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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 955 records · Page 53

Selected Ion Monitoring for Orbitrap-Based Metabolomics

Orbitrap mass spectrometry in full scan mode enables the simultaneous detection of hundreds of metabolites and their isotope-labeled forms. Yet, sensitivity remains limiting for many metabolites, including low-concentration species, poor ionizers, and low-fractional-abundance isotope-labeled forms in isotope-tracing studies. Here, we explore selected ion monitoring (SIM) as a means of sensitivity enhancement. The analytes of interest are enriched in the orbitrap analyzer by using the quadrupole as a mass filter to select particular ions. In tissue extracts, SIM significantly enhances the detection of ions of low intensity, as indicated by improved signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios and measurement precision. In addition, SIM improves the accuracy of isotope-ratio measurements. SIM, however, must be deployed with care, as excessive accumulation in the orbitrap of similar m/z ions can lead, via space-charge effects, to decreased performance (signal loss, mass shift, and ion coalescence). Ion accumulation can be controlled by adjusting settings including injection time and target ion quantity. Overall, we suggest using a full scan to ensure broad metabolic coverage, in tandem with SIM, for the accurate quantitation of targeted low-intensity ions, and provide methods deploying this approach to enhance metabolome coverage.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Mapping Vegetation at Species Level with High-Resolution Multispectral and Lidar Data Over a Large Spatial Area: A Case Study with Kudzu

Mapping vegetation species is critical to facilitate related quantitative assessment, and mapping invasive plants is important to enhance monitoring and management activities. Integrating high-resolution multispectral remote-sensing (RS) images and lidar (light detection and ranging) point clouds can provide robust features for vegetation mapping. However, using multiple sources of high-resolution RS data for vegetation mapping on a large spatial scale can be both computationally and sampling intensive. Here, we designed a two-step classification workflow to potentially decrease computational cost and sampling effort and to increase classification accuracy by integrating multispectral and lidar data in order to derive spectral, textural, and structural features for mapping target vegetation species. We used this workflow to classify kudzu, an aggressive invasive vine, in the entire Knox County (1362 km2) of Tennessee (U.S.). Object-based image analysis was conducted in the workflow. The first-step classification used 320 kudzu samples and extensive, coarsely labeled samples (based on national land cover) to generate an overprediction map of kudzu using random forest (RF). For the second step, 350 samples were randomly extracted from the overpredicted kudzu and labeled manually for the final prediction using RF and support vector machine (SVM). Computationally intensive features were only used for the second-step classification. SVM had constantly better accuracy than RF, and the producer’s accuracy, user’s accuracy, and Kappa for the SVM model on kudzu were 0.94, 0.96, and 0.90, respectively. SVM predicted 1010 kudzu patches covering 1.29 km2 in Knox County. We found the sample size of kudzu used for algorithm training impacted the accuracy and number of kudzu predicted. The proposed workflow could also improve sampling efficiency and specificity. Our workflow had much higher accuracy than the traditional method conducted in this research, and could be easily implemented to map kudzu in other regions as well as map other vegetation species.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

The diageotropica mutant of tomato lacks high specific activity auxin binding sites

Tomato plants homozygous for the diageotropica (dgt) mutation exhibit morphological and physiological abnormalities which suggest that they are unable to respond to the plant growth hormone auxin (indole-3-acetic acid). The photoaffinity auxin analog [3H]5N3-IAA specifically labels a polypeptide doublet of 40 and 42 kilodaltons in membrane preparations from stems of the parental variety, VFN8, but not from stems of plants containing the dgt mutation. In roots of the mutant plants, however, labeling is indistinguishable from that in VFN8. These data suggest that the two polypeptides are part of a physiologically important auxin receptor system, which is altered in a tissue-specific manner in the mutant.

NASA Discipline Number 29-20↗

Mass spectrometry-based proteomics for analysis of hydrophilic phosphopeptides

Protein phosphorylation is a critical post-translational modification (PTM), with cell signaling networks being tightly regulated by protein phosphorylation. Despite recent technological advances in reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC)-mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics, comprehensive phosphoproteomic coverage in complex biological systems remains challenging, especially for hydrophilic phosphopeptides that often have multiple phosphorylation sites. Herein we describe an MS-based phosphoproteomics protocol for effective quantitative analysis of hydrophilic phosphopeptides. This protocol was built upon a simple tandem mass tag (TMT)-labeling method for significantly increasing peptide hydrophobicity, thus effectively enhancing RPLC-MS analysis of hydrophilic peptides. Through phosphoproteomic analyses of MCF7 cells, this method was demonstrated to greatly increase the number of identified hydrophilic phosphopeptides and improve MS signal detection. With the TMT labeling method, we were able to identify a previously unreported phosphopeptide from the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) CXCR3, QPpSSSR, which is thought to be important in regulating receptor signaling. This protocol is easy to adopt and implement, and thus should have broad utility for effective RPLC-MS analysis of the hydrophilic phosphoproteome as well as other highly hydrophilic analytes.

Hydrophilic phosphopeptide, Phosphoproteomics, TMT↗

Dual-Responsive Turn-On T 1 Imaging-Guided Mild Photothermia for Precise Apoptotic Cancer Therapy

Apoptosis has gained increasing attention in cancer therapy as an intrinsic signaling pathway, which leads to minimal leakage of waste products from a dying cell to neighboring normal cells. Among various stimuli to trigger apoptosis, mild hyperthermia is attractive but confronts limitations of non-specific heating and acquired resistance from elevated expression of heat shock proteins. Here, a dual-stimulation activated turn-on T 1 imaging-based nanoparticulate system (DAS) is developed for mild photothermia (≈43 °C)-mediated precise apoptotic cancer therapy. In the DAS, a superparamagnetic quencher (ferroferric oxide nanoparticles, Fe 3 O 4 NPs) and a paramagnetic enhancer (Gd-DOTA complexes) are connected via the N6-methyladenine (m 6 A)-caged, Zn 2+ -dependent DNAzyme molecular device. The substrate strand of the DNAzyme contains one segment of Gd-DOTA complex-labeled sequence and another one of HSP70 antisense oligonucleotide. When the DAS is taken up by cancer cells, overexpressed fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO) specifically demethylates the m 6</-sup>A group, thereby activating DNAzymes to cleave the substrate strand and simultaneously releasing Gd-DOTA complex-labeled oligonucleotides. The restored T 1 signal from the liberated Gd-DOTA complexes lights up the tumor to guide the location and time of deploying 808 nm laser irradiation. Afterward, locally generated mild photothermia works in concert with HSP70 antisense oligonucleotides to promote apoptosis of tumor cells. This highly integrated design provides an alternative strategy for mild hyperthermia-mediated precise apoptotic cancer therapy.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Separating Physically Distinct Mechanisms in Complex Infrared Plasmonic Nanostructures via Machine Learning Enhanced Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy

Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) enables direct exploration of plasmonic phenomena at the nanometer level. To isolate individual plasmon modes, linear unmixing methods can be used to separate different physical mechanisms, but in larger and more complex systems the interpretability of the components becomes uncertain. Here, infrared plasmonic resonances in self-assembled heterogeneous monolayer films of doped-semiconductor nanoparticles are examined beyond linear unmixing techniques, and both supervised and unsupervised machine-learning-based analyses of hyperspectral EELS datasets are demonstrated. Additionally, in the supervised approach, a human operator labels a small number of pixels in the hyperspectral dataset corresponding to features of interest which are then propagated across the entire dataset. In the unsupervised approach, non-linear autoencoders are used to create a highly-reduced latent-space representation of the dataset, within which insight into the relevant physics can be gleaned from straightforward distance metrics that do not depend on operator input and bias. The advantage of these approaches is that the labeling separates physical mechanisms without altering the data, enabling robust analyses of the influence of heterogeneities in mesoscale complex systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

MaTableGPT: GPT‐Based Table Data Extractor from Materials Science Literature

Abstract Efficiently extracting data from tables in the scientific literature is pivotal for building large‐scale databases. However, the tables reported in materials science papers exist in highly diverse forms; thus, rule‐based extractions are an ineffective approach. To overcome this challenge, the study presents MaTableGPT, which is a GPT‐based table data extractor from the materials science literature. MaTableGPT features key strategies of table data representation and table splitting for better GPT comprehension and filtering hallucinated information through follow‐up questions. When applied to a vast volume of water splitting catalysis literature, MaTableGPT achieves an extraction accuracy (total F1 score) of up to 96.8%. Through comprehensive evaluations of the GPT usage cost, labeling cost, and extraction accuracy for the learning methods of zero‐shot, few‐shot, and fine‐tuning, the study presents a Pareto‐front mapping where the few‐shot learning method is found to be the most balanced solution owing to both its high extraction accuracy (total F1 score >95%) and low cost (GPT usage cost of 5.97 US dollars and labeling cost of 10 I/O paired examples). The statistical analyses conducted on the database generated by MaTableGPT revealed valuable insights into the distribution of the overpotential and elemental utilization across the reported catalysts in the water splitting literature.

Yi, Gyeong Hoon [Computational Science Research Ce↗

Battery Electrolyte Design for Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Platforms

Here, the development of robust and high-performance battery systems is crucial for the advancement of Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles for urban air mobility. This study evaluates the performance of different lithium-ion battery chemistries under Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) load profiles. The actual flight data coupled with physical models is used to create discharge profiles for testing on developed lithium-ion cells for eVTOLs. The performance of a standard liquid electrolyte (1.2 M LiPF 6 in EC:EMC), labeled Gen-2, is benchmarked and compared with a fast-charging electrolyte (1.2 M LiFSI in EC:EMC), labeled XFC. Cell analysis involves the use of various techniques, such as impedance spectroscopy, polarization curves, and capacity retention measurements. Capacity retention is stable for both systems over 500 cycles, but unique discharge capacity trends are observed for different mission segments. During the initial takeoff hover stages, Gen-2 electrolytes experience substantial voltage fade, while XFC electrolytes maintain consistent behavior. In general, the Gen-2 electrolyte demonstrated lower discharge overpotentials and higher decay during cycling compared to the XFC electrolyte. This work highlights the complexity of eVTOL battery behavior and provides insights into battery system design, contributing to the advancement of battery energy storage solutions for urban air mobility.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Accurate and Data‐Efficient Micro X‐ray Diffraction Phase Identification Using Multitask Learning: Application to Hydrothermal Fluids

Traditional analysis of highly distorted micro X‐ray diffraction (μ‐XRD) patterns from hydrothermal fluid environments is a time‐consuming process, often requiring substantial data preprocessing and labeled experimental data. Herein, the potential of deep learning with a multitask learning (MTL) architecture to overcome these limitations is demonstrated. MTL models are trained to identify phase information in μ‐XRD patterns, minimizing the need for labeled experimental data and masking preprocessing steps. Notably, MTL models show superior accuracy compared to binary classification convolutional neural networks. Additionally, introducing a tailored cross‐entropy loss function improves MTL model performance. Most significantly, MTL models tuned to analyze raw and unmasked XRD patterns achieve close performance to models analyzing preprocessed data, with minimal accuracy differences. This work indicates that advanced deep learning architectures like MTL can automate arduous data handling tasks, streamline the analysis of distorted XRD patterns, and reduce the reliance on labor‐intensive experimental datasets.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Matrix Extension Validation of AOCS Ce 2c‐11 for Omega‐3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Conventional Foods and Dietary Supplements Containing Added Marine Oil

Abstract Marine oils are commonly added to conventional foods and dietary supplements to enhance their contents of omega‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5n‐3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n‐3), which have been associated with numerous potential health benefits. This study compared American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) Official Methods Ce 2b‐11 and Ce 2c‐11 for determining EPA and DHA in foods and dietary supplements and found that AOCS Ce 2c‐11 produces significantly higher analyzed values, which could be attributed to a more comprehensive breakdown of the sample matrix and derivatization of fatty acids. Our subsequent food matrix extension validation of AOCS Ce 2c‐11 demonstrated that the method produces true, accurate, sensitive, and precise determinations of EPA, DHA, and total omega‐3 PUFA in foods and dietary supplements containing added marine oil, including those formulated with emulsified and microencapsulated oils. The method detection limits for EPA and DHA were 0.012 ± 0.002 and 0.011 ± 0.003 mg g −1 , respectively (means ± SD). The analyzed contents of EPA (1.26–386 mg serving −1 ), DHA (1.37–563 mg serving −1 ), and total omega‐3 PUFA (2.69–1270 mg serving −1 ) were reported for 27 conventional food and dietary supplement products. Eighteen products declared contents of DHA, EPA + DHA, or total omega‐3 PUFA on product labels, and the analyzed contents of those fatty acids varied from 95 to 162% of label declarations for all but two of the products.

Li, Ziyi↗

Application of a headspace GC–MS method to evaluate the product quality of alcohol‐based hand wipe sanitizers

Abstract The investigation of marketed hand wipe sanitizers presented an analytical challenge owing to the need for extraction from the solid matrix of the products. The present work describes the development of a new sample preparation method for the extraction of analytes from the hand wipe sanitizer matrix into dimethyl sulfoxide for analysis using headspace GCMS. Alcohol‐based hand sanitizer (ABHS) wipe products labeled to contain ethanol or isopropanol as active ingredients were tested, varying in the size and weight of the wipes. The spike recovery assay was confirmed using spiking solutions containing impurities at concentrations equivalent to 50, 100 and 200% of the interim concentration limits. All of the tested analytes showed recovery within the allowable limits (80–120%). Six marketed ABHS wipe products were tested and no impurities above the FDA interim limits were observed. One product contained ethanol below the 60% v/v limit and another product was mislabeled for isopropanol and was found to contain ethanol instead. Four of the six ABHS products did not meet the label claim, which may affect the product quality. The analytical method and sample preparation procedures will provide the FDA and ABHS manufacturers with the capability to conduct quality assurance testing of hand wipe sanitizers for active ingredient content and impurities.

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology↗

Synthesis of l -[4- 11 C]Asparagine by Ring-Opening Nucleophilic 11 C-Cyanation Reaction of a Chiral Cyclic Sulfamidate Precursor

The development of a convenient and rapid method to synthesize radiolabeled enantiomerically pure amino acids (AAs) as potential positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agents for mapping various biochemical transformations in living organisms remains as a challenge. This is especially true for the synthesis of carbon-11 labeled AAs given the short half-life of carbon-11 ( 11 C, t 1/2 = 20.4 min). A facile synthetic pathway to prepare enantiomerically pure 11C-labeled L-asparagine was developed using a partially protected serine as a starting material with a four-step transformation providing a chiral fivemembered cyclic sulfamidate as the radiolabeling precursor. Its structure and absolute configuration were confirmed by X-Ray crystallography. Utilizing a [ 11 C]cyanide nucleophilic ring opening reaction followed by selective acidic hydrolysis and deprotection, enantiomerically pure L-[4- 11 C]asparagine was synthesized. Further optimization of reaction parameters, including base, metal ion source, solvent, acid component, reaction temperature and reaction time, a reliable two-step method for synthesizing L-[4- 11 C]asparagine was presented; within a 45 ± 3 min (n = 5, from end-of-bombardment), the desired enantiomerically pure product was synthesized with the initial nucleophilic cyanation yield of 69 ± 4% (n = 5) and overall two-step radiochemical yield of 53 ± 2% (n = 5) based on starting [ 11 C]HCN, and with radiochemical purity of 96 ± 2% (n = 5).

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Inorganic semiconductor quantum dots as a saturated excitation (SAX) probe for subdiffraction imaging

The photoluminescence (PL) saturation of CdSe/ZnS core/shell inorganic semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) and its utility as a probe for saturated excitation (SAX) microscopy are reported. Under saturating excitation power densities, the PL signal was demodulated and recorded at harmonics of the fundamental frequency. For commercially available Qdot® 655 ITK™ QDs, the power density required to achieve saturation was dependent upon the local environment of the QDs. For QDs deposited and dried on a glass substrate, the excitation power density required for PL saturation was less than 1 kW/cm 2 . Compared to this, saturation of PL for QDs dispersed in water required an excitation power density greater than 200 kW/cm 2 . This observation is manifested as a limitation in the imaging of hydrated samples, as demonstrated for HeLa cells labelled with biotinylated-phalloidin followed by labelling with streptavidin-coated QDs. Finally as saturation affects the obtained spatial resolution in several imaging formats, including confocal imaging, the provided data will aid in obtaining the optimal spatial resolution when using QD probes to image biological samples.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Synchrotron‐source micro‐x‐ray computed tomography for examining butterfly eyes

Comparative anatomy is an important tool for investigating evolutionary relationships among species, but the lack of scalable imaging tools and stains for rapidly mapping the microscale anatomies of related species poses a major impediment to using comparative anatomy approaches for identifying evolutionary adaptations. We describe a method using synchrotron source micro-x-ray computed tomography (syn-μXCT) combined with machine learning algorithms for high-throughput imaging of Lepidoptera (i.e., butterfly and moth) eyes. Our pipeline allows for imaging at rates of ~15 min/mm 3 at 600 nm 3 resolution. Image contrast is generated using standard electron microscopy labeling approaches (e.g., osmium tetroxide) that unbiasedly labels all cellular membranes in a species-independent manner thus removing any barrier to imaging any species of interest. To demonstrate the power of the method, we analyzed the 3D morphologies of butterfly crystalline cones, a part of the visual system associated with acuity and sensitivity and found significant variation within six butterfly individuals. Despite this variation, a classic measure of optimization, the ratio of interommatidial angle to resolving power of ommatidia, largely agrees with early work on eye geometry across species. We show that this method can successfully be used to determine compound eye organization and crystalline cone morphology. Our novel pipeline provides for fast, scalable visualization and analysis of eye anatomies that can be applied to any arthropod species, enabling new questions about evolutionary adaptations of compound eyes and beyond.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Scattered–light–sheet microscopy with sub–cellular resolving power

Since its first demonstration over 100 years ago, scattering-based light-sheet microscopy has recently re-emerged as a key modality in label-free tissue imaging and cellular morphometry; however, scattering-based light-sheet imaging with subcellular resolution remains an unmet target to date. This is because related approaches inevitably superimpose speckle or granular intensity modulation on to the native subcellular features. Here, we addressed this challenge by deploying a time-averaged pseudo-thermalized light-sheet illumination. While pseudo-thermalizing the illumination sheet increased its lateral dimensions, we achieved subcellular resolving power at ultralow irradiance levels after image deconvolution. We validated this approach by imaging cytosolic carbon depots in yeast and bacteria with increased specificity and no staining. Altogether, we expect this scattering-based light-sheet microscopy approach will advance live single-cell imaging investigations by conferring low-irradiance and label-free operation towards eradicating phototoxicity.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Detection of a multi–disease biomarker in saliva with graphene field effect transistors

Human carbonic anhydrase 1 (CA1) has been suggested as a biomarker for identification of several diseases including cancers, pancreatitis, diabetes, and Sjogren’s syndrome. However, the lack of a rapid, cheap, accurate, and easy-to-use quantification technique has prevented widespread utilization of CA1 for practical clinical applications. To this end, we present a label-free electronic biosensor for detection of CA1 utilizing highly sensitive graphene field effect transistors (G-FETs) as a transducer and specific RNA aptamers as a probe. The binding of CA1 with aptamers resulted in a positive shift in Dirac voltage V D of the G-FETs, the magnitude of which depended on target concentration. These aptameric G-FET biosensors showed the binding affinity (K D ) of ~2.3 ng/ml (70 pM), which is four orders lower than that reported using a gel shift assay. This lower value of K D enabled us to achieve a detection range (10 pg/ml - 100 ng/ml) which is well in line with the clinically relevant range. These highly sensitive devices allowed us to further prove their clinical relevance by successfully detecting the presence of CA1 in human saliva samples. In conclusion, the utilization of this label-free biosensor could facilitate the early stage identification of various diseases associated with changes in concentration of CAs.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Ionic Liquid Aided [ 11 C]CO Fixation for Synthesis of 11 C‐carbonyls

Tributyl(ethyl)phosphonium oxopentenolate ([P 4442 ][Pen]) is an ionic liquid developed to capture CO and has shown ability to catalyze carbonylation reactions in organic chemistry. Carbon-11 ( 11 C, t 1/2 =20.4 min) labeled CO is a highly versatile building block for the synthesis of positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers that are applied for medical imaging. The use of [ 11 C]CO is limited by its low solubility in organic solvents. Herein, we report a proof-of-concept study evaluating a new method to prepare 11 C-labeled amides, ureas and carbamates via reaction of [ 11 C]CO in [P 4442 ][Pen] and applied for fully automated radiosyntheses of Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitors, [ 11 C]evobrutinib and [ 11 C]ibrutinib.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗