Simulation Infrastructure Research Articles

Research on the promotion of Big Science Project on Modern Industrial System: A Case Study on the Space Environment Simulation and Research Infrastructure from the Perspective of New Quality Productive Forces

Research on the promotion of Big Science Project on Modern Industrial System: A Case Study on the Space Environment Simulation and Research Infrastructure from the Perspective of New Quality Productive Forces

Draw & Doodle Simulation: A colorful strategy to prepare medical teams for electronic dance music festival emergencies

Educational challenge Electronic dance music (EDM) festivals – crowded, loud, low-resource environments – pose unique challenges to event medical teams. Simulation can prepare teams to manage clinical presentations in this unconventional context. Without access to simulation infrastructure, a low-technological, low-fidelity simulation modality is warranted. Solution Draw & Doodle Simulation (D&D SIM) is a low-fidelity simulation where patients are hand-drawn (i.e. on paper, whiteboard, or digitally) instead of utilizing manikins or live actors. Facilitators draw all patient findings, while participants doodle any possible interventions. Solution implementation Two D&D SIM cases (serotonin toxicity and refractory anaphylaxis) were piloted in classrooms. Participants included paramedics, medical students, lifeguards, and first aiders. Facilitators conducted simulations using chart paper, with each participant doodling contributions using differently colored markers. Lessons learned Participants responded positively, rating the serotonin toxicity case 4.31/5 (n = 13) and refractory anaphylaxis case 4.53/5 (n = 15). Participants appreciated the ‘low-stakes’, useful ‘visual’ representation of progress, ‘fun and [interactivity]’, and appropriate ‘[realism]’ of D&D SIM. However, D&D SIM was perceived as ‘less life threatening’, would not be appropriate for physical skills (e.g. CPR), required everyone to be ‘oriented in the same direction to see the drawing’, and the chart paper risked becoming cluttered. Next steps Next steps include writing new cases, implementing D&D SIM in other teaching contexts, exploring its use in digital platforms, and studying its effectiveness against higher-fidelity simulation.

Developing a Framework for the Design and Deployment of Virtual Reality (VR) in Clinical Education.

The emerging cost-effective and powerful standalone VR hardware is an increasingly viable supplement to traditional clinical educational modalities. These traditional approaches are effective but can be limited by the cost of simulation infrastructure, the requirement to attend at fixed times and locations and instructor availability present challenges in meeting the needs of clinicians. One barrier facing educators looking to develop bespoke VR-based solutions is the lack of guidelines around their design, development, deployment, and evaluation. Our team has produced and deployed a number of VR-based educational applications. Through reflecting on findings from surveys, interviews, observation, we summarise a range of insights into the complexity and nuances of the clinical VR design and deployment in a framework that can inform and guide educators, clinicians and developers looking to create their own VR applications for use in healthcare.

Simulation-based education to facilitate clinical readiness in nursing and midwifery programmes in sub-Saharan Africa: a meta-synthesis

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the clinical readiness of simulation-based education (SBE) in preparing nursing and midwifery students for clinical practice in sub-Saharan Africa. This study has synthesised the findings from existing research studies and provides an overview of the current state of SBE in nursing and midwifery programs in the region.Design/methodology/approach A qualitative meta-synthesis of previous studies was conducted using the following steps: developing a review question, developing and a search strategy, extracting and meta-synthesis of the themes from the literature and meta-synthesis of themes. Five databases were searched for from existing English literature (PubMed, Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health Professional Literature [CINAHL], PsycINFO, EMBASE and ScienceDirect Medline, CINAHL and Science Direct), including grey literature on the subject. Eight qualitative studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa between 2014 and 2022 were included. Hawker et al.'s framework was used to assess quality.Findings The following themes emerged from the literature. Theme 1: Improved skills and competencies through realism and repetition. Theme 2: Improved skills and competencies through realism and repetition. Theme 3: Improved learning through debriefing and reflection. Theme 4: Constraints of simulation as a pedagogical teaching strategy.Research limitations/implications The qualitative meta-synthesis intended to cover articles from 2012 to 2022. Between 2012 and 2013, the authors could not identify purely qualitative studies from sub-Saharan Africa. The studies identified were either mixed methods or purely quantitative. This constitutes a study limitation.Practical implications Findings emphasise educator training in SBE. Comprehensive multidisciplinary training, complemented by expertise and planned debriefing sessions, serves as a catalyst for fostering reflective learning. Well-equipped simulation infrastructure is essential in preparing students for their professional competencies for optimal patient outcomes. Additional research is imperative to improve the implementation of SBE in sub-Saharan Africa.Originality/value The originality and value of SBE in nursing and midwifery programs in sub-Saharan Africa lie in its contextual relevance, adaptation to resource constraints, innovative teaching methodologies, provision of a safe learning environment, promotion of interprofessional collaboration and potential for research and evidence generation. These factors contribute to advancing nursing and midwifery education and improving healthcare outcomes in the region. This study fills this gap in the literature.

FaStaNMF: a Fast and Stable Non-negative Matrix Factorization for Gene Expression.

Gene expression analysis of samples with mixed cell types only provides limited insight to the characteristics of specific tissues. In silico deconvolution can be applied to extract cell type specific expression, thus avoiding prohibitively expensive techniques such as cell sorting or single-cell sequencing. Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is a deconvolution method shown to be useful for gene expression data, in part due to its constraint of non-negativity. Unlike other methods, NMF provides the capability to deconvolve without prior knowledge of the components of the model. However, NMF is not guaranteed to provide a globally unique solution. In this work, we present FaStaNMF, a method that balances achieving global stability of the NMF results, which is essential for inter-experiment and inter-lab reproducibility, with accuracy and speed. Results: FaStaNMF was applied to four datasets with known ground truth, created based on publicly available data or by using our simulation infrastructure, RNAGinesis. We assessed FaStaNMF on three criteria - speed, accuracy, and stability, and it favorably compared to the standard approach of achieving reproduceable results with NMF. We expect that FaStaNMF can be applied successfully to a wide array of biological data, such as different tumor/immune and other disease microenvironments.

FrameD: Framework for DNA-based Data Storage Design, Verification, and Validation.

DNA-based data storage is a quickly growing field that hopes to harness the massive theoretical information density of DNA molecules to produce a competitive next-generation storage medium suitable for archival data. In recent years, many DNA-based storage system designs have been proposed. Given that no common infrastructure exists for simulating these storage systems, comparing many different designs along with many different error models is increasingly difficult. To address this challenge we introduce FrameD, a simulation infrastructure for DNA storage systems that leverages the underlying modularity of DNA storage system designs to provide a framework to express different designs while being able to reuse common components. We demonstrate the utility of FrameD and the need for a common simulation platform using a case study. Our case study compares designs that utilize strand copies differently, some that align strand copies using Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA) algorithms and others that do not. We found that the choice to include MSA in the pipeline is dependent on the error rate and the type of errors being injected and is not always beneficial. In addition to supporting a wide range of designs, FrameD provides the user with transparent parallelism to deal with a large number of reads from sequencing and the need for many fault injection iterations. We believe that FrameD fills a void in the tools publicly available to the DNA storage community by providing a modular and extensible framework with support for massive parallelism. As a result, it will help accelerate the design process of future DNA-based storage systems. The source code for FrameD along with the data generated during the demonstration of FrameD is available in a public Github repository at https://github.com/dna-storage/framed (10.5281/zenodo.7757762).

The Development of an Advanced Air Mobility Flight Testing and Simulation Infrastructure

The emerging field of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) holds great promise for revolutionizing transportation by enabling the efficient, safe, and sustainable movement of people and goods in urban and regional environments. AAM encompasses a wide range of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and infrastructure that support their operations. In this work, we first present a new airspace structure by considering different layers for standard-performing vehicles (SPVs) and high-performing vehicles (HPVs), new AAM services for accommodating such a structure, and a holistic contingency management concept for a safe and efficient traffic environment. We then identify the requirements and development process of a testing and simulation infrastructure for AAM demonstrations, which specifically aim to explore the decentralized architecture of the proposed concept and its use cases. To demonstrate the full capability of AAM, we develop an infrastructure that includes advanced U-space services, real and simulated platforms that are suitable for future AAM use cases such as air cargo delivery and air taxi operations, and a co-simulation environment that allows all of the AAM elements to interact with each other in harmony. The considered infrastructure is envisioned to be used in AAM integration-related efforts, especially those focusing on U-space service deployment over a complex traffic environment and those analyzing the interaction between the operator, the U-space service provider (USSP), and the air traffic controller (ATC).

Network accelerator for parallel discrete event simulations

The simulation time of parallel and distributed discrete event simulation is the heart rate for as-fast-as execution schemes. Agreeing upon a global simulation time and distributing it to the simulation processes can be improved by exploiting or redesigning the network hardware. In this paper, we present such an approach that offloads simulation time calculations to network switches in order to speed up the steps where time advance requests are made and time advance grants are waited. By reducing the waiting time for time advancement, we aim to improve the overall performance of the parallel simulations. The measurements from the FPGA-based hardware setup and the results from our network simulations show that overall performance can be improved when time management calculations are offloaded to the network switches. Additionally, the transient message problem is also solved within the network by not allowing the time control messages to bypass the time-dependent events. The network acceleration of the region-based event distribution is also studied, and offloading the region matching tasks to the network switches is found to be feasible to reduce the costs of node-based calculations, especially for fast-moving regions. In this study, we consider High Level Architecture (HLA) for simulation infrastructure and fat tree topology for high-performance networking.

762 A Systematic Review of Surgical Simulation in Burn Surgery: Education, Assessment, and Management

Abstract Introduction Proper assessment and management of burn patients requires practical knowledge and timely interventions in a high-stakes setting. Although much of burn care emphasizes critical care, nuances exist among this patient population, creating challenges for surgeons-in-training. As a result, low- and high-fidelity burn simulations have become increasingly popular means to educate burn care physicians and their teams in a safe environment without compromising care or endangering patients. The aim of this report is to systematically review the literature for existing simulations related to burn care. Methods A systematic review was conducted using the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane. Inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed articles about surgical simulation models related to burn care and surgery. Skills and techniques taught, assessment methods, model type, fidelity, and equipment were extracted from included studies. Conference proceedings, reviews, non-English and non-burn-specific literature were excluded. Results Our search criteria identified 2,585 articles, 16 of which met inclusion criteria. Simulation methods included 7 simulation courses (43.8%), 6 synthetic benchtop models (37.5%), 2 augmented/virtual reality interfaces (12.5%), and 2 iOS applications (12.5%). There were no burn-specific animal or cadaveric models. Model fidelities included 9 (56.3%) high-, 3 (18.8%) medium-, and 4 (25.0%) low-fidelity. The most common topics included in the simulations were burn wound assessment/management (n=10, 62.5%), escharotomy (n=6, 37.5%), fluid management (n=2, 12.5%), electrical burns (n=1, 6.2%), skin graft harvest (n=1, 6.2%), tangential excision (n=1, 6.2%), and cricothyrotomy (n=1, 6.2%). Conclusions Burn management requires an expansive breadth of intensive care knowledge and surgical expertise combined with a distinct, burn-specific skill set. A paucity exists in the literature for augmented/virtual reality and animal/cadaver models unique to burn care and surgery. Our review identified a need to expand simulator options to improve training in skin grafting, burn reconstruction, and burns-specific intensive care management. Applicability of Research to Practice Given the rapidly expanding emphasis on remote learning in the post-COVID era, developing accessible surgical simulation infrastructure adjacent to clinical training may better prepare global burn providers for the complexity of burn care.

Abstract A015: Dynamics and lipid interactions of the RAS-RBD-CRD protein complex

Abstract The high-resolution structure of the RAS G-domain complexed to the RBD and CRD domains of RAF provides critical insights into the assembly and conformation of the RAS-RAF signaling complex[1]. The influence and impact of the membrane on both the RAS and RAF proteins is a factor that we are just beginning to understand and appreciate. Molecular simulation is an ideal methodology to further study the complicated relationship between the membrane and associated proteins. Our recent work, using MuMMI[2] (Multiscale Machine-learned Modeling Infrastructure), investigated the different lipid compositions around KRAS4b and the interplay between the protein behavior and these membrane environments[3]. MuMMI uses machine learning to couple adjacent simulation scales and can be effectively scaled across some of the world’s largest high performance computing systems. The MuMMI multi-resolution framework has been expanded to include the RAF RBD-CRD domains. Here we present the overall simulation results from this latest MuMMI campaign. Tens of thousands of coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations were completed, sampled from a variety of protein/lipid composition configurations. The orientations of the RAS-RBD-CRD complex on the membrane occupies distinct configurational states. Furthermore, the spatial patterns of lipid arrangements around these different protein states are also unique to each state. Interactions of the CRD with the membrane indicate the enrichment of very specific lipids in precise locations act to stabilize the complex. The extent, and size of the lipid ‘fingerprint’ imposed on the membrane by the RAS-RBD-CRD protein complex is significantly larger than observed for just the RAS protein on its own. We do not observe any statistically significant defined protein-protein orientations within the simulation ensemble. These observations indicate that spatial co-localize the RAS-RBD-CRD proteins in the same vicinity may be assisted by specific membrane environments. [1] Tran, Timothy H., et al. "KRAS interaction with RAF1 RAS-binding domain and cysteine-rich domain provides insights into RAS-mediated RAF activation." Nature communications 12.1 (2021): 1-16. [2] Di Natale, Francesco, et al. "A massively parallel infrastructure for adaptive multiscale simulations: modeling RAS initiation pathway for cancer." Proceedings of the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis. 2019. [3] Ingólfsson, Helgi I., et al. "Machine learning–driven multiscale modeling reveals lipid-dependent dynamics of RAS signaling proteins." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119.1 (2022): e2113297119. Citation Format: Felice C. Lightstone, Timothy S. Carpenter. Dynamics and lipid interactions of the RAS-RBD-CRD protein complex [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Targeting RAS; 2023 Mar 5-8; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2023;21(5_Suppl):Abstract nr A015.

Fields of interest and demands for a digital proving ground twin

The general understanding among scientists in the field of intelligent vehicles is that physical testing alone is not sufficient to achieve full driving automation in an economically acceptable period. Virtual testing methods are perceived as an effective option to decrease development times and costs for intelligent vehicles. We propose to utilize digital proving ground twins in order to verify the reliability of driving simulations by test replication under real environmental conditions. To investigate this proposal, we conducted a potential users survey to infer specifications for such a digital proving ground twin. The survey shows a consensus among engineers regarding the expected benefit of a digital proving ground twin. Next to the track geometries, environmental conditions, such as adverse weather, were stated as the most important aspect of a digital proving ground twin. Vehicle-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop and software-in-the-loop test methods achieved the highest importance rank for applications of the twin. Engineers in the field of automated driving systems and engineers with a work focus on driving simulators expect the highest benefit of it. This article verifies the added value of test track digitalization and provides essential information on how and where to implement virtual simulation infrastructure for transportation system tests. The revealed knowledge can be used to accelerate the development of automated driving systems. Thus, it contributes to a faster reduction of road accidents and emissions. The results are highly relevant to strategists and managers that determine the development of automated driving systems by establishing policies or assigning investment budgets.

Structured validation of AI-based systems by virtual testing in simulated test scenarios

The growing relevance of artificial intelligence (AI) for technical systems offers significant potential for the realization and operation of autonomous systems in complex and potentially unknown environments. However, unlike classical solution approaches, the functionality of an AI system cannot be verified analytically, which is why data-driven approaches such as scenario-based testing are used. With the increasing complexity of the required functionality of the AI-based system, the quantity, and quality of the data needed for development and validation also increase. To meet this demand, data generated synthetically using simulation is increasingly being used. Compared to the acquisition of real-world reference data, simulation offers the major advantage that it can be configured to test specific scenarios of interest. This paper presents an architecture for the systematic generation of virtual test scenarios to establish synthetically generated test data as an integral part of the development and validation process for AI systems. Key aspects of this architecture are the consistent use of digital twins as virtual 1-to-1 replicas and a simulation infrastructure that enables the generation of training and validation data for AI-based systems in appropriate quantity, quality, and time. In particular, this paper focuses on the application of the architecture in the context of two use cases from different application domains.

New software technologies in the LHCb Simulation

Monte Carlo simulations are key to the design and commissioning of new detectors as well as the interpretation of physics measurements. The amount of simulated samples required for the Run 3 physics program of the LHCb experiment will increase significantly from 2022 onward to match the increase in the amount of data collected with respect to Run 1 and 2 operation. A new version of the LHCb Gauss simulation framework has been developed to better accommodate new simulation techniques and software technologies to produce the necessary samples within the computing resources allocated for the next few years. It provides the LHCb specific functionality while the generic simulation infrastructure has been encapsulated in an experiment-independent framework, GAUSSINO. The latter combines the GAUDI core software framework and the GEANT4 simulation toolkit and fully exploits their multi-threading capabilities. Fast simulation interface is the latest feature being developed in GAUSSINO to interact with GEANT4 giving the possibility of replacing its detailed description of physics processes with an extensive palette of fast simulation models for a specific LHCb sub-detector. A facility to ease the production of training datasets for fast simulations models has also been introduced.

SES-X: A MBSE Methodology Based on SES/MB and X Language

Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is a leading paradigm for the analyses and development of complex systems. However, the development of modeling and simulation infrastructure supporting MBSE is lacking, which limits the application of MBSE. To address this problem, this paper proposes an SES-X methodology that integrates system modeling (following SES philosophy) with system simulation (supported by X language) to support the full lifecycle of MBSE modeling, including system analysis, architecture decomposition, physical modeling, and simulation. In the process, SES-X performs two levels of model pruning for model verification and simulation efficiency. This paper also conducts a case study on a car model to illustrate the effectiveness of the SES-X methodology.

The 300 MeV proton and heavy ion accelerator complex for SESRI project in China

The 300 MeV proton and heavy ion accelerator complex, which is the key part of SESRI (Space Environment Simulation and Research Infrastructure) project, is currently under construction in China. It comprises an 18 GHz high charge-state ion source, a 108.48 MHz cascaded linac injector consisting of a four-rod RFQ and three interdigital H-mode drift tube linacs, a compact synchrotron, and three irradiation terminals. The extensive ion species from proton to 209Bi32+ will be injected into the synchrotron using multi-turn injection method. The third-order resonance and RF-knockout extraction scheme is adopted to provide quasi-continuous spill for irradiation experiments. The general design of the accelerator complex and simulation results are discussed in this paper.

Extending SUMO for Lane-Free Microscopic Simulation of Connected and Automated Vehicles

This paper presents some new developments related to TrafficFluid-Sim, a lane-free microscopic simulator that extends the SUMO simulation infrastructure to model lane-free traffic environments, allowing vehicles to be located at any lateral position, disregarding standard notions of car-following and lane-change maneuvers that are typically embedded within a (lanebased) simulator. A dynamic library has been designed for traffic monitoring and lane-free vehicle movement control, one that does not impose any inter-tool “communication” delays that standard practices with the TraCI module introduce; and enables the emulation of vehicleto-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. We first summarize the various core components that constitute our simulator, and then discuss the new capability to utilize the bicycle kinematic model, additionally to the usual double-integrator model, as a more realistic model of vehicle movement dynamics, particularly for a lane-free traffic environment. Finally, we developed the necessary components so that the bicycle model can alternatively be combined with the use of global coordinates for more realistic simulation in road networks with curvature, such as roundabouts.

A Dynamic Road Network Model for Coupling Simulation of Highway Infrastructure Performance and Traffic State

The state of the road network contains both the infrastructure performance and the traffic operation state of the road network. There is a strong coupling between the decay of the infrastructure performance and the redistribution of the traffic flow on the road network. In this paper, a dynamic road network description model is proposed to apply to the couple simulation of highway network infrastructure performance and traffic state. First, a road network description model is constructed by associating the highway network topology with state attributes. The topology contains traffic information and is dynamically editable. Then, a dynamic road network model is proposed that can dynamically represent the changes in local connectivity relationships caused by traffic control, such as lane/ramp closures and turning restrictions in actual roads due to construction operations and access to the state of multi-scale spatio-temporal road networks. It overcomes the defects of the existing road network model, which is difficult to apply to the analysis of service performance and traffic state of the road network in different periods. Finally, the application of the dynamic road network model in the highway network coupled simulation system (HNCS) is completed, which provides a method for improving the efficiency and accuracy of large-scale highway network traffic simulation and highway infrastructure performance prediction.

A simulator of optical coherent-state evolution in quantum key distribution systems

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is believed to represent a viable solution to achieve theoretically unconditionally secure key generation. However, the available optical systems for experimental QKD, based on photon transmission, are flawed by non-idealities that ultimately limit the achievable performance. Classical simulation of the optical hardware employed in these systems may take on a determining role in engineering future QKD networks. In this article, attempts for developing a QKD simulator based on low-computational-cost models of the employed hardware are presented. In particular, the simulation infrastructure targets polarization-based QKD setups with faint laser sources, whose behaviour can be described by semiclassical coherent states and Mean Photon Number (MPN) per beam. The effects of passive optical components on the photonic qubit evolution are described by Jones matrices, whose coefficients, for some commercial devices, are stored in an ad-hoc library. Realistic eavesdropping attacks and non-idealities, such as optical losses, fibre attenuation, polarization misalignment and limited efficiency of single-photon detectors, are also taken into account. The infrastructure allows the user to describe the desired QKD configuration and it provides in output the MPN at the receiver and two fiducial performance parameters: Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) and secure key rate. The comparison of the simulation results with experimental data in the state-of-the-art literature highlights that this work is a step forward towards the definition of compact models for the hardware-dependent simulation of quantum-assisted communication networks.

Analysis of Coupled Electromagnetic–Thermal Effects in Scanning-Magnet for SESRI

High frequency and magnetic rigidity are the requirement of accelerators for scanning magnets. The scanning magnets for the SESRI (the Space Environment Simulation and Research Infrastructure) project are excited by triangular currents with a maximum repetition frequency of 200 Hz. It is inevitable to produce eddy currents inside the iron yoke, especially at the pole end. The temperature rise will be caused by eddy current loss, damaging the insulation layer in coils and adhesive resin in the core. To ensure the successful design and long working life for the scanning magnet, it is essential to optimize the eddy-current losses and temperature rise. This paper provides the optimization method for the scanning magnet, describes the analysis method of eddy-current loss induced temperature rise in detail, and then the distribution of the eddy current and temperature on the yoke is calculated by the software of OPERA-ELEKTRA/TR. Meanwhile, the temperatures at some critical points of the scanning magnet were measured. The computed results verified the feasibility of the electromagnetic-thermal coupling analysis method, which agreed well with the experimental data.

Design and field measurement of dipole magnets for a 300-MeV proton and heavy ion synchrotron in SESRI

Space Environment Simulation and Research Infrastructure (SESRI) is a new national research infrastructure under construction at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in China. Its 300-MeV proton and heavy ion accelerator is a major radiation source, and a compact synchrotron has been designed with a circumference of less than 44 m. The synchrotron dipoles are essential components of the accelerator, and they have been designed and tested carefully to meet the stringent physical requirements. The measured transverse field homogeneity is less than 2 × 10-4 from 0.2 T to 1.4 T and roughly agrees with the simulated results. With a modified linear programming algorithm, the integral magnetic field uniformity within 0.2–1.1 T is optimised from 6 × 10-4 to 1.5 × 10-4, and the corresponding multi-pole field-component errors are greatly reduced. By shortening the pole ends, the reproducibility of integral field among six magnets at 0.2 T is less than 3 × 10-4. In addition, the transient effect of the magnetic field is also evaluated and tested. Through analysis of the transient effect and structural strength, low-carbon steel and stainless steel are selected for the side plates and end plates, respectively. According to the transient measurement results, the feedforward compensation can be implemented to produce a more accurate current waveform. On 1 January 2022, the beam was successfully accumulated with the preset current waveform, and the beam intensity met the design requirements.