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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

INL CRMO XRF Report 2025-03: Provenance Determinations for 854 Projectile Points from Idaho Falls District Bureau of Land Management Archaeological Collections

This report presents provenance determinations for 854 obsidian and fine-grained volcanic projectile points from Idaho Falls District Bureau of Land Management collections. Provenance determinations were made using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Cultural Resource Management Office (CRMO) under the direction of Dr. Kyle Freund.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

INL CRMO XRF Report 2025-04: Provenance Determinations for 116 Obsidian Artifacts from Upper Snake U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Archaeological Collections

This report presents provenance determinations for 116 obsidian artifacts from Upper Snake U.S. Bureau of Reclamation collections. Provenance determinations were made using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Cultural Resource Management Office (CRMO) under the direction of Dr. Kyle Freund.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

INL CRMO XRF Report 2025-05: Provenance Determinations for 23 Folsom and Midland Projectile Points from Eastern Idaho

This report presents provenance determinations for 23 obsidian and fine-grained volcanic Folsom and Midland projectile points from eastern Idaho. Provenance determinations were made using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Cultural Resource Management Office (CRMO) under the direction of Dr. Kyle Freund.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

INL CRMO XRF Report 2025-06: Provenance Determinations for 246 Obsidian and Fine-grained Volcanic Artifacts from Folsom-era Sites in Eastern Idaho

This report presents provenance determinations for 246 obsidian and fine-grained volcanic artifacts from Folsom-era sites in eastern Idaho. Provenance determinations were made using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Cultural Resource Management Office (CRMO) under the direction of Dr. Kyle Freund.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

yProv4ML: Effortless provenance tracking for machine learning systems

The rapid growth in interest in deep learning and foundation models (FMs) in particular, has attracted the attention of a diverse range of researchers thanks to their generalization ability. However, the advent of these techniques has also brought to light the lack of transparency and rigor in the way development is pursued. In particular, the inability to determine the number of epochs and other hyperparameters in advance presents challenges in identifying the best model. To address this challenge, machine learning frameworks such as MLFlow can automate the collection of this type of information. However, these tools capture data using proprietary formats and pose little attention to lineage. This paper proposes yProv4ML, a framework that captures provenance information generated during machine learning processes in PROV-JSON format, with minimal code modification.

Machine learning↗
DOE OSTI2024

Distributed Energy, Utility Scale: 30 Proven Strategies to Increase VPP Enrollment [Slides]

After decades of low or declining growth in electricity demand, the U.S. now faces a significant near-term need for new generation capacity and transmission and distribution infrastructure. Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) can meet a large portion of the gap between electricity supply and growing demand, but only if deployed at an increased scale. This study provides 30 proven strategies for scaling VPPs through increased enrollment based on in-depth interviews with utilities and VPP solutions providers that have achieved considerable scale or rapid growth in program deployment. The study includes specific actions for regulators, utilities, and VPP solutions providers to increase VPP enrollment and deliver important customer and utility benefits.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

INL CRMO XRF Report 2024-01: Provenance Determinations for 135 Haskett Projectile Points from Eastern Idaho

This report presents provenance determinations for 135 obsidian and fine-grained volcanic (FGV) Haskett projectile points from across eastern Idaho. These determinations were made using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Cultural Resource Management Office (CRMO) under the direction of Dr. Kyle Freund.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

INL CRMO XRF Report 2025-02: Provenance Determinations for 1,124 Projectile Points from Lands and Collections Managed by the U.S. Department of Energy-Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID)

This report presents provenance determinations for 1,124 obsidian and fine-grained volcanic (FGV) projectile points from lands and collections managed by the U.S. Department of Energy-Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID). These determinations were made using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Cultural Resource Management Office (CRMO) under the direction of Dr. Kyle Freund.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Oxygen stable isotopes in the nuclear fuel cycle: Assessment of the potential for determining the fabrication and provenance history of anhydrous and hydrous uranium oxides

Determining the origin and history of interdicted nuclear materials is a central challenge in nuclear forensics. The oxygen stable isotope composition of uranium oxide compounds has emerged as a promising forensic signature, attracting increasing attention since the early 2000s. This review examines analytical techniques for measuring oxygen isotope compositions in uranium oxides and evaluates how the nuclear fuel production cycle introduces or modifies these isotopic signatures. The potential for forensic geolocation is explored through workflows that calibrate the relationship between environmental water oxygen isotopes and those found in uranium oxides. Key strengths and limitations of this approach are assessed, including gaps in knowledge related to isotope fractionation during specific stages of the fuel cycle, and processing facility water inputs. The importance of proper sample handling and storage under inert atmospheres, as well as a deeper understanding of both intra-sample oxygen isotope heterogeneity, and hydrous uranium oxide phase formation, is highlighted for improving the reliability of forensic interpretations. In conclusion, the development of uranium oxide standards with well-characterized δ 18 O values and international collaboration toward consensus on their use are identified as essential steps for advancing the field.

Attribution↗
DOE OSTI2026

Knowledge Graph for End-to-End Traceability of an Integrated Human-Earth System Model

Integrated human-Earth system models inform energy-water-land system dynamics and policies, yet their results are difficult to trace through input-data, model structure, scenario configurations, and solved outputs. Because this information is siloed across disconnected artifacts, process-based IAMs have historically lacked a unified, queryable representation. Such lack of traceability prevents researchers from systematically isolating the multi-sector drivers of complex outcomes (such as tracing water-scarcity results back to distant energy-system dynamics) or conducting holistic uncertainty attribution across hundreds of interacting parameters. To address this concern, our work documents the software engineering process of a knowledge graph that unifies these four layers for the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM-USA_Reference scenario, GCAM v9.1). The graph was built as a relational property graph in DuckDB from the run’s own artifacts: the input-preparation dependency map (gcamdata chunk map), the model’s XML input files, the run configuration, and the results database (BaseX), successfully mapping the model’s declared structure. The resulting graph comprises 204,321 nodes and 1,687,814 edges across 16 node types and 15 edge types, with approximately 16.3 million time-series values stored separately to maintain structural efficiency. To ensure representation fidelity, every edge carries an epistemic-status annotation recording the warrant for the relationship (structural, provenance, dependency, or model-derived), and a machine-readable provenance ledger classifying the origin of every schema element. Evaluation against a fixed five-benchmark suite with locked baselines reports zero structural orphans, zero dangling edge endpoints, and 100% of output-producing technologies traceable to raw input files. Two interactive interfaces present the graph, including a serverless browser application built on DuckDB-Wasm. By establishing the first end-to-end provenance framework for an IAM, this work enables researchers and scientists to systematically audit complex policy scenarios, debug model structures, and trace policy-relevant outputs to their data origins in real time.

Artifical Intelligence↗
DOE OSTI2025

RIMS analysis of isotopically tagged uranium particles with application to Intentional Forensics

Traditional nuclear forensics approaches leverage isotopic measurements for characterizing nuclear forensics signatures in fuel cycle materials. To aid in provenance assessment, isotopically perturbed transition metal taggants can be added to fuel cycle materials. We present a case study for examining natural uranium oxide powder that was tagged with isotopically perturbed Mo before and after irradiation using resonance ionization mass spectrometry. In conclusion, this method accurately and precisely measures taggant and uranium compositions, rapidly enabling the ability to clearly discriminate between tagged particles and other material with application for robust assessment of material provenance.

Forensic Anthropology↗
DOE OSTI2025

Migrating Populus with climate change: Phenology, coppice management, cold spell susceptibility, leaf dynamics, and biomass production

Understanding the phenology and productivity of Populus species is crucial for effective management and conservation strategies amid climate change. We investigated leaf budbreak timing, susceptibility to cold damage, leaf dynamics, and biomass production of 168 Populus genotypes with diverse provenances in the southeastern United States. Our study revealed significant variation in budbreak timing across different taxa and years, with genotypes inheriting traits adapted to their parents’ local climates. Temperature emerged as a key factor triggering budbreak, while leaf development depended on other environmental cues such as photoperiod. Notably, budbreak occurred approximately 20 days earlier in 2023 compared to 2022 due to higher accumulated degree days (ADDs). Short-rotation-coppice (SRC) management delayed budbreak by five to ten days. Cold damage was significant in 2023, particularly for genotypes from northern provenances and those with P. maximowiczii parentage. Severe damage was also observed in eastern cottonwood ( Populus deltoides ​× ​ Populus deltoides (D ​× ​D)) genotypes, despite most having southeastern US parentages. Leaf dynamics, including leaf duration and leaf area index (LAI), varied across taxa and sites, with earlier budbreak correlating with extended growing seasons and increased LAI. Biomass production was intricately linked to phenological events, with earlier budbreak leading to increased biomass production and greater susceptibility to cold damage. Our findings highlight the importance of genetics, environment, and coppicing management in understanding and managing Populus phenology and biomass production. These insights provide valuable guidance for developing effective breeding, conservation, and management strategies for Populus species in the context of climate change.

Accumulated degree days (ADDs)↗
DOE OSTI2025

New K-feldspar Pb isotope results for Mesozoic arc crust in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. and Canada: comparison with the Mojave-Salinia province of southern California and Implications for Baja-BC

Measurements of lead isotopic compositions in detrital K-feldspar have been increasingly used as a tool to assess sediment provenance. We compiled a database of previously published Pb isotope data from 700 bedrock K-feldspar samples and 1,423 age-corrected bedrock whole rock samples from western North American igneous and metamorphic bodies. Additionally, we report 66 new K-feldspar Pb isotope data for plutons throughout the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and British Columbia. Results show that the Pb isotope values of plutonic K-feldspar depend on the isotopically juvenile or evolved nature of underlying crust. Samples obtained from the mid Cretaceous – mid Eocene Coast Plutonic Complex, North Cascades, and Intermontane superterrane that occur west of the initial 87 Sr/ 86 Sr (Sri) = 0.706 isopleth exhibit a highly restricted 207 Pb/ 206 Pb and 208 Pb/ 206 Pb values centred upon 0.83 and 2.03, respectively. Conversely, rocks overlying older continental crust further east such as the Middle Jurassic – Late Cretaceous Omineca crystalline belt, Idaho batholith, and Boulder Batholith exhibit far greater variation of Pb isotope values that parallel the 100 Ma isochron calculated from a two-stage Pb evolution model. We demonstrate that Pb isotopic results from the Idaho and Boulder Batholith region can be used to define distinctive subregions for Pb isotopic provenance analysis, and compare these signatures to the Mojave-Salinian batholith of southern California and western Arizona, as these two areas have previously been proposed as source regions for extraregional sediment that was deposited within the Nanaimo Basin during the Campanian – Maastrichtian. Future Pb isotopic analysis of detrital K-feldspar from the Nanaimo Basin of southwestern British Columbia may effectively distinguish between potential extraregional sources separated by thousands of kilometres.

Coast Plutonic Complex↗
DOE OSTI2025

Smooth splitting and zeros from on-shell recursion

We describe a new approach to understanding the origins of recently discovered “hidden zeros” and “smooth splitting” of tree-level amplitudes in Tr ϕ 3 , Non-Linear Sigma Model (NLSM), Yang-Mill-Scalar (YMS) and the special Galileon. Introducing a new type of linear shift in kinematic space we demonstrate that the mysterious splitting formulae follow from a simple contour integration argument in the style of on-shell recursion. The argument makes use of only standard notions of tree-level factorization on propagators, but assumes improved UV behavior in the form of the absence of a residue at infinity. In the case of Tr ϕ 3 and NLSM this is proven by identifying our shift as a special case of a more general construction called a g-vector shift; in the case of YMS it remains an unproven conjecture. This recursive perspective leads to numerous new results: we derive generalizations of the splitting formulae on more relaxed near-zero kinematics, including interesting new kinematic limits in which the amplitude splits into a triple-product; we also demonstrate that the uncolored special Galileon model has improved UV scaling and hence also splits. We also investigate the possible realization of hidden zeros in four dimensions. The conditions under which the dimensionality constraints are compatible with zero kinematics is investigated in detail for Tr ϕ 3 and YMS; for the latter we find they can be realized only with certain restrictions on external helicity states. The realizable 4d zeros are proven by a similar recursive argument based on BCFW and is found to generalize to a new class of intrinsically 4d “helicity zeros” present in all sectors of YM and also gravity.

effective field theories↗
DOE OSTI2025

Opening doors to physical sample tracking and attribution in Earth and environmental sciences

Physical samples and their associated data and metadata underpin scientific discoveries across disciplines and can enable new science when appropriately archived. However, there are significant gaps in current practices and infrastructure that prevent accurate provenance tracking, reproducibility, and attribution. For most samples, descriptive metadata are often sparse, inaccessible, or absent. Samples and associated data and metadata may also be scattered across numerous physical collections, data repositories, laboratories, data files, and papers with no clear linkage or provenance tracking as new information is generated over time. The Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Physical Samples Curation Cluster has therefore developed guidance for scientific authors on ‘Publishing Open Research Using Physical Samples.’ This involved synthesizing existing practices, gathering community feedback, and assessing real-world examples. We identified improvements needed to enable authors to efficiently cite and link Earth science samples and related data, and track their use. Our goal is to help improve discoverability, interoperability, and reuse of physical samples, and associated data and metadata. Though primarily focused on the needs of Earth and environmental sciences, these guidelines are broadly applicable.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Climate change drives convergent evolution of root traits on Sky Island climate relicts

Roots are essential to the strategies plants use to survive in variable environments, yet we know little of how they vary within species. Experimental conditions demonstrate that intraspecific plant root traits respond strongly to variation in the environment; however, it is unclear when these responses can be characterized as evolution in response to selective pressures of climate change over many generations. Sky Islands are model, natural climate relict ecosystems to examine climate-change driven evolution. Utilizing a common garden with replicate genotypes of Populus angustifolia (Narrowleaf cottonwood) from six Sky Island (SI) populations and nine adjacent Mountain Chain (MC) populations across three genetic provenances, we hypothesized that SI root traits have diverged due to historical isolation in warmer, drier climates. When grown in common conditions, populations originating on SI’s showed convergent evolution across three distinct genetic provenances, which was characterized by 44.16% decreased total root length, 42.64% decreased average root volume, 43.31% decreased root surface area, and significantly less root trait variation, relative to adjacent mountain chains. Convergent evolution of root traits from trees originating on SI’s is correlated with changes in mean annual precipitation and potential evapotranspiration in the field over the past ~ 125 years. These results demonstrate a consistent pattern in root trait evolution at the landscape scale and the role of climate on the evolution of root traits in a genetic and geographic context relevant to climate change.

Convergent evolution↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-pressure neutron diffraction at ultra-low temperature

Neutron diffraction is a powerful tool in the study of quantum materials and associated emergent phenomena as it allows for direct detection of magnetic structure even at ultra-low temperatures. As pressure can drive systems across quantum critical points and tune emergent behaviors at the quantum scale, coupling neutron diffraction with extreme conditions of high pressure at (ultra-)low temperatures has been a key research target over decades. This has proven challenging as magnetic neutron diffraction typically requires large sample volumes due to flux limitations, whereas high-pressure studies require small sample volumes due to pressure limitations. Combining these two contradictory requirements poses many difficulties, but also brings opportunities in research and development. Here, we address these shortcomings through the use of a diamond anvil cell equipped with polycrystalline anvils with relatively large sample volumes coupled with the high neutron flux made available by the high-pressure diffractometer of the Spallation Neutron Source. This particular diamond anvil cell configuration has previously proven useful for single-crystal samples and is here coupled with the ultra-low temperatures of a dilution refrigerator for the first time. Our study on a single crystal of Yb 2 ⁢O 3 successfully collected magnetic neutron diffraction data at 5.3 GPa below 200 mK inside a dilution refrigerator. We have performed a detailed analysis of the magnetic diffraction data to investigate the magnetic structure under pressure and observed a subtle shift in the transition temperature. This development will open the door for future studies on magnetic materials with these much-desired coupled extremes of high pressure and ultra-low temperatures.

Wu, Yan [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak↗