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At low redshifts powerful radio sources are uniquely associated with massive galaxies, and are thought to be powered by supermassive black holes. Modern 8m-10m telescopes may be used to find their likely progenitors at very high redshifts to study their formation and evolution.

A semi-quantitative map based on a series of spatially resolved X-ray diffraction (SRXRD) scans shows the progression of the ferrite ({delta})/austenite ({gamma}) phase balance throughout the HAZ during GTA welding of a 2205 duplex stainless steel (DSS). This map shows an unexpected decrease in the ferrite fraction on heating, followed by a recovery to the original ferrite fraction on cooling at locations within the HAZ. Even though such behavior is supported by thermodynamic calculations, it has not been confirmed by either experimental methods or have the kinetics been evaluated. Both Gleeble thermal simulations and time resolved x-ray diffraction measurements on spot welds in the 2205 DSS provide further evidence for this rather low-temperature transformation. On the other hand, calculations of the diffusion of alloying elements across the 6/y interface under a variety of conditions shed no further light on the driving force for this transformation. Further work on the mechanisms and driving forces for this transformation is on-going.

The Scaled Thermal Explosion Experiment (STEX) has been developed to quantify the violence of thermal explosion under well defined and carefully controlled initial and boundary conditions. Here we present results with HMX-based explosives (LX-04 and PBX-9501) and with Composition B. Samples are 2 inches (50 mm) in diameter and 8 inches (200 mm) in length, under confinement of 7,500-30,000 psi (50-200 MPa), with heating rates of 1-3 C/hr. We quantify reaction violence by measuring the wall velocity in the ensuing thermal explosion, and relate the measured velocity to that expected from a detonation. Results with HMX-based explosives (LX-04 and PBX-9501) have shown the importance of confinement and HMX solid phase, with reaction violence ranging from mild pressure bursts to near detonations. By contrast, Composition B has shown very violent reactions over a wide range of conditions.

Thermal cycling was used as a means to control density in the preparation of Insensitive High Explosive (IHE) specimens slated for performance testing. These samples were thermally cycled between -55 degrees C and 70 degrees C and their densities measured using hydrostatic weighing, an immersion density measurement technique. Bulk sample densities were reduced by as much as 1.5% over 40 thermal cycles. In these thermal cycling studies, the effects of several parameters were investigated. These parameters included different ME composites (LX-17 and PBX 9502), different pressing mechanisms (die-pressed and isostatically-pressed) and sample size.

We present volume, density, and tensile property change observed from both naturally and accelerated aged plutonium alloys. Accelerated alloys are plutonium alloys with a fraction of Pu-238 to accelerate the aging process by approximately 18 times the rate of unaged weapons-grade plutonium. After thirty-five equivalent years of aging on accelerated alloys, the dilatometry shows the samples at 35 C have swelled in volume by 0.12 to 0.14% and now exhibit a near linear volume increase due to helium in-growth while showing possible surface effects on samples at 50 C and 65 C. The engineering stress of the accelerated alloy at 18 equivalent years increased significantly compared to at 4.5 equivalent years.

We present fabrication and characterization of a membrane based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and parylene. Carbon nanotubes have shown orders of magnitude enhancement in gas and water permeability compared to estimates generated by conventional theories [1, 2]. Large area membranes that exhibit flux enhancement characteristics of carbon nanotubes may provide an economical solution to a variety of technologies including water desalination [3] and gas sequestration [4]. We report a novel method of making carbon nanotube-based, robust membranes with large areas. A vertically aligned dense carbon nanotube array is infiltrated with parylene. Parylene polymer creates a pinhole free transparent film by exhibiting high surface conformity and excellent crevice penetration. Using this moisture-, chemical- and solvent-resistant polymer creates carbon nanotube membranes that promise to exhibit high stability and biocompatibility. CNT membranes are formed by releasing a free-standing film that consists of parylene-infiltrated CNTs, followed by CNT uncapping on both sides of the composite material. Thus fabricated membranes show flexibility and ductility due to the parylene matrix material, as well as high permeability attributed to embedded carbon nanotubes. These membranes have a potential for applications that may require high flux, flexibility and durability.

Increasing evidence suggests that a combination of host genetics and the composition of the gut microbiota are important for development of Crohn's disease (CD). Our aim was to study identical twins with CD to determine microbial factors independently of host genetics. Fecal samples were studied from 10 monozygotic twin pairs with CD (discordant n=6, concordant n=4) and 8 healthy twin pairs. DNA was extracted, 16S rRNA genes were PCR amplified and T-RFLP fingerprints generated using general bacterial and Bacteroides group specific primers. The microbial communities were also profiled based on their % G+C contents. Bacteroides 16S rRNA genes were cloned and sequenced from a subset of the samples. The bacterial diversity in each sample and similarity indices between samples were estimated based on the T-RFLP data using a combination of statistical approaches. Healthy individuals had a significantly higher bacterial diversity compared to individuals with CD. The fecal microbial communities were more similar between healthy twins than between twins with CD, especially when these were discordant for the disease. The microbial community profiles of individuals with ileal CD were significantly different from healthy individuals and those with colonic CD. Also, CD individuals had a lower relative abundance of B. uniformis and …

The Hanford K Basin Closure Project involves the retrieval, transfer and processing of radioactive contaminated slurries containing partially corroded spent nuclear fuel from the K Basin spent fuel pools. The spent fuel is primarily metallic fuel from the operation of the Hanford reactors. The Sludge Treatment Project is being designed to treat and package this material in preparation for ultimate disposal. The processing of the contaminated slurries includes further corrosion of the remaining uncorroded uranium metal in a large heated vessel to form a more stable metal oxide for packaging and storage.

We study the photo-induced insulator-metal transition in VO2, correlating threshold and dynamic evolution with excitation wavelength. In high-quality single crystal samples, we find that switching can only be induced with photon energies above the 670-meV gap. This contrasts with the case of polycrystalline films, where formation of the metallic state can also be triggered with photon energies as low as 180 meV, well below the bandgap. Perfection of this process may be conducive to novel schemes for optical switches, limiters and detectors, operating at room temperature in the mid-IR.

Lattice mismatch strains are widely known to controlnanoscale pattern formation in heteroepitaxy, but such effects have notbeen exploited in colloidal nanocrystal growth. We demonstrate acolloidal route to synthesizing CdS-Ag2S nanorod superlattices throughpartial cation exchange. Strain induces the spontaneous formation ofperiodic structures. Ab initio calculations of the interfacial energy andmodeling of strain energies show that these forces drive theself-organization. The nanorod superlattices exhibit high stabilityagainst ripening and phase mixing. These materials are tunablenear-infrared emitters with potential applications as nanometer-scaleoptoelectronic devices.

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This letter describes how to perform model-independent searches for new pair-produced color octet particles that each subsequently decay into two jets plus missing energy at the Tevatron. Current searches are not sensitive to all regions of parameter space because they employ CMSSM-motivated cuts. Optimizing the H{sub T} and E{sub T} cuts expands the sensitivity of searches for all kinematically allowed decays.

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Welcome to the annual 2007 Environmental Remediation Sciences Program (ERSP) Principal Investigators (PIs) meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to bring together all of the lead PIs and key Co-PIs in the program to share and review the results of funded research from the past year. This meeting allows program managers from the Environmental Remediation Sciences Division (ERSD) within the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) to gauge the progress and significance of the funded research, and it is also an important venue to showcase ERSP research to interested parties within DOE and other invited federal agency representatives. Additionally, these meetings should serve as an opportunity for funded PIs to view their research in the context of the entire ERSP portfolio. Past ERSP meetings have been very important venues for detailed discussion of research results among PIs, development of new research ideas, fostering new collaborations and discussion with ERSD program managers on future research efforts and/or initiatives within the program. In short, these meetings are an important resource for both program managers and PIs. There will be only one ERSP PI meeting for 2007. In years past, ERSD has sponsored two PI meetings, one in the spring and …

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The b {yields} d penguin-dominated modes B {yields} K{bar K} have been observed at the B factories. in addition, the BABAR collaboration has reported the first time-dependent CP-violation measurement in B{sup 0} {yields} K{sup 0}{bar K}{sup 0}.

Often in criticality safety problems, the analyst is concerned about two conditions: Loss of Mass Control and Loss of Moderation Control. Determining and modeling the maximum amount of fuel that can fit in a given container is usually trivial. Determining and modeling the maximum amount of water (or other potential moderator) is usually more difficult. Optimization of the pitch has been shown to provide an increase in system reactivity. Both MOX and LEU systems have been shown to be sensitive to moderator intrusion in varying pitched configurations. The analysis will have to determine the effect of optimizing the pitch for each array.

The energy frontier of particle physics is several trillion electron volts, but colliders capable of reaching this regime (such as the Large Hadron Collider and the International Linear Collider) are costly and time-consuming to build; it is therefore important to explore new methods of accelerating particles to high energies. Plasma-based accelerators are particularly attractive because they are capable of producing accelerating fields that are orders of magnitude larger than those used in conventional colliders. In these accelerators, a drive beam (either laser or particle) produces a plasma wave (wakefield) that accelerates charged particles. The ultimate utility of plasma accelerators will depend on sustaining ultrahigh accelerating fields over a substantial length to achieve a significant energy gain. Here we show that an energy gain of more than 42 GeV is achieved in a plasma wakefield accelerator of 85 cm length, driven by a 42 GeV electron beam at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). The results are in excellent agreement with the predictions of three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Most of the beam electrons lose energy to the plasma wave, but some electrons in the back of the same beam pulse are accelerated with a field of {approx} 52GV m{sup -1}. This effectively …

The authors describe searches for B meson decays to the charmless vector-vector final states {omega}K* and {omega}{rho} in 89 million B{bar B} pairs produced in e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation at {radical}s = 10.58 GeV.

The symplectic symmetry of eigenstates for the 0{sub gs}{sup +} in {sup 16}O and the 0{sub gs}{sup +} and lowest 2{sup +} and 4{sup +} configurations of {sup 12}C that are well-converged within the framework of the no-core shell model with the JISP16 realistic interaction is examined. These states are found to project at the 85-90% level onto very few symplectic representations including the most deformed configuration, which confirms the importance of a symplectic no-core shell model and reaffirms the relevance of the Elliott SU(3) model upon which the symplectic scheme is built.

The authors discuss the first NNLL prediction of the B {yields} X{sub s}{gamma} branching ratio, including important additional subtleties due to non-perturbative corrections and logarithmically-enhanced cut effects.

While considerable advances in the understanding of atmospheric processes and feedbacks in the climate system have led to a better representation of these mechanisms in general circulation models (GCMs), the greatest uncertainty in predictability of future climate arises from clouds and their interactions with radiation. To explore this uncertainty, cloud resolving model has been evolved as one of the main tools for understanding and testing cloud feedback processes in climate models, whereas the indirect effects of aerosols are closely linked with cloud feedback processes. In this study we incorporated an existing parameterization of cloud drop concentration (Chuang et al., 2002a) together with aerosol prediction from a global chemistry/aerosol model (IMPACT) (Rotman et al., 2004; Chuang et al., 2002b; Chuang et al., 2005) into LLNL cloud resolving model (Chin, 1994; Chin et al., 1995; Chin and Wilhelmson, 1998) to investigate the effects of aerosols on cloud/precipitation properties and the resulting radiation fields over the Southern Great Plains.

In this paper we present a micromechanical approach based on Fast Fourier Transforms to study the role played by dislocation glide and grain boundary (GB) accommodation in the determination of the plastic behavior of nanostructured materials. For this, we construct unit cells representing self-similar polycrystals with different grain sizes in the nanometer range and use local constitutive equations for slip and GB accommodation. We study the effect of grain size, strain rate and pressure on the local and effective behavior of nanostructured fcc materials with parameters obtained from experiments and atomistic simulations. Predictions of a previous qualitative pressure-sensitive model for the effective yield strength behind a shock front are substantially improved by considering strain partition between slip and GB activity. Under quasiestatic conditions, assuming diffusion-controlled mechanisms at GB, the model predicts a strain-rate sensitivity increase in nanocrystalline samples with respect to the same coarse-grained material of the same order as in recently published experiments.