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At least 307 records · Page 17

Arctic Ocean Hydroacoustics

As the Arctic warms and loses its perennial ice cover, it is becoming more attractive for a variety of human uses. Hydroacoustic monitoring of this activity will grow in importance over the coming years and decades. Changes to the physical environment affect acoustic propagation and noise, with ramifications for our ability to detect and locate events and activities of interest. In this report, we use two long-term data sets from the Beaufort Sea, western Arctic Ocean, to determine how acoustic propagation conditions and seismic source detections are impacted by the changing environment: 1) oceanographic observations from ice-tethered profilers, and 2) passive acoustic recordings from a hydrophone. We find that changes to Beaufort Sea thermohaline stratification is stabilizing a subsurface duct, leading to more focused acoustic energy arrivals. Detections of catalogued submarine earthquakes show geographic differences in signal strength between seismic and acoustic waves. Signal strength increases with earthquake magnitude, but relationships to other source and path factors are less clear. Ambient noise also has clear seasonal patterns in the Arctic, with relatively low noise in the spring, higher noise near 1 Hz in summer, and higher noise near 10 Hz in winter. Climate change is expected to modify these seasonal noise patterns, impacting event detection. Future work will further investigate the mechanisms of ice effects on sound and couple acoustic modeling to an Earth System Model.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

When Will MISR Detect Rising High Clouds?

It is predicted by both theory and models that high-altitude clouds will occur higher in the atmosphere as a result of climate warming. This produces a positive longwave feedback and has a substantial impact on the Earth's response to warming. This effect is well established by theory, but is poorly constrained by observations, and there is large spread in the feedback strength between climate models. For this study, we use the NASA Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) to examine changes in Cloud-Top-Height (CTH). MISR uses a stereo-imaging technique to determine CTH. This approach is geometric in nature and insensitive to instrument calibration and therefore is well suited for trend analysis and studies of variability on long time scales. In this article we show that the current MISR record does have an increase in CTH for high-altitude cloud over Southern Hemisphere (SH) oceans but not over Tropical or the Northern Hemisphere (NH) oceans. We use climate model simulations to estimate when MISR might be expected to detect trends in CTH, that include the NH. The analysis suggests that according to the models used in this study MISR should detect changes over the SH ocean earlier than the NH, and if the model predictions are correct should be capable of detecting a trend over the Tropics and NH very soon (3–10 years). This result highlights the potential value of a follow-on mission to MISR, which no longer maintains a fixed equator crossing time and is unlikely to be making observations for another 10 years.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Simulated Changes in Tropical Cyclone Size, Accumulated Cyclone Energy and Power Dissipation Index in a Warmer Climate

Detection, attribution and projection of changes in tropical cyclone intensity statistics are made difficult from the potentially decreasing overall storm frequency combined with increases in the peak winds of the most intense storms as the climate warms. Multi-decadal simulations of stabilized climate scenarios from a high-resolution tropical cyclone permitting atmospheric general circulation model are used to examine simulated global changes from warmer temperatures, if any, in estimates of tropical cyclone size, accumulated cyclonic energy and power dissipation index. Changes in these metrics are found to be complicated functions of storm categorization and global averages of them are unlikely to easily reveal the impact of climate change on future tropical cyclone intensity statistics.

Wehner, Michael (ORCID:0000000159910082)↗

Recent increases in annual, seasonal, and extreme methane fluxes driven by changes in climate and vegetation in boreal and temperate wetland ecosystems

Climate warming is expected to increase global methane (CH 4 ) emissions from wetland ecosystems. Although in situ eddy covariance (EC) measurements at ecosystem scales can potentially detect CH 4 flux changes, most EC systems have only a few years of data collected, so temporal trends in CH 4 remain uncertain. Here, we use established drivers to hindcast changes in CH 4 fluxes (FCH 4 ) since the early 1980s. We trained a machine learning (ML) model on CH 4 flux measurements from 22 [methane-producing sites] in wetland, upland, and lake sites of the FLUXNET-CH 4 database with at least two full years of measurements across temperate and boreal biomes. The gradient boosting decision tree ML model then hindcasted daily FCH 4 over 1981-2018 using meteorological reanalysis data. We found that, mainly driven by rising temperature, half of the sites (n = 11) showed significant increases in annual, seasonal, and extreme FCH 4 , with increases in FCH 4 of ca. 10% or higher found in the fall from 1981–1989 to 2010–2018. The annual trends were driven by increases during summer and fall, particularly at high-CH 4 -emitting fen sites dominated by aerenchymatous plants. We also found that the distribution of days of extremely high FCH 4 (defined according to the 95th percentile of the daily FCH 4 values over a reference period) have become more frequent during the last four decades and currently account for 10–40% of the total seasonal fluxes. The share of extreme FCH 4 days in the total seasonal fluxes was greatest in winter for boreal/taiga sites and in spring for temperate sites, which highlights the increasing importance of the non-growing seasons in annual budgets. Our results shed light on the effects of climate warming on wetlands, which appears to be extending the CH 4 emission seasons and boosting extreme emissions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Retinal-inspired method and system for improved detection

The present disclosure provides a method and device for filtering sensor data. Signals from an array of sensor pixels are received and checked for changes in pixel values. Motion is detected based on the changes in pixel values, and motion output signals are transmitted to a processing station. If the sum of correlated changes in pixel values across a predetermined field of view exceeds a predetermined value, indicating sensor jitter, the motion output signals are suppressed. If a sum of motion values within a defined subsection of the field of view exceeds a predetermined threshold, indicating the presence of a large object of no interest, the motion output signals are suppressed for that subsection.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Biomimetic virus-based colorimetric sensors

The present invention provides, inter alia, a device comprising a colorimetric detection layer configured to undergo a color change upon interaction with a first analyte of interest. The detection layer comprises a first plurality of self-assembled fiber bundles. At least a fraction of the fiber bundles undergo a change from a first conformation to a second conformation upon interaction with the first analyte of interest, thereby undergoing a color change. The invention also provides a method for using the system to detect an analyte of interest.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Biomimetic virus-based colorimetric sensors

The present invention provides, inter alia, a device comprising a colorimetric detection layer configured to undergo a color change upon interaction with a first analyte of interest. The detection layer comprises a first plurality of self-assembled fiber bundles. At least a fraction of the fiber bundles undergo a change from a first conformation to a second conformation upon interaction with the first analyte of interest, thereby undergoing a color change. The invention also provides a method for using the system to detect an analyte of interest.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Addressing Issues with Working Memory in Video Object Segmentation

Contemporary state-of-the-art video object segmentation (VOS) models compare incoming unannotated images to a history of image-mask relations via affinity or cross-attention to predict object masks. We refer to the internal memory state of the initial image-mask pair and past image-masks as a working memory buffer. While the current state of the art models perform very well on clean video data, their reliance on a working memory of previous frames leaves room for error. Affinity-based algorithms include the inductive bias that there is temporal continuity between consecutive frames. To account for inconsistent camera views of the desired object, working memory models need an algorithmic modification that regulates the memory updates and avoid writing irrelevant frames into working memory. A simple algorithmic change is proposed that can be applied to any existing working memory-based VOS model to improve performance on inconsistent views, such as sudden camera cuts, frame interjections, and extreme context changes. The resulting model performances show significant improvement on video data with these frame interjections over the same model without the algorithmic addition. Our contribution is a simple decision function that determines whether working memory should be updated based on the detection of sudden, extreme changes and the assumption that the object is no longer in frame. By implementing algorithmic changes, such as this, we can increase the real-world applicability of current VOS models.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Experimental investigation of the influence of drainage condition on change in saturation of sheared sand

Here, this paper investigates the validity of the interpretation of results from testing saturated axisymmetric triaxial compression (ATC) sand specimens utilising three-dimensional (3D) synchrotron micro-computed tomography (SMT) to probe localised events that are completely missed or misinterpreted when analysing ATC measurements based on global standard measurements. Drained and undrained experiments were conducted at low and high back-pressures (BPs) coupled with multiple in situ 3D SMT to acquire high-resolution scans of the specimens at different axial strains. Specimens tested under low BP exhibited a large pore air volume change, which was not detected by the pump system that represents standard volume measurement. The increase in air volume caused a significant reduction in the degree of saturation leading to a possible transition from saturated to partially saturated constitutive behaviour. Undrained experiments exhibited a significant volume change contrary to the assumption of negligible volumetric strain for saturated undrained experiments. Air bubbles within the shear band for drained and undrained low-BP specimens showed opposite capillary pressure responses, increased for drained and decreased for undrained cases, due to the variation in the mechanism by which each of the two experiments predominantly counters the volume expansion within the shear band.

capillary pressure↗

Detection of DoS Attacks Using ARFIMA Modeling of GOOSE Communication in IEC 61850 Substations

Integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in modern smart grids (SGs) offers many advantages including the use of renewables and an effective way to protect, control and monitor the energy transmission and distribution. To reach an optimal operation of future energy systems, availability, integrity and confidentiality of data should be guaranteed. Research on the cyber-physical security of electrical substations based on IEC 61850 is still at an early stage. In the present work, we first model the network traffic data in electrical substations, then, we present a statistical Anomaly Detection (AD) method to detect Denial of Service (DoS) attacks against the Generic Object Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) network communication. According to interpretations on the self-similarity and the Long-Range Dependency (LRD) of the data, an Auto-Regressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average (ARFIMA) model was shown to describe well the GOOSE communication in the substation process network. Based on this ARFIMA-model and in view of cyber-physical security, an effective model-based AD method is developed and analyzed. Two variants of the statistical AD considering statistical hypothesis testing based on the Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) and the cumulative sum (CUSUM) are presented to detect flooding attacks that might affect the availability of the data. Our work presents a novel AD method, with two different variants, tailored to the specific features of the GOOSE traffic in IEC 61850 substations. The statistical AD is capable of detecting anomalies at unknown change times under the realistic assumption of unknown model parameters. The performance of both variants of the AD method is validated and assessed using data collected from a simulation case study. We perform several Monte-Carlo simulations under different noise variances. The detection delay is provided for each detector and it represents the number of discrete time samples after which an anomaly is detected. In fact, our statistical AD method with both variants (CUSUM and GLRT) has around half the false positive rate and a smaller detection delay when compared with two of the closest works found in the literature. Our AD approach based on the GLRT detector has the smallest false positive rate among all considered approaches. Whereas, our AD approach based on the CUSUM test has the lowest false negative rate thus the best detection rate. Depending on the requirements as well as the costs of false alarms or missed anomalies, both variants of our statistical detection method can be used and are further analyzed using composite detection metrics.

IEC 61850 electrical substations↗

Heartbeat: Detecting Malware by Periodic Power Signal Injection and Monitoring

Rootkits and other stealthy malware attempt to conceal their presence on a computer by making changes to the host computer’s operating environment. ORNL’s Heartbeat technology detects these changes, and thus the malware itself. Heartbeat operates by directly monitoring the DC power consumption of the computer while a set of operations, the “heartbeat,” is executed periodically. These operations exercise parts of the operating system that are common targets of malware tampering. The power consumption during these heartbeat events is monitored and then compared to a previously learned baseline, with any significant deviation detected and analyzed. This technology has been tested and validated in a laboratory environment, and ORNL is currently seeking a deployment partner to allow for further in-context development and testing of this technology.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A Graph Convolutional Network for Active Distribution System Anomaly Detection Considering Measurement Spatial-Temporal Correlations

The accuracy of distribution system state estimation may be significantly impacted by the existence of bad measure-ments and unexpected topology errors. This paper proposes a data-driven Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) for anomaly detection, including bad measurements and topology change events. Compared to many existing machine learning approaches, the proposed approach embeds both spatial-temporal measure-ment correlations, which allows us to detect and distinguish different anomalies. Numerical results carried out on the IEEE 37-node system demonstrate that the proposed-based method can obtain high accuracy in detecting bad data and topology changes as compared to other approaches, even in the presence of high PV penetrations.

active distribution system↗

Alternate Methods for Cleaning Zirconium Plate

The United States High Performance Research Reactor Conversion Program identified the need to transition from highly enriched uranium fuel to lowly enriched uranium fuel for high power research and civil reactors. One of the fuel configurations selected for these reactors was a uranium (U) foil alloyed with 10% molybdenum (Mo). The U-10Mo fuel foil was then covered with a zirconium (Zr) interlayer and pressed into an aluminum cladding. Idaho National Laboratory prescribed a need to remove surface oxidation on the Zr prior to bonding it with U-10Mo fuel foil. To determine the best method of oxidation removal, a variety of polishing methods, including hand polishing with a diamond paste or Scotch-Brite™ pads, mechanically wet-polishing with abrasive belts, and chemical etching with hydrofluoric/nitric acid mixtures, were investigated on pre-polished Zircaloy 702 sheets purchased directly from the manufacturer. No change in surface roughness was detected using any of these methods relative to the as-received material. In fact, scanning electron microscopy detected grit from hand polishing with Amplex Grade 30 waste soluble diamond paste and Scotch-Brite™ pads. Visible staining was found, and fluorine detected via X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy on the flash etching samples. These contaminants were not seen on the as-received material. In addition to the need to remove the oxide layer on the Zr prior to co-rolling, there are concerns that the Neolube debonding agent on the co-rolling can may contaminate the Zr surface after co-rolling. The experimental results found that zirconium in contact with Neolube coated steel plates was easily cleaning with ethanol wiping after heat treated and no carbide inclusions remained on the surface. Overall, all cleaning methods tested did not significantly change the surface roughness of the plates or reduce the oxide layer present on the zirconium. Carbon was found on all the samples, before and after cleaning, except for the flash etch samples which detected fluorine instead. The insignificant changes seen in the cleaned plates relative to the as received plates question the need for cleaning prior to rolling. Further investigation in the requirements for cleaning at this step is recommended. Current methods for cleaning the surface after hot rolling with alcohol appear sufficient. After hot rolling, if Neolube does peel off the can and onto the zirconium coated foil surface, a dry abrasive or diamond paste polish is not recommended due to the chance of abrasive being embedded into the surface. However, the ability of an etchant to lift the lubricant off the zirconium surface indicates that a spot etch method could work to clean specific spots where Neolube is present, if the need arises.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

2022 Prentice Award Lecture: Advancing Retinal Imaging and Visual Function in Patient Management and Disease Mechanisms

Patient-based research plays a key role in probing basic visual mechanisms. Less-well recognized is the role of patient-based retinal imaging and visual function studies in elucidating disease mechanisms, which are accelerated by advances in imaging and function techniques and are most powerful when combined with the results from histology and animal models. A patient's visual complaints can be one key to patient management, but human data are also key to understanding disease mechanisms. Unfortunately, pathological changes can be difficult to detect. Before advanced retinal imaging, the measurement of visual function indicated the presence of pathological changes that were undetectable with existing clinical examination. Over the past few decades, advances in retinal imaging have increasingly revealed the unseen. This has led to great strides in the management of many diseases, particularly diabetic retinopathy and macular edema, and age-related macular degeneration. It is likely widely accepted that patient-based research, as in clinical trials, led to such positive outcomes. Both visual function measures and advanced retinal imaging have clearly demonstrated differences among retinal diseases. Contrary to initial thinking, sight-threatening damage in diabetes occurs to the outer retina and not only to the inner retina. This has been clearly indicated in patient results but has only gradually entered the clinical classifications and understanding of disease etiology. There is strikingly different pathophysiology for age-related macular degeneration compared with photoreceptor and retinal pigment epithelial genetic defects, yet research models and even some treatments confuse these. It is important to recognize the role that patient-based research plays in probing basic visual mechanisms and elucidating disease mechanisms, combining these findings with the concepts from histology and animal models. Thus, this article combines sample instrumentation from my laboratory and progress in the fields of retinal imaging and visual function.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Surface and Buried Thermal, and RGB Unexploded Ordnance Data Collection

This document provides a description of a data collection campaign of unexploded ordnance (UXOI) set. The dataset captures a controlled UAV imaging campaign designed to support detection of UXO across varied environmental conditions. Data were collected during three campaigns in Norris and Northeast Knoxville, Tennessee, using RGB, and thermal sensors mounted on Parrot UKR. In total, the dataset contains 9925 images, 26 full-motion video, and approximately 81.99 GB of data, collected across late spring/summer conditions, every hour during sunlight, and multiple surface contexts, including tall grass, short grass, gravel, as well as buried in sand, and other gravel mixtures. The collection was designed to capture thermal and visual variability relevant to UXO detection in agricultural land, bare earth, and subsurface. Review of the imagery showed that ordnance was most detectable during periods of changing solar input, especially approximately 10-60 minutes after sunrise, approximately 20-60 minutes after sunset, and 2-3 min after cloud cover interrupted prolonged solar heating. These conditions increased thermal contrast because many ordnance items retained or released heat differently than the surrounding vegetation and ground surface. This dataset provides a useful resource for developing and evaluating airborne UXO detection methods under realistic field conditions. All ordnance used in the study was inert, and thermal behavior may differ from that of live ordnance. In addition, variation in ordnance type, composition, and placement introduced differences in thermal response that should be considered when interpreting results.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

In Situ ATR-FTIR Study of the Cathode–Electrolyte Interphase: Electrolyte Solution Structure, Transition Metal Redox, and Surface Layer Evolution

We present a study of the lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (LiNi 0.6 Mn 0.2 Co 0.2 O 2 , NMC622) cathode-electrolyte interphase (CEI) during galvanostatic charging and discharging using in situ attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) methods to investigate the voltage dependent electrolyte solution structure changes at the interface, transition metal (TM) redox chemistry, and cathode/electrolyte interfacial layer evolution. Furthermore, our in situ cell design provides both reliable electrochemical device testing and strong FTIR vibrational absorption signals near the cathode surface. Specifically, advanced spectral analysis elucidates changes of near-surface Li+ ion (de)solvation by solvent molecules during galvanostatic cycling. Moreover, cathode metal-oxygen vibrational absorptions, sensitive to TM redox behaviors and subsequent local structural variations, were correlated to cathode de-lithiation (and lithiation) and electrolyte solution structure changes. In addition, we have detected the formation and evolution of a CEI surface layer on the NMC622 cathode that contributes to the cell's capacity fade.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Real-Time Nitrate Ion Monitoring with Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) Materials

Nitrate (NO 3 ) pollution in groundwater, caused by various factors both natural and synthetic, contributes to the decline of human health and well-being. Current techniques used for nitrate detection include spectroscopic, electrochemical, chromatography, and capillary electrophoresis. It is highly desired to develop a simple cost-effective alternative to these complex methods for nitrate detection. Therefore, a real-time poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT)-based sensor for nitrate ion detection via electrical property change is introduced in this study. Vapor phase polymerization (VPP) is used to create a polymer thin film. Variations in specific parameters during the process are tested and compared to develop new insights into PEDOT sensitivity towards nitrate ions. Through this study, the optimal fabrication parameters that produce a sensor with the highest sensitivity toward nitrate ions are determined. With the optimized parameters, the electrical resistance response of the sensor to 1000 ppm nitrate solution is 41.79%. Furthermore, the sensors can detect nitrate ranging from 1 ppm to 1000 ppm. The proposed sensor demonstrates excellent potential to detect the overabundance of nitrate ions in aqueous solutions in real time.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Detection of Off-Gassed Products From Molten Salts Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

The detection of off-gassed sodium from molten sodium nitrate (NaNO 3 ) at temperatures between 330 °C and 505 °C and off-gassed calcium from molten lithium chloride–potassium chloride eutectic (LKE) mixtures at 510 °C with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was demonstrated. NaNO 3 and LKE samples were melted in a custom-built crucible that promoted the generation of off-gassed products from the molten sample. The off-gassed products were analyzed with a LIBS system designed to probe the high-temperature environment. Na D emission lines, Na(I)588.99 nm and Na(I) 589.59 nm, were detected from the NaNO 3 samples after reaching a temperature threshold, which indicated the occurrence of phase change. In LKE mixtures, the detection of Ca impurities at a concentration of 78 mg/kg was possible using the emission lines Ca(II) 393.66 nm and Ca(II) 395.85 nm. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the real-time monitoring capabilities of LIBS in high-temperature environments that simulate the conditions of molten salt reactors.

42 ENGINEERING↗