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At least 1,567 records · Page 87

YSOVAR: SIX PRE-MAIN-SEQUENCE ECLIPSING BINARIES IN THE ORION NEBULA CLUSTER

Eclipsing binaries (EBs) provide critical laboratories for empirically testing predictions of theoretical models of stellar structure and evolution. Pre-main-sequence (PMS) EBs are particularly valuable, both due to their rarity and the highly dynamic nature of PMS evolution, such that a dense grid of PMS EBs is required to properly calibrate theoretical PMS models. Analyzing multi-epoch, multi-color light curves for {approx}2400 candidate Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) members from our Warm Spitzer Exploration Science Program YSOVAR, we have identified 12 stars whose light curves show eclipse features. Four of these 12 EBs are previously known. Supplementing our light curves with follow-up optical and near-infrared spectroscopy, we establish two of the candidates as likely field EBs lying behind the ONC. We confirm the remaining six candidate systems, however, as newly identified ONC PMS EBs. These systems increase the number of known PMS EBs by over 50% and include the highest mass ({theta}{sup 1} Ori E, for which we provide a complete set of well-determined parameters including component masses of 2.807 and 2.797 M{sub Sun }) and longest-period (ISOY J053505.71-052354.1, P {approx} 20 days) PMS EBs currently known. In two cases ({theta}{sup 1} Ori E and ISOY J053526.88-044730.7), enough photometric and spectroscopic data exist to attempt an orbit solution and derive the system parameters. For the remaining systems, we combine our data with literature information to provide a preliminary characterization sufficient to guide follow-up investigations of these rare, benchmark systems.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

AI ATAC 1: An Evaluation of Prominent Commercial Malware Detectors

This work presents an evaluation of six prominent commercial endpoint malware detectors, a network malware detector, and a file-conviction algorithm from a cyber technology vendor. The evaluation was administered as the first of the Artificial I ntelligence Applications t o Autonomous Cybersecurity (AI ATAC) prize challenges, funded by / completed in service of the US Navy. The experiment employed 100K files (50/50% benign/malicious) with a stratified distribution of file types, including ~1K zero-day program executables (increasing experiment size two orders of magnitude over previous work). We present an evaluation process of delivering a file to a fresh virtual machine donning the detection technology, waiting 90s to allow static detection, then executing the file and waiting another period for dynamic detection; this allows greater fidelity in the observational data than previous experiments, in particular, resource and time-to-detection statistics. To execute all 800K trials (100K files × 8 tools), a software framework is designed to choreograph the experiment into an automated, time-synced, and reproducible workflow with substantial parallelization. Software with base classes for this framework are provided. A cost-benefit model was configured to integrate the tools’ detection statistics into a comparable quantity by simulating costs of use. This provides a ranking methodology for cyber competitions and a lens for reasoning about the varied statistical results. The results provide insights on state of commercial malware detection.

Bridges, Robert↗

SU-E-J-64: Feasibility Study of Surgical Clips for Fiducial Tracking in CyberKnife System

Purpose: To investigate the ability of CyberKnife to track surgical clips used as fiducial markers. Methods: The Octavius 1000SRS detector and solid water (RW3) slab phantom were used with motion platform to evaluate the study. The RW3 slab phantom was set up to measure the dose distribution from coronal plane. It consists of 9 plates and the thickness of each plate is 10mm. Among them, one plate was attached with 3 surgical clips, which are orthogonally positioned on outer region of array. The length of attached clip was represented as 1cm on planning CT. The clip plate was placed on the 1000SRS detector and 3 slabs were stacked up on the plate to build the measuring depth. Below the detector, 5 slabs were set. The two-axis motion platform was programmed with 1D sinusoidal movement (20mm peak-to-peak, 3s period) toward superior/inferior and left/right directions to simulate target motion. During delivery, two clips were extracted by two X-ray imagers, which led to translational error correction only. Synchrony was also used for dynamic tracking. After the irradiation, the measured dose distribution of coronal plane was compared with the planar dose distribution calculated by the CyberKnife treatment planning system (Multiplan) for cross verification. The results were assessed by comparing the absolute Gamma (γ) index. Results: The dose distributions measured by the 1000SRS detector were in good agreements with those calculated by Multiplan. In the dosimetric comparison using γ-function criteria based on the distance-to-agreement of 3mm and the local dose difference of 3%, the passing rate with γ- parameter ≤1 was 91% in coronal plane. Conclusion: The surgical clips can be considered as new fiducials for robotic radiosurgery delivery by considering the target margin with less than 5mm.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Identification of Ebola Virus Inhibitors Targeting GP2 Using Principles of Molecular Mimicry

A key step in the Ebola virus (EBOV) replication cycle involves conformational changes in viral glycoprotein 2 (GP2) which facilitate host-viral membrane fusion and subsequent release of the viral genome. Ebola GP2 plays a critical role in virus entry and has similarities in mechanism and structure to the HIV gp41 protein for which inhibitors have been successfully developed. In this work, a putative binding pocket for the C-terminal heptad repeat in the N-terminal heptad repeat trimer was targeted for identification of small molecules that arrest EBOV-host membrane fusion. Two computational structure-based virtual screens of ~1.7 M compounds were performed (DOCK program) against a GP2 five-helix bundle, resulting in 165 commercially available compounds purchased for experimental testing. Based on assessment of inhibitory activity, cytotoxicity, and target specificity, four promising candidates emerged with 50% inhibitory concentration values in the 3 to 26 μM range. Molecular dynamics simulations of the two most potent candidates in their DOCK-predicted binding poses indicate that the majority of favorable interactions involve seven highly conserved residues that can be used to guide further inhibitor development and refinement targeting EBOV. The most recent Ebola virus disease outbreak, from 2014 to 2016, resulted in approximately 28,000 individuals becoming infected, which led to over 12,000 causalities worldwide. The particularly high pathogenicity of the virus makes paramount the identification and development of promising lead compounds to serve as inhibitors of Ebola infection. To limit viral load, the virus-host membrane fusion event can be targeted through the inhibition of the class I fusion glycoprotein of. In the current work, several promising small-molecule inhibitors that target the glycoprotein GP2 were identified through systematic application of structure-based computational and experimental drug design procedures.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

NEAMS Update: Quarterly report for January - March 2012

Quarterly highlights are: (1) The integration of Denovo and AMP was demonstrated in an AMP simulation of the thermo-mechanics of a complete fuel assembly; (2) Bison was enhanced with a mechanistic fuel cracking model; (3) Mechanistic algorithms were incorporated into various lower-length-scale models to represent fission gases and dislocations in UO2 fuels; (4) Marmot was improved to allow faster testing of mesoscale models using larger problem domains; (5) Component models of reactor piping were developed for use in Relap-7; (6) The mesh generator of Proteus was updated to accept a mesh specification from Moose and equations were formulated for the intermediate-fidelity Proteus-2D1D module; (7) A new pressure solver was implemented in Nek5000 and demonstrated to work 2.5 times faster than the previous solver; (8) Work continued on volume-holdup models for two fuel reprocessing operations: voloxidation and dissolution; (9) Progress was made on a pyroprocessing model and the characterization of pyroprocessing emission signatures; (10) A new 1D groundwater waste transport code was delivered to the used fuel disposition (UFD) campaign; (11) Efforts on waste form modeling included empirical simulation of sodium-borosilicate glass compositions; (12) The Waste team developed three prototypes for modeling hydride reorientation in fuel cladding during very long-term fuel storage; (13) A benchmark demonstration problem (fission gas bubble growth) was modeled to evaluate the capabilities of different meso-scale numerical methods; (14) Work continued on a hierarchical up-scaling framework to model structural materials by directly coupling dislocation dynamics and crystal plasticity; (15) New 'importance sampling' methods were developed and demonstrated to reduce the computational cost of rare-event inference; (16) The survey and evaluation of existing data and knowledge bases was updated for NE-KAMS; (17) The NEAMS Early User Program was launched; (18) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Office of Regulatory Research was introduced to the NEAMS program; (19) The NEAMS overall software quality assurance plan (SQAP) was revised to version 1.5; and (20) Work continued on NiCE and its plug-ins and other utilities, such as Cubit and VisIt.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Interoperable Technologies for Advanced Petascale Simulations

Our final report on the accomplishments of ITAPS at Stony Brook during period covered by the research award includes component service, interface service and applications. On the component service, we have designed and implemented a robust functionality for the Lagrangian tracking of dynamic interface. We have migrated the hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptic solver from stage-wise second order toward global second order schemes. We have implemented high order coupling between interface propagation and interior PDE solvers. On the interface service, we have constructed the FronTier application programer's interface (API) and its manual page using doxygen. We installed the FronTier functional interface to conform with the ITAPS specifications, especially the iMesh and iMeshP interfaces. On applications, we have implemented deposition and dissolution models with flow and implemented the two-reactant model for a more realistic precipitation at the pore level and its coupling with Darcy level model. We have continued our support to the study of fluid mixing problem for problems in inertial confinement fusion. We have continued our support to the MHD model and its application to plasma liner implosion in fusion confinement. We have simulated a step in the reprocessing and separation of spent fuels from nuclear power plant fuel rods. We have implemented the fluid-structure interaction for 3D windmill and parachute simulations. We have continued our collaboration with PNNL, BNL, LANL, ORNL, and other SciDAC institutions.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Application of NEAMS Multiphysics Framework for Species Tracking in Molten Salt Reactors

This report from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) summarizes the key modeling and simulation activities conducted under the Department of Energy (DOE) Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) Campaign during the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23). The focus of the work was to leverage state-of-the-art modeling capabilities from the DOE Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) codes to enable novel multiphysics and multiscale modeling and simulation of MSRs. Through collaboration with NEAMS code developers, advanced multiphysics analysis capabilities for MSR systems were demonstrated by coupling depletion, thermal-hydraulics, and thermochemistry into an innovative framework for chemical species transport in MSRs. As a result, the framework can track nuclides throughout their lifetimes in the core, from production (depletion) to advection throughout the salt volume (thermal-hydraulics) and off-gassing or precipitation outside of the salt (thermochemistry). This work supports the near-term deployment of MSRs by integrating the synergistic efforts between the DOE’s MSR Campaign and NEAMS program. The resulting framework will help better connect system design modelers with experimentalists to better understand and predict complex physical behaviors in MSRs. Researchers and MSR developers alike can now leverage these new modeling and simulation capabilities to perform novel analyses with applications including: • MSR dynamics during normal operational transients and accident scenarios • Off-gas system design and performance for fuel cycle and depletion analysis • Corrosion and active chemistry control for reactor component health and lifetime determination • Source term, decay heat and activity determination in accident scenarios • Special nuclear material accountancy and chemical forensic analysis for safeguards • Digital twin development of experiments and experimental reactor demonstrations • Measurement requirements for instrumentation and control design • Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of missing data to inform future experimental data collection.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

LWRS Newsletter March 2019 Issue 28

The latest issue of the LWRS Program Newsletter (Issue 28) was recently posted on the LWRS Program website. This issue includes the following articles: • Stakeholder Engagement Review Meeting • Simulating the Effects of Neutron Irradiation on Concrete with the MOSAIC Software • Risk and Cost Analysis of Utilizing FLEX Equipment for Efficient Maintenance in Nuclear Power Plants • Integration of Classical PRA models into Dynamic PRA • Toward a Predictive Model for Cabling Failure: An interdisciplinary, collaborative effort between the University of Minnesota–Duluth and the Materials Research Pathway • Compact Digital Modernization – Enabling Nuclear Power Plant Operations and Maintenance Cost Benefits • Increasing the Value of the U.S. Nuclear Reactor Fleet

42 ENGINEERING↗

A Fast Dynamic Internal Predictive Power Scheduling Approach for Power Management in Microgrids: Preprint

This paper presents a Dynamic Internal Predictive Power Scheduling (DIPPS) approach for optimizing power management in microgrids, particularly focusing on external power exchanges among diverse prosumers. DIPPS utilizes a dynamic objective function with a time-varying binary parameter to control the timing of power transfers to the external grid, facilitated by efficient usage of energy storage for surplus renewable power. The microgrid power scheduling problem is modeled as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP-PS) and subsequently transformed into a mixed-integer linear programming (MILPPS) optimization through McCormick's relaxation to reduce computational complexity. A predictive window window with 6 data points is solved at an average of 0.92s, a 97.6% improvement over the 38.27s required for the MINLP-PS formulation, implying the numerical feasibility of the DIPPS approach for real-time implementation. Finally, the approach is validated against a static objective using real-world load data across three case studies with different time-varying parameters, demonstrating the ability of DIPPS to optimize power exchanges and efficiently utilize distributed resources while shifting the external power transfers to specified time durations.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Development and Porting of Nuclear Reactor Computational Models for the NRIC Virtual Test Bed in FY23

The U.S. DOE’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) hosts an open-source website and associated GitHub repository called the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) on which computational models for advanced reactors are documented and shared with the reactor community. In FY23 under the NRIC program, computational models for nuclear reactor analysis were developed and contributed to the VTB Github repository during FY23 by contributors at Argonne National Laboratory. Other models developed outside of NRIC were also ported to the VTB as part of this work, serving a broader mission to make computational reactor analysis models more widely available to the reactor community. The model development activities focused on demonstration of gas-cooled microreactor models including computational fluid dynamics simulations of flow through an industry-inspired air jacket design, and simulation of multiphysics transients for a gas-cooled microreactor assembly. Additionally, development of a molten salt reactor (led at Idaho National Laboratory) was supported through Argonne’s expertise in multigroup cross sections generation. Models for these two reactor types were targeted due to their relevancy to NRIC’s Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) and Laboratory for Operation and Testing in the U.S. (LOTUS) physical test beds, which are slated to host microreactor and molten salt reactor experiments. The model porting activities consisted of developing detailed documentation for several physics models which originate from the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. We include only contributions from Argonne National Laboratory in this report.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

The Continued Need for Modeling and Scaled Testing to Advance the Hanford Tank Waste Mission

Hanford tank wastes are chemically complex slurries of liquids and solids that can exhibit changes in rheological behavior during retrieval and processing. The Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) recently abandoned its planned approach to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) supported by testing at less than full scale to verify the design of vessels that process these wastes within the plant. The commercial CFD tool selected was deemed too difficult to validate to the degree necessary for use in the design of a nuclear facility. Alternative, but somewhat immature, CFD tools are available that can simulate multiphase flow of non-Newtonian fluids. Yet both CFD and scaled testing can play an important role in advancing the Hanford tank waste mission—in supporting the new verification approach, which is to conduct testing in actual plant vessels; in supporting waste feed delivery, where scaled testing is ongoing; as a fallback approach to design verification if the Full Scale Vessel Testing Program is deemed too costly and time-consuming; to troubleshoot problems during commissioning and operation of the plant; and to evaluate the effects of any proposed changes in operating conditions in the future to optimize plant performance.

Fluid Dynamics↗

Fundamental Studies and Development of III-N Visible LEDs for High-Power Solid-State Lighting Applications

The goal of this program is to understand in a fundamental way the impact of strain, defects, polarization, and Stokes loss in relation to unique device structures upon the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) and efficiency droop (ED) of III-nitride (III-N) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and to employ this understanding in the design and growth of high-efficiency LEDs capable of highly-reliable, high-current, high-power operation. This knowledge will be the basis for our advanced device epitaxial designs that lead to improved device performance. The primary approach we will employ is to exploit new scientific and engineering knowledge generated through the application of a set of unique advanced growth and characterization tools to develop new concepts in strain-, polarization-, and carrier dynamics-engineered and low-defect materials and device designs having reduced dislocations and improved carrier collection followed by efficient photon generation. We studied the effects of crystalline defect, polarizations, hole transport, electron-spillover, electron blocking layer, underlying layer below the multiplequantum- well active region, and developed high-efficiency and efficiency-droop-mitigated blue LEDs with a new LED epitaxial structure. We believe new LEDs developed in this program will make a breakthrough in the development of high-efficiency high-power visible III-N LEDs from violet to green spectral region.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Energy Efficiency: What Has Research Delivered in the Last 40 Years?

This article presents a critical assessment of 40 years of research that may be brought under the umbrella of energy efficiency, spanning different aggregations and domains—from individual producing and consuming agents to economy-wide effects to the role of innovation to the influence of policy. After 40 years of research, energy efficiency initiatives are generally perceived as highly effective. Innovation has contributed to lowering energy technology costs and increasing energy productivity. Energy efficiency programs in many cases have reduced energy use per unit of economic output and have been associated with net improvements in welfare, emission reductions, or both. Rebound effects at the macro level still warrant careful policy attention, as they may be nontrivial. Complexity of energy efficiency dynamics calls for further methodological and empirical advances, multidisciplinary approaches, and granular data at the service level for research in this field to be of greatest societal benefit.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Finite Element Solver for Fission Dynamics

FELIX is a physics computer code used to model fission fragment mass distributions in a fully quantum-mechanical, microscopic framework that only relies on our current knowledge of nuclear forces. It is an implementation of the time-dependent generator coordinate method (TDGCM), which simulates the dynamics of a collective quantum wave-packet assuming the motion is adiabatic. In typical applications of the TDGCM, the nuclear collective wavepacket is obtained as a superposition of wavefunctions obtained by solving the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov equations of nuclear density functional theory (DFT). The program calculates at each time step the coefficients of that superposition.

Regnier, D.↗

Characterizing the DNA damage response by cell tracking algorithms and cell features classification using high-content time-lapse analysis

Traditionally, the kinetics of DNA repair have been estimated using immunocytochemistry by labeling proteins involved in the DNA damage response (DDR) with fluorescent markers in a fixed cell assay. However, detailed knowledge of DDR dynamics across multiple cell generations cannot be obtained using a limited number of fixed cell time-points. Here we report on the dynamics of 53BP1 radiation induced foci (RIF) across multiple cell generations using live cell imaging of non-malignant human mammary epithelial cells (MCF10A) expressing histone H2B-GFP and the DNA repair protein 53BP1-mCherry. Using automatic extraction of RIF imaging features and linear programming techniques, we were able to characterize detailed RIF kinetics for 24 hours before and 24 hours after exposure to low and high doses of ionizing radiation. High-content-analysis at the single cell level over hundreds of cells allows us to quantify precisely the dose dependence of 53BP1 protein production, RIF nuclear localization and RIF movement after exposure to X-ray. Using elastic registration techniques based on the nuclear pattern of individual cells, we could describe the motion of individual RIF precisely within the nucleus. We show that DNA repair occurs in a limited number of large domains, within which multiple small RIFs form, merge and/or resolve with random motion following normal diffusion law. Large foci formation is shown to be mainly happening through the merging of smaller RIF rather than through growth of an individual focus. We estimate repair domain sizes of 7.5 to 11 µm 2 with a maximum number of ~15 domains per MCF10A cell. This work also highlights DDR which are specific to doses larger than 1 Gy such as rapid 53BP1 protein increase in the nucleus and foci diffusion rates that are significantly faster than for spontaneous foci movement. We hypothesize that RIF merging reflects a "stressed" DNA repair process that has been taken outside physiological conditions when too many DSB occur at once. High doses of ionizing radiation lead to RIF merging into repair domains which in turn increases DSB proximity and misrepair. Furthermore, such finding may therefore be critical to explain the supralinear dose dependence for chromosomal rearrangement and cell death measured after exposure to ionizing radiation.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Multiscale Multiphysics Developments for Accident Tolerant Fuel Concepts

U 3 Si 2 and iron-chromium-aluminum (Fe-Cr-Al) alloys are two of many proposed accident-tolerant fuel concepts for the fuel and cladding, respectively. The behavior of these materials under normal operating and accident reactor conditions is not well known. As part of the Department of Energy’s Accident Tolerant Fuel High Impact Problem program significant work has been conducted to investigate the U 3 Si 2 and FeCrAl behavior under reactor conditions. This report presents the multiscale and multiphysics effort completed in fiscal year 2015. The report is split into four major categories including Density Functional Theory Developments, Molecular Dynamics Developments, Mesoscale Developments, and Engineering Scale Developments. The work shown here is a compilation of a collaborative effort between Idaho National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and Anatech Corp.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Google/Makani Energy Kite Modeling (CRADA CRD-18-00569 Final Report)

In support of Makani’s energy kite development program, Makani engaged with NREL to develop, verify, and document a multiphysics engineering model of a megawatt-scale tethered energy kite (named KiteFAST). After the original development of KiteFAST was completed, Makani further engaged NREL to develop a software enhancement of KiteFAST to enable the dynamics modeling of an energy kite tethered to a floating offshore platform (named KiteFAST-OS). Before this project, the capability to model the aero-hydro-servo-elastic dynamics of an airborne wind energy (AWE) system with electricity generation on the flying device (fly gen) and crosswind flight operation did not exist. Such physics-based modeling capability is needed for loads analysis, structural design, and certification of energy kites. Throughout the project, an exclusive license kept KiteFAST and KiteFAST-OS available only to Makani, NREL, and its counterparts. With the ending of Makani, the KiteFAST and KiteFAST-OS software were merged into a single code base (named KiteFAST), the exclusive license was terminated, and the source code, documentation, and example models were released publicly.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

The 2020 Nonlinear Mechanics and Dynamics Research Institute

The 2020 Nonlinear Mechanics and Dynamics (NOMAD) Research Institute was successfully held from June 15 to July 30, 2020. NOMAD brings together participants with diverse technical backgrounds to work in small teams to cultivate new ideas and approaches in engineering mechanics and dynamics research. NOMAD provides an opportunity for researchers – especially early career researchers - to develop lasting collaborations that go beyond what can be established from the limited interactions at their institutions or at annual conferences. A total of 11 students participated in the seven-week long program held virtually due to the COVID-19 health pandemic. The students collaborated on one of four research projects that were developed by various mentors from Sandia National Laboratories, the University of New Mexico, and other academic and research institutions. In addition to the research activities, the students attended weekly technical seminars, various virtual tours, and socialized at virtual gatherings. At the end of the summer, the students gave a final technical presentation on their research findings. Many of the research discoveries made at NOMAD 2020 are published as proceedings at technical conferences and have direct alignment with the critical mission work performed at Sandia.

42 ENGINEERING↗