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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.

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At least 361 records · Page 20

Apparatuses and methods of determining if a person operating equipment is experiencing an elevated cognitive load

A method of, and apparatus for, determining if a person operating equipment is experiencing an elevated cognitive load, wherein the person's use of a device at a first time is monitored so as to set a baseline signature. Then, at a later time, the person's use of the device is monitored to determine the person's performance at the second time, as represented by a performance signature. This performance signature can then be compared against the baseline signature to predict whether the person is experiencing an elevated cognitive load.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Microbial interactions with silicate glasses

Glass alteration in the presence of microorganisms has been a topic of research for over 150 years. Researchers from a variety of disciplines, including material science, biology, chemistry, geology, physics, and cultural heritage materials preservation have conducted experiments in this area to try and understand when, how, and why microorganism may interact and subsequently influence the alteration of glass. The breadth and depth of these studies are the topic of this review. This review presents a detailed history and a comprehensive overview of this field of research, while maintaining focus on the terrestrial alteration of anthropogenic silicate glasses. Within this manuscript is a schema for bio-interaction with silicate glasses and an outline of an evidence-based hypothesis on how these interactions may influence glass alteration processes. Topics discussed include microbial colonization of glass, development, and interactions of biofilms with glass surface, abiotic vs. biotic alteration processes, and signatures of bio-alteration. Future research needs and a discussion of practical drivers for this research are summarized.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Predictive Phenomics Initiative Project Dataset Catalog Collection

The Predictive Phenomics Science & Technology Initiative (PPI) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are tackling the grand challenge of understanding and predicting phenotype by identifying the molecular basis of function and enable function-driven design and control of biological systems. Research projects within this initiative are divided into three Thrust Areas (TAs): TA1) Enhancing Multi-Scale Phenomics Measurements, TA2) Identifying Molecular Patterns of Biological Function, and TA3) Computational Methods - Phenotypic Signatures. In efforts to enable discovery, reproducibility, and reuse of PPI-funded digital research data generated or used through the course of the proposed research-funded lifecycles, all corresponding digital data assets conducted under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at PNNL are linked to this PPI dataset catalog collection.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Predictive Phenomics Initiative Project Dataset Catalog Collection

The Predictive Phenomics Science & Technology Initiative (PPI) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are tackling the grand challenge of understanding and predicting phenotype by identifying the molecular basis of function and enable function-driven design and control of biological systems. Research projects within this initiative are divided into three Thrust Areas (TAs): TA1) Enhancing Multi-Scale Phenomics Measurements, TA2) Identifying Molecular Patterns of Biological Function, and TA3) Computational Methods - Phenotypic Signatures. In efforts to enable discovery, reproducibility, and reuse of PPI-funded digital research data generated or used through the course of the proposed research-funded lifecycles, all corresponding digital data assets conducted under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at PNNL are linked to this PPI dataset catalog collection.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

The promise of remote sensing in the atmospheric sciences

The applications and advances in remote sensing technology for weather prediction, mesoscale meteorology, severe storms, and climate studies are discussed. Doppler radar permits tracking of the three-dimensional field of motion within storms, thereby increasing the accuracy of convective storm modeling. Single Doppler units are also employed for detecting mesoscale storm vortices and tornado vortex signatures with lead times of 30 min. Clear air radar in pulsed and high resolution FM-CW forms reveals boundary layer convection, Kelvin-Helmoltz waves, shear layer turbulence, and wave motions. Lidar is successfully employed for stratospheric aerosol measurements, while Doppler lidar provides data on winds from the ground and can be based in space. Sodar is useful for determining the structure of the PBL. Details and techniques of satellite-based remote sensing are presented, and results from the GWE and FGGE experiments are discussed.

Atlas, D.↗

MAPPRAISER: A massively parallel map-making framework for multi-kilo pixel CMB experiments

Forthcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarized anisotropy experiments have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the Universe and fundamental physics. The sought-after, tale-telling signatures will be however distributed over voluminous data sets which these experiments will collect. These data sets will need to be efficiently processed and unwanted contributions due to astrophysical, environmental, and instrumental effects characterized and efficiently mitigated in order to uncover the signatures. This poses a significant challenge to data analysis methods, techniques, and software tools which will not only have to be able to cope with huge volumes of data but to do so with unprecedented precision driven by the demanding science goals posed for the new experiments. A keystone of efficient CMB data analysis is solvers of very large linear systems of equations. Such systems appear in very diverse contexts throughout CMB data analysis pipelines, however they typically display similar algebraic structures and can therefore be solved using similar numerical techniques. Linear systems arising in the so-called map-making problem are one of the most prominent and common ones. In this work we present a massively parallel, flexible and extensible framework, comprised of a numerical library, MIDAPACK, and a high level code, MAPPRAISER, which provide tools for solving efficiently such systems. Here, the framework implements iterative solvers based on conjugate gradient techniques: enlarged and preconditioned using different preconditioners. We demonstrate the framework on simulated examples reflecting basic characteristics of the forthcoming data sets issued by ground-based and satellite-borne instruments, executing it on as many as 16,384 compute cores. The software is developed as an open source project freely available to the community at: https://github.com/B3Dcmb/midapack.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Adaptive Optics Imaging of Solar System Objects

Most solar system objects have never been observed at wavelengths longer than the R band with an angular resolution better than 1 sec. The Hubble Space Telescope itself has only recently been equipped to observe in the infrared. However, because of its small diameter, the angular resolution is lower than that one can now achieved from the ground with adaptive optics, and time allocated to planetary science is limited. We have been using adaptive optics (AO) on a 4-m class telescope to obtain 0.1 sec resolution images solar system objects at far red and near infrared wavelengths (0.7-2.5 micron) which best discriminate their spectral signatures. Our efforts has been put into areas of research for which high angular resolution is essential, such as the mapping of Titan and of large asteroids, the dynamics and composition of Neptune stratospheric clouds, the infrared photometry of Pluto, Charon, and close satellites previously undetected from the ground.

Roddier, Francois↗

Relativistic ultrafast electron diffraction at high repetition rates

The ability to resolve the dynamics of matter on its native temporal and spatial scales constitutes a key challenge and convergent theme across chemistry, biology, and materials science. The last couple of decades have witnessed ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) emerge as one of the forefront techniques with the sensitivity to resolve atomic motions. Increasingly sophisticated UED instruments are being developed that are aimed at increasing the beam brightness in order to observe structural signatures, but so far they have been limited to low average current beams. Here, we present the technical design and capabilities of the HiRES (High Repetition-rate Electron Scattering) instrument, which blends relativistic electrons and high repetition rates to achieve orders of magnitude improvement in average beam current compared to the existing state-of-the-art instruments. The setup utilizes a novel electron source to deliver femtosecond duration electron pulses at up to MHz repetition rates for UED experiments. Instrument response function of sub-500 fs is demonstrated with < 100 fs time resolution targeted in future. We provide example cases of diffraction measurements on solid-state and gas-phase samples, including both micro- and nanodiffraction (featuring 100 nm beam size) modes, which showcase the potential of the instrument for novel UED experiments.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Onset of Plasticity via Relaxation Analysis (OPRA)

In crystalline metals and alloys, plasticity occurs due to the movement of mobile dislocations and the yield stress for engineering applications is traditionally quantified based on strain. The onset of irreversible plasticity or “yielding” is generally identified by a deviation from linearity in the stress-strain plot or by some standard convention such as 0.2 % offset strain relative to the “linear elastic response”. In the present work, we introduce a new methodology for the determination of the true yield point based on stress relaxation. We show experimentally that this determination is self-consistent in nature and, as such, provides an objective observation of the very onset of plastic flow. Lastly, our designation for yielding is no longer related to the shape of the stress-strain curve but instead reflects the earliest signature of the activation of concerted irreversible dislocation motion in a test specimen under increasing load.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Crystal structure and thermodynamic dissection of chitin oligosaccharide binding to the LysM module of chitinase-A from Pteris ryukyuensis

Highlights: • Crystal structure of a LysM module from Pteris ryukyuensis chitinase-A (PrLysM2) was determined at a resolution of 1.8 Å. • LysM module recognizes chitin oligosaccharides in a shallow groove on the molecule. • Thermodynamic dissection of the binding energetics of (GlcNAc){sub 6} to PrLysM2 was carried out. • The binding site comprises of five sugar-binding subsites. We determined the crystal structure of a LysM module from Pteris ryukyuensis chitinase-A (PrLysM2) at a resolution of 1.8 Å. Structural and binding analysis of PrLysM2 indicated that this module recognizes chitin oligosaccharides in a shallow groove comprised of five sugar-binding subsites on one side of the molecule. The free energy changes (ΔG{sub r}°) for binding of (GlcNAc){sub 6}, (GlcNAc){sub 5}, and (GlcNAc){sub 4} to PrLysM2 were determined to be −5.4, −5,4 and −4.6 kcal mol{sup −1}, respectively, by ITC. Thermodynamic dissection of the binding energetics of (GlcNAc){sub 6} revealed that the driving force is the enthalpy change (ΔH{sub r}° = −11.7 ± 0.2 kcal/mol) and the solvation entropy change (−TΔS{sub solv}° = −5.9 ± 0.6 kcal/mol). This is the first description of thermodynamic signatures of a chitin oligosaccharide binding to a LysM module.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Deployment of a double scatter system for directional detection of background neutron radiation

The detection of special nuclear materials (SNM) requires the understanding of nuclear signatures that allow the discrimination against background. In particular, understanding neutron background characteristics such as count rates and energies and their correlations with environmental conditions and surroundings of measurement locations is important in enhancing SNM detection capabilities. The Mobile Imager of Neutrons for Emergency Responders (MINER) was deployed for 8 weeks in downtown San Francisco (CA) to study such neutron background characteristics in an urban environment. Of specific interest was the investigation of the impact of surrounding buildings on the neutron background count rates and to answer the question whether buildings act as absorber of neutrons or as sources via the so-called ship effect. MINER consists of 16 liquid scintillator detector elements and can be operated as a neutron spectrometer, as a neutron imager, or simply as a counter of fast neutrons. As expected, the neutron background rate was found to be inversely proportional to the atmospheric pressure. In the energy range where MINER is most sensitive, approximately 1–10 MeV, it was found that the shape of the detected background spectrum is similar to that of a detected fission spectrum, indicating the limited discrimination power of the neutron energy. The similarities between the detected background neutron spectrum and fission sources makes it difficult to discriminate SNM from background based solely on the energies observed. The images produced using maximum likelihood expectation maximization revealed that neutrons preferentially are coming from areas in the environment that have open sky, indicating that the surrounding buildings act as absorbers of neutrons rather than sources as expected by the ship effect. Here, the inherent properties of a neutron scatter camera limit the achievable image quality and the effective deployment to systematically map neutron background signatures due to the low count rate.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

A clean ballistic quantum point contact in strontium titanate

The perovskite oxide strontium titanate (SrTiO 3 ) combines electrostatic tunability, superconductivity and spin–orbit coupling, and is of potential use in the development of quantum devices. However, exploring quantum effects in SrTiO 3 nanostructures is challenging because of the presence of disorder. Here, in this work, we report high-mobility, gate-tunable devices in SrTiO 3 that have ballistic constrictions and clean normal-state conductance quantization. Our devices are based on SrTiO 3 two-dimensional electron gas channels that have a thin hafnium oxide barrier layer between the channel and an ionic liquid gate. Conductance plateaus show twofold degeneracy that persists for magnetic fields of at least 5 T. This is above what is expected from the g factors extracted at high fields and could be a signature of electron pairing extending outside the superconducting regime.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Microbial dispersal into surface soil is limited on a meter scale

Abstract Dispersal shapes microbial communities, yet it is largely unknown how fast or how far free-living microorganisms move in the environment. Here, we deployed microbial traps along transects spanning a grassland and neighboring shrubland to quantify the rate and distance at which microorganisms disperse into the soil surface. We found that bacteria disperse at a similar rate across the two ecosystems, and both bacteria and fungi exhibit a signature of dispersal limitation at a meter scale, indicating highly heterogeneous dispersal of microorganisms into soil.

Environmental Sciences & Ecology↗

Lack of superconductivity in the phase diagram of single-crystalline Eu ( F e 1 - x C o x ) 2 A s 2 grown by transition metal arsenide flux

Here, the interplay of magnetism and superconductivity (SC) has been a focus of interest in condensed matter physics for decades. EuFe 2 As 2 has been identified as a potential platform to investigate interactions between structural, magnetic, and electronic effects as well as the coexistence of magnetism and SC with similar transition temperatures. However, there are obvious inconsistencies in the reported phase diagrams of Eu(Fe 1–x Co x ) 2 As 2 crystals grown by different methods. For transition metal arsenide (TMA)-flux-grown crystals, even the existence of SC is uncertain. Here we reexamine the phase diagram of single-crystalline Eu(Fe 1–x Co x ) 2 As 2 grown by TMA flux. We found that the lattice parameter c shrinks linearly with Co doping, almost twice as fast as that of the tin-flux-grown crystals. With Co doping, the spin-density-wave (SDW) order of the Fe sublattice is quickly suppressed, being detected only up to x=0.08. The magnetic ordering temperature of the Eu 2+ sublattice ( T Eu ) shows a systematic evolution with Co doping, first going down and reaching a minimum at x=0.08, then increasing continuously up to x=0.24. Over the whole composition range investigated, no signature of SC is observed above 1.8 K.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗