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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 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Intrinsic and environmental drivers of pairwise cohesion in wild Canis social groups

Animals within social groups respond to costs and benefits of sociality by adjusting the proportion of time they spend in close proximity to other individuals in the group (cohesion). Variation in cohesion between individuals, in turn, shapes important group-level processes such as subgroup formation and fission–fusion dynamics. Although critical to animal sociality, a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing cohesion remains a gap in our knowledge of cooperative behavior in animals. We tracked 574 individuals from six species within the genus Canis in 15 countries on four continents with GPS telemetry to estimate the time that pairs of individuals within social groups spent in close proximity and test hypotheses regarding drivers of cohesion. Pairs of social canids (Canis spp.) varied widely in the proportion of time they spent together (5%–100%) during seasonal monitoring periods relative to both intrinsic characteristics and environmental conditions. The majority of our data came from three species of wolves (gray wolves, eastern wolves, and red wolves) and coyotes. For these species, cohesion within social groups was greatest between breeding pairs and varied seasonally as the nature of cooperative activities changed relative to annual life history patterns. Across species, wolves were more cohesive than coyotes. For wolves, pairs were less cohesive in larger groups, and when suitable, small prey was present reflecting the constraints of food resources and intragroup competition on social associations. Pair cohesion in wolves declined with increased anthropogenic modification of the landscape and greater climatic variability, underscoring challenges for conserving social top predators in a changing world. We show that pairwise cohesion in social groups varies strongly both within and across Canis species, as individuals respond to changing ecological context defined by resources, competition, and anthropogenic disturbance. Our work highlights that cohesion is a highly plastic component of animal sociality that holds significant promise for elucidating ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying cooperative behavior.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Interactions Between Lightning and Ship Traffic

It is important to understand connections between society and the natural environment for anticipating hazards and anthropogenic effects on the Earth system. In this study, we conduct a detailed exploration of interactions between oceanic thunderstorms and maritime traffic. Shipping traffic produces aerosols that perturb the otherwise “clean” ocean environment. Prior work proposed these aerosol effects as the cause of increased lightning over certain shipping lanes. However, introducing tall grounded objects into a high electric field environment might also facilitate lightning discharges, as we see with upward lightning over land. We consider both possibilities. Our analyses of the thunderstorms responsible for enhanced lightning activity over the shipping lane with the clearest anthropogenic signal indicate that the enhancement results from an increased frequency of lightning-producing storms. Observed variations in thunderstorm microphysics between the shipping lane and nearby oceans are small compared to natural factors such as the Indian monsoon, and are on the same scale as the local variability in the data. By contrast, matching lightning stroke data with ship transponder events in oceanic regions where public data are available reveals a strong signal from direct ship interactions. Lightning is 15× (66×) more likely to occur at a ship location compared to 2 km (25 km) away. These results highlight the central role of direct ship interactions in explaining lightning enhancements over shipping lanes. We also document the frequency of these direct lightning interactions across various categories of vessels and on individual ships present in the public data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Urban Versus Lake Impacts on Heat Stress and Its Disparities in a Shoreline City

Abstract Shoreline cities are influenced by both urban‐scale processes and land‐water interactions, with consequences on heat exposure and its disparities. Heat exposure studies over these cities have focused on air and skin temperature, even though moisture advection from water bodies can also modulate heat stress. Here, using an ensemble of model simulations covering Chicago, we find that Lake Michigan strongly reduces heat exposure (2.75°C reduction in maximum average air temperature in Chicago) and heat stress (maximum average wet bulb globe temperature reduced by 0.86°C) during the day, while urbanization enhances them at night (2.75 and 1.57°C increases in minimum average air and wet bulb globe temperature, respectively). We also demonstrate that urban and lake impacts on temperature (particularly skin temperature), including their extremes, and lake‐to‐land gradients, are stronger than the corresponding impacts on heat stress, partly due to humidity‐related feedback. Likewise, environmental disparities across community areas in Chicago seen for skin temperature are much higher (1.29°C increase for maximum average values per $10,000 higher median income per capita) than disparities in air temperature (0.50°C increase) and wet bulb globe temperature (0.23°C increase). The results call for consistent use of physiologically relevant heat exposure metrics to accurately capture the public health implications of urbanization.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Comprehensive characterization of extracellular vesicles produced by environmental (Neff) and clinical (T4) strains of Acanthamoeba castellanii

We conducted a comprehensive comparative analysis of extracellular vesicles (EVs) from two Acanthamoeba castellanii strains, Neff (environmental) and T4 (clinical). Morphological analysis via transmission electron microscopy revealed slightly larger Neff EVs (average = 194.5 nm) compared to more polydisperse T4 EVs (average = 168.4 nm). Nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and dynamic light scattering validated these differences. Proteomic analysis of the EVs identified 1,352 proteins, with 1,107 common, 161 exclusive in Neff, and 84 exclusively in T4 EVs. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) mapping revealed distinct molecular functions and biological processes and notably, the T4 EVs enrichment in serine proteases, aligned with its pathogenicity. Lipidomic analysis revealed a prevalence of unsaturated lipid species in Neff EVs, particularly triacylglycerols, phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs), and phosphatidylserine, while T4 EVs were enriched in diacylglycerols and diacylglyceryl trimethylhomoserine, phosphatidylcholine and less unsaturated PEs, suggesting differences in lipid metabolism and membrane permeability. Metabolomic analysis indicated Neff EVs enrichment in glycerolipid metabolism, glycolysis, and nucleotide synthesis, while T4 EVs, methionine metabolism. Furthermore, RNA-seq of EVs revealed differential transcript between the strains, with Neff EVs enriched in transcripts related to gluconeogenesis and translation, suggesting gene regulation and metabolic shift, while in the T4 EVs transcripts were associated with signal transduction and protein kinase activity, indicating rapid responses to environmental changes. In this novel study, data integration highlighted the differences in enzyme profiles, metabolic processes, and potential origins of EVs in the two strains shedding light on the diversity and complexity of A. castellanii EVs and having implications for understanding host-pathogen interactions and developing targeted interventions for Acanthamoeba-related diseases.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Storm and Annual Time Scale Hydrological Data for the Russian River Watershed 1996-2022

These files contains observed and simulated hydrological data (discharge, precipitation) that have been aggregated to the storm-event scale and to the annual time scale for the Russian River Watershed (RRW), California. Observed data are obtained from 12 different USGS hydrological stations located throughout the watershed, and discharge is simulated using the GR5H hourly hydrological model. Precipitation data are obtained from the NASA NLDAS NOAH Community Land Surface Model. All simulated and observed discharge are aggregated to the storm and annual time scales. We investigated changes in watershed hydrological conditions in the Russian River Watershed, a Mediterranean, drought prone, wildfire-adapted ecosystem, following eleven wildfires that occurred from 2017-2020. We ask two research questions: 1) How do interacting wildfire events, drought, and atmospheric rivers impact hydrological conditions of the watershed and in particular streamflow?, and 2) What percentage of new and/or cumulative wildfire disturbance is required to initiate hydrological change? We hypothesize that sub-watersheds of the RRW Mediterranean ecoregion have not burned beyond an intrinsic, and still unknown, threshold required to initiate change. Using a series of paired burned/unburned catchments nested within the larger watershed, we examined temporal and spatial patterns of pre-and-post wildfire water hydrology using a rainfall runoff hydrological model compared with data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Gross and Net Soil Methane Flux and Ancillary Data, Edgewater, MD, USA, summer 2022

This data package contains measurements used to quantify methane cycling and environmental conditions in coastal forest soils during the 2022 growing season. It includes time‑series data of soil methane flux, soil respiration, soil temperature, and volumetric water content collected from soil monoliths transplanted along an inundation and salinity gradient. The package also provides one‑time measurements from a stable‑isotope pool‑dilution incubation, including gravimetric water content, methane headspace concentrations, and ¹³CH₄ enrichment over time. Data files are provided in comma‑separated values (CSV) format, with accompanying metadata and readme documentation in PDF and plain‑text formats. All files can be opened with standard software such as R, Python, or spreadsheet programs capable of handling CSV files. The metadata file describes variable definitions, units, processing steps, and the structure of each data table to support reuse and integration with other datasets.

13-C↗
DOE OSTI2024

Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Management Plan

Mission and Vision Statements for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility Mission The ARM Climate Research Facility, a DOE scientific user facility, provides the climate research community with strategically located in situ and remote-sensing observatories designed to improve the understanding and representation, in climate and earth system models, of clouds and aerosols as well as their interactions and coupling with the Earth’s surface. Vision To provide a detailed and accurate description of the Earth atmosphere in diverse climate regimes to resolve the uncertainties in climate and Earth system models toward the development of sustainable solutions for the nation's energy and environmental challenges.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Macquarie Island Cloud and Radiation Experiment (MICRE) Field Campaign Report

The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) collaborated in deploying a variety of ground instrumentation to Macquarie Island between March 2016 and March 2018. Macquarie Island is located at 54.5° S, 158.9° E and is well situated for studying clouds over the Southern Ocean. The primary objective of the March 2016 to March 2018 deployment, hereafter the Macquarie Island Cloud and Radiation Experiment (MICRE), was to collect observations of surface radiation, cloud, precipitation, and aerosol properties. This report describes the instruments deployed and data sets collected, along with a summary of key data quality issues and information on some value-added products that are being developed to assist scientists in using the data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Plant Cell Biology International Meeting 2022

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

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Modeling support for the development of material surveillance specimens and procedures

This report describes modeling and simulation activities performed at Argonne National Laboratory supporting the development of passively actuated mechanical test articles for material surveillance in Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs). These test articles are a critical technology in formulating material surveillance programs for future MSRs to monitor the degradation in the structural properties of the materials in critical plant components. The main activity described in this report is the development of a method for inferring the amount of mechanical damage a test article has experienced during some duration of exposure to plant thermal and environmental conditions, using only mechanical test data collected from the test articles before and after exposure. The basic approach is to develop a model of the test article, including a description of mechanical degradation through continuum damage mechanics, and then use this model to cast the problem of inferring mechanical degradation in the test article materials into a shooting problem for a set of ordinary differential equations. We can then solve the shooting problem to determine the amount of damage accumulated in the sample. The report also details a few miscellaneous simulation studies completed at Argonne to support the development of the test articles themselves at Idaho National Laboratory.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Hyperspectral Light Sheet Raman Imaging of Leaf Metabolism (Final Report)

This final technical report details the accomplishment and findings of a project that developed technology related to imaging metabolic processes in plants. The report gives technical details of the design, construction and characterization of a Raman microscope system capable of identifying chemical species using the wavelength shifts of scattered excitation light. Some of the unique aspects of the design include: use of a Bessel beam excitation source, which allow long excitation lines that are resistant to scattering in complex media such as plants; excitation at 785 nm to avoid fluorescence emission that can occur in photosynthetic organisms; and a flat optical design that makes construction and alignment significantly simpler. This project also used stable isotope labeling to look at photorespiratory flux in the leaves of three different types of plants that have different photosynthesis pathways. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry was used to look at which metabolites and amino acids had altered oxygen, carbon and hydrogen uptake under various conditions of environmental oxygen. This generated a rich data set that is being further analyzed to understand metabolic pathways in plants. This project also used the natural fluorescence in sorghum and rice to conduct an extensive experiment across different developmental stages. Spectral differences were identified at most of the developmental stages and these can be attributed to differential pigment and pigment-protein complexes present in different relative abundances as the plant develops.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

2024 Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Annual Report

This report provides an overview of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility and a sample of achievements for fiscal year 2024 (FY2024). Strong collaborations between nine DOE national laboratories enable ARM to successfully operate in remote locations around the world. This unique partnership supports the DOE mission to provide for the energy security of the nation. Without the support of the following laboratories, ARM would not be the state-of-the-art facility that it is today. ARM is a multi-laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility and a key contributor to national and international atmospheric and climate research efforts. ARM offers scientists cutting-edge, ground-based observatories, aerial observation capabilities, and high-performance computing. ARM’s capabilities have enabled more than 30 years of continuous measurements of cloud and aerosol properties and their effects on Earth’s energy balance.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Water narratives in local newspapers within the United States

Sustainable use of water resources continues to be a challenge across the globe. This is in part due to the complex set of physical and social behaviors that interact to influence water management from local to global scales. Analyses of water resources have been conducted using a variety of techniques, including qualitative evaluations of media narratives. This study aims to augment these methods by leveraging computational and quantitative techniques from the social sciences focused on text analyses. Specifically, we use natural language processing methods to investigate a large corpus (approx. 1.8M) of newspaper articles spanning approximately 35 years (1982–2017) for insights into human-nature interactions with water. Focusing on local and regional United States publications, our analysis demonstrates important dynamics in water-related dialogue about drinking water and pollution to other critical infrastructures, such as energy, across different parts of the country. Our assessment, which looks at water as a system, also highlights key actors and sentiments surrounding water. Extending these analytical methods could help us further improve our understanding of the complex roles of water in current society that should be considered in emerging activities to mitigate and respond to resource conflicts and climate change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Classification of Wetland Vegetation Based on NDVI Time Series from the HLS Dataset

Natural wetlands are intrinsically heterogeneous and typically composed of a mosaic of ecosystem patches with different vegetation types. Hydrological and biogeochemical processes in wetlands vary strongly among these ecosystem patches. To date, most remote sensing classification approaches for wetland vegetation either rely on coarse images that cannot capture the spatial variability of wetland vegetation or rely on very-high-resolution multi-spectral images that are detailed but very sporadic in time (less than once per year). This study aimed to use NDVI time series, generated from NASA’s HLS dataset, to classify vegetation patches. We demonstrate our approach at a temperate, coastal lake, estuarine marsh. To classify vegetation patches, a standard time series library of the four land-cover patch types was built from referencing specific locations that were identified as “pure” pixels. These were identified using a single-time high-resolution image. We calculated the distance between the HLS-NDVI time series at each pixel and the “pure”-pixel standards for each land-cover type. The resulting true-positive classified rate was >73% for all patch types other than water lily. The classification accuracy was higher in pixels of a more uniform composition. A set of vegetation maps was created for the years 2016 to 2020 at our research site to identify the vegetation changes at the site as it is affected by rapid water elevation increases in Lake Erie. Our results reveal how changes in water elevation have changed the patch distribution in significant ways, leading to the local extinction of cattail by 2019 and a continuous increase in the area cover of water lily patches.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Ecobuoys for Scalable Oceanography

An approach to scalable surface-drifting buoys is needed to enable the high spatial and temporal resolution of oceanographic data that the science and meteorological communities are asking for. With the number of active buoys predicted to increase by a factor of 100 or more, the impact on the environment becomes even more important. Here, we present a pathway to a scalable and sustainable generation of buoys. We identify the main criteria to be used when developing such buoys to be low cost, with reliable data and neutral or even positive environmental impact. For each buoy subsystem—hull, electronics, energy generation and storage, sensors, and communication system—cutting-edge technological solutions are presented, many of them from emerging research in marine or other disciplines. We then assess the potential solutions against the design criteria and plot a path toward small, environmentally friendly, low-cost, and low-power buoys.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Fog particle concentrations

ngVIPS metadata and caveats: Column 1: Time, seconds after midnight UTC of beginning of time period. (60 sec values) Column 2: Relative concentration. Notes: Concentration values are observed values and assume ~4.0 m/s wind speed. (#/cm^3) Caveats: Observed particles with a very few exceptions were on the order of a few pixels (less than 10 microns). The size differential was insufficient to determine a particle size distribution. As the temperatures were relatively warm (and it can be 10C warmer inside the instrument) it is anticipated that some solid ice particles could have melted and some smaller liquid drops could have evaporated. A cyclic nature to the high resolution data was observed and determined to be caused by a focus issue. Each 60 second period included ~25 images. Particles are collected on a glass disk, but the disk isn't perfectly centered causing small particles to be slightly out of focus during part of the rotation. For that reason, we chose to report the average of the five highest values in a time period rather the average of all values. Higher resolution can be made available upon request, but a conversation with the PI would be important to fully understand the planned usage and if the higher resolution data were to be useful for the task. Please contact instrument PI, Carl Schmitt (naturalsystemsresearch@gmail.com) with any questions about these data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗