Showing papers by "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory published in 2004"

WebLogo: A Sequence Logo Generator

Abstract: WebLogo generates sequence logos, graphical representations of the patterns within a multiple sequence alignment. Sequence logos provide a richer and more precise description of sequence similarity than consensus sequences and can rapidly reveal significant features of the alignment otherwise difficult to perceive. Each logo consists of stacks of letters, one stack for each position in the sequence. The overall height of each stack indicates the sequence conservation at that position (measured in bits), whereas the height of symbols within the stack reflects the relative frequency of the corresponding amino or nucleic acid at that position. WebLogo has been enhanced recently with additional features and options, to provide a convenient and highly configurable sequence logo generator. A command line interface and the complete, open WebLogo source code are available for local installation and customization.

The Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS)

Abstract: The Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) provides long-wavelength capability for the mission in imaging bands at 24, 70, and 160 ?m and measurements of spectral energy distributions between 52 and 100 ?m at a spectral resolution of about 7%. By using true detector arrays in each band, it provides both critical sampling of the Spitzer point-spread function and relatively large imaging fields of view, allowing for substantial advances in sensitivity, angular resolution, and efficiency of areal coverage compared with previous space far-infrared capabilities. The 24 ?m array has excellent photometric properties, and measurements with rms relative errors of about 1% can be obtained. The two longer-wavelength arrays use detectors with poor photometric stability, but a system of onboard stimulators used for relative calibration, combined with a unique data pipeline, produce good photometry with rms relative errors of less than 10%.

A Strain-Promoted [3 + 2] Azide−Alkyne Cycloaddition for Covalent Modification of Biomolecules in Living Systems

Abstract: Selective chemical reactions that are orthogonal to the diverse functionality of biological systems have become important tools in the field of chemical biology. Two notable examples are the Staudinger ligation of azides and phosphines and the Cu(I)-catalyzed [3 + 2] cycloaddition of azides and alkynes (“click chemistry”). The Staudinger ligation has sufficient biocompatibility for performance in living animals but suffers from phosphine oxidation and synthetic challenges. Click chemistry obviates the requirement of phosphines, but the Cu(I) catalyst is toxic to cells, thereby precluding in vivo applications. Here we present a strain-promoted [3 + 2] cycloaddition between cyclooctynes and azides that proceeds under physiological conditions without the need for a catalyst. The utility of the reaction was demonstrated by selective modification of biomolecules in vitro and on living cells, with no apparent toxicity.

VISTA: computational tools for comparative genomics

Abstract: Comparison of DNA sequences from different species is a fundamental method for identifying functional elements in genomes. Here, we describe the VISTA family of tools created to assist biologists in carrying out this task. Our first VISTA server at http://www-gsd.lbl.gov/vista/ was launched in the summer of 2000 and was designed to align long genomic sequences and visualize these alignments with associated functional annotations. Currently the VISTA site includes multiple comparative genomics tools and provides users with rich capabilities to browse pre-computed whole-genome alignments of large vertebrate genomes and other groups of organisms with VISTA Browser, to submit their own sequences of interest to several VISTA servers for various types of comparative analysis and to obtain detailed comparative analysis results for a set of cardiovascular genes. We illustrate capabilities of the VISTA site by the analysis of a 180 kb interval on human chromosome 5 that encodes for the kinesin family member 3A (KIF3A) protein.

Genome sequence of the Brown Norway rat yields insights into mammalian evolution

Abstract: The laboratory rat (Rattus norvegicus) is an indispensable tool in experimental medicine and drug development, having made inestimable contributions to human health. We report here the genome sequence of the Brown Norway (BN) rat strain. The sequence represents a high-quality 'draft' covering over 90% of the genome. The BN rat sequence is the third complete mammalian genome to be deciphered, and three-way comparisons with the human and mouse genomes resolve details of mammalian evolution. This first comprehensive analysis includes genes and proteins and their relation to human disease, repeated sequences, comparative genome-wide studies of mammalian orthologous chromosomal regions and rearrangement breakpoints, reconstruction of ancestral karyotypes and the events leading to existing species, rates of variation, and lineage-specific and lineage-independent evolutionary events such as expansion of gene families, orthology relations and protein evolution.

High-quality electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator using plasma-channel guiding

Abstract: Laser-driven accelerators, in which particles are accelerated by the electric field of a plasma wave (the wakefield) driven by an intense laser, have demonstrated accelerating electric fields of hundreds of GV m-1 (refs 1–3) These fields are thousands of times greater than those achievable in conventional radio-frequency accelerators, spurring interest in laser accelerators4,5 as compact next-generation sources of energetic electrons and radiation To date, however, acceleration distances have been severely limited by the lack of a controllable method for extending the propagation distance of the focused laser pulse The ensuing short acceleration distance results in low-energy beams with 100 per cent electron energy spread1,2,3, which limits potential applications Here we demonstrate a laser accelerator that produces electron beams with an energy spread of a few per cent, low emittance and increased energy (more than 109 electrons above 80 MeV) Our technique involves the use of a preformed plasma density channel to guide a relativistically intense laser, resulting in a longer propagation distance The results open the way for compact and tunable high-brightness sources of electrons and radiation

K-means clustering via principal component analysis

Abstract: Principal component analysis (PCA) is a widely used statistical technique for unsupervised dimension reduction. K-means clustering is a commonly used data clustering for performing unsupervised learning tasks. Here we prove that principal components are the continuous solutions to the discrete cluster membership indicators for K-means clustering. New lower bounds for K-means objective function are derived, which is the total variance minus the eigenvalues of the data covariance matrix. These results indicate that unsupervised dimension reduction is closely related to unsupervised learning. Several implications are discussed. On dimension reduction, the result provides new insights to the observed effectiveness of PCA-based data reductions, beyond the conventional noise-reduction explanation that PCA, via singular value decomposition, provides the best low-dimensional linear approximation of the data. On learning, the result suggests effective techniques for K-means data clustering. DNA gene expression and Internet newsgroups are analyzed to illustrate our results. Experiments indicate that the new bounds are within 0.5-1.5% of the optimal values.

Evidence that the spectral dependence of light absorption by aerosols is affected by organic carbon

Abstract: [1] The wavelength dependence of light absorption by aerosols collected on filters is investigated throughout the near-ultraviolet to near-infrared spectral region. Measurements were made using an optical transmission method. Aerosols produced by biomass combustion, including wood and savanna burning, and by motor vehicles, including diesel trucks, are included in the analysis. These aerosol types were distinguished by different wavelength (λ) dependences in light absorption. Light absorption by the motor vehicle aerosols exhibited relatively weak wavelength dependence; absorption varied approximately as λ−1, indicating that black carbon (BC) was the dominant absorbing aerosol component. By contrast, the biomass smoke aerosols had much stronger wavelength dependence, approximately λ−2. The stronger spectral dependence was the result of enhanced light absorption at wavelengths shorter than 600 nm and was largely reduced when much of the sample organic carbon (OC) was extracted by dissolution in acetone. This indicates that OC in addition to BC in the biomass smoke aerosols contributed significantly to measured light absorption in the ultraviolet and visible spectral regions and that OC in biomass burning aerosols may appreciably absorb solar radiation. Estimated absorption efficiencies and imaginary refractive indices are presented for the OC extracted from biomass burning samples and the BC in motor vehicle-dominated aerosol samples. The uncertainty of these constants is discussed. Overall, results of this investigation show that low-temperature, incomplete combustion processes, including biomass burning, can produce light-absorbing aerosols that exhibit much stronger spectral dependence than high-temperature combustion processes, such as diesel combustion.

Colloidal nanocrystal heterostructures with linear and branched topology

Abstract: The development of colloidal quantum dots has led to practical applications of quantum confinement, such as in solution-processed solar cells1, lasers2 and as biological labels3. Further scientific and technological advances should be achievable if these colloidal quantum systems could be electronically coupled in a general way. For example, this was the case when it became possible to couple solid-state embedded quantum dots into quantum dot molecules4,5. Similarly, the preparation of nanowires with linear alternating compositions—another form of coupled quantum dots—has led to the rapid development of single-nanowire light-emitting diodes6 and single-electron transistors7. Current strategies to connect colloidal quantum dots use organic coupling agents8,9, which suffer from limited control over coupling parameters and over the geometry and complexity of assemblies. Here we demonstrate a general approach for fabricating inorganically coupled colloidal quantum dots and rods, connected epitaxially at branched and linear junctions within single nanocrystals. We achieve control over branching and composition throughout the growth of nanocrystal heterostructures to independently tune the properties of each component and the nature of their interactions. Distinct dots and rods are coupled through potential barriers of tuneable height and width, and arranged in three-dimensional space at well-defined angles and distances. Such control allows investigation of potential applications ranging from quantum information processing to artificial photosynthesis.

The Second Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Abstract: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has validated and made publicly available its Second Data Release. This data release consists of 3324 deg2 of five-band (ugriz) imaging data with photometry for over 88 million unique objects, 367,360 spectra of galaxies, quasars, stars, and calibrating blank sky patches selected over 2627 deg2 of this area, and tables of measured parameters from these data. The imaging data reach a depth of r ≈ 22.2 (95% completeness limit for point sources) and are photometrically and astrometrically calibrated to 2% rms and 100 mas rms per coordinate, respectively. The imaging data have all been processed through a new version of the SDSS imaging pipeline, in which the most important improvement since the last data release is fixing an error in the model fits to each object. The result is that model magnitudes are now a good proxy for point-spread function magnitudes for point sources, and Petrosian magnitudes for extended sources. The spectroscopy extends from 3800 to 9200 A at a resolution of 2000. The spectroscopic software now repairs a systematic error in the radial velocities of certain types of stars and has substantially improved spectrophotometry. All data included in the SDSS Early Data Release and First Data Release are reprocessed with the improved pipelines and included in the Second Data Release. Further characteristics of the data are described, as are the data products themselves and the tools for accessing them.

Cation exchange reactions in ionic nanocrystals.

Abstract: Cation exchange has been investigated in a wide range of nanocrystals of varying composition, size, and shape. Complete and fully reversible exchange occurs, and the rates of the reactions are much faster than in bulk cation exchange processes. A critical size has been identified below which the shapes of complex nanocrystals evolve toward the equilibrium shape with lowest energy during the exchange reaction. Above the critical size, the anion sublattice remains intact and the basic shapes of the initial nanocrystals are retained throughout the cation exchange. The size-dependent shape change can also be used to infer features of the microscopic mechanism.

Platonic Gold Nanocrystals

Abstract: Thiswork was supported by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Beckman Foundation, the National Science Foundation (CAREER) and Department of Energy. P.Y. isan Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow.Work at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was supported by the Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. We thank the National Center for Electron Microscopy for the use of their facilities.

Nanoribbon waveguides for subwavelength photonics integration.

Abstract: Although the electrical integration of chemically synthesized nanowires has been achieved with lithography, optical integration, which promises high speeds and greater device versatility, remains unexplored We describe the properties and functions of individual crystalline oxide nanoribbons that act as subwavelength optical waveguides and assess their applicability as nanoscale photonic elements The length, flexibility, and strength of these structures enable their manipulation on surfaces, including the optical linking of nanoribbon waveguides and other nanowire elements to form networks and device components We demonstrate the assembly of ribbon waveguides with nanowire light sources and detectors as a first step toward building nanowire photonic circuitry

Thermoelectricity in Semiconductor Nanostructures

Abstract: Thermoelectrics are devices that convert heat to electricity directly, or vice versa. To be technologically useful, thermoelectric materials with high efficiency must be found, along with better tools to understand them. In his Perspective, Majumdar discusses the reports by Hsu et al . and Lyeo et al . that tackle these issues. Hsu et al . have found a new bulk material that exhibits a so-called figure of merit with a value around 2, which is an encouraging step on the road to materials that could compete with conventional thermodynamic devices such as power generators and refrigerators. Lyeo et al . report on a new technique for measuring thermoelectric properties over nanometer scales. The interdisciplinary combination of thermoelectric research with microelectronics and nanotechnology, Majumdar argues, will have a positive impact on both fields.

The BDGP gene disruption project: single transposon insertions associated with 40% of Drosophila genes.

Abstract: The Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project (BDGP) strives to disrupt each Drosophila gene by the insertion of a single transposable element. As part of this effort, transposons in >30,000 fly strains were localized and analyzed relative to predicted Drosophila gene structures. Approximately 6300 lines that maximize genomic coverage were selected to be sent to the Bloomington Stock Center for public distribution, bringing the size of the BDGP gene disruption collection to 7140 lines. It now includes individual lines predicted to disrupt 5362 of the 13,666 currently annotated Drosophila genes (39%). Other lines contain an insertion at least 2 kb from others in the collection and likely mutate additional incompletely annotated or uncharacterized genes and chromosomal regulatory elements. The remaining strains contain insertions likely to disrupt alternative gene promoters or to allow gene misexpression. The expanded BDGP gene disruption collection provides a public resource that will facilitate the application of Drosophila genetics to diverse biological problems. Finally, the project reveals new insight into how transposons interact with a eukaryotic genome and helps define optimal strategies for using insertional mutagenesis as a genomic tool.

Excitonic Effects and Optical Spectra of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract: Many-electron effects often dramatically modify the properties of reduced dimensional systems. We report calculations, based on an ab initio many-electron Green's function approach, of electron-hole interaction effects on the optical spectra of small-diameter single-walled carbon nanotubes. Excitonic effects qualitatively alter the optical spectra of both semiconducting and metallic tubes. Excitons are bound by $\ensuremath{\sim}1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}$ in the semiconducting (8,0) tube and by $\ensuremath{\sim}100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{m}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}$ in the metallic (3,3) tube. These large many-electron effects explain the discrepancies between previous theories and experiments.

Fast portscan detection using sequential hypothesis testing

Abstract: Attackers routinely perform random portscans of IP addresses to find vulnerable servers to compromise. Network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) attempt to detect such behavior and flag these portscanners as malicious. An important need in such systems is prompt response: the sooner a NIDS detects malice, the lower the resulting damage. At the same time, a NIDS should not falsely implicate benign remote hosts as malicious. Balancing the goals of promptness and accuracy in detecting malicious scanners is a delicate and difficult task. We develop a connection between this problem and the theory of sequential hypothesis testing and show that one can model accesses to local IP addresses as a random walk on one of two stochastic processes, corresponding respectively to the access patterns of benign remote hosts and malicious ones. The detection problem then becomes one of observing a particular trajectory and inferring from it the most likely classification for the remote host. We use this insight to develop TRW (Threshold Random Walk), an online detection algorithm that identifies malicious remote hosts. Using an analysis of traces from two qualitatively different sites, we show that TRW requires a much smaller number of connection attempts (4 or 5 in practice) to detect malicious activity compared to previous schemes, while also providing theoretical bounds on the low (and configurable) probabilities of missed detection and false alarms. In summary, TRW performs significantly faster and also more accurately than other current solutions.

Seismic attenuation due to wave-induced flow

Abstract: Analytical expressions for three P-wave attenuation mechanisms in sedimentary rocks are given a unified theoretical framework. Two of the models concern wave-induced flow due to heterogeneity in the elastic moduli at mesoscopic scales (scales greater than grain sizes but smaller than wavelengths). In the first model, the heterogeneity is due to lithological variations (e.g., mixtures of sands and clays) with a single fluid saturating all the pores. In the second model, a single uniform lithology is saturated in mesoscopic ''patches'' by two immiscible fluids (e.g., air and water). In the third model, the heterogeneity is at ''microscopic'' grain scales (broken grain contacts and/or micro-cracks in the grains) and the associated fluid response corresponds to ''squirt flow''. The model of squirt flow derived here reduces to proper limits as any of the fluid bulk modulus, crack porosity, and/or frequency is reduced to zero. It is shown that squirt flow is incapable of explaining the measured level of loss (10{sup -2} < Q{sup -1} < 10{sup -1}) within the seismic band of frequencies (1 to 10{sup 4} Hz); however, either of the two mesoscopic scale models easily produce enough attenuation to explain the field data.

Discharge Model for the Lithium Iron-Phosphate Electrode

Abstract: This paper develops a mathematical model for lithium intercalation and phase change in an iron phosphate-based lithium-ion cell in order to understand the cause for the low power capability of the material. The juxtaposition of the two phases is assumed to be in the form of a shrinking core, where a shell of one phase covers a core of the second phase. Diffusion of lithium through the shell and the movement of the phase interface are described and incorporated into a porous electrode model consisting of two different particle sizes. Open-circuit measurements are used to estimate the composition ranges of the single-phase region. Model-experimental comparisons under constant current show that ohmic drops in the matrix phase, contact resistances between the current collector and the porous matrix, and transport limitations in the iron phosphate particle limit the power capability of the cells. Various design options, consisting of decreasing the ohmic drops, using smaller particles, and substituting the liquid electrolyte by a gel are explored, and their relative importance discussed. The model developed in this paper can be used as a means of optimizing the cell design to suit a particular application.

Measurement of the total active B-8 solar neutrino flux at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory with enhanced neutral current sensitivity

Abstract: The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory has precisely determined the total active (nu(x)) B-8 solar neutrino flux without assumptions about the energy dependence of the nu(e) survival probability. The measurements were made with dissolved NaCl in heavy water to enhance the sensitivity and signature for neutral-current interactions. The flux is found to be 5.21+/-0.27(stat)+/-0.38(syst)x10(6) cm(-2) s(-1), in agreement with previous measurements and standard solar models. A global analysis of these and other solar and reactor neutrino results yields Deltam(2)=7.1(-0.6)(+1.2)x10(-5) eV(2) and theta= 32.5(-2.3)(+2.4) degrees. Maximal mixing is rejected at the equivalent of 5.4 standard deviations.

Chemical remodelling of cell surfaces in living animals

Abstract: Cell surfaces are endowed with biological functionality designed to mediate extracellular communication. The cell-surface repertoire can be expanded to include abiotic functionality through the biosynthetic introduction of unnatural sugars into cellular glycans, a process termed metabolic oligosaccharide engineering. This technique has been exploited in fundamental studies of glycan-dependent cell-cell and virus-cell interactions and also provides an avenue for the chemical remodelling of living cells. Unique chemical functional groups can be delivered to cell-surface glycans by metabolism of the corresponding unnatural precursor sugars. These functional groups can then undergo covalent reaction with exogenous agents bearing complementary functionality. The exquisite chemical selectivity required of this process is supplied by the Staudinger ligation of azides and phosphines, a reaction that has been performed on cultured cells without detriment to their physiology. Here we demonstrate that the Staudinger ligation can be executed in living animals, enabling the chemical modification of cells within their native environment. The ability to tag cell-surface glycans in vivo may enable therapeutic targeting and non-invasive imaging of changes in glycosylation during disease progression.

Evidence for a structurally-driven insulator-to-metal transition in VO 2 : A view from the ultrafast timescale

Abstract: We apply ultrafast spectroscopy to establish a time-domain hierarchy between structural and electronic effects in a strongly correlated electron system. We discuss the case of the model system ${\mathrm{VO}}_{2}$, a prototypical nonmagnetic compound that exhibits cell doubling, charge localization, and a metal-insulator transition below 340 K. We initiate the formation of the metallic phase by prompt hole photo-doping into the valence band of the low-$T$ insulator. The insulator-to-metal transition is, however, delayed with respect to hole injection, exhibiting a bottleneck time scale, associated with the phonon connecting the two crystallographic phases. This structural bottleneck is observed despite faster depletion of the $d$ bands and is indicative of important bandlike character for this controversial insulator.

Stochastic simulation of chemical reactions with spatial resolution and single molecule detail

Abstract: Methods are presented for simulating chemical reaction networks with a spatial resolution that is accurate to nearly the size scale of individual molecules. Using an intuitive picture of chemical reaction systems, each molecule is treated as a point-like particle that diffuses freely in three-dimensional space. When a pair of reactive molecules collide, such as an enzyme and its substrate, a reaction occurs and the simulated reactants are replaced by products. Achieving accurate bimolecular reaction kinetics is surprisingly difficult, requiring a careful consideration of reaction processes that are often overlooked. This includes whether the rate of a reaction is at steady-state and the probability that multiple reaction products collide with each other to yield a back reaction. Inputs to the simulation are experimental reaction rates, diffusion coefficients and the simulation time step. From these are calculated the simulation parameters, including the 'binding radius' and the 'unbinding radius', where the former defines the separation for a molecular collision and the latter is the initial separation between a pair of reaction products. Analytic solutions are presented for some simulation parameters while others are calculated using look-up tables. Capabilities of these methods are demonstrated with simulations of a simple bimolecular reaction and the Lotka-Volterra system.

The ASTRAL Compendium in 2004.

Abstract: The ASTRAL Compendium provides several databases and tools to aid in the analysis of protein structures, particularly through the use of their sequences. Partially derived from the SCOP database of protein structure domains, it includes sequences for each domain and other resources useful for studying these sequences and domain structures. The current release of ASTRAL contains 54,745 domains, more than three times as many as the initial release 4 years ago. ASTRAL has undergone major transformations in the past 2 years. In addition to several complete updates each year, ASTRAL is now updated on a weekly basis with preliminary classifications of domains from newly released PDB structures. These classifications are available as a stand-alone database, as well as integrated into other ASTRAL databases such as representative subsets. To enhance the utility of ASTRAL to structural biologists, all SCOP domains are now made available as PDB-style coordinate files as well as sequences. In addition to sequences and representative subsets based on SCOP domains, sequences and subsets based on PDB chains are newly included in ASTRAL. Several search tools have been added to ASTRAL to facilitate retrieval of data by individual users and automated methods. ASTRAL may be accessed at http://astral.stanford. edu/.

Oxygen sensation and social feeding mediated by a C. elegans guanylate cyclase homologue

Abstract: Specialized oxygen-sensing cells in the nervous system generate rapid behavioural responses to oxygen. We show here that the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans exhibits a strong behavioural preference for 5–12% oxygen, avoiding higher and lower oxygen levels. 3 0 ,5 0 -cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) is a common second messenger in sensory transduction and is implicated in oxygen sensation. Avoidance of high oxygen levels by C. elegans requires the sensory cGMP-gated channel tax-2/tax-4 and a specific soluble guanylate cyclase homologue, gcy-35. The GCY-35 haem domain binds molecular oxygen, unlike the haem domains of classical nitric-oxide-regulated guanylate cyclases. GCY-35 and TAX-4 mediate oxygen sensation in four sensory neurons that control a naturally polymorphic social feeding behaviour in C. elegans. Social feeding and related behaviours occur only when oxygen exceedsC. elegans’ preferred level, and require gcy-35 activity. Our results suggest that GCY-35 is regulated by molecular oxygen, and that social feeding can be a behavioural strategy for responding to hyperoxic environments.

Centromeric chromatin exhibits a histone modification pattern that is distinct from both euchromatin and heterochromatin

Abstract: Post-translational histone modifications regulate epigenetic switching between different chromatin states. Distinct histone modifications, such as acetylation, methylation and phosphorylation, define different functional chromatin domains, and often do so in a combinatorial fashion. The centromere is a unique chromosomal locus that mediates multiple segregation functions, including kinetochore formation, spindle-mediated movements, sister cohesion and a mitotic checkpoint. Centromeric (CEN) chromatin is embedded in heterochromatin and contains blocks of histone H3 nucleosomes interspersed with blocks of CENP-A nucleosomes, the histone H3 variant that provides a structural and functional foundation for the kinetochore. Here, we demonstrate that the spectrum of histone modifications present in human and Drosophila melanogaster CEN chromatin is distinct from that of both euchromatin and flanking heterochromatin. We speculate that this distinct modification pattern contributes to the unique domain organization and three-dimensional structure of centromeric regions, and/or to the epigenetic information that determines centromere identity.

Northern sky variability survey: public data release

Abstract: The Northern Sky Variability Survey (NSVS) is a temporal record of the sky over the optical magnitude range from 8 to 15.5. It was conducted in the course of the first-generation Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE-I) using a robotic system of four comounted unfiltered telephoto lenses equipped with CCD cameras. The survey was conducted from Los Alamos, New Mexico, and primarily covers the entire northern sky. Some data in southern fields between declinations 0° and -38° are also available, although with fewer epochs and noticeably lesser quality. The NSVS contains light curves for approximately 14 million objects. With a 1 yr baseline and typically 100–500 measurements per object, the NSVS is the most extensive record of stellar variability across the bright sky available today. In a median field, bright unsaturated stars attain a point-to-point photometric scatter of ~0.02 mag and position errors within 2''. At Galactic latitudes |b| < 20°, the data quality is limited by severe blending due to the ~14'' pixel size. We present basic characteristics of the data set and describe data collection, analysis, and distribution. All NSVS photometric measurements are available for on-line public access from the Sky Database for Objects in Time-Domain (SkyDOT) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Copies of the full survey photometry may also be requested on tape.