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The estimation of time-activity curves and kinetic model parameters directly from projection data is potentially useful for clinical dynamic single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) studies, particularly in those clinics that have only single-detector systems and thus are not able to perform rapid tomographic acquisitions. Because the radiopharmaceutical distribution changes while the SPECT gantry rotates, projections at different angles come from different tracer distributions. A dynamic image sequence reconstructed from the inconsistent projections acquired by a slowly rotating gantry can contain artifacts that lead to biases in kinetic parameters estimated from time-activity curves generated by overlaying regions of interest on the images. If cone beam collimators are used and the focal point of the collimators always remains in a particular transaxial plane, additional artifacts can arise in other planes reconstructed using insufficient projection samples [1]. If the projection samples truncate the patient's body, this can result in additional image artifacts. To overcome these sources of bias in conventional image based dynamic data analysis, we and others have been investigating the estimation of time-activity curves and kinetic model parameters directly from dynamic SPECT projection data by modeling the spatial and temporal distribution of the radiopharmaceutical throughout the projected field of view …

Long-term processes of cathodoluminescence degradation of thin film phosphors Zn{sub 2}SiO{sub 4}:Ti and Zn{sub 2}GeO{sub 4}:Mn were investigated in a wide range of e-beam energies, current and power densities. The time dependencies describing decreasing of emission intensity have been found. At high-level densities of e-beam irradiation the specific behavior of long-term degradation processes was observed, which is characteristic with rapid degradation at initial stage and slow consequent decrease of intensity. The most probable mechanisms responsible for long-term processes of degradation in investigated phosphors are proposed.

In this article, the authors present a technique for obtaining atomic resolution ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy images of diamond (100) films by atomic hydrogen.

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LLM-105 (2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitropyrazine-1-oxide) is a new molecule which has performance and insensitivity between those of HMX and TATB. Its calculated energy content is about 85% that of HMX and 15% more than that of TATB. It is thermally stable, insensitive to shock, spark and friction and has impact insensitivity level approaching that of TATB. These combined properties make it a realistic high-performance IHE material, attractive for applications that require moderate performance and insensitivity. Several morphologies of LLM-105 and plastic-bonded formulations containing these materials and another binder were prepared and characterized. Their physical properties and detonation spreading characteristics are compared to those of ultrafine TATB. The impact sensitivity (drop hammer results) is sensitive to particle morphologies. Detonation-spreading, spot-size tests on LLM-105 compositions showed higher energy output and superior divergence behavior than is observed for ultrafine TATB. The small-scale safety data, pressing characteristics and results from divergence experiments will be summarized.

In this paper the authors provide a motivation for Grid computing based on a vision to enable a collaborative research environment. The authors vision goes beyond the connection of hardware resources. They argue that with an infrastructure such as the Grid, new modalities for collaborative research are enabled. They provide an overview showing why Grid research is difficult, and they present a number of management-related issues that must be addressed to make Grids a reality. They list projects that provide solutions to subsets of these issues.

Neutron production cross sections have been measured from290 MeV/nucleon C and 600 MeV/nucleon Ne interacting in a slab ofsimulated Martian regolith/polyethylene composite, and from 400MeV/nucleon Ne interacting in a section of wall materials from theInternational Space Station. Neutron spectra were measured at 7 anglesbetween 5 degrees and 80 degrees, and for neutron energies 5 MeV andgreater. Spectra at forward angles are dominated by the breakup of theprojectile, whereas spectra at back angles show the typical exponentialfalloff with energy that is indicative of decay from the overlap regionand the target remnant. The measured total neutron production crosssections indicate that the regolith/polyethylene composite may be a moreeffective shielding material than the ISS wall materials, in terms of thenumber of neutrons produced.

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Highly conductive ZnO films were fabricated on p-GaN in a two-step process. First, zinc was thermally evaporated on p-GaN. Next, zinc film was oxidized in oxygen flow. To increase the conductivity of ZnO, nitrogen was introduced into zinc during its deposition. The above procedure proved successful in fabricating ZnO of the resistivity of {approx}1 x 10{sup -3} {Omega}cm and resulted in ohmic contacts of resistivity {approx}1 x 10{sup -2} {Omega}cm{sup 2} to low-doped p-GaN, and light transmittance of {approx}75% in the wavelength range of 400-700 nm.

Water fluxes in unsaturated, fractured rock involve the physical processes occurring at fracture-matrix interfaces within fracture networks. Modeling these water fluxes using a discrete fracture network model is a complicated effort. Existing preprocessors for TOUGH2 are not suitable to generate grids for fracture networks with various orientations and inclinations. There are several 3-D discrete-fracture-network simulators for flow and transport, but most of them do not capture fracture-matrix interaction. We have developed a new 3-D discrete-fracture-network mesh generator, FRACMESH, to provide TOUGH2 with information about the fracture network configuration and fracture-matrix interactions. FRACMESH transforms a discrete fracture network into a 3 dimensional uniform mesh, in which fractures are considered as elements with unique rock material properties and connected to surrounding matrix elements. Using FRACMESH, individual fractures may have uniform or random aperture distributions to consider heterogeneity. Fracture element volumes and interfacial areas are calculated from fracture geometry within individual elements. By using FRACMESH and TOUGH2, fractures with various inclinations and orientations, and fracture-matrix interaction, can be incorporated. In this paper, results of flow and transport simulations in a fractured rock block utilizing FRACMESH are presented.

Ap/Bp stars are magnetic chemically peculiar early A and late B type stars of the main sequence. They exhibit peculiar surface abundance anomalies that are thought to be the result of gravitational settling and radiative levitation. The physics of diffusion in these stars are reviewed briefly and some model predictions are discussed. While models reproduce some observations reasonably well, more work is needed before the behavior of diffusing elements in a complex magnetic field is fully understood.

Two Miniplug calorimeters, designed to measure the energy and lateral position of particles in the forward pseudorapidity region of 3.6 < |{eta}| < 5.1, have been installed as part of the CDF upgraded detector for Run II at the Tevatron. Proton-antiproton beams are colliding at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. One year after installation, Miniplug detector performance and first results are presented.

We present recent results on jet fragmentation, jet evolution in jet and minimum bias events, and underlying event studies. The results presented in this talk address significant questions relevant to QCD and, in particular, to jet studies. One topic discussed is jet fragmentation and the possibility of describing it down to very small momentum scales in terms of pQCD. Another topic is the studies of underlying event energy originating from fragmentation of partons not associated with the hard scattering.

Status and recent developments of the MARS 14 Monte Carlo code system for simulation of hadronic and electromagnetic cascades in shielding, accelerator and detector components in the energy range from a fraction of an electronvolt up to 100 TeV are described. these include physics models both in strong and electromagnetic interaction sectors, variance reduction techniques, residual dose, geometry, tracking, histograming. MAD-MARS Beam Line Build and Graphical-User Interface.

The technologies of fabrication of thin film phosphors based on gallium nitride using rf-magnetron sputtering are developed and structural properties of films are studied. Luminescence and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra of GaN and GaN-Mn thin films have been studied. The correlation between cathodoluminescence intensity and conductivity of GaN films has been found. The nature of emission centers in GaN and GaN-Mn thin films is discussed as well as mechanism of luminescence in these films is proposed.

TOUGH2{_}MP is a massively parallel version of TOUGH2. It was developed for running on distributed-memory parallel computers to simulate large simulation problems that may not be solved by the standard, single-CPU TOUGH2 code. The new code implements an efficient massively parallel scheme, while preserving the full capacity and flexibility of the original TOUGH2 code. The new software uses the METIS software package for grid partitioning and AZTEC software package for linear-equation solving. The standard message-passing interface is adopted for communication among processors. Numerical performance of the current version code has been tested on CRAY-T3E and IBM RS/6000 SP platforms. In addition, the parallel code has been successfully applied to real field problems of multi-million-cell simulations for three-dimensional multiphase and multicomponent fluid and heat flow, as well as solute transport. In this paper, we will review the development of the TOUGH2{_}MP, and discuss the basic features, modules, and their applications.

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Our ability to simulate physical processes numerically is constrained by our ability to solve the resulting linear systems, prompting substantial research into the development of multiscale iterative methods capable of solving these linear systems with an optimal amount of effort. Overcoming the limitations of geometric multigrid methods to simple geometries and differential equations, algebraic multigrid methods construct the multigrid hierarchy based only on the given matrix. While this allows for efficient black-box solution of the linear systems associated with discretizations of many elliptic differential equations, it also results in a lack of robustness due to assumptions made on the near-null spaces of these matrices. This paper introduces an extension to algebraic multigrid methods that removes the need to make such assumptions by utilizing an adaptive process. The principles which guide the adaptivity are highlighted, as well as their application to algebraic multigrid solution of certain symmetric positive-definite linear systems.

We examine various options for calibration of NIF neutron detectors in the energy region E<14 MeV. These options include: downscatter of D-T fusion neutrons using plastic targets; nuclear reactions at a Tandem Van de Graaf accelerator; and ''white'' neutrons from a pulsed spallation source. As an example of the spallation option, we present some calibration data that was recently obtained with a single crystal CVD diamond detector at the Weapons Neutron Research facility (WNR) at LANL.

We present first principles, computational predictions of a porous, nano-structured semiconductor material that will reversibly store hydrogen for fuel cell applications. The material is competitive with current metal hydride storage materials, but contains only carbon and silicon, reducing both its cost and environmental impact. Additionally, unlike metal hydrides, the core skeleton structure of this material is unaltered when cycling from full hydrogen storage to full hydrogen depletion, removing engineering complications associated with expansion/contraction of the material.

We examine the effect of the collective force due to coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) in an electron storage ring with small bending radius. In a computation based on time-domain integration of the nonlinear Vlasov equation, we find the threshold current for a longitudinal microwave instability induced by CSR alone. The model accounts for suppression of radiation at long wave lengths due to shielding by the vacuum chamber. In a calculation just above threshold, small ripples in the charge distribution build up over a fraction of a synchrotron period, but then die out to yield a relatively smooth but altered distribution with eventual oscillations in bunch length. The instability evolves from small noise on an initial smooth bunch of r.m.s.length much greater than the shielding cutoff. The paper includes a derivation and extensive analysis of the complete impedance function Z for synchrotron radiation with parallel plate shielding. We find corrections to the lowest approximation to the coherent force which involve ''off-diagonal'' values of Z, that is, fields with phase velocity not equal to the particle velocity.

Medium carbon steel (MCS) is the candidate material for rock bolts to reinforce the borehole liners and emplacement drifts of the proposed Yucca Mountain (YM) high-level nuclear waste repository. Corrosion performance of this structural steel -AISI 1040- was investigated by techniques such as linear polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and laboratory immersion tests in lab simulated concentrated YM ground waters. Corrosion rates of the steel were determined for the temperatures in the range from 25 C to 85 C, for the ionic concentrations of 1 time (1x), 10 times (10x), and hundred times (100x) ground waters. The MCS corroded uniformly at the penetration rates of 35-200 {micro}m/year in the de-aerated YM waters, and 200-1000 {micro}m/year in the aerated waters. Increasing temperatures in the de-aerated waters increased the corrosion rates of the steel. However, increasing ionic concentrations influenced the corrosion rates only slightly. In the aerated 1x and 10x waters, increasing temperatures increased the rates of MCS significantly. Inhibitive precipitates, which formed in the aerated 100x waters at higher temperatures (65 C and up) decreased the corrosion rates to the values that obtained for the de-aerated YM aqueous environments. The steel suffered pitting corrosion in the both de-aerated and aerated hot …

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