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At least 217 records · Page 12

MSD CoP Webinar: "Advances in MSD-LIVE to Support the MSD Community of Practice"

Context: This webinar was hosted by the MultiSector Dynamics Community of Practice (MSD CoP; https://multisectordynamics.org). Advances in MSD-LIVE to Support the MSD Community of Practice Presenters: Casey Burleyson and Zoe Guillen (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) Abstract: The MultiSector Dynamics Living, Intuitive, Value-adding, Environment (MSD-LIVE; msdlive.org) is a cloud-based data management system and advanced computing platform that enables MSD researchers to document and archive their data, run their models and analysis tools, and share their data, software, and workflows within the MSD Community of Practice. Recently, several high-profile datasets have attracted many new users to MSD-LIVE. This webinar has two goals: 1) To refamiliarize the MSD community and new users with the components of the platform (e.g., the data repository, model training notebooks, and data dashboards) and to highlight examples of how these components are advancing MSD science and 2) To demonstrate new features in v3 of the platform, released in late 2025. The main new feature in v3 is the ability to interactively explore data in MSD-LIVE without downloading it. MSD-LIVE users can now click a button in our data repository and launch a blank Jupyter notebook with access to the underlying data on AWS. Users can use the notebook to write analysis, visualization, or subsetting routines that process the data directly on the AWS cloud. We also added a GitHub integration feature that allows users to share analysis or visualization code they develop with the community of MSD-LIVE users. The webinar will wrap up with a look at what's coming next for MSD-LIVE in 2026. Moderator: Patrick M. Reed (MSD CoP Facilitation Team) This webinar was held on: May 12th, 2026 from 1-2 PM EST.

Open Science↗

Deep Learning Prediction of Protein Complex Structures

Proteins interact to form protein complex to carry out biological functions such as catalytic chemical reaction. Therefore, it is important to develop computational methods to predict protein-protein interaction and the structures of protein complexes to study and enhance protein function. In this project, we successfully developed several deep learning methods to predict inter-protein contacts and the reinforcement learning and optimization methods to reconstruct protein complex structures from predicted inter-chain contacts. The methods were integrated with the MULTICOM protein complex structure prediction system and applied to predict the complex structures of biomass production-related proteins of green algae. During the two and a half years of research and development, all the specific milestones of the project were achieved successfully. 16 publications/manuscripts were produced. 10 software tools were developed. A patent application was submitted. Our MULTICOM predictors leveraging some tools developed in this project were ranked among the top predictors in the 15th Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP15) in 2022.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Data analytics for intermodal freight transportation applications

With the growth of intermodal freight transportation, it is important that transportation planners and decision-makers are knowledgeable about freight flow data to make informed decisions. This is particularly true with Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) offering new capabilities for intermodal freight transportation. Specifically, ITS enables access to multiple different data sources, but they have different formats, resolutions, and time scales. Thus, knowledge of data science is essential to be successful in future ITS-enabled intermodal freight transportation systems. This chapter discusses the commonly used descriptive and predictive data analytic techniques in intermodal freight transportation applications. These techniques cover the entire spectrum of univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses. In addition to illustrating how to apply these techniques manually, this chapter will also show how to apply them using the statistical software R. Additional exercises are provided for those who wish to apply the described techniques to more complex problems.

Huynh, Nathan↗

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↗

SIMBER: the Simula Berkeley Education and Research Collaboration (CRADA Final Report)

The SIMBER project is centered around advancing the state-of-the-art in the science of modelling of the human heart and leveraging the collaborations between leading research groups at the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and Simula Research Laboratory (Simula). In particular, the following areas of expertise are shared and expanded through this project: “heart-on-chip” experimental systems from UC Berkeley, mathematical modelling of the heart from Simula, and supercomputing software from Simula and Berkeley Lab. This intersection of expertise is already enabling the development of novel tools and knowledge that produce more accurate models of the human heart in both health and disease, which in turn are leading to drug screening technologies that make cardiac drug development faster, cheaper and more humane.

Li, Xiaoye Sherry [Lawrence Berkeley National Labo↗

The DUNE Science Program

The international collaboration designing and constructing the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) has developed a two-phase strategy for the implementation of this leading-edge, large-scale science project. The 2023 report of the US Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) reaffirmed this vision and strongly endorsed DUNE Phase I and Phase II, as did the previous European Strategy for Particle Physics. The construction of DUNE Phase I is well underway. DUNE Phase II consists of a third and fourth far detector module, an upgraded near detector complex, and an enhanced > 2 MW beam. The fourth FD module is conceived as a 'Module of Opportunity', aimed at supporting the core DUNE science program while also expanding the physics opportunities with more advanced technologies. The DUNE collaboration is submitting four main contributions to the 2026 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics process. This submission to the 'Neutrinos and cosmic messengers', 'BSM physics' and 'Dark matter and dark sector' streams focuses on the physics program of DUNE. Additional inputs related to DUNE detector technologies and R&D, DUNE software and computing, and European contributions to Fermilab accelerator upgrades and facilities for the DUNE experiment, are also being submitted to other streams.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Recent Developments in DFTB+, a Software Package for Efficient Atomistic Quantum Mechanical Simulations

DFTB+ is a flexible, open-source software package developed by its community, designed for fast and efficient atomistic quantum mechanical simulations. It employs various methods that approximate density functional theory (DFT), such as density functional-based tight binding (DFTB) and the extended tight binding (xTB) approach allowing simulations of large systems over extended time scales with reasonable accuracy, while being significantly faster than traditional ab initio methods. In recent years, several new extensions of the DFTB method have been developed and implemented in the DFTB+ program package in order to improve the accuracy and generality of the available simulation results. In this paper, we review those enhancements, show several use case examples and discuss the strengths and limitations of its features.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Promoting regulatory acceptance of combined ion and neutron irradiation testing of nuclear reactor materials: Modeling and software considerations

As the needs for the nuclear energy industry continue to evolve in the 21st century, timely adoption of new technological solutions acceptable to regulatory agencies is critical. Quantitative prediction of radiation damage in materials and its impact on mechanical properties is a key component of licensing and regulatory decisions regarding nuclear power plants. Accelerated testing methodologies such as combined ion and neutron irradiation data sets are crucial for the development and deployment of new materials and new manufacturing methods (e.g., additive manufacturing). However, regulatory acceptance of accelerated testing methodologies is necessary for their adoption. Further, the present work discusses the fundamental basis for comparing ion- and neutron-induced material microstructures, the theory behind interpreting radiation damage across length and time scales and radiation types, and the codes, standards, and quality assurance concerns surrounding different modeling methods and software. In particular, recommendations are given as to the path forward that will enable national laboratories, academia, and industry to develop the modeling and software basis for regulatory acceptance of the combined use of ion and neutron irradiation for material performance evaluation.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

NWChem

NWChem is a computational chemistry software package which includes quantum chemical and molecular dynamics functionality. It aims to be scalable both in its ability to treat large problems efficiently, and in its usage of available parallel computing resources.

Apra, Edoardo [Pacific Northwest National Laborato↗

FY24 Advancements in PFLOTRAN Development for GDSA Framework

The Spent Fuel & Waste Science and Technology (SFWST) Campaign of the Office of Spent Fuel & Waste Disposition of U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) is conducting research and development on geologic disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW). This report describes fiscal year 2024 accomplishments in the Geologic Disposal Safety Assessment (GDSA) PFLOTRAN Development work package, which is charged with developing subsurface simulation software for postclosure performance assessment of deep geologic disposal of SNF and HLW.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

CROCUS Air Quality Dataset from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), July 2024

This dataset was collected by the measurement system in the Atmosphere, Climate, and Ecosystems (ACE) Lab at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) from July 12 to July 31, 2024, as part of the Community Research on Climate and Urban Science (CROCUS) Urban Integrated Field Laboratory (UIFL) project, led by Argonne National Laboratory.To enhance understanding of urban air quality dynamics in Chicago, and as part of the CROCUS 2024 Urban Canyon Intensive Observation Period (IOP), several instruments were set up to provide continuous measurements of air quality parameters in Chicago during July 2024. These measurements cover both aerosols and gas-phase species. It focuses on particle size distribution (2.5–478 nm) measured by two Scanning Mobility Particle Sizers (SMPS) at a 4-min resolution, total particle number concentrations at a 1-s resolution, and chemical composition from a High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) at a 1-min resolution. Key gas-phase species, including NO, NO₂, SO₂, and O₃, are measured at a 1-min resolution, along with high-resolution NO and dimethyl sulfide (DMS) data from a Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS). Volatile organic compound (VOC) data for toluene, isoprene, and benzene are provided by a GC-PID with a time resolution of 25 minutes.The data are formatted as NetCDF (.nc) files, making them easily accessible using common software such as MATLAB, R, and Python. Each parameter is stored in an individual dataset, which includes detailed instrument information in the header, as well as the corresponding sample start time and concentration/distribution data for each sample.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Simulation Tools for Characterizing Stress Distribution in Laser Welded Dissimilar Joints

This project focuses on developing a thermo-metallurgical-mechanical modeling method to accurately predict the microstructural evolution and residual stress in laser welding between dissimilar metals, such as HSLA steel and high carbon equivalent (CE) gear steel. The method leverages a comprehensive material database to model the temperature and rate dependent phase transformations, along with their associated effects on material properties, such as thermal expansion and flow stress, throughout the welding process. A key innovation is the incorporation of phase transformation and phase-specific properties, which enhances the accuracy of residual stress predictions. The mixture material in the fusion zone due to the dissimilar metals will also be addressed in the numerical model. This is especially critical in scenarios involving phase transformations in the fusion zone and heat-affected zone (HAZ), where the phase changes can induce substantial residual stress variations. The material database has been generated using JMatPro. The modeling approach is implemented through a custom User Material (UMAT) subroutine, executed with the commercial finite element software Abaqus.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Benchmark study of a new simplified DFN model for shearing of intersecting fractures and faults

It is challenging to quantitatively predict shearing of intersecting fractures/faults because of dynamic frictional contacts accompanied by possible nonlinear rock deformation. To address such challenges, a new conceptual model—the simplified DFN model—was proposed and validated by Hu et al. 46 to use major paths (MPs) to represent complicated DFNs for calculation of shearing. In this work, we conducted a benchmark study for three examples that involve different levels of complexity of intersecting fractures, and correspondingly different numbers of MPs. The codes and software that were used in the benchmark cover a range of continuum, discontinuum and hybrid numerical methods: NMM (LBNL), FLAC3D (LBNL), GBDEM (KIGAM), FRACOD (DynaFrax), and CASRock (CAS). The general consistency between DFN and MP cases as predicted by all the codes/software demonstrates that major paths can be used to simplify the geometry of DFNs in a wide range of software. Disagreement in results made by some software and potential future improvements are discussed. We show that (1) shearing of one or multiple major fractures can be reduced if there are multiple smaller intersecting fractures in that area, which is a useful basis for understanding and controlling induced seismicity and merits further analysis, and (2) the agreement achieved in the benchmark examples provide confidence that the simplified DFN model is a promising conceptual model that can be used for different types of numerical approaches and software for simplifying the analysis of the shearing of intersecting fractures and faults.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Electric field effect on lattice dynamics of a relaxor ferroelectric PMN-30PT measured on ARCS.

The combined inelastic neutron scattering data from ARCS for poled PMN-30PT single crystal is at 300K and for unpoled crystal the data were collected at 300K and at 488K. The incident neutron energy for both poled and unpoled crystals was 25 meV . To obtain a significant four-dimensional Q-E volume, the crystal was rotated with steps of 0.5 degree in the beam. All individual angles were combined using HORACE software package (https://pace-neutrons.github.io/Horace/unstable/user_guide/Getting_started.html) to generate these sqw files. The file labeled PMN_PT_poled_new.sqw is for poled crystal and files labeled PMN_PT_300K.sqw and PMN_PT_488K.sqw are for unpoled crystal at 300K and 488K respectively.

MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Acceptance criteria for in situ surveillance of MSR materials based on thermally-loaded mechanical test articles

This report describes practices and acceptance test procedures for designing, running, and maintaining a material surveillance program in a future operating molten salt reactor. The programs described here rely on test data from passively actuated mechanical test articles inserted into critical regions of the reactor and periodically removed for out-of-reactor testing. The report defines definite acceptance procedures, based on the results of these tests, to determine whether a component can continue to operate accounting for the accumulation of environmentally-assisted mechanical damage in the component materials to date, and extrapolated out through the next inspection period. Additionally, the report describes work on a software tool implementing many of the surveillance methods and procedures described here and progress on simplified methods for inferring damage accumulation in the test articles, based on out-of-reactor thermal cycling, that do not rely on sophisticated numerical analysis.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Improving Additive Manufactured Component Performance through Multi-Scale Microstructure Simulation and Process Optimization

The purpose of this project was to utilize computational tools to understand the relationships between processing, microstructure, and properties for additively manufactured (AM) aluminum alloys for automotive applications, and to provide an engineering solution for helping to optimize process conditions. The project leverages ORNL developments in computational modeling, including AM process modeling, phase-field based microstructure evolution predictions, and data analytics techniques for mapping process conditions to material outcomes. The project utilized an Al-Cu-Mn-Zr alloy as a model material for studying formation of defects and microstructural features in response to variations in process conditions. Based on both pre-existing experimental data and simulation results, statistical process maps were constructed to identify regions of process space with minimal defect formation and advantageous microstructures and properties. The software tools used for this purpose were successful disseminated to GM, who were able to successful compile the relevant HPC codes within their own computing ecosystem and perform initial calculations to reproduce ORNL results.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Data and scripts from: “Denoising autoencoder for reconstructing sensor observation data and predicting evapotranspiration: noisy and missing values repair and uncertainty quantification”

This data package includes data and scripts from the manuscript “Denoising autoencoder for reconstructing sensor observation data and predicting evapotranspiration: noisy and missing values repair and uncertainty quantification”.The study addressed common challenges faced in environmental sensing and modeling, including uncertain input data, missing sensor observations, and high-dimensional datasets with interrelated but redundant variables. Point-scaled meteorological and soil sensor observations were perturbed with noises and missing values, and denoising autoencoder (DAE) neural networks were developed to reconstruct the perturbed data and further predict evapotranspiration. This study concluded that (1) the reconstruction quality of each variable depends on its cross-correlation and alignment to the underlying data structure, (2) uncertainties from the models were overall stronger than those from the data corruption, and (3) there was a tradeoff between reducing bias and reducing variance when evaluating the uncertainty of the machine learning models.This package includes:(1) Four ipython scripts (.ipynb): “DAE_train.ipynb” trains and evaluates DAE neural networks, “DAE_predict.ipynb” makes predictions from the trained DAE models, “ET_train.ipynb” trains and evaluates ET prediction neural networks, and “ET_predict.ipynb” makes predictions from trained ET models.(2) One python file (.py): “methods.py” includes all user-defined functions and python codes used in the ipython scripts.(3) A “sub_models” folder that includes five trained DAE neural networks (in pytorch format, .pt), which could be used to ingest input data before being fed to the downstream ET models in ‘ET_train.ipynb” or ‘ET_predict.ipynb’.(4) Two data files (.csv). Daily meteorological, vegetation, and soil data is in “df_data.csv”, where “df_meta.csv” contains the location and time information of “df_data.csv”. Each row (index) in “df_meta.csv” corresponds to each row in “df_data.csv”. These data files are formatted to follow the data structure requirements and be directly used in the ipython scripts, and they have been shuffled chronologically to train machine learning models. The meteorological and soil data was collected using point sensors between 2019-2023 at(4.a) Three shrub-dominated field sites in East River, Colorado (named “ph1”, “ph2” and “sg5” in “df_meta.csv”, where “ph1” and “ph2” were located at PumpHouse Hillslopes, and “sg5” was at Snodgrass Mountain meadow) and(4.b) One outdoor, mesoscale, and herbaceous-dominated experiment in Berkeley, California (named “tb” in “df_meta.csv”, short for Smartsoils Testbed at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab).- See "df_data_dd.csv" and "df_meta_dd.csv" for variable descriptions and the Methods section for additional data processing steps. See "flmd.csv" and "README.txt" for brief file descriptions.- All ipython scripts and python files are written in and require PYTHON language software.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Simulation Tools for Characterizing Stress Distribution in Laser Welded Dissimilar Joints

This project focuses on developing a thermo-metallurgical-mechanical modeling method to accurately predict the microstructural evolution and residual stress in laser welding between dissimilar metals, such as HSLA steel and high carbon equivalent (CE) gear steel. The method leverages a comprehensive material database to model the temperature and rate dependent phase transformations, along with their associated effects on material properties, such as thermal expansion and flow stress, throughout the welding process. A key innovation is the incorporation of phase transformation and phase-specific properties, which enhances the accuracy of residual stress predictions. The mixture material in the fusion zone due to the dissimilar metals will also be addressed in the numerical model. This is especially critical in scenarios involving phase transformations in the fusion zone and heat-affected zone (HAZ), where the phase changes can induce substantial residual stress variations. The material database has been generated using JMatPro. The modeling approach is implemented through a custom User Material (UMAT) subroutine, executed with the commercial finite element software Abaqus.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗