This study considered assessing the feasibility of developing small scale hydro-electric power from seven major tributaries within the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation of Northern California (http://www.hoopa-nsn.gov/). This study pursued the assessment of seven major tributaries of the Reservation that flow into the Trinity River. The feasibility of hydropower on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation has real potential for development and many alternative options for project locations, designs, operations and financing. In order to realize this opportunity further will require at least 2-3 years of intense data collection focusing on stream flow measurements at multiple locations in order to quantify real power potential. This also includes on the ground stream gradient surveys, road access planning and grid connectivity to PG&E for sale of electricity. Imperative to this effort is the need for negotiations between the Hoopa Tribal Council and PG&E to take place in order to finalize the power rate the Tribe will receive through any wholesale agreement that utilizes the alternative energy generated on the Reservation.

We report the construction of a cell-based fluorescent reporter for anthrax lethal factor (LF) protease activity using the principle of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). This was accomplished by engineering an Escherichia coli cell line to express a genetically encoded FRET reporter and LF protease. Both proteins were encoded in two different expression plasmids under the control of different tightly controlled inducible promoters. The FRET-based reporter was designed to contain a LF recognition sequence flanked by the FRET pair formed by CyPet and YPet fluorescent proteins. The length of the linker between both fluorescent proteins was optimized using a flexible peptide linker containing several Gly-Gly-Ser repeats. Our results indicate that this FRET-based LF reporter was readily expressed in E. coli cells showing high levels of FRET in vivo in the absence of LF. The FRET signal, however, decreased 5 times after inducing LF expression in the same cell. These results suggest that this cell-based LF FRET reporter may be used to screen genetically encoded libraries in vivo against LF.

Using detailed simulation and analytical models, the exposure time is estimated for serial crystallography, where hydrated laser-aligned proteins are sprayed across a continuous synchrotron beam. The resolution of X-ray diffraction microscopy is limited by the maximum dose that can be delivered prior to sample damage. In the proposed Serial Crystallography method, the damage problem is addressed by distributing the total dose over many identical hydrated macromolecules running continuously in a single-file train across a continuous X-ray beam, and resolution is then limited only by the available fluxes of molecules and X-rays. Orientation of the diffracting molecules is achieved by laser alignment. We evaluate the incident X-ray fluence (energy/area) required to obtain a given resolution from (1) an analytical model, giving the count rate at the maximum scattering angle for a model protein, (2) explicit simulation of diffraction patterns for a GroEL-GroES protein complex, and (3) the frequency cut off of the transfer function following iterative solution of the phase problem, and reconstruction of a density map in the projection approximation. These calculations include counting shot noise and multiple starts of the phasing algorithm. The results indicate the number of proteins needed within the beam at any instant for a given …

The project covered by this report focused on development of efficient but robust non-linear inversion algorithms for electromagnetic induction data, in particular for data collected with multiple receivers, and multiple transmitters, a situation extremely common in eophysical EM subsurface imaging methods. A key observation is that for such multi-transmitter problems each step in commonly used linearized iterative limited memory search schemes such as conjugate gradients (CG) requires solution of forward and adjoint EM problems for each of the N frequencies or sources, essentially generating data sensitivities for an N dimensional data-subspace. These multiple sensitivities allow a good approximation to the full Jacobian of the data mapping to be built up in many fewer search steps than would be required by application of textbook optimization methods, which take no account of the multiplicity of forward problems that must be solved for each search step. We have applied this idea to a develop a hybrid inversion scheme that combines features of the iterative limited memory type methods with a Newton-type approach using a partial calculation of the Jacobian. Initial tests on 2D problems show that the new approach produces results essentially identical to a Newton type Occam minimum structure inversion, while running …

Tank Farms Operations removed an electrochemical noise probe from Tank 241-AN-107. In the field, the probe was cut into four sections, wrapped, and placed in a 55-gallon drum, This drum was delivered to the 222-S Laboratory. The 222 S Laboratory unpackaged the sections of the AN-107 electrochemical noise probe and examined the material for evidence of corrosion. Each of the four sections contained three C-ring and three bullet specimens. The specimens were examined for pitting corrosion, crevice corrosion, and stress corrosion cracking. No evidence of stress corrosion cracking was found in the stressed C-ring specimens. Minor pitting was evident on some surfaces. Crevice corrosion was the dominant type of corrosion observed.

The A-01 NPDES outfall at the Savannah River Site receives process wastewater discharges and stormwater runoff from the Savannah River National Laboratory. Routine monitoring indicated that copper concentrations were regularly higher than discharge permit limit, and water routinely failed toxicity tests. These conditions necessitated treatment of nearly one million gallons of water per day plus storm runoff. Washington Savannah River Company personnel explored options to bring process and runoff waters into compliance with the permit conditions, including source reduction, engineering solutions, and biological solutions. A conceptual design for a constructed wetland treatment system (WTS) was developed and the full-scale system was constructed and began operation in 2000. The overall objective of our research is to better understand the mechanisms of operation of the A-01 WTS in order to provide better input to design of future systems. The system is a vegetated surface flow wetland with a hydraulic retention time of approximately 48 hours. Copper, mercury, and lead removal efficiencies are very high, all in excess of 80% removal from water passing through the wetland system. Zinc removal is 60%, and nickel is generally unaffected. Dissolved organic carbon in the water column is increased by the system and reduces toxicity of …

This report provides information on groundwater monitoring at the K Basins during October, November, and December 2006. Conditions remained very similar to those reported in the previous quarterly report, with no evidence in monitoring results to suggest groundwater impact from current loss of basin water to the ground. The K Basins monitoring network will be modified in the coming months as a consequence of new wells having been installed near KW Basin as part of a pump-and-treat system for chromium contamination, and new wells installed between the KE Basin and the river to augment long-term monitoring in that area.

This document outlines a proposal for extending UPC'spoint-to-point memcpy library with support for explicitly non-blockingtransfers, and non-contiguous (indexed and strided) transfers. Variousportions of this proposal could stand alone as independent extensions tothe UPC library. The designs presented here are heavily influenced byanalogous functionality which exists in other parallel communicationsystems, such as MPI, ARMCI, Titanium, and network hardware API's such asQuadrics elan, Infiniband vapi, IBM LAPI and Cray X-1. Each sectioncontains proposed extensions to the libraries in the UPC LanguageSpecification (section 7) and corresponding extensions to the GASNetcommunication system API.

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has developed, and continues to enhance, its integrated capability to evaluate the impact of proposed sludge preparation plans on the Defense Waste Processing Facility's (DWPF's) operation. One of the components of this integrated capability focuses on frit development which identifies a viable frit or frits for each sludge option being contemplated for DWPF processing. A frit is considered viable if its composition allows for economic fabrication and if, when it is combined with the sludge option under consideration, the DWPF property/composition models (the models of DWPF's Product Composition Control System (PCCS)) indicate that the combination has the potential for an operating window (a waste loading (WL) interval over which the sludge/frit glass system satisfies processability and durability constraints) that would allow DWPF to meet its goals for waste loading and canister production. This report documents the results of SRNL's efforts to identify candidate frit compositions and corresponding predicted operating windows (defined in terms of WL intervals) for the February 2007 compositional projection of Sludge Batch 4 (SB4) developed by the Liquid Waste Organization (LWO). The nominal compositional projection was used to assess projected operating windows (in terms of a waste loading interval over which …

The Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program (formerly know as Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative, ASCI) has led the world in capability computing for the last ten years. Capability computing is defined as a world-class platform (in the Top10 of the Top500.org list) with scientific simulations running at scale on the platform. Example systems are ASCI Red, Blue-Pacific, Blue-Mountain, White, Q, RedStorm, and Purple. ASC applications have scaled to multiple thousands of CPUs and accomplished a long list of mission milestones on these ASC capability platforms. However, the computing demands of the ASC and Stockpile Stewardship programs also include a vast number of smaller scale runs for day-to-day simulations. Indeed, every 'hero' capability run requires many hundreds to thousands of much smaller runs in preparation and post processing activities. In addition, there are many aspects of the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) that can be directly accomplished with these so-called 'capacity' calculations. The need for capacity is now so great within the program that it is increasingly difficult to allocate the computer resources required by the larger capability runs. To rectify the current 'capacity' computing resource shortfall, the ASC program has allocated a large portion of the overall ASC platforms budget to …

New designs of radioactive material shipping packages are required to be evaluated in accordance with 10 CFR Part 71, ''Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Material''. This paper will discuss the use of digital radiography to evaluate the effects of the tests required by 10 CFR 71.71, Normal Conditions of Transport (NCT), and 10 CFR 71.73, Hypothetical Accident Conditions (HAC). One acceptable means of evaluating packaging performance is to subject packagings to the series of NCT and HAC tests. The evaluation includes a determination of the effect on the packaging by the conditions and tests. That determination has required that packagings be cut and sectioned to learn the actual effects on internal components. Digital radiography permits the examination of internal packaging components without sectioning a package. This allows a single package to be subjected to a series of tests. After each test, the package is digitally radiographed and the effects of particular tests evaluated. Radiography reduces the number of packages required for testing and also reduces labor and materials required to section and evaluate numerous packages. This paper will include a description of the digital radiography equipment used in the testing and evaluation of the 9977 and 9978 packages at SRNL. …

Between January 9-12, 2006 a series of experiments were performed on the DARHT-II injector to measure the beam's emittance. Part of these experiments were pepper-pot measurements. This note describes the analysis of the data, and our conclusions from the experiments.

This abstract presents a comparison of two drive mechanisms, a Rohlix{reg_sign} drive and a polymer nut drive, for precision motion controlled stages. A single-axis long-range stage with a 50 mm traverse combined with a short-range stage with a 16 {micro}m traverse at a operational bandwidth of 2.2 kHz were developed to evaluate the performance of the drives. The polymer nut and Rohlix{reg_sign} drives showed 4 nm RMS and 7 nm RMS positioning capabilities respectively, with traverses of 5 mm at a maximum velocity of 0.15 mm{sup -}s{sup -1} with the short range stage operating at a 2.2 kHz bandwidth. Further results will be presented in the subsequent sections.

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A controller for the third generation, 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) piezoelectric translation stage shown in Figure 1 is presented. This was tested by monitoring all six coordinate motions using an orthogonal array of six, high-resolution capacitance gages. The full 6 DOF matrix transformations and controller block diagrams for this system have been measured and the system operated under closed loop control. Results of early experiments to determine the 21 open loop response functions as well as preliminary results showing the closed loop response for the 3 linear translations are presented in this abstract. The ultimate goal of this project is to incorporate this 6 DOF stage within a long range X-Y scanning system for nanometer pick-and-place capability over an area of 50 x 50 mm. The control strategy and early results from this system will be presented.

We calculate centrifugal force for a short bunch in vacuum moving in a circular orbit and estimate the emittance growth of the beam in a bend due to this force. Many of the basic features of the coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) of short bunches and its effect on beam dynamics in accelerators are now well established. The effect is usually described in terms of the longitudinal force, or wakefield, that causes the energy loss in the beam, and also redistributes the energy between the particles by accelerating the head and decelerating the tail of the bunch. Coherent radiation becomes most important for short bunches and high currents. More subtle features of CSR such as transition effect due to the entrance to and exit from the bend, CSR force in the undulator, and shielding due to the close metallic boundaries have been also studied. Much less is known about the transverse force in a short bunch moving on a circular orbit. The problem has been treated in several papers beginning from R. Talman's work, who pointed out that the centrifugal force of a rotating bunch can result in a noticeable tune shift of betatron oscillations. Later, an important correction to the …

This paper discusses the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods to understand and characterize erosion of the floor and internal structures in the slurry mixing vessels in the Defense Waste Processing Facility. An initial literature survey helped identify the principal drivers of erosion for a solids laden fluid: the solids content of the working fluid, the regions of recirculation and particle impact with the walls, and the regions of high wall shear. A series of CFD analyses was performed to characterize slurry-flow profiles, wall shear, and particle impingement distributions in key components such as coil restraints and the vessel floor. The calculations showed that the primary locations of high erosion resulting from abrasion were at the leading edge of the coil guide, the tank floor below the insert plate of the coil guide support, and the upstream lead-in plate. These modeling results based on the calculated high shear regions were in excellent agreement with the observed erosion sites in both location and the degree of erosion. Loss of the leading edge of the coil guide due to the erosion damage during the slurry mixing operation did not affect the erosion patterns on the tank floor. Calculations for a lower …

The research and development programs in support of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) and other high level waste vitrification processes require the use of both nonradioactive waste simulants and actual waste samples. The nonradioactive waste simulants have been used for laboratory testing, pilot-scale testing and full-scale integrated facility testing. Recent efforts have focused on matching the physical properties of actual sludge. These waste simulants were designed to reproduce the chemical and, if possible, the physical properties of the actual high level waste. This technical report documents a study of simulant production methods for high level waste simulated sludge and their impact on the physical properties of the resultant SRAT product. The sludge simulants used in support of DWPF have been based on average waste compositions and on expected or actual batch compositions. These sludge simulants were created to primarily match the chemical properties of the actual waste. These sludges were produced by generating manganese dioxide, MnO{sub 2}, from permanganate ion (MnO{sub 4}{sup -}) and manganous nitrate, precipitating ferric nitrate and nickel nitrate with sodium hydroxide, washing with inhibited water and then addition of other waste species. While these simulated sludges provided a good match for chemical reaction studies, they …

Assessing the performance of the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, requires an understanding of the chemistry of the water that moves through the host rock. The uniaxial compression method used to extract pore water from samples of tuffaceous borehole core was successful only for nonwelded tuff. An ultracentrifugation method was adopted to extract pore water from samples of the densely welded tuff of the proposed repository horizon. Tests were performed using both methods to determine the efficiency of pore water extraction and the potential effects on pore water chemistry. Test results indicate that uniaxial compression is most efficient for extracting pore water from nonwelded tuff, while ultracentrifugation is more successful in extracting pore water from densely welded tuff. Pore water splits taken from a single nonwelded tuff core during uniaxial compression tests have shown changes in pore water chemistry with increasing pressure for calcium, chloride, sulfate, and nitrate, while the chemistry of pore water splits from welded and nonwelded tuffs using ultracentrifugation indicates that there is no significant fractionation of solutes.

The thrust of this research was to identify and understand current limiting mechanisms (CLMs) that limit the current carrying capacity of (Bi,Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox (2223) in Ag-sheathed wire. Our program concentrated on developing new methods to identify CLMs at the micrometer scale and new processing techniques to eliminate CLMs. All of the DOE Superconductivity Partnership Initiative (SPI) programs are using 2223 wire, so increasing the critical current density (Jc) in the wire can improve the technical performance of the demonstration projects, and at the same time it can decrease the cost of the wire. The important cost metric for superconducting wire is $/kAm, so increasing Jc, which is in the denominator, decreases the wire cost. The obvious CLMs were micrometer size obstacles in the 2223 ceramic that block current flow, including: misaligned grains, cracks, pores, and nonsuperconducting phases. Pores and cracks - regions where there is no superconductor or the grains are not physically connected to one another ? cannot carry supercurrent, so they were the first CLMs we tried to eliminate with improved processing. Prior to the contract, we had started investigating overpressure (OP) processing with Williams at ORNL to heal cracks and remove pores. OP processing, which is a variant …

A non-technical introduction to the design of web sites for archives based on the experiences of the SLAC Archives and History Office in designing and redesigning its own web site.

Spontaneous mixing of materials at unstably stratified interfaces occurs in a wide variety of atmospheric, oceanic, geophysical and astrophysical flows. The Rayleigh-Taylor instability, in particular, plays key roles in the death of stars, planet formation and the quest for controlled thermonuclear fusion. Despite its ubiquity, fundamental questions regarding Rayleigh-Taylor instability persist. Among such questions are: Does the flow forget its initial conditions? Is the flow self-similar? What is the value of the scaling constant? How does mixing influence the growth rate? Here we show results from a 3072{sup 3} grid-point Direct Numerical Simulation in an attempt to answer these and other questions. The data indicate that the scaling constant cannot be found by fitting a curve to the width of the mixing region (as is common practice) but can only be accurately obtained by recourse to the similarity equation for the growth rate. The data further establish that the ratio of kinetic energy to released potential energy is not constant, as has heretofore been assumed. The simulated flow reaches a Reynolds number of 32,000, far exceeding that of all previous simulations. The latter stages of the simulation reveal a weak Reynolds number dependence, which may have profound consequences for modeling …

In support of the HB-Line Engineering agitator mixing project, flow pattern calculations have been made for a 90{sup o} apart and helical pitch agitator submerged in a flat tank containing dissolver baskets. The work is intended to determine maximum agitator speed to keep the dissolver baskets from contacting the agitator for the nominal tank liquid level. The analysis model was based on one dissolver basket located on the bottom surface of the flat tank for a conservative estimate. The modeling results will help determine acceptable agitator speeds and tank liquid levels to ensure that the dissolver basket is kept from contacting the agitator blade during HB-Line dissolver tank operations. The numerical modeling and calculations have been performed using a computational fluid dynamics approach. Three-dimensional steady-state momentum and continuity equations were used as the basic equations to estimate fluid motion driven by an agitator with four 90{sup o} pitched blades or three flat blades. Hydraulic conditions were fully turbulent (Reynolds number about 1 x 10{sup 5}). A standard two-equation turbulence model ({kappa},{var_epsilon}), was used to capture turbulent eddy motion. The commercial finite volume code, Fluent [5], was used to create a prototypic geometry file with a non-orthogonal mesh. Hybrid meshing was …

B mesons are unique among well-established non-quarkonium mesons in their ability to decay into baryons. Baryonic B decays offer a wide range of interesting areas of study: they can be used to test our theoretical understanding of rare decay processes involving baryons, search for direct CP violation and study low-energy QCD. This thesis presents measurements of branching fractions and a study of the decay dynamics of the charmless three-body decays of B meson into p{bar p}h final states, where h = {pi}{sup +}, K{sup +}, K{sub S}{sup 0}, K*{sup 0} or K*{sup +}. With a sample of 232 million {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} events collected with the BaBar detector, we report the first observation of the B {yields} p{bar p}K*{sup 0} decay, and provide improved measurements of branching fractions of the other modes. The distribution of the three final-state particles is of particular interest since it provides dynamical information on the possible presence of exotic intermediate states such as the hypothetical pentaquark states {Theta}*{sup ++} and {Theta}{sup +}in the m{sub pK{sup +}} and m{sub pK{sub S}{sup 0}} spectra, respectively, or glueball states (such as the tensor glueball f{sub J}(2220)) in the m{sub p{bar p}} spectrum. No evidence for exotic states …