Article on spontaneous polarization and piezoelectricity in boron nitride nanotubes.

Article discussing mercury (Hg2+) suppression of potassium currents of outer hair cells.

Society has and will continue to generate hazardous wastes whose risks must be managed. For exceptionally toxic, long-lived, and feared waste, the solution is deep burial, e.g., deep geological disposal at Yucca Mtn. For some waste, recycle or destruction/treatment is possible. The alternative for other wastes is storage at or near the ground level (in someone’s back yard); most of these storage sites include a surface barrier (cap) to prevent migration of the waste due to infiltration of surface water. The design lifespan for such barriers ranges from 30 to 1000 years, depending on hazard and regulations. In light of historical performance, society needs a better basis for predicting barrier performance over long time periods and tools for optimizing maintenance of barriers while in service. We believe that, as in other industries, better understanding of the dynamics of barrier system degradation will enable improved barriers (cheaper, longer-lived, simpler, easier to maintain) and improved maintenance. We are focusing our research on earthen caps, especially those with evapo-transpiration and capillary breaks. Typical cap assessments treat the barrier’s structure as static prior to some defined lifetime. Environmental boundary conditions such as precipitation and temperature are treated as time dependent. However, other key elements …

Hundreds of contaminated facilities and sites must be cleaned up. “Cleanup” includes decommissioning, environmental restoration, and waste management. Cleanup can be complex, expensive, risky, and time-consuming. Decisions are often controversial, can stall or be blocked, and are sometimes re-done - some before implementation, some decades later. Making and keeping decisions with long time horizons involves special difficulties and requires new approaches, including: • New ways (mental model) to analyze and visualize the problem, • Awareness of the option to shift strategy or reframe from a single decision to an adaptable network of decisions, and • Improved tactical processes that account for several challenges. These include the following: • Stakeholder values are a more fundamental basis for decision making and keeping than “meeting regulations.” • Late-entry players and future generations will question decisions. • People may resist making “irreversible” decisions. • People need “compelling reasons” to take action in the face of uncertainties. Our project goal is to make cleanup decisions easier to make, implement, keep, and sustain. By sustainability, we mean decisions that work better over the entire time-period—from when a decision is made, through implementation, to its end point. That is, alternatives that can be kept “as is” or …

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We discuss the question of equilibration in heavy ion collisions and how it can be addressed in experiment.

Society has and will continue to generate hazardous wastes whose risks must be managed. For exceptionally toxic, long-lived, and feared waste, the solution is deep burial, e.g., deep geological disposal at Yucca Mtn. For some waste, recycle or destruction/treatment is possible. The alternative for other wastes is storage at or near the ground level (in someone’s back yard); most of these storage sites include a surface barrier (cap) to prevent downward water migration. Some of the hazards will persist indefinitely. As society and regulators have demanded additional proof that caps are robust against more threats and for longer time periods, the caps have become increasingly complex and expensive. As in other industries, increased complexity will eventually increase the difficulty in estimating performance, in monitoring system/component performance, and in repairing or upgrading barriers as risks are managed. An approach leading to simpler, less expensive, longer-lived, more manageable caps is needed. Our project, which started in April 2002, aims to catalyze a Barrier Improvement Cycle (iterative learning and application) and thus enable Remediation System Performance Management (doing the right maintenance neither too early nor too late). The knowledge gained and the capabilities built will help verify the adequacy of past remedial decisions, …

The concept of using low swirl to stabilize lean premixed turbulent flame was introduced in 1992. Since then, the low-swirl burner (LSB) has become a useful laboratory tool for the study of detailed flame structures as well as turbulent burning speeds. Its main attribute is that the flame is freely propagating and is locally normal to the turbulent approach flow (Figure 1). Therefore, the turbulent flame brush is not influence by physical boundaries. The capability of LSB to support very lean flames and very turbulent flames [1, 2] was further exploited in recent studies to test the validity of the flame regime concept. Using 2D imaging diagnostics (e.g. planar laser induced fluorescence, PLIF, and planar laser induced Rayleigh scattering) our analysis showed that the wrinkled flame regime to be valid at a turbulence intensity level much higher than previously thought [3-5]. This provided experimental verification of a new 'thin reaction zone' regime for the Kalovitz number range of 1 < Ka < 10 (Ka = (u{prime}/s{sub L}){sup 3/2} (l{sub x}/d{sub L}){sup 1/2}) proposed by Peters. Due to its freely propagating nature, modeling and simulations of LSB flames are non-trivial. The flame position cannot be specified a priori because it is …

We have augmented the code POSINST to include solenoidfields, and used it to simulate the build up of electron cloud due toelectron multipacting in the PEP-II positron ring. We find that thedistribution of electrons is strongly affected by the resonancesassociated with the cyclotron period and bunch spacing. In addition, wediscover a threshold beyond which the electron density growsexponentially until it reaches the space charge limit. The threshold doesnot depend on the bunch spacing but does depend on the positron bunchpopulation.

The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) in cooperation with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and with funding from the Department of Energy initiated a new lecture series. The purpose of the lecture series is to increase the visibility of women who have made significant contributions in applied or computational mathematics. The AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture is presented at the SIAM Annual Meeting which is a national conference. The lecturer is a woman who has made distinguished contributions in applied or computational mathematics. The lecturer is determined by the Selection Committee which consists of two members of AWM and two members of SIAM, appointed by the presidents of these organizations. The committee may solicit nominations from other members of the scientific and engineering community. The lectureship may be awarded to any woman in the scientific or engineering community.

Injection of carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) into saline aquifers has been proposed as a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (geological carbon sequestration). The injection process can be classified as immiscible displacement of an aqueous phase by a less dense and less viscous gas phase. Under disposal conditions (supercritical CO{sub 2}) the viscosity of carbon dioxide can be less than the viscosity of the aqueous phase by a factor of 15. Because of the lower viscosity, the CO{sub 2} displacement front will have a tendency towards instability so that waves or rounded lobes of saturation may appear and grow into fingers that lead to enhanced dissolution, bypassing, and possibly poor sweep efficiency. This paper presents an analysis, through high-resolution numerical simulations, of the onset of instabilities (viscous fingering) during injection of CO{sub 2} into saline aquifers. We explore the influence of viscosity ratio, relative permeability functions, and capillary pressure on finger growth and spacing. In addition, we address the issues of finger triggering, convergence under grid refinement and boundary condition effects. Simulations were carried out on scalar machines, and on an IBM RS/6000 SP (a distributed-memory parallel computer with 6080 processors) with a parallelized version of TOUGH2.

This paper presents a series of modeling investigations to characterize percolation patterns in the unsaturated zone of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, a proposed underground repository site for storing high-level radioactive waste. The investigations are conducted using a modeling approach that integrates a wide variety of moisture, pneumatic, thermal, and isotopic geochemical field data into a comprehensive three-dimensional numerical model through model calibration. This integrated modeling approach, based on a dual-continuum formulation, takes into account the coupled processes of fluid and heat flow and chemical isotopic transport in Yucca Mountain's highly heterogeneous, unsaturated fractured tuffs. In particular, the model results are examined against different types of field-measured data and used to evaluate different hydrogeological conceptual models and their effects on flow patterns in the unsaturated zone. The objective of this work to provide understanding of percolation patterns and flow behavior through the unsaturated zone, which is a crucial issue in assessing repository performance.

This review is divided into three sections: technologies for monitoring physiological parameters; biosensors for chemical assays and wireless communications technologies including image transmissions. Applications range from monitoring high risk patients for heart, respiratory activity and falls to sensing levels of physical activity in military, rescue, and sports personnel. The range of measurements include, heart rate, pulse wave form, respiratory rate, blood oxygen, tissue pCO2, exhaled carbon dioxide and physical activity. Other feasible measurements will employ miniature chemical laboratories on silicon or plastic chips. The measurements can be extended to clinical chemical assays ranging from common blood assays to protein or specialized protein measurements (e.g., troponin, creatine, and cytokines such as TNF and IL6). Though the feasibility of using wireless technology to communicate vital signs has been demonstrated 32 years ago (1) it has been only recently that practical and portable devices and communications net works have become generally available for inexpensive deployment of comfortable and affordable devices and systems.

We employ a novel, ultrafast terahertz probe to investigatethe dynamical interplay of optically-induced excitons and unboundelectron-hole pairs in GaAs quantum wells. Resonant creation ofheavy-hole excitons induces a new low-energy oscillator linked totransitions between the internal exciton degrees of freedom. The timeresolved terahertz optical conductivity is found to be a probe wellsuited for studies of fundamental processes such as formation, relaxationand ionization of excitons.

Roadmapping is a powerful tool to manage technical risks and opportunities associated with complex problems. Roadmapping identifies technical capabilities required for both project- and program-level efforts and provides the basis for plans that ensure the necessary enabling activities will be done when needed. Roadmapping reveals where to focus further development of the path forward by evaluating uncertainties for levels of complexity, impacts, and/or the potential for large payback. Roadmaps can be customized to the application, a “graded approach” if you will. Some roadmaps are less detailed. We have called these less detailed, top-level roadmaps “mini-roadmaps”. These miniroadmaps are created to tie the needed enablers (e.g., technologies, decisions, etc.) to the functions. If it is found during the mini-roadmapping that areas of significant risk exist, then those can be roadmapped further to a lower level of detail. Otherwise, the mini-roadmap may be sufficient to manage the project / program risk. Applying a graded approach to the roadmapping can help keep the costs down. Experience has indicated that it is best to do mini-roadmapping first and then evaluate the risky areas to determine whether to further evaluate those areas. Roadmapping can be especially useful for programs / projects that have participants from …

The effect of heat-island reduction (HIR) strategies on annual energy savings and peak-power avoidance of the building sector of the Greater Toronto Area is calculated, using an hourly building energy simulation model. Results show that ratepayers could realize potential annual energy savings of over $11M from the effects of HIR strategies. The residential sector accounts for over half (59%) of the total savings, offices 13% and retail stores 28%. Savings from cool roofs are about 20%, shade trees 30%, wind shielding of trees 37%, and ambient cooling by trees and reflective surfaces 12%. These results are preliminary and highly sensitive to the relative price of gas and electricity. Potential annual electricity savings are estimated at about 150GWh and potential peak-power avoidance at 250MW.

Welcome to the Proceedings of the fourth in a series of agent simulation conferences cosponsored by Argonne National Laboratory and The University of Chicago. Agent 2003 is the second conference in which three Special Interest Groups from the North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science (NAACSOS) have been involved in planning the program--Computational Social Theory; Simulation Applications; and Methods, Toolkits and Techniques. The theme of Agent 2003, Challenges in Social Simulation, is especially relevant, as there seems to be no shortage of such challenges. Agent simulation has been applied with increasing frequency to social domains for several decades, and its promise is clear and increasingly visible. Like any nascent scientific methodology, however, it faces a number of problems or issues that must be addressed in order to progress. These challenges include: (1) Validating models relative to the social settings they are designed to represent; (2) Developing agents and interactions simple enough to understand but sufficiently complex to do justice to the social processes of interest; (3) Bridging the gap between empirically spare artificial societies and naturally occurring social phenomena; (4) Building multi-level models that span processes across domains; (5) Promoting a dialog among theoretical, qualitative, and empirical social …

Understanding the aqueous chemistry of plutonium, in particular in environmental conditions, is often complicated by plutonium's complex redox chemistry. Because plutonium possesses four oxidation states, all of which can coexist in solution, a reliable method for the identification of these oxidation states is needed. The identification of plutonium oxidation states at low levels in aqueous solution is often accomplished through an indirect determination using series of liquid-liquid extraction procedures using oxidation state specific reagents such as HDEHP and TTA. While these methods, coupled with radioactive counting techniques provide superior limits of detection they may influence the plutonium redox equilibrium, are time consuming, waste intensive and costly. Other analytical methods such as mass spectrometry and radioactive counting as stand alone methods provide excellent detection limits but lack the ability to discriminate between the oxidation states of the plutonium ions in solution.

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The proposed SuperNova/Acceleration Probe (SNAP) mission will have a two-meter class telescope delivering diffraction-limited images to an instrumented 0.7 square degree field in the visible and near-infrared wavelength regime. The requirements for the instrument suite and the present configuration of the focal plane concept are presented. A two year R&D phase, largely supported by the Department of Energy, is just beginning. We describe the development activities that are taking place to advance our preparedness for mission proposal in the areas of detectors and electronics.

We use a minimalist protein model, in combination with a sequence design strategy, to determine differences in primary structure for proteins L and G that are responsible for the two proteins folding through distinctly different folding mechanisms. We find that the folding of proteins L and G are consistent with a nucleation-condensation mechanism, each of which is described as helix-assisted {beta}-1 and {beta}-2 hairpin formation, respectively. We determine that the model for protein G exhibits an early intermediate that precedes the rate-limiting barrier of folding and which draws together misaligned secondary structure elements that are stabilized by hydrophobic core contacts involving the third {beta}-strand, and presages the later transition state in which the correct strand alignment of these same secondary structure elements is restored. Finally the validity of the targeted intermediate ensemble for protein G was analyzed by fitting the kinetic data to a two-step first order reversible reaction, proving that protein G folding involves an on-pathway early intermediate, and should be populated and therefore observable by experiment.

The elements of the CKM matrix enter the expressions for the decay rates and mixing amplitudes of hadrons. In some cases, the theoretical expressions are free of strong interaction effects, for example the CP asymmetry in B {yields} J/{psi} K{sub S}{sup 0}, so that measuring the CP asymmetry directly gives the value of sin 2{beta}, with the error in the result given by the experimental error in the measurement. In most cases, however, the experimentally measured quantities depend on strong interactions physics, and it is absolutely essential to have accurate model-free theoretical calculations to compare with experiment. A number of theoretical tools have been developed over the years which now allow us to compute B decays with great accuracy, sometimes at the level of a few percent or better. These calculations are done using effective theory methods applied to QCD, and do not rely on model assumptions. Inclusive decays can be treated using the operator product expansion (OPE). The total decay rate is given by twice the imaginary part of the forward scattering amplitude, using the optical theorem. In heavy hadron decays, the intermediate states in the forward scattering amplitude can be integrated out, so that the decay rate can …

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A second beamline, BL 7.2, completely dedicated to beam diagnostics is being installed at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). The design has been optimized for the measurement of the momentum spread and emittance of the stored beam in combination with the existing diagnostic beamline, BL 3.1. A detailed analysis of the experimental error has allowed the definition of the system parameters. The obtained requirements found a good matching with a simple and reliable system based on the detection of X-ray synchrotron radiation (SR) through a pinhole system. The actual beamline, which also includes a port for visible and infrared SR as well as an X-ray beam position monitor (BPM), is mainly based on the design of two similar diagnostic beamlines at BESSY II. This approach allowed a significant saving in time, cost and engineering effort. The design criteria, including a summary of the experimental error analysis, as well as a brief description of the beamline are presented.