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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2017

Methodology for Assessing Reusability of Spaceflight Hardware

In 2011 the Space Shuttle, the only Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) in the world, returned to earth for the final time. Upon retirement of the Space Shuttle, the United States (U.S.) no longer possessed a reusable vehicle or the capability to send American astronauts to space. With the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) out of the RLV business and now only pursuing Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELV), not only did companies within the U.S. start to actively pursue the development of either RLVs or reusable components, but entities around the world began to venture into the reusable market. For example, SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing reusable vehicles and engines. The Indian Space Research Organization is developing a reusable space plane and Airbus is exploring the possibility of reusing its first stage engines and avionics housed in the flyback propulsion unit referred to as the Advanced Expendable Launcher with Innovative engine Economy (Adeline). Even United Launch Alliance (ULA) has announced plans for eventually replacing the Atlas and Delta expendable rockets with a family of RLVs called Vulcan. Reuse can be categorized as either fully reusable, the situation in which the entire vehicle is recovered, or partially reusable such as the National Space Transportation System (NSTS) where only the Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME), and Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) are reused. With this influx of renewed interest in reusability for space applications, it is imperative that a systematic approach be developed for assessing the reusability of spaceflight hardware. The partially reusable NSTS offered many opportunities to glean lessons learned; however, when it came to efficient operability for reuse the Space Shuttle and its associated hardware fell short primarily because of its two to four-month turnaround time. Although there have been several attempts at designing RLVs in the past with the X-33, Venture Star and Delta Clipper Experimental (DC-X), reusability within the spaceflight arena is still in its infancy. With unlimited resources (namely, time and money), almost any launch vehicle and its associated hardware can be made reusable. However, an endless supply of funds for space exploration is not the case in today's economy for neither government agencies nor their commercial counterparts. Therefore, any organization wanting to be a leader in space exploration and remain competitive in this unforgiving space faring industry must confront shrinking budgets with more cost conscious and efficient designs. Therefore, standards for developing reusable spaceflight hardware need to be established. By having standards available to existing and emerging companies, some of the potential roadblocks and limitations that plagued previous attempts at reuse may be minimized or completely avoided.

Childress-Thompson, Rhonda↗
DOE OSTI2021

Internet of Samples

Abstract Material samples are indispensable data sources in many natural science, social science, and humanity disciplines. More and more researchers recognize that samples collected in one discipline can be of great value for another. This has motivated organizations that manage a large number of samples to make their holdings accessible to the world. Currently, multiple projects are working to connect natural history and other samples managed by individual institutions or individuals into a universe of samples that follow FAIR principles. This poster reports the progress of the US NSF‐funded iSamples project, in the context of other efforts initiated by US DOE, DiSCCo, BCoN, and GBIF. By October 2021, we will also be able to present an iSamples prototype. We encourage individual organizations that hold material samples to get to know these projects and help shape these projects to realize the goal of a global linked sample cloud that connects all material samples and is accessible to all.

Richard, Stephen M.↗
DOE OSTI2022

2022 LLNL Nuclear Science and Security Summer Internship Program

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Nuclear Science and Security Summer Internship Program (NS 3 IP) is designed to give graduate and undergraduate students an opportunity to come to LLNL for 8–10 weeks of hands-on research. Students conduct research under the supervision of a staff scientist, attend a weekly lecture series, interact with other students, and present their work to the LLNL scientific community 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), and gain a better understanding of the various science programs at LLNL. Due to the travel and access restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 NS 3 IP was organized as a hybrid internship program. Five of the 20 NS 3 IP students participated remotely. One of the 8 students funded directly by DTRA participated remotely. With LLNL’s extensive institutional support, remote students accessed the laboratory’s cyberinfrastructure through a secure virtual desktop environment and all seminars, mentor interactions, summer presentations, and laboratory tours had a remote option. The hybrid approach to the internship program provided flexibility to both the interns and their mentors to construct creative research projects that maximized student exposure to nuclear science research that is relevant to DTRA and LLNL. We anticipate continuing a hybrid internship format in the summer of 2023.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
NASA NTRS1972

Integration of safety engineering into a cost optimized development program.

A six-segment management model is presented, each segment of which represents a major area in a new product development program. The first segment of the model covers integration of specialist engineers into 'systems requirement definition' or the system engineering documentation process. The second covers preparation of five basic types of 'development program plans.' The third segment covers integration of system requirements, scheduling, and funding of specialist engineering activities into 'work breakdown structures,' 'cost accounts,' and 'work packages.' The fourth covers 'requirement communication' by line organizations. The fifth covers 'performance measurement' based on work package data. The sixth covers 'baseline requirements achievement tracking.'

Ball, L. W.↗
NASA NTRS2008

NASA Earth Observations Informing Renewable Energy Management and Policy Decision Making

The NASA Applied Sciences Program partners with domestic and international governmental organizations, universities, and private entities to improve their decisions and assessments. These improvements are enabled by using the knowledge generated from research resulting from spacecraft observations and model predictions conducted by NASA and providing these as inputs to the decision support and scenario assessment tools used by partner organizations. The Program is divided into eight societal benefit areas, aligned in general with the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) themes. The Climate Application of the Applied Sciences Program has as one of its focuses, efforts to provide for improved decisions and assessments in the areas of renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency, and climate change impacts. The goals of the Applied Sciences Program are aligned with national initiatives such as the U.S. Climate Change Science and Technology Programs and with those of international organizations including the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). Activities within the Program are funded principally through proposals submitted in response to annual solicitations and reviewed by peers.

Eckman, Richard S.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Strategies for Optimizing WIP Investment in State Energy Offices

This report outlines strategies for Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs Office (WIP) investment aimed at improving state energy office programs. The project was funded by WIP within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). WIP aims "to enable strategic investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies through the use of innovative practices across the United States in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders, including state and local organizations and community-based nonprofits." Across its programs, WIP has created thousands of jobs, maintains an investment ratio of 4.1 to 1, and increases U.S. economic output by 1.2 billion a year. This project was funded in the FY21 budget cycle and originally focused on improving WIP energy efficiency funding and programs. The project gathered information from various state energy offices to understand how WIP funding and processes can be optimized to improve state-level energy efficiency programs. We propose that the conclusions are also broadly applicable to weatherization and renewable energy deployment programs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Surface Water Quality Data from Beaver-Impacted Streams; Trail Creek and East River, Colorado 2025

This data package contains surface water chemistry measurements collected in 2025 to evaluate how beaver damming and low-tech process-based stream restoration influence water quality and metal mobility in mountainous headwater systems of the Upper Colorado River Basin. Sampling was conducted at Trail Creek (Taylor Park watershed, Colorado), a tributary undergoing restoration through installation of low-tech process-based structures (i.e., beaver dam analogs), and at off-channel beaver ponds within the East River floodplain (East River watershed, Colorado). Samples were collected along longitudinal transects spanning upstream control reaches, beaver-influenced ponded reaches, and downstream segments. Additional samples were collected from near-surface pore waters within a beaver dam seepage face. The dataset includes concentrations of major and trace elements measured by inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), major anions measured by ion chromatography (IC), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC; reported as non-purgeable organic carbon, NPOC). Samples were size-fractionated at 0.45 micrometers (µm), 0.22 µm, and 0.02 µm to distinguish particulate (>0.45 µm), colloidal (0.22–0.02 µm), and dissolved (<0.02 µm) fractions. The data package consists of comma-separated value (.csv) files containing tabulated chemical concentration data, sample metadata (site identifiers, geographic coordinates, sampling dates, fraction type), and quality control flags. All files are provided in open, non-proprietary formats that can be accessed using standard data analysis software such as Microsoft Excel, R, Python, MATLAB, or other programs capable of reading .csv files. Units, detection limits, and analytical methods are documented in accompanying metadata files. The dataset is designed to support analyses of (1) how beaver impoundment and restoration structures alter elemental partitioning and transport, (2) the role of iron and organic carbon in mediating trace metal mobility, and (3) reach-scale changes in water quality across restoration gradients. This work was supported by the Watershed Function Science Focus Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Part of this work was performed at SLAC Accelerator Laboratory funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515.

Anions↗
DOE OSTI2021

BSSD Performance Metric report: LLNL Soil Microbiome SFA (Q1 2021)

The LLNL “Microbes Persist” Soil Microbiome Scientific Focus Area (SFA) seeks to determine how microbial soil ecophysiology, population dynamics, and microbe-mineral-organic matter interactions regulate the persistence of microbial residues and the formation of soil carbon. Our SFA research program is now four years old; it evolved and benefited from previously-funded BSSD projects in the Firestone (UCB), Banfield (UCB), Sullivan (OSU) and Hungate (NAU) labs. We use stable isotope probing in combination with ‘omics to measure how changing water regimes shape activity of individual microbial populations and ecophysiological traits that affect the fate of microbial and plant C. Using measures of population dynamics and microbiome-mineral interactions, we are working to synthesize both genomescale and ecosystem-scale models of soil organic matter (SOM) turnover, to predict the long-aspired connection between soil microbiomes and fate of soil C.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Kansas City, Missouri, Streetlight Electric Vehicle Charging: Strategies and challenges for site selection of streetlight electric vehicle infrastructure in Kansas City, Missouri (Final Report)

Public streetlight charging, whether on streets in central business districts or residential areas, provides easy charging access for apartment residents and homeowners alike. While most electric vehicle (EV) drivers charge at home, they do so in garages or on driveways they own. For renters and residents of multifamily housing (MFH), however, this may not be an option. EVs have a lower cost of ownership compared to conventional vehicles, and a used EV may be an affordable option for a lower-income household. But without easy access to charging, even a low-cost used EV may not be an option for a prospective buyer. An affordable curbside charging network has the potential to expand EV adoption into neighborhoods that have to date seen minimal interest and uptake of the technology and associated charging infrastructure. Streetlight charging networks can provide an economical, scalable, and effective approach to providing equitable and convenient charging. Metropolitan Energy Center (MEC) is dedicated to the mission of creating resource efficiency, environmental health, and economic vitality in the Kansas City region and beyond. Since 1983, MEC has provided resources, outreach, and training to make alternative fuels and energy efficiency commonplace. MEC led a streetlight charging pilot project that installed limited EV charging infrastructure on the streetlight system in Kansas City, Missouri, to demonstrate and test the benefits of curbside charging for EVs at existing on-street parking locations. The project aimed to cost-effectively expand the charging network in Kansas City to support residential charging and provide infrastructure in one or more charging deserts throughout the city. This pilot evaluates the impact and overall success of streetlight charging based on community feedback, utilization of charging infrastructure, technical feasibility, and cost. The project has pursued a data- and community-driven site selection process designed to identify sites with high demand and high opportunity for EV charging. This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and awarded to MEC through a competitive proposal process. The novelty and complexity of this project required an organization that could facilitate collaboration across levels of government, community members, and industry partners. For the past 25 years, through Kansas City Regional Clean Cities, MEC has worked with numerous public and private fleets on a variety of projects to improve the environmental performance and efficiency of the regional vehicle fleet. To advance affordable, efficient, and clean transportation efforts, DOE Clean Cities and Communities coalitions create local networks of public and private sector stakeholders and engage communities. Rooted within their local communities, the coalitions serve as experts and ambassadors, bringing to bear the collective knowledge, experience, and practical know-how of the entire network from within DOE, its national laboratories, and diverse stakeholders in the field. MEC and its project partners made in-kind contributions to leverage federal dollars for the benefit of the Kansas City community. Findings from this project will help determine the best applications for streetlight charging technologies to maximize funding impact and serve community needs. The team evaluated locations based on expected charging demand, technical feasibility, safety considerations, and enhanced charging network siting needs. Throughout the project, the team gathered feedback and evaluated ways to make public charging for EVs available to all community members. The insights will help Kansas City and other communities streamline future efforts to support EV drivers through public charging in the city right-of-way. Furthermore, this project will inform citywide guidance for future installations. MEC is committed to a transparent and publicly accessible approach that encourages the collaborative evaluation of streetlight charging. The project has engaged the community to proactively identify and evaluate the benefits and impacts of streetlight charging. It was a priority for the project to ensure the benefits of this pilot are distributed equitably to all members of the Kansas City community and that new charging opportunities and associated resources are available in diverse neighborhoods across the city. The charging infrastructure supports an affordable curbside charging network that will enable more drivers to choose EVs and provide easy charging access for all community members interested in driving an EV. The community feedback received through this project informed future resources and opportunities to make EVs more accessible to all members of the Kansas City community. MEC worked with several community partners on this project, including Missouri University of Science and Technology (MST), Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL); the city of Kansas City, Missouri; Evergy; Black and McDonald (B&M); LilyPad EV; EVNoire; and Westside Housing Organization (WHO). Project partners contributed to the cost match required for DOE grants through capital expenditures, personnel, and other in-kind contributions. Detailed descriptions of project team organizations can be found in Appendix A. Project Partners. Analysts at NREL and MST/PennState developed site maps based on demand and equity considerations. MEC conducted outreach to community members to garner input on project design and site selection, and received approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) for Evergy’s EV charging station ownership. MEC worked with all partners to gather additional siting criteria and developed a site selection evaluation checklist, and partners conducted site visits to proposed installation sites. Next, B&M, Evergy, and the city executed all site agreements, conducted site-specific engineering design, acquired associated permits, and issued notices to proceed site by site or in small batches. Finally, from January to April 2023, the project team installed 23 EV charging stations built on Kansas City’s streetlight system in six council districts. Evergy will own, operate, and monitor the stations for 10 years, sharing charging data with MEC for at least 1 year.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Assessment of the Griffin Reactor Multiphysics Application Using the Empire Micro Reactor Design Concept

In late 2019, INL and ANL agreed to jointly develop the reactor physics code named Griffin based on the integration of the two code suites, MAMMOTH/Rattlesnake (INL) and MC2 - 3/PROTEUS (ANL). Griffin is being developed based on the MOOSE framework and MOOSE quality assurance procedures. This decision was made to be able to allow DOE-NE to efficiently invest funding to this area and to provide effective and timely support for existing and potential users; the latter includes industry and government organizations who are developing various types of advanced reactors in the near and long term. Since MAMMOTH/Rattlesnake has been developed based on the MOOSE framework, the INL/ANL Griffin development team agreed to build Griffin beginning with a merger of MAMMOTH and Rattlesnake into a single code and moving forward by implementing capabilities from the PROTEUS suite into Griffin. Moving forward, both ANL and INL efforts are equally invested in the Griffin project, with management support, to provide an advanced reactor multiphysics tool to assist in reactor design, optimization, and safety analysis. Much work remains in moving Griffin forward to migrate PROTEUS capabilities and to optimize performance to meet user needs. The main objective of this work is to assess the current status of Griffin capabilities in terms of performance and accuracy, to determine priorities for PROTEUS migration, and to identify capabilities and features to improve for supporting the code integration effort. For this assessment, the Empire micro reactor problem that was developed in the ARPA-E MEITNER program was selected as an advance reactor concept of interest to the technical community. The Empire reactor problem was expanded from its original incomplete specification to be a small heat-pipe-cooled micro reactor core with ~113 cm radius and 70 cm in height, composed of 18 fuel assemblies, 12 control drums, and beryllium radial and axial reflectors. In the current model, using 5 cm axial reflectors specified in the original Empire assembly model, more than 10% of neutrons leak axially and through the empty center safety hole, as well as through heat pipe channels in fuel assembly elements that extend through the top reflector region. Several calculation models of the core were defined for systematic assessment, including 2-D and 3-D fuel assemblies and whole cores with cylindrical boundaries. Cross sections were generated using Serpent 2, and meshes were produced using the Argonne mesh tool or the INL neutronics meshing tools combined with CUBIT. Cross sections and meshes were converted to the ISOXML and Exodus formats, respectively, so that Griffin and PROTEUS could use consistent data for solving the reactor problems. With the prepared cross sections and meshes, PROTEUS was run first to ensure that all input data were correctly generated and input options in terms of angle, mesh, and energy group were accurately determined. Comparisons against Serpent 2 solutions were made in terms of eigenvalue and pin power. The same calculations and comparisons were then conducted using Griffin. For the fuel assembly and whole core problems, the PROTEUS eigenvalues agreed well with reference Serpent 2 solutions within 100 and 30 pcm, respectively, and pin power differences relative to Serpent 2 were overall less than 2.2% and RMS 0.8% for the whole core models. This indicated that all input data were properly prepared. Using the same data, Griffin was run selecting the SAAF-CFEM SN solver with Legendre-Gaussian quadrature and NDA and DSA for acceleration. It was found that the SAAF-CFEM solver of Griffin required finer meshes to achieve eigenvalue and pin power solutions in good agreement with Serpent 2, consequently requiring more memory requirement and longer computation time. On the other hand, the SPH-Diffusion 2-D core calculations performed using Griffin were able to recover the exact eigenvalue from the reference Serpent 2 solutions, resulting in a pin-power distribution with an RMS of 0.6% and maximum absolute difference of less than 1.4%. The runtimes for SPH-Diffusion for the 2-D core were less than 3 minutes on 40 cores. During this evolution of this evaluation, many updates were made in Griffin by the Griffin development team of INL (focusing on software updates) and ANL (reviewing and supporting software updates) to complete this assessment. Observations from the code assessment are presented in the conclusion section of this report, followed by a discussion of recommendations for future work.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
NASA NTRS1995

Korea's developmental program for superconductivity

Superconductivity research in Korea was firstly carried out in the late 70's by a research group in Seoul National University (SNU), who fabricated a small scale superconducting magnetic energy storage system under the financial support from Korea Electric Power Company (KEPCO). But a few researchers were involved in superconductivity research until the oxide high Tc superconductor was discovered by Bednorz and Mueller. After the discovery of YBaCuO superconductor operating above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77 K)(exp 2), Korean Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) sponsored a special fund for the high Tc superconductivity research to universities and national research institutes by recognizing its importance. Scientists engaged in this project organized 'High Temperature Superconductivity Research Association (HITSRA)' for effective conducting of research. Its major functions are to coordinate research activities on high Tc superconductivity and organize the workshop for active exchange of information. During last seven years the major superconductivity research has been carried out through the coordination of HITSRA. The major parts of the Korea's superconductivity research program were related to high temperature superconductor and only a few groups were carrying out research on conventional superconductor technology, and Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) have led this research. In this talk, the current status and future plans of superconductivity research in Korea will be reviewed based on the results presented in interim meeting of HITSRA, April 1-2, 1994. Taejeon, as well as the research activity of KAERI.

Hong, Gye-Won↗
DOE OSTI2020

Test for Reconditioning RA Waste with Simulated Bitumen and Concrete in a 1,2 MW Plasma Test Facility - 20092

The operation and maintenance of nuclear power plants, the non nuclear fuel cycle, etc generate low-level radioactive waste which, along with the historical radioactive waste from past nuclear activities, needs to be treated and stored, awaiting final disposal. Plasma technology offers a very effective way of treating this waste with a high volume reduction factor (VRF), free from organics, liquids and moisture, and meets without a doubt the acceptance criteria for safe storage and disposal. By means of a plasma beam of approximately 5000 deg. C, the inorganic materials are melted into a glassy slag, containing most of the radioactive isotopes while the organic material is gasified, oxidized and purified in an off-gas cleaning system. First the paper describes the new full-scale Plasma Melting Facility (PMF) at the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant in Bulgaria which was taken in nuclear operation In May 2018. The plant has a capacity of 250 tons per year and the maximum contact dose rates of the incoming waste is 2 mSv/h. Different mixtures of radioactive waste packed in 200 l drums were successfully treated resulting in a glassy slag free from liquids and organic material with an important volume reduction factor (VRF). The Project was co-financed through a grant by Kozloduy International Decommissioning fund (KIDSF) administrated by the EBRD through Bulgarian national funding. Plasma is a suitable technology for treatment of problematic waste or even reconditioning waste so Belgoprocess was contracted to do plasma tests with simulated conditioned waste types. One can do tests on a laboratory scale on smaller samples and torch capacities of e.g. 50 kW but Belgoprocess wanted to do more realistic and reliable tests. So Belgoprocess contracted Phoenix Solutions Co who has a full-scope test facility equipped with a 1200 kW plasma torch for full-scope treatment of simulated conditioned waste. For a first confidential contract simulated 200 l (55 gallon) bitumen drums were treated. The drums contained different pucks of compacted waste such as rags, used filters, granulates, etc. The pucks were stacked in the 200 l drums and subsequently embedded with bitumen. A total of 6 drums were treated in the plasma facility. For a second contract simulated homogeneous 200 l (55 gallon) concrete drums with on the one hand concentrates and on the other hand spent resins were selected. A total of 6 drums with concrete and spent resins were treated and melted in the plasma testing facility. The paper describe the test facility, volume reduction factor (VRF) of different waste streams and most important parameters. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2021

Developing Cost Effective Biological Removal Technology for Selenium and Nitrate from Flue Gas Desulfurization Wastewater from an Existing Power Facility

Funding from this project supported new research in environmental biotechnology at WVSU Energy and Environmental Science Institute (WVSUEESI) to develop biological treatment techniques for FGD wastewater using photosynthetic organisms algae and plants. We tested the possibility of using algae and plants in treating FGD wastewater. Results suggested that algae and plants could able to perform normal photosynthesis under low concentrations of selenium. However, higher concentrations of selenium are lethal on photosynthesis. The total protein data indicated that FGD wastewater induced the accumulation of complete proteins in the duckweeds compared to control plants. It appears that nitrate, nitrates, and other compounds in FGD wastewater promote total protein accumulation. The FGD wastewater treatment has triggered Triacylglycerols (TAG) and carbohydrate accumulation in duckweed. We studied the differential gene expression using RNA-Sequencing data. Gene expression analysis revealed that glycolysis, fatty acid, triacylglycerol biosynthesis, and starch degradation were up-regulated; on the contrary, gluconeogenesis, photosynthesis, and starch biosynthesis genes were down-regulated by FGD wastewater treatment. We confirmed the expression of some of these genes using q-RT PCR analysis. We demonstrated that when FGD gypsum was blended with the coal mine soil to grow the bioenergy crop, Camelina, it could grow and produce seed. Moreover, Camelina is a non-edible oilseed crop and has heavy metal sequestering properties, making it the right reclamation choice. Besides, this project provided the opportunity for WVSU undergraduates to integrate hands-on research and education. Funding from this grant helped us to enhance student hands-on experience in water quality and environmental science and participation in STEM research and education.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Money Matters: A Three-Step Process for Using Budget Data in Program Evaluation to Assess the Design and Management of a Novel Public Health Program

We applied a three-step process, abstracting and analyzing program budgets to examine how Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP) awardees are structuring their programs and to assess the fidelity of program design to the CRCCP public health model. We reviewed 23 state, one tribal organization, and six university awardee budgets. We assessed resource allocations, staffing structures, and contracted partners and their activities. Awardees allocated 83% of all funds to contracts and personnel. Program managers were the most budgeted personnel type across three measures: number of people, full-time equivalency, and personnel costs. Awardees not only contracted with health care systems and clinics (39% of all contracts) but also contracted other partner types. Contractors were mainly funded to implement evidence-based interventions (25%) and conduct evaluation (24%). Program design varied among awardees in the number of staff (0–22), number of full-time equivalencies (0–5.4), and the number of contracts (1–11) budgeted. State awardees budgeted more resources to contracts, compared with university awardees (57% vs. 31%), while universities budgeted more for total personnel costs (41% vs. 30%). We learned that awardees designed their programs with fidelity to the CRCCP model. Although implementation approaches varied, overall results suggest implementation requires a combination of internal capacities and contracted partners. Budgets provide opportunities to use already existing program data to evaluate program design, partnerships, and planned activities.

Uhd, Justin↗
DOE OSTI2020

Multi-Functional Distributed Fiber Sensors for Pipeline Monitoring and Methane Detections. Final Report

As an abundant and cheap fossil energy source, natural gas has become a significant energy supply to support the United States’ economy. However, the large-scale extraction and utilization of natural gas also impose significant challenges on methane leakage. This problem is exacerbated by aging gas utility delivery systems, including interstate high-pressure pipelines, storage, and transmission facilities. This project aims to develop a cost-effective fiber optical sensing method that can perform multi-parameter real-time measurements of natural gas pipelines across long interrogation distances up to 100 km with 1-meter spatial resolution. This sensing tool can evaluate overall pipeline efficiency and reduce methane emissions for mid-stream methane infrastructures. To accomplish this objective, research and development efforts funded by this project have resulted in the following accomplishments: This project successfully has developed new functional sensory polymer materials using Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) that can be coated on optical fiber through the reel-to-reel coating process. Functional polymer-coated optical fibers can perform sensitive methane detection through evanescence wave interaction and strain-based measurements to achieve 1% detection sensitivities. The new sensors fibers support both distributed measurements and multiplexed fiber sensors array for multi-point measurements. This project developed and optimized a new multi-core optical fiber that supports simultaneous and distributed measurements of strain and temperatures with 1-meter spatial resolutions across up to 100-km interrogation distance. This new fiber, combined with sensory polymercoated fiber, could perform both distributed temperature and methane detections. This project developed a new artificial intelligence big data algorithm approach that can effectively analyze high-resolution data harnessed by distributed fiber sensors to protect natural gas pipelines against external threats and detect internal defects induced by corrosion. Working with our industry partner, this project developed new optical fibers that support fiber sensor fabrications through polymer coating after the fibers are drawn. These new fibers eliminate the need for direct sensor fabrication when the fiber is fabricated on a fiber draw tower, which drastically expands fiber sensors' applicability. This research project has significantly advanced the distributed fiber sensing technology. It will dramatically increase the applicability and adaptability of distributed fiber sensors for a wide array of applications in energy, sustainability, and environmental science, including structural health monitoring of natural gas pipelines, oil infrastructures, hydrogen facilities, and environmental monitoring of carbon storage sites, water supply systems, and others.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Student and Post Doctoral Support for the 8th Workshop on Nanotube Optics and Nanospectroscopy (Final Technical Report)

This project provided financial assistance for 20 postdoctoral and graduate students to attend the 8th Workshop on Nanotube Optics and Nanospectroscopy (WONTON 2022). The WONTON 2022 workshop was held in-person in Madison, Wisconsin (USA) from July 24th to 28th, 2022, and the organizers were Dr. Michael Arnold of the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Dr. Jeffrey Blackburn of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The funding support was specifically used to defray the registration costs of 5 postdoctoral attendees and 15 graduate students, who each participated directly in the meeting by presenting a contributed talk or poster.

2D materials↗
NASA NTRS1994

Observational and modeling studies of heat, moisture, precipitation and global-scale circulation patterns

This research grant was a revised version of an original proposal. The period of the grant was for three years with a six-month no-cost extension; thus, it was from 20 July 1990 to 19 January 1994. The objectives of the grant were to identify periods and locations of active convection centers, primarily over the Southern Hemisphere tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans; determine reasons for any periodic behavior found in the first objective; identify cases where subtropical jets over the South Pacific persisted for several days and examine the influences of tropical versus extra-tropical mechanisms in maintaining them; obtain estimates of precipitation by Q(sub 1) and Q(sub 2) budgets, including the importance of terms in each of the respective budgets, and compare these estimates to those obtained by other methods; and diagnose the distributions of moisture and precipitable water over the North Atlantic Ocean using routine analyses and satellite microwave data. To accomplish these objectives, we used grant funds to purchase several data sets, including the Global Precipitation Climate Project (GPCP) observations of station precipitation, ECMWF WCRP/TOGA archive two analyses for January 1985 - December 1990, ECMWF WMO analyses for January 1980 - December 1987, and OLR data for July 1974 - December 1991. We already had some SSM/I data and GLA analyses from a previous grant. In addition, to improve our computing power, we also used grant funds to purchase an IBM PS/2 with accessories, a NEC laser jet printer, and a microcomputer system for word processing. This report is organized as follows. Our research team is listed first. Section two contains a summary of our significant accomplishments; however, a detailed discussion of research results is not included since this information can be found in the accompanying reprints and preprints. Section three offers some concluding remarks, and a complete bibliographic summary is given in Section four.

Vincent, Dayton G.↗
NASA NTRS1999

New Horizons Regional Education Center 1999 FIRST Robotics Competition

The New Horizons Regional Education Center (NHREC) in Hampton, VA sought and received NASA funding to support its participation in the 1999 FIRST Robotics competition. FIRST, Inc. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization which encourages the application of creative science, math, and computer science principles to solve real-world engineering problems. The FIRST competition is an international engineering contest featuring high school, government, and business partnerships.

Purman, Richard I.↗