Munjal Shah

National Renewable Energy Laboratory | NREL

A novel pumped thermal electricity storage system utilizes low-cost solid particles as storage media that can deliver high-temperature heat and generate power by a high-efficiency power cycle. A counterflow direct contact gas/particle fluidized bed heat exchanger is a key component in the storage system, facilitating efficient heat transfer between...

Reliable power supply from variable renewable resources requires energy storage at various scales to overcome resource intermittency. Long-duration energy storage (LDES, 10–100 hours) can improve dispatchability and grid reliability with increasing levels of renewable power supply. Thermal energy storage (TES) has siting flexibility and the ability...

Hydrogen represents a major pathway to decarbonize and stabilize the national and international energy industry and select manufacturing markets. To facilitate the development of hydrogen markets, the US Department of Energy initiated H2@Scale to bring together stakeholders to advance affordable hydrogen production, transport, storage, and utilizat...

Insects are impressive flyers due to their intricate wing anatomy, exceptional maneuvering abilities, and capacity to fly in harsh conditions. Bees adapt to extreme environmental conditions through thermoregulation, which allows them to lose or gain heat to regulate their body temperature and increase survivability and foraging capability. The temp...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Histologic and transcriptomic analyses of retrieved stroke clots have identified features associated with patient outcomes. Previous studies have demonstrated the predictive capacity of histology or expression features in isolation. Few studies, however, have investigated how paired histologic image features and expression...

Transcriptomic profiling has emerged as a powerful tool for exploring the molecular landscape of ischemic stroke clots and providing insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying stroke progression and recovery. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between stroke clot transcriptomes and stroke thrombectomy outcome, a...

INTRODUCTION Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is the most widely used imaging modality for intracranial aneurysm (IA) management, yet it remains inferior to digital subtraction angiography (DSA) for IA detection, particularly of small IAs in the cavernous carotid region. METHODS Using 50 paired CTA-DSA images, we trained (n = 27), validated (...

Sustainable energy technologies often use fluids with complex properties. As an example, sulfur is a promising fluid for use in thermal energy storage systems, with highly non-linear thermophysical properties. The viscosity of liquid-phase sulfur varies by four orders of magnitude due to polymerization of sulfur rings between 400 K and 500 K, follo...

OBJECTIVE Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is the most widely used imaging modality for intracranial aneurysm (IA) management, yet it remains inferior to digital subtraction angiography (DSA) for IA detection, particularly of small IAs in the cavernous carotid region. The authors evaluated a deep learning pipeline for segmentation of vessels a...

The size of a bumblebee relative to its wing-span would suggest that flight is not possible according to the conventional aerodynamic theories, yet nature shows that not to be true. Bumblebee wings have venations that create corrugations, with their forewing and hindwing connected with a hook-like structure, known as hamulus. Previous investigation...

Worker bees are an integral part of survival and lifespan of a beehive through foraging. The most important factor that influences mortality of worker bees is wing wear. Quick maneuvers during foraging to escape predators while carrying the extra weight of nectar may cause bees to impale their wings on hard or sharp vegetation or other obstacles fo...

The Bio-inspired Ray for Extreme Environments and Zonal Exploration (BREEZE) combines inflatable structures with bioinspired propulsion to create a versatile flyer for exploration of the Venusian atmosphere. BREEZE will navigate the atmosphere at altitudes between 50 to 60 km, while riding zonal winds to circumnavigate the planet every 4 to 6 days....