Credibilistic multi-period portfolio optimization based on scenario tree

Science.gov (United States)

Mohebbi, Negin; Najafi, Amir Abbas

2018-02-01

In this paper, we consider a multi-period fuzzy portfolio optimization model with considering transaction costs and the possibility of risk-free investment. We formulate a bi-objective mean-VaR portfolio selection model based on the integration of fuzzy credibility theory and scenario tree in order to dealing with the markets uncertainty. The scenario tree is also a proper method for modeling multi-period portfolio problems since the length and continuity of their horizon. We take the return and risk as well cardinality, threshold, class, and liquidity constraints into consideration for further compliance of the model with reality. Then, an interactive dynamic programming method, which is based on a two-phase fuzzy interactive approach, is employed to solve the proposed model. In order to verify the proposed model, we present an empirical application in NYSE under different circumstances. The results show that the consideration of data uncertainty and other real-world assumptions lead to more practical and efficient solutions.

Load Balancing Issues with Constructing Phylogenetic Trees using Neighbour-Joining Algorithm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Al Mamun, S M

2012-01-01

Phylogenetic tree construction is one of the most important and interesting problems in bioinformatics. Constructing an efficient phylogenetic tree has always been a research issue. It needs to consider both the correctness and the speed of the tree construction. In this paper, we implemented the neighbour-joining algorithm, using Message Passing Interface (MPI) for constructing the phylogenetic tree. Performance is efficacious, comparing to the best sequential algorithm. From this paper, it would be clear to the researchers that how load balance can make a great effect for constructing phylogenetic trees using neighbour-joining algorithm.

Computer-oriented approach to fault-tree construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salem, S.L.; Apostolakis, G.E.; Okrent, D.

1976-11-01

A methodology for systematically constructing fault trees for general complex systems is developed and applied, via the Computer Automated Tree (CAT) program, to several systems. A means of representing component behavior by decision tables is presented. The method developed allows the modeling of components with various combinations of electrical, fluid and mechanical inputs and outputs. Each component can have multiple internal failure mechanisms which combine with the states of the inputs to produce the appropriate output states. The generality of this approach allows not only the modeling of hardware, but human actions and interactions as well. A procedure for constructing and editing fault trees, either manually or by computer, is described. The techniques employed result in a complete fault tree, in standard form, suitable for analysis by current computer codes. Methods of describing the system, defining boundary conditions and specifying complex TOP events are developed in order to set up the initial configuration for which the fault tree is to be constructed. The approach used allows rapid modifications of the decision tables and systems to facilitate the analysis and comparison of various refinements and changes in the system configuration and component modeling

Constructing Student Problems in Phylogenetic Tree Construction.

Science.gov (United States)

Brewer, Steven D.

Evolution is often equated with natural selection and is taught from a primarily functional perspective while comparative and historical approaches, which are critical for developing an appreciation of the power of evolutionary theory, are often neglected. This report describes a study of expert problem-solving in phylogenetic tree construction.…

WDM Multicast Tree Construction Algorithms and Their Comparative Evaluations

Science.gov (United States)

Makabe, Tsutomu; Mikoshi, Taiju; Takenaka, Toyofumi

We propose novel tree construction algorithms for multicast communication in photonic networks. Since multicast communications consume many more link resources than unicast communications, effective algorithms for route selection and wavelength assignment are required. We propose a novel tree construction algorithm, called the Weighted Steiner Tree (WST) algorithm and a variation of the WST algorithm, called the Composite Weighted Steiner Tree (CWST) algorithm. Because these algorithms are based on the Steiner Tree algorithm, link resources among source and destination pairs tend to be commonly used and link utilization ratios are improved. Because of this, these algorithms can accept many more multicast requests than other multicast tree construction algorithms based on the Dijkstra algorithm. However, under certain delay constraints, the blocking characteristics of the proposed Weighted Steiner Tree algorithm deteriorate since some light paths between source and destinations use many hops and cannot satisfy the delay constraint. In order to adapt the approach to the delay-sensitive environments, we have devised the Composite Weighted Steiner Tree algorithm comprising the Weighted Steiner Tree algorithm and the Dijkstra algorithm for use in a delay constrained environment such as an IPTV application. In this paper, we also give the results of simulation experiments which demonstrate the superiority of the proposed Composite Weighted Steiner Tree algorithm compared with the Distributed Minimum Hop Tree (DMHT) algorithm, from the viewpoint of the light-tree request blocking.

Use of fault and decision tree analyses to protect against industrial sabotage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fullwood, R.R.; Erdmann, R.C.

1975-01-01

Fault tree and decision tree analyses provide systematic bases for evaluation of safety systems and procedures. Heuristically, this paper shows applications of these methods for industrial sabotage analysis at a reprocessing plant. Fault trees constructed by ''leak path'' analysis for completeness through path inventory. The escape fault tree is readily developed by this method and using the reciprocal character of the trees, the attack fault tree is constructed. After construction, the events on the fault tree are corrected for their nonreciprocal character. The fault trees are algebraically solved and the protection that is afforded is ranked by the number of barriers that must be penetrated. No attempt is made to assess the barrier penetration probabilities or penetration time duration. Event trees are useful for dynamic plant protection analysis through their time-sequencing character. To illustrate their usefulness, a simple attack scenario is devised and event-tree analyzed. Two saboteur success paths and 21 failure paths are found. This example clearly shows the event tree usefulness for concisely presenting the time sequencing of key decision points. However, event trees have the disadvantage of being scenario dependent, therefore requiring a separate event tree for each scenario

AFTC Code for Automatic Fault Tree Construction: Users Manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gopika Vinod; Saraf, R.K.; Babar, A.K.

1999-04-01

Fault Trees perform a predominant role in reliability and safety analysis of system. Manual construction of fault tree is a very time consuming task and moreover, it won't give a formalized result, since it relies highly on analysts experience and heuristics. This necessitates a computerised fault tree construction, which is still attracting interest of reliability analysts. AFTC software is a user friendly software model for constructing fault trees based on decision tables. Software is equipped with libraries of decision tables for components commonly used in various Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) systems. User is expected to make a nodal diagram of the system, for which fault tree is to be constructed, from the flow sheets available. The text nodal diagram goes as the sole input defining the system flow chart. AFTC software is a rule based expert system which draws the fault tree from the system flow chart and component decision tables. AFTC software gives fault tree in both text and graphic format. Help is provided as how to enter system flow chart and component decision tables. The software is developed in 'C' language. Software is verified with simplified version of the fire water system of an Indian PHWR. Code conversion will be undertaken to create a window based version. (author)

A new methodology for the computer-aided construction of fault trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salem, S.L.; Apostolakis, G.E.; Okrent, D.

1977-01-01

A methodology for systematically constructing fault trees for general complex systems is developed. A means of modeling component behaviour via decision tables is presented, and a procedure, and a procedure for constructing and editing fault trees, either manually or by computer, is developed. The techniques employed result in a complete fault tree in standard form. In order to demonstrate the methodology, the computer program CAT was developed and is used to construct trees for a nuclear system. By analyzing and comparing these fault trees, several conclusions are reached. First, such an approach can be used to produce fault trees that accurately describe system behaviour. Second, multiple trees can be rapidly produced by defining various TOP events, including system success. Finally, the accuracy and utility of such trees is shown to depend upon the careful development of the decision table models by the analyst, and of the overall system definition itself. Thus the method is seen to be a tool for assisting in the work of fault tree construction rather than a replacement for the careful work of the fault tree analyst. (author)

Speeding Up Neighbour-Joining Tree Construction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brodal, Gerth Stølting; Fagerberg, Rolf; Mailund, Thomas

A widely used method for constructing phylogenetic trees is the neighbour-joining method of Saitou and Nei. We develope heuristics for speeding up the neighbour-joining method which generate the same phylogenetic trees as the original method. All heuristics are based on using a quad-tree to guide...... the search for the next pair of nodes to join, but di#er in the information stored in quad-tree nodes, the way the search is performed, and in the way the quad-tree is updated after a join. We empirically evaluate the performance of the heuristics on distance matrices obtained from the Pfam collection...... of alignments, and compare the running time with that of the QuickTree tool, a well-known and widely used implementation of the standard neighbour-joining method. The results show that the presented heuristics can give a significant speed-up over the standard neighbour-joining method, already for medium sized...

Algorithms for Decision Tree Construction

KAUST Repository

Chikalov, Igor

2011-01-01

The study of algorithms for decision tree construction was initiated in 1960s. The first algorithms are based on the separation heuristic [13, 31] that at each step tries dividing the set of objects as evenly as possible. Later Garey and Graham [28

snpTree - a web-server to identify and construct SNP trees from whole genome sequence data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leekitcharoenphon, Pimlapas; Kaas, Rolf Sommer; Thomsen, Martin Christen Frølund

2012-01-01

identify SNPs and construct phylogenetic trees from WGS as well as from assembled genomes or contigs. WGS data in fastq format are aligned to reference genomes by BWA while contigs in fasta format are processed by Nucmer. SNPs are concatenated based on position on reference genome and a tree is constructed...... to differentiate and classify isolates. One of the successfully and broadly used methods is analysis of single nucletide polymorphisms (SNPs). Currently, there are different tools and methods to identify SNPs including various options and cut-off values. Furthermore, all current methods require bioinformatic...... skills. Thus, we lack a standard and simple automatic tool to determine SNPs and construct phylogenetic tree from WGS data. Results Here we introduce snpTree, a server for online-automatic SNPs analysis. This tool is composed of different SNPs analysis suites, perl and python scripts. snpTree can...

The Complexity of Constructing Evolutionary Trees Using Experiments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brodal, Gerth Stølting; Fagerberg, Rolf; Pedersen, Christian Nørgaard Storm

2001-01-01

We present tight upper and lower bounds for the problem of constructing evolutionary trees in the experiment model. We describe an algorithm which constructs an evolutionary tree of n species in time O(nd logd n) using at most n⌈d/2⌉(log2⌈d/2⌉-1 n+O(1)) experiments for d > 2, and at most n(log n......+O(1)) experiments for d = 2, where d is the degree of the tree. This improves the previous best upper bound by a factor θ(log d). For d = 2 the previously best algorithm with running time O(n log n) had a bound of 4n log n on the number of experiments. By an explicit adversary argument, we show an Ω......(nd logd n) lower bound, matching our upper bounds and improving the previous best lower bound by a factor θ(logd n). Central to our algorithm is the construction and maintenance of separator trees of small height, which may be of independent interest....

Tree cover in Central Africa: determinants and sensitivity under contrasted scenarios of global change.

Science.gov (United States)

Aleman, Julie C; Blarquez, Olivier; Gourlet-Fleury, Sylvie; Bremond, Laurent; Favier, Charly

2017-01-30

Tree cover is a key variable for ecosystem functioning, and is widely used to study tropical ecosystems. But its determinants and their relative importance are still a matter of debate, especially because most regional and global analyses have not considered the influence of agricultural practices. More information is urgently needed regarding how human practices influence vegetation structure. Here we focused in Central Africa, a region still subjected to traditional agricultural practices with a clear vegetation gradient. Using remote sensing data and global databases, we calibrated a Random Forest model to correlatively link tree cover with climatic, edaphic, fire and agricultural practices data. We showed that annual rainfall and accumulated water deficit were the main drivers of the distribution of tree cover and vegetation classes (defined by the modes of tree cover density), but agricultural practices, especially pastoralism, were also important in determining tree cover. We simulated future tree cover with our model using different scenarios of climate and land-use (agriculture and population) changes. Our simulations suggest that tree cover may respond differently regarding the type of scenarios, but land-use change was an important driver of vegetation change even able to counterbalance the effect of climate change in Central Africa.

Automated Generation of Attack Trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vigo, Roberto; Nielson, Flemming; Nielson, Hanne Riis

2014-01-01

Attack trees are widely used to represent threat scenarios in a succinct and intuitive manner, suitable for conveying security information to non-experts. The manual construction of such objects relies on the creativity and experience of specialists, and therefore it is error-prone and impractica......Attack trees are widely used to represent threat scenarios in a succinct and intuitive manner, suitable for conveying security information to non-experts. The manual construction of such objects relies on the creativity and experience of specialists, and therefore it is error......-prone and impracticable for large systems. Nonetheless, the automated generation of attack trees has only been explored in connection to computer networks and levering rich models, whose analysis typically leads to an exponential blow-up of the state space. We propose a static analysis approach where attack trees...... are automatically inferred from a process algebraic specification in a syntax-directed fashion, encompassing a great many application domains and avoiding incurring systematically an exponential explosion. Moreover, we show how the standard propositional denotation of an attack tree can be used to phrase...

Attack Trees for Practical Security Assessment: Ranking of Attack Scenarios with ADTool 2.0

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gadyatskaya, Olga; Jhawar, Ravi; Kordy, P.T.; Lounis, Karim; Mauw, Sjouke; Trujillo-Rasua, Rolando

2016-01-01

In this tool demonstration paper we present the ADTool2.0: an open-source software tool for design, manipulation and analysis of attack trees. The tool supports ranking of attack scenarios based on quantitative attributes entered by the user; it is scriptable; and it incorporates attack trees with

Scenario Modeling of Thermal Influence from Forest Fire Front on a Coniferous Tree Trunk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baranovskiy Nikolay V.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Scenario research results of heat transfer and tissue damage in three-layered tree trunk influenced by heat flux from forest fire are presented. The problem is solved in two-dimensional statement in polar coordinates. The typical range of influence parameters (heat flux from forest fire front, trunk radius, coniferous species, air temperature, duration of exposure and distance from fire line is considered. Temperature distributions in different moments of time are obtained. Condition of tree damage by forest fire influence is under consideration in this research. Information summarized using tables with scenario and fire consequences results.

Constructal tree-shaped flow structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bejan, A.; Lorente, S.

2007-01-01

This paper is an introduction to a new trend in the conceptual design of energy systems: the generation of flow configuration based on the 'constructal' principle that the global performance is maximized by balancing and arranging the various flow resistances (the irreversibilities) in a flow system that is free to morph. The paper focuses on distribution and collection, which are flows that connect one point (source, or sink) with an infinity of points (volume, area, curve). The flow configurations that emerge from this principle are tree-shaped, and the systems that employ them are 'vascularized'. The paper traces the most recent progress made on constructal vascularization. The direction is from large-scale applications toward microscales. The large-scale tree-shaped designs of electric power distribution systems and networks for natural gas and water are now invading small-scale designs such as fuel cells, heat exchangers and cooled packages of electronics. These flow configurations have several properties in common: freedom to morph, multiple scales, hierarchy, nonuniform (optimal) distribution of scales through the available volume, compactness and finite complexity

A new algorithm to construct phylogenetic networks from trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, J

2014-03-06

Developing appropriate methods for constructing phylogenetic networks from tree sets is an important problem, and much research is currently being undertaken in this area. BIMLR is an algorithm that constructs phylogenetic networks from tree sets. The algorithm can construct a much simpler network than other available methods. Here, we introduce an improved version of the BIMLR algorithm, QuickCass. QuickCass changes the selection strategy of the labels of leaves below the reticulate nodes, i.e., the nodes with an indegree of at least 2 in BIMLR. We show that QuickCass can construct simpler phylogenetic networks than BIMLR. Furthermore, we show that QuickCass is a polynomial-time algorithm when the output network that is constructed by QuickCass is binary.

A computer-oriented approach to fault-tree construction. Topical report No. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chu, B.B.

1976-11-01

Fault Tree Analysis is one of the major tools for the safety and reliability analysis of large systems. A methodology for systematically constructing fault trees for general complex systems is developed and applied, via the computer program CAT, to several systems. First, a means of representing component behavior by decision tables is presented. In order to use these tables, a procedure for constructing and editing fault trees, either manually or by computer, is described. In order to verify the methodology the computer program CAT has been developed and used to construct fault trees for two systems

SNPhylo: a pipeline to construct a phylogenetic tree from huge SNP data.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Tae-Ho; Guo, Hui; Wang, Xiyin; Kim, Changsoo; Paterson, Andrew H

2014-02-26

Phylogenetic trees are widely used for genetic and evolutionary studies in various organisms. Advanced sequencing technology has dramatically enriched data available for constructing phylogenetic trees based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). However, massive SNP data makes it difficult to perform reliable analysis, and there has been no ready-to-use pipeline to generate phylogenetic trees from these data. We developed a new pipeline, SNPhylo, to construct phylogenetic trees based on large SNP datasets. The pipeline may enable users to construct a phylogenetic tree from three representative SNP data file formats. In addition, in order to increase reliability of a tree, the pipeline has steps such as removing low quality data and considering linkage disequilibrium. A maximum likelihood method for the inference of phylogeny is also adopted in generation of a tree in our pipeline. Using SNPhylo, users can easily produce a reliable phylogenetic tree from a large SNP data file. Thus, this pipeline can help a researcher focus more on interpretation of the results of analysis of voluminous data sets, rather than manipulations necessary to accomplish the analysis.

An Algorithm for Fault-Tree Construction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Taylor, J. R.

1982-01-01

An algorithm for performing certain parts of the fault tree construction process is described. Its input is a flow sheet of the plant, a piping and instrumentation diagram, or a wiring diagram of the circuits, to be analysed, together with a standard library of component functional and failure...

Algorithmic fault tree construction by component-based system modeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Majdara, Aref; Wakabayashi, Toshio

2008-01-01

Computer-aided fault tree generation can be easier, faster and less vulnerable to errors than the conventional manual fault tree construction. In this paper, a new approach for algorithmic fault tree generation is presented. The method mainly consists of a component-based system modeling procedure an a trace-back algorithm for fault tree synthesis. Components, as the building blocks of systems, are modeled using function tables and state transition tables. The proposed method can be used for a wide range of systems with various kinds of components, if an inclusive component database is developed. (author)

Constructing APT Attack Scenarios Based on Intrusion Kill Chain and Fuzzy Clustering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ru Zhang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The APT attack on the Internet is becoming more serious, and most of intrusion detection systems can only generate alarms to some steps of APT attack and cannot identify the pattern of the APT attack. To detect APT attack, many researchers established attack models and then correlated IDS logs with the attack models. However, the accuracy of detection deeply relied on the integrity of models. In this paper, we propose a new method to construct APT attack scenarios by mining IDS security logs. These APT attack scenarios can be further used for the APT detection. First, we classify all the attack events by purpose of phase of the intrusion kill chain. Then we add the attack event dimension to fuzzy clustering, correlate IDS alarm logs with fuzzy clustering, and generate the attack sequence set. Next, we delete the bug attack sequences to clean the set. Finally, we use the nonaftereffect property of probability transfer matrix to construct attack scenarios by mining the attack sequence set. Experiments show that the proposed method can construct the APT attack scenarios by mining IDS alarm logs, and the constructed scenarios match the actual situation so that they can be used for APT attack detection.

Algorithms and programs for consequence diagram and fault tree construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hollo, E.; Taylor, J.R.

1976-12-01

A presentation of algorithms and programs for consequence diagram and sequential fault tree construction that are intended for reliability and disturbance analysis of large systems. The system to be analyzed must be given as a block diagram formed by mini fault trees of individual system components. The programs were written in LISP programming language and run on a PDP8 computer with 8k words of storage. A description is given of the methods used and of the program construction and working. (author)

Comparison of greedy algorithms for α-decision tree construction

KAUST Repository

Alkhalid, Abdulaziz; Chikalov, Igor; Moshkov, Mikhail

2011-01-01

A comparison among different heuristics that are used by greedy algorithms which constructs approximate decision trees (α-decision trees) is presented. The comparison is conducted using decision tables based on 24 data sets from UCI Machine Learning Repository [2]. Complexity of decision trees is estimated relative to several cost functions: depth, average depth, number of nodes, number of nonterminal nodes, and number of terminal nodes. Costs of trees built by greedy algorithms are compared with minimum costs calculated by an algorithm based on dynamic programming. The results of experiments assign to each cost function a set of potentially good heuristics that minimize it. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

A Model of Desired Performance in Phylogenetic Tree Construction for Teaching Evolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Brewer, Steven D.

This research paper examines phylogenetic tree construction-a form of problem solving in biology-by studying the strategies and heuristics used by experts. One result of the research is the development of a model of desired performance for phylogenetic tree construction. A detailed description of the model and the sample problems which illustrate…

Fault tree analysis of loss of cooling to a HALW storage tank

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nomura, Yasushi

1992-01-01

Results of a scenario identification, a fault tree construction and an analysis for a loss of cooling accident in a High Activity Liquid Waste (HALW) tank of a typical model of reprocessing facility, is rendered together with considerations of the system reliability improvement by changing the model design. Model plant data, basic failure frequency data and a fault tree analysis named FTL have been introduced from NUKEM GmbH, Germany. They are throughly reviewed and reevaluated at JAERI, and improved to apply to Japanese facilities. A general systematic method for constructing fault trees is used to avoid missing scenarios, thus all of the 10 conceivable accident scenarios for 'HALW storage tank without cooling, HALW boiling' are identified, and a total failure frequency are calculated to be in the 90 % confidence interval of (1.1 ∼ 5.8) x 10 -6 /yr for the German model plant. (author)

BIMLR: a method for constructing rooted phylogenetic networks from rooted phylogenetic trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Juan; Guo, Maozu; Xing, Linlin; Che, Kai; Liu, Xiaoyan; Wang, Chunyu

2013-09-15

Rooted phylogenetic trees constructed from different datasets (e.g. from different genes) are often conflicting with one another, i.e. they cannot be integrated into a single phylogenetic tree. Phylogenetic networks have become an important tool in molecular evolution, and rooted phylogenetic networks are able to represent conflicting rooted phylogenetic trees. Hence, the development of appropriate methods to compute rooted phylogenetic networks from rooted phylogenetic trees has attracted considerable research interest of late. The CASS algorithm proposed by van Iersel et al. is able to construct much simpler networks than other available methods, but it is extremely slow, and the networks it constructs are dependent on the order of the input data. Here, we introduce an improved CASS algorithm, BIMLR. We show that BIMLR is faster than CASS and less dependent on the input data order. Moreover, BIMLR is able to construct much simpler networks than almost all other methods. BIMLR is available at http://nclab.hit.edu.cn/wangjuan/BIMLR/. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stochastic Unit Commitment Based on Multi-Scenario Tree Method Considering Uncertainty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kyu-Hyung Jo

2018-03-01

Full Text Available With the increasing penetration of renewable energy, it is difficult to schedule unit commitment (UC in a power system because of the uncertainty associated with various factors. In this paper, a new solution procedure based on a multi-scenario tree method (MSTM is presented and applied to the proposed stochastic UC problem. In this process, the initial input data of load and wind power are modeled as different levels using the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE. The load and wind scenarios are generated using Monte Carlo simulation (MCS that considers forecasting errors. These multiple scenarios are applied in the MSTM for solving the stochastic UC problem, including not only the load and wind power uncertainties, but also sudden outages of the thermal unit. When the UC problem has been formulated, the simulation is conducted for 24-h period by using the short-term UC model, and the operating costs and additional reserve requirements are thus obtained. The effectiveness of the proposed solution approach is demonstrated through a case study based on a modified IEEE-118 bus test system.

ERA: Efficient serial and parallel suffix tree construction for very long strings

KAUST Repository

Mansour, Essam

2011-09-01

The suffix tree is a data structure for indexing strings. It is used in a variety of applications such as bioinformatics, time series analysis, clustering, text editing and data compression. However, when the string and the resulting suffix tree are too large to fit into the main memory, most existing construction algorithms become very inefficient. This paper presents a disk-based suffix tree construction method, called Elastic Range (ERa), which works efficiently with very long strings that are much larger than the available memory. ERa partitions the tree construction process horizontally and vertically and minimizes I/Os by dynamically adjusting the horizontal partitions independently for each vertical partition, based on the evolving shape of the tree and the available memory. Where appropriate, ERa also groups vertical partitions together to amortize the I/O cost. We developed a serial version; a parallel version for shared-memory and shared-disk multi-core systems; and a parallel version for shared-nothing architectures. ERa indexes the entire human genome in 19 minutes on an ordinary desktop computer. For comparison, the fastest existing method needs 15 minutes using 1024 CPUs on an IBM BlueGene supercomputer.

Decision table development and application to the construction of fault trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salem, S.L.; Wu, J.S.; Apostolakis, G.

1979-01-01

A systematic methodology for the construction of fault trees based on the use of decision tables has been developed. These tables are used to describe each possible output state of a component as a set of combinations of states of inputs and internal operational or T states. Two methods for modeling component behavior via decision tables have been developed, one inductive and one deductive. These methods are useful for creating decision tables that realistically model the operational and failure modes of electrical, mechanical, and hydraulic components as well as human interactions inhibit conditions and common-cause events. A computer code CAT (Computer Automated Tree) has been developed to automatically produce fault trees from decision tables. A simple electrical system was chosen to illustrate the basic features of the decision table approach and to provide an example of an actual fault tree produced by this code. This example demonstrates the potential utility of such an automated approach to fault tree construction once a basic set of general decision tables has been developed

An improved spatial contour tree constructed method

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Yi; Zhang, Ling; Guilbert, Eric; Long, Yi

2018-05-01

Contours are important data to delineate the landform on a map. A contour tree provides an object-oriented description of landforms and can be used to enrich the topological information. The traditional contour tree is used to store topological relationships between contours in a hierarchical structure and allows for the identification of eminences and depressions as sets of nested contours. This research proposes an improved contour tree so-called spatial contour tree that contains not only the topological but also the geometric information. It can be regarded as a terrain skeleton in 3-dimention, and it is established based on the spatial nodes of contours which have the latitude, longitude and elevation information. The spatial contour tree is built by connecting spatial nodes from low to high elevation for a positive landform, and from high to low elevation for a negative landform to form a hierarchical structure. The connection between two spatial nodes can provide the real distance and direction as a Euclidean vector in 3-dimention. In this paper, the construction method is tested in the experiment, and the results are discussed. The proposed hierarchical structure is in 3-demintion and can show the skeleton inside a terrain. The structure, where all nodes have geo-information, can be used to distinguish different landforms and applied for contour generalization with consideration of geographic characteristics.

Fast Construction of Near Parsimonious Hybridization Networks for Multiple Phylogenetic Trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirzaei, Sajad; Wu, Yufeng

2016-01-01

Hybridization networks represent plausible evolutionary histories of species that are affected by reticulate evolutionary processes. An established computational problem on hybridization networks is constructing the most parsimonious hybridization network such that each of the given phylogenetic trees (called gene trees) is "displayed" in the network. There have been several previous approaches, including an exact method and several heuristics, for this NP-hard problem. However, the exact method is only applicable to a limited range of data, and heuristic methods can be less accurate and also slow sometimes. In this paper, we develop a new algorithm for constructing near parsimonious networks for multiple binary gene trees. This method is more efficient for large numbers of gene trees than previous heuristics. This new method also produces more parsimonious results on many simulated datasets as well as a real biological dataset than a previous method. We also show that our method produces topologically more accurate networks for many datasets.

SCENARIO OF AN ACCIDENT OF SOIL DAMS IN CASE OF WATER SPILL OVER A DAM CREST BY USING FAULT TREE ANALYSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuznetsov Dmitriy Viktorovich

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The scenario of a hydrodynamic accident of water flow over a crest of a soil dam is considered by the method of fault tree analysis, for which the basic reasons and controlled diagnostic indicators of an accident have been defined. Logical operators “AND”/”OR” were used for creation of a sequence of logically connected events, leading to an undesired event in the scenario of accident. The scenario of the accident was plotted in case of three basic reasons - an excessive settling of a dam crest, an excess flood, an inoperable spillway, taking into account the sequence of the events’ development and with observance of the necessary conditions leading to an accident. “Technical” reasons were observed in the present scenario, force majeure events were not considered. The provided scenario of the accident consists of two branches of events’ development: the left one that depends on an upstream level, and the right one that depends on settling of a dam crest. In each of the considered events an accident “the water spill over a crest of a soil dam” is possible only in case of execution of two different conditions at the same time, i.e. in case of an appropriate upstream level and the appropriate mark of a crest of a soil dam. The conditions of the accident are defined by diagnostic indices - the upstream level and settling of a dam crest, which at the same time are safety criteria of the hydraulic structure for soil dams. They allow defining the technical condition of the construction. Four possible technical conditions are suggested for the definition of technical statuses - normative, operable, limited operable, abnormal. Criteria of safety are the boundaries of the state: for loading and impact - it is the upstream level, for geometrical compliance of the construction - it is a dam crest mark.

Construction of a phylogenetic tree of photosynthetic prokaryotes based on average similarities of whole genome sequences.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soichirou Satoh

Full Text Available Phylogenetic trees have been constructed for a wide range of organisms using gene sequence information, especially through the identification of orthologous genes that have been vertically inherited. The number of available complete genome sequences is rapidly increasing, and many tools for construction of genome trees based on whole genome sequences have been proposed. However, development of a reasonable method of using complete genome sequences for construction of phylogenetic trees has not been established. We have developed a method for construction of phylogenetic trees based on the average sequence similarities of whole genome sequences. We used this method to examine the phylogeny of 115 photosynthetic prokaryotes, i.e., cyanobacteria, Chlorobi, proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes and nonphotosynthetic organisms including Archaea. Although the bootstrap values for the branching order of phyla were low, probably due to lateral gene transfer and saturated mutation, the obtained tree was largely consistent with the previously reported phylogenetic trees, indicating that this method is a robust alternative to traditional phylogenetic methods.

Constructal tree-shaped two-phase flow for cooling a surface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zamfirescu, C.; Bejan, A. [Duke University, Durham, NC (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

2003-07-01

This paper documents the strong relation that exists between the changing architecture of a complex flow system and the maximization of global performance under constraints. The system is a surface with uniform heating per unit area, which is cooled by a network with evaporating two-phase flow. Illustrations are based on the design of the cooling network for a skating rink. The flow structure is optimized as a sequence of building blocks, which starts with the smallest (elemental volume of fixed size), and continues with assemblies of stepwise larger sizes (first construct, second construct, etc.). The optimized flow network is tree shaped. Three features of the elemental volume are optimized: the cross-sectional shape, the elemental tube diameter, and the shape of the elemental area viewed from above. The tree that emerges at larger scales is optimized for minimal amount of header material and fixed pressure drop. The optimal number of constituents in each new (larger) construct decreases as the size and complexity of the construct increase. Constructs of various levels of complexity compete: the paper shows how to select the optimal flow structure subject to fixed size (cooled surface), pressure drop and amount of header material. (author)

Construction of α-decision trees for tables with many-valued decisions

KAUST Repository

Moshkov, Mikhail; Zielosko, Beata

2011-01-01

The paper is devoted to the study of greedy algorithm for construction of approximate decision trees (α-decision trees). This algorithm is applicable to decision tables with many-valued decisions where each row is labeled with a set of decisions. For a given row, we should find a decision from the set attached to this row. We consider bound on the number of algorithm steps, and bound on the algorithm accuracy relative to the depth of decision trees. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

Different intra- and interspecific facilitation mechanisms between two Mediterranean trees under a climate change scenario.

Science.gov (United States)

Gimeno, Teresa E; Escudero, Adrián; Valladares, Fernando

2015-01-01

In harsh environments facilitation alleviates biotic and abiotic constraints on tree recruitment. Under ongoing drier climate change, we expect facilitation to increase as a driver of coexistence. However, this might not hold under extreme abiotic stress and when the outcome depends on the interaction with other drivers such as altered herbivore pressure due to land use change. We performed a field water-manipulation experiment to quantify the importance of facilitation in two coexisting Mediterranean trees (dominant Juniperus thurifera and coexisting Quercus ilex subsp. ballota) under a climate change scenario. Shifts in canopy dominance favouring Q. ilex could be based on the extension of heterospecific facilitation to the detriment of conspecific alleviation. We found that saplings of both species transplanted under the canopy of nurse trees had greater survival probability, growth and photochemical efficiency. Intra- and interspecific facilitation mechanisms differed: alleviation of abiotic stress benefited both species during summer and J. thurifera during winter, whereas browsing protection was relevant only for Q. ilex. Facilitation was greater under the dry treatment only for Q. ilex, which partially agreed with the predictions of the stress gradient hypothesis. We conclude that present rainfall availability limits neither J. thurifera nor Q. ilex establishment. Nevertheless, under current global change scenarios, imposing increasing abiotic stress together with altered herbivore browsing, nurse trees could differentially facilitate the establishment of Q. ilex due to species-specific traits, i.e. palatability; drought, heat and cold tolerance, underlying species differences in the facilitation mechanisms and eventually triggering a change from pure juniper woodlands to mixed formations.

Construction of climate change scenarios from transient climate change experiments for the IPCC impacts assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Viner, D.; Hulme, M.; Raper, S.C.B.; Jones, P.D.

1994-01-01

This paper outlines the different methods which may be used for the construction of regional climate change scenarios. The main focus of the paper is the construction of global climate change scenarios from climate change experiments carried out using General Circulation Models (GCMS) An introduction to some GCM climate change experiments highlights the difference between model types and experiments (e.g., equilibrium or transient). The latest generation of climate change experiments has been performed using fully coupled ocean-atmosphere GCMS. These allow transient simulations of climate change to be performed with respect to a given greenhouse gas forcing scenario. There are, however, a number of problems with these simulations which pose difficulties for the construction of climate change scenarios for use in climate change impacts assessment. The characteristics of the transient climate change experiments which pose difficulties for the construction of climate change scenarios are discussed. Three examples of these problems are: different climate change experiments use different greenhouse gas concentration scenarios; the 'cold-start' problem makes it difficult to link future projections of climate change to a given calendar year; a drift of the climate is noticeable in the control simulations. In order to construct climate change scenarios for impacts assessment a method has therefore to be employed which addresses these problems. At present the climate modeling and climate change impacts communities are somewhat polarized in their approach to spatial scales. Current GCMs model the climate at resolutions larger than 2.5 x 3.75 degree, while the majority of impacts assessment studies are undertaken at scales below 50km (or 0.5 degree). This paper concludes by addressing the problems in bringing together these two different modeling perspectives by presenting a number of regional climate change scenarios. 35 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs

CAT: a computer code for the automated construction of fault trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Apostolakis, G.E.; Salem, S.L.; Wu, J.S.

1978-03-01

A computer code, CAT (Computer Automated Tree, is presented which applies decision table methods to model the behavior of components for systematic construction of fault trees. The decision tables for some commonly encountered mechanical and electrical components are developed; two nuclear subsystems, a Containment Spray Recirculation System and a Consequence Limiting Control System, are analyzed to demonstrate the applications of CAT code

Biomass Scenario Model Scenario Library: Definitions, Construction, and Description

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Inman, D.; Vimmerstedt, L.; Bush, B.; Peterson, S.

2014-04-01

Understanding the development of the biofuels industry in the United States is important to policymakers and industry. The Biomass Scenario Model (BSM) is a system dynamics model of the biomass-to-biofuels system that can be used to explore policy effects on biofuels development. Because of the complexity of the model, as well as the wide range of possible future conditions that affect biofuels industry development, we have not developed a single reference case but instead developed a set of specific scenarios that provide various contexts for our analyses. The purpose of this report is to describe the scenarios that comprise the BSM scenario library. At present, we have the following policy-focused scenarios in our library: minimal policies, ethanol-focused policies, equal access to policies, output-focused policies, technological diversity focused, and the point-of-production- focused. This report describes each scenario, its policy settings, and general insights gained through use of the scenarios in analytic studies.

AUTOMATIC TREE-CROWN DETECTION IN CHALLENGING SCENARIOS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Bulatov

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a new procedure for individual tree detection and modeling is presented. The input of this procedure consists of a normalized digital surface model NDSM, and a possibly error-prone classification result. The procedure is modular so that the functionality, the advantages and the disadvantages for every single module will be explained. The most important technical contributions of the paper are: Employing watershed transformation combined with classification results, applying hotspots detectors for identifying treetops in groups of trees, and correcting NDSM by detecting and geometric reconstruction of small anomalies, such as earth walls. Two minor contributions are made up by a detailed literature research on available methods for individual tree detection and estimation of tree-crowns for clearly identified trees in order to reduce arbitrariness by assigning trees to one of the few types in the output model.

Phylogenetic tree construction using trinucleotide usage profile (TUP).

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Si; Deng, Lih-Yuan; Bowman, Dale; Shiau, Jyh-Jen Horng; Wong, Tit-Yee; Madahian, Behrouz; Lu, Henry Horng-Shing

2016-10-06

It has been a challenging task to build a genome-wide phylogenetic tree for a large group of species containing a large number of genes with long nucleotides sequences. The most popular method, called feature frequency profile (FFP-k), finds the frequency distribution for all words of certain length k over the whole genome sequence using (overlapping) windows of the same length. For a satisfactory result, the recommended word length (k) ranges from 6 to 15 and it may not be a multiple of 3 (codon length). The total number of possible words needed for FFP-k can range from 4 6 =4096 to 4 15 . We propose a simple improvement over the popular FFP method using only a typical word length of 3. A new method, called Trinucleotide Usage Profile (TUP), is proposed based only on the (relative) frequency distribution using non-overlapping windows of length 3. The total number of possible words needed for TUP is 4 3 =64, which is much less than the total count for the recommended optimal "resolution" for FFP. To build a phylogenetic tree, we propose first representing each of the species by a TUP vector and then using an appropriate distance measure between pairs of the TUP vectors for the tree construction. In particular, we propose summarizing a DNA sequence by a matrix of three rows corresponding to three reading frames, recording the frequency distribution of the non-overlapping words of length 3 in each of the reading frame. We also provide a numerical measure for comparing trees constructed with various methods. Compared to the FFP method, our empirical study showed that the proposed TUP method is more capable of building phylogenetic trees with a stronger biological support. We further provide some justifications on this from the information theory viewpoint. Unlike the FFP method, the TUP method takes the advantage that the starting of the first reading frame is (usually) known. Without this information, the FFP method could only rely on the frequency distribution of

Construction and application of hierarchical decision tree for classification of ultrasonographic prostate images

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Giesen, R. J.; Huynen, A. L.; Aarnink, R. G.; de la Rosette, J. J.; Debruyne, F. M.; Wijkstra, H.

1996-01-01

A non-parametric algorithm is described for the construction of a binary decision tree classifier. This tree is used to correlate textural features, computed from ultrasonographic prostate images, with the histopathology of the imaged tissue. The algorithm consists of two parts; growing and pruning.

A time-dependent event tree technique for modelling recovery operations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kohut, P.; Fitzpatrick, R.

1991-01-01

The development of a simplified time dependent event tree methodology is presented. The technique is especially applicable to describe recovery operations in nuclear reactor accident scenarios initiated by support system failures. The event tree logic is constructed using time dependent top events combined with a damage function that contains information about the final state time behavior of the reactor core. Both the failure and the success states may be utilized for the analysis. The method is illustrated by modeling the loss of service water function with special emphasis on the RCP [reactor coolant pump] seal LOCA [loss of coolant accident] scenario. 5 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs

How to avoid the generation of logic loops in the construction of fault trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Demichela, M.; Piccinini, N.; Ciarambino, I.; Contini, S.

2004-01-01

Generation of an infinite series of identical sub-trees may occur during the construction of a Fault Tree (FT) when one item of equipment in a plant is considered several times in the same sub-tree in the course of the tree extraction from a HazOp (Hazard Operability analysis) analysis. Generation of loops in the construction of an FT can be avoided by means of an ad hoc logical analysis in which certain simple rules of syntax are taken into account. A radical solution, however, can be obtained if identification of unwanted events in a process plant is not undertaken with conventional procedures, such as HazOp (Operability Analysis with guide words, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) etc.), but with a more modern and structured version, such as Recursive Operability Analysis (ROA), which is both systematic and complete, and allows direct extraction of logic trees, (FT, event trees, etc.) for subsequent quantification. This feature means that, by contrast with conventional operability analysis, the congruence of the ROA itself can be checked. The ROA method is illustrated in this paper with the aid of some simple examples

Reuse of conditional released materials from decommissioning; a review of approaches and scenarios with long-term constructions - 59149

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daniska, Vladimir; Pritrsky, Jozef; Ondra, Frantisek; Zachar, Matej; Necas, Vladimir

2012-01-01

Paper presents the overall scope and actual results of the project for evaluation of representative scenarios for reuse of conditionally released materials from decommissioning. Aim of the project is to evaluate the possibilities of reuse of conditionally released steels and concrete in technical constructions which guarantee the long-term preservation of design properties over periods of 50-100 years. Interaction of conditionally released materials with public is limited and predictable due to design and purpose of selected constructions and due to fact that in many scenarios these materials are embedded in non-radioactive materials such as bars in reinforced concrete. Worker's scenarios for preparation, operation and maintenance of these constructions are analysed in detail including the manufacturing of elements for these constructions. Project aims to evaluate the scenarios of reuse of conditionally released materials in a complex way in order to develop the data for designers of scenarios and to evaluate the volumes of conditionally released materials based on facility (to be decommissioned) inventory data. The long-term constructions considered are bridges, tunnels, roads, railway constructions, industrial buildings, power industry equipment and others. Evaluation covers following areas: - Analysis of activities for manufacturing of reinforcement bars, rolled steel sheets and other steel elements and analysis of activities for construction of evaluated scenarios in order to evaluate the external exposure of professionals performing these activities; - Analysis of external exposure of professionals involved in operation and maintenance of the long-term constructions; analysis of external exposure of public groups which are exposed to evaluated constructions; - Analysis of internal exposure of public groups from the radionuclides released from the evaluated scenarios based on models for migration of radionuclides from the long-term constructions to critical

'Misclassification error' greedy heuristic to construct decision trees for inconsistent decision tables

KAUST Repository

Azad, Mohammad; Moshkov, Mikhail

2014-01-01

A greedy algorithm has been presented in this paper to construct decision trees for three different approaches (many-valued decision, most common decision, and generalized decision) in order to handle the inconsistency of multiple decisions in a decision table. In this algorithm, a greedy heuristic ‘misclassification error’ is used which performs faster, and for some cost function, results are better than ‘number of boundary subtables’ heuristic in literature. Therefore, it can be used in the case of larger data sets and does not require huge amount of memory. Experimental results of depth, average depth and number of nodes of decision trees constructed by this algorithm are compared in the framework of each of the three approaches.

SCENARIO OF AN ACCIDENT OF SOIL DAMS IN CASE OF WATER SPILL OVER A DAM CREST BY USING FAULT TREE ANALYSIS

OpenAIRE

Kuznetsov Dmitriy Viktorovich

2016-01-01

The scenario of a hydrodynamic accident of water flow over a crest of a soil dam is considered by the method of fault tree analysis, for which the basic reasons and controlled diagnostic indicators of an accident have been defined. Logical operators “AND”/”OR” were used for creation of a sequence of logically connected events, leading to an undesired event in the scenario of accident. The scenario of the accident was plotted in case of three basic reasons - an excessive settling of a dam cres...

Construction of phylogenetic trees by kernel-based comparative analysis of metabolic networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, S June; Joung, Je-Gun; Chang, Jeong-Ho; Zhang, Byoung-Tak

2006-06-06

To infer the tree of life requires knowledge of the common characteristics of each species descended from a common ancestor as the measuring criteria and a method to calculate the distance between the resulting values of each measure. Conventional phylogenetic analysis based on genomic sequences provides information about the genetic relationships between different organisms. In contrast, comparative analysis of metabolic pathways in different organisms can yield insights into their functional relationships under different physiological conditions. However, evaluating the similarities or differences between metabolic networks is a computationally challenging problem, and systematic methods of doing this are desirable. Here we introduce a graph-kernel method for computing the similarity between metabolic networks in polynomial time, and use it to profile metabolic pathways and to construct phylogenetic trees. To compare the structures of metabolic networks in organisms, we adopted the exponential graph kernel, which is a kernel-based approach with a labeled graph that includes a label matrix and an adjacency matrix. To construct the phylogenetic trees, we used an unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean, i.e., a hierarchical clustering algorithm. We applied the kernel-based network profiling method in a comparative analysis of nine carbohydrate metabolic networks from 81 biological species encompassing Archaea, Eukaryota, and Eubacteria. The resulting phylogenetic hierarchies generally support the tripartite scheme of three domains rather than the two domains of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. By combining the kernel machines with metabolic information, the method infers the context of biosphere development that covers physiological events required for adaptation by genetic reconstruction. The results show that one may obtain a global view of the tree of life by comparing the metabolic pathway structures using meta-level information rather than sequence

Construction of phylogenetic trees by kernel-based comparative analysis of metabolic networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang Jeong-Ho

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background To infer the tree of life requires knowledge of the common characteristics of each species descended from a common ancestor as the measuring criteria and a method to calculate the distance between the resulting values of each measure. Conventional phylogenetic analysis based on genomic sequences provides information about the genetic relationships between different organisms. In contrast, comparative analysis of metabolic pathways in different organisms can yield insights into their functional relationships under different physiological conditions. However, evaluating the similarities or differences between metabolic networks is a computationally challenging problem, and systematic methods of doing this are desirable. Here we introduce a graph-kernel method for computing the similarity between metabolic networks in polynomial time, and use it to profile metabolic pathways and to construct phylogenetic trees. Results To compare the structures of metabolic networks in organisms, we adopted the exponential graph kernel, which is a kernel-based approach with a labeled graph that includes a label matrix and an adjacency matrix. To construct the phylogenetic trees, we used an unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean, i.e., a hierarchical clustering algorithm. We applied the kernel-based network profiling method in a comparative analysis of nine carbohydrate metabolic networks from 81 biological species encompassing Archaea, Eukaryota, and Eubacteria. The resulting phylogenetic hierarchies generally support the tripartite scheme of three domains rather than the two domains of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Conclusion By combining the kernel machines with metabolic information, the method infers the context of biosphere development that covers physiological events required for adaptation by genetic reconstruction. The results show that one may obtain a global view of the tree of life by comparing the metabolic pathway

Sparse suffix tree construction in small space

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bille, Philip; Fischer, Johannes; Gørtz, Inge Li

2013-01-01

the correct tree with high probability. We then give a Las-Vegas algorithm which also uses O(b) space and runs in the same time bounds with high probability when b = O(√n). Furthermore, additional tradeoffs between the space usage and the construction time for the Monte-Carlo algorithm are given......., which may be of independent interest, that allows to efficiently answer b longest common prefix queries on suffixes of T, using only O(b) space. We expect that this technique will prove useful in many other applications in which space usage is a concern. Our first solution is Monte-Carlo and outputs...

Determining the Supply of Material Resources for High-Rise Construction: Scenario Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Minnullina, Anna; Vasiliev, Vladimir

2018-03-01

This article presents a multi-criteria approach to determining the supply of material resources for high-rise construction under certain and uncertain conditions, which enables integrating a number of existing models into a fairly compact generalised economic and mathematical model developed for two extreme scenarios.

Mitered fractal trees: constructions and properties

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verhoeff, T.; Verhoeff, K.; Bosch, R.; McKenna, D.; Sarhangi, R.

2012-01-01

Tree-like structures, that is, branching structures without cycles, are attractive for artful expression. Especially interesting are fractal trees, where each subtree is a scaled and possibly otherwise transformed version of the entire tree. Such trees can be rendered in 3D by using beams with a

Automatic fault tree construction with RIKKE - a compendium of examples. Vol. 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, J.R.

1982-02-01

This second volume describes the construction of fault trees for systems with loops, including control and safety loops. It also gives a short summary of the event coding scheme used in the FTLIB component model library. (author)

Decision-table development for use with the CAT code for the automated fault-tree construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, J.S.; Salem, S.L.; Apostolakis, G.E.

1977-01-01

A library of decision tables to be used in connection with the CAT computer code for the automated construction of fault trees is presented. A decision table is constructed for each component type describing the output of the component in terms of its inputs and its internal states. In addition, a modification of the CAT code that couples it with a fault tree analysis code is presented. This report represents one aspect of a study entitled, 'A General Evaluation Approach to Risk-Benefit for Large Technological Systems, and Its Application to Nuclear Power.'

Uptake and Translocation of Manganese by Native Tree Species in a Constructed Wetland Treating Landfill Leachates

OpenAIRE

A. Snow; Abdel E. Ghaly

2007-01-01

A surface flow constructed wetland was used to treat stormwater runoff from surrounding watersheds which are comprised primarily of commercial properties and two former landfills. The uptake of manganese by red maple, white birch and red spruce trees growing under flooded soil conditions in the constructed wetland was compared to that of the same trees growing under well drained soil conditions in a nearby reference site. The seasonal variability of manganese and its distribution in different...

AUTOET code (a code for automatically constructing event trees and displaying subsystem interdependencies)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilson, J.R.; Burdick, G.R.

1977-06-01

This is a user's manual for AUTOET I and II. AUTOET I is a computer code for automatic event tree construction. It is designed to incorporate and display subsystem interdependencies and common or key component dependencies in the event tree format. The code is written in FORTRAN IV for the CDC Cyber 76 using the Integrated Graphics System (IGS). AUTOET II incorporates consequence and risk calculations, in addition to some other refinements. 5 figures

Construction of a Species-Level Tree of Life for the Insects and Utility in Taxonomic Profiling.

Science.gov (United States)

Chesters, Douglas

2017-05-01

Although comprehensive phylogenies have proven an invaluable tool in ecology and evolution, their construction is made increasingly challenging both by the scale and structure of publically available sequences. The distinct partition between gene-rich (genomic) and species-rich (DNA barcode) data is a feature of data that has been largely overlooked, yet presents a key obstacle to scaling supermatrix analysis. I present a phyloinformatics framework for draft construction of a species-level phylogeny of insects (Class Insecta). Matrix-building requires separately optimized pipelines for nuclear transcriptomic, mitochondrial genomic, and species-rich markers, whereas tree-building requires hierarchical inference in order to capture species-breadth while retaining deep-level resolution. The phylogeny of insects contains 49,358 species, 13,865 genera, 760 families. Deep-level splits largely reflected previous findings for sections of the tree that are data rich or unambiguous, such as inter-ordinal Endopterygota and Dictyoptera, the recently evolved and relatively homogeneous Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Brachycera (Diptera), and Cucujiformia (Coleoptera). However, analysis of bias, matrix construction and gene-tree variation suggests confidence in some relationships (such as in Polyneoptera) is less than has been indicated by the matrix bootstrap method. To assess the utility of the insect tree as a tool in query profiling several tree-based taxonomic assignment methods are compared. Using test data sets with existing taxonomic annotations, a tendency is observed for greater accuracy of species-level assignments where using a fixed comprehensive tree of life in contrast to methods generating smaller de novo reference trees. Described herein is a solution to the discrepancy in the way data are fit into supermatrices. The resulting tree facilitates wider studies of insect diversification and application of advanced descriptions of diversity in community studies, among

(Almost) practical tree codes

KAUST Repository

Khina, Anatoly

2016-08-15

We consider the problem of stabilizing an unstable plant driven by bounded noise over a digital noisy communication link, a scenario at the heart of networked control. To stabilize such a plant, one needs real-time encoding and decoding with an error probability profile that decays exponentially with the decoding delay. The works of Schulman and Sahai over the past two decades have developed the notions of tree codes and anytime capacity, and provided the theoretical framework for studying such problems. Nonetheless, there has been little practical progress in this area due to the absence of explicit constructions of tree codes with efficient encoding and decoding algorithms. Recently, linear time-invariant tree codes were proposed to achieve the desired result under maximum-likelihood decoding. In this work, we take one more step towards practicality, by showing that these codes can be efficiently decoded using sequential decoding algorithms, up to some loss in performance (and with some practical complexity caveats). We supplement our theoretical results with numerical simulations that demonstrate the effectiveness of the decoder in a control system setting.

Building a Tree Structure: The Development of Hierarchical Complexity and Interrupted Strategies in Children's Construction Activity

Science.gov (United States)

Greenfield, Patricia Marks; Schneider, Leslie

1977-01-01

This study examined the construction of a mobile with plastic construction straws in order to study the development of tree representations in a domain other than language. Subjects were 70 children between the ages of 3 and 11. (Author/JMB)

Treatment of complementary events in event trees in constructing linked fault trees for level 1 and level 2 PRA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jo, Y. G.

2008-01-01

Complementary events in the event trees for a PRA model should be treated properly in order to evaluate plant risk correctly. In this study, the characteristics of the following three different cut-set generation methods were investigated first in order to find the best practical way for treating complementary events: 1) exact method which treats complementary events logically, 2) no-delete term method which does not treat complementary events at all, and 3) delete term method which treats complementary events by deleting nonsense cut-sets which are generated as a result of ignoring complementary events. Then, practical methods for treating complementary events in constructing linked fault trees for level 1 and level 2 PRA in EPRI R and R workstation software environment, where CAFTA is the fault tree editor and FORTE is the cut-set engine, were suggested and demonstrated. The suggested methods deal with the following selected four typical cases: Case 1: an event tree event (E) is represented by a fault tree gate whose inputs consist of only fault tree gates, Case 2: E is represented by a single basic event, Case 3: E is represented by an OR fault tree gate which has a single basic event and a fault tree gate as inputs, and Case 4: E is represented by an AND fault tree gate which has a single basic event and a fault tree gate as inputs. In the suggested methods, first the high level logic structures of event tree events are examined and restructured, if needed. Then, the delete term method, the exact method, and the combination of the two methods are applied to Case 1, Case 2, and Cases 3 and 4, respectively. Also, it is recommended to treat complementary events, using the suggested methods, before level 1 and level 2 PRA fault trees are coupled. It should be noted that the selected four typical cases may not cover all different cases encountered in level 1 and level 2 PRA modeling. However, a process similar to the one suggested in this study may be used to find

A greedy algorithm for construction of decision trees for tables with many-valued decisions - A comparative study

KAUST Repository

Azad, Mohammad

2013-11-25

In the paper, we study a greedy algorithm for construction of decision trees. This algorithm is applicable to decision tables with many-valued decisions where each row is labeled with a set of decisions. For a given row, we should find a decision from the set attached to this row. Experimental results for data sets from UCI Machine Learning Repository and randomly generated tables are presented. We make a comparative study of the depth and average depth of the constructed decision trees for proposed approach and approach based on generalized decision. The obtained results show that the proposed approach can be useful from the point of view of knowledge representation and algorithm construction.

A greedy algorithm for construction of decision trees for tables with many-valued decisions - A comparative study

KAUST Repository

Azad, Mohammad; Chikalov, Igor; Moshkov, Mikhail; Zielosko, Beata

2013-01-01

In the paper, we study a greedy algorithm for construction of decision trees. This algorithm is applicable to decision tables with many-valued decisions where each row is labeled with a set of decisions. For a given row, we should find a decision from the set attached to this row. Experimental results for data sets from UCI Machine Learning Repository and randomly generated tables are presented. We make a comparative study of the depth and average depth of the constructed decision trees for proposed approach and approach based on generalized decision. The obtained results show that the proposed approach can be useful from the point of view of knowledge representation and algorithm construction.

Study on probability distribution of fire scenarios in risk assessment to emergency evacuation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chu Guanquan; Wang Jinhui

2012-01-01

Event tree analysis (ETA) is a frequently-used technique to analyze the probability of probable fire scenario. The event probability is usually characterized by definite value. It is not appropriate to use definite value as these estimates may be the result of poor quality statistics and limited knowledge. Without addressing uncertainties, ETA will give imprecise results. The credibility of risk assessment will be undermined. This paper presents an approach to address event probability uncertainties and analyze probability distribution of probable fire scenario. ETA is performed to construct probable fire scenarios. The activation time of every event is characterized as stochastic variable by considering uncertainties of fire growth rate and other input variables. To obtain probability distribution of probable fire scenario, Markov Chain is proposed to combine with ETA. To demonstrate the approach, a case study is presented.

Fault tree handbook

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haasl, D.F.; Roberts, N.H.; Vesely, W.E.; Goldberg, F.F.

1981-01-01

This handbook describes a methodology for reliability analysis of complex systems such as those which comprise the engineered safety features of nuclear power generating stations. After an initial overview of the available system analysis approaches, the handbook focuses on a description of the deductive method known as fault tree analysis. The following aspects of fault tree analysis are covered: basic concepts for fault tree analysis; basic elements of a fault tree; fault tree construction; probability, statistics, and Boolean algebra for the fault tree analyst; qualitative and quantitative fault tree evaluation techniques; and computer codes for fault tree evaluation. Also discussed are several example problems illustrating the basic concepts of fault tree construction and evaluation

VCFtoTree: a user-friendly tool to construct locus-specific alignments and phylogenies from thousands of anthropologically relevant genome sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Duo; Jaber, Yousef; Pavlidis, Pavlos; Gokcumen, Omer

2017-09-26

Constructing alignments and phylogenies for a given locus from large genome sequencing studies with relevant outgroups allow novel evolutionary and anthropological insights. However, no user-friendly tool has been developed to integrate thousands of recently available and anthropologically relevant genome sequences to construct complete sequence alignments and phylogenies. Here, we provide VCFtoTree, a user friendly tool with a graphical user interface that directly accesses online databases to download, parse and analyze genome variation data for regions of interest. Our pipeline combines popular sequence datasets and tree building algorithms with custom data parsing to generate accurate alignments and phylogenies using all the individuals from the 1000 Genomes Project, Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes, as well as reference genomes of Chimpanzee and Rhesus Macaque. It can also be applied to other phased human genomes, as well as genomes from other species. The output of our pipeline includes an alignment in FASTA format and a tree file in newick format. VCFtoTree fulfills the increasing demand for constructing alignments and phylogenies for a given loci from thousands of available genomes. Our software provides a user friendly interface for a wider audience without prerequisite knowledge in programming. VCFtoTree can be accessed from https://github.com/duoduoo/VCFtoTree_3.0.0 .

Environmental performance of construction waste: Comparing three scenarios from a case study in Catalonia, Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz, O; Pasqualino, J C; Castells, F

2010-04-01

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate environmental impacts of construction wastes in terms of the LIFE 98 ENV/E/351 project. Construction wastes are classified in accordance with the Life Program Environment Directive of the European Commission. Three different scenarios to current waste management from a case study in Catalonia (Spain) have been compared: landfilling, recycling and incineration, and these scenarios were evaluated by means of Life Cycle Assessment. The recommendations of the Catalan Waste Catalogue and the European Waste Catalogue have been taken into account. Also, the influence of transport has been evaluated. Results show that in terms of the Global Warming Potential, the most environmentally friendly treatment was recycling, followed by incineration and lastly landfilling. According to the influence of treatment plants location on the GWP indicator, we observe that incineration and recycling of construction wastes are better than landfilling, even for long distances from the building site to the plants. This is true for most wastes except for the stony types, than should be recycled close to the building site. In summary, data from construction waste of a Catalan case study was evaluated using the well established method of LCA to determine the environmental impacts. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental performance of construction waste: Comparing three scenarios from a case study in Catalonia, Spain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ortiz, O.; Pasqualino, J.C.; Castells, F.

2010-01-01

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate environmental impacts of construction wastes in terms of the LIFE 98 ENV/E/351 project. Construction wastes are classified in accordance with the Life Program Environment Directive of the European Commission. Three different scenarios to current waste management from a case study in Catalonia (Spain) have been compared: landfilling, recycling and incineration, and these scenarios were evaluated by means of Life Cycle Assessment. The recommendations of the Catalan Waste Catalogue and the European Waste Catalogue have been taken into account. Also, the influence of transport has been evaluated. Results show that in terms of the Global Warming Potential, the most environmentally friendly treatment was recycling, followed by incineration and lastly landfilling. According to the influence of treatment plants location on the GWP indicator, we observe that incineration and recycling of construction wastes are better than landfilling, even for long distances from the building site to the plants. This is true for most wastes except for the stony types, than should be recycled close to the building site. In summary, data from construction waste of a Catalan case study was evaluated using the well established method of LCA to determine the environmental impacts.

Risk perception: The social construction of spatial knowledge around climate change-related scenarios in Lima

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Miranda Sara, L.; Jameson, S.; Pfeffer, K.; Baud, I.

2016-01-01

Lima's environmental sustainability is threatened by increasing water scarcity, heavy rain events and limited attention for water vulnerability and climate change scenarios. In this paper we examine how knowledge construction and risk perception on water-related disaster risks and vulnerabilities

Factors influencing decisions on delay claims in construction contracts for Indian scenario

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nitin Balkrishna Chaphalkar

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Construction industry in India is second largest next to agriculture. In current era of infrastructure development construction projects occupy a key position. In any construction project contract time and cost overrun is a common feature, which gives rise to claims leading to disputes. These disputes if not handled properly tend to consume time and money of all parties to the contract. To resolve the dispute in optimum time, it is essential to understand the root cause of disputes as early as possible. Hence there is a need of analyzing the disputes scientifically.  The present study reveals from the study of arbitration awards that the causes for delay claims can be grouped in domains and the probable decisions to the disputes can be traced through the probing questions considered by decision makers. This paper attempts to identify questions related to disputes for Indian scenario through literature, arbitration awards, court cases and discussions with professionals.

Factors influencing decisions on delay claims in construction contracts for Indian scenario

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nitin Balkrishna Chaphalkar

2014-03-01

Full Text Available   Construction industry in India is second largest next to agriculture. In current era of infrastructure development construction projects occupy a key position. In any construction project contract time and cost overrun is a common feature, which gives rise to claims leading to disputes. These disputes if not handled properly tend to consume time and money of all parties to the contract. To resolve the dispute in optimum time, it is essential to understand the root cause of disputes as early as possible. Hence there is a need of analyzing the disputes scientifically.  The present study reveals from the study of arbitration awards that the causes for delay claims can be grouped in domains and the probable decisions to the disputes can be traced through the probing questions considered by decision makers. This paper attempts to identify questions related to disputes for Indian scenario through literature, arbitration awards, court cases and discussions with professionals.

Reuse of conditionally released steel; proposals and evaluation of processes for manufacturing of steel elements and processes for construction of selected scenarios - 59130

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bezak, Peter; Ondra, Frantisek; Hajkova, Eva; Necas, Vladimir

2012-01-01

The project include systematic scenarios analysis of conditionally released materials from the decommissioning of nuclear installations and the creation of new knowledge in this field, which will be used for implementing projects for reuse of these materials. New knowledge includes data about materials from the decommissioning (types of materials and radiological data on the basis of analysis of various scenarios). Scenarios contain information about conditionally released materials, data of the external exposure of personnel who will assemble those structures and who will be use the constructions up to the target scenario. Scenarios assume guarantee that the final products will be placed on the current position for a very long period from 50 to 100 years. The paper presents the review of activities for manufacturing of various steel construction elements made of conditionally released steels and activities for realisation of selected scenarios for reuse of construction elements. The ingots after melting of decommissioned radioactive steel materials are as the starting material for manufacturing of steel components. Ingots from the controlled area will be melted into induction furnace and the mixture of liquid steel will be alloyed for achieve of required chemical parameters. Typical steel products suitable for established scenarios are steel rebar of concrete, steel profiles of various forms, railway rails and rolled steel sheets. Target scenarios include an analysis of staff exposure during installation of steel constructions as well as exposure of individual from critical groups of population during their exploitation. The various scenarios, provided within the scope of the CONRELMAT project are focused at the systematic analysis of the use of conditionally released steel from decommissioning of nuclear facilities. Scenarios are focused on research and development of model situations in constructions in the areas of transport, civil constructions, industry and

Complex accident scenarios modelled and analysed by Stochastic Petri Nets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nývlt, Ondřej; Haugen, Stein; Ferkl, Lukáš

2015-01-01

This paper is focused on the usage of Petri nets for an effective modelling and simulation of complicated accident scenarios, where an order of events can vary and some events may occur anywhere in an event chain. These cases are hardly manageable by traditional methods as event trees – e.g. one pivotal event must be often inserted several times into one branch of the tree. Our approach is based on Stochastic Petri Nets with Predicates and Assertions and on an idea, which comes from the area of Programmable Logic Controllers: an accidental scenario is described as a net of interconnected blocks, which represent parts of the scenario. So the scenario is firstly divided into parts, which are then modelled by Petri nets. Every block can be easily interconnected with other blocks by input/output variables to create complex ones. In the presented approach, every event or a part of a scenario is modelled only once, independently on a number of its occurrences in the scenario. The final model is much more transparent then the corresponding event tree. The method is shown in two case studies, where the advanced one contains a dynamic behavior. - Highlights: • Event & Fault trees have problems with scenarios where an order of events can vary. • Paper presents a method for modelling and analysis of dynamic accident scenarios. • The presented method is based on Petri nets. • The proposed method solves mentioned problems of traditional approaches. • The method is shown in two case studies: simple and advanced (with dynamic behavior)

FB-Tree: A B+-Tree for Flash-Based SSDs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Martin V.; Rasmussen, René B.; Saltenis, Simonas

2011-01-01

Due to their many advantages, flash-based SSDs (Solid-State Drives) have become a mainstream alternative to magnetic disks for database servers. Nevertheless, database systems, designed and optimized for magnetic disks, still do not fully exploit all the benefits of the new technology. We propose....... As a consequence, the FB-tree outperforms a regular B+-tree in all scenarios tested. For instance, the throughput of a random workload of 75% updates increases by a factor of three using only two times the space of the B+-tree....

A bijection between phylogenetic trees and plane oriented recursive trees

OpenAIRE

Prodinger, Helmut

2017-01-01

Phylogenetic trees are binary nonplanar trees with labelled leaves, and plane oriented recursive trees are planar trees with an increasing labelling. Both families are enumerated by double factorials. A bijection is constructed, using the respective representations a 2-partitions and trapezoidal words.

SATCHMO-JS: a webserver for simultaneous protein multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree construction.

Science.gov (United States)

Hagopian, Raffi; Davidson, John R; Datta, Ruchira S; Samad, Bushra; Jarvis, Glen R; Sjölander, Kimmen

2010-07-01

We present the jump-start simultaneous alignment and tree construction using hidden Markov models (SATCHMO-JS) web server for simultaneous estimation of protein multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) and phylogenetic trees. The server takes as input a set of sequences in FASTA format, and outputs a phylogenetic tree and MSA; these can be viewed online or downloaded from the website. SATCHMO-JS is an extension of the SATCHMO algorithm, and employs a divide-and-conquer strategy to jump-start SATCHMO at a higher point in the phylogenetic tree, reducing the computational complexity of the progressive all-versus-all HMM-HMM scoring and alignment. Results on a benchmark dataset of 983 structurally aligned pairs from the PREFAB benchmark dataset show that SATCHMO-JS provides a statistically significant improvement in alignment accuracy over MUSCLE, Multiple Alignment using Fast Fourier Transform (MAFFT), ClustalW and the original SATCHMO algorithm. The SATCHMO-JS webserver is available at http://phylogenomics.berkeley.edu/satchmo-js. The datasets used in these experiments are available for download at http://phylogenomics.berkeley.edu/satchmo-js/supplementary/.

Construction and Evaluation of Scenarios as a Learning Strategy through Modelling-Simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Luis Peñaloza Figueroa

2014-12-01

Full Text Available From a systemic perspective and in the context of an increasing generalization in the use of new technologies and the change in the educational paradigm -which emphasizes guided and autonomous learning-, the learning strategy should be routed to join logical reasoning and instrumental skills (software. The inclusion of new computing and communication resources to the learning process turns them into teaching tools, which makes it possible to organize the teaching and learning process in a different way. The design of these new scenarios of study has important implications to the way information is processed, to the different levels of learning (descriptive, explanatory or analytical ones and to the way knowledge is acquired and evaluated. In addition, that design takes into account the greater student-content, student-student and student-teacher interactivities, always emphasizing guided independent learning. Thus, the construction, analysis and evaluation of scenarios through models and simulation are the strategy that best suits the current learning style followed by students.

Treatment of complementary events in constructing the linked Level 1 and Level 2 fault trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jo, Young G.; Ahn, Kwang-Il

2009-01-01

Complementary events in the event trees for a PRA model should be treated properly in order to evaluate plant risk correctly. In this paper, the characteristics of the following three different cutset generation methods were investigated first in order to find the best practical way for treating complementary events: (1) exact method which treats complementary events logically, (2) no-delete term method which does not treat complementary events at all, and (3) delete term method which treats complementary events by deleting nonsense cutsets which are generated as a result of ignoring complementary events. Then, practical methods for treating complementary events in constructing linked fault trees for Level 1 and Level 2 PRA were suggested and demonstrated. The suggested methods deal with the following selected four typical cases: (1) Case 1-an event tree event (E) is represented by a fault tree gate whose inputs consist of only fault tree gates, (2) Case 2-E is represented by a single basic event, (3) Case 3-E is represented by an OR fault tree gate which has a single basic event and a fault tree gate as inputs, and (4) Case 4-E is represented by an AND fault tree gate which has a single basic event and a fault tree gate as inputs. In the suggested methods, first the high level logic structures of event tree events are examined and restructured, if needed. Then, the delete term method, the exact method, and the combination of the two methods are applied to through Case 1 to Case 4, respectively. As a result, it is recommended to treat complementary events, using the suggested methods, before Level 1 and Level 2 PRA fault trees are coupled

A scenario tree model for the Canadian Notifiable Avian Influenza Surveillance System and its application to estimation of probability of freedom and sample size determination.

Science.gov (United States)

Christensen, Jette; Stryhn, Henrik; Vallières, André; El Allaki, Farouk

2011-05-01

In 2008, Canada designed and implemented the Canadian Notifiable Avian Influenza Surveillance System (CanNAISS) with six surveillance activities in a phased-in approach. CanNAISS was a surveillance system because it had more than one surveillance activity or component in 2008: passive surveillance; pre-slaughter surveillance; and voluntary enhanced notifiable avian influenza surveillance. Our objectives were to give a short overview of two active surveillance components in CanNAISS; describe the CanNAISS scenario tree model and its application to estimation of probability of populations being free of NAI virus infection and sample size determination. Our data from the pre-slaughter surveillance component included diagnostic test results from 6296 serum samples representing 601 commercial chicken and turkey farms collected from 25 August 2008 to 29 January 2009. In addition, we included data from a sub-population of farms with high biosecurity standards: 36,164 samples from 55 farms sampled repeatedly over the 24 months study period from January 2007 to December 2008. All submissions were negative for Notifiable Avian Influenza (NAI) virus infection. We developed the CanNAISS scenario tree model, so that it will estimate the surveillance component sensitivity and the probability of a population being free of NAI at the 0.01 farm-level and 0.3 within-farm-level prevalences. We propose that a general model, such as the CanNAISS scenario tree model, may have a broader application than more detailed models that require disease specific input parameters, such as relative risk estimates. Crown Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Vulnerability Analysis of Urban Drainage Systems: Tree vs. Loop Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chi Zhang

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Vulnerability analysis of urban drainage networks plays an important role in urban flood management. This study analyzes and compares the vulnerability of tree and loop systems under various rainfall events to structural failure represented by pipe blockage. Different pipe blockage scenarios, in which one of the pipes in an urban drainage network is assumed to be blocked individually, are constructed and their impacts on the network are simulated under different storm events. Furthermore, a vulnerability index is defined to measure the vulnerability of the drainage systems before and after the implementation of adaptation measures. The results obtained indicate that the tree systems have a relatively larger proportion of critical hydraulic pipes than the loop systems, thus the vulnerability of tree systems is substantially greater than that of the loop systems. Furthermore, the vulnerability index of tree systems is reduced after they are converted into a loop system with the implementation of adaptation measures. This paper provides an insight into the differences in the vulnerability of tree and loop systems, and provides more evidence for development of adaptation measures (e.g., tanks to reduce urban flooding.

Extended tree-level gauge mediation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Monaco, M.; Nardecchia, M.; Romanino, A.

2011-01-01

Tree-level gauge mediation (TGM) is a scenario of SUSY breaking in which the tree-level exchange of heavy (possibly GUT) vector fields generates flavor-universal sfermion masses. In this work we extend this framework to the case of E(6) that is the natural extension of the minimal case studied so...... if the gauge group does not contain SU(5). If SUSY breaking is mediated purely by the U(1) generator that commutes with SO(10) we obtain universal sfermion masses and thus can derive the CMSSM boundary conditions in a novel scenario....

QuickJoin—Fast Neighbour-Joining Tree Reconstruction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mailund; Pedersen, Christian N. Storm

2004-01-01

We have built a tool for fast construction of very large phylogenetic trees. The tool uses heuristics for speeding up the neighbour-joining algorithm—while still constructing the same tree as the original neighbour-joining algorithm—making it possible to construct trees for ~8000 species in less...

Constructing Binomial Trees Via Random Maps for Analysis of Financial Assets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Airton Carneiro de Freitas

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Random maps can be constructed from a priori knowledge of the financial assets. It is also addressed the reverse problem, i.e. from a function of an empirical stationary probability density function we set up a random map that naturally leads to an implied binomial tree, allowing the adjustment of models, including the ability to incorporate jumps. An applica- tion related to the options market is presented. It is emphasized that the quality of the model to incorporate a priori knowledge of the financial asset may be affected, for example, by the skewed vision of the analyst.

Uptake and Translocation of Iron by Native Tree Species In A Constructed Wetland Treating Landfill Leachates

OpenAIRE

A. Snow; Abdel E. Ghaly; R. Cote; A. M. Snow

2008-01-01

A surface flow wetland was constructed in the Burnside Industrial Park, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, to treat stormwater runoff from the surrounding watersheds which are comprised primarily of commercial properties and two former landfills. The objectives of this study were: (a) to compare the uptake of iron by red maple, white birch and red spruce trees growing under flooded soil conditions in the constructed wetland and well drained soil conditions in a nearby reference site, (b) to evaluate the...

Application of Boosting Regression Trees to Preliminary Cost Estimation in Building Construction Projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoonseok Shin

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Among the recent data mining techniques available, the boosting approach has attracted a great deal of attention because of its effective learning algorithm and strong boundaries in terms of its generalization performance. However, the boosting approach has yet to be used in regression problems within the construction domain, including cost estimations, but has been actively utilized in other domains. Therefore, a boosting regression tree (BRT is applied to cost estimations at the early stage of a construction project to examine the applicability of the boosting approach to a regression problem within the construction domain. To evaluate the performance of the BRT model, its performance was compared with that of a neural network (NN model, which has been proven to have a high performance in cost estimation domains. The BRT model has shown results similar to those of NN model using 234 actual cost datasets of a building construction project. In addition, the BRT model can provide additional information such as the importance plot and structure model, which can support estimators in comprehending the decision making process. Consequently, the boosting approach has potential applicability in preliminary cost estimations in a building construction project.

Scenario planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Enzmann, Dieter R; Beauchamp, Norman J; Norbash, Alexander

2011-03-01

suggest which basic features among the "possible futures" are playing out. Scenario planning provides for the implementation of appropriate constructed strategic responses. Scenarios allow for a pre-prepared game plan available for ready use as the future unfolds. They allow a deliberative response rather than a hastily constructed, urgent response. Copyright © 2011 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The stopping rules for winsorized tree

Science.gov (United States)

Ch'ng, Chee Keong; Mahat, Nor Idayu

2017-11-01

Winsorized tree is a modified tree-based classifier that is able to investigate and to handle all outliers in all nodes along the process of constructing the tree. It overcomes the tedious process of constructing a classical tree where the splitting of branches and pruning go concurrently so that the constructed tree would not grow bushy. This mechanism is controlled by the proposed algorithm. In winsorized tree, data are screened for identifying outlier. If outlier is detected, the value is neutralized using winsorize approach. Both outlier identification and value neutralization are executed recursively in every node until predetermined stopping criterion is met. The aim of this paper is to search for significant stopping criterion to stop the tree from further splitting before overfitting. The result obtained from the conducted experiment on pima indian dataset proved that the node could produce the final successor nodes (leaves) when it has achieved the range of 70% in information gain.

MeshTree: A Delay optimised Overlay Multicast Tree Building Protocol

OpenAIRE

Tan, Su-Wei; Waters, A. Gill; Crawford, John

2005-01-01

We study decentralised low delay degree-constrained overlay multicast tree construction for single source real-time applications. This optimisation problem is NP-hard even if computed centrally. We identify two problems in traditional distributed solutions, namely the greedy problem and delay-cost trade-off. By offering solutions to these problems, we propose a new self-organising distributed tree building protocol called MeshTree. The main idea is to embed the delivery tree in a degree-bound...

Multi scenario seismic hazard assessment for Egypt

Science.gov (United States)

Mostafa, Shaimaa Ismail; Abd el-aal, Abd el-aziz Khairy; El-Eraki, Mohamed Ahmed

2018-05-01

Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of Africa within a sensitive seismotectonic location. Earthquakes are concentrated along the active tectonic boundaries of African, Eurasian, and Arabian plates. The study area is characterized by northward increasing sediment thickness leading to more damage to structures in the north due to multiple reflections of seismic waves. Unfortunately, man-made constructions in Egypt were not designed to resist earthquake ground motions. So, it is important to evaluate the seismic hazard to reduce social and economic losses and preserve lives. The probabilistic seismic hazard assessment is used to evaluate the hazard using alternative seismotectonic models within a logic tree framework. Alternate seismotectonic models, magnitude-frequency relations, and various indigenous attenuation relationships were amended within a logic tree formulation to compute and develop the regional exposure on a set of hazard maps. Hazard contour maps are constructed for peak ground acceleration as well as 0.1-, 0.2-, 0.5-, 1-, and 2-s spectral periods for 100 and 475 years return periods for ground motion on rock. The results illustrate that Egypt is characterized by very low to high seismic activity grading from the west to the eastern part of the country. The uniform hazard spectra are estimated at some important cities distributed allover Egypt. The deaggregation of seismic hazard is estimated at some cities to identify the scenario events that contribute to a selected seismic hazard level. The results of this study can be used in seismic microzonation, risk mitigation, and earthquake engineering purposes.

Soil retention of hexavalent chromium released from construction and demolition waste in a road-base-application scenario

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Butera, Stefania; Trapp, Stefan; Astrup, Thomas Fruergaard

2015-01-01

We investigated the retention of Cr(VI) in three subsoils with low organic matter content in laboratory experiments at concentration levels relevant to represent leachates from construction and demolition waste (C&DW) reused as unbound material in road construction. The retention mechanism appeared...... depth. However, in rigid climates and with high water infiltration through the road pavement, the reduction reaction could be so slow that Cr(VI) might migrate as deep as 200 cm under the road. The reaction parameters and the model can form the basis for systematically assessing under which scenarios Cr...

Learning in data-limited multimodal scenarios: Scandent decision forests and tree-based features.

Science.gov (United States)

Hor, Soheil; Moradi, Mehdi

2016-12-01

Incomplete and inconsistent datasets often pose difficulties in multimodal studies. We introduce the concept of scandent decision trees to tackle these difficulties. Scandent trees are decision trees that optimally mimic the partitioning of the data determined by another decision tree, and crucially, use only a subset of the feature set. We show how scandent trees can be used to enhance the performance of decision forests trained on a small number of multimodal samples when we have access to larger datasets with vastly incomplete feature sets. Additionally, we introduce the concept of tree-based feature transforms in the decision forest paradigm. When combined with scandent trees, the tree-based feature transforms enable us to train a classifier on a rich multimodal dataset, and use it to classify samples with only a subset of features of the training data. Using this methodology, we build a model trained on MRI and PET images of the ADNI dataset, and then test it on cases with only MRI data. We show that this is significantly more effective in staging of cognitive impairments compared to a similar decision forest model trained and tested on MRI only, or one that uses other kinds of feature transform applied to the MRI data. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

TRAINING TREE ADJOINING GRAMMARS WITH HUGE TEXT CORPUS USING SPARK MAP REDUCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vijay Krishna Menon

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Tree adjoining grammars (TAGs are mildly context sensitive formalisms used mainly in modelling natural languages. Usage and research on these psycho linguistic formalisms have been erratic in the past decade, due to its demanding construction and difficulty to parse. However, they represent promising future for formalism based NLP in multilingual scenarios. In this paper we demonstrate basic synchronous Tree adjoining grammar for English-Tamil language pair that can be used readily for machine translation. We have also developed a multithreaded chart parser that gives ambiguous deep structures and a par dependency structure known as TAG derivation. Furthermore we then focus on a model for training this TAG for each language using a large corpus of text through a map reduce frequency count model in spark and estimation of various probabilistic parameters for the grammar trees thereafter; these parameters can be used to perform statistical parsing on the trained grammar.

CONSTRUCTIVE MODEL OF ADAPTATION OF DATA STRUCTURES IN RAM. PART II. CONSTRUCTORS OF SCENARIOS AND ADAPTATION PROCESSES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. I. Shynkarenko

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose.The second part of the paper completes presentation of constructive and the productive structures (CPS, modeling adaptation of data structures in memory (RAM. The purpose of the second part in the research is to develop a model of process of adaptation data in a RAM functioning in different hardware and software environments and scenarios of data processing. Methodology. The methodology of mathematical and algorithmic constructionism was applied. In this part of the paper, changes were developed the constructors of scenarios and adaptation processes based on a generalized CPS through its transformational conversions. Constructors are interpreted, specialized CPS. Were highlighted the terminal alphabets of the constructor scenarios in the form of data processing algorithms and the constructor of adaptation – in the form of algorithmic components of the adaptation process. The methodology involves the development of substitution rules that determine the output process of the relevant structures. Findings. In the second part of the paper, system is represented by CPS modeling adaptation data placement in the RAM, namely, constructors of scenarios and of adaptation processes. The result of the implementation of constructor of scenarios is a set of data processing operations in the form of text in the language of programming C#, constructor of the adaptation processes – a process of adaptation, and the result the process of adaptation – the adapted binary code of processing data structures. Originality. For the first time proposed the constructive model of data processing – the scenario that takes into account the order and number of calls to the various elements of data structures and adaptation of data structures to the different hardware and software environments. At the same the placement of data in RAM and processing algorithms are adapted. Constructionism application in modeling allows to link data models and algorithms for

Development of Accident Scenarios and Quantification Methodology for RAON Accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Yongjin; Jae, Moosung

2014-01-01

The RIsp (Rare Isotope Science Project) plans to provide neutron-rich isotopes (RIs) and stable heavy ion beams. The accelerator is defined as radiation production system according to Nuclear Safety Law. Therefore, it needs strict operate procedures and safety assurance to prevent radiation exposure. In order to satisfy this condition, there is a need for evaluating potential risk of accelerator from the design stage itself. Though some of PSA researches have been conducted for accelerator, most of them focus on not general accident sequence but simple explanation of accident. In this paper, general accident scenarios are developed by Event Tree and deduce new quantification methodology of Event Tree. In this study, some initial events, which may occur in the accelerator, are selected. Using selected initial events, the accident scenarios of accelerator facility are developed with Event Tree. These results can be used as basic data of the accelerator for future risk assessments. After analyzing the probability of each heading, it is possible to conduct quantification and evaluate the significance of the accident result. If there is a development of the accident scenario for external events, risk assessment of entire accelerator facility will be completed. To reduce the uncertainty of the Event Tree, it is possible to produce a reliable data via the presented quantification techniques

Accident scenarios triggered by lightning strike on atmospheric storage tanks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Necci, Amos; Argenti, Francesca; Landucci, Gabriele; Cozzani, Valerio

2014-01-01

Severe Natech accidents may be triggered by lightning strike affecting storage tanks containing relevant inventories of hazardous materials. The present study focused on the identification of event sequences and accident scenarios following lightning impact on atmospheric tanks. Reference event trees, validated using past accident analysis, are provided to describe the specific accident chains identified, accounting for reference protection and mitigation safety barriers usually adopted in current industrial practice. An overall methodology was outlined to allow the calculation of the expected frequencies of final scenarios following lightning impact on atmospheric storage tanks, taking into account the expected performance of available safety barriers. The methodology was applied to a case study in order to better understand the data that may be obtained and their importance in the framework of quantitative risk assessment (QRA) and of the risk management of industrial facilities with respect to external hazards due to natural events. - Highlights: • Event sequences following lightning impact on atmospheric tanks were identified. • Reference event trees including standard safety barriers were obtained. • Safety barriers applied in industrial practice were assessed to quantify event trees. • Frequencies of final scenarios following lightning impact on tanks were calculated. • Natech scenarios caused by lightning have an important influence on risk profiles

Total well dominated trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Finbow, Arthur; Frendrup, Allan; Vestergaard, Preben D.

cardinality then G is a total well dominated graph. In this paper we study composition and decomposition of total well dominated trees. By a reversible process we prove that any total well dominated tree can both be reduced to and constructed from a family of three small trees....

Pareto Efficient Solution of Attack-Defence Trees

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aslanyan, Zaruhi; Nielson, Flemming

Attack-defence trees are a promising approach for representing threat scenarios and possible countermeasures in a concise and intuitive manner. An attack-defence tree describes the interaction between an attacker and a defender, and is evaluated by assigning parameters to the nodes, such as

Development and application of a tree-code in simulation scenarios of the plasma-wall interaction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berberich, Benjamin

2012-03-01

Processes in the plasma edge layer of magnetic fusion devices occur on widely disparate length- and time-scales. Also recently developed features in this particular region, such as stochastic magnetic fields, underline the necessity for three dimensional, full-kinetic simulation tools. Contemporary programs often deploy ad hoc assumptions and approximations for microscopic phenomena for which self-consistent ab initio models in principle exist, but are still computationally too expensive or complex to implement. Recently, mesh-free methods have matured into a new class of tools for such first-principles computations which thanks to their geometric flexibility are highly promising for tackling complicated TOKAMAK regions. In this work we have develop the massively parallel Tree-Code PEPC-B (Pretty Efficient Parallel Coulomb solver) into a new tool for plasma material interaction studies. After a brief overview of the working principles of Tree-Codes two main topic groups are addressed: First the leap-frog Boris integration scheme is discussed and its numerical limitations are pointed out. To overcome these limitations the method is enhanced to a guiding-center integrator. As a proof of principal, numerical experiments are conducted reproducing the anticipated drift kinetic aspects of particle orbits. It turns out that this new technique is much less sensitive to large time steps than the original concept was. One major drawback of mesh-free methods which hinders their direct use for plasma-edge simulations is the difficulty in representing solid structures and associated boundary conditions. Therefore, an alternative concept is proposed using charge carrying Wall-Particles, which fits naturally in the mesh-free doctrine. These developments incorporate the second main topic group of this report. To prove the physical correctness of this new idea, a quasi one dimensional plasma-wall interface scenario is chosen. By studying the system with great detail, good agreement

[Effects of sampling plot number on tree species distribution prediction under climate change].

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Yu; He, Hong-Shi; Wu, Zhi-Wei; Li, Xiao-Na; Luo, Xu

2013-05-01

Based on the neutral landscapes under different degrees of landscape fragmentation, this paper studied the effects of sampling plot number on the prediction of tree species distribution at landscape scale under climate change. The tree species distribution was predicted by the coupled modeling approach which linked an ecosystem process model with a forest landscape model, and three contingent scenarios and one reference scenario of sampling plot numbers were assumed. The differences between the three scenarios and the reference scenario under different degrees of landscape fragmentation were tested. The results indicated that the effects of sampling plot number on the prediction of tree species distribution depended on the tree species life history attributes. For the generalist species, the prediction of their distribution at landscape scale needed more plots. Except for the extreme specialist, landscape fragmentation degree also affected the effects of sampling plot number on the prediction. With the increase of simulation period, the effects of sampling plot number on the prediction of tree species distribution at landscape scale could be changed. For generalist species, more plots are needed for the long-term simulation.

Bioinformatics analysis and construction of phylogenetic tree of aquaporins from Echinococcus granulosus.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Fen; Ye, Bin

2016-09-01

Cyst echinococcosis caused by the matacestodal larvae of Echinococcus granulosus (Eg), is a chronic, worldwide, and severe zoonotic parasitosis. The treatment of cyst echinococcosis is still difficult since surgery cannot fit the needs of all patients, and drugs can lead to serious adverse events as well as resistance. The screen of target proteins interacted with new anti-hydatidosis drugs is urgently needed to meet the prevailing challenges. Here, we analyzed the sequences and structure properties, and constructed a phylogenetic tree by bioinformatics methods. The MIP family signature and Protein kinase C phosphorylation sites were predicted in all nine EgAQPs. α-helix and random coil were the main secondary structures of EgAQPs. The numbers of transmembrane regions were three to six, which indicated that EgAQPs contained multiple hydrophobic regions. A neighbor-joining tree indicated that EgAQPs were divided into two branches, seven EgAQPs formed a clade with AQP1 from human, a "strict" aquaporins, other two EgAQPs formed a clade with AQP9 from human, an aquaglyceroporins. Unfortunately, homology modeling of EgAQPs was aborted. These results provide a foundation for understanding and researches of the biological function of E. granulosus.

Evaluation of temporal surveillance system sensitivity and freedom from bovine viral diarrhea in Danish dairy herds using scenario tree modelling.

Science.gov (United States)

Foddai, Alessandro; Stockmarr, Anders; Boklund, Anette

2016-06-21

The temporal sensitivity of the surveillance system (TemSSe) for Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) in Danish dairy herds was evaluated. Currently, the Danish antibody blocking ELISA is used to test quarterly bulk tank milk (BTM). To optimize the surveillance system as an early warning system, we considered the possibility of using the SVANOVIR ELISA, as this test has been shown to detect BVD-positive herds earlier than the blocking ELISA in BTM tests. Information from data (2010) and outputs from two published stochastic models were fed into a stochastic scenario tree to estimate the TemSSe. For that purpose we considered: the risk of BVD introduction into the dairy population, the ELISA used and the high risk period (HRP) from BVD introduction to testing (at 90 or 365 days). The effect of introducing one persistently infected (PI) calf or one transiently infected (TI) milking cow into 1 (or 8) dairy herd(s) was investigated. Additionally we estimated the confidence in low (PLow) herd prevalence (tree methodology, could be applied to optimize early warning surveillance systems of different animal diseases.

Greedy algorithm with weights for decision tree construction

KAUST Repository

Moshkov, Mikhail

2010-01-01

An approximate algorithm for minimization of weighted depth of decision trees is considered. A bound on accuracy of this algorithm is obtained which is unimprovable in general case. Under some natural assumptions on the class NP, the considered algorithm is close (from the point of view of accuracy) to best polynomial approximate algorithms for minimization of weighted depth of decision trees.

Greedy algorithm with weights for decision tree construction

KAUST Repository

Moshkov, Mikhail

2010-12-01

An approximate algorithm for minimization of weighted depth of decision trees is considered. A bound on accuracy of this algorithm is obtained which is unimprovable in general case. Under some natural assumptions on the class NP, the considered algorithm is close (from the point of view of accuracy) to best polynomial approximate algorithms for minimization of weighted depth of decision trees.

Classification and regression trees

CERN Document Server

Breiman, Leo; Olshen, Richard A; Stone, Charles J

1984-01-01

The methodology used to construct tree structured rules is the focus of this monograph. Unlike many other statistical procedures, which moved from pencil and paper to calculators, this text's use of trees was unthinkable before computers. Both the practical and theoretical sides have been developed in the authors' study of tree methods. Classification and Regression Trees reflects these two sides, covering the use of trees as a data analysis method, and in a more mathematical framework, proving some of their fundamental properties.

Analytic expressions for the construction of a fire event PSA model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Dae Il; Kim, Kil Yoo; Kim, Dong San; Hwang, Mee Jeong; Yang, Joon Eon

2016-01-01

In this study, the changing process of an internal event PSA model to a fire event PSA model is analytically presented and discussed. Many fire PSA models have fire induced initiating event fault trees not shown in an internal event PSA model. Fire-induced initiating fault tree models are developed for addressing multiple initiating event issues. A single fire event within a fire compartment or fire scenario can cause multiple initiating events. As an example, a fire in a turbine building area can cause a loss of the main feed-water and loss of off-site power initiating events. Up to now, there has been no analytic study on the construction of a fire event PSA model using an internal event PSA model with fault trees of initiating events. In this paper, the changing process of an internal event PSA model to a fire event PSA model was analytically presented and discussed. This study results show that additional cutsets can be obtained if the fault trees of initiating events for a fire event PSA model are not exactly developed.

Analytic expressions for the construction of a fire event PSA model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kang, Dae Il; Kim, Kil Yoo; Kim, Dong San; Hwang, Mee Jeong; Yang, Joon Eon [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-05-15

In this study, the changing process of an internal event PSA model to a fire event PSA model is analytically presented and discussed. Many fire PSA models have fire induced initiating event fault trees not shown in an internal event PSA model. Fire-induced initiating fault tree models are developed for addressing multiple initiating event issues. A single fire event within a fire compartment or fire scenario can cause multiple initiating events. As an example, a fire in a turbine building area can cause a loss of the main feed-water and loss of off-site power initiating events. Up to now, there has been no analytic study on the construction of a fire event PSA model using an internal event PSA model with fault trees of initiating events. In this paper, the changing process of an internal event PSA model to a fire event PSA model was analytically presented and discussed. This study results show that additional cutsets can be obtained if the fault trees of initiating events for a fire event PSA model are not exactly developed.

Fast Tree: Computing Large Minimum-Evolution Trees with Profiles instead of a Distance Matrix

OpenAIRE

N. Price, Morgan

2009-01-01

Gene families are growing rapidly, but standard methods for inferring phylogenies do not scale to alignments with over 10,000 sequences. We present FastTree, a method for constructing large phylogenies and for estimating their reliability. Instead of storing a distance matrix, FastTree stores sequence profiles of internal nodes in the tree. FastTree uses these profiles to implement neighbor-joining and uses heuristics to quickly identify candidate joins. FastTree then uses nearest-neighbor i...

FastTree: Computing Large Minimum Evolution Trees with Profiles instead of a Distance Matrix

OpenAIRE

Price, Morgan N.; Dehal, Paramvir S.; Arkin, Adam P.

2009-01-01

Gene families are growing rapidly, but standard methods for inferring phylogenies do not scale to alignments with over 10,000 sequences. We present FastTree, a method for constructing large phylogenies and for estimating their reliability. Instead of storing a distance matrix, FastTree stores sequence profiles of internal nodes in the tree. FastTree uses these profiles to implement Neighbor-Joining and uses heuristics to quickly identify candidate joins. FastTree then uses nearest neighbor in...

Multi-pruning of decision trees for knowledge representation and classification

KAUST Repository

Azad, Mohammad

2016-06-09

We consider two important questions related to decision trees: first how to construct a decision tree with reasonable number of nodes and reasonable number of misclassification, and second how to improve the prediction accuracy of decision trees when they are used as classifiers. We have created a dynamic programming based approach for bi-criteria optimization of decision trees relative to the number of nodes and the number of misclassification. This approach allows us to construct the set of all Pareto optimal points and to derive, for each such point, decision trees with parameters corresponding to that point. Experiments on datasets from UCI ML Repository show that, very often, we can find a suitable Pareto optimal point and derive a decision tree with small number of nodes at the expense of small increment in number of misclassification. Based on the created approach we have proposed a multi-pruning procedure which constructs decision trees that, as classifiers, often outperform decision trees constructed by CART. © 2015 IEEE.

Multi-pruning of decision trees for knowledge representation and classification

KAUST Repository

Azad, Mohammad; Chikalov, Igor; Hussain, Shahid; Moshkov, Mikhail

2016-01-01

We consider two important questions related to decision trees: first how to construct a decision tree with reasonable number of nodes and reasonable number of misclassification, and second how to improve the prediction accuracy of decision trees when they are used as classifiers. We have created a dynamic programming based approach for bi-criteria optimization of decision trees relative to the number of nodes and the number of misclassification. This approach allows us to construct the set of all Pareto optimal points and to derive, for each such point, decision trees with parameters corresponding to that point. Experiments on datasets from UCI ML Repository show that, very often, we can find a suitable Pareto optimal point and derive a decision tree with small number of nodes at the expense of small increment in number of misclassification. Based on the created approach we have proposed a multi-pruning procedure which constructs decision trees that, as classifiers, often outperform decision trees constructed by CART. © 2015 IEEE.

Encoding phylogenetic trees in terms of weighted quartets.

Science.gov (United States)

Grünewald, Stefan; Huber, Katharina T; Moulton, Vincent; Semple, Charles

2008-04-01

One of the main problems in phylogenetics is to develop systematic methods for constructing evolutionary or phylogenetic trees. For a set of species X, an edge-weighted phylogenetic X-tree or phylogenetic tree is a (graph theoretical) tree with leaf set X and no degree 2 vertices, together with a map assigning a non-negative length to each edge of the tree. Within phylogenetics, several methods have been proposed for constructing such trees that work by trying to piece together quartet trees on X, i.e. phylogenetic trees each having four leaves in X. Hence, it is of interest to characterise when a collection of quartet trees corresponds to a (unique) phylogenetic tree. Recently, Dress and Erdös provided such a characterisation for binary phylogenetic trees, that is, phylogenetic trees all of whose internal vertices have degree 3. Here we provide a new characterisation for arbitrary phylogenetic trees.

Analyzing and synthesizing phylogenies using tree alignment graphs.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen A Smith

Full Text Available Phylogenetic trees are used to analyze and visualize evolution. However, trees can be imperfect datatypes when summarizing multiple trees. This is especially problematic when accommodating for biological phenomena such as horizontal gene transfer, incomplete lineage sorting, and hybridization, as well as topological conflict between datasets. Additionally, researchers may want to combine information from sets of trees that have partially overlapping taxon sets. To address the problem of analyzing sets of trees with conflicting relationships and partially overlapping taxon sets, we introduce methods for aligning, synthesizing and analyzing rooted phylogenetic trees within a graph, called a tree alignment graph (TAG. The TAG can be queried and analyzed to explore uncertainty and conflict. It can also be synthesized to construct trees, presenting an alternative to supertrees approaches. We demonstrate these methods with two empirical datasets. In order to explore uncertainty, we constructed a TAG of the bootstrap trees from the Angiosperm Tree of Life project. Analysis of the resulting graph demonstrates that areas of the dataset that are unresolved in majority-rule consensus tree analyses can be understood in more detail within the context of a graph structure, using measures incorporating node degree and adjacency support. As an exercise in synthesis (i.e., summarization of a TAG constructed from the alignment trees, we also construct a TAG consisting of the taxonomy and source trees from a recent comprehensive bird study. We synthesized this graph into a tree that can be reconstructed in a repeatable fashion and where the underlying source information can be updated. The methods presented here are tractable for large scale analyses and serve as a basis for an alternative to consensus tree and supertree methods. Furthermore, the exploration of these graphs can expose structures and patterns within the dataset that are otherwise difficult to

Analyzing and synthesizing phylogenies using tree alignment graphs.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Stephen A; Brown, Joseph W; Hinchliff, Cody E

2013-01-01

Phylogenetic trees are used to analyze and visualize evolution. However, trees can be imperfect datatypes when summarizing multiple trees. This is especially problematic when accommodating for biological phenomena such as horizontal gene transfer, incomplete lineage sorting, and hybridization, as well as topological conflict between datasets. Additionally, researchers may want to combine information from sets of trees that have partially overlapping taxon sets. To address the problem of analyzing sets of trees with conflicting relationships and partially overlapping taxon sets, we introduce methods for aligning, synthesizing and analyzing rooted phylogenetic trees within a graph, called a tree alignment graph (TAG). The TAG can be queried and analyzed to explore uncertainty and conflict. It can also be synthesized to construct trees, presenting an alternative to supertrees approaches. We demonstrate these methods with two empirical datasets. In order to explore uncertainty, we constructed a TAG of the bootstrap trees from the Angiosperm Tree of Life project. Analysis of the resulting graph demonstrates that areas of the dataset that are unresolved in majority-rule consensus tree analyses can be understood in more detail within the context of a graph structure, using measures incorporating node degree and adjacency support. As an exercise in synthesis (i.e., summarization of a TAG constructed from the alignment trees), we also construct a TAG consisting of the taxonomy and source trees from a recent comprehensive bird study. We synthesized this graph into a tree that can be reconstructed in a repeatable fashion and where the underlying source information can be updated. The methods presented here are tractable for large scale analyses and serve as a basis for an alternative to consensus tree and supertree methods. Furthermore, the exploration of these graphs can expose structures and patterns within the dataset that are otherwise difficult to observe.

LifePrint: a novel k-tuple distance method for construction of phylogenetic trees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabián Reyes-Prieto

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Fabián Reyes-Prieto1, Adda J García-Chéquer1, Hueman Jaimes-Díaz1, Janet Casique-Almazán1, Juana M Espinosa-Lara1, Rosaura Palma-Orozco2, Alfonso Méndez-Tenorio1, Rogelio Maldonado-Rodríguez1, Kenneth L Beattie31Laboratory of Biotechnology and Genomic Bioinformatics, Department of Biochemistry, National School of Biological Sciences, 2Superior School of Computer Sciences, National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico City, Mexico; 3Amerigenics Inc, Crossville, Tennessee, USAPurpose: Here we describe LifePrint, a sequence alignment-independent k-tuple distance method to estimate relatedness between complete genomes.Methods: We designed a representative sample of all possible DNA tuples of length 9 (9-tuples. The final sample comprises 1878 tuples (called the LifePrint set of 9-tuples; LPS9 that are distinct from each other by at least two internal and noncontiguous nucleotide differences. For validation of our k-tuple distance method, we analyzed several real and simulated viroid genomes. Using different distance metrics, we scrutinized diverse viroid genomes to estimate the k-tuple distances between these genomic sequences. Then we used the estimated genomic k-tuple distances to construct phylogenetic trees using the neighbor-joining algorithm. A comparison of the accuracy of LPS9 and the previously reported 5-tuple method was made using symmetric differences between the trees estimated from each method and a simulated “true” phylogenetic tree.Results: The identified optimal search scheme for LPS9 allows only up to two nucleotide differences between each 9-tuple and the scrutinized genome. Similarity search results of simulated viroid genomes indicate that, in most cases, LPS9 is able to detect single-base substitutions between genomes efficiently. Analysis of simulated genomic variants with a high proportion of base substitutions indicates that LPS9 is able to discern relationships between genomic variants with up to 40% of nucleotide

The valuative tree

CERN Document Server

Favre, Charles

2004-01-01

This volume is devoted to a beautiful object, called the valuative tree and designed as a powerful tool for the study of singularities in two complex dimensions. Its intricate yet manageable structure can be analyzed by both algebraic and geometric means. Many types of singularities, including those of curves, ideals, and plurisubharmonic functions, can be encoded in terms of positive measures on the valuative tree. The construction of these measures uses a natural tree Laplace operator of independent interest.

Pareto Efficient Solutions of Attack-Defence Trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aslanyan, Zaruhi; Nielson, Flemming

2015-01-01

Attack-defence trees are a promising approach for representing threat scenarios and possible countermeasures in a concise and intuitive manner. An attack-defence tree describes the interaction between an attacker and a defender, and is evaluated by assigning parameters to the nodes, such as proba......Attack-defence trees are a promising approach for representing threat scenarios and possible countermeasures in a concise and intuitive manner. An attack-defence tree describes the interaction between an attacker and a defender, and is evaluated by assigning parameters to the nodes......, such as probability or cost of attacks and defences. In case of multiple parameters most analytical methods optimise one parameter at a time, e.g., minimise cost or maximise probability of an attack. Such methods may lead to sub-optimal solutions when optimising conflicting parameters, e.g., minimising cost while...... maximising probability. In order to tackle this challenge, we devise automated techniques that optimise all parameters at once. Moreover, in the case of conflicting parameters our techniques compute the set of all optimal solutions, defined in terms of Pareto efficiency. The developments are carried out...

TreePOD: Sensitivity-Aware Selection of Pareto-Optimal Decision Trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Muhlbacher, Thomas; Linhardt, Lorenz; Moller, Torsten; Piringer, Harald

2018-01-01

Balancing accuracy gains with other objectives such as interpretability is a key challenge when building decision trees. However, this process is difficult to automate because it involves know-how about the domain as well as the purpose of the model. This paper presents TreePOD, a new approach for sensitivity-aware model selection along trade-offs. TreePOD is based on exploring a large set of candidate trees generated by sampling the parameters of tree construction algorithms. Based on this set, visualizations of quantitative and qualitative tree aspects provide a comprehensive overview of possible tree characteristics. Along trade-offs between two objectives, TreePOD provides efficient selection guidance by focusing on Pareto-optimal tree candidates. TreePOD also conveys the sensitivities of tree characteristics on variations of selected parameters by extending the tree generation process with a full-factorial sampling. We demonstrate how TreePOD supports a variety of tasks involved in decision tree selection and describe its integration in a holistic workflow for building and selecting decision trees. For evaluation, we illustrate a case study for predicting critical power grid states, and we report qualitative feedback from domain experts in the energy sector. This feedback suggests that TreePOD enables users with and without statistical background a confident and efficient identification of suitable decision trees.

Rectilinear Full Steiner Tree Generation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zachariasen, Martin

1999-01-01

The fastest exact algorithm (in practice) for the rectilinear Steiner tree problem in the plane uses a two-phase scheme: First, a small but sufficient set of full Steiner trees (FSTs) is generated and then a Steiner minimum tree is constructed from this set by using simple backtrack search, dynamic...

Automated Analysis of Infinite Scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buchholtz, Mikael

2005-01-01

The security of a network protocol crucially relies on the scenario in which the protocol is deployed. This paper describes syntactic constructs for modelling network scenarios and presents an automated analysis tool, which can guarantee that security properties hold in all of the (infinitely many...

Comparison of Greedy Algorithms for Decision Tree Optimization

KAUST Repository

Alkhalid, Abdulaziz; Chikalov, Igor; Moshkov, Mikhail

2013-01-01

This chapter is devoted to the study of 16 types of greedy algorithms for decision tree construction. The dynamic programming approach is used for construction of optimal decision trees. Optimization is performed relative to minimal values

Fast method of constructing image correlations to build a free network based on image multivocabulary trees

Science.gov (United States)

Zhan, Zongqian; Wang, Xin; Wei, Minglu

2015-05-01

In image-based three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction, one topic of growing importance is how to quickly obtain a 3-D model from a large number of images. The retrieval of the correct and relevant images for the model poses a considerable technological challenge. The "image vocabulary tree" has been proposed as a method to search for similar images. However, a significant drawback of this approach is identified in its low time efficiency and barely satisfactory classification result. The method proposed is inspired by, and improves upon, some recent methods. Specifically, vocabulary quality is considered and multivocabulary trees are designed to improve the classification result. A marked improvement was, indeed, observed in our evaluation of the proposed method. To improve time efficiency, graphics processing unit (GPU) computer unified device architecture parallel computation is applied in the multivocabulary trees. The results of the experiments showed that the GPU was three to four times more efficient than the enumeration matching and CPU methods when the number of images is large. This paper presents a reliable reference method for the rapid construction of a free network to be used for the computing of 3-D information.

Fault tree graphics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bass, L.; Wynholds, H.W.; Porterfield, W.R.

1975-01-01

Described is an operational system that enables the user, through an intelligent graphics terminal, to construct, modify, analyze, and store fault trees. With this system, complex engineering designs can be analyzed. This paper discusses the system and its capabilities. Included is a brief discussion of fault tree analysis, which represents an aspect of reliability and safety modeling

Current and Future Distribution of the Tropical Tree Cedrela odorata L. in Mexico under Climate Change Scenarios Using MaxLike

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez Meyer, Enrique; Sánchez-Velásquez, Lázaro R.

2016-01-01

Climate change is recognized as an important threat to global biodiversity because it increases the risk of extinction of many species on the planet. Mexico is a megadiverse country and native tree species such as red cedar (Cedrela odorata) can be used to maintain forests while helping mitigate climate change, because it is considered a fast growing pioneer species with great economic potential in the forestry industry. In order to assess possible shifts in areas suitable for C. odorata plantations in Mexico with ecological niche models, we used the MaxLike algorithm, climate variables, the geo-referenced records of this species, three general circulation models and three scenarios of future emissions. Results show a current potential distribution of 573,079 km2 with an average probability of occurrence of 0.93 (± 0.13). The potential distribution area could increase up to 650,356 km2 by 2060 according to the general circulation model HADCM3 B2, with an average probability of occurrence of 0.86 (± 0.14). Finally, we delimited an area of 35,377 km2 that has a high potential for the establishment of C. odorata plantations, by selecting those sites with optimal conditions for its growth that are outside protected areas and are currently devoid of trees. C. odorata has a significant potential to help in the mitigation of the effects of climate change. Using MaxLike we identified extense areas in Mexico suitable to increase carbon sequestration through plantations of this highly valued native tree species. PMID:27732622

Current and Future Distribution of the Tropical Tree Cedrela odorata L. in Mexico under Climate Change Scenarios Using MaxLike.

Science.gov (United States)

Estrada-Contreras, Israel; Equihua, Miguel; Laborde, Javier; Martínez Meyer, Enrique; Sánchez-Velásquez, Lázaro R

2016-01-01

Climate change is recognized as an important threat to global biodiversity because it increases the risk of extinction of many species on the planet. Mexico is a megadiverse country and native tree species such as red cedar (Cedrela odorata) can be used to maintain forests while helping mitigate climate change, because it is considered a fast growing pioneer species with great economic potential in the forestry industry. In order to assess possible shifts in areas suitable for C. odorata plantations in Mexico with ecological niche models, we used the MaxLike algorithm, climate variables, the geo-referenced records of this species, three general circulation models and three scenarios of future emissions. Results show a current potential distribution of 573,079 km2 with an average probability of occurrence of 0.93 (± 0.13). The potential distribution area could increase up to 650,356 km2 by 2060 according to the general circulation model HADCM3 B2, with an average probability of occurrence of 0.86 (± 0.14). Finally, we delimited an area of 35,377 km2 that has a high potential for the establishment of C. odorata plantations, by selecting those sites with optimal conditions for its growth that are outside protected areas and are currently devoid of trees. C. odorata has a significant potential to help in the mitigation of the effects of climate change. Using MaxLike we identified extense areas in Mexico suitable to increase carbon sequestration through plantations of this highly valued native tree species.

Current and Future Distribution of the Tropical Tree Cedrela odorata L. in Mexico under Climate Change Scenarios Using MaxLike.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Israel Estrada-Contreras

Full Text Available Climate change is recognized as an important threat to global biodiversity because it increases the risk of extinction of many species on the planet. Mexico is a megadiverse country and native tree species such as red cedar (Cedrela odorata can be used to maintain forests while helping mitigate climate change, because it is considered a fast growing pioneer species with great economic potential in the forestry industry. In order to assess possible shifts in areas suitable for C. odorata plantations in Mexico with ecological niche models, we used the MaxLike algorithm, climate variables, the geo-referenced records of this species, three general circulation models and three scenarios of future emissions. Results show a current potential distribution of 573,079 km2 with an average probability of occurrence of 0.93 (± 0.13. The potential distribution area could increase up to 650,356 km2 by 2060 according to the general circulation model HADCM3 B2, with an average probability of occurrence of 0.86 (± 0.14. Finally, we delimited an area of 35,377 km2 that has a high potential for the establishment of C. odorata plantations, by selecting those sites with optimal conditions for its growth that are outside protected areas and are currently devoid of trees. C. odorata has a significant potential to help in the mitigation of the effects of climate change. Using MaxLike we identified extense areas in Mexico suitable to increase carbon sequestration through plantations of this highly valued native tree species.

Nervous systems and scenarios for the invertebrate-to-vertebrate transition.

Science.gov (United States)

Holland, Nicholas D

2016-01-05

Older evolutionary scenarios for the origin of vertebrates often gave nervous systems top billing in accordance with the notion that a big-brained Homo sapiens crowned a tree of life shaped mainly by progressive evolution. Now, however, tree thinking positions all extant organisms equidistant from the tree's root, and molecular phylogenies indicate that regressive evolution is more common than previously suspected. Even so, contemporary theories of vertebrate origin still focus on the nervous system because of its functional importance, its richness in characters for comparative biology, and its central position in the two currently prominent scenarios for the invertebrate-to-vertebrate transition, which grew out of the markedly neurocentric annelid and enteropneust theories of the nineteenth century. Both these scenarios compare phyla with diverse overall body plans. This diversity, exacerbated by the scarcity of relevant fossil data, makes it challenging to establish plausible homologies between component parts (e.g. nervous system regions). In addition, our current understanding of the relation between genotype and phenotype is too preliminary to permit us to convert gene network data into structural features in any simple way. These issues are discussed here with special reference to the evolution of nervous systems during proposed transitions from invertebrates to vertebrates. © 2015 The Author(s).

Introduction to fault tree analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barlow, R.E.; Lambert, H.E.

1975-01-01

An elementary, engineering oriented introduction to fault tree analysis is presented. The basic concepts, techniques and applications of fault tree analysis, FTA, are described. The two major steps of FTA are identified as (1) the construction of the fault tree and (2) its evaluation. The evaluation of the fault tree can be qualitative or quantitative depending upon the scope, extensiveness and use of the analysis. The advantages, limitations and usefulness of FTA are discussed

Algorithms for computing parsimonious evolutionary scenarios for genome evolution, the last universal common ancestor and dominance of horizontal gene transfer in the evolution of prokaryotes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Galperin Michael Y

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Comparative analysis of sequenced genomes reveals numerous instances of apparent horizontal gene transfer (HGT, at least in prokaryotes, and indicates that lineage-specific gene loss might have been even more common in evolution. This complicates the notion of a species tree, which needs to be re-interpreted as a prevailing evolutionary trend, rather than the full depiction of evolution, and makes reconstruction of ancestral genomes a non-trivial task. Results We addressed the problem of constructing parsimonious scenarios for individual sets of orthologous genes given a species tree. The orthologous sets were taken from the database of Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins (COGs. We show that the phyletic patterns (patterns of presence-absence in completely sequenced genomes of almost 90% of the COGs are inconsistent with the hypothetical species tree. Algorithms were developed to reconcile the phyletic patterns with the species tree by postulating gene loss, COG emergence and HGT (the latter two classes of events were collectively treated as gene gains. We prove that each of these algorithms produces a parsimonious evolutionary scenario, which can be represented as mapping of loss and gain events on the species tree. The distribution of the evolutionary events among the tree nodes substantially depends on the underlying assumptions of the reconciliation algorithm, e.g. whether or not independent gene gains (gain after loss after gain are permitted. Biological considerations suggest that, on average, gene loss might be a more likely event than gene gain. Therefore different gain penalties were used and the resulting series of reconstructed gene sets for the last universal common ancestor (LUCA of the extant life forms were analysed. The number of genes in the reconstructed LUCA gene sets grows as the gain penalty increases. However, qualitative examination of the LUCA versions reconstructed with different gain penalties

Constructing the tree-level Yang-Mills S-matrix using complex factorization

Science.gov (United States)

Schuster, Philip C.; Toro, Natalia

2009-06-01

A remarkable connection between BCFW recursion relations and constraints on the S-matrix was made by Benincasa and Cachazo in 0705.4305, who noted that mutual consistency of different BCFW constructions of four-particle amplitudes generates non-trivial (but familiar) constraints on three-particle coupling constants — these include gauge invariance, the equivalence principle, and the lack of non-trivial couplings for spins > 2. These constraints can also be derived with weaker assumptions, by demanding the existence of four-point amplitudes that factorize properly in all unitarity limits with complex momenta. From this starting point, we show that the BCFW prescription can be interpreted as an algorithm for fully constructing a tree-level S-matrix, and that complex factorization of general BCFW amplitudes follows from the factorization of four-particle amplitudes. The allowed set of BCFW deformations is identified, formulated entirely as a statement on the three-particle sector, and using only complex factorization as a guide. Consequently, our analysis based on the physical consistency of the S-matrix is entirely independent of field theory. We analyze the case of pure Yang-Mills, and outline a proof for gravity. For Yang-Mills, we also show that the well-known scaling behavior of BCFW-deformed amplitudes at large z is a simple consequence of factorization. For gravity, factorization in certain channels requires asymptotic behavior ~ 1/z2.

Constructing the tree-level Yang-Mills S-matrix using complex factorization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schuster, Philip C.; Toro, Natalia

2009-01-01

A remarkable connection between BCFW recursion relations and constraints on the S-matrix was made by Benincasa and Cachazo in 0705.4305, who noted that mutual consistency of different BCFW constructions of four-particle amplitudes generates non-trivial (but familiar) constraints on three-particle coupling constants - these include gauge invariance, the equivalence principle, and the lack of non-trivial couplings for spins > 2. These constraints can also be derived with weaker assumptions, by demanding the existence of four-point amplitudes that factorize properly in all unitarity limits with complex momenta. From this starting point, we show that the BCFW prescription can be interpreted as an algorithm for fully constructing a tree-level S-matrix, and that complex factorization of general BCFW amplitudes follows from the factorization of four-particle amplitudes. The allowed set of BCFW deformations is identified, formulated entirely as a statement on the three-particle sector, and using only complex factorization as a guide. Consequently, our analysis based on the physical consistency of the S-matrix is entirely independent of field theory. We analyze the case of pure Yang-Mills, and outline a proof for gravity. For Yang-Mills, we also show that the well-known scaling behavior of BCFW-deformed amplitudes at large z is a simple consequence of factorization. For gravity, factorization in certain channels requires asymptotic behavior ∼ 1/z 2 .

Spectra of chemical trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balasubramanian, K.

1982-01-01

A method is developed for obtaining the spectra of trees of NMR and chemical interests. The characteristic polynomials of branched trees can be obtained in terms of the characteristic polynomials of unbranched trees and branches by pruning the tree at the joints. The unbranched trees can also be broken down further until a tree containing just two vertices is obtained. The effectively reduces the order of the secular determinant of the tree used at the beginning to determinants of orders atmost equal to the number of vertices in the branch containing the largest number of vertices. An illustrative example of a NMR graph is given for which the 22 x 22 secular determinant is reduced to determinants of orders atmost 4 x 4 in just the second step of the algorithm. The tree pruning algorithm can be applied even to trees with no symmetry elements and such a factoring can be achieved. Methods developed here can be elegantly used to find if two trees are cospectral and to construct cospectral trees

The shakeout scenario: Meeting the needs for construction aggregates, asphalt, and concrete

Science.gov (United States)

Langer, W.H.

2011-01-01

An Mw 7.8 earthquake as described in the ShakeOut Scenario would cause significantdamage to buildings and infrastructure. Over 6 million tons of newly mined aggregate would be used for emergency repairs and for reconstruction in the five years following the event. This aggregate would be applied mostly in the form of concrete for buildings and bridges, asphalt or concrete for pavement, and unbound gravel for applications such as base course that goes under highway pavement and backfilling for foundations and pipelines. There are over 450 aggregate, concrete, and asphalt plants in the affected area, some of which would be heavily damaged. Meeting the increased demand for construction materials would require readily available permitted reserves, functioning production facilities, a supply of cement and asphalt, a source of water, gas, and electricity, and a trained workforce. Prudent advance preparations would facilitate a timely emergency response and reconstruction following such an earthquake. ?? 2011, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

On algorithm for building of optimal α-decision trees

KAUST Repository

Alkhalid, Abdulaziz

2010-01-01

The paper describes an algorithm that constructs approximate decision trees (α-decision trees), which are optimal relatively to one of the following complexity measures: depth, total path length or number of nodes. The algorithm uses dynamic programming and extends methods described in [4] to constructing approximate decision trees. Adjustable approximation rate allows controlling algorithm complexity. The algorithm is applied to build optimal α-decision trees for two data sets from UCI Machine Learning Repository [1]. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Generic physical protection logic trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paulus, W.K.

1981-10-01

Generic physical protection logic trees, designed for application to nuclear facilities and materials, are presented together with a method of qualitative evaluation of the trees for design and analysis of physical protection systems. One or more defense zones are defined where adversaries interact with the physical protection system. Logic trees that are needed to describe the possible scenarios within a defense zone are selected. Elements of a postulated or existing physical protection system are tagged to the primary events of the logic tree. The likelihood of adversary success in overcoming these elements is evaluated on a binary, yes/no basis. The effect of these evaluations is propagated through the logic of each tree to determine whether the adversary is likely to accomplish the end event of the tree. The physical protection system must be highly likely to overcome the adversary before he accomplishes his objective. The evaluation must be conducted for all significant states of the site. Deficiencies uncovered become inputs to redesign and further analysis, closing the loop on the design/analysis cycle

Generic physical protection logic trees

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paulus, W.K.

1981-10-01

Generic physical protection logic trees, designed for application to nuclear facilities and materials, are presented together with a method of qualitative evaluation of the trees for design and analysis of physical protection systems. One or more defense zones are defined where adversaries interact with the physical protection system. Logic trees that are needed to describe the possible scenarios within a defense zone are selected. Elements of a postulated or existing physical protection system are tagged to the primary events of the logic tree. The likelihood of adversary success in overcoming these elements is evaluated on a binary, yes/no basis. The effect of these evaluations is propagated through the logic of each tree to determine whether the adversary is likely to accomplish the end event of the tree. The physical protection system must be highly likely to overcome the adversary before he accomplishes his objective. The evaluation must be conducted for all significant states of the site. Deficiencies uncovered become inputs to redesign and further analysis, closing the loop on the design/analysis cycle.

Process Risk Assessment using Dynamic Simulation of Scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Markert, Frank; Kozin, Igor; Duijm, Nijs Jan

2016-01-01

identification, description of accident scenarios and using the conventional approach to develop static event trees for events following a loss of containment. Modelling the impacts and consequences needs models to describe the release, dispersion and effect of the hazardous material, as well as models...

Comparison of Greedy Algorithms for Decision Tree Optimization

KAUST Repository

Alkhalid, Abdulaziz

2013-01-01

This chapter is devoted to the study of 16 types of greedy algorithms for decision tree construction. The dynamic programming approach is used for construction of optimal decision trees. Optimization is performed relative to minimal values of average depth, depth, number of nodes, number of terminal nodes, and number of nonterminal nodes of decision trees. We compare average depth, depth, number of nodes, number of terminal nodes and number of nonterminal nodes of constructed trees with minimum values of the considered parameters obtained based on a dynamic programming approach. We report experiments performed on data sets from UCI ML Repository and randomly generated binary decision tables. As a result, for depth, average depth, and number of nodes we propose a number of good heuristics. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.

Building classification trees to explain the radioactive contamination levels of the plants; Construction d'arbres de discrimination pour expliquer les niveaux de contamination radioactive des vegetaux

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Briand, B

2008-04-15

The objective of this thesis is the development of a method allowing the identification of factors leading to various radioactive contamination levels of the plants. The methodology suggested is based on the use of a radioecological transfer model of the radionuclides through the environment (A.S.T.R.A.L. computer code) and a classification-tree method. Particularly, to avoid the instability problems of classification trees and to preserve the tree structure, a node level stabilizing technique is used. Empirical comparisons are carried out between classification trees built by this method (called R.E.N. method) and those obtained by the C.A.R.T. method. A similarity measure is defined to compare the structure of two classification trees. This measure is used to study the stabilizing performance of the R.E.N. method. The methodology suggested is applied to a simplified contamination scenario. By the results obtained, we can identify the main variables responsible of the various radioactive contamination levels of four leafy-vegetables (lettuce, cabbage, spinach and leek). Some extracted rules from these classification trees can be usable in a post-accidental context. (author)

Scenario group summary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thorndike, A.

1976-01-01

A scenario is given for ISABELLE which provides a plausible sequence of events from FY 1980 to 1990. No doubt reality will be quite different. The scenario is based on the construction schedule of the 1976 proposal. Assembly and testing of the accelerator will occur until the end of FY 1983, and the next six years will provide pp interactions for the initial high energy physics research. By 1990 any temporary conditions associated with start-up of ISABELLE should be a thing of the past and all experimental capabilities fully utilized

Scenario group summary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thorndike, A.

1976-01-01

The scenario is given which provides a plausible sequence of events for ISABELLE from FY 1980 to 1990. No doubt reality will be quite different. The scenario is based on the construction schedule of the 1976 proposal. Assembly and testing of the accelerator will occur until the end of FY 1983, and the next six years will provide pp interactions for the initial high energy physics research. By 1990 any temporary conditions associated with start-up of ISABELLE should be a thing of the past and all experimental capabilities fully utilized

Tsunamigenic scenarios for southern Peru and northern Chile seismic gap: Deterministic and probabilistic hybrid approach for hazard assessment

Science.gov (United States)

González-Carrasco, J. F.; Gonzalez, G.; Aránguiz, R.; Yanez, G. A.; Melgar, D.; Salazar, P.; Shrivastava, M. N.; Das, R.; Catalan, P. A.; Cienfuegos, R.

2017-12-01

Plausible worst-case tsunamigenic scenarios definition plays a relevant role in tsunami hazard assessment focused in emergency preparedness and evacuation planning for coastal communities. During the last decade, the occurrence of major and moderate tsunamigenic earthquakes along worldwide subduction zones has given clues about critical parameters involved in near-field tsunami inundation processes, i.e. slip spatial distribution, shelf resonance of edge waves and local geomorphology effects. To analyze the effects of these seismic and hydrodynamic variables over the epistemic uncertainty of coastal inundation, we implement a combined methodology using deterministic and probabilistic approaches to construct 420 tsunamigenic scenarios in a mature seismic gap of southern Peru and northern Chile, extended from 17ºS to 24ºS. The deterministic scenarios are calculated using a regional distribution of trench-parallel gravity anomaly (TPGA) and trench-parallel topography anomaly (TPTA), three-dimensional Slab 1.0 worldwide subduction zones geometry model and published interseismic coupling (ISC) distributions. As result, we find four higher slip deficit zones interpreted as major seismic asperities of the gap, used in a hierarchical tree scheme to generate ten tsunamigenic scenarios with seismic magnitudes fluctuates between Mw 8.4 to Mw 8.9. Additionally, we construct ten homogeneous slip scenarios as inundation baseline. For the probabilistic approach, we implement a Karhunen - Loève expansion to generate 400 stochastic tsunamigenic scenarios over the maximum extension of the gap, with the same magnitude range of the deterministic sources. All the scenarios are simulated through a non-hydrostatic tsunami model Neowave 2D, using a classical nesting scheme, for five coastal major cities in northern Chile (Arica, Iquique, Tocopilla, Mejillones and Antofagasta) obtaining high resolution data of inundation depth, runup, coastal currents and sea level elevation. The

Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of bovine brucellosis surveillance in a disease-free country using stochastic scenario tree modelling.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viviane Hénaux

Full Text Available Surveillance systems of exotic infectious diseases aim to ensure transparency about the country-specific animal disease situation (i.e. demonstrate disease freedom and to identify any introductions. In a context of decreasing resources, evaluation of surveillance efficiency is essential to help stakeholders make relevant decisions about prioritization of measures and funding allocation. This study evaluated the efficiency (sensitivity related to cost of the French bovine brucellosis surveillance system using stochastic scenario tree models. Cattle herds were categorized into three risk groups based on the annual number of purchases, given that trading is considered as the main route of brucellosis introduction in cattle herds. The sensitivity in detecting the disease and the costs of the current surveillance system, which includes clinical (abortion surveillance, programmed serological testing and introduction controls, were compared to those of 19 alternative surveillance scenarios. Surveillance costs included veterinary fees and laboratory analyses. The sensitivity over a year of the current surveillance system was predicted to be 91±7% at a design prevalence of 0.01% for a total cost of 14.9±1.8 million €. Several alternative surveillance scenarios, based on clinical surveillance and random or risk-based serological screening in a sample (20% of the population, were predicted to be at least as sensitive but for a lower cost. Such changes would reduce whole surveillance costs by 20 to 61% annually, and the costs for farmers only would be decreased from about 12.0 million € presently to 5.3-9.0 million € (i.e. 25-56% decrease. Besides, fostering the evolution of the surveillance system in one of these directions would be in agreement with the European regulations and farmers perceptions on brucellosis risk and surveillance.

Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of bovine brucellosis surveillance in a disease-free country using stochastic scenario tree modelling.

Science.gov (United States)

Hénaux, Viviane; Calavas, Didier

2017-01-01

Surveillance systems of exotic infectious diseases aim to ensure transparency about the country-specific animal disease situation (i.e. demonstrate disease freedom) and to identify any introductions. In a context of decreasing resources, evaluation of surveillance efficiency is essential to help stakeholders make relevant decisions about prioritization of measures and funding allocation. This study evaluated the efficiency (sensitivity related to cost) of the French bovine brucellosis surveillance system using stochastic scenario tree models. Cattle herds were categorized into three risk groups based on the annual number of purchases, given that trading is considered as the main route of brucellosis introduction in cattle herds. The sensitivity in detecting the disease and the costs of the current surveillance system, which includes clinical (abortion) surveillance, programmed serological testing and introduction controls, were compared to those of 19 alternative surveillance scenarios. Surveillance costs included veterinary fees and laboratory analyses. The sensitivity over a year of the current surveillance system was predicted to be 91±7% at a design prevalence of 0.01% for a total cost of 14.9±1.8 million €. Several alternative surveillance scenarios, based on clinical surveillance and random or risk-based serological screening in a sample (20%) of the population, were predicted to be at least as sensitive but for a lower cost. Such changes would reduce whole surveillance costs by 20 to 61% annually, and the costs for farmers only would be decreased from about 12.0 million € presently to 5.3-9.0 million € (i.e. 25-56% decrease). Besides, fostering the evolution of the surveillance system in one of these directions would be in agreement with the European regulations and farmers perceptions on brucellosis risk and surveillance.

Effects of Phylogenetic Tree Style on Student Comprehension

Science.gov (United States)

Dees, Jonathan Andrew

Phylogenetic trees are powerful tools of evolutionary biology that have become prominent across the life sciences. Consequently, learning to interpret and reason from phylogenetic trees is now an essential component of biology education. However, students often struggle to understand these diagrams, even after explicit instruction. One factor that has been observed to affect student understanding of phylogenetic trees is style (i.e., diagonal or bracket). The goal of this dissertation research was to systematically explore effects of style on student interpretations and construction of phylogenetic trees in the context of an introductory biology course. Before instruction, students were significantly more accurate with bracket phylogenetic trees for a variety of interpretation and construction tasks. Explicit instruction that balanced the use of diagonal and bracket phylogenetic trees mitigated some, but not all, style effects. After instruction, students were significantly more accurate for interpretation tasks involving taxa relatedness and construction exercises when using the bracket style. Based on this dissertation research and prior studies on style effects, I advocate for introductory biology instructors to use only the bracket style. Future research should examine causes of style effects and variables other than style to inform the development of research-based instruction that best supports student understanding of phylogenetic trees.

Extensions of Dynamic Programming: Decision Trees, Combinatorial Optimization, and Data Mining

KAUST Repository

Hussain, Shahid

2016-01-01

This thesis is devoted to the development of extensions of dynamic programming to the study of decision trees. The considered extensions allow us to make multi-stage optimization of decision trees relative to a sequence of cost functions, to count the number of optimal trees, and to study relationships: cost vs cost and cost vs uncertainty for decision trees by construction of the set of Pareto-optimal points for the corresponding bi-criteria optimization problem. The applications include study of totally optimal (simultaneously optimal relative to a number of cost functions) decision trees for Boolean functions, improvement of bounds on complexity of decision trees for diagnosis of circuits, study of time and memory trade-off for corner point detection, study of decision rules derived from decision trees, creation of new procedure (multi-pruning) for construction of classifiers, and comparison of heuristics for decision tree construction. Part of these extensions (multi-stage optimization) was generalized to well-known combinatorial optimization problems: matrix chain multiplication, binary search trees, global sequence alignment, and optimal paths in directed graphs.

Extensions of Dynamic Programming: Decision Trees, Combinatorial Optimization, and Data Mining

KAUST Repository

Hussain, Shahid

2016-07-10

This thesis is devoted to the development of extensions of dynamic programming to the study of decision trees. The considered extensions allow us to make multi-stage optimization of decision trees relative to a sequence of cost functions, to count the number of optimal trees, and to study relationships: cost vs cost and cost vs uncertainty for decision trees by construction of the set of Pareto-optimal points for the corresponding bi-criteria optimization problem. The applications include study of totally optimal (simultaneously optimal relative to a number of cost functions) decision trees for Boolean functions, improvement of bounds on complexity of decision trees for diagnosis of circuits, study of time and memory trade-off for corner point detection, study of decision rules derived from decision trees, creation of new procedure (multi-pruning) for construction of classifiers, and comparison of heuristics for decision tree construction. Part of these extensions (multi-stage optimization) was generalized to well-known combinatorial optimization problems: matrix chain multiplication, binary search trees, global sequence alignment, and optimal paths in directed graphs.

Functional Traits and Water Transport Strategies in Lowland Tropical Rainforest Trees

Science.gov (United States)

Apgaua, Deborah M. G.; Ishida, Françoise Y.; Tng, David Y. P.; Laidlaw, Melinda J.; Santos, Rubens M.; Rumman, Rizwana; Eamus, Derek; Holtum, Joseph A. M.; Laurance, Susan G. W.

2015-01-01

Understanding how tropical rainforest trees may respond to the precipitation extremes predicted in future climate change scenarios is paramount for their conservation and management. Tree species clearly differ in drought susceptibility, suggesting that variable water transport strategies exist. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, we examined the hydraulic variability in trees in a lowland tropical rainforest in north-eastern Australia. We studied eight tree species representing broad plant functional groups (one palm and seven eudicot mature-phase, and early-successional trees). We characterised the species’ hydraulic system through maximum rates of volumetric sap flow and velocities using the heat ratio method, and measured rates of tree growth and several stem, vessel, and leaf traits. Sap flow measures exhibited limited variability across species, although early-successional species and palms had high mean sap velocities relative to most mature-phase species. Stem, vessel, and leaf traits were poor predictors of sap flow measures. However, these traits exhibited different associations in multivariate analysis, revealing gradients in some traits across species and alternative hydraulic strategies in others. Trait differences across and within tree functional groups reflect variation in water transport and drought resistance strategies. These varying strategies will help in our understanding of changing species distributions under predicted drought scenarios. PMID:26087009

Functional Traits and Water Transport Strategies in Lowland Tropical Rainforest Trees.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Deborah M G Apgaua

Full Text Available Understanding how tropical rainforest trees may respond to the precipitation extremes predicted in future climate change scenarios is paramount for their conservation and management. Tree species clearly differ in drought susceptibility, suggesting that variable water transport strategies exist. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, we examined the hydraulic variability in trees in a lowland tropical rainforest in north-eastern Australia. We studied eight tree species representing broad plant functional groups (one palm and seven eudicot mature-phase, and early-successional trees. We characterised the species' hydraulic system through maximum rates of volumetric sap flow and velocities using the heat ratio method, and measured rates of tree growth and several stem, vessel, and leaf traits. Sap flow measures exhibited limited variability across species, although early-successional species and palms had high mean sap velocities relative to most mature-phase species. Stem, vessel, and leaf traits were poor predictors of sap flow measures. However, these traits exhibited different associations in multivariate analysis, revealing gradients in some traits across species and alternative hydraulic strategies in others. Trait differences across and within tree functional groups reflect variation in water transport and drought resistance strategies. These varying strategies will help in our understanding of changing species distributions under predicted drought scenarios.

Functional Traits and Water Transport Strategies in Lowland Tropical Rainforest Trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Apgaua, Deborah M G; Ishida, Françoise Y; Tng, David Y P; Laidlaw, Melinda J; Santos, Rubens M; Rumman, Rizwana; Eamus, Derek; Holtum, Joseph A M; Laurance, Susan G W

2015-01-01

Understanding how tropical rainforest trees may respond to the precipitation extremes predicted in future climate change scenarios is paramount for their conservation and management. Tree species clearly differ in drought susceptibility, suggesting that variable water transport strategies exist. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, we examined the hydraulic variability in trees in a lowland tropical rainforest in north-eastern Australia. We studied eight tree species representing broad plant functional groups (one palm and seven eudicot mature-phase, and early-successional trees). We characterised the species' hydraulic system through maximum rates of volumetric sap flow and velocities using the heat ratio method, and measured rates of tree growth and several stem, vessel, and leaf traits. Sap flow measures exhibited limited variability across species, although early-successional species and palms had high mean sap velocities relative to most mature-phase species. Stem, vessel, and leaf traits were poor predictors of sap flow measures. However, these traits exhibited different associations in multivariate analysis, revealing gradients in some traits across species and alternative hydraulic strategies in others. Trait differences across and within tree functional groups reflect variation in water transport and drought resistance strategies. These varying strategies will help in our understanding of changing species distributions under predicted drought scenarios.

A Method of Fire Scenarios Identification in a Consolidated Fire Risk Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lim, Ho Gon; Han, Sang Hoon; Yang, Joon Eon

2010-01-01

Conventional fire PSA consider only two cases of fire scenarios, that is one for fire without propagation and the other for single propagation to neighboring compartment. Recently, a consolidated fire risk analysis using single fault tree (FT) was developed. However, the fire scenario identification in the new method is similar to conventional fire analysis method. The present study develops a new method of fire scenario identification in a consolidated fire risk analysis method. An equation for fire propagation is developed to identify fire scenario and a mapping method of fire scenarios into internal event risk model is discussed. Finally, an algorithm for automatic program is suggested

Development and application of a tree-code in simulation scenarios of the plasma-wall interaction; Entwicklung und Anwendung eines Tree-Codes in Simulationsszenarios der Plasma-Wand-Wechselwirkung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berberich, Benjamin

2012-03-15

Processes in the plasma edge layer of magnetic fusion devices occur on widely disparate length- and time-scales. Also recently developed features in this particular region, such as stochastic magnetic fields, underline the necessity for three dimensional, full-kinetic simulation tools. Contemporary programs often deploy ad hoc assumptions and approximations for microscopic phenomena for which self-consistent ab initio models in principle exist, but are still computationally too expensive or complex to implement. Recently, mesh-free methods have matured into a new class of tools for such first-principles computations which thanks to their geometric flexibility are highly promising for tackling complicated TOKAMAK regions. In this work we have develop the massively parallel Tree-Code PEPC-B (Pretty Efficient Parallel Coulomb solver) into a new tool for plasma material interaction studies. After a brief overview of the working principles of Tree-Codes two main topic groups are addressed: First the leap-frog Boris integration scheme is discussed and its numerical limitations are pointed out. To overcome these limitations the method is enhanced to a guiding-center integrator. As a proof of principal, numerical experiments are conducted reproducing the anticipated drift kinetic aspects of particle orbits. It turns out that this new technique is much less sensitive to large time steps than the original concept was. One major drawback of mesh-free methods which hinders their direct use for plasma-edge simulations is the difficulty in representing solid structures and associated boundary conditions. Therefore, an alternative concept is proposed using charge carrying Wall-Particles, which fits naturally in the mesh-free doctrine. These developments incorporate the second main topic group of this report. To prove the physical correctness of this new idea, a quasi one dimensional plasma-wall interface scenario is chosen. By studying the system with great detail, good agreement

Syntax-driven semantic frame composition in Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammars

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Kallmeyer

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The grammar framework presented in this paper combines Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammar (LTAG with a (decompositional frame semantics. We introduce elementary constructions as pairs of elementary LTAG trees and decompositional frames. The linking between syntax and semantics can largely be captured by such constructions since in LTAG, elementary trees represent full argument projections. Substitution and adjunction in the syntax then trigger the unification of the associated semantic frames, which are formally defined as base-labelled feature structures. Moreover, the system of elementary constructions is specified in a metagrammar by means of tree and frame descriptions. This metagrammatical factorization gives rise to a fine-grained decomposition of the semantic contributions of syntactic building blocks, and it allows us to separate lexical from constructional contributions and to carve out generalizations across constructions. In the second half of the paper, we apply the framework to the analysis of directed motion expressions and of the dative alternation in English, two well-known examples of the interaction between lexical and constructional meaning.

Cafts: computer aided fault tree analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poucet, A.

1985-01-01

The fault tree technique has become a standard tool for the analysis of safety and reliability of complex system. In spite of the costs, which may be high for a complete and detailed analysis of a complex plant, the fault tree technique is popular and its benefits are fully recognized. Due to this applications of these codes have mostly been restricted to simple academic examples and rarely concern complex, real world systems. In this paper an interactive approach to fault tree construction is presented. The aim is not to replace the analyst, but to offer him an intelligent tool which can assist him in modeling complex systems. Using the CAFTS-method, the analyst interactively constructs a fault tree in two phases: (1) In a first phase he generates an overall failure logic structure of the system; the macrofault tree. In this phase, CAFTS features an expert system approach to assist the analyst. It makes use of a knowledge base containing generic rules on the behavior of subsystems and components; (2) In a second phase the macrofault tree is further refined and transformed in a fully detailed and quantified fault tree. In this phase a library of plant-specific component failure models is used

Quantitative Verification and Synthesis of Attack-Defence Scenarios Conference

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aslanyan, Zaruhi; Nielson, Flemming; Parker, David

Attack-defence trees are a powerful technique for formally evaluating attack-defence scenarios. They represent in an intuitive, graphical way the interaction between an attacker and a defender who compete in order to achieve conflicting objectives. We propose a novel framework for the formal

The Efficacy of Consensus Tree Methods for Summarizing Phylogenetic Relationships from a Posterior Sample of Trees Estimated from Morphological Data.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Reilly, Joseph E; Donoghue, Philip C J

2018-03-01

Consensus trees are required to summarize trees obtained through MCMC sampling of a posterior distribution, providing an overview of the distribution of estimated parameters such as topology, branch lengths, and divergence times. Numerous consensus tree construction methods are available, each presenting a different interpretation of the tree sample. The rise of morphological clock and sampled-ancestor methods of divergence time estimation, in which times and topology are coestimated, has increased the popularity of the maximum clade credibility (MCC) consensus tree method. The MCC method assumes that the sampled, fully resolved topology with the highest clade credibility is an adequate summary of the most probable clades, with parameter estimates from compatible sampled trees used to obtain the marginal distributions of parameters such as clade ages and branch lengths. Using both simulated and empirical data, we demonstrate that MCC trees, and trees constructed using the similar maximum a posteriori (MAP) method, often include poorly supported and incorrect clades when summarizing diffuse posterior samples of trees. We demonstrate that the paucity of information in morphological data sets contributes to the inability of MCC and MAP trees to accurately summarise of the posterior distribution. Conversely, majority-rule consensus (MRC) trees represent a lower proportion of incorrect nodes when summarizing the same posterior samples of trees. Thus, we advocate the use of MRC trees, in place of MCC or MAP trees, in attempts to summarize the results of Bayesian phylogenetic analyses of morphological data.

Type extension trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jaeger, Manfred

2006-01-01

We introduce type extension trees as a formal representation language for complex combinatorial features of relational data. Based on a very simple syntax this language provides a unified framework for expressing features as diverse as embedded subgraphs on the one hand, and marginal counts...... of attribute values on the other. We show by various examples how many existing relational data mining techniques can be expressed as the problem of constructing a type extension tree and a discriminant function....

Yield curve event tree construction for multi stage stochastic programming models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Kourosh Marjani; Poulsen, Rolf

Dynamic stochastic programming (DSP) provides an intuitive framework for modelling of financial portfolio choice problems where market frictions are present and dynamic re--balancing has a significant effect on initial decisions. The application of these models in practice, however, is limited....... Indeed defining a universal and tractable framework for fully ``appropriate'' event trees is in our opinion an impossible task. A problem specific approach to designing such event trees is the way ahead. In this paper we propose a number of desirable properties which should be present in an event tree...

Effect of tree thinning and skidding trails on hydrological connectivity in two Japanese forest catchments

Science.gov (United States)

López-Vicente, Manuel; Sun, Xinchao; Onda, Yuichi; Kato, Hiroaki; Gomi, Takashi; Hiraoka, Marino

2017-09-01

Land use composition and patterns influence the hydrological response in mountainous and forest catchments. In plantation forest, management operations (FMO) modify the spatial and temporal dynamics of overland flow processes. However, we found a gap in the literature focussed on modelling hydrological connectivity (HC) in plantation forest under different FMO. In this study, we simulated HC in two steep paired forest subcatchments (K2 and K3, 33.2 ha), composed of Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa Endl.) and Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don) plantations (59% of the total area) against a tree thinning intensity of 50% at different time. Additionally, construction of new skidding trails and vegetation recovery was simulated on five thinning-based scenarios that covered a 40-month test period (July 2010 - October 2013). As a future scenario, six check-dams located in the main streams were proposed to reduce sediment and radionuclide delivery. An updated version of Borselli's index of runoff and sediment connectivity was run, using the D-infinity flow accumulation algorithm and exploiting three 0.5-m resolution digital elevation models. On the basis of the pre-FMO scenario, HC increased at catchment scale owing to tree thinning and the new skidding trails. This change was more noticeable within the area affected by the FMO, where HC increased by 11.4% and 10.5% in the cypress and cedar plantations in K2 respectively and by 8.8% in the cedar plantation in K3. At hillslope plot and stream scales, the evolution in the values of HC was less evident, except the increment (by 5.4%) observed in the streams at K2 after the FMO. Progressive vegetation recovery after the FMO triggered a slight reduction of connectivity in all compartments of both subcatchments. Forest roads and especially skidding trails presented the highest values of HC, appearing as the most efficient features connecting the different vegetation patches with the stream network. The spatial

Toward a theory of statistical tree-shape analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Feragen, Aasa; Lo, Pechin Chien Pau; de Bruijne, Marleen

2013-01-01

In order to develop statistical methods for shapes with a tree-structure, we construct a shape space framework for tree-shapes and study metrics on the shape space. This shape space has singularities, which correspond to topological transitions in the represented trees. We study two closely relat...

Fast admixture analysis and population tree estimation for SNP and NGS data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cheng, Jade Yu; Mailund, Thomas; Nielsen, Rasmus

2017-01-01

assumption for identifying ancestry components correctly and for inferring the correct tree. In most cases, ancestry components are inferred correctly, although sample sizes and times since admixture can influence the results. We show that the popular Gaussian approximation tends to perform poorly under......-calling associated with Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data. We also present a new method for estimating population trees from ancestry components using a Gaussian approximation. Using coalescence simulations of diverging populations, we explore the adequacy of the STRUCTURE-style models and the Gaussian...... extreme divergence scenarios e.g. with very long branch lengths, but the topologies of the population trees are accurately inferred in all scenarios explored. The new methods are implemented together with appropriate visualization tools in the software package Ohana....

Event tree analysis of accidents during transport of radioactive materials in Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watabe, N.; Shirai, K.; Noguchi, K.; Suzuki, H.; Kinehara, Y.

1993-01-01

The Event Tree Method is one of the Probabilistic Safety Assessment Method. It introduces the accident scenario and the results of countermeasures. Therefore, it is effective in determining latent accident scenarios in the transfer. In this report the Event Tree Method is used to study the tunnel fire and its effects are evaluated. And this is the first trail of our Probabilistic Safety Assessment. The Event Tree for determining the early conditions when a car engine catches fire in a tunnel is examined. There are fire extinguishers, tunnel equipments for fire-fighting, fire stations and the heat-resisting property of the container for protecting from the fire. The protection level against the over 800degC-30min. fire accident is 88.3 %. (J.P.N.)

Synthetic fuels development in Kentucky: Four scenarios for an energy future as constructed from lessons of the past

Science.gov (United States)

Musulin, Mike, II

The continued failure of synthetic fuels development in the United States to achieve commercialization has been documented through the sporadic periods of mounting corporate and government enthusiasm and high levels of research and development efforts. Four periods of enthusiasm at the national level were followed by waning intervals of shrinking financial support and sagging R&D work. The continuing cycle of mobilization and stagnation has had a corresponding history in Kentucky. To better understand the potential and the pitfalls of this type of technological development the history of synthetic fuels development in the United States is presented as background, with a more detailed analysis of synfuels development in Kentucky. The first two periods of interest in synthetic fuels immediately after the Second World War and in the 1950s did not result in any proposed plants for Kentucky, but the third and fourth periods of interest created a great deal of activity. A theoretically grounded case study is utilized in this research project to create four different scenarios for the future of synthetic fuels development. The Kentucky experience is utilized in this case study because a fifth incarnation of synthetic fuels development has been proposed for the state in the form of an integrated gasification combined cycle power plant (IGCC) to utilize coal and refuse derived fuel (RDF). The project has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Coal Technology program. From an examination and analysis of these periods of interest and the subsequent dwindling of interest and participation, four alternative scenarios are constructed. A synfuels breakthrough scenario is described whereby IGCC becomes a viable part of the country's energy future. A multiplex scenario describes how IGCC becomes a particular niche in energy production. The status quo scenario describes how the old patterns of project failure repeat themselves. The fourth scenario describes

Relationships among various parameters for decision tree optimization

KAUST Repository

Hussain, Shahid

2014-01-14

In this chapter, we study, in detail, the relationships between various pairs of cost functions and between uncertainty measure and cost functions, for decision tree optimization. We provide new tools (algorithms) to compute relationship functions, as well as provide experimental results on decision tables acquired from UCI ML Repository. The algorithms presented in this paper have already been implemented and are now a part of Dagger, which is a software system for construction/optimization of decision trees and decision rules. The main results presented in this chapter deal with two types of algorithms for computing relationships; first, we discuss the case where we construct approximate decision trees and are interested in relationships between certain cost function, such as depth or number of nodes of a decision trees, and an uncertainty measure, such as misclassification error (accuracy) of decision tree. Secondly, relationships between two different cost functions are discussed, for example, the number of misclassification of a decision tree versus number of nodes in a decision trees. The results of experiments, presented in the chapter, provide further insight. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.

Relationships among various parameters for decision tree optimization

KAUST Repository

Hussain, Shahid

2014-01-01

In this chapter, we study, in detail, the relationships between various pairs of cost functions and between uncertainty measure and cost functions, for decision tree optimization. We provide new tools (algorithms) to compute relationship functions, as well as provide experimental results on decision tables acquired from UCI ML Repository. The algorithms presented in this paper have already been implemented and are now a part of Dagger, which is a software system for construction/optimization of decision trees and decision rules. The main results presented in this chapter deal with two types of algorithms for computing relationships; first, we discuss the case where we construct approximate decision trees and are interested in relationships between certain cost function, such as depth or number of nodes of a decision trees, and an uncertainty measure, such as misclassification error (accuracy) of decision tree. Secondly, relationships between two different cost functions are discussed, for example, the number of misclassification of a decision tree versus number of nodes in a decision trees. The results of experiments, presented in the chapter, provide further insight. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.

Reliability-based failure cause assessment of collapsed bridge during construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Hyun-Ho; Lee, Sang-Yoon; Choi, Il-Yoon; Cho, Hyo-Nam; Mahadevan, Sankaran

2006-01-01

Until now, in many forensic reports, the failure cause assessments are usually carried out by a deterministic approach so far. However, it may be possible for the forensic investigation to lead to unreasonable results far from the real collapse scenario, because the deterministic approach does not systematically take into account any information on the uncertainties involved in the failures of structures. Reliability-based failure cause assessment (reliability-based forensic engineering) methodology is developed which can incorporate the uncertainties involved in structural failures and structures, and to apply them to the collapsed bridge in order to identify the most critical failure scenario and find the cause that triggered the bridge collapse. Moreover, to save the time and cost of evaluation, an algorithm of automated event tree analysis (ETA) is proposed and possible to automatically calculate the failure probabilities of the failure events and the occurrence probabilities of failure scenarios. Also, for reliability analysis, uncertainties are estimated more reasonably by using the Bayesian approach based on the experimental laboratory testing data in the forensic report. For the applicability, the proposed approach is applied to the Hang-ju Grand Bridge, which collapsed during construction, and compared with deterministic approach

Efficient Representation for Online Suffix Tree Construction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsson, N. Jesper; Fuglsang, Kasper; Karlsson, Kenneth

2014-01-01

of branch lookup operations (known to be a bottleneck in construction time) with some additional techniques to reduce construction cost. We discuss various effects of our approach and compare it to previous techniques. An experimental evaluation shows that we are able to reduce construction time to around...

The Studies of Decision Tree in Estimation of Breast Cancer Risk by Using Polymorphism Nucleotide

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frida Seyedmir

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction:   Decision tree is the data mining tools to collect, accurate prediction and sift information from massive amounts of data that are used widely in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics. In bioinformatics can be predict on diseases, including breast cancer. The use of genomic data including single nucleotide polymorphisms is a very important factor in predicting the risk of diseases. The number of seven important SNP among hundreds of thousands genetic markers were identified as factors associated with breast cancer. The objective of this study is to evaluate the training data on decision tree predictor error of the risk of breast cancer by using single nucleotide polymorphism genotype. Methods: The risk of breast cancer were calculated associated with the use of SNP formula:xj = fo * In human,  The decision tree can be used To predict the probability of disease using single nucleotide polymorphisms .Seven SNP with different odds ratio associated with breast cancer considered and coding and design of decision tree model, C4.5, by  Csharp2013 programming language were done. In the decision tree created with the coding, the four important associated SNP was considered. The decision tree error in two case of coding and using WEKA were assessment and percentage of decision tree accuracy in prediction of breast cancer were calculated. The number of trained samples was obtained with systematic sampling. With coding, two scenarios as well as software WEKA, three scenarios with different sets of data and the number of different learning and testing, were evaluated. Results: In both scenarios of coding, by increasing the training percentage from 66/66 to 86/42, the error reduced from 55/56 to 9/09. Also by running of WEKA on three scenarios with different sets of data, the number of different education, and different tests by increasing records number from 81 to 2187, the error rate decreased from 48/15 to 13

On the book thickness of $k$-trees

OpenAIRE

Dujmović, Vida; Wood, David R.

2009-01-01

Graphs and Algorithms; International audience; Every k-tree has book thickness at most k + 1, and this bound is best possible for all k \\textgreater= 3. Vandenbussche et al. [SIAM J. Discrete Math., 2009] proved that every k-tree that has a smooth degree-3 tree decomposition with width k has book thickness at most k. We prove this result is best possible for k \\textgreater= 4, by constructing a k-tree with book thickness k + 1 that has a smooth degree-4 tree decomposition with width k. This s...

A Metric on Phylogenetic Tree Shapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Colijn, C; Plazzotta, G

2018-01-01

The shapes of evolutionary trees are influenced by the nature of the evolutionary process but comparisons of trees from different processes are hindered by the challenge of completely describing tree shape. We present a full characterization of the shapes of rooted branching trees in a form that lends itself to natural tree comparisons. We use this characterization to define a metric, in the sense of a true distance function, on tree shapes. The metric distinguishes trees from random models known to produce different tree shapes. It separates trees derived from tropical versus USA influenza A sequences, which reflect the differing epidemiology of tropical and seasonal flu. We describe several metrics based on the same core characterization, and illustrate how to extend the metric to incorporate trees' branch lengths or other features such as overall imbalance. Our approach allows us to construct addition and multiplication on trees, and to create a convex metric on tree shapes which formally allows computation of average tree shapes. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists.

Development of tree hollows in pedunculate oak (Quercus robur)

OpenAIRE

Ranius, Thomas; Niklasson, Mats; Berg, Niclas

2009-01-01

Many invertebrates, birds and mammals are dependent on hollow trees. For landscape planning that aims at persistence of species inhabiting hollow trees it is crucial to understand the development of such trees. In this study we constructed an individual-based simulation model to predict diameter distribution and formation of hollows in oak tree populations. Based on tree-ring data from individual trees, we estimated the ages when hollow formation commences for pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) ...

Recursive Trees for Practical ORAM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moataz Tarik

2015-06-01

Full Text Available We present a new, general data structure that reduces the communication cost of recent tree-based ORAMs. Contrary to ORAM trees with constant height and path lengths, our new construction r-ORAM allows for trees with varying shorter path length. Accessing an element in the ORAM tree results in different communication costs depending on the location of the element. The main idea behind r-ORAM is a recursive ORAM tree structure, where nodes in the tree are roots of other trees. While this approach results in a worst-case access cost (tree height at most as any recent tree-based ORAM, we show that the average cost saving is around 35% for recent binary tree ORAMs. Besides reducing communication cost, r-ORAM also reduces storage overhead on the server by 4% to 20% depending on the ORAM’s client memory type. To prove r-ORAM’s soundness, we conduct a detailed overflow analysis. r-ORAM’s recursive approach is general in that it can be applied to all recent tree ORAMs, both constant and poly-log client memory ORAMs. Finally, we implement and benchmark r-ORAM in a practical setting to back up our theoretical claims.

Tree Mortality Undercuts Ability of Tree-Planting Programs to Provide Benefits: Results of a Three-City Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Widney

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Trees provide numerous benefits for urban residents, including reduced energy usage, improved air quality, stormwater management, carbon sequestration, and increased property values. Quantifying these benefits can help justify the costs of planting trees. In this paper, we use i-Tree Streets to quantify the benefits of street trees planted by nonprofits in three U.S. cities (Detroit, Michigan; Indianapolis, Indiana, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 2009 to 2011. We also use both measured and modeled survival and growth rates to “grow” the tree populations 5 and 10 years into the future to project the future benefits of the trees under different survival and growth scenarios. The 4059 re-inventoried trees (2864 of which are living currently provide almost $40,000 (USD in estimated annual benefits ($9–$20/tree depending on the city, the majority (75% of which are increased property values. The trees can be expected to provide increasing annual benefits during the 10 years after planting if the annual survival rate is higher than the 93% annual survival measured during the establishment period. However, our projections show that with continued 93% or lower annual survival, the increase in annual benefits from tree growth will not be able to make up for the loss of benefits as trees die. This means that estimated total annual benefits from a cohort of planted trees will decrease between the 5-year projection and the 10-year projection. The results of this study indicate that without early intervention to ensure survival of planted street trees, tree mortality may be significantly undercutting the ability of tree-planting programs to provide benefits to neighborhood residents.

CONSTRUCTION OF REGULAR LDPC LIKE CODES BASED ON FULL RANK CODES AND THEIR ITERATIVE DECODING USING A PARITY CHECK TREE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Prashantha Kumar

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Low density parity check (LDPC codes are capacity-approaching codes, which means that practical constructions exist that allow the noise threshold to be set very close to the theoretical Shannon limit for a memory less channel. LDPC codes are finding increasing use in applications like LTE-Networks, digital television, high density data storage systems, deep space communication systems etc. Several algebraic and combinatorial methods are available for constructing LDPC codes. In this paper we discuss a novel low complexity algebraic method for constructing regular LDPC like codes derived from full rank codes. We demonstrate that by employing these codes over AWGN channels, coding gains in excess of 2dB over un-coded systems can be realized when soft iterative decoding using a parity check tree is employed.

On Tree Pattern Matching by Pushdown Automata

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Flouri

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Tree pattern matching is an important operation in Computer Science on which a number of tasks such as mechanical theorem proving, term-rewriting, symbolic computation and non-procedural programming languages are based on. Work has begun on a systematic approach to the construction of tree pattern matchers by deterministic pushdown automata which read subject trees in prefix notation. The method is analogous to the construction of string pattern matchers: for given patterns, a non-deterministic pushdown automaton is created and then it is determinised. In this first paper, we present the proposed non-deterministic pushdown automaton which will serve as a basis for the determinisation process, and prove its correctness. 

Helping Moroccan women preserve the argan tree at the gateway to ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2010-11-01

Nov 1, 2010 ... ... Charrouf of the Faculté des sciences at the Université Mohammed V of Rabat, and Professor ... Therefore, the project aims not only to help prevent further ... the development of argan tree management scenarios; the selection of trees ... on the French networks (France 2 and FR3), and on Radio-Canada.

Comparison of scenarios for the integrated management of construction and demolition waste by life cycle assessment: A case study in Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Penteado, Carmenlucia Santos Giordano; Rosado, Laís Peixoto

2016-10-01

Brazil, as a result of economic development and strengthening of the construction industry in recent years, is generating an increasing amount of construction and demolition waste (CDW). Hence, environmental assessment of the management systems is vital. A life cycle assessment (LCA) is presented of CDW management in a medium-sized municipality located in the southeast region of Brazil, where the impacts of leaching were not considered due to absence of consistent data. Six different proposed scenarios for the current CDW management situation have been considered. These scenarios comprised the combined use of landfilling, sorting, and recycling, and the use of CDW as paving material for landfill roads, in different percentages. Considering 0.8 ton of waste as the functional unit, the life cycle inventory was performed using primary data obtained from field survey and secondary data from the database Ecoinvent version 3.1, and from the literature. The method CML 2 baseline 2001 was used for environmental impacts evaluation. The results highlight that recycling is beneficial when efficient CDW sorting takes place at construction sites, avoiding the transport of refuse to sorting and recycling facilities, and the distance between the generation source and the recycling unit is within 30 km. Thus, our results are helpful to ensure that the decision-making processes are based on environmental and technical aspects, and not only on economic and political factors, and also provide data and support for other LCA studies on CDW. © The Author(s) 2016.

An integrated pipeline to create and experience compelling scenarios in virtual reality

Science.gov (United States)

Springer, Jan P.; Neumann, Carsten; Reiners, Dirk; Cruz-Neira, Carolina

2011-03-01

One of the main barriers to create and use compelling scenarios in virtual reality is the complexity and time-consuming efforts for modeling, element integration, and the software development to properly display and interact with the content in the available systems. Still today, most virtual reality applications are tedious to create and they are hard-wired to the specific display and interaction system available to the developers when creating the application. Furthermore, it is not possible to alter the content or the dynamics of the content once the application has been created. We present our research on designing a software pipeline that enables the creation of compelling scenarios with a fair degree of visual and interaction complexity in a semi-automated way. Specifically, we are targeting drivable urban scenarios, ranging from large cities to sparsely populated rural areas that incorporate both static components (e. g., houses, trees) and dynamic components (e. g., people, vehicles) as well as events, such as explosions or ambient noise. Our pipeline has four basic components. First, an environment designer, where users sketch the overall layout of the scenario, and an automated method constructs the 3D environment from the information in the sketch. Second, a scenario editor used for authoring the complete scenario, incorporate the dynamic elements and events, fine tune the automatically generated environment, define the execution conditions of the scenario, and set up any data gathering that may be necessary during the execution of the scenario. Third, a run-time environment for different virtual-reality systems provides users with the interactive experience as designed with the designer and the editor. And fourth, a bi-directional monitoring system that allows for capturing and modification of information from the virtual environment. One of the interesting capabilities of our pipeline is that scenarios can be built and modified on-the-fly as they are

Fast Tree: Computing Large Minimum-Evolution Trees with Profiles instead of a Distance Matrix

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

N. Price, Morgan; S. Dehal, Paramvir; P. Arkin, Adam

2009-07-31

Gene families are growing rapidly, but standard methods for inferring phylogenies do not scale to alignments with over 10,000 sequences. We present FastTree, a method for constructing large phylogenies and for estimating their reliability. Instead of storing a distance matrix, FastTree stores sequence profiles of internal nodes in the tree. FastTree uses these profiles to implement neighbor-joining and uses heuristics to quickly identify candidate joins. FastTree then uses nearest-neighbor interchanges to reduce the length of the tree. For an alignment with N sequences, L sites, and a different characters, a distance matrix requires O(N^2) space and O(N^2 L) time, but FastTree requires just O( NLa + N sqrt(N) ) memory and O( N sqrt(N) log(N) L a ) time. To estimate the tree's reliability, FastTree uses local bootstrapping, which gives another 100-fold speedup over a distance matrix. For example, FastTree computed a tree and support values for 158,022 distinct 16S ribosomal RNAs in 17 hours and 2.4 gigabytes of memory. Just computing pairwise Jukes-Cantor distances and storing them, without inferring a tree or bootstrapping, would require 17 hours and 50 gigabytes of memory. In simulations, FastTree was slightly more accurate than neighbor joining, BIONJ, or FastME; on genuine alignments, FastTree's topologies had higher likelihoods. FastTree is available at http://microbesonline.org/fasttree.

A Method to Quantify Plant Availability and Initiating Event Frequency Using a Large Event Tree, Small Fault Tree Model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kee, Ernest J.; Sun, Alice; Rodgers, Shawn; Popova, ElmiraV; Nelson, Paul; Moiseytseva, Vera; Wang, Eric

2006-01-01

South Texas Project uses a large fault tree to produce scenarios (minimal cut sets) used in quantification of plant availability and event frequency predictions. On the other hand, the South Texas Project probabilistic risk assessment model uses a large event tree, small fault tree for quantifying core damage and radioactive release frequency predictions. The South Texas Project is converting its availability and event frequency model to use a large event tree, small fault in an effort to streamline application support and to provide additional detail in results. The availability and event frequency model as well as the applications it supports (maintenance and operational risk management, system engineering health assessment, preventive maintenance optimization, and RIAM) are briefly described. A methodology to perform availability modeling in a large event tree, small fault tree framework is described in detail. How the methodology can be used to support South Texas Project maintenance and operations risk management is described in detail. Differences with other fault tree methods and other recently proposed methods are discussed in detail. While the methods described are novel to the South Texas Project Risk Management program and to large event tree, small fault tree models, concepts in the area of application support and availability modeling have wider applicability to the industry. (authors)

Energy scenarios for Colombia: process and content

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, Ricardo A. [National Univ. of Colombia, Escuela de Geosciencias y Medio Ambiente, Medellin (Colombia); Vesga, Daniel R.A. [Unidad de Planeacion Minero Energetica, Bogota (Colombia); Cadena, Angela I. [Los Andes Univ., School of Engineering, Bogota (Colombia); Boman, Ulf [Kairos Future AB, Stockholm (Sweden); Larsen, Erik [Cass Business School, London (United Kingdom); Dyner, Isaac [Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Energy Inst., Medellin (Colombia)

2005-02-01

This paper presents the approach undertaken, and the four energy scenarios that have been developed, to support long term energy policy in Colombia. The scenarios were constructed with emphasis on maximum interaction between stakeholders in the Colombian energy sector. The process directly involved over 120 people. The scenarios were developed as strategic support tools for the Energy and Mining Planning Unit (UPME), which is the Colombian institution in charge of developing the country's energy strategies and National Energy Policy. The methodology employed is presented, followed by a detailed description of each of the four scenarios. (Author)

Quantifying construction and demolition waste: An analytical review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Zezhou; Yu, Ann T.W.; Shen, Liyin; Liu, Guiwen

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Prevailing C and D waste quantification methodologies are identified and compared. • One specific methodology cannot fulfill all waste quantification scenarios. • A relevance tree for appropriate quantification methodology selection is proposed. • More attentions should be paid to civil and infrastructural works. • Classified information is suggested for making an effective waste management plan. - Abstract: Quantifying construction and demolition (C and D) waste generation is regarded as a prerequisite for the implementation of successful waste management. In literature, various methods have been employed to quantify the C and D waste generation at both regional and project levels. However, an integrated review that systemically describes and analyses all the existing methods has yet to be conducted. To bridge this research gap, an analytical review is conducted. Fifty-seven papers are retrieved based on a set of rigorous procedures. The characteristics of the selected papers are classified according to the following criteria - waste generation activity, estimation level and quantification methodology. Six categories of existing C and D waste quantification methodologies are identified, including site visit method, waste generation rate method, lifetime analysis method, classification system accumulation method, variables modelling method and other particular methods. A critical comparison of the identified methods is given according to their characteristics and implementation constraints. Moreover, a decision tree is proposed for aiding the selection of the most appropriate quantification method in different scenarios. Based on the analytical review, limitations of previous studies and recommendations of potential future research directions are further suggested

Scenarios constructed for basaltic igneous activity at Yucca Mountain and vicinity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barr, G.E.; Dunn, E.; Dockery, H.; Barnard, R.; Valentine, G.; Crowe, B.

1993-08-01

Basaltic volcanism has been identified as a possible future event initiating a release of radionuclides from a potential repository at the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level waste repository site. The performance assessment method set forth in the Site Characterization Plan (DOE, 1988) requires that a set of scenarios encompassing all significant radionuclide release paths to the accessible environment be described. This report attempts to catalogue the details of the interactions between the features and processes produced by basaltic volcanism in the presence of the presumed groundwater flow system and a repository structure, the engineered barrier system (EBS), and waste. This catalogue is developed in the form of scenarios. We define a scenario as a well-posed problem, starting from an initiating event or process and proceeding through a logically connected and physically possible combination or sequence of features, events, and processes (FEPs) to the release of contaminants

Online scenario labeling using a hidden Markov model for assessment of nuclear plant state

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zamalieva, Daniya; Yilmaz, Alper; Aldemir, Tunc

2013-01-01

By taking into account both aleatory and epistemic uncertainties within the same probabilistic framework, dynamic event trees (DETs) provide more comprehensive and systematic coverage of possible scenarios following an initiating event compared to conventional event trees. When DET generation algorithms are applied to complex realistic systems, extremely large amounts of data can be produced due to both the large number of scenarios generated following a single initiating event and the large number of data channels that represent these scenarios. In addition, the computational time required for the simulation of each scenario can be very large (e.g. about 24 h of serial run simulation time for a 4 h station blackout scenario). Since scenarios leading to system failure are more of interest, a method is proposed for online labeling of scenarios as failure or non-failure. The algorithm first trains a Hidden Markov Model, which represents the behavior of non-failure scenarios, using a training set from previous simulations. Then, the maximum likelihoods of sample failure and non-failure scenarios fitting this model are computed. These values are used to determine the timestamp at which the labeling of a certain scenario should be performed. Finally, during the succeeding timestamps, the likelihood of each scenario fitting the learned model is computed, and a dynamic thresholding based on the previously calculated likelihood values is applied. The scenarios whose likelihood is higher than the threshold are labeled as non-failure. The proposed algorithm can further delay the non-failure scenarios or discontinue them in order to redirect the computational resources toward the failure scenarios, and reduce computational time and complexity. Experiments using RELAP5/3D model of a fast reactor utilizing an Reactor Vessel Auxiliary Cooling System (RVACS) passive decay heat removal system and dynamic analysis of a station blackout (SBO) event show that the proposed method is

A support vector machine based test for incongruence between sets of trees in tree space

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background The increased use of multi-locus data sets for phylogenetic reconstruction has increased the need to determine whether a set of gene trees significantly deviate from the phylogenetic patterns of other genes. Such unusual gene trees may have been influenced by other evolutionary processes such as selection, gene duplication, or horizontal gene transfer. Results Motivated by this problem we propose a nonparametric goodness-of-fit test for two empirical distributions of gene trees, and we developed the software GeneOut to estimate a p-value for the test. Our approach maps trees into a multi-dimensional vector space and then applies support vector machines (SVMs) to measure the separation between two sets of pre-defined trees. We use a permutation test to assess the significance of the SVM separation. To demonstrate the performance of GeneOut, we applied it to the comparison of gene trees simulated within different species trees across a range of species tree depths. Applied directly to sets of simulated gene trees with large sample sizes, GeneOut was able to detect very small differences between two set of gene trees generated under different species trees. Our statistical test can also include tree reconstruction into its test framework through a variety of phylogenetic optimality criteria. When applied to DNA sequence data simulated from different sets of gene trees, results in the form of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves indicated that GeneOut performed well in the detection of differences between sets of trees with different distributions in a multi-dimensional space. Furthermore, it controlled false positive and false negative rates very well, indicating a high degree of accuracy. Conclusions The non-parametric nature of our statistical test provides fast and efficient analyses, and makes it an applicable test for any scenario where evolutionary or other factors can lead to trees with different multi-dimensional distributions. The

MHV Vertices And Tree Amplitudes In Gauge Theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cachazo, Freddy; Svrcek, Peter; Witten, Edward

2004-01-01

As an alternative to the usual Feynman graphs, tree amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory can be constructed from tree graphs in which the vertices are tree level MHV scattering amplitudes, continued off shell in a particular fashion. The formalism leads to new and relatively simple formulas for many amplitudes, and can be heuristically derived from twistor space. (author)

Identification of reference accident scenarios in SEVESO establishments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delvosalle, C.; Fievez, C.; Pipart, A.; Fabrega, J. Casal; Planas, E.; Christou, M.; Mushtaq, F.

2005-01-01

In the frame of the ESREL special session on ARAMIS project, this paper aims at presenting the work carried out in the first Work Package, devoted to the definition of accident scenarios. This topic is a key-point in risk assessment, and serves as basis for the whole risk quantification. A first part of the work aims at building a Methodology for the Identification of Major Accident Hazards (MIMAH), which is carried out with the development of generic fault and event trees based on a typology of equipment and substances. This work is coupled with an historical analysis of accidents. In a second part, influence of safety devices and policies will be considered, in order to build a Methodology for the Identification of Reference Accident Scenarios (MIRAS). This last one will take into account safety systems and lead to obtain more realistic scenarios

Climate change affects winter chill for temperate fruit and nut trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Luedeling, Eike; Girvetz, Evan H; Semenov, Mikhail A; Brown, Patrick H

2011-01-01

Temperate fruit and nut trees require adequate winter chill to produce economically viable yields. Global warming has the potential to reduce available winter chill and greatly impact crop yields. We estimated winter chill for two past (1975 and 2000) and 18 future scenarios (mid and end 21st century; 3 Global Climate Models [GCMs]; 3 greenhouse gas emissions [GHG] scenarios). For 4,293 weather stations around the world and GCM projections, Safe Winter Chill (SWC), the amount of winter chill that is exceeded in 90% of all years, was estimated for all scenarios using the "Dynamic Model" and interpolated globally. We found that SWC ranged between 0 and about 170 Chill Portions (CP) for all climate scenarios, but that the global distribution varied across scenarios. Warm regions are likely to experience severe reductions in available winter chill, potentially threatening production there. In contrast, SWC in most temperate growing regions is likely to remain relatively unchanged, and cold regions may even see an increase in SWC. Climate change impacts on SWC differed quantitatively among GCMs and GHG scenarios, with the highest GHG leading to losses up to 40 CP in warm regions, compared to 20 CP for the lowest GHG. The extent of projected changes in winter chill in many major growing regions of fruits and nuts indicates that growers of these commodities will likely experience problems in the future. Mitigation of climate change through reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can help reduce the impacts, however, adaption to changes will have to occur. To better prepare for likely impacts of climate change, efforts should be undertaken to breed tree cultivars for lower chilling requirements, to develop tools to cope with insufficient winter chill, and to better understand the temperature responses of tree crops.

Overland flow connectivity in a forest plantation before and after tree thinning (Tochigi Prefecture, central Japan)

Science.gov (United States)

López-Vicente, Manuel; Onda, Yuichi; Sun, Xinchao; Kato, Hiroaki; Gomi, Takashi; Hiraoka, Marino

2016-04-01

Overland flow connectivity is a key factor to understand the redistribution dynamics of sediments, nutrients, radiotracers, etc., in the different compartments at channel, hillslope and catchment scales. Human organization of landscape elements has a significant control on runoff and soil redistribution processes. Construction of trails, forest roads and firewalls influence runoff connectivity (RC) in forested catchments. In this study we simulated RC in two forested catchments, called K2 (19.3 ha) and K3 (13.6 ha), located on the Mount Karasawa, in the Tochigi Prefecture in central Japan. Forest plantation includes Japanese cypress and cedar and covers 59% of the total area. Native broad-leaved trees (28%) and mixed forest occupy the rest of the study area. We selected the Index of runoff and sediment Connectivity (IC) of Borselli et al. (2008) to simulate three temporal scenarios: i) Sc-2011, before tree thinning (TT); ii) Sc-2012 after TT in most part of the forest plantation in K2 (32% of the total area); and iii) Sc-2013 after TT in some areas of the K3 catchment, affecting 38% of the total area. The study areas were defined from the coalescence point (139⁰ 36' 04" E, 36⁰ 22' 03" N) of both catchments upslope. Elevation ranges from 75 to 287 m a.s.l. and the mean slope steepness is of 67 and 65% in K2 and K3. Three different high resolution DEM-LiDAR maps at 0.5 x 0.5 m of cell size were used to run the IC model in each scenario. The permanent streams in the study area have a total length of 2123 m. The mean C-RUSLE factor was of 0.0225 in Sc-2011 and 21% and 25% higher in Sc-2012 and Sc-2013. The total length of the landscape linear elements incremented from 2482 m in Sc-2011 to 3151 m in Sc-2012 and Sc-2013 due to the construction of new skid trails in K2. The mean RC in the study area was of -4.536 in Sc-2011 and increased 7.4% and 8.9% in the Sc-2012 and Sc-2013, respectively, due to the tree thinning operations and the construction of new skid trails

ERA: Efficient serial and parallel suffix tree construction for very long strings

KAUST Repository

Mansour, Essam; Allam, Amin; Skiadopoulos, Spiros G.; Kalnis, Panos

2011-01-01

The suffix tree is a data structure for indexing strings. It is used in a variety of applications such as bioinformatics, time series analysis, clustering, text editing and data compression. However, when the string and the resulting suffix tree

Scenarios in society, society in scenarios: toward a social scientific analysis of storyline-driven environmental modeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garb, Yaakov; Pulver, Simone; VanDeveer, Stacy D

2008-01-01

Scenario analysis, an approach to thinking about alternative futures based on storyline-driven modeling, has become increasingly common and important in attempts to understand and respond to the impacts of human activities on natural systems at a variety of scales. The construction of scenarios is a fundamentally social activity, yet social scientific perspectives have rarely been brought to bear on it. Indeed, there is a growing imbalance between the increasing technical sophistication of the modeling elements of scenarios and the continued simplicity of our understanding of the social origins, linkages, and implications of the narratives to which they are coupled. Drawing on conceptual and methodological tools from science and technology studies, sociology and political science, we offer an overview of what a social scientific analysis of scenarios might include. In particular, we explore both how scenarios intervene in social microscale and macroscale contexts and how aspects of such contexts are embedded in scenarios, often implicitly. Analyzing the social 'work' of scenarios (i) can enhance the understanding of scenario developers and modeling practitioners of the knowledge production processes in which they participate and (ii) can improve the utility of scenario products as decision-support tools to actual, rather than imagined, decision-makers.

Undergraduate Students’ Initial Ability in Understanding Phylogenetic Tree

Science.gov (United States)

Sa'adah, S.; Hidayat, T.; Sudargo, Fransisca

2017-04-01

The Phylogenetic tree is a visual representation depicts a hypothesis about the evolutionary relationship among taxa. Evolutionary experts use this representation to evaluate the evidence for evolution. The phylogenetic tree is currently growing for many disciplines in biology. Consequently, learning about the phylogenetic tree has become an important part of biological education and an interesting area of biology education research. Skill to understanding and reasoning of the phylogenetic tree, (called tree thinking) is an important skill for biology students. However, research showed many students have difficulty in interpreting, constructing, and comparing among the phylogenetic tree, as well as experiencing a misconception in the understanding of the phylogenetic tree. Students are often not taught how to reason about evolutionary relationship depicted in the diagram. Students are also not provided with information about the underlying theory and process of phylogenetic. This study aims to investigate the initial ability of undergraduate students in understanding and reasoning of the phylogenetic tree. The research method is the descriptive method. Students are given multiple choice questions and an essay that representative by tree thinking elements. Each correct answer made percentages. Each student is also given questionnaires. The results showed that the undergraduate students’ initial ability in understanding and reasoning phylogenetic tree is low. Many students are not able to answer questions about the phylogenetic tree. Only 19 % undergraduate student who answered correctly on indicator evaluate the evolutionary relationship among taxa, 25% undergraduate student who answered correctly on indicator applying concepts of the clade, 17% undergraduate student who answered correctly on indicator determines the character evolution, and only a few undergraduate student who can construct the phylogenetic tree.

Sub-pixel estimation of tree cover and bare surface densities using regression tree analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Augusto Zangrando Toneli

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Sub-pixel analysis is capable of generating continuous fields, which represent the spatial variability of certain thematic classes. The aim of this work was to develop numerical models to represent the variability of tree cover and bare surfaces within the study area. This research was conducted in the riparian buffer within a watershed of the São Francisco River in the North of Minas Gerais, Brazil. IKONOS and Landsat TM imagery were used with the GUIDE algorithm to construct the models. The results were two index images derived with regression trees for the entire study area, one representing tree cover and the other representing bare surface. The use of non-parametric and non-linear regression tree models presented satisfactory results to characterize wetland, deciduous and savanna patterns of forest formation.

Development of nuclear spent fuel Maritime transportation scenario

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoo, Min; Kang, Hyun Gook

2014-01-01

Spent fuel transportation of South Korea is to be conducted through near sea because it is able to ship a large amount of the spent fuel far from the public comparing to overland transportation. The maritime transportation is expected to be increased and its risk has to be assessed. For the risk assessment, this study utilizes the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) method and the notions of the combined event. Risk assessment of maritime transportation of spent fuel is not well developed in comparison with overland transportation. For the assessment, first, the transportation scenario should be developed and categorized. Categories are assorted into the locations, release aspects and exposure aspects. This study deals with accident that happens on voyage and concentrated on ship-ship collision. The collision accident scenario is generated with event tree analysis. The scenario will be exploited for the maritime transportation risk model which includes consequence and accident probability

Development of nuclear spent fuel Maritime transportation scenario

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoo, Min; Kang, Hyun Gook [KAIST, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-08-15

Spent fuel transportation of South Korea is to be conducted through near sea because it is able to ship a large amount of the spent fuel far from the public comparing to overland transportation. The maritime transportation is expected to be increased and its risk has to be assessed. For the risk assessment, this study utilizes the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) method and the notions of the combined event. Risk assessment of maritime transportation of spent fuel is not well developed in comparison with overland transportation. For the assessment, first, the transportation scenario should be developed and categorized. Categories are assorted into the locations, release aspects and exposure aspects. This study deals with accident that happens on voyage and concentrated on ship-ship collision. The collision accident scenario is generated with event tree analysis. The scenario will be exploited for the maritime transportation risk model which includes consequence and accident probability.

A transportable magnetic resonance imaging system for in situ measurements of living trees: the Tree Hugger.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, M; Aptaker, P S; Cox, J; Gardiner, B A; McDonald, P J

2012-05-01

This paper presents the design of the 'Tree Hugger', an open access, transportable, 1.1 MHz (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance imaging system for the in situ analysis of living trees in the forest. A unique construction employing NdFeB blocks embedded in a reinforced carbon fibre frame is used to achieve access up to 210 mm and to allow the magnet to be transported. The magnet weighs 55 kg. The feasibility of imaging living trees in situ using the 'Tree Hugger' is demonstrated. Correlations are drawn between NMR/MRI measurements and other indicators such as relative humidity, soil moisture and net solar radiation. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multiple hypothesis tracking based extraction of airway trees from CT data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Raghavendra, Selvan; Petersen, Jens; de Bruijne, Marleen

Segmentation of airway trees from CT scans of lungs has important clinical applications, in relation to the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Here we present a method based on multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT) and template matching, originally devised for vessel...... segmentation, to extract airway trees. Idealized tubular templates are constructed and ranked using scores assigned based on the image data. Several such regularly spaced hypotheses are used in constructing a hypothesis tree, which is then traversed to obtain improved segmentation results....

Tree dimension in verification of constrained Horn clauses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kafle, Bishoksan; Gallagher, John Patrick; Ganty, Pierre

2018-01-01

In this paper, we show how the notion of tree dimension can be used in the verification of constrained Horn clauses (CHCs). The dimension of a tree is a numerical measure of its branching complexity and the concept here applies to Horn clause derivation trees. Derivation trees of dimension zero c...... algorithms using these constructions to decompose a CHC verification problem. One variation of this decomposition considers derivations of successively increasing dimension. The paper includes descriptions of implementations and experimental results....

Exploring Persona-Scenarios - Using Storytelling to Create Design Ideas

Science.gov (United States)

Madsen, Sabine; Nielsen, Lene

This paper explores the persona-scenario method by investigating how the method can support project participants in generating shared understandings and design ideas. As persona-scenarios are stories we draw on narrative theory to define what a persona-scenario is and which narrative elements it should consist of. Based on an empirical study a key finding is that despite our inherent human ability to construct, tell, and interpret stories it is not easy to write and present a good, coherent, and design-oriented story without methodical support. The paper therefore contributes with guidelines that delineate a) what a design-oriented persona-scenario should consist of (product) and b) how to write it (procedure) in order to generate and validate as many, new, and shared understandings and design ideas as possible (purpose). The purpose of the guidelines is to facilitate the construction of persona-scenarios as good, coherent stories, which make sense to the storytellers and to the audience - and which therefore generate many, new, and shared understandings and design ideas.

A fault tree analysis strategy using binary decision diagrams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reay, Karen A.; Andrews, John D.

2002-01-01

The use of binary decision diagrams (BDDs) in fault tree analysis provides both an accurate and efficient means of analysing a system. There is a problem, however, with the conversion process of the fault tree to the BDD. The variable ordering scheme chosen for the construction of the BDD has a crucial effect on its resulting size and previous research has failed to identify any scheme that is capable of producing BDDs for all fault trees. This paper proposes an analysis strategy aimed at increasing the likelihood of obtaining a BDD for any given fault tree, by ensuring the associated calculations are as efficient as possible. The method implements simplification techniques, which are applied to the fault tree to obtain a set of 'minimal' subtrees, equivalent to the original fault tree structure. BDDs are constructed for each, using ordering schemes most suited to their particular characteristics. Quantitative analysis is performed simultaneously on the set of BDDs to obtain the top event probability, the system unconditional failure intensity and the criticality of the basic events

Development formalization of the e-learning pedagogical scenario

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Олександр Іванович Пушкар

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The place of the pedagogical scenario in development of the e-learning support system has been defined. The process of student's interaction with the system of e-learning in the form of a proper dialogue has been proposed. Peculiarities of constructing typical models of scenarios of academic disciplines have been analyzed. A technique for quantitative assessment of the relationships between the objects of study in the model of a pedagogical scenario has been offered

Constructing multi-labelled decision trees for junction design using the predicted probabilities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bezembinder, Erwin M.; Wismans, Luc J. J.; Van Berkum, Eric C.

2017-01-01

In this paper, we evaluate the use of traditional decision tree algorithms CRT, CHAID and QUEST to determine a decision tree which can be used to predict a set of (Pareto optimal) junction design alternatives (e.g. signal or roundabout) for a given traffic demand pattern and available space. This is

Scenarios of socio-economic and energy development of the country up to 2010

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsvetanov, P.

1990-01-01

The scenarios description is given as the first stage of a procedure of an energy-economy interrelations dynamics study, the other two stages being the formulation and the analysis of the development variants. The scenarios reflect quantitatively the policies and the international conditions for the socio-economic, energy demand and energy supply developments of the country. Two economic development scenarios ('high' - official macroeconomic views and 'low' - economic restructuring and decrease of energy intensity) hierarchically preside over the two corresponding energy demand scenarios of different technological evolutions ('traditional' and 'energy efficiency' oriented one) in the industry, the transport and the domestic and services sectors. Four energy supply system scenarios follow, corresponding to different approaches in the development of the energy conversion technologies and energy carriers, thus constituting a scenario tree of the studies. 16 refs., 2 figs., 7 tab., 1 ann. (R.Ts.)

Algorithms for optimal dyadic decision trees

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hush, Don [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Porter, Reid [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2009-01-01

A new algorithm for constructing optimal dyadic decision trees was recently introduced, analyzed, and shown to be very effective for low dimensional data sets. This paper enhances and extends this algorithm by: introducing an adaptive grid search for the regularization parameter that guarantees optimal solutions for all relevant trees sizes, revising the core tree-building algorithm so that its run time is substantially smaller for most regularization parameter values on the grid, and incorporating new data structures and data pre-processing steps that provide significant run time enhancement in practice.

Fourier analysis on trees as related to p-adic string theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O'Loughlin, M.; Joshi, G.

1989-01-01

After reviewing p-adic numbers, their relationship to trees, and some recent proposals for actions of a p-adic string theory with a tree-like world sheet, the possibility of constructing p-adic vertex operators in a similar way to the Frenkel-Kac construction of Kac-Moody algebras, is investigated. 25 refs., 5 figs

Tools for valuing tree and park services

Science.gov (United States)

E.G. McPherson

2010-01-01

Arborists and urban foresters plan, design, construct, and manage trees and parks in cities throughout the world. These civic improvements create walkable, cool environments, save energy, reduce stormwater runoff, sequester carbon dioxide, and absorb air pollutants. The presence of trees and green spaces in cities is associated with increases in property values,...

On algorithm for building of optimal α-decision trees

KAUST Repository

Alkhalid, Abdulaziz; Chikalov, Igor; Moshkov, Mikhail

2010-01-01

The paper describes an algorithm that constructs approximate decision trees (α-decision trees), which are optimal relatively to one of the following complexity measures: depth, total path length or number of nodes. The algorithm uses dynamic

Climatic changes lead to declining winter chill for fruit and nut trees in California during 1950-2099.

Science.gov (United States)

Luedeling, Eike; Zhang, Minghua; Girvetz, Evan H

2009-07-16

Winter chill is one of the defining characteristics of a location's suitability for the production of many tree crops. We mapped and investigated observed historic and projected future changes in winter chill in California, quantified with two different chilling models (Chilling Hours, Dynamic Model). Based on hourly and daily temperature records, winter chill was modeled for two past temperature scenarios (1950 and 2000), and 18 future scenarios (average conditions during 2041-2060 and 2080-2099 under each of the B1, A1B and A2 IPCC greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, for the CSIRO-MK3, HadCM3 and MIROC climate models). For each scenario, 100 replications of the yearly temperature record were produced, using a stochastic weather generator. We then introduced and mapped a novel climatic statistic, "safe winter chill", the 10% quantile of the resulting chilling distributions. This metric can be interpreted as the amount of chilling that growers can safely expect under each scenario. Winter chill declined substantially for all emissions scenarios, with the area of safe winter chill for many tree species or cultivars decreasing 50-75% by mid-21st century, and 90-100% by late century. Both chilling models consistently projected climatic conditions by the middle to end of the 21st century that will no longer support some of the main tree crops currently grown in California, with the Chilling Hours Model projecting greater changes than the Dynamic Model. The tree crop industry in California will likely need to develop agricultural adaptation measures (e.g. low-chill varieties and dormancy-breaking chemicals) to cope with these projected changes. For some crops, production might no longer be possible.

Efficient FPT Algorithms for (Strict) Compatibility of Unrooted Phylogenetic Trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Baste, Julien; Paul, Christophe; Sau, Ignasi; Scornavacca, Celine

2017-04-01

In phylogenetics, a central problem is to infer the evolutionary relationships between a set of species X; these relationships are often depicted via a phylogenetic tree-a tree having its leaves labeled bijectively by elements of X and without degree-2 nodes-called the "species tree." One common approach for reconstructing a species tree consists in first constructing several phylogenetic trees from primary data (e.g., DNA sequences originating from some species in X), and then constructing a single phylogenetic tree maximizing the "concordance" with the input trees. The obtained tree is our estimation of the species tree and, when the input trees are defined on overlapping-but not identical-sets of labels, is called "supertree." In this paper, we focus on two problems that are central when combining phylogenetic trees into a supertree: the compatibility and the strict compatibility problems for unrooted phylogenetic trees. These problems are strongly related, respectively, to the notions of "containing as a minor" and "containing as a topological minor" in the graph community. Both problems are known to be fixed parameter tractable in the number of input trees k, by using their expressibility in monadic second-order logic and a reduction to graphs of bounded treewidth. Motivated by the fact that the dependency on k of these algorithms is prohibitively large, we give the first explicit dynamic programming algorithms for solving these problems, both running in time [Formula: see text], where n is the total size of the input.

Fault tree analysis: concepts and techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fussell, J.B.

1976-01-01

Concepts and techniques of fault tree analysis have been developed over the past decade and now predictions from this type analysis are important considerations in the design of many systems such as aircraft, ships and their electronic systems, missiles, and nuclear reactor systems. Routine, hardware-oriented fault tree construction can be automated; however, considerable effort is needed in this area to get the methodology into production status. When this status is achieved, the entire analysis of hardware systems will be automated except for the system definition step. Automated analysis is not undesirable; to the contrary, when verified on adequately complex systems, automated analysis could well become a routine analysis. It could also provide an excellent start for a more in-depth fault tree analysis that includes environmental effects, common mode failure, and human errors. The automated analysis is extremely fast and frees the analyst from the routine hardware-oriented fault tree construction, as well as eliminates logic errors and errors of oversight in this part of the analysis. Automated analysis then affords the analyst a powerful tool to allow his prime efforts to be devoted to unearthing more subtle aspects of the modes of failure of the system

Protective Alternatives of SMR against Extreme Threat Scenario – A Preliminary Risk Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shohet, I.M.; Ornai, D.; Gal, E.; Ronen, Y.; Vidra, M.

2014-01-01

The article presents a preliminary risk analysis of the main features in NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) that includes SMR - Small and Modular Reactors, given an extreme threat scenario. A review of the structure and systems of the SMR is followed by systematic definitions and analysis of the threat scenario to which a preliminary risk analysis was carried out. The article outlines the basic events caused by the referred threat scenario, which had led to possible failure mechanisms according to FTA (Fault-Tree-Analysis),critical protective circuits, and todetecting critical topics for the protection and safety of the reactor

Inferring species trees from incongruent multi-copy gene trees using the Robinson-Foulds distance

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Constructing species trees from multi-copy gene trees remains a challenging problem in phylogenetics. One difficulty is that the underlying genes can be incongruent due to evolutionary processes such as gene duplication and loss, deep coalescence, or lateral gene transfer. Gene tree estimation errors may further exacerbate the difficulties of species tree estimation. Results We present a new approach for inferring species trees from incongruent multi-copy gene trees that is based on a generalization of the Robinson-Foulds (RF) distance measure to multi-labeled trees (mul-trees). We prove that it is NP-hard to compute the RF distance between two mul-trees; however, it is easy to calculate this distance between a mul-tree and a singly-labeled species tree. Motivated by this, we formulate the RF problem for mul-trees (MulRF) as follows: Given a collection of multi-copy gene trees, find a singly-labeled species tree that minimizes the total RF distance from the input mul-trees. We develop and implement a fast SPR-based heuristic algorithm for the NP-hard MulRF problem. We compare the performance of the MulRF method (available at http://genome.cs.iastate.edu/CBL/MulRF/) with several gene tree parsimony approaches using gene tree simulations that incorporate gene tree error, gene duplications and losses, and/or lateral transfer. The MulRF method produces more accurate species trees than gene tree parsimony approaches. We also demonstrate that the MulRF method infers in minutes a credible plant species tree from a collection of nearly 2,000 gene trees. Conclusions Our new phylogenetic inference method, based on a generalized RF distance, makes it possible to quickly estimate species trees from large genomic data sets. Since the MulRF method, unlike gene tree parsimony, is based on a generic tree distance measure, it is appealing for analyses of genomic data sets, in which many processes such as deep coalescence, recombination, gene duplication and losses as

The relationships of wood-, gas-, and water fractions of tree stems to performance and life history variation in tropical trees

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poorter, L.

2008-01-01

Background and Aims: The volume of tree stems is made up of three components: solid wood, gas and water. These components have important consequences for the construction costs, strength and stability of trees. Here, the importance of stem components for sapling growth and survival in the field was

Forestry: Prospective Scenarios for Generating Eletricity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Henrique Dias Blois

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Forestry generates in all production segments a lot of waste which is a potential power source and an opportunity for electricity generation by the use of this material. Therefore, this study represents the construction of future scenarios for the power generation sector from alternative and renewable sources in the region of Vale do Taquari and Alto da Serra do Botucaraí, in the Northern-Central region of the Stat of Rio Grande do Sul, aiming for the application of waste and by-products from forestry present in a intensive and tendentious way in economic activities within the region. By way of prospective scenarios, one will be able to observe which events are impactful on the viability of an environmental project for recovery of forestry waste to generate electricity in the region. Thereby, we used the method described by Grumbach (2000, a methodology that prospects scenarios from the participation of experts, who collaborated analyzing and proposing events that impact as strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats and their interrelationships. Also, it was evident the degree of influence and dependence between the events, which create a matrix of cross impacts. Moreover, possible future scenarios have been constructed and analyzed for demonstrating that the study area has potential events that could serve as alternatives to the sector. However, no ideal scenario has been identified for the next five years, a fact that is due to the large amount of adverse events in six out of the ten final events.

Bi-Criteria Optimization of Decision Trees with Applications to Data Analysis

KAUST Repository

Chikalov, Igor

2017-10-19

This paper is devoted to the study of bi-criteria optimization problems for decision trees. We consider different cost functions such as depth, average depth, and number of nodes. We design algorithms that allow us to construct the set of Pareto optimal points (POPs) for a given decision table and the corresponding bi-criteria optimization problem. These algorithms are suitable for investigation of medium-sized decision tables. We discuss three examples of applications of the created tools: the study of relationships among depth, average depth and number of nodes for decision trees for corner point detection (such trees are used in computer vision for object tracking), study of systems of decision rules derived from decision trees, and comparison of different greedy algorithms for decision tree construction as single- and bi-criteria optimization algorithms.

Tree-Based Unrooted Phylogenetic Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Francis, A; Huber, K T; Moulton, V

2018-02-01

Phylogenetic networks are a generalization of phylogenetic trees that are used to represent non-tree-like evolutionary histories that arise in organisms such as plants and bacteria, or uncertainty in evolutionary histories. An unrooted phylogenetic network on a non-empty, finite set X of taxa, or network, is a connected, simple graph in which every vertex has degree 1 or 3 and whose leaf set is X. It is called a phylogenetic tree if the underlying graph is a tree. In this paper we consider properties of tree-based networks, that is, networks that can be constructed by adding edges into a phylogenetic tree. We show that although they have some properties in common with their rooted analogues which have recently drawn much attention in the literature, they have some striking differences in terms of both their structural and computational properties. We expect that our results could eventually have applications to, for example, detecting horizontal gene transfer or hybridization which are important factors in the evolution of many organisms.

Program Analysis Scenarios in Rascal

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.A. Hills (Mark); P. Klint (Paul); J.J. Vinju (Jurgen); F. Durán

2012-01-01

textabstractRascal is a meta programming language focused on the implementation of domain-specific languages and on the rapid construction of tools for software analysis and software transformation. In this paper we focus on the use of Rascal for software analysis. We illustrate a range of scenarios

Mathematical foundations of event trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Papazoglou, Ioannis A.

1998-01-01

A mathematical foundation from first principles of event trees is presented. The main objective of this formulation is to offer a formal basis for developing automated computer assisted construction techniques for event trees. The mathematical theory of event trees is based on the correspondence between the paths of the tree and the elements of the outcome space of a joint event. The concept of a basic cylinder set is introduced to describe joint event outcomes conditional on specific outcomes of basic events or unconditional on the outcome of basic events. The concept of outcome space partition is used to describe the minimum amount of information intended to be preserved by the event tree representation. These concepts form the basis for an algorithm for systematic search for and generation of the most compact (reduced) form of an event tree consistent with the minimum amount of information the tree should preserve. This mathematical foundation allows for the development of techniques for automated generation of event trees corresponding to joint events which are formally described through other types of graphical models. Such a technique has been developed for complex systems described by functional blocks and it is reported elsewhere. On the quantification issue of event trees, a formal definition of a probability space corresponding to the event tree outcomes is provided. Finally, a short discussion is offered on the relationship of the presented mathematical theory with the more general use of event trees in reliability analysis of dynamic systems

Scenario research: The food industry in 2010

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stacey, Julia; Sonne, Anne-Mette; Jensen, Birger Boutrup

2001-01-01

What kind of foods will the consumers choose to buy in 2010? Will they be buying organic foods, functional foods or go for the cheapest products? Nobody can predict the future. However, by using scenario techniques qualified indications on future developments can be put together. Researchers...... at MAPP and the Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Management, The Technical University of Denmark have constructed three scenarios about the Danish food industry in 2010. The aim has been to identify the demands the food industry can expect to meet in the future plus which research areas...... the public research should prioritise in order to support the development of competences within the food industry. The scenarios are isolated developments. In practise, the future is likely to be a combination of the different tendencies within the scenarios. The first scenario 'Naturalness' has focus...

Biodiversity and climate change: consequences for upper tree line in Slovakia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Minďaš Jozef

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Study of the effects of climate change on upper tree limit has mainly focused on the diversity of tree species as a result of the ability of species to tolerate temperature and moisture changes as well as some effects of disturbance regime changes. The tree species diversity changes due to climate change has been analysed via gap model and biodiversity indices. Gap models are individually based on simulations of establishment, growth, and mortality of each tree on the forest plot. Input ecological data for model calculations have been taken from the permanent research plots located in primeval forests in mountainous regions in Slovakia. The results of regional scenarios of the climatic change for the territory of Slovakia have been used, from which the values according to the CGCM3.1 (global model, KNMI and MPI (regional models. Model results for conditions of the climate change scenarios suggest a shift of the upper forest limit to the region of the present subalpine zone, in supramontane zone. The most significant tree species diversity changes have been identified for the upper tree line and current belt of dwarf pine (Pinus mugo occurrence. Hill’s index of biodiversity in the upper forest line increased by 30 – 35% for horizon of 2050, resp. by 45 – 50% modeled for the horizon of 2075. Calculated values of Shannon’s index show an even higher increase due to climate change. For horizon 2050 is a roughly of three fold increase and horizon for 2075 by almost fivefold increase in the value of the index. Results from the gap model indicate the increase of tree species diversity 2 – 2,5 times.

Verification of Fault Tree Models with RBDGG Methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Man Cheol

2010-01-01

Currently, fault tree analysis is widely used in the field of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) of nuclear power plants (NPPs). To guarantee the correctness of fault tree models, which are usually manually constructed by analysts, a review by other analysts is widely used for verifying constructed fault tree models. Recently, an extension of the reliability block diagram was developed, which is named as RBDGG (reliability block diagram with general gates). The advantage of the RBDGG methodology is that the structure of a RBDGG model is very similar to the actual structure of the analyzed system and, therefore, the modeling of a system for a system reliability and unavailability analysis becomes very intuitive and easy. The main idea of the development of the RBDGG methodology is similar to that of the development of the RGGG (Reliability Graph with General Gates) methodology. The difference between the RBDGG methodology and RGGG methodology is that the RBDGG methodology focuses on the block failures while the RGGG methodology focuses on the connection line failures. But, it is also known that an RGGG model can be converted to an RBDGG model and vice versa. In this paper, a new method for the verification of the constructed fault tree models using the RBDGG methodology is proposed and demonstrated

IPCC Special report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon

2001-01-01

This special report on emissions scenarios (SRES) is intended to reflect the most recent trends in driving forces of emissions; population projections economic development, and structural and technological change. It serves as an update to IS92 scenarios developed by IPCC in the early 1990s to illustrate a plausible range of future greenhouse gas emissions. This update is based on a review of the literature and the development of a database of over 400 global and regional scenarios; 190 of these extend from 1900 to 2100 and thus fed into the development of the narrative scenarios and storylines. Based on the literature review, a set of four alternative scenario families, having a total of 40 emission scenarios have been developed. Each scenario family includes a narrative storyline which describes a demographic, social. economic, technological, environmental and policy future. Characteristic features of each of the four families are summarized and a comparison is made between the IS92 and SRES. One of the main conclusions of this recent scenario construction effort is the realization that alternative combinations of main scenario driving forces can lead to similar levels of GHG emissions by the end of the 21st century, and that scenarios with different underlying assumptions can result in very similar climate change

How much does climate change threaten European forest tree species distributions?

Science.gov (United States)

Dyderski, Marcin K; Paź, Sonia; Frelich, Lee E; Jagodziński, Andrzej M

2018-03-01

Although numerous species distribution models have been developed, most were based on insufficient distribution data or used older climate change scenarios. We aimed to quantify changes in projected ranges and threat level by the years 2061-2080, for 12 European forest tree species under three climate change scenarios. We combined tree distribution data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, EUFORGEN, and forest inventories, and we developed species distribution models using MaxEnt and 19 bioclimatic variables. Models were developed for three climate change scenarios-optimistic (RCP2.6), moderate (RCP4.5), and pessimistic (RPC8.5)-using three General Circulation Models, for the period 2061-2080. Our study revealed different responses of tree species to projected climate change. The species may be divided into three groups: "winners"-mostly late-successional species: Abies alba, Fagus sylvatica, Fraxinus excelsior, Quercus robur, and Quercus petraea; "losers"-mostly pioneer species: Betula pendula, Larix decidua, Picea abies, and Pinus sylvestris; and alien species-Pseudotsuga menziesii, Quercus rubra, and Robinia pseudoacacia, which may be also considered as "winners." Assuming limited migration, most of the species studied would face a significant decrease in suitable habitat area. The threat level was highest for species that currently have the northernmost distribution centers. Ecological consequences of the projected range contractions would be serious for both forest management and nature conservation. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Multi-level tree analysis of pulmonary artery/vein trees in non-contrast CT images

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Zhiyun; Grout, Randall W.; Hoffman, Eric A.; Saha, Punam K.

2012-02-01

Diseases like pulmonary embolism and pulmonary hypertension are associated with vascular dystrophy. Identifying such pulmonary artery/vein (A/V) tree dystrophy in terms of quantitative measures via CT imaging significantly facilitates early detection of disease or a treatment monitoring process. A tree structure, consisting of nodes and connected arcs, linked to the volumetric representation allows multi-level geometric and volumetric analysis of A/V trees. Here, a new theory and method is presented to generate multi-level A/V tree representation of volumetric data and to compute quantitative measures of A/V tree geometry and topology at various tree hierarchies. The new method is primarily designed on arc skeleton computation followed by a tree construction based topologic and geometric analysis of the skeleton. The method starts with a volumetric A/V representation as input and generates its topologic and multi-level volumetric tree representations long with different multi-level morphometric measures. A new recursive merging and pruning algorithms are introduced to detect bad junctions and noisy branches often associated with digital geometric and topologic analysis. Also, a new notion of shortest axial path is introduced to improve the skeletal arc joining two junctions. The accuracy of the multi-level tree analysis algorithm has been evaluated using computer generated phantoms and pulmonary CT images of a pig vessel cast phantom while the reproducibility of method is evaluated using multi-user A/V separation of in vivo contrast-enhanced CT images of a pig lung at different respiratory volumes.

Integrated fault tree development environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dixon, B.W.

1986-01-01

Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) techniques are utilized in the nuclear industry to perform safety analyses of complex defense-in-depth systems. A major effort in PRA development is fault tree construction. The Integrated Fault Tree Environment (IFTREE) is an interactive, graphics-based tool for fault tree design. IFTREE provides integrated building, editing, and analysis features on a personal workstation. The design philosophy of IFTREE is presented, and the interface is described. IFTREE utilizes a unique rule-based solution algorithm founded in artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. The impact of the AI approach on the program design is stressed. IFTREE has been developed to handle the design and maintenance of full-size living PRAs and is currently in use

Scenario analysis of the new energy policy for Taiwan's electricity sector until 2025

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Fung-Fei; Chou, Seng-Cho; Lu, Tai-Ken

2013-01-01

For this study, we constructed the following three case scenarios based on the Taiwanese government's energy policy: a normal scenario, the 2008 “Sustainable Energy Policy Convention” scenario, and the 2011 “New Energy Policy” scenario. We then employed a long-term Generation Expansion Planning (GEP) optimization model to compare the three case scenarios' energy mix for power generation for the next å15 years to further explore their possible impact on the electricity sector. The results provide a reference for forming future energy policies and developing strategic responses. - Highlights: • We constructed three case scenarios based on the Taiwan government's energy policy. • We employed a long-term Generation Expansion Planning optimization model. • A significant gap exists between the carbon reduction target and baseline. • The carbon reduction target requires a holistic resolution needed taking seriously

Postprocessing of Accidental Scenarios by Semi-Supervised Self-Organizing Maps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Di Maio

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Integrated Deterministic and Probabilistic Safety Analysis (IDPSA of dynamic systems calls for the development of efficient methods for accidental scenarios generation. The necessary consideration of failure events timing and sequencing along the scenarios requires the number of scenarios to be generated to increase with respect to conventional PSA. Consequently, their postprocessing for retrieving safety relevant information regarding the system behavior is challenged because of the large amount of generated scenarios that makes the computational cost for scenario postprocessing enormous and the retrieved information difficult to interpret. In the context of IDPSA, the interpretation consists in the classification of the generated scenarios as safe, failed, Near Misses (NMs, and Prime Implicants (PIs. To address this issue, in this paper we propose the use of an ensemble of Semi-Supervised Self-Organizing Maps (SSSOMs whose outcomes are combined by a locally weighted aggregation according to two strategies: a locally weighted aggregation and a decision tree based aggregation. In the former, we resort to the Local Fusion (LF principle for accounting the classification reliability of the different SSSOM classifiers, whereas in the latter we build a classification scheme to select the appropriate classifier (or ensemble of classifiers, for the type of scenario to be classified. The two strategies are applied for the postprocessing of the accidental scenarios of a dynamic U-Tube Steam Generator (UTSG.

Design and assessment of long-term sustainable transport system scenarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nijkamp, P.; Rienstra, S.A.; Vleugel, J.M. [Systems and Control Group, Faculty of Mechanical and Marine Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft (Netherlands)

1995-03-01

Current trends in transport indicate that the system is moving away from a sustainable development because of a sky-rocketing mobility growth and a modal shift towards the most polluting modes. These trends are reinforced by several underlying factors, which may be found in the spatial, institutional, economic and social/psychological fields. It may be concluded that major changes in technology, public policy as well as in the behaviour of individuals are necessary to make the transport system more compatible with environmental sustainability. This provokes the need for assessing a set of future images for transport in relation to the environment. In this paper expert scenarios are constructed on the basis of the recently developed `spider model`. Based on a set of distinct characteristics of a transport system, represented by eight axes in the above mentioned fields, an evaluation framework is constructed, which visualizes the main discussed driving forces. Scenarios can be constructed by connecting points on the successive axes, which may lead to entirely different transport systems. An expected and desired scenario are constructed next, by means of opinions of Dutch transport experts, which have been investigated by means of a nation-wide survey. The expected scenario indicates that many current trends will continue, while the transport system is largely the same as the current one. The desired scenario on the other hand, gives a more collective system, in which also many new modes are operating. The conclusion is that expected trends may not lead to a sustainable transport system, but that the desired road will be very hard to follow. 5 figs., 2 tabs., 27 refs.

Review of the severe accident risk reduction program (SARRP) containment event trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1986-05-01

A part of the Severe Accident Risk Reduction Program, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have constructed a group of containment event trees to be used in the analysis of key accident sequences for light water reactors (LWR) during postulated severe accidents. The ultimate goal of the program is to provide to the NRC staff a current assessment of the risk from severe reactor accidents for a group of five light water reactors. This review specifically focuses on the development and construction of the containment event trees and the results for containment failure probability, modes and timing. The report first gives the background on the program, the review criteria, and a summary of the observations, findings and recommendations. secondly, the individual reviews of each committee member on the event trees is presented. Finally, a review is provided on the computer model used to construct and evaluate the event trees

Dendrometer bands made easy: using modified cable ties to measure incremental growth of trees

Science.gov (United States)

Anemaet, Evelyn R.; Middleton, Beth A.

2013-01-01

Dendrometer bands are a useful way to make sequential repeated measurements of tree growth, but traditional dendrometer bands can be expensive, time consuming, and difficult to construct in the field. An alternative to the traditional method of band construction is to adapt commercially available materials. This paper describes how to construct and install dendrometer bands using smooth-edged, stainless steel, cable tie banding and attachable rollerball heads. As a performance comparison, both traditional and cable tie dendrometer bands were installed on baldcypress trees at the National Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette, Louisiana, by both an experienced and a novice worker. Band installation times were recorded, and growth of the trees as estimated by the two band types was measured after approximately one year, demonstrating equivalence of the two methods. This efficient approach to dendrometer band construction can help advance the knowledge of long-term tree growth in ecological studies.

Dynamics in small worlds of tree topologies of wireless sensor networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Qiao; Zhang, Baihai; Fan, Zhun

2012-01-01

Tree topologies, which construct spatial graphs with large characteristic path lengths and small clustering coefficients, are ubiquitous in deployments of wireless sensor networks. Small worlds are investigated in tree-based networks. Due to link additions, characteristic path lengths reduce...... rapidly and clustering coefficients increase greatly. A tree abstract, Cayley tree, is considered for the study of the navigation algorithm, which runs automatically in the small worlds of tree-based networks. In the further study, epidemics in the small worlds of tree-based wireless sensor networks...

Linear tree codes and the problem of explicit constructions

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Pudlák, Pavel

2016-01-01

Roč. 490, February 1 (2016), s. 124-144 ISSN 0024-3795 R&D Projects: GA ČR GBP202/12/G061 Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : tree code * error correcting code * triangular totally nonsingular matrix Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.973, year: 2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002437951500645X

Research procedure and criteria for analysis and choice of variants for construction of national radioactive waste repository

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vachev, B.

1993-01-01

General principles, overlying objectives and basic radioactive waste management strategy future priorities are considered. The research procedure is based on system approach and analysis, decision making theory, basic objectives and principles of the national repository construction. Main criteria and some basic notions (like radioactive wastes environment and radioactive wastes barriers - input and output) are introduced. Six environment elements are identified: surroundings and natural environment, economic, scientific and technical-technological, socio-psychological, legal and institutional-political. Flow charts of the hierarchical structure of research procedure, decision making levels and direct and back feeds are presented and a scenario analysis is proposed as one of the tools for reflection of uncertainty. The hierarchical structure of the high level waste repository construction scenarios and variants tree (8 levels) is defined. The methodology and methods of analysis, screening and choice of variants is considered. A 7-group system of criteria and constrains for analysis, screening and choice of variants is formulated. One implementation of the proposed methodology and procedure is the technological choice for radioactive waste conditioning and solving of a preliminary site selection problem. 4 figs., 25 refs. (author)

Bi-level image compression with tree coding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martins, Bo; Forchhammer, Søren

1996-01-01

Presently, tree coders are the best bi-level image coders. The current ISO standard, JBIG, is a good example. By organising code length calculations properly a vast number of possible models (trees) can be investigated within reasonable time prior to generating code. Three general-purpose coders...... are constructed by this principle. A multi-pass free tree coding scheme produces superior compression results for all test images. A multi-pass fast free template coding scheme produces much better results than JBIG for difficult images, such as halftonings. Rissanen's algorithm `Context' is presented in a new...

Fuzzy tree automata and syntactic pattern recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, E T

1982-04-01

An approach of representing patterns by trees and processing these trees by fuzzy tree automata is described. Fuzzy tree automata are defined and investigated. The results include that the class of fuzzy root-to-frontier recognizable ¿-trees is closed under intersection, union, and complementation. Thus, the class of fuzzy root-to-frontier recognizable ¿-trees forms a Boolean algebra. Fuzzy tree automata are applied to processing fuzzy tree representation of patterns based on syntactic pattern recognition. The grade of acceptance is defined and investigated. Quantitative measures of ``approximate isosceles triangle,'' ``approximate elongated isosceles triangle,'' ``approximate rectangle,'' and ``approximate cross'' are defined and used in the illustrative examples of this approach. By using these quantitative measures, a house, a house with high roof, and a church are also presented as illustrative examples. In addition, three fuzzy tree automata are constructed which have the capability of processing the fuzzy tree representations of ``fuzzy houses,'' ``houses with high roofs,'' and ``fuzzy churches,'' respectively. The results may have useful applications in pattern recognition, image processing, artificial intelligence, pattern database design and processing, image science, and pictorial information systems.

Spanning k-ended trees of 3-regular connected graphs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamed Ghasemian Zoeram

2017-10-01

Full Text Available A vertex of degree one is called an end-vertex and the set of end-vertices of G is denoted by End(G. For a positive integer k, a tree T be called k-ended tree if $|End(T| \\leq k$. In this paper, we obtain sufficient conditions for spanning k-trees of 3-regular connected graphs. We give a construction sequence of graphs satisfying the condition. At the end, we present a conjecture about spanning k-ended trees of 3-regular connected graphs.

A review of tree root conflicts with sidewalks, curbs, and roads

Science.gov (United States)

T.B. Randrup; E.G. McPherson; L.R. Costello

2003-01-01

Literature relevant to tree root and urban infrastructure conflicts is reviewed. Although tree roots can conflict with many infrastructure elements, sidewalk and curb conflicts are the focus of this review. Construction protocols, urban soils, root growth, and causal factors (soil conditions, limited planting space, tree size, variation in root architecture, management...

Bypassing BDD Construction for Reliability Analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Williams, Poul Frederick; Nikolskaia, Macha; Rauzy, Antoine

2000-01-01

In this note, we propose a Boolean Expression Diagram (BED)-based algorithm to compute the minimal p-cuts of boolean reliability models such as fault trees. BEDs make it possible to bypass the Binary Decision Diagram (BDD) construction, which is the main cost of fault tree assessment....

Scenario research: The food industry in 2010

OpenAIRE

Stacey, Julia; Sonne, Anne-Mette; Jensen, Birger Boutrup

2001-01-01

What kind of foods will the consumers choose to buy in 2010? Will they be buying organic foods, functional foods or go for the cheapest products? Nobody can predict the future. However, by using scenario techniques qualified indications on future developments can be put together. Researchers at MAPP and the Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Management, The Technical University of Denmark have constructed three scenarios about the Danish food industry in 2010. The aim has been to ide...

Utilising Tree-Based Ensemble Learning for Speaker Segmentation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abou-Zleikha, Mohamed; Tan, Zheng-Hua; Christensen, Mads Græsbøll

2014-01-01

In audio and speech processing, accurate detection of the changing points between multiple speakers in speech segments is an important stage for several applications such as speaker identification and tracking. Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC)-based approaches are the most traditionally used...... for a certain condition, the model becomes biased to the data used for training limiting the model’s generalisation ability. In this paper, we propose a BIC-based tuning-free approach for speaker segmentation through the use of ensemble-based learning. A forest of segmentation trees is constructed in which each...... tree is trained using a sampled version of the speech segment. During the tree construction process, a set of randomly selected points in the input sequence is examined as potential segmentation points. The point that yields the highest ΔBIC is chosen and the same process is repeated for the resultant...

Risk assessment of complex accident scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kluegel, Jens-Uwe

2012-01-01

The use of methods of risk assessment in accidents in nuclear plants is based on an old tradition. The first consistent systematic study is considered to be the Rasmussen Study of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC, WASH-1400. Above and beyond the realm of nuclear technology, there is an extensive range of accident, risk and reliability research into technical-administrative systems. In the past, it has been this area of research which has led to the development of concepts of safety precautions of the type also introduced into nuclear technology (barrier concept, defense in depth, single-failure criterion), where they are now taken for granted as trivial concepts. Also for risk analysis, nuclear technology made use of methods (such as event and fault tree analyses) whose origins were outside the nuclear field. One area in which the use of traditional methods of probabilistic safety analysis is encountering practical problems is risk assessment of complex accident scenarios in nuclear technology. A definition is offered of the term 'complex accident scenarios' in nuclear technology. A number of problems are addressed which arise in the use of traditional PSA procedures in risk assessment of complex accident scenarios. Cases of complex accident scenarios are presented to demonstrate methods of risk assessment which allow robust results to be obtained even when traditional techniques of risk analysis are maintained as a matter of principle. These methods are based on the use of conditional risk metrics. (orig.)

Scenario Development for Water Resources Planning and Management

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, S.; Mahmoud, M.; Liu, Y.; Hartman, H.; Wagener, T.; Gupta, H.

2006-12-01

The main objective of scenario development for water resources is to inform policy-makers about the implications of various policies to inform decision-making. Although there have been a number of studies conducted in the relatively-new and recent field of scenario analysis and development, very few of those have been explicitly applied to water resource issues. More evident is the absence of an established formal approach to develop and apply scenarios. Scenario development is a process that evaluates possible future states of the world by examining several feasible scenarios. A scenario is a projection of various physical and socioeconomic conditions that describe change from the current state to a future state. In this paper, a general framework for scenario development with special emphasis on applications to water resources is considered. The process comprises several progressive and reiterative phases: scenario definition, scenario construction, scenario analysis, scenario assessment, and risk management. Several characteristics of scenarios that are important in describing scenarios are also taken into account; these include scenario types, scenario themes, scenario likelihoods and scenario categories. A hindrance to the adoption of a unified framework for scenario development is inconsistency in the terminology used by scenario developers. To address this problem, we propose a consistent terminology of basic and frequent terms. Outreach for this formal approach is partially maintained through an interactive community website that seeks to educate potential scenario developers about the scenario development process, share and exchange information and resources on scenarios to foster a multidisciplinary community of scenario developers, and establish a unified framework for scenario development with regards to terminology and guidelines. The website provides information on scenario development, current scenario-related activities, key water resources scenario

Analysis of large fault trees based on functional decomposition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Contini, Sergio; Matuzas, Vaidas

2011-01-01

With the advent of the Binary Decision Diagrams (BDD) approach in fault tree analysis, a significant enhancement has been achieved with respect to previous approaches, both in terms of efficiency and accuracy of the overall outcome of the analysis. However, the exponential increase of the number of nodes with the complexity of the fault tree may prevent the construction of the BDD. In these cases, the only way to complete the analysis is to reduce the complexity of the BDD by applying the truncation technique, which nevertheless implies the problem of estimating the truncation error or upper and lower bounds of the top-event unavailability. This paper describes a new method to analyze large coherent fault trees which can be advantageously applied when the working memory is not sufficient to construct the BDD. It is based on the decomposition of the fault tree into simpler disjoint fault trees containing a lower number of variables. The analysis of each simple fault tree is performed by using all the computational resources. The results from the analysis of all simpler fault trees are re-combined to obtain the results for the original fault tree. Two decomposition methods are herewith described: the first aims at determining the minimal cut sets (MCS) and the upper and lower bounds of the top-event unavailability; the second can be applied to determine the exact value of the top-event unavailability. Potentialities, limitations and possible variations of these methods will be discussed with reference to the results of their application to some complex fault trees.

Analysis of large fault trees based on functional decomposition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Contini, Sergio, E-mail: sergio.contini@jrc.i [European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, 21020 Ispra (Italy); Matuzas, Vaidas [European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, 21020 Ispra (Italy)

2011-03-15

With the advent of the Binary Decision Diagrams (BDD) approach in fault tree analysis, a significant enhancement has been achieved with respect to previous approaches, both in terms of efficiency and accuracy of the overall outcome of the analysis. However, the exponential increase of the number of nodes with the complexity of the fault tree may prevent the construction of the BDD. In these cases, the only way to complete the analysis is to reduce the complexity of the BDD by applying the truncation technique, which nevertheless implies the problem of estimating the truncation error or upper and lower bounds of the top-event unavailability. This paper describes a new method to analyze large coherent fault trees which can be advantageously applied when the working memory is not sufficient to construct the BDD. It is based on the decomposition of the fault tree into simpler disjoint fault trees containing a lower number of variables. The analysis of each simple fault tree is performed by using all the computational resources. The results from the analysis of all simpler fault trees are re-combined to obtain the results for the original fault tree. Two decomposition methods are herewith described: the first aims at determining the minimal cut sets (MCS) and the upper and lower bounds of the top-event unavailability; the second can be applied to determine the exact value of the top-event unavailability. Potentialities, limitations and possible variations of these methods will be discussed with reference to the results of their application to some complex fault trees.

Steiner trees for fixed orientation metrics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brazil, Marcus; Zachariasen, Martin

2009-01-01

We consider the problem of constructing Steiner minimum trees for a metric defined by a polygonal unit circle (corresponding to s = 2 weighted legal orientations in the plane). A linear-time algorithm to enumerate all angle configurations for degree three Steiner points is given. We provide...... a simple proof that the angle configuration for a Steiner point extends to all Steiner points in a full Steiner minimum tree, such that at most six orientations suffice for edges in a full Steiner minimum tree. We show that the concept of canonical forms originally introduced for the uniform orientation...... metric generalises to the fixed orientation metric. Finally, we give an O(s n) time algorithm to compute a Steiner minimum tree for a given full Steiner topology with n terminal leaves....

Scenario development methodologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eng, T.; Hudson, J.; Stephansson, O.

1994-11-01

In the period 1981-1994, SKB has studied several methodologies to systematize and visualize all the features, events and processes (FEPs) that can influence a repository for radioactive waste in the future. All the work performed is based on the terminology and basic findings in the joint SKI/SKB work on scenario development presented in the SKB Technical Report 89-35. The methodologies studied are a) Event tree analysis, b) Influence diagrams and c) Rock Engineering Systems (RES) matrices. Each one of the methodologies is explained in this report as well as examples of applications. One chapter is devoted to a comparison between the two most promising methodologies, namely: Influence diagrams and the RES methodology. In conclusion a combination of parts of the Influence diagram and the RES methodology is likely to be a promising approach. 26 refs

Klasifikasi Nilai Kelayakan Calon Debitur Baru Menggunakan Decision Tree C4.5

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bambang Hermanto

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In an effort to improve the quality of customer service, especially in terms of feasibility assessment of borrowers due to the increasing number of new prospective borrowers loans financing the purchase of a motor vehicle, then the company needs a decision making tool allowing you to easily and quickly estimate Where the debtor is able to pay off the loans. This study discusses the process generates C4.5 decision tree algorithm and utilizing the learning group of debtor financing dataset motorcycle. The decision tree is then interpreted into the form of decision rules that can be understood and used as a reference in processing the data of borrowers in determining the feasibility of prospective new borrowers. Feasibility value refers to the value of the destination parameter credit status. If the value of the credit is paid off status mean estimated prospective borrower is able to repay the loan in question, but if the credit status parameters estimated worth pull means candidates concerned debtor is unable to pay loans.. System testing is done by comparing the results of the testing data by learning data in three scenarios with the decision that the data is valid at over 70% for all case scenarios. Moreover, in generated tree  and generate rules takes fairly quickly, which is no more than 15 minutes for each test scenario

The balance of planting and mortality in a street tree population

Science.gov (United States)

Lara A. Roman; John J. Battles; Joe R. McBride

2013-01-01

Street trees have aesthetic, environmental, human health, and economic benefits in urban ecosystems. Street tree populations are constructed by cycles of planting, growth, death, removal and replacement. The goals of this study were to understand how tree mortality and planting rates affect net population growth, evaluate the shape of the mortality curve, and assess...

Minimal spanning trees, filaments and galaxy clustering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barrow, J.D.; Sonoda, D.H.

1985-01-01

A graph theoretical technique for assessing intrinsic patterns in point data sets is described. A unique construction, the minimal spanning tree, can be associated with any point data set given all the inter-point separations. This construction enables the skeletal pattern of galaxy clustering to be singled out in quantitative fashion and differs from other statistics applied to these data sets. This technique is described and applied to two- and three-dimensional distributions of galaxies and also to comparable random samples and numerical simulations. The observed CfA and Zwicky data exhibit characteristic distributions of edge-lengths in their minimal spanning trees which are distinct from those found in random samples. (author)

F-term stabilization of odd axions in LARGE volume scenario

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gao, Xin; Shukla, Pramod

2014-01-01

In the context of the LARGE volume scenario, stabilization of axionic moduli is revisited. This includes both even and odd axions with their scalar potential being generated by F-term contributions via various tree-level and non-perturbative effects like fluxed E3-brane instantons and fluxed poly-instantons. In all the cases, we estimate the decay constants and masses of the axions involved

A Distributed Spanning Tree Algorithm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansen, Karl Erik; Jørgensen, Ulla Lundin; Nielsen, Sven Hauge

We present a distributed algorithm for constructing a spanning tree for connected undirected graphs. Nodes correspond to processors and edges correspond to two-way channels. Each processor has initially a distinct identity and all processors perform the same algorithm. Computation as well...

Estimating Coextinction Risks from Epidemic Tree Death: Affiliate Lichen Communities among Diseased Host Tree Populations of Fraxinus excelsior

Science.gov (United States)

Jönsson, Mari T.; Thor, Göran

2012-01-01

At least 10% of the world’s tree species are threatened with extinction and pathogens are increasingly implicated in tree threats. Coextinction and threats to affiliates as a consequence of the loss or decline of their host trees is a poorly understood phenomenon. Ash dieback is an emerging infectious disease causing severe dieback of common ash Fraxinus excelsior throughout Europe. We utilized available empirical data on affiliate epiphytic lichen diversity (174 species and 17,800 observations) among 20 ash dieback infected host tree populations of F. excelsior on the island Gotland in the Baltic Sea, Sweden. From this, we used structured scenario projections scaled with empirical data of ash dieback disease to generate probabilistic models for estimating local and regional lichen coextinction risks. Average coextinction probabilities (Ā) were 0.38 (95% CI ±0.09) for lichens occurring on F. excelsior and 0.14 (95% CI ±0.03) when considering lichen persistence on all tree species. Ā was strongly linked to local disease incidence levels and generally increasing with lichen host specificity to F. excelsior and decreasing population size. Coextinctions reduced affiliate community viability, with significant local reductions in species richness and shifts in lichen species composition. Affiliates were projected to become locally extirpated before their hosts, illuminating the need to also consider host tree declines. Traditionally managed open wooded meadows had the highest incidence of ash dieback disease and significantly higher proportions of affiliate species projected to go extinct, compared with unmanaged closed forests and semi-open grazed sites. Most cothreatened species were not previously red-listed, which suggest that tree epidemics cause many unforeseen threats to species. Our analysis shows that epidemic tree deaths represent an insidious, mostly overlooked, threat to sessile affiliate communities in forested environments. Current conservation and

Thematic and spatial resolutions affect model-based predictions of tree species distribution.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Yu; He, Hong S; Fraser, Jacob S; Wu, ZhiWei

2013-01-01

Subjective decisions of thematic and spatial resolutions in characterizing environmental heterogeneity may affect the characterizations of spatial pattern and the simulation of occurrence and rate of ecological processes, and in turn, model-based tree species distribution. Thus, this study quantified the importance of thematic and spatial resolutions, and their interaction in predictions of tree species distribution (quantified by species abundance). We investigated how model-predicted species abundances changed and whether tree species with different ecological traits (e.g., seed dispersal distance, competitive capacity) had different responses to varying thematic and spatial resolutions. We used the LANDIS forest landscape model to predict tree species distribution at the landscape scale and designed a series of scenarios with different thematic (different numbers of land types) and spatial resolutions combinations, and then statistically examined the differences of species abundance among these scenarios. Results showed that both thematic and spatial resolutions affected model-based predictions of species distribution, but thematic resolution had a greater effect. Species ecological traits affected the predictions. For species with moderate dispersal distance and relatively abundant seed sources, predicted abundance increased as thematic resolution increased. However, for species with long seeding distance or high shade tolerance, thematic resolution had an inverse effect on predicted abundance. When seed sources and dispersal distance were not limiting, the predicted species abundance increased with spatial resolution and vice versa. Results from this study may provide insights into the choice of thematic and spatial resolutions for model-based predictions of tree species distribution.

Proposal for the classification of scenarios for deep geological repositories in probability classes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beuth, Thomas

2013-03-01

The provided report was elaborated in the framework of the project 3609R03210 ''Research and Development for Proof of the long-term Safety of Deep Geological Repositories''. It contains a proposal for a methodology that enables the assignment of developed scenarios in the frame of Safety Cases to defined probability classes. The assignment takes place indirectly through the categorization of the defining relevant factors (so-called FEP: Features, Events and Processes) of the respective scenarios also in probability classes. Therefore, decision trees and criteria were developed for the categorization of relevant factors in classes. Besides the description of the methodology another focal point of the work was the application of the method taking into account a defined scenario. By means of the scenario the different steps of the method and the decision criteria were documented, respectively. In addition, potential subjective influences along the path of decisions regarding the assignment of scenarios in probability classes were identified.

The future of large old trees in urban landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Le Roux, Darren S; Ikin, Karen; Lindenmayer, David B; Manning, Adrian D; Gibbons, Philip

2014-01-01

Large old trees are disproportionate providers of structural elements (e.g. hollows, coarse woody debris), which are crucial habitat resources for many species. The decline of large old trees in modified landscapes is of global conservation concern. Once large old trees are removed, they are difficult to replace in the short term due to typically prolonged time periods needed for trees to mature (i.e. centuries). Few studies have investigated the decline of large old trees in urban landscapes. Using a simulation model, we predicted the future availability of native hollow-bearing trees (a surrogate for large old trees) in an expanding city in southeastern Australia. In urban greenspace, we predicted that the number of hollow-bearing trees is likely to decline by 87% over 300 years under existing management practices. Under a worst case scenario, hollow-bearing trees may be completely lost within 115 years. Conversely, we predicted that the number of hollow-bearing trees will likely remain stable in semi-natural nature reserves. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the number of hollow-bearing trees perpetuated in urban greenspace over the long term is most sensitive to the: (1) maximum standing life of trees; (2) number of regenerating seedlings ha(-1); and (3) rate of hollow formation. We tested the efficacy of alternative urban management strategies and found that the only way to arrest the decline of large old trees requires a collective management strategy that ensures: (1) trees remain standing for at least 40% longer than currently tolerated lifespans; (2) the number of seedlings established is increased by at least 60%; and (3) the formation of habitat structures provided by large old trees is accelerated by at least 30% (e.g. artificial structures) to compensate for short term deficits in habitat resources. Immediate implementation of these recommendations is needed to avert long term risk to urban biodiversity.

Scenario Development for Trgovska Gora Shallow Land Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skanata, D.; Medakovic, S.; Lokner, V.; Levanat, I.

2002-01-01

Safety assessments, either preliminary or final, consist of a qualitative and a quantitative part. The qualitative part of the assessment implies a selection of relevant scenarios to be analyzed, while the quantitative part of the assessment consists of their mathematical modeling. This work is dealing with the qualitative part of safety assessment concerning a specific radioactive waste disposal system, i.e., the shallow land facility situated on the macrolocation Trgovska gora. This article has as its purpose a brief presentation of the ISAM methodology application results (Improvement of Safety Assessment Methodologies for Near Surface Radioactive Waste Facilities;), a methodology developed within the framework of a project of the same name, organized by the IAEA. The above mentioned methodology is based on the development of the so-called FEP list (Features, Events, Process), on selection procedure of the FEP list, specifically regarding particular criteria defined in advance, and on application of systematic methods of selecting relevant scenarios (in this case the matrix of interactions method has been applied). The main aim and purpose of a methodology based on the analysis of FEPs (identification, classification, selection, construction of the matrix of interactions) consists of observing and documenting all the features, events and processes due to be taken into consideration while assessing safety of a particular radioactive waste disposal system. In this connection, by radioactive waste disposal system we mean a system consisting of radioactive waste and engineer features (barriers), geological environment within which the disposal site is located, surface-environment (soil, sediments, vegetation, etc.) and human population near the disposal site. The final step of the application of this methodology consists of generating the scenario using the matrix of interactions. So, for shallow land facility situated on the macrolocation Trgovska gora, applying

Estimation of Tree Cover in an Agricultural Parkland of Senegal Using Rule-Based Regression Tree Modeling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefanie M. Herrmann

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Field trees are an integral part of the farmed parkland landscape in West Africa and provide multiple benefits to the local environment and livelihoods. While field trees have received increasing interest in the context of strengthening resilience to climate variability and change, the actual extent of farmed parkland and spatial patterns of tree cover are largely unknown. We used the rule-based predictive modeling tool Cubist® to estimate field tree cover in the west-central agricultural region of Senegal. A collection of rules and associated multiple linear regression models was constructed from (1 a reference dataset of percent tree cover derived from very high spatial resolution data (2 m Orbview as the dependent variable, and (2 ten years of 10-day 250 m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI composites and derived phenological metrics as independent variables. Correlation coefficients between modeled and reference percent tree cover of 0.88 and 0.77 were achieved for training and validation data respectively, with absolute mean errors of 1.07 and 1.03 percent tree cover. The resulting map shows a west-east gradient from high tree cover in the peri-urban areas of horticulture and arboriculture to low tree cover in the more sparsely populated eastern part of the study area. A comparison of current (2000s tree cover along this gradient with historic cover as seen on Corona images reveals dynamics of change but also areas of remarkable stability of field tree cover since 1968. The proposed modeling approach can help to identify locations of high and low tree cover in dryland environments and guide ground studies and management interventions aimed at promoting the integration of field trees in agricultural systems.

A distributed spanning tree algorithm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansen, Karl Erik; Jørgensen, Ulla Lundin; Nielsen, Svend Hauge

1988-01-01

We present a distributed algorithm for constructing a spanning tree for connected undirected graphs. Nodes correspond to processors and edges correspond to two way channels. Each processor has initially a distinct identity and all processors perform the same algorithm. Computation as well as comm...

Accurate phylogenetic tree reconstruction from quartets: a heuristic approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Reaz, Rezwana; Bayzid, Md Shamsuzzoha; Rahman, M Sohel

2014-01-01

Supertree methods construct trees on a set of taxa (species) combining many smaller trees on the overlapping subsets of the entire set of taxa. A 'quartet' is an unrooted tree over 4 taxa, hence the quartet-based supertree methods combine many 4-taxon unrooted trees into a single and coherent tree over the complete set of taxa. Quartet-based phylogeny reconstruction methods have been receiving considerable attentions in the recent years. An accurate and efficient quartet-based method might be competitive with the current best phylogenetic tree reconstruction methods (such as maximum likelihood or Bayesian MCMC analyses), without being as computationally intensive. In this paper, we present a novel and highly accurate quartet-based phylogenetic tree reconstruction method. We performed an extensive experimental study to evaluate the accuracy and scalability of our approach on both simulated and biological datasets.

An Algorithm for Modelling the Impact of the Judicial Conflict-Resolution Process on Construction Investment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrej Bugajev

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In this article, the modelling of the judicial conflict-resolution process is considered from a construction investor’s point of view. Such modelling is important for improving the risk management for construction investors and supporting sustainable city development by supporting the development of rules regulating the construction process. Thus, this raises the problem of evaluation of different decisions and selection of the optimal one followed by distribution extraction. First, the example of such a process is analysed and schematically represented. Then, it is formalised as a graph, which is described in the form of a decision graph with cycles. We use some natural problem properties and provide the algorithm to convert this graph into a tree. Then, we propose the algorithm to evaluate profits for different scenarios with estimation of time, which is done by integration of an average daily costs function. Afterwards, the optimisation problem is solved and the optimal investor strategy is obtained—this allows one to extract the construction project profit distribution, which can be used for further analysis by standard risk (and other important information-evaluation techniques. The overall algorithm complexity is analysed, the computational experiment is performed and conclusions are formulated.

Risk assessment of mitigated domino scenarios in process facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Landucci, Gabriele; Necci, Amos; Antonioni, Giacomo; Argenti, Francesca; Cozzani, Valerio

2017-01-01

The propagation of accidents among process units may lead to severe cascading events or domino effects with catastrophic consequences. Prevention, mitigation and management of domino scenarios is of utmost importance and may be achieved in industrial facilities through the adoption of multiple safety layers. The present study was aimed at developing an innovative methodology to address the quantitative risk assessment (QRA) of domino scenarios accounting for the presence and role of safety barriers. Based on the expected performance of safety barriers, a dedicated event tree analysis allowed the identification and the assessment of the frequencies of the different end-point events deriving from unmitigated and partially mitigated domino chains. Specific criteria were introduced in consequence analysis to consider the mitigation effects of end-point scenarios deriving from safety barriers. Individual and societal risk indexes were calculated accounting for safety barriers and the mitigated scenarios that may result from their actions. The application of the methodology to case-studies of industrial interest proved the importance of introducing a specific systematic and quantitative analysis of safety barrier performance when addressing escalation leading to domino effect. - Highlights: • A methodology was developed to account for safety barrier performance in escalation prevention. • The methodology allows quantitative assessment accounting for safety barrier performance. • A detailed analysis of transient mitigated scenarios is allowed by the developed procedure. • The procedure allows accounting for safety barrier performance in QRA of domino scenarios. • An important reduction in the risk due to domino scenarios is evidenced when considering safety barriers.

Selective logging in tropical forests decreases the robustness of liana-tree interaction networks to the loss of host tree species.

Science.gov (United States)

Magrach, Ainhoa; Senior, Rebecca A; Rogers, Andrew; Nurdin, Deddy; Benedick, Suzan; Laurance, William F; Santamaria, Luis; Edwards, David P

2016-03-16

Selective logging is one of the major drivers of tropical forest degradation, causing important shifts in species composition. Whether such changes modify interactions between species and the networks in which they are embedded remain fundamental questions to assess the 'health' and ecosystem functionality of logged forests. We focus on interactions between lianas and their tree hosts within primary and selectively logged forests in the biodiversity hotspot of Malaysian Borneo. We found that lianas were more abundant, had higher species richness, and different species compositions in logged than in primary forests. Logged forests showed heavier liana loads disparately affecting slow-growing tree species, which could exacerbate the loss of timber value and carbon storage already associated with logging. Moreover, simulation scenarios of host tree local species loss indicated that logging might decrease the robustness of liana-tree interaction networks if heavily infested trees (i.e. the most connected ones) were more likely to disappear. This effect is partially mitigated in the short term by the colonization of host trees by a greater diversity of liana species within logged forests, yet this might not compensate for the loss of preferred tree hosts in the long term. As a consequence, species interaction networks may show a lagged response to disturbance, which may trigger sudden collapses in species richness and ecosystem function in response to additional disturbances, representing a new type of 'extinction debt'. © 2016 The Author(s).

Selective logging in tropical forests decreases the robustness of liana–tree interaction networks to the loss of host tree species

Science.gov (United States)

Magrach, Ainhoa; Senior, Rebecca A.; Rogers, Andrew; Nurdin, Deddy; Benedick, Suzan; Laurance, William F.; Santamaria, Luis; Edwards, David P.

2016-01-01

Selective logging is one of the major drivers of tropical forest degradation, causing important shifts in species composition. Whether such changes modify interactions between species and the networks in which they are embedded remain fundamental questions to assess the ‘health’ and ecosystem functionality of logged forests. We focus on interactions between lianas and their tree hosts within primary and selectively logged forests in the biodiversity hotspot of Malaysian Borneo. We found that lianas were more abundant, had higher species richness, and different species compositions in logged than in primary forests. Logged forests showed heavier liana loads disparately affecting slow-growing tree species, which could exacerbate the loss of timber value and carbon storage already associated with logging. Moreover, simulation scenarios of host tree local species loss indicated that logging might decrease the robustness of liana–tree interaction networks if heavily infested trees (i.e. the most connected ones) were more likely to disappear. This effect is partially mitigated in the short term by the colonization of host trees by a greater diversity of liana species within logged forests, yet this might not compensate for the loss of preferred tree hosts in the long term. As a consequence, species interaction networks may show a lagged response to disturbance, which may trigger sudden collapses in species richness and ecosystem function in response to additional disturbances, representing a new type of ‘extinction debt’. PMID:26936241

Waste Isolation Safety Assessment Program scenario analysis methods for use in assessing the safety of the geologic isolation of nuclear waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greenborg, J.; Winegardner, W.K.; Pelto, P.J.; Voss, J.W.; Stottlemyre, J.A.; Forbes, I.A.; Fussell, J.B.; Burkholder, H.C.

1978-11-01

The relative utility of the various safety analysis methods to scenario analysis for a repository system was evaluated by judging the degree to which certain criteria are satisfied by use of the method. Six safety analysis methods were reviewed in this report for possible use in scenario analysis of nuclear waste repositories: expert opinion, perspectives analysis, fault trees/event trees, Monte Carlo simulation, Markov chains, and classical systems analysis. Four criteria have been selected. The criteria suggest that the methods: (1) be quantitative and scientifically based; (2) model the potential disruptive events and processes, (3) model the system before and after failure (sufficiently detailed to provide for subsequent consequence analysis); and (4) be compatible with the level of available system knowledge and data. Expert opinion, fault trees/event trees, Monte Carlo simulation and classical systems analysis were judged to have the greatest potential appliation to the problem of scenario analysis. The methods were found to be constrained by limited data and by knowledge of the processes governing the system. It was determined that no single method is clearly superior to others when measured against all the criteria. Therefore, to get the best understanding of system behavior, a combination of the methods is recommended. Monte Carlo simulation was judged to be the most suitable matrix in which to incorporate a combination of methods

Environmental impacts of forest road construction on mountainous terrain.

Science.gov (United States)

Caliskan, Erhan

2013-03-15

Forest roads are the base infrastructure foundation of forestry operations. These roads entail a complex engineering effort because they can cause substantial environmental damage to forests and include a high-cost construction. This study was carried out in four sample sites of Giresun, Trabzon(2) and Artvin Forest Directorate, which is in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The areas have both steep terrain (30-50% gradient) and very steep terrain (51-80% gradient). Bulldozers and hydraulic excavators were determined to be the main machines for forest road construction, causing environmental damage and cross sections in mountainous areas.As a result of this study, the percent damage to forests was determined as follows: on steep terrain, 21% of trees were damaged by excavators and 33% of trees were damaged by bulldozers during forest road construction, and on very steep terrain, 27% of trees were damaged by excavators and 44% of trees were damaged by bulldozers during forest road construction. It was also determined that on steep terrain, when excavators were used, 12.23% less forest area was destroyed compared with when bulldozers were used and 16.13% less area was destroyed by excavators on very steep terrain. In order to reduce the environmental damage on the forest ecosystem, especially in steep terrains, hydraulic excavators should replace bulldozers in forest road construction activities.

Environmental Impacts of Forest Road Construction on Mountainous Terrain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erhan Caliskan

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Forest roads are the base infrastructure foundation of forestry operations. These roads entail a complex engineering effort because they can cause substantial environmental damage to forests and include a high-cost construction. This study was carried out in four sample sites of Giresun, Trabzon(2 and Artvin Forest Directorate, which is in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The areas have both steep terrain (30-50% gradient and very steep terrain (51-80% gradient. Bulldozers and hydraulic excavators were determined to be the main machines for forest road construction, causing environmental damage and cross sections in mountainous areas.As a result of this study, the percent damage to forests was determined as follows: on steep terrain, 21% of trees were damaged by excavators and 33% of trees were damaged by bulldozers during forest road construction, and on very steep terrain, 27% of trees were damaged by excavators and 44% of trees were damaged by bulldozers during forest road construction. It was also determined that on steep terrain, when excavators were used, 12.23% less forest area was destroyed compared with when bulldozers were used and 16.13% less area was destroyed by excavators on very steep terrain. In order to reduce the environmental damage on the forest ecosystem, especially in steep terrains, hydraulic excavators should replace bulldozers in forest road construction activities.

A comparison of three design tree based search algorithms for the detection of engineering parts constructed with CATIA V5 in large databases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robin Roj

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This paper presents three different search engines for the detection of CAD-parts in large databases. The analysis of the contained information is performed by the export of the data that is stored in the structure trees of the CAD-models. A preparation program generates one XML-file for every model, which in addition to including the data of the structure tree, also owns certain physical properties of each part. The first search engine is specializes in the discovery of standard parts, like screws or washers. The second program uses certain user input as search parameters, and therefore has the ability to perform personalized queries. The third one compares one given reference part with all parts in the database, and locates files that are identical, or similar to, the reference part. All approaches run automatically, and have the analysis of the structure tree in common. Files constructed with CATIA V5, and search engines written with Python have been used for the implementation. The paper also includes a short comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of each program, as well as a performance test.

Quasi-Optimal Elimination Trees for 2D Grids with Singularities

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A. Paszyńska

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We construct quasi-optimal elimination trees for 2D finite element meshes with singularities. These trees minimize the complexity of the solution of the discrete system. The computational cost estimates of the elimination process model the execution of the multifrontal algorithms in serial and in parallel shared-memory executions. Since the meshes considered are a subspace of all possible mesh partitions, we call these minimizers quasi-optimal. We minimize the cost functionals using dynamic programming. Finding these minimizers is more computationally expensive than solving the original algebraic system. Nevertheless, from the insights provided by the analysis of the dynamic programming minima, we propose a heuristic construction of the elimination trees that has cost ONelog⁡Ne, where Ne is the number of elements in the mesh. We show that this heuristic ordering has similar computational cost to the quasi-optimal elimination trees found with dynamic programming and outperforms state-of-the-art alternatives in our numerical experiments.

Component-based modeling of systems for automated fault tree generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Majdara, Aref; Wakabayashi, Toshio

2009-01-01

One of the challenges in the field of automated fault tree construction is to find an efficient modeling approach that can support modeling of different types of systems without ignoring any necessary details. In this paper, we are going to represent a new system of modeling approach for computer-aided fault tree generation. In this method, every system model is composed of some components and different types of flows propagating through them. Each component has a function table that describes its input-output relations. For the components having different operational states, there is also a state transition table. Each component can communicate with other components in the system only through its inputs and outputs. A trace-back algorithm is proposed that can be applied to the system model to generate the required fault trees. The system modeling approach and the fault tree construction algorithm are applied to a fire sprinkler system and the results are presented

Quasi-Optimal Elimination Trees for 2D Grids with Singularities

KAUST Repository

Paszyńska, A.

2015-04-22

We construct quasi-optimal elimination trees for 2D finite element meshes with singularities.These trees minimize the complexity of the solution of the discrete system. The computational cost estimates of the elimination process model the execution of the multifrontal algorithms in serial and in parallel shared-memory executions. Since the meshes considered are a subspace of all possible mesh partitions, we call these minimizers quasi-optimal.We minimize the cost functionals using dynamic programming. Finding these minimizers is more computationally expensive than solving the original algebraic system. Nevertheless, from the insights provided by the analysis of the dynamic programming minima, we propose a heuristic construction of the elimination trees that has cost O(log(Ne log(Ne)), where N e is the number of elements in the mesh.We show that this heuristic ordering has similar computational cost to the quasi-optimal elimination trees found with dynamic programming and outperforms state-of-the-art alternatives in our numerical experiments.

Quasi-Optimal Elimination Trees for 2D Grids with Singularities

KAUST Repository

Paszyńska, A.; Paszyński, M.; Jopek, K.; Woźniak, M.; Goik, D.; Gurgul, P.; AbouEisha, H.; Moshkov, Mikhail; Calo, Victor M.; Lenharth, A.; Nguyen, D.; Pingali, K.

2015-01-01

We construct quasi-optimal elimination trees for 2D finite element meshes with singularities.These trees minimize the complexity of the solution of the discrete system. The computational cost estimates of the elimination process model the execution of the multifrontal algorithms in serial and in parallel shared-memory executions. Since the meshes considered are a subspace of all possible mesh partitions, we call these minimizers quasi-optimal.We minimize the cost functionals using dynamic programming. Finding these minimizers is more computationally expensive than solving the original algebraic system. Nevertheless, from the insights provided by the analysis of the dynamic programming minima, we propose a heuristic construction of the elimination trees that has cost O(log(Ne log(Ne)), where N e is the number of elements in the mesh.We show that this heuristic ordering has similar computational cost to the quasi-optimal elimination trees found with dynamic programming and outperforms state-of-the-art alternatives in our numerical experiments.

MAPLE-II. A program for plotting fault trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poucet, A.; Van Den Muyzenberg, C.L.

1987-01-01

The MAPLE II code is an improved version of the MAPLE program for plotting fault trees. MAPLE II has added features which make it a versatile tool for drawing large and complex logic trees. The code is developed as part of a package for computer aided fault tree construction and analysis in which it is integrated and used as a documentation tool. However the MAPLE II code can be used as a separate program which uses as input a structure function of a tree and a description of the events and gates which make up the tree. This report includes a short description of the code and of its features. Moreover it contains the how-to-use and some indications for implementing the code and for adapting it to different graphics systems

A critical analysis of the NegaWatt scenario

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

2011-01-01

The author proposes a rather radical critical analysis of the NegaWatt scenario which is mainly based on the development of the use of solid and liquid biomass produced by forests and farms, and of some marginal resources like wood and urban wastes. He shows that wood resources in France are not sufficient as part of the wood is used for construction. A further exploitation of wood would lead to a dramatic increase of costs. He shows that the scenario overestimates the available wood in France, and moreover, that the promoters of the scenario overstep the physical, biological, social and economic limits of the real world of agriculture

Decision tree methods: applications for classification and prediction.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Yan-Yan; Lu, Ying

2015-04-25

Decision tree methodology is a commonly used data mining method for establishing classification systems based on multiple covariates or for developing prediction algorithms for a target variable. This method classifies a population into branch-like segments that construct an inverted tree with a root node, internal nodes, and leaf nodes. The algorithm is non-parametric and can efficiently deal with large, complicated datasets without imposing a complicated parametric structure. When the sample size is large enough, study data can be divided into training and validation datasets. Using the training dataset to build a decision tree model and a validation dataset to decide on the appropriate tree size needed to achieve the optimal final model. This paper introduces frequently used algorithms used to develop decision trees (including CART, C4.5, CHAID, and QUEST) and describes the SPSS and SAS programs that can be used to visualize tree structure.

Finding Minimum-Power Broadcast Trees for Wireless Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Arabshahi, Payman; Gray, Andrew; Das, Arindam; El-Sharkawi, Mohamed; Marks, Robert, II

2004-01-01

Some algorithms have been devised for use in a method of constructing tree graphs that represent connections among the nodes of a wireless communication network. These algorithms provide for determining the viability of any given candidate connection tree and for generating an initial set of viable trees that can be used in any of a variety of search algorithms (e.g., a genetic algorithm) to find a tree that enables the network to broadcast from a source node to all other nodes while consuming the minimum amount of total power. The method yields solutions better than those of a prior algorithm known as the broadcast incremental power algorithm, albeit at a slightly greater computational cost.

Attack tree based cyber security analysis of nuclear digital instrumentation and control systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khand, P.A.

2009-01-01

To maintain the cyber security, nuclear digital Instrumentation and Control (I and C) systems must be analyzed for security risks because a single security breach due to a cyber attack can cause system failure, which can have catastrophic consequences on the environment and staff of a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). Attack trees have been widely used to analyze the cyber security of digital systems due to their ability to capture system specific as well as attacker specific details. Therefore, a methodology based on attack trees has been proposed to analyze the cyber security of the systems. The methodology has been applied for the Cyber Security Analysis (CSA) of a Bistable Processor (BP) of a Reactor Protection System (RPS). Threats have been described according to their source. Attack scenarios have been generated using the attack tree and possible counter measures according to the Security Risk Level (SRL) of each scenario have been suggested. Moreover, cyber Security Requirements (SRs) have been elicited, and suitability of the requirements has been checked. (author)

Future nuclear energy scenarios for Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roelofs, F.; Van Heek, A.

2010-01-01

Nuclear energy is back on the agenda worldwide. In order to prepare for the next decades and to set priorities in nuclear R and D and investment, market share scenarios are evaluated. This allows to identify the triggers which influence the market penetration of future nuclear reactor technologies. To this purpose, scenarios for a future nuclear reactor park in Europe have been analysed applying an integrated dynamic process modelling technique. Various market share scenarios for nuclear energy are derived including sub-variants with regard to the intra-nuclear options taken, e.g. introduction date of Gen-III (i.e. EPR) and Gen-IV (i.e. SCWR, HTR, FR) reactors, level of reprocessing, and so forth. The assessment was undertaken using the DANESS code which allows to provide a complete picture of mass-flow and economics of the various nuclear energy system scenarios. The analyses show that the future European nuclear park will exist of combinations of Gen-III and Gen-IV reactors. This mix will always consist of a set of reactor types each having its specific strengths. Furthermore, the analyses highlight the triggers influencing the choice between different nuclear energy deployment scenarios. In addition, a dynamic assessment is made with regard to manpower requirements for the construction of a future nuclear fleet in the different scenarios. (authors)

Patch-based image segmentation of satellite imagery using minimum spanning tree construction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Skurikhin, Alexei N [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2010-01-01

We present a method for hierarchical image segmentation and feature extraction. This method builds upon the combination of the detection of image spectral discontinuities using Canny edge detection and the image Laplacian, followed by the construction of a hierarchy of segmented images of successively reduced levels of details. These images are represented as sets of polygonized pixel patches (polygons) attributed with spectral and structural characteristics. This hierarchy forms the basis for object-oriented image analysis. To build fine level-of-detail representation of the original image, seed partitions (polygons) are built upon a triangular mesh composed of irregular sized triangles, whose spatial arrangement is adapted to the image content. This is achieved by building the triangular mesh on the top of the detected spectral discontinuities that form a network of constraints for the Delaunay triangulation. A polygonized image is represented as a spatial network in the form of a graph with vertices which correspond to the polygonal partitions and graph edges reflecting pairwise partitions relations. Image graph partitioning is based on the iterative graph oontraction using Boruvka's Minimum Spanning Tree algorithm. An important characteristic of the approach is that the agglomeration of partitions is constrained by the detected spectral discontinuities; thus the shapes of agglomerated partitions are more likely to correspond to the outlines of real-world objects.

Self-constructed tree-shape high thermal conductivity nanosilver networks in epoxy.

Science.gov (United States)

Pashayi, Kamyar; Fard, Hafez Raeisi; Lai, Fengyuan; Iruvanti, Sushumna; Plawsky, Joel; Borca-Tasciuc, Theodorian

2014-04-21

We report the formation of high aspect ratio nanoscale tree-shape silver networks in epoxy, at low temperatures (thermal conductivity (κ) of the nanocomposite compared to the polymer matrix. The networks form through a three-step process comprising of self-assembly by diffusion limited aggregation of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) coated nanoparticles, removal of PVP coating from the surface, and sintering of silver nanoparticles in high aspect ratio networked structures. Controlling self-assembly and sintering by carefully designed multistep temperature and time processing leads to κ of our silver nanocomposites that are up to 300% of the present state of the art polymer nanocomposites at similar volume fractions. Our investigation of the κ enhancements enabled by tree-shaped network nanocomposites provides a basis for the development of new polymer nanocomposites for thermal transport and storage applications.

Soil retention of hexavalent chromium released from construction and demolition waste in a road-base-application scenario.

Science.gov (United States)

Butera, Stefania; Trapp, Stefan; Astrup, Thomas F; Christensen, Thomas H

2015-11-15

We investigated the retention of Cr(VI) in three subsoils with low organic matter content in laboratory experiments at concentration levels relevant to represent leachates from construction and demolition waste (C&DW) reused as unbound material in road construction. The retention mechanism appeared to be reduction and subsequent precipitation as Cr(III) on the soil. The reduction process was slow and in several experiments it was still proceeding at the end of the six-month experimental period. The overall retention reaction fit well with a second-order reaction governed by actual Cr(VI) concentration and reduction capacity of the soil. The experimentally determined reduction capacities and second-order kinetic parameters were used to model, for a 100-year period, the one-dimensional migration of Cr(VI) in the subsoil under a layer of C&DW. The resulting Cr(VI) concentration would be negligible below 7-70 cm depth. However, in rigid climates and with high water infiltration through the road pavement, the reduction reaction could be so slow that Cr(VI) might migrate as deep as 200 cm under the road. The reaction parameters and the model can form the basis for systematically assessing under which scenarios Cr(VI) from C&DW could lead to an environmental issue for ground- and receiving surface waters. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

APPLIED BOTANY, I. PROTECTION OF TREES AND BUSHES IN THE INVESTMENT PROCESS IN URBAN AREAS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariola Garczyńska

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Ecosystem services are the benefits resulting from resources and processes in nature. Trees and stand densities constitute a significant element of the landscape (both in urban and rural areas and serve a number of ecosystem functions, forming an inherent part of each group of benefits singled out on the basis of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. In the thesis, selected ecosystem services of trees and stand densities were detailed - provisioning, regulatory, supporting and cultural functions. Diagnosis of services performed by trees and their valuation may contribute to taking increased care of them and protection during performing various investments, it is therefore appropriate to launch multifaceted ecological education to each person, particularly to those directly responsible for trees and bushes in towns and rural areas. In order to restrict construction stress to trees and bushes, environmental impact assessment has to be made as soon as the construction planning is being made (natural, cultural and landscape conditions should be provided additionally, it is advisable to conduct a dendrological inventory for planning purposes. Appropriate protection of trees and standing densities is also legally regulated by the Nature Conservation Act and the Construction Law. During the investment process, the trees and their settlement conditions should be adequately secured , so that it will not affect their viability. After completed investment, the condition of the tree stand should be monitored.

Constructing Consistent Multiscale Scenarios by Transdisciplinary Processes: the Case of Mountain Regions Facing Global Change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fridolin Simon. Brand

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Alpine regions in Europe, in particular, face demanding local challenges, e.g., the decline in the agriculture and timber industries, and are also prone to global changes, such as in climate, with potentially severe impacts on tourism. We focus on the Visp region in the Upper Valais, Switzerland, and ask how the process of stakeholder involvement in research practice can contribute to a better understanding of the specific challenges and future development of mountainous regions under global change. Based on a coupled human-environment system (HES perspective, we carried out a formative scenario analysis to develop a set of scenarios for the future directions of the Visp region. In addition, we linked these regional scenarios to context scenarios developed at the global and Swiss levels via an external consistency analysis. This method allows the coupling of both the scenario building process and the scenarios as such. We used a functional-dynamic approach to theory-practice cooperation, i.e., the involvement of key stakeholders from, for example, tourism, forestry, and administration, differed in type and intensity during the steps of the research process. In our study, we experienced strong problem awareness among the stakeholders concerning the impacts of global change and local challenges. The guiding research question was commonly defined and problem ownership was more or less balanced. We arrived at six multiscale scenarios that open up future trajectories for the Visp region, and present generic strategies to cope with global and local challenges. The results show that local identity, spatial planning, community budget, and demographic development are important steering elements in the region's future development. We suggest that method-guided transdisciplinary processes result in a richer picture and a more systemic understanding, which enable a discussion of critical and surprising issues.

Simulated long-term effects of varying tree retention on wood production, dead wood and carbon stock changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Santaniello, Francesca; Djupström, Line B; Ranius, Thomas; Weslien, Jan; Rudolphi, Jörgen; Sonesson, Johan

2017-10-01

Boreal forests are an important source of timber and pulp wood, but provide also other products and services. Utilizing a simulation program and field data from a tree retention experiment in a Scots pine forest in central Sweden, we simulated the consequences during the following 100 years of various levels of retention on production of merchantable wood, dead wood input (as a proxy for biodiversity), and carbon stock changes. At the stand level, wood production decreased with increased retention levels, while dead wood input and carbon stock increased. We also compared 12 scenarios representing a land sharing/land sparing gradient. In each scenario, a constant volume of wood was harvested with a specific level of retention in a 100-ha landscape. The area not needed to reach the defined volume was set-aside during a 100-year rotation period, leading to decreasing area of set-asides with increasing level of retention across the 12 scenarios. Dead wood input was positively affected by the level of tree retention whereas the average carbon stock decreased slightly with increasing level of tree retention. The scenarios will probably vary in how they favor species preferring different substrates. Therefore, we conclude that a larger variation of landscape-level conservation strategies, also including active creation of dead wood, may be an attractive complement to the existing management. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Real-Time Flood Control by Tree-Based Model Predictive Control Including Forecast Uncertainty: A Case Study Reservoir in Turkey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gökçen Uysal

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Optimal control of reservoirs is a challenging task due to conflicting objectives, complex system structure, and uncertainties in the system. Real time control decisions suffer from streamflow forecast uncertainty. This study aims to use Probabilistic Streamflow Forecasts (PSFs having a lead-time up to 48 h as input for the recurrent reservoir operation problem. A related technique for decision making is multi-stage stochastic optimization using scenario trees, referred to as Tree-based Model Predictive Control (TB-MPC. Deterministic Streamflow Forecasts (DSFs are provided by applying random perturbations on perfect data. PSFs are synthetically generated from DSFs by a new approach which explicitly presents dynamic uncertainty evolution. We assessed different variables in the generation of stochasticity and compared the results using different scenarios. The developed real-time hourly flood control was applied to a test case which had limited reservoir storage and restricted downstream condition. According to hindcasting closed-loop experiment results, TB-MPC outperforms the deterministic counterpart in terms of decreased downstream flood risk according to different independent forecast scenarios. TB-MPC was also tested considering different number of tree branches, forecast horizons, and different inflow conditions. We conclude that using synthetic PSFs in TB-MPC can provide more robust solutions against forecast uncertainty by resolution of uncertainty in trees.

Desirability and feasibility of sustainable urban transport systems. An expert-based strategic scenario approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nijkamp, P.; Ouwersloot, H.; Rienstra, S.A. [Department of Spatial Economics, Faculty of Economics and Econometrics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

1995-09-01

Current trends in transport indicate that the system is moving away from sustainability and that major changes are necessary to make the transport system more compatible with environmental sustainability. Main problems may occur in urban transport, where not many promising solutions are expected, while the problems are severe. In view of the great number of uncertainties, we will in our paper resort to scenarios. In the paper, expert scenarios, which lead to a sustainable transport system are constructed by applying the recently developed `Spider model`. Based on a set of distinct characteristics, leading to eight axes in the spatial, institutional, economic and social-psychological field, an evaluation framework is constructed, which visualizes the driving forces that largely influence the future of the transport system. Next, expected and desired scenarios are constructed by means of opinions of Dutch transport experts - both average scenarios and scenarios of segments of the respondents - which have been investigated by means of a survey. The expected scenarios indicate that many current trends will continue, while the transport system is largely the same as the current one. The desired scenarios on the other hand, suggest the emergence and the need for a more collective system, in which also many new modes are operating. In the paper the resulting urban transport systems are also discussed. By calculating the CO2 emissions in the average expected and desired scenario, it appears that the expected scenario does not lead to a large scale reduction of those emissions; the desired scenario however, may lead to a large scale reduction of the emissions. The conclusion is that the differences in expert opinion are small and that the road towards a sustainable (urban) transport system is still far away, although the compact city concept may perhaps offer some solution. 6 figs., 2 tabs., 18 refs.

Imitation learning of car driving skills with decision trees and random forests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cichosz Paweł

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Machine learning is an appealing and useful approach to creating vehicle control algorithms, both for simulated and real vehicles. One common learning scenario that is often possible to apply is learning by imitation, in which the behavior of an exemplary driver provides training instances for a supervised learning algorithm. This article follows this approach in the domain of simulated car racing, using the TORCS simulator. In contrast to most prior work on imitation learning, a symbolic decision tree knowledge representation is adopted, which combines potentially high accuracy with human readability, an advantage that can be important in many applications. Decision trees are demonstrated to be capable of representing high quality control models, reaching the performance level of sophisticated pre-designed algorithms. This is achieved by enhancing the basic imitation learning scenario to include active retraining, automatically triggered on control failures. It is also demonstrated how better stability and generalization can be achieved by sacrificing human-readability and using decision tree model ensembles. The methodology for learning control models contributed by this article can be hopefully applied to solve real-world control tasks, as well as to develop video game bots

Tree mortality predicted from drought-induced vascular damage

Science.gov (United States)

Anderegg, William R.L.; Flint, Alan L.; Huang, Cho-ying; Flint, Lorraine E.; Berry, Joseph A.; Davis, Frank W.; Sperry, John S.; Field, Christopher B.

2015-01-01

The projected responses of forest ecosystems to warming and drying associated with twenty-first-century climate change vary widely from resiliency to widespread tree mortality1, 2, 3. Current vegetation models lack the ability to account for mortality of overstorey trees during extreme drought owing to uncertainties in mechanisms and thresholds causing mortality4, 5. Here we assess the causes of tree mortality, using field measurements of branch hydraulic conductivity during ongoing mortality in Populus tremuloides in the southwestern United States and a detailed plant hydraulics model. We identify a lethal plant water stress threshold that corresponds with a loss of vascular transport capacity from air entry into the xylem. We then use this hydraulic-based threshold to simulate forest dieback during historical drought, and compare predictions against three independent mortality data sets. The hydraulic threshold predicted with 75% accuracy regional patterns of tree mortality as found in field plots and mortality maps derived from Landsat imagery. In a high-emissions scenario, climate models project that drought stress will exceed the observed mortality threshold in the southwestern United States by the 2050s. Our approach provides a powerful and tractable way of incorporating tree mortality into vegetation models to resolve uncertainty over the fate of forest ecosystems in a changing climate.

Extraction of airway trees using multiple hypothesis tracking and template matching

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Raghavendra, Selvan; Petersen, Jens; Pedersen, Jesper Johannes Holst

2016-01-01

used in constructing a multiple hypothesis tree, which is then traversed to reach decisions. The proposed modifications remove the need for local thresholding of hypotheses as decisions are made entirely based on statistical comparisons involving the hypothesis tree. The results show improvements......Knowledge of airway tree morphology has important clinical applications in diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We present an automatic tree extraction method based on multiple hypothesis tracking and template matching for this purpose and evaluate its performance on chest CT images...

Quantitative Verification and Synthesis of Attack-Defence Scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aslanyan, Zaruhi; Nielson, Flemming; Parker, David

2016-01-01

analysis of quantitative properties of complex attack-defence scenarios, using an extension of attack-defence trees which models temporal ordering of actions and allows explicit dependencies in the strategies adopted by attackers and defenders. We adopt a game-theoretic approach, translating attack...... which guarantee or optimise some quantitative property, such as the probability of a successful attack, the expected cost incurred, or some multi-objective trade-off between the two. We implement our approach, building upon the PRISM-games model checker, and apply it to a case study of an RFID goods...

Improving risk assessment by defining consistent and reliable system scenarios

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Mazzorana

2009-02-01

Full Text Available During the entire procedure of risk assessment for hydrologic hazards, the selection of consistent and reliable scenarios, constructed in a strictly systematic way, is fundamental for the quality and reproducibility of the results. However, subjective assumptions on relevant impact variables such as sediment transport intensity on the system loading side and weak point response mechanisms repeatedly cause biases in the results, and consequently affect transparency and required quality standards. Furthermore, the system response of mitigation measures to extreme event loadings represents another key variable in hazard assessment, as well as the integral risk management including intervention planning. Formative Scenario Analysis, as a supplement to conventional risk assessment methods, is a technique to construct well-defined sets of assumptions to gain insight into a specific case and the potential system behaviour. By two case studies, carried out (1 to analyse sediment transport dynamics in a torrent section equipped with control measures, and (2 to identify hazards induced by woody debris transport at hydraulic weak points, the applicability of the Formative Scenario Analysis technique is presented. It is argued that during scenario planning in general and with respect to integral risk management in particular, Formative Scenario Analysis allows for the development of reliable and reproducible scenarios in order to design more specifically an application framework for the sustainable assessment of natural hazards impact. The overall aim is to optimise the hazard mapping and zoning procedure by methodologically integrating quantitative and qualitative knowledge.

Phase Transitions for Quantum XY-Model on the Cayley Tree of Order Three in Quantum Markov Chain Scheme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukhamedov, Farrukh; Saburov, Mansoor

2010-06-01

In the present paper we study forward Quantum Markov Chains (QMC) defined on a Cayley tree. Using the tree structure of graphs, we give a construction of quantum Markov chains on a Cayley tree. By means of such constructions we prove the existence of a phase transition for the XY-model on a Cayley tree of order three in QMC scheme. By the phase transition we mean the existence of two distinct QMC for the given family of interaction operators {K }. (author)

Live phylogeny with polytomies: Finding the most compact parsimonious trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Papamichail, D; Huang, A; Kennedy, E; Ott, J-L; Miller, A; Papamichail, G

2017-08-01

Construction of phylogenetic trees has traditionally focused on binary trees where all species appear on leaves, a problem for which numerous efficient solutions have been developed. Certain application domains though, such as viral evolution and transmission, paleontology, linguistics, and phylogenetic stemmatics, often require phylogeny inference that involves placing input species on ancestral tree nodes (live phylogeny), and polytomies. These requirements, despite their prevalence, lead to computationally harder algorithmic solutions and have been sparsely examined in the literature to date. In this article we prove some unique properties of most parsimonious live phylogenetic trees with polytomies, and their mapping to traditional binary phylogenetic trees. We show that our problem reduces to finding the most compact parsimonious tree for n species, and describe a novel efficient algorithm to find such trees without resorting to exhaustive enumeration of all possible tree topologies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fault tree construction of hybrid system requirements using qualitative formal method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jang-Soo; Cha, Sung-Deok

2005-01-01

When specifying requirements for software controlling hybrid systems and conducting safety analysis, engineers experience that requirements are often known only in qualitative terms and that existing fault tree analysis techniques provide little guidance on formulating and evaluating potential failure modes. In this paper, we propose Causal Requirements Safety Analysis (CRSA) as a technique to qualitatively evaluate causal relationship between software faults and physical hazards. This technique, extending qualitative formal method process and utilizing information captured in the state trajectory, provides specific guidelines on how to identify failure modes and relationship among them. Using a simplified electrical power system as an example, we describe step-by-step procedures of conducting CRSA. Our experience of applying CRSA to perform fault tree analysis on requirements for the Wolsong nuclear power plant shutdown system indicates that CRSA is an effective technique in assisting safety engineers

Stress Wave Propagation in Larch Plantation Trees-Numerical Simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Fenglu Liu; Fang Jiang; Xiping Wang; Houjiang Zhang; Wenhua Yu

2015-01-01

In this paper, we attempted to simulate stress wave propagation in virtual tree trunks and construct two dimensional (2D) wave-front maps in the longitudinal-radial section of the trunk. A tree trunk was modeled as an orthotropic cylinder in which wood properties along the fiber and in each of the two perpendicular directions were different. We used the COMSOL...

Futures of elderly care in Iran: A protocol with scenario approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Goharinezhad, Salime; Maleki, Mohammadreza; Baradaran, Hamid Reza; Ravaghi, Hamid

2016-01-01

Background: The number of people aged 60 and older is increasing faster than other age groups worldwide. Iran will experience a sharp aging population increase in the next decades, and this will pose new challenges to the healthcare system. Since providing high quality aged-care services would be the major concern of the policymakers, this question arises that what types of aged care services should be organized in the coming 10 years? This protocol has been designed to develop a set of scenarios for the future of elderly care in Iran. Methods: In this study, intuitive logics approach and Global Business Network (GBN) model were used to develop scenarios for elderly care in Iran. In terms of perspective, the scenarios in this approach are normative, qualitative with respect to methodology and deductive in constructing the process of scenarios. The three phases of GBN model are as follows: 1) Orientation: Identifying strategic levels, stakeholders, participants and time horizon; 2) Exploration: Identifying the driving forces and key uncertainties; 3) Synthesis: Defining the scenario logics and constructing scenario storyline. Results: Presently, two phases are completed and the results will be published in mid-2016. Conclusion: This study delivers a comprehensive framework for taking appropriate actions in providing care for the elderly in the future. Moreover, policy makers should specify and provide the full range of services for the elderly, and in doing so, the scenarios and key findings of this study could be of valuable help.

Plotting and analysis of fault trees in safety evaluation of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wild, A.

1979-12-01

Fault tree analysis is a useful tool in determining the safety and reliability of nuclear power plants. The main strength of the fault tree method, its ability to detect cross-links between systems, can be used only if fault trees are constructed for complete nuclear generating stations. Such trees are large and have to be handled by computers. A system is described for handling fault trees using small computers such as the HP-1000 with disc drive, graphics terminal and x-y plotter

The space of ultrametric phylogenetic trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Gavryushkin, Alex; Drummond, Alexei J

2016-08-21

The reliability of a phylogenetic inference method from genomic sequence data is ensured by its statistical consistency. Bayesian inference methods produce a sample of phylogenetic trees from the posterior distribution given sequence data. Hence the question of statistical consistency of such methods is equivalent to the consistency of the summary of the sample. More generally, statistical consistency is ensured by the tree space used to analyse the sample. In this paper, we consider two standard parameterisations of phylogenetic time-trees used in evolutionary models: inter-coalescent interval lengths and absolute times of divergence events. For each of these parameterisations we introduce a natural metric space on ultrametric phylogenetic trees. We compare the introduced spaces with existing models of tree space and formulate several formal requirements that a metric space on phylogenetic trees must possess in order to be a satisfactory space for statistical analysis, and justify them. We show that only a few known constructions of the space of phylogenetic trees satisfy these requirements. However, our results suggest that these basic requirements are not enough to distinguish between the two metric spaces we introduce and that the choice between metric spaces requires additional properties to be considered. Particularly, that the summary tree minimising the square distance to the trees from the sample might be different for different parameterisations. This suggests that further fundamental insight is needed into the problem of statistical consistency of phylogenetic inference methods. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

A method to study response of large trees to different amounts of available soil water

Science.gov (United States)

D.H. Marx; Shi-Jean S. Sung; J.S. Cunningham; M.D. Thompson; L.M. White

1995-01-01

A method was developed to manipulate available soil water on large trees by intercepting thrufall with gutters placed under tree canopies and irrigating the intercepted thrufall onto other trees. With this design, trees were exposed for 2 years to either 25% less thrufall, normal thrufall, or 25% additional thrufall.Undercanopy construction in these plots moderately...

A formal framework for scenario development in support of environmental decision-making

Science.gov (United States)

Mahmoud, M.; Liu, Yajing; Hartmann, H.; Stewart, S.; Wagener, T.; Semmens, D.; Stewart, R.; Gupta, H.; Dominguez, D.; Dominguez, F.; Hulse, D.; Letcher, R.; Rashleigh, Brenda; Smith, C.; Street, R.; Ticehurst, J.; Twery, M.; van, Delden H.; Waldick, R.; White, D.; Winter, L.

2009-01-01

Scenarios are possible future states of the world that represent alternative plausible conditions under different assumptions. Often, scenarios are developed in a context relevant to stakeholders involved in their applications since the evaluation of scenario outcomes and implications can enhance decision-making activities. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of scenario development and proposes a formal approach to scenario development in environmental decision-making. The discussion of current issues in scenario studies includes advantages and obstacles in utilizing a formal scenario development framework, and the different forms of uncertainty inherent in scenario development, as well as how they should be treated. An appendix for common scenario terminology has been attached for clarity. Major recommendations for future research in this area include proper consideration of uncertainty in scenario studies in particular in relation to stakeholder relevant information, construction of scenarios that are more diverse in nature, and sharing of information and resources among the scenario development research community. ?? 2008 Elsevier Ltd.

TURVA-2012: Formulation of radionuclide release scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marcos, Nuria; Hjerpe, Thomas; Snellman, Margit; Ikonen, Ari; Smith, Paul

2014-01-01

TURVA-2012 is Posiva's safety case in support of the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR) and application for a construction licence for a repository for disposal of spent nuclear fuel at the Olkiluoto site in south-western Finland. This paper gives a summary of the scenarios and the methodology followed in formulating them as described in TURVA-2012: Formulation of Radionuclide Release Scenarios (Posiva, 2013). The scenarios are further analysed in TURVA-2012: Assessment of Radionuclide Release Scenarios for the Repository System and TURVA-2012: Biosphere Assessment (Posiva, 2012a, 2012b). The formulation of scenarios takes into account the safety functions of the main barriers of the repository system and the uncertainties in the features, events, and processes (FEP) that may affect the entire disposal system (i.e. repository system plus the surface environment) from the emplacement of the first canister until the far future. In the report TURVA-2012: Performance Assessment (2012d), the performance of the engineered and natural barriers has been assessed against the loads expected during the evolution of the repository system and the site. Uncertainties have been identified and these are taken into account in the formulation of radionuclide release scenarios. The uncertainties in the FEP and evolution of the surface environment are taken into account in formulating the surface environment scenarios used ultimately in estimating radiation exposure. Formulating radionuclide release scenarios for the repository system links the reports Performance Assessment and Assessment of Radionuclide Release Scenarios for the Repository System. The formulation of radionuclide release scenarios for the surface environment brings together biosphere description and the surface environment FEP and is the link to the assessment of the surface environment scenarios summarised in TURVA-2012: Biosphere Assessment. (authors)

Decision and Inhibitory Trees for Decision Tables with Many-Valued Decisions

KAUST Repository

Azad, Mohammad

2018-06-06

Decision trees are one of the most commonly used tools in decision analysis, knowledge representation, machine learning, etc., for its simplicity and interpretability. We consider an extension of dynamic programming approach to process the whole set of decision trees for the given decision table which was previously only attainable by brute-force algorithms. We study decision tables with many-valued decisions (each row may contain multiple decisions) because they are more reasonable models of data in many cases. To address this problem in a broad sense, we consider not only decision trees but also inhibitory trees where terminal nodes are labeled with “̸= decision”. Inhibitory trees can sometimes describe more knowledge from datasets than decision trees. As for cost functions, we consider depth or average depth to minimize time complexity of trees, and the number of nodes or the number of the terminal, or nonterminal nodes to minimize the space complexity of trees. We investigate the multi-stage optimization of trees relative to some cost functions, and also the possibility to describe the whole set of strictly optimal trees. Furthermore, we study the bi-criteria optimization cost vs. cost and cost vs. uncertainty for decision trees, and cost vs. cost and cost vs. completeness for inhibitory trees. The most interesting application of the developed technique is the creation of multi-pruning and restricted multi-pruning approaches which are useful for knowledge representation and prediction. The experimental results show that decision trees constructed by these approaches can often outperform the decision trees constructed by the CART algorithm. Another application includes the comparison of 12 greedy heuristics for single- and bi-criteria optimization (cost vs. cost) of trees. We also study the three approaches (decision tables with many-valued decisions, decision tables with most common decisions, and decision tables with generalized decisions) to handle

Dry forest resilience varies under simulated climate‐management scenarios in a central Oregon, USA landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Halofsky, Joshua S; Halofsky, Jessica E; Burcsu, Theresa; Hemstrom, Miles A

Determining appropriate actions to create or maintain landscapes resilient to climate change is challenging because of uncertainty associated with potential effects of climate change and their interactions with land management. We used a set of climate-informed state-and-transition models to explore the effects of management and natural disturbances on vegetation composition and structure under different future climates. Models were run for dry forests of central Oregon under a fire suppression scenario (i.e., no management other than the continued suppression of wildfires) and an active management scenario characterized by light to moderate thinning from below and some prescribed fire, planting, and salvage logging. Without climate change, area in dry province forest types remained constant. With climate change, dry mixed-conifer forests increased in area (by an average of 21–26% by 2100), and moist mixed-conifer forests decreased in area (by an average of 36–60% by 2100), under both management scenarios. Average area in dry mixed-conifer forests varied little by management scenario, but potential decreases in the moist mixed-conifer forest were lower with active management. With changing climate in the dry province of central Oregon, our results suggest the likelihood of sustaining current levels of dense, moist mixed-conifer forests with large-diameter, old trees is low (less than a 10% chance) irrespective of management scenario; an opposite trend was observed under no climate change simulations. However, results also suggest active management within the dry and moist mixed-conifer forests that creates less dense forest conditions can increase the persistence of larger-diameter, older trees across the landscape. Owing to projected increases in wildfire, our results also suggest future distributions of tree structures will differ from the present. Overall, our projections indicate proactive management can increase forest resilience and sustain some societal

De novo analysis of electron impact mass spectra using fragmentation trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hufsky, Franziska; Rempt, Martin; Rasche, Florian; Pohnert, Georg; Böcker, Sebastian

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► We present a method for de novo analysis of accurate mass EI mass spectra of small molecules. ► This method identifies the molecular ion and thus the molecular formula where the molecular ion is present in the spectrum. ► Fragmentation trees are constructed by automated signal extraction and evaluation. ► These trees explain relevant fragmentation reactions. ► This method will be very helpful in the automated analysis of unknown metabolites. - Abstract: The automated fragmentation analysis of high resolution EI mass spectra based on a fragmentation tree algorithm is introduced. Fragmentation trees are constructed from EI spectra by automated signal extraction and evaluation. These trees explain relevant fragmentation reactions and assign molecular formulas to fragments. The method enables the identification of the molecular ion and the molecular formula of a metabolite if the molecular ion is present in the spectrum. These identifications are independent of existing library knowledge and, thus, support assignment and structural elucidation of unknown compounds. The method works even if the molecular ion is of very low abundance or hidden under contaminants with higher masses. We apply the algorithm to a selection of 50 derivatized and underivatized metabolites and demonstrate that in 78% of cases the molecular ion can be correctly assigned. The automatically constructed fragmentation trees correspond very well to published mechanisms and allow the assignment of specific relevant fragments and fragmentation pathways even in the most complex EI-spectra in our dataset. This method will be very helpful in the automated analysis of metabolites that are not included in common libraries and it thus has the potential to support the explorative character of metabolomics studies.

Predicting, deciding, learning: can one evaluate the 'success' of national climate scenarios?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hulme, Mike; Dessai, Suraje

2008-01-01

Scenarios may be understood as products and/or processes. Viewing scenario exercises as productive tends to emphasize their tangibility: scenario products may acquire value unrelated to the processes of their creation. Viewing scenario exercises as procedural tends to emphasize their modes of formation: the process of constructing scenarios may have benefits irrespective of the value of ensuing products. These two framings yield different expectations about how one might evaluate the 'success' or otherwise of scenario exercises. We illustrate three approaches to evaluating the success or otherwise of scenarios using the example of the series of national UK climate scenarios published between 1991 and 2002. These are: predictive success (has the future turned out as envisaged?), decision success (have 'good' decisions subsequently been made?) and learning success (have scenarios proved engaging and enabled learning?). We reflect on the different ways the 'success' of national climate scenarios might be evaluated and on the relationship between the productive and procedural dimensions of scenario exercises.

Automated fault tree analysis: the GRAFTER system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sancaktar, S.; Sharp, D.R.

1985-01-01

An inherent part of probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is the construction and analysis of detailed fault trees. For this purpose, a fault tree computer graphics code named GRAFTER has been developed. The code system centers around the GRAFTER code. This code is used interactively to construct, store, update and print fault trees of small or large sizes. The SIMON code is used to provide data for the basic event probabilities. ENCODE is used to process the GRAFTER files to prepare input for the WAMCUT code. WAMCUT is used to quantify the top event probability and to identify the cutsets. This code system has been extensively used in various PRA projects. It has resulted in reduced manpower costs, increased QA capability, ease of documentation and it has simplified sensitivity analyses. Because of its automated nature, it is also suitable for LIVING PRA Studies which require updating and modifications during the lifetime of the plant. Brief descriptions and capabilities of the GRAFTER, SIMON and ENCODE codes are provided; an application of the GRAFTER system is outlined; and conclusions and comments on the code system are given

Not seeing the forest for the trees: size of the minimum spanning trees (MSTs) forest and branch significance in MST-based phylogenetic analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Teixeira, Andreia Sofia; Monteiro, Pedro T; Carriço, João A; Ramirez, Mário; Francisco, Alexandre P

2015-01-01

Trees, including minimum spanning trees (MSTs), are commonly used in phylogenetic studies. But, for the research community, it may be unclear that the presented tree is just a hypothesis, chosen from among many possible alternatives. In this scenario, it is important to quantify our confidence in both the trees and the branches/edges included in such trees. In this paper, we address this problem for MSTs by introducing a new edge betweenness metric for undirected and weighted graphs. This spanning edge betweenness metric is defined as the fraction of equivalent MSTs where a given edge is present. The metric provides a per edge statistic that is similar to that of the bootstrap approach frequently used in phylogenetics to support the grouping of taxa. We provide methods for the exact computation of this metric based on the well known Kirchhoff's matrix tree theorem. Moreover, we implement and make available a module for the PHYLOViZ software and evaluate the proposed metric concerning both effectiveness and computational performance. Analysis of trees generated using multilocus sequence typing data (MLST) and the goeBURST algorithm revealed that the space of possible MSTs in real data sets is extremely large. Selection of the edge to be represented using bootstrap could lead to unreliable results since alternative edges are present in the same fraction of equivalent MSTs. The choice of the MST to be presented, results from criteria implemented in the algorithm that must be based in biologically plausible models.

Topological variation in single-gene phylogenetic trees

OpenAIRE

Castresana, Jose

2007-01-01

A recent large-scale phylogenomic study has shown the great degree of topological variation that can be found among eukaryotic phylogenetic trees constructed from single genes, highlighting the problems that can be associated with gene sampling in phylogenetic studies.

A FTA-based method for risk decision-making in emergency response

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Yang; Li, Hongyan

2014-01-01

Decision-making problems in emergency response are usually risky and uncertain due to the limited decision data and possible evolvement of emergency scenarios. This paper focuses on a risk decisionmaking problem in emergency response with several distinct characteristics including dynamic...... evolvement process of emergency, multiple scenarios, and impact of response actions on the emergency scenarios. A method based on Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is proposed to solve the problem. By analyzing the evolvement process of emergency, the Fault Tree (FT) is constructed to describe the logical relations...

Methodological review of UK and international low carbon scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hughes, Nick; Strachan, Neil

2010-01-01

Scenarios have a long history in business, politics and military planning, as a tool for strategic planning to inform protective, proactive or consensus-based decision making in the face of uncertain futures. Recent years have seen a growth in scenarios for assessing the implications of low carbon futures, but relatively little work has linked these energy scenarios to the broader literature on scenario development. This paper undertakes a methodological review of a selection of UK and international low carbon scenario studies, using a typology of 'trend based', 'technical feasibility' and 'modelling' studies. Dominant methodologies in such studies have been the 2x2 axis and the 'back-casting' approach. Strengths of the studies reviewed include technological detail, and identification of key economic and social constraints. Weaknesses include the over-reliance on constructs such as exogenous emissions constraints, and high level trends, which diminish the ability to understand how the various future scenarios could be brought about or avoided. This is compounded by the lack of depiction of specific system actors; the tendency to abstract policy from the scenarios; and the resulting failure to consider policy, technology and behaviour in an iterative, 'co-evolving' fashion.

Decision Tree Technique for Particle Identification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quiller, Ryan

2003-01-01

Particle identification based on measurements such as the Cerenkov angle, momentum, and the rate of energy loss per unit distance (-dE/dx) is fundamental to the BaBar detector for particle physics experiments. It is particularly important to separate the charged forms of kaons and pions. Currently, the Neural Net, an algorithm based on mapping input variables to an output variable using hidden variables as intermediaries, is one of the primary tools used for identification. In this study, a decision tree classification technique implemented in the computer program, CART, was investigated and compared to the Neural Net over the range of momenta, 0.25 GeV/c to 5.0 GeV/c. For a given subinterval of momentum, three decision trees were made using different sets of input variables. The sensitivity and specificity were calculated for varying kaon acceptance thresholds. This data was used to plot Receiver Operating Characteristic curves (ROC curves) to compare the performance of the classification methods. Also, input variables used in constructing the decision trees were analyzed. It was found that the Neural Net was a significant contributor to decision trees using dE/dx and the Cerenkov angle as inputs. Furthermore, the Neural Net had poorer performance than the decision tree technique, but tended to improve decision tree performance when used as an input variable. These results suggest that the decision tree technique using Neural Net input may possibly increase accuracy of particle identification in BaBar

TSKT-ORAM: A Two-Server k-ary Tree Oblivious RAM without Homomorphic Encryption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinsheng Zhang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes TSKT-oblivious RAM (ORAM, an efficient multi-server ORAM construction, to protect a client’s access pattern to outsourced data. TSKT-ORAM organizes each of the server storages as a k-ary tree and adopts XOR-based private information retrieval (PIR and a novel delayed eviction technique to optimize both the data query and data eviction process. TSKT-ORAM is proven to protect the data access pattern privacy with a failure probability of 2 - 80 when system parameter k ≥ 128 . Meanwhile, given a constant-size local storage, when N (i.e., the total number of outsourced data blocks ranges from 2 16 – 2 34 , the communication cost of TSKT-ORAM is only 22–46 data blocks. Asymptotic analysis and practical comparisons are conducted to show that TSKT-ORAM incurs lower communication cost, storage cost and access delay in practical scenarios than the compared state-of-the-art ORAM schemes.

Scenarios of future energy intensities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1992-01-01

In this chapter, the authors present scenarios of potential change in energy intensities in the OECD countries and in the Soviet Union. These scenarios are meant to illustrate how intensities might evolve over the next 20 years given different conditions with respect to energy prices, energy-efficiency policies, and other key factors. Changes in intensity will also be affected by the rates of growth and stock turnover in each sector. They have not tried to forecast how activity levels and structure will evolve. However, the OECD scenarios assume a world in which GDP averages growth in the 2-3%/year range, with some differences among countries. For the Soviet Union, the degree and pace of intensity decline will be highly dependent on the success of the transition to a market economy; each scenario explicitly envisions a different degree of success. They have not constructed comparable scenarios for the developing countries. The scenarios presented in this chapter do not predict what will happen in the future. They believe, however, that they illustrate a plausible set of outcomes if energy prices, policies, programs, and other factors evolve as described in each case. With higher energy prices and vigorous policies and programs, intensities in the OECD countries in 2010 could be nearly 50% less on average than the level where trends seem to be point. In the former Soviet Union, a combination of rapid, successful economic reform and extra effort to improve energy efficiency might result in average intensity being nearly 40% less than in a slow reform case. And in the LDCs, a mixture of sound policies, programs, and energy pricing reform could also lead to intensities being far lower than they would be otherwise. 8 refs., 10 figs., 1 tab

A Bayesian Supertree Model for Genome-Wide Species Tree Reconstruction

Science.gov (United States)

De Oliveira Martins, Leonardo; Mallo, Diego; Posada, David

2016-01-01

Current phylogenomic data sets highlight the need for species tree methods able to deal with several sources of gene tree/species tree incongruence. At the same time, we need to make most use of all available data. Most species tree methods deal with single processes of phylogenetic discordance, namely, gene duplication and loss, incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) or horizontal gene transfer. In this manuscript, we address the problem of species tree inference from multilocus, genome-wide data sets regardless of the presence of gene duplication and loss and ILS therefore without the need to identify orthologs or to use a single individual per species. We do this by extending the idea of Maximum Likelihood (ML) supertrees to a hierarchical Bayesian model where several sources of gene tree/species tree disagreement can be accounted for in a modular manner. We implemented this model in a computer program called guenomu whose inputs are posterior distributions of unrooted gene tree topologies for multiple gene families, and whose output is the posterior distribution of rooted species tree topologies. We conducted extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of our approach in comparison with other species tree approaches able to deal with more than one leaf from the same species. Our method ranked best under simulated data sets, in spite of ignoring branch lengths, and performed well on empirical data, as well as being fast enough to analyze relatively large data sets. Our Bayesian supertree method was also very successful in obtaining better estimates of gene trees, by reducing the uncertainty in their distributions. In addition, our results show that under complex simulation scenarios, gene tree parsimony is also a competitive approach once we consider its speed, in contrast to more sophisticated models. PMID:25281847

A Bayesian Supertree Model for Genome-Wide Species Tree Reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

De Oliveira Martins, Leonardo; Mallo, Diego; Posada, David

2016-05-01

Current phylogenomic data sets highlight the need for species tree methods able to deal with several sources of gene tree/species tree incongruence. At the same time, we need to make most use of all available data. Most species tree methods deal with single processes of phylogenetic discordance, namely, gene duplication and loss, incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) or horizontal gene transfer. In this manuscript, we address the problem of species tree inference from multilocus, genome-wide data sets regardless of the presence of gene duplication and loss and ILS therefore without the need to identify orthologs or to use a single individual per species. We do this by extending the idea of Maximum Likelihood (ML) supertrees to a hierarchical Bayesian model where several sources of gene tree/species tree disagreement can be accounted for in a modular manner. We implemented this model in a computer program called guenomu whose inputs are posterior distributions of unrooted gene tree topologies for multiple gene families, and whose output is the posterior distribution of rooted species tree topologies. We conducted extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of our approach in comparison with other species tree approaches able to deal with more than one leaf from the same species. Our method ranked best under simulated data sets, in spite of ignoring branch lengths, and performed well on empirical data, as well as being fast enough to analyze relatively large data sets. Our Bayesian supertree method was also very successful in obtaining better estimates of gene trees, by reducing the uncertainty in their distributions. In addition, our results show that under complex simulation scenarios, gene tree parsimony is also a competitive approach once we consider its speed, in contrast to more sophisticated models. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists.

Investigating Tree Thinking & Ancestry with Cladograms

Science.gov (United States)

Davenport, K. D.; Milks, Kirstin Jane; Van Tassell, Rebecca

2015-01-01

Interpreting cladograms is a key skill for biological literacy. In this lesson, students interpret cladograms based on familial relationships and language relationships to build their understanding of tree thinking and to construct a definition of "common ancestor." These skills can then be applied to a true biological cladogram.

A new coding algorithm for trees

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Balakirsky, V.B.

2002-01-01

We construct a one-to-one mapping between binary vectors of length $n$ and preorder codewords of regular, ordered, oriented, rooted, binary trees having $N \\approx n + 2$ log $n$ nodes. The mappings in both directions can be organized in such a way that complexities of all transformations are

Biophysical modelling of intra-ring variations in tracheid features and wood density of Pinus pinaster trees exposed to seasonal droughts

Science.gov (United States)

Sarah Wilkinson; Jerome Ogee; Jean-Christophe Domec; Mark Rayment; Lisa Wingate

2015-01-01

Process-based models that link seasonally varying environmental signals to morphological features within tree rings are essential tools to predict tree growth response and commercially important wood quality traits under future climate scenarios. This study evaluated model portrayal of radial growth and wood anatomy observations within a mature maritime pine (Pinus...

High-resolution gravity and seismic-refraction surveys of the Smoke Tree Wash area, Joshua Tree National Park, California

Science.gov (United States)

Langenheim, Victoria E.; Rymer, Michael J.; Catchings, Rufus D.; Goldman, Mark R.; Watt, Janet T.; Powell, Robert E.; Matti, Jonathan C.

2016-03-02

We describe high-resolution gravity and seismic refraction surveys acquired to determine the thickness of valley-fill deposits and to delineate geologic structures that might influence groundwater flow beneath the Smoke Tree Wash area in Joshua Tree National Park. These surveys identified a sedimentary basin that is fault-controlled. A profile across the Smoke Tree Wash fault zone reveals low gravity values and seismic velocities that coincide with a mapped strand of the Smoke Tree Wash fault. Modeling of the gravity data reveals a basin about 2–2.5 km long and 1 km wide that is roughly centered on this mapped strand, and bounded by inferred faults. According to the gravity model the deepest part of the basin is about 270 m, but this area coincides with low velocities that are not characteristic of typical basement complex rocks. Most likely, the density contrast assumed in the inversion is too high or the uncharacteristically low velocities represent highly fractured or weathered basement rocks, or both. A longer seismic profile extending onto basement outcrops would help differentiate which scenario is more accurate. The seismic velocities also determine the depth to water table along the profile to be about 40–60 m, consistent with water levels measured in water wells near the northern end of the profile.

Environmental footprint of constructed wetlands treating wastewater.

Science.gov (United States)

Gkika, Dimitra; Gikas, Georgios D; Tsihrintzis, Vassilios A

2015-01-01

The aim of the study is to determine environmentally friendlier construction materials for constructed wetland facilities treating wastewater. This is done by computing the environmental footprint of the facility based on the methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA). This methodology reveals the dominant aggravating processes during the construction of a constructed wetland (CW) and can help to create alternative environmentally friendlier solutions. This methodology was applied for the determination of the overall environmental profile of a hybrid CW facility. The LCA was applied first to the facility as originally designed, where reinforced concrete was used in some components. Then, alternative construction materials to reinforced concrete were used, such as earth covered with high density polyethylene (HDPE) or clay, and LCA was applied again. Earth structures were found to have reduced environmental impact compared to concrete ones, and clay was found environmentally friendlier compared to HDPE. Furthermore, estimation of the construction costs of the three scenarios indicate that the last scenario is also the least expensive.

SNP identification from RNA sequencing and linkage map construction of rubber tree for anchoring the draft genome.

Science.gov (United States)

Shearman, Jeremy R; Sangsrakru, Duangjai; Jomchai, Nukoon; Ruang-Areerate, Panthita; Sonthirod, Chutima; Naktang, Chaiwat; Theerawattanasuk, Kanikar; Tragoonrung, Somvong; Tangphatsornruang, Sithichoke

2015-01-01

Hevea brasiliensis, or rubber tree, is an important crop species that accounts for the majority of natural latex production. The rubber tree nuclear genome consists of 18 chromosomes and is roughly 2.15 Gb. The current rubber tree reference genome assembly consists of 1,150,326 scaffolds ranging from 200 to 531,465 bp and totalling 1.1 Gb. Only 143 scaffolds, totalling 7.6 Mb, have been placed into linkage groups. We have performed RNA-seq on 6 varieties of rubber tree to identify SNPs and InDels and used this information to perform target sequence enrichment and high throughput sequencing to genotype a set of SNPs in 149 rubber tree offspring from a cross between RRIM 600 and RRII 105 rubber tree varieties. We used this information to generate a linkage map allowing for the anchoring of 24,424 contigs from 3,009 scaffolds, totalling 115 Mb or 10.4% of the published sequence, into 18 linkage groups. Each linkage group contains between 319 and 1367 SNPs, or 60 to 194 non-redundant marker positions, and ranges from 156 to 336 cM in length. This linkage map includes 20,143 of the 69,300 predicted genes from rubber tree and will be useful for mapping studies and improving the reference genome assembly.

Phylogenetic classification and the universal tree.

Science.gov (United States)

Doolittle, W F

1999-06-25

From comparative analyses of the nucleotide sequences of genes encoding ribosomal RNAs and several proteins, molecular phylogeneticists have constructed a "universal tree of life," taking it as the basis for a "natural" hierarchical classification of all living things. Although confidence in some of the tree's early branches has recently been shaken, new approaches could still resolve many methodological uncertainties. More challenging is evidence that most archaeal and bacterial genomes (and the inferred ancestral eukaryotic nuclear genome) contain genes from multiple sources. If "chimerism" or "lateral gene transfer" cannot be dismissed as trivial in extent or limited to special categories of genes, then no hierarchical universal classification can be taken as natural. Molecular phylogeneticists will have failed to find the "true tree," not because their methods are inadequate or because they have chosen the wrong genes, but because the history of life cannot properly be represented as a tree. However, taxonomies based on molecular sequences will remain indispensable, and understanding of the evolutionary process will ultimately be enriched, not impoverished.

[Scenario analysis on sustainable development of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city based on emergy and system dynamics].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Chun-fa; Cao, Ying-ying; Yang, Jian-cho; Yang, Qi-qi

2015-08-01

Dynamic evaluation of sustainable development is one of the key fundamental parts of the success of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, which is the first eco-city in China constructed by international cooperation. Based on the analysis of nature and economy, function and structure, planning control indices and so on, we constructed a sustainable development evaluation index system and a system dynamics model of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city to explore dynamic trends of its population, material and currency by comprehensive utilization of emergy analysis and system dynamics method. Five scenarios were set up and simulated, including inertial scenario, scientific and technological scenario, economic scenario, environmental scenario and harmonious development scenario. Then, the sustainability of the 5 scenarios was evaluated and compared. The results showed that in the economy and environment sustainable development scenario, there was a steady growth trend of GDP, accumulation of both emergy and currency, and relatively lower values in emergy waste ratio, emergy ratio of waste, and emergy loading ratio. Although both sustainable evaluation indices, such as ESI and UEI, were relatively low, the economy and environment sustainable development scenario was still the best development scenario which was more active than others.

Radiocarbon measurements of tree-ring samples from Japanese woods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ozaki, Hiromasa; Sakamoto, Minoru; Imamura, Mineo; Mitsutani, Takumi

2008-01-01

Since radiocarbon age is a model age based on constancy of atmospheric radiocarbon concentration and a provisional value of 5568 years for the 14 C half-life, calibration to calendar age is required for practical dating. The dataset, called IntCal, used for the calibration has been constructed by international consortium. Most parts of the IntCal have been based on the measurement of radiocarbon in dendrochronologically dated tree-ring samples from woods in Europe and North America. Regional offsets, which are designed as differences of local atmospheric radiocarbon from IntCal, have been pointed out based on recent radiocarbon measurements for tree-ring samples from a few regions. We have also measured radiocarbon of tree-ring samples from Japanese woods in order to investigate regional offsets in Japan. In this study, radiocarbon measurements for tree-ring samples from three different Japanese woods at around AD500 were carried out. Consequently, differences from IntCal04 at around AD500 were confirmed, although no systematic offset are found. However, the results obtained in this study agree with the raw data used for construction of IntCal04. This could pose a question to calculation method of IntCal04. (author)

A revised root for the human Y chromosomal phylogenetic tree: the origin of patrilineal diversity in Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Cruciani, Fulvio; Trombetta, Beniamino; Massaia, Andrea; Destro-Bisol, Giovanni; Sellitto, Daniele; Scozzari, Rosaria

2011-06-10

To shed light on the structure of the basal backbone of the human Y chromosome phylogeny, we sequenced about 200 kb of the male-specific region of the human Y chromosome (MSY) from each of seven Y chromosomes belonging to clades A1, A2, A3, and BT. We detected 146 biallelic variant sites through this analysis. We used these variants to construct a patrilineal tree, without taking into account any previously reported information regarding the phylogenetic relationships among the seven Y chromosomes here analyzed. There are several key changes at the basal nodes as compared with the most recent reference Y chromosome tree. A different position of the root was determined, with important implications for the origin of human Y chromosome diversity. An estimate of 142 KY was obtained for the coalescence time of the revised MSY tree, which is earlier than that obtained in previous studies and easier to reconcile with plausible scenarios of modern human origin. The number of deep branchings leading to African-specific clades has doubled, further strengthening the MSY-based evidence for a modern human origin in the African continent. An analysis of 2204 African DNA samples showed that the deepest clades of the revised MSY phylogeny are currently found in central and northwest Africa, opening new perspectives on early human presence in the continent. Copyright © 2011 The American Society of Human Genetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Decarbonization scenarios in the electricity sector in Vietnam

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dang, Van Thanh

2016-01-01

Reduction of CO_2 emissions issue is clearly a world challenge today and COP21 highlighted the international requirements for countries to address related issues in the short and long term. The fundamental objective of the thesis is to contribute to the identification of possible climate policy solutions related to growing electricity production in a developing country, namely Vietnam, taking into account the need to reduce carbon energy sources. For this purpose several scenarios for electricity sector development are constructed in order to measure effects of choices related to the electricity production on CO_2 emissions. The thesis presents an overview of the energy situation in Vietnam and highlights the rapid increase in electricity consumption due to population pressure and new needs. It also considers major issues of coal and gas imports, new energy sources, in light of economic constraints but also environmental challenges. The theoretical and analytical chapter reviews the analyses of electricity master plans construction, major available economic tools for energy demand forecast models. This forms the framework to understanding the complexity of the 'electric bet' which Vietnam faces. After a presentation of potential quantitative simulation instruments, ELECsim was chosen for modeling the electricity sector in Vietnam. This leads to a comprehensive scenario approach; Scenarios are based on several assumptions about the evolution of economic growth and demographics, energy prices, the power generation technology development, the declared carbon value, discount rates and change rate. As a first step in energy and climate policy Vietnam can control the demand growth by strong action on energy efficiency, while reducing parallel to both the electricity production costs and CO_2 emissions. Several scenarios are then proposed, highlighting both the need to search for higher energy efficiency and the promotion of low-carbon energies. Research envisages a rapid

Greedy heuristics for minimization of number of terminal nodes in decision trees

KAUST Repository

Hussain, Shahid

2014-10-01

This paper describes, in detail, several greedy heuristics for construction of decision trees. We study the number of terminal nodes of decision trees, which is closely related with the cardinality of the set of rules corresponding to the tree. We compare these heuristics empirically for two different types of datasets (datasets acquired from UCI ML Repository and randomly generated data) as well as compare with the optimal results obtained using dynamic programming method.

Greedy heuristics for minimization of number of terminal nodes in decision trees

KAUST Repository

Hussain, Shahid

2014-01-01

This paper describes, in detail, several greedy heuristics for construction of decision trees. We study the number of terminal nodes of decision trees, which is closely related with the cardinality of the set of rules corresponding to the tree. We compare these heuristics empirically for two different types of datasets (datasets acquired from UCI ML Repository and randomly generated data) as well as compare with the optimal results obtained using dynamic programming method.

Wind power in Finland up to the year 2025--'soft' scenarios based on expert views

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Varho, Vilja; Tapio, Petri

2005-01-01

In this article we present a method of constructing 'soft' scenarios applied to the wind power development in Finland up to the year 2025. We asked 14 experts to describe probable and preferable futures using a quantitative questionnaire and qualitative interviews. Wind power production grows in all scenarios but there were differences in the order of magnitude of 10. The growth rate of electricity consumption slows down in all scenarios. Qualitative arguments varied even within clusters, with wind power policy emerging as the main dividing factor. The differences revealed diverse values and political objectives, as well as great uncertainties in assumptions about future developments. These influence wind power policy and were also believed to have contributed to the slow development of wind power in Finland. Re-thinking of the Finnish wind power policy is recommended. The 'soft' scenario method is considered valuable in finding diverse views, constructing transparent scenarios and assisting energy policy making

Categorizing ideas about trees: a tree of trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Fisler, Marie; Lecointre, Guillaume

2013-01-01

The aim of this study is to explore whether matrices and MP trees used to produce systematic categories of organisms could be useful to produce categories of ideas in history of science. We study the history of the use of trees in systematics to represent the diversity of life from 1766 to 1991. We apply to those ideas a method inspired from coding homologous parts of organisms. We discretize conceptual parts of ideas, writings and drawings about trees contained in 41 main writings; we detect shared parts among authors and code them into a 91-characters matrix and use a tree representation to show who shares what with whom. In other words, we propose a hierarchical representation of the shared ideas about trees among authors: this produces a "tree of trees." Then, we categorize schools of tree-representations. Classical schools like "cladists" and "pheneticists" are recovered but others are not: "gradists" are separated into two blocks, one of them being called here "grade theoreticians." We propose new interesting categories like the "buffonian school," the "metaphoricians," and those using "strictly genealogical classifications." We consider that networks are not useful to represent shared ideas at the present step of the study. A cladogram is made for showing who is sharing what with whom, but also heterobathmy and homoplasy of characters. The present cladogram is not modelling processes of transmission of ideas about trees, and here it is mostly used to test for proximity of ideas of the same age and for categorization.

Land-use change outweighs projected effects of changing rainfall on tree cover in sub-Saharan Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Aleman, Julie C; Blarquez, Olivier; Staver, Carla A

2016-09-01

Global change will likely affect savanna and forest structure and distributions, with implications for diversity within both biomes. Few studies have examined the impacts of both expected precipitation and land use changes on vegetation structure in the future, despite their likely severity. Here, we modeled tree cover in sub-Saharan Africa, as a proxy for vegetation structure and land cover change, using climatic, edaphic, and anthropic data (R(2)  = 0.97). Projected tree cover for the year 2070, simulated using scenarios that include climate and land use projections, generally decreased, both in forest and savanna, although the directionality of changes varied locally. The main driver of tree cover changes was land use change; the effects of precipitation change were minor by comparison. Interestingly, carbon emissions mitigation via increasing biofuels production resulted in decreases in tree cover, more severe than scenarios with more intense precipitation change, especially within savannas. Evaluation of tree cover change against protected area extent at the WWF Ecoregion scale suggested areas of high biodiversity and ecosystem services concern. Those forests most vulnerable to large decreases in tree cover were also highly protected, potentially buffering the effects of global change. Meanwhile, savannas, especially where they immediately bordered forests (e.g. West and Central Africa), were characterized by a dearth of protected areas, making them highly vulnerable. Savanna must become an explicit policy priority in the face of climate and land use change if conservation and livelihoods are to remain viable into the next century. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Building classification trees to explain the radioactive contamination levels of the plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Briand, B.

2008-04-01

The objective of this thesis is the development of a method allowing the identification of factors leading to various radioactive contamination levels of the plants. The methodology suggested is based on the use of a radioecological transfer model of the radionuclides through the environment (A.S.T.R.A.L. computer code) and a classification-tree method. Particularly, to avoid the instability problems of classification trees and to preserve the tree structure, a node level stabilizing technique is used. Empirical comparisons are carried out between classification trees built by this method (called R.E.N. method) and those obtained by the C.A.R.T. method. A similarity measure is defined to compare the structure of two classification trees. This measure is used to study the stabilizing performance of the R.E.N. method. The methodology suggested is applied to a simplified contamination scenario. By the results obtained, we can identify the main variables responsible of the various radioactive contamination levels of four leafy-vegetables (lettuce, cabbage, spinach and leek). Some extracted rules from these classification trees can be usable in a post-accidental context. (author)

Modelling tree biomasses in Finland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Repola, J.

2013-06-01

Biomass equations for above- and below-ground tree components of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L), Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst) and birch (Betula pendula Roth and Betula pubescens Ehrh.) were compiled using empirical material from a total of 102 stands. These stands (44 Scots pine, 34 Norway spruce and 24 birch stands) were located mainly on mineral soil sites representing a large part of Finland. The biomass models were based on data measured from 1648 sample trees, comprising 908 pine, 613 spruce and 127 birch trees. Biomass equations were derived for the total above-ground biomass and for the individual tree components: stem wood, stem bark, living and dead branches, needles, stump, and roots, as dependent variables. Three multivariate models with different numbers of independent variables for above-ground biomass and one for below-ground biomass were constructed. Variables that are normally measured in forest inventories were used as independent variables. The simplest model formulations, multivariate models (1) were mainly based on tree diameter and height as independent variables. In more elaborated multivariate models, (2) and (3), additional commonly measured tree variables such as age, crown length, bark thickness and radial growth rate were added. Tree biomass modelling includes consecutive phases, which cause unreliability in the prediction of biomass. First, biomasses of sample trees should be determined reliably to decrease the statistical errors caused by sub-sampling. In this study, methods to improve the accuracy of stem biomass estimates of the sample trees were developed. In addition, the reliability of the method applied to estimate sample-tree crown biomass was tested, and no systematic error was detected. Second, the whole information content of data should be utilized in order to achieve reliable parameter estimates and applicable and flexible model structure. In the modelling approach, the basic assumption was that the biomasses of

Scenarios constructed for nominal flow in the presence of a repository at Yucca Mountain and vicinity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barr, G.E.; Hunter, R.L.; Dunn, E.; Flint, A.

1995-03-01

Scenario development for the system performance assessment of the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project defines a scenario as a well-posed problem connecting an initiating event with radionuclide release to the accessible environment by a logical and physically possible combination or sequence of features, events, and processes. Drawing on the advice and assistance of the Project's principal investigators (PIs), a collection of release scenarios initiated by the nominal ground-water flow occurring in the vicinity of the potential Yucca Mountain high-level-waste repository is developed and described in pictorial form. This collection of scenarios is intended to provide a framework to assist PIs in recognizing essential field and calculational analyses, to assist performance assessment in providing guidance to site characterization, and to continue the effort to exhaustively identify all features, events, and processes important to releases. It represents a step in the iterative process of identifying what details of the potential site are important for safe disposal. 67 refs

Global biogeography of scaly tree ferns (Cyatheaceae): evidence for Gondwanan vicariance and limited transoceanic dispersal

OpenAIRE

Korall, Petra; Pryer, Kathleen

2014-01-01

Aim Scaly tree ferns, Cyatheaceae, are a well-supported group of mostly tree-forming ferns found throughout the tropics, the subtropics and the south-temperate zone. Fossil evidence shows that the lineage originated in the Late Jurassic period. We reconstructed large-scale historical biogeographical patterns of Cyatheaceae and tested the hypothesis that some of the observed distribution patterns are in fact compatible, in time and space, with a vicariance scenario related to the break-up of G...

Automata learning algorithms and processes for providing more complete systems requirements specification by scenario generation, CSP-based syntax-oriented model construction, and R2D2C system requirements transformation

Science.gov (United States)

Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor); Margaria, Tiziana (Inventor); Rash, James L. (Inventor); Rouff, Christopher A. (Inventor); Steffen, Bernard (Inventor)

2010-01-01

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments, automata learning algorithms and techniques are implemented to generate a more complete set of scenarios for requirements based programming. More specifically, a CSP-based, syntax-oriented model construction, which requires the support of a theorem prover, is complemented by model extrapolation, via automata learning. This may support the systematic completion of the requirements, the nature of the requirement being partial, which provides focus on the most prominent scenarios. This may generalize requirement skeletons by extrapolation and may indicate by way of automatically generated traces where the requirement specification is too loose and additional information is required.

Some remarks on a scenario of supersymmetry in quantum mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jannussis, A.; Tsohantzis, I; Vavougios, D.

1990-01-01

Some remarks are given on a recent paper of Lahiri, Kumar Roy and Bagchi who have constructed a scenario of supersymmetry in quantum mechanics by imposing a structure on the raising and lowering operators

Optimization and analysis of decision trees and rules: Dynamic programming approach

KAUST Repository

Alkhalid, Abdulaziz

2013-08-01

This paper is devoted to the consideration of software system Dagger created in KAUST. This system is based on extensions of dynamic programming. It allows sequential optimization of decision trees and rules relative to different cost functions, derivation of relationships between two cost functions (in particular, between number of misclassifications and depth of decision trees), and between cost and uncertainty of decision trees. We describe features of Dagger and consider examples of this systems work on decision tables from UCI Machine Learning Repository. We also use Dagger to compare 16 different greedy algorithms for decision tree construction. © 2013 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Optimization and analysis of decision trees and rules: Dynamic programming approach

KAUST Repository

Alkhalid, Abdulaziz; Amin, Talha M.; Chikalov, Igor; Hussain, Shahid; Moshkov, Mikhail; Zielosko, Beata

2013-01-01

This paper is devoted to the consideration of software system Dagger created in KAUST. This system is based on extensions of dynamic programming. It allows sequential optimization of decision trees and rules relative to different cost functions, derivation of relationships between two cost functions (in particular, between number of misclassifications and depth of decision trees), and between cost and uncertainty of decision trees. We describe features of Dagger and consider examples of this systems work on decision tables from UCI Machine Learning Repository. We also use Dagger to compare 16 different greedy algorithms for decision tree construction. © 2013 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Statistically Consistent k-mer Methods for Phylogenetic Tree Reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Allman, Elizabeth S; Rhodes, John A; Sullivant, Seth

2017-02-01

Frequencies of k-mers in sequences are sometimes used as a basis for inferring phylogenetic trees without first obtaining a multiple sequence alignment. We show that a standard approach of using the squared Euclidean distance between k-mer vectors to approximate a tree metric can be statistically inconsistent. To remedy this, we derive model-based distance corrections for orthologous sequences without gaps, which lead to consistent tree inference. The identifiability of model parameters from k-mer frequencies is also studied. Finally, we report simulations showing that the corrected distance outperforms many other k-mer methods, even when sequences are generated with an insertion and deletion process. These results have implications for multiple sequence alignment as well since k-mer methods are usually the first step in constructing a guide tree for such algorithms.

Dynamics of investor spanning trees around dot-com bubble.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sindhuja Ranganathan

Full Text Available We identify temporal investor networks for Nokia stock by constructing networks from correlations between investor-specific net-volumes and analyze changes in the networks around dot-com bubble. The analysis is conducted separately for households, financial, and non-financial institutions. Our results indicate that spanning tree measures for households reflected the boom and crisis: the maximum spanning tree measures had a clear upward tendency in the bull markets when the bubble was building up, and, even more importantly, the minimum spanning tree measures pre-reacted the burst of the bubble. At the same time, we find less clear reactions in the minimal and maximal spanning trees of non-financial and financial institutions around the bubble, which suggests that household investors can have a greater herding tendency around bubbles.

Dynamics of investor spanning trees around dot-com bubble.

Science.gov (United States)

Ranganathan, Sindhuja; Kivelä, Mikko; Kanniainen, Juho

2018-01-01

We identify temporal investor networks for Nokia stock by constructing networks from correlations between investor-specific net-volumes and analyze changes in the networks around dot-com bubble. The analysis is conducted separately for households, financial, and non-financial institutions. Our results indicate that spanning tree measures for households reflected the boom and crisis: the maximum spanning tree measures had a clear upward tendency in the bull markets when the bubble was building up, and, even more importantly, the minimum spanning tree measures pre-reacted the burst of the bubble. At the same time, we find less clear reactions in the minimal and maximal spanning trees of non-financial and financial institutions around the bubble, which suggests that household investors can have a greater herding tendency around bubbles.

Constructing an optimal decision tree for FAST corner point detection

KAUST Repository

Alkhalid, Abdulaziz; Chikalov, Igor; Moshkov, Mikhail

2011-01-01

In this paper, we consider a problem that is originated in computer vision: determining an optimal testing strategy for the corner point detection problem that is a part of FAST algorithm [11,12]. The problem can be formulated as building a decision tree with the minimum average depth for a decision table with all discrete attributes. We experimentally compare performance of an exact algorithm based on dynamic programming and several greedy algorithms that differ in the attribute selection criterion. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

基于情景的突发事件链构建方法*%A Scenario-based Construction Method of Emergency Event Chain

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

马骁霏; 仲秋雁; 曲毅; 王宁; 王延章

2013-01-01

突发事件前兆缺失，危害巨大，其次生、衍生事件构成的事件链给人类造成严重的影响。针对突发事件演变路径不明，形成的链式结构复杂多变的特点，借鉴共性知识模型，利用知识元刻画情景与事件，通过知识元间的关联，分析情景与事件相互作用关系，事件间的演变规律；以数据和规则为驱动，提出了一种基于情景的突发事件链构建方法，该方法可为“情景-应对”决策提供了支持，最后给出案例分析。%Lacking of precursor, emergency events do harm to human society greatly. Emergency event chain, constituted by secondary e-vents, has severe negative effects on human race. The chain structure of emergency event is complex and varies frequently, and it is diffi-cult to judge the evolution path for emergency events. Drawing on the common knowledge model, using knowledge element to express scenario and events, the paper analyzes the interaction between scenario and events and the evolution of events based on the relationship of knowledge element. Using data and rule as drive, a scenario-based construction method of emergency event chain is proposed. The meth-od supports“scenario-response” policy decision-making. At last, a case study is presented.

A computer code for fault tree calculations: PATREC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blin, A.; Carnino, A.; Koen, B.V.; Duchemin, B.; Lanore, J.M.; Kalli, H.

1978-01-01

A computer code for evaluating the reliability of complex system by fault tree is described in this paper. It uses pattern recognition approach and programming techniques from IBM PL1 language. It can take account of many of the present day problems: multi-dependencies treatment, dispersion in the reliability data parameters, influence of common mode failures. The code is running currently since two years now in Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique Saclay center and shall be used in a future extension for automatic fault trees construction

Scenario-based verification of real-time systems using UPPAAL

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Shuhao; Belaguer, Sandie; David, Alexandre

2010-01-01

Abstract This paper proposes two approaches to tool-supported automatic verification of dense real-time systems against scenario-based requirements, where a system is modeled as a network of timed automata (TAs) or as a set of driving live sequence charts (LSCs), and a requirement is specified...... as a separate monitored LSC chart. We make timed extensions to a kernel subset of the LSC language and define a trace-based semantics. By translating a monitored LSC chart to a behavior-equivalent observer TA and then non-intrusively composing this observer with the original TA modeled real-time system......, the problem of scenario-based verification reduces to a computation tree logic (CTL) real-time model checking problem. In case the real time system is modeled as a set of driving LSC charts, we translate these driving charts and the monitored chart into a behavior-equivalent network of TAs by using a “one...

Evaluation of ecosystem service based on scenario simulation of land use in Yunnan Province

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hong; Liao, Xiaoli; Zhai, Tianlin

2018-04-01

Climate change and rapid urbanization are important factors restricting future land use. Situational analysis, as an important foundation for the optimization of land use, needs to focus on the impact of climate factors and socio-economic factors. In this paper, the Markov model and the DLS (Simulation of Land System Dynamics) model are combined for the first time, and the land use pattern in 2020 is simulated based on the data of land use in 2000 and 2010 as well as the climate, soil, topography and socio-economic factors of Yunnan Province. In his paper, we took Yunnan Province as the case study area, and selected 12 driving factors by logistic regression method, then the land use demands and layout of Yunnan Province in 2020 has been forecasted and simulated under business as usual (BAU) scenario and farmland protection (FP) scenario and the changes in ecosystem service value has been calculated. The result shows that: (1) after the regression analysis and ROC (Relative Operating Characteristics) test, the 12 factors selected in this paper have a strong ability to explain the land use change in Yunnan Province. (2) Under the two scenarios, the significant reduction of arable land area is a common feature of land use change in Yunnan Province in the future, and its main land use type will be construction land. However, under FP scenario, the current situation where construction land encroach on arable land will be improved. Compared with the change from 2000 to 2010, the trend of arable land, forest land, water area, construction land and unused land will be the same under the two scenarios, whereas the change trend of grassland was opposite. (3) From 2000 to 2020, the value of ecosystem services in Yunnan Province is on the rise, but the ecosystem service value under FP scenario is higher than that of the ecosystem services under BAU scenario. In general, land use in 2020 in Yunnan Province continues the pattern of 2010, but there are also significant spatial

An enhanced component connection method for conversion of fault trees to binary decision diagrams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Remenyte-Prescott, R.; Andrews, J.D.

2008-01-01

Fault tree analysis (FTA) is widely applied to assess the failure probability of industrial systems. Many computer packages are available, which are based on conventional kinetic tree theory methods. When dealing with large (possibly non-coherent) fault trees, the limitations of the technique in terms of accuracy of the solutions and the efficiency of the processing time become apparent. Over recent years, the binary decision diagram (BDD) method has been developed that solves fault trees and overcomes the disadvantages of the conventional FTA approach. First of all, a fault tree for a particular system failure mode is constructed and then converted to a BDD for analysis. This paper analyses alternative methods for the fault tree to BDD conversion process. For most fault tree to BDD conversion approaches, the basic events of the fault tree are placed in an ordering. This can dramatically affect the size of the final BDD and the success of qualitative and quantitative analyses of the system. A set of rules is then applied to each gate in the fault tree to generate the BDD. An alternative approach can also be used, where BDD constructs for each of the gate types are first built and then merged to represent a parent gate. A powerful and efficient property, sub-node sharing, is also incorporated in the enhanced method proposed in this paper. Finally, a combined approach is developed taking the best features of the alternative methods. The efficiency of the techniques is analysed and discussed

Floating Offshore Wind in California: Gross Potential for Jobs and Economic Impacts from Two Future Scenarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Speer, Bethany [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Keyser, David [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Tegen, Suzanne [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-04-18

Construction of the first offshore wind farm in the United States began in 2015, using fixed platform structures that are appropriate for shallow seafloors, like those located off of the East Coast and mid-Atlantic. However, floating platforms, which have yet to be deployed commercially, will likely need to anchor to the deeper seafloor if deployed off of the West Coast. To analyze the employment and economic potential for floating offshore wind along the West Coast, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has commissioned the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to analyze two hypothetical, large-scale deployment scenarios for California: 16 GW of offshore wind by 2050 (Scenario A) and 10 GW of offshore wind by 2050 (Scenario B). The results of this analysis can be used to better understand the general scales of economic opportunities that could result from offshore wind development. Results show total state gross domestic product (GDP) impacts of $16.2 billion in Scenario B or $39.7 billion in Scenario A for construction; and $3.5 billion in Scenario B or $7.9 billion in Scenario A for the operations phases.

Towards a user's guide to scenarios - a report on scenario types and scenario techniques

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boerjeson, Lena; Hoejer, Mattias; Dreborg, Karl-Henrik; Finnveden, Goeran [Royal Inst. of Technology, Stockholm (Sweden). Environmental Strategies Research - fms; Ekvall, Tomas [Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Goeteborg (Sweden). Dept. of Energy and Environment

2005-11-01

Futures studies consist of a vast variation of studies and approaches. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of for what purposes scenarios are useful and what methods and procedures are useful for furthering these purposes. We present a scenario typology with an aim to better suit the context in which the scenarios are used. The scenario typology is combined with a new way of looking at scenario techniques, i.e. practical methods and procedures for scenario development. Finally, we look at the usefulness of scenarios in the light of the scenario typology and the scenario techniques. As a start, we distinguish between three main categories of scenario studies. The classification is based on the principal questions we believe a user may want to pose about the future. The resolution is then increased by letting each category contain two different scenario types. These are distinguished by different angles of approach of the questions defining the categories. The first question, What will happen?, is responded to by Predictive scenarios. In fact, the response to a question like this will always be conditional, e.g. of a stable and peaceful world, or by a certain continuous development of some kind. We have utilized this fact when defining the two predictive scenario types, Forecasts and What-if scenarios. The second question, What can happen?, is responded to by Explorative scenarios. The scenarios are thus explorations of what might happen in the future, regardless of beliefs of what is likely to happen or opinions of what is desirable. This category is further divided into external and strategic scenarios. The final question, How can a specific target be reached?, is responded to by Normative scenarios. Such studies are explicitly normative, since they take a target as a starting point. They are often directed towards how the target could be reached. This category is divided into preserving and transforming scenarios. If the user wants to

Hydrological scenarios of future seasonal runoff distribution in Central Slovakia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hlavcova, K; Szolgay, J; Kohnova, S; Balint, G

2008-01-01

The hydrological scenarios of future seasonal distributions of runoff in the upper Hron River basin, which was chosen as a representative mountainous region in Central Slovakia, were evaluated. Changes in the future climate were expressed by three different climate change scenarios developed within the framework of the Central and Eastern Europe Climate Change Impact and Vulnerability Assessment Project (CECILIA). The climate change scenarios were constructed using the pattern scaling method from the outputs of transient simulations made by 3 GCMs - ECHAM4/OPYC3, HadCM2 and NCAR DOE-PCM. A conceptual hydrological balance model calibrated with data from the period 1971-2000 was used for modelling changes in runoff with monthly time steps. The runoff change scenarios for the selected basin in the future time horizons of 2025, 2050 and 2100 show changes in the seasonal runoff distribution.

Constructing bald eagle nests with natural materials

Science.gov (United States)

T. G. Grubb

1995-01-01

A technique for using natural materials to build artificial nests for bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and other raptors is detailed. Properly constructed nests are as permanently secured to the nest tree or cliff substrate as any eagle-built nest or human-made platform. Construction normally requires about three hours and at least two people. This technique is...

Climatic correlates of tree mortality in water- and energy-limited forests.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian J Das

Full Text Available Recent increases in tree mortality rates across the western USA are correlated with increasing temperatures, but mechanisms remain unresolved. Specifically, increasing mortality could predominantly be a consequence of temperature-induced increases in either (1 drought stress, or (2 the effectiveness of tree-killing insects and pathogens. Using long-term data from California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, we found that in water-limited (low-elevation forests mortality was unambiguously best modeled by climatic water deficit, consistent with the first mechanism. In energy-limited (high-elevation forests deficit models were only equivocally better than temperature models, suggesting that the second mechanism is increasingly important in these forests. We could not distinguish between models predicting mortality using absolute versus relative changes in water deficit, and these two model types led to different forecasts of mortality vulnerability under future climate scenarios. Our results provide evidence for differing climatic controls of tree mortality in water- and energy-limited forests, while highlighting the need for an improved understanding of tree mortality processes.

STBase: one million species trees for comparative biology.

Science.gov (United States)

McMahon, Michelle M; Deepak, Akshay; Fernández-Baca, David; Boss, Darren; Sanderson, Michael J

2015-01-01

Comprehensively sampled phylogenetic trees provide the most compelling foundations for strong inferences in comparative evolutionary biology. Mismatches are common, however, between the taxa for which comparative data are available and the taxa sampled by published phylogenetic analyses. Moreover, many published phylogenies are gene trees, which cannot always be adapted immediately for species level comparisons because of discordance, gene duplication, and other confounding biological processes. A new database, STBase, lets comparative biologists quickly retrieve species level phylogenetic hypotheses in response to a query list of species names. The database consists of 1 million single- and multi-locus data sets, each with a confidence set of 1000 putative species trees, computed from GenBank sequence data for 413,000 eukaryotic taxa. Two bodies of theoretical work are leveraged to aid in the assembly of multi-locus concatenated data sets for species tree construction. First, multiply labeled gene trees are pruned to conflict-free singly-labeled species-level trees that can be combined between loci. Second, impacts of missing data in multi-locus data sets are ameliorated by assembling only decisive data sets. Data sets overlapping with the user's query are ranked using a scheme that depends on user-provided weights for tree quality and for taxonomic overlap of the tree with the query. Retrieval times are independent of the size of the database, typically a few seconds. Tree quality is assessed by a real-time evaluation of bootstrap support on just the overlapping subtree. Associated sequence alignments, tree files and metadata can be downloaded for subsequent analysis. STBase provides a tool for comparative biologists interested in exploiting the most relevant sequence data available for the taxa of interest. It may also serve as a prototype for future species tree oriented databases and as a resource for assembly of larger species phylogenies from precomputed

STBase: one million species trees for comparative biology.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle M McMahon

Full Text Available Comprehensively sampled phylogenetic trees provide the most compelling foundations for strong inferences in comparative evolutionary biology. Mismatches are common, however, between the taxa for which comparative data are available and the taxa sampled by published phylogenetic analyses. Moreover, many published phylogenies are gene trees, which cannot always be adapted immediately for species level comparisons because of discordance, gene duplication, and other confounding biological processes. A new database, STBase, lets comparative biologists quickly retrieve species level phylogenetic hypotheses in response to a query list of species names. The database consists of 1 million single- and multi-locus data sets, each with a confidence set of 1000 putative species trees, computed from GenBank sequence data for 413,000 eukaryotic taxa. Two bodies of theoretical work are leveraged to aid in the assembly of multi-locus concatenated data sets for species tree construction. First, multiply labeled gene trees are pruned to conflict-free singly-labeled species-level trees that can be combined between loci. Second, impacts of missing data in multi-locus data sets are ameliorated by assembling only decisive data sets. Data sets overlapping with the user's query are ranked using a scheme that depends on user-provided weights for tree quality and for taxonomic overlap of the tree with the query. Retrieval times are independent of the size of the database, typically a few seconds. Tree quality is assessed by a real-time evaluation of bootstrap support on just the overlapping subtree. Associated sequence alignments, tree files and metadata can be downloaded for subsequent analysis. STBase provides a tool for comparative biologists interested in exploiting the most relevant sequence data available for the taxa of interest. It may also serve as a prototype for future species tree oriented databases and as a resource for assembly of larger species phylogenies

A systematic risk management approach employed on the CloudSat project

Science.gov (United States)

Basilio, R. R.; Plourde, K. S.; Lam, T.

2000-01-01

The CloudSat Project has developed a simplified approach for fault tree analysis and probabilistic risk assessment. A system-level fault tree has been constructed to identify credible fault scenarios and failure modes leading up to a potential failure to meet the nominal mission success criteria.

Decision tree approach for classification of remotely sensed satellite

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

DTC) algorithm for classification of remotely sensed satellite data (Landsat TM) using open source support. The decision tree is constructed by recursively partitioning the spectral distribution of the training dataset using WEKA, open source ...

Productivity of the supply system based on whole-tree bundling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Laitila, J. (Finnish Forest Research Inst., Joensuu (Finland)), Email: juha.laitila@metla.fi; Jylhae, P. (Finnish Forest Research Inst., Kannus (Finland)), Email: paula.jylha@metla.fi; Kaerhae, K. (Metsaeteho Oy, Helsinki (Finland)), Email: kalle.karha@metsateho.fi

2009-07-01

In the present study, time consumption models for bundle harvesting and forwarding were created by applying regression analyses. The time studies related to on-road transportation were created by applying regression analyses. The time studies related to on-road transportation were focused on comparing the terminal times spent on handling of whole-tree bundles and conventional 5-m pulpwood. The number of whole-tree bundles per truck load and the weights of the payloads were also recorded. The forwarding productivity of whole-tree bundles was about double compared to conventional pulpwood and whole-trees. In on-road transportation, the mean loading and unloading time of whole-tree bundles per truck load was 46 % higher compared to that of conventional 5-m pulpwood. The second prototype of the bundle harvester is under construction, and the time studies are to be continued after accomplishing the machine in the autumn 2009. (orig.)

Assessing risks and uncertainties in forest dynamics under different management scenarios and climate change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthias Albert

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Background Forest management faces a climate induced shift in growth potential and increasing current and emerging new risks. Vulnerability analysis provides decision support based on projections of natural resources taking risks and uncertainties into account. In this paper we (1 characterize differences in forest dynamics under three management scenarios, (2 analyse the effects of the three scenarios on two risk factors, windthrow and drought stress, and (3 quantify the effects and the amount of uncertainty arising from climate projections on height increment and drought stress. Methods In four regions in northern Germany, we apply three contrasting management scenarios and project forest development under climate change until 2070. Three climate runs (minimum, median, maximum based on the emission scenario RCP 8.5 control the site-sensitive forest growth functions. The minimum and maximum climate run define the range of prospective climate development. Results The projections of different management regimes until 2070 show the diverging medium-term effects of thinnings and harvests and long-term effects of species conversion on a regional scale. Examples of windthrow vulnerability and drought stress reveal how adaptation measures depend on the applied management path and the decision-maker’s risk attitude. Uncertainty analysis shows the increasing variability of drought risk projections with time. The effect of climate projections on height growth are quantified and uncertainty analysis reveals that height growth of young trees is dominated by the age-trend whereas the climate signal in height increment of older trees is decisive. Conclusions Drought risk is a serious issue in the eastern regions independent of the applied silvicultural scenario, but adaptation measures are limited as the proportion of the most drought tolerant species Scots pine is already high. Windthrow risk is no serious overall threat in any region, but adequate

Inter- and transdisciplinary scenario construction to explore future land-use options in southern Amazonia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Regine Schönenberg

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Our aim with this paper is to present a novel approach for developing story lines and scenarios by combining qualitative knowledge and quantitative data from different disciplines and discussing the results with relevant decision makers. This research strategy offers a solid foundation for perspectives into the future. The "laboratory" is the Brazilian Amazon, one of the hotspots of land-use change where local and global interests both collide and converge: local livelihoods are affected by regional and global climate change and by the loss of biodiversity caused by local and global economic interests in agro-industrial land use; such use contributes, in turn, to climate change. After decades of diverse policy interventions the question arises: What can we learn from past trajectories for a more sustainable development in the future? To answer this question, we combined qualitative story lines for the region, reviewed by local experts, with quantitative land-use scenarios, to study their regional and local manifestations in space. These results were then discussed again with local and national experts. Our findings suggest that in-depth knowledge of the diverging perspectives at a very local level is a fundamental prerequisite for downscaling global scenarios and upscaling local approaches to sustainable land-use management and thus, to producing communicable and applicable results.

MELCOR DB Construction for the Severe Accident Analysis DB

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song, Y. M.; Ahn, K. I.

2011-01-01

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has been constructing a severe accident analysis database (DB) under a National Nuclear R and D Program. In particular, an MAAP (commercial code being widely used in industries for integrated severe accident analysis) DB for many scenarios including a station blackout (SBO) has been completed. This paper shows the MELCOR DB construction process with examples of SBO scenarios, and the results will be used for a comparison with the MAAP DB

ILC Operating Scenarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barklow, T.; Brau, J.; Fujii, K.; Gao, J.; List, J.; Walker, N.; Yokoya, K.; Collaboration: ILC Parameters Joint Working Group

2015-06-15

The ILC Technical Design Report documents the design for the construction of a linear collider which can be operated at energies up to 500 GeV. This report summarizes the outcome of a study of possible running scenarios, including a realistic estimate of the real time accumulation of integrated luminosity based on ramp-up and upgrade processes. The evolution of the physics outcomes is emphasized, including running initially at 500 GeV, then at 350 GeV and 250 GeV. The running scenarios have been chosen to optimize the Higgs precision measurements and top physics while searching for evidence for signals beyond the standard model, including dark matter. In addition to the certain precision physics on the Higgs and top that is the main focus of this study, there are scientific motivations that indicate the possibility for discoveries of new particles in the upcoming operations of the LHC or the early operation of the ILC. Follow-up studies of such discoveries could alter the plan for the centre-of-mass collision energy of the ILC and expand the scientific impact of the ILC physics program. It is envisioned that a decision on a possible energy upgrade would be taken near the end of the twenty year period considered in this report.

Extreme scenarios for nuclear waste repositories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brown, M J [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (USA). Div. of Applied Sciences; Crouch, E [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (USA). Energy and Environmental Policy Center

1982-09-01

Two extreme scenarios for release of radioactive waste have been constructed. In the first, a volcanic eruption releases 1 km/sup 2/ of an underground nuclear waste repository, while in the second, waste enters the drinking water reservoir of a major city. With pessimistic assumptions, upper bounds on the number of cancers due to radiation are calculated. In the volcano scenario, the effects of the waste are smaller than the effects of natural radioactivity in the volcanic dust if the delay between emplacement and eruption exceeds 2000 yr. The consequences of the waste in drinking water depend on the survival time of the canisters and the rate of leaching of the nuclides from the waste matrix. For a canister life of 400 yr and a leach time of 6300 yr the cancer rate in the affected area would increase by 25%.

Extreme scenarios for nuclear waste repositories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brown, M J; Crouch, E

1982-09-01

Two extreme scenarios for release of radioactive waste have been constructed. In the first, a volcanic eruption releases 1 km2 of an underground nuclear waste repository, while in the second, waste enters the drinking water reservoir of a major city. With pessimistic assumptions, upper bounds on the number of cancers due to radiation are calculated. In the volcano scenario, the effects of the water are smaller than the effects of natural radioactivity in the volcanic dust if the delay between emplacement and eruption exceeds 2000 yr. The consequences of the waste in drinking water depend on the survival time of the canisters and the rate of leaching of the nuclides from the waste matrix. For a canister life of 400 yr and a leach time of 6300 yr the cancer rate in the affected area would increase by 25%.

Adapting and Evaluating a Tree of Life Group for Women with Learning Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Randle-Phillips, Cathy; Farquhar, Sarah; Thomas, Sally

2016-01-01

Background: This study describes how a specific narrative therapy approach called 'the tree of life' was adapted to run a group for women with learning disabilities. The group consisted of four participants and ran for five consecutive weeks. Materials and Methods: Participants each constructed a tree to represent their lives and presented their…

Construction and bootstrap analysis of DNA fingerprinting-based phylogenetic trees with the freeware program FreeTree: application to trichomonad parasites

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Hampl, V.; Pavlíček, Adam; Flegr, J.

2001-01-01

Roč. 51, - (2001), s. 731-735 ISSN 1466-5026 R&D Projects: GA MŠk VS96142 Grant - others:GA UK(XC) 107/1998 Keywords : FreeTree software * fingerprinting * Trichomonas Subject RIV: EB - Genetics ; Molecular Biology Impact factor: 2.004, year: 2001

Sequence Tree Modeling for Combined Accident and Feed-and-Bleed Operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Bo Gyung; Kang Hyun Gook; Yoon, Ho Joon

2016-01-01

In order to address this issue, this study suggests the sequence tree model to analyze accident sequence systematically. Using the sequence tree model, all possible scenarios which need a specific safety action to prevent the core damage can be identified and success conditions of safety action under complicated situation such as combined accident will be also identified. Sequence tree is branch model to divide plant condition considering the plant dynamics. Since sequence tree model can reflect the plant dynamics, arising from interaction of different accident timing and plant condition and from the interaction between the operator action, mitigation system, and the indicators for operation, sequence tree model can be used to develop the dynamic event tree model easily. Target safety action for this study is a feed-and-bleed (F and B) operation. A F and B operation directly cools down the reactor cooling system (RCS) using the primary cooling system when residual heat removal by the secondary cooling system is not available. In this study, a TLOFW accident and a TLOFW accident with LOCA were the target accidents. Based on the conventional PSA model and indicators, the sequence tree model for a TLOFW accident was developed. If sampling analysis is performed, practical accident sequences can be identified based on the sequence analysis. If a realistic distribution for the variables can be obtained for sampling analysis, much more realistic accident sequences can be described. Moreover, if the initiating event frequency under a combined accident can be quantified, the sequence tree model can translate into a dynamic event tree model based on the sampling analysis results

Sequence Tree Modeling for Combined Accident and Feed-and-Bleed Operation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Bo Gyung; Kang Hyun Gook [KAIST, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Yoon, Ho Joon [Khalifa University of Science, Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

2016-05-15

In order to address this issue, this study suggests the sequence tree model to analyze accident sequence systematically. Using the sequence tree model, all possible scenarios which need a specific safety action to prevent the core damage can be identified and success conditions of safety action under complicated situation such as combined accident will be also identified. Sequence tree is branch model to divide plant condition considering the plant dynamics. Since sequence tree model can reflect the plant dynamics, arising from interaction of different accident timing and plant condition and from the interaction between the operator action, mitigation system, and the indicators for operation, sequence tree model can be used to develop the dynamic event tree model easily. Target safety action for this study is a feed-and-bleed (F and B) operation. A F and B operation directly cools down the reactor cooling system (RCS) using the primary cooling system when residual heat removal by the secondary cooling system is not available. In this study, a TLOFW accident and a TLOFW accident with LOCA were the target accidents. Based on the conventional PSA model and indicators, the sequence tree model for a TLOFW accident was developed. If sampling analysis is performed, practical accident sequences can be identified based on the sequence analysis. If a realistic distribution for the variables can be obtained for sampling analysis, much more realistic accident sequences can be described. Moreover, if the initiating event frequency under a combined accident can be quantified, the sequence tree model can translate into a dynamic event tree model based on the sampling analysis results.

Comparing nonparametric Bayesian tree priors for clonal reconstruction of tumors.

Science.gov (United States)

Deshwar, Amit G; Vembu, Shankar; Morris, Quaid

2015-01-01

Statistical machine learning methods, especially nonparametric Bayesian methods, have become increasingly popular to infer clonal population structure of tumors. Here we describe the treeCRP, an extension of the Chinese restaurant process (CRP), a popular construction used in nonparametric mixture models, to infer the phylogeny and genotype of major subclonal lineages represented in the population of cancer cells. We also propose new split-merge updates tailored to the subclonal reconstruction problem that improve the mixing time of Markov chains. In comparisons with the tree-structured stick breaking prior used in PhyloSub, we demonstrate superior mixing and running time using the treeCRP with our new split-merge procedures. We also show that given the same number of samples, TSSB and treeCRP have similar ability to recover the subclonal structure of a tumor…

Comparing Phylogenetic Trees by Matching Nodes Using the Transfer Distance Between Partitions.

Science.gov (United States)

Bogdanowicz, Damian; Giaro, Krzysztof

2017-05-01

Ability to quantify dissimilarity of different phylogenetic trees describing the relationship between the same group of taxa is required in various types of phylogenetic studies. For example, such metrics are used to assess the quality of phylogeny construction methods, to define optimization criteria in supertree building algorithms, or to find horizontal gene transfer (HGT) events. Among the set of metrics described so far in the literature, the most commonly used seems to be the Robinson-Foulds distance. In this article, we define a new metric for rooted trees-the Matching Pair (MP) distance. The MP metric uses the concept of the minimum-weight perfect matching in a complete bipartite graph constructed from partitions of all pairs of leaves of the compared phylogenetic trees. We analyze the properties of the MP metric and present computational experiments showing its potential applicability in tasks related to finding the HGT events.

Improving environmental change research with systematic techniques for qualitative scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schweizer, Vanessa Jine; Kriegler, Elmar

2012-01-01

Scenarios are key tools in analyses of global environmental change. Often they consist of quantitative and qualitative components, where the qualitative aspects are expressed in narrative, or storyline, form. Fundamental challenges in scenario development and use include identifying a small set of compelling storylines that span a broad range of policy-relevant futures, documenting that the assumptions embodied in the storylines are internally consistent, and ensuring that the selected storylines are sufficiently comprehensive, that is, that descriptions of important kinds of future developments are not left out. The dominant approach to scenario design for environmental change research has been criticized for lacking sufficient means of ensuring that storylines are internally consistent. A consequence of this shortcoming could be an artificial constraint on the range of plausible futures considered. We demonstrate the application of a more systematic technique for the development of storylines called the cross-impact balance (CIB) method. We perform a case study on the scenarios published in the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES), which are widely used. CIB analysis scores scenarios in terms of internal consistency. It can also construct a very large number of scenarios consisting of combinations of assumptions about individual scenario elements and rank these combinations in terms of internal consistency. Using this method, we find that the four principal storylines employed in the SRES scenarios vary widely in internal consistency. One type of storyline involving highly carbon-intensive development is underrepresented in the SRES scenario set. We conclude that systematic techniques like CIB analysis hold promise for improving scenario development in global change research. (letter)

The Tree Drought Emission MONitor (Tree DEMON, an innovative system for assessing biogenic volatile organic compounds emission from plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marvin Lüpke

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC emitted by plants play an important role for ecological and physiological processes, for example as response to stressors. These emitted compounds are involved in chemical processes within the atmosphere and contribute to the formation of aerosols and ozone. Direct measurement of BVOC emissions requires a specialized sample system in order to obtain repeatable and comparable results. These systems need to be constructed carefully since BVOC measurements may be disturbed by several side effects, e.g., due to wrong material selection and lacking system stability. Results In order to assess BVOC emission rates, a four plant chamber system was constructed, implemented and throughout evaluated by synthetic tests and in two case studies on 3-year-old sweet chestnut seedlings. Synthetic system test showed a stable sampling with good repeatability and low memory effects. The first case study demonstrated the capability of the system to screen multiple trees within a few days and revealed three different emission patterns of sweet chestnut trees. The second case study comprised an application of drought stress on two seedlings compared to two in parallel assessed seedlings of a control. Here, a clear reduction of BVOC emissions during drought stress was observed. Conclusion The developed system allows assessing BVOC as well as CO2 and water vapor gas exchange of four tree specimens automatically and in parallel with repeatable results. A canopy volume of 30 l can be investigated, which constitutes in case of tree seedlings the whole canopy. Longer lasting experiments of e.g., 1–3 weeks can be performed easily without any significant plant interference.

EDITORIAL: Where next with global environmental scenarios? Where next with global environmental scenarios?

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neill, Brian; Pulver, Simone; Van Deveer, Stacy; Garb, Yaakov

2008-12-01

sub-national disaggregation of income distributions and climate change impacts) in order to boost the equity sensitivity of scenarios (Baer 2009). Recognize topics where social science inputs are becoming important for improving modelling and model relevance, such as providing a logic for how societies manage to transition from historical paths to the various future development paths foreseen in the scenarios, or developing measures of well-being which are independent of income levels, and include in global environmental scenario teams more representatives of social science professionals (Pitcher 2009; Garb et al 2008). Invest greater resources in assessing scenario results, and in understanding and overcoming the barriers to carrying out such assessment (Hulme and Dessai 2008; O'Neill and Nakicenovic, 2008). Disaggregate the variety of global change decision makers targeted as audiences for scenarios (Parson 2008; Garb et al 2008). Develop an additional 'reflective interventionist' scenarios approach that involves different epistemologies for active learning in the public interest (Wilkinson and Eidinow 2008). Draw on the extensive toolkit of social science research methods to analyze the social work of scenarios (Garb et al 2008). Create new institutions and scenario activities that can adapt and extend global scenarios to specific, often local or regional decision contexts (Parson 2008). Create fora in which scenario practitioners, modellers, decision-makers, and social scientists of various kinds can discuss the process of scenario construction and use (Garb et al 2008). We do not mean to imply a consensus among the participants in the Brown University workshop or of contributors to this collection of papers. At the same time, we believe that these and other insights and suggestions from these contributions do have a certain coherence, and collectively point to a deepening and reinvigoration of the environmental scenario-modelling enterprise—an enterprise now

Tree compression with top trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bille, Philip; Gørtz, Inge Li; Landau, Gad M.

2013-01-01

We introduce a new compression scheme for labeled trees based on top trees [3]. Our compression scheme is the first to simultaneously take advantage of internal repeats in the tree (as opposed to the classical DAG compression that only exploits rooted subtree repeats) while also supporting fast...

Tree compression with top trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bille, Philip; Gørtz, Inge Li; Landau, Gad M.

2015-01-01

We introduce a new compression scheme for labeled trees based on top trees. Our compression scheme is the first to simultaneously take advantage of internal repeats in the tree (as opposed to the classical DAG compression that only exploits rooted subtree repeats) while also supporting fast...

Computer-aided event tree analysis by the impact vector method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lima, J.E.P.

1984-01-01

In the development of the Probabilistic Risk Analysis of Angra I, the ' large event tree/small fault tree' approach was adopted for the analysis of the plant behavior in an emergency situation. In this work, the event tree methodology is presented along with the adaptations which had to be made in order to attain a correct description of the safety system performances according to the selected analysis method. The problems appearing in the application of the methodology and their respective solutions are presented and discussed, with special emphasis to the impact vector technique. A description of the ETAP code ('Event Tree Analysis Program') developed for constructing and quantifying event trees is also given in this work. A preliminary version of the small-break LOCA analysis for Angra 1 is presented as an example of application of the methodology and of the code. It is shown that the use of the ETAP code sigmnificantly contributes to decreasing the time spent in event tree analyses, making it viable the practical application of the analysis approach referred above. (author) [pt

Preliminary hazard analysis using sequence tree method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang Huiwen; Shih Chunkuan; Hung Hungchih; Chen Minghuei; Yih Swu; Lin Jiinming

2007-01-01

A system level PHA using sequence tree method was developed to perform Safety Related digital I and C system SSA. The conventional PHA is a brainstorming session among experts on various portions of the system to identify hazards through discussions. However, this conventional PHA is not a systematic technique, the analysis results strongly depend on the experts' subjective opinions. The analysis quality cannot be appropriately controlled. Thereby, this research developed a system level sequence tree based PHA, which can clarify the relationship among the major digital I and C systems. Two major phases are included in this sequence tree based technique. The first phase uses a table to analyze each event in SAR Chapter 15 for a specific safety related I and C system, such as RPS. The second phase uses sequence tree to recognize what I and C systems are involved in the event, how the safety related systems work, and how the backup systems can be activated to mitigate the consequence if the primary safety systems fail. In the sequence tree, the defense-in-depth echelons, including Control echelon, Reactor trip echelon, ESFAS echelon, and Indication and display echelon, are arranged to construct the sequence tree structure. All the related I and C systems, include digital system and the analog back-up systems are allocated in their specific echelon. By this system centric sequence tree based analysis, not only preliminary hazard can be identified systematically, the vulnerability of the nuclear power plant can also be recognized. Therefore, an effective simplified D3 evaluation can be performed as well. (author)

A fast BDD algorithm for large coherent fault trees analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Woo Sik; Han, Sang Hoon; Ha, Jaejoo

2004-01-01

Although a binary decision diagram (BDD) algorithm has been tried to solve large fault trees until quite recently, they are not efficiently solved in a short time since the size of a BDD structure exponentially increases according to the number of variables. Furthermore, the truncation of If-Then-Else (ITE) connectives by the probability or size limit and the subsuming to delete subsets could not be directly applied to the intermediate BDD structure under construction. This is the motivation for this work. This paper presents an efficient BDD algorithm for large coherent systems (coherent BDD algorithm) by which the truncation and subsuming could be performed in the progress of the construction of the BDD structure. A set of new formulae developed in this study for AND or OR operation between two ITE connectives of a coherent system makes it possible to delete subsets and truncate ITE connectives with a probability or size limit in the intermediate BDD structure under construction. By means of the truncation and subsuming in every step of the calculation, large fault trees for coherent systems (coherent fault trees) are efficiently solved in a short time using less memory. Furthermore, the coherent BDD algorithm from the aspect of the size of a BDD structure is much less sensitive to variable ordering than the conventional BDD algorithm

Hanford double shell tank corrosion monitoring instrument tree prototype

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelson, J.L.; Edgemon, G.L.; Ohl, P.C.

1995-11-01

High-level nuclear wastes at the Hanford site are stored underground in carbon steel double-shell and single-shell tanks (DSTs and SSTs). The installation of a prototype corrosion monitoring instrument tree into DST 241-A-101 was completed in December 1995. The instrument tree has the ability to detect and discriminate between uniform corrosion, pitting, and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) through the use of electrochemical noise measurements and a unique stressed element, three-electrode probe. The tree itself is constructed of AISI 304L stainless steel (UNS S30403), with probes in the vapor space, vapor/liquid interface and liquid. Successful development of these trees will allow their application to single shell tanks and the transfer of technology to other US Department of Energy (DOE) sites. Keywords: Hanford, radioactive waste, high-level waste tanks, electrochemical noise, probes, double-shell tanks, single-shell tanks, corrosion

DAG-based attack and defense modeling: don’t miss the forest for the attack trees

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kordy, Barbara; Piètre-Cambacédès, Ludovic; Schweitzer, Patrick

2015-01-01

This paper presents the current state of the art on attack and defense modeling approaches that are based on directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). DAGs allow for a hierarchical decomposition of complex scenarios into simple, easily understandable and quantifiable actions. Methods based on threat trees and

Thermodynamics and process analysis for future economic scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ayres, R.U.

1995-01-01

Economists are increasingly interested in forecasting future costs and benefits of policies for dealing with materials/energy fluxes, polluting emissions and environmental impacts on various scales, from sectoral to global. Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are currently popular because they project demand and industrial structure into the future, along an equilibrium path. But they are applicable only to the extent that structural changes occur in or near equilibrium, independent of radical technological (or social) change. The alternative tool for analyzing economic implications of scenario assumptions is to use Leontief-type Input-Output (I-O) models. I-O models are unable to endogenize structural shifts (changing I-O coefficients). However, this can be a virtue when considering radical rather than incremental shifts. Postulated I-O tables can be used independently to check the internal consistency of scenarios. Or I-O models can be used to generate scenarios by linking them to econometric 'macro-drivers' (which can, in principle, be CGE models). Explicit process analysis can be integrated, in principle, with I-O models. This hybrid scheme provides a natural means of satisfying physical constraints, especially the first and second laws of thermodynamics. This is important, to avoid constructing scenarios based on physically impossible processes. Process analysis is really the only available tool for constructing physically plausible alternative future I-O tables, and generating materials/energy and waste emissions coefficients. Explicit process analysis also helps avoid several problems characteristic of 'pure' CGE or I-O models, viz. (1) aggregation errors (2) inability to handle arbitrary combinations of co-product and co-input relationships and (3) inability to reflect certain non-linearities such as internal feedback loops. 4 figs., 2 tabs., 38 refs

Modular techniques for dynamic fault-tree analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Patterson-Hine, F. A.; Dugan, Joanne B.

1992-01-01

It is noted that current approaches used to assess the dependability of complex systems such as Space Station Freedom and the Air Traffic Control System are incapable of handling the size and complexity of these highly integrated designs. A novel technique for modeling such systems which is built upon current techniques in Markov theory and combinatorial analysis is described. It enables the development of a hierarchical representation of system behavior which is more flexible than either technique alone. A solution strategy which is based on an object-oriented approach to model representation and evaluation is discussed. The technique is virtually transparent to the user since the fault tree models can be built graphically and the objects defined automatically. The tree modularization procedure allows the two model types, Markov and combinatoric, to coexist and does not require that the entire fault tree be translated to a Markov chain for evaluation. This effectively reduces the size of the Markov chain required and enables solutions with less truncation, making analysis of longer mission times possible. Using the fault-tolerant parallel processor as an example, a model is built and solved for a specific mission scenario and the solution approach is illustrated in detail.

Whole Genome Phylogenetic Tree Reconstruction using Colored de Bruijn Graphs

OpenAIRE

Lyman, Cole

2017-01-01

We present kleuren, a novel assembly-free method to reconstruct phylogenetic trees using the Colored de Bruijn Graph. kleuren works by constructing the Colored de Bruijn Graph and then traversing it, finding bubble structures in the graph that provide phylogenetic signal. The bubbles are then aligned and concatenated to form a supermatrix, from which a phylogenetic tree is inferred. We introduce the algorithm that kleuren uses to accomplish this task, and show its performance on reconstructin...

Use of a scenario-development procedure to identify potentially disruptive scenarios, Greater Confinement Disposal facility, Area 5, Nevada Test Site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guzowski, R.V.; Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM

1994-01-01

The Greater Confinement Disposal (GCD) facility includes four boreholes that contain transuranic (TRLT) waste. Presence of the TRU waste means that this facility must comply with the US Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for Management and Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level and Transuranic Waste-Final Rule 40 CFR Part 191. To comply with the Containment Requirements of this rule, all potentially disruptive events and processes, and by implication all potentially disruptive combinations of events and processes (scenarios), must be identified for possible inclusion in performance assessments. Screening of the FEPs identified four events for scenario development: exploratory drilling for natural resources, drilling withdrawal wells, irrigation, and subsidence. Recent environmental-isotope analyses of the vadose zone suggest that radionuclide transport from the boreholes to the water table by infiltration is not a feasible transport mechanism within the time frame of regulatory concern. For this reason, the event of drilling withdrawal wells was merged with exploratory drilling for resources. The descriptions of the remaining three events were modified slightly to aid in estimation of event probabilities and consequence analyses. The three events are: exploratory drilling for resources penetrates a TRU borehole, irrigation occurs at the Radioactive Waste Management Site (RWMS), and subsidence occurs at the RWMS. Use of a logic diagram with these three events resulted in the construction of eight scenarios, including base-case (undisturbed) conditions. Screening these scenarios at this stage of scenario development was beyond the scope of this task. Based on the implementation assumptions, this scenario-development procedure produced a comprehensive set of mutually exclusive scenarios that are reproducible and auditable for use in GCD performance assessments

Tree growth and recruitment in a leveed floodplain forest in the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Gee, Hugo K.W.; King, Sammy L.; Keim, Richard F.

2014-01-01

Flooding is a defining disturbance in floodplain forests affecting seed germination, seedling establishment, and tree growth. Globally, flood control, including artificial levees, dams, and channelization has altered flood regimes in floodplains. However, a paucity of data are available in regards to the long-term effects of levees on stand establishment and tree growth in floodplain forests. In this study, we used dendrochronological techniques to reconstruct tree recruitment and tree growth over a 90-year period at three stands within a ring levee in the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley (MAV) and to evaluate whether recruitment patterns and tree growth changed following levee construction. We hypothesized that: (1) sugarberry is increasing in dominance and overcup oak (Quercus lyrata) is becoming less dominant since the levee, and that changes in hydrology are playing a greater role than canopy disturbance in these changes in species dominance; and (2) that overcup oak growth has declined following construction of the levee and cessation of overbank flooding whereas that of sugarberry has increased. Recruitment patterns shifted from flood-tolerant overcup oak to flood-intolerant sugarberry (Celtis laevigata) after levee construction. None of the 122 sugarberry trees cored in this study established prior to the levee, but it was the most common species established after the levee. The mechanisms behind the compositional change are unknown, however, the cosmopolitan distribution of overcup oak during the pre-levee period and sugarberry during the post-levee period, the lack of sugarberry establishment in the pre-levee period, and the confinement of overcup oak regeneration to the lowest areas in each stand after harvest in the post-levee period indicate that species-specific responses to flooding and light availability are forcing recruitment patterns. Overcup oak growth was also affected by levee construction, but in contrast to our hypothesis, growth actually

Study of traffic-related pollutant removal from street canyon with trees: dispersion and deposition perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Morakinyo, Tobi Eniolu; Lam, Yun Fat

2016-11-01

Numerical experiments involving street canyons of varying aspect ratio with traffic-induced pollutants (PM 2.5 ) and implanted trees of varying aspect ratio, leaf area index, leaf area density distribution, trunk height, tree-covered area, and tree planting pattern under different wind conditions were conducted using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, ENVI-met. Various aspects of dispersion and deposition were investigated, which include the influence of various tree configurations and wind condition on dispersion within the street canyon, pollutant mass at the free stream layer and street canyon, and comparison between mass removal by surface (leaf) deposition and mass enhancement due to the presence of trees. Results revealed that concentration level was enhanced especially within pedestrian level in street canyons with trees relative to their tree-free counterparts. Additionally, we found a dependence of the magnitude of concentration increase (within pedestrian level) and decrease (above pedestrian level) due to tree configuration and wind condition. Furthermore, we realized that only ∼0.1-3 % of PM 2.5 was dispersed to the free stream layer while a larger percentage (∼97 %) remained in the canyon, regardless of its aspect ratio, prevailing wind condition, and either tree-free or with tree (of various configuration). Lastly, results indicate that pollutant removal due to deposition on leaf surfaces is potentially sufficient to counterbalance the enhancement of PM 2.5 by such trees under some tree planting scenarios and wind conditions.

Geometry of convex polygons and locally minimal binary trees spanning these polygons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ivanov, A O; Tuzhilin, A A

1999-01-01

In previous works the authors have obtained an effective classification of planar locally minimal binary trees with convex boundaries. The main aim of the present paper is to find more subtle restrictions on the possible structure of such trees in terms of the geometry of the given boundary set. Special attention is given to the case of quasiregular boundaries (that is, boundaries that are sufficiently close to regular ones in a certain sense). In particular, a series of quasiregular boundaries that cannot be spanned by a locally minimal binary tree is constructed

Review of Fire-Induced Multiple Spurious Operation Scenarios for a Pilot Plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Kwang Hong; Lee, Jai Ho; Lee, Do Hwan [KHNP CRI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

It was preliminarily reviewed that 41 scenarios of 63 scenarios of NEI's generic list could be applicable to design of SKN3. And 22 scenario of NEI's generic list were evaluated not applicable to SKN3. During the review of the scenario contained in NEI 00-01, no additional MSO scenarios specific to SKN3 were identified. For the further study, the final review will be determined and then detailed circuit analysis will be performed by fire zone and area based on the exact location contained the cable and raceway. With the enhancement of fire safety regulation requirements in nuclear power industry, multiple spurious operation (MSO) identification and treatments should be included in post fire safe shutdown analysis (PFSSA). In this study, the MSO scenario reviews are performed for Shin Kori Unit 3(SKN3) which is the first nuclear power plant of the Advanced Power Reactor 1400 constructed in Korea.

Meteorological Factors and Tree Characteristics Influencing the Initiation and Rate of Stemflow from Deciduous Trees in an Urban Park

Science.gov (United States)

Schooling, J. T.; Carlyle-Moses, D. E.

2013-12-01

provide a more comprehensive simulation tool for urban foresters, hydrologists, and stormwater managers. Stemflow funneling ratios and the percentage of precipitation diverted to the tree base for each tree are also presented along with an overview of the challenges associated with conducting SF research in an urban area. Future research is needed on the potential for SF to become overland flow and thus contribute to stormwater outflow under different soil / urban ground cover scenarios; on the importance of SF as a means of self-irrigation for trees and as a source of groundwater recharge; and on SF chemical composition in urban systems. Each of these needs to be addressed so that the roles of SF in stormwater quantity and quality mitigation are better understood.

Generalising tree traversals and tree transformations to DAGs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bahr, Patrick; Axelsson, Emil

2017-01-01

We present a recursion scheme based on attribute grammars that can be transparently applied to trees and acyclic graphs. Our recursion scheme allows the programmer to implement a tree traversal or a tree transformation and then apply it to compact graph representations of trees instead. The resul......We present a recursion scheme based on attribute grammars that can be transparently applied to trees and acyclic graphs. Our recursion scheme allows the programmer to implement a tree traversal or a tree transformation and then apply it to compact graph representations of trees instead...... as the complementing theory with a number of examples....

Study on scenario evaluation methodology for decommissioning nuclear facilities using fuzzy logic

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuhashi, Kazuya; Yanagihara, Satoshi

2015-01-01

Since there are many scenarios of the process from start to completion of a decommissioning project, it is important to study scenarios of decommissioning by evaluating such properties as safety, cost, and technology. An optimum scenario with the highest feasibility in accordance with the facility and environmental conditions should be selected on the basis of the results of the study. For analyzing a scenario of decommissioning, we prepared structured work packages by using the work breakdown structures (WBS) method together with qualitative evaluation of the technologies being applied to work packages located at the bottom (the third level) of the WBS. A calculation model was constructed to evaluate the feasibility of a scenario where fuzzy logic is applied to derive a score of technology performance and TOPSIS is applied for getting a feasibility grade of the scenario from technical performance scoring. As a case study, the model was applied to the debris removal scenario of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to confirm its applicability. Two scenarios, underwater and in-air debris removal cases, were characterized by extracting the work packages with the lowest feasibility and by obtaining total average scores of the scenarios. It is confirmed that the methodology developed is useful for the scenario evaluation of decommissioning nuclear facilities. (author)

Do orthologous gene phylogenies really support tree-thinking?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leigh J

2005-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Since Darwin's Origin of Species, reconstructing the Tree of Life has been a goal of evolutionists, and tree-thinking has become a major concept of evolutionary biology. Practically, building the Tree of Life has proven to be tedious. Too few morphological characters are useful for conducting conclusive phylogenetic analyses at the highest taxonomic level. Consequently, molecular sequences (genes, proteins, and genomes likely constitute the only useful characters for constructing a phylogeny of all life. For this reason, tree-makers expect a lot from gene comparisons. The simultaneous study of the largest number of molecular markers possible is sometimes considered to be one of the best solutions in reconstructing the genealogy of organisms. This conclusion is a direct consequence of tree-thinking: if gene inheritance conforms to a tree-like model of evolution, sampling more of these molecules will provide enough phylogenetic signal to build the Tree of Life. The selection of congruent markers is thus a fundamental step in simultaneous analysis of many genes. Results Heat map analyses were used to investigate the congruence of orthologues in four datasets (archaeal, bacterial, eukaryotic and alpha-proteobacterial. We conclude that we simply cannot determine if a large portion of the genes have a common history. In addition, none of these datasets can be considered free of lateral gene transfer. Conclusion Our phylogenetic analyses do not support tree-thinking. These results have important conceptual and practical implications. We argue that representations other than a tree should be investigated in this case because a non-critical concatenation of markers could be highly misleading.

GSHR-Tree: a spatial index tree based on dynamic spatial slot and hash table in grid environments

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zhanlong; Wu, Xin-cai; Wu, Liang

2008-12-01

Computation Grids enable the coordinated sharing of large-scale distributed heterogeneous computing resources that can be used to solve computationally intensive problems in science, engineering, and commerce. Grid spatial applications are made possible by high-speed networks and a new generation of Grid middleware that resides between networks and traditional GIS applications. The integration of the multi-sources and heterogeneous spatial information and the management of the distributed spatial resources and the sharing and cooperative of the spatial data and Grid services are the key problems to resolve in the development of the Grid GIS. The performance of the spatial index mechanism is the key technology of the Grid GIS and spatial database affects the holistic performance of the GIS in Grid Environments. In order to improve the efficiency of parallel processing of a spatial mass data under the distributed parallel computing grid environment, this paper presents a new grid slot hash parallel spatial index GSHR-Tree structure established in the parallel spatial indexing mechanism. Based on the hash table and dynamic spatial slot, this paper has improved the structure of the classical parallel R tree index. The GSHR-Tree index makes full use of the good qualities of R-Tree and hash data structure. This paper has constructed a new parallel spatial index that can meet the needs of parallel grid computing about the magnanimous spatial data in the distributed network. This arithmetic splits space in to multi-slots by multiplying and reverting and maps these slots to sites in distributed and parallel system. Each sites constructs the spatial objects in its spatial slot into an R tree. On the basis of this tree structure, the index data was distributed among multiple nodes in the grid networks by using large node R-tree method. The unbalance during process can be quickly adjusted by means of a dynamical adjusting algorithm. This tree structure has considered the

Modeling Future Land Use Scenarios in South Korea: Applying the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios and the SLEUTH Model on a Local Scale

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Haejin; Hwang, YunSeop; Ha, Sung Ryong; Kim, Byung Sik

2015-05-01

This study developed three scenarios of future land use/land cover on a local level for the Kyung-An River Basin and its vicinity in South Korea at a 30-m resolution based on the two scenario families of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report Emissions Scenarios (SRES): A2 and B1, as well as a business-as-usual scenario. The IPCC SRES A2 and B1 were used to define future local development patterns and associated land use change. We quantified the population-driven demand for urban land use for each qualitative storyline and allocated the urban demand in geographic space using the SLEUTH model. The model results demonstrate the possible land use/land cover change scenarios for the years from 2000 to 2070 by examining the broad narrative of each SRES within the context of a local setting, such as the Kyoungan River Basin, constructing narratives of local development shifts and modeling a set of `best guess' approximations of the future land use conditions in the study area. This study found substantial differences in demands and patterns of land use changes among the scenarios, indicating compact development patterns under the SRES B1 compared to the rapid and dispersed development under the SRES A2.

Modeling future land use scenarios in South Korea: applying the IPCC special report on emissions scenarios and the SLEUTH model on a local scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Haejin; Hwang, YunSeop; Ha, Sung Ryong; Kim, Byung Sik

2015-05-01

This study developed three scenarios of future land use/land cover on a local level for the Kyung-An River Basin and its vicinity in South Korea at a 30-m resolution based on the two scenario families of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report Emissions Scenarios (SRES): A2 and B1, as well as a business-as-usual scenario. The IPCC SRES A2 and B1 were used to define future local development patterns and associated land use change. We quantified the population-driven demand for urban land use for each qualitative storyline and allocated the urban demand in geographic space using the SLEUTH model. The model results demonstrate the possible land use/land cover change scenarios for the years from 2000 to 2070 by examining the broad narrative of each SRES within the context of a local setting, such as the Kyoungan River Basin, constructing narratives of local development shifts and modeling a set of 'best guess' approximations of the future land use conditions in the study area. This study found substantial differences in demands and patterns of land use changes among the scenarios, indicating compact development patterns under the SRES B1 compared to the rapid and dispersed development under the SRES A2.

Hide and vanish: data sets where the most parsimonious tree is known but hard to find, and their implications for tree search methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Goloboff, Pablo A

2014-10-01

Three different types of data sets, for which the uniquely most parsimonious tree can be known exactly but is hard to find with heuristic tree search methods, are studied. Tree searches are complicated more by the shape of the tree landscape (i.e. the distribution of homoplasy on different trees) than by the sheer abundance of homoplasy or character conflict. Data sets of Type 1 are those constructed by Radel et al. (2013). Data sets of Type 2 present a very rugged landscape, with narrow peaks and valleys, but relatively low amounts of homoplasy. For such a tree landscape, subjecting the trees to TBR and saving suboptimal trees produces much better results when the sequence of clipping for the tree branches is randomized instead of fixed. An unexpected finding for data sets of Types 1 and 2 is that starting a search from a random tree instead of a random addition sequence Wagner tree may increase the probability that the search finds the most parsimonious tree; a small artificial example where these probabilities can be calculated exactly is presented. Data sets of Type 3, the most difficult data sets studied here, comprise only congruent characters, and a single island with only one most parsimonious tree. Even if there is a single island, missing entries create a very flat landscape which is difficult to traverse with tree search algorithms because the number of equally parsimonious trees that need to be saved and swapped to effectively move around the plateaus is too large. Minor modifications of the parameters of tree drifting, ratchet, and sectorial searches allow travelling around these plateaus much more efficiently than saving and swapping large numbers of equally parsimonious trees with TBR. For these data sets, two new related criteria for selecting taxon addition sequences in Wagner trees (the "selected" and "informative" addition sequences) produce much better results than the standard random or closest addition sequences. These new methods for Wagner

Carbon dioxide emissions from Russia's electricity sector: future scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steenhof, Paul A.; Hill, Malcolm R.

2006-01-01

This article investigates future greenhouse gas emission scenarios for Russia's electricity sector, a topic of importance since Russia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in November 2004. Eleven scenarios are constructed to the year 2020 considering economic and technological details in both the demand and supply sides of the sector. The scenarios are based upon a thorough review of the different factors controlling carbon dioxide emissions, including potential economic growth, changes in energy efficiency and technological development, and that Russia may export large amounts of natural gas to European and Asian markets. The most likely scenario is that Russia will double industrial output over the next 10 years, increase energy efficiency in the demand sector, will remain consistent to the goals of the Energy Strategy 2020 and will implement more efficient technology in the electricity supply sector. Consequently, carbon dioxide emissions will still be 102 million tonnes below 1990 levels in 2010, representing a significant source for emission reduction credits available to be sold on international markets or transferred to the next crediting period. (Author)

Surface tree languages and parallel derivation trees

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Engelfriet, Joost

1976-01-01

The surface tree languages obtained by top-down finite state transformation of monadic trees are exactly the frontier-preserving homomorphic images of sets of derivation trees of ETOL systems. The corresponding class of tree transformation languages is therefore equal to the class of ETOL languages.

Development of a CFD Model Including Tree's Drag Parameterizations: Application to Pedestrian's Wind Comfort in an Urban Area

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, G.; Kim, J.

2017-12-01