Dr. Paul Zielinski and Ms. Shannon Patrick will be making their annual visit to meet with NIST advisers, staff, and NIST/NRC Postdocs. This will provide an opportunity for discussion of any questions or issues concerning the postdoctoral program.

http://www.nist.gov/oiaa/oiaa1.htm

Local electrostatic properties, in particular, have a profound impact on the structure and function of biological systems. Here, an experimental approach for producing relative charge density maps of biological surfaces using the AFM is presented. This technique, called D minus D (D-D) mapping, uses isoforce surfaces collected at different salt concentrations to isolate electrostatic contributions to the tip-sample interaction force. This approach is quantitative for surface potentials below 25 mV, and does not require prior knowledge of the cantilever spring constant, tip radius, tip charge, and the point of contact between tip and sample. The performance of D-D mapping is demonstrated on supported lipid bilayers.

NIST staff members and alumni are invited to attend the dinner meeting in the NIST Lunch Club, preceded by a social period in the Employees Lounge starting at 6:00 P.M. The cost is $20 per person, payable to SAA and due in the SAA Office, Room 42 Admin (Stop 0952) no later than Thursday, April 8th. Current NIST staff members are also invited to join the Association and/or to send to the SAA office the names of retirees who may not be aware of the SAA and its programs. Founded in 1985, the Association has a membership of some 400 former and current NBS/NIST employees, industrial research associates, and guest researchers. SAA aims to encourage participation in information transfer through volunteer services, educational seminars, science fairs and science talent searches, and to serve as a source for historical information for the NIST history and the upcoming 2001 Centennial, as well as facilitating solutions of problems related to NIST's mission.

For more information, call Reeves Tilley [(301) 762-7186]; leave phone mail on extension 2486; or send E-Mail to alumni@nist.gov. The SAA President is Ron Johnson; the NIST/SAA Liaison is Walter Leight, Deputy Director, Office of Standards Services.

The reason that new concerns are being raised about random number generation is the continued increase in the use of Monte Carlo methods. In the physical sciences simulations are becoming larger, and there are many problems that can only be addressed by sampling. In the statistical sciences the increased use of Bayesian analysis has brought more demands on random number generators. Many Bayesian models can only be evaluated by sampling. These methods require high-quality random number generators.

http://meonline.engin.umich.edu/catalog.htm

http://www.nist.gov/oiaa/postdoc.htm

PRIZES: The author(s) of the winning submission will receive $2,500 and a commemorative plaque. Prizes of $1000 for 2nd place and $500 for third place may also be awarded. Winning papers will be published by ANSI, the Standards Engineering Society, and others.

ELIGIBILITY: The competition is open to individuals in private sector or government facilities. The paper may be co-authored.

RULES: The paper must be original and not previously published. NIST papers should be processed through WERB or BERB in the usual way. Entries must received by August 1, 1999. Contest rules and application forms may be obtained through the Standards Engineering Society home page at http://www.ses-standards.org or call Jean-Paul Emard at Electronic Industries Alliance, 703-907-7518.

For further information contact Pat Cooke, 301-975-4033, patrick.cooke@nist.gov.

· The new system replaces the form NIST-114 in paper and electronic formats.

· Users may preview the completed bibliographic and review information, make corrections, then print out the form to be attached to the manuscript for needed signatures.

· The information may be saved (electronically or in paper) for recordkeeping and sending by email to others.

· At any time, you may review the submitted information and check its status in the review process.

· The system also replaces the form NIST-266, which authors send in when they have documents published in outside (non-NIST) media.

· This system eventually will serve as the springboard for a fully electronic review and publications system with full-text documents online.

To use the new system, open your Web browser and go to:

http://ois.nist.gov/eri

When you click on this address, you get the welcome page with online help. A new user must first register and select a user name and password. After logging on and keying in a new document, you may print out the paper form needed to accompany the paper manuscript during the review process. You also may save the submission as a file and email it to another office.