Reliably processing, imaging, and interpreting seismic data from areas with complicated structures, such as sub-salt, requires a thorough understanding of elastic as well as acoustic wave propagation. Elastic numerical modeling is an essential tool to develop that understanding. While 2-D elastic modeling is in common use, 3-D elastic modeling has been too computationally intensive to be used routinely. Recent advances in computing hardware, including commodity-based hardware, have substantially reduced computing costs. These advances are making 3-D elastic numerical modeling more feasible. A series of example 3-D elastic calculations were performed using a complicated structure, the SEG/EAGE salt structure. The synthetic traces show that the effects of shear wave propagation can be important for imaging and interpretation of images, and also for AVO and other applications that rely on trace amplitudes. Additional calculations are needed to better identify and understand the complex wave propagation effects produced in complicated structures, such as the SEG/EAGE salt structure.

Inter-plant concentration ratios (IPCR), [Bq g{sup -1} {sup 137}Cs in coral atoll tree food-crops/Bq g{sup -1} {sup 137}Cs in leaves of native plant species whose roots share a common soil volume], can replace transfer factors (TF) to predict {sup 137}Cs concentration in tree food-crops in a contaminated area with an aged source term. The IPCR strategy has significant benefits relative to TF strategy for such purposes in the atoll ecosystem. IPCR strategy applied to specific assessments takes advantage of the fact tree roots naturally integrate 137Cs over large volumes of soil. Root absorption of {sup 137}Cs replaces large-scale, expensive soil sampling schemes to reduce variability in {sup 137}Cs concentration due to inhomogeneous radionuclide distribution. IPCR [drinking-coconut meat (DCM)/Scaevola (SCA) and Tournefortia (TOU) leaves (native trees growing on all atoll islands)] are log normally distributed (LND) with geometric standard deviation (GSD) = 1.85. TF for DCM from Enewetak, Eneu, Rongelap and Bikini Atolls are LND with GSD's of 3.5, 3.0, 2.7, and 2.1, respectively. TF GSD for Rongelap copra coconut meat is 2.5. IPCR of Pandanus fruit to SCA and TOU leaves are LND with GSD = 1.7 while TF GSD is 2.1. Because IPCR variability is much lower than TF …

The Conference was well-attended with 100 participants (attendees list included). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. In designing the formal speakers program, emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field. There was a conscious effort to stimulate lively discussion about the key issues in the field today. Time for formal presentations was limited in the interest of group discussions. In order that more scientists could communicate their most recent results, poster presentation time was scheduled. The formal schedule and speaker program and the poster program is given. In addition to these formal interactions, 'free time' was scheduled to allow informal discussions. Such discussions are fostering new collaborations and joint efforts in the field.

The Report is Gordon Research Conferences Laser Interaction with materials.

The Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability, which occurs when a lower-density fluid accelerates a higher-density layer, is common in nature. At an ablation front a sharp reduction in the growth rate of the instability at short wave-lengths can occur, in marked contrast to the classical case where growth rates are highest at the shortest wavelengths. Theoretical and numerical investigations of the ablative RT instability are numerous and differ considerably on the level of stabilization expected. We present here the results of a series of laser experiments designed to probe the roll-over and cutoff region of the ablation-front RT dispersion curve in indirect drive. Aluminum foils with imposed sinusoidal perturbations ranging in wavelength from 10 to 70 pm were ablatively accelerated with a radiation drive generated in a gold cylindrical hohlraum. A strong shock wave compresses the package followed by an {approx}2 ns period of roughly constant acceleration and the experiment is diagnosed via face-on radiography. Perturbations with wavelengths {ge} 20 {micro}m experienced substantial growth during the acceleration phase while shorter wavelengths showed a sharp drop off in overall growth. These experimental results compared favorably to calculations with a 2-D radiation-hydrodynamics code, however, the growth is significantly affected by the rippled shock launched …

Hot-pressed silicon carbide, containing aluminum, boron, and carbon additives (ABC-SiC), was subjected to three-body and two-body wear testing using diamond abrasives over a range of sizes. In general, the wear resistance of ABC-SiC, with suitable heat treatment, was superior to that of commercial SiC.

Unlike natural gas-fired generation, renewable generation (e.g., from wind, solar, and geothermal power) is largely immune to fuel price risk. If ratepayers are rational and value long-term price stability, then--contrary to common practice--any comparison of the levelized cost of renewable to gas-fired generation should be based on a hedged gas price input, rather than an uncertain gas price forecast. This paper compares natural gas prices that can be locked in through futures, swaps, and physical supply contracts to contemporaneous long-term forecasts of spot gas prices. We find that from 2000-2003, forward gas prices for terms of 2-10 years have been considerably higher than most contemporaneous long-term gas price forecasts. This difference is striking, and implies that comparisons between renewable and gas-fired generation based on these forecasts over this period have arguably yielded results that are biased in favor of gas-fired generation.

A prototype of an analog, transverse (vertical) feedback system for active damping of the two-stream (e-p) instability has been developed and successfully tested at the Los Alamos Proton Storage Ring (PSR). This system was able to improve the instability threshold by approximately 30% (as measured by the change in RF buncher voltage at instability threshold). The feedback system configuration, setup procedures, and optimization of performance are described. Results of several experimental tests of system performance are presented including observations of instability threshold improvement and grow-damp experiments, which yield estimates of instability growth and damping rates. A major effort was undertaken to identify and study several factors limiting system performance. Evidence obtained from these tests suggests that performance of the prototype was limited by higher instability growth rates arising from beam leakage into the gap at lower RF buncher voltage and the onset of instability in the horizontal plane, which had no feedback.

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We present our approach to enabling approximate ad hoc queries on terabyte-scale mesh data generated from large scientific simulations through the extension and integration of database, statistical, and data mining techniques. There are several significant barriers to overcome in achieving this objective. First, large-scale simulation data is already at the multi-terabyte scale and growing quickly, thus rendering traditional forms of interactive data exploration and query processing untenable. Second, a priori knowledge of user queries is not available, making it impossible to tune special-purpose solutions. Third, the data has spatial and temporal aspects, as well as arbitrarily high dimensionality, which exacerbates the task of finding compact, accurate, and easy-to-compute data models. Our approach is to preprocess the mesh data to generate highly compressed, lossy models that are used in lieu of the original data to answer users' queries. This approach leads to interesting challenges. The model (equivalently, the content-oriented metadata) being generated must be smaller than the original data by at least an order of magnitude. Second, the metadata representation must contain enough information to support a broad class of queries. Finally, the accuracy and speed of the queries must be within the tolerances required by users. In this paper we …

Adaptive optics can be used to correct the aberrations in the human eye caused by imperfections in the cornea and the lens and thereby, improve image quality both looking into and out of the eye. Under the auspices of the NSF Center for Adaptive Optics and the DOE Biomedical Engineering Program, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has joined together with leading vision science researchers around the country to develop and test new ophthalmic imaging systems using novel wavefront corrector technologies. Results of preliminary comparative evaluations of these technologies in initial system tests show promise for future clinical utility.

The authors have developed a new experimental approach for measuring hysteresis in the adhesion between micromachined surfaces. By accurately modeling the deformations in cantilever beams that are subject to combined interfacial adhesion and applied electrostatic forces, they determine adhesion energies for advancing and receding contacts. They draw on this new method to examine adhesion hysteresis for silane coated micromachined structures and found significant hysteresis for surfaces that were exposed to high relative humidity (RH) conditions. Atomic force microscopy studies of these surfaces showed spontaneous formation of agglomerates that they interpreted as silages that have irreversibly transformed from uniform surface layers at low RH to isolated vesicles at high RH. They used contact deformation models to show that the compliance of these vesicles could reasonably account for the adhesion hysteresis that develops at high RH as the surfaces are forced into contact by an externally applied load.

Commercial buildings account for a large portion of summer peak demand. Research results show that there is significant potential to reduce peak demand in commercial buildings through advanced control technologies and strategies. However, a better understanding of commercial building's contribution to peak demand and the use of energy management and control systems is required to develop this demand response resource to its full potential. This paper discusses recent research results and new opportunities for advanced building control systems to provide demand response (DR) to improve electricity markets and reduce electric grid problems. The main focus of this paper is the role of new and existing control systems for HVAC and lighting in commercial buildings. A demand-side management framework from building operations perspective with three main features: daily energy efficiency, daily peak load management and event driven, dynamic demand response is presented. A general description of DR, its benefits, and nationwide potential in commercial buildings is outlined. Case studies involving energy management and control systems and DR savings opportunities are presented. The paper also describes results from three years of research in California to automate DR in buildings. Case study results and research on advanced buildings systems in New York are …

This paper presents two US retail building projects that were designed and constructed using the energy design process. These buildings, the BigHorn Center in Silverthorne, Colorado, and the Zion National Park Visitor Center in Springdale, Utah, were both completed and occupied during the spring of 2000.

Article about do-it-yourself fashion, the closing of Roy's taxi company, Austin Circle of Theaters, and several events happening around Austin, Texas.

Article about an event held to celebrate 30 years of Zachary Scott Theatre's children's educational program, Project Interact.

Over the course of the year 2000, five workshops were conducted by the Center for Global Security Research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on threats to international security in the 2015 to 2020 timeframe due to the global availability of advanced technology. These workshops focused on threats that are enabled by nuclear, missile, and space technology; military technology; information technology; bio technology; and geo systems technology. The participants included US national leaders and experts from the Department of Energy National Laboratories; the Department of Defense: Army, Navy, Air Force, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; the Department of State, NASA, Congressional technical staff, the intelligence community, universities and university study centers, think tanks, consultants on security issues, and private industry. For each workshop the process of analysis involved identification and prioritization of the participants' perceived most severe threat scenarios (worst nightmares), discussion of the technologies which enabled those threats, and ranking of the technologies' threat potentials. The threats ranged from local/regional to global, from intentional to unintended to natural, from merely economic to massively destructive, and from individual and group to state actions. We were not concerned in this …

Particulate matter collected aboard the University of Washington's Convair-580 research aircraft over southern Africa during the dry, biomass burning season was analyzed for total carbon, organic carbon, and black carbon contents using thermal and optical methods. Samples were collected in smoke plumes of burning savanna and in regional haze. A known artifact, produced by the adsorption of organic gases on the quartz filter substrates used to collect the particulate matter samples, comprised a significant portion of the total carbon collected. Consequently, conclusions derived from the data are greatly dependent on whether or not organic carbon concentrations are corrected for this artifact. For example, the estimated aerosol co-albedo (1 - single scattering albedo), which is a measure of aerosol absorption, of the biomass smoke samples is 60 percent larger using corrected organic carbon concentrations. Thus, the corrected data imply that the biomass smoke is 60 percent more absorbing than do the uncorrected data. The black carbon to (corrected) organic carbon mass ratio (BC/OC) of smoke plume samples (0.18/2610.06) is lower than that of samples collected in the regional haze (0.25/2610.08). The difference may be due to mixing of biomass smoke with background air characterized by a higher BC/OC ratio. A simple …

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center is evaluating the feasibility of placing a free electron laser (FEL) at the end of the linear accelerator. The proposal is to inject electrons two thirds of the way down the linac, accelerate the electrons for the last one third of the linac, and then send the electrons into the FEL. This project is known as the LCLS (Linac Coherent Light Source). To test the feasibility of the LCLS, a smaller experiment VISA (Visual to Infrared SASE (Self Amplified Stimulated Emission) Amplifier) is being performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory. VISA consists of four wiggler segments, each 0.99 m long. The four segments are required to be aligned to the beam axis with an rms error less than 50 {micro}m [1]. This very demanding alignment is carried out in two steps [2]. First the segments are fiducialized using a pulsed wire system. Then the wiggler segments are placed along a reference laser beam which coincides with the electron beam axis. In the wiggler segment fiducialization, a wire is stretched through a wiggler segment and a current pulse is sent down the wire. The deflection of the wire is monitored. The deflection gives information about the electron …

Presently, the demand for high quality synchrotron radiation is increasing all over the world. One of the fascinating aspects of this novel tool is the broad range of scientific users interested in synchrotron radiation. They come from physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine, to name just a few. Third generation storage which recently became available for users will by far not be able to satisfy all the beam-time requests. In addition, it is also recognized that long-term scientific efficiency and technological success is heavily dependent on ease of access to a home based facility nearby and continuing fine-tuning of all components of a beam line. Based on the high quality user community in Switzerland and their prospective research activities, the Paul Scherrer Institute, in close collaboration with interested research groups from the Swiss universities and the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, has worked out a proposal to build an advanced synchrotron light source in Switzerland, which will come into operation in the year 2001. It has been named SLS as acronym for Swiss Light Source.

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is an x-ray free-electron laser (FEL) project based on the SLAC linac. The LCLS Photoinjector beamline has been designed to deliver 10-ps long electron bunches of 1 nC with a normalized projected transverse emittance smaller than 1.2 mm-mrad at 135 MeV. Tolerances and regulation requirements are tight for this tuning. Half of the total emittance at the end of the injector comes from the ''cathode emittance'' which is 0.7 mm-mrad for our nominal 1nC tuning. As the ''cathode emittance'' scales linearly with laser spot radius, the emittance will be dramatically reduced for smaller radius, but this is only possible at lower charge. In particular, for a 0.2 nC charge, we believe we can achieve an emittance closer to 0.4 mm-mrad. This working point will be easier to tune and the beam quality should be much easier to maintain than for the 1 nC case. In the second half of this paper, we discuss optimum laser pulse shapes. We demonstrate that the benefits of the ellipsoidal shapes seem to be important enough so that serious investigations should be carried out in the production of such pulses.

The nuclear data infrastructure currently relies on punch-card era formats designed some five decades ago. Though this system has worked well, recent interest in non-traditional and complicated physics processes has demanded a change. Here we present an alternative approach under development at LLNL. In this approach data is described through collections of distinct and self-contained simple data structures. This structure-based format is compared with traditional ENDF and ENDL, which can roughly be characterized as dictionary-based representations.

This paper studies AMG (algebraic multigrid) methods that utilize energy minimization construction of the interpolation matrices locally, in the setting of element agglomeration AMG. The coarsening in element agglomeration AMG is done by agglomerating fine-grid elements, with coarse element matrices defined by a local Galerkin procedure applied to the matrix assembled from the individual fine-grid element matrices. This local Galerkin procedure involves only the coarse basis restricted to the agglomerated element. To construct the coarse basis, one exploits previously proposed constraint energy minimization procedures now applied to the local matrix. The constraints are that a given set of vectors should be interpolated exactly, not only globally, but also locally on every agglomerated element. The paper provides algorithmic details, as well as a convergence result based on a ''local-to-global'' energy bound of the resulting multiple-vector fitting AMG interpolation mappings. A particular implementation of the method is illustrated with a set of numerical experiments.

High-power Free-Electron Lasers were made possible by advances in superconducting linac operated in an energy-recovery mode. In order to get to much higher power levels, say a fraction of a megawatt average power, many technological barriers are yet to be broken. We describe work on CW, high-current and high-brightness electron beams. This will include a description of a superconducting, laser-photocathode RF gun employing a new secondary-emission multiplying cathode, an accelerator cavity, both capable of producing of the order of one ampere average current and plans for an ERL based on these units.