Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “class”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

A new class of parametrization for dark energy without divergence

A new class of parametrization of the equation of state of dark energy is proposed in this paper. In contrast with the famous CPL parametrization, the equation of state with this new kind of parametrization does not divergent during the evolution of the Universe even in the future. By using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, we perform an observational constraint on two simplest dark energy models belonging to this new class of parametrization with the combined latest observational data from the type Ia supernova compilations including Union2(557), cosmic microwave background, and baryon acoustic oscillation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Testing a class of non-Kerr metrics with hot spots orbiting SgrA*

SgrA*, the supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Center, exhibits flares in the X-ray, NIR, and sub-mm bands that may be interpreted within a hot spot model. Light curves and images of hot spots orbiting a black hole are affected by a number of special and general relativistic effects, and they can be potentially used to check whether the object is a Kerr black hole of general relativity. However, in a previous study we have shown that the relativistic features are usually subdominant with respect to the background noise and the model-dependent properties of the hot spot, and eventually it is at most possible to estimate the frequency of the innermost stable circular orbit. In this case, tests of the Kerr metric are only possible in combination with other measurements. In the present work, we consider a class of non-Kerr spacetimes in which the hot spot orbit may be outside the equatorial plane. These metrics are difficult to constrain from the study of accretion disks and indeed current X-ray observations of stellar-mass and supermassive black hole candidates cannot put interesting bounds. Here we show that near future observations of SgrA* may do it. If the hot spot is sufficiently close to the massive object, the image affected by Doppler blueshift is brighter than the other one and this provides a specific observational signature in the hot spot's centroid track. We conclude that accurate astrometric observations of SgrA* with an instrument like GRAVITY should be able to test this class of metrics, except in the more unlikely case of a small viewing angle.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

A class of minimally modified gravity theories

We investigate the Hamiltonian structure of a class of gravitational theories whose actions are linear in the lapse function. We derive the necessary and sufficient condition for a theory in this class to have two or less local physical degrees of freedom. As an application we then find several concrete examples of modified gravity theories in which the total number of local physical degrees of freedom in the gravity sector is two.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

ePix: a class of architectures for second generation LCLS cameras

ePix is a novel class of ASIC architectures, based on a common platform, optimized to build modular scalable detectors for LCLS. The platform architecture is composed of a random access analog matrix of pixel with global shutter, fast parallel column readout, and dedicated sigma-delta analog-to-digital converters per column. It also implements a dedicated control interface and all the required support electronics to perform configuration, calibration and readout of the matrix. Based on this platform a class of front-end ASICs and several camera modules, meeting different requirements, can be developed by designing specific pixel architectures. This approach reduces development time and expands the possibility of integration of detector modules with different size, shape or functionality in the same camera. The ePix platform is currently under development together with the first two integrating pixel architectures: ePix100 dedicated to ultra low noise applications and ePix10k for high dynamic range applications.

Dragone, A.↗
DOE OSTI2015

HOPS 383: AN OUTBURSTING CLASS 0 PROTOSTAR IN ORION

We report the dramatic mid-infrared brightening between 2004 and 2006 of Herschel Orion Protostar Survey (HOPS) 383, a deeply embedded protostar adjacent to NGC 1977 in Orion. By 2008, the source became a factor of 35 brighter at 24 μm with a brightness increase also apparent at 4.5 μm. The outburst is also detected in the submillimeter by comparing APEX/SABOCA to SCUBA data, and a scattered-light nebula appeared in NEWFIRM K{sub s} imaging. The post-outburst spectral energy distribution indicates a Class 0 source with a dense envelope and a luminosity between 6 and 14 L{sub ⊙}. Post-outburst time-series mid- and far-infrared photometry show no long-term fading and variability at the 18% level between 2009 and 2012. HOPS 383 is the first outbursting Class 0 object discovered, pointing to the importance of episodic accretion at early stages in the star formation process. Its dramatic rise and lack of fading over a 6 year period hint that it may be similar to FU Ori outbursts, although the luminosity appears to be significantly smaller than the canonical luminosities of such objects.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cycle equivalence classes, orthogonal Weingarten calculus, and the mean field theory of memristive systems

Abstract It has been recently noted that for a class of dynamical systems with explicit conservation laws represented via projector operators, the dynamics can be understood in terms of lower dimensional equations. This is the case, for instance, of memristive circuits. Memristive systems are important classes of devices with wide-ranging applications in electronic circuits, artificial neural networks, and memory storage. We show that such mean-field theories can emerge from averages over the group of orthogonal matrices, interpreted as cycle-preserving transformations applied to the projector operator describing Kirchhoff’s laws. Our results provide insights into the fundamental principles underlying the behavior of resistive and memristive circuits and highlight the importance of conservation laws for their mean-field theories. In addition, we argue that our results shed light on the nature of the critical avalanches observed in quasi-two-dimensional nanowires as boundary phenomena.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2017

β-Carboxysome bioinformatics: identification and evolution of new bacterial microcompartment protein gene classes and core locus constraints

Carboxysomes are bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) that enhance CO 2 fixation in all cyanobacteria. Structurally, carboxysome shell proteins are classified according to the type of oligomer formed: hexameric (BMC-H), trimeric (BMC-T) and pentameric (BMC-P) proteins. To understand the forces driving the evolution of the carboxysome shell, we conducted a bioinformatic study of genes encoding β-carboxysome shell proteins, taking advantage of the recent large increase in sequenced cyanobacterial genomes. In addition to the four well-established BMC-H (CcmK1-4) classes, our analysis reveals two new CcmK classes, which we name CcmK5 and CcmK6. CcmK5 is phylogenetically closest to CcmK3 and CcmK4, and the ccmK5 gene is found only in genomes lacking ccmK3 and ccmk4 genes. ccmK6 is found predominantly in heterocyst-forming cyanobacteria. The gene encoding the BMC-T homolog CcmO is associated with the main carboxysome locus (MCL) in only 60% of all species. We find five evolutionary origins of separation of ccmO from the MCL. Transcriptome analysis demonstrates that satellite ccmO genes, in contrast to MCL-associated ccmO genes, are never co-regulated with other MCL genes. The dispersal of carboxysome shell genes across the genome allows for distinct regulation of their expression, perhaps in response to changes in environmental conditions

regulation↗
DOE OSTI2020

X-ray properties of the X-CLASS-redMaPPer galaxy cluster sample: the luminosity–temperature relation

ABSTRACT This article presents the results of a spectroscopic analysis of the X-CLASS-redMaPPer (XC1-RM) galaxy cluster sample. X-CLASS is a serendipitous search for clusters in X-ray wavebands based on the XMM–Newton archive, whereas redMaPPer is an optical cluster catalogue derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The present sample comprises 92 X-ray extended sources identified in optical images within 1 arcmin separation. The area covered by the cluster sample is ∼ 27 deg2. The clusters span a wide redshift range (0.05 < z < 0.6) and 88 clusters benefit from spectrosopically confirmed redshifts using data from SDSS Data Release 14. We present an automated pipeline to derive the X-ray properties of the clusters in three distinct apertures: R500 (at fixed mass overdensity), Rfit (at fixed signal-to-noise ratio) and ${R}_{300\, {\rm kpc}}$ (fixed physical radius). The sample extends over wide temperature and luminosity ranges: from 1–10 keV and from 6 × 1042 to 11 × 1044 erg s−1, respectively. We investigate the luminosity–temperature (L–T) relation of the XC1-RM sample and find a slope equal to 3.03 ± 0.26. It is steeper than predicted by self-similar assumptions, in agreement with independent studies. A simplified approach is developed to estimate the amount and impact of selection biases that might be affecting our recoveredL–Tparameters. The result of this simulation process suggests that the measuredL–Trelation is biased to a steeper slope and higher normalization.

Molham, Mona↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Architecture of Metabolism Maximizes Biosynthetic Diversity in the Largest Class of Fungi

Abstract Ecological diversity in fungi is largely defined by metabolic traits, including the ability to produce secondary or “specialized” metabolites (SMs) that mediate interactions with other organisms. Fungal SM pathways are frequently encoded in biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), which facilitate the identification and characterization of metabolic pathways. Variation in BGC composition reflects the diversity of their SM products. Recent studies have documented surprising diversity of BGC repertoires among isolates of the same fungal species, yet little is known about how this population-level variation is inherited across macroevolutionary timescales. Here, we applied a novel linkage-based algorithm to reveal previously unexplored dimensions of diversity in BGC composition, distribution, and repertoire across 101 species of Dothideomycetes, which are considered the most phylogenetically diverse class of fungi and known to produce many SMs. We predicted both complementary and overlapping sets of clustered genes compared with existing methods and identified novel gene pairs that associate with known secondary metabolite genes. We found that variation among sets of BGCs in individual genomes is due to nonoverlapping BGC combinations and that several BGCs have biased ecological distributions, consistent with niche-specific selection. We observed that total BGC diversity scales linearly with increasing repertoire size, suggesting that secondary metabolites have little structural redundancy in individual fungi. We project that there is substantial unsampled BGC diversity across specific families of Dothideomycetes, which will provide a roadmap for future sampling efforts. Our approach and findings lend new insight into how BGC diversity is generated and maintained across an entire fungal taxonomic class.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

CasPEDIA Database: a functional classification system for class 2 CRISPR-Cas enzymes

Abstract CRISPR-Cas enzymes enable RNA-guided bacterial immunity and are widely used for biotechnological applications including genome editing. In particular, the Class 2 CRISPR-associated enzymes (Cas9, Cas12 and Cas13 families), have been deployed for numerous research, clinical and agricultural applications. However, the immense genetic and biochemical diversity of these proteins in the public domain poses a barrier for researchers seeking to leverage their activities. We present CasPEDIA (http://caspedia.org), the Cas Protein Effector Database of Information and Assessment, a curated encyclopedia that integrates enzymatic classification for hundreds of different Cas enzymes across 27 phylogenetic groups spanning the Cas9, Cas12 and Cas13 families, as well as evolutionarily related IscB and TnpB proteins. All enzymes in CasPEDIA were annotated with a standard workflow based on their primary nuclease activity, target requirements and guide-RNA design constraints. Our functional classification scheme, CasID, is described alongside current phylogenetic classification, allowing users to search related orthologs by enzymatic function and sequence similarity. CasPEDIA is a comprehensive data portal that summarizes and contextualizes enzymatic properties of widely used Cas enzymes, equipping users with valuable resources to foster biotechnological development. CasPEDIA complements phylogenetic Cas nomenclature and enables researchers to leverage the multi-faceted nucleic-acid targeting rules of diverse Class 2 Cas enzymes.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Structural characterization of Class 2 OLD family nucleases supports a two-metal catalysis mechanism for cleavage

Overcoming lysogenization defect (OLD) proteins constitute a family of uncharacterized nucleases present in bacteria, archaea, and some viruses. These enzymes contain an N-terminal ATPase domain and a C-terminal Toprim domain common amongst replication, recombination, and repair proteins. The in vivo activities of OLD proteins remain poorly understood and no definitive structural information exists. Here we identify and define two classes of OLD proteins based on differences in gene neighborhood and amino acid sequence conservation and present the crystal structures of the catalytic C-terminal regions from the Burkholderia pseudomallei and Xanthamonas campestris p.v. campestris Class 2 OLD proteins at 2.24 Å and 1.86 Å resolution respectively. The structures reveal a two-domain architecture containing a Toprim domain with altered architecture and a unique helical domain. Conserved side chains contributed by both domains coordinate two bound magnesium ions in the active site of B. pseudomallei OLD in a geometry that supports a two-metal catalysis mechanism for cleavage. The spatial organization of these domains additionally suggests a novel mode of DNA binding that is distinct from other Toprim containing proteins. Together, these findings define the fundamental structural properties of the OLD family catalytic core and the underlying mechanism controlling nuclease activity.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Kallotenue papyrolyticum gen. nov., sp. nov., a cellulolytic and filamentous thermophile that represents a novel lineage (Kallotenuales ord. nov., Kallotenuaceae fam. nov.) within the class Chloroflexia

Several closely-related, thermophilic, and cellulolytic bacterial strains, designated JKG1T, JKG2, JKG3, JKG4, and JKG5, were isolated from a cellulolytic enrichment (corn stover) incubated in the water column of Great Boiling Spring, NV. Strain JKG1T had cells of a diameter of 0.7 - 0.9 μm and length of ~2.0 μm that formed non-branched multicellular filaments reaching >300 μm. Spores were not formed and dense liquid cultures were red. The temperature range for growth was 45-65 °C, with an optimum of 55 °C. The pH range for growth was 5.6-9.0, with an optimum of 7.5. JKG1T grew as an aerobic heterotroph, utilizing glucose, sucrose, xylose, arabinose, cellobiose, carboxymethylcellulose, filter paper, microcrystalline cellulose, xylan, starch, casamino acids, tryptone, peptone, yeast extract, acetate, citrate, lactate, pyruvate, and glycerol as sole carbon sources, and was not observed to photosynthesize. The cells stained Gram-negative. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequences placed the new isolates in the class Chloroflexia, but distant from other cultivated members, with the highest sequence identity of 82.5% to Roseiflexus castenholzii. The major quinone was menaquinone-9; no ubiquinones were detected. The major cellular fatty acids (>5%) were C18:0, anteiso-C17:0, iso-C18:0, and iso-C17:0. C16:0, iso-C16:0, and C17:0. The peptidoglycan amino acids were alanine, ornithine, glutamic acid, serine, and asparagine. Whole-cell sugars included mannose, rhamnose, glucose, galactose, ribose, arabinose, and xylose. Morphological, phylogenetic, and chemotaxonomic results suggest that JKG1T is representative of a new lineage within the class Chloroflexia, which we propose to designate Kallotenue papyrolyticum gen. nov., sp. nov., Kallotenuaceae fam. nov., Kallotenuales ord. nov.

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory↗
DOE OSTI2023

A comparative genome analysis of the Bacillota ( Firmicutes ) class Dehalobacteriia

Dehalobacterium formicoaceticum is recognized for its ability to anaerobically ferment dichloromethane (DCM), and a catabolic model has recently been proposed. D. formicoaceticum is currently the only axenic representative of its class, the Dehalobacteriia, according to the Genome Taxonomy Database. However, substantial additional diversity has been revealed in this lineage through culture-independent exploration of anoxic habitats. Here we performed a comparative analysis of 10 members of the Dehalobacteriia, representing three orders, and infer that anaerobic DCM degradation appears to be a recently acquired trait only present in some members of the order Dehalobacteriales. Inferred traits common to the class include the use of amino acids as carbon and energy sources for growth, energy generation via a remarkable range of putative electron-bifurcating protein complexes and the presence of S-layers. The ability of D. formicoaceticum to grow on serine without DCM was experimentally confirmed and a high abundance of the electron-bifurcating protein complexes and S-layer proteins was noted when this organism was grown on DCM. We suggest that members of the Dehalobacteriia are low-abundance fermentative scavengers in anoxic habitats.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

Symmetric mixed states of n qubits: Local unitary stabilizers and entanglement classes

We classify, up to local unitary equivalence, local unitary stabilizer Lie algebras for symmetric mixed states of n qubits into six classes. These include the stabilizer types of the Werner states, the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state and its generalizations, and Dicke states. For all but the zero algebra, we classify entanglement types (local unitary equivalence classes) of symmetric mixed states that have those stabilizers. We make use of the identification of symmetric density matrices with polynomials in three variables with real coefficients and apply the representation theory of SO(3) on this space of polynomials.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Criticality of Two-Dimensional Disordered Dirac Fermions in the Unitary Class and Universality of the Integer Quantum Hall Transition

Two-dimensional (2D) Dirac fermions are a central paradigm of modern condensed matter physics, describing low-energy excitations in graphene, in certain classes of superconductors, and on surfaces of 3D topological insulators. At zero energy E=0, Dirac fermions with mass m are band insulators, with the Chern number jumping by unity at m=0. This observation lead Ludwig et al. [Phys. Rev. B 50, 7526 (1994)PRBMDO0163-182910.1103/PhysRevB.50.7526] to conjecture that the transition in 2D disordered Dirac fermions (DDF) and the integer quantum Hall transition (IQHT) are controlled by the same fixed point and possess the same universal critical properties. Given the far-reaching implications for the emerging field of the quantum anomalous Hall effect, modern condensed matter physics, and our general understanding of disordered critical points, it is surprising that this conjecture has never been tested numerically. In this work, we report the results of extensive numerics on the phase diagram and criticality of 2D DDF in the unitary class. We find a critical line at m=0, with an energy-dependent localization length exponent. At large energies, our results for the DDF are consistent with state-of-the-art numerical results ν IQH =2.56-2.62 from models of the IQHT. At E=0, however, we obtain ν 0 =2.30-2.36 incompatible with ν IQH . This result challenges conjectured relations between different models of the IQHT, and several interpretations are discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Structures of a putative ζ-class glutathione S -transferase from the pathogenic fungus Coccidioides immitis

Coccidioides immitis is a pathogenic fungus populating the southwestern United States and is a causative agent of coccidioidomycosis, sometimes referred to as Valley Fever. Although the genome of this fungus has been sequenced, many operons are not properly annotated. Crystal structures are presented for a putative uncharacterized protein that shares sequence similarity with -class glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) in both apo and glutathione-bound forms. The apo structure reveals a nonsymmetric homodimer with each protomer comprising two subdomains: a C-terminal helical domain and an N-terminal thioredoxin-like domain that is common to all GSTs. Half-site binding is observed in the glutathione-bound form. Considerable movement of some components of the active site relative to the glutathione-free form was observed, indicating an induced-fit mechanism for cofactor binding. The sequence homology, structure and half-site occupancy imply that the protein is a -class glutathione S-transferase, a maleylacetoacetate isomerase (MAAI).

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Diagnostics, Control and Performance Parameters for the BELLA High Repetition Rate Petawatt Class Laser

A laser system producing controllable and stable pulses with high power and ultrashort duration at high repetition rate is a key component of a high energy laser-plasma accelerator (LPA). Precise characterization and control of laser properties are essential to understanding laser-plasma interactions required to build a 10-GeV class LPA. This study discusses the diagnostics, control and performance parameters of a 1 Hz, 1 petawatt (PW) class laser at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) facility. The BELLA PW laser provided up to 46 J on target with a 1% level energy fluctuation and 1.3-μrad pointing stability. The spatial profile was measured and optimized by using a camera, wavefront sensor, and deformable mirror (ILAO system). The focus waist was measured to be r 0 = 53 μm and the fraction of energy within the circular area defined by the first minimum of the diffraction pattern (r = 67 μm) was 0.75. The temporal profile was controlled via the angle of incidence on a stretcher and a compressor, as well as an acousto-optic programmable dispersive. The temporal pulse shape was measured to be about 33 fs in full width at half maximum (WIZZLER and GRENOUILLE diagnostics). In order to accurately evaluate peak intensity, the energy-normalized peak fluence, and energy-normalized peak power were analyzed for the measured spatial and temporal mode profiles, and were found to be 15 kJ/(cm 2 J) with 6% fluctuation (standard deviation) and 25 TW/J with 5% fluctuation for 46-J on-target energy, respectively. This yielded a peak power of 1.2 PW and a peak intensity of 17×10 18 W/cm 2 with 8% fluctuation. A method to model the pulse shape for arbitrary compressor grating distance with high accuracy was developed. The pulse contrast above the amplified spontaneous emission pedestal was measured by SEQUOIA and found to be better than 10 9 . The first order spatiotemporal couplings (STCs) were measured with GRENOUILLE, and a simulation of the pulse's evolution at the vicinity of the target was presented. A maximum pulse front tilt angle of less than 7 mrad was achieved. The reduction of the peak power caused by the first order STCs was estimated to be less than 1%. Finally, the capabilities described in this paper are essential for generation of high quality electron beams.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Experimental Evaluation of Geopolymer, Nano-Modified, and Neat Class H Cement by Using Diametrically Compressive Tests

Abstract Cement is the prime barrier material to maintain zonal isolation during wellbore life-cycle. Different types of the cement have different performances on sealability. The primary objective of this study is evaluation of three types of cement systems, neat Class H, nano-synthetic graphite, and rock-based geopolymer cements, on interfacial bond integrity. Diametrical compressive tests are used on casing–cement–formation systems. Cement performances are tested in a conventional configuration (Berea Sandstone). A universal testing system is utilized to analyze the relationship applied load–axial strain and the digital image correlation (DIC) technique is used to generate the strain field maps. Based on the relationship and DIC results, bond strengths in different cement systems are evaluated. Additionally, microscope images provide insight explanations of the bond from micro-view. Based on the experimental results, failures of all cases initiate and propagate from the casing–cement interface. Then, radial cracks develop through the formation. This is because the mechanical interlocking bonds are formed only at the cement–sandstone interface to enhance the bond strength. The comparison of geopolymer and nano-modified cements with the conventional cement (neat Class H) shows that the unconventional cements have a lower maximum load and higher axial strain before failure of the samples. It indicates that both the two kinds of cements are more ductile than conventional cement and can support more deformation before the initiation of cracks.

Energy & Fuels↗