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General definitions of horizontal and vertical amplitudes for linear coupled motion are developed from the normal form of the one-turn matrix. This leads to the identification of conditions on the matrix that give rise to the linear coupling sum and difference resonances. The correspondence with the standard hamiltonian treatment of the resonances is discussed.

The dark-matter candidates of particle physics invariably possess electromagnetic interactions, if only via quantum fluctuations. Taken en masse, dark matter can thus engender an index of refraction which deviates from its vacuum value. Its presence is signaled through frequency-dependent effects: the real part yields dispersive effects in propagation, and the imaginary part yields such in attenuation. We discuss theoretical constraints on the expansion of the index of refraction with frequency, the physical interpretation of the terms, and the particular observations needed to isolate its coefficients. This, with the advent of new opportunities to view gamma-ray bursts at cosmological distance scales, gives us a new probe of dark matter. As a first application we use the time delay determined from radio afterglow observations of gamma-ray bursts to limit the charge-to-mass ratio of dark matter to |{var_epsilon}|/M < 1.8 x 10{sup -5} eV{sup -1} at 95% CL.

Weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The National Ignition Campaign, tasked with designing and fielding targets for fusion ignition experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF), has carried forward three complementary target designs for the past several years: a beryllium ablator design, a plastic ablator design, and a high-density carbon or synthetic diamond design. This paper describes current simulations and design optimization to develop the plastic ablator capsule design as a candidate for the first ignition attempt on NIF. The trade-offs in capsule scale and laser energy that must be made to achieve a comparable ignition probability to that with beryllium are emphasized. Large numbers of 1-D simulations, meant to assess the statistical behavior of the target design, as well as 2-D simulations to assess the target's susceptibility to Rayleigh-Taylor growth are presented.

This study involved developing methods to expose transparent encapsulant materials to high (40 to 45 UV suns) optical fluxes of UV radiation to enable rapid evaluation of materials.

Electricity consumption in the Southeastern US, not including Florida, is approximately 24% of the total US. The availability of renewable resources for electricity production is relatively small compared to the high consumption. Therefore meeting a national renewable portfolio standard (RPS) is particularly challenging in this region. Neighboring regions, particularly to the west, have significant wind resources and given sufficient long distant transmission these resources could serve energy markets in the SE. This report looks at renewable resource supply relative to demands and the potential for power transfer into the SE. It shows that development of wind resources will depend not only on available transmission capacity but also on electricity supply and demand factors.

In this work we begin to examine the feasibility of using time-lapse seismic methods-specifically the vertical seismic profiling (VSP) method-for monitoring changes in hydrate accumulations that are predicted to occur during production of natural gas.

Tensions between the energy and water sectors occur when demand for electric power is high and water supply levels are low. There are several regions of the country, such as the western and southwestern states, where the confluence of energy and water is always strained due to population growth. However, for much of the country, this tension occurs at particular times of year (e.g., summer) or when a region is suffering from drought conditions. This report discusses prior work on the interdependencies between energy and water. It identifies the types of power plants that are most likely to be susceptible to water shortages, the regions of the country where this is most likely to occur, and policy options that can be applied in both the energy and water sectors to address the issue. The policy options are designed to be applied in the near term, applicable to all areas of the country, and to ease the tension between the energy and water sectors by addressing peak power demand or decreased water supply.

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Using data from FOCUS (E831) experiment at Fermilab, we present a model independent partial-wave analysis of the K{sup -}{pi}{sup +} S-wave amplitude from the decay D{sup +} {yields} K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup +}. The S-wave is a generic complex function to be determined directly from the data fit. The P- and D-waves are parameterized by a sum of Breit-Wigner amplitudes. The measurement of the S-wave amplitude covers the whole elastic range of the K{sup -}{pi}{sup +} system.

Using data from FOCUS (E831) experiment at Fermilab, we present a model independent partial-wave analysis of the K{sup -}{pi}{sup +} S-wave amplitude from the decay D{sup +} {yields} K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup +}. The S-wave is a generic complex function to be determined directly from the data fit. The P- and D-waves are parameterized by a sum of Breit-Wigner amplitudes. The measurement of the S-wave amplitude covers the whole elastic range of the K{sup -}{sup +} system.

Application performance is determined by a combination of many choices: hardware platform, runtime environment, languages and compilers used, algorithm choice and implementation, and more. In this complicated environment, we find that the use of mini-applications - small self-contained proxies for real applications - is an excellent approach for rapidly exploring the parameter space of all these choices. Furthermore, use of mini-applications enriches the interaction between application, library and computer system developers by providing explicit functioning software and concrete performance results that lead to detailed, focused discussions of design trade-offs, algorithm choices and runtime performance issues. In this paper we discuss a collection of mini-applications and demonstrate how we use them to analyze and improve application performance on new and future computer platforms.

This paper documents measured and modeled PV-module temperatures and evaluates these in the context of the requirements for accelerated testing.

The use of genomic techniques to address ecological questions is emerging as the field of genomic ecology. Experimentation under environmentally realistic conditions to investigate the molecular response of plants to meaningful changes in growth conditions and ecological interactions is the defining feature of genomic ecology. Since the impact of global change factors on plant performance are mediated by direct effects at the molecular, biochemical and physiological scales, gene expression analysis promises important advances in understanding factors that have previously been consigned to the 'black box' of unknown mechanism. Various tools and approaches are available for assessing gene expression in model and non-model species as part of global change biology studies. Each approach has its own unique advantages and constraints. A first generation of genomic ecology studies in managed ecosystems and mesocosms have provided a testbed for the approach and have begun to reveal how the experimental design and data analysis of gene expression studies can be tailored for use in an ecological context.

The observation of canonical spin-glass behavior in the pyrochlore oxide Y{sub 2}Mo{sub 2}O{sub 7} has been a subject of considerable interest as the original structural studies were interpreted in terms of a well-ordered crystallographic model. It is widely held that the stabilization of the spin-glass state requires some level of positional disorder along with frustration. Recent reports from local probe measurements, extended x-ray-absorption fine structure (EXAFS) and {sup 89}Y NMR, have been interpreted in terms of disorder involving the Mo-Mo distances (EXAFS) and multiple Y sites (NMR). This work reports results from temperature-dependent (15--300 K) neutron diffraction (ND) and neutron pair distribution function studies which can provide from the same data set information on both the average and local structures. The principal findings are that: (1) there is no crystallographic phase transition over the temperature region studied within the resolution of the ND data; (2) the diffraction data are well fitted using a fully ordered model but with large and anisotropic displacement parameters for three of the four atomic sites; (3) the pairwise real-space correlation function G(r) shows clear evidence that the principal source of disorder is associated with the Y-O1 atom pairs rather than the Mo-Mo pairs, in disagreement …

This technical report documents the results of geochemical and soil resistivity characterization of sediment obtained from four boreholes drilled in the BC Cribs and Trench area. Vadose zone sediment samples were obtained at a frequency of about every 2.5 ft from approximately 5 ft bgs to borehole total depth. In total, 505 grab samples and 39 six-inch long cores were obtained for characterization. The pore-water chemical composition data, laboratory-scale soil resistivity and other ancillary physical and hydrologic measurements and analyses described in this report are designed to provide a crucial link between direct measurements on sediments and the surface-based electrical-resistivity information obtained via field surveys. A second goal of the sediment characterization was to measure the total and water-leachable concentrations of key contaminants of concern as a function of depth and distance from the footprints of inactive disposal facilities. The total and water-leachable concentrations of key contaminants will be used to update contaminant distribution conceptual models and to provide more data for improving base-line risk predictions and remedial alternative selections. The ERC “ground truthing” exercise for the individual boreholes showed mixed results. In general, the high concentrations of dissolved salts in the pore waters of sediments from C5923, C5924 and …

Emission and redistribution of dust due to wind erosion in drylands drives major biogeochemical dynamics and provides important aeolian environmental connectivity at scales from individual plants up to the global scale. Yet, perhaps because most relevant research on aeolian processes has been presented in a geosciences rather than ecological context, most ecological studies do not explicitly consider dust-driven processes. To bridge this disciplinary gap, we provide a general overview of the ecological importance of dust, examine complex interactions between wind erosion and ecosystem dynamics from the plant-interspace scale to regional and global scales, and highlight specific examples of how disturbance affects these interactions and their consequences. Changes in climate and intensification of land use will both likely lead to increased dust production. To address these challenges, environmental scientists, land managers and policy makers need to more explicitly consider dust in resource management decisions.

The answers to fundamental science questions in astrophysics, ranging from the history of the expansion of the universe to the sizes of nearby stars, hinge on our ability to make precise measurements of diverse astronomical objects. As our knowledge of the underlying physics of objects improves along with advances in detectors and instrumentation, the limits on our capability to extract science from measurements is set, not by our lack of understanding of the nature of these objects, but rather by the most mundane of all issues: the precision with which we can calibrate observations in physical units. In principle, photometric calibration is a solved problem - laboratory reference standards such as blackbody furnaces achieve precisions well in excess of those needed for astrophysics. In practice, however, transferring the calibration from these laboratory standards to astronomical objects of interest is far from trivial - the transfer must reach outside the atmosphere, extend over 4{pi} steradians of sky, cover a wide range of wavelengths, and span an enormous dynamic range in intensity. Virtually all spectrophotometric observations today are calibrated against one or more stellar reference sources, such as Vega, which are themselves tied back to laboratory standards in a variety of ways. …

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Three Carbon Explorer (CE) floats profiling to kilometer depths in the Southern Ocean tracked dawn-dusk variations of mixing/stratification, particulate organic carbon (POC), and light scattering and sedimentation at 100, 250, and 800 m continuously from January 2002 to April 2003. Data were analyzed in conjunction with contemporaneous satellite winds and chlorophyll and derived subsurface light fields. The CE deployed at 66{sup o}S 172{sup o}W operated in the ice edge zone in absence of light. Two CEs deployed at 55{sup o}S 172{sup o}W recorded wintertime mixing to {approx}400 m, yet observed very different bloom dynamics and sedimentation the following spring. Four hypotheses are explored. The strongest is that shallow transient stratification of the deep winter mixed layer to shallower than photosynthetic critical depth occurred more frequently in the non-bloom/higher sedimentation case. The lower particle export to 800 m under the bloom was hypothesized to be due to higher interception of sinking carbon by a relatively starved over wintering zooplankton population. In the Southern Ocean surface phytoplankton biomass may counter indicate particle flux at kilometer depths.

Prediction of the substantial biologically mediated carbon flows in a rapidly changing and acidifying ocean requires model simulations informed by observations of key carbon cycle processes on the appropriate space and time scales. From 2000 to 2004, the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) supported the development of the first low-cost fully-autonomous ocean profiling Carbon Explorers that demonstrated that year-round real-time observations of particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration and sedimentation could be achieved in the world's ocean. NOPP also initiated the development of a sensor for particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) suitable for operational deployment across all oceanographic platforms. As a result, PIC profile characterization that once required shipboard sample collection and shipboard or shore based laboratory analysis, is now possible to full ocean depth in real time using a 0.2W sensor operating at 24 Hz. NOPP developments further spawned US DOE support to develop the Carbon Flux Explorer, a free-vehicle capable of following hourly variations of particulate inorganic and organic carbon sedimentation from near surface to kilometer depths for seasons to years and capable of relaying contemporaneous observations via satellite. We have demonstrated the feasibility of real time - low cost carbon observations which are of fundamental value to carbon prediction …

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The phytohormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, auxin) is important for many aspects of plant growth, development and responses to the environment yet the routes to is biosynthesis and mechanisms for regulation of IAA levels remain important research questions. A critical issue concerning the biosynthesis if IAA in plants is that redundant pathways for IAA biosynthesis exist in plants. We showed that these redundant pathways and their relative contribution to net IAA production are under both developmental and environmental control. We worked on three fundamental problems related to how plants get their IAA: 1) An in vitro biochemical approach was used to define the tryptophan dependent pathway to IAA using maize endosperm, where relatively large amounts of IAA are produced over a short developmental period. Both a stable isotope dilution and a protein MS approach were used to identify intermediates and enzymes in the reactions. 2) We developed an in vitro system for analysis of tryptophan-independent IAA biosynthesis in maize seedlings and we used a metabolite profiling approach to isolate intermediates in this reaction. 3) Arabidopsis contains a small family of genes that encode potential indolepyruvate decarboxylase enzymes. We cloned these genes and studied plants that are mutant in these genes and …