Showing papers on "Applied science published in 2013"

An energy complexity model for algorithms

Abstract: Energy consumption has emerged as a first class computing resource for both server systems and personal computing devices. The growing importance of energy has led to rethink in hardware design, hypervisors, operating systems and compilers. Algorithm design is still relatively untouched by the importance of energy and algorithmic complexity models do not capture the energy consumed by an algorithm. In this paper, we propose a new complexity model to account for the energy used by an algorithm. Based on an abstract memory model (which was inspired by the popular DDR3 memory model and is similar to the parallel disk I/O model of Vitter and Shriver), we present a simple energy model that is a (weighted) sum of the time complexity of the algorithm and the number of 'parallel' I/O accesses made by the algorithm. We derive this simple model from a more complicated model that better models the ground truth and present some experimental justification for our model. We believe that the simplicity (and applicability) of this energy model is the main contribution of the paper. We present some sufficient conditions on algorithm behavior that allows us to bound the energy complexity of the algorithm in terms of its time complexity (in the RAM model) and its I/O complexity (in the I/O model). As corollaries, we obtain energy optimal algorithms for sorting (and its special cases like permutation), matrix transpose and (sparse) matrix vector multiplication.

Dynamics of cable structures – Modeling and applications

Abstract: v The objective of the present work is to re-examine and appropriately modify the geometrically exact beam theory, originally developed by Simo, and develop a nonlinear finite-element formulation to describe the static and dynamic behavior of flexible electrical equipment cables. The work is motivated by the need to better understand and predict the highly nonlinear response of flexible electrical conductors to earthquake excitations. Dynamic interaction between flexible cables and interconnected substation equipment is in fact believed to explain some of the severe damage sustained by such equipment in recent earthquakes. In the first part of this report, the nonlinear equations of motion of a beam undergoing large displacements and rotations are derived from the 3D theory of continuum mechanics by use of the virtual power equation. A linear viscoelastic constitutive equation and an additional mass proportional damping mechanism are used to account for energy dissipation. The weak form of the equations of motion is linearized and discretized, in time and space, leading to the definition of a tangent operator and a system of equations solvable by means of an iterative scheme of the Newton type. Particular attention is focused on issues related to how large rotations are handled and how the configuration update process is performed. Numerical examples are presented, and energy balance calculations demonstrate the accuracy of the computed solutions. The beam model developed is then applied to describe the static and dynamic behavior of an electrical conductor tested at the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL) at the University at Buffalo. Preliminary results of the simulation of free and forced vibration tests are presented. In the second part of the report, an approach is presented for the dynamic analysis of tensegrity structures, a subclass of pin-jointed structures in which the cables can be considered as tensiononly members. Such analyses are characterized by cables in the structure switching between taut and slack states. The approach is based on casting the computation in each time increment as a complementarity problem. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the approach. Despite the non-smooth nature of cables switching between taut and slack states, the computed solutions exhibit remarkable long-term energy balance. Furthermore, by exploiting some features of the tensegrity model, significant computational efficiency can be gained in the solution of the complementarity problem in each time increment.

Computer science. Future science.

Abstract: Can predicting an article's success change science? [Also see Report by Wang et al.] The massive growth of global research activity in recent years has spurred studies exploring how productive this expansion has been and what the future may hold. Although the creativity and serendipity of individual discoveries will remain difficult to model, quantitative research has revealed regularities in the rates of discovery and the outcome of published findings over time (1). Some of these studies demonstrate that innovation has been decreasing, which may reflect the output of a scientific enterprise whose system of input has supported the pursuit of research focused on “low-hanging fruit” (2). Coincident with this decline has been the recent global recession, a circumstance that called for accountability of economic and social returns from public investments in research (3). There is now a great demand for insight into how the system of science works. On page 127 of this issue, Wang et al. (4) offer one approach to assess, and perhaps even augment, scientific productivity.

Science for All.

Abstract: Index: Science for All! All for Science! p 2 Prepared by Sami Kahn 10 Defining and Preparing Highly Qualified Teachers p 5 Prepared by Cheryl Mason Science Education in Our Ever Shrinking World p 8 Prepared by Lionel Sandner How Can Technology Enhance Teaching and Learning p 11 15 Prepared by Dan Forbes The Many Facets of Assessment p 12 Prepared by Jean May-Brett What Is Our Content Domain p 14 Prepared by Chris Royce 20

A fast and scalable low dimensional solver for charged particle dynamics in large particle accelerators

Abstract: Particle accelerators are invaluable tools for research in the basic and applied sciences, in fields such as materials science, chemistry, the biosciences, particle physics, nuclear physics and medicine The design, commissioning, and operation of accelerator facilities is a non-trivial task, due to the large number of control parameters and the complex interplay of several conflicting design goals We propose to tackle this problem by means of multi-objective optimization algorithms which also facilitate massively parallel deployment In order to compute solutions in a meaningful time frame, that can even admit online optimization, we require a fast and scalable software framework In this paper, we focus on the key and most heavily used component of the optimization framework, the forward solver We demonstrate that our parallel methods achieve a strong and weak scalability improvement of at least two orders of magnitude in today's actual particle beam configurations, reducing total time to solution by a substantial factor Our target platform is the Blue Gene/P (Blue Gene/P is a trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both) supercomputer The space-charge model used in the forward solver relies significantly on collective communication Thus, the dedicated TREE network of the platform serves as an ideal vehicle for our purposes We demonstrate excellent strong and weak scalability of our software which allows us to perform thousands of forward solves in a matter of minutes, thus already allowing close to online optimization capability

A Parallel General Purpose Multi-Objective Optimization Framework, with Application to Beam Dynamics

Abstract: Particle accelerators are invaluable tools for research in the basic and applied sciences, in fields such as materials science, chemistry, the biosciences, particle physics, nuclear physics and medicine. The design, commissioning, and operation of accelerator facilities is a non-trivial task, due to the large number of control parameters and the complex interplay of several conflicting design goals. We propose to tackle this problem by means of multi-objective optimization algorithms which also facilitate a parallel deployment. In order to compute solutions in a meaningful time frame a fast and scalable software framework is required. In this paper, we present the implementation of such a general-purpose framework for simulation-based multi-objective optimization methods that allows the automatic investigation of optimal sets of machine parameters. The implementation is based on a master/slave paradigm, employing several masters that govern a set of slaves executing simulations and performing optimization tasks. Using evolutionary algorithms as the optimizer and OPAL as the forward solver, validation experiments and results of multi-objective optimization problems in the domain of beam dynamics are presented. The high charge beam line at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Facility was used as the beam dynamics model. The 3D beam size, transverse momentum, and energy spread were optimized.

Secondary science teachers' development of pedagogical content knowledge as result of integrating nanoscience content in their curriculum

Abstract: Nanoscale science is a rapidly-developing, multidisciplinary field of science and research that combines engineering, chemistry, physics, biology, and information technology pushes and the boundary between the science and the technology required to conduct it. Nanoscale science involves investigating and working with matter on the scale of 1–100 microns and has broad societal implications for new technologies. It is estimated that the worldwide workforce necessary to support the field of nanoscale science and nanotechnology will be close to 2 million by 2015 (National Nanotechnology Initiative, 2005). With such rapid developments in nanoscale science and technology, it is becoming more incumbent upon K-12 science teachers to provide the learning experiences necessary for students to understand the principles that govern behavior at the nanoscale and develop the skills needed to apply these concepts to improve everyday life. While onlya limited amount of nanoscale curricular materials are available for K-12 and undergraduate education many important unanswered questions exist, including: How do science teachers learn to teach nanoscale science?

INSTANCES: incorporating computational scientific thinking advances into education & science courses

Abstract: The INSTANCES project strives to create science educational materials that incorporate computation as an essential element [1]. Figure 1 illustrates how the authors incorporate this modern approach of scientific problem solving. Although a decade ago the combination of computing, science and applied mathematics known as computational science was rarely known beyond a few research universities, today K-12 organizations such as the Computer Science Teachers Association [2] and the National Science Teachers Association [3] recommend that secondary school classrooms teach simulation as a cornerstone of scientific inquiry.

Scholarly Collaboration In Engineering Education: From Big-Data Scientometrics To User-Centered Software Design

Abstract: Xian, Hanjun. Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2013. Scholarly collaboration in engineering education: From big-data scientometrics to user-centered software design. Major Professor: Krishna Madhavan. Engineering education research has grown into a flourishing community with an-ever increasing number of publications and scholars. However, recent studies show that a significant amount of engineering education knowledge retains a clear disciplinary orientation. If the gaps in scholarly collaboration continue to be prevalent within the entire community, it will become increasingly difficult to sustain community memory. This will eventually inhibit the propagation of innovations and slow the movement of research findings into practice. This dissertation studies scholarly collaboration in the engineering education research community. It provides a clear characterization of collaboration problems and proposes potential solutions. The dissertation is composed of four studies. First, the dissertation recognizes gaps in scholarly collaboration in the engineering education research community. To achieve this goal, a bibliometric analysis based on 24,172 academic articles was performed to describe the anatomy of collaboration patterns. Second, the dissertation reviews existing technologies that enhance communication and collaboration in engineering and science. This review elaborates and compares features in 12 popular social research network sites to examine how these features support scholarly

Conceptual, Impact-Based Publications Recommendations

Abstract: CiteSeer is a digital library for scientific publications by computer science researchers. It also functions as a search engine with several features including autonomous citation indexing, automatic metadata extraction, full-text indexing and reference linking. Users are able to retrieve relevant documents from the CiteSeer database directly using search queries and will further benefit if the system suggests document recommendations to the user based on their preferences and search history. Therefore, recommender systems were initially developed and continue to evolve to recommend more relevant documents to the CiteSeer users. In this thesis, we introduce the Conceptual, Impact-Based Recommender (CIBR), a hybrid recommender system, derived from the previously implemented conceptual recommender system in CiteSeer. The Conceptual recommender system utilized the user’s top weighted concepts to recommend relevant documents to the users. Our hybrid recommender system, CIBR, considers the impact factor in addition to the top weighted concepts for generating recommendations for the user. The impact factor of a document is determined by using the author’s h-index of the publication. A survey was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of our hybrid system and this study shows that the CIBR system generates more relevant documents as compared to those recommended by the conceptual recommender system. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to thank God for giving me strength to complete my Master's and for bestowing me with his abundant blessings, one of which is the opportunity to be able to do my Master's in the University of Arkansas. I would like to express my profound gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Susan Gauch, Computer Science & Computer Engineering Department. She was very patient with my numerous queries and was of tremendous help & support. She has helped me expand my knowledge. I appreciate that Dr. Brajendra Panda and Dr. Dale R. Thompson had agreed to be part of my Thesis Committee and have taken time out to review my thesis. I would also like to thank my parents and my husband for being supportive and for helping me make the right decisions. Last but not the least, I thank all my friends for their help and co-operation during my Master’s. DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my husband and my adorable baby Rhen. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES

The Fuzzy Set of Computer science

Abstract: Historically, Computer science emerged from electrical engineering in the 1960s. From the content of some unpublished documents and rather non-well-known papers by Lotfi A. Zadeh it is argued that the emergences of Computer science and Fuzzy Set Theory have been interlinked. Zadeh's task as Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department in Berkeley in the 1960s, his activities in Education of Engineering and his creation of the theory of Fuzzy sets generated his view on the scientific discipline of Computer science as a fuzzy set. This view could establish a new approach to history and philosophy of science.

Changes to grid for R 3.0.0

Abstract: From R 3.0.0, there is a new recommended way to develop new grob classes in grid. In a nutshell, two new “hook” functions, makeContext() and makeContent() have been added to grid to provide an alternative to the existing hook functions preDrawDetails(), drawDetails(), and postDrawDetails(). There is also a new function called grid.force(). This article discusses why these changes have been made, provides a simple demonstration of the use of the new functions, and discusses some of the implications for packages that build on grid.

Advances in applied science, engineering and technology : selected, peer reviewed papers from the 2013 International Conference on Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (ICASET 2013), May 19-21, 2013, Qingdao, China

Abstract: The volume contains papers selected from 2013 International Conference on Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (ICASET2013) held in May 2013, Qingdao, China. The papers focus on research fields including Chemical Engineering and Technology, Advances in Chemistry Research, Material Science and Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, Electronics and Information Technology, Industrial Technology and Engineering, Management Science and Engineering.