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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Benefits of using Electronic Data Sheets (EDS) with coreFlight Systems (cFS) - A Project Example

Recently there has been interest in the incorporation of core Flight Systems (cFS) with Spacecraft Onboard Interface Services (SOIS) Electronic Data Sheets (EDS) in the spaceflight software community. The Regenerative Fuel Cell project at the Glenn Research Center is using cFS architecture with EDS support for its monitoring and control software. The presentation will outline the benefits to using cFS with EDS support: First, EDS establishes a single source of truth for the definitions of data structures used throughout an entire mission that may otherwise be programmed in different languages and designed with different processor architectures. Not only does this help with inter-application communication via the software bus, but it also greatly simplifies communication between systems. An EDS Application Programming Interface (API) library allows the conversion of EDS data structures to and from native data structures. Second, bindings for other programming languages (e.g. Lua, Python, JSON) have been written to allow the creation and manipulation of EDS data objects within those languages. The RFC project uses Lua scripts to automatically generate binary configuration files at build time to be loaded into our cFS programs. We also use Python bindings in a graphical user interface (GUI) to allow an operator to send commands and view telemetry messages sent from cFS instances. Finally, using Lua scripts we can set up specific simulation scenarios to perform automatic functional testing. During the development of the RFC software, the software team put together a generic python GUI called “cFS-EDS-GroundStation” that provides a basic interface to an instance of cFS with EDS support. The GUI includes a basic telecommand and telemetry system that reads directly from the generated EDS databases. In the telecommand system, dropdown menus are populated with all user commands that are defined in EDS. In the telemetry system, telemetry messages are automatically decoded, written to the screen, and saved to a binary file. Additional Python scripts have been written to convert the binary data files into a comma separated value (CSV) format for further processing. We will demonstrate the basic use of the cFS-EDS-GroundStation software including adding additional commands and telemetry payload values in EDS and see them appear automatically in the cFS-EDS-Groundstation software. About the RFC project: The Regenerative Fuel Cell project is tasked with developing and demonstrating a power system consisting of a fuel cell and electrolyzer to provide power during a lunar day/night cycle. During the night, the fuel cell takes Hydrogen and Oxygen gasses and converts them into electricity, water, and heat. During the day, the electrolyzer takes input power (e.g. from a photovoltaic array) and converts water back into Hydrogen and Oxygen gasses.

Mathew Mccaskey↗
NASA NTRS2025

The Microbiome of A Tomato Crop Grown Under Different Lighting Regimes on the International Space Station

The VEG-05 experiment presented here investigated the effect of red-rich and blue-rich light recipes in Veggie on the microbiome of the Veggie facility and the plant tissues of a dwarf tomato variety, Solanum lycopersicum cv. Red Robin. For food safety, the plants were screened using culture-based methods for potential human pathogens that may cause infection by consumption of the fruit. The microbiome was investigated using bacterial 16S and fungal ITS sequencing methods to enumerate and identify bacterial and fungal communities on tomato fruit, roots, leaves, rooting substrate, and Veggie facility surfaces grown under blue-rich or red-rich lighting. Comparisons of microbial communities were made between lighting treatments, as well as for flight and ground controls. This analysis determined the core microbiome and microbiological composition for tomato plants grown under a blue-rich or red-rich lighting treatment and microgravity conditions. Culture-based pathogen screening, corroborated by 16S and ITS sequencing, yielded negative results. Bacterial and fungal counts were lower for ground controls than in-flight samples. However, there were no differences in microbial counts between lighting treatments. Regardless of lighting treatment, plant components shared a core microbiome, although some differences were observed in genera between lighting treatments.

Veggie↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Effect of salinity on the preservation of biomarkers in hypersaline microbial mat kerogens

Kerogen is the residue that remains after the minerals and organic compounds have been extracted from a rock using acid and organic solvents, respectively [1]. It is not only the largest organic carbon sink in the geological record but the best-preserved fraction due to its recalcitrance and ability to retain syngenetic source information during deposition [2]. Due to the complex, macromolecular, cross-linked polymeric structure of kerogen, it is difficult to analyse intact, often requiring breakdown into smaller subunits through thermal (pyrolysis) or chemical treatment (chemolysis) [3]. Saline and hypersaline environments host diverse microbial communities, which can trap and bind organic matrices such as cellular components (e.g., extracellular polymeric substances, cell wall, peptidoglycan, sheath material, etc.) with sediments, forming layered, laminated structures called microbial mats. Here we present depth profiles of two hypersaline cores through a microbial mat with differing total salinities. We looked at the composition of organic compounds released from kerogen during high temperature, hydrogen-assisted, pyrolysis to understand the effect of salinity on the composition and timing of their incorporation [4]. Field Site: The Exportadora del Sal S. A. (ESSA) saltern of Guerrero Negro (Baja California Sur, Mexico) lies within a typical sabhka environment adjacent to Laguna Ojo de Liebre. Note the spatial extent of the 13 major ponds of the ESSA system. The GN ponds thrive under well-monitored and stable conditions with steady state accretion and degradation of mat layers (around 0.5–1.4 cm per year). Organic mats typically attain up to 10 cm in thickness, depending on the location, which represents about 60 years of growth since these ponds were established. Sedimentation rate is rapid in these non-lithifying and non-mineralising mats, 1–1.5 cm per year. This environment is ideal for investigating in situ lipid preservation and diagenesis without the influence of constantly changing physical parameters. Methods: P4n5 and P5AB cores were collected as ~9 cm and 6.5 cm fresh cores, respectively, in June 2001 and September 2010, respectively from the ESSA saltern. The P4n5 core (9-9.1% salinity) was taken from Pond 4 near 5 and sub-divided into 10 layers. The P5AB core (11.2% salinity) was taken from Pond 5A near 5B and sub-divided into 8 layers. Lyophilised microbial mat powders were solvent-extracted using a modified Bligh-Dyer method and analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Additionally, a subset of layers—layer 4 and layer 7—which represented active biomass and sediment-processed, respectively, were subjected to mild-acid methanolysis. The respective residues from conventional solvent extraction and acid methanolysis were loaded with a molybdenum sulfide catalyst and placed into a stainless-steel reactor. Samples were run on the hydropyrolysis set up (heated to 500 °C with 13-15 MPa of H2 pressure), extracted, and analysed by GC-MS. Results: Molecular profiles from the two ponds were significantly different and reflect the contributions of different photosynthetic and respiratory microbial communities to preserved organic matter. For example, the higher salinity P5AB core showed evidence of greater archaeal inputs (similarly observed in lab culture experiments [5]) as well as potential kerogen-bound carotenoids/carotenoid rearranged products or fragments. A hydrophobic emulsion formed during the acid methanolysis processing of layer 4 from both P4n5 and P5AB and layer 7 of P5AB. Hydropyrolysis of this hydrophobic residues released a greater abundance of polycyclic lipids relative to the pre-extracted control. Implications and Future Work: Catalytic hydropyrolysis of kerogen can rapidly generate abundant saturated pyrolysate products from the bound biomarker pool without altering the structures or stereochemistries of the products [6]. Chemical processing of solvent-extractable residues indicated that cellular matrices such as extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) may play a role in the sequestration of polycyclic lipid biomarkers such as steranes and hopanes. Their higher relative abundance compared to the pre-extracted control in the higher salinity layers and cores preliminarily aligns with this hypothesis, although further experiments are required to confirm this. It has been well-documented that EPS plays an important role in mineralisation, specifically carbonate formation, in microbial ecosystems. EPS can enhance calcium carbonate precipitation by providing diffusion-limited sites that create alkalinity gradients in response to microbial processes [7]. It has been experimentally demonstrated that salinity influences the total amount of EPS (both loosely- and tightly-bound) which increases with increasing salinity [8]. The higher salinity at Guerrero Negro switches the microbial population from filamentous Microcoleus to being dominated by Phormidium, Oscillatoria, and unicellular cyanobacteria. We demonstrated that lipid binding into kerogen via strong covalent linkages occurs at the very earliest stages of sedimentary diagenesis. We are currently investigating the influence of salinity on organic preservation through experimental and modelling approaches. Understanding how key biomarkers transform into preserved organic matter (i.e., from precursor biolipids to bound geolipids) in brine ecosystems will aid the search for organic biosignatures on other planetary bodies, especially Icy Moons and modern Mars.

hypersaline↗
DOE OSTI2020

Resource for the Development of Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Final Report

The NIH Research Resource for Biomedical AMS was originally funded at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1999 to develop and apply the technology of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in broad- based biomedical research. The Resource’s niche is to fill needs for ultra high sensitivity quantitation when isotope-labeled agents are used. The Research Resource’s Technology Research and Development (TR&D) efforts will focus on the needs of the biomedical research community in the context of seven Driving Biomedical Projects (DBPs) that will drive the Center’s technical capabilities through three core TR&Ds. We will expand our present capabilities by developing a fully integrated HPLC AMS to increase our capabilities for metabolic measurements, we will develop methods to understand cellular processes and we will develop and validate methods for the application of AMS in human studies, which is a growing area of demand by collaborators and service users. In addition, we will continue to support new and ongoing collaborative and service projects that require the capabilities of the Resource. The Center will continue to train researchers in the use of the AMS capabilities being developed, and the results of all efforts will be widely disseminated to advance progress in biomedical research. Towards these goals, our specific aims are to:1.) Increase the value and information content of AMS measurements by combining molecular speciation with quantitation of defined macromolecular isolates. Specifically, develop and validate methods for macromolecule labeling, characterization and quantitation.2.) Develop and validate methods and strategies to enable AMS to become more broadly used in human studies. Specifically, demonstrate robust methods for conducting pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics studies in humans and model systems.3.) Increase the accessibility of AMS to the Biomedical research community and the throughput of AMS through direct coupling to separatory instruments.4.) Provide high throughput 14C BioAMS analysis for collaborative and service clients.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

Predicting secondary organic aerosol phase state and viscosity and its effect on multiphase chemistry in a regional-scale air quality model

Atmospheric aerosols are a significant public health hazard and have substantial impacts on the climate. Secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) have been shown to phase separate into a highly viscous organic outer layer surrounding an aqueous core. This phase separation can decrease the partitioning of semi-volatile and low-volatile species to the organic phase and alter the extent of acid-catalyzed reactions in the aqueous core. A new algorithm that can determine SOA phase separation based on their glass transition temperature (T g ), oxygen to carbon (O:C) ratio and organic mass to sulfate ratio, and meteorological conditions was implemented into the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling (CMAQ) system version 5.2.1 and was used to simulate the conditions in the continental United States for the summer of 2013. SOA formed at the ground/surface level was predicted to be phase separated with core–shell morphology, i.e., aqueous inorganic core surrounded by organic coating 65.4 % of the time during the 2013 Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study (SOAS) on average in the isoprene-rich southeastern United States. Our estimate is in proximity to the previously reported ~70 % in literature. The phase states of organic coatings switched between semi-solid and liquid states, depending on the environmental conditions. The semi-solid shell occurring with lower aerosol liquid water content (western United States and at higher altitudes) has a viscosity that was predicted to be 10 2 –10 12 Pa s, which resulted in organic mass being decreased due to diffusion limitation. Organic aerosol was primarily liquid where aerosol liquid water was dominant (eastern United States and at the surface), with a viscosity <10 2 Pa s. Phase separation while in a liquid phase state, i.e., liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS), also reduces reactive uptake rates relative to homogeneous internally mixed liquid morphology but was lower than aerosols with a thick viscous organic shell. The sensitivity cases performed with different phase-separation parameterization and dissolution rate of isoprene epoxydiol (IEPOX) into the particle phase in CMAQ can have varying impact on fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) organic mass, in terms of bias and error compared to field data collected during the 2013 SOAS. This highlights the need to better constrain the parameters that govern phase state and morphology of SOA, as well as expand mechanistic representation of multiphase chemistry for non-IEPOX SOA formation in models aided by novel experimental insights.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Picking an Open Source License at LLNL: Guidance and Recommendations from the Computing Directorate

Science and innovation are at the core of LLNL’s mission, and open source software is a vehicle by which LLNL innovations reach the scientific community, the nation, and the world. It also serves as a vehicle for building collaborations, publicizing our capabilities, and attracting new employees. Over half of the software produced by LLNL is open source, and open source licenses are the legal tools that allow our software to be used widely. Choosing an appropriate license can be difficult, but it can be even more difficult to change licenses after your software has amassed a significant number of contributors, so it is important understand the potentially subtle implications of your license choice. This document provides a set of recommendations for the busy and uninitiated. They are not set in stone (there are always exceptions). Our goal is to provide default choices that align best with LLNL’s mission, along with a high-level rationale.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

S4PST: Sustainability for Programming Systems and Tools: May Workshop Report

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Exascale Computing Project (ECP) has fostered and strengthened the use of modern software engineering practices for developing applications and libraries, and this effort has resulted in the coordinated and interoperable E4S1 and xSDK2 ecosystems. Although this approach is cost-effective, it relies on robust programming systems and tools (PST) as the underlying foundation for our HPC software. At present, our primary PST stack consists of traditional high-performance computing (HPC) languages, namely Fortran, C, C++, and the popular Python language for data analysis and AI workflows. These languages support various programming frameworks and run-time abstractions that enable parallelism and concurrency across multiple node architectures and thousands of nodes through a variety of interconnect systems. However, to accommodate users’ diverse needs, certain aspects of the HPC ecosystem are delegated to vendor-specific or third-party implementations that extend beyond a particular scientific domain. This broader scope results in a multitude of specifications and variations, which leads to a complex orchestration of many-ecosystems. Unfortunately, this complexity in the ecosystem imposes additional overhead costs on consumers during the latter stages of the development cycle. In addition to the software ecosystem challenge, the upcoming conclusion of the ECP by December 2023 has raised significant concerns within the HPC programming systems community, from both the economic and social perspectives. The ECP has implemented a management structure for software development and funding decisions across all ECP participants by following a conventional hierarchical and centralized approach. However, this structure has prompted certain considerations within the community, particularly in anticipation of the Software Sustainability initiative by the DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program (ASCR). For the success of this new initiative, it is of utmost importance to secure consistent funding and foster close engagement with researchers and core developers of existing programming-system products. This collaboration is vital to maintaining the critical capabilities of the current software during the transition phase while proactively adapting to future technology and workforce trends. The community recognizes the significance of adapting to emerging trends and is aware of the inherent fragility of the HPC software ecosystem, particularly in relation to programming systems that cater to all users. The ability to adapt and evolve is essential to staying relevant and effectively addressing these technical, economic, and social challenges. The S4PST team, which represents one of the six ASCR Software Sustainability seedling projects, is dedicated to tackling these challenges through community-based approaches that go beyond the scope of the DOE. This involves collaboration between national laboratories with academia, non-DOE institutions, hardware and system vendors, and international partners. By fostering these partnerships, we aim to create a robust and sustainable HPC software ecosystem that can effectively meet the needs of the community. This new community effort, driven by the eight DOE labs, will take on the responsibility of guiding funding decisions for programming-systems development and maintenance with transparency and consistency across all decisions. Additionally, the team will offer common technical services to the programming systems community, irrespective of their funding situations, and facilitate community-wide incubation to proactively nurture the software ecosystem. By actively engaging with stakeholders and employing a collaborative approach, we can collectively shape the future of programming systems and ensure a robust and thriving HPC software landscape. On May 11–12, 2023, the S4PST team conducted its inaugural kick-off workshop at the Innovative Computing Laboratory (ICL) in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, hosted by Hartwig Anzt. The workshop encompassed various sessions dedicated to presentations and discussions, with the aim of comprehending the team members’ perspectives on the vision of software sustainability. Additionally, the workshop aimed to identify the technical, economic, and social requirements for sustaining the programming-systems community in the field of HPC. This report provides a summary of the S4PST effort by highlighting five major thrust areas discussed during the workshop: (i) community, (ii) technical support, (iii) training and diversity, (iv) verification, validation and correctness, and (v) emerging technologies. It also encompasses an overview of the presentations and discussions held throughout the event, our views and potential synergies with other seedling efforts, along with the outcomes and key takeaways from our initial discussions.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Metagenome-assembled genome distribution and key functionality highlight importance of aerobic metabolism in Svalbard permafrost

Permafrost underlies a large portion of the land in the Northern Hemisphere. It is proposed to be an extreme habitat and home for cold-adaptive microbial communities. Upon thaw permafrost is predicted to exacerbate increasing global temperature trend, where awakening microbes decompose millennia old carbon stocks. Yet our knowledge on composition, functional potential and variance of permafrost microbiome remains limited. In this study, we conducted a deep comparative metagenomic analysis through a 2 m permafrost core from Svalbard, Norway to determine key permafrost microbiome in this climate sensitive island ecosystem. To do so, we developed comparative metagenomics methods on metagenomic-assembled genomes (MAG). We found that community composition in Svalbard soil horizons shifted markedly with depth: the dominant phylum switched from Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria in top soils (active layer) to Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi and Proteobacteria in permafrost layers. Key metabolic potential propagated through permafrost depths revealed aerobic respiration and soil organic matter decomposition as key metabolic traits. We also found that Svalbard MAGs were enriched in genes involved in regulation of ammonium, sulfur and phosphate. Here, we provide a new perspective on how permafrost microbiome is shaped to acquire resources in competitive and limited resource conditions of deep Svalbard soils.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Metabolic dependencies govern microbial syntrophies during methanogenesis in an anaerobic digestion ecosystem

Methanogenesis, a biological process mediated by complex microbial communities, has attracted great attention due to its contribution to global warming and potential in biotechnological applications. The current study unveiled the core microbial methanogenic metabolisms in anaerobic vessel ecosystems by applying combined genome-centric metagenomics and metatranscriptomics. Here, we demonstrate that an enriched natural system, fueled only with acetate, could support a bacteria-dominated microbiota employing a multi-trophic methanogenic process. Moreover, significant changes, in terms of microbial structure and function, were recorded after the system was supplemented with additional H 2 . Methanosarcina thermophila, the predominant methanogen prior to H 2 addition, simultaneously performed acetoclastic, hydrogenotrophic, and methylotrophic methanogenesis. The methanogenic pattern changed after the addition of H 2 , which immediately stimulated Methanomicrobia-activity and was followed by a slow enrichment of Methanobacteria members. Interestingly, the essential genes involved in the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway were not expressed in bacterial members. The high expression of a glycine cleavage system indicated the activation of alternative metabolic pathways for acetate metabolism, which were reconstructed in the most abundant bacterial genomes. Moreover, as evidenced by predicted auxotrophies, we propose that specific microbes of the community were forming symbiotic relationships, thus reducing the biosynthetic burden of individual members. These results provide new information that will facilitate future microbial ecology studies of interspecies competition and symbiosis in methanogenic niches.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2018

Synergistic and Collaborative Development Strategies for FV3 Powered Next Generation Unified Global Modeling System

The GFDL (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Finite-­Volume Cubed-Sphere Dynamical Core (FV3) is a scalable and flexible dynamical core capable of both hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic atmospheric simulations. FV3 has been chosen as the dynamical core for the Next Generation Global Prediction System project (NGGPS), designed to upgrade the current NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction, NOAA) operational Global Forecast System (GFS) to run as a unified, fully-coupled system in NOAA's Environmental Modeling System infrastructure. FV3 dynamic core has a long history of serving as the main engine for global atmospheric models at various Government and Academic Research Laboratories including NOAA: GFDL Climate Modeling Suite (AM4 (Atmosphere Modeling 4), CM4 (Climate Model 4) ESM4 (Earth System Model 4), Hiram (HIgh Resolution Atmospheric Model)); NASA: GMAO (Global Modeling and Assimilation Office) Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS); and NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) Community Earth System Model (CESM). The three primary stakeholders in FV3 (GFDL, GMAO, EMC (Environmental Modeling Center - NOAA)) have embarked on synergistic and collaborative strategies with focus on the advancement of non-hydrostratic dynamic core, physics, chemistry, and data assimilation efforts, leveraging collective strengths of each of the partnering agencies. This talk presents the ongoing plans for model advancements at GFDL, GMAO and EMC, with special emphasis on contributions towards developing community based unified global modeling system for operational and research applications at respective organizations. Future plans include extending the collaborations to the development of earth system components including GMAO's aerosol chemistry models (GOCART/MAM (Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport / Modal Aerosol Model)), Land Information System (LIS), and advanced data assimilation techniques; and GFDL's Modular Ocean Model (MOM) and Sea Ice Simulator (SIS) for transition to operations at NCEP.

Putman, William↗
DOE OSTI2023

Accelerating Low-Income Financing and Transactions (LIFT) for Solar Access Everywhere (Final Technical Report)

The Accelerating Low-Income Financing and Transactions (LIFT) for Solar Access Everywhere project’s goal was to expand Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) solar access for homeowners and renters. The LIFT project researched and gathered data on 453 LMI community solar project across the country. Following three years of research, the project delivered three groundbreaking research papers in June 2022, focused on 1) customer experience, 2) the growth of community solar programs, and 3) project-level financial best practices for serving LMI communities. These were followed by a user-friendly web-based Toolkit allowing users to interact with project data and key findings in November 2022. The customer experience research examined community solar subscribers’ primary motivations to join and remain satisfied with projects. Our research identified 453 projects across the country that dedicated some portion of the system capacity to LMI households. Seventeen of these projects participated in the LIFT customer experience research, allowing the project team to survey their customers and gain insight into how LMI subscribers feel about community solar and the programs that serve them. Subscribers in our sample indicated that the most critical issue that motivated them to participate in their program, however, was not savings but helping the environment. This was true for both LMI and non-LMI subscribers. Helping the environment was also the most important issue for LMI subscribers to measure how well their program was working for them. LIFT also explored how rapidly community solar has grown since its inception in 2006, publishing results in the Growth of U.S. Community Solar Serving LMI Households report. The results showed that community solar projects serving LMI households are one of the fastest growing segments of the solar industry. The report identifies and recommends ways developers should overcome real or perceived risks to LMI customer acquisition and subscriber management. Through the analysis of community solar project finance research, LIFT showed that most community solar projects serving LMI households are financed in the same ways mainstream community solar projects are financed. The value stacks and financial returns are no different, although LMI inclusion and participation rate varied across programs in our sample, ranging from between 10% and 100%. Based on the findings from the LIFT research, the team built a web-based user-friendly Toolkit, consisting of case studies, project finance best practices, and several tools built around the national dataset of 453 community solar projects that serve LMI households. These allow users to engage with the dataset in multiple ways; to explore the landscape of LMI community solar in the U.S., and to design community solar projects to optimize LMI inclusion, equity, and savings levels. The Toolkit also includes a library of LIFT-generated and LIFT-curated resources for users to learn more about how to best serve LMI communities through community solar. LIFT officially published the Toolkit on October 31, 2022, followed by a launch event (public webinar) on November 17, 2022. The core LIFT partners continue to engage in outreach and dissemination efforts to promote the LIFT Toolkit and research publications. Our driving motivation is to continue enabling solar developers to leverage the findings of this three-year research effort. By implication, the LIFT Toolkit is designed for use by utilities, energy service providers, and financiers or investors as a learning and decision-making tool to rapidly scale project models that optimize LMI inclusion and maximize real household savings.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

SBML Level 3: an extensible format for the exchange and reuse of biological models

Systems biology has experienced dramatic growth in the number, size, and complexity of computational models. To reproduce simulation results and reuse models, researchers must exchange unambiguous model descriptions. We review the latest edition of the Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML), a format designed for this purpose. A community of modelers and software authors developed SBML Level 3 over the past decade. Its modular form consists of a core suited to representing reaction-based models and packages that extend the core with features suited to other model types including constraint-based models, reaction-diffusion models, logical network models, and rule-based models. The format leverages two decades of SBML and a rich software ecosystem that transformed how systems biologists build and interact with models. More recently, the rise of multiscale models of whole cells and organs, and new data sources such as single-cell measurements and live imaging, has precipitated new ways of integrating data with models. We provide our perspectives on the challenges presented by these developments and how SBML Level 3 provides the foundation needed to support this evolution.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2002

Second Generation RLV Space Vehicle Concept

NASA has a long history of conducting development programs and projects in a consistent fashion. Systems Engineering within those programs and projects has also followed a given method outlined by such documents as the NASA Systems Engineering Handbook. The relatively new NASA Space Launch Initiative (SLI) is taking a new approach to developing a space vehicle, with innovative management methods as well as new Systems Engineering processes. With the program less than a year into its life cycle, the efficacy of these new processes has yet to be proven or disproven. At $776M for phase 1, SLI represents a major portion of the NASA focus; however, the new processes being incorporated are not reflected in the training provided by NASA to its engineers. The NASA Academy of Program and Project Leadership (APPL) offers core classes in program and project management and systems engineering to NASA employees with the purpose of creating a "knowledge community where ideas, skills, and experiences are exchanged to increase each other's capacity for strong leadership". The SLI program is, in one sense, a combination of a conceptual design program and a technology program. The program as a whole doesn't map into the generic systems engineering project cycle as currently, and for some time, taught. For example, the NASA APPL Systems Engineering training course teaches that the "first step in developing an architecture is to define the external boundaries of the system", which will require definition of the interfaces with other systems and the next step will be to "define all the components that make up the next lower level of the system hierarchy" where fundamental requirements are allocated to each component. Whereas, the SLI technology risk reduction approach develops architecture subsystem technologies prior to developing architectures. The higher level architecture requirements are not allowed to fully develop and undergo decomposition and allocation down to the subsystems before the subsystems must develop allocated requirements based on the highest level of requirements. In the vernacular of the project cycles prior to the mid 1990's, the architecture definition portion of the program appears to be at a generic Phase A stage, while the subsystems are operating at Phase B. Even the management structure of the SLI program is innovative in its approach to Systems Engineering and is not reflected in the APPL training modules. The SLI program has established a Systems Engineering office as an office separate from the architecture development or the subsystem technology development, while that office does have representatives within these other offices. The distributed resources of the Systems Engineering Office are co-located with the respective Project Offices. This template is intended to provide systems engineering as an integrated function at the Program Level. the program management of SLI and the MAT agree that "program/project managers and the systems engineering team must work closely together towards the single objective of delivering quality products that meet the customer needs". This paper will explore the differences between the methods being taught by NASA, which represent decades of ideas, and those currently in practice in SLI. Time will tell if the innovation employed by SLI will prove to be the model of the future. For now, it is suggested that the training of the present exercise the flexibility of recognizing the new processes employed by a major new NASA program.

Bailey, Michelle↗
NASA NTRS2005

Multiple Payload Ejector for Education, Science and Technology Experiments

The education research community no longer has a means of being manifested on Space Shuttle flights, and small orbital payload carriers must be flown as secondary payloads on ELV flights, as their launch schedule, secondary payload volume and mass permits. This has resulted in a backlog of small payloads, schedule and cost problems, and an inability for the small payloads community to achieve routine, low-cost access to orbit. This paper will discuss Goddard's Wallops Flight Facility funded effort to leverage its core competencies in small payloads, sounding rockets, balloons and range services to develop a low cost, multiple payload ejector (MPE) carrier for orbital experiments. The goal of the MPE is to provide a low-cost carrier intended primarily for educational flight research experiments. MPE can also be used by academia and industry for science, technology development and Exploration experiments. The MPE carrier will take advantage of the DARPAI NASA partnership to perform flight testing of DARPA s Falcon small, demonstration launch vehicle. The Falcon is similar to MPE fiom the standpoint of focusing on a low-cost, responsive system. Therefore, MPE and Falcon complement each other for the desired long-term goal of providing the small payloads community with a low-cost ride to orbit. The readiness dates of Falcon and MPE are complementary, also. MPE is being developed and readied for flight within 18 months by a small design team. Currently, MPE is preparing for Critical Design Review in fall 2005, payloads are being manifested on the first mission, and the carrier will be ready for flight on the first Falcon demonstration flight in summer, 2006. The MPE and attached experiments can weigh up to 900 lb. to be compatible with Falcon demonstration vehicle lift capabilities fiom Wallops, and will be delivered to the Falcon demonstration orbit - 100 nautical mile circular altitude.

Lechworth, Gary↗
NASA NTRS2022

An Interim Assessment of High-Power-Density-Core Noise Levels

The aeroacoustic-noise implications associated with the small-core gas-turbine development effort underway in the NASA HyTEC Project are discussed. Due to the expected design choices, there are risks that the airport community noise, associated with landing and takeoff of civilian-transport aircraft, could be increased or, at minimum, that further overall propulsion-noise reduction could become limited. It is argued here that the main culprit in these scenarios is noise originating from sources in the combustor. The classical combustor-noise prediction model is summarized and its possible extension to the planned parameter space is discussed. An acoustic-power scaling law is derived and utilized to give initial estimates for what can be expected by core-design choices. An ideal-cycle parametric turbofan model provides input for these estimates.

aeroacoustics, turbomachinery noise, small-core no↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modernizing the Legacy Fission Wire Measurement System for the Advanced Test Reactor-Critical Facility

Operational lifetime extensions of existing research reactors have emphasized the need for refurbishment, replacements, and upgrades to supporting equipment and instrumentation. The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), which entered service in 1967, has recently completed the sixth core internals change-out and has scheduled operations until at least 2040. Reactor maintenance and operational risk management is critically important in the research reactor community, however supporting measurement systems sometimes get overlooked when maintenance is planned. The Fission Wire Measurement System (FWMS) is a custom measurement system designed in the 1960s to measure the beta-particle activity of irradiated uranium-aluminum fission wires. This measurement is conducted to determine the fission rate profile of the Advanced Reactor Test Critical (ATR-C) facility. The ATR-C is an open-pool, low-power test reactor that was purpose driven to resemble ATR and is used to qualify experiment configurations and verify core models prior to full-power experiment irradiations in ATR. A power distribution measurement in ATR-C uses uranium-aluminum wires that are distributed throughout the ATR-C core to validate simulation and modeling results. These measurements require 340 to 1500 wires to be irradiated and measured within a 12-hour window. The activity of the wires is measured in the required time with the FWMS, which was put into service in 1965 at the Radiation Measurements Laboratory (RML). The system consists of 4 measurement channels and one reference channel, each with a 2-pi proportional gas flow detector and the measurement channels each have an automated sample changer. This legacy system is crucial to the continued operations of ATR and has undergone some minor hardware upgrades since 1965, however the system presently relies on custom control boards, custom gas ion chambers, analog amplifiers/discriminators, and a user interface (UI) for the system written in outdated code. Much of the equipment and software is custom with no commercial replacements or support and limited documentation. The existing control software requires an operating system that is no longer supported, creating more vulnerabilities to continued operations. A project is underway with a third-party vendor to design, build, and document a new control and data acquisition system (CDAS) for the FWMS. The new upgrade will replace the control system, computer, UI, sample changer motors, and main power supply while maintaining the interface with existing detector hardware. The upgraded system will be operated in parallel with the current hardware and software to conduct validation testing. This equipment upgrade demonstrates the commitment at ATR to ensuring successful operations and potential future research reactors at INL.

46 - INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AN↗
NASA NTRS1999

SeaWiFS Postlaunch Technical Report Series: The Fifth Sea-WiFS Intercalibration Round-Robin Experiment (SIRREX-5), July 1996 - Volume 7

This report documents the fifth Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) Intercalibration Round-Robin Experiment (SIRREX-5), which was held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on 23-30 July 1996. The agenda for SIRREX-5 was established based on recommendations made during SIRREX-4. For the first time in a SIRREX activity, instrument intercomparisons were performed at field sites, which were near NIST. The goals of SIRREX-5 were to continue the emphasis on training and the implementation of standard measurement practices, investigate the calibration methods and measurement chains in use by the oceanographic community, provide opportunities for discussion, and intercompare selected instruments. As at SIRREX-4, the day was divided between morning lectures and afternoon laboratory exercises. A set of core laboratory sessions were performed: 1) in-water radiant flux measurements; 2) in-air radiant flux measurements; 3) spectral radiance responsivity measurements using the plaque method; 4) device calibration or stability monitoring with portable field sources; and 5) various ancillary exercises designed to illustrate radiometric concepts. Before, during, and after SIRREX-5, NIST calibrated the SIRREX-5 participating radiometers for radiance and irradiance responsivity. The Facility for Automated Spectroradiometric Calibrations (FASCAL) was scheduled for spectral irradiance calibrations for standard lamps during SIRREX-5. Three lamps from the SeaWiFS community were submitted and two were calibrated.

Hooker, Stanford B.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Depth and microtopography influence microbial biogeochemical processes in a forested peatland

Background and aims: Peat-accumulating wetlands have undulating surfaces of raised areas (hummocks) and depressions (hollows). Hummock-hollow microtopography in relation to the water table influences the distribution of plant species, root density, and microbial community composition, which could in turn alter carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling within peatlands. We used paired hummock and hollow cores from a boreal, forested peatland to assess how microtopography influences peatland microbial function and, in turn, ecosystem C and N cycling. Methods: The peat was analyzed for microbial biomass and potential enzyme activity in 10 cm depth increments relative to the water table, resulting in two increments for hollows and three for hummocks, which has a raised increment above the water table. Results: Across hummocks and hollows, microbial C and N and fungal biomass generally decreased with depth from the peat surface. In contrast, potential enzyme activity often increased with depth, but this varied within enzyme functional groups according to topography, depth, or both. The potential enzyme activity of C-N degrading peptidases, for example, differed across the five topography × depth increments with the lowest rate in the aerated hummocks. Hummocks compose approximately 66% of the land area at our study site and would therefore underestimate C turnover by an average of 25% if solely used to extrapolate patterns across a forested bog. Conclusion: In conclusion, our results suggest that asynchrony in C and N cycling across the undulating surface of forested peatlands impacts our ability to accurately predict biogeochemical cycling across this important ecosystem.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗