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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 397 records · Page 22
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Bioimaging Science Program Principal Investigator Meetings Proceedings (2021)

As part of the 2021 Biological Systems Science Division (BSSD) Principal Investigator (PI) Meeting, the Bioimaging Science program (BSP), within BSSD's Biomolecular Characterization and Imaging Science portfolio, held its annual PI meeting virtually February 22–23. BSP's mission is to understand the translation of genomic information into the mechanisms that power living cells, communities of cells, and whole organisms. The goal of BSP is to develop new imaging and measurement technologies to visualize the spatial and temporal relationships of key metabolic processes governing phenotypic expression in plants and microbes. BSP convenes annual PI meetings to bring together its contributing investigators to review progress and current state-of-the-art bioimaging research. Holding the BSP meeting as part of the broader BSSD PI meeting allowed researchers to interact with the extended Genomic Science program community. This convergence provided a platform for networking and exchange of ideas, helping to forge new multidisciplinary collaborations among investigators from the two sister programs. An important highlight of the BSP meeting was the keynote presentation “Enhancing Fluorescence Microscopy with Computation” by Dr. Hari Shroff of the NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. All the BSP PIs made presentations describing their research focus and progress, and these were followed by roundtable discussions of each project. The meeting’s proceedings provide an outline of the program’s current state and potential future directions and opportunities.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Tamper-Indicating Enclosures with Visually Obvious Tamper Response (Final Project Report)

Sandia National Laboratories is developing a new method for detecting penetration of tamper - indicating enclosures (TIEs). This method incorporates the use of "bleeding" materials (analogous to visually obvious, colorful bruised skin that doesn't heal) into the design of TIEs. As designed, it will allow inspectors to use simple visual observation to detect attempts to penetrate the external surfaces of a TIE, without providing adversaries the ability to repair damage. A material of this type can enhance tamper indication of current TIEs used to support treaty verification regimes. Current TIE inspections are time - consuming and rely on subjective visual assessment by an inspector, equipment such as eddy current or camera devices, or involve approaches that may be limited due to application environment. The complexities and requirements that volumetric sealing methods (or TIEs) must address are: (1) enclosures that are non - standard in size/shape; (2) enclosures that may be inspectorate - or facility - owned; (3) finding tamper attempts that are difficult and time consuming for an inspector to locate; (4) enclosures that are reliable and durable enough to survive the conditions that exist in the operating environment (including facility handling); and (5) methods that prevent adversaries from repairing penetrations. Early project R&D [1] focused on encapsulated transition metals. Due to the challenges associated with the transition metal - based approach, a mitigation approach was investigated resulting in two separate research paths — one that involves fabricating custom TIE molds that meet the specific (size and shape) needs of safeguards equipment a nd one that can be deployed as a sprayed on or painted coating to an existing TIE or surface. The "custom mold" approach is based on creating thin layers of materials that , when penetrated, expose an inner material to O 2 which causes an irreversible color change. The "in-situ coating" approach is based on applying a sensor solution containing color changing microcapsules that bleed when the microcapsule is ruptured. The anticipated benefits of this work are passive, flexible, scalable, robust , cost-effective TIEs with visually obvious responses to tamper attempts. This provides more efficient and effective monitoring , as inspectors will require little or no additional equipment and will be able to detect tamper without extensive time - consuming visual examination. Applications include custom TIEs (cabinets , equipment enclosures or seal bodies ), or spray-coating/painting onto facility-owned items, walls or structures, or circuit boards. The paper describes research and testing completed to-date on the method and integration of select system components.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Visualization of lignification in flax stem cell walls with novel click-compatible monolignol analogs

As an essential part of plant cell walls, lignin provides mechanical support for plant growth, enhances water transport, and helps to defend against pathogens. As the most abundant natural aromatic-based renewable resource on earth, its biosynthesis has always been a research focus, and it is still currently under study. In this study, the p-coumaryl alcohol analog (H ALK ) and the coniferyl alcohol analog (G ALK ) containing an alkyne group at the ortho position were synthesized and applied to lignification in vivo and in vitro. The incorporation of these novel lignin monomers was observed via fluorescence imaging. It was found that the two monolignol analogs could be incorporated in dehydrogenated polymers (DHPs) in vitro and in flax cell walls in vivo. The results showed that as the cultivation time and precursor concentration varied, the deposition of H and G-type lignin exhibited differences in deposition mode. At the subcellular scale, the deposited lignin first appears in the cell corner and the middle lamella, and then gradually appears on the cell walls. Furthermore, lignin was also found in bast fiber. It was demonstrated that these new molecules could provide high-resolution localization of lignin during polymerization.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Investigating the influence of environmental information on perceived indoor environmental quality: An exploratory study

Under the assumption that information can impact perception, most research on human sensation and satisfaction with indoor environmental quality (IEQ) parameters has been conducted with respondents uninformed about the test conditions. Therefore, researchers know little about the impact of information on perception. These potential effects are increasingly relevant as quantitative information about indoor environments becomes accessible via low-cost, wirelessly connected sensors. In this experimental study, 48 subjects were exposed to varied indoor environmental conditions and provided with different types of environmental information. The subjects' sensation and satisfaction were compared when they were blinded or provided with quantitative information about and/or qualitative ratings of specific parameters. The results indicate that accurate information on parameter values influenced how the subjects perceived the indoor air quality (IAQ) but not how they perceived the thermal, acoustic, or visual quality. The subjects rated the IAQ more positively when they were informed that there were nonzero ventilation rates. The qualitative ratings influenced the subjects' perceptions of all four environmental factors, but in different directions. The subjects generally had more positive sensation and higher satisfaction when they were told that the parameter values and qualitative ratings were more favorable than the test conditions. However, the improved sensation and satisfaction were often not as good as when the environmental conditions were actually improved and the subjects were provided with accurate information. Here, these findings affirm the critical need for more research on the impacts of information on perceptions of the indoor environment.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Glycan Array-Based Assay for the Identification and Characterization of Plant Glycosyltransferases

Growing plants with modified cell wall compositions is a promising strategy to improve resistance to pathogens, increase biomass digestibility, and tune other important properties. In order to alter biomass architecture, a detailed knowledge of cell wall structure and biosynthesis is a prerequisite. We report here a glycan array-based assay for the high-throughput identification and characterization of plant cell wall biosynthetic glycosyltransferases (GTs). We demonstrate that different heterologously expressed galactosyl-, fucosyl-, and xylosyltransferases can transfer azido-functionalized sugar nucleotide donors to selected synthetic plant cell wall oligosaccharides on the array and that the transferred monosaccharides can be visualized “on chip” by a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction with an alkynyl-modified dye. The opportunity to simultaneously screen thousands of combinations of putative GTs, nucleotide sugar donors, and oligosaccharide acceptors will dramatically accelerate plant cell wall biosynthesis research.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Demonstrating the viability of Lagrangian in situ reduction on supercomputers

Performing exploratory analysis and visualization of large-scale time-varying computational science applications is challenging due to inaccuracies that arise from under-resolved data. In recent years, Lagrangian representations of the vector field computed using in situ processing are being increasingly researched and have emerged as a potential solution to enable exploration. However, prior works have offered limited estimates of the encumbrance on the simulation code as they consider “theoretical” in situ environments. Further, the effectiveness of this approach varies based on the nature of the vector field, benefitting from an in-depth investigation for each application area. With this study, an extended version of Sane et al. (2021), we contribute an evaluation of Lagrangian analysis viability and efficacy for simulation codes executing at scale on a supercomputer. We investigated previously unexplored cosmology and seismology applications as well as conducted a performance benchmarking study by using a hydrodynamics mini-application targeting exascale computing. Here, to inform encumbrance, we integrated in situ infrastructure with simulation codes, and evaluated Lagrangian in situ reduction in representative homogeneous and heterogeneous HPC environments. To inform post hoc accuracy, we conducted a statistical analysis across a range of spatiotemporal configurations as well as a qualitative evaluation. Additionally, our study contributes cost estimates for distributed-memory post hoc reconstruction. In all, we demonstrate viability for each application — data reduction to less than 1% of the total data via Lagrangian representations, while maintaining accurate reconstruction and requiring under 10% of total execution time in over 90% of our experiments.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Multidisciplinary concurrent optimization framework for multi-phase building design process

Modern day building design projects require multidisciplinary expertise from architects and engineers across various phases of the design (conceptual, preliminary, and detailed) and construction processes. The Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) community has recently shifted gears toward leveraging design optimization techniques to make well-informed decisions in the design of buildings. However, most of the building design optimization efforts are either multidisciplinary optimization confined to just a specific design phase (conceptual/preliminary/detailed) or single disciplinary optimization (structural/thermal/daylighting/energy) spanning across multiple phases. Complexity in changing the optimization setup as the design progresses through subsequent phases, interoperability issues between modeling and physics-based analysis tools used at later stages, and the lack of an appropriate level of design detail to get meaningful results from these sophisticated analysis tools are few challenges that limit multi-phase multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) in the AEC field. Here this paper proposes a computational building design platform leveraging concurrent engineering techniques such as interactive problem structuring, simulation-based optimization using meta models for energy and daylighting (machine learning based) and tradespace visualization. The proposed multi-phase concurrent MDO framework is demonstrated by using it to design and optimize a sample office building for energy and daylighting objectives across multiple phases. Furthermore, limitations of the proposed framework and future avenues of research are listed.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Heavy-Duty Nonroad Material Handler Electrification Part 1: Real-World Drive Cycle Development

Knowing a detailed operating cycle is critical for developing and testing equipment. Operating cycles can be separated by two clear distinctions: (1) regulatory or non-regulatory and (2) application at the engine-only or full machine level. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Nonroad Transient Cycle (NRTC) may be a good representation of engine use in many types of equipment, but there is a gap in standardized and validated drive cycles specifically for nonroad material handlers. Lacking a standardized drive cycle makes it difficult to accurately benchmark machine performance and validate new powertrain technologies. The objective of this investigation is to illustrate the development of a custom drive cycle augmented with real-world customer use data that serves multiple purposes: (1) understand the range of operation and utilization that formulated inputs for electrified architecture analysis and (2) develop a repetitive and consistent maneuver to establish baseline energy consumption enabling equivalent comparison to future electrified prototype builds. This article presents a solution specifically for a 23-ton nonroad material handler in which material handling, machine transport, and extended idle were homologated to form representative short cycles defined by machine velocity and hydraulic cylinder position. The most intensive material handling short cycles had a load factor of 40% and an average fuel rate of 16 L/h. Combined with a visual aid, the short cycles exhibited low variability, having less than 5% root mean square (RMS) error in lift and reach position with respect to the average. The machine’s performance on these short cycles at the Advanced Power Systems Research Center (APSRC) was compared to results from two real-world customer locations operating the instrumented test machine in a cyclical manner, and for similar ground conditions were found to be comparable in fuel consumption.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Are Phosphatidic Acids Ubiquitous in Mammalian Tissues or Overemphasized in Mass Spectrometry Imaging Applications?

Abstract Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is an invaluable tool for the spatial visualization of molecules in vivo. However, the question of whether observed annotations are endogenous or artificial (i. e., from in‐source fragmentation) is critical and has been largely unexplored in multimodal MSI. In matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)‐MSI datasets from researchers worldwide, PAs were found to represent up to 18 % of annotations in rat brain. Rat brain was additionally imaged here using nanospray desorption electrospray ionization (nano‐DESI), a softer ionization strategy. No PAs observed with MALDI were present in the nano‐DESI dataset. Further investigation strongly indicated lipid fragmentation to PAs for MALDI‐MSI, but not with nano‐DESI‐MSI. We finally extend this observation to the MALDI‐MSI analyses of human tissues, showing that PA annotations comprised up to 16 % of annotations. Therefore, this study shows that MSI annotations should be carefully interrogated, as in‐source fragmentation or modification of lipids may contribute substantially to false annotations and incorrect biological interpretations.

Vandergrift, Gregory W.↗
DOE OSTI2021

A rich and bountiful harvest: Key discoveries in plant cell biology

Abstract The field of plant cell biology has a rich history of discovery, going back to Robert Hooke’s discovery of cells themselves. The development of microscopes and preparation techniques has allowed for the visualization of subcellular structures, and the use of protein biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology has enabled the identification of proteins and mechanisms that regulate key cellular processes. In this review, seven senior plant cell biologists reflect on the development of this research field in the past decades, including the foundational contributions that their teams have made to our rich, current insights into cell biology. Topics covered include signaling and cell morphogenesis, membrane trafficking, cytokinesis, cytoskeletal regulation, and cell wall biology. In addition, these scientists illustrate the pathways to discovery in this exciting research field.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cyber100 Compass [SWR 23-64]

Cyber100 Compass ("Compass") is a unique risk assessment framework that will enable grid system planners to understand and mitigate cybersecurity risk for grids transitioning to high levels of renewable generation, including 100%. The idea for Compass was developed by NREL based on past work on high-renewable grids and a series of discussions with DOE. Compass is part of Cyber100, a portfolio of proposed research activities that would greatly expand understanding of cybersecurity for high-renewable grids. Compass is a desktop application designed with a user-friendly interface. The tool gathers information from users, conducts probabilistic backend calculations, and outputs a series of visualizations to help users understand and analyze their cybersecurity risks based on the unique features of their future grid. Compass will take as inputs the values for different conditions and produce a risk score of the resulting grid. By trying different configurations, system planners can compare the resultant risks against their own risk tolerance and decide which system-of-system controls to implement as they transition toward a 100% renewable grid.

Martin, Maurice↗
DOE OSTI2021

Tamper-Indicating Enclosures with Visually Obvious Tamper Response

Sandia National Laboratories is developing a way to visualize molecular changes that indicate penetration of a tamper-indicating enclosure (TIE). Such "bleeding" materials (analogous to visually obvious, colorful bruised skin that doesn't heal) allows inspectors to use simple visual observation to readily recognize that penetration into a material used as a TIE has been attempted, without providing adversaries the ability to repair damage. Such a material can significantly enhance the current capability for TIEs, used to support treaty verification regimes. Current approaches rely on time-consuming and subjective visual assessment by an inspector, external equipment, such as eddy current or camera devices, or active approaches that may be limited due to application environment. The complexity of securing whole volumes includes: (1) enclosures that are non-standard in size/shape; (2) enclosures that may be inspectorate- or facility-owned; (3) tamper attempts that are detectable but difficult or timely for an inspector to locate; (4) the requirement for solutions that are robust regarding reliability and environment (including facility handling); and (5) the need for solutions that prevent adversaries from repairing penetrations. The approach is based on a transition metal ion solution within a microsphere changing color irreversibly when the microsphere is ruptured. Investigators examine 3D printing of the microspheres as well as the spray coating formulation. The anticipated benefits of this work are passive, flexible, scalable, cost-effective TIEs with obvious and robust responses to tamper attempts. This results in more efficient and effective monitoring, as inspectors will require little or no additional equipment and will be able to detect tamper without extensive time-consuming visual examination. Applications can include custom TIEs (cabinets or equipment enclosures), spray-coating onto facility-owned items, spray-coating of walls or structures, spray-coatings of circuit boards, and 3D-printed seal bodies. The paper describes research to-date on the sensor compounds and microspheres.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2020

ROBIN (RuciO/BIgData Express/SENSE) A Next-Generation High-Performance Data Service Platform

Increasingly, scientific research discoverydepends on the analysis of extremely large amounts of data. Thisdata is gathered through very large scientific instruments, verylarge numbers of small devices, and mid-scale instruments.These devices generate exponentially increasing volumes of data.Such data is often obtained, analyzed, stored, visualized, andtransferred at and among sites world-wide by largecollaborations of science communities. Managing and movingextremely large volumes of data across today’s networks is aspecial multidimensional challenge. Also, existing datamanagement and movement services and tools often areinadequate to address all specific requirements. This paperdescribes the various components of this challenge and howthose issues can be addressed by ROBIN, a uniquecomprehensive set of integrated services designed specificallyfor managing and moving extremely large amounts of data overlong distances, e.g., thousands of miles around the globe. Thispaper also describes the results of initial experiments using thatset of integrated services.

Wu, Wenji↗
DOE OSTI2026

SPARTAN and IMPROVE Comparison Experiment (SPICE) Interim Campaign Report

SPICE (the SPARTAN and IMPROVE Comparison Experiment) aims to obtain and quantify comparisons between aerosol PM 2.5 mass concentration measurements from the University of Oklahoma (OU) Surface Particulate Matter Network (SPARTAN) station and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) station hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility at ARM’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) observatory in Oklahoma. Aerosols—both natural and anthropogenic—affect human populations in multiple ways. Much of ARM’s research focuses on how aerosols influence weather and climate through their optical and radiative effects, as well as their impacts on clouds and precipitation. However, aerosols also pose direct risks to humans and other organisms through inhalation, with the severity of health impacts depending on particle size, chemical composition, and duration of exposure. The IMPROVE network was established by the U.S. EPA to monitor air quality, including visible clarity as well as total and chemically speciated aerosol mass concentrations. The ARM SGP site hosts the IMPROVE SOGP station. Separately, the SPARTAN network operates a globally distributed set of stations similar to IMPROVE but with an emphasis on remote deployment and semi-autonomous operation for use beyond the borders of the United States (IMPROVE only operates within the U.S.). The University of Oklahoma operates a SPARTAN station. To establish confidence in the OU SPARTAN instrumentation and measurement protocol relative to the EPA-certified IMPROVE station, the OU SPARTAN station is currently deployed at SGP in close proximity to the IMPROVE SOGP station. The SPICE campaign was envisioned as a contiguous calendar-year effort for 2025 to capture seasonal variation in mass loading as well as composition. However, independent of the SPICE campaign, the SPARTAN network adopted a new filter construction part-way through the year, interrupting our contiguous data set. Thus, to obtain a contiguous data set with a uniform consistent configuration, SPICE desires an extension through 2026.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Performance Improvements of Poincaré Analysis for Exascale Fusion Simulations

Understanding the time-varying magnetic field in a fusion device is critical for the successful design and construction of clean-burning fusion power plants. Poincaré analysis provides a powerful method for the visualization of magnetic fields in fusion devices. However, Poincaré plots can be very computationally expensive making it impractical, for example, to generate these plots in situ during a simulation. In this short paper, we describe a collaboration among computer science and physics researchers to develop a new Poincaré tool that provides a significant reduction in the time to generate analysis results.

Pugmire, Dave↗
DOE OSTI2025

Workflow for Process Automation of Soil Gas Results from an Automated Soil Gas-Sampling System for Application in Carbon Storage Projects

Conference presentation at Geoconvention, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, May 12–14, 2025. The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) developed an automated workflow for processing soil gas measurements collected from the automated soil gas-sampling systems deployed across the project site. Raw soil gas measurements are collected from each station every 4 hours and automatically uploaded to a cloud database. The workflow begins by writing code to download the data to a workstation automatically, then the data are published to an online dashboard that visualizes the measurements in time-series plots and a process-based decision-making framework. This automated workflow accelerates the time from data acquisition to decision-making. It supports carbon storage project operators by preparing and delivering a live, standardized dataset for quick analysis and source attribution to provide assurance of containment and overall permit compliance.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2025

Workflow for Process Automation of Soil Gas Results from an Automated Soil Gas-Sampling System for Application in Carbon Storage Projects

Extended abstract for Geoconvention, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, May 12–14, 2025. The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) developed an automated workflow for processing soil gas measurements collected from the automated soil gas-sampling systems deployed across the project site. Raw soil gas measurements are collected from each station every 4 hours and automatically uploaded to a cloud database. The workflow begins by writing code to download the data to a workstation automatically, then the data are published to an online dashboard that visualizes the measurements in time-series plots and a process-based decision-making framework. This automated workflow accelerates the time from data acquisition to decision-making. It supports carbon storage project operators by preparing and delivering a live, standardized dataset for quick analysis and source attribution to provide assurance of containment and overall permit compliance.

02 PETROLEUM↗