Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “fractionalization”

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 613 records · Page 34

Biogenic uranium isotope fractionation [Slides]

Presentation Outline: Background and relevance; Project objectives; Tasks and timeline; Current Activities (Task 1: Controlled culture growth, Task 2: Enzymatic reduction of uranium oxides, Task 3: Cellular location of uranium reduction and precipitation); Future work; Achievements

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

A Bacterial Form I’ Rubisco Has a Smaller Carbon Isotope Fractionation than Its Form I Counterpart

Form I rubiscos evolved in Cyanobacteria ≥ 2.5 billion years ago and are enzymatically unique due to the presence of small subunits (RbcS) capping both ends of an octameric large subunit (RbcL) rubisco assembly to form a hexadecameric (L 8 S 8 ) holoenzyme. Although RbcS was previously thought to be integral to Form I rubisco stability, the recent discovery of a closely related sister clade of octameric rubiscos (Form I’; L 8 ) demonstrates that the L 8 complex can assemble without small subunits (Banda et al. 2020). Rubisco also displays a kinetic isotope effect (KIE) where the 3PG product is depleted in 13 C relative to 12 C. In Cyanobacteria, only two Form I KIE measurements exist, making interpretation of bacterial carbon isotope data difficult. To aid comparison, we measured in vitro the KIEs of Form I’ (Candidatus Promineofilum breve) and Form I (Synechococcus elongatus PCC 6301) rubiscos and found the KIE to be smaller in the L 8 rubisco (16.25 ± 1.36‰ vs. 22.42 ± 2.37‰, respectively). Therefore, while small subunits may not be necessary for protein stability, they may affect the KIE. Our findings may provide insight into the function of RbcS and allow more refined interpretation of environmental carbon isotope data.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

The stable carbon isotope fractionation of methanogenesis products at complete carbon consumption

The stable carbon isotope signature (δ 13 C) of methane (CH 4 ) is used to discriminate between biological, thermogenic, and abiotic sources. Methanogens, or methane producing archaea, inhabit a broad range of chemical conditions. Many of these environments are replete in dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), causing isotopically depleted δ 13 C biogenic CH 4 . However, some extreme environments inhabited by methanogens, such as serpentinising systems, exhibit low carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) availability, replete H 2 , and isotopically enriched δ 13 C CH 4 that is outside the known biogenic range. We measured the δ 13 C of CO 2 , biomass, lipids, and CH 4 during hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis under hydrogen replete conditions with a limited carbon pool to investigate carbon isotope dynamics at complete DIC consumption. As theory predicts, we found that the final, accumulated methane δ 13 C values closely reflect the δ 13 C of the initial DIC supply, and that methane is more 13 C enriched than biomass and lipids. This provides the first experimental evidence that methanogens can achieve complete carbon consumption and thus can produce accumulated CH 4 products that isotopically reflect the initial CO 2 . These data show that the range of possible δ 13 C values from biogenic methane needs to be expanded for natural environments impacted by extreme carbon limitation.

biomass↗

Optical Evidence of Compositional Fractioning between Plasma‐Condensed and Melt Pool Matter

Control of multicomponent alloys during welding is challenging because it lacks a real‐time understanding of composition. The optical emissions of plasma formed during laser‐induced metal welding correlate with the composition of particles ejected from the melt pool. Plasma emissions observed in this study contain large iron, manganese, chrome, and copper signatures, which match the composition of emitted particles. Particles recovered closest to the melt pool exhibit a core–shell morphology that is composed of iron‐manganese‐chrome intermetallic cores within copper shells. Particles collected farther from the melt pool, do not share this core–shell morphology, though similar elemental compositions are observed. The correlation between plasma optical emissions and particle composition can be used to predict the composition of the melt pool, allowing for real‐time welding and sintering control.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Mapping of Texture and Phase Fractions in Heterogeneous Stress States during Multiaxial Loading of Biomedical Superelastic NiTi

Thermoelastic deformation mechanisms in polycrystalline biomedical-grade superelastic NiTi are spatially mapped using in situ neutron diffraction during multiaxial loading and heating. The trigonal R-phase is formed from the cubic phase during cooling to room temperature and subsequently deforms in compression, tension, and torsion. The resulting R-phase variant microstructure from the variant reorientation and detwinning processes are equivalent for the corresponding strain in tension and compression, and the variant microstructure is reversible by isothermal loading. The R-phase variant microstructure is consistent between uniaxial and torsional loading when the principal stress directions of the stress state are considered (for the crystallographic directions observed here). The variant microstructure evolution is tracked and the similarity in general behavior between uniaxial and torsional loading, in spite of the implicit heterogeneous stress state associated with torsional loading, pointed to the ability of the reversible thermoelastic transformation in NiTi to accommodate stress and strain mismatch with deformation. This ability of the R-phase, despite its limited variants, to accommodate stress and strain and satisfy strain incompatibility in addition to the existing internal stresses has significance for reducing irrecoverable deformation mechanisms during loading and cycling through the phase transformation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Influence of TMAO as co-solvent on the gelation of silica-PNIPAm core-shell nanogels at intermediate volume fractions

We study the structure and dynamics of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) core-shell nanogels dispersed in aqueous trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) solutions by means of smallangle X-ray scattering and X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS). Upon increasing the temperature above the lower critical solution temperature of PNIPAm at 33°C, a colloidal gel is formed as identified by an increase of I(q) at small q as well as a slowing down of sample dynamics by various orders of magnitude. With increasing TMAO concentration the gelation transition shifts linearly to lower temperatures. Above a TMAO concentration of approximately 0.40 mol/L corresponding to a 1:1 ratio of TMAO and NIPAm groups, collapsed PNIPAm states are found for all temperatures without any gelation transition. This suggests that reduction of PNIPAm-water hydrogen bonds due to the presence of TMAO results in a stabilisation of the collapsed PNIPAm state and suppresses gelation of the nanogel.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Measurements of branching fractions and asymmetry parameters of $ {\Xi}_c^0\to \Lambda {\overline{K}}^{\ast 0} $, $ {\Xi}_c^0\to {\Sigma}^0{\overline{K}}^{\ast 0} $, and $ {\Xi}_c^0\to {\Sigma}^{+}{K}^{\ast -} $ decays at Belle

Using a data sample of 980 fb -1 collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e + e - collider, we study the processes of ${\Xi}_c^0\to \Lambda {\overline{K}}^{\ast 0}$, ${\Xi}_c^0\to {\Sigma}^0{\overline{K}}^{\ast 0}$, and ${\Xi}_c^0\to {\Sigma}^{+}{K}^{\ast -}$ for the first time. The relative branching ratios to the normalization mode of ${\Xi}_c^0\to {\Xi}^{-}{\pi}^{+}$ are measured to be ${\displaystyle \begin{array}{c}\mathcal{B}\left({\Xi}_c^0\to \Lambda {\overline{K}}^{\ast 0}\right)/\mathcal{B}\left({\Xi}_c^0\to {\Xi}^{-}{\pi}^{+}\right)=0.18\pm 0.02\left(\mathrm{stat}.\right)\pm 0.01\left(\mathrm{syst}.\right),\\ {}\mathcal{B}\left({\Xi}_c^0\to {\Sigma}^0{\overline{K}}^{\ast 0}\right)/\mathcal{B}\left({\Xi}_c^0\to {\Xi}^{-}{\pi}^{+}\right)=0.69\pm 0.03\left(\mathrm{stat}.\right)\pm 0.03\left(\mathrm{syst}.\right),\\ {}\mathcal{B}\left({\Xi}_c^0\to {\Sigma}^{+}{K}^{\ast -}\right)/\mathcal{B}\left({\Xi}_c^0\to {\Xi}^{-}{\pi}^{+}\right)=0.34\pm 0.06\left(\mathrm{stat}.\right)\pm 0.02\left(\mathrm{syst}.\right),\end{array}}$ where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. We obtain ${\displaystyle \begin{array}{c}\mathcal{B}\left({\Xi}_c^0\to \Lambda {\overline{K}}^{\ast 0}\right)=\left(3.3\pm 0.3\left(\mathrm{stat}.\right)\pm 0.2\left(\mathrm{syst}.\right)\pm 1.0\left(\mathrm{ref}.\right)\right)\times {10}^{-3},\\ {}\mathcal{B}\left({\Xi}_c^0\to {\Sigma}^0{\overline{K}}^{\ast 0}\right)=\left(12.4\pm 0.5\left(\mathrm{stat}.\right)\pm 0.5\left(\mathrm{syst}.\right)\pm 3.6\left(\mathrm{ref}.\right)\right)\times {10}^{-3},\\ {}\mathcal{B}\left({\Xi}_c^0\to {\Sigma}^{+}{K}^{\ast 0}\right)=\left(6.1\pm 1.0\left(\mathrm{stat}.\right)\pm 0.4\left(\mathrm{syst}.\right)\pm 1.8\left(\mathrm{ref}.\right)\right)\times {10}^{-3},\end{array}}$ where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and from $\mathcal{B}\left({\Xi}_c^0\to {\Xi}^{-}{\pi}^{+}\right)$, respectively. The asymmetry parameters $\alpha \left({\Xi}_c^0\to \Lambda {\overline{K}}^{\ast 0}\right)$ and $\alpha \left({\Xi}_c^0\to {\Sigma}^{+}{K}^{\ast -}\right)$ are 0.15 ± 0.22(stat.) ± 0.04(syst.) and -0.52 ± 0.30(stat.) ± 0.02(syst.), respectively, where the uncertainties are statistical followed by systematic.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗