The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change indicates there is strong evidence that the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide far exceeds the natural range over the last 650,000 years, and this recent warming of the climate system is unequivocal, resulting in more frequent extreme precipitation events, earlier snowmelt runoff, increased winter flood likelihoods, increased and widespread melting of snow and ice, longer and more widespread droughts, and rising sea level. The effects of recent warming has been well documented and climate model projections indicate a range of hydrological impacts with likely to very likely probabilities (67 to 99 percent) of occurring with significant to severe consequences in response to a warmer lower atmosphere with an accelerating hydrologic cycle.

The interaction of metal ions and oxyanions with nanoscale mineral phases has not yet been extensively studied despite the increased recognition of their prevalence in natural systems as a significant component of geomedia. A combination of macroscopic uptake studies to investigate the adsorption behavior of As(V), Cu(II), Hg(II), and Zn(II) onto nanoparticulate goethite ({alpha}-FeOOH) as a function of aging time at elevated temperature (75 C) and synchrotron-based X-ray studies to track changes in both the sorption mode and the rate of nanoparticle growth reveal the effects that uptake has on particle growth. Metal(loid) species which sorb quickly to the iron oxyhydroxide particles (As(V), Cu(II)) appear to passivate the particle surface, impeding the growth of the nanoparticles with progressive aging; in contrast, species that sorb more slowly (Hg(II), Zn(II)) have considerably less impact on particle growth. Progressive changes in the speciation of these particular metals with time suggest shifts in the mode of metal uptake with time, possibly indicating structural incorporation of the metal(loid) into the nanoparticle; this is supported by the continued increase in uptake concomitant with particle growth, implying that metal species may transform from surface-sorbed species to more structurally incorporated forms. This type of incorporation would have implications …

Many modern scientific applications rely on highly parallel calculations, which scale to 10's of thousands processors. However, most applications do not concentrate on parallelizing input/output operations. In particular, sequential I/O has been identified as a bottleneck for the highly scalable MFDn (Many Fermion Dynamics for nuclear structure) code performing ab initio nuclear structure calculations. In this paper, we develop interfaces and parallel I/O procedures to use a well-known parallel I/O library in MFDn. As a result, we gain efficient input/output of large datasets along with their portability and ease of use in the downstream processing.

The field of nanodielectrics has had a significant impact on voltage endurance characteristics of electrical insulation. Improved time-to-breakdown behavior, resulting in reduced aging of insulation, and enhanced thermal stability are of considerable importance in industrial applications. This chapter discusses several specific aspects of nanodielectrics and their role in the future of electrical insulation and dielectric sciences.

GeoChip is a comprehensive functional gene array that targets key functional genes involved in the geochemical cycling of N, C, and P, sulfate reduction, metal resistance and reduction, and contaminant degradation. Studies have shown the GeoChip to be a sensitive, specific, and high-throughput tool for microbial community analysis that has the power to link geochemical processes with microbial community structure. However, several challenges remain regarding the development and applications of microarrays for microbial community analysis.

In situ groundwater bioremediation of hydrocarbons has been used for more than 40 years. Most strategies involve biostimulation; however, recently bioaugmentation have been used for dehalorespiration. Aquifer and contaminant profiles are critical to determining the feasibility and strategy for in situ groundwater bioremediation. Hydraulic conductivity and redox conditions, including concentrations of terminal electron acceptors are critical to determine the feasibility and strategy for potential bioremediation applications. Conceptual models followed by characterization and subsequent numerical models are critical for efficient and cost effective bioremediation. Critical research needs in this area include better modeling and integration of remediation strategies with natural attenuation.

As 3D volumetric images of the human body become an increasingly crucial source of information for the diagnosis and treatment of a broad variety of medical conditions, advanced techniques that allow clinicians to efficiently and clearly visualize volumetric images become increasingly important. Interaction has proven to be a key concept in analysis of medical images because static images of 3D data are prone to artifacts and misunderstanding of depth. Furthermore, fading out clinically irrelevant aspects of the image while preserving contextual anatomical landmarks helps medical doctors to focus on important parts of the images without becoming disoriented. Our goal was to develop a tool that unifies interactive manipulation and context preserving visualization of medical images with a special focus on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data. At each image voxel, DTI provides a 3 x 3 tensor whose entries represent the 3D statistical properties of water diffusion locally. Water motion that is preferential to specific spatial directions suggests structural organization of the underlying biological tissue; in particular, in the human brain, the naturally occuring diffusion of water in the axon portion of neurons is predominantly anisotropic along the longitudinal direction of the elongated, fiber-like axons [MMM+02]. This property has made DTI …

Gain an in-depth understanding of the role of quark flavor.

Multi-core processing environments have become the norm in the generic computing environment and are being considered for adding an extra dimension to the execution of any application. The T2 Niagara processor is a very unique environment where it consists of eight cores having a capability of running eight threads simultaneously in each of the cores. Applications like General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure (GAMESS), used for ab-initio molecular quantum chemistry calculations, can be good indicators of the performance of such machines and would be a guideline for both hardware designers and application programmers. In this paper we try to benchmark the GAMESS performance on a T2 Niagara processor for a couple of molecules. We also show the suitability of using a middleware based adaptation algorithm on GAMESS on such a multi-core environment.

The field of statistics has long been noted for techniques to detect patterns and regularities in numerical data. In this article we explore connections between statistics and the emerging field of 'experimental mathematics'. These includes both applications of experimental mathematics in statistics, as well as statistical methods applied to computational mathematics.

Populus trees face constant challenges from the environment during their life cycle. To ensure their survival and reproduction, Populus trees deploy various types of defenses, one of which is the production of a myriad of secondary metabolites. Compounds derived from the shikimate-phenylpropanoid pathway are the most abundant class of secondary metabolites synthesized in Populus. Among other major classes of secondary metabolites in Populus are terpenoids and fatty acid-derivatives. Some of the secondary metabolites made by Populus trees have been functionally characterized. Some others have been associated with certain biological/ecological processes, such as defense against insects and microbial pathogens or acclimation or adaptation to abiotic stresses. Functions of many Populus secondary metabolites remain unclear. The advent of various novel genomic tools will enable us to explore in greater detail the complexity of secondary metabolism in Populus. Detailed data mining of the Populus genome sequence can unveil candidate genes of secondary metabolism. Metabolomic analysis will continue to identify new metabolites synthesized in Populus. Integrated genomics that combines various omics tools will prove to be the most powerful approach in revealing the molecular and biochemical basis underlying the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in Populus. Characterization of the biological/ecological functions of secondary metabolites as …

When fractures in otherwise hard rocks are filled with fluids (oil, gas, water, CO{sub 2}), the type and physical state of the fluid (liquid or gas) can make a large difference in the wave speeds and attenuation properties of seismic waves. The present work summarizes methods of deconstructing theses effects of fractures, together with any fluids contained within them, on wave propagation as observed in reflection seismic data. Additional studies of waves in fluid-saturated granular media show that the behavior can be quite different from that for fractured media, since these materials are typically much softer mechanically than are the fractured rocks (i.e., having a very small drained moduli). Important fluid effects in such media are often governed as much by fluid viscosity as by fluid bulk modulus.

Subsurface reservoirs being considered for storing CO{sub 2} include saline aquifers, oil and gas reservoirs, and unmineable coal seams (Baines and Worden, 2004; IPCC, 2005). By far the greatest storage capacity is in saline aquifers (Dooley et al., 2004), and our discussion will focus primarily on CO{sub 2} storage in saline formations. Most issues for safety and security of CO{sub 2} storage arise from the fact that, at typical temperature and pressure conditions encountered in terrestrial crust, CO{sub 2} is less dense than aqueous fluids. Accordingly, CO{sub 2} will experience an upward buoyancy force in most subsurface environments, and will tend to migrate upwards whenever (sub-)vertical permeable pathways are available, such as fracture zones, faults, or improperly abandoned wells (Bachu, 2008; Pruess, 2008a, b; Tsang et al., 2008). CO{sub 2} injection will increase fluid pressures in the target formation, thereby altering effective stress distributions, and potentially triggering movement along fractures and faults that could increase their permeability and reduce the effectiveness of a caprock in containing CO{sub 2} (Rutqvist et al., 2008; Chiaramonte et al., 2008). Induced seismicity as a consequence of fluid injection is also a concern (Healy et al., 1968; Raleigh et al., 1976; Majer et al., 2007). …

Cometabolic bioremediation is probably the most under appreciated bioremediation strategy currently available. Cometabolism strategies stimulate only indigenous microbes with the ability to degrade the contaminant and cosubstrate e.g. methane, propane, toluene and others. This highly targeted stimulation insures that only those microbes that can degrade the contaminant are targeted, thus reducing amendment costs, well and formation plugging, etc. Cometabolic bioremediation has been used on some of the most recalcitrant contaminants, e.g. PCE, TCE, MTBE, TNT, dioxane, atrazine, etc. Methanotrophs have been demonstrated to produce methane monooxygense, an oxidase that can degrade over 300 compounds. Cometabolic bioremediation also has the advantage of being able to degrade contaminants to trace concentrations, since the biodegrader is not dependent on the contaminant for carbon or energy. Increasingly we are finding that in order to protect human health and the environment that we must remediate to lower and lower concentrations, especially for compounds like endocrine disrupters, thus cometabolism may be the best and maybe the only possibility that we have to bioremediate some contaminants.

As our dependence on the cyber infrastructure grows ever larger, more complex and more distributed, the systems that compose it become more prone to failures and/or exploitation. Intelligence is information valued for its currency and relevance rather than its detail or accuracy. Information explosion describes the pervasive abundance of (public/private) information and the effects of such. Gathering, analyzing, and making use of information constitutes a business- / sociopolitical- / military-intelligence gathering activity and ultimately poses significant advantages and liabilities to the survivability of "our" society. The combination of increased vulnerability, increased stakes and increased threats make cyber security and information intelligence (CSII) one of the most important emerging challenges in the evolution of modern cyberspace "mechanization." The goal of the workshop was to challenge, establish and debate a far-reaching agenda that broadly and comprehensively outlined a strategy for cyber security and information intelligence that is founded on sound principles and technologies. We aimed to discuss novel theoretical and applied research focused on different aspects of software security/dependability, as software is at the heart of the cyber infrastructure.

In this article we provide a detailed description of a technique to obtain a simple parameterization for different exceptional Lie groups, such as G{sub 2}, F{sub 4} and E{sub 6}, based on their fibration structure. For the compact case, we construct a realization which is a generalization of the Euler angles for SU(2), while for the non compact version of G{sub 2(2)}/SO(4) we compute the Iwasawa decomposition. This allows us to obtain not only an explicit expression for the Haar measure on the group manifold, but also for the cosets G{sub 2}/SO(4), G{sub 2}/SU(3), F{sub 4}/Spin(9), E{sub 6}/F{sub 4} and G{sub 2(2)}/SO(4) that we used to find the concrete realization of the general element of the group. Moreover, as a by-product, in the simplest case of G{sub 2}/SO(4), we have been able to compute an Einstein metric and the vielbein. The relevance of these results in physics is discussed.

Because of its unique properties as a lightweight metal with high tensile strength, beryllium is widely used in applications including cell phones, golf clubs, aerospace, and nuclear weapons. Beryllium is also encountered in industries such as aluminium manufacturing, and in environmental remediation projects. Workplace exposure to beryllium particulates is a growing concern, as exposure to minute quantities of anthropogenic forms of beryllium may lead to sensitization and to chronic beryllium disease, which can be fatal and for which no cure is currently known. Furthermore, there is no known exposure-response relationship with which to establish a 'safe' maximum level of beryllium exposure. As a result, the current trend is toward ever lower occupational exposure limits, which in turn make exposure assessment, both in terms of sampling and analysis, more challenging. The problems are exacerbated by difficulties in sample preparation for refractory forms of beryllium, such as beryllium oxide, and by indications that some beryllium forms may be more toxic than others. This chapter provides an overview of sources and uses of beryllium, health risks, and occupational exposure limits. It also provides a general overview of sampling, analysis, and data evaluation issues that will be explored in greater depth in the remaining …

Historically, attention on soil organic matter (SOM) has focused on the central role that it plays in ecosystem fertility and soil properties, but in the past two decades the role of soil organic carbon in moderating atmospheric CO{sub 2} concentrations has emerged as a critical research area. This chapter will focus on the storage and turnover of natural organic matter in soil (SOM), in the context of the global carbon cycle. Organic matter in soils is the largest carbon reservoir in rapid exchange with atmospheric CO{sub 2}, and is thus important as a potential source and sink of greenhouse gases over time scales of human concern (Fischlin and Gyalistras 1997). SOM is also an important human resource under active management in agricultural and range lands worldwide. Questions driving present research on the soil C cycle include: Are soils now acting as a net source or sink of carbon to the atmosphere? What role will soils play as a natural modulator or amplifier of climatic warming? How is C stabilized and sequestered, and what are effective management techniques to foster these processes? Answering these questions will require a mechanistic understanding of how and where C is stored in soils. The quantity …

Mobile robotic mapping is now considered to be a sufficiently mature field with demonstrated successes in various domains. While much progress has been made in the development of computationally efficient and consistent mapping schemes, it is still murky, at best, on how these maps can be evaluated. We are motivated by the absence of an accepted standard for quantitatively measuring the performance of robotic mapping systems against user-defined requirements. It is our belief that the development of standardized methods for quantitatively evaluating existing robotic technologies will improve the utility of mobile robots in already established application areas, such as vacuum cleaning, robot surveillance, and bomb disposal. This approach will also enable the proliferation and acceptance of such technologies in emerging markets. This chapter summarizes our preliminary efforts by bringing together the research community towards addressing this important problem which has ramifications not only from researchers perspective but also from consumers, robot manufacturers, and developers viewpoints.

Heavy ion collisions are an ideal tool to explore the QCD phase diagram. The goal is to study the equation of state (EOS) and to search for possible in-medium modifications of hadrons. By varying the collision energy a variety of regimes with their specific physics interest can be studied. At energies of a few GeV per nucleon, the regime where experiments were performed first at the Berkeley Bevalac and later at the Schwer-Ionen-Synchrotron (SIS) at GSI in Darmstadt, we study the equation of state of dense nuclear matter and try to identify in-medium modifications of hadrons. Towards higher energies, the regime of the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), the Super-Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN, and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL, we expect to produce a new state of matter, the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). The physics goal is to identify the QGP and to study its properties. By varying the energy, different forms of matter are produced. At low energies we study dense nuclear matter, similar to the type of matter neutron stars are made of. As the energy is increased the main constituents of the matter will change. Baryon excitations will become …

The permafrost microbial community has been described as 'a community of survivors' (Friedman 1994). Because of the permanently cold condition and the long term isolation of the permafrost sediments, the permafrost microorganisms have acquired various adaptive features in the membrane, enzymes, and macromolecular synthesis. This chapter reviews the different adaptive mechanisms used by permafrost microorganisms with a focus on the proteomic level of cryoadaptation that have recently been identified during the low temperature growth in permafrost bacteria.

Significant numbers of viable ancient microorganisms are known to be present within the permafrost. They have been isolated in both polar regions from the cores up to 400 m deep and ground temperatures of -27 C. The age of the cells corresponds to the longevity of the permanently frozen state of the soils, with the oldest cells dating back to {approx}3 million years in the Arctic, and {approx}5 million years in the Antarctic. They are the only life forms known to have retained viability over geological time. Thawing of the permafrost renews their physiological activity and exposes ancient life to modern ecosystems. Thus, the permafrost represents a stable and unique physicochemical complex, which maintains life incomparably longer than any other known habitats. If we take into account the depth of the permafrost layers, it is easy to conclude that they contain a total microbial biomass many times higher than that of the soil cover. This great mass of viable matter is peculiar to permafrost only.

The most common method of analysis for beryllium is inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). This method, along with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), is discussed in Chapter 6. However, other methods exist and have been used for different applications. These methods include spectroscopic, chromatographic, colorimetric, and electrochemical. This chapter provides an overview of beryllium analysis methods other than plasma spectrometry (inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry or mass spectrometry). The basic methods, detection limits and interferences are described. Specific applications from the literature are also presented.

Contaminants in soil can impact human health and the environment through a complex web of interactions. Soils exist where the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere converge. Soil is the thin outer zone of the earth's crust that supports rooted plants and is the product of climate and living organisms acting on rock. A true soil is a mixture of air, water, mineral, and organic components. The relative proportions of these components determine the value of the soil for agricultural and for other human uses. These proportions also determine, to a large extent, how a substance added to soil is transported and/or transformed within the soil (Spositio, 2004). In mass-balance models, soil compartments play a major role, functioning both as reservoirs and as the principal media for transport among air, vegetation, surface water, deeper soil, and ground water (Mackay, 2001). Quantifying the mass transport of chemicals within soil and between soil and atmosphere is important for understanding the role soil plays in controlling fate, transport, and exposure to multimedia pollutants. Soils are characteristically heterogeneous. A trench dug into soil typically reveals several horizontal layers having different colors and textures. As illustrated in Figure 1, these multiple layers are often divided into …