Article on the onset of ferrielectricity and the hidden nature of nanoscale polarization in ferroelectric thin films.

Yucca Mountain (YM), Nevada, has been proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy as a geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. In this study, we investigate the potential for groundwater advective pathways from underground nuclear testing areas on the Nevada Test Site (NTS) to the YM area by estimating the timeframe for advective travel and its uncertainty resulting from porosity value uncertainty for hydrogeologic units (HGUs) in the region. We perform sensitivity analysis to determine the most influential HGUs on advective radionuclide travel times from the NTS to the YM area. Groundwater pathways and advective travel times are obtained using the particle tracking package MODPATH and flow results from the Death Valley Regional Flow System (DVRFS) model by the U.S. Geological Survey. Values and uncertainties of HGU porosities are quantified through evaluation of existing site porosity data and expert professional judgment and are incorporated through Monte Carlo simulations to estimate mean travel times and uncertainties. We base our simulations on two steady state flow scenarios for the purpose of long term prediction and monitoring. The first represents pre-pumping conditions prior to groundwater development in the area in 1912 (the initial stress period of the DVRFS model). …

This presentation describes the tools and services provided by the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for modeling the impacts of airborne hazardous materials. NARAC provides atmospheric plume modeling tools and services for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear airborne hazards. NARAC can simulate downwind effects from a variety of scenarios, including fires, industrial and transportation accidents, radiation dispersal device explosions, hazardous material spills, sprayers, nuclear power plant accidents, and nuclear detonations. NARAC collaborates on radiological dispersion source terms and effects models with Sandia National Laboratories and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NARAC was designated the interim provider of capabilities for the Department of Homeland Security's Interagency Modeling and Atmospheric Assessment Center by the Homeland Security Council in April 2004. The NARAC suite of software tools include simple stand-alone, local-scale plume modeling tools for end-user's computers, and Web- and Internet-based software to access advanced modeling tools and expert analyses from the national center at LLNL. Initial automated, 3-D predictions of plume exposure limits and protective action guidelines for emergency responders and managers are available from the center in 5-10 minutes. These can be followed immediately by quality-assured, refined analyses by 24 x 7 on-duty or …

High-speed microchannel plate (MCP)–based imagers are critical detectors for x-ray diagnostics employed on Z-experiments at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) to measure time-resolved x-ray spectra and to image dynamic hohlraums. A multiframe design using eight half strips in one imager permits recordings of radiation events in discrete temporal snapshots to yield a time-evolved movie. We present data using various facilities to characterize the performance of this design. These characterization studies include DC and pulsed-voltage biased measurements in both saturated and linear operational regimes using an intense, short-pulsed UV laser. Electrical probe measurements taken to characterize the shape of the HV pulse propagating across the strips help to corroborate the spatial gain dependence.

Static {sup 1}H Multiple Quantum Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (MQ NMR) has recently been shown to provide detailed insight into the network structure of pristine silicon based polymer systems. The MQ NMR method characterizes the residual dipolar couplings of the silicon chains that depend on the average molecular weight between physical or chemical constraints. Recently, we have employed MQ NMR methods to characterize the changes in network structure in a series of complex silicone materials subject to numerous degradation mechanisms, including thermal, radiative, and desiccative. For thermal degradation, MQ NMR shows that a combination of crosslinking due to post-curing reactions as well as random chain scissioning reactions occurs. For radiative degradation, the primary mechanisms are via crosslinking both in the network and at the interface between the polymer and the inorganic filler. For samples stored in highly desiccating environments, MQ NMR shows that the average segmental dynamics are slowed due to increased interactions between the filler and the network polymer chains.

Point design ignition capsules designed for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) currently use an x-ray-driven Be(Cu) ablator to compress the DT fuel. Ignition specifications require that the mass of unablated Be(Cu), called residual mass, be known to within 1% of the initial ablator mass when the fuel reaches peak velocity. The specifications also require that the implosion bang time, a surrogate measurement for implosion velocity, be known to +/- 50 ps RMS. These specifications guard against several capsule failure modes associated with low implosion velocity or low residual mass. Experiments designed to measure and to tune experimentally the amount of residual mass are being developed as part of the National Ignition Campaign (NIC). Tuning adjustments of the residual mass and peak velocity can be achieved using capsule and laser parameters. We currently plan to measure the residual mass using streaked radiographic imaging of surrogate tuning capsules. Alternative techniques to measure residual mass using activated Cu debris collection and proton spectrometry have also been developed. These developing techniques, together with bang time measurements, will allow us to tune ignition capsules to meet NIC specs.

To validate our modeling of the macroscopic and microscopic hydrodynamic and equation of state response of these candidate ablators to NIC-relevant x-ray drive, a multi-lab experimental program has been verifying the behavior of these new ablators. First, the pressures for onset and termination of melt for both Be and HDC under single or double shock drive has been measured at the Z and Omega facilities. Second, the level and effect of hard x-ray preheat has been quantified in scaled experiments at the Omega facility. Third, a long planar x-ray drive has been developed to check 2D and 3D perturbation growth at the ablation front upon acceleration. The concept has been extended to study growth at and near the ablator-ice interface upon deceleration. In addition, experimental designs for validating the expected low level of perturbation seeding due to possible residual microstructure after melt during first and second shock transit in Be and HDC have been completed. Results so far suggest both Be and HDC can remain ablator choices and have guided pulse shaping designs.

Characterization of transuranic waste is needed to makedecisions about waste site remediation. Soil-gas sampling for xenonisotopes can be used to define the locations of spent fuel andtransuranic wastes. Radioxenon in the subsurface is characteristic oftransuranic waste and can be measured with extreme sensitivity usinglarge-volume soilgas samples. Measurements at the Hanford Site showed133Xe and 135Xe levels indicative of 240Pu spontaneous fission. Stablexenon isotopic ratios from fission are distinct from atmospheric xenonbackground. Neutron capture by 135Xe produces an excess of 136Xe inreactor-produced xenon providing a means of distinguishing spent fuelfrom separated transuranic materials.

When complete the National Ignition Facility (NIF) will be the world's largest and most energetic laser and will be capable of achieving for the first time fusion ignition in the laboratory. Detecting optics features within the laser beamlines and sizing them at diameters of 0.1 mm to 10 mm allows timely decisions concerning refurbishment and will help with the routine operation of the system. Horizontally polarized shear waves at 10 MHz were shown to accurately detect, locate, and size features created by laser operations from 0.5 mm to 8 mm by placing sensors at the edge of the optic. The shear wave technique utilizes highly directed beams. The outer edge of an optic can be covered with shear wave transducers on four sides. Each transducer sends a pulse into the optic and any damage reflects the pulse back to the transmitter. The transducers are multiplexed, and the collected time waveforms are enveloped and replicated across the width of the element. Multiplying the data sets from four directions produces a map of reflected amplitude to the fourth power, which images the surface of the optic. Surface area can be measured directly from the image, and maximum depth was shown to be …

Mask contributors to line-edge roughness (LER) have recently been shown to be an issue of concern for both the accuracy of current resist evaluation tests as well the ultimate LER requirements for the 22-nm production node. Problems arise from mask absorber LER as well as mask reflector or surface roughness leading to random phase variations in the reflected beam. Not only do these mask contributors effect to total measured LER in resist, but they also effect LER spatial characteristic such as the LER power spectral density and related descriptors of correlation length and roughness exponent. Noting that these characteristics are important in the understanding of LER, it is crucial to understand how mask effects impact these parameters. Moreover, understanding how these metrics respond to mask effects may lead to an experimental mechanism for experimentally evaluating the importance of mask contributors to LER. Here we use computer modeling to study the LER spatial metrics arising from mask effects. We further describe the effects of illumination conditions and defocus on the metrics and compare the results to those expected from intrinsic resist LER.

We present the first collective x-ray scattering measurements of plasmons in solid-density plasmas. The forward scattering spectra of a laser-produced narrow-band x-ray line from isochorically heated beryllium show that the plasmon frequency is a sensitive measure of the electron density. Dynamic structure calculations that include collisions and detailed balance match the measured plasmon spectrum indicating that this technique will enable new applications to determine the equation of state and compressibility of dense matter.

We present a comprehensive wavelength survey of Fe L-shell X-ray lines between 7 and 11 {angstrom} measured using flat crystal spectrometers and the EBIT-I and EBIT-II electron beam ion traps at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This survey includes all significant emission lines produced by over 200 n {yields} 2 transitions in Fe XIX-XXIV, with n = 4-10. The identification and assignment of transitions are made with the help of detailed theoretical modeling using the Flexible Atomic Code (FAC).

This paper surveys theory issues associated with inducing convective cells through divertor tile biasing in a tokamak to broaden the scrape-off layer (SOL). The theory is applied to the Mega-Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST), where such experiments are planned in the near future. Criteria are presented for achieving strong broadening and for exciting shear-flow turbulence in the SOL; these criteria are shown to be attainable in practice. It is also shown that the magnetic shear present in the vicinity of the X-point is likely to confine the potential perturbations to the divertor region below the X-point, leaving the part of the SOL that is in direct contact with the core plasma intact. The current created by the biasing and the associated heating power are found to be modest.

Continuous melting of phosphate laser glass is now being used for the first time to prepare meter-scale amplifier optics for megajoule lasers. The scale-up to continuous melting from the previous one-at-a-time ''discontinuous'' batch process has allowed for the production of glass at rates more than 20 times faster, 5 times cheaper, and with 2-3 times better optical quality. Almost 8000 slabs of laser glass will be used in high-energy, high-peak-power laser systems that are being designed and built for fusion energy research. The success of this new continuous melting process, which is a result of a six year joint R&D program between government and industry, stems from numerous technical advances which include (1) dehydroxylating the glass to concentrations less than {approx}100 ppm OH; (2) minimizing damage-causing Pt-inclusions; (3) preventing glass fracture; (4) minimizing impurities such as Cu and Fe to <20 ppm; (5) improving forming methods to get high optical homogeneity glass; and (6) developing large aperture quality assurance tools to verify properties of the glass.

Staphylothermus marinus is an anaerobic, sulfur-reducing peptide fermenter of the archaeal phylum Crenarchaeota. It is the third heterotrophic, obligate sulfur reducing crenarchaeote to be sequenced and provides an opportunity for comparative analysis of the three genomes. The 1.57 Mbp genome of the hyperthermophilic crenarchaeote Staphylothermus marinus has been completely sequenced. The main energy generating pathways likely involve 2-oxoacid:ferredoxin oxidoreductases and ADP-forming acetyl-CoA synthases. S. marinus possesses several enzymes not present in other crenarchaeotes including a sodium ion-translocating decarboxylase likely to be involved in amino acid degradation. S. marinus lacks sulfur-reducing enzymes present in the other two sulfur-reducing crenarchaeotes that have been sequenced - Thermofilum pendens and Hyperthermus butylicus. Instead it has three operons similar to the mbh and mbx operons of Pyrococcus furiosus, which may play a role in sulfur reduction and/or hydrogen production. The two marine organisms, S. marinus and H. butylicus, possess more sodium-dependent transporters than T. pendens and use symporters for potassium uptake while T. pendens uses an ATP-dependent potassium transporter. T. pendens has adapted to a nutrient-rich environment while H. butylicus is adapted to a nutrient-poor environment, and S. marinus lies between these two extremes. The three heterotrophic sulfur-reducing crenarchaeotes have adapted to their habitats, terrestrial …

Background: The distribution of the chromatin-associatedproteins plays a key role in directing nuclear function. Previously, wedeveloped an image-based method to quantify the nuclear distributions ofproteins and showed that these distributions depended on the phenotype ofhuman mammary epithelial cells. Here we describe a method that creates ahierarchical tree of the given cell phenotypes and calculates thestatistical significance between them, based on the clustering analysisof nuclear protein distributions. Results: Nuclear distributions ofnuclear mitotic apparatus protein were previously obtained fornon-neoplastic S1 and malignant T4-2 human mammary epithelial cellscultured for up to 12 days. Cell phenotype was defined as S1 or T4-2 andthe number of days in cultured. A probabilistic ensemble approach wasused to define a set of consensus clusters from the results of multipletraditional cluster analysis techniques applied to the nucleardistribution data. Cluster histograms were constructed to show how cellsin any one phenotype were distributed across the consensus clusters.Grouping various phenotypes allowed us to build phenotype trees andcalculate the statistical difference between each group. The resultsshowed that non-neoplastic S1 cells could be distinguished from malignantT4-2 cells with 94.19 percent accuracy; that proliferating S1 cells couldbe distinguished from differentiated S1 cells with 92.86 percentaccuracy; and showed no significant difference between the variousphenotypes of T4-2 …

In order to stabilize the beams at the interaction point, the X-band linear collider proposes to use a combination of techniques: inter-train and intra-train beam-beam feedback, passive vibration isolation, and active vibration stabilization based on either accelerometers or laser interferometers. These systems operate in a technologically redundant fashion: simulations indicate that if one technique proves unusable in the final machine, the others will still support adequate luminosity. Experiments underway for all of these technologies have already demonstrated adequate performance.

A large-scale vadose zone-groundwater bioremediationdemonstration was conducted at the Savannah River Site (SRS) by injectingseveral types of gases (ambient air, methane, and nitrous oxide andtriethyl phosphate mixtures) through a horizontal well in the groundwaterat a 175 ft depth. Simultaneously, soil gas was extracted through aparallel horizontal well in the vadose zone at a 80 ft depth Monitoringrevealed a wide range of spatial and temporal variations ofconcentrations of VOCs, enzymes, and biomass in groundwater and vadosezone monitoring boreholes over the field site. One of the powerful modernapproaches to analyze uncertain and imprecise data chemical data is basedon the use of methods of fuzzy systems modeling. Using fuzzy modeling weanalyzed the spatio-temporal TCE and PCE concentrations and methanotrophdensities in groundwater to assess the effectiveness of differentcampaigns of air stripping and bioremediation, and to determine the fuzzyrelationship between these compounds. Our analysis revealed some detailsabout the processes involved in remediation, which were not identified inthe previous studies of the SRS demonstration. We also identified somefuture directions for using fuzzy systems modeling, such as theevaluation of the mass balance of the vadose zone - groundwater system,and the development of fuzzy-ruled methods for optimization of managingremediation activities, predictions, and risk assessment.

Adenosine deaminases that act on RNA (ADARs) catalyze the site-specific conversion of adenosine to inosine in primary mRNA transcripts. These re-coding events affect coding potential, splice-sites, and stability of mature mRNAs. ADAR is an essential gene and studies in mouse, C. elegans, and Drosophila suggest its primary function is to modify adult behavior by altering signaling components in the nervous system. By comparing the sequence of isogenic cDNAs to genomic DNA, we have identified and experimentally verified 27 new targets of Drosophila ADAR. Our analyses lead us to identify new classes of genes whose transcripts are targets of ADAR including components of the actin cytoskeleton, and genes involved in ion homeostasis and signal transduction. Our results indicate that editing in Drosophila increases the diversity of the proteome, and does so in a manner that has direct functional consequences on protein function.

Using 230.2 fb{sup -1} of e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation data collected with the BABAR detector at and near the peak of the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance, 489 {+-} 55 events containing the pure leptonic decay D{sub s}{sup +} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{nu}{sub {mu}} have been isolated in charm-tagged events. The ratio of partial widths {Lambda}(D{sub s}{sup +} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{nu}{sub {mu}})/{Lambda}(D{sub s}{sup +} {yields} {phi}{pi}{sup +}) is measured to be 0.143 {+-} 0.018 {+-} 0.006 allowing a determination of the pseudoscalar decay constant f{sub D{sub 2}} = (283 {+-} 17 {+-} 7 {+-} 14) MeV. The errors are statistical, systematic, and from the D{sub s}{sup +} {yields} {phi}{pi}{sup +} branching ratio, respectively.

None

Density functional theory was used to investigate the mechanism and kinetics of methanol oxidation to formaldehyde over vanadia supported on silica, titania, and zirconia. The catalytically active site was modeled as an isolated VO{sub 4} unit attached to the support. The calculated geometry and vibrational frequencies of the active site are in good agreement with experimental measurements both for model compounds and oxide-supported vanadia. Methanol adsorption is found to occur preferentially with the rupture of a V-O-M bond (M = Si, Ti, Zr) and with preferential attachment of a methoxy group to V. The vibrational frequencies of the methoxy group are in good agreement with those observed experimentally as are the calculated isobars. The formation of formaldehyde is assumed to occur via the transfer of an H atom of a methoxy group to the O atom of the V=O group. The activation energy for this process is found to be in the range of 199-214 kJ/mol and apparent activation energies for the overall oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde are predicted to lie in the range of 112-123 kJ/mol, which is significantly higher than that found experimentally. Moreover, the predicted turnover frequency (TOF) for methanol oxidation is found to be essentially …

The flavor structure of the nucleon as revealed in parton distributions (PDF's) is central to understanding the partonic structure of the nucleon. Recent data on unpolarized PDF's and their implications for the flavor-dependent quark helicity distributions are discussed. Results are presented for spin asymmetries in inclusive and semi-inclusive cross sections for production of pions, and kaons measured by the HERMES experiment in deep-inelastic scattering of polarized positrons on proton and deuterium Targets. A full 5 component extraction of polarized quark distributions for u, d, {bar u}, {bar d}, and (s + {bar s}) is reported. Resulting valence quark distributions conform to results of earlier experiments. There is no evidence for a significant polarization of the light sea. In contrast to the conclusions inferred from studies of polarized inclusive scattering, a leading order analysis of the HERMES data suggests a zero or slightly positive polarization of the strange sea. There is no evidence for a measurable flavor asymmetry in the polarized distributions for the light sea.

RF cavities are among the most complex components of a particle accelerator. They perform optimally when all electrical, mechanical and vacuum requirements are fully integrated. This paper focuses on the mechanical design features of the new 53MHz room-temperature RF cavities (including their ancillary components) for the X-ray Ring at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). Differences between the new and previous designs of the RF cavities, input couplers, Higher-Order-Mode (HOM) dampers, and cooling and vacuum systems are reviewed. Thus far, two out of four units have already been constructed, tested, and installed into the X-Ray ring, and two additional RF cavities are planned. The features incorporated into the new all-copper RF cavities have already demonstrated superior performance over the original copper-plated steel design. The operating performance results along with some of manufacturing challenges are presented.