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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Effects of Chronic Sleep Restriction on Multiple Object Tracking

The ability to simultaneously track numerous moving objects in the presence of irrelevant stimuli is essential for carrying out a variety of tasks. Sleep loss has been found to impair neurocognitive functioning and, as a result, attentional processing capacity is reduced. A common form of sleep loss is chronic sleep restriction (CSR), in which an inadequate amount of sleep is obtained over consecutive days. The objective of the current study was to determine if performance on the multiple object tracking (MOT) task was adversely impacted by a week of CSR. Twelve healthy participants (6 males, 6 females) kept a fixed sleep-wake schedule, with a constant waketime, at home for four weeks (activity monitors worn on the participant’s nondominant wrist were used to confirm compliance). Weeks one and three were deemed washout weeks, during which participants maintained a 9-hour sleep-wake schedule. Weeks two and four were deemed experimental weeks, during which participants were randomly assigned a 5-hour (CSR) and 9-hour (sleep satiation) sleep-wake schedule. Following night seven of each experimental week, participants completed a 13-hour laboratory visit under dim light (less than 15 lux) where they maintained a constant posture and were provided with hourly isocaloric snacks. MOT was presented at approximately 6 and 8 hours after waking. Participants were required to track four, five, or six moving targets in the presence of identical distractors (always 12 total objects). It was found that participants slept significantly less during the week of CSR compared to the week of sleep satiation. There was no difference in the overall proportion of correct MOT responses following the CSR and sleep satiation weeks. However, an additional analysis examining only the 6 target condition found that the proportion of correct responses was significantly lower following the week of CSR. These findings suggest that CSR has an adverse impact on tracking performance when the cognitive demand was higher. This has implications for individuals, such as air traffic controllers and truck drivers, who must visually track multiple moving objects under high workload situations, often while chronically sleep deprived.

sleep restriction↗

DOE OSTI2024

SSTDR and FDR Detection of Un-Energized and Energized Cable Anomalies Including Thermal Degradation Using Machine Learning

Historically, cables are initially qualified for nuclear power plant use for 40 years. As plants extend their operating license to 60 and 80 years, continued use of these cables must shift to a performance-based approach since it is cost prohibitive to completely replace cables that are likely still capable of performing their design function. A variety of cable tests are available and are commonly applied during outages when the cables can be taken out of service. Frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) is one of these test methods that is being more broadly accepted and used because it not only detects anomalies along the cable with a low-voltage signal that does not stress the cable insulation, but the technique also locates the anomalies. This supports follow-up local inspection and local repair or partial replacement of a damaged cable segment. Currently, FDR testing is only applied to cables that are taken out of service since the test instrument would be damaged by operational voltages. A related technology that has found some acceptance in the aircraft and rail industry is spread spectrum time domain reflectometry (SSTDR). This technology has been implemented with a custom commercial instrument by LiveWire Innovation that is designed to operate on live cables up to 1000 volts and with a bandwidth of 48 MHz. Initial evaluation by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) of the Live Wire system indicated that a broader bandwidth (BW) SSTDR may be better for many kinds of flaws. This led PNNL to develop an SSTDR laboratory instrument suitable for tests up to 500 MHz bandwidth. Testing on energized cables is also desirable for online monitoring systems so an inductive clamshell coupler was developed that allows energized cables to be tested up to at least 5 kV and likely higher voltage levels. Dielectric spectroscopy and tan delta testing plus various laboratory destructive tests were included in this data acquisition campaign directed to feed a machine learning (ML) study. With these kinds of developments, online energized cable tests may be possible with industrial adoption of such hardware advances but it will be completely impractical to have highly skilled data analysts continually examine these complex signals for indications of damage or compromised conditions. If online testing is to be implemented in new test hardware, it must be accompanied by software that can interpret the signals and alert plant operators of changing or degraded conditions. The thermally aged, shielded cable investigated here was separately treated for ML analysis. Visual analysis of electrical data showed generally increasing peaks where the cable entered and exited the oven. These peaks were not exactly aligned with expected locations, but these differences were attributed to velocity of propagation calibration errors. Only supervised ML was applied to the thermally aged data as this data was only available shortly before the committed publication date of this report. The supervised ML was structured to divide the 0 to 70-day responses as ‘normal’ from 0 to 35 days or ‘anomalous’ from 36 to 70 days, based on cable tensile elongation at break (EAB) insulation characterization. Using 80% of the data for training and 20% for testing, the supervised ML predicted normal versus anomalous was 70% accurate. Important conclusions include: • Accuracy to predict the presence of cable damage is improved from the 2023 effort by more training data. Weighted accuracies for comparisons among the instruments ranged from 67 to 89 % for unsupervised ML and 71 to 99% for supervised ML. • Based on the synthetic data tests, the unsupervised models are more generalizable to unseen anomalies. The Multi-Layer Perceptron classifier (MLP) model reported as high as 99.7% accuracy on the test data, but this dropped to 58.3% when tested on the synthetic data. In contrast, the unsupervised Pointwise model only achieved 89.7% accuracy on the experimental data but reported 78.3% accuracy on the synthetic data. • The best anomaly indicators are higher frequency (400 MHz BW) FDR data. Other tests may be interesting but for this study, this was the best predicter.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

NASA NTRS1977

Computerized tomography using video recorded fluoroscopic images

The use of video-recorded fluoroscopic images as input data for digital reconstruction of objects from their projections is examined. The fluoroscopic and the scanning apparatus used for the experiments are of a commercial type already in existence in most hospitals. It is shown that for beams with divergence up to about 15 deg, one can use a convolution algorithm designed for the parallel radiation case with negligible degradation both quantitatively and from a visual quality standpoint. This convolution algorithm is computationally more efficient than either the algebraic techniques or the convolution algorithms for radially diverging data. Results from studies on Lucite phantoms and a freshly sacrificed rat are included.

Kak, A. C.↗

NASA NTRS1987

The 1986 DA and 1986 EB: M-class asteroids in near-Earth orbits

The Earth-approaching asteroid population is composed of asteroids in orbits with short lifetimes compared with the age of the solar system. These objects which are comprised of Aten, Apollo, and Amor asteroids must be replenished from either cometary or mainbelt asteroid sources since lifetimes against collision with or ejection by a planet are on the order of 10 to 100 million years. The physical study of Earth-approaching asteroids is constrained by the generally long period between favorable apparitions and poorly known orbits. Broadband spectrophotometry on the Johnson UBVR system and the Eight-Color Asteroid Survey system were obtained at Kitt Peak National Observatory and on the Johnson JHK system and at 10 and 20 microns at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility at Mauna Kea Observatory. These observations were used to determine the absolute visual magnitudes and to derive the visual geometric albedos and diameters on the IRAS system. The spectral reflectance properties and geometric albedos of the M-class asteroids are consistent compositions analogous to the iron nickel meteorites or the enstatite-metal assemblages of the enstatite chondrites. The issue of the source(s) of the near-Earth asteroids population was examined by comparing the classifications on the scheme employed by Gradie and Tedesco of 38 such asteroids. Most of the near-Earth objects is indeed the asteroid belt as the observations suggest, then a method for removing extinct nuclei of short period comets must be found since the rate of production of short period comets from the long period comets is relatively large.

Gradie, Jonathan↗

NASA NTRS2003

Modeling of Depth Cue Integration in Manual Control Tasks

Psychophysical research has demonstrated that human observers utilize a variety of visual cues to form a perception of three-dimensional depth. However, most of these studies have utilized a passive judgement paradigm, and failed to consider depth-cue integration as a dynamic and task-specific process. In the current study, we developed and experimentally validated a model of manual control of depth that examines how two potential cues (stereo disparity and relative size) are utilized in both first- and second-order active depth control tasks. We found that stereo disparity plays the dominate role for determining depth position, while relative size dominates perception of depth velocity. Stereo disparity also plays a reduced role when made less salient (i.e., when viewing distance is increased). Manual control models predict that position information is sufficient for first-order control tasks, while velocity information is required to perform a second-order control task. Thus, the rules for depth-cue integration in active control tasks are dependent on both task demands and cue quality.

Sweet, Barbara T.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Protein expression in Arabidopsis thaliana after chronic clinorotation

Soluble protein expression in Arabidopsis thaliana L. (Heynh.) leaf and stem tissue was examined after chronic clinorotation. Seeds of Arabidopsis were germinated and plants grown to maturity on horizontal or vertical slow-rotating clinostats (1 rpm) or in stationary vertical control units. Total soluble proteins and in vivo-labeled soluble proteins isolated from these plants were analyzed by two-dimensional SDS PAGE and subsequent fluorography. Visual and computer analysis of the resulting protein patterns showed no significant differences in either total protein expression or in active protein synthesis between horizontal clinorotation and vertical controls in the Arabidopsis leaf and stem tissue. These results show chronic clinorotation does not cause gross changes in protein expression in Arabidopsis.

NASA Center KSC↗

NASA NTRS1989

Neptune's visual albedo variations over a solar cycle - A pre-Voyager look at ion-induced nucleation and cloud formation in Neptune's troposphere

A model of Neptune's troposphere and stratosphere is used to estimate the cosmic-ray-induced ionization on Neptune at sunspot maximum and minimum for a range of possible planetary magnetic field strengths. The impact of this ionization on aerosol formation and the effect of the aerosol layer on the planet's albedo are examined. The results suggest that the 'white haze' theory may explain observations of the variation of Neptune's visible albedo with solar cycle (Lockwood and Thompson, 1986).

Moses, Julianne I.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Assessing the Sensitivity of Pourbaix Diagrams to Computational Protocols: Electrochemical Stability of Ni Oxides as a Case Study

Pourbaix diagrams stand as a useful tool in assessing and visualizing materials’ electrochemical stability and are widely used for electrocatalyst design. However, their reliability hinges on the accuracy of the chemical potentials of involved phases, which may bear uncertainties and can be significantly impacted by decision-making steps in the computational protocol. Here, this study introduces a robust sensitivity analysis framework, exemplified through a detailed examination of the computational Pourbaix diagram of Ni, the oxides of which are used as high-activity and cost-friendly catalysts for many electrochemical reactions. Quantities of interest derived from the Pourbaix diagram include the appearance and stability domain of the catalytically active Ni oxide phases along with the onset electrochemical potentials of phase transitions. These metrics can guide the design of operational conditions for Ni oxide electrocatalysts. We find that the employed DFT exchange-correlation functional has the most significant influence on the computed Pourbaix diagram. Uncertainties on crystal structures, along with their related ab initio energetics, are also found to affect the size of the phase stability domain. Higher-order coupling among input parameters is found to play a crucial role in influencing the appearance and distribution of Ni phases in the diagram. Our findings suggest a need to consider variations and uncertainties associated with the computational procedures on predicted Pourbaix diagrams for materials design.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2021

Pore-Scale Oil Connectivity and Displacement by Controlled-Ionic-Composition Waterflooding Using Synchrotron X-Ray Microtomography

Controlled-ionic-composition waterflooding is an economic and effective method to improve oil recovery in carbonate oil reservoirs. Recent studies show controlling the salinity and ionic composition of injection water can alter the wettability of carbonate mineral surfaces. The pore-scale oil connectivity and displacement by controlled-ionic-composition waterflooding in heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs, especially at the early stage, is still unclear. The goal of this study is to examine the role of ion concentrations and types in the oil displacement efficiency and investigate the impact of the waterflooding on the pore-scale oil displacement using the national synchrotron facility. A carbonate rock sample was flooded with synthetic high-salinity water and other water solutions with different sulfate concentrations. The waterflooding processes were visualized with synchrotron X-ray microtomography to follow the evolution of pore-scale oil/brine interactions at typical field flow rates. Experimental results show that the water with lower sulfate concentration and higher salinity did not change the wettability of the pore surfaces. Higher sulfate ion concentrations in the water, in contrast, altered the wettability of carbonate pore surfaces from oil-wet to neutral-wet within the first few minutes of waterflooding. Finally, novel insight was gained on the ability of water with high-sulfate concentration to displace oil in the small pores and through abundant oil channels, which could consequently lead to higher oil recovery from the carbonate rock.

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS↗

DOE OSTI2021

CO 2 Storage Site Screening Platform Development and CO 2 Storage Resource Analysis in SECARB Offshore Reservoirs Using SAS Viya

A major goal of the SECARB Offshore Partnership (DE-FE0031557) is to screen deep saline aquifers and hydrocarbon reservoirs in the central Gulf of Mexico for CO 2 sequestration and CO 2 -enhanced oil and gas recovery (EOR/EGR) and estimate the corresponding CO 2 storage resources for select reservoirs. CO 2 storage potential associated with offshore CO 2 -EOR is considerable and likely represents “low hanging fruit” for near-term CO 2 storage given the in-place infrastructure in the region. It is for these reasons that this assessment focuses on oil and gas fields. To this end, three major objectives have been completed and include (1) managing geological data derived from different sources, (2) building a reservoir screening platform for CO 2 storage, and (3) ranking the reservoirs based on the estimated CO 2 storage resources. The SAS ® Viya platform was used for data management and analytics. The Viya platform is a cloud service platform that provides data integration, data management, quick analytics, data visualization, machine learning functions, and application programming interfaces (APIs) for multi-programming languages. Different sources of data containing geologic information, reservoir properties, and EOR/EGR information were collected, cleaned, formatted, and loaded into the SAS ® Viya platform for evaluation. The major geological characteristics of both shelf and deep-water areas of the central Gulf were examined and compared to define the appropriate reservoir screening criteria. Next, a CO 2 storage site screening system was built in the SAS ® Viya platform with the pre-defined criteria. Finally, the CO 2 storage resources of the screened reservoirs were calculated and reported at the BOEM field level to identify fields with the highest estimated CO 2 storage resource. The fields with the largest total estimated CO 2 storage resource are located in the Mississippi Canyon protraction area. Due to proximity to the Mississippi Delta (indicative of less infrastructure) and large estimated CO 2 storage resources, future development activities may wish to focus efforts in the Mississippi Canyon protraction area.

02 PETROLEUM↗

NASA NTRS1980

Midair collisions - The accidents, the systems, and the Realpolitik

Two midair collisions occurring in 1978 are described, and the air traffic control system and procedures in use at the time, human factors implications and political consequences of the accidents are examined. The first collision occurred in Memphis and involved a Falcon jet and a Cessna 150 in a situation in which the controllers handling each aircraft were not aware of the presence of the other aircraft until it was too late. The second occurred in San Diego four months later, when a Boeing 727 on a visual approach struck a Cessna 172 from the rear. Following the San Diego collision there arose a great deal of investigative activity, resulting in suggestions for tighter control on visual flight rules aircraft and the expansion of positive control airspace. These issues then led to a political battle involving general aviation, the FAA and the Congress. It is argued, however, that the collisions were in fact system-induced errors resulting from an air traffic control system which emphasizes airspace allocation and politics rather than the various human factors problems facing pilots and controllers.

Wiener, E. L.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Computational approaches to vision

Vision is examined in terms of a computational process, and the competence, structure, and control of computer vision systems are analyzed. Theoretical and experimental data on the formation of a computer vision system are discussed. Consideration is given to early vision, the recovery of intrinsic surface characteristics, higher levels of interpretation, and system integration and control. A computational visual processing model is proposed and its architecture and operation are described. Examples of state-of-the-art vision systems, which include some of the levels of representation and processing mechanisms, are presented.

Barrow, H. G.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Studies of the horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex on STS 7 and 8

Unpaced voluntary horizontal head oscillation was used to study the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex (VOR) on Shuttle flights STS 7 and 8. Ten subjects performed head oscillations at 0.33 Hz + or - 30 deg amplitude under the followng conditions: VVOR (visual VOR), eyes open and fixed on a stationary target; VOR-EC, with eyes closed and fixed on the same target in imagination; and VOR-S (VOR suppression), with eyes open and fixed on a head-synchronized target. Effects of weightlessness, flight phase, and Space Motion Sickness (SMS) on head oscillation characteristics were examined. A significant increase in head oscillation frequency was noted inflight in subjects free from SMS. In subjects susceptible to SMS, frequency was reduced during their Symptomatic period. The data also suggest that the amplitude and peak velocity of head oscillation were reduced early inflight. No significant changes were noted in reflex gain or phase in any of the test conditions; however, there was a suggestion of an increase in VVOR and VOR-ES gain early inflight in asymptomatic subjects. A significant difference in VOR-S was found between SMS susceptible and non-susceptible subjects. There is no evidence that any changes in VOR characteristics contributed to SMS.

Thornton, William E.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Investigation of several passive and active methods for turbulent flow separation control

Relative performance of several passive and active methods for controlling two-dimensional turbulent separated flow associated with a curved backward-facing ramp were investigated at low speeds. Surface static pressure measurement and oil flow visualization results indicate that submerged vortex generators, vortex generator jets, elongated arches at +-alpha, and large-eddy breakup devices at +-alpha placed near the baseline separation location reduce flow separation and increase pressure recovery. Spanwise cylinders reduce flow separation but decrease pressure recovery downstream. Arches with alpha = 0 deg, Helmholtz resonators, and Viets' fluidic flappers examined so far have no significant effect in reducing separation. Wall cooling computation indicates that separation delay on a partially cooled ramp is nearly the same as on a fully-cooled ramp while minimizing the frictional drag increase associated with the wall cooling process.

Lin, J. C.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Satcom systems and technologies into the 21st century

The role of communications satellites in the domestic U.S. telecommunications market for the next 25 years is examined, the focus being on the new satellite communications systems concepts and their enabling technologies. A simple procedure for the identification of critical satellite technologies in the years 2000-2015 is described. Study results indicate that by the year 2015, satellites will find commercial applications in the distribution of space-gathered data, supercomputer network, scientific visualization to remote areas, mobile services, VSAT, broadband ISDN, and data services.

Kwan, Robert K.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Linking Science Analysis with Observation Planning: A Full Circle Data Lifecycle

A clear goal of the Virtual Observatory (VO) is to enable new science through analysis of integrated astronomical archives. An additional and powerful possibility of the VO is to link and integrate these new analyses with planning of new observations. By providing tools that can be used for observation planning in the VO, the VO will allow the data lifecycle to come full circle: from theory to observations to data and back around to new theories and new observations. The Scientist's Expert Assistant (SEA) Simulation Facility (SSF) is working to combine the ability to access existing archives with the ability to model and visualize new observations. Integrating the two will allow astronomers to better use the integrated archives of the VO to plan and predict the success of potential new observations. The full circle lifecycle enabled by SEA can allow astronomers to make substantial leaps in the quality of data and science returns on new observations. Our paper will examine the exciting potential of integrating archival analysis with new observation planning, such as performing data calibration analysis on archival images and using that analysis to predict the success of new observations, or performing dynamic signal-to-noise analysis combining historical results with modeling of new instruments or targets. We will also describe how the development of the SSF is progressing and what has been its successes and challenges.

Jones, Jeremy↗

NASA NTRS2018

NASA’s Mid-Atlantic Communities and Areas at Intensive Risk Demonstration: Translating Compounding Hazards to Societal Risk

Remote sensing provides a unique perspective on our dynamic planet, tracking changes and revealing the course of complex interactions. Long term monitoring and targeted observation combine with modeling and mapping to provide increased awareness of hydro-meteorological and geological hazards. Disasters often follow hazards and the goal of NASA’s Disasters Program is to look at the earth as a highly coupled system to reduce risk and enable resilience. Remote sensing and geospatial science are used as tools to help answer critical questions that inform decisions. Data is not the same as information, nor does understanding of processes necessarily translate into decision support for disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Accordingly, NASA is engaging the scientific and decision-support communities to apply remote sensing, modeling, and related applications in Communities and Areas at Intensive Risk (CAIR). In 2017, NASA’s Applied Sciences Disasters Program hosted a regional workshop to explore these issues with particular focus on coastal Virginia and North Carolina. The workshop brought together partners in academia, emergency management, and scientists from NASA and partnering federal agencies to explore capabilities among the team that could improve understanding of the physical processes related to these hazards, their potential impact to changing communities, and to identify methodologies for supporting emergency response and risk mitigation. The resulting initiative, the mid-Atlantic CAIR project, demonstrates the ability to integrate satellite derived earth observations and physical models into actionable, trusted knowledge. Severe storms and associated storm surge, sea level rise, and land subsidence coupled with increasing populations and densely populated, aging critical infrastructure often leave coastal regions and their communities extremely vulnerable. The integration of observations and models allow for a comprehensive understanding of the compounding risk experienced in coastal regions and enables individuals in all positions make risk-informed decisions. This initiative uses a representative storm surge case as a baseline to produce flood inundation maps. These maps predict building level impacts at current day and for sea level rise (SLR) and subsidence scenarios of the future in order to inform critical decisions at both the tactical and strategic levels. To accomplish this analysis, the mid-Atlantic CAIR project brings together Federal research activities with academia to examine coastal hazards in multiple ways: 1) reanalysis of impacts from 2011 Hurricane Irene, using numerical weather modeling in combination with coastal surge and hydrodynamic, urban inundation modeling to evaluate combined impact scenarios considering SLR and subsidence, 2) remote sensing of flood extent from available optical imagery, 3) adding value to remotely sensed flood maps through depth predictions, and 4) examining coastal subsidence as measured through time-series analysis of synthetic aperture radar observations. Efforts and results are published via ArcGIS story maps to communicate neighborhoods and infrastructure most vulnerable to changing conditions. Story map features enable time-aware flood mapping using hydrodynamic models, photographic comparison of flooding following Hurricane Irene, as well as visualization of heightened risk in the future due to SLR and land subsidence.

Rogers, Laura↗

DOE OSTI2024

Non-destructive Post-Transient Examination Results of the MOXTOP-1 Experiment

The MOXTOP-1 experiment has been assembled and irradiated in INL’s HFEF and TREAT facilities followed by disassembly of the experiment to enable initial post-transient examination. Results of neutron radiography of the fuel pin still in the THOR capsule were somewhat inconclusive due to the additional scatter and attenuation from the iron heat sink included in the design. Nonetheless, no obvious failure or fuel relocation could be identified in the radiography. Following disassembly of the fuel pin from the capsule, initial visual inspections were performed, and documented via images obtained through the hot cell window. No obvious signs of fuel failure were identified, indicating that the fuel pin remained intact during the transient. Some discoloration was observed near the middle of the fuel pin, likely corresponding to the fueled zone indicating that that region may have reached a relatively high temperature. Pre-transient, and post-transient profilometry of the fuel pin were performed and compared. Some additional strain displacement in the bottom portion of the fuel zone is identified, but remains well below 1%.

Mixed Oxide↗