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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 991 records · Page 55
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Stress Drivers of Glucose Dynamics during Ozone Exposure Measured Using Radiotelemetry in Rats

Inhaled irritant air pollutants may trigger stress-related metabolic dysfunction associated with altered circulating adrenal-derived hormones. We used implantable telemetry in rats to assess real-time changes in circulating glucose during and after exposure to ozone and mechanistically linked responses to neuroendocrine stress hormones. First, using a cross-over design, we monitored glucose during ozone exposures (0.0, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 ppm) and nonexposure periods in male Wistar Kyoto rats implanted with glucose telemeters. A second cohort of unimplanted rats was exposed to ozone (0.0, 0.4 or 0.8 ppm) for 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, or 4 h with hormones measured immediately post exposure. We assessed glucose metabolism in sham and adrenalectomized rats, with or without supplementation of adrenergic/glucocorticoid receptor agonists, and in a separate cohort, antagonists. Ozone (0.8 ppm) was associated with significantly higher blood glucose and lower core body temperature beginning 90 min into exposure, with reversal of effects 4–6 h post exposure. Glucose monitoring during four daily 4-h ozone exposures revealed duration of glucose increases, adaptation, and diurnal variations. Ozone-induced glucose changes were preceded by higher levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone, corticosterone, and epinephrine but lower levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone, prolactin, and luteinizing hormones. Higher glucose and glucose intolerance were inhibited in rats that were adrenalectomized or treated with adrenergic plus glucocorticoid receptor antagonists but exacerbated by agonists. We demonstrated the temporality of neuroendocrine-stress–mediated biological sequalae responsible for ozone-induced glucose metabolic dysfunction and mechanism in a rodent model.

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗
DOE OSTI2025

Hestia-SWIFL: hourly anthropogenic fossil fuel CO2 and heat on the 2km WRF grid, version 1.1

The Hestia-SWIFL version 1.1 anthropogenic heat (AH) and fossil fuel CO2 (FFCO2) emissions data product represent emissions due to the combustion of fossil fuel and cement production within the state of Arizona from 2019 to 2022. This product was developed as part of the Southwest Urban Corridor Integrated Field Laboratory (SW-IFL) project, which aims to provide new knowledge and tools that address extreme heat, air quality, climate change and related urban environmental issues by integrating high-resolution observations, modeling, and civic engagement. The emissions are generated using a bottom-up/engineering approach and are tied to results generated by the Vulcan Project version 4, an effort to quantify space/time-resolved FFCO2 & AH emissions for the entire United States landscape. A large number of data sources are combined to best estimate the emissions at fine scales such as air quality emissions data, traffic flow data, building information, sociodemographic information, and fuel statistics. The AH product provides emissions for two emissions sources (transportation and point source emissions) in units of Watts per hour per square meter (W/m2) per year (annual files) or per hour (hourly files). The FFCO2 product provides emissions from nine individual emission sectors as well as the total, and in units of tons of carbon (tC) per grid cell per year or per hour. The output made available here places the native spatial resolution of the Hestia FFCO2 & AH emissions data product (points, lines, and polygons) into a regularized 2km x 2km grid at hourly and annual temporal resolutions, and stored in netCDF files. The exact spatial extent is defined by the ASU Weather Research Forecast (WRF) simulation grid. All data are processed using R/Python pm high-performance computing system. 2-27-2026 updates: Bugs in airport hourly profile (both AH and FFCO2) and building spatial patterns (FFCO2 only) were fixed. Hourly emissions are reprocessed for all years to reflect those changes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

LCA-based environmental sustainability assessment of hybrid additive manufacturing of a turbine blade

In this paper, a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) method is used to compare the overall energy consumption and environmental impact of hybrid additive manufacturing (HAM) and the traditional CNC milling process with a case study of turbine blade manufacturing. Six environmental impacts are assessed in this study: acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), global warming potential (GWP), photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP), ozone depletion potential (ODP), and abiotic depletion potential (ADP). The results suggest that HAM can not only reduce energy consumption and material waste but also reduce the environmental impact by 53% from a life cycle perspective. Specifically, the results of GWP, AP, EP, ODP, POCP and ADP of the HAM are only 32.2%, 34.6 %, 44.7%, 27.2%, 25.6%, and 24.7 % of that in traditional CNC machining.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Nevada National Security Site Environmental Report 2019

This report presents the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office environmental protection and monitoring programs data and the compliance status for calendar year 2019 at the Nevada National Security Site and at its two support facilities, the North Las Vegas Facility and the Remote Sensing Laboratory-Nellis. This report also addresses environmental restoration projects conducted by the Environmental Management Nevada Program Office at the Tonopah Test Range.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

2019 Nevada National Security Site Environmental Report Attachment A: Site Description

This attachment expands on the general description of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) presented in the Introduction to the Nevada National Security Site Environmental Report 2019. Included are subsections that summarize the site’s geological, hydrological, climatological, and ecological settings and the cultural resources of the NNSS. The subsections are meant to aid the reader in understanding the complex physical and biological environment of the NNSS. An adequate knowledge of the site’s environment is necessary to assess the environmental impacts of new projects, design and implement environmental monitoring activities for current site operations, and assess the impacts of site operations on the public residing in the vicinity of the NNSS. The NNSS environment contributes to several key features of the site that afford protection to the inhabitants of adjacent areas from potential exposure to radioactivity or other contaminants resulting from NNSS operations. These key features include the general remote location of the NNSS, restricted access, extended wind transport times, the great depths to slow-moving groundwater, little or no surface water, and low population density. This attachment complements the annual summary of monitoring program activities and dose assessments presented in the main body of this report.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

LANL Meteorological Program Self-Assessment 2023 Update

The DOE Meteorological Coordinating Council (DMCC) conducted an initial LANL Meteorological (Met) Program Assist Visit in August 2006, and several observations and recommendations were shared with LANL management (DMCC 2006). In August 2015, a follow-up Met Program Assist Visit was conducted to determine progress in meeting all the observations and recommendations from the prior Assist Visit (DMCC 2015). During the 9 years between these two Assist Visits, DMCC noted that significant program improvements were made, and these were documented in the 2015 Assist Visit observations and recommendations. Based on current discussions with the Met Program, additional significant improvements have been made and will be discussed as part of this self-assessment.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Soil Gas Survey Results Supporting Groundwater Correction Action Plan (GCAP) Development for the Moab Site

A soil gas survey was performed at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project Site during the week of November 6, 2023. Soil gas surveys are used to characterize residual subsurface sources of volatile contaminants, such as volatile organic compounds, as well as contaminants that generate a surrogate indicator gas or otherwise influence soil gas composition. The primary objective of the Moab soil gas survey was to confirm, identify, quantify, and refine secondary contaminant source area locations for uranium and ammonium/ammonia (NH 4 + /NH 3 ) in the vadose zone and shallow groundwater. The overarching goal was to provide information to assist in developing the technical basis for the Groundwater Compliance Action Plan (GCAP). Specifically, the soil gas data will support the deployment of source control technologies; e.g., where supplementary capping, removal actions, or amendments might be beneficial.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Pollution in the Press: Employing Text Analytics to Understand Regional Water Quality Narratives

Drinking water has and will continue to be at the foundation of our nation’s well-being and there is a growing interest in United States (US) drinking water quality. Nearly 30% of the United States population obtained their water from community water systems that did not meet federal regulations in 2019. Given the heavy interactions between society and drinking water quality, this study integrates social constructionism, environmental injustice, and sociohydrological systems to evaluate local awareness of drinking water quality issues. By employing text analytics, we explore potential drivers of regional water quality narratives within 25 local news sources across the United States. Specifically, we assess the relationship between printed local newspapers and water quality violations in communities as well as the influence of social, political, and economic factors on the coverage of drinking water quality issues. Results suggest that the volume and/or frequency of local drinking water violations is not directly reflected in local news coverage. Additionally, news coverage varied across sociodemographic features, with a negative relationship between Hispanic populations and news coverage of Lead and Copper Rule, and a positive relationship among non-Hispanic white populations. These findings extend current understanding of variations in local narratives to consider nuances of water quality issues and indicate opportunities for increasing equity in environmental risk communication.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Predicting Plant-Soil Feedback in the Field: Meta-Analysis Reveals That Competition and Environmental Stress Differentially Influence PSF

Past research on plant-soil feedbacks (PSF), largely undertaken in highly controlled greenhouse conditions, has established that plant species differentially alter abiotic and biotic soil conditions that in turn affect growth of other conspecific and heterospecific individuals in that soil. Yet, whether feedbacks under controlled greenhouse conditions reflect feedbacks in natural environments where plants are exposed to a range of abiotic and biotic pressures is still unresolved. To address how environmental context affects PSF, we conducted a meta-analysis of previously published studies that examined plant growth responses to multiple forms of competition, stress, and disturbance across various PSF methodology. We asked the following questions: (1) Can competition, stress, and disturbance alter the direction and/or strength of PSF? (2) Do particular types of competition, stress, or disturbance affect the direction and/or strength of PSF more than others? and (3) Do methods of conducting PSF research (i.e., greenhouse vs. field experiments and whether the source of soil inoculum conditioning is from the field vs. greenhouse) affect plant growth responses to PSF or competition, stress, and disturbance, or their interactions? We discovered four patterns that may be predictive of what future PSF studies conducted under more realistic conditions might reveal. First, relatively little is known about how PSF responds to environmental stress and disturbance compared to plant-plant competition. Second, specific types of competition enhanced negative effects of soil microbes on plant growth, and specific environmental stressors enhanced positive effects of soil microbes on plant growth. Third, whether PSF experiments are conducted in the field or greenhouse can change plant growth responses. And, fourth, how the soil conditioning phase is conducted can change plant growth responses. With more detail than previously shown, these results confirm that environmental context writ large can change plant growth responses in PSF experiments. These data should aid theory and predictions for conservation and restoration applications by showing the relative importance of competition, stress, and disturbance in PSF studies over time. Lastly, these data demonstrate how variation in experimental methods can alter interpretation and conclusions of PSF studies.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Population Subdivision in the Gopher Frog (Rana capito) across the Fragmented Longleaf Pine-Wiregrass Savanna of the Southeastern USA

Delineating genetically distinct population segments of threatened species and quantifying population connectivity are important steps in developing effective conservation and management strategies aimed at preventing extinction. The gopher frog (Rana capito) is a xeric-adapted, pond-breeding species endemic to the Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains of the southeastern United States. This species has experienced extensive habitat loss and fragmentation in the formerly widespread longleaf pine-wiregrass savanna where it lives, resulting in individual abundance declines and population extinctions throughout its range. We used individual-based clustering methods along with Bayesian inference of historical migration based on almost 1500 multilocus microsatellite genotypes to examine genetic structure in this taxon. Clustering analyses identified panhandle and peninsular populations in Florida as distinct genetic clusters separated by the Aucilla River, consistent with the division between the Coastal Plain and peninsular mitochondrial lineages, respectively. Analysis of historical migration indicated an east–west population divergence event followed by immigration to the east. Together, our results indicate that the genetically distinct Coastal Plain and peninsular Florida lineages should be considered separately for conservation and management purposes.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Development of a Comparison Framework for Evaluating Environmental Contours of Extreme Sea States

Environmental contours of extreme sea states are often utilized for the purposes of reliability-based offshore design. Many methods have been proposed to estimate environmental contours of extreme sea states, including, but not limited to, the traditional inverse first-order reliability method (I-FORM) and subsequent modifications, copula methods, and Monte Carlo methods. These methods differ in terms of both the methodology selected for defining the joint distribution of sea state parameters and in the method used to construct the environmental contour from the joint distribution. It is often difficult to compare the results of proposed methods to determine which method should be used for a particular application or geographical region. The comparison of the predictions from various contour methods at a single site and across many sites is important to making environmental contours of extreme sea states useful in practice. The goal of this paper is to develop a comparison framework for evaluating methods for developing environmental contours of extreme sea states. This paper develops generalized metrics for comparing the performance of contour methods to one another across a collection of study sites, and applies these metrics and methods to develop conclusions about trends in the wave resource across geographic locations, as demonstrated for a pilot dataset. These proposed metrics and methods are intended to judge the environmental contours themselves relative to other contour methods, and are thus agnostic to a specific device, structure, or field of application. The metrics developed and applied in this paper include measures of predictive accuracy, physical validity, and aggregated temporal performance that can be used to both assess contour methods and provide recommendations for the use of certain methods in various geographical regions. The application and aggregation of the metrics proposed in this paper outline a comparison framework for environmental contour methods that can be applied to support design analysis workflows for offshore structures. This comparison framework could be extended in future work to include additional metrics of interest, potentially including those to address issues pertinent to a specific application area or analysis discipline, such as metrics related to structural response across contour methods or additional physics-based metrics based on wave dynamics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Advances in Genes-Encoding Transporters for Cadmium Uptake, Translocation, and Accumulation in Plants

Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal that is highly toxic for plants, animals, and human beings. A better understanding of the mechanisms involved in Cd accumulation in plants is beneficial for developing strategies for either the remediation of Cd-polluted soils using hyperaccumulator plants or preventing excess Cd accumulation in the edible parts of crops and vegetables. As a ubiquitous heavy metal, the transport of Cd in plant cells is suggested to be mediated by transporters for essential elements such as Ca, Zn, K, and Mn. Identification of the genes encoding Cd transporters is important for understanding the mechanisms underlying Cd uptake, translocation, and accumulation in either crop or hyperaccumulator plants. Recent studies have shown that the transporters that mediate the uptake, transport, and accumulation of Cd in plants mainly include members of the natural resistance-associated macrophage protein (Nramp), heavy metal-transporting ATPase (HMA), zinc and iron regulated transporter protein (ZIP), ATP-binding cassette (ABC), and yellow stripe-like (YSL) families. Here, we review the latest advances in the research of these Cd transporters and lay the foundation for a systematic understanding underlying the molecular mechanisms of Cd uptake, transport, and accumulation in plants.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

2020 Nevada National Security Site Environmental Report – Summary

This summary report provides an abbreviated and more readable version of the full report, which discusses actions taken in 2020 to protect the environment and the public while achieving the NNSA/NFO mission goals. It is prepared for the public and our stakeholders in hopes that it is readily understandable and usable. It is a key component in our efforts to keep the public informed of environmental conditions at the NNSS and its support facilities in Las Vegas, Nevada.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗