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Division members promote the advancement of mathematical and computational methods for solving problems arising in all disciplines encompassed by the Society. They place particular emphasis on numerical techniques for efficient computer applications to aid in the dissemination, integration, and proper use of computer codes, including preparation of computational benchmark and development of standards for computing practices, and to encourage the development on new computer codes and broaden their use.
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Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Guoli Li, Zhu Yang, Hui Lin, Jiabing Huang, Jia Jing, Aidong Wu, Yican Wu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 815-819
MC Calculations | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (PART 3) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9311
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Monte Carlo method is a stochastic statistic algorithm. It is one of the most accurate dose calculation methods, but its application in clinic is limited because of the long computation time. Generally, to accelerate Monte Carlo simulation and reduce stochastic noise, a digital filtering technique is used to smooth a rough dose distribution (includes evident noise) to a satisfied one. Different types of filters have been applied, such as Gaussian filters, Savitzky-Golay filters, etc., but the ability of a single filtering filter is limited. Therefore, a hybrid filter combining those filtering techniques was used. Two types of mixture methods - parallel and cascade - with three-dimensional Gaussian and Savitzky-Golay filters were researched. In addition, a method that simplifies the mixture filter structure using an equivalent convolution kernel based on convolution theory was introduced. With simulation data from a standard phantom, the rough dose distributions and the dose distribution smoothed by the two types of mixture filters were compared with that of the "benchmark" one. Test results showed that the two types of mixture filters can suppress much of the noise added in Monte Carlo dose distributions and enhance its visualization. As for the research's test cases, the filtering effect of the cascade mixture filter was slightly better than that of the parallel mixture filter. Filter combinations can provide favorable filtering effects. The filtering effects of different mixture methods are not uniform. The cascade mixture filter has a better filtering effect than the parallel mixture filter.