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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 289 records · Page 16

Secreted Effector Proteins of Poplar Leaf Spot and Stem Canker Pathogen Sphaerulina musiva Manipulate Plant Immunity and Contribute to Virulence in Diverse Ways

We report fungal effectors play critical roles in manipulating plant immune responses and promoting colonization. Sphaerulina musiva is a heterothallic ascomycete fungus that causes Septoria leaf spot and stem canker disease in poplar (Populus spp.) plantations. This disease can result in premature defoliation, branch and stem breakage, increased mortality, and plantation failure. However, little is known about the interaction between S. musiva and poplar. Previous work predicted 142 candidate secreted effector proteins in S. musiva (SmCSEPs), 19 of which were selected for further functional characterization in this study. SmCSEP3 induced plant cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana, while 8 out of 19 tested SmCSEPs suppressed cell death. The signal peptides of these eight SmCSEPs exhibited secretory activity in a yeast signal sequence trap assay. Confocal microscopy revealed that four of these eight SmCSEPs target both the cytoplasm and the nucleus, whereas four predominantly localize to discrete punctate structures. Pathogen challenge assays in N. benthamiana demonstrated that the transient expression of six SmCSEPs promoted Fusarium proliferatum infection. The expression of these six SmCSEP genes were induced during infection. SmCSEP2, SmCSEP13, and SmCSEP25 suppressed chitin-triggered reactive oxygen species burst and callose deposition in N. benthamiana. The candidate secreted effector proteins of S. musiva target multiple compartments in the plant cell and modulate different pattern-triggered immunity pathways.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Paving the Way for Satellite Quantum Communications

Here we describe how a series of demonstrations by Micius—a low-orbit satellite with quantum capabilities—lays the groundwork for a satellite-based quantum communication network.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Effective J -factors for Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies with velocity-dependent annihilation

We calculate the effective J-factors, which determine the strength of indirect detection signals from dark matter annihilation, for 25 dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs). We consider several well-motivated assumptions for the relative velocity dependence of the dark matter annihilation cross section: σAv: s -wave (velocity independent), p -wave (σ A v∝v 2 ), d-wave (σ A v∝v 4 ), and Sommerfeld-enhancement in the Coulomb limit (σ A v∝1/v). As a result we provide the largest and most updated sample of J-factors for velocity-dependent annihilation models. For each scenario, we use Fermi-LAT gamma-ray data to constrain the annihilation cross section. Due to the assumptions made in our gamma-ray data analysis, our bounds are comparable to previous bounds on both the p-wave and Sommerfeld-enhanced cross sections using dSphs. Finally, our bounds on the d-wave cross section are the first such bounds using indirect detection data.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

New dark matter analysis of milky way dwarf satellite galaxies with madhatv2

We obtain bounds on dark matter annihilation using 14 years of publicly available Fermi-LAT data from a set of 54 dwarf spheroidal galaxies, using spectral information from 16 energy bins. We perform this analysis using our updated and publicly available code , which can be used to test a variety of models for dark matter particle physics and astrophysics in an accessible manner. In particular, we note that including Carina III in the analysis strengthens constraints on s -wave annihilation into two-body Standard Model final states by a factor of ∼ 3 but broadens the error on the constraint due to the large uncertainty of its J -factor. Our findings illustrate the importance of verifying if Carina III is in fact a dwarf spheroidal galaxy and measuring more precisely its J -factor. More generally, they highlight the significance of forthcoming discoveries of nearby ultrafaint dwarfs for dark matter indirect detection. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Sixfold Way of Traversable Wormholes in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model

In the infrared limit, a nearly anti–de Sitter spacetime in two dimensions ( AdS 2 ) perturbed by a weak double trace deformation and a two-site ( q > 2 )-body Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model with N Majoranas and a weak 2 r -body intersite coupling share the same near-conformal dynamics described by a traversable wormhole. We exploit this relation to propose a symmetry classification of traversable wormholes depending on N , q , and r , with q > 2 r , and confirm it by a level statistics analysis using exact diagonalization techniques. Intriguingly, a time-reversed state never results in a new state, so only six universality classes occur—A, AI, BDI, CI, C, and D—and different symmetry sectors of the model may belong to distinct universality classes. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physics↗

BCSR on GPU: A Way Forward Extreme-scale Graph Processing on Accelerator-enabled Frontier Supercomputer

Handling large graphs in a distributed environment requires effective partitioning across processors and efficient management of local partitions. In 2D partitioning, local graphs often become too sparse, making memory-efficient data structures crucial. Using the Compressed Sparse Row (CSR) format wastes space, especially for > 83% of vertices with empty edges for the sparse graphs. This study explores bit-CSR (BCSR), a modified CSR representation, on GPUs to reduce memory usage in graph computations. We achieved 16.67% memory savings on a sparse rmat dataset with 268 million vertices and 357 million edges, without performance degradation, supported by both theoretical and experimental storage savings of 33%. However, we observed a 1.7× slowdown in degree lookup times due to bitwise operations on AMD CPUs. This analysis highlights the potential of BCSR on GPUs for improving Graph500 benchmark performance on GPU-accelerated systems, such as the Frontier supercomputer.

Sattar, Naw Safrin↗

Low-intensity frequent fires in coniferous forests transform soil organic matter in ways that may offset ecosystem carbon losses

The impact of shifting disturbance regimes on soil carbon (C) storage is a key uncertainty in global change research. Wildfires in coniferous forests are becoming more frequent in many regions, potentially causing large C emissions. Repeated low-intensity prescribed fires can mitigate wildfire severity, but repeated combustion may decrease soil C unless compensatory responses stabilize soil organic matter. Here, we tested how 30 years of decadal prescribed burning affected C and nitrogen (N) in plants, detritus, and soils in coniferous forests in the Sierra Nevada mountains, USA. Tree basal area and litter stocks were resilient to fire, but fire reduced forest floor C by 77% (-36.4 Mg C/ha). In mineral soils, fire reduced C that was free from minerals by 41% (-4.4 Mg C/ha) but not C associated with minerals, and only in depths ≤ 5 cm. Fire also transformed the properties of remaining mineral soil organic matter by increasing the proportion of C in a pyrogenic form (from 3.2% to 7.5%) and associated with minerals (from 46% to 58%), suggesting the remaining soil C is more resistant to decomposition. Laboratory assays illustrated that fire reduced microbial CO2 respiration rates by 55% and the activity of eight extracellular enzymes that degrade cellulosic and aromatic compounds by 40–66%. Lower decomposition was correlated with lower inorganic N (-49%), especially ammonium, suggesting N availability is coupled with decomposition. The relative increase in forms of soil organic matter that are resistant to decay or stabilized onto mineral surfaces, and the associated decline in decomposition suggest that low-intensity fires may promote mineral soil C storage in pools with long mean residence times in coniferous forests.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Forest regeneration within Earth system models: current process representations and ways forward

Earth system models must predict forest responses to global change in order to simulate future global climate, hydrology, and ecosystem dynamics. These models are increasingly adopting vegetation demographic approaches that explicitly represent tree growth, mortality, and recruitment, enabling advances in the projection of forest vulnerability and resilience, as well as evaluation with field data. To date, simulation of regeneration processes has received far less attention than simulation of processes that affect growth and mortality, in spite of their critical role maintaining forest structure, facilitating turnover in forest composition over space and time, enabling recovery from disturbance, and regulating climate-driven range shifts. Here, our critical review of regeneration process representations within current Earth system vegetation demographic models reveals the need to improve parameter values and algorithms for reproductive allocation, dispersal, seed survival and germination, environmental filtering in the seedling layer, and tree regeneration strategies adapted to wind, fire, and anthropogenic disturbance regimes. These improvements require synthesis of existing data, specific field data-collection protocols, and novel model algorithms compatible with global-scale simulations. Vegetation demographic models offer the opportunity to more fully integrate ecological understanding into Earth system prediction; regeneration processes need to be a critical part of the effort.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A new way to unravel the $^{12}$C($\alpha $,$\gamma $)$^{16}$O cross section components using neural networks

The $^{12}$C($\alpha $,$\gamma $)$^{16}$O reaction rate is crucial in determining the carbon-to-oxygen abundance ratio in stellar nucleosynthesis. Measuring this reaction’s cross section at stellar energies is challenging due to its extremely small value, approximately 10 -17 barn at E c.m. = 300 keV. To address this, R-matrix calculations are employed to extrapolate data to lower energies, requiring a comprehensive understanding of each contribution to the cross section. The dominant contributions to the cross section at stellar energies arise from electric dipole (E1) and electric quadrupole (E2) transitions to the ground state of 16 O, along with a significant cascade contribution. Traditionally, these contributions have been separated using the γ-ray angular distribution. In this work, we propose a novel technique using the energy distribution of the 16 O recoils at the focal plane. This method involves a neural network trained on detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the energy distribution of recoils transported through the recoil mass separator ERNA. This approach enables the simultaneous determination of all three contributions with errors around 10% in the energy range E c.m. = 1.0–2.2 MeV. In conclusion, by employing this new technique, we aim to significantly improve the accuracy of determining the cross section of the $^{12}$C($\alpha $,$\gamma $)$^{16}$O reaction at astrophysical energies.

Astrochemistry↗

To Pave the Way for Large-Scale Electrode Processing of Moisture-Sensitive Ni-Rich Cathodes

High-capacity Ni-rich cathode such as LiNi 0.8 Mn 0.1 Co 0.1 O 2 (NMC811) has a great potential to enable high energy lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) for long-range electrical vehicles. However, the utilization of NMC 811 in large-scale application is still challenging. While many published papers on NMC811 focus on materials modification, the moisture sensitivity of NMC811 and its implications in storage and large-scale electrode coating are not well explored, not to mention how to overcome those challenges for industry application. This work discusses the key parameters impacting the rheological properties of NMC811 slurries and their correlations to the properties of dried electrodes. Effective solutions are proposed to address the gelation issue of NMC811 slurry during large-scale coating to hopefully inspire more effective and practical approaches to tackle the grand challenges in electrochemical energy storage.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗