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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Technical Performance and Cost Optimization of Unobtrusive Multi-static Serial LiDAR Imager (UMSLI) for Wide-area Surveillance and Identification of Marine Life at Marine Energy Installations

Florida Atlantic University developed an underwater optical monitoring system prototype - Unobtrusive Multi-static Serial LiDAR Imager (UMSLI) - suitable for marine energy full project lifecycle observation (baseline, commissioning, and decommissioning), with an automated real-time classification of marine animals. With precursor 2014 DOE funding (award DE-EE0006787), a prototype UMSLI was demonstrated in a controlled laboratory environment and achieved a TRL 6. This EERE DE-EE0007828 award aimed to both increase the TRL of the UMSLI by improving the technology performance (e.g., increase distance of marine animal target detection capability, add additional species classification capabilities, improve the system performance during the day, etc.) and reduce the cost. The UMSLI presents a novel application of underwater distributed Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR), an advanced remote sensing method that uses light in the form of laser pulses for an application, this paired with an algorithm provides 360 degrees underwater detection, imaging, and classification of marine life. This solution for underwater monitoring of biota preserves the advantages of traditional optical and acoustic solutions while overcoming many associated disadvantages for marine energy site environmental monitoring, such as difficulties in species detection and classification in low light or night and turbid environments. This new approach is a purposefully designed, reconfigurable adaptation of an existing class 3B laser technology into one UMSLI instrument that can be easily mounted on or around different classes of marine energy equipment, such as devices to capture ocean current energy or wave energy. The system uses relatively low average power, utilizes far-red (> 635nm) laser illumination to be invisible and eye-safe to marine animals, is compact, and cost-effective. The equipment is designed for long-term, maintenance-free operations (i.e., current design is targeting more than 7 days continuous operation), to inherently generate a sparse primary dataset that only includes detected anomalies, and to allow robust real-time automated animal classification and identification with a low data bandwidth requirement. The technology’s overarching goal for application, is a system that can be deployed to collect pre-installation baseline species observations at a proposed marine energy deployment site with minimal post-processing overhead. The envisioned system will also produce high-resolution imagery of marine animals through a wide range of conditions and support automated tracking and notification of the presence of managed animals within established perimeters of marine energy equipment to satisfy deployed marine energy projects’ endangered and threatened species monitoring requirements. Through the current project, we demonstrated the UMSLI prototype in an operational environment and increased the UMSLI’s Technology Readiness Level from 6 to 7. The project resulted in many novel technologies, including: 1) an eye-safe red laser based, low-cost LiDAR system that can detect targets up to 10 meters distance; 2) the GAN-based machine learning underwater LiDAR image enhancement technique (this is the first known application of GAN technique in underwater LiDAR); 3) LiDAR-based real-time automated detection capabilities; and 4) a template matching based automated classification tool. These technologies build a solid foundation for future efforts to develop an extended range electro-optical monitoring system suitable for marine energy deployments. In addition to technology development, a key lesson learned is that addressing regulatory and safety requirements must be front and center in any marine energy monitoring applications.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2022

A New Method to Overcome Carboxyamide Formation During AFEX Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass

Lignin-carbohydrate complexes (LCCs) in the plant cell wall are responsible for providing resistance against biomass-degrading enzymes produced by microorganisms. Four major types of lignin-carbohydrate bonds are reported in the literature, namely, benzyl ethers, benzyl esters, phenyl glycosides, and acetyl ester linkages. Ester’s linkages in the plant cell wall are labile to alkaline pretreatments, such as ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX), which uses liquid or gaseous ammonia to cleave those linkages in the plant cell wall and reduce biomass recalcitrance. Two competing reactions, notably hydrolysis and ammonolysis, take place during AFEX pretreatment process, producing different aliphatic and aromatic acids, as well as their amide counterparts. AFEX pretreated grasses and agricultural residues are known to increase conversion of biomass to sugars by four- to five-fold when subjected to commercial enzyme hydrolysis, yielding a sustainable feedstock for producing biofuels, biomaterials, and animal feed. Animal feed trials on dairy cows have demonstrated a 27% increase in milk production when compared to a control feedstock. However, the presence of carboxamides in feedstocks could promote neurotoxicity in animals if consumed beyond a certain concentration. Thus, there is the need to overcome regulatory hurdles associated with commercializing AFEX pretreated biomass as animal feed in the United States. This manuscript demonstrates a modified pretreatment for increasing the digestibility of industrial byproducts such as Brewer’s spent grains (BSG) and high-fiber meal (HFM) produced from BSG and dry distillers grains with soluble (DDGS), while avoiding the production of carboxamides. The three industrial byproducts were first treated with calculated amounts of alkali such as NaOH, Ca(OH) 2 , or KOH followed by AFEX pretreatment. We found that 4% alkali was able to de-esterify BSG and DDGS more efficiently than using 2% alkali at both 10 and 20% solids loading. AFEX pretreatment of de-esterified BSG, HFM, and DDGS produced twofold higher glucan conversion than respective untreated biomass. This new discovery can help overcome potential regulatory issues associated with the presence of carboxamides in ammonia-pretreated animal feeds and is expected to benefit several farmers around the world.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Monkeys and Parrots of Gold Rush-era California

As immigrant gold miners migrated en masse to San Francisco and northern California during the Gold Rush-era (ca. 1849–1855), they experienced new animals. Stopping in ports throughout Central and South America, these argonauts saw, felt, smelled, heard, and occasionally consumed, mammals, birds, reptiles, and many more creatures, which were wholly exotic to those species found at home. Two types of animals that the Gold Rush populace encountered during this era include parrots and monkeys. Although found throughout tropical environments in areas far distant from northern California, these animals became quickly imported to San Francisco during the early 1850s. A wild, turbulent Gold Rush-era helped facilitate the importation of these exotic animal types, both for comfort and entertainment, as they helped provide a source of companionship for miners unaccustomed to the shock of 1850s northern California.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Juvenile life history diversity is associated with lifetime individual heterogeneity in a migratory fish

Abstract Differences in the life history pathways (LHPs) of juvenile animals are often associated with differences in demographic rates in later life stages. For migratory animals, different LHPs often result in animals from the same population occupying distinct habitats subjected to different environmental drivers. Understanding how demographic rates differ among animals expressing different LHPs may reveal fitness trade‐offs that drive the expression of alternative LHPs and enable better prediction of population dynamics in a changing environment. To understand how demographic outcomes and their relationships with environmental variables differ among animals with different LHPs, we analyzed a long‐term (2006–2021) mark–recapture dataset for Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ) from the Wenatchee River, Washington, USA. Distinct LHPs represented in this population include either remaining in the natal stream until emigrating to the ocean as a 1‐year‐old (natal‐reach rearing) or emigrating from the natal stream and rearing in downstream habitats for several months before completing the emigration to the ocean as a 1‐year‐old (downstream rearing). We found that downstream‐rearing fish emigrated to the ocean 19 days earlier on average and returned as adults from the ocean at higher rates. We detected a positive correlation between rate of return from the ocean by downstream‐rearing fish and coastal upwelling in their spring of outmigration, whereas for natal‐reach‐rearing fish we detected a positive correlation with sea surface temperature during their first marine summer. Different responses to environmental variability should lead to asynchrony in adult abundance among juvenile LHPs. A higher proportion of downstream‐rearing fish returned at younger ages compared with natal‐reach‐rearing fish, which contributed to variability in age at reproduction and greater mixing across generations. Our results demonstrate how diversity in juvenile LHPs is associated with heterogeneity in demographic rates during subsequent life stages, which can in turn affect variance in aggregate population abundance and response to environmental change. Our findings underscore the importance of considering life history diversity in demographic analyses and provide insights into the effects of life history diversity on population dynamics and trade‐offs that contribute to the maintenance of life history diversity.

Sorel, Mark H.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Biomechanical and Cortical Control of Tongue Movements During Chewing and Swallowing

Tongue function is vital for chewing and swallowing and lingual dysfunction is often associated with dysphagia. Better treatment of dysphagia depends on a better understanding of hyolingual morphology, biomechanics, and neural control in humans and animal models. Recent research has revealed significant variation among animal models in morphology of the hyoid chain and suprahyoid muscles which may be associated with variation in swallowing mechanisms. The recent deployment of XROMM (X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology) to quantify 3D hyolingual kinematics has revealed new details on flexion and roll of the tongue during chewing in animal models, movements similar to those used by humans. XROMM-based studies of swallowing in macaques have falsified traditional hypotheses of mechanisms of tongue base retraction during swallowing, and literature review suggests that other animal models may employ a diversity of mechanisms of tongue base retraction. There is variation among animal models in distribution of hyolingual proprioceptors but how that might be related to lingual mechanics is unknown. In macaque monkeys, tongue kinematics—shape and movement—are strongly encoded in neural activity in orofacial primary motor cortex, giving optimism for development of brain–machine interfaces for assisting recovery of lingual function after stroke. However, more research on hyolingual biomechanics and control is needed for technologies interfacing the nervous system with the hyolingual apparatus to become a reality.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Empirical evidence that mean soil contaminant concentration is not a conservative indicator of external exposure to wildlife

Adequate information on external exposure is often a limiting factor in ecological risk assessments because of a lack of exposure data for free-ranging animals as they interact with a heterogeneous distribution of contaminants. Instead, most wildlife exposure data are estimated from model simulations. However, empirical exposure data are rarely available to verify model results, or to test fundamental assumptions inherent in exposure assessments. We used novel, GPS-coupled radiation dosimeters on reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) to quantify their external exposure for five months in a Chernobyl fallout affected mountainous area of Norway. The exposure data were then used to test a fundamental assumption in screening-level risk assessments: Mean soil contaminant concentrations can be used to conservatively estimate chronic external exposures to representative animals. External exposure and GPS coordinates were obtained hourly and compared to model simulations of exposure based on airborne surveys of 137 Cs soil contamination. Our objectives were to determine 1) if modelled dose estimates based on mean 137 Cs soil concentrations were conservative, and 2) if modelled dose estimates could be improved by adjusting for spatial–temporal heterogeneity of contaminants using 137 Cs concentrations within reindeers’ GPS-defined home ranges and core areas. We found that external exposure modelled from mean soil contaminant concentrations underestimated exposure by 70% compared to empirical measurements from GPS-dosimeter collars worn on individual animals. Using area-weighted mean contaminant levels within the animals’ home range improved the model estimates, but still underestimated the field dosimeter data by 53%. The best estimate of external exposure was obtained when high-use areas within their home range, along with spatial heterogeneity of the contaminant, was accounted for by using area-weighted mean soil contaminant levels within GPS-derived core areas. Accounting for temporal use of core areas within animals’ home range provided a 24% improvement. Here, a comparison of our analyses to similar work performed on Chernobyl wolves found the two studies concur that risk assessors should be cautious in relying on the paradigm of using averaged soil contaminant levels to provide conservative estimates of external exposure to representative individuals. Results of modelled external exposure based on mean soil contaminant concentrations could misguide assessors and cause inappropriate management decisions.

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗
DOE OSTI2020

Manipulation of the Gut Microbiome Alters Acetaminophen Biodisposition in Mice

The gut microbiota is a vast and diverse microbial community that has co-evolved with its host to perform a variety of essential functions involved in the utilization of nutrients and the processing of xenobiotics. Shifts in the composition of gut microbiota can disturb the balance of organisms which can infuence the biodisposition of orally administered drugs. To determine how changes in the gut microbiome can alter drug disposition, the pharmacokinetics (PK), and biodistribution of acetaminophen were assessed in C57Bl/6 mice after treatment with the antibiotics ciprofoxacin, amoxicillin, or a cocktail of ampicillin/neomycin. Altered PK, and excretion profles of acetaminophen were observed in antibiotic exposed animals. Plasma C max was signifcantly decreased in antibiotic treated animals suggesting decreased bioavailability. Urinary metabolite profles revealed decreases in acetaminophen-sulfate metabolite levels in both the amoxicillin and ampicillin/neomycin treated animals. The ratio between urinary and fecal excretion was also altered in antibiotic treated animals. Analysis of gut microbe composition revealed that changes in microbe content in antibiotic treated animals was associated with changes in acetaminophen biodisposition. These results suggest that exposure to amoxicillin or ampicillin/neomycin can alter the biodisposition of acetaminophen and that these alterations could be due to changes in gut microbiome composition.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Variations in pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic target values across MICs and their potential impact on determination of susceptibility test interpretive criteria

Abstract Background An antibacterial drug’s susceptibility test interpretive criteria (STIC) are determined by integrating clinical, microbiological and pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) data. PTA analysis plays a pivotal or supportive role in STIC determination and is heavily dependent on the PK-PD target values determined from animal PK-PD studies. Therefore, variations in PK-PD target values may impact STIC determination. Factors contributing to variation in the PK-PD target values include the number of and MICs for bacterial isolates used in animal PK-PD studies. Objectives To analyse the relationship between PK-PD target values and MICs, describe the variations in PK-PD target values of isolates and evaluate whether the proposed/target STICs were within the ranges of the MICs for isolates used in animal PK-PD studies. Methods A database was compiled for this research by screening animal PK-PD study reports submitted to the FDA from 10 new drug applications (NDAs). Results A relationship evaluation between PK-PD target values and MICs for tested isolates for seven drugs (that used AUC/MIC ratio as the PK-PD index) showed that, generally, the AUC/MIC values decreased with an increase in MIC. These target values were highly variable, with the percentage coefficient of variation ranging between 1% and 132% for isolates having the same MIC. For 16/27 (59%) drug/bacteria combinations from all 10 drugs, the proposed/target STICs were higher than the highest MIC for bacteria isolates evaluated, while 6/27 (22.5%) were lower. Conclusions This research suggests that careful considerations related to selection of bacterial isolates for animal PK-PD studies could strengthen the STIC determination process.

Waack, Ursula↗
DOE OSTI2025

Deer Vigilance and Movement Behavior Are Affected by Edge Density and Connectivity

ABSTRACT Animal behavior is an important component of individual, population, and community responses to anthropogenic habitat alteration. For example, antipredator behavior (e.g., vigilance) and animal movement behavior may both be important behavioral responses to the increased density of habitat edges and changes in patch connectivity that characterize highly modified habitats. Importantly, edge density and connectivity might interact, and this interaction is likely to mediate animal behavior: linear, edge‐rich landscape features often provide structural connectivity between patches, but the functional connectedness of patches for animal use could depend upon how edge density modifies animal vigilance and movement. Using remote cameras in large‐scale experimental landscapes that manipulate edge density (high‐ vs. low‐density edges) and patch connectivity (isolated or connected patches), we examined the effects of edge density and connectivity on the antipredator behavior and movement behavior of white‐tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ). Deer vigilance was 1.38 times greater near high‐density edges compared to low‐density edges, regardless of whether patches were connected or isolated. Deer were also more likely to move parallel to connected high‐density edges than all other edge types, suggesting that connectivity promotes movement along high‐density edges. These results suggest that increases in edge density that accompany human fragmentation of existing habitats may give rise to large‐scale changes in the antipredator behavior of deer. These results also suggest that conservation strategies that simultaneously manipulate edge density and connectivity (i.e., habitat corridors) may have multiple effects on different aspects of deer behavior: linear habitat corridors were areas of high vigilance, but also areas where deer movement behavior implied increased movement along the habitat edge.

Bartel, Savannah L. [University of Wisconsin‐Madis↗
DOE OSTI2021

Deletion of the A137R Gene from the Pandemic Strain of African Swine Fever Virus Attenuates the Strain and Offers Protection against the Virulent Pandemic Virus

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is causing a devastating pandemic in domestic and wild swine within an extended geographical area from Central Europe to East Asia, resulting in economic losses for the regional swine industry. There are no commercial vaccines; therefore, disease control relies on identification and culling of infected animals. We report here that the deletion of the ASFV gene A137R from the highly virulent ASFV-Georgia2010 (ASFV-G) isolate induces a significant attenuation of virus virulence in swine. A recombinant virus lacking the A137R gene, ASFV-G-DA137R, was developed to assess the role of this gene in ASFV virulence in domestic swine. Animals inoculated intramuscularly with 102 50% hemadsorption doses (HAD50) of ASFV-G-DA137R remained clinically healthy during the 28-day observational period. All animals inoculated with ASFV-G-DA137R had medium to high viremia titers and developed a strong virus-specific antibody response. Importantly, all ASFV-G-DA137Rinoculated animals were protected when challenged with the virulent parental strain ASFV-G. No evidence of replication of challenge virus was observed in the ASFV-GDA137R-inoculated animals. Therefore, ASFV-G-DA137R is a novel potential live attenuated vaccine candidate and one of the few experimental vaccine strains reported to induce protection against the highly virulent ASFV Georgia virus that is the cause of the current Eurasian pandemic.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Survival, healing, and swim performance of juvenile migratory sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ) implanted with a new acoustic microtransmitter designed for small eel-like fishes

Background: Little is known about the transformer stage of the parasitic lampreys, a brief but critical period that encompasses juvenile out-migration from rivers to lakes or oceans to begin parasitic feeding. Information about this life stage could have significant conservation implications for both imperiled and invasive lampreys. We investigated tag retention, survival, wound healing, and swim performance of newly transformed sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) implanted with a new micro-acoustic transmitter, the eel–lamprey acoustic transmitter (ELAT), in a controlled laboratory environment. Results: The 61-day survival of our tagged subjects was 71%, within the range reported in similar studies of juvenile lampreys. However, survival was significantly lower in the tagged animals (vs control), with no effect statistically attributable to measures of animal length, mass, condition, or population of origin (Great Lakes vs. Atlantic drainage). Mortality in tagged fish was concentrated in the first four days post-surgery, suggesting injury from the surgical process. An unusually long recovery time from anesthesia may have contributed to the increased mortality. In a simple burst swim assay, tagged animals swam significantly slower (– 22.5%) than untagged animals, but were not significantly different in endurance swim tests. A composite wound healing score at day four was a significant predictor of maximum burst swim speed at day 20, and wound condition was related to animal mass, but not length, at the time of tagging. Conclusions: Impairments to survival and swim performance of juvenile sea lamprey implanted with the ELAT transmitter were within currently reported ranges for telemetry studies with small, difficult to observe fishes. Our results could be improved with more refined anesthesia and surgical techniques. The ability to track migratory movements of imperiled and pest populations of parasitic lampreys will improve our ability to estimate vital rates that underlie recruitment to the adult population (growth, survival) and to investigate the environmental factors that regulate the timing and rates of movement, in wild populations.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Mechanistic basis of post-treatment control of SIV after anti-α4β7 antibody therapy

Treating macaques with an anti-α4β7 antibody under the umbrella of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) during early SIV infection can lead to viral remission, with viral loads maintained at < 50 SIV RNA copies/ml after removal of all treatment in a subset of animals. Depletion of CD8+ lymphocytes in controllers resulted in transient recrudescence of viremia, suggesting that the combination of cART and anti-α4β7 antibody treatment led to a state where ongoing immune responses kept the virus undetectable in the absence of treatment. A previous mathematical model of HIV infection and cART incorporates immune effector cell responses and exhibits the property of two different viral load set-points. While the lower set-point could correspond to the attainment of long-term viral remission, attaining the higher set-point may be the result of viral rebound. Here we expand that model to include possible mechanisms of action of an anti-α4β7 antibody operating in these treated animals. We show that the model can fit the longitudinal viral load data from both IgG control and anti-α4β7 antibody treated macaques, suggesting explanations for the viral control associated with cART and an anti-α4β7 antibody treatment. This effective perturbation to the virus-host interaction can also explain observations in other nonhuman primate experiments in which cART and immunotherapy have led to post-treatment control or resetting of the viral load set-point. Interestingly, because the viral kinetics in the various treated animals differed—some animals exhibited large fluctuations in viral load after cART cessation—the model suggests that anti-α4β7 treatment could act by different primary mechanisms in different animals and still lead to post-treatment viral control. This outcome is nonetheless in accordance with a model with two stable viral load set-points, in which therapy can perturb the system from one set-point to a lower one through different biological mechanisms.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Marine Algae Industrialization Consortium (MAGIC): Combining biofuel and high-value bioproducts to meet the RFS

The Marine Algae Industrialization Consortium (MAGIC) was formed to address pressing challenges in the commercialization of microalgae as a source of biofuel. The “Marine Algae Industrialization Consortium (MAGIC): Combining biofuel and high-value bioproducts to meet the RFS” project formally addressed two US Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) goals: (1) Model the sustainable supply of 1 million metric tonnes ash free dry weight (AFDW) cultivated algal biomass and (2) Demonstrate valuable co-products produced along with biofuel intermediates to increase value of algal biomass by 30%. To achieve these goals, the project demonstrated and validated high-value co-products to drive down the cost of biofuel by increasing the value of algae “co-products” towards increasing the selling price of total algae biomass as one of the key drivers of economics and adoption. This was accomplished through five core, interdependent tasks including: (1) strain selection to identify and deliver strains for mass culture, (2) mass culture using a hybrid cultivation system and following key operating parameters for downstream applications to provide algae feedstock, (3) recovery and conversion to evaluate two alternative methods to separate dry algae biomass into oil and residuals for downstream testing, (4) product assessment to determine biofuel, aquafeed or poultry feed product efficacy using algae biomass fractions as well as to provide critical performance data for valuation and (5) commercialization to use technoeconomic and life cycle assessments (TEA/LCA) as iterative design and assessment tools including consideration of target markets, competitors, and distribution channels to guide product assessment, development and valuation. A total of 46 peer-review publications, many open-access, provide detail of much of the work carried out and the results of the tasks. Additional reports and presentations provide other technical and public engagement material. At a high level, using a variety of approaches, more than 1000 marine microalgae strains were evaluated to ultimately identify the seven winners that were down-selected to be grown in mass culture. Strain selection demonstrated that there were no ‘super strains’ and that each candidate had strengths and limitations for specific products, growth conditions or operational considerations. Mass culture growth of these seven strains at >5000 L / 29 m 2 scale found that four them were suitable for product assessment. More than 250 kg of biomass was produced across hundreds of pond runs along with thousands of cultivation entries on the growth and biomass characteristics as well as environmental parameters. In the process, dozens of standard operating procedures were generated as was custom software to process and analyze cultivation data. Recovery and conversion of algae biomass demonstrated that a hexane solvent based extraction protocol was most effective at recovering oil (biocrude) from algae and four strains were processed to produce oil and lipid extracted algae (residuals) for downstream testing. Membrane-based oil separation was less successful, but may still be applicable to other commercial applications in the future. Product testing demonstrated that algae biocrude is of high quality and hydrotreating generated numerous fractions of high quality composition for fuel and lubricate based applications. Aquafeed studies performed at a variety of scales showed that both whole and defatted (lipid extracted algae) microalgae were suitable as a feed ingredient, but that the specifics of the fed animal and biochemical composition of the algae are critical factors when determining formulation. Similarly, poultry studies on whole and defatted microalgae generally showed positive outcomes on animal growth and health, with some microalgae providing enhanced nutritional composition of the animal product. Economic and life cycle assessments covered a wide range of possible commercialization and sustainability scenarios. Replacement value, improved product value added, consumer values marketing added valuation and improved animal health were considered as alternatives for microalgae valuation. Using the open pond system, algae productivity was identified as the key driver of commercialization economics, but combination of co-products (e.g. animal feed) with biofuel production substantially increased the total selling price of algae. Modeled microalgae selling price exceeded $\$$1500/tonne and could generate competitive biofuel selling prices below $\$$5 gallon gas equivalents using realistic algal productivities. Short (process scale) and longer (decadal trends) sustainability assessments show that marine microalgae can enhance the sustainability of energy production and lead to other realized benefits in water, fertilizer and land use for other sectors (e.g. agriculture). This project successfully demonstrated all of the components of an end-to-end process from mass microalgae cultivation and dewatering, to recovery and conversion of algae biomass components, to final product demonstration and process valuation; the combined results provide a framework for future commercialization of algae based biofuels.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Enabling Technology - Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Demands in the Meat Production Industry via Scaling Advanced 3D Culture Bioreactors

The project “Enabling Technology - Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Demands in the Meat Production Industry via Scaling Advanced 3D Culture Bioreactors” focuses on developing transformational and disruptive food technologies, specifically in the area of alternative protein and meat production techniques. The impetus for developing alternative protein technologies include reducing intensive greenhouse gas emissions and energy/land/water usages associated with conventional meat production (animal agriculture). Additional rationales include providing alternatives to livestock rearing as a means of reducing antimicrobial resistance (most antibiotic and antimicrobial use occurs in food-producing animals), as well as the transmission of zoonotic diseases. The goal of this ARPA-E project was to research and develop novel and effective technologies to produce cell-cultured meat (also named in vitro meat, cultivated meat). Cell-cultured meat is an alternative protein or meat technology that involves directly growing muscle and fat tissues (which comprise meat) without using the full animal. This offers benefits in terms of animal welfare (elimination of animal slaughter), while also being projected to be more resource efficient in terms of metrics such as land use and greenhouse gas emissions, especially when compared to beef and lamb. Cell cultured meat additionally offers greater control over the cultivated cells, enabling more precise control over nutrition and taste. For example, cultured cells could be tuned to produce antioxidants such as carotenoids to improve human health. However, to date there are no scalable methods of producing cell-cultured meat cheaply at a large scale.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Characterization of Humanized Mouse Model of Organophosphate Poisoning and Detection of Countermeasures via MALDI-MSI

Organophosphoate (OP) chemicals are known to inhibit the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Studying OP poisoning is difficult because common small animal research models have serum carboxylesterase, which contributes to animals’ resistance to OP poisoning. Historically, guinea pigs have been used for this research; however, a novel genetically modified mouse strain (KIKO) was developed with nonfunctional serum carboxylase (Es1 KO) and an altered acetylcholinesterase (AChE) gene, which expresses the amino acid sequence of the human form of the same protein (AChE KI). KIKO mice were injected with 1xLD50 of an OP nerve agent or vehicle control with or without atropine. After one to three minutes, animals were injected with 35 mg/kg of the currently fielded Reactivator countermeasure for OP poisoning. Postmortem brains were imaged on a Bruker RapifleX ToF/ToF instrument. Data confirmed the presence of increased acetylcholine in OP-exposed animals, regardless of treatment or atropine status. More interestingly, we detected a small amount of Reactivator within the brain of both exposed and unexposed animals; it is currently debated if reactivators can cross the blood–brain barrier. Further, we were able to simultaneously image acetylcholine, the primary affected neurotransmitter, as well as determine the location of both Reactivator and acetylcholine in the brain. This study, which utilized sensitive MALDI-MSI methods, characterized KIKO mice as a functional model for OP countermeasure development.

2-PAM↗
DOE OSTI2024

Intrinsic and environmental drivers of pairwise cohesion in wild Canis social groups

Animals within social groups respond to costs and benefits of sociality by adjusting the proportion of time they spend in close proximity to other individuals in the group (cohesion). Variation in cohesion between individuals, in turn, shapes important group-level processes such as subgroup formation and fission–fusion dynamics. Although critical to animal sociality, a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing cohesion remains a gap in our knowledge of cooperative behavior in animals. We tracked 574 individuals from six species within the genus Canis in 15 countries on four continents with GPS telemetry to estimate the time that pairs of individuals within social groups spent in close proximity and test hypotheses regarding drivers of cohesion. Pairs of social canids (Canis spp.) varied widely in the proportion of time they spent together (5%–100%) during seasonal monitoring periods relative to both intrinsic characteristics and environmental conditions. The majority of our data came from three species of wolves (gray wolves, eastern wolves, and red wolves) and coyotes. For these species, cohesion within social groups was greatest between breeding pairs and varied seasonally as the nature of cooperative activities changed relative to annual life history patterns. Across species, wolves were more cohesive than coyotes. For wolves, pairs were less cohesive in larger groups, and when suitable, small prey was present reflecting the constraints of food resources and intragroup competition on social associations. Pair cohesion in wolves declined with increased anthropogenic modification of the landscape and greater climatic variability, underscoring challenges for conserving social top predators in a changing world. We show that pairwise cohesion in social groups varies strongly both within and across Canis species, as individuals respond to changing ecological context defined by resources, competition, and anthropogenic disturbance. Our work highlights that cohesion is a highly plastic component of animal sociality that holds significant promise for elucidating ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying cooperative behavior.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

National serosurvey and risk mapping reveal widespread distribution of Coxiella burnetii in Kenya

Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of Q fever, is an emerging pathogen that has the potential to cause severe chronic infections in animals and humans worldwide. The detrimental impact on public health is projected to be higher in the low- and middle-income countries given their lower capacity to sustain effective surveillance and response measures. We implemented a national serosurvey of cattle in Kenya to map the spatial distribution of the pathogen. The study used serum samples that were collected from randomly selected cattle in different ago-ecological zones across the country. These samples were screened for the pathogen using PrioCHECK Ruminant Q Fever AB Plate ELISA kit. The laboratory findings were analyzed using INLA package to identify risk factors for C. burnetii exposure from herd- and animal-level factors, area, and bioclimatic datasets accessed from online databases. A total of 6,593 cattle were recruited for the study; of these, 7.9% (95% CI; 7.2–8.5) were seropositive. Outputs from the multivariable analysis revealed that the animal age and some of the geographical variables including wind speed, area under shrubs and “petric calcisols” type of soil were significantly associated with C. burnetii seropositivity. Being a calf, weaner or subadult was associated with lower odds of exposure compared to being an adult by 0.24 (credibility interval: 2.5% and 97.5%), 0.41 (0.30–0.55) and 0.51 (0.38–0.69), respectively. In addition, a unit increase in the wind speed increased the odds of C. burnetii seropositivity by 1.27 (1.05–1.52) while an increase on the land area under shrubs was associated with lower odds of exposure (0.67 [0.47–0.69]). The effect of petric calcisols was non-linear; an increase of the land area with this soil type was associated with an exponential increase in C. burnetii seropositivity. This study provides new data on C. burnetii seroprevalence, information of its risk factors and a prevalence map that can be used for C. burnetii risk surveillance and control. The identification of environmental risk factors for C. burnetii exposure, and the increasing awareness of the zoonotic potential of the pathogen, calls for the need to enhance the existing collaborations for the surveillance and control of C. burnetii in line with the One Health framework. The evidence generated on the potential role of environmental factors can also be used to design nature-based interventions, such as replacement of vegetation in denuded areas, to reduce potential for the aerosolization of the pathogen. Livestock vaccination in the hotspots would also reduce animal infections and hence the contamination of the environment.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗