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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1996

Clinical Verification of Image Warping as a Potential Aid for the Visually Handicapped

The bulk of this research was to designed determine potential of the Programmable Remapper (PR) as a device to enhance vision for the visually handicapped. This research indicated that remapping would have potential as a low vision device if the eye position could be monitored with feedback to specify the proper location of the remapped image. This must be accomplished at high rate so that there is no lag of the image behind the eye position. Since at this time, there is no portable eye monitor device (at a reasonable cost) that will operate under the required conditions, it would not be feasible to continue with remapping experiments for patients with central field defects. However, since patients with peripheral field defects do not have the same eye positioning requirements, they may indeed benefit from this technology. Further investigations must be performed to determine plausibility of this application of remapping.

Loshin, David↗
NASA NTRS1995

SAVS: A Space and Atmospheric Visualization Science system

The research environment faced by space and atmospheric scientists in the 1990s is characterized by unprecedented volumes of new data, by ever-increasing repositories of unexploited mission files, and by the widespread use of empirical and large-scale computational models needed for the synthesis of understanding across data sets and discipline boundaries. The effective analysis and interpretation of such massive amounts of information have become the subjects of legitimate concern. With SAVS (a Space and Atmospheric Visualization Science System), we address these issues by creating a 'push-button' software environment that mimics the logical scientific processes in data acquisition, reduction, and analysis without requiring a detailed understanding of the methods, networks, and modules that link the tools and effectively execute the functions. SAVS provides (1) a customizable framework for accessing a powerful set of visualization tools based on the popular AVS visualization software with hooks to PV-Wave and access to Khoros modules, (2) a set of mathematical and statistical tools, (3) an extensible library of discipline-specific functions and models (e.g., MSIS, IRI, Feldstein Oval, IGRF, satellite tracking with CADRE-3, etc.), and (4) capabilities for local and remote data base access. The system treats scalar, vector, and image data, and runs on most common Unix workstations. We present a description of SAVS and its components, followed by several applications based on generic research interests in interplanetary and magnetospheric physics (IMP/ISTP), active experiments in space (CRRES), and mission planning focused on the Earth's thermospheric, ionospheric, and mesospheric domains (TIMED).

Szuszczewicz, E. P.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Experimental study of visual accommodation

A summary report of a research effort related to the human visual accommodation system is presented. A theoretical study of the accommodation system was made. Subsequent effort was aimed at the development of specialized instrumentation for experiments designed to lead to understanding the nature of the control system in human accommodation. The necessary instrumentation consisted primarily of: (1) an automatic optometer to measure the state of eye focus, (2) a focus stimulator device to control the apparent optical distance to any target, and (3) a two-dimensional eye tracker. The concepts and designs of the first two instruments have been published in the open literature, but this report contains the first detailed treatment of the Purkinje eye tracker developed under this program. The report also discusses an accommodation lag model to explain the ability of the eye to apparently know the polarity of focus error even though the blur on the retina is to a first-approximation an even function. The interaction of the accommodation and eye movement systems is also discussed, as is the ability to train the visual accommodation system to a surprisingly responsive condition in only a few hours of training.

Cornsweet, T. N.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Calibration of multisite raters for prospective visual reads of amyloid PET scans

Abstract INTRODUCTION In multicenter Alzheimer's disease studies, amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) visual reads are typically performed centrally by a few experts. Incorporating a broader reader network enhances scalability and generalizability. METHODS Ten neuroimaging experts from eight Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers (ADRCs) visually read 180 amyloid PET scans (30 scans and 15 duplicate scans for each of four tracers, imaged across a wide variety of scanners), using preferred reading software without anatomical imaging or quantitation. Scans were classified as elevated or non‐elevated per tracer‐specific criteria. Inter‐ and intra‐rater agreement was assessed. RESULTS Inter‐rater agreement was substantial (Fleiss’κ = 0.78), with full consensus on 69% of scans. Inter‐rater reliability was substantial to perfect across tracers (Fleiss’κ = 0.70–0.87). Intra‐rater agreement was substantial to perfect (Cohen'sκ = 0.79‐1). Scans with intermediate (10–40 Centiloid) quantitation had lower reader agreement. DISCUSSION A multicenter expert network achieved substantial agreement classifying amyloid PET scans. These scans provide a standard for reader training and reliability assurance in future studies. Highlights Calibration methods ensure reliable amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) visual reads across multiple raters. Substantial agreement is possible across readers using their preferred tools. Agreement is also substantial regardless of the amyloid PET tracer used. Scans with intermediate (10–40 Centiloid) quantitation have lower reader agreement. The calibration set will become a training tool for amyloid PET visual read studies.

Neurosciences & Neurology↗
NASA NTRS2015

Technology Candidates for Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground Data Exchange

Technology Candidates for Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground Data Exchange is a two-year research effort to visualize the U. S. aviation industry at a point 50 years in the future, and to define potential communication solutions to meet those future data exchange needs. The research team, led by XCELAR, was tasked with identifying future National Airspace System (NAS) scenarios, determining requirements and functions (including gaps), investigating technical and business issues for air, ground, & air-to-ground interactions, and reporting on the results. The project was conducted under technical direction from NASA and in collaboration with XCELAR's partner, National Institute of Aerospace, and NASA technical representatives. Parallel efforts were initiated to define the information exchange functional needs of the future NAS, and specific communication link technologies to potentially serve those needs. Those efforts converged with the mapping of each identified future NAS function to potential enabling communication solutions; those solutions were then compared with, and ranked relative to, each other on a technical basis in a structured analysis process. The technical solutions emerging from that process were then assessed from a business case perspective to determine their viability from a real-world adoption and deployment standpoint. The results of that analysis produced a proposed set of future solutions and most promising candidate technologies. Gap analyses were conducted at two points in the process, the first examining technical factors, and the second as part of the business case analysis. In each case, no gaps or unmet needs were identified in applying the solutions evaluated to the requirements identified. The future communication solutions identified in the research comprise both specific link technologies and two enabling technologies that apply to most or all specific links. As a result, the research resulted in a new analysis approach, viewing the underlying architecture of ground-air and air-air communications as a whole, rather than as simple "link to function" paired solutions. For the business case analysis, a number of "reference architectures" were developed for both the future technologies and the current systems, based on three typical configurations of current aircraft. Current and future costs were assigned, and various comparisons made between the current and future architectures. In general, it was assumed that if a future architecture offers lower cost than the current typical architecture, while delivering equivalent or better performance, it is likely that the future solution will gain industry acceptance. Conversely, future architectures presenting higher costs than their current counterparts must present a compelling benefit case in other areas or risk a lack of industry acceptance. The business case analysis consistently indicated lower costs for the proposed future architectures, and in most cases, significantly so. The proposed future solutions were found to offer significantly greater functionality, flexibility, and growth potential over time, at lower cost, than current systems. This was true for overall, fleet-wide equipage for domestic and oceanic air carriers, as well as for single, General Aviation (GA) aircraft. The overall research results indicate that all identified requirements can be met by the proposed solutions with significant capacity for future growth. Results also illustrate that the majority of the future communication needs can be met using currently allocated aviation RF spectrum, if used in more effective ways than it is today. A combination of such optimized aviation-specific links and commercial communication systems meets all identified needs for the 50-year future and beyond, with the caveat that a new, overall function will be needed to manage all information exchange, individual links, security, cost, and other factors. This function was labeled "Delivery Manager" (DM) within this research. DM employs a distributed client/server architecture, for both airborne and ground communications architectures. Final research results included identifying the most promising candidate technologies for the future system, conclusions and recommendations, and identifying areas where further research should be considered.

Communications↗
NASA NTRS2019

Surface Flow Visualization of the High-Lift Common Research Model

A 10% scale version of the High-Lift Common Research Model (CRM-HL) was tested in the NASA Langley 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel (14x22) in support of the NASA Advanced Air Transport Technology (AATT) Project. The CRM-HL experiment included various configurations such as conventional and simple-hinged flaps, with and without engine nacelle/pylon, with and without nacelle chine, different Active Flow Control (AFC) methods (sweeping jets, alternating pulsed jets, and preconditioned boundary layer blowing), and their various parameters. This particular study is focused on the surface flow visualization of the conventional CRM-HL model at landing configuration. The conventional CRM-HL model with the single-slotted Fowler flap system serves as a baseline for the AFC-enabled simplified high-lift configuration as well as a high-lift technology development platform due to its publicly open geometry. Surface flow visualizations were performed using fluorescent minitufts, which were found to be nonintrusive to the aerodynamic performance. Tuft flow visualizations are supplemented with the relevant pressure and force measurements in order to understand the flow characteristics developed on the conventional CRM- HL model. In addition, three dimensional, unsteady, compressible Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations were performed for selective cases. The surface streamlines and transverse velocity fluctuations obtained by the CFD simulations are qualitatively compared to the tuft direction and tuft unsteadiness, respectively. Force measurements of the CRM-HL model show performance degradation at higher angles of attack. Surface flow visualizations revealed the performance loss due to the nacelle/pylon wake that grows with angle of attack and eventually promotes flow separation over the inboard wing. This performance loss was successfully recovered by placing a chine on the engine nacelle.

Koklu, Mehti↗
NASA NTRS1992

Smoke Generator For Studies Of Vortices In Flight

Smoke-generating system used to identify vortex-core and vortex-core-breakdown locations in flights. Housed in forebody of airplane, includes multiple pyrotechnic smoke cartridges fired simultaneously or in sequence. Firing of cartridges controlled from cockpit, and smoke produced ducted to desired locations on or near surface of aircraft. Useful for other aerodynamic flight research in which necessary to visualize local flows. Nonaerospace applications include research in reduction of aerodynamic drag on vehicles and reduction of turbulence related to structures or other obstacles.

Richwine, David M.↗
DOE OSTI2022

US Department of Energy, Office of Science High Performance Computing Facility Operational Assessment 2021: Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) continues to surpass its operational target goals of supporting users; delivering fast, reliable computational ecosystems; creating innovative solutions for high-performance computing (HPC) needs; contributing to the community to build the next generation HPC workforce, and managing risks, safety, and security associated with operating some of the most powerful computers in the world. The results can be seen in the cutting-edge science conducted by users and the praise from the research community. Calendar year (CY) 2021 saw continued excellence in research supported by the OLCF’s leadership-class computing resources, including Summit (the nation’s most powerful supercomputer), the global scratch file system Alpine, the Scalable Protected Infrastructure (SPI), the Exploratory Visualization Environment for Research in Science and Technology (EVEREST), and the archival mass-storage resource High-Performance Storage System (HPSS). While maintaining access and exceptional user support for Summit, the OLCF continued to make progress on the installation and deployment of Frontier, which will be the nation’s first exascale system when it comes online at the start of CY 2023. Users have already begun running and optimizing scientific codes on Crusher, the OLCF test and development system equipped with Frontier’s architecture. Throughout the year, the OLCF maintained a strong culture of operational excellence, including risk management, workplace safety, and cybersecurity. The OLCF’s rigorous risk management strategy anticipated and mitigated risks, and at this time there are no high-priority operational risks. Similarly, ORNL and the OLCF were committed to operating under the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) safety regulations that ensure a safe workplace. Technical staff tracked and monitored existing threats and vulnerabilities within the OLCF while continually developing tools and practices to enhance operations without increasing the facility’s risk. CY 2021 was filled with outstanding results and accomplishments, including a very high rating from users on overall satisfaction for the eighth consecutive year; a tremendous number of node hours delivered to 1,671 researchers on Summit; and the successful delivery of the allocation split of roughly 60%, 20%, and 20% of core-hours offered for the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE), Advanced Scientific Computing Research Leadership Computing Challenge (ALCC), and Director’s Discretionary (DD) programs, respectively (Section 2). COVID-19 research remained a focus in 2021, and the ALCC and DD programs allocated over 1 million Summit hours to the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium. These accomplishments, coupled with the high utilization rates (i.e., overall and capability usage), represent the fulfillment of the promise of leadership class machines: efficient facilitation of leadership-class computational applications.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2023

Safety Case for Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (sUAS) Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Operations at NASA Langley Research Center

This Technical Memorandum (TM) is written to provide for dissemination of the methods and safety considerations for operations of small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (sUAS) Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLOS)at NASA Langley Research Center. It includes the Safety Case used to acquire a BVLOS Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the FAA and is being published to enable others to benefit from this work. The intended operations, subject to approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will include a combination of Within Visual Line of Sight (WVLOS) and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights, comprising of at most five sUAS operating concurrently, with no more than three operating BVLOS. Flights will occur in a subset of the Langley Air Force Base (LAFB) Class D airspace (KLFI) at a maximum altitude of 400 ft AGL. Most operations within this subset will take place in the City Environment Range Testing for Autonomous Integrated Navigation (CERTAIN) Range. The CERTAIN Range includes airspace inside the borders of NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). Additional airspace over the northern section of CERTAIN will be requested as part of the Certificate of Authorization (COA). NASA LaRC BVLOS operations on the CERTAIN Range can be broken down into five critical components needed to meet the 14 CFR § 91.113 see and avoid requirement: 1) procedural deconfliction with LAFB for UAS operations at or below 400 ft and manned aircraft at or above 900’ AGL; 2) ground equipment for detection of intruder aircraft and to support communications between crewmembers ; 3) sUAS vehicles with advanced onboard automation capable of autonomously maintaining safe separation; 4) BVLOS standardized operating procedures (SOPs); 5) and personnel to execute the flight operations in accordance with the SOPs and respond to airborne contingencies. The introduction of new ground equipment includes the use of the Remote Operations for Autonomous Missions (ROAM) UAS Operations Center, development and use of an Integrated Airspace Display (IAD), use of the L-STAR and GA-9120 radars, and the incorporation of standardized Vertiports. The ROAM Operations Center will be the central point for all BVLOS sUAS operations. All command and control (C2), voice communications and airspace awareness displays will reside inside ROAM. The IAD will provide raw data from ADS-B, FLARM, radar tracks and telemetered GPS vehicle positions for interpretation by an Airspace Monitor. The radars will search the class D airspace around the CERTAIN Range and serve as a backup to procedural deconfliction procedures coordinated with LAFB. In the event of a procedural deconfliction breakdown, radar detections of non-participating aircraft will be available so that the 91.113 see and avoid requirement can still be safely met. Finally, the incorporation of Vertiports will have video and network connectivity that enables large numbers of sUAS launches and recoveries from a single location. This is a continuation of the remote command and control of unpiloted aircraft component focused on evaluating unpiloted aircraft flight crew roles and responsibilities, control interfaces and the associated data links needed to operate a fleet of aircraft within a UAM Ecosystem. This work supports the development of future aviation operational concepts based on an Urban Air Mobility Maturity Level (UML) 4 environment (Patterson, 2020). It is assumed that future airspace will include hundreds of simultaneous aircraft operations within the airspace, therefore scalable operations are essential for enabling this future airspace to become a reality. Follow on work includes envisioned flights that expand operations beyond the CERTAIN range and lead to an effective Maritime Surveillance capability.

Matthew W Coldsnow↗
DOE OSTI2024

Understanding Event Trajectories Across Massive Temporal Datasets with Word Embeddings and Visualization

In collaboration with researchers from Virginia Tech, Savannah River National Laboratory has continued development of a natural language processing pipeline to identify and extract events of interest from massive open data sources in the domain of worldwide state-sponsored civil nuclear energy. The foundation of the pipeline is built on compass aligned temporal word embedding models, whereby contextual shifts are automatically identified by comparing keyword embedding vectors across successive time windows. Within the approach, a contextual shift indicates the occurrence of a potential event of interest. However, in such a broad topical domain that captures events at a global scale, across various life cycle stages, and across numerous different technology types, a user that is monitoring events may have broad interests in capturing many different event types with varying degrees of signal. As such, the quantity of information that may be returned from an automated event extraction pipeline can be substantial, requiring manual effort to sift through the information to identify any relevant bits of information. Therefore, a more streamlined workflow that aids in directing a user toward specific information at different points in time is necessary. The workflow presented here has been developed with this concept in mind, built on top of the initial prototype event extraction pipeline, whereby a user can analyze temporal text-based data sources at multiple different contextual levels to isolate key points in time and key subdomains captured within a data corpus. Using multiple corpuses that consist of approximately 7 million Tweets and 7 million news articles, the team has extended compass aligned temporal word embedding models to establish an interconnected and hierarchical structure that relates known key words of interest to documents, local topics (i.e., within a time window), and global topics across the corpuses. All of this information is packaged into a visual analytics system that is linked to the information extraction pipeline and enables a user to identify contextual information that describes the evolution of a high dimensional embedding space across time to isolate changes of interest and explore associated events. This report demonstrates the use of these analytics and a means to fuse information across multiple datasets.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

The moving target of visualization software for an increasingly complex world

Visualization has evolved into a mature scientific field and it has also become widely accepted as a standard approach in diverse fields, including physics, life sciences, and business intelligence. However, despite its successful development, there are still many open research questions that require customized implementations in order to explore and establish concepts, and to perform experiments and take measurements. Many methods and tools have been developed and published but most are stand-alone prototypes and have not reached a mature state that can be used in a reliable manner by collaborating domain scientists or a wider audience. In this study, we discuss the challenges, solutions, and open research questions that affect the development of sophisticated, relevant, and novel scientific visualization solutions with minimum overheads. Furthermore, we summarize and discuss the results of a recent National Institute of Informatics Shonan seminar on these topics.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1994

Multiple Concurrent Visual-Motor Mappings: Implications for Models of Adaptation

Previous research on adaptation to visual-motor rearrangement suggests that the central nervous system represents accurately only 1 visual-motor mapping at a time. This idea was examined in 3 experiments where subjects tracked a moving target under repeated alternations between 2 initially interfering mappings (the 'normal' mapping characteristic of computer input devices and a 108' rotation of the normal mapping). Alternation between the 2 mappings led to significant reduction in error under the rotated mapping and significant reduction in the adaptation aftereffect ordinarily caused by switching between mappings. Color as a discriminative cue, interference versus decay in adaptation aftereffect, and intermanual transfer were also examined. The results reveal a capacity for multiple concurrent visual-motor mappings, possibly controlled by a parametric process near the motor output stage of processing.

Cunningham, H. A.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Contrast-Sensitivity Research

Report presents study of visual effects of frequencies of luminance patterns and particularly how frequency components affect visibilty of spatial phase differences over several octaves. Of interest to researchers engaged in development of algorithms relating to visual processing in robots, incorporation of human factors in design of visual displays, and development of set of rules visual system uses to reconstruct three-dimensional perception from two-dimensional neural representation.

Lawton, T. A.↗
DOE OSTI2022

PDB‐101: Molecular Explorations through Biology and Medicine

PDB‐101 is an online portal for teachers, students, and the general public to promote exploration of the structural biology of proteins and nucleic acids ( pdb101.rcsb.org ). Learning about the diverse shapes and functions of these biological macromolecules helps to understand all aspects of biomedicine and agriculture, from protein synthesis to health and disease to biological energy. Why PDB‐101? Researchers around the world are studying these molecules at the atomic level. These 3D structures are freely available at the Protein Data Bank (PDB), the central storehouse of biomolecular structures. This website builds introductory materials to help beginners get started in the basics of biomolecular structure and function (“101”, as in an entry level course) as well as resources for extended learning. Since 2011, PDB‐101 has been developed by the RCSB PDB , a global resource for the advancement of research and education in biology and medicine. Along with our Worldwide PDB collaborators, RCSB PDB curates, annotates, and makes publicly available the PDB data deposited by scientists around the globe. The RCSB PDB then provides a window to these data through a rich online resource with powerful searching, reporting, and visualization tools for researchers. This information is then streamlined for students and teachers at PDB‐101. Features include the ongoing Molecule of the Month series, educational materials such as paper models, posters, molecular animations, educational curricula and more. The section “Guide to Understanding PDB Data” is a primer for detailed PDB‐specific information: PDB Data, Visualizing Structures, Reading Coordinate Files, scientific methods for structure determination, and more. PDB‐101 also runs annual Video Challenges for high school students. Participants create short videos that tell molecular stories that connect structural biology and medicine. Previous topics have included HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and antimicrobial resistance. The 2022 challenge will focus on Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer. PDB‐101 activities are evaluated using user surveys, feedback from in‐person activities, and website analytics. In 2020, PDB‐101 hosted >850,000 users and >2.6 million page views.

Zardecki, Christine↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Scoping Review of Mixed Initiative Visual Analytics in the Automation Renaissance

Artificial agents are increasingly integrated into data analysis workflows, carrying out tasks that were primarily done by humans. Our research explores how the introduction of automation recalibrates the dynamic between humans and automating technology. To explore this question, we conducted a scoping review encompassing twenty years of mixed-initiative visual analytic systems. To describe and contrast the relationship between humans and automation, we developed an integrated taxonomy to delineate the objectives of these mixed-initiative visual analytics tools, how much automation they support, and the assumed roles of humans. Here, we describe our qualitative approach of integrating existing theoretical frameworks with new codes we developed. Our analysis shows that the visualization research literature lacks consensus on the definition of mixed-initiative systems and explores a limited potential of the collaborative interaction landscape between people and automation. Our research provides a scaffold to advance the discussion of human-AI collaboration during visual data analysis. Our integrated taxonomy is available in the form of a web application on https://smonadjemi.github.io/miva.

Monadjemi, Shayan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000293855969)↗