Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “SPARCS”

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

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 235 records · Page 13

STPR 04 Milestone 6 Report.

This report documents the completion of milestone STPRO4-6 Kokkos Support for ASC applications and libraries. The team provided consultation and support for numerous ASC code projects including Sandias SPARC, EMPIRE, Aria, GEMMA, Alexa, Trilinos, LAMMPS and nimbleSM. Over the year more than 350 Kokkos github issues were resolved, with over 220 requiring fixes and enhancements to the code base. Resolving these requests, with many of them issued by ASC code teams, provided applications with the necessary capabilities in Kokkos to be successful.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Model Reduction for Compressible Cavity Simulations Towards Uncertainty Quantification of Structural Loading

This report summarizes FY16 progress towards enabling uncertainty quantification for compressible cavity simulations using model order reduction (MOR). The targeted application is the quantification of the captive-carry environment for the design and qualification of nuclear weapons systems. To accurately simulate this scenario, Large Eddy Simulations (LES) require very fine meshes and long run times, which lead to week-long runs even on parallel state-of-the-art super- computers. MOR can reduce substantially the CPU-time requirement for these simulations. We describe two approaches for model order reduction for nonlinear systems, which can yield significant speed-ups when combined with hyper-reduction: the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD)/Galerkin approach and the POD/Least-Squares Petrov Galerkin (LSPG) approach. The implementation of these methods within the in-house compressible flow solver SPARC is discussed. Next, a method for stabilizing and enhancing low-dimensional reduced bases that was developed as a part of this project is detailed. This approach is based on a premise termed "minimal subspace rotation", and has the advantage of yielding ROMs that are more stable and accurate for long-time compressible cavity simulations. Numerical results for some laminar cavity problems aimed at gauging the viability of the proposed model reduction methodologies are presented and discussed.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Design Installation and Operation of the Vortex ART Platform

ATS platforms are some of the largest, most complex, and most expensive computer systems installed in the United States at just a few major national laboratories. This milestone describes our recent efforts to procure, install, and test a machine called Vortex at Sandia National Laboratories that is compatible with the larger ATS platform Sierra at LLNL. In this milestone, we have 1) configured and procured a machine with similar hardware characteristics as Sierra ATS, 2) installed the machine, verified its physical hardware, and measured its baseline performance, and 3) demonstrated the machine's compatibility with Sierra ATS, and capacity for useful development and testing of Sandia computer codes (such as SPARC), including uses such as nightly regression testing workloads.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Site Preparation Integration and Operation of Mini-Sierra ART System

ATS platforms are some of the largest, most complex, and most expensive computer systems installed in the United States at just a few major national laboratories. This milestone describes our recent efforts to procure, install, and test a machine called Vortex at Sandia National Laboratories that is compatible with the larger ATS platform Sierra at LLNL. In this milestone, we have 1) configured and procured a machine with similar hardware characteristics as Sierra ATS, 2) installed the machine, verified its physical hardware, and measured its baseline performance, and 3) demonstrated the machine’s compatibility with Sierra ATS, and capacity for useful development and testing of Sandia computer codes (such as SPARC), including uses such as nightly regression testing workloads.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Data Services for Visualization and Analysis - ASC Level II Milestone (7186)

A new in transit Data Service is presented and compared to the traditional file-based workflow and the newly refactored in situ Catalyst workflow. Each workflow is enabled by the IOSS mesh interface equipped with data management layers for Exodus and CGNS (file-based), Catalyst (in situ), and FAODEL (in transit). FAODEL is a distributed object store that can transmit data across MPI allocations. Catalyst is a Para View-based visualization capability developed as part of the CSSE Data Services effort. The workflows considered here take SPARC data into Catalyst for visualization post-processing. Although still in unoptimized form, we show that the in transit approach is a viable alternative to file-based and in situ workflows and offers several advantages to both simulation and post-processing developers. Since IOSS is a mature interface with wide adoption across Sandia and externally, each workflow can be reconfigured to use different simulations that generate mesh data and post-processing tools that consume it.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Progress Towards a Titanium-Zirconium-Molybdenum Alloy Coreblock Prototype Using Powder Bed Fusion

Microreactor designs make use of a coreblock for structural stability allowing for these devices to provide powder generation while being portable and inherently safe. In order to maximize energy output of the microreactors, materials must be able to withstand high temperature without melting and without substantial decreases in mechanical properties. As simultaneous projects looking at steels, graphite, and other materials are on-going, this work package will investigate titanium – zirconium – molybdenum alloy (TZM) as it allows for potentially higher microreactor operating temperatures than traditional reactor materials such as stainless steel. Notably, this alloy was developed in the 1960s for use in rockets and has a very high melting point (2623°C) but is difficult to form, machine and join. With limited needs in aerospace, literature is appropriately sparce in looking at the AM of TZM (examples include [1,2]). However, the properties appear to be an excellent match for the needs of the microreactor coreblock leading to the current project. In addition, small washers form the bulk of TZM parts needed in aerospace while the microreactor community was looking at larger, more complex parts. Therefore, AM of TZM is being explored to enable near – net shape of components with the needed complexity to impact the nuclear energy field.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Comprehensive uncertainty quantification (UQ) for full engineering models by solving probability density function (PDF) equation

This report details a new method for propagating parameter uncertainty (forward uncertainty quantification) in partial differential equations (PDE) based computational mechanics applications. The method provides full-field quantities of interest by solving for the joint probability density function (PDF) equations which are implied by the PDEs with uncertain parameters. Full-field uncertainty quantification enables the design of complex systems where quantities of interest, such as failure points, are not known apriori. The method, motivated by the well-known probability density function (PDF) propagation method of turbulence modeling, uses an ensemble of solutions to provide the joint PDF of desired quantities at every point in the domain. A small subset of the ensemble is computed exactly, and the remainder of the samples are computed with approximation of the driving (dynamics) term of the PDEs based on those exact solutions. Although the proposed method has commonalities with traditional interpolatory stochastic collocation methods applied directly to quantities of interest, it is distinct and exploits the parameter dependence and smoothness of the dynamics term of the governing PDEs. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated by applying it to two target problems: solid mechanics explicit dynamics with uncertain material model parameters, and reacting hypersonic fluid mechanics with uncertain chemical kinetic rate parameters. A minimally invasive implementation of the method for representative codes SPARC (reacting hypersonics) and NimbleSM (finite- element solid mechanics) and associated software details are described. For solid mechanics demonstration problems the method shows order of magnitudes improvement in accuracy over traditional stochastic collocation. For the reacting hypersonics problem, the method is implemented as a streamline integration and results show very good accuracy for the approximate sample solutions of re-entry flow past the Apollo capsule geometry at Mach 30.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Machine learning assisted prediction of tungsten heavy alloy plasma facing component performance for fusion energy applications

Tungsten and tungsten heavy alloys (WHAs), known for their remarkably high hardness, durability, and corrosion resistance, play a critical role in the thriving development of nuclear fusion reactors in recent years. However, the exploration in tungsten alloys for the nuclear-related applications has been limited by the difficulty of manufacturing and the complexity of experiments to reproduce the environment of nuclear reaction. Therefore, this project aims to utilize nanoscale simulation methods such as density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) with the help of machine learning techniques to not only understand the mechanisms of tungsten alloys but also allow us to computationally predict their mechanical behaviors under extreme environments. One critical problem of the application of WHAs in nuclear reactors is the surface melting. In the current design of the SPARC reactor, the WHA, W97Ni2.1Fe0.9 or W97NiFe, is chosen to be the first wall components to confine the plasma where the particles are fiercely moving and colliding into each other to create nuclear fusion reaction. This process will generate extremely high heat flux onto these WHA tiles, leaving high surface temperature that could possibly melt the surface of the WHA tiles, As illustrated in Fig. 1(a). a laser experiment previously done illustrates that a rough surface damage would be made after the surface melting where the matrix area mainly composed of nickel and iron as shown in Fig. 1(b), will first melt and then leave vacancies between these tungsten grains. Unfortunately, these kinds of roughness on the first-wall components could be deadly to the plasma inside a Tokmak reactor because the heat that is supposed to dissipate at a designed ratio through the tiles may in turn be excessively absorbed and accumulated on any uneven area of the surface, which will eventually make the whole nuclear reaction fail. In this project, we will introduce a machine learning potential, Allegro, based on DFT calculation and then build a MD model for W-Ni-Fe alloys.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Advanced Laboratory and Field Arrays (ALFA)/Lab Collaboration Project (LCP) for Marine Energy (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

The objective of the Advanced Laboratory and Field Arrays (ALFA) project was to reduce the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) energy by leveraging research, development, and testing capabilities at Oregon State University, University of Washington, and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. ALFA is a project within the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC; formerly NNMREC), a multi-institution entity with a diverse funding base that focuses on research and development for marine renewables. The ALFA project aimed to accelerate the development of next-generation arrays of wave energy conversion (WEC) and tidal energy conversion (TEC) devices through a suite of field-focused R&D activities spanning a broad range of strategic opportunity areas identified in the Funding Opportunity Announcement: • Device and/or array operation and maintenance (O&M) logistics development; • High-fidelity resource characterization and/or modeling technique development and validation; • Array-specific component technology development (e.g. moorings and foundations, transmission, and other offshore grid components); • Array performance testing and evaluation; and • Novel cost-effective environmental monitoring techniques and instrumentation testing and evaluation. The objective of the Lab Collaboration Project (LCP) was to accelerate the development of next-generation marine energy conversion systems. The LCP aimed to achieve these project objectives in collaboration with the national laboratories by: • Developing concept generation and assessment tools; • Improving access to existing testing resources; • Validating collision risk models between fish and turbines; and • Advancing analysis and simulation capabilities for wave-WEC interactions and PTO analysis in nonlinear ocean waves. The ALFA portion of the project was comprised of six overarching technical tasks: • Task 1: Debris Modeling, Detection and Mitigation; • Task 2: Autonomous Monitoring & Intervention; • Task 3: Resource Characterization for Extreme Conditions; • Task 4: Robust Models for Design of Offshore Anchoring and Mooring Systems; • Task 5: Performance Enhancement for Marine Energy Converter (MEC) Arrays; and • Task 6: Evaluating Sampling Techniques for MHK Biological Monitoring. The LCP was divided into four overarching technical tasks: • Task 7: Project Management and Reporting • Task 8: Novel Design and Assessment Methodologies for Wave Energy Converter Design (Wave- SPARC) • Task 9: Testing Access for Commercial Marine Renewable Energy Technology Developers • Task 10: Quantifying Collision Risk for Fish and Turbines • Task 11: Nonlinear Ocean Waves and PTO Control Strategy Each ALFA/LCP task listed above functioned as a separate and discreet project. A final Technical Report was written for each individual task and these reports were uploaded to OSTI, after receiving DOE approval. The following document is a compilation of each of these final, approved reports arranged as individual chapters.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Nested Pebble Bed Blanket (NesPeB)

Recent advances in magnetic confinement fusion technology have attracted billions of dollars of investments in startups from venture capitals and corporations, resulting in the development of devices aiming to demonstrate net energy gain in a self-heated burning plasma, such as SPARC (under construction) and others. However, future fusion power plants must operate in regimes that will require technologies far beyond current experience. According to a National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine report, to have nuclear fusion power plants contributing in a timely manner to the planned reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a pilot plant should be built by 2035, and it should demonstrate fusion power production and the performance of the tritium fuel system (requiring a high enough tritium breeding) by 2040. A recognized key technology gap by [26] is the fusion first wall and blanket since no current blanket concept is considered satisfactory or has been built and proven. The first wall and blanket in magnetic fusion reactors form a vital and complex system, as it must satisfy different functions such as power extraction, tritium breeding, plasma containment, radiation shielding, and safety. The list of design requirements is even longer: high enough tritium production for fusion self-sufficiency, low material activation, decay heat and shutdown dose rates, high thermal efficiency, high-capacity factor, high magnets-divertor-vacuum vessel-first wall life, low corrosion, low cost, and intrinsically safe (requiring minimal licensing). Despite fifty-plus years of research, the first wall and blanket concepts proposed suffer from fundamental technical problems and immaturity (TRL=2-3) that jeopardize the timely delivery of a commercial fusion power plant. A fusion first-wall blanket has never been built nor tested, and a "winning", practical functioning design requires enough engineering margins (high enough tritium breeding considering the uncertainty, etc.), manufacturing simplicity, ease of continuous operation, maintenance, and low cost. A new, groundbreaking blanket concept called "Nested Pebble Bed Blanket" (NesPeB) was developed at ORNL under the successful ARPA-E GAMOW FERMI project (patent application allowed by the USPTO). The NesPeB blanket concept addresses current blanket concepts' shortcomings and technical immaturity, paving the way for accelerated delivery of fusion power plants. NesPeB is based on nested pebbles, which are binary-sized lithium-ceramic pebbles enclosed in "Beryllide" perforated and coated spherical shells, which are also binary-sized, stacked on top of each other, forming a "bed" and cooled by Nitrogen gas also "sweeping" the Helium and Tritium generated by the neutron irradiation of Lithium; the vacuum vessel plasma facing material is Molybdenum-96 and -97 with the first wall cooled by Helium while the divertor armor is made of Tungsten. The simulations of the NesPeB blanket using Fusion Reactors Models Integrator (FERMI) are encouraging as they estimate a tritium breeding ratio (TBR) greater than 1.2 using natural Lithium, acceptable pressure drop, and excellent heat transfer properties. Furthermore, the NesPeB blanket is not limited by magneto-hydro-dynamics (MHD) effects, is designed for online refueling, relies on existing tritium extraction technologies, has a simple construction, and limits the corrosion and chemical reactivity problems. NesPeB has the potential to be transformational and disruptive since it can solve all the main, challenging technical problems of fusion device blankets and accelerate a pilot plant delivery for 10 or more years.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Project Title: Demonstration High Temperature Superconducting NonPlanar Stellarator Magnet with Advanced Manufactured Assemblies

This is the final report for the project “Demonstration High Temperature Superconducting Non- Planar Stellarator Magnet with Advanced Manufactured Assemblies”, funded by DOE, and performed by Type One Energy from September, 2020, to March 2024 involving the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to design and fabricate the first non-planar HTS (REBCO) coil for a high-field stellarator based on the SPARC tokamak’s VIPER cable concept. Stellarators at high fields make high-temperature superconducting magnets necessary for a compact fusion device. But the asymmetric and non-planar nature of its components, especially the magnets make it difficult for scalable producibility. To address these challenges, two promising technologies have emerged: advanced manufacturing (AM) for the supporting plates for forming the magnets, and high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables inside the plates. AM has advanced enough to produce stellarator components with the necessary geometric complexity, size, and the precision, leading to potentially significant reductions in production time, cost, and waste. The cost of HTS tape has decreased dramatically, and progress in HTS planar magnet development has reached a point where it can be proposed for application to complex 3D non-planar magnets. The main objective of this project is to develop, demonstrate and pre-commercialize a novel, non-planar HTS coil shape that remains superconducting to achieve production scalable reductions in time and cost and performance. The proposed technology is based on the novel concept of a precision sub-scale HTS nonplanar coil assembly. This project focuses on the design, fabrication, material optimization of cable design, and validation and demonstration of the high current carrying capability of superconducting magnets and their support in a complex 3D shape needed for application to stellarator magnetic plasma confinement. The specific objectives of this research program include: (1) The successful application of metal AM to build a precision sub-scale HTS nonplanar coil, (2) An HTS cable and cross-section design that can conform to the required nonplanar coil shape (bend radii as tight as 10-cm) and remains superconducting at an engineering current density of 1.35 kA/cm 2 at 77 K and 1 tesla at the conductor (5 kA in the cable). To achieve the above challenging goals, we have formed a multidisciplinary research team consisting of members from Type One Energy and UW-Madison, MIT PSFC and CFS with complementary skills and strong facilities. The team worked collaboratively on fundamental and applied research on the following three major technical areas: (1) Design, fabrication, and optimization of non-planar HTS Cable The ultimate goal of the project is to determine if commercial REBCO tapes and additive manufacturing can be used to fabricate high field (≥ 10T) non-planar coils with tight bending radii (≃ 100mm) and with a degradation of the critical current (Ic) smaller than 20% with respect to the expected performance. We started with shorter length cable to evaluate the scalability of the production process and eventually reached multiple turns for higher magnetic fields. Our findings suggest that a stellarator coil system of a relevant size, characterized by its asymmetric and non-planar components, can be fabricated using a formed cable in plate method. This system can be simulated using a large-scale modeling approach. The use of hybrid modeling 3 techniques will be pivotal in reducing the complexity of the model and in assessing expected performance in designs. (2) Modeling and simulation of the non-planar HTS Cable Multiphysics simulations are performed using the commercial software and are carried out in self-field conditions, involving 2D and 3D models and twisted around one slot of twist-pitched VIPER cable. Multiphysics simulations are mainly focused on the coil for the critical current evaluation, the magnetic field map, self-Lorentz forces and mechanical, and magnetothermal behavior and the quench dynamics. The detailed model and prediction of the superconducting performance of a stellarator-relevant demonstration cable from numerical simulations supports the results from the actual testing backing the results. A detailed description and results are provided in the later sections. (3) Design, fabrication, and optimization of support for the non-planar HTS Cable The team developed an additive manufactured (AM) coil positioning plate that formed into the required non-planar geometry (with bend radii as tight as 10-cm) and to acceptable tolerances required for a stellarator magnet: (+0.25-mm from ideal on dimensions of coil positioning plates and up to +1-mm from ideal for position of wound coil). The plate materials is also included in this selection process from fabrication and 3D printing perspective and commensurate with eventual application to a fusion reactor. From the cost effectiveness point of view, the HTS coil and plate has the potential to cost less than that made in conventional methods with less waste (<75% waste) reducing time (<50%) and cost (<50%), especially as the AM field matures. The application of advanced manufacturing in the construction of the support plates will also lead to cost reduction, as the cables can be easily replaced, thereby making the assembly modular. With such high primary cost and time savings, high current densities and magnetic field, the funded R&D work has validated the designs, proven the feasibility, and characterized the performance of the HTS coil and plate assembly, paving the way for a relevant-size stellarator coil system.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Proteomic Tissue-Based Classifier for Early Prediction of Prostate Cancer Progression

Although ~40% of screen-detected prostate cancers (PCa) are indolent, advanced-stage PCa is a lethal disease with 5-year survival rates around 29%. Identification of biomarkers for early detection of aggressive disease is a key challenge. Starting with 52 candidate biomarkers, selected from existing PCa genomics datasets and known PCa driver genes, we used targeted mass spectrometry to quantify proteins that significantly differed in primary tumors from PCa patients treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) across three study outcomes: (i) metastasis ≥1-year post-RP, (ii) biochemical recurrence ≥1-year post-RP, and (iii) no progression after ≥10 years post-RP. Sixteen proteins that differed significantly in an initial set of 105 samples were evaluated in the entire cohort (n = 338). A five-protein classifier which combined FOLH1, KLK3, TGFB1, SPARC, and CAMKK2 with existing clinical and pathological standard of care variables demonstrated significant improvement in predicting distant metastasis, achieving an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.92 (0.86, 0.99, p = 0.001) and a negative predictive value of 92% in the training/testing analysis. This classifier has the potential to stratify patients based on risk of aggressive, metastatic PCa that will require early intervention compared to low risk patients who could be managed through active surveillance.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Using the Baryonic Tully–Fisher Relation to Measure H{sub o}

We explore the use of the baryonic Tully–Fisher relation (bTFR) as a new distance indicator. Advances in near-IR imaging and stellar population models, plus precise rotation curves, have reduced the scatter in the bTFR such that distance is the dominant source of uncertainty. Using 50 galaxies with accurate distances from Cepheids or the tip magnitude of the red giant branch, we calibrate the bTFR on a scale independent of H {sub o}. We then apply this calibrated bTFR to 95 independent galaxies from the SPARC sample, using CosmicFlows-3 velocities, to deduce the local value of H {sub o}. We find H {sub o} = 75.1 ± 2.3 (stat) ±1.5 (sys) km s{sup −1} Mpc{sup −1}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

One Law to Rule Them All: The Radial Acceleration Relation of Galaxies

We study the link between baryons and dark matter (DM) in 240 galaxies with spatially resolved kinematic data. Our sample spans 9 dex in stellar mass and includes all morphological types. We consider (1) 153 late-type galaxies (LTGs; spirals and irregulars) with gas rotation curves from the SPARC database, (2) 25 early-type galaxies (ETGs; ellipticals and lenticulars) with stellar and H i data from ATLAS{sup 3D} or X-ray data from Chandra, and (3) 62 dwarf spheroidals (dSphs) with individual-star spectroscopy. We find that LTGs, ETGs, and “classical” dSphs follow the same radial acceleration relation: the observed acceleration (g{sub obs}) correlates with that expected from the distribution of baryons (g{sub bar}) over 4 dex. The relation coincides with the 1:1 line (no DM) at high accelerations but systematically deviates from unity below a critical scale of ∼10{sup −10} m s{sup −2}. The observed scatter is remarkably small (≲0.13 dex) and largely driven by observational uncertainties. The residuals do not correlate with any global or local galaxy property (e.g., baryonic mass, gas fraction, and radius). The radial acceleration relation is tantamount to a natural law: when the baryonic contribution is measured, the rotation curve follows, and vice versa. Including ultrafaint dSphs, the relation may extend by another 2 dex and possibly flatten at g{sub bar}≲10{sup −12} m s{sup −2}, but these data are significantly more uncertain. The radial acceleration relation subsumes and generalizes several well-known dynamical properties of galaxies, like the Tully–Fisher and Faber–Jackson relations, the “baryon-halo” conspiracies, and Renzo’s rule.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Galaxy Merger Candidates in High-redshift Cluster Environments

We compile a sample of spectroscopically and photometrically selected cluster galaxies from four high-redshift galaxy clusters (1.59<z<1.71) from the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (SpARCS), and a comparison field sample selected from the UKIDSS Deep Survey. Using near-infrared imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope, we classify potential mergers involving massive (M{sub ∗}⩾3×10{sup 10} M{sub ⊙}) cluster members by eye, based on morphological properties such as tidal distortions, double nuclei, and projected near neighbors within 20 kpc. With a catalog of 23 spectroscopic and 32 photometric massive cluster members across the four clusters and 65 spectroscopic and 26 photometric comparable field galaxies, we find that after taking into account contamination from interlopers, 11.0{sub −5.6}{sup +7.0}% of the cluster members are involved in potential mergers, compared to 24.7{sub −4.6}{sup +5.3}% of the field galaxies. We see no evidence of merger enhancement in the central cluster environment with respect to the field, suggesting that galaxy–galaxy merging is not a stronger source of galaxy evolution in cluster environments compared to the field at these redshifts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The relation between stellar and dynamical surface densities in the central regions of disk galaxies

We use the Spitzer Photometry and Accurate Rotation Curves (SPARC) database to study the relation between the central surface density of stars Σ{sub ⋆}(0) and dynamical mass Σ{sub dyn}(0) in 135 disk galaxies (S0 to dIrr). We find that Σ{sub dyn}(0) correlates tightly with Σ{sub ⋆}(0) over 4 dex. This central density relation can be described by a double power law. High surface brightness galaxies are consistent with a 1:1 relation, suggesting that they are self-gravitating and baryon dominated in the inner parts. Low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies systematically deviate from the 1:1 line, indicating that the dark matter contribution progressively increases but remains tightly coupled to the stellar one. The observed scatter is small (∼0.2 dex) and largely driven by observational uncertainties. The residuals show no correlations with other galaxy properties like stellar mass, size, or gas fraction.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Deconvolute individual genomes from metagenome sequences through short read clustering

Metagenome assembly from short next-generation sequencing data is a challenging process due to its large scale and computational complexity. Clustering short reads by species before assembly offers a unique opportunity for parallel downstream assembly of genomes with individualized optimization. However, current read clustering methods suffer either false negative (under-clustering) or false positive (over-clustering) problems. Here we extended our previous read clustering software, SpaRC, by exploiting statistics derived from multiple samples in a dataset to reduce the under-clustering problem. Using synthetic and real-world datasets we demonstrated that this method has the potential to cluster almost all of the short reads from genomes with sufficient sequencing coverage. The improved read clustering in turn leads to improved downstream genome assembly quality.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗