http://dbkgroup.org/Papers/davey_kell_micrev96.pdf

Flow cytometry and cell sorting of heterogeneous microbial populations: the importance of single-cell analyses.

A new approach to nonlinear groundwater management methodology is presented which optimizes aquifer remediation with the aid of artificial neural networks (ANNs). The methodology allows solute transport simulations, usually the main computational component of management models, to be run in parallel. The ANN technology, inspired by neurobiological theories of massive interconnection and parallelism, has been successfully applied to a variety of optimization problems. In this new approach, optimal management solutions are found by (1) first training an ANN to predict the outcome of the flow and transport code, and (2) then using the trained ANN to search through many pumping realizations to find an optimal one for successful remediation. The behavior of complex groundwater scenarios with spatially variable transport parameters and multiple contaminant plumes is simulated with a two-dimensional hybrid finite-difference/finite-element flow and transport code. The flow and transport code develops the set of examples upon which the network is trained. The input of the ANN characterizes the different realizations of pumping, with each input indicating the pumping level of a well. The output is capable of characterizing the objectives and constraints of the optimization, such as attainment of regulatory goals, value of cost functions and cleanup time, and mass of contaminant removal. The supervised learning algorithm of back propagation was used to train the network. The conjugate gradient method and weight elimination procedures are used to speed convergence and improve performance, respectively. Once trained, the ANN begins a search through various realizations of pumping patterns to determine whether or not they will be successful. The search is directed by a simple genetic algorithm. The resulting management solutions are consistent with those resulting from a more conventional optimization technique, which combines solute transport modeling and nonlinear programming with a quasi-Newton search. The results suggest that the ANN approach has the following advantages over the conventional technique for the test remediations: more independence of the flow and transport code from the optimization, greater influence of hydrogeologic insight, and less computational burden due to the potential for parallel processing of the flow and transport simulations and the ability to “recycle” these simulations. The ANN performance was observed upon variation of the problem formulation, network architecture, and learning algorithm.

Optimization of groundwater remediation using artificial neural networks with parallel solute transport modeling

Spatially distributed rainfall patterns can now be detected using a variety of remote–sensing techniques ranging from weather radar to various satellite–based sensors. Conversion of the remote–sensed signal into rainfall rates, and hence into runoff for a given river basin, is a complex and difficult process using traditional approaches. Neural–network models hold the possibility of circumventing these difficulties by training the network to map rainfall patterns into various measures of runoff that may be of interest. To investigate the potential of this approach, a very simple 5 × 5 grid cell synthetic watershed is used to generate runoff from stochastically generated rainfall patterns. A back–propagation neural network is trained to predict the peak discharge and the time of peak resulting from a single rainfall pattern. Additionally, the neural network is trained to map a time series of three rainfall patterns into a continuum of discharges over future time by using a discrete Fourier series fit to the runoff hydrograph.

Suresh Mangrulkar

Papers

Artificial neural systems.