The delicate balance among cellular pathways that control mutagenic changes in DNA will be the focus of the 2012 Mutagenesis Gordon Research Conference. Mutagenesis is essential for evolution, while genetic stability maintains cellular functions in all organisms from microbes to metazoans. Different systems handle DNA lesions at various times of the cell cycle and in different places within the nucleus, and inappropriate actions can lead to mutations. While mutation in humans is closely linked to disease, notably cancers, mutational systems can also be beneficial. The conference will highlight topics of beneficial mutagenesis, including full establishment of the immune system, cell survival mechanisms, and evolution and adaptation in microbial systems. Equal prominence will be given to detrimental mutation processes, especially those involved in driving cancer, neurological diseases, premature aging, and other threats to human health. Provisional session titles include Branching Pathways in Mutagenesis; Oxidative Stress and Endogenous DNA Damage; DNA Maintenance Pathways; Recombination, Good and Bad; Problematic DNA Structures; Localized Mutagenesis; Hypermutation in the Microbial World; and Mutation and Disease.

The 2012 Organometallic Chemistry Gordon Research Conference will highlight new basic science and fundamental applications of organometallic chemistry in industrial, academic, and national lab settings. Scientific themes of the conference will include chemical synthesis, reactivity, catalysis, polymer chemistry, bonding, and theory that involve transition-metal (and main-group) interactions with organic moieties.

The Gordon Research Conference on PHOTOSYNTHESIS was held at Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, July 8 ? 13, 2012. The Conference was well-attended with 150 participants (attendees list attached). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. Of the 150 attendees, 65 voluntarily responded to a general inquiry regarding ethnicity which appears on our registration forms. Of the 65 respondents, 20% were Minorities ? 5% Hispanic, 15% Asian and 0% African American. Approximately 28% of the participants at the 2012 meeting were women. The Gordon Research Seminar on PHOTOSYNTHESIS held at Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, July 7-8, 2012.. The Conference was well-attended with 51 participants (attendees list attached). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. Of the 51 attendees, 22 voluntarily responded to a general inquiry regarding ethnicity which appears on our registration forms. Of the 22 respondents, 14% were Minorities ? 0% Hispanic, 14% Asian and 0% African American. Approximately 35% of the participants at the 2012 …

The sub-theme of this year’s meeting, ‘Cell Wall Research in a Post-Genome World’, will be a consideration of the dramatic technological changes that have occurred in the three years since the previous cell wall Gordon Conference in the area of DNA sequencing. New technologies are providing additional perspectives of plant cell wall biology across a rapidly growing number of species, highlighting a myriad of architectures, compositions, and functions in both "conventional" and specialized cell walls. This meeting will focus on addressing the knowledge gaps and technical challenges raised by such diversity, as well as our need to understand the underlying processes for critical applications such as crop improvement and bioenergy resource development.

The focus of this meeting is on recent advances in science and engineering of plasmonic optics and its applications in the design of novel devices and components. The impacts of plasmonic phenomena on other disciplines such as chemistry, biology, medicine and engineering will also be discussed.

The overarching objective of this conference is to catalyze the interchange of new ideas and recent discoveries within the basic radiation sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology, and to facilitate translating this knowledge to applications in medicine and industry. The 9 topics for the GRC are: "œFrom Energy Absorption to Disease", "œBiodosimetry after a Radiological Incident," "œTrack Structure and Low Energy Electrons," "Free Radical Processes in DNA and Proteins," "Irradiated Polymers for Industrial/ Medical Applications," "Space Radiation Chemistry/Biology," "Nuclear Power and Waste Management," "Nanoparticles and Surface Interfaces", and the "Young Investigator" session.

Topics covered include: Failure At High Confining Pressure; Fluid-assisted Slip, Earthquakes & Fracture; Reaction-driven Cracking; Fluid Transport, Deformation And Reaction; Localized Fluid Transport And Deformation; Earthquake Mechanisms; Subduction Zone Dynamics And Crustal Growth.

Single molecule techniques are rapidly occupying a central role in biological research at all levels. This transition was made possible by the availability and dissemination of robust techniques that use fluorescence and force probes to track the conformation of molecules one at a time, in vitro as well as in live cells. Single-molecule approaches have changed the way many biological problems are studied. These novel techniques provide previously unobtainable data on fundamental biochemical processes that are essential for all forms of life. The ability of single-molecule approaches to avoid ensemble averaging and to capture transient intermediates and heterogeneous behavior renders them particularly powerful in elucidating mechanisms of the molecular systems that underpin the functioning of living cells. Hence, our conference seeks to disseminate the implementation and use of single molecule techniques in the pursuit of new biological knowledge. Topics covered include: Molecular Motors on the Move; Origin And Fate Of Proteins; Physical Principles Of Life; Molecules and Super-resolution Microscopy; Nanoswitches In Action; Active Motion Or Random Diffusion?; Building Blocks Of Living Cells; From Molecular Mechanics To Physiology; Tug-of-war: Force Spectroscopy Of Single Proteins.

The vane method has been shown to be an effective tool in measuring the yield stress of both settled and mixed slurries in laboratory bench scale conditions in supporting assessments of both actual and simulant waste slurries. The vane has also been used to characterize dry powders and granular solids, the effect of non-cohesive solids with interstitial fluids and used as a guide to determine if slip is present in the geometries typically used to perform rheological flow curve measurements. The vane has been extensively characterized for measuring the shear strength in soils in both field and laboratory studies. The objectives for this task are: Fabricate vane instrument; Bench top testing to further characterize the effect of cohesive, non-cohesive, and blends of cohesive/non-cohesive simple simulants; Data from measurement of homogenized and settled bed of Kaolin sludge and assessment of the technology. In this document, the assessment using bench scale measurements of non-cohesive materials (beads) and cohesive materials (kaolin) is discussed. The non-cohesive materials include various size beads and the vane was assessed for depth and deaeration (or packing) via tapping measurements. For the cohesive (or non-Newtonian) materials, flow curves and yield stress measurements are performed using the vane and this …

The Department of Energy (DOE) designated the Adva

The mechanical behavior of materials with small dimension(s) is of both fundamental scientific interest and technological relevance. The size effects and novel properties that arise from changes in deformation mechanism have important implications for modern technologies such as thin films for microelectronics and MEMS devices, thermal and tribological coatings, materials for energy production and advanced batteries, etc. The overarching goal of the 2012 Gordon Research Conference on "Thin Film and Small Scale Mechanical Behavior" is to discuss recent studies and future opportunities regarding elastic, plastic and time-dependent deformation, as well as degradation and failure mechanisms such as fatigue, fracture and wear. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to: fundamental studies of physical mechanisms governing small-scale mechanical behavior; advances in test techniques for materials at small length scales, such as nanotribology and high-temperature nanoindentation; in-situ mechanical testing and characterization; nanomechanics of battery materials, such as swelling-induced phenomena and chemomechanical behavior; flexible electronics; mechanical properties of graphene and carbon-based materials; mechanical behavior of small-scale biological structures and biomimetic materials. Both experimental and computational work will be included in the oral and poster presentations at this Conference.

We summarize and combine the results on the direct measurements of the mass of the W boson in data collected by the Tevatron experiments CDF and D0 at Fermilab. Earlier results from CDF Run-0 (1988-1989), D0 and CDF Run-I (1992-1995) and D0 results from 1 fb{sup -1} (2002-2006) of Run-II data are now combined with two new, high statistics Run-II measurements: a CDF measurement in both electron and muon channels using 2.2 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity collected between 2002 and 2007, and a D0 measurement in the electron channel using 4.3 fb{sup -1} collected between 2006 and 2009. As in previous combinations, the results are corrected for inconsistencies in parton distribution functions and assumptions about electroweak parameters used in the different analyses. The resulting Tevatron average for the mass of the W boson is M{sub W} = 80,387 {+-} 16 MeV and a new world average including data from LEP II is M{sub W} = 80,385 {+-} 15 MeV.

The Vibrational Spectroscopy conference brings together experimentalists and theoreticians working at the frontiers of modern vibrational spectroscopy, with a special emphasis on spectroscopies that probe the structure and dynamics of molecules in gases, liquids, and at interfaces. The conference explores the wide range of state-of-the-art techniques based on vibrational motion. These techniques span the fields of time-domain, high-resolution frequency-domain, spatially-resolved, nonlinear, and multidimensional spectroscopies. The conference highlights both the application of these techniques in chemistry, materials, biology, the environment, and medicine as well as the development of theoretical models that enable one to connect spectroscopic signatures to underlying molecular motions including chemical reaction dynamics. The conference goal is to advance the field of vibrational spectroscopy by bringing together a collection of researchers who share common interests and who will gain from discussing work at the forefront of several connected areas. The intent is to emphasize the insights and understanding that studies of vibrations provide about a variety of molecular systems ranging from small polyatomic molecules to large biomolecules, nanomaterials, and environmental systems.

Understanding the fundamental principles governing the structure and dynamics of water - and particularly how water mediates chemical interactions and processes - continues to pose formidable challenges and yield abundant surprises. The focus of this Gordon Research Conference is on identifying key questions, describing emerging understandings, and unveiling surprising discoveries related to water and aqueous solutions. The talks and posters at this meeting will describe studies of water and its interactions with objects such as interfaces, channels, electrons, oils, ions, and proteins; probed using optical, electrical, and particle experiments, and described using classical, quantum, and multi-scale theories.

The 2013 Gordon Conference on Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms will present cutting-edge research on the molecular aspects of inorganic reactions involving elements from throughout the periodic table and state-of-the art techniques that are used in the elucidation of reaction mechanisms. The Conference will feature a wide range of topics, such as homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, metallobiochemistry, electron-transfer in energy reactions, polymerization, nitrogen fixation, green chemistry, oxidation, solar conversion, alkane functionalization, organotransition metal chemistry, and computational chemistry. The talks will cover themes of current interest including energy, materials, and bioinorganic chemistry. Sections cover: Electron-Transfer in Energy Reactions; Catalytic Polymerization and Oxidation Chemistry; Kinetics and Spectroscopy of Heterogeneous Catalysts; Metal-Organic Chemistry and its Application in Synthesis; Green Energy Conversion;Organometallic Chemistry and Activation of Small Molecules; Advances in Kinetics Modeling and Green Chemistry; Metals in Biology and Disease; Frontiers in Catalytic Bond Activation and Cleavage.

Sessions covered all areas of molecular energy transfer, with 10 sessions of talks and poster sessions covering the areas of :  Energy Transfer in Inelastic and Reactive Scattering  Energy Transfer in Photoinitiated and Unimolecular Reactions  Non-adiabatic Effects in Energy Transfer  Energy Transfer at Surfaces and Interfaces  Energy Transfer in Clusters, Droplets, and Aerosols  Energy Transfer in Solution and Solid  Energy Transfer in Complex Systems  Energy Transfer: New vistas and horizons  Molecular Energy Transfer: Where Have We Been and Where are We Going?

Presenters will discuss the latest advances in plant and algal lipid metabolism, oil synthesis, lipid signaling, lipid visualization, lipid biotechnology and its applications, the physiological and developmental roles of lipids, and plant lipids in health. Sessions include: Producing Nutritional Lipids; Metabolic biochemistry in the next decade; Triacylglycerols: Metabolism, function, and as a target for engineering; Lipids in Protection, Reproduction, and Development; Genetic and Lipidomic Approaches to Understanding Lipid Metabolism and Signaling; Lipid Signaling in Stress Responses; New Insights on the Path to Triacylglycerols; Membrane Lipid Signaling; Lipid Visualization; Development of Biofuels and Industrial Lipids.

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In support of LLNL efforts to develop multiscale models of a variety of materials, we have performed a set of eight gas gun impact experiments on 2169 steel (21% Cr, 6% Ni, 9% Mn, balance predominantly Fe). These experiments provided carefully controlled shock, reshock and release velocimetry data, with initial shock stresses ranging from 10 to 50 GPa (particle velocities from 0.25 to 1.05 km/s). Both windowed and free-surface measurements were included in this experiment set to increase the utility of the data set, as were samples ranging in thickness from 1 to 5 mm. Target physical phenomena included the elastic/plastic transition (Hugoniot elastic limit), the Hugoniot, any phase transition phenomena, and the release path (windowed and free-surface). The Hugoniot was found to be nearly linear, with no indications of the Fe<U+F061>-<U+F065>phase transition. Releases were non-hysteretic, and relatively consistent between 3- and 5-mm-thick samples (the 3 mm samples giving slightly lower wavespeeds on release). Reshock tests with explosively welded impactors produced clean results; those with glue bonds showed transient releases prior to the arrival of the reshock, reducing their usefulness for deriving strength information. The free-surface samples, which were steps on a single piece of steel, showed lower wavespeeds for …

This is the standard operating procedure used by the Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry Group of the Chemical Sciences Division at LLNL for the preparation of a sample of uranium oxide or uranium metal for {sup 230}Th-{sup 234}U age-dating. The method described here includes the dissolution of a sample of uranium oxide or uranium metal, preparation of a secondary dilution, spiking of separate aliquots for uranium and thorium isotope dilution measurements, and purification of uranium and thorium aliquots for mass spectrometry. This SOP may be applied to uranium samples of unknown purity as in a nuclear forensic investigation, and also to well-characterized samples such as, for example, U{sub 3}O{sub 8} and U-metal certified reference materials. The sample of uranium is transferred to a quartz or PFA vial, concentrated nitric acid is added and the sample is heated on a hotplate at approximately 100 C for several hours until it dissolves. The sample solution is diluted with water to make the solution approximately 4 M HNO{sub 3} and hydrofluoric acid is added to make it 0.05 M HF. A secondary dilution of the primary uranium solution is prepared. Separate aliquots for uranium and thorium isotope dilution measurements are taken and spiked with …

We introduce a duality between two-dimensional XY-spin models with symmetry-breaking perturbations and certain four-dimensional SU(2) and SU(2) = Z{sub 2} gauge theories, compactified on a small spatial circle R{sup 1,2} x S{sup 1}, and considered at temperatures near the deconfinement transition. In a Euclidean set up, the theory is defined on R{sup 2} x T{sup 2}. Similarly, thermal gauge theories of higher rank are dual to new families of 'affine' XY-spin models with perturbations. For rank two, these are related to models used to describe the melting of a 2d crystal with a triangular lattice. The connection is made through a multi-component electric-magnetic Coulomb gas representation for both systems. Perturbations in the spin system map to topological defects in the gauge theory, such as monopole-instantons or magnetic bions, and the vortices in the spin system map to the electrically charged W-bosons in field theory (or vice versa, depending on the duality frame). The duality permits one to use the two-dimensional technology of spin systems to study the thermal deconfinement and discrete chiral transitions in four-dimensional SU(N{sub c}) gauge theories with n{sub f} {ge} 1 adjoint Weyl fermions.

Three dimensional simulation capabilities are currently being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory using COMSOL Multiphysics, a finite element modeling software, to investigate thermal expansion of High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) s low enriched uranium fuel plates. To validate simulations, 3D models have also been developed for the experimental setup used by Cheverton and Kelley in 1968 to investigate the buckling and thermal deflections of HFIR s highly enriched uranium fuel plates. Results for several simulations are presented in this report, and comparisons with the experimental data are provided when data are available. A close agreement between the simulation results and experimental findings demonstrates that the COMSOL simulations are able to capture the thermal expansion physics accurately and that COMSOL could be deployed as a predictive tool for more advanced computations at realistic HFIR conditions to study temperature-induced fuel plate deflection behavior.

The mitigation and suppression of edge localized modes (ELMs) through application of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) in Tokamak plasmas is a well documented phenomenon [1]. Vacuum calculations suggest the formation of edge islands and stochastic regions when RMPs are applied to the axisymmetric equilibria. Self-consistent calculations of the plasma equilibrium with the VMEC [2] and SPEC [3] codes have been performed for an up-down symmetric shot (142603) in DIII-D. In these codes, a self-consistent calculation of the plasma response due to the RMP coils is calculated. The VMEC code globally enforces the constraints of ideal MHD; consequently, a continuously nested family of flux surfaces is enforced throughout the plasma domain. This approach necessarily precludes the observation of islands or field-line chaos. The SPEC code relaxes the constraints of ideal MHD locally, and allows for islands and field line chaos at or near the rational surfaces. Equilibria with finite pressure gradients are approximated by a set of discrete &quot;ideal-interfaces&quot; at the most irrational flux surfaces and where the strongest pressure gradients are observed. Both the VMEC and SPEC calculations are initialized from EFIT reconstructions of the plasma that are consistent with the experimental pressure and current profiles. A 3D reconstruction using …

The mitigation and suppression of edge localized modes (ELMs) through application of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) in Tokamak plasmas is a well documented phenomenon. Vacuum calculations suggest the formation of edge islands and stochastic regions when RMPs are applied to the axisymmetric equilibria. Self-consistent calculations of the plasma equilibrium with the VMEC and SPEC codes have been performed for an up-down symmetric shot in DIII-D. In these codes, a self-consistent calculation of the plasma response due to the RMP coils is calculated. The VMEC code globally enforces the constraints of ideal MHD; consequently, a continuously nested family of flux surfaces is enforced throughout the plasma domain. This approach necessarily precludes the observation of islands or field-line chaos. The SPEC code relaxes the constraints of ideal MHD locally, and allows for islands and field line chaos at or near the rational surfaces. Equilibria with finite pressure gradients are approximated by a set of discrete &quot;ideal-interfaces&quot; at the most irrational flux surfaces and where the strongest pressure gradients are observed. Both the VMEC and SPEC calculations are initialized from EFIT reconstructions of the plasma that are consistent with the experimental pressure and current profiles. A 3D reconstruction using the STELLOPT code, which …