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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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At least 199 records · Page 11

The effect of processing code, response modality and task difficulty on dual task performance and subjective workload in a manual system

This paper reports on the first experiment of a series studying the effect of task structure and difficulty demand on time-sharing performance and workload in both automated and corresponding manual systems. The experimental task involves manual control time-shared with spatial and verbal decisions tasks of two levels of difficulty and two modes of response (voice or manual). The results provide strong evidence that tasks and processes competing for common processing resources are time shared less effecively and have higher workload than tasks competing for separate resources. Subjective measures and the structure of multiple resources are used in conjunction to predict dual task performance. The evidence comes from both single-task and from dual-task performance.

Liu, Yili↗

Plant Cell Biology International Meeting 2022

There is a strong need to develop the knowledge base that will enable the rational design of improved crop species for sustainable agriculture and biomass production. To attain this goal, researchers must learn how plant cells integrate metabolism and cellular dynamics during growth and in response to environmental challenges. Meeting these goals require data sharing and the development and training of faculty, post-doctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students in state-of-the-art quantitative integrative cell biology methods. The inaugural Plant Cell Biology International (PCBI) meeting capitalized on the interaction between two well-established plant cell biology communities across the Atlantic, the Midwest Plant Cell Dynamics (PCD) and the European Network for Plant Endomembrane Research (ENPER) and provided a framework to meet these goals. The conference took place in person successfully during August 1-5th 2022 in Crete, Greece. The conference offered opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, young investigators across the globe to present their results and interact across different disciplines. The conference provided an open and inclusive forum for oral presentations that allowed all labs to share research results. It was attended over 80 % by students, postdocs and young investigators. Workshops on best practices for image acquisition and processing pipelines, publication guidelines by scientific journal editors, professional development and well-being benefited the participants at large. Overall, this was the inaugural joint Plant Cell Biology International conference that for the first time officially brought together plant cell biologists to discuss opportunities and challenges in the field to gain a mechanistic understanding of complex biological processes and advance sustainable agriculture. Due to its success, it was rescheduled for 2025 in Crete, to continue strengthening the plant cell biology community and exchanging knowledge and expertise across the globe.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Digital Information Platform (DIP) Overview

On March 24, 2021, NASA’s Digital Information Platform (DIP) released a Request for Information (RFI) to the aviation community. The RFI was intended to request two things: 1) DIP concept input such as current challenges and needs for data and services and 2) Interest in participating in collaborative demonstrations. On July 29, 2021, DIP team will meet with Airlines for America (A4A) to share a summary of information received from the RFI responses. The objective of the meeting is to follow up with respondents with takeaways the DIP team identified that will inform the concept and demonstration plans. The forum will give participants an opportunity to add on and provide feedback to the summary. The meeting will also describe the roadmap for the Collaborative Demonstrations and next steps for partner engagement.

Digital Information Platform (DIP) RFI summary↗

Teams in Space: Knowledge Gained, but More to Explore

NASA’s Human Research Program oversees the Team Risk (i.e., Risk of Performance and Behavioral Health Decrements due to Inadequate Cooperation, Coordination, Communication and Psychosocial Adaptation within a Team). Research in this area informs all aspects of an astronaut’s career, from hiring to training to mission support, and works to address new challenges related to lunar and Mars missions. NASA’s astronaut selection process creates an astronaut corps of highly qualified, team-oriented individuals, which allows mission planners much flexibility in composing small crews for specific missions. These crews are further developed and supported through extensive training, including team skills training, and countermeasures available to the crew throughout the mission. However, in the high consequence environment of long-duration missions, team composition is complex and is not a one-time concern to be addressed pre-mission. Team factors such as team cohesion, dyadic relationships, and shared team cognition are likely to change dynamically in response to each interaction and event experienced by the individuals and the team as a whole. Thus, monitoring and optimizing team composition at a more micro level (e.g., per task) is one way to support team functioning and performance. Spaceflight teams research also includes the multi-team system of Mission Control and coordination between space-to-ground, adding another avenue in which risk might be introduced, particularly under exploration missions that experience significant communication delays. Spaceflight teams research has recently experienced a concentrated flurry of analog research over the past decade, shedding light on the many unique challenges and potential solutions to mitigate the team risk in long-duration exploration missions. However, questions still remain about how to, for example, create unobtrusive operational measures and how to advance interdisciplinary teams research and countermeasure development. We present an overview of the challenges facing teams in space, our current knowledge, and the next steps for research and spaceflight operations.

Lauren Blackwell Landon↗

On-Demand Transit: Features, Benefits, Challenges, Costs, and Evaluation

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Laboratory of the Rockies works in partnership with communities and transit agencies across North America to support and evaluate customized on-demand transit (ODT) systems. ODT, also known as on-demand mobility or microtransit, is a flexible form of public mobility. Unlike traditional fixed-route transit, ODT adjusts where and when service is provided rather than following predetermined schedules and routes. Having evolved from commercial ride-hailing business models, ODT leverages smartphone connectivity and real-time route optimization to provide highly responsive and dynamic service. ODT trips, which are usually shared, can function as a standalone service or as a first-/last-mile service connecting riders to other types of transit.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Innovation in Radiological Security, Part 2 of 2 – Insights into Developing a Cloud-hosted Security Technology

A Sentry Remote Monitoring System (Sentry-RMS) is a stand-alone security system that provides detection, assessment, and communication of priority alarms as an additional means of thwarting internal and external threats to sites that maintain radiological material. The SEntry-RMS CommUnications and REsponse (Sentry-SECURE) platform is an optional feature of the Sentry-RMS that relays priority alarm information to the identified response stakeholders. Sentry-SECURE is hosted in a cloud environment that abstracts the data owner’s and data consumer’s platforms to allow for greater information sharing. This promotes situational awareness amongst authorized users and enables future innovation among modern response platforms. When securely architecting a cloud solution such as this, the use of design paradigms can be an effective tool to increase the accuracy and reliability of cyber- and information-security-related decisions made throughout the development process. This approach also supports the categorization of design considerations into three levels: industry concepts, project approaches, and data protections for digital processes. Industry concepts consist of the notional underpinnings that guide or motivate a security process, system, or design but often lack any tangible attributes. Project approaches represent decisions made during the design and development process to prioritize a solution, method, or practice above another that may provide a comparable functional output but lacks a desired security benefit. Data protections for digital processes represent the selection, integration, and implementation of specific controls for a given asset. This paper will explore specific examples of how Sentry-SECURE has been designed to account for considerations at each of these three levels, while balancing the operational intent of the platform with the security enhancements necessary to maintain data integrity, availability, and confidentiality.

assessment, RMS, security, physical, cloud, Cyber ↗

Methods for Computing Physically Realistic Estimates of Electric Water Heater Demand Response Resource Suitable for Bulk Power System Planning Models

Demand response is commonly called on to reduce load during system peak times or to respond to contingency events. In future power systems with higher shares of wind and solar generation (which we describe together as variable generation [VG]), demand response could have more opportunities to provide energy shifting or operating reserve services. This report evaluates the ability of residential electric water heaters, both electric resistance water heaters (ERWHs) and heat pump water heaters (HPWHs), to provide such services starting from detailed whole-building energy models that realistically represent New England single family home stock. We use a parsimonious surrogate model to represent operational flexibility in a form suitable for linear and mixed integer programming. This enables relatively fast determination of aggregate contingency reserve resource, price-taking energy shifting outcomes, and in some cases the determination of aggregate models at the megawatt (MW) scale that can be directly included in large-scale grid models. After selecting modeling methods and parameters through various computational experiments, we find interquartile ranges of contingency reserve resource in ISO-NE for about 603,400 ERWHs of 45 MW - 69 MW for Claim10 (50 minute responses provided with 10 minutes of advanced notification) and 65 MW - 102 MW for Claim30 (30 minute responses provided with 30 minutes of advanced notification), and for about 619,000 HPWHs of 48 MW - 88 MW for Claim10 and 52 MW - 90 MW for Claim30. The overall reserve resource is up to 32% of total load for ERWHs providing Claim10 service, 47% for ERWHs providing Claim30 service, 93% for HPWHs providing Claim10 service, and 97% for HPWHs providing Claim30 service. More work is required to determine if HPWHs are inherently more suitable than ERWHs for providing contingency reserve or if these results reflect idiosyncrasies of the single family home stock model used in this study. The value of this contingency resource in a Near-term VG model of ISO-NE is $\$ 0.40$ to $\$1.20$ per water heater-year, and significantly larger, $\$ 3.80$ to $\$ 5.30$ per water heater-year in a Mid-term VG model of ISONE. Aggregating surrogate models to the MW-scale for energy shifting service is more challenging than for contingency service and we only present such results for ERWHs, because we were unable to determine satisfactory ways to deal with HPWHs' time-varying and path dependent operational characteristics. Individual surrogate models suitable for evaluating the energy shifting resource from both ERWHs and HPWHs are created, however, and dispatched against day-ahead prices from the Near-Term VG and Mid-Term VG models of ISO-NE. The individual surrogate models are able to access and potentially shift all 640 GWh of HPWH load and 1,547 GWh of ERWH load we modeled in two different single family home stock models. In contrast, the most effective model of aggregate ERWH shifting resource we created only captured 34.7% of the total ERWH load. Energy shifting affected by price-taking dispatch against modeled day-ahead energy prices produces per water heater year profits of $\$19.44$ - $\$22.93$ for individual HPWHs, $\$39.11$ - $\$40.54$ for individual ERWHs, and up to $\$4.00$ - $\$4.24$ for aggregated ERWHs, with the variations mainly due to grid conditions (more or less VG). When the supply-side response to these changes is accounted for, the per water heater year production cost savings for ISO-NE are $\$7.50$ to $\$17.70$ for the most effective set of endogenously dispatched aggregate ERWHs, $\$15.60$ to $\$15.70$ for individual ERWHs dispatched against the DA prices, and $\$10.70$ to $\$11.20$ for individual HPWHs dispatched against DA prices. Those ranges primarily represent the difference between Near-Term VG and Mid-Term VG grid conditions.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Lessons Learned for Improving Spacecraft Ground Operations

NASA policy requires each Program or Project to develop a plan for how they will address Lessons Learned. Projects have the flexibility to determine how best to promote and implement lessons learned. A large project might budget for a lessons learned position to coordinate elicitation, documentation and archival of the project lessons. The lessons learned process crosses all NASA Centers and includes the contactor community. o The Office of The Chief Engineer at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C., is the overall process owner, and field locations manage the local implementation. One tool used to transfer knowledge between program and projects is the Lessons Learned Information System (LLIS). Most lessons come from NASA in partnership with support contractors. A search for lessons that might impact a new design is often performed by a contractor team member. Knowledge is not found with only one person, one project team, or one organization. Sometimes, another project team, or person, knows something that can help your project or your task. Knowledge sharing is an everyday activity at the Kennedy Space Center through storytelling, Kennedy Engineering Academy presentations and through searching the Lessons Learned Information system. o Project teams search the lessons repository to ensure the best possible results are delivered. o The ideas from the past are not always directly applicable but usually spark new ideas and innovations. Teams have a great responsibility to collect and disseminate these lessons so that they are shared with future generations of space systems designers. o Leaders should set a goal for themselves to host a set numbers of lesson learned events each year and do more to promote multiple methods of lessons learned activities. o High performing employees are expected to share their lessons, however formal knowledge sharing presentation are not the norm for many employees.

Bell, Michael↗

A Privacy-Preserving Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing System

Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) is a key resource for developing defensive strategies against potential cyber adversaries. Entities typically access CTI through open-source platforms, national agencies, or specialized commercial services. However, the bi-directional exchange of CTI is hindered by organizational trust boundaries, which complicate the sharing processes between entities and CTI providers. Centralized CTI services benefit from receiving suspicious cyber observables such as IP addresses, domain names, and email addresses from various entities. The aggregation allows for the correlation of widespread adversarial activities to enhance the alert and response mechanisms across the network of involved parties. Despite these benefits, openly sharing such observables incurs potential legal, regulatory, and reputational risks for the disclosing entities.This paper introduces a system designed to facilitate the secure exchange of cyber observables across trust boundaries without compromising the anonymity of the sharing entities. Here, we propose an architecture that leverages common web protocols alongside zero-knowledge proofs to authenticate members while maintaining anonymity. Additionally, we outline a privacy model tailored for STIX (Structured Threat Information eXpression) cyber observables to minimize the risk of inadvertently disclosing private information. Through our threat models, we assess the privacy implications of our proposed system and demonstrate its potential to enhance collaborative cyber defense efforts without exposing entities to undue risk.

BBS+ Signatures↗

The Test Analysis Retrieval System (TARS): Meeting the challenges of the network's test processes

The Networks Systems Test Section (GSFC 531.4) is responsible for managing a variety of engineering and operational tests used to assess the status of the Network elements relative to readiness certification for new and ongoing mission support and for performance trending. To conduct analysis of data collected during these tests, to disseminate and share the information, and to catalog and create reports based on the analysis is currently a cumbersome and inefficient task due primarily to the manual handling of paper products and the inability to easily exchange information between the various Networks elements. The Test Analysis and Retrieval System (TARS) is being implemented to promote concise data analysis, intelligible reporting of test results, to minimize test duplication by fostering a broad sharing of test data, and perhaps most importantly, to provide significantly improved response to the Network's internal and external customers. This paper outlines the intended application, architecture, and benefits of the TARS.

Stelmaszek, Robert L.↗

Exploring the role of judgement and shared situation awareness when working with AI recommender systems

Abstract AI-advised Decision Making is a form of human-autonomy teaming in which an AI recommender system suggests a solution to a human operator, who is responsible for the final decision. This work seeks to examine the importance of judgement and shared situation awareness between humans and automated agents when interacting together in the form of a recommender systems. We propose manipulating both human judgement and shared situation awareness by providing the human decision maker with relevant information that the automated agent (AI), in the form of a recommender system, uses to generate possible courses of action. This paper presents the results of a two-phase between-subjects study in which participants and a recommender system jointly make a high-stakes decision. We varied the amount of relevant information the participant had, the assessment technique of the proposed solution, and the reliability of the recommender system. Findings indicate that this technique of supporting the human’s judgement and establishing a shared situation awareness is effective in (1) boosting the human decision maker’s situation awareness and task performance, (2) calibrating their trust in AI teammates, and (3) reducing overreliance on an AI partner. Additionally, participants were able to pinpoint the limitations and boundaries of the AI partner’s capabilities. They were able to discern situations where the AI’s recommendations could be trusted versus instances when they should not rely on the AI’s advice. This work proposes and validates a way to provide model-agnostic transparency into recommender systems that can support the human decision maker and lead to improved team performance.

Srivastava, Divya↗

Network-Aware and Welfare-Maximizing Dynamic Pricing for Energy Sharing

The proliferation of behind-the-meter (BTM) distributed energy resources (DER) within the electrical distribution network presents significant supply and demand flexibilities, but also introduces operational challenges such as voltage spikes and reverse power flows. In response, this paper proposes a network-aware dynamic pricing framework tailored for energy-sharing coalitions that aggregate small, but ubiquitous, BTM DER downstream of a distribution system operator's (DSO) revenue meter that adopts a generic net energy metering (NEM) tariff. By formulating a Stackelberg game between the energy-sharing market leader and its prosumers, we show that the dynamic pricing policy induces the prosumers toward a network-safe operation and decentrally maximizes the energysharing social welfare. The dynamic pricing mechanism involves a combination of a locational ex-ante dynamic price and an ex-post allocation, both of which are functions of the energy sharing's BTM DER. The ex-post allocation is proportionate to the price differential between the DSO NEM price and the energy-sharing locational price. Simulation results using real DER data and the IEEE 13-bus test systems illustrate the dynamic nature of network-aware pricing at each bus, and its impact on voltage.

aggregates↗

Network-Aware and Welfare-Maximizing Dynamic Pricing for Energy Sharing: Preprint

The proliferation of behind-the-meter (BTM) distributed energy resources (DER) within the electrical distribution network presents significant supply and demand flexibilities, but also introduces operational challenges such as voltage spikes and reverse power flows. In response, this paper proposes a network-aware dynamic pricing framework tailored for energy-sharing coalitions that aggregate small, but ubiquitous, BTM DER downstream of a distribution system operator's (DSO) revenue meter that adopts a generic net energy metering (NEM) tariff. By formulating a Stackelberg game between the energy-sharing market leader and its prosumers, we show that the dynamic pricing policy induces the prosumers toward a network-safe operation and decentrally maximizes the energysharing social welfare. The dynamic pricing mechanism involves a combination of a locational ex-ante dynamic price and an ex-post allocation, both of which are functions of the energy sharing's BTM DER. The ex-post allocation is proportionate to the price differential between the DSO NEM price and the energy sharing locational price. Simulation results using real DER data and the IEEE 13-bus test systems illustrate the dynamic nature of network-aware pricing at each bus, and its impact on voltage.

energy communities↗

Responsible Exploration Preserving the Cosmos for Tomorrow

This submittal encompasses NASA presentations to be shared at the forthcoming Trilateral S&MA Summit at ESRIN in Frascati, Italy. This event is an annual meeting comprised of SMA leadership and supporting staff from NASA, ESA, and JAXA. The Trilateral Parties discuss current and future areas of cooperation in areas of Safety & Mission Assurance.

trilateral↗

An Optimal Power Control Strategy for Grid-Following Inverters in a Synchronous Frame

This work proposes a power control strategy based on the linear quadratic regulator with optimal reference tracking (LQR-ORT) for a three-phase inverter-based generator (IBG) using an LCL filter. The use of an LQR-ORT controller increases robustness margins and reduces the quadratic value of the power error and control inputs during transient response. A model in a synchronous reference frame that integrates power sharing and voltage–current (V–I) dynamics is also proposed. This model allows for analyzing closed-loop eigenvalue location and robustness margins. The proposed controller was compared against a classical droop approach using proportional-resonant controllers for the inner loops. Mathematical analysis and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experiments under variations in the LCL filter components demonstrate fulfillment of robustness and performance bounds of the LQR-ORT controller. Experimental results demonstrate accuracy of the proposed model and the effectiveness of the LQR-ORT controller in improving transient response, robustness, and power decoupling.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Differential Responses to Mechanostimulation in Embryonic Stem Cells Versus the Embryoid Body Model of Development Assessed at Single Cell RNA-Seq Resolution

Mechanicalforces generated by gravity have shaped life on Earth and impact gene expression and morphogenesis during early development. In contrast disuse canreduce normal mechanical loading, resulting in altered cell and tissue function. Although loading in adult mammals is known to promote increased cell proliferation and differentiation, little is known about how cells respondto this stimulusduring early development. In this study we sought to understand, with single cell RNA-sequencing resolution, how a 60-minute pulse of 50xg hypergravity-generated 5kPa hydrostatic pressure, influences transcriptomic regulation of developmental processes in the Embryoid Body (EB) model. Our study included both day-9 EBs and progenitor mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) with or without the hydrostatic pressurepulse. Single cell tSNE mapping shows limited transcriptome shifts in response to thispulse in either ESCs or EBs; this pulse,however, induces greater positional shifts in EB mapping compared to ESCs, indicating the influence of mechanotransduction is more pronounced in later states of cell commitment within the developmental program.We assessed ESCs and EBs for differentially expressed (DE) genes with hydrostatic pressurepulse and found approximately 1/3 DE genes were shared. However, gene ontology (GO) pathway analysis show that EBs have choreographed responses associated with upregulation ofpathways formulticellular development, mechanical signal transduction, and DNA damage repair. Cluster transcriptome analysis of the EBs showsmechanostimulationpromotes maintenance of transitory cell phenotypes in early development,including EB cluster co-expression of markers for progenitor, post-implant epiblast and primitive endoderm phenotypes versus expression exclusivity in the non-pulsed clusters. Pseudotime analysisidentified three branching cell types susceptible tohydrostatic pressureinduction of cell fate decisions. In summary, this study provides novel evidence that ESC maintenance and EB development can be regulated by mechanostimulation,and that stem cells committed to a differentiation program are more sensitive to force-induced changes to their transcriptome.

Cassandra Juran↗

Agnostic capture of pathogens for the detection and diagnostics of emerging threats

The continued emergence of pathogens, whether novel, re-emerging, or engineered, poses a persistent global biosecurity and public health challenge. Recent outbreaks, including COVID-19, Lassa fever, Marburg virus, mpox, and avian influenza, underscore the urgent need for robust systems that enable rapid surveillance, early diagnosis, and timely countermeasures before widespread human transmission occurs. In this article, we focus on early detection technologies and systematically evaluate current diagnostic and sensing modalities. We highlight sequencing and spectroscopy as two complementary approaches capable of providing broad, agnostic detection and rich biological insight. Our analysis emphasizes that scientific innovation alone is insufficient: effective preparedness also requires improved data curation, integration, and sharing to build AI-ready resources that accelerate future responses. We argue for coordinated advances in both technological capabilities and supporting infrastructure to enable the rapid identification and characterization of emerging pathogens and to fully leverage modern science against evolving infectious threats.

Environmental health↗

Predicted Heat Flux Performance of Actively Cooled Tungsten-Armored Graphitic Foam Monoblocks

Tungsten (W)–armored graphitic foam monoblocks were developed for applications requiring high-Z plasma-facing material in long-pulse fusion experiments and ultimately deuterium-tritium fusion reactors. The monoblocks are an integrated material system combining the advantages of a chemical vapor deposited (CVD) W coating with a high-conductivity graphitic foam. The W is a high-melting-point, high-Z material with low tritium retention. The graphitic foam coupled to a swirl tube serves as a high-thermal-conductivity heat sink that cannot melt, although it can sublime at much higher temperatures than copper melts. Together, they comprise a robust plasma-facing component (PFC) weighing roughly 5% of an all-W component or 17% of a traditional W-coated copper heat sink.A single-channel mock-up consisting of four graphitic foam monoblocks equipped with a water-cooled swirl tube was fabricated for eventual testing in the 60-kW, EB-60, rastered electron beam at the Applied Research Laboratory of The Pennsylvania State University. Two monoblocks have a thin 50-μm-thick coating of pure W chemically vapor deposited over NbC and pure Nb interlayers. Two others have a 2-mm-thick pure W coating CVD on graphitic monoblocks using the same interlayers. The mock-up will be cooled with available 10 m/s, 0.7 MPa water with a 22°C inlet temperature and subjected to varying uniform heat loads up to 20 MW/m 2 . It is equipped with type-K thermocouples at various depths, and calibrated infrared thermography and spot pyrometry will be used to characterize the heated surface. Real-time water calorimetry will be used to ascertain the absorbed steady-state power and infer the heat flux during testing. Since testing cannot be done under prototypic divertor flow conditions, it is necessary to predict the thermal response of this novel PFC system and investigate the power sharing between radiation and convection at divertor heat flux levels and its inherent ability to avoid critical heat flux. Results are reported for predictions obtained from computational fluid dynamics models up to 30 MW/m 2 of steady-state uniform heat flux. Leading-edge heat loads of 30 MW/m 2 on a 2-mm-wide side strip were also investigated to ascertain if coating delamination is likely.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗