Technique for forcing high Reynolds number isotropic turbulence in physical space
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The comparative efficacy of using direct force feedback or a simple vibrotactile display to convey changes in the intensity of remote grasp force relayed from a robotic end effector is examined. The findings show that a simple vibrotactile cue, in the absence of direct force feedback, is effective in signaling abrupt changes in remote grasp force regardless of magnitude, and when changes in force are not too slow or protracted in nature (i.e., ramp time less than 2 s). In cases where the operator must dynamically tract and respond to slow but large variations in grasp force, the comparatively crude vibrotactile display would prove helpful; but would not be as effective as that of a direct contact force display. Immediate applications and utility of current generation and near-term prototype tactile displays are discussed.
The overall operation and maintenance cost to protect nuclear power plants accounts for approximately 7% of the total cost of power generation, with labor accounting for half of this cost. In the current research, from interaction with utilities and other stakeholders, it was determined that physical security forces account for nearly 20% of the entire workforce at several nuclear power plants. Labor costs continue to rise in the U.S., so any measures to reduce the cost of operating a nuclear power plant will need to include a reduction in labor. The physical security pathway within the DOE’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability program aims to lower the cost of physical security through directed research into modeling and simulation, application of advanced sensors or deployment of advanced weapons. This report presents a modeling and simulation framework for integrating Diverse and Flexible Mitigation Capability (FLEX) portable equipment performance with Force on Force models of a plant’s physical security posture. The generic framework is described in detail, followed by a case study of modeling an adversarial attack aimed at causing a radiological release by sabotaging the plant’s power supply and its ultimate heat sink capabilities at a hypothetical nuclear power plant. Two different FLEX deployment strategies, series and parallel, are modeled with distinct timelines. The results of the adversarial attack modeled in a commercial Force on Force tool are integrated with the FLEX deployment model in INL’s dynamic modeling tool EMRALD. Monte Carlo simulation is used to model the distribution of the timeline in FLEX deployment strategies. The results demonstrate that, even in the extreme case of a successful adversarial attack, deployment of FLEX equipment can result in a significantly high likelihood of preventing radiological release. The modeling and simulation framework integrating FLEX equipment with Force on Force models enables the nuclear power plants to credit FLEX portable equipment in the plant security posture, resulting in an efficient and optimized physical security.
Tar balls are frequently found in slightly aged biomass burning plumes. They are spherical in shape, have diameters between ~100 and 300 nm, are amorphous and composed mostly of oxygen and carbon. Tar balls are light absorbing and considered to be a component of brown carbon. Tar balls have been typically reported and analyzed as individual spheres; however, in a recent study, we reported the presence of significant fractions of fractal-like tar ball aggregates in fire plumes from different geographical locations. Aggregation affects the optical properties of particles; therefore, we use T-Matrix and Lorenz-Mie simulations to explore the effects of aggregation on the tar balls’ optical properties in the 350 – 1150 nm wavelength range. We also evaluate the effects of different index of refraction values available from the literature, different monomer numbers, and monomer sizes, as these are key factors determining the aggregates optical properties. Furthermore, we estimate the direct radiative forcing for low and high surface albedos. The single scattering albedo of aggregates exceed by up to 77% that of individual tar balls. The hemispherical upscatter fraction of tar ball aggregates are more than 100% larger than for individual tar balls in many cases. The top of the atmosphere simple forcing efficiency over dark surfaces shows large variabilities with differences up to ~53% between the tar ball aggregates and individual tar balls. These results demonstrate that aggregation of tar balls can have a significant impact on their optical properties and radiative forcing.
Constant mode ambient mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) of tissue sections with high lateral resolution of better than 10 μm was performed by combining shear force microscopy with nanospray desorption electrospray ionization (nano-DESI). Shear force microscopy enabled precise control of the distance between the sample and nano-DESI probe during MSI experiments and provided information on sample topography. Proof-of-concept experiments were performed using lung and brain tissue sections representing spongy and dense tissues, respectively. Topography images obtained using shear force microscopy were comparable to the results obtained using contact profilometry over the same region of the tissue section. Variations in tissue height were found to be dependent on the tissue type and were in the range of 0–5 μm for lung tissue and 0–3 μm for brain tissue sections. Ion images of phospholipids obtained in this study are in good agreement with literature data. Normalization of nano-DESI MSI images to the signal of the internal standard added to the extraction solvent allowed us to construct high-resolution ion images free of matrix effects. .
Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • We developed a method to measure cell adhesion force by detaching cell using an arrowhead nanoneedle and AFM. • A nanofilm consisting of fibronectin and gelatin was formed on cell surface to reinforce the cell cortex. • By the nanofilm lamination, detachment efficiencies of strongly adherent cell lines were improved markedly. - Abstract: The properties of substrates and extracellular matrices (ECM) are important factors governing the functions and fates of mammalian adherent cells. For example, substrate stiffness often affects cell differentiation. At focal adhesions, clustered–integrin bindings link cells mechanically to the ECM. In order to quantitate the affinity between cell and substrate, the cell adhesion force must be measured for single cells. In this study, forcible detachment of a single cell in the vertical direction using AFM was carried out, allowing breakage of the integrin–substrate bindings. An AFM tip was fabricated into an arrowhead shape to detach the cell from the substrate. Peak force observed in the recorded force curve during probe retraction was defined as the adhesion force, and was analyzed for various types of cells. Some of the cell types adhered so strongly that they could not be picked up because of plasma membrane breakage by the arrowhead probe. To address this problem, a technique to reinforce the cellular membrane with layer-by-layer nanofilms composed of fibronectin and gelatin helped to improve insertion efficiency and to prevent cell membrane rupture during the detachment process, allowing successful detachment of the cells. This method for detaching cells, involving cellular membrane reinforcement, may be beneficial for evaluating true cell adhesion forces in various cell types.
Force curves recorded with the atomic force microscope on structured samples often show an irregular force versus indentation behavior. An analysis of such curves using standard contact models (e.g., the Sneddon model) would generate inaccurate Young's moduli. A critical inspection of the force curve shape is therefore necessary for estimating the reliability of the generated Young's modulus. We used a trained artificial neural network to automatically recognize curves of “good” and of “bad” quality. This is especially useful for improving the analysis of force maps that consist of a large number of force curves.
We present multi-frequency force modulation atomic force microscopy (AFM) for mapping the complex shear modulus G* of living cells as a function of frequency over the range of 50–500 Hz in the same measurement time as the single-frequency force modulation measurement. The AFM technique enables us to reconstruct image maps of rheological parameters, which exhibit a frequency-dependent power-law behavior with respect to G{sup *}. These quantitative rheological measurements reveal a large spatial variation in G* in this frequency range for single cells. Moreover, we find that the reconstructed images of the power-law rheological parameters are much different from those obtained in force-curve or single-frequency force modulation measurements. This indicates that the former provide information about intracellular mechanical structures of the cells that are usually not resolved with the conventional force measurement methods.
We report a method to quantitatively measure local shear deformation with high sensitivity using atomic force microscopy. The key point is to simultaneously detect both torsional and buckling motions of atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilevers induced by the lateral piezoelectric response of the sample. This requires the quantitative calibration of torsional and buckling response of AFM. This method is validated by measuring the angular dependence of the in-plane piezoelectric response of a piece of piezoelectric α-quartz. The accurate determination of the amplitude and orientation of the in-plane piezoelectric response, without rotation, would greatly enhance the efficiency of lateral piezoelectric force microscopy.
To support high spatial and temporal resolution land surface modeling, this dataset provides hourly time step historic weather forcing at 1-km spatial resolution for the entire North America. The latest Daymet V4 data provides gridded historic daily weather observations at 1-km spatial resolution from 1980 to 2024. Using sub-daily temporal information from the ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis, Daymet was further temporally downscaled to hourly time steps and provided in the format required for land surface model simulations. The process of temporal downscaling preserves the relative magnitude in each hourly time step from ERA5 while maintaining the total and average values from Daymet for each day. This results in a blended 1980-2024 Daymet-ERA5 dataset. Available variables include surface air temperature, precipitation, specific humidity, shortwave and longwave radiation, wind speed, and pressure. These data can be used as a high-resolution meteorological forcing dataset to support high-resolution land surface modeling where accurate meteorological forcing datasets built from historic observations and/or reanalysis datasets are desirable.
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Anthropogenic emissions and land use changes have modified atmospheric aerosol concentrations and size distributions over time. Understanding preindustrial conditions and changes in organic aerosol due to anthropogenic activities is important because these features (1) influence estimates of aerosol radiative forcing and (2) can confound estimates of the historical response of climate to increases in greenhouse gases. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA), formed in the atmosphere by oxidation of organic gases, represents a major fraction of global submicron-sized atmospheric organic aerosol. Over the past decade, significant advances in understanding SOA properties and formation mechanisms have occurred through measurements, yet current climate models typically do not comprehensively include all important processes. Our review summarizes some of the important developments during the past decade in understanding SOA formation. We also highlight the importance of some processes that influence the growth of SOA particles to sizes relevant for clouds and radiative forcing, including formation of extremely low volatility organics in the gas phase, acid-catalyzed multiphase chemistry of isoprene epoxydiols, particle-phase oligomerization, and physical properties such as volatility and viscosity. Several SOA processes highlighted in this review are complex and interdependent and have nonlinear effects on the properties, formation, and evolution of SOA. Current global models neglect this complexity and nonlinearity and thus are less likely to accurately predict the climate forcing of SOA and project future climate sensitivity to greenhouse gases. Efforts are also needed to rank the most influential processes and nonlinear process-related interactions, so that these processes can be accurately represented in atmospheric chemistry-climate models.
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The human and Earth systems are intricately linked: climate influences agricultural production, renewable energy potential, and water availability, for example, while anthropogenic emissions from industry and land use change alter temperature and precipitation. Such feedbacks have the potential to significantly alter future climate change. These feedbacks may also exert significant changes on 21st-century energy, agriculture, land use and carbon cycle projections, but little is known about their possible magnitudes, or about regional and sector dynamics under different forcing scenarios. Here we use an integrated Earth System Model (ESM) featuring bidirectional information exchange between an economically-oriented integrated assessment model and the ESM to examine how human-natural feedbacks operate under high and medium radiative forcing (RF) scenarios. Specifically, we examine the effect of changing land productivity on human systems, and the effect of changing land use/land cover and CO2 emissions on the Earth system. We find that the effect of coupling differs across radiative forcing levels and across regions, due to differences in the climate signal, human responses to those signals, and regional characteristics. In particular, we find reductions in cropland area due to feedbacks in both the medium and high RF scenarios. In the medium RF scenario, these reductions result in increased area for bioenergy and afforestation and reduced energy system CO2 emissions, as the carbon price in this scenario incentivizes low carbon energy sources and terrestrial carbon storage; these incentives are absent in the high RF scenario. These differences are key to understanding the possible future evolution pathways of the integrated Earth system in response to 21st century climate change. Additional models and hypothesis testing are needed to determine exactly when and how bidirectional feedbacks between human and Earth systems should be considered in future assessments.
The architecture of a biological membrane hinges upon the fundamental fact that its properties are determined by more than the sum of its individual components. Studies on model membranes have shown the need to characterize in molecular detail how properties such as thickness, fluidity, and macroscopic bending rigidity are regulated by the interactions between individual molecules in a non-trivial fashion. Simulation-based approaches are invaluable to this purpose but are typically limited to short sampling times and model systems that are often smaller than the required properties. To alleviate both limitations, the use of coarse-grained (CG) models is nowadays an established computational strategy. We here present a new CG force field for cholesterol, which was developed by using measured properties of small molecules, and can be used in combination with our previously developed force field for phospholipids. The new model performs with precision comparable to atomistic force fields in predicting the properties of cholesterol-rich phospholipid bilayers, including area per lipid, bilayer thickness, tail order parameter, increase in bending rigidity, and propensity to form liquid-ordered domains in ternary mixtures. We suggest the use of this model to quantify the impact of cholesterol on macroscopic properties and on microscopic phenomena involving localization and trafficking of lipids and proteins on cellular membranes.
Duration of award was from 4/15/10-4/14/15. In this grant period our contributions to the field of VdW/Casimir forces are 24 refereed publications in journals such as Physical Review Letters (4) [1-4], Physical Review B (10) [5-14], Physical Review D (2) [15,16], Applied Physics Letters (1) [17], Review of Scientific Instruments (1) [18] and the International Journal of Modern Physics A (5) [19-23] and B(1) (invited review article [24]). We presented 2 plenary conference talks, 3 lectures at the Pan American School on Frontiers in Casimir Physics, 2 conferences, 1 colloquium and 11 APS talks. If publications are restricted to only those with direct connection to the aims proposed in the prior grant period, then it will be a total of 12: Physical Review Letters (3) [2-4], Physical Review B (6) [6-8,12,13,25], Review of Scientific Instruments (1) [18], International Journal of Modern Physics A (1) [19] and B(1) [169]. A brief aggregated description of the directly connected accomplishments is below. The following topics are detailed: dispersion force measurements with graphene, dispersion force from ferromagnetic metals, conclusion on role of electrostatic patches, UV radiation induced modification of the Casimir force, low temperature measurement of the Casimir force, and Casimir force from thin fluctuating membranes.
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Quantitatively modeling adsorbate diffusion through zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) must account for the inherent flexibility of these materials. Here, the lack of a transferable intramolecular ZIF force field (FF) for use in classical simulations has previously made an accurate simulation of adsorbate diffusion in many ZIFs impossible. We resolve this problem by introducing a density functional theory parameterized force field (FF) for ZIFs named the intraZIF-FF, which includes perturbations to the class I force fields previously used to model ZIFs. This FF outperforms ad hoc force fields at predicting ab initio relative energies and atomic forces taken from fully periodic ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of SALEM-2, ZIF-7, ZIF-8, and ZIF-90. We use the intraZIF-FF to predict the infinite dilution self-diffusion coefficients of 30 adsorbates with molecular diameters ranging from 2.66 to 7.0 Å in these 4 ZIFs. These results greatly increase the number of adsorbates for which accurate information about molecular diffusion in ZIFs is available.