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At least 73 records · Page 4

Next-Generation Simulations of the Remarkable Deaths of Massive Stars [Slides]

This report discusses core-collapse of supernovae and provides this basic summary: 3D models of stellar convection are necessary for accurate description of state of model near collapse, 3D rotating progenitor models are also necessary, and multi-D models can provide input for successful CCSN models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

MEGASIM: Lifetimes and Resonances of Earth Trojan Asteroids—The Death of Primordial ETAs?

Abstract We present an analysis of lifetimes and resonances of Earth Trojan Asteroids (ETAs) in the MEGASIM data set. Trojan asteroids co-orbit the Sun with a planet, but remain bound to the Lagrange points, L4 (60° leading the planet) or L5 (60° trailing). In the circular three-body approximation, the stability of a Trojan asteroid depends on the ratio of the host planet mass and the central mass. For the inner planets, the range of stability becomes increasingly small, so perturbations from the planets have made primordial Trojans rare. To date, there have been just two ETAs (2010 TK 7 and 2020 XL 5 ), several Mars Trojans, and a Venus Trojan discovered. The estimated lifetimes of the known inner system Trojans are shorter than a million years, suggesting they are interlopers rather than members of a stable and long-lasting population. With the largest ETA n -body simulation to date, we are able to track their survival across a wide initialized parameter space. We find that the remaining fraction of ETAs over time is well fit with a stretched exponential function that, when extrapolated beyond our simulation run time, predicts zero ETAs by 2.33 Gyr. We also show correlations between ETA ejections and the periods of the Milankovitch cycles. Though Earth’s orbital dynamics dominate the instabilities of ETAs, we provide evidence that ETA ejections are linked to resonances found in the variation of the orbital elements of many if not all of the planets.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Jetted and Turbulent Stellar Deaths: New LVK-detectable Gravitational-wave Sources

Upcoming LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (LVK) observing runs are expected to detect a variety of inspiralling gravitational-wave (GW) events that come from black hole and neutron star binary mergers. Detection of noninspiral GW sources is also anticipated. We report the discovery of a new class of noninspiral GW sources—the end states of massive stars—that can produce the brightest simulated stochastic GW burst signal in the LVK bands known to date, and could be detectable in LVK run A+. Some dying massive stars launch bipolar relativistic jets, which inflate a turbulent energetic bubble—cocoon—inside of the star. We simulate such a system using state-of-the-art 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations and show that these cocoons emit quasi-isotropic GW emission in the LVK band, ~10–100 Hz, over a characteristic jet activity timescale ~10–100 s. Our first-principles simulations show that jets exhibit a wobbling behavior, in which case cocoon-powered GWs might be detected already in LVK run A+, but it is more likely that these GWs will be detected by the third-generation GW detectors with an estimated rate of ~10 events yr –1 . The detection rate drops to ~1% of that value if all jets were to feature a traditional axisymmetric structure instead of a wobble. Accompanied by electromagnetic emission from the energetic core-collapse supernova and the cocoon, we predict that collapsars are powerful multimessenger events.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Molecular characterization of a fungal gasdermin-like protein

Programmed cell death (PCD) in filamentous fungi prevents cytoplasmic mixing following fusion between conspecific genetically distinct individuals (allorecognition) and serves as a defense mechanism against mycoparasitism, genome exploitation, and deleterious cytoplasmic elements (i.e., senescence plasmids). Recently, we identified regulator of cell death-1 ( rcd-1 ), a gene controlling PCD in germinated asexual spores in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa . rcd-1 alleles are highly polymorphic and fall into two haplogroups in N. crassa populations. Coexpression of alleles from the two haplogroups, rcd-1–1 and rcd-1–2 , is necessary and sufficient to trigger a cell death reaction. Here, we investigated the molecular bases of rcd-1 -dependent cell death. Based on in silico analyses, we found that RCD-1 is a remote homolog of the N-terminal pore-forming domain of gasdermin, the executioner protein of a highly inflammatory cell death reaction termed pyroptosis, which plays a key role in mammalian innate immunity. We show that RCD-1 localizes to the cell periphery and that cellular localization of RCD-1 was correlated with conserved positively charged residues on predicted amphipathic α-helices, as shown for murine gasdermin-D. Similar to gasdermin, RCD-1 binds acidic phospholipids in vitro, notably, cardiolipin and phosphatidylserine, and interacts with liposomes containing such lipids. The RCD-1 incompatibility system was reconstituted in human 293T cells, where coexpression of incompatible rcd-1–1/rcd-1–2 alleles triggered pyroptotic-like cell death. Oligomers of RCD-1 were associated with the cell death reaction, further supporting the evolutionary relationship between gasdermin and rcd-1 . This report documents an ancient transkingdom relationship of cell death execution modules involved in organismal defense.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Mortality of older construction and craft workers employed at Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear sites: Follow‐up through 2021

Background To determine if construction and trades workers formerly employed at US Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons sites are at significant risk for occupational diseases, we studied the mortality experience of participants in the Building Trades National Medical Screening Program (BTMed). Methods The cohort included 26,922 participants enrolled between 1998 and 2021 and 8367 deaths. Standardized mortality ratios were calculated based on US death rates. Cox models compared construction workers (n = 22,747; 7487 deaths) to two nonconstruction subpopulations: administrative, scientific and security workers (n = 1894; 330 deaths), and all other nonconstruction workers (n = 2218; 550 deaths). Results Mortality was elevated for all causes, all cancers, cancers of the trachea, bronchus, lung, kidneys, and lymphatic and hematopoietic system, mesothelioma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asbestosis, transportation injuries, and other injuries, particularly accidental poisonings. There were 167 deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was lower than expected using US death rates. Overall cause-specific mortality was significantly higher among construction workers than for internal comparison groups. Conclusions Construction workers employed at DOE sites have a significantly increased risk for occupational illnesses. Apart from COVID-19 deaths, this update: (1) found that mortality among construction workers is significantly elevated compared to the US population and significantly higher than in the internal comparison populations, and (2) confirmed excess risk for these workers for first employment after 1990. Cancer mortality risks are similar to the cancers identified for DOE compensation from radiation exposures. In conclusion, the high lung cancer risk supports the value of early lung cancer detection. Continued medical surveillance is important.

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗

Misclassification of primary liver cancer in the Life Span Study of atomic bomb survivors

Primary liver cancer is difficult to diagnose accurately at death, due to metastases from nearby organs and to concomitant diseases, such as chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis. Trends in diagnostic accuracy could affect radiation risk estimates for incident liver cancer by altering background rates or by impacting risk modification by sex and age. We quantified the potential impact of death‐certificate inaccuracies on radiation risk estimates for liver cancer in the Life Span Study of atomic bomb survivors. True‐positive and false‐negative rates were obtained from a previous study that compared death‐certificate causes of death with those based on pathological review, from 1958 to 1987. We assumed various scenarios for misclassification rates after 1987. We obtained estimated true positives and estimated false negatives by stratified sampling from binomial distributions with probabilities given by the true‐positive and false‐negative rates, respectively. Poisson regression methods were applied to highly stratified person‐year tables of corrected case counts and accrued person years. During the study period (1958–2009), there were 1,885 cases of liver cancer, which included 383 death‐certificate‐only (DCO) cases; 1,283 cases with chronic liver disease as the underlying cause of death; and 150 DCO cases of pancreatic cancer among 105,444 study participants. Across the range of scenarios considered, radiation risk estimates based on corrected case counts were attenuated, on average, by 13–30%. Our results indicated that radiation risk estimates for liver cancer were potentially sensitive to death‐certificate inaccuracies. Additional data are needed to inform misclassification rates in recent years.

French, Benjamin↗

Regional differences in tobacco smoking and lung cancer in Portugal in 2018: a population-based analysis using nationwide incidence and mortality data

Objectives: This study aims to estimate the proportion of lung cancer cases and deaths attributable to tobacco smoking in Portugal in 2018, complemented by trends in incidence and mortality, by sex and region. Design: Cancer cases for 1998–2011 and cancer deaths for 1991–2018 were obtained from population-based registries and Statistics Portugal, respectively. We projected cases for 2018 and used reported deaths for the same year to estimate, using Peto’s method, the number and proportion of lung cancer cases and deaths caused by tobacco smoking in 2018. We calculated the age-adjusted incidence and mortality rates in each year of diagnosis and death. We fitted a joinpoint regression to the observed data to estimate the annual percentage change (APC) in the rates. Setting: Portugal. Results: In 2018, an estimated 3859 cases and 3192 deaths from lung cancer were attributable to tobacco smoking in Portugal, with men presenting a population attributable fraction (PAF) of 82.6% (n=3064) for incidence and 84.1% (n=2749) for mortality, while in women those values were 51.0% (n=795) and 42.7% (n=443), respectively. In both sexes and metrics, the Azores were the region with the highest PAF and the Centre with the lowest. During 1998–2011, the APC for incidence ranged from 0.6% to 3.0% in men and 3.6% to 7.9% in women, depending on region, with mortality presenting a similar pattern between sexes. Conclusion: Exposure to tobacco smoking has accounted for most of the lung cancer cases and deaths estimated in Portugal in 2018. Differential patterns of tobacco consumption across the country, varying implementation of primary prevention programmes and differences in personal cancer awareness may have contributed to the disparities observed. Primary prevention of lung cancer remains a public health priority, particularly among women.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Agent-Based Model of Combined Community- and Jail-Based Take-Home Naloxone Distribution

Importance Opioid-related overdose accounts for almost 80 000 deaths annually across the US. People who use drugs leaving jails are at particularly high risk for opioid-related overdose and may benefit from take-home naloxone (THN) distribution. Objective To estimate the population impact of THN distribution at jail release to reverse opioid-related overdose among people with opioid use disorders. Design, Setting, and Participants This study developed the agent-based Justice-Community Circulation Model (JCCM) to model a synthetic population of individuals with and without a history of opioid use. Epidemiological data from 2014 to 2020 for Cook County, Illinois, were used to identify parameters pertinent to the synthetic population. Twenty-seven experimental scenarios were examined to capture diverse strategies of THN distribution and use. Sensitivity analysis was performed to identify critical mediating and moderating variables associated with population impact and a proxy metric for cost-effectiveness (ie, the direct costs of THN kits distributed per death averted). Data were analyzed between February 2022 and March 2024. Intervention Modeled interventions included 3 THN distribution channels: community facilities and practitioners; jail, at release; and social network or peers of persons released from jail. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was the percentage of opioid-related overdose deaths averted with THN in the modeled population relative to a baseline scenario with no intervention. Results Take-home naloxone distribution at jail release had the highest median (IQR) percentage of averted deaths at 11.70% (6.57%-15.75%). The probability of bystander presence at an opioid overdose showed the greatest proportional contribution (27.15%) to the variance in deaths averted in persons released from jail. The estimated costs of distributed THN kits were less than $\$$15 000 per averted death in all 27 scenarios. Conclusions and Relevance This study found that THN distribution at jail release is an economical and feasible approach to substantially reducing opioid-related overdose mortality. Training and preparation of proficient and willing bystanders are central factors in reaching the full potential of this intervention.

Tatara, Eric [Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), A↗