Initial physical dosimetry measurements have been completed using activation spectrometry and thermoluminiscent dosimeters to characterize the BNCT irradiation facility developed at the RA-1 research reactor operated by the Argentine National Atomic Energy Commission in Buenos Aires. Some biological scoping irradiations have also been completed using a small-animal (hamster) oral mucosa tumor model. Results indicate that the RA-1 neutron source produces useful dose rates but that some improvements in the initial configuration will be needed to optimize the spectrum for thermal-neutron BNCT research applications.

Abstracts and proceedings of the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Radiation Research Society held in Denver, Colorado on October 16-19, 2005.

Research at the world's accelerator- (storage-ring and linac) based light sources is one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing fields of science. It frequently results in direct benefits to society, thereby demonstrating the value of the research with very concrete examples, but this is not widely understood or appreciated outside of the immediate user community. Our growing group of light source communicators from facilities in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, inspired by the Interactions.org Web site created by high-energy (elementary-particle)physics communicators, concluded that a light source community Web site (lightsources.org) would be the best tool for establishing effective collaboration between the communications offices of the world's light sources and to maximize the impact of our efforts. We envision lightsources.org to serve as a one-stop-shopping site for information about all aspects of light sources and the research they make possible. Audiences to be served include science communicators, the press, policymakers, the light source community, the wider scientific community, the science-interested public, and students and educators. Our proposal has been sent to the world's light source facility directors by J. Murray Gibson (APS) and William G. Stirling (ESRF). As a result,light sources.org is now being supported by a growing list of …

We describe the status of a sensitive search for halo axions with masses in the {mu}eV range. A tunable large-volume and low-loss microwave cavity is operated at low temperature in a strong magnetic field. Resonant Primakoff conversion of axions into photons takes place when the cavity frequency is matched to the axion mass. No positive signal has been found so far, and we are able to exclude hadronic axions as the dominant halo component over a significant axion mass range. Future plans for a detector upgrade are outlined.

Radiative strength functions in {sup 152,154}Eu nuclei for {gamma}-ray energies below 6 MeV have been investigated. Neutron capture for incident neutron energies <1eV up to 100 keV has been measured for {sup 151,153}Eu targets. Properties of resonances in these two nuclei are examined. The measurements are compared to simulation of cascades performed with various models for the radiative strength function. Comparison between experimental data and simulation suggests an existence of the low-energy resonance in these two nuclei.

The nuclear/radioactive threat to homeland security posed by terrorists can be broken into four categories. Of highest concern is the use of an improvised nuclear device (IND). An IND, as its name implies, is a nuclear explosive device. It produces nuclear yield, and this nuclear yield has catastrophic effects. An IND is the ultimate terrorist weapon, and terrorist groups are actively attempting to acquire nuclear weapons. Detonation of an IND could dwarf the devastation of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. Dealing with the aftermath of an IND would be horrific. Rescue efforts and cleanup would be hazardous and difficult. Workers would have to wear full protection suits and self-contained breathing apparatus. Because of the residual radioactivity, in certain locations they could only work short times before acquiring their ''lifetime'' dose. As with the Chernobyl event, some rescue workers might well expose themselves to lethal doses of radiation, adding to the casualty toll. Enormous volumes of contaminated debris would have to be removed and disposed. If a terrorist group decides not to pursue an actual nuclear device, it might well turn to Radiological Dispersal Devices (RDDs) or ''dirty bombs'' as they are often called. RDDs spread radioactivity …

Detailed studies of preserved hypervelocity impact residues on spacecraft multi-layer insulation foils have yielded important information about the flux of small particles from different sources in low-Earth orbit. We have extended our earlier research on impacts occurring in LEO to design and testing of a compact capture device. MULPEX (MUlti-Layer Polymer EXperiment) is simple, cheap to build, lightweight, of no power demand, easy to deploy, and optimized for the efficient collection of impact residue for analysis on return to Earth. The capture medium is a stack of very thin (8 micron and 40 micron) polyimide foils, supported on poly-tetrafluoroethylene sheet frames, surrounded by a protective aluminum casing. The uppermost foil has a very thin metallic coating for thermal protection and resistance to atomic oxygen and ultra-violet exposure. The casing provides a simple detachable interface for deployment on the spacecraft, facing into the desired direction for particle collection. On return to the laboratory, the stacked foils are separated for examination in a variable pressure scanning electron microscope, without need for surface coating. Analysis of impact residue is performed using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometers. Our laboratory experiments, utilizing buck-shot firings of analogues to micrometeoroids (35-38 micron olivine) and space debris (4 micron …

Superconducting tunnel junction (STJ) X-ray spectrometers have been developed for synchrotron-based high-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy. We are quantifying the improvements in sensitivity that STJ spectrometers can offer for the analysis of dilute specimens over conventional semiconductor and grating spectrometers. We present analytical equations to quantify the improvements in terms of spectrometer resolution, detection efficiency and count rate capabilities as a function of line separation and spectral background. We discuss the implications of this analysis for L-edge spectroscopy of first-row transition metals.

We present the results of Raman scattering measurements of diamond ({sup 12}C) and of cubic boron nitride (cBN), and fluorescence measurements of ruby, Sm:YAG, and SrB{sub 4}O{sub 7}:Sm{sup 2+} in the diamond anvil cell (DAC) at high pressures and temperatures. These measurements were accompanied by synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements on gold. We have extended the room-temperature calibration of Sm:YAG in a quasihydrostatic regime up to 100 GPa. The ruby scale is shown to systematically underestimate pressure at high pressures and temperatures compared with all other sensors. On this basis, we propose a new high-temperature ruby pressure scale that should be valid to at least 100 GPa and 850 K. Historically, the accurate determination of pressure at high temperature and ultrahigh pressure has been extremely difficult. In fact, the lack of a general pressure scale nullifies, to a significant extent, the great innovations that have been made in recent years in DAC experimental techniques [1]. Now, more than ever a scale is required whose accuracy is comparable with that of the experimental data. Since pressure in the DAC is dependent on temperature (due to thermal pressure and also to changes in the properties of the materials that constitute the DAC) such …

The aging of polymeric composite materials, such as filled polydimethylsiloxane foams, through factors such as thermal and mechanical stresses, environment, radiation, and chemical attack can affect the length of time for which a given material can maintain its engineering performance. Iterative interactions and cumulative reactions may result in the material or device reaching a critical age where its properties fail unexpectedly and catastrophically. The mechanical property changes associated with multi-mechanism aging may be subtle, and may not necessarily change linearly as a function of time in service. Since such linear relationships are often used in lifetime predictions, there is a fundamental need to develop and employ spectroscopic methods to investigate the structural and motional changes that occur in these organic-inorganic materials as a result of aging in chemically, thermally, or radioactively harsh environments. We have used multinuclear nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to characterize aging signatures in a series of PDMS based composite materials. Unfortunately, {sup 13}C, {sup 29}Si, and {sup 1}H magic angle spinning NMR spectra remain unchanged with gamma radiation exposure up to 50Mrad. This suggests that the speciation related changes are small and occur at a frequency of less than approximately 1% of the monomer units. As …

The Fanconi anemia (FA) proteins overlap with those of homologous recombination through FANCD1/BRCA2, but the biochemical functions of other FA proteins are unknown. By constructing and characterizing a null fancg mutant of hamster CHO cells, we present several new insights for FA. The fancg cells show a broad sensitivity to genotoxic agents, not supporting the conventional concept of sensitivity to only DNA crosslinking agents. The aprt mutation rate is normal, but hprt mutations are reduced, which we ascribe to the lethality of large deletions. CAD and dhfr gene amplification rates are increased, implying excess chromosomal breakage during DNA replication, and suggesting amplification as a contributing factor to cancer-proneness in FA patients. In S-phase cells, both spontaneous and mutagen-induced Rad51 nuclear foci are elevated. These results support a model in which FancG protein helps to prevent collapse of replication forks by allowing translesion synthesis or lesion bypass through homologous recombination.

Article discussing research on the bonding and structure of copper nitrenes.

Secondary neutron-production cross-sections have beenmeasured from interactions of 230 MeV/nucleon He, 400 MeV/nucleon N, 400MeV/nucleon Kr, 400 MeV/nucleon Xe, 500 MeV/nucleon Fe, and 600MeV/nucleon Ne interacting in a variety of elemental and compositetargets. We report the double-differential production cross sections,angular distributions, energy spectra, and total cross sections from allsystems. Neutron energies were measured using the time-of-flighttechnique, and were measured at laboratory angles between 5 deg and 80deg. The spectra exhibit behavior previously reported in otherheavy-ion-induced neutron production experiments; namely, a peak atforward angles near the energy corresponding to the beam velocity, withthe remaining spectra generated by preequilibrium and equilibriumprocesses. The double-differential spectra are fitted with amoving-source parameterization. Observations on the dependence of thetotal cross sections on target and projectile mass arediscussed.

We report a Dalitz-plot analysis of the charmless hadronic decays of charged B mesons to the state K{sup {+-}} {pi}{sup {-+}}{pi}{sup {+-}}. Using a sample of 226.0 {+-} 2.5 million B{bar B}pairs collected by the BABAR detector, measure the magnitudes and phases of the intermediate resonant and nonresonant amplitudes both charge conjugate decays. We present measurements of the corresponding branching and their charge asymmetries that supersede those of previous BABAR analyses. We find the asymmetries to be consistent with zero.

In this article we will review recent BABAR measurements of Unitarity Triangle angle {beta} in B meson decays to charm and charmonium.

The authors observe a new D{sub s} meson with mass (2856.6 {+-} 1.5{sub stat.} {+-} 5.0{sub syst.}) MeV/c{sup 2} and width (48 {+-} 7{sub stat.} {+-} 10{sub syst.}) MeV/c{sup 2} decaying into D{sup 0}K{sup +} and D{sup +}K{sub S}{sup 0}. In the same mass distributions they also observe a broad structure with mass (2688 {+-} 4{sub stat.} {+-} 3{sub syst.}) MeV/c{sup 2} and width (112 {+-} 7{sub stat.} {+-} 36{sub syst.}) MeV/c{sup 2}. To obtain this result they use 240 fb{sup -1} of data recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric e{sup +}e{sup -} storage rings at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center running at center-of-mass energies near 10.6 GeV.

This article discusses a combined experimental and computational study of TpRu{P(pyr)3} (NCMe)Me (pyr = N-pyrrolyl).

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The many motivations for employing agent-based computation in the social sciences are reviewed. It is argued that there exist three distinct uses of agent modeling techniques. One such use--the simplest--is conceptually quite close to traditional simulation in operations research. This use arises when equations can be formulated that completely describe a social process, and these equations are explicitly soluble, either analytically or numerically. In the former case, the agent model is merely a tool for presenting results, while in the latter it is a novel kind of Monte Carlo analysis. A second, more commonplace usage of computational agent models arises when mathematical models can be written down but not completely solved. In this case the agent-based model can shed significant light on the solution structure, illustrate dynamical properties of the model, serve to test the dependence of results on parameters and assumptions, and be a source of counter-examples. Finally, there are important classes of problems for which writing down equations is not a useful activity. In such circumstances, resort to agent-based computational models may be the only way available to explore such processes systematically, and constitute a third distinct usage of such models.

Solar opacities are presented from the center of the Sun to the photosphere. The temperatures, densities and hydrogen mass fractions are taken from the standard solar model. For the heavy element abundances the Grevesse mixture is used. In the solar interior photoabsorption is dominated by free-free absorption and they compare two sets of opacities based on two different models for the inverse bremsstrahlung. The radiative luminosities calculated from the two sets of opacities are compared with those predicted by previous models of the standard solar model and also with the known luminosity of the Sun. pressures, specific heats and the speed of sound in the solar plasma are also presented.

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Results are presented for turbulence simulations with the fluid edge turbulence code BOUT [1]. The present study is focused on turbulence in the divertor leg region and on the role of the X-point in the structure of turbulence. Results of the present calculations indicate that the ballooning effects are important for the divertor fluctuations. The X-point shear leads to weak correlation of turbulence across the X-point regions, in particular for large toroidal wavenumber. For the saturated amplitudes of the divertor region turbulence it is found that amplitudes of density fluctuations are roughly proportional to the local density of the background plasma. The amplitudes of electron temperature and electric potential fluctuations are roughly proportional to the local electron temperature of the background plasma.

Neutron capture for incident neutron energies <1eV up to 100 keV has been measured for {sup 151,153}Eu targets. The highly efficient DANCE (Detector for Advanced Neutron Capture Experiments) array coupled with the intense neutron beam at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center is used for the experiment. Stable Eu isotopes mass separated and electroplated on Be backings were used. Properties of well-resolved, strong resonances in two Eu nuclei are examined. The parameters for most of these resonances are known. Detailed multiplicity information for each resonance is obtained employing the high granularity of the DANCE array. The radiative decay cascades corresponding to each resonance are obtained in the experiment. The measurements are compared to simulation of these cascades which calculated with various models for the radiative strength function. Comparison between the experimental data and simulation provides an opportunity to investigate the average quantities.