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Logging Crew Attributes by Region in the Southeast USA

Urbanization, shrinking markets, and reduced forestry investment may affect harvesting efficiency in regions of the US South. To monitor these conditions, logging businesses have been tracked by surveys conducted by universities and trade associations. This project used a sampling approach coordinated with FIA utilization studies to sample logging crews based on a harvesting location. The approach was used to develop relationships among firm attributes and site attributes in six southeastern states (AL, GA, FL, NC, SC, and VA) from 2011 to 2018. The data included harvest attributes (location, harvest size and stand type) and logging firm attributes (production, crew labor, crew number, the number of machines by type, and machine age). For crew capital value, an equation was developed for this study using machine number and average machine age. The data from logging crews on 419 harvests were analyzed by region, harvest size, and stand type. Mean values for crew labor ranged from 3.1 to 7.1 workers. The average capital value per crew ranged from $\$220,000$ to $\$524,000$ per crew in the Coastal Plain with a narrower range in the Piedmont. In the Coastal Plain, higher productivity was detected for larger harvests and pine versus hardwood and mixed stands; however, in the Piedmont those trends were less obvious. Ratio of feller-bunchers, skidders and loaders were mostly 1:1:1 or 1:2:1 with 41% and 24% of samples, respectively. There were notable trends among Coastal Plain loggers regarding capital value and productivity with evidence supported by a production function. The differences in Piedmont (e.g., ownership size, market access, terrain, population density, etc.) may combine to limit daily production and labor productivity.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

First Muon Neutrino on Argon Cross Section Measurements With an Off-Axis Beam

While over ninety years have passed since neutrinos were first predicted in 1930 by Wolfgang Pauli, much about them is still unknown [20]. How many types of neutrinos there are, how precisely neutrinos change flavor, and how neutrinos interact with various types of matter are largely unanswered questions that have implications for fields beyond particle physics, such as cosmology and astrophysics. The final question can be answered partially by differential cross section measurements, two of which constitute the primary result of this thesis. The NeUtrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) Beam at Fermilab in Batavia, IL provides a source of muon neutrinos and muon antineutrinos to the MicroBooNE experiment, an 85 ton liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC). The technology allows for high precision particle tracking and energy reconstruction that can be used to make cross section measurements. Necessary work for making these measurements for which the author of this thesis made an essential contribution is presented in detail in References [21] [22] [11] [23]. The measurement presented in this thesis is made with 2.187e20 Protons on Target (POT), the standard metric for an amount of beam exposure, of data when the beam was in forward horn current mode. Single-differential cross section measurements in terms of muon candidate kinetic energy and direction are made, and their statistical fits with simulation are 5.8 (12 d.o.f.) and 11.4 (10 d.o.f.), respectively. This indicates that the muon kinematics for muon neutrino and muon antineutrino charged-current (CC) events primarily in the energy range [0-3] GeV can be trusted for oscillation experiments, including DUNE, because of the agreement to within the associated systematic and statistical uncertainties between the measurement and the model in every bin of both single-differential cross sections. This result adds to the corresponding result for the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) because it covers a completely different energy region than that measurement, a double-differential cross section in terms of muon momentum and direction [14]. This result contributes to reducing the uncertainty in near-far event rate comparisons in long baseline neutrino experiments and also adds to existing knowledge of the neutrino-nucleus interaction by describing the outgoing muon kinematics in interactions of muon neutrinos and muon antineutrinos. This result is the first-ever measurement of differential cross sections of muon neutrinos and muon antineutrinos in liquid argon made with an off-axis beam.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Teaching Software Sustainability for High Performance Computing at ATPESC

The Argonne Training Program in Extreme Scale Computing (ATPESC) was started by Argonne National Laboratory with the objective of expanding the ranks of better-prepared users of high-performance computing (HPC) machines. One of the unique aspects of the program was inclusion of a track on software engineering and community codes. The inclusion was motivated by the observation that the projects with good software processes were better able to meet their scientific goals. Over the years, with greater awareness of software sustainability issues in the community, the track has evolved into a software productivity and sustainability track. In this paper we present our experience in choosing and disseminating the content related to the topic of software engineering in high performance computing science from the beginning of the program until now. We discuss the motivations and the reception of the tracks. We also document the evolution of the track over the years based on student feedback and also the growth of awareness about software productivity in high performance computing.

Dubey, Anshu↗

Flexible Fuel Electric Hybrid Glass Furnace Demonstration

The furnace contractor completed General Arrangement (GA) layouts and Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&ID) for both furnaces during this reporting period. Preliminary equipment lists accompanied this work. Control system architecture in progress. Key furnace design elements and deliverables on track to be complete by end of phase. The facilities design and integration contractor completed a 3D scan and modeling of the facility. The work during this period focused on preliminary design with a focus on overall project scope and feasibility. This key work supports the overall project deliverables for 30% preliminary engineering and Preliminary Design Report (PDR) which are on track to be complete by the end of the phase. These deliverables are approximately 50% complete through the end of this reporting period. The batch house operations design contractor continues development of site plan and General Arrangement (GA) layout to support the 30% preliminary engineering and design package. This work is 60% complete by the end of this reporting period and is on track to be complete by the end of the phase.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Development of a Framework for Data Integration, Assimilation, and Learning for Geological Carbon Sequestration (DIAL-GCS) (Final Report)

This project aimed to develop and demonstrate a Data Integration, Assimilation, and Learning framework for geologic carbon sequestration projects (DIAL-GCS). DIAL-GCS is an intelligence monitoring system (IMS) for automating GCS closed-loop management by leveraging recent developments in machine learning technologies, complex event processing (CEP), and reduced-order modeling. The safe and efficient operation of GCS repositories requires integrated monitoring to track the injected CO¬2 as it moves within a storage reservoir. GCS projects are data intensive, as a result of proliferation of digital instrumentation and smart-sensing technologies. GCS projects are also resource intensive, often requiring multidisciplinary teams performing different monitoring, verification, accounting (MVA) tasks throughout the lifecycle of a project to ensure secure containment of injected CO2. The success of GCS thus depends in a large part on our ability to access, assimilate, and analyze heterogeneous data and information sources in a timely manner. This project included a number of meaningful and necessary tasks to transform the human domain knowledge into machine-interpretable rules for automating knowledge extraction and discovery in GCS. The specific technical objectives of the proposed DIAL-GCS project were to develop an ontology-driven GCS data management module for storing, querying, and exchanging GCS data (both historic and live sensor data) from multiple sources and in heterogeneous formats. Incorporate a CEP engine for detecting abnormal situations by seamlessly combining expert knowledge, rule-based reasoning, and machine learning. Enable uncertainty quantification and predictive analytics using a combination of coupled-process modeling, AI/ML methods, and reduced-order modeling, and integrate and demonstrate the system’s capabilities with both real and simulated data. As far as we know, this is one of the first projects aimed to develop intelligent monitoring systems (IMS) targeting the GCS. Under this project, the team had developed a large number of web applications and scientific algorithms that contribute the main theme of intelligent monitoring. The team has published more than a dozen peer reviewed papers and disseminated the research results at multiple technical meetings.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST). III. The White Dwarf Cooling Sequence

We present a substantial update to the MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST) library, extending the MIST model grids and isochrones down the white dwarf (WD) cooling sequence with realistic physics for WD cooling timescales. This work provides a large grid of MESA models for carbon–oxygen core WDs with hydrogen atmospheres (spectral type DA/DC), descended from full prior stellar evolution calculations. The model tracks, isochrones, and WD cooling timescale contours are available on the MIST project website and at doi:10.5281/zenodo.15242047. Our WD models provide a very large, publicly available grid with detailed physics for WD cooling timescales: realistic interior and envelope compositions, with element diffusion and heavy-element sedimentation, nuclear burning at the base of the WD hydrogen envelope, core crystallization, and C/O phase separation. As a large grid of open-source stellar evolution models, these WD models provide both out-of-the-box model tracks for comparison with observations and a framework for building further WD models to investigate variations in WD physics.

Astronomy and AstroPhysics↗

Recoil imaging for dark matter, neutrinos, and physics beyond the Standard Model

Recoil imaging entails the detection of spatially resolved ionization tracks generated by particle interactions. This is a highly sought-after capability in many classes of detector, with broad applications across particle and astroparticle physics. However, at low energies, where ionization signatures are small in size, recoil imaging only seems to be a practical goal for micro-pattern gas detectors. This white paper outlines the physics case for recoil imaging, and puts forward a decadal plan to advance towards the directional detection of low-energy recoils with sensitivity and resolution close to fundamental performance limits. The science case covered includes: the discovery of dark matter into the neutrino fog, directional detection of sub-MeV solar neutrinos, the precision study of coherent-elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, the detection of solar axions, the measurement of the Migdal effect, X-ray polarimetry, and several other applied physics goals. We also outline the R&D programs necessary to test concepts that are crucial to advance detector performance towards their fundamental limit: single primary electron sensitivity with full 3D spatial resolution at the $\sim$100 micron-scale. These advancements include: the use of negative ion drift, electron counting with high-definition electronic readout, time projection chambers with optical readout, and the possibility for nuclear recoil tracking in high-density gases such as argon. We also discuss the readout and electronics systems needed to scale-up such detectors to the ton-scale and beyond.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Benchmark Tracking System for Performance Monitoring

Benchmarking is essential for high-performance software development, particularly for monitoring performance across code iterations. This project focused on enhancing the benchmarking process for Lamellar, an asynchronous runtime for High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Prior to this work, benchmark results were difficult to track and compare across code versions, presenting significant challenges in identifying performance regressions and long-term trends. The primary objective was to establish a systematic, reproducible approach for measuring performance and detecting regressions following code commits. Our methodology involved three key components: standardizing benchmark outputs, implementing data versioning, and developing analysis tools. We standardized the benchmark output format to JSON Line records containing specific fields (execution time, hardware specifications, and environmental variables). To address data management challenges, we evaluated several options and eventually chose a git repository dedicated to benchmark data. We developed a suite of Python tools that processed benchmark results, enriched them with metadata, and facilitated search in the repository. The resulting system enables more efficient filtering and comparison of performance metrics across commit histories, hardware configurations, and benchmark variants through a unified query interface. Our implementation reduces computational overhead by first checking for existing results through configuration matching before initiating new benchmark runs, thereby conserving resources. The system has been validated by Lamellar developers. It organizes results by benchmark type and build configurations for efficient retrieval. Future developments include a planned Large Language Model interface for predicting benchmark performance, incorporating the criterion package for statistical analysis, which will enable automated detection of statistically significant performance changes, and integration with continuous integration pipelines. Despite these enhancements being reserved for future work, this project has successfully provided the Lamellar development team with a framework for maintaining consistent performance standards and identifying optimization opportunities across workloads and hardware environments.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Autonomous Tools for Attack Surface Reduction

The electric power grid is a complex critical infrastructure that forms the lifeline of modern society, and its secure and reliable operation is of paramount importance to national security and economic well being. However, recent findings documented in authoritative sources indicate the threat of cyber-based attacks growing in numbers and sophistication. However, securing the grid against stealthy cyber attacks is a challenging task due to legacy nature of the infrastructure coupled with dynamic nature of threat landscape and ever growing sophistication of the adversaries. Additionally, the grid’s attack surface continues to grow with the increased dependence on digital communications and control that now extends to each consumer through smart meters and distributed energy resources. Unfortunately, this expansive surface increases the grid’s vulnerability and further exposes critical control systems in both substations and control centers. To respond to this emerging need, we had successfully assembled an interdisciplinary team with academic- industry partnership to successfully conduct research, development, evaluation, demonstration, and commercialization of attack surface reduction tools, whose goal is to significantly reduce the cyber attack surface in the North American power grid. Our proposed project was a synergistic collaborative effort leveraging the synergistic expertise of the team members across power systems, cyber security and CPS security, testbeds, field deployments and demonstration, and successful commercialization. The team consisted of leading experts from two major universities – Iowa State University, Washington State University – complemented by reputed researchers from two DOE national laboratories – Pacific Northwest National Lab, and Argonne National Lab, one major utility vendor GE Global Research, and one utility partner – Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU). The team members have proven track record of successful academic-industry collaboration in interdisciplinary R&D projects, and bring onboard some of the best state-of-the-art testbed resources, industry-grade SCADA/EMS/DMS environment for experimentation and field demonstration.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

U.S. Hydropower Development Pipeline Data, 2026

The U.S. Hydropower Development Pipeline dataset provides a comprehensive, regularly updated view of proposed and potential hydropower projects across the United States. This resource compiles information from federal agencies and other public sources to track non-powered dams considered for electrification, proposed hydropower facilities at stream reaches with no existing dams, conduit exemptions, and emerging pumped storage hydropower proposals. The dataset includes project characteristics such as location, development status, technology type, ownership category, and other attributes that support analysis of future hydropower trends. It is designed to help researchers, planners, policymakers, and stakeholders assess national‑scale development patterns, understand the evolving hydropower landscape, and explore opportunities and challenges associated with new hydropower deployment. The dataset is updated annually to reflect changes in project status, new proposals entering the pipeline, and projects that are cancelled, completed, or otherwise removed from active consideration. Note: Capacity additions to existing hydropower plants are not included in this database due to reliance on a proprietary data source.

Johnson, Megan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000290141741)↗

Automated and Distributed Monte Carlo Generation for GlueX

MCwrapper is a set of systems that manages the entire Monte Carlo production workflow for GlueX and provides standards for how that Monte Carlo is produced. MCwrapper was designed to be able to utilize a variety of batch systems in a way that is relatively transparent to the user, thus enabling users to quickly and easily produce valid simulated data at home institutions worldwide. Additionally, MCwrapper supports an autonomous system that takes user’s project submissions via a custom web application. The system then atomizes the project into individual jobs, matches these jobs to resources, and monitors the jobs status. The entire system is managed by a database which tracks almost all facets of the systems from user submissions to the individual jobs themselves. Users can interact with their submitted projects online via a dashboard or, in the case of testing failure, can modify their project requests from a link contained in an automated email. Beginning in 2018 the GlueX Collaboration began to utilize the Open Science Grid (OSG) to handle a bulk of simulation tasks; these tasks are currently being performed on the OSG automatically via MCwrapper. This talk will outline the entire system of MCwrapper, its use cases, and the unique challenges facing the system.

Britton, Thomas↗

Topological background discrimination in the PandaX-III neutrinoless double beta decay experiment

The PandaX-III experiment plans to search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0ν ββ ) of 136 Xe in the China JinPing underground Laboratory (CJPL). The experiment will use a high pressure gaseous time projection chamber (TPC) to register both the energy and the electron track topology of an event. This article is devoted to demonstrate our particular detector setup capabilities for the identification of 0ν ββ and the consequent background reduction. As software tool we use REST, a framework developed for the reconstruction and simulation of TPC-based detector systems. We study the potential for background reduction by introducing appropriate parameters based on the properties of 0ν ββ events. We exploit for the first time not only the energy density of the electron track-ends, but also the electron scattering angles produced by an electron near the end of its trajectory. To implement this, we have added new algorithms for detector signal and track processing inside REST. Their assessment shows that background can be reduced by about 7 orders of magnitude while keeping 0ν ββ efficiency above 20% for the PandaX-III baseline readout scheme, a two-dimensional 3 mm pitch stripped readout. More generally, we use the potential of REST to handle 2D/3D data to assess the impact on signal-to-background significance at different detector granularities, and to validate the PandaX-III baseline choice. Finally, we demonstrate the additional potential to discriminate surface background events generated at the readout plane in the absence of to, by making use of event parameters related with the diffusion of electrons.

Majorana↗

Differentiable Simulation of a Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber

Liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) are widely used in particle detection for their tracking and calorimetric capabilities. The particle physics community actively builds and improves high-quality simulators for such detectors in order to develop physics analyses in a realistic setting. The ability of these simulators to mimic real, measured data is limited by the modeling of the physical detectors used for data collection. This modeling can be improved by performing dedicated calibration measurements. Conventional approaches calibrate individual detector parameters or processes one at a time. However, the impact of detector processes is entangled, making this a poor description of the underlying physics. We introduce a differentiable simulator that enables a gradient-based optimization, allowing for the first time a simultaneous calibration of all detector parameters. We describe the procedure of making a differentiable simulator, highlighting the challenges of retaining the physics quality of the standard, non-differentiable version while providing meaningful gradient information. We further discuss the advantages and drawbacks of using our differentiable simulator for calibration. Finally, we provide a starting point for extensions to our approach, including applications of the differentiable simulator to physics analysis pipelines.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Adapt: A Weather Radar Data Analysis and Nowcasting Platform for Informed Adaptive Scanning

SF-26-021 Adapt is a data processing platform for real-time data analysis, short term prediction of targets convective cells and tracking for archived data. It provides tools for downloading, processing, segmenting, projecting, analyzing, and visualizing storm cell data from weather radar. The pipeline includes cell detection, motion estimation using optical flow, cell property extraction, and persistence to NetCDF and SQLite/Parquet for guiding adaptive scanning.

Raut, Bhupendra Ashokrao [Argonne National Laborat↗

Access Innovation (Final)

Over the past two years, with the support of the Department of Energy, Powerhouse developed and launched Access Innovation, a partnership program to better connect clean energy startups with industry and investors for partnership. The program has successfully exceeded the objectives of the grant to pilot and validate successful methods of facilitating partnerships between early stage clean energy companies and industry and investors, secure follow on partnerships for early stage clean energy startups in the form of investment, pilot projects, new advisors, customer agreements, and joint development agreements and to track metrics, analyze, draft findings and distribute lessons on what models are most effective in forming partnerships to inform other organizational best practices.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Transient cycling of nitrogen, organic carbon and oxygen within the free-flowing Columbia River corridor: Linking exposure time dependent biogeochemical reactions to river stage fluctuations (Final project report)

The objective of this project was to develop next-generation techniques for representing the transformations of complex reaction networks like those impacting transient river-corridors, then apply them to develop upscaling tools. The project contributed significantly to the development of Lagrangian “mass transfer particle tracking” (MTPT) tools that are the first numerical framework that explicitly separates mixing and spreading processes; a crucial distinction for accurate representations of reaction rates across scales. The MTPT approach uses an operator splitting scheme where physical transport processes are simulated using classical random walk methods and each particle is treated as a “container” that carries with it any number of chemical species. Mixing between particles is simulated using a colocation-probability based mass transfer kernel and reactions are evaluated on each particle after mixing. The method is stable, accurate, and also allows the explicit modeling of residence time distributions of the individual containers of mass. The MTPT scheme allowed us to explore several research questions related to reactive transport in river corridors and complex reaction networks. We found that it is possible to quantify the exposure time distributions (ETDs) of reactants and that this does suggest some pathways to upscaling. However, comparable approximations can be obtained using simplified (reduced dimensionality) MTPT simulations in less time with similar uncertainty, so development of extensive ETD-based methods was not productive. The major findings are that i) the MTPT schemes are robust and highly accurate across a range of arbitrarily complex reactions, ii) the methods can be efficiently parallelized and the parallel performance characteristics of MTPT are predictable, and iii) the MTPT tools allow simultaneous tracking of residence time. The development of these research tools into efficient software packages continues. The methods are already available to the community because open-source, working examples have been included with all publications.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Elementary Particle Interactions (Final Technical Report)

Neutrinos provide a promising window to probe a wide range of fundamental physics. The past two decades have brought several remarkable neutrino-related discoveries indicating that one may answer the most sought after question of our matter dominated universe from within the neutrino sector. The global neutrino physics program is currently focused on studying neutrino oscillations, and to understand the implications of this phenomena on the evolution of the universe. Addressing all of these open questions and completing the story of neutrino oscillations requires technological advances in neutrino detection. Liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) are imaging detectors that offer fine-grained tracking, calorimetry and scalability, and are increasingly favored for the next generation of large neutrino detectors. Through leading technical and scientific roles on MicroBooNE, Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) LArTPC neutrino experiments, the research program supported through this funding has significantly advanced the understanding of neutrino properties along with technical development of LArTPCs for both short- and long-baseline neutrino oscillations physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Continuum Model Development for Electrochemical Systems (Statement of Work: Ilenia Battiato Subcontract)

The subcontractor shall provide the services of qualified multiscale modelers to perform tasks that contribute to reaching the objectives of the LDRD project entitled Automated and Accelerated Continuum Model Development for Electrochemical Systems (Tracking number 24-ERD-051). These tasks relate to the development, deployment, and validation of multiscale models relevant to electrochemical systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗