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DOE OSTI2020

Delivering Contextual Knowledge and Critical Skills of Disruptive Technologies through Problem-Based Learning in Research Experiences for Undergraduates Setting

The recent development in transportation, such as energy-efficient and autonomous vehicles, defines a condition for the students in transportation engineering. Students in the field of transportation engineering should be ready upon their graduation with new knowledge and skills that are compatible with the need of the industry and sustainable engineering practices.During summers of 2018 and 2019, we developed and implemented an eight-week program to increase the knowledge and skills of students coming from multidisciplinary fields related to autonomous vehicles. Problem of “How much will platooning reduce fuel consumption and emissions per vehicle mile traveled?” was instrumentalized in subsequent activities to introduce the comprehensive knowledge structure of autonomous vehicles.The engineering concept of reducing the cost and sustainability was embedded in the leading research question that helped us to develop and implement activities on an overall knowledge structure in autonomous vehicles. The goal of using problem-based learning activities was not to encourage the students to focus on reaching the solution merely. We aimed to introduce the multidisciplinary knowledge and critical skills aspects of learning about disruptive technologies.In this paper, we will discuss how a multidisciplinary research approach was incorporated into a problem-based learning activity. The students were introduced the subjects related to math, physics, computer science, and biology as the integration of the knowledge structure of autonomous vehicles. We will also present the results on students’ use of critical skills such as machine learning and computer programming.

Comert, Gurcan↗

DOE OSTI2018

How Knowledge Sharing and Employee Engagement Enable Workplace Innovation - 18406

Reportedly, over 50% and in some industries up to 80% of the corporate knowledge is embedded and synthesized in peoples' heads, when people quit or retire, the knowledge they possess goes with them. The challenge and opportunity is to enable knowledge sharing while the employee is still with their organization. There are numerous articles, essays and studies about the importance of employee engagement but very few studies have looked at its effect on knowledge sharing. This paper identifies the issue and offers ideas on how to increase organizational knowledge sharing by increasing trust and engagement among employees. (authors)

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

DOE OSTI2015

WE-F-BRB-01: The Power of Ontologies and Standardized Terminologies for Capturing Clinical Knowledge

Advancements in informatics in radiotherapy are opening up opportunities to improve our ability to assess treatment plans. Models on individualizing patient dose constraints from prior patient data and shape relationships have been extensively researched and are now making their way into commercial products. New developments in knowledge based treatment planning involve understanding the impact of the radiation dosimetry on the patient. Akin to radiobiology models that have driven intensity modulated radiotherapy optimization, toxicity and outcome predictions based on treatment plans and prior patient experiences may be the next step in knowledge based planning. In order to realize these predictions, it is necessary to understand how the clinical information can be captured, structured and organized with ontologies and databases designed for recall. Large databases containing radiation dosimetry and outcomes present the opportunity to evaluate treatment plans against predictions of toxicity and disease response. Such evaluations can be based on dose volume histogram or even the full 3-dimensional dose distribution and its relation to the critical anatomy. This session will provide an understanding of ontologies and standard terminologies used to capture clinical knowledge into structured databases; How data can be organized and accessed to utilize the knowledge in planning; and examples of research and clinical efforts to incorporate that clinical knowledge into planning for improved care for our patients. Learning Objectives: Understand the role of standard terminologies, ontologies and data organization in oncology Understand methods to capture clinical toxicity and outcomes in a clinical setting Understand opportunities to learn from clinical data and its application to treatment planning Todd McNutt receives funding from Philips, Elekta and Toshiba for some of the work presented.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2018

An Open-Access Nuclear Knowledge and Innovation Toolkit to Make Use of Nuclear World and Increase Collaboration

Nuclear engineering began as an urgent weapons development program in the early 1940s, involving work in enrichment, reactor design, shielding design, and isotope production. This work led to investigations of peaceful uses of nuclear technology, including nuclear power production and applications of radiation. Such peaceful technologies, often derived from experience gained through the weapons program, often maintained some level or attitude of secrecy. As the field continued to develop, that secrecy led to different specializations developing with different sets of terminology and methods of computation. For example, radiation safety used buildup and shielding factors while reactor designers use diffusivity and cross sections. Impressive amounts of work went into theory and application development in each sub-field over the next few decades, with much of the work left without adequate documentation or with important documentation made only within the organization. This situation has led to a loss of knowledge and experience, a lack of collaboration across nuclear sub-fields, and immense amounts of time and effort spent on redundant work. This paper proposes an open-access system that combines preserving and passing on the knowledge in all nuclear sub-fields with tools to make that knowledge useful, referred to as the Nuclear Knowledge and Innovation Toolkit (NuKIT). Knowledge would be captured in user-entered and expert-verified databases of reactors, applications of radiation, isotope production methods, and other pertinent nuclear information complete with technical information and tags that can be used to organize and investigate the data. Tools include community tools like forums and the ability to create collaborative projects; visualization and presentation tools; and an online programming system that allows code sharing, collaborative editing, database manipulation, and integration with all other tools. Finally, NuKIT is envisioned to include commercialization tools to allow freelance work and to compensate data entry/moderation work to help encourage participation. Eventually, integration with industry-standard tools like MCNP, SCALE, etc. is expected. This paper will present some proposed work in the context of its use for isotopes and radiation application, as well as possible work to be done in the context of the Combined Materials Experimental Toolkit (CoMET) being developed by the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) program. It should be noted that any work done towards this system, by any group, will advance the full system. It should also be noted that similar work previously done can be integrated into NuKIT.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Introducing PRIMRE's MRE Software Knowledge Hub (February 2021)

This paper focuses on the role of the Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) Software Knowledge Hub on the Portal and Repository for Information on Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMRE). The MRE Software Knowledge Hub provides online services for MRE software users and developers, and seeks to develop assessments and recommendations for improving MRE software in the future. Online software discovery platforms, known as the Code Hub and the Code Catalog, are provided. The Code Hub is a collection of open-source MRE software that includes a landing page with search functionality, linked to files hosted on the MRE Code Hub GitHub organization. The Code Catalog is a searchable online platform for discovery of useful (open-source or commercial) software packages, tools, codes, and other software products. To gather information about the existing MRE software landscape, a software survey is being performed, the preliminary results of which are presented herein. Initially, the data collected in the MRE software survey will be used to populate the MRE Software knowledge hub on PRIMRE, and future work will use data from the survey to perform a gap analysis and develop a vision for future software development. Additionally, as one of PRIMRE's roles is to support development of MRE software within project partners, a silo of knowledge relating to best practices has been gathered. An early draft of new guidance developed from this knowledge is presented.

gap analysis↗

DOE OSTI2015

Knowledge management information tool Web analytics - 15182

The Knowledge Management Information Tool (KM-IT) is a web-based [01] system developed to maintain and preserve the Department of Energy's (DOE's) D and D knowledge base. The system was developed by Florida International University's Applied Research Center (FIU-ARC) with the support of the D and D community including the DOE Office of Environmental Management, and with the active collaboration and support of the DOE's Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG). The KM-IT system is a D and D community driven system tailored to serve the technical issues faced by the D and D workforce across the DOE Complex. The D and D KM-IT is an interactive web-based system operational and available for free access at www.dndkm.org. [02] The D and D KM-IT is currently composed of the following tailored D and D modules: Web Crawler, Hotline, Technology, Document Library (including Hanford's and Savannah River Sites' ALARA Center Reports), Specialist Directory, Lessons Learned, Best Practices, Video/Picture Library, Vendors, Collaboration Tools, Training, and Mobile Systems. The Web Crawler dynamically searches through the D and D KM-IT repository as well as the web and displays search results based on the search criteria. The Hotline allows registered users to post questions/problems related to D and D and to receive solutions from a subject-matter specialist. The Technology module serves as repository of D and D technologies and contains technology/ demonstration fact sheets and vendor information. D and D community members can add Lessons Learned, Best Practices, Documents, and Pictures/Videos to the D and D KM-IT repository, after a formal approval process. The Vendor module provides a directory of commercial vendors who provide D and D related technologies, supplies, and services. D and D KM-IT makes excellent use of the knowledge that exists within the D and D community by allowing D and D project managers around the DOE complex to collaborate by sharing innovative ideas, past experiences, and practices and by maintaining a directory of subject matter specialists. The mobile version of the KM-IT can be accessed from m.dndkm.org [03] and currently has six active modules: Vendor, Technology, Picture/Video Library, Hotline, Lessons Learned and Specialist Directory. Web analytics is a key tool being implemented by the D and D KM-IT project team in an effort to enhance the system to better meet users' needs. The D and D KM-IT project team incorporates web analytics as part of its operational elements to analyze information and key data points on how the system is being used. Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage. The use of web analytics retains or attracts D and D community members to access and share knowledge through virtual collaboration on the KM-IT platform. D and D KM-IT web analytics measures details on the overall usage of the system without tracking personal information or specific user behavior: how many users visited the application, how many of those users were unique visitors, how visitors come to the system (i.e., by following a link to the system or by using the web site URL via bookmark or directly typing the address), what keywords were used to perform searches with the search engine, how long the average user stayed on a given screen or on the entire system and what links were clicked on. This information is used to identify which areas of the system are more popular than the others and provides information that can be used to streamline the application for a better user experience. (authors)

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

DOE OSTI2024

Boundary spanning increases knowledge and action on invasive species in a changing climate

Abstract Challenges associated with global change stressors on ecosystems have prompted calls to improve actionable science, including through boundary‐spanning activities, which aim to build connections and communication between researchers and natural resource practitioners. By synthesizing and translating research and practitioner knowledge, boundary‐spanning activities could support proactive, research‐informed conservation practice, but the success of these efforts is rarely evaluated. Using repeat survey data from the Northeast Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change (NE RISCC) Management Network, a boundary‐spanning organization, we evaluate whether participating in NE RISCC affected practitioners' knowledge, actions and priorities related to invasive species management under a changing climate. Our survey results suggest that practitioners who participate in NE RISCC have greater knowledge about invasive species and climate change and are incorporating climate change in more ways into their invasive species management. We also found NE RISCC membership affected the perceived usefulness of informational resources, with NE RISCC members more frequently identifying research syntheses and targeted workshops (both are common products used by NE RISCC to translate science into practice and share manager knowledge) as useful compared to non‐members. Practitioners who participate in NE RISCC also identified somewhat different research priorities, with non‐members and short‐term members more frequently identifying range‐shifting neonative species and their impacts on native communities as higher priorities compared to long‐term NE RISCC members. NE RISCC research activities and outreach materials have consistently framed range‐shifting neonative species as comparatively low risk, suggesting that this information has influenced practitioner's perception of risk. Practical implication : Although real‐world impacts of applied ecology are notoriously difficult to quantify, this analysis illustrates that if research results are actively translated, they can affect the knowledge and actions of natural resource practitioners. These impacts illustrate the potential for boundary‐spanning efforts to address other global change challenges to conservation.

Evans, Annette E.↗

DOE OSTI2016

The Introduction of an Undergraduate Interventional Radiology (IR) Curriculum: Impact on Medical Student Knowledge and Interest in IR

IntroductionInterventional radiology (IR) plays a vital role in modern medicine, with increasing demand for services, but with a shortage of experienced interventionalists. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of a recently introduced IR curriculum on perception, knowledge, and interest of medical students regarding various aspects of IR.MethodsIn 2014, an anonymous web-based questionnaire was sent to 309 4th year medical students in a single institution within an EU country, both before and after delivery of a 10-h IR teaching curriculum.ResultsSeventy-six percent (236/309) of the respondents participated in the pre-IR module survey, while 50 % (157/309) responded to the post-IR module survey. While 62 % (147/236) of the respondents reported poor or no knowledge of IR compared to other medical disciplines in the pre-IR module survey, this decreased to 17 % (27/157) in the post-IR module survey. The correct responses regarding knowledge of selected IR procedures improved from 70 to 94 % for venous access, 78 to 99 % for uterine fibroid embolization, 75 to 97 % for GI bleeding embolization, 60 to 92 % for trauma embolization, 71 to 92 % for tumor ablation, and 81 to 94 % for angioplasty and stenting in peripheral arterial disease. With regard to knowledge of IR clinical roles, responses improved from 42 to 59 % for outpatient clinic review of patients and having inpatient beds, 63–76 % for direct patient consultation, and 43–60 % for having regular ward rounds. The number of students who would consider a career in IR increased from 60 to 73 %.ConclusionDelivering an undergraduate IR curriculum increased the knowledge and understanding of various aspects of IR and also the general enthusiasm for pursuing this specialty as a future career choice.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

DOE OSTI2016

An experiential approach to improving the integration of knowledge during EIA in transport planning

The integration of knowledge from stakeholders and the public at large is seen as one of the biggest process-related barriers during the scoping phase of EIA application in transport planning. While the academic literature offers abundant analyses, discussions and suggestions how to overcome this problem, the proposed solutions are yet to be adequately tested in practice. In order to address this gap, we test the effectiveness of a set of interventions and trigger mechanisms for improving different aspects of knowledge integration. The interventions are tested in an experiential study with two sequential cases, representing “close-to-real-life” conditions, in the context of two cities in Andalusia, Spain. In general terms, the participants perceived that the integration of knowledge improved during the simulation of the EIA scoping phase. Certain shortcomings were also discussed, fundamentally related to how the time spent during the scoping phase was crucial to lead an effective learning process between the involved people. The study concludes with a reflection on the effectiveness of the tested interventions according to similarities and differences obtained from the two experiential case studies, as well as with a discussion of the potential to generate new knowledge through the use of experiential studies in EIA practice. - Highlights: • It tests a set of interventions and mechanisms to improve the integration of knowledge. • The scoping phase of EIA is simulated to assess the effectiveness of interventions. • Two sequential case studies are used.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Multiview Incomplete Knowledge Graph Integration with application to cross-institutional EHR data harmonization

Objective: The growing availability of electronic health records (EHR) data opens opportunities for integrative analysis of multi-institutional EHR to produce generalizable knowledge. A key barrier to such integrative analyses is the lack of semantic interoperability across different institutions due to coding differences. We propose a Multiview Incomplete Knowledge Graph Integration (MIKGI) algorithm to integrate information from multiple sources with partially overlapping EHR concept codes to enable translations between healthcare systems. Methods: The MIKGI algorithm combines knowledge graph information from (i) embeddings trained from the co-occurrence patterns of medical codes within each EHR system and (ii) semantic embeddings of the textual strings of all medical codes obtained from the Self-Aligning Pretrained BERT (SAPBERT) algorithm. Due to the heterogeneity in the coding across healthcare systems, each EHR source provides partial coverage of the available codes. MIKGI synthesizes the incomplete knowledge graphs derived from these multi-source embeddings by minimizing a spherical loss function that combines the pairwise directional similarities of embeddings computed from all available sources. MIKGI outputs harmonized semantic embedding vectors for all EHR codes, which improves the quality of the embeddings and enables direct assessment of both similarity and relatedness between any pair of codes from multiple healthcare systems. Results: With EHR co-occurrence data from Veteran Affairs (VA) healthcare and Mass General Brigham (MGB), MIKGI algorithm produces high quality embeddings for a variety of downstream tasks including detecting known similar or related entity pairs and mapping VA local codes to the relevant EHR codes used at MGB. Based on the cosine similarity of the MIKGI trained embeddings, the AUC was 0.918 for detecting similar entity pairs and 0.809 for detecting related pairs. For cross-institutional medical code mapping, the top 1 and top 5 accuracy were 91.0% and 97.5% when mapping medication codes at VA to RxNorm medication codes at MGB; 59.1% and 75.8% when mapping VA local laboratory codes to LOINC hierarchy. When trained with 500 labels, the lab code mapping attained top 1 and 5 accuracy at 77.7% and 87.9%. MIKGI also attained best performance in selecting VA local lab codes for desired laboratory tests and COVID-19 related features for COVID EHR studies. Compared to existing methods, MIKGI attained the most robust performance with accuracy the highest or near the highest across all tasks. Conclusions: The proposed MIKGI algorithm can effectively integrate incomplete summary data from biomedical text and EHR data to generate harmonized embeddings for EHR codes for knowledge graph modeling and cross-institutional translation of EHR codes.

Zhou, Doudou↗

DOE OSTI2016

Causal Mechanism Graph – A new notation for capturing cause-effect knowledge in software dependability

Understanding cause-effect relations between concepts in software dependability engineering is fundamental to various research or industrial activities. Cognitive maps are traditionally used to elicit and represent such knowledge; however they seem incapable of accurately representing complex causal mechanisms in dependability engineering. Here, this paper proposes a new notation called Causal Mechanism Graph (CMG) to elicit and represent the cause-effect domain knowledge embedded in experts’ minds or described in the literature. CMG contains a new set of symbols elicited from domain experts to capture the recurring interaction mechanisms between multiple concepts in software dependability engineering. Furthermore, compared to major existing graphic methods, CMG is particularly robust and suitable for mental knowledge elicitation: it allows one to represent the full range of cause-effect knowledge, accurately or fuzzily as one sees fit depending on the depth of knowledge he/she has. This feature combined with excellent reliability and validity poses CMG as a promising method that has the potential to be used in various areas, such as software dependability requirement elicitation, software dependability assessment and dependability risk control.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2023

Knowledge acquisition and innovation quality: The moderating role of geographical characteristics of technology

Acquiring and absorbing knowledge at different geographic levels is an important step in the technological learning and innovation processes for firms. Geographically bounded knowledge searching and spillover have been shown in various network formats, industries, geographic scopes, and country contexts. This study finds evidence of localized learning in citation networks in the solar photovoltaic balance-of-systems (PV BOS) innovations, and that the levels of localized learning vary based on the degree to which technologies are relevant to local contexts. Thus, this study proposes that the value of local and non-local knowledge on patent quality is contingent on technological characteristics. Further, leveraging the different degrees of local dependence on four types of technologies in the PV BOS industry, we find that the impact of local knowledge on innovation quality is higher for technologies that are more rooted in local contexts and that the impact of non-local knowledge is higher for technologies that are less relevant to local contexts.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2015

WE-F-BRB-00: New Developments in Knowledge-Based Treatment Planning and Automation

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2017

Critical issues in radiation protection knowledge management for preserving radiation protection research and development capabilities

As a hub of domestic radiation protection capabilities, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for Radiation Protection Knowledge has a mandate to develop and actuate a formal knowledge management (KM) effort. This KM approach exceeds recruitment and training efforts but focuses on formalized strategies for knowledge transfer from outgoing subject matter experts in radiation protection to incoming generations. It is envisioned that such an effort will provide one avenue for preserving domestic capabilities to support stakeholder needs in the federal government and the nuclear industry while continuing to lead and innovate in research and development on a global scale. Furthermore, in the absence of broader coordination within the United States, preservation of radiation protection knowledge continues to be in jeopardy in the absence of a dedicated KM effort.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

DOE OSTI2018

Harnessing expert knowledge: Defining a Bayesian network decision model with limited data-Model structure for the vibration qualification problem

As systems become more complex, systems engineers rely on experts to inform decisions. There are few experts and limited data in many complex new technologies. This challenges systems engineers as they strive to plan activities such as qualification in an environment where technical constraints are coupled with the traditional cost, risk, and schedule constraints. Bayesian network (BN) models provide a framework to aid systems engineers in planning qualification efforts with complex constraints by harnessing expert knowledge and incorporating technical factors. By quantifying causal factors, a BN model can provide data about the risk of implementing a decision supplemented with information on driving factors. This allows a systems engineer to make informed decisions and examine “what-if” scenarios. This paper discusses a novel process developed to define a BN model structure based primarily on expert knowledge supplemented with extremely limited data (25 data sets or less). The model was developed to aid qualification decisions—specifically to predict the suitability of six degrees of freedom (6DOF) vibration testing for qualification. The process defined the model structure with expert knowledge in an unbiased manner. Finally, validation during the process execution and of the model provided evidence the process may be an effective tool in harnessing expert knowledge for a BN model.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2020

Knowledge spillovers between PV installers can reduce the cost of installing solar PV

We analyze pricing in PV systems using data from 2008-2014 to identify the effects of knowledge spillovers in reducing the installed cost of PV. This paper estimates the size of the effects of learning by doing and knowledge spillovers using multiple formulations of spillover related variables. We found knowledge spillovers between firms within a county to be a significant and substantial factor in reducing the costs of PV. However, these spillovers reduce costs only for firms over a certain size threshold, and no cost-reducing spillovers were found for smaller installers. Geographic spillovers, within a firm from one county to another were also significant although not as large as the local between-firm effects. We ran 43 specifications on the data and generally found these main results to be robust, although not in every specification. One implication of these results is that policies that subsidize demand for PV are leading to the creation of new knowledge that would not exist at lower levels of demand. Furthermore, that the spillovers become stronger at higher levels of experience suggests that these subsidies would need to be substantial, particularly in new markets with many small firms.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

A research agenda for the science of actionable knowledge: Drawing from a review of the most misguided to the most enlightened claims in the science-policy interface literature

Linking science with action affords a prime opportunity to leverage greater societal impact from research and increase the use of evidence in decision-making. Success in these areas depends critically upon processes of producing and mobilizing knowledge, as well as supporting and making decisions. For decades, scholars have idealized and described these social processes in different ways, resulting in numerous assumptions that now variously guide engagements at the interface of science and society. We systematically catalog these assumptions based on prior research on the science-policy interface, and further distill them into a set of 26 claims. We then elicit expert perspectives (n = 16) about these claims to assess the extent to which they are accurate or merit further examination. Out of this process, we construct a research agenda to motivate future scientific research on actionable knowledge, prioritizing areas that experts identified as critical gaps in understanding of the science-society interface. The resulting agenda focuses on how to define success, support intermediaries, build trust, and evaluate the importance of consensus and its alternatives – all in the diverse contexts of science-society-decision-making interactions. We further raise questions about the centrality of knowledge in these interactions, discussing how a governance lens might be generative of efforts to support more equitable processes and outcomes. We offer these suggestions with hopes of furthering the science of actionable knowledge as a transdisciplinary area of inquiry.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Knowledge based ranking algorithm for comparative assessment of post-closure care needs of closed landfills

Post-closure care (PCC) activities at landfills include cap maintenance; water quality monitoring; maintenance and monitoring of the gas collection/control system, leachate collection system, groundwater monitoring wells, and surface water management system; and general site maintenance. The objective of this study was to develop an integrated data and knowledge based decision making tool for preliminary estimation of PCC needs at closed landfills. To develop the decision making tool, 11 categories of parameters were identified as critical areas which could affect future PCC needs. Each category was further analyzed by detailed questions which could be answered with limited data and knowledge about the site, its history, location, and site specific characteristics. Depending on the existing knowledge base, a score was assigned to each question (on a scale 1-10, as 1 being the best and 10 being the worst). Each category was also assigned a weight based on its relative importance on the site conditions and PCC needs. The overall landfill score was obtained from the total weighted sum attained. Based on the overall score, landfill conditions could be categorized as critical, acceptable, or good. Critical condition indicates that the landfill may be a threat to the human health and the environment and necessary steps should be taken. Acceptable condition indicates that the landfill is currently stable and the monitoring should be continued. Good condition indicates that the landfill is stable and the monitoring activities can be reduced in the future. The knowledge base algorithm was applied to two case study landfills for preliminary assessment of PCC performance.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗