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At least 163 records · Page 9

System and method for monitoring power consumption to detect malware

A system and method (referred to as the system) detects malware, viruses, and/or malicious activity by generating a direct current source power consumption profile by causing a monitored device to execute a fully automated recurrent software operation. The system receives by an automated detection system, the direct current source power consumption profile generated by an intelligent power sensor and generates by a detection engine, a power security profile that identifies suspicious code by profiling direct current consumed by monitored type devices. The system executes a detection engine remote from the monitored device that identifies an infected device.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Chemical and Radiological Compatibility Testing of 3D Printed Materials

To dramatically increase the adaptability, performance, and safety of processes in support of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), Savannah River National Lab (SRNL) plans to perform chemical and radiological compatibility testing on a wide variety of 3D printed materials of interest. The 3D printing process provides numerous strategic operational benefits such as rapid prototyping of complex designs and geometry specific to the needs of the nuclear waste disposition process, as well as on-demand rapid prototyping and iteration with materials that aren’t as accessible through traditional manufacturing methods. Reaction chemistry in simulated waste batches can be matched closely to its radioactive counterpart, but glass reactor vessels have limitations. Vessel geometry can play a big factor in mixing transport limitations, process chemistry, and degradation reaction kinetics. In addition, additive manufacturing allows for much more detailed vessel design than traditional alternatives. Waste processing techniques in DWPF also encounter extreme chemical environments including high pH, strong acids, abrasive slurries, and significant irradiation. To meet these challenges, a matrix of various polymer, ceramic, and metal additive manufacturing materials have been exposed to a suite of chemical environments of interest as well as radioactive dose (such as gamma radiation from 60 Co) to properly test their durability under these conditions. Mass change has been monitored over a period of up to a week in these conditions, as well as added characterization for surface modification through Scanning Electron Microscopy/Electron Dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDX). Further chemical characterization has been monitored through Fourier-Transform InfraRed Spectroscopy (FTIR), with planned investigation via thermal and tensile strength degradation. While the direct product of this research is identification of material(s) that can withstand specific hazardous environments encountered by the mercury water wash tank in DWPF process simulation experiments, the reference base of materials will be used for many other nuclear processes in the pursuit of rapidly developed, cost-efficient, and highly specific devices for environmental remediation and much more.

Wilson, Nathan W. [Savannah River National Laborat↗

MultiPEM Toolbox: User Manual [Rev. 2]

This document explains use of the Multi-Phenomenology Explosion Monitoring (Multi PEM) Toolbox, a collection of R scripts for estimating the unknown device parameters of a new event with uncertainty quantification. The methodology and application used for illustration in this user manual are fully documented in a Los Alamos National Laboratory technical report hereafter designated “WPA” for reference. Additional details on the application are found in a recent journal article. Two assessment types are available: rapid and complete. Rapid assessments are conducted in two stages, as described in Section 2. In the first stage, calibration data are used to estimate forward and error model parameters (WPA, §5.1) and (if relevant) errors-in-variables yield values for calibration sources (WPA, §3, Equation (3)). In the second stage, new event data are used to estimate the unknown new event device parameters (WPA, §5.2) with uncertainty quantification. Two options for treating the inferred first stage parameters in second stage Bayesian analysis are available: fixing them at their maximum likelihood estimate (default), or multiple imputation. Multiple imputation involves utilizing several posterior samples (imputations) of the first stage parameters as fixed values in the second stage posterior sampling of the new event device parameters. Second stage sampling is conducted across imputations in parallel to improve computational efficiency. This method produces improved uncertainty quantification of the new event device parameters compared with the default treatment of the first stage parameters, at the expense of additional computation. Complete assessments are conducted in a single stage, as described in Section 3. Calibration and (if relevant) new event data are used simultaneously to estimate all forward model, error model, and (if relevant) new event device parameters with uncertainty quantification on the latter. As the name suggests, rapid assessments generally run substantially faster than complete assessments (even with multiple imputation), because the results of first stage analysis can be stored and incorporated into estimating a relatively low-dimensional space of new event device parameters whenever relevant new event data becomes available. On the other hand, complete assessments must be run on the full set of model and device parameters with calibration and new event data every time the latter becomes available.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Establishing ZIF‐8 as a reference material for hydrogen cryoadsorption: An interlaboratory study

Abstract Hydrogen storage by cryoadsorption on porous materials has the advantages of low material cost, safety, fast kinetics, and high cyclic stability. The further development of this technology requires reliable data on the H 2 uptake of the adsorbents, however, even for activated carbons the values between different laboratories show sometimes large discrepancies. So far no reference material for hydrogen cryoadsorption is available. The metal‐organic framework ZIF‐8 is an ideal material possessing high thermal, chemical, and mechanical stability that reduces degradation during handling and activation. Here, we distributed ZIF‐8 pellets synthesized by extrusion to 9 laboratories equipped with 15 different experimental setups including gravimetric and volumetric analyzers. The gravimetric H 2 uptake of the pellets was measured at 77 K and up to 100 bar showing a high reproducibility between the different laboratories, with a small relative standard deviation of 3–4 % between pressures of 10–100 bar. The effect of operating variables like the amount of sample or analysis temperature was evaluated, remarking the calibration of devices and other correction procedures as the most significant deviation sources. Overall, the reproducible hydrogen cryoadsorption measurements indicate the robustness of the ZIF‐8 pellets, which we want to propose as a reference material.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Investigation of vertical GaN-on-GaN p – n diode with regrown p -GaN for operation in Venus and other extreme environments

This Letter reports the performance of vertical GaN-on-GaN p–n diodes with etch-then-regrown p-GaN after exposure to a simulated Venus environment (460 °C, ∼94 bar, containing CO2/N2/SO2 etc., atmosphere) for over 10 days, and compared them to the performance of GaN p–n diodes without the etch-then-regrow process. After the above-mentioned Venus test, temperature-dependent I–V and microscopy investigation were conducted to study the robustness of etch-then-regrow p-GaN and vertical GaN p–n diodes under harsh environments and operation up to 500 °C. p-electrode degradation is found to be the main issue of the device's performance. This is the highest temperature at which such characterization has been conducted for vertical GaN p–n diodes, therefore establishing a critical reference for the development of p-GaN regrown and vertical GaN-based electronics for extreme environments.

Physics↗

Density drop at the divertor target in the prototype material plasma exposure eXperiment (Proto-MPEX)

The steady-state linear device “Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment” (MPEX) is currently under construction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with the goal of enabling Plasma-Material Interaction studies at future fusion reactor relevant plasma conditions. In this work, a newly in-house developed hybrid Particle-In-Cell code-PICOS++ is applied to understand the experimental results obtained from the prototype of MPEX referred to as the “Proto-MPEX” during its helicon-only and helicon with ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) experiments. This study explains the physics of the experimentally observed plasma density-drop at the divertor target in Proto-MPEX device during ICRH. In contrast to previous work on ICRH in MPEX, this study demonstrates that the mirror force plays a central role in the Proto-MPEX plasma transport during ICRH, which has new features not previously explored. Force balance analyses reveal that the temperature anisotropy produced by ICRH leads to a significant increase in the mirror force downstream of the resonance where the magnetic field is diverging. This force accelerates ions toward the target and leads to a drop in plasma density to ensure conservation of particle flux. Simulations with ICRH where the magnetic field divergence downstream of the resonance has been removed, do not produce plasma acceleration nor density drop at the target despite efficient ion heating at the resonance. Moreover, simulation results demonstrate that for a given ICRH power, lowering the source rate produces ions with increased perpendicular energy which interact with the mirror force to produce higher plasma acceleration which increases the strength of the density-drop at the target. The strength of the density drop appears to reach an asymptotic limit at a certain threshold ICRH power. Simulations show that this threshold power increases with increasing particle source rate.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Control of hybrid boosting in highly diluted internal combustion engines

A novel hybrid system enabling both flexible supercharging and limited torque assist is studied to mitigate transient response challenges of a turbocharged spark ignition engine equipped with low pressure exhaust gas recirculation. The hybrid system, called a power split supercharger (SC), is configured with a planetary gear set that splits the supercharging power between a small low-voltage electric motor and the engine crankshaft. The air path controller relies on the coordination of four actuators on the engine side and three low-level actuators on the hybrid boosting device. A decentralized control scheme is used in this work, in which the master–slave structure of the boost pressure controller decreases the turbo-lag associated with exhaust gas recirculation, while minimizing the SC operation for fuel economy. A vector reference governor is used to prevent compressor surge during engine tip-outs. In addition, the desired intake manifold pressure is modified to provide time for evacuating the exhaust gas recirculation and avoiding misfires when transitioning to low load, while the hybrid capability of the power split SC is used to recuperate the unwanted generated power. All controllers are validated on both a mean value engine model and a high-fidelity engine model. Practical challenges of implementing the vector reference governor to the highly nonlinear engine air path with pressure pulsations originating from the engine reciprocation are discussed and some solutions are proposed.

Engineering↗

High-efficiency perovskite photovoltaic modules achieved via cesium doping

Perovskite solar modules have been attracting increasing attention due to their market potential, yet publications concerned with theintrinsic scale-up potential of different perovskite compositions remain relatively scarce. On the other hand, while great success is being made towards improving the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) by cesium cation (Cs + ) doping of the perovskite, more attention is being paid to the perovskite phase stabilization effect of Cs + doping, and less to other properties that are critical to understand and futher improve the PSC's. In this work, moderately-Cs-doped MAPbI 3 was employed as a model perovskite material in order to exclude the phase stabilization effect. Our systematic study revealed the influence of Cs + in organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites on the crystal structure, crystallization process, trap state density, band structure and charge (i.e., ions or photo-carriers) transport. Markedly, it has been observed that Cs + doping can greatly increase the carrier diffusion length in the perovskite films, thus improving the potential to scale-up PSC's.The PCE of small area devices (0.09 cm 2 ) was increased to 21.72% from 19.73%, with decreased hysteresis behavior and increased operational stability (T85 = 1000 h) after Cs + doped, where T85 refers to the retention of 85% of the initial PCE. Moreover, a PCE of 21.08% was obtained for a Cs + -containing perovskite module with an active area > 30 cm 2 , which demonstrates a better "reproducibility" than the reference sample (MAPbI3-based perovskite modules, PCE = 18.26%).

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Absolute magneto-optical measurement of magnetic field on a long pulse high electrical current driven solenoid

We describe a direct absolute magneto-optical approach to measuring the magnetic field driven by long pulse width (>5 ms) and high electrical current (∼kA) in a solenoidal coil. The magnetic field and electrical current are among the most important operating parameters in lightning research and electrical power distribution and are essential to understanding the properties of the radiation output in pulsed energy accelerators as well as other research platforms. However, accurately measuring these magnetic fields and electrical currents using conventional electrical diagnostics is difficult due to the strength of ionizing radiation and electromagnetic interference. Our approach uses a fiber coupled laser beam with a rare earth element material sensing crystal that is highly resistant to electromagnetic interference, allows for absolute measurement, and does not require an external calibration. Here, we focus on device theory, operating parameters, magneto-optical results from an experiment on a high current solenoid, and comparison with a calculation of the magnetic field and reference electrical current flowing downstream of the solenoid.

Owens, Israel [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-N↗

Improving luminescence response in ZnGeN 2 /GaN superlattices: defect reduction through composition control

Abstract Color-mixed (cm) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are theoretically the most efficient white light emitters, projected to improve white light luminous efficacy by 34% compared to incumbent phosphor converted LEDs. Since white light technology is pervasive and essential, small improvements in LED technology can result in energy savings. However, cm-LEDs are not yet realized due to poor efficacy in green and amber emitting materials, a spectral region colloquially referred to as the Green Gap. ZnGeN 2 is nearly isostructural and closely lattice-matched to GaN and can be heteroepitaxially integrated with existing GaN devices; ZnGeN 2 /GaN hybrid structures are theorized to emit green (~530 nn) light with a spontaneous emission rate 4.6–4.9 times higher than traditional InGaN LEDs when incorporated into III-N LED structures. In this report we demonstrate the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of GaN and ZnGeN 2 superlattices, an important step towards realizing multiple quantum well structures required for efficient LEDs. Elemental analysis, including atom probe tomography, shows that Ga and Ge are observed in both ZnGeN 2 and GaN layers, degrading the structural uniformity. The lack of elemental abruptness also leads to increased defect luminescence and reabsorption of band edge luminescence. The source of unintentional Ga distributed throughout the ZnGeN 2 layers was identified as excess flux escaping from around the closed MBE shutter. The source of unintentional Ge, which tended to incorporate as a single delta-doped layer in GaN, was identified as Ge riding along the cyclical metal-rich Ga adlayer used for high quality GaN, incorporating during subsequent nitrogen-rich growth step. Modifying the growth strategy results in improved structural quality, elemental abruptness, and luminescence response. This realization of structurally and elementally abrupt interfaces demonstrates the potential of heteroepitaxially integrated binary and ternary nitrides for energy-relevant devices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Effect of lithium coating on long pulse high performance plasma discharges in EAST

Control of impurities, fuel recycling and hydrogen content by lithium evaporative coatings and real-time lithium powder injection (LPI) in EAST are studied for high performance H-mode discharges of up to ~100 s. The results show that the lithium evaporative coatings significantly reduced both the low-Z impurity carbon and high-Z impurity tungsten as well as molybdenum concentration in the plasmas, and the impurities concentration significantly reduced with the accumulated lithium coatings and maintained well afterwards. Specifically the high-Z tungsten core impurity concentration was maintained between 3 ppm–15 ppm during the 101 s H-mode discharge, which is acceptable for the long pulse operation. In addition, real-time wall conditioning via LPI successfully reduced the core high-Z metal impurities by 50% during ~35 s long pulse H-mode discharge, exhibiting strong compatibility between real-time LPI with long pulse discharges. In addition, evaporative lithium coatings demonstrated fuel recycling control, with fuel recycling obviously reducing with lithium coatings and maintaining well afterwards. Also, the lithium evaporative coatings reduced the hydrogen minority species content, represented by the density ratio H/(H + D), from ~50% down to ~5% with accumulated lithium coatings; low hydrogen fraction improved the ICRF minority heating efficiency. Finally the real-time LPI reduced the recycling coefficient R global from 0.95 to 0.82. With these wall conditionings help, the plasma density controlled well during the 101 s long pulse H-mode discharge. Furthermore, these results provide valuable references on impurities, fuel recycling and hydrogen content control for future longer pulse high performance H-mode operation (≥400 s) in EAST and future fusion devices.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Isotope effects and Alfvén eigenmode stability in JET H, D, T, DT, and He plasmas

While much about Alfvén eigenmode (AE) stability has been explored in previous and current tokamaks, open questions remain for future burning plasma experiments, especially regarding exact stability threshold conditions and related isotope effects; the latter, of course, requiring good knowledge of the plasma ion composition. In the JET tokamak, eight in-vessel antennas actively excite stable AEs, from which their frequencies, toroidal mode numbers, and net damping rates are assessed. The effective ion mass can also be inferred using measurements of the plasma density and magnetic geometry. Thousands of AE stability measurements have been collected by the Alfvén Eigenmode Active Diagnostic in hundreds of JET plasmas during the recent Hydrogen, Deuterium, Tritium, DT, and Helium-4 campaigns. In this novel AE stability database, spanning all four main ion species, damping is observed to decrease with increasing Hydrogenic mass, but increase for Helium, a trend consistent with radiative damping as the dominant damping mechanism. These data are important for confident predictions of AE stability in both non-nuclear (H/He) and nuclear (D/T) operations in future devices. In particular, if radiative damping plays a significant role in overall stability, some AEs could be more easily destabilized in D/T plasmas than their H/He reference pulses, even before considering fast ion and alpha particle drive. Active MHD spectroscopy is also employed on select HD, HT, and DT plasmas to infer the effective ion mass, thereby closing the loop on isotope analysis and demonstrating a complementary method to typical diagnosis of the isotope ratio.

Alfvén eigenmodes↗

Electrochemical devices comprising compressed gas solvent electrolytes

Disclosed are novel electrolytes, and techniques for making and devices using such electrolytes, which are based on compressed gas solvents. Unlike conventional electrolytes, disclosed electrolytes are based on “compressed gas solvents” mixed with various salts, referred to as “compressed gas electrolytes.” Various embodiments of a compressed gas solvent includes a material that is in a gas phase and has a vapor pressure above an atmospheric pressure at a room temperature. The disclosed compressed gas electrolytes can have wide electrochemical potential windows, high conductivity, low temperature capability and/or high pressure solvent properties.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Design of Nuclear Criticality Safety Framework for Hands-on Construction of Fast Systems Over Ranges of Multiplication

Since 1945, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has performed critical experiments, primarily at the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility (LACEF) at Technical Area 18 (TA-18). Since 2011, these experiments have been conducted by the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC), operated by LANL, at the Device Assembly Facility (DAF) in the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). These experiments utilize various types of Special Nuclear Material (SNM). Some of these experiments utilize what is referred to as the Rocky Flat Shells, which are called such as they came from the Rocky Flats Plant. These concentric hemi-shells are made of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU), which is 93 w/o 235U. Fig. 1. Subset of the Rocky Flat Shells LANL is designing a new subcritical hands-on experiment with the goal of achieving a neutron multiplication in the range of 50 to 200, which correlates to Keff values of 0.98 to 0.995. ANSI/ANS-1 is the standard for Conduct of Critical Experiments which governs critical operations at NCERC. Section 3.9 of ANSI/ANS-1 states that when manipulating a critical assembly by hand, the predicted k eff of a known configuration should not exceed 0.95 (a neutron multiplication of 20). This presents a challenge, as this system would have a higher multiplication than 20 and the assembly would have to remain subcritical in normal and credible accident scenarios. To ensure the safety of such an assembly, the different normal and abnormal conditions that could alter the criticality 1 MCNP® and Monte Carlo N-Particle® are registered trademarks owned by Triad National Security, LLC, manager and operator of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Any third party use of such registered marks should be properly of the system must be considered and analyzed. If such a condition is deemed to be credible, it will be further investigated using the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) transport code. If the results of these simulations show that a k eff larger than one could be possible, modifications to the assembly will be made until such an event is deemed no longer possible.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Energy management system, method of controlling one or more energy storage devices and control unit for one or more power storage units

Systems, methods and apparatuses are provided for reducing peak energy demand and to smooth intermittent energy profiles from onsite variable energy sources and loads. Some embodiments use system level and device level analysis and optimization to adaptively adjust the operation of a behind the meter energy storage (BMES) to smooth out energy generation variabilities and follow a reference load signal, including at short time resolutions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Sample Preparation Methods for Targeted Single-Cell Proteomics

We compared three cell isolation and two proteomic sample preparation methods for single-cell and near-single-cell analysis. Whole blood was used to quantify hemoglobin (Hb) and glycated-Hb (gly-Hb) in erythrocytes using targeted mass spectrometry and stable isotope-labeled standard peptides. Each method differed in cell isolation and sample preparation as follows: 1) FACS and automated preparation in one-pot for trace samples (autoPOTS); 2) limited dilution via microscopy and a novel rapid one-pot sample preparation method that circumvented the need for the solid-phase extraction, low-volume liquid handling instrumentation and humidified incubation chamber; and 3) CellenONE-based cell isolation and the same one-pot sample preparation method used for limited dilution. Only the CellenONE device routinely isolated single-cells from which Hb was measured to be 540–660 amol per red blood cell (RBC), which was comparable to the calculated SI reference range for mean corpuscular hemoglobin (390–540 amol/RBC). FACSAria sorter and limited dilution could routinely isolate single-digit cell numbers, to reliably quantify CMV-Hb heterogeneity. Finally, we observed that repeated measures, using 5–25 RBCs obtained from N = 10 blood donors, could be used as an alternative and more efficient strategy than single RBC analysis to measure protein heterogeneity, which revealed multimodal distribution, unique for each individual.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Simulations of ICRF Heating for SPARC during First Campaign and Primary Reference-Like Discharge using the Stix Code

High magnetic field tokamaks, like SPARC, rely on ion cyclotron radio frequency heating (ICRF) to reach fusion relevant temperatures. The SPARC tokamak will have 14 ICRF antennas in 7 toroidal locations delivering > 20 MW of power to the plasma. New capabilities with the full wave cold plasma solver, Stix, now allow for resolving the wave-particle resonances using lower order thermal corrections to capture core absorption of Landau damping and ion resonances in devices like SPARC. Favorable comparisons to the TORIC codes give confidence in the single pass absorption of this model to accurately capture the strength of edge interactions of the RF. Using this new dielectric formulation in the Stix code, simulations of the 2D poloidal cross section of SPARC are completed for the first campaign and primary reference-like discharges (PRD-like). A scan of the minority ion concentrations of helium-3 is performed and shows the expected behavior that as the helium-3 decreases the amount of single pass absorption also decreases which is seen in both scenarios. Additionally, both scenarios show only slight differences in single-pass absorption for the range of 3% to 5% helium-3 allowing for more flexibility in experiments. This study also highlights the differences between the first campaign and PRD-like with the first campaign discharges showing much more multi-pass absorption and an effect of confining the wave to a smaller portion of the cross-section due to the fast wave cut-off. This latter result suggests that far-field sheath rectification at the high-field side would be minimal for the first campaign scenario.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Topological electronic properties of silicon

The central role that materials play in human history is exemplified by the three-age division of prehistory into the stone, bronze, and iron ages. References to our present time as the information age or silicon age epitomizes the important role that this semiconducting material came to play in the development of computers and devices that permeate our daily lives. Here we show that the electronic states in silicon have nontrivial topological structures that are captured by a network of Berry flux lines that link at points of high symmetry in the Brillouin zone. Further, This complex network has ice-nodal points where fluxes satisfy ice rules, making silicon a nodal-chain insulator. Fixing the longitudinal momentum parallel to such flux lines yields a two-dimensional Dirac Hamiltonian for the transverse degrees of freedom. Similar to nodal-chain semimetals, we find drumheadlike states in the regions that are delimited by the projections of the bulk Berry flux network on the surface Brillouin zone.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗