Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Serialization”

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 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

WE-DE-201-06: Impact of Temporal Image Coregistration Methods On 3D Internal Dose Calculations in Targeted Radionuclide Therapy

Purpose: The calculation of 3D internal dose calculations in targeted radionuclide therapy requires the acquisition and temporal coregistration of a serial PET/CT or SPECT/CT images. This work investigates the dosimetric impact of different temporal coregistration methods commonly used for 3D internal dosimetry. Methods: PET/CT images of four mice were acquired at 1, 24, 48, 72, 96, 144 hrs post-injection of {sup 124}I-CLR1404. The therapeutic {sup 131}I-CLR1404 absorbed dose rate (ADR) was calculated at each time point using a Geant4-based MC dosimetry platform using three temporal image coregistration Methods: (1) no coregistration (NC), whole body sequential CT-CT affine coregistration (WBAC), and individual sequential ROI-ROI affine coregistration (IRAC). For NC, only the ROI mean ADR was integrated to obtain ROI mean doses. For WBAC, the CT at each time point was coregistered to a single reference CT. The CT transformations were applied to the corresponding ADR images and the dose was calculated on a voxel-basis within the whole CT volume. For IRAC, each individual ROI was isolated and sequentially coregistered to a single reference ROI. The ROI transformations were applied to the corresponding ADR images and the dose was calculated on a voxel-basis within the ROI volumes. Results: The percent differences in the ROI mean doses were as large as 109%, 88%, and 32%, comparing the WBAC vs. IRAC, NC vs. IRAC, and NC vs. WBAC methods, respectively. The CoV in the mean dose between the all three methods ranged from 2–36%. The pronounced curvature of the spinal cord was not adequately coregistered using WBAC which resulted in large difference between the WBAC and IRAC. Conclusion: The method used for temporal image coregistration can result in large differences in 3D internal dosimetry calculations. Care must be taken to choose the most appropriate method depending on the imaging conditions, clinical site, and specific application. This work is partially funded by NIH Grant R21 CA198392-01.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

TH-CD-209-06: LET-Based Adjustment of IMPT Plans Using Prioritized Optimization

Purpose: In-vitro experiments suggest an increase in proton relative biological effectiveness (RBE) towards the end of range. However, proton treatment planning and dose reporting for clinical outcome assessment has been based on physical dose and constant RBE. Therefore, treatment planning for intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) is unlikely to transition radically to pure RBE-based planning. We suggest a hybrid approach where treatment plans are initially created based on physical dose constraints and prescriptions, and are subsequently altered to avoid high linear energy transfer (LET) in critical structures while limiting the degradation of the physical dose distribution. Methods: To allow fast optimization based on dose and LET we extended a GPU-based Monte-Carlo code towards providing dose-averaged LET in addition to dose for all pencil beams. After optimizing an initial IMPT plan based on physical dose, a prioritized optimization scheme is used to modify the LET distribution while constraining the physical dose objectives to values close to the initial plan. The LET optimization step is performed based on objective functions evaluated for the product of physical dose and LET (LETxD). To first approximation, LETxD represents a measure of the additional biological dose that is caused by high LET. Regarding optimization techniques, LETxD has the advantage of being a linear function of the pencil beam intensities. Results: The method is applicable to treatments where serial critical structures with maximum dose constraint are located in or near the target. We studied intra-cranial tumors (high-grade meningiomas, base-of-skull chordomas) where the target (CTV) overlaps with the brainstem and optic structures. Often, high LETxD in critical structures can be avoided while minimally compromising physical dose planning objectives. Conclusion: LET-based re-optimization of IMPT plans represents a pragmatic approach to bridge the gap between purely physical dose-based and RBE-based planning. It can be realized with fast GPU-based Monte-Carlo dose calculation. The project was in part supported by NIH grants U19 CA 021239-36 and C06 CA 059267.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Native phasing of x-ray free-electron laser data for a G protein–coupled receptor

Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) takes advantage of extremely bright and ultrashort pulses produced by x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), allowing for the collection of high-resolution diffraction intensities from micrometer-sized crystals at room temperature with minimal radiation damage, using the principle of “diffraction-before-destruction.” However, de novo structure factor phase determination using XFELs has been difficult so far. We demonstrate the ability to solve the crystallographic phase problem for SFX data collected with an XFEL using the anomalous signal from native sulfur atoms, leading to a bias-free room temperature structure of the human A 2A adenosine receptor at 1.9 Å resolution. The advancement was made possible by recent improvements in SFX data analysis and the design of injectors and delivery media for streaming hydrated microcrystals. This general method should accelerate structural studies of novel difficult-to-crystallize macromolecules and their complexes.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2017

Three-dimensional positioning and structure of chromosomes in a human prophase nucleus

The human genetic material is packaged into 46 chromosomes. The structure of chromosomes is known at the lowest level, where the DNA chain is wrapped around a core of eight histone proteins to form nucleosomes. Around a million of these nucleosomes, each about 11 nm in diameter and 6 nm in thickness, are wrapped up into the complex organelle of the chromosome, whose structure is mostly known at the level of visible light microscopy to form a characteristic cross shape in metaphase. However, the higher-order structure of human chromosomes, between a few tens and hundreds of nanometers, has not been well understood. We show a three-dimensional (3D) image of a human prophase nucleus obtained by serial block-face scanning electron microscopy, with 36 of the complete set of 46 chromosomes captured within it. The acquired image allows us to extract quantitative 3D structural information about the nucleus and the preserved, intact individual chromosomes within it, including their positioning and full spatial morphology at a resolution of around 50 nm in three dimensions. The chromosome positions were found, at least partially, to follow the pattern of chromosome territories previously observed only in interphase. The 3D conformation shows parallel, planar alignment of the chromatids, whose occupied volumes are almost fully accounted for by the DNA and known chromosomal proteins. Here, we also propose a potential new method of identifying human chromosomes in three dimensions, on the basis of the measurements of their 3D morphology.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Changes in an enzyme ensemble during catalysis observed by high-resolution XFEL crystallography

Enzymes populate ensembles of structures necessary for catalysis that are difficult to experimentally characterize. We use time-resolved mix-and-inject serial crystallography at an x-ray free electron laser to observe catalysis in a designed mutant isocyanide hydratase (ICH) enzyme that enhances sampling of important minor conformations. The active site exists in a mixture of conformations, and formation of the thioimidate intermediate selects for catalytically competent substates. The influence of cysteine ionization on the ICH ensemble is validated by determining structures of the enzyme at multiple pH values. Large molecular dynamics simulations in crystallo and time-resolved electron density maps show that Asp 17 ionizes during catalysis and causes conformational changes that propagate across the dimer, permitting water to enter the active site for intermediate hydrolysis. ICH exhibits a tight coupling between ionization of active site residues and catalysis-activated protein motions, exemplifying a mechanism of electrostatic control of enzyme dynamics.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

High-entropy 1D halide perovskite piezoelectrics found by megalibrary synthesis and rapid nonlinear optical screening

Piezoelectric molecular crystals offer excellent compositional and structural tunability and sustainable processability. However, their discovery is slow, primarily due to the serial synthesis and screening processes used. Here, we report an approach that combines massively parallel megalibrary synthesis with scanning second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy for rapid screening of piezoelectric molecular crystals. Megalibraries consisting of more than 1,000,000 compositionally distinct but positionally encoded TMCM x TMA (1–x) Cd y Pb (1–y) ClzBr (3–z) (TMCM: trimethylchloromethylammonium, TMA: tetramethylammonium; 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, 0 ≤ y ≤ 1, 0 ≤ z ≤ 3) nanocrystals were synthesized. The megalibraries were rapidly screened by SHG microscopy to identify notable noncentrosymmetric structures, which were then tested for piezoelectricity, facilitating discovery of a high-entropy noncentrosymmetric material with a large d 33 (TMCM 0.75 TMA 0.25 Cd 0.75 Pb 0.25 Cl 1.5 Br 1.5 , 42.8 picocoulombs per newton). Furthermore, this approach enabled systematic investigation of the Curie temperature (T C )–composition relationship in the TMCMCdCl z Br (3–z) system, facilitating reverse design of materials with targeted T C . Our work establishes a powerful approach to accelerate the discovery and design of unusual piezoelectrics for next-generation electronics and optics.

Li, Jun [Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (Un↗
DOE OSTI2019

Scalable submicrometer additive manufacturing

High-throughput fabrication techniques for generating arbitrarily complex three-dimensional structures with nanoscale features are desirable across a broad range of applications. Two-photon lithography (TPL)–based submicrometer additive manufacturing is a promising candidate to fill this gap. However, the serial point-by-point writing scheme of TPL is too slow for many applications. Attempts at parallelization either do not have submicrometer resolution or cannot pattern complex structures. We overcome these difficulties by spatially and temporally focusing an ultrafast laser to implement a projection-based layer-by-layer parallelization. This increases the throughput up to three orders of magnitude and expands the geometric design space. We demonstrate this by printing, within single-digit millisecond time scales, nanowires with widths smaller than 175 nanometers over an area one million times larger than the cross-sectional area.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Structure of a ribonucleotide reductase R2 protein radical

Aerobic ribonucleotide reductases (RNRs) initiate synthesis of DNA building blocks by generating a free radical within the R2 subunit; the radical is subsequently shuttled to the catalytic R1 subunit through proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET). Here we present a high-resolution room temperature structure of the class Ie R2 protein radical captured by x-ray free electron laser serial femtosecond crystallography. The structure reveals conformational reorganization to shield the radical and connect it to the translocation path, with structural changes propagating to the surface where the protein interacts with the catalytic R1 subunit. Restructuring of the hydrogen bond network, including a notably short O–O interaction of 2.41 angstroms, likely tunes and gates the radical during PCET. These structural results help explain radical handling and mobilization in RNR and have general implications for radical transfer in proteins.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Subgroup Characteristics of Marine Methane-Oxidizing ANME-2 Archaea and Their Syntrophic Partners as Revealed by Integrated Multimodal Analytical Microscopy

Phylogenetically diverse environmental ANME archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria cooperatively catalyze the anaerobic oxidation of methane oxidation (AOM) in multicelled consortia within methane seep environments. To better understand these cells and their symbiotic associations, we applied a suite of electron microscopy approaches, including correlative fluorescence in situ hybridization-electron microscopy (FISH-EM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and serial block face scanning electron microscopy (SBEM) three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions. FISH-EM of methane seep-derived consortia revealed phylogenetic variability in terms of cell morphology, ultrastructure, and storage granules. Representatives of the ANME-2b clade, but not other ANME-2 groups, contained polyphosphate-like granules, while some bacteria associated with ANME-2a/2c contained two distinct phases of iron mineral chains resembling magnetosomes. 3D segmentation of two ANME-2 consortium types revealed cellular volumes of ANME and their symbiotic partners that were larger than previous estimates based on light microscopy. Polyphosphate-like granule-containing ANME (tentatively termed ANME-2b) were larger than both ANME with no granules and partner bacteria. This cell type was observed with up to 4 granules per cell, and the volume of the cell was larger in proportion to the number of granules inside it, but the percentage of the cell occupied by these granules did not vary with granule number. Here, these results illuminate distinctions between ANME-2 archaeal lineages and partnering bacterial populations that are apparently unified in their ability to perform anaerobic methane oxidation.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Environmental Selection, Dispersal, and Organism Interactions Shape Community Assembly in High-Throughput Enrichment Culturing

A central goal of microbial ecology is to identify and quantify the forces that lead to observed population distributions and dynamics. However, these forces, which include environmental selection, dispersal, and organism interactions, are often difficult to assess in natural environments. Here in this paper, we present a method that links microbial community structures with selective and stochastic forces through highly replicated subsampling and enrichment of a single environmental inoculum. Specifically, groundwater from a well-studied natural aquifer was serially diluted and inoculated into nearly 1,000 aerobic and anaerobic nitrate-reducing cultures, and the final community structures were evaluated with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We analyzed the frequency and abundance of individual operational taxonomic units (OTUs) to understand how probabilistic immigration, relative fitness differences, environmental factors, and organismal interactions contributed to divergent distributions of community structures. We further used a most probable number (MPN) method to estimate the natural condition-dependent cultivable abundance of each of the nearly 400 OTU cultivated in our study and infer the relative fitness of each. Additionally, we infer condition-specific organism interactions and discuss how this high-replicate culturing approach is essential in dissecting the interplay between overlapping ecological forces and taxon-specific attributes that underpin microbial community assembly. IMPORTANCE Through highly replicated culturing, in which inocula are subsampled from a single environmental sample, we empirically determine how selective forces, interspecific interactions, relative fitness, and probabilistic dispersal shape bacterial communities. These methods offer a novel approach to untangle not only interspecific interactions but also taxon-specific fitness differences that manifest across different cultivation conditions and lead to the selection and enrichment of specific organisms. Additionally, we provide a method for estimating the number of cultivable units of each OTU in the original sample through the MPN approach.

16S RNA↗
DOE OSTI2023

Impact of Baloxavir Resistance-Associated Substitutions on Influenza Virus Growth and Drug Susceptibility

Baloxavir marboxil (baloxavir) is a recently FDA-approved influenza virus polymerase acidic (PA) endonuclease inhibitor. Several PA substitutions have been demonstrated to confer reduced susceptibility to baloxavir; however, their impacts on measurements of antiviral drug susceptibility and replication capacity when present as a fraction of the viral population have not been established. We generated recombinant A/California/04/09 (H1N1)-like viruses (IAV) with PA I38L, I38T, or E199D substitutions and B/Victoria/504/2000-like virus (IBV) with PA I38T. These substitutions reduced baloxavir susceptibility by 15.3-, 72.3-, 5.4-, and 54.5-fold, respectively, when tested in normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells. We then assessed the replication kinetics, polymerase activity, and baloxavir susceptibility of the wild-type:mutant (WT:MUT) virus mixtures in NHBE cells. The percentage of MUT relative to WT virus necessary to detect reduced baloxavir susceptibility in phenotypic assays ranged from 10% (IBV I38T) to 92% (IAV E199D). While I38T did not alter IAV replication kinetics or polymerase activity, IAV PA I38L and E199D MUTs and the IBV PA I38T MUT exhibited reduced replication levels and significantly altered polymerase activity. Differences in replication were detectable when the MUTs comprised ≥90%, ≥90%, or ≥75% of the population, respectively. Here, droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and next-generation sequencing (NGS) analyses showed that WT viruses generally outcompeted the respective MUTs after multiple replication cycles and serial passaging in NHBE cells when initial mixtures contained ≥50% of the WT viruses; however, we also identified potential compensatory substitutions (IAV PA D394N and IBV PA E329G) that emerged and appeared to improve the replication capacity of baloxavir-resistant virus in cell culture.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Structure and Function of the N-Terminal Domain of the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus RNA Polymerase

Viruses have various mechanisms to duplicate their genomes and produce virus-specific mRNAs. Negative-strand RNA viruses encode their own polymerases to perform each of these processes. For the nonsegmented negative-strand RNA viruses, the polymerase is comprised of the large polymerase subunit (L) and the phosphoprotein (P). L proteins from members of the Rhabdoviridae, Paramyxoviridae, and Filoviridae share sequence and predicted secondary structure homology. Here, we present the structure of the N-terminal domain (conserved region I) of the L protein from a rhabdovirus, vesicular stomatitis virus, at 1.8-Å resolution. The strictly and strongly conserved residues in this domain cluster in a single area of the protein. Serial mutation of these residues shows that many of the amino acids are essential for viral transcription but not for mRNA capping. Three-dimensional alignments show that this domain shares structural homology with polymerases from other viral families, including segmented negative-strand RNA and double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) viruses. Negative-strand RNA viruses include a diverse set of viral families that infect animals and plants, causing serious illness and economic impact. Furthermore, the members of this group of viruses share a set of functionally conserved proteins that are essential to their replication cycle. Among this set of proteins is the viral polymerase, which performs a unique set of reactions to produce genome- and subgenome-length RNA transcripts. In this article, we study the polymerase of vesicular stomatitis virus, a member of the rhabdoviruses, which has served in the past as a model to study negative-strand RNA virus replication. We have identified a site in the N-terminal domain of the polymerase that is essential to viral transcription and that shares sequence homology with members of the paramyxoviruses and the filoviruses. Newly identified sites such as that described here could prove to be useful targets in the design of new therapeutics against negative-strand RNA viruses.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

When Is a Microbial Culture “Pure”? Persistent Cryptic Contaminant Escapes Detection Even with Deep Genome Sequencing

Geobacter sulfurreducens strain KN400 was recovered in previous studies in which a culture of the DL1 strain of G. sulfurreducens served as the inoculum in investigations of microbial current production at low anode potentials (-400 mV versus Ag/AgCl). Differences in the genome sequences of KN400 and DL1 were too great to have arisen from adaptive evolution during growth on the anode. Previous deep sequencing (80-fold coverage) of the DL1 culture failed to detect sequences specific to KN400, suggesting that KN400 was an external contaminant inadvertently introduced into the anode culturing system. In order to evaluate this further, a portion of the gene for OmcS, a c -type cytochrome that both KN400 and DL1 possess, was amplified from the DL1 culture. HiSeq-2000 Illumina sequencing of the PCR product detected the KN400 sequence, which differs from the DL1 sequence at 14 bp, at a frequency of ca. 1 in 10 5 copies of the DL1 sequence. A similar low frequency of KN400 was detected with quantitative PCR of a KN400-specific gene. KN400 persisted at this frequency after intensive restreaking of isolated colonies from the DL1 culture. However, a culture in which KN400 could no longer be detected was obtained by serial dilution to extinction in liquid medium. The KN400-free culture could not grow on an anode poised at -400 mV. Thus, KN400 cryptically persisted in the culture dominated by DL1 for more than a decade, undetected by even deep whole-genome sequencing, and was only fortuitously uncovered by the unnatural selection pressure of growth on a low-potential electrode. IMPORTANCE: Repeated streaking of isolated colonies on solidified medium remains a common strategy for obtaining pure cultures, especially of difficult-to-cultivate microorganisms such as strict anaerobes. The results presented here demonstrate that verifying the purity of cultures obtained in this manner may be difficult because extremely rare variants can persist, undetectable with even deep genomic DNA sequencing. The only way to ensure that a culture is pure is to cultivate it from an initial single cell, which may be technically difficult for many environmentally significant microbes.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Heterogeneity and Recombination of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus during Multi-Strain Coinfection of Cattle

Superinfection of cattle persistently infected with foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), with a heterologous FMDV strain has been shown to generate novel recombinant viruses. In this study, we investigated the pathogenesis events within specific tissues associated with FMDV coinfections in cattle subjected to either simultaneous or serial exposure to two distinct strains of FMDV. Both strains of FMDV (one each of serotypes O and A) were similarly localized to the nasopharyngeal mucosa during the early stages of infection. However, while no recombinant FMDV genomes were recovered from simultaneously coinfected cattle, interserotypic recombinants were isolated from nasopharyngeal tissue samples obtained at 48 h after heterologous superinfection of a persistently infected FMDV carrier. Additionally, analysis of FMDV genomes obtained from replicate nasopharyngeal tissue samples demonstrated that adjacent segments of the mucosa were sometimes infected by distinct viruses, demonstrating a multifocal and heterogeneous distribution of FMDV infection during primary and persistent phases of infection. Furthermore, this work indicates that superinfection of FMDV carriers may be an important source of emergent recombinant strains of FMDV in areas where multiple strains are co-circulating.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Formation of a constructed microbial community in a nutrient-rich environment indicates bacterial interspecific competition

ABSTRACT Understanding the organizational principles of microbial communities is essential for interpreting ecosystem stability. Previous studies have investigated the formation of bacterial communities under nutrient-poor conditions or obligate relationships to observe cooperative interactions among different species. How microorganisms form stabilized communities in nutrient-rich environments, without obligate metabolic interdependency for growth, is still not fully disclosed. In this study, three bacterial strains isolated from the Populus deltoides rhizosphere were co-cultured in complex medium, and their growth behavior was tracked. These strains co-exist in mixed culture over serial transfer for multiple growth-dilution cycles. Competition is proposed as an emergent interaction relationship among the three bacteria based on their significantly decreased growth levels. The effects of different initial inoculum ratios, up to three orders of magnitude, on community structure were investigated, and the final compositions of the mixed communities with various starting composition indicate that community structure is not dependent on the initial inoculum ratio. Furthermore, the competitive relationships within the community were not altered by different initial inoculum ratios. The community structure was simulated by generalized Lotka-Volterra and dynamic flux balance analysis to provide mechanistic predictions into emergence of community structure under a nutrient-rich environment. Metaproteomic analyses provide support for the metabolite exchanges predicted by computational modeling and for highly altered physiologies when microbes are grown in co-culture. These findings broaden our understanding of bacterial community dynamics and metabolic diversity in higher-order interactions and could be significant in the management of rhizospheric bacterial communities. IMPORTANCE Bacteria naturally co-exist in multispecies consortia, and the ability to engineer such systems can be useful in biotechnology. Despite this, few studies have been performed to understand how bacteria form a stable community and interact with each other under nutrient-rich conditions. In this study, we investigated the effects of initial inoculum ratios on bacterial community structure using a complex medium and found that the initial inoculum ratio has no significant impact on resultant community structure or on interaction patterns between community members. The microbial population profiles were simulated using computational tools in order to understand intermicrobial relationships and to identify potential metabolic exchanges that occur during stabilization of the bacterial community. Studying microbial community assembly processes is essential for understanding fundamental ecological principles in microbial ecosystems and can be critical in predicting microbial community structure and function.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Strain relaxation in multilayer III–N structures on Si(111) substrates

X-ray diffractometry and X-ray scattering reciprocal space maps have been used to study strain relaxation in a complex buffer composed of seven intermediate layers of Al{sub x}Ga{sub 1−x}N composition with different values of x, decreasing with an increase in the distance from the substrate. The layers have been grown by hydride metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on silicon and sapphire substrates. Differences in the structural quality of the first four layers of a multilayer buffer grown on different substrates have been revealed. A gradual smoothing out of these differences in the next three layers with an increase in the layer serial number has been shown. The last grown intermediate Al{sub x}Ga{sub 1−x}N layer and the GaN layer grown on it have identical thicknesses and degrees of mosaicity, regardless of the substrate type. Device structures grown on a complex buffer demonstrate emission in approximately the same wavelength range.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Role of structure imperfection in the formation of the magnetotransport properties of rare-earth manganites with a perovskite structure

The structure, the structure imperfection, and the magnetoresistance, magnetotransport, and microstructure properties of rare-earth perovskite La{sub 0.3}Ln{sub 0.3}Sr{sub 0.3}Mn{sub 1.1}O{sub 3–δ} manganites are studied by X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry, electrical resistivity measurement, magnetic, {sup 55}Mn NMR, magnetoresistance measurement, and scanning electron microscopy. It is found that the structure imperfection increases, and the symmetry of a rhombohedrally distorted R3̅c perovskite structure changes into its pseudocubic type during isovalent substitution for Ln = La{sup 3+}, Pr{sup 3+}, Nd{sup 3+}, Sm{sup 3+}, or Eu{sup 3+} when the ionic radius of an A cation decreases. Defect molar formulas are determined for a real perovskite structure, which contains anion and cation vacancies. The decrease in the temperatures of the metal–semiconductor (T{sub ms}) and ferromagnet–paramagnet (T{sub C}) phase transitions and the increase in electrical resistivity ρ and activation energy E{sub a} with increasing serial number of Ln are caused by an increase in the concentration of vacancy point defects, which weaken the double exchange 3d{sup 4}(Mn{sup 3+})–2p{sup 6}(O{sup 2–})–3d{sup 3}(Mn{sup 4+})–V{sup (a)}–3d{sup 4}(Mn{sup 3+}). The crystal structure of the compositions with Ln = La contains nanostructured planar clusters, which induce an anomalous magnetic hysteresis at T = 77 K. Broad and asymmetric {sup 55}Mn NMR spectra support the high-frequency electronic double exchange Mn{sup 3+}(3d{sup 4}) ↔ O{sup 2–}(2p{sup 6}) ↔ Mn{sup 4+}(3d{sup 3}) and indicate a heterogeneous surrounding of manganese by other ions and vacancies. A correlation is revealed between the tunneling magnetoresistance effect and the crystallite size. A composition–structure imperfection–property experimental phase diagram is plotted. This diagram supports the conclusion about a strong influence of structure imperfection on the formation of the magnetic, magnetotransport, and magnetoresistance properties of rare-earth perovskite manganites.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Current-carrying element based on second-generation high-temperature superconductor for the magnet system of a fusion neutron source

Application of current-carrying elements (CCEs) made of second-generation high-temperature superconductor (2G HTS) in magnet systems of a fusion neutron source (FNS) and other fusion devices will allow their magnetic field and thermodynamic stability to be increased substantially in comparison with those of low-temperature superconductor (LTS) magnets. For a toroidal magnet of the FNS, a design of a helical (partially transposed) CCE made of 2G HTS is under development with forced-flow cooling by helium gas, a current of 20–30 kA, an operating temperature of 10–20 K, and a magnetic field on the winding of 12–15 T (prospectively ∼20 T). Short-sized samples of the helical flexible heavy-current CCE are being fabricated and investigated; a pilot-line unit for production of long-sized CCE pieces is under construction. The applied fabrication technique allows the CCE to be produced which combines a high operating current, thermal and mechanical stability, manufacturability, and low losses in the alternating modes. The possibility of fabricating the CCE with the outer dimensions and values of the operating parameter required for the FNS (and with a significant margin) using already available serial 2G HTS tapes is substantiated. The maximum field of toroidal magnets with CCEs made of 2G HTS will be limited only by mechanical properties of the magnet’s casing and structure, while the thermal stability will be approximately two orders of magnitude higher than that of toroidal magnets with LTS-based CCEs. The helical CCE made of 2G HTS is very promising for fusion and hybrid electric power plants, and its design and technologies of production, as well as the prototype coils made of it for the FNS and other tokamaks, are worth developing now.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗