation.

Brewster, Paul F.↗
NASA NTRS2003

yourSky: Custom Sky-Image Mosaics via the Internet

yourSky (http://yourSky.jpl.nasa.gov) is a computer program that supplies custom astronomical image mosaics of sky regions specified by requesters using client computers connected to the Internet. [yourSky is an upgraded version of the software reported in Software for Generating Mosaics of Astronomical Images (NPO-21121), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 4 (April 2001), page 16a.] A requester no longer has to engage in the tedious process of determining what subset of images is needed, nor even to know how the images are indexed in image archives. Instead, in response to a requester s specification of the size and location of the sky area, (and optionally of the desired set and type of data, resolution, coordinate system, projection, and image format), yourSky automatically retrieves the component image data from archives totaling tens of terabytes stored on computer tape and disk drives at multiple sites and assembles the component images into a mosaic image by use of a high-performance parallel code. yourSky runs on the server computer where the mosaics are assembled. Because yourSky includes a Web-interface component, no special client software is needed: ordinary Web browser software is sufficient.

Jacob, Joseph↗
DOE OSTI2013

Soil Segregation Methods for Reducing Transportation and Disposal Costs - 13544

At Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) sites where the selected alternative for contaminated soil is excavation and off-site disposal, the most significant budget items of the remedial action are the costs for transportation and disposal of soil at an off-site facility. At these sites, the objective is to excavate and dispose of only those soils that exceed derived concentration guideline levels. In situ soil segregation using gross gamma detectors to guide the excavation is often challenging at sites where the soil contamination is overlain by clean soil or where the contaminated soil is located in isolated, subsurface pockets. In addition, data gaps are often identified during the alternative evaluation and selection process, resulting in increased uncertainty in the extent of subsurface contamination. In response, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District is implementing ex situ soil segregation methods. At the remediated Painesville Site, soils were excavated and fed through a conveyor-belt system, which automatically segregated them into above- and below-cleanup criteria discharge piles utilizing gamma spectroscopy. At the Linde Site and the Shallow Land Disposal Area (SLDA) Site, which are both in the remediation phase, soils are initially segregated during the excavation process using gross gamma detectors and then transported to a pad for confirmatory manual surveying and sampling. At the Linde Site, the ex situ soils are analyzed on the basis of a site-specific method, to establish compliance with beneficial reuse criteria that were developed for the Linde remediation. At the SLDA Site, the ex situ soils are surveyed and sampled based on Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) final status survey guidance to demonstrate compliance with the derived concentration guideline levels. At all three sites, the ex situ soils that meet the site- specific DCGLs are retained on-site and used as backfill material. This paper describes the ex situ soil segregation methods, the considerations of each method, and the estimated cost savings from minimizing the volume of soil requiring transportation and off-site disposal. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS1987

A new simulation model building process for use in dynamic systems integration research

A framework to build simulation models for aircraft dynamic systems integration is described. The objective of the framework is increased simulation model fidelity and reduced time required to develop and modify these models. The equations of motion for an elastic aircraft and their impact on the framework are discussed in broad terms. A software tool which automatically generates FORTRAN routines for tabular data lookups, the language used to develop a simulation model, and the structures for passing information into a simulation are discussed. A simulation variable nomenclature is presented. The framework has been applied to build an open-loop F/A-18 simulation model. This example model is used to illustrate model reduction issues. Current deficiencies in the framework are identified as areas for future research.

Arbuckle, P. Douglas↗
NASA NTRS2007

Algorithm Plans Collision-Free Path for Robotic Manipulator

An algorithm has been developed to enable a computer aboard a robot to autonomously plan the path of the manipulator arm of the robot to avoid collisions between the arm and any obstacle, which could be another part of the robot or an external object in the vicinity of the robot. In simplified terms, the algorithm generates trial path segments and tests each segment for potential collisions in an iterative process that ends when a sequence of collision-free segments reaches from the starting point to the destination. The main advantage of this algorithm, relative to prior such algorithms, is computational efficiency: the algorithm is designed to make minimal demands upon the limited computational resources available aboard a robot. This path-planning algorithm utilizes a modified version of the collision-detection method described in "Improved Collision-Detection Method for Robotic Manipulator" (NPO-30356), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 27, No. 3 (June 2003), page 72. The method involves utilization of mathematical models of the robot constructed prior to operation and similar models of external objects constructed automatically from sensory data acquired during operation. This method incorporates a previously developed method, known in the art as the method of oriented bounding boxes (OBBs), in which an object is represented approximately, for computational purposes, by a box that encloses its outer boundary. Because many parts of a robotic manipulator are cylindrical, the OBB method has been extended in this method to enable the approximate representation of cylindrical parts by use of octagonal or other multiple-OBB assemblies denoted oriented bounding prisms (OBPs). A multiresolution OBB/OBP representation of the robot and its manipulator arm and a multiresolution OBB representation of external objects (including terrain) are constructed and used in a process in which collisions at successively finer resolutions are detected through computational detection of overlaps between the corresponding OBB and OBP models. For computational efficiency, the process is started at the coarsest resolution and stopped as soon as possible, preferably before reaching the finest resolution. At the coarsest resolution, there is a single OBB enclosing all relevant external objects and a single OBB enclosing the entire robot. At the next finer level of resolution, the coarsest-resolution OBB is divided into two OBBs, and so forth. If no collision is detected at the coarsest resolution, then there is no need for further computation to detect collisions. If a collision is detected at the coarsest resolution, then tests for collisions are performed at the next finer level of resolution. This process is continued to successively finer resolutions until either no more collisions are detected or the finest resolution is reached.

Backes, Paul↗
NASA NTRS2020

Watershed Modeling with Remotely Sensed Big Data: MODIS Leaf Area Index Improves Hydrology and Water Quality Predictions

Traditional watershed modeling often overlooks the role of vegetation dynamics. There is also little quantitative evidence to suggest that increased physical realism of vegetation dynamics in process-based models improves hydrology and water quality predictions simultaneously. In this study, we applied a modified Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to quantify the extent of improvements that the assimilation of remotely sensed Leaf Area Index (LAI) would convey to streamflow, soil moisture, and nitrate load simulations across a 16,860 km2 agricultural watershedin the midwestern United States. We modified the SWAT source code to automatically override the model’s built-in semiempirical LAI with spatially distributed and temporally continuous estimates from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Compared to a “basic” traditional model with limited spatial information, our LAI assimilation model (i) significantly improved daily streamflow simulations during medium-to-low flow conditions, (ii) provided realistic spatial distributions of growing season soil moisture, and (iii) substantially reproduced the long-term observed variability of daily nitrate loads. Further analysis revealed that the overestimation or underestimation of LAI imparted a proportional cascading effect on how the model partitions hydrologic fluxes and nutrient pools. As such, assimilation of MODIS LAI data corrected the model’sLAI overestimation tendency, which led to a proportionally increased rootzone soil moisture and decreased plant nitrogen uptake. With these new findings, our study fills the existing knowledge gap regarding vegetation dynamics in watershed modeling and confirms that assimilation of MODIS LAI data in watershed models can effectively improve both hydrology and water quality predictions.

Adnan Rajib↗
DOE OSTI2013

Optimizing Tensor Contraction Expressions for Hybrid CPU-GPU Execution

Tensor contractions are generalized multidimensional matrix multiplication operations that widely occur in quantum chemistry. Efficient execution of tensor contractions on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) requires several challenges to be addressed, including index permutation and small dimension-sizes reducing thread block utilization. Moreover, to apply the same optimizations to various expressions, we need a code generation tool. In this paper, we present our approach to automatically generate CUDA code to execute tensor contractions on GPUs, including management of data movement between CPU and GPU. To evaluate our tool, GPU-enabled code is generated for the most expensive contractions in CCSD(T), a key coupled cluster method, and incorporated into NWChem, a popular computational chemistry suite. For this method, we demonstrate speedup over a factor of 8.4 using one GPU (instead of one core per node) and over 2.6 when utilizing the entire system using hybrid CPU+GPU solution with 2 GPUs and 5 cores (instead of 7 cores per node). Finally, we analyze the implementation behavior on future GPU systems.

CUDA↗