Video from the Fall 2018 3 Minute Thesis (3MT®) Final Competition. In this video, Sujata Argawal presents her research methods, findings, and its significance in non-technical language.

Article describes how, although pennycress, a winter annual, could be grown as a dedicated bioenergy crop, an increase in its seed oil content is required to improve its economic competitiveness. In this work, the authors combined biomass composition with metabolomic and transcriptomic studies of developing embryos from 22 pennycress natural variants to identify targets for oil improvement.

Article evaluating the metabolic and transcriptional responses to AtWRI1 and AtDGAT1 expression in soybean seeds.

Article describes how analysis of FAAHs from multiple angiosperm species, which revealed two conserved phylogenetic groups that differed in key conserved residues in the substrate binding pocket. The authors combined computational and biochemical approaches to compare the structural and enzymatic properties of two FAAH isoforms in the legume Medicago truncatula designated MtFAAH1 MtFAAH2a.

Article studying Hydrogen-bonded pyridine–water mixtures by a time-frequency resolved coherent Raman spectroscopic technique.

This article presents an end-to-end functional bidirectional deep-learning (DL) model for three-dimensional chiral metamaterial design and optimization. This ML model utilizes multitask joint learning features to recognize, generalize, and explore in detail the nontrivial relationship between the metamaterials’ geometry and their chiroptical response, eliminating the need for auxiliary networks or equivalent approaches to stabilize the physically relevant output. This model efficiently realizes both forward and inverse retrieval tasks with great precision, offering a promising tool for iterative computational design tasks in complex physical systems. Other potential applications include photodetectors, polarization-resolved imaging, and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy.

Article describes an experiment in which a hot-electron-enabled route to controlling light with dissipative loss compensation in semiconductor quantum light emitters has been realized for tunable quantum optoelectronic devices via a two-species plasmon system.

This article presents a novel method of in-situ investigation of the device corrosion process to capture the real time mechanistic information not obtained in standard reliability testing.

Video from the Fall 2018 3 Minute Thesis (3MT®) Final Competition. In this video, Muthappan Asokan presents his research methods, findings, and its significance in non-technical language.

Article describes how the intramolecular hydrogen-shift rate coefficient of the CH3SCH2O2 (methylthiomethylperoxy, MSP) radical, a product formed in the oxidation of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), was measured using a pulsed laser photolysis flow tube reactor coupled to a high-resolution time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer that measured the formation of the DMS degradation end product HOOCH2SCHO. Measurements performed over the temperature range of 314–433 K yielded a hydrogen-shift rate coefficient of k1(T) = (2.39 ± 0.7) × 109 exp(−(7278 ± 99)/T) s–1 Arrhenius expression and a value extrapolated to 298 K of 0.06 s–1.

This article explores restoration, rather than protection, being the basis for developing a watershed level strategy for improving water quality in urbanizing watersheds.This study uses a geographical information system (GIS) approach that utilizes riparian characteristics extracted from 40-meter wide corridors centered on streams and rivers. The model was applied to 90 sub-watersheds in the watershed of an important drinking water reservoir in north central Texas, USA.

Article examining the population mobility and air quality before and after the lockdown (mandated restriction of activity) during the public health response to COVID-19. This article is part of the Special Issue on COVID-19.

This article devised, fabricated, and tested a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) film based electrochemical sensor for selective determination of tyramine.

Article reporting the three-dimensional crystal structures of the signal-terminating enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) from Arabidopsis in its apo and ligand-bound forms at 2.1- and 3.2-Å resolutions, respectively.

Rate coefficients, k, for the gas-phase reaction of the OH radical with (E)CF3CHCHCF3 ((E)-1,1,1,4,4,4-hexafluoro-2-butene, HFO-1336mzz(E)) were measured over a range of temperatures (211−374 K) and bath gas pressures (20−300 Torr; He, N2) using a pulsed laser photolysis−laser-induced fluorescence (PLP−LIF) technique. k1(T) was independent of pressure over this range of conditions with k1(296 K) = (1.31 ± 0.15) × 10−13 cm3 molecule−1 s−1 and k1(T) = (6.94 ± 0.80) × 10−13exp[−(496 ± 10)/T] cm 3 molecule−1 s−1, where the uncertainties are 2σ, and the pre-exponential term includes estimated systematic error. Rate coefficients for the OD reaction were also determined over a range of temperatures (262−374 K) at 100 Torr (He). The OD rate coefficients were ∼15% greater than the OH values and showed similar temperature dependent behavior with k2(T) = (7.52 ± 0.44) × 10−13exp[−(476 ± 20)/T] and k2(296 K) = (1.53 ± 0.15) × 10−13 cm3 molecule−1 s−1. The rate coefficients for reaction 1 were also measured using a relative rate technique between 296 and 375 K with k1(296 K) measured to be (1.22 ± 0.1) × 10−13 cm3 molecule−1 s−1, in agreement with the PLP−LIF results. In addition, the 296 K rate coefficient for the O3 +( E)CF3CHCHCF3 reaction …

Article describes how genetic variation accounts for much of the risk for developing a substance use disorder, but the underlying genetic factors and their genetic effector mechanisms are mostly unknown. To test their genetic hypothesis, the authors generated and characterized Nav1 knockout mice.

Article examines the covalent character of the interaction between the metal cation and the oxygen ligands for two Fe oxides with different nominal oxidation states, Fe(II)O, and Fe(III)₂O₃.

Article analyzes the origins of the complex Fe 2p X-Ray Photoelectron Spectra (XPS) of hematite (α-Fe₂O₃) and is related to the character of the bonding in this compound. This analysis provides a new and novel view of the reasons for XPS binding energies (BEs) and BE shifts, which deepens the current understanding and interpretation of the physical and chemical significance of the XPS. This article is part of the JCP Special Topic on Oxide Chemistry and Catalysis.

Article establishing a theoretical method which is able to relate the binding energy shifts to the electronic structure of a material. In order to establish such a methodology, the CaO(100) surface to bulk core-level binding energy shifts are studied with Hartree-Fock and density-functional theory methods using both cluster and periodic slab models.

This article presents a detailed analysis of the orbital energies of a representative cluster model of a high spin metal oxide, FeO, that has been made to determine the importance of different embedding schemes to represent the extended oxide crystal. The embedding of cluster models of oxides with point charges and with extensions of the embedding which take into account the spatial extent of the cations is examined with an emphasis on the consequences of this embedding for the relative ionization and excitation energies that are measured in core-level spectroscopies.

Article discusses how China implemented the first phase of its National Healthy Cities pilot program from 2016-20. Authors recommend aligning the Healthy Cities initiative in China with strategic national and global level agendas such as Healthy China 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by providing an integrative governance framework to facilitate a coherent intersectoral program to systemically improve population health.

Article describes how induction of high photosynthetic capacity is a key acclimation response to high light for many herbaceous dicot plants. Here, a systems biology approach was utilized to characterize the induction of high photosynthetic capacity in strongly and weakly acclimating Arabidopsis thaliana accessions.

This article characterizes two noncatalytic chalcone isomerase (CHI)-like proteins using engineered yeast harboring all genes required for demethylxanthohumol (DMX) production.

Article describes study testing the hypothesis that epi-brassinolide (eBL) might enhance root gravitropism through its effects on filamentous-actin (F-actin) in plants.