Results for “Level Set Method” — Page 44

DOE OSTI2025

2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study

# 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study The 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study collected household- and person-level activity and travel pattern information from residents throughout the Puget Sound Regional Council's four-county region in Washington State. It followed the [2014-2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study](https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/secure-transportation-data/tsdc-puget-sound-travel-study), starting a planned six-year data collection that includes 2019 and 2021. The multiyear program's goal is to maintain an updated source of household travel behavior data that: - Supports modeling and planning needs - Facilitates trend analysis over time - Allows for regular study design updates to integrate evolving data collection methods and emerging travel behaviors and transportation issues. ## Data Collection Agency The Puget Sound Regional Council conducted the study. ## Methodology The 2017 study featured both the design and administration of a one-day household travel diary (approximately 80% of households before data cleaning) and a seven-day smartphone global positioning system (GPS) diary (approximately 20% of households before data cleaning). It combined data collection methods, including smartphone, online, and telephone. The survey design included several stages to recruit and collect data about households, their members, and their travel behaviors during the assigned travel period. ## Survey Records Survey records include a total of 6,254 participants. ## More Information For more information, see the [survey documentation](https://www.nrel.gov/media/docs/libraries/tsdc/zip/tsdc-2017-puget-sound-travel-study-documentation.zip?sfvrsn=45991f2f_1). ## Transportation Data The data set contains a demographic and socioeconomic composition of 6,254 people from 3,285 households in the Puget Sound regional area, as well as detailed information on the travel behavior of each household for a designated 24-hour period. The survey logged over 508 thousand vehicle miles of travel by participants during 52,492 trips. Transportation data are available as zipped files. [Download Winzip](http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study

# 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study The 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study collected household- and person-level activity and travel pattern information from residents throughout the Puget Sound Regional Council's four-county region in Washington State. It followed the [2014-2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study](https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/secure-transportation-data/tsdc-puget-sound-travel-study), starting a planned six-year data collection that includes 2019 and 2021. The multiyear program's goal is to maintain an updated source of household travel behavior data that: - Supports modeling and planning needs - Facilitates trend analysis over time - Allows for regular study design updates to integrate evolving data collection methods and emerging travel behaviors and transportation issues. ## Data Collection Agency The Puget Sound Regional Council conducted the study. ## Methodology The 2017 study featured both the design and administration of a one-day household travel diary (approximately 80% of households before data cleaning) and a seven-day smartphone global positioning system (GPS) diary (approximately 20% of households before data cleaning). It combined data collection methods, including smartphone, online, and telephone. The survey design included several stages to recruit and collect data about households, their members, and their travel behaviors during the assigned travel period. ## Survey Records Survey records include a total of 6,254 participants. ## More Information For more information, see the [survey documentation](https://www.nrel.gov/media/docs/libraries/tsdc/zip/tsdc-2017-puget-sound-travel-study-documentation.zip?sfvrsn=45991f2f_1). ## Transportation Data The data set contains a demographic and socioeconomic composition of 6,254 people from 3,285 households in the Puget Sound regional area, as well as detailed information on the travel behavior of each household for a designated 24-hour period. The survey logged over 508 thousand vehicle miles of travel by participants during 52,492 trips. Transportation data are available as zipped files. [Download Winzip](http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study

# 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study The 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study collected household- and person-level activity and travel pattern information from residents throughout the Puget Sound Regional Council's four-county region in Washington State. It followed the [2014-2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study](https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/secure-transportation-data/tsdc-puget-sound-travel-study), starting a planned six-year data collection that includes 2019 and 2021. The multiyear program's goal is to maintain an updated source of household travel behavior data that: - Supports modeling and planning needs - Facilitates trend analysis over time - Allows for regular study design updates to integrate evolving data collection methods and emerging travel behaviors and transportation issues. ## Data Collection Agency The Puget Sound Regional Council conducted the study. ## Methodology The 2017 study featured both the design and administration of a one-day household travel diary (approximately 80% of households before data cleaning) and a seven-day smartphone global positioning system (GPS) diary (approximately 20% of households before data cleaning). It combined data collection methods, including smartphone, online, and telephone. The survey design included several stages to recruit and collect data about households, their members, and their travel behaviors during the assigned travel period. ## Survey Records Survey records include a total of 6,254 participants. ## More Information For more information, see the [survey documentation](https://www.nrel.gov/media/docs/libraries/tsdc/zip/tsdc-2017-puget-sound-travel-study-documentation.zip?sfvrsn=45991f2f_1). ## Transportation Data The data set contains a demographic and socioeconomic composition of 6,254 people from 3,285 households in the Puget Sound regional area, as well as detailed information on the travel behavior of each household for a designated 24-hour period. The survey logged over 508 thousand vehicle miles of travel by participants during 52,492 trips. Transportation data are available as zipped files. [Download Winzip](http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study

# 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study The 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study collected household- and person-level activity and travel pattern information from residents throughout the Puget Sound Regional Council's four-county region in Washington State. It followed the [2014-2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study](https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/secure-transportation-data/tsdc-puget-sound-travel-study), starting a planned six-year data collection that includes 2019 and 2021. The multiyear program's goal is to maintain an updated source of household travel behavior data that: - Supports modeling and planning needs - Facilitates trend analysis over time - Allows for regular study design updates to integrate evolving data collection methods and emerging travel behaviors and transportation issues. ## Data Collection Agency The Puget Sound Regional Council conducted the study. ## Methodology The 2017 study featured both the design and administration of a one-day household travel diary (approximately 80% of households before data cleaning) and a seven-day smartphone global positioning system (GPS) diary (approximately 20% of households before data cleaning). It combined data collection methods, including smartphone, online, and telephone. The survey design included several stages to recruit and collect data about households, their members, and their travel behaviors during the assigned travel period. ## Survey Records Survey records include a total of 6,254 participants. ## More Information For more information, see the [survey documentation](https://www.nrel.gov/media/docs/libraries/tsdc/zip/tsdc-2017-puget-sound-travel-study-documentation.zip?sfvrsn=45991f2f_1). ## Transportation Data The data set contains a demographic and socioeconomic composition of 6,254 people from 3,285 households in the Puget Sound regional area, as well as detailed information on the travel behavior of each household for a designated 24-hour period. The survey logged over 508 thousand vehicle miles of travel by participants during 52,492 trips. Transportation data are available as zipped files. [Download Winzip](http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study

# 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study The 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study collected household- and person-level activity and travel pattern information from residents throughout the Puget Sound Regional Council's four-county region in Washington State. It followed the [2014-2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study](https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/secure-transportation-data/tsdc-puget-sound-travel-study), starting a planned six-year data collection that includes 2019 and 2021. The multiyear program's goal is to maintain an updated source of household travel behavior data that: - Supports modeling and planning needs - Facilitates trend analysis over time - Allows for regular study design updates to integrate evolving data collection methods and emerging travel behaviors and transportation issues. ## Data Collection Agency The Puget Sound Regional Council conducted the study. ## Methodology The 2017 study featured both the design and administration of a one-day household travel diary (approximately 80% of households before data cleaning) and a seven-day smartphone global positioning system (GPS) diary (approximately 20% of households before data cleaning). It combined data collection methods, including smartphone, online, and telephone. The survey design included several stages to recruit and collect data about households, their members, and their travel behaviors during the assigned travel period. ## Survey Records Survey records include a total of 6,254 participants. ## More Information For more information, see the [survey documentation](https://www.nrel.gov/media/docs/libraries/tsdc/zip/tsdc-2017-puget-sound-travel-study-documentation.zip?sfvrsn=45991f2f_1). ## Transportation Data The data set contains a demographic and socioeconomic composition of 6,254 people from 3,285 households in the Puget Sound regional area, as well as detailed information on the travel behavior of each household for a designated 24-hour period. The survey logged over 508 thousand vehicle miles of travel by participants during 52,492 trips. Transportation data are available as zipped files. [Download Winzip](http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study

# 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study The 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study collected household- and person-level activity and travel pattern information from residents throughout the Puget Sound Regional Council's four-county region in Washington State. It followed the [2014-2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study](https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/secure-transportation-data/tsdc-puget-sound-travel-study), starting a planned six-year data collection that includes 2019 and 2021. The multiyear program's goal is to maintain an updated source of household travel behavior data that: - Supports modeling and planning needs - Facilitates trend analysis over time - Allows for regular study design updates to integrate evolving data collection methods and emerging travel behaviors and transportation issues. ## Data Collection Agency The Puget Sound Regional Council conducted the study. ## Methodology The 2017 study featured both the design and administration of a one-day household travel diary (approximately 80% of households before data cleaning) and a seven-day smartphone global positioning system (GPS) diary (approximately 20% of households before data cleaning). It combined data collection methods, including smartphone, online, and telephone. The survey design included several stages to recruit and collect data about households, their members, and their travel behaviors during the assigned travel period. ## Survey Records Survey records include a total of 6,254 participants. ## More Information For more information, see the [survey documentation](https://www.nrel.gov/media/docs/libraries/tsdc/zip/tsdc-2017-puget-sound-travel-study-documentation.zip?sfvrsn=45991f2f_1). ## Transportation Data The data set contains a demographic and socioeconomic composition of 6,254 people from 3,285 households in the Puget Sound regional area, as well as detailed information on the travel behavior of each household for a designated 24-hour period. The survey logged over 508 thousand vehicle miles of travel by participants during 52,492 trips. Transportation data are available as zipped files. [Download Winzip](http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study

# 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study The 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study collected household- and person-level activity and travel pattern information from residents throughout the Puget Sound Regional Council's four-county region in Washington State. It followed the [2014-2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study](https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/secure-transportation-data/tsdc-puget-sound-travel-study), starting a planned six-year data collection that includes 2019 and 2021. The multiyear program's goal is to maintain an updated source of household travel behavior data that: - Supports modeling and planning needs - Facilitates trend analysis over time - Allows for regular study design updates to integrate evolving data collection methods and emerging travel behaviors and transportation issues. ## Data Collection Agency The Puget Sound Regional Council conducted the study. ## Methodology The 2017 study featured both the design and administration of a one-day household travel diary (approximately 80% of households before data cleaning) and a seven-day smartphone global positioning system (GPS) diary (approximately 20% of households before data cleaning). It combined data collection methods, including smartphone, online, and telephone. The survey design included several stages to recruit and collect data about households, their members, and their travel behaviors during the assigned travel period. ## Survey Records Survey records include a total of 6,254 participants. ## More Information For more information, see the [survey documentation](https://www.nrel.gov/media/docs/libraries/tsdc/zip/tsdc-2017-puget-sound-travel-study-documentation.zip?sfvrsn=45991f2f_1). ## Transportation Data The data set contains a demographic and socioeconomic composition of 6,254 people from 3,285 households in the Puget Sound regional area, as well as detailed information on the travel behavior of each household for a designated 24-hour period. The survey logged over 508 thousand vehicle miles of travel by participants during 52,492 trips. Transportation data are available as zipped files. [Download Winzip](http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study

# 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study The 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study collected household- and person-level activity and travel pattern information from residents throughout the Puget Sound Regional Council's four-county region in Washington State. It followed the [2014-2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study](https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/secure-transportation-data/tsdc-puget-sound-travel-study), starting a planned six-year data collection that includes 2019 and 2021. The multiyear program's goal is to maintain an updated source of household travel behavior data that: - Supports modeling and planning needs - Facilitates trend analysis over time - Allows for regular study design updates to integrate evolving data collection methods and emerging travel behaviors and transportation issues. ## Data Collection Agency The Puget Sound Regional Council conducted the study. ## Methodology The 2017 study featured both the design and administration of a one-day household travel diary (approximately 80% of households before data cleaning) and a seven-day smartphone global positioning system (GPS) diary (approximately 20% of households before data cleaning). It combined data collection methods, including smartphone, online, and telephone. The survey design included several stages to recruit and collect data about households, their members, and their travel behaviors during the assigned travel period. ## Survey Records Survey records include a total of 6,254 participants. ## More Information For more information, see the [survey documentation](https://www.nrel.gov/media/docs/libraries/tsdc/zip/tsdc-2017-puget-sound-travel-study-documentation.zip?sfvrsn=45991f2f_1). ## Transportation Data The data set contains a demographic and socioeconomic composition of 6,254 people from 3,285 households in the Puget Sound regional area, as well as detailed information on the travel behavior of each household for a designated 24-hour period. The survey logged over 508 thousand vehicle miles of travel by participants during 52,492 trips. Transportation data are available as zipped files. [Download Winzip](http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study

# 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study The 2017 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study collected household- and person-level activity and travel pattern information from residents throughout the Puget Sound Regional Council's four-county region in Washington State. It followed the [2014-2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study](https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/secure-transportation-data/tsdc-puget-sound-travel-study), starting a planned six-year data collection that includes 2019 and 2021. The multiyear program's goal is to maintain an updated source of household travel behavior data that: - Supports modeling and planning needs - Facilitates trend analysis over time - Allows for regular study design updates to integrate evolving data collection methods and emerging travel behaviors and transportation issues. ## Data Collection Agency The Puget Sound Regional Council conducted the study. ## Methodology The 2017 study featured both the design and administration of a one-day household travel diary (approximately 80% of households before data cleaning) and a seven-day smartphone global positioning system (GPS) diary (approximately 20% of households before data cleaning). It combined data collection methods, including smartphone, online, and telephone. The survey design included several stages to recruit and collect data about households, their members, and their travel behaviors during the assigned travel period. ## Survey Records Survey records include a total of 6,254 participants. ## More Information For more information, see the [survey documentation](https://www.nrel.gov/media/docs/libraries/tsdc/zip/tsdc-2017-puget-sound-travel-study-documentation.zip?sfvrsn=45991f2f_1). ## Transportation Data The data set contains a demographic and socioeconomic composition of 6,254 people from 3,285 households in the Puget Sound regional area, as well as detailed information on the travel behavior of each household for a designated 24-hour period. The survey logged over 508 thousand vehicle miles of travel by participants during 52,492 trips. Transportation data are available as zipped files. [Download Winzip](http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2023

Application of quasimetagenomics methods to define microbial diversity and subtype Listeria monocytogenes in dairy and seafood production facilities

Microorganisms frequently colonize surfaces within food production facilities. Detection of Listeria monocytogenes in this setting relies on culture-dependent methods, but the complex dynamics of bacterial interactions within these environments and their impact on pathogen detection remain largely unexplored. To address this challenge, we applied both 16S rRNA and shotgun quasimetagenomic (enriched microbiome) sequencing of swab culture enrichments from five seafood and seven dairy production environments. Utilizing 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we observed variability between 355 samples taken from these 12 production facilities and a distinctive microbiome for each environment. With shotgun quasimetagenomic sequencing, we were able to assemble L. monocytogenes metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from 28 of the 32 culture-positive samples. We compared these MAGs to their corresponding whole-genome sequencing assemblies, which resulted in two polyphyletic clades consisting of L. monocytogenes lineages I and II with 13,195 and 25,556 single-nucleotide polymorphism sites, respectively. The remaining four MAGs did not produce sufficient genome coverage. To understand and establish limits for pathogen detection and subtyping using shotgun quasimetagenomics, these same data sets were downsampled in slilico to produce a titration series of abundances of L. monocytogenes and analyzed. Pathogen detection was achieved for all downsampled data sets, even those with only 3× genome coverage. This study contributes to the understanding of microbial diversity within food production environments and presents insights into the level of genome coverage needed in a metagenome sequencing data set to detect, subtype, and source track a foodborne pathogen.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Predicting transport of intra-articularly injected growth factor fusion proteins into human knee joint cartilage

There are no drugs or treatment methods known to prevent the development of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA), a type of osteoarthritis (OA) that is triggered by traumatic joint injuries and accounts for ~12% of the nearly 600 million OA cases worldwide. Lack of effective drug delivery techniques remains a major challenge in developing clinically effective treatments, but cationic delivery carriers can help overcome this challenge. Scaling up treatments that are effective in in vitro models to achieve success in preclinical in vivo models and clinical trials is also a challenging problem in the field. Here we use a cationic green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a carrier to deliver Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1), a drug considered as a potential therapeutic for PTOA. GFP-IGF-1 conjugates were first synthesized as fusion proteins with different polypeptide linkers, and their transport properties were characterized in human cartilage explants. In vitro experimental data were used to develop a predictive mathematical transport model that was validated using an independent in vitro experimental data set. In this study, the model was used to predict the transport of these fusion proteins upon intra-articular injection into human knee joints. The predictions included results for the rate and extent of fusion protein penetration into cartilage, and the maximum levels of fusion proteins that would escape into systemic circulation through the joint capsule. Together, our transport measurements and model set the stage for translation of such explant culture studies to in vivo preclinical studies and potentially clinical application.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2023

Dynamics of a relativistic jet through magnetized media

The merger of two neutron stars (NSs) produces the emission of gravitational waves, the formation of a compact object surrounded by a dense and magnetized environment. If the binary undergoes delayed collapse a collimated and relativistic jet, which will eventually produce a short gamma-ray burst (SGRB), may be launched. The interaction of the jet with the environment has been shown to play a major role in shaping the structure of the outflow that eventually powers the gamma-ray emission. In this paper, we present a set of 2.5D RMHD simulations that follow the evolution of a relativistic non-magnetized jet through a medium with different magnetization levels, as produced after the merger of two NSs. We find that the predominant consequence of a magnetized ambient medium is that of suppressing instabilities within the jet and preventing the formation of a series of collimation shocks. One implication of this is that internal shocks lose efficiency, causing bursts with low-luminosity prompt emission. On the other hand, the jet-head velocity and the induced magnetization within the jet are fairly independent of the magnetization of the ambient medium. Future numerical studies with a larger domain are necessary to obtain light curves and spectra in order to better understand the role of magnetized media.

(magnetohydrodynamics) MHD↗

DOE OSTI2022

Process-oriented stochastic perturbations applied to the parametrization of turbulence and shallow convection for ensemble prediction

Weather forecasting nowadays often requires some estimation of uncertainties associated with the output of meteorological models, in order to better inform decision making, especially in the context of intense weather events. Ensemble prediction systems provide such information through sets of possible scenarios which are designed to represent various uncertainty sources, including model uncertainties. A wide variety of methods have been proposed to estimate model uncertainties, among which perturbation methods targeting uncertain processes are a promising research field. Here, we focus on the representation of small-scale variability by process-oriented perturbation schemes applied to two key physical processes, namely turbulence and shallow convection. The perturbations are applied to a single-column version of the convection-permitting AROME model, in three idealized boundary-layer cases. Large-eddy simulations (LESs) of the same cases serve as a reference for the subgrid variability that has to be represented, and the results are also compared to those given by the Stochastically Perturbed Parametrization Tendencies (SPPT) method, which is a method commonly used by weather forecast centres to represent model uncertainty. The spread produced by our process-oriented perturbations of turbulence and shallow convection does not represent all the small-scale variability implied by the LESs for temperature and humidity. However, it is of a similar order of magnitude for the wind, thanks to perturbations generated by the stochastic turbulence scheme. The dispersion is structurally different from what is obtained with SPPT. It is non-negligible in the lower levels, where SPPT perturbations are usually suppressed because of numerical instabilities, indicating a possible complementarity between the schemes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Availability and Performance Loss Factors for U.S. PV Fleet Systems

In the PV Fleet Performance Data Initiative, we partner with photovoltaic (PV) fleet owners to collect time-series PV production data and publish aggregated, anonymized results. This report is an update of our previous publications, specifically a FY 2021 performance index publication and a FY 2022 fleet degradation analysis. In this analysis, we have increased our data participants and system totals by around 10% to 8.5 GW and 24,000 separate inverter data channels. Four major analysis topics are considered in this report: Performance Index (PI) trends, PV system availability, soiling losses, and PV system degradation. Performance Index and inverter availability are assessed on a larger set of data from our FY 2021 report: 1,128 systems compared with 200 systems from before. The increased number of systems is due to an improved data quality methodology, as well as introducing new systems to the analysis. Overall results are similar to previously published values - overall inverter availability is low in the first six months of system performance before reaching steady-state by the end of the first year. Excluding this six-month startup period, system-level aggregated data shows a median (P50) system availability of 0.99 and a lower 10th percentile (P90) value of 0.95 (Figure ES-1). A dependence on system size is also demonstrated, with worse inverter availability results for larger PV systems. Causes of this effect are under investigation, but may be impacted by inverter size, which also show lower availability for larger inverter sizes. This report also investigates PI, correcting for degradation, soiling, snow, and availability. Following these corrections, the median system PI over its entire lifetime is 0.95. PI values reported here are approximately 3% lower than what we presented in our previous FY 2021 report. Soiling loss is assessed in a comprehensive way for the first time in this report. Results are presented using the COmbined Degradation and Soiling (CODS) method, as implemented in RdTools (v3.0.0a4). Soiling values are presented for 255 systems, which indicated irradiance-weighted soiling loss greater than 1%. The values have been published in an updated NREL soiling map at nrel.gov/pv/soiling.html. Finally, we investigated system degradation using three different data analysis techniques: conventional RdTools (year-on-year (YOY)), CODS, and Performance Loss Rate (PLR) analysis. Overall degradation results are consistent with our previous publications. Rerunning conventional RdTools on our updated fleet shows that some data partners have systematically fallen below the median system degradation rate (change over time) of -0.75 %/year. A comparison with PLR analysis, which looks at change in annual PI over time, shows that median system degradation is consistent with -0.5% to -0.75% per year change. However, at the P90 value, system degradation is substantially faster. These two results are consistent and indicate that resulting degradation statistics depend to a great degree on the population of PV systems making up the analysis cohort and whether soiling impacts the systems. The use of CODS for degradation analysis provides a different method for degradation assessment, which explicitly excludes the impact of recoverable soiling on degradation analysis. Excluding soiling effects yields an annual system degradation around -0.5% per year on average. This indicates that a portion of system performance loss may be attributed to periodic soiling that is not fully recovered. This report provides PV system owners/operators with background and methods to analyze PV system performance, give guidance for expected cohort performance, and performance loss values for use in pro-forma financial models, which guide new-build system design and bankability reports.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Multilevel Spectral Coarsening for Graph Laplacian Problems with Application to Reservoir Simulation

We extend previously developed two-level coarsening procedures for graph Laplacian problems written in a mixed saddle point form to the fully recursive multilevel case. The resulting hierarchy of discretizations gives rise to a hierarchy of upscaled models, in the sense that they provide approximation in the natural norms (in the mixed setting). This property enables us to utilize them in three applications: (i) as an accurate reduced model, (ii) as a tool in multilevel Monte Carlo simulations (in application to finite volume discretizations), and (iii) for providing a sequence of nonlinear operators in a full approximation scheme for solving nonlinear pressure equations discretized by the conservative two-point flux approximation. Finally, we illustrate the potential of the proposed multilevel technique in all three applications on a number of popular benchmark problems used in reservoir simulation.

multilevel Monte Carlo↗

DOE OSTI2020

Major Revisions in Arthropod Phylogeny Through Improved Supermatrix, With Support for Two Possible Waves of Land Invasion by Chelicerates

Deep phylogeny involving arthropod lineages is difficult to recover because the erosion of phylogenetic signals over time leads to unreliable multiple sequence alignment (MSA) and subsequent phylogenetic reconstruction. One way to alleviate the problem is to assemble a large number of gene sequences to compensate for the weakness in each individual gene. Such an approach has led to many robustly supported but contradictory phylogenies. A close examination shows that the supermatrix approach often suffers from two shortcomings. The first is that MSA is rarely checked for reliability and, as will be illustrated, can be poor. The second is that, to alleviate the problem of homoplasy at the third codon position of protein-coding genes due to convergent evolution of nucleotide frequencies, phylogeneticists may remove or degenerate the third codon position but may do it improperly and introduce new biases. We performed extensive reanalysis of one of such “big data” sets to highlight these two problems, and demonstrated the power and benefits of correcting or alleviating these problems. Our results support a new group with Xiphosura and Arachnopulmonata (Tetrapulmonata + Scorpiones) as sister taxa. This favors a new hypothesis in which the ancestor of Xiphosura and the extinct Eurypterida (sea scorpions, of which many later forms lived in brackish or freshwater) returned to the sea after the initial chelicerate invasion of land. Our phylogeny is supported even with the original data but processed with a new “principled” codon degeneration. We also show that removing the 1673 codon sites with both AGN and UCN codons (encoding serine) in our alignment can partially reconcile discrepancies between nucleotide-based and AA-based tree, partly because two sequences, one with AGN and the other with UCN, would be identical at the amino acid level but quite different at the nucleotide level.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Forecasting constraints on the mean free path of ionizing photons at z ≥ 5.4 from the Lyman-α forest flux autocorrelation function

ABSTRACT Fluctuations in Lyman-α (Ly α) forest transmission towards high-z quasars are partially sourced from spatial fluctuations in the ultraviolet background, the level of which are set by the mean free path of ionizing photons (λmfp). The autocorrelation function of Ly α forest flux characterizes the strength and scale of transmission fluctuations and, as we show, is thus sensitive to λmfp. Recent measurements at z ∼ 6 suggest a rapid evolution of λmfp at z > 5.0 which would leave a signature in the evolution of the autocorrelation function. For this forecast, we model mock Ly α forest data with properties similar to the XQR-30 extended data set at 5.4 ≤ z ≤ 6.0. At each z, we investigate 100 mock data sets and an ideal case where mock data matches model values of the autocorrelation function. For ideal data with λmfp = 9.0 cMpc at z = 6.0, we recover $\lambda _{\text{mfp}}=12^{+6}_{-3}$ cMpc. This precision is comparable to direct measurements of λmfp from the stacking of quasar spectra beyond the Lyman limit. Hypothetical high-resolution data leads to a $\sim 40~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ reduction in the error bars over all z. The distribution of mock values of the autocorrelation function in this work is highly non-Gaussian for high-z, which should caution work with other statistics of the high-z Ly α forest against making this assumption. We use a rigorous statistical method to pass an inference test, however future work on non-Gaussian methods will enable higher precision measurements.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

DOE OSTI2021

An Orthogonal Recursive Bisection (ORB) Based Time Advancement Algorithm for CFD-DEM Solvers

The time integration of the granular phase in coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) – discrete element method (DEM) simulations presents a unique computational challenge brought about by the large variations in particle collisional time scales. Particles in the dilute regions of the computational domain can be advanced with large time steps while dense regions require much smaller time increments. However, the time step size in most solvers is globally set as the limit for accuracy and stability imposed by the collisions and is typically orders of magnitude less than that required away from collisions. This work addresses this precise issue and provides a strategy to avoid the use of a global conservative small time step size for the entire set of particles.A novel time stepping algorithm for CFD-DEM solvers using a partitioning approach using orthogonal recursive bisection (ORB) that allows for variable time steps among particles is described and its computational performance is compared against baseline explicit methods, typically used in several CFD-DEM solvers. ORB has advantages of being relatively quick and easy to update incrementally and has the required heuristic behavior (i.e., it will split the region in half with a cluster on each side) when groups of particles are well separated (clustered). The algorithm presented in this work uses a local time stepping approach to resolve collisional time scales for subsets of particles that are present at the leaves of the ORB, thereby resulting in substantial reduction of computational cost. The parallel implementation of this method where a ``knapsack” algorithm is used in tandem with ORB for effective load-balancing is also presented, where a best possible partitioning is obtained based on number of particles and local time-stepping costs. The algorithm is tested against benchmark problems with varying particle distributions that include fluidized bed and riser flow scenarios. Preliminary results indicate that the approach is 2-3X faster than traditional explicit methods for problems that involve both dense and dilute regions, while maintaining the same level of accuracy.

adaptive timestepping↗