Publications

Abstract not provided.

Telemedicine technology is rapidly evolving. Whereas early telemedicine consultations relied primarily on video conferencing, consultations today may utilize video conferencing, medical peripherals, store-and-forward capabilities, electronic patient record management software, and/or a host of other emerging technologies. These remote care systems rely increasingly on distributed, collaborative information technology during the care delivery process, in its many forms. While these leading-edge systems are bellwethers for highly advanced telemedicine, the remote care market today is still immature. Most telemedicine systems are custom-designed and do not interoperate with other commercial offerings. Users are limited to a set of functionality that a single vendor provides and must often pay high prices to obtain this functionality, since vendors in this marketplace must deliver entire systems in order to compete. Besides increasing corporate research and development costs, this inhibits the ability of the user to make intelligent purchasing decisions regarding best-of-breed technologies. We propose a secure, object-oriented information architecture for telemedicine systems that promotes plug-and-play interaction between system components through standardized interfaces, communication protocols, messaging formats, and data definitions. In this architecture, each component functions as a black box, and components plug together in a lego-like fashion to achieve the desired device or system functionality. The architecture will support various ongoing standards work in the medical device arena.

The US health care industry is experiencing a substantial paradigm shift with regard to home care due to the convergence of several technology areas. Increasingly-capable telehealth systems and the internet are not only moving the point of care closer to the patient, but the patient can now assume a more active role in his or her own care. These technologies, coupled with (1) the migration of the health care industry to electronic patient records and (2) the emergence of a growing number of enabling health care technologies (e.g., novel biosensors, wearable devices, and intelligent software agents), demonstrate unprecedented potential for delivering highly automated, intelligent health care in the home. This editorial paper presents a vision for the implementation of intelligent health care technology in the home of the future, focusing on areas of research that have the highest potential payoff given targeted government funding over the next ten years. Here, intelligent health care technology means smart devices and systems that are aware of their context and can therefore assimilate information to support care decisions. A systems perspective is used to describe a framework under which devices can interact with one another in a plug-and-play manner. Within this infrastructure, traditionally passive sensors and devices will have read/write access to appropriate portions of an individual's electronic medical record. Through intelligent software agents, plug-and-play mechanisms, messaging standards, and user authentication tools, these smart home-based medical devices will be aware of their own capabilities, their relationship to the other devices in the home system, and the identity of the individual(s) from whom they acquire data. Information surety technology will be essential to maintain the confidentiality of patient-identifiable medical information and to protect the integrity of geographically dispersed electronic medical records with which each home-based system will interact.

A model is developed herein for predicting the mechanical response of inelastic crystalline solids. Particular emphasis is given to the development of microstructural damage along grain boundaries, and the interaction of this damage with intragranular inelasticity caused by dislocation dissipation mechanisms. The model is developed within the concepts of continuum mechanics, with special emphasis on the development of internal boundaries in the continuum by utilizing a cohesive zone model based on fracture mechanics. In addition, the crystalline grains are assumed to be characterized by nonlinear viscoplastic mechanical material behavior in order to account for dislocation generation and migration. Due to the nonlinearities introduced by the crack growth and viscoplastic constitution, a numerical algorithm is utilized to solve representative problems. Implementation of the model to a finite element computational algorithm is therefore briefly described. Finally, sample calculations are presented for a polycrystalline titanium alloy with particular focus on effects of scale on the predicted response.

Application of Executive Order 12898 to risk assessment of highway or rail transport of hazardous materials has proven difficult; the location and conditions affecting the propagation of a plume of hazardous material released in a potential accident are unknown, in general. Therefore, analyses have only been possible in geographically broad or approximate manner. The advent of geographic information systems and development of software enhancements at Sandia National Laboratories have made kilometer-by-kilometer analysis of populations tallied by U.S. Census Blocks along entire routes practicable. Tabulations of total, or racially/ethnically distinct, populations close to a route, its alternatives, or the broader surrounding area, can then be compared and differences evaluated statistically. This paper presents methods of comparing populations and their racial/ethnic compositions using simple tabulations, histograms and Chi Squared tests for statistical significance of differences found. Two examples of these methods are presented: comparison of two routes and comparison of a route with its surroundings.

Epitaxial thin films of the Tl cuprate superconductors Tl{sub 2}Ba{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8}, Tl{sub 2}Ba{sub 2}Ca{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 10}, and TL{sub 0.78}Bi{sub 0.22}Ba{sub 0.4}Sr{sub 1.6}Ca{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 9{minus}{delta}} are studied with x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. These data, together with previous measurements in this lab of Tl{sub 2}Ba{sub 2}CuO{sub 6+{delta}} and TlBa{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 7{minus}{delta}}, comprise a comprehensive data set for a comparative study of Tl cuprates with a range of chemical and electronic properties. In the Cu 2p spectra, a larger energy separation between the satellite and main peaks (E{sub s}-E{sub m}) and a lower intensity ratio (I{sub s}/I{sub m}) are found to correlate with higher values of T{sub c}. Analysis of these spectra within a simple configuration interaction model suggests that higher values of T{sub c} are related to low values of the O 2p {r_arrow} Cu 3d charge transfer energy. In the O 1s region, a smaller bond length between Ba and Cu-O planar oxygen is found to correlate with a lower binding energy for the signal associated with Cu-O bonding, most likely resulting from the increased polarization screening by Ba{sup 2+} ions. For samples near optimum doping, maximum T{sub c} is observed to occur when the Tl 4f{sub 7/2} binding energy is near 117.9 eV, which is near the middle of the range of values observed for Tl cuprates. Higher Tl 4f{sub 7/2} binding energies, corresponding to formal oxidation states nearer Tl{sup 1+}, are also found to correlate with longer bond lengths between Ba and Tl-O planar oxygen, and with higher binding energies of the O 1s signal associated with Tl-O bonding.

First-principles total energies of periodic vicinals are used to estimate barriers for Pt-adatom diffusion along straight and kinked steps on Pt(111), and around a corner where straight steps intersect. In all cases studied, hopping diffusion has a lower barrier than concerted substitution. In conflict with simulations of dendritic Pt island formation on Pt(111), hopping from a corner site to a step whose riser is a (111)-micro facet is predicted to be more facile than to one whose riser is a (100).

Scenario development has two primary purposes in the design and documentation of post-closure performance assessments in a regulatory setting. First, scenario development ensures a sufficiently comprehensive consideration of the possible future states of the system. Second, scenario development identifies the important scenarios that must be considered in quantitative analyses of the total system performance assessment (TSPA). Section 2.0 of this report describes the scenario development process. Steps in the process are described in Section 2.1, and terms introduced in this section are defined in Section 2.2. The electronic database used to document the process is described in Section 3, and Section 4 provides a summary of the current status of the YMP scenario development work. Section 5 contains acknowledgments, and Section 6 contains a list of the references cited.

We have discussed two aspects of creating high integrity software that greatly benefit from the availability of transformation technology, which in this case is manifest by the requirement for a sophisticated backtracking parser. First, because of the potential for correctly manipulating programs via small changes, an automated non-procedural transformation system can be a valuable tool for constructing high assurance software. Second, modeling the processing of translating data into information as a, perhaps, context-dependent grammar leads to an efficient, compact implementation. From a practical perspective, the transformation process should begin in the domain language in which a problem is initially expressed. Thus in order for a transformation system to be practical it must be flexible with respect to domain-specific languages. We have argued that transformation applied to specification results in a highly reliable system. We also attempted to briefly demonstrate that transformation technology applied to the runtime environment will result in a safe and secure system. We thus believe that the sophisticated multi-lookahead backtracking parsing technology is central to the task of being in a position to demonstrate the existence of HIS.

We have designed a new class of cyclic siloxane compounds that behave as sol-gel systems when ring open polymerized using a hydroxide base. These monomers polymerize through chain growth polymerization. unlike conventional alkoxysilane sol-gel precursors, to form sol-gel polymers. They do not require solvent or water for polymerization, show no visible shrinkage or cracking during polymerization and are thermally stable. We have successfully utilized these materials in encapsulation of microelectronics. Current efforts are focused toward expanding this family of ROP monomers and optimization of their mechanical properties.

Mission critical applications of MEMS devices require knowledge of the distribution in their material properties and long-term reliability of the small-scale structures. This project reports on a new testing program at Sandia to quantify the strength distribution using samples that reflect the dimensions of critical MEMS components. The strength of polysilicon fabricated with Sandia's SUMMiT 4-layer process was successfully measured using samples with gage sections 2.5 {micro}m thick by 1.7 {micro}m wide and lengths of 15 and 25 {micro}m. These tensile specimens have a freely moving pivot on one end that anchors the sample to the silicon die and prevents off axis loading during testing. Each sample is loaded in uniaxial tension by pulling laterally with a flat tipped diamond in a computer-controlled Nanoindenter. The stress-strain curve is calculated using the specimen cross section and gage length dimensions verified by measuring against a standard in the SEM. The first 48 samples had a means strength of 2.24 {+-} 0.35 GPa. Fracture strength measurements grouped into three strength levels, which matched three failure modes observed in post mortem examinations. The seven samples in the highest strength group failed in the gage section (strength of 2.77 {+-} 0.04 GPa), the moderate strength group failed at the gage section fillet and the lowest strength group failed at a dimple in the hub. With this technique, multiple tests can be programmed at one time and performed without operator assistance at a rate of 20-30 per day allowing the collection of significant populations of data. Since the new test geometry has been proven, the project is moving to test the distributions seen from real geometric features typical to MEMS such as the effect of gage length, fracture toughness, bonding between layers, etch holes, dimples and shear of gear teeth.

The paper provides a concise overview of a coordinated experimental/theoretical/numerical program at Sandia National Laboratories to develop an experimentally validated model of fire-induced response of foam-filled engineered systems for nuclear and transportation safety applications. Integral experiments are performed to investigate the thermal response of polyurethane foam-filled systems exposed to fire-like heat fluxes. A suite of laboratory experiments is performed to characterize the decomposition chemistry of polyurethane. Mass loss and energy associated with foam decomposition and chemical structures of the virgin and decomposed foam are determined. Decomposition chemistry is modeled as the degradation of macromolecular structures by bond breaking followed by vaporization of small fragments of the macromolecule with high vapor pressures. The chemical decomposition model is validated against the laboratory data. Data from integral experiments is used to assess and validate a FEM foam thermal response model with the chemistry model developed from the decomposition experiments. Good agreement was achieved both in the progression of the decomposition front and the in-depth thermal response.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

The primary purpose of this LDRD project was to characterize the laser deposition process and determine the feasibility of fabricating complex near-net shapes directly from a CAD solid model. Process characterization provided direction in developing a system to fabricate complex shapes directly from a CAD solid model. Our goal for this LDRD was to develop a system that is robust and provides a significant advancement to existing technologies (e.g., polymeric-based rapid prototyping, laser welding). Development of the process will allow design engineers to produce functional models of their designs directly from CAD files. The turnaround time for complex geometrical shaped parts will be hours instead of days and days instead of months. With reduced turnaround time, more time can be spent on the product-design phase to ensure that the best component design is achieved. Maturation of this technology will revolutionize the way the world produces structural components.

Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) is investigated as a technique for joining the cermet WC-15% Co to itself. Encapsulation of the specimens prior to HIPing was carried out using steel encapsulation, glass encapsulation and self encapsulation. The bonds were evaluated using a four point bend method. It is shown that the glass and steel encapsulation methods have a number of inherent problems which make them inappropriate for near net shape processing. In contrast the novel self encapsulation method, described for the first time in this communication, is both simple and effective, producing joined material with bulk strength. The concept of self encapsulation is potentially widely applicable for joining composite materials.

We report on the application of the one-level FETI method to the solution of a class of structural problems associated with the Department of Energy's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). We focus on numerical and parallel scalability issues,and discuss the treatment by FETI of severe structural heterogeneities. We also report on preliminary performance results obtained on the ASCI Option Red supercomputer configured with as many as one thousand processors, for problems with as many as 5 million degrees of freedom.

This paper focuses on our recent work at Sandia National Laboratories toward engineering a physics-based swarm of mobile vehicles for distributed sensing applications. Our goal is to coordinate a sensor array that optimizes sensor coverage and multivariate signal analysis by implementing artificial intelligence and evolutionary computational techniques. These intelligent control systems integrate both globally operating decision-making systems and locally cooperative information-sharing modes using genetically-trained neural networks. Once trained, neural networks have the ability to enhance real-time operational responses to dynamical environments, such as obstacle avoidance, responding to prevailing wind patterns, and overcoming other natural obscurants or interferences (jammers). The swarm realizes a collective set of sensor neurons with simple properties incorporating interactions based on basic community rules (potential fields) and complex interconnecting functions based on various neural network architectures, Therefore, the swarm is capable of redundant heterogeneous measurements which furnishes an additional degree of robustness and fault tolerance not afforded by conventional systems, while accomplishing such cognitive tasks as generalization, error correction, pattern recognition, and sensor fission. The robotic platforms could be equipped with specialized sensor devices including transmit/receive dipole antennas, chemical or biological sniffers in combination with recognition analysis tools, communication modulators, and laser diodes. Our group has been studying the collective behavior of an autonomous, multi-agent system applied to emerging threat applications. To accomplish such tasks, research in the fields of robotics, sensor technology, and swarms are being conducted within an integrated program. Mission scenarios under consideration include ground penetrating impulse radar (GPR) for detection of under-ground structures, airborne systems, and plume detection/remediation. We will describe our research in these areas and give a status report on our progress, including simulations and laboratory-based sensor experiments.

Polyorganosiloxanes are a commercially important class of compounds. They exhibit many important properties, including very low glass transition temperatures, making them useful over a wide temperature range. In practice, the polysiloxane polymer is often mixed with a filler material to help improve its mechanical properties. An alternative method for increasing polymer mechanical strength is through the incorporation of certain substituents on the polymer backbone. Hard substituents such as carbonates and imides generally result in improved mechanical properties of polysiloxanes. In this paper, we present the preparation of novel polysiloxane resins modified with hard maleimide substituents. Protected ethoxysilyl-substituted propyl-maleimides were prepared. The maleimide substituent was protected with a furanyl group and the monomer polymerized under aqueous acidic conditions. At elevated temperatures (>120 C), the polymer undergoes retro Diels-Alder reaction with release of foran (Equation 1). The deprotected polymer can then be selectively crosslinked by a forward Diels-Alder reaction (in the presence of a co-reactant having two or more dime functionalities).

As part of a project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Sandia National Laboratories is developing and testing the feasibility of using of a cooperative team of robotic sentry vehicles to guard a perimeter and to perform surround and diversion tasks. This paper describes on-going activities in the development of these robotic sentry vehicles. To date, we have developed a robotic perimeter detection system which consists of eight ''Roving All Terrain Lunar Explorer Rover'' (RATLER{trademark}) vehicles, a laptop-based base-station, and several Miniature Intrusion Detection Sensors (MIDS). A radio frequency receiver on each of the RATLER vehicles alerts the sentry vehicles of alarms from the hidden MIDS. When an alarm is received, each vehicle decides whether it should investigate the alarm based on the proximity of itself and the other vehicles to the alarm. As one vehicle attends an alarm, the other vehicles adjust their position around the perimeter to better prepare for another alarm. We have also demonstrated the ability to drive multiple vehicles in formation via tele-operation or by waypoint GPS navigation. This is currently being extended to include mission planning capabilities. At the base-station, the operator can draw on an aerial map the goal regions to be surrounded and the repulsive regions to be avoided. A potential field path planner automatically generates a path from the vehicles' current position to the goal regions while avoiding the repulsive regions and the other vehicles. This path is previewed to the operator before the regions are downloaded to the vehicles. The same potential field path planner resides on the vehicle, except additional repulsive forces from on-board proximity sensors guide the vehicle away from unplanned obstacles.

This report summarizes a three year effort to develop an automated microassembly workcell for the assembly of LIGA (Lithography Galvonoforming Abforming) parts. Over the last several years, Sandia has developed processes for producing surface machined silicon and LIGA parts for use in weapons surety devices. Some of these parts have outside dimensions as small as 100 micron, and most all have submicron tolerances. Parts this small and precise are extremely difficult to assembly by hand. Therefore, in this project, we investigated the technologies required to develop a robotic workcell to assembly these parts. In particular, we concentrated on micro-grippers, visual servoing, micro-assembly planning, and parallel assembly. Three different micro-grippers were tested: a pneumatic probe, a thermally actuated polysilicon tweezer, and a LIGA fabricated tweezer. Visual servoing was used to accuracy position two parts relative to one another. Fourier optics methods were used to generate synthetic microscope images from CAD drawings. These synthetic images are used off-line to test image processing routines under varying magnifications and depths of field. They also provide reference image features which are used to visually servo the part to the desired position. We also investigated a new aspect of fine motion planning for the micro-domain. As parts approach 1-10 {micro}m or less in outside dimensions, interactive forces such as van der Waals and electrostatic forces become major factors which greatly change the assembly sequence and path plans. We developed the mathematics required to determine the goal regions for pick up, holding, and release of a micro-sphere being handled by a rectangular tool. Finally, we implemented and tested the ability to assemble an array of LIGA parts attached to two 3 inch diameter wafers. In this way, hundreds of parts can be assembled in parallel rather than assembling each part individually.

The robustness of procedures for identifying patterns in scatterplots generated in Monte Carlo sensitivity analyses is investigated. These procedures are based on attempts to detect increasingly complex patterns in the scatterplots under consideration and involve the identification of (1) linear relationships with correlation coefficients, (2) monotonic relationships with rank correlation coefficients, (3) trends in central tendency as defined by means, medians and the Kruskal-Wallis statistic, (4) trends in variability as defined by variances and interquartile ranges, and (5) deviations from randomness as defined by the chi-square statistic. The following two topics related to the robustness of these procedures are considered for a sequence of example analyses with a large model for two-phase fluid flow: the presence of Type I and Type II errors, and the stability of results obtained with independent Latin hypercube samples. Observations from analysis include: (1) Type I errors are unavoidable, (2) Type II errors can occur when inappropriate analysis procedures are used, (3) physical explanations should always be sought for why statistical procedures identify variables as being important, and (4) the identification of important variables tends to be stable for independent Latin hypercube samples.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

The ALEGRA radiation transport package implements diffusion, flux-limited diffusion, and SPn radiation transport for both gray and multigroup photon spectra. Comparisons of ALEGRA calculations with known solutions for a selection of benchmark problems for these transport theories are presented. ALEGRA returns accurate solutions in each case. This verifies that each transport theory has been implemented correctly, though it does not prove that the transport theories are valid for problems of interest at Sandia. A validation study will be presented in a future report.