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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2011

Lattice Commissioning Stretgy Simulation for the B Factory

To prepare for the PEP-II turn on, we have studied one commissioning strategy with simulated lattice errors. Features such as difference and absolute orbit analysis and correction are discussed. To prepare for the commissioning of the PEP-II injection line and high energy ring (HER), we have developed a system for on-line orbit analysis by merging two existing codes: LEGO and RESOLVE. With the LEGO-RESOLVE system, we can study the problem of finding quadrupole alignment and beam position (BPM) offset errors with simulated data. We have increased the speed and versatility of the orbit analysis process by using a command file written in a script language designed specifically for RESOLVE. In addition, we have interfaced the LEGO-RESOLVE system to the control system of the B-Factory. In this paper, we describe online analysis features of the LEGO-RESOLVE system and present examples of practical applications.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2016

WE-AB-209-01: A Monte Carlo-Based Method to Include Random Errors in Robust Optimization

Purpose: To develop an efficient method to implement random set-up errors and organ motion in robust optimization for proton therapy treatment planning. Methods: The plans were created with an in-house robust optimizer, coupled with a super-fast Monte Carlo (MC) engine (less than 1 minute for final dose). MC simulates random errors by shifting randomly the starting point of each particle, according to their probability distribution. Such strategy assumes a sufficient number of treatment fractions. Two strategies are presented: 1) Full robust optimization with beamlets that already include the effect of random errors and 2) Mixed robust optimization, where the nominal beamlets are involved but a correction term C modifies the prescription. Starting from C=0, the method alternates optimization of the spot weights with the nominal beamlets and updates of C, with C=Drandom-Dnominal and where Drandom results from a regular MC computation (without pre-computed beamlets) that simulates random errors. Updates of C can be triggered as often as necessary by running the MC engine with the last corrected values for the spot weights as input. The method was applied to lung and prostate cases. For both patients the range error was set to 3%, systematic setup error to 5mm and standard deviation for random errors to 5 mm. Comparison between full robust optimization and the mixed strategy (with 3 updates of C) is presented. Results: Target coverage was far below the clinical constraints (D{sub 95} > 95% of the prescribed dose) for plans where random errors were not simulated, especially for lung case. However, by using the proposed strategies the plans achieved a target coverage above clinical constraints. Conclusion: Full robust optimization gives better results than the mixed strategy, but the latter can be useful in cases where a MC engine is not available or too computationally intensive for beamlets calculation.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

PLATFORM DEFORMATION PHASE CORRECTION FOR THE AMiBA-13 COPLANAR INTERFEROMETER

We present a new way to solve the platform deformation problem of coplanar interferometers. The platform of a coplanar interferometer can be deformed due to driving forces and gravity. A deformed platform will induce extra components into the geometric delay of each baseline and change the phases of observed visibilities. The reconstructed images will also be diluted due to the errors of the phases. The platform deformations of The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) were modeled based on photogrammetry data with about 20 mount pointing positions. We then used the differential optical pointing error between two optical telescopes to fit the model parameters in the entire horizontal coordinate space. With the platform deformation model, we can predict the errors of the geometric phase delays due to platform deformation with a given azimuth and elevation of the targets and calibrators. After correcting the phases of the radio point sources in the AMiBA interferometric data, we recover 50%-70% flux loss due to phase errors. This allows us to restore more than 90% of a source flux. The method outlined in this work is not only applicable to the correction of deformation for other coplanar telescopes but also to single-dish telescopes with deformation problems. This work also forms the basis of the upcoming science results of AMiBA-13.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2019

How Well Do We Know Neutrino-Electron Scattering? EFT Approach

We determine the effective theory of neutrino-electron and neutrino-quark scattering and provide the most precise up-to-date prediction for neutrino-electron scattering cross sections quantifying errors for the first time to be of order $0.2-0.4~\%$. Radiative corrections in the theory with electron and neutrinos only involve three effective couplings. One is the Fermi constant which is known with sub-ppm accuracy. Another one has a small error of order $0.02~\%$. The uncertainty of the third one is limited by the knowledge of hadronic contributions to charge-isospin vector-vector correlation function.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

PULSE INTENSITY MODULATION AND THE TIMING STABILITY OF MILLISECOND PULSARS: A CASE STUDY OF PSR J1713+0747

Most millisecond pulsars, like essentially all other radio pulsars, show timing errors well in excess of what is expected from additive radiometer noise alone. We show that changes in amplitude, shape, and pulse phase for the millisecond pulsar J1713+0747 cause this excess error. These changes appear to be uncorrelated from one pulse period to the next. The resulting time of arrival (TOA) variations are correlated across a wide frequency range and is observed with different backend processors on different days, confirming that they are intrinsic in origin and not an instrumental effect or caused by strongly frequency-dependent interstellar scattering. Centroids of single pulses show an rms phase variation Almost-Equal-To 40 {mu}s, which dominates the timing error and is the same phase jitter phenomenon long known in slower spinning, canonical pulsars. We show that the amplitude modulations of single pulses are modestly correlated with their arrival time fluctuations. We also demonstrate that single-pulse variations are completely consistent with arrival time variations of pulse profiles obtained by integrating N pulses such that the arrival-time error decreases proportional to 1/{radical}N. We investigate methods for correcting TOAs for these pulse-shape changes, including multi-component TOA fitting and principal component analysis. These techniques are not found to improve the timing precision of the observations. We conclude that when pulse-shape changes dominate timing errors, the timing precision of PSR J1713+0747 can be only improved by averaging over a larger number of pulses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Iodine doping effects on the lattice thermal conductivity of oxidized polyacetylene nanofibers

Thermal transport in oxidized polyacetylene (PA) nanofibers with diameters in the range between 74 and 126 nm is measured with the use of a suspended micro heater device. With the error due to both radiation and contact thermal resistance corrected via a differential measurement procedure, the obtained thermal conductivity of oxidized PA nanofibers varies in the range between 0.84 and 1.24 W m{sup −1} K{sup −1} near room temperature, and decreases by 40%–70% after iodine doping. It is also found that the thermal conductivity of oxidized PA nanofibers increases with temperature between 100 and 350 K. Because of exposure to oxygen during sample preparation, the PA nanofibers are oxidized to be electrically insulating before and after iodine doping. The measurement results reveal that iodine doping can result in enhanced lattice disorder and reduced lattice thermal conductivity of PA nanofibers. If the oxidation issue can be addressed via further research to increase the electrical conductivity via doping, the observed suppressed lattice thermal conductivity in doped polymer nanofibers can be useful for the development of such conducting polymer nanostructures for thermoelectric energy conversion.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Validation of deformable image registration algorithms on CT images of ex vivo porcine bladders with fiducial markers

Purpose: The spatial accuracy of deformable image registration (DIR) is important in the implementation of image guided adaptive radiotherapy techniques for cancer in the pelvic region. Validation of algorithms is best performed on phantoms with fiducial markers undergoing controlled large deformations. Excised porcine bladders, exhibiting similar filling and voiding behavior as human bladders, provide such an environment. The aim of this study was to determine the spatial accuracy of different DIR algorithms on CT images ofex vivo porcine bladders with radiopaque fiducial markers applied to the outer surface, for a range of bladder volumes, using various accuracy metrics. Methods: Five excised porcine bladders with a grid of 30–40 radiopaque fiducial markers attached to the outer wall were suspended inside a water-filled phantom. The bladder was filled with a controlled amount of water with added contrast medium for a range of filling volumes (100–400 ml in steps of 50 ml) using a luer lock syringe, and CT scans were acquired at each filling volume. DIR was performed for each data set, with the 100 ml bladder as the reference image. Six intensity-based algorithms (optical flow or demons-based) implemented in theMATLAB platform DIRART, a b-spline algorithm implemented in the commercial software package VelocityAI, and a structure-based algorithm (Symmetric Thin Plate Spline Robust Point Matching) were validated, using adequate parameter settings according to values previously published. The resulting deformation vector field from each registration was applied to the contoured bladder structures and to the marker coordinates for spatial error calculation. The quality of the algorithms was assessed by comparing the different error metrics across the different algorithms, and by comparing the effect of deformation magnitude (bladder volume difference) per algorithm, using the Independent Samples Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: The authors found good structure accuracy without dependency on bladder volume difference for all but one algorithm, and with the best result for the structure-based algorithm. Spatial accuracy as assessed from marker errors was disappointing for all algorithms, especially for large volume differences, implying that the deformations described by the registration did not represent anatomically correct deformations. The structure-based algorithm performed the best in terms of marker error for the large volume difference (100–400 ml). In general, for the small volume difference (100–150 ml) the algorithms performed relatively similarly. The structure-based algorithm exhibited the best balance in performance between small and large volume differences, and among the intensity-based algorithms, the algorithm implemented in VelocityAI exhibited the best balance. Conclusions: Validation of multiple DIR algorithms on a novel physiological bladder phantom revealed that the structure accuracy was good for most algorithms, but that the spatial accuracy as assessed from markers was low for all algorithms, especially for large deformations. Hence, many of the available algorithms exhibit sufficient accuracy for contour propagation purposes, but possibly not for accurate dose accumulation.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Magnitude of speed of sound aberration corrections for ultrasound image guided radiotherapy for prostate and other anatomical sites

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to assess the magnitude of speed of sound (SOS) aberrations in three-dimensional ultrasound (US) imaging systems in image guided radiotherapy. The discrepancy between the fixed SOS value of 1540 m/s assumed by US systems in human soft tissues and its actual nonhomogeneous distribution in patients produces small but systematic errors of up to a few millimeters in the positions of scanned structures. Methods: A correction, provided by a previously published density-based algorithm, was applied to a set of five prostate, five liver, and five breast cancer patients. The shifts of the centroids of target structures and the change in shape were evaluated. Results: After the correction the prostate cases showed shifts up to 3.6 mm toward the US probe, which may explain largely the reported positioning discrepancies in the literature on US systems versus other imaging modalities. Liver cases showed the largest changes in volume of the organ, up to almost 9%, and shifts of the centroids up to more than 6 mm either away or toward the US probe. Breast images showed systematic small shifts of the centroids toward the US probe with a maximum magnitude of 1.3 mm. Conclusions: The applied correction in prostate and liver cancer patients shows positioning errors of several mm due to SOS aberration; the errors are smaller in breast cancer cases, but possibly becoming more important when breast tissue thickness increases.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2010

Dominant QCD Backgrounds in Higgs Boson Analyses at the LHC: A Study of pp{yields}tt+2 Jets at Next-to-Leading Order

We report the results of a next-to-leading order simulation of top quark pair production in association with two jets. With our inclusive cuts, we show that the corrections with respect to leading order are negative and small, reaching 11%. The error obtained by scale variation is of the same order. Additionally, we reproduce the result of a previous study of top quark pair production in association with a single jet.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

3D DVH-based metric analysis versus per-beam planar analysis in IMRT pretreatment verification

Purpose: To evaluate methods of pretreatment IMRT analysis, using real measurements performed with a commercial 2D detector array, for clinical relevance and accuracy by comparing clinical DVH parameters. Methods: We divided the work into two parts. The first part consisted of six in-phantom tests aimed to study the sensitivity of the different analysis methods. Beam fluences, 3D dose distribution, and DVH of an unaltered original plan were compared to those of the delivered plan, in which an error had been intentionally introduced. The second part consisted of comparing gamma analysis with DVH metrics for 17 patient plans from various sites. Beam fluences were measured with the MapCHECK 2 detector, per-beam planar analysis was performed with the MapCHECK software, and 3D gamma analysis and the DVH evaluation were performed using 3DVH software. Results: In a per-beam gamma analysis some of the tests yielded false positives or false negatives. However, the 3DVH software correctly described the DVH of the plan which included the error. The measured DVH from the plan with controlled error agreed with the planned DVH within 2% dose or 2% volume. We also found that a gamma criterion of 3%/3 mm was too lax to detect some of the forced errors. Global analysis masked some problems, while local analysis magnified irrelevant errors at low doses. Small hotspots were missed for all metrics due to the spatial resolution of the detector panel. DVH analysis for patient plans revealed small differences between treatment plan calculations and 3DVH results, with the exception of very small volume structures such as the eyes and the lenses. Target coverage (D{sub 98} and D{sub 95}) of the measured plan was systematically lower than that predicted by the treatment planning system, while other DVH characteristics varied depending on the parameter and organ. Conclusions: We found no correlation between the gamma index and the clinical impact of a discrepancy for any of the gamma index evaluation possibilities (global, local, 2D, or 3D). Some of the tests yielded false positives or false negatives in a per-beam gamma analysis. However, they were correctly accounted for in a DVH analysis. We also showed that 3DVH software is reliable for our tests, and is a viable method for correlating planar discrepancies with clinical relevance by comparing the measured DVH of target and OAR's with clinical tolerance.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

Analysis of Prostate Patient Setup and Tracking Data: Potential Intervention Strategies

Purpose: To evaluate the setup, interfraction, and intrafraction organ motion error distributions and simulate intrafraction intervention strategies for prostate radiotherapy. Methods and Materials: A total of 17 patients underwent treatment setup and were monitored using the Calypso system during radiotherapy. On average, the prostate tracking measurements were performed for 8 min/fraction for 28 fractions for each patient. For both patient couch shift data and intrafraction organ motion data, the systematic and random errors were obtained from the patient population. The planning target volume margins were calculated using the van Herk formula. Two intervention strategies were simulated using the tracking data: the deviation threshold and period. The related planning target volume margins, time costs, and prostate position 'fluctuation' were presented. Results: The required treatment margin for the left-right, superoinferior, and anteroposterior axes was 8.4, 10.8, and 14.7 mm for skin mark-only setup and 1.3, 2.3, and 2.8 mm using the on-line setup correction, respectively. Prostate motion significantly correlated among the superoinferior and anteroposterior directions. Of the 17 patients, 14 had prostate motion within 5 mm of the initial setup position for {>=}91.6% of the total tracking time. The treatment margin decreased to 1.1, 1.8, and 2.3 mm with a 3-mm threshold correction and to 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mm with an every-2-min correction in the left-right, superoinferior, and anteroposterior directions, respectively. The periodic corrections significantly increase the treatment time and increased the number of instances when the setup correction was made during transient excursions. Conclusions: The residual systematic and random error due to intrafraction prostate motion is small after on-line setup correction. Threshold-based and time-based intervention strategies both reduced the planning target volume margins. The time-based strategies increased the treatment time and the in-fraction position fluctuation.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Thresholds of surface codes on the general lattice structures suffering biased error and loss

A family of surface codes with general lattice structures is proposed. We can control the error tolerances against bit and phase errors asymmetrically by changing the underlying lattice geometries. The surface codes on various lattices are found to be efficient in the sense that their threshold values universally approach the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov bound. We find that the error tolerance of the surface codes depends on the connectivity of the underlying lattices; the error chains on a lattice of lower connectivity are easier to correct. On the other hand, the loss tolerance of the surface codes exhibits an opposite behavior; the logical information on a lattice of higher connectivity has more robustness against qubit loss. As a result, we come upon a fundamental trade-off between error and loss tolerances in the family of surface codes with different lattice geometries.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Accurate shear measurement with faint sources

For cosmic shear to become an accurate cosmological probe, systematic errors in the shear measurement method must be unambiguously identified and corrected for. Previous work of this series has demonstrated that cosmic shears can be measured accurately in Fourier space in the presence of background noise and finite pixel size, without assumptions on the morphologies of galaxy and PSF. The remaining major source of error is source Poisson noise, due to the finiteness of source photon number. This problem is particularly important for faint galaxies in space-based weak lensing measurements, and for ground-based images of short exposure times. In this work, we propose a simple and rigorous way of removing the shear bias from the source Poisson noise. Our noise treatment can be generalized for images made of multiple exposures through MultiDrizzle. This is demonstrated with the SDSS and COSMOS/ACS data. With a large ensemble of mock galaxy images of unrestricted morphologies, we show that our shear measurement method can achieve sub-percent level accuracy even for images of signal-to-noise ratio less than 5 in general, making it the most promising technique for cosmic shear measurement in the ongoing and upcoming large scale galaxy surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Improved diffusion coefficients generated from Monte Carlo codes

Monte Carlo codes are becoming more widely used for reactor analysis. Some of these applications involve the generation of diffusion theory parameters including macroscopic cross sections and diffusion coefficients. Two approximations used to generate diffusion coefficients are assessed using the Monte Carlo code MC21. The first is the method of homogenization; whether to weight either fine-group transport cross sections or fine-group diffusion coefficients when collapsing to few-group diffusion coefficients. The second is a fundamental approximation made to the energy-dependent P1 equations to derive the energy-dependent diffusion equations. Standard Monte Carlo codes usually generate a flux-weighted transport cross section with no correction to the diffusion approximation. Results indicate that this causes noticeable tilting in reconstructed pin powers in simple test lattices with L2 norm error of 3.6%. This error is reduced significantly to 0.27% when weighting fine-group diffusion coefficients by the flux and applying a correction to the diffusion approximation. Noticeable tilting in reconstructed fluxes and pin powers was reduced when applying these corrections. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

TH-A-BRF-01: A Probabilistic Bayesian Approach to Derive Electron Density From MRI for Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning

Purpose: MRI significantly improves the accuracy and reliability of target delineation for patient simulation and treatment planning in radiation therapy, due to its superior soft tissue contrast as compared to CT. An MRI based simulation will reduce cost and simplify clinical workflow with zero ionizing radiation. However, MRI lacks the key electron density information. The purpose of this work is to develop a reliable method to derive electron density from MRI. Methods: We adopt a probabilistic Bayesian approach for electron density mapping based on T1-weighted head MRI. For each voxel, we compute conditional probability of electron densities given its: (1) T1 intensity and (2) geometry in a reference anatomy, obtained by deformable image registration between the MRI of test patient and atlas. Intensity and geometry information are combined into a unifying posterior probability density function whose mean gives the electron density. Mean absolute HU error between the estimated and true CT, as well as ROC's for bone detection (HU>200) were calculated for 8 patients. The performance was compared with a global intensity approach based on T1 and no density correction (set whole head to water). Results: The proposed technique significantly reduced the errors in electron density estimation, with a mean absolute HU error of 132, compared with 139 for deformable registration (p=10{sup −3}), 371 for the intensity approach (p=10{sup −5}) and 282 without density correction (p=2×10{sup −4}). For 90% sensitivity in bone detection, the proposed method had a specificity of 85% and that for deformable registration, intensity and without density correction are 80%, 24% and 10% respectively. Conclusion: The proposed unifying method provides accurate electron density estimation and bone detection from MRI of the head with highly heterogeneous regions. This paves the way for accurate dose calculation and generating reference images for patient setup in MRI-based treatment planning.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Investigation of a Quantum Monte Carlo Protocol To Achieve High Accuracy and High-Throughput Materials Formation Energies

High-throughput calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) methods have been widely implemented in the scientific community. However, depending on both the properties of interest as well as particular chemical/structural phase space, accuracy even for correct trends remains a key challenge for DFT. In this work, we evaluate the use of quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) to calculate material formation energies in a high-throughput environment. We test the performance of automated QMC calculations on 21 compounds with high quality reference data from the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) thermodynamic database. We compare our approach to different DFT methods as well as different pseudopotentials, showing that errors in QMC calculations can be progressively improved especially when correct pseudopotentials are used. We determine a set of accurate pseudopotentials in QMC via a systematic investigation of multiple available pseudopotential libraries. We show that using this simple automated recipe, QMC calculations can outperform DFT calculations over a wide set of materials. Out of 21 compounds tested, chemical accuracy has been obtained in formation energies of 11 structures using our QMC recipe, compared to none using DFT calculations.

Chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2012

On the significance of density-induced speed of sound variations on US-guided radiotherapy

Purpose: To show the effect of speed of sound (SOS) aberration on ultrasound guided radiotherapy (US-gRT) as a function of implemented workflow. US systems assume that SOS is constant in human soft tissues (at a value of 1540 m/s), while its actual nonuniform distribution produces small but systematic errors of up to a few millimeters in the positions of scanned structures. When a coregistered computerized tomography (CT) scan is available, the US image can be corrected for SOS aberration. Typically, image guided radiotherapy workflows implementing US systems only provide a CT scan at the simulation (SIM) stage. If changes occur in geometry or density distribution between SIM and treatment (TX) stage, SOS aberration can change accordingly, with a final impact on the measured position of structures which is dependent on the workflow adopted. Methods: Four basic scenarios were considered of possible changes between SIM and TX: (1) No changes, (2) only patient position changes (rigid rotation-translation), (3) only US transducer position changes (constrained on patient's surface), and (4) patient tissues thickness changes. Different SOS aberrations may arise from the different scenarios, according to the specific US-gRT workflow used: intermodality (INTER) where TX US scans are compared to SIM CT scans; intramodality (INTRA) where TX US scans are compared to SIM US scans; and INTERc and INTRAc where all US images are corrected for SOS aberration (using density information provided by SIM CT). For an experimental proof of principle, the effect of tissues thickness change was simulated in the different workflows: a dual layered phantom was filled with layers of sunflower oil (SOS 1478 m/s), water (SOS 1482 m/s), and 20% saline solution (SOS 1700 m/s). The phantom was US scanned, the layer thicknesses were increased and the US scans were repeated. The errors resulting from the different workflows were compared. Results: Theoretical considerations show that workflows implementing SOS correction based on SIM-CT scan (INTERc, INTRAc) give null errors in all scenarios except when tissues thickness changes, where an error proportional to the degree of change in SOS maps between SIM and TX ({Delta}SOS) occurs. An uncorrected workflow such as INTER produces in all scenarios a pure SOS error, while uncorrected INTRA produces a null error for rotation-translation of the patient, a {Delta}SOS error for changing tissues thickness and an error proportional to the degree of SOS distribution change along the different lines of view when shifting the transducer. The dual layered phantom demonstrated experimentally that the effect of SOS change between SIM and TX is clinically nonrelevant, being less than the intrinsic resolution of imaging systems, even when a substantial change in thicknesses is applied, provided that a SIM-CT-based SOS aberration correction is applied. Noncorrected workflows produce errors up to 4 mm for INTER and to 3 mm for INTRA in the phantom test. Conclusions: A SOS correction is advantageous for all US-gRT workflows and clinical cases, where the effect of SOS change can be considered a second order effect.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗