Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “MINORITY”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 289 records · Page 16

NNSA Minority Serving Institute Partnership Program (MSIPP)--Indigenous Mutual Partnership to Advanced Cybersecurity Technology (ASPIRE, IMPACT and PAMER); FY22 Q2 Progress Report

The following report summarizes the status update during this quarter for the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) initiated Minority Serving Institution Partnership Plan's (MSIPP) projects titled, Indigenous Mutual Partnership to Advanced Cybersecurity Technology (ASPIRE), Indigenous Mutual Partnership to Advanced Cybersecurity Technology (IMPACT) and Partnership for Advanced Manufacturing Education and Research (PAMER).

42 ENGINEERING↗

2022 Annual Emissions Report and Annual Certification of Compliance Required by the Synthetic Minor Operating Permit, Permit Condition Number 19876, Plant 255, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

In accordance with the conditions of the Synthetic Minor Operating Permit (SMOP) issued to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on August 29, 2002, and revised on February 4, 2009 and February 17, 2015, please find enclosed the 2022 Annual Emissions Report and the Annual Certification of Compliance for LLNL for the period of July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022. The 2022 Annual Emissions Report identifies the consecutive 12-month rolling totals by month for individual Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs), combined HAPs, combined Precursor Organic Compounds (POCs), and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emitted from the LLNL site during the months of July 2021 through June 2022.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Consistent $\overline{ν}$ evaluation for minor Pu isotopes with CGMF

This report follows up on the evaluation work done in 2023 where we developed a procedure and performed the first consistent evaluation of the average prompt neutron multiplicity for minor Pu isotopes, including 238,240-242 Pu, using CGMF. Details on the necessary updates to the release version of CGMF, the experimental data and experimental uncertainty quantification that went into the evaluation, and this first evaluation effort are documented in and will not be repeated in this report. Instead, we discuss here the further investigations into the CGMF model space to improve the evaluation results from FY23. Additionally, we note that these evaluation results have been transformed into the ENDF format for mean values and covariances, and validation with critical assemblies has been performed; that work is documented elsewhere. In this short report, we discuss the updated evaluation efforts performed during FY24 in Sec. 2, show results from CGMF for other prompt fission observables in Sec. 3, and then briefly conclude in Sec. 4.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

Research Traineeships for Students from Minority Serving Institutions in Nuclear Physics at the University of Texas at Arlington (Final Technical Report)

This project supported research traineeships for students of minority serving institutions in Texas to perform nuclear physics research at the University of Texas at Arlington, an R1 research university in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. UTA is the leading US institution on the NEXT neutrinoless double beta decay collaboration, and students were paired with junior and senior mentors and undertook research projects in our Nuclear Physics (NP) research laboratories.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Minor mergers or progenitor bias? The stellar ages of small and large quenched galaxies

We investigate the origin of the evolution of the population-averaged size of quenched galaxies (QGs) through a spectroscopic analysis of their stellar ages. This evolution has been claimed to arise from either the size growth of individual galaxies through a sequence of dry minor mergers, or the addition of larger, newly quenched galaxies to the pre-existing population (i.e., a progenitor bias effect). We use the 20k zCOSMOS-bright spectroscopic survey to select bona fide QGs at 0.2 < z < 0.8. We stack their spectra in bins of redshift, stellar mass, and size to compute stellar population parameters through fits to the rest-frame optical spectra and Lick indices. The size–age relation differs below and above ∼10{sup 11} M {sub ⊙}: at 10.5<log M{sub ∗}/M{sub ⊙}<11, at all redshifts the stellar populations of the largest galaxies are younger than those of the smaller counterparts, indicating progenitor bias as the main driver of the average size evolution. In contrast, at higher masses, there is no clear size–age trend, supporting a substantial role of dry mergers in increasing with cosmic time the sizes of these most massive QGs. The [α/Fe] abundance ratios of QGs are (i) above-solar over the entire redshift range of our analysis, hinting at universally short timescales for the buildup of the stellar populations of QGs, and (ii) similar at all masses and sizes, suggesting similar (short) timescales for the whole QG population—and strengthening the role of mergers in the buildup of the most massive QGs in the universe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The Binary Fraction of Stars in the Dwarf Galaxy Ursa Minor via Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

We utilize multi-epoch line-of-sight velocity measurements from the Milky Way Survey of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to estimate the binary fraction for member stars in the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Ursa Minor. Our dataset comprises 670 distinct member stars, with a total of more than 2,000 observations collected over approximately one year. We constrain the binary fraction for UMi to be $0.61^{+0.16}_{-0.20}$ and $0.69^{+0.19}_{-0.17}$, with the binary orbital parameter distributions based on solar neighborhood observation from Duquennoy & Mayor (1991) and Moe & Di Stefano (2017), respectively. Furthermore, by dividing our data into two subsamples at the median metallicity, we identify that the binary fraction for the metal-rich ([Fe/H]>-2.14) population is slightly higher than that of the metal-poor ([Fe/H]<-2.14) population. Based on the Moe & Di Stefano model, the best-constrained binary fractions for metal-rich and metal-poor populations in UMi are $0.86^{+0.14}_{-0.24}$ and $0.48^{+0.26}_{-0.19}$, respectively. After a thorough examination, we find that this offset cannot be attributed to sample selection effects. We also divide our data into two subsamples according to their projected radius to the center of UMi, and find that the more centrally concentrated population in a denser environment has a lower binary fraction of $0.33^{+0.30}_{-0.20}$, compared with $1.00^{+0.00}_{-0.32}$ for the subsample in more outskirts.

Qiu, Tian [Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China); DESI ↗

Minor Contribution of Quasars to Ionizing Photon Budget at z ∼ 6: Update on Quasar Luminosity Function at the Faint End with Subaru/Suprime-Cam

We constrain the quasar contribution to the cosmic reionization based on our deep optical survey of z ∼ 6 quasars down to z {sub R} = 24.15 using Subaru/Suprime-Cam in three UKIDSS-DXS fields covering 6.5 deg{sup 2}. In Kashikawa et al. (2015), we select 17 quasar candidates and report our initial discovery of two low-luminosity quasars (M{sub 1450}∼−23) from seven targets, one of which might be a Lyα-emitting galaxy. From an additional optical spectroscopy, none of the four candidates out of the remaining 10 turn out to be genuine quasars. Moreover, the deeper optical photometry provided by the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) shows that, unlike the two already-known quasars, the i − z and z − y colors of the last six candidates are consistent with M- or L-type brown dwarfs. Therefore, the quasar luminosity function (QLF) measurement in the previous paper is confirmed. Compiling the QLF measurements from the literature over a wide magnitude range, including an extremely faint AGN candidate from Parsa et al. (2017), to fit them with a double power law, we find that the best-fit faint-end slope is α=−2.04{sub −0.18}{sup +0.33} (−1.98{sub −0.21}{sup +0.48}) and characteristic magnitude is M{sub 1450}{sup ∗}=−25.8{sub −1.9}{sup +1.1} (−25.7{sub −1.8}{sup +1.0}) in the case of two (one) quasar detection. Our result suggests that, if the QLF is integrated down to M{sub 1450}=−18, quasars produce ∼1%–12% of the ionizing photons required to fully ionize the universe at z ∼ 6 with a 2σ confidence level, assuming that the escape fraction is f{sub esc}=1 and the intergalactic medium clumpy factor is C = 3. Even when the systematic uncertainties are taken into account, our result supports the scenario that quasars are the minor contributors of the reionization.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Data from: Nitrification is a minor source of nitrous oxide (N2O) in an agricultural landscape and declines with increasing management intensity

The long-term contribution of nitrification to nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from terrestrial ecosystems is poorly known and thus poorly constrained in biogeochemical models. Here, using Bayesian inference to couple 25 years of in situ N2O flux measurements with site-specific Michaelis-Menten kinetics of nitrification-derived N2O, we test the relative importance of nitrification-derived N2O across six cropped and unmanaged ecosystems along a management intensity gradient in the U.S. Midwest. We found that the maximum potential contribution from nitrification to in situ N2O fluxes was 13-17% in a conventionally fertilized annual cropping system, 27-42% in a low-input cover-cropped annual cropping system, and 52-63% in perennial systems including a late successional deciduous forest. Actual values are likely to be less than 10% of these values because of low N2O yields in cultured nitrifiers (typically 0.04 to 8% of NH3 oxidized) and competing sinks for available NH4+ in situ. Most nitrification-derived N2O was produced by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) rather than archaea (AOA), who appeared responsible for no more than 30% of nitrification-derived N2O production in all but one ecosystem. Although the proportion of nitrification-derived N2O production was lowest in annual cropping systems, these ecosystems nevertheless produced more nitrification-derived N2O (higher Vmax) than perennial and successional ecosystems. We conclude that nitrification is minor relative to other sources of N2O in all ecosystems examined.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Innovating the next generation of commercial smart building software

Nearly 30% of commercial building energy use is wasted due to equipment faults and HVAC controls problems. The result is increased emissions, compromised comfort and productivity, and less reliable coordination of building power needs with a clean grid. The energy impact alone represents $17 billion in potential savings. Today’s smart building software provides a robust solution to address these operational deficiencies. Energy management and information systems (EMIS) are saving up to 9% on average, with two-year paybacks. They are being incorporated into energy management processes, commissioning services, and utility programs. As effective as they are, two barriers prevent even deeper benefits; limited personnel to fix problems once they are identified, and the expense and time to manually implement changes in control systems. In partnership with the research community, the EMIS industry is developing new capabilities to overcome these barriers. Moving beyond siloed products for either fault detection and diagnostics, or optimal control, these new capabilities empower users to not only automatically identify faults, but also to push corrective action, and control improvements to their buildings. In this paper, several areas for enhancements are documented: ‘one-time’ correction of faults such as setpoints, schedules, and economizer lockouts; short-term active testing for automated proportional integral derivative (PID) loop tuning and functional testing; and continuous supervisory control for demand flexibility and year-round efficiency. Results are presented from a pair of partner implementations out of a dozen providers integrating these enhancements into their products, including field tests from across the country, and insights into operator acceptance and integration into operations and maintenance practices.

Casillas, Armando↗