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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 865 records · Page 48
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Intelligent vehicle control: Opportunities for terrestrial-space system integration

For 11 years the Department of Defense has cooperated with a diverse array of other Federal agencies including the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Department of Energy, to develop robotics technology for unmanned ground systems. These activities have addressed control system architectures supporting sharing of tasks between the system operator and various automated subsystems, man-machine interfaces to intelligent vehicles systems, video compression supporting vehicle driving in low data rate digital communication environments, multiple simultaneous vehicle control by a single operator, path planning and retrace, and automated obstacle detection and avoidance subsystem. Performance metrics and test facilities for robotic vehicles were developed permitting objective performance assessment of a variety of operator-automated vehicle control regimes. Progress in these areas will be described in the context of robotic vehicle testbeds specifically developed for automated vehicle research. These initiatives, particularly as regards the data compression, task sharing, and automated mobility topics, also have relevance in the space environment. The intersection of technology development interests between these two communities will be discussed in this paper.

Shoemaker, Charles↗
NASA NTRS1992

Development of a machine vision system for automated structural assembly

Research is being conducted at the LaRC to develop a telerobotic assembly system designed to construct large space truss structures. This research program was initiated within the past several years, and a ground-based test-bed was developed to evaluate and expand the state of the art. Test-bed operations currently use predetermined ('taught') points for truss structural assembly. Total dependence on the use of taught points for joint receptacle capture and strut installation is neither robust nor reliable enough for space operations. Therefore, a machine vision sensor guidance system is being developed to locate and guide the robot to a passive target mounted on the truss joint receptacle. The vision system hardware includes a miniature video camera, passive targets mounted on the joint receptacles, target illumination hardware, and an image processing system. Discrimination of the target from background clutter is accomplished through standard digital processing techniques. Once the target is identified, a pose estimation algorithm is invoked to determine the location, in three-dimensional space, of the target relative to the robots end-effector. Preliminary test results of the vision system in the Automated Structural Assembly Laboratory with a range of lighting and background conditions indicate that it is fully capable of successfully identifying joint receptacle targets throughout the required operational range. Controlled optical bench test results indicate that the system can also provide the pose estimation accuracy to define the target position.

Sydow, P. Daniel↗
DOE OSTI2022

Use of vision and sound to classify feller-buncher operational state

Productivity measures in logging involve simultaneous recognition and classification of event occurrence and timing, and the volume of stems being handled. In full-tree felling systems these measurements are difficult to implement in an autonomous manner because of the unfavorable working environment and the abundance of confounding extraneous events. This paper proposed a vision method that used a lowcost camera to recognize feller-buncher operational events including tree cutting and piling. It used a fine K-nearest neighbors (fKNN) algorithm as the final classifier based on both audio and video features derived from short video segments as inputs. The classifier’s calibration accuracy exceeds 94%. The trained model was tested on videos recorded under various conditions. The overall accurate rates for short segments were greater than 89%. Comparisons were made between the human- and algorithm derived event detection rates, events’ durations, and inter-event timing using continuously recorded videos taken during feller operation. Video results between the fKNN model and manual observation were similar. Statistical comparison using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test to evaluate measured parameters’ distributions (manual versus automated event duration and inter-event timing) did not show significant differences with the lowest P-value among all Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests equal to 0.12. Here the result indicated the feasibility and potential of using the method for the automatic time study of drive-to-tree feller bunchers.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1988

Benchmarking and performance analysis of the CM-2

A suite of benchmarking routines testing communication, basic arithmetic operations, and selected kernel algorithms written in LISP and PARIS was developed for the CM-2. Experiment runs are automated via a software framework that sequences individual tests, allowing for unattended overnight operation. Multiple measurements are made and treated statistically to generate well-characterized results from the noisy values given by cm:time. The results obtained provide a comparison with similar, but less extensive, testing done on a CM-1. Tests were chosen to aid the algorithmist in constructing fast, efficient, and correct code on the CM-2, as well as gain insight into what performance criteria are needed when evaluating parallel processing machines.

Myers, David W.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Cooperative Automated Cohort Driving on Connected Infrastructure, Arterial Roadways, and Highways: Final Project Demonstration and System-of-Systems Model Correlation

This project seeks to synergize vehicle automated driving and connectivity data to improve mobility and energy efficiency of groups of mixed vehicles operating in close proximity (vehicle cohort) on various infrastructure. A custom cellular communication network links vehicles operating as a cohort with infrastructure to a centralized system-of-systems digital twin with an AI-based optimal behavior planner. The data contained in this set are from final testing and technology demonstrations to U.S. Department of Energy staff at the American Center for Mobility. The data contain single-lane, single-light scenarios; multi-lane, multi-light arterial scenarios; and limited-access highway scenarios. All test cases were derived from simulations and replicated on the test track. The project employed two and four light-duty vehicles with connectivity and drive automation for the testing. The baseline scenario without connectivity was run under the control of the system-of-systems centralized planner but operating each vehicle with an intelligent driver model controlling the velocity, lane utilization, and vehicle gap. This was to ensure the highest compatibility with the simulation in terms of dynamic behavior. The connected cohort case utilized AI optimization to perform coordinated and cooperative control for energy, as well as safe, comfortable behavior for the cohort. The dataset is appropriately named with unconnected and connected designations, with comparisons sharing the same run index number. The included PowerPoint and PDF files describe the test setup and provide an overview of results from the project. ![image](de-EE0009209_March_2023_Data_Arterial_Scenario_Results.png)

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Enterprise: a reduced-scale, flexible fuel, single-cylinder crosshead marine diesel research engine

A custom-built 1/10 scale, flexible-fuel, single-cylinder crosshead marine diesel research engine, dubbed the Enterprise, was designed and built as a platform for conducting marine lubricant research. The engine design was focused on maintaining lubricant boundary conditions similar those of full-scale engines. The Enterprise has a rated speed of 625 rpm to match the linear mean piston speed of full-scale marine engines with the reduced stroke and is capable of 18 bar brake mean effective pressure (BMEP). A high-swirl, uniflow-scavenged, two-stroke combustion system was designed to operate on either distillate diesel or heavy fuel oil (HFO). A hydraulic electronic unit injector (HEUI) fuel injection system with two injectors having customized three-hole nozzles provides fueling and is driven by the MAHLE Flexible ECU (MFE). Intake air boost is provided using a variable speed industrial air compressor along with closed-loop electronically controlled pressure regulation. Exhaust backpressure is also controlled electronically using an electro-pneumatic butterfly valve. A customized, miniaturized Hans Jensen Lubetronic cylinder lubrication system, which is capable of delivering 0.88 mg of cylinder oil per lubricator per injection to the ring pack at up to the maximum engine overspeed rating of 656 rpm, was commissioned for the Enterprise. Four independently temperature-controlled cooling zones are used to provide control of the liner temperature profile. The four coolant zones as well as the system oil and cylinder oil supplies are all controlled within 1°C for consistent thermal boundary conditions. The engine is instrumented with an in-cylinder pressure transducer as well as an inline torque transducer and numerous process temperature and pressure measurements to allow for detailed thermodynamic efficiency analysis, and experimental facilities allow for precise measurement of liner wear and characterization of deposits on the piston and rings. A radio telemetry system from IR Telemetrics is used to measure piston crown temperatures during engine operation. Engine design considerations and experimental facilities are described in detail, along with the results of a study investigating the impact of both system oil and cylinder oil viscosity on friction and efficiency. A test matrix was designed to compare base stock chemistries and viscosities for both system and cylinder oils. Experiments were completed using a fuel economy test protocol that was defined, consisting of repeating six speed/load operating conditions. An automated dynamometer control system was implemented to ensure repeatability of the test procedure. Preliminary testing indicated that the coolant, oil, and exhaust temperatures reach a steady state within 5 minutes of changing operating conditions. The system oil viscosity was found to have a significant impact on friction, with a reduction in viscosity from SAE 30 to SAE 20 resulting in over 6% reduction in friction mean effective pressure (FMEP) and over a 2% reduction in brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC). Chemistry effects were also evident in the system and cylinder oils. Repeatability comparisons between the individual repetitions of each operating condition were used to ensure that results are statistically valid. For the initial cylinder oil viscosity experiments, observed changes were within the established/normal repeatability; ongoing experiments will determine whether improvements in boundary condition control will enable cylinder friction changes of this magnitude to be measured on this engine platform.

Kaul, Brian↗
NASA NTRS2018

Outgas and Vacuum Storage Testing for MAV Hybrid Fuel Grain

As a part of the Mars Ascent Vehicle mission, NASA MSFC has formulated a new hybrid fuel grain from a paraffin blend, named SP-7. As a part of the necessary preparation for the mission, this material must be tested for any outgassing behavior or other property changes due to vacuum exposure. This type of testing had not yet been conducted for this material. The goal of this project was to set up and begin automated analysis of this material, which would then run over the course of a year. To accomplish this goal, a few primary objectives were necessary-construction of a vacuum chamber to house the test, implementation of an automated gas analyzer system, preparation of SP-7 samples, and test initialization.

Mars Ascent Vehicle↗
DOE OSTI2022

Residual Stress Measurements in Extreme Environments for Hazardous, Layered Specimens

In nuclear fuel plates of low-enriched U-10Mo (LEU) clad with aluminum by hot isostatic pressing (HIP), post-irradiation stresses arising during reactor shutdown are a major concern for safe reactor operations. Measurement of those residual stresses has not previously been possible because the high radioactivity of the plates requires handling only by remote manipulation in a hot cell. The incremental slitting method for measuring through-thickness stress profiles was modified, and a system for automated, remote operation was built and tested. Experimental modifications consisted of replacing electric-discharge machining (EDM) with a small end mill and strain-gauge measurements with cantilever displacement measurements. The inverse method used to calculate stresses was the pulse-regularization method modified to allow discontinuities across material interfaces. The new system was validated by comparing with conventional slitting on a depleted U-10Mo (DU) fuel plate. The new system was applied to two measurements each on six as-fabricated (pre-irradiation) LEU miniature fuel plates. Variations between the measurements at two locations in the same plate were strongly correlated with measured geometrical heterogeneity in the plate—a tilt in the fuel foil. Compressive stresses in the U-10Mo were shown to increase from 20 to 250 MPa as the ratio of aluminum thickness to U-10Mo thickness increased causing increased constraint during cooling. Faster cooling rates during processing also increased stress magnitudes. The measurements trends agreed with data in the literature from similar plates made with DU, which further validates the method. Because other methods are impractical in a hot cell, the modified slitting method is now poised for the first measurements of post-irradiation stresses.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Metal additively manufactured wavy fin cold-plate architecture for improved thermal-hydraulic performance

Rapid growth in artificial intelligence and data center workloads demands high-performance liquid cooling to manage increasing chip power. This study presents two metal-additive-manufactured cold plates with sinusoidal fins, constant-amplitude wavy fins and linearly variable-amplitude wavy fins and compares them against metal-additive-manufactured straight fins using experiments conducted at 1 kW heat dissipation as well as high-fidelity 3D conjugate computational fluid dynamic simulations. The cold plates were printed in AlSi10Mg material and underwent design using a Python-automated workflow prior to manufacture and testing. The experiments show that wavy fins reduce the normalized thermal resistance by 35 to 45 % at water flow rates from 1 to 4 LPM. At a fixed 20 kPa pressure drop, the variable-waviness design lowered peak surface temperature by 9 °C and thermal resistance by 51 %, while edge-channel maldistribution in the constant wavy fin design limited gains. A thermal resistance breakdown revealed that 55–63 % of the total thermal resistance in wavy designs comes from base heat conduction, 27–33 % from fin heat conduction, and 9–13 % from fin heat convection, indicating the need to address conduction bottlenecks. Parametric sweeps identify a 3 mm fin pitch as optimal, and that horizontal inlet/outlet manifolds further reduce pressure drop by 30–60 % and thermal resistance by 9–16 % relative to vertical inlet-outlet manifolds. The results yield comprehensive guidelines for fin geometry, manifold alignment, material selection and additive-manufacturing constraints to realize high-performance liquid-cooled cold plates for power-dense electronics.

3d printing↗
DOE OSTI2021

Cric searchable image database as a public platform for conventional pap smear cytology data

Amidst the current health crisis and social distancing, telemedicine has become an important part of mainstream of healthcare, and building and deploying computational tools to support screening more efficiently is an increasing medical priority. The early identification of cervical cancer precursor lesions by Pap smear test can identify candidates for subsequent treatment. However, one of the main challenges is the accuracy of the conventional method, often subject to high rates of false negative. While machine learning has been highlighted to reduce the limitations of the test, the absence of high-quality curated datasets has prevented strategies development to improve cervical cancer screening. The Center for Recognition and Inspection of Cells (CRIC) platform enables the creation of CRIC Cervix collection, currently with 400 images (1,376 × 1,020 pixels) curated from conventional Pap smears, with manual classification of 11,534 cells. This collection has the potential to advance current efforts in training and testing machine learning algorithms for the automation of tasks as part of the cytopathological analysis in the routine work of laboratories.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Poster — Thur Eve — 55: An automated XML technique for isocentre verification on the Varian TrueBeam

Isocentre verification tests, such as the Winston-Lutz (WL) test, have gained popularity in the recent years as techniques such as stereotactic radiosurgery/radiotherapy (SRS/SRT) treatments are more commonly performed on radiotherapy linacs. These highly conformal treatments require frequent monitoring of the geometrical accuracy of the isocentre to ensure proper radiation delivery. At our clinic, the WL test is performed by acquiring with the EPID a collection of 8 images of a WL phantom fixed on the couch for various couch/gantry angles. This set of images is later analyzed to determine the isocentre size. The current work addresses the acquisition process. A manual WL test acquisition performed by and experienced physicist takes in average 25 minutes and is prone to user manipulation errors. We have automated this acquisition on a Varian TrueBeam STx linac (Varian, Palo Alto, USA). The Varian developer mode allows the execution of custom-made XML script files to control all aspects of the linac operation. We have created an XML-WL script that cycles through each couch/gantry combinations taking an EPID image at each position. This automated acquisition is done in less than 4 minutes. The reproducibility of the method was verified by repeating the execution of the XML file 5 times. The analysis of the images showed variation of the isocenter size less than 0.1 mm along the X, Y and Z axes and compares favorably to a manual acquisition for which we typically observe variations up to 0.5 mm.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

VERA-CS Verification & Validation Plan

This report summarizes the current status of VERA-CS Verification and Validation for PWR Core Follow operation and proposes a multi-phase plan for continuing VERA-CS V&V in FY17 and FY18. The proposed plan recognizes the hierarchical nature of a multi-physics code system such as VERA-CS and the importance of first achieving an acceptable level of V&V on each of the single physics codes before focusing on the V&V of the coupled physics solution. The report summarizes the V&V of each of the single physics codes systems currently used for core follow analysis (ie MPACT, CTF, Multigroup Cross Section Generation, and BISON / Fuel Temperature Tables) and proposes specific actions to achieve a uniformly acceptable level of V&V in FY17. The report also recognizes the ongoing development of other codes important for PWR Core Follow (e.g. TIAMAT, MAMBA3D) and proposes Phase II (FY18) VERA-CS V&V activities in which those codes will also reach an acceptable level of V&V. The report then summarizes the current status of VERA-CS multi-physics V&V for PWR Core Follow and the ongoing PWR Core Follow V&V activities for FY17. An automated procedure and output data format is proposed for standardizing the output for core follow calculations and automatically generating tables and figures for the VERA-CS Latex file. A set of acceptance metrics is also proposed for the evaluation and assessment of core follow results that would be used within the script to automatically flag any results which require further analysis or more detailed explanation prior to being added to the VERA-CS validation base. After the Automation Scripts have been completed and tested using BEAVRS, the VERA-CS plan proposes the Watts Bar cycle depletion cases should be performed with the new cross section library and be included in the first draft of the new VERA-CS manual for release at the end of PoR15. Also, within the constraints imposed by the proprietary nature of plant data, as many as possible of the FY17 AMA Plant Core Follow cases should also be included in the VERA-CS manual at the end of PoR15. After completion of the ongoing development of TIAMAT for fully coupled, full core calculations with VERA-CS / BISON 1.5D, and after the completion of the refactoring of MAMBA3D for CIPS analysis in FY17, selected cases from the VERA-CS validation based should be performed, beginning with the legacy cases of Watts Bar and BEAVRS in PoR16. Finally, as potential Phase III future work some additional considerations are identified for extending the VERA-CS V&V to other reactor types such as the BWR.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Phase II: Automated System for Aneuploidy Detection in Sperm Final Report CRADA No. TC-1554-98

This was a collaborative effort between the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Cellomics, Inc. (formerly BioDx and Biological Detection, Inc.) to develop an automated system for detecting human sperm aneuploidy. Aneuploidy (an abnormal number of chromosomes) is one of the major categories of chromosomally abnormal sperm, which results in chromosomally defective pregnancies and babies. An automated system would be used for testing the effects of toxic agents and for other research and clinical applications. This collaborated effort was funded by a National Institutes of Environmental Health Services, Phase II, Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) grant to Cellornics (Contract No. N44-ES-82004).

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Unitary Thermal Energy Management for Propulsion Range Augmentation (UTEMPRA)

Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) encounter weather-dependent driving range. A major drain on the vehicle battery is the HVAC system which, when typically using resistive heating only, can result in a reduction of up to 50% of the driving range in winter weather. In this project, a BEV thermal management system is designed and demonstrated on a Fiat 500e BEV. The system comprises a simple, compact, semi-hermetic refrigerant sub-system and an accompanying a coolant circulatory system which, through an innovative valve arrangement, is used to transfer heat between the several heat sources and sinks in the BEV. The system is capable of A/C and heat pump operation, thermal management of the traction battery and powertrain electronics and also recycles waste heat of the vehicle powertrain to heat the cabin to further converse energy. An automated control system is implemented and tested that selects the relevant mode of operation and optimizes energy usage while meeting vehicle thermal requirements. In wind tunnel tests, the vehicle and UTEMPRA system demonstrated 13% (the target of the project was set at 15%) range increase at -10°C driving at a steady 40 kph speed. The vehicle also demonstrated full capability to automatically control thermal conditions at a wide range of ambient temperatures thus demonstrating the viability of such a system in practice.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Commissioning of SRF Cavity Analyzer System

Research and development in Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) cavities manufacturing, surface treatment, preparation, and doping techniques for the improvement of cavities performance necessitate reliable cavities’ intrinsic quality factor measurement with accurate and repeatable results. Fermilab Vertical Test Stand facility (VTS) performs ~270 cavities tests per year, including R&D cavities as well as production cavities at each step of their preparation for the placement in accelerator’s cryomodules. Current Fermilab VTS testing system is based on the scalar approach of power measurement, which neglects potential error factors of the RF networks with distributed parameters, hence the assessed measurement errors of such a system might be slightly underestimated. Alternative approach, utilizing a vector measurement (amplitude and phase) of RF signals in the setup with a cavity as a device under test, promises an enhanced accuracy and results traceability. New cavity an alyser system based on this approach (Vector VTS) was developed by D. Frolov et al. and currently undergoes a commissioning process. Basic underlying principles of the system will be presented with the methods of quality factor extraction from S-parameters measurement of multiport cavities and brief error analysis will be discussed. The system architecture will be shown with main components parameters and ensuing testing capabilities. Multiple tests results will be discussed with a cross-check comparison of the results obtained with a conventional testing method. System advantages such as automated calibration process and additional features as a built- in microphonics measurement capability will be presented.

Netepenko, A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Spatially Adaptive Tunable Lighting Control System with Expanded Wellness and Energy Saving Benefits

Lighting design is becoming increasingly complex, including active dimming for energy savings and spectral tuning for human wellbeing. Modern commercial lighting control systems are already difficult to use, and maintain, and even with so-called Smart Lighting, optimizing light settings is rapidly exceeding the capabilities of direct human control, limiting the adoption of lighting control systems. The growing importance of Occupancy Centric Controls (OCC) for advanced building management systems can be applied to the development of autonomous lighting system controls needed to drive the adoption of advanced lighting controls for improved adaptive “sculpted illumination” for both greater energy savings and broader human wellbeing perspectives. This project, led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, entitled “Spatially adaptive tunable lighting control system with expanded wellness and energy saving benefits” will develop and test an entirely new platform for automated optimized lighting design and control that requires little or no human engagement, yet contours lighting profiles automatically to minimize lighting energy use. We call this approach to lighting control “dynamic light sculpting” since the right amount of illumination is automatically delivered to occupants in real time. Since the system uses new, privacy-preserving occupant position and pose detection technologies developed by Rensselaer for broad OCC building applications, the control system will analyze how to deliver the right amount of the right type of illumination only where and when it is needed based these OCC platforms. To create these powerful autonomous lighting control platforms, the project will integrate evolving augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) tools with sophisticated lighting and interior design toolkits to create interactive lighting design and control simulators. Using the quickly growing paradigm of digital twins, these tools will integrate light fixture properties, occupancy sensor data, interior design data, and lighting specifications to accurately visualize how various design concepts interact with simulated yet realistic human activities that occur in commercial office buildings of various types. These advanced digital twin design and simulation tools will be combined with a new class of digitally-programmable LED lighting fixtures that can dynamically change the spectral content and direction of light emission. When fully integrated, the new autonomous lighting control system will take all of the guesswork out of optimizing light quality while minimizing energy consumption. Digital twin tools will simplify the design, installation, commissioning, operation, and maintenance of future energy-efficient lighting systems. It should be possible to reduce lighting energy costs from 40% to 70% with OCC based dynamic light sculpting systems. The work will be led by the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications (LESA) and the Center for Architectural Science and Ecology (CASE), both at Renssealer Polytechnic Institute; Lumileds, a global leader in the development of advanced LED systems; and HKS, a leading global architecture design firm. This interdisciplinary project team’s experience includes all of the design simulation tools, VR/AR digital twin visualization technology, advanced occupancy sensing technology, and complex control system design capabilities that will revolutionize lighting design and control technology to autonomously deliver high-quality lighting that improves human health and wellbeing while simultaneously maximizing lighting energy savings.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Integration and Demonstration of Monitoring, Modeling, and Prediction of DV-1 Amendment Performance at the Bench Scale: DV-1 Amendment Demonstration

During fiscal years 2024 and 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Field Office commissioned Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to conduct applied research aimed at reducing the cost, time, and uncertainty associated with in situ treatment of vadose zone contaminants at the Hanford Site. This report outlines the integration of three key research efforts into a meso-scale demonstration designed to advance field-scale solutions that aim to (1) optimize the delivery of chemical amendments to contaminated soils, (2) reduce uncertainty in amendment delivery performance assessment using advanced monitoring techniques, and (3) provide real-time insights into when and where amendment-induced precipitation reactions occur in the subsurface. To achieve these objectives, the tank-scale (~ 1 cubic meter) Geophysical Imaging of Flow and Transport (GIFT) system was developed. GIFT enables experimental testing of amendment delivery while incorporating automated multi-modal monitoring approaches, including pressure measurements, direct fluid sampling, and remote time-lapse geophysical imaging. The data generated from these monitoring techniques will serve as inputs for a generative artificial-intelligence-driven digital twin – a numerical simulation model designed to honor observed data while quantifying uncertainty in simulation accuracy. Using this simulator, researchers will refine an amendment injection strategy to maximize delivery efficiency within a low-permeability soil zone. Monitoring data will be interpreted through simulated outputs to enhance understanding of the injection process. The efficacy of this integrated approach will be evaluated through direct sampling at the conclusion of the experiment.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2023

Synthetic Promoter Screening Using Poplar Mesophyll Protoplast Transformation

Plant protoplasts are useful to study both transcriptional regulation and protein subcellular localization in rapid screens. Protoplast transformation can be used in automated platforms for design-build-test cycles of plant promoters, including synthetic promoters. A notable application of protoplasts comes from recent successes in dissecting synthetic promoter activity with poplar mesophyll protoplasts. For this purpose, we constructed plasmids with TurboGFP driven by a synthetic promoter together with TurboRFP constitutively controlled by a 35S promoter, to monitor transformation efficiency, allowing versatile screening of high numbers of cells by monitoring green fluorescent protein expression in transformed protoplasts. Herein, we introduce a protocol for poplar mesophyll protoplast isolation followed by protoplast transformation and image analysis for the selection of valuable synthetic promoters.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗