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At least 1,423 records · Page 79

Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC)–U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Program on Research and Development for Fossil Energy-Related Resources

The EERC teamed with the DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory to conduct complementary research and development under the Joint Program on Research and Development for Fossil Energy-Related Resources (Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FC26-08NT43291). This 10-year program merged two previous 10-year agreements—DE-FC26-98FT40320 and DE-FC26-98FT40321—into a single follow-on agreement. The Fossil Energy cooperative agreement between DOE and the EERC was initiated in 1983 when the EERC was defederalized. This dynamic 35-year partnership has evolved to further research in areas that address DOE Office of Fossil Energy program goals while serving the missions and exploiting the strengths of both organizations through this agreement and a new 5-year Fossil Energy-Related Resources cooperative agreement established in 2015. As the 10-year program has ended, the purpose of this report is to summarize the activity and significant outcomes that were accomplished by the EERC. This program is an excellent model for research, development, demonstration, and commercialization partnerships between government, industry, and the applied science and engineering communities to bring cutting-edge science closer to commercial application. The overarching goal was to support DOE Fossil Energy goals by advancing the scientific knowledge and technical development essential to ensuring future sustainable supplies of affordable energy and clean water, protecting and restoring the environment, and reducing dependence on foreign energy sources, thereby increasing U.S. energy security. The strategic objective was to advance continued use of domestic fossil fuels as a mainstay of U.S. energy production by making fossil energy systems nonpolluting and more efficient, capturing and sequestering greenhouse gases, and integrating the use of fossil and renewable energy sources into the energy mix. The research achievements from this partnership have exceeded the goals and objectives by contributing substantially to the development of science-based energy and environmental policy, educational foundations for science and technology, and commercialization and international marketing of energy technologies. The program comprised 75 individual projects, which included basic/applied fossil energy research projects involving no cost share and development, demonstration, and commercialization projects (many derived from applied research projects) that included nonfederal cost share of approximately 40% (the contractually required minimum level of cumulative nonfederal cost share was 29%). In all, 32,798,698 of federal funding was leveraged with industry cash and in-kind cost share of 21,697,129 from 80 nonfederal partners for a total of 54,495,827 of funded research that 1) advanced the development of unconventional tight oil resources in the Bakken Formation; 2) demonstrated the application of CO 2 Storage and EOR in tight oil formations; 3) developed advanced carbon capture technology; 4) addressed key application and infrastructure concerns for commercial deployment of CO 2 ; 5) demonstrated innovative, integrated water management strategies for energy development projects; 6) developed novel pollution control technologies for mercury and hazardous air pollutants; and 7) performed world-class outreach and dissemination of research results to industry partners and other stakeholders. These outcomes speak to the valuable return on the substantial investment in this program.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Online Model-Free DER Dispatch Via Adaptive Voltage Sensitivity Estimation and Chance Constrained Programming

This paper proposes an online data-driven distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) for distribution system optimal DER dispatch as well as voltage regulation. Here, the key innovation is to leverage the Local Sensitivity Factor (LSF) for transforming the DER control into a computationally efficient linear programming (LP) problem. By taking real-time measurements, the estimation of LSF eliminates the need for an accurate distribution system model as well as full nodal load information, which is difficult to achieve in practice. A robust recursive least squares method is also developed to ensure the robust estimation of LSF, which is initialized using reasonable values from model-derived LSFs. This allows the system to adapt to changing operational conditions effectively. A scenario-based, chance-constrained framework is further employed to ensure voltage remains within acceptable limits in the presence of measurement and estimation uncertainties. Test results on a real-world, 759-node distribution network located in western Colorado, U.S., validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control approach and demonstrate its superior performance as compared to alternative methods.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Development of Integrated Thermal Fluids Modeling Capability for MSRs

The DOE Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program supports a full range of computational thermal fluids analysis capabilities and code developments for a broad class of light-water and advanced reactor concepts. The research and development approach under thermal fluids technical area synergistically combines three length and time scales in a hierarchal multi-scale approach. To demonstrate the feasibility and capabilities of a multi-scale thermal fluids capability using these codes, a key joint effort has been pursued to develop an integrated system-and engineering-scale thermal fluids analysis capability with the MOOSE-based codes, through integration of SAM and Pronghorn, both based on the MOOSE framework. This report summarizes the progress in developing an integrated system- and engineering-scale thermal fluids analysis capability based on SAM and Pronghorn for molten salt reactors (MSRs), which gained significant interest in recently years. Two coupling approaches were studied, i.e. separate domain or domain-segregated coupling approach and the domain-overlapping approach. A series of coupled multi-physics models have been developed for a common reference molten salt fast reactor (MSFR) concept, ranging from standalone SAM system model to integrated SAM-Pronghorn-Griffin models. Both the steady state and the transient simulations are performed to the state-of-the-art simulation capabilities of NEAMS software suite in MSFR system applications. This report also covers further development and testing of the gas transport model in SAM for MSR modeling support. The presence of noncondensable gas in MSR systems would have strong impacts on fission gas removal and transport of noble metals throughout the system. Fission products removed through the off-gas system can also impact reactivity and can act as an additional point of heat removal. To ensure that the gas transport model is adequately tested, the supported modeling capabilities and features of SAM were identified, and a suite of tests were developed to test the model for each identified feature. Validation and UQ testing were also performed for the model and demonstrated that the buoyancy term, which was originally developed using non-salt/helium gas experimental data, can capture the experimental gas bubble velocity and diameter to within experimental and code uncertainty. An existing MSRE model was also modified in this work to include the gas transport model and to demonstrate the gas model behavior for realistic conditions of interest.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

FENIX: An Open-Source Multiphysics Integrated Framework Enabling Collaborative Development of Plasma Facing Component Modeling Capabilities

Advanced modeling and simulation tools have a crucial role to play in accelerating fusion energy deployment as a sustainable power source. Multiphysics, high-fidelity computational tools can help understand, model, and quantify the complex interactions between materials performance, plasma and neutron exposure, and engineering processes. As a result, they accelerate the design, safety analysis, and performance evaluation of fusion systems. This webinar introduces the Fusion ENergy Integrated multiphys-X (FENIX) framework, an open-source multiphysics tool for plasma facing component modeling. FENIX leverages the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework, which has been developed by the United States Department of Energy Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. FENIX couples various MOOSE capabilities such as heat transfer, thermomechanics, thermal hydraulics, electromagnetics, and plasma kinetics with the MOOSE-based applications Cardinal (neutronics) and TMAP8 (tritium transport). During the webinar, we will present FENIX and discuss how its modularity, openness, software quality assurance processes, and licensing approach supports effective collaborations, including public-private partnerships.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

High Frequency Transverse Instabilities in Low NOx Gas Turbines

This program addresses the topic of combustion instabilities under the goal of developing “Low-NOx Combustion Technology for ‘Air-Breathing’ Advanced Turbines”. With recent advances in high-temperature withstanding materials, the push towards higher efficiency has resulted in efforts to design high temperature, low NOx gas turbines. The development of such low NOx systems is often plagued with combustion instabilities. These instabilities manifest with acoustic modes that are longitudinal, transverse or both. A large body of literature and work exists addressing the underlying mechanisms and models for longitudinal instabilities and these have been successfully implemented in the design tools for low NOx gas turbines. The flame response aspect of the thermoacoustic feedback loop was often modeled in an acoustically compact framework since for low frequencies, the flame length scale was small compared to the acoustic wavelength. This enabled simplification where the modeling focused only on the overall flame response and not the local spatial distribution of the flame response. In addition, additional mechanisms such as the direct effect of pressure fluctuations on the flame response could be neglected. In contrast, high frequency instabilities which often are transverse in nature, have received relatively less attention in the literature. The flame is no longer acoustically compact and thus the local distribution of heat release must be accurately understood. The flame responds to velocity fluctuations, equivalence ratio fluctuations as before, but also to pressure fluctuations through kinetic effects. These aspects of high-frequency instabilities make it a challenging problem that requires a detailed elucidation of the underlying mechanisms and creating models for them. In this program we significantly improved the understanding of these instabilities through a combination of experiments (informed by interactions with OEMs), modeling of measured data and reduced order modeling of flame response. The results from the program can be used as basis for robust design tools that are essential for successfully developing gas turbines that operate in an environmentally acceptable manner with mitigation strategies for high-frequency instabilities.

08 HYDROGEN↗

The potential of quantum annealing for rapid solution structure identification

Abstract The recent emergence of novel computational devices, such as quantum computers, coherent Ising machines, and digital annealers presents new opportunities for hardware-accelerated hybrid optimization algorithms. Unfortunately, demonstrations of unquestionable performance gains leveraging novel hardware platforms have faced significant obstacles. One key challenge is understanding the algorithmic properties that distinguish such devices from established optimization approaches. Through the careful design of contrived optimization tasks, this work provides new insights into the computation properties of quantum annealing and suggests that this model has the potential to quickly identify the structure of high-quality solutions. A meticulous comparison to a variety of algorithms spanning both complete and local search suggests that quantum annealing’s performance on the proposed optimization tasks is distinct. This result provides new insights into the time scales and types of optimization problems where quantum annealing has the potential to provide notable performance gains over established optimization algorithms and suggests the development of hybrid algorithms that combine the best features of quantum annealing and state-of-the-art classical approaches.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Water resource recovery modelling 2021 (WRRmod2021 conference)

Our society is transitioning fast into the digital age, spurred by development of cheap and new sensing technology, breakthroughs in computing, and development of efficient algorithms for optimization. This transition is also visible in the field of wastewater treatment and is driving new model developments, especially by exploiting the large data sets available with many utilities. Not surprisingly, WRRmod2021 had featured a strong session on ‘data-driven models and digitalization’ focused on this hot topic. At the same time, engineering practice calls for more robust models for performance evaluation and optimization of both conventional facilities and innovative processes. As a result, the WRRmod2021 program also exhibited sessions on modelling of new process units (e.g., aerobic granular sludge), modelling of the nitrogen cycle, and integrated/plant-wide modelling.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Adoption of High Performance Computational (HPC) Modeling Software for Widespread Use in the Manufacture of Welded Structures

This report summarizes the final product developed for the US DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant made to Engineering Mechanics Corporation of Columbus (Emc 2 ) between April 16, 2014 and August 31, 2016 titled ‘Adoption of High Performance Computational (HPC) Modeling Software for Widespread Use in the Manufacture of Welded Structures’. Many US companies have moved fabrication and production facilities off shore because of cheaper labor costs. A key aspect in bringing these jobs back to the US is the use of technology to render US-made fabrications more cost-efficient overall with higher quality. One significant advantage that has emerged in the US over the last two decades is the use of virtual design for fabrication of small and large structures in weld fabrication industries. Industries that use virtual design and analysis tools have reduced material part size, developed environmentally-friendly fabrication processes, improved product quality and performance, and reduced manufacturing costs. Indeed, Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), one of the partners in this effort, continues to have a large fabrication presence in the US because of the use of weld fabrication modeling to optimize fabrications by controlling weld residual stresses and distortions and improving fatigue, corrosion, and fracture performance. This report describes Emc 2 ’s DOE SBIR Phase II final results to extend an existing, state-of-the-art software code, Virtual Fabrication Technology (VFT®), currently used to design and model large welded structures prior to fabrication - to a broader range of products with widespread applications for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). VFT® helps control distortion, can minimize and/or control residual stresses, control welding microstructure, and pre-determine welding parameters such as weld-sequencing, pre-bending, thermal-tensioning, etc. VFT® uses material properties, consumable properties, etc. as inputs. Through VFT®, manufacturing companies can avoid costly design changes after fabrication. This leads to the concept of joint design/fabrication where these important disciplines are intimately linked to minimize fabrication costs. Finally service performance (such as fatigue, corrosion, and fracture/damage) can be improved using this product. Emc 2 ’s DOE SBIR Phase II effort successfully adapted VFT® to perform efficiently in an HPC environment independent of commercial software on a platform to permit easy and cost effective access to the code. This provides the key for SMEs to access this sophisticated and proven methodology that is quick, accurate, cost effective and available “on-demand” to address weld-simulation and fabrication problems prior to manufacture. In addition, other organizations, such as Government agencies and large companies, may have a need for spot use of such a tool. The open source code, WARP3D, a high performance finite element code used in fracture and damage assessment of structures, was significantly modified so computational weld problems can be solved efficiently on multiple processors and threads with VFT®. The thermal solver for VFT®, based on a series of closed form solution approximations, was extensively enhanced for solution on multiple processors greatly increasing overall speed. In addition, the graphical user interface (GUI) was re-written to permit SMEs access to an HPC environment at the Ohio Super Computer Center (OSC) to integrate these solutions with WARP3D. The GUI is used to define all weld pass descriptions, number of passes, material properties, consumable properties, weld speed, etc. for the structure to be modeled. The GUI was enhanced to make it more user-friendly so that non-experts can perform weld modeling. Finally, an extensive outreach program to market this capability to fabrication companies was performed. This access will permit SMEs to perform weld modeling to improve their competitiveness at a reasonable cost.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Integration Plan for NEAMS Structural Materials and Chemistry MSR Modeling

As part of its broad objective to support advanced reactor development, the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program has a strong interest in developing simulation capabilities to address chemistry and corrosion issues for molten salt reactors (MSRs). To that end, the Structural Materials & Chemistry (SMC) technical area within the NEAMS program is developing a set of codes and databases to describe the behavior of molten salts and their interactions with structural materials. This document reviews the current activities with respect to MSR-relevant codes and is an effort to improve their integration in simulating MSR systems. Interoperability between the codes being developed is critical for the success of the NEAMS-developed MSR simulation capability. This is greatly facilitated by having codes based on the MOOSE framework when possible, and by developing interfaces to MOOSE-based tools for those tools that are not based on that framework.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Integration of Online Cross-Section Generation Capability with Depletion and Transient Solvers in Griffin

Griffin is a Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE)-based reactor multiphysics analysis application jointly developed by Argonne and Idaho National Laboratories under the DOENE Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. In FY25, an online crosssection generation capability based on the Self-Shielding Application Programming Interface (SSAPI) was demonstrated for TRISO-fueled reactor problems under steady-state conditions. This fiscal year, that capability was extended to support depletion and transient multiphysics calculations, enabling high-fidelity analyses that generate self-shielded cross sections on the fly from the actual evolving composition and temperature states rather than from pre-tabulated libraries. For depletion, a two-way coupling was established in which SSAPI computes compact-averaged self-shielded cross sections that the depletion solver then uses to advance the Bateman equations, with the updated compositions returned to SSAPI at each step; the depletion module was refactored to support both library-based and SSAPI-based cross sections, and additional logic was added to track daughter isotopes and to exclude minor isotopes for efficiency. For transient analysis, the SSAPI multigroup library was extended with the kinetics data required for time-dependent calculations, the Improved Quasi-Static (IQS) scheme was coupled with SSAPI, and several supporting capabilities were implemented, including a self-shielding treatment that lets control rods and drums move within a self-shielded model, which had previously been impossible and had ruled out rod- and drum-movement transients with on-the-fly cross sections altogether, a new mixing scheme for delayed-neutron precursor decay constants, a checkpoint-based restart workflow, and performance improvements such as pointwise cross-section interpolation and the bypassing of unnecessary Dancoff factor calculations. The implemented capabilities were verified against Serpent Monte Carlo solutions. For depletion, a prismatic pin-cell problem based on a Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Very High Temperature Reactor benchmark showed excellent agreement, with eigenvalue differences within 200 pcm over the entire burnup range (up to 140 MWD/kgU) and fission-product and actinide inventories agreeing to within 0.8% and 2.5%, respectively; a heat-pipe microreactor assembly problem with a much higher fuel loading confirmed the same behavior and quantified the bias introduced when the multigroup equivalence effect is neglected. For transient analysis, a pin-cell problem with a step reactivity insertion and temperature feedback reproduced the analytically expected asymptotic power and showed close agreement between the direct and IQS solutions, and a two-dimensional microreactor core problem with control-drum rotation exercised the new moving-drum self-shielding treatment and demonstrated successful coupling of the online crosssection generation with both the direct and IQS transient methods. The capability was further exercised on a full-core pebble-bed problem, in which Griffin was coupled with the System Analysis Module (SAM) to simulate load-following operation of the gPBR with the Doppler feedback resolved at the TRISO fuel kernel temperature. These developments in Griffin provide a convenient, high-fidelity approach to cross-section generation for advanced thermal reactors with geometrically complex and highly heterogeneous configurations, including TRISO-fueled prismatic and pebble-bed systems, and support steady-state, depletion, and transient multiphysics calculations. They also enable self-shielded cross sections to be evaluated directly at the actual coupled state of the system, thereby establishing a foundation for high-fidelity, fully coupled multiphysics analysis of advanced reactors

Park, H.↗

Planning Near-Term Tasks for the Development of Advanced Reactor Mechanistic Source Term Modeling and Simulation Tools

To assist both the advanced reactor industry and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the pursuit of reactor design and licensing, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program has established a mechanistic source term (MST) research project under the auspices of the Application Drivers technical area. The MST research project is a collaboration between Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) with a high-level objective to coordinate the development of comprehensive advanced reactor MST mod/sim capabilities to support risk-informed design and licensing decisions. As part of this effort, an MST mod/sim development pathway was developed in FY21, which outlines the high-level objectives and near-term tasks necessary to achieve the project objectives. Since publication of the development pathway, Argonne and SNL have been addressing the “near-term tasks” outlined in the report. The current provides a status update of the progress achieved in the fourth quarter of FY21. The report structure follows that of ref and is divided by advanced reactor type: High temperature gas reactor (HTGR), molten salt reactor (MSR) including fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor (FHR), and sodium fast reactor (SFR). Each section reviews the near-term tasks associated with the reactor type, current progress, and future plans. The near-term tasks associated with consequence modeling are reviewed in an upcoming work by SNL.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Low functional programming of renal AT{sub 2}R mediates the developmental origin of glomerulosclerosis in adult offspring induced by prenatal caffeine exposure

Our previous study has indicated that prenatal caffeine exposure (PCE) could induce intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) of offspring. Recent research suggested that IUGR is a risk factor for glomerulosclerosis. However, whether PCE could induce glomerulosclerosis and its underlying mechanisms remain unknown. This study aimed to demonstrate the induction to glomerulosclerosis in adult offspring by PCE and its intrauterine programming mechanisms. A rat model of IUGR was established by PCE, male fetuses and adult offspring at the age of postnatal week 24 were euthanized. The results revealed that the adult offspring kidneys in the PCE group exhibited glomerulosclerosis as well as interstitial fibrosis, accompanied by elevated levels of serum creatinine and urine protein. Renal angiotensin II receptor type 2 (AT{sub 2}R) gene expression in adult offspring was reduced by PCE, whereas the renal angiotensin II receptor type 1a (AT{sub 1a}R)/AT{sub 2}R expression ratio was increased. The fetal kidneys in the PCE group displayed an enlarged Bowman's space and a shrunken glomerular tuft, accompanied by a reduced cortex width and an increase in the nephrogenic zone/cortical zone ratio. Observation by electronic microscope revealed structural damage of podocytes; the reduced expression level of podocyte marker genes, nephrin and podocin, was also detected by q-PCR. Moreover, AT{sub 2}R gene and protein expressions in fetal kidneys were inhibited by PCE, associated with the repression of the gene expression of glial-cell-line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF)/tyrosine kinase receptor (c-Ret) signaling pathway. These results demonstrated that PCE could induce dysplasia of fetal kidneys as well as glomerulosclerosis of adult offspring, and the low functional programming of renal AT{sub 2}R might mediate the developmental origin of adult glomerulosclerosis. - Highlights: • Prenatal caffeine exposure induces glomerulosclerosis in adult offspring. • Prenatal caffeine exposure inhibits fetal kidney development. • Prenatal caffeine exposure causes low functional programming of renal AT{sub 2}R.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Bradwell - The first UK Nuclear Site to Enter Care and Maintenance - 18152

Magnox Ltd, a Cavendish Fluor company, is currently decommissioning twelve nuclear sites on behalf of the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). Ten of these sites are former Power Stations; the other two are closed Research and Development facilities. An overall strategy for decommissioning the Magnox sites has been agreed between Magnox and the NDA. For all but one of these sites the decommissioning strategy involves an extended quiescent period, known as Care and Maintenance (C and M), during which remaining radiological hazards reduce naturally through radioactive decay. After this quiescent period the sites will be restored to an agreed end state through further decommissioning and clearance work. Sites in C and M will not be permanently manned. They will be passively safe such that prompt action will not be required in response to an alarm or fault. Preparing a nuclear site for C and M involves several inter-related strands of work including definition of the intended physical configuration of the site during C and M (the C and M entry state), establishing a safety case to support that configuration, carrying out the physical works needed to deliver the C and M entry state, preparing arrangements and a team to manage the site during C and M and consolidating the knowledge and information needed to support C and M and final clearance of the site. To enter C and M there needs to be a carefully controlled transition of site, personnel and management system into the agreed C and M configuration. Bradwell, a site on the east coast of England, was selected as part of the overall decommissioning strategy for 'early' entry into C and M; Bradwell is scheduled to enter C and M in late 2018, several years in advance of the next scheduled site, with the intent of carrying learning forward from Bradwell to the subsequent sites. Bradwell is now in the final stages of preparation for C and M. Decommissioning commenced on completion of defueling in 2005. A clearly defined C and M entry state was established early in decommissioning and, through interaction with Regulators and internal and external stakeholders, developed as a shared target, thus providing certainty to the scope of the overall decommissioning project. The site has subsequently been systematically decommissioned to meet this target C and M entry state. All legacy waste has been retrieved and packaged into robust disposal containers, the reactor buildings have a new weather envelope, and much of the site is empty space with concrete hardstanding where facilities used to exist and bare rooms where plant used to operate. The remaining radiological and environmental hazards are not significant. During C and M, which is anticipated to last for 70 years, Bradwell will be managed remotely without the requirement for personnel to be present on site, with the possible exception of an ongoing security presence when the site first enters C and M. In terms of UK decommissioning, many of the projects undertaken at Bradwell were first of a kind. The company operates under a programmed organisational and delivery model, which will enable innovation and learning from Bradwell to be carried forward across the whole Magnox fleet. In addition to decommissioning tools and techniques, processes to manage decommissioning, optimise the C and M entry state to reduce the burden on the UK taxpayer and to transition a site into C and M have been developed. This, in addition to taking people from Bradwell and seeding them into Magnox and the broader UK nuclear industry, should help to provide long term cost savings and delivery efficiencies across the entire NDA estate. This paper describes the journey of Bradwell Site through decommissioning and into C and M, highlighting the innovation and challenges that have contributed to the success of delivering the first UK nuclear site into Care and Maintenance. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Flow annealed importance sampling bootstrap meets differentiable particle physics

High-energy physics requires the generation of large numbers of simulated data samples from complex but analytically tractable distributions called matrix elements. Surrogate models, such as normalizing flows, are gaining popularity for this task due to their computational efficiency. We adopt an approach based on flow annealed importance sampling bootstrap (FAB) that evaluates the differentiable target density during training and helps avoid the costly generation of training data in advance. We show that FAB reaches higher sampling efficiency with fewer target evaluations in high dimensions in comparison to other methods.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Suramin blocks interaction between human FGF1 and FGFR2 D2 domain and reduces downstream signaling activity

The extracellular portion of the human fibroblast growth factor receptor2 D2 domain (FGFR2 D2) interacts with human fibroblast growth factor 1 (hFGF1) to activate a downstream signaling cascade that ultimately affects mitosis and differentiation. Suramin is an antiparasiticdrug and a potent inhibitor of FGF-induced angiogenesis. Suramin has been shown to bind to hFGF1, and might block the interaction between hFGF1 and FGFR2 D2. Here, we titrated hFGF1 with FGFR2 D2 and suramin to elucidate their interactions using the detection of NMR. The docking results of both hFGF1-FGFR2 D2 domain and hFGF1-suramin complex were superimposed. The results indicate that suramin blocks the interaction between hFGF1 and FGFR2 D2. We used the PyMOL software to show the hydrophobic interaction of hFGF1-suramin. In addition, we used a Water-soluble Tetrazolium salts assay (WST1) to assess hFGF1 bioactivity. The results will be useful for the development of new antimitogenic activity drugs. - Highlights: • The interfacial residues on hFGF1-FGFR2 D2 and hFGF1-Suramin contact surface were mapped by {sup 1}H-{sup 15}N HSQC experiments. • hFGF1-FGFR2 D2 and hFGF1-Suramin complex models were generated from NMR restraints by using HADDOCK program. • We analyzed hFGF1-Suramin complex models and found the interaction between hFGF1-Suramin is hydrophobic. • The bioactivity of the hFGF1-FGFR2 D2 and hFGF1-Suramin complex was studied by using WST1 assay.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Data from: "Declines in low-elevation subalpine tree populations outpace growth in high-elevation populations with warming"

This data package contains model data that were used to support conclusions drawn in “Declines in low-elevation subalpine populations outpace growth in high-elevation populations with warming”, by Conlisk et al. 2017. Experimental data collected at field sites within the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment (ATWE), and data from long-term observational plots were collected on Niwot Ridge, Colorado, USA and used to formulate models contained within the folder “Model_archive” in the zipped folder “Conlisk_etal_JEcol2017_model_archive12022020.zip”. The contents of this compressed folder are described in the data user's guide attached to this archive.There are two folders within the zipped folder - “EngelmannSpruce” and “LimberPine” - for each of the two species in the paper. Models are stored as text files and .sch files can also be opened as text files. However, please note that all these files are specific to the RAMAS Metapop population modeling software, and you will need the program in order to be able to run these models. There are two separate documents, both named “Conlisk_JofEcology_SI_01262017” within “Model_archive”. One is a Microsoft Word file, and the other is a PDF. The former can be opened with Microsoft Word, and the latter can be opened by Adobe Acrobat Reader, or any software compatible with a PDF.------------------1. Species distribution shifts in response to climate change require that recruitment increase beyond current range boundaries. For trees with long lifespans, the importance of climate-sensitive seedling establishment to the pace of range shifts has not been demonstrated quantitatively. 2. Using spatially explicit, stochastic population models combined with data from long-term forest surveys, we explored whether the climate-sensitivity of recruitment observed in climate manipulation experiments was sufficient to alter populations and elevation ranges of two widely distributed, high-elevation North American conifers. 3. Empirically observed, warming-driven declines in recruitment led to rapid modeled population declines at the low-elevation, “warm edge” of subalpine forest and slow emergence of populations beyond the high-elevation, “cool edge”. Because population declines in the forest occurred much faster than population emergence in the alpine, we observed range contraction for both species. For Engelmann spruce, this contraction was permanent over the modeled time horizon, even in the presence of increased moisture. For limber pine, lower sensitivity to warming may facilitate persistence at low elevations – especially in the presence of increased moisture – and rapid establishment above treeline, and, ultimately, expansion into the alpine. 4. Synthesis. Assuming 21st century warming and no additional moisture, population dynamics in high-elevation forests led to transient range contractions for limber pine and potentially permanent range contractions for Engelmann spruce. Thus, limitations to seedling recruitment with warming can constrain the pace of subalpine tree range shifts.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Toward A High-Performance Emulation Platform for Brain-Inspired Intelligent Systems Exploring Dataflow-Based Execution Model and Beyond

Brain-inspired computing is a novel computing technology based on neural morphological engineering, which draws lessons from methods of human brain information processing and storage. Combining with the high-performance computing (HPC) platform, they constitute the foundation of general artificial intelligence. However, current brain HPC platforms generally suffer from slow speed, poor scalability, and high energy consumption, which severely restrain its potential and circumscribe the development of general artificial intelligence. The dataflow model was first proposed in the 1970s, providing a novel idea for the development of HPC. In addition, the dataflow model shares similar information processing mechanisms with human's neural system, which makes dataflow models naturally suit the emulation of brain-inspired computing. Based on the contemporary progress of the dataflow model, the Codelet model was proposed. Through a fine-grained asynchronous program execution and resource allocation, the Codelet model successfully realized the distributed computing on the heterogeneous system, effectively improved the computing power and speed, and open up a new path to overcome the shortcomings of the existing high-performance computing technology. We propose a dataflow-based emulation platform, aiming at providing high-performance computing technology support for general brain-inspired intelligent system, as well as using characteristics of dataflow models to fully explore the potential of brain-inspired intelligence. As an example, we will select a convolutional neural network (LeNet5) that already has a spectacular user base to initially verify the superiority and feasibility of our proposal.

brain-inspired intelligent system↗

Documentation, assessment, and improvements of fission gas modeling capabilities in BISON

Fission gas behavior critically affects nuclear fuel performance, influencing thermal conductivity, microstructure, swelling, and fuel-cladding interactions. The Simple Integrated Fission Gas Release and Swelling (Sifgrs) model, implemented within the BISON fuel performance code, provides advanced capabilities for modeling these phenomena. This manuscript reviews and assesses Sifgrs’ modular structure and submodels describing intragranular, intergranular, and release mechanisms. The modular implementation enables rapid improvements as our understanding advances and new fuel forms emerge. After an overview of capabilities, we present a comprehensive validation suite, comparing predictions to experimental data from tests under normal and transient conditions, including reproduction of the Vitanza curve. Results demonstrate Sifgrs’ accuracy, robustness, and applicability. Current limitations and ongoing efforts are discussed, including mechanistic, multiscale modeling, uncertainty quantification, and validation within the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program, supporting the safe and efficient use of nuclear fuels.

BISON↗