Benchmark Parameters Research Articles

Validating the performance of correlated fission multiplicity implementation in radiation transport codes with subcritical neutron multiplication benchmark experiments

Historically, radiation transport codes have uncorrelated fission emissions. In reality, the particles emitted by both spontaneous and induced fissions are correlated in time, energy, angle, and multiplicity. This work validates the performance of various current Monte Carlo codes that take into account the underlying correlated physics of fission neutrons, specifically neutron multiplicity distributions. The performance of 4 Monte Carlo codes - MCNP®6.2, MCNP®6.2/FREYA, MCNP®6.2/CGMF, and PoliMi - was assessed using neutron multiplicity benchmark experiments. In addition, MCNP®6.2 simulations were run using JEFF-3.2 and JENDL-4.0, rather than ENDF/B-VII.1, data for 239Pu and 240Pu. The sensitive benchmark parameters that in this work represent the performance of each correlated fission multiplicity Monte Carlo code include the singles rate, the doubles rate, leakage multiplication, and Feynman histograms. Although it is difficult to determine which radiation transport code shows the best overall performance in simulating subcritical neutron multiplication inference benchmark measurements, it is clear that correlations exist between the underlying nuclear data utilized by (or generated by) the various codes, and the correlated neutron observables of interest. This could prove useful in nuclear data validation and evaluation applications, in which a particular moment of the neutron multiplicity distribution is of more interest than the other moments. It is also quite clear that, because transport is handled by MCNP®6.2 in 3 of the 4 codes, with the 4th code (PoliMi) being based on an older version of MCNP®, the differences in correlated neutron observables of interest are most likely due to the treatment of fission event generation in each of the different codes, as opposed to the radiation transport.

Prediction of deoxynivalenol toxicokinetics in humans by in vitro-to-in vivo extrapolation and allometric scaling of in vivo animal data.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is the most prevalent mycotoxin in cereals worldwide. It can cause adverse health effects in humans and animals, and maximum levels in food and feed have been implemented by food authorities based on risk assessments derived from estimated intake levels. The lack of human toxicokinetic data such as absorption, distribution, and elimination characteristics hinders the direct calculation of DON plasma levels and exposure. In the present study, we have, therefore, used in vitro-to-in vivo extrapolation of depletion constants in hepatic microsomes from different species and allometric scaling of reported in vivo animal parameters to predict the plasma clearance [0.24L/(h × kg)] and volume of distribution (1.24L/kg) for DON in humans. In addition, we have performed a toxicokinetic study with oral and intravenous administration of DON in pigs to establish benchmark parameters for the in vitro extrapolation approach. The determined human toxicokinetic parameters were then used to calculate the bioavailability (50-90%), maximum concentration, and total exposure in plasma, and urinary concentrations under consideration of typical DON levels in grain-based food products. The results were compared to data from biomonitoring studies in human populations.

Enthalpy of formation of U3Si2: A high-temperature drop calorimetry study

U3Si2 is presently receiving consideration as a high density light water reactor fuel. A reliable knowledge of the formation enthalpy of U3Si2 not only helps study the thermal stability but also facilitate the modeling efforts by serving as a benchmark parameter for thermodynamic calculations of phase equilibria at high temperatures. Previous high temperature thermal analysis on U3Si2 laid the basis for us to conduct two types of high-temperature drop calorimetric measurements to determine its enthalpy of formation: oxide-melt drop-solution calorimetry and transposed temperature drop calorimetry, from which the results obtained are consistent. The determined standard enthalpy of formation of U3Si2 per mole atom, −33.2 ± 3.1 kJ/mol⋅at.%, is in good agreement with previously reported values obtained by other techniques. Our drop calorimetry methods will be used for thermodynamic studies of other U-Si compounds whose enthalpies of formation are not available.

BENCHMARKING FOR ACCESSIBILITY AND CONNECTIVITY OF INDIAN AIRPORTS

Purpose of the study:Since 2015, International aviation sector has witnessed an exceptional transformation of Indian air transport with a growth rate of 15-20%. It is also predicted to maintain a similar trend for not less than 4-5 years. However, transporting 400-500 million people a year with the existing facilities and infrastructure will inversely affect the sector. Thus we require an efficient and well-equipped airport network throughout the country to cater the needs of the future demand. Benchmarks are said to be the vital part of every planning standards and processes.
 Methodology:Study focuses on 109 airports of India (including upcoming airports in UDAN) and covers a critical evaluation of airport to airport connection as well as airport accessibility to and fro. This paper analyses all the benchmarking parameters, namely ‘indicators’, those influence connectivity and accessibility of these airports.
 Main Findings:Using statistical tools, it evaluates the existing air network, makes a comparative investigation and models the entire network to frame individual and overall benchmarks. Based on these benchmarks, study recommends adopting few strategies for the next 5 years to address the increasing demand.
 Implications: Study brings about a healthy competition among airports to resolve their shortcomings. It can boost up demand shift from other modes to air transport.
 Applications of this study:The methodology may be followed to set Benchmarksof any networks based on the relevant parameters.
 Novelty/Originality of this study:Airports in India are given different indices and ranks on the connectivity and accessibility parameters, so that their performance is analysed in the global network.

Collimated proton pencil-beam scanning for superficial targets: impact of the order of range shifter and aperture

To assess if apertures shall be mounted upstream or downstream of a range shifting block if these field-shaping devices are combined with the pencil-beam scanning delivery technique (PBS). The lateral dose fall-off served as a benchmark parameter. Both options realizing PBS-with-apertures were compared to the uniform scanning mode. We also evaluated the difference regarding the out-of-field dose caused by interactions of protons in beam-shaping devices.The potential benefit of the downstream configuration over the upstream configuration was estimated analytically. Guided by this theoretical evaluation a mechanical adapter was developed which transforms the upstream configuration provided by the proton machine vendor to a downstream configuration. Transversal dose profiles were calculated with the Monte-Carlo based dose engine of the commercial treatment planning system RayStation 6. Two-dimensional dose planes were measured with an ionization chamber array and a scintillation detector at different depths and compared to the calculation. Additionally, a clinical example for the irradiation of the orbit was compared for both PBS options and a uniform scanning treatment plan.Assuming the same air gap the lateral dose fall-off at the field edge at a few centimeter depth is 20% smaller for the aperture-downstream configuration than for the upstream one. For both options of PBS-with-apertures the dose fall-off is larger than in uniform scanning delivery mode if the minimum accelerator energy is 100 MeV. The RayStation treatment planning system calculated the width of the lateral dose fall-off with an accuracy of typically 0.1 mm–0.3 mm.Although experiments and calculations indicate a ranking of the three delivery options regarding lateral dose fall-off, there seems to be a limited impact on a multi-field treatment plan.

Diagnosis of phosphorus monolayer doping in silicon based on nanowire electrical characterisation

The advent of high surface-to-volume ratio devices has necessitated a revised approach to parameter extraction and process evaluation in field-effect transistor technologies. In this work, active doping concentrations are extracted from the electrical analysis of Si nanowire devices with high surface-to-volume ratios. Nanowire resistance and Si resistivity are extracted, by first extracting and subtracting out the contact resistance. Resistivity (ρ) is selected as the benchmark parameter to compare different doping processes with each other. The impacts of nanowire diameter scaling to 10 nm and of nanowire spacing scaling to <20 nm are extracted for monolayer doping and beam-line ion implantation. Despite introducing significant crystal damage, P beam-line ion implantation beats allyldiphenylphosphine (ADP) P monolayer doping with a SiO2 cap in terms of lower Si resistivity and higher dopant activation, with dependencies on the nanowire width greater than on nanowire spacing. Limitations in ADP P monolayer doping with a SiO2 cap are due to the difficulties in dopant incorporation, as it is based on in-diffusion, and P atoms must overcome a potential barrier on the Si surface.

Adaptive single-event effect mitigation for dependable processing systems based on FPGAs

For FPGA-based applications in harsh radiation environments, designers apply mitigation techniques according the worst-case (solar) condition to achieve a dependable design. This results in a resource overhead, which is most of the time unnecessary. To overcome this problem, an adaptive mitigation technique is used, which is a trade-off between two parameters, such as performance and reliability. We propose an Adaptive Single-Event Effect Mitigation (ASEEM) method, based on FPGA reconfiguration between a performance mode and a reliability mode. The performance mode offers high processing power and the reliability mode offers a high dependability. We evaluate ASEEM by calculating results using particle flux data from 2010 until 2017 for one space-grade and two commercial-grade FPGAs. Based on radiation data, we calculate upset rates, availability, performance, and performability. We optimize the performability, which is the benchmark parameter, in dependence of the Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) and time configured in the performance mode. We conclude that the performability of ideal ASEEM (without implementation losses) maximizes with an improvement of 132% over the compared static modes (performance and reliability) at an MTTR of 19.8 h and 91% of the time in the performance mode for the space-grade FPGA. ASEEM is implemented as FPGA design to determine the implementation impact.

FTIR spectral analysis of bituminous binders: reproducibility and impact of ageing temperature

This RILEM round robin study with nine participating laboratories investigated bitumen ageing, its effect on chemical properties and its reproducibility. The impact of temperature used for short-term (RTFOT) binder ageing on the combined short- and long-term (PAV) aged samples was investigated; thereby the effect of reduced mixing temperature such as those relevant for warm mix asphalt technologies on long term ageing was examined. Four 70/100 penetration graded bituminous binders from different sources were selected. In addition to the standard RTFOT temperature of 163 °C, two additional temperatures, 143 and 123 °C were used. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis was carried out using an integration method which considers the area below the absorbance spectrum around a band maximum using baseline and tangential approaches. A statistical investigation into the reproducibility of FTIR spectra analysis based on the accumulated data was done. To assess the reproducibility, the coefficient of variation (CV) was taken as a benchmark parameter. Carbonyl and sulfoxide indices were calculated using different baseline correction methods and tangential and baseline integration, respectively. It was shown that the tangential method was not influenced by the applied baseline correction. However, in all considered cases, the tangential method led to significantly worse reproducibility (CVs ranging from 20 to 120%) compared to the baseline method. The sulfoxide indices calculated by both methods were not affected by the baseline correction method used. Impacts of changes in the short-term ageing temperature on short- or long-term aged samples could not be found whereas differences between different binder sources could be detected. RTFOT temperature and therefore mix production temperature had a stronger impact on the formation of sulfoxide structures than for carbonyl structures. The findings from this study show the most reproducible of all considered methods when more than one laboratory is providing FTIR data.

Developing generalized parameters for post-fire erosion risk assessment using the revised Morgan-Morgan-Finney model: A test for north-central Portuguese pine stands

Models can be useful for predicting the hydrological impacts of natural phenomenon such as wildfires and to help implement effective post-fire land management options. In this research, the revised Morgan–Morgan–Finney (MMF) model was used to simulate runoff and soil erosion in recently burned maritime pine plantations with contrasting fire regimes, in a wet Mediterranean region of north-central Portugal. The MMF model was adapted for burnt areas by implementing seasonal changes in model parameters in order to accommodate seasonal patterns in runoff and soil erosion, attributed to changes in soil water repellency and vegetation recovery. The model was then evaluated by applying it for a total of 18 experimental micro-plots (0.25 m2) at 9 once burned and 9 four times burned slopes, using both previously published and newly calibrated parameters, with observed data used to evaluate the robustness and wider applicability of each parameterization. The prediction of erosion was more accurate than that of runoff, with an overall Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.54. Slope angle and the soils' effective hydrological depth (which depends on vegetation and/or crop cover) were found to be the main parameters improving model outcomes, and different parameters were needed to differentiate between the two contrasting fire regimes. This case study showed that most existing benchmark parameters can be used to apply MMF in burned pine forest areas with moderate severity fires to support post-fire management, but indicated that further efforts should focus on mapping soil depth and vegetation cover to improve these assessments.

Anisotropic blind image quality assessment: Survey and analysis with current methods

The Anisotropic Quality Index (AQI) was previously introduced by the authors as a non-distortion-specific, no-reference image quality measure. AQI is based on measuring the variance of the expected entropy of a given image over a predefined set of orientations. In this paper, a statistical evaluation of AQI is provided using standard benchmarking parameters showing good match with observer’s response. Some AQI extensions are proposed for tackling ill-posed noise types that provide fair or poor performance. A comparison with other no-reference methods has been included showing good competitiveness with many of them.

A Modified Quantum Bacterial Foraging Algorithm for Parameters Identification of Fractional-Order System

For many physical systems, the fractional-order system can describe the dynamics more accurately comparing with the integer-order system. However, its parameters, which include not only the identification of model coefficients but also the estimation of fractional orders, are more difficult to be identified. This paper proposes a modified quantum bacterial foraging algorithm (MQBFA) for parameters identification of the fractional-order system, and the MQBFA algorithm is a relatively new issue in recent years with strong engineering backgrounds. Not only does the proposed MQBFA algorithm apply the real number encoding of the single gene to effectively perform encoding, but it also utilizes a continuously varying rotation angle to update the rotation gate. First, a real number encoding of the single gene is designed to improve the searching efficiency of the algorithm. Second, an improved quantum rotation angle is applied to update the rotation angle continuously and adaptively. Third, the modificatory factor of probability amplitude is introduced to enrich the population diversity. In addition, to prevent the generation of invariant solutions in the early stage of quantum evolution, probability of optimal rotation angle is presented. Furthermore, the convergence of the proposed algorithm is analyzed. Based on several benchmark functions and parameters identification of the fractional-order system, simulation results and comparisons demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MQBFA algorithm.

Wavelet Neural Networks, Elman Backpropagation and Multilayer Perceptrons for Epilepsy Classification from EEG Signals

The aim of this study is to provide the performance analysis of wavelet networks for the classification of epilepsy from Electroencephalography (EEG) signals. The frequency behaviors of different waveform components of EEG waveforms such as Alpha, Beta, Theta, Delta and Gamma are undertaken. The features are extracted at Wavelet Node and it is given for the neural network classifier inputs. Similarly the code converter features are also extracted and it is given for the neural network classifier inputs. The Multilayer Perceptron Network (MLP) and the Elman Back Propagation Network are the two used networks to identify the patient state for the classification of epilepsy risk levels. The Neural network is trained by Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm. The Performance Index and the Quality Values are the two important benchmark parameters used for the performance analysis of wavelet networks for classification of epilepsy risk levels from EEG signals.

Statistical Assessment of the Banks’ Competitiveness at the Financial Market: Theoretical and Methodological Aspect

The article is devoted to the vital problem of substantiating theoretical and methodological aspects of statistical assessment of the banks’ competitiveness at the financial market. The growing market competition makes the bankers chose competition methods by relating their business success to the business performance of their competitors, investors, corporate and private clients. The bank product competitiveness is assessed by comparing the economic parameters of an analyzed service with the benchmarking parameters, by group of parameters. A method based on the theory of effective competition is proposed for use as an option of the assessment of the competitiveness of a commercial bank. It enables for applying a universal method that allows for computing the integral coefficient of the competitiveness of a commercial bank by estimating the most important criteria of its operation.&#x0D; The assessment of the bank competitiveness has to include an analysis of the internal environment, covering quantitative and qualitative characteristics of its operation, and an analysis of external environment. The assessment involves differential and complex methods of assessment. The assessment of the internal environment includes a quantitative analysis of its financial position and a qualitative analysis of its image and competitiveness of its services. The method enables to produce the integral coefficient of competitiveness; it is based on the assessment of the internal and external environment of the banks that are main competitors, by computing a number of criteria. An analysis of the financial position of a bank is the central one, as it aims to produce a quantitative measure of the capacities promoting the development of a bank in future. The main advantage of the proposed method for the assessment of the competitiveness of a commercial bank is its feasibility, because it is based on data from published reports and results of market analyses. The comparative assessment of the operation of banks that are main competitors allows for quick and robust computation of each bank’s position at the financial market, whereas the results of the analysis give good idea of their business conditions and allow for the dynamic assessment of the effectiveness of the national bank system.

10 Jahre Qualitätssicherung Dialyse in Deutschland – Bilanz und Ausblick

BackgroundIn 2006, the Federal Joint Committee introduced a quality assurance programme for ambulatory dialysis treatment in Germany. Regarding the impact of chronic dialysis treatment on the quality of life of patients and on health care costs, quality assurance in dialysis is considered highly relevant. The directive on Quality Assurance in Dialysis (QSD-RL) established an external quality assurance programme on the basis of the assessment of certain quality parameters combined with an internal quality management system based on benchmarking parameters in all dialysis practices and centres. Data on quality parameters are collected and analysed quarterly. Regional associations of statutory health insurance physicians take responsibility for quality improvement measures and sanctions. This article aims to provide an overview of the development of quality parameters from 2008 to 2015. MethodsWe analysed the summarised annual quality reports published on the website of the Federal Joint Committee between 2009 and 2016. We present results on the so-called core quality parameters duration and frequency of dialysis sessions (both for haemodialysis patients), wKt/V for peritoneal dialysis patients, and percentage of haemodialysis patients with central venous catheters which has only been measured since 2014. Results and conclusionsIn 2015, 92,000 patients received outpatient dialysis. Between 2008 and 2015, the results for the core quality parameters duration and frequency of haemodialysis improved while the results for wKt/V seemingly show an unfavourable trend. The percentage of patients with central venous catheters appears to be quite high, and thus indicates that there is potential for quality improvement. Future perspectivesFor the future, the Federal Joint Committee has resolved to merge the quality assurance programmes in dialysis and in kidney transplantation into a newly designed programme that has the potential to follow patients through all stages and kinds of renal replacement therapy and to focus on further aspects of treatment quality.

AD HOC Networks for the Autonomous Car

The future of the vehicle is made of cars, roads and infrastructures connected in a two way automated communication in a holistic system. It is a mandatory to use Encryption to maintain Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability in an ad hoc vehicle network. Vehicle to Vehicle communication, requires multichannel interaction between mobile, moving and changing parties to insure the full benefit from data sharing and real time decision making, a network of such users referred as mobile ad hoc network (MANET), however as ad hoc networks were not implemented in such a scale, it is not clear what is the best method and protocol to apply. Furthermore the visibility of secure preferred asymmetric encrypted ad hoc networks in a real time environment of dense moving autonomous vehicles has to be demonstrated, In order to evaluate the performance of Ad Hoc networks in changing conditions a simulation of multiple protocols was performed on large number of mobile nodes. The following common routing protocols were tested, DSDV is a proactive protocol, every mobile station maintains a routing table with all available destinations, DSR is a reactive routing protocol which allows nodes in the MANET to dynamically discover a source route across multiple network hops, AODV is a reactive routing protocol Instead of being proactive. It minimizes the number of broadcasts by creating routes based on demand, SAODV is a secure version of AODV, requires heavyweight asymmetric cryptographic, ARIANDE is a routing protocol that relies on highly efficient symmetric cryptography the concept is primarily based on DSR.A methodical evolution was performed in a various density of transportation, based on known communication bench mark parameters including, Throughput Vs. time, Routing Load per packets and bytes. Out of the none encrypted protocols, It is clear that in terms of performance of throughput and routing load DSR protocol has a clear advantage the high node number mode. The encrypted protocols show lower performance with ARIANDE being superior to SAODV and SRP. Nevertheless all protocol simulation proved it to match required real time performance.

Detection of Onset, Systolic Peak and Dicrotic Notch in Arterial Blood Pressure Pulses

In this paper, we proposed an effective method for detecting fiducial points in arterial blood pressure pulses. An arterial blood pressure pulse normally consists of onset, systolic peak and dicrotic notch. Detection of fiducial points in blood pressure pulses is a critical task and has many potential applications. The proposed method employs empirical wavelet transform for locating the systolic peak and onset of blood pressure pulse. The proposed method first estimates the fundamental frequency of blood pressure pulse using empirical wavelet transform and utilizes the combination of the blood pressure pulse and the estimated frequency for locating onset and systolic peak. For dicrotic notch detection, it utilizes the first-order difference of blood pressure pulse. The algorithm was validated on various open-source databases and was tested on a data set containing 12,230 beats. Two benchmark parameters such as sensitivity and positive predictivity were used for the performance evaluation. The comparison results for accuracy of the detection of systolic peak, onset and dicrotic notch are reported. The proposed method attained a sensitivity and positive predictivity of 99.95% and 99.97%, respectively, for systolic peaks. For onsets, it attained a sensitivity and predictivity of 99.88% and 99.92%, respectively. For dicrotic notches, a sensitivity and positive predictivity of 98.98% and 98.81% were achieved, respectively.

Economic assessment of carbon capture by minichannel absorbers

In this work, a physio‐economic model supported by lab‐scale experiments assessing the economic viability of minichannel based carbon capture units is presented. The net present value of (capital and operating) costs (NPVC) ensued throughout the plant life is selected as the benchmarking parameter. An optimization problem is formulated and solved with the objective of minimizing the NPVC of the unit subject to constraints imposed by the physics of absorption and pressure drop limits; both of which are captured via experimentally deduced empirical correlations. The results show that the minichannel absorbers are economically competitive to conventional systems for low capacity CO2 capture achieving savings ranging from ∼50% to 3% for plant capacities ranging from 5 to 50 MMSCFD, respectively, primarily due to their lower capital costs. At higher plant capacities, the higher operating costs of the minichannel units dominate their NPVC and as such lead them to lose their competitiveness. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 620–631, 2018

Bond softness sensitive bond-valence parameters for crystal structure plausibility tests.

Based on a description of bond valence as a function of valence electron density, a systematic bond softness sensitive approach to determine bond-valence parameters and related quantities such as coordination numbers is elaborated and applied to determine bond-valence parameters for 706 cation-anion pairs. While the approach is closely related to the earlier softBV parameter set, the new softNC1 parameters proposed in this work may be simpler to apply in plausibility checks of crystal structures, as they follow the first coordination shell convention. The performance of this softNC1 bond-valence parameter set is compared with that of the previously derived softBV parameter set that also factors in contributions from higher coordination shells, and with a benchmarking parameter set that has been optimized following the conventional choice of a universal value of the bond-valence parameter b. The results show that a systematic adaptation of the bond-valence parameters to the bond softness leads to a significant improvement in the bond-valence parameters, particularly for bonds involving soft anions, and is safer than individual free refinements of both R0 and b from a limited number of reference cation environments.

Dynamical sensitivity control of a single-spin quantum sensor

The Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) defect in diamond is a unique quantum system that offers precision sensing of nanoscale physical quantities at room temperature beyond the current state-of-the-art. The benchmark parameters for nanoscale magnetometry applications are sensitivity, spectral resolution, and dynamic range. Under realistic conditions the NV sensors controlled by conventional sensing schemes suffer from limitations of these parameters. Here we experimentally show a new method called dynamical sensitivity control (DYSCO) that boost the benchmark parameters and thus extends the practical applicability of the NV spin for nanoscale sensing. In contrast to conventional dynamical decoupling schemes, where π pulse trains toggle the spin precession abruptly, the DYSCO method allows for a smooth, analog modulation of the quantum probe’s sensitivity. Our method decouples frequency selectivity and spectral resolution unconstrained over the bandwidth (1.85 MHz–392 Hz in our experiments). Using DYSCO we demonstrate high-accuracy NV magnetometry without |2π| ambiguities, an enhancement of the dynamic range by a factor of 4 · 103, and interrogation times exceeding 2 ms in off-the-shelf diamond. In a broader perspective the DYSCO method provides a handle on the inherent dynamics of quantum systems offering decisive advantages for NV centre based applications notably in quantum information and single molecule NMR/MRI.

Key performance indicators for stroke from the Ministry of Health of Brazil: benchmarking and indicator parameters

All 16 KPIs were analyzed, including the percentage of patients admitted to the stroke unit, venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in the first 48 hours after admission, pneumonia and hospital mortality due to stroke, and hospital discharge on antithrombotic therapy in patients without cardioembolic mechanism. Both centers admitted over 80% of the patients in their stroke unit. The incidence of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis was > 85%, that of in-hospital pneumonia was < 13%, the hospital mortality for stroke was < 15%, and the hospital discharge on antithrombotic therapy was > 70%. Our results suggest using the parameters of all of the 16 KPIs required by the Ministry of Health of Brazil, and the present results for the two stroke units for future benchmarking.