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At least 217 records · Page 12

The many-body expansion for aqueous systems revisited: III. Hofmeister ion – water interactions

We report a Many Body Energy (MBE) analysis of aqueous ionic clusters containing anions and cations at the two opposite ends of the Hofmeister series, viz. the kosmotropes Ca2+, SO42- and chaotropes NH4+ and ClO4- with 9 water molecules to quantify the how these ions in altering the interaction between the water molecules in their immediate surrounding. The current results are contrasted to the ones reported earlier for water clusters as well as for alkali metal and halide ion aqueous clusters of the same size, which lie in the middle of the Hofmeister series. Through this analysis, noteworthy differences between the MBE of kosmotropes and chaotropes were identified. The MBE of kosmotropes is dominated by ion-water interactions that extends beyond the 4-body term, the point at which the MBE of pure water converges. The percentage contribution of the 2- B to the total cluster binding energy is noticeably larger. The disruption due to the dominant ion results in weak, unfavorable water-water interactions. The MBE for chaotropes, on the other hand, was found to converge more quickly as it more closely resembles that of pure water clusters. Chaotropes exhibit weaker overall binding energies and ion-water interactions with more favorable water-water interactions, somewhat recovering the pattern of the 2-4 body terms exemplified by pure water clusters. More importantly, both kosmotropic and chaotropic ions exhibit an anticorrelation between the 2-B ion-water (I-W) and water-water (W-W) interactions as well as between the 3-B (I-W-W) and (I-W) interactions. The consideration of two different structural arrangements (ion inside and outside of a water cluster) suggests that fully solvated (ion inside) chaotropes disrupt the hydrogen bonding network in a similar manner as partially solvated (ion outside) kosmotropes and offer useful insights into the modeling requirements of bulk vs. an interface. Finally, the 2-B contribution to the total Basis Set Superposition Error (BSSE) correction for the kosmotropic and chaotropic ions follows the previously reported erf profile vs. intermolecular distance. When scaled for the corresponding dimer energies and distances, a single profile fits the current results together with all previously reported ones for the pure water and halide water clusters.

Herman, Kristina M.↗

A large accessory genome and high recombination rates may influence global distribution and broad host range of the fungal plant pathogen Claviceps purpurea

Pangenome analyses are increasingly being utilized to study the evolution of eukaryotic organisms. While pangenomes can provide insight into polymorphic gene content, inferences about the ecological and adaptive potential of such organisms also need to be accompanied by additional supportive genomic analyses. In this study we constructed a pangenome of Claviceps purpurea from 24 genomes and examined the positive selection and recombination landscape of an economically important fungal organism for pharmacology and agricultural research. Together, these analyses revealed that C. purpurea has a relatively large accessory genome (~ 38%), high recombination rates (ρ = 0.044), and transposon mediated gene duplication. However, due to observations of relatively low transposable element (TE) content (8.8%) and a lack of variability in genome sizes, prolific TE expansion may be controlled by frequent recombination. We additionally identified that within the ergoline biosynthetic cluster the lpsA1 and lpsA2 were the result of a recombination event. However, the high recombination rates observed in C. purpurea may be influencing an overall trend of purifying selection across the genome. These results showcase the use of selection and recombination landscapes to identify mechanisms contributing to pangenome structure and primary factors influencing the evolution of an organism.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Equation-of-Motion Coupled-Cluster Cumulant Green’s Function for Excited States and X-ray Spectra

Green’s function methods within many-body perturbation theory provide a general framework for treating electronic correlations in excited states and spectra. Conventional methods using the Dyson equation or the cumulant expansion are typically based on the GW self-energy approximation. In order to extend this approximation in molecular systems, a non-perturbative real-time coupled-cluster cumulant Green’s function approach has been introduced, where the cumulant is obtained as the solution to a set of coupled first order, non-linear differential equations. This approach naturally includes non-linear corrections to conventional cumulant Green’s function techniques where the cumulant is linear in the GW self-energy. The method yields the spectral function associated with the core Green’s function, which is directly related to the x-ray photoemission spectra (XPS) of molecular systems. The approach also yields very good results for binding energies and satellite excitations. The x-ray absorption spectrum (XAS) is then obtained as a convolution of the core spectral function and an effective one-body absorption spectrum. Here this approach is extended to include the full coupled-cluster-singles (CCS) core Green’s function by including the complete form of the non-linear contributions to the cumulant as well as all single, double, and triple cluster excitations in the CC amplitude equations. This approach naturally builds in orthogonality and shake-up effects analogous to those in the Mahan-Noizeres-de Dominicis edge singularity corrections that enhance the XAS near the edge. Themethod is illustrated for the XPS and XAS of NH 3 .

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Modeling features in the redshift-space halo power spectrum with perturbation theory

In this work, we study the ability of perturbative models with effective field theory contributions and infra-red resummation to model the redshift space clustering of biased tracers in models where the linear power spectrum has "features"- either imprinted during inflation or induced by non-standard expansion histories. We show that both Eulerian and Lagrangian perturbation theory are capable of reproducing the Fourier space two-point functions of halos up to the non-linear scale from a suite of 40963 particle N-body simulations. This is the first demonstration that perturbative models can accurately fit the redshift-space clustering of biased tracers in N-body simulations of such theories. By comparing different theoretical models and IR resummation schemes we assess the current theoretical uncertainty in predicting power spectra for models with features. Our results suggest that future surveys will be able to detect or tightly constrain features in the primordial spectrum below the one percent level across a wide range of scales.

redshift surveys↗

Coupling of nTRACER to COBRA-TF for full core high-fidelity analysis of VVERs

The evolution of computing clusters allows the use of high-resolution multi-physics solvers for reactor analysis. Despite the continuous expansion of VVER technology, only one other high-fidelity sub-pin multi-physics core solver is currently developed for safety analysis. To that end the Laboratory of Reactor Physics and Thermal-Hydraulics (LRT) of Paul Scherrer Institut is developing such a tool with the coupling of the neutronic code nTRACER and the sub-channel code COBRA-TF. This work follows the initial steps of the coupling and focuses to the extension of the core solver to full core VVER geometries. The X2 VVER-1000 benchmark is modeled with the novel core solver. The results are compared to the ones of a standalone nTRACER calculation where the feedbacks are provided by a simplified 1D thermal-hydraulic solver. Despite relatively good agreement in power distribution, the limitations of the simplified solver become apparent especially when comparing global temperature profiles. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Identification of carbohydrate gene clusters obtained from in vitro fermentations as predictive biomarkers of prebiotic responses

Prebiotic fibers are non-digestible substrates that modulate the gut microbiome by promoting expansion of microbes having the genetic and physiological potential to utilize those molecules. Although several prebiotic substrates have been consistently shown to provide health benefits in human clinical trials, responder and non-responder phenotypes are often reported. These observations had led to interest in identifying, a priori, prebiotic responders and non-responders as a basis for personalized nutrition. In this study, we conducted in vitro fecal enrichments and applied shotgun metagenomics and machine learning tools to identify microbial gene signatures from adult subjects that could be used to predict prebiotic responders and non-responders. Using short chain fatty acids as a targeted response, we identified genetic features, consisting of carbohydrate active enzymes, transcription factors and sugar transporters, from metagenomic sequencing of in vitro fermentations for three prebiotic substrates: xylooligosacharides, fructooligosacharides, and inulin. A machine learning approach was then used to select substrate-specific gene signatures as predictive features. These features were found to be predictive for XOS responders with respect to SCFA production in an in vivo trial. Our results confirm the bifidogenic effect of commonly used prebiotic substrates along with inter-individual microbial responses towards these substrates. We successfully trained classifiers for the prediction of prebiotic responders towards XOS and inulin with robust accuracy (≥ AUC 0.9) and demonstrated its utility in a human feeding trial. Overall, the findings from this study highlight the practical implementation of pre-intervention targeted profiling of individual microbiomes to stratify responders and non-responders.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Representative Period Selection for Robust Capacity Expansion Planning in Low-carbon Grids

With the increasing urgency to decarbonize power systems, while mitigating extreme events, capacity expansion models can play a vital role in reliably planning the expansion of power systems and facilitating the integration of renewable energy sources. Optimizing capacity expansion generally involves selecting surrogate representative days from forecasts of load and the generation profiles of variable renewable energy resources. To properly select those representative days, we propose a novel input-based approach in combination with the k-means clustering algorithm that utilize three unique operational inputs: load shedding, renewable curtailment, and transmission congestion. The proposed method allows for more robust and cost-effective capacity planning. The method is validated using a capacity expansion model and a production cost model based on California Independent System Operator (CAISO)'s decarbonization goals, and results in reduced costs and drastically lower load shedding.

Anderson, Osten P.↗

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage hub development on the Gulf Coast

Abstract The Gulf Coast of the United States hosts diverse power generation, refining, and petrochemical processing facilities, resulting in the nation's largest volumetric concentration of industrial CO 2 emissions, rivaled only by the Ohio River Valley. These emissions sources are concentrated in specific industrial clusters that allow combining emissions streams to achieve economies of scale. The region is currently undergoing globally significant industrial expansion and investment as a result of abundant and inexpensive regional unconventional natural gas availability, and is a growing exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Opportunities to integrate CO 2 emission management within the diverse energy chains in the region are volumetrically significant and include both concentrated and dilute sources. Significant examples of capture, transport, and storage exist. Offshore storage is particularly attractive, as it provides simplified land leasing models (single governmental land owner), proven reservoir quality, and presents fewer risks to both protected groundwater and populated areas. Projects can now take advantage of recently expanded opportunities under section 45Q of the Internal Revenue Service tax code. The region continues to evolve as an active carbon‐handling hub, and is uniquely suited to justify additional investment in carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies via a large‐scale integrated project development. Continued development of integrated projects will allow the region to continue to grow economically within its strong fossil‐fuel handling competence focus while advancing low‐carbon energy technologies that maintain globally competitiveness. © 2021 The Authors. Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology published by Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

45Q↗

Surface warming in global cities is substantially more rapid than in rural background areas

Warming trends in cities are influenced both by large-scale climate processes and by local-scale urbanization. However, little is known about how surface warming trends of global cities differ from those characterized by weather observations in the rural background. Here, through statistical analyses of satellite land surface temperatures (2002 to 2021), we find that the mean surface warming trend is 0.50 ± 0.20 K·decade –1 (mean ± one S.D.) in the urban core of 2000-plus city clusters worldwide, and is 29% greater than the trend for the rural background. On average, background climate change is the largest contributor explaining 0.30 ± 0.11 K·decade –1 of the urban surface warming. In city clusters in China and India, however, more than 0.23 K·decade –1 of the mean trend is attributed to urban expansion. We also find evidence of urban greening in European cities, which offsets 0.13 ± 0.034 K·decade –1 of background surface warming.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

The growth of density perturbations in the last ~10 billion years from tomographic large-scale structure data

In order to investigate the origin of the ongoing tension between the amplitude of matter fluctuations measured by weak lensing experiments at low redshifts and the value inferred from the cosmic microwave background anisotropies, we reconstruct the evolution of this amplitude from z ~ 2 using existing large-scale structure data. To do so, we decouple the linear growth of density inhomogeneities from the background expansion, and constrain its redshift dependence making use of a combination of 6 different data sets, including cosmic shear, galaxy clustering and CMB lensing. We analyze these data under a consistent harmonic-space angular power spectrum-based pipeline. We show that current data constrain the amplitude of fluctuations mostly in the range 0.2 < z < 0.7, where it is lower than predicted by . This difference is mostly driven by current cosmic shear data, although the growth histories reconstructed from different data combinations are consistent with each other, and we find no evidence of systematic deviations in any particular experiment. In spite of the tension with , the data are well-described by the model, albeit with a lower value of S 8 ≡ σ 8 (Ω m /0.3) 0.5 . As part of our analysis, we find constraints on this parameter of S 8 = 0.7781 ± 0.0094 (68% confidence level), reaching almost percent-level errors comparable with CMB measurements, and 3.4σ away from the value found by .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The cosmology dependence of galaxy clustering and lensing from a hybrid N -body–perturbation theory model

ABSTRACT We implement a model for the two-point statistics of biased tracers that combines dark matter dynamics from N-body simulations with an analytic Lagrangian bias expansion. Using Aemulus, a suite of N-body simulations built for emulation of cosmological observables, we emulate the cosmology dependence of these non-linear spectra from redshifts z = 0 to z = 2. We quantify the accuracy of our emulation procedure, which is sub-per cent at $k=1\, h \,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ for the redshifts probed by upcoming surveys and improves at higher redshifts. We demonstrate its ability to describe the statistics of complex tracer samples, including those with assembly bias and baryonic effects, reliably fitting the clustering and lensing statistics of such samples at redshift z ≃ 0.4 to scales of $k_{\rm max} \approx 0.6\, h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$. We show that the emulator can be used for unbiased cosmological parameter inference in simulated joint clustering and galaxy–galaxy lensing analyses with data drawn from an independent N-body simulation. These results indicate that our emulator is a promising tool that can be readily applied to the analysis of current and upcoming data sets from galaxy surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Breaking covalent bonds in the context of the many-body expansion (MBE). I. The purported “first row anomaly” in XH n (X = C, Si, Ge, Sn; n = 1–4)

We present a new, novel implementation of the Many-Body Expansion (MBE) to account for the breaking of covalent bonds, thus extending the range of applications from its previous popular usage in the breaking of hydrogen bonds in clusters to molecules. A central concept of the new implementation is the in situ atomic electronic state of an atom in a molecule that casts the one-body term as the energy required to promote it to that state from its ground state. The rest of the terms correspond to the individual diatomic, triatomic, etc., fragments. Its application to the atomization energies of the XH n series, X = C, Si, Ge, Sn and n = 1–4, suggests that the (negative, stabilizing) 2-B is by far the largest term in the MBE with the higher order terms oscillating between positive and negative values and decreasing dramatically in size with increasing rank of the expansion. The analysis offers an alternative explanation for the purported “first row anomaly” in the incremental H n–1 X–H bond energies seen when these energies are evaluated with respect to the lowest energy among the states of the XH n molecules. Due to the “flipping” of the ground/first excited state between CH 2 ( 3 B 1 ground state, 1 A 1 first excited state) and XH 2 , X = Si, Ge, Sn ( 1 A 1 ground state, 3 B 1 first excited state), the overall picture does not exhibit a “first row anomaly” when the incremental bond energies are evaluated with respect to the molecular states having the same in situ atomic states.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Modeling of Thermal Decomposition of TATB-Based Explosive for Safety Analysis

We investigate and model the cook-off behavior of LX-17 to understand the response of explosive systems in abnormal thermal environments. Decomposition has been explored via conventional ODTX (One-Dimensional Time-to-eXplosion), PODTX (ODTX with pressure-measurement), TGA (Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis), and DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) experiments under isothermal and ramped temperature profiles. The data were used to fit reaction rate parameters for proposed schemes in an ALE3D computational model. This model includes chemical reactions, thermo- and hydro-dynamics, and material properties, including thermal expansion, compressibility, and strength. These parameterizations were carried out utilizing a Python evolutionary optimization method on LLNL’s high-performance computing clusters. Additional experiments are being developed to further characterize and monitor decomposition intermediates to improve the model. Once experimentally validated, this model will be scalable to several applications involving LX-17. Furthermore, the optimization methodology developed herein should be applicable to other high explosive materials.

Chemistry - Chemical explosives↗

Manifold Learning-Based Polynomial Chaos Expansions for High-Dimensional Surrogate Models

In this work we introduce a manifold learning-based method for uncertainty quantification (UQ) in systems describing complex spatiotemporal processes. Our first objective is to identify the embedding of a set of high-dimensional data representing quantities of interest of the computational or analytical model. For this purpose, we employ Grassmannian diffusion maps, a two-step nonlinear dimension reduction technique which allows us to reduce the dimensionality of the data and identify meaningful geometric descriptions in a parsimonious and inexpensive manner. Polynomial chaos expansion is then used to construct a mapping between the stochastic input parameters and the diffusion coordinates of the reduced space. An adaptive clustering technique is proposed to identify an optimal number of clusters of points in the latent space. The similarity of points allows us to construct a number of geometric harmonic emulators which are finally utilized as a set of inexpensive pretrained models to perform an inverse map of realizations of latent features to the ambient space and thus perform accurate out-of-sample predictions. Thus, the proposed method acts as an encoder-decoder system which is able to automatically handle very high-dimensional data while simultaneously operating successfully in the small-data regime. The method is demonstrated on two benchmark problems and on a system of advection-diffusion-reaction equations which model a first-order chemical reaction between two species. In all test cases, the proposed method is able to achieve highly accurate approximations which ultimately lead to the significant acceleration of UQ tasks.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Generation of a chromosome-scale genome assembly of the insect-repellent terpenoid-producing Lamiaceae species, Callicarpa americana

Plants exhibit wide chemical diversity due to the production of specialized metabolites that function as pollinator attractants, defensive compounds, and signaling molecules. Lamiaceae (mints) are known for their chemodiversity and have been cultivated for use as culinary herbs, as well as sources of insect repellents, health-promoting compounds, and fragrance. We report the chromosome-scale genome assembly of Callicarpa americana L. (American beautyberry), a species within the early-diverging Callicarpoideae clade of Lamiaceae, known for its metallic purple fruits and use as an insect repellent due to its production of terpenoids. Using long-read sequencing and Hi-C scaffolding, we generated a 506.1-Mb assembly spanning 17 pseudomolecules with N50 contig and N50 scaffold sizes of 7.5 and 29.0 Mb, respectively. In all, 32,164 genes were annotated, including 53 candidate terpene synthases and 47 putative clusters of specialized metabolite biosynthetic pathways. Our analyses revealed 3 putative whole-genome duplication events, which, together with local tandem duplications, contributed to gene family expansion of terpene synthases. Kolavenyl diphosphate is a gateway to many of the bioactive terpenoids in C. americana; experimental validation confirmed that CamTPS2 encodes kolavenyl diphosphate synthase. Syntenic analyses with Tectona grandis L. f. (teak), a member of the Tectonoideae clade of Lamiaceae known for exceptionally strong wood resistant to insects, revealed 963 collinear blocks and 21,297 C. americana syntelogs. Access to the C. americana genome provides a road map for rapid discovery of genes encoding plant-derived agrichemicals and a key resource for understanding the evolution of chemical diversity in Lamiaceae.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Gaia EDR3 Reveals the Substructure and Complicated Star Formation History of the Greater Taurus-Auriga Star-forming Complex

The Taurus-Auriga complex is the prototypical low-mass star-forming region, and provides a unique testbed of the star formation process, which left observable imprints on the spatial, kinematic, and temporal structure of its stellar population. Taurus’s rich observational history has uncovered peculiarities that suggest a complicated star-forming event, such as members at large distances from the molecular clouds and evidence of an age spread. With Gaia, an in-depth study of the Taurus census is possible, to confirm membership, identify substructure, and reconstruct its star formation history. We have compiled an expansive census of the greater Taurus region, identifying spatial subgroups and confirming that Taurus is substructured across stellar density. There are two populations of subgroups: clustered groups near the clouds and sparse groups spread throughout the region. The sparse groups comprise Taurus’s distributed population, which is on average older than the population near the clouds, and hosts subpopulations up to 15 Myr old. The ages of the clustered groups increase with distance, suggesting that the current star formation was triggered from behind. Still, the region is kinematically coherent, and its velocity structure reflects an initial turbulent spectrum similar to Larson’s Law that has been modified by dynamical relaxation. Overall, Taurus has a complicated star formation history, with at least two epochs of star formation featuring both clustered and distributed modes. Given the correlations between age and spatial distribution, Taurus might be part of a galaxy-scale star-forming event that can only begin to be understood in the Gaia era.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Early dark energy constraints with late-time expansion marginalization

Abstract Early dark energy (EDE) is an extension to the ΛCDM model that includes an additional energy density contribution near recombination. The model was proposed to reduce the tension between the measurements of the Hubble constantH 0 from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and from the local cosmic distance ladder. Some analyses in the recent literature have shown intriguing hints for EDE. However, this model increases the tension in the derived clustering of galaxies (as measured by the so-calledS 8 parameter) between CMB and large scale structure (LSS) measurements. This new tension limits the contribution of EDE during recombination, and thus its effect on the Hubble tension. In this work, we investigate whether the inclusion of a general, smooth late-time dark energy modification can increase back the EDE contribution when LSS data is included in the analysis. In order to generalize the late expansion with respect to the ΛCDM model, we substitute the cosmological constant by a late dark energy fluid model with a piecewise constant equation of state w(z) in redshift bins. We show that, when analysing this generalized model with combinations of CMB, LSS and type Ia supernovae data from several experiments no significant changes onS 8 and EDE parameter constraints is found. The contribution to the EDE fraction constraint with late-time expansion marginalization isf EDE = 0.067 +0.019 -0.027 using 3 redshift bins, with similar results for 5 and 10 redshift bins. This work shows that in order to solve simultaneously the Hubble andS 8 tensions, one needs a mechanism for increasing the clustering of matter at late times different from a simple change in the background evolution of late dark energy.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗