The registration deadline for the 2008 Crystallographic Computing
School is in two days: *** July 25 ***

The schedule of the program including abstracts from all speakers is
available here:

http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/comm/ccom/kyoto2008/program.html

This program puts a strong weight on fostering one-on-one
interactions. There will be only 16 lectures of 45 minutes
each (12 hours total) but more than 20 hours of tutorials and
demonstrations. Don't miss this unique opportunity for close
interaction with the developer community!

On behalf of the organizing committee:
A. L. Spek (Utrecht University , Netherlands)
R. Grosse-Kunstleve (LBNL, USA)
M. Yao (Hokkaido University, Japan)
A. Nakagawa (Osaka Institute of Protein, Japan)
H. Powell (MRC, UK)
L. Cranswick (NRC , Canada)

--------------------------------

The registration deadline for the 2008 Crystallographic Computing
School is in two weeks: *** July 25 ***

The schedule of the program including abstracts from all speakers is
available here:

http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/comm/ccom/kyoto2008/program.html

This program puts a strong weight on fostering one-on-one
interactions. There will be only 16 lectures of 45 minutes
each (12 hours total) but more than 20 hours of tutorials and
demonstrations. Don't miss this unique opportunity for close
interaction with the developer community!

On behalf of the organizing committee:
A. L. Spek (Utrecht University , Netherlands)
R. Grosse-Kunstleve (LBNL, USA)
M. Yao (Hokkaido University, Japan)
A. Nakagawa (Osaka Institute of Protein, Japan)
H. Powell (MRC, UK)
L. Cranswick (NRC, Canada)

The crystallography laboratory in Nancy is renown for its leading
experimental works on accurate structures and electron density of all
type
of materials, from minerals to biological macromolecules,
crystallography
under constraints (temperature, photo-excitation, external electric
field). It is equipped with three single crystal diffractometers and
one
powder diffractometer, operating from liquid He to 1000K, laser source
and
electric field. It is involved in the development of the CRISTAL
beamline
of the SOLEIL Synchrotron.

Crystallographic Software Fayre at IUCr 2008 Osaka Congress

http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/comm/ccom/2008softwarefayre/

Thanks to the generosity of the IUCr 2008 Osaka Congress organisers,
there will be a non-Commercial Crystallographic Software Fayre at the
IUCr Osaka 2008 Congress from Tuesday 26th August to Friday 29th
August
2008.

Current booked sessions include

Amplimodes - J.M. Perez-Mato, M.I. Aroyo, D. Orobengoa

Bilbao Crystallographic Server
- M.I. Aroyo, J.M. Perez-Mato, D. Orobengoa

CCTBX - Ralf W. Grosse-Kunstleve

Crystals - David Watkin

Isodisplace - Harold T. Stokes and Branton Campbell

Jana 2006 - Michal Dusek and Lukas Palatinus

Superflip - Arie van der Lee and Lukas Palatinus

USPEX - Andriy Lyakhov and Artem R. Oganov

-------------------

Booked session times are listed at:

The following is sent on behalf of the Canadian National Committee for
Crystallography (CNCC) and mainly for Canadian based
crystallographers,
including those who have donated to the Larry Calvert CNC/IUCr Trust
Fund student travel award:

http://www.cins.ca/cncc/calvert.html

The three students award winners for funding support to attend the
IUCr Osaka Congress in August are:

* Daniel Lee (Department of Biochemistry, Queen's University)

* Nobohiku Watanabe (Department of Biochemistry, University of
Alberta)

* Jimin Zheng (Department of Biochemistry, Queen's University)

and their IUCr Osaka abstracts are listed at:
http://www.cins.ca/cncc/calvert_iucr_awardees_2008.html

------------------

The CNCC also funds the Canadian Division Pauling Poster Prize poster
prize at the American Crystallographic Association conferences and the
list of student winners for the last three years are:

A quickish post that Bruker-AXS has released XRDWizard V2.9, which
allows
for Variable Count Data (VCT) data collection, where the measurement
time
is systematically increased towards higher 2-theta angles (Re Madsen
and
Hill, 1992, 1994; and David, 1992 ). This allows users to takes
advantage
of information present at higher angles, which is often hidden in the
noise
in conventional fixed count time (FCT) powder diffraction data
collection.

Bruker's TOPAS 4 now fully supports Variable Count Data format (Bruker
*.RAW binary, Madsen and Hill VCT format, and XYE)
http://www.bruker-axs.de/index.php?id=topas;

Extra information is on the web at:

http://www.bruker-axs.de/news_article.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=106&cHash=8dc64eed75
Variable Counting Time - The golden standard for data collection

http://www.bruker-axs.de/uploads/media/Flyer_Variable_Counting_Time_VCT_H88-EXS_04...

I want to do some impregnation of alumina with an aqueous titanium
complex, aiming to get a monolayer. Hopefully after heat treatment,
the product will still have a well distributed layer of titanium, in
the form of the oxide or something similar.

As a way of assessing the success of the impregnation, I thought I'd
have powder XRDs done. If the titanium has clumped into crystallites
instead of forming a layer, XRD might show that. (The alumina is
mostly amorphous. If titania clumps form, I think they will be
anatase.)

But I really don't know how diagnostic XRD would be because I don't
know what size of crystallites will give me a signal. I guess lots of
clumping could take place and maybe the XRD would still see it as
amorphous... or maybe not. Could someone comment on this?

And if there is a better analytical technique to determine the
dispersion of the titanium, I would be interested in learning more.

I'm a chemist but not knowledgeable in crystallography or ceramics.

Dusty

In x-ray diffraction physics it is often convenient to use a pseudo-
Voigt (Gaussian + Lorentzian) when analyzing two theta profiles. But
does there exist a similar 2D pseudo-Voigt when you have a 2D
diffraction spot on a detector?

More precisely I want to be able to fit the 2D model of the pseudo-
Voigt to get a better estimate of the integrated intensity.

It is not difficult to use a simple Gaussian but adding the Lorentzian
in 2D makes it a bit more tricky like how to handle the width
parameter (the sigma in the Gaussian).

So far I have though about the parametrization of the model. I guess
it could be: x_center, y_center, x_width, y_width and rotation angle.
The rotation angle is to rotate the model if the spot is rotated.

Does anybody have a clue?

Best regards,
/Allan

IUCr Crystallographic Computing School 2008
* Sharing our knowledge *
Kyoto, Japan, August 18-23

http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/comm/ccom/kyoto2008/program.html

The IUCr Crystallographic Computing School 2008 school aims to bring
together both computational methods developers and users interested in
looking beyond the interface. The format of the school fosters
exchange
of ideas via formal lectures, afternoon tutorials, coding challenges
and code comparison sessions. The world-wide crystallographic
community (including macro- and small-molecule crystallography,
powder diffraction, and small-angle scattering) is invited to an
intensive session of working together and learning from each other.

The schedule of the program is available via the web link above.
Abstracts are being added.