Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “sequence features”

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

Topographic Evidence for Eruptive Style Changes and Magma Evolution of Small Plains-style Volcanoes on Earth and Mars

Topographic profiles and surface characteristics of small (5 - 25 km diameter) plains-style shield volcanoes on the eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP) provide a method to evaluate eruptive processes and magmatic evolution on Martian volcanic plains. The ESRP is an ideal place to observe Mars-like volcanic features where hundreds of small monogenetic basaltic shields dominate the volcanic-sedimentary depositional sequence, and numerous planetary analogues are evident: coalescent mafic shields, hydromagmatic explosive eruptions, the interaction of lava flows with surficial water and glacial ice, and abundant eolian sand and loess. Single flows cannot be correlated over great distances, and are spatially restricted. These relations are useful for planetary exploration when inferring volcanic evolutionary patterns in lava plains represented by numerous eruptive vents. High spatial resolution imagery and digital topographic data for Mars from MOC, MOLA, and THEMIS is allowing for improvements in the level of detail of stratigraphic mapping of fields of small (< 25 km in diameter) volcanoes as well as studies of the morphological characteristics of individual volcanoes. In order to compare Mars and Earth volcanic features, elevation data from U.S.G.S. 10-meter digital elevation models (DEMs) and high-precision GPS field measurements are used in this study to generate approx. 20m spacing topographic profiles from which slope and surface morphology can be extracted. Average ESRP flank and crater slopes are calculated using 100 - 200 m spacing for optimum comparison to MOLA data, and to reduce the effects of surface irregularities.

Hughes, S. S.↗

Sequential order dependent dark-exciton modulation in bi-layered TMD heterostructure

We report the emergence of dark-excitons in transition-metal-dichalcogenide (TMD) heterostructures that strongly rely on the stacking sequence, i.e., momentum-dark K-Q exciton located exclusively at the top layer of the heterostructure. The feature stems from band renormalization and is distinct from those of typical neutral excitons or trions, regardless of materials, substrates, and even homogeneous bilayers, which is further confirmed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy. To understand the unusual stacking sequence, we introduce the excitonic Elliot formula by imposing strain exclusively on the top layer that could be a consequence of the stacking process. We further find that the intensity ratio of Q- to K-excitons in the same layer is inversely proportional to laser power, unlike for conventional K-K excitons. This can be a metric for engineering the intensity of dark K-Q excitons in TMD heterostructures, which could be useful for optical power switches in solar panels.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

[Growth and development of plants in a sequence of generations under the conditions of space flight (experiment Greenhouse-3)]

The purpose was to study characteristic features of growth and development of several plant generations in space flight in experiment GREENHOUSE-3 as a part of the Russian-US space research program MIR/NASA in 1997. The experiment consisted of cultivation of Brassica rapa L. in board greenhouse Svet. Two vegetative cycles were fully completed and the third vegetation was terminated on day 13 on the phase of budding. The total duration of the space experiment was 122 days, i.e. same as in the ground controls. In the experiment with Brassica rapa L. viable seeds produced by the first crop were planted in space flight and yielded next crop. Crops raised from the ground and space seeds were found to differ in height and number of buds. Both parameters were lowered in the plants grown from the space seeds. The prime course for smaller size and reduced organogenic potential of plantTs reproductive system seems to be a less content of nutrients in seeds that had matured in the space flight. Experiment GREENHOUSE-3 demonstrated principle feasibility of plant reproduction in space greenhouse from seeds developed in microgravity.

manned↗

Genome Characterization of Oleaginous Aspergillus oryzae BCC7051: A Potential Fungal-Based Platform for Lipid Production

The selected robust fungus, Aspergillus oryzae strain BCC7051 is of interest for biotechnological production of lipid-derived products due to its capability to accumulate high amount of intracellular lipids using various sugars and agro-industrial substrates. Here in this paper, we report the genome sequence of the oleaginous A. oryzae BCC7051. The obtained reads were de novo assembled into 25 scaffolds spanning of 38,550,958 bps with predicted 11,456 protein-coding genes. By synteny mapping, a large rearrangement was found in two scaffolds of A. oryzae BCC7051 as compared to the reference RIB40 strain. The genetic relationship between BCC7051 and other strains of A. oryzae in terms of aflatoxin production was investigated, indicating that the A. oryzae BCC7051 was categorized into group 2 nonaflatoxin-producing strain. Moreover, a comparative analysis of the structural genes focusing on the involvement in lipid metabolism among oleaginous yeast and fungi revealed the presence of multiple isoforms of metabolic enzymes responsible for fatty acid synthesis in BCC7051. The alternative routes of acetyl-CoA generation as oleaginous features and malate/citrate/pyruvate shuttle were also identified in this A. oryzae strain. The genome sequence generated in this work is a dedicated resource for expanding genome-wide study of microbial lipids at systems level, and developing the fungal-based platform for production of diversified lipids with commercial relevance.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

High-resolution rocket spectra of the 1920-A and 1720-A features in the spectrum of Zeta Tauri

High-resolution ultraviolet spectrograms of the B-shell star Zeta Tau reveal two features characteristic of B supergiants, one at 1720 A and the other at 1920 A. The presence of these features in the spectrum of this object shows that they are indicative of an extended atmosphere - either the tenuous atmosphere of a supergiant or the envelope surrounding a rapidly rotating main-sequence star - and are therefore not purely luminosity criteria. The high spectral resolution allows an identification of the contributors to these features. The dominant contributor to the 1920-A feature is Fe III, while the primary contributor to the 1720-A feature is Al II.

Heap, S. R.↗

Evolution pattern of the exploding granules

Observational features of exploding granules that may be of some importance for the theory of unsteady convection are discussed on the basis of a time sequence of high-definition photographs of the solar granulation obtained during a Stratoscope flight. The evolutionary pattern of exploding granules is summarized schematically, and several characteristic features are derived from a study of seven such granules. The exploding-granule phenomenon is interpreted qualitatively in terms of cooling at the photospheric level and the subsequent sinking of cold matter at the center of a granule due to loss of buoyancy

Namba, O.↗

Advances in Discrete-Event Simulation for MSL Command Validation

In the last five years, the discrete event simulator, SEQuence GENerator (SEQGEN), developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to plan deep-space missions, has greatly increased uplink operations capacity to deal with increasingly complicated missions. In this paper, we describe how the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project makes full use of an interpreted environment to simulate change in more than fifty thousand flight software parameters and conditional command sequences to predict the result of executing a conditional branch in a command sequence, and enable the ability to warn users whenever one or more simulated spacecraft states change in an unexpected manner. Using these new SEQGEN features, operators plan more activities in one sol than ever before.

discrete event simulation↗

A Ba 6 Cu 31 Te 22 ( A = K, Rb, Cs) Featuring Polyanionic Copper–Telluride Frameworks with Ultralow Thermal Conductivity

In this study, hree polyanionic tellurides, ABa 6 Cu 31 Te 22 (A = K, Rb, Cs), were synthesized in salt flux. The isostructural tellurides crystallize in a new structure type, in the cubic Pa$\overline{3}$ space group with a Wyckoff sequence of d 10 c 2 b 1 and large unit cell volumes of over 5500 Å 3 . The structures feature a framework of [CuTe 4 ] tetrahedra and [CuTe 3 ] trigonal pyramids with disorder in the Cu sites. The polyanionic frameworks have large square antiprism and cuboctahedral voids where Ba and alkali metal cations are situated, forming [BaTe 8 ] and [ATe 12 ], respectively. The overall compositions are close to being charge balanced. The large [ATe 12 ] cuboctahedra allowed for significant anisotropic displacement of the A cations, as observed from both single crystal X-ray diffraction and heat capacity studies. Alkali cations rattling together with Cu atom displacement and disorder leads to the dispersion of phonons, thus softening the lattice and subsequently reducing the thermal conductivity. Evaluations of the electronic band structure revealed the occurrence of a narrow bandgap together with the presence of a flat band near the valence band maximum, giving rise to the high thermopower. The Cs and Rb analogues show a slope change in the temperature dependence of electrical resistivity around room temperature, which is typical for semimetals or degenerate semiconductors. For the as-synthesized and unoptimized materials, high values of the thermoelectric figure-of-merit of ~0.2 were observed at 623 K.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

NASA GeneLab Multi-study Visualization Portal

NASA GeneLab has helped advance the field of Space Biology by providing a public repository where researchers can store, share, analyze and visualize the results of space flight related omics experiments. The GeneLab data visualization portal allows any user, regardless of bioinformatics knowledge or access to computational resources, to interact with the experimental data, draw their own conclusions, and gain insights about the effects of space on living systems. These tools help democratize scientific research and foster the NASA Open Science initiative. The new multi-study feature of the GeneLab visualization platform allows users to mine study metadata from RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) experiments to identify samples of interest by filtering datasets based on organism, tissue, assay technology type, and/or factor. Once samples are selected from multiple datasets, users can combine and normalize the sample data, then utilize the visualization displays, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA) plots, to assess sample distributions. Finally, users can perform differential gene expression analysis on the combined data and visualize the results through PCA plots, Volcano plots, Pair plots, Heatmap, Ideogram and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis. All user-generated results and visualizations will be available for download. Here, we present a biological study using samples from multiple GeneLab RNA-seq datasets and analyzed using the multi-study visualization platform to demonstrate inter- and intra-study variability, as well as commonly differentially expressed genes between spaceflight and ground control conditions across datasets. This new feature opens a wide range of possibilities and opportunities for further development including combining other assay technology types and integration with batch effect correction techniques and machine learning applications. Overall, this tool allows users to increase the statistical power of individual experiments, validate hypothesis, identify patterns, and opens the door to new and exciting research.

space biology↗

A normalized view of Venus

A few Mariner 10 images of Venus have been 'normalized' to a standard scattering geometry using the exact solution by Chandrasekhar (1950) involving his H functions. The most striking feature of the normalized images is the bright polar ring or cap beyond about 50 deg latitude circle and a narrower brightness frequency distribution. The brightness variation along a meridian shows substantial axial symmetry on a large scale, and small-scale brightness variations over the planet are no more than about 10%. Inferences regarding the polar cloud tops in light of available evidence are discussed. The variation of mean brightness and of the ratio of mean square deviation of brightness to average brightness is comparable to the performance limits of the vidicon camera for the image sequence lasting about a day, so that the variation in distribution of dark and bright features over the planet and the UV albedo of the planet over about a day is small.

Limaye, S.↗

Encapsulation Enhances the Quantum Coherence of a Solid‐State Molecular Spin Qubit

Spins within molecules benefit from the atomistic control of synthetic chemistry for the realization of qubits. One advantage is that the quantum superpositions of the spin states encoding the qubit can be coherently manipulated using electromagnetic radiation. The main challenge is the fragility of these superpositions when qubits are to partake of solid-state devices. We address this issue with a supramolecular approach for protecting molecular spin qubits against decoherence. The molecular qubit [Cr(ox)3]3- has been encapsulated inside the diamagnetic triple-stranded helicate [Zn2L3]4+ (L is a bis-pyrazolylpyridine ligand). The quantum coherence of the protected qubit is then analyzed with pulsed EPR spectroscopy and compared with the unprotected qubit, both in solution and in the solid state. Crucially, the spin-spin relaxation in the solid state has been examined within diamagnetic crystal lattices of the isostructural ([Al(ox)3]@[Zn2L3])+ or [Al(ox)3]3- assemblies, respectively, doped with the Cr3+ qubit in two different (<10%) concentrations. The study unveils a surprising increase of the phase memory time of the qubit upon encapsulation only in the solid. Spin-lattice relaxation times also exhibit a significant enhancement, as established from inversion recovery pulse sequences and from slow relaxation of the magnetization of the protected qubit, not featured by the free qubit.

Swain, Abinash↗

Peptoid-based hierarchically-structured biomimetic nanomaterials: Synthesis, characterization and applications

Peptoids (or poly-N-substituted glycines) is a promising class of bioinspired sequence-defined polymers due to their highly efficient synthesis, high chemical stability, enzyme hydrolysis resistance, and biocompatibility. By tuning the side chain chemistry of peptoids, it allows for a precise control over sequences and achieving a large side-chain diversity. Due to these unique features, in the last several years, many amphiphilic peptoids were designed as highly tunable building blocks for the preparation of biomimetic nanomaterials with well-defined hierarchical structures and desired functionalities. In this paper, we provide an overview of the recent achievements in this area by dividing them into the following three aspects. First, mica- and silica-templated peptoid self-assembly was summarized. Here, the presence of inorganic substrates provides the guarantee of investigating their self-assembly mechanisms and interactions between peptoids and substrates using nanoscale characterization techniques, particularly in situ atomic force spectroscopy (AFM) and AFM-based dynamic force spectroscopy (AFM-DFS). Second, solution-phase self-assembly of peptoids into nanotubes and nanosheets was presented, as well as their self-repair properties. Third, the applications of peptoid based nanomaterials were outlined, including the construction of catalytic nanomaterials as a template and cytosolic delivery as cargoes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Dynamics of charge at water-to-semiconductor interface: Case study of wet [0 0 1] anatase TiO 2 nanowire

Here, the behavior of water molecules on the surfaces of the TiO 2 nanowire grown in [0 0 1] direction has been investigated by combining theoretical calculations and experiments. Calculated UV–visible absorption spectra reproduce the main features of the experimental spectra. Computations predict that a photoexcitation followed by a sequence of relaxation events results in photoluminescence across the gap. TiO 2 nanowires in vacuum and aqueous environment exhibit different dynamics of photo-excited charge carriers. In water, computed relaxation of electrons (holes) is approximately 2 (4) times faster compared with vacuum environment. Faster relaxation of holes vs. electrons and specific spatial localization of holes result to formation of long lived charge transfer excitation with positive charge at the surface of the nanowire. Comparison of relaxation process in TiO 2 /water interfaces focusing on different surfaces and nanostructures has potential in identifying structural characteristics of TiO 2 materials important for efficient photo-electrochemical water splitting.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Possible nematic to smectic phase transition in a two-dimensional electron gas at half-filling

Liquid crystalline phases of matter permeate nature and technology, with instances ranging from cell membranes to liquid-crystal displays. Remarkably, electronic liquid-crystal phases can exist in two-dimensional electron systems (2DES) at half Landau-level filling in the quantum Hall regime. Theory has predicted the existence of a liquid-crystal smectic phase that breaks both rotational and translational symmetries. However, previous experiments in 2DES are most consistent with an anisotropic nematic phase breaking only rotational symmetry. Here we report three transport phenomena at half-filling in ultra-low disorder 2DES: a non-monotonic temperature dependence of the sample resistance, dramatic onset of large time-dependent resistance fluctuations, and a sharp feature in the differential resistance suggestive of depinning. These data imply that a sequence of symmetry-breaking phase transitions occurs as temperature is lowered: first a transition from an isotropic liquid to a nematic phase and finally to a liquid-crystal smectic phase.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Dynamic basis of supercoiling-dependent DNA interrogation by Cas12a via R-loop intermediates

The sequence specificity and programmability of DNA binding and cleavage have enabled widespread applications of CRISPR-Cas12a in genetic engineering. As an RNA-guided CRISPR endonuclease, Cas12a engages a 20-base pair (bp) DNA segment by forming a three-stranded R-loop structure in which the guide RNA hybridizes to the DNA target. Here we use single-molecule torque spectroscopy to investigate the dynamics and mechanics of R-loop formation of two widely used Cas12a orthologs at base-pair resolution. We directly observe kinetic intermediates corresponding to a ~5 bp initial RNA-DNA hybridization and a ~17 bp intermediate preceding R-loop completion, followed by transient DNA unwinding that extends beyond the 20 bp R-loop. The complex multistate landscape of R-loop formation is ortholog-dependent and shaped by target sequence, mismatches, and DNA supercoiling. A four-state kinetic model captures essential features of Cas12a R-loop dynamics and provides a biophysical framework for understanding Cas12a activity and specificity.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Design, modeling and experimental validation of a micro cantilever beam with an electro-controllable twisting ability

The structure design of micro cantilever beams (MCBs), which has a significant effect on MCBs' controllable actuation range, is usually restricted by the establishment of the inner electric circuit. This paper proposes the design of a micro electro-controllable twisting cantilever beam (METCB). The architecture and the fabrication diagram of the proposed METCB are presented before its features are theoretically and experimentally validated. In detail, the analytical validation includes a sequence of two models: electro-thermal and thermo-mechanical. Through these two models, the thermal distribution along the METCB and the deformation brought by the thermal distribution are investigated, respectively. On the basis of the design and equations, the METCB samples have been manufactured using a planar deposition technique with an e-beam evaporator. Two in-site experiments are then conducted to sequentially figure out the upper voltage limit of the inner electric circuit and the maximum temperature limit of the METCB. Finally, another experiment is carried out to explore the relation between the applied voltage and the relative twisting angle of the METCB sample. Here, the theoretical prediction and the observed experiment result both prove the feasibility of the proposed METCB and its electro-controllable twisting ability.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Culture-independent diagnostics for health security

The past decade has seen considerable development in the diagnostic application of nonculture methods, including nucleic acid amplification-based methods and mass spectrometry, for the diagnosis of infectious diseases. The implications of these new culture-independent diagnostic tests (CIDTs) include bypassing the need to culture organisms, thus potentially affecting public health surveillance systems, which continue to use isolates as the basis of their surveillance programs and to assess phenotypic resistance to antimicrobial agents. CIDTs may also affect the way public health practitioners detect and respond to a bioterrorism event. In response to a request from the Department of Homeland Security, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cosponsored a workshop to review the impact of CIDTs on the rapid detection and identification of biothreat agents. Four panel discussions were held that covered nucleic acid amplification–based diagnostics, mass spectrometry, antibody-based diagnostics, and next-generation sequencing. Exploiting the extensive expertise available at this workshop, we identified the key features, benefits, and limitations of the various CIDT methods for providing rapid pathogen identification that are critical to the response and mitigation of a bioterrorism event. After the workshop we conducted a thorough review of the literature, investigating the current state of these 4 culture-independent diagnostic methods. Furthermore, this article combines information from the literature review and the insights obtained at the workshop.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

A PSCAD Library Component Featuring a Reduced-Order IBR Model for EMT-Based Fault Studies

This paper presents a fully implemented inverter reduce-order-model (ROM) in an EMT simulation (PSCAD) library component for direct user utilization in protection studies. The developed inverter ROM has the following features: Equivalent to a full IBR inverter model with positive- and negative-sequence current formulation and representation A python script is developed to fully automate this process, including training data generation, ROM parameter training, updating parameters, and model verification and validation. With this PSCAD ROM library component, protection engineers can utilize a trustworthy, accurate ROM for protection studies in an easy-to-use and streamlined manner.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗