By the time students are ready to enter the workforce they have been exposed to up to 20 years of ergonomics risk factors. As technology evolves, it provides more opportunities for intensive repetitive motion and with computers, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and electronic games. The average student engages in fewer active physical activities, sit stationary in mismatched furniture in schools for hours and carry heavy backpacks. While long-term effects remain to be identified, increasingly ergonomists and others concerned with musculoskeletal health and wellness, see a need for early ergonomics education. This interactive session provides a hands-on approach to introducing ergonomics to students. Although different approaches may effectively introduce ergonomics at even early stages of development, this program was designed for youth at the middle to high school age. Attendees will participate in four activities designed to introduce ergonomics at an experiential level. The modules focus on grip strength, effective breathing, optimizing your chair, and backpack safety. The workshop will include presentation and worksheets designed for use by teachers with minimal ergonomics training. Feedback from the participants will be sought for further refining the usability and safety of the training package.

The validity of the Surrogate Ratio method for determining (n,f) cross sections for actinide nuclei is examined. This method relates the ratio of two compound-nucleus reaction cross sections to a ratio of coincidence events from two measurements in which the same compound nuclei are formed via a direct reaction. With certain assumptions, the method allows one of the cross sections to be inferred if the other is known. We develop a nuclear reaction-model simulation to investigate whether the assumptions underlying the Ratio approach are valid and employ these simulations to assess whether the cross sections obtained indirectly by applying a Ratio analysis agree with the expected results. In particular, we simulate Surrogate experiments that allow us to determine fission cross sections for selected actinide nuclei. The nuclei studied, {sup 233}U and {sup 235}U, are very similar to those considered in recent Surrogate experiments. We find that in favorable cases the Ratio method provides useful estimates of the desired cross sections, and we discuss some of the limitations of the approach.

Thermal neutron detectors have seen only incremental improvements over the last decades. In this paper we overview the current technology of choice for thermal neutron detection--{sup 3}He tubes, which suffer from, moderate to poor fieldability, and low absolute efficiency. The need for improved neutron detection is evident due to this technology gap and the fact that neutrons are a highly specific indicator of fissile material. Recognizing this need, we propose to exploit recent advances in microfabrication technology for building the next generation of semiconductor thermal neutron detectors for national security requirements, for applications requiring excellent fieldability of small devices. We have developed an innovative pathway taking advantage of advanced processing and fabrication technology to produce the proposed device. The crucial advantage of our Pillar Detector is that it can simultaneously meet the requirements of high efficiency and fieldability in the optimized configuration, the detector efficiency could be higher than 70%.

We describe the results of a Scaled-Thermal-Explosion-eXperiment (STEX) for LX-10 (94.7 % HMX, 5.3 % Viton A) confined in an AerMet 100 (iron-cobalt-nickel alloy) tube with reinforced end caps. The experimental measurements are compared with predictions of an Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE3D) computer model. ALE3D is a three-dimensional multi-physics computer code capable of solving coupled equations describing thermal, mechanical and chemical behavior of materials. In particular, we focus on the processes linked to fracture and fragmentation of the AerMet tube driven by the LX-10 deflagration.

Between January 9-12, 2006 a series of experiments were performed on the DARHT-II injector to measure the beam's emittance. Part of these experiments were pepper-pot measurements. This note describes the analysis of the data, and our conclusions from the experiments.

Final report for project to evaluate tungsten-based catalyst as a cathode catalyst for PEM cell applications.

A geophysical characterization project was conducted at the BC Cribs and Trenches Area, located south of 200 East at the Hanford Site. The area consists of 26 waste disposal trenches and cribs, which received approximately 30 million gallons of liquid waste from the uranium recovery process and the ferrocyanide processes associated with wastes generated by reprocessing nuclear fuel. Waste discharges to BC Cribs contributed perhaps the largest liquid fraction of contaminants to the ground in the 200 Areas. The site also includes possibly the largest inventory of Tc-99 ever disposed to the soil at Hanford with an estimated quantity of 400 Ci. Other waste constituents included high volumes of nitrate and U-238. The geophysical characterization at the 50 acre site primarily included high resolution resistivity (HRR). The resistivity technique is a non-invasive method by which electrical resistivity data are collected along linear transects, and data are presented as continuous profiles of subsurface electrical properties. The transects ranged in size from about 400-700 meters and provided information down to depths of 60 meters. The site was characterized by a network of 51 HRR lines with a total of approximately 19.7 line kilometers of data collected parallel and perpendicular to the trenches …

The goal of this proposal was to test the hypothesis that mice heterozygous for the Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome (NBS1) gene are genetically susceptible to low doses of ionizing radiation. The rationale for this is that patients with NBS are radiation sensitive, because of defects in cellular responses to radiation induced genetic damage and haploinsufficiency at this genetic locus provides the potential for genetic susceptibility to low doses of ionizing radiation. Wild type and heterozygous NBS1 mice were irradiated and followed over their lifetime for radiation induced genomic instability, carcinogenesis and non-specific life shortening. No differences in cytogenetic damage, cancer induction or life span were observed between the hypomorphic mice indicating that genetic imbalance at the NBS1 loci does not modulate low dose radiation sensitivity.

In the closing years of the 20th Century humankind began its exploration of the planetary systems in the solar neighborhood. Precision radial velocity measurements have now yielded the discovery of over 160 planets. Direct imaging of these planets, as opposed to detection of the effects of orbital motion on their parent star, is now feasible, and the first young planet in a wide orbit may have been detected using adaptive optics systems. Gemini and the VLT are building the first generation of high contrast adaptive optics systems, which deliver planet-imaging performance within few Airy rings of the host star. These systems will make the first surveys of the outer regions of solar systems by detecting the self-luminous radiation of young planets. These instruments will establish whether Jovian planets form predominantly through 'top-down' (global gravitational instability) or 'bottom-up' (core accretion) processes. The 8-m 'extreme' AO systems cannot see close enough to the host stars to image Doppler planets, and they cannot reach the relatively distant, young clusters and associations where planets are forming. The Planet Formation Instrument will use the nearly four-fold improved angular resolution of TMT to peer into the inner solar systems of Doppler-planet bearing stars to yield a …

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The authors describe tools developed by the Computational Nuclear Physics group for testing the quality of internally developed nuclear data and the fidelity of translations from ENDF formatted data to ENDL formatted data used by Livermore. These tests include S{sub n} calculations for the effective k value characterizing critical assemblies and for replacement coefficients of different materials embedded in the Godiva and Jezebel critical assemblies. For those assemblies and replacement materials for which reliable experimental information is available, these calculations provide an integral check on the quality of data. Because members of the ENDF and reactor communities use calculations for these same assemblies in their validation process, a comparison between their results with ENDF formatted data and their results with data translated into the ENDL format provides a strong check on the accuracy of translations. As a first application of the test suite they present a study comparing ENDL 99 and ENDF/B-V. They also consider the quality of the ENDF/B-V translation previously done by the Computational Nuclear Physics group. No significant errors are found.

Applications using high energy ''petawatt-class'' laser drivers operating at repetition rates beyond 0.01 Hz are only now being envisioned. The Mercury laser system is designed to operate at 100 J/pulse at 10 Hz. We investigate the potential of configuring the Mercury laser to produce a rep-rated, ''petawatt-class'' source. The Mercury laser is a prototype of a high energy, high repetition rate source (100 J, 10 Hz). The design of the Mercury laser is based on the ability to scale in energy through scaling in aperture. Mercury is one of several 100 J, high repetition rate (10 Hz) lasers sources currently under development (HALNA, LUCIA, POLARIS). We examine the possibility of using Mercury as a pump source for a high irradiance ''petawatt-class'' source: either as a pump laser for an average power Ti:Sapphire laser, or as a pump laser for OPCPA based on YCa{sub 4}O(BO{sub 3}){sub 3} (YCOB), ideally producing a source approaching 30 J /30 fs /10 Hz--a high repetition rate petawatt. A comparison of the two systems with nominal configurations and efficiencies is shown in Table 1.

We calculate centrifugal force for a short bunch in vacuum moving in a circular orbit and estimate the emittance growth of the beam in a bend due to this force. Many of the basic features of the coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) of short bunches and its effect on beam dynamics in accelerators are now well established. The effect is usually described in terms of the longitudinal force, or wakefield, that causes the energy loss in the beam, and also redistributes the energy between the particles by accelerating the head and decelerating the tail of the bunch. Coherent radiation becomes most important for short bunches and high currents. More subtle features of CSR such as transition effect due to the entrance to and exit from the bend, CSR force in the undulator, and shielding due to the close metallic boundaries have been also studied. Much less is known about the transverse force in a short bunch moving on a circular orbit. The problem has been treated in several papers beginning from R. Talman's work, who pointed out that the centrifugal force of a rotating bunch can result in a noticeable tune shift of betatron oscillations. Later, an important correction to the …

In this paper, we present the recent results of our research on the high power ultra-fast silicon RF switches. This switch is composed of a group of PIN diodes on a high purity SOI (silicon on oxide) wafer. The wafer is inserted into a cylindrical waveguide under TE01 mode, performing switching by injecting carriers into the bulk silicon. Our current design use a CMOS compatible process and the device was fabricated at SNF (Stanford Nanofabrication Facility). This design is able to achieve sub-100ns switching time, while the switching speed can be improved further with 3-D device structure and faster circuit. Power handling capacity of the switch is at the level of 10MW. The switch was designed for active X-band RF pulse compression systems--especially for NLC, but it is also possible to be modified for other applications and other frequencies such as L-band.

The aims of this research were to elucidate the role and extent of lateral transfer in the differentiation of bacterial strains and species, and to assess the impact of gene transfer on the evolution of bacterial genomes. The ultimate goal of the project is to examine the dynamics of a core set of protein-coding genes (i.e., those that are distributed universally among Bacteria) by developing conserved primers that would allow their amplification and sequencing in any bacterial taxa. In addition, we adopted a bioinformatic approach to elucidate the extent of lateral gene transfer in sequenced genome.

The thrust of this research was to identify and understand current limiting mechanisms (CLMs) that limit the current carrying capacity of (Bi,Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox (2223) in Ag-sheathed wire. Our program concentrated on developing new methods to identify CLMs at the micrometer scale and new processing techniques to eliminate CLMs. All of the DOE Superconductivity Partnership Initiative (SPI) programs are using 2223 wire, so increasing the critical current density (Jc) in the wire can improve the technical performance of the demonstration projects, and at the same time it can decrease the cost of the wire. The important cost metric for superconducting wire is $/kAm, so increasing Jc, which is in the denominator, decreases the wire cost. The obvious CLMs were micrometer size obstacles in the 2223 ceramic that block current flow, including: misaligned grains, cracks, pores, and nonsuperconducting phases. Pores and cracks - regions where there is no superconductor or the grains are not physically connected to one another ? cannot carry supercurrent, so they were the first CLMs we tried to eliminate with improved processing. Prior to the contract, we had started investigating overpressure (OP) processing with Williams at ORNL to heal cracks and remove pores. OP processing, which is a variant …

Operating accelerating gradient in normal conducting accelerating structures is often limited by rf breakdown. The limit depends on multiple parameters, including input rf power, rf circuit, cavity shape and material. Experimental and theoretical study of the effects of these parameters on the breakdown limit in full scale structures is difficult and costly. We use 11.4 GHz single-cell traveling wave and standing wave accelerating structures for experiments and modeling of rf breakdown behavior. These test structures are designed so that the electromagnetic fields in one cell mimic the fields in prototype multicell structures for the X-band linear collider. Fields elsewhere in the test structures are significantly lower than that of the single cell. The setup uses matched mode converters that launch the circular TM{sub 01} mode into short test structures. The test structures are connected to the mode launchers with vacuum rf flanges. This setup allows economic testing of different cell geometries, cell materials and preparation techniques with short turn-around time. Simple 2D geometry of the test structures simplifies modeling of the breakdown currents and their thermal effects.

GLAST (Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope) is a gamma-ray astronomy mission that will be launched in mid 2007. The main instrument is the LAT (Large Area Telescope), a pair conversion telescope with sensitivity in the range 20 MeV-300 GeV. Data Challenge One (DC1) was the simulation of one week of observation of the entire gamma-ray sky by the LAT detector. the simulated data was similar to the real data, which allowed for the development of scientific software. In this paper they present the GRB simulations and the detection algorithms developed by the GLAST GRB and Solar Flare Science Team.

Electron-positron colliders have been operating in a top-up-and-coast fashion with a cycle time depending on the beam life time, typically one or more hours. Each top-up involves ramping detector systems in addition to the actual filling time. The loss in accumulated luminosity may be 20-50%. During the last year, both B-Factories have commissioned a continuous-injection mode of operation in which beam is injected without ramping the detector, thus raising luminosity integration by always operating at peak luminosity. Constant beam currents also reduce thermal drift and trips caused by change in beam loading. To achieve this level of operation, special efforts were made to reduce the injection losses and also to implement gating procedures in the detectors, minimizing dead time. Beam collimation can reduce injection noise but also cause an increase in background rates. A challenge can be determining beam lifetime, important to maintain tuning of the beams.

Experiments have been performed with LX-17 (92.5% TATB and 7.5% Kel-F 800 binder) to study scaling of detonation waves using a dimensional scaling in a hemispherical divergent geometry. We model these experiments using an arbitrary Lagrange-Eulerian (ALE3D) hydrodynamics code, with reactive flow models based on the thermo-chemical code, Cheetah. The thermo-chemical code Cheetah provides a pressure-dependent kinetic rate law, along with an equation of state based on exponential-6 fluid potentials for individual detonation product species, calibrated to high pressures ({approx} few Mbars) and high temperatures (20000K). The parameters for these potentials are fit to a wide variety of experimental data, including shock, compression and sound speed data. For the un-reacted high explosive equation of state we use a modified Murnaghan form. We model the detonator (including the flyer plate) and initiation system in detail. The detonator is composed of LX-16, for which we use a program burn model. Steinberg-Guinan models5 are used for the metal components of the detonator. The booster and high explosive are LX-10 and LX-17, respectively. For both the LX-10 and LX-17, we use a pressure dependent rate law, coupled with a chemical equilibrium equation of state based on Cheetah. For LX-17, the kinetic model includes carbon …

Beam-beam deflection scans provide important beam diagnostics at the interaction point of a linear collider. Beam properties such as spot sizes, alignment, and waists are measured by sweeping one beam across the other. Proposed linear colliders use trains of bunches; if beam-beam scans can be done within the time of a bunch-train crossing rather than integrating over the bunch train, the acquisition rate of diagnostic information can be increased and the sensitivity of the scan to pulse-to-pulse jitter and slow drifts reduced. The existence of intra-train deflection feedback provides most of the hardware needed to implement intra-train beam-beam scans for diagnostic purposes. A conceptual design is presented for such beam-beam scans at the Next Linear Collider (NLC).

Instabilities in the gun region of a high-power klystron can occur when there is positive feedback between a mode and an induced current on the quasi-steady state beam emitted by the gun cathode[1]. This instability is dependent on the gun voltage, and is predicted on the basis of a negative total Q. The established method for computing the beam-loaded Q of a cavity involves using a time-dependent electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) code to track beam particles through the quasi-static gun fields perturbed by the electromagnetic fields of a cavity eigenmode[2]. The energy imparted to the beam by the mode is obtained by integrating the Lorentz force along the particle tracks, and this quantity is simply related to the beam-loaded Q. We have developed an alternative approach that yields comparable accuracy but is computationally much simpler. The new method is based on a time-independent electrostatic PIC calculation, resulting in much faster solutions without loss of accuracy. We will present the theory and implementation of the new method, as well as benchmarks and results from analysis of the XP-4 klystron that show a potential instability near 3 GHz.

Assessing the performance of the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, requires an understanding of the chemistry of the water that moves through the host rock. The uniaxial compression method used to extract pore water from samples of tuffaceous borehole core was successful only for nonwelded tuff. An ultracentrifugation method was adopted to extract pore water from samples of the densely welded tuff of the proposed repository horizon. Tests were performed using both methods to determine the efficiency of pore water extraction and the potential effects on pore water chemistry. Test results indicate that uniaxial compression is most efficient for extracting pore water from nonwelded tuff, while ultracentrifugation is more successful in extracting pore water from densely welded tuff. Pore water splits taken from a single nonwelded tuff core during uniaxial compression tests have shown changes in pore water chemistry with increasing pressure for calcium, chloride, sulfate, and nitrate, while the chemistry of pore water splits from welded and nonwelded tuffs using ultracentrifugation indicates that there is no significant fractionation of solutes.

The design of efficient, high-gain capsules for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and the modeling of supernova implosions and explosions requires a detailed understanding of the consequences of material interpenetration, hydrodynamic instabilities and mixing at molecular (or atomic) scales arising from perturbations at material interfaces, i.e., the Rayleigh-Taylor, Richtmyer-Meshkov and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (buoyancy-, shock- and shear-induced instabilities, respectively). From a computational point of view, this requires the development of models for hydrodynamic instability growth from initial perturbations through the weakly- and strongly-nonlinear phases, and finally, to the late-time turbulent regime. In particular, modeling these processes completely and accurately is critical for demonstrating the feasibility and potential success of contemporary ICF capsule designs. A predictive computational capability for the effects of turbulent mass, momentum, energy and species transport, as well as material mixing, on the thermonuclear fusion process in ICF entails the development of turbulent transport and mixing or subgrid-scale models based on statistically-averaged or filtered evolution equations, respectively. The former models are typically referred to as Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) (and related) models and the latter are referred to as large-eddy simulation (LES) models. The strong nonlinearity of the equations describing the hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, material properties and other multi-scale phenomena, together with …