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At least 739 records · Page 41

Major involvement of two laccase genes in conidial pigment biosynthesis in Aspergillus oryzae

Wild-type strains of Aspergillus oryzae develop yellow, yellow-green, green, or brown conidia. Previous reports suggested that the conidiation initiates with the biosynthesis of a yellow pigment YWA1 from acetyl-CoA by a polyketide synthase encoded by wA (AO090102000545). This is followed by the conversion to other pigment by a laccase encoded by yA (AO090011000755). Based on orthologous pathways in other aspergilli, it is reasonable to hypothesize that in addition to yA, AO090102000546 encoding laccase and AO090005000332 encoding Ayg1-like hydrolase play a role in A. oryzae conidial pigment biosynthesis. However, the involvement of these two genes in conidial pigmentation remains unclear. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by assessing the conidial colors of both disruption and overexpression mutants to verify whether AO090102000546 and AO090005000332 were associated with the conidial pigmentation. Here, observation of single, double, and triple disruptants of these three genes suggested that conidial pigments were synthesized by two laccase genes, AO090011000755 and AO090102000546, whereas Ayg1-like hydrolase gene AO090005000332 was proven to have no obvious association with the synthesis. This was corroborated by observing the phenotype of each overexpression mutant. Interestingly, AO090005000332 overexpression mutant produced smoky yellow-green conidia, different from the wild-type strain. Thus, the AO090005000332-encoded protein is likely to maintain the enzymatic activity. However, the expression level was observed to be one-third of that of AO090102000546 and one-seventh of that of AO090011000755. Consequently, apparent lack of obvious contribution of AO090005000332 to conidial pigmentation could be attributed to its low expression level. Expression analysis indicated similar profiles in several wild-type strains.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Influence of O 2 / N 2 oxidizer blends on soot formation and radiative heat flux in PMMA-air 2D slab burner for understanding hybrid rocket combustion

The focus of this study is to establish a correlation between the flame to fuel incident radiative heat flux (RHF) in 1D steady-state diffusion flames to non-intrusively measured RHF in 2D slab burner experiments for a range of O 2 /N 2 oxidizer blends. Slab burner experiments are conducted for a range of increasing O 2 concentrations from 17% to 100% in the oxidizer stream. Non-intrusive two-color pyrometry is used to determine flame temperature, soot volume fraction, and flame to fuel surface RHF. Measurements and modeling confirm soot volume fraction attains a local maximum for an O 2 concentration of 45%. Low-strain diffusion flame modeling shows the reason for the local maximum is the relative location of the soot formation/nucleation fronts relative to oxidation which decreases with increasing O 2 concentration. Overall good agreement between modeling and measurements of radiative heat flux to the fuel is observed for the fuel and range of O 2 concentrations considered. Furthermore, these results demonstrate the viability of using flamelet modeling approaches for describing hybrid rocket motors.

2D slab burner↗

Multilevel peel-off patterning of a prototype semitransparent organic photovoltaic module

Semitransparent organic photovoltaics (ST-OPVs) with applications to power generating windows have shown substantial increases in power conversion efficiency (PCE) and average photopic transmission (APT) at the laboratory scale. Here, the demonstration of similarly efficient, large-scale ST-OPV modules with geometric fill factors (GFF) approaching 100%, however, remains a challenge. Here, we employ a multilevel peel-off patterning method that can achieve micron-scale resolution without exposing chemically sensitive organic materials to solvents. Eight, 4 cm × 0.4 cm cells are connected in series to realize a prototype ST-OPV module with GFF = 95.8%, with PCE = 7.3 ± 0.2% under simulated AM 1.5G illumination at 1 sun intensity, APT = 41.8 ± 1.4%, and a light utilization efficiency of LUE = 3.1 ± 0.1%. A neutral color STOPV module is also demonstrated with 1.7 ± 0.1% and International Commission on Illumination (CIE) LAB coordinates of (L*, a*, b*) = (53.7, -1.9, -3.9).

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Ultracentral Collisions of Small and Deformed Systems at RHIC

We study a range of collision systems involving deformed ions and compare the elliptic and triangular flow harmonics produced in a hydrodynamics scenario versus a color glass condensate (CGC) scenario. For the hydrodynamics scenario, we generate initial conditions using TRENTO and work within a linear response approximation to obtain the final flow harmonics. For the CGC scenario, we use the explicit calculation of two-gluon correlations taken in the high-p T “(semi)dilute-(semi)dilute” regime to express the flow harmonics in terms of the density profile of the collision. Here, we consider ultracentral collisions of deformed ions as a testbed for these comparisons because the difference between tip-on-tip and side-on-side collisions modifies the multiplicity dependence in both scenarios, even at zero impact parameter. We find significant qualitative differences in the multiplicity dependence obtained in the initial conditions+hydrodynamics scenario and the CGC scenario, allowing these collisions of deformed ions to be used as a powerful discriminator between models. We also find that sub-nucleonic fluctuations have a systematic effect on the elliptic and triangular flow harmonics which are most discriminating in 0–1% ultracentral symmetric collisions of small deformed ions and in 0–10% d197Au collisions. The collision systems we consider are 238 U 238 U, d 197 Au, 9 Be 197 Au, 9 Be 9 Be, 3 He 3 He, and 3 He 197 Au.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Coherent energy loss effects in dihadron azimuthal angular correlations in Deep Inelastic Scattering at small x

We perform an exploratory study of the role of coherent, medium-induced energy loss in azimuthal angular correlations in dihadron production in Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) at small x where the target proton/nucleus is modeled as a Color Glass Condensate. In this approach coherent radiative energy loss is part of the higher order corrections to the leading order dihadron production cross section. We include the effects of both gluon saturation and coherent radiative energy loss and show that radiative cold-matter energy loss has a significant effect on the so-called coincidence probability for the back-to-back production of dihadrons in DIS. In conclusion, we also define a double ratio of coincidence probabilities for a nucleus and proton targets and show that it is very robust against higher order radiative corrections.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Probing gluon saturation with forward di-hadron correlations in proton-nucleus collisions

We present a detailed numerical investigation of semi-inclusive forward di-hadron production in proton–nucleus collisions employing the Color Glass Condensate effective theory. We focus on the regime where di-hadrons are produced nearly back-to-back in the transverse plane, thereby justifying a transverse-momentum-dependent factorization approach in terms of small-x gluon distributions. Our computation integrates several key elements: i) non-linear rapidity evolution via the Balitsky–Kovchegov equation with running coupling, ii) both perturbative and non-perturbative Sudakov resummation, and iii) a phenomenologically constrained model for the initial conditions for small-x gluon distributions. We compare this phenomenological framework to experimental data from the STAR Collaboration on azimuthal correlations in forward di-pion production in both proton–proton and proton–gold collisions. We analyze the systematic theoretical uncertainties associated with the saturation scales of nuclei at the initial scale for rapidity evolution and with those associated with the hadronization process. Finally, we make predictions for the kinematics anticipated to be covered by the ALICE Forward Calorimeter (FoCal) upgrade at the Large Hadron Collider.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Effect of ammonia addition on suppressing soot formation in methane co-flow diffusion flames

Due to issues surrounding carbon dioxide emissions from carbon-containing fuels, there is growing interest in ammonia (NH 3 ) as an alternative combustion fuel. One attractive method of burning NH 3 is to co-fire it with hydrocarbons, such as natural gas, and in this case soot formation is possible. To begin understanding the influence of NH 3 on soot formation when co-fired with hydrocarbons, soot volume fractions and mole fractions of gas-phase species were computationally and experimentally interrogated for CH 4 flames with up to 40% NH 3 by volumetric fuel fraction. Mole fractions of gas-phase species, including C 2 H 2 and C 6 H 6 , were measured with on-line electron impact mass spectrometry, and soot volume fractions were obtained via color-ratio pyrometry. The simulations employed a detailed chemical mechanism developed for capturing nitrogen interactions with hydrocarbons during combustion. The results are compared to findings in N 2 -CH 4 flames, in order to separate thermal and dilution effects from the chemical influence of NH 3 on soot formation. Experimentally, C 2 H 2 concentrations were found to decrease slightly for the NH 3 -CH 4 flames relative to N 2 -CH 4 flames, and a stronger suppression of C 6 H 6 was found for NH 3 relative to N 2 additions. The measured results show a strong suppression of soot with the addition of NH 3 , with soot concentrations reduced by over a factor of 10 with addition of up to 20% or more NH 3 by mole fraction. The model satisfactorily captured relative differences in maximum centerline C 2 H 2 , C 6 H 6 , and soot concentrations with addition of N 2 , but was unable to match measured differences in NH 3 -CH 4 flames. Furthermore, these results highlight the need for an improved understanding of fuel-nitrogen interactions with higher hydrocarbons to enable accurate models for predicting particulate emissions from NH 3 /hydrocarbon combustion.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Enhancing physicochemical, bioactive, and nutritional properties of sweet potatoes: Ultrasonic contact drying with slot jet nozzles compared to hot-air drying and freeze drying

Sweet potatoes are a rich source of nutrients and bioactive compounds, but their quality can be impacted by the drying process. This study investigates the impact of slot jet reattachment (SJR) nozzle and ultrasound (US) combined drying (SJR + US) on sweet potato quality, compared to freeze-drying (FD), SJR drying, and hot air drying (HAD). SJR + US drying at 50 °C closely resembled FD in enhancing quality attributes and outperformed HAD and SJR in key areas such as rehydration, shrinkage ratios, and nutritional composition. Notably, SJR + US at 50 °C produced the highest total starch (36.84 g/100 g), total dietary fiber (8.48 g/100 g), total phenolic content (158.19 mg GAE/100 g), total flavonoid content (119.08 mg QE/g), DPPH antioxidant activity (6.44 μmol TE/g), β-carotene (31.98 mg/100 g), and vitamin C (5.27 mg/100 g). It also exhibited higher glass transition temperatures (Tg: 14.49 °C), indicating better stability at room temperature. The hardness values for SJR + US samples were similar to FD, while HAD samples had the highest hardness. SJR + US at 50 °C resulted in the lowest total color changes (ΔE), indicating minimal impact on appearance. Additionally, FTIR analysis revealed that peaks in specific spectral regions indicated superior preservation of bioactive compounds in SJR + US samples compared to other methods, which was also confirmed by principal component analysis (PCA) and heatmap visualization. Overall, these findings suggest that SJR + US is an effective alternative to conventional drying techniques, significantly improving the quality of dried sweet potatoes.

Color↗

Electronic Coherence and Coherent Dephasing in the Optical Control of Electrons in Graphene

Electronic coherence is of utmost importance for the access and control of quantum-mechanical solid-state properties. Using a purely electronic observable, the photocurrent, we measure a lower bound of the electronic coherence time of 22 ± 4 fs in graphene. The photocurrent is ideally suited to measure electronic coherence, as it is a direct result of coherent quantum-path interference, controlled by the delay between two ultrashort two-color laser pulses. The maximum delay for which interference between the population amplitude injected by the first pulse interferes with that generated by the second pulse determines the electronic coherence time. In particular, numerical simulations reveal that the experimental data yields a lower bound on the electronic coherence time, masked by coherent dephasing due to the broadband absorption in graphene. Overall, we expect that our results will significantly advance the understanding of coherent quantum control in solid-state systems ranging from excitation with weak fields to strongly driven systems.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Nanoelectromechanical Control of Spin–Photon Interfaces in a Hybrid Quantum System on Chip

Color centers (CCs) in nanostructured diamond are promising for optically linked quantum technologies. Scaling to useful applications motivates architectures meeting the following criteria: C1 individual optical addressing of spin qubits; C2 frequency tuning of spin-dependent optical transitions; C3 coherent spin control; C4 active photon routing; C5 scalable manufacturability; and C6 low on-chip power dissipation for cryogenic operations. Here, we introduce an architecture that simultaneously achieves C1–C6. We realize piezoelectric strain control of diamond waveguide-coupled tin vacancy centers with ultralow power dissipation necessary. The DC response of our device allows emitter transition tuning by over 20 GHz, combined with low-power AC control. We show acoustic spin resonance of integrated tin vacancy spins and estimate single-phonon coupling rates over 1 kHz in the resolved sideband regime. Combined with high-speed optical routing, our work opens a path to scalable single-qubit control with optically mediated entangling gates.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Cast Film Production with Polyethylene Recycled from a Post-Industrial Printed Multilayer Film by Solvent-Targeted Recovery and Precipitation

The solvent-targeted recovery and precipitation (STRAP) process separates and recovers the constituent resins in multilayer plastic packaging films by selective polymer dissolution. In this work, three different experimental methods were considered to recover a polyethylene (PE) resin from a printed multilayer film by STRAP. The methods consisted of (1) a filter bag system, (2) a Soxhlet extraction, and (3) a jacketed dissolution vessel. Cast films were produced with the PE recovered from each method and were analyzed for color, mechanical properties, and number of impurities. High-quality recycled PE cast films can be produced by increasing the solvent to plastic ratio, including a filter pore size of 100 μm, and optimizing temperature control in STRAP. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that STRAP polymers can be recycled back into plastic films, enabling the potential circularity of these packaging materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Correlations in the Initial Conditions of Heavy-Ion Collisions

Ultracentral collisions of heavy nuclei, in which the impact parameter is nearly zero, are especially sensitive to the details of the initial state model and the microscopic mechanism for collective flow. In a hydrodynamic “flow” picture, the final state momentum correlations are a direct response to the fluctuating initial geometry, although models of the initial geometry differ widely. Alternatively, dynamical mechanisms based in the color glass condensate (CGC) formalism can naturally lead to many-body correlations with very different systematics. Here we present a calculation of event-by-event elliptic flow in both the hydrodynamic and CGC paradigms and show that they can be qualitatively distinguished in ultracentral collisions of deformed nuclei. Specifically, the multiplicity dependence in such collisions is qualitatively opposite, with the CGC correlations increasing with multiplicity while the hydrodynamic correlations decrease. The consistency of the latter with experimental data on UU collisions appears to rule out a CGC-mediated explanation. We find that these qualitative features also persist in small deformed systems and can therefore be a valuable test of the microscopic physics in that regime.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Real-time reconstruction and control of pedestal-top electron density using RMP and gas puff at KSTAR

We report the experimental results of controlling the pedestal-top electron density by applying resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) with in-vessel control coils and the main gas puff in the 2024-2025 KSTAR experimental campaign. The density is reconstructed using a parameterized $ψ_N$ grid and five channels of line-averaged density measured by the two-colored interferometer (TCI). The reconstruction procedure is accelerated by deploying a multi-layer perceptron to run in approximately 120 µ s and is sufficiently fast for real-time control. A proportional-integral controller was adopted, with the controller gains estimated from the system identification procedure. The experimental results demonstrate that the developed controller can follow a dynamic target while exclusively using both actuators. The absolute percentage errors between the electron density at $ψ_N$ = 0.89 and the target were approximately 1.5% median and a 2.5% average, respectively. The developed controller can even lower the density by using the pump-out mechanism under RMP, and it can follow a more dynamic range of density targets than a single actuator controller. The developed controller will enable experimental scenario exploration within a shot by dynamically setting the density target or maintaining a constant electron density within a discharge.

EFIT↗

New state of matter between the hadronic phase and the quark-gluon plasma?

Lattice-quantum chromodynamics (QCD) simulations and theoretical arguments hint at the existence of an intermediate phase of strongly interacting matter between a confined hadron gas and a deconfined quark-gluon plasma (QGP). We qualitatively and semiquantitatively explore and differentiate the phase structures in the temperature window from the QCD pseudocritical temperature 𝑇 c ≃ 160 MeV to the pure gluonic deconfinement temperature 𝑇 d ≃ 285 MeV. We propose a three-regime picture using a hadron resonance gas description augmented with the exponential spectrum of strings, corresponding to highly excited mesons and glueballs, based on the analysis of a large number 𝑁 c of colors. We estimate the entropy density from our model to confirm that the lattice-QCD data are bracketed with three regimes, i.e., a hadron gas, a QGP, and a new phase for 𝑇 c ≲ 𝑇 ≲ 𝑇 d . In this new phase, which we name a spaghetti of quarks with glueballs (SQGBs), thermal degrees of freedom of quarks are liberated, yet gluons remain confined in glueballs. Since the Hagedorn temperature 𝑇 H ∼ 285 MeV is universal in the meson and the glueball sectors, in the infinite-𝑁 c limit, the phase diagram in the plane of the baryon chemical potential and the temperature is reduced to one with the confined and deconfined phases and quarkyonic matter at high density. At large but finite 𝑁 c , an SQGB window may open between these phases. We point out that the SQGB has interesting similarities with quarkyonic matter and that this matter in the large-𝑁 c limit is confined as measured by the interaction between heavy quarks, but behaves in other respects like a quasifree gas of quarks. As a result of the extrapolation to 𝑁 c = 3, we present a revised phase diagram with the SQGB phase bounded by thermal crossovers. Finally, we give a quantitative analysis of chiral-symmetry restoration in the SQGB phase.

Color confinement↗

Low-energy edge signatures of the Kitaev spin liquid

Recent experimental work indicates that the Kitaev spin liquid may be realizable close to zero magnetic field in exfoliated 𝛼−RuCl 3 flakes, thus providing a more versatile setting for studying non-Abelian anyons. Here, we propose a robust nanoscale signature of the Kitaev spin liquid that results from its edge states and manifests in the low-energy spin dynamics. In particular, we highlight a singular peak in the dynamical spin structure factor of a zigzag edge whose energy scales linearly with only one component of the magnetic field. This sharp feature in the local spin dynamics directly reflects the bond-directional Kitaev spin interactions and, more generally, the projective symmetries of the Kitaev spin liquid. In conclusion, we demonstrate that our proposed signature survives in the presence of edge disorder as well as non-Kitaev interactions, and provide detailed guidelines for experimentally observing it using inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy and color-center relaxometry.

Color centers↗

Quantum chromodynamics resolution of the ATOMKI anomaly in 4 He nuclear transitions

Observations of anomalous angular correlations in electron-positron pairs produced from excited states of 4 He, 8 Be, and 12 C nuclei have been suggested as being due to the creation and subsequent decay of a new light particle of mass ~17MeV. In this work, we investigate the possibility that the source of the observed signals is a set of new excitation channels created by the 12-quark hidden-color Fock state within the 4 He nuclear wave function dubbed the “hexadiquark.” We calculate the invariant e + ⁢ e - mass spectrum for the electromagnetic transition from a new excitation of 4 He, estimating its differential and total decay width. We find that we can fit the shape of the anomalous signal with the QCD Fock state at excitation energy E* = 17.9 ± 1MeV and a Gaussian form factor for the electromagnetic decay. We address the physical issues with the fit parameters using properties of the hexadiquark state, in particular the three weakly repulsive 6 C interactions of SU⁡(3) C between diquark pairs. Experimental tests of our model are described in detail. In light of this work, we emphasize the need for independent experimental confirmation or refutation of the ATOMKI results as well as dedicated experiments to search for the proposed new excitations of 4 He and other a-cluster nuclei.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Entanglement, trace anomaly, and confinement in QCD

We formulate confinement in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) as an entropic surface phenomenon. Quark and gluon quantum information is localized on a transverse, entangling two-sphere of radius 𝑅 𝐸⁢𝐸 ; at this radius the QCD vacuum—partitioned by a hadron into interior and exterior regions—reaches its maximal entanglement entropy. Lattice-QCD determinations of the scalar (trace) gravitational form factors fix both 𝑅 𝐸⁢𝐸 and the transverse trace-anomaly density 𝜌 ℎ ⁡(𝑅 𝐸⁢𝐸 ), yielding a parameter-free slope 𝑐 ℎ = 8⁢𝜋 2 ⁢𝑅𝑆$^2_{𝐸⁢𝐸}$𝜌 ℎ ⁡(𝑅 𝐸⁢𝐸 ) and a mechanical entropy 𝑆 𝐸⁢𝐸 ⁡(𝑦) = 𝑐 ℎ ⁢𝑦 that grows linearly with rapidity 𝑦. The entropy gradient ∂ 𝑅 𝑆 𝐸⁢𝐸 changes sign at 𝑅 𝐸⁢𝐸 : it pushes colored degrees of freedom outward for 𝑟 <𝑅 𝐸⁢𝐸 and pulls them inward for 𝑟 >𝑅 𝐸⁢𝐸 , thereby localizing them on the codimension-2 entangling two-sphere Σ ⊥ = 𝑆$^2_{𝑅_{𝐸⁢𝐸}}$ (which, in the infinite-momentum frame (IMF), projects onto the transverse plane)—the “information wall.” This provides a high-energy (large-𝑦) entropic confinement diagnostic that complements—rather than replaces—Wilson’s area-law criterion, which probes long-distance dynamics near the rest frame (𝑦 → 0). Imposing unitarity on an entropic ansatz for the amplitude yields 𝜎⁡(𝑠) ∝ 𝑦 𝛿 . World data favor 𝛿 = 2 for elastic 𝑝⁡𝑝⁡($𝑝\bar{⁡𝑝}$) scattering and heavy-quark photoproduction, whereas 𝜙 photoproduction favors a softer 𝛿 = 0.387. All extracted cross sections remain well below the Froissart-Martin bound. These results provide a confinement criterion quantified directly from nonperturbative QCD inputs, unifying the trace anomaly, entanglement entropy, and high-energy scattering within a single quantitative framework.

Color confinement↗