PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Experts reduce search times for novel high-entropy alloys 13,000-fold using Cuckoo Search

Process developed by scientists at Iowa State University and Lehigh University using a hybrid Cuckoo Search - inspired by bird evolutionary strategy - accelerates computational modeling of complex alloys - a stunning example data improving manufacturing

Experts reduce search times for novel high-entropy alloys 13,000-fold using Cuckoo Search
2021-01-14
(Press-News.org) A major roadblock to computational design of high-entropy alloys has been removed, according to scientists at Iowa State University and Lehigh University. Engineers from the Ames Lab and Lehigh University's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics have developed a process that reduces search time used for predictive design 13,000-fold.

According to Ganesh Balasubramanian, an associate professor at Lehigh, the goal of the team's research was to accelerate the computational modeling of complex alloys. The tools available for creating random distribution of atoms in materials simulation models, he says, have been used for many, many years now and are limited in their reach for fast model generation.

Apart from being resource intensive and lacking exhaustivity, says Balasubramanian, the time duration necessary to generate robust models for materials simulations are extensive even with supercomputing advances. The team has now overcome this hurdle by developing a hybrid version of an algorithm called the Cuckoo Search, which is inspired by the evolutionary strategy of Cuckoo birds.

"The speed up to solution time was not surprising, but the factor reduction in time?13,000-fold?was indeed startling," says Balasubramanian. "What took about a day to accomplish, can now be done in seconds. This tool can expedite model generation, but also enable creation of physically realizable systems that now can be directly compared against experimental samples."

The research is described in a paper published in Nature Computational Science called "Accelerating computational modeling and design of high-entropy alloys" (DOI: 10.1038/s43588-020-00006-7). In addition to Balasubramanian, authors include: Duane D. Johnson, engineering faculty at Iowa State University and faculty scientist at Ames Laboratory, as well as Rahul Singh, Aayush Sharma and Prashant Singh.

High-entropy alloys are alloys that are formed by mixing equal or relatively large proportions of five or more elements. Balasubramanian works specifically with multi-principal element alloys, a new class of materials and a superset of high-entropy alloys which are alloys formed by mixing significant and varying proportions of multiple elements. These are different from conventional alloys such as steel, which is mostly made of iron. Preliminary studies have demonstrated that multi-principal element alloys have superior mechanical strength and hardness, making them ideal as a protective coating on components like turbine blades, medical implants, ship surfaces, and aerospace parts.

"The purpose of our work on this was to optimize alloy design and, due to the results, we hope it will change design practices in materials for the better," says Balasubramanian.

There are many areas that use optimization such as stock markets, commerce and engineering systems design. While developed using materials simulations as a testbed, this computational tool is applicable to any area of work requiring optimization, says Balasubramanian.

INFORMATION:

Balasubramanian's work on this was supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER grant. Ames Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science National Laboratory operated by Iowa State University.


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Experts reduce search times for novel high-entropy alloys 13,000-fold using Cuckoo Search

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Cancer screening tests, cancer diagnoses during COVID-19 pandemic

2021-01-14
What The Study Did: The number of patients undergoing cancer screening tests and of subsequent cancer diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic in the largest health care system in the northeastern United States was assessed in this study. Authors: Toni K. Choueiri, M.D., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Quoc-Dien Trinh, M.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, are the corresponding authors. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.7600) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict ...

Socioeconomic disparities in patient use of telehealth during COVID-19 surge

2021-01-14
What The Study Did: Which demographic and socioeconomic factors were associated with patient participation in telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic surge was examined in this observational study. Authors: Ilaaf Darrat, M.D., M.B.A., of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2020.5161) Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, ...

Progression of myopia in children after COVID-19 home confinement

2021-01-14
What The Study Did: Researchers investigated the association of home confinement during the COVID-19 outbreak with myopia (nearsightedness) development in school-age children in China. Authors: Xuehan Qian, M.D., Ph.D., of Tianjin Medical University Eye Hospital in Tianjin, China, is the corresponding author. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License. © 2021 Wang J et al. JAMA Ophthalmology.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2020.6239) Editor's Note: The ...

Flip the script: cardiac rehabilitation is underused, but a simple change could fix that

2021-01-14
Cardiac rehabilitation is a therapy that combines guided exercise along with heart-healthy lifestyle education that can be life-saving for the majority of people who have had a major cardiac event, such as a heart attack. However, it is underutilized in the United States, with many hospitals referring just 20 percent or fewer of their eligible patients, largely because the referral process can be cumbersome. But new research shows that implementing a simple, easy to use "opt-out" pathway in the electronic health record drastically increased the rate of referrals, which could lead to fewer rehospitalizations and even lowered mortality. Led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine ...

Comparing reactions of flu vaccines in older adults

2021-01-14
What The Study Did: Researchers in this randomized clinical trial compared injection-site pain and other reactions among adults age 65 and older who received flu vaccines. Author: Kenneth E. Schmader, M.D., of the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.31266) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and ...

Not as simple as thought: How bacteria form membrane vesicles

Not as simple as thought: How bacteria form membrane vesicles
2021-01-14
Tsukuba, Japan - Bacteria have the ability to form membrane vesicles to communicate with each other, but also to defend themselves against antibiotics. In a new study, researchers from the University of Tsukuba discovered a novel mechanism by which mycolic acid-containing bacteria, a specific group of bacteria with a special type of cell membrane, form membrane vesicles. Bacteria have traditionally been classified on the basis of the composition of their cell envelopes. For example, microbiologists employ Gram staining to differentiate between bacteria that have a thick (Gram-positive) or thin (Gram-negative) cell wall. While bacterial membranes mostly act as protective barriers, they can also form protrusions to make membrane vesicles with diverse biological functions. ...

Overactive food quality control system triggers food allergies, Yale scientists say

2021-01-14
Food allergies have been increasing dramatically across the developed world for more than 30 years. For instance, as many as 8% of children in the U.S. now experience potentially lethal immune system responses to such foods as milk, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. But scientists have struggled to explain why that is. A prevailing theory has been that food allergies arise because of an absence of natural pathogens such as parasites in the modern environment, which in turn makes the part of the immune system that evolved to deal with such natural threats hypersensitive to certain foods. In a paper published Jan. 14 in the journal Cell, four Yale immunobiologists propose an expanded explanation for the rise of food allergies -- the exaggerated ...

Study shows sharp decline in cancer screenings, diagnoses during the first COVID-19 surge

Study shows sharp decline in cancer screenings, diagnoses during the first COVID-19 surge
2021-01-14
Focusing on the largest health care system in the Northeast, the study is among the first to document the pandemic's impact on cancer screening and diagnosis. Screening and diagnoses rebounded in the months following the first surge of the pandemic. The authors urge those who delayed screenings during the height of the pandemic to contact their health care provider to discuss the potential need to reschedule one. BOSTON - In one of the first studies to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer diagnoses, researchers at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's ...

Triggering tumor antiviral immune response in triple negative breast cancer

2021-01-14
HOUSTON - (Jan. 14, 2021) - Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered how therapeutics targeting RNA splicing can activate antiviral immune pathways in triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) to trigger tumor cell death and signal the body's immune response. A new study published in Cell shows that endogenous mis-spliced RNA in tumor cells mimics an RNA virus, leading tumor cells to self-destruct as if fighting an infection. Researchers suggest this mechanism could open new avenues for turning on the immune system in aggressive cancers like TNBC. "We know therapeutics that partially interfere with RNA splicing can have a very strong impact on tumor growth and progression, but the mechanisms of tumor killing are largely ...

Wits University scientists artificially infect mosquitoes with human malaria to advance treatment

Wits University scientists artificially infect mosquitoes with human malaria to advance treatment
2021-01-14
A vector refers to an organism that carries and transmits an infectious disease, as mosquitoes do malaria. Lead compounds are chemical compounds that show promise as treatment for a disease and may lead to the development of a new drug. Antiplasmodial lead compounds are those that counter parasites of the genus Plasmodium, which is the parasite that infects mosquitoes and causes malaria in people. The study findings were published in Nature Communications on 11 January 2021, at a time when malaria incidence generally peaks after the holiday season. MOSQUITO INFECTION EXPERIMENT CENTRE Professor Lizette Koekemoer, co-director of the WRIM and the National Research ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New jab protects babies from serious lung infection, study shows

July Tip Sheet from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Current application status and innovative development of surgical robot

Counterfeited in China: New book assesses state of industry and its future

Machine learning reveals historical seismic events in the Yellowstone caldera

First analyses of Myanmar earthquake conclude fault ruptured at supershear velocity

Curved fault slip captured on CCTV during Myanmar earthquake

Collaboration rewarded for work to further deployment of batteries in emerging economies

Heart-healthy habits also prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s, COPD, other diseases, Emory study finds

Scientists will use a $1M grant to build a support system addressing sea level rise and flooding in South Florida

New research examines how pH impacts the immune system

Inhaled agricultural dust disrupts gut health

New study reveals hidden regulatory roles of “junk” DNA

Taking the sting out of ulcerative colitis

Deep life’s survival secret: Crustal faulting generates key energy sources, study shows

Idaho National Laboratory to lead advancements in US semiconductor manufacturing

AI-assisted sorting, other new technologies could improve plastic recycling

More than just larks and owls!

Call for nominations: 2026 Dan David Prize

New tool gives anyone the ability to train a robot

Coexistence of APC and KRAS mutations in familial adenomatous polyposis and endometrial cancer: A mini-review with case-based perspective

First global-to-local study reveals stark health inequalities from COVID-19 in 2020–2021

rcssci: Simplifying complex data relationships with enhanced visual clarity

Why some ecosystems collapse suddenly—and others don’t

One-third of U.S. public schools screen students for mental health issues

GLP-1 RA use and survival among older adults with cancer and type 2 diabetes

Trends in physician exit from fee-for-service Medicare

Systematic investigation of tumor microenvironment and antitumor immunity with IOBR

Common feature between forest fires and neural networks reveals the universal framework underneath

New R package revolutionizes gene set enrichment analysis visualization for biomedical research

[Press-News.org] Experts reduce search times for novel high-entropy alloys 13,000-fold using Cuckoo Search
Process developed by scientists at Iowa State University and Lehigh University using a hybrid Cuckoo Search - inspired by bird evolutionary strategy - accelerates computational modeling of complex alloys - a stunning example data improving manufacturing