The Pierre Auger Observatory is designed to unveil the nature and origin of the highest energy cosmic rays through the analysis of extensive air showers. The large and geographically dispersed collaboration of physicists and the wide-ranging collection of simulation and reconstruction tasks pose some special challenges for the offline analysis software. They have designed and implemented a general purpose framework which allows Auger collaborators to contribute algorithms and configuration instructions to build up the variety of applications they require. The framework includes machinery to manage these user codes, to organize the abundance of user-contributed configuration files, to facilitate multi-format file handling, and to provide access to event and time-dependent detector information residing in many data sources. A number of utilities are also provided, including a novel geometry package allowing manipulation of abstract geometrical objects independent of coordinate system choice. The framework is implemented in C++ and takes advantage of object oriented design and common open source tools, while keeping the user-side simple enough for C++ novices to learn in a reasonable time. The distribution system incorporates unit and acceptance testing in order to support rapid development of both the core framework and the contributed user codes.

We present the application of hardware accelerated volume rendering algorithms to the simulation of radiographs as an aid to scientists designing experiments, validating simulation codes, and understanding experimental data. The techniques presented take advantage of 32-bit floating point texture capabilities to obtain solutions to the radiative transport equation for X-rays. The hardware accelerated solutions are accurate enough to enable scientists to explore the experimental design space with greater efficiency than the methods currently in use. An unsorted hexahedron projection algorithm is presented for curvilinear hexahedral meshes that produces simulated radiographs in the absorption-only regime. A sorted tetrahedral projection algorithm is presented that simulates radiographs of emissive materials. We apply the tetrahedral projection algorithm to the simulation of experimental diagnostics for inertial confinement fusion experiments on a laser at the University of Rochester.

Article about the Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom stores at the Shops at La Cantera in San Antonio, Texas.

The speed of propagation of a premixed turbulent flame correlates with the intensity of the turbulence encountered by the flame. One consequence of this property is that premixed flames in both laboratory experiments and practical combustors require some type of stabilization mechanism to prevent blow-off and flashback. The stabilization devices often introduce a level of geometric complexity that is prohibitive for detailed computational studies of turbulent flame dynamics. Furthermore, the stabilization introduces additional fluid mechanical complexity into the overall combustion process that can complicate the analysis of fundamental flame properties. To circumvent these difficulties we introduce a feedback control algorithm that allows us to computationally stabilize a turbulent premixed flame in a simple geometric configuration. For the simulations, we specify turbulent inflow conditions and dynamically adjust the integrated fueling rate to control the mean location of the flame in the domain. We outline the numerical procedure, and illustrate the behavior of the control algorithm on methane flames at various equivalence ratios in two dimensions. The simulation data are used to study the local variation in the speed of propagation due to flame surface curvature.

Multimillion atom non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations for shock compressed iron are analyzed using Fourier methods to determine the long scale ordering of the crystal. By analyzing the location of the maxima in k-space we can determine the crystal structure and compression due to the shock. This report presents results from a 19.6 GPa simulated shock in single crystal iron and compare them to recent experimental results of shock compressed iron where the crystal structure was determined using in-situ wide angle x-ray diffraction.

Aqueous foam concentrate (AFC) 380 foam was developed by Sandia National Laboratory as a blast mitigation foam for unexploded ordnance (UXO) and its ''engineered foam structure'' is reported to be able to ''envelop chemical or biological aerosols'' [1]. It is similar to commercial fire-fighting foams, consisting mostly of water with small amounts of two alcohols, an ether and surfactant. It also contains xanthan gum, probably, to strengthen the foam film and delay drainage. The concentrate is normally diluted in a 6:94 ratio with water for foaming applications. The diluted solution is normally foamed with air to an expansion factor of about 100 (density 0.01 g/cc), which is called ''dry'' foam. Higher density foam (0.18 > {rho} > 0.03 g/cc) was discovered which had quite different characteristics from ''dry'' foam and was called ''wet'' foam. Some characterization of these foams has also been carried out, but the major effort described in this document is the evaluation, at the small and medium scale, of chemical, mechanical and thermal approaches to defoaming AFC 380 foam. Several chemical approaches to defoaming were evaluated including oxidation and precipitation of the xanthan, use of commercial oil-emulsion or suspension defoamers, pH modification, and cation exchange with the …

We have improved methods reported earlier [1] for sample preparation, imaging and quantifying components in supported lipid bilayers using high-resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry performed with the NanoSIMS 50. By selectively incorporating a unique stable isotope into each component of interest, a component-specific image is generated from the location and intensity of the unique secondary ion signals exclusively produced by each molecule. Homogeneous supported lipid bilayers that systematically varied in their isotopic enrichment levels were freeze-dried and analyzed with the NanoSIMS 50. The molecule-specific secondary ion signal intensities had an excellent linear correlation to the isotopically labeled lipid content. Statistically indistinguishable calibration curves were obtained using different sample sets analyzed months apart. Fluid bilayers can be patterned using lithographic methods and the composition of each corralled region varied systematically by simple microfluidic methods. The resulting composition variations can be imaged and quantified. This approach opens the possibility of imaging and quantifying the composition of microdomains within membranes, including protein components, without using bulky labels and with very high lateral resolution and sensitivity.