A comprehensive published paper that explores the intricacies of collaborating across lines of business to achieve a competitive advantage. This detailed document provides insights, strategies, and case studies, shedding light on successful approaches for businesses aiming to thrive through strategic collaboration.

In part 1, we describe how the creation of quasiparticles by current flow through a normal-insulator-superconductor (NIS) junction degrades the cooling performance of the junction. Degradation occurs due to the absorption of recombination phonons in the normal electrode and due to a reduction in the cooling power. In part 2, we describe how vibrations from a pulse tube mechanical cooler affect X-ray measurements performed with a superconducting tunnel junction.

Helium refrigerator performance degrades rapidly when it has to handle a varying or pulsed heat load. A novel scheme is presented to handle highly pulsed 4.5 K cryogenic loads with a standard helium refrigerator by isolating it from these pulses. The scheme uses a relatively simple arrangement of control valves, heat exchangers, and a storage dewar. Applications include pulsed tokamak machines such as TPX (Tokamak Physics Experiment) and ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). For example, the TPX (currently in the conceptual design phase in a DoE contract) requires an average 4.5 K refrigerator capacity of about 10 kW; however, pulsed loads caused by eddy current and nuclear heating will exceed 100 kW. The scheme presented here provides a method for handling these pulsed loads. Because of the simple and proven nature of the components involved and the thermodynamic properties of the helium, the system could be implemented for projects such as TPX or ITER with little or no development.

The idea of ``locality`` is a deep rooted concept. It does not have to be abandoned even if ``loophole free`` EPR experiments are performed and confirm the predictions of quantum theory. To satisfy locality, one can imagine that influences at a distance are exerted via mechanisms involving an ether and effects propagating in that ether a velocity V > c. Such model of physical phenomena is not Lorentz invariant but, with V large enough, the model can be made to reproduce the results of all experiments where quantum mechanics and Lorentz invariance have been verified.

A system-theoretic approach is proposed to investigate the feasibility of reconstructing a sound velocity profile (SVP) from acoustical hydrophone measurements. This problem is based on a state-space representation of the normal-mode propagation model. It is shown that this representation can be utilized to investigate the so-called observability of the SVP from noisy measurement data. A model-based processor is developed to extract this information and it is shown that even in cases where limited SVP information is available, the SVP can be estimated using this approach.

Many applications in material science, chemistry, and atomic physics require an x-ray source that has a repetition rate of 1 Hz to a few kHz. In these fields, a very wide range of photon energies is of interest. One application is time-resolved surface photoelectron spectroscopy and microscopy where low energy (< 1{mu}J) pulses are required to avoid space charge effects but high-repetition rates ({approx} kHz) provide the high average power which is needed to obtain the desired resolution. In pump-probe experiments, it is desirable to have the repetition rate of the x-ray source be comparable to the repetition rate of the corresponding IR, optical, or UV laser. We show that the very high-repetition rate of synchrotrons (1--1000 MHz) results in an inefficient use of x rays for these types of experiments and that a kHz repetition rate x-ray laser would be an excellent source for many experiments. For some applications, a slower repetition rate of order 1 Hz is adequate provide the energy per pulse is larger ({approx}1 mJ). For example, in photoelectron spectroscopy of free clusters, an x-ray laser can provide the required large number of nearly monoenergetic photons during the short time the clusters can be probed in …

The Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator Package O-Ring Seal Material Validation Test was conducted to validate the use of the Butyl material as a primary seal throughout the required temperature range. Three tests were performed at (1) 233 K ({minus}40 {degrees}F), (2) a specified operating temperature, and (3) 244 K ({minus}20 {degrees}F) before returning to room temperature. Helium leak tests were performed at each test point to determine seal performance. The two major test objectives were to establish that butyl rubber material would maintain its integrity under various conditions and within specified parameters and to evaluate changes in material properties.

This paper presents a divide-and-conquer ray-traced volume rendering algorithm and its implementation on networked workstations and a massively parallel computer, the Connection Machine CM-5. This algorithm distributes the data and the computational load to individual processing units to achieve fast, high-quality rendering of high-resolution data, even when only a modest amount of memory is available on each machine. The volume data, once distributed, is left intact. The processing nodes perform local ray-tracing of their subvolume concurrently. No communication between processing units is needed during this locally ray-tracing process. A subimage is generated by each processing unit and the final image is obtained by compositing subimages in the proper order, which can be determined a priori. Implementations and tests on a group of networked workstations and on the Thinking Machines CM-5 demonstrate the practicality of our algorithm and expose different performance tuning issues for each platform. We use data sets from medical imaging and computational fluid dynamics simulations in the study of this algorithm.

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There is no market failure that warrants utility regulation of the construction of new generating plants, the supply of energy efficiency or the purchase of fuel under contract. The natural monopoly problem applies to the distribution of electricity and gas, not to generation, energy conservation, or gas purchases. Utility regulation magnifies a market failure, which is the principal agent problem. Regulatory allowance of utilities signing long term fixed price contracts and undertaking conservation measures result in costs and risks being shifted to ratepayers that would not occur under competitive market conditions. Economic efficiency would be enhanced if cost of service regulation of electric and gas utilities were replaced by a competitive market process for the construction of new power plants, utility conservation programs and contracts to purchase fuel. Conservation measures could be supplied by energy service companies. Gas merchants could provide gas and energy conservation directly to ultimate customers, if they had access to LDC pipelines. With a competitive market established to sell gas and energy services, contracts and conservation measures would not require cost-of- service regulation.

Structural phase transformation in lanthanides and actinides were investigated as a function of pressure up to 300 GPa at room temperature. Except in Ce and Pr, no large volume changes were noticed for these metals as thy went through several phase changes. The appearance of a bct ultra-high pressure phase in Ce, Sm, Th, and possibly in Np, raises the possibility that the ultimate high pressure structure for the 4f and 5f metals may be the bct structure. On the other hand, it is also possible that this is a precursor to another close-packed structure at even higher pressure.

This report discusses the time evolution of the quark-gluon plasma.

The TVA/EPRI Tailored Collaborative Project {open_quotes}Biotransformation of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBS) in Contaminated Soils{close_quotes}, has as its objective biotransformation of PCB contaminated soils at utility sites (Phase I Report March 1992). However, there is recognition of the existence of other types of nonmetabolic alterations of PCBs in the contaminated soils. Of these nonmetabolic alterations, photoalteration is of special interest to the project. Photoalteration has the potential for enhancing PCB transformation with little intervention and little harm to the microbial community. PCBs have pervaded the environment, and the paucity of knowledge about their chemistry is becoming readily apparent. Although PCBs are quite resistant to degradation, photolysis, which is a chemical decomposition process that is induced by radiant energy, may be important in the environmental chemistry of PCBS. The photochemical degradation of PCBs may affect atmospheric levels of contaminants and photolabile chemicals that reside in water bodies or on surfaces, as for example, on leaves and vegetation. Chemicals present in the environment can undergo direct or indirect phototransformation which includes photosensitized degradation and oxygenation as well as photoinduced degradation. Photoalteration is produced by either artificial light or by light from the sun. Ultraviolet radiation (UV) is known to induce chemical reactions in many …

Superplastic forming has emerged as an important manufacturing process for producing near-net-shape parts. The design of a superplastic forming process is more difficult than conventional manufacturing operations, and is less amenable to trial and error approaches. This paper describes a superplastic forming process design capability incorporating nonlinear finite element analysis. The material constraints to allow superplastic behavior are integrated into an external constraint equation which is solved concurrently with the nonlinear finite element equations. The implementation of this approach using the ISLAND solution control language with the nonlinear finite element code NIKE2D is discussed in detail. Superplastic forming process design problems with one and two control parameters are presented as examples.

One of the problems that arises in programming a multicomputer is the effective partitioning of the work into tasks and the assigning of those tasks to the processors. We will present a programming paradigm as a method of structuring the algorithms, allowing us to identify and separate programming phases. This paradigm allows us to develop a general software tool for dynamically allocating work to the processors while hiding many details of load balancing. Our paradigm consists of four phases: partitioning the work, mapping the tasks into the processors connected by some virtual topology, running the application program, and embedding the virtual architecture into the actual machine. The paradigm applies to diverse problems and to a variety of multiprocessors without significant reprograming. We will use the multisection method for computing eigenvalues to show how this tool works.

The development of effective solution strategies to solve the global nonlinear equations which arise in implicit finite element analysis has been the subject of much research in recent years. Robust algorithms are needed to handle the complex nonlinearities that arise in many implicit finite element applications such as metalforming process simulation. The authors experience indicates that robustness can best be achieved through adaptive solution strategies. In the course of their research, this adaptivity and flexibility has been refined into a production tool through the development of a solution control language called ISLAND. This paper discusses aspects of adaptive solution strategies including iterative procedures to solve the global equations and remeshing techniques to extend the domain of Lagrangian methods. Examples using the newly developed ISLAND language are presented to illustrate the advantages of embedding temporal, algorithmic, and spatial adaptivity in a modem implicit nonlinear finite element analysis code.

Microchannel heatsinks represent a highly efficient and compact method for heat removal in high heat flux components. Excellent thermal performance of a silicon microchannel heatsink has been demonstrated using liquid nitrogen as the coolant. For the heating of a 1 square centimeter area, at a heat dissipation of 500 W, a typical silicon heatsink cooled by liquid nitrogen has a thermal resistance of 0.046 cm{sup 2}{degrees}K/W. The actual heatsink structure in this case is only 0.1 cm high. Silicon, although it has excellent thermal properties at liquid nitrogen temperatures, may fracture with very little plastic deformation due to mechanical and thermal stresses. Because the fracture strength of silicon depends on the presence of small defects, strength of the heatsink structures must be addressed to insure highly reliable heatsink devices. Microchannel heatsink reliability can be affected by thermal stresses that arise due to temperature gradients between the base and fin and along the film length. These stresses are combined with the bonding stresses that arise in attaching components at elevated temperatures to the silicon heatsink and then cooling the structure to the cryogenic operating temperatures. These bonding stresses are potentially large because of the differences in the values of the coefficients …

The transpiration technique is used to measure volatilities of U from U{sub 3}O{sub 8}(s), Pu from PuO{sub 2}(s) and Pu and Am from PuO{sub 2}/2%AmO{sub 2}(s) in the presence of steam and oxygen at temperatures ranging from 900 to 1300{degree}C.

Uranium enrichment processes have the capability of producing weapons-grade material in the form of highly enriched uranium. Thus, detection of undeclared uranium enrichment activities is an international safeguards concern. The uranium separation technologies currently in use employ UF{sub 6} gas as a separation medium, and trace quantities of enriched uranium are inevitably released to the environment from these facilities. The isotopic content of uranium in the vegetation, soil, and water near the plant site will be altered by these releases and can provide a signature for detecting the presence of enriched uranium activities. This paper discusses environmental sampling and analytical procedures that have been used for the detection of uranium enrichment facilities and possible safeguards applications of these techniques.

This paper describes findings from the Second Colloquium on Petroleum engineering Education. The purpose of this colloquium was to provide a forum for petroleum engineering educators and representatives from industry and government to explore critical issues facing petroleum engineering education as we move into the 21st Century. It was expected that the colloquium would identify areas where changes are needed in petroleum engineering education, to best prepare students for careers in the oil and gas industry or other, related industries.

Preliminary minimum detectable levels (MDLS) of selected actinide isotopes have been determined in full-scale, 55-gallon drums filled with a range of mock-waste materials from combustibles (0.14 g/CM{sup 3}) to sand (1.7 g/CM{sup 3}). Measurements were recorded from 100 to 10,000 seconds with selected actinide sources located in these drums at an edge position, on the center axis of a drum and midway between these two positions. Measurements were also made with a {sup 166}Ho source to evaluate the attenuation of these mock-matrix materials as a function of energy. By knowing where the source activity is located within a drum, our preliminary results show that a simply collimated 90% HPGE detector can differentiate between TRU (>100 nCi/g) and LLW amounts of {sup 239}Pu in only 100s of measurement time and with sufficient accuracy in both low and medium density, low Z materials. Other actinides measured so far include {sup 235}U, {sup 241}Am, and {sup 244}Cm. These measurements begin to establish the probable MDLs achievable in the nondestructive assays of real waste drums when using active and passive CT. How future measurements may differ from these preliminary measurements is also discussed.

In an effort to encourage the maximum cost-effective level of energy efficiency in new building design, energy-efficiency standards have become more location-specific and performance-based. As a result, standards often provide more than one path for ensuring and demonstrating that a design complies, but at the cost of increased complexity. In addition, the burden of remedying a noncompliant design rests on the designers` knowledge and experience, with only general guidance provided by the standards. As part of efforts in the US Department of Energy`s (DOE`s) Advanced Energy Design and Operation Technologies (AEDOT) project, a team at DOE`s Pacific Northwest Laboratory is developing a computer program known as the Energy Standards Intelligent Design Tool (ES-IDT). The ES-IDT is one component of a prototype computer-based building design environment. It performs automatic compliance checking for parts of ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-1989 and provides designers assistance in bringing noncomplying designs into compliance. This paper describes the ES-IDT, the functions it provides, and how it is integrated into the design process via the AEDOT prototype building design environment. 9 refs.

Questions still exist concerning the appropriate model for turbulence- induced phase fluctuations seen in ground-based telescopes. Bester et al. used a particular observable (slope of the Allan variance) with an infrared interferometer in an attempt to distinguish models. The authors have calculated that observable for Kolmogorov and {open_quotes}random walk{close_quotes} models with a variety of outer scales and altitude-dependent turbulence and wind velocity. The authors have found that clear distinction between models requires good data on the vertical distribution of wind and turbulence. Furthermore, measurements at time separations of order 60 s are necessary to distinguish the {open_quotes}random walk{close_quotes} model from the Kolmogorov model.

In an effort to improve public involvement in the site restoration decision making process, the DOE has established site specific advisory boards, of which the Fernald Citizens Task Force is one. The Fernald Task Force is focused on making recommendations in four areas: (1) What should be the future use of the site? (2) Determinations of cleanup levels (how clean is clean?) (3) Where should the wastes be disposed of? (4) What should be the cleanup priorities? Because these questions are being asked very early in the decision-making process, the answers are necessarily qualified, and are based on a combination of preliminary data, assumptions, and professional judgment. The requirement to make progress in the absence of accurate data has necessitated FERMCO and the Task Force to employ an approach similar to sensitivity analysis, in which a range of possible data values are evaluated and the relative importance of the various factors is assessed. Because of its charter to provide recommendations of future site use, the Task Force has developed a sitewide perspective, compared to the more common operable unit specific focus of public participation under CERCLA. The relationship between FERMCO and the Task Force is evolving toward one of partnership …