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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 739 records · Page 41

Conference on Adaptive Telemetry

Adaptive telemetry conference on adaptive data control and processing, prediction, data compression, encoding, decoding, and modulation.

TELEMETRY↗

Command processors

Command decoders for processing satellite control data at ground station

DECODER↗

New Bandwidth Efficient Parallel Concatenated Coding Schemes

We propose a new solution to parallel concatenation of trellis codes with multilevel amplitude/phase modulations and a suitable iterative decoding structure. Examples are given for throughputs 2 bits/sec/Hz with 8PSK and 16QAM signal constellations.

trellis codes multilevel amplitude modulations dec↗

Multi-task Parallelism for Robust Pre-training of Graph Foundation Models on Multi-source, Multi-fidelity Atomistic Modeling Data

Graph foundation models using graph neural networks promise sustainable, efficient atomistic modeling. To tackle challenges of processing multi-source, multi-fidelity data during pre-training, recent studies employ multi-task learning, in which shared message passing layers initially process input atomistic structures regardless of source, then route them to multiple decoding heads that predict data-specific outputs. This approach stabilizes pre-training and enhances a model’s transferability to unexplored chemical regions. Preliminary results on approximately four million structures are encouraging, yet questions remain about generalizability to larger, more diverse datasets and scalability on supercomputers. We propose a multi-task parallelism method that distributes each head across computing resources with GPU acceleration. Implemented in the open-source HydraGNN architecture, our method was trained on over 24 million structures from five datasets and tested on the Perlmutter, Aurora, and Frontier supercomputers, demonstrating efficient scaling on all three highly heterogeneous super-computing architectures.

Lupo Pasini, Massimiliano [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000249↗

Enhancing Interpretability in Generative Modeling: Statistically Disentangled Latent Spaces Guided by Generative Factors in Scientific Datasets

This study addresses the challenge of statistically extracting generative factors from complex, high-dimensional datasets in unsupervised or semi-supervised settings. We investigate encoder-decoder-based generative models for nonlinear dimensionality reduction, focusing on disentangling low-dimensional latent variables corresponding to independent physical factors. Introducing Aux-VAE, a novel architecture within the classical Variational Autoencoder framework, we achieve disentanglement with minimal modifications to the standard VAE loss function by leveraging prior statistical knowledge through auxiliary variables. These variables guide the shaping of the latent space by aligning latent factors with learned auxiliary variables. We validate the efficacy of Aux-VAE through comparative assessments on multiple datasets, including astronomical simulations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Machine learning-driven descriptions of protein dynamics at solid-liquid interfaces

This chapter has described how ML has enabled quantitative analysis of HS-AFM data to discover the physical phenomena governing protein dynamics and ordering at solid-liquid interfaces. The research detailed in this chapter modeled the rotation models of protein nanorods, the discovery of which would otherwise not be possible. By tracking the trajectories of individual protein rods from frame to frame, it was possible to model Brownian type motion and behaviors and Levy-flight dynamics that had not previously been shown. We also described the application of the Python package AtomAI, which has been developed specifically to analyze and extract physical phenomena, providing exemplar code for training an ensemble of deep neural networks to produce the semantic segmentation of AFM data and functions for encoding and decoding local environments. We last described a combinatorial approach to analyze very noisy data with a densely covered substrate where the emergence of order for the protein liquid crystals could be elucidated. By combining the methods from Case 1 and 2, it was possible to obtain the center of mass and angle for each rod in the images and track the assembly of the rods over time into a 2D liquid crystal array on the surface of mica.

protein dynamics, solid-liquid interfaces, atomic ↗

A Decomposition-Based Learn-To-Optimize Approach with Feasibility Layer Assistance for Sub-Hourly Unit Commitment

Sub-hourly unit commitment (UC) with 15-min intervals is gaining significant attention as a way to respond rapidly to the fluctuations in electricity supply and demand introduced by renewable resources. However, the increased temporal resolution and complex inter-temporal dependencies pose substantial computational challenges for traditional optimization methods. To this end, this paper explores a decomposition-based learn-to-optimize approach. Building on recent advances in machine learning, our method revisits the long- overlooked Lagrangian relaxation framework, which is a classical decomposition technique that enables tractable subproblem solving. These smaller subproblems are inherently well-suited for machine learning, as their reduced dimensionality and structural regularity allow predictive models to efficiently learn and generalize solution patterns. We thus propose a generic predictive model, which embeds Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs) and Attention in the encoder-decoder structure, and integrate a rule-based feasibility layer to capture temporal dependencies, reduce training effort, and improve feasibility w.r.t. unit-level constraints. Our method has been validated on the IEEE 118-bus system, demonstrating promising performance in solving sub-hourly UC problems efficiently and feasibly.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Predicting river turbidity in Pine Island Bayou using machine learning techniques coupled with variational mode decomposition

Elevated turbidity levels pose significant public health risks by facilitating the transport of harmful pollutants, including metals, organic compounds, and pathogenic microorganisms into the surface water. These conditions create serious challenges for public recreational water use and drinking water treatment, leading to economic losses and health risks. This study utilizes water monitoring data in Pine Island Bayou, Texas, and develops a Sequence-to-Sequence (S2S) model to predict turbidity using Attention-based Gated Recurrent Units with Encoder-Decoder (AT-GRU-ED) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), coupled with Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD). Compared to the model without VMD, the model demonstrates satisfactory 72-hour turbidity prediction performance, achieving MAEs of 2.60 and 3.29 NTU (reductions of 53% and 58%), RMSEs of 21.08 and 31.49 NTU (reductions of 82% and 80%), and R² values of 0.96 and 0.84 on the validation and test sets, respectively. Feature importance analysis reveals that water temperature is the dominant factor influencing seasonal turbidity patterns, while real-time hourly rainfall significantly contributes to short-term variability. Turbidity typically peaks within 48 hours after rainfall events due to lagged effects from surface runoff and upstream flow. Findings suggest suspending recreational water use and water supply pumping for three days after heavy rainfall can benefit public health and improve water treatment processes. Discharges above 100 m3/s are found to accelerate sediment dilution and transport, reducing turbidity levels more quickly after the peak. In conclusion, the proposed model demonstrates reliable 72-hour turbidity prediction, supporting decision-making for water treatment plant operations and providing early warning for public recreational water use.

Deep learning↗

Diagnostic-free onboard battery health assessment

Diverse usage patterns induce complex and variable aging behaviors in lithiumion batteries, complicating accurate health diagnosis and prognosis. Separate diagnostic cycles are often used to untangle the battery’s current state of health from prior complex aging patterns. However, these same diagnostic cycles alter the battery’s degradation trajectory, are time-intensive, and cannot be practically performed in onboard applications. Here, in this work, we leverage portions of operational measurements in combination with an interpretable machine learning model to enable rapid, onboard battery health diagnostics and prognostics without offline diagnostic testing and the requirement of historical data. We integrate mechanistic constraints within an encoder-decoder architecture to extract electrode states in a physically interpretable latent space and enable improved reconstruction of the degradation path. The health diagnosis model framework can be flexibly applied across diverse application interests with slight fine-tuning.

battery aging reconstruction↗

Microscopy modality transfer of steel microstructures: Inferring scanning electron micrographs from optical microscopy using generative AI

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is resource intensive, which limits its throughput in some applications. As an alternative, we propose applying computer vision and machine learning to generate high-quality synthetic SEM micrographs from micrographs obtained using light optical microscopy (LOM). Working with a correlated LOM/SEM dataset of dual-phase steel images, we test generative models of various architectures, including encoder-decoder networks, generative adversarial networks (GANs), and diffusion-based models. We find that the diffusion models significantly outperform other methods on both qualitative and quantitative assessments, while preserving key metallurgical meaning. This work establishes diffusion as the state-of-the-art for microscopy modality transfer and demonstrates the potential of AI-powered microscopy to enhance LOM with micron scale structural recreation.

Computer vision↗

Wetting mechanism and alteration of nano-sized shale pores: Insights from contrast variation small angle neutron scattering

Wettability of tight shale is crucial for fluid flow and mass transport process in energy geosciences. However, understanding the interfacial chemistry and wetting mechanisms at sub-nano-pore scales remains a formidable challenge. Here, in this study, the Contrast Variation technique of Small Angle Neutron Scattering (CV-SANS) is employed to investigate shale’s interfacial chemistry using reagents that possess a range of different polarities, including water, n-decane, toluene, and dimethyl methanamide. Through five different experimental strategies, we have demonstrated a successful modification of shale wettability, ranging from enhancement, weakening, to reversal. Delving into the mechanisms, we illustrated the crucial role of pre-existing liquid films in these changes, where the uniquely co-existing polar and non-polar functional groups in dimethyl methanamide acted as a conduit for interfacial chemistry adjustments. Furthermore, a solvent immersion led to matrix dilation as well as liberation of residual oil-occupied pores, resulting in altered pore size distributions, with hydrogen bonding playing a significant role in the polar groups. Interestingly, despite shale exhibiting a stronger affinity for oil over water, hydrophilic solvents induced more substantial dilation than lipophilic ones. Collectively, this work elucidates the dynamic change of interfacial chemistry via the configuration of polarity using chemical reagents, and the CV-SANS technique underscores its invaluable utilities in decoding the interfacial wettability traits in nanopore space of shale.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Lignin valorization reshapes sustainable biomass refining

As the largest natural reservoir of aromatics, lignin offers significant potential for bioproduct manufacturing through advances in valorization technologies. However, the intrinsically complex structures of lignin pose significant challenges for its fractionization and downstream valorization. Overcoming challenges in lignin chemistry modification is crucial for achieving effective lignin valorization and establishing sustainable biorefinery industries. This review explores the potential of tailoring lignin reactivity to enable functional bioproduct manufacturing thereby contributing to profitable biorefining. The intrinsic characteristics of lignin are first summarized, highlighting their roles in both fractionization and valorization. The latest progress in lignin fractionation is then presented, emphasizing their potential to tailor lignin chemistry, reactivity, and processibility. Furthermore, advancements in lignin valorization are covered, recognizing that tailored lignin reactivity is key to defining bioproduct functionality. By examining these chemical mechanisms, this review sheds on the structure-function relationships between lignin and its derived products. To address the dilemma of lignin valorization and biorefineries, a promising synergistic biorefinery is proposed. This involves redesigning biomass fractionation strategies, tailoring lignin chemistry, and upgrading both carbohydrate and lignin streams across the entire biorefinery chain—from feedstock to application. Altogether, a deeper understanding of tailored lignin chemistry is crucial for decoding the reaction mechanisms in biomass processing. A synergistic biorefinery could harness lignin's intrinsic properties to improve product functionality and address key challenges, paving the way for cost-effective, sustainable biorefinery solutions.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Learning Latent Representations to Bridge Coarse-Grained and Atomistic Resolutions in Polymer Simulations

We present a machine-learning-based framework for learning reduced-order representations of polymer chain conformations across coarse-grained (CG) and united-atom (UA) fidelities. By employing linear singular value decomposition and nonlinear autoencoders, we compress high-dimensional polymer configurations into latent spaces with minimal loss of structural accuracy. Crucially, we demonstrate a near-perfect linear mapping between CG and UA latent spaces, enabling an efficient super-resolution back-mapping procedure that reconstructs high-fidelity UA configurations from CG simulations. While minor structural inaccuracies occur, they are effectively corrected through a brief molecular dynamics relaxation, forming a practical hybrid machine learning−physics scheme. This approach establishes the key structural prerequisites for accelerated polymer dynamics simulations: a compact and accurate latent encoding of polymer chain conformations and a validated multi-fidelity mapping that permits reconstruction of UA structures from CG configurations. The extension of this framework to explicit time evolution within the latent space, enabling dynamics to be propagated at CG fidelity and decoded to UA resolution only when required, represents a natural and well-motivated direction for future work.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Comparing Machine Learning and Physics-Based Nanoparticle Geometry Determinations Using Far-Field Spectral Properties

Anisotropic metal nanostructures exhibit polarization-dependent light scattering, a property which has been widely studied and exploited to determine orientations of subwavelength structures using far-field microscopy. Here we explore the use of variational autoencoders (VAEs) to determine the geometries of gold nanorods (NRs) such as in-plane orientation and aspect ratio under linearly polarized dark-field illumination in an optical microscope. We enforce a shared latent space to connect two VAEs trained separately with polarized dark-field scattering spectra and electron microscopy images and achieve image prediction (shape, orientation, and size) of Au NRs using only polarized dark-field scattering spectra. We determine the geometrical parameters of orientational angle and aspect ratio quantitatively via both our dual-VAE and physics-based analysis on the input scattering spectra. We show that orientational angle prediction by dual-VAE performs well with only a small (~300 particle) training set, yielding a mean absolute error (MAE) of 14.4° and a concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) of 0.95. This performance is only marginally worse than the physics-based cos(2?) fitting approach between the scattering intensity and the polarizing angle, which achieves MAE of 8.78° and CCC of 0.99. Aspect ratio determination is also comparable for the dual-VAE and physics-based fitting comparison (MAE of 0.21 vs. 0.23 and CCC of 0.53 vs. 0.68). Here, this dual encoder-decoder architecture effectively exploits the structure-property relationships of plasmonic nanostructures to construct a cross-modal machine learning (ML) approach, providing a pathway to employ ML approaches to address other structure-property relationships in materials science.

Dark-field scattering↗

Peak2Patch: High-Fidelity Functional Group Identification through Attention-Based Fusion of Infrared and Mass Spectra

Identifying molecular structure based on spectroscopic readings is a key task in a variety of chemical and biological applications. Common spectroscopy techniques, such as Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry (MS), provide detailed information on the structure of molecular compounds but nonetheless require expert-level knowledge to decode. Machine learning has emerged as a potential solution for automating structure prediction from chemical spectra; however, current approaches generally focus on single sensor modalities, neglecting to leverage the complementary information contained within differing spectra. In this paper, we introduce Peak2Patch, a novel approach to fusion-enhanced prediction of functional groups from IR and mass spectra. First, we perform a detailed comparison of backbone networks for encoding both sparse mass spectra and dense IR spectra and demonstrate the superior performance of transformer neural networks over current state-of-the-art convolutional neural networks. Second, we evaluate three broad categories of fusion: early (raw feature), middle (deep feature), and late (decision) fusion, demonstrating the potential of a deep feature fusion-based approach. Lastly, we present Peak2Patch, our attention-based fusion scheme, which leverages cross-attention to mix features between encoded tokens of the two modalities. We validate our approach on a publicly available multimodal spectroscopic data set of 790k simulated molecules, demonstrating a large improvement in functional group prediction over both the previous state-of-the-art and our own strong single-modal baselines.

Jacobson, Philip [Sandia National Laboratories (SN↗