OpenForensics:a digital forensics GPU pattern matching approach for the 21st century

Pattern matching is a crucial component employed in many digital forensic (DF) analysis techniques, such as file-carving. The capacity of storage available on modern consumer devices has increased substantially in the past century, making pattern matching approaches of current generation DF tools increasingly ineffective in performing timely analyses on data seized in a DF investigation. As pattern matching is a trivally parallelisable problem, general purpose programming on graphic processing units (GPGPU) is a natural fit for this problem. This paper presents a pattern matching framework - OpenForensics - that demonstrates substantial performance improvements from the use of modern parallelisable algorithms and graphic processing units (GPUs) to search for patterns within forensic images and local storage devices

PC/FRAM, Version 3. 2 User Manual

This manual describes the use of version 3.2 of the PC/FRAM plutonium isotopic analysis software developed in the Safeguards Science and Technology Group, NE-5, Nonproliferation and International Security Division Los Alamos National Laboratory. The software analyzes the gamma ray spectrum from plutonium-bearing items and determines the isotopic distribution of the plutonium 241Am content and concentration of other isotopes in the item. The software can also determine the isotopic distribution of uranium isotopes in items containing only uranium. The body of this manual descnies the generic version of the code. Special facility-specific enhancements, if they apply, will be described in the appendices. The information in this manual applies equally well to version 3.3, which has been licensed to ORTEC. The software can analyze data that is stored in a file on disk. It understands several storage formats including Canberra's S1OO format, ORTEC'S `chn' and `SPC' formats, and several ASCII text formats. The software can also control data acquisition using an MCA and then store the results in a file on disk for later analysis or analyze the spectrum directly after the acquisition. The software currently only supports the control of ORTEC MCB'S. Support for Canbema's Genie-2000 Spectroscopy Systems will be added in the future. Support for reading and writing CAM files will also be forthcoming. A versatile parameter fde database structure governs all facets of the data analysis. User editing of the parameter sets allows great flexibility in handling data with different isotopic distributions, interfering isotopes, and different acquisition parameters such as energy calibration, and detector type. This manual is intended for the system supervisor or the local user who is to be the resident expert. Excerpts from this manual may also be appropriate for the system operator who will routinely use the instrument

The ROTSE-III Robotic Telescope System

The observation of a prompt optical flash from GRB990123 convincingly demonstrated the value of autonomous robotic telescope systems. Pursuing a program of rapid follow-up observations of gamma-ray bursts, the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) has developed a next-generation instrument, ROTSE-III, that will continue the search for fast optical transients. The entire system was designed as an economical robotic facility to be installed at remote sites throughout the world. There are seven major system components: optics, optical tube assembly, CCD camera, telescope mount, enclosure, environmental sensing & protection and data acquisition. Each is described in turn in the hope that the techniques developed here will be useful in similar contexts elsewhere.Comment: 19 pages, including 4 figures. To be published in PASP in January, 2003. PASP Number IP02-11

UV and X-ray Spectral Lines of FeXXIII Ion for Plasma Diagnostics

We have calculated X-ray and UV spectra of Be-like Fe (FeXXIII) ion in collisional-radiative model including all fine-structure transitions among the 2s^2, 2s2p, 2p^2, 2snl, and 2pnl levels where n=3 and 4, adopting data for the collision strengths by Zhang & Sampson (1992) and by Sampson, Goett, & Clark (1984). Some line intensity ratios can be used for the temperature diagnostics. We show 5 ratios in UV region and 9 ratios in X-ray region as a function of electron temperature and density at 0.3keV < T_e < 10keV and $n_e = 1 - 10^{25} cm^{-3}$. The effect of cascade in these line ratios and in the level population densities are discussed.Comment: LaTeX, 18 pages, 10 Postscript figures. To appear in Physica Script

Engineering simulations for cancer systems biology

Computer simulation can be used to inform in vivo and in vitro experimentation, enabling rapid, low-cost hypothesis generation and directing experimental design in order to test those hypotheses. In this way, in silico models become a scientific instrument for investigation, and so should be developed to high standards, be carefully calibrated and their findings presented in such that they may be reproduced. Here, we outline a framework that supports developing simulations as scientific instruments, and we select cancer systems biology as an exemplar domain, with a particular focus on cellular signalling models. We consider the challenges of lack of data, incomplete knowledge and modelling in the context of a rapidly changing knowledge base. Our framework comprises a process to clearly separate scientific and engineering concerns in model and simulation development, and an argumentation approach to documenting models for rigorous way of recording assumptions and knowledge gaps. We propose interactive, dynamic visualisation tools to enable the biological community to interact with cellular signalling models directly for experimental design. There is a mismatch in scale between these cellular models and tissue structures that are affected by tumours, and bridging this gap requires substantial computational resource. We present concurrent programming as a technology to link scales without losing important details through model simplification. We discuss the value of combining this technology, interactive visualisation, argumentation and model separation to support development of multi-scale models that represent biologically plausible cells arranged in biologically plausible structures that model cell behaviour, interactions and response to therapeutic interventions

PC/FRAM: A code for the nondestructive measurement of the isotopic composition of actinides for safeguards applications

The Nuclear Safeguards Program at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed and fielded techniques for the gamma-ray spectrometry measurement of the isotopic composition of plutonium and other actinides for over 20 years, ever since Parker and Reilly first proposed a practical method for the measurement of the arbitrary sample. Their procedures, incorporating internal (to the measured gamma-ray spectrum) or {open_quotes}intrinsic{close_quotes} self-determination of the relative efficiency function of the sample-detector measurement system, are widely applied today. The PC/FRAM code is the most recent and most highly-developed Los Alamos code developed specifically for the nuclear safeguards applications of this technique. We will describe the measurement principles that allow accurate measurements to be taken on samples of arbitrary size, shape, and measurement geometry- and of arbitrary physical and chemical composition-through the use of known nuclear decay data (half-lives and branching intensities). Subsequently, we will describe the analysis methodology, which is driven by an easily edited parameter file that frees the user from dependence on a dedicated programmer for analyses of special cases. This methodology relies on internal gamma-ray peaks from the spectrum under analysis to self-calibrate the unknown spectrum for energy and peak shape (energy dependence of full width at half maximum (FWHM) and tailing parameters). The program uses these parameters to calculate response functions that are fit to the analysis peaks requested in the parameter file. The structure of the code and its Windows 3.1 user interface allows use with equal ease by the experienced spectroscopist or operator-level personnel in a working facility

The Los Alamos PC/FRAM code for the nondestructive analysis of the isotopic composition of plutonium and other actinides

The Safeguards Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed versatile software for the isotopic analysis of plutonium and other actinides from the gamma ray spectrum of an arbitrary sample. These developments began over 20 years ago and have been used routinely at Los Alamos for 15 years. The authors will present details of the PC/FRAM code as well as discussing its application to a wide variety of measurement problems

Studies of Salt Water intrusion in Opobo/Nkoro Rivers State Using Geophysical and Hydrochemical Methods

Salt water intrusions into fresh water aquifers in Opobo town in Nkoro L.G.A, Rivers state is becoming an issue of concern to the community, and as such requires detailed analysis through an integration of qualitative (geo-electric) and quantitative (hydrochemical) methods. Twenty vertical electrical soundings (VES) labelled as O/MSC/01 to O/MSC/20 and three 2D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data were acquired in the area. Results from interpretation of the twenty VES profiles showed 4 geo-electric layers, which are topsoil, sand, sandy clay and clay. In VES geo-electric sections, it was observed that salt intrusions occur at depths of 43.135m, 55.20m, 43.528m, 51.63m, and 28.357m along O/MSC/02, O/MSC/05, O/MSC/07, O/MSC/11 and O/MSC/15 profiles respectively. No salt intrusion was observed in O/MSC/01, O/MSC/04, O/MSC/09, O/MSC/10, O/MSC/12 and O/MSC/14 within the depth investigated. Results of 2D imaging along VES profiles 10, 11 and 12, show salt intrusions observed along the three profiles at different depths within the subsurface. Along profile O/MSC/10, saltwater intrusions (with resistivity range of 59.2Ωm-60.1Ωm) was observed at depth of 7.59-9.59m at lateral distance of 34.0-36.0m and depth of 5.59-7.59m at lateral distance of 94-96m. Along profile O/MSC/11 salt intrusions (with resistivity range of 58.8Ωm-59.2Ωm) was observed at depth of 2.59-5.59m at lateral distance of 28-40m, and 110-128m, while along profile O/MSC/12 salt intrusions (with resistivity range of 14.5-20Ωm) was observed at depth of 3.59-5.59m at lateral distance of 112-118m. These findings were not observed in VES surveys along similar profiles where 2D ERT was carried out. 3D map computed to connect aquifers within the third geo-electric layers for VES points 1-20, showed that within the third geo-electric layers for O/MSC/02, 05, 07, 11, 16, 17, and 20 lies saline water. The reliability of these results was validated by results from quantitative assessment of physiochemical parameters (PH, electrical conductivity (EC), and total hardness) and hydrochemical contents (HCO3-, Na+, K+, CL-, and SO42-) used to evaluate the ionic abundance of water samples taken from seven wells/boreholes in the area. PH values of 6.40-6.90 were predominant in the samples which indicates slight acidity and unsuitable for human consumption, EC values in the order of 1705μS/cm, &amp; 1853.74μS/cm were obtained and total dissolved Solids (TDS) was in the order of 700.30mg/l &amp; 750.02mg/l. Elevated EC values in water is indicative of high ionic abundance, and is diagnostic to salinity of the water as reflected in the 1D and 2D geo-electric surveys. However, the study area also contains fresh water aquifers lying within the third geo-electric layers for VES profiles O/MSC/01, 03, 06, 08, 09, 10, 12, and 18, hence a water supply tube well can be drilled in these areas for groundwater production but the water should be subjected to hydrochemical test to ascertain its level of contamination and prior treatments before human consumption. Keywords: Saltwater Intrusion, Groundwater, Vertical electrical sounding (VES), Electrical resistivity  tomography (ERT), Geo-electric section

Modelling fungal colonies and communities:challenges and opportunities

This contribution, based on a Special Interest Group session held during IMC9, focuses on physiological based models of filamentous fungal colony growth and interactions. Fungi are known to be an important component of ecosystems, in terms of colony dynamics and interactions within and between trophic levels. We outline some of the essential components necessary to develop a fungal ecology: a mechanistic model of fungal colony growth and interactions, where observed behaviour can be linked to underlying function; a model of how fungi can cooperate at larger scales; and novel techniques for both exploring quantitatively the scales at which fungi operate; and addressing the computational challenges arising from this highly detailed quantification. We also propose a novel application area for fungi which may provide alternate routes for supporting scientific study of colony behaviour. This synthesis offers new potential to explore fungal community dynamics and the impact on ecosystem functioning

Lipoprotein particles in patients with pediatric Cushing disease and possible cardiovascular risks.

BackgroundCardiovascular (CV) complications are the most significant cause of mortality in adults with Cushing disease (CD); little is known about CV risk factors in children with CD. Measurement of lipoprotein particles by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a novel technology to assess CV risk. The objective of the current study is to analyze the NMR lipid profile in pediatric CD patients before and 1 year after remission.MethodsNMR lipid profile was obtained via the Vantera NMR analyzer, using frozen serum samples from 33 CD patients (mean age 13.8 ± 4.0 years) evaluated between 1997 and 2017 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center (CC).ResultsGlycA (glycosylated acute-phase proteins), triglyceride-rich particles (TRLP medium and very small sizes), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles (LDLP total and large size), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles (HDLP total, medium and small sizes), total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, GlycA inflammatory biomarker, and apolipoprotein B and apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1) concentrations showed statistically significant changes after remission of CD (p &lt; 0.05).ConclusionIn our study population, most of the lipid variables improved post-CD remission, with the exception of HDL and ApoA1, indicating that NMR lipoprotein profile may be a helpful tool in assessing the CV risk in pediatric patients with CD