Events and E-News

Newsletter

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CLS E-News                          Vol. 9 No. 1
www.lightsource.ca           Nov 30, 2011
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  1. GENERAL USER PROPOSAL RESULTS: JANUARY-JUNE, 2012
  2. CANADIAN ACCESS TO BEAM TIME AT THE APS
  3. LIGHTSOURCES.ORG USER SURVEY
  4. A LASER WAKEFIELD PHOTON SOURCE FOR CANADA
  5. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT: BIOCHEMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL
    WEAKNESSES IN BROILER CHICKENS
  6. INCREASE YOUR IMPACT FACTOR: TALK ABOUT YOUR CLS SCIENCE
  7. NEW STAFF AND NOW HIRING
  8. HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND BEST WISHES FOR 2012

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1. GENERAL USER PROPOSAL RESULTS: JANUARY-JUNE, 2012
Contact: mailto:clsuo@lightsource.ca

CLS held its Peer Review Committee (PRC) meetings in November 2011, for beam time for general user proposals.

Eleven beamlines participated in the recent Call for Proposals, resulting in four new requests for macromolecular crystallography and 215 requests for other beamlines (151 new proposals and 64 beam time requests against existing proposals).

Proposals for beamlines other than macromolecular crystallography, were reviewed and scored by the Peer Review Committee and at least three external reviewers on a scale of one to five, one being the highest score, five being the lowest.  Beam time was allocated based on each proposal's ranking in relation to all other proposals for a given beamline.  161 of the 215 proposals received were awarded beam time and recipients are currently being notified.

To view details on the results, as well as learn more about the peer review process, please see http://www.lightsource.ca/uso/results_of_call.php

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2. CANADIAN ACCESS TO BEAM TIME AT THE APS
Contact: mailto:emil.hallin@lightsource.ca
 
Working with a team of Canadian users of the PNCSRF at the Advanced Photon Source, CLS submitted a "Partner User Proposal" (PUP) to extend Canadian access to the APS for another three years, and this proposal was just approved for APS cycle 2012-1 through 2014-3.

Under the terms of this PUP, Canadian users will get extended access to sector 20 of the APS (up to 20% on 20-ID and 15% on 20-BM), and also qualify for special access to some other beamlines (9-BM, 33-ID, 2-ID and 4-ID with a total of 15% time spread across these latter four beamlines). CLS will provide two scientists to support this extended operation at the APS, with an additional scientist will be hired to work with Dr. Robert Gordon in supporting Canadian users at the APS. The plan is to begin implementing this PUP for APS cycle 2012-2, once our second staff scientist has been recruited.

We are very pleased to have successfully negotiated a formal arrangement to provide Canadian users with access to complementary facilities not available at the CLS. Working together with the APS, we believe that this PUP will enhance the ability of Canadian users to implement successful leading edge research programs.

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3. LIGHTSOURCES.ORG USER SURVEY
Contact: mailto:matthew.dalzell@lightsource.ca

Lightsources.org is a resource for the global light source community. Supported by more than 20 synchrotrons and free electron lasers from around the world, it provides news, information, and educational materials about photon science facilities. We are currently reviewing the content of this website, with the aim of improving it for synchrotron users. As such, we'd like you to take 10 minutes to complete this short survey on the kinds of information you'd like to see on lightsources.org: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DNCQG6F

***We would appreciate your response by January 15, 2012*** 

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4. A LASER WAKEFIELD PHOTON SOURCE FOR CANADA
Contact: mailto:emil.hallin@lightsource.ca
 
Enormously high electric field gradients can be produced when a high peak power, high average power laser co-propagates with a sufficiently intense gas jet. The University of Alberta and the Advanced Laser Light Source together use this principle to routinely produce 800 MeV electrons in a very compact laser wakefield accelerator at the ALLS facility (INRS, Varennes, Quebec).

The CLS, working with these collaborators, is putting together a CFI proposal whose goal is to produce dedicated infrastructure to better characterize the electron beam, an undulator optimized for these energies, and instrumentation to characterize the photon beam produced.

Please contact Emil Hallin for more information about this exciting proposal.

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5. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT: BIOCHEMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL WEAKNESSES ASSOCIATED WITH THE PATHOGENESIS OF FEMORAL BONE DEGENERATION IN BROILER CHICKENS
Contact: mailto:andrew.olkowski@usask.ca

Femoral bone degeneration has been recognized as an important cause of lameness in broiler chickens for many years, but the pathogenesis of this condition has not been completely elucidated. The current work presents comprehensive analyses of changes associated with femoral bone degeneration based on findings from gross pathology, histopathology, biochemistry, and synchrotron-based imaging techniques. Gross lesions were predominantly seen in epiphysis and metaphysis of the proximal femur, and infrequently in distal femur, but we did not observe gross lesions in the diaphysis. Bone fractures were observed occasionally, but the most common lesions involved separation of articular cartilage of the femoral bone head, with progressive erosions of the subchondral bone. In advanced cases, on histopathological examination, changes in femoral bone were indicative of chondronecrosis and osteonecrosis. Computed tomography revealed that the degenerative process involves loss of trabecular bone. The course of the lesion development in the mineralized matrix appears to be coupled with increased bone resorption associated with excessive proliferation of pathologically altered osteoclasts. Light microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and biochemical analysis provided consistent evidence that lowered protein content of the bone organic matrix is an integral component of femoral bone pathology, but these changes do not appear to be associated with excessive activity of matrix metalloproteinases. Taken together, our findings indicate that femoral bone degeneration is associated with structural changes occurring in both inorganic and organic matrix of the bone, but insufficiency in protein metabolism is most probably a primary aetiological factor in the natural history of femoral bone degeneration. However, it is important to stress that our findings do not negate the importance of bacterial infection in the evolution of this condition. Pathogens play a critical role in the progressive pathogenesis of this condition, which ultimately is manifested, in most instances, as femoral head necrosis.

The synchrotron data reported in this paper were obtained at beamline 01B1-1 (Mid-IR) and beamline 05B1-1 (BMIT-BM) by researchers from the University of Saskatchewan and the CLS.

Olkowski, A.A., Laarveld, B., Wojnarowicz, C., Chirino-Trejo, M., Chapman, D., Wysokinski, T.W., Quaroni, L. 2011. Biochemical and physiological weaknesses associated with the pathogenesis of femoral bone degeneration in broiler chickens, Avian Pathology, 40:6, 639-650. DOI: 10.1080/03079457.2011.626017

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6. INCREASE YOUR IMPACT FACTOR: TALK ABOUT YOUR CLS SCIENCE AND WIN AN iPOD
***DEADLINE December 16***
Contact: mailto:matthew.dalzell@lightsource.ca

We are always on the look-out for exciting scientific results obtained with CLS data that can be featured in a news release or science highlight. Send us a tip regarding your upcoming publication and be entered to win an iPod Nano. The winner will be announced in January, 2012. For more information or to submit your tip please contact Matt Dalzell, CLS Communications Coordinator and Staff Science Writer.

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7.  NEW STAFF AND NOW HIRING
Contact: mailto:jobs@lightsource.ca

We are pleased to welcome the following new employee who started with us recently:

Andrea Albert, Science Associate-Experimental Floor

Andrea has spent the last several years working as a Research Associate with Gilead in Edmonton. Prior to that, she worked with Cameco as a junior chemical technician at the Key Lake mine site.

We are pleased to announce the following internal transfers that have taken place recently:

Janine Johnson has accepted the position of Manager, Supply & Contracts. 

Tor Pedersen has accepted the position of Accelerator Physicist. 

The following job postings are currently available at CLS:

For a list of current opportunities at the CLS please check our website regularly: http://www.lightsource.ca/careers/

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8. HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND BEST WISHES FOR 2012

Best wishes for a happy and restful holiday season and a prosperous and productive 2012 from everyone at the CLS.

CLS E-news will return in January.

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CLS E-News is an electronic newsletter designed to keep users and stakeholders informed about developments at the Canadian Light Source, the national synchrotron research facility located at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. Current and past issues of CLS E-News are available on the CLS web site: http://www.lightsource.ca/enews/archives.php
To unsubscribe please go to http://www.lightsource.ca/enews/signup.php . We welcome suggestions for topics and content. Contact us at mailto:cls@lightsource.ca
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Last modified: 2012-01-31 16:01:03