Non-Invasive Pneumothorax Detector (CRADA Final Report)

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has developed radar and imaging technologies with potential applications in mine detection by the armed forces and other agencies involved in demining efforts. These new technologies use a patented ultra-wideband (impulse) radar technology that is compact, low-cost, and low power. Designated as Micropower Impulse Radar, these compact, self-contained radars can easily be assembled into arrays to form complete ground penetrating radar imaging systems. LLNL has also developed tomographic reconstruction and signal processing software capable of producing high-resolution 2-D and 3-D images of objects buried in materials like soil or concrete from radar data. Preliminary test results have shown that a radar imaging system using these technologies has the ability to image both metallic and plastic land mine surrogate targets buried in 5 to 10 cm of moist soil. In dry soil, the system can detect buried objects to a depth of 30 cm and more. This report describes LLNL`s unique capabilities and technologies that can be applied to the demining problem.

From its founding in 1952 until today, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has made significant strategic investments to develop high performance computing (HPC) and its application to national security and basic science. Now, 60 years later, the Computation Directorate and its myriad resources and capabilities have become a key enabler for LLNL programs and an integral part of the effort to support our nation's nuclear deterrent and, more broadly, national security. In addition, the technological innovation HPC makes possible is seen as vital to the nation's economic vitality. LLNL, along with other national laboratories, is working to make supercomputing capabilities and expertise available to industry to boost the nation's global competitiveness. LLNL is on the brink of an exciting milestone with the 2012 deployment of Sequoia, the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA's) 20-petaFLOP/s resource that will apply uncertainty quantification to weapons science. Sequoia will bring LLNL's total computing power to more than 23 petaFLOP/s-all brought to bear on basic science and national security needs. The computing systems at LLNL provide game-changing capabilities. Sequoia and other next-generation platforms will enable predictive simulation in the coming decade and leverage industry trends, such as massively parallel and multicore processors, to run petascale applications. Efficient petascale computing necessitates refining accuracy in materials property data, improving models for known physical processes, identifying and then modeling for missing physics, quantifying uncertainty, and enhancing the performance of complex models and algorithms in macroscale simulation codes. Nearly 15 years ago, NNSA's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI), now called the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program, was the critical element needed to shift from test-based confidence to science-based confidence. Specifically, ASCI/ASC accelerated the development of simulation capabilities necessary to ensure confidence in the nuclear stockpile-far exceeding what might have been achieved in the absence of a focused initiative. While stockpile stewardship research pushed LLNL scientists to develop new computer codes, better simulation methods, and improved visualization technologies, this work also stimulated the exploration of HPC applications beyond the standard sponsor base. As LLNL advances to a petascale platform and pursues exascale computing (1,000 times faster than Sequoia), ASC will be paramount to achieving predictive simulation and uncertainty quantification. Predictive simulation and quantifying the uncertainty of numerical predictions where little-to-no data exists demands exascale computing and represents an expanding area of scientific research important not only to nuclear weapons, but to nuclear attribution, nuclear reactor design, and understanding global climate issues, among other fields. Aside from these lofty goals and challenges, computing at LLNL is anything but 'business as usual.' International competition in supercomputing is nothing new, but the HPC community is now operating in an expanded, more aggressive climate of global competitiveness. More countries understand how science and technology research and development are inextricably linked to economic prosperity, and they are aggressively pursuing ways to integrate HPC technologies into their native industrial and consumer products. In the interest of the nation's economic security and the science and technology that underpins it, LLNL is expanding its portfolio and forging new collaborations. We must ensure that HPC remains an asymmetric engine of innovation for the Laboratory and for the U.S. and, in doing so, protect our research and development dynamism and the prosperity it makes possible. One untapped area of opportunity LLNL is pursuing is to help U.S. industry understand how supercomputing can benefit their business. Industrial investment in HPC applications has historically been limited by the prohibitive cost of entry, the inaccessibility of software to run the powerful systems, and the years it takes to grow the expertise to develop codes and run them in an optimal way. LLNL is helping industry better compete in the global market place by providing access to some of the world's most powerful computing systems, the tools to run them, and the experts who are adept at using them. Our scientists are collaborating side by side with industrial partners to develop solutions to some of industry's toughest problems. The goal of the Livermore Valley Open Campus High Performance Computing Innovation Center is to allow American industry the opportunity to harness the power of supercomputing by leveraging the scientific and computational expertise at LLNL in order to gain a competitive advantage in the global economy.

Large-scale scientific computation and all of the disciplines that support and help to validate it have been placed at the focus of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) by the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) initiative of the Office of Science of the Department of Energy (DOE). The maturation of computational simulation as a tool of scientific and engineering research is underscored in the November 2004 statement of the Secretary of Energy that, ''high performance computing is the backbone of the nation's science and technology enterprise''. LLNL operates several of the world's most powerful computers--including today's single most powerful--and has undertaken some of the largest and most compute-intensive simulations ever performed. Ultrascale simulation has been identified as one of the highest priorities in DOE's facilities planning for the next two decades. However, computers at architectural extremes are notoriously difficult to use efficiently. Furthermore, each successful terascale simulation only points out the need for much better ways of interacting with the resulting avalanche of data. Advances in scientific computing research have, therefore, never been more vital to LLNL's core missions than at present. Computational science is evolving so rapidly along every one of its research fronts that to remain on the leading edge, LLNL must engage researchers at many academic centers of excellence. In Fiscal Year 2004, the Institute for Scientific Computing Research (ISCR) served as one of LLNL's main bridges to the academic community with a program of collaborative subcontracts, visiting faculty, student internships, workshops, and an active seminar series. The ISCR identifies researchers from the academic community for computer science and computational science collaborations with LLNL and hosts them for short- and long-term visits with the aim of encouraging long-term academic research agendas that address LLNL's research priorities. Through such collaborations, ideas and software flow in both directions, and LLNL cultivates its future workforce. The Institute strives to be LLNL's ''eyes and ears'' in the computer and information sciences, keeping the Laboratory aware of and connected to important external advances. It also attempts to be the ''feet and hands'' that carry those advances into the Laboratory and incorporates them into practice. ISCR research participants are integrated into LLNL's Computing and Applied Research (CAR) Department, especially into its Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC). In turn, these organizations address computational challenges arising throughout the rest of the Laboratory. Administratively, the ISCR flourishes under LLNL's University Relations Program (URP). Together with the other five institutes of the URP, it navigates a course that allows LLNL to benefit from academic exchanges while preserving national security. While it is difficult to operate an academic-like research enterprise within the context of a national security laboratory, the results declare the challenges well met and worth the continued effort.

This was a collaborative effort between Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC as manager and operator of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Siemens Energy, Inc. (Siemens) to develop a wind resource forecasting tool. LLNL was to develop an independent high-resolution mesoscale modeling capability forecasting tool that could be implemented in conjunction with existing wind farm control and monitoring software to provide forecasting of wind resources using local observations of winds and temperature. Research with LLNL’s state-of-the-art large-eddy simulation meteorological prediction model, based on the community WRF model and innovative turbulence parameterizations, would improve that model’s applicability to large wind farms offshore and in complex terrain. The modeling capability would include uncertainty quantification. Finally, the application of the modeling tool and existing global climate change predictions would enable the delineation of the likely effects of climate change on wind resources. Siemens was to provide high time resolution hub-height wind speed and other meteorological data streams, including temperature profiles from wind farms, for LLNL to incorporate into the modeling system, to validate and tune this forecasting model for their locations of interest. These data streams would also be used for longer-term studies of correlations of wind resources to climate oscillations to indicate how long-term climate change trends may affect the available wind resource. Siemens would also provide information and observations of turbine wakes for incorporation into the modeling tool. By implementing state-of-the-art turbulence parameterizations into a simulation model and/or ensembles of simulation models, and by integrating real-time hub height wind speed and other meteorological datastreams from wind farms into that model or ensemble of models, LLNL would develop a forecasting tool that could be implemented by Siemens as an add-on to existing wind farm control and monitoring software to provide owners with useful resource forecasting. The desired outcome was that the accuracy level of the output would be sufficient to substantiate power output commitments. The final deliverable for this work would consist of a document outlining the algorithms and software tools that could be integrated into Siemens Wind Park Supervisor.

A Working Group Meeting on Heavy Vehicle Aerodynamic Drag was held at NASA Ames Research Center on September 23, 2002. The purpose of the meeting was to present and discuss technical details on the experimental and computational work in progress and future project plans. Representatives from the Department of Energy (DOE)/Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy/Office of FreedomCAR & Vehicle Technologies, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), NASA Ames Research Center (NASA), University of Southern California (USC), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Freightliner, and Portland State University participated in the meeting. This report contains the technical presentations (viewgraphs) delivered at the Meeting, briefly summarizes the comments and conclusions, and outlines the future action items. The meeting began with an introduction by the Project Lead Rose McCallen of LLNL, where she emphasized that the world energy consumption is predicted to relatively soon exceed the available resources (i.e., fossil, hydro, non-breeder fission). This short fall is predicted to begin around the year 2050. Minimizing vehicle aerodynamic drag will significantly reduce our Nation's dependence on foreign oil resources and help with our world-wide fuel shortage. Rose also mentioned that educating the populace and researchers as to our world energy issues is important and that our upcoming United Engineering Foundation (UEF) Conference on ''The Aerodynamics of Heavy Vehicles: Trucks, Busses, and Trains'' was one way our DOE Consortium was doing this. Mentioned were the efforts of Fred Browand from USC in organizing and attracting internationally recognized speakers to the Conference. Rose followed with an overview of the DOE project goals, deliverables, and FY03 activities. The viewgraphs are attached at the end of this report. Sid Diamond of DOE discussed the reorganization of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and that the Office of Heavy Vehicle Technology is now part of the Office of FreedomCAR & Vehicle Technologies. Sid reviewed the FY03 budget and provided information on some plans for FY04. The soon to be posted DOE request for proposals from industry for projects related to parasitic energy losses was discussed. A minimum of 50% cost share by industry will be required and the proposal must be submitted by industry. Collaborative efforts in aerodynamic drag with members of the DOE consortium are encouraged. Sid also mentioned interest in aerodynamic drag contribution due to wheel wells and underbody flow. Sid also mentioned his continued interest in the application of our computational and experimental expertise to the area of locomotive and railcar aerodynamics for the reduction of drag effects and thus, the reduction of fuel consumption by trains. In summary, the technical presentations at the meeting included a review of experimental results and plans by GTRI, USC, and NASA Ames, the computational results from LLNL and SNL for the integrated tractor-trailer benchmark geometry called the Ground Transportation System (GTS) model, and by LLNL for the tractor-trailer gap and trailer wake flow, and turbulence model development and benchmark simulations being investigated by Caltech. USC is also investigating an acoustic drag reduction device that has been named ''Mozart'', GTRI continues their investigation of a blowing device, and LLNL presented their ideas for 2 new base drag reduction devices. ANL presented their plans for a DOE supported Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Paccar Truck Company utilizing commercial software tools to simulate the flow and drag for an actual tractor and showed the results of some preliminary griding attempts. The attendees also had the opportunity to tour the 12-ft pressure wind tunnel the machine shop were the Generic Conventional Model (GCM, a.k.a. SLRT) was being readied for the scheduled November experiments. Much of the discussion involved wind tunnel testing plans, analysis of existing experimental data, investigations of drag reduction devices, simulation results, and needed modeling improvements. Further details are provided in the attached viewgraphs.

This was a collaborative effort between Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC as manager and operator of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and MicroAssembly Technologies, Inc. (MAT) to develop spatial light modulators (SLM) based refocusing concentrators for telecom applications. MAT submitted a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) proposal, listing LLNL as a subcontractor, to the United States Air Force and subsequently received a grant award under solicitation AF03T009. This joint collaboration was to develop a spatial light modulator (SLM) based refocusing concentrator systems for telecom and other applications. One industry expert from AT&T estimated that such a device could increase gain by about 16x, or add about 12 dB to the link budget. The desired result of the Phase I effort was a successful feasibility demonstration of SLM based refocusing concentrators for telecom applications; and a study of system level architecture, micromirror array design and operating parameters for optimization. The task of delivery of a gold sputtering target to MAT was completed at the end of Phase II. The target was returned to LLNL at the end of the CRADA. LLNL also developed a system that could measure the gradient in the phase of the laser upon reflection from the MEMs with a much higher spatial resolution than achievable with a ShackHartmann approach.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Nuclear Forensics Summer Program is designed to give both undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to come to LLNL for 8–10 weeks for a hands-on research experience. Students conduct research under the supervision of a staff scientist, attend a weekly lecture series, interact with other students, and present their work in poster format at the end of the program. Students also have the opportunity to meet staff scientists one-on-one, participate in LLNL facility tours (e.g., the National Ignition Facility and Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) to gain a better understanding of the multi-disciplinary, on going science at LLNL. Currently called the Nuclear Forensics Summer Program, this program began 13 years ago as the Actinide Sciences Summer Program. The program is run within the Glenn T. Seaborg Institute in the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate at LLNL. The goal of the Nuclear Forensics Summer Program is to facilitate the training of the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers to solve critical national security problems in the field of nuclear forensics and have the student experience conducting research at the Lab. We select students who are majoring in physics, chemistry, geology, mathematics, nuclear engineering, chemical engineering and environmental sciences. Students engage in research projects in the disciplines of actinide chemistry, radiochemistry, isotopic analysis, computational analysis, radiation detection, and nuclear engineering in order to strengthen the “pipeline” for future scientific disciplines critical to DHS (DNDO), NNSA.

This project was a collaborative effort between Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (formerly The Regents of the University of California)/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and LGS Innovations, LLC (formerly Lucent Technologies, Inc.), to develop long-range and mobile operational free-space optical (FSO) laser communication systems for specialized government applications. LLNL and LGS Innovations formerly Lucent Bell Laboratories Government Communications Systems performed this work for a United States Government (USG) Intelligence Work for Others (I-WFO) customer, also referred to as "Government Customer", or "Customer" and "Government Sponsor." The CRADA was a critical and required part of the LLNL technology transfer plan for the customer.

This was a collaborative effort between Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC as manager and operator of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and The Protective Group, Inc. (TPG) to improve the performance of the mosaic transparent armor system (MTAS) for transparent armor applications, military and civilian. LLNL was to provide the unique MTAS technology and designs to TPG for innovative construction and ballistic testing of improvements needed for current and near future application of the armor windows on vehicles and aircraft. The goal of the project was to advance the technology of MTAS to the point that these mosaic transparent windows would be introduced and commercially manufactured for military vehicles and aircraft.

This paper presents an overview of the Lower Atmospheric Boundary Layer Experiment (LABLE), which included two measurement campaigns conducted at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Southern Great Plains site in Oklahoma during 2012 and 2013. LABLE was conducted as a collaborative effort between the University of Oklahoma (OU), the National Severe Storms Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and the ARM program. LABLE can be considered unique in that it was designed as a multiphase, low-cost, multiagency collaboration. Graduate students served as principal investigators and took the lead in designing and conducting experiments aimed at examining boundary layer processes. The main objective of LABLE was to study turbulent phenomena in the lowest 2 km of the atmosphere over heterogeneous terrain using a variety of novel atmospheric profiling techniques. Several instruments from OU and LLNL were deployed to augment the suite of in situ and remote sensing instruments at the ARM site. The complementary nature of the deployed instruments with respect to resolution and height coverage provides a near-complete picture of the dynamic and thermodynamic structure of the atmospheric boundary layer. This paper provides an overview of the experiment including 1) instruments deployed, 2) sampling strategies, 3) parameters observed, and 4) student involvement. To illustrate these components, the presented results focus on one particular aspect of LABLE: namely, the study of the nocturnal boundary layer and the formation and structure of nocturnal low-level jets. During LABLE, low-level jets were frequently observed and they often interacted with mesoscale atmospheric disturbances such as frontal passages.

This was a collaborative effort between The Regents of the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and GE Ion Track, Inc. (GEIT) to develop a commercial prototype of the Autonomous Pathogen Detection System (APDS), an instrument that monitors the air for all three biological threat agents (bacteria, viruses and toxins). This was originally a one year CRADA project, with the cost of the work at LLNL being funded by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of National Laboratories. The original project consisted of five major tasks and deliverables. The CRADA was then amended, converting the CRADA from a programmatically funded CRADA to a funds-in CRADA, extending the project for an additional 14 months, and adding four new tasks and deliverable to the project.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facility operated by the University of California, serves as a national resource of scientific, technical, and engineering capability. The Laboratory`s mission focuses on nuclear weapons and national security, and over the years has been broadened to include areas such as strategic defense, energy, the environment, biomedicine, technology transfer, the economy, and education. The Laboratory carries out this multifaceted mission in compliance with local, state, and federal environmental regulatory requirements. It does so with the support of the Environmental Protection Department, which is responsible for environmental monitoring and analysis, hazardous waste management, environmental restoration, and ensuring compliance with environmental laws and regulations. LLNL comprises two sites: the Livermore site and Site 300. The Livermore site occupies an area of 3.28 square kilometers on the eastern edge of Livermore, California. Site 300, LLNL`s experimental testing site, is located 24 kilometers to the east in the Altamont Hills, and occupies an area of 30.3 square kilometers. Environmental monitoring activities are conducted at both sites as well as in surrounding areas. This summary provides an overview of LLNL`s environmental activities in 1994, including radiological and nonradiological sampling and surveillance monitoring, remediation, assessment of radiological releases and doses, and determination of the impact of LLNL operations on the environment and public health.

Fiscal year 1996 has been a year of significant change for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in general and for Engineering in particular. Among these changes, the Laboratory`s national security mission was better defined, the stockpile stewardship program objectives became crisper, LLNL`s investment in high-performance computing was re-emphasized with the procurement of a $100 million supercomputer for the Laboratory`s Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) program, two major Laser programs (the National Ignition Facility and Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation) expanded significantly, and DOE`s human genome efforts moved to the next phase of development. In the area of business operations, LLNL`s Cost Cutting Initiative Program (CCIP) was completed and the Laboratory restructured its workforce using a Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP). Engineering similarly also saw many technical and programmatic successes, as well as changes, starting with completion of its strategic plan, significant consolidation of its facilities, restructuring of its workforce, reduction of its overhead costs, substantial transfers of staff between programs, and finally my personal arrival at Livermore. This report is the first opportunity to capture some of Engineering`s FY96 activities and accomplishments in a succinct fashion, and to relate these to our strategic plan.

This paper describes a design effort in a smart tracking prototype, in an attempt to provide real-time, mobile and seamlessly indoor/outdoor location tracking for medical staff, patient or instruments in hospital environment, by integrating GPS (Global Position System) with UWB (Ultra Wideband). Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology can locate a person or asset to the accuracy of centimeters. While UWB technology is becoming popular for indoor position tracking, GPS technology has been around for some time for use in outdoor position tracking with an accuracy of 1 to 100 meters depending on the type of equipment used. It is envisaged that it is possible to combine GPS with UWB to give accurate position regardless of where the person or object is in indoor or outdoor. In view of the strong need for indoor-outdoor tracking in many environments such as hospitals, we looked into the possibility of integrating UWB and GPS to provide the target with seamless indoor-outdoor navigation capability and have developed a prototype. The system structure and experimental results will be illustrated in this paper. To our knowledge, no same system is reported yet.

This was a collaborative effort between Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (formerly The Regents of the University of California)/Lawrence Liver more National Laboratory (LLNL) and BioTelligent, Inc. together with a Russian Institution (BioFil, Ltd.), to develop a new system ( diagnostic device, operating procedures, algorithms and software) to accurately distinguish between benign and malignant breast tissue (Breast Cancer Diagnostic System, BCDS).