This article identifies the key urban form determinants of decadal-long fine particulate matter (PM2.5) trends in all 626 Chinese cities at the county level and above. As the first study of its kind, this study comprehensively examines the urban form effects on air quality in cities of different population sizes, at different development levels, and in different spatial-autocorrelation positions.

Article characterizing an assortment of photopolymers and stereolithography processes to produce 3D-printed molds and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) castings of micromixing devices. The study shows that 3D-printed soft tooling can provide other benefits such as multiple cross-sections and other potential layouts on a single mold.

Article examining how parents' reports of children’s technology use in the home varies by a child’s gender or grade level. Strategies are provided for teachers, support specialists, and parents to improve how children use technology. Implications for app developers are suggested.

A Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-14 Industrial Programmable Controller was employed to provide automatic, closed-loop control for an explosive pellet manufacturing system at Mound Laboratory. Programmable controllers allow the application of sophisticated and flexible control, through programming. Advantages of the PDP-14 controller are ease of installation and maintenance, capability for modular expansion, and immunity to electrical noise. Safety requirements were met by using new techniques for adapting electrical equipment to a hazardous environment and by locating the PDP-14 remotely outside the explosive area. Another advantage of the new explosion proofing (EP) methods/equipment was that they produced a minimum of clutter on the controlled explosive pellet manufacturing system.

Thermal-barrier experiments have been carried out in the Tandem Mirror Experiment-Upgrade (TMX-U). Measurements of nonambipolar and ambipolar radial transport show that these transport processes, as well as end losses, can be controlled at modest densities and durations. Central-cell heating methods using ion-cyclotron heating (ICH) and neutral-beam injection have been demonstrated. Potential measurements with recently developed methods indicate that deep thermal barriers can be established.

There are underappreciated limitations of the conversion of {sup 14}C-ages to the fixed, calendrical time-scale that bear directly upon our understanding of the dynamic climate system, or the relationship between the collapse of one civilization and it's neighbor's. In this paper we present a quantitative assessment of the limits of {sup 14}C-geochronology and calibration onto the absolute calendrical time-scale over the Holocene. We take into account not only the inherent limitations of the {sup 14}C-calendar calibration curve, but also analytical uncertainties.

Contact modeling is still one of the most difficult aspects of nonlinear implicit structural analysis. Most 3D contact algorithms employed today use node-on-segment approaches for contacting dissimilar meshes. Two pass node-on-segment contact approaches have the well known deficiency of locking due to over constraint. Furthermore, node-on-segment approaches suffer when individual nodes slide out of contact at contact surface boundaries or when contacting nodes slide from facet to facet. This causes jumps in the contact forces due to the discrete nature of the constraint enforcement and difficulties in convergence for implicit solution techniques. In a previous work, we developed a segment-to-segment contact approach based on the mortar method that was applicable to large deformation mechanics. The approach proved extremely robust since it eliminated the overconstraint which caused ''locking'' and provided smooth force variations in large sliding. Here, we extend this previous approach in to treat frictional contact problems. The proposed approach is then applied to several challenging frictional contact problems which demonstrate its effectiveness.

The proposed engineering barriers for the high-level nuclear waste repository in Yucca Mountain include a double walled container and a detached drip shield. The candidate material for the external wall of the container is Alloy 22 (N06022). One of the anticipated degradation modes for the containers could be environmentally assisted cracking (EAC). The objective of the current research was to characterize the effect of applied potential and temperature on the susceptibility of Alloy 22 to EAC in simulated concentrated water (SCW) and other environments using the slow strain rate technique (SSRT). Results show that the temperature and applied potential have a strong influence on the susceptibility of Alloy 22 to suffer EAC in SCW solution. Limited results show that sodium fluoride solution is more detrimental than sodium chloride solution.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) currently under construction at the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a 192-beam, 1.8-megajoule, 500-terawatt, 351-nm laser for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and high-energy-density experimental studies. NIF is being built by the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) to provide an experimental test bed for the U.S. Stockpile Stewardship Program to ensure the country's nuclear deterrent without underground nuclear testing. The experimental program will encompass a wide range of physical phenomena from fusion energy production to materials science. Of the roughly 700 shots available per year, about 10% will be dedicated to basic science research. Laser hardware is modularized into line replaceable units (LRUs) such as deformable mirrors, amplifiers, and multi-function sensor packages that are operated by a distributed computer control system of nearly 60,000 control points. The supervisory control room presents facility-wide status and orchestrates experiments using operating parameters predicted by physics models. A network of several hundred front-end processors (FEPs) implements device control. The object-oriented software system is implemented in the Ada and Java languages and emphasizes CORBA distribution of reusable software objects. NIF is currently scheduled to provide first light in 2004 and will be …

The use of partial differential equations in image processing has become an active area of research in the last few years. In particular, active contours are being used for image segmentation, either explicitly as snakes, or implicitly through the level set approach. In this paper, we consider the use of the implicit active contour approach for segmenting scientific images of pollen grains obtained using a scanning electron microscope. Our goal is to better understand the pros and cons of these techniques and to compare them with the traditional approaches such as the Canny and SUSAN edge detectors. The preliminary results of our study show that the level set method is computationally expensive and requires the setting of several different parameters. However, it results in closed contours, which may be useful in separating objects from the background in an image.

The effects of potential microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) on candidate packaging materials for nuclear waste containment are being assessed. Coupons of Alloy 22, the outer barrier candidate for waste packaging, were exposed to a simulated, saturated repository environment consisting of crushed rock from the repository site and a continual flow of simulated groundwater for periods up to five years. Coupons were incubated with YM tuff under both sterile and non-sterile conditions. Surfacial analysis of the biotically-incubated coupons show development of both submicron-sized pinholes and pores; these features were not present on either sterile or untreated control coupons. Quantification of these effects will help define the overall contribution of MIC to the integrity of the containment system over a period of 10,000 years.

Recent events highlight the increased risk of a terrorist attack using either a nuclear or a radiological weapon. One of the key needs to counter such a threat is long-range detection of nuclear material. Theoretically, gamma-ray emissions from such material should allow passive detection to distances greater than 100 m. However, detection at this range has long been thought impractical due to fluctuating levels of natural background radiation. These fluctuations are the major source of uncertainty in detection and mean that sensitivity cannot be increased simply by increasing detector size. Recent work has shown that this problem can be overcome through the use of imaging techniques. In this paper we describe the background problems, the advantages of imaging and the construction of a prototype, large-area (0.57 m{sup 2}) gamma-ray imager to detect nuclear materials at distances of {approx}100 m.

This article uses Transient electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) spectroscopy to investigate the pathway and dynamics of electron transfer in a palladium porphyrin–fullerene donor–acceptor conjugate.

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Blocking the flow of radioactive gas in the emplacement hole requires attention to three items: stemming materials, cables, and spaces between the cables. This paper deals with an improvement in the latter; that is, filling the spaces between the cables and, thus, forming a bundle block. We have tested a two-part polyurethane foam in the field with apparent success. Field tests included recovery of sample cable bundles from a nuclear test in a tunnel. The foam creates a bundle block that survives the shock loading and improves the resistance to gas flow by as much as a factor of 3.

The authors employ NMR and NQR spectroscopy as probes of local structure and charge environments in metallic La{sub 2}CuO{sub 4+{delta}} ({Tc} = 38 K). They discuss the effect of annealing the sample at various temperatures T{sub a} ({Tc} < T{sub a} < 300K) on the superconducting {Tc}. The dependence of {Tc} on annealing indicates that annealing allows the development of structural order which is important for {Tc}. The {sup 139}La quadrupole frequency, {nu}{sub Q} is smaller than in undoped materials. This is unexpected and may indicate a smaller charge on the apex oxygen in the doped material and thus a different distribution of charge between the La-O layer to the planes. The further, rapid decrease in {nu}{sub Q} just above {Tc} indicates that temperature dependent charge redistribution is occurring. The presence of doped holes induces a distribution of displacements of the apex oxygen off of the vertical La-Cu bond axis. These vary from zero to the value observed in lightly doped (antiferromagnetic) La{sub 2}CuO{sub 4+{delta}}. These measurements demonstrate a striking degree of inhomogeneity in the crystal structure of the La-O layer. Copper NQR spectroscopy shows that there are two distinct copper sites in the CuO{sub 2} planes and thus that …

The use of Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTS) in the soft x-ray region is advocated as a possible route to spectral resolution superior to that attainable with a grating system. A technical plan is described for applying FTS to the study of the absorption spectrum of helium in the region of double ionization around 60--80 eV. The proposed scheme includes a Mach-Zehnder interferometer deformed into a rhombus shape to provide grazing incidence reflections. The path difference between the interfering beams is to be tuned by translation of a table carrying four mirrors over a range {+-}1 cm which, in the absence of errors generating relative tilts of the wave fronts, would provide a resolving power equal to the number of waves of path difference: half a million at 65 eV, for example. The signal-to-noise ratio of the spectrum is analyzed and for operation on an Advanced Light Source bending magnet beam line should be about 330.

Thermal-barrier experiments have been carried out in the Tandem Mirror Experiment-Upgrade (TMX-U). Measurements of nonambipolar and ambipolar radial transport show that these transport processes, as well as end losses, can be controlled at modest densities and durations. Central-cell heating methods using ion-cyclotron heating (ICH) and neutral-beam injection have been demonstrated. Potential mesurements with recently developed methods indicate that deep thermal barriers can be established.

Americium-241 is widely used as a radiation source, but it also has some potential risk if taken into the body because of its high dose conversion factor. Although the radiotoxicity of americium-241 is small compared to other transuranic actinides, its effects on the reproductive system and on development of the placenta are more damaging than the effects of plutonium-239. In Ohio, a gemologist's laboratory was contaminated with americium-241. Prior to decontamination of the laboratory, potential radiological impacts to the surrounding environment were assessed. A hypothetical fire accident resulting in a unit release (1 curie) was assumed. Potential radiological impacts were simulated using an atmospheric dispersion and dosimetry model with local meteorological data, population census data, and detailed information regarding the neighborhood. The results indicate that there could have been a significant impact on nearby residents from americium-241 via atmospheric dispersion if a major catastrophic release had occurred prior to contamination and decommissioning of the laboratory. 14 refs., 3 figs., 2 tabs.

A significant portion of the cost of fabricating LMFBR fuels is in the non-fuel components such as fuel pin cladding, fuel assembly ducts and end fittings. The contribution of these to fuel fabrication costs, based on FFTF experience and extrapolated to large LMFBR fuel loadings, is discussed. The extrapolation considers the expected effects of LMFBR development programs in progress on non-fuel component costs.

From national safety congress and exposition meeting; Chicago, Illinois, USA (29 Oct 1973). Results are reported from a survey of the local presidents of US Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union of the extent to which employees of research and development organizations are complying with Federal occupational safety and health standards. (CH)

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The accuracy of first-order Euler and higher-order time-integration algorithms for grid-based Langevin equations collision models in a specific relaxation test problem is assessed. We show that statistical noise errors can overshadow time-step errors and argue that statistical noise errors can be conflated with time-step effects. Using a higher-order integration scheme may not achieve any benefit in accuracy for examples of practical interest. We also investigate the collisional relaxation of an initial electron-ion relative drift and the collisional relaxation to a resistive steady-state in which a quasi-steady current is driven by a constant applied electric field, as functions of the time step used to resolve the collision processes using binary and grid-based, test-particle Langevin equations models. We compare results from two grid-based Langevin equations collision algorithms to results from a binary collision algorithm for modeling electronion collisions. Some guidance is provided regarding how large a time step can be used compared to the inverse of the characteristic collision frequency for specific relaxation processes.

This article uses 9 years of annual meeting attendance data from the Ecological Society of American and the Association of American Geographers to assess the efficacy of two additional solutions: 1) alternate large national meetings that require significant air travel with smaller regional meetings that do not; and 2) incorporate geography into the meeting location selection process.