Simple Orchestration Application Framework to Control "Burning Plasma Integrated Code"

We have developed the Simple Orchestration Application Framework (SOAF) on a grid infrastructure to control cooperative and multiple execution of simulation codes on remote computers from a client PC. SOAF enables researchers to generate a scenario of their cooperative and multiple executions by only describing a configuration file which includes the information of execution codes and file flows among them. SOAF does not need substantial modification of the simulation codes. We have applied SOAF to the "Burning Plasma Integrated Code" which consists of various plasma simulation codes. In order to predict and interpret the behavior of fusion burning plasma, it is necessary to cooperatively and concurrently execute various simulation codes to understand complex plasma phenomena with wide temporal and spatial ranges. Those codes exist on distributed heterogeneous computers located in different sites such as universities and institutes. By using SOAF, we succeeded to cooperatively and concurrently execute four plasma simulation codes without substantial modification as described in the configuration file

Application Integration Control System for Multi-Scale and Multi-PhysicsSimulation

In the case of long-period and large-scale simulation, unexpected stop which is caused by execution time excess, outage of computers, outage of a network during file transfer and so on, become major issues. To avoid the stop of job execution and file transfer, we have developed Task Flow Control System that is a new control system for application integration with a fault tolerant API. If the computer is outage, the system designates an alternate computer, gathers necessary files and submits a new job. Each scheduler, file transfer and job condition can be flexibly defined in XML. This time, we applied the system to fluid-structure interaction analysis simulation. The result indicates that the system enables a user to easily execute multi-scale and multi-physics simulation using application integration

Root PRR7 improves the accuracy of the shoot circadian clock through nutrient transport

The circadian clock allows plants to anticipate and adapt to periodic environmental changes. Organ- and tissue-specific properties of the circadian clock and shoot-to-root circadian signaling have been reported. While this long-distance signaling is thought to coordinate physiological functions across tissues, little is known about the feedback regulation of the root clock on the shoot clock in the hierarchical circadian network. Here, we show that the plant circadian clock conveys circadian information between shoots and roots through sucrose and K⁺. We also demonstrate that K+ transport from roots suppresses the variance of period length in shoots and then improves the accuracy of the shoot circadian clock. Sucrose measurements and qPCR showed that root sucrose accumulation was regulated by the circadian clock. Furthermore, root circadian clock genes, including PSEUDO-RESPONSE REGULATOR7 (PRR7), were regulated by sucrose, suggesting the involvement of sucrose from the shoot in the regulation of root clock gene expression. Therefore, we performed time-series measurements of xylem sap and micrografting experiments using prr7 mutants and showed that root PRR7 regulates K⁺ transport and suppresses variance of period length in the shoot. Our modeling analysis supports the idea that root-to-shoot signaling contributes to the precision of the shoot circadian clock. We performed micrografting experiments that illustrated how root PRR7 plays key roles in maintaining the accuracy of shoot circadian rhythms. We thus present a novel directional signaling pathway for circadian information from roots to shoots and propose that plants modulate physiological events in a timely manner through various timekeeping mechanisms

ARTICLE Development of radionuclide distribution database and map system on the Fukushima nuclear accident

The Radionuclide distribution database and map system, which provide basic information for evaluations and countermeasures of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, are explained. Due to massive earthquake and tsunami, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had been damaged and spread out radioactive materials around the Fukushima region. In order to meet the various requirements from government, local government, residents, and/or researchers, we developed two systems to provide those data to the public. One of the systems is a database system which is designed to provide quantitative data for detailed analysis. Another is a map system which provides intuitive images for the qualitative estimation. In the two systems, it is possible to provide the information requested by a wide range of people

Spatial and temporal prediction of radiation dose rates near Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

In this paper, we have developed a methodology to estimate the spatiotemporal distribution of radiation air dose rates around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP). In our exploratory data analysis, we found that (1) the temporal evolution of dose rates is composed of a log-linear decay trend and fluctuations of air dose rates that are spatially correlated among adjacent monitoring posts; and (2) the slope of the log-linear environmental decay trend can be represented as a function of the apparent initial dose rates, coordinate position, land-use type, and soil type. From these observations, we first estimated the log-linear decay trend at each location based on these predictors, using the random forest method. We then developed a modified Kalman filter coupled with a Gaussian process model to estimate the dose-rate time series at a given location and time. We applied this method to the Fukushima evacuation zone (as of March 2017), which included 17 monitoring post locations (with monitoring datasets collected between 2014 and 2018) and generated a time series of dose-rate maps. Our results show that this approach allows us to produce accurate spatial and temporal predictions of radiation dose-rate maps using limited spatiotemporal measurements