Measurement of /sup 129/I at low levels is required for effluent control, environmental assessment and tracer studies in the natural environment. Low level /sup 129/I analysis has also been used for measurement of natural-fission-produced /sup 129/I in minerals and ores as well as meteorites. The most sensitive method for /sup 129/I measurements is neutron activation analysis of iodine separated from a suitable sample. Minimum sample processing prior to neutron activation is desirable in order to reduce chances of sample contamination with uranium or /sup 129/I. A potential interference in the activation analysis method is the production of /sup 129/I (/sup 130/I) from Te impurities in the irradiated ampoule. Procedures have been developed and applied to measurement of the magnitude of the potential Te interference. One-tenth of a microgram of Te in the irradiated ampoule is sufficient to produce interference in the analysis. This is detectable by either radiochemical Te measurements or by /sup 131/I detection in the iodine fraction from the irradiated ampoule. This paper discusses the procedures and results of Te interference studies in /sup 129/I activation analysis. The interference was found to be insignificant for most analyses. 5 tables.

The diagnostic data from the MTX experiment is acquired and processed by an expandable, distributed, multivendor computer network. The system blends a variety of software into a coordinated, unified, and highly flexible design. Using modular software design techniques, we created a system stressing distributed processing, portability, and transparent data access. In our approach to modularity, we standardized communication interfaces between modules and separated generic tasks from machine and application-specific implementations. For flexible distributed processing, we used modular, portable software and LLNL facility that provides an interprocess communication system (IPCS) in the multivendor network. With transparent data access, any program can access data stored anywhere in the network without knowing the specific location. The computer hardware includes a DEC VAX cluster, HP workstations and HP desktop computers. We are using commercial software in addition to packages from MIT, ORNL, and LLNL. 4 refs., 4 figs.

The formation of negative ions by hydrogen collisions on cesium-coated surfaces is discussed in the limiting cases where the resident cesium is either in the purely ionic state or in the purely atomic state. The survival fraction for negative ions moving away from a metal surface is calculated using a method employing complex eigenvalues. The fraction of surviving ions is found to be larger than calculated by previous workers. The secondary emission coefficient for negative ion production by incident atoms with energies of ten to one hundred electron volts is estimated to be in the range thirty to fifty percent. The secondary emission coefficient is found to be a sensitive function of the thickness of the alkali adsorbate coating for ion energies in the range below a few hundred electron volts.

Double shell targets for use with 0.2-1.0 ..mu.. lasers are discussed. With 0.2 ..mu.. light, such designs achieve 500-1000 times liquid density at 2 KJ, 10% or more of breakeven at 15 KJ, gains of 10 or more at 200 KJ and a gain of 1000 for lasers of 1 to 10 megajoules.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is a new tokamak design project with joint participation from Japan, the European Community, the Union of the Soviet Union, and the United States. This paper examines the effects of a quench within the toroidal field (TF) coils based on current ITER design. It is a preliminary, rough analysis. Its intent is to assist ITER designers while more accurate computer codes are being developed and to provide a check against these more rigorous solutions. Rigorous solutions to the quench problem are very complex involving three- dimensional heat transfer, extreme changes in heat capacities and copper resistivity, and varying flow dynamics within the conductors. This analysis addresses all these factors in an approximate way. The result is much less accurate than a rigorous analysis. Results here could be in error as much as 30 to 40 percent. However, it is believed that this paper can still be very useful to the coil designer. Coil pressures and temperatures vs time into a quench are presented. Rate of helium vent, energy deposition in the coil, and depletion of magnetic stored energy are also presented. Peak pressures are high (about 43 MPa). This is due to the very …

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is a new tokamak design project with joint participation from Japan, the European Community, the Soviet Union, and the United States. ITER will be a large machine requiring up to 100 kW of refrigeration at 4.5 K to cool its superconducting magnets. Unlike earlier fusion experiments, the ITER cryogenic system must handle pulse loads constituting a large percentage of the total load. These come from neutron heating during a fusion burn and from ac losses during ramping of current in the PF (poloidal field) coils. This paper presents a conceptual design for a cryogenic system that meets ITER requirements. It describes a system with the following features: Only time-proven components are used. The system obtains a high efficiency without use of cold pumps or other developmental components. High reliability is achieved by paralleling compressors and expanders and by using adequate isolation valving. The problem of load fluctuations is solved by a simple load-leveling device. The cryogenic system can be housed in a separate building located at a considerable distance from the ITER core, if desired. The paper also summarizes physical plant size, cost estimates, and means of handling vented helium during magnet quench. 4 …

Article on the genome-wide early temporal response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to oxidative stress induced by cumene hydroperoxide.

The advanced tokamak research program at DIII-D relies critically on the measurement of the current density profile. This was made possible by the development of a Motional Stark Effect (MSE) polarimeter that was first installed in 1992. Three major upgrades have since occurred, and improvements in our understanding of critical performance issues and calibration techniques are ongoing. In parallel with these improvements, we have drawn on our DIII-D experience to begin studies and design work for MSE on burning plasmas and ITER. This paper first reviews how Motional Stark Effect polarimetry (MSE) is used to determine the tokamak current profile. It uses the DIII-D MSE system as an example, and shows results from the latest upgrade that incorporates an array of channels from a new counter-Ip injected neutral beam. The various calibration techniques presently used are reviewed. High-leverage or unresolved issues affecting MSE performance and reliability in ITER are discussed. Next, we show a four-mirror collection optics design for the two ITER MSE views. Finally, we discuss measurements of the polarization properties of a few candidate mirrors for the ITER MSE.

A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism has been developed and used to study the oxidation of methyl decanoate, a surrogate for biodiesel fuels. This model has been built by following the rules established by Curran et al. for the oxidation of n-heptane and it includes all the reactions known to be pertinent to both low and high temperatures. Computed results have been compared with methyl decanoate experiments in an engine and oxidation of rapeseed oil methyl esters in a jet stirred reactor. An important feature of this mechanism is its ability to reproduce the early formation of carbon dioxide that is unique to biofuels and due to the presence of the ester group in the reactant. The model also predicts ignition delay times and OH profiles very close to observed values in shock tube experiments fueled by n-decane. These model capabilities indicate that large n-alkanes can be good surrogates for large methyl esters and biodiesel fuels to predict overall reactivity, but some kinetic details, including early CO{sub 2} production from biodiesel fuels, can be predicted only by a detailed kinetic mechanism for a true methyl ester fuel. The present methyl decanoate mechanism provides a realistic kinetic tool for simulation of biodiesel …

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has developed a device that measures the water content of wood chips, pulp and brown stock for the paper industry. This device employs a permanent magnet as the central part of a NMR measurement system. This report describes the magnet and the NMR measurement system. The results of water content measurements in wood chips in a magnetic field of 0.47 T are presented.

This project's goal is to provide a proof of concept for mobile data collection applications, and identify the best ways such applications could be implemented and used. Such an application should decrease the time and resources users now need to devote to redundant data processes, and provide an easy of locating and retrieving data at a later time. The two types of available mobile devices, Personal Digital Assistants and Tablet Personal Computers, each have their particular strengths that suggest themselves for certain types of applications. As such, parallel data collection applications have been developed, with a common web application for uploading information to the database. While these aspects have been developed and proven, it still remains to refine these applications, develop the tables to hold their data, and field-test with users for their feedback.

Techniques to calculate one-loop radiative corrections to hyperfine splitting including binding corrections to all orders have been developed in the last decade for s states of atoms and ions. In this paper these methods are extended to p{sub 1/2} states for three cases. In the first case, the point-Coulomb 2p{sub 1/2} hyperfine splitting is treated for the hydrogen isoelectronic sequence, and the lowest order result, {alpha}/4{pi} E{sub F}, is shown to have large binding corrections at high Z. In the second case, neutral alkalis are considered. In the third case, hyperfine splitting of the 2p{sub 1/2} state of lithium-like bismuth is treated. In the latter two cases, correlation corrections are included and, in addition, the point is stressed that uncertainties associated with nuclear structure, which complicate comparison with experiment for s states, are considerably reduced because of the smaller overlap with the nucleus.

We study the spacetime decay to nothing in string theory and M-theory. First we recall a nonsupersymmetric version of heterotic M-theory, in which bubbles of nothing -- connecting the two E_8 boundaries by a throat -- are expected to be nucleated. We argue that the fate of this system should be addressed at weak string coupling, where the nonperturbative instanton instability is expected to turn into a perturbative tachyonic one. We identify the unique string theory that could describe this process: The heterotic model with one E_8 gauge group and a singlet tachyon. We then use worldsheet methods to study the tachyon condensation in the NSR formulation of this model, and show that it induces a worldsheet super-Higgs effect. The main theme of our analysis is the possibility of making meaningful alternative gauge choices for worldsheet supersymmetry, in place of the conventional superconformal gauge. We show in a version of unitary gauge how the worldsheet gravitino assimilates the goldstino and becomes dynamical. This picture clarifies recent results of Hellerman and Swanson. We also present analogs of R_\xi gauges, and note the importance of logarithmic CFT in the context of tachyon condensation.

Biofilms are bacterial communities residing within a polysaccharide matrix that are associated with persistence and antibiotic resistance in chronic infections. We show that the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa forms biofilms within 8 hours of infection in thermally-injured mice, demonstrating that biofilms contribute to bacterial colonization in acute infections. P. aeruginosa biofilms were visualized within burned tissue surrounding blood vessels and adipose cells. Although quorum sensing (QS), a bacterial signaling mechanism, coordinates differentiation of biofilms in vitro, wild type and QS-deficient P. aeruginosa formed similar biofilms in vivo. Our findings demonstrate that P. aeruginosa forms biofilms on specific host tissues independent of QS.

The equilibrium structure of embedded nanocrystals formed from strongly segregating binary-alloys is considered within a simple thermodynamic model. The model identifies two dimensionlessinterface energies that dictate the structure, and allows prediction of the stable structure for anychoice of these parameters. The resulting structure map includes three distinct nanocrystal mor-phologies: core/shell, lobe/lobe, and completely separated spheres.

We study the azimuthal asymmetric distribution of hadronsinside a high energy jet in the single transverse polarized proton protonscattering, coming from the Collins effect multiplied by the quarktransversity distribution. We argue that the Collins function in thisprocess is the same as that in the semi-inclusive deep inelasticscattering. The experimental study of this process will provide usimportant information on the quark transversity distribution and test theuniversality of the fragmentation functions.

The objective of this work is to minimize the cost of the materials and maximize the performance of magnetic cores, a major cost component of a Heavy-Ion-Fusion, HIF, induction accelerator driver. This includes selection of the alloy for cost and performance, and maximizing the performance of each alloy evaluated. The two major performance parameters are the magnetic flux swing and the energy loss. The volt seconds of the cores, obtained from the flux swing with Faraday's Law, determines the beam energy and duration. Core losses from forming domains and moving their boundaries are a major factor in determining the efficiency of an induction accelerator.

The dispersion of ion-acoustic fluctuations has been measured using a novel technique that employs multiple color Thomson-scattering diagnostics to measure the frequency spectrum for two separate thermal ion-acoustic fluctuations with significantly different wave vectors. The plasma fluctuations are shown to become dispersive with increasing electron temperature. We demonstrate that this technique allows a time resolved local measurement of electron density and temperature in inertial confinement fusion plasmas.

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A miniature electrostatic element has been designed to selectively apply a ninety-degree phase shift to the unscattered beam in the back focal plane of the objective lens, in order to realize Zernike-type, in-focus phase contrast in an electron microscope. The design involves a cylindrically shaped, biased-voltage electrode, which is surrounded by a concentric grounded electrode. Electrostatic calculations have been used to determine that the fringing fields in the region of the scattered electron beams will cause a negligible phase shift as long as the ratio of electrode length to the transverse feature-size is greater than 5:1. Unlike the planar, three-electrode einzel lens originally proposed by Boersch for the same purpose, this new design does not require insulating layers to separate the biased and grounded electrodes, and it can thus be produced by a very simple microfabrication process. Scanning electron microscope images confirm that mechanically robust devices with feature sizes of {approx}1 {micro}m can be easily fabricated. Preliminary experimental images demonstrate that these devices do apply a 90-degree phase shift between the scattered and unscattered electrons, as expected.

We review the development of a full 3D multiphysics code for the simulation of explosively driven Magnetic Flux Compression Generators (MFCG) and related pulse power devices. In a typical MFCG the device is seeded with an initial electric current and the device is then detonated. The detonation compresses the magnetic field and amplifies the current. This is a multiphysics problem in that detonation kinetics, electromagnetic diffusion and induction, material deformation, and thermal effects are all important. This is a tightly coupled problem in that the different physical quantities have comparable spatial and temporal variation, and hence should be solved simultaneously on the same computational mesh.

A new precision timing system has been installed on the Microwave Tokamak Experiment (MTX) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The purpose of the system is to synchronize the tokamak's plasma discharge with a 140-GHz, 2-GW microwave pulse generated by a free-electron laser (FEL). The installation involved modifying the existing sequencer system and adding Digital delay generators, three in-house-designed CAMAC modules and other components. The system controls placement of the 30-ns FEL pulse during the MTX plasma discharge. It also provides precision triggers for the microwave plasma diagnostics. These triggers are distributed over 100-Mbit/s fiber-optic links. The MTX interlock system has been expanded to provide personnel safety during FEL experiments, to protect the FEL and related equipment, and to control the path of the FEL beam starting from the FEL's output, through the beam transport system, and into the tokamak. This paper describes how the existing MTX timing and interlocks systems were upgraded to accommodate these new FEL experiments. 4 refs., 4 figs.

The Microwave Tokamak Experiment (MTX) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) began plasma operations in November 1988, and our main goal is the study of electron-cyclotron heating (ECH) in plasma discharges. The MTX tokamak was relocated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and we have re-created plasma parameters that are similar to those generated while the tokamak was at MIT. After stable ohmic operation was achieved, single-pulse FEL heating experiments began. During this phase, the FEL operated at low power levels on the way to its ultimate goal of 2 GW and 140 GHz with a 30-ns pulse length. We have developed a number of new diagnostics to measure these fast FEL pulses and the resulting plasma effects. In this paper, we present results that show the correlation of MTX data with MIT data, some of the operational modifications and procedures used, results to date from preliminary tokamak operations with the FEL, and our near-term operational plans. 7 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab.

Three concepts for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) reactors are described and compared with each other, and with magnetic fusion and fission reactors on the basis of environmental impact, safety and efficiency. The critical technical developments of each concept are described. The three concepts represent alternative development paths for inertial fusion.