The coupling of energetic metallic multilayers (a.k.a. flash metal) with energetic sol-gel synthesis and processing is an entirely new approach to forming energetic devices for several DoD and DOE needs. They are also practical and commercially viable manufacturing techniques. Improved occupational safety and health, performance, reliability, reproducibility, and environmentally acceptable processing can be achieved using these methodologies and materials. The development and fielding of this technology will enhance mission readiness and reduce the costs, environmental risks and the necessity of resolving environmental concerns related to maintaining military readiness while simultaneously enhancing safety and health. Without sacrificing current performance, we will formulate new impact initiated device (IID) compositions to replace materials from the current composition that pose significant environmental, health, and safety problems associated with functions such as synthesis, material receipt, storage, handling, processing into the composition, reaction products from testing, and safe disposal. To do this, we will advance the use of nanocomposite preparation via the use of multilayer flash metal and sol-gel technologies and apply it to new small IIDs. This work will also serve to demonstrate that these technologies and resultant materials are relevant and practical to a variety of energetic needs of DoD and DOE. The goal …

Following our earlier study on the dynamics of low energy electron attachment to formic acid, we report the results of elastic low-energy electron collisions with formic acid. Momentum transfer and angular differential cross sections were obtained by performing fixed-nuclei calculations employing the complex Kohn variational method. We make a brief description of the technique used to account for the polar nature of this polyatomic target and compare our results with available experimental data.

Exterior complex scaling provides a practical path forfirst-principles studies of atomic and molecular ionizationproblemssince it avoids explicit enforcement of asymptotic boundary conditionsfor 3-body Coulomb breakup. We have used the method of exterior complexscaling, implemented with both the discrete variable representation andB-splines, to obtain the first-order wave function for molecular hydrogencorresponding to a single photon having been absorbed by a correlatedinitial state. These wave functions are used to construct convergedtriple differential cross sections for double photoionization of alignedH2 molecules.

We describe a fast contour descriptor algorithm and its application to a distributed supernova detection system (the Nearby Supernova Factory) that processes 600,000 candidate objects in 80 GB of image data per night. Our shape-detection algorithm reduced the number of false positives generated by the supernova search pipeline by 41% while producing no measurable impact on running time. Fourier descriptors are an established method of numerically describing the shapes of object contours, but transform-based techniques are ordinarily avoided in this type of application due to their computational cost. We devised a fast contour descriptor implementation for supernova candidates that meets the tight processing budget of the application. Using the lowest-order descriptors (F{sub 1} and F{sub -1}) and the total variance in the contour, we obtain one feature representing the eccentricity of the object and another denoting its irregularity. Because the number of Fourier terms to be calculated is fixed and small, the algorithm runs in linear time, rather than the O(n log n) time of an FFT. Constraints on object size allow further optimizations so that the total cost of producing the required contour descriptors is about 4n addition/subtraction operations, where n is the length of the contour.

Recent in situ observations in stratiform clouds suggest that mixed phase regimes, here defined as limited cloud volumes containing both liquid and solid water, are constrained to narrow layers (order 100 m) separating all-liquid and fully glaciated volumes (Hallett and Viddaurre, 2005). The Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program's (DOE-ARM, Ackerman and Stokes, 2003) North Slope of Alaska (NSA) ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF) recently started collecting routine measurement of radar Doppler velocity power spectra from the Millimeter Cloud Radar (MMCR). Shupe et al. (2004) showed that Doppler spectra has potential to separate the contributions to the total reflectivity of the liquid and solid water in the radar volume, and thus to investigate further Hallett and Viddaurre's findings. The Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (MPACE) was conducted along the NSA to investigate the properties of Arctic mixed phase clouds (Verlinde et al., 2006). We present surface based remote sensing data from MPACE to discuss the fine-scale structure of the mixed-phase clouds observed during this experiment.

It has been proposed that during growth under anaerobic oroxygen-limited conditions Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 uses theserine-isocitrate lyase pathway common to many methylotrophic anaerobes,in which formaldehyde produced from pyruvate is condensed with glycine toform serine. The serine is then transformed through hydroxypyruvate andglycerate to enter central metabolism at phosphoglycerate. To examine itsuse of the serine-isocitrate lyase pathway under anaerobic conditions, wegrew S. oneidensis MR-1 on [1-13C]lactate as the sole carbon source witheither trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) or fumarate as an electron acceptor.Analysis of cellular metabolites indicates that a large percentage(>75 percent) of lactate was partially oxidized to either acetate orpyruvate. The 13C isotope distributions in amino acids and other keymetabolites indicate that, under anaerobic conditions, a complete serinepathway is not present, and lactate is oxidized via a highly reversibleserine degradation pathway. The labeling data also suggest significantactivity in the anaplerotic (malic enzyme and phosphoenolpyruvatecarboxylase) and glyoxylate shunt (isocitrate lyase and malate synthase)reactions. Although the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle is often observedto be incomplete in many other anaerobes (absence of 2-oxoglutaratedehydrogenase activity), isotopic labeling supports the existence of acomplete TCA cycle in S. oneidensis MR-1 under TMAO reductioncondition.

Organizations that implement strategic energy management programs have the potential to achieve sustained energy savings if the programs are carried out properly. A key opportunity for achieving energy savings that plant managers can take is to determine an appropriate level of energy performance by comparing their plant's performance with that of similar plants in the same industry. Manufacturing facilities can set energy efficiency targets by using performance-based indicators. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its ENERGY STAR{reg_sign} program, has been developing plant energy performance indicators (EPIs) to encourage a variety of U.S. industries to use energy more efficiently. This report describes work with the corn refining industry to provide a plant-level indicator of energy efficiency for facilities that produce a variety of products--including corn starch, corn oil, animal feed, corn sweeteners, and ethanol--for the paper, food, beverage, and other industries in the United States. Consideration is given to the role that performance-based indicators play in motivating change; the steps needed to develop indicators, including interacting with an industry to secure adequate data for an indicator; and the actual application and use of an indicator when complete. How indicators are employed in the EPA's efforts to encourage industries to voluntarily …

A program called ``Innovative Billing?? has been developed to provide individualized energy information for a mass audience?the entireresidential customer base of an electric or gas utility. Customers receive a graph on the bill that compares that customer?s consumption with othersimilar customers for the same month. The program aims to stimulate customers to make ef?ciency improvements. To group as many as severalmillion customers into small ``comparison groups??, an automated method must be developed drawing solely from the data available to the utility.This paper develops and applies methods to compare the quality of resulting comparison groups.A data base of 114,000 customers from a utility billing system was used to evaluate Innovative Billing comparison groups, comparing fouralternative criteria: house characteristics (?oor area, housing type, and heating fuel); street; meter read route; billing cycle. Also, customers wereinterviewed to see what forms of comparison graphs made most sense and led to fewest errors of interpretation. We ?nd that good qualitycomparison groups result from using street name, meter book, or multiple house characteristics. Other criteria we tested, such as entire cycle, entiremeter book, or single house characteristics such as ?oor area, resulted in poor quality comparison groups. This analysis provides a basis forchoosing comparison groups based …

Clostridium botulinum is a taxonomic designation for many diverse anaerobic spore forming rod-shaped bacteria which have the common property of producing botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs). The BoNTs are exoneurotoxins that can cause severe paralysis and even death in humans and various other animal species. A collection of 174 C. botulinum strains were examined by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis and by sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and BoNT genes to examine genetic diversity within this species. This collection contained representatives of each of the seven different serotypes of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT A-G). Analysis of the16S rRNA sequences confirmed earlier reports of at least four distinct genomic backgrounds (Groups I-IV) each of which has independently acquired one or more BoNT serotypes through horizontal gene transfer. AFLP analysis provided higher resolution, and can be used to further subdivide the four groups into sub-groups. Sequencing of the BoNT genes from serotypes A, B and E in multiple strains confirmed significant sequence variation within each serotype. Four distinct lineages within each of the BoNT A and B serotypes, and five distinct lineages of serotype E strains were identified. The nucleotide sequences of the seven serotypes of BoNT were compared and show varying degrees …

Section 9006 of Title IX of The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (the '2002 Farm Bill') established the Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program (the 'Section 9006 program'). Administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Section 9006 program provides grants, loan guarantees, and - perhaps in the future - direct loans to farmers, ranchers, and rural small businesses for assistance with purchasing renewable energy systems and making energy efficiency improvements. In the three rounds of Section 9006 funding to date (FY03-FY05), roughly 40% of all grant dollars in aggregate have been awarded to 'large' (defined as > 100 kW) wind projects. Such projects are also typically eligible for the Federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) codified in Section 45 of the US tax code. Because the PTC provides a significant amount of value to a wind project, most 'large wind' applicants to the Section 9006 program have also tried to take advantage of the PTC. Through what are known as 'anti-double-dipping' or, more colloquially, 'haircut' provisions, however, the size of the PTC is reduced if a project receives certain other forms of governmental support. Specifically, Section 45(b)(3) of the US tax code reduces …

Global changes in gene expression occur during tumor progression, as indicated by expression profiling of metastatic tumors. How this occurs is poorly understood. SATB1 functions as a genome organizer by folding chromatin via tethering multiple genomic loci and recruiting chromatin remodeling enzymes to regulate chromatin structure and expression of a large number of genes. Here we show that SATB1 is expressed at high levels in aggressive breast cancer cells, and is undetectable in non-malignant breast epithelial cells. Importantly, RNAi-mediated removal of SATB1 from highly-aggressive MDA-MB-231 cells altered the expression levels of over 1200 genes, restored breast-like acinar polarity in three-dimensional cultures, and prevented the metastastic phenotype in vivo. Conversely, overexpression of SATB1 in the less-aggressive breast cancer cell line Hs578T altered the gene expression profile and increased metastasis dramatically in vivo. Thus, SATB1 is a global regulator of gene expression in breast cancer cells, directly regulating crucial metastasis-associated genes, including ERRB2 (HER2/NEU), TGF-{beta}1, matrix metalloproteinase 3, and metastasin. The identification of SATB1 as a protein that re-programs chromatin organization and transcription profiles to promote breast cancer metastasis suggests a new model for metastasis and may provide means of therapeutic intervention.

A general problem when fitting EXAFS data is determining whether particular parameters are statistically significant. The F-test is an excellent way of determining relevancy in EXAFS because it only relies on the ratio of the fit residual of two possible models, and therefore the data errors approximately cancel. Although this test is widely used in crystallography (there, it is often called a 'Hamilton test') and has been properly applied to EXAFS data in the past, it is very rarely applied in EXAFS analysis. We have implemented a variation of the F-test adapted for EXAFS data analysis in the RSXAP analysis package, and demonstrate its applicability with a few examples, including determining whether a particular scattering shell is warranted, and differentiating between two possible species or two possible structures in a given shell.

InN nanorods were grown on a, c-, and r-plane of sapphire and also on Si (111) and GaN (0001) by non-catalytic, template-free hydride metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy and studied by transmission electron microscopy, electron energy loss (EELS) and photoluminescence (PL) at room temperature. These nanocrystals have different shapes and different faceting depending on the substrate used and their crystallographic orientation. EELS measurements have confirmed the high purity of these crystals. The observed PL peak was in the range of 0.9-0.95 eV. The strongest PL intensity was observed for the nanocrystals with the larger diameters.

The CALPHAD approach is applied to kinetic studies of phase transformations and aging of prototypes of Ni-Cr-Mo-based alloys selected for waste disposal canisters in the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP). Based on a previous study on alloy stability for several candidate alloys, the thermodynamic driving forces together with a newly developed mobility database have been used to analyze diffusion-controlled transformations in these Ni-based alloys. Results on precipitation of the Ni{sub 2}Cr-ordered phase in Ni-Cr and Ni-Cr-Mo alloys, and of the complex P- and {delta}-phases in a surrogate of Alloy 22 are presented, and the output from the modeling are compared with experimental data on aging.

The need to consider aqueous and sorption kinetics andmicrobiological processes arises in many subsurface problems. Ageneral-rate expression has been implemented into the TOUGHREACTsimulator, which considers multiple mechanisms (pathways) and includesmultiple product, Monod, and inhibition terms. This paper presents aformulation for incorporating kinetic rates among primary species intomass-balance equations. The space discretization used is based on aflexible integral finite difference approach that uses irregular griddingto model bio-geologic structures. A general multi-region model forhydrological transport interacted with microbiological and geochemicalprocesses is proposed. A 1-D reactive transport problem with kineticbiodegradation and sorption was used to test the enhanced simulator,which involves the processes that occur when a pulse of water containingNTA (nitrylotriacetate) and cobalt is injected into a column. The currentsimulation results agree very well with those obtained with othersimulators. The applicability of this general multi-region model wasvalidated by results from a published column experiment ofdenitrification and sulfate reduction. The matches with measured nitrateand sulfate concentrations were adjusted with the interficial areabetween mobile hydrological and immobile biological regions. Resultssuggest that TOUGHREACT can not only be a useful interpretative tool forbiogeochemical experiments, but also can produce insight into processesand parameters of microscopic diffusion and their interplay withbiogeochemical reactions. The geometric- and process-based multi-regionmodel may provide …

Investigating the role of demand resources in regional transmission planning has provided mixed results. On one hand there are only a few projects where demand response has been used as an explicit alternative to transmission enhancement. On the other hand there is a fair amount of demand response in the form of energy efficiency, peak reduction, emergency load shedding, and (recently) demand providing ancillary services. All of this demand response reduces the need for transmission enhancements. Demand response capability is typically (but not always) factored into transmission planning as a reduction in the load which must be served. In that sense demand response is utilized as an alternative to transmission expansion. Much more demand response is used (involuntarily) as load shedding under extreme conditions to prevent cascading blackouts. The amount of additional transmission and generation that would be required to provide the current level of reliability if load shedding were not available is difficult to imagine and would be impractical to build. In a very real sense demand response solutions are equitably treated in every region - when proposed, demand response projects are evaluated against existing reliability and economic criteria. The regional councils, RTOs, and ISOs identify needs. Others propose …

This account of the beginning of the program on laser fusion at Livermore in 1962, and its subsequent development during the decade ending in 1972, was originally prepared as a contribution to the January 1991 symposium 'Achievements in Physics' honoring Professor Keith Brueckner upon his retirement from the University of San Diego at La Jolla. It is a personal recollection of work at Livermore from my vantage point as its scientific leader, and of events elsewhere that I thought significant. This period was one of rapid growth in which the technology of high-power short-pulse lasers needed to drive the implosion of thermonuclear fuel to the temperature and density needed for ignition was developed, and in which the physics of the interaction of intense light with plasmas was explored both theoretically and experimentally.

Relatively minor perturbations to a crystal structure can in some cases result in apparently large changes in symmetry. Changes in space group or even lattice can be induced by heavy metal or halide soaking (Dauter et al, 2001), flash freezing (Skrzypczak-Jankun et al, 1996), and Se-Met substitution (Poulsen et al, 2001). Relations between various space groups and lattices can provide insight in the underlying structural causes for the symmetry or lattice transformations. Furthermore, these relations can be useful in understanding twinning and how to efficiently solve two different but related crystal structures. Although (pseudo) symmetric properties of a certain combination of unit cell parameters and a space group are immediately obvious (such as a pseudo four-fold axis if a is approximately equal to b in an orthorhombic space group), other relations (e.g. Lehtio, et al, 2005) that are less obvious might be crucial to the understanding and detection of certain idiosyncrasies of experimental data. We have developed a set of tools that allows straightforward exploration of possible metric symmetry relations given unit cell parameters and a space group. The new iotbx.explore{_}metric{_}symmetry command produces an overview of the various relations between several possible point groups for a given lattice. Methods for …

A novel method for extracting cosmological evolution parameters is proposed, using a probe other than light: future observations of the diffuse anti-neutrino flux emitted from core-collapse supernovae (SNe), combined with the SN rate extracted from future SN surveys. The relic SN neutrino differential flux can be extracted by using future neutrino detectors such as Gadolinium-enriched, megaton, water detectors or 100-kiloton detectors of liquid Argon or liquid scintillator. The core-collapse SN rate can be reconstructed from direct observation of SN explosions using future precision observatories. Our method, by itself, cannot compete with the accuracy of the optical-based measurements but may serve as an important consistency check as well as a source of complementary information. The proposal does not require construction of a dedicated experiment, but rather relies on future experiments proposed for other purposes.

Precise gamma-ray thermal neutron capture cross sectionshave been measured at the Budapest Reactor for all elements withZ=1-83,92 except for He and Pm. These measurements and additional datafrom the literature been compiled to generate the Evaluated Gamma-rayActivation File (EGAF), which is disseminated by LBNL and the IAEA. Thesedata are nearly complete for most isotopes with Z<20 so the totalradiative thermal neutron capture cross sections can be determineddirectly from the decay scheme. For light isotopes agreement with therecommended values is generally satisfactory although large discrepanciesexist for 11B, 12,13C, 15N, 28,30Si, 34S, 37Cl, and 40,41K. Neutroncapture decay data for heavier isotopes are typically incomplete due tothe contribution of unresolved continuum transitions so only partialradiative thermal neutron capture cross sections can be determined. Thecontribution of the continuum to theneutron capture decay scheme arisesfrom a large number of unresolved levels and transitions and can becalculated by assuming that the fluctuations in level densities andtransition probabilities are statistical. We have calculated thecontinuum contribution to neutron capture decay for the palladiumisotopes with the Monte Carlo code DICEBOX. These calculations werenormalized to the experimental cross sections deexciting low excitationlevels to determine the total radiative thermal neutron capture crosssection. The resulting palladium cross sections values were determinedwith a precision …

A model study on fractured systems was performed using aconcept that treats isotropic cracked systems as ensembles of crackedgrains by analogy to isotropic polycrystalline elastic media. Theapproach has two advantages: (a) Averaging performed is ensembleaveraging, thus avoiding the criticism legitimately leveled at mosteffective medium theories of quasistatic elastic behavior for crackedmedia based on volume concentrations of inclusions. Since crack effectsare largely independent of the volume they occupy in the composite, sucha non-volume-based method offers an appealingly simple modelingalternative. (b) The second advantage is that both polycrystals andfractured media are stiffer than might otherwise be expected, due tonatural bridging effects of the strong components. These same effectshave also often been interpreted as crack-crack screening inhigh-crack-density fractured media, but there is no inherent conflictbetween these two interpretations of this phenomenon. Results of thestudy are somewhat mixed. The spread in elastic constants observed in aset of numerical experiments is found to be very comparable to the spreadin values contained between the Reuss and Voigt bounds for thepolycrystal model. However, computed Hashin-Shtrikman bounds are much tootight to be in agreement with the numerical data, showing thatpolycrystals of cracked grains tend to violate some implicit assumptionsof the Hashin-Shtrikman bounding approach. However, the self-consistentestimates obtained for …

Numerical models of geologic storage of carbon dioxide (CO2)in brine-bearing formations use characteristic curves to represent theinteractions of non-wetting-phase CO2 and wetting-phase brine. When aproblem includes both injection of CO2 (a drainage process) and itssubsequent post-injection evolution (a combination of drainage andwetting), hysteretic characteristic curves are required to correctlycapture the behavior of the CO2 plume. In the hysteretic formulation,capillary pressure and relative permeability depend not only on thecurrent grid-block saturation, but also on the history of the saturationin the grid block. For a problem that involves only drainage or onlywetting, a non-hysteretic formulation, in which capillary pressure andrelative permeability depend only on the current value of the grid-blocksaturation, is adequate. For the hysteretic formulation to be robustcomputationally, care must be taken to ensure the differentiability ofthe characteristic curves both within and beyond the turning-pointsaturations where transitions between branches of the curves occur. Twoexample problems involving geologic CO2 storage are simulated withTOUGH2, a multiphase, multicomponent code for flow and transport codethrough geological media. Both non-hysteretic and hysteretic formulationsare used, to illustrate the applicability and limitations ofnon-hysteretic methods.The first application considers leakage of CO2from the storage formation to the ground surface, while the secondexamines the role of heterogeneity within the storageformation.

The recent discoveries of nonmolecular phases of simple molecular solids [1,2] demonstrate the proof-of-the-principles for producing exotic phases by application of high pressure. Modern advances in theoretical and computational methodologies now make possible to explain or even predict novel structures and properties in a relatively wide range of length scales on the basis of thermodynamic stability [3]. Equally important in materials research is the recent developments in advanced x-ray and laser diagnostics that enable in-situ observations at the formidable pressure-temperature conditions [4]. Having benefited by all these developments, we discuss the first principle of the pressure-induced chemistry, 'Mbar Chemistry', with a few examples that may have important implications in materials research.

An aerial radiological survey of the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) proposed land withdrawal was conducted from January to April 2006, and encompassed a total area of approximately 284 square miles (73,556 hectares). The aerial radiological survey was conducted to provide a sound technical basis and rigorous statistical approach for determining the potential presence of radiological contaminants in the Yucca Mountain proposed Land withdrawal area. The survey site included land areas currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Air Force as part of the Nevada Test and Training Range or the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office (NNSA/NSO) as part of the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The survey was flown at an approximate ground speed of 70 knots (36 meters per second), at a nominal altitude of 150 ft (46 m) above ground level, along a set of parallel flight lines spaced 250 ft (76 m) apart. The flight lines were oriented in a north-south trajectory. The survey was conducted by the DOE NNSA/NSO Remote Sensing Laboratory-Nellis, which is located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The aerial survey was conducted at the request of the DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. The …