Article discussing the random growth of interfaces as a subordinated process.

Article discussing activity coefficients at infinite dilution for organic solutes dissolved in three 1-alkyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ionic liquids bearing short linear alkyl side chains of three to five carbons.

Article on solubility in binary solvent mixtures and anthracene dissolved in alcohol + 2-methyl-1-butanol mixtures at 298.2 K.

Article on the solubility of anthracene in ternary dibutyl ether + alcohol + cyclohexane solvent mixtures.

Article on genome-wide analysis of phenylpropanoid defence pathways.

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Understanding the fate of environmental contaminants is of fundamental importance in the development and evaluation of effective remediation strategies. Among the factors influencing the transport of these contaminants are the chemical speciation of the sample and the chemical and physical attributes of the surrounding medium. Characterization of the spatial distribution and chemical speciation at micron and submicron resolution is essential for studying the microscopic physical, geological, chemical, and biological interfaces that play a crucial role in determining contaminant fate and mobility. Hard X-ray spectroscopy and imaging are powerful techniques for the element-specific investigation of complex environmental samples at the needed micron and submicron resolution. An important advantage of these techniques results from the large penetration depth of hard X-rays in water. This minimizes the requirements for sample preparation and allows the detailed study of hydrated samples. This paper discusses some current problems in environmental science that can be addressed by using synchrotron-based X-ray imaging and spectroscopy. These concepts are illustrated by the results of recent X-ray microscopy studies at the Advanced Photon Source.

The Advanced Photon Source (APS) 7-GeV storage ring and the synchrotron radiation diagnostics have matured noticeable in the past year. The monitors now include information from two separate bending-magnet sources (one at a dispersive point in the lattice) as well as a 198-period diagnostic undulator. Data logging via EPICS of the observed transverse beam size is coupled with the measured lattice parameters to calculate emittance on-line as well. Information on the beam emittance (7 {+-} 1 nm rad) in both the standard lattice and a low {beta}{sub y} lattice, the vertical coupling (1 to 4%), and beam position and jitter are logged. In addition, measurements of divergence, (3 to 7 {micro}rad), beam bunch length ({approximately} 35 ps), and even effects of the moon's gravity on the source point image position have been performed.

The performance of beryllium-based multilayer coatings designed to reflect light of wavelengths near 11 nm, at normal incidence, is presented. These multilayer coatings are of special interest for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). The beryllium-based multilayers investigated were Mo/Be, Ru/Be and a new material combination Mo,CiBe. The highest reflectivity achieved so far is 70% at 11.3 mn with 70 bilayers of Mo/Be. However, even though high reflectivity is very important, there are other parameters to satisfy the requirements for an EUVL production tool. Multilayer stress, thermal stability, radiation stability and long term reflectance stability are of equal or greater importance. An experimental characterization of several coatings was carried out to determine the reflectivity, stress, microstructure, and long term stability of these coatings. Theoretically calculated reflectivities are compared with experimental results for different material pairs; differences between experimental and theoretical reflectivities and bandwidths are addressed. Keywords: Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, reflective coatings, multilayer deposition, beryllium.

At Argonne National Laboratory we are developing a process to convert hydrocarbon fuels to a clean hydrogen feed for a fuel cell. The process incorporates a partial oxidation/steam reforming catalyst that can process hydrocarbon feeds at lower temperatures than existing commercial catalysts. We have tested the catalyst with three diesel-type fuels: hexadecane, low-sulfur diesel fuel, and a regular diesel fuel. We achieved complete conversion of the feed to products. Hexadecane yielded products containing 60% hydrogen on a dry, nitrogen-free basis at 800 C. For the two diesel fuels, higher temperatures, >850 C, were required to approach similar levels of hydrogen in the product stream. At 800 C, hydrogen yield of the low sulfur diesel was 32%, while that of the regular diesel was 52%. Residual products in both cases included CO, CO{sub 2}, ethane, ethylene, and methane.

We present a new shape measure for tetrahedral elements that is optimal in the sense that it gives the distance of a tetrahedron from the set of inverted elements. This measure is constructed from the condition number of the linear transformation between a unit equilateral tetrahedron and any tetrahedron with positive volume. We use this shape measure to formulate two optimization objective functions that are differentiated by their goal: the first seeks to improve the average quality of the tetrahedral mesh; the second aims to improve the worst-quality element in the mesh. Because the element condition number is not defined for tetrahedral with negative volume, these objective functions can be used only when the initial mesh is valid. Therefore, we formulate a third objective function using the determinant of the element Jacobian that is suitable for mesh untangling. We review the optimization techniques used with each objective function and present experimental results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the mesh improvement and untangling methods. We show that a combined optimization approach that uses both condition number objective functions obtains the best-quality meshes.

Many recent efforts to integrate transportation and deployment simulations, although beneficial, have lacked a feature vital for seamless integration: a common data class representation. It is an objective of the Department of Defense (DoD) to standardize all classes used in object-oriented deployment simulations by developing a standard class attribute representation and behavior for all deployment simulations that rely on an underlying class representation. The Extensive Hierarchy and Object Representation for Transportation Simulations (EXHORT) is a collection of three hierarchies that together will constitute a standard and consistent class attribute representation and behavior that could be used directly by a large set of deployment simulations. The first hierarchy is the Transportation Class Hierarchy (TCH), which describes a significant portion of the defense transportation system; the other two deal with infrastructure and resource classes. EXHORT will allow deployment simulations to use the same set of underlying class data, ensure transparent exchanges, reduce the effort needed to integrate simulations, and permit a detailed analysis of the defense transportation system. This paper describes EXHORT's first hierarchy, the TCH, and provides a rationale for why it is a helpful tool for modeling major portions of the defense transportation system.

Laser-induced damage on the tensile side of vacuum-barrier fused silica optics can result in catastrophic fracture. This fracture can lead to two possible modes of failure: a benign failure resulting in a slow air leak into the vacuum chamber or an implosion. In previous work, they measured fracture in round vacuum windows and lenses and proposed a fail-safe design that would insure the benign failure mode by fracturing into only two parts, thus eliminating the possibility of implosion. In this paper they extend the previous work to include square vacuum-barrier windows and lenses.

Tokamaks in the future will use superconducting cable-in-conduit- conductors (CICC) in all poloidal field (PF) and toroidal field (TF) magnets. Conventional quench detection, the measurement of small resistive normal zone voltages ({lt}1 V) in the magnets will be complicated by the presence of large inductive voltages ({gt}4 kV). In the quench detection design for TPX, we have considered several different locations for internal co-wound voltage sensors in the cable cross-section as the primary mechanism to cancel this inductive noise. The Noise Rejection Experiment (NRE) at LLNL has been designed to evaluate which internal locations will produce the best inductive- noise cancellation, and provide us with experimental data for comparison with previously developed theory. The details of the experiments and resulting data are presented and analyzed.

Understanding the �extreme statistics� of failure at a weak link allows extrapolation of the results of small area laser damage tests to predict damage levels for the large areas pertinent to NIF/LMJ. Conceptually, it is important to focus on the fluence dependence of the surface density of damage sites. Results of different types of damage tests can be reported in terms of this sample characteristic property.

As our society becomes technologically more complex, computers are being used in greater and greater numbers of high consequence systems. Giving a machine control over the lives of humans can be disturbing, especially if the software that is run on such a machine has bugs. Formal reasoning is one of the most powerful techniques available to demonstrate the correctness of a piece of software. When reasoning about software and its development, one frequently encounters expressions that contain partial functions. As might be expected, the presence of partial functions introduces an additional dimension of difficulty to the reasoning framework. This difficulty produces an especially strong impact in the case of high consequence systems. An ability to use formal methods for constructing software is essential if we want to obtain greater confidence in such systems through formal reasoning. This is only reasonable under automation of software development and verification. However, the ubiquitous presence of partial functions prevents a uniform application to software of any tools not specifically accounting for partial functions. In this paper we will describe a framework for reasoning about software, based on the nonstrict explicit domain approach, that is applicable to a large class of software/hardware systems. In this …

The SOC 400 Surface Inspection Machine/Infrared (SIMIR) is a small, ruggedized Fourier transform infrared spectrometer having dedicated diffuse reflectance optics. The SOC 400 was designed for the purpose of detecting (qualitatively and quantitatively) oil stains on the inside surface of solid rocket motor casings in the as-sandblasted and cleaned condition at levels approaching 1 mg ft{sup {minus}2}. The performance of this instrument is described using spectral mapping techniques.

Magnetic excitations in an array of (VO){sub 2}P{sub 2}O{sub 7} single crystals have been measured using inelastic neutron scattering. Until now, (VO){sub 2}P{sub 2}O{sub 7} has been thought of as a two-leg antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin ladder with chains running in the a-direction. The present results show unequivocally that (VO){sub 2}P{sub 2}O{sub 7} is best described as an alternating spin-chain directed along the crystallographic b-direction. In addition to the expected magnon with magnetic zone-center energy gap {Delta} = 3.1 meV, a second excitation is observed at an energy just below 2{Delta}. The higher mode may be a triplet two-magnon bound state. Numerical results in support of bound modes are presented.

The results of a survey of organizational culture at a nuclear power plant are summarized and compared with those of a similar survey which has been described in the literature on high-reliability organizations. A general-purpose cultural inventory showed a profile of organizational style similar to that reported in the literature; the factor structure for the styles was also similar to that of the plant previously described. A specialized scale designed to measure safety culture did not distinguish among groups within the organization that would be expected to differ.

The paper describes a model that visually portrays radiological survey performance as basic parameters (surveyor efficiency and criteria, duration of pause, and probe speed) are varied; field and laboratory tests provided typical parameter values. The model is used to illustrate how practical constraints on the time allotted to the task can affect radiological inspection performance. Similar analyses are applicable to a variety of other tasks (airport baggage inspection, and certain types of non-destructive testing) with similar characteristics and constraints.

Recently developed short-contact-time reactors (SCTR), consisting of porous alumina monoliths coated with platinum, have been shown to produce ethylene from rich ethane/oxygen(hydrogen) mixtures with yields and selectivities comparable to conventional steam cracking, using a reactor of much smaller size. Although the overall mechanism is clearly autothermal and catalytic, the details, in particular the relative contributions of heterogeneous and homogeneous chemistry, are a matter of considerable debate. Recent experiments show that reactor performance can be further enhanced by dripping a dilute platinum solution onto the SCTR front face during reaction, resulting in catalyst deposition within only a short (several millimeter) zone of the reactor. The authors have undertaken a computational study of this system, using two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulations with full heat and mass transport and detailed heterogeneous and homogeneous kinetic mechanisms. The results indicate that front-face catalyst loading enhances reactor performance by limiting the opportunity for heterogeneous ethane reactions that produce methane. As a result, ethylene selectivity increases and CH{sub 4} selectivity decreases. The results strongly support a mechanism recently proposed by the authors, in which rapid, heterogeneous oxidation of adsorbed hydrogen consumes most of the oxygen. The resulting heat is then released to the gas phase, causing homogeneous …

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Partially premixed turbulent flames can develop flow regimes where triple flames emerge consisting of essentially premixed and non-premixed zones. The description of such phenomena requires a criterion for the detection of such zones. Such a criterion can be based on a wide range of variables including reaction rates, mass fractions of radicals, etc. These variables are not necessarily suitable for the limit of infinitely fast reactions, for instance, reaction rates are obviously not bounded in this limit. Hence a new single scalar variable based on geometric properties of mixture fraction and non-conserved variables is constructed, that allows the detection of finite rate and, in particular, triple flame domains and is bounded in the limit of infinitely fast reactions. This is first done for systems with simplified chemistry described by two variables and then generalized to combustion with complex chemistry. A pdf-sdf formalism is then outlined for the local thermodynamic state conditioned upon the degree of finite rate effects.

The effects of unsteady strain rate on the burning velocity of hydrogen-air premixed flames are studied in an opposed nozzle configuration. The numerical method employs adaptive time integration of a system of differential-algebraic equations. Detailed hydrogen-air kinetic mechanism and transport properties are considered. The equivalence ratio is varied from lean to rich premixtures in order to change the effective Lewis number. Steady Markstein numbers for small strain rate are computed and compared with experiment. Different definitions of flame burning velocity are examined under steady and unsteady flow conditions. It is found that, as the unsteady frequency increases, large deviations between different flame speeds are noted depending on the location of the flame speed evaluation. Unsteady flame response is investigated in terms of the Markstein transfer function which depends on the frequency of oscillation. In most cases, the flame speed variation attenuates at higher frequencies, as the unsteady frequency becomes comparable to the inverse of the characteristic flame time. Furthermore, unique resonance-like behavior is observed for a range of rich mixture conditions, consistent with previous studies with linearized theory.