Comment: On Random Scan Gibbs Samplers

Comment on ``On Random Scan Gibbs Samplers'' [arXiv:0808.3852]Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/08-STS252B the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Lattice cleaving: a multimaterial tetrahedral meshing algorithm with guarantees

pre-printWe introduce a new algorithm for generating tetrahedral meshes that conform to physical boundaries in volumetric domains consisting of multiple materials. The proposed method allows for an arbitrary number of materials, produces high-quality tetrahedral meshes with upper and lower bounds on dihedral angles, and guarantees geometric fidelity. Moreover, the method is combinatoric so its implementation enables rapid mesh construction. These meshes are structured in a way that also allows grading, to reduce element counts in regions of homogeneity. Additionally, we provide proofs showing that both element quality and geometric fidelity are bounded using this approach

LSST Science Data Quality Analysis Subsystem Design

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have a Science Data Quality Analysis (SDQA) subsystem for vetting its unprecedented volume of astronomical image data. The SDQA subsystem inhabits three basic realms: image processing, graphical-user-interface (GUI) tools, and alarms/reporting. During pipeline image processing, SDQA data are computed for the images and astronomical sources extracted from the images, and utilized to grade the images and sources. Alarms are automatically sent, if necessary, to initiate swift response to problems found. Both SDQA data and machine-determined grades are stored in a database. At the end of a data-processing interval, e.g., nightly processing or data-release reprocessing, automatic SDQA reports are generated from SDQA data and grades queried from the database. The SDQA reports summarize the science data quality and provide feedback to telescope, camera, facility, observation-scheduling and data-processing personnel. During operations, GUI tools facilitate visualization of image and SDQA data in a variety of ways that allow a small SDQA-operations team of humans to quickly and easily perform manual SDQA on a substantial fraction of LSST data products, and possibly reassign SDQA grades as a result of the visual inspection

Determination of biomembrane bending moduli in fully atomistic simulations.

The bilayer bending modulus (Kc) is one of the most important physical constants characterizing lipid membranes, but precisely measuring it is a challenge, both experimentally and computationally. Experimental measurements on chemically identical bilayers often differ depending upon the techniques employed, and robust simulation results have previously been limited to coarse-grained models (at varying levels of resolution). This Communication demonstrates the extraction of Kc from fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations for three different single-component lipid bilayers (DPPC, DOPC, and DOPE). The results agree quantitatively with experiments that measure thermal shape fluctuations in giant unilamellar vesicles. Lipid tilt, twist, and compression moduli are also reported