The Atomic and Molecular Interactions Gordon Conferences is justifiably recognized for its broad scope, touching on areas ranging from fundamental gas phase and gas-condensed matter collision dynamics, to laser-molecule interactions, photophysics, and unimolecular decay processes. The meeting has traditionally involved scientists engaged in fundamental research in gas and condensed phases and those who apply these concepts to systems of practical chemical and physical interest. A key tradition in this meeting is the strong mixing of theory and experiment throughout. The program for 2010 conference continues these traditions. At the 2010 AMI GRC, there will be talks in 5 broadly defined and partially overlapping areas of intermolecular interactions and chemical dynamics: (1) Photoionization and Photoelectron Dynamics; (2) Quantum Control and Molecules in Strong Fields; (3) Photochemical Dynamics; (4) Complex Molecules and Condensed Phases; and (5) Clusters and Reaction Dynamics. These areas encompass many of the most productive and exciting areas of chemical physics, including both reactive and nonreactive processes, intermolecular and intramolecular energy transfer, and photodissociation and unimolecular processes. Gas phase dynamics, van der Waals and cluster studies, laser-matter interactions and multiple potential energy surface phenomena will all be discussed.

Catalysis is a key technology for improving the quality of life while simultaneously reducing the adverse impact of human activities on the environment. The discovery of new catalytic processes and the improvement of existing ones are also critically important for securing the nation's energy supply. The GRC on Catalysis is considered one the most prestigious conference for catalysis research, bringing together leading researchers from both academia, industry and national labs to discuss the latest, most exciting research in catalysis and the future directions for the field. The 2010 GRC on Catalysis will follow time-honored traditions and feature invited talks from the world's leading experts in the fundamentals and applications of catalytic science and technology. We plan to have increased participation from industry. The extended discussions in the company of outstanding thinkers will stimulate and foster new science. The conference will include talks in the following areas: Alternative feedstocks for chemicals and fuels, Imaging and spectroscopy, Design of novel catalysts, Catalyst preparation fundamentals, Molecular insights through theory, Surface Science, Catalyst stability and dynamics. In 2010, the Catalysis conference will move to a larger conference room with a new poster session area that will allow 40 posters per session. The dorm rooms …

The 2010 GRC on Mitochondria & Chloroplasts will assemble an international group of molecular, structural and cellular biologists, biochemists and geneticists investigating a broad spectrum of fundamental problems related to the biology of these organelles in animal, plant and fungal cells. This field has witnessed an extraordinary expansion in recent years, fueled by the discovery of the role of mitochondria in human disease and ageing, and of the synergy of chloroplasts and mitochondria in energetic output, the identification of novel factors involved in organelle division, movement, signaling and acclimation to changing environmental conditions, and by the powerful tools of organelle proteomics. The 2010 GRC will highlight advances in the elucidation of molecular mechanisms of organelle biogenesis including regulation of genome structure, evolution and expression, organellar protein import, assembly and turnover of respiratory and photosynthetic complexes, bidirectional signaling between organelles and nucleus, organelle morphology and dynamics, and the integration of cellular metabolism. We will also explore progress in mechanisms of disease and ageing/ senescence in animals and plants. The organellar field has forged new fronts toward a global and comprehensive understanding of mitochondrial and chloroplast biology at the molecular level. Many of the molecules under study in model organisms are responsible …

The GRC series on Membranes: Materials and Processes have gained significant international recognition, attracting leading experts on membranes and other related areas from around the world. It is now known for being an interdisciplinary and synergistic meeting. The next summer's edition will keep with the past tradition and include new, exciting aspects of material science, chemistry, chemical engineering, computer simulation with participants from academia, industry and national laboratories. This edition will focus on cutting edge topics of membranes for addressing several grand challenges facing our society, in particular, energy, water, health and more generally sustainability. During the technical program, we want to discuss new membrane structure and characterization techniques, the role of advanced membranes and membrane-based processes in sustainability/environment (including carbon dioxide capture), membranes in water processes, and membranes for biological and life support applications. As usual, the informal nature of the meeting, excellent quality of the oral presentations and posters, and ample opportunity to meet many outstanding colleagues make this an excellent conference for established scientists as well as for students. A Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on the weekend prior to the GRC meeting will provide young researchers an opportunity to present their work and network with outstanding experts. …

The Plant Molecular Biology Conference has traditionally covered a breadth of exciting topics and the 2010 conference will continue in that tradition. Emerging concerns about food security have inspired a program with three main themes: (1) genomics, natural variation and breeding to understand adaptation and crop improvement, (2) hormonal cross talk, and (3) plant/microbe interactions. There are also sessions on epigenetics and proteomics/metabolomics. Thus this conference will bring together a range of disciplines, will foster the exchange of ideas and enable participants to learn of the latest developments and ideas in diverse areas of plant biology. The conference provides an excellent opportunity for individuals to discuss their research because additional speakers in each session will be selected from submitted abstracts. There will also be a poster session each day for a two-hour period prior to dinner. In particular, this conference plays a key role in enabling students and postdocs (the next generation of research leaders) to mingle with pioneers in multiple areas of plant science.

The 2010 Gordon Research Conference on Polymer Physics will provide outstanding lectures and discussions in this critical field that impacts every industrial sector from electronics to transportation to medicine to textiles to energy generation and storage. Fundamental topics range from mechanical properties of soft gels to new understanding in polymer crystallization to energy conversion and transmission to simulating polymer dynamics at the nanoscale. This international conference will feature 22 invited lectures, wherein the opening 10 minutes are specifically designed for a general polymer physics audience. In addition, poster sessions and informal activities provide ample opportunity to discuss the latest advances in polymer physics. The technical content of the meeting will include new twists on traditional polymer physics topics, recent advances in previously underrepresented topics, and emerging technologies enabled by polymer physics. Here is a partially listing of targeted topics: (1) electrically-active and light-responsive polymers and polymer-based materials used in energy conversion and storage; (2) polymers with hierarchical structures including supramolecular assemblies, ion-containing polymers, and self-assembled block polymers; (3) mechanical and rheological properties of soft materials, such as hydrogels, and of heterogeneous materials, particularly microphase separated polymers and polymer nanocomposites; and (4) crystallization of polymers in dilute solutions, polymer melts, and …

The objective of the Chemistry & Biology of Tetrapyrroles Gordon Conference is to bring together researchers from diverse disciplines that otherwise would not interact. By bringing biologists, chemists, engineers and clinicians with a common interest in tetrapyrroles the conference provides a forum for cross-disciplinary ideas and collaboration. The perspective provided by biologists, chemists, and clinicians working in fields such as newly discovered defects in human porphyrin metabolism, the myriad of strategies for light harvesting in photosynthetic organisms, novel tetrapyrroles that serve as auxiliary chromophores or enzyme cofactors, synthetic strategies in the design of novel tetrapyrrole scaffolds, and tetrapyrrole based cell signaling and regulatory systems, makes this conference unique in the field. Over the years the growing evidence for the role of tetrapyrroles and their reactive intermediates in cell signaling and regulation has been of increasing importance at this conference. The 2010 conference on Chemistry & Biology of Tetrapyrroles will focus on many of these new frontiers as outlined in the preliminary program listed. Speakers will emphasize unpublished results and new findings in the field. The oral sessions will be followed by the highly interactive afternoon poster sessions. The poster sessions provide all conferees with the opportunity to present their latest …

Over the past decades, it has been well established that the mechanical behavior of materials changes when they are confined geometrically at least in one dimension to small scale. It is the aim of the 2010 Gordon Conference on 'Thin Film and Small Scale Mechanical Behavior' to discuss cutting-edge research on elastic, plastic and time-dependent deformation as well as degradation mechanisms like fracture, fatigue and wear at small scales. As in the past, the conference will benefit from contributions from fundamental studies of physical mechanisms linked to material science and engineering reaching towards application in modern applications ranging from optical and microelectronic devices and nano- or micro-electrical mechanical systems to devices for energy production and storage. The conference will feature entirely new testing methodologies and in situ measurements as well as recent progress in atomistic and micromechanical modeling. Particularly, emerging topics in the area of energy conversion and storage, such as material for batteries will be highlighted. The study of small-scale mechanical phenomena in systems related to energy production, conversion or storage offer an enticing opportunity to materials scientists, who can provide new insight and investigate these phenomena with methods that have not previously been exploited.

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Following the successful operation of the Fermilab superconducting accelerator three new higher energy accelerators were planned. They were the UNK in the Soviet Union, the LHC in Europe, and the SSC in the United States. All were expected to start producing physics about 1995. They did not. Why?

Access to special nuclear material (SNM) such as enriched uranium or plutonium is critical to the experimental validation of measurement techniques for nuclear nonproliferation applications. It is especially important that realistic quantities be available for measurements in the field. Security and safety requirements have made such access nearly impossible at many U.S. facilities. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has been able to provide kilogram quantities of SNM for in situ measurements ranging from testing of equipment in laboratory facilities, to outdoor measurements simulating real conditions, to transfer of the SNM to the customer’s facility and back for measurements in the field. The INL will be working to make SNM more widely accessible for measurements by nuclear nonproliferation projects, including those with international researchers.

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The authors report on the evolution of techniques to better model high penetrations (generally, 20% or more energy penetration) of wind energy.

Romania safely air shipped 23.7 kilograms of Russian origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent nuclear fuel from the VVR S research reactor at Magurele, Romania, to the Russian Federation in June 2009. This was the world’s first air shipment of spent nuclear fuel transported in a Type B(U) cask under existing international laws without special exceptions for the air transport licenses. This shipment was coordinated by the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return Program (RRRFR), part of the U.S. Department of Energy Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), in cooperation with the Romania National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control (CNCAN), the Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), and the Russian Federation State Corporation Rosatom. The shipment was transported by truck to and from the respective commercial airports in Romania and the Russian Federation and stored at a secure nuclear facility in Russia where it will be converted into low enriched uranium. With this shipment, Romania became the 3rd country under the RRRFR program and the 14th country under the GTRI program to remove all HEU. This paper describes the work, equipment, and approvals that were required to complete this spent fuel air shipment.

In June 2009 Romania successfully completed the world’s first air shipment of highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent nuclear fuel transported in Type B(U) casks under existing international laws and without special exceptions for the air transport licenses. Special 20-foot ISO shipping containers and cask tiedown supports were designed to transport Russian TUK 19 shipping casks for the Romanian air shipment and the equipment was certified for all modes of transport, including road, rail, water, and air. In December 2009 Libya successfully used this same equipment for a second air shipment of HEU spent nuclear fuel. Both spent fuel shipments were transported by truck from the originating nuclear facilities to nearby commercial airports, were flown by commercial cargo aircraft to a commercial airport in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and then transported by truck to their final destinations at the Production Association Mayak facility in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Both air shipments were performed under the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return Program (RRRFR) as part of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI). The Romania air shipment of 23.7 kg of HEU spent fuel from the VVR S research reactor was the last of three HEU fresh and spent fuel shipments …

This review attempts to provide integrated information at the levels of oxidative signaling mechanisms by which ethanol withdrawal (EW) provokes brain injuries and 17β-estradiol (E2) protects against it. Unmanaged sudden withdrawal from the excessive consumption of alcohol (ethanol) adversely alters neuronal integrity in vulnerable brain regions such as the cerebellum, hippocampus, or cortex.

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This paper presents a summary of design and testing of material and composites for use in radioactive material packages. These materials provide thermal protection and provide structural integrity and energy absorption to the package during normal and hypothetical accident condition events as required by Title 10 Part 71 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Testing of packages comprising these materials is summarized.

In 2009, we presented the idea of an American academy for training safeguards inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), due to the declining percentage of Americans in that international organization. In this paper we assert that there is still a compelling need for this academy. While the American Safeguards Academy would be useful in preparing and pre-training American inspectors for the IAEA, it would also be useful for preparing Americans for domestic safeguards duties in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. DOE National Laboratories, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). It is envisioned that such an academy would train graduate and post-graduate university students, DOE National Laboratory interns, and nuclear safeguards professionals in the modern equipment, safeguards measures, and approaches currently used by the IAEA. It is also envisioned that the Academy would involve the domestic nuclear industry, which could provide use of commercial nuclear facilities for tours and demonstrations of the safeguards tools and methods in actual nuclear facilities. This would be in support of the U.S. DOE National Nuclear Security Administration’s Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI). This training would also help American nuclear safeguards and non-proliferation professionals better understand the potential limitations of the …

Sponges are an ancient group of animals that diverged from other metazoans over 600 million years ago. Here we present the draft genome sequence of Amphimedon queenslandica, a demosponge from the Great Barrier Reef, and show that it is remarkably similar to other animal genomes in content, structure and organization. Comparative analysis enabled by the sponge sequence reveals genomic events linked to the origin and early evolution of animals, including the appearance, expansion, and diversification of pan-metazoan transcription factor, signaling pathway, and structural genes. This diverse 'toolkit' of genes correlates with critical aspects of all metazoan body plans, and comprises cell cycle control and growth, development, somatic and germ cell specification, cell adhesion, innate immunity, and allorecognition. Notably, many of the genes associated with the emergence of animals are also implicated in cancer, which arises from defects in basic processes associated with metazoan multicellularity.

Stimulated by an acetate-amendment field experiment conducted in 2007, anaerobic microbial populations in the aquifer at the Rifle Integrated Field Research Challenge site in Colorado reduced mobile U(VI) to insoluble U(IV). During this experiment, planktonic biomass was sampled at various time points to quantitatively evaluate proteomes. In 2008, an acetate-amended field experiment was again conducted in a similar manner to the 2007 experiment. As there was no comprehensive metagenome sequence available for use in proteomics analysis, we systematically evaluated 12 different organism genome sequences to generate sets of aggregate genomes, or “pseudo-metagenomes”, for supplying relative quantitative peptide and protein identifications. Proteomics results support previous observations of the dominance of Geobacteraceae during biostimulation using acetate as sole electron donor, and revealed a shift from an early stage of iron reduction to a late stage of iron reduction. Additionally, a shift from iron reduction to sulfate reduction was indicated by changes in the contribution of proteome information contributed by different organism genome sequences within the aggregate set. In addition, the comparison of proteome measurements made between the 2007 field experiment and 2008 field experiment revealed differences in proteome profiles. These differences may be the result of alterations in abundance and population structure …

Article on analytical solutions for a two-level system driven by a class of chirped pulses.

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