NIST Technicalendar October 29 to November 2, 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/.

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)

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3:30 PM - Applications of Optical Spectroscopy to the Study of Protein Aggregation

2:00 PM - Hydrophobic-Hydrophilic Phenomena in Protein Folding and in Protein-Protein Association
6:30 PM - My Life with Bugs, or, Why I Believe in Combinatorial Testing

No Scheduled Events

1:30 PM - Virtual Reality Research in Biomedical and Industrial Applications

No Scheduled Events

10/29 -- MONDAY

3:30 PM - OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY DIVISION SEMINAR: Applications of Optical Spectroscopy to the Study of Protein Aggregation
We detect and study protein binding and aggregation using Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS). First, FCS was used to investigate the monomer to dimer equilibrium of the phytochrome cph1, a light interacting protein from the cyanobacterium Synechocytis. The mutant, PR1, of cph1, with the natural chromophore phycocyanobilin (PCB) was used as a probe molecule to monitor changes in the state of the cph1. We monitored the formation of the dimer of cph1, and additionally found that cph1 interacts with dye molecules. Second, two-color fluorescence cross correlation spectroscopy with alternating laser excitation (ALEX) has been used to identify the presence of an unmodified and unlabeled protein in solution using two antibodies labeled with a pair of organic dyes with minimal spectral overlap, Alexa 488 and Alexa 647. Using a model system of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), we show how the concentration of complexes of hCG and both antibodies is related to the concentration of the antibodies as well as the hCG concentration. These results will be discussed in relation to the predicted equilibrium concentrations in light of optimizing antibody based assays at the single molecule level, specifically for determining the presence of aggregation.
Abigail Miller , College of Chemistry, UC Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,.
AML Bldg, Room H107. (NIST Contact: Lori Goldner, 301-975-3792, lori.goldner@nist.gov)


10/30 -- TUESDAY

2:00 PM - PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES DIVISION SEMINAR: Hydrophobic-Hydrophilic Phenomena in Protein Folding and in Protein-Protein Association
An analysis of the solvent induced contributions to the thermodynamic driving forced for protein folding and protein-protein association reveals that, contrary to the common wisdom, Hydrophilic interactions might be more important than Hydrophobic interactions. For fifteen years I have been working on hydrophobic interactions, and I believed, as most people do, that hydrophobic Interactions are the most important contributions to the driving forces for biochemical processes. Now, after critically examined the data on the various contributions to the driving forces for protein folding, and protein-protein interactions, I reached the conclusion that the Hydrophilic interactions, rather hydrophobic interactions are the more important in biochemical processes. Examples on the role of Hydrophilic interactions on solubility, protein association and molecular recognition will be presented.
Arieh Ben-Naim , Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
Administration Bldg, Lecture Rm. E. (NIST Contact: Raymond Mountain, 301-975-2484, raymond.mountain@nist.gov)

6:30 PM - AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR QUALITY SSIG AND SOCIETY FOR SOFTWARE QUALITY: My Life with Bugs, or, Why I Believe in Combinatorial Testing
This presentation describes the benefits of combinatorial testing. Trying all combinations of inputs or program settings is impossible for most programs. However research shows that trying all pairs, all triples, all 4-way, up to 6-way combinations of parameters catches most bugs. Theoretically a relatively small number of tests can exercise all k-way combinations since a single execution exercises on the order of p^k k-way combinations, where p is the number of parameters. Recent algorithms have been able to quickly find a packing of all k-way combinations into a relatively small number of tests.
Dr. Paul Black , Information Technology Laborartory, NIST.
Administration Bldg, Lecture Rm. F. (NIST Contact: Wendy Havens, 301-975-3283, wendy.havens@nist.gov) http://www.asq509.org/ht/d/sp/i/2499/pid/2499


10/31 -- WEDNESDAY

No Scheduled Events

11/1 -- THURSDAY

1:30 PM - INFORMATION ACCESS DIVISION SEMINAR: Virtual Reality Research in Biomedical and Industrial Applications
In this presentation, the speaker will talk about Virtual Reality Research applied to the fields of biomedical engineering, manufacturing, clinical and industrial applications. Software tools have been developed for computer-aided surgical planning, guiding, and navigation in oral/maxillofacial, dental, and spine regions. A portable navigation grading system was constructed to train future orthopedic surgeons. A self-developed tracking system is used to achieve the goal of surgical planning with an accuracy of 0.19mm RMS within the tracking range of 0.6m~1.0m. The aim of these tools is to create a mass customization product to be used with different patients and different treatments but in the same syndrome. Several medical procedures have benefited from the current research, such as maxillofacial reconstruction after tumor removal, model navigation surgery, 3D cephalometry, aesthetic evaluation, dental implantation, and pedicle screw implantation, etc. A virtual reality system has recently been built to be applied to occupational therapy and rehabilitation for people who suffer from Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and stroke, and children who suffer from movement battery difficulty. In the industrial arena, a specific virtual design studio was built for a motorcycle manufacturing company to speed up their workflow from design to manufacturing. Bio: Jing-Jing Fang received her BS and MSc in applied mathematics in Taiwan, 1984. She then became a lecturer in the Department of Accounting and Statistics at Tainan Women College, and soon moved to the Department Mechanical Engineering at the National Cheng Kung University. In 1993, she was sponsored by the government to pursue her PhD in Mechanical and Chemical Engineering in Heriot-Watt University, Britain which she achieved in 1996. Currently, as Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, she leads her research team working in the areas of digital human modeling, anthropometry, 3D garment design, pattern generating, image-based surgical planning, surgical navigation, and recently, occupational therapy and rehabilitation. Her work in clinical areas has benefited over 80 patients in oral/maxillofacial and spinal surgeries. Her research interests are geometric modeling, computational geometry, object-oriented design, e-Learning, and virtual reality applications. During the last eleven years, she has published nearly one hundred papers and filed for ten innovation patents. She has regularly obtained research funding from both government and from industry.
Jing-Jing Fang, Guest Researcher, NIST , Associate Professor VR Laboratory, ME, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.
Administration Bldg, Lecture Rm. C. (NIST Contact: Afzal Godil, 301-975-4262, godil@nist.gov)


11/2 -- FRIDAY

No Scheduled Events

ADVANCE NOTICE

11/13/07 1:30 PM - CENTER FOR NANOSCALE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR: DESIGN, FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF DIAMOND BASED PHOTONIC MICROCAVITIES
Negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) centers in diamond have attracted much attention recently due to their unique properties, such as very long spin lifetimes and their suitability for single photon sources at room temperature. When such sources are matched by the formation of high quality cavities, opportunities arise for enhancement and control of the optical transitions associated with N-V centers. This talk will focus on fabrication and characterization of the photonic microcavities, such as microdisks and photonic crystal structures, in nanocrystalline diamond. Optical characterizations provide insights to scattering loss in these structures, which hints the limitation of this material. I will also discuss our strategies of constructing similar structure in single crystal diamond, and show some preliminary results.
Dr. Chiou-Fu Wang , University of California, Santa Barbara,.
Bldg. 217, Rm. H107. (NIST Contact: Kartik Srinivasan, 301-975-5938, kartik.srinivasan@nist.gov)

12/7/07 2:00 PM - CENTER FOR NANOSCALE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR: COUPLING NANOMECHANICAL MOTION TO ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS THROUGH THE CASIMIR EFFECT AND SURFACE EVANESCENT WAVES
The miniaturization of mechanical devices opens new opportunities for investigating and exploiting novel phenomena that occur for components in close proximity. The Casimir force, for example, originates from the zero-point quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic fields. I will describe experiments that demonstrated the Casimir effect in micromechanical devices. In another effort, subwavelength structures are fabricated on the surface of metal films to strongly modify their interaction with light. The evanescent fields channel the optical energy to specific locations, resulting in strong and localized field enhancement. Coupling of the enhanced evanescent field to the nanomechanical motion of the metallic elements opens new opportunities for tunable optical elements and high sensitivity displacement detection.
Dr. Ho Bun Chan , Department of Physics, University of Florida,.
Bldg. 215, Rm. C103-C106. (NIST Contact: Nikolai Zhitenev, 301-975-6039, nikolai.zhitenev@nist.gov)

12/10/07 12:00 PM - SURFACE SCIENCE LUNCH BUNCH: The 2007 Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry
The 2007 Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry recognize work that has a number of connections with NIST, mostly associated with attendees of the Surface Science Lunch Bunch. This homecoming reunion of the Bunch features talks by Mark Stiles (Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology) and Bill Gadzuk (Electron and Optical Physics Division) on the Physics and Chemistry Prizes, respectively. As always, at the Surface Science Lunch Bunch, you are welcome to eat your fill of all the food you bring yourself!
Mark Stiles , NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology. Bill Gadzuk , NIST Electron and Optical Physics Division.
Radiation Physics Bldg, Rm. C301. (NIST Contact: Charles Clark, 301-975-3709, charles.clark@nist.gov)
Special Assistance Available

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MEETINGS ELSEWHERE


10/29 -- MONDAY

11:00 AM - CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON/GEOPHYSICAL LAB. SEMINAR: MERCURY'S UNIQUE CORE
J. Li , Urbana.
Bldg, Rm..
Greenewalt Bldg., GL-DTM Grounds, Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC. (NIST Contact: . ., 202-478-8900, seminar@lists.ciw.edu)



10/30 -- TUESDAY

No Scheduled Events

10/31 -- WEDNESDAY

No Scheduled Events

11/1 -- THURSDAY

No Scheduled Events

11/2 -- FRIDAY

No Scheduled Events

ADVANCE NOTICE

No Scheduled Events

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TALKS BY NIST PERSONNEL

SHULL, R. : HIGH EFFICIENCY REFRIGERATORS USING MAGNETIC NANOCOMPOSITES???.
Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, II, 10/22.

WU, W. : INTERFACE CHARACTERIZATION OF LATENT REACTION/DIFFUSION FRONT IN EUV RESIST.
Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Symposium, Sapporo, Japan, 10/29.

WINDSOR, E. : USE OF DROP ON DEMAND INKJET PRINTING TECHNOLOGY TO PRODUCE TRACE LEVEL CONTAMINATION STANDARDS FOR SIMS ANALYSIS OF SEMICONDUCTORS.
16th International conference on secondary ion mass spectrometry, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, 10/30.

GILLEN, G. : FUNDAMENTALS AND APPLICTIONS OF MOLECULAR DEPTH PROFILING.
16th International Conference on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, Kanazawa, Japan, 10/30.

KARIM, A. (Co-Author: K.Migler ) : MEASUREMENTS AND METHODS FOR CHARACTERIZATON OF NANOPARTICLES: TUBES, DOTS AND RODS.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, MD, 11/1.

WU, W. : A NEW DEFORMATION MECHANISM IN DN HYDROGELS.
Hokaiddo University, Sapporo, Japan, 11/1.

PEASE, L. : "QUANTIFYING PROTEIN AGGREGATION" AND "SURFACES COVERAGE ON A NANOPARTICLE".
AIChE, Salt Lake City, UT, 11/2.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

WALK FOR CHARITY AWARENESS
Join us at the CFC Walk for Charity Awareness on October 30, 2007 from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm. Support the CFC by joining your colleagues on the two mile walk around the NIST campus, starting outside the Administration Building. Water and souvenirs will be provided and a prize raffle for participants! No need to sign up, just show up! Prizes include: 18-holes at Rattlewood Golf Course for 4, Baltimore National Aquarium Gift Basket including 2 free passes, and a $100 Savings Bond. Rain Date: November 1, 2007
NIST Contact: Karen Lellock, 301-975-4269, karen.lellock@nist.gov

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: . ., ., .

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NIST WEB SITE ANNOUNCEMENTS

No Web Site announcements this week.

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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.

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