Problems Encountered during the Scientific Research Process in Graduate Education: The Institute of Educational Sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Akyürek, Erkan; Afacan, Özlem

2018-01-01

This study was conducted to determine the problems faced by graduate students when conducting scientific research and to make suggestions for solving these problems. The research model was a case study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants in the study with questions about the problems encountered during scientific research…

Scientific perspectives on greenhouse problem. Part 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jastrow, R.; Nierenberg, W.; Seitz, F.

1992-01-01

The spectre of major climate change caused by the greenhouse effect has generated intensive research, heated scientific debate and a concerted international effort to draft agreements for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This report of Scientific Perspectives on the greenhouse problem explains the technical issues in the debate in language readily understandable to the non-specialist. The inherent complexities of attempts to simulate the earth's climate are explained, particularly with regard to the effects of clouds and the circulation of the oceans, which together represent the largest factors of uncertainty in current global warming forecasts. Results of the search for the 'greenhouse signal' in existing climate records aredescribed in chapter 3 (part two). Chapter 5 (part two) develops a projection of 21st-century warming based on relatively firm evidence of the earth's actual response to known increases in greenhouse gas emissions during the last 100 years

A Polar Rover for Large-Scale Scientific Surveys: Design, Implementation and Field Test Results

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuqing He

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Exploration of polar regions is of great importance to scientific research. Unfortunately, due to the harsh environment, most of the regions on the Antarctic continent are still unreachable for humankind. Therefore, in 2011, the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE launched a project to design a rover to conduct large-scale scientific surveys on the Antarctic. The main challenges for the rover are twofold: one is the mobility, i.e., how to make a rover that could survive the harsh environment and safely move on the uneven, icy and snowy terrain; the other is the autonomy, in that the robot should be able to move at a relatively high speed with little or no human intervention so that it can explore a large region in a limit time interval under the communication constraints. In this paper, the corresponding techniques, especially the polar rover's design and autonomous navigation algorithms, are introduced in detail. Subsequently, an experimental report of the fields tests on the Antarctic is given to show some preliminary evaluation of the rover. Finally, experiences and existing challenging problems are summarized.

Problems of future philologists’ training in modern scientific discourse

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Maryna Ikonnikova

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Philosophical, psychological-pedagogical and sociolinguistic projections of future philologists’ professional training have been studied in the paper. It has been defined that they provide for creating optimal conditions for learning language, literature, translation, etc.; stimulating speech and mental activity of students; developing their critical thinking skills, linguistic personality, multiple intellect, the ability to model conceptual information; widening knowledge-based space taking into account individual styles and strategies for student learning. It has been indicated that within foreign scientific discourse scholars focus on the problem of training philologists of the integrated type that is possible provided the methodology is scientifically justified, based on the significant achievements of philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, linguodidactics, sociolinguistics and culturology, oriented toward European requirements to language education, positive foreign experience and national traditions.Key words: future philologists, professional training, philological education, philology, scientific discourse.

Efficient Feature-Driven Visualization of Large-Scale Scientific Data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lu, Aidong

2012-12-12

Very large, complex scientific data acquired in many research areas creates critical challenges for scientists to understand, analyze, and organize their data. The objective of this project is to expand the feature extraction and analysis capabilities to develop powerful and accurate visualization tools that can assist domain scientists with their requirements in multiple phases of scientific discovery. We have recently developed several feature-driven visualization methods for extracting different data characteristics of volumetric datasets. Our results verify the hypothesis in the proposal and will be used to develop additional prototype systems.

Insufficiencies in solving global environmental problems by specialized scientific expertise

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hartwig, S.G.; Kra, R.S.

1989-01-01

The most paradoxical and urgent problem faces the world today. We find ourselves between the horns of a dilemma. One horn represents the accelerating demand for energy, and the other, the irreversible degradation of our natural environment. There are two directions that we can take to solve our growing global crisis. The first step is to encourage scientific specialists to think in broader terms. The second necessary approach is to make decision makers aware of the complexity of the situation as well as the dangers of tunnel vision that experts often fall into. Therefore, to find a long-term holistic solution, decision makers, be they government officials or academics, must be, themselves, solution oriented and capable of directing scientists along broadened problem-solving pathways. Up till now, scientists have been required to research environmental problems, discover causal associations and determine effects. Contemporary scientists, in the truest sense of the meaning, are no longer generalists but are specialists in their own fields with great depth and accuracy of knowledge. However, experts of high standing may have difficulty visualizing adjacent sciences, which causes them to lose sight of topics peripheral to their main field of interest. The consequence of this can be that solutions to a problem will be sought only within particular and specialized areas, but it is, unfortunately, a fact of life that environmental problems do not come neatly packaged in scientific disciplines: they happen in their entirety, with all their synergistic implications. 5 refs., 5 figs

Collaborative Problem-Solving Environments; Proceedings for the Workshop CPSEs for Scientific Research, San Diego, California, June 20 to July 1, 1999

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chin, George

1999-01-11

A workshop on collaborative problem-solving environments (CPSEs) was held June 29 through July 1, 1999, in San Diego, California. The workshop was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the High Performance Network Applications Team of the Large Scale Networking Working Group. The workshop brought together researchers and developers from industry, academia, and government to identify, define, and discuss future directions in collaboration and problem-solving technologies in support of scientific research.

Doing physics with scientific notebook a problem solving approach

CERN Document Server

Gallant, Joseph

2012-01-01

The goal of this book is to teach undergraduate students how to use Scientific Notebook (SNB) to solve physics problems. SNB software combines word processing and mathematics in standard notation with the power of symbolic computation. As its name implies, SNB can be used as a notebook in which students set up a math or science problem, write and solve equations, and analyze and discuss their results. Written by a physics teacher with over 20 years experience, this text includes topics that have educational value, fit within the typical physics curriculum, and show the benefits of using SNB.

Adding intelligence to scientific data management

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, William J.; Short, Nicholas M., Jr.; Treinish, Lloyd A.

1989-01-01

NASA plans to solve some of the problems of handling large-scale scientific data bases by turning to artificial intelligence (AI) are discussed. The growth of the information glut and the ways that AI can help alleviate the resulting problems are reviewed. The employment of the Intelligent User Interface prototype, where the user will generate his own natural language query with the assistance of the system, is examined. Spatial data management, scientific data visualization, and data fusion are discussed.

Material-Point Analysis of Large-Strain Problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Søren

The aim of this thesis is to apply and improve the material-point method for modelling of geotechnical problems. One of the geotechnical phenomena that is a subject of active research is the study of landslides. A large amount of research is focused on determining when slopes become unstable. Hence......, it is possible to predict if a certain slope is stable using commercial finite element or finite difference software such as PLAXIS, ABAQUS or FLAC. However, the dynamics during a landslide are less explored. The material-point method (MPM) is a novel numerical method aimed at analysing problems involving...... materials subjected to large strains in a dynamical time–space domain. This thesis explores the material-point method with the specific aim of improving the performance for geotechnical problems. Large-strain geotechnical problems such as landslides pose a major challenge to model numerically. Employing...

Actual problems of physics and technology. III International youth scientific school-conference. Book of abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2014-01-01

The third International youth scientific school-conference took place 10-13 April 2014 year in Moscow on the basis National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and RAS Lebedev P.N. Physical Institute. The actual scientific problems of current fundamental and applied physics as well as nuclear and physical technologies were discussed. This book of abstracts contains many interesting items devoted problems of theoretical physics and astrophysics, nuclear physics, nanotecnology, laser physics and plasma physics [ru

Perceived Problem Solving Skills: As a Predictor of Prospective Teachers' Scientific Epistemological Beliefs

Science.gov (United States)

Temel, Senar

2016-01-01

This study aims to determine the level of perceived problem solving skills of prospective teachers and the relations between these skills and their scientific epistemological beliefs. The study was conducted in the fall semester of 2015-2016 academic year. Prospective teachers were applied Problem Solving Inventory which was developed by Heppner…

(Mis)understanding Science: The Problem with Scientific Breakthroughs.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, James P

2016-09-01

On Saturday morning, February 28, 1953, the mystery of heredity appeared secure. Humans hadn't the faintest idea of how genetic information was transmitted-how the uncanny resemblance between mother and daughter, grandfather and grandson was conveyed across generations. Yet, by that Saturday afternoon, two individuals, James Watson and Francis Crick, had glimpsed the solution to these mysteries. The story of Watson and Crick's great triumph has been told and retold and has rightly entered the pantheon of scientific legend. But Watson and Crick's breakthrough was just that: a rupture and dramatic discontinuity in human knowledge that solved a deep mystery, the likes of which occurs, perhaps, a couple of times each century. And that's the problem. The story is just so good and so irresistible that it has misled generations of scientists about what to expect regarding a life in science. And more damaging, the resulting breakthrough mentality misleads the public, the media, and society's decision-makers about how science really works, all to the detriment of scientific progress and our society's well-being. © 2016 The Hastings Center.

[Credit problems on scientific article authorships: some solutions].

Science.gov (United States)

Casas-Martínez, María de la Luz

2008-01-01

Unfortunately, since the amount of publications has become a parameter for qualifying the scientific production, abuses and even frauds can take place easily. Along with the rising of new investigation projects in which numerous scientists participate, the multi-authorship has also taken place into the scientific scene, with articles having been damaged, modified or altered purposely with erroneous information and plagiarism, against the true author's will. The unconformities among the research team members reflect on a tense and stressful work atmosphere that interferes with investigation process itself; therefore, it is necessary to give and apply more transparency to these activities. The present article will analyze the recommendations from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors on authorships for medical articles. Here it is pointed out, when an authorship should be considered as one or not, also offering possible solutions to avoid this problem, such as, the elaboration of an author's consent letters written previously to the publication of the article, the elaboration of credits and the limitation of qualified publications regarding each activity reason.

Sensitivity analysis for large-scale problems

Science.gov (United States)

Noor, Ahmed K.; Whitworth, Sandra L.

1987-01-01

The development of efficient techniques for calculating sensitivity derivatives is studied. The objective is to present a computational procedure for calculating sensitivity derivatives as part of performing structural reanalysis for large-scale problems. The scope is limited to framed type structures. Both linear static analysis and free-vibration eigenvalue problems are considered.

THE PROBLEM OF CORRUPTION OF BASIC SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS IN PARTICULAR: FORMAL-ETHIC AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. O. Lobovikov

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to carry out historical-philosophical andlinguistic analysis of ethical and metaphysical doctrine of Aristotle on corruption in general; to discuss of formal-ethical view on the problem of corruption in basic scientific researches; to define the place and role of fundamental scientific researches in knowledge-based economy taken as a whole, and Boston Chart, in particular.Methods. The methods involve the historical-philosophical and logical-linguistic analysis of texts; creation and studying of the elementary discrete mathematical model of the researched moral phenomenon at the level of artificial language of two-digit algebra of the natural right and morals; use of such conceptual and figurative tool of the economic theory as Boston Chart.Results and scientific novelty. The definition of the concept «basic scientific research» is given for the first time; the concept includes time parameter and knowledge of utility (the practical importance of results of this research.Practical significance. The submitted definition (criterion gives a possibility to establish at any moment of time definite borderline between the basic and the applied scientific search (the line undergoes change in the flow of time. The effective criterion of basic scientific researches offered by the author, and also exact specifying of their place and role in lifecycle of knowledge as goods in market economy (at the conceptual level of the Boston Chart allow to designate an urgent problem of corruption of the scientific sphere in a new perspective. Along with some additional conditions, this new evidence could help to solve the problem.

SCIENTIFIC AND METHODICAL ASPECTS OF FORMATION OF SUBJECT CONTENT OF TRAINING COURSESFOR INVERSE PROBLEMS FOR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

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В С Корнилов

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The article presents scientific and methodical aspects of forming the content of education inverse problems for differential equations for students of higher educational institutions of physical, mathematical and natural science training areas. The goals are formulated and the principles of training are the content of learning inverse problems for differential equations. Attention is drawn to the particular issues of teaching courses inverse problems. Describes the classification criteria and target modules that play the role of tools to create and analyze the model and curriculum, forming learning content inverse problems for differential equations. The content classification features and target modules. Formulate conclusions that learning the inverse problems for differential equations has scientific, educational and humanitarian potential of students and as a result of this training they gain the fundamental knowledge in the applied and computational mathematics, and also develop scientific worldview, applied, environmental, information thinking.

Topology Optimization of Large Scale Stokes Flow Problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aage, Niels; Poulsen, Thomas Harpsøe; Gersborg-Hansen, Allan

2008-01-01

This note considers topology optimization of large scale 2D and 3D Stokes flow problems using parallel computations. We solve problems with up to 1.125.000 elements in 2D and 128.000 elements in 3D on a shared memory computer consisting of Sun UltraSparc IV CPUs.......This note considers topology optimization of large scale 2D and 3D Stokes flow problems using parallel computations. We solve problems with up to 1.125.000 elements in 2D and 128.000 elements in 3D on a shared memory computer consisting of Sun UltraSparc IV CPUs....

Parallel supercomputing: Advanced methods, algorithms, and software for large-scale linear and nonlinear problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carey, G.F.; Young, D.M.

1993-12-31

The program outlined here is directed to research on methods, algorithms, and software for distributed parallel supercomputers. Of particular interest are finite element methods and finite difference methods together with sparse iterative solution schemes for scientific and engineering computations of very large-scale systems. Both linear and nonlinear problems will be investigated. In the nonlinear case, applications with bifurcation to multiple solutions will be considered using continuation strategies. The parallelizable numerical methods of particular interest are a family of partitioning schemes embracing domain decomposition, element-by-element strategies, and multi-level techniques. The methods will be further developed incorporating parallel iterative solution algorithms with associated preconditioners in parallel computer software. The schemes will be implemented on distributed memory parallel architectures such as the CRAY MPP, Intel Paragon, the NCUBE3, and the Connection Machine. We will also consider other new architectures such as the Kendall-Square (KSQ) and proposed machines such as the TERA. The applications will focus on large-scale three-dimensional nonlinear flow and reservoir problems with strong convective transport contributions. These are legitimate grand challenge class computational fluid dynamics (CFD) problems of significant practical interest to DOE. The methods developed and algorithms will, however, be of wider interest.

Scientific Paradigms and Falsification: Kuhn, Popper, and Problems in Education Research

Science.gov (United States)

Hyslop-Margison, Emery James

2010-01-01

By examining the respective contributions of Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn to the philosophy of science, the author highlights some prevailing problems in this article with the methods of so-called scientific research in education. The author enumerates a number of reasons why such research, in spite of its limited tangible return, continues to gain…

C Versus Fortran-77 for Scientific Programming

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Tom MacDonald

1992-01-01

Full Text Available The predominant programming language for numeric and scientific applications is Fortran-77 and supercomputers are primarily used to run large-scale numeric and scientific applications. Standard C* is not widely used for numerical and scientific programming, yet Standard C provides many desirable linguistic features not present in Fortran-77. Furthermore, the existence of a standard library and preprocessor eliminates the worst portability problems. A comparison of Standard C and Fortran-77 shows several key deficiencies in C that reduce its ability to adequately solve some numerical problems. Some of these problems have already been addressed by the C standard but others remain. Standard C with a few extensions and modifications could be suitable for all numerical applications and could become more popular in supercomputing environments.

New computational methodology for large 3D neutron transport problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dahmani, M.; Roy, R.; Koclas, J.

2004-01-01

We present a new computational methodology, based on 3D characteristics method, dedicated to solve very large 3D problems without spatial homogenization. In order to eliminate the input/output problems occurring when solving these large problems, we set up a new computing scheme that requires more CPU resources than the usual one, based on sweeps over large tracking files. The huge capacity of storage needed in some problems and the related I/O queries needed by the characteristics solver are replaced by on-the-fly recalculation of tracks at each iteration step. Using this technique, large 3D problems are no longer I/O-bound, and distributed CPU resources can be efficiently used. (authors)

The effect of Think Pair Share (TPS) using scientific approach on students’ self-confidence and mathematical problem-solving

Science.gov (United States)

Rifa’i, A.; Lestari, H. P.

2018-03-01

This study was designed to know the effects of Think Pair Share using Scientific Approach on students' self-confidence and mathematical problem-solving. Quasi-experimental with pre-test post-test non-equivalent group method was used as a basis for design this study. Self-confidence questionnaire and problem-solving test have been used for measurement of the two variables. Two classes of the first grade in religious senior high school (MAN) in Indonesia were randomly selected for this study. Teaching sequence and series from mathematics book at control group in the traditional way and at experiment group has been in TPS using scientific approach learning method. For data analysis regarding students’ problem-solving skill and self-confidence, One-Sample t-Test, Independent Sample t-Test, and Multivariate of Variance (MANOVA) were used. The results showed that (1) TPS using a scientific approach and traditional learning had positive effects (2) TPS using scientific approach learning in comparative with traditional learning had a more significant effect on students’ self-confidence and problem-solving skill.

Scalability of Parallel Scientific Applications on the Cloud

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Satish Narayana Srirama

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Cloud computing, with its promise of virtually infinite resources, seems to suit well in solving resource greedy scientific computing problems. To study the effects of moving parallel scientific applications onto the cloud, we deployed several benchmark applications like matrix–vector operations and NAS parallel benchmarks, and DOUG (Domain decomposition On Unstructured Grids on the cloud. DOUG is an open source software package for parallel iterative solution of very large sparse systems of linear equations. The detailed analysis of DOUG on the cloud showed that parallel applications benefit a lot and scale reasonable on the cloud. We could also observe the limitations of the cloud and its comparison with cluster in terms of performance. However, for efficiently running the scientific applications on the cloud infrastructure, the applications must be reduced to frameworks that can successfully exploit the cloud resources, like the MapReduce framework. Several iterative and embarrassingly parallel algorithms are reduced to the MapReduce model and their performance is measured and analyzed. The analysis showed that Hadoop MapReduce has significant problems with iterative methods, while it suits well for embarrassingly parallel algorithms. Scientific computing often uses iterative methods to solve large problems. Thus, for scientific computing on the cloud, this paper raises the necessity for better frameworks or optimizations for MapReduce.

Ethics in scientific communication: study of a problem case.

Science.gov (United States)

Berger, R L

1994-12-01

The hypothermia experiments performed on humans during the Second World War at the German concentration camp in Dachau have been regarded as crimes against humanity, disguised as medical research. For almost 50 years, scientists maintained that the study produced valuable, even if not totally reliable, information. In recent years, the results from the Dachau hypothermia project were glamorized with life-saving potential and a heated ethical dialogue was activated about the use of life-saving but tainted scientific information. In the wake of the debate, an in-depth examination of the scientific rigour of the project was performed and revealed that neither the science nor the scientists from Dachau could be trusted and that the data were worthless. The body of medical opinion accepted the unfavourable determination but a few scientists and ethicists have continued to endorse the validity, of at least parts, of the Dachau hypothermia data. The conduct of the scientific communications about the Dachau hypothermia experiments by the scientific and ethical communities invites serious consideration of a possible ethical misadventure. It appears that for almost 50 years, the results of the study had been endorsed without careful examination of the scientific base of the experiments and that secondary citation of relevant original material may have been commonly employed. These infractions contributed to a myth that good science was practised by the Nazis at Dachau. The more recent emphasis on the life-saving potential of the Dachau data, without citation of credible supporting evidence, has also been misleading. Similarly, acceptance of a determination by an in-depth examination that the 'whole' Dachau project if flawed with simultaneous endorsement of the validity of 'parts' of the results, poses an ethical problem. It is advisable that before seeking ethical consultation about the use of unethically obtained data, scientists should examine the quality of science behind

Proceedings of 7. international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2007: Ecological problems of XXI century'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Mel'nov, S.B.; Poznyak, S.S.

2007-05-01

Abstracts of the seventh international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2007: Ecological problems of XXI century', which was held in the International A. Sakharov environmental university, contents materials on topics: socio-ecological problems, medical ecology, biomonitoring and bioindication, biological ecology. The proceedings are intended for specialists in field of ecology and related sciences, teachers, students and post-graduate students. (authors)

Testing foreign language impact on engineering students' scientific problem-solving performance

Science.gov (United States)

Tatzl, Dietmar; Messnarz, Bernd

2013-12-01

This article investigates the influence of English as the examination language on the solution of physics and science problems by non-native speakers in tertiary engineering education. For that purpose, a statistically significant total number of 96 students in four year groups from freshman to senior level participated in a testing experiment in the Degree Programme of Aviation at the FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences, Graz, Austria. Half of each test group were given a set of 12 physics problems described in German, the other half received the same set of problems described in English. It was the goal to test linguistic reading comprehension necessary for scientific problem solving instead of physics knowledge as such. The results imply that written undergraduate English-medium engineering tests and examinations may not require additional examination time or language-specific aids for students who have reached university-entrance proficiency in English as a foreign language.

Higgs, moduli problem, baryogenesis and large volume compactifications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Higaki, Tetsutaro [RIKEN Nishina Center, Saitama (Japan). Mathematical Physics Lab.; Kamada, Kohei [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Takahashi, Fuminobu [Tohoku Univ., Sendai (Japan). Dept. of Physics

2012-07-15

We consider the cosmological moduli problem in the context of high-scale supersymmetry breaking suggested by the recent discovery of the standard-model like Higgs boson. In order to solve the notorious moduli-induced gravitino problem, we focus on the LARGE volume scenario, in which the modulus decay into gravitinos can be kinematically forbidden. We then consider the Affleck-Dine mechanism with or without an enhanced coupling with the inflaton, taking account of possible Q-ball formation. We show that the baryon asymmetry of the present Universe can be generated by the Affleck-Dine mechanism in LARGE volume scenario, solving the moduli and gravitino problems.

Higgs, moduli problem, baryogenesis and large volume compactifications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Higaki, Tetsutaro; Takahashi, Fuminobu

2012-07-01

We consider the cosmological moduli problem in the context of high-scale supersymmetry breaking suggested by the recent discovery of the standard-model like Higgs boson. In order to solve the notorious moduli-induced gravitino problem, we focus on the LARGE volume scenario, in which the modulus decay into gravitinos can be kinematically forbidden. We then consider the Affleck-Dine mechanism with or without an enhanced coupling with the inflaton, taking account of possible Q-ball formation. We show that the baryon asymmetry of the present Universe can be generated by the Affleck-Dine mechanism in LARGE volume scenario, solving the moduli and gravitino problems.

Problems of Chernobyl. Materials of International scientific and practical conference 'Shelter-98'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klyuchnikov, O.O.

1999-01-01

These transactions contain materials of International Scientific and Practical Conference 'Shelter-98', which was held 27-30 November 1998 in Slavutich. They describe the results of the research work of the specialists from Ukraine, neighborhood and far foreign counties. The results, targeted at solving the problems of converting the Shelter Object into oncologically safe state

On nuclear power problem in science education in Japan. Supplementary reader, authorization and scientific literacy for citizen

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ryu, Jumpei

2012-01-01

Distribution of 'supplementary reader on nuclear power: Challenge! Nuclear power world' issued in 2010 and 'supplementary reader on radiation' issued in October 2011 was shelved in June 2012 by the administrative project review with revised policy of nuclear education for nuclear power promotion reflected. Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Accident brought about great effects and change on fundamental conditions of citizen's life as well as national consciousness of future society in Japan. Reconsideration of scientific education should be needed taking account how to recognize 'scientific literacy' and 'scientific communication'. This article discussed nuclear power problem related with supplementary reader and nuclear power education so as to establish science education framework for 'scientific literacy' for citizen. Preparation of nuclear power education at junior high school according to guideline of new course of study was reviewed and then 'scientific literacy' based on British science higher level student textbook for public understanding of science in society was described for reference, which suggested some problem in science education in Japan although social background was different. (T. Tanaka)

How scientific experiments are designed: Problem solving in a knowledge-rich, error-rich environment

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Lisa M.

While theory formation and the relation between theory and data has been investigated in many studies of scientific reasoning, researchers have focused less attention on reasoning about experimental design, even though the experimental design process makes up a large part of real-world scientists' reasoning. The goal of this thesis was to provide a cognitive account of the scientific experimental design process by analyzing experimental design as problem-solving behavior (Newell & Simon, 1972). Three specific issues were addressed: the effect of potential error on experimental design strategies, the role of prior knowledge in experimental design, and the effect of characteristics of the space of alternate hypotheses on alternate hypothesis testing. A two-pronged in vivo/in vitro research methodology was employed, in which transcripts of real-world scientific laboratory meetings were analyzed as well as undergraduate science and non-science majors' design of biology experiments in the psychology laboratory. It was found that scientists use a specific strategy to deal with the possibility of error in experimental findings: they include "known" control conditions in their experimental designs both to determine whether error is occurring and to identify sources of error. The known controls strategy had not been reported in earlier studies with science-like tasks, in which participants' responses to error had consisted of replicating experiments and discounting results. With respect to prior knowledge: scientists and undergraduate students drew on several types of knowledge when designing experiments, including theoretical knowledge, domain-specific knowledge of experimental techniques, and domain-general knowledge of experimental design strategies. Finally, undergraduate science students generated and tested alternates to their favored hypotheses when the space of alternate hypotheses was constrained and searchable. This result may help explain findings of confirmation

Modern algorithms for large sparse eigenvalue problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meyer, A.

1987-01-01

The volume is written for mathematicians interested in (numerical) linear algebra and in the solution of large sparse eigenvalue problems, as well as for specialists in engineering, who use the considered algorithms in the investigation of eigenoscillations of structures, in reactor physics, etc. Some variants of the algorithms based on the idea of a gradient-type direction of movement are presented and their convergence properties are discussed. From this, a general strategy for the direct use of preconditionings for the eigenvalue problem is derived. In this new approach the necessity of the solution of large linear systems is entirely avoided. Hence, these methods represent a new alternative to some other modern eigenvalue algorithms, as they show a slightly slower convergence on the one hand but essentially lower numerical and data processing problems on the other hand. A brief description and comparison of some well-known methods (i.e. simultaneous iteration, Lanczos algorithm) completes this volume. (author)

[Scientific journalism and epidemiological risk].

Science.gov (United States)

Luiz, Olinda do Carmo

2007-01-01

The importance of the communications media in the construction of symbols has been widely acknowledged. Many of the articles on health published in the daily newspapers mention medical studies, sourced from scientific publications focusing on new risks. The disclosure of risk studies in the mass media is also a topic for editorials and articles in scientific journals, focusing the problem of distortions and the appearance of contradictory news items. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning and content of disclosing scientific risk studies in large-circulation daily newspapers, analyzing news items published in Brazil and the scientific publications used as their sources during 2000. The "risk" is presented in the scientific research projects as a "black box" in the meaning of Latour, with the news items downplaying scientific disputes and underscoring associations between behavioral habits and the occurrence of diseases, emphasizing individual aspects of the epidemiological approach, to the detriment of the group.

Large-Scale Assessment, Rationality, and Scientific Management: The Case of No Child Left Behind

Science.gov (United States)

Roach, Andrew T.; Frank, Jennifer

2007-01-01

This article examines the ways in which NCLB and the movement towards large-scale assessment systems are based on Weber's concept of formal rationality and tradition of scientific management. Building on these ideas, the authors use Ritzer's McDonaldization thesis to examine some of the core features of large-scale assessment and accountability…

A Combined Ethical and Scientific Analysis of Large-scale Tests of Solar Climate Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Ackerman, T. P.

2017-12-01

Our research group recently published an analysis of the combined ethical and scientific issues surrounding large-scale testing of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI; Lenferna et al., 2017, Earth's Future). We are expanding this study in two directions. The first is extending this same analysis to other geoengineering techniques, particularly marine cloud brightening (MCB). MCB has substantial differences to SAI in this context because MCB can be tested over significantly smaller areas of the planet and, following injection, has a much shorter lifetime of weeks as opposed to years for SAI. We examine issues such as the role of intent, the lesser of two evils, and the nature of consent. In addition, several groups are currently considering climate engineering governance tools such as a code of ethics and a registry. We examine how these tools might influence climate engineering research programs and, specifically, large-scale testing. The second direction of expansion is asking whether ethical and scientific issues associated with large-scale testing are so significant that they effectively preclude moving ahead with climate engineering research and testing. Some previous authors have suggested that no research should take place until these issues are resolved. We think this position is too draconian and consider a more nuanced version of this argument. We note, however, that there are serious questions regarding the ability of the scientific research community to move to the point of carrying out large-scale tests.

Biomedical ontologies: toward scientific debate.

Science.gov (United States)

Maojo, V; Crespo, J; García-Remesal, M; de la Iglesia, D; Perez-Rey, D; Kulikowski, C

2011-01-01

Biomedical ontologies have been very successful in structuring knowledge for many different applications, receiving widespread praise for their utility and potential. Yet, the role of computational ontologies in scientific research, as opposed to knowledge management applications, has not been extensively discussed. We aim to stimulate further discussion on the advantages and challenges presented by biomedical ontologies from a scientific perspective. We review various aspects of biomedical ontologies going beyond their practical successes, and focus on some key scientific questions in two ways. First, we analyze and discuss current approaches to improve biomedical ontologies that are based largely on classical, Aristotelian ontological models of reality. Second, we raise various open questions about biomedical ontologies that require further research, analyzing in more detail those related to visual reasoning and spatial ontologies. We outline significant scientific issues that biomedical ontologies should consider, beyond current efforts of building practical consensus between them. For spatial ontologies, we suggest an approach for building "morphospatial" taxonomies, as an example that could stimulate research on fundamental open issues for biomedical ontologies. Analysis of a large number of problems with biomedical ontologies suggests that the field is very much open to alternative interpretations of current work, and in need of scientific debate and discussion that can lead to new ideas and research directions.

Solving Large Clustering Problems with Meta-Heuristic Search

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Turkensteen, Marcel; Andersen, Kim Allan; Bang-Jensen, Jørgen

In Clustering Problems, groups of similar subjects are to be retrieved from data sets. In this paper, Clustering Problems with the frequently used Minimum Sum-of-Squares Criterion are solved using meta-heuristic search. Tabu search has proved to be a successful methodology for solving optimization...... problems, but applications to large clustering problems are rare. The simulated annealing heuristic has mainly been applied to relatively small instances. In this paper, we implement tabu search and simulated annealing approaches and compare them to the commonly used k-means approach. We find that the meta-heuristic...

Stabilization Algorithms for Large-Scale Problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Toke Koldborg

2006-01-01

The focus of the project is on stabilization of large-scale inverse problems where structured models and iterative algorithms are necessary for computing approximate solutions. For this purpose, we study various iterative Krylov methods and their abilities to produce regularized solutions. Some......-curve. This heuristic is implemented as a part of a larger algorithm which is developed in collaboration with G. Rodriguez and P. C. Hansen. Last, but not least, a large part of the project has, in different ways, revolved around the object-oriented Matlab toolbox MOORe Tools developed by PhD Michael Jacobsen. New...

PROSCENIUM OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vasile Berlingher

2013-09-01

Full Text Available During the last three decades of the nineteenth century, organizations developed rapidly, their managers began to realize that they had too frequent managerial problems; this awareness lead to a new phase of development of scientific management. Examining the titles published in that period, it can be concluded that management issues that pose interest related to payroll and payroll systems, problems exacerbated by the industrial revolution and related work efficiency. Noting that large organizations losing power, direct supervision, the managers were looking for incentives to replace this power . One of the first practitioners of this new management system was Henry R. Towne, the president of the well-known enterprise "Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company", which applied the management methods in his company workshops. Publishers of magazines "Industrial Management" and "The Engineering Magazine" stated that HR Towne is, undisputedly, the pioneer of scientific management. He initiated the systematic application of effective management methods and his famous article "The Engineer as Economist" provided to the company. "American Society of Mechanical Engineers" in 1886 was the one that probably inspired Frederick W. Taylor to devote his entire life and work in scientific management.

Biomedical Scientific and Professional Social Networks in the Service of the Development of Modern Scientific Publishing.

Science.gov (United States)

Masic, Izet; Begic, Edin

2016-12-01

Information technologies have found their application in virtually every branch of health care. In recent years they have demonstrated their potential in the development of online library, where scientists and researchers can share their latest findings. Academia.edu, ResearchGate, Mendeley, Kudos, with the support of platform GoogleScholar, have indeed increased the visibility of scientific work of one author, and enable a much greater availability of the scientific work to the broader audience. Online libraries have allowed free access to the scientific content to the countries that could not follow the economic costs of getting access to certain scientific bases. Especially great benefit occurred in countries in transition and developing countries. Online libraries have great potential in terms of expanding knowledge, but they also present a major problem for many publishers, because their rights can be violated, which are signed by the author when publishing the paper. In the future it will lead to a major conflict of the author, the editorial board and online database, about the right to scientific content This question certainly represents one of the most pressing issues of publishing, whose future in printed form is already in the past, and the future of the online editions will be a problem of large-scale.

Proceedings of 8. international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2008: Ecological problems of XXI century'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Mel'nov, S.B.; Poznyak, S.S.

2008-05-01

The proceedings of the eighth international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2008: Ecological problems of XXI century', which was held in the International A. Sakharov environmental university, contents materials on topics: socio-ecological problems in the light of ideas of academic A. Sakharov; medical ecology; bioecology; biomonitoring, bioindication and bioremediation; radioecology and radiation protection; information systems and technologies in ecology; ecological management; ecological monitoring; ecological education, education for sustainable development; ecological ethics in bioethics education system; problems and prospects of renewable energetics development in Belarus. The proceedings are intended for specialists in field of ecology and related sciences, teachers, students and post-graduate students. (authors)

Scientific Management Still Endures in Education

Science.gov (United States)

Ireh, Maduakolam

2016-01-01

Some schools in America have changed, while others remain unchanged due largely to the accretion of small adjustments in what remains a very traditional enterprise. The problem is rooted in the propagation and adoption of scientific management by educators who applied and/or continues to apply it to education to restore order and for…

Proceedings of 5. international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2005: Ecological problems of XXI century'. Pt. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Okeanov, A.E.; Shevchuk, V.E.

2005-05-01

The first part of proceedings of the fifth international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2005: Ecological problems of XXI century', which was held in the International A. Sakharov Environmental University, contents materials on topics: socio-ecological problems, medical ecology, biological ecology. The proceedings are intended for specialists in field of ecology and related sciences, teachers, students and post-graduate students. (authors)

Proceedings of 6. international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2006: Ecological problems of XXI century'. Pt. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Okeanov, A.E.; Poznyak, S.S.

2006-05-01

The first part of proceedings of the sixth international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2006: Ecological problems of XXI century', which was held in the International A. Sakharov environmental university, contents materials on topics: socio-ecological problems, medical ecology, biomonitoring and bioindication, biological ecology. The proceedings are intended for specialists in field of ecology and related sciences, teachers, students and post-graduate students. (authors)

Empirical Phenomenon, Subjective Construction And Ontological Trught: (An Analysis of Problems of Scientific Explanation and Critical Realism Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faramarz Taghilou

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Both the positivist and negativist frameworks of explanation are common in this naturalist proposition that unlike the metaphysical philosophy, reality is embedded only in experimental level. Therefore, the scientific explanation of natural and social phenomenon should refer to this experimental level in order to be called meaningful, verifiable and scientific. But, the problem was always that the principle of causality as a necessary condition for every kind of scientific explanation is not logically deductible from induction in experimental level and remains as a metaphysical principle. The principle of experimental objectivity as a condition for the verifiability clause of scientific explanations could not be defended, because the experimentation was always embedded in subjectivity and theory. The Kantian idealists, in contrast, considering the scientific explanation as a mere representation of reality in subjective categories, could not justify the experimental knowledge of reality and the rationality for comparison among theories and paradigms. Critical Realism as an important approach in philosophy of science that relates to the works and thoughts of Roy Bhaskar tries to solve these problems by resorting to its principles of ontological realism, epistemological relativism, and judgmental rationality. Considering and analyzing the scientific explanation’s issues, we have focused here on the answers of the Critical Realism in this case. We will argue that how the Critical Realist interpretation of scientific explanation, the experimental phenomenon, and the subjective construction and ontological reality all reach to a logical coherence with each other.

Web-based visualization of very large scientific astronomy imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Bertin, E.; Pillay, R.; Marmo, C.

2015-04-01

Visualizing and navigating through large astronomy images from a remote location with current astronomy display tools can be a frustrating experience in terms of speed and ergonomics, especially on mobile devices. In this paper, we present a high performance, versatile and robust client-server system for remote visualization and analysis of extremely large scientific images. Applications of this work include survey image quality control, interactive data query and exploration, citizen science, as well as public outreach. The proposed software is entirely open source and is designed to be generic and applicable to a variety of datasets. It provides access to floating point data at terabyte scales, with the ability to precisely adjust image settings in real-time. The proposed clients are light-weight, platform-independent web applications built on standard HTML5 web technologies and compatible with both touch and mouse-based devices. We put the system to the test and assess the performance of the system and show that a single server can comfortably handle more than a hundred simultaneous users accessing full precision 32 bit astronomy data.

Using a Scientific Paper Format to Foster Problem-Based, Cohort-Learning in Undergraduate Environmental Science

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, T.; Langley-Turnbaugh, S. J.; Sanford, R.

2006-01-01

The Department of Environmental Science at the University of Southern Maine implemented a problem-based, cohort-learning curriculum for undergraduate environmental science majors. The curriculum was based on a five-course sequence patterned after the outline of a scientific paper. Under faculty guidance, students select local environmental…

DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND INFORMATIVE POTENTIAL OF STUDENTS IN THE TEACHING OF THE INVERSE PROBLEMS FOR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Виктор Семенович Корнилов

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In article attention that when training in the inverse problems for differential equations at students scientific and cognitive potential develops is paid. Students realize that mathematical models of the inverse problems for differential equations find the application in economy, the industries, ecology, sociology, biology, chemistry, mathematician, physics, in researches of the processes and the phenomena occurring in water and earth’s environment, air and space.Attention of the reader that in training activity to the inverse problems for differential equations at students the scientific outlook, logical, algorithmic, information thinking, creative activity, independence and ingenuity develop is focused. Students acquire skills to apply knowledge of many physical and mathematical disciplines, to carry out the analysis of the received decision of the reverse task and to formulate logical outputs of application-oriented character. Solving the inverse problems for differential equations, students acquire new knowledge in the field of applied and calculus mathematics, informatics, natural sciences and other knowledge.

Shutdown problems in large tokamaks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weldon, D.M.

1978-01-01

Some of the problems connected with a normal shutdown at the end of the burn phase (soft shutdown) and with a shutdown caused by disruptive instability (hard shutdown) have been considered. For a soft shutdown a cursory literature search was undertaken and methods for controlling the thermal wall loading were listed. Because shutdown computer codes are not widespread, some of the differences between start-up codes and shutdown codes were discussed along with program changes needed to change a start-up code to a shutdown code. For a hard shutdown, the major problems are large induced voltages in the ohmic-heating and equilibrium-field coils and high first wall erosion. A literature search of plasma-wall interactions was carried out. Phenomena that occur at the plasma-wall interface can be quite complicated. For example, material evaporated from the wall can form a virtual limiter or shield protecting the wall from major damage. Thermal gradients that occur during the interaction can produce currents whose associated magnetic field also helps shield the wall

Scalable Newton-Krylov solver for very large power flow problems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Idema, R.; Lahaye, D.J.P.; Vuik, C.; Van der Sluis, L.

2010-01-01

The power flow problem is generally solved by the Newton-Raphson method with a sparse direct solver for the linear system of equations in each iteration. While this works fine for small power flow problems, we will show that for very large problems the direct solver is very slow and we present

Sakharov readings 2009: Environmental problems of the XXI century. Proceedings of the 9 scientific conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Mel'nov, S.B.; Poznyak, S.S.

2009-05-01

Proceeding includes materials of reports of 9-ts international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2009: Environmental problems of XXI century', which took place 21-22 of May 2009 in the International Sakharov Environmental University. Represented materials were integrated to next parts: social-ecological and ecology-ethical problems; medical ecology; bio ecology; bio monitoring, bio indication and bioremediation; radioecology and radiation security; ecological informational systems and technologies; ecological monitoring, management and audit; resumption sources of energy and energy-saving technologies; problems of ecological education. Materials of the conference intend on wide area of the specialists in ecology and adjacent sciences, teachers, post-graduate students and students of universities and colleges. (authors)

Scientific decision of the Chernobyl accident problems (results of 1997)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konoplya, E.F.; Rolevich, I.V.

1998-12-01

In the publication are summarized the basic results of the researches executed in 1997 in the framework of the 'Scientific maintenance of the decision of problems of the Chernobyl NPP accident consequences' of the State program of Republic of Belarus for minimization and overcoming of the Chernobyl NPP accident consequences on 1996-2000 on the following directions: dose monitoring of the population, estimation and forecast of both collective irradiation dozes and risks of radiation induced diseases; development and ground of the measures for increase of radiation protection of the population of Belarus during of the reducing period after the Chernobyl accident; study of influence of radiological consequences of the Chernobyl accident on health of people, development of methods and means of diagnostics, treatment and preventive maintenance of diseases for various categories of the victims; optimisation of the system of measures for preservation of health of the victim population and development of ways for increase of it effectiveness; creation of the effective both prophylactic means and food additives for treatment and rehabilitation of the persons having suffered after the Chernobyl accident; development of complex system of an estimation and decision-making on problems of radiation protection of the population living on contaminated territories; development and optimization of a complex of measures for effective land use and decrease of radioactive contamination of agricultural production in order to reduce irradiation dozes of the population; development of complex technologies and means of decontamination, treatment and burial of radioactive wastes; study of the radioisotopes behaviour dynamics in environment (air, water, ground), ecosystems and populated areas; optimization of the system of radiation ecological monitoring in the republic and scientific methodical ways of it fulfilling; study of effects of low doze irradiation and combined influences, search

Sakharov readings 2011: environmental problems of the XXI century. Proceedings of 11 international scientific conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Poznyak, S.S.

2011-05-01

The proceeding includes materials of reports of 11-th international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2011: Environmental problems of XXI century', which took place 19-20 of May 2011 in the International A. Sakharov Environmental University. The proceeding continues abstracts about social-ecological, ecology-ethical and pedagogical problems in light of the Sakharov' ideas; medical ecology; biological ecology; biomonitoring, bioindication and bioremediation; radioecology and radiation protection; information systems and technologies in ecology and medicine; ecological monitoring, management and audit; renewable energy sources and energy efficiency; climate change and sustainable development; regional ecological problems. Materials of the conference intend on wide area of the specialists in ecology and adjacent sciences, teachers, post-graduate students and students of universities and colleges.

Solution of large nonlinear time-dependent problems using reduced coordinates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mish, K.D.

1987-01-01

This research is concerned with the idea of reducing a large time-dependent problem, such as one obtained from a finite-element discretization, down to a more manageable size while preserving the most-important physical behavior of the solution. This reduction process is motivated by the concept of a projection operator on a Hilbert Space, and leads to the Lanczos Algorithm for generation of approximate eigenvectors of a large symmetric matrix. The Lanczos Algorithm is then used to develop a reduced form of the spatial component of a time-dependent problem. The solution of the remaining temporal part of the problem is considered from the standpoint of numerical-integration schemes in the time domain. All of these theoretical results are combined to motivate the proposed reduced coordinate algorithm. This algorithm is then developed, discussed, and compared to related methods from the mechanics literature. The proposed reduced coordinate method is then applied to the solution of some representative problems in mechanics. The results of these problems are discussed, conclusions are drawn, and suggestions are made for related future research

Optimization of the solution of the problem of scheduling theory ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article describes the genetic algorithm used to solve the problem related to the scheduling theory. A large number of different methods is described in the scientific literature. The main issue that faced the problem in question is that it is necessary to search the optimal solution in a large search space for the set of ...

Scientific Reasoning and Its Relationship with Problem Solving: The Case of Upper Primary Science Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Alshamali, Mahmoud A.; Daher, Wajeeh M.

2016-01-01

This study aimed at identifying the levels of scientific reasoning of upper primary stage (grades 4-7) science teachers based on their use of a problem-solving strategy. The study sample (N = 138; 32 % male and 68 % female) was randomly selected using stratified sampling from an original population of 437 upper primary school teachers. The…

Bayesian nonlinear regression for large small problems

KAUST Repository

Chakraborty, Sounak; Ghosh, Malay; Mallick, Bani K.

2012-01-01

Statistical modeling and inference problems with sample sizes substantially smaller than the number of available covariates are challenging. This is known as large p small n problem. Furthermore, the problem is more complicated when we have multiple correlated responses. We develop multivariate nonlinear regression models in this setup for accurate prediction. In this paper, we introduce a full Bayesian support vector regression model with Vapnik's ε-insensitive loss function, based on reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS) under the multivariate correlated response setup. This provides a full probabilistic description of support vector machine (SVM) rather than an algorithm for fitting purposes. We have also introduced a multivariate version of the relevance vector machine (RVM). Instead of the original treatment of the RVM relying on the use of type II maximum likelihood estimates of the hyper-parameters, we put a prior on the hyper-parameters and use Markov chain Monte Carlo technique for computation. We have also proposed an empirical Bayes method for our RVM and SVM. Our methods are illustrated with a prediction problem in the near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. A simulation study is also undertaken to check the prediction accuracy of our models. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

Bayesian nonlinear regression for large small problems

KAUST Repository

Chakraborty, Sounak

2012-07-01

Statistical modeling and inference problems with sample sizes substantially smaller than the number of available covariates are challenging. This is known as large p small n problem. Furthermore, the problem is more complicated when we have multiple correlated responses. We develop multivariate nonlinear regression models in this setup for accurate prediction. In this paper, we introduce a full Bayesian support vector regression model with Vapnik\\'s ε-insensitive loss function, based on reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS) under the multivariate correlated response setup. This provides a full probabilistic description of support vector machine (SVM) rather than an algorithm for fitting purposes. We have also introduced a multivariate version of the relevance vector machine (RVM). Instead of the original treatment of the RVM relying on the use of type II maximum likelihood estimates of the hyper-parameters, we put a prior on the hyper-parameters and use Markov chain Monte Carlo technique for computation. We have also proposed an empirical Bayes method for our RVM and SVM. Our methods are illustrated with a prediction problem in the near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. A simulation study is also undertaken to check the prediction accuracy of our models. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

Maintaining Masculinity in Mid-Twentieth-Century American Psychology: Edwin Boring, Scientific Eminence, and the "Woman Problem".

Science.gov (United States)

Rutherford, Alexandra

2015-01-01

Using mid-twentieth-century American psychology as my focus, I explore how scientific psychology was constructed as a distinctly masculine enterprise and was navigated by those who did not conform easily to this masculine ideal. I show how women emerged as problems for science through the vigorous gatekeeping activities and personal and professional writings of disciplinary figurehead Edwin G. Boring. I trace Boring's intellectual and professional socialization into masculine science and his efforts to understand women's apparent lack of scientific eminence, efforts that were clearly undergirded by preexisting and widely shared assumptions about men's and women's capacities and preferences.

Structuring and assessing large and complex decision problems using MCDA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barfod, Michael Bruhn

This paper presents an approach for the structuring and assessing of large and complex decision problems using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). The MCDA problem is structured in a decision tree and assessed using the REMBRANDT technique featuring a procedure for limiting the number of pair...

Sakharov readings 2012: environmental problems of the XXI century. Proceedings of 12 international scientific conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Poznyak, S.S.

2012-05-01

The proceeding includes materials of reports of 12-th international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2012: Environmental problems of XXI century', which took place 17-18 of May 2012 in the International A. Sakharov Environmental University (Minsk, Belarus). The proceeding continues abstracts about social-ecological, ecology-ethical and pedagogical problems in light of the Sakharov' ideas; medical ecology; biological ecology; biomonitoring, bioindication and bioremediation; radioecology and radiation protection; information systems and technologies in ecology and medicine; ecological monitoring, management and audit; renewable energy sources and energy efficiency; climate change and sustainable development; regional ecological problems. Materials of the conference intend on wide area of the specialists in ecology and adjacent sciences, teachers, post-graduate students and students of universities and colleges.

Sakharov readings 2013: environmental problems of the XXI century. Proceedings of the 13 international scientific conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Poznyak, S.S.; Lysukho, N.A.

2013-05-01

The proceeding includes materials of reports of 13-th international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2013: Environmental problems of XXI century', which took place 16-17 of May 2013 in the International A. Sakharov Environmental University (Minsk, Belarus). The proceeding continues abstracts about social-ecological and ecology-ethical problems of modern times; education for sustainable development; medical ecology; biological ecology; radiobiology; radioecology and radiation protection; information systems and technologies in ecology and medicine; regional ecological problems; ecological monitoring and management; renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. Materials of the conference intend on wide area of the specialists in ecology and adjacent sciences, teachers, post-graduate students and students of universities and colleges.

Software support for irregular and loosely synchronous problems

Science.gov (United States)

Choudhary, A.; Fox, G.; Hiranandani, S.; Kennedy, K.; Koelbel, C.; Ranka, S.; Saltz, J.

1992-01-01

A large class of scientific and engineering applications may be classified as irregular and loosely synchronous from the perspective of parallel processing. We present a partial classification of such problems. This classification has motivated us to enhance FORTRAN D to provide language support for irregular, loosely synchronous problems. We present techniques for parallelization of such problems in the context of FORTRAN D.

Methodological Problems of Nanotechnoscience

Science.gov (United States)

Gorokhov, V. G.

Recently, we have reported on the definitions of nanotechnology as a new type of NanoTechnoScience and on the nanotheory as a cluster of the different natural and engineering theories. Nanotechnology is not only a new type of scientific-engineering discipline, but it evolves also in a “nonclassical” way. Nanoontology or nano scientific world view has a function of the methodological orientation for the choice the theoretical means and methods toward a solution to the scientific and engineering problems. This allows to change from one explanation and scientific world view to another without any problems. Thus, nanotechnology is both a field of scientific knowledge and a sphere of engineering activity, in other words, NanoTechnoScience is similar to Systems Engineering as the analysis and design of large-scale, complex, man/machine systems but micro- and nanosystems. Nano systems engineering as well as Macro systems engineering includes not only systems design but also complex research. Design orientation has influence on the change of the priorities in the complex research and of the relation to the knowledge, not only to “the knowledge about something”, but also to the knowledge as the means of activity: from the beginning control and restructuring of matter at the nano-scale is a necessary element of nanoscience.

Scientific assessments: Matching the process to the problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert J. Scholes

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Background: The science–policy interface process – known as a ‘scientific assessment’ – has risen to prominence in the past few decades. Complex assessments are appropriate for issues which are both technically complicated, multifaceted and of high societal interest. There is increasing interest from the research community that studies biological invasions to undertake such an assessment. Objectives: Providing the relevant background and context, the article describes key principles and steps for designing, planning, resourcing and executing such a process, as well as providing evidence of high-impact assessments enhancing scientific careers. Method: Experience from international and national assessments, most recently the South African scientific assessment for the Shale Gas Development in the Central Karoo, was used to develop this guiding generic template for practitioners. Analyses of researcher publication performances were undertaken to determine the benefit of being involved in assessments. Results: The key success factors for assessments mostly relate to adherence to ‘process’ and ‘governance’ aspects, for which scientists are sometimes ill-equipped. As regards publication outputs, authors involved in assessment processes demonstrated higher H-indices than their environmental scientist peers. We have suggested causal explanations for this. Conclusion: Effectively designed and managed assessments provide the platform for the ‘co-production of knowledge’ – an iterative and collaborative process involving scientists, stakeholders and policymakers. This increases scientific impact in the society–policy domain. While scientists seem concerned that effort directed towards assessments comes at the detriment of scientific credibility and productivity, we have presented data that suggest the opposite.

Influence of Family Processes, Motivation, and Beliefs about Intelligence on Creative Problem Solving of Scientifically Talented Individuals

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Seokhee; Lin, Chia-Yi

2011-01-01

Predictive relationships among perceived family processes, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, incremental beliefs about intelligence, confidence in intelligence, and creative problem-solving practices in mathematics and science were examined. Participants were 733 scientifically talented Korean students in fourth through twelfth grades as well as…

Solving Large Scale Crew Scheduling Problems in Practice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

E.J.W. Abbink (Erwin); L. Albino; T.A.B. Dollevoet (Twan); D. Huisman (Dennis); J. Roussado; R.L. Saldanha

2010-01-01

textabstractThis paper deals with large-scale crew scheduling problems arising at the Dutch railway operator, Netherlands Railways (NS). NS operates about 30,000 trains a week. All these trains need a driver and a certain number of guards. Some labor rules restrict the duties of a certain crew base

Bonus algorithm for large scale stochastic nonlinear programming problems

CERN Document Server

Diwekar, Urmila

2015-01-01

This book presents the details of the BONUS algorithm and its real world applications in areas like sensor placement in large scale drinking water networks, sensor placement in advanced power systems, water management in power systems, and capacity expansion of energy systems. A generalized method for stochastic nonlinear programming based on a sampling based approach for uncertainty analysis and statistical reweighting to obtain probability information is demonstrated in this book. Stochastic optimization problems are difficult to solve since they involve dealing with optimization and uncertainty loops. There are two fundamental approaches used to solve such problems. The first being the decomposition techniques and the second method identifies problem specific structures and transforms the problem into a deterministic nonlinear programming problem. These techniques have significant limitations on either the objective function type or the underlying distributions for the uncertain variables. Moreover, these ...

Implicit solvers for large-scale nonlinear problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keyes, David E; Reynolds, Daniel R; Woodward, Carol S

2006-01-01

Computational scientists are grappling with increasingly complex, multi-rate applications that couple such physical phenomena as fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, radiation transport, chemical and nuclear reactions, and wave and material propagation in inhomogeneous media. Parallel computers with large storage capacities are paving the way for high-resolution simulations of coupled problems; however, hardware improvements alone will not prove enough to enable simulations based on brute-force algorithmic approaches. To accurately capture nonlinear couplings between dynamically relevant phenomena, often while stepping over rapid adjustments to quasi-equilibria, simulation scientists are increasingly turning to implicit formulations that require a discrete nonlinear system to be solved for each time step or steady state solution. Recent advances in iterative methods have made fully implicit formulations a viable option for solution of these large-scale problems. In this paper, we overview one of the most effective iterative methods, Newton-Krylov, for nonlinear systems and point to software packages with its implementation. We illustrate the method with an example from magnetically confined plasma fusion and briefly survey other areas in which implicit methods have bestowed important advantages, such as allowing high-order temporal integration and providing a pathway to sensitivity analyses and optimization. Lastly, we overview algorithm extensions under development motivated by current SciDAC applications

The Cauchy problem for the Pavlov equation with large data

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Derchyi

2017-08-01

We prove a local solvability of the Cauchy problem for the Pavlov equation with large initial data by the inverse scattering method. The Pavlov equation arises in studies Einstein-Weyl geometries and dispersionless integrable models. Our theory yields a local solvability of Cauchy problems for a quasi-linear wave equation with a characteristic initial hypersurface.

Ab initio nuclear structure - the large sparse matrix eigenvalue problem

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vary, James P; Maris, Pieter [Department of Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011 (United States); Ng, Esmond; Yang, Chao [Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Sosonkina, Masha, E-mail: jvary@iastate.ed [Scalable Computing Laboratory, Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011 (United States)

2009-07-01

The structure and reactions of light nuclei represent fundamental and formidable challenges for microscopic theory based on realistic strong interaction potentials. Several ab initio methods have now emerged that provide nearly exact solutions for some nuclear properties. The ab initio no core shell model (NCSM) and the no core full configuration (NCFC) method, frame this quantum many-particle problem as a large sparse matrix eigenvalue problem where one evaluates the Hamiltonian matrix in a basis space consisting of many-fermion Slater determinants and then solves for a set of the lowest eigenvalues and their associated eigenvectors. The resulting eigenvectors are employed to evaluate a set of experimental quantities to test the underlying potential. For fundamental problems of interest, the matrix dimension often exceeds 10{sup 10} and the number of nonzero matrix elements may saturate available storage on present-day leadership class facilities. We survey recent results and advances in solving this large sparse matrix eigenvalue problem. We also outline the challenges that lie ahead for achieving further breakthroughs in fundamental nuclear theory using these ab initio approaches.

Ab initio nuclear structure - the large sparse matrix eigenvalue problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vary, James P; Maris, Pieter; Ng, Esmond; Yang, Chao; Sosonkina, Masha

2009-01-01

The structure and reactions of light nuclei represent fundamental and formidable challenges for microscopic theory based on realistic strong interaction potentials. Several ab initio methods have now emerged that provide nearly exact solutions for some nuclear properties. The ab initio no core shell model (NCSM) and the no core full configuration (NCFC) method, frame this quantum many-particle problem as a large sparse matrix eigenvalue problem where one evaluates the Hamiltonian matrix in a basis space consisting of many-fermion Slater determinants and then solves for a set of the lowest eigenvalues and their associated eigenvectors. The resulting eigenvectors are employed to evaluate a set of experimental quantities to test the underlying potential. For fundamental problems of interest, the matrix dimension often exceeds 10 10 and the number of nonzero matrix elements may saturate available storage on present-day leadership class facilities. We survey recent results and advances in solving this large sparse matrix eigenvalue problem. We also outline the challenges that lie ahead for achieving further breakthroughs in fundamental nuclear theory using these ab initio approaches.

Fourth youth scientifically-practical conference Nuclear-industrial complex of Ural: problems and prospects. Theses of reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

Theses of reports of the Fourth youth scientifically-practical conference Nuclear-industrial complex of Ural: problems and prospects (18-20 April 2007, Ozersk) are presented. The book contains theses of reports of the seventh subject sections: NFC: science and industry; Ecological problems in NFC development: radiation safety, radioecology and radiobiology; Nuclear power engineering: economics, safety, field experience; Atomic branch: history, today and future; New technologies in education. Education and training for NFC plants, public opinion; Information technologies and telecommunications; Long-term science intensive technologies and new materials [ru

Science and society: The benefits of scientific collaboration

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

The guest speaker at the next Science and Society symposium is no stranger to CERN. He is, in fact, Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith, Director General of CERN from 1994 to 1998. His topic is one with which he is particularly familiar, having "lived" it throughout his time at CERN: international scientific collaboration and its advantages. International scientific collaboration is essential in a wide range of areas and for a large number of reasons: scientific problems have no frontiers; certain subjects are so complex that they require the expertise of numerous countries; certain types of research, such as that carried out at CERN, cannot be pursued by one nation on its own. However, scientific collaboration is not only beneficial to science itself. This is the point Chris Llewellyn Smith intends to demonstrate in his address. Scientific collaboration can help to build bridges between societies and act as a spur to the development of certain countries. It can even help to diminish conflicts in certain cases. The his...

Sakharov readings 2015: environmental problems of the XXI century. Proceedings of the 15 international scientific conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poznyak, S.S.; Lysukho, N.A.

2015-05-01

The proceeding includes materials of reports of 15-th international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2015: Environmental problems of XXI century', which took place 21-22 of May 2015 in the International A. Sakharov Environmental University (Minsk, Belarus). The proceeding continues abstracts about philosophical, social-ecological nd bioethical and problems of modernity; education for sustainable development; medical ecology; biological ecology; radiobiology; radioecology and radiation protection; information systems and technologies in ecology and medicine; regional environmental problems; ecological monitoring and management; renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. Materials of the conference intend on wide area of the specialists in ecology and adjacent sciences, teachers, post-graduate students and students of universities and colleges. (authors)

Solving large nonlinear generalized eigenvalue problems from Density Functional Theory calculations in parallel

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bendtsen, Claus; Nielsen, Ole Holm; Hansen, Lars Bruno

2001-01-01

The quantum mechanical ground state of electrons is described by Density Functional Theory, which leads to large minimization problems. An efficient minimization method uses a self-consistent field (SCF) solution of large eigenvalue problems. The iterative Davidson algorithm is often used, and we...

Solving Large-Scale Computational Problems Using Insights from Statistical Physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Selman, Bart [Cornell University

2012-02-29

Many challenging problems in computer science and related fields can be formulated as constraint satisfaction problems. Such problems consist of a set of discrete variables and a set of constraints between those variables, and represent a general class of so-called NP-complete problems. The goal is to find a value assignment to the variables that satisfies all constraints, generally requiring a search through and exponentially large space of variable-value assignments. Models for disordered systems, as studied in statistical physics, can provide important new insights into the nature of constraint satisfaction problems. Recently, work in this area has resulted in the discovery of a new method for solving such problems, called the survey propagation (SP) method. With SP, we can solve problems with millions of variables and constraints, an improvement of two orders of magnitude over previous methods.

Performance modeling of hybrid MPI/OpenMP scientific applications on large-scale multicore supercomputers

KAUST Repository

Wu, Xingfu; Taylor, Valerie

2013-01-01

In this paper, we present a performance modeling framework based on memory bandwidth contention time and a parameterized communication model to predict the performance of OpenMP, MPI and hybrid applications with weak scaling on three large-scale multicore supercomputers: IBM POWER4, POWER5+ and BlueGene/P, and analyze the performance of these MPI, OpenMP and hybrid applications. We use STREAM memory benchmarks and Intel's MPI benchmarks to provide initial performance analysis and model validation of MPI and OpenMP applications on these multicore supercomputers because the measured sustained memory bandwidth can provide insight into the memory bandwidth that a system should sustain on scientific applications with the same amount of workload per core. In addition to using these benchmarks, we also use a weak-scaling hybrid MPI/OpenMP large-scale scientific application: Gyrokinetic Toroidal Code (GTC) in magnetic fusion to validate our performance model of the hybrid application on these multicore supercomputers. The validation results for our performance modeling method show less than 7.77% error rate in predicting the performance of hybrid MPI/OpenMP GTC on up to 512 cores on these multicore supercomputers. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

Performance modeling of hybrid MPI/OpenMP scientific applications on large-scale multicore supercomputers

KAUST Repository

Wu, Xingfu

2013-12-01

In this paper, we present a performance modeling framework based on memory bandwidth contention time and a parameterized communication model to predict the performance of OpenMP, MPI and hybrid applications with weak scaling on three large-scale multicore supercomputers: IBM POWER4, POWER5+ and BlueGene/P, and analyze the performance of these MPI, OpenMP and hybrid applications. We use STREAM memory benchmarks and Intel\\'s MPI benchmarks to provide initial performance analysis and model validation of MPI and OpenMP applications on these multicore supercomputers because the measured sustained memory bandwidth can provide insight into the memory bandwidth that a system should sustain on scientific applications with the same amount of workload per core. In addition to using these benchmarks, we also use a weak-scaling hybrid MPI/OpenMP large-scale scientific application: Gyrokinetic Toroidal Code (GTC) in magnetic fusion to validate our performance model of the hybrid application on these multicore supercomputers. The validation results for our performance modeling method show less than 7.77% error rate in predicting the performance of hybrid MPI/OpenMP GTC on up to 512 cores on these multicore supercomputers. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

The Scientific Enterprise

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 13; Issue 9. The Scientific Enterprise - Assumptions, Problems, and Goals in the Modern Scientific Framework. V V Raman. Reflections Volume 13 Issue 9 September 2008 pp 885-894 ...

Design of General-purpose Industrial signal acquisition system in a large scientific device

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Bin; Yang, Lei

2018-02-01

In order to measure the industrial signal of a large scientific device experiment, a set of industrial data general-purpose acquisition system has been designed. It can collect 4~20mA current signal and 0~10V voltage signal. Through the practical experiments, it shows that the system is flexible, reliable, convenient and economical, and the system has characters of high definition and strong anti-interference ability. Thus, the system fully meets the design requirements..

Control problems in very large accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crowley-Milling, M.C.

1985-06-01

There is no fundamental difference of kind in the control requirements between a small and a large accelerator since they are built of the same types of components, which individually have similar control inputs and outputs. The main difference is one of scale; the large machine has many more components of each type, and the distances involved are much greater. Both of these factors must be taken into account in determining the optimum way of carrying out the control functions. Small machines should use standard equipment and software for control as much as possible, as special developments for small quantities cannot normally be justified if all costs are taken into account. On the other hand, the very great number of devices needed for a large machine means that, if special developments can result in simplification, they may make possible an appreciable reduction in the control equipment costs. It is the purpose of this report to look at the special control problems of large accelerators, which the author shall arbitarily define as those with a length of circumference in excess of 10 km, and point out where special developments, or the adoption of developments from outside the accelerator control field, can be of assistance in minimizing the cost of the control system. Most of the first part of this report was presented as a paper to the 1985 Particle Accelerator Conference. It has now been extended to include a discussion on the special case of the controls for the SSC

Problems of large-scale vertically-integrated aquaculture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Webber, H H; Riordan, P F

1976-01-01

The problems of vertically-integrated aquaculture are outlined; they are concerned with: species limitations (in the market, biological and technological); site selection, feed, manpower needs, and legal, institutional and financial requirements. The gaps in understanding of, and the constraints limiting, large-scale aquaculture are listed. Future action is recommended with respect to: types and diversity of species to be cultivated, marketing, biotechnology (seed supply, disease control, water quality and concerted effort), siting, feed, manpower, legal and institutional aids (granting of water rights, grants, tax breaks, duty-free imports, etc.), and adequate financing. The last of hard data based on experience suggests that large-scale vertically-integrated aquaculture is a high risk enterprise, and with the high capital investment required, banks and funding institutions are wary of supporting it. Investment in pilot projects is suggested to demonstrate that large-scale aquaculture can be a fully functional and successful business. Construction and operation of such pilot farms is judged to be in the interests of both the public and private sector.

The Problem of Scientific Realism Vis-a-Vis the Probabilistic ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Scientific realism holds that the objects of scientific knowledge exist independently of the minds or activities of scientists and those scientific theories are true of that objective world. This is antithetical to the posits of quantum physics, a body of knowledge taken as the seal of the sciences because of its incredible feat, which ...

Impact of problem-based learning in a large classroom setting: student perception and problem-solving skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Klegeris, Andis; Hurren, Heather

2011-12-01

Problem-based learning (PBL) can be described as a learning environment where the problem drives the learning. This technique usually involves learning in small groups, which are supervised by tutors. It is becoming evident that PBL in a small-group setting has a robust positive effect on student learning and skills, including better problem-solving skills and an increase in overall motivation. However, very little research has been done on the educational benefits of PBL in a large classroom setting. Here, we describe a PBL approach (using tutorless groups) that was introduced as a supplement to standard didactic lectures in University of British Columbia Okanagan undergraduate biochemistry classes consisting of 45-85 students. PBL was chosen as an effective method to assist students in learning biochemical and physiological processes. By monitoring student attendance and using informal and formal surveys, we demonstrated that PBL has a significant positive impact on student motivation to attend and participate in the course work. Student responses indicated that PBL is superior to traditional lecture format with regard to the understanding of course content and retention of information. We also demonstrated that student problem-solving skills are significantly improved, but additional controlled studies are needed to determine how much PBL exercises contribute to this improvement. These preliminary data indicated several positive outcomes of using PBL in a large classroom setting, although further studies aimed at assessing student learning are needed to further justify implementation of this technique in courses delivered to large undergraduate classes.

[The Problems with Domestic Introduction of rTMS from the Three Viewpoints of Scientific Evidence, Specialty and Social Responsibility].

Science.gov (United States)

Shinosaki, Kazuhiro

2015-01-01

The domestic introduction of rTMS is expected as a new treatment option for treatment-resistant depression. I discussed some problems with the introduction from three viewpoints : scientific evidence, specialty, and social responsibility. I surveyed scientific evidence for rTMS regarding the action mechanism, effectiveness, side effects, and its positioning in the treatment guidelines. To secure the quality of rTMS treatment, I proposed rTMS guidelines, nurturing of the specialists, and a center hospital plan, and pointed out some medium-term problems after its introduction and the consistency of rTMS treatment and standard depression treatment. From the viewpoint of social responsibility, rTMS treatment should be a medical service covered by health insurance to avoid its misuse. We should prepare to overcome the public suspicion of brain stimulation treatment for mental disease.

Do large-scale assessments measure students' ability to integrate scientific knowledge?

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hee-Sun

2010-03-01

Large-scale assessments are used as means to diagnose the current status of student achievement in science and compare students across schools, states, and countries. For efficiency, multiple-choice items and dichotomously-scored open-ended items are pervasively used in large-scale assessments such as Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS). This study investigated how well these items measure secondary school students' ability to integrate scientific knowledge. This study collected responses of 8400 students to 116 multiple-choice and 84 open-ended items and applied an Item Response Theory analysis based on the Rasch Partial Credit Model. Results indicate that most multiple-choice items and dichotomously-scored open-ended items can be used to determine whether students have normative ideas about science topics, but cannot measure whether students integrate multiple pieces of relevant science ideas. Only when the scoring rubric is redesigned to capture subtle nuances of student open-ended responses, open-ended items become a valid and reliable tool to assess students' knowledge integration ability.

Large-scale computation at PSI scientific achievements and future requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adelmann, A.; Markushin, V.

2008-11-01

Computational modelling and simulation are among the disciplines that have seen the most dramatic growth in capabilities in the 2Oth Century. Within the past two decades, scientific computing has become an important contributor to all scientific research programs. Computational modelling and simulation are particularly indispensable for solving research problems that are unsolvable by traditional theoretical and experimental approaches, hazardous to study, or time consuming or expensive to solve by traditional means. Many such research areas are found in PSI's research portfolio. Advances in computing technologies (including hardware and software) during the past decade have set the stage for a major step forward in modelling and simulation. We have now arrived at a situation where we have a number of otherwise unsolvable problems, where simulations are as complex as the systems under study. In 2008 the High-Performance Computing (HPC) community entered the petascale area with the heterogeneous Opteron/Cell machine, called Road Runner built by IBM for the Los Alamos National Laboratory. We are on the brink of a time where the availability of many hundreds of thousands of cores will open up new challenging possibilities in physics, algorithms (numerical mathematics) and computer science. However, to deliver on this promise, it is not enough to provide 'peak' performance in terms of peta-flops, the maximum theoretical speed a computer can attain. Most important, this must be translated into corresponding increase in the capabilities of scientific codes. This is a daunting problem that can only be solved by increasing investment in hardware, in the accompanying system software that enables the reliable use of high-end computers, in scientific competence i.e. the mathematical (parallel) algorithms that are the basis of the codes, and education. In the case of Switzerland, the white paper 'Swiss National Strategic Plan for High Performance Computing and Networking

Large-scale computation at PSI scientific achievements and future requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adelmann, A.; Markushin, V

2008-11-15

Computational modelling and simulation are among the disciplines that have seen the most dramatic growth in capabilities in the 2Oth Century. Within the past two decades, scientific computing has become an important contributor to all scientific research programs. Computational modelling and simulation are particularly indispensable for solving research problems that are unsolvable by traditional theoretical and experimental approaches, hazardous to study, or time consuming or expensive to solve by traditional means. Many such research areas are found in PSI's research portfolio. Advances in computing technologies (including hardware and software) during the past decade have set the stage for a major step forward in modelling and simulation. We have now arrived at a situation where we have a number of otherwise unsolvable problems, where simulations are as complex as the systems under study. In 2008 the High-Performance Computing (HPC) community entered the petascale area with the heterogeneous Opteron/Cell machine, called Road Runner built by IBM for the Los Alamos National Laboratory. We are on the brink of a time where the availability of many hundreds of thousands of cores will open up new challenging possibilities in physics, algorithms (numerical mathematics) and computer science. However, to deliver on this promise, it is not enough to provide 'peak' performance in terms of peta-flops, the maximum theoretical speed a computer can attain. Most important, this must be translated into corresponding increase in the capabilities of scientific codes. This is a daunting problem that can only be solved by increasing investment in hardware, in the accompanying system software that enables the reliable use of high-end computers, in scientific competence i.e. the mathematical (parallel) algorithms that are the basis of the codes, and education. In the case of Switzerland, the white paper 'Swiss National Strategic Plan for High Performance Computing

Scientific communication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksander Kobylarek

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The article tackles the problem of models of communication in science. The formal division of communication processes into oral and written does not resolve the problem of attitude. The author defines successful communication as a win-win game, based on the respect and equality of the partners, regardless of their position in the world of science. The core characteristics of the process of scientific communication are indicated , such as openness, fairness, support, and creation. The task of creating the right atmosphere for science communication belongs to moderators, who should not allow privilege and differentiation of position to affect scientific communication processes.

Five decades of tackling models for stiff fluid dynamics problems a scientific autobiography

CERN Document Server

Zeytounian, Radyadour Kh

2014-01-01

Rationality - as opposed to 'ad-hoc' - and asymptotics - to emphasize the fact that perturbative methods are at the core of the theory - are the two main concepts associated with the Rational Asymptotic Modeling (RAM) approach in fluid dynamics when the goal is to specifically provide useful models accessible to numerical simulation via high-speed computing. This approach has contributed to a fresh understanding of Newtonian fluid flow problems and has opened up new avenues for tackling real fluid flow phenomena, which are known to lead to very difficult mathematical and numerical problems irrespective of turbulence. With the present scientific autobiography the author guides the reader through his somewhat non-traditional career; first discovering fluid mechanics, and then devoting more than fifty years to intense work in the field. Using both personal and general historical contexts, this account will be of benefit to anyone interested in the early and contemporary developments of an important branch of the...

Examination of the relationship between preservice science teachers' scientific reasoning and problem solving skills on basic mechanics

Science.gov (United States)

Yuksel, Ibrahim; Ates, Salih

2018-02-01

The purpose of this study is to determine relationship between scientific reasoning and mechanics problem solving skills of students in science education program. Scientific Reasoning Skills Test (SRST) and Basic Mechanics Knowledge Test (BMKT) were applied to 90 second, third and fourth grade students who took Scientific Reasoning Skills course at science teaching program of Gazi Faculty of Education for three successive fall semesters of 2014, 2015 and 2016 academic years. It was found a statistically significant positive (p = 0.038 <0.05) but a low correlation (r = 0.219) between SRST and BMKT. There were no significant relationship among Conservation Laws, Proportional Thinking, Combinational Thinking, Correlational Thinking, Probabilistic Thinking subskills of reasoning and BMKT. There were significant and positive correlation among Hypothetical Thinking and Identifying and Controlling Variables subskills of reasoning and BMKT. The findings of the study were compared with other studies in the field and discussed.

Sakharov readings 2016: environmental problems of the XXI century. Proceedings of the 16 international scientific conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maskevich, S.A.; Poznyak, S.S.; Lysukho, N.A.

2016-05-01

The proceeding includes materials of reports of 16-th international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2016: Environmental problems of XXI century', which took place 19-20 of May 2015 in the International A. Sakharov Environmental Institute at the Belarus State University (Minsk, Belarus). The proceeding continues abstracts about philosophical, social-ecological and bioethical problems of modernity; education for sustainable development; medical ecology; biological ecology; radiobiology; radioecology and radiation protection; information systems and technologies in ecology and medicine; regional environmental problems; ecological monitoring and management; renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. In the framework of conference a discussion 'Ethical aspects of biomedicine, genetics, nanomedical technologies and human ecology' was conducted. Materials of the conference intend on wide area of the specialists in ecology and adjacent sciences, teachers, post-graduate students and students of universities and colleges. (authors)

Improving Problem Solving Skill and Self Regulated Learning of Senior High School Students through Scientific Approach using Quantum Learning strategy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M Sudirman

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This research is quasi experiment with control group pretest-postest design. The sampel in this research using the techique of purposive sampling so the samples used were two classes of the 11th grade students of SMAN 14 Bandung in the academic year 2017/2018. The experiment group uses saintific approach using Quantum Learning strategy and control group uses saintific approach. In collecting the data the researcher will use the test of problem solving ability and self regulated learning as the instrument. The aims of this research are to:1find out the improvement of students mathematical problem solving through scientific approach using Quantum Learning study, 2 find out students self regulated learning through scientific approach using Quantum Learning.

Computational approach to large quantum dynamical problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Friesner, R.A.; Brunet, J.P.; Wyatt, R.E.; Leforestier, C.; Binkley, S.

1987-01-01

The organizational structure is described for a new program that permits computations on a variety of quantum mechanical problems in chemical dynamics and spectroscopy. Particular attention is devoted to developing and using algorithms that exploit the capabilities of current vector supercomputers. A key component in this procedure is the recursive transformation of the large sparse Hamiltonian matrix into a much smaller tridiagonal matrix. An application to time-dependent laser molecule energy transfer is presented. Rate of energy deposition in the multimode molecule for systematic variations in the molecular intermode coupling parameters is emphasized

Application of Text Analytics to Extract and Analyze Material–Application Pairs from a Large Scientific Corpus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nikhil Kalathil

2018-01-01

Full Text Available When assessing the importance of materials (or other components to a given set of applications, machine analysis of a very large corpus of scientific abstracts can provide an analyst a base of insights to develop further. The use of text analytics reduces the time required to conduct an evaluation, while allowing analysts to experiment with a multitude of different hypotheses. Because the scope and quantity of metadata analyzed can, and should, be large, any divergence from what a human analyst determines and what the text analysis shows provides a prompt for the human analyst to reassess any preliminary findings. In this work, we have successfully extracted material–application pairs and ranked them on their importance. This method provides a novel way to map scientific advances in a particular material to the application for which it is used. Approximately 438,000 titles and abstracts of scientific papers published from 1992 to 2011 were used to examine 16 materials. This analysis used coclustering text analysis to associate individual materials with specific clean energy applications, evaluate the importance of materials to specific applications, and assess their importance to clean energy overall. Our analysis reproduced the judgments of experts in assigning material importance to applications. The validated methods were then used to map the replacement of one material with another material in a specific application (batteries.

The effects of problem content and scientific background on information search and the assessment and valuation of correlations.

Science.gov (United States)

Soffer, Shira; Kareev, Yaakov

2011-01-01

The effects of problem contents and one's scientific background on the detection of correlations and the assessment of their strength were studied using a task that required active data search, assessment of the strength of a correlation, and monetary valuation of the correlation's predictive utility. Participants (N = 72) who were trained either in the natural sciences or in the social sciences and humanities explored data sets differing in contents and actual strength of correlation. Data search was consistent across all variables: Participants drew relatively small samples whose relative sizes would favor the detection of a correlation, if one existed. In contrast, the assessment of the correlation strength and the valuation of its predictive utility were strongly related not only to its objective strength, but also to the correspondence between problem contents and one's scientific background: When the two matched, correlations were judged to be stronger and more valuable than when they did not.

SALTON SEA SCIENTIFIC DRILLING PROJECT: SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM.

Science.gov (United States)

Sass, J.H.; Elders, W.A.

1986-01-01

The Salton Sea Scientific Drilling Project, was spudded on 24 October 1985, and reached a total depth of 10,564 ft. (3. 2 km) on 17 March 1986. There followed a period of logging, a flow test, and downhole scientific measurements. The scientific goals were integrated smoothly with the engineering and economic objectives of the program and the ideal of 'science driving the drill' in continental scientific drilling projects was achieved in large measure. The principal scientific goals of the project were to study the physical and chemical processes involved in an active, magmatically driven hydrothermal system. To facilitate these studies, high priority was attached to four areas of sample and data collection, namely: (1) core and cuttings, (2) formation fluids, (3) geophysical logging, and (4) downhole physical measurements, particularly temperatures and pressures.

Fifth Anniversary youth scientifically-practical conference Nuclear-industrial complex of Ural: problems and prospects. Theses of reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-01-01

Theses of reports of the Fifth Anniversary youth scientifically-practical conference Nuclear-industrial complex of Ural: problems and prospects (21-23 April 2009, Ozersk) are presented. The book contains abstracts of papers of fourth thematic sections: SNF reprocessing: science and industry; Radioecology and radiobiology; Advanced science-intensive technologies and materials; Education and training for NFC plants

Manual for JSSL (JAERI scientific subroutine library)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inoue, Shuji; Fujimura, Toichiro; Tsutsui, Tsuneo; Nishida, Takahiko

1982-09-01

A manual on revised version of JAERI scientific subroutine library, which is a collection of scientific subroutines developed or modified in JAERI. They are classified into fifteen fields (Special Functions, Linear Problems, Eigenvalue and Eigen vector Problems, Non linear Problems, Mathematical Programming, Extreme Value Problems, Transformations, Functional Approximation Methods, Numerical Differential and Integral Methods, Numerical Differential and Integral Equations, Statistical Functions, Physical Problems, I/O Routines, Plotter Routines, Computer System Functions and Others). Main expansion of this version is in the fields of mathematical programming and statistical functions. The present library may be said to be a comprehensive compilation of scientific subroutines covering almost all the important fields. (author)

FDTD method for laser absorption in metals for large scale problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Chun; Ki, Hyungson

2013-10-21

The FDTD method has been successfully used for many electromagnetic problems, but its application to laser material processing has been limited because even a several-millimeter domain requires a prohibitively large number of grids. In this article, we present a novel FDTD method for simulating large-scale laser beam absorption problems, especially for metals, by enlarging laser wavelength while maintaining the material's reflection characteristics. For validation purposes, the proposed method has been tested with in-house FDTD codes to simulate p-, s-, and circularly polarized 1.06 μm irradiation on Fe and Sn targets, and the simulation results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions.

Advancements in Large-Scale Data/Metadata Management for Scientific Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Guntupally, K.; Devarakonda, R.; Palanisamy, G.; Frame, M. T.

2017-12-01

Scientific data often comes with complex and diverse metadata which are critical for data discovery and users. The Online Metadata Editor (OME) tool, which was developed by an Oak Ridge National Laboratory team, effectively manages diverse scientific datasets across several federal data centers, such as DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center and USGS's Core Science Analytics, Synthesis, and Libraries (CSAS&L) project. This presentation will focus mainly on recent developments and future strategies for refining OME tool within these centers. The ARM OME is a standard based tool (https://www.archive.arm.gov/armome) that allows scientists to create and maintain metadata about their data products. The tool has been improved with new workflows that help metadata coordinators and submitting investigators to submit and review their data more efficiently. The ARM Data Center's newly upgraded Data Discovery Tool (http://www.archive.arm.gov/discovery) uses rich metadata generated by the OME to enable search and discovery of thousands of datasets, while also providing a citation generator and modern order-delivery techniques like Globus (using GridFTP), Dropbox and THREDDS. The Data Discovery Tool also supports incremental indexing, which allows users to find new data as and when they are added. The USGS CSAS&L search catalog employs a custom version of the OME (https://www1.usgs.gov/csas/ome), which has been upgraded with high-level Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) validations and the ability to reserve and mint Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). The USGS's Science Data Catalog (SDC) (https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog) allows users to discover a myriad of science data holdings through a web portal. Recent major upgrades to the SDC and ARM Data Discovery Tool include improved harvesting performance and migration using new search software, such as Apache Solr 6.0 for serving up data/metadata to scientific communities. Our presentation will highlight

A Test of the Circumvention-of-Limits Hypothesis in Scientific Problem Solving: The Case of Geological Bedrock Mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Hambrick, David Z.; Libarkin, Julie C.; Petcovic, Heather L.; Baker, Kathleen M.; Elkins, Joe; Callahan, Caitlin N.; Turner, Sheldon P.; Rench, Tara A.; LaDue, Nicole D.

2012-01-01

Sources of individual differences in scientific problem solving were investigated. Participants representing a wide range of experience in geology completed tests of visuospatial ability and geological knowledge, and performed a geological bedrock mapping task, in which they attempted to infer the geological structure of an area in the Tobacco…

Performance Modeling of Hybrid MPI/OpenMP Scientific Applications on Large-scale Multicore Cluster Systems

KAUST Repository

Wu, Xingfu; Taylor, Valerie

2011-01-01

In this paper, we present a performance modeling framework based on memory bandwidth contention time and a parameterized communication model to predict the performance of OpenMP, MPI and hybrid applications with weak scaling on three large-scale multicore clusters: IBM POWER4, POWER5+ and Blue Gene/P, and analyze the performance of these MPI, OpenMP and hybrid applications. We use STREAM memory benchmarks to provide initial performance analysis and model validation of MPI and OpenMP applications on these multicore clusters because the measured sustained memory bandwidth can provide insight into the memory bandwidth that a system should sustain on scientific applications with the same amount of workload per core. In addition to using these benchmarks, we also use a weak-scaling hybrid MPI/OpenMP large-scale scientific application: Gyro kinetic Toroidal Code in magnetic fusion to validate our performance model of the hybrid application on these multicore clusters. The validation results for our performance modeling method show less than 7.77% error rate in predicting the performance of hybrid MPI/OpenMP GTC on up to 512 cores on these multicore clusters. © 2011 IEEE.

Performance Modeling of Hybrid MPI/OpenMP Scientific Applications on Large-scale Multicore Cluster Systems

KAUST Repository

Wu, Xingfu

2011-08-01

In this paper, we present a performance modeling framework based on memory bandwidth contention time and a parameterized communication model to predict the performance of OpenMP, MPI and hybrid applications with weak scaling on three large-scale multicore clusters: IBM POWER4, POWER5+ and Blue Gene/P, and analyze the performance of these MPI, OpenMP and hybrid applications. We use STREAM memory benchmarks to provide initial performance analysis and model validation of MPI and OpenMP applications on these multicore clusters because the measured sustained memory bandwidth can provide insight into the memory bandwidth that a system should sustain on scientific applications with the same amount of workload per core. In addition to using these benchmarks, we also use a weak-scaling hybrid MPI/OpenMP large-scale scientific application: Gyro kinetic Toroidal Code in magnetic fusion to validate our performance model of the hybrid application on these multicore clusters. The validation results for our performance modeling method show less than 7.77% error rate in predicting the performance of hybrid MPI/OpenMP GTC on up to 512 cores on these multicore clusters. © 2011 IEEE.

El problema de la barrera linguistica en el desarrollo cientifico y tecnologico (The Problem of the Language Barrier in Scientific and Technological Development).

Science.gov (United States)

Zierer, Ernesto

This monograph discusses the problem of the language barrier in scientific and technological development in terms of several parameters describing the flow of scientific information from one language to another. The numerical values of the language barrier parameters of the model are calculated in the field of information on second language…

Proceedings of 6. international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2006: Ecological problems of XXI century'. Pt. 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Okeanov, A.E.; Poznyak, S.S.

2006-05-01

The second part of proceedings of the sixth international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2006: Ecological problems of XXI century', which was held in the International A. Sakharov environmental university, contents materials on topics: radioecology, environmental monitoring, information systems and technologies in ecology, ecological priority energy engineering, ecological management and ecological education. The proceedings are intended for specialists in field of ecology and related sciences, teachers, students and post-graduate students. (authors)

Sakharov readings 2014: environmental problems of the XXI century. Proceedings of the 14th international scientific conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dunaj, V.I.; Poznyak, S.S.; Lysukho, N.A.

2014-05-01

The proceeding includes materials of reports of 14-th international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2014: Environmental problems of XXI century', which took place 29-30 of May 2014 in the International A. Sakharov Environmental University (Minsk, Belarus). The proceeding continues abstracts about social-ecological, ecology-ethical and pedagogical problems in light of the Sakharov' ideas; medical ecology; biological ecology; biomonitoring, bioindication and bioremediation; radioecology and radiation protection; information systems and technologies in ecology and medicine; ecological monitoring, management and audit; renewable energy sources and energy efficiency; climate change and sustainable development; regional ecological problems. Materials of the conference intend on wide area of the specialists in ecology and adjacent sciences, teachers, post-graduate students and students of universities and colleges. (authors)

Sakharov readings 2010: Environmental problems of the XXI century. Proceedings of the 10 international scientific conference. Part 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Mel'nov, S.B.; Poznyak, S.S.

2010-05-01

Proceeding includes materials of reports of 10-ts international scientific conference. Part 1e 'Sakharov readings 2010: Environmental problems of XXI century', which took place 20-21 of May 2010 in the International Sakharov Environmental University. The first part of the proceedings continues abstracts about social-ecological and ecology-ethical problems, medical ecology, biological ecology, biomonitoring, bioindication and bioremediation. Materials of the conference intend on wide area of the specialists in ecology and adjacent sciences, teachers, post-graduate students and students of universities and colleges.

On the role of individual human abilities in the design of adaptive user interfaces for scientific problem solving environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zudilova-Seinstra, E.V.

2007-01-01

A scientific problem solving environment should be built in such a way that users (scientists) might exploit underlying technologies without a specialised knowledge about available tools and resources. An adaptive user interface can be considered as an opportunity in addressing this challenge. This

Linux software for large topology optimization problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

evolving product, which allows a parallel solution of the PDE, it lacks the important feature that the matrix-generation part of the computations is localized to each processor. This is well-known to be critical for obtaining a useful speedup on a Linux cluster and it motivates the search for a COMSOL......-like package for large topology optimization problems. One candidate for such software is developed for Linux by Sandia Nat’l Lab in the USA being the Sundance system. Sundance also uses a symbolic representation of the PDE and a scalable numerical solution is achieved by employing the underlying Trilinos...

Genesis of scientific research of legal problems of reserves

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Олександр Олександрович Пономаренко

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The problems of the legal status of nature reserves as objects of ecological and legal commandment are considered. One of the main directions of the modern strategy of Ukraine’s environmental policy should be the implementation of international standards in the organization and protection of nature reserves as objects of the state natural reserve fund, the improvement of legislation on the nature reserve fund in accordance with the recommendations of the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (1995 on the formation of the Pan-European Ecological Network as a single spatial system of territories of European countries with the EU or partially altered landscape. All this allowed to formulate the definition of a natural reserve as a state research institution with the status of a legal entity of national importance and performs the functions of preserving in a natural state typical or unique for the given landscape zone of natural complexes with all components of their components, the study of natural processes and phenomena, the developments in them, the development of scientific principles of environmental protection, the effective use of natural resources and environmental safety, the implementation of ecological education and education of the population in the conditions of full restriction of economic activity not connected with its functioning.

Popularization of science and scientific journalism: possibilities of scientific literacy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alessandro Augusto Barros Façanha

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This study evidences the intersection between science education and communication in the perspective of the popularization of sciences based on the evidence produced in a specific column of a large circulation newspaper of the city of Teresina / PI. The discussions were based on the analysis of content carried out in the context of science classes in a school of basic education with elementary students, where journalistic texts were used with diverse themes that involved science and daily life in order to understand the interpretation of texts And the relationship with the context of scientific dissemination and citizenship. The analysis of the content was used and the answers were stratified into categories of conceptual nature and application of the themes. The analyses show that the texts of scientific dissemination have a contribution in relation to the popularization of Sciences, fomentation to the debate in the classroom, didactic increment in the classes of sciences, in spite of their insertion still incipient in the context of science education. However, the results of the research denote the difficulty faced by the students in understanding the text of dissemination in their conceptual comprehension and resolution of daily problems, as well as the distance between the context of the sciences in their theoretical scope and their presentation in everyday situations, Despite this, the texts of divulgation corroborated as an important way of real insertion in the process of scientific literacy and promotion of citizenship.

Sakharov readings 2010: Environmental problems of the XXI century. Proceedings of the 10 international scientific conference. Part 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Mel'nov, S.B.; Poznyak, S.S.

2010-05-01

Proceeding includes materials of reports of 10-ts international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2010: Environmental problems of XXI century', which took place 20-21 of May 2010 in the International Sakharov Environmental University. The second part of the proceedings continues abstracts about radioecology and radiation security; ecological informational systems and technologies; ecological monitoring, management and audit; resumption sources of energy and energy-saving technologies; problems of ecological education. Materials of the conference intend on wide area of the specialists in ecology and adjacent sciences, teachers, post-graduate students and students of universities and colleges. (authors)

Proceedings of 5. international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2005: Ecological problems of XXI century'. Pt. 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundas, S.P.; Okeanov, A.E.; Shevchuk, V.E.

2005-05-01

The first part of proceedings of the fifth international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2005: Ecological problems of XXI century', which was held in the International A. Sakharov Environmental University, contents materials on topics: radioecology, ecological and radiation monitoring, new information systems and technologies in ecology, priority ecological power engineering, management in ecology, ecological education. The proceedings are intended for specialists in field of ecology and related sciences, dosimetry, engineers, teachers, students and post-graduate students

Why is risk communication hardly applied in Japan? Psychological problem of scientific experts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kosugi, Motoko; Tsuchiya, Tomoko; Taniguchi, Taketoshi

2000-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problems that impair to communicate about technological risks with the public in Japan, especially focusing on views of experts as a supplier of risk information. In this study, we also clarified through the questionnaire surveys that there were significant differences of risk perception and of information environment about science and technology between the public and scientific experts, as many previous studies showed. And most important fact is that experts perceive the difference in risk perception between the public and experts larger than the public does. We conclude that this experts' cognition impedes to take a first step toward communicating with the public about technological risks. (author)

The interaction problems between large and small business in modern conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Belyaev Mikhail

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The development of market relations, changes of the conditions in the business environment encourage the enterprises to look for new management methods and to improve forms of interaction. In this regard, the identification of the interaction of large and small businesses, as well as the evaluation of their relation development seems important and urgent problem in modern conditions. The purpose of the survey – the study of the interaction of large and small businesses, as well as the evaluation of the relations between them. The study was conducted on the basis of a comprehensive and systematic approach in which methods of comparative, retrospective, statistical, mathematical analysis are used. In accordance with the purpose there are identified the prerequisites for the development of large and small businesses, features and their functioning problems, and the links between them. The most common form of interaction of large and small enterprises were identified - outsourcing, franchising, leasing, subcontracting, venture financing, the establishment of regional cooperation forms of large and small businesses. However, the cooperative processes of large and small business in Russia developed are not enough today.The authors identified factors that impede the growth of Russian production, offered recommendations for the development of large and small businesses, justified the state's role in this process. In addition, they described the mechanism of state support of small business, including organizational, financial, information and consulting components.

Parallel Optimization of Polynomials for Large-scale Problems in Stability and Control

Science.gov (United States)

Kamyar, Reza

In this thesis, we focus on some of the NP-hard problems in control theory. Thanks to the converse Lyapunov theory, these problems can often be modeled as optimization over polynomials. To avoid the problem of intractability, we establish a trade off between accuracy and complexity. In particular, we develop a sequence of tractable optimization problems --- in the form of Linear Programs (LPs) and/or Semi-Definite Programs (SDPs) --- whose solutions converge to the exact solution of the NP-hard problem. However, the computational and memory complexity of these LPs and SDPs grow exponentially with the progress of the sequence - meaning that improving the accuracy of the solutions requires solving SDPs with tens of thousands of decision variables and constraints. Setting up and solving such problems is a significant challenge. The existing optimization algorithms and software are only designed to use desktop computers or small cluster computers --- machines which do not have sufficient memory for solving such large SDPs. Moreover, the speed-up of these algorithms does not scale beyond dozens of processors. This in fact is the reason we seek parallel algorithms for setting-up and solving large SDPs on large cluster- and/or super-computers. We propose parallel algorithms for stability analysis of two classes of systems: 1) Linear systems with a large number of uncertain parameters; 2) Nonlinear systems defined by polynomial vector fields. First, we develop a distributed parallel algorithm which applies Polya's and/or Handelman's theorems to some variants of parameter-dependent Lyapunov inequalities with parameters defined over the standard simplex. The result is a sequence of SDPs which possess a block-diagonal structure. We then develop a parallel SDP solver which exploits this structure in order to map the computation, memory and communication to a distributed parallel environment. Numerical tests on a supercomputer demonstrate the ability of the algorithm to

Developing a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum for professionalism and scientific integrity training for biomedical graduate students.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Nancy L; Peiffer, Ann M; Lambros, Ann; Guthold, Martin; Johnson, A Daniel; Tytell, Michael; Ronca, April E; Eldridge, J Charles

2010-10-01

A multidisciplinary faculty committee designed a curriculum to shape biomedical graduate students into researchers with a high commitment to professionalism and social responsibility and to provide students with tools to navigate complex, rapidly evolving academic and societal environments with a strong ethical commitment. The curriculum used problem-based learning (PBL), because it is active and learner-centred and focuses on skill and process development. Two courses were developed: Scientific Professionalism: Scientific Integrity addressed discipline-specific and broad professional norms and obligations for the ethical practice of science and responsible conduct of research (RCR). Scientific Professionalism: Bioethics and Social Responsibility focused on current ethical and bioethical issues within the scientific profession, and implications of research for society. Each small-group session examined case scenarios that included: (1) learning objectives for professional norms and obligations; (2) key ethical issues and philosophies within each topic area; (3) one or more of the RCR instructional areas; and (4) at least one type of moral reflection. Cases emphasised professional standards, obligations and underlying philosophies for the ethical practice of science, competing interests of stakeholders and oversight of science (internal and external). To our knowledge, this is the first use of a longitudinal, multi-semester PBL course to teach scientific integrity and professionalism. Both faculty and students endorsed the active learning approach for these topics, in contrast to a compliance-based approach that emphasises learning rules and regulations.

nanoHUB.org: Experiences and Challenges in Software Sustainability for a Large Scientific Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lynn Zentner

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The science gateway nanoHUB.org, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF, serves a large scientific community dedicated to research and education in nanotechnology with community-contributed simulation codes as well as a vast repository of other materials such as recorded presentations, teaching materials, and workshops and courses. Nearly 330,000 users annually access over 4400 items of content on nanoHUB, including 343 simulation tools. Arguably the largest nanotechnology facility in the world, nanoHUB has led the way not only in providing open access to scientific code in the nanotechnology community, but also in lowering barriers to the use of that code, by providing a platform where developers are able to easily and quickly deploy code written in a variety of languages with user-friendly graphical user interfaces and where users can run the latest versions of codes transparently on the grid or other powerful resources without ever having to download or update code. Being a leader in open access code deployment provides nanoHUB with opportunities and challenges as it meets the current and future needs of its community. This paper discusses the experiences of nanoHUB in addressing and adapting to the changing landscape of scientific software in ways that best serve its community and meet the needs of the largest portion of its user base.

Accelerating scientific discovery : 2007 annual report.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beckman, P.; Dave, P.; Drugan, C.

2008-11-14

As a gateway for scientific discovery, the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) works hand in hand with the world's best computational scientists to advance research in a diverse span of scientific domains, ranging from chemistry, applied mathematics, and materials science to engineering physics and life sciences. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science, researchers are using the IBM Blue Gene/L supercomputer at the ALCF to study and explore key scientific problems that underlie important challenges facing our society. For instance, a research team at the University of California-San Diego/ SDSC is studying the molecular basis of Parkinson's disease. The researchers plan to use the knowledge they gain to discover new drugs to treat the disease and to identify risk factors for other diseases that are equally prevalent. Likewise, scientists from Pratt & Whitney are using the Blue Gene to understand the complex processes within aircraft engines. Expanding our understanding of jet engine combustors is the secret to improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. Lessons learned from the scientific simulations of jet engine combustors have already led Pratt & Whitney to newer designs with unprecedented reductions in emissions, noise, and cost of ownership. ALCF staff members provide in-depth expertise and assistance to those using the Blue Gene/L and optimizing user applications. Both the Catalyst and Applications Performance Engineering and Data Analytics (APEDA) teams support the users projects. In addition to working with scientists running experiments on the Blue Gene/L, we have become a nexus for the broader global community. In partnership with the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, we have created an environment where the world's most challenging computational science problems can be addressed. Our expertise in high-end scientific computing enables us to provide

IYPT problems teach high school students about teamwork and the scientific method

Science.gov (United States)

Kochanski, K.; Klishin, A.

2015-12-01

Laboratory work is often STEM students' primary exposure to key creative and communicative skills in the sciences, including experimental design, trouble shooting, team work, and oral presentations. The International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT) teaches these skills by inviting high school students to investigate simple unsolved systems instead of reproducing familiar results. Students work in teams to form hypotheses, gather data, and present their results orally in a tournament format. The IYPT has published 17 questions yearly since 1988, and its archives are an efficient source of experimental problems for outreach programs and have also been used for first-year undergraduate project classes (Planisic, 2009). We present insights and outcomes from two schools in which we introduced a new extracurricular program based on the IYPT model. Twenty-four students worked in small teams for three hours per day for six weeks. Surprisingly, most teams chose problems in unfamiliar subject areas such as fluid dynamics, and tailored their approaches to take advantage of individual skills including soldering, photography, and theoretical analysis. As the program progressed, students developed an increasingly intuitive understanding of the scientific method. They began to discuss the repeatability of their experiments without prompting, and were increasingly willing to describe alternative hypotheses.

A note on solving large-scale zero-one programming problems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Adema, Jos J.

1988-01-01

A heuristic for solving large-scale zero-one programming problems is provided. The heuristic is based on the modifications made by H. Crowder et al. (1983) to the standard branch-and-bound strategy. First, the initialization is modified. The modification is only useful if the objective function

Report from the 5th Workshop on Extremely Large Databases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacek Becla

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The 5th XLDB workshop brought together scientific and industrial users, developers, and researchers of extremely large data and focused on emerging challenges in the healthcare and genomics communities, spreadsheet-based large scale analysis, and challenges in applying statistics to large scale analysis, including machine learning. Major problems discussed were the lack of scalable applications, the lack of expertise in developing solutions, the lack of respect for or attention to big data problems, data volume growth exceeding Moore's Law, poorly scaling algorithms, and poor data quality and integration. More communication between users, developers, and researchers is sorely needed. A variety of future work to help all three groups was discussed, ranging from collecting challenge problems to connecting with particular industrial or academic sectors.

Proceedings of 1.International scientific and technological conference 'Modern problems of geophysics, geology, development, processing and use of Kazakhstan hydrocarbon raw materials'. v. 1-2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

Proceedings of reports presented on 1.International scientific and technological conference 'Modern problems of geophysics, geology, development, processing and use of Kazakhstan hydrocarbon raw materials', devoted to the 20th anniversary of the Atyrau Institute of Oil and Gas (Atyrau, 2000, 18-19 December) are published in 2 volumes. The problems and new methods for prediction of oil and gas as well as different resources in both the coastal lands and the shelf of the Caspian Sea are considered. Scientific problems of drilling and repair of oil and gas wells are highlighted. Results of fundamental and applied studies on problems of oil and oil products processing, its transportation through pipelines with taking into account rheological and physico-chemical properties of oils mining on western fields of the Republic are cited. The points of ecological safety guarantee, reliability of mechanisms and machines operation and others problems are widely discussed

Scientific provision of the problems of overcoming the Chernobyl catastrophe consequences. Chapter 7

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konoplya, E.F.; Rolevich, I.V.; Gurachevskij, V.L.; Poplyko, I.Ya.; Semeshko, A.V.

1998-01-01

At present in the Republic of Belarus the research works on the problems of overcoming of the Chernobyl accident consequences are carried out in the following directions: radiation protection of the population; health of the population affected by the Chernobyl NPP accident; complex radiation-ecological estimation of the environment and conditions of the life activity of the population; rehabilitation of the contaminated territories; instrumental and methodical provision of the radiation control. The experience of the scientific approach to the decision of wide-scale and multiple-discipline tasks of overcoming of the Chernobyl accident consequences promotes for transformation of separate knowledge about radiation safety in holistic conception of safety and protection of the population in emergency caused by industrial accidents, catastrophes, natural disasters

Background problem for a large solid angle, high sensitivity detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, M.

1977-01-01

With extremely good vacuum (10 -11 to 10 -13 torr) and well controlled beams, the ISR has a good reputation for clean beam conditions and low background for most types of experiments. However, for a detector covering a large solid angle, measuring processes with small cross sections (approximately 10 -38 cm 2 ) there are serious background problems which took almost a year to solve. Since ISABELLE may have similar problems, a summary is given of experience at the ISR with the hope that some of the solutions can be installed in ISABELLE at an early stage

Scientific perspectives on music therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Hillecke, Thomas; Nickel, Anne; Bolay, Hans Volker

2005-12-01

What needs to be done on the long road to evidence-based music therapy? First of all, an adequate research strategy is required. For this purpose the general methodology for therapy research should be adopted. Additionally, music therapy needs a variety of methods of allied fields to contribute scientific findings, including mathematics, natural sciences, behavioral and social sciences, as well as the arts. Pluralism seems necessary as well as inevitable. At least two major research problems can be identified, however, that make the path stony: the problem of specificity and the problem of eclecticism. Neuroscientific research in music is giving rise to new ideas, perspectives, and methods; they seem to be promising prospects for a possible contribution to a theoretical and empirical scientific foundation for music therapy. Despite the huge heterogeneity of theoretical approaches in music therapy, an integrative model of working ingredients in music therapy is useful as a starting point for empirical studies in order to question what specifically works in music therapy. For this purpose, a heuristic model, consisting of five music therapy working factors (attention modulation, emotion modulation, cognition modulation, behavior modulation, and communication modulation) has been developed by the Center for Music Therapy Research (Viktor Dulger Institute) in Heidelberg. Evidence shows the effectiveness of music therapy for treating certain diseases, but the question of what it is in music therapy that works remains largely unanswered. The authors conclude with some questions to neuroscientists, which we hope may help elucidate relevant aspects of a possible link between the two disciplines.

Scientific and technical conference. Problems and horizons of development of chemical and radiochemical control in nuclear energetics. Collection of summaries of reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

During scientific and technical conference on problems of development of chemical and radiochemical control in nuclear energetics following themes were considered: the problems of methodological and instrumental assurance of chemical and radiochemical control at working nuclear power plants and nuclear energetic units; modern conceptions of automation systems construction of chemical and radiochemical control on the basis of intellectual measuring channels; the ways of decision of generally system problems of organization and management of chemical and radiochemical control using computed technologies; the problems of certification of chemical and radiochemical methods of measuring in nuclear energetics [ru

DORT and TORT workshop -- Outline for presentation for performance issues for large problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnett, A.

1998-04-01

This paper addresses the problem of running large TORT programs. The problem being a limited amount of time per job and limited amount of memory and disk space. The solution that the author outlines here is to break up the TORT run in time and space. For the time problem run multiple, sequential, dependent jobs. For the space problem use TORT internal memory conservation features. TORT is a three-dimensional discrete ordinates neutron/photon transport code

A Science-Technology-Society Paradigm and Cross River State Secondary School Students' Scientific Literacy: Problem Solving and Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Umoren, Grace

2007-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Science-Technology-Society (STS) curriculum on students' scientific literacy, problem solving and decision making. Four hundred and eighty (480) Senior Secondary two science and non-science students were randomly selected from intact classes in six secondary schools in Calabar Municipality of…

A decomposition heuristics based on multi-bottleneck machines for large-scale job shop scheduling problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yingni Zhai

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Purpose: A decomposition heuristics based on multi-bottleneck machines for large-scale job shop scheduling problems (JSP is proposed.Design/methodology/approach: In the algorithm, a number of sub-problems are constructed by iteratively decomposing the large-scale JSP according to the process route of each job. And then the solution of the large-scale JSP can be obtained by iteratively solving the sub-problems. In order to improve the sub-problems' solving efficiency and the solution quality, a detection method for multi-bottleneck machines based on critical path is proposed. Therewith the unscheduled operations can be decomposed into bottleneck operations and non-bottleneck operations. According to the principle of “Bottleneck leads the performance of the whole manufacturing system” in TOC (Theory Of Constraints, the bottleneck operations are scheduled by genetic algorithm for high solution quality, and the non-bottleneck operations are scheduled by dispatching rules for the improvement of the solving efficiency.Findings: In the process of the sub-problems' construction, partial operations in the previous scheduled sub-problem are divided into the successive sub-problem for re-optimization. This strategy can improve the solution quality of the algorithm. In the process of solving the sub-problems, the strategy that evaluating the chromosome's fitness by predicting the global scheduling objective value can improve the solution quality.Research limitations/implications: In this research, there are some assumptions which reduce the complexity of the large-scale scheduling problem. They are as follows: The processing route of each job is predetermined, and the processing time of each operation is fixed. There is no machine breakdown, and no preemption of the operations is allowed. The assumptions should be considered if the algorithm is used in the actual job shop.Originality/value: The research provides an efficient scheduling method for the

SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM: FEATURES AND TRENDS IN PEDAGOGIC RESEARCH / RASGOS Y TENDENCIAS DEL PROBLEMA CIENTÍFICO EN LA INVESTIGACIÓN PEDAGÓGICA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yaritza Tardo Fernández

2012-12-01

Full Text Available An analysis of the main historical trends in the elaboration of the scientific problem in the pedagogic investigation is carried out starting from assuming and systematizing the features distinguished taking into account some examples of doctoral thesis defended in the field of the Pedagogic Sciences, what allows to reveal their behavior and development as expression of its own transformations in the logic of the scientific thought in a certain moment, as a didactic attempt to contribute to the process of the investigators' formation.

Nuclear EMP simulation for large-scale urban environments. FDTD for electrically large problems.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, William S. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Bull, Jeffrey S. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Wilcox, Trevor [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Bos, Randall J. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Shao, Xuan-Min [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Goorley, John T. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Costigan, Keeley R. [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2012-08-13

In case of a terrorist nuclear attack in a metropolitan area, EMP measurement could provide: (1) a prompt confirmation of the nature of the explosion (chemical or nuclear) for emergency response; and (2) and characterization parameters of the device (reaction history, yield) for technical forensics. However, urban environment could affect the fidelity of the prompt EMP measurement (as well as all other types of prompt measurement): (1) Nuclear EMP wavefront would no longer be coherent, due to incoherent production, attenuation, and propagation of gamma and electrons; and (2) EMP propagation from source region outward would undergo complicated transmission, reflection, and diffraction processes. EMP simulation for electrically-large urban environment: (1) Coupled MCNP/FDTD (Finite-difference time domain Maxwell solver) approach; and (2) FDTD tends to be limited to problems that are not 'too' large compared to the wavelengths of interest because of numerical dispersion and anisotropy. We use a higher-order low-dispersion, isotropic FDTD algorithm for EMP propagation.

The Associative Basis of Scientific Creativity: A Model Proposal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esra Kanli

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Creativity is accepted as an important part of scientific skills. Scientific creativity proceeds from a need or urge to solve a problem, and in-volves the production of original and useful ideas or products. Existing scientific creativity theories and tests do not feature the very im-portant thinking processes, such as analogical and associative thinking, which can be consid-ered crucial in creative scientific problem solv-ing. Current study’s aim is to provide an alter-native model and explicate the associative basis of scientific creativity. Emerging from the re-viewed theoretical framework, Scientific Asso-ciations Model is proposed. This model claims that, similarity and mediation constitutes the basis of creativity and focuses on three compo-nents namely; associative thinking, analogical thinking (analogical reasoning & analogical problem solving and insight which are consid-ered to be main elements of scientific associa-tive thinking.

Solved problems in electrochemistry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Piron, D.L.

2004-01-01

This book presents calculated solutions to problems in fundamental and applied electrochemistry. It uses industrial data to illustrate scientific concepts and scientific knowledge to solve practical problems. It is subdivided into three parts. The first uses modern basic concepts, the second studies the scientific basis for electrode and electrolyte thermodynamics (including E-pH diagrams and the minimum energy involved in transformations) and the kinetics of rate processes (including the energy lost in heat and in parasite reactions). The third part treats larger problems in electrolysis and power generation, as well as in corrosion and its prevention. Each chapter includes three sections: the presentation of useful principles; some twenty problems with their solutions; and, a set of unsolved problems

The Cauchy problem for a model of immiscible gas flow with large data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sande, Hilde

2008-12-15

The thesis consists of an introduction and two papers; 1. The solution of the Cauchy problem with large data for a model of a mixture of gases. 2. Front tracking for a model of immiscible gas flow with large data. (AG) refs, figs

Manual for JSSL (JAERI Scientific Subroutine Library)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujimura, Toichiro; Tsutsui, Tsuneo

1991-09-01

JSSL (JAERI Scientific Subroutine Library) is a library of scientific subroutines developed or modified in JAERI. They are classified into sixteen fields (Special Functions, Linear Problems, Eigenvalue and Eigenvector Problems, Non Linear Problems, Mathematical Programming, Extreme Value Problems, Transformations, Functional Approximation Methods, Numerical Differential and Integral Methods, Numerical Differential and Integral Equations, Statistical Functions, Physical Problems, I/O Routines, Plotter Routines, Computer System Functions and Others). This report is the user manual for the revised version of JSSL which involves evaluated subroutines selected from the previous compilation of JSSL, applied in almost all the fields. (author)

Solving Large Scale Nonlinear Eigenvalue Problem in Next-Generation Accelerator Design

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liao, Ben-Shan; Bai, Zhaojun; /UC, Davis; Lee, Lie-Quan; Ko, Kwok; /SLAC

2006-09-28

A number of numerical methods, including inverse iteration, method of successive linear problem and nonlinear Arnoldi algorithm, are studied in this paper to solve a large scale nonlinear eigenvalue problem arising from finite element analysis of resonant frequencies and external Q{sub e} values of a waveguide loaded cavity in the next-generation accelerator design. They present a nonlinear Rayleigh-Ritz iterative projection algorithm, NRRIT in short and demonstrate that it is the most promising approach for a model scale cavity design. The NRRIT algorithm is an extension of the nonlinear Arnoldi algorithm due to Voss. Computational challenges of solving such a nonlinear eigenvalue problem for a full scale cavity design are outlined.

Research and assessment of competitiveness of large engineering complexes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krivorotov V.V.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The urgency of the problem of ensuring the competitiveness of manufacturing and high-tech sectors is shown. Substantiated the decisive role of the large industrial complexes in the formation of the results of the national economy; the author’s interpretation of the concept of “industrial complex” with regard to current economic systems. Current approaches to assessing the competitiveness of enterprises and industrial complexes are analyzed; showing their main advantages and disadvantages. Provides scientific-methodological approach to the study and management of competitiveness of a large industrial complex; the description of its main units is provided. As a Central element of the scientific methodology approach proposed the methodology for assessing the competitiveness of a large industrial complex based on the Pattern-method; a modular system of indicators of competitiveness is developed and its adaptation to a large engineering complexes is made. Using the developed methodology the competitiveness of one of the largest engineering complexes of the group of companies Uralelectrotyazhmash, which is the leading enterprises in electrotechnical industry of Russia is assessed. The evaluation identified the main problems and bottlenecks in the development of these enterprises, and their comparison with leading competitors is provided. According to the results of the study the main conclusions and recommendations are formed.

Scientific expertise from the inside: AFSSET Working Group on Radio-frequencies (2008-2009)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barthe, Yannick

2014-01-01

Although there is now a large amount of social science research on scientific expertise and expert groups, direct evidence by sociologists who themselves participated in scientific expert groups assessing controversial topics remain rare. This paper offers just this type of feedback. The aim is to analyse the production of scientific expert opinions based on personal experience: the author's participation as a sociologist in an expert committee set up by the former French Agency for the Safety of Health, the Environment and Work (AFSSET) on the topic of radio-frequencies. Several problematic aspects of these groups will thus be discussed from this concrete experience: the problem of the composition of the expert group, the issue of conflicts of interest, the organisation of the work within the group, the effects of the presence of an observer from an association, and the differences between performing scientific research and providing scientific expert opinions. (authors)

Trends in scientific publishing: Dark clouds loom large.

Science.gov (United States)

Vinny, Pulikottil Wilson; Vishnu, Venugopalan Y; Lal, Vivek

2016-04-15

The world wide web has brought about a paradigm shift in the way medical research is published and accessed. The ease with which a new journal can be started/hosted by publishing start-ups is unprecedented. The tremendous capabilities of the world wide web and the open access revolution when combined with a highly profitable business have attracted unscrupulous fraudulent operators to the publishing industry. The intent of these fraudulent publishers is solely driven by profit with utter disregard to scientific content, peer reviews and ethics. This phenomenon has been referred to as "predatory publishing". The "international" tag of such journals often betrays their true origins. The gold open access model of publishing, where the author pays the publisher, when coupled with a non-existent peer review threatens to blur the distinction between science and pseudoscience. The average researcher needs to be made more aware of this clear and present danger to the scientific community. Prevention is better than cure. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Paul Scherrer Institute Scientific and Technical Report 2000. Volume VI: Large Research Facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Foroughi, Fereydoun; Bercher, Renate; Buechli, Carmen; Zumkeller, Lotty

2001-01-01

The PSI Department Large Research Facilities (GFA) joins the efforts to provide an excellent research environment to Swiss and foreign research groups on the experimental facilities driven by our high intensity proton accelerator complex. Its divisions care for the running, maintenance and enhancement of the accelerator complex, the primary proton beamlines, the targets and the secondary beams as well as the neutron spallation source SINQ. The division for technical support and coordination provides for technical support to the research facility complementary to the basic logistic available from the department for logistics and marketing. Besides running the facilities, the staff of the department is also involved in theoretical and experimental research projects. Some of them address basic scientific questions mainly concerning the properties of micro- or nanostructured materials: experiments as well as large scale computer simulations of molecular dynamics were performed to investigate nonclassical materials properties. Others are related to improvements or extensions of the capabilities of our facilities. We also report on intriguing results from applications of the neutron capture radiography, the prompt gamma activation method and the isotope production facility at SINQ

Paul Scherrer Institute Scientific and Technical Report 2000. Volume VI: Large Research Facilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Foroughi, Fereydoun; Bercher, Renate; Buechli, Carmen; Zumkeller, Lotty [eds.

2001-07-01

The PSI Department Large Research Facilities (GFA) joins the efforts to provide an excellent research environment to Swiss and foreign research groups on the experimental facilities driven by our high intensity proton accelerator complex. Its divisions care for the running, maintenance and enhancement of the accelerator complex, the primary proton beamlines, the targets and the secondary beams as well as the neutron spallation source SINQ. The division for technical support and coordination provides for technical support to the research facility complementary to the basic logistic available from the department for logistics and marketing. Besides running the facilities, the staff of the department is also involved in theoretical and experimental research projects. Some of them address basic scientific questions mainly concerning the properties of micro- or nanostructured materials: experiments as well as large scale computer simulations of molecular dynamics were performed to investigate nonclassical materials properties. Others are related to improvements or extensions of the capabilities of our facilities. We also report on intriguing results from applications of the neutron capture radiography, the prompt gamma activation method and the isotope production facility at SINQ.

Improvement in Generic Problem-Solving Abilities of Students by Use of Tutor-less Problem-Based Learning in a Large Classroom Setting

Science.gov (United States)

Klegeris, Andis; Bahniwal, Manpreet; Hurren, Heather

2013-01-01

Problem-based learning (PBL) was originally introduced in medical education programs as a form of small-group learning, but its use has now spread to large undergraduate classrooms in various other disciplines. Introduction of new teaching techniques, including PBL-based methods, needs to be justified by demonstrating the benefits of such techniques over classical teaching styles. Previously, we demonstrated that introduction of tutor-less PBL in a large third-year biochemistry undergraduate class increased student satisfaction and attendance. The current study assessed the generic problem-solving abilities of students from the same class at the beginning and end of the term, and compared student scores with similar data obtained in three classes not using PBL. Two generic problem-solving tests of equal difficulty were administered such that students took different tests at the beginning and the end of the term. Blinded marking showed a statistically significant 13% increase in the test scores of the biochemistry students exposed to PBL, while no trend toward significant change in scores was observed in any of the control groups not using PBL. Our study is among the first to demonstrate that use of tutor-less PBL in a large classroom leads to statistically significant improvement in generic problem-solving skills of students. PMID:23463230

The Effect of Problem-Based Learning on Undergraduate Students' Learning about Solutions and Their Physical Properties and Scientific Processing Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Tosun, Cemal; Taskesenligil, Yavuz

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) on undergraduate students' learning about solutions and their physical properties, and on their scientific processing skills. The quasi experimental study was carried out through non-equivalent control and comparison groups pre-post test design. The data were…

Towards a Versatile Problem Diagnosis Infrastructure for LargeWireless Sensor Networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Iwanicki, Konrad; Steen, van Maarten

2007-01-01

In this position paper, we address the issue of durable maintenance of a wireless sensor network, which will be crucial if the vision of large, long-lived sensornets is to become reality. Durable maintenance requires tools for diagnosing and fixing occurring problems, which can range from

Testing Scientific Software: A Systematic Literature Review

Science.gov (United States)

Kanewala, Upulee; Bieman, James M.

2014-01-01

Context Scientific software plays an important role in critical decision making, for example making weather predictions based on climate models, and computation of evidence for research publications. Recently, scientists have had to retract publications due to errors caused by software faults. Systematic testing can identify such faults in code. Objective This study aims to identify specific challenges, proposed solutions, and unsolved problems faced when testing scientific software. Method We conducted a systematic literature survey to identify and analyze relevant literature. We identified 62 studies that provided relevant information about testing scientific software. Results We found that challenges faced when testing scientific software fall into two main categories: (1) testing challenges that occur due to characteristics of scientific software such as oracle problems and (2) testing challenges that occur due to cultural differences between scientists and the software engineering community such as viewing the code and the model that it implements as inseparable entities. In addition, we identified methods to potentially overcome these challenges and their limitations. Finally we describe unsolved challenges and how software engineering researchers and practitioners can help to overcome them. Conclusions Scientific software presents special challenges for testing. Specifically, cultural differences between scientist developers and software engineers, along with the characteristics of the scientific software make testing more difficult. Existing techniques such as code clone detection can help to improve the testing process. Software engineers should consider special challenges posed by scientific software such as oracle problems when developing testing techniques. PMID:25125798

Testing Scientific Software: A Systematic Literature Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanewala, Upulee; Bieman, James M

2014-10-01

Scientific software plays an important role in critical decision making, for example making weather predictions based on climate models, and computation of evidence for research publications. Recently, scientists have had to retract publications due to errors caused by software faults. Systematic testing can identify such faults in code. This study aims to identify specific challenges, proposed solutions, and unsolved problems faced when testing scientific software. We conducted a systematic literature survey to identify and analyze relevant literature. We identified 62 studies that provided relevant information about testing scientific software. We found that challenges faced when testing scientific software fall into two main categories: (1) testing challenges that occur due to characteristics of scientific software such as oracle problems and (2) testing challenges that occur due to cultural differences between scientists and the software engineering community such as viewing the code and the model that it implements as inseparable entities. In addition, we identified methods to potentially overcome these challenges and their limitations. Finally we describe unsolved challenges and how software engineering researchers and practitioners can help to overcome them. Scientific software presents special challenges for testing. Specifically, cultural differences between scientist developers and software engineers, along with the characteristics of the scientific software make testing more difficult. Existing techniques such as code clone detection can help to improve the testing process. Software engineers should consider special challenges posed by scientific software such as oracle problems when developing testing techniques.

Radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies for imaging and therapy: Potential, problems, and prospects: Scientific highlights

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Srivastava, S.C.; Buraggi, G.L.

1986-01-01

This meeting focused on areas of research on radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies. Topics covered included the production, purification, and fragmentation of monoclonal antibodies and immunochemistry of hybridomas; the production and the chemistry of radionuclides; the radiohalogenation and radiometal labeling techniques; the in-vivo pharmacokinetics of radiolabeled antibodies; the considerations of immunoreactivity of radiolabeled preparations; the instrumentation and imaging techniques as applied to radioimmunodetection; the radiation dosimetry in diagnostic and therapeutic use of labeled antibodies; the radioimmunoscintigraphy and radioimmunotherapy studies; and perspectives and directions for future research. Tutorial as well as scientific lectures describing the latest research data on the above topics were presented. Three workshop panels were convened on ''Methods for Determining Immunoreactivity of Radiolabeled Monoclonal Antibodies - Problems and Pitfalls,'' Radiobiological and Dosimetric Considerations for Immunotherapy with Labeled Antibodies,'' and ''The Human Anti-Mouse Antibody Response in Patients.''

Scientific rigor through videogames.

Science.gov (United States)

Treuille, Adrien; Das, Rhiju

2014-11-01

Hypothesis-driven experimentation - the scientific method - can be subverted by fraud, irreproducibility, and lack of rigorous predictive tests. A robust solution to these problems may be the 'massive open laboratory' model, recently embodied in the internet-scale videogame EteRNA. Deploying similar platforms throughout biology could enforce the scientific method more broadly. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

EvArnoldi: A New Algorithm for Large-Scale Eigenvalue Problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Tal-Ezer, Hillel

2016-05-19

Eigenvalues and eigenvectors are an essential theme in numerical linear algebra. Their study is mainly motivated by their high importance in a wide range of applications. Knowledge of eigenvalues is essential in quantum molecular science. Solutions of the Schrödinger equation for the electrons composing the molecule are the basis of electronic structure theory. Electronic eigenvalues compose the potential energy surfaces for nuclear motion. The eigenvectors allow calculation of diople transition matrix elements, the core of spectroscopy. The vibrational dynamics molecule also requires knowledge of the eigenvalues of the vibrational Hamiltonian. Typically in these problems, the dimension of Hilbert space is huge. Practically, only a small subset of eigenvalues is required. In this paper, we present a highly efficient algorithm, named EvArnoldi, for solving the large-scale eigenvalues problem. The algorithm, in its basic formulation, is mathematically equivalent to ARPACK ( Sorensen , D. C. Implicitly Restarted Arnoldi/Lanczos Methods for Large Scale Eigenvalue Calculations ; Springer , 1997 ; Lehoucq , R. B. ; Sorensen , D. C. SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications 1996 , 17 , 789 ; Calvetti , D. ; Reichel , L. ; Sorensen , D. C. Electronic Transactions on Numerical Analysis 1994 , 2 , 21 ) (or Eigs of Matlab) but significantly simpler.

Large radiative corrections to the effective potential and the gauge hierarchy problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sachrajda, C.T.C.

1982-01-01

We study the higher order corrections to the effective potential in a simple toy model and in the SU(5) grand unified theory, with a view to seeing what their effects are on the stability equations, and hence on the gauge hierarchy problem for these theories. These corrections contain powers of log (v 2 /h 2 ), where v and h are the large and small vacuum expectation values respectively, and hence cannot a priori be neglected. Nevertheless, after summing these large logarithms we find that the stability equations always contain two equations for v (i.e. these equations are independent of h) and hence can only be satisfied by a special (and hence unnatural) choice of parameters. This we claim is the precise statement of the gauge hierarchy problem. (orig.)

Design of a Generic and Flexible Data Structure for Efficient Formulation of Large Scale Network Problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Quaglia, Alberto; Sarup, Bent; Sin, Gürkan

2013-01-01

structure for efficient formulation of enterprise-wide optimization problems is presented. Through the integration of the described data structure in our synthesis and design framework, the problem formulation workflow is automated in a software tool, reducing time and resources needed to formulate large......The formulation of Enterprise-Wide Optimization (EWO) problems as mixed integer nonlinear programming requires collecting, consolidating and systematizing large amount of data, coming from different sources and specific to different disciplines. In this manuscript, a generic and flexible data...... problems, while ensuring at the same time data consistency and quality at the application stage....

Scientific developments ISFD3

Science.gov (United States)

Schropp, M.H.I.; Soong, T.W.

2006-01-01

Highlights, trends, and consensus from the 63 papers submitted to the Scientific Developments theme of the Third International Symposium on Flood Defence (ISFD) are presented. Realizing that absolute protection against flooding can never be guaranteed, trends in flood management have shifted: (1) from flood protection to flood-risk management, (2) from reinforcing structural protection to lowering flood levels, and (3) to sustainable management through integrated problem solving. Improved understanding of watershed responses, climate changes, applications of GIS and remote-sensing technologies, and advanced analytical tools appeared to be the driving forces for renewing flood-risk management strategies. Technical competence in integrating analytical tools to form the basin wide management systems are demonstrated by several large, transnation models. However, analyses from social-economic-environmental points of view are found lag in general. ?? 2006 Taylor & Francis Group.

A New Hybrid Approach for Augmented Reality Maintenance in Scientific Facilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Héctor Martínez

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Maintenance in scientific facilities is a difficult issue, especially in large and hazardous facilities, due to the complexity of tasks and equipment. Augmented reality is a technology that has already shown great promise in the maintenance field. With the help of augmented reality applications, maintenance tasks can be carried out faster and more safely. The problem with current applications is that they are small-scale prototypes that do not easily scale to large facility maintenance applications. This paper presents a new hybrid approach that enables the creation of augmented reality maintenance applications for large and hazardous scientific facilities. In this paper, a new augmented reality marker and the algorithm for its recognition is proposed. The performance of the algorithm is verified in three test cases, showing promising results in two of them. Improvements in robustness in the third test case in which the camera is moving quickly or when light conditions are extreme are subject to further studies. The proposed new approach will be integrated into an existing augmented reality maintenance system.

Wicked Problems in Large Organizations: Why Pilot Retention Continues to Challenge the Air Force

Science.gov (United States)

2017-05-25

solving complex problems even more challenging.10 This idea of complexity extends to another theoretical concept , the complex adaptive system, which... concept in order to avoid the pitfalls and dangers in group problem - solving .26 His ideas to mitigate potential groupthink place responsibility... Problems in Large Organizations: Why Pilot Retention Continues to Challenge the Air Force 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM

Twenty third scientific conference on research-scientific problems of constructing mine buildings and metallurgical plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Swiadrowski, W

1978-01-01

Annual conference was held in Krynica from 16-23 September 1977. One hundred and nineteen papers were delivered, of these 24 papers were on mine buildings. It was noted that damage caused by underground coal mining is prevalent and characterized by a tendency to increase. In the middle of the 1970s damages paid by mines (mainly by coal mines) reached 5 billion zlotys yearly. Damages which were not compensated, and social cost of mining damages are not included in the calculation. The following problems were discussed: interaction between foundations of buildings with ground in areas affected by deformations; influnce of underground coal mining on properties of soil; improving construction of large industrial plants located on grounds characterized by surface deformations; influence of underground coal mining on deformations of walls of sedimentation tanks; complex utilization of mined deposits in the Upper Silesian basin, Rybnik basin and in the Lublin black coal basin (coal and other minerals). (In Polish)

A novel artificial fish swarm algorithm for solving large-scale reliability-redundancy application problem.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Qiang; Hu, Xiangtao; Ren, Hong; Zhang, Hongqi

2015-11-01

A novel artificial fish swarm algorithm (NAFSA) is proposed for solving large-scale reliability-redundancy allocation problem (RAP). In NAFSA, the social behaviors of fish swarm are classified in three ways: foraging behavior, reproductive behavior, and random behavior. The foraging behavior designs two position-updating strategies. And, the selection and crossover operators are applied to define the reproductive ability of an artificial fish. For the random behavior, which is essentially a mutation strategy, the basic cloud generator is used as the mutation operator. Finally, numerical results of four benchmark problems and a large-scale RAP are reported and compared. NAFSA shows good performance in terms of computational accuracy and computational efficiency for large scale RAP. Copyright © 2015 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparing the performance of SIMD computers by running large air pollution models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brown, J.; Hansen, Per Christian; Wasniewski, J.

1996-01-01

To compare the performance and use of three massively parallel SIMD computers, we implemented a large air pollution model on these computers. Using a realistic large-scale model, we gained detailed insight about the performance of the computers involved when used to solve large-scale scientific...... problems that involve several types of numerical computations. The computers used in our study are the Connection Machines CM-200 and CM-5, and the MasPar MP-2216...

[Academician Li Lianda talking about doctors doing scientific research].

Science.gov (United States)

He, Ping; Li, Yi-kui

2015-09-01

At present, Chinese medical field faces with an important problem of how to correctly handle the relationship between medical and scientific research. Academician Li Lianda advocates doctors doing scientific research under the premise of putting the medical work first. He points out that there are many problems in the process of doctors doing scientific research at present such as paying more attention to scientific research than medical care, excessively promoting building scientific research hospital, only paying attention to training scientific talents, research direction be flashy without substance, the medical evaluation system should be improved and so on. Medical, scientific research and teaching are inseparable because improving medical standards depends on scientific research and personnel training. But not all doctors need to take into account of medical treatment, scientific research and teaching in the same degree while not all hospitals need to turn into three-in-one hospital, scientific research hospital or teaching hospital. It must be treated differently according to the actual situation.

About the 'scientification' of politics by way of scientific expertise by advisory bodies. Social science expertise and desicion-making in social problem areas in the Federal Republic of Germany

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wagner, P.

1985-01-01

Taking the examples of the Council of Economic Advisors, the Education Council and the Federal Parliament's Commission of Inquiry on Future Nuclear Energy Policy, this paper analyses political situations in the Federal Republic of Germany in which social science expertise entered public debate and decision-making in certain social problem areas in a very pronounced way. By considering the social context in which these advisory bodies were created, an attempt is made to link an analysis of different social actors' interests to a review of existing knowledge and patterns of interpretation in the social sciences. It is shown that by using social science findings some actors achieved advantages in justifying and legitimating their political positions and that subsequently the relations of actors in some arenas of conflict changed-without, however, allowing to relate this causally only to the use of scientific knowledge. If, however, the use of scientific arguments is rapidly generalized, the confrontation of expertise and counter-expertise by opposing actors becomes usual practice. This, in turn, provides for questions concerning their 'scientificity', which the social sciences are asked to take up in reflections of their relation to social practice. (orig./HSCH) [de

Hypothesis testing of scientific Monte Carlo calculations

Science.gov (United States)

Wallerberger, Markus; Gull, Emanuel

2017-11-01

The steadily increasing size of scientific Monte Carlo simulations and the desire for robust, correct, and reproducible results necessitates rigorous testing procedures for scientific simulations in order to detect numerical problems and programming bugs. However, the testing paradigms developed for deterministic algorithms have proven to be ill suited for stochastic algorithms. In this paper we demonstrate explicitly how the technique of statistical hypothesis testing, which is in wide use in other fields of science, can be used to devise automatic and reliable tests for Monte Carlo methods, and we show that these tests are able to detect some of the common problems encountered in stochastic scientific simulations. We argue that hypothesis testing should become part of the standard testing toolkit for scientific simulations.

Key scientific problems from Cosmic Ray History

Science.gov (United States)

Lev, Dorman

2016-07-01

Recently was published the monograph "Cosmic Ray History" by Lev Dorman and Irina Dorman (Nova Publishers, New York). What learn us and what key scientific problems formulated the Cosmic Ray History? 1. As many great discoveries, the phenomenon of cosmic rays was discovered accidentally, during investigations that sought to answer another question: what are sources of air ionization? This problem became interesting for science about 230 years ago in the end of the 18th century, when physics met with a problem of leakage of electrical charge from very good isolated bodies. 2. At the beginning of the 20th century, in connection with the discovery of natural radioactivity, it became apparent that this problem is mainly solved: it was widely accepted that the main source of the air ionization were α, b, and γ - radiations from radioactive substances in the ground (γ-radiation was considered as the most important cause because α- and b-radiations are rapidly absorbed in the air). 3. The general accepted wrong opinion on the ground radioactivity as main source of air ionization, stopped German meteorologist Franz Linke to made correct conclusion on the basis of correct measurements. In fact, he made 12 balloon flights in 1900-1903 during his PhD studies at Berlin University, carrying an electroscope to a height of 5500 m. The PhD Thesis was not published, but in Thesis he concludes: "Were one to compare the presented values with those on ground, one must say that at 1000 m altitude the ionization is smaller than on the ground, between 1 and 3 km the same amount, and above it is larger with values increasing up to a factor of 4 (at 5500 m). The uncertainties in the observations only allow the conclusion that the reason for the ionization has to be found first in the Earth." Nobody later quoted Franz Linke and although he had made the right measurements, he had reached the wrong conclusions, and the discovery of CR became only later on about 10 years. 4. Victor Hess, a

Fuzzy pictures as philosophical problem and scientific practice a study of visual vagueness

CERN Document Server

Cat, Jordi

2017-01-01

This book presents a comprehensive discussion on the characterization of vagueness in pictures. It reports on how the problem of representation of images has been approached in scientific practice, highlighting the role of mathematical methods and the philosophical background relevant for issues such as representation, categorization and reasoning. Without delving too much into the technical details, the book examines and defends different kinds of values of fuzziness based on a complex approach to categorization as a practice, adopting conceptual and empirical suggestions from different fields including the arts. It subsequently advances criticisms and provides suggestions for interpretation and application. By describing a cognitive framework based on fuzzy, rough and near sets, and discussing all of the relevant mathematical and philosophical theories for the representation and processing of vagueness in images, the book offers a practice-oriented guide to fuzzy visual reasoning, along with novel insights ...

The paradox of scientific expertise

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alrøe, Hugo Fjelsted; Noe, Egon

2011-01-01

Modern societies depend on a growing production of scientific knowledge, which is based on the functional differentiation of science into still more specialised scientific disciplines and subdisciplines. This is the basis for the paradox of scientific expertise: The growth of science leads to a f...... cross-disciplinary research and in the collective use of different kinds of scientific expertise, and thereby make society better able to solve complex, real-world problems.......Modern societies depend on a growing production of scientific knowledge, which is based on the functional differentiation of science into still more specialised scientific disciplines and subdisciplines. This is the basis for the paradox of scientific expertise: The growth of science leads...... to a fragmentation of scientific expertise. To resolve this paradox, the present paper investigates three hypotheses: 1) All scientific knowledge is perspectival. 2) The perspectival structure of science leads to specific forms of knowledge asymmetries. 3) Such perspectival knowledge asymmetries must be handled...

A Large Scale Problem Based Learning inter-European Student Satellite Construction Project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jens Frederik Dalsgaard; Alminde, Lars; Bisgaard, Morten

2006-01-01

that electronic communication technology was vital within the project. Additionally the SSETI EXPRESS project implied the following problems it didn’t fit to a standard semester - 18 months for the satellite project compared to 5/6 months for a “normal” semester project. difficulties in integrating the tasks......A LARGE SCALE PROBLEM BASED LEARNING INTER-EUROPEAN STUDENT SATELLITE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT This paper describes the pedagogical outcome of a large scale PBL experiment. ESA (European Space Agency) Education Office launched January 2004 an ambitious project: Let students from all over Europe build....... The satellite was successfully launched on October 27th 2005 (http://www.express.space.aau.dk). The project was a student driven project with student project responsibility adding at lot of international experiences and project management skills to the outcome of more traditional one semester, single group...

Improvement of Monte Carlo code A3MCNP for large-scale shielding problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyake, Y.; Ohmura, M.; Hasegawa, T.; Ueki, K.; Sato, O.; Haghighat, A.; Sjoden, G.E.

2004-01-01

A 3 MCNP (Automatic Adjoint Accelerated MCNP) is a revised version of the MCNP Monte Carlo code, that automatically prepares variance reduction parameters for the CADIS (Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling) methodology. Using a deterministic 'importance' (or adjoint) function, CADIS performs source and transport biasing within the weight-window technique. The current version of A 3 MCNP uses the 3-D Sn transport TORT code to determine a 3-D importance function distribution. Based on simulation of several real-life problems, it is demonstrated that A 3 MCNP provides precise calculation results with a remarkably short computation time by using the proper and objective variance reduction parameters. However, since the first version of A 3 MCNP provided only a point source configuration option for large-scale shielding problems, such as spent-fuel transport casks, a large amount of memory may be necessary to store enough points to properly represent the source. Hence, we have developed an improved version of A 3 MCNP (referred to as A 3 MCNPV) which has a volumetric source configuration option. This paper describes the successful use of A 3 MCNPV for a concrete cask streaming problem and a PWR dosimetry problem. (author)

Paradigm for new scientific technology; Shinkagaku gijutsu paradigm

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shindo, Y [National Chemical Lab. for Industry, Tokyo (Japan)

1995-01-05

This paper reviews the current status from the standpoint of chemical engineers facing the coming of the 21st century, and surveys the paradigm for new scientific technologies. The criticism is mixed with unique opinions everywhere, such as `departure of students from scientific and engineering faculties is none other than the result of a market principle`, `national burden of trillions of yens should not be spent only under a justice of advancement of the science`, and `the global civilization itself has no other way but to change from the conventional expansive development type of the western country style to the internal development type of the oriental country style`. Values that define the paradigm for new scientific technologies may include such keywords as saturation in technology, baseless expansion of research projects, criticism on science, market principle, and centering human being. It should be looked at seriously that profit from research and development should exceed the cast invested therein in the future, and scientific technologies that serve truly the society should be aimed at. These efforts will result in one of the large pillars that support the future in which creation of new functions is aimed at as a result of structuring the new systems. Trying to overcome the environmental problems is one of them.

Linking to Scientific Data: Identity Problems of Unruly and Poorly Bounded Digital Objects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Wynholds

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Within information systems, a significant aspect of search and retrieval across information objects, such as datasets, journal articles, or images, relies on the identity construction of the objects. This paper uses identity to refer to the qualities or characteristics of an information object that make it definable and recognizable, and can be used to distinguish it from other objects. Identity, in this context, can be seen as the foundation from which citations, metadata and identifiers are constructed.In recent years the idea of including datasets within the scientific record has been gaining significant momentum, with publishers, granting agencies and libraries engaging with the challenge. However, the task has been fraught with questions of best practice for establishing this infrastructure, especially in regards to how citations, metadata and identifiers should be constructed. These questions suggests a problem with how dataset identities are formed, such that an engagement with the definition of datasets as conceptual objects is warranted.This paper explores some of the ways in which scientific data is an unruly and poorly bounded object, and goes on to propose that in order for datasets to fulfill the roles expected for them, the following identity functions are essential for scholarly publications: (i the dataset is constructed as a semantically and logically concrete object, (ii the identity of the dataset is embedded, inherent and/or inseparable, (iii the identity embodies a framework of authorship, rights and limitations, and (iv the identity translates into an actionable mechanism for retrieval or reference.

Open scientific communication urged

Science.gov (United States)

Richman, Barbara T.

In a report released last week the National Academy of Sciences' Panel on Scientific Communication and National Security concluded that the ‘limited and uncertain benefits’ of controls on the dissemination of scientific and technological research are ‘outweighed by the importance of scientific progress, which open communication accelerates, to the overall welfare of the nation.’ The 18-member panel, chaired by Dale R. Corson, president emeritus of Cornell University, was created last spring (Eos, April 20, 1982, p. 241) to examine the delicate balance between open dissemination of scientific and technical information and the U.S. government's desire to protect scientific and technological achievements from being translated into military advantages for our political adversaries.The panel dealt almost exclusively with the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union but noted that there are ‘clear problems in scientific communication and national security involving Third World countries.’ Further study of this matter is necessary.

Numerical solution of large nonlinear boundary value problems by quadratic minimization techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glowinski, R.; Le Tallec, P.

1984-01-01

The objective of this paper is to describe the numerical treatment of large highly nonlinear two or three dimensional boundary value problems by quadratic minimization techniques. In all the different situations where these techniques were applied, the methodology remains the same and is organized as follows: 1) derive a variational formulation of the original boundary value problem, and approximate it by Galerkin methods; 2) transform this variational formulation into a quadratic minimization problem (least squares methods) or into a sequence of quadratic minimization problems (augmented lagrangian decomposition); 3) solve each quadratic minimization problem by a conjugate gradient method with preconditioning, the preconditioning matrix being sparse, positive definite, and fixed once for all in the iterative process. This paper will illustrate the methodology above on two different examples: the description of least squares solution methods and their application to the solution of the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible viscous fluids; the description of augmented lagrangian decomposition techniques and their application to the solution of equilibrium problems in finite elasticity

Decomposition and parallelization strategies for solving large-scale MDO problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grauer, M.; Eschenauer, H.A. [Research Center for Multidisciplinary Analyses and Applied Structural Optimization, FOMAAS, Univ. of Siegen (Germany)

2007-07-01

During previous years, structural optimization has been recognized as a useful tool within the discriptiones of engineering and economics. However, the optimization of large-scale systems or structures is impeded by an immense solution effort. This was the reason to start a joint research and development (R and D) project between the Institute of Mechanics and Control Engineering and the Information and Decision Sciences Institute within the Research Center for Multidisciplinary Analyses and Applied Structural Optimization (FOMAAS) on cluster computing for parallel and distributed solution of multidisciplinary optimization (MDO) problems based on the OpTiX-Workbench. Here the focus of attention will be put on coarsegrained parallelization and its implementation on clusters of workstations. A further point of emphasis was laid on the development of a parallel decomposition strategy called PARDEC, for the solution of very complex optimization problems which cannot be solved efficiently by sequential integrated optimization. The use of the OptiX-Workbench together with the FEM ground water simulation system FEFLOW is shown for a special water management problem. (orig.)

Epistemic beliefs of middle and high school students in a problem-based, scientific inquiry unit: An exploratory, mixed methods study

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Jiangyue

Epistemic beliefs are individuals' beliefs about the nature of knowledge, how knowledge is constructed, and how knowledge can be justified. This study employed a mixed-methods approach to examine: (a) middle and high school students' self-reported epistemic beliefs (quantitative) and epistemic beliefs revealed from practice (qualitative) during a problem-based, scientific inquiry unit, (b) How do middle and high school students' epistemic beliefs contribute to the construction of students' problem solving processes, and (c) how and why do students' epistemic beliefs change by engaging in PBL. Twenty-one middle and high school students participated in a summer science class to investigate local water quality in a 2-week long problem-based learning (PBL) unit. The students worked in small groups to conduct water quality tests at in their local watershed and visited several stakeholders for their investigation. Pretest and posttest versions of the Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire were conducted to assess students' self-reported epistemic beliefs before and after the unit. I videotaped and interviewed three groups of students during the unit and conducted discourse analysis to examine their epistemic beliefs revealed from scientific inquiry activities and triangulate with their self-reported data. There are three main findings from this study. First, students in this study self-reported relatively sophisticated epistemic beliefs on the pretest. However, the comparison between their self-reported beliefs and beliefs revealed from practice indicated that some students were able to apply sophisticated beliefs during the unit while others failed to do so. The inconsistency between these two types of epistemic beliefs may due to students' inadequate cognitive ability, low validity of self-report measure, and the influence of contextual factors. Second, qualitative analysis indicated that students' epistemic beliefs of the nature of knowing influenced their problem

Can scientific medicine incorporate alternative medicine?

Science.gov (United States)

Federspil, G; Vettor, R

2000-06-01

The authors examine the problem of defining alternative medicine, and after a brief analysis conclude that a satisfactory unifying definition of the different practices is not possible. Scientific knowledge is a function of scientific method. In turn the principle of falsifiability proposed by Karl Popper is used as a demarcation line between science and pseudoscience. They assert that the various alternative modalities do not represent authentic scientific disciplines, as they lack many of the minimum requirements of scientific discourse and, above all, because they violate the principle of falsifiability. Until they overcome these methodological shortcomings, alternative medical practices cannot become authentic scientific disciplines.

International scientific seminar «Chronicle of Nature – a common database for scientific analysis and joint planning of scientific publications»

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juri P. Kurhinen

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Provides information about the results of the international scienti fic seminar «Сhronicle of Nature – a common database for scientific analysis and joint planning of scientific publications», held at Findland-Russian project «Linking environmental change to biodiversity change: large scale analysis оf Eurasia ecosystem».

Learning biology through connecting mathematics to scientific mechanisms: Student outcomes and teacher supports

Science.gov (United States)

Schuchardt, Anita

Integrating mathematics into science classrooms has been part of the conversation in science education for a long time. However, studies on student learning after incorporating mathematics in to the science classroom have shown mixed results. Understanding the mixed effects of including mathematics in science has been hindered by a historical focus on characteristics of integration tangential to student learning (e.g., shared elements, extent of integration). A new framework is presented emphasizing the epistemic role of mathematics in science. An epistemic role of mathematics missing from the current literature is identified: use of mathematics to represent scientific mechanisms, Mechanism Connected Mathematics (MCM). Building on prior theoretical work, it is proposed that having students develop mathematical equations that represent scientific mechanisms could elevate their conceptual understanding and quantitative problem solving. Following design and implementation of an MCM unit in inheritance, a large-scale quantitative analysis of pre and post implementation test results showed MCM students, compared to traditionally instructed students) had significantly greater gains in conceptual understanding of mathematically modeled scientific mechanisms, and their ability to solve complex quantitative problems. To gain insight into the mechanism behind the gain in quantitative problem solving, a small-scale qualitative study was conducted of two contrasting groups: 1) within-MCM instruction: competent versus struggling problem solvers, and 2) within-competent problem solvers: MCM instructed versus traditionally instructed. Competent MCM students tended to connect their mathematical inscriptions to the scientific phenomenon and to switch between mathematical and scientifically productive approaches during problem solving in potentially productive ways. The other two groups did not. To address concerns about teacher capacity presenting barriers to scalability of MCM

An efficient method to handle the 'large p, small n' problem for ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

So-called 'large p small n' or 'short-fat data' problem can occur if the number of ... (SNPs) in GWAS based on the Haseman–Elston regression. (H–E) (DeFries 2010). ..... For instance, if a population is admixed or genetic heterogeneity, the ...

Didactical-Scientific Modeling: integrating experimental activities and the process of scientific modeling in the teaching of Physics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leonardo Albuquerque Heidemann

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The dissociated way with which the theory and practice are often treated in Physics teaching contributes to students' difficulties in using scientific knowledge to represent real events, which are not idealized situations as the events presented in most textbook problems. Considering that the process of scientific modeling is of fundamental importance for students to learn Science, about Science and how to do Science, Brandão, Araujo and Veit, supported by Vergnaud's Theory of Conceptual Fields and by Bunge's concept of scientific modeling, propose a theoretical-methodological framework for modeling in Physics Education named Didactical-Scientific Modeling (DSM. The authors defend the thesis that it is possible to consider the process of scientific modeling as a conceptual field underlying the specific conceptual fields of Physics. They elucidate knowledge associated to the facing of problems that involve the use, exploration and validation of didactical versions of scientific models. However, the goal of this framework is not to explain how the concepts related to empirical testability are connected to scientific modeling concepts. In order to fill this gap, we present in this article an expansion of this theoretical-methodological framework based on Bunge's concepts on contrasting scientific ideas. In this regard, we insert experimental work concepts in the conceptual field associated to the process of didactical-scientific modeling. Lastly, we exemplify its use in order to support the design and execution of experimental activities focused on the scientific-didactical process, and we also discuss some implications for future research in Physics Education.

Promoting access to and use of seismic data in a large scientific community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michel Eric

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The growing amount of seismic data available from space missions (SOHO, CoRoT, Kepler, SDO,… but also from ground-based facilities (GONG, BiSON, ground-based large programmes…, stellar modelling and numerical simulations, creates new scientific perspectives such as characterizing stellar populations in our Galaxy or planetary systems by providing model-independent global properties of stars such as mass, radius, and surface gravity within several percent accuracy, as well as constraints on the age. These applications address a broad scientific community beyond the solar and stellar one and require combining indices elaborated with data from different databases (e.g. seismic archives and ground-based spectroscopic surveys. It is thus a basic requirement to develop a simple and effcient access to these various data resources and dedicated tools. In the framework of the European project SpaceInn (FP7, several data sources have been developed or upgraded. The Seismic Plus Portal has been developed, where synthetic descriptions of the most relevant existing data sources can be found, as well as tools allowing to localize existing data for given objects or period and helping the data query. This project has been developed within the Virtual Observatory (VO framework. In this paper, we give a review of the various facilities and tools developed within this programme. The SpaceInn project (Exploitation of Space Data for Innovative Helio- and Asteroseismology has been initiated by the European Helio- and Asteroseismology Network (HELAS.

Is writing style predictive of scientific fraud?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Braud, Chloé Elodie; Søgaard, Anders

2017-01-01

The problem of detecting scientific fraud using machine learning was recently introduced, with initial, positive results from a model taking into account various general indicators. The results seem to suggest that writing style is predictive of scientific fraud. We revisit these initial experime......The problem of detecting scientific fraud using machine learning was recently introduced, with initial, positive results from a model taking into account various general indicators. The results seem to suggest that writing style is predictive of scientific fraud. We revisit these initial...... experiments, and show that the leave-one-out testing procedure they used likely leads to a slight over-estimate of the predictability, but also that simple models can outperform their proposed model by some margin. We go on to explore more abstract linguistic features, such as linguistic complexity...

Applying AN Object-Oriented Database Model to a Scientific Database Problem: Managing Experimental Data at Cebaf.

Science.gov (United States)

Ehlmann, Bryon K.

Current scientific experiments are often characterized by massive amounts of very complex data and the need for complex data analysis software. Object-oriented database (OODB) systems have the potential of improving the description of the structure and semantics of this data and of integrating the analysis software with the data. This dissertation results from research to enhance OODB functionality and methodology to support scientific databases (SDBs) and, more specifically, to support a nuclear physics experiments database for the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF). This research to date has identified a number of problems related to the practical application of OODB technology to the conceptual design of the CEBAF experiments database and other SDBs: the lack of a generally accepted OODB design methodology, the lack of a standard OODB model, the lack of a clear conceptual level in existing OODB models, and the limited support in existing OODB systems for many common object relationships inherent in SDBs. To address these problems, the dissertation describes an Object-Relationship Diagram (ORD) and an Object-oriented Database Definition Language (ODDL) that provide tools that allow SDB design and development to proceed systematically and independently of existing OODB systems. These tools define multi-level, conceptual data models for SDB design, which incorporate a simple notation for describing common types of relationships that occur in SDBs. ODDL allows these relationships and other desirable SDB capabilities to be supported by an extended OODB system. A conceptual model of the CEBAF experiments database is presented in terms of ORDs and the ODDL to demonstrate their functionality and use and provide a foundation for future development of experimental nuclear physics software using an OODB approach.

The multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) for solving large-scale computational electromagnetics problems

CERN Document Server

Ergul, Ozgur

2014-01-01

The Multilevel Fast Multipole Algorithm (MLFMA) for Solving Large-Scale Computational Electromagnetic Problems provides a detailed and instructional overview of implementing MLFMA. The book: Presents a comprehensive treatment of the MLFMA algorithm, including basic linear algebra concepts, recent developments on the parallel computation, and a number of application examplesCovers solutions of electromagnetic problems involving dielectric objects and perfectly-conducting objectsDiscusses applications including scattering from airborne targets, scattering from red

Problems of Chernobyl. Materials of International scientific and practical conference 'Shelter-98'; Problemi Chornobilya. Materyiali Myizhnarodnoyi Naukovo-Praktichnoyi Konferentsyiyi 'Ukrittya-98'

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Klyuchnikov, O O [eds.

1999-07-01

These transactions contain materials of International Scientific and Practical Conference 'Shelter-98', which was held 27-30 November 1998 in Slavutich. They describe the results of the research work of the specialists from Ukraine, neighborhood and far foreign counties. The results, targeted at solving the problems of converting the Shelter Object into oncologically safe state.

Performance Characteristics of Hybrid MPI/OpenMP Scientific Applications on a Large-Scale Multithreaded BlueGene/Q Supercomputer

KAUST Repository

Wu, Xingfu; Taylor, Valerie

2013-01-01

In this paper, we investigate the performance characteristics of five hybrid MPI/OpenMP scientific applications (two NAS Parallel benchmarks Multi-Zone SP-MZ and BT-MZ, an earthquake simulation PEQdyna, an aerospace application PMLB and a 3D particle-in-cell application GTC) on a large-scale multithreaded Blue Gene/Q supercomputer at Argonne National laboratory, and quantify the performance gap resulting from using different number of threads per node. We use performance tools and MPI profile and trace libraries available on the supercomputer to analyze and compare the performance of these hybrid scientific applications with increasing the number OpenMP threads per node, and find that increasing the number of threads to some extent saturates or worsens performance of these hybrid applications. For the strong-scaling hybrid scientific applications such as SP-MZ, BT-MZ, PEQdyna and PLMB, using 32 threads per node results in much better application efficiency than using 64 threads per node, and as increasing the number of threads per node, the FPU (Floating Point Unit) percentage decreases, and the MPI percentage (except PMLB) and IPC (Instructions per cycle) per core (except BT-MZ) increase. For the weak-scaling hybrid scientific application such as GTC, the performance trend (relative speedup) is very similar with increasing number of threads per node no matter how many nodes (32, 128, 512) are used. © 2013 IEEE.

Performance Characteristics of Hybrid MPI/OpenMP Scientific Applications on a Large-Scale Multithreaded BlueGene/Q Supercomputer

KAUST Repository

Wu, Xingfu

2013-07-01

In this paper, we investigate the performance characteristics of five hybrid MPI/OpenMP scientific applications (two NAS Parallel benchmarks Multi-Zone SP-MZ and BT-MZ, an earthquake simulation PEQdyna, an aerospace application PMLB and a 3D particle-in-cell application GTC) on a large-scale multithreaded Blue Gene/Q supercomputer at Argonne National laboratory, and quantify the performance gap resulting from using different number of threads per node. We use performance tools and MPI profile and trace libraries available on the supercomputer to analyze and compare the performance of these hybrid scientific applications with increasing the number OpenMP threads per node, and find that increasing the number of threads to some extent saturates or worsens performance of these hybrid applications. For the strong-scaling hybrid scientific applications such as SP-MZ, BT-MZ, PEQdyna and PLMB, using 32 threads per node results in much better application efficiency than using 64 threads per node, and as increasing the number of threads per node, the FPU (Floating Point Unit) percentage decreases, and the MPI percentage (except PMLB) and IPC (Instructions per cycle) per core (except BT-MZ) increase. For the weak-scaling hybrid scientific application such as GTC, the performance trend (relative speedup) is very similar with increasing number of threads per node no matter how many nodes (32, 128, 512) are used. © 2013 IEEE.

Big Data Challenges for Large Radio Arrays

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Dayton L.; Wagstaff, Kiri; Thompson, David; D'Addario, Larry; Navarro, Robert; Mattmann, Chris; Majid, Walid; Lazio, Joseph; Preston, Robert; Rebbapragada, Umaa

2012-01-01

Future large radio astronomy arrays, particularly the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), will be able to generate data at rates far higher than can be analyzed or stored affordably with current practices. This is, by definition, a "big data" problem, and requires an end-to-end solution if future radio arrays are to reach their full scientific potential. Similar data processing, transport, storage, and management challenges face next-generation facilities in many other fields.

Scientific Integrity and Professional Ethics at AGU - The Establishment and Evolution of an Ethics Program at a Large Scientific Society

Science.gov (United States)

McPhaden, Michael; Leinen, Margaret; McEntee, Christine; Townsend, Randy; Williams, Billy

2016-04-01

The American Geophysical Union, a scientific society of 62,000 members worldwide, has established a set of scientific integrity and professional ethics guidelines for the actions of its members, for the governance of the union in its internal activities, and for the operations and participation in its publications and scientific meetings. This presentation will provide an overview of the Ethics program at AGU, highlighting the reasons for its establishment, the process of dealing ethical breaches, the number and types of cases considered, how AGU helps educate its members on Ethics issues, and the rapidly evolving efforts at AGU to address issues related to the emerging field of GeoEthics. The presentation will also cover the most recent AGU Ethics program focus on the role for AGU and other scientific societies in addressing sexual harassment, and AGU's work to provide additional program strength in this area.

Problems of cleaning the large diameter sections of deep wells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Patsch, F; Gilicz, B

1966-01-01

In drilling deep wells, great importance is being given to the problem of cutting removal from the hole bottom of sections drilled by large diameter bits. The length of borehole sections drilled by 12-1/4-in. and larger bits has been more than doubled in Hungary in the course of the past 4 years. When the drilling fluid jet is struck against the borehole bottom, pressure waves are brought about which take on a crossed flow pattern and result in a retardation of cleaning of the well bottom, particularly in the case of larger bottom surfaces. In large diameter boreholes, the cleaning efficiency is being achieved by full utilization of the pump power and increased pump delivery. Friction losses in drill pipes are being reduced by using 6-in. XH pipes.

Queen's discovery lauded by top scientific journal

CERN Multimedia

McGrady, S

2002-01-01

A scientific breakthrough at Queen's University's Sudbury Neutrino Observatory has received major international recognition. The journal Science ranked the discovery that cracked the "neutrino problem" second, in the journal's top 10 scientific achievements of 2002 (1/2 page).

Accelerating the scientific exploration process with scientific workflows

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Altintas, Ilkay; Barney, Oscar; Cheng, Zhengang; Critchlow, Terence; Ludaescher, Bertram; Parker, Steve; Shoshani, Arie; Vouk, Mladen

2006-01-01

Although an increasing amount of middleware has emerged in the last few years to achieve remote data access, distributed job execution, and data management, orchestrating these technologies with minimal overhead still remains a difficult task for scientists. Scientific workflow systems improve this situation by creating interfaces to a variety of technologies and automating the execution and monitoring of the workflows. Workflow systems provide domain-independent customizable interfaces and tools that combine different tools and technologies along with efficient methods for using them. As simulations and experiments move into the petascale regime, the orchestration of long running data and compute intensive tasks is becoming a major requirement for the successful steering and completion of scientific investigations. A scientific workflow is the process of combining data and processes into a configurable, structured set of steps that implement semi-automated computational solutions of a scientific problem. Kepler is a cross-project collaboration, co-founded by the SciDAC Scientific Data Management (SDM) Center, whose purpose is to develop a domain-independent scientific workflow system. It provides a workflow environment in which scientists design and execute scientific workflows by specifying the desired sequence of computational actions and the appropriate data flow, including required data transformations, between these steps. Currently deployed workflows range from local analytical pipelines to distributed, high-performance and high-throughput applications, which can be both data- and compute-intensive. The scientific workflow approach offers a number of advantages over traditional scripting-based approaches, including ease of configuration, improved reusability and maintenance of workflows and components (called actors), automated provenance management, 'smart' re-running of different versions of workflow instances, on-the-fly updateable parameters, monitoring

An analysis of 12th-grade students' reasoning styles and competencies when presented with an environmental problem in a social and scientific context

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Fang-Ying

This study examined reasoning and problem solving by 182 12th grade students in Taiwan when considering a socio-scientific issue regarding the use of nuclear energy. Students' information preferences, background characteristics, and eleven everyday scientific thinking skills were scrutinized. It was found most participants displayed a willingness to take into account both scientific and social information in reasoning the merits of a proposed construction of a nuclear power plant. Students' reasoning scores obtained from the "information reasoning style" test ranged from -0.5 to 1.917. And, the distribution was approximately normal with mean and median at around 0.5. For the purpose of categorization, students whose scores were within one standard deviation from the mean were characterized as having a "equally disposed" reasoning style. One hundred and twenty-five subjects, about 69%, belonged to this category. Students with scores locating at the two tails of the distribution were assigned to either the "scientifically oriented" or the "socially oriented" reasoning category. Among 23 background characteristics investigated using questionnaire data and ANOVA statistical analysis, only students' science performance and knowledge about nuclear energy were statistically significantly related to their information reasoning styles (p religion, and the political party preference. For everyday scientific thinking skills, interview data showed that both "scientifically oriented" students and those who were categorized as "equally disposed to using scientific and social scientific sources of data" displayed higher frequencies than "socially oriented" ones in using these skills, except in the use of the "multidisciplinary thinking" skill. Among the 11 skills assessed, the "scientifically oriented" students outperformed the "equally disposed" ones only in the use of 3 thinking skills; namely, searching for or recalling scientific concepts/evidence, recognizing and evaluating

Extracting Core Claims from Scientific Articles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jansen, Tom; Kuhn, Tobias

2017-01-01

The number of scientific articles has grown rapidly over the years and there are no signs that this growth will slow down in the near future. Because of this, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with the latest developments in a scientific field. To address this problem, we present here an

Shaping a Scientific Self

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andrade-Molina, Melissa; Valero, Paola

us to understand how a truth is reproduced, circulating among diverse fields of human knowledge. Also it will show why we accept and reproduce a particular discourse. Finally, we state Euclidean geometry as a truth that circulates in scientific discourse and performs a scientific self. We unfold...... the importance of having students following the path of what schools perceive a real scientist is, no to become a scientist, but to become a logical thinker, a problem solver, a productive citizen who uses reason....

Solving a large-scale precedence constrained scheduling problem with elastic jobs using tabu search

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, C.R.; Rasmussen, R.V.; Andersen, Kim Allan

2007-01-01

This paper presents a solution method for minimizing makespan of a practical large-scale scheduling problem with elastic jobs. The jobs are processed on three servers and restricted by precedence constraints, time windows and capacity limitations. We derive a new method for approximating the server...... exploitation of the elastic jobs and solve the problem using a tabu search procedure. Finding an initial feasible solution is in general -complete, but the tabu search procedure includes a specialized heuristic for solving this problem. The solution method has proven to be very efficient and leads...

Proportional Reasoning: An Essential Component of Scientific Understanding

Science.gov (United States)

Hilton, Annette; Hilton, Geoff

2016-01-01

In many scientific contexts, students need to be able to use mathematical knowledge in order to engage in scientific reasoning and problem-solving, and their understanding of scientific concepts relies heavily on their ability to understand and use mathematics in often new or unfamiliar contexts. Not only do science students need high levels of…

Measuring scientific reasoning through behavioral analysis in a computer-based problem solving exercise

Science.gov (United States)

Mead, C.; Horodyskyj, L.; Buxner, S.; Semken, S. C.; Anbar, A. D.

2016-12-01

Developing scientific reasoning skills is a common learning objective for general-education science courses. However, effective assessments for such skills typically involve open-ended questions or tasks, which must be hand-scored and may not be usable online. Using computer-based learning environments, reasoning can be assessed automatically by analyzing student actions within the learning environment. We describe such an assessment under development and present pilot results. In our content-neutral instrument, students solve a problem by collecting and interpreting data in a logical, systematic manner. We then infer reasoning skill automatically based on student actions. Specifically, students investigate why Earth has seasons, a scientifically simple but commonly misunderstood topic. Students are given three possible explanations and asked to select a set of locations on a world map from which to collect temperature data. They then explain how the data support or refute each explanation. The best approaches will use locations in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres to argue that the contrasting seasonality of the hemispheres supports only the correct explanation. We administered a pilot version to students at the beginning of an online, introductory science course (n = 223) as an optional extra credit exercise. We were able to categorize students' data collection decisions as more and less logically sound. Students who choose the most logical measurement locations earned higher course grades, but not significantly higher. This result is encouraging, but not definitive. In the future, we will clarify our results in two ways. First, we plan to incorporate more open-ended interactions into the assessment to improve the resolving power of this tool. Second, to avoid relying on course grades, we will independently measure reasoning skill with one of the existing hand-scored assessments (e.g., Critical Thinking Assessment Test) to cross-validate our new

Introduction to scientific publishing backgrounds, concepts, strategies

CERN Document Server

Öchsner, Andreas

2013-01-01

This book is a very concise introduction to the basic knowledge of scientific publishing. It  starts with the basics of writing a scientific paper, and recalls the different types of scientific documents. In gives an overview on the major scientific publishing companies and different business models. The book also introduces to abstracting and indexing services and how they can be used for the evaluation of science, scientists, and institutions. Last but not least, this short book faces the problem of plagiarism and publication ethics.

Non-smooth optimization methods for large-scale problems: applications to mid-term power generation planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Emiel, G.

2008-01-01

This manuscript deals with large-scale non-smooth optimization that may typically arise when performing Lagrangian relaxation of difficult problems. This technique is commonly used to tackle mixed-integer linear programming - or large-scale convex problems. For example, a classical approach when dealing with power generation planning problems in a stochastic environment is to perform a Lagrangian relaxation of the coupling constraints of demand. In this approach, a master problem coordinates local subproblems, specific to each generation unit. The master problem deals with a separable non-smooth dual function which can be maximized with, for example, bundle algorithms. In chapter 2, we introduce basic tools of non-smooth analysis and some recent results regarding incremental or inexact instances of non-smooth algorithms. However, in some situations, the dual problem may still be very hard to solve. For instance, when the number of dualized constraints is very large (exponential in the dimension of the primal problem), explicit dualization may no longer be possible or the update of dual variables may fail. In order to reduce the dual dimension, different heuristics were proposed. They involve a separation procedure to dynamically select a restricted set of constraints to be dualized along the iterations. This relax-and-cut type approach has shown its numerical efficiency in many combinatorial problems. In chapter 3, we show Primal-dual convergence of such strategy when using an adapted sub-gradient method for the dual step and under minimal assumptions on the separation procedure. Another limit of Lagrangian relaxation may appear when the dual function is separable in highly numerous or complex sub-functions. In such situation, the computational burden of solving all local subproblems may be preponderant in the whole iterative process. A natural strategy would be here to take full advantage of the dual separable structure, performing a dual iteration after having

Efficient numerical methods for the large-scale, parallel solution of elastoplastic contact problems

KAUST Repository

Frohne, Jö rg; Heister, Timo; Bangerth, Wolfgang

2015-01-01

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Quasi-static elastoplastic contact problems are ubiquitous in many industrial processes and other contexts, and their numerical simulation is consequently of great interest in accurately describing and optimizing production processes. The key component in these simulations is the solution of a single load step of a time iteration. From a mathematical perspective, the problems to be solved in each time step are characterized by the difficulties of variational inequalities for both the plastic behavior and the contact problem. Computationally, they also often lead to very large problems. In this paper, we present and evaluate a complete set of methods that are (1) designed to work well together and (2) allow for the efficient solution of such problems. In particular, we use adaptive finite element meshes with linear and quadratic elements, a Newton linearization of the plasticity, active set methods for the contact problem, and multigrid-preconditioned linear solvers. Through a sequence of numerical experiments, we show the performance of these methods. This includes highly accurate solutions of a three-dimensional benchmark problem and scaling our methods in parallel to 1024 cores and more than a billion unknowns.

Efficient numerical methods for the large-scale, parallel solution of elastoplastic contact problems

KAUST Repository

Frohne, Jörg

2015-08-06

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Quasi-static elastoplastic contact problems are ubiquitous in many industrial processes and other contexts, and their numerical simulation is consequently of great interest in accurately describing and optimizing production processes. The key component in these simulations is the solution of a single load step of a time iteration. From a mathematical perspective, the problems to be solved in each time step are characterized by the difficulties of variational inequalities for both the plastic behavior and the contact problem. Computationally, they also often lead to very large problems. In this paper, we present and evaluate a complete set of methods that are (1) designed to work well together and (2) allow for the efficient solution of such problems. In particular, we use adaptive finite element meshes with linear and quadratic elements, a Newton linearization of the plasticity, active set methods for the contact problem, and multigrid-preconditioned linear solvers. Through a sequence of numerical experiments, we show the performance of these methods. This includes highly accurate solutions of a three-dimensional benchmark problem and scaling our methods in parallel to 1024 cores and more than a billion unknowns.

Dealing with scientific integrity issues: the Spanish experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Puigdomènech, Pere

2014-02-01

Integrity has been an important matter of concern for the scientific community as it affects the basis of its activities. Most countries having a significant scientific activity have dealt with this problem by different means, including drafting specific legal or soft law regulations and the appointment of stable or ad hoc committees that take care of these questions. This has also been the case in Spain. After the period of transition between dictatorship to a democratic regime, and, particularly, after the entrance in the European Union, scientific activity has increased in the country. As it could be expected, problems of misconduct have appeared and different institutions have been dealing with these matters. One of the best examples is that of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the largest institution devoted to scientific research belonging to the Spanish Government. The experience of the CSIC’s Ethics Committee in dealing with conflicts related to scientific practices is discussed here.

Gender Diversity in a STEM Subfield - Analysis of a Large Scientific Society and Its Annual Conferences

Science.gov (United States)

Shishkova, Evgenia; Kwiecien, Nicholas W.; Hebert, Alexander S.; Westphall, Michael S.; Prenni, Jessica E.; Coon, Joshua J.

2017-12-01

Speaking engagements, serving as session chairs, and receiving awards at national meetings are essential stepping stones towards professional success for scientific researchers. Studies of gender parity in meetings of national scientific societies repeatedly uncover bias in speaker selection, engendering underrepresentation of women among featured presenters. To continue this dialogue, we analyzed membership data and annual conference programs of a large scientific society (>7000 members annually) in a male-rich ( 70% males), technology-oriented STEM subfield. We detected a pronounced skew towards males among invited keynote lecturers, plenary speakers, and recipients of the society's Senior Investigator award (15%, 13%, and 8% females, respectively). However, the proportion of females among Mid-Career and Young Investigator award recipients and oral session chairs resembled the current gender distribution of the general membership. Female members were more likely to present at the conferences and equally likely to apply and be accepted for oral presentations as their male counterparts. The gender of a session chair had no effect on the gender distribution of selected applicants. Interestingly, we identified several research subareas that were naturally enriched (i.e., not influenced by unequal selection of presenters) for either female or male participants, illustrating within a single subfield the gender divide along biology-technology line typical of all STEM disciplines. Two female-enriched topics experienced a rapid growth in popularity within the examined period, more than doubling the number of associated researchers. Collectively, these findings contribute to the contemporary discourse on gender in science and hopefully will propel positive changes within this and other societies. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Exploring scientific creativity of eleventh-grade students in Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Jia-Chi

2002-04-01

Although most researchers focus on scientists' creativity, students' scientific creativity should be considered, especially for high school and college students. It is generally assumed that most professional creators in science emerge from amateur creators. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between students' scientific creativity and selected variables including creativity, problem finding, formulating hypotheses, science achievement, the nature of science, and attitudes toward science for finding significant predictors of eleventh grade students' scientific creativity. A total of 130 male eleventh-grade students in three biology classes participated in this study. The main instruments included the Test of Divergent Thinking (TDT) for creativity measurement, the Creativity Rating Scale (CRS) and the Creative Activities and Accomplishments Check Lists (CAACL ) for measurement of scientific creativity, the Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale (NSKS) for measurement of the nature of science, and the Science Attitude Inventory II (SAI II) for measurement of attitudes toward science. In addition, two instruments on measuring students' abilities of problem finding and abilities of formulating hypotheses were developed by the researcher in this study. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations, and stepwise multiple regressions. The major findings suggested the following: (1) students' scientific creativity significantly correlated with some of selected variables such as attitudes toward science, problem finding, formulating hypotheses, the nature of science, resistance to closure, originality, and elaboration; (2) four significant predictors including attitudes toward science, problem finding, resistance to closure, and originality accounted for 48% of the variance of students' scientific creativity; (3) there were big differences between students with a higher and a lower degree of scientific

Large scale inverse problems computational methods and applications in the earth sciences

CERN Document Server

Scheichl, Robert; Freitag, Melina A; Kindermann, Stefan

2013-01-01

This book is thesecond volume of three volume series recording the ""Radon Special Semester 2011 on Multiscale Simulation & Analysis in Energy and the Environment"" taking place in Linz, Austria, October 3-7, 2011. The volume addresses the common ground in the mathematical and computational procedures required for large-scale inverse problems and data assimilation in forefront applications.

Scientific data management challenges, technology and deployment

CERN Document Server

Rotem, Doron

2010-01-01

Dealing with the volume, complexity, and diversity of data currently being generated by scientific experiments and simulations often causes scientists to waste productive time. Scientific Data Management: Challenges, Technology, and Deployment describes cutting-edge technologies and solutions for managing and analyzing vast amounts of data, helping scientists focus on their scientific goals. The book begins with coverage of efficient storage systems, discussing how to write and read large volumes of data without slowing the simulation, analysis, or visualization processes. It then focuses on the efficient data movement and management of storage spaces and explores emerging database systems for scientific data. The book also addresses how to best organize data for analysis purposes, how to effectively conduct searches over large datasets, how to successfully automate multistep scientific process workflows, and how to automatically collect metadata and lineage information. This book provides a comprehensive u...

Analysis of the flight dynamics of the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) off-sun scientific pointing

Science.gov (United States)

Pitone, D. S.; Klein, J. R.; Twambly, B. J.

1990-01-01

Algorithms are presented which were created and implemented by the Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC's) Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) attitude operations team to support large-angle spacecraft pointing at scientific objectives. The mission objective of the post-repair SMM satellite was to study solar phenomena. However, because the scientific instruments, such as the Coronagraph/Polarimeter (CP) and the Hard X-ray Burst Spectrometer (HXRBS), were able to view objects other than the Sun, attitude operations support for attitude pointing at large angles from the nominal solar-pointing attitudes was required. Subsequently, attitude support for SMM was provided for scientific objectives such as Comet Halley, Supernova 1987A, Cygnus X-1, and the Crab Nebula. In addition, the analysis was extended to include the reverse problem, computing the right ascension and declination of a body given the off-Sun angles. This analysis led to the computation of the orbits of seven new solar comets seen in the field-of-view (FOV) of the CP. The activities necessary to meet these large-angle attitude-pointing sequences, such as slew sequence planning, viewing-period prediction, and tracking-bias computation are described. Analysis is presented for the computation of maneuvers and pointing parameters relative to the SMM-unique, Sun-centered reference frame. Finally, science data and independent attitude solutions are used to evaluate the larg-angle pointing performance.

Scientific Research Competencies of Prospective Teachers and their Attitu des toward Scientific Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasan Hüseyin Şahan

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Present study has been constructed to determine scientific research competencies of prospective teachers and identify the extent of effect of prospective teachers’ attitudes toward scientific research and scientific research methods course on their research skills and attitudes towards research. This study has two dimensions: it is a descriptive study by virtue of identifying prospective teachers’ research skills and attitudes toward research, also an experimental study by virtue of determining the effect of scientificresearch methods course on prospective teachers’ skills and their attitudes toward research. In order to obtain the data related to identified sub-problems “Scale for Identifying Scientific Research Competencies” and “Scale for Identifying the Attitude toward Research” have been utilized. Data collection tools were applied to 445 prospective teachers. It has thus been concluded in this study that scientific research methods course had no significant effect in gaining scientific research competencies to prospective teachers and that this effect demonstrated no differentiation with respect to departments. On the other hand it has been explored that scientific research methods course had a negative effect onthe attitudes of prospective teachers toward research and that there was a differentiation to the disadvantage of prospective teachers studying at Primary Education Mathematics Teaching Department.

Minimization of Linear Functionals Defined on| Solutions of Large-Scale Discrete Ill-Posed Problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elden, Lars; Hansen, Per Christian; Rojas, Marielba

2003-01-01

The minimization of linear functionals de ned on the solutions of discrete ill-posed problems arises, e.g., in the computation of con dence intervals for these solutions. In 1990, Elden proposed an algorithm for this minimization problem based on a parametric-programming reformulation involving...... the solution of a sequence of trust-region problems, and using matrix factorizations. In this paper, we describe MLFIP, a large-scale version of this algorithm where a limited-memory trust-region solver is used on the subproblems. We illustrate the use of our algorithm in connection with an inverse heat...

The relative importance of relational and scientific characteristics of psychotherapy: Perceptions of community members vs. therapists.

Science.gov (United States)

Farrell, Nicholas R; Deacon, Brett J

2016-03-01

Although client preferences are an integral component of evidence-based practice in psychology (American Psychological Association, 2006), relatively little research has examined what potential mental health consumers value in the psychotherapy they may receive. The present study was conducted to examine community members' preferences for the scientific and relational aspects of psychotherapy for different types of presenting problems, and how accurately therapists perceive these preferences. Community members (n = 200) were surveyed about the importance of scientific (e.g., demonstrated efficacy in clinical trials) and relational (e.g., therapist empathy) characteristics of psychotherapy both for anxiety disorders (e.g., obsessive-compulsive disorder) and disorder-nonspecific issues (e.g., relationship difficulties). Therapists (n = 199) completed the same survey and responded how they expected the average mental health consumer would. Results showed that although community members valued relational characteristics significantly more than scientific characteristics, the gap between these two was large for disorder-nonspecific issues (d = 1.24) but small for anxiety disorders (d = .27). Community members rated scientific credibility as important across problem types. Therapists significantly underestimated the importance of scientific characteristics to community members, particularly in the treatment of disorder-nonspecific issues (d = .74). Therapists who valued research less in their own practice were more likely to underestimate the importance of scientific credibility to community members. The implications of the present findings for understanding the nature of client preferences in evidence-based psychological practice are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

III Scientific-technical conference. Problems and outlooks for development of chemical and radiochemical control in atomic energetics (Atomenergoanalytics-2005). Summaries of reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

Summaries of reports of the III Scientific-technical conference: Problems and outlooks for development of chemical and radiochemical control in atomic energetics (Atomenergoanalytics-2005) are presented. The conference performed 20-22 September, 2005, in Sosnovyj Bor. Problems of methodical, instrumental and metrological supply of chemical, radiochemical and radiometric control at active NPP and NPU, modern concepts of construction of automated systems of chemical and radiometric control in the atomic energetics, directions for the decision of questions in organization and conducting of chemical and radiochemical control of water-chemical regimes of NPP and NPU are discussed [ru

Communicating Scientific Findings to Lawyers, Policy-Makers, and the Public (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, W.; Velsko, S. P.

2013-12-01

This presentation will summarize the authors' collaborative research on inferential errors, bias and communication difficulties that have arisen in the area of WMD forensics. This research involves analysis of problems that have arisen in past national security investigations, interviews with scientists from various disciplines whose work has been used in WMD investigations, interviews with policy-makers, and psychological studies of lay understanding of forensic evidence. Implications of this research for scientists involved in nuclear explosion monitoring will be discussed. Among the issues covered will be: - Potential incompatibilities between the questions policy makers pose and the answers that experts can provide. - Common misunderstandings of scientific and statistical data. - Advantages and disadvantages of various methods for describing and characterizing the strength of scientific findings. - Problems that can arise from excessive hedging or, alternatively, insufficient qualification of scientific conclusions. - Problems that can arise from melding scientific and non-scientific evidence in forensic assessments.

Scientific meetings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1973-01-01

One of the main aims of the IAEA is to foster the exchange of scientific and technical information and one of the main ways of doing this is to convene international scientific meetings. They range from large international conferences bringing together several hundred scientists, smaller symposia attended by an average of 150 to 250 participants and seminars designed to instruct rather than inform, to smaller panels and study groups of 10 to 30 experts brought together to advise on a particular programme or to develop a set of regulations. The topics of these meetings cover every part of the Agency's activities and form a backbone of many of its programmes. (author)

17 years after the Chernobyl' accident: problems and decisions. Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference; 17 let posle Chernobylya: problemy i resheniya. Sbornik nauchnykh trudov Mezhdunarodnoj nauchno-prakticheskoj konferentsii

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shevchuk, V E; Gurachevskij, V L; Kolbanov, V V

2003-04-01

The book contains proceedings of the scientific conference on difference medical and biological problems of consequences of the Chernobyl NPP accident, as well as on the problems of rehabilitation of the contaminated territories and ecosystems.

Improving the scientific misconduct hearing process.

Science.gov (United States)

Parrish, D M

The overturning and withdrawal of several of the Office of Research Integrity's (ORI's) findings of scientific misconduct have called its role into question. The contested findings of scientific misconduct that have been tried before the hearing body have been based on lengthy and expensive ORI investigations. How could ORI have failed to prove its findings of scientific misconduct after the commitment of substantial resources that far exceed those devoted during institutional investigations? One reason may be that the current hearing process makes it difficult or impossible for ORI, institutions, or individuals to prove scientific misconduct. The hearing process has been criticized by discouraged whistleblowers who believe that their allegations of scientific misconduct should have been upheld, and by the accused for the expensive and protracted nature of the proceedings. The following article examines problems in the scientific misconduct hearing process and suggests that the process could be improved by letting administrative law judges, patent attorneys, and a scientific majority decide these cases.

Large neighborhood search for the double traveling salesman problem with multiple stacks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bent, Russell W [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Van Hentenryck, Pascal [BROWN UNIV

2009-01-01

This paper considers a complex real-life short-haul/long haul pickup and delivery application. The problem can be modeled as double traveling salesman problem (TSP) in which the pickups and the deliveries happen in the first and second TSPs respectively. Moreover, the application features multiple stacks in which the items must be stored and the pickups and deliveries must take place in reserve (LIFO) order for each stack. The goal is to minimize the total travel time satisfying these constraints. This paper presents a large neighborhood search (LNS) algorithm which improves the best-known results on 65% of the available instances and is always within 2% of the best-known solutions.

Tools for Observation: Art and the Scientific Process

Science.gov (United States)

Pettit, E. C.; Coryell-Martin, M.; Maisch, K.

2015-12-01

Art can support the scientific process during different phases of a scientific discovery. Art can help explain and extend the scientific concepts for the general public; in this way art is a powerful tool for communication. Art can aid the scientist in processing and interpreting the data towards an understanding of the concepts and processes; in this way art is powerful - if often subconscious - tool to inform the process of discovery. Less often acknowledged, art can help engage students and inspire scientists during the initial development of ideas, observations, and questions; in this way art is a powerful tool to develop scientific questions and hypotheses. When we use art as a tool for communication of scientific discoveries, it helps break down barriers and makes science concepts less intimidating and more accessible and understandable for the learner. Scientists themselves use artistic concepts and processes - directly or indirectly - to help deepen their understanding. Teachers are following suit by using art more to stimulate students' creative thinking and problem solving. We show the value of teaching students to use the artistic "way of seeing" to develop their skills in observation, questioning, and critical thinking. In this way, art can be a powerful tool to engage students (from elementary to graduate) in the beginning phase of a scientific discovery, which is catalyzed by inquiry and curiosity. Through qualitative assessment of the Girls on Ice program, we show that many of the specific techniques taught by art teachers are valuable for science students to develop their observation skills. In particular, the concepts of contour drawing, squinting, gesture drawing, inverted drawing, and others can provide valuable training for student scientists. These art techniques encourage students to let go of preconceptions and "see" the world (the "data") in new ways they help students focus on both large-scale patterns and small-scale details.

Concept Formation in Scientific Knowledge Discovery from a Constructivist View

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Wei; Gero, John S.

The central goal of scientific knowledge discovery is to learn cause-effect relationships among natural phenomena presented as variables and the consequences their interactions. Scientific knowledge is normally expressed as scientific taxonomies and qualitative and quantitative laws [1]. This type of knowledge represents intrinsic regularities of the observed phenomena that can be used to explain and predict behaviors of the phenomena. It is a generalization that is abstracted and externalized from a set of contexts and applicable to a broader scope. Scientific knowledge is a type of third-person knowledge, i.e., knowledge that independent of a specific enquirer. Artificial intelligence approaches, particularly data mining algorithms that are used to identify meaningful patterns from large data sets, are approaches that aim to facilitate the knowledge discovery process [2]. A broad spectrum of algorithms has been developed in addressing classification, associative learning, and clustering problems. However, their linkages to people who use them have not been adequately explored. Issues in relation to supporting the interpretation of the patterns, the application of prior knowledge to the data mining process and addressing user interactions remain challenges for building knowledge discovery tools [3]. As a consequence, scientists rely on their experience to formulate problems, evaluate hypotheses, reason about untraceable factors and derive new problems. This type of knowledge which they have developed during their career is called "first-person" knowledge. The formation of scientific knowledge (third-person knowledge) is highly influenced by the enquirer's first-person knowledge construct, which is a result of his or her interactions with the environment. There have been attempts to craft automatic knowledge discovery tools but these systems are limited in their capabilities to handle the dynamics of personal experience. There are now trends in developing

Scientific support of nuclear energy in Bulgaria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stamenov, Y.; Ilieva, K.; Ruskov, T.

2002-01-01

Taking into consideration the scientific and technical potential of the Institute and actual for this country problems, yet 3-4 years ago the priority tasks with application character were clearly defined: Safety of nuclear energy; The problems of radioactive waste; Ecology: control and monitoring of environment; Information maintenance. Specialists of the INRNE have been studying various problems and tasks intended to the scientific support of nuclear energy, which are of crucial national significance with respect to ensuring a high level of safety, an optimization of processes and effectiveness of operation of the Kozloduy NPP. These are programmes, accomplished in narrow collaboration with domestic, foreign and International institutions. In this relation, the more substantial examples of programmes and tasks, carried out by the INRNE are pointed out

Problems occurred in prospecting and mining of a broken thick large uranium ore body and improvement scheme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu Longfei; Fang Yang; Wang Yishun; Wang Long

2014-01-01

In prospecting and mining of a broken thick large uranium ore body, uncertain prospecting and shallow-hole shrinkage mining method resulted in large dilution rate and resource waste problems. Aimed at these problems, improvement schemes of enhancing the strength force of 'drilling prospecting instead of pit prospecting' and employing filling method stoping ore body were applied, and improvement result was analyzed. Experience was accumulated and evidence was provided for late prospecting and stoping work. (authors)

Solving a large-scale precedence constrained scheduling problem with elastic jobs using tabu search

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, C.R.; Rasmussen, R.V.; Andersen, Kim Allan

2007-01-01

exploitation of the elastic jobs and solve the problem using a tabu search procedure. Finding an initial feasible solution is in general -complete, but the tabu search procedure includes a specialized heuristic for solving this problem. The solution method has proven to be very efficient and leads......This paper presents a solution method for minimizing makespan of a practical large-scale scheduling problem with elastic jobs. The jobs are processed on three servers and restricted by precedence constraints, time windows and capacity limitations. We derive a new method for approximating the server...... to a significant decrease in makespan compared to the strategy currently implemented....

Radiation problems in the design of the large electron-positron collider (LEP)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fasso, A.; Goebel, K.; Hoefert, M.; Rau, G.; Schoenbacher, H.; Stevenson, G.R.; Sullivan, A.H.; Swanson, W.P.; Tuyn, J.W.N.

1984-01-01

This is a comprehensive review of the radiation problems taken into account in the design studies for the Large Electron-Positron collider (LEP) now under construction at CERN. It provides estimates and calculations of the magnitude of the most important hazards, including those from non-ionizing radiations and magnetic fields as well as from ionizing radiation, and describes the measures to be taken in the design, construction, and operation to limit them. Damage to components is considered as well as the risk to people. More general explanations are given of the physical processes and technical parameters that influence the production and effects of radiation, and a comprehensive bibliography provides access to the basic theories and other discussions of the subject. The report effectively summarizes the findings of the Working Group on LEP radiation problems and parallels the results of analogous studies made for the previous large accelerator. The concluding chapters describe the LEP radiation protection system, which is foreseen to reduce doses far below the legal limits for all those working with the machine or living nearby, and summarize the environmental impact. Costs are also briefly considered. (orig.)

Scientific-practical and legal problems of implementation of the personalized medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Bezdieniezhnykh, N O; Reznikova, V V; Rossylna, O V

2017-09-01

The article is devoted to the comprehensive analysis of scientific, practical and legal issues of personalized medicine that is a rapidly developing science-driven approach to healthcare. It is concluded that there is lack of general legal framework for the encouragement of scientific researches and practical implementation in this field. The article shows foreign experience and prospects for the introduction of personalized medicine as a key concept of healthcare system, which is based on a selection of diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive measures that would be the most effective for a particular person in view of individual characteristics. The conclusions and proposals to improve the current legislation and development of personalized medicine in Ukraine are suggested.

Radioactive wastes: a world problem. Les dechets nucleaires: un probleme mondial

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schapira, J P [Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), 75 - Paris (FR)

1991-02-01

In all countries endowed with nuclear program, radioactive wastes disposal asks scientific and public acceptance problems. This paper describes several aspects: technical problem; ethic problem and responsibility towards future generations at very long-term; political problem. Different politics followed by concerned countries and recent controversy in France is also entered upon radioactive wastes underground site selection, in deep geological formations.

Solving large-scale sparse eigenvalue problems and linear systems of equations for accelerator modeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gene Golub; Kwok Ko

2009-01-01

The solutions of sparse eigenvalue problems and linear systems constitute one of the key computational kernels in the discretization of partial differential equations for the modeling of linear accelerators. The computational challenges faced by existing techniques for solving those sparse eigenvalue problems and linear systems call for continuing research to improve on the algorithms so that ever increasing problem size as required by the physics application can be tackled. Under the support of this award, the filter algorithm for solving large sparse eigenvalue problems was developed at Stanford to address the computational difficulties in the previous methods with the goal to enable accelerator simulations on then the world largest unclassified supercomputer at NERSC for this class of problems. Specifically, a new method, the Hemitian skew-Hemitian splitting method, was proposed and researched as an improved method for solving linear systems with non-Hermitian positive definite and semidefinite matrices.

A hybrid adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm applied to a lot-sizing problem

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Muller, Laurent Flindt; Spoorendonk, Simon

This paper presents a hybrid of a general heuristic framework that has been successfully applied to vehicle routing problems and a general purpose MIP solver. The framework uses local search and an adaptive procedure which choses between a set of large neighborhoods to be searched. A mixed integer...... of a solution and to investigate the feasibility of elements in such a neighborhood. The hybrid heuristic framework is applied to the multi-item capacitated lot sizing problem with dynamic lot sizes, where experiments have been conducted on a series of instances from the literature. On average the heuristic...

Problems of information support in scientific research

Science.gov (United States)

Shamaev, V. G.; Gorshkov, A. B.

2015-11-01

This paper reports on the creation of the open access Akustika portal (AKDATA.RU) designed to provide Russian-language easy-to-read and search information on acoustics and related topics. The absence of a Russian-language publication in foreign databases means that it is effectively lost for much of the scientific community. The portal has three interrelated sections: the Akustika information search system (ISS) (Acoustics), full-text archive of the Akusticheskii Zhurnal (Acoustic Journal), and 'Signal'naya informatsiya' ('Signaling information') on acoustics. The paper presents a description of the Akustika ISS, including its structure, content, interface, and information search capabilities for basic and applied research in diverse areas of science, engineering, biology, medicine, etc. The intended users of the portal are physicists, engineers, and engineering technologists interested in expanding their research activities and seeking to increase their knowledge base. Those studying current trends in the Russian-language contribution to international science may also find the portal useful.

Improving the computation efficiency of COBRA-TF for LWR safety analysis of large problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cuervo, D.; Avramova, M. N.; Ivanov, K. N.

2004-01-01

A matrix solver is implemented in COBRA-TF in order to improve the computation efficiency of both numerical solution methods existing in the code, the Gauss elimination and the Gauss-Seidel iterative technique. Both methods are used to solve the system of pressure linear equations and relay on the solution of large sparse matrices. The introduced solver accelerates the solution of these matrices in cases of large number of cells. The execution time is reduced in half as compared to the execution time without using matrix solver for the cases with large matrices. The achieved improvement and the planned future work in this direction are important for performing efficient LWR safety analyses of large problems. (authors)

Ecological potentialities for the future scientific research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fidirko, V.A.

1996-01-01

Efficient scientific development may promote the solution of all the environmental problems. The way the question is put is new, for science is finally considered to be the source of all environmental disasters and to be blamed for that. Search for the means to solve scientifically induced crisis situation seems to be very interesting. (author)

Environmental data quality problems: ''Technical'' vs. ''legal'' defensibility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luker, R.S.; Brooks, M.C.; Stagg, D.D.

1995-01-01

Two significant aspects of environmental data quality are currently being emphasized throughout the industry as critical precursors to environmental decision making: technical integrity and legal defensibility. Because audit findings and consequent perceptions by a client often pose more questions than answers--especially with respect to the ''systemic'' nature and significance of problems based on nonstatistical, ad hoc sampling of large programs--quality assurance in environmental restoration must do more than implement traditional administrative controls. A major problem persists in achieving a consensus opinion between quality assurance and technical staff on the significance of various data problems. This case study compares and contrasts ''technical integrity'' and ''legal defensibility'', and provides performance measures developed to optimize both components in a large, complex DOE environmental restoration program. Performance measures of both administrative and technical processes are being used to ensure that conclusions drawn concerning ''systematic'' problems are not premature, and are founded on thorough, representative aspects of the program. Improved methods to reach consensus opinions on environmental decision-making are imperative and environmental data quality, the cornerstone on which the decisions are built, must be not only scientifically solid, but perceived as solid, if stakeholders are to be satisfied

Proceedings of 7. international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2007: Ecological problems of XXI century'; Materialy 7-oj mezhdunarodnoj nauchnoj konferentsii 'Sakharovskie chteniya 2007 goda: Ehkologicheskie problemy XXI veka'

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kundas, S P; Mel' nov, S B; Poznyak, S S [International A. Sakharov environmental univ., Minsk (Belarus)

2007-05-15

Abstracts of the seventh international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2007: Ecological problems of XXI century', which was held in the International A. Sakharov environmental university, contents materials on topics: socio-ecological problems, medical ecology, biomonitoring and bioindication, biological ecology. The proceedings are intended for specialists in field of ecology and related sciences, teachers, students and post-graduate students. (authors)

Scientific impact: opportunity and necessity.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Marlene Z; Alexander, Gregory L; Wyman, Jean F; Fahrenwald, Nancy L; Porock, Davina; Wurzbach, Mary E; Rawl, Susan M; Conn, Vicki S

2010-08-01

Recent National Institutes of Health changes have focused attention on the potential scientific impact of research projects. Research with the excellent potential to change subsequent science or health care practice may have high scientific impact. Only rigorous studies that address highly significant problems can generate change. Studies with high impact may stimulate new research approaches by changing understanding of a phenomenon, informing theory development, or creating new research methods that allow a field of science to move forward. Research with high impact can transition health care to more effective and efficient approaches. Studies with high impact may propel new policy developments. Research with high scientific impact typically has both immediate and sustained influence on the field of study. The article includes ideas to articulate potential scientific impact in grant applications as well as possible dissemination strategies to enlarge the impact of completed projects.

Scientific Programming in Fortran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. Van Snyder

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The Fortran programming language was designed by John Backus and his colleagues at IBM to reduce the cost of programming scientific applications. IBM delivered the first compiler for its model 704 in 1957. IBM's competitors soon offered incompatible versions. ANSI (ASA at the time developed a standard, largely based on IBM's Fortran IV in 1966. Revisions of the standard were produced in 1977, 1990, 1995 and 2003. Development of a revision, scheduled for 2008, is under way. Unlike most other programming languages, Fortran is periodically revised to keep pace with developments in language and processor design, while revisions largely preserve compatibility with previous versions. Throughout, the focus on scientific programming, and especially on efficient generated programs, has been maintained.

On history of medical radiology in Ukraine: main directions of scientific development (1920-1941)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pilipenko, M.Yi.; Artamonova, N.O.; Busigyina, N.O.

1994-01-01

The work is devoted to the history of medical radiology in Ukraine. It deals with principal problems of scientific research development during 1920-1941. The authors describe both known and little known facts of the history of foundation and development of the first Ukrainian radiological, roentgenological and oncological institutes. Main achievements in radiology development i.e. foundation of large specialized research centres in Kharkov, kiev, Odessa, independent departments of roentgenology both at the majority of medical institutes and three advanced training institutes for doctors, organization of ALL-Union and Republican Congresses and Conferences of Radiologists, publication of a special journal > (Problems of Oncology) are described

Unified Access Architecture for Large-Scale Scientific Datasets

Science.gov (United States)

Karna, Risav

2014-05-01

Data-intensive sciences have to deploy diverse large scale database technologies for data analytics as scientists have now been dealing with much larger volume than ever before. While array databases have bridged many gaps between the needs of data-intensive research fields and DBMS technologies (Zhang 2011), invocation of other big data tools accompanying these databases is still manual and separate the database management's interface. We identify this as an architectural challenge that will increasingly complicate the user's work flow owing to the growing number of useful but isolated and niche database tools. Such use of data analysis tools in effect leaves the burden on the user's end to synchronize the results from other data manipulation analysis tools with the database management system. To this end, we propose a unified access interface for using big data tools within large scale scientific array database using the database queries themselves to embed foreign routines belonging to the big data tools. Such an invocation of foreign data manipulation routines inside a query into a database can be made possible through a user-defined function (UDF). UDFs that allow such levels of freedom as to call modules from another language and interface back and forth between the query body and the side-loaded functions would be needed for this purpose. For the purpose of this research we attempt coupling of four widely used tools Hadoop (hadoop1), Matlab (matlab1), R (r1) and ScaLAPACK (scalapack1) with UDF feature of rasdaman (Baumann 98), an array-based data manager, for investigating this concept. The native array data model used by an array-based data manager provides compact data storage and high performance operations on ordered data such as spatial data, temporal data, and matrix-based data for linear algebra operations (scidbusr1). Performances issues arising due to coupling of tools with different paradigms, niche functionalities, separate processes and output

The IAPG: International Association for Promoting Geoethics: a scientific platform for widening the debate on problems of ethics applied to the geosciences

Science.gov (United States)

Bobrowsky, Peter; Brocx, Margaret; Di Capua, Giuseppe; Errami, Ezzoura; Greco, Roberto; Kieffer, Susan W.; Daji Limaye, Shrikant; Peppoloni, Silvia; Silva, Elizabeth; Tinti, Stefano; Wang, Meng

2013-04-01

Geoethics consists of the research and reflection on those values upon which to base appropriate behaviours and practices regarding the Geosphere. Geoethics also deals with problems related to risk management and mitigation of geohazards. One of the most important goals of the Geoethics is to foster the proper and correct dissemination of results of scientific studies and other information on risks. Moreover, Geoethics aims to improve the relationships between the scientific community, mass media and public and aims to organize effective teaching tools to develop awareness, values and responsibility within the population. Geoethics should become part of the social knowledge and an essential point of reference for every action affecting land, water and atmosphere usage that is taken by stake-holders and decision-makers. Although Geoethics is a young discipline, it provides a forum for open discussion inside the Geosciences on the social and cultural role that Geoscientists can play in society. First, Geoethics represents an opportunity for Geoscientists to become more conscious of their responsibilities in conducting their activity, highlighting the ethical, cultural and economic repercussions that their behavioral choices may have on society. From this point of view Geoethics, at this stage of its development, is primarily an attitude of thinking: through consideration of geoethical questions, Geoscientists have the opportunity to ask questions about themselves, their skills, the quality of their work and the contribution they can provide to the healthy progress of humanity. The International Association for Promoting Geoethics (IAPG: http://www.iapg.geoethics.org) is a new multidisciplinary, scientific platform for widening the debate on problems of Ethics applied to the Geosciences, through international cooperation and for encouraging the involvement of geoscientists on Geoethics themes. The IAPG was founded to increase the awareness inside the scientific

Collaborative e-Science Experiments and Scientific Workflows

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Belloum, A.; Inda, M.A.; Vasunin, D.; Korkhov, V.; Zhao, Z.; Rauwerda, H.; Breit, T.M.; Bubak, M.; Hertzberger, L.O.

2011-01-01

Recent advances in Internet and grid technologies have greatly enhanced scientific experiments' life cycle. In addition to compute- and data-intensive tasks, large-scale collaborations involving geographically distributed scientists and e-infrastructure are now possible. Scientific workflows, which

Compiler Technology for Parallel Scientific Computation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Can Özturan

1994-01-01

Full Text Available There is a need for compiler technology that, given the source program, will generate efficient parallel codes for different architectures with minimal user involvement. Parallel computation is becoming indispensable in solving large-scale problems in science and engineering. Yet, the use of parallel computation is limited by the high costs of developing the needed software. To overcome this difficulty we advocate a comprehensive approach to the development of scalable architecture-independent software for scientific computation based on our experience with equational programming language (EPL. Our approach is based on a program decomposition, parallel code synthesis, and run-time support for parallel scientific computation. The program decomposition is guided by the source program annotations provided by the user. The synthesis of parallel code is based on configurations that describe the overall computation as a set of interacting components. Run-time support is provided by the compiler-generated code that redistributes computation and data during object program execution. The generated parallel code is optimized using techniques of data alignment, operator placement, wavefront determination, and memory optimization. In this article we discuss annotations, configurations, parallel code generation, and run-time support suitable for parallel programs written in the functional parallel programming language EPL and in Fortran.

Mutation-based learning to improve student autonomy and scientific inquiry skills in a large genetics laboratory course.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Jinlu

2013-01-01

Laboratory education can play a vital role in developing a learner's autonomy and scientific inquiry skills. In an innovative, mutation-based learning (MBL) approach, students were instructed to redesign a teacher-designed standard experimental protocol by a "mutation" method in a molecular genetics laboratory course. Students could choose to delete, add, reverse, or replace certain steps of the standard protocol to explore questions of interest to them in a given experimental scenario. They wrote experimental proposals to address their rationales and hypotheses for the "mutations"; conducted experiments in parallel, according to both standard and mutated protocols; and then compared and analyzed results to write individual lab reports. Various autonomy-supportive measures were provided in the entire experimental process. Analyses of student work and feedback suggest that students using the MBL approach 1) spend more time discussing experiments, 2) use more scientific inquiry skills, and 3) find the increased autonomy afforded by MBL more enjoyable than do students following regimented instructions in a conventional "cookbook"-style laboratory. Furthermore, the MBL approach does not incur an obvious increase in labor and financial costs, which makes it feasible for easy adaptation and implementation in a large class.

An Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search Algorithm for the Resource-constrained Project Scheduling Problem

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Muller, Laurent Flindt

2009-01-01

We present an application of an Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) algorithm to the Resource-constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP). The ALNS framework was first proposed by Pisinger and Røpke [19] and can be described as a large neighborhood search algorithm with an adaptive layer......, where a set of destroy/repair neighborhoods compete to modify the current solution in each iteration of the algorithm. Experiments are performed on the wellknown J30, J60 and J120 benchmark instances, which show that the proposed algorithm is competitive and confirms the strength of the ALNS framework...

1st ERCOFTAC Workshop on Direct and Large-Eddy Simulation

CERN Document Server

Kleiser, Leonhard; Chollet, Jean-Pierre

1994-01-01

It is a truism that turbulence is an unsolved problem, whether in scientific, engin­ eering or geophysical terms. It is strange that this remains largely the case even though we now know how to solve directly, with the help of sufficiently large and powerful computers, accurate approximations to the equations that govern tur­ bulent flows. The problem lies not with our numerical approximations but with the size of the computational task and the complexity of the solutions we gen­ erate, which match the complexity of real turbulence precisely in so far as the computations mimic the real flows. The fact that we can now solve some turbu­ lence in this limited sense is nevertheless an enormous step towards the goal of full understanding. Direct and large-eddy simulations are these numerical solutions of turbulence. They reproduce with remarkable fidelity the statistical, structural and dynamical properties of physical turbulent and transitional flows, though since the simula­ tions are necessarily time-depen...

Oceans of Data: In what ways can learning research inform the development of electronic interfaces and tools for use by students accessing large scientific databases?

Science.gov (United States)

Krumhansl, R. A.; Foster, J.; Peach, C. L.; Busey, A.; Baker, I.

2012-12-01

The practice of science and engineering is being revolutionized by the development of cyberinfrastructure for accessing near real-time and archived observatory data. Large cyberinfrastructure projects have the potential to transform the way science is taught in high school classrooms, making enormous quantities of scientific data available, giving students opportunities to analyze and draw conclusions from many kinds of complex data, and providing students with experiences using state-of-the-art resources and techniques for scientific investigations. However, online interfaces to scientific data are built by scientists for scientists, and their design can significantly impede broad use by novices. Knowledge relevant to the design of student interfaces to complex scientific databases is broadly dispersed among disciplines ranging from cognitive science to computer science and cartography and is not easily accessible to designers of educational interfaces. To inform efforts at bridging scientific cyberinfrastructure to the high school classroom, Education Development Center, Inc. and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography conducted an NSF-funded 2-year interdisciplinary review of literature and expert opinion pertinent to making interfaces to large scientific databases accessible to and usable by precollege learners and their teachers. Project findings are grounded in the fundamentals of Cognitive Load Theory, Visual Perception, Schemata formation and Universal Design for Learning. The Knowledge Status Report (KSR) presents cross-cutting and visualization-specific guidelines that highlight how interface design features can address/ ameliorate challenges novice high school students face as they navigate complex databases to find data, and construct and look for patterns in maps, graphs, animations and other data visualizations. The guidelines present ways to make scientific databases more broadly accessible by: 1) adjusting the cognitive load imposed by the user

Parallel Object-Oriented Computation Applied to a Finite Element Problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jon B. Weissman

1993-01-01

Full Text Available The conventional wisdom in the scientific computing community is that the best way to solve large-scale numerically intensive scientific problems on today's parallel MIMD computers is to use Fortran or C programmed in a data-parallel style using low-level message-passing primitives. This approach inevitably leads to nonportable codes and extensive development time, and restricts parallel programming to the domain of the expert programmer. We believe that these problems are not inherent to parallel computing but are the result of the programming tools used. We will show that comparable performance can be achieved with little effort if better tools that present higher level abstractions are used. The vehicle for our demonstration is a 2D electromagnetic finite element scattering code we have implemented in Mentat, an object-oriented parallel processing system. We briefly describe the application. Mentat, the implementation, and present performance results for both a Mentat and a hand-coded parallel Fortran version.

A method to mine workflows from provenance for assisting scientific workflow composition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zeng, R.; He, X.; Aalst, van der W.M.P.

2011-01-01

Scientific workflows have recently emerged as a new paradigm for representing and managing complex distributed scientific computations and are used to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery. In many disciplines, individual workflows are large and complicated due to the large quantities of data

The Analysis of Students Scientific Reasoning Ability in Solving the Modified Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (MLCTSR Problems by Applying the Levels of Inquiry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Novia

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This study aims to determine the students’ achievement in answering modified lawson classroom test of scientific reasoning (MLCTSR questions in overall science teaching and by every aspect of scientific reasoning abilities. There are six aspects related to the scientific reasoning abilities that were measured; they are conservatorial reasoning, proportional reasoning, controlling variables, combinatorial reasoning, probabilistic reasoning, correlational reasoning. The research is also conducted to see the development of scientific reasoning by using levels of inquiry models. The students reasoning ability was measured using the Modified Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (MLCTSR. MLCTSR is a test developed based on the test of scientific reasoning of Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR in 2000 which amounted to 12 multiple-choice questions. The research method chosen in this study is descriptive quantitative research methods. The research design used is One Group Pretest-Posttest Design. The population of this study is the entire junior high students class VII the academic year 2014/2015 in one junior high school in Bandung. The samples in this study are one of class VII, which is class VII C. The sampling method used in this research is purposive sampling. The results showed that there is an increase in quantitative scientific reasoning although its value is not big.

Scientific and technical challenges of radioactive waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vira, J.

1996-01-01

In spite of considerable spending on research and technical development, the management of nuclear wastes continues to be a difficult issue in public decision making. The nuclear industry says that it has safe solutions for the ultimate disposal of nuclear wastes, but the message has not really got through to the public at large. Although communications problems reflect the general stigmatization of nuclear power, there are obvious issues in safety and performance assessment of nuclear waste disposal which evade scientific resolution. Any scientist is concerned for his personal credibility must respect the rules and limits of scientific practice, but the intriguing question is whether he would not do better to address the layman's worries about radioactive substances? The discussion in this paper points out the intricacies of the distinction between scientific proof and judgement, with emphasis on safety assessment for nuclear waste disposal. Who are the final arbitrators? In a democratic society it is probably those who vote.Building confidence in expert judgements is a challenge for waste managers and scientists. The media may create their own 'experts', whose only necessary credential is the trust of their audience, but scientific judgements must stand the test of time.'Confidence building' is currently a key word on the whole nuclear waste management scene, and confidence in science and scientists is certainly needed for any progress towards practical implementation of plans. The means for building confidence in the decision-making process are probably different from those applied for science and scientists. (author)

A Glimpse of Scientific Research on Fundamental Problems of Military and Civil Aeronautics

Science.gov (United States)

1939-01-01

Among the outstanding accomplishments of the last century is man's conquest of the air. That conquest began in 1903 when the Wright brothers made the first successful flight of an airplane at Kitty Hawk, N. C. Five years later the United States Government purchased its first airplane for the use of the Army, and began the training of officers for military flying. During the years immediately preceding the outbreak of the World War the Government and a meager aircraft industry had made important progress, but the Government, practically the only customer, had purchased less than 100 airplanes. In the meantime, leading European nations, sensing acutely the potentialities of aircraft in warfare, had made greater progress and had begun laying the foundations for the new science of aeronautics. The World War gave a remarkable impetus to the development of aeronautics and emphasized the need for organized research on the fundamental problems of flight. By act of Congress approved March 3, 1915, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was created and charged with the duty of supervising, directing, and conducting fundamental scientific research and experiment in aeronautics. With the farsighted support of the Congress the Committee has led the world in the development of unique aeronautical research facilities in its laboratories at Langley Field, Va. The research programs include problems initiated by the Committee and its subcommittees and also investigations requested by the Army, the Navy, and the Civil Aeronautics Authority. The results of researches conducted under one control, serve without duplication of effort, the needs of all branches of aviation, civil and military, and exert a profound influence on the progress of aeronautics by improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of aircraft. A brief description of the results of some of the committee's researches and of the equipment employed will be found in the following pages.

Cleaning of scientific references in large patent databases using rule-based scoring and clustering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Caron, Emiel

2017-01-01

Patent databases contain patent related data, organized in a relational data model, and are used to produce various patent statistics. These databases store raw data about scientific references cited by patents. For example, Patstat holds references to tens of millions of scientific journal

Systematic control of large computer programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goedbloed, J.P.; Klieb, L.

1986-07-01

A package of CCL, UPDATE, and FORTRAN procedures is described which facilitates the systematic control and development of large scientific computer programs. The package provides a general tool box for this purpose which contains many conveniences for the systematic administration of files, editing, reformating of line printer output files, etc. In addition, a small number of procedures is devoted to the problem of structured development of a large computer program which is used by a group of scientists. The essence of the method is contained in three procedures N, R, and X for the creation of a new UPDATE program library, its revision, and execution, resp., and a procedure REVISE which provides a joint editor - UPDATE session which combines the advantages of the two systems, viz. speed and rigor. (Auth.)

Software Defects, Scientific Computation and the Scientific Method

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2011-01-01

Computation has rapidly grown in the last 50 years so that in many scientific areas it is the dominant partner in the practice of science. Unfortunately, unlike the experimental sciences, it does not adhere well to the principles of the scientific method as espoused by, for example, the philosopher Karl Popper. Such principles are built around the notions of deniability and reproducibility. Although much research effort has been spent on measuring the density of software defects, much less has been spent on the more difficult problem of measuring their effect on the output of a program. This talk explores these issues with numerous examples suggesting how this situation might be improved to match the demands of modern science. Finally it develops a theoretical model based on an amalgam of statistical mechanics and Hartley/Shannon information theory which suggests that software systems have strong implementation independent behaviour and supports the widely observed phenomenon that defects clust...

Some thoughts on alternative methods and their scientific implications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mansvelt, van J.D.

1983-01-01

Reflections upon our agricultural problems cannot be limitated to those problems itself, but should incorporate a reflection upon our social and scientific traditions. An alternative agriculture asks for participating nature research

How to write and read a scientific evaluation paper

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wieringa, Roelf J.; Heerkens, Johannes M.G.; Regnell, Björn

Scientific evaluation papers investigate existing problem situations or validate proposed solutions with scientific means, such as by experiment or case study. There is a growing amount of literature about how to report about empirical research in software engineering, but there is still some

Implementing interactive decision support: A case for combining cyberinfrastructure, data fusion, and social process to mobilize scientific knowledge in sustainability problems

Science.gov (United States)

Pierce, S. A.

2014-12-01

Geosciences are becoming increasingly data intensive, particularly in relation to sustainability problems, which are multi-dimensional, weakly structured and characterized by high levels of uncertainty. In the case of complex resource management problems, the challenge is to extract meaningful information from data and make sense of it. Simultaneously, scientific knowledge alone is insufficient to change practice. Creating tools, and group decision support processes for end users to interact with data are key challenges to transforming science-based information into actionable knowledge. The ENCOMPASS project began as a multi-year case study in the Atacama Desert of Chile to design and implement a knowledge transfer model for energy-water-mining conflicts in the region. ENCOMPASS combines the use of cyberinfrastructure (CI), automated data collection, interactive interfaces for dynamic decision support, and participatory modelling to support social learning. A pilot version of the ENCOMPASS CI uses open source systems and serves as a structure to integrate and store multiple forms of data and knowledge, such as DEM, meteorological, water quality, geomicrobiological, energy demand, and groundwater models. In the case study, informatics and data fusion needs related to scientific uncertainty around deep groundwater flowpaths and energy-water connections. Users may upload data from field sites with handheld devices or desktops. Once uploaded, data assets are accessible for a variety of uses. To address multi-attributed decision problems in the Atacama region a standalone application with touch-enabled interfaces was created to improve real-time interactions with datasets by groups. The tool was used to merge datasets from the ENCOMPASS CI to support exploration among alternatives and build shared understanding among stakeholders. To date, the project has increased technical capacity among stakeholders, resulted in the creation of both for-profit and non

The Success Criteria of Scientific Pedagogic Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. V. Ovchinnikov

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The paper considers the problem of scientific pedagogic activity assessment of the higher school academic staff. The existing options of quality estimation are listed along with their deficiencies; the most acceptable in the authors’ opinion being the systematic approach. The latter allows considering almost every aspect of scientific-pedagogic activity. On that ground, the authors recommend the following success estimation criteria: gnostic, projecting, communicative, informational, and organizational. The criteria of work satisfaction and its results are taken into consideration as additional ones. The indicators of each criterion are given demonstrating that the as- sessment can be both internal (subjective and external (objective, denoted in the normative acts. The problem of complex and just quality assessment of scientific- pedagogic activity is quite relevant as it affects the academic staff motivation. The authors believe that the research findings can improve the objectivity of teachers’ work assessment and give way to differentiated approaches to their motivation and stimulation. 

Problem-Oriented Project Work

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Poul Bitsch; Pedersen, Nils Kaare

This book is meant to support problem-oriented learning activities. Problem-orientation concerns the reasoning about lack of knowledge, while project work includes the ethnomethods that are practiced when collectives produce scientific knowledge. This book reflects particular methods related...

A generative model for scientific concept hierarchies.

Science.gov (United States)

Datta, Srayan; Adar, Eytan

2018-01-01

In many scientific disciplines, each new 'product' of research (method, finding, artifact, etc.) is often built upon previous findings-leading to extension and branching of scientific concepts over time. We aim to understand the evolution of scientific concepts by placing them in phylogenetic hierarchies where scientific keyphrases from a large, longitudinal academic corpora are used as a proxy of scientific concepts. These hierarchies exhibit various important properties, including power-law degree distribution, power-law component size distribution, existence of a giant component and less probability of extending an older concept. We present a generative model based on preferential attachment to simulate the graphical and temporal properties of these hierarchies which helps us understand the underlying process behind scientific concept evolution and may be useful in simulating and predicting scientific evolution.

A generative model for scientific concept hierarchies

Science.gov (United States)

Adar, Eytan

2018-01-01

In many scientific disciplines, each new ‘product’ of research (method, finding, artifact, etc.) is often built upon previous findings–leading to extension and branching of scientific concepts over time. We aim to understand the evolution of scientific concepts by placing them in phylogenetic hierarchies where scientific keyphrases from a large, longitudinal academic corpora are used as a proxy of scientific concepts. These hierarchies exhibit various important properties, including power-law degree distribution, power-law component size distribution, existence of a giant component and less probability of extending an older concept. We present a generative model based on preferential attachment to simulate the graphical and temporal properties of these hierarchies which helps us understand the underlying process behind scientific concept evolution and may be useful in simulating and predicting scientific evolution. PMID:29474409

Scientific ballooning. Proceedings. PSB Meeting of the COSPAR Panel on Technical Problems Related to Scientific Ballooning which was held during the Thirtieth COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Hamburg (Germany), 11 - 21 Jul 1994.

Science.gov (United States)

Riedler, W.; Torkar, K.

1996-05-01

This issue is grouped into sections on materials, design, performance and analysis of balloons, reviews of major national and international balloon programmes, novel instrumentation and systems for scientific ballooning, and selected recent scientific observations.

A primer on scientific programming with Python

CERN Document Server

Langtangen, Hans Petter

2014-01-01

The book serves as a first introduction to computer programming of scientific applications, using the high-level Python language. The exposition is example and problem-oriented, where the applications are taken from mathematics, numerical calculus, statistics, physics, biology and finance. The book teaches "Matlab-style" and procedural programming as well as object-oriented programming. High school mathematics is a required background and it is advantageous to study classical and numerical one-variable calculus in parallel with reading this book. Besides learning how to program computers, the reader will also learn how to solve mathematical problems, arising in various branches of science and engineering, with the aid of numerical methods and programming. By blending programming, mathematics and scientific applications, the book lays a solid foundation for practicing computational science. From the reviews: Langtangen … does an excellent job of introducing programming as a set of skills in problem solving. ...

A primer on scientific programming with Python

CERN Document Server

Langtangen, Hans Petter

2016-01-01

The book serves as a first introduction to computer programming of scientific applications, using the high-level Python language. The exposition is example and problem-oriented, where the applications are taken from mathematics, numerical calculus, statistics, physics, biology and finance. The book teaches "Matlab-style" and procedural programming as well as object-oriented programming. High school mathematics is a required background and it is advantageous to study classical and numerical one-variable calculus in parallel with reading this book. Besides learning how to program computers, the reader will also learn how to solve mathematical problems, arising in various branches of science and engineering, with the aid of numerical methods and programming. By blending programming, mathematics and scientific applications, the book lays a solid foundation for practicing computational science. From the reviews: Langtangen … does an excellent job of introducing programming as a set of skills in problem solving. ...

The holographic dual of a Riemann problem in a large number of dimensions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Herzog, Christopher P.; Spillane, Michael [C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy,Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794 (United States); Yarom, Amos [Department of Physics, Technion,Haifa 32000 (Israel)

2016-08-22

We study properties of a non equilibrium steady state generated when two heat baths are initially in contact with one another. The dynamics of the system we study are governed by holographic duality in a large number of dimensions. We discuss the “phase diagram” associated with the steady state, the dual, dynamical, black hole description of this problem, and its relation to the fluid/gravity correspondence.

Mapping change in large networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Rosvall

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Change is a fundamental ingredient of interaction patterns in biology, technology, the economy, and science itself: Interactions within and between organisms change; transportation patterns by air, land, and sea all change; the global financial flow changes; and the frontiers of scientific research change. Networks and clustering methods have become important tools to comprehend instances of these large-scale structures, but without methods to distinguish between real trends and noisy data, these approaches are not useful for studying how networks change. Only if we can assign significance to the partitioning of single networks can we distinguish meaningful structural changes from random fluctuations. Here we show that bootstrap resampling accompanied by significance clustering provides a solution to this problem. To connect changing structures with the changing function of networks, we highlight and summarize the significant structural changes with alluvial diagrams and realize de Solla Price's vision of mapping change in science: studying the citation pattern between about 7000 scientific journals over the past decade, we find that neuroscience has transformed from an interdisciplinary specialty to a mature and stand-alone discipline.

A method to build and analyze scientific workflows from provenance through process mining

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zeng, R.; He, X.; Li, Jiafei; Liu, Zheng; Aalst, van der W.M.P.

2011-01-01

Scientific workflows have recently emerged as a new paradigm for representing and managing complex distributed scientific computations and are used to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery. In many disciplines, individual workflows are large due to the large quantities of data used. As

From stratospheric ozone to climate change: historical perspective on precaution and scientific responsibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Mégie, Gérard

2006-10-01

The issue of the impact of human activities on the stratospheric ozone layer emerged in the early 1970s. But international regulations to mitigate the most serious effects were not adopted until the mid-1980s. This case holds lessons for addressing more complex environmental problems. Concepts that should inform discussion include 'latency,' 'counter-factual scenario based on the Precautionary Principle,' 'inter-generational burden sharing,' and 'estimating global costs under factual and counter-factual regulatory scenarios.' Stringent regulations were adopted when large scientific uncertainty existed, and the environmental problem would have been prevented or more rapidly mitigated, at relatively modest incremental price, but for a time delay before more rigorous Precautionary measures were implemented. Will history repeat itself in the case of climate change?

SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF NATURE AND SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF CULTURE: INTE-GRATION TREND, PRACTICAL VALUE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fokina Zoya Titovna

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This article deals with a topic of interest : studying the expanding and deepening trend of integration of natural, technical, social and humanities fields of scientific knowledge. The point of absolute opposition between the sciences dealing with nature and those dealing with culture is subjected to criticism, the forms of integration of scientific knowledge are identified: mathematization, formalization, computerization of knowledge; philosophization/dialectization and environmentalization of the scientific knowledge. It is noted that such areas of scientific knowledge as synergetics, cybernetics, system theory, information technology, sociosynergetics, historical informatics, cliometrics, informatics for economics, evolutionary economics, human ecology, etc. Many scientific fields appear on the border between the science, technology and mathematics, and social and humanities studies, while the sharp borders between the natural sciences and cultural sciences tend to disappear, although specifics of studying the social reality still exists. Within the context of integration of sciences, comprehensive approach, synergetics, cybernetics, and mathematical model approach are analyzed. The philosophy of technology, and environmental problems, which are caused by the development of technological civilization, are studied. Practical value of integration processes in science is identified. The studied data is addressed to the specialists who are interested in the modern processes of integration of sciences, and modern issues of scientific and technical development of humanity, survival of humanity under the conditions of increasing technological understanding of the nature.

A Hybrid Metaheuristic for Multi-Objective Scientific Workflow Scheduling in a Cloud Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nazia Anwar

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Cloud computing has emerged as a high-performance computing environment with a large pool of abstracted, virtualized, flexible, and on-demand resources and services. Scheduling of scientific workflows in a distributed environment is a well-known NP-complete problem and therefore intractable with exact solutions. It becomes even more challenging in the cloud computing platform due to its dynamic and heterogeneous nature. The aim of this study is to optimize multi-objective scheduling of scientific workflows in a cloud computing environment based on the proposed metaheuristic-based algorithm, Hybrid Bio-inspired Metaheuristic for Multi-objective Optimization (HBMMO. The strong global exploration ability of the nature-inspired metaheuristic Symbiotic Organisms Search (SOS is enhanced by involving an efficient list-scheduling heuristic, Predict Earliest Finish Time (PEFT, in the proposed algorithm to obtain better convergence and diversity of the approximate Pareto front in terms of reduced makespan, minimized cost, and efficient load balance of the Virtual Machines (VMs. The experiments using different scientific workflow applications highlight the effectiveness, practicality, and better performance of the proposed algorithm.

Genetics problem solving and worldview

Science.gov (United States)

Dale, Esther

The research goal was to determine whether worldview relates to traditional and real-world genetics problem solving. Traditionally, scientific literacy emphasized content knowledge alone because it was sufficient to solve traditional problems. The contemporary definition of scientific literacy is, "The knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision-making, participation in civic and cultural affairs and economic productivity" (NRC, 1996). An expanded definition of scientific literacy is needed to solve socioscientific issues (SSI), complex social issues with conceptual, procedural, or technological associations with science. Teaching content knowledge alone assumes that students will find the scientific explanation of a phenomenon to be superior to a non-science explanation. Formal science and everyday ways of thinking about science are two different cultures (Palmer, 1999). Students address this rift with cognitive apartheid, the boxing away of science knowledge from other types of knowledge (Jedege & Aikenhead, 1999). By addressing worldview, cognitive apartheid may decrease and scientific literacy may increase. Introductory biology students at the University of Minnesota during fall semester 2005 completed a written questionnaire-including a genetics content-knowledge test, four genetic dilemmas, the Worldview Assessment Instrument (WAI) and some items about demographics and religiosity. Six students responded to the interview protocol. Based on statistical analysis and interview data, this study concluded the following: (1) Worldview, in the form of metaphysics, relates to solving traditional genetic dilemmas. (2) Worldview, in the form of agency, relates to solving traditional genetics problems. (3) Thus, worldview must be addressed in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Terminology of economics in Albanian: Current state, problems and tasks

OpenAIRE

Mulaj, Isa

2012-01-01

The primary aim of this paper was to analyze the state of terminology of economics in Albanian language, and depending on the problems identified, to address some recommendations as tasks that are deemed necessary for future research that would contribute to its standardization. The paper begun from the hypothesis that the terminology in question is relatively rich, but finds that academic and scientific research are very limited or largely neglected, thus creating a vacuum in its broader and...

The Large Deployable Reflector (LDR) report of the Science Coordination Group

Science.gov (United States)

1986-01-01

The Large Deployable Reflector (LDR) is a telescope designed to carry out high-angular resolution, high-sensitivity observations at far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths. The scientific rationale for the LDR is discussed in light of the recent Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) results and the several new ground-based observatories planned for the late 1980s. The importance of high sensitivity and high angular resolution observations from space in the submillimeter region is stressed. The scientific and technical problems of using the LDR in a light bucket mode at approx. less than 5 microns and in designing the LDR as an unfilled aperture with subarcsecond resolution are also discussed. The need for an aperture as large as 20 m is established, along with the requirements of beam-shape stability, spatial chopping, thermal control, and surface figure stability. The instrument complement required to cover the wavelength-spectral resolution region of interest to the LDR is defined.

Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing in Plasma Science

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, William

2005-03-01

Advanced computing is generally recognized to be an increasingly vital tool for accelerating progress in scientific research during the 21st Century. For example, the Department of Energy's ``Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing'' (SciDAC) Program was motivated in large measure by the fact that formidable scientific challenges in its research portfolio could best be addressed by utilizing the combination of the rapid advances in super-computing technology together with the emergence of effective new algorithms and computational methodologies. The imperative is to translate such progress into corresponding increases in the performance of the scientific codes used to model complex physical systems such as those encountered in high temperature plasma research. If properly validated against experimental measurements and analytic benchmarks, these codes can provide reliable predictive capability for the behavior of a broad range of complex natural and engineered systems. This talk reviews recent progress and future directions for advanced simulations with some illustrative examples taken from the plasma science applications area. Significant recent progress has been made in both particle and fluid simulations of fine-scale turbulence and large-scale dynamics, giving increasingly good agreement between experimental observations and computational modeling. This was made possible by the combination of access to powerful new computational resources together with innovative advances in analytic and computational methods for developing reduced descriptions of physics phenomena spanning a huge range in time and space scales. In particular, the plasma science community has made excellent progress in developing advanced codes for which computer run-time and problem size scale well with the number of processors on massively parallel machines (MPP's). A good example is the effective usage of the full power of multi-teraflop (multi-trillion floating point computations

Philosophy of Information and Fundamental Problems of Modern Informatics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Konstantin Kolin

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Actual philosophical and scientifically methodological problems of modern Informatics as fundamental science and a complex scientific direction are considered. Communication of these problems with prospects of development of Informatics and fundamental science as a whole is shown.

Social constructivism and positive epistemology: On establishing of scientific facts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brdar Milan

2009-01-01

Full Text Available In this article author is dealing with the problem of genesis and establishing of scientific fact. In the first part is given philosophical treatment of the problem and its futility, for the reason given in Minhausen trilema as a conclusion of this kind of treatment. Second part of the article contains the review of Ludvik Fleck's positive epistemology and of social constructivism. After the short historical review of the roots of social constructivism in the Mannheim's sociology of knowledge, author describes how it goes with erstablishing of scientific fact. Solution is set forth by elaboration of triad physis-nomos-logos within the constitutive elements of society known as authority-institution-reason-discourse. Author's concluding thesis claims that there is no fact without convention, i.e. that nature and scientific fact are connected by institution (scientific or social. It does not mean that there is no sound established facts but that obstacle toward it is provided just with institutional mediation that make condition of possibility of very truth. Therefore, the question: what among known facts are really truthful amounts to eternal problem of science and common sense in every epoch of history. .

An Experimental Copyright Moratorium: Study of a Proposed Solution to the Copyright Photocopying Problem. Final Report to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).

Science.gov (United States)

Heilprin, Laurence B.

The Committee to Investigate Copyright Problems (CICP), a non-profit organization dedicated to resolving the conflict known as the "copyright photocopying problem" was joined by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), a large national publisher of technical and scientific standards, in a plan to simulate a long-proposed…

Scientific applications of symbolic computation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hearn, A.C.

1976-02-01

The use of symbolic computation systems for problem solving in scientific research is reviewed. The nature of the field is described, and particular examples are considered from celestial mechanics, quantum electrodynamics and general relativity. Symbolic integration and some more recent applications of algebra systems are also discussed [fr

Sparse deconvolution for the large-scale ill-posed inverse problem of impact force reconstruction

Science.gov (United States)

Qiao, Baijie; Zhang, Xingwu; Gao, Jiawei; Liu, Ruonan; Chen, Xuefeng

2017-01-01

Most previous regularization methods for solving the inverse problem of force reconstruction are to minimize the l2-norm of the desired force. However, these traditional regularization methods such as Tikhonov regularization and truncated singular value decomposition, commonly fail to solve the large-scale ill-posed inverse problem in moderate computational cost. In this paper, taking into account the sparse characteristic of impact force, the idea of sparse deconvolution is first introduced to the field of impact force reconstruction and a general sparse deconvolution model of impact force is constructed. Second, a novel impact force reconstruction method based on the primal-dual interior point method (PDIPM) is proposed to solve such a large-scale sparse deconvolution model, where minimizing the l2-norm is replaced by minimizing the l1-norm. Meanwhile, the preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm is used to compute the search direction of PDIPM with high computational efficiency. Finally, two experiments including the small-scale or medium-scale single impact force reconstruction and the relatively large-scale consecutive impact force reconstruction are conducted on a composite wind turbine blade and a shell structure to illustrate the advantage of PDIPM. Compared with Tikhonov regularization, PDIPM is more efficient, accurate and robust whether in the single impact force reconstruction or in the consecutive impact force reconstruction.

Scientific Data Management Center for Enabling Technologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vouk, Mladen A.

2013-01-15

Managing scientific data has been identified by the scientific community as one of the most important emerging needs because of the sheer volume and increasing complexity of data being collected. Effectively generating, managing, and analyzing this information requires a comprehensive, end-to-end approach to data management that encompasses all of the stages from the initial data acquisition to the final analysis of the data. Fortunately, the data management problems encountered by most scientific domains are common enough to be addressed through shared technology solutions. Based on community input, we have identified three significant requirements. First, more efficient access to storage systems is needed. In particular, parallel file system and I/O system improvements are needed to write and read large volumes of data without slowing a simulation, analysis, or visualization engine. These processes are complicated by the fact that scientific data are structured differently for specific application domains, and are stored in specialized file formats. Second, scientists require technologies to facilitate better understanding of their data, in particular the ability to effectively perform complex data analysis and searches over extremely large data sets. Specialized feature discovery and statistical analysis techniques are needed before the data can be understood or visualized. Furthermore, interactive analysis requires techniques for efficiently selecting subsets of the data. Finally, generating the data, collecting and storing the results, keeping track of data provenance, data post-processing, and analysis of results is a tedious, fragmented process. Tools for automation of this process in a robust, tractable, and recoverable fashion are required to enhance scientific exploration. The SDM center was established under the SciDAC program to address these issues. The SciDAC-1 Scientific Data Management (SDM) Center succeeded in bringing an initial set of advanced

Training of Engineering Personnel for the Innovative Coal Industry: Problems and Ways of Solution

Science.gov (United States)

Zaruba, Natalya; Fraltsova, Tamara; Snegireva, Tatyana

2017-11-01

The article is written based on some results of the long-term scientific research of the problem related to the urgent need to find the ways of training personnel for the innovative coal industry in the higher education system. This is due to the fundamental changes in the Russian social and economic conditions: the change in the social system and the owner of the coal industry, the emergence of new technologies in the field of coal mining and processing, and in the management of these processes. At the same time, the system of training specialists for the coal industry in the higher education institutions has largely remained unchanged: technologies and principles of training, scientific approaches and concepts take little account of the changed situation, traditional views of specialists work-ing in the university continue to dominate innovative ideas. Many innovations, especially related to technology and the principles of education, struggle to make their way into the higher education system. The article substantiates the urgency of the problem of training personnel for the innovative coal industry in the higher education system, as well as the importance of scientific analysis of the problem in order to find the ways to solve it.

Information dissemination, environment and scientific information; Informazione, ambiente e scienza. Studi di caso e prospettive

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Borrelli, G; Marchetti, A [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Casaccia, Rome (Italy). Dipt. Ambiente; Belli, M [WWF, Fondo Mondiale per la Natura, Rome (Italy)

1998-02-01

Among ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and the Environment) activities, one deals with analysis and strategies of environmental and scientific information. A questionnaire, created in collaboration with AIGA (Italian Environmental Journalist Association) and UGIS (Italian Scientific Journalist Association) and WWF has been realized. Purpose of the work was to check the level of sensitivity of the Italian journalists on environmental and scientific issues and to investigate the main obstacle facing to their professional activity.Environmental and scientific problems are usually not correctly perceived by the public. These problems, in fact, undergo a `closeness/distance` perception syndrome despite the fact that they are often presented and discussed in the media. The dichotomy may be explained according to the following phenomenology: 1. the existence of the problem is well known but the scientific and technological contest results to be of hard comprehension; 2. better and prolonged debating about the problem increments the attendance echo but simultaneously decrements the real understanding of it. The public opinion response to the diffusion of news related to environmental and scientific themes of no immediate understanding is of great concern; 3. media organizations are not always suited for dealing with the advanced matter of environmental and scientific information.

A LARGE HUMAN CENTRIFUGE FOR EXPLORATION AND EXPLOITATION RESEARCH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jack J.W.A. van Loon

2012-06-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses concepts regarding the development of an Altered Gravity Platform (AGP that will serve as a research platform for human space exploration. Space flight causes a multitude of physiological problems, many of which are due to gravity level transitions. Going from Earth's gravity to microgravity generates fluid shifts, space motion sickness, cardiovascular deconditioning among other changes, and returning to a gravity environment again puts the astronauts under similar stressors. A prolonged stay in microgravity provokes additional deleterious changes such as bone loss, muscle atrophy and loss of coordination or specific psychological stresses. To prepare for future manned space exploration missions, a ground-based research test bed for validating countermeasures against the deleterious effects of g-level transitions is needed. The proposed AGP is a large rotating facility (diameter > 150 m, where gravity levels ranging from 1.1 to 1.5g are generated, covering short episodes or during prolonged stays of weeks or even months. On this platform, facilities are built where a crew of 6 to 8 humans can live autonomously. Adaptation from 1 g to higher g levels can be studied extensively and monitored continuously. Similarly, re-adaptation back to 1 g, after a prolonged period of altered g can also be investigated. Study of the physiological and psychological adaptation to changing g-levels will provide instrumental and predictive knowledge to better define the ultimate countermeasures that are needed for future successful manned space exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and elsewhere. The AGP initiative will allow scientific top experts in Europe and worldwide to investigate the necessary scientific, operational, and engineering inputs required for such space missions. Because so many different physiological systems are involved in adaptation to gravity levels, a multidisciplinary approach is crucial. One of the final and crucial

Dirofilariasis in Russian Federation: a big problem with large distribution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatyana V. Moskvina

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Dirofilariasis caused by Dirofilaria spp. is an important vector-borne and largely zoonotic disease. In Russia, dirofilariasis is caused by two agents D. immitis and D. repens. The present article provides detailed analyses of human and canine dirofilariasis methods of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of the disease, with particular reference to the control programmes. Information has been summarised from literature in different languages that are not readily accessible to the international scientific community. Human dirofilariasis was first registered in Russia in 1915, and recent reports showed that the total number of infected humans increases on average by 1.8 times every three years. Human dirofilariasis was registered in 42 federal subjects. Totally 1162 cases of subcutaneous dirofilariasis were registered in the Russian Federation between 1915-2013, the most frequently type of subcutanious dirofilariasis was ocular dirofilariasis (more than 50% cases. Seven cases of pulmonary dirofilarisis were registered in Russia. The treatment of human dirofilariasis includes surgical removal of worms only; in result preventive measure have major importance for reducing risk of Dirofilaria infection. Control programmes have been implemented by the government at all administrative levels including diagnosis and treatment of patients, identification, isolation, and treatment of infected dogs, monthly chemoprophylactic of dogs during spring-summer periods, and regular vector control.

Large-Scale Parallel Finite Element Analysis of the Stress Singular Problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noriyuki Kushida; Hiroshi Okuda; Genki Yagawa

2002-01-01

In this paper, the convergence behavior of large-scale parallel finite element method for the stress singular problems was investigated. The convergence behavior of iterative solvers depends on the efficiency of the pre-conditioners. However, efficiency of pre-conditioners may be influenced by the domain decomposition that is necessary for parallel FEM. In this study the following results were obtained: Conjugate gradient method without preconditioning and the diagonal scaling preconditioned conjugate gradient method were not influenced by the domain decomposition as expected. symmetric successive over relaxation method preconditioned conjugate gradient method converged 6% faster as maximum if the stress singular area was contained in one sub-domain. (authors)

Self-Evaluation of the Scientific Activity of a Higher Educational Institution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rayevnyeva Olena V.

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The article is dedicated to the problem of self-evaluation of the scientific activity of a higher educational institution (HEI as a component of its overall ranking evaluation. On the basis of a potentially effective approach to studying this problem, there proposed a system of indicators for evaluating the scientific activity of a HEI, which makes it possible to determine the potential of its scientific activity in terms of staff and resource provision, and the efficiency — in terms of quality of the training of scientific staff (students, graduate students, young scientists, etc., financial results of scientific activity and publication activity. To obtain an integral ranking score of the scientific activity of a HEI, the use of the taxonomic method is justified, the necessity of applying weight coefficients of the significance of primary indicators is determined. The approbation of the approach was carried out on the basis of the data of S. Kuznets KhNEU for the period of 2013-2016, which made it possible to obtain not only point estimates of the integral indicator of the scientific activity of an HEI but also determine the trends in its changes and identify their reasons. The proposed approach to the self-evaluation of the scientific activity of a HEI allows its administration to develop effective management solutions to increase the level of scientific activity of its scientific and pedagogical, and scientific staff, which will provide additional competitive advantages in the national and world educational space.

[Strengthening the methodology of study designs in scientific researches].

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Ze-qin

2010-06-01

Many problems in study designs have affected the validity of scientific researches seriously. We must understand the methodology of research, especially clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, and recognize the urgency in selection and implement of right study design. Thereafter we can promote the research capability and improve the overall quality of scientific researches.

Mapping the evolution of scientific ideas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roberts, David C [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Herrera, Mark [UNIV OF MARYLAND; Gulbahce, Natali [NORTHEASTERN UNIV

2008-01-01

The importance of interdisciplinary research is ever increasing as challenging world problems require expertise across diverse fields. Despite the apparent conceptual boundaries of scientific fields, a formal description for their evolution is lacking. Here we describe a novel approach to study the dynamics and evolution of scientific ideas and fields using a network-based analysis. We build a idea network consisting of American Physical Society Pacs numbers as nodes representing scientific concepts. Two Pacs numbers are linked in the network if there exist publications that reference them simultaneously. We locate scientific fields using an overlapping community finding algorithm and describe the time evolution of these fields using a community evolution method over the course of 1985-2006. We find that the communities we find map to scientific fields, the lifetime of these fields strongly depends on their size, impact and activity, and longest living communities are least volatile. The described approach to quantify the evolution of ideas is expected to be relevant in making predictions about the future of science and how to guide its development.

An emerging view of scientific collaboration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hara, Noriko; Solomon, Paul; Kim, Seung Lye

2003-01-01

Collaboration is often a critical aspect of scientific research, which is dominated by complex problems, rapidly changing technology, dynamic growth of knowledge, and highly specialized areas of expertise. An individual scientist can seldom provide all of the expertise and resources necessary...

The scientific data acquisition system of the GAMMA-400 space project

Science.gov (United States)

Bobkov, S. G.; Serdin, O. V.; Gorbunov, M. S.; Arkhangelskiy, A. I.; Topchiev, N. P.

2016-02-01

The description of scientific data acquisition system (SDAS) designed by SRISA for the GAMMA-400 space project is presented. We consider the problem of different level electronics unification: the set of reliable fault-tolerant integrated circuits fabricated on Silicon-on-Insulator 0.25 mkm CMOS technology and the high-speed interfaces and reliable modules used in the space instruments. The characteristics of reliable fault-tolerant very large scale integration (VLSI) technology designed by SRISA for the developing of computation systems for space applications are considered. The scalable net structure of SDAS based on Serial RapidIO interface including real-time operating system BAGET is described too.

PREFACE: XVIII International Scientific Symposium in Honour of Academician M. A. Usov: Problems of Geology and Subsurface Development

Science.gov (United States)

2014-08-01

XVIII International Scientific Symposium in honor of Academician M.A. Usov ''Problems of Geology and Subsurface Development'' (for students and young scientists) was organized under the guidance of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. Being one of the oldest technical higher education institutions which trains specialists who contribute to scientific research in geosciences, The Institute of Natural Resources of National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU INR) was chosen to hold the symposium. In 2014 The Institute of Natural Resources celebrated its 113th anniversary. It was founded in 1901 by V.A. Obruchev, the first geologist in Siberia, member of USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, and the first Laureate of the Lenin Prize. He was recognized all over the world as a prominent scientist in the area of geology. INR is the first institute of geological education and geosciences in the Asian part of Russia. Siberian Mining and Geological Schola, established by V.A. Obruchev and M.A. Usov, has been retaining its significance for discovery, exploration and development of mineral resources not only in Siberia, in the Far East and North-East of the country, but also in Central Asia. There are a lot of outstanding scientists, engineers and manufacturers among alumni of The Institute of Natural Resources. The institute is proud of M.A. Usov, the student and first postgraduate of V.A. Obruchev, first professor and academician in Siberia, whose name is associated with the development of the mining industry in Siberia; Academician K.I. Satpaev, the founder and first president of the Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan; Professor N.N. Urvantsev, the discoverer of the unique Norilsk ore deposits in the north of East Siberia and Professor M.K. Korovin, who considered West Siberia deposits to be prospective for oil-gas exploration. There are over 35 000 graduates of the institute and

Neophilia Ranking of Scientific Journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Packalen, Mikko; Bhattacharya, Jay

2017-01-01

The ranking of scientific journals is important because of the signal it sends to scientists about what is considered most vital for scientific progress. Existing ranking systems focus on measuring the influence of a scientific paper (citations)-these rankings do not reward journals for publishing innovative work that builds on new ideas. We propose an alternative ranking based on the proclivity of journals to publish papers that build on new ideas, and we implement this ranking via a text-based analysis of all published biomedical papers dating back to 1946. In addition, we compare our neophilia ranking to citation-based (impact factor) rankings; this comparison shows that the two ranking approaches are distinct. Prior theoretical work suggests an active role for our neophilia index in science policy. Absent an explicit incentive to pursue novel science, scientists underinvest in innovative work because of a coordination problem: for work on a new idea to flourish, many scientists must decide to adopt it in their work. Rankings that are based purely on influence thus do not provide sufficient incentives for publishing innovative work. By contrast, adoption of the neophilia index as part of journal-ranking procedures by funding agencies and university administrators would provide an explicit incentive for journals to publish innovative work and thus help solve the coordination problem by increasing scientists' incentives to pursue innovative work.

Accelerating sustainability in large-scale facilities

CERN Multimedia

Marina Giampietro

2011-01-01

Scientific research centres and large-scale facilities are intrinsically energy intensive, but how can big science improve its energy management and eventually contribute to the environmental cause with new cleantech? CERN’s commitment to providing tangible answers to these questions was sealed in the first workshop on energy management for large scale scientific infrastructures held in Lund, Sweden, on the 13-14 October.   Participants at the energy management for large scale scientific infrastructures workshop. The workshop, co-organised with the European Spallation Source (ESS) and  the European Association of National Research Facilities (ERF), tackled a recognised need for addressing energy issues in relation with science and technology policies. It brought together more than 150 representatives of Research Infrastrutures (RIs) and energy experts from Europe and North America. “Without compromising our scientific projects, we can ...

New methods to interpolate large volume of data from points or particles (Mesh-Free) methods application for its scientific visualization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reyes Lopez, Y.; Yervilla Herrera, H.; Viamontes Esquivel, A.; Recarey Morfa, C. A.

2009-01-01

In the following paper we developed a new method to interpolate large volumes of scattered data, focused mainly on the results of the Mesh free Methods, Points Methods and the Particles Methods application. Through this one, we use local radial basis function as interpolating functions. We also use over-tree as the data structure that allows to accelerate the localization of the data that influences to interpolate the values at a new point, speeding up the application of scientific visualization techniques to generate images from large data volumes from the application of Mesh-free Methods, Points and Particle Methods, in the resolution of diverse models of physics-mathematics. As an example, the results obtained after applying this method using the local interpolation functions of Shepard are shown. (Author) 22 refs

Scientific computing an introduction using Maple and Matlab

CERN Document Server

Gander, Walter; Kwok, Felix

2014-01-01

Scientific computing is the study of how to use computers effectively to solve problems that arise from the mathematical modeling of phenomena in science and engineering. It is based on mathematics, numerical and symbolic/algebraic computations and visualization. This book serves as an introduction to both the theory and practice of scientific computing, with each chapter presenting the basic algorithms that serve as the workhorses of many scientific codes; we explain both the theory behind these algorithms and how they must be implemented in order to work reliably in finite-precision arithmetic. The book includes many programs written in Matlab and Maple – Maple is often used to derive numerical algorithms, whereas Matlab is used to implement them. The theory is developed in such a way that students can learn by themselves as they work through the text. Each chapter contains numerous examples and problems to help readers understand the material “hands-on”.

Artificial intelligence support for scientific model-building

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Richard M.

1992-01-01

Scientific model-building can be a time-intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large and complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot easily be distributed and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complex, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientific development team to understand. We believe that artificial intelligence techniques can facilitate both the model-building and model-sharing process. In this paper, we overview our effort to build a scientific modeling software tool that aids the scientist in developing and using models. This tool includes an interactive intelligent graphical interface, a high-level domain specific modeling language, a library of physics equations and experimental datasets, and a suite of data display facilities.

Assignment of uncertainties to scientific data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Froehner, F.H.

1994-01-01

Long-standing problems of uncertainty assignment to scientific data came into a sharp focus in recent years when uncertainty information ('covariance files') had to be added to application-oriented large libraries of evaluated nuclear data such as ENDF and JEF. Question arouse about the best way to express uncertainties, the meaning of statistical and systematic errors, the origin of correlation and construction of covariance matrices, the combination of uncertain data from different sources, the general usefulness of results that are strictly valid only for Gaussian or only for linear statistical models, etc. Conventional statistical theory is often unable to give unambiguous answers, and tends to fail when statistics is bad so that prior information becomes crucial. Modern probability theory, on the other hand, incorporating decision information becomes group-theoretic results, is shown to provide straight and unique answers to such questions, and to deal easily with prior information and small samples. (author). 10 refs

A set of vertically integrated inquiry-based practical curricula that develop scientific thinking skills for large cohorts of undergraduate students.

Science.gov (United States)

Zimbardi, Kirsten; Bugarcic, Andrea; Colthorpe, Kay; Good, Jonathan P; Lluka, Lesley J

2013-12-01

Science graduates require critical thinking skills to deal with the complex problems they will face in their 21st century workplaces. Inquiry-based curricula can provide students with the opportunities to develop such critical thinking skills; however, evidence suggests that an inappropriate level of autonomy provided to underprepared students may not only be daunting to students but also detrimental to their learning. After a major review of the Bachelor of Science, we developed, implemented, and evaluated a series of three vertically integrated courses with inquiry-style laboratory practicals for early-stage undergraduate students in biomedical science. These practical curricula were designed so that students would work with increasing autonomy and ownership of their research projects to develop increasingly advanced scientific thinking and communication skills. Students undertaking the first iteration of these three vertically integrated courses reported learning gains in course content as well as skills in scientific writing, hypothesis construction, experimental design, data analysis, and interpreting results. Students also demonstrated increasing skills in both hypothesis formulation and communication of findings as a result of participating in the inquiry-based curricula and completing the associated practical assessment tasks. Here, we report the specific aspects of the curricula that students reported as having the greatest impact on their learning and the particular elements of hypothesis formulation and communication of findings that were more challenging for students to master. These findings provide important implications for science educators concerned with designing curricula to promote scientific thinking and communication skills alongside content acquisition.

Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials: Scientific, Economic and Political Realia of the New Century

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zaporotskova Irina Vladimirovna

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The current state and problems of nanotechnology development in the Russian Federation in modern economic, political and scientific conditions are presented. Nanotechnologies and nanomaterials have already been used in all developed countries of the world in the most significant areas of human activity industry, defense, information sphere, radio electronics, energy drinks, transport, biotechnology, medicine. The Government of the Russian Federation formulated the main objectives of scientific and economic community for the development of nanotechnologies in the conditions of the demanded import substitution. In the developed countries the comprehension of the key role of nanotechnologies led to the elaboration of large-scale programs for their development on the basis of state support. Similar programs are adopted more than in thirty countries around the world, including the Russian Federation. The author of the present article studies the current state of nanotech industry in Russia and classifies nanotechnologies according to the intrinsic principle. As a result, four main directions in the field of nanotechnologies are allocated: 1 nanomaterials; 2 photonics, spintronics, nanoelectronics (devices based on the nanoprinciples; 3 nanometrology, nanomanipulators and modeling; 4 nanosensors and nanodetectors. Some perspective scientific and technological projects of nanotech industry development in Russia are also considered. The author points to economic, social, ecological, and scientific and technical opportunities of nanotechnologies development in Russia, as well as their threats.

Fundamental problem of high-level radioactive waste disposal policy in Japan. Critical analysis responding to the publication of 'Nationwide Map of Scientific Features for Geological Disposal' by the Japanese government

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Juraku, Kohta

2017-01-01

The government explains that 'Scientific Characteristic Map' (hereinafter 'Map') shows the scientific characteristics of sites that are thought necessary to be taken into account when choosing the place to implement geological disposal and their geographical distribution on the Japanese map for the convenience to 'roughly overlook.' Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan (NUMO) as the implementing agency for geological disposal and the government (Agency for Natural Resources and Energy of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) stress that this Map does not indicate so-called 'optimum land,' but it is the 'first step of a long way to realize disposal' for high-level radioactive waste (HLW). However, there clearly lurks a debate about the acceptance of the location of geological disposal in the future. The author has pointed out that the essence of the HLW disposal problem is a problem of 'value selection' that should be decided prior to the location of disposal site. The author believes that it is the competence of society how to identify the path of countermeasures by reconciling in a high degree the justice of the policies supported by scientific and professional knowledge and the justice of social decision making through a democratic duty process. However, the government is trying to forward HLW disposal only from the viewpoint of location problems, while neglecting the problem of 'value selection.' (A.O.)

Pioneering space research in the USSR and mathematical modeling of large problems of radiation transfer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sushkevich, T.A.

2011-01-01

This review is to remind scientists of the older generation of some memorable historical pages and of many famous researchers, teachers and colleagues. For the younger researchers and foreign colleagues it will be useful to get to know about pioneer advancements of the Soviet scientists in the field of information and mathematical supply for cosmonautic problems on the eve of the space era. Main attention is paid to the scientific experiments conducted on the piloted space vehicles and the research teams who created the information and mathematical tools for the first space projects. The role of Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh, the Major Theoretician of cosmonautics, is particularly emphasized. He determined for the most part the basic directions of development of space research and remote sensing of the Earth and planets that are shortly called remote sensing

The Roles of Sparse Direct Methods in Large-scale Simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, Xiaoye S.; Gao, Weiguo; Husbands, Parry J.R.; Yang, Chao; Ng, Esmond G.

2005-06-27

Sparse systems of linear equations and eigen-equations arise at the heart of many large-scale, vital simulations in DOE. Examples include the Accelerator Science and Technology SciDAC (Omega3P code, electromagnetic problem), the Center for Extended Magnetohydrodynamic Modeling SciDAC(NIMROD and M3D-C1 codes, fusion plasma simulation). The Terascale Optimal PDE Simulations (TOPS)is providing high-performance sparse direct solvers, which have had significant impacts on these applications. Over the past several years, we have been working closely with the other SciDAC teams to solve their large, sparse matrix problems arising from discretization of the partial differential equations. Most of these systems are very ill-conditioned, resulting in extremely poor convergence deployed our direct methods techniques in these applications, which achieved significant scientific results as well as performance gains. These successes were made possible through the SciDAC model of computer scientists and application scientists working together to take full advantage of terascale computing systems and new algorithms research.

The Roles of Sparse Direct Methods in Large-scale Simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Xiaoye S.; Gao, Weiguo; Husbands, Parry J.R.; Yang, Chao; Ng, Esmond G.

2005-01-01

Sparse systems of linear equations and eigen-equations arise at the heart of many large-scale, vital simulations in DOE. Examples include the Accelerator Science and Technology SciDAC (Omega3P code, electromagnetic problem), the Center for Extended Magnetohydrodynamic Modeling SciDAC(NIMROD and M3D-C1 codes, fusion plasma simulation). The Terascale Optimal PDE Simulations (TOPS)is providing high-performance sparse direct solvers, which have had significant impacts on these applications. Over the past several years, we have been working closely with the other SciDAC teams to solve their large, sparse matrix problems arising from discretization of the partial differential equations. Most of these systems are very ill-conditioned, resulting in extremely poor convergence deployed our direct methods techniques in these applications, which achieved significant scientific results as well as performance gains. These successes were made possible through the SciDAC model of computer scientists and application scientists working together to take full advantage of terascale computing systems and new algorithms research

A scientific program for infrared, submillimeter and radio astronomy from space: A report by the Management Operations Working Group

Science.gov (United States)

1989-01-01

Important and fundamental scientific progress can be attained through space observations in the wavelengths longward of 1 micron. The formation of galaxies, stars, and planets, the origin of quasars and the nature of active galactic nuclei, the large scale structure of the Universe, and the problem of the missing mass, are among the major scientific issues that can be addressed by these observations. Significant advances in many areas of astrophysics can be made over the next 20 years by implementing the outlined program. This program combines large observatories with smaller projects to create an overall scheme that emphasized complementarity and synergy, advanced technology, community support and development, and the training of the next generation of scientists. Key aspects of the program include: the Space Infrared Telescope Facility; the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy; a robust program of small missions; and the creation of the technology base for future major observatories.

Three-M in Word Problem Solving

Science.gov (United States)

Hajra, Sayonita Ghosh; Kofman, Victoria

2018-01-01

We describe three activities that help undergraduates (pre-service teachers) to develop scientific vocabulary on measurable attributes and units of measurement. Measurable attributes are important features in understanding a word problem and solving the problem. These activities help students comprehend word problems better by identifying…

Learning SciPy for numerical and scientific computing

CERN Document Server

Silva

2013-01-01

A step-by-step practical tutorial with plenty of examples on research-based problems from various areas of science, that prove how simple, yet effective, it is to provide solutions based on SciPy. This book is targeted at anyone with basic knowledge of Python, a somewhat advanced command of mathematics/physics, and an interest in engineering or scientific applications---this is broadly what we refer to as scientific computing.This book will be of critical importance to programmers and scientists who have basic Python knowledge and would like to be able to do scientific and numerical computatio

Building scientific institution’s brand with online instruments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barbara Mróz-Gorgoń

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The brand image is fundamental for the scientific institution. In the high- competitive market the brand may have a significant impact on students decisions but also the decisions made by other stakeholders. The usage of online tools in creating brands and the brand awareness is standard nowdays and is present in many business strategies. The aim of the article is to present the problem on the example of scientific institutions. Based on literature review and empirical study the authors described the usage of most popular online tools in creating the scientific institutions’ brands.

Social behavioural epistemology and the scientific community.

Science.gov (United States)

Watve, Milind

2017-07-01

The progress of science is influenced substantially by social behaviour of and social interactions within the scientific community. Similar to innovations in primate groups, the social acceptance of an innovation depends not only upon the relevance of the innovation but also on the social dominance and connectedness of the innovator. There are a number of parallels between many well-known phenomena in behavioural evolution and various behavioural traits observed in the scientific community. It would be useful, therefore, to use principles of behavioural evolution as hypotheses to study the social behaviour of the scientific community. I argue in this paper that a systematic study of social behavioural epistemology is likely to boost the progress of science by addressing several prevalent biases and other problems in scientific communication and by facilitating appropriate acceptance/rejection of novel concepts.

Scientific Services on the Cloud

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, David; Joshi, Karuna P.; Yesha, Yelena; Halem, Milt; Yesha, Yaacov; Nguyen, Phuong

Scientific Computing was one of the first every applications for parallel and distributed computation. To this date, scientific applications remain some of the most compute intensive, and have inspired creation of petaflop compute infrastructure such as the Oak Ridge Jaguar and Los Alamos RoadRunner. Large dedicated hardware infrastructure has become both a blessing and a curse to the scientific community. Scientists are interested in cloud computing for much the same reason as businesses and other professionals. The hardware is provided, maintained, and administrated by a third party. Software abstraction and virtualization provide reliability, and fault tolerance. Graduated fees allow for multi-scale prototyping and execution. Cloud computing resources are only a few clicks away, and by far the easiest high performance distributed platform to gain access to. There may still be dedicated infrastructure for ultra-scale science, but the cloud can easily play a major part of the scientific computing initiative.

RSYST: From nuclear reactor calculations towards a highly sophisticated scientific software integration environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noack, M.; Seybold, J.; Ruehle, R.

1996-01-01

The software environment RSYST was originally used to solve problems of reactor physics. The consideration of advanced scientific simulation requirements and the strict application of modern software design principles led to a system which is perfectly suitable to solve problems in various complex scientific problem domains. Starting with a review of the early days of RSYST, we describe the straight evolution driven by the need of software environment which combines the advantages of a high-performance database system with the capability to integrate sophisticated scientific technical applications. The RSYST architecture is presented and the data modelling capabilities are described. To demonstrate the powerful possibilities and flexibility of the RSYST environment, we describe a wide range of RSYST applications, e.g., mechanical simulations of multibody systems, which are used in biomechanical research, civil engineering and robotics. In addition, a hypermedia system which is used for scientific technical training and documentation is presented. (orig.) [de

Medical elementology as a new scientific discipline

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zaichick, V.

2006-01-01

All legitimate scientific disciplines are characterized by: (1) the clear definition of subjects of the study and its corresponding clear-cut name, (2) some accepted postulates, (3) set of research methods, (4) methods of quality control and processing of the obtained information, and (5) specific terminology and definitions. The inaccuracies and uncertainties in medical elementology as a new scientific discipline are discussed and some corresponding statements are made. Another and no less important problem of medical elementology is the critical unsatisfactory reproducibility of data. The complex arrangements required for the harmonization of data acquired for studies in medical elementology are offered. Main strategic aims and tactical tasks of the new scientific discipline are outlined. (author)

Fishery management problems and possibilities on large southeastern reservoirs

Science.gov (United States)

Parsons, John W.

1958-01-01

Principal problems concerning the fisheries of large reservoirs in the Southeast are: inefficient and highly selective exploitation of fish stocks, and protection and reclamation of damaged or threatened fisheries in tailwaters and tributary streams. Seven mainstream reservoirs on which data are available support an average angling pressure of 4.9 trips per acre per year and an average catch of 16 pounds of sport fish and 6 pounds of food fish. Commercial take is 7 pounds per acre. The rate of catch of sport fish, based upon tag returns, is only 3 percent. Sixteen storage reservoirs support an average angling pressure of 5.0 trips per acre per year and an average catch of 13 pounds of sport fish and 1 pound of food fish. Commercial catch is of no significance. Average rate of catch of sport fish is 17 percent of the catchable population. Fish population studies indicate that there are twice as many sport fish and four times as many food fish in mainstream than there are in storage reservoirs.

Scientific workflows as productivity tools for drug discovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Shon, John; Ohkawa, Hitomi; Hammer, Juergen

2008-05-01

Large pharmaceutical companies annually invest tens to hundreds of millions of US dollars in research informatics to support their early drug discovery processes. Traditionally, most of these investments are designed to increase the efficiency of drug discovery. The introduction of do-it-yourself scientific workflow platforms has enabled research informatics organizations to shift their efforts toward scientific innovation, ultimately resulting in a possible increase in return on their investments. Unlike the handling of most scientific data and application integration approaches, researchers apply scientific workflows to in silico experimentation and exploration, leading to scientific discoveries that lie beyond automation and integration. This review highlights some key requirements for scientific workflow environments in the pharmaceutical industry that are necessary for increasing research productivity. Examples of the application of scientific workflows in research and a summary of recent platform advances are also provided.

[Attempt at scientific theoretical classification of behavior therapy].

Science.gov (United States)

Reinecker, H

1976-01-01

Following the discussion about the position of behavior therapy there are mentioned some problems of behaviorism, the connection between behavior therapy and learning theory and problems of etiology and treatment. The usefulness of known criteria (formal as well as non-formal) should be demonstrated. There are discussed three different positions of behavior therapy within the scientific disciplines.

Scientific Data Management (SDM) Center for Enabling Technologies. 2007-2012

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ludascher, Bertram [Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States); Altintas, Ilkay [Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)

2013-09-06

Over the past five years, our activities have both established Kepler as a viable scientific workflow environment and demonstrated its value across multiple science applications. We have published numerous peer-reviewed papers on the technologies highlighted in this short paper and have given Kepler tutorials at SC06,SC07,SC08,and SciDAC 2007. Our outreach activities have allowed scientists to learn best practices and better utilize Kepler to address their individual workflow problems. Our contributions to advancing the state-of-the-art in scientific workflows have focused on the following areas. Progress in each of these areas is described in subsequent sections. Workflow development. The development of a deeper understanding of scientific workflows "in the wild" and of the requirements for support tools that allow easy construction of complex scientific workflows; Generic workflow components and templates. The development of generic actors (i.e.workflow components and processes) which can be broadly applied to scientific problems; Provenance collection and analysis. The design of a flexible provenance collection and analysis infrastructure within the workflow environment; and, Workflow reliability and fault tolerance. The improvement of the reliability and fault-tolerance of workflow environments.

Pseudoinverse preconditioners and iterative methods for large dense linear least-squares problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oskar Cahueñas

2013-05-01

Full Text Available We address the issue of approximating the pseudoinverse of the coefficient matrix for dynamically building preconditioning strategies for the numerical solution of large dense linear least-squares problems. The new preconditioning strategies are embedded into simple and well-known iterative schemes that avoid the use of the, usually ill-conditioned, normal equations. We analyze a scheme to approximate the pseudoinverse, based on Schulz iterative method, and also different iterative schemes, based on extensions of Richardson's method, and the conjugate gradient method, that are suitable for preconditioning strategies. We present preliminary numerical results to illustrate the advantages of the proposed schemes.

A New Method Based On Modified Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm In Order To Solve Nonlinear Large Scale Problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aliasghar Baziar

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract In order to handle large scale problems this study has used shuffled frog leaping algorithm. This algorithm is an optimization method based on natural memetics that uses a new two-phase modification to it to have a better search in the problem space. The suggested algorithm is evaluated by comparing to some well known algorithms using several benchmark optimization problems. The simulation results have clearly shown the superiority of this algorithm over other well-known methods in the area.

Proceedings of 8. international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2008: Ecological problems of XXI century'; Materialy 8-oj mezhdunarodnoj nauchnoj konferentsii 'Sakharovskie chteniya 2008 goda: Ehkologicheskie problemy XXI veka'

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kundas, S P; Mel' nov, S B; Poznyak, S S [International A. Sakharov environmental univ., Minsk (Belarus)

2008-05-15

The proceedings of the eighth international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2008: Ecological problems of XXI century', which was held in the International A. Sakharov environmental university, contents materials on topics: socio-ecological problems in the light of ideas of academic A. Sakharov; medical ecology; bioecology; biomonitoring, bioindication and bioremediation; radioecology and radiation protection; information systems and technologies in ecology; ecological management; ecological monitoring; ecological education, education for sustainable development; ecological ethics in bioethics education system; problems and prospects of renewable energetics development in Belarus. The proceedings are intended for specialists in field of ecology and related sciences, teachers, students and post-graduate students. (authors)

Performance of the improved version of Monte Carlo code A 3MCNP for large-scale shielding problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Omura, M.; Miyake, Y.; Hasegawa, T.; Ueki, K.; Sato, O.; Haghighat, A.; Sjoden, G. E.

2005-01-01

A 3MCNP (Automatic Adjoint Accelerated MCNP) is a revised version of the MCNP Monte Carlo code, which automatically prepares variance reduction parameters for the CADIS (Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling) methodology. Using a deterministic 'importance' (or adjoint) function, CADIS performs source and transport biasing within the weight-window technique. The current version of A 3MCNP uses the three-dimensional (3-D) Sn transport TORT code to determine a 3-D importance function distribution. Based on simulation of several real-life problems, it is demonstrated that A 3MCNP provides precise calculation results with a remarkably short computation time by using the proper and objective variance reduction parameters. However, since the first version of A 3MCNP provided only a point source configuration option for large-scale shielding problems, such as spent-fuel transport casks, a large amount of memory may be necessary to store enough points to properly represent the source. Hence, we have developed an improved version of A 3MCNP (referred to as A 3MCNPV) which has a volumetric source configuration option. This paper describes the successful use of A 3MCNPV for a concrete cask neutron and gamma-ray shielding problem, and a PWR dosimetry problem. (authors)

Proceedings of international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2004: Environmental problems of the XXI century'; Materialy mezhdunarodnoj nauchnoj konferentsii 'Sakharovskie chteniya 2004 goda: Ehkologicheskie problemy XXI veka'

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kundas, S P; Chudakov, V A [International A. Sakharov Environmental Univ., Minsk (Belarus)

2004-05-01

The present publication represents the collection of materials of a scientific conference, which was organized by Ministry for Education of the Republic of Belarus on the basis of International A. Sakharov Environmental University (Minsk, Republic of Belarus). The ecological problems were viewed on the following directions: medical and biological ecology, radioecology and ecological monitoring, eco priority power engineering, social ecology.

Popularity and Relevance of Science Education and Scientific Literacy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Graeber, Wolfgang; Blonder, Ron; Bolte, Claus

2008-01-01

A consortium of researchers from 8 European nations has successfully applied to the EU commission for funding the PARSEL (Popularity and Relevance in Science Education for Scientific Literacy) project, which aims at raising the popularity and relevance of science teaching and enhancing students...... of a range of personal and social skills (including cognitive skills associated with investigatory scientific problem solving and socio-scientific decision making) and clarify the relevancy of science education for the 21st century. This symposium will introduce and discuss the project PARSEL ideas within...

Nanomedicine: Problem Solving to Treat Cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Hemling, Melissa A.; Sammel, Lauren M.; Zenner, Greta; Payne, Amy C.; Crone, Wendy C.

2006-01-01

Many traditional classroom science and technology activities often ask students to complete prepackaged labs that ensure that everyone arrives at the same "scientifically accurate" solution or theory, which ignores the important problem-solving and creative aspects of scientific research and technological design. Students rarely have the…

High-integrity software, computation and the scientific method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hatton, L.

2012-01-01

Computation rightly occupies a central role in modern science. Datasets are enormous and the processing implications of some algorithms are equally staggering. With the continuing difficulties in quantifying the results of complex computations, it is of increasing importance to understand its role in the essentially Popperian scientific method. In this paper, some of the problems with computation, for example the long-term unquantifiable presence of undiscovered defect, problems with programming languages and process issues will be explored with numerous examples. One of the aims of the paper is to understand the implications of trying to produce high-integrity software and the limitations which still exist. Unfortunately Computer Science itself suffers from an inability to be suitably critical of its practices and has operated in a largely measurement-free vacuum since its earliest days. Within computer science itself, this has not been so damaging in that it simply leads to unconstrained creativity and a rapid turnover of new technologies. In the applied sciences however which have to depend on computational results, such unquantifiability significantly undermines trust. It is time this particular demon was put to rest. (author)

Parallel Tensor Compression for Large-Scale Scientific Data.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kolda, Tamara G. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Ballard, Grey [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Austin, Woody Nathan [Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)

2015-10-01

As parallel computing trends towards the exascale, scientific data produced by high-fidelity simulations are growing increasingly massive. For instance, a simulation on a three-dimensional spatial grid with 512 points per dimension that tracks 64 variables per grid point for 128 time steps yields 8 TB of data. By viewing the data as a dense five way tensor, we can compute a Tucker decomposition to find inherent low-dimensional multilinear structure, achieving compression ratios of up to 10000 on real-world data sets with negligible loss in accuracy. So that we can operate on such massive data, we present the first-ever distributed memory parallel implementation for the Tucker decomposition, whose key computations correspond to parallel linear algebra operations, albeit with nonstandard data layouts. Our approach specifies a data distribution for tensors that avoids any tensor data redistribution, either locally or in parallel. We provide accompanying analysis of the computation and communication costs of the algorithms. To demonstrate the compression and accuracy of the method, we apply our approach to real-world data sets from combustion science simulations. We also provide detailed performance results, including parallel performance in both weak and strong scaling experiments.

Proceedings of 6. international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2006: Ecological problems of XXI century'. Pt. 1; Materialy 6-oj mezhdunarodnoj nauchnoj konferentsii 'Sakharovskie chteniya 2006 goda: Ehkologicheskie problemy XXI veka'. Ch. 1

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kundas, S P; Okeanov, A E; Poznyak, S S [International A. Sakharov environmental univ., Minsk (Belarus)

2006-05-15

The first part of proceedings of the sixth international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2006: Ecological problems of XXI century', which was held in the International A. Sakharov environmental university, contents materials on topics: socio-ecological problems, medical ecology, biomonitoring and bioindication, biological ecology. The proceedings are intended for specialists in field of ecology and related sciences, teachers, students and post-graduate students. (authors)

Proceedings of 5. international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2005: Ecological problems of XXI century'. Pt. 1; Materialy 5-oj mezhdunarodnoj nauchnoj konferentsii 'Sakharovskie chteniya 2005 goda: Ehkologicheskie problemy XXI veka'. Ch. 1

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kundas, S P; Okeanov, A E [International A. Sakharov environmental univ., Minsk (Belarus); Shevchuk, V E [Kamiteht pa prablemam nastupstvaw katastrofy na Charnobyl' skaj AEhS pry Savetse Ministraw Rehspubliki Belarus' , Minsk (Belarus)

2005-05-15

The first part of proceedings of the fifth international scientific conference 'Sakharov readings 2005: Ecological problems of XXI century', which was held in the International A. Sakharov Environmental University, contents materials on topics: socio-ecological problems, medical ecology, biological ecology. The proceedings are intended for specialists in field of ecology and related sciences, teachers, students and post-graduate students. (authors)

Support Science by Publishing in Scientific Society Journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Schloss, Patrick D; Johnston, Mark; Casadevall, Arturo

2017-09-26

Scientific societies provide numerous services to the scientific enterprise, including convening meetings, publishing journals, developing scientific programs, advocating for science, promoting education, providing cohesion and direction for the discipline, and more. For most scientific societies, publishing provides revenues that support these important activities. In recent decades, the proportion of papers on microbiology published in scientific society journals has declined. This is largely due to two competing pressures: authors' drive to publish in "glam journals"-those with high journal impact factors-and the availability of "mega journals," which offer speedy publication of articles regardless of their potential impact. The decline in submissions to scientific society journals and the lack of enthusiasm on the part of many scientists to publish in them should be matters of serious concern to all scientists because they impact the service that scientific societies can provide to their members and to science. Copyright © 2017 Schloss et al.

10th International Conference on Vibration Problems

CERN Document Server

Horáček, Jaromír; Okrouhlík, Miloslav; Marvalová, Bohdana; Verhulst, Ferdinand; Sawicki, Jerzy; Vibration Problems ICOVP 2011

2011-01-01

This volume presents the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Vibration Problems, September 5-8, 2011, Prague, Czech Republic. Since they started in 1990 the ICOVP conferences have matured into a reference platform reflecting the state-of-the-art of dynamics in the broadest sense, bringing together scientists from different backgrounds who are actively working on vibration-related problems in theoretical, experimental and applied dynamics, thus facilitating a lively exchange of ideas, methods and results. Dynamics as a scientific discipline draws inspiration from a large variety of engineering areas, such as Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Aero and Space Technology, Wind and Earthquake Engineering and Transport and Building Machinery. Moreover, the basic research in dynamics nowadays includes many fields of theoretical physics and various interdisciplinary subject areas. ICOVP 2011 covers all branches of dynamics and offers the most up-to-date results and developments in a high-quality select...

The Elder Problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John W. Elder

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an autobiographical and biographical historical account of the genesis, evolution and resolution of the Elder Problem. It begins with John W. Elder and his autobiographical story leading to his groundbreaking work on natural convection at Cambridge in the 1960’s. His seminal work published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics in 1967 became the basis for the modern benchmark of variable density flow simulators that we know today as “The Elder Problem”. There have been well known and major challenges with the Elder Problem model benchmark—notably the multiple solutions that were ultimately uncovered using different numerical models. Most recently, it has been shown that the multiple solutions are indeed physically realistic bifurcation solutions to the Elder Problem and not numerically spurious artefacts. The quandary of the Elder Problem has now been solved—a major scientific breakthrough for fluid mechanics and for numerical modelling. This paper—records, reflections, reminiscences, stories and anecdotes—is an historical autobiographical and biographical memoir. It is the personal story of the Elder Problem told by some of the key scientists who established and solved the Elder Problem. 2017 marks the 50 year anniversary of the classical work by John W. Elder published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics in 1967. This set the stage for this scientific story over some five decades. This paper is a celebration and commemoration of the life and times of John W. Elder, the problem named in his honour, and some of the key scientists who worked on, and ultimately solved, it.

Scientific annual report 1973

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

A report is given on the scientific research at DESY in 1973, which included the first storage of electrons in the double storage ring DORIS. Also mentioned are the two large spectrometers PLUTO and DASP, and experiments relating to elementary particles, synchrotron radiation, and the improvement of the equipment are described. (WL/AK) [de

Scientific data interpolation with low dimensional manifold model

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Wei; Wang, Bao; Barnard, Richard; Hauck, Cory D.; Jenko, Frank; Osher, Stanley

2018-01-01

We propose to apply a low dimensional manifold model to scientific data interpolation from regular and irregular samplings with a significant amount of missing information. The low dimensionality of the patch manifold for general scientific data sets has been used as a regularizer in a variational formulation. The problem is solved via alternating minimization with respect to the manifold and the data set, and the Laplace-Beltrami operator in the Euler-Lagrange equation is discretized using the weighted graph Laplacian. Various scientific data sets from different fields of study are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm on data compression and interpolation from both regular and irregular samplings.

Scientific data interpolation with low dimensional manifold model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu, Wei; Wang, Bao; Barnard, Richard C.; Hauck, Cory D.

2017-01-01

Here, we propose to apply a low dimensional manifold model to scientific data interpolation from regular and irregular samplings with a significant amount of missing information. The low dimensionality of the patch manifold for general scientific data sets has been used as a regularizer in a variational formulation. The problem is solved via alternating minimization with respect to the manifold and the data set, and the Laplace–Beltrami operator in the Euler–Lagrange equation is discretized using the weighted graph Laplacian. Various scientific data sets from different fields of study are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm on data compression and interpolation from both regular and irregular samplings.

Automatic sentence extraction for the detection of scientific paper relations

Science.gov (United States)

Sibaroni, Y.; Prasetiyowati, S. S.; Miftachudin, M.

2018-03-01

The relations between scientific papers are very useful for researchers to see the interconnection between scientific papers quickly. By observing the inter-article relationships, researchers can identify, among others, the weaknesses of existing research, performance improvements achieved to date, and tools or data typically used in research in specific fields. So far, methods that have been developed to detect paper relations include machine learning and rule-based methods. However, a problem still arises in the process of sentence extraction from scientific paper documents, which is still done manually. This manual process causes the detection of scientific paper relations longer and inefficient. To overcome this problem, this study performs an automatic sentences extraction while the paper relations are identified based on the citation sentence. The performance of the built system is then compared with that of the manual extraction system. The analysis results suggested that the automatic sentence extraction indicates a very high level of performance in the detection of paper relations, which is close to that of manual sentence extraction.

Recreating Raven's: software for systematically generating large numbers of Raven-like matrix problems with normed properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Matzen, Laura E; Benz, Zachary O; Dixon, Kevin R; Posey, Jamie; Kroger, James K; Speed, Ann E

2010-05-01

Raven's Progressive Matrices is a widely used test for assessing intelligence and reasoning ability (Raven, Court, & Raven, 1998). Since the test is nonverbal, it can be applied to many different populations and has been used all over the world (Court & Raven, 1995). However, relatively few matrices are in the sets developed by Raven, which limits their use in experiments requiring large numbers of stimuli. For the present study, we analyzed the types of relations that appear in Raven's original Standard Progressive Matrices (SPMs) and created a software tool that can combine the same types of relations according to parameters chosen by the experimenter, to produce very large numbers of matrix problems with specific properties. We then conducted a norming study in which the matrices we generated were compared with the actual SPMs. This study showed that the generated matrices both covered and expanded on the range of problem difficulties provided by the SPMs.

The philosophy of scientific experimentation: a review

Science.gov (United States)

2009-01-01

Practicing and studying automated experimentation may benefit from philosophical reflection on experimental science in general. This paper reviews the relevant literature and discusses central issues in the philosophy of scientific experimentation. The first two sections present brief accounts of the rise of experimental science and of its philosophical study. The next sections discuss three central issues of scientific experimentation: the scientific and philosophical significance of intervention and production, the relationship between experimental science and technology, and the interactions between experimental and theoretical work. The concluding section identifies three issues for further research: the role of computing and, more specifically, automating, in experimental research, the nature of experimentation in the social and human sciences, and the significance of normative, including ethical, problems in experimental science. PMID:20098589

Сonceptual fundamentals of a pedagogical university’s scientific research work development in the contemporary stages of society development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alla Kolomiets

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Basic conceptual fundamentals of a Pedagogical University’s scientific research work organization as well as corresponding problems and assignments have been determined in the article. It’s been ascertained that some important problems remain unsettled, for instance, implementation of current scientific achievements in the contents of subject teachers’ training; popularization and marketing of scientific pedagogical achievements; intensification of scientific cooperation with foreign educational institutions; expansion of participation in joint scientific projects etc. Cardinal principals and priority directions of scientific maintenance of high-skilled teachers’ training have been defined. Practical results of a Pedagogical University’s scientific research work organization taking into consideration the determined conceptual fundamentals have been also analyzed.Key words: scientific research work monitoring, scientific activity, scientific productivity, scientific cooperation, scientific work organization, Pedagogical University.

Vol. 1: Physics of Elementary Particles and Quantum Field Theory. General Problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sitenko, A.

1993-01-01

Problems of modern physics and the situation with physical research in Ukraine are considered. Programme of the conference includes scientific and general problems. Its proceedings are published in 6 volumes. The papers presented in this volume refer to elementary particle physics and quantum field theory. The main attention is paid to the following problems: - development of science in Ukraine and its role in the state structures; - modern state of scientific research in Ukraine; - education and training of specialists; - history of Ukrainian physics and contribution of Ukrainian scientists in the world science; - problems of the Ukrainian scientific terminology

Large deviations

CERN Document Server

Varadhan, S R S

2016-01-01

The theory of large deviations deals with rates at which probabilities of certain events decay as a natural parameter in the problem varies. This book, which is based on a graduate course on large deviations at the Courant Institute, focuses on three concrete sets of examples: (i) diffusions with small noise and the exit problem, (ii) large time behavior of Markov processes and their connection to the Feynman-Kac formula and the related large deviation behavior of the number of distinct sites visited by a random walk, and (iii) interacting particle systems, their scaling limits, and large deviations from their expected limits. For the most part the examples are worked out in detail, and in the process the subject of large deviations is developed. The book will give the reader a flavor of how large deviation theory can help in problems that are not posed directly in terms of large deviations. The reader is assumed to have some familiarity with probability, Markov processes, and interacting particle systems.

Scientific computing vol II - eigenvalues and optimization

CERN Document Server

Trangenstein, John A

2017-01-01

This is the second of three volumes providing a comprehensive presentation of the fundamentals of scientific computing. This volume discusses more advanced topics than volume one, and is largely not a prerequisite for volume three. This book and its companions show how to determine the quality of computational results, and how to measure the relative efficiency of competing methods. Readers learn how to determine the maximum attainable accuracy of algorithms, and how to select the best method for computing problems. This book also discusses programming in several languages, including C++, Fortran and MATLAB. There are 49 examples, 110 exercises, 66 algorithms, 24 interactive JavaScript programs, 77 references to software programs and 1 case study. Topics are introduced with goals, literature references and links to public software. There are descriptions of the current algorithms in LAPACK, GSLIB and MATLAB. This book could be used for a second course in numerical methods, for either upper level undergraduate...

Abstracts of papers of international scientific conference 'Ten Years After the Chernobyl Catastrophe (Scientific Aspects of Problem)'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konoplya, E.F.; Amvros'ev, A.P.; Bogdevich, I.M.; Bondar', Yu.I.; Karaseva, E.I.; Lobanok, L.M.; Matsko, V.P.; Pikulik, M.M.; Rolevich, I.V.; Stozharov, A.N.; Yakushev, B.I.

1996-02-01

The collection is dedicated to the 10 anniversary of Chernobyl catastrophe and contains the results of researches carried out in Belarus, as well as in Ukraine and Russian Federation, on different aspects of the Chernobyl problems: radiation medicine and risks, biological radiation effects and their forecasting, agricultural radiology and radioecology, decontamination and radioactive waste management, socio-economic and psychologic problems caused by the Chernobyl Catastrophe. (authors)

A Very Large Area Network (VLAN) knowledge-base applied to space communication problems

Science.gov (United States)

Zander, Carol S.

1988-01-01

This paper first describes a hierarchical model for very large area networks (VLAN). Space communication problems whose solution could profit by the model are discussed and then an enhanced version of this model incorporating the knowledge needed for the missile detection-destruction problem is presented. A satellite network or VLAN is a network which includes at least one satellite. Due to the complexity, a compromise between fully centralized and fully distributed network management has been adopted. Network nodes are assigned to a physically localized group, called a partition. Partitions consist of groups of cell nodes with one cell node acting as the organizer or master, called the Group Master (GM). Coordinating the group masters is a Partition Master (PM). Knowledge is also distributed hierarchically existing in at least two nodes. Each satellite node has a back-up earth node. Knowledge must be distributed in such a way so as to minimize information loss when a node fails. Thus the model is hierarchical both physically and informationally.

Decomposing Large Inverse Problems with an Augmented Lagrangian Approach: Application to Joint Inversion of Body-Wave Travel Times and Surface-Wave Dispersion Measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Reiter, D. T.; Rodi, W. L.

2015-12-01

Constructing 3D Earth models through the joint inversion of large geophysical data sets presents numerous theoretical and practical challenges, especially when diverse types of data and model parameters are involved. Among the challenges are the computational complexity associated with large data and model vectors and the need to unify differing model parameterizations, forward modeling methods and regularization schemes within a common inversion framework. The challenges can be addressed in part by decomposing the inverse problem into smaller, simpler inverse problems that can be solved separately, providing one knows how to merge the separate inversion results into an optimal solution of the full problem. We have formulated an approach to the decomposition of large inverse problems based on the augmented Lagrangian technique from optimization theory. As commonly done, we define a solution to the full inverse problem as the Earth model minimizing an objective function motivated, for example, by a Bayesian inference formulation. Our decomposition approach recasts the minimization problem equivalently as the minimization of component objective functions, corresponding to specified data subsets, subject to the constraints that the minimizing models be equal. A standard optimization algorithm solves the resulting constrained minimization problems by alternating between the separate solution of the component problems and the updating of Lagrange multipliers that serve to steer the individual solution models toward a common model solving the full problem. We are applying our inversion method to the reconstruction of the·crust and upper-mantle seismic velocity structure across Eurasia.· Data for the inversion comprise a large set of P and S body-wave travel times·and fundamental and first-higher mode Rayleigh-wave group velocities.

REEXPORT OF SCIENTIFIC COMPETENCIES IN THE LIGHT OF THE RE-CONSTRUCTION OF A NETWORK OF SCIENTIFIC-RESEARCH BODIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

О. A. Yeremchenko

2016-01-01

Full Text Available One of the primary challengesRussiais currently facing is the need for diversification of the Russian economy and its increase in the share of manufacturing and exported scientific-driven work products. In this light, improving the effectiveness of the scientific-technological complex of the country is becoming increasingly important. The article considers two scalable, developed in parallel, projects for increasing effectiveness of the scientificresearch sector: restructurization of the scientific organizations network and the project for bringing back home 15 thousand Russian scientists reverse immigration. A conclusion is made about the adequacy of a refusal from a large-scale change in the personnel of scientists in circumstances of when the budget for research and development and the number of scientific-research organizations is cut. It is proposed to create comfortable conditions for scientific search for all parties involved in the process of new knowledge creation, both for the scientists returning toRussiaand those that remain working in the country. 

The scientific status of fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crandall, D.H.

1989-01-01

The development of fusion energy has been a large-scale scientific undertaking of broad interest. The magnetic plasma containment in tokamaks and the laser-drive ignition of microfusion capsules appear to be scientifically feasible sources of energy. These concepts are bounded by questions of required intensity in magnetid field and plasma currents or in drive energy and, for both concepts, by issues of plasma stability and energy transport. The basic concept and the current scientific issues are described for magnetic fusion and for the interesting, but likely infeasible, muon-catalyzed fusion concept. Inertial fusion is mentioned, qualitatively, to complete the context. For magnetic fusion, the required net energy production within the plasma may be accomplished soon, but the more useful goal of self-sustained plasma ignition requires a new device of somewhat uncertain (factor of 2) cost and size. (orig.)

Practical scientific computing

CERN Document Server

Muhammad, A

2011-01-01

Scientific computing is about developing mathematical models, numerical methods and computer implementations to study and solve real problems in science, engineering, business and even social sciences. Mathematical modelling requires deep understanding of classical numerical methods. This essential guide provides the reader with sufficient foundations in these areas to venture into more advanced texts. The first section of the book presents numEclipse, an open source tool for numerical computing based on the notion of MATLAB®. numEclipse is implemented as a plug-in for Eclipse, a leading integ

Properties and solution methods for large location-allocation problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Juel, Henrik; Love, Robert F.

1982-01-01

Location-allocation with l$ _p$ distances is studied. It is shown that this structure can be expressed as a concave minimization programming problem. Since concave minimization algorithms are not yet well developed, five solution methods are developed which utilize the special properties of the l......Location-allocation with l$ _p$ distances is studied. It is shown that this structure can be expressed as a concave minimization programming problem. Since concave minimization algorithms are not yet well developed, five solution methods are developed which utilize the special properties...... of the location-allocation problem. Using the rectilinear distance measure, two of these algorithms achieved optimal solutions in all 102 test problems for which solutions were known. The algorithms can be applied to much larger problems than any existing exact methods....

An adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problems arising in city logistics

Science.gov (United States)

Hemmelmayr, Vera C.; Cordeau, Jean-François; Crainic, Teodor Gabriel

2012-01-01

In this paper, we propose an adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for the Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem (2E-VRP) and the Location Routing Problem (LRP). The 2E-VRP arises in two-level transportation systems such as those encountered in the context of city logistics. In such systems, freight arrives at a major terminal and is shipped through intermediate satellite facilities to the final customers. The LRP can be seen as a special case of the 2E-VRP in which vehicle routing is performed only at the second level. We have developed new neighborhood search operators by exploiting the structure of the two problem classes considered and have also adapted existing operators from the literature. The operators are used in a hierarchical scheme reflecting the multi-level nature of the problem. Computational experiments conducted on several sets of instances from the literature show that our algorithm outperforms existing solution methods for the 2E-VRP and achieves excellent results on the LRP. PMID:23483764

An adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problems arising in city logistics.

Science.gov (United States)

Hemmelmayr, Vera C; Cordeau, Jean-François; Crainic, Teodor Gabriel

2012-12-01

In this paper, we propose an adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for the Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem (2E-VRP) and the Location Routing Problem (LRP). The 2E-VRP arises in two-level transportation systems such as those encountered in the context of city logistics. In such systems, freight arrives at a major terminal and is shipped through intermediate satellite facilities to the final customers. The LRP can be seen as a special case of the 2E-VRP in which vehicle routing is performed only at the second level. We have developed new neighborhood search operators by exploiting the structure of the two problem classes considered and have also adapted existing operators from the literature. The operators are used in a hierarchical scheme reflecting the multi-level nature of the problem. Computational experiments conducted on several sets of instances from the literature show that our algorithm outperforms existing solution methods for the 2E-VRP and achieves excellent results on the LRP.

Escript: Open Source Environment For Solving Large-Scale Geophysical Joint Inversion Problems in Python

Science.gov (United States)

Gross, Lutz; Altinay, Cihan; Fenwick, Joel; Smith, Troy

2014-05-01

inversion and appropriate solution schemes in escript. We will also give a brief introduction into escript's open framework for defining and solving geophysical inversion problems. Finally we will show some benchmark results to demonstrate the computational scalability of the inversion method across a large number of cores and compute nodes in a parallel computing environment. References: - L. Gross et al. (2013): Escript Solving Partial Differential Equations in Python Version 3.4, The University of Queensland, https://launchpad.net/escript-finley - L. Gross and C. Kemp (2013) Large Scale Joint Inversion of Geophysical Data using the Finite Element Method in escript. ASEG Extended Abstracts 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ASEG2013ab306 - T. Poulet, L. Gross, D. Georgiev, J. Cleverley (2012): escript-RT: Reactive transport simulation in Python using escript, Computers & Geosciences, Volume 45, 168-176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2011.11.005.

Mathematical Problems in Creating Large Astronomical Catalogs

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Prokhorov M. E.

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The next stage after performing observations and their primary reduction is to transform the set of observations into a catalog. To this end, objects that are irrelevant to the catalog should be excluded from observations and gross errors should be discarded. To transform such a prepared data set into a high-precision catalog, we need to identify and correct systematic errors. Therefore, each object of the survey should be observed several, preferably many, times. The problem formally reduces to solving an overdetermined set of equations. However, in the case of catalogs this system of equations has a very specific form: it is extremely sparse, and its sparseness increases rapidly with the number of objects in the catalog. Such equation systems require special methods for storing data on disks and in RAM, and for the choice of the techniques for their solving. Another specific feature of such systems is their high “stiffiness”, which also increases with the volume of a catalog. Special stable mathematical methods should be used in order not to lose precision when solving such systems of equations. We illustrate the problem by the example of photometric star catalogs, although similar problems arise in the case of positional, radial-velocity, and parallax catalogs.

Introduction: for a comparative history of the birth of "scientific" psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Cimino, Guido

2006-01-01

This introduction to the Proceedings of the Beijing Symposium poses the problem of the birth of a "new psychology" that endeavors to become a science, considered within the cultural, scientific, social, and institutional context of each country. This problem can be subdivided into a series of other more specific questions, dealt with in part by the volume's contributions: the distinction between a "scientific" psychology and a "pre-scientific" one; the historical reconstruction of psychology as a "science," and of psychology as a "discipline" embedded in some institution; the time span in which the passage from the "old" to the "new" was achieved; the scientific-cultural and political-economic-social factors or conditions that influenced and favoured this birth. After a panoramic and "comparative" glance at the situation in different European countries (Germany, France, England, Italy, Spain, and Russia) and some extra-European ones (United States, Brazil, Japan, and China), as presented in the texts of these Proceedings, there follow some considerations of a general nature that attempt to highlight analogies and differences in the historical development of the origin of "scientific" psychology in the various countries.

Computational Comparison of Several Greedy Algorithms for the Minimum Cost Perfect Matching Problem on Large Graphs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wøhlk, Sanne; Laporte, Gilbert

2017-01-01

The aim of this paper is to computationally compare several algorithms for the Minimum Cost Perfect Matching Problem on an undirected complete graph. Our work is motivated by the need to solve large instances of the Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (CARP) arising in the optimization of garbage...... collection in Denmark. Common heuristics for the CARP involve the optimal matching of the odd-degree nodes of a graph. The algorithms used in the comparison include the CPLEX solution of an exact formulation, the LEDA matching algorithm, a recent implementation of the Blossom algorithm, as well as six...

Development of geometry materials based on scientific approach for junior high school students

Science.gov (United States)

Nurafni; Siswanto, R. D.; Azhar, E.

2018-01-01

A scientific approach is a learning process designed so that learners can actively construct concepts, encourage learners to find out from various sources through observation, and not just be told. Therefore, learning by scientific approach offers a solution, because the goals, principles, and stages of the scientific approach allow for a good understanding of the students. Because of the absence of teaching materials “polyhedron geometry based on scientific approach” which is widely published in Indonesia, then we need to develop the teaching materials. The results obtained in this study are the tasks presented on teaching materials with a scientific approach both in defining the cube and the beam, identify and solve problems related to the properties and elements of cubes and beams, making cube and beam nets, solving problems related to cube and beam nets, solving problems related to cube and beam surface area. Beginning with the difficulties students face. Then, based on the results of interviews with teachers and analysis of student difficulties on each indicator, researchers revise the teaching materials as needed. Teaching materials that have not found any more student difficulties then the teaching materials are considered valid and ready for use by teachers and students.

Research on the development of scientific and technological intelligence in big data environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wu Qiong

2018-01-01

development of scientific and technological intelligence and problems faced by the big data intelligence system. Finally, the author has predicted the opportunities and challenges for scientific and technological intelligence service agency posed by the big data.

Intelligent Tools for Building a Scientific Information Platform

CERN Document Server

Skonieczny, Lukasz; Rybiński, Henryk; Niezgodka, Marek

2012-01-01

This book is a selection of results obtained within one year of research performed under SYNAT - a nation-wide scientific project aiming to create an infrastructure for scientific content storage and sharing for academia, education and open knowledge society in Poland. The selection refers to the research in artificial intelligence, knowledge discovery and data mining, information retrieval and natural language processing, addressing the problems of implementing intelligent tools for building a scientific information platform. The idea of this book is based on the very successful SYNAT Project Conference and the SYNAT Workshop accompanying the 19th International Symposium on Methodologies for Intelligent Systems (ISMIS 2011). The papers included in this book present an overview and insight into such topics as architecture of scientific information platforms, semantic clustering, ontology-based systems, as well as, multimedia data processing.

An Ethnomethodological Perspective on How Middle School Students Addressed a Water Quality Problem

Science.gov (United States)

Belland, Brian R.; Gu, Jiangyue; Kim, Nam Ju; Turner, David J.

2016-01-01

Science educators increasingly call for students to address authentic scientific problems in science class. One form of authentic science problem--socioscientific issue--requires that students engage in complex reasoning by considering both scientific and social implications of problems. Computer-based scaffolding can support this process by…

Knowing and avoiding plagiarism during scientific writing.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, P Mohan; Priya, N Swapna; Musalaiah, Svvs; Nagasree, M

2014-09-01

Plagiarism has become more common in both dental and medical communities. Most of the writers do not know that plagiarism is a serious problem. Plagiarism can range from simple dishonesty (minor copy paste/any discrepancy) to a more serious problem (major discrepancy/duplication of manuscript) when the authors do cut-copy-paste from the original source without giving adequate credit to the main source. When we search databases like PubMed/MedLine there is a lot of information regarding plagiarism. However, it is still a current topic of interest to all the researchers to know how to avoid plagiarism. It's time to every young researcher to know ethical guidelines while writing any scientific publications. By using one's own ideas, we can write the paper completely without looking at the original source. Specific words from the source can be added by using quotations and citing them which can help in not only supporting your work and amplifying ideas but also avoids plagiarism. It is compulsory to all the authors, reviewers and editors of all the scientific journals to know about the plagiarism and how to avoid it by following ethical guidelines and use of plagiarism detection software while scientific writing.

Knowing and Avoiding Plagiarism During Scientific Writing

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, P Mohan; Priya, N Swapna; Musalaiah, SVVS; Nagasree, M

2014-01-01

Plagiarism has become more common in both dental and medical communities. Most of the writers do not know that plagiarism is a serious problem. Plagiarism can range from simple dishonesty (minor copy paste/any discrepancy) to a more serious problem (major discrepancy/duplication of manuscript) when the authors do cut-copy-paste from the original source without giving adequate credit to the main source. When we search databases like PubMed/MedLine there is a lot of information regarding plagiarism. However, it is still a current topic of interest to all the researchers to know how to avoid plagiarism. It's time to every young researcher to know ethical guidelines while writing any scientific publications. By using one's own ideas, we can write the paper completely without looking at the original source. Specific words from the source can be added by using quotations and citing them which can help in not only supporting your work and amplifying ideas but also avoids plagiarism. It is compulsory to all the authors, reviewers and editors of all the scientific journals to know about the plagiarism and how to avoid it by following ethical guidelines and use of plagiarism detection software while scientific writing. PMID:25364588

Results of research and development in large-scale research centers as an innovation source for firms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Theenhaus, R.

1978-01-01

The twelve large-scale research centres of the Federal Republic of Germany with their 16,000 employees represent a considerable scientific and technical potential. Cooperation with industry with regard to large-scale projects has already become very close and the know-how flow as well as the contributions to innovation connected therewith are largely established. The first successful steps to utilizing the results of basic research, of spin off and those within the frame of research and development as well as the fulfilling of services are encouraging. However, there is a number of detail problems which can only be solved between all parties concerned, in particular between industry and all large-scale research centres. (orig./RW) [de

Software engineering and automatic continuous verification of scientific software

Science.gov (United States)

Piggott, M. D.; Hill, J.; Farrell, P. E.; Kramer, S. C.; Wilson, C. R.; Ham, D.; Gorman, G. J.; Bond, T.

2011-12-01

Software engineering of scientific code is challenging for a number of reasons including pressure to publish and a lack of awareness of the pitfalls of software engineering by scientists. The Applied Modelling and Computation Group at Imperial College is a diverse group of researchers that employ best practice software engineering methods whilst developing open source scientific software. Our main code is Fluidity - a multi-purpose computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code that can be used for a wide range of scientific applications from earth-scale mantle convection, through basin-scale ocean dynamics, to laboratory-scale classic CFD problems, and is coupled to a number of other codes including nuclear radiation and solid modelling. Our software development infrastructure consists of a number of free tools that could be employed by any group that develops scientific code and has been developed over a number of years with many lessons learnt. A single code base is developed by over 30 people for which we use bazaar for revision control, making good use of the strong branching and merging capabilities. Using features of Canonical's Launchpad platform, such as code review, blueprints for designing features and bug reporting gives the group, partners and other Fluidity uers an easy-to-use platform to collaborate and allows the induction of new members of the group into an environment where software development forms a central part of their work. The code repositoriy are coupled to an automated test and verification system which performs over 20,000 tests, including unit tests, short regression tests, code verification and large parallel tests. Included in these tests are build tests on HPC systems, including local and UK National HPC services. The testing of code in this manner leads to a continuous verification process; not a discrete event performed once development has ceased. Much of the code verification is done via the "gold standard" of comparisons to analytical

SCIENTIFIC AND INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO PROBLEM PERTAINING TO EVALUATION AND MONITORING OF ENVIRONMENT QUALITY IN REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. V. Voytov

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The paper proposes a scientific and innovative approach to solution of an important problem in the field of rational nature management and ecology which presupposes realization of evaluation, analysis and monitoring of environment  quality  (EQ in Belarus.  This  approach is based on methods and  facilities  of  administrative-command  and  partially  automatic-control  management.   The  main components of the innovative approach are an automatic  system for  evaluation and monitoring of EQ including estimation and formation of nature-resource potential within 11 cadaster and other data base, general principles on evaluation and monitoring of EQ, structural and algorithmic schemes for evaluation of ecological state of administrative territories, calculation of generalized indices of nature-territorial complexes and solution of nature protection problems in respect of EQ monitoring. A system of equation calculation for the analysis and evaluation of technogenic load on main nature components of the environment (free air, water objects, soil cover, realization of monitoring function in respect of EQ and ecological state of local and urban territories, nature resources  and enterprises, pollution and state of some recipients and also data resources for execution of analytical calculations and functions directed on monitoring quality of nature components of the environment is advanced in the paper.

Strengthening the management of scientific and technological achievements and serving the work of uranium geology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tian Hua

2009-01-01

Through summarizing the experiences in the management of scientific and technological achievements uranium geology, combined with the scientific research and operation practices, the author tries to find some problems and puts forward suggestion for the management of scientific and technological achievements. (authors)

Hate Speech Detection: A Solved Problem? The Challenging Case of Long Tail on Twitter

OpenAIRE

Zhang, Ziqi; Luo, Lei

2018-01-01

In recent years, the increasing propagation of hate speech on social media and the urgent need for effective counter-measures have drawn significant investment from governments, companies, and empirical research. Despite a large number of emerging, scientific studies to address the problem, the performance of existing automated methods at identifying specific types of hate speech - as opposed to identifying non-hate -is still very unsatisfactory, and the reasons behind are poorly understood. ...

Scientific planning for the VLT and VLTI

Science.gov (United States)

Leibundgut, B.; Berger, J.-P.

2016-07-01

An observatory system like the VLT/I requires careful scientific planning for operations and future instruments. Currently the ESO optical/near-infrared facilities include four 8m telescopes, four (movable) 1.8m telescopes used exclusively for interferometry, two 4m telescopes and two survey telescopes. This system offers a large range of scientific capabilities and setting the corresponding priorities depends good community interactions. Coordinating the existing and planned instrumentation is an important aspect for strong scientific return. The current scientific priorities for the VLT and VLTI are pushing for the development of the highest angular resolution imaging and astrometry, integral field spectroscopy and multi-object spectroscopy. The ESO 4m telescopes on La Silla will be dedicated to time domain spectroscopy and exo-planet searches with highly specialized instruments. The next decade will also see a significant rise in the scientific importance of massive ground and space-based surveys. We discuss how future developments in astronomical research could shape the VLT/I evolution.

Enabling scientific workflows in virtual reality

Science.gov (United States)

Kreylos, O.; Bawden, G.; Bernardin, T.; Billen, M.I.; Cowgill, E.S.; Gold, R.D.; Hamann, B.; Jadamec, M.; Kellogg, L.H.; Staadt, O.G.; Sumner, D.Y.

2006-01-01

To advance research and improve the scientific return on data collection and interpretation efforts in the geosciences, we have developed methods of interactive visualization, with a special focus on immersive virtual reality (VR) environments. Earth sciences employ a strongly visual approach to the measurement and analysis of geologic data due to the spatial and temporal scales over which such data ranges, As observations and simulations increase in size and complexity, the Earth sciences are challenged to manage and interpret increasing amounts of data. Reaping the full intellectual benefits of immersive VR requires us to tailor exploratory approaches to scientific problems. These applications build on the visualization method's strengths, using both 3D perception and interaction with data and models, to take advantage of the skills and training of the geological scientists exploring their data in the VR environment. This interactive approach has enabled us to develop a suite of tools that are adaptable to a range of problems in the geosciences and beyond. Copyright ?? 2008 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.

Complexity-Based Modeling of Scientific Capital: An Outline of Mathematical Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yurij L. Katchanov

2014-01-01

measuring and assessing the accumulated recognition and the specific scientific power. The concept of scientific capital developed by Bourdieu is used in international social science research to explain a set of scholarly properties and practices. Mathematical modeling is applied as a lens through which the scientific capital is addressed. The principal contribution of this paper is an axiomatic characterization of scientific capital in terms of natural axioms. The application of the axiomatic method to scientific capital reveals novel insights into problem still not covered by mathematical modeling. Proposed model embraces the interrelations between separate sociological variables, providing a unified sociological view of science. Suggested microvariational principle is based upon postulate, which affirms that (under suitable conditions the observed state of the agent in scientific field maximizes scientific capital. Its value can be roughly imagined as a volume of social differences. According to the considered macrovariational principle, the actual state of scientific field makes so-called energy functional (which is associated with the distribution of scientific capital minimal.

UNEDF: Advanced Scientific Computing Collaboration Transforms the Low-Energy Nuclear Many-Body Problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nam, H; Stoitsov, M; Nazarewicz, W; Hagen, G; Kortelainen, M; Pei, J C; Bulgac, A; Maris, P; Vary, J P; Roche, K J; Schunck, N; Thompson, I; Wild, S M

2012-01-01

The demands of cutting-edge science are driving the need for larger and faster computing resources. With the rapidly growing scale of computing systems and the prospect of technologically disruptive architectures to meet these needs, scientists face the challenge of effectively using complex computational resources to advance scientific discovery. Multi-disciplinary collaborating networks of researchers with diverse scientific backgrounds are needed to address these complex challenges. The UNEDF SciDAC collaboration of nuclear theorists, applied mathematicians, and computer scientists is developing a comprehensive description of nuclei and their reactions that delivers maximum predictive power with quantified uncertainties. This paper describes UNEDF and identifies attributes that classify it as a successful computational collaboration. We illustrate significant milestones accomplished by UNEDF through integrative solutions using the most reliable theoretical approaches, most advanced algorithms, and leadership-class computational resources.

19th Scientific Readings Devoted to P.N. Chirvinskiy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Ya. Ilaltdinov

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Scientific conference devoted to P.N. Chirvinskiy was held in the Perm State University (January 2017. The problems of mineralogy, petrology, lithology, metallogeny and geochemistry were discussed.

Scientific Community in Algeria: Adopting Traditions and Developing Identity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatyana I. Tyukaeva

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The history of scientific development in Algeria, which has not been long, represents a series of continual rises and falls. The Algerian leadership and researchers have been making efforts to create Algeria's national science through protection from the western scientific tradition, which is reminiscent of the colonial period of the country, and at the same time adoption of scientific knowledge and scientific institutions functioning principles from abroad, with no organizational or scientific experience of their own. Since the time the independent Algerian state was established, its scientific development has been inevitably coupled with active support of European countries, especially France, and other western and non-western states. Today the Algerian leadership is highly devoted to the modernization of the national scientific and research potential in strong cooperation with its foreign partners. The article concentrates on examining the present period (the 2000s of the scientific development in Algeria. The main conclusion is that there still is a number of problems - for Algeria until now lacks an integral scientific community with the state preserving its dominating role in science and research activities. Despite these difficulties, the Algerian science has made an outstanding progress. The efficiently built organizational scientific structure, the growing science and technology cooperation with foreign countries as well as the increasing state expenses in science allow to hope for further success of the Algerian scientific development.

Developing a Scientific Virtue-Based Approach to Science Ethics Training.

Science.gov (United States)

Pennock, Robert T; O'Rourke, Michael

2017-02-01

Responsible conduct of research training typically includes only a subset of the issues that ought to be included in science ethics and sometimes makes ethics appear to be a set of externally imposed rules rather than something intrinsic to scientific practice. A new approach to science ethics training based upon Pennock's notion of the scientific virtues may help avoid such problems. This paper motivates and describes three implementations-theory-centered, exemplar-centered, and concept-centered-that we have developed in courses and workshops to introduce students to this scientific virtue-based approach.

Enhancing Seismic Calibration Research Through Software Automation and Scientific Information Management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ruppert, S D; Dodge, D A; Ganzberger, M D; Harris, D B; Hauk, T F

2009-07-07

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Ground-Based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Research and Development (GNEMRD) Program at LLNL continues to make significant progress enhancing the process of deriving seismic calibrations and performing scientific integration, analysis, and information management with software automation tools. Our tool efforts address the problematic issues of very large datasets and varied formats encountered during seismic calibration research. New information management and analysis tools have resulted in demonstrated gains in efficiency of producing scientific data products and improved accuracy of derived seismic calibrations. In contrast to previous years, software development work this past year has emphasized development of automation at the data ingestion level. This change reflects a gradually-changing emphasis in our program from processing a few large data sets that result in a single integrated delivery, to processing many different data sets from a variety of sources. The increase in the number of sources had resulted in a large increase in the amount of metadata relative to the final volume of research products. Software developed this year addresses the problems of: (1) Efficient metadata ingestion and conflict resolution; (2) Automated ingestion of bulletin information; (3) Automated ingestion of waveform information from global data centers; and (4) Site Metadata and Response transformation required for certain products. This year, we also made a significant step forward in meeting a long-standing goal of developing and using a waveform correlation framework. Our objective for such a framework is to extract additional calibration data (e.g. mining blasts) and to study the extent to which correlated seismicity can be found in global and regional scale environments.

Scientific Resource EXplorer

Science.gov (United States)

Xing, Z.; Wormuth, A.; Smith, A.; Arca, J.; Lu, Y.; Sayfi, E.

2014-12-01

Inquisitive minds in our society are never satisfied with curatedimages released by a typical public affairs office. They always want tolook deeper and play directly on original data. However, most scientificdata products are notoriously hard to use. They are immensely large,highly distributed and diverse in format. In this presentation,we will demonstrate Resource EXplorer (REX), a novel webtop applicationthat allows anyone to conveniently explore and visualize rich scientificdata repositories, using only a standard web browser. This tool leverageson the power of Webification Science (w10n-sci), a powerful enabling technologythat simplifies the use of scientific data on the web platform.W10n-sci is now being deployed at an increasing number of NASA data centers,some of which are the largest digital treasure troves in our nation.With REX, these wonderful scientific resources are open for teachers andstudents to learn and play.

Problems in the Science and Mathematics of 'The Logic of Scientific Discovery'

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alan B. Whiting

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Professor Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994 was one of the most influential philosophers of science of the twentieth century. However, in his most famous work 'The Logic of Scientific Discovery' he displays troubling misunderstandings of science and mathematics at a basic level. These call into question his conclusions concerning the philosophy of science. Quanta 2012; 1: 13–18.

Robust Branch-Cut-and-Price for the Capacitated Minimum Spanning Tree Problem over a Large Extended Formulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Uchoa, Eduardo; Fukasawa, Ricardo; Lysgaard, Jens

This paper presents a robust branch-cut-and-price algorithm for the Capacitated Minimum Spanning Tree Problem (CMST). The variables are associated to q-arbs, a structure that arises from a relaxation of the capacitated prize-collecting arborescence problem in order to make it solvable in pseudo......-polynomial time. Traditional inequalities over the arc formulation, like Capacity Cuts, are also used. Moreover, a novel feature is introduced in such kind of algorithms. Powerful new cuts expressed over a very large set of variables could be added, without increasing the complexity of the pricing subproblem...

Scientific Computing in Electrical Engineering

CERN Document Server

Amrhein, Wolfgang; Zulehner, Walter

2018-01-01

This collection of selected papers presented at the 11th International Conference on Scientific Computing in Electrical Engineering (SCEE), held in St. Wolfgang, Austria, in 2016, showcases the state of the art in SCEE. The aim of the SCEE 2016 conference was to bring together scientists from academia and industry, mathematicians, electrical engineers, computer scientists, and physicists, and to promote intensive discussions on industrially relevant mathematical problems, with an emphasis on the modeling and numerical simulation of electronic circuits and devices, electromagnetic fields, and coupled problems. The focus in methodology was on model order reduction and uncertainty quantification. This extensive reference work is divided into six parts: Computational Electromagnetics, Circuit and Device Modeling and Simulation, Coupled Problems and Multi‐Scale Approaches in Space and Time, Mathematical and Computational Methods Including Uncertainty Quantification, Model Order Reduction, and Industrial Applicat...

Probabilities and Predictions: Modeling the Development of Scientific Problem-Solving Skills

Science.gov (United States)

2005-01-01

The IMMEX (Interactive Multi-Media Exercises) Web-based problem set platform enables the online delivery of complex, multimedia simulations, the rapid collection of student performance data, and has already been used in several genetic simulations. The next step is the use of these data to understand and improve student learning in a formative manner. This article describes the development of probabilistic models of undergraduate student problem solving in molecular genetics that detailed the spectrum of strategies students used when problem solving, and how the strategic approaches evolved with experience. The actions of 776 university sophomore biology majors from three molecular biology lecture courses were recorded and analyzed. Each of six simulations were first grouped by artificial neural network clustering to provide individual performance measures, and then sequences of these performances were probabilistically modeled by hidden Markov modeling to provide measures of progress. The models showed that students with different initial problem-solving abilities choose different strategies. Initial and final strategies varied across different sections of the same course and were not strongly correlated with other achievement measures. In contrast to previous studies, we observed no significant gender differences. We suggest that instructor interventions based on early student performances with these simulations may assist students to recognize effective and efficient problem-solving strategies and enhance learning. PMID:15746978

Scientific and technical aspects of Chernobyl

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gligalo, V.M.; Nosovs'kij, A.V.

2002-01-01

The collection contains the presentations and scientific articles prepared for and discussed during the Conference titled '2001: International Cooperation For Chernobyl'. The materials outline the outcomes achieved while implementing Chernobyl site scientific-technical researches and projects, as well as activities aimed at enhancing the ChNPP safety, decommissioning and radwaste management. It also highlights the issues related to transforming the Unit Shelter into an ecologically safe system, represents the results of ecological researches in the Exclusion Zone, medical effects of the 1986 accident at Chernobyl NPP, together with social and economic problems the city of Slavutich faces now due to the early ChNPP Units decommissioning, and Slavutich business development opportunities under the circumstances of Special Economic Zone 'Slavutich'

3rd International Conference on High Performance Scientific Computing

CERN Document Server

Kostina, Ekaterina; Phu, Hoang; Rannacher, Rolf

2008-01-01

This proceedings volume contains a selection of papers presented at the Third International Conference on High Performance Scientific Computing held at the Hanoi Institute of Mathematics, Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), March 6-10, 2006. The conference has been organized by the Hanoi Institute of Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), Heidelberg, and its International PhD Program ``Complex Processes: Modeling, Simulation and Optimization'', and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. The contributions cover the broad interdisciplinary spectrum of scientific computing and present recent advances in theory, development of methods, and applications in practice. Subjects covered are mathematical modelling, numerical simulation, methods for optimization and control, parallel computing, software development, applications of scientific computing in physics, chemistry, biology and mechanics, environmental and hydrology problems, transport, logistics and site loca...

Work of scientific and technological information under network environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Yingxi; Huang Daifu; Yang Lifeng

2010-01-01

With the development of internet and information technology, the work of scientific and technological information is faced with great challenge. This article expounds the new changes of scientific and technological information in enterprise under network environment by giving a minute description on the situation the work faced and characteristic of the work. Not only does it carry out enthusiastic discussion upon problems which are present in the work of scientific and technological information in the company, but puts forward proposals and specific measures as well. Service theory is also offered by adjusting and reforming the resources construction, service ways and the job of providing contents. We should take vigorous action to the research work of scientific and technological information, changing the information directional service into knowledge providing service. (authors)

An Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search-based Three-Stage Matheuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Jonas Mark; Røpke, Stefan

that serves all the customers. The second stage usesan Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) algorithm to minimise the travel distance, during the second phase all of the generated routes are considered by solving a set cover problem. The ALNS algorithm uses 4 destroy operators, 2 repair operators...

The profile of high school students’ scientific literacy on fluid dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Parno; Yuliati, L.; Munfaridah, N.

2018-05-01

This study aims to describe the profile of scientific literacy of high school students on Fluid Dynamics materials. Scientific literacy is one of the ability to solve daily problems in accordance with the context of materials related to science and technology. The study was conducted on 90 high school students in Sumbawa using survey design. Data were collected using an instrument of scientific literacy for high school students on dynamic fluid materials. Data analysis was conducted descriptively to determine the students’ profile of scientific literacy. The results showed that high school students’ scientific literacy on Fluid Dynamics materials was in the low category. The highest average is obtained on indicators of scientific literacy i.e. the ability to interpret data and scientific evidence. The ability of scientific literacy is related to the mastery of concepts and learning experienced by students, therefore it is necessary to use learning that can trace this ability such as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

Professional scientific blog

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tamás Beke

2009-03-01

Full Text Available The professional blog is a weblog that on the whole meets the requirements of scientific publication. In my opinion it bear a resemblance to digital notice board, where the competent specialists of the given branch of science can place their ideas, questions, possible solutions and can raise problems. Its most important function can be collectivization of the knowledge. In this article I am going to examine the characteristics of the scientific blog as a genre. Conventional learning counts as a rather solitary activity. If the students have access to the materials of each other and of the teacher, their sense of solitude diminishes and this model is also closer to the constructivist approach that features the way most people think and learn. Learning does not mean passively collecting tiny pieces of knowledge; it much more esembles ‘spinning a conceptual net’ which is made up by the experiences and observations of the individual. With the spreading of the Internet more universities and colleges worldwide gave a try to on-line educational methods, but the most efficient one has not been found yet. The publication of the curriculum (the material of the lectures and the handling of the electronic mails are not sufficient; much more is needed for collaborative learning. Our scholastic scientific blog can be a sufficient field for the start of a knowledge-building process based on cooperation. In the Rocard-report can be read that for the future of Europe it is crucial to develop the education of the natural sciences, and for this it isnecessary to act on local, regional, national and EU-level. To the educational processes should be involved beyond the traditional actors (child, parent, teacher also others (scientists, professionals, universities, local institutions, the actors of the economic sphere, etc.. The scholastic scientific blog answer the purposes, as a collaborative knowledge-sharing forum.

Scientific periodical publications rating's calculation and analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. E. Nikitin

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The article considers the constructing problem of the food industry journals aggregate ratings. The streamlines of the seventeen magazines on four bibliometric indexes (SCIENCE INDEX, five-year impact factor RISC given the translated version without self-citations, h-index over 10 years and Herfindahl index, which are used in the scientific electronic library elibrary.ru was used as initial data. The statement of the problem refers to multi-criteria decision-making problems. Ranking the journals in these indexes are different from each other because bibliometric indicators account different aspects of the journals. The classical approach to thisproblems solution is based on generalized criterion building in the form of an additive convolution. However, this approach requires adherence to a number of regular conditions that may not always be performed when the practical problems solution. The reductionspossibility of the considered formulation in the form of multi-criteria decision-making tasks to the problem of collective choice. The aggregated ratings of the reporting journals are calculated by using the three social choice rules – Board procedure, Copeland procedures and Kemeny median heuristic procedures. On the basis of Spearman's rank correlation determined the quantitative evaluation of the degree of intimacy built in magazines. In particular, calculated on the basis of procedure, Board and Kemeny median aggregate ratings reporting in the logs coincided. The results showed that the constructed ordering of journals on the basis of social choice rules are in good agreement with the scientific electronic library (eLIBRARY bibliometric indicators.

Mathematical programming methods for large-scale topology optimization problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rojas Labanda, Susana

for mechanical problems, but has rapidly extended to many other disciplines, such as fluid dynamics and biomechanical problems. However, the novelty and improvements of optimization methods has been very limited. It is, indeed, necessary to develop of new optimization methods to improve the final designs......, and at the same time, reduce the number of function evaluations. Nonlinear optimization methods, such as sequential quadratic programming and interior point solvers, have almost not been embraced by the topology optimization community. Thus, this work is focused on the introduction of this kind of second...... for the classical minimum compliance problem. Two of the state-of-the-art optimization algorithms are investigated and implemented for this structural topology optimization problem. A Sequential Quadratic Programming (TopSQP) and an interior point method (TopIP) are developed exploiting the specific mathematical...

Scientific misconducts and authorship conflicts: Indian perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohanchandra Mandal

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This article is a narrative review about how appropriate authorship can be achieved, a brief mention about various scientific misconducts, the reason and consequences of such misconducts and finally, the policies to be adopted by the aspiring authors to avert these problems. The literature search was performed in the Google and PubMed using ′scientific misconduct′, ′honorary/ghost authorship′, ′publish-or-perish′, ′plagiarism′ and other related key words and phrases. More than 300 free full-text articles published from 1990 to 2015 were retrieved and studied. Many consensus views have been presented regarding what constitutes authorship, the authorship order and different scientific misconducts. The conflicts about authorship issues related to publication of dissertation, the area of the grey zone have been discussed. Suggestions from different authorities about improving the existing inappropriate authorship issues have been included.

THE PROBLEM OF INTERDISCIPLINARITY IN LEARNING PROCESS STUDIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. M. Osmolovskaya

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. The process of convergence and integration of scientific disciplines involves research in the field of education. Polydisciplinary studies wherein the knowledge is integrated from various scientific disciplines, do not meet the requirements of the solution of complex didactic problems, such as organization of the educational process in the information and educational environment, the construction of education for sustainable development of society, education in modern geopolitical conditions, etc. Thus, the importance of interdisciplinary research with a single subject matter, complementarity of research methods, integrated theoretical grounds and results, will make the contribution to all those scientific fields that are involved in assigned task solution.The aim of the article is to present intermediate results on identification and characteristic features of interdisciplinary studies in the field of education.Methodology and research methods. General scientific theoretical methods of research were used: analysis, comparison, fact-finding, generalization.Results and scientific novelty. An attempt to differentiate the concepts of interdisciplinarity, polydisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity is made. In spite of the fact that these issues are actively discussed in the field of philosophy, there are no precise and unambiguous definitions of these terms; though, there is a research framework, the author of the article makes reference to. The features of an interdisciplinary study are formulated.The functions of didactics as a scientific field are specified. Updating of interdisciplinary studies in education, need of formation of their specific methodologies and expansion of the research field of didactics by means of other interdisciplinary studies and scientific directions are proved. Psycho-didactic and cognitivedidactic studies are considered. Cognitive didactics at the moment does not seem to claim the status of independent

Parallel Computational Fluid Dynamics 2007 : Implementations and Experiences on Large Scale and Grid Computing

CERN Document Server

2009-01-01

At the 19th Annual Conference on Parallel Computational Fluid Dynamics held in Antalya, Turkey, in May 2007, the most recent developments and implementations of large-scale and grid computing were presented. This book, comprised of the invited and selected papers of this conference, details those advances, which are of particular interest to CFD and CFD-related communities. It also offers the results related to applications of various scientific and engineering problems involving flows and flow-related topics. Intended for CFD researchers and graduate students, this book is a state-of-the-art presentation of the relevant methodology and implementation techniques of large-scale computing.

Application of spectral Lanczos decomposition method to large scale problems arising geophysics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tamarchenko, T. [Western Atlas Logging Services, Houston, TX (United States)

1996-12-31

This paper presents an application of Spectral Lanczos Decomposition Method (SLDM) to numerical modeling of electromagnetic diffusion and elastic waves propagation in inhomogeneous media. SLDM approximates an action of a matrix function as a linear combination of basis vectors in Krylov subspace. I applied the method to model electromagnetic fields in three-dimensions and elastic waves in two dimensions. The finite-difference approximation of the spatial part of differential operator reduces the initial boundary-value problem to a system of ordinary differential equations with respect to time. The solution to this system requires calculating exponential and sine/cosine functions of the stiffness matrices. Large scale numerical examples are in a good agreement with the theoretical error bounds and stability estimates given by Druskin, Knizhnerman, 1987.

Development of innovative problem based learning model with PMRI-scientific approach using ICT to increase mathematics literacy and independence-character of junior high school students

Science.gov (United States)

Wardono; Waluya, B.; Kartono; Mulyono; Mariani, S.

2018-03-01

This research is very urgent in relation to the national issue of human development and the nation's competitiveness because of the ability of Indonesian Junior High School students' mathematics literacy results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) by OECD field of Mathematics is still very low compared to other countries. Curriculum 2013 launched one of them reflect the results of PISA which is still far from the expectations of the Indonesian nation and to produce a better quality of education, PISA ratings that reflect the nation's better competitiveness need to be developed innovative, interactive learning models such as innovative interactive learning Problem Based Learning (PBL) based on the approach of Indonesian Realistic Mathematics Education (PMRI) and the Scientific approach using Information and Communication Technology (ICT).The research was designed using Research and Development (R&D), research that followed up the development and dissemination of a product/model. The result of the research shows the innovative interactive learning PBL model based on PMRI-Scientific using ICT that developed valid, practical and effective and can improve the ability of mathematics literacy and independence-character of junior high school students. While the quality of innovative interactive learning PBL model based on PMRI-Scientific using ICT meet the good category.

Introductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dara B. Duncan

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Attrition of undergraduates from Biology majors is a long-standing problem. Introductory courses that fail to engage students or spark their curiosity by emphasizing the open-ended and creative nature of biological investigation and discovery could contribute to student detachment from the field. Our hypothesis was that introductory biology books devote relatively few figures to illustration of the design and interpretation of experiments or field studies, thereby de-emphasizing the scientific process.To investigate this possibility, we examined figures in six Introductory Biology textbooks published in 2008. On average, multistep scientific investigations were presented in fewer than 5% of the hundreds of figures in each book. Devoting such a small percentage of figures to the processes by which discoveries are made discourages an emphasis on scientific thinking. We suggest that by increasing significantly the illustration of scientific investigations, textbooks could support undergraduates’ early interest in biology, stimulate the development of design and analytical skills, and inspire some students to participate in investigations of their own.

Poster Development and Presentation to Improve Scientific Inquiry and Broaden Effective Scientific Communication Skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Rauschenbach, Ines; Keddis, Ramaydalis; Davis, Diane

2018-01-01

We have redesigned a tried-and-true laboratory exercise into an inquiry-based team activity exploring microbial growth control, and implemented this activity as the basis for preparing a scientific poster in a large, multi-section laboratory course. Spanning most of the semester, this project culminates in a poster presentation of data generated from a student-designed experiment. Students use and apply the scientific method and improve written and verbal communication skills. The guided inquiry format of this exercise provides the opportunity for student collaboration through cooperative learning. For each learning objective, a percentage score was tabulated (learning objective score = points awarded/total possible points). A score of 80% was our benchmark for achieving each objective. At least 76% of the student groups participating in this project over two semesters achieved each learning goal. Student perceptions of the project were evaluated using a survey. Nearly 90% of participating students felt they had learned a great deal in the areas of formulating a hypothesis, experimental design, and collecting and analyzing data; 72% of students felt this project had improved their scientific writing skills. In a separate survey, 84% of students who responded felt that peer review was valuable in improving their final poster submission. We designed this inquiry-based poster project to improve student scientific communication skills. This exercise is appropriate for any microbiology laboratory course whose learning outcomes include the development of scientific inquiry and literacy.

Workshop on Scientific Issues in Multiphase Flow

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hanratty, Thomas J. [Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)

2003-01-02

This report outlines scientific issues whose resolution will help advance and define the field of multiphase flow. It presents the findings of four study groups and of a workshop sponsored by the Program on Engineering Physics of the Department of Energy. The reason why multiphase flows are much more difficult to analyze than single phase flows is that the phases assume a large number of complicated configurations. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the understanding of why the phases configure in a certain way is the principal scientific issue. Research is needed which identifies the microphysics controlling the organization of the phases, which develops physical models for the resultant multi-scale interactions and which tests their validity in integrative experiments/theories that look at the behavior of a system. New experimental techniques and recently developed direct numerical simulations will play important roles in this endeavor. In gas-liquid flows a top priority is to develop an understanding of why the liquid phase in quasi fully-developed pipe flow changes from one configuration to another. Mixing flows offer a more complicated situation in which several patterns can exist at the same time. They introduce new physical challenges. A second priority is to provide a quantitative description of the phase distribution for selected fully-developed flows and for simple mixing flows (that could include heat transfer and phase change). Microphysical problems of interest are identified – including the coupling of molecular and macroscopic behavior that can be observed in many situations and the formation/destruction of interfaces in the coalescence/breakup of drops and bubbles. Solid-fluid flows offer a simpler system in that interfaces are not changing. However, a variety of patterns exist, that depend on the properties of the particles, their concentration and the Reynolds number characterizing the relative velocity. A top priority is the

Scientific Software - the role of best practices and recommendations

Science.gov (United States)

Fritzsch, Bernadette; Bernstein, Erik; Castell, Wolfgang zu; Diesmann, Markus; Haas, Holger; Hammitzsch, Martin; Konrad, Uwe; Lähnemann, David; McHardy, Alice; Pampel, Heinz; Scheliga, Kaja; Schreiber, Andreas; Steglich, Dirk

2017-04-01

In Geosciences - like in most other communities - scientific work strongly depends on software. For big data analysis, existing (closed or open source) program packages are often mixed with newly developed codes. Different versions of software components and varying configurations can influence the result of data analysis. This often makes reproducibility of results and reuse of codes very difficult. Policies for publication and documentation of used and newly developed software, along with best practices, can help tackle this problem. Within the Helmholtz Association a Task Group "Access to and Re-use of scientific software" was implemented by the Open Science Working Group in 2016. The aim of the Task Group is to foster the discussion about scientific software in the Open Science context and to formulate recommendations for the production and publication of scientific software, ensuring open access to it. As a first step, a workshop gathered interested scientists from institutions across Germany. The workshop brought together various existing initiatives from different scientific communities to analyse current problems, share established best practices and come up with possible solutions. The subjects in the working groups covered a broad range of themes, including technical infrastructures, standards and quality assurance, citation of software and reproducibility. Initial recommendations are presented and discussed in the talk. They are the foundation for further discussions in the Helmholtz Association and the Priority Initiative "Digital Information" of the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany. The talk aims to inform about the activities and to link with other initiatives on the national or international level.

The development of scientific reasoning in medical education: a psychological perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Barz, Daniela Luminita; Achimaş-Cadariu, Andrei

2016-01-01

Scientific reasoning has been studied from a variety of theoretical perspectives, which have tried to identify the underlying mechanisms responsible for the development of this particular cognitive process. Scientific reasoning has been defined as a problem-solving process that involves critical thinking in relation to content, procedural, and epistemic knowledge. The development of scientific reasoning in medical education was influenced by current paradigmatic trends, it could be traced along educational curriculum and followed cognitive processes. The purpose of the present review is to discuss the role of scientific reasoning in medical education and outline educational methods for its development. Current evidence suggests that medical education should foster a new ways of development of scientific reasoning, which include exploration of the complexity of scientific inquiry, and also take into consideration the heterogeneity of clinical cases found in practice.

Computer-supported analysis of scientific measurements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jong, Hidde

1998-01-01

In the past decade, large-scale databases and knowledge bases have become available to researchers working in a range of scientific disciplines. In many cases these databases and knowledge bases contain measurements of properties of physical objects which have been obtained in experiments or at

Large-scale data analytics

CERN Document Server

Gkoulalas-Divanis, Aris

2014-01-01

Provides cutting-edge research in large-scale data analytics from diverse scientific areas Surveys varied subject areas and reports on individual results of research in the field Shares many tips and insights into large-scale data analytics from authors and editors with long-term experience and specialization in the field

The importance of scientific literacy to OCRWM's mission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

King, G.P.

1990-01-01

The US Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (CRWM) has the unique mission of finding a permanent solution to the nation's high-level radioactive waste management problems. This paper explores a vital question: will OCRWM have sufficient scientific and technical resources as well as a sufficient level of public support to carry out its mission? An affirmative answer to this question will require that adequate numbers of science and engineering students enter the field of radioactive waste management and that overall scientific literacy also be enhanced. This paper outlines current activities and programs within DOE and OCRWM to increase scientific literacy and to recruit and develop scientists and engineers. While this paper offers only a summary inspection of the issues surrounding the solution of developing and maintaining the human technical capabilities to carry forth OCRWM's mission, it is meant to initiate a continuing examination by the American Nuclear Society, DOE, and professional and technical societies of fundamental scientific education issues

Using Learning Analytics to Understand Scientific Modeling in the Classroom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Quigley

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Scientific models represent ideas, processes, and phenomena by describing important components, characteristics, and interactions. Models are constructed across various scientific disciplines, such as the food web in biology, the water cycle in Earth science, or the structure of the solar system in astronomy. Models are central for scientists to understand phenomena, construct explanations, and communicate theories. Constructing and using models to explain scientific phenomena is also an essential practice in contemporary science classrooms. Our research explores new techniques for understanding scientific modeling and engagement with modeling practices. We work with students in secondary biology classrooms as they use a web-based software tool—EcoSurvey—to characterize organisms and their interrelationships found in their local ecosystem. We use learning analytics and machine learning techniques to answer the following questions: (1 How can we automatically measure the extent to which students’ scientific models support complete explanations of phenomena? (2 How does the design of student modeling tools influence the complexity and completeness of students’ models? (3 How do clickstreams reflect and differentiate student engagement with modeling practices? We analyzed EcoSurvey usage data collected from two different deployments with over 1,000 secondary students across a large urban school district. We observe large variations in the completeness and complexity of student models, and large variations in their iterative refinement processes. These differences reveal that certain key model features are highly predictive of other aspects of the model. We also observe large differences in student modeling practices across different classrooms and teachers. We can predict a student’s teacher based on the observed modeling practices with a high degree of accuracy without significant tuning of the predictive model. These results highlight

KM: Problems and Opportunities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gulliford, J.

2016-01-01

Full text: The use of nuclear technology and materials for a wide range of industrial, scientific, medical and energy purposes creates a strong need to assure the availability of relevant skills to support their safe and effective use. Whatever the expected future of nuclear power in different countries, there remains a strong need to sustain a high level of nuclear scientific and engineering expertise in order to contribute to and inform a wide variety of policymaking, safety, technological, medical, and industrial activities. The current talent-base in nuclear technology and science has been built in these countries since the 1950s. The pioneering generation is now long retired and the generation they trained during the expansion period of nuclear technology is now also approaching retirement age. While many aspects of the knowledge accumulated during the pioneering period is well preserved through scientific research reports, design documentation and other publications, and reflected in university training programs, there is greater concern about how to sustain the practical science and technology skills and expertise that can only be obtained through challenging activities such as research and advanced technology development projects. The ageing of the general workforce in the nuclear industry, declining student enrolment in science and engineering programs, and the risk of losing accumulated knowledge and experience have drawn attention to the need for better management of nuclear knowledge. Significant effort needs to be made to maintain adequate skilled workforce and attract new employees for long-term sustainability. Addressing these challenges is very difficult for all but the largest and best-funded national programs. Even for these large programs, the opportunities are fleeting and the attractiveness of research project experiences can be mixed. Working together in an international context, countries can achieve a powerful solution to this situation by

Amplify scientific discovery with artificial intelligence

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gil, Yolanda; Greaves, Mark T.; Hendler, James; Hirsch, Hyam

2014-10-10

Computing innovations have fundamentally changed many aspects of scientific inquiry. For example, advances in robotics, high-end computing, networking, and databases now underlie much of what we do in science such as gene sequencing, general number crunching, sharing information between scientists, and analyzing large amounts of data. As computing has evolved at a rapid pace, so too has its impact in science, with the most recent computing innovations repeatedly being brought to bear to facilitate new forms of inquiry. Recently, advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have deeply penetrated many consumer sectors, including for example Apple’s Siri™ speech recognition system, real-time automated language translation services, and a new generation of self-driving cars and self-navigating drones. However, AI has yet to achieve comparable levels of penetration in scientific inquiry, despite its tremendous potential in aiding computers to help scientists tackle tasks that require scientific reasoning. We contend that advances in AI will transform the practice of science as we are increasingly able to effectively and jointly harness human and machine intelligence in the pursuit of major scientific challenges.

Molecular biology in marine science: Scientific questions, technological approaches, and practical implications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1994-12-31

This report describes molecular techniques that could be invaluable in addressing process-oriented problems in the ocean sciences that have perplexed oceanographers for decades, such as understanding the basis for biogeochemical processes, recruitment processes, upper-ocean dynamics, biological impacts of global warming, and ecological impacts of human activities. The coupling of highly sophisticated methods, such as satellite remote sensing, which permits synoptic monitoring of chemical, physical, and biological parameters over large areas, with the power of modern molecular tools for ``ground truthing`` at small scales could allow scientists to address questions about marine organisms and the ocean in which they live that could not be answered previously. Clearly, the marine sciences are on the threshold of an exciting new frontier of scientific discovery and economic opportunity.

Exploiting Data Sparsity for Large-Scale Matrix Computations

KAUST Repository

Akbudak, Kadir

2018-02-24

Exploiting data sparsity in dense matrices is an algorithmic bridge between architectures that are increasingly memory-austere on a per-core basis and extreme-scale applications. The Hierarchical matrix Computations on Manycore Architectures (HiCMA) library tackles this challenging problem by achieving significant reductions in time to solution and memory footprint, while preserving a specified accuracy requirement of the application. HiCMA provides a high-performance implementation on distributed-memory systems of one of the most widely used matrix factorization in large-scale scientific applications, i.e., the Cholesky factorization. It employs the tile low-rank data format to compress the dense data-sparse off-diagonal tiles of the matrix. It then decomposes the matrix computations into interdependent tasks and relies on the dynamic runtime system StarPU for asynchronous out-of-order scheduling, while allowing high user-productivity. Performance comparisons and memory footprint on matrix dimensions up to eleven million show a performance gain and memory saving of more than an order of magnitude for both metrics on thousands of cores, against state-of-the-art open-source and vendor optimized numerical libraries. This represents an important milestone in enabling large-scale matrix computations toward solving big data problems in geospatial statistics for climate/weather forecasting applications.

Exploiting Data Sparsity for Large-Scale Matrix Computations

KAUST Repository

Akbudak, Kadir; Ltaief, Hatem; Mikhalev, Aleksandr; Charara, Ali; Keyes, David E.

2018-01-01

Exploiting data sparsity in dense matrices is an algorithmic bridge between architectures that are increasingly memory-austere on a per-core basis and extreme-scale applications. The Hierarchical matrix Computations on Manycore Architectures (HiCMA) library tackles this challenging problem by achieving significant reductions in time to solution and memory footprint, while preserving a specified accuracy requirement of the application. HiCMA provides a high-performance implementation on distributed-memory systems of one of the most widely used matrix factorization in large-scale scientific applications, i.e., the Cholesky factorization. It employs the tile low-rank data format to compress the dense data-sparse off-diagonal tiles of the matrix. It then decomposes the matrix computations into interdependent tasks and relies on the dynamic runtime system StarPU for asynchronous out-of-order scheduling, while allowing high user-productivity. Performance comparisons and memory footprint on matrix dimensions up to eleven million show a performance gain and memory saving of more than an order of magnitude for both metrics on thousands of cores, against state-of-the-art open-source and vendor optimized numerical libraries. This represents an important milestone in enabling large-scale matrix computations toward solving big data problems in geospatial statistics for climate/weather forecasting applications.

Reactive Robustness and Integrated Approaches for Railway Optimization Problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haahr, Jørgen Thorlund

journeys helps the driver to drive efficiently and enhances robustness in a realistic (dynamic) environment. Four international scientific prizes have been awarded for distinct parts of the research during the course of this PhD project. The first prize was awarded for work during the \\2014 RAS Problem...... to absorb or withstand unexpected events such as delays. Making robust plans is central in order to maintain a safe and timely railway operation. This thesis focuses on reactive robustness, i.e., the ability to react once a plan is rendered infeasible in operation due to disruptions. In such time...... Solving Competition", where a freight yard optimization problem was considered. The second junior (PhD) prize was awared for the work performed in the \\ROADEF/EURO Challenge 2014: Trains don't vanish!", where the planning of rolling stock movements at a large station was considered. An honorable mention...

Neural basis of scientific innovation induced by heuristic prototype.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Junlong Luo

Full Text Available A number of major inventions in history have been based on bionic imitation. Heuristics, by applying biological systems to the creation of artificial devices and machines, might be one of the most critical processes in scientific innovation. In particular, prototype heuristics propositions that innovation may engage automatic activation of a prototype such as a biological system to form novel associations between a prototype's function and problem-solving. We speculated that the cortical dissociation between the automatic activation and forming novel associations in innovation is critical point to heuristic creativity. In the present study, novel and old scientific innovations (NSI and OSI were selected as experimental materials in using learning-testing paradigm to explore the neural basis of scientific innovation induced by heuristic prototype. College students were required to resolve NSI problems (to which they did not know the answers and OSI problems (to which they knew the answers. From two fMRI experiments, our results showed that the subjects could resolve NSI when provided with heuristic prototypes. In Experiment 1, it was found that the lingual gyrus (LG; BA18 might be related to prototype heuristics in college students resolving NSI after learning a relative prototype. In Experiment 2, the LG (BA18 and precuneus (BA31 were significantly activated for NSI compared to OSI when college students learned all prototypes one day before the test. In addition, the mean beta-values of these brain regions of NSI were all correlated with the behavior accuracy of NSI. As our hypothesis indicated, the findings suggested that the LG might be involved in forming novel associations using heuristic information, while the precuneus might be involved in the automatic activation of heuristic prototype during scientific innovation.

Neural basis of scientific innovation induced by heuristic prototype.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Junlong; Li, Wenfu; Qiu, Jiang; Wei, Dongtao; Liu, Yijun; Zhang, Qinlin

2013-01-01

A number of major inventions in history have been based on bionic imitation. Heuristics, by applying biological systems to the creation of artificial devices and machines, might be one of the most critical processes in scientific innovation. In particular, prototype heuristics propositions that innovation may engage automatic activation of a prototype such as a biological system to form novel associations between a prototype's function and problem-solving. We speculated that the cortical dissociation between the automatic activation and forming novel associations in innovation is critical point to heuristic creativity. In the present study, novel and old scientific innovations (NSI and OSI) were selected as experimental materials in using learning-testing paradigm to explore the neural basis of scientific innovation induced by heuristic prototype. College students were required to resolve NSI problems (to which they did not know the answers) and OSI problems (to which they knew the answers). From two fMRI experiments, our results showed that the subjects could resolve NSI when provided with heuristic prototypes. In Experiment 1, it was found that the lingual gyrus (LG; BA18) might be related to prototype heuristics in college students resolving NSI after learning a relative prototype. In Experiment 2, the LG (BA18) and precuneus (BA31) were significantly activated for NSI compared to OSI when college students learned all prototypes one day before the test. In addition, the mean beta-values of these brain regions of NSI were all correlated with the behavior accuracy of NSI. As our hypothesis indicated, the findings suggested that the LG might be involved in forming novel associations using heuristic information, while the precuneus might be involved in the automatic activation of heuristic prototype during scientific innovation.

Scientific report 1999

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

This scientific report of the Fuel Cycle Direction of the Cea, presents the Direction activities and research programs in the fuel cycle domain during the year 1999. The first chapter is devoted to the front end of the fuel cycle with the SILVA process as main topic. The second chapter is largely based on the separation chemistry of the back end cycle. The third and fourth chapters present studies of more applied and sometimes more technical developments in the nuclear industry or not. (A.L.B.)

Role of Scientific Societies in International Collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Fucugauchi, J. U.

2007-12-01

Geophysical research increasingly requires global multidisciplinary approaches. Understanding how deeply interrelated are Earth components and processes, population growth, increased needs of mineral and energy resources, global impact of human activities, and view of our planet as an interconnected system emphasizes the need of international cooperation. International research collaboration has an immense potential and is needed for further development of Earth science research and education. The Union Session is planned to provide a forum for analysis and discussion of the status of research and education of geosciences in developing countries, international collaboration programs and new initiatives for promoting and strengthening scientific cooperation. A theme of particular relevance in the analyses and discussions is the role of scientific societies in international collaboration. Societies organize meetings, publish journals and books and promote cooperation through academic exchange activities. They may further assist communities in developing countries in providing and facilitating access to scientific literature, attendance to international meetings, short and long-term stays and student and young researcher mobility. What else can be done? This is a complex subject and scientific societies may not be seen independently from the many factors involved in research and education. Developing countries present additional challenges resulting from limited economic resources and social and political problems, while urgently requiring improved educational and research programs. Needed are in-depth analyses of infrastructure and human resources, and identification of major problems and needs. What are the major limitations and needs in research and postgraduate education in developing countries? What and how should international collaboration do? What are the roles of individuals, academic institutions, funding agencies, scientific societies? Here we attempt to

Overlapping domain decomposition preconditioners for the generalized Davidson method for the eigenvalue problem

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stathopoulos, A.; Fischer, C.F. [Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States); Saad, Y.

1994-12-31

The solution of the large, sparse, symmetric eigenvalue problem, Ax = {lambda}x, is central to many scientific applications. Among many iterative methods that attempt to solve this problem, the Lanczos and the Generalized Davidson (GD) are the most widely used methods. The Lanczos method builds an orthogonal basis for the Krylov subspace, from which the required eigenvectors are approximated through a Rayleigh-Ritz procedure. Each Lanczos iteration is economical to compute but the number of iterations may grow significantly for difficult problems. The GD method can be considered a preconditioned version of Lanczos. In each step the Rayleigh-Ritz procedure is solved and explicit orthogonalization of the preconditioned residual ((M {minus} {lambda}I){sup {minus}1}(A {minus} {lambda}I)x) is performed. Therefore, the GD method attempts to improve convergence and robustness at the expense of a more complicated step.

The role of scientific knowledge in the public's perceptions of energy technology risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stoutenborough, James W.; Vedlitz, Arnold

2016-01-01

It is important for policy makers to have an accurate understanding of public attitudes toward pressing issues to help inform their decision making. Researchers consistently find that the public’s receipt of and correct processing of scientific information and knowledge are essential for its problem solving. Different levels of understanding of specific energy technologies may produce different risk assessments across technologies within this issue domain. How this differential risk assessment occurs and the role that scientific information may play in it is not yet well known. This project seeks to determine the role that perceived and objective scientific knowledge may play in the public’s risk assessments of different energy technologies. Our findings suggest that scientific knowledge does temper public risk evaluations of different energy technologies, therefore linking more clearly the connection between science knowledge, scientific trust, and issue problem identification. - Highlights: •We examine influence of assessed and perceived knowledge on public risk perceptions. •We model effect of knowledge type on publics’ perceptions of three energy risks. •All models show those with higher assessed knowledge see risks more like experts do. •Perceived knowledge is less reliable predictor of public rating risk like experts. •Greater scientific grasp of issues by public needed for accurate risk assessment.

Men ask more questions than women at a scientific conference.

Science.gov (United States)

Hinsley, Amy; Sutherland, William J; Johnston, Alison

2017-01-01

Gender inequity in science and academia, especially in senior positions, is a recognised problem. The reasons are poorly understood, but include the persistence of historical gender ratios, discrimination and other factors, including gender-based behavioural differences. We studied participation in a professional context by observing question-asking behaviour at a large international conference with a clear equality code of conduct that prohibited any form of discrimination. Accounting for audience gender ratio, male attendees asked 1.8 questions for each question asked by a female attendee. Amongst only younger researchers, male attendees also asked 1.8 questions per female question, suggesting the pattern cannot be attributed to the temporary problem of demographic inertia. We link our findings to the 'chilly' climate for women in STEM, including wider experiences of discrimination likely encountered by women throughout their education and careers. We call for a broader and coordinated approach to understanding and addressing the barriers to women and other under-represented groups. We encourage the scientific community to recognise the context in which these gender differences occur, and evaluate and develop methods to support full participation from all attendees.

Men ask more questions than women at a scientific conference.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amy Hinsley

Full Text Available Gender inequity in science and academia, especially in senior positions, is a recognised problem. The reasons are poorly understood, but include the persistence of historical gender ratios, discrimination and other factors, including gender-based behavioural differences. We studied participation in a professional context by observing question-asking behaviour at a large international conference with a clear equality code of conduct that prohibited any form of discrimination. Accounting for audience gender ratio, male attendees asked 1.8 questions for each question asked by a female attendee. Amongst only younger researchers, male attendees also asked 1.8 questions per female question, suggesting the pattern cannot be attributed to the temporary problem of demographic inertia. We link our findings to the 'chilly' climate for women in STEM, including wider experiences of discrimination likely encountered by women throughout their education and careers. We call for a broader and coordinated approach to understanding and addressing the barriers to women and other under-represented groups. We encourage the scientific community to recognise the context in which these gender differences occur, and evaluate and develop methods to support full participation from all attendees.

Intelligent Personal Supercomputer for Solving Scientific and Technical Problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khimich, O.M.

2016-09-01

Full Text Available New domestic intellіgent personal supercomputer of hybrid architecture Inparkom_pg for the mathematical modeling of processes in the defense industry, engineering, construction, etc. was developed. Intelligent software for the automatic research and tasks of computational mathematics with approximate data of different structures was designed. Applied software to provide mathematical modeling problems in construction, welding and filtration processes was implemented.

JINR CLOUD SERVICE FOR SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING COMPUTATIONS

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Nikita A. Balashov

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Pretty often small research scientific groups do not have access to powerful enough computational resources required for their research work to be productive. Global computational infrastructures used by large scientific collaborations can be challenging for small research teams because of bureaucracy overhead as well as usage complexity of underlying tools. Some researchers buy a set of powerful servers to cover their own needs in computational resources. A drawback of such approach is a necessity to take care about proper hosting environment for these hardware and maintenance which requires a certain level of expertise. Moreover a lot of time such resources may be underutilized because а researcher needs to spend a certain amount of time to prepare computations and to analyze results as well as he doesn’t always need all resources of modern multi-core CPUs servers. The JINR cloud team developed a service which provides an access for scientists of small research groups from JINR and its Member State organizations to computational resources via problem-oriented (i.e. application-specific web-interface. It allows a scientist to focus on his research domain by interacting with the service in a convenient way via browser and abstracting away from underlying infrastructure as well as its maintenance. A user just sets a required values for his job via web-interface and specify a location for uploading a result. The computational workloads are done on the virtual machines deployed in the JINR cloud infrastructure.

General Critical Properties of the Dynamics of Scientific Discovery

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bettencourt, L. M. A. (LANL); Kaiser, D. I. (MIT)

2011-05-31

Scientific fields are difficult to define and compare, yet there is a general sense that they undergo similar stages of development. From this point of view it becomes important to determine if these superficial similarities can be translated into a general framework that would quantify the general advent and subsequent dynamics of scientific ideas. Such a framework would have important practical applications of allowing us to compare fields that superficially may appear different, in terms of their subject matter, research techniques, typical collaboration size, etc. Particularh' important in a field's history is the moment at which conceptual and technical unification allows widespread exchange of ideas and collaboration, at which point networks of collaboration show the analog of a percolation phenomenon, developing a giant connected component containing most authors. Here we investigate the generality of this topological transition in the collaboration structure of scientific fields as they grow and become denser. We develop a general theoretical framework in which each scientific field is an instantiation of the same large-scale topological critical phenomenon. We consider whether the evidence from a variety of specific fields is consistent with this picture, and estimate critical exponents associated with the transition. We then discuss the generality of the phenomenon and to what extent we may expect other scientific fields — including very large ones — to follow the same dynamics.

Comparative Difficulties with Non-Scientific General Vocabulary and Scientific/Medical Terminology in English as a Second Language (ESL) Medical Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Heming, Thomas A; Nandagopal, Shobha

2012-11-01

Medical education requires student comprehension of both technical (scientific/medical) and non-technical (general) vocabulary. Our experience with "English as a second language" (ESL) Arab students suggested they often have problems comprehending scientific statements because of weaknesses in their understanding of non-scientific vocabulary. This study aimed to determine whether ESL students have difficulties with general vocabulary that could hinder their understanding of scientific/medical texts. A survey containing English text was given to ESL students in the premedical years of an English-medium medical school in an Arabic country. The survey consisted of sample questions from the Medical College Admission Test (USA). Students were instructed to identify all unknown words in the text. ESL students commenced premedical studies with substantial deficiencies in English vocabulary. Students from English-medium secondary schools had a selective deficiency in scientific/medical terminology which disappeared with time. Students from Arabic-medium secondary schools had equal difficulty with general and scientific/medical vocabulary. Deficiencies in both areas diminished with time but remained even after three years of English-medium higher education. Typically, when teaching technical subjects to ESL students, attention is focused on subject-unique vocabulary and associated modifiers. This study highlights that ESL students also face difficulties with the general vocabulary used to construct statements employing technical words. Such students would benefit from increases in general vocabulary knowledge.

Poster Development and Presentation to Improve Scientific Inquiry and Broaden Effective Scientific Communication Skills †

Science.gov (United States)

Rauschenbach, Ines; Keddis, Ramaydalis; Davis, Diane

2018-01-01

We have redesigned a tried-and-true laboratory exercise into an inquiry-based team activity exploring microbial growth control, and implemented this activity as the basis for preparing a scientific poster in a large, multi-section laboratory course. Spanning most of the semester, this project culminates in a poster presentation of data generated from a student-designed experiment. Students use and apply the scientific method and improve written and verbal communication skills. The guided inquiry format of this exercise provides the opportunity for student collaboration through cooperative learning. For each learning objective, a percentage score was tabulated (learning objective score = points awarded/total possible points). A score of 80% was our benchmark for achieving each objective. At least 76% of the student groups participating in this project over two semesters achieved each learning goal. Student perceptions of the project were evaluated using a survey. Nearly 90% of participating students felt they had learned a great deal in the areas of formulating a hypothesis, experimental design, and collecting and analyzing data; 72% of students felt this project had improved their scientific writing skills. In a separate survey, 84% of students who responded felt that peer review was valuable in improving their final poster submission. We designed this inquiry-based poster project to improve student scientific communication skills. This exercise is appropriate for any microbiology laboratory course whose learning outcomes include the development of scientific inquiry and literacy. PMID:29904518

Scientific instruments, scientific progress and the cyclotron

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baird, David; Faust, Thomas

1990-01-01

Philosophers speak of science in terms of theory and experiment, yet when they speak of the progress of scientific knowledge they speak in terms of theory alone. In this article it is claimed that scientific knowledge consists of, among other things, scientific instruments and instrumental techniques and not simply of some kind of justified beliefs. It is argued that one aspect of scientific progress can be characterized relatively straightforwardly - the accumulation of new scientific instruments. The development of the cyclotron is taken to illustrate this point. Eight different activities which promoted the successful completion of the cyclotron are recognised. The importance is in the machine rather than the experiments which could be run on it and the focus is on how the cyclotron came into being, not how it was subsequently used. The completed instrument is seen as a useful unit of scientific progress in its own right. (UK)

The Problem of Consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Crick, Francis; Koch, Christof

1992-01-01

Discusses approaches to the problem presented in understanding consciousness as a yet undiscovered process of interacting neuron activity. Presents the historical context of research in the area of human awareness and identifies research necessary to scientifically explain how the brain relates to the mind. (MCO)

The problem of creation of radiation monitoring system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pilipchak, S.I.

1990-01-01

The review of problem of radiation monitoring system (RMS) in the territory of the country is presented. Unsolved problems are discussed which are divided into three groups: the organization of structures in RMS; implementation of automated RMS; the solution of scientific problems of global monitoring of radiation situation. 12 refs.; 1 tab

Lexical Features of Scientific Discourse

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatjana Rusko

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Currently, a lot of emphasis is placed of the ability of a person to successfully communicate in any sphere of activity, which along with upbringing and education is among the factors that determine a person’s culture. In the context of rapid scientific and technological progress, it is vital to constantly exchange relevant infor- mation. The effectiveness of this process relies not only on the proficient knowledge of the subject and the ability to make grammatically correct sentences, but to a large extent on the level of competence in scientific language. The present article attempts to consider the interaction of discourse and vocabulary, different types of cognitive phenomena responsible for the use of a language in real time and related to the language as a means of storing and organising information. Analysing and classifying some key elements of a scientific discourse lexicon contributes to the development of certain provisions of lexicology, functional stylistics, cognitive linguistics and terminology. The results of the analysis may be advantageous both to linguistics and teaching the language for specific purposes.

Reading the problem family: post-structuralism and the analysis of social problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Reekie, G

1994-01-01

Post-structuralist theory questions the rational pursuit of an underlying 'truth' that often characterizes social scientific inquiry, proposing instead the simultaneous existence of multiple and often contradictory truths. The problem family can, from this perspective, only be known through the different discourses that produce it. This paper suggests some of the political advantages of developing methods of reading 'problems' related to drugs and alcohol. Without this critical attention to language, we risk perpetuating the ways in which problems are talked about and thought about. Drawing on examples from debates surrounding teenage pregnancy and youth drinking, the paper argues that post-structuralism allows us to analyse the specific ways in which professional discourses write social problems, and hence to own them and to re-write them.

Transforming "Ecosystem" from a Scientific Concept into a Teachable Topic: Philosophy and History of Ecology Informs Science Textbook Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Schizas, Dimitrios; Papatheodorou, Efimia; Stamou, George

2018-01-01

This study conducts a textbook analysis in the frame of the following working hypothesis: The transformation of scientific knowledge into school knowledge is expected to reproduce the problems encountered with the scientific knowledge itself or generate additional problems, which may both induce misconceptions in textbook users. Specifically, we…

Applications of artificial intelligence to scientific research

Science.gov (United States)

Prince, Mary Ellen

1986-01-01

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a growing field which is just beginning to make an impact on disciplines other than computer science. While a number of military and commercial applications were undertaken in recent years, few attempts were made to apply AI techniques to basic scientific research. There is no inherent reason for the discrepancy. The characteristics of the problem, rather than its domain, determines whether or not it is suitable for an AI approach. Expert system, intelligent tutoring systems, and learning programs are examples of theoretical topics which can be applied to certain areas of scientific research. Further research and experimentation should eventurally make it possible for computers to act as intelligent assistants to scientists.

Scientific approach to the problem of early memories and self-criminals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Debolsky M.G.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This article deal with a theoretical overview of the problem of early recollections and self-esteem criminals. Discussed issues are considered within the concept of Alfred Adler. A. Adler said that the earliest memories - is the starting point of an autobiography, which traced the first assessment itself, which is the basis of self-esteem and life style. Has been hypothesized about the existence correlation between the content of early recollections and self-esteem, which is a precondition for the formation of a criminal lifestyle. This hypothesis is based on the analysis of large number of theoretical studies foreign scientists (J. Bruner, C. Miner, G. Murray, J. Kramer, S. Tomkins, L. Ross and Newby-Clark, M. Singer and P. Salovey, LA Polkington and D. McAdams and some empirical studies (A. Molostvov. The article describes the main points of view on the question of the correctness of reproducible human memories. The authors share the position of A. Adler that certain childhood experiences form the self-esteem of man. If in childhood has been formed inferiority in a certain area, the man all his life to strive for superiority, and it was on the values in this field will be based his self-esteem. Important to find the fundamental mistakes made in the early period of personality development, then using particular therapy can to correct them into adulthood. Thus, the article focuses on the reader an opportunity to improve the psychotherapeutic work with early recollections of convicts to reduce the risk of re-offending.

[Ethical conflicts in the authorship of scientific papers].

Science.gov (United States)

von Oetinger, Astrid; Sadarangani, Kabir P; Salas, Sofía P

2016-11-01

The frequency of conflicts about authorship of publications has increased along with the increase in the number of people involved in scientific work. Some of the factors that strongly influence the generation of conflicts and malpractices in authorship definition of scientific publications are the pressure of academia, economic incentives from the pharmaceutical industry in the field of biomedicine and authors’ wishes and expectations of recognition, among other factors. The article analyzes this problem, increasingly common in the field of medicine and related areas. Special attention is devoted to the prevailing laws in our country and international guidelines related to intellectual property and authorship of scientific publications, respectively. However, the ethical commitment, intellectual honesty and truthfulness of each of the authors about what is reported seems to be the decisive factor for the solution to these authorship conflicts.

No firewalls or information problem for black holes entangled with large systems

Science.gov (United States)

Stoltenberg, Henry; Albrecht, Andreas

2015-01-01

We discuss how under certain conditions the black hole information puzzle and the (related) arguments that firewalls are a typical feature of black holes can break down. We first review the arguments of Almheiri, Marolf, Polchinski and Sully favoring firewalls, focusing on entanglements in a simple toy model for a black hole and the Hawking radiation. By introducing a large and inaccessible system entangled with the black hole (representing perhaps a de Sitter stretched horizon or inaccessible part of a landscape), we show complementarity can be restored and firewalls can be avoided throughout the black hole's evolution. Under these conditions black holes do not have an "information problem." We point out flaws in some of our earlier arguments that such entanglement might be generically present in some cosmological scenarios and call out certain ways our picture may still be realized.

Exploration on the reform of the science and engineering experiment teaching based on the combination with teaching and scientific research

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Peng

2017-08-01

The existing problems of the experiment education in colleges and universities are analyzed. Take the science and engineering specialty as example, the idea of the combination with teaching and scientific research is discussed. The key problems are how the scientific research and scientific research achievements are used effectively in the experiment education, how to effectively use scientific research laboratories and scientific researchers. Then, a specialty experiment education system is established which is good for the teaching in accordance of all students' aptitude. The research in this paper can give the construction of the experiment teaching methods and the experiment system reform for the science and engineering specialties in colleges and universities.

HPCToolkit: performance tools for scientific computing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tallent, N; Mellor-Crummey, J; Adhianto, L; Fagan, M; Krentel, M [Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005 (United States)

2008-07-15

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program, science teams are tackling problems that require simulation and modeling on petascale computers. As part of activities associated with the SciDAC Center for Scalable Application Development Software (CScADS) and the Performance Engineering Research Institute (PERI), Rice University is building software tools for performance analysis of scientific applications on the leadership-class platforms. In this poster abstract, we briefly describe the HPCToolkit performance tools and how they can be used to pinpoint bottlenecks in SPMD and multi-threaded parallel codes. We demonstrate HPCToolkit's utility by applying it to two SciDAC applications: the S3D code for simulation of turbulent combustion and the MFDn code for ab initio calculations of microscopic structure of nuclei.

HPCToolkit: performance tools for scientific computing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tallent, N; Mellor-Crummey, J; Adhianto, L; Fagan, M; Krentel, M

2008-01-01

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program, science teams are tackling problems that require simulation and modeling on petascale computers. As part of activities associated with the SciDAC Center for Scalable Application Development Software (CScADS) and the Performance Engineering Research Institute (PERI), Rice University is building software tools for performance analysis of scientific applications on the leadership-class platforms. In this poster abstract, we briefly describe the HPCToolkit performance tools and how they can be used to pinpoint bottlenecks in SPMD and multi-threaded parallel codes. We demonstrate HPCToolkit's utility by applying it to two SciDAC applications: the S3D code for simulation of turbulent combustion and the MFDn code for ab initio calculations of microscopic structure of nuclei

A Formula for Fixing Troubled Projects: The Scientific Method Meets Leadership

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, Sandra

2006-01-01

This presentation focuses on project management, specifically addressing project issues using the scientific method of problem-solving. Two sample projects where this methodology has been applied are provided.

Imagination and rigor essays on Eduardo R Caianiello's scientific heritage

CERN Document Server

Termini, Settimo

2006-01-01

The aim of this Volume of scientific essays is twofold. From one side, by remembering the scientific figure of Eduardo R. Caianiello, it aims at focusing his outstanding contributions - from theoretical physics to cybernetics - which after so many years still represent occasion of innovative paths to be fruitfully followed. It must be stressed the contribution that his interdisciplinary methodology can still be of great help in affording and solving present day complex problems. On the other side, it aims at pinpointing with the help of the scientists contributing to the Volume - some crucial problems in present day research in the fields of interest of Eduardo Caianiello and which are still among the main lines of investigation of some of the Istitutes founded by Eduardo (Istituto di Cibernetica del CNR, IIAS, etc).

Charting the landscape of priority problems in psychiatry, part 1: classification and diagnosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephan, Klaas E; Bach, Dominik R; Fletcher, Paul C; Flint, Jonathan; Frank, Michael J; Friston, Karl J; Heinz, Andreas; Huys, Quentin J M; Owen, Michael J; Binder, Elisabeth B; Dayan, Peter; Johnstone, Eve C; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas; Montague, P Read; Schnyder, Ulrich; Wang, Xiao-Jing; Breakspear, Michael

2016-01-01

Contemporary psychiatry faces major challenges. Its syndrome-based disease classification is not based on mechanisms and does not guide treatment, which largely depends on trial and error. The development of therapies is hindered by ignorance of potential beneficiary patient subgroups. Neuroscientific and genetics research have yet to affect disease definitions or contribute to clinical decision making. In this challenging setting, what should psychiatric research focus on? In two companion papers, we present a list of problems nominated by clinicians and researchers from different disciplines as candidates for future scientific investigation of mental disorders. These problems are loosely grouped into challenges concerning nosology and diagnosis (this Personal View) and problems related to pathogenesis and aetiology (in the companion Personal View). Motivated by successful examples in other disciplines, particularly the list of Hilbert's problems in mathematics, this subjective and eclectic list of priority problems is intended for psychiatric researchers, helping to re-focus existing research and providing perspectives for future psychiatric science. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

COMPLEMENTARY EFFECTS IN ACTIVIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. Zhylinska

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes new methodological approaches in the study of development problems of scientific and technical activities in the information society. The essence and economic nature of development scientific and technical activities' from the standpoint of methodological collectivism are disclosed, a new phenomenon intensification of development scientific and technical activities by forming the global networks of scientific and technical knowledge users that provides sharing of the burden of transformation and transaction costs as generation as well as economic implementation of research and technical knowledge across the globe are showed. This study outlines the complementary effects in intensify development of scientific and technological activities components: research and development (RD, training of scientific personnel, provision of scientific and technical services, which generates of world market's complementary goods, being world market of educational services of scientific and technical information, industrial properties, high technology products, venture capital investments and stock market.

Problem Solving-Based Experiment untuk Meningkatkan Keterampilan Penalaran Ilmiah Mahasiswa Fisika

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhamad Gina Nugraha

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract As one of the foundations in the development of technology, physics must be supported by experimental activities that are able to develop a scientist's skills, such as scientific reasoning skills. Experiments with cookbook methods that have been conducted in various experimental activities are considered not able to maximize the potential of students because it does not provide wide opportunities for students to explore. One of the solutions to develop the scientific reasoning skills of physics students is the problem solving-based experiment approach. The research was conducted by one group pretest-posstest design to 20 physics students as research sample. The research instrument used is the scientific reasoning instrument test developed by Lawson which is known as Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR and student work sheet instrument (LKM containing problems in daily life and questions about: tools and materials, prediction, exploration, measurement, analysis and conclusions. The results show all aspects of scientific reasoning being measured, i.e. 1 conservation of matter and volume, 2 proportional thinking, 3 identification and control of variables, 4 probabilistic thinking, 5 correlative thinking, and 6 hypothetic-deductive thinking has increased. Based on the result of research can be concluded that the problem solving-based experiment can improve the scientific reasoning skills of physics students. Keywords: Problem solving, experiment, scientific reasoning skills Abstrak Fisika sebagai salah satu pondasi ilmu dalam perkembangan teknologi harus didukung dengan kegiatan eksperimen yang mampu menumbuhkembangkan keterampilan seorang ilmuwan, diantaranya keterampilan penalaran ilmiah dalam menyikapi fenomena alam. Eksperimen dengan metode cookbook yang selama ini menjamur dalam berbagai kegiatan eksperimen dipandang tidak mampu memaksimalkan potensi mahasiswa karena tidak memberikan kesempatan yang luas kepada

Numerical and analytical approaches to an advection-diffusion problem at small Reynolds number and large Péclet number

Science.gov (United States)

Fuller, Nathaniel J.; Licata, Nicholas A.

2018-05-01

Obtaining a detailed understanding of the physical interactions between a cell and its environment often requires information about the flow of fluid surrounding the cell. Cells must be able to effectively absorb and discard material in order to survive. Strategies for nutrient acquisition and toxin disposal, which have been evolutionarily selected for their efficacy, should reflect knowledge of the physics underlying this mass transport problem. Motivated by these considerations, in this paper we discuss the results from an undergraduate research project on the advection-diffusion equation at small Reynolds number and large Péclet number. In particular, we consider the problem of mass transport for a Stokesian spherical swimmer. We approach the problem numerically and analytically through a rescaling of the concentration boundary layer. A biophysically motivated first-passage problem for the absorption of material by the swimming cell demonstrates quantitative agreement between the numerical and analytical approaches. We conclude by discussing the connections between our results and the design of smart toxin disposal systems.

Engineering and Scientific Applications: Using MatLab(Registered Trademark) for Data Processing and Visualization

Science.gov (United States)

Sen, Syamal K.; Shaykhian, Gholam Ali

2011-01-01

MatLab(TradeMark)(MATrix LABoratory) is a numerical computation and simulation tool that is used by thousands Scientists and Engineers in many countries. MatLab does purely numerical calculations, which can be used as a glorified calculator or interpreter programming language; its real strength is in matrix manipulations. Computer algebra functionalities are achieved within the MatLab environment using "symbolic" toolbox. This feature is similar to computer algebra programs, provided by Maple or Mathematica to calculate with mathematical equations using symbolic operations. MatLab in its interpreter programming language form (command interface) is similar with well known programming languages such as C/C++, support data structures and cell arrays to define classes in object oriented programming. As such, MatLab is equipped with most of the essential constructs of a higher programming language. MatLab is packaged with an editor and debugging functionality useful to perform analysis of large MatLab programs and find errors. We believe there are many ways to approach real-world problems; prescribed methods to ensure foregoing solutions are incorporated in design and analysis of data processing and visualization can benefit engineers and scientist in gaining wider insight in actual implementation of their perspective experiments. This presentation will focus on data processing and visualizations aspects of engineering and scientific applications. Specifically, it will discuss methods and techniques to perform intermediate-level data processing covering engineering and scientific problems. MatLab programming techniques including reading various data files formats to produce customized publication-quality graphics, importing engineering and/or scientific data, organizing data in tabular format, exporting data to be used by other software programs such as Microsoft Excel, data presentation and visualization will be discussed.

Invasion Ecology. Student Edition. Cornell Scientific Inquiry Series.

Science.gov (United States)

Krasny, Marianne E.; Trautmann, Nancy; Carlsen, William; Cunningham, Christine

This book contains the student edition of the Environmental Inquiry curriculum series developed at Cornell University. It is designed to teach learning skills for investigating the behaviors of non-native and native species and demonstrate how to apply scientific knowledge to solve real-life problems. This book focuses on strange intruders…

Titanium condenser tubes. Problems and their solution for wider application to large surface condensers. [PWR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sato, S; Sugiyama, S; Nagata, K; Nanba, K; Shimono, M [Sumitomo Light Metal Industries Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)

1977-06-01

The corrosion resistance of titanium in sea water is extremely excellent, but titanium tubes are expensive, and the copper alloy tubes resistant in polluted sea water were developed, therefore they were not used practically. In 1970, ammonia attack was found on the copper alloy tubes in the air-cooled portion of condensers, and titanium tubes have been used as the countermeasure. As the result of the use, the galvanic attack on copper alloy tube plates with titanium tubes as cathode and the hydrogen absorption at titanium tube ends owing to excess electrolytic protection was observed, but the corrosion resistance of titanium tubes was perfect. These problems can be controlled by the application of proper electrolytic protection. The condensers with all titanium tubes adopted recently in USA are intended to realize perfectly no-leak condensers as the countermeasure to the corrosion in steam generators of PWR plants. Regarding large condensers of nowadays, three problems are pointed out, namely the vibration of condenser tubes, the method of joining tubes and tube plates, and the tubes of no coolant leak. These three problems in case of titanium tubes were studied, and the problem of the fouling of tubes was also examined. The intervals of supporting plates for titanium tubes should be narrowed. The joining of titanium tubes and titanium tube plates by welding is feasible and promising. The cleaning with sponge balls is effective to control fouling.

Highly parallel machines and future of scientific computing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, G.S.

1992-01-01

Computing requirement of large scale scientific computing has always been ahead of what state of the art hardware could supply in the form of supercomputers of the day. And for any single processor system the limit to increase in the computing power was realized a few years back itself. Now with the advent of parallel computing systems the availability of machines with the required computing power seems a reality. In this paper the author tries to visualize the future large scale scientific computing in the penultimate decade of the present century. The author summarized trends in parallel computers and emphasize the need for a better programming environment and software tools for optimal performance. The author concludes this paper with critique on parallel architectures, software tools and algorithms. (author). 10 refs., 2 tabs

Implementing the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice : A Case Study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schuurbiers, D.; Osseweijer, P.; Kinderlerer, J.

2009-01-01

Widespread enthusiasm for establishing scientific codes of conduct notwithstanding, the utility of such codes in influencing scientific practice is not self-evident. It largely depends on the implementation phase following their establishment—a phase which often receives little attention. The aim of

Designing a solution to enable agency-academic scientific collaboration for disasters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lindley A. Mease

2017-06-01

Full Text Available As large-scale environmental disasters become increasingly frequent and more severe globally, people and organizations that prepare for and respond to these crises need efficient and effective ways to integrate sound science into their decision making. Experience has shown that integrating nongovernmental scientific expertise into disaster decision making can improve the quality of the response, and is most effective if the integration occurs before, during, and after a crisis, not just during a crisis. However, collaboration between academic, government, and industry scientists, decision makers, and responders is frequently difficult because of cultural differences, misaligned incentives, time pressures, and legal constraints. Our study addressed this challenge by using the Deep Change Method, a design methodology developed by Stanford ChangeLabs, which combines human-centered design, systems analysis, and behavioral psychology. We investigated underlying needs and motivations of government agency staff and academic scientists, mapped the root causes underlying the relationship failures between these two communities based on their experiences, and identified leverage points for shifting deeply rooted perceptions that impede collaboration. We found that building trust and creating mutual value between multiple stakeholders before crises occur is likely to increase the effectiveness of problem solving. We propose a solution, the Science Action Network, which is designed to address barriers to scientific collaboration by providing new mechanisms to build and improve trust and communication between government administrators and scientists, industry representatives, and academic scientists. The Science Action Network has the potential to ensure cross-disaster preparedness and science-based decision making through novel partnerships and scientific coordination.