One of the central challenges in modern science is the need to quickly derive knowledge and understanding from large, complex collections of data. We present a new approach that deals with this challenge by combining and extending techniques from high performance visual data analysis and scientific data management. This approach is demonstrated within the context of gaining insight from complex, time-varying datasets produced by a laser wakefield accelerator simulation. Our approach leverages histogram-based parallel coordinates for both visual information display as well as a vehicle for guiding a data mining operation. Data extraction and subsetting are implemented with state-of-the-art index/query technology. This approach, while applied here to accelerator science, is generally applicable to a broad set of science applications, and is implemented in a production-quality visual data analysis infrastructure. We conduct a detailed performance analysis and demonstrate good scalability on a distributed memory Cray XT4 system.

The ASME Code Case N-729-1 defines alternative examination requirements for the Control Rod Drive Mechanism (CRDM) upper head penetration nozzle welds. The basis for these examination requirements was developed as part of an Industry program conducted by the Materials Reliability Program (MRP) through the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The results of this program were published in MRP-95 Rev. 1 and document a set of finite element weld residual stress analyses conducted on a variety of upper head penetration nozzles. The inspection zone selected by the industry was based on the stress where it was assumed that primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) would not initiate. As explained in MRP-95 Rev. 1, it has been illustrated that PWSCC does not occur in the Alloy 600 tube when the stresses are below the yield strength of that tube. Typical yield strengths at operating conditions for Alloy 600 range from 35 ksi to 65 ksi. A stress less than 20-ksi tension was chosen as a conservative range where PWSCC would not initiate. Over the last several years, Engineering Mechanics Corporation of Columbus (Emc2) has conducted welding residual stress analyses on upper head penetration J-welds made from Alloy 182 weld metal for the …

Understanding the most efficient design and utilization of emerging multicore systems is one of the most challenging questions faced by the mainstream and scientific computing industries in several decades. Our work explores multicore stencil (nearest-neighbor) computations -- a class of algorithms at the heart of many structured grid codes, including PDE solvers. We develop a number of effective optimization strategies, and build an auto-tuning environment that searches over our optimizations and their parameters to minimize runtime, while maximizing performance portability. To evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies we explore the broadest set of multicore architectures in the current HPC literature, including the Intel Clovertown, AMD Barcelona, Sun Victoria Falls, IBM QS22 PowerXCell 8i, and NVIDIA GTX280. Overall, our auto-tuning optimization methodology results in the fastest multicore stencil performance to date. Finally, we present several key insights into the architectural trade-offs of emerging multicore designs and their implications on scientific algorithm development.

Since the mid-1980s the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has used a value of 0.85 as a correction factor for the self absorption of activity of particulate radioactive air samples. More recently, an effort was made to evaluate the current particulate radioactive air sample filters (Versapor® 3000) used at PNNL for self absorption effects. There were two methods used in the study, 1) to compare the radioactivity concentration by direct gas-flow proportional counting of the filter to the results obtained after acid digestion of the filter and counting again by gas-flow proportional detection and 2) to evaluate sample filters by high resolution visual/infrared microscopy to determine the depth of material loading on or in the filter fiber material. Sixty samples were selected from the archive for acid digestion in the first method and about 30 samples were selected for high resolution visual/infrared microscopy. Mass loading effects were also considered. From the sample filter analysis, large error is associated with the average self absorption factor, however, when the data is compared directly one-to-one, statistically, there appears to be good correlation between the two analytical methods. The mass loading of filters evaluated was <0.2 mg cm-2 and was also compared against other …

Aerosol direct (DE), indirect (IE), and black carbon-snow albedo (BAE) effects on climate between 1890 and 1995 are compared using equilibrium aerosol-climate simulations in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies General Circulation Model coupled to a mixed layer ocean. Pairs of control(1890)-perturbation(1995) with successive aerosol effects allow isolation of each effect. The experiments are conducted both with and without concurrent changes in greenhouse gases (GHG's). A new scheme allowing dependence of snow albedo on black carbon snow concentration is introduced. The fixed GHG experiments global surface air temperature (SAT) changed -0.2, -1.0 and +0.2 C from the DE, IE, and BAE. Ice and snow cover increased 1.0% from the IE and decreased 0.3% from the BAE. These changes were a factor of 4 larger in the Arctic. Global cloud cover increased by 0.5% from the IE. Net aerosol cooling effects are about half as large as the GHG warming, and their combined climate effects are smaller than the sum of their individual effects. Increasing GHG's did not affect the IE impact on cloud cover, however they decreased aerosol effects on SAT by 20% and on snow/ice cover by 50%; they also obscure the BAE on snow/ice cover. Arctic snow, ice, …

We present the first measurements of the {rho}(770){sup 0}, K*(892), {Delta}(1232){sup ++}, {Sigma}(1385), and {Lambda}(1520) resonances in d+Au collisions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV, reconstructed via their hadronic decay channels using the STAR detector at RHIC. The masses and widths of these resonances are studied as a function of transverse momentum (p{sub T}). We observe that the resonance spectra follow a generalized scaling law with the transverse mass (m{sub T}). The &lt;p{sub T}&gt; of resonances in minimum bias collisions is compared to the &lt;p{sub T}&gt; of {pi}, K, and {bar p}. The {rho}{sup 0}/{pi}{sup -}, K*/K{sup -}, {Delta}{sup ++}/p, {Sigma}(1385)/{Lambda}, and {Lambda}(1520)/{Lambda} ratios in d + Au collisions are compared to the measurements in minimum bias p + p interactions, where we observe that both measurements are comparable. The nuclear modification factors (R{sub dAu}) of the {rho}{sup 0}, K*, and {Sigma}* scale with the number of binary collisions (N{sub bin}) for p{sub T} &gt; 1.2 GeV/c.

Dense electron beams can now be generated on an ultrafast timescale using laser driven photo-cathodes and these are used for a range of applications from ultrafast electron defraction to free electron lasers. Here we determine a lower bound to the emittance of an electron beam limited by fundamental stochastic Coulomb interactions.

The results of molecular dynamics simulations of the properties of water in an aqueous ionic solution close to an interface with a model metallic electrode are described. In the simulations the electrode behaves as an ideally polarizable hydrophilic metal, supporting image charge interactions with charged species, and it is maintained at a constant electrical potential with respect to the solution so that the model is a textbook representation of an electrochemical interface through which no current is passing. We show how water is strongly attracted to and ordered at the electrode surface. This ordering is different to the structure that might be imagined from continuum models of electrode interfaces. Further, this ordering significantly affects the probability of ions reaching the surface. We describe the concomitant motion and configurations of the water and ions as functions of the electrode potential, and we analyze the length scales over which ionic atmospheres fluctuate. The statistics of these fluctuations depend upon surface structure and ionic strength. The fluctuations are large, sufficiently so that the mean ionic atmosphere is a poor descriptor of the aqueous environment near a metal surface. The importance of this finding for a description of electrochemical reactions is examined by calculating, …

Recent progress in seismic tomography provides the first complete 3-D images of the combined thermal and chemical anomalies that characterise the unique deep mantle structure below the African continent. With these latest tomography results we predict flow patterns under Africa that reveal a large-scale, active hot upwelling, or superplume, below the western margin of Africa under the Cape Verde Islands. The scale and dynamical intensity of this West African superplume (WASP) is comparable to that of the south African superplume (SASP) that has long been assumed to dominate the flow dynamics under Africa. On the basis of this new tomography model, we find the dynamics of the SASP is strongly controlled by chemical contributions to deep mantle buoyancy that significantly compensate its thermal buoyancy. In contrast, the WASP appears to be entirely dominated by thermal buoyancy. New calculations of mantle convection incorporating these two superplumes reveal that the plate-driving forces due to the flow generated by the WASP is as strong as that due to the SASP. We find that the chemical buoyancy of the SASP exerts a strong stabilising control on the pattern and amplitude of shallow mantle flow in the asthenosphere below the southern half of the African …