Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “test protocol”

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 973 records · Page 54
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Understanding Plant Signaling Via Innovations in Probe Delivery and Imaging

The goal of this project was to develop tools for studying plant processes in living tissues. We wanted a method for introducing probes for studying plant processes such that plants could remain intact and imaged iteratively. Towards this end, we successfully optimized carbon nanofibers that we showed could deliver non-permeable signaling probes/biomolecules to plant cells. These were created on a rigid backing and also successfully transferred to a flexible backing to use with curved plant structures. We also built fiber optic microscopes that permit iterative non-destructive fluorescence or light micrographs and created protocols and devices to stabilize plant organs during imaging. These tools were developed in conjunction with research aimed understanding receptor-mediated peptide trafficking and responses relevant to plant cell growth and defense tradeoff. During this project, we designed and built two fiberoptic fluorescence microscopes; (b) designed, fabricated and validated different nanospike designs for delivering probes to plants, including the feasibility of delivering DNA constructs for expression studies; (c) developed fluorescent peptide probes (active and inactive versions of a secreted receptor ligand called phytosulfokine or PSK) and performed mobility tests after application to plants using microscopy; (d) used appropriate genetic plant backgrounds to facilitate PSK trafficking and response mechanisms; (e) determined the transcriptional changes due to PSK-induced signaling related to growth/defense tradeoff; (f) performed experiments showing the growth/defense tradeoff involves repression of specific defense components in response to PSK. This project also involved the training of two PhD students and five Masters students.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Metal leaching from Lithium-ion and Nickel-metal hydride batteries and photovoltaic modules in simulated landfill leachates and municipal solid waste materials

Photovoltaic (PV) modules and batteries can either be recycled or disposed of in landfills at end-of-life (EoL). This work focuses on disposal since the benefit of recycling PV modules and batteries is well established. This study characterizes the potential toxicity due to metals leaching from selected PV modules and batteries through both the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) and in-house batch leaching protocols to probe the impact on metallic ion mobility as a function of the different types of e-waste entering the waste stream, the magnitude of device damage when placed into the waste stream, and the simulated municipal solid waste (SMSW) composition. Our results showed that one PV module and three battery types in this study should be classified as hazardous waste within the U.S. However, for some of the other e-wastes, metals of concern including Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn leached during the batch tests but not in the TCLP regulatory method. For most of the waste types, the amounts of metals that leached in the TCLP test and batch tests were much lower than the total extractable amounts, demonstrating the potential for additional unaccounted for amounts of metals to leach. Our results demonstrate that the TCLP regulatory method might fail at predicting potential leaching and at capturing the complexity of e-waste leaching in landfill conditions. It confirms that additional work is needed urgently to develop appropriate EoL procedures for MSW with PV and battery e-waste.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-J-117: Impact of Motion Artifacts On Image Quality and Accuracy of Tumor Motion Reconstruction in 4D CT-On-Rails and MV-CBCT Scans: A Phantom Study

Purpose: To compare and quantify respiratory motion artifacts in images from free breathing 4D-CT-on-Rails(CTOR) and those from MV-Cone-beam-CT(MVCB) and facilitate respiratory motion guided radiation therapy. Methods: 4D-CTOR: Siemens Somatom CT-on-Rails system with Anzai belt loaded with pressure sensor load cells. 4D scans were performed in helical mode, pitch 0.1, gantry rotation time 0.5s, 1.5mm slice thickness, 120kVp, 400 mAs. Normal and fast breathing (>12rpm) scanning protocols were investigated. Helical scan, AIP(average intensity projection) and MIP(maximum intensity projection) were generated from 4D-CTOR scans with amplitude sorting into 10 phases.MVCB: Siemens Artiste diamond view(1MV)MVCB was performed with 5MU thorax protocol with 60 second of full rotation.Phantom: Anzai AZ-733V respiratory phantom. The settings were set to normal and resp. modes with repetition rates at 15 rpm and 10 rpm. Surgical clips, acrylic, wooden, rubber and lung density, total six mock-ups were scanned and compared in this study.Signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio(CNR) and reconstructed motion volume were compared to different respiratory setups for the mock-ups. Results: Reconstructed motion volume was compared to the real object volume for the six test mock-ups. It shows that free breathing helical in all instances underestimates the object excursions largest to −67.4% and least −6.3%. Under normal breathing settings, MIP can predict very precise motion volume with minimum 0.4% and largest −13.9%. MVCB shows underestimate of the motion volume with −1.11% minimum and −18.0% maximum. With fast breathing, AIP provides bad representation of the object motion; however, the MIP can predict the motion volume with −2.0% to −11.4% underestimate. Conclusion: Respiratory motion guided radiation therapy requires good motion recording. This study shows that regular CTOR helical scans provides bad guidance, 4D CTOR AIP cannot represent the fast breathing pattern, MIP can represent the best motion volume, MVCBCT can only be used for normal breathing with acceptable uncertainties.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Influence of sequential stimulation practices on geochemical alteration of shale

Water-based hydraulic fracturing fluids (HFFs) can chemically interact with formation shale, resulting in altered porosity and permeability of the host rock. Experimental investigations of spatial and temporal shale-HFF interactions are helpful in interpreting chemical compositions of the injectate, as well as predicting alteration of hydraulic properties in the reservoir due to mineral dissolution and precipitation. Most bench-top experiments designed to study shale-HFF chemical interactions, either using batch reactors or flow-through setups, are carried out assuming that the acid spearhead has already become mixed with neutral HFFs. During operations, however, HFFs are typically injected according to a sequenced pumping schedule, starting with a concentrated acid spearhead, followed by multiple additions of near-neutral pH HFFs containing chemical amendments and proppant. In this study, we use geochemical modeling to consider whether this pre-mixed experimental protocol provides results directly comparable to a sequential discrete fluid-shale interaction protocol. Our results show that for the batch system, the transient evolution in major ion concentrations is faster with the sequential procedure. After 2 h of reaction time, the two protocols converge to the same aqueous concentrations. In a flow-through geometry, the pre-mixed model predicts extensive chemical alteration close to the injection point but negligible alteration downstream. In contrast, the sequential model predicts mineral reactions over hundreds of meters along the flow path. The extent of shale alteration in the sequential model at a given location depends on shale mineralogy and where the acid spearhead resides during the shut-in period. The predictive model developed in this study can help experimentalists to design bench-top tests and operators to better translate the results of laboratory experiments into practical applications.

Li, Qingyun↗
DOE OSTI2026

When Do Band Gap Calculations Agree with Experiments in Monolayer-Protected Cu 14 and Au 20 Atomically Precise Nanoclusters? A (TD)-DFT Comparison of HOMO–LUMO, Fundamental, Optical, and Electrochemical Energy Gaps

In view of the tremendous progress in atomically precise metal nanoclusters where electrochemical and optical energetics are routinely supported by computations to establish structure−function correlations, we explore the relationship between different protocols for measuring and computing band gaps of two distinct organic ligand-protected nanoclusters: [Cu 14 H 10 (MBN) 3 (PPh 3 ) 8 ] + and Au 20 (TBBT) 16 . Through UV/visible spectroscopy and differential pulse voltammetry, we measure optical and electrochemical band gaps in those systems. We then compare these experimentally determined gaps to HOMO−LUMO gaps, fundamental gaps, vertical excitation energies, and E o ox − E o red potentials computed using different density functional theory (DFT) or time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) methods. Specifically, in both copper and gold nanoclusters, we test the effect of truncating inert ligands from the model and compare density functionals with varying degrees of Hartree−Fock (HF) exchange from 0 to 50%, range-separated hybrids with a varying long-range tuning parameter, different correlation functionals, basis sets, and (equilibrium and nonequilibrium) continuum solvation models. Despite having different frontier orbital characters (the copper nanocluster has a metal-to-ligand charge transfer character while the gold nanocluster has metal-centered frontier orbitals), both nanoclusters display a similar sensitivity of the HOMO−LUMO gap to the HF exchange that is partially mitigated when computing the fundamental, optical, and electrochemical gaps. Other factors, such as the nature of the correlation functional, basis set, and geometry relaxation, have a considerably smaller effect on computed band gaps in these systems. Overall, this work provides guidelines for factors of varied importance for correlating computed and experimental band gap values.

Chemical calculations↗
DOE OSTI2021

Deep potential generation scheme and simulation protocol for the Li 10 GeP 2 S 12 -type superionic conductors

We report solid-state electrolyte materials with superior lithium ionic conductivities are vital to the next-generation Li-ion batteries. Molecular dynamics could provide atomic scale information to understand the diffusion process of Li-ion in these superionic conductor materials. Here, we implement the deep potential generator to set up an efficient protocol to automatically generate interatomic potentials for Li 10 GeP 2 S 12 -type solid-state electrolyte materials (Li 10 GeP 2 S 12 , Li 10 SiP 2 S 12 , and Li 10 SnP 2 S 12 ). The reliability and accuracy of the fast interatomic potentials are validated. With the potentials, we extend the simulation of the diffusion process to a wide temperature range (300 K–1000 K) and systems with large size (~1000 atoms). Important technical aspects such as the statistical error and size effect are carefully investigated, and benchmark tests including the effect of density functional, thermal expansion, and configurational disorder are performed. The computed data that consider these factors agree well with the experimental results, and we find that the three structures show different behaviors with respect to configurational disorder. Our work paves the way for further research on computation screening of solid-state electrolyte materials.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Plant Disease Detection Technology Assessment

Visual inspections by US Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists have identified approximately 20,000 regulated, quarantined pests each year in agricultural products entering the United States. Most of these pests identified in the Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection (AQI) program are insects. Many pathogens are difficult to detect in agricultural products, particularly in early stages of infection. New technologies can help to detect plant pathogens and the diseases that they cause. This technology assessment was performed for the US Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) through the Food, Agriculture, and Veterinary Defense (FAV-D) program to identify emerging technologies that could address this hard problem. These emerging technologies differ in their diagnostic sensitivities and specificities, as well as in their measurement time and training requirements. New instruments that detect volatile organic compounds characteristic of plant disease or pathogens could provide a less invasive inspection method. Dogs, which can successfully detect many concealed agricultural products, have also been trained to detect some plant pests and pathogens. Simple immunological tests offer sensitive and specific detection of many pathogens at the point of use. Advanced imaging methods that use AI to sort fruits and vegetables and recognize anomalies at high speeds could be used in cooperation with exporters to improve food quality and reduce pests. Advances in nucleic acid–based detection methods that have become gold standards for confirmatory diagnostics are now making those methods available for faster, point-of-use detection. These new methods should be developed in the context of AQI operational requirements, which apply risk-based sampling protocols to protect agriculture and facilitate commerce and passenger transit.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Understanding EV Charging Pain Points Through Deep Learning Analysis

Current and potential electric vehicle (EV) owners express concerns about the charging infrastructure, mentioning non-functional chargers, prolonged charging times, inconvenient charger locations, long wait times, and high costs as major barriers. Addressing these issues often requires analyzing actual vehicle charging data, which is typically proprietary and inconsistent due to diverse standards and protocols. To understand and improve the EV charging experience, customer reviews are typically used to identify common customer pain points (CPPs). However, there is not a comprehensive method to map customer reviews to a standardized set of CPPs. In collaboration with the National Charging Experience (ChargeX) Consortium, this study bridges these gaps by proposing a Systematic Categorization and Analysis of Large-scale EV-charging Reviews (SCALER) framework. SCALER is an integrated, deep learning framework that segments, actively labels, analyzes, and classifies EV charging customer reviews into six CPP categories. To test its effectiveness, we used SCALER to analyze over 72,000 reviews from customers charging various EV models on different networks across the United States. SCALER achieves a classification accuracy of 92.5%, with an F1 score exceeding 85.7%. By demonstrating real-world applications of SCALER, we enhance the industry’s ability to understand and address CPPs to improve the EV charging experience.

29 - ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Leaf gas exchange, leaf water potential and spectral reflectance, BIONTE, Brazil, 2023

Leaf traits measured at the top of the canopy on 30 tree species in the BIONTE experimental forest, near Manaus, Brazil, at three time points during August to November, 2023. The aim of this study was to test the relationship between leaf water use efficiency and wood density. Leaf gas exchange was measured on top-of-canopy leaves accessed by an articulated boom lift. Response curves (A-Ci and A-Q), and dark adapted respiration were measured on cut branches. Survey gas exchange measurements were performed on attached leaves at various times during the day. Following gas exchange, leaves were harvested, and measured for leaf water potential and spectral reflectance. Data in this data package is presented in csv files, with metadata in csv and descriptive experimental protocols as pdf. Gas exchange data and metadata meets the requirements of the ESS-DIVE reporting format for leaf-level gas exchange data and metadata.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Identification of small molecule inhibitors of botulinum neurotoxin serotype E via footprint similarity

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) are among the most poisonous substances known, and of the 7 serotypes (A–G) identified thus far at least 4 can cause death in humans. Here, the goal of this work was identification of inhibitors that specifically target the light chain catalytic site of the highly pathogenic but lesser-studied E serotype (BoNT/E). Large-scale computational screening, employing the program DOCK, was used to perform atomic-level docking of 1.4 million small molecules to prioritize those making favorable interactions with the BoNT/E site. In particular, ‘footprint similarity’ (FPS) scoring was used to identify compounds that could potentially mimic features on the known substrate tetrapeptide RIME. Among 92 compounds purchased and experimentally tested, compound C562-1101 emerged as the most promising hit with an apparent IC 50 value three-fold more potent than that of the first reported BoNT/E small molecule inhibitor NSC-77053. Additional analysis showed the predicted binding pose of C562-1101 was geometrically and energetically stable over an ensemble of structures generated by molecular dynamic simulations and that many of the intended interactions seen with RIME were maintained. Finally, several analogs were also computationally designed and predicted to have further molecular mimicry thereby demonstrating the potential utility of footprint-based scoring protocols to help guide hit refinement.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

A Synchronized Sensor Array for Remote Monitoring of Avian and Bat Interactions with Offshore Renewable Energy Facilities

Wind energy production in the U.S. is projected to increase to 35% of our nation’s energy by 2050. This substantial increase in the U.S. is only a portion of the global wind industry growth, as many countries strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A major environmental concern and potential market barrier for expansion of wind energy is bird and bat mortality from impacts with turbine blades, towers, and nacelles. Carcass surveys are the standard protocol for quantifying mortality at onshore sites. This method is imperfect, however, due to survey frequency at remote sites, removal of carcasses by scavengers between surveys, searcher efficiency, and other biases as well as delays of days to weeks or more in obtaining information on collision events. Furthermore, carcass surveys are not feasible at offshore wind energy sites. Near-real-time detection and quantification of interaction rates is possible at both onshore and offshore wind facilities using an onboard, integrated sensor package with data transmitted to central processing centers. We developed and experimentally tested an array of sensors that continuously monitors for interactions (including impacts) of birds and bats with wind turbines. The synchronized array includes three sensor nodes: (1) vibration (accelerometers and contact microphones), (2) optical (visual and infrared spectrum cameras), and (3) bioacoustics (acoustic and ultrasonic microphones). Accelerometers and contact acoustic microphones are placed at the root of each blade to detect impact vibrations and sound waves propagating through the structure. On-board data processing algorithms using wavelet analysis detect impact signals exceeding background vibration. Stereo-visual and infrared cameras were placed on the nacelle to allow target tracking, distance, and size calculations. On-board image processing and target detection algorithms identify moving targets within the camera field of view. Bioacoustic recorders monitor vocalizations and echolocations to aid in identifying organisms involved in interactions. Data from all sensors are temporarily stored in ring (i.e., circular) buffers with a duration varying by sensor type. Detection of target presence or impact by any of the sensors can trigger the archiving of data from all buffers for transmission to a central data processing center for evaluation and post-processing. This mitigates the risk of “data mortgages” posed by continual recording and minimizes personnel time required to manually review event data. We first conducted individual component tests at laboratories and field sites in Corvallis and Newport, Oregon, and Seattle and Sequim, Washington. We conducted additional component tests on research wind turbines at the North American Wind Research and Training Center, Mesalands Community College (MCC; General Electric 1.5 MW turbine), New Mexico, and the National Wind Technology Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL; Controls Advanced Research Turbines 3 [CART 3] 600 kW Westinghouse turbine), Colorado. We conducted fully integrated system tests at NREL in October 2014 and April 2015. We used only research wind turbines so that we could conduct controlled, experimentally generated impacts using empty and water-filled tennis balls shot from a compressed air cannon on the ground. The approx. 57-140 g tennis balls (depending on water content) were at the upper mass range for bats, but lower mass range for marine birds. Therefore, the ability to detect collisions of most seabirds is likely greater than our experiments demonstrate, but possibly lower for some bats depending on the background signal of a given turbine. Vibration data demonstrated that background signals of operating turbines varied markedly among the CART 3 under normal operation (greatest), GE (moderate), and CART 3 during idle rotation (generator not engaged; least). In total, we measured 63 experimental blade impacts on the two research turbines. Impaction detection was dependent on background signals, position of impact on the blade (a tip strike resulted in the strongest impact signal), and impact kinetics (velocity of ball and whether the ball struck the surface of the blade or the leading edge of the blade struck the ball). Overall detection percentage ranged from 100% for the “quietest” conditions (CART 3 idle rotation), down to 35% for the noisiest (CART 3 normal operation). Impact signals were detected from sensors on more than one blade (i.e., blades other than the blade struck) 50% - 75% of the time. Stereo imaging provided valuable metrics, but increased data processing and equipment cost. Given the cost of cameras with sufficient resolution for target identification, we suggest mounting cameras directly on the blades to continuously view the entire rotor swept area with the fewest number of cameras. Bioacoustic microphones provide taxonomic identification, as well as information on ambient noise levels. They also assist in identifying environmental conditions such as hail storms, high winds, thunder, lightning, etc., that may contribute to a collision or a false positive detection. We demonstrated a proof of concept for an integrated sensor array to detect and identify bird and bat collisions with wind turbines. The next phase of research and development for this system will miniaturize and integrate sensors from all three nodes into a single wireless package that can be attached directly to the blade. This next generation system would use all “smart” sensors capable of onboard data processing to drastically reduce data streams and processing time on a central computer. A provisional patent for the blade mounted system was submitted by Oregon State University and recorded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (application no. 62313028). Eventually, technology and industry advances will allow this low cost monitoring system to be designed into materials during manufacturing so that all turbines could be monitored with either a subset or full suite of sensors. As standard equipment on all commercial turbines, the sensor suite would allow the industry to effectively monitor whether individual turbines were causing mortalities or not and under what circumstances. It would also provide real-time evaluation of mechanical and structural integrity of a turbine via vibration, image, and acoustic data streams, thereby permitting modifications in operation to limit environmental or mechanical damage.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Innovating the next generation of commercial smart building software

Nearly 30% of commercial building energy use is wasted due to equipment faults and HVAC controls problems. The result is increased emissions, compromised comfort and productivity, and less reliable coordination of building power needs with a clean grid. The energy impact alone represents $17 billion in potential savings. Today’s smart building software provides a robust solution to address these operational deficiencies. Energy management and information systems (EMIS) are saving up to 9% on average, with two-year paybacks. They are being incorporated into energy management processes, commissioning services, and utility programs. As effective as they are, two barriers prevent even deeper benefits; limited personnel to fix problems once they are identified, and the expense and time to manually implement changes in control systems. In partnership with the research community, the EMIS industry is developing new capabilities to overcome these barriers. Moving beyond siloed products for either fault detection and diagnostics, or optimal control, these new capabilities empower users to not only automatically identify faults, but also to push corrective action, and control improvements to their buildings. In this paper, several areas for enhancements are documented: ‘one-time’ correction of faults such as setpoints, schedules, and economizer lockouts; short-term active testing for automated proportional integral derivative (PID) loop tuning and functional testing; and continuous supervisory control for demand flexibility and year-round efficiency. Results are presented from a pair of partner implementations out of a dozen providers integrating these enhancements into their products, including field tests from across the country, and insights into operator acceptance and integration into operations and maintenance practices.

Casillas, Armando↗
DOE OSTI2016

TH-AB-201-04: Clinical Protocol for Reuse of Optically Stimulated Luminescence Detectors

Purpose: OSLDs made of Al2O3:C have many useful dosimetric characteristics including their ability to be reused. The signal on an OSLD can be removed through heat or light. The objective of this study was to characterize the change in sensitivity associated with annealing OSLDs with light and in doing so define a range through which reuse is viable. Methods: Four groups of nanoDot OSLDs were repeatedly irradiated and bleached to create accumulated dose history. Each group’s repeated irradiation remained constant at either 50, 100, 200, or 500 cGy. Before both irradiation and bleaching the OSLDs were read out, giving the dose reading and ensuring that ample bleaching had occurred, respectively. New and used OSLDs were compared in several clinical situations to verify accuracy. One final test involved correcting the readout dose based on the loss of sensitivity seen in the accumulated dose data. Results: In the first 40 Gy of accumulated dose the sensitivity can be broken into two regions: a region of sensitivity change and a region of no sensitivity change. From 0 cGy to an average of 1080 cGy the sensitivity does not change. After 1080 cGy the sensitivity begins to decrease linearly with an average slope of 0.00456 cGy lost per cGy accumulated after the cutoff point. The slope and cutoff point were used to correct readings in the final test, reducing the error from 6.8% to 3.9%. Conclusion: In the region of no sensitivity change OSLDs can be reused without concern to the validity of their result. Readings must be corrected if OSLDs are to be used in the region of sensitivity change, above 1080 cGy. After 40 Gy OSLDs must be retired because the sensitivity change reverses, making linear correction no longer feasible.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Kinemetrics Q330M+ Digitizer Evaluation

Sandia National Laboratories has tested and evaluated a new digitizer, the Q330M+, manufactured by Quanterra, a division of Kinemetrics Inc. This digitizer is used to record sensor output for seismic and infrasound monitoring applications. The purpose of the digitizer evaluation was to measure the performance characteristics in such areas as sensitivity, input impedance, power consumption, self noise, dynamic range, system noise, relative transfer function, analog bandwidth, modified noise power ratio, harmonic distortion, common mode, cross talk, timing tag accuracy and timing drift. The Q330M+ provides six channels of 24 bit digitization, all of which may be transmitted utilizing CD1.1 protocol, at multiple sample rates.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

How Should Researchers Measure Perovskite-Based Monolithic Multijunction Solar Cells’ Performance? A Calibration Lab's Perspective

Perovskite multijunctions (PVSK MJs) have made remarkable progress with monolithic PVSK/PVSK tandems surpassing the efficiency of single-junction (1 J) PVSK cells and PVSK/Si cells reported to exceed the 30% efficiency mark. These efficiencies are reported at standard test conditions (STC), established by the photovoltaic (PV) community to facilitate comparison between devices and technologies. Herein, it is discussed why an accurate STC performance measurement for a MJ is more complicated than for a 1 J cell and the special aspects to be considered when measuring the current-voltage characteristics and the performance of PVSK-containing MJ cells are emphasized. It is discussed why a spectrally adjustable solar simulator is needed and the sequence of accurate performance measurement, namely measurement of the spectral response of each junction, adjustment of the spectrum, and appropriate protocols for measuring the power output of the device at STC, is presented. For all these, common errors and pitfalls that sometime lead to misleading interpretation of the results are presented, and the methods to evaluate the accuracy of the data when a spectrally adjustable solar simulator is not available are recommended. Finally, first step is taken toward recommending performance measurement approaches when high throughput is required as will eventually be in a production line.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Simple and Accurate One-Body Energy and Dipole Moment Surfaces for Water and Beyond

Water is often the testing ground for new, advanced force fields. While advanced functional forms for intermolecular interactions have been integral to the development of accurate water models, less attention has been paid to a transferable model for intramolecular valence terms. In this work, we present a one-body energy and dipole moment surface model, named 1B-UCB, that is simple yet accurate and can be feasibly adapted for both standard and advanced potentials. 1B-UCB for water is comparable in accuracy to those with much more complex functional forms, despite having drastically fewer parameters. The parametrization protocol has been implemented as part of the Q-Force automated workflow and requires only a quantum mechanical Hessian calculation as reference data, hence allowing it to be easily extended to a variety of molecular systems beyond water, which we demonstrate on a selection of small molecules with different symmetries.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-J-143: Initial Assessment of Image Quality of An Integrated MR-Linac System with ACR Phantom

Purpose/Objective(s): To assess the image quality of an integrated MR-Linac system and compare with other MRI systems that are primarily used for diagnostic purposes. Materials/Methods: An ACR MRI quality control (QC) phantom was used to evaluate the image quality of a fully integrated 1.5T MRI-Linac system recently installed at our institution. This system has a new split magnet design which gives the magnetic field strength of 1.5T. All images were acquired with a set of phased-array surface coils which are designed to have minimal attention of radiation beam. The anterior coil rests on a coil holder which keeps the anterior coil’s position consistent for QA purposes. The posterior coil is imbedded in the patient couch. Multiple sets of T1, T2/PD images were acquired using the protocols as prescribed by the ACR on three different dates, ranging 3 months apart. Results: The geometric distortion are within 0.5 mm in the axial scans and within 1mm in the saggital (z-direction) scans. Slice thickness accuracy, image uniformity, ghosting ratio, high contrast detectability are comparable to other 1.5T diagnostic MRI scanners. The low-contrast object detectability are lower comparatively, which is a result of using the body array coil. Additionally, the beam’s-eye-view images (oblique coronal and saggital images) have minimal geometric distortion at all linac gantry angles tested. No observable changes or drift in image quality is found from images acquired 3 month apart. Conclusion: Despite the use of a body array surface coil, the image quality is comparable to that of an 1.5T MRI scanner and is of sufficient quality to pass the ACR MRI accreditation program. The geometric distortion of the MRI system of the integrated MR-Linac is within 1mm for an object size similar to the ACR phantom, sufficient for radiation therapy treatment purpose. The authors received corporate sponsored research grants from Elekta which is the vendor for the MR-Linac evaluated in this study.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Alliance Project: Secure Control Systems for the Energy Sector

The Alliance Project addresses Area of Interest 4: Secure Remote Access for the Energy Sector, by combining physical and cyber access under one cybersecurity access system. The Alliance Project built on the successful completion of the Lemnos and Padlock Project (DOE-Funded Project started in 2007 and 2010) and researched and developed a solution for an Ethernet Security Gateway with the functionality required to integrate the physical access control cyber system and interface with legacy and new proximity card readers used for physical access requests. This project focused on securing and enhancing the cyber system the physical access control system operates on. The team tested and demonstrated the system solution on the SEL campus. Currently the physical access cyber system is completely separate from the cyber access control cyber system. With a single system industry benefits include: (1) Single system to learn and teach employees; (2) Single system that collects and alerts on logs and events simplifying incident response plans and NERC CIP compliance; (3) Unifies trust management to a single system reducing the potential errors in privilege escalation or revocation; (4) Provides a stronger cybersecurity platform the physical access control system operates on. Today they are mostly plain text protocols and little cyber awareness; (5) Integration of physical access awareness allows the cyber system to react and adjust. In some cases, the cyber access can be enhanced with authorized physical access and other cases the cyber access can be more restricted with unauthorized physical access; and (6) Enables the utility to establish as large or as small a physical access control system as they require. One example would be when a utility shares a substation with a neighbor utility and can’t rely on the substation door for the physical access control. The Alliance technology enables them to lock equipment racks simply with no scalability issues because it stands on the cyber security infrastructure which is already highly scalable.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗