Work is underway at LLNL to design and build a high-brightness mono-energetic source for fast neutron imaging. The approach being pursued will use a 7-MeV deuterium linac for producing high-energy neutrons via a D(d,n){sup 3}He reaction. To achieve a high-brightness neutron source, a windowless rotating aperture gas cell approach is being employed. Using a series of close-tolerance rotor and stator plates, a differential pumping assembly was designed and built that contains up to 3 atmospheres of deuterium gas in a 40-mm-long gas cell. Rarefaction of the gas due to beam-induced heating will be addressed by rapidly moving the gas across the beam channel in a cross flow tube. The design and fabrication process was guided by extensive 3D modeling of the hydrodynamic gas flow and structural dynamics of the assembly. Summaries of the modeling results, the fabrication of the rotating aperture system, and initial measurements of gas leakage are presented.

We determined the cation distribution and ordering of Si, Al and Fe on the tetrahedral sites of a monoclinic low-sanidine from Itrongay, Madagascar, by combined neutron- and X-ray single-crystal diffraction. The cation distribution was determined by means of a simultaneous refinement using neutron- and X-ray data, as well as by combining scattering densities obtained from separate refinements with chemical data from a microprobe experiment. The two methods give the same results and show that Fe is fully ordered on T1, whereas Al shows a high degree of disorder. Based on this and previously published temperature-dependent X-ray data, we conclude that it is preferential ordering of Fe on T1 even at high temperature, rather than a high diffusion kinetics of Fe, which causes this asymmetry in ordering behavior between Al and Fe. The preferential ordering of Fe3+ relative to Al3+ in T1 is consistent with its 25 percent larger ionic radius.

Performance assessment of the Yucca Mountain unsaturated zone (UZ) as the site for an underground repository of high-level radioactive waste relies on the crucial assumption that water percolation processes in the unsaturated zone can be approximated as a steady-state condition. Justification of such an assumption is based on temporal damping effects of several geological units within the unsaturated tuff formation. In particular, the nonwelded tuff of the Painbrush Group (PTn unit) at Yucca Mountain, because of its highly porous physical properties, has been conceptualized to have a significant capacity for temporally damping transient percolation fluxes. The objective of this study is to investigate these damping effects, using a three-dimensional (3-D) mountain-scale model as well as several one-dimensional (1-D) models. The 3-D model incorporates a wide variety of the updated field data for the highly heterogeneous unsaturated formation at Yucca Mountain. The model is first run to steady state and calibrated using field-measured data and then transient pulse infiltrations are applied to the model top boundary. Subsequent changes in percolation fluxes at the bottom of and within the PTn unit are examined under episodic infiltration boundary conditions. The 1-D model is used to examine the long-term response of the flow system …

First-principles total energy calculation based on the exact muffin-tin orbital and full potential linear muffin-tin orbital methods were used to calculate the equation of state and shear elastic constants of bcc V, Nb, and the V{sub 95}Nb{sub 05} disordered alloy as a function of pressure up to 6 Mbar. We found a mechanical instability in C{sub 44} and a corresponding softening in C at pressures {approx} 2 Mbar for V. Both shear elastic constants show softening at pressures {approx} 0.5 Mbar for Nb. Substitution of 5 at. % of V with Nb removes the instability of V with respect to trigonal distortions in the vicinity of 2 Mbar pressure, but still leaves the softening of C{sub 44} in this pressure region. We argue that the pressure induced shear instability (softening) of V (Nb) originates from the electronic system and can be explained by a combination of the Fermi surface nesting, electronic topological transition, and band Jahn-Teller effect.

The region of small transverse momentum in q{bar q} and gg-initiated processes must be studied in the framework of resummation to account for the large, logarithmically-enhanced contributions to physical observables. In this letter, we study resummed differential cross-sections for Higgs production via bottom-quark fusion. We find that the differential distribution peaks at approximately 15 GeV, a number of great experimental importance to measuring this production channel.

This paper describes a self-consistent prognostic cloud scheme that is able to predict cloud liquid water, amount and droplet number (N{sub d}) from the same updraft velocity field, and is suitable for modeling aerosol-cloud interactions in general circulation models (GCMs). In the scheme, the evolution of droplets fully interacts with the model meteorology. An explicit treatment of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activation allows the scheme to take into account the contributions to N{sub d} of multiple types of aerosol (i.e., sulfate, organic and sea-salt aerosols) and kinetic limitations of the activation process. An implementation of the prognostic scheme in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) AM2 GCM yields a vertical distribution of N{sub d} characteristic of maxima in the lower troposphere differing from that obtained through diagnosing N{sub d} empirically from sulfate mass concentrations. As a result, the agreement of model-predicted present-day cloud parameters with satellite measurements is improved compared to using diagnosed N{sub d}. The simulations with pre-industrial and present-day aerosols show that the combined first and second indirect effects of anthropogenic sulfate and organic aerosols give rise to a global annual mean flux change of -1.8 W m{sup -2} consisting of -2.0 W m{sup -2} in shortwave and …

We used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to measure the binding forces between Mucin1 (MUC1) peptide and a single chain antibody fragment (scFv) selected from a scFv library screened against MUC1. This binding interaction is central to the design of the molecules for targeted delivery of radioimmunotherapeutic agents for prostate and breast cancer treatment. Our experiments separated the specific binding interaction from non-specific interactions by tethering the antibody and MUC1 molecules to the AFM tip and sample surface with flexible polymer spacers. Rupture force magnitude and elastic characteristics of the spacers allowed identification of the bond rupture events corresponding to different number of interacting proteins. We used dynamic force spectroscopy to estimate the intermolecular potential widths and equivalent thermodynamic off rates for mono-, bi-, and tri-valent interactions. Measured interaction potential parameters agree with the results of molecular docking simulation. Our results demonstrate that an increase of the interaction valency leads to a precipitous decline in the dissociation rate. Binding forces measured for mono and multivalent interactions match the predictions of a Markovian model for the strength of multiple uncorrelated bonds in parallel configuration. Our approach is promising for comparison of the specific effects of molecular modifications as well as for determination …

Gas reactor systems are being considered as candidates for use in generating power for the Prometheus-1 spacecraft, along with other NASA missions as part of the Prometheus program. Gas reactors offer a benign coolant, which increases core and structural materials options. However, the gas coolant has inferior thermal transport properties, relative to other coolant candidates such as liquid metals. This leads to concerns for providing effective heat transfer and for minimizing pressure drop within the reactor core. In direct gas Brayton systems, i.e. those with one or more Brayton turbines in the reactor cooling loop, the ability to provide effective core cooling and low pressure drop is further constrained by the need for a low pressure, high molecular weight gas, typically a mixture of helium and xenon. Use of separate primary and secondary gas loops, one for the reactor and one or more for the Brayton system(s) separated by heat exchanger(s), allows for independent optimization of the pressure and gas composition of each loop. The reactor loop can use higher pressure pure helium, which provides improved heat transfer and heat transport properties, while the Brayton loop can utilize lower pressure He-Xe. However, this approach requires a separate primary gas circulator …