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At least 523 records · Page 29

Potential of a Plant Gas Exchange Mechanistic Model to Predict Plant Transpiration in Veggie on ISS

Plants are an essential part of long-duration space travel, as they enable food production and contribute to air revitalization through photosynthesis, and water recycling through transpiration. Understanding their growth mechanisms is essential to use them to sustain human life in space. In particular, gas exchange – e.g., CO2 absorption and water transpiration – are modified in microgravity because of the lack of buoyancy-driven convection, and in the long run, this could result in impaired plant growth. Water absorbed by the plants mainly depends on their size and on environmental conditions (air temperature, humidity and ventilation), but in microgravity watering plants is a delicate operation – too much water results in flooded roots and too little water leads in a few hours to wilted plants. This is regularly experienced in the Veggie system on ISS, which enables small-scale food production in microgravity since 2014. This presentation explores how a mechanistic model of plant gas exchange can help predict plant transpiration in Veggie and thus better predict daily watering. For each plant, inputs on canopy leaf area (acquired with daily photos), air temperature and relative humidity in the plant compartment, as well as airspeed at the top of its canopy enable accurate predictions of transpiration in microgravity. This brings a better understanding of water movement through the plant in microgravity in relation to ventilation and plant size and would result in easier management of plant watering in Veggie. Ultimately, this work could be applied to any space crop production in microgravity and be used for water management and yield predictions. This work was funded by NASA Space Biology through NASA postdoctoral program / USRA.

Lucie Poulet↗

Potential of a Plant Gas Exchange Mechanistic Model to Predict Plant Transpiration in Veggie on ISS

Plants are an essential part of long-duration space travel, as they enable food production and contribute to air revitalization through photosynthesis, and water recycling through transpiration. Understanding their growth mechanisms is essential to use them to sustain human life in space. In particular, gas exchange – e.g., CO2 absorption and water transpiration – are modified in microgravity because of the lack of buoyancy-driven convection, and in the long run, this could result in impaired plant growth. Water absorbed by the plants mainly depends on their size and on environmental conditions (air temperature, humidity and ventilation), but in microgravity watering plants is a delicate operation – too much water results in flooded roots and too little water leads in a few hours to wilted plants. This is regularly experienced in the Veggie system on ISS, which enables small-scale food production in microgravity since 2014. This presentation explores how a mechanistic model of plant gas exchange can help predict plant transpiration in Veggie and thus better predict daily watering. For each plant, inputs on canopy leaf area (acquired with daily photos), air temperature and relative humidity in the plant compartment, as well as airspeed at the top of its canopy enable accurate predictions of transpiration in microgravity. This brings a better understanding of water movement through the plant in microgravity in relation to ventilation and plant size and would result in easier management of plant watering in Veggie. Ultimately, this work could be applied to any space crop production in microgravity and be used for water management and yield predictions. This work was funded by NASA Space Biology through NASA postdoctoral program / USRA.

Lucie Poulet↗

A Three-fold Outlook of the Ultra-Efficient Engine Technology Program Office (UEET)

The Ultra-Efficient Engine Technology (UEET) Office at NASA Glenn Research Center is a part of the Aeronautics Directorate. Its vision is to develop and hand off revolutionary turbine engine propulsion technologies that will enable future generation vehicles over a wide range of flight speeds. There are seven different technology area projects of UEET. During my tenure at NASA Glenn Research Center, my assignment was to assist three different areas of UEET, simultaneously. I worked with Kathy Zona in Education Outreach, Lynn Boukalik in Knowledge Management, and Denise Busch with Financial Management. All of my tasks were related to the business side of UEET. As an intern with Education Outreach I created a word search to partner with an exhibit of a Turbine Engine developed out of the UEET office. This exhibit is a portable model that is presented to students of varying ages. The word search complies with National Standards for Education which are part of every science, engineering, and technology teachers curriculum. I also updated a Conference Planning/Workshop Excel Spreadsheet for the UEET Office. I collected and inputted facility overviews from various venues, both on and off site to determine where to hold upcoming conferences. I then documented which facilities were compliant with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act of 1990. The second area in which I worked was Knowledge Management. a large knowledge management system online which has extensive documentation that continually needs reviewing, updating, and archiving. Knowledge management is the ability to bring individual or team knowledge to an organizational level so that the information can be stored, shared, reviewed, archived. Livelink and a secure server are the Knowledge Management systems that UEET utilizes, Through these systems, I was able to obtain the documents needed for archiving. My assignment was to obtain intellectual property including reports, presentations, or any other documents related to the project. My next task was to document the author, date of creation, and all other properties of each document. To archive these documents I worked extensively with Microsoft Excel. different financial systems of accounting such as the SAP business accounting system. I also learned the best ways to present financial data and shadowed my mentor as she presented financial data to both UEET's project management and the Resources Analysis and Management Office (RAMO). I analyzed the June 2004 financial data of UEET and used Microsoft Excel to input the results of the data. This process made it easier to present the full cost of the project in the month of June. In addition I assisted in the End of the Year 2003 Reconciliation of Purchases of UEET.

Graham, La Quilia E.↗

Big Data Analytics for Long-Term Meteorological Observations at Hanford Site

A growing number of physical objects with embedded sensors with typically high volume and frequently updated data sets has accentuated the need to develop methodologies to extract useful information from big data for supporting decision making. This study applies a suite of data analytics and core principles of data science to characterize near real-time meteorological data with a focus on extreme weather events. To highlight the applicability of this work and make it more accessible from a risk management perspective, a foundation for a software platform with an intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed to access and analyze data from a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE, Richland, USA). Exploratory data analysis (EDA), involving classical non-parametric statistics, and machine learning (ML) techniques, were used to develop statistical summaries and learn characteristic features of key weather patterns and signatures. The new approach and GUI provide key insights into using big data and ML to assist site operation related to safety management strategies for extreme weather events. Specifically, this work offers a practical guide to analyzing long-term meteorological data and highlights the integration of ML and classical statistics to applied risk and decision science.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Intelligent Work Process Engineering System

Optimizing performance on work activities and processes requires metrics of performance for management to monitor and analyze in order to support further improvements in efficiency, effectiveness, safety, reliability and cost. Information systems are therefore required to assist management in making timely, informed decisions regarding these work processes and activities. Currently information systems regarding Space Shuttle maintenance and servicing do not exist to make such timely decisions. The work to be presented details a system which incorporates various automated and intelligent processes and analysis tools to capture organize and analyze work process related data, to make the necessary decisions to meet KSC organizational goals. The advantages and disadvantages of design alternatives to the development of such a system will be discussed including technologies, which would need to bedesigned, prototyped and evaluated.

Williams, Kent E.↗

Development and Preliminary Results of CTAS on Airline Operational Control Center Operations

Continued growth and expansion of air traffic and increased air carrier economic pressures have mandated greater flexibility and collaboration in air traffic management. The ability of airspace users to select their own routes, so called "free-flight", and to more actively manage their fleet operations for maximum economic advantage are receiving great attention. A first step toward greater airspace user and service provider collaboration is information sharing. In this work, arrival scheduling and airspace management data generated by the NASA/FAA Center/TRACON Automation System (CTAS) and used by the FAA service provider is shared with an airline with extensive operations within the CTAS operational domain. The design and development of a specialized airline CTAS "repeater" system is described, as well as some preliminary results of the impact and benefits of this information on the air carrier's operations. FAA controller per aircraft scheduling information, such as that provided by CTAS, has never before been shared in real-time with an airline. Expected airline benefits include improved fleet planning and arrival gate management, more informed "hold-go" decisions, and avoidance of costly aircraft diversions to alternate airports when faced with uncertain airborne arrival delays.

Zelenka, Richard↗

Development and Preliminary Results of CTAS on Airline Operational Control Center Operations

Continued growth and expansion of air traffic and increased air carrier economic pressures have mandated greater flexibility and collaboration in air traffic management. The ability of airspace users to select their own routes, so called "free-flight", and to more actively manage their fleet operations for maximum economic advantage are receiving great attention. A first step toward greater airspace user and service provider collaboration is information sharing. In this work, arrival scheduling and airspace management data generated by the NASA/FAA Center/TRACON Automation System (CTAS) and used by the FAA service provider is shared with an airline with extensive operations within the CTAS operational domain. The design and development of a specialized airline CTAS "repeater" system is described, as well as some preliminary results of the impact and benefits of this information on the air carrier's operations. FAA controller per aircraft scheduling information, such as that provided by CTAS, has never before been shared in real-time with an airline. Expected airline benefits include improved fleet planning and arrival gate management, more informed "hold-go decisions, and avoidance of costly aircraft diversions to alternate airports when faced with uncertain airborne arrival delays.

Zelenka, Richard↗

Work Coordination Engine

The Work Coordination Engine (WCE) is a Java application integrated into the Service Management Database (SMDB), which coordinates the dispatching and monitoring of a work order system. WCE de-queues work orders from SMDB and orchestrates the dispatching of work to a registered set of software worker applications distributed over a set of local, or remote, heterogeneous computing systems. WCE monitors the execution of work orders once dispatched, and accepts the results of the work order by storing to the SMDB persistent store. The software leverages the use of a relational database, Java Messaging System (JMS), and Web Services using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) technologies to implement an efficient work-order dispatching mechanism capable of coordinating the work of multiple computer servers on various platforms working concurrently on different, or similar, types of data or algorithmic processing. Existing (legacy) applications can be wrapped with a proxy object so that no changes to the application are needed to make them available for integration into the work order system as "workers." WCE automatically reschedules work orders that fail to be executed by one server to a different server if available. From initiation to completion, the system manages the execution state of work orders and workers via a well-defined set of events, states, and actions. It allows for configurable work-order execution timeouts by work-order type. This innovation eliminates a current processing bottleneck by providing a highly scalable, distributed work-order system used to quickly generate products needed by the Deep Space Network (DSN) to support space flight operations. WCE is driven by asynchronous messages delivered via JMS indicating the availability of new work or workers. It runs completely unattended in support of the lights-out operations concept in the DSN.

Zendejas, Silvino↗

Analytics Supporting Stockpile and Enterprise Planning [Slides]

A robust and growing modeling effort supports Los Alamos weapons leadership as well as NNSA (NA18, NA12, NA19) and DoD (DASD-NM, USSTRATCOM). Current work are valuable to several key NNSA working groups supporting strategic planning: Stockpile Stewardship Management Plan (SSMP); Requirements & Planning Document (RPD) analysis; Requirements and Capacity Working Group (RCWG); Production Integration Collaboration Working Group (PICWG); Enterprise Modeling and Analysis Consortium (EMAC); Cost Estimating Analysis Group (CEAG).

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

Integrated Baseline Review (IBR) Handbook

An Integrated Baseline Review (IBR) is a review of a supplier?s Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB). It is conducted by Program/Project Managers and their technical staffs on contracts and in-house work requiring compliance with NASA Earned Value Management System (EVMS) policy as defined in program/project policy, NPR 7120.5, or in NASA Federal Acquisition Regulations. The IBR Handbook may also be of use to those responsible for preparing the Terms of Reference for internal project reviews. While risks may be identified and actions tracked as a result of the IBR, it is important to note that an IBR cannot be failed.

Source record↗

New Mission Concepts for Astrophysics Large Area X-Ray Spectroscopy Mission

Work at SAO was performed under the overall direction of Dr. Harvey Tananbaum, the Principal Investigator for the program. Dr. Jay Bookbinder was responsible for day to day program coordination at SAO and liaison with GSFC. Dr. Nicholas E. White served as GSFC Technical Officer for the Grant. The effort was directed at formulating the general characteristics and scientific requirements of the contemplated mission. While funding and therefore effort was limited, nonetheless SAO was involved in a broad range of activities. These activities were defined by our SAO proposal to GSFC that were subsequently accepted and funded by this Grant. The main activities were: Support of mission studies. Support the development of science requirements. and Performance of selected engineering studies and trades. During this period, an integrated GSFC/SAO management team began to form and work together. Jean F. Grady was appointed Project Formulation Manager at GSFC and assumed the overall management direction of the project including coordination of work performed under the grant.

Tananbaum, Harvey↗

Document Configuration Management (DCM) Team Weapon Product Definition Group

Document Configuration Management (DCM) is the ongoing process of identifying and managing changes to deliverables and other work products. ALDW’s Document Configuration Plan provides a systematic, standardized process for the configuration management of documents to ensure that the most current and/or appropriate documents are being used, that any canceled or superseded document is properly processed, and that both a clear history and traceability of previous revisions are available.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Unitary Thermal Energy Management for Propulsion Range Augmentation (UTEMPRA) (CRADA Final Report)

NREL will work with Delphi to develop technology that integrates the thermal management of electric drive vehicle sub-systems into a unified thermal system that reduces auxiliary loads and increases vehicle range. The ultimate goal is to create a cost-effective system which improves climate control efficiency through heat pump operation and waste heat recovery, while maintaining occupant thermal comfort and meeting powertrain thermal requirements. The technology will also aim to reduce the number of independent cooling systems required in electric drive vehicles.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Reinvention/reengineering of business and technical processes

The changing marketplace as evidenced by global competition is requiring American organizations to rethink, regroup, and redesign their processes. The umbrella of total quality management (TQM) includes many quality methods, techniques, tools, and approaches. There is no right way for every situation or circumstance. Adaptability and experimentation of several tools is necessary. Process management when properly applied can lead to continuous quality improvements. But some processes simply need to be discarded and new ones developed. This reengineering often results in vertical compression and job redesign and restructuring. Work activities must be designed around processes, not processes around work activities. Reengineering and process management do not stand alone--they support each other. Senior executive leadership and empowerment of workers at all organizational levels is vital for both short-term and long-term success.

Olsen, Eugene A.↗

Communication-efficient certificate revocation management for Advanced Metering Infrastructure and IoT Integration

Advanced Metering Infrastructure forms a communication network for the collection of power data from smart meters in Smart Grid. As the communication between smart meters could be secured utilizing public-key cryptography, however, public-key cryptography still has certain challenges in terms of certificate revocation and management particularly related distribution and storage overhead of revoked certificates. To address this challenge, in this work, we propose a novel revocation management approach by utilizing cryptographic accumulators which reduces the space requirements for revocation information significantly and thus enables efficient distribution of such information to all smart meters. We implemented the proposed approach on both ns-3 network simulator and a testbed. We demonstrated its superior performance with respect to traditional methods for revocation management.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

eMosaic: Electrification Mosaic Platform for Grid Informed Smart Charging Management (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

ABB (Prime Contractor), in collaboration with its partners at the Utah State University (USU), Idaho National Laboratory, Rocky Mountain Power (RMP), and Electric Power Engineers (EPE), have performed research, development, and wide scale demonstration of a scalable and resilient Electrification Mosaic (eMosaic) platform for Smart Charge Management (SCM) for Electric Vehicle Infrastructure. Work was completed under DE EE0009194, titled “eMosaic Electrification Mosaic Platform for Grid Informed Smart Charging Management”, funded by the US Department of Energy. The project members developed algorithms that provide localized and bulk grid services and that reduce and stabilize costs all the way down the supply chain to the PEV owner through SCM. This platform aggregates telemetry from multiple data sources as pieces of the larger picture including personal, private fleet or transportation EVs, fast chargers and other supply equipment, weather service information, and geographically distributed charging sites such as public lots, garage and retail, and private or shared usage depots. ABB and the project team designed, tested, and improved a charging management system at local/edge and cloud levels. The ultimate objective of the project was to convincingly demonstrate that the developed secure eMosaic plat-form can be readily and favorably adopted by diverse utilities and site owners at scale. This was achieved through a demonstration plan with field deployment at several physical sites across 4 states and additional scalable simulation from high fidelity charging models.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Some effects of time usage patterns on the productivity of engineers

The performance of the 1500+ engineers at MSFC is critical to the Center's mission. Worker's performance, however, is a variable affected by ability, motivation, role understanding, and other factors. Managing subordinates' performance is a great challenges to managers. Special challenges confront the managers of engineers because engineers often work with general goals, long deadlines, and considerable autonomy. The productivity of a team or branch is a function of the productivity of each of its members. While many managers have personal theories about how to run their work group, surprisingly little systematic scientific knowledge exerts about the effects of various factors on engineers' productivity. This study is intended to help lay the foundation for such a program of research.

Jackson, Conrad N.↗

Online Analytics for Remedy Support at DOE Environmental Management Sites

Environmental data is important for managing environmental restoration/waste site remediation, planning of monitoring efforts, addressing climate resilience, and engaging with stakeholders and regulators. A major challenge is how to manage the many different types and the large volume of environmental data in a way that allows practitioners and site managers to understand data implications and support decisions. The Suite Of Comprehensive Rapid Analysis Tools for Environmental Sites (SOCRATES, https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/socrates) is a web application that provides data access, visualization, and rapid analytics to help make sense of environmental data, support remedy decisions, and communicate information. Development of SOCRATES has been funded through the DOE Richland Operations Office (RL) to support communication and decision making for the Hanford Site, thus is only tied into Hanford environmental data. However, the capabilities of SOCRATES are more broadly applicable to DOE-EM sites engaged in environmental remediation and management. This report describes the work to develop mechanisms for bringing non-Hanford data into SOCRATES so that other DOE-EM sites could make use of the visualization and analysis capabilities to support communication and decision making related to managing environmental restoration/waste site remediation, optimization/exit strategies for pump-and-treat systems, planning monitoring efforts, addressing climate resilience, and/or engaging with stakeholders and regulators. The background, approach, data transfer formats, examples, and next steps for this new SOCRATES-EM software are described in this report.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗