The quaternary full Heusler compound Mn{sub 2-x}Co{sub x}VAl with x = 1 is predicted to be a half-metallic antiferromagnet. Thin films of the quaternary compounds with x = 0-2 were prepared by dc and RF magnetron co-sputtering on heated MgO (0 0 1) substrates. The magnetic structure was examined by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and the chemical disorder was characterized by x-ray diffraction. Ferrimagnetic coupling of V to Mn was observed for Mn{sub 2}VAl (x = 0). For x = 0.5, we also found ferrimagnetic order with V and Co antiparallel to Mn. The observed reduced magnetic moments are interpreted with the help of band structure calculations in the coherent potential approximation. Mn{sub 2}VAl is very sensitive to disorder involving Mn, because nearest-neighbour Mn atoms couple antiferromagnetically. Co{sub 2}VAl has B2 order and has reduced magnetization. In the cases with x {ge} 0.9 conventional ferromagnetism was observed, closely related to the atomic disorder in these compounds.

In a recent paper, S. M. Lund, A. Friedman, and G. Bazouin, Sheet beam model for intense space-charge: with application to Debye screening and the distribution of particle oscillation frequencies in a thermal equilibrium beam, in press, Phys. Rev. Special Topics - Accel. and Beams (2011), a 1D sheet beam model was extensively analyzed. In this complementary paper, we present details of a numerical procedure developed to construct the self-consistent electrostatic potential and density profile of a thermal equilibrium sheet beam distribution. This procedure effectively circumvents pathologies which can prevent use of standard numerical integration techniques when space-charge intensity is high. The procedure employs transformations and is straightforward to implement with standard numerical methods and produces accurate solutions which can be applied to thermal equilibria with arbitrarily strong space-charge intensity up to the applied focusing limit.

A Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) linac system has been developed to provide a single pulse of 2 MeV protons with a beam pulse width of {approx}300 ps and a charge of 30 pC, either for injection into a pulsed Dielectric Wall Accelerator or for bombardment of a target to produce a fast neutron pulse. The 1.2 m long RFQ structure operates at 425 MHz and bunches and accelerates a single 2.35 ns beam pulse injected into it at 35 keV using a parallel plate deflector placed directly in front of the RFQ entrance. The input acceptance properties of the RFQ allow a simple dc bias voltage on the plates to block acceleration of the unwanted beam, with a short rf voltage pulse applied to null the deflection field for the ions within the 8 mm 'kicker' plate length. The use of the RFQ as the accelerating structure allows one to efficiently produce a large charge in a single sub-ns bunch. In addition, the kicker can also be used without the dc bias voltage to produce a 'notch' in the normal RFQ output beam for synchrotron injection.

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In our manuscript, we present a high-quality genome sequence of the Arabidopsis thaliana relative, Arabidopsis lyrata, produced by dideoxy sequencing. We have performed the usual types of genome analysis (gene annotation, dN/dS studies etc. etc.), but this is relegated to the Supporting Information. Instead, we focus on what was a major motivation for sequencing this genome, namely to understand how A. thaliana lost half its genome in a few million years and lived to tell the tale. The rather surprising conclusion is that there is not a single genomic feature that accounts for the reduced genome, but that every aspect centromeres, intergenic regions, transposable elements, gene family number is affected through hundreds of thousands of cuts. This strongly suggests that overall genome size in itself is what has been under selection, a suggestion that is strongly supported by our demonstration (using population genetics data from A. thaliana) that new deletions seem to be driven to fixation.

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In reference 1 the authors described {gamma}-ray holdup assay of a Mossbauer spectroscopy instrument where they utilized two axial symmetric cylindrical shell acquisitions and two disk source acquisitions to determine Am-241 and Np-237 contamination. The measured contents of the two species were determined using a general detector efficiency calibration taken from a 12-inch point source.2 The authors corrected the raw spectra for container absorption as well as for geometry corrections to transform the calibration curve to the applicable axial symmetric cylindrical source - and disk source - of contamination. The authors derived the geometry corrections with exact calculus that are shown in equations (1) and (2) of our Experimental section. A cylindrical shell (oven source) acquisition configuration is described in reference 3, where the authors disclosed this configuration to gain improved sensitivity for holdup measure of U-235 in a ten-chamber oven. The oven was a piece of process equipment used in the Savannah River Plant M-Area Uranium Fuel Fabrication plant for which a U-235 holdup measurement was necessary for its decontamination and decommissioning in 2003.4 In reference 4 the authors calibrated a bare NaI detector for these U-235 holdup measurements. In references 5 and 6 the authors calibrated a bare …

Fungi play important roles across the range of current and future biofuel production processes. From crop/feedstock health to plant biomass saccharification, enzyme production to bioprocesses for producing ethanol, higher alcohols or future hydrocarbon biofuels, fungi are involved. Research and development are underway to understand the underlying biological processes and improve them to make bioenergy production efficient on an industrial scale. Genomics is the foundation of the systems biology approach that is being used to accelerate the research and development efforts across the spectrum of topic areas that impact biofuels production. In this review, we discuss past, current and future advances made possible by genomic analyses of the fungi that impact plant/feedstock health, degradation of lignocellulosic biomass and fermentation of sugars to ethanol, hydrocarbon biofuels and renewable chemicals.

Mycoparasitism, a lifestyle where one fungus is parasitic on another fungus has special relevance when the prey is a plant pathogen, providing a strategy for biological control of pests for plant protection. Probably, the most studied biocontrol agents are species of the genus Hypocrea/Trichoderma.

Article hypothesizing that lipoxygenase (LOX) participated in the metabolism of PU-NAEs through the formation of NAE-oxylipins. The data suggests that Arabidopsis LOXs indeed compete with FAAH to metabolize PU-NAEs during seedling establishment. Identification of endogenous amide-conjugated oxylipins suggests potential significance of these metabolites in vivo, and FAAH mutants may offer opportunities to address this in the future.

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The Workshop on Accelerators for Heavy Ion Fusion was held at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory May 23-26, 2011. The workshop began with plenary sessions to review the state of the art in HIF (heavy ion fusion), followed by parallel working groups, and concluded with a plenary session to review the results. There were five working groups: IFE (inertial fusion energy) targets, RF approach to HIF, induction accelerator approach to HIF, chamber and driver interface, ion sources and injectors.

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The Genome-Linked Application for Metabolic Maps (GLAMM) is a unified web interface for visualizing metabolic networks, reconstructing metabolic networks from annotated genome data, visualizing experimental data in the context of metabolic networks, and investigating the construction of novel, transgenic pathways. This simple, user-friendly interface is tightly integrated with the comparative genomics tools of MicrobesOnline. GLAMM is available for free to the scientific community at glamm.lbl.gov.

The large electron affinity of InN, close to 6 eV and the largest of any III-V semiconductor, creates a strong driving force for native donor formation, both in the bulk and at surfaces and interfaces. Moreover, all InN surfaces, regardless of crystal orientation or doping, have been observed to have a surface accumulation layer of electrons, which interferes with standard electrical measurements. For these reasons, until recently, it was uncertain whether or not compensation by donor defects would prevent “real” p-type activity (i.e. existence of sufficiently shallow acceptors and mobile holes). A coordinated experimental approach using a combination of electrical (Hall effect) and electrothermal (Seebeck coefficient) measurements will be described that allows definitive evaluation of carrier transport in InN. In Mg-doped InN films, the sensitivity of thermopower to bulk hole conduction, combined with modeling of the parallel conducting layers (surface/bulk/interface), enables quantitative measurement of the free hole concentration and mobility. In undoped (n-type) material, combined Hall and thermopower measurements, along with a considering of the scattering mechanisms, leads to a quantitative understanding of the crucial role of charged line defects in limiting electron transport.

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Small particles have been at the heart of nanoscience since the birth of the field and now stand ready to make significant contributions to the big challenges of energy, health and sustainability. Atomic clusters show exquisite size-dependent electronic and magnetic properties and offer a new level of control in catalyses, sensors and biochips; functionalised nanocrystals offer remarkable optical properties and diverse applications in electronic devices, solar energy, and therapy. Both areas are complemented by a raft of recent advances in fabrication, characterization, and performance of a diversity of nanomaterials from the single atom level to nanowires, nanodevices, and biologically-inspired nanosystems. The goal of the 2011 Gordon Conference is thus to continue and enhance the interdisciplinary tradition of this series and discuss the most recent advances, fundamental scientific questions, and emerging applications of clusters, nanocrystals, and nanostructures. A single conference covering all aspects of nanoscience from fundamental issues to applications has the potential to create new ideas and stimulate cross fertilization. The meeting will therefore provide a balance among the three sub-components of the conference, true to its title, with a selection of new topics added to reflect rapid advances in the field. The open atmosphere of a Gordon conference, emphasizing …

Modern scientific datasets present numerous data management and analysis challenges. State-of-the- art index and query technologies such as FastBit can significantly improve accesses to these datasets by augmenting the user data with indexes and other secondary information. However, a challenge is that the indexes assume the relational data model but the scientific data generally follows the array data model. To match the two data models, we design a generic mapping mechanism and implement an efficient input and output interface for reading and writing the data and their corresponding indexes. To take advantage of the emerging many-core architectures, we also develop a parallel strategy for indexing using threading technology. This approach complements our on-going MPI-based parallelization efforts. We demonstrate the flexibility of our software by applying it to two of the most commonly used scientific data formats, HDF5 and NetCDF. We present two case studies using data from a particle accelerator model and a global climate model. We also conducted a detailed performance study using these scientific datasets. The results show that FastQuery speeds up the query time by a factor of 2.5x to 50x, and it reduces the indexing time by a factor of 16 on 24 cores.

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