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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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DOE OSTI2021

Surface processing and discharge-conditioning of high voltage electrodes for the Ra EDM experiment

The Ra EDM experiment uses a pair of high voltage electrodes to search for the atomic electric dipole moment of 225 Ra. We use identical, plane–parallel electrodes with a primary high gradient surface of 200 mm 2 to generate reversible DC electric fields. Our statistical sensitivity is linearly proportional to the electric field strength in the electrode gap. We adapted surface decontamination and processing techniques from accelerator physics literature to chemical polish and clean a suite of newly fabricated large-grain niobium and grade-2 titanium electrodes. Three pairs of niobium electrodes and one pair of titanium electrodes were discharge-conditioned with a custom high voltage test station at electric field strengths as high as +52.5 kV/mm and –51.5 kV/mm over electrode gap sizes ranging from 0.4 mm to 2.5 mm. One pair of large-grain niobium electrodes was discharge-conditioned and validated to operate at ±20 kV/mm with steady-state leakage current ≤ 25 pA (1σ) and a polarity-averaged 98 ± 19 discharges per hour. These electrodes were installed in the Ra EDM experimental apparatus, replacing a copper electrode pair, and were revalidated to ±20 kV/mm. Here, the niobium electrodes perform at an electric field strength 3.1 times larger than the legacy copper electrodes and are ultimately limited by the maximum output of our 30 kV bipolar power supply.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2022

Discovery top-down proteomics in symbiotic soybean root nodules

Proteomic methods have been widely used to study proteins in complex biological samples to understand biological molecular mechanisms. Most well-established methods (known as bottom-up proteomics, BUP) employ an enzymatic digestion step to cleave intact proteins into smaller peptides for liquid chromatography (LC) mass spectrometry (MS) detection. In contrast, top-down proteomics (TDP) directly characterizes intact proteins including all possible post-translational modifications (PTMs), thus offering unique insights into proteoform biology where combinations of individual PTMs may play important roles. We performed TDP on soybean root nodules infected by the symbiotic Bradyrhizobium japonicum in both the wildtype bacterium and a nifH- mutant, which lacks the ability to fix nitrogen in the soybean root nodule. TDP captured 1648 proteoforms derived from 313 bacterial genes and 178 soybean genes. Leghemoglobin, the most abundant protein in the sample, existed in many truncated proteoforms. Interestingly, these truncated proteoforms were considerably more abundant in the wildtype relative to the nifH- mutant, implicating protease activity as an important factor in nitrogen fixation. Proteoforms with various PTMs and combinations thereof were identified using an unrestricted open modification search. This included less common PTMs such as myristoylation, palmitoylation, cyanylation, and sulfation. In parallel, we collected high resolution MS imaging (MSI) data of intact proteins and biopolymers (<20 kDa due to current technical limitations) from sections of the soybean root nodules using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) coupled to high resolution Orbitrap. Several detected proteoforms exhibited unique spatial distributions inside the infection zone and cortex, suggesting functional compartmentalization in these regions. A subset of peaks from the MALDI-MSI were assigned to proteoforms detected in TDP LCMS data based on matching accurate masses. Many of the proteins detected in both LCMS and MALDI-MSI are currently uncharacterized in UniProt: the PTM and spatial information presented here will be valuable in understanding their biological functions. Taken together, our study demonstrates how untargeted TDP approach can provide unique insights into plant proteoform biology. On-going technology developments are expected to further improve TDP coverage for more comprehensive high-throughput analysis of proteoforms.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1993

A tool for manual endmember selection and spectral unmixing

Sampling a continuous radiance spectrum in many narrow contiguous spectral bands results in a high covariance between the bands. Hence, the true dimensionality of imaging spectrometer data is not determined by the number of spectral bands, but by the number of spectrally unique signatures whose mixtures reproduce the spectral variance observed in an image. Methods to unmix high dimensional multispectral data use principal components analysis to reduce the dimensionality. The variance of the spectral data is modeled as a linear combination of a finite set of endmembers in the space of the eigen-vectors that account for most of the variance. The number and characteristics of these endmembers are determined not only by the number and characteristics of the spectrally unique materials on the surface but also by processes (e.g., illumination, atmospheric scattering and absorption) affecting the signal received by the sensor. Selection of endmember spectra has typically been from a library. However, since most libraries are incomplete and do not account for the processes mentioned above, we have devised a computer display that allows researchers to explore interactively the eigenvector space of a representative and mean-corrected subset of the image data in search of extreme spectra to designate as endmembers. This display, which is based on parallel coordinates, is unique in the area of multidimensional visualization in that it includes not only a passive view of higher dimensional data but also the capability to interact and move geometrical objects in higher dimensional spaces.

Bateson, C. Ann↗

NASA NTRS1994

Magnification bias in galactic microlensing searches

It is shown that a significant amount of detectable gravitational microlensing events that could potentially be found by Massively Parallel Photometry (MAPP) project (such as the MACHO, EROS, and OGLE collaborations) will occur for stars too dim to be easily noticed individually by these projects. This is the result of a large magnification bias effect, a bias of including high-magnification events in any flux-limited sample. The probablility of detecting these events may be as high as 2.3 times the lensing probability of stars currently being monitored by MAPP collaborations.

Nemiroff, Robert J.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Parallel Monte Carlo Simulation for control system design

The research during the 1993/94 academic year addressed the design of parallel algorithms for stochastic robustness synthesis (SRS). SRS uses Monte Carlo simulation to compute probabilities of system instability and other design-metric violations. The probabilities form a cost function which is used by a genetic algorithm (GA). The GA searches for the stochastic optimal controller. The existing sequential algorithm was analyzed and modified to execute in a distributed environment. For this, parallel approaches to Monte Carlo simulation and genetic algorithms were investigated. Initial empirical results are available for the KSR1.

Schubert, Wolfgang M.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Neglecting Model Parametric Uncertainty Can Drastically Underestimate Flood Risks

Abstract Floods drive dynamic and deeply uncertain risks for people and infrastructures. Uncertainty characterization is a crucial step in improving the predictive understanding of multi‐sector dynamics and the design of risk‐management strategies. Current approaches to estimate flood hazards often sample only a relatively small subset of the known unknowns, for example, the uncertainties surrounding the model parameters. This approach neglects the impacts of key uncertainties on hazards and system dynamics. Here we mainstream a recently developed method for Bayesian inference to calibrate a computationally expensive distributed hydrologic model. We compare three different calibration approaches: (a) stepwise line search, (b) precalibration or screening, and (c) the Fast Model Calibrations (FaMoS) approach. FaMoS deploys a particle‐based approach that takes advantage of the massive parallelization afforded by modern high‐performance computing systems. We quantify how neglecting parametric uncertainty and data discrepancy can drastically underestimate extreme flood events and risks. Precalibration improves prediction skill score over a stepwise line search. The Bayesian calibration improves the uncertainty characterization of model parameters and flood risk projections.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

CORE-BFS: Communication-Optimized REctangular-partitioned BFS Achieving 160.845 TeraTEPS on Frontier Supercomputer

Distributed Breadth-First Search (BFS) is fundamental to many large-scale graph applications, but its performance on parallel systems is often limited by high communication overhead. This paper presents CORE-BFS, an extremely scalable GPU-based BFS implementation that introduces a unique rectangular 2D partitioning-based design for Frontier supercomputer. To further improve performance, we propose four key optimizations: (1) Rectangular 2D-partition specific data formats that use two compressed row and one compressed column status array bitmaps combined with a Double Compressed Sparse Row (DCSR) format per partition, reducing memory footprint and inter-rank traffic; (2) Adaptive frontier & communication strategy that unifies top-down and bottom-up traversal on the rectangular layout, uses lazy synchronization in top-down levels, and switches variants based on frontier size to minimize communication overhead; (3) Frontier-split degree-aware update that maps frontier vertices to thread-centric, wavefront-centric, and block-centric kernels based on their degree to improve GPU utilization and memory coalescing; (4) Row-reduction pipeline that overlaps bottom-up adjacency list processing with row-wise bitmap reduction to hide inter-rank latency. Together, these techniques increase parallelism while reducing memory and communication overhead. On the Graph500 benchmark, CORE - BFS scales up to 9,248 Frontier nodes with scale-42 graphs and reaches 160.845 TTEPS, delivering a 5.42 × speedup over our previous Frontier implementation.

Yang, Haoshen [Rutgers University]↗

NASA NTRS2003

Parallel Information Processing (Image Transmission Via Fiber Bundle and Multimode Fiber

Growing demand for visual, user-friendly representation of information inspires search for the new methods of image transmission. Currently used in-series (sequential) methods of information processing are inherently slow and are designed mainly for transmission of one or two dimensional arrays of data. Conventional transmission of data by fibers requires many fibers with array of laser diodes and photodetectors. In practice, fiber bundles are also used for transmission of images. Image is formed on the fiber-optic bundle entrance surface and each fiber transmits the incident image to the exit surface. Since the fibers do not preserve phase, only 2D intensity distribution can be transmitted in this way. Each single mode fiber transmit only one pixel of an image. Multimode fibers may be also used, so that each mode represent different pixel element. Direct transmission of image through multimode fiber is hindered by the mode scrambling and phase randomization. To overcome these obstacles wavelength and time-division multiplexing have been used, with each pixel transmitted on a separate wavelength or time interval. Phase-conjugate techniques also was tested in, but only in the unpractical scheme when reconstructed image return back to the fiber input end. Another method of three-dimensional imaging over single mode fibers was demonstrated in, using laser light of reduced spatial coherence. Coherence encoding, needed for a transmission of images by this methods, was realized with grating interferometer or with the help of an acousto-optic deflector. We suggest simple practical holographic method of image transmission over single multimode fiber or over fiber bundle with coherent light using filtering by holographic optical elements. Originally this method was successfully tested for the single multimode fiber. In this research we have modified holographic method for transmission of laser illuminated images over commercially available fiber bundle (fiber endoscope, or fiberscope).

Kukhtarev, Nicholai↗

DOE OSTI2025

Automated and highly parallelized Bayesian optimization scheme for direct drive fusion experiments on OMEGA

Finding the optimal implosion design on existing experimental facilities for inertial confinement fusion requires an exhaustive search of the vast design parameter space. This is infeasible both with experiments and with simulations. Consequently, a large fraction of the experimentally realizable design space remains unexplored, and new design schemes are challenging to optimize in a reasonable time frame. On the OMEGA laser facility, predictive machine learning models have been developed to accurately forecast the result of an experiment using only inexpensive simulations and the large dataset of prior experimental data. However, the full design space remains vast enough to be unassailable with simple optimization techniques. Here we develop an automated and optimally parallel Bayesian optimization algorithm that can entirely optimize the target and pulse shape of a direct-drive ICF implosion under a given design paradigm. We use this algorithm to find a markedly improved design for the performance implosions on OMEGA that is predicted to hydroequivalently scale to ignition at 2.15 MJ.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Quantum multi-programming for Grover’s search

Quantum multi-programming is a method utilizing contemporary noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers by executing multiple quantum circuits concurrently. Despite early research on it, the research remains on quantum gates or small-size quantum algorithms without correlation. In this paper, we propose a quantum multi-programming (QMP algorithm for Grover's search. Our algorithm decomposes Grover's algorithm by the partial diffusion operator and executes the decomposed circuits in parallel by QMP. We proved that this new algorithm increases the rotation angle of the Grover operator which, as a result, increases the success probability. The new algorithm is implemented on IBM quantum computers and compared with the canonical Grover's algorithm and other variations of Grover's algorithms. So, the empirical tests validate that our new algorithm outperforms other variations of Grover's algorithms as well as the canonical Grover's algorithm.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA NTRS1991

Parallel processing for scientific computations

The main contribution of the effort in the last two years is the introduction of the MOPPS system. After doing extensive literature search, we introduced the system which is described next. MOPPS employs a new solution to the problem of managing programs which solve scientific and engineering applications on a distributed processing environment. Autonomous computers cooperate efficiently in solving large scientific problems with this solution. MOPPS has the advantage of not assuming the presence of any particular network topology or configuration, computer architecture, or operating system. It imposes little overhead on network and processor resources while efficiently managing programs concurrently. The core of MOPPS is an intelligent program manager that builds a knowledge base of the execution performance of the parallel programs it is managing under various conditions. The manager applies this knowledge to improve the performance of future runs. The program manager learns from experience.

Alkhatib, Hasan S.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Viscosity estimates for the crust and upper mantle from patterns of lacustrine shoreline deformation in the Eastern Great Basin

The deformed shorelines of Lake Bonneville constitute a classic source of information on lithospheric elastic thickness and upper mantle viscosity. We describe and apply a new model to a recently augmented data set. New data better constrain both the complex spatio-temporal pattern of the lake load and the crustal deformation response to that load. The history of lake level fluctuations has been significantly refined and somewhat modified. This is due to both more radiocarbon dates from within the Bonneville basin and to an improved calibration of the radiocarbon timescale itself. The data which constrain the crustal deformation pattern consist of ages and shoreline elevations from several hundred points which sample three major levels of Lake Bonneville and corresponding elevations from the high stands of three smaller lakes situated to the west of Lake Bonneville. The geometry of the Earth model incorporates an arbitrary number of layers overlying a half-space, and the rheology of each level can accommodate an arbitrary number of Maxwell viscoelastic elements in parallel. The inverse modeling comprises three complementary approaches: for the simplest configurations, we performed a direct search of the parameter space and delineated the irregular boundary of the subspace of acceptable models. For more complex configurations, we constrained the elastic parameters to their seismically determined values and then solved for viscosity versus depth profiles by either expressing the log(viscosity) versus log(depth) profile as a series of specially constructed orhtogonal polynomials, or by allowing each of 8-10 layers (plus the half-space) to have an independently determined viscosity. We found that the data do not strongly support (nor can they conclusively exclude) a more complex rheology than simple Maxwell viscoelasticity. The orthogonal polynomial solution exhibits an essentially monotonic decrease in viscosity with depth.

Bills, Bruce G.↗

NASA NTRS2019

An Integrated Data Analytics Platform

An Integrated Science Data Analytics Platform is an environment that enables the confluence of resources for scientific investigation. It harmonizes data, tools and computational resources which subsequently enable the research community to focus on the investigation rather than spending time on security, data preparation, management, etc. OceanWorks is a NASA technology integration project to establish a cloud-based Integrated Ocean Science Data Analytics Platform at NASA’s Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) for big ocean science. It focuses on advancement and maturity by bringing together several NASA open-source, big data projects for parallel analytics, anomaly detection, in-situ to satellite data matchup, quality-screened data subsetting, search relevancy, and data discovery. Our communities are relying on data distributed through data centers such as the PO.DAAC, COAPS, NCAR, and many others to conduct their research. In typical investigations, scientists would engage in: search for data, evaluate the relevance of that data, download it, and then apply algorithms to identify trends. Such workflow cannot scale if the research involves a massive amount of data or multi-variate measurements. NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission is expected to produce massive amount of observational data during its 3-year nominal mission. Collections like SWOT challenges all existing Earth Science data archival, distribution and analysis paradigms. In this paper, we will discuss how OceanWorks enhances the analysis of physical ocean data where the computation is done on an elastic cloud platform next to the archive to deliver fast, web-accessible services for working with oceanographic measurements.

Yang, Chaowei↗

NASA NTRS2019

Overview of the Search for Space Weathering Signals on Bennu: One Rock Type, or Two?

We report on progress in the search for signs of space weathering on Bennu. We provide an overview of the space weathering evidence to date, and summarize relevant findings from several ongoing parallel studies of surface processes and surface properties. We examine trends from these studies in the context of space weathering, and what is known about near-Earth asteroid surface maturation. Because Bennu is covered with blocks, boulders, and rocks of various sizes, our search for space weathering signals has inevitably led to a study of the properties of Bennu’s rocks. Our research question is – do Bennu’s bright and dark rock populations form a maturity continuum due to space weathering, or alternatively, do the bright and dark rocks provide compelling evidence for two distinct rock populations on Bennu? In particular, we present our best estimate of the sub-field-of-view OVIRS (OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer) spectral properties of the largest bright boulders and compare them with the darker materials on Bennu’s surface to see if the observed spectral and albedo differences are consistent with space weathering effects, or not.

Clark, B. E.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Crystal structure of domain of unknown function 507 (DUF507) reveals a new protein fold

The crystal structure of the domain of unknown function family 507 protein from Aquifex aeolicus is reported (AaDUF507, UniProt O67633, 183 residues). The structure was determined in two space groups (C222 1 and P3 2 21) at 1.9 Å resolution. The phase problem was solved by molecular replacement using an AlphaFold model as the search model. AaDUF507 is a Y-shaped α-helical protein consisting of an anti-parallel 4-helix bundle base and two helical arms that extend 30-Å from the base. The two crystal structures differ by a 25° rigid body rotation of the C-terminal arm. The tertiary structure exhibits pseudo-twofold symmetry. The structural symmetry mirrors internal sequence similarity: residues 11–57 and 102–148 are 30% identical and 53% similar with an E-value of 0.002. In one of the structures, electron density for an unknown ligand, consistent with nicotinamide or similar molecule, may indicate a functional site. Docking calculations suggest potential ligand binding hot spots in the region between the helical arms. Structure-based query of the Protein Data Bank revealed no other protein with a similar tertiary structure, leading us to propose that AaDUF507 represents a new protein fold.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS1995

Constraint-Based Scheduling System

Report describes continuing development of software for constraint-based scheduling system implemented eventually on massively parallel computer. Based on machine learning as means of improving scheduling. Designed to learn when to change search strategy by analyzing search progress and learning general conditions under which resource bottleneck occurs.

Zweben, Monte↗

NASA NTRS2005

A Parallel Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm Accelerated by Asynchronous Evaluations

A parallel Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is presented. Particle swarm optimization is a fairly recent addition to the family of non-gradient based, probabilistic search algorithms that is based on a simplified social model and is closely tied to swarming theory. Although PSO algorithms present several attractive properties to the designer, they are plagued by high computational cost as measured by elapsed time. One approach to reduce the elapsed time is to make use of coarse-grained parallelization to evaluate the design points. Previous parallel PSO algorithms were mostly implemented in a synchronous manner, where all design points within a design iteration are evaluated before the next iteration is started. This approach leads to poor parallel speedup in cases where a heterogeneous parallel environment is used and/or where the analysis time depends on the design point being analyzed. This paper introduces an asynchronous parallel PSO algorithm that greatly improves the parallel e ciency. The asynchronous algorithm is benchmarked on a cluster assembled of Apple Macintosh G5 desktop computers, using the multi-disciplinary optimization of a typical transport aircraft wing as an example.

Venter, Gerhard↗

NASA NTRS2003

Aerodynamic Shape Optimization Using Hybridized Differential Evolution

An aerodynamic shape optimization method that uses an evolutionary algorithm known at Differential Evolution (DE) in conjunction with various hybridization strategies is described. DE is a simple and robust evolutionary strategy that has been proven effective in determining the global optimum for several difficult optimization problems. Various hybridization strategies for DE are explored, including the use of neural networks as well as traditional local search methods. A Navier-Stokes solver is used to evaluate the various intermediate designs and provide inputs to the hybrid DE optimizer. The method is implemented on distributed parallel computers so that new designs can be obtained within reasonable turnaround times. Results are presented for the inverse design of a turbine airfoil from a modern jet engine. (The final paper will include at least one other aerodynamic design application). The capability of the method to search large design spaces and obtain the optimal airfoils in an automatic fashion is demonstrated.

Madavan, Nateri K.↗