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An assessment of safety, design, and cost tradeoff issues for short (ten to fifty years) and longer (fifty to hundreds of years) interim dry storage of spent nuclear fuel in Zircaloy rods shall address potential failures of the Zircaloy cladding caused by the precipitation response of zirconium hydride platelets. If such assessment analyses are to be done rigorously, they will be necessarily complex because the precipitation response of zirconium hydride platelets is a stochastic functional of hydrogen concentration, temperature, stress, fabrication defect/texture structures, and flaw sizes of the cladding. Thus, there are, and probably always will be, zirhydride questions to analytically and experimentally resolve concerning the consistency, the completeness, and the certainty of models, data, the initial and the time-dependent boundary conditions. Some resolution of these questions will be required in order to have a defensible preference and tradeoffs decision analysis for assessing risks and consequences of the potential zirhydride induced cladding failures during dry storage time intervals. In the following brief discussion, one of these questions is posed as a consequence of an anomaly described in data reproducibility that was reported in the results of tests for hydrogen induced delayed cracking. The testing anomaly consisted of observing a significant …

To identify genes misregulated in the final stages of breast carcinogenesis, we performed differential display to compare the gene expression patterns of the human tumorigenic mammary epithelial cells, HMT-3522-T4-2, with those of their immediate premalignant progenitors, HMT-3522-S2. We identified a novel gene, called anti-zuai-1 (AZU-1), that was abundantly expressed in non- and premalignant cells and tissues but was appreciably reduced in breast tumor cell types and in primary tumors. The AZU-1 gene encodes an acidic 571-amino-acid protein containing at least two structurally distinct domains with potential protein-binding functions: an N-terminal serine and proline-rich domain with a predicted immunoglobulin-like fold and a C-terminal coiled-coil domain. In HMT-3522 cells, the bulk of AZU-1 protein resided in a detergent-extractable cytoplasmic pool and was present at much lower levels in tumorigenic T4-2 cells than in their nonmalignant counterparts. Reversion of the tumorigenic phenotype of T4-2 cells, by means described previously, was accompanied by the up-regulation of AZU-1. In addition, reexpression of AZU-1 in T4-2 cells, using viral vectors, was sufficient to reduce their malignant phenotype substantially, both in culture and in vivo. These results indicate that AZU-1 is a candidate breast tumor suppressor that may exert its effects by promoting correct tissue morphogenesis.

In hourly energy simulations, it is important to properly predict the performance of air conditioning systems over a range of full and part load operating conditions. An important component of these calculations is to properly consider the performance of the cycling air conditioner and how it interacts with the building. This paper presents improved approaches to properly account for the part load performance of residential and light commercial air conditioning systems in DOE-2. First, more accurate correlations are given to predict the degradation of system efficiency at part load conditions. In addition, a user-defined function for RESYS is developed that provides improved predictions of air conditioner sensible and latent capacity at part load conditions. The user function also provides more accurate predictions of space humidity by adding ''lumped'' moisture capacitance into the calculations. The improved cooling coil model and the addition of moisture capacitance predicts humidity swings that are more representative of the performance observed in real buildings.

Dissociation behavior of carboneous materials with or without fluorine atoms at pressures (P) of tens of gigapascal (GPa) and temperature (T) at several thousand Kelvin is not so well understood. The main issues are: (a) carbon condensation processes and (b) thermodynamics of hydrogen fluoride (HF) produced from dissociation. Item (a) requires information on (i) the melting line of carbon, (ii) liquid carbon, (iii) stability and energy barrier between graphite and diamond clusters, and (iv) kinetics of cluster growth. Item (b) requires knowledge of (v) intermolecular potentials involving HF and (vi) influence of fluorine chemistry on supercritical phase change. The details concerning these issues are described.

We present a conceptual design of a compact positron tomograph for prostate imaging using a pair of external curved detector banks, one placed above and one below the patient. The lower detector bank is fixed below the patient bed, and the top bank adjusts vertically for maximum sensitivity and patient access. Each bank is composed of 40conventional block detectors, forming two arcs (44 cm minor, 60 cm major axis) that are tilted to minimize attenuation and positioned as close as possible to the patient to improve sensitivity. The individual detectors are angled to point towards the prostate to minimize resolution degradation in that region. Inter-plane septa extend 5 cm beyond the scintillator crystals to reduce random and scatter backgrounds. A patient is not fully encircled by detector rings in order to minimize cost,causing incomplete sampling due to the side gaps. Monte Carlo simulation (including random and scatter) demonstrates the feasibility of detecting a spherical tumor of 2.5 cm diameter with a tumor to background ratio of2:1, utilizing the number of events that should be achievable with a6-minute scan after a 10 mCi injection (e.g., carbon-11 choline or fluorine-18 fluorocholine).

In July 1998, USDOE and China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) signed a Statement of Work to develop a demonstration energy-efficient office building and demonstration center in Beijing that will eventually house the Administrative Center for China's Agenda 21 (ACCA21). The statement calls for the Chinese side to be responsible for the basic construction of the 13,000 m{sup 2} 9-story building, the US side for technical assistance and the incremental costs of the energy efficiency improvements, and the joint establishment of a Demonstration Center to provide outreach and exhibit energy-efficient building technologies. The US technical team made several trips to China to meet with ACCA21 and the design team, and used the DOE-2.1E simulation program to analyze the energy performance of a preliminary building design and study alternative designs and energy-efficient strategies. A feasibility study completed in September found the largest and most cost-effective savings potentials in reducing cooling and lighting energy use, and identified eight generic measures in lighting, windows, daylighting, and HVAC systems and controls. Following these and other recommendations from the US team, the design team produced a schematic cross-shaped building design that, based on the DOE-2 analysis, lowered total energy use by 40% compared to …

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.

In x-ray and gamma-ray spectroscopy, it is desirable to have detectors with high energy resolution and high absorption efficiency. At LLNL, we have developed superconducting tunnel junction-based single photon x-ray detectors with thin film absorbers that have achieved these goals for photon energies up to 1 keV. However, for energies above 1 keV, the absorption efficiency of these thin-film detectors decreases drastically. We are developing the use of high-purity superconducting bulk materials as microcalorimeter absorbers for high-energy x-rays and gamma rays. The increase in absorber temperature due to incident photons is sensed by a superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) composed of a Mo/Cu multilayer thin film. Films of Mo and Cu are mutually insoluble and therefore very stable and can be annealed. The multilayer structure allows scaling in thickness to optimize heat capacity and normal state resistance. We measured an energy resolution of 70 eV for 60 keV incident gamma-rays with a 1 x 1 x 0.25 mm{sup 3} Sn absorber. We present x-ray and gamma-ray results from this detector design with a Sn absorber. We also propose the use of an active negative feedback voltage bias to improve the performance of our detector and show preliminary results.

A lattice-Monte Carlo approach was developed to simulate ferroelectric domain behavior. The model utilizes a Hamiltonian for the total energy that includes electrostatic terms (involving dipole-dipole interactions, local polarization gradients, and applied electric field), and elastic strain energy. The contributions of these energy components to the domain structure and to the overall applied field response of the system were examined. In general, the model exhibited domain structure characteristics consistent with those observed in a tetragonally distorted ferroelectric. Good qualitative agreement between the appearance of simulated electrical hysteresis loops and those characteristic of real ferroelectric materials was found.

We present an adaptive signed distance transform algorithm for curves in the plane. The algorithm provides guaranteed error bounds with a selective refinement approach. The domain over which the signed distance function is desired is adaptive triangulated and piecewise discontinuous linear approximations are constructed within each triangle. The resulting transform performs work only were requested and does not rely on a preset sampling rate or other constraints.

Near infrared imaging using elastic light scattering and tissue fluorescence under long-wavelength laser excitation are explored for cancer detection. Various types of normal and malignant human tissue samples were utilized in this investigation.

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 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.

Low-temperature, co-fired ceramics (LTCC) are the substrate material-of-choice for a growing number of multi-chip module (MCM) applications. Unlike the longer-standing hybrid microcircuit technology based upon alumina substrates, the manufacturability and reliability of thick film solder joints on LTCC substrates have not been widely studied. An investigation was undertaken to fully characterize solder joints on these substrates. A surface mount test vehicle with Daisy chain electrical connections was designed and built with Dupont{trademark} 951 tape. The Dupont{trademark} 4569 thick film ink (Au76-Pt21-Pd3 wt.%) was used to establish the surface conductor pattern. The conductor pattern was fired onto the LTCC substrate in a matrix of processing conditions that included: (1) double versus triple prints, (2) dielectric window versus no window, and (3) three firing temperatures (800 C, 875 C and 950 C). Sn63-Pb37 solder paste with an RMA flux was screen printed onto the circuit boards. The appropriate packages, which included five sizes of chip capacitors and four sizes of leadless ceramic chip carriers, were placed on the circuit boards. The test vehicles were oven reflowed under a N{sub 2} atmosphere. Nonsoldered pads were removed from the test vehicles and the porosity of their thick film layers was measured using quantitative image …

Refrigerator energy use is a dominant component of total energy use for many low-income households. Poorly operating or inefficient refrigerators can place an unnecessary financial burden on those households or the public agencies that pay their electricity bills, such as housing authorities. This paper presents an analytic tool that is low cost and easy to use. The procedure can be implemented with minimal staff training. The tool enables housing providers or weatherization agencies to identify poorly operating or high use refrigerators and target them for replacement or repair. The use of the procedure is illustrated, and its value for participants in a bulk refrigerator purchase and replacement program is discussed.

IVY is a verified theorem prover for first-order logic with equality. It is coded in ACL2, and it makes calls to the theorem prover Otter to search for proofs and to the program MACE to search for countermodels. Verifications of Otter and MACE are not practical because they are coded in C. Instead, Otter and MACE give detailed proofs and models that are checked by verified ACL2 programs. In addition, the initial conversion to clause form is done by verified ACL2 code. The verification is done with respect to finite interpretations.

Disilaoxacyclopentanes have proven to be excellent precursors to sol-gel type materials. These materials have shown promise as precursors for encapsulation and microelectronics applications. The polymers are highly crosslinked and are structurally similar to traditional sol-gels, but unlike typical sol-gels they are prepared without the use of solvents and water, they have low VOC's and show little shrinkage during processing.

Interfaces play an important role in determining the effect of electric fields on the mechanism of the formation spinel by solid-state reaction. The reaction occurs by the movement of phase boundaries but the rate of this movement can be affected by grain boundaries in the reactants or in the reaction product. Only by understanding these relationships will it be possible to engineer their behavior. As a particular example of such a study, MgIn{sub 2}O{sub 4} can be formed by the reaction between single-crystal MgO substrate and a thin film of In{sub 2}O{sub 3} with or without an applied electric field. High-resolution backscattered electron (BSE) imaging and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been used to obtain complementary chemical and crystallographic information.

There has been an increasing amount of interest in silsesquioxanes and polysilsesquioxanes. They have been used as models for silica surfaces and have been shown to have great potential for several industrial applications. Typical synthesis of polysilsesquioxanes involves the hydrolysis of organotricholorosilanes and/or organotrialkoxysilanes in the presence of acid or base catalysts, usually in the presence of organic solvents.

The authors report on Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) and de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) results for the highly two-dimensional (2D) organic superconductors {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}I{sub 3} ({Tc} = 3.5 K) and {beta}{double_prime}-(ET){sub 2}SF{sub 5}CH{sub 2}CF{sub 2}SO{sub 3} ({Tc} = 4.4 K). The SdH oscillations of both materials show an apparent deviation from the well-understood 2D dHvA signal at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. For {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}I{sub 3}, the mechanism leading to this behavior still needs to be clarified. For {beta}{double_prime}-(ET){sub 2}SF{sub 5}CH{sub 2}CF{sub 2}SO{sub 3}, an anomalous steady background part of the magnetoresistance seems to account for the observed discrepancies.

In a previous study of tangent site chains near a surface, the inhomogeneous density profiles were found through Density Functional theory. In the current study, the surface tensions of these systems are found from the results of the previous study through a thermodynamic integration. The calculated surface tensions are then compared to those found directly through computer simulation. Both the surface tension and surface excess for polymeric systems are shown to qualitatively differ from those of atomic systems, although certain similarities are seen at high densities.

The past several years rendered a resurgence of interest in phosphors for low-voltage flat panel displays utilizing cathodoluminescence (CL). A major selection criterion for these phosphors is CL efficiency. The objective is to maximize the efficiency at low voltages. This work focuses on understanding the materials properties that influence CL efficiency below 1 kV. Existing high-voltage CL efficiency models take into account intrinsic materials properties such as band-gap energy. Experimental data reveals that the CL efficiency also depends on physical properties such as particle and crystallite size. An update, predictive model of CL efficiency that includes the effects of crystallite size, radiative recombination probability, and electron accelerating potential was developed. The predicted efficiencies agree very well with experimental results. The experimental data were collected using a hot filament electron gun in a demountable high-vacuum chamber. To obtain measurement accuracy, secondary electrons were collected and the phosphor excited with a uniform beam profile. A CL characterization protocol for display phosphors was established at Sandia National Laboratories and made available to phosphor researchers.