One dimensional simulations of various initial average density aluminum foams (modeled as slabs of solid metal separated by low density regions) heated by volumetric energy deposition are conducted with a Lagrangian hydrodynamics code using a van der Waals equation of tate (EOS). The resulting behavior is studied to facilitate the design of future warm dense matter (WDM) experiments at LBNL. In the simulations the energy deposition ranges from 10 to 30 kJ/g and from 0.075 to 4.0 ns total pulse length, resulting in temperatures from approximately 1 o 4 eV. We study peak pressures and temperatures in the foams, expansion velocity, and the phase evolution. Five relevant time scales in the problem are identified. Additionally, we present a method for characterizing the level of inhomogeneity in a foam target as it is heated and the time it takes for a foam to homogenize.

It is shown that the rate performance of a lithium battery composite electrode may be compromised by poor internal connectivity due to defects and inhomogeneities introduced during electrode fabrication or subsequent handling. Application of a thin conductive coating to the top surface of the electrode or to the separator surface in contact with the electrode improves the performance by providing alternative current paths to partially isolated particles of electroactive material. Mechanistic implications are discussed and strategies for improvement in electrode design and fabrication are presented.

Low temperature rate coefficients are measured for the CN + benzene and CN + toluene reactions using the pulsed Laval nozzle expansion technique coupled with laser-induced fluorescence detection. The CN + benzene reaction rate coefficient at 105, 165 and 295 K is found to be relatively constant over this temperature range, 3.9 - 4.9 x 10-10 cm3 molecule-1 s-1. These rapid kinetics, along with the observed negligible temperature dependence, are consistent with a barrierless reaction entrance channel and reaction efficiencies approaching unity. The CN + toluene reaction is measured to have a slower rate coefficient of 1.3 x 10-10 cm3 molecule-1 s-1 at 105 K. At room temperature, non-exponential decay profiles are observed for this reaction that may suggest significant back-dissociation of intermediate complexes. In separate experiments, the products of these reactions are probed at room temperature using synchrotron VUV photoionization mass spectrometry. For CN + benzene, cyanobenzene (C6H5CN) is the only product recorded with no detectable evidence for a C6H5 + HCN product channel. In the case of CN + toluene, cyanotoluene (NCC6H4CH3) constitutes the only detected product. It is not possible to differentiate among the ortho, meta and para isomers of cyanotoluene because of their similar ionization energies …

BACKGROUND: The microRNA-200 family participates in the maintenance of an epithelial phenotype and loss of its expression can result in epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Furthermore, the loss of expression of miR-200 family members is linked to an aggressive cancer phenotype. Regulation of the miR-200 family expression in normal and cancer cells is not fully understood. METHODOLOGY/ PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Epigenetic mechanisms participate in the control of miR-200c and miR-141 expression in both normal and cancer cells. A CpG island near the predicted mir-200c/mir-141 transcription start site shows a striking correlation between miR-200c and miR-141 expression and DNA methylation in both normal and cancer cells, as determined by MassARRAY technology. The CpG island is unmethylated in human miR-200/miR-141 expressing epithelial cells and in miR-200c/miR-141 positive tumor cells. The CpG island is heavily methylated in human miR-200c/miR-141 negative fibroblasts and miR-200c/miR-141 negative tumor cells. Mouse cells show a similar inverse correlation between DNA methylation and miR-200c expression. Enrichment of permissive histone modifications, H3 acetylation and H3K4 trimethylation, is seen in normal miR-200c/miR-141-positive epithelial cells, as determined by chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled to real-time PCR. In contrast, repressive H3K9 dimethylation marks are present in normal miR-200c/miR-141-negative fibroblasts and miR-200c/miR-141 negative cancer cells and the …

We describe a simple and efficient algorithm for two-view triangulation of 3D points from approximate 2D matches based on minimizing the L2 reprojection error. Our iterative algorithm improves on the one by Kanatani et al. by ensuring that in each iteration the epipolar constraint is satisfied. In the case where the two cameras are pointed in the same direction, the method provably converges to an optimal solution in exactly two iterations. For more general camera poses, two iterations are sufficient to achieve convergence to machine precision, which we exploit to devise a fast, non-iterative method. The resulting algorithm amounts to little more than solving a quadratic equation, and involves a fixed, small number of simple matrixvector operations and no conditional branches. We demonstrate that the method computes solutions that agree to very high precision with those of Hartley and Sturm's original polynomial method, though achieves higher numerical stability and 1-4 orders of magnitude greater speed.

It has been suggested that dark matter particles which scatter inelastically from detector target nuclei could explain the apparent incompatibility of the DAMA modulation signal (interpreted as evidence for particle dark matter) with the null results from CDMS-II and XENON10. Among the predictions of inelastically interacting dark matter are a suppression of low-energy events, and a population of nuclear recoil events at higher nuclear recoil equivalent energies. This is in stark contrast to the well-known expectation of a falling exponential spectrum for the case of elastic interactions. We present a new analysis of XENON10 dark matter search data extending to E{sub nr} = 75 keV nuclear recoil equivalent energy. Our results exclude a significant region of previously allowed parameter space in the model of inelastically interacting dark matter. In particular, it is found that dark matter particle masses m{sub x} {approx}> 150 GeV are disfavored.

The UK National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) has developed a remote, non-electrical, radiation-mapping device known as RadBall (patent pending), which offers a means to locate and quantify radiation hazards and sources within contaminated areas of the nuclear industry. To date, the RadBall has been deployed in a number of technology trials in nuclear waste reprocessing plants at Sellafield in the UK. The trials have demonstrated the successful ability of the RadBall technology to be deployed and retrieved from active areas. The positive results from these initial deployment trials and the anticipated future potential of RadBall have led to the NNL partnering with the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to further underpin and strengthen the technical performance of the technology. RadBall consists of a colander-like outer shell that houses a radiation-sensitive polymer sphere. It has no power requirements and can be positioned in tight or hard-to reach places. The outer shell works to collimate radiation sources and those areas of the polymer sphere that are exposed react, becoming increasingly less transparent, in proportion to the absorbed dose. The polymer sphere is imaged in an optical-CT scanner which produces a high resolution 3D map of optical attenuation coefficients. Subsequent analysis of the optical …

A novel method to detect and correct inaccuracies in a set of unconstrained dense correspondences between two images is presented. Starting with a robust, general-purpose dense correspondence algorithm, an initial pose estimate and dense 3D scene reconstruction are obtained and bundle-adjusted. Reprojection errors are then computed for each correspondence pair, which is used as a metric to distinguish high and low-error correspondences. An affine neighborhood-based coarse-to-fine iterative search algorithm is then applied only on the high-error correspondences to correct their positions. Such an error detection and correction mechanism is novel for unconstrained dense correspondences, for example not obtained through epipolar geometry-based guided matching. Results indicate that correspondences in regions with issues such as occlusions, repetitive patterns and moving objects can be identified and corrected, such that a more accurate set of dense correspondences results from the feedback-based process, as proven by more accurate pose and structure estimates.

The successful operation (with {beta} {le} 60%, classical ions and electrons with Te = 250 eV) of the Gas Dynamic Trap (GDT) device at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP) in Novosibirsk, Russia, extrapolates to a 2 MW/m{sup 2} Dynamic Trap Neutron Source (DTNS), which burns only {approx}100 g of tritium per full power year. The DTNS has no serious physics, engineering, or technology obstacles; the extension of neutral beam lines to steady state can use demonstrated engineering; and it supports near-term tokamaks and volume neutron sources. The DTNS provides a neutron spectrum similar to that of ITER and satisfies the missions specified by the materials community to test fusion materials (listed as one of the top grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering) and subcomponents (including tritium-breeding blankets) needed to construct DEMO. The DTNS could serve as the first Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF), called for by ReNeW, and could provide the data necessary for licensing subsequent FSNFs.

We have investigated hydroxylation and water adsorption on {alpha}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0001) at water vapor pressures up to 2 Torr and temperatures ranging from 277 to 647 K (relative humidity (RH) {<=} 34%) using ambient-pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Hydroxylation occurs at the very low RH of 1 x 10{sup -7}% and precedes the adsorption of molecular water. With increasing RH, the OH coverage increases up to one monolayer (ML) without any distinct threshold pressure. Depth profiling measurements showed that hydroxylation occurs only at the topmost surface under our experimental conditions. The onset of molecular water adsorption varies from {approx}2 x 10{sup -5} to {approx}4 x 10{sup -2}% RH depending on sample temperature and water vapor pressure. The coverage of water reaches I ML at {approx} 15% RH and increases to 1.5 ML at 34% RH.

Highly coupled Boron plasma has been probed by spectrally resolving an x-ray source scattered by the plasma. Electron density was inferred from the inelastic feature in the collective scattering regime. In addition, the mass density inferred from the non-collective X-ray Thomson scattering has been tested with independent characterization using X-ray radiography in the same drive condition. High-intensity laser produced K-alpha radiation was used as a backlighter for these dynamically compressed plasma experiments providing a high temporal resolution of the measurements. Mass density measurements from both methods are in good agreement. The measurements yield a compression of 1.3 in agreement with detailed radiation-hydrodynamic modeling. From the charge state measured in the non-collective regime and the electron density measured in the collective regime the mass density can then be constrained to 3.15 {+-} 0.16.

A search for muon neutrinos from Kaluza-Klein dark matter annihilations in the Sun has been performed with the 22-string configuration of the IceCube neutrino detector using data collected in 104.3 days of live-time in 2007. No excess over the expected atmospheric background has been observed. Upper limits have been obtained on the annihilation rate of captured lightest Kaluza-Klein particle (LKP) WIMPs in the Sun and converted to limits on the LKP-proton cross-sections for LKP masses in the range 250 - 3000 GeV. These results are the most stringent limits to date on LKP annihilation in the Sun.

The results of mid-rapidity (0 < y < 0.8) neutral pion spectra over an extended transverse momentum range (1 < p{sub T} < 12 GeV/c) in {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions, measured by the STAR experiment, are presented. The neutral pions are reconstructed from photons measured either by the STAR Barrel Electro-Magnetic Calorimeter (BEMC) or by the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) via tracking of conversion electron-positron pairs. Our measurements are compared to previously published {pi}{sup {+-}} and {pi}{sup 0} results. The nuclear modification factors R{sub CP} and R{sub AA} of {pi}{sup 0} are also presented as a function of p{sub T}. In the most central Au+Au collisions, the binary collision scaled {pi}{sup 0} yield at high p{sub T} is suppressed by a factor of about 5 compared to the expectation from the yield of p+p collisions. Such a large suppression is in agreement with previous observations for light quark mesons and is consistent with the scenario that partons suffer considerable energy loss in the dense medium formed in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC.

Solid-state electrochemical sensors using two different sensing electrode compositions, gold and strontium-doped lanthanum manganite (LSM), were evaluated for gas phase sensing of NO{sub x} (NO and NO{sub 2}) using an impedance-metric technique. An asymmetric cell design utilizing porous YSZ electrolyte exposed both electrodes to the test gas (i.e., no reference gas). Sensitivity to less than 5 ppm NO and response/recovery times (10-90%) less than 10 s were demonstrated. Using an LSM sensing electrode, virtual identical sensitivity towards NO and NO{sub 2} was obtained, indicating that the equilibrium gas concentration was measured by the sensing electrode. In contrast, for cells employing a gold sensing electrode the NO{sub x} sensitivity varied depending on the cell design: increasing the amount of porous YSZ electrolyte on the sensor surface produced higher NO{sub 2} sensitivity compared to NO. In order to achieve comparable sensitivity for both NO and NO{sub 2}, the cell with the LSM sensing electrode required operation at a lower temperature (575 C) than the cell with the gold sensing electrode (650 C). The role of surface reactions are proposed to explain the differences in NO and NO{sub 2} selectivity using the two different electrode materials.

FEL-based coherent electron cooling (CEC) offers a new avenue to achieve high luminosities in high energy colliders such as RHIC, LHC, and eRHIC. Traditional treatments consider the FEL as an amplifier of optical waves with specific initial conditions, focusing on the resulting field. CEC requires knowledge of the phase space distribution of the electron beam in the FEL. We present 1D analytical results for the phase space distribution of an electron beam with an arbitrary initial current profile, and discuss approaches of expanding to 3D results.

We propose undertaking a demonstration experiment on suppressing spontaneous undulator radiation from an electron beam at BNL's Accelerator Test Facility (ATF). We describe the method, the proposed layout, and a possible schedule. There are several advantages in strongly suppressing shot noise in the electron beam, and the corresponding spontaneous radiation. The self-amplified spontaneous (SASE) emission originating from shot noise in the electron beam is the main source of noise in high-gain FEL amplifiers. It may negatively affect several HG FEL applications ranging from single- to multi-stage HGHG FELs. SASE saturation also imposes a fundamental hard limit on the gain of an FEL amplifier in a coherent electron-cooling scheme. A novel active method for suppressing shot noise in relativistic electron beams by many orders-of-magnitude was recently proposed. While theoretically such strong suppression appears feasible, the performance and applicability of this novel method must be evaluated experimentally. Several practical questions about the proposed noise suppressor, such as 3D effects and/or sensitivity to the e-beam parameters also require experimental clarification. To do this, we propose here a proof-of-principle experiment using elements of the VISA FEL at BNL's Accelerator Test Facility.

We review the statistical description of the chaotic time evolution of the radiation from a self-amplified spontaneous-emission free-electron laser in the linear region before saturation. A high-gain, self-amplified spontaneous-emission (SASE) free-electron laser (FEL) [1, 2], based on modern beam technology, has the advantage of operating without a resonator and hence is capable of generating coherent radiation with wavelength down to the x-ray region. The LCLS at SLAC has recently achieved high gain and saturation at 1.5 {angstrom} [3]. A review of SASE theory can be found in ref. [4]. In this paper, we have considered the linear regime before saturation. In the nonlinear saturation regime, SASE is no longer a Gaussian process and analytic treatment is very difficult. A valuable numerical simulation analysis of the statistical behavior in the nonlinear regime can be found in ref. [10,11].

Shot noise in the electron beam distribution is the main source of noise in high-gain FEL amplifiers, which may affect applications ranging from single- and multi-stage HGHG FELs to an FEL amplifier for coherent electron cooling. This noise also imposes a fundamental limit of about 10{sup 6} on FEL gain, after which SASE FELs saturate. There are several advantages in strongly suppressing this shot noise in the electron beam, and the corresponding spontaneous radiation. For more than a half-century, a traditional passive method has been used successfully in practical low-energy microwave electronic devices to suppress shot noise. Recently, it was proposed for this purpose in FELs. However, being passive, the method has some significant limitations and is hardly suitable for the highly inhomogeneous beams of modern high-gain FELs. I present a novel active method of suppressing, by many orders-of-magnitude, the shot noise in relativistic electron beams. I give a theoretical description of the process, and detail its fundamental limitation.

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 …

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.

The charmonium yields are expected to be considerably suppressed if a deconfined medium is formed in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. In addition, the bottomonium states, with the possible exception of the {Upsilon}(1S) state, are also expected to be suppressed in heavy-ion collisions. However, in proton-nucleus collisions the quarkonium production cross sections, even those of the {Upsilon}(1S), scale less than linearly with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. These 'cold nuclear matter' effects need to be accounted for before signals of the high density QCD medium can be identified in the measurements made in nucleus-nucleus collisions. We identify two cold nuclear matter effects important for midrapidity quarkonium production: 'nuclear absorption', typically characterized as a final-state effect on the produced quarkonium state and shadowing, the modification of the parton densities in nuclei relative to the nucleon, an initial-state effect. We characterize these effects and study their energy and rapidity dependence.

As scientific instruments and computer simulations produce more and more data, the task of locating the essential information to gain insight becomes increasingly difficult. FastBit is an efficient software tool to address this challenge. In this article, we present a summary of the key underlying technologies, namely bitmap compression, encoding, and binning. Together these techniques enable FastBit to answer structured (SQL) queries orders of magnitude faster than popular database systems. To illustrate how FastBit is used in applications, we present three examples involving a high-energy physics experiment, a combustion simulation, and an accelerator simulation. In each case, FastBit significantly reduces the response time and enables interactive exploration on terabytes of data.

Gravitational instability of the distribution of stars in a galaxy is a well-known phenomenon in astrophysics. This report is an attempt to analyze this phenomenon by applying standard tools developed in accelerator physics. It is found that a nonrotating galaxy would become unstable if its size exceeds a certain limit that depends on its mass density and its velocity spread.

Isotope effects (IEs) are a powerful tool for examining the reactivity of, and interactions between, molecules. Recently, secondary IEs have been used to probe the nature of noncovalent interactions between guest and host molecules in supramolecular systems. While these studies can provide valuable insight into the specific interactions governing guest recognition and binding properties, IEs on noncovalent interactions are often very small and difficult to measure precisely. The Perrin group has developed an NMR titration method capable of determining ratios of equilibrium constants with remarkable precision. They have used this technique to study small, secondary equilibrium isotope effects (EIEs) on the acidity of carboxylic acids and phenols and on the basicity of amines, measuring differences down to thousandths of a pK{sub a} unit. It occurred to us that this titration method can in principle measure relative equilibrium constants for any process which is fast on the NMR timescale and for which the species under comparison are distinguishable by NMR. Here we report the application of this method to measure very small EIEs on noncovalent host-guest interactions in a supramolecular system.