The CEDAR Project

We describe the plans and objectives of the CEDAR project (Combined e-Science Data Analysis Resource for High Energy Physics) newly funded by the PPARC e-Science programme in the UK. CEDAR will combine the strengths of the well established and widely used HEPDATA database of HEP data and the innovative JetWeb data/Monte Carlo comparison facility, built on the HZTOOL package, and will exploit developing grid technology. The current status and future plans of both of these individual sub-projects within the CEDAR framework are described, showing how they will cohesively provide (a) an extensive archive of Reaction Data, (b) validation and tuning of Monte Carlo programs against these reaction data sets, and (c) a validated code repository for a wide range of HEP code such as parton distribution functions and other calculation codes used by particle physicists. Once established it is envisaged CEDAR will become an important Grid tool used by LHC experimentalists in their analyses and may well serve as a model in other branches of science where there is a need to compare data and complex simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figures, uses CHEP2004.cls. Presented at Computing in High-Energy Physics (CHEP'04), Interlaken, Switzerland, 27th September - 1st October 200

Digital Outcome Optimization: Ensuring a Return on Investment From Digital Strategy

Public sector organizations have difficulty avoiding cost or schedule variances that exhaust the resources of a project, and deploy digital initiatives to combat them without clear evidence of a quantifiable return on investment (ROI). This investigation determined if digital initiatives have a measurable ROI for major projects. A systematic review questioned, In public sector organizations, does the evidence suggest that the application of operational excellence ensures an ROI from digital initiatives? Scientific Management was the theoretical lens. The findings and conclusions of 43 peer-reviewed scholarly articles provided data on operational excellence, digitalization, synergy, and benefits. This research improves understanding of how to quantify and deliberately plan the impact of digital initiatives. The conclusion is that mangers should optimize digital outcomes by 1. Selecting the intended human outcome (customer value or staff effectiveness), then 2. Making five key management choices, 3. Choosing an operational excellence toolset, and 4. Implementing the appropriate Industry 4.0 technology

Determining a Digital Engineering Framework: A Systematic Review of What and How to Digitalize

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Acquisition Research SymposiumThis study is a systematic review to determine a conceptual framework for digital engineering, the objective being to select what and how to digitalize Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition processes, data, and decisions. The research question was, What are the best practices for Digitalization and Industry 4.0 to inform DoD acquisition programs? The study analyzed 20 peer-reviewed scholarly articles from the last 5 years, written by academics and practitioners from 19 countries, focused on Digitalization and Industry 4.0 methods and technologies. This study had five major findings: digitalization projects begin with strategic choices; digitalization is done within an ecosystem that constrains the technical options; digitalization requires a method of execution that assesses opportunity and limits risk; digitalization results in new processes using new data models that enable better decisions; feedback on that new business model will come internally from users and externally from customers.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Structural and Material Characterization of Inflatable Drop-Stitch Panels Used in Bending Applications

Inflatable beams, arches and panels have become increasingly popular for load-bearing applications and have a variety of military and civil applications. The popularity of these structures comes from being lightweight, easy to transport, and being able to regain shape after the structure has been overloaded and the load is removed. The majority of inflatable beams and arches – commonly termed “airbeams” – are cylindrical pressure vessels with a circular cross-section. In contrast, drop-stitch panels incorporate yarns that connect the top and bottom surfaces, giving a wide, shallow cross-section with parallel top and bottom surfaces. Unlike airbeams, drop-stich panels do not incorporate a bladder due to the presence of drop-yarns. Therefore, the majority of drop-stich panels use a coated fabric. The primary objective of this research was to develop testing procedures to determine the constitutive properties of orthotropic neoprene/nylon drop-stitch inflatable panel fabric, and to quantify panel bending load-deflection response. This was done through panel inflation and skin coupon testing, large-scale torsion tests, and full-scale four-point bend tests. Panel inflation and skin coupon testing was done to determine the effective panel orthotropic constitutive properties in the longitudinal/warp and transverse/weft directions of the panel. Torsion testing was performed to determine the membrane shear modulus. Full-scale panel bending tests to large displacements were used to quantify panel bending load-deflection response and the effect of inflation pressure on panel stiffness and capacity. The large-scale bend test load-deflection behavior was compared to the response estimated using the experimentally-determined skin constitutive properties. The bend test results indicated that there were likely significant shear deformations in the panel during bending, which was supported by the fact that the membrane shear modulus determined from the torsion tests was a small fraction of the membrane elastic moduli. While the actual response of the panel was softer than predicted using Euler beam theory, significantly stiffer response and higher capacities were observed at higher pressures as expected. It was also observed that with an increase in pressure, there is an increase in the membrane modulus. Prior literature has observed that the pressure-volume work effectively increases the shear rigidity (Davids and Zhang, 2008) (Davids, 2009). The increase in shear modulus with inflation pressure also contributes to the increase in panel bending stiffness

Digital Engineering Framework - A Systematic Review of What and How to Digitalize

Symposium PresentationApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Expressed sequence tags from the oomycete fish pathogen Saprolegnia parasitica reveal putative virulence factors

Peer reviewedPublisher PD