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Chen, Yuan

Publications and source records attributed to Chen, Yuan.

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

An alternative pocket for binding the N‐degrons by the UBR1 and UBR2 ubiquitin E3 ligases

The UBR family of ubiquitin ligases binds to N-termini of their targets (known as N-degron) to induce their ubiquitination and degradation via a conserved domain known as UBR-box. UBR1 and UBR2 share the highest sequence homology among the family, and substantial structural studies were previously performed for substrate binding by the UBR-boxes of UBR1 and UBR2. Here, we describe a new pocket in the UBR-boxes of UBR1 and UBR2 for binding the second residues of N-degrons through determining five co-crystal structures of the UBR-boxes with various N-degron peptides. Together with binding affinities measured by fluorescence polarization, we show that the two highly homologous UBR-boxes can interact with the second residue of an N-degron differently. In addition, the UBR-boxes undergo different conformational changes when binding N-degrons. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the sidechain of the third amino acid of an N-degron has no contribution to binding the UBR-boxes. These findings represent a new conceptual advancement for the UBR E3 ligases and the new insights described here can be leveraged for developing their selective ligands for research and potential therapies.

N-end rule↗
DOE OSTI2021

Identification of Preferential Recharge Zones in Karst Systems Based on the Correlation between the Spring Level and Precipitation: A Case Study from Jinan Spring Basin

The Jinan spring basin is located in the karst area of northern China, where springs serve as important sources of water supply. Several studies on spring protection and water supply have been carried out, and scholars have developed some laws on local groundwater flow dynamic and characteristics of aquifer structures. Unfortunately, there is a lack of detailed research on preferential recharge zones, which are the main recharge pathways of springs. Therefore, this research focuses on identifying preferential recharge zones based on the correlation between the spring level and precipitation. The results show that when precipitation is more intense or lasts longer, there is a stronger correlation between spring level and precipitation. It has been established that the precipitation at Donghongmiao station has the closest relationship with the dynamic of Baotu spring, which is found to be the most significant contribution to spring preservation. Two potential preferential recharge zones in the Jinan spring basin are detected through correlation analysis and geological exploration data. These findings support spring protection and water supply projects in karst regions.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Gold-Nanocluster-Mediated Delivery of siRNA to Intact Plant Cells for Efficient Gene Knockdown

RNA interference, which involves the delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA), has been used to validate target genes, to understand and control cellular metabolic pathways, and to use as a "green" alternative to confer pest tolerance in crops. Conventional siRNA delivery methods such as viruses and Agrobacterium -mediated delivery exhibit plant species range limitations and uncontrolled DNA integration into the plant genome. Here, we synthesize polyethylenimine-functionalized gold nanoclusters (PEI-AuNCs) to mediate siRNA delivery into intact plants and show that these nanoclusters enable efficient gene knockdown. We further demonstrate that PEI-AuNCs protect siRNA from RNase degradation while the complex is small enough to bypass the plant cell wall. Consequently, AuNCs enable gene knockdown with efficiencies of up 76.5 ± 5.9% and 76.1 ± 9.5% for GFP and ROQ1, respectively, with no observable toxicity. Our data suggest that AuNCs can deliver siRNA into intact plant cells for broad applications in plant biotechnology.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Observing photo-induced chiral edge states of graphene nanoribbons in pump-probe spectroscopies

Photo-induced edge states in low-dimensional materials have attracted considerable attention due to the tunability of topological properties and dispersion. Specifically, graphene nanoribbons have been predicted to host chiral edge modes upon irradiation with circularly polarized light. Here, we present numerical calculations of time-resolved angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy and trRIXS of a graphene nanoribbon. We characterize pump-probe spectroscopic signatures of photo-induced edge states, illustrate the origin of distinct spectral features that arise from Floquet topological edge modes, and investigate the roles of incoming photon energies and finite core–hole lifetime in RIXS. With momentum, energy, and time resolution, pump-probe spectroscopies can play an important role in understanding the behavior of photo-induced topological states of matter.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Resilient Distributed Field Estimation

We study resilient distributed field estimation under measurement attacks. A network of agents or devices measures a large, spatially distributed physical field parameter. An adversary arbitrarily manipulates the measurements of some of the agents. Each agent's goal is to process its measurements and information received from its neighbors to estimate only a few specific components of the field. Here, we present SAFE, the saturating adaptive field estimator, a consensus + innovations distributed field estimator that is resilient to measurement attacks. Under sufficient conditions on the compromised measurement streams, the physical coupling between the field and the agents' measurements, and the connectivity of the cyber communication network, SAFE guarantees that each agent's estimate converges almost surely to the true value of the components of the parameter in which the agent is interested. Finally, we illustrate the performance of SAFE through numerical examples.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Time-resolved resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in a pumped Mott insulator

Collective excitations contain rich information about photoinduced transient states in correlated systems. In a Mott insulator, charge degrees of freedom are frozen, but can be activated by photodoping. The energy-momentum distribution of the charge excitation spectrum reflects the propagation of charge degrees of freedom and provides information about the interplay among various intertwined instabilities on the timescale set by the pump. To reveal charge excitations out of equilibrium, here we simulate time-resolved x-ray absorption and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering using a Hubbard model. After pumping, the former resolves photodoping, while the latter characterizes the formation, dispersion, weight, and nonlinear effects of collective excitations. Intermediate-state information from time-resolved resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (trRIXS) can be used to decipher the origin of these excitations, including bimagnons, Mott-gap excitations, doublon and single-electron in-gap states, and anti-Stokes relaxation during an ultrafast pump. This paper provides a theoretical foundation for existing and future trRIXS experiments.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Single-Facet Dominant Anatase TiO 2 (101) and (001) Model Catalysts to Elucidate the Active Sites for Alkanol Dehydration

Alkanol dehydration on Lewis acid-base pairs of transition metal oxide catalysts is a reaction of importance in oxygen removal from biomass-derived feedstocks and their conversion to chemicals in general. However, catalysts with a high degree of structural heterogeneity, such as commercial TiO 2 powders, are not well-suited to establish rigorous structure-function relationships at an atomic level. Here, we provide compelling evidence for the effects of surface orientation of TiO 2 catalyst on elimination reactions of alcohols. Two anatase titania model catalysts, with preferential exposure of (101) and (001) facets, were synthesized and studied for 2-propanol dehydration using kinetic, isotopic, microscopic, and spectroscopic measurements, coupled with DFT calculations. Surface Lewis acid sites were found to be active for 2-propanol dehydration and (101) facets are more reactive than (001) facets under the reaction conditions studied. On both anatase surfaces, 2-propanol was found to dehydrate via concerted E2 elimination pathways, but with different initial states and thus also different intrinsic activation barriers. Molecular 2-propanol dehydration dominates on TiO2 (101) while on TiO 2 (001), 2-propanol simultaneously converts to more stable 2-propoxide before dehydration, which then requires higher activation energies for E2 elimination.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

Resilient Distributed Parameter Estimation With Heterogeneous Data

This paper studies resilient distributed estimation under measurement attacks. A set of agents each makes successive local, linear, noisy measurements of an unknown vector field collected in a vector parameter. The local measurement models are heterogeneous across agents and may be locally unobservable for the unknown parameter. An adversary compromises some of the measurement streams and changes their values arbitrarily. The agents' goal is to cooperate over a peer-to-peer communication network to process their (possibly compromised) local measurements and estimate the value of the unknown vector parameter. We present SAGE, the Saturating Adaptive Gain Estimator, a distributed, recursive, consensus + innovations estimator that is resilient to measurement attacks. We demonstrate that, as long as the number of compromised measurement streams is below a particular bound, then, SAGE guarantees that all of the agents' local estimates converge almost surely to the value of the parameter. The resilience of the estimator - i.e., the number of compromised measurement streams it can tolerate - does not depend on the topology of the inter-agent communication network. Finally, we illustrate the performance of SAGE through numerical examples.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Tribological Properties and Self-Repairing Functionality of Ti6Al4V-Multilayer Graphene-Ag Composites

Ti6Al4V alloy has broad application prospects in the aircraft industry. However, when it is served as frictional motion components, the poor friction and wear properties may greatly influence the reliability and working life of the entire mechanical system. Therefore, this paper mainly investigates the tribological performance and self-repairing functionality of Ti6Al4V-multilayer graphene (MLG)-Ag composites (TMAC) from 25 to 600 °C. The results show that TMAC obtains better tribological behavior in comparison with Ti6Al4V alloy (TC4), Ti6Al4V-MLG composites (TMC) and Ti6Al4V-Ag composites (TAC). It should be ascribed to the synergistic action of the reinforcement MLG and lubricant Ag, which are crushed and spread out by mechanical and thermal stress in the friction process, leading to the formation of a lubricating film on the wear scar. Along with the spreading of lubricating film, Ag and MLG can precipitate onto the microdefective areas, thus playing an important role in repairing the wear scar of TMAC.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Bidirectional freeze casting for fabricating lamellar structures

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus related to freeze casting. In one aspect, a method comprises providing an apparatus. The apparatus comprises a container and a cooling surface. A bottom of the container comprises a wedge. The wedge comprises a first substantially planar surface and a second substantially planar surface with an angle between the first and the second substantially planar surfaces. An interior bottom of the container comprises the second substantially planar surface. The cooling surface is in contact with the first substantially planar surface. A slurry is deposited on the second substantially planar surface, the slurry comprising a plurality of particles in a liquid. The cooling surface is cooled to cool the slurry at a specified cooling rate.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS2019

Radiation Single Event Effects (SEE) Impact on Complex Avionics Architecture Reliability

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) has an urgent need to understand how system-level reliability of an avionics architecture is compromised when portions of the architecture are temporarily unavailable due to single event effects (SEE). The proposed activity parametrically evaluated these SEE impacts on system reliability based on mission duration, upset rate and recovery times for a representative redundant architecture. The key stakeholders for this study are NASA programs and projects that expect to use avionics architectures with electrical, electronic and electromechanical (EEE) parts susceptible to SEE when exposed to the mission expected radiation environment.

Hodson, Robert F.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Theory for time-resolved resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

Time-resolved measurements of materials provide a wealth of information on quasiparticle dynamics, and have been the focus of optical studies for decades. In this paper, we develop a theory for explicitly evaluating time-resolved resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (tr-RIXS). We apply the theory to a noninteracting electronic system and reveal the particle-hole spectrum and its evolution during the pump pulse. With a high-frequency pump, the frequency and amplitude dependence analysis of the spectra agrees well with the steady-state assumptions and Floquet excitations. When the pump frequency is low, the spectrum extracts real-time dynamics of the particle-hole continuum in momentum space. These results verify the correctness of our theory and demonstrate the breadth of physical problems that tr-RIXS could shed light on.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Effect of Silver and Carbon Fiber on the Tribological Properties of M50 Matrix Composites Under Different Loads

As one of the most widely used high-performance bearing steels, the service life of M50 steel is closely related to its tribological properties. In this paper, the dry sliding tribological tests of M50 matrix composite containing 5.0 wt.% Ag and 5.0 wt.% carbon fiber (CF) against Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} ceramic balls are carried out under different applied loads. The morphologies and compositions of worn surfaces and the cross sections of worn scars are systematically characterized to explore the wear mechanisms. The results indicate that M50-Ag-CF composites (MAC) exhibit the excellent tribological properties at 10 N, whose friction coefficient and wear rate are 0.212 and 1.6 × 10{sup −6} mm{sup 3} N{sup −1} m{sup −1}, respectively. The excellent tribological performance can be attributed to the synergistic effect of Ag and CF. Massive Ag is enriched on the friction surface to form a lubricating film, thus reducing the surface roughness and friction coefficient. Meanwhile, CF acts as a reinforcement and improves the wear resistance of M50 matrix composites.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗