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The capture of solar energy by photosynthesis has had a most profound influence on the development and sustenance of life on earth. It is the engine that has driven the proliferation of life and, as the source of both energy and oxygen, has had a major hand in shaping the forms that life has taken. Both ancient and present day photosynthetic carbon fixation is intimately tied to issues of immediate human concern, global energy and global warming. Decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels by tapping photosynthesis in a more direct way is an attractive goal for sustainable energy. Meeting this challenge means understanding photosynthetic energy conversion at a molecular level, a task requiring perspectives ranging through all disciplines of science. Researchers in photosynthesis have a strong history of working across conventional boundaries and engaging in multidisciplinary collaborations. The Gordon conference in photosynthesis has been a key focal point for the dissemination of new results and the establishment of powerful research collaborations. In this spirit the 2009 Gordon conference on biophysical aspects of photosynthesis will bring together top international researchers from diverse and complementary disciplines, all working towards understanding how photosynthesis converts light into the stable chemical energy that powers so …

Genomic comparisons between human and distant, non-primatemammals are commonly used to identify cis-regulatory elements based onconstrained sequence evolution. However, these methods fail to detect"cryptic" functional elements, which are too weakly conserved amongmammals to distinguish from nonfunctional DNA. To address this problem,we explored the potential of deep intra-primate sequence comparisons. Wesequenced the orthologs of 558 kb of human genomic sequence, coveringmultiple loci involved in cholesterol homeostasis, in 6 nonhumanprimates. Our analysis identified 6 noncoding DNA elements displayingsignificant conservation among primates, but undetectable in more distantcomparisons. In vitro and in vivo tests revealed that at least three ofthese 6 elements have regulatory function. Notably, the mouse orthologsof these three functional human sequences had regulatory activity despitetheir lack of significant sequence conservation, indicating that they arecryptic ancestral cis-regulatory elements. These regulatory elementscould still be detected in a smaller set of three primate speciesincluding human, rhesus and marmoset. Since the human and rhesus genomesequences are already available, and the marmoset genome is activelybeing sequenced, the primate-specific conservation analysis describedhere can be applied in the near future on a whole-genome scale, tocomplement the annotation provided by more distant speciescomparisons.

Grooved surface is proposed to reduce the secondary emission yield in a dipole and wiggler magnet of International Linear Collider. An analysis of the impedance of the grooved surface based on adaptive finite element is presented in this paper. The performance of the adaptive algorithms, based on an element-element h refinement technique, is assessed. The features of the refinement indicators, adaptation criteria and error estimation parameters are discussed.

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We present the history and analysis of different wake field effects throughout the operational life of the PEP-II SLAC B-factory. Although the impedance of the high and low energy rings is small, the intense high current beams generated a lot of power. The effects from these wake fields are: heating and damage of vacuum beam chamber elements like RF seals, vacuum valves , shielded bellows, BPM buttons and ceramic tiles; vacuum spikes, vacuum instabilities and high detector background; beam longitudinal and transverse instabilities. We also discuss the methods used to eliminate these effects. Results of this analysis and the PEP-II experience may be very useful in the design of new storage rings and light sources.

Designers, implementers, and marketers of data analysis tools typically have different perspectives than users. Consequently, data analysis often find themselves using tools focused on graphics and programming concepts rather than concepts which reflect their own domain and the context of their work. Some user studies focus on usability tests late in development; others observe work activity, but fail to show how to apply that knowledge in design. This paper describes a methodology for applying observations of data analysis work activity in prototype tool design. The approach can be used both in designing improved data analysis tools, and customizing visualization environments to specific applications. We present an example of user-centered design for a prototype tool to cull large data sets. We revisit the typical graphical approach of animating a large data set from the point of view of an analysis who is culling data. Field evaluations using the prototype tool not only revealed valuable usability information, but initiated in-depth discussions about user`s work, tools, technology, and requirements.

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Fields induced by a beam and penetrated outside the beam pipe can be used for a beam diagnostic. Wires placed in longitudinal slots in the outside wall of the beam pipe can work as a beam pickup. This has very small beam-coupling impedance and avoids complications of having a feed-through. The signal can be reasonably high at low frequencies. We calculate the beam-coupling impedance due to a long longitudinal slot in the resistive wall and the signal induced in a wire placed in such a slot and shielded by a thin screen from the beam. We present a field waveform at the outer side of a beam pipe, obtained as a result of calculations and measurements. Such kind of diagnostic can be used in storage rings, synchrotron light sources, and free electron lasers, like LINAC coherent light source.

Readily accessible credit has often been cited as a necessary ingredient to open up the market for residential photovoltaic (PV) systems. Though financing does not reduce the high up-front cost of PV, by spreading that cost over some portion of the system's life, financing can certainly make PV systems more affordable. As a result, a number of states have, in the past, set up special residential loan programs targeting the installation of renewable energy systems and/or energy-efficiency improvements and often featuring low interest rates, longer terms and no-hassle application requirements. Historically, these loan programs have had mixed success (particularly for PV), for a variety of reasons, including a historical lack of homeowner interest in PV, a lack of program awareness, a reduced appeal in a low-interest-rate environment, and a tendency for early PV adopters to be wealthy and not in need of financing. Some of these barriers have begun to fade. Most notably, homeowner interest in PV has grown in some states, particularly those that offer solar rebates. The passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005), however, introduced one additional roadblock to the success of low-interest PV loan programs: a residential solar investment tax credit (ITC), subject …

Recent progress at the SPEAR3 includes the increase in stored current from 100 mA to 200 mA and top-off injection to allow beamlines to stay open during injection. Presently the booster injects 3.0 GeV beam to SPEAR3 three times a day. The stored beam decays to about 150 mA between the injections. The growing user demands are to increase the stored current to the design value of 500 mA, and to maintain it at a constant value within a percent or so. To achieve this goal the booster must inject once every few minutes. For improved injection efficiency, all RF systems at the linac, booster and SPEAR3 need to be phase-locked. The present booster RF system is basically a copy of the SPEAR2 RF system with 358.5 MHz and 40 kW peak RF power driving a 5-cell RF cavity for 1.0 MV gap voltage. These requirements entail a booster RF system upgrade to a scaled down version of the SPEAR3 RF system of 476.3 MHz with 1.2 MW cw klystron output power capabilities. We will analyze each subsystem option for their merits within budgetary and geometric space constraints. A substantial portion of the system will come from the decommissioned PEP-II …

The authors present a new method for computing complete one-loop amplitudes, including their rational parts, in non-supersymmetric gauge theory. This method merges the unitarity method with on-shell recursion relations. It systematizes a unitarity-factorization bootstrap approach previously applied by the authors to the one-loop amplitudes required for next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the processes e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} Z, {gamma}* {yields} 4 jets and pp {yields} W + 2 jets. We illustrate the method by reproducing the one-loop color-ordered five-gluon helicity amplitudes in QCD that interfere with the tree amplitude, namely A{sub 5;1}(1{sup -}, 2{sup -}, 3{sup +}, 4{sup +}, 5{sup +}) and A{sub 5;1}(1{sup -}, 2{sup +}, 3{sup -}, 4{sup +}, 5{sup +}). Then we describe the construction of the six- and seven-gluon amplitudes with two adjacent negative-helicity gluons, A{sub 6;1}(1{sup -}, 2{sup -}, 3{sup +}, 4{sup +}, 5{sup +}, 6{sup +}) and A{sub 7;1}(1{sup -}, 2{sup -}, 3{sup +}, 4{sup +}, 5{sup +}, 6{sup +}, 7{sup +}), which uses the previously-computed logarithmic parts of the amplitudes as input. They present a compact expression for the six-gluon amplitude. No loop integrals are required to obtain the rational parts.

By operating SPEAR3 in low-{alpha} mode the storage ring can generate synchrotron radiation pulses of order 1ps. Applications include pump-probe x-ray science and the production of THz radiation in the CSR regime. Measurements of the bunch length are difficult, however, because the light intensity is low and streak cameras typically provide resolution of only a few ps. Tests are now underway to resolve the short bunch length using cross-correlation between a 60-fs Ti:Sapphire laser and the visible SR beam in a BBO crystal. In this paper we report on the experimental setup, preliminary measurements and prospects for further improvement.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will continuously image the entire sky visible from Cerro Pachon in northern Chile every 3-4 nights throughout the year. The LSST will provide data for a broad range of science investigations that require better than 1% photometric precision across the sky (repeatability and uniformity) and a similar accuracy of measured broadband color. The fast and persistent cadence of the LSST survey will significantly improve the temporal sampling rate with which celestial events and motions are tracked. To achieve these goals, and to optimally utilize the observing calendar, it will be necessary to obtain excellent photometric calibration of data taken over a wide range of observing conditions - even those not normally considered 'photometric'. To achieve this it will be necessary to routinely and accurately measure the full optical passband that includes the atmosphere as well as the instrumental telescope and camera system. The LSST mountain facility will include a new monochromatic dome illumination projector system to measure the detailed wavelength dependence of the instrumental passband for each channel in the system. The facility will also include an auxiliary spectroscopic telescope dedicated to measurement of atmospheric transparency at all locations in the sky during LSST …

Each nine cell superconducting (SC) accelerator cavity in the TESLA Test Facility (TTF) at DESY [1] has two higher order mode (HOM) couplers that efficiently remove the HOM power [2]. They can also provide useful diagnostic signals. The most interesting modes are in the first 2 cavity dipole passbands. They are easy to identify and their amplitude depends linearly on the beam offset from the cavity axis making them excellent beam position monitors (BPM). By steering the beam through an eight-cavity cryomodule, we can use the HOM signals to estimate internal residual alignment errors and minimize wakefield related beam emittance growth. We built and tested a time-domain based waveform recorder system that captures information from each mode in these two bands on each beam pulse. In this paper we present a preliminary experimental study of the single-bunch generated HOM signals at the TTF linac including estimates of cavity alignment precision and HOM BPM resolution.

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Recent experiments on double photoionization of H$_2$ with photon energies between 160 and 240 eV have revealed body-frame angular distributions that suggest classical two-slit interference effects may be present when one electron carries most of the available energy and the second electron is not observed. We report precise quantum mechanical calculations that reproduce the experimental findings. They reveal that the interpretation in terms of classical diffraction is only appropriate atsubstantially higher photon energies. At the energies considered in the experiment we offer an alternative explanation based on the mixing of two non-diffractive contributions by circularly polarized light.

This report describes a cold mass support system based on the use of oriented fiberglassepoxy rods in bending.

In the International Linear Collider (ILC) [1] the colliding beams must be focused to the nanometer size in order to reach the desired luminosity. The method of Weak Antisolenoid is used for the compensation of the effect of the Detector Solenoid on the beam size [2], [3]. The studies of this method require the computer simulation of the charged particle's kinematics in the arbitrarily distributed solenoidal, dipole, quadrupole and higher multipole fields. We suggest the mathematical algorithm that allows to optimize parameters of antisolenoid for different configurations of Final Focus magnets and to compensate parasitic effects of the Detector Solenoid on the beam.

This review article surveys recent work on computer representation of molecular surfaces. Several different algorithms are discussed for producing vector or raster drawings of space-filling models formed as the union of spheres. Other smoother surfaces are also considered.

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Subcooled flow of liquid nitrogen in microchannels is proposed as a means to enhance the stability of a superconducting magnet. Analysis shows high current density or a low stabilizer fraction is obtainable in a cryostable magnet. Increase in stability (using the Stekley criterion) is directly related to coolant velocity and coolant channel aspect ratio, however, there is a corresponding increase in pressure drop of the system. Another constraint is the coolant temperature rise, which is found to be a function of coolant residence time and the coolant to conductor ratio.

Subcooled flow of liquid nitrogen in microchannels is proposed as a means to enhance the stability of a superconducting magnet. Analysis shows high current density or a low stabilizer fraction is obtainable in a cryostable magnet. Increase in stability (using the Stekley criterion) is directly related to coolant velocity and coolant channel aspect ratio, however, there is a corresponding increase in pressure drop of the system. Another constraint is the coolant temperature rise, which is found to be a function of coolant residence time and the coolant to conductor ratio.

Coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) is generated when a bunched beam traverses a dipole magnet or a wiggler/undulator. It can degrade the beam quality in both storage rings and linacs through enhancing the beam energy spread and lengthening the bunch length, even cause single-bunch microwave instabilities. Using several methods, CSR impedances in the positron damping ring (DR) of the SuperKEKB which is under design were calculated. From the impedances due to CSR, resistive wall and various vacuum components, quasi-Green function wake potentials were constructed and used in simulations of Particle-In-Cell (PIC) tracking. We present the CSR related results in this paper.