1. SPECTRA OF ANIONIC FRAGMENTS VERIFY SHAPE RESONANCES
by Art Robinson
(Contacts: WCStolte@lbl.gov, lindle@nevada.edu)

Shape resonances are a controversial subject among molecular spectroscopists, in part because there has been no agreed-upon way even to identify them when they occur, which is thought to be rather frequently in both gas-phase and adsorbed molecules. So it is good news that an international team at the ALS comprising researchers from the U.S., Italy, Mexico, and Sweden has discovered a method for verifying their presence. The team's approach, demonstrated in carbon monoxide, is to measure the yields of both cation and anion fragments above the molecular photoionization threshold. They showed that, unlike cation spectra, the anion spectra do not contain the shape resonance, whose energy is well known in this molecule. Measuring both therefore pinpointed the shape resonance.

Read the full story at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/science/sci_archive/49anionic_fragment.html.

Publication about this research: W.C. Stolte, D.L. Hansen, M.N. Piancastelli, I. Dominguez Lopez, A. Rizvi, O. Hemmers, H. Wang, A.S. Schlachter, M.S. Lubell, and D.W. Lindle, "Anionic Photofragmentation of CO: A Selective Probe of Core-Level Resonances," Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 4503 (2001).

2. ALS USERS' MEETING SETS ATTENDANCE RECORD
by Art Robinson
(Contact: harald_ade@ncsu.edu)

Sponsored by the Users' Executive Committee (UEC) and spread over three days from October 15-17, the annual ALS Users' Meeting featured an exceptional program with quality science as the main theme. While the first day was reserved for the traditional facility and Washington reports and for science highlights, the following two days, devoted to several workshops covering topics from theory to detectors, new experimental facilities, and forefront science, were strong draws. As a result, it should not be surprising that the number of registered attendees jumped to a record level of 352, more than 100 above the typical attendance in recent years. The arrival of superconducting bend magnets, or superbends, just before the meeting opened also helped stimulate interest.

Read the full story (with photos) at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/usermtg/highlights.html.

3. GROUP TO ANALYZE NEW YORK AIR SAMPLES AT ALS
(Contact: tacahill@ucdavis.edu)

The fallout from the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in New York City includes concern about airborne pollutants that could affect recovery workers and residents of the surrounding area. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, via the Department of Energy, called on the DELTA Group (Detection and Evaluation of Long-Range Transport of Aerosols), from the Univ. of California, Davis, to help monitor the composition and movement of smoke and dust particles from the excavation site. Since October 1, a Davis Rotating Unit for Monitoring (DRUM) has been positioned on the roof of a building downwind from ground zero, collecting air samples continuously; sampling will continue as long as needed. In early November, the first batch of samples will be shipped back to California for analysis.

At UC Davis, the air samples will be scanned using an electron microscope and a mass spectrometer for asbestos and organic compounds such as carcinogenic nitrosamines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and phthalates produced when plastic burns. The x-ray microprobe at ALS Beamline 10.3.1 will be employed to analyze the samples for the presence of elements sodium through uranium, but especially for toxic metals such as mercury, lead, and cadmium. The analysis will be able to detect rarely measured, very fine and ultrafine (to 0.09 micrometer) particles that can lodge deeply in the lungs. The first set of results are expected by mid-November. Details about the composition of airborne particles should help authorities determine what safety measures are needed at the site, the length of work shifts, and whether workers need better measures to control the dust to protect local residents.

4. NEW PROTEIN CRYSTALLOGRAPHY PROCESS IN PLACE
(Contact: pxproposals@lbl.gov)

Two months ago, the ALS proposed to overhaul its procedure for allocating beamtime for independent investigators in protein crystallography (ALSNews Vol 183). The old system was cumbersome and, in some cases, more than a year could elapse between submission of a proposal and receipt of beamtime. Having solicited user input, the ALS now has a process in place that should greatly streamline the allocation process.

On October 19, an email was sent to all ALS protein crystallography users describing the changes. Essentially, old proposals that were previously in the queue became inactive, and independent investigators were asked to submit new proposals using a minimal web-based proposal form (http://alsusweb.lbl.gov/). The first deadline for the new proposals is November 15. The proposals on file on that date will be examined and scored by our Proposal Study Panel. The ranking will be used for beamtime allocations in January and February 2002. The process will then be repeated every month with deadlines occurring on the 15th or the first working day thereafter.

We trust that there will not be too many teething problems with our new beamtime allocation process and that everyone will find that the new process will enable more rapid access to our crystallography beamlines. Should you have any questions please contact Bernie Dixon (pxproposals@lbl.gov or 510-486-6722).

5. UEC CORNER: NOTES FROM THE USERS' EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
by Harald Ade
(Contact: harald_ade@ncsu.edu)

Please remember to vote for the new UEC representatives at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/uec/vote/index.html. The online election process requires the input of your ALS ID number and an email address to prevent unauthorized voting. Your vote itself will be kept totally anonymous.

6. WHO'S IN TOWN: A SAMPLING OF ALS USERS

Following are some of the experimenters who will be collecting data during the next two weeks at the ALS.

Beamline 1.4.3
Hoi-Ying Holman (Berkeley Lab)
T.J. Wilkinson (Berkeley Lab)
Felicia Betancourt (Berkeley Lab)
Tom Breunig and Dan Fried (Univ. of California, San Francisco)

Beamline 4.0.1-2
Jo Stohr (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory)
Frithjof Nolting (Paul Scherrer Institut)
George Waddill (Univ. of Missouri-Rolla)

Beamlines 5.0.1, 5.0.2, and 5.0.3
Salem Faham, Sarah Yohannan, Duilio Cacio, Huiying Li, Michael Sawaya (Amgen)
Bing Jap, Young Do Kwon, B.G. Han (Berkeley Lab)
Barry Stoddard, Eric Galburt, Brett Chevalier, Clint Spiegel, Peter Rupert (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)
Bill Weis, Jason Davies, Sabine Pokutta, Hadar Feinberg (Stanford Univ.)
Chu-Toung Kim and Sheryl Tsai (Univ. of California, San Francisco)
Tzanko Doukov and Catherine Drennan (Massachusettss Institute of Technology)

Beamline 6.1.2
Peter Fischer (Max Planck Institute, Stuttgart, Germany)
Hermann Stoll (Max Planck Institute, Stuttgart, Germany)
Denys Usov (Institue for Polymer Research, Dresden, Germany)

Beamline 6.3.1
Clemens Heske (Univ. Wuerzburg, Germany)

Beamline 6.3.2
Sasa Bajt (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Eberhard Spiller (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
David Windt (Bell Laboratories)

Beamline 7.0.1
Steve Kevan (Univ. of Oregon)
Robert Bartynski (Rutgers Univ.)
Joseph Nordgren (Uppsala Univ., Sweden)
Karsten Horn (Fritz-Haber-Institute, Germany)
Brian Tonner (Univ. of Central Florida)

Beamline 8.0.1
Kevin Prince (Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy)
Manfred Neumann (Univ. Osnabrueck, Germany)
Eberhard Umbach (Univ. Wuerzburg, Germany)

Beamline 9.3.2
Allen Johnson (Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas)

Beamline 10.0.1
John West (Daresbury Laboratory)

Beamline 10.3.2
Dale Sayers (North Carolina State Univ.)
Alain Manceau, Frederic Panfili, Geraldine Sarret (Univ. Joseph Fourier, France)

7. OPERATIONS UPDATE
(Contact: Lampo@lbl.gov)

For the user runs of October 17 - 22 and 23 - 28, the beam reliability (time delivered/time scheduled) was 92%. Of the scheduled beam, 77% was delivered to completion without interruption. There were no significant outages.

Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/accelinfo.html). Requests for special operations use of the "scrubbing" shift should be sent to Bruce Samuelson (BCSamuelson@lbl.gov, x4738) by 1:00 p.m. Friday. The Accelerator Status Hotline at (510) 486-6766 (ext. 6766 from Lab phones) features a recorded message giving up-to-date information on the operational status of the accelerator.

LBNL/PUB-848
Editors: lstamura@lbl.gov, alrobinson@lbl.gov, amgreiner@lbl.gov

This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.