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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 1,081 records · Page 60

Design of separate-effects In-Pile transient boiling experiments at the $\mathrm{TREAT}$ Facility

The cladding-to-coolant heat transfer during rapid power excursions, such as reactivity-initiated accidents, remains a crucial area of uncertainty in nuclear reactor safety. This uncertainty impacts the ability to accurately predict fuel performance behavior for these conditions. Improving our understanding of transient cladding-to-coolant heat transfer will enhance our ability to model design basis accidents and could increase design and improve safety margins for the current commercial fleet and advanced reactors. To address these issues, the Critical Heat Flux Static Environment Rodlet Transient Test Apparatus (CHF-SERTTA) experiment uses a novel approach with a borated stainless-steel heater rodlet that can replicate cladding temperatures experienced during a design-basis reactivity-initiated accident. The rodlet and experiment is instrumented to provide temperature and thermal-hydraulic conditions throughout the transient. The design of the rodlet allows for separate effect testing that eliminates complexities with a fuel and cladding specimen. We report the experiments have provided data that will be used to improve our understanding of boiling behavior, specifically critical heat flux, under transient conditions.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Destructive Analysis of TRISO Particles: Crush/Burn/Leach Followed by Davies-Gray Titration and IDMS

The accurate accounting of nuclear materials is a cornerstone of international nuclear safeguards. One emerging challenge in this domain is the fabrication of TRIstructural ISOtropic (TRISO) particle fuels. Although these innovative fuel forms are critical for advanced reactor applications, their robust refractory ceramics and coating compositions present significant obstacles to destructive analysis (DA) methods. Ensuring full and quantitative recovery from these particles is essential for accurate mass accountancy. The current study was initiated to address these challenges, first by validating a previously established destructive method developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the quantitative recovery of uranium from TRISO particles and then following that process with uranium content determination through isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) and Davies-Gray titration. This study expands on the scope of a digestive method that was developed under the Advanced Gas Reactor Fuel Development and Qualification program and is currently implemented in both the Coated Particle Fuel Development Laboratory and Irradiated Fuels Examination Laboratory at ORNL. The success of the previous Advanced Gas Reactor work relied on developing a DA method to evaluate the fabrication process and reactor experiments. The methodology described in this report was designed to rigorously investigate the efficacy of the crush/burn/leach sample preparation of TRISO particles; it aims to quantify uranium recovery while also assessing the effects of TRISO constituents (e.g., silicon and zirconium) on analytical precision and accuracy. By comparing the results from the titration method and IDMS, we sought to determine whether existing analytical procedures accepted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could be effectively translated to TRISO fuel forms. The team employed an approach that involved processing replicate TRISO samples, optimizing the milling (i.e., crushing) step and performing serial leaches. The elemental composition of the analytical samples was examined to prepare for interference studies in the second year of this project. The integration of gamma spectrometry to verify residual uranium activity further strengthened the validation. Statistical methods were applied to the collected data to evaluate the uncertainties arising from sampling, sample preparation and uranium quantification. These uncertainties were then compared to the IAEA’s international target values (ITVs). Additional data collected in upcoming project work will strengthen the uncertainty estimates. Ultimately, it is hoped that this project will contribute materially to the body of work related to characterization of TRISO based fuels for the purpose of material accountancy and its applications to international safeguards.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

A Test of Maxwell's Z Model Using Inverse Modeling

In modeling impact craters a small region of energy and momentum deposition, commonly called a "point source", is often assumed. This assumption implies that an impact is the same as an explosion at some depth below the surface. Maxwell's Z Model, an empirical point-source model derived from explosion cratering, has previously been compared with numerical impact craters with vertical incidence angles, leading to two main inferences. First, the flowfield center of the Z Model must be placed below the target surface in order to replicate numerical impact craters. Second, for vertical impacts, the flow-field center cannot be stationary if the value of Z is held constant; rather, the flow-field center migrates downward as the crater grows. The work presented here evaluates the utility of the Z Model for reproducing both vertical and oblique experimental impact data obtained at the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range (AVGR). Specifically, ejection angle data obtained through Three-Dimensional Particle Image Velocimetry (3D PIV) are used to constrain the parameters of Maxwell's Z Model, including the value of Z and the depth and position of the flow-field center via inverse modeling.

Anderson, J. L. B.↗

How long did it take for life to begin and evolve to cyanobacteria?

There is convincing paleontological evidence showing that stromatolite-building phototactic prokaryotes were already in existence 3.5 x 10(9) years ago. Late accretion impacts may have killed off life on our planet as late as 3.8 x 10(9) years ago. This leaves only 300 million years to go from the prebiotic soup to the RNA world and to cyanobacteria. However, 300 million years should be more than sufficient time. All known prebiotic reactions take place in geologically rapid time scales, and very slow prebiotic reactions are not feasible because the intermediate compounds would have been destroyed due to the passage of the entire ocean through deep-sea vents every 10(7) years or in even less time. Therefore, it is likely that self-replicating systems capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution emerged in a period shorter than the destruction rates of its components (<5 million years). The time for evolution from the first DNA/protein organisms to cyanobacteria is usually thought to be very long. However, the similarities of many enzymatic reactions, together with the analysis of the available sequence data, suggest that a significant number of the components involved in basic biological processes are the result of ancient gene duplication events. Assuming that the rate of gene duplication of ancient prokaryotes was comparable to today's present values, the development of a filamentous cyanobacterial-like genome would require approximately 7 x 10(6) years--or perhaps much less. Thus, in spite of the many uncertainties involved in the estimates of time for life to arise and evolve to cyanobacteria, we see no compelling reason to assume that this process, from the beginning of the primitive soup to cyanobacteria, took more than 10 million years.

Non-NASA Center↗

Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) Aeroshell Performance

On November 10, 2022, NASA launched the Low-earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) vehicle as a secondary payload mounted inside the launch vehicle adaptor on an Atlas V 401 out of the Vandenburg Space Force Base (VSFB). The primary payload, Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2), was delivered successfully to a sun synchronous trajectory shortly after launch, at which point the Centaur upper stage performed a burn to de-orbit the system. Once on the desired trajectory to enter the atmosphere the top of the payload adaptor was ejected to expose the LOFTID vehicle, then the LOFTID aeroshell, a Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD), was deployed and inflated without issue. The Centaur pointed the LOFTID to the desired attitude to enter the atmosphere, spun the assembly to three rpm, separated the reentry vehicle, and finally performed a collision avoidance maneuver to prevent the Centaur from re-contacting the LOFTID after atmospheric entry. The LOFTID vehicle maintained the design attitude and spin rate from separation to atmospheric entry, roughly 30 minutes, demonstrating the aeroshell did not experience any energy damping from inflatable structure flexibility. The LOFTID vehicle entered the atmosphere over Alaska at >8km/sec and decelerated as designed demonstrating stable flight from hypersonic entry through subsonic parachute deployment. On-board visible light cameras captured the reactions of the heatshield through all phases of flight, and co-located infrared light cameras captured the temperature distribution of the aft side of the heat shield anchored to a distribution of thermocouples on the inflatable structure (IS) in the field of view. Thermocouples were also embedded in the forward side of the aeroshell both in the Flexible Thermal Protection System (FTPS) as well as the IS. This paper will discuss aeroshell response to the atmospheric entry. The visible light cameras captured mechanical response of the deployable aeroshell to the loads applied in the different phases of entry. Events seen on the visible light cameras correlate with the response of the load cell pins on webbing elements that attach the aeroshell to the centerbody structure. Thermocouple data captured verifies the aerothermal response of the aeroshell was in-kind with pre-flight analysis predictions although somewhat lower in most locations. This data will allow the improvement of the aeroshell modeling tools predictive capability. Post-flight inspection of the aeroshell after splash down and ocean recovery shows that all the aeroshell materials and manufacturing techniques developed over the past 15 years of HIAD technology development performed as designed at large scale, a scale which cannot be replicated in ground test facilities. The HIAD supported the LOFTID vehicle high in the water after touching down under parachute and maintained buoyancy and integrity for the hour it took to position the recovery vessel near the LOFTID after splash down. There was no indication the HIAD would have experienced an issue maintaining buoyancy for many more hours after water impact as the component maintained adequate inflation pressure more than 24 hours after water extraction with no additional inflation gas in tanks, as the inflation gas remaining in the tank was vented prior to impact.

Entry Descent Landing Atmospheric Entry Deployable↗

CBX3 promotes proliferation and regulates glycolysis via suppressing FBP1 in pancreatic cancer

More and more evidence has demonstrated that Chromobox protein homolog 3(CBX3) has an important role in carcinogenesis by regulating several mechanisms, such as heterochromatin formation, gene silencing, DNA replication and repair. However, its role in pancreatic cancer has seldom been discussed. In the present study, we silenced CBX3 expression in pancreatic cancer cell lines and identified the positive roles of CBX3 in cancer cell proliferation. Furthermore, we demonstrated that silencing CBX3 in pancreatic cancer cells inhibited aerobic glycolysis, the basis for providing cancer cells with building blocks for macromolecule synthesis and ATP that required. To search for the underlying molecular mechanism, we turned to examine the impact of CBX3 on the expression of FBP1, a negative regulator of aerobic glycolysis in pancreatic cancer and indicated that CBX3 negatively regulated FBP1 expression. Silencing FBP1 expression attenuated the decrease in glycolytic capacity that caused by CBX3 knockdown in pancreatic cancer cells. Taken together, these data reveal that CBX3 serves as a positive regulator of aerobic glycolysis via suppressing of the FBP1 in pancreatic cancer cells. Disrupting the CBX3-FBP1 signaling axis would be effective to treat pancreatic cancer and prevent aerobic glycolysis.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Homologous Recombination and Transposon Propagation Shape the Population Structure of an Organism from the Deep Subsurface with Minimal Metabolism

DPANN archaea are primarily known based on genomes from metagenomes and single cells. We reconstructed a complete population genome for Candidatus "Forterrea," a Diapherotrite with a predicted symbiotic lifestyle probably centered around nucleotide metabolism and RuBisCO. Genome-wide analysis of sequence variation provided insights into the processes that shape its population structure in the deep subsurface. The genome contains many transposons, yet reconstruction of a complete genome from a short-read insert data set was possible because most occurred only in some individuals. Accuracy of the final reconstruction could be verified because the genome displays the pattern of cumulative GC skew known for some archaea but more typically associated with bacteria. Sequence variation is highly localized, and most pronounced around transposons and relatively close to the origin of replication. Patterns of variation are best explained by homologous recombination, a process previously not described for DPANN archaea.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

CAST: Contraction Algorithm for Symmetric Tensors

Tensor contractions represent the most compute-intensive core kernels in ab initio computational quantum chemistry and nuclear physics. Symmetries in these tensor contractions makes them difficult to load balance and scale to large distributed systems. In this paper, we develop an efficient and scalable algorithm to contract symmetric tensors. We introduce a novel approach that avoids data redistribution in contracting symmetric tensors while also avoiding redundant storage and maintaining load balance. We present experimental results on two parallel supercomputers for several symmetric contractions that appear in the CCSD quantum chemistry method. We also present a novel approach to tensor redistribution that can take advantage of parallel hyperplanes when the initial distribution has replicated dimensions, and use collective broadcast when the final distribution has replicated dimensions, making the algorithm very efficient.

distributed memory↗

Effects of Photovoltaic Module Materials and Design on Module Deformation Under Load

Static structural finite element models of an aluminum-framed crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) module and a glass-glass thin film PV module were constructed and validated against experimental measurements of deflection under uniform pressure loading. Parametric analyses using Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) were performed to propagate simulation input uncertainties related to module material properties, dimensions, and manufacturing tolerances into expected uncertainties in simulated deflection predictions. This exercise verifies the applicability and validity of finite element modeling for predicting mechanical behavior of solar modules across architectures and enables computational models to be used with greater confidence in assessment of module mechanical stressors and design for reliability. Sensitivity analyses were also performed on the uncertainty quantification data sets using linear correlation coefficients to elucidate the key parameters influencing module deformation. This information has implications on which materials or parameters may be optimized to best increase module stiffness and reliability, whether the key optimization parameters change with module architecture or loading magnitudes, and whether parameters such as frame design and racking must be replicated in reduced-scale reliability studies to adequately capture full module mechanical behavior.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Archaeal Genome Guardians Give Insights into Eukaryotic DNA Replication and Damage Response Proteins

As the third domain of life, archaea, like the eukarya and bacteria, must have robust DNA replication and repair complexes to ensure genome fidelity. Archaea moreover display a breadth of unique habitats and characteristics, and structural biologists increasingly appreciate these features. As archaea include extremophiles that can withstand diverse environmental stresses, they provide fundamental systems for understanding enzymes and pathways critical to genome integrity and stress responses. Such archaeal extremophiles provide critical data on the periodic table for life as well as on the biochemical, geochemical, and physical limitations to adaptive strategies allowing organisms to thrive under environmental stress relevant to determining the boundaries for life as we know it. Specifically, archaeal enzyme structures have informed the architecture and mechanisms of key DNA repair proteins and complexes. With added abilities to temperature-trap flexible complexes and reveal core domains of transient and dynamic complexes, these structures provide insights into mechanisms of maintaining genome integrity despite extreme environmental stress. The DNA damage response protein structures noted in this review therefore inform the basis for genome integrity in the face of environmental stress, with implications for all domains of life as well as for biomanufacturing, astrobiology, and medicine.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Gas Generation Testing of Spherical Resorcinol-Formaldehyde (sRF) Resin

This report describes gas generation testing of the spherical resorcinol-formaldehyde (sRF) resin that was conducted to support the technology maturation of the LAWPS facility. The current safety basis for the LAWPS facility is based primarily on two studies that had limited or inconclusive data sets. The two studies indicated a 40% increase in hydrogen generation rate of water (as predicted by the Hu model) with sRF resin over water alone. However, the previous studies did not test the range of conditions (process fluids and temperatures) that are expected in the LAWPS facility. Additionally, the previous studies did not obtain replicate test results or comparable liquid-only control samples. All of the testing described in this report, conducted with water, 0.45M nitric acid, and waste simulants with and without sRF resin, returned hydrogen generation rates that are within the current safety basis for the facility of 1.4 times the Hu model output for water.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Quantification of Type I Interferon Inhibition by Viral Proteins: Ebola Virus as a Case Study

Type I interferons (IFNs) are cytokines with both antiviral properties and protective roles in innate immune responses to viral infection. They induce an antiviral cellular state and link innate and adaptive immune responses. Yet, viruses have evolved different strategies to inhibit such host responses. One of them is the existence of viral proteins which subvert type I IFN responses to allow quick and successful viral replication, thus, sustaining the infection within a host. We propose mathematical models to characterise the intra-cellular mechanisms involved in viral protein antagonism of type I IFN responses, and compare three different molecular inhibition strategies. We study the Ebola viral protein, VP35, with this mathematical approach. Approximate Bayesian computation sequential Monte Carlo, together with experimental data and the mathematical models proposed, are used to perform model calibration, as well as model selection of the different hypotheses considered. Finally, we assess if model parameters are identifiable and discuss how such identifiability can be improved with new experimental data.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Data from: Nitrous oxide emissions during establishment of eight alternative cellulosic bioenergy cropping systems in the North Central United States

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from soils are a key sustainability metric of cropping systems. During crop establishment, disruptive land-use change is known to be a critical, but under reported period, for determining GHG emissions. We measured soil N2O emissions and potential environmental drivers of these fluxes from a three-year establishment-phase bioenergy cropping systems experiment replicated in southcentral Wisconsin (ARL) and southwestern Michigan (KBS). Cropping systems treatments were annual monocultures (continuous corn, corn–soybean–canola rotation), perennial monocultures (switchgrass, miscanthus, and poplar), and perennial polycultures (native grass mixture, early successional community, and restored prairie) all grown using best management practices specific to the system. Cumulative three-year N2O emissions from annuals were 142% higher than from perennials, with fertilized perennials 190% higher than unfertilized perennials. Emissions ranged from 3.1 to 19.1 kg N2O-N ha−1 yr−1 for the annuals with continuous corn > corn–soybean–canola rotation and 1.1 to 6.3 kg N2O-N ha−1 yr−1 for perennials. Nitrous oxide peak fluxes typically were associated with precipitation events that closely followed fertilization. Bayesian modeling of N2O fluxes based on measured environmental factors explained 33% of variability across all systems. Models trained on single systems performed well in most monocultures (e.g., R2 = 0.52 for poplar) but notably worse in polycultures (e.g., R2 = 0.17 for early successional, R2 = 0.06 for restored prairie), indicating that simulation models that include N2O emissions should be parameterized specific to particular plant communities. Our results indicate that perennial bioenergy crops in their establishment phase emit less N2O than annual crops, especially when not fertilized. These findings should be considered further alongside yield and other metrics contributing to important ecosystem services.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Simulating A Massive, Mobile Structure

Simulator replicates, kinematically and dynamically, mating of large, massive mobile structure with similarly large and massive fixed structure. Developed for testing berthing-and-latching mechanism. Fixed section holds active berthing-and-latching mechanism and its motor control system with optical encoder to maintain synchronization among four latches in mechanism. Tripodal load-cell network gathers data on load history of berthing operation, and infrared tracking system including light-emitting diodes produces data for position history.

Fantasia, Peter M.↗

Complex matrix multiplication operations with data pre-conditioning in a high performance computing architecture

Mechanisms for performing a complex matrix multiplication operation are provided. A vector load operation is performed to load a first vector operand of the complex matrix multiplication operation to a first target vector register. The first vector operand comprises a real and imaginary part of a first complex vector value. A complex load and splat operation is performed to load a second complex vector value of a second vector operand and replicate the second complex vector value within a second target vector register. The second complex vector value has a real and imaginary part. A cross multiply add operation is performed on elements of the first target vector register and elements of the second target vector register to generate a partial product of the complex matrix multiplication operation. The partial product is accumulated with other partial products and a resulting accumulated partial product is stored in a result vector register.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Simulating Pliocene warmth and a permanent El Niño-like state: The role of cloud albedo

We present that available evidence suggests that during the early Pliocene (4–5 Ma) the mean east-west sea surface temperature (SST) gradient in the equatorial Pacific Ocean was significantly smaller than today, possibly reaching only 1–2°C. The meridional SST gradients were also substantially weaker, implying an expanded ocean warm pool in low latitudes. Subsequent global cooling led to the establishment of the stronger, modern temperature gradients. Given our understanding of the physical processes that maintain the present-day cold tongue in the east, warm pool in the west and hence sharp temperature contrasts, determining the key factors that maintained early Pliocene climate still presents a challenge for climate theories and models. This study demonstrates how different cloud properties could provide a solution. We show that a reduction in the meridional gradient in cloud albedo can sustain reduced meridional and zonal SST gradients, an expanded warm pool and warmer thermal stratification in the ocean, and weaker Hadley and Walker circulations in the atmosphere. Having conducted a range of hypothetical modified cloud albedo experiments, we arrive at our Pliocene simulation, which shows good agreement with proxy SST data from major equatorial and coastal upwelling regions, the tropical warm pool, middle and high latitudes, and available subsurface temperature data. As suggested by the observations, the simulated Pliocene-like climate sustains a robust El Niño-Southern Oscillation despite the reduced mean east-west SST gradient. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that cloud albedo changes may be a critical element of Pliocene climate and that simulating the meridional SST gradient correctly is central to replicating the geographical patterns of Pliocene warmth.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Death-domain associated protein-6 (DAXX) mediated apoptosis in hantavirus infection is counter-balanced by activation of interferon-stimulated nuclear transcription factors

Hantaviruses are negative strand RNA species that replicate predominantly in the cytoplasm. They also activate numerous cellular responses, but their involvement in nuclear processes is yet to be established. Using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), this study investigates the molecular finger-print of nuclear transcription factors during hantavirus infection. The viral-replication-dependent activation of pro-myelocytic leukemia protein (PML) was followed by subsequent localization in nuclear bodies (NBs). PML was also found in close proximity to activated Sp100 nuclear antigen and interferon-stimulated gene 20 kDa protein (ISG-20), but co-localization with death-domain associated protein-6 (DAXX) was not observed. These data demonstrate that hantavirus triggers PML activation and localization in NBs in the absence of DAXX-PLM-NB co-localization. The results suggest that viral infection interferes with DAXX-mediated apoptosis, and expression of interferon-activated Sp100 and ISG-20 proteins may indicate intracellular intrinsic antiviral attempts.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

An Analysis of the Sensitivity of Proteogenomic Mapping of Somatic Mutations and Novel Splicing Events in Cancer

Improvements in mass spectrometry (MS)-based peptide sequencing provide a new opportunity to determine whether polymorphisms, mutations and splice variants identified in cancer cells are translated. Herein we therefore describe a proteogenomic data integration tool (QUILTS) and illustrate its application to whole genome, transcriptome and global MS peptide sequence datasets generated from a pair of luminal and basal-like breast cancer patient derived xenografts (PDX). The sensitivity of proteogenomic analysis for singe nucleotide variant (SNV) expression and novel splice junction (NSJ) detection was probed using multiple MS/MS process replicates. Despite over thirty sample replicates, only about 10% of all SNV (somatic and germline) were detected by both DNA and RNA sequencing were observed as peptides. An even smaller proportion of peptides corresponding to NSJ observed by RNA sequencing were detected (<0.1%). Peptides mapping to DNA-detected SNV without a detectable mRNA transcript were also observed demonstrating the transcriptome coverage was also incomplete (~80%). In contrast to germ-line variants, somatic variants were less likely to be detected at the peptide level in the basal-like tumor than the luminal tumor raising the possibility of differential translation or protein degradation effects. In conclusion, the QUILTS program integrates DNA, RNA and peptide sequencing to assess the degree to which somatic mutations are translated and therefore biologically active. By identifying gaps in sequence coverage QUILTS benchmarks current technology and assesses progress towards whole cancer proteome and transcriptome analysis.

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory↗