This article is a response to an article by M. Adell et al. [Phy. Rev. Lett. 94, 139701 (2005)] about semiconductor-based spintronics research.

Article on heterodimeric geranyl(geranyl)diphosphate synthase from hop (Humulus lupulus) and the evolution of monoterpene biosynthesis.

Article discussing two different approaches, referred to as renewal and modulation, to generate time series with a nonexponential distribution of waiting times.

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We have developed complementary soft x-ray scattering and reflectometry techniques that allow for the morphological analysis of thin polymer films without resorting to chemical modification or isotopic 2 labeling. With these techniques, we achieve significant, x-ray energy-dependent contrast between carbon atoms in different chemical environments using soft x-ray resonance at the carbon edge. Because carbon-containing samples absorb strongly in this region, the scattering length density depends on both the real and imaginary parts of the atomic scattering factors. Using a model polymer film of poly(styrene-b-methyl methacrylate), we show that the soft x-ray reflectivity data is much more sensitive to these atomic scattering factors than the soft x-ray scattering data. Nevertheless, fits to both types of data yield useful morphological details on the polymer?slamellar structure that are consistent with each other and with literature values.

This paper describes the status of the stadium-sized National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's largest laser system and first operational multi-megajoule laser. The 192-beam NIF, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), is 96% complete and scheduled for completion in March 2009. The NIF laser will produce nanosecond laser pulses with energies up to approximately 4 MJ in the infrared (laser wavelength = 1.053-{micro}m) and 2MJ in the ultraviolet (laser wavelength = 0.35-{micro}m). With these energies NIF will access conditions of pressure and temperature not previously available on earth, allowing it to conduct experiments in support of the nation's national security, energy, and fundamental science goals. First ignition experiments at NIF are scheduled for FY2010. This paper will provide an overview of the NIF laser and the ignition, energy, and fundamental science activities at NIF.

Bitmap indexes are known to be efficient for ad-hoc range queries that are common in data warehousing and scientific applications. However, they suffer from the curse of cardinality, that is, their efficiency deteriorates as attribute cardinalities increase. A number of strategies have been proposed, but none of them addresses the problem adequately. In this paper, we propose a novel binned bitmap index that greatly reduces the cost to answer queries, and therefore breaks the curse of cardinality. The key idea is to augment the binned index with an Order-preserving Bin-based Clustering (OrBiC) structure. This data structure significantly reduces the I/O operations needed to resolve records that cannot be resolved with the bitmaps. To further improve the proposed index structure, we also present a strategy to create single-valued bins for frequent values. This strategy reduces index sizes and improves query processing speed. Overall, the binned indexes with OrBiC great improves the query processing speed, and are 3 - 25 times faster than the best available indexes for high-cardinality data.

The adsorption and dissociation of water on a Ru(0001) surface containing a small amount ({le} 3 %) of carbon impurities was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Various surface species are formed depending on the temperature. These include molecular H{sub 2}O, H{sub 2}O-C complexes, H, O, OH and CH. Clusters of either pure H{sub 2}O or mixed H{sub 2}O-OH species are also formed. Each of these species produces a characteristic contrast in the STM images and can be identified by experiment and by ab initio total energy calculations coupled with STM image simulations. Manipulation of individual species via excitation of vibrational modes with the tunneling electrons has been used as supporting evidence.

A summary of the latest results of Standard Model Higgs boson searches from CDF and D0 presented at the DIS 2007 conference is reported in this paper. All analyses presented use 1 fb{sup -1} of Tevatron data. The strategy of the different analyses is determined by the Higgs production mechanism and decay channel.

One way to reduce the effects of anthropogenic greenhousegases on climate is to inject carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrialsources into deep geological formations such as brine formations ordepleted oil or gas reservoirs. Research has and is being conducted toimprove understanding of factors affecting particular aspects ofgeological CO2 storage, such as performance, capacity, and health, safetyand environmental (HSE) issues, as well as to lower the cost of CO2capture and related processes. However, there has been less emphasis todate on system-level analyses of geological CO2 storage that considergeological, economic, and environmental issues by linking detailedrepresentations of engineering components and associated economic models.The objective of this study is to develop a system-level model forgeological CO2 storage, including CO2 capture and separation,compression, pipeline transportation to the storage site, and CO2injection. Within our system model we are incorporating detailedreservoir simulations of CO2 injection and potential leakage withassociated HSE effects. The platform of the system-level modelingisGoldSim [GoldSim, 2006]. The application of the system model is focusedon evaluating the feasibility of carbon sequestration with enhanced gasrecovery (CSEGR) in the Rio Vista region of California. The reservoirsimulations are performed using a special module of the TOUGH2 simulator,EOS7C, for multicomponent gas mixtures of methane and CO2 or methane andnitrogen. …

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We report the results of charge transport studies on single CdTe nanocrystals contacted via evaporated Pd electrodes. Device charging energy, E{sub c}, monitored as a function of electrode separation drops suddenly at separations below {approx}55 nm. This drop can be explained by chemical changes induced by the metal electrodes. This explanation is corroborated by ensemble X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies of CdTe films as well as single particle measurements by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-Rays (EDX). Similar to robust optical behavior obtained when Nanocrystals are coated with a protective shell, we find that a protective SiO2 layer deposited between the nanocrystal and the electrode prevents interface reactions and an associated drop in E{sub c,max}. This observation of interface reactivity and its effect on electrical properties has important implications for the integration of nanocrystals into conventional fabrication techniques and may enable novel nano-materials.

A new encapsulation method was investigated in an attempt to develop an improved palladium packing material for hydrogen isotope separation. Porous wall hollow glass microspheres (PWHGMs) were produced by using a flame former, heat treating and acid leaching. The PWHGMs were then filled with palladium salt using a soak-and-dry process. The palladium salt was reduced at high temperature to leave palladium inside the microspheres.

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A permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of a physical system would require time-reversal (T) violation, which is equivalent to charge-conjugation-parity (CP) violation by CPT invariance. Experimental programs are currently pushing the limits on EDMs in atoms, nuclei, and the neutron to regimes of fundamental theoretical interest. Nuclear EDMs can be studied at ion storage rings with sensitivities that may be competitive with atomic and neutron measurements. Here we calculate the magnitude of the CP-violating EDM of {sup 3}He and the expected sensitivity of such a measurement to the underlying CP-violating interactions. Assuming that the coupling constants are of comparable magnitude for {pi}-, {rho}-, and {omega}-exchanges, we find that the pion-exchange contribution dominates. Finally, our results suggest that a measurement of the {sup 3}He EDM is complementary to the planned neutron and deuteron experiments, and could provide a powerful constraint for the theoretical models of the pion-nucleon P,T-violating interaction.

Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is a remarkable method for synthesizing and consolidating a large variety of both novel and traditional materials. The process typically uses moderate uni-axial pressures (<100 MPa) in conjunction with a pulsing on-off DC current during operation. There are a number of mechanisms proposed to account for the enhanced sintering abilities of the SPS process. Of these mechanisms, the one most commonly put forth and the one that draws the most controversy involves the presence of momentary plasma generated between particles. This study employees three separate experimental methods in an attempt to determine the presence or absence of plasma during SPS. The methods employed include: in-situ atomic emission spectroscopy, direct visual observation and ultra-fast in-situ voltage measurements. It was found using these experimental techniques that no plasma is present during the SPS process. This result was confirmed using several different powders across a wide spectrum of SPS conditions.

The NanoSIMS 50 combines unprecedented spatial resolution (as good as 50 nm) with ultra-high sensitivity (minimum detection limit of {approx}200 atoms). The NanoSIMS 50 incorporates an array of detectors, enabling simultaneous collection of 5 species originating from the same sputtered volume of a sample. The primary ion beam (Cs{sup +} or O{sup -}) can be scanned across the sample to produce quantitative secondary ion images. This capability for multiple isotope imaging with high spatial resolution provides a novel new approach to the study of biological materials. Studies can be made of sub-regions of tissues, mammalian cells, and bacteria. Major, minor and trace element distributions can be mapped on a submicron scale, growth and metabolism can be tracked using stable isotope labels, and biogenic origin can be determined based on composition. We have applied this technique extensively to mammalian and prokaryotic cells and bacterial spores. The NanoSIMS technology enables the researcher to interrogate the fate of molecules of interest within cells and organs through elemental and isotopic labeling. Biological applications at LLNL will be discussed.

Finite element method was used to analyze the three-point bend experimental data of A533B-1 pressure vessel steel obtained by Sherry, Lidbury, and Beardsmore [1] from -160 to -45 C within the ductile-brittle transition regime. As many researchers have shown, the failure stress ({sigma}{sub f}) of the material could be approximated as a constant. The characteristic length, or the critical distance (r{sub c}) from the crack tip, at which {sigma}{sub f} is reached, is shown to be temperature dependent based on the crack tip stress field calculated by the finite element method. With the J-A{sub 2} two-parameter constraint theory in fracture mechanics, the fracture toughness (J{sub C} or K{sub JC}) can be expressed as a function of the constraint level (A{sub 2}) and the critical distance r{sub c}. This relationship is used to predict the fracture toughness of A533B-1 in the ductile-brittle transition regime with a constant {sigma}{sub f} and a set of temperature-dependent r{sub c}. It can be shown that the prediction agrees well with the test data for wide range of constraint levels from shallow cracks (a/W= 0.075) to deep cracks (a/W= 0.5), where a is the crack length and W is the specimen width.

A high-order finite volume algorithm is developed for the Fokker-Planck Operator (FPO) describing Coulomb collisions in strongly magnetized plasmas. The algorithm is based on a general fourth-order reconstruction scheme for an unstructured grid in the velocity space spanned by parallel velocity and magnetic moment. The method provides density conservation and high-order-accurate evaluation of the FPO independent of the choice of the velocity coordinates. As an example, a linearized FPO in constant-of-motion coordinates, i.e. the total energy and the magnetic moment, is developed using the present algorithm combined with a cut-cell merging procedure. Numerical tests include the Spitzer thermalization problem and the return to isotropy for distributions initialized with velocity space loss cones. Utilization of the method for a nonlinear FPO is straightforward but requires evaluation of the Rosenbluth potentials.

The integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) is widely viewed as a promising technology for the large scale production of energy in a carbon constrained world. These cycles, which include gasification, contaminant removal, water-gas shift, CO2 capture and compression, and combustion of the reduced-carbon fuel gas in a turbine, often have significant efficiency advantages over conventional combustion technologies. A CO2 selective membrane capable of maintaining performance at conditions approaching those of low temperature water-gas shift (260oC) could facilitate the production of carbon-neutral energy by simultaneously driving the shift reaction to completion and concentrating CO2 for sequestration. Supported ionic liquid membranes (SILMs) have been previously evaluated for this application and determined to be physically and chemically stable to temperatures in excess of 300oC. These membranes were based on ionic liquids which interacted physically with CO2 and diminished considerably in selectivity at higher temperatures. To alleviate this problem, the original ionic liquids were replaced with ionic liquids able to form chemical complexes with CO2. These complexing ionic liquid membranes have a local maximum in selectivity which is observed at increasing temperatures for more stable complexes. Efforts are currently underway to develop ionic liquids with selectivity maxima at temperatures greater than 75oC, the best …

A methodology is developed to calculate Cr-evaporation rates from Cr2O3 with a flat planar geometry. Variables include temperature, total pressure, gas velocity, and gas composition. The methodology was applied to solid-oxide, fuel cell conditions for metallic interconnects and to advanced-steam turbines conditions. The high velocities and pressures of the advanced steam turbine led to evaporation predictions as high as 5.18 9 10-8 kg/m2/s of CrO2(OH)2(g) at 760 °C and 34.5 MPa. This is equivalent to 0.080 mm per year of solid Cr loss. Chromium evaporation is expected to be an important oxidation mechanism with the types of nickel-base alloys proposed for use above 650 °C in advanced-steam boilers and turbines. It is shown that laboratory experiments, with much lower steam velocities and usually much lower total pressure than found in advanced steam turbines, would best reproduce chromium-evaporation behavior with atmospheres that approach either O2 + H2O or air + H2O with 57% H2O.

The authors present the results of the first hadron collider search for heavy, long-lived neutralinos that decay via {tilde {chi}}{sub 1}{sup 0} {yields} {gamma}{tilde G} in gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking models. Using an integrated luminosity of 570 {+-} 34 pb{sup -1} of p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV, they select {gamma}+jet+missing transverse energy candidate events based on the arrival time of a high-energy photon at the electromagnetic calorimeter as measured with a timing system that was recently installed on the CDF II detector. They find 2 events, consistent with the background estimate of 1.3 {+-} 0.7 events. While the search strategy does not rely on model-specific dynamics, they set cross section limits and place the world-best 95% C.L. lower limit on the {tilde {chi}}{sub 1}{sup 0} mass of 101 GeV/c{sup 2} at {tau}{sub {tilde {chi}}{sub 1}{sup 0}} = 5 ns.

We present valence photoelectron emission spectra of liquid water in comparison with gas-phase water, ice close to the melting point, low temperature amorphous and crystalline ice. All aggregation states have major electronic structure changes relative to the free molecule, with rehybridization and development of bonding and anti-bonding states accompanying the hydrogen bond formation. Sensitivity to the local structural order, most prominent in the shape and splitting of the occupied 3a{sub 1} orbital, is understood from the electronic structure averaging over various geometrical structures, and reflects the local nature of the orbital interaction.