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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.

The 2010 Gordon Research Conference on Microbial Stress Responses provides an open and exciting forum for the exchange of scientific discoveries on the remarkable mechanisms used by microbes to survive in nearly every niche on the planet. Understanding these stress responses is critical for our ability to control microbial survival, whether in the context of biotechnology, ecology, or pathogenesis. From its inception in 1994, this conference has traditionally employed a very broad definition of stress in microbial systems. Sessions will cover the major steps of stress responses from signal sensing to transcriptional regulation to the effectors that mediate responses. A wide range of stresses will be represented. Some examples include (but are not limited to) oxidative stress, protein quality control, antibiotic-induced stress and survival, envelope stress, DNA damage, and nutritional stress. The 2010 meeting will also focus on the role of stress responses in microbial communities, applied and environmental microbiology, and microbial development. This conference brings together researchers from both the biological and physical sciences investigating stress responses in medically- and environmentally relevant microbes, as well as model organisms, using cutting-edge techniques. Computational, systems-level, and biophysical approaches to exploring stress responsive circuits will be integrated throughout the sessions alongside the …

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 challenge of chemistry in the 21st century is to achieve 100% selectivity of the desired product molecule in multipath reactions ('green chemistry') and develop renewable energy based processes. Surface chemistry and catalysis play key roles in this enterprise. Development of in situ surface techniques such as high-pressure scanning tunneling microscopy, sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy, time-resolved Fourier transform infrared methods, and ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy enabled the rapid advancement of three fields: nanocatalysts, biointerfaces, and renewable energy conversion chemistry. In materials nanoscience, synthetic methods have been developed to produce monodisperse metal and oxide nanoparticles (NPs) in the 0.8-10 nm range with controlled shape, oxidation states, and composition; these NPs can be used as selective catalysts since chemical selectivity appears to be dependent on all of these experimental parameters. New spectroscopic and microscopic techniques have been developed that operate under reaction conditions and reveal the dynamic change of molecular structure of catalysts and adsorbed molecules as the reactions proceed with changes in reaction intermediates, catalyst composition, and oxidation states. SFG vibrational spectroscopy detects amino acids, peptides, and proteins adsorbed at hydrophobic and hydrophilic interfaces and monitors the change of surface structure and interactions with coadsorbed water. Exothermic reactions …

We have previously presented simple elastic deformation modeling results for three classes of seismic events of concern in monitoring the CTBT--underground explosions, mine collapses and earthquakes. Those results explored the theoretical detectability of each event type using synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) based on commercially available satellite data. In those studies we identified and compared the characteristics of synthetic interferograms that distinguish each event type, as well the ability of the interferograms to constrain source parameters. These idealized modeling results, together with preliminary analysis of InSAR data for the 1995 mb 5.2 Solvay mine collapse in southwestern Wyoming, suggested that InSAR data used in conjunction with regional seismic monitoring holds great potential for CTBT discrimination and seismic source analysis, as well as providing accurate ground truth parameters for regional calibration events. In this paper we further examine the detectability and ''discriminating'' power of InSAR by presenting results from InSAR data processing, analysis and modeling of the surface deformation signals associated with underground explosions. Specifically, we present results of a detailed study of coseismic and postseismic surface deformation signals associated with underground nuclear and chemical explosion tests at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Several interferograms were formed from raw ERS-1/2 radar …

We generally use large-scale hydrocodes to study the dynamic response of targets to influence pulsed radiation loads. However, for many applications where the desired solution does not require a detailed specification of pressure- or velocity-time histories, there are simple analytic approaches that can yield surprisingly accurate results. Examples include determining either the final velocity of a radiation-driven flying plate or the impulse delivered to a structural element. These methods are all based on relatively straightforward use of conservation of mass and momentum, but they typically need one scaling-law parameter. In this context, short pulse means short compared to the characteristic time of the desired response, which allows for the phenomena to be essentially uncoupled. High fluence means that the input energy is great enough to yield vaporization or blowoff of one or more portions of the configuration. We discuss some of these methods, give examples, and suggest limitations and criteria for their use.

We report on the development of antenna-coupled Voltage-biased Superconducting Bolometers (VSBs) which use Transition-edge Sensors (TES). Antenna coupling can greatly simplify the fabrication of large multi-frequency bolometer arrays compared to horn-coupled techniques. This simplification can make it practical to implement 1000+ element arrays that fill the focal plane of mm/sub-mm wave telescopes. We have designed a prototype device with a double-slot dipole antenna, integrated band-defining filters, and a membrane-suspended bolometer. A test chip has been constructed and will be tested shortly.

A new type of X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer for Doppler measurements of the radial profiles of the ion temperature and plasma rotation velocity in tokamak plasmas is presently being developed in a collaboration between various laboratories. The spectrometer will consist of a spherically bent crystal and a two-dimensional position sensitive detector; and it will record temporally and spatially resolved X-ray line spectra from highly-charged ions. The detector must satisfy challenging requirements with respect to count rate and spatial resolution. The paper presents the results from a recent test of a PILATUS II detector module on Alcator C-Mod, which demonstrate that the PILATUS II detector modules will satisfy these requirements.

High resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of highly overdoped Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8+{delta}} with a T{sub c} = 51K indicates that the basic transport processes in this material are fundamentally different from both the lesser doped cuprates as well as model metallic compounds. The overdoped sample has sharp ARPES peaks at the Fermi energy throughout the Brillouin zone even in the normal state, unlike the lesser-doped compounds. In particular, the spectra near ({pi},0) point show the presence of a sharp peak well above T{sub c}. The ARPES lineshapes, and thus the self energy, at a given energy are almost independent of k. Further, the quasiparticle scattering rate at the Fermi energy seems to be closely tied to direct resistivity measurements. This leads us to the conclusion that overdoped Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8+{delta}} is best described as a quasiparticle liquid. However, the energy dependence of the scattering rates is quite similar to that found in the lesser-doped compounds and quite different from that seen in a typical metal.

Calibration of hydroacoustic and T-phase stations for Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) monitoring will be an important element in establishing new operational stations and upgrading existing stations. Calibration of hydroacoustic stations is herein defined as precision location of the hydrophones and determination of the amplitude response from a known source energy. T-phase station calibration is herein defined as a determination of station site attenuation as a function of frequency, bearing, and distance for known impulsive energy sources in the ocean. To understand how to best conduct calibration experiments for both hydroacoustic and T-phase stations, an experiment was conducted in May, 1999 at Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. The experiment made use of a British oceanographic research vessel and collected data that will be used for CTBT issues and for fundamental understanding of the Ascension Island volcanic edifice.

The database of Alignable Tight Genomic Clusters (ATGCs) consists of closely related genomes of archaea and bacteria, and is a resource for research into prokaryotic microevolution. Construction of a data set with appropriate characteristics is a major hurdle for this type of studies. With the current rate of genome sequencing, it is difficult to follow the progress of the field and to determine which of the available genome sets meet the requirements of a given research project, in particular, with respect to the minimum and maximum levels of similarity between the included genomes. Additionally, extraction of specific content, such as genomic alignments or families of orthologs, from a selected set of genomes is a complicated and time-consuming process. The database addresses these problems by providing an intuitive and efficient web interface to browse precomputed ATGCs, select appropriate ones and access ATGC-derived data such as multiple alignments of orthologous proteins, matrices of pairwise intergenomic distances based on genome-wide analysis of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitution rates and others. The ATGC database will be regularly updated following new releases of the NCBI RefSeq. The database is hosted by the Genomics Division at Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory and is publicly available at http://atgc.lbl.gov.

In this report the event data model (EDM) relevant for tracking in the ATLAS experiment is presented. The core component of the tracking EDM is a common track object which is suited to describe tracks in the innermost tracking sub-detectors and in the muon detectors in offline as well as online reconstruction. The design of the EDM was driven by a demand for modularity and extensibility while taking into account the different requirements of the clients. The structure of the track object and the representation of the tracking-relevant information are described in detail.

This paper presents a new approach for the automatic definition and treatment of mechanical contact in explicit nonlinear finite element analysis. Automatic contact offers the benefits of significantly reduced model construction time and fewer opportunities for user error, but faces significant challenges in reliability and computational costs. Key aspects of the proposed new method include automatic identification of adjacent and opposite surfaces in the global search phase, and the use of a well-defined surface normal which allows a consistent treatment of shell intersection and corner contact conditions without a ad-hoc rules. The paper concludes with three examples which illustrate the performance of the newly proposed algorithm in the public DYNA3D code.

Every individual channels information differently based on their preference of the sensory modality or representational system (visual auditory or kinesthetic) we tend to favor most (our primary representational system (PRS)). Therefore, some of us access and store our information primarily visually first, some auditorily, and others kinesthetically (through feel and touch); which in turn establishes our information processing patterns and strategies and external to internal (and subsequently vice versa) experiential language representation. Because of the different ways we channel our information, each of us will respond differently to a task--the way we gather and process the external information (input), our response time (process), and the outcome (behavior). Traditional human models of decision making and response time focus on perception, cognitive and motor systems stimulated and influenced by the three sensory modalities, visual, auditory and kinesthetic. For us, these are the building blocks to knowing how someone is thinking. Being aware of what is taking place and how to ask questions is essential in assessing performance toward reducing human errors. Existing models give predications based on time values or response times for a particular event, and may be summed and averaged for a generalization of behavior(s). However, by our not establishing …

We calculate {Delta}I = 3/2 kaon decay matrix elements using domain wall fermions and the DBW2 gauge action at one coarse lattice spacing corresponding to a{sup -1} = 1.3 GeV. We employ the Lellouch and Luescher formula and its extension for non-zero total momentum to extract the infinite volume, center-of-mass frame decay amplitudes. The decay amplitudes obtained from the methods correspond to those from the indirect method with full order chiral perturbation theory. We confirm that the result is consistent with the previous result calculated with H-parity (anti-periodic) boundary condition by investigating the relative momentum dependence. We evaluate the decay amplitude ReA{sub 2} at the physical point by a chiral extrapolation with a polynomial function of m{sub {pi}}{sup 2} and the relative momentum as well as the {Delta}I = 3/2 electroweak penguin contributions to {var_epsilon}{prime}/{var_epsilon}. We found that the result of ReA{sub 2} reasonably agrees with the experiment.

The Natural Resources Authority of Jordan (NRA), the USGS and LLNL have a collaborative project to improve the calibration of seismic propagation in Jordan and surrounding regions. This project serves common goals of CTBT calibration and earthquake hazard assessment in the region. These objectives include accurate location of local and regional earthquakes, calibration of magnitude scales, and the development of local and regional propagation models. In the CTBT context, better propagation models and more accurately located events in the Dead Sea rift region can serve as (potentially GT5) calibration events for generating IMS location corrections. The detection and collection of mining explosions underpins discrimination research. The principal activity of this project is the deployment of two broadband stations at Hittiyah (south Jordan) and Ruweishid (east Jordan). These stations provide additional paths in the region to constrain structure with surface wave and body wave tomography. The Ruweishid station is favorably placed to provide constraints on Arabian platform structure. Waveform modeling with long-period observations of larger earthquakes will provide constraints on 1-D velocity models of the crust and upper mantle. Data from these stations combined with phase observations from the 26 short-period stations of the Jordan National Seismic Network (JNSN) may allow …

The Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research (KISR), the USGS and LLNL are collaborating to calibrate seismic wave propagation in Kuwait and surrounding regions of the northwest Arabian Gulf using data from the Kuwait National Seismic Network (KNSN). Our goals are to develop local and regional propagation models for locating and characterizing seismic events in Kuwait and portions of the Zagros mountains close to Kuwait. The KNSN consists of 7 short-period stations and one broadband (STS-2) station. Constraints on the local velocity structure may be derived from joint inversions for hypocenters of local events and the local velocity model, receiver functions from three-component observations of teleseisms, and surface wave phase velocity estimated from differential dispersion measurements made across the network aperture. Data are being collected to calibrate travel-time curves for the principal regional phases for events in the Zagros mountains. The available event observations span the distance range from approximately 2.5 degrees to almost 9 degrees. Additional constraints on structure across the deep sediments of the Arabian Gulf will be obtained from long-period waveform modeling.

The CDFII silicon detector consists of 8 layers of double-sided silicon micro-strip sensors totaling 722,432 readout channels, making it one of the largest silicon detectors in present use by an HEP experiment. After two years of data taking, we report on our experience operating the complex device. The performance of the CDFII silicon detector is presented and its impact on physics analyses is discussed. We have already observed measurable effects from radiation damage. These results and their impact on the expected lifetime of the detector are briefly reviewed.

A Workshop on climatic change at high elevation sites was held September 11-15, 1995 in Wengen, Switzerland. The meeting was sponsored by both U.S. (Department of Energy, National Science Foundation and National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) and European (Swiss National Science Foundation, European Science Foundation, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) agencies. The goals of the workshop were to (1) focus the attention of the world climate community on the existence of unique high elevation geophysical records around the world, (2) highlight the value of these observing sites for climate change detection efforts and to help insure the continued support of governments and of relevant institutions in the maintenance of these high elevation data gathering efforts, (3) discuss and evaluate climatic trends that may be present in these records, and to compare the information with available paleoenvironmental records of glaciers, tree-rings and varved sediments from the alpine zones, and (4) discuss and evaluate information about elevational differences in current and projected greenhouse-gas induced climatic changes in coupled General Circulation Models.

The ASTM standard B 265 provides the requirements for the chemical composition of titanium (Ti) alloys. It is planned to use corrosion resistant and high strength titanium alloys to fabricate the drip shield at the proposed Yucca Mountain Repository. Titanium grade (Gr) 7 (R52400) and other Ti alloys are currently being characterized for this application. Ti Gr 7 contains 0.15% Palladium (Pd) to increase its corrosion performance. In this article we report results on the comparative short term corrosion behavior of Ti Gr 7 and a Ruthenium (Ru) containing alloy (Ti Gr 33). Ti Gr 33 also contains a small amount of Pd. Limited electrochemical testing such as polarization resistance and cyclic potentiodynamic curves showed that both alloys have a similar corrosion behavior in the tested environments.

This paper presents an approach to comparing computer run time of building simulation programs. The computing run time of a simulation program depends on several key factors, including the calculation algorithm and modeling capabilities of the program, the run period, the simulation time step, the complexity of the energy models, the run control settings, and the software and hardware configurations of the computer that is used to make the simulation runs. To demonstrate the approach, simulation runs are performed for several representative DOE-2.1E and EnergyPlus energy models. The computer run time of these energy models are then compared and analyzed.

The velocity structures and source parameters estimated by waveform modeling provide valuable information for CTBT monitoring. The inferred crustal and uppermost mantle structures advance understanding of tectonics and guides regionalization for event location and identification efforts. Estimation of source parameters such as seismic moment, depth and mechanism (whether earthquake, explosion or collapse) is crucial to event identification. In this paper we briefly outline some of the waveform modeling research for CTBT monitoring performed in the last year. In the future we will estimate structure for new regions by modeling waveforms of large well-observed events along additional paths. Of particular interest will be the estimation of velocity structure in aseismic regions such as most of Africa and the Former Soviet Union. Our previous work on aseismic regions in the Middle East, north Africa and south Asia give us confidence to proceed with our current methods. Using the inferred velocity models we plan to estimate source parameters for smaller events. It is especially important to obtain seismic moments of earthquakes for use in applying the Magnitude-Distance Amplitude Correction (MDAC; Taylor et al., 1999) to regional body-wave amplitudes for discrimination and calibrating the coda-based magnitude scales.

(Bi,Pb){sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub x} (Bi-2223) bars, prepared by sinter forging, exhibited good phase purity and strong textures with the c axes of the Bi-2223 grains parallel to the forging direction. The initial zero-field critical current density (J{sub c}) of the bars was 10{sup 3} A/cm{sup 2}, but because the forged bars were uncoated, this value decreased with repeated thermal cycling. J{sub c} as a function of applied magnetic field magnitude and direction roughly followed the dependencies exhibited by Ag-sheathed Bi-2223 tapes, but the forged bars were more strongly dependent on field strength and less strongly dependent on field angle.