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At least 1,189 records · Page 66

Temporal nitrogen dynamics in intensively managed loblolly pine early stand development

Forest production is strongly dependent on nutrient uptake; however, sustainable management of intensively managed plantations requires an improved understanding of this relationship when fertilization occurs frequently across short rotations. Here, we studied temporal nitrogen (N) concentration ([N]) and content (Nc) dynamics under different silvicultural practices (herbicide, fertilization, and planting density) throughout early loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) stand development (5 years). We describe relationships of [N] and Nc of different stand components (foliage, branches, stem, roots, and competing vegetation) with carbon and biomass. Our results demonstrate that [N] of perennial loblolly tissues do not respond to silvicultural practices and progressively decrease through development. While foliar [N] was most responsive to resource availability, it was not consistent across time. Controlling competing vegetation was crucial to promote the use of site resources by the crop tree and increased loblolly Nc by >500%. However, increased N uptake and expedited growth is dependent upon fertilization early in stand development. At age 5, herbicide plus reduced and full fertilization rates exhibited similar aboveground Nc, which was 32% higher than with herbicide only. Increasing planting density resulted in increased above- and belowground loblolly Nc; however, increases in Nc were not proportional with increases in planting density. Net primary productivity and N uptake were linearly related, but age/development strongly controlled N use efficiency. Our study helps to understand complex relationships between N, biomass, and silvicultural practices during early stand development and demonstrates that temporal evaluation of nutrient dynamics is crucial to better understand loblolly pine growth, carbon sequestration potential, and to inform sustainable silvicultural practices across short rotations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A spin-wave magnetometer with a positive feedback

In this work, we demonstrate experimentally the operation of a spin-wave magnetometer integrated into a circuit with a positive feedback. The circuit consists of the passive magnetic and active electric parts. The magnetic part includes a sensing element, which is a magnetic cross junction made of Y 3 Fe 2 (FeO 4 ) 3 . The electric part includes a non-linear amplifier and a phase shifter. The electric and magnetic parts are connected via micrometer size antennae. Spin waves are excited by two of these antennae while the output inductive voltage produced by the interfering spin waves is detected by the third antenna. Spin waves propagating in the orthogonal arms of the cross can accumulate significantly different phase shifts, depending on the direction and the strength of the external magnetic field. The output inductive voltage reaches its maximum in the case of constructive spin wave interference. The positive feedback provides further signal amplification. It appears possible to enhance the response function, compared to the passive circuits without a feedback, by a factor of ×100 without an increase in the noise level. The experimental data show a prominent response to the external magnetic field variation, exceeding 5 x 10 3 V/T. The intrinsic noise spectral density of the device can be as low as 10 -16 V 2 /Hz. The estimated sensitivity of the prototype device is 2 x 10 -12 T/√Hz at room temperature. We argue that spin-wave magnetometers can potentially be as sensitive as SQUIDs while operating at room temperature.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Optimal conditions for efficient flow-electrode capacitive deionization

One of the current barriers to achieving fast and stable performance for flow-electrode capacitive deionization (FCDI) is determining optimal operating parameters. To date, however, no consensus has been reached for universal conditions for FCDI. Through experimental and modeling approaches in this study, we systematically evaluated the influence of applied potential (V = 1.2–2.4 V) and electrolyte concentration (C0 = 0.05–0.5 M) on the FCDI and electrodialysis (ED) desalination processes. Evaluation indicators include the concentration decrease in the desalinated solution, salt removal rates, pH fluctuations, charge efficiency, and energy consumption. Results demonstrated that the dynamic curves of concentration decrease at 2.0 V nearly overlapped with the response at 1.6 V at certain electrolyte concentrations, while the salt removal rates at 0.2 M salt concentration were the best among all concentrations tested at a range of applied potential. Therefore, it was thus concluded that the optimum conditions for FCDI operation are 1.6 V applied potential and 0.2 M initial salt concentration, under which faradaic reactions are not being triggered, and concentration polarization does not significantly affect ion transfer. Furthermore, a comparative study between FCDI and ED indicated that ED has a different dependence on the electrolyte concentration and applied potential, in which the desalination can be linearly enhanced with increasing potential but greatly limited at high concentrations. Due to the presence of carbon particles in FCDI, the enhanced charge/ion transfer is probably the main reason for the different desalination performance of FCDI and ED. Overall, the optimal operating parameters obtained in this work could be used as basic test conditions for further development of new carbon-based materials for FCDI.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Feasibility of Adding Twitter Data to Aid Drought Depiction: Case Study in Colorado

The use of social media, such as Twitter, has changed the information landscape for citizens’ participation in crisis response and recovery activities. Given that drought progression is slow and also spatially extensive, an interesting set of questions arise, such as how the usage of Twitter by a large population may change during the development of a major drought alongside how the changing usage facilitates drought detection. For this reason, contemporary analysis of how social media data, in conjunction with meteorological records, was conducted towards improvement in the detection of drought and its progression. The research utilized machine learning techniques applied over satellite-derived drought conditions in Colorado. Three different machine learning techniques were examined: the generalized linear model, support vector machines and deep learning, each applied to test the integration of Twitter data with meteorological records as a predictor of drought development. It is found that the integration of data resources is viable given that the Twitter-based model outperformed the control run which did not include social media input. Eight of the ten models tested showed quantifiable improvements in the performance over the control run model, suggesting that the Twitter-based model was superior in predicting drought severity. Future work lies in expanding this method to depict drought in the western U.S.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Modeling and simulations of hydrodynamic shocks in a plasma flowing across randomized ICF scale laser beams

High-energy laser beams interacting with flowing plasmas can produce a plasma response that leads to deflection of the beam, beam bending. Such beams have usually a speckle structure generated by optical smoothing techniques that reduce the spatial and temporal coherence in the laser field pattern. The cumulative plasma response from laser speckles slows down the velocity of the incoming flow by momentum conservation. For slightly super-sonic flow the cumulative plasma response to the ponderomotive force exerted by the beam speckle ensemble is the strongest, such that slowing down the flow to subsonic velocities leads eventually to the generation of a shock around the cross section of the beam. This scenario has been predicted theoretically and is confirmed here by our hydrodynamic simulations in two dimensions with speckled beams and in one dimension with a reduced model. The conditions of shock generation are given in terms of the ponderomotive pressure, speckle size and the flow velocity. The nonlinear properties of the shocks are analyzed using Rankine–Hugoniot relations. According to linear theory, temporally smoothed laser beams exhibit a higher threshold for shock generation. Numerical simulations with beams that are smoothed by spectral dispersion compare well with the linear theory results, diverging from those produced by beams with only a random phase plates in the nonlinear regime. The conditions necessary for shock generation and their effects on the laser plasma coupling in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments are also discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Model Reduction by Generalized Falk Method for Efficient Field-Circuit Simulations

The Generalized Falk Method (GFM) for coordinate transformation, together with two model-reduction strategies based on this method, are presented for efficient coupled field-circuit simulations. Each model-reduction strategy is based on a decision to retain specific linearly-independent vectors, called trial vectors, to construct a vector basis for coordinate transformation. The reduced-order models are guaranteed to be stable and passive since the GFM is a congruence transformation of originally symmetric positive definite systems. We also show that, unlike the Pad´e-via-Lanczos (PVL) method, the GFM does not generate unstable positive poles while reducing the order of circuit problems. Further, the proposed GFM is also faster when compared to methods of the type Lanczos (or Krylov) that are already widely used in circuit simulations for electrothermal and electromagnetic problems. The concept of response participation factors is introduced for the selection of the trial vectors in the proposed model-reduction methods. Further, we present methods to develop simple equivalent circuit networks for the field component of the overall field-circuit system. The implementation of these equivalent circuit networks in circuit simulators is discussed. With the proposed model-reduction strategies, significant improvement on the efficiency of the generalized Falk method is illustrated for coupled field-circuit problems.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Effective radiative forcing of anthropogenic aerosols in E3SM version 1: historical changes, causality, decomposition, and parameterization sensitivities

Abstract. The effective radiative forcing of anthropogenic aerosols (ERFaer) is an important measure of the anthropogenic aerosol effects simulated by a global climate model. Here we analyze ERFaer simulated by the E3SM version 1 (E3SMv1) atmospheric model using both century-long free-running atmosphere–land simulations and short nudged simulations. We relate the simulated ERFaer to characteristics of the aerosol composition and optical properties, and we evaluate the relationships between key aerosol and cloud properties. In terms of historical changes from the year 1870 to 2014, our results show that the global mean anthropogenic aerosol burden and optical depth increase during the simulation period as expected, but the regional averages show large differences in the temporal evolution. The largest regional differences are found in the emission-induced evolution of the burden and optical depth of the sulfate aerosol: a strong decreasing trend is seen in the Northern Hemisphere high-latitude region after around 1970, while a continued increase is simulated in the tropics. The relationships between key aerosol and cloud properties (relative changes between pre-industrial and present-day conditions) also show evident changes after 1970, diverging from the linear relationships exhibited for the period of 1870–1969. In addition to the regional differences in the simulated relationships, a reduced sensitivity in cloud droplet number and other cloud properties to aerosol perturbations is seen when the aerosol perturbation is large. Consequently, the global annual mean ERFaer magnitude does not increase after around 1970. The ERFaer in E3SMv1 is relatively large compared to the recently published multi-model estimates; the primary reason is the large indirect aerosol effect (i.e., through aerosol–cloud interactions). Compared to other models, E3SMv1 features large relative changes in the cloud droplet effective radius in response to aerosol perturbations. Large sensitivity is also seen in the liquid cloud optical depth, which is determined by changes in both the effective radius and liquid water path. Aerosol-induced changes in liquid and ice cloud properties in E3SMv1 are found to have a strong correlation, as the evolution of anthropogenic sulfate aerosols affects both the liquid cloud formation and the homogeneous ice nucleation in cirrus clouds (that causes a large effect on longwave ERFaer). As suggested by a previous study, the large ERFaer appears to be one of the reasons why the model cannot reproduce the observed global mean temperature evolution in the second half of the 20th century. Sensitivity simulations are performed to understand which parameterization and/or parameter changes have a large impact on the simulated ERFaer. The ERFaer estimates in E3SMv1 for the shortwave and longwave components are sensitive to the parameterization changes in both liquid and ice cloud processes. When the parameterization of ice cloud processes is modified, the top-of-model forcing changes in the shortwave and longwave components largely offset each other, so the net effect is negligible. This suggests that, to reduce the magnitude of the net ERFaer, it would be more effective to reduce the anthropogenic aerosol effect through liquid or mixed-phase clouds.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Constitutive modeling of δ-phase zircaloy hydride based on strain rate dependent nanoindentation and nano-scale impact dataset

In this work, a constitutive model for zircaloy-4 embedded with δ-phase hydride rim/blister structures (δ-phase zircaloy hydride) is presented. Nanoindentation and nano-scale impact experiments were performed on the δ-hydride blisters as a function of temperature in order to obtain strain rate dependent location specific constitutive response. A power law viscoplastic constitutive model was chosen to represent the strain rate dependent behavior. The strength coefficient and the strain hardening exponent in the power law relation were found to decrease with increase in temperature indicating softening behavior at higher temperatures. The strain rate exponent remained constant with increase in temperature indicating that the rate dependent ductility does not change significantly at higher temperatures. A finite element method based model was created to analyze the failure behavior and the ductile to brittle transition in zircaloy hydride. The model predicted that fracture strength of δ-phase zircaloy hydride decreases linearly with increase in temperature.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Zinc Oxide–Graphene Nanocomposite-Based Sensor for the Electrochemical Determination of Cetirizine

A nanocomposite electrode of graphene (Gr) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles was fabricated to study the electrochemical oxidation behavior of an anti-inflammatory drug, i.e., cetirizine (CET). The voltametric response of CET for bare CPE, Gr/CPE, ZnO/CPE, and the ZnO-Gr nanocomposite electrode was studied. The modifier materials were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) to comprehend the surface morphology of the utilized modifiers. The influence of pH, scan rate, and accumulation time on the electrooxidation of CET was examined. It was found that the electrochemical oxidation of CET was diffusion-controlled, in which two protons and two electrons participated. The detection limit was found to be 2.8 × 10 -8 M in a linearity range of 0.05–4.0 µM. Study of excipients was also performed, and it was found that they had negligible interference with the peak potential of CET. The validation and utility of the fabricated nanocomposite sensor material were examined by analyzing clinical and biological samples. Stability testing of the nanocomposite electrode was conducted to assess the reproducibility, determining that the developed biosensor has good stability and high efficiency in producing reproducible results.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Synergistic data analytics for electromechanical oscillation in electric power systems

Accurate real-time estimation of the four electromechanical oscillation properties, i.e., dominant oscillation modes, mode shapes, participation factors, and coherent groups, is of great importance to assess and mitigate potential electromechanical oscillations in interconnected power systems. While eigenvalue analysis can realize such estimation, it requires precise linearized dynamic models and accurate parameters, which are highly difficult to obtain in practice. Data fusion-based modal estimation methods can extract the properties of electromechanical oscillations from measurement data without the power system model and parameters, but most of the time only one or two property assessments can be accomplished each time. To overcome this challenge, this paper presents a synergistic data analytics solution to characterize the dynamic behaviors of electromechanical oscillations from real-time measurement data. Here, the proposed method uses optimized variable projection, and it is capable of estimating all four electromechanical oscillation behavior properties from measured responses. Case studies are performed using the simulated measurement data of a 16-generator 68-bus test system and the field measurements collected by the PMUs deployed in the Yunnan Power Grid. The results demonstrate that the proposed synergistic data analytics solution can achieve satisfactory performance in capturing the properties of electromechanical oscillations from measurement data and exhibit strong robustness against measurement noise when compared with existing measurement-based methods.

42 ENGINEERING↗

The role of surface forces in environment-enhanced cracking of brittle solids

Fracture initiation and propagation in brittle materials is promoted in surface-reactive (sorptive) environments, a phenomenon known as subcritical crack growth (SCG). Laboratory measured crack-propagation velocity vs. stress intensity factor relationships typically exhibit highly nonlinear, multi-stage characteristics that are sensitive to environmental factors such as adsorbate concentration and temperature. For practical purposes, empirical relationships (e.g., a power law) have been used to describe this complex phenomenon. However, how the overall SCG behavior emerges from the underlying fundamental processes near the crack tip, such as the interaction of the crack surfaces separated by only a few nanometers and mass transport within the nano-confined space, is still not well understood. This paper develops a mechanistic, surface-force-based fracture theory (SFFT) which integrates surface force models, fluid transport models, and linear elastic fracture mechanics to quantitatively explain the multi-stage characteristics of SCG in brittle solids. A numerical model is developed based on SFFT and solved through an implicit partitioned scheme for efficiency and modularity. The results are validated by Wiederhorn's data on crack propagation in soda-lime glasses at a wide range of relative humidity levels. We show that, for the first time, the entire range of an SCG curve can be captured by a single physics-based model. The predicted SCG curves reveal that the development of repulsive disjoining pressure behind the crack tip can be responsible for the reduced apparent fracture toughness in a sorptive environment. In conclusion, the shape of the SCG curve, and its changes with respect to the environment, is found to critically depend on the assumed transport models.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Effects of electron viscosity on resonant layer responses to non-axisymmetric magnetic perturbations

The resonant field penetration to magnetic islands is the central MHD mechanism of non-axisymmetric plasma responses in a tokamak such as disruptive locking or favorable ELM stabilization. The resonant field penetration can be induced by any non-ideal processes as manifested in the delicate balance under the generalized Ohm's law. Here, we show that the viscous effects by electrons are not ignorable in the field penetration unlike previous presumption, even if the electron viscosity is as small as the square root of its mass compared to the ions. It is clear that its effects become only bigger if the electron viscosity becomes anomalously large. The work strictly follows the three-field model in the linear regime targeting the prediction of the onset of the field penetration and successfully extending it with electron viscosity and identifying new regimes. The results also indicate that the error field thresholds become more strongly dependent on plasma density than ones predicted in the linear regimes without the electron viscosity, which is consistent with experimental observations and thus a significant implication.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Magnetic excitations of the hybrid multiferroic (ND 4 ) 2 FeCl 5 ·D 2 O

We report a comprehensive inelastic neutron scattering study of the hybrid molecule-based multiferroic compound ( ND 4 ) 2 FeCl 5 · D 2 O in the zero-field incommensurate cycloidal phase and the high-field quasicollinear phase. The spontaneous electric polarization changes its direction concurrently with the field-induced magnetic transition, from mostly aligned with the crystallographic a axis to the c axis. To account for such a change in polarization direction, the underlying multiferroic mechanism was proposed to switch from the spin-current model induced via the inverse Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction to the p - d hybridization model. We perform a detailed analysis of the inelastic neutron data of ( ND 4 ) 2 FeCl 5 · D 2 O using linear spin-wave theory to quantify magnetic interaction strengths and investigate the possible impact of different multiferroic mechanisms on the magnetic couplings. Overall our result reveals that the spin dynamics of both multiferroic phases can be well described by a Heisenberg Hamiltonian with easy-plane anisotropy. We do not find notable differences between the optimal model parameters of the two phases. The hierarchy of exchange couplings and the balance among frustrated interactions remain the same between two phases, suggesting that magnetic interactions in ( ND 4 ) 2 FeCl 5 · D 2 O are much more robust than the electric polarization in response to delicate reorganizations of the electronic degrees of freedom in an applied magnetic field.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Resonant propagation of x rays from the linear to the nonlinear regime

We present a theoretical study of temporal, spectral, and spatial reshaping of intense, ultrafast x-ray pulses propagating through a resonant medium. Our calculations are based on the solution of a three-dimensional time-dependent Schrodinger-Maxwell equation, with the incident x-ray photon energy on resonance with the core-level is-3p transition in neon. We study the evolution of the combined incident and medium-generated field, including the effects of stimulated emission, absorption, ionization, and Auger decay, as a function of the input pulse energy and duration. We find that stimulated Raman scattering between core-excited states 1s -1 3p and 2p -1 3p occurs at high x-ray intensity, and that the emission around this frequency is strongly enhanced when also including the similar 1s -1 -2p -1 response of the ion. We also explore the dependence of x-ray self-induced transparency (SIT) and self-focusing on the pulse intensity and duration, and we find that the stimulated Raman scattering plays an important role in both effects. Finally, we discuss how these nonlinear effects may potentially be exploited as control parameters for pulse properties of x-ray free-electron laser sources.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Leveraging Groundwater Dynamics to Improve Predictions of Summer Low-Flow Discharges

Summer streamflow predictions are critical for managing water resources; however, warming-induced shifts from snow to rain regimes impact low-flow predictive models. Additionally, reductions in snowpack drive earlier peak flows and lower summer flows across the western United States increasing reliance on groundwater for maintaining summer streamflow. However, it remains poorly understood how groundwater contributions vary interannually. Here, we quantify recession limb groundwater (RLGW), defined as the proportional groundwater contribution to the stream during the period between peak stream flow and low flow, to predict summer low flows across three diverse western US watersheds. We ask (a) how do snow and rain dynamics influence interannual variations of RLGW contributions and summer low flows?; (b) which watershed attributes impact the effectiveness of RLGW as a predictor of summer low flows? Linear models reveal that RLGW is a strong predictor of low flows across all sites and drastically improves low-flow prediction compared to snow metrics at a rain-dominated site. Results suggest that strength of RLGW control on summer low flows may be mediated by subsurface storage. Subsurface storage can be divided into dynamic (i.e., variability saturated) and deep (i.e., permanently saturated) components, and we hypothesize that interannual variability in dynamic storage contribution to streamflow drives RLGW variability. In systems with a higher proportion of dynamic storage, RLGW is a better predictor of summer low flow because the stream is more responsive to dynamic storage contributions compared to deep-storage-dominated systems. Overall, including RLGW improved low-flow prediction across diverse watersheds.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Two-dimensional plasma density evolution local to the inversion layer during sawtooth crash events using Beam Emission Spectroscopy

Here, we present methods for analyzing Beam Emission Spectroscopy (BES) data to obtain the plasma density evolution associated with rapid sawtooth crash events at the DIII-D tokamak. BES allows coverage over a 2D spatial plane, inherently local measurements, with fast time responses, and, therefore, provides a valuable new channel for data during sawtooth events. A method is developed to remove sawtooth-induced edge-light pulses contained in the BES data. The edge light pulses appear to be from the D α emission produced by edge recycling during sawtooth events, and are large enough that traditional spectroscopic filtering and data analysis techniques are insufficient to deduce physically meaningful quantities. A cross-calibration of 64 BES channels is performed by using a novel method to ensure accurate measurements. For the large-amplitude density oscillations observed, we discuss and use the non-linear relationship between the BES signal δI/ I 0 and the plasma density variation δn e / n e0 . The 2D BES images cover an 8 × 20 cm 2 region around the sawtooth inversion layer and show large-amplitude density oscillations, with additional significant spatial variations across the inversion layer that grows and peaks near the time of the temperature crash. The edge light removal technique and method of converting large-amplitude δI/ I 0 to δn e / n e0 presented here may help analyze other impulsive MHD phenomena in tokamaks.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Particle trajectory representation learning with masked point modeling

Liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) offer millimeter-scale 3D images of particle trajectories, enabling precision studies of neutrino oscillation, detection of supernova and solar neutrinos, searches for exotic dark matter, and proton decay. Current approaches utilize supervised machine learning models, requiring extensive simulations of particle physics and detector response that can introduce bias. Self-supervised learning (SSL), a machine learning approach that learns useful representations of unlabeled data from the data itself, has significantly advanced how large datasets are utilized for representation learning; however, its potential for applications to sensory data in high precision particle physics experiments remains largely unexplored. We introduce the Point-based liquid argon masked autoencoder (PoLAr-MAE), a self-supervised framework that learns physically meaningful representations directly from unlabeled LArTPC images. PoLAr-MAE achieves remarkable data efficiency for a point-level segmentation task, outperforming fully supervised methods in low data regimes. Linear classifiers on model outputs demonstrate robust performance across multiple downstream tasks. Our results position sensor-level SSL as a practical foundation model strategy for LArTPCs.

Young, Samuel [Stanford Univ., CA (United States)]↗

Locating the Source of Forced Oscillations in Transmission Power Grids

A forced oscillation event in power grids refers to a state where malfunctioning or abnormally operating equipment causes persisting periodic disturbances in the system. While power grids are designed to damp most perturbations during standard operations, some of them can excite normal modes of the system and cause significant energy transfers across the system, creating large oscillations thousands of miles away from the source. Localization of the source of such disturbances remains an outstanding challenge due to a limited knowledge of the system parameters outside of the zone of responsibility of system operators. Here, we propose a new method for locating the source of forced oscillations that addresses this challenge by performing a simultaneous dynamic model identification using a principled maximum likelihood approach. We illustrate the validity of the algorithm on a variety of examples where forcing leads to resonance conditions in the system dynamics. Our results establish that an accurate knowledge of system parameters is not required for a successful inference of the source and frequency of a forced oscillation. We anticipate that our method will find a broader application in general dynamical systems that can be well described by their linearized dynamics over short periods of time.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗