Undergraduate thesis with the initial attempt to validate the Attention Network Test (ANT) by comparing it to a thoroughly validated measure, the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric (ANAM) battery. The author examines the validity of the ANT in order to confirm its use in both clinical and normal populations.

The investigation of two poorly understood but technologically important physical properties of silicate glasses and related materials is described. The use of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance to investigate the nature of radiation-induced damage in glasses exposed to a variety of high-energy radiation sources is discussed first. Second, the measurement of the nonlinear index of refraction coefficient in a variety of optical materials related to the design of high-power laser systems is described. The radiation damage investigations rely heavily on the comparison of experimental results for different experimental situations. The comparison of EPR lineshapes, absolute spin densities and power saturation behavior is used to probe a variety of microscopic and macroscopic aspects of radiation damage in glasses. Comparison of radiation damage associated with exposure to gamma rays and fast neutrons (and combinations thereof) are interpreted in terms of the microscopic damage mechanisms which are expected to be associated with the specific radiations. Comparison of radiation damage behavior in different types of glasses is also interpreted in terms of the behavior expected for the specific materials. The body of data which is generated is found to be internally self-consistent and is also generally consistent with the radiation damage behavior expected for specific situations. …

Direct detection of {sup 14}C by accelerator mass spectrometry has proved to be a much more sensitive method for radiocarbon dating than the decay counting method invented earlier by Libby. A small cyclotron (the cyclotrino'') was proposed for direct detection of radiocarbon in 1980. This combined the suppression of background through the use of negative ions, which had been used effectively in tandem accelerators, with the high intrinsic mass resolution of a cyclotron. Development of a small electrostatically-focused cyclotron for use as a mass spectrometer was previously reported but the sensitivity needed for detection of {sup 14}C at natural abundance was not achieved. The major contributions of this work are the integration of a high current external ion source with a small flat-field, electrostatically-focused cyclotron to comprise a system capable of measuring {sup 14}C at natural levels, and the analysis of ion motion in such a cyclotron, including a detailed analysis of phase bunching and its effect on mass resolution. A high current cesium sputter negative ion source generates a beam of carbon ions which is pre-separated with a Wien filter and is transported to the cyclotron via a series of electrostatic lenses. Beam is injected radially into the cyclotron …

The observation of multiple-quantum nuclear magnetic resonance transitions in isotropic or anisotropic liquids is shown to give readily interpretable information on molecular configurations, rates of motional processes, and intramolecular interactions. However, the observed intensity of high multiple-quantum transitions falls off dramatically as the number of coupled spins increases. The theory of multiple-quantum NMR is developed through the density matrix formalism, and exact intensities are derived for several cases (isotropic first-order systems and anisotropic systems with high symmetry) to shown that this intensity decrease is expected if standard multiple-quantum pulse sequences are used. New pulse sequences are developed which excite coherences and produce population inversions only between selected states, even though other transitions are simultaneously resonant. One type of selective excitation presented only allows molecules to absorb and emit photons in groups of n. Coherent averaging theory is extended to describe these selective sequences, and to design sequences which are selective to arbitrarily high order in the Magnus expansion. This theory and computer calculations both show that extremely good selectivity and large signal enhancements are possible.

In the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab protons and antiprotons are collided at a 1.96 TeV center of mass energy. CDF and D0 are the two experiments currently operating at the Tevatron. At these energies top quark is mostly produced via strong interactions as a top anti-top pair (t{bar t}). The top quark has an extremely short lifetime and according to the Standard Model it decays with {approx} 100% probability into a b quark and a W boson. In the ''lepton+jets'' channel, the signal from top pair production is detected for those events where one of the two W bosons decays hadronically in two quarks which we see as jets in the detector, and the other W decays into an electrically charged lepton and a neutrino. A relatively unambiguous identification in the detector is possible when we require that the charged lepton must be an electron or muon of either charge. The neutrino does not interact in the detector and its presence is inferred from an imbalance in the transverse energy of the event. They present a measurement of the top pair production cross section in p{bar p} collisions at 1.96 TeV, from a data sample collected at CDF between March …

The production of heavy quarkonium in hadronic collisions provides an ideal testing ground for our understanding of the production mechanisms for heavy quarks and the non-perturbative QCD effects that bind the quark pairs into quarkonium. In this analysis, the inclusive production cross section of the {Upsilon}(1S) bottomonium state is measured using the {Upsilon}(1S) {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -} decay mode. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 159.1 {+-} 10.3 pb{sup -1}. We determine differential cross sections as functions of the {Upsilon}(1S) transverse momentum, p{sub T}{sup {Upsilon}}, for three ranges of the {Upsilon}(1S) rapidity: 0 < |y{sup {Upsilon}}| < 0.6,0.6 < |y{sup {Upsilon}}| < 1.2 and 1.2 < |y{sup {Upsilon}}| < 1.8. The shapes of d{sigma}/d{sub p{sub T}} cross sections show little variation with rapidity and are consistent with the published Run I CDF measurement over the rapidity range |y{sup {Upsilon}}| < 0.4.

Designing an adaptive optics (AO) system for extremely large telescopes (ELT's) will present new optical engineering challenges. Several of these challenges are addressed in this work, including first-order design of multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) systems, pyramid wavefront sensors (PWFS's), and laser guide star (LGS) spot elongation. MCAO systems need to be designed in consideration of various constraints, including deformable mirror size and correction height. The y,{bar y} method of first-order optical design is a graphical technique that uses a plot with marginal and chief ray heights as coordinates; the optical system is represented as a segmented line. This method is shown to be a powerful tool in designing MCAO systems. From these analyses, important conclusions about configurations are derived. PWFS's, which offer an alternative to Shack-Hartmann (SH) wavefront sensors (WFS's), are envisioned as the workhorse of layer-oriented adaptive optics. Current approaches use a 4-faceted glass pyramid to create a WFS analogous to a quad-cell SH WFS. PWFS's and SH WFS's are compared and some newly-considered similarities and PWFS advantages are presented. Techniques to extend PWFS's are offered: First, PWFS's can be extended to more pixels in the image by tiling pyramids contiguously. Second, pyramids, which are difficult to manufacture, can …

For this study, a high throughput method for identifying and testing regulatory elements was examined. In addition, the validity of promoters predicted by FirstEF was tested. It was found that by combining computer based promoter and first exon predictions from FirstEF (Davuluri et al., 2001) with PCR-based cloning to generate luciferase reporter constructs, and by testing reporter activity in cultured mammalian cells plated in a 96 well format one could identify promoter activity in a relatively high throughput manner. The data generated in this study suggest that FirstEF predictions are sometimes incorrect. Therefore, having a strategy for defining which FirstEF predicted promoters to test first may accelerate the process. Initially testing promoters that are at a confirmed transcription start site for a gene, at a possible alternate transcription start site or in a region of conserved sequence would be the best candidates, while promoters predicted in gene desert regions may not be as easy to confirm. The luciferase assay lent itself very well to the high throughput search, however the subcloning did not always go smoothly. The numerous steps that this traditional subcloning method requires were time consuming and increased the opportunities for errors. A faster method that skips many …

A measurement of the polarization of the W boson from top quark decay is an excellent test of the V-A form of the charged-current weak interaction in the standard model. Since the longitudinal W boson is intimately related to the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism, and the standard model gives a specific prediction for the fraction of longitudinal W bosons from top decays, it is of particular interest for study. This thesis presents a measurement of W boson polarization in top quark decays through an analysis of the cos{theta}* distribution in the lepton-plus-jets channel of t{bar t} candidate events from p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. This measurement uses an integrated luminosity of {approx} 162 pb{sup -1} of data collected with the CDF Run II detector, resulting in 31 t{bar t} candidate events with at least one identified b jet. Using a binned likelihood fit to the cos{theta}* distribution from the t{bar t} candidate events found in this sample, the fraction of W bosons with longitudinal polarization is determined to be F{sub 0} = 0.99{sub -0.35}{sup +0.29}(stat.) {+-} 0.19(syst.), F{sub 0} > 0.33 {at} 95% CL. This result is consistent with the standard model prediction, given a top quark …

This thesis describes the analysis of the semileptonic decay D{sup 0} {yields} {bar K}{sup 0} {pi}{sup -} {mu}{sup +}{nu} using FOCUS data. FOCUS is a fixed target experiment at Fermilab that studies the physics of the charm quark. Particles containing charm are produced by photon-gluon fusion from the collision of a photon beam on a BeO target. The experiment is characterized by excellent vertex resolution and particle identification. The spectrometer consists of three systems for track reconstruction (two silicon systems and one multiwire proportional chamber system) and two magnets of opposite polarity. The polarity of the magnet is such that the events of e{sup +}e{sup -} pairs produced in the target (which constitutes the main background) travel through a central opening in the detectors without interactions. Particle momentum is measured from the deflection angle in the magnets. Three multicell Cerenkov counters are used for charged particle identification (for e, {pi}, K, and p). Two different tracking systems located after several interaction lengths of shielding material are used for muon identification. The energy of neutral pions and electrons is measured in two electromagnetic calorimeters, while an hadron calorimeter is used for measuring the neutron energy. During the last four years the …

In this thesis, crossed-molecular-beams studies of the reaction D + H{sub 2} {yields} DH + H at collision energies of 0.53 and 1.01 eV are reported. Chapter 1 provides a survey of important experimental and theoretical studies on the dynamics of the hydrogen exchange reaction. Chapter 2 discusses the development of the excimer-laser photolysis D atom beam source that was used in these studies and preliminary experiments on the D + H{sub 2} reaction. In Chapter 3, the differential cross section measurements are presented and compared to recent theoretical predictions. The measured differential cross sections for rotationally excited DH products showed significant deviations from recent quantum scattering calculations, in the first detailed comparison of experimental and theoretical differential cross sections. These results indicate that further work on the H{sub 3} potential energy surface, particularly the bending potential, is in order.

The discovery that ultra-intense laser pulses (I > 10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}) can produce short pulse, high energy proton beams has renewed interest in the fundamental mechanisms that govern particle acceleration from laser-solid interactions. Experiments have shown that protons present as hydrocarbon contaminants on laser targets can be accelerated up to energies > 50 MeV. Different theoretical models that explain the observed results have been proposed. One model describes a front-surface acceleration mechanism based on the ponderomotive potential of the laser pulse. At high intensities (I > 10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}), the quiver energy of an electron oscillating in the electric field of the laser pulse exceeds the electron rest mass, requiring the consideration of relativistic effects. The relativistically correct ponderomotive potential is given by U{sub p} = ([1 + I{lambda}{sup 2}/1.3 x 10{sup 18}]{sup 1/2} - 1) m{sub o}c{sup 2}, where I{lambda}{sup 2} is the irradiance in W {micro}m{sup 2}/cm{sup 2} and m{sub o}c{sup 2} is the electron rest mass. At laser irradiance of I{lambda}{sup 2} {approx} 10{sup 20} W {micro}m{sup 2}/cm{sup 2}, the ponderomotive potential can be of order several MeV. A few recent experiments--discussed in Chapter 3 of this thesis--consider this ponderomotive potential sufficiently strong to accelerate …

When the field of modern publishing was on a collision course with telecommunications, publishing organizations had to come up to speed in fields that were, heretofore, completely foreign and technologically forbidding to them. For generations, the technology of publishing centered on offset lithography, typesetting, and photography--fields that saw evolutionary and incremental change from the time of Guttenberg. But publishing now includes making information available over the World Wide Web--Internet publishing--with its ever-accelerating rate of technological change and dependence on computers and networks. Clearly, we need a methodology to help anyone in the field of Internet publishing plan for the future, and there is a well-known, well-tested technique for just this purpose--Scenario Planning. Scenario Planning is an excellent tool to help organizations make better decisions in the present based on what they identify as possible and plausible scenarios of the future. Never was decision making more difficult or more crucial than during the years of this study, 1996-1999. This thesis takes the position that, by applying Scenario Planning, the Technical Information Department at LLNL, a large government laboratory (and organizations similar to it), could be confident that moving into the telecommunications business of Internet publishing stood a very good chance of …

The FOCUS experiment is designed to investigate charm particle decays. These charm particles are produced by the interaction of a photon beam with an average energy of 175 GeV on a BeO target and travel an average of few millimeters before decaying in the spectrometer. By reconstructing the daughters from the decay, we can infer properties of the charm particles. Semileptonic decays have been used to measure many CKM matrix elements. These decays are interesting due to the simplicity of their theoretical description but they are experimentally challenging due to the fact that a neutrino is not detected. Analysis of semileptonic decays in the charm sector are of great interest because they provide an excellent environment to test and to calibrate theoretical calculation that can be implemented in the determination of poorly known matrix elements such as V{sub ub}. In this thesis we report an analysis of the decays D{sup 0} {yields} {pi}{sup -}{mu}{sup +}{nu} and D{sup 0} {yields} K{sup -} {mu}{sup +}{nu}. We measure the relative branching ratio as well as the ratio of the form factors f{sub +}{sup {pi}}(0)/f{sub +}{sup K}(0). Using a weighting technique, we further report a parametric analysis of the q{sup 2} dependence for both …

This thesis presents the measurement of prompt diphoton production rate in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV using the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF II). This process deserves some attention for the following reasons. The H {yields} {gamma}{gamma} decay mode is an important channel for the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson searches in the low mass region (M{sub H} < 130 GeV) at the forth coming LHC. In many models involving physics beyond the SM, cascade decays of heavy new particles generate a {gamma}{gamma} signature. Some examples are supersymmetry with a light gravitino, radiative decays to a higgsino-LSP and models with large symmetry groups. The QCD production of prompt photon pairs with large invariant mass is the irreducible background to these searches. The rate is huge and requires to be quantitatively evaluated prior to any of the possible discoveries. In a hadronic collider environment such as LHC, prompt photon signals are contaminated by the production of neutral mesons which decay to multiple collinear photons. The experience of classifying background of neutral meson is very important. The process can be used to test the Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) calculation of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The 4-momentum of particles in …

The author has measured the t{bar t} production cross section at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using data collected by the D0 experiment at Fermilab. The integrated luminosity of the data set is 140 pb{sup -1} and a total of four candidate events are seen, with an expected background of 2.61 events. The measured cross section of {sigma}{sub t{bar t}} = 11.1{sub -9.3}{sup +22.1}(stat.){sub -4.5}{sup +4.3}(sys.) pb is in agreement with a NNLO calculation of 6.77 pb.

This thesis details the measurement of the p{bar p} {yields} W{gamma} + X {yields} {mu}{nu}{gamma} + X cross section at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using the D0 detector at Fermilab, in 134.5 pb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity. From the photon E{sub T} spectrum limits on anomalous couplings of the photon to the W are obtained. At 95% confidence level, limits of -1.05 < {Delta}{kappa} < 1.04 for {lambda} = 0 and -0.28 < {lambda} < 0.27 for {Delta}{kappa} = 0 are obtained on the anomalous coupling parameters. The charge signed rapidity difference from the data is displayed, and its significance discussed.

Many areas of research rely on the detection of radiation, in the form of single photons or particles. By measuring the photons or particles coming from an object a lot can be learned about the object under study. In some cases there is a simple need to know the number of photons coming from the source. In cases like this a simple counter, like a Geiger-Mueller survey meter, will suffice. In other cases one want to know the spectral distribution of the photons coming from the source. In cases like that a spectrometer is needed that can distinguish between photons with different energies, like a diffraction or transmission grating. The work presented in this thesis focused on the development of a new generation broad band spectrometer that has a high energy resolving power, combined with a high absorption efficiency for photon energies above 10 keV and up to 500 keV. The spectrometers we are developing are based on low-temperature sensors, like superconducting tunnel junctions or transition edge sensors, that are coupled to bulk absorber crystals. We use the low-temperature sensors because they can offer a significant improvement in energy resolving power, compared to conventional spectrometers. We couple the low-temperature sensors …

This dissertation sets new limits on the mass of the scalar leptoquark from direct searches carried out at the Run II CDF detector using data from March 2001 to October 2003. The data analyzed has a total time-integrated measured luminosity of 198 pb{sup -1} of p{bar p} collisions with {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. Leptoquarks are assumed to be pair-produced and to decay into a lepton and a quark of the same generation. They consider two possible leptoquark decays: (1) {beta} = BR(LQ {yields} {mu}q) = 1.0, and (2) {beta} = BR(LQ {yields} {mu}q) = 0.5. For the {beta} = 1 channel, they focus on the signature represented by two isolated high-p{sub T} muons and two isolated high-p{sub T} jets. For the {beta} = 1/2 channel, they focus on the signature represented by one isolated high-p{sub T} muon, large missing transverse energy, and two isolated high-p{sub T} jets. No leptoquark signal is experimentally detected for either signature. Using the next to leading order theoretical cross section for scalar leptoquark production in p{bar p} collisions [1], they set new mass limits on second generation scalar leptoquarks. They exclude the existence of second generation scalar leptoquarks with masses below 221(175) GeV/c{sup 2} for …

Optical parametric amplification is an established broadband amplification technology based on a second-order nonlinear process of difference-frequency generation (DFG). When used in chirped pulse amplification (CPA), the technology has been termed optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA). OPCPA holds a potential for producing unprecedented levels of peak and average power in optical pulses through its scalable ultrashort pulse amplification capability and the absence of quantum defect, respectively. The theory of three-wave parametric interactions is presented, followed by a description of the numerical model developed for nanosecond pulses. Spectral, temperature and angular characteristics of OPCPA are calculated, with an estimate of pulse contrast. An OPCPA system centered at 1054 nm, based on a commercial tabletop Q-switched pump laser, was developed as the front end for a large Nd-glass petawatt-class short-pulse laser. The system does not utilize electro-optic modulators or multi-pass amplification. The obtained overall 6% efficiency is the highest to date in OPCPA that uses a tabletop commercial pump laser. The first compression of pulses amplified in highly nondegenerate OPCPA is reported, with the obtained pulse width of 60 fs. This represents the shortest pulse to date produced in OPCPA. Optical parametric amplification in {beta}-barium borate was combined with laser amplification …

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 and its subsequent amendments have had a dramatic impact on hazardous waste management for business and industry. The complexity of this law and the penalties for noncompliance have made it one of the most challenging regulatory programs undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The fundamentals of RCRA include ``cradle to grave`` management of hazardous waste, covering generators, transporters, and treatment, storage, and disposal facilities. The regulations also address extensive definitions and listing/identification mechanisms for hazardous waste along with a tracking system. Treatment is favored over disposal and emphasis is on ``front-end`` treatment such as waste minimization and pollution prevention. A study of large corporations such as Xerox, 3M, and Dow Chemical, as well as the public sector, has shown that well known and successful hazardous waste management programs emphasize pollution prevention and employment of techniques such as proactive environmental management, environmentally conscious manufacturing, and source reduction. Nearly all successful hazardous waste programs include some aspects of Total Quality Management, which begins with a strong commitment from top management. Hazardous waste management at the Rocky Flats Plant is further complicated by the dominance of ``mixed waste`` at the facility. The mixed …

Preparation, characterization, and reactivity of ({eta}{sup 2}- alkyne)(meso-tetratolylpoprphrinato)titanium(II) complexes are described, along with inetermetal oxygen atom transfer reactions involving Ti(IV) and Ti(III) porphyrin complexes. The {eta}{sup 2}- alkyne complexes are prepared by reaction of (TTP)TiCl{sub 2} with LiAlH{sub 4} in presence of alkyne. Structure of (OEP)Ti({eta}{sup 2}-Ph-C{triple_bond}C-Ph) (OEP=octaethylporphryin) was determined by XRD. The compounds undergo simple substitution to displace the alkyne and produce doubly substituted complexes. Structure of (TTP)Ti(4-picoline){sub 2} was also determined by XRD. Reaction of (TTP)Ti{double_bond}O with (OEP)Ti-Cl yields intermetal O/Cl exchange, which is a one-electron redox process mediated by O atom transfer. Also a zero-electron redox process mediated by atom transfer is observed when (TTP)TiCl{sub 2} is reacted with (OEP)Ti{double_bond}O.

A newly developed method for surface structure determination, tensor LEED, combined with automated search was used to analyze the structures. The ordered structures of S on Mo(100) which were studied formed a c(2 {times} 2), c(4 {times} 2), and p(2 {times} l) periodicities at coverages of 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 ML (monolayers, of one sulfur atom per one molybdenum atom) respectively. A MO{sub 2}S-like overlayer, which formed at coverages greater than 1.0 ML, is also discussed. Calculations for the c(2 {times} 2) structure gave a best fit geometry with S adsorbed in a four-fold symmetric hollow site and the second layer buckled by 0.09{Angstrom}. The S-Mo bond length is 2.45{Angstrom} and the Pendry R-factor is 0.21. Preliminary calculations for the c(4 {times} 2) structure did not yield an acceptable fit. The three models tried are discussed. Calculations for p(2 {times} l) data did not yield an acceptable geometry either. The types of models that were tried are discussed. Implications of this analysis are discussed along with results of a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) investigation. The ordered structures on the RE(0001) surface studied have p(2 {times} 2) and (2{radical}3 {times} 2{radical}3)R30{degree} periodicities and occurred at S coverages of 0.25 and 0.5 ML …

A radiofrequency-gain total power radiometer measured the intensity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at a frequency of 1.47 GHz (20.4 cm wavelength) from White Mountain, California, in September 1988 and from the South Pole, Antarctica, in December 1989. The CMB thermodynamic temperature, TCMB, is 2.27 {plus_minus} 0.25 K (68% C.L.) measured from White Mountain and 2.26 {plus_minus} 0.21 K from the South Pole site. The combined result is 2.27 {plus_minus} 0.19 K. The correction for galactic emission has been derived from scaled low-frequency maps and constitutes the main source, of error. The atmospheric signal is found by extrapolation from zenith scan measurements at higher frequencies. The result is consistent with previous low-frequency measurements, including a measurement at 1.41 GHz (Levin et al. 1988) made with an earlier version of this instrument. The result is {approximately}2.5 {sigma} ({approximately}l% probability) from the 2.74 {plus_minus} 0.02,K global average CMB temperature.