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At least 217 records · Page 12

Polysulfide-Permanganate Flow Battery Using Abundant Active Materials

A new flow battery is presented using the abundant and inexpensive active material pairs permanganate/manganate and disulfide/tetrasulfide. A wetted material set is identified for compatibility with the strongly oxidizing manganese couple at ambient and elevated temperatures. Both solutions allow high active material solubility, with cells tested at theoretical energy densities up to 43 Wh l −1 for the ∼1.2 V cell. Full cells built with nickel foam electrodes and sodium-exchanged Nafion 115 membranes deliver a baseline area-specific resistance of 2.7 Ω-cm 2 . Incorporation of high-surface-area cobalt-coated carbon paper and high-surface-area stainless steel mesh electrodes, and an expanded Nafion 115 membrane delivers cells with 44% lower resistance at 1.6 Ω-cm 2 . All cells show performance decay over the course of cycling. The Co-decorated carbon paper electrodes provide significant kinetic improvements, shifting electrode performance from non-linear with Ni-foam to linear with a volume-normalized exchange current density value of 3.2 A cm −3 . The expanded membrane provides increased conductivity over the 13 mS cm −1 conductivity observed in as-received, sodium-exchanged Nafion 115. Although boiled membranes provide improved conductivity, it is at the cost of decreased Coulombic efficiency and poorer manufacturability. Full cell models suggest that similar cell resistances (1.7 Ω-cm 2 ) should be feasible with as-received Nafion 115 and advanced electrodes.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Critical Barriers to Successful Implementation of Earth-Abundant, Mn-Rich Cathodes for Vehicle Applications and Beyond: A Detailed Study of Low SOC Impedance

We report that earth-abundant, sustainable cathode chemistries based on Mn are increasingly attractive for enabling a broader portfolio of cathode oxides. The well-known class of lithium- and manganese-rich cathodes still represents very viable options. However, despite the important work on understanding the mechanisms of voltage fade, hysteresis, and oxygen activity, relatively little attention has been given to understanding the impedance characteristics of these electrodes. In particular, an anomalous rise in area specific impedance at lower states of charge, as well as overall impedance rise and surface damage due to electrolyte interactions, represent critical barriers to implementation. This work presents a comprehensive study of impedance behavior in cobalt-free, lithium- and manganese-rich electrodes. The use of a robust surface treatment allows for long-term behavior to be probed in the absence of surface damage, capacity loss, and impedance rise due to electrolyte interactions. The anomalous rise in impedance could not be correlated to surface changes, or surface phase formation, but could be directly correlated with the bulk processes of voltage fade and voltage hysteresis. The activated material can be explained as a percolating network of higher-voltage, layered-type sites having facile Li diffusion. Interspersed throughout this network are lower-voltage, disordered sites that represent a significant barrier.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Review—Earth-Abundant, Mn-Rich Cathodes for Vehicle Applications and Beyond: Overview of Critical Barriers

Broadening the portfolio of cathode active materials for Li-ion battery applications is now more important than ever. Recent focus on enabling diversity and security in supply chains, as well as concerns over sustainability of a massively growing energy storage market, have put emphasis on enabling more Earth-abundant cathode materials as an attractive strategy. With respect to relatively near-term options, manganese-based cathodes are particularly interesting. In this work, we discuss some of the challenges associated with advancing the development of manganese-based oxides and, in particular, those that take advantage of complex local structures and/or over-lithiated compositions. Discussion centers on the representative, lithium- and manganese-rich class of cathodes and considerations to future development are given that range from the atomic-scale to the electrode level.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Detection of Head and Neck Cancer Based on Longitudinal Changes in Serum Protein Abundance

Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) is significantly represented in the military population with substantial impact on military operations. Two-thirds of new HNSCC cases are first diagnosed at advanced stage III or IV with lymph node metastases. Thus, there is an urgent need of biomarkers for early detection and risk stratification. Archived serum samples from the Department of Defense Serum Repository provide a unique resource for longitudinal studies of HNSCC in the military and the identification of early detection biomarkers. Methods: We identified 175 patients diagnosed with HNSCC with 175 matched healthy controls and retrieved a total of 978 serum samples drawn at the time of diagnosis, 2 and 4 years prior to diagnosis, and 2 years after diagnosis. Following immunoaffinity depletion, serum samples were analyzed by targeted proteomics assays for multiplexed quantification of a panel of 146 candidate protein biomarkers from the curated literature. Results: We derived a 13-protein signature that distinguishes case versus controls based on longitudinal changes in serum protein concentration. The abundances of each of the 13 proteins remain constant over time in control subjects. The area under the curve for the derived random forest classifier was 0.90. Conclusions: This 13-protein classifier is highly promising for detection of HNSCC prior to overt symptoms. Impact: Use of longitudinal samples has significant potential to identify biomarkers for detection and risk stratification.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

The endocannabinoid system in bovine tissues: characterization of transcript abundance in the growing Holstein steer

Abstract Background The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is highly integrated with seemingly all physiological and pathophysiological processes in the body. There is increasing interest in utilizing bioactive plant compounds, for promoting health and improving production in livestock. Given the established interaction between phytochemicals and the ECS, there are many opportunities for identification and development of therapies to address a range of diseases and disorders. However, the ECS has not been thoroughly characterized in cattle, especially in the gastrointestinal tract. The objective of this study was to characterize the distribution and transcriptional abundance of genes associated with the endocannabinoid system in bovine tissues. Methods Tissues including brain, spleen, thyroid, lung, liver, kidney, mesenteric vein, tongue, sublingual mucosa, rumen, omasum, duodenum, jejunum, ileum and colon were collected from 10-mo old Holstein steers (n = 6). Total RNA was extracted and gene expression was measured using absolute quantification real time qPCR. Gene expression of endocannabinoid receptorsCNR1andCNR2, synthesis enzymesDAGLA,DAGLBandNAPEPLD, degradation enzymesMGLLandFAAH, and transient receptor potential vanilloidsTRPV3andTRPV6was measured. Data were analyzed in R using a Kruskal-Wallis followed by a Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Results are reported as the median copy number/20 ng of equivalent cDNA (CN) with interquartile range (IQR). Results The greatest expression ofCNR1andCNR2was in the brain and spleen, respectively. Expression of either receptor was not detected in any gastrointestinal tissues, however there was a tendency (P = 0.095) forCNR2to be expressed above background in rumen. Expression of endocannabinoid synthesis and degradation enzymes varied greatly across tissues. Brain tissue had the greatestDAGLAexpression at 641 CN (IQR 52;P ≤ 0.05).DAGLBwas detected in all tissues, with brain and spleen having the greatest expression (P ≤ 0.05). Expression ofNAPEPLDin the gastrointestinal tract was lowest in tongue and sublingual mucosal. There was no difference in expression ofNAPEPLDbetween hindgut tissues, however these tissues collectively had 592% greater expression than rumen and omasum (P ≤ 0.05). WhileMGLLwas found to be expressed in all tissues, expression ofFAAHwas only above the limit of detection in brain, liver, kidney, jejunum and ileum.TRPV3was expressed above background in tongue, rumen, omasum and colon. Although not different from each other, thyroid and duodenum had the greatest expression ofTRPV6, with 285 (IQR 164) and 563 (IQR 467) CN compared to all other tissues (P < 0.05). Conclusions These data demonstrate the complex distribution and variation of the ECS in bovine tissues. Expression patterns suggest that regulatory functions of this system are tissue dependent, providing initial insight into potential target tissues for manipulation of the ECS.

Veterinary Sciences↗

Blodgett Forest CA Warming Experiment phospholipid fatty acid and branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers data 2018 from: "Whole-soil warming decreases abundance and modifies the community structure of microorganisms in the subsoil but not in surface soil".

This data package contains phospholipid fatty acid and branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers data used for the paper: “Whole-soil warming decreases abundance and modifies the community structure of microorganisms in the subsoil but not in surface soil”. SOIL, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2021-14.On April 2018 (after 4.5 years of warming), we collected soil cores down to 90 cm depth from the whole soil profile warming experiment at the University of California Blodgett Forest Research Station, in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Georgetown, CA at 1370 m above sea level. Cores were collected from 6 experimental plots (three replicated blocks); samples were collected in 10 cm increments from 0 to 90 cm depth.This data package includes a file in .csv format and a file in .xlsx format, which can be accessed and processed using MS Excel or R. Phospholipid fatty acid and branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers concentrations are provided as processed data files.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

ESS-DIVE Reporting Format for Amplicon Abundance Table

While standardized sequencing data is available in public repositories and efforts such as MIxS for common sample collection and processing metadata are well established, the lack of common bioinformatic processing metadata has hindered the ability to do large-scale metaanalyses and the potential for data re-use by non-experts such as ecosystem, watershed, or earth system modelers. To address this need for Department of Energy researchers, we have developed an amplicon reporting format which captures both sample preparation and bioinformatic processing metadata and stores processed amplicon data as a paired abundance table and sequencing file to maximize the potential for re-use of these data. To aid in the adoption of accessible and reproducible analysis workflows, this reporting format was developed in concert with amplicon functionality within the Department of Energy’s Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase) to ensure common data and metadata requirements and facilitate seamless transfer between these platforms.This dataset contains support documentation for the amplicon reporting format (README.md and instructions.md), templates for both bioinformatic and sequencing metadata (amplicon_bioinformatic_metadata_template_2021_10_03.csv and amplicon_sequencing_metadata_template_2021_10_03.csv), a crosswalk indicating how this reporting format relates to the current MIxS format (ESSDIVE-MIxS_crosswalk.csv), a list of available instrument terms (amplicon_seq_instrument_terms_2021_10_03.csv), a map between QIIME2 parameter settings and metadata fields (amplicon_qiime2_plugin_metadata_map.csv), a data dictionary (amplicon_CSV_dd.csv), and file-level metadata (amplicon_FLMD.csv).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Controlling High-Valent Reactivity in Earth Abundant Metals (Final Report)

This is a Final Technical Report of DOE AWARD NUMBER: DE-SC0009363. PROJECT TITLE: “Controlling High-Valent Reactivity in Earth Abundant Metals”. PROJECT PERIOD: AUGUST 16, 2019 TO AUGUST 15, 2022. This report provides a comprehensive summary of all work completed under this award.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Bio-Inspired Catalysts Featuring Earth Abundant Metals and Secondary Coordination Sphere Interactions for the Reduction of Oxyanions

The scientifically challenging problem of catalytically reducing oxyanions was explored and presented great opportunities in terms of the environment, economics and energy self-sufficiency. Oxyanions are pervasive as they are found in many areas of technology, all forms of life, in minerals, and as synthetic materials. Given their ubiquity, the contamination of inorganic oxyanions in drinking water is a national problem as 26 states and Puerto Rico have reported high concentrations of these harmful pollutants. The goals achieved by this research was to catalytically reduce oxyanions utilizing sustainable earth abundant catalysts featuring bio-inspired ligands. This worked allowed us to gain fundamental insights into what dictates the reduction/reactivity for these anions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

1 × 1 km maps of abundances of eight enzyme functional classes for soil C, N, and P cycling across the CONUS

This dataset includes eight 1 × 1 km maps of the abundances of eight enzyme functional classes (EFC) for soil C, N, and P cycling across the CONUS. These mappings are predicted by the machine learning model trained using metagenomics and the corresponding environmental data. This item corresponds to our article: Fan, C., Song, Y., Mishra, U., Gautam, S., & Mayes, M. A. (2025). Harnessing the Power of Machine Learning and Omics to Identify Environmental Regulation on Microbial Functional Composition for Soil C, N, and P Cycling. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 130(10).

1 × 1 km↗

SPRUCE 13C-Phospholipid Fatty Acid (13C-PLFA) Abundances, June 2014-June 2015

This data set provides the results of 13C phospholipid fatty acid analysis (13C-PLFA) of peat samples collected from ambient and experimental plots in the SPRUCE experiment site. The samples used to generate this data set were collected just prior to initiation of deep peat heating (DPH; 03 June 2014), after 3 months (09 September 2014), and after 10 months (16 June 2015). This data set includes the abundances and delta-13C isotopic signatures of individual lipids and of groups of lipids indicating total biomass, fungi, Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, actinomycetes, and anaerobic bacteria. This dataset contains two files in comma separate (*.csv) format. Cores extending to 250 cm (200 cm in June 2015) were collected and subsampled at 10 cm intervals from 0 and 100 cm and 25 cm intervals below 100 cm depth. During the lipid extraction procedure, samples were pooled into the following depth increments in order to obtain sufficient material to achieve adequate lipid yield: 0-20, 20-50, 50-100, 100-150, 150-200, and 200-250cm.

actinomycetes↗

SPRUCE Phospholipid Fatty Acid (PLFA) Abundances, August 2021-June 2022

This data set provides the results for phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) of peat samples collected from ambient plots in the SPRUCE experiment site, with experimental plot samples still being processed. The samples used to generate this data set were collected on 2021-08-23 and 2022-06-21. This data set includes abundances for groups of lipids indicating total biomass, fungi, Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, actinomycetes, and anaerobic bacteria. This data set contains one file in comma separate (*.csv) format. Samples: On each sampling date, cores extending to 200 cm were collected and subsampled at 10 cm intervals from 0 and 100 cm and 25 cm intervals below 100 cm depth in Plot 7 and 21. During the lipid extraction procedure, samples were pooled into the following depth increments in order to obtain sufficient material to achieve adequate lipid yield: 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-50, 50-100, and 100-150, and 150-200 cm.

actinomycetes↗

Microbial Community Field Surveys Reveal Abundant Pseudomonas Population in Sorghum Rhizosphere Composed of Many Closely Related Phylotypes

While the root-associated microbiome is typically less diverse than the surrounding soil due to both plant selection and microbial competition for plant derived resources, it typically retains considerable complexity, harboring many hundreds of distinct bacterial species. Here, we report a time-dependent deviation from this trend in the rhizospheres of field grown sorghum. In this study, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was used to determine the impact of nitrogen fertilization on the development of the root-associated microbiomes of 10 sorghum genotypes grown in eastern Nebraska. We observed that early rhizosphere samples exhibit a significant reduction in overall diversity due to a high abundance of the bacterial genus Pseudomonas that occurred independent of host genotype in both high and low nitrogen fields and was not observed in the surrounding soil or associated root endosphere samples. When clustered at 97% identity, nearly all the Pseudomonas reads in this dataset were assigned to a single operational taxonomic unit (OTU); however, exact sequence variant (ESV)-level resolution demonstrated that this population comprised a large number of distinct Pseudomonas lineages. Furthermore, single-molecule long-read sequencing enabled high-resolution taxonomic profiling revealing further heterogeneity in the Pseudomonas lineages that was further confirmed using shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Finally, field soil enriched with specific carbon compounds recapitulated the increase in Pseudomonas, suggesting a possible connection between the enrichment of these Pseudomonas species and a plant-driven exudate profile.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

An Abundant and Diverse New Family of Electron Bifurcating Enzymes With a Non-canonical Catalytic Mechanism

Microorganisms utilize electron bifurcating enzymes in metabolic pathways to carry out thermodynamically unfavorable reactions. Bifurcating FeFe-hydrogenases (HydABC) reversibly oxidize NADH (E′∼−280 mV, under physiological conditions) and reduce protons to H 2 gas (E°′−414 mV) by coupling this endergonic reaction to the exergonic reduction of protons by reduced ferredoxin (Fd) (E′∼−500 mV). We show here that HydABC homologs are surprisingly ubiquitous in the microbial world and are represented by 57 phylogenetically distinct clades but only about half are FeFe-hydrogenases. The others have replaced the hydrogenase domain with another oxidoreductase domain or they contain additional subunits, both of which enable various third reactions to be reversibly coupled to NAD + and Fd reduction. We hypothesize that all of these enzymes carry out electron bifurcation and that their third substrates can include hydrogen peroxide, pyruvate, carbon monoxide, aldehydes, aryl-CoA thioesters, NADP + , cofactor F 420 , formate, and quinones, as well as many yet to be discovered. Some of the enzymes are proposed to be integral membrane-bound proton-translocating complexes. These different functionalities are associated with phylogenetically distinct clades and in many cases with specific microbial phyla. We propose that this new and abundant class of electron bifurcating enzyme be referred to as the Bfu family whose defining feature is a conserved bifurcating BfuBC core. This core contains FMN and six iron sulfur clusters and it interacts directly with ferredoxin (Fd) and NAD(H). Electrons to or from the third substrate are fed into the BfuBC core via BfuA. The other three known families of electron bifurcating enzyme (abbreviated as Nfn, EtfAB, and HdrA) contain a special FAD that bifurcates electrons to high and low potential pathways. The Bfu family are proposed to use a different electron bifurcation mechanism that involves a combination of FMN and three adjacent iron sulfur clusters, including a novel [2Fe-2S] cluster with pentacoordinate and partial non-Cys coordination. The absolute conservation of the redox cofactors of BfuBC in all members of the Bfu enzyme family indicate they have the same non-canonical mechanism to bifurcate electrons. A hypothetical catalytic mechanism is proposed as a basis for future spectroscopic analyses of Bfu family members.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Beyond microbial abundance: metadata integration enhances disease prediction in human microbiome studies

Multiple studies have highlighted the interaction of the human microbiome with physiological systems such as the gut, immune, liver, and skin, via key axes. Advances in sequencing technologies and high-performance computing have enabled the analysis of large-scale metagenomic data, facilitating the use of machine learning to predict disease likelihood from microbiome profiles. However, challenges such as compositionality, high dimensionality, sparsity, and limited sample sizes have hindered the development of actionable models. One strategy to improve these models is by incorporating key metadata from both the human host and sample collection/processing protocols. This remains challenging due to sparsity and inconsistency in metadata annotation and availability. In this paper, we introduce a machine learning-based pipeline for predicting human disease states by integrating host and protocol metadata with microbiome abundance profiles from 68 different studies, processed through a consistent pipeline. Our findings indicate that metadata can enhance machine learning predictions, particularly at higher taxonomic ranks like Kingdom and Phylum, though this effect diminishes at lower ranks. Our study leverages a large collection of microbiome datasets comprising 11,208 samples, therefore enhancing the robustness and statistical confidence of our findings. This work is a critical step toward utilizing microbiome and metadata for predicting diseases such as gastrointestinal infections, diabetes, cancer, and neurological disorders.

Mathematics and Computing↗

The K2 Galactic Archaeology Program Data Release 3: Age-abundance Patterns in C1–C8 and C10–C18

We present the third and final data release of the K2 Galactic Archaeology Program (K2 GAP) for Campaigns C1–C8 and C10–C18. We provide asteroseismic radius and mass coefficients, κ R and κ M , for ~19,000 red giant stars, which translate directly to radius and mass given a temperature. As such, K2 GAP DR3 represents the largest asteroseismic sample in the literature to date. K2 GAP DR3 stellar parameters are calibrated to be on an absolute parallactic scale based on Gaia DR2, with red giant branch and red clump evolutionary state classifications provided via a machine-learning approach. Combining these stellar parameters with GALAH DR3 spectroscopy, we determine asteroseismic ages with precisions of ~20%–30% and compare age-abundance relations to Galactic chemical evolution models among both low- and high-α populations for α, light, iron-peak, and neutron-capture elements. We confirm recent indications in the literature of both increased Ba production at late Galactic times as well as significant contributions to r-process enrichment from prompt sources associated with, e.g., core-collapse supernovae. With an eye toward other Galactic archeology applications, we characterize K2 GAP DR3 uncertainties and completeness using injection tests, suggesting that K2 GAP DR3 is largely unbiased in mass/age, with uncertainties of 2.9% (stat.) ± 0.1% (syst.) and 6.7% (stat.) ± 0.3% (syst.) in κ R and κ M for red giant branch stars and 4.7% (stat.) ± 0.3% (syst.) and 11% (stat.) ± 0.9% (syst.) for red clump stars. We also identify percent-level asteroseismic systematics, which are likely related to the time baseline of the underlying data, and which therefore should be considered in TESS asteroseismic analysis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Determination of Sodium Abundance Ratio from Low-resolution Stellar Spectra and Its Applications

We present a method to determine sodium abundance ratios ([Na/Fe]) using the Na i D doublet lines in low-resolution (R ~ 2000) stellar spectra. As stellar Na i D lines are blended with those produced by the interstellar medium, we developed a technique for removing the interstellar Na I D lines using the relationship between extinction, which is proportional to E(B – V), and the equivalent width of the interstellar Na i D absorption lines. When measuring [Na/Fe], we also considered corrections for nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) effects. Comparisons with data from high-resolution spectroscopic surveys suggest that the expected precision of [Na/Fe] from low-resolution spectra is better than 0.3 dex for stars with [Fe/H] > –3.0. We also present a simple application employing the estimated [Na/Fe] values for a large number of stellar spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). After classifying the SDSS stars into Na-normal, Na-high, and Na-extreme, we explore their relation to stars in Galactic globular clusters (GCs). We find that while the Na-high SDSS stars exhibit a similar metallicity distribution function (MDF) to that of the GCs, indicating that the majority of such stars may have originated from GC debris, the MDF of the Na-normal SDSS stars follows that of typical disk and halo stars. As there is a high fraction of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars among the Na-extreme stars, they may have a non-GC origin, perhaps due to mass-transfer events from evolved binary companions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The Galaxy–Halo Connection of DESI Luminous Red Galaxies with Subhalo Abundance Matching

Abstract We use subhalo abundance and age distribution matching to create magnitude-limited mock galaxy catalogs at z ∼ 0.43, 0.52, and 0.63 with z -band and 3.4 μ m W 1-band absolute magnitudes and r − z and r − W 1 colors. From these magnitude-limited mocks, we select mock luminous red galaxy (LRG) samples according to the ( r − z )-based (optical) and ( r − W 1)-based (infrared) selection criteria for the LRG sample of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey. Our models reproduce the number densities, luminosity functions, color distributions, and projected clustering of the DESI Legacy Surveys that are the basis for DESI LRG target selection. We predict the halo occupation statistics of both optical and IR DESI LRGs at fixed cosmology and assess the differences between the two LRG samples. We find that IR-based SHAM modeling represents the differences between the optical and IR LRG populations better than using the z band and that age distribution matching overpredicts the clustering of LRGs, implying that galaxy color is uncorrelated with halo age in the LRG regime. Both the optical and IR DESI LRG target selections exclude some of the most luminous galaxies that would appear to be LRGs based on their position on the red sequence in optical color–magnitude space. Both selections also yield populations with a nontrivial LRG–halo connection that does not reach unity for the most massive halos. We find that the IR selection achieves greater completeness (≳90%) than the optical selection across all redshift bins studied.

Berti, Angela M. (ORCID:0000000335826649)↗