The Pennsylvania State University, under contract to the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory will establish, promote, and manage a national industry-driven Stripper Well Consortium (SWC) that will be focused on improving the production performance of domestic petroleum and/or natural gas stripper wells. The consortium creates a partnership with the U.S. petroleum and natural gas industries and trade associations, state funding agencies, academia, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. This report serves as the fifteenth quarterly technical progress report for the SWC. Key activities for this reporting period include: (1) hosting the SWC spring proposal meeting in Golden Colorado, (2) planning of the upcoming SWC fall technology transfer meetings, and (3) recruiting the SWC base membership.

The authors present a new measurement of the inclusive and differential production cross sections of J/{psi} mesons and b-hadrons in proton-antiproton collisions at {radical}s = 1960 GeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 39.7 pb{sup -1} collected by the CDF Run II detector. They find the integrated cross section for inclusive J/{psi} production for all transverse momenta from 0 to 20 GeV/c in the rapidity range |y| < 0.6 to be 4.08 {+-} 0.02(stat){sub -0.33}{sup +0.36}(syst) {mu}b. They separate the fraction of J/{psi} events from the decay of the long-lived b-hadrons using the lifetime distribution in all events with p{sub T}(J/{psi}) > 1.25 GeV/c. They find the total cross section for b-hadrons, including both hadrons and anti-hadrons, decaying to J/{psi} with transverse momenta greater than 1.25 GeV/c in the rapidity range |y(J/{psi})| < 0.6, is 0.330 {+-} 0.005(stat){sub -0.033}{sup +0.036}(syst) {mu}b. Using a Monte Carlo simulation of the decay kinematics of b-hadrons to all final states containing a J/{psi}, they extract the first measurement of the total single b-hadron cross section down to zero transverse momentum at {radical}s = 1960 GeV. They find the total single b-hadron cross section integrated over all transverse momenta for b-hadrons in the …

The aim of this collaborative research work was to apply predictive, physically based multiscale modeling to improve understanding of the underlying mechanisms of material changes in the fusion environment, with the ultimate objective to aid development of advanced materials. The multiscale modeling methodology involved a hierarchical approach, integrating ab initio electronic structure calculations, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC), and three dimensional dislocation dynamics (DD) simulations, over the relevant length and time scales to model the fates of defects and solutes (including hydrogen and helium) and thus, predict microstructural evolution in ferritic/martensitic and vanadium based alloys. The main task at WSU was to investigate changes in mechanical properties as a result of the production of a varied population of nanostructural features and to be obtained from three dimensional dislocation dynamics simulation (DD). The initial dislocation structure and microstructure could be obtained from electron microscopy characterization and the appropriate nanostructural features produced during irradiation are introduced from predictions of the multiscale modeling. The dislocation structure was then allowed to evolve under an applied load, taking into account all possible forces and reactions between the dislocations with the radiation induced nanostructure as well as network dislocations. In this manner, quantitative …

Terahertz scanning near-field infrared microscopy (SNIM) below 1 THz is demonstrated. The near-field technique benefits from the broadband and highly brilliant coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) from an electron storage ring and from a detection method based on locking onto the intrinsic time structure of the synchrotron radiation. The scanning microscope utilizes conical wave guides as near-field probes with apertures smaller than the wavelength. Different cone approaches have been investigated to obtain maximum transmittance. Together with a Martin-Puplett spectrometer the set-up enables spectroscopic mapping of the transmittance of samples well below the diffraction limit. Spatial resolution down to about lambda/40 at 2 wavenumbers (0.06 THz) is derived from the transmittance spectra of the near-field probes. The potential of the technique is exemplified by imaging biological samples. Strongly absorbing living leaves have been imaged in transmittance with a spatial resolution of 130 mu-m at about 12 wave numbers (0.36 THz). The THz near-field images reveal distinct structural differences of leaves from different plants investigated. The technique presented also allows spectral imaging of bulky organic tissues. Human teeth samples of various thicknesses have been imaged between 2 and 20 wavenumbers (between 0.06and 0.6 THz). Regions of enamel and dentin within tooth samples are …

We have used cultured human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) and breast tumor-derived lines to gain information on defects that occur during breast cancer progression. HMEC immortalized by a variety of agents (the chemical carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene, oncogenes c-myc and ZNF217, and/or dominant negative p53 genetic suppressor element GSE22) displayed marked up regulation (10-15 fold) of the telomere binding protein, TRF2. Up-regulation of TRF2 protein was apparently due to differences in post-transcriptional regulation, as mRNA levels remained comparable in finite life span and immortal HMEC. TRF2 protein was not up-regulated by the oncogenic agents alone in the absence of immortalization, nor by expression of exogenously introduced hTERT genes. We found TRF2 levels to be at least 2-fold higher than in control cells in 11/15 breast tumor cell lines, suggesting that elevated TRF2 levels are a frequent occurrence during the transformation of breast tumor cells in vivo. The dispersed distribution of TRF2 throughout the nuclei in some immortalized and tumor-derived cells indicated that not all the TRF2 was associated with telomeres in these cells. The process responsible for accumulation of TRF2 in immortalized HMEC and breast tumor-derived cell lines may promote tumorigenesis by contributing to the cells ability to maintain an indefinite life …

W. C. Gardiner observed that achieving understanding through combustion modeling is limited by the ability to recognize the implications of what has been computed and to draw conclusions about the elementary steps underlying the reaction mechanism. This difficulty can be overcome in part by making better use of reaction path analysis in the context of multidimensional flame simulations. Following a survey of current practice, an integral reaction flux is formulated in terms of conserved scalars that can be calculated in a fully automated way. Conditional analyses are then introduced, and a taxonomy for bidirectional path analysis is explored. Many examples illustrate the resulting path analysis and uncover some new results about nonpremixed methane-air laminar jets.