An object model for genome data at all levels of resolution is described. The model was derived by considering the requirements for representing genome related objects in three application domains: genome maps, large-scale DNA sequencing, and exploring functional information in gene and protein sequences. The methodology used for the object-oriented analysis is also described.

We consider collisions between dynamically-evolved primordial binaries consisting of main-sequence stars, white dwarfs and neutron stars in globular clusters. In our four-body binary-binary scattering experiments, we allow stars to ``stick`` if they pass close enough to each other, which leads to the formation of a wide variety of exotic objects. Most of these objects have binary companions. Also, relatively clean exchange interactions can produce binaries containing neutron stars that eventually receive material from their companions. Such systems will be observable as X-ray binaries.

The rate at which elements can be transported in groundwater systems is governed in part by the solubility of the element in the groundwater. This report documents plutonium solubility experiments in a brine simulant relevant to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Approximately 1 to 2.5 mL of five stock solutions containing single oxidation states of plutonium (Pu(IV)-polymer, Pu{sup 3+}, Pu{sup 4+}, PuO{sub 2}{sup +}, and PuO{sub 2}{sup 2+}) were added to {approximately}75 mL of synthetic H-17 Brine in five reaction vessels. Initial plutonium concentrations ranged from 1.3 {times} l0{sup {minus}4} to 5.l {times} l0{sup {minus}4} M (moles per liter) total plutonium. Because these initial concentrations were far above the plutonium solubility limit in H-17 Brine, plutonium-containing solids precipitated. Aqueous plutonium concentrations were measured over time until steady-state was reached, requiring over 300 days in H-17 Brine.

Initiatives to limit CO{sub 2} emissions have drawn considerable interest to integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) power generation, a process that reduces CO{sub 2} production and is amenable to CO{sub 2} capture. This paper presents a comparison of energy systems that encompass fuel supply, an IGCC system, CO{sub 2} recovery using commercial technologies, CO{sub 2} transport by pipeline, and land-based sequestering in geological reservoirs. The intent is to evaluate the energy efficiency impacts of controlling CO{sub 2} in such a system, and to provide the CO{sub 2} budget, or an equivalent CO{sub 2} budget, associated with each of the individual energy-cycle steps. The value used for the equivalent CO{sub 2} budget is 1 kg CO{sub 2}/kWh. The base case for the comparison is a 458-MW IGCC system using an air-blown Kellogg Rust Westinghouse (KRW) agglomerating fluidized-bed gasifier, Illinois No.6 bituminous coal, and in-bed sulfur removal. Mining, transportation, and preparation of the coal and limestone result in a net electric power production of 448 MW with a 0.872 kg/kWh CO{sub 2} release rate. For comparison, the gasifier output was taken through a water-gas shift to convert CO to CO{sub 2}, and processed in a Selexol unit to recover CO{sub 2} prior to …

This report discusses the following topics: fluctuation suppression by electrostatic current injection; pulsed poloidal current drive; effect of current drive on fluctuations; rf current drive in the RFP; development of a hyper-dissipation algorithms; and interacting magnetic islands.

The transverse motion of a projectile in an electromagnetic induction launcher is considered. The equations of motion for translation and rotation are derived assuming a rigid projectile and a flyway restoring force per unit length that is proportional to the local displacement. Linearized transverse forces and torques due to energized coils are derived for displaced or tilted armature elements based on a first order perturbation method. The resulting equations of motion for a rigid projectile composed of multiple elements in a multi-coil launcher are analyzed as a coupled oscillator system of equations and a simple linear stability condition is derived. The equations of motion are incorporated into the 2-D Slingshot circuit code and numerical solutions for the transverse motion are obtained. For a launcher with a 10 cm bore radius with a 40 cm long solid armature, we find that stability is achieved with a restoring force (per unit length) constant of k {approx} 1 {times} 10{sup 8} N/m{sup 2}. For k = 1.5 {times} 10{sup 8} N/m{sup 2} and sample coil misalignment modeled as a sine wave of 1 mm amplitude at wavelengths of one or two meters, the projectile displacement grows to a maximum of 4 mm. This …

A conventional NSI (NASA standard initiator) normally employs a hot-wire ignition element to ignite ZPP (zirconium potassium perchlorate). With minor modifications to the interior of a header similar to an NSI device to accommodate an SCB (semiconductor bridge), a low cost initiator was obtained. In addition, the ZPP was replaced with THKP (titanium subhydride potassium perchlorate) to obtain increased overall gas production and reduced static-charge sensitivity. This paper reports on the all-fire and no-fire levels obtained and on a dual mix device that uses THKP as the igniter mix and a thermite as the output mix.

Chemical reference tables state that the standard potential for the reaction of Pt with water, Pt + 2H{sub 2}O {r_arrow} Pt(OH){sub 2} + 2H{sup +} + 2e{sup {minus}}, is 0.98 V, and electrochemical studies propose that this reaction may occur at potentials as low as 0.8 V. Using dispersive x-ray absorption fine-structure (XAFS) spectroscopy, the authors have directly probed the structural evolution of a Pt catalyst operating in-situ in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell during cyclic voltammetry. The changes in the number of Pt and O nearest-neighbors and the Pt charge demonstrate a close correspondence with features in the voltammogram. Because dispersive XAFS is very sensitive to detecting structural changes, they have been able to detect the presence of chemisorbed oxygen at potentials of 0.6--0.9 V in the anodic sweep. Since double-layer charging is regarded as the only process in this region for bulk Pt, these results may reflect a limitation of previous (indirect) studies on Pt electrochemistry, or they may indicate that these clusters are different from their bulk metal counterparts. Exploiting the time-resolving capability of dispersive XAFS, they also monitored changes in the Pt charge and the number of O and Pt nearest-neighbors during the electrochemical oxidation and …

A major concern with the utilization of coal in directly fired gas turbines is the control of particulate emissions and reduction of sulfur dioxide, and alkali vapor from combustion of coal, upstream of the gas turbine. Much research and development has been sponsored on methods for particulate emissions control and the direct injection of calcium-based sorbents to reduce SO{sub 2} emission levels. The results of this research and development indicate that both acoustic agglomeration of particulates and direct injection of sorbents have the potential to become a significant emissions control strategy. The Sonic Enhanced Ash Agglomeration and Sulfur Capture program focuses upon the application of an MTCI proprietary invention (Patent No. 5,197,399) for simultaneously enhancing sulfur capture and particulate agglomeration of the combustor effluent. This application can be adapted as either a ``hot flue gas cleanup`` subsystem for the current concepts for combustor islands or as an alternative primary pulse combustor island in which slagging, sulfur capture, particulate agglomeration and control, and alkali gettering as well as NO{sub x} control processes become an integral part of the pulse combustion process. The goal of the program is to support the DOE mission in developing coal-fired combustion gas turbines. In particular, the …

A brief overview of the Gordon Conference on Mammalian Repair held February 1-5, 1993 in Ventura, California is presented.

To control the photodesorption of molecular hydrogen, it is advantageous to reduce the amount of hydrogen in candidate SSC beam pipe materials and identify those procedures that: (1) lead to contamination of the beam pipe surface or materials, (2) would reduce the amount of hydrogen on the surface or in the bulk and (3) could be used for in-situ cleaning during Collider assembly or during Collider maintenance. Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA) can be used to quantitatively measure the amount of hydrogen on the surface or within half a micron of the surface. The present report discusses data that has been obtained for candidate SSC beam pipe materials (Nitronix 40 Stainless Steel, Nitronix 40 SS coated with electrodeposited copper (Silvex process)), oxygen-free high conductivity copper (Hitachi 101 OFHC) and several miscellaneous samples. The work demonstrates the potential of the technique for characterizing the hydrogen concentration of accelerator beam pipe materials, for assisting in the development of better vacuum system materials for TeV-scale accelerators, and for the development of better beam pipe construction or maintenance procedures for future accelerator projects.

Samples were recently retrieved from a HLW storage tank at the DOE Savannah River Site using simple tools developed for this task. The tools are inexpensive and manually operated, require brief tank open times, and minimize radiation doses.

Gasification for power generation via IGCC processes is expected to become an important market for high sulfur Illinois Basin coals. Fluid-bed gasifiers have significant advantages over entrained flow processes. These advantages include ease of control, large turndown capacity, high thermal efficiency, and moderate oxygen and steam requirements. Three of the most pressing technical problems in fluid-bed gasification of Illinois coals are the caking tendency, high sulfur content, and low carbon conversion and consequent large char recycle required in most systems. This program explores the use of gasification catalysts to attack these three problems. The catalysts are sodium/calcium mixtures. Another advantage of using catalysts is that gasification temperature might be lowered, leading to less expensive materials of construction and a reduction in alkali vaporization. The results of this study indicate that these catalysts can reduce or eliminate the caking of Illinois coals. Loadings below 1 weight % were effective if the catalyst was added by impregnation at low pH (below about 5). An Na/Ca molar ratio of greater than 1 also leads to lower catalyst requirement.

The advanced power-generation products currently under development in our program show great promise for ultimate commercial use. Four of these products are referred to in this paper: Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion (PFBC), Externally Fired Combined Cycle (EFCC), and Integrated Gasification Fuel Cell (IGFC). Three of these products, IGCC, PFBC, and EFCC, rely on advanced gas turbines as a key enabling technology and the foundation for efficiencies in the range of 52 to 55 percent. DOE is funding the development of advanced gas turbines in the newly instituted Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS) Program, one of DOE`s highest priority natural gas initiatives. The turbines, which will have natural gas efficiencies of 60 percent, are being evaluated for coal gas compatibility as part of that program.

The most severe limitation to the muon production for a large-energy muon collider is the short time allowed for cooling the beam to dimensions small enough to provide reasonably high luminosity. The limitation is caused by the short lifetime of the particles. It appears to be desirable to accelerate the beam quickly in very short bunches. This paper describes the requirements of single-pass, fast stochastic cooling for very short bunches. Bandwidth, amplifier gain and Schottky power do not seem to be of major concern. Problems do arise with the ultimate low emittance that can be achieved, the value of which is seriously affected by the front-end noise.

A system of N sensors S{sub 1},S{sub 2},{hor_ellipsis},S{sub N} is considered; corresponding to an object with parameter x {epsilon} R{sup d}, sensor S{sub i} yields output y{sup (i)} {epsilon} R{sup d} according to an unknown probability distribution p{sub i}(y{sup (i)}{vert_bar}x). A training l-sample (x{sub 1},y{sub 1}),(x{sub 2},y{sub 2}),{hor_ellipsis},(x{sub l},y{sub l}) is given where y{sub i} = (y{sub i}{sup (1)}, y{sub i}{sup (2)},{hor_ellipsis},y{sub i}{sup (N)}) and y{sub i}{sup (j)} is the output of S{sub j} in response to input x{sub i}. The problem is to estimate a fusion rule f:R{sup Nd} {yields} R{sup d}, based on the sample, such that the expected square error I(f) = {integral}[x {minus} f(y{sup (1)},y{sup (2)}, {hor_ellipsis},y{sup (N)})]{sup 2}p(y{sup (1)},y{sup (2)}, {hor_ellipsis},y{sup (N)}{vert_bar}x)p(x)dy{sup (1)}dy{sup (2)}{hor_ellipsis}dy{sup (N)}dx is to be minimized over a family of fusion rules {Lambda} based on the given l-sample. Let f{sub *} {epsilon} {Lambda} minimize I(f); f{sub *} cannot be computed since the underlying probability distributions are unknown. Using Vapnik`s empirical risk minimization method, we show that if {Lambda} has finite capacity, then under bounded error, for sufficiently large sample, f{sub emp} can be obtained such that P[I(f{sub emp}) {minus} I(f{sub *}) > {epsilon}] < {delta} for arbitrarily specified {epsilon} > 0 and …

We have investigated the effects of precursor nature and heat treatment schedule on the densification and crystallization behavior of sol-gel derived zirconia thin films. Precursor solutions were prepared from n-propanol, zirconium (IV) n-propoxide, and either acetic acid, or 2,4-pentanedione (acac) and water additions. By controlling the ligand type and ligand-to-metal ratio, we were able to prepare films which displayed significant differences in densification behavior. We attribute the dissimilarity in densification to variations in the nature of the as-deposited films, as influenced by ligand type and concentration. While the acac- derived film was a physical gel, (i.e., a physical aggregation of the oligomeric species), the acetic acid-derived film, which exhibited less consolidation, was a chemical gel that could not be redissolved in the parent solvent. Films prepared with large acac/metal ratios and small water additions exhibited minimal crosslinking at 25{degree}C, displayed the greatest consolidation ({approximately}86% shrinkage) and the highest refractive index (n = 2.071) when heat treated. These results indicate the importance that M-O-M bonds (crosslinks) formed at low temperature can have on densification behavior. We also report on the effects of heat-treatment schedules and ramp rates on densification behavior. All of the films of the present study crystallized into the …

Recent applications of chaotic time series analysis to gas fluidized beds have demonstrated that substantial information about fluidization conditions within the. bed can be extracted from voidage and pressure drop data. In this paper, a technique is presented to characterize fluidized bed behavior based on the crossings of the phase space trajectory through the principal component planes. Starting with either pressure drop or void fraction versus time data, time series embedding and principal component analysis is used to construct a phase space trajectory for the data. This trajectory characterizes the dynamical state of the bed. The technique presented decomposes the trajectory by sorting the orbits into types characteristic of different modes of bed behavior, such as emulsion phase fluctuations, bubbling, slugging, bubble coalescence, and de-fluidization. The basis for the method and the analysis of data from experiments in several fluidized beds will be presented. The overall goal of these studies is to improve the diagnostic and control of fossil energy fluidized bed processes.

This quarterly technical progress report summarizes work completed during the Second Quarter of the Second Budget Period, July 1 through September 30, 1993, under the Department of Energy (DOE) Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FC21-90MC25140 entitled ``Hot Gas Cleanup Test Facility for Gasification and Pressurized Combustion.`` The objective of this project is to evaluate hot gas particle control technologies using coal-derived gas streams. This will entail the design, construction, installation, and use of a flexible test facility which can operate under realistic gasification and combustion conditions. The major particulate control device issues to be addressed include the integration of the particulate control devices into coal utilization systems, on-line cleaning techniques, chemical and thermal degradation of components, fatigue or structural failures, blinding, collection efficiency as a function of particle size, and scaleup of particulate control systems to commercial size. The conceptual design of the facility was extended to include a within scope, phased expansion of the existing Hot Gas Cleanup Test Facility Cooperative Agreement to also address systems integration issues of hot particulate removal in advanced coal-based power generation systems. This expansion included the consideration of the following modules at the test facility in addition to the existing Transport Reactor gas source and …

The High Energy Physics group at the University of Massachusetts has continued its` program of experimental studies of electron-positron interactions at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). The group activities have included: analysis of data taken between 1982 and 1990 with the TPC detector at the PEP facility, continuing data collection and data analysis using the SLC/SLD facility, planning for the newly approved B-factory at SLAC, and participation in design studies for future high energy linear colliders. This report will briefly summarize these activities.

Monte Carlo computer codes have been independently developed at several laboratories for performing calculations of radiolysis of water. The different codes involve a wide variety of models and related assumptions in treating the many physical and chemical processes that occur. Because few detailed aspects of such computations can be directly checked by experiment, it is important to make comparisons of various predicted microscopic distributions. This paper compares results obtained with codes developed at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Both codes were used to calculate the spatial distributions of various radical species in spurs along the tracks of energetic electrons. Similarities and differences in the results of this preliminary study are shown. Additional work is planned.

The application of fiber optic links and networks in safety-critical systems in the next generation of nuclear power plants, as well as in some digital upgrades in present-day plants, will mean that these links must be highly reliable and able to withstand the effect of environmental stressors present at the installation location. This paper discusses the failure modes and age-related mechanisms of fiber optic transmission components and identifies environmental stressors that could adversely affect their reliability over the long term. Some of the standards that could be used in their qualification for safety-critical applications are also discussed briefly.

We have measured the transverse magnetoresistance in high-quality single-crystalline samples of SmB{sub 6} and FeSi at 4K in applied magnetic fields to 50T and in the temperature range 4K < T < 150K in magnetic fields to 18T. The magnetoresistance in SmB6 at 4K decreases quadratically and reaches about {minus}45% at 50T. The compound FeSi reveals three distinct features in the magnetoresistance: a negative magnetoresistance for fields below 5T, a kink at around 10T, and a broad maximum near 3OT.

The major hypothesis of carcinogenesis is that malignancy is due to an alteration (mutation) of the genetic material in a somatic cell. Reactive electrophilic metabolites are generated from many chemicals by the action of endogenous mixed function oxidases. These reactive metabolites may bind to cellular macromolecules, such as DNA, and can, therefore, initiate a mutagenic or carcinogenic event. Prokaryotes and non-mammalian eukaryotes are used in mutation assays, while cultured mammalian cells are generally used for mutagenic as well as clastogenic tests examining alterations and damage to the DNA and/or chromosomes of somatic cells. One of the first mammalian cell lines used in genotoxicity studies is V79, which was derived from Chinese hamster lung cells. According to the test plan on toxicity studies of mild gasification products, mammalian cell in vitro assays are to be performed on selected samples displaying mutagenic activity in the Ames assay. The results of the Ames testing of the mild gasification sample IST {number_sign}10 indicate significant mutagenic activity. Hence, assays for the induction of gene mutation, sister chromatid exchange and micronucleus formation in V79 cells have been carried out for the sample. This paper reports the results of these assays.