Polymer-Electrolyte-Fuel-Cells (PEFCs) are promising candidates for powering vehicles and portable devices using renewable-energy sources. The core of a PEFC is the solid electrolyte membrane that conducts protons from anode to cathode, where water is generated. The conductivity of the membrane, however, depends on the water content of the membrane, which is strongly related to the cell operating conditions. The membrane and other cell components are typically compressed to minimize various contact resistances. Moreover, the swelling of a somewhat constrained membrane in the cell due to the humidity changes generates additional compressive stresses in the membrane. These external stresses are balanced by the internal swelling pressure of the membrane and change the swelling equilibrium. It was shown using a fuel-cell setup that compression could reduce the water content of the membrane or alter the cell resistance. Nevertheless, the effect of compression on the membrane’s transport properties is yet to be understood, as well as its implications in the structure-functions relationships of the membrane. We previously studied, both experimentally and theoretically, how compression affects the water content of the membrane.6 However, more information is required the gain a fundamental understanding of the compression effects. In this talk, we present the results of …

FeMn/Fe/Co/Cu(1,1,10) films were grown epitaxially and investigated using the magneto-optic Kerr effect and photoemission electron microscopy. We found that FeMn/Fe/Co/Cu(1,1,10) exhibits the same properties as FeMn/Co/Cu(1,1,10) for the ferromagnetic phase of the face centered cubic (fcc) Fe film but a different property for the non-ferromagnetic phase of the fcc Fe film. This result indicates that the characteristic property reported in the literature for FeMn/Co/Cu(001) comes from the FeMn spin structure and is independent of the ferromagnetic layer.

Photobleaching rates are investigated for thin films of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) blends employing either an indene-C60 bisadduct (ICBA) or [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as the electron acceptor. Relative to the bisindene, PCBM significantly enhances resistance to photobleaching of the P3HT donor polymer. We tentatively attribute a decrease in the charge transfer rate as the mechanism responsible for the more rapid photobleaching in the sample containing the bisindene adduct. In order to elucidate the influence of the photobleaching rate on the initial performance of unencapsulated devices, we also monitored the time-dependent behavior for P3HT:fullerene inverted devices. Under conditions of constant illumination, we observe essentially identical behavior in device performance parameters regardless of the energy levels of the electron acceptor. We conclude that over the time frame measured for these devices, the primary degradation mechanism of the active layer is independent of the electron acceptor, despite the enhanced tolerance to photobleaching it may impart to the donor material.

We review recent B physics results from the CDF and D0 experiments in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}(s) = 1.96 TeV. Using a data sample of 1.4-6.0 fb{sup -1} collected by the CDF II detector we present searches for New Physics in B{sub s} sector and some competitive results with B-factories in the B/charm sector. In the first category we report the BR in B{sub s} J/{Psi} f{sub 0}(980) decays and the time-integrated mixing probability ({bar {chi}}) of B mesons. In the second category BR and A{sub CP} in doubly Cabibbo-suppressed B{sup {+-}} D{sup 0} h{sup {+-}} decays and time-integrated CP violation in D{sup 0} {yields} h{sup +}h{sup -} are presented.

Water uptake profiles of proton-exchange-membrane fuel-cell catalyst layers are characterized in the form of capillary-pressure saturation (Pc-S) curves. The curves indicate that the catalyst layers tested are highly hydrophilic and require capillary pressures as low as -80 kPa to eject imbibed water. Comparison of materials made with and without Pt indicates a difference in water ejection and uptake phenomena due to the presence of Pt. The addition of Pt increases the tendency of the catalyst layer to retain water. Dynamic vapor sorption (DVS) is used to characterize the water-vapor sorption onto Nafion, Pt/C, and C surfaces. The DVS results align with the trends found from the Pc-S curves and show an increased propensity for water uptake in the presence of Pt. The effect of the ion in Nafion, sodium or protonated form, is also compared and demonstrates that although the protonation of the Nafion in the catalyst layer also increases hydrophilicity, the effect is not as great as that caused by Pt.

Typical questions surrounding industrial control system (ICS) cyber security always lead back to: What could a cyber attack do to my system(s) and; how much should I worry about it? These two leading questions represent only a fraction of questions asked when discussing cyber security as it applies to any program, company, business, or organization. The intent of this paper is to open a dialog of important pertinent questions and answers that managers of nuclear facilities engaged in nuclear facility security and safeguards should examine, i.e., what questions should be asked; and how do the answers affect an organization's ability to effectively safeguard and secure nuclear material. When a cyber intrusion is reported, what does that mean? Can an intrusion be detected or go un-noticed? Are nuclear security or safeguards systems potentially vulnerable? What about the digital systems employed in process monitoring, and international safeguards? Organizations expend considerable efforts to ensure that their facilities can maintain continuity of operations against physical threats. However, cyber threats particularly on ICSs may not be well known or understood, and often do not receive adequate attention. With the disclosure of the Stuxnet virus that has recently attacked nuclear infrastructure, many organizations have recognized the …

The process of recovering the waste in storage tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS) typically requires mixing the contents of the tank to ensure uniformity of the discharge stream. Mixing is accomplished with one to four slurry pumps located within the tank liquid. The slurry pump may be fixed in position or they may rotate depending on the specific mixing requirements. The high-level waste in Tank 48 contains insoluble solids in the form of potassium tetraphenyl borate compounds (KTPB), monosodium titanate (MST), and sludge. Tank 48 is equipped with 4 slurry pumps, which are intended to suspend the insoluble solids prior to transfer of the waste to the Fluidized Bed Steam Reformer (FBSR) process. The FBSR process is being designed for a normal feed of 3.05 wt% insoluble solids. A chemical characterization study has shown the insoluble solids concentration is approximately 3.05 wt% when well-mixed. The project is requesting a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) mixing study from SRNL to determine the solids behavior with 2, 3, and 4 slurry pumps in operation and an estimate of the insoluble solids concentration at the suction of the transfer pump to the FBSR process. The impact of cooling coils is not considered …

The mode superposition method is often used for dynamic analysis of complex structures, such as the seismic Category I structures in nuclear power plants, in place of the less efficient full method, which uses the full system matrices for calculation of the transient responses. In such applications, specification of material-dependent damping is usually desirable because complex structures can consist of multiple types of materials that may have different energy dissipation capabilities. A recent review of the ANSYS manual for several releases found that the use of material-dependent damping is not clearly explained for performing a mode superposition transient dynamic analysis. This paper includes several mode superposition transient dynamic analyses using different ways to specify damping in ANSYS, in order to determine how material-dependent damping can be specified conveniently in a mode superposition transient dynamic analysis.

Connecting electric storage technologies to smartgrids will have substantial implications in building energy systems. Local storage will enable demand response. Mobile storage devices in electric vehicles (EVs) are in direct competition with conventional stationary sources at the building. EVs will change the financial as well as environmental attractiveness of on-site generation (e.g. PV, or fuel cells). In order to examine the impact of EVs on building energy costs and CO2 emissions in 2020, a distributed-energy-resources adoption problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear program with minimization of annual building energy costs or CO2 emissions. The mixed-integer linear program is applied to a set of 139 different commercial buildings in California and example results as well as the aggregated economic and environmental benefits are reported. The research shows that considering second life of EV batteries might be very beneficial for commercial buildings.

We performed Centrifugal Barrel Polishing (CBP) on single crystal niobium samples/coupons housed in a stainless steel sample holder following the polishing recipe developed at Fermi Lab (FNAL) in 2011 \cite{C. A. Cooper 2011}. Post CBP, the sample coupons were analyzed for surface roughness, crystal composition and structure, and particle contamination. Following the initial analysis each coupon was high pressure rinsed (HRP) and analyzed for the effectiveness of contamination removal. We were able to obtain the mirror like surface finish after the final stage of tumbling, although some defects and embedded particles remained. In addition, standard HPR appears to have little effect on removing embedded particles which remain after each tumbling step, although final polishing media removal was partially affected by standard/extended HPR.

There are many uses of predictions of ITER plasma performance. One is assessing requirements of different plasma regimes. For instance, what current drive and control are needed for steady state. The heating, current drive, and torque systems planned for initial DT operation are negative ion neutral beam injection (NB), ion cyclotron resonance (IC), and electron cyclotron resonance (EC). Which combinations of heating are optimal. What are benefits of the torques, current drive, and fueling using NB. What are the shine-through power and optimum voltage for the NB? What are optimal locations and aiming of the EC launchers? Another application is nuclear licensing (e.g. System integrity, how many neutrons).

U.S. citizens currently make up only 12% of the positions held in the IAEA’s Department of Safeguards. While the United States has maintained a high level of support for the Agency over the duration of its history, the number of American inspectors currently in the field does not reflect this level of involvement. As a result, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of International Relations, as part of the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) mission, has tasked Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to develop a rigorous two week hands-on training program to encourage and operationally acclimatize U.S. Citizens who are interested in applying for IAEA inspector positions using IAEA authorized equipment at INL. Idaho National Laboratory is one-of-a-kind in its ability to train IAEA inspectors by including training at nuclear facilities on site and includes, for example, direct measurement of an active spent fuel storage cooling pond. This accredited course will introduce and train attendees on the major IAEA systems used in collecting nuclear safeguards data and performing safeguards inspections. Unique in the United States, these classes will give attendees direct hands-on training and will address equipment purpose, function, operating principles, application, and troubleshooting, based upon what would be expected of …

Finite elements methods have long made use of model order reduction (MOR), particularly in the context of fast freqeucny sweeps. In this paper, we discuss a black-box MOR technique, applicable to a many solution methods and not restricted only to spectral responses. We also discuss automated methods for generating a reduced order model that meets a given error tolerance. Numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness and wide applicability of the method. With the advent of improved computing hardware and numerous fast solution techniques, the field of computational electromagnetics are progressed rapidly in terms of the size and complexity of problems that can be solved. Numerous applications, however, require the solution of a problem for many different configurations, including optimization, parameter exploration, and uncertainly quantification, where the parameters that may be changed include frequency, material properties, geometric dimensions, etc. In such cases, thousands of solutions may be needed, so solve times of even a few minutes can be burdensome. Model order reduction (MOR) may alleviate this difficulty by creating a small model that can be evaluated quickly. Many MOR techniques have been applied to electromagnetic problems over the past few decades, particularly in the context of fast frequency sweeps. Recent works have …

Analytic solutions are presented to the non-paraxial wave equation describing an ultra-short, low-power, laser pulse propagating in aplasma channel. Expressions for the laser pulse centroid motion and laser group velocity are derived, valid for matched and mismatchedpropagation in a parabolic plasma channel, as well as in vacuum, for an arbitrary Laguerre-Gaussian laser mode. The group velocity of amismatched laser pulse, for which the laser spot size is strongly oscillating, is found to be independent of propagation distance andsignificantly less than that of a matched pulse. Laser pulse lengthening of a mismatched pulse owing to laser mode slippage isexamined and found to dominate over that due to dispersive pulse spreading for sufficiently long pulses. Analytic results are shown tobe in excellent agreement with numerical solutions of the full Maxwell equations coupled to the plasma response. Implications for plasmachannel diagnostics are discussed.

A CdSxTe1-x layer forms by interdiffusion of CdS and CdTe during the fabrication of thin-film CdTe photovoltaic (PV) devices. The CdSxTe1-x layer is thought to be important because it relieves strain at the CdS/CdTe interface that would otherwise exist due to the 10% lattice mismatch between these two materials. Our previous work [1] has indicated that the electrical junction is located in this interdiffused CdSxTe1-x region. Further understanding, however, is essential to predict the role of this CdSxTe1-x layer in the operation of CdS/CdTe devices. In this study, CdSxTe1-x alloy films were deposited by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering and co-evaporation from CdTe and CdS sources. Both RF-magnetron-sputtered and co-evaporated CdSxTe1-x films of lower S content (x<0.3) have a cubic zincblende (ZB) structure akin to CdTe, whereas those of higher S content have a hexagonal wurtzite (WZ) structure like that of CdS. Films become less preferentially oriented as a result of a CdCl2 heat treatment (HT) at ~400 degrees C for 5 min. Films sputtered in a 1% O2/Ar ambient are amorphous as deposited, but show CdTe ZB, CdS WZ, and CdTe oxide phases after a CdCl2 HT. Films sputtered in O2 partial pressure have a much wider bandgap than expected. …

Modern scientific datasets present numerous data management and analysis challenges. State-of-the- art index and query technologies such as FastBit can significantly improve accesses to these datasets by augmenting the user data with indexes and other secondary information. However, a challenge is that the indexes assume the relational data model but the scientific data generally follows the array data model. To match the two data models, we design a generic mapping mechanism and implement an efficient input and output interface for reading and writing the data and their corresponding indexes. To take advantage of the emerging many-core architectures, we also develop a parallel strategy for indexing using threading technology. This approach complements our on-going MPI-based parallelization efforts. We demonstrate the flexibility of our software by applying it to two of the most commonly used scientific data formats, HDF5 and NetCDF. We present two case studies using data from a particle accelerator model and a global climate model. We also conducted a detailed performance study using these scientific datasets. The results show that FastQuery speeds up the query time by a factor of 2.5x to 50x, and it reduces the indexing time by a factor of 16 on 24 cores.

In this article results from supersymmetry searches at D0 and CDF are reported. Searches for third generation squarks, searches for gauginos, and searches for models with R-parity violation are described. As no signs of supersymmetry for these models are observed, the most stringent limits to date are presented.

An intron is an extended genomic feature whose function requires multiple constrained positions - donor and acceptor splice sites, a branch point, a polypyrimidine tract and suitable splicing enhancers - that may be distributed over hundreds or thousands of nucleotides. New introns are therefore unlikely to emerge by incremental accumulation of functional sub-elements. Here we demonstrate that a functional intron can be created de novo in a single step by a segmental genomic duplication. This experiment recapitulates in vivo the birth of an intron that arose in the ancestral jawed vertebrate lineage nearly half a billion years ago.

Hydroxycinnamate coenzyme A (CoA) thioesters are substrates for biosynthesis of lignin and hydroxycinna- mate esters of polysaccharides and other polymers. Hence, a supply of these substrates is essential for investigation of cell wall biosynthesis. In this study, three recombinant enzymes, caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase, 4-coumarate- CoA ligase 1, and 4-coumarate-CoA ligase 5, were cloned from wheat, tobacco, and Arabidopsis, respectively, and were used to synthesize {sup 14}C-feruloyl-CoA, caffeoyl-CoA, p-coumaroyl-CoA, feruloyl-CoA, and sinapoyl-CoA. The corresponding hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA thioesters were high-performance liquid chromatography purified, the only extraction/purification step necessary, with total yields between 88-95%. Radiolabeled {sup 14}C-feruloyl-CoA was generated from caffeic acid and S-adenosyl-{sup 14}C-methionine under the combined action of caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase and 4-coumarate-CoA ligase 1. About 70% of {sup 14}C-methyl groups from S-adenosyl methionine were incorporated into the final product. The methods presented are simple, fast, and efficient for the preparation of the hydroxycinnamate thioesters.

We combine results from CDF and D0's direct searches for the standard model (SM) Higgs boson (H) produced in p{bar p} collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV, focusing on the decay H {yields} {gamma}{gamma}. We compute upper limits on the Higgs boson production cross section times the decay branching fraction in the range 100 &lt; m{sub H} &lt; 150 GeV/c{sup 2}, and we interpret the results in the context of the standard model. We use the MSTW08 parton distribution functions and the latest theoretical cross section predictions when testing for the presence of a SM Higgs boson. With datasets corresponding to 7.0 fb{sup -1} (CDF) and 8.2 fb{sup -1} (D0), the 95% C.L. upper limits on Higgs boson production is a factor of 10.5 times the SM cross section for a Higgs boson mass of 115 GeV/c{sup 2}.

We have studied thermal breakdown in several multicell superconducting radiofrequency cavity by simultaneous excitation of two TM{sub 010} passband modes. Unlike measurements done in the past, which indicated a clear thermal nature of the breakdown, our measurements present a more complex picture with interplay of both thermal and magnetic effects. JLab LG-1 that we studied was limited at 40.5 MV/m, corresponding to B{sub peak} = 173 mT, in 8{pi}/9 mode. Dual mode measurements on this quench indicate that this quench is not purely magnetic, and so we conclude that this field is not the fundamental limit in SRF cavities.

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The Electro-polishing (EP) process is the best candidate of final surface-treatment for the production of ILC cavities. Nevertheless, the development of defects on the inner-surface of the Superconducting RF cavity during EP process has not been studied by experimental method. We made artificial pits on the surface of a Nb-plate sample and observed the development of the pit-shapes after each step of 30um-EP process where 120um was removed by EP in total. This article describes the results of this EP-test of Nb-sample with artificial pits.

We present the results of a search for pair production of a heavy top-like (t') quark decaying to W q final states using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.6 fb{sup -1} collected by the CDF II detector in p{anti p} collisions at {radical}{ovr s} = 1.96 TeV. We perform parallel searches for t' {yields} W b and t' {yields} W q (where q is a generic down-type quark) in events containing a lepton and four or more jets. By performing a fit to the two-dimensional distribution of total transverse energy versus reconstructed t' quark mass, we set upper limits on the t'{anti t}' production cross section and exclude a standard model fourth-generation t' quark decaying to W b (W q) with mass below 358 (340) GeV/c{sup 2} at 95% CL.