Discrete event simulation provides a powerful mechanism for designing and testing new extreme- scale programming models for high-performance computing. Rather than debug, run, and wait for results on an actual system, design can first iterate through a simulator. This is particularly useful when test beds cannot be used, i.e. to explore hardware or scales that do not yet exist or are inaccessible. Here we detail the macroscale components of the structural simulation toolkit (SST). Instead of depending on trace replay or state machines, the simulator is architected to execute real code on real software stacks. Our particular user-space threading framework allows massive scales to be simulated even on small clusters. The link between the discrete event core and the threading framework allows interesting performance metrics like call graphs to be collected from a simulated run. Performance analysis via simulation can thus become an important phase in extreme-scale programming model and runtime system design via the SST macroscale components.
This report presents a concise history in tabular form of events leading up to site identification in 1978, site selection in 1987, subsequent characterization, and ongoing analysis through 2009 of the performance of a repository for spent nuclear fuel and high - level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. The tabulated events generally occurred in five periods: (1) commitment to mined geologic disposal and identification of sites; (2) site selection and analysis, based on regional geologic characterization through literature and analogous data; (3) feasibility analysis demonstrating calculation procedures and importance of system components, based on rough measures of performance using surface exploration, waste process knowledge, and general laboratory experiments; (4) suitability analysis demonstrating viability of disposal system, based on environment - specific laboratory experiments, in - situ experiments, and underground disposal system characterization; and (5) compliance analysis, based on completed site - specific characterization . The current sixth period beyond 2010 represents a new effort to set waste management policy in the United States. Because the relationship is important to understanding the evolution of the Yucca Mountain Project , the tabulation also shows the interaction between the policy realm and technical realm using four broad categories of events : (a) Regulatory requirements and related federal policy in laws and court decisions, (c) Presidential and agency directives, (c) technical milestones of implementing institutions, and (d) critiques of the Yucca Mountain Project and pertinent national and world events related to nuclear energy and radioactive waste. Preface The historical progression of technical milestones for the Yucca Mountain Project was originally developed for 10 journal articles in a special issue of Reliability Engineering System Safety on the performance assessment for the Yucca Mountain license application [1-10]. The listing of mile stones, a distinct feature of those articles, has been collected and tabulated here. A lthough a brief description is presented here (based on the summaries in the 10 journal articles), the emphasis remains on the tabulation because of its usefulness in providing a comprehensive but concise history of the Yucca Mountain Project. The tabulation presented here is more elaborate than originally presented in that many of the interactions that occurred between the technical realm and policy realm can be depicted in separate columns. The usefulness of the milestones table is due in part to L.A. Connolly, for editorial and reference support, and S.K. Best, Raytheon, and L. Mays, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), for illustration support. Reviewers P.N. Swift, SNL, and K. Gupta, University of Oklahoma, helped improve the discussion. The historical perspective presented is that of the author and is not necessarily held by reviewers, Sandia National Laboratories , and the US Department of Energy. As a historic perspective, the author is reporting on the work of others; however, any interpretative error s of the documentation are those of the author alone. The characterization and modeling of the Yucca Mountain disposal system required numerous participants with expertise in many areas of science and technology, as evident from the extensive reference list. Their diligent efforts are generally acknowledged here and through the many references to their impressive work, but the 10 journal articles acknowledge by name many of the numerous participants that contributed to the Yucca Mountain Project .
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) operates the International Data Centre (IDC) to support treaty verification activities by Member States. The IDC collects, stores, processes, and distributes data from seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide stations. A significant component of the IDC is the seismic, hydroacoustic, and infrasound (SHI) processing system. The IDC has recognized the need to reengineer the SHI processing system and has defined a three-phase reengineering effort. IDC Reengineering Phase 1 (RP1) started in 2011 with the goal to significantly modernize SHI automatic and interactive data processing software, focusing on enhancements to individual components of the system. Reengineering Phase 2 (RP2), started in 2014, addresses the task of specifying a unified architecture for all SHI software, across processing stages, to pave the way for further software development and sustainment in the future. A key objective of RP2 is an architecture sufficient to provide a basis for a cost estimate for the development or enhancement of the software components and subsystems. This report provides a brief description of the scope of the IDC Reengineering Phase 2 project. It describes the goals and objectives of reengineering, the system definition, and the technical scope of the system.This report expands upon the “Scope for IDC Reengineering Phase 2”, July 2014, ECS-DIS-WGB-43-PTS-MATERIAL-12-ADD-1, produced by the IDC.
The MEPV Grand Challenge was focused on exploiting beneficial scaling effects in solar cells, modules, and systems to make solar power the lowest cost source of power available. The project explored new multijunction, microscale solar cell architectures, new micro-optical concentration methods, new hybrid solar collection concepts, and developed a series of prototypes to demonstrate these technologies. In addition, a detailed cost analysis was conducted to determine the costs of the proposed technologies and provide guidance for the system design efforts. Key results included demonstration of InGaP/GaAS cells transferred to active silicon cells to create a three junction cell with efficiency near 30%, the transfer of InGaAs cells to Si with demonstrated high performance of the InGaAs cell behind the Si substrate, the design, manufacture, and experimental demonstration of optics with almost 90% transmission efficiency and 100X and 200X concentration with a relatively large acceptance angle (>±1.5°), and the full assembly and demonstration of functional microconcentrator systems. The cost modeling efforts indicated that a module based on the best design resulting from the knowledge and technology develop would approach $1/Wpeak total installed system cost with no subsidies. If achieved in practice, this system would provide the lowest energy cost of any grid-tied energy source.
Technological and doctrinal surprise is about rendering preparations for conflict as irrelevant or ineffective . For a sensor, this means essentially rendering the sensor as irrelevant or ineffective in its ability to help determine truth. Recovery from this sort of surprise is facilitated by flexibility in our own technology and doctrine. For a sensor, this mean s flexibility in its architecture, design, tactics, and the designing organizations ' processes. - 4 - Acknowledgements This report is the result of a n unfunded research and development activity . Sandia National Laboratories is a multi - program laboratory manage d and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE - AC04 - 94AL85000.
The Sandia Data Archive (SDA) format is a specific implementation of the HDF5 (Hierarchal Data Format version 5) standard. The format was developed for storing data in a universally accessible manner. SDA files may contain one or more data records, each associated with a distinct text label. Primitive records provide basic data storage, while compound records support more elaborate grouping. External records allow text/binary files to be carried inside an archive and later recovered. This report documents version 1.0 of the SDA standard. The information provided here is sufficient for reading from and writing to an archive. Although the format was original designed for use in MATLAB, broader use is encouraged.
There is a significant body of work going back centuries that describes in detail the workings of metals that are rapidly transitioned from a solid to a vapor and beyond. These are known as exploding metals and have a variety of applications. A common way to cause metals to explode is through the use of a capacitive discharge circuit (CDC). In the past, methods have been used to simplify the complex, non-linear interaction between the CDC and the metal but in the process some important physics has been lost. This report provides insight into the complex interplay of the metal and the various elements of the CDC. In explaining the basic phenomena in greater detail than has been done before, other interesting cases such as "dwell" are understood in a new light. The net result is a detailed look at the mechanisms which shape the current pulses that scientists and engineers have observed for many decades.
This report follows the series of previous documents ([PT08, BPRT09b, PT09, BPT09, PT10, PB13], where we presented the parallel descriptive, correlative, multi-correlative, principal component analysis, contingency, k -means, order and auto-correlative statistics engines which we developed within the Visualization Tool Kit ( VTK ) as a scalable, parallel and versatile statistics package. We now report on a new engine which we developed for the calculation of divergence statistics, a concept which we hereafter explain and whose main goal is to quantify the discrepancy, in a stasticial manner akin to measuring a distance, between an observed empirical distribution and a theoretical, "ideal" one. The ease of use of the new diverence statistics engine is illustrated by the means of C++ code snippets. Although this new engine does not yet have a parallel implementation, it has already been applied to HPC performance analysis, of which we provide an example.
Overview: A Pu shot scheduled for July 17 on the Z machine at SNL was cancelled this past summer. The LiF windows on the Pu targets were cracked during assembly because of configuration changes. Sandia management concluded that continuing with this experiment would present an unacceptable level of risk to the facility and possibly to the workers. In this report, we document the events that occurred which led to this decision and also present some lessons learned and plans and procedures put in place to reduce the likelihood of another such occurrence. The changes and this memorandum reflect the thinking of subject matter experts at both LANL and SNL. These changes represent significant improvements in both communication protocols and quality of the hardware assemblies.
To determine the effect of Liquidoff on bacteria, three bacterial strains were tested: Escherichia coli DH5α, Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002, and Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. E. coli DH5α is a Gram-negative, aerobic bacterium that is often found in normal gut flora and is commonly used the laboratory due to its fast growth rate. Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 and S. elongatus PCC 7942 are Gram-negative, aquatic, autophototrophic cyanobacteria. Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 is a marine cyanobacterium isolated from ‘fish pens’ on Magueyes Island, Puerto Rico in 1962, while S. elongatus PCC 7942 is a freshwater cyanobacterium. It should be noted that no Gram-positive bacterium was tested in this study.
This document provides Sandia National Laboratories’ meeting notes and presentations at the Society for Modeling and Simulation Power Plant Simulator conference in Jacksonville, FL. The conference was held January 26-28, 2015, and SNL was invited by the U.S. nuclear industry to present Fukushima modeling insights and lessons learned.
Titanium and the titanium alloy Ti64 (6% aluminum, 4% vanadium and the balance ti- tanium) are materials used in many technologically important applications. To be able to computationally investigate and design these applications, accurate Equations of State (EOS) are needed and in many cases also additional constitutive relations. This report describes what data is available for constructing EOS for these two materials, and also describes some references giving data for stress-strain constitutive models. We also give some suggestions for projects to achieve improved EOS and constitutive models. In an appendix, we present a study of the 'cloud formation' issue observed in the ALEGRA code. This issue was one of the motivating factors for this literature search of available data for constructing improved EOS for Ti and Ti64. However, the study shows that the cloud formation issue is only marginally connected to the quality of the EOS, and, in fact, is a physical behavior of the system in question. We give some suggestions for settings in, and improvements of, the ALEGRA code to address this computational di culty.
This note summarizes an effort to characterize the effects of adding water-based liquid scintillator to the WATCHMAN detector. A detector model was built in the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit, and the position reconstruction of positrons within the detector was compared with and without scintillator. This study highlights the need for further modeling studies and small-scale experimental studies before inclusion into a large-scale detector, as the benefits compared to the associated costs are unclear.
Team Sandia California (Team H) used the Sandia code SIERRA Solid Mechanics: Implicit (SIERRA SM) to model the SFC2 challenge problem. SIERRA SM is a Lagrangian, three-dimensional, implicit code for the analysis of solids and structures. It contains a versatile library of continuum and structural elements, and an extensive library of material models. For all SFC2 related simulations, our team used Q1P0, 8 node hexahedral elements with element side lengths on the order 0.175 mm in failure regions. To model crack initiation and failure, element death removed elements from the simulation according to a continuum damage model. SIERRA SM’s implicit dynamics, implemented with an HHT time integration scheme for numerical damping [1], was used to model the unstable failure modes of the models. We chose SIERRA SM’s isotropic Elasto Viscoplastic material model for our simulations because it contains most of the physics required to accurately model the SFC2 challenge problem such as the flexibility to include temperature and rate dependence for a material.
This report presents a mathematical model of the way in which a hospital uses a variety of resources, utilities and consumables to provide care to a set of in-patients, and how that hospital might adapt to provide treatment to a few patients with a serious infectious disease, like the Ebola virus. The intended purpose of the model is to support requirements planning studies, so that hospitals may be better prepared for situations that are likely to strain their available resources. The current model is a prototype designed to present the basic structural elements of a requirements planning analysis. Some simple illustrati ve experiments establish the mo del's general capabilities. With additional inve stment in model enhancement a nd calibration, this prototype could be developed into a useful planning tool for ho spital administrators and health care policy makers.
Nanowire transistors are generally formed by metal contacts to a uniformly doped nanowire. The transistor can be modeled as a series combination of resistances from both the channel and the contacts. In this study, a simple model is proposed consisting of a resistive channel in series with two Schottky metal-semiconductor contacts modeled using the WKB approximation. This model captures several phenomena commonly observed in nanowire transistor measurements, including the mobility as a function of gate potential, mobility reduction with respect to bulk mobility, and non-linearities in output characteristics. For example, the maximum measured mobility as a function of gate voltage in a nanowire transistor can be predicted based on the semiconductor bulk mobility in addition to barrier height and other properties of the contact. The model is then extended to nanowires with axial p-n junctions having an inde- pendent gate over each wire segment by splitting the channel resistance into a series component for each doping segment. Finally, the contact-channel model is applied to low-frequency noise analysis in nanowire devices, where the noise can be generated in both the channel and the contacts. Because contacts play a major, yet often neglected, role in nanowire transistor operation, they must be accounted for in order to extract meaningful parameters from I-V and noise measurements.
The monopulse response of radar systems utilizing a short-focal-length offset-fed parabolic reflector can be compromised by depolarization of the signal by the target and by multipath scattering from nearby objects. The polarimetric behavior of this type of antenna is examined. The use of a shroud to reduce multipath interaction with nearby objects is also described. The mechanism through which man-made targets can introduce cross-polarization components into the scattered field is explained. Two kinds of polarization filters, suitable for linear polarization, are described for mitigating the effects of depolarization due to cross-polarization scattering. The benefit of the application of a polarization filter is demonstrated by modeling a monopulse radar system viewing a dihedral corner reflector. The model demonstrates dramatic performance improvement when the filter is used, showing that usable performance can be achieved even when the target depolarization is so severe that the cross-polarized signal is more than an order of magnitude stronger than the desired co-polarized signal. Relevant and useful reference material is also included in the form of appendices describing the relationship between different polarization representations and demonstrating the conditions under which Maxwell's equations can be considered to be scale-invariant.
We describe a new approach to computing that moves towards the limits of nanotechnology using a newly formulated sc aling rule. This is in contrast to the current computer industry scali ng away from von Neumann's original computer at the rate of Moore's Law. We extend Moore's Law to 3D, which l eads generally to architectures that integrate logic and memory. To keep pow er dissipation cons tant through a 2D surface of the 3D structure requires using adiabatic principles. We call our newly proposed architecture Processor In Memory and Storage (PIMS). We propose a new computational model that integrates processing and memory into "tiles" that comprise logic, memory/storage, and communications functions. Since the programming model will be relatively stable as a system scales, programs repr esented by tiles could be executed in a PIMS system built with today's technology or could become the "schematic diagram" for implementation in an ultimate 3D nanotechnology of the future. We build a systems software approach that offers advantages over and above the technological and arch itectural advantages. Firs t, the algorithms may be more efficient in the conventional sens e of having fewer steps. Second, the algorithms may run with higher power efficiency per operation by being a better match for the adiabatic scaling ru le. The performance analysis based on demonstrated ideas in physical science suggests 80,000 x improvement in cost per operation for the (arguably) gene ral purpose function of emulating neurons in Deep Learning.
Cryomilled Pd - 10Rh was investiga ted as potential solid - state storage material of hydrogen. Pd - 10Rh was first atomized, and then subsequently cryomilled. The cryomilled Pd - 10Rh was then examined using microstructural characterization techniques including op tical microscopy, electron microscopy, and X - ray diffraction. Pd - 10Rh particles were significantly flattened, increasing the apparent surface area. Microstructural refinement was observed in the cryomilled Pd - 10Rh, generating grains at the nanom etric scale through dislocation - based activity. Hydrogen sorption properties were also characterized, generating both capacity as well as kinetics measurements. It was found that the microstructural refinement due to cryomilling did not play a significant role on hyd rogen sorption properties until the smallest grain size (on the order of %7E25 nm) was achieved. Additionally, the increased surface area and other changes in particle morphology were associated with cryomilling changed the kinetics of hydrogen absorption.
Amorphous polymers exhibit a rich landscape of time-dependent behavior including viscoelasticity, structural relaxation, and viscoplasticity. These time-dependent mechanisms can be exploited to achieve shape-memory behavior, which allows the material to store a programmed deformed shape indefinitely and to recover entirely the undeformed shape in response to specific environmental stimulus. The shape-memory performance of amorphous polymers depends on the coordination of multiple physical mechanisms, and considerable opportunities exist to tailor the polymer structure and shape-memory programming procedure to achieve the desired performance. The goal of this project was to use a combination of theoretical, numerical and experimental methods to investigate the effect of shape memory programming, thermo-mechanical properties, and physical and environmental aging on the shape memory performance. Physical and environmental aging occurs during storage and through exposure to solvents, such as water, and can significantly alter the viscoelastic behavior and shape memory behavior of amorphous polymers. This project – executed primarily by Professor Thao Nguyen and Graduate Student Rui Xiao at Johns Hopkins University in support of a DOE/NNSA Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE) – developed a theoretical framework for chemothermo- mechanical behavior of amorphous polymers to model the effects of physical aging and solvent-induced environmental factors on their thermoviscoelastic behavior.
A number of cook-off experiments were performed to provide understanding of potential thermal ignition of drum 68660 in the February 14, 2014 radiation release at WIPP. Testing was begun according to the plan provided in Appendix B, and deviated significantly based on initial findings and other information developed during the testing. Two general types of experiments were performed: ones with nitric acid neutralized to varying degrees with Kolorsafe neutralizer, and ones with no added free liquid. Results indicate that reactivity is greater in the dry mixture, and that Fe nitrate and Ca nitrate play significant roles in ignition behavior whereas Pb nitrate, Cr nitrate, and oxalic acid do not. Within mixtures with liquid, very little exothermic behavior is observed with Swheat and water, but adding neutralized acid and nitrate salts results in significant reactivity and ignition. This behavior is suppressed by liquid water, and ignition occurs after the water has fully vaporized, although it is not clear if ignition occurs quickly because of the relatively high wall temperature at the end of the vaporization process.
The progressive drought in New Mexico has led farmers to consider crops that use less water yet maintain potential profit margins. Sunflower, a crop traditionally grown from Kansas to North Dakota, has recently been shown to be profitable in West Texas. The majority of sunflower is grown under dryland conditions due to its drought tolerance and deep root system. Sunflower was investigated as a new crop alternative for NM growers. Two organic, non-GMO seed varieties selected for the NM climate were planted at seven different farms across the state. Results from five of the farms were evaluated for biomass yield, oil yield, and oil characteristics. Results show promise for sunflower as a viable alternative for NM farmers to rotate into their crops.
Formulas for incremental or parallel computation of second order central moments have long been known, and recent extensions of these formulas to univariate and multivariate moments of arbitrary order have been developed. Such formulas are of key importance in scenarios where incremental results are required and in parallel and distributed systems where communication costs are high. We survey these recent results, and recall the first generalizations which we had obtained in [P$\acute0$8]. We then improve these arbitrary-order, numerically stable one-pass formulas to arbitrary-variate formulas which we further extend to arbitrary weights and compound variants. We also develop a generalized correction factor for standard two-pass algorithms that enables the maintenance of accuracy over nearly the full representable range of the input, avoiding the need for extended-precision arithmetic.
This paper provides a survey of work in secureable architectures with a focus on security principles that enable secure and secureable systems over the last 40 years. The paper begins with a description of secureable architectures, including the definitions of secure and secureable and the working definitions of architecture currently used in practice. Then we begin to outline the principles for secure systems as described by various authors, starting in academia in 1975, stretching to textbooks in common use today, and finally finishing with the most recent guidance from IEEE.
Based on the Sandia employee population's "Health Risk Status" and average Wellness Score," Sandia will strive to exceed benchmarks from the University of Michigan Health Management Research Center (HMRC). The HBE Health Action Plan initiative targets the key health risks identified through the 8-15-80, model by engaging employees to change their own healthcare story. HBE identified the most prevalent of the health risks amongst our population through the University of Michigan's health assessment tool, and used that data to build Health Action Plans. Our 2014 Health Action Plans addressed tobacco use, inadequate sleep, excessive stress, weight management, physical inactivity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, managing and preventing diabetes, managing low back pain, allergies, heartburn/gatroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and living well or maintaining low risk for those individuals who do not have a chronic condition to manage. These plans connected employees with our onsite registered dietitians, fitness professionals, health coaches, physical therapists and physicians as appropriate. In addition to addressing the physical aspects of health, the plans also emphasized pre and post-assessments to encourage building of behavioral and emotional skills that promote health and facilitate lifestyle changes over a minimum of three months. In CY2014, the average participation in a Health Action Plan was 34% with 3,840 individuals completing 5,521 Health Action Plans (a 25% increase from CY2013). Not only have the metrics revealed significant health improvements, but these improvements are evident in Sandia's health care costs as well. From 2009 - 2014, National health care costs have increased 7-8% per year (40% over 5 years). During the same time period, Sandia's health care costs have only increased 7.8% (5x lower than the national average) even though Sandia's population grew 19%.
A set of 16 geologic disposal concepts is described in sufficient detail for rough-order-of-magnitude repository cost estimates, for disposal of spent nuclear reactor fuel in generic crystalline, argillaceous, and salt host geologic media. The description includes total length, diameter, and volume for all underground shafts, ramps, drifts and large-diameter borings. Basic types of ground support are specified. Total repository capacity is assumed to be approximately 140,000 MT of spent fuel, but concepts are described in terms of modular panels each containing 10,000 MT. Waste packaging is described, and the materials and outer dimensions for disposal overpacks are given. The manner of emplacement is specified, with any additional fixturing, lining, buffer materials, and backfill needed. Thermal limits for waste package emplacement or repository closure are given, as appropriate for enclosed and open emplacement modes, respectively. The 16 disposal concepts are based on disposal concept studies performed for the Used Fuel Disposition R&D program between 2011 and 2014, and the accompanying engineering analyses.
This report documents the characterization and analysis of a high current power supply for the building 865 Hypersonic Wind Tunnel at Sandia National Laboratories. The system described in this report became operational in 2013, replacing the original 1968 system which employed an induction voltage regulator. This analysis and testing was completed to help the parent organization understand why an updated and redesigned power system was not delivering adequate power to resistive heater elements in the HWT. This analysis led to an improved understanding of the design and operation of the revised 2013 power supply system and identifies several reasons the revised system failed to achieve the performance of the original power supply installation. Design modifications to improve the performance of this system are discussed.
The transfer-messenger RNA (tmRNA) and its partner protein SmpB act together in resolving problems arising when translating bacterial ribosomes reach the end of mRNA with no stop codon. Their genes have been found in nearly all bacterial genomes and in some organelles. The tmRNA Website serves tmRNA sequences, alignments and feature annotations, and has recently moved to http://bioinformatics.sandia.gov/tmrna/. New features include software used to find the sequences, an update raising the number of unique tmRNA sequences from 492 to 1716, and a database of SmpB sequences which are served along with the tmRNA sequence from the same organism.
We study a scheme for implementing a controlled-Z (cz) gate between two neutral-atom qubits based on the Rydberg blockade mechanism in a manner that is robust to errors caused by atomic motion. By employing adiabatic dressing of the ground electronic state, we can protect the gate from decoherence due to random phase errors that typically arise because of atomic thermal motion. In addition, the adiabatic protocol allows for a Doppler-free configuration that involves counterpropagating lasers in a σ+/σ- orthogonal polarization geometry that further reduces motional errors due to Doppler shifts. The residual motional error is dominated by dipole-dipole forces acting on doubly excited Rydberg atoms when the blockade is imperfect. For reasonable parameters, with qubits encoded into the clock states of Cs133, we predict that our protocol could produce a cz gate in <10 μs with error probability on the order of 10-3.
Genomic islands are mobile DNAs that are major agents of bacterial and archaeal evolution. Integration into prokaryotic chromosomes usually occurs site-specifically at tRNA or tmRNA gene (together, tDNA) targets, catalyzed by tyrosine integrases. This splits the target gene, yet sequences within the island restore the disrupted gene; the regenerated target and its displaced fragment precisely mark the endpoints of the island. We applied this principle to search for islands in genomic DNA sequences. Our algorithm identifies tDNAs, finds fragments of those tDNAs in the same replicon and removes unlikely candidate islands through a series of filters. A search for islands in 2168 whole prokaryotic genomes produced 3919 candidates. The website Islander (recentlymoved to http://bioinformatics.sandia.gov/islander/) presents these precisely mapped candidate islands, the gene content and the island sequence. The algorithm further insists that each island encode an integrase, and attachment site sequence identity is carefully noted; therefore, the database also serves in the study of integrase site-specificity and its evolution.
Since the original economic model for MACCS was developed, better quality economic data (as well as the tools to gather and process it) and better computational capabilities have become available. The update of the economic impacts component of the MACCS legacy model will provide improved estimates of business disruptions through the use of Input-Output based economic impact estimation. This paper presents an updated MACCS model, bases on Input-Output methodology, in which economic impacts are calculated using the Regional Economic Accounting analysis tool (REAcct) created at Sandia National Laboratories. This new GDP-based model allows quick and consistent estimation of gross domestic product (GDP) losses due to nuclear power plant accidents. This paper outlines the steps taken to combine the REAcct Input-Output-based model with the MACCS code, describes the GDP loss calculation, and discusses the parameters and modeling assumptions necessary for the estimation of long-term effects of nuclear power plant accidents.
A recently developed bounds-analysis approach has been used to interpret density-functional-theory (DFT) results for the As and Ga antisites in GaAs. The bounds analysis and subsequent processing of DFT results for the As antisite yielded levels - defined as the Fermi levels at which the defect charge state changes - in very good agreement with measurements, including the -1/0 level which is within 0.1 eV of the conduction-band edge. Good agreement was also obtained for the activation energies to transform the AsGa from its metastable state to its stable state. For the Ga antisite, the bounds analysis revealed that the -1 and 0 charge states are hole states weakly bound to a localized -2 charge state. The calculated levels are in good agreement with measurements.
Lithiation-exfoliation produces single to few-layered MoS2 and WS2 sheets dispersible in water. However, the process transforms them from the pristine semiconducting 2H phase to a distorted metallic phase. Recovery of the semiconducting properties typically involves heating of the chemically exfoliated sheets at elevated temperatures. Therefore, it has been largely limited to sheets deposited on solid substrates. We report the dispersion of chemically exfoliated MoS2 sheets in high boiling point organic solvents enabled by surface functionalization and the controllable recovery of their semiconducting properties directly in solution. Ultimately, this process connects the scalability of chemical exfoliation with the simplicity of solution processing, enabling a facile method for tuning the metal to semiconductor transitions of MoS2 and WS2 within a liquid medium.
Koh, Chung Y.; Schaff, Ulrich Y.; Piccini, Matthew E.; Stanker, Larry H.; Cheng, Luisa W.; Ravichandran, Easwaran; Singh, Bal R.; Sommer, Greg J.; Singh, Anup K.
We present an innovative centrifugal microfluidic immunoassay platform (SpinDx) to address the urgent biodefense and public health need for ultrasensitive point-of-care/incident detection of botulinum toxin. The simple, sample-to-answer centrifugal microfluidic immunoassay approach is based on binding of toxins to antibody-laden capture particles followed by sedimentation of the particles through a density-media in a microfluidic disk and quantification by laser-induced fluorescence. A blind, head-to-head comparison study of SpinDx versus the gold-standard mouse bioassay demonstrates 100-fold improvement in sensitivity (limit of detection = 0.09 pg/mL), while achieving total sample-to-answer time of <30 min with 2-∼L required volume of the unprocessed sample. We further demonstrate quantification of botulinum toxin in both exogeneous (human blood and serum spiked with toxins) and endogeneous (serum from mice intoxicated via oral, intranasal, and intravenous routes) samples. SpinDx can analyze, without any sample preparation, multiple sample types including whole blood, serum, and food. It is readily expandable to additional analytes as the assay reagents (i.e., the capture beads and detection antibodies) are disconnected from the disk architecture and the reader, facilitating rapid development of new assays. SpinDx can also serve as a general-purpose immunoassay platform applicable to diagnosis of other conditions and diseases.
Two-dimensional hole gases (2DHGs) have attracted recent attention for their unique quantum physics and potential applications in areas including spintronics and quantum computing. However, their properties remain relatively unexplored, motivating the use of different techniques to study them. We used terahertz magneto-optical spectroscopy to investigate the cyclotron resonance frequency in a high mobility 2DHG, revealing a nonlinear dependence on the applied magnetic field. This is shown to be due to the complex non-parabolic valence band structure of the 2DHG, as verified by multiband Landau level calculations. We also find that impurity scattering dominates cyclotron resonance decay in the 2DHG, in contrast with the dominance of superradiant damping in two-dimensional electron gases. Our results shed light on the properties of 2DHGs, motivating further studies of these unique 2D nanosystems.
Various protocell models have been constructed de novo with the bottom-up approach. Here we describe a silica-based protocell composed of a nanoporous amorphous silica core encapsulated within a lipid bilayer built by self-assembly that provides for independent definition of cell interior and the surface membrane. In this review, we will first describe the essential features of this architecture and then summarize the current development of silica-based protocells at both micro- and nanoscale with diverse functionalities. As the structure of the silica is relatively static, silica-core protocells do not have the ability to change shape, but their interior structure provides a highly crowded and, in some cases, authentic scaffold upon which biomolecular components and systems could be reconstituted. In basic research, the larger protocells based on precise silica replicas of cells could be developed into geometrically realistic bioreactor platforms to enable cellular functions like coupled biochemical reactions, while in translational research smaller protocells based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles are being developed for targeted nanomedicine. Ultimately we see two different motivations for protocell research and development: (1) to emulate life in order to understand it; and (2) to use biomimicry to engineer desired cellular interactions.
Thin ZrC films (<500 nm) were grown on (100) Si substrates at a substrate temperature of 500 °C by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique using a KrF excimer laser under different CH4 pressures. Glancing incidence X-ray diffraction showed that films were nanocrystalline, while X-ray reflectivity studies found out films were very dense and exhibited a smooth surface morphology. Optical spectroscopy data shows that the films have high reflectivity (>90%) in the infrared region, characteristic of metallic behavior. Nanoindentation results indicated that films deposited under lower CH4 pressures exhibited slightly higher nanohardness and Young modulus values than films deposited under higher pressures. As a result, tribological characterization revealed that these films exhibited relatively high wear resistance and steady-state friction coefficients on the order of μ = 0.4.
Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are a rapidly expanding class of hybrid organic-inorganic materials that can be rationally designed and assembled through crystal engineering. The explosion of interest in this subclass of coordination polymers results from their outstanding properties and myriad possible applications, which include traditional uses of microporous materials, such as gas storage, separations, and catalysis, as well as new realms in biomedicine, electronic devices, and information storage. The objective of this Highlight article is to provide the reader with a sense of where the field stands after roughly fifteen years of research. Remarkable progress has been made, but the barriers to practical and commercial advances are also evident. We discuss the basic elements of MOF assembly and present a conceptual hierarchy of structural elements that assists in understanding how unique properties in these materials can be achieved. Structure-function relationships are then discussed; several are now well understood, as a result of the focused efforts of many research groups over the past decade. Prospects for the use of MOFs in membranes, catalysis, biomedicine, and as active components in electronic and photonic devices are also discussed. Finally, we identify the most pressing challenges in our view that must be addressed for these materials to realize their full potential in the marketplace. This journal is
Noncontact methods of generating strong fluid vorticity are important to problems involving heat and mass transfer, fluid mixing, active wetting, and droplet transport. Furthermore, because zero or even negative shear viscosities can be induced, vorticity can greatly extend the control range of the smart fluids used in magnetorheological devices. In recent work we have shown that a particular class of ac/ac/dc triaxial fields (symmetry-breaking rational fields) can create strong vorticity in magnetic particle suspensions and have presented a theory of the vorticity that is based on the symmetry of the 2-d Lissajous trajectories of the field and its converse. In this paper we demonstrate that there are three countably infinite sets of fully alternating ac/ac/ac triaxial fields whose frequencies form rational triads that have the symmetry required to drive fluid vorticity. The symmetry of the 3-d Lissajous trajectories of the field and its converse can be derived and from this the direction of the vorticity axis can be predicted, as can the dependence of the sign of the vorticity on the phase relations between the three field components. Experimental results are presented that validate the symmetry theory. These discoveries significantly broaden the class of triaxial fields that can be exploited to produce strong noncontact flow.
Peppanen, Jouni; Reno, Matthew J.; Thakkar, Mohini; Grijalva, Santiago; Harley, Ronald G.
The many new distributed energy resources being installed at the distribution system level require increased visibility into system operations that will be enabled by distribution system state estimation (DSSE) and situational awareness applications. Reliable and accurate DSSE requires both robust methods for managing the big data provided by smart meters and quality distribution system models. This paper presents intelligent methods for detecting and dealing with missing or inaccurate smart meter data, as well as the ways to process the data for different applications. It also presents an efficient and flexible parameter estimation method based on the voltage drop equation and regression analysis to enhance distribution system model accuracy. Finally, it presents a 3-D graphical user interface for advanced visualization of the system state and events. Moreover, we demonstrate this paper for a university distribution network with the state-of-the-art real-time and historical smart meter data infrastructure.
Korobeinichev, Oleg\U202fp; Gerasimov, Ilya\U202fe; Knyazkov, Denis\U202fa; Shmakov, Andrey\U202fg; Bolshova, Tatyana\U202fa; Hansen, Nils; Westbrook, Charles K.; Dayma, Guillaume; Yang, B.
Detailed chemical structures of stoichiometric and rich premixed laminar flames of methyl pentanoate and methyl hexanoate were investigated over a flat burner at 20 Torr and for methyl pentanoate at 1 atm. Molecular beam mass spectrometry was used with tunable synchrotron vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization for low pressure flames of both methyl pentanoate and methyl hexanoate, and soft electron-impact ionization was used for atmospheric pressure flames of methyl pentanoate. Mole fraction profiles of stable and intermediate species, as well as temperature profiles, were measured in the flames. A detailed chemical kinetic high temperature reaction mechanism for small alkyl ester oxidation was extended to include combustion of methyl pentanoate and methyl hexanoate, and the resulting model was used to compare computed values with experimentally measured values. Reaction pathways for both fuels were identified, with good agreement between measured and computed species profiles. Implications of these results for future studies of larger alkyl ester fuels are discussed.
We report low-temperature electronic transport results on the fractional quantum Hall effect of composite fermions at Landau level filling ν=4/11 in a very high mobility and low density sample. Measurements were carried out at temperatures down to 15mK, where an activated magnetoresistance Rxx and a quantized Hall resistance Rxy, within 1% of the expected value of h/(4/11)e2, were observed. The temperature dependence of the Rxx minimum at 4/11 yields an activation energy gap of ∼7mK. Developing Hall plateaus were also observed at the neighboring states at ν=3/8and5/13.
In this study, the dosimetry community has a history of using spectral indices to support neutron spectrum characterization and cross section validation efforts. An important aspect to this type of analysis is the proper consideration of the contribution of the spectrum uncertainty to the total uncertainty in calculated spectral indices (SIs). This study identifies deficiencies in the traditional treatment of the SI uncertainty, provides simple bounds to the spectral component in the SI uncertainty estimates, verifies that these estimates are reflected in actual applications, details a methodology that rigorously captures the spectral contribution to the uncertainty in the SI, and provides quantified examples that demonstrate the importance of the proper treatment the spectral contribution to the uncertainty in the SI.
Digital microfluidics (DMF) is a powerful technique for sample preparation and analysis for a broad range of biological and chemical applications. In many cases, it is desirable to carry out DMF on an open surface, such that the matrix surrounding the droplets is ambient air. However, the utility of the air-matrix DMF format has been severely limited by problems with droplet evaporation, especially when the droplet-based biochemical reactions require high temperatures for long periods of time. We present a simple solution for managing evaporation in air-matrix DMF: just-in-time replenishment of the reaction volume using droplets of solvent. We demonstrate that this solution enables DMF-mediated execution of several different biochemical reactions (RNA fragmentation, first-strand cDNA synthesis, and PCR) over a range of temperatures (4-95°C) and incubation times (up to 1 h or more) without use of oil, humidifying chambers, or off-chip heating modules. Reaction volumes and temperatures were maintained roughly constant over the course of each experiment, such that the reaction kinetics and products generated by the air-matrix DMF device were comparable to those of conventional benchscale reactions. This simple yet effective solution for evaporation management is an important advance in developing air-matrix DMF for a wide variety of new, high-impact applications, particularly in the biomedical sciences.
A nonlinear three-dimensional time-domain performance model has been developed for a floating axisymmetric point absorbing WEC. This model employs a set of linear partial differential equations, in the form of a state-space model, to replace the convolution integrals needed to solve for radiation reaction. Linear time-domain results are verified against predictions from a frequency-domain model. Nonlinear timedomain predictions are compared back to frequency-domain and linear time-domain predictions to show the effects of some linearization assumptions. A simple resistive control strategy is applied throughout these scenarios.
A composite material consisting of TiO2 nanotubes (NT) with WO3 electrodeposited on its surface has been fabricated, detached from its Ti substrate, and attached to a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) film on glass for application to electrochromic (EC) reactions. Several adhesion layers were tested, finding that a paste of TiO2 made from commercially available TiO2 nanoparticles creates an interface for the TiO2 NT film to attach to the FTO glass, which is conductive and does not cause solution-phase ions in an electrolyte to bind irreversibly with the material. The effect of NT length and WO3 concentration on the EC performance were studied. As a result, the composite WO3/TiO2 nanostructures showed higher ion storage capacity, better stability, enhanced EC contrast, and longer memory time compared with the pure WO3 and TiO2 materials
Direct solutions of the Chemical Master Equation (CME) governing Stochastic Reaction Networks (SRNs) are generally prohibitively expensive due to excessive numbers of possible discrete states in such systems. To enhance computational efficiency we develop a hybrid approach where the evolution of states with low molecule counts is treated with the discrete CME model while that of states with large molecule counts is modeled by the continuum Fokker-Planck equation. The Fokker-Planck equation is discretized using a 2nd order finite volume approach with appropriate treatment of flux components. The numerical construction at the interface between the discrete and continuum regions implements the transfer of probability reaction by reaction according to the stoichiometry of the system. The performance of this novel hybrid approach is explored for a two-species circadian model with computational efficiency gains of about one order of magnitude.
Incorrect computer hardware behavior may corrupt intermediate computations in numerical algorithms, possibly resulting in incorrect answers. Prior work models misbehaving hardware by randomly flipping bits in memory. We start by accepting this premise, and present an analytic model for the error introduced by a bit flip in an IEEE 754 floating-point number. We then relate this finding to the linear algebra concepts of normalization and matrix equilibration. In particular, we present a case study illustrating that normalizing both vector inputs of a dot product minimizes the probability of a single bit flip causing a large error in the dot product's result. Moreover, the absolute error is either less than one or very large, which allows detection of large errors. Then, we apply this to the GMRES iterative solver. We count all possible errors that can be introduced through faults in arithmetic in the computationally intensive orthogonalization phase of GMRES, and show that when the matrix is equilibrated, the absolute error is bounded above by one.
Localized corrosion of Cu and Al thin films exposed to aqueous NaCl solutions was studied using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (LCTEM). We demonstrate that potentiostatic control can be used to initiate pitting and that local compositional changes, due to focused ion beam implantation of Au+ ions, can modify the corrosion susceptibility of Al films. This journal is
Current heliostats cost ∼$200/m2 of reflective area and are estimated to contribute up to 50% of the total solar power tower plant costs. A drastic overall cost reduction is required in order for concentrated solar thermal power to be economically viable. The Department of Energy has set forth the SunShot initiative targeting a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of $0.06/kWh by the year 2020. The cost of each heliostat must be brought down to an estimated $75/m2 to achieve this rigorous goal. One of the driving aspects of heliostat design and cost are the heliostat optical errors. At the moment, it is relatively unclear about the amount of error that can be present in the system while still maintaining low cost and high optical accuracy. The optical errors present on heliostat mirror surfaces directly influence the plant LCOE by causing beam spillage. This can result in an increase in the number of heliostats, an increased receiver size, and decreased thermal efficiency. Assuming a fixed heliostat cost of $75/m2, the effects of optical errors on LCOE were evaluated within the software DELSOL. From a probabilistic analysis, beam quality errors (i.e., slope error, alignment errors, etc.) were shown to have more importance on the LCOE than tracking errors. This determination resulted in a realization that the tracking errors and beam quality errors could be combined into a "bundled" root-sum-square (RSS) error value and produce similar results in DELSOL. A "bundled" error value of 2 mrad resulted in an LCOE of $0.06/kWh. This "bundled" value was the basis for a new optical error budget and is decomposed into five individual errors. These five errors can be used as design specifications for new generation heliostats.
Heliostat optical performance can be affected by both wind and gravity induced deflections in the mirror support structure. These effects can result in decreased energy collection efficiency, depending on the magnitude of structural deflections, heliostat orientation and field position, and sun position. This paper presents a coupled modeling approach to evaluate the effects of gravity loading on heliostat optical performance, considering two heliostat designs: The National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) heliostat and the Advanced Thermal Systems (ATS) heliostat. Deflections under gravitational loading were determined using finite element analysis (FEA) in ANSYS MECHANICAL, and the resulting deformed heliostat geometry was analyzed using Breault APEX optical engineering software to evaluate changes in beam size and shape. Optical results were validated against images of actual beams produced by each respective heliostat, measured using the Beam Characterization System (BCS) at Sandia National Laboratories. Simulated structural deflections in both heliostats were found to have visible impacts on beam shape, with small but quantifiable changes in beam power distribution. In this paper, the combined FEA and optical analysis method is described and validated, as well as a method for modeling heliostats subjected to gravitational deflection and canted in-field, for which mirror positions may not be known rigorously. Furthermore, a modified, generalized construction method is proposed and analyzed for the ATS heliostat, which was found to give consistent improvements in beam shape and up to a 4.1% increase in annual incident power weighted intercept (AIPWI).
Digital image correlation (DIC) uses images from a camera and lens system to make quantitative measurements of the shape, displacement, and strain of test objects. This increasingly popular method has had little research on the influence of the imaging system resolution on the DIC results. This paper investigates the entire imaging system and studies how both the camera and lens resolution influence the DIC results as a function of the system Modulation Transfer Function (MTF). It will show that when making spatial resolution decisions (including speckle size) the resolution limiting component should be considered. A consequence of the loss of spatial resolution is that the DIC uncertainties will be increased. This is demonstrated using both synthetic and experimental images with varying resolution. The loss of image resolution and DIC accuracy can be compensated for by increasing the subset size, or better, by increasing the speckle size. The speckle-size and spatial resolution are now a function of the lens resolution rather than the more typical assumption of the pixel size. The paper will demonstrate the tradeoffs associated with limited lens resolution.
Palladium and its alloys are model systems for studying the solid-state storage of hydrogen. Mechanical milling is commonly used to process complex powder systems for solid-state hydrogen storage; however, milling can also be used to evolve nanostructured powder to modify hydrogen sorption characteristics. In the present study, cryomilling (mechanical attrition milling in a cryogenic liquid) is used to produce nanostructured palladium-rhodium alloy powder. Characterization of the cryomilled Pd-10Rh using electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and surface area analysis reveal that (i) particle morphology evolves from spherical to flattened disk-like particles; while (ii) crystallite size decreases from several microns to less than 100 nm; and (iii) dislocation density increases with increased cryomilling time. Hydrogen absorption and desorption isotherms as well as the time scales for absorption were measured for cryomilled Pd-10Rh, and correlated with observed microstructural changes induced by the cryomilling process. In short, as the microstructure of the Pd-10Rh alloy is refined by cryomilling: (i) the maximum hydrogen concentration in the α-phase increases, (ii) the pressure plateau becomes flatter and (iii) the equilibrium hydrogen capacity increases at pressure of 101.3 kPa. Additionally, the rate of hydrogen absorption was reduced by an order of magnitude compared to non-cryomilled (atomized) powder.
Resilience is a major challenge for large-scale systems. It is particularly important for iterative linear solvers, since they take much of the time of many scientific applications. We show that single bit flip errors in the Flexible GMRES iterative linear solver can lead to high computational overhead or even failure to converge to the right answer. Informed by these results, we design and evaluate several strategies for fault tolerance in both inner and outer solvers appropriate across a range of error rates.We implement them, extending Trilinos’ solver library with the Global View Resilience (GVR) programming model, which provides multi-stream snapshots, multi-version data structures with portable and rich error checking/recovery. Experimental results validate correct execution with low performance overhead under varied error conditions.
The computer-aided design (CAD) applications that are fundamental to the electronic design automation industry need to harness the available hardware resources to be able to perform full-chip simulation for modern technology nodes (45nm and below). We will present a hybrid (MPI+threads) approach for parallel transistor-level transient circuit simulation that achieves scalable performance for some challenging large-scale integrated circuits. This approach focuses on the computationally expensive part of the simulator: the linear system solve. Hybrid versions of two iterative linear solver strategies are presented, one takes advantage of block triangular form structure while the other uses a Schur complement technique. Results indicate up to a 27x improvement in total simulation time on 256 cores.
This work proposes a model-reduction methodology that preserves Lagrangian structure and achieves computational efficiency in the presence of high-order nonlinearities and arbitrary parameter dependence. As such, the resulting reduced-order model retains key properties such as energy conservation and symplectic time-evolution maps. We focus on parameterized simple mechanical systems subjected to Rayleigh damping and external forces, and consider an application to nonlinear structural dynamics. To preserve structure, the method first approximates the system's "Lagrangian ingredients"-the Riemannian metric, the potential-energy function, the dissipation function, and the external force-and subsequently derives reduced-order equations of motion by applying the (forced) Euler-Lagrange equation with these quantities. From the algebraic perspective, key contributions include two efficient techniques for approximating parameterized reduced matrices while preserving symmetry and positive definiteness: matrix gappy proper orthogonal decomposition and reduced-basis sparsification. Results for a parameterized truss-structure problem demonstrate the practical importance of preserving Lagrangian structure and illustrate the proposed method's merits: it reduces computation time while maintaining high accuracy and stability, in contrast to existing nonlinear model-reduction techniques that do not preserve structure.
Over the past decade, numerous efforts have sought to understand the influence of twin boundaries on the behavior of polycrystalline materials. Early results suggested that twin boundaries within nanocrystalline face-centered cubic metals have a considerable effect on material behavior by altering the activated deformation mechanisms. In this work, we employ molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate the role of twin boundaries on the deformation of 〈100〉 columnar nanocrystalline copper at room temperature under uniaxial strain. We leverage non-local kinematic metrics, formulated from continuum mechanics theory, to compute atomically-resolved rotational and strain fields during plastic deformation. These results are then utilized to compute the distribution of various nanoscale mechanisms during straining, and quantitatively resolve their contribution to the total strain accommodation within the microstructure, highlighting the fundamental role of twin boundaries. Our results show that nanoscale twins influence nanocrystalline copper by altering the cooperation of fundamental deformation mechanisms and their contributed role in strain accommodation, and we present new methods for extracting useful information from atomistic simulations. The simulation results suggest a tension-compression asymmetry in the distribution of deformation mechanisms and strain accommodation by either dislocations or twin boundary mechanisms. In highly twinned microstructures, twin boundary migration can become a significant deformation mode, in comparison to lattice dislocation plasticity in non-twinned columnar microstructures, especially during compression.
Thin tantalum films have been studied during in situ heating in a transmission electron microscope. Diffraction patterns from the as-deposited films were typical of amorphous materials. Crystalline grains were observed to form when the specimen was annealed in situ at 450 °C. Particular attention was addressed to the formation and growth of grains with the face-centered cubic (fcc) crystal structure. These observations are discussed in relation to prior work on the formation of fcc Ta by deformation and during thin film deposition.
Accurately representing the local solar variability at timescales relevant to distribution grid operations (30-s and shorter) is essential to modeling the impact of solar photovoltaics (PV) on distribution feeders. Due to a lack of available high-frequency solar data, some distribution grid studies have used synthetically-created PV variability or measured PV variability from a different location than their study location. In this work, we show the importance of using accurate solar PV variability inputs in distribution studies. Using high-frequency solar irradiance data from 10 locations in the United States, we compare the ramp rate distributions at the different locations, use a quantitative metric to describe the solar variability at each location, and run distribution simulations using representative 1-week samples from each location to demonstrate the impact of locational solar variability on the number of voltage regulator tap change operations. Results show more than a factor of 3 difference in the number of tap change operations between different PV power variability samples based on irradiance from the different locations. Errors in simulated number of tap changes of up to -70% were found when using low-frequency (e.g., 15-min) solar variability.
In k-hypergraph matching, we are given a collection of sets of size at most k, each with an associated weight, and we seek a maximumweight subcollection whose sets are pairwise disjoint. More generally, in k-hypergraph b-matching, instead of disjointness we require that every element appears in at most b sets of the subcollection. Our main result is a linear-programming based (k - 1 + 1/k)-approximation algorithm for k-hypergraph b-matching. This settles the integrality gap when k is one more than a prime power, since it matches a previously-known lower bound. When the hypergraph is bipartite, we are able to improve the approximation ratio to k - 1, which is also best possible relative to the natural LP. These results are obtained using a more careful application of the iterated packing method. Using the bipartite algorithmic integrality gap upper bound, we show that for the family of combinatorial auctions in which anyone can win at most t items, there is a truthful-in-expectation polynomial-time auction that t-approximately maximizes social welfare. We also show that our results directly imply new approximations for a generalization of the recently introduced bounded-color matching problem. We also consider the generalization of b-matching to demand matching, where edges have nonuniform demand values. The best known approximation algorithm for this problem has ratio 2k on k-hypergraphs. We give a new algorithm, based on local ratio, that obtains the same approximation ratio in a much simpler way.
The following work presents an adjoint-based methodology for solving inverse problems in heterogeneous and fractured media using state-based peridynamics. We show that the inner product involving the peridynamic operators is self-adjoint. The proposed method is illustrated for several numerical examples with constant and spatially varying material parameters as well as in the context of fractures. We also present a framework for obtaining material parameters by integrating digital image correlation (DIC) with inverse analysis. This framework is demonstrated by evaluating the bulk and shear moduli for a sample of nuclear graphite using digital photographs taken during the experiment. The resulting measured values correspond well with other results reported in the literature. Lastly, we show that this framework can be used to determine the load state given observed measurements of a crack opening. This type of analysis has many applications in characterizing subsurface stress-state conditions given fracture patterns in cores of geologic material.