NIST Technicalendar August 13 to August 17, 2007 The NIST Technicalendar is issued each Friday. All items MUST be submitted electronically from this web page by 12:00 NOON each Wednesday unless otherwise stated in the NIST Technicalendar. The address for online weekly editions of the NIST Technicalendar and NIST Administrative Calendar is: http://www.nist.gov/tcal/.
Please evaluate the web Technicalendar using our 30 Second Evaluation

In this Issue: Meetings at NIST Meetings Elsewhere Announcements Talks by NIST Personnel NIST Web Site Announcements NIST Administrative Calendar (current)   NIST Vacancy Announcements (current)

Also available: Previous Issues of the Technicalendar Quick Technicalendar (current) Last week's Quick Technicalendar Last week's Technicalendar Detailed Search NIST Journal of Research (Current TOC) Change User Options

10:45 AM - Quantum Dynamics Calculations on Massively Parallel Supercomputers: Implementation and Molecular Applications

10:10 AM - Video Teleconference of Visiting Commitee on Advanced Technology from NIST Boulder
10:30 AM - Medical Robotics Research at the Robotics, Automation, Manipulation, and Sensing (RAMS) Laboratory
1:30 PM - Utilizing Specific Supramolecular Interactions to Access New Responsive Materials

10:30 AM - Synthetic Microdata Simulation for Confidentiality Protection Using Regression Quantiles

9:00 AM - What's New in Mathematica 6
10:30 AM - Transmission Electron Microtomography: Recent Developments and Applications to Multicomponent Block Copolymer Systems
10:45 AM - Quantum Dynamics Calculations on Massively Parallel Supercomputers: Implementation and Molecular Application
1:30 PM - A Brief Introduction to Mathematica 6

10:30 AM - The Failure of Scaling and Impact on Areal Density in Hark Disk Drives

8/13 -- MONDAY

10:45 AM - NIST CENTER FOR NEUTRON RESEARCH SEMINAR: Quantum Dynamics Calculations on Massively Parallel Supercomputers: Implementation and Molecular Applications
Since the discovery of superconductivity in CeCoIn5, a plethora of interesting phenomena has been observed in this material. Among these are one of the highest critical temperatures (Tc = 2.3 K) in any heavy fermion superconductor, d-wave pairing symmetry, a paramagnetically limited upper critical field which is first-order at low temperatures, and field- and pressure-induced quantum-critical points and non-Fermi liquid behavior. Finally, several bulk measurements indicate a phase transition to a non-uniform (Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov) superconducting state just below Hc2 at low temperatures. Here we report on small-angle neutron scattering studies of the flux-line lattice (FLL) in CeCoIn5 with fields up to Hc2 = 5 T applied parallel to the c-axis and temperatures from 60 mK to 1.3 K. The FLL undergoes a series of symmetry and reorientation transitions from hexagonal to rhombic to square and back, as the applied magnetic field is increased from zero to Hc2. While the low-field transitions can be understood as driven either by non-local effects coupled to an anisotropic Fermi surface or the d-wave pairing, the high-field behavior is presently unexplained. The magnetic field distribution around the vortices was studied by measuring the FLL absolute scattered intensity which allow a determination of the vortex form factor. The form factor shows a striking departure from the usual exponential decrease with increasing field. Rather, the form factor remains constant in fields up to 2 T, above which it increases. At Hc2 the form factor drops abruptly to zero, probably reflecting the first order nature of the upper critical field in this material and/or the presence of a non-Fermi liquid state and a quantum critical point just above the upper critical field. While not understood in detail, these results indicates a strong field dependence of the penetration depth and/or coherence length, rendering the notion of characteristic length scales meaningless. Comparison will be made with measurements on TmNi2B2C in the paramagnetic state above TN.
Morten Eskildsen , Professor, University of Notre Dame.
Bldg. 235, Rm. E100. (NIST Contact: Dan Neumann, 301-975-5252, dan@nist.gov)


8/14 -- TUESDAY

10:10 AM - MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION DIVISION SEMINAR: Video Teleconference of Visiting Commitee on Advanced Technology from NIST Boulder
Day 1: 10:10 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (ET) Lecture Room C, Bldg. 101 - Video Teleconference of Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT) from NIST Boulder. Two Subcommittee break-out sessions: 3:45-7:00 p.m. - Subcommittee on Information Technology, 101/Lecture Room F 3:45-7:00 p.m. - Subcommittee on Biosciences/Health Care, 101/Lecture Room C Day 2: 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Lecture Room F For further information, contact Janet Brumby on x3189, or Denise Herbert on x2300. http://www.nist.gov/director/vcat/VTCaugustagenda07.htm
Visiting Committee on , Advanced Technology.
Administration Bldg, Lecture Rm. C. (NIST Contact: Gwenda Roberson, 301-975-4074, gwenda.roberson@nist.gov) http://www.nist.gov/director/vcat/VTCaugustagenda07.htm

10:30 AM - INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS DIVISION SEMINAR: Medical Robotics Research at the Robotics, Automation, Manipulation, and Sensing (RAMS) Laboratory
In this talk, I will discuss the various areas of research within medical robotics pursued at the RAMS Laboratory. Our research in medical robotics is both at the macro-scale as well as at the micro-scale. Specifically, RAMS laboratory research is targeted towards: haptic (sense of touch) interfaces for robot-assisted surgery, reality-based soft-tissue modeling for surgical simulation, model-based teleoperation in robot-assisted surgery, and cell manipulation and force feedback interfaces for cellular surgery.
Jaydev Desai , Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, .
Bldg. 220, Rm. B105. (NIST Contact: Jason Gorman, 301-975-3446, gorman@nist.gov)

1:30 PM - POLYMERS DIVISION SEMINAR: Utilizing Specific Supramolecular Interactions to Access New Responsive Materials
Abstract: Utilizing non-covalent interactions to access controlled molecular assemblies as well as to influence communication between different components is a critical concept in most biological processes and natural biomaterials. Transferring this approach to designed polymeric materials, which exhibit unusual mechanical and functional properties, opens the door to a new generation of adaptive, stimuli-responsive materials. The development of such supramolecular materials in a variety of areas that impact society, including new chemical warfare agent sensors, adaptive biomatrices and surfaces to control cell growth, rehealable and facile recyclable plastics and in particular new mechanically adaptive nanocomposites for cortical implants, will be discussed.
Professor Stuart Rowan , Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering / Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, stuart.rowan@case.edu.
Polymers Building (224), Rm. A312. (NIST Contact: Matt Becker, 301-975-6842, matt.becker@nist.gov)


8/15 -- WEDNESDAY

10:30 AM - STATISTICAL ENGINEERING DIVISION SEMINAR: Synthetic Microdata Simulation for Confidentiality Protection Using Regression Quantiles
Government agencies must simultaneously maintain confidentiality of individual records and disseminate useful microdata. Iowa's Legislative Services Agency (LSA) needs predicted state tax revenue based on proposed policy changes calculated from individual income tax returns. Iowa's Department of Revenue (IDR) cannot provide individual records to LSA by law. Currently, LSA submits requests to IDR that IDR computes and reports to LSA. This is inefficient for both agencies. We study options for IDR creating a synthetic tax return file for release to LSA. In this talk I will discuss combining quantile regression, hot deck imputation, and additional confidentiality-preserving methods to produce releasable, usable data. Measures of disclosure risk are considered. In addition to other measures of data utility, several versions of microdata can be multiply imputed to assess uncertainty.
Jennifer Huckett , Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, jhuckett@gmail.com.
222 Bldg, Rm. A264. (NIST Contact: John Lu, 301-975-3208, john.lu@nist.gov)
Special Assistance Available


8/16 -- THURSDAY

9:00 AM - ELECTRON AND OPTICAL PHYSICS DIVISION SEMINAR: What's New in Mathematica 6
A seminar about what's new in Mathematica 6 will be given by Paul Wellin, Manager of the Wolfram Education Group. The seminar will display and explain the visualization power and the groundbreaking dynamic capabilities new to Mathematica 6. Other topics will include high performance computing and gridMathematica.
Paul Wellin , Wolfram Research, Inc., Champaign, IL.
Administration Bldg, Employees Lounge. (NIST Contact: Charles Clark, 301-975-3709, charles.clark@nist.gov)
Special Assistance Available

10:30 AM - POLYMERS DIVISION SEMINAR: Transmission Electron Microtomography: Recent Developments and Applications to Multicomponent Block Copolymer Systems
Recently, three-dimensional (3D) imaging at nanometer scale becomes possible due to the progress of transmission electron microtomography (TEMT)[1]. In the TEMT experiments, a series of transmission electron micrographs of a specimen from different tilt angles is taken, from which the 3D image inside the specimen is reconstructed. With careful sample preparation and alignment of the tilt series, the resolution of the 3D images approaches 1nm or less [2-3]. In the present talk, we discuss the recent progress of TEMT and its applications to polymer related systems such as block copolymers, nano-composites, etc. Because it is essential to investigate the structure-property relationship of materials for better and accurate materials design, new types of structural parameters that have never been acquired by other experimental techniques are measured from the 3D images. [1] H. Jinnai, Y. Nishikawa, T. Ikehara, T. Nishi, Advances in Polymer Science, 170, 115-167 (2004). [2] H. Nishioka, K. Niihara, T. Kaneko, J. Yamanaka, Y. Nishikawa, T. Inoue, T. Nishi, H. Jinnai, Compos. Interfac., 13, 589-603 (2006). [3] N. Kawase, M. Kato, H. Nishioka, H. Jinnai, Ultramicroscopy, 107, 8-15 (2007).
Hiroshi Jinnai , Kyoto Institute of Technology.
224 Bldg, Rm. A312. (NIST Contact: Ronald Jones, 301-975-4624, ronald.jones@nist.gov)

10:45 AM - NIST CENTER FOR NEUTRON RESEARCH SEMINAR: Quantum Dynamics Calculations on Massively Parallel Supercomputers: Implementation and Molecular Application
The eigenvalue/eigenvector and linear solver problems arising in chemical physics and many other fields (e.g. structured grid simulation of partial differential equations in multiple dimensions) often involve large sparse matrices that exhibit a certain block structure. In such cases, specialized iterative methods that employ preconditioners derived from a block Jacobi diagonalization procedure have been found to be very efficient, vis-a-vis reducing the required CPU effort on serial computing platforms. A parallel implementation was presented, based on a non-standard domain decomposition scheme. Excellent parallel scalability was observed for both the specialized block Jacobi and the fundamental matrix--vector product operations up to hundreds of nodes with generalization for arbitrary number of nodes and data sizes, while the isoefficiency analysis suggests fruitful extrapolation to clusters with tens of thousands of nodes. This parallel implementation renders the resultant parallel codes suitable for robust application to a wide range of real problems, such as in the quantum dynamics calculations of scattering cross sections, Green's functions, cumulative reaction probabilities, and thermal rate constants, running on massively parallel computing architectures.
Wenwu Chen , NCNR.
Bldg. 235, Rm. E100. (NIST Contact: Paul Kienzle, 301-975-4727, paul.kienzle@nist.gov)

1:30 PM - ELECTRON AND OPTICAL PHYSICS DIVISION SEMINAR: A Brief Introduction to Mathematica 6
This hands-on workshop will provide direct experience with all of the basic features of Mathematica 6 as well as a foundation for developing advanced applications of the system. Syllabus: hands-on instruction in performing basic operations, building up computations, and navigating the user interface; introduction to the Mathematica programming language emphasizing familiar programming tasks using procedural, functional, and rule- based programming; visualization and graphics including creation of dynamic and interactive graphics; importing and exporting data and files, file formats, file paths, working with data collections, visualization of large data sets.
Paul Wellin , Mananger, Wolfram Education Group, Champaign, IL.
Technology Bldg, Rm. B105. (NIST Contact: Charles Clark, 301-975-3709, charles.clark@nist.gov)
Special Assistance Available


8/17 -- FRIDAY

10:30 AM - METALLURGY DIVISION SEMINAR: The Failure of Scaling and Impact on Areal Density in Hark Disk Drives
For approximately 45 years, scaling of geometries accomplished draconian increases in areal density of magnetic recording for hard disk drives, allowing the PC, Internet and DVR industries to flourish. The challenges were primarily how to make thinner media with smaller magnetic grains, how to fly magnetic heads closer to the magnetic media and how to reduce the dimensions of magnetic heads. Particulate media gave way to thin film media and machined ferrite cores with hand wound coils gave way to thin film heads using semiconductor fabrication techniques. The first impact of nanotechnology (defined here as materials with dimensions small enough to have different properties than in bulk) was a positive one, the introduction of the GMR head and more recently the TMR head. But the second impact of nanotechnology was a negative one, the onset of superparamagnetism, first in thin film media and lately in the free layer of TMR heads. Yet to be felt is the likelihood that bulk ferromagnetism will break down in the write poles of magnetic heads as their dimensions are shrunk. This talk will cover the range of issues the HDD industry is now facing as it tries to maintain its exponential increases in areal density with time now that scaling no longer works.
Robert Hempstead , Director Advanced Overcoats and Media Research, Seagate Research, Pittsburgh, PA.
Materials Building, Room B307. (NIST Contact: June Lau, 301-975-5711, june.lau@nist.gov)


ADVANCE NOTICE

No Scheduled Events

---

MEETINGS ELSEWHERE


8/13 -- MONDAY

No Scheduled Events

8/14 -- TUESDAY

No Scheduled Events

8/15 -- WEDNESDAY

No Scheduled Events

8/16 -- THURSDAY

No Scheduled Events

8/17 -- FRIDAY

No Scheduled Events

ADVANCE NOTICE

10/4/07 10:00 AM - NIST/DARPA WORKSHOP ON COMPACT X-RAY SOURCES BASED ON INVERSE COMPTON SCATTERING
Ronald Ruth , President and Chief Scientist, Lyncean Technologies, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, ronald_ruth@lynceantech.com. David Moncton , Director, MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, dem@mit.edu. Winthrop J. Brown, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Frank E Carroll Jr, CEO & Chief Medical Officer, MXISystems, Inc. Mathias Richter, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt PTB
Bldg, Rm. .
The Executive Conference Center (ECC) 3601 Wilson Boulevard Suite 600 Arlington, Virginia 22201. (NIST Contact: Uwe Arp, 301-975-3233, uwe.arp@nist.gov)

---

TALKS BY NIST PERSONNEL

PODOBEDOVA, L. (Co-Author: W.Wiese , Physicist, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD) : ATOMIC OSCILLATOR STRENGTHS FOR ALL STAGES OF IONIZATION OF CHOLRINE.
The 9th International Colloquium on Atomic Spectra and Oscillator Strengths for Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas, Lund, Sweden, 8/8.

DOUGLAS, J. : WAVES OF SELF-ASSEMBLY.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 8/14.

---

ANNOUNCEMENTS

VISITOR REGISTRATION FOR NIST EVENTS
Because of heightened security at the NIST Gaithersburg site, members of the public who wish to attend meetings, seminars, lectures, etc. must first register in advance. For more information please call or e-mail the "NIST Contact" for the particular event you would like to attend.
NIST Contact: . ., ., .

PUBLICATIONS PRINTING DEADLINE AUGUST 17, 2007
August 17 is the last day in FY 2007 to submit materials using FY 2007 funds to the Electronic Information and Publications Group (EIPG) for printing at the Department of Commerce or Government Printing Office. To assure timely processing, bring your Editorial Review Board-approved document or administrative printing job and appropriate paperwork to the EIPG office by close of business on Friday, August 17. The office is located on the mezzanine floor of the NIST Research Library in the Administration Building, Room E215. Questions? Ilse Putman, x2780 or Barbara Silcox, x2146.
NIST Contact: Ilse Putman, 301-975-2780, ilse.putman@nist.gov

2007 U.S. WORLD STANDARDS DAY PAPER COMPETITION
The U.S. standards community will celebrate World Standards Day on Thursday, October 18, 2007, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. This year’s theme, “Standards and the Global Village” recognizes the global consensus-building capacity of standards developing organizations. Along with this event, the 2007 World Standards Day Sponsors, including NIST, will hold the annual paper competition. Papers are invited that show, using specific examples, ways that standards developing organizations have encouraged and created global consensus for the economic and social benefit of the global village. Paper competition winners will be announced and given their awards at the U.S. celebration of World Standards Day. Cash prizes are awarded by the Standards Engineering Society (SES) and the World Standards Day Planning Committee. The first place winner will receive a plaque and $2,500. Second and third place winners will receive $1,000 and $500, respectively, along with a certificate. In addition, the winning papers will be published in SES’s journal, Standards Engineering. ELIGIBILITY: The competition is open to all U.S. individuals in the private sector or at government facilities. Papers may be co-authored. RULES: Entries must be original and not previously published. NIST papers must be processed through WERB or BERB. All paper contest submissions must be received with an official entry form by midnight August 31, 2007, by the SES Executive Director, 13340 SW 96th Avenue, Miami, Florida, 33176. Complete details and entry forms are available on the SES website www.ses-standards.org (follow the link for “2007 WSD Paper Competition.”) For additional information about the U.S. Celebration of World Standards Day, or to register for the event, please visit www.wsd-us.org.
NIST Contact: Mary Donaldson, 301-975-6197, mary.donaldson@nist.gov

---

NIST WEB SITE ANNOUNCEMENTS

DIGITAL LIBRARY OF MATHEMATICAL FUNCTIONS (DLMF) AVAILABLE FOR NIST BETA TEST
The DLMF is being developed as a Web and hardcopy replacement for the 1964 Handbook of Mathematical Functions, M. Abramowitz and I.A. Stegun, eds., published originally by the US Government Printing Office for NBS and subsequently by Dover. A beta version of the Web site is available now for testing within NIST. Important: This site is to be used only for testing and evaluation within NIST. It is not to be cited or released outside NIST. Please send comments by email to DLMF-feedback@nist.gov. http://dlmf-i.nist.gov NIST STAFF ONLY
NIST Contact: Daniel Lozier, 301-975-2706, daniel.lozier@nist.gov

---

For more information, contact Ms. Sharon Hallman, Editor, Stop 2500, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg MD 20899-2500; Telephone: 301-975-TCAL (3570); Fax: 301-926-4431; or Email: tcal@nist.gov.

All lectures and meetings are open unless otherwise stated.

---

NVL Webmaster