The bending and residual stress of flip chips caused by the mismatch of thermal expansion between the chip and the substrate have been measured by polychromatic microfocused synchrotron x-ray beam. Precise orientation information as a function of position on the chip was obtained from Laue diffraction patterns, so that the bending angle with respect to a reference position at the center of the chip can be calculated at each position. This in turn allows deducing the local curvature of the entire flip chip. Local stress distribution was then mapped by applying a modified Stoney's stress-strain equation to the measured curvature. Our study shows that thermal stress on the circuits and the solder joints in a flip chip strongly depend on temperature and the distance from the center of the chip, indicating that interconnects at the corner and edge of a flip chip are of reliability concerns.

This paper discusses how to optimize pre-cooling strategies for buildings in a hot California climate zone with the Demand Response Quick Assessment Tool (DRQAT), a building energy simulation tool. This paper outlines the procedure used to develop and calibrate DRQAT simulation models, and applies this procedure to eleven field test buildings. The results of a comparison between the measured demand savings during the peak period and the savings predicted by the simulation model indicate that the predicted demand shed match well with measured data for the corresponding auto-demand response (Auto-DR) days. The study shows that the accuracy of the simulation models is greatly improved after calibrating the initial models with measured data. These improved models can be used to predict load reductions for automated demand response events. The simulation results were compared with field test data to confirm the actual effect of demand response strategies. Results indicate that the optimal demand response strategies worked well for most of the buildings tested in this hot climate zone.

Through a commitment to high performance, school districts are discovering that smart energy choices can create lasting benefits for students, communities, and the environment. For example, an energy efficient school district with 4,000 students can save as much as $160,000 a year in energy costs. Over 10 years, those savings can reach $1.6 million, translating into the ability to hire more teachers, purchase more textbooks and computers, or invest in additional high performance facilities. Beyond these bottomline benefits, schools can better foster student health, decrease absenteeism, and serve as centers of community life. The U.S. Department of Energy's EnergySmart Schools Program promotes a 30 percent improvement in existing school energy use. It also encourages the building of new schools that exceed code (ASHRAE 90.11999) by 50 percent or more. The program provides resources like this Guide to Operating and Maintaining EnergySmart Schools to assist school decisionmakers in planning, financing, operating, and maintaining energy efficient, high performance schools. It also offers education and training for building industry professionals. Operations and maintenance refer to all scheduled and unscheduled actions for preventing equipment failure or decline with the goal of increasing efficiency, reliability, and safety. A preventative maintenance program is the organized and …

Single transverse-spin asymmetry in high energy hadronic reaction has been greatly investigated from both experiment and theory sides in the last few years. In this talk, I will summarize some recent theoretical developments, which, in my opinion, help to unvail the mysterious of the single spin asymmetry.

Strontium-90 (90Sr) is present both in the aquifer near the river and in the vadose and riparian zones of the river’s shore at 100-NR-2. Phytoextraction of 90Sr is being considered as a potential remediation system along the riparian zone of the Columbia River. Phytoextraction would employ coyote willow (Salix exigua). Past studies have shown that willow roots share uptake mechanisms for Sr with Ca, a plant macronutrient as well as no discrimination between Sr and 90Sr. Willow 90Sr concentration ratios [CR’s; (pCi 90Sr/g dry wt. of new growth tissue)/(pCi 90Sr/g soil porewater)] were consistently greater than 65 with three-quarters of the assimilated label partitioned into the above ground shoot. Insect herbivore experiments also demonstrated no significant potential for bioaccumulation or food chain transfer from their natural activities. The objectives of this field study were three-fold: (1) to demonstrate that a viable, “managed” plot of coyote willows can be established on the shoreline of the Columbia River that would survive the same microenvironment to be encountered at the 100-NR-2 shoreline; (2) to show through engineered barriers that large and small animal herbivores can be prevented from feeding on these plants; and (3) to show that once established, the plants will provide …

This paper describes a new approach to environmental decision support for salinity management in the San Joaquin Basin of California that focuses on web-based data sharing using YSI Econet technology and continuous data quality management using a novel software tool, Aquarius.

While climate-change models have done a reasonable job of forecasting changes in global climate conditions over the past decades, recent data indicate that actual climate change may be much more severe. To better understand some of the potential economic impacts of these severe climate changes, Sandia economists estimated the impacts to the U.S. economy of climate change-induced impacts to U.S. precipitation over the 2010 to 2050 time period. The economists developed an impact methodology that converts changes in precipitation and water availability to changes in economic activity, and conducted simulations of economic impacts using a large-scale macroeconomic model of the U.S. economy.

Antibiotic administration is the standard treatment for the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, the main causative agent of peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. However, the long-term consequences of this treatment on the human indigenous microbiota are relatively unexplored. Here we studied short- and long-term effects of clarithromycin and metronidazole treatment, a commonly used therapy regimen against H. pylori, on the indigenous microbiota in the throat and in the lower intestine. The bacterial compositions in samples collected over a four year period were monitored by analyzing the 16S rRNA gene using 454-based pyrosequencing and terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). While the microbial communities of untreated control subjects were relatively stable over time, dramatic shifts were observed one week after antibiotic treatment with reduced bacterial diversity in all treated subjects in both locations. While the microbiota of the different subjects responded uniquely to the antibiotic treatment some general trends could be observed; such as a dramatic decline in Actinobacteria in both throat and feces immediately after treatment. Although the diversity of the microbiota subsequently recovered to resemble the pre treatment states, the microbiota remained perturbed in some cases for up to four years post treatment. In addition, four years after treatment high levels …

The authors present 2323 High-Amplitude {delta}-Scutis (HADS) candidates discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) by the SuperMACHO survey (Rest et al. 2005). Frequency analyses of these candidates reveal that several are multimode pulsators, including 119 whose largest amplitude of pulsation is in the fundamental (F) mode and 19 whose largest amplitude of pulsation is in the first overtone (FO) mode. Using Fourier decomposition of the HADS light curves, they find that the period-luminosity (PL) relation defined by the FO pulsators does not show a clear separation from the PL-relation defined by the F pulsators. This differs from other instability strip pulsators such as type c RR Lyrae. They also present evidence for a larger amplitude, subluminous population of HADS similar to that observed in Fornax (Poretti et al. 2008).

This work examines the potential to predict the seed productivity of a key wetland plant species using spectral reflectance values and spectral vegetation indices. Specifically, the seed productivity of swamp timothy (Cripsis schenoides) was investigated in two wetland ponds, managed for waterfowl habitat, in California's San Joaquin Valley. Spectral reflectance values were obtained and associated spectral vegetation indices (SVI) calculated from two sets of high resolution aerial images (May 11, 2006 and June 9, 2006) and were compared to the collected vegetation data. Vegetation data were collected and analyzed from 156 plots for total aboveground biomass, total aboveground swamp timothy biomass, and total swamp timothy seed biomass. The SVI investigated included the Simple Ratio (SR), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Transformed Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (TSAVI), Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI), and Global Environment Monitoring Index (GEMI). We evaluated the correlation of the various SVI with in situ vegetation measurements for linear, quadratic, exponential and power functions. In all cases, the June image provided better predictive capacity relative to May, a result that underscores the importance of timing imagery to coincide with more favorable vegetation maturity. The north pond with the June image using …

Soft-X-ray absorption spectroscopy, soft-X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, and alternating current magnetic susceptibility were performed on 6.7 nm iron oxide nanoparticles doped with (5-33%) Mn grown inside the horse-spleen ferritin protein cages and compared to similarly protein encapsulated pure Fe-oxide and Mn-oxide nanoparticles to determine the site of the Mn dopant and to quantify the magnetic behavior with varying Mn concentration. The Mn dopant is shown to substitute preferentially as Mn{sup +2} and prefers the octahedral site in the defected spinel structure. The Mn multiplet structure for the nanoparticles is simpler than for the bulk standards, suggesting that the nanoparticle lattices are relaxed from the distortions present in the bulk. Addition of Mn is found to alter the host Fe-oxide lattice from a defected ferrimagnetic spinel structure similar to {gamma}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} to an non-ferromagnetic spinel structure with a local Fe environment similar to Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}.

Innovative strategies for effective basin-scale salinity management have been developed in the Hunter River Basin of Australia and more recently in the San Joaquin River Basin of California. In both instances web-based stakeholder information dissemination has been a key to achieving a high level of stakeholder involvement and the formulation of effective decision support salinity management tools. A common element to implementation of salinity management strategies in both river basins has been the concept of river assimilative capacity for controlling export salt loading and the potential for trading of the right to discharge salt load to the river - the Hunter River in Australia and the San Joaquin River in California. Both rivers provide basin drainage and the means of exporting salt to the ocean. The paper compares and contrasts the use of monitoring, modeling and information dissemination in the two basins to achieve environmental compliance and sustain irrigated agriculture in an equitable and socially and politically acceptable manner.

Modeling studies show that the darkening of snow and ice by black carbon deposition is a major factor for the rapid disappearance of arctic sea ice, mountain glaciers and snow packs. This study provides one of the first direct measurements for the efficient removal of black carbon from the atmosphere by snow and its subsequent deposition to the snow packs of California. The early melting of the snow packs in the Sierras is one of the contributing factors to the severe water problems in California. BC concentrations in falling snow were measured at two mountain locations and in rain at a coastal site. All three stations reveal large BC concentrations in precipitation, ranging from 1.7 ng/g to 12.9 ng/g. The BC concentrations in the air after the snow fall were negligible suggesting an extremely efficient removal of BC by snow. The data suggest that below cloud scavenging, rather than ice nuclei, was the dominant source of BC in the snow. A five-year comparison of BC, dust, and total fine aerosol mass concentrations at multiple sites reveals that the measurements made at the sampling sites were representative of large scale deposition in the Sierra Nevada. The relative concentration of iron and …

In situ mechanical testing coupled with imaging using high-energy synchrotron x-ray diffraction or tomography imaging is gaining in popularity as a technique to investigate micrometer and even sub-micrometer deformation and fracture mechanisms in mineralized tissues, such as bone and teeth. However, the role of the irradiation in affecting the nature and properties of the tissue is not always taken into account. Accordingly, we examine here the effect of x-ray synchrotron-source irradiation on the mechanistic aspects of deformation and fracture in human cortical bone. Specifically, the strength, ductility and fracture resistance (both work-of-fracture and resistance-curve fracture toughness) of human femoral bone in the transverse (breaking) orientation were evaluated following exposures to 0.05, 70, 210 and 630 kGy irradiation. Our results show that the radiation typically used in tomography imaging can have a major and deleterious impact on the strength, post-yield behavior and fracture toughness of cortical bone, with the severity of the effect progressively increasing with higher doses of radiation. Plasticity was essentially suppressed after as little as 70 kGy of radiation; the fracture toughness was decreased by a factor of five after 210 kGy of radiation. Mechanistically, the irradiation was found to alter the salient toughening mechanisms, manifest by the …