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At least 127 records · Page 7

A full-spectral Bayesian reconstruction approach based on the material decomposition model applied in dual-energy computed tomography

Purpose: Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) makes it possible to get two fractions of basis materials without segmentation. One is the soft-tissue equivalent water fraction and the other is the hard-matter equivalent bone fraction. Practical DECT measurements are usually obtained with polychromatic x-ray beams. Existing reconstruction approaches based on linear forward models without counting the beam polychromaticity fail to estimate the correct decomposition fractions and result in beam-hardening artifacts (BHA). The existing BHA correction approaches either need to refer to calibration measurements or suffer from the noise amplification caused by the negative-log preprocessing and the ill-conditioned water and bone separation problem. To overcome these problems, statistical DECT reconstruction approaches based on nonlinear forward models counting the beam polychromaticity show great potential for giving accurate fraction images.Methods: This work proposes a full-spectral Bayesian reconstruction approach which allows the reconstruction of high quality fraction images from ordinary polychromatic measurements. This approach is based on a Gaussian noise model with unknown variance assigned directly to the projections without taking negative-log. Referring to Bayesian inferences, the decomposition fractions and observation variance are estimated by using the joint maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation method. Subject to an adaptive prior model assigned to the variance, the joint estimation problem is then simplified into a single estimation problem. It transforms the joint MAP estimation problem into a minimization problem with a nonquadratic cost function. To solve it, the use of a monotone conjugate gradient algorithm with suboptimal descent steps is proposed.Results: The performance of the proposed approach is analyzed with both simulated and experimental data. The results show that the proposed Bayesian approach is robust to noise and materials. It is also necessary to have the accurate spectrum information about the source-detector system. When dealing with experimental data, the spectrum can be predicted by a Monte Carlo simulator. For the materials between water and bone, less than 5% separation errors are observed on the estimated decomposition fractions.Conclusions: The proposed approach is a statistical reconstruction approach based on a nonlinear forward model counting the full beam polychromaticity and applied directly to the projections without taking negative-log. Compared to the approaches based on linear forward models and the BHA correction approaches, it has advantages in noise robustness and reconstruction accuracy.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

On convergent finite difference schemes for variational–PDE-based image processing

We study an adaptive anisotropic Huber functional-based image restoration scheme. Using a combination of L2–L1 regularization functions, an adaptive Huber functional-based energy minimization model provides denoising with edge preservation in noisy digital images. We study a convergent finite difference scheme based on continuous piecewise linear functions and use a variable splitting scheme, namely the Split Bregman (In: Goldstein and Osher, SIAM J Imaging Sci 2(2):323–343, 2009) algorithm, to obtain the discrete minimizer. Experimental results are given in image denoising and comparison with additive operator splitting, dual fixed point, and projected gradient schemes illustrates that the best convergence rates are obtained for our algorithm.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The Conforming Virtual Element Method for the convection-diffusion-reaction equation with variable coeffcients.

This document describes the conforming formulations for virtual element approximation of the convection-reaction-diffusion equation with variable coefficients. Emphasis is given to construction of the projection operators onto polynomial spaces of appropriate order. These projections make it possible the virtual formulation to achieve any order of accuracy. We present the construction of the internal and the external formulation. The difference between the two is in the way the projection operators act on the derivatives (laplacian, gradient) of the partial differential equation. For the diffusive regime we prove the well-posedness of the external formulation and we derive an estimate of the approximation error in the H 1 -norm. For the convection-dominated case, the streamline diffusion stabilization (aka SUPG) is also discussed.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Age gradients in the stellar populations of massive star forming regions based on a new stellar chronometer

A major impediment to understanding star formation in massive star-forming regions (MSFRs) is the absence of a reliable stellar chronometer to unravel their complex star formation histories. We present a new estimation of stellar ages using a new method that employs near-infrared (NIR) and X-ray photometry, Age {sub JX} . Stellar masses are derived from X-ray luminosities using the L{sub X} -M relation from the Taurus cloud. J-band luminosities are compared to mass-dependent pre-main-sequence (PMS) evolutionary models to estimate ages. Age {sub JX} is sensitive to a wide range of evolutionary stages, from disk-bearing stars embedded in a cloud to widely dispersed older PMS stars. The Massive Young Star-Forming Complex Study in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) project characterizes 20 OB-dominated MSFRs using X-ray, mid-infrared, and NIR catalogs. The Age {sub JX} method has been applied to 5525 out of 31,784 MYStIX Probable Complex Members. We provide a homogeneous set of median ages for over 100 subclusters in 15 MSFRs; median subcluster ages range between 0.5 Myr and 5 Myr. The important science result is the discovery of age gradients across MYStIX regions. The wide MSFR age distribution appears as spatially segregated structures with different ages. The Age {sub JX} ages are youngest in obscured locations in molecular clouds, intermediate in revealed stellar clusters, and oldest in distributed populations. The NIR color index J – H, a surrogate measure of extinction, can serve as an approximate age predictor for young embedded clusters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Prevention of Dual-Mode Excitation in 9-Cell Cavities for LCLSII-HE

Dual-Mode Excitation, also referred to as mode-mixing, is a superposition of two fundamental pi modes in an SRF cavity. In 9-cell TESLA cavities used for the LCLSII-HE project, the two modes that are commonly excited are the pi mode (1300.2 MHz), and the 7/9 pi mode (1297.8 MHz). During vertical cavity qualification testing, only the pi mode is driven by the RF system. However, at high gradients, emitted power at the frequency of the 7/9 pi mode grows despite the RF system only powering the pi mode. When this happens, the RF power measurement system is unable to differentiate between the superimposed modes, and any data taken is invalid. The previous method of dealing with mode-mixing was to turn off power to the cavity, let both modes decay fully, then restore power. Because of the time-sensitive nature of this testing, this leads to underestimates of Q0 or any radiant field emission present in the cavity. The novel RF control solution prevents the 7/9 pi mode from being excited while not interfering with measurements of the fundamental pi mode. A second RF control system is connected to the cavity which drives the 7/9 pi mode. The loop phase for driving the 7/9 pi mode in self excited loop mode is determined then shifted by 180 degrees, thus providing a negative feedback to the undesired mode. Because this off-resonance power can be very small, on the order of milliwatts, it does not interfere with the high-power measurements of the fundamental pi mode. At Jefferson Lab, we are now able to test a cavity for the LCLSII-HE project with no problems from mode-mixing, which allows for CW processing of high-gradient multipacting and field emission.

Owen, Peter↗

Electrically Driven Ion Separations in Permeable Membranes

Membranes are attractive for a wide range of separations due to their low energy costs and continuous operation. To achieve practical fluxes, most membranes consist of a thin, selective skin on a highly permeable substrate that provides mechanical strength. Thus, this project focused on creating new methods for forming highly selective ultrathin skins as well as modeling transport through these coatings to better understand their unprecedented selectivities. The research explored both gas and ion separations, and the latter included transport due to concentration, pressure and electrical potential gradients. This report describes a series of highlights of the research and then provides a complete list of publications supported by the grant. These publications have been cited more than 4000 times. Perhaps the most stunning finding is the recent discovery of monovalent/divalent cation and anion selectivities around 1000 when modifying cation- and anion-exchange membranes with polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs). This discovery builds on many years of exciting research. (Citation numbers refer to the journal articles in the bibliography.)

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Real space iterative reconstruction for vector tomography (RESIRE-V)

Tomography has had an important impact on the physical, biological, and medical sciences. To date, most tomographic applications have been focused on 3D scalar reconstructions. However, in some crucial applications, vector tomography is required to reconstruct 3D vector fields such as the electric and magnetic fields. Over the years, several vector tomography methods have been developed. Here, we present the mathematical foundation and algorithmic implementation of REal Space Iterative REconstruction for Vector tomography, termed RESIRE-V. RESIRE-V uses multiple tilt series of projections and iterates between the projections and a 3D reconstruction. Each iteration consists of a forward step using the Radon transform and a backward step using its transpose, then updates the object via gradient descent. Incorporating with a 3D support constraint, the algorithm iteratively minimizes an error metric, defined as the difference between the measured and calculated projections. The algorithm can also be used to refine the tilt angles and further improve the 3D reconstruction. To validate RESIRE-V, we first apply it to a simulated data set of the 3D magnetization vector field, consisting of two orthogonal tilt series, each with a missing wedge. Our quantitative analysis shows that the three components of the reconstructed magnetization vector field agree well with the ground-truth counterparts. We then use RESIRE-V to reconstruct the 3D magnetization vector field of a ferromagnetic meta-lattice consisting of three tilt series. Our 3D vector reconstruction reveals the existence of topological magnetic defects with positive and negative charges. We expect that RESIRE-V can be incorporated into different imaging modalities as a general vector tomography method. To make the algorithm accessible to a broad user community, we have made our RESIRE-V MATLAB source codes and the data freely available at https://github.com/minhpham0309/RESIRE-V.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Cardiac C-arm computed tomography using a 3D + time ROI reconstruction method with spatial and temporal regularization

Purpose: Reconstruction of the beating heart in 3D + time in the catheter laboratory using only the available C-arm system would improve diagnosis, guidance, device sizing, and outcome control for intracardiac interventions, e.g., electrophysiology, valvular disease treatment, structural or congenital heart disease. To obtain such a reconstruction, the patient's electrocardiogram (ECG) must be recorded during the acquisition and used in the reconstruction. In this paper, the authors present a 4D reconstruction method aiming to reconstruct the heart from a single sweep 10 s acquisition. Methods: The authors introduce the 4D RecOnstructiOn using Spatial and TEmporal Regularization (short 4D ROOSTER) method, which reconstructs all cardiac phases at once, as a 3D + time volume. The algorithm alternates between a reconstruction step based on conjugate gradient and four regularization steps: enforcing positivity, averaging along time outside a motion mask that contains the heart and vessels, 3D spatial total variation minimization, and 1D temporal total variation minimization. Results: 4D ROOSTER recovers the different temporal representations of a moving Shepp and Logan phantom, and outperforms both ECG-gated simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique and prior image constrained compressed sensing on a clinical case. It generates 3D + time reconstructions with sharp edges which can be used, for example, to estimate the patient's left ventricular ejection fraction. Conclusions: 4D ROOSTER can be applied for human cardiac C-arm CT, and potentially in other dynamic tomography areas. It can easily be adapted to other problems as regularization is decoupled from projection and back projection.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

An Incremental Gradient Method for Optimization Problems With Variational Inequality Constraints

We consider minimizing a sum of agent-specific nondifferentiable merely convex functions over the solution set of a variational inequality (VI) problem in that each agent is associated with a local monotone mapping. This problem finds an application in computation of the best equilibrium in nonlinear complementarity problems arising in transportation networks. We develop an iteratively regularized incremental gradient method where at each iteration, agents communicate over a directed cycle graph to update their solution iterates using their local information about the objective and the mapping. The proposed method is single-timescale in the sense that it does not involve any excessive hard-to-project computation per iteration. We derive nonasymptotic agent-wise convergence rates for the suboptimality of the global objective function and infeasibility of the VI constraints measured by a suitably defined dual gap function. Finally, the proposed method appears to be the first fully iterative scheme equipped with iteration complexity that can address distributed optimization problems with VI constraints over cycle graphs.

convergence↗

Metriplectic integrators for the Landau collision operator

Here, we present a novel framework for addressing the nonlinear Landau collision integral in terms of finite element and other subspace projection methods. We employ the underlying metriplectic structure of the Landau collision integral and, using a Galerkin discretization for the velocity space, we transform the infinite-dimensional system into a finite-dimensional, time-continuous metriplectic system. Temporal discretization is accomplished using the concept of discrete gradients. The conservation of energy, momentum, and particle densities, as well as the production of entropy is demonstrated algebraically for the fully discrete system. Due to the generality of our approach, the conservation properties and the monotonic behavior of entropy are guaranteed for finite element discretizations, in general, independently of the mesh configuration.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

SU-E-J-134: An Augmented-Reality Optical Imaging System for Accurate Breast Positioning During Radiotherapy

Purpose: Breast radiotherapy, particularly electronic compensation, may involve large dose gradients and difficult patient positioning problems. We have developed a simple self-calibrating augmented-reality system, which assists in accurately and reproducibly positioning the patient, by displaying her live image from a single camera superimposed on the correct perspective projection of her 3D CT data. Our method requires only a standard digital camera capable of live-view mode, installed in the treatment suite at an approximately-known orientation and position (rotation R; translation T). Methods: A 10-sphere calibration jig was constructed and CT imaged to provide a 3D model. The (R,T) relating the camera to the CT coordinate system were determined by acquiring a photograph of the jig and optimizing an objective function, which compares the true image points to points calculated with a given candidate R and T geometry. Using this geometric information, 3D CT patient data, viewed from the camera's perspective, is plotted using a Matlab routine. This image data is superimposed onto the real-time patient image, acquired by the camera, and displayed using standard live-view software. This enables the therapists to view both the patient's current and desired positions, and guide the patient into assuming the correct position. The method was evaluated using an in-house developed bolus-like breast phantom, mounted on a supporting platform, which could be tilted at various angles to simulate treatment-like geometries. Results: Our system allowed breast phantom alignment, with an accuracy of about 0.5 cm and 1 ± 0.5 degree. Better resolution could be possible using a camera with higher-zoom capabilities. Conclusion: We have developed an augmented-reality system, which combines a perspective projection of a CT image with a patient's real-time optical image. This system has the potential to improve patient setup accuracy during breast radiotherapy, and could possibly be used for other disease sites as well.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Modified Method for Reconstructing the Image from Projections in Magnetic Resonance Tomography

A method for reconstructing the image from projections in magnetic resonance tomography using an excitation pulse with a linear frequency modulation has been considered. The shape of the spin echo envelope coincides with the projection of the spin density onto the direction of the axis along which the magnetic field gradient is applied. The spin echo excitation by a sinc pulse and a pulse with a linear frequency modulation has been simulated. The former pulse excites the required cross section of a 3D object, while the latter pulse has made it possible to form the spin echo envelope, which coincides in shape with the projection of the spin density of nuclei onto the direction of the gradient. The set of the projections onto different directions of the gradient has made it possible to reconstruct the 2D image of a section.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

The Development of a Cryogenic Over-Pressure

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) project will study the accelerated expansion of the universe. In order to further study this phenomenon, scientists have devised a method of creating an array of charged couple devices (CCD) to capture images that will be studied. These CCDs must be cooled and remain at 173K to eliminate thermal gradients and dark current. Therefore, a two-phase CCD liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling system was designed to maintain the array of CCDs at a constant temperature. However, the centrifugal pump used to supply LN2 has a mean time between failure (MTBF) of approximately two thousand-eight hundred hours (116 days). Because of the low MTBF of the centrifugal pump, a new pump is being considered to replace the existing one. This positive displacement pump is a simpler design that is expected to have a MTBF that will exceed 116 days (2800hrs). This positive displacement reciprocating pump, also known as, the cryogenic over-pressure pump (OPP), was tested in February 2012 and successfully cooled the CCD array to 173K. Though unfit for service for DES CCD cooling system, the overall concept of this pump has been proven. Typical ow rates, pressures, and temperatures trends have been captured via instrumentation and are specific to the operation of future over-pressure pumps.

Alvarez, Matthew L.↗

Development of High Performance Medium Velocity Superconducting Elliptical Cavities for Hadron Linacs

There is a solid scientific need for continuous wave (CW) proton or heavy ion linear accelerators (linacs) in the energy range up to about 1 GeV per nucleon (GeV/u). Only superconducting (SC) cavities can provide cost-efficient acceleration in CW mode. While low velocity, bc < 0.5 (b is the relative velocity of a charged particle and c is the speed of light), and high velocity, bc > 0.9, SC accelerating structures are established, there is a need in high-performance medium velocity SC accelerating structures. Currently, no superconducting (SC) CW proton or ion accelerators operate in the medium velocity range. We have developed a robust technology for producing high-performance medium-velocity elliptical cavities operating in the frequency range between 600 and 700 MHz. The project was performed in collaboration with Fermi and Argonne National Laboratories. The 5-cell, βopt = 0.65, 644 MHz elliptical cavities built at MSU have been used for this research. An advanced surface treatment method based on nitrogen doping to achieve a high-quality factor and a high accelerating gradient has been demonstrated. The surface treatment has been performed at ANL, and nitrogen doping at FNAL. A stable resonance control with the slow and fast tuner system has also been verified. FNAL developed a dedicated resonance control system for the stable operation of the combined tuner.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DSD2D-FLS 2010: Bdzil's 2010 DSD Code Base; Computing tb and Dn with Edits to Reduce the Noise in the Dn Field Near HE Boundaries

The full level-set function code, DSD3D, is fully described in LA-14336 (2007) [1]. This ASCI-supported, DSD code project was the last such LANL DSD code project that I was involved with before my retirement in 2007. My part in the project was to design and build the core DSD3D solver, which was to include a robust DSD boundary condition treatment. A robust boundary condition treatment was required, since for an important local “customer,” the only description of the explosives’ boundary was through volume fraction data. Given this requirement, the accuracy issues I had encountered with our “fast-tube,” narrowband, DSD2D solver, and the difficulty we had building an efficient MPI-parallel version of the narrowband DSD2D, I decided DSD3D should be built as a full level-set function code, using a totally local DSD boundary condition algorithm for the level-­set function, phi, which did not rely on the gradient of the level-­set function being one, |grad(phi)| = 1. The narrowband DSD2D solver was built on the assumption that |grad(phi)| could be driven to one, and near the boundaries of the explosive this condition was not being satisfied. Since the narrowband is typically no more than10*dx wide, narrowband methods are discrete methods with a fixed, non-­resolvable error, where the error is related to the thickness of the band: the narrower the band the larger the errors. Such a solution represents a discrete approximation to the true solution and does not limit to the solution of the underlying PDEs under grid resolution.The full level-­set function code, DSD3D, is fully described in LA-14336 (2007) [1]. This ASCI-­supported, DSD code project was the last such LANL DSD code project that I was involved with before my retirement in 2007. My part in the project was to design and build the core DSD3D solver, which was to include a robust DSD boundary condition treatment. A robust boundary condition treatment was required, since for an important local “customer,” the only description of the explosives’ boundary was through volume fraction data. Given this requirement, the accuracy issues I had encountered with our “fast-­tube,” narrowband, DSD2D solver, and the difficulty we had building an efficient MPI-parallel version of the narrowband DSD2D, I decided DSD3D should be built as a full level-­set function code, using a totally local DSD boundary condition algorithm for the level-­set function, phi, which did not rely on the gradient of the level-­set function being one, |grad(phi)| = 1. The narrowband DSD2D solver was built on the assumption that |grad(phi)| could be driven to one, and near the boundaries of the explosive this condition was not being satisfied. Since the narrowband is typically no more than10*dx wide, narrowband methods are discrete methods with a fixed, non-resolvable error, where the error is related to the thickness of the band: the narrower the band the larger the errors. Such a solution represents a discrete approximation to the true solution and does not limit to the solution of the underlying PDEs under grid resolution.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Global stochastic optimization of stellarator coil configurations

In the construction of a stellarator, the manufacturing and assembling of the coil system is a dominant cost. These coils need to satisfy strict engineering tolerances, and if those are not met the project could be cancelled as in the case of the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) project. Therefore, our goal is to find coil configurations that increase construction tolerances without compromising the performance of the magnetic field. In this paper, we develop a gradient-based stochastic optimization model which seeks robust stellarator coil configurations in high dimensions. In particular, we design a two-step method: first, we perform an approximate global search by a sample efficient trust-region Bayesian optimization; second, we refine the minima found in step one with a stochastic local optimizer. To this end, we introduce two stochastic local optimizers: BFGS applied to the sample average approximation; and Adam, equipped with a control variate for variance reduction. Numerical simulations performed on a W7-X-like coil configuration demonstrate that our global optimization approach finds a variety of promising local solutions at less than 0.1% of the cost of previous work, which considered solely local stochastic optimization.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

A finite micro-rotation material point method for micropolar solid and fluid dynamics with three-dimensional evolving contacts and free surfaces

This paper introduces an explicit material point method designed specifically for simulating the micropolar continuum dynamics in the finite deformation and finite microrotation regime. The material point method enables us to simulate large deformation problems while circumventing the potential mesh distortion without remeshing. To eliminate rotational motion damping and loss of angular momentum during the projection, we introduce the mapping for microinertia and angular momentum between particles and grids through the affine particle-in-cell approach. The microrotation and the curvature at each particle are updated through zero-order forward integration of the microgyration and its spatial gradient. We show that the microinertia and the angular momentum are conserved during the projections between particles and grids in our formulation. We verify the formulation and implementation by comparing with the analytical dispersion relation of micropolar waves under the small strain and small microrotation, as well as the analytical soliton solution for solids undergoing large deformation and large microrotation. Additionally we also demonstrate the capacity of the proposed computational framework to handle a wide spectrum of simulations that exhibit size effects in the geometrical nonlinear regime through three representative numerical examples, i.e., a cantilever beam torsion problem, a fragment-impact penetration problem, and a micropolar fluid discharging problem.

42 ENGINEERING↗

A learned closure method applied to phase mixing in a turbulent gradient-driven gyrokinetic system in simple geometry

We present a new method for formulating closures that learn from kinetic simulation data. We apply this method to phase mixing in a simple gyrokinetic turbulent system – temperature-gradient-driven turbulence in an unsheared slab. The closure, called the learned multi-mode (LMM) closure, is constructed by, first, extracting an optimal basis from a nonlinear kinetic simulation using singular value decomposition. Subsequent nonlinear fluid simulations are projected onto this basis and the results are used to formulate the closure. We compare the closure with other closures schemes over a broad range of the relevant two-dimensional parameter space (collisionality and gradient drive). We find that the turbulent kinetic system produces phase-mixing rates much lower than the linear expectations, which the LMM closure is capable of capturing. We also compare radial heat fluxes. A Hammett–Perkins closure, generalized to include collisional effects, is quite successful throughout the parameter space, producing ${\sim }14\,\%$ root-mean-square (r.m.s.) error. The LMM closure is also very effective: when trained at three (two) points (in a 35 point parameter grid), the LMM closure produces $8\,\%$ ( $12\,\%$ ) r.m.s. errors. The LMM procedure can be readily generalized to other closure problems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗