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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 127 records · Page 7

Electron scattering and neutrino physics

Abstract A thorough understanding of neutrino–nucleus scattering physics is crucial for the successful execution of the entire US neutrino physics program. Neutrino–nucleus interaction constitutes one of the biggest systematic uncertainties in neutrino experiments—both at intermediate energies affecting long-baseline deep underground neutrino experiment, as well as at low energies affecting coherent scattering neutrino program—and could well be the difference between achieving or missing discovery level precision. To this end, electron–nucleus scattering experiments provide vital information to test, assess and validate different nuclear models and event generators intended to test, assess and validate different nuclear models and event generators intended to be used in neutrino experiments. Similarly, for the low-energy neutrino program revolving around the coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering (CEvNS) physics at stopped pion sources, such as at ORNL, the main source of uncertainty in the evaluation of the CEvNS cross section is driven by the underlying nuclear structure, embedded in the weak form factor, of the target nucleus. To this end, parity-violating electron scattering (PVES) experiments, utilizing polarized electron beams, provide vital model-independent information in determining weak form factors. This information is vital in achieving a percent level precision needed to disentangle new physics signals from the standard model expected CEvNS rate. In this white paper, we highlight connections between electron- and neutrino–nucleus scattering physics at energies ranging from 10 s of MeV to a few GeV, review the status of ongoing and planned electron scattering experiments, identify gaps, and lay out a path forward that benefits the neutrino community. We also highlight the systemic challenges with respect to the divide between the nuclear and high-energy physics communities and funding that presents additional hurdles in mobilizing these connections to the benefit of neutrino programs.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

It takes a village: using a crowdsourced approach to investigate organic matter composition in global rivers through the lens of ecological theory

Though community-based scientific approaches are becoming more common, many scientific efforts are conducted by small groups of researchers that together develop a concept, analyze data, and interpret results that ultimately translate into a publication. Here, we present a community effort that breaks these traditional boundaries of the publication process by engaging the scientific community from initial hypothesis generation to final publication. We leverage community-generated data from the Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS) consortium to study organic matter composition through the lens of ecological theory. This community endeavor will use a suite of paired physical and chemical datasets collected from 97 river corridors across the globe. With our first step aimed at ideation, we engaged a community of scientists from 20 countries and 60 institutions, spanning disciplines and career stages by holding a virtual workshop (April 2021). In the workshop, participants generated content for questions, hypotheses, and proposed analyses based on the WHONDRS dataset. These ideation efforts resulted in several narratives investigating different questions led by different teams, which will be the basis for research articles in a Frontiers in Water collection. Currently, the community is collectively analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing these data that will result in seven crowdsourced articles using a single, existing WHONDRS dataset. The use of a shared dataset across articles not only lowers barriers for broad participation by not requiring generation of new data, but also provides unique opportunities for emergent learning by connecting outcomes across studies. Here we will explain methods used to enable this community endeavor aimed to promote a greater diversity of thinking on river corridor biogeochemistry through community science.

Borton, Mikayla A.↗

Connecting Nuclear Security to International Frameworks on Gender and Security

The international community is slowly beginning to recognize the intersections between the law and policy on international security – particularly arms control, non-proliferation, and disarmament – and the body of human rights law that addresses gender equality. Notably absent from this discussion is the field of nuclear security. Despite its historical underpinnings as an inherently domestic activity, nuclear security is thoroughly grounded in international treaty law. Yet, nuclear security is often overlooked in the international security context and has not been well situated with international instruments that address gender equality. We argue that gender equality in nuclear security should be understood as an important component of broader efforts to achieve equal opportunities for women in work and critical to ensuring women are included in conflict prevention efforts. Linking nuclear security to broader international efforts to increase gender equality in security and conflict prevention will provide a clearer structure and framework for gender equality initiatives in the nuclear security field. This is critically important given that estimates indicate that women comprise only twenty percent of the nuclear security workforce. Moreover, situating nuclear security in a broader international legal framework will simultaneously help states meet their gender equality commitments emanating from other instruments. This paper will first analyze the relationship between nuclear security and broader international security efforts, in particular arms control treaties and non-proliferation regimes. It will then survey the relevant international and regional frameworks for gender equality, particularly those that have applicability in the security context. This paper will next explore the relationship between nuclear security and these frameworks on gender. We find that some instruments provide support for gender equality initiatives in nuclear security because of their mandate to states to provide structural gender equality, and others are particularly relevant where they call for women's participation in conflict prevention. This paper concludes with recommendations to states that are concerned about the underrepresentation of women in nuclear security.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

The impact of habitat fragmentation on domatia-dwelling mites and a mite-plant-fungus tritrophic interaction

Abstract Context Habitat fragmentation is a leading threat to biodiversity, yet the impacts of fragmentation on most taxa, let alone interactions among those taxa, remain largely unknown. Objectives We studied how three consequences of fragmentation—reduced patch connectivity, altered patch shape, and edge proximity—impact plant-dwelling mite communities and mite-plant-fungus interactions within a large-scale habitat fragmentation experiment. Methods We sampled mite communities from the leaves of Quercus nigra (a plant species that has foliar domatia which harbor fungivorous and predacious mites) near and far from edge within fragments of varying edge-to-area ratio (shape) and connectivity via corridors. We also performed a mite-exclusion experiment across these fragmentation treatments to test the effects of mite presence and fungal hyphal abundance on leaf surfaces. Results Habitat edges influenced the abundance and richness of leaf-dwelling mites; plants closer to the edge had higher mite abundance and species richness. Likewise, hyphal counts were higher on leaves near patch edges. Despite both mite and fungal abundance being higher at patch edges, leaf hyphal counts were not impacted by mite abundance on those leaves. Neither patch shape nor connectivity influenced mite abundance, mite species richness, or the influence of mites on leaf surface fungal abundance. Conclusion Our results suggest that mites and foliar fungi may be independently affected by edge-structured environmental gradients, like temperature, rather than trophic effects. We demonstrate that large-scale habitat fragmentation and particularly edge effects can have impacts on multiple levels of microscopic communities, even in the absence of cascading trophic effects.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Social–ecological benefits of land–sea planning at multiple scales in Mesoamerica

Deforestation impacts the ecosystem services provided by downstream coral reefs to coastal communities in multiple ways, such as through increased sedimentation and nutrification. However, connections between terrestrial and marine ecosystems are generally assessed at a single scale and from an ecological perspective alone, limiting our understanding of how watershed management affects the benefits accrued by coastal communities at different scales. Here we explore how ecological and societal benefits of watershed interventions (restoration, protection and sustainable agriculture) differ when considered regionally versus nationally in the Mesoamerican Reef region, by using linked land–sea ecosystem service models. Results from a regional approach prioritize implementing interventions in larger multinational watersheds, leading to neighbouring nations benefiting from increased sediment retention and healthy corals. For the national prioritization approach, selecting for smaller watersheds within individual countries resulted in more societal benefits, particularly increased coastal protection and nature-based tourism, at the cost of improved coral health for neighbouring nations. Finally, we demonstrate how planning at multiple scales across the region can improve ecosystem and societal benefits, resulting in win–win outcomes.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

`SkyPy`: A package for modelling the Universe

SkyPy is an open-source Python package for simulating the astrophysical sky. It comprises a library of physical and empirical models across a range of observables and a command-line script to run end-to-end simulations. The library provides functions that sample realisations of sources and their associated properties from probability distributions. Simulation pipelines are constructed from these models using a YAML-based configuration syntax, while task scheduling and data dependencies are handled internally and the modular design allows users to interface with external software. SkyPy is developed and maintained by a diverse community of domain experts with a focus on software sustainability and interoperability. By fostering development, it provides a framework for correlated simulations of a range of cosmological probes including galaxy populations, large scale structure, the cosmic microwave background, supernovae and gravitational waves. Version 0.4 implements functions that model various properties of galaxies including luminosity functions, redshift distributions and optical photometry from spectral energy distribution templates. Future releases will provide additional modules, for example, to simulate populations of dark matter halos and model the galaxy-halo connection, making use of existing software packages from the astrophysics community where appropriate.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Time-series metagenomics reveals changing protistan ecology of a temperate dimictic lake

Abstract Background Protists, single-celled eukaryotic organisms, are critical to food web ecology, contributing to primary productivity and connecting small bacteria and archaea to higher trophic levels. Lake Mendota is a large, eutrophic natural lake that is a Long-Term Ecological Research site and among the world’s best-studied freshwater systems. Metagenomic samples have been collected and shotgun sequenced from Lake Mendota for the last 20 years. Here, we analyze this comprehensive time series to infer changes to the structure and function of the protistan community and to hypothesize about their interactions with bacteria. Results Based on small subunit rRNA genes extracted from the metagenomes and metagenome-assembled genomes of microeukaryotes, we identify shifts in the eukaryotic phytoplankton community over time, which we predict to be a consequence of reduced zooplankton grazing pressures after the invasion of a invasive predator (the spiny water flea) to the lake. The metagenomic data also reveal the presence of the spiny water flea and the zebra mussel, a second invasive species to Lake Mendota, prior to their visual identification during routine monitoring. Furthermore, we use species co-occurrence and co-abundance analysis to connect the protistan community with bacterial taxa. Correlation analysis suggests that protists and bacteria may interact or respond similarly to environmental conditions. Cryptophytes declined in the second decade of the timeseries, while many alveolate groups (e.g., ciliates and dinoflagellates) and diatoms increased in abundance, changes that have implications for food web efficiency in Lake Mendota. Conclusions We demonstrate that metagenomic sequence-based community analysis can complement existing efforts to monitor protists in Lake Mendota based on microscopy-based count surveys. We observed patterns of seasonal abundance in microeukaryotes in Lake Mendota that corroborated expectations from other systems, including high abundance of cryptophytes in winter and diatoms in fall and spring, but with much higher resolution than previous surveys. Our study identified long-term changes in the abundance of eukaryotic microbes and provided context for the known establishment of an invasive species that catalyzes a trophic cascade involving protists. Our findings are important for decoding potential long-term consequences of human interventions, including invasive species introduction.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Artificial Intelligence for Accelerating Nuclear Applications, Science, and Technology

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) methods have had significant impacts in science and technology in recent years. These methods for generating models from datasets or logic-based algorithms that emulate aspects of human performance can similarly accelerate the fields of nuclear applications, science, and technology toward the IAEA goals of contributing to peace, health, and prosperity. In order to accomplish advances with AI in general and ML in particular across these fields, IAEA can play a significant role by establishing, hosting and curating centralised resources, including databases, adhering to FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) principles and Open Science best practices, providing stewardship of data sharing, supporting training efforts and development of relevant workforces, as well as enabling connections among the scientific, technology, mathematics, AI and ethics communities. Many areas can benefit from the use of AI in the realm of nuclear applications. In human health, these areas include clinical research, epidemiology, nutrition, medical imaging, radiotherapy and education of health professionals. AI-based tools are also being used to facilitate different clinical tasks in imaging, computer-assisted diagnosis in mammography and lung cancer screening programmes, and dose prediction in nuclear medicine procedures. ML methods in particular may also increase the efficiency and accuracy of the analysis of computerised tomography and dual-energy absorptiometry scans for body composition and bone analysis. The application of AI methods to nuclear and related technologies in food and agriculture can lead to significant advances and improved efficiency in the optimisation of agricultural production, food product development, management of supply chains, food safety and food authenticity control. In the water and environmental sector, AI can help inform policies to mitigate the world’s water problems. The application of AI techniques to hydrology and environmental sciences is expected to improve patterns identification and enable model predictions under a changing climate.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Design and Implementation of Smart Buildings: A Review of Current Research Trend

The building sector is one of the largest contributors to the world’s total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Advancements in building energy technologies have played a critical role in enhancing the energy sustainability of the built environment. Extensive research and new techniques in energy and environmental systems for buildings have recently emerged to address the global challenges. This study reviews existing articles in the literature, mostly since 2000, to explore technological advancement in building energy and environmental systems that can be applied to smart homes and buildings. This review study focuses on an overview of the design and implementation of energy-related smart building technologies, including energy management systems, renewable energy applications, and current advanced smart technologies for optimal function and energy-efficient performance. To review the advancement in building energy-related technologies, a systematic review process is adopted based on available published reviews and research types of articles. Review-type articles are first assessed to explore the current literature on the relevant keywords and to capture major research scopes. Research-type papers are then examined to investigate associated keywords and work scopes, including objectives, focuses, limitations, and future needs. Throughout the comprehensive literature review, this study identifies various techniques of smart home/building applications that have provided detailed solutions or guidelines in different applications to enhance the quality of people’s daily activities and the sustainability of the built environmental system. This paper shows trends in human activities and technology advancements in digital solutions with energy management systems and practical designs. Understanding the overall energy flow between a building and its environmentally connected systems is also important for future buildings and community levels. This paper assists in understanding the pathway toward future smart homes/buildings and their technologies for researchers in related research fields.

renewable system integration↗

Elevated temperature alters microbial communities, but not decomposition rates, during 3 years of in situ peat decomposition

ABSTRACT Peatlands are large carbon sinks with primary production outpacing decomposition of organic matter. Results from the S pruce and P eatland R esponses U nder C hanging E nvironments (SPRUCE) study show net losses of organic matter and increased greenhouse gas production from peatlands in response to whole-ecosystem warming. Here, we investigated how warming and elevated CO 2 impact peat microbial communities and peat soil decomposition rates and characterized microbial communities through amplicon sequencing and compositional changes across four depth increments. Microbial diversity and community composition were significantly impacted by soil depth, temperature, and CO 2 treatment. Bacterial/archaeal α-diversity increased significantly with increasing temperature, and fungal α-diversity was lower under elevated CO 2 treatments. Trans domain microbial networks showed higher complexity of microbial communities in decomposition ladder depths from the warmed enclosures, and the number of highly connected hub taxa within the networks was positively correlated with temperature. Methanogenic hubs were identified in the networks constructed from the warmest enclosures, indicating increased importance of methanogenesis in response to warming. Microbial community responses were not however reflected in measures of peat soil decomposition, as warming and elevated CO 2 had no significant short-term effects on soil mass loss or composition. Regardless of treatment, on average only 4.5% of the original soil mass was lost after 3 years and variation between replicates was high, potentially masking treatment effects. Previous results at the SPRUCE experiment have shown warming is accelerating organic-matter decomposition and CO 2 and CH 4 production, and our results suggest these changes may be driven by warming-induced shifts in microbial communities. IMPORTANCE Microbial community changes in response to climate change drivers have the potential to alter the trajectory of important ecosystem functions. In this paper, we show that while microbial communities in peatland systems responded to manipulations of temperature and CO 2 concentrations, these changes were not associated with similar responses in peat decomposition rates over 3 years. It is unclear however from our current studies whether this functional resiliency over 3 years will continue over the longer time scales relevant to peatland ecosystem functions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

WIP: Collaborating to Introduce Second-Life Battery Technology Research in an Informal STEM Learning Environment

This work in progress, innovative practice, paper outlines an interdisciplinary collaborative model utilized by a team of educational researchers, and engineers to design a series of community-centered, place-based learning activities suitable for a middle or high school informal STEM learning environment. Based on the potential applications and benefits of Second-Life Electric Vehicle Batteries, the activities connect cutting-edge STEM research with multidimensional real-world challenges within their communities related to climate change, renewable energy integration and storage, intelligent transportation systems, and optimized energy management, that empowers students to think critically about the role they can play in shaping a more resilient, environmentally sustainable community.

Whiteside, Hope↗

Building a FAIR data ecosystem for incorporating single-cell transcriptomics data into agricultural genome to phenome research

Introduction The agriculture genomics community has numerous data submission standards available, but the standards for describing and storing single-cell (SC, e.g., scRNA- seq) data are comparatively underdeveloped. Methods To bridge this gap, we leveraged recent advancements in human genomics infrastructure, such as the integration of the Human Cell Atlas Data Portal with Terra, a secure, scalable, open-source platform for biomedical researchers to access data, run analysis tools, and collaborate. In parallel, the Single Cell Expression Atlas at EMBL-EBI offers a comprehensive data ingestion portal for high-throughput sequencing datasets, including plants, protists, and animals (including humans). Developing data tools connecting these resources would offer significant advantages to the agricultural genomics community. The FAANG data portal at EMBL-EBI emphasizes delivering rich metadata and highly accurate and reliable annotation of farmed animals but is not computationally linked to either of these resources. Results Herein, we describe a pilot-scale project that determines whether the current FAANG metadata standards for livestock can be used to ingest scRNA-seq datasets into Terra in a manner consistent with HCA Data Portal standards. Importantly, rich scRNA-seq metadata can now be brokered through the FAANG data portal using a semi-automated process, thereby avoiding the need for substantial expert curation. We have further extended the functionality of this tool so that validated and ingested SC files within the HCA Data Portal are transferred to Terra for further analysis. In addition, we verified data ingestion into Terra, hosted on Azure, and demonstrated the use of a workflow to analyze the first ingested porcine scRNA-seq dataset. Additionally, we have also developed prototype tools to visualize the output of scRNA-seq analyses on genome browsers to compare gene expression patterns across tissues and cell populations. This JBrowse tool now features distinct tracks, showcasing PBMC scRNA-seq alongside two bulk RNA-seq experiments. Discussion We intend to further build upon these existing tools to construct a scientist-friendly data resource and analytical ecosystem based on Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) SC principles to facilitate SC-level genomic analysis through data ingestion, storage, retrieval, re-use, visualization, and comparative annotation across agricultural species.

Genetics & Heredity↗

Extending the Publish/Subscribe Abstraction for High-Performance I/O and Data Management at Extreme Scale

The Adaptable I/O System (ADIOS) represents the culmination of substantial investment in Scientific Data Management, and it has demonstrated success for several important extreme-scale science cases. However, looking towards the exascale and beyond, we see the development of yet more stringent data management requirements that require new abstractions. Therefore, there is an opportunity to attempt to connect the traditional realms of HPC I/O optimization with the Database / Data Management community. As such, in this paper we offer some specific examples from our ongoing work in managing data structures, services, and performance at the extreme scale for scientific computing. Using the publish/subscribe model afforded by ADIOS, we demonstrate a set of services that connect data format, metadata, queries, data reduction, and high-performance delivery. The resulting publish/subscribe framework facilitates connection to on-line workflow systems to enable the dynamic capabilities that will be required for exascale science.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Enabling depth resolved temporal resolved soil microbial sampling with novel vadose zone diffusion sampler

To address the difficulty in Earth system science in making time-course measurements of molecular signatures in soil biochemistry, we developed a soil stake system to sample and replace a defined soil analog medium, connected through hydraulic connectivity via perforated casings and modular inserts. We deployed these stakes to a site in Prosser, WA and measured microbial colonization of sterile sand-clay inserts enriched with N-acetyl-glucosamine at different depths over spring and summer. DNA and RNA analyses revealed distinct microbial recruitment and activity patterns. Inserts showed lower microbial diversity but higher abundance of Proteobacteriota and Bacteriota compared to native soils, alongside seasonal shifts in taxonomic and functional profiles. The soil stake system offers a novel approach for studying microbial dynamics across temporal and spatial scales.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Future Vision for Autonomous Ocean Observations

Autonomous platforms already make observations over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, measuring salinity, temperature, nitrate, pressure, oxygen, biomass; and many other parameters. However, the observations are not comprehensive. Future autonomous systems need to be more affordable, more modular, more capable and easier to operate. Creative new types of platforms and new compact, low power, calibrated and stable sensors are under development to expand autonomous observations. Communications and recharging need bandwidth and power which can be supplied by standardized docking stations. In situ power generation will also extend endurance for many types of autonomous platforms, particularly autonomous surface vehicles. Standardized communications will improve ease of use, interoperability, and enable coordinated behaviors. Improved autonomy and communications will enable adaptive networks of autonomous platforms. Improvements in autonomy will have three aspects: hardware, control, and operations. As sensors and platforms have more onboard processing capability and energy capacity, more measurements become possible. Control systems and software will have the capability to address more complex states and sophisticated reactions to sensor inputs, which allows the platform to handle a wider variety of circumstances without direct operator control. Operational autonomy is increased by reducing operating costs. To maximize the potential of autonomous observations new standards and best practices are needed. In some applications, focus on common platforms and volume purchases could lead to significant cost reductions. Cost reductions could enable order-of-magnitude increases in platform operations and increase sampling resolution for a given level of investment. Energy harvesting technologies should be integral to the system design, for sensors, platforms, vehicles, and docking stations. Connections are needed between the marine energy and ocean observing communities to coordinate among funding sources, researchers, and end users. Regional teams should work with global organizations such as IOC/GOOS in governance development. International networks such as EGO for the emerging glider operations should also provide a forum for addressing governance. Networks of multiple vehicles can improve operational efficiencies and transform operational patterns. There is a need to develop operational architectures at regional and global scales to provide a backbone for active networking of autonomous platforms.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Abstracts of the 2025 51st Annual NATAS Conference

The North American Thermal Analysis Society (NATAS) is pleased to announce its 51st Annual Conference, held jointly with the IX International Baekeland Symposium. This premier event unites scientists, practitioners, and students from academia, industry, and government to explore the forefront of materials science. The NATAS conference provides a dynamic forum for attendees to delve into the latest advancements in thermal analysis, rheology, and materials characterization. The technical program will highlight new developments in instrumentation and software, alongside practical applications across a wide range of industries. Concurrently, the Baekeland Symposium will showcase cutting-edge scientific, technical, and industrial innovations in the field of high-performance thermosetting polymers. The synergy of this joint meeting creates a unique platform for cross-disciplinary collaboration, fostering the exchange of novel ideas and sparking new research opportunities. Featuring technical presentations, poster sessions, and plenary lectures from renowned experts and emerging graduate students, the conference offers an ideal environment for networking and professional development. We invite you to join us to discover state-of-the-art techniques, discuss groundbreaking research, and connect with peers and leaders in the thermal and materials community.

batteries↗

From smart homes to smart laboratories: connected instruments for materials science

The current focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning in the scientific community has the potential to greatly speed up discovery. In this article, we explore what a “smart facility” would mean for materials science. We propose to capture meta-data at every step of an experiment, including materials synthesis, sample production and characterization, simulation, and the analysis software used to extract information. Although most of this information is captured in various institutional systems and staff logbooks, more insight could be obtained by connecting this information through a system that allows automation. AI-enabled processes built on such a system would have the potential of making experiment planning easier and minimize the time between experiment and publication.

Doucet, Mathieu↗

Characterizing Natural Organic Matter Transformations by Microbial Communities in Terrestrial Subsurface Ecosystems: A Critical Review of Analytical Techniques and Challenges

Determining the mechanisms, traits, and pathways that regulate microbial transformation of natural organic matter (NOM) is critical to informing our understanding of the microbial impacts on the global carbon cycle. The capillary fringe of subsurface soils is a highly dynamic environment that remains poorly understood. Characterization of organo-mineral chemistry combined with a nuanced understanding of microbial community composition and function is necessary to understand microbial impacts on NOM speciation in the capillary fringe. We present a critical review of the popular analytical and omics techniques used for characterizing complex carbon transformation by microbial communities and focus on how complementary information obtained from the different techniques enable us to connect chemical signatures with microbial genes and pathways. This holistic approach offers a way forward for the comprehensive characterization of the formation, transformation, and mineralization of terrestrial NOM as influenced by microbial communities.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗