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At least 559 records · Page 31

Shifting institutional culture to develop climate solutions with Open Science

To address our climate emergency, “we must rapidly, radically reshape society”—Johnson & Wilkinson, All We Can Save. In science, reshaping requires formidable technical (cloud, coding, reproducibility) and cultural shifts (mindsets, hybrid collaboration, inclusion). We are a group of cross-government and academic scientists that are exploring better ways of working and not being too entrenched in our bureaucracies to do better science, support colleagues, and change the culture at our organizations. We share much-needed success stories and action for what we can all do to reshape science as part of the Open Science movement and 2023 Year of Open Science.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Reclassification of a Polynucleobacter cosmopolitanus strain isolated from tropical Lake Victoria as Polynucleobacter victoriensis sp. nov.

The genus Polynucleobacter (family Burkholderiaceae ) is phylogenetically subdivided into at least four subclusters. One of those, subcluster PnecC, was recognized as a cryptic species complex. Here we test by comparative genome analyses whether subcluster PnecD, currently solely represented by the species Polynucleobacter cosmopolitanus , also represents such a cryptic species complex. The genome sequences of the two P. cosmopolitanus strains, MWH-MoIso2T and MWH-VicM1, were determined. The latter strain was also characterized in the previous description of P. cosmopolitanus . These two strains originate from a temperate lake located in Austria and from the large tropical Lake Victoria located in East Africa, respectively. Strains MWH-MoIso2T and MWH-VicM1 possess quite small genomes of 1.78 and 1.63 Mbp, respectively, and share similar G+C values of 44.1 and 43.1 mol%, respectively. Both strains encode only a single copy of the ribosomal operon, and their 16S rRNA genes differ only in four positions, equalling a sequence similarity of 99.74 %. Both genomes possess characteristics indicating evolutionary genome streamlining, such as high coding densities of 93.9 and 94.6 % of bases, respectively. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) comparisons of the genomes of the two strains resulted in a value of 78.4 %, suggesting that each of the strains represents a separate species. Our investigation suggests that PnecD represents an additional cryptic species complex within the genus Polynucleobacter that was not resolved by 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses. We propose reclassification of strain MWH-VicM1 as Polynucleobacter victoriensis sp. nov., with type strain MWH-VicM1T(=DSM 21486T=JCM 32005T).

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Functional Profiling and Crystal Structures of Isothiocyanate Hydrolases Found in Gut-Associated and Plant-Pathogenic Bacteria

Isothiocyanates (ITCs) are produced by cruciferous plants to protect them against herbivores and infection by microbes. These compounds are of particular interest due to their antimicrobial and anticarcinogenic properties. The breakdown of ITCs in nature is catalyzed by isothiocyanate hydrolases (ITCases), a novel family within the metallo-β-lactamase (MBL)-fold superfamily of proteins. saxA genes that code for ITCases are particularly widespread in insect- and plant-associated bacteria. Enzymatic characterization of seven phylogenetically related but distinct ITCases revealed similar activities on six selected ITCs, suggesting that phylogenetic diversity does not determine the substrate specificity of ITCases. X-ray crystallography studies of two ITCases sharing 42% amino acid sequence identity revealed a highly conserved tertiary structure. Notable features of ITCases include a hydrophobic active site with two Zn 2+ ions coordinating water/hydroxide and a flexible cap that is implicated in substrate recognition and covers the active site. Furthermore, this report reveals the function and structure of the previously uncharacterized family of isothiocyanate hydrolases within the otherwise relatively well-studied superfamily of metallo-β-lactamases.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

A New Statistical Estimate of the Radar Coverage of the Low Earth Orbit Debris Environment

For over three decades, the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office (ODPO) has used the Goldstone Orbital Debris Radar, Haystack Ultrawideband Satellite Imaging Radar (HUSIR), and Haystack Auxiliary (HAX) radar assets to collect data on the low Earth orbit (LEO) debris environment. Each radar, with its unique beamwidth, altitude and inclination coverage, and limiting size threshold, operates in a beam park mode to statistically sample the orbital debris population in LEO. Provided that these assets are shared with other users, the orbital debris data collection is not continuous; rather, intermittent data collects are acquired and sent to the NASA ODPO. To understand the sampling process conducted by each radar over time and any related observational biases, a Statistical Confirmation of Radar Uniformity or Bias (SCRUB) code has been implemented to model the coverage of these assets for informing future operations, as well as usage of the data collected from these ground-based sensors. For this analysis, Right Ascension of the Ascending Node (RAAN) is used as a metric to measure statistical coverage. A complete survey of the LEO environment is understood to be measurements that sufficiently sample all values of RAAN for each altitude-inclination pair visible from the radar asset. Regions of incompleteness or statistical bias can help inform future observation campaigns. The SCRUB tool evaluates the coverage of the LEO environment, not by examining individual objects that may pass through a sensor’s field of view (FOV), but by determining which orbit planes pass through the FOV. Once a pointing geometry for a radar site, observation time, and range extent are configured by the user, SCRUB computes the inclinations and altitudes that are visible by the sensor. For each inclination-altitude pair, there is a distinct pair of possible RAAN values, corresponding to the ascending and descending orbit passing through that point in the sensor cone. Repeating this process for all points in the beam, and for multiple time periods during an observation window, creates a matrix of all inclination-altitude-RAAN combinations that are visible during a sensor run. This process can then be repeated for all observations within a year (for an annual survey), propagating all the RAAN values to a common epoch, typically the start of a calendar year, and combining the observations to assemble a full estimate of the RAAN coverage of the LEO environment. This RAAN coverage can then be analyzed for uniformity of sampling, within a certain inclination-altitude pair, or between larger regions of the space environment. This paper provides a general overview of the radar assets utilized by ODPO, typical analysis data products assuming circular orbits, and a discussion of the algorithms that feed between modeling and measurement operations. Following the description of the algorithm, estimates of coverage using HUSIR radar data collected from multiple years are developed and compared.

Chris L Ostrom↗

Functional Characterization of Four Putative δ1-Pyrroline-5-Carboxylate Reductases from Bacillus subtilis

In most living organisms, the amino acid proline is synthesized starting from both glutamate and ornithine. In prokaryotes, in the absence of an ornithine cyclodeaminase that has been identified to date only in a small number of soil and plant bacteria, these pathways share the last step, the reduction of δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate (P5C) catalyzed by P5C reductase (EC 1.5.1.2). In several species, multiple forms of P5C reductase have been reported, possibly reflecting the dual function of proline. Aside from its common role as a building block of proteins, proline is indeed also involved in the cellular response to osmotic and oxidative stress conditions. Genome analysis of Bacillus subtilis identifies the presence of four genes (ProH, ProI, ProG, and ComER) that, based on bioinformatic and phylogenic studies, were defined as respectively coding a putative P5C reductase. Here we describe the cloning, heterologous expression, functional analysis and small-angle X-ray scattering studies of the four affinity-purified proteins. Results showed that two of them, namely ProI and ComER, lost their catalytic efficiency or underwent subfunctionalization. In the case of ComER, this could be likely explained by the loss of the ability to form a dimer, which has been previously shown to be an essential structural feature of the catalytically active P5C reductase. The properties of the two active enzymes are consistent with a constitutive role for ProG, and suggest that ProH expression may be beneficial to satisfy an increased need for proline.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Open Chemistry, JupyterLab, REST, and quantum chemistry

Quantum chemistry must evolve if it wants to fully leverage the benefits of the internet age, where the worldwide web offers a vast tapestry of tools that enable users to communicate and interact with complex data at the speed and convenience of a button press. The Open Chemistry project has developed an open-source framework that offers an end-to-end solution for producing, sharing, and visualizing quantum chemical data interactively on the web using an array of modern tools and approaches. These tools build on some of the best open-source community projects such as Jupyter for interactive online notebooks, coupled with 3D accelerated visualization, state-of-the-art computational chemistry codes including NWChem and Psi4, and emerging machine learning and data mining tools such as ChemML and ANI. They offer flexible formats to import and export data, along with approaches to compare computational and experimental data.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Counting Kmers for Biological Sequences at Large Scale

Counting the abundance of all the distinct kmers in biological sequence data is a fundamental step in bioinformatics. These applications include de novo genome assembly, error correction, etc. With the development of sequencing technology, the sequence data in a single project can reach Petabyte-scale or Terabyte-scale nucleotides. Counting demand for the abundance of these sequencing data is beyond the memory and computing capacity of single computing node, and how to process it efficiently is a challenge on a high-performance computing cluster. As such, we propose SWAPCounter, a highly scalable distributed approach for kmer counting. This approach is embedded with an MPI streaming I/O module for loading huge data set at high speed, and a counting bloom filter module for both memory and communication efficiency. By overlapping all the counting steps, SWAPCounter achieves high scalability with high parallel efficiency. In this work, the experimental results indicate that SWAPCounter has competitive performance with two other tools on shared memory environment, KMC 2 , and MSPKmerCounter. Moreover, SWAPCounter also shows the highest scalability under strong scaling experiments. In our experiment on Cetus supercomputer, SWAPCounter scales to 32,768 cores with 79% parallel efficiency (using 2048 cores as baseline) when processing 4 TB sequence data of 1000 Genomes. The source code of SWAPCounter is publicly available at https://github.com/mengjintao/SWAPCounter.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Lessons Learned From A Cryogenic Motor Configuration Study for Aircraft Propulsion

Cryogenic electric machines are a promising technology for multi megawatt electric aircraft drivetrains. Superconducting stators that make use of low AC loss superconducting wires are considered to be a key component for these cryogenic machines. NASA has undertaken 6-year technical challenge to address this need by designing a 5 MW superconducting motor and cryogenic drive and developing multi-MW prototypes. This poster shares the lessons learned from a completed design study that evaluated several configurations of a 5 MW cryogenic motor for this application. The lessons are drawn from a qualitative study of 16 configurations and a quantitative study of 8 down selected configurations. The quantitative study involved using a motor design code based on analytical calculations (electromagnetic, thermofluid, mechanical, and motor sizing) to determine each configuration’s Pareto front of total efficiency and total specific power. This poster builds upon preliminary results that were previously presented by (1) reporting final results based on a revised design code for each configuration, including a considerable increase in fidelity for a novel radial flux motor and (2) making a down selection of the configuration for future detailed design and demonstration and documenting the rationale for the selection.

Superconductors↗

Examining Artifacts from GLOBE Program Research Symposia & Using Network Analysis Techniques to Characterize Students’ Authentic STEM Investigations

For the past several years, the GLOBE Program's International Virtual Science Symposia (IVSS) and Student Research Symposia (SRS) have provided opportunities for U.S. and international students to present their Earth science research investigations to the GLOBE community through online or in-person events. This presentation will share the techniques and findings of an evaluation study that used student posters and written reports to characterize their research investigations through multiple lenses and frameworks. The study began with a list of characteristics drawn from a literature review, an analysis of sample projects, and several reviews by expert stakeholders and scientists, which comprehensively covered diverse relevant frameworks including citizen science, student STEM learning through authentic experiences, and The GLOBE Program model. Once applied to 207 student projects, this list of codes revealed the frequency and prevalence of various qualities and experiences represented by GLOBE student research investigations. An innovative application of social network analysis techniques to the coded dataset revealed frequently cooccurring characteristics. This networking approach identified and conceptually mapped several "clusters" of characteristics that typified student projects, empirically based on the submitted projects themselves. The basic quantitative investigation of frequencies indicates the extent to which various characteristics are present in - or absent from - GLOBE SRS and IVSS projects, while the network analysis provides a descriptive framework for typifying projects. Ultimately, the descriptive framework fostered a suite of assessment tools to help The GLOBE Program's staff, scientists, and research project judges understand the diversity of student research projects. GLOBE can use these tools to identify and respond to areas of need; for instance, the descriptive framework illustrates the potential for further education and training resources related to data analysis, interpretation of data, and credibility of scientific claims. This presentation will share the novel utilization of network analysis techniques to holistically assess and react to student research contributions.

Ann Martin↗

Why Vascular Surgeons and Interventional Radiologists Collaborate or Compete: A Look at Endovascular Stent Placements

PurposeTo understand how cultural differences between vascular surgeons (VSs) and interventional radiologists (IRs) affect their clinical decision making and inter-specialty relationships.MethodsTwenty-four conversational interviews were conducted with IRs and VSs about their approaches to patient care, views of their specialty and others, and solutions to any expressed concerns. Interview transcripts were systematically analyzed to identify and compare key themes according to the constructivist grounded theory and content analysis using NVivo 10 software. These data were supplemented with a retrospective analysis of 3658 endovascular stent placements performed at a large medical academic center over 11 years. Aggregate counts were divided by provider specialty, and trends were assessed via correlation coefficients.ResultsEndovascular stent placements were relatively equally divided between IR and VS over 11 years with some variability from placements by cardiology. IRs tend to lay claim to treatments as masters of procedures, whereas VSs base their claims on being masters of the treated diseases, leading to collaboration in some practices and bitter competition in others. The level of perceived competition was most associated with specialists’ awareness of and appreciation for specialty-specific values rather than differences in practice structure/reimbursement.ConclusionsUnderstanding cultural differences between IRs and VSs is imperative for fostering better collaboration to grow shared territory rather than competing for the same slice of the pie.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

iMaNGA: mock MaNGA galaxies based on IllustrisTNG and MaStar SSPs – I. Construction and analysis of the mock data cubes

ABSTRACT Galaxy formation and evolution simulations are essential tools to probe poorly known astrophysics processes, but particular care is needed to compare simulations with galaxy observations, as observed data need to be modelled as well. We present a method to generate mock galaxies from the hydro-dynamical IllustrisTNG simulations which are suited to compare with integral field spectroscopic observation of galaxies from the SDSS-IV/Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey. First, we include the same instrumental effects and procedures as adopted in the acquisition and analysis of real data. Furthermore, we generate the galaxy spectra from the simulations using new stellar population models based on the MaNGA stellar library (MaStar). In this way, our mock data cubes have the same spatial sampling, cover the same wavelength range (3600–10 300 Å), and share the same spectral resolution (R ≈ 1800) and flux calibration of real MaNGA galaxy spectra. In this first paper, we demonstrate the method over an early- and a late-type simulated galaxy from TNG50. We analyse the correspondent mock MaNGA-like data cubes with the same full spectral fitting code, firefly, which was used for the observed spectra. We find that the intrinsic and recovered age and metallicity gradients are consistent within 1σ, with residuals over all tassels consistent with 0 at the 68 ${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ confidence level. We also perform the challenging test at comparing intrinsic and recovered star formation histories, finding a close resemblance between input and output. In follow-up papers, we will present a full simulated MaNGA-like catalogue (≈10 000 galaxies) with a comprehensive comparison of TNG50 simulations to MaNGA observational results.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Effect of Lateral Conduction in a Rectangular Fuel Plate and Optimum Stripe Widths for the OPAL Reactor

The impetus for this work is the Proliferation Resistance Optimization (PRO-X) program, which was created by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the US Department of Energy (DOE) to provide a framework for developing reactor designs that minimize the production of special nuclear materials while maximizing performance for peaceful uses. The Argentine company INVAP and Argonne National Laboratory collaborated to share knowledge and expertise regarding the thermal analysis of research reactors. Working together, they designed a series of test problems based on the Open Pool Australian Light Water (OPAL) reactor, whose fuel is in the form of flat plates cooled by water flowing through narrow rectangular channels. ANL used their PLTEMP/ANL code. INVAP used their TERMIC code (and its new multi-plate version, TERMIC-MP). Then, INVAP and ANL compared the two sets of results. 1-D models were used during the collaboration since for research reactor analysis, largely 1-D thermal-hydraulics models are commonly used because they are simple to apply and technically defendable. The collaboration between the two organizations aims for improvements in thermal-hydraulic models. Improvements to methods and models can reduce modeling uncertainties and excessive conservatism, allowing greater reactor performance without reducing predicted safety margins. Therefore, these improvements potentially expand the design space, making additional designs feasible, which, in turn, may achieve better fuel utilization and proliferation resistance in the designs. This report provides justification for the lateral node size (stripe width) chosen for the 1-D computer models during the collaboration. The lateral heat conduction in OPAL fuel plates is evaluated using the two-dimensional conduction capability of PLTEMP/ANL to determine a representative hot-stripe width that can be conservatively used for one-dimensional steady-state thermal-hydraulic analysis. Basically, a representative hot-stripe width needs to be selected so that the actual heat flux averaged over this stripe width is greater than or equal to the maximum heat flux obtained by the two-dimensional analysis. Detailed results in this report show that a hot-stripe width of 8.125 mm can be conservatively used for the one-dimensional thermal-hydraulics analysis of all plates. Therefore, eight equal stripes (8.125 mm each) are recommended to be modeled in the MCNP and PLTEMP/ANL full core models of the OPAL reactor.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

An experience in mesh generation for three-dimensional calculation of potential flow around a rotating propeller

An attempt is made to develop a three-dimensional, finite volume computational code for highly swept, twisted, small aspect ratio propeller blades with supersonic tip speeds, in a way that accounts for cascade effects, hub-induced flow, and nonlinear transonic effects. Attention is presently given to the generation of a computational mesh for such a complex propeller configuration, with the aim of sharing developmental process experience. The problem treated is unique, in that blade chord, blade length, hub length and blade-to-blade distance represent several characteristic length scales among which there is considerable disparity. An ad hoc mesh-generation scheme is accordingly developed.

Jou, W.-H.↗

Visual scanning with or without spatial uncertainty and time-sharing performance

An experiment is reported that examines the pattern of task interference between visual scanning as a sequential and selective attention process and other concurrent spatial or verbal processing tasks. A distinction is proposed between visual scanning with or without spatial uncertainty regarding the possible differential effects of these two types of scanning on interference with other concurrent processes. The experiment required the subject to perform a simulated primary tracking task, which was time-shared with a secondary spatial or verbal decision task. The relevant information that was needed to perform the decision tasks were displayed with or without spatial uncertainty. The experiment employed a 2 x 2 x 2 design with types of scanning (with or without spatial uncertainty), expected scanning distance (low/high), and codes of concurrent processing (spatial/verbal) as the three experimental factors. The results provide strong evidence that visual scanning as a spatial exploratory activity produces greater task interference with concurrent spatial tasks than with concurrent verbal tasks. Furthermore, spatial uncertainty in visual scanning is identified to be the crucial factor in producing this differential effect.

Liu, Yili↗

Roofline Analysis in the Intel® Advisor to Deliver Optimized Performance for applications on Intel® Xeon Phi™ Processor

In this session we show, in two case studies, how the roofline feature of Intel Advisor has been utilized to optimize the performance of kernels of the XGC1 and PICSAR codes in preparation for Intel Knights Landing architecture. The impact of the implemented optimizations and the benefits of using the automatic roofline feature of Intel Advisor to study performance of large applications will be presented. This demonstrates an effective optimization strategy that has enabled these science applications to achieve up to 4.6 times speed-up and prepare for future exascale architectures. # Goal/Relevance of Session The roofline model [1,2] is a powerful tool for analyzing the performance of applications with respect to the theoretical peak achievable on a given computer architecture. It allows one to graphically represent the performance of an application in terms of operational intensity, i.e. the ratio of flops performed and bytes moved from memory in order to guide optimization efforts. Given the scale and complexity of modern science applications, it can often be a tedious task for the user to perform the analysis on the level of functions or loops to identify where performance gains can be made. With new Intel tools, it is now possible to automate this task, as well as base the estimates of peak performance on measurements rather than vendor specifications. The goal of this session is to demonstrate how the roofline feature of Intel Advisor can be used to balance memory vs. computation related optimization efforts and effectively identify performance bottlenecks. A series of typical optimization techniques: cache blocking, structure refactoring, data alignment, and vectorization illustrated by the kernel cases will be addressed. # Description of the codes ## XGC1 The XGC1 code [3] is a magnetic fusion Particle-In-Cell code that uses an unstructured mesh for its Poisson solver that allows it to accurately resolve the edge plasma of a magnetic fusion device. After recent optimizations to its collision kernel [4], most of the computing time is spent in the electron push (pushe) kernel, where these optimization efforts have been focused. The kernel code scaled well with MPI+OpenMP but had almost no automatic compiler vectorization, in part due to indirect memory addresses and in part due to low trip counts of low-level loops that would be candidates for vectorization. Particle blocking and sorting have been implemented to increase trip counts of low-level loops and improve memory locality, and OpenMP directives have been added to vectorize compute-intensive loops that were identified by Advisor. The optimizations have improved the performance of the pushe kernel 2x on Haswell processors and 1.7x on KNL. The KNL node-for-node performance has been brought to within 30% of a NERSC Cori phase I Haswell node and we expect to bridge this gap by reducing the memory footprint of compute intensive routines to improve cache reuse. ## PICSAR is a Fortran/Python high-performance Particle-In-Cell library targeting at MIC architectures first designed to be coupled with the PIC code WARP for the simulation of laser-matter interaction and particle accelerators. PICSAR also contains a FORTRAN stand-alone kernel for performance studies and benchmarks. A MPI domain decomposition is used between NUMA domains and a tile decomposition (cache-blocking) handled by OpenMP has been added for shared-memory parallelism and better cache management. The so-called current deposition and field gathering steps that compose the PIC time loop constitute major hotspots that have been rewritten to enable more efficient vectorization. Particle communications between tiles and MPI domain has been merged and parallelized. All considered, these improvements provide speedups of 3.1 for order 1 and 4.6 for order 3 interpolation shape factors on KNL configured in SNC4 quadrant flat mode. Performance is similar between a node of cori phase 1 and KNL at order 1 and better on KNL by a factor 1.6 at order 3 with the considered test case (homogeneous thermal plasma).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Draft genome sequence of type strain HBR26T and description of Rhizobium aethiopicum sp. nov.

Rhizobium aethiopicum sp. nov. is a newly proposed species within the genus Rhizobium. This species includes six rhizobial strains; which were isolated from root nodules of the legume plant Phaseolus vulgaris growing in soils of Ethiopia. The species fixes nitrogen effectively in symbiosis with the host plant P. vulgaris, and is composed of aerobic, Gram-negative staining, rod-shaped bacteria. The genome of type strain HBR26 T of R. aethiopicum sp. nov. was one of the rhizobial genomes sequenced as a part of the DOE JGI 2014 Genomic Encyclopedia project designed for soil and plant-associated and newly described type strains. The genome sequence is arranged in 62 scaffolds and consists of 6,557,588 bp length, with a 61% G + C content and 6221 protein-coding and 86 RNAs genes. The genome of HBR26 T contains repABC genes (plasmid replication genes) homologous to the genes found in five differen t Rhizobium etli CFN42 T plasmids, suggesting that HBR26 T may have five additional replicons other than the chromosome. In the genome of HBR26 T , the nodulation genes nodB, nodC, nodS, nodI, nodJ and nodD are located in the same module, and organized in a similar way as nod genes found in the genome of other known common bean-nodulating rhizobial species. nodA gene is found in a different scaffold, but it is also very similar to nodA genes of other bean-nodulating rhizobial strains. Though HBR26 T is distinct on the phylogenetic tree and based on ANI analysis (the highest value 90.2% ANI with CFN42 T ) from other bean-nodulating species, these nod genes and most nitrogen-fixing genes found in the genome of HBR26 T share high identity with the corresponding genes of known bean-nodulating rhizobial species (96-100% identity). This suggests that symbiotic genes might be shared between bean-nodulating rhizobia through horizontal gene transfer. R. aethiopicum sp. nov. was grouped into the genus Rhizobium but was distinct from all recognized species of that genus by phylogenetic analyses of combined sequences of the housekeeping genes recA and glnII. The closest reference type strains for HBR26 T were R. etli CFN42 T (94% similarity of the combined recA and glnII sequences) and Rhizobium bangladeshense BLR175 T (93%). Genomic ANI calculation based on protein-coding genes also revealed that the closest reference strains were R. bangladeshense BLR175 T and R. etli CFN42 T with ANI values 91.8 and 90.2%, respectively. Nevertheless, the ANI values between HBR26 T and BLR175 T or CFN42 T are far lower than the cutoff value of ANI ( > = 96%) between strains in the same species, confirming that HBR26 T belongs to a novel species. Thus, on the basis of phylogenetic, comparative genomic analyses and ANI results, we formally propose the creation of R. aethiopicum sp. nov. with strain HBR26 T (=HAMBI 3550 T =LMG 29711 T ) as the type strain. The genome assembly and annotation data is deposited in the DOE JGI portal and also available at European Nucleotide Archive under accession numbers FMAJ01000001-FMAJ01000062.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Modeling the asynchronous Jacobi method without communication delays

Asynchronous iterative methods for solving linear systems are gaining renewed interest due to the high cost of synchronization points in massively parallel codes. Historically, theory on asynchronous iterative methods has focused on asymptotic behavior, while the transient behavior remains poorly understood. In this paper, we study a model of the asynchronous Jacobi method without communication delays, which we call simplified asynchronous Jacobi. Simplified asynchronous Jacobi can be used to model asynchronous Jacobi implemented in shared memory or distributed memory with fast communication networks. Our analysis uses the idea of a propagation matrix, which is similar in concept to an iteration matrix. We show that simplified asynchronous Jacobi can continue to reduce the residual when some processes are slower than other processes. We also show that simplified asynchronous Jacobi can converge when synchronous Jacobi does not. We verify our analysis of simplified asynchronous Jacobi using results from asynchronous Jacobi implemented in shared and distributed memory.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Pseudouridine synthase 7 is an opportunistic enzyme that binds and modifies substrates with diverse sequences and structures

Pseudouridine (Ψ) is a ubiquitous RNA modification incorporated by pseudouridine synthase (Pus) enzymes into hundreds of noncoding and protein-coding RNA substrates. Here, in this study, we determined the contributions of substrate structure and protein sequence to binding and catalysis by pseudouridine synthase 7 (Pus7), one of the principal messenger RNA (mRNA) modifying enzymes. Pus7 is distinct among the eukaryotic Pus proteins because it modifies a wider variety of substrates and shares limited homology with other Pus family members. We solved the crystal structure of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pus7, detailing the architecture of the eukaryotic-specific insertions thought to be responsible for the expanded substrate scope of Pus7. Additionally, we identified an insertion domain in the protein that fine-tunes Pus7 activity both in vitro and in cells. These data demonstrate that Pus7 preferentially binds substrates possessing the previously identified UGUAR (R = purine) consensus sequence and that RNA secondary structure is not a strong requirement for Pus7-binding. In contrast, the rate constants and extent of Ψ incorporation are more influenced by RNA structure, with Pus7 modifying UGUAR sequences in less-structured contexts more efficiently both in vitro and in cells. Although less-structured substrates were preferred, Pus7 fully modified every transfer RNA, mRNA, and nonnatural RNA containing the consensus recognition sequence that we tested. Our findings suggest that Pus7 is a promiscuous enzyme and lead us to propose that factors beyond inherent enzyme properties (e.g., enzyme localization, RNA structure, and competition with other RNA-binding proteins) largely dictate Pus7 substrate selection.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗