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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 649 records · Page 36
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Unravelling merging behaviors and electrostatic properties of CVD-grown monolayer MoS{sub 2} domains

The presence of grain boundaries is inevitable for chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown MoS{sub 2} domains owing to various merging behaviors, which greatly limits its potential applications in novel electronic and optoelectronic devices. It is therefore of great significance to unravel the merging behaviors of the synthesized polygon shape MoS{sub 2} domains. Here we provide systematic investigations of merging behaviors and electrostatic properties of CVD-grown polycrystalline MoS{sub 2} crystals by multiple means. Morphological results exhibit various polygon shape features, ascribed to polycrystalline crystals merged with triangle shape MoS{sub 2} single crystals. The thickness of triangle and polygon shape MoS{sub 2} crystals is identical manifested by Raman intensity and peak position mappings. Three merging behaviors are proposed to illustrate the formation mechanisms of observed various polygon shaped MoS{sub 2} crystals. The combined photoemission electron microscopy and kelvin probe force microscopy results reveal that the surface potential of perfect merged crystals is identical, which has an important implication for fabricating MoS{sub 2}-based devices.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Helium segregation and transport behavior near $\langle$100$\rangle$ and $\langle$110$\rangle$ symmetric tilt grain boundaries in tungsten

This work reports on the results of a systematic atomistic modeling study of small helium cluster behavior near tungsten symmetric tilt grain boundaries. This behavior was viewed qualitatively by molecular dynamics simulations and quantitatively by molecular statics simulations combined with elastic inclusion theory. The sink strength is used to describe the magnitude of the clusters' attraction to the grain boundary. We find that small helium clusters show impeded transport behavior relative to the bulk around all types of grain boundaries, including low-angle, high-angle, low-Sigma-value, and high-Sigma-value grain boundaries. Helium clusters tend to become trapped near, but usually not directly on, the grain boundary plane. Both the distance between the helium cluster and the grain boundary when the cluster first becomes immobilized and the sink strength are correlated with helium cluster size, grain boundary formation energy, grain boundary tilt angle, excess volume, and other aspects of grain boundary structure. We anticipate similar impeded transport behavior for other types of grain boundaries and in other metals, because helium is effectively insoluble in most materials and has a similar interstitial-based diffusion mechanism in most metals.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Coupling solidification kinetics with phase-behavior computations in hydrodynamic simulations of high-pressure, dynamic-compression processes

In this study, we report a numerical scheme to integrate models for the kinetics of solidification processes together with phase-behavior computations in the context of continuum-scale hydrodynamic simulations. The objective of the phase-behavior computations is to determine the pressure and temperature, given the following three sets of inputs: (1) an appropriate equation of state to describe our system, (2) the phase fraction(s) produced by the kinetic models, (3) and the volume and internal energy obtained by solving the conservation equations that govern the hydrodynamic behavior. The kinetics are assumed to be governed by the Kolmogorov–Johnson–Mehl–Avrami equation, and the nucleation and growth rates that enter into that equation are functions of the pressure and temperature produced by the phase-behavior computations. Our formulation allows for the fluid and solid phases to be at different temperatures (thermal nonequilibrium) and pressures (arising from surface-tension-induced Laplace contributions). The formulation is presented in a fairly general setting that is independent of any particular material, although we demonstrate it in some examples related to high-energy-density science applications where materials are rapidly compressed to pressures exceeding several gigapascals in less than a microsecond. We conclude with a critical evaluation of our approach and provide suggestions for future work to improve the predictive capabilities and generality of the models.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2012

Long range order and two-fluid behavior in heavy electron materials

The heavy electron Kondo liquid is an emergent state of condensed matter that displays universal behavior independent of material details. Properties of the heavy electron liquid are best probed by NMR Knight shift measurements, which provide a direct measure of the behavior of the heavy electron liquid that emerges below the Kondo lattice coherence temperature as the lattice of local moments hybridizes with the background conduction electrons. Because the transfer of spectral weight between the localized and itinerant electronic degrees of freedom is gradual, the Kondo liquid typically coexists with the local moment component until the material orders at low temperatures. The two-fluid formula captures this behavior in a broad range of materials in the paramagnetic state. In order to investigate two-fluid behavior and the onset and physical origin of different long range ordered ground states in heavy electron materials, we have extended Knight shift measurements to URu 2 Si 2 , CeIrIn 5 , and CeRhIn 5 . In CeRhIn 5 we find that the antiferromagnetic order is preceded by a relocalization of the Kondo liquid, providing independent evidence for a local moment origin of antiferromagnetism. In URu 2 Si 2 the hidden order is shown to emerge directly from the Kondo liquid and so is not associated with local moment physics. Lastly, our results imply that the nature of the ground state is strongly coupled with the hybridization in the Kondo lattice in agreement with phase diagram proposed by Yang and Pines.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Hydroacoustic Assessment of Behavioral Responses by Fish Passing Near an Operating Tidal Turbine in the East River, New York

An important environmental issue facing the marine and hydrokinetic energy industry is whether fish that encounter underwater energy devices are likely to be struck and injured by moving components, primarily rotating turbine blades. The automated analysis of nearly 3 weeks of multibeam hydroacoustics data identified about 35,000 tracks of fish passing a tidal turbine in the East River, New York. These tracks included both individual fish and schools during periods with the turbine absent, the turbine present and operating, and the turbine present but not operating. The density of fish in the sampled area when the turbine was absent was roughly twice the density observed when the turbine was in place, particularly when the turbine was operating. This suggests that some avoidance occurred before fish were close enough to the turbine to be observed by the hydroacoustics system. Various measures of swimming behavior (direction, velocity, and linearity) were calculated for each track and evaluated for indication of behavioral responses to turbine presence and operation. Fish tracks were grouped based on tidal cycle, current velocity, and swimming direction and were evaluated with respect to turbine presence and operation and with respect to distance from the turbine. Nonparametric tests (Kolmogorov–Smirnov test) and multivariate analysis (canonical discriminant analysis) found significant differences among groups with respect to turbine presence and operation, suggesting that some fish responded to the turbine by adjusting swimming behavior, such as making small adjustments to swimming direction and velocity as they passed near the turbine. We found no evidence that fish were being struck by rotating blades, but there did appear to be large-scale avoidance initiated out of the range of the hydroacoustics detection system. Furthermore, more study is needed to determine whether such avoidance behavior has significant ramifications for normal fish movement patterns, bioenergetics, seasonal migrations, and predator exposure.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dynamic Behavior of Oval-Twisted Helical Tube Heat Exchanger: Numerical Study with RELAP5-3D

Convective heat transfer characteristics and theoretical thermal stress behaviors are numerically calculated using RELAP5-3D for the helical-coiled once-through steam generator (H-OTSG) and the novel heat exchanger design known as the oval-twisted helically coiled heat exchanger (OTHCHX) under (1) fluctuating wall temperature conditions, (2) square-wave pulsating flow conditions, and (3) the combined effects of fluctuating wall temperature and square-wave pulsating flow conditions. Heat transfer coefficient models for the H-OTSG and OTHCHX were developed based on existing data and implemented into RELAP5-3D, successfully capturing the N⁢uavg behavior within 8% to 10% of the reported data. Under fluctuating wall temperature conditions, the OTHCHX displayed higher N⁢u avg behavior than the H-OTSG. As 𝑓 increased, the $𝜎^{𝑚⁢𝑎⁢𝑥}_{𝑡⁢ℎ}$ decreased. The $𝜎^{𝑚⁢𝑎⁢𝑥}_{𝑡⁢ℎ}$ was higher for the OTHCHX than for the H-OTSG under fluctuating wall temperature conditions. Under pulsating flow conditions, the H-OTSG and OTHCHX displayed much higher 𝑁⁢𝑢 𝑎𝑣𝑔 than under constant flow conditions. The H-OTSG displayed a higher $𝜎^{𝑚⁢𝑎⁢𝑥}_{𝑡⁢ℎ}$ over the OTHCHX. Under combined fluctuating wall temperature and pulsating flow conditions, the augmented heat transfer behavior from the pulsating flow was counteracted by the wall temperature fluctuations, producing slightly higher 𝑁⁢𝑢 𝑎𝑣𝑔 over constant wall temperature, constant flow conditions, but much lower than only constant pulsating flow under constant wall temperature conditions. The effects of simultaneous wall temperature fluctuations and square-wave pulsating flow caused higher $𝜎^{𝑚⁢𝑎⁢𝑥}_{𝑡⁢ℎ}$ than that of only wall temperature fluctuations or pulsating flow. As the Reynolds number (Re) increased, $𝜎^{𝑚⁢𝑎⁢𝑥}_{𝑡⁢ℎ}$ increased. However, when 𝑓=𝑓$_{\dot{m}}$, the $𝜎^{𝑚⁢𝑎⁢𝑥}_{𝑡⁢ℎ}$ showed decreasing values as Re increased. In conclusion, the results indicate that thermal-fluid resonance can help mitigate thermal stresses.

Thermal stress↗
DOE OSTI2013

Reproductive Behavior and Success of Captive-Reared Chinook Salmon Spawning under Natural Conditions

Abstract In response to declining returns of Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp., captive-rearing programs have emerged as one approach to maintain natural-origin stocks while mechanisms responsible for their decline are addressed. However, it remains unclear if observed differences in reproductive behavior between captive-origin (captive) and natural-origin (natural) Chinook Salmon O. tshawytscha in laboratory experiments accurately predict reproductive success of captive salmon in the natural environment. Over a 4-year period, 859 natural Chinook Salmon juveniles were collected for full-term rearing in captivity. From these, we returned 247 maturing adults to their natal stream over 2 years, assessed trends in habitat use, monitored their courtship and spawning behaviors, and sampled their redds to determine if fertilized eggs were present. Habitat use followed a logical trend toward spawning areas as the season progressed. Captive fish were smaller and spawned later than did natural fish, but their size did not prevent females from constructing redds or prevent males from courting and fertilizing eggs. Captive fish were observed participating in 16 spawning events over two seasons. Captive and natural males displayed the same courtship behaviors, but natural males were more aggressive. Captive females selected redd sites similar to those of natural females and displayed digging behavior consistent with published observations. Eggs were collected from 22 of the 26 redds sampled, and survival to organogenesis was 68.3% in 2001 and 34.6% in 2002. The decline in 2002 was at least partially due to an apparent failure of females from brood year 1997 to produce viable eggs. We estimated captive fish contributed 19,000 eyed eggs to the population. If the 859 juveniles reared in captivity had been left in the stream, fewer than one adult would be expected to have returned. Growth, timing of spawning, and egg survival issues remain in captive fish, which illustrates a need to focus future research on improved culture techniques. Received July 21, 2011; accepted October 26, 2012

Venditti, David A.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Factors associated with emerging multimodal transportation behavior in the San Francisco Bay Area

Abstract This paper identifies the influence of demographic, local transportation environment, and individual preferences for transportation attributes on multimodal transportation behavior in an urban environment with emergent transportation mode availability. Multimodality is the use of more than one mode of transportation during a given timeframe. Multimodality has been considered a key component of sustainable and efficient transportation systems, as this travel behavior can represent a shift away from personal vehicle use to more sustainable transportation modes, especially in urban environments with diverse transportation systems and emergent shared transportation alternatives (e.g., carsharing, ridehailing, bike sharing). However, it is unclear what factors contribute towards people being more likely to exhibit multimodal transportation behavior in modern urban environments. We assessed commuting behavior based on a survey administered in the San Francisco Bay Area according to whether residents commuted (i) exclusively by vehicle, (ii) by a mix of vehicle and non-vehicle modes, or (iii) exclusively by non-vehicle modes. A classification tree approach identified correlations between commuting classes and demographic variables, preferences for transportation attributes, and location-based information. The characterization of commuting styles could inform regional transportation policy and design that aims to reduce vehicle use by identifying the demographic, preference, and location-based considerations correlated with each commuting style.

McAuliffe Wells, Emily↗
DOE OSTI2022

Quantification of microtubule stutters: dynamic instability behaviors that are strongly associated with catastrophe

Microtubules (MTs) are cytoskeletal fibers that undergo dynamic instability (DI), a remarkable process involving phases of growth and shortening separated by stochastic transitions called catastrophe and rescue. Dissecting DI mechanism(s) requires first characterizing and quantifying these dynamics, a subjective process that often ignores complexity in MT behavior. We present a Statistical Tool for Automated Dynamic Instability Analysis (STADIA) that identifies and quantifies not only growth and shortening, but also a category of intermediate behaviors that we term “stutters.” During stutters, the rate of MT length change tends to be smaller in magnitude than during typical growth or shortening phases. Quantifying stutters and other behaviors with STADIA demonstrates that stutters precede most catastrophes in our in vitro experiments and dimer-scale MT simulations, suggesting that stutters are mechanistically involved in catastrophes. Related to this idea, we show that the anticatastrophe factor CLASP2γ works by promoting the return of stuttering MTs to growth. STADIA enables more comprehensive and data-driven analysis of MT dynamics compared with previous methods. The treatment of stutters as distinct and quantifiable DI behaviors provides new opportunities for analyzing mechanisms of MT dynamics and their regulation by binding proteins.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Incubation Temperature Affects Duckling Body Size and Food Consumption Despite No Effect on Associated Feeding Behaviors

Synopsis Developmental conditions can have consequences for offspring fitness. For example, small changes (<1°C) in average avian incubation temperature have large effects on important post-hatch offspring phenotypes, including growth rate, thermoregulation, and behavior. Furthermore, average incubation temperatures differ among eggs within the same nest, to the extent (i.e., >1°C) that differences in offspring phenotypes within broods should result. A potential consequence of within-nest incubation temperature variation is inequality in behaviors that could cause differences in resource acquisition within broods. To investigate this, we incubated wood duck (Aix sponsa) eggs at one of two ecologically-relevant incubation temperatures (35°C or 36°C), formed mixed-incubation temperature broods after ducklings hatched, and conducted trials to measure duckling behaviors associated with acquisition of heat (one trial) or food (three trials). Contrary to our predictions, we found no effect of incubation temperature on duckling behaviors (e.g., time spent occupying heat source, frequency of feeding bouts). However, we found evidence that ducklings incubated at the higher temperature consumed more food during the 1-h feeding trials, and grew faster in body mass and structural size (culmen and tarsus) throughout the study, than those incubated at the lower temperature. Apparent food consumption during the trials was positively related to culmen length, suggesting that differences in food consumption may be driven by structural size. This could result in positive feedback, which would amplify size differences between offspring incubated at different temperatures. Thus, our study identifies incubation temperature as a mechanism by which fitness-related phenotypic differences can be generated and even amplified within avian broods.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Role of stacking defects on the magnetic behavior of CrCl 3

Here, in the study of van der Waals–layered magnetic materials, the properties of CrCl 3 continue to attract attention. This compound is reported to undergo antiferromagnetic ordering below ~14 K, with a ferromagneticlike region proposed to exist between 14 and 17 K. Ideally, the crystal structure is rhombohedral (R) below ~235 K, separated from a higher-temperature monoclinic (M) phase by a layer-sliding structural phase transition. However, the structural transition is often inhibited even in bulk single crystals, allowing M-type layer stacking, reported to have a 10-fold greater interlayer magnetic coupling than R-type stacking, to be present at low temperature. To clarify the effect of stacking defects on CrCl 3 , we report magnetization measurements on samples of varying crystalline quality. At low applied magnetic field, some crystals predominantly show the T N = 14 K peak, but other crystals show hysteretic behavior and a magnetization enhancement at a slightly higher temperature (14 < T ≲ 17 K.) Samples with anomalous behavior exhibit a transition around ~2 T in isothermal magnetization-field data, evidence that M-type stacking defects are the source of these anomalies. Ground powder samples are especially likely to show strongly anomalous behavior. We suggest that the anomalous behavior arises from few-layer magnetic domains that form just above T N in an environment of mixed interlayer magnetic coupling strength. We argue that the influence of M-type stacking boundaries on sublattice magnetization is already observable in reported neutron scattering data, and may be responsible for an enhancement near 17 K in reported specific heat data.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Reentrant metallic behavior in the Weyl semimetal NbP

Here, we report the occurrence of reentrant metallic behavior in the Weyl semimetal NbP. When the applied magnetic field H is above a critical value H c , a reentrance appears as a peak in the temperature-dependent resistivity ρ xx (T) at T=T p , similar to that observed in graphite where it was attributed to local superconductivity. The Tp(H) relationship follows a power-law dependence T p ~(H–H c ) 1/ν where ν can be derived from the temperature dependence of the zero-field resistivity ρ 0 (T)~T ν . From concurrent measurements of the transverse ρ xx (T) and Hall ρ xy (T) magnetoresistivities, we reveal a clear correlation between the rapidly increasing ρ xy (T) and the occurrence of a peak in the ρ xx (T) curve. Quantitative analysis indicates that the reentrant metallic behavior arises from the competition of the magnetoconductivity σ xx (T) with an additional component Δσ xx (T)=κHσ xx (T) where κ H =[ρ xy (T)/ρ xx (T)] 2 is the Hall factor. We find that the Hall factor (κ H ≈0.4) at peak temperature T p is nearly field independent, leading to the observed T p (H) relationship. Furthermore, the reentrant metallic behavior in ρ xx (T) also is reflected in the behavior of ρ xx (H) that ranges from nonsaturating at T > 70K to saturation at liquid-helium temperatures. The latter can be explained with the magnetic field dependence of the Hall factor κ H (H). Lastly, our paper demonstrates that a semiclassical theory can account for the “anomalies” in the magnetotransport phenomena of NbP without invoking an exotic mechanism.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Fuzzy Linguistic Knowledge Based Behavior Extraction for Building Energy Management Systems

Significant portion of world energy production is consumed by building Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) units. Thus along with occupant comfort, energy efficiency is also an important factor in HVAC control. Modern buildings use advanced Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) control schemes to realize these goals. However, since the performance of HVAC units is dependent on many criteria including uncertainties in weather, number of occupants, and thermal state, the performance of current state of the art systems are sub-optimal. Furthermore, because of the large number of sensors in buildings, and the high frequency of data collection, large amount of information is available. Therefore, important behavior of buildings that compromise energy efficiency or occupant comfort is difficult to identify. This paper presents an easy to use and understandable framework for identifying such behavior. The presented framework uses human understandable knowledge-base to extract important behavior of buildings and present it to users via a graphical user interface. The presented framework was tested on a building in the Pacific Northwest and was shown to be able to identify important behavior that relates to energy efficiency and occupant comfort.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Controllable Reset Behavior in Domain Wall–Magnetic Tunnel Junction Artificial Neurons for Task-Adaptable Computation

Neuromorphic computing with spintronic devices has been of interest due to the limitations of CMOS-driven von Neumann computing. Domain wall–magnetic tunnel junction (DW-MTJ) devices have been shown to be able to intrinsically capture biological neuron behavior. Edgy-relaxed behavior, where a frequently firing neuron experiences a lower action potential threshold, may provide additional artificial neuronal functionality when executing repeated tasks. In this letter, we demonstrate that this behavior can be implemented in DW-MTJ artificial neurons via three alternative mechanisms: shape anisotropy, magnetic field, and current-driven soft reset. Using micromagnetics and analytical device modeling to classify the Optdigits handwritten digit dataset, we show that edgy-relaxed behavior improves both classification accuracy and classification rate for ordered datasets while sacrificing little to no accuracy for a randomized dataset. This letter establishes methods by which artificial spintronic neurons can be flexibly adapted to datasets.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Integrating plant physiology into simulation of fire behavior and effects

Summary Wildfires are a global crisis, but current fire models fail to capture vegetation response to changing climate. With drought and elevated temperature increasing the importance of vegetation dynamics to fire behavior, and the advent of next generation models capable of capturing increasingly complex physical processes, we provide a renewed focus on representation of woody vegetation in fire models. Currently, the most advanced representations of fire behavior and biophysical fire effects are found in distinct classes of fine‐scale models and do not capture variation in live fuel (i.e. living plant) properties. We demonstrate that plant water and carbon dynamics, which influence combustion and heat transfer into the plant and often dictate plant survival, provide the mechanistic linkage between fire behavior and effects. Our conceptual framework linking remotely sensed estimates of plant water and carbon to fine‐scale models of fire behavior and effects could be a critical first step toward improving the fidelity of the coarse scale models that are now relied upon for global fire forecasting. This process‐based approach will be essential to capturing the influence of physiological responses to drought and warming on live fuel conditions, strengthening the science needed to guide fire managers in an uncertain future.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Time will tell: A longitudinal investigation of brain-behavior relationships during reading development

ERPs are a powerful tool for the study of reading, as they are both temporally precise and functionally specific. These are essential characteristics for studying a process that unfolds rapidly and consists of multiple, interactive subprocesses. In work with adults, clear, specific models exist linking components of the ERP with individual subprocesses of reading including orthographic decoding, phonological processing, and semantic access (e.g., Grainger & Holcomb, 2009). The relationships between ERP components and reading subprocesses are less clear in development; here, we address two questions regarding these relationships. First, we ask whether there are ERP markers that predict future reading behaviors across a longitudinal year. Second, we ask whether any relationships observed between ERP components and reading behavior across time map onto the better-established relationships between ERPs and reading subprocesses in adults. To address these questions, we acquired ERPs from children engaging in a silent reading task and then, a year later, collected behavioral assessments of their reading ability. Finally, we find that ERPs collected in Year 1 do predict reading behaviors a year later. Further, we find that these relationships do conform, at least to some extent, to relationships between ERP components and reading subprocesses observed in adults, with, for example, N250 amplitude in Year 1 predicting phonological awareness in Year 2, and N400 amplitude in Year 1 predicting vocabulary in Year 2.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Children explain in‐ and out‐group behavior differently

Abstract Adults manifest a number of attributional biases in explaining the behavior of in‐ versus out‐group members. The present study investigated the developmental origins of such biased explanation. Children from majority and minority populations in Israel, and from majority populations in Germany ( N = 165), were asked to explain the behavior of in‐ and out‐group members. Across ages and groups, children more often referred to group membership when explaining an out‐group as compared to an in‐group member’s behavior; and more often to individual factors when explaining an in‐group as compared to an out‐group member’s behavior. These findings are consistent with the early emergence of fundamental differences in the conceptualizations of in‐ and out‐group members.

Essa, Francine↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-C-204-02: Behavioral and Pathologic Differences in Mice Exposed to Proton Minibeam Arrays Versus Proton Broad Beams

Purpose: Minibeam therapy using protons or light-ions offers a theoretical reduction of biologic damage to tissues upstream of a tumor compared to broad-beam therapy while providing equal tumor control. The purpose of this study was to investigate behavioral and pathologic differences in mice after exposure of healthy brain to proton minibeam arrays versus proton broad beams. Methods: Twenty-four C57BL/6J juvenile mice were divided into 5 study arms: sham irradiation (NoRT), broad-beam 10 Gy (BB10), minibeam 10Gy (MB10), broad-beam 30 Gy (BB30), and minibeam 30 Gy (MB30), approximate integral entrance doses. Circular beams of 100 MeV protons with 7-mm diameter were delivered laterally through the brain, either as broad beams or as planar minibeam arrays having 300-micron beam width and 1-mm spacing on center. Mice were followed for 8 months using standard behavioral tests. Pathologic studies were carried out at 8 months after irradiation. Results: Peak entrance doses were 10.0, 23.8, 30.0, and 71.3 Gy for mice in BB10, MB10, BB30, and MB30, respectively. Despite the high single-fraction doses, no animals showed signs of radiation sickness or neurophysical impairment over the 8-month study duration. The Morris water maze alternate-starting-position trial showed significant evidence of better spatial learning for mice in MB10 versus BB10 (p=0.026), but other behavioral tests showed no significant differences. Glial fibrillary acidic protein stains showed gliosis in arms BB10, BB30, and MB30 but not in NoRT or MB10. A secondary finding was categorically higher epilation in broad-beam arms compared with their minibeam dose counterparts. Conclusion: Our findings indicate trends that, despite the higher peak doses, proton minibeam therapy can reduce radiation side effects in shallow tissue and brain compared to proton broadbeam therapy. As the behavioral findings were mixed, confirmation studies are needed with larger numbers of animals. AAPM Research Seed Funding Grant.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗