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At least 361 records · Page 20

Energy Master Planning for Resilient Public Communities—Best Practices from U.S. Military Installations

Until recently, most planners at military installations addressed energy systems for new facilities on an individual facility basis without consideration of community-wide goals relevant to energy sources, renewables, storage, or future energy generation needs. Building retrofits of public buildings typically do not address energy needs beyond the minimum code requirements making it difficult, if not impossible, to achieve community-level targets on a building-by-building basis. Planning on the basis of cost and general reliability may also fail to deliver community-level resilience. For example, many building code requirements focus on hardening to specific threats, but in a multi-building community, only a few of these buildings may be mission-critical. Over the past two decades, the frequency and duration of regional power outages and water utility disruptions from weather, man-made events, and aging infrastructure have increased. Major disruptions of electric and thermal energy have degraded critical mission capabilities and caused significant economic impacts. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense issued guidance that each Service (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) complete comprehensive energy plans for the installations that consumed 75% of total building energy. Guidance was updated in 2017 to include metrics for energy resilience, and in some cases, water. This paper describes how community level quantitative and qualitative resilience analysis and metrics have been incorporated into community energy and water planning best practices for military installations in three geographically diverse locations. It is based on research performed under the International Energy Agency’s “Energy in Buildings and Communities Program Annex 73,” focusing on development of guidelines and tools that support the planning of Net Zero Energy Resilient Public Communities as well as research performed under the Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program project EW18-D1- 5281, “Technologies Integration to Achieve Resilient, Low- Energy Military Installations.” The first case study reviews progress made on an energy and water planning study conducted at Fort Bliss, Texas. The second and third describes planning conducted at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and the Joint Region Marianas, Guam, respectively, under the updated guidance from 2017 regarding energy and water resilience. Analysis methods, key metrics, and key infrastructure and operational constraints are described, as well as technical, economic and business concepts used during the planning process.

Urban, Angela B.↗

SU-E-T-96: An Analysis of VMAT SBRT Lung Treatment Plans

Purpose: To present an analysis of 218 lung sbrt treatment plans delivered using Varian Eclipse RapidArc software and delivered with Varian linear accelerators. Methods: A retrospective analysis of treatment plans generated using the Varian Eclipse PRO RapidArc VMAT optimization and AAA photon beam calculation algorithms was done for 218 plans delivered using Varian Trilogy and TrueBeam linear accelerators. Some of the patients were enrolled in the RTOG 0813 and RTOG 0915 lung protocols. All of the patients’ plans were optimized using the guidelines outlined by these protocols. The plans presented were normalized so that 95% of the PTV volume received 100% of the prescribed dose. Results: The dose co formality constraints from the RTOG protocols and the number of plans within those constraints were:Tumor dose between 60% of maximum dose and 90% of maximum: 218/218 = 100%.Volume of 105% tumor dose outside put less than 15% of the PTV volume: 218/218 = 100%.Maximum dose 2 cm away from PTV within protocol table guidelines: No minor deviation: 188/218 = 86.2%. No major deviation: 216/218 = 99.1%.Ratio of 50% dose volume to PTV volume less than R50 in protocol table: No minor deviation 148/218 = 67.9%. No major deviation: 213/218 = 97.7%.Percent of lung receiving 20 Gy less than 10% (no minor violation): 218/218 = 100%.99% of PTV receiving at least 90% of the tumor dose: 214/218 = 98.2%. Conclusion: Varian RapidArc VMAT can successfully deliver lung SBRT treatments as outlined in the RTOG 0813 and 0915 protocols. The largest deviations were seen in the R50 constraints for the larger PTV volumes.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

SU-E-T-237: Deformable Image Registration and Deformed Dose Composite for Volumetric Evaluation of Multimodal Gynecological Cancer Treatments

Purpose: Radiotherapy plans for patients with cervical cancer treated with EBRT followed by HDR brachytherapy are optimized by constraining dose to organs at risk (OARs). Risk of treatment related toxicities is estimated based on the dose received to the hottest 2cc (D2cc) of the bladder, bowel, rectum, and sigmoid. To account for intrafractional variation in OAR volume and positioning, a dose deformation method is proposed for more accurate evaluation of dose distribution for these patients. Methods: Radiotherapy plans from five patients who received 50.4Gy pelvic EBRT followed by 30Gy in five fractions of HDR brachytherapy, using split-ring and tandem applicators, were retrospectively evaluated using MIM Software version 6.0. Dose accumulation workflows were used for initial deformation of EBRT and HDR planning CTs onto a common HDR planning CT. The Reg Refine tool was applied with user-specified local alignments to refine the deformation. Doses from the deformed images were transferred to the common planning CT. Deformed doses were scaled to the EQD2, following the linear-quadratic BED model (considered α/β ratio for tumor as 10, and 3 for rest of the tissues), and then combined to create the dose composite. MIM composite doses were compared to the clinically-reported plan assessments based upon the American Brachytherapy Society (ABS) guidelines for cervical HDR brachytherapy treatment. Results: Bladder D2cc exhibited significant reduction (−11.4%±3.85%, p< 0.02) when evaluated using MIM deformable dose composition. Differences observed for bowel, rectum, and sigmoid D2cc were not significant (−0.58±7.37%, −4.13%±13.7%, and 8.58%±4.71%, respectively and p>0.05 for all) relative to the calculated values used clinically. Conclusion: Application of deformable dose composite techniques may lead to more accurate total dose reporting and can allow for elevated dose to target structures with the assurance of not exceeding dose to OARs. Further study into deformable dose composition and correlation with clinical outcomes is warranted.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

User Guidelines and Best Practices for CASL VUQ Analysis Using Dakota

Sandia’s Dakota software (available at http://dakota.sandia.gov) supports science and engineering transformation through advanced exploration of simulations. Specifically it manages and analyzes ensembles of simulations to provide broader and deeper perspective for analysts and decision makers. This enables them to enhance understanding of risk, improve products, and assess simulation credibility. In its simplest mode, Dakota can automate typical parameter variation studies through a generic interface to a physics-based computational model. This can lend efficiency and rigor to manual parameter perturbation studies already being conducted by analysts. However, Dakota also delivers advanced parametric analysis techniques enabling design exploration, optimization, model calibration, risk analysis, and quantification of margins and uncertainty with such models. It directly supports verification and validation activities. Dakota algorithms enrich complex science and engineering models, enabling an analyst to answer crucial questions of - Sensitivity: Which are the most important input factors or parameters entering the simulation, and how do they influence key outputs?; Uncertainty: What is the uncertainty or variability in simulation output, given uncertainties in input parameters? How safe, reliable, robust, or variable is my system? (Quantification of margins and uncertainty, QMU); Optimization: What parameter values yield the best performing design or operating condition, given constraints? Calibration: What models and/or parameters best match experimental data? In general, Dakota is the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) delivery vehicle for verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification (VUQ) algorithms. It permits ready application of the VUQ methods described above to simulation codes by CASL researchers, code developers, and application engineers.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Portal and Repository for Information on Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMRE)

The Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) industry is in the early stages of development corresponding to low technology readiness levels (TRLs) where the ability of the MRE community (developers, researchers, academics, stakeholders, investors, and regulators) to work together to share knowledge, experience, and lessons learned is critical to the advancement of the entire MRE industry. Through collaboration on solving common problems, the MRE community has the potential to reduce cost and accelerate technology development. Currently, the US Department of Energy (US DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) is addressing the challenge of storing, curating, and accessing MRE information by sponsoring development of MRE databases and information portals such as Tethys (https://tethys.pnnl.gov), OpenEI (https://openei.org), the MHK Data Repository (MHKDR, https://mhkdr.openei.org/), and a searchable MRE code catalog and open source code repository (MHKiT, currently under development), to name a few. These sites host scientific papers, news articles, reports, databases, open source codes, and stakeholder engagement information, but they are only a step towards facilitating global discovery and use. In short, there is an abundance of information available online, however it is located on many disparate sites and repositories that make the discovery of those data and information difficult. A DOE national laboratory team from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) is addressing the issues of data discoverability, shared knowledge, and interconnection of existing MRE databases and information portals. To meet the needs of the MRE community, as identified through multiple community outreach and engagement events, and described in this paper, the multi-lab team has developed an implementation plan for PRIMRE, the Portal and Repository for Information on Marine Renewable Energy. PRIMRE will provide broad access to information on engineering and technologies, resource characterization, device performance, and environmental effects of MRE projects. PRIMRE will facilitate the commercial development of the MRE industry by increasing the accessibility and discoverability of this information, integrating the databases and information portals described in this paper, and developing standards and guidelines. Providing consistent, easy access to information can help reduce duplication of effort and enable the MRE community to learn from past failures and build upon the successes of others to innovate and advance the commercialization of MRE technologies.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

User Guidelines and Best Practices for CASL VUQ Analysis Using Dakota.

Sandia's Dakota software (available at http://dakota.sandia.gov) supports science and engineering transformation through advanced exploration of simulations. Specifically, it manages and analyzes ensembles of simulations to provide broader and deeper perspective for analysts and decision makers. This enables them to enhance understanding of risk, improve products, and assess simulation credibility. This manual offers Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (LWRs) (CASL) partners a guide to conducting Dakota-based VUQ studies for CASL problems. It motivates various classes of Dakota methods and includes examples of their use on representative application problems. On reading, a CASL analyst should understand why and how to apply Dakota to a simulation problem.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

SU-F-P-35: A Multi-Institutional Plan Quality Checking Tool Built On Oncospace: A Shared Radiation Oncology Database System

Purpose: Late toxicity from radiation to critical structures limits the possible dose in Radiation Therapy. Perfectly conformal treatment of a target is not realizable, so the clinician must accept a certain level of collateral radiation to nearby OARs. But how much? General guidelines exist for healthy tissue sparing which guide RT treatment planning, but are these guidelines good enough to create the optimal plan given the individualized patient anatomy? We propose a means to evaluate the planned dose level to an OAR using a multi-institutional data-store of previously treated patients, so a clinician might reconsider planning objectives. Methods: The tool is built on Oncospace, a federated data-store system, which consists of planning data import, web based analysis tools, and a database containing:1) DVHs: dose by percent volume delivered to each ROI for each patient previously treated and included in the database.2) Overlap Volume Histograms (OVHs): Anatomical measure defined as the percent volume of an ROI within a given distance to target structures.Clinicians know what OARs are important to spare. For any ROI, Oncospace knows for which patients’ anatomy that ROI was harder to plan in the past (the OVH is less). The planned dose should be close to the least dose of previous patients. The tool displays the dose those OARs were subjected to, and the clinician can make a determination about the planning objectives used.Multiple institutions contribute to the Oncospace Consortium, and their DVH and OVH data are combined and color coded in the output. Results: The Oncospace website provides a plan quality display tool which identifies harder to treat patients, and graphically displays the dose delivered to them for comparison with the proposed plan. Conclusion: The Oncospace Consortium manages a data-store of previously treated patients which can be used for quality checking new plans. Grant funding by Elekta.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Pilot Implementation of a Field Study Design to Evaluate the Impact of Source Control Measures on Indoor Air Quality in High Performance Homes

To improve the indoor air quality in new, high performance homes, a variety of standards and rating programs have been introduced to identify building materials that are designed to have lower emission rates of key contaminants of concern and a number of building materials are being introduced that are certified to these standards. For example, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Zero Energy Ready Home program requires certification under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Indoor airPLUS (IaP) label, which requires the use of PS1 or PS2 certified plywood and OSB; low-formaldehyde emitting wood products; low- or no-VOC paints and coatings as certified by Green Seal Standard GS-11, GreenGuard, SCS Indoor Advantage Gold Standard, MPI Green Performance Standard, or another third party rating program; and Green Label-certified carpet and carpet cushions. However, little is known regarding the efficacy of the IAP requirements in measurably reducing contaminant exposures in homes. The goal of this project is to develop a robust experimental approach and collect preliminary data to support the evaluation of indoor air quality (IAQ) measures linked to IAP-approved low-emitting materials and finishes in new residential homes. To this end, the research team of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed a detailed experimental plan to measure IAQ constituents and other parameters, over time, in new homes constructed with materials compliant with IAP’s low-emitting material and ventilation requirements (i.e., section 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and 7.2) and similar homes constructed to the state building code with conventional materials. The IAQ in IAP and conventional homes of similar age, location, and construction style is quantified as the differences in the speciated VOC and aldehyde concentrations, normalized to dilution rates. The experimental plan consists of methods to evaluate the difference between low-emitting and “conventional” materials as installed in newly constructed residential homes using both (1) highly controlled, short-term active samples to precisely characterize the building-related chemical emissions and building contents and (2) a week-long passive sample designed to capture the impact of occupant behavior and related activities on measured IAQ contaminant levels indoors. The combination of detailed short-term measurements with the home under controlled/consistent conditions during pre- and post-occupancy and the week-long passive sampling data provide the opportunity to begin to separate the different emission sources and help isolate and quantify variability in the monitored homes. Between April and August 2014, the research team performed pre-occupancy and post-occupancy sampling in one conventional home and two homes built with low-emitting materials that were generally consistent with EPA’s Indoor airPLUS guidelines. However, for a number of reasons, the full experimental plan was not implemented. The project was intended to continue for up to three years to asses long-term changes in IAQ but the project was limited to one calendar year. As a result, several of the primary research questions related to seasonal impacts and the long-term trends in IAQ could not be addressed. In addition, there were several unexpected issues related to recruiting, availability of home types, and difficulty coordinating with builders/realtors/homeowners. Several field monitoring issues also came up that provide “lessons learned” that led to improvements to the original monitoring plan. The project produced a good experimental plan that is expected to be be useful for future efforts collecting data to support answering these same or similar research questions.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Application of the FUN3D Unstructured-Grid Navier-Stokes Solver to the 4th AIAA Drag Prediction Workshop Cases

FUN3D Navier-Stokes solutions were computed for the 4th AIAA Drag Prediction Workshop grid convergence study, downwash study, and Reynolds number study on a set of node-based mixed-element grids. All of the baseline tetrahedral grids were generated with the VGRID (developmental) advancing-layer and advancing-front grid generation software package following the gridding guidelines developed for the workshop. With maximum grid sizes exceeding 100 million nodes, the grid convergence study was particularly challenging for the node-based unstructured grid generators and flow solvers. At the time of the workshop, the super-fine grid with 105 million nodes and 600 million elements was the largest grid known to have been generated using VGRID. FUN3D Version 11.0 has a completely new pre- and post-processing paradigm that has been incorporated directly into the solver and functions entirely in a parallel, distributed memory environment. This feature allowed for practical pre-processing and solution times on the largest unstructured-grid size requested for the workshop. For the constant-lift grid convergence case, the convergence of total drag is approximately second-order on the finest three grids. The variation in total drag between the finest two grids is only 2 counts. At the finest grid levels, only small variations in wing and tail pressure distributions are seen with grid refinement. Similarly, a small wing side-of-body separation also shows little variation at the finest grid levels. Overall, the FUN3D results compare well with the structured-grid code CFL3D. The FUN3D downwash study and Reynolds number study results compare well with the range of results shown in the workshop presentations.

Lee-Rausch, Elizabeth M.↗

Appalachian Basin Play Fairway Analysis: Thermal Quality Analysis in Low-Temperature Geothermal Play Fairway Analysis (GPFA-AB)

This collection of files are part of a larger dataset uploaded in support of Low Temperature Geothermal Play Fairway Analysis for the Appalachian Basin (GPFA-AB). Phase 1 of the GPFA-AB project identified potential Geothermal Play Fairways within the Appalachian basin of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York. This was accomplished through analysis of 4 key criteria: thermal quality, natural reservoir productivity, risk of seismicity, and heat utilization. Each of these analyses represent a distinct project task, with the fifth task encompassing combination of the 4 risks factors. Supporting data for all five tasks has been uploaded into the Geothermal Data Repository node of the National Geothermal Data System (NGDS). This submission comprises the data for Thermal Quality Analysis (project task 1) and includes all of the necessary shapefiles, rasters, datasets, code, and references to code repositories that were used to create the thermal resource and risk factor maps as part of the GPFA-AB project. The identified Geothermal Play Fairways are also provided with the larger dataset. Figures (.png) are provided as examples of the shapefiles and rasters. The regional standardized 1 square km grid used in the project is also provided as points (cell centers), polygons, and as a raster. Two ArcGIS toolboxes are available: 1) RegionalGridModels.tbx for creating resource and risk factor maps on the standardized grid, and 2) ThermalRiskFactorModels.tbx for use in making the thermal resource maps and cross sections. These toolboxes contain item description documentation for each model within the toolbox, and for the toolbox itself. This submission also contains three R scripts: 1) AddNewSeisFields.R to add seismic risk data to attribute tables of seismic risk, 2) StratifiedKrigingInterpolation.R for the interpolations used in the thermal resource analysis, and 3) LeaveOneOutCrossValidation.R for the cross validations used in the thermal interpolations. Some file descriptions make reference to various 'memos'. These are contained within the final report submitted October 16, 2015. Each zipped file in the submission contains an 'about' document describing the full Thermal Quality Analysis content available, along with key sources, authors, citation, use guidelines, and assumptions, with the specific file(s) contained within the .zip file highlighted. UPDATE: Newer version of the Thermal Quality Analysis has been added here: https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/879 (Also linked below) Newer version of the Combined Risk Factor Analysis has been added here: https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/880 (Also linked below)

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Data and scripts associated with a manuscript investigating impacts of solid phase extraction on freshwater organic matter optical signatures and mass spectrometry pairing

This data package is associated with the publication “Investigating the impacts of solid phase extraction on dissolved organic matter optical signatures and the pairing with high-resolution mass spectrometry data in a freshwater system” submitted to “Limnology and Oceanography: Methods.” This data is an extension of the River Corridor and Watershed Biogeochemistry SFA’s Spatial Study 2021 (https://doi.org/10.15485/1898914). Other associated data and field metadata can be found at the link provided. The goal of this manuscript is to assess the impact of solid phase extraction (SPE) on the ability to pair ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry data collected from SPE extracts with optical properties collected on ambient stream samples. Forty-seven samples collected from within the Yakima River Basin, Washington were analyzed dissolved organic carbon (DOC, measured as non-purgeable organic carbon, NPOC), absorbance, and fluorescence. Samples were subsequently concentrated with SPE and reanalyzed for each measurement. The extraction efficiency for the DOC and common optical indices were calculated. In addition, SPE samples were subject to ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry and compared with the ambient and SPE generated optical data. Finally, in addition to this cross-platform inter-comparison, we further performed and intra-comparison among the high-resolution mass spectrometry data to determine the impact of sample preparation on the interpretability of results. Here, the SPE samples were prepared at 40 milligrams per liter (mg/L) based on the known DOC extraction efficiency of the samples (ranging from ~30 to ~75%) compared to the common practice of assuming the DOC extraction efficiency of freshwater samples at 60%. This data package folder consists of one main data folder with one subfolder (Data_Input). The main data folder contains (1) readme; (2) data dictionary (dd); (3) file-level metadata (flmd); (4) final data summary output from processing script; and (5) the processing script. The R-markdown processing script (SPE_Manuscript_Rmarkdown_Data_Package.rmd) contains all code needed to reproduce manuscript statistics and figures (with the exception of that stated below). The Data_Input folder has two subfolders: (1) FTICR and (2) Optics. Additionally, the Data_Input folder contains dissolved organic carbon (DOC, measured as non-purgeable organic carbon, NPOC) data (SPS_NPOC_Summary.csv) and relevant supporting Solid Phase Extraction Volume information (SPS_SPE_Volumes.csv). Methods information for the optical and FTICR data is embedded in the header rows of SPS_EEMs_Methods.csv and SPS_FTICR_Methods.csv, respectively. In addition, the data dictionary (SPS_SPE_dd.csv), file level metadata (SPS_SPE_flmd.csv), and methods codes (SPS_SPE_Methods_codes.csv) are provided. The FTICR subfolder contains all raw FTICR data as well as instructions for processing. In addition, post processed FTICR molecular information (Processed_FTICRMS_Mol.csv) and sample data (Processed_FTICRMS_Data.csv) is provided that can be directly read into R with the associated R-markdown file. The Optics subfolder contains all Absorbance and Fluorescence Spectra. Fluorescence spectra have been blank corrected, inner filter corrected, and undergone scatter removal. In addition, this folder contains Matlab code used to make a portion of Figure 1 within the manuscript, derive various spectral parameters used within the manuscript, and used for parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) modeling. Spectral indices (SPS_SpectralIndices.csv) and PARAFAC outputs (SPS_PARAFAC_Model_Loadings.csv and SPS_PARAFAC_Sample_Scores.csv) are directly read into the associated R-markdown file. We acknowledge the Yakama Nation as owners and caretakers of the lands where we collected some of these data. We thank the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation Tribal Council and Yakama Nation Fisheries for working with us to facilitate sample collection and optimization of data usage according to their values and worldview.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Laboratory time series moisture manipulative experiment from sediment across San Antonio, Texas: time series aerobic respiration and geochemistry

This dataset supports a broader study examining the effects of wetting and drying on hyporheic zone respiration. The dataset provides data generated from a laboratory moisture manipulation experiment. The contents include time series aerobic respiration and moisture; dissolved oxygen; sediment geochemistry data; and field metadata (including qualitative information on instream and river corridor characteristics). Samples were collected as part of the WHONDRS Allison Veach collaboration (AV1). The data package associated with the AV1 study is available at https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/datasets/doi:10.15485/2529428. AV1 sampling occurred across 7 perennial and 7 intermittent streams in San Antonio, Texas. Each stream/site was visited both in summer during base flow (July-September 2023) and winter during peak flow (January-February 2024). This study uses subsamples from a subset of AV1 samples. The original field samples were labeled as AV1_###. Subsequent subsamples for this study were labeled as EV_###. The labels from the field samples and the EV subsamples can be mapped directly based on the digits following the prefix and underscore (i.e., EV_001 is a subsample from AV1_001). See the critical details section below for more details on sample naming. For details on how to navigate data packages generated by this project, see https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/PNNLRiverCorridorSFA/About. This dataset is comprised of one main data folder containing (1) file-level metadata; (2) data dictionary; (3) field metadata; (4) readme; (5) field protocol; and a (6) a subfolder with sediment sample data from the incubation experiment. The sample data subfolder contains (1) effect size; (2) iron (II); (3) gravimetric moisture; (4) respiration rates; (5) raw dissolved oxygen values and plots; (6) specific conductance; (7) pH; (8) temperature; (9) a summary containing mean, median, and standard deviation values of each data type for each treatment (wet and dry); and (10) methods codes. All files are .csv or.pdf.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Mountain Basin Controls on the Snow-to-Streamflow Signal: An AIC-Weighted Multiple Linear Regression Framework

A regression-based analysis quantifies how basin characteristics modulate the snow-to-streamflow signal. First, we use the ERA5-Land reanalysis gridded product (European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis 5 -Land component) for 4,655 hydrologic unit code - 10 (HUC10) mountain basins across the western United States (US) for water years 1987–2024. Linear regressions are performed for peak snow water equivalent (SWE) and annual streamflow for each mountain basin. Models use ordinary least squares in Python’s statsmodels package. After which, an Akaike Information Criterion (AIC)–weighted ensemble multiple linear regression (MLR) framework with 47 watershed traits is used to predict the linear regression coefficient of determination (r-squared) defining the ability of peak SWE to predict annual streamflow across all mountain basin. Predictor sets are constrained to avoid multicollinearity by excluding models with variance inflation factors (VIF) greater than 5. Mountain basin traits included in the MLR include seasonal climate, topography, vegetation type and structure, and bedrock geology. Accepted models are considered if their AIC is within 2.0 of the model with the minimum AIC, or best model. To compare predictor influence across acceptable models, we computed standardized regression coefficients. To evaluate structural redundancy among models, we constructed binary inclusion vectors for each acceptable model, denoting whether a predictor was present (1) or absent (0). Core predictor variables are defined as occurring in at least 67% of the acceptable models. For this regional analysis, only one model was found acceptable, with higher snow-to-streamflow translation (higher r-squared) occurring in colder mountain basins with higher relative winter precipitation, more snow accumulation and a lower fraction of annual precipitation that falls in the spring and summer. The second component of the data package uses previously published, high-resolution output from an integrated hydrological model of the East River watershed using the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater and Surface water Flow model (GSFLOW, doi:10.15485/1998576). East River MLR expands upon the approach described above to explore the response of five streamflow metrics—annual streamflow, runoff efficiency, 7-day minimum flow, low-flow duration, and non-perennial stream fraction to snow system indicators including peak SWE, snow-covered area, snow disappearance date, and the fraction of basin area characterized by low-to-no snow, as well as seasonal precipitation and temperature, and annual hydrologic variables representing soil moisture, evapotranspiration (ET), the partitioning of incoming precipitation to evapotranspiration (ET/P), groundwater storage, and groundwater inflow to streams. MLR was done on all water years (P0: 1987-2024) and for each period as determined in the split analysis using pooled regression techniques (P1: 1987-2011 and P2: 2012-2024) to evaluate shifting predictor variable emphasis on streamflow generation. Results indicate that since 2012, peak SWE has lost statistical strength in its prediction of annual streamflow and runoff efficiency, and the indirect influence of spring temperature has emerged as critically important. Low-flow metrics remain largely influenced by soil moisture, vegetation water use and groundwater inflows with summer precipitation becoming a direct influence on minimum summer flow. Together, these data and Python-based analysis tools provide a framework for identifying the key watershed characteristics that control how streamflow responds to snow from year to year. The package also helps quantify uncertainty in statistical models and assess how snow–streamflow relationships vary across regions and over time. This dataset contains comma-separated values files (.csv), text files (.txt), python code files (.py), figure files (.png), and shapefiles (.cpg, .dbf, .prj, .sbn, .sbx, .shp, .xml). Further details on file contents and MLR execution can be found in the readme file and the FLMD files. 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.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Data Files for Runoff Evaluation in an Earth System Land Model for Permafrost Regions

Modeling of hydrological runoff is essential for accurately capturing spatiotemporal feedbacks within the land–atmosphere system, particularly in sensitive regions such as permafrost landscapes. However, substantial uncertainties persist in the terrestrial runoff parameterization schemes used in Earth system and land surface models. This is particularly true in permafrost regions, where landscape heterogeneity is high and reliable observational data are scarce.This data set includes all files that were produced and applied in the paper Runoff Evaluation in an Earth System Land Model for Permafrost Regions [Xiang et al. in review]. The paper is in review as of July 1 2025 in Geoscientific Model Development (GMD). In this study, we evaluate the performance of runoff parameterization schemes in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) land model (ELM). Our proposed framework leverages simulation results from the Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS), which is a physics-rich integrated surface/subsurface hydrologic model that has been successfully evaluated previously in Arctic tundra regions. We used ATS to simulate runoff from 22 representative hillslopes in the Sagavanirktok River basin, located on the North Slope of Alaska, then compared the output with ELM’s parameterized representation of total runoff. This dataset contains 2 figure image files (*.png, *jpg) that describe the study site and methods, as well as folders (Figure*.zip) that contain the associated data files (*.csv, *.dat) and python code notebooks (*.ipynb) for figures 3-7 in the paper. Jupyter notebook (*.ipynb) files that produce the figure files using the associated data files will run within a python environment configured with Jupyter Lab or Notebook packages.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

TU-AB-201-02: An Automated Treatment Plan Quality Assurance Program for Tandem and Ovoid High Dose-Rate Brachytherapy

Purpose: For tandem and ovoid (T&O) HDR brachytherapy in our clinic, it is required that the planning physicist manually capture ∼10 images during planning, perform a secondary dose calculation and generate a report, combine them into a single PDF document, and upload it to a record- and-verify system to prove to an independent plan checker that the case was planned correctly. Not only does this slow down the already time-consuming clinical workflow, the PDF document also limits the number of parameters that can be checked. To solve these problems, we have developed a web-based automatic quality assurance (QA) program. Methods: We set up a QA server accessible through a web- interface. A T&O plan and CT images are exported as DICOMRT files and uploaded to the server. The software checks 13 geometric features, e.g. if the dwell positions are reasonable, and 10 dosimetric features, e.g. secondary dose calculations via TG43 formalism and D2cc to critical structures. A PDF report is automatically generated with errors and potential issues highlighted. It also contains images showing important geometric and dosimetric aspects to prove the plan was created following standard guidelines. Results: The program has been clinically implemented in our clinic. In each of the 58 T&O plans we tested, a 14- page QA report was automatically generated. It took ∼45 sec to export the plan and CT images and ∼30 sec to perform the QA tests and generate the report. In contrast, our manual QA document preparation tooks on average ∼7 minutes under optimal conditions and up to 20 minutes when mistakes were made during the document assembly. Conclusion: We have tested the efficiency and effectiveness of an automated process for treatment plan QA of HDR T&O cases. This software was shown to improve the workflow compared to our conventional manual approach.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

EFQPSK Versus CERN: A Comparative Study

This report presents a comparative study on Enhanced Feher's Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (EFQPSK) and Constrained Envelope Root Nyquist (CERN) techniques. These two techniques have been developed in recent times to provide high spectral and power efficiencies under nonlinear amplifier environment. The purpose of this study is to gain insights into these techniques and to help system planners and designers with an appropriate set of guidelines for using these techniques. The comparative study presented in this report relies on effective simulation models and procedures. Therefore, a significant part of this report is devoted to understanding the mathematical and simulation models of the techniques and their set-up procedures. In particular, mathematical models of EFQPSK and CERN, effects of the sampling rate in discrete time signal representation, and modeling of nonlinear amplifiers and predistorters have been considered in detail. The results of this study show that both EFQPSK and CERN signals provide spectrally efficient communications compared to filtered conventional linear modulation techniques when a nonlinear power amplifier is used. However, there are important differences. The spectral efficiency of CERN signals, with a small amount of input backoff, is significantly better than that of EFQPSK signals if the nonlinear amplifier is an ideal clipper. However, to achieve such spectral efficiencies with a practical nonlinear amplifier, CERN processing requires a predistorter which effectively translates the amplifier's characteristics close to those of an ideal clipper. Thus, the spectral performance of CERN signals strongly depends on the predistorter. EFQPSK signals, on the other hand, do not need such predistorters since their spectra are almost unaffected by the nonlinear amplifier, Ibis report discusses several receiver structures for EFQPSK signals. It is observed that optimal receiver structures can be realized for both coded and uncoded EFQPSK signals with not too much increase in computational complexity. When a nonlinear amplifier is used, the bit error rate (BER) performance of the CERN signals with a matched filter receiver is found to be more than one decibel (dB) worse compared to the bit error performance of EFQPSK signals. Although channel coding is found to provide BER performance improvement for both EFQPSK and CERN signals, the performance of EFQPSK signals remains better than that of CERN. Optimal receiver structures for CERN signals with nonlinear equalization is left as a possible future work. Based on the numerical results, it is concluded that, in nonlinear channels, CERN processing leads towards better bandwidth efficiency with a compromise in power efficiency. Hence for bandwidth efficient communications needs, CERN is a good solution provided effective adaptive predistorters can be realized. On the other hand, EFQPSK signals provide a good power efficient solution with a compromise in band width efficiency.

Borah, Deva K.↗

Geospatial Information, Metadata, and Maps for Global River Corridor Science Focus Area Sites (v5)

This dataset provides geospatial information, metadata, and maps for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) River Corridor Science Focus Area (RC-SFA; https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/river-corridor) sites. The RC-SFA works to transform understanding of spatial and temporal dynamics in river corridor hydrobiogeochemical functions from molecular reaction to watershed and basin scales. The knowledge we gain is used to formulate and test hypotheses and to improve mechanistic representation of river corridor processes and their response to disturbances in multiscale models of integrated hydrobiogeochemical function. The data provided includes Site ID, latitude, longitude, stream name, and common ID (COMID) for sites used across the RC-SFA. The COMID can be used to find and download data from NHDPlus (https://www.epa.gov/waterdata/nhdplus-national-hydrography-dataset-plus) and other platforms. The sites included are non-exhaustive. Sites (including past sites) will be added to this data package in the future. Data generated from the RC SFA can be accessed at https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/PNNLRiverCorridorSFA. This data package was originally published in April 2023. It was updated in June 2023 (v2; modified files), December 2023 (v3; modified files), January 2025 (v4; modified files), and December 2025 (v5; modified files). See the change history section in the readme for more details. This dataset is comprised of one main data folder. The data folder consists of (1) file-level metadata; (2) data dictionary; (3) readme; (4) methods codes; (5) geospatial information for all RC SFA sites including International Generic Sample Number (IGSN); (6) maps of all sites and sites in Washington State, USA; and (7) a subfolder with the shapefile of all sites. All files are .csv, .pdf, .shp, .cpg, .dbf, .prj, .qmd, or .shx. We thank the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation for access to field locations where some data were collected in Washington state. We also thank the Yakama Nation Tribal Council and Yakama Nation Fisheries for working with us to facilitate sample collection and optimization of data usage according to their values and worldview.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

WHONDRS laboratory time series moisture manipulative experiment from soil core layers across eastern contiguous US: time series aerobic respiration, geochemistry, and aggregates

This dataset supports a broader study examining the effects of wetting and drying on soil layers across the eastern contiguous United States (CONUS). The dataset provides data generated from a laboratory moisture manipulation experiment. The contents include time series aerobic respiration and moisture; dissolved oxygen; sediment geochemistry data; and field metadata. Samples were collected as part of a collaboration between WHONDRS (Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems; https://whondrs.pnnl.gov) and MONet (Molecular Observation Network; https://www.emsl.pnnl.gov/monet). The field samples (soil cores) were labeled as MEL_##_COR and subsequent subsamples begin with MEL_##. Additional subsamples were taken for the laboratory experiment and were labeled as EL_##. The labels from the MEL field samples and the EL subsamples can be mapped directly based on the digits following the prefix and underscore (i.e., EL_01 is a subsample from MEL_01). See the critical details section below for more details on sample naming and experimental design.For details on how to navigate this data package, see this infographic from the River Corridor SFA https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/PNNLRiverCorridorSFA/About.In addition to this readme, this data package also includes a file-level metadata (FLMD) file that describes each file and a data dictionary (DD) that describes all column/row headers and variable definitions.This dataset is comprised of (1) a folder containing environmental context photos; (2) file-level metadata; (3) data dictionary; (4) field metadata; (5) readme; (6) international generic sample number (IGSN) mapping file; and (7) a subfolder with soil sample data from field samples and the incubation experiment. The sample data subfolder contains (1) effect size; (2) gravimetric moisture from field samples and incubation experiment; (3) respiration rates, raw dissolved oxygen values, and plots; (4) specific conductance, pH, and temperature from the incubation; (5) soil aggregates; (6) a summary containing median values of each data type for each treatment (wet and dry) in the incubation; (7) a summary containing averages for each data type of each soil layer; and (8) methods codes. All files are .csv, .pdf, .jpeg, or .jpg.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗