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At least 1,747 records · Page 97

Snow survey from space, with emphasis on the results of the analysis of Skylab EREP S192 multispectral scanner data

The Skylab EREP S192 multispectral scanner data have provided an opportunity to examine the reflectance characteristics of snow cover in several spectral bands extending from the visible into the near infrared spectral region to about 2 microns. The analysis of the S192 imagery and digital tape data from five EREP passes, two from the SL-2 mission and three from the SL-4 mission, indicates a sharp drop in reflectance of snow in the near infrared, with snow becoming essentially nonreflective in Bands 11 (1.55-1.75 microns) and 12 (2.10-2.35 microns). The results are in good agreement with the results of laboratory experiments. Two potential applications to snow mapping of measurements in the near infrared spectral region are possible: (1) the use of a near infrared band in conjunction with a visible band to distinguish automatically between snow and water droplet clouds, and (2) the use of one or more near infrared bands to detect areas of melting snow.

Barnes, J. C.↗

Ionothermally Synthesized Nanoporous Ti 0.95 W 0.05 Nb 2 O 7 : a Novel Anode Material for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries

Although TiNb 2 O 7 is regarded as a fast-rechargeable lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode material, the intrinsic poor electrochemical kinetics of TiNb 2 O 7 still dramatically impedes its development. Herein, an ionothermal synthesis-assisted doping strategy is proposed for the preparation of a new W 6+ -doped TiNb 2 O 7 material (Ti 0.95 W 0.05 Nb 2 O 7 ) with nanoporous structure (denoted as NPTWNO). The improved Li + diffusion coefficient of NPTWNO suggests that the ionic-liquid-templated nanoporous architecture improves the Li+ diffusion kinetics. The density functional theory computational study reveals that the doped W 6+ successfully boosts the electronic conductivity due to the narrowed conduction-valance bandgap resulted from charge redistribution, which is reflected by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data. With the simultaneously enhanced Li+ diffusivity and electronic conductivity, NPTWNO achieves fast-rechargeability in LIBs. So this work indicates the potential of ionothermal synthesis-assisted doping strategy on energy storage materials and offers NPTWNO material with promising electrochemical performance.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Erratum: Monoenergetic photon-induced fission cross-section ratio measurements for U 235 , U 238 , and Pu 239 from 9.0 to 17.0 MeV

In this erratum we report a correction to the previously published photofission cross-section ratio data. The actinide fission-chamber foils utilized in this work were extensively characterized during a new campaign using α- and γ-ray spectroscopy, and 2π alpha counting. These three techniques agreed, resulting in an improved accuracy of the fission-chamber foil masses used in the original experiment. The foil masses measured by α spectroscopy are detailed in Table I. All foils were counted on the same α spectrometer, using an identical geometry, which reduces the systematic uncertainty in the calculated mass ratios since the α spectrometer efficiency cancels out in the ratio. This results in a relative uncertainty on the mass ratio of 1.0% for 235 U/ 238 U, 0.62% for 239 Pu/ 235 U, and 1.1% for 239 Pu/ 238 U. The published cross-section ratio data are re-calculated to reflect the updated target masses and uncertainties. The new mass values cause a 2.40% decrease for the σ( 235 U(γ, f)/ 238 U(γ, f)) ratio, a 5.10% decrease for the σ( 235 U(γ, f)/ 239 Pu(γ, f)) ratio, and a 2.77% decrease for the σ( 238 U(γ, f)/ 239 Pu(γ, f)) ratio. The updated cross-section ratios are presented in Tables II, III, and IV, which are corrected versions of Tables III, IV, and V in Ref. [1]

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Crystal structure and magnetic properties of the layered van der Waals compound VB r 3

Single crystals of the layered, van der Waals compound VBr 3 were synthesized by a vapor transport technique, and characterized by single-crystal x-ray diffraction, temperature- and field-dependent magnetization, and temperature-dependent specific-heat measurements. VBr 3 has a honeycomb-based BiI 3 -type structure with space group $R$-3 (no. 148) at 100 K, analogous to the structure of other honeycomb trihalides. Structural stacking faults were observed as evidenced by the streaking of reflections along $c*$ in the diffraction data. VBr 3 goes through a structural phase transition at 90.4 K and a subsequent antiferromagnetic phase transition at 26.5 K, below which the magnetic moments are primarily aligned along the $c$-axis.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Kensor: Coordinated Intelligence from Co-Located Sensors

Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming more pervasive in many installations, including homes, manufacturing plants, and industrial facilities of all kinds. The data that IoT produces is a reflection of usual behavior such as daily routines and scheduled tasks, but also from unexpected behavior due to unintentional or undesirable abnormalities. Here, we focus on achieving coordinated intelligence about normal and abnormal phenomena from multiple sensors that are geographically colocated in close proximity, monitoring and controlling a set of co-located devices. Given a set of co-located sensors, we seek an intelligent approach that would automatically determine the “normal” patterns of behaviors among the correlated sensors. After normal behavior is extracted, later monitoring should detect any deviant variations over time. An example application is an entry monitoring and alert system for facilities such as nuclear reactors, where badge readers, door locks, lights, weight trackers and other co-located sensors at the entry point are collectively tracked. To address this problem, we identify the possible solution approach that can be used to solve its different variants. The implemented model is developed as a combination of rules and Markov Chain methods.

Kotevska, Olivera↗

Comparing Exciton-Polariton Couplings in Two-Dimensional MoS2 Cavities

Exciton-polaritons (EPs) are an emerging approach to achieve strong light-matter coupling and robust quantum phenomena, with application to areas such as photonic neuromorphic computing for instance reservoir computing. 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising candidates to host EPs due to their potential for strong coupling as evidenced by large Rabi splitting energies, which in the case of few-layer MoS2 has been demonstrated to reach 293 meV when coupled to the C exciton, placing it in the ultrastrong coupling regime, at room temperature. Here we examine how the Rabi splitting of CVD-grown monolayer MoS2 in a cavity can be optimized by tuning two variables: cavity geometry (thickness of silver and dielectric spacers) and the targeted exciton for coupling (A at about 1.9 eV, B at about 2.06 eV, or C at about 2.9 eV). With the cavity geometry, there is a tradeoff between optical field confinement and transmission. With the targeted exciton, there may be a tradeoff between Rabi splitting and lifetime. Transfer matrix simulations are used to inform how thick the cavity layers need to be, and at what angle measurements should be performed, to achieve Rabi splitting at a certain exciton energy. Experimentally, the Rabi splitting is measured by placing the cavity at a specified angle and measuring the optical reflectance and transmittance. By fitting the data, we find Rabi splittings of 124 meV, 194 meV, and 288 meV for the A, B, and C excitons, respectively, which places them in the strong, and on the edge of the ultrastrong, coupling regime.

exciton-polaritons↗

Growth Kinetics and Microstructure of PbTe Films Produced on Si and BaF{sub 2} Substrates by a Modified Hot-Wall Method

Lead telluride films have been grown on Si (100) and BaF{sub 2} (100) substrates by a modified hot-wall method using a graphite reaction chamber. According to X-ray diffraction, X-ray microanalysis, and scanning electron microscopy characterization results, the average growth rate of PbTe films having compositions within the homogeneity range of lead telluride increases with increasing lead vapor partial pressure and decreases with increasing tellurium vapor partial pressure, independent of the nature of the substrate. The rate of PbTe film growth has been shown to be maximal in the initial stage of the process and decrease monotonically over time, independent of the nature of the substrate. Independent of the growth time, the average growth rate of the PbTe films on the Si (100) substrates is considerably higher than that on the BaF{sub 2} (100) substrates. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction data indicate that the texture of the PbTe films on Si (100) corresponds to the substrate orientation and that the misorientation angle of the mosaic blocks does not exceed 20°. On the BaF{sub 2} (100) substrates, we observe epitaxial PbTe film growth with the orientation relationship (100), [011] PbTe ║ (100), [011] BaF{sub 2}.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Terms, Trends, and Insights on PV Project Finance in the United States, 2018

This brief is a compilation of data points and market insights that reflect the state of the project finance market for solar photovoltaic (PV) assets in the United States as of the third quarter of 2018. This information can generally be used as a simplified benchmark of the costs associated with securing financing for solar PV as well as the cost of the financing itself (i.e., the cost of capital). This work represents the third DOE sponsored effort to benchmark financing costs across the residential, commercial, and utility-scale PV markets, as part of its larger effort to benchmark the components of PV system costs. capital). This work represents the third DOE sponsored effort to benchmark financing costs across the residential, commercial, and utility-scale PV markets, as part of its larger effort to benchmark the components of PV system costs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Physics-Informed Machine Learning for Epidemiological Models

One challenge of using compartmental SEIR models for public health planning is the difficulty in manually tuning parameters to capture behavior reflected in the real-world data. This team conducted initial, exploratory analysis of a novel technique to use physics-informed machine learning tools to rapidly develop data-driven models for physical systems. This machine learning approach may be used to perform data assimilation of compartment models which account for unknown interactions between geospatial domains (i.e. diffusion processes coupling across neighborhoods/counties/states/etc.). Results presented here are early, proof-of-concept ideas that demonstrate initial success in using a physically informed neural network (PINN) model to assimilate data in a compartmental epidemiology model. The results demonstrate initial success and warrant further research and development.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Air Blast Meshing & Pressure Mapping [Slides]

Project Goals: Mesh sensitivity study – Determine at what mesh density results converge; Build a model that reflects theoretical solutions. Map experimental pressure data onto the surface of the cone – Track rigid body motion. Stresses in conic Body – Observe how the model reacts to stresses different than the ones tested in the mesh sensitivity study.

42 ENGINEERING↗

An Assessment of Technical Hydropower Potential at Non-Powered Dams in the United States

Historically, dams have been constructed for a variety of purposes, such as providing a more secure and reliable water supply, mitigating impacts from variations in river flow, allowing continuous navigability, and harnessing mechanical power. A relatively small portion of dams have been designed to store or regulate flows for the purpose of generating electricity (roughly 3% of nationally inventoried dams in the US and 17% of the dams included in the World Register of Dams). The remaining population of existing non-powered dams (NPDs) presents both an opportunity to generate renewable energy and a need to modernize aging infrastructure. This report describes an assessment of more than 2,600 NPDs in the US that have a collective potential of nearly 4 GW in new power capacity. Previous national-scale assessments were aimed at evaluating the theoretical maximum power potential at existing dams in the United States. These estimates were based on the best available information at the time for water availability, hydraulic head, and representative regional capacity factors. This study revisits a subset of 3,299 dams identified in the most recent theoretical resource assessment and uses more detailed and updated hydrologic data to produce estimates of technical potential. These improvements in data enable estimates that more realistically reflect what is physically possible given simple assumptions about the existing structure and constraints on flow and head (Figure 1).

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Star Formation in the Local Universe from the CALIFA Sample. II. Activation and Quenching Mechanisms in Bulges, Bars, and Disks

We estimate the current extinction-corrected Hα star formation rate (SFR) of the different morphological components that shape galaxies (bulges, bars, and disks). We use a multicomponent photometric decomposition based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging to Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) datacubes for a sample of 219 galaxies. This analysis reveals an enhancement of the central SFR and specific SFR (sSFR = SFR/M {sub ⋆}) in barred galaxies. Along the main sequence, we find that more massive galaxies in total have undergone efficient suppression (quenching) of their star formation, in agreement with many studies. We discover that more massive disks have had their star formation quenched as well. We evaluate which mechanisms might be responsible for this quenching process. The presence of type 2 AGNs plays a role at damping the sSFR in bulges and less efficiently in disks. Also, the decrease in the sSFR of the disk component becomes more noticeable for stellar masses around 10{sup 10.5} M{sub ⊙}; for bulges, it is already present at ∼10{sup 9.5} M{sub ⊙}. The analysis of the line-of-sight stellar velocity dispersions (σ) for the bulge component and of the corresponding Faber–Jackson relation shows that AGNs tend to have slightly higher σ values than star-forming galaxies for the same mass. Finally, the impact of environment is evaluated by means of the projected galaxy density, Σ{sub 5}. We find that the SFR of both bulges and disks decreases in intermediate- to high-density environments. This work reflects the potential of combining IFS data with 2D multicomponent decompositions to shed light on the processes that regulate the SFR.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The stable carbon isotope fractionation of methanogenesis products at complete carbon consumption

The stable carbon isotope signature (δ 13 C) of methane (CH 4 ) is used to discriminate between biological, thermogenic, and abiotic sources. Methanogens, or methane producing archaea, inhabit a broad range of chemical conditions. Many of these environments are replete in dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), causing isotopically depleted δ 13 C biogenic CH 4 . However, some extreme environments inhabited by methanogens, such as serpentinising systems, exhibit low carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) availability, replete H 2 , and isotopically enriched δ 13 C CH 4 that is outside the known biogenic range. We measured the δ 13 C of CO 2 , biomass, lipids, and CH 4 during hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis under hydrogen replete conditions with a limited carbon pool to investigate carbon isotope dynamics at complete DIC consumption. As theory predicts, we found that the final, accumulated methane δ 13 C values closely reflect the δ 13 C of the initial DIC supply, and that methane is more 13 C enriched than biomass and lipids. This provides the first experimental evidence that methanogens can achieve complete carbon consumption and thus can produce accumulated CH 4 products that isotopically reflect the initial CO 2 . These data show that the range of possible δ 13 C values from biogenic methane needs to be expanded for natural environments impacted by extreme carbon limitation.

biomass↗

Lamp modulator provides signal magnitude indication

Lamp modulator provides visible indication of presence and magnitude of an audio signal carrying voice or data. It can be made to reflect signal variations of up to 32 decibels. Lamp life is increased by use of a bypass resistor to prevent filament failure.

Zeman, J. R.↗

Multispectral scanner imagery for plant community classification.

Optimum channel selection among 12 channels of multispectral scanner imagery identified six as providing the best information for computerized classification of 11 plant communities and two nonvegetation classes. Intensive preprocessing of the spectral data was required to eliminate bidirectional reflectance effects of the spectral imagery caused by scanner view angle and varying geometry of the plant canopy. Generalized plant community types - forest, grassland, and hydrophytic systems - were acceptably classified based on ecological analysis. Serious, but soluble, errors occurred with attempts to classify specific community types within the grassland system. However, special clustering analyses provided for improved classification of specific grassland communities.

Driscoll, R. S.↗