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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.

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At least 127 records · Page 7

Gene-Metabolite Association Prediction with Interactive Knowledge Transfer Enhanced Graph for Metabolite Production

Identifying gene targets for enhancing metabolite production in metabolic engineering is challenging due to the vast research literature and the approximation in genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) simulations. Here, to address this, we propose the Gene-Metabolite Association Prediction task, which automates gene discovery for given metabolite-gene pairs, accompanied by a benchmark dataset of 2474 metabolites and 1947 genes for Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) and Issatchenkia orientalis (IO). This task is complicated by incomplete metabolic graphs and metabolic heterogeneity. We introduce an Interactive Knowledge Transfer mechanism based on Metabolism Graphs (IKT4Meta) to enhance prediction accuracy by integrating cross-metabolism knowledge. Using Pretrained Language Models (PLMs) to generate inter-graph links mitigates heterogeneity issues, while intra-graph links are propagated via these anchors. Gene-metabolite predictions are then performed on the enriched graphs integrating multiple microorganisms’ knowledge. Experiments show that IKT4Meta outperforms baselines by up to 12.3% in link prediction.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Tackling the Challenges in Scene Graph Generation With Local-to-Global Interactions

In this work, we seek new insights into the underlying challenges of the scene graph generation (SGG) task. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the visual genome (VG) dataset implies: 1) ambiguity: even if interobject relationship contains the same object (or predicate), they may not be visually or semantically similar; 2) asymmetry: despite the nature of the relationship that embodied the direction, it was not well addressed in previous studies; and 3) higher-order contexts: leveraging the identities of certain graph elements can help generate accurate scene graphs. Motivated by the analysis, we design a novel SGG framework, Local-to-global interaction networks (LOGINs). Locally, interactions extract the essence between three instances of subject, object, and background, while baking direction awareness into the network by explicitly constraining the input order of subject and object. Globally, interactions encode the contexts between every graph component (i.e., nodes and edges). Finally, Attract and Repel loss is utilized to fine-tune the distribution of predicate embeddings. By design, our framework enables predicting the scene graph in a bottom-up manner, leveraging the possible complementariness. To quantify how much LOGIN is aware of relational direction, a new diagnostic task called Bidirectional Relationship Classification (BRC) is also proposed. Overall, experimental results demonstrate that LOGIN can successfully distinguish relational direction than existing methods (in BRC task), while showing state-of-the-art results on the VG benchmark (in SGG task).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Comparing Mapper Graphs of Artificial Neuron Activations

The mapper graph is a popular tool from topological data analysis that provides a graphical summary of point cloud data. It has been used to study data from cancer research, sports analytics, neurosciences, and machine learning. In particular, mapper graphs have been used recently to visualize the topology of high-dimensional artificial neural activations from convolutional neural networks and large language models. However, a key question that arises from using mapper graphs across applications is how to compare mapper graphs to study their structural differences. In this paper, we introduce a distance between mapper graphs using tools from optimal transport. We demonstrate the utility of such a distance by studying the topological changes of neural activations across convolutional layers in deep learning, as well as by capturing the loss of structural information for multiscale mapper.

mapper graphs, computational topology, machine lea↗

Scalable training of graph convolutional neural networks for fast and accurate predictions of HOMO-LUMO gap in molecules

Abstract Graph Convolutional Neural Network (GCNN) is a popular class of deep learning (DL) models in material science to predict material properties from the graph representation of molecular structures. Training an accurate and comprehensive GCNN surrogate for molecular design requires large-scale graph datasets and is usually a time-consuming process. Recent advances in GPUs and distributed computing open a path to reduce the computational cost for GCNN training effectively. However, efficient utilization of high performance computing (HPC) resources for training requires simultaneously optimizing large-scale data management and scalable stochastic batched optimization techniques. In this work, we focus on building GCNN models on HPC systems to predict material properties of millions of molecules. We use HydraGNN, our in-house library for large-scale GCNN training, leveraging distributed data parallelism in PyTorch. We use ADIOS, a high-performance data management framework for efficient storage and reading of large molecular graph data. We perform parallel training on two open-source large-scale graph datasets to build a GCNN predictor for an important quantum property known as the HOMO-LUMO gap. We measure the scalability, accuracy, and convergence of our approach on two DOE supercomputers: the Summit supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) and the Perlmutter system at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). We present our experimental results with HydraGNN showing (i) reduction of data loading time up to 4.2 times compared with a conventional method and (ii) linear scaling performance for training up to 1024 GPUs on both Summit and Perlmutter.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Multitask graph neural networks for elastoplastic response prediction in dual-phase polycrystals

Microstructure-sensitive prediction of elastoplastic response remains a recurring bottleneck in multiscale damage and fatigue modeling, where large ensembles of statistically distinct polycrystals are required to quantify variability and extreme-value behavior. In this work, we develop a multitask graph neural network (GNN) surrogate that maps dual-phase ferrite–martensite polycrystal microstructures to Statistical Volume Element (SVE)-level elastoplastic Quantities of Interest (QoIs). Each SVE is represented as a grain-adjacency graph, with node features encoding phase, geometry, and crystallographic orientation, and edge features encoding relative misorientation. A message-passing graph convolution generates node embeddings, which are pooled into a graph representation and passed to a multitask regression head that jointly predicts 10 scalar QoIs and vector-valued stress–strain responses in orthogonal loading directions across multiple martensite volume fractions and SVE sizes. Results show high accuracy for scalar QoIs and strong agreement for full stress–strain trajectories, with population envelopes reproducing both median behavior and finite-SVE variability across compositions and partition scales. A unified model trained on pooled volume-fraction data preserves most within-regime accuracy relative to regime-specific models while also capturing the broader cross-regime variation reflected in the pooled test set. Distributional comparisons further demonstrate that the surrogate preserves heterogeneity under SVE partitioning, enabling statistically consistent block-wise random-field construction for mesoscale analyses. Overall, the proposed grain-graph surrogate provides a practical pathway to accelerate ensemble-based studies of SVE-level constitutive variability in dual-phase polycrystals.

Crystal plasticity↗

Graph-based machine learning improves just-in-time defect prediction

The increasing complexity of today’s software requires the contribution of thousands of developers. This complex collaboration structure makes developers more likely to introduce defect-prone changes that lead to software faults. Determining when these defect-prone changes are introduced has proven challenging, and using traditional machine learning (ML) methods to make these determinations seems to have reached a plateau. In this work, we build contribution graphs consisting of developers and source files to capture the nuanced complexity of changes required to build software. By leveraging these contribution graphs, our research shows the potential of using graph-based ML to improve Just-In-Time (JIT) defect prediction. We hypothesize that features extracted from the contribution graphs may be better predictors of defect-prone changes than intrinsic features derived from software characteristics. We corroborate our hypothesis using graph-based ML for classifying edges that represent defect-prone changes. This new framing of the JIT defect prediction problem leads to remarkably better results. We test our approach on 14 open-source projects and show that our best model can predict whether or not a code change will lead to a defect with an F1 score as high as 77.55% and a Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) as high as 53.16%. This represents a 152% higher F1 score and a 3% higher MCC over the state-of-the-art JIT defect prediction. We describe limitations, open challenges, and how this method can be used for operational JIT defect prediction.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Graph-Based Representations and Applications to Process Simulation

Rapid and robust convergence of a process flowsheet is critical to enable large-scale simulations that address core scientific questions related to process design, optimization, and sustainability. However, due to the highly coupled and nonlinear nature of chemical processes, efficiently solving a flowsheet remains a challenge. In this work, we show that graph representations of the underlying physical phenomena in unit operations may help identify potential avenues to systematically reformulate the network of equations and enable more robust topology-based convergence of flowsheets. To this end, we developed graph abstractions of the governing equations of vapor-liquid and liquid-liquid equilibrium separation equipment. These graph abstractions consist of a mesh of interconnected variable nodes and equation nodes that are systematically generated through PhenomeNode, a new open-source library in Python developed in this study. We show that partitioning the graph into separate mass, energy, and equilibrium subgraphs can help decouple nonlinearities and guide decomposition algorithms. By employing the graph abstraction on an industrial separation process for separating glacial acetic acid from water, we implemented a new block decomposition scheme in BioSTEAM and demonstrated that this can accelerate convergence over a traditional sequential modular approach.

Distillation↗

Applying Graph Theory to Problems in Air Traffic Management

Graph theory is used to investigate three different problems arising in air traffic management. First, using a polynomial reduction from a graph partitioning problem, it is shown that both the airspace sectorization problem and its incremental counterpart, the sector combination problem are NP-hard, in general, under several simple workload models. Second, using a polynomial time reduction from maximum independent set in graphs, it is shown that for any fixed e, the problem of finding a solution to the minimum delay scheduling problem in traffic flow management that is guaranteed to be within n1-e of the optimal, where n is the number of aircraft in the problem instance, is NP-hard. Finally, a problem arising in precision arrival scheduling is formulated and solved using graph reachability. These results demonstrate that graph theory provides a powerful framework for modeling, reasoning about, and devising algorithmic solutions to diverse problems arising in air traffic management.

precision arrival scheduling↗

Applying Graph Theory to Problems in Air Traffic Management

Graph theory is used to investigate three different problems arising in air traffic management. First, using a polynomial reduction from a graph partitioning problem, it isshown that both the airspace sectorization problem and its incremental counterpart, the sector combination problem are NP-hard, in general, under several simple workload models. Second, using a polynomial time reduction from maximum independent set in graphs, it is shown that for any fixed e, the problem of finding a solution to the minimum delay scheduling problem in traffic flow management that is guaranteed to be within n1-e of the optimal, where n is the number of aircraft in the problem instance, is NP-hard. Finally, a problem arising in precision arrival scheduling is formulated and solved using graph reachability. These results demonstrate that graph theory provides a powerful framework for modeling, reasoning about, and devising algorithmic solutions to diverse problems arising in air traffic management.

computational complexity↗

Building a Knowledge Graph for the Air Traffic Management Community

Historically, most of the focus in the knowledge graph community has been on the support for web, social network, or product search applications. This paper describes some of our experience in developing a large-scale applied knowledge graph for a more technical audience with more specialized information access and analysis needs - the air traffic management community. We describe ATMGRAPH (NASA's Air Traffic Management (ATM) Knowledge Graph), a knowledge graph created by integrating various sources of structured aviation data, provided in large part by US federal agencies. We review some of the practical challenges we faced in creating this knowledge graph.

Air Traffic Information Management↗

GRIP: Constraint-based Explanation of Missing Answers for Graph Queries

Abstract: A useful feature in graph query engines is to clarify “Why certain entities (nodes, attribute values or edges) are missing” in query answers. This task is even more challenging when the relevant data is already missing in the underlying data source. Missing data, on the other hand, can be inferred by enforcing data constraints for graphs. We demonstrate GRIP, a system that exploits data constraints to clarify missing answers for graph queries. (1) Constraint-based ex- planation. Given a desired yet missing entity in the query answer, GRIP ensures to generate finite and minimal sequences of data con- strains (an “explanation”) that should be consecutively enforced to ?? to ensure its occurrence for the same query. (2) Answering “why” and“how” questions. Users can query GRIP with both“Why”(“Why” the element is missing) and “How” questions (“How” to refine the graph to include the missing answer). GRIP engine supports run- time generation of explanations by incrementally maintaining a set of bi-directional search trees. (3) Interactive exploration. GRIP provides a user-friendly GUI to support interactive ad visual exploration of explanations, including both automated generation and step-by-step inspection of graph manipulations.

graphs↗

Capturing Historic Reliability Performance Through Graph Databases: A Model Based System Engineering Approach

With the goal of improving the performance and reliability of high dependable technological systems such as nuclear power plants, advanced monitoring and health management systems are employed to inform system engineers on observed degradation processes and anomalous behaviors of assets and components. This information is captured in the form of large amount of data which can be heterogenous in nature (e.g., numeric, textual). Such large data availability poses challenges when system engineers are required to parse and analyze them in order to track historic reliability performance of assets and components. This paper tackles directly this challenge by providing means to organize data in the form of a graph: a knowledge graph. The presented approach distinguish itself from current knowledge graph-based methods by the fact that model-based system engineering (MBSE) models are used to “put data into context”. In particular, MBSE models are used as skeleton of a knowledge graph; numeric and textual data elements, once processed, are associated to MBSE model elements. Thus, a knowledge graph captures both system architecture (though MBSE models) and health/performance data. Such feature opens the door to new data analytics methods designed to identify causal relations between observed phenomena.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DyG-DPCD: A Distributed Parallel Community Detection Algorithm for Large-Scale Dynamic Graphs

Dynamic (Temporal) graphs capture the valuable evolution of real-world systems, from the continuously evolving patterns of social interactions and genetic pathways to the dynamic fluctuations of economic forces. Detecting communities for such evolving networks poses unique challenges. Detecting and analyzing the evolution of communities within dynamic graphs unlocks valuable insights into the underlying structural and temporal patterns of real-world systems. However, the sheer volume of modern graph data and the inherent complexity of the temporal dimension pose significant challenges to scalable community detection algorithms. Addressing this gap, our work explores the limited landscape of scalable distributed-memory parallel methods specifically designed for dynamic network community detection. We propose a novel parallel algorithm, DyG-DPCD (Dynamic Graph Distributed Parallel Community Detection), to detect communities in dynamic networks using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) framework. We present a vertex-centric approach, allowing us to detect communities through local optimization. Furthermore, we enhance our baseline algorithm by incorporating three heuristics, which improve the algorithm’s performance significantly while maintaining the quality of the solutions. We demonstrate the efficiency of our algorithm by experimenting on several real-world large-scale networks with hundreds of millions of edges spanning diverse domains. Notably, DyG-DPCD achieves speedups between 25× and 30× for large networks that we experimented on using NERSC compute nodes. In conclusion, our algorithm outperforms the STINGER parallel re-agglomeration algorithm by 30×.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A Julia Framework for Graph-Structured Nonlinear Optimization

Graph theory provides a convenient framework for modeling and solving structured optimization problems. Under this framework, the modeler can arrange/assemble the components of an optimization model (variables, constraints, objective functions, and data) within nodes and edges of a graph, and this representation can be used to visualize, manipulate, and solve the problem. In this work, we present a Julia framework for modeling and solving graph-structured nonlinear optimization problems. Our framework integrates the modeling package Plasmo.jl (which facilitates the construction and manipulation of graph models) and the nonlinear optimization solver MadNLP.jl (which provides capabilities for exploiting graph structures to accelerate solution). We illustrate with a simple example how model construction and manipulation can be performed in an intuitive manner using Plasmo.jl and how the model structure can be exploited by MadNLP.jl. We also demonstrate the scalability of the framework by targeting a large-scale, stochastic gas network problem that contains over 1.7 million variables.

Cole, David↗

A graph embedding‐based approach for automatic cyber‐physical power system risk assessment to prevent and mitigate threats at scale

Abstract Power systems are facing an increasing number of cyber incidents, potentially leading to damaging consequences to both physical and cyber aspects. However, the development of analytical methods for the study of large‐scale power infrastructures as cyber‐physical systems is still in its early stages. Drawing inspiration from machine‐learning techniques, the authors introduce a method inspired by the principles of graph embedding that is tailored for quantitative risk assessment and the exploration of possible mitigation strategies of large‐scale cyber‐physical power systems. The primary advantage of the graph embedding approach lies in its ability to generate numerous random walks on a graph, simulating potential access paths. Meanwhile, it enables capturing high‐dimensional structures in low‐dimensional spaces, facilitating advanced machine‐learning applications, and ensuring scalability and adaptability for comprehensive network analysis. By employing this graph embedding‐based approach, the authors present a structured and methodical framework for risk assessment in cyber‐physical systems. The proposed graph embedding‐based risk analysis framework aims to provide a more insightful perspective on cyber‐physical risk assessment and situation awareness for power systems. To validate and demonstrate its applicability, the method has been tested on two cyber‐physical power system models: the Western System Coordinating Council (WSCC) 9‐Bus System and the Illinois 200‐Bus System , thereby showing its advantages in enhancing the accuracy of risk analysis and comprehensiveness of situational awareness.

Sun, Shining↗

Gaps labeling theorem for the bubble-diamond self-similar graphs

Abstract Motivated by the appearance of fractals in several areas of physics, especially in solid state physics and the physics of aperiodic order, and in other sciences, including the quantum information theory, we present a detailed spectral analysis for a new class of fractal-type diamond graphs, referred to as bubble-diamond graphs, and provide a gap-labeling theorem in the sense of Bellissard for the corresponding probabilistic graph Laplacians using the technique of spectral decimation. Labeling the gaps in the Cantor set by the normalized eigenvalue counting function, also known as the integrated density of states, we describe the gap labels as orbits of a second dynamical system that reflects the branching parameter of the bubble construction and the decimation structure. The spectrum of the natural Laplacian on limit graphs is shown generically to be pure point supported on a Cantor set, though one particular graph has a mixture of pure point and singularly continuous components.

Physics↗

Fixed-angle conjectures for the quantum approximate optimization algorithm on regular MaxCut graphs

The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is a near-term combinatorial optimization algorithm suitable for noisy quantum devices. However, little is known about performance guarantees for p > 2. A recent work computing MaxCut performance guarantees for 3-regular graphs conjectures that any d-regular graph evaluated at particular fixed angles has an approximation ratio greater than some worst-case guarantee. In this work, we provide numerical evidence for this fixed angle conjecture for p < 12. We compute and provide these angles via numerical optimization and tensor networks. These fixed angles serve for an optimization-free version of QAOA and have universally good performance on any 3-regular graph. Heuristic evidence is presented for the fixed angle conjecture on graph ensembles, which suggests that these fixed angles are "close" to global optimum. Under the fixed angle conjecture, QAOA has a larger performance guarantee than the Goemans Williamson algorithm on 3-regular graphs for p >= 11.

Wurtz, Jonathan↗

Graph reinforcement learning for exploring model spaces beyond the standard model

We present a methodology for performing scans of beyond the standard model (BSM) parameter spaces with reinforcement learning. We identify a novel procedure using graph neural networks that is capable of exploring spaces of models without the user specifying a fixed particle content, allowing broad classes of BSM models to be explored—in theory, the technique is applicable to nearly any model space with a prespecified gauge group. We provide a generic procedure by which a suitable graph grammar can be developed for any BSM model that features user-specified symmetry groups and a finite number of different possible particle species, the use of which is applicable to a variety of machine learning tasks over the actions of BSM theories beyond our particular reinforcement learning use case. As a proof of concept, we construct the graph grammar for theories with vectorlike leptons that may or may not be charged under a dark U ( 1 ) group, inspired by portal matter extensions of the sub-GeV vector portal/kinetic mixing simplified dark matter models. We then use this graph grammar to create a reinforcement learning environment tasked with creating models with these vectorlike leptons that are consistent with a list of a variety of precision observables. The reinforcement learning agent succeeds in developing models that can address the observed muon anomalous magnetic moment discrepancy while remaining consistent with flavor violation and electroweak precision observables, including both constructions that have previously been studied as well as new models that have not, to our knowledge, previously been identified. By inspecting the resulting ensembles of models that the agent produces and experimenting with different configurations for our reinforcement learning environment and graph grammar, we also infer various lessons about the development of these environments that can be transferable to reinforcement learning scans of more complicated model spaces and comment on future directions for the development of this technique into a more mature tool. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Wojcik, George N.↗