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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 1,099 records · Page 61

Hydrogen bond arrangements in (H 2 O) 20, 24, 28 clathrate hydrate cages: Optimization and many-body analysis

Here we provide a detailed study of hydrogen bonding arrangements, relative stability, residual entropy, and an analysis of the many-body effects in the (H 2 O) 20 (D-cage), (H 2 O) 24 (T-cage), and (H 2 O) 28 (H-cage) hollow cages making up structures I (sI) and II (sII) of clathrate hydrate lattices. Based on the enumeration of the possible hydrogen bonding networks for a fixed oxygen atom scaffold, the residual entropy (S 0 ) of these three gas phase cages was estimated at 0.754 82, 0.754 44, and 0.754 17 · Nk b , where N is the number of molecules and k b is Boltzmann’s constant. A previously identified descriptor of enhanced stability based on the relative arrangement and connectivity of nearest-neighbor fragments on the polyhedral water cluster [strong-weak-effective-bond model] also applies to the larger hollow cages. The three cages contain a maximum of 7, 9, and 11 such preferable arrangements of trans nearest dimer pairs with one “free” OH bond on the donor molecule (t1d dimers). The Many-Body Expansion (MBE) up to the 4-body suggests that the many-body terms vary nearly linearly with the cluster binding energy. Using a hierarchical approach of screening the relative stability of networks starting from optimizations with the TIP4P, TTM2.1-F, and MB-pol classical potentials, subsequently refining at more accurate levels of electronic structure theory (DFT and MP2), and finally correcting for zero-point energy, we were able to identify a group of four low-lying isomers of the (H 2 O) 24 T-cage, two of which are antisymmetric and the other two form a pair of antipode configurations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Angular momentum transfer by gravitational torques and the evolution of binary protostars

The efficiency of angular momentum transport by gravitational torques is investigated semianalytically for two idealized models. The first model, a rotating ellipsoid embedded within another ellipsoid, is compared with numerical results for the fission instability of a radpidly-rotating polytrope. The fission instability is aborted by the rapid transfer of angular momentum outward by gravitational torques. The global rates of angular momentum transfer by gravitational torques in rotating gas clouds such as the presolar nebula are shown to be comparable to the rates assumed to be appropriate for transfer by turbulent stresses. The second model is a binary system embedded within a rotating ellipsoid. The binary orbital angular momentum decreases significantly when the phase angle with the ellipsoid is constant; the binary separation may then decrease by a factor of 100 within about an orbital period. For a variable phase angle, little secular loss of orbital angular momentum occurs. Binaries which form in the isothermal regime of the theory of hierarchical fragmentation will not undergo orbital decay, whereas very close binaries composed of nonisothermal fragments may decay and merge into single objects.

Boss, A. P.↗

Development of an unsteady wake theory appropriate for aeroelastic analyses of rotors in hover and forward flight

The purpose of this research is the development of an unsteady aerodynamic model for rotors such that it can be used in conventional aeroelastic analysis (e.g., eigenvalue determination and control system design). For this to happen, the model must be in a state-space formulation such that the states of the flow can be defined, calculated and identified as part of the analysis. The fluid mechanics of the problem is given by a closed-form inversion of an acceleration potential. The result is a set of first-order differential equations in time for the unknown flow coefficients. These equations are hierarchical in the sense that they may be truncated at any number of radial or azimuthal terms.

Peters, David A.↗

Aberration corrected RF flipper for high resolution neutron spectroscopy

Project Summary Company: Adelphi Technology, Inc. Title: Aberration-corrected High Frequency RF Flipper for High-Resolution Neutron Spectroscopy PI: Dr. Jay Theodore Cremer Topic: C55-11 Enhancement of Scattering Instrumentation Technology Used at Pulsed and Continuous Sources Subtopic: d. Other Statement of the problem or situation that is being addressed. The quest to understand heterogeneous and hierarchical materials is gathering momentum, as described in a 2015 report by the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee on Challenges at the Frontiers of Matter and Energy. For the past 40 years a technique called neutron spin echo (NSE) has been used to probe molecular motions in such non-crystalline materials over time scales from 10’s of picoseconds to 100’s of nanoseconds. The method has provided unique information about the dynamics of soft heterogeneous materials, including confirmation of the de Gennes model of polymer reptation and quantitative measurement of bending constants of biologically relevant lipid membranes. However, scientists continue to clamor for even higher resolution than NSE can provide. Biomaterials, polymers, glasses, and artificially nanostructured materials all manifest slow molecular motions because of weak or competing interactions between subunits and are amenable to study with neutrons, provided sufficiently long dynamical correlation times can be achieved. All these materials have important applications to advanced technologies so understanding them is key to technological progress. General statement of how this problem is being addressed. We will address the need for high-resolution neutron spectroscopy by using a technique called Neutron Resonance Spin Echo (NRSE). While similar to NSE in many respects, this method has the potential to exceed the NSE capabilities, if 2 technical hurdles can be overcome. The major impediments to successful high-resolution NRSE are the availability of two technologies: a very high frequency, efficient, radiofrequency (rf) flipper for neutrons and a method to correct certain magnetic aberrations. Based on previous STTR support and follow-on research we have developed a suitable rf flipper and we have invented a method to correct the magnetic aberrations. Both technologies need refinement to make them suitable for implementation at a neutron source such as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory nuclear reactor. In this proposal we seek to perfect the two technologies and to combine them into a single, operationally convenient device. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits In view of the increasing demand for the unique scientific information that high resolution neutron spectroscopy can provide, we expect several major instrumentation upgrades at both U.S. and foreign neutron centers will require make use of the NRSE method over the coming decade, creating a market for the devices we will design. These components will enhance scientists’ abilities to probe the time dependence of density fluctuations in a wide range of hierarchical and heterogeneous materials many of which are vital to existing and future technologies. Key Words – Polarized Neutrons, Neutron Spin Echo, Neutron Scattering, advanced materials. Summary for Members of Congress Neutron beams are a powerful materials-science probe that provide unique information about the structure of matter. The proposed devices will accelerate scientific discoveries required to achieve national goals for new technological materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Programmable display pushbuttons on the Space Station's telerobot control panel

The Man-Systems Telerobotics Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center and supported by Lockheed, is working to ensure that the Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS) to be used on the Space Shuttle (Orbiter) and the Space Station has a well designed user interface from a Human Factors perspective. The FTS, which is a project led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will be a telerobot used for Space Station construction, maintenance, and satellite repair. It will be directly controlled from workstations on the Orbiter and the Space Station and monitored from a ground workstation. The FTS will eventually evolve into a more autonomous system, but in the short-term the system will be manually operated (teleoperated) for many tasks. This emphasizes the importance of the human/telerobot interface on this system. This phase of the FTS workstation evaluation covers a preliminary study of programmable display pushbuttons (PDP's). The PDP is constructed of a matrix of directly addressable electroluminescent (EL) pixels which can be used to form dot-matrix characters. PDP's can be used to display more than one message and to control more than one function. Since the PDP's have these features, then a single PDP may possibly replace the use of many single-function pushbuttons, rotary switches, and toggle switches, thus using less panel space. It is of interest to determine if PDP's can be used to adequately perform complex hierarchically structured task sequences. The objective of this investigation was to compare the performance of experienced and inexperienced Remote Manipulator System (RMS) operators while performing an RMS like task on simulated PDP and non-PDP computer prototypes so that guidelines governing the use of programmable display pushbuttons on the FTS workstation could be created. The functionality of the RMS on the Orbiter was used as a model for this evaluation since the functionality of the FTS at the time of this writing has not been solidified.

Stuart, Mark A.↗

Nonlinear Resonances in the Solar System

Orbital resonances are ubiquitous in the Solar system. They play a decisive role in the long term dynamics, and in some cases the physical evolution, of the planets and of their natural satellites, as well as the evolution of small bodies (including dust) in the planetary system. The few-body gravitational problem of hierarchical planetary-type systems allows for a complex range of dynamical timescales, from the fast orbital periods to the very slow orbit precession rates. The interaction of fast and slow degrees of freedom produces a rich diversity of resonance phenomena. Weak dissipative effects - such as tides or radiation drag forces - also produce unexpectedly rich dynamical behaviors. This paper provides a mostly qualitative discussion of simple dynamical models for the commonly encountered orbital resonance phenomena in the Solar system.

Malhotra, Renu↗

"Tools For Analysis and Visualization of Large Time- Varying CFD Data Sets"

During the four years of this grant (including the one year extension), we have explored many aspects of the visualization of large CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) datasets. These have included new direct volume rendering approaches, hierarchical methods, volume decimation, error metrics, parallelization, hardware texture mapping, and methods for analyzing and comparing images. First, we implemented an extremely general direct volume rendering approach that can be used to render rectilinear, curvilinear, or tetrahedral grids, including overlapping multiple zone grids, and time-varying grids. Next, we developed techniques for associating the sample data with a k-d tree, a simple hierarchial data model to approximate samples in the regions covered by each node of the tree, and an error metric for the accuracy of the model. We also explored a new method for determining the accuracy of approximate models based on the light field method described at ACM SIGGRAPH (Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics) '96. In our initial implementation, we automatically image the volume from 32 approximately evenly distributed positions on the surface of an enclosing tessellated sphere. We then calculate differences between these images under different conditions of volume approximation or decimation.

Wilhelms, Jane↗

Variational encoder geostatistical analysis (VEGAS) with an application to large scale riverine bathymetry

Estimation of riverbed profiles, also known as bathymetry, plays a vital role in many applications, such as safe and efficient inland navigation, prediction of bank erosion, land subsidence, and flood risk management. The high cost and complex logistics of direct bathymetry surveys, i.e, depth imaging, have encouraged the use of indirect measurements such as surface flow velocities. However, estimating high-resolution bathymetry from indirect measurements is an inverse problem that can be computationally challenging. Here, we propose a reduced-order model (ROM) based approach that utilizes a variational autoencoder (VAE), a type of deep neural network with a narrow layer in the middle, to compress bathymetry and flow velocity information and accelerate bathymetry inverse problems from flow velocity measurements. In our application, the shallow-water equations (SWE) with appropriate boundary conditions (BCs), e.g., the discharge and/or the free surface elevation, constitute the forward problem, to predict flow velocity. Then, ROMs of the SWEs are constructed on a nonlinear manifold of low dimensionality through a variational encoder and the bathymetry inversion problem is derived on the low-dimensional latent space in a Hierarchical Bayesian setting. Further, the reformulation allows variational inference with a small number (e.g., $\mathscr{O}$ (100) of ROM runs and efficient uncertainty quantification. We have tested our inversion approach on a one-mile reach of the Savannah River, GA, USA. Once the neural network is trained (offline stage), the proposed technique can perform the inversion operation orders of magnitude faster than traditional inversion methods that are commonly based on linear projections, such as principal component analysis (PCA), or the principal component geostatistical approach (PCGA). Furthermore, tests show that the algorithm can estimate the bathymetry with good accuracy even with sparse flow velocity measurements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Heteroepitaxial control of thickness, strain, and domain architecture in few-layer ferroelectric tin monochalcogenides

Thin-film epitaxy and epitaxial strain have been widely exploited to tune domain configurations, switching behavior, and ferroic properties in conventional three-dimensional ferroelectric thin films; however, its application to controlling the properties of two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectrics has remained largely unexplored. Here, using SnX (X = Se, S) as a model system, we demonstrate heteroepitaxial control of thickness, strain state, and domain architecture in few-layer ferroelectric SnX via growth on monolayer MoS2 van der Waals (vdW) templates. Compared with conventional growth, MoS2-templated heteroepitaxy promotes epitaxial alignment, yielding ultrathin SnSe films with improved crystalline quality, full areal coverage, and enlarged lateral dimensions. Strong interfacial epitaxial coupling induces pronounced in-plane strain and stabilizes a hierarchical ferroelastic domain architecture, in which long-range 90° stripe domains are further subdivided into nanoscale rotational variants, as revealed by scanning transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron X-ray microscopy. Piezoresponse force microscopy and second-harmonic polarimetry confirm robust in-plane polarization, while ferroelectricity in SnSe is established through polarization-electric field hysteresis and nonvolatile ferroelectric resistive switching with on/off ratios approaching 1000. A nonvolatile, switchable ferroelectric diode effect further evidences direct coupling between polarization and charge transport. Notably, ferroelectric switchability exhibits a strong thickness dependence and is preserved only below ∼10 layers. This vdW heteroepitaxial strategy is further extended to ferroelectric SnS. The seamless heteroepitaxial integration of 2D ferroelectrics with CMOS-compatible, wafer-scale MoS2 templates provides a general and scalable route for strain-enabled structural and ferroelectric engineering in emerging memory and low-power optoelectronic applications.

Wang, Yueyin↗

A compendium of bacterial and archaeal single-cell amplified genomes from oxygen deficient marine waters

Oxygen-deficient marine waters referred to as oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) or anoxic marine zones (AMZs) are common oceanographic features. They host both cosmopolitan and endemic microorganisms adapted to low oxygen conditions. Microbial metabolic interactions within OMZs and AMZs drive coupled biogeochemical cycles resulting in nitrogen loss and climate active trace gas production and consumption. Global warming is causing oxygen-deficient waters to expand and intensify. Therefore, studies focused on microbial communities inhabiting oxygen-deficient regions are necessary to both monitor and model the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystem functions and services. Here we present a compendium of 5,129 single-cell amplified genomes (SAGs) from marine environments encompassing representative OMZ and AMZ geochemical profiles. Of these, 3,570 SAGs have been sequenced to different levels of completion, providing a strain-resolved perspective on the genomic content and potential metabolic interactions within OMZ and AMZ microbiomes. Hierarchical clustering confirmed that samples from similar oxygen concentrations and geographic regions also had analogous taxonomic compositions, providing a coherent framework for comparative community analysis.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Position Papers for the ASCR Workshop on the Management and Storage of Scientific Data

The purpose of this workshop is to identify priority research directions in the area of data management for high-performance and scientific computing above and beyond HPC’s traditional "the parallel file system is the data-management system" model. Supporting the breadth of the DOE mission, including the explosion of AI uses and the growing needs of experimental and observational science, motivates revisiting our assumptions about data management. There are many facets of this topic to explore including: (1) Interfaces for accessing data that resides on traditional persistent storage as well as memory devices; (2) Storage-system architecture design that supports scientific workflows on varied hierarchical storage and networking devices; (3) Devising metadata management infrastructure to support FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability); (4) Capturing provenance information about scientific data; (5) Utilizing AI to learn I/O patterns of emerging workloads for efficient data management; (6) Providing data management support for AI and complex workflows; and (7) Understanding the overlap between traditional storage systems and I/O (SSIO) efforts and data management. While the program committee has identified these topics as important areas for discussion, we welcome position papers from the community that propose additional topics of interest for discussion at the workshop. The workshop agenda will include breakout sessions for discussing these and selected topic areas to inform priority research directions for data management for high-performance and scientific computing.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Report for the ASCR Workshop on the Management and Storage of Scientific Data

The purpose of this workshop is to identify priority research directions in the area of data management for high-performance and scientific computing above and beyond HPC’s traditional "the parallel file system is the data-management system" model. Supporting the breadth of the DOE mission, including the explosion of AI uses and the growing needs of experimental and observational science, motivates revisiting our assumptions about data management. There are many facets of this topic to explore including: (1) Interfaces for accessing data that resides on traditional persistent storage as well as memory devices; (2) Storage-system architecture design that supports scientific workflows on varied hierarchical storage and networking devices; (3) Devising metadata management infrastructure to support FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability); (4) Capturing provenance information about scientific data; (5) Utilizing AI to learn I/O patterns of emerging workloads for efficient data management; (6) Providing data management support for AI and complex workflows; and (7) Understanding the overlap between traditional storage systems and I/O (SSIO) efforts and data management. While the program committee has identified these topics as important areas for discussion, we welcome position papers from the community that propose additional topics of interest for discussion at the workshop. The workshop agenda will include breakout sessions for discussing these and selected topic areas to inform priority research directions for data management for high-performance and scientific computing.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Integrated Modeling and Development of Component-Based Embedded Software in Scala

Programming of embedded systems is challenging due to the low-level design patterns normally applied in the implementation of such systems. Furthermore, programming languages normally considered suitable for this level of programming, such as C and C++, are themselves low-level compared to more modern programming languages. We report on an effort exploring modeling and programming of embedded systems in modern high-level programming languages combining object-oriented and functional programming. We present an integration of four separate internal DSLs (libraries), considered useful for embedded program- ming, in the Scala programming language, for programming and testing component-based systems. These include a DSL for defining components and their connections, and a DSL for programming the individual components as hierarchical state machines. Two additional DSLs support testing, and include a DSL for writing temporal logic flavored test oracles for monitoring program executions, and a DSL for rule-based test input generation. The paper discusses the gap between Scala as used here and the needs for embedded systems programming.

Bocchino, Robert↗

Global Explainability of A Deep Abstaining Classifier for Cancer Pathology Reports

We present a global explainability method to characterize sources of errors in a real-world multitask deep abstaining classifier (DAC), in the context of cancer histology prediction. Our multitask classifier, currently deployed for automated annotation of cancer pathology reports from NCI-SEER registries, was trained and evaluated on 1.04 million hand-annotated samples and makes simultaneous predictions of cancer site, subsite, histology, laterality, and behavior for each report. The DAC framework enables the model to abstain on ambiguous reports and confusing classes to achieve the target accuracy on the retained (non-abstained) samples, but at the cost of decreased coverage. Requiring 97% accuracy on the histology task caused our model to retain only 22% of all samples, mostly the less ambiguous and common classes. Local explainability with the GradInp technique provided a computationally efficient way of obtaining contextual reasoning for hundreds of thousands of individual predictions. Our method, involving dimensionality reduction of approximately 13000 aggregated local explanations (ALE), offers a tractable path to true global explainability. It enabled identification of sources of errors in histology classification, globally, as hierarchical complexity among classes, label noise, insufficient information, and conflicting evidence. This suggests several strategies for iterative improvement of our DAC, including well-designed exclusion criteria, focused annotation, and reduced penalties for errors involving hierarchically related classes.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

An experimental study of fault propagation in a jet-engine controller

An experimental analysis of the impact of transient faults on a microprocessor-based jet engine controller, used in the Boeing 747 and 757 aircrafts is described. A hierarchical simulation environment which allows the injection of transients during run-time and the tracing of their impact is described. Verification of the accuracy of this approach is also provided. A determination of the probability that a transient results in latch, pin or functional errors is made. Given a transient fault, there is approximately an 80 percent chance that there is no impact on the chip. An empirical model to depict the process of error exploration and degeneration in the target system is derived. The model shows that, if no latch errors occur within eight clock cycles, no significant damage is likely to happen. Thus, the overall impact of a transient is well contained. A state transition model is also derived from the measured data, to describe the error propagation characteristics within the chip, and to quantify the impact of transients on the external environment. The model is used to identify and isolate the critical fault propagation paths, the module most sensitive to fault propagation and the module with the highest potential of causing external pin errors.

Choi, Gwan Seung↗

Quantum magic and multipartite entanglement in the structure of nuclei

Motivated by the Gottesman-Knill theorem, we present a detailed study of the quantum complexity of p -shell and s d -shell nuclei. Valence-space nuclear shell-model wave functions generated by the code are mapped to qubit registers using the Jordan-Wigner mapping (12 qubits for the p shell and 24 qubits for the s d shell), from which measures of the many-body entanglement ( n -tangles) and magic (nonstabilizerness) are determined. While exact evaluations of these measures are possible for nuclei with a modest number of active nucleons, Monte Carlo simulations are required for the more complex nuclei. The broadly applicable Pauli-string I ̂ Z ̂ exact (PSIZe) Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique is introduced to accelerate the evaluation of measures of magic in deformed nuclei (with hierarchical wave functions), by factors of ≈ 8 for some nuclei. Significant multinucleon entanglement is found in the s d shell, dominated by proton-neutron configurations, along with significant measures of magic. This is evident not only for the deformed states, but also for nuclei on the path to instability via regions of shape coexistence and level inversion. These results indicate that quantum-computing resources will accelerate precision simulations of such nuclei and beyond. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Secondary structure determines electron transport in peptides

Proteins play a key role in biological electron transport, but the structure–function relationships governing the electronic properties of peptides are not fully understood. Despite recent progress, understanding the link between peptide conformational flexibility, hierarchical structures, and electron transport pathways has been challenging. Here, we use single-molecule experiments, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, nonequilibrium Green’s function-density functional theory (NEGF-DFT), and unsupervised machine learning to understand the role of secondary structure on electron transport in peptides. Our results reveal a two-state molecular conductance behavior for peptides across several different amino acid sequences. MD simulations and Gaussian mixture modeling are used to show that this two-state molecular conductance behavior arises due to the conformational flexibility of peptide backbones, with a high-conductance state arising due to a more defined secondary structure (beta turn or 3 10 helices) and a low-conductance state occurring for extended peptide structures. These results highlight the importance of helical conformations on electron transport in peptides. Conformer selection for the peptide structures is rationalized using principal component analysis of intramolecular hydrogen bonding distances along peptide backbones. Molecular conformations from MD simulations are used to model charge transport in NEGF-DFT calculations, and the results are in reasonable qualitative agreement with experiments. Projected density of states calculations and molecular orbital visualizations are further used to understand the role of amino acid side chains on transport. Overall, our results show that secondary structure plays a key role in electron transport in peptides, which provides broad avenues for understanding the electronic properties of proteins.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗