Sophisticated front-end electronics are a key part of practically all modern radiation detector systems. This chapter introduces the basic principles and their implementation. Topics include signal acquisition, electronic noise, pulse shaping (analog and digital), and data readout techniques.

A carbon credit market is developing in the United States. Information is needed by buyers and sellers of carbon credits so that the market functions equitably and efficiently. Analyses have been conducted to determine the optimal forest management regime to employ for each of the major commercial tree species so that profitability of timber production only or the combination of timber production and carbon sequestration is maximized. Because the potential of a forest ecosystem to sequester carbon depends on the tree species, site quality and management regimes utilized, analyses have determined how to optimize carbon sequestration by determining how to optimally manage each species, given a range of site qualities, discount rates, prices of carbon credits and other economic variables. The effects of a carbon credit market on the method and profitability of forest management, the cost of sequestering carbon, the amount of carbon that can be sequestered, and the amount of timber products produced has been determined.

Solving Schroedinger equation in quantum mechanics presents a challenging task in numerical methods due to the high order behavior and high dimension characteristics in the wave functions, in addition to the highly coupled nature between wave functions. This work introduces orbital and polynomial enrichment functions to the partition of unity for solution of Schroedinger equation under the framework of HP-Clouds. An intrinsic enrichment of orbital function and extrinsic enrichment of monomial functions are proposed. Due to the employment of higher order basis functions, a higher order stabilized conforming nodal integration is developed. The proposed methods are implemented using the density functional theory for solution of Schroedinger equation. Analysis of several single and multi-electron/nucleus structures demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The saturation levels of stimulated scattering of intense laser light in plasmas and techniques to reduce these levels are of great interest. A simple model is used to highlight the dependence of the reflectivity on the coherence length for the density fluctuations producing the scattering. Sometimes the coherence lengths can be determined nonlinearly. For NIF hohlraum plasmas, a reduction in the coherence lengths might be engineered in several ways. Finally, electron trapping in ion sound waves is briefly examined as a potentially important effect for the saturation of stimulated Brillouin scattering.

The thesis of this extended abstract is simple. High productivity comes from high level infrastructures. To measure this, we introduce a methodology that goes beyond the tradition of timing software in serial and tuned parallel modes. We perform a classroom productivity study involving 29 students who have written a homework exercise in a low level language (MPI message passing) and a high level language (Star-P with MATLAB client). Our conclusions indicate what perhaps should be of little surprise: (1) the high level language is always far easier on the students than the low level language. (2) The early versions of the high level language perform inadequately compared to the tuned low level language, but later versions substantially catch up. Asymptotically, the analogy must hold that message passing is to high level language parallel programming as assembler is to high level environments such as MATLAB, Mathematica, Maple, or even Python. We follow the Kepner method that correctly realizes that traditional speedup numbers without some discussion of the human cost of reaching these numbers can fail to reflect the true human productivity cost of high performance computing. Traditional data compares low level message passing with serial computation. With the benefit of a …

This paper accompanies a poster that is being presented atthe SciDAC 2006 meeting in Denver, CO. This project focuses on leveragingscientific visualization and analytics software technology as an enablingtechnology for increasing scientific productivity and insight. Advancesincomputational technology have resultedin an "information big bang,"which in turn has createda significant data understanding challenge. Thischallenge is widely acknowledged to be one of the primary bottlenecks incontemporary science. The vision for our Center is to respond directly tothat challenge by adapting, extending, creating when necessary anddeploying visualization and data understanding technologies for ourscience stakeholders. Using an organizational model as a Visualizationand Analytics Center for Enabling Technologies (VACET), we are wellpositioned to be responsive to the needs of a diverse set of scientificstakeholders in a coordinated fashion using a range of visualization,mathematics, statistics, computer and computational science and datamanagement technologies.

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The report discusses the factors affecting airport and airspace capacity, Impact of Under-capacity on flight Operations and Impact on congestion on aviation safety.

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This report provides background and discussion of policy issues relating to U.S. ethanol production, especially ethanol made from corn.

This report provides an overview of selected topics which the 109th Congress may address in its examination of telecommunication issue.

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This report provides background on appearance of BSE(bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow disease") in North America.

Key components of federal policies to reduce fuel consumption include the promotion of alternatives to petroleum fuels and the promotion of more efficient vehicles. This report provides an overview of current issues surrounding alternative fuels and advanced technology vehicles — issues discussed in further detail in other CRS reports referred to in each section.

This report provides information about the Major Policy Issues and Status of Negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The FTAA began as a commitment by 34 countries to consider a comprehensive trade agreement.

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This report provides information about the Implications of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit for Dual Eligibles and State Medicaid Programs. The report states the changes to eligibility for dual eligibles, changes to the scope of prescription coverage of the drugs.

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These proceedings contain papers prepared for the 28th Seismic Research Review: Ground-Based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Technologies, held 19-21 September, 2006 in Orlando, Florida. These papers represent the combined research related to ground-based nuclear explosion monitoring funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), US Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), and other invited sponsors. The scientific objectives of the research are to improve the United States capability to detect, locate, and identify nuclear explosions. The purpose of the meeting is to provide the sponsoring agencies, as well as potential users, an opportunity to review research accomplished during the preceding year and to discuss areas of investigation for the coming year. For the researchers, it provides a forum for the exchange of scientific information toward achieving program goals, and an opportunity to discuss results and future plans. Paper topics include: seismic regionalization and calibration; detection and location of sources; wave propagation from source to receiver; the nature of seismic sources, including mining practices; hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide methods; on-site inspection; and data processing.

Figure 1 shows the resistivity models considered in this study; log10 of the resistivity is shown. The graph on the upper left hand side shows a hypothetical resisitivity well log measured along a well in the upper layered model; 10% Gaussian noise has been added to the well log data. The lower model is identical to the upper one except for one square area located within the second deepest layer. Figure 2 shows the electrode configurations considered. The ''reference'' case (upper frame) considers point electrodes located along the surface and along a vertical borehole. The ''CPT electrode'' case (middle frame) assumes that the CPT tip serves as an electrode that is electrically connected to the push rod; the surface electrodes are used in conjuction with the moving CPT electrode. The ''isolated CPT electrode'' case assumes that the electrode at the CPT tip is electrically isolated from the pushrod. Note that the separate CPT push rods in the middle and lower frames are shown separated to clarify the figure; in reality, there is only one pushrod that is changing length as the probe advances. Figure 3 shows three pole-pole measurement schemes were considered; in all cases, the ''get lost'' electrodes were …