Ureolytically-driven calcium carbonate precipitation is the basis for a promising in-situ remediation method for sequestration of divalent radionuclide and trace metal ions. It has also been proposed for use in geotechnical engineering for soil strengthening applications. Monitoring the occurrence, spatial distribution, and temporal evolution of calcium carbonate precipitation in the subsurface is critical for evaluating the performance of this technology and for developing the predictive models needed for engineering application. In this study, we conducted laboratory column experiments using natural sediment and groundwater to evaluate the utility of geophysical (complex resistivity and seismic) sensing methods, dynamic synchrotron x-ray computed tomography (micro-CT), and reactive transport modeling for tracking ureolytically-driven calcium carbonate precipitation processes under site relevant conditions. Reactive transport modeling with TOUGHREACT successfully simulated the changes of the major chemical components during urea hydrolysis. Even at the relatively low level of urea hydrolysis observed in the experiments, the simulations predicted an enhanced calcium carbonate precipitation rate that was 3-4 times greater than the baseline level. Reactive transport modeling results, geophysical monitoring data and micro-CT imaging correlated well with reaction processes validated by geochemical data. In particular, increases in ionic strength of the pore fluid during urea hydrolysis predicted by geochemical modeling …

Forest production can be limited by nutrient and water availability, and tree species are expected to respond differently to fertilization and irrigation. Despite these common expectations, multi-species comparisons are rare, especially ones implementing a range of fertilization rates crossed with irrigation. This study compares the response of three forest hardwood species to numerous nitrogen (N) fertilization levels and water availability using a novel non-replicated technique. A range of N levels was included to determine how N affected the growth response curve, and statistical procedures for comparing these non-linear response functions are presented. We used growth and yield data to calculate the Land Expectation Value (LEV) for these intensive management treatments, and to determine the optimal growing conditions (accounting for tree productivity and grower expenses). To accomplish these objectives, we used a series of cottonwood, sycamore, and sweetgum plots that received a range of N fertilization with or without irrigation. Regression is an economical approach to define treatment responses in large-scale experiments, and we recommend >3 treatment levels so the response of any single plot does not disproportionally influence the line. The non-replicated plots showed a strong positive N response below 150 kg N ha -1 yr -1, beyond which little …

High resolution (λ/Δ#3;λ ~ 10 000) 1D imaging x-ray spectroscopy using a spherically bent crystal and a 2D hybrid pixel array detector is used world wide for Doppler measurements of ion-temperature and plasma flow-velocity profiles in magnetic confinement fusion plasmas. Meter sized plasmas are diagnosed with cm spatial resolution and 10 ms time resolution. This concept can also be used as a diagnostic of small sources, such as inertial confinement fusion plasmas and targets on x-ray light source beam lines, with spatial resolution of micrometers, as demonstrated by laboratory experiments using a 250-μm 55 Fe source, and by ray-tracing calculations. Throughput calculations agree with measurements, and predict detector counts in the range 10-8 -10-6 times source x-rays, depending on crystal reflectivity and spectrometer geometry. Results of the lab demonstrations, application of the technique to the National Ignition Facility (NIF), and predictions of performance on NIF will be presented.

We present an infinite class of 2+1 dimensional field theories which, after coupling to semi-holographic fermions, exhibit strange metallic behavior in a suitable large N limit. These theories describe lattices of hypermultiplet defects interacting with parity-preserving supersymmetric Chern-Simons theories with U(N) x U(N) gauge groups at levels {+-}k. They have dual gravitational descriptions in terms of lattices of probe M2 branes in AdS{sub 4} x S{sup 7}/Z{sub k} (for N >> 1,N >> k{sup 5}) or probe D2 branes in AdS{sub 4} x CP{sup 3} (for N >> k >> 1,N << k{sup 5}). We discuss several challenges one faces in maintaining the success of these models at finite N, including backreaction of the probes in the gravity solutions and radiative corrections in the weakly coupled field theory limit.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is currently a 192 beam, 1.6 MJ laser. NIF Ramp-Compression Experiments have already made the relevant exo-planet pressure range from 1 to 50 Mbar accessible. We Proposed to Study Carbon Phases by X-Ray Diffraction on NIF. Just a few years ago, ultra-high pressure phase diagrams for materials were very 'simple'. New experiments and theories point out surprising and decidedly complex behavior at the highest pressures considered. High pressures phases of aluminum are also predicted to be complex. Recent metadynamics survey of carbon proposed a dynamic pathway among multiple phases. We need to develop diagnostics and techniques to explore this new regime of highly compressed matter science. X-Ray Diffraction - Understand the phase diagram/EOS/strength/texture of materials to 10's of Mbar. Strategy and physics goals: (1) Powder diffraction; (2) Begin with diamond; (3) Continue with metals etc.; (4) Explore phase diagrams; (5) Develop liquid diffraction; and (6) Reduce background/improve resolution.

We report recent measurements of the three CKM angles of the Unitarity Triangle using about 383 millions b{bar b} pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC. The results of the angles ({beta}, {alpha}, {gamma}) of the unitarity triangle are consistent with Belle results, and with other CKM constraints such as the measurement of {epsilon}{sub K}, the length of the sides of the unitarity triangle determined from the measurements of {Delta}m{sub d}, {Delta}m{sub s}, |V{sub ub}|. This is an impressive confirmation of Standard Model in quark-flavor sector.

The Relativistic Heavy Ions Collider (RHIC) would benefit from improved beam position measurements near the interaction points that see both beams, especially as the tolerances become tighter when reducing the beam sizes to obtain increased luminosity. Two limitations of the present beam position monitors (BPMs) would be mitigated if the proposed approach is successful. The small but unavoidable cross-talk between signals from bunches traveling in opposite directions when using conventional BPMs will be reduced by adopting directional BPMs. Further improvements will be achieved by cancelling residual cross-talk using pairs of such BPMs. Appropriately delayed addition and integration of the signals will also provide pulses with relatively flat maxima that will be easier to digitize by relaxing the presently very stringent timing requirements.

Reductive biostimulation is currently being explored as a possible remediation strategy for uranium (U) contaminated groundwater, and is currently being investigated at a field site in Rifle, CO, USA. The long-term stability of the resulting U(IV) phases is a key component of the overall performance and depends upon a variety of factors, including rate and mechanism of reduction, mineral associations in the subsurface, and propensity for oxidation. To address these factors, several approaches were used to evaluate the redox sensitivity of U: measurement of the rate of oxidative dissolution of biogenic uraninite (UO{sub 2(s)}) deployed in groundwater at Rifle, characterization of a zone of natural bioreduction exhibiting relevant reduced mineral phases, and laboratory studies of the oxidative capacity of Fe(III) and reductive capacity of Fe(II) with regard to U(IV) and U(VI), respectively.

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The dynamics of an order parameter's amplitude and phase determines the collective behaviour of novel states emerging in complex materials. Time- and momentum-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy, by virtue of measuring material properties at atomic and electronic time scales out of equilibrium, can decouple entangled degrees of freedom by visualizing their corresponding dynamics in the time domain. Here we combine time-resolved femotosecond optical and resonant X-ray diffraction measurements on charge ordered La{sub 1.75}Sr{sub 0.25}NiO{sub 4} to reveal unforeseen photoinduced phase fluctuations of the charge order parameter. Such fluctuations preserve long-range order without creating topological defects, distinct from thermal phase fluctuations near the critical temperature in equilibrium. Importantly, relaxation of the phase fluctuations is found to be an order of magnitude slower than that of the order parameter's amplitude fluctuations, and thus limits charge order recovery. This new aspect of phase fluctuations provides a more holistic view of the phase's importance in ordering phenomena of quantum matter.

The Hanford Site and the Savannah River Site (SRS) were the primary plutonium production facilities within the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. Radioactive wastes were generated as patt of these missions and are stored in similar fashion. The majority of radioactivity maintained by the two sites is located in underground carbon steel tanks in the physical form of supernatant, saltcake, or sludge. Disposition of SRS tank waste is ongoing by converting it into glass (pathway for sludge and radionuclides separated from supernatant or dissolved saltcake) or cement (pathway for the decontaminated supernatant and dissolved saltcake). Tank closure activity has also begun at SRS and will continue for the duration of mission. The Hanford tank waste inventory is roughly 2/3rds larger than SRS's by volume- but nominally half the radioactivity. The baseline disposition path includes high-level and low-activity waste vitrification. with separate disposition of contact-handled transuranic tank waste. Retrieval of tank waste from aging single­ shell tanks (SSTs) into double-shell tanks (DSTs) is currently ongoing. As vitrification commences later this decade, Hanford will be in a similar operations mode as SRS. Site integration is increasing as the missions align. The ongoing integration is centered on key issues that impact both sites- regardless …

We present the Genomic Standards Consortium's (GSC) 'Minimum Information about an ENvironmental Sequence' (MIENS) standard for describing marker genes. Adoption of MIENS will enhance our ability to analyze natural genetic diversity across the Tree of Life as it is currently being documented by massive DNA sequencing efforts from myriad ecosystems in our ever-changing biosphere.

Recently a Resistive Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) package has been added to the KULL code. In order to be compatible with the underlying hydrodynamics algorithm, a new sub-zonal magnetics discretization was developed that supports arbitrary polygonal and polyhedral zones. This flexibility comes at the cost of many more unknowns per zone - approximately ten times more for a hexahedral mesh. We can eliminate some (or all, depending on the dimensionality) of the extra unknowns from the global matrix during assembly by using a Schur complement approach. This trades expensive global work for cache-friendly local work, while still allowing solution for the full system. Significant improvements in the solution time are observed for several test problems.

Photochemistry has wide implications on fundamental science with technological applications that range from synthetic and mechanistic organic and inorganic chemistry to sensing/manipulation in the biological sciences to viable solar energy conversion assemblies. The 2011 Gordon Research Conference on Photochemistry will highlight recent advances on photochemical reactions, their mechanisms, spectroscopic techniques and applications to materials, organic synthesis, and biology. The conference will continue its long tradition on dynamic discussions on recent advances and unsolved scientific problems. The format of lectures, poster presentations and informal discussions provides an ideal venue for students and post-doctoral fellows to interact with the leaders in the field. These junior scientists will have an opportunity to participate in the Gordon Research Seminar on Photochemistry to be held prior to the GRC. The GRS will focus on photochemical aspects of solar energy conversion. Four abstracts for posters at the GRC and presentations at the GRS will be selected as short talks at the GRC.

We prove a general theorem on the relation between the bulk topological quantum number and the edge states in two dimensional insulators. It is shown that whenever there is a topological order in bulk, characterized by a non-vanishing Chern number, even if it is defined for a non-conserved quantity such as spin in the case of the spin Hall effect, one can always infer the existence of gapless edge states under certain twisted boundary conditions that allow tunneling between edges. This relation is robust against disorder and interactions, and it provides a unified topological classification of both the quantum (charge) Hall effect and the quantum spin Hall effect. In addition, it reconciles the apparent conflict between the stability of bulk topological order and the instability of gapless edge states in systems with open boundaries (as known happening in the spin Hall case). The consequences of time reversal invariance for bulk topological order and edge state dynamics are further studied in the present framework.

We report hole-doping dependence of the in-plane resistivity {rho}{sub ab} in a cuprate superconductor La{sub 2-x}Sr{sub x}CuO{sub 4}, carefully examined using a series of high-quality single crystals. Our detailed measurements find a tendency towards charge ordering at particular rational hole doping fractions of 1/16, 3/32, 1/8, and 3/16. This observation appears to suggest a specific form of charge order and is most consistent with the recent theoretical prediction of the checkerboard-type ordering of the Cooper pairs at rational doping fractions x = (2m + 1)/2{sup n}, with integers m and n.

At present, the only solid material believed to be a viable option for plasma-facing components (PFCs) in a fusion reactor is tungsten. Operated at the lower temperatures typical of present-day fusion experiments, tungsten is known to suffer from surface degradation during long-term exposure to helium-containing plasmas, leading to reduced thermal conduction to the bulk, and enhanced erosion. Existing alloys are also quite brittle at temperatures under 700oC. However, at a sufficiently high operating temperature (700 - 1000 oC), tungsten is selfannealing and it is expected that surface damage will be reduced to the point where tungsten PFCs will have an acceptable lifetime in a reactor environment. The existence of only one potentially viable option for solid PFCs, though, constitutes one of the most significant restrictions on design space for DEMO and follow-on fusion reactors. In contrast, there are several candidates for liquid metal-based PFCs, including gallium, tin, lithium, and tin-lithium eutectics. We will discuss options for liquid metal walls in tokamaks, looking at both high and low recycling materials. We will then focus in particular on one of the candidate liquids, lithium. Lithium is known to have a high chemical affinity for hydrogen, and has been shown in test stands1 …

Preliminary results support the nano-confinement of sodium alanate within the pores of a Cu{sub 3}BTC{sub 2} MOF substrate. Increased {sup 1}H and {sup 27}Al NMR T{sub 1} relaxation rates indicate a close proximity of infiltrated sodium alante to the paramagnetic Cu{sup 2+} ions on the BTC paddlewheel units. This is in support of the theory that an interaction due to the electronegative framework with the sodium alanate facilitates thermodynamically-favorable hydrogen adsorption and desorption. Further studies can elucidate the local electronic environment of the sodium ions, further supporting a charge-transfer mechanism as the driving force for thermodynamically-favorable hydrogen adsorption and desorption.

We investigate massive star formation in turbulent, magnetized, parsec-scale clumps of molecular clouds including protostellar outflow feedback using three dimensional numerical simulations of effective resolution 2048{sup 3}. The calculations are carried out using a block structured adaptive mesh refinement code that solves the ideal MHD equations including self-gravity and implements accreting sink particles. We find that, in the absence of regulation by magnetic fields and outflow feedback, massive stars form readily in a turbulent, moderately condensed clump of {approx} 1,600 M{sub {circle_dot}} (containing {approx} 10{sup 2} initial Jeans masses), along with a cluster of hundreds of lower mass stars. The massive stars are fed at high rates by (1) transient dense filaments produced by large-scale turbulent compression at early times, and (2) by the clump-wide global collapse resulting from turbulence decay at late times. In both cases, the bulk of the massive star's mass is supplied from outside a 0.1 pc-sized 'core' that surrounds the star. In our simulation, the massive star is clump-fed rather than core-fed. The need for large-scale feeding makes the massive star formation prone to regulation by outflow feedback, which directly opposes the feeding processes. The outflows reduce the mass accretion rates onto the massive stars …

The combination of Anti-de Sitter space (AdS) methods with light-front holography leads to a semi-classical first approximation to the spectrum and wavefunctions of meson and baryon light-quark bound states. Starting from the bound-state Hamiltonian equation of motion in QCD, we derive relativistic light-front wave equations in terms of an invariant impact variable {zeta} which measures the separation of the quark and gluonic constituents within the hadron at equal light-front time. These equations of motion in physical space-time are equivalent to the equations of motion which describe the propagation of spin-J modes in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. Its eigenvalues give the hadronic spectrum, and its eigenmodes represent the probability distribution of the hadronic constituents at a given scale. Applications to the light meson and baryon spectra are presented. The predicted meson spectrum has a string-theory Regge form M{sup 2} = 4{kappa}{sup 2}(n+L+S/2); i.e., the square of the eigenmass is linear in both L and n, where n counts the number of nodes of the wavefunction in the radial variable {zeta}. The space-like pion form factor is also well reproduced. One thus obtains a remarkable connection between the description of hadronic modes in AdS space and the Hamiltonian formulation of QCD in …

The Fermi surface (FS) of ErTe{sub 3} is investigated using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). Low temperature measurements reveal two incommensurate charge density wave (CDW) gaps created by perpendicular FS nesting vectors. A large {Delta}{sub 1} = 175 meV gap arising from a CDW with c* - q{sub CDW1} {approx} 0.70(0)c* is in good agreement with the expected value. A second, smaller {Delta}{sub 2} = 50 meV gap is due to a second CDW with a* - q{sub CDW2} {approx} 0.68(5)a*. The temperature dependence of the FS, the two gaps and possible interaction between the CDWs are examined.

Decade-long continuous surface-based measurements at Great Southern Plains (SGP) collected by the US Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility are first used to evaluate the three major reanalyses (i.e., ERA-Interim, NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis I and NCEP/DOE Reanalysis II) to identify model biases in simulating surface shortwave cloud forcing and total cloud fraction. The results show large systematic lower biases in the modeled surface shortwave cloud forcing and cloud fraction from all the three reanalysis datasets. Then we focus on diagnosing the causes of these model biases using the Active Remote Sensing of Clouds (ARSCL) products (e.g., vertical distribution of cloud fraction, cloud-base and cloud-top heights, and cloud optical depth) and meteorological measurements (temperature, humidity and stability). Efforts are made to couple cloud properties with boundary processes in the diagnosis.

As part of the Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC) an Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD, Inc.) spectroradiometer was deployed at the Barrow NSA site during April and May of 2008, and in April-October of 2009. This instrument recorded one-minute averages of surface downwelling spectral flux in the wavelength interval 350-2200 nm, thus sampling the two major near infrared windows (1.6 and 2.2 microns) in which the flux is influenced by cloud microphysical properties including thermodynamic phase and effective particle size. Aircraft in situ measurements of cloud properties show mostly mixed-phase clouds over Barrow during the campaign, but with wide variability in relative liquid versus ice water content. At fixed total optical depth, this variability in phase composition can yield of order 5-10 Watts per square meter in surface flux variability, with greater cloud attenuation of the surface flux usually occurring under higher ice water content. Thus our data show that changes in cloud phase properties, even within the 'mixed-phase' category, can affect the surface energy balance at the same order of magnitude as greenhouse gas increases. Analysis of this spectral radiometric data provides suggestions for testing new mixed-phase parameterizations in climate models.

Understanding the onset of coalescence in warm clouds is key in our effort to improve cloud representation in numerical models. Coalescence acts at small scales, and its study requires detailed high-resolution dynamical and microphysical measurements from a comprehensive suite of instruments over a wide range of environmental conditions (e.g., aerosol loading). The first AMF is currently in its second year of a two-year deployment at Graciosa Island in the Azores, offering the opportunity to collect a long data set from a stable land-based platform in a marine stratocumulus regime. In this study, recorded WACR Doppler spectra are used to characterize the properties of Doppler spectra from warm clouds with and without drizzle, and from drizzle only, in an effort to observe the transition (onset) to precipitation in clouds. A retrieval technique that decomposes observed Doppler spectra into their cloud and/or drizzle components is applied in order to quantify drizzle growth.