Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Keys”

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 793 records · Page 44
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

A new species of Acanthocaudus Smith (Braconidae: Aphidiinae), with a key to species and new host and distribution records for aphidiines associated with Silphium perfoliatum L. (Asterales: Asteraceae)

A new species, Acanthocaudus bicolor Kula (Braconidae: Aphidiinae), from the Nearctic Region is described and differentiated from all other species of Acanthocaudus Smith. Acanthocaudus schlingeri Muesebeck, 1958 is synonymized with Acanthocaudus tissoti (Smith, 1944). A key to the species of Acanthocaudus is provided. The following aphidiines are reported as parasitoids of aphids on Silphium perfoliatum L. (cup plant) for the first time: Aphidius (Aphidius) ohioensis ex Uroleucon (Uroleucon) cf. rudbeckiae (Fitch), Aphidius (Aphidius) polygonaphis (Fitch) ex Uroleucon sp., Praon pequodorum Viereck ex undetermined aphids, and Praon simulans (Provancher) ex undetermined aphids. Aphidius (A.) ohioensis and P. simulans are reported from Indiana and South Dakota for the first time. Acanthocaudus tissoti and P. pequodorum are reported from Indiana for the first time.

Zoology↗
DOE OSTI2017

Advancing a Model-Validated Statistical Method for Decomposing the Key Oceanic Drivers of Regional Climate: Focus on Northern and Tropical African Climate Variability in the Community Earth System Model (CESM)

This study advances the practicality and stability of the traditional multivariate statistical method, generalized equilibrium feedback assessment (GEFA), for decomposing the key oceanic drivers of regional atmospheric variability, especially when available data records are short. An advanced stepwise GEFA methodology is introduced, in which unimportant forcings within the forcing matrix are eliminated through stepwise selection. Method validation of stepwise GEFA is performed using the CESM, with a focused application to northern and tropical Africa (NTA). First, a statistical assessment of the atmospheric response to each primary oceanic forcing is carried out by applying stepwise GEFA to a fully coupled control run. Then, a dynamical assessment of the atmospheric response to individual oceanic forcings is performed through ensemble experiments by imposing sea surface temperature anomalies over focal ocean basins. Finally, to quantify the reliability of stepwise GEFA, the statistical assessment is evaluated against the dynamical assessment in terms of four metrics: the percentage of grid cells with consistent response sign, the spatial correlation of atmospheric response patterns, the area-averaged seasonal cycle of response magnitude, and consistency in associated mechanisms between assessments. In CESM, tropical modes, namely El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the tropical Indian Ocean Basin, tropical Indian Ocean dipole, and tropical Atlantic Niño modes, are the dominant oceanic controls of NTA climate. In complementary studies, stepwise GEFA is validated in terms of isolating terrestrial forcings on the atmosphere, and observed oceanic and terrestrial drivers of NTA climate are extracted to establish an observational benchmark for subsequent coupled model evaluation and development of process-based weights for regional climate projections.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Implementing efficient data compression and encryption in a persistent key-value store for HPC

Recently, persistent data structures, like key-value stores (KVSs), which are stored in a high-performance computing (HPC) system’s nonvolatile memory, provide an attractive solution for a number of emerging challenges like limited I/O performance. Data compression and encryption are two well-known techniques for improving several properties of such data-oriented systems. This article investigates how to efficiently integrate data compression and encryption into persistent KVSs for HPC with the ultimate goal of hiding their costs and complexity in terms of performance and ease of use. Our compression technique exploits deep memory hierarchy in an HPC system to achieve both storage reduction and performance improvement. Our encryption technique provides a practical level of security and enables sharing of sensitive data securely in complex scientific workflows with nearly imperceptible cost. We implement the proposed techniques on top of a distributed embedded KVS to evaluate the benefits and costs of incorporating these capabilities along different points in the dataflow path, illustrating differences in effective bandwidth, latency, and additional computational expense on Swiss National Supercomputing Centre’s Grand Tavé and National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center’s Cori.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2014

A pangenomic analysis of the Nannochloropsis organellar genomes reveals novel genetic variations in key metabolic genes

Background: Microalgae in the genus Nannochloropsis are photosynthetic marine Eustigmatophytes of significant interest to the bioenergy and aquaculture sectors due to their ability to efficiently accumulate biomass and lipids for utilization in renewable transportation fuels, aquaculture feed, and other useful bioproducts. To better understand the genetic complement that drives the metabolic processes of these organisms, we present the assembly and comparative pangenomic analysis of the chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes from Nannochloropsis salina CCMP1776. Results: The chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes of N. salina are 98.4% and 97% identical to their counterparts in Nannochloropsis gaditana. Comparison of the Nannochloropsis pangenome to other algae within and outside of the same phyla revealed regions of significant genetic divergence in key genes that encode proteins needed for regulation of branched chain amino synthesis (acetohydroxyacid synthase), carbon fixation (RuBisCO activase), energy conservation (ATP synthase), protein synthesis and homeostasis (Clp protease, ribosome). Conclusions: Many organellar gene modifications in Nannochloropsis are unique and deviate from conserved orthologs found across the tree of life. Implementation of secondary and tertiary structure prediction was crucial to functionally characterize many proteins and therefore should be implemented in automated annotation pipelines. The exceptional similarity of the N. salina and N. gaditana organellar genomes suggests that N. gaditana be reclassified as a strain of N. salina.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

The genomes of two key bumblebee species with primitive eusocial organization

The shift from solitary to social behavior is one of the major evolutionary transitions. Primitively eusocial bumblebees are uniquely placed to illuminate the evolution of highly eusocial insect societies. Bumblebees are also invaluable natural and agricultural pollinators, and there is widespread concern over recent population declines in some species. High-quality genomic data will inform key aspects of bumblebee biology, including susceptibility to implicated population viability threats.

Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology↗
DOE OSTI2015

Occupancy by key transcription factors is a more accurate predictor of enhancer activity than histone modifications or chromatin accessibility

Regulated gene expression controls organismal development, and variation in regulatory patterns has been implicated in complex traits. Thus accurate prediction of enhancers is important for further understanding of these processes. Genome-wide measurement of epigenetic features, such as histone modifications and occupancy by transcription factors, is improving enhancer predictions, but the contribution of these features to prediction accuracy is not known. Given the importance of the hematopoietic transcription factor TAL1 for erythroid gene activation, we predicted candidate enhancers based on genomic occupancy by TAL1 and measured their activity. Contributions of multiple features to enhancer prediction were evaluated based on the results of these and other studies. Results: TAL1-bound DNA segments were active enhancers at a high rate both in transient transfections of cultured cells (39 of 79, or 56%) and transgenic mice (43 of 66, or 65%). The level of binding signal for TAL1 or GATA1 did not help distinguish TAL1-bound DNA segments as active versus inactive enhancers, nor did the density of regulation-related histone modifications. A meta-analysis of results from this and other studies (273 tested predicted enhancers) showed that the presence of TAL1, GATA1, EP300, SMAD1, H3K4 methylation, H3K27ac, and CAGE tags at DNase hypersensitive sites gave the most accurate predictors of enhancer activity, with a success rate over 80% and a median threefold increase in activity. Chromatin accessibility assays and the histone modifications H3K4me1 and H3K27ac were sensitive for finding enhancers, but they have high false positive rates unless transcription factor occupancy is also included. Conclusions: Occupancy by key transcription factors such as TAL1, GATA1, SMAD1, and EP300, along with evidence of transcription, improves the accuracy of enhancer predictions based on epigenetic features.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Quantum key distribution and beyond: introduction

This feature issue presents a collection of recent theoretical and experimental developments in the field of quantum key distribution (QKD) and its extension to other quantum cryptography protocols and devices. It encompasses work on a variety of QKD protocols, including continuous-variable, measurement-device independent, and twin-field QKD, as well as other newly proposed protocols, in platforms ranging from optical fiber through to wireless indoor and satellite links. It covers examples of hacking strategies and their countermeasures as well as applications of machine learning techniques in designing quantum networks. It also includes new developments in efficient superconducting photon-number resolving detectors as well as fast quantum random number generators. Distinctively, this feature issue demonstrates how different expertise in science and engineering can come together to produce an outcome that hopefully takes us one step closer to the wide-scale deployment of quantum communications technologies.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Investigating key cell types and molecules dynamics in PyMT mice model of breast cancer through a mathematical model

The most common kind of cancer among women is breast cancer. Understanding the tumor microenvironment and the interactions between individual cells and cytokines assists us in arriving at more effective treatments. Here, we develop a data-driven mathematical model to investigate the dynamics of key cell types and cytokines involved in breast cancer development. We use time-course gene expression profiles of a mouse model to estimate the relative abundance of cells and cytokines. We then employ a least-squares optimization method to evaluate the model’s parameters based on the mice data. The resulting dynamics of the cells and cytokines obtained from the optimal set of parameters exhibit a decent agreement between the data and predictions. We perform a sensitivity analysis to identify the crucial parameters of the model and then perform a local bifurcation on them. The results reveal a strong connection between adipocytes, IL6, and the cancer population, suggesting them as potential targets for therapies.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

LEAFY COTYLEDON1 , a Key Regulator of Seed Development, Is Expressed in Vegetative and Sexual Propagules of Selaginella moellendorffii

LEAFY COTYLEDON1 (LEC1) is a central regulator of seed development that plays a key role in controlling the maturation phase during which storage macromolecules accumulate and the embryo becomes tolerant of desiccation. We queried the genomes of seedless plants and identified a LEC1 homolog in the lycophyte, Selaginella moellendorffii, but not in the bryophyte, Physcomitrella patens. Genetic suppression experiments indicated that Selaginella LEC1 is the functional ortholog of Arabidopsis LEC1. Together, these results suggest that LEC1 originated at least 30 million years before the first seed plants appeared in the fossil record. The accumulation of Selaginella LEC1 RNA primarily in sexual and asexual reproductive structures suggests its involvement in cellular processes similar to those that occur during the maturation phase of seed development.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Identifying key determinants and dynamics of SARS-CoV-2/ACE2 tight interaction

SARS-CoV-2 virus, the causative agent of Covid-19, has fired up a global pandemic. The virus interacts with the human receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) for an invasion via receptor binding domain (RBD) on its spike protein. To provide a deeper understanding of this interaction, we performed microsecond simulations of the RBD-ACE2 complex for SARS-CoV-2 and compared it with the closely related SARS-CoV discovered in 2003. We show residues in the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 that were mutated from SARS-CoV, collectively help make the RBD anchor much stronger to the N-terminal part of ACE2 than the corresponding residues on RBD of SARS-CoV. This would result in a reduced dissociation rate of SARS-CoV-2 from human receptor protein compared to SARS-CoV. The phenomenon was consistently observed in simulations beyond 500 ns and was reproducible across different force fields. Altogether, our study adds more insight into the critical dynamics of the key residues at the virus spike and human receptor binding interface and potentially aids the development of diagnostics and therapeutics to combat the pandemic efficiently.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Topography and Functional Traits Control the Distribution of Key Shrub Plant Functional Types in Low-Arctic Tundra: Supporting Data

High-resolution classification maps derived from occupied aerial systems (UASs). The UAS data were collected in August 2021 using a Skydio 2+ drone equipped with a 4K resolution red-green-blue (RGB) camera (2024 Skydio Inc) and a 3DR SOLO Quadcopter carried a Parrot Sequoia+ Multispectral Sensor (2023 Parrot Drone SAS). This package includes vegetation classification maps at four locations around Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment Arctic (NGEE Arctic) Council watershed study site on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. The classification maps were generated using a combination of RGB and canopy height information. The map data and metadata are provided as ENVI image (.dat) and text (.txt, *hdr) formats. Additional map quicklooks are provided as GIS *.kml files. These datasets are provided in support of Yang et al., (In review), “Topography and Functional Traits Control the Distribution of Key Shrub Plant Functional Types in Low-Arctic Tundra”.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a 15-year research effort (2012-2027) to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Key Learnings from Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site - 2 (HFTS-2), Delaware Basin

Hydraulic fractures (HF) play a dominant role in oil and gas production from unconventional reservoirs, fracture characteristics, geometry, and extent are generally not well known and are typically inferred from various monitoring methods or subsurface models. The Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site-2 (HFTS-2) is a field-based research experiment performed in the Wolfcamp formation of the Permian (Delaware) Basin. HFTS-2, a unique joint industry program (JIP) that brings together government, academia, and industry, focused on field data acquisition and interpretation. The project has built a comprehensive HF research dataset that includes microseismic (MS), 1,500 ft of core, diagnostic formation injection tests (DFIT), fluid characterization, advanced logs, geochemistry, downhole gauges, varying completions, and permanent fiber optic (FO) cable in vertical and horizontal wells. These data were integrated and used to characterize HF geometry/dimensions and resulting depletion profiles, gain insights for completion design, and achieve a better understanding of parent well depletion effects on child well performance. The analysis and integration of the comprehensive HFTS-2 diagnostics dataset provide insights for optimal well placement and completions and improves understanding about the effects of parent well depletion. Furthermore, this dataset can be used to blind test and develop subsurface workflows for unconventional resources. Key learnings from HFTS-2 and the new technologies tested can easily be transferred to other unconventional plays.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Digital Twin Network (DTN): Concepts, Architecture, and Key Technologies

With the commercial deployment of 5G and the migration of internet from IPv4 to IPv6, the new development of the network technology has highly attracted the attention of the industry. The intelligentization of network is believed as the trend of the new generation of network development. The network provides the foundation for the information transmission in the digital society, and the digitalization of the network itself is the prerequisite for the intelligent development. Facing the goal of the new generation of digital and intelligent network, this paper introduces the new concept of "digital twin network (DTN)", designs the system architecture, and analyzes the key technologies of DTN. By investigating the challenges of DTN, this paper points out the future development direction of digital twin network.

digital twin network↗
DOE OSTI2010

KEY DESIGN REQUIREMENTS FOR THE HIGH TEMPERATURE GAS-COOLED REACTOR NUCLEAR HEAT SUPPLY SYSTEM

Key requirements that affect the design of the high temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear heat supply system (HTGR-NHSS) as the NGNP Project progresses through the design, licensing, construction and testing of the first of a kind HTGR based plant are summarized. These requirements derive from pre-conceptual design development completed to-date by HTGR Suppliers, collaboration with potential end users of the HTGR technology to identify energy needs, evaluation of integration of the HTGR technology with industrial processes and recommendations of the NGNP Project Senior Advisory Group.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2010

Key Physical Mechanisms in Nanostructured Solar Cells

The objective of the project was to study both theoretically and experimentally the excitation, recombination and transport properties required for nanostructured solar cells to deliver energy conversion efficiencies well in excess of conventional limits. These objectives were met by concentrating on three key areas, namely, investigation of physical mechanisms present in nanostructured solar cells, characterization of loss mechanisms in nanostructured solar cells and determining the properties required of nanostructured solar cells in order to achieve high efficiency and the design implications.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

NGNP (Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project): High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Key Definitions, Plant Capabilities, and Assumptions

This document is intended to provide a Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project tool in which to collect and identify key definitions, plant capabilities, and inputs and assumptions to be used in ongoing efforts related to the licensing and deployment of a high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). These definitions, capabilities, and assumptions are extracted from a number of sources, including NGNP Project documents such as licensing related white papers and previously issued requirement documents. Also included is information agreed upon by the NGNP Regulatory Affairs group's Licensing Working Group and Configuration Council. The NGNP Project approach to licensing an HTGR plant via a combined license (COL) is defined within the referenced white papers and reference, and is not duplicated here.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗