The first three years of RHIC physics, with Au/Au collisions induced at 65, 130 and 200 GeV per nucleon pair, produced dramatic results, particularly with respect to collective observables such as transverse flow and anisotropies in transverse momentum spectra. It has become clear that the data show very strong rescattering at very early times of the reaction, strong enough in fact to be described by the hydrodynamic limit. Therefore, with today's experiments, we are able to investigate the equation of state of hot quark gluon matter, discuss its thermodynamic properties and relate them to experimental observables. At this workshop we came together to discuss our latest efforts both in the theoretical description of heavy ion collisions as well as most recent experimental results that ultimately allow us to extract information on the properties of RHIC matter. About 50 participants registered for the workshop, but many more dropped in from the offices at BNL. The workshop lasted for three days, of which each day was assigned a special topic on which the talks focused. On the first day we dealt with the more general question what the strong collective phenomena observed in RHIC collisions tell us about the properties and the …

Complex networks appear in biology on many different levels: (1) All biochemical reactions taking place in a single cell constitute its metabolic network, where nodes are individual metabolites, and edges are metabolic reactions converting them to each other. (2) Virtually every one of these reactions is catalyzed by an enzyme and the specificity of this catalytic function is ensured by the key and lock principle of its physical interaction with the substrate. Often the functional enzyme is formed by several mutually interacting proteins. Thus the structure of the metabolic network is shaped by the network of physical interactions of cell's proteins with their substrates and each other. (3) The abundance and the level of activity of each of the proteins in the physical interaction network in turn is controlled by the regulatory network of the cell. Such regulatory network includes all of the multiple mechanisms in which proteins in the cell control each other including transcriptional and translational regulation, regulation of mRNA editing and its transport out of the nucleus, specific targeting of individual proteins for degradation, modification of their activity e.g. by phosphorylation/dephosphorylation or allosteric regulation, etc. To get some idea about the complexity and interconnectedness of protein-protein regulations …

Strong evidence for the existence and importance of quadrupole satellite transitions is found in spin-orbit-resolved Xe 4d nondipole photoionization in a combined experimental/theoretical study.

Aluminide coatings are of interest for many high temperature applications because of the possibility of improving the oxidation of structural alloys by forming a protective external alumina scale. In order to develop a comprehensive lifetime evaluation approach for aluminide coatings used in fossil energy systems, some of the important issues have been addressed in this report for aluminide coatings on Fe-based alloys (Task I) and on Ni-based alloys (Task II). In Task I, the oxidation behavior of iron aluminide coatings synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) was studied in air + 10vol.% H{sub 2}O in the temperature range of 700-800 C and the interdiffusion behavior between the coating and substrate was investigated in air at 500-800 C. Commercial ferritic (Fe-9Cr-1Mo) and type 304L (Fe-18Cr-9Ni, nominally) austenitic stainless steels were used as the substrates. For the oxidation study, the as-deposited coating consisted of a thin (<5 {micro}m), Al-rich outer layer above a thicker (30-50 {micro}m), lower Al inner layer. The specimens were cycled to 1000 1-h cycles at 700 C and 500 1-h cycles at 800 C, respectively. The CVD coating specimens showed excellent performance in the water vapor environment at both temperatures, while the uncoated alloys were severely attacked. These …

Since 1996, excess CO{sub 2} from the Sleipner natural gas field has been sequestered and injected underground into a porous saline aquifer 1000 m below the seafloor. In 2002, we carried out a high precision micro-gravity survey on the seafloor in order to monitor the injected CO{sub 2}. A repeatability of 5 {micro}Gal in the station averages was observed. This is considerably better than pre-survey expectations. These data will serve as the baseline for time-lapse gravity monitoring of the Sleipner CO{sub 2} injection site. A three-week trip to Statoil Research Centre in Trondheim, Norway, was made in the summer of 2003. This visit consisted of gathering data and collaborating with scientists working on the Sleipner project. The trip ended with a presentation of the seafloor gravity results to date at a SACS2 (Saline Aquifer CO{sub 2} Storage 2) meeting. This meeting provided the perfect opportunity to meet and gather information from the world's experts on the Sleipner project.

In situ vacuum extraction, air or steam sparging, and vitrification are widely used to remediate soil contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). All of these processes produce a VOC-laden air stream from which the VOC must be removed before the air can be discharged or recycled to the generating process. Treatment of these off-gases is often a major portion of the cost of the remediation project. Currently, carbon adsorption and catalytic incineration are the most common methods of treating these gas streams. Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) proposed an alternative treatment technology based on selective membranes that separate the organic components from the gas stream, producing a VOC-free air stream. This technology can be applied to off-gases produced by various remediation activities and the systems can be skid-mounted and automated for easy transportation and unattended operation. The target performance for the membrane systems is to produce clean air (less than 10 ppmv VOC) for discharge or recycle, dischargeable water (less than 1 ppmw VOC), and a concentrated liquid VOC phase. This report contains the results obtained during Phase II of a two-phase project. In Phase I, laboratory experiments were carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. …

The development of practical fusion energy plants based on inertial confinement with ultraviolet laser beams requires durable, stable final optics that will withstand the harsh fusion environment. Aluminum-coated reflective surfaces are fragile, and require hard overcoatings resistant to contamination, with low optical losses at 248.4 nanometers for use with high-power KrF excimer lasers. This program addresses the definition of requirements for IFE optics protective coatings, the conceptual design of the required deposition equipment according to accepted contamination control principles, and the deposition and evaluation of diamondlike carbon (DLC) test coatings. DLC coatings deposited by Plasma Immersion Ion Processing were adherent and abrasion-resistant, but their UV optical losses must be further reduced to allow their use as protective coatings for IFE final optics. Deposition equipment for coating high-performance IFE final optics must be designed, constructed, and operated with contamination control as a high priority.

Insulation is one of the most important elements of magnet design, which determines the electrical, mechanical, and thermal performance as well as lifetime of the magnet. The exposure to high radiation loads especially for the proposed LHC second-generation interaction region Nb{sub 3}Sn quadrupoles further limits the choices of the insulation materials. Traditionally Nb{sub 3}Sn magnets were impregnated with epoxy to improve both the mechanical and electrical properties. However, the acceptable radiation limit for epoxy is low which reduces the lifetime of the magnet. The paper presents the results of the feasibility study to replace epoxy with high radiation-resistant material during vacuum impregnation. The mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of samples impregnated with Matrimid were measured and compared with epoxy-impregnated samples.

Bio-molecular networks lack the top-down design. Instead, selective forces of biological evolution shape them from raw material provided by random events such as gene duplications and single gene mutations. As a result individual connections in these networks are characterized by a large degree of randomness. One may wonder which connectivity patterns are indeed random, while which arose due to the network growth, evolution, and/or its fundamental design principles and limitations? Here we introduce a general method allowing one to construct a random null-model version of a given network while preserving the desired set of its low-level topological features, such as, e.g., the number of neighbors of individual nodes, the average level of modularity, preferential connections between particular groups of nodes, etc. Such a null-model network can then be used to detect and quantify the non-random topological patterns present in large networks. In particular, we measured correlations between degrees of interacting nodes in protein interaction and regulatory networks in yeast. It was found that in both these networks, links between highly connected proteins are systematically suppressed. This effect decreases the likelihood of cross-talk between different functional modules of the cell, and increases the overall robustness of a network by localizing effects …

Arithmetic coding achieves a superior coding rate when encoding a binary source, but its lack of speed makes it an inferior choice when true high-performance encoding is needed. We present our work on a practical implementation of fast entropy coders for binary messages utilizing only bit shifts and table lookups. To limit code table size we limit our code lengths with a type of variable-to-variable (VV) length code created from source string merging. We refer to these codes as ''merged codes''. With merged codes it is possible to achieve a desired level of speed by adjusting the number of bits read from the source at each step. The most efficient merged codes yield a coder with a worst-case inefficiency of 0.4%, relative to the Shannon entropy. Using a hybrid Golomb-VV Bin Coder we are able to achieve a compression ratio that is competitive with other state-of-the-art coders, at a superior throughput.

The work detailed within this report is a continuation of earlier work carried out under contract number 1DX-SY382V. The earlier work comprises a literature review of the sources and types of defects found principally in Fe-based ODS alloys as well as experimental work designed to identify defects in the prototype ODS-Fe{sub 3}Al alloy, deduce their origins and to recommend methods of defect reduction. The present work is an extension of the experimental work already reported and concentrates on means of reduction of defects already identified rather than the search for new defect types. This report also includes work regarding the manipulation of grain structures via deformation processing and further results gathered during powder separation trials involving the separation of different metallic powders in terms of their differing densities. The scope and objectives of the present work were laid out in the technical proposal ''Reduction in Defect Content in ODS Alloys-IV''. All the work proposed in the ''Statement of Work'' section of the technical proposal has been carried out except for some of that dependent on the acquisition of materials from other sources. However, wherever omissions from the ''Plan of Action'' detailed in the ''Statement of Work'' have occurred due to …

Four different single chamber fuel cell designs were compared using propane-air gas mixtures. Gas flow around the electrodes has a significant influence on the open circuit voltage and the power density of the cell. The strong influence of flow geometry is likely due to its effect on gas composition, particularly on the oxygen chemical potential at the two electrodes as a result of gas mixing. The chamber design which exposes the cathode first to the inlet gas was found to yield the best performance at lower flow rates, while the open tube design with the electrodes equally exposed to the inlet gas worked best at higher flow rates.

Approximately 400 Multi-canister overpacks (MCO) containing spent nuclear fuel are to be interim stored at the Canister Storage Building (CSB). Several MCOs (monitored MCOs) are designated to be gas sampled periodically at the CSB sampling/weld station (Bader 2002a). The monitoring program includes pressure, temperature and gas composition measurements of monitored MCOs during their first two years of interim storage at the CSB. The MCO sample cart (CART-001) is used at the sampling/weld station to measure the monitored MCO gas temperature and pressure, obtain gas samples for laboratory analysis and refill the monitored MCO with high purity helium as needed. The sample cart and support equipment were functionally and operationally tested and validated before sampling of the first monitored MCO (H-036). This report documents the results of validation testing using training MCO (TR-003) at the CSB. Another report (Bader 2002b) documents the sample results from gas sampling of the first monitored MCO (H-036). Validation testing of the MCO gas sampling system showed the equipment and procedure as originally constituted will satisfactorily sample the first monitored MCO. Subsequent system and procedural improvements will provide increased flexibility and reliability for future MCO gas sampling. The physical operation of the sampling equipment during testing …