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Determination of the strains in a polycrystalline materialusing 4-D XRD reveals sub-grain and grain-to-grain behavior as a functionof stress. Here 4-D XRD involves an experimental procedure usingpolychromatic micro-beam X-radiation (micro-Laue) to characterizepolycrystalline materials in spatial location as well as with increasingstress. The in-situ tensile loading experiment measured strain in a modelaluminum-sapphire metal matrix composite using the Advanced Light Source,Beam-line 7.3.3. Micro-Laue resolves individual grains in thepolycrystalline matrix. Results obtained from a list of grains sorted bycrystallographic orientation depict the strain states within and amongindividual grains. Locating the grain positions in the planeperpendicular to the incident beam is trivial. However, determining theexact location of grains within a 3-D space is challenging. Determiningthe depth of the grains within the matrix (along the beam direction)involved a triangulation method tracing individual rays that producespots on the CCD back to the point of origin. Triangulation wasexperimentally implemented by simulating a 3-D detector capturingmultiple diffraction images while increasing the camera to sampledistance. Hence by observing the intersection of rays from multiple spotsbelonging to the corresponding grain, depth is calculated. Depthresolution is a function of the number of images collected, grain to beamsize ratio, and the pixel resolution of the CCD. The 4DXRD methodprovides grain morphologies, strain …

We have constructed a fast-neutron double-scatter spectrometer that efficiently measures the neutron spectrum and direction of a spontaneous fission source. The device consists of two planes of organic scintillators, each having an area of 125 cm{sup 2}, efficiently coupled to photomultipliers. The four scintillators in the front plane are 2 cm thick, giving almost 25% probability of detecting an incident fission-spectrum neutron at 2 MeV by proton recoil and subsequent ionization. The back plane contains four 5-cm-thick scintillators which give a 40% probability of detecting a scattered fast neutron. A recordable double-scatter event occurs when a neutron is detected in both a front plane detector and a back plane detector within an interval of 500 nanoseconds. Each double-scatter event is analyzed to determine the energy deposited in the front plane, the time of flight between detectors, and the energy deposited in the back plane. The scattering angle of each incident neutron is calculated from the ratio of the energy deposited in the first detector to the kinetic energy of the scattered neutron.

This report gives the description of a new cocktail of heavy ions ranging from Z=7-36 at 16 MeV/Nucleon.

High-resolution digital cameras, in conjunction with software techniques. make possible 360{sup o} photos that allow a person to look all around, up and dawn, and zoom in or out. The software provides the opportunity to attach other information to a 360{sup o} photo such as sound tiles, flat photos (providing additional detail about what is behind a panel or around a corner) and text (Information which can be used to show radiological conditions or identify other hazards not readily visible). The software also allows other 360{sup o} photos to be attached creating a virtual tour where the user can move from area to area, and stop, study and zoom in on areas of interest. A virtual tour of a building or room can be used for facility documentation, informing management and others, work planning and orientation, and training, thus minimizing the need to re-enter hazardous radioactive areas. Reducing entries decreases exposure, increases safety and minimizes waste.

The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on MOLECULAR & IONIC CLUSTERS was held at Crowne Plaza from 2/19/2006 thru 2/24/2006. The Conference was well-attended with 89 participants (attendees list attached). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. In designing the formal speakers program, emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field. There was a conscious effort to stimulate lively discussion about the key issues in the field today. Time for formal presentations was limited in the interest of group discussions. In order that more scientists could communicate their most recent results, poster presentation time was scheduled. Attached is a copy of the formal schedule and speaker program and the poster program. In addition to these formal interactions, ''free time'' was scheduled to allow informal discussions. Such discussions are fostering new collaborations and joint efforts in the field.

This conference brings together scientists interested in a range of basic phenomena linked to the ejection and scattering of electrons from atoms, molecules, clusters, liquids and solids by absorption of light. Photoionization, a highly sensitive probe of both structure and dynamics, can range from perturbative single-photon processes to strong-field highly non-perturbative interactions. It is responsible for the formation and destruction of molecules in astrophysical and plasma environments and successfully used in advanced analytical techniques. Positive ions, which can be produced and studied most effectively using photoionization, are the major components of all plasmas, vital constituents of flames and important intermediates in many chemical reactions. Negative ions are significant as transient species and, when photodetached, the corresponding neutral species often undergoes remarkable, otherwise non-observable, dynamics. The scope of the meeting spans from novel observations in atomic and molecular physics, such as Coulomb Crystals, highly excited states and cold Rydberg plasmas, to novel energy resolved or ultrafast time-resolved experiments, photoionization in strong laser fields, theoretical method development for electron scattering, photoionization and photodetachment and more complex phenomena such as charge transfer and DNA and protein conductivity, important for biological and analytical applications.

We describe the development of a new capability for performing microscopic chemical analysis in the near surface of a sample. The technology uses a focused high-energy ion beam from an accelerator to cause characteristic elemental x-rays to be emitted and, simultaneously, molecules and fragments to be desorbed from the surface of the sample. Spectroscopic analysis of the fluoresced x-rays provides quantitative trace element information of the sample volume probed by the beam. The elemental data are subsequently used to identify peaks in the mass analysis of the desorbed species, thereby providing a detailed description of the local surface chemistry. High-resolution (micron-scale) chemical imaging is possible by scanning the beam over the sample.

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This paper presents the SCUBEEx rms emittance analysis, a self-consistent, unbiased elliptical exclusion method, which combines traditional data-reduction methods with statistical methods to obtain accurate estimates for the rms emittance. Rather than considering individual data, the method tracks the average current density outside a well-selected, variable boundary to separate the measured beam halo from the background. The average outside current density is assumed to be part of a uniform background and not part of the particle beam. Therefore the average outside current is subtracted from the data before evaluating the rms emittance within the boundary. As the boundary area is increased, the average outside current and the inside rms emittance form plateaus when all data containing part of the particle beam are inside the boundary. These plateaus mark the smallest acceptable exclusion boundary and provide unbiased estimates for the average background and the rms emittance. Small, trendless variations within the plateaus allow for determining the uncertainties of the estimates caused by variations of the measured background outside the smallest acceptable exclusion boundary. The robustness of the method is established with complementary variations of the exclusion boundary. This paper presents a detailed comparison between traditional data reduction methods and SCUBEEx by …

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Although age is recognized as the strongest predictor of mortality in chronic disease epidemiology, a calendar-based approach is often employed when evaluating time-related variables. An age-based analysis file, created by determining the value of each time-dependent variable for each age that a cohort member is followed, provides a clear definition of age at exposure and allows development of diverse analytic models. To demonstrate methods, the relationship between cancer mortality and external radiation was analyzed with Poisson regression for 14,095 Oak Ridge National Laboratory workers. Based on previous analysis of this cohort, a model with ten-year lagged cumulative radiation doses partitioned by receipt before (dose-young) or after (dose-old) age 45 was examined. Dose-response estimates were similar to calendar-year-based results with elevated risk for dose-old, but not when film badge readings were weekly before 1957. Complementary results showed increasing risk with older hire ages and earlier birth cohorts, since workers hired after age 45 were born before 1915, and dose-young and dose-old were distributed differently by birth cohorts. Risks were generally higher for smokingrelated than non-smoking-related cancers. It was difficult to single out specific variables associated with elevated cancer mortality because of: (1) birth cohort differences in hire age and mortality experience …

Hydrogen storage is one of the greatest challenges for implementing the ever sought hydrogen economy. Here we report a novel cycle to reversibly form high density hydrogen storage materials such as aluminium hydride. Aluminium hydride (AlH{sub 3}, alane) has a hydrogen storage capacity of 10.1 wt% H{sub 2}, 149 kg H{sub 2}/m{sup 3} volumetric density and can be discharged at low temperatures (< 100 C). However, alane has been precluded from use in hydrogen storage systems because of the lack of practical regeneration methods; the direct hydrogenation of aluminium to form AlH{sub 3} requires over 10{sup 5} bars of hydrogen pressure at room temperature and there are no cost effective synthetic means. Here we show an unprecedented reversible cycle to form alane electrochemically, using alkali alanates (e.g. NaAlH{sub 4}, LiAlH{sub 4}) in aprotic solvents. To complete the cycle, the starting alanates can be regenerated by direct hydrogenation of the dehydrided alane and the alkali hydride being the other compound formed in the electrochemical cell. The process of forming NaAlH{sub 4} from NaH and Al is well established in both solid state and solution reactions. The use of adducting Lewis bases is an essential part of this cycle, in the isolation …

A novel technique is proposed in which a nuclear magneticresonance (NMR) spectrum or magnetic resonance image (MRI) is encoded andstored as spin polarization and is then moved to a different physicallocation to be detected. Remote detection allows the separateoptimization of the encoding and detection steps, permitting theindependent choice of experimental conditions, and excitation anddetection methodologies. In the first experimental demonstration of thistechnique, we show that NMR signal can be amplified by taking diluted129Xe from a porous sample placed inside a large encoding coil, andconcentrating it into a smaller detection coil. In general, the study ofNMR active molecules at low concentration that have low physical fillingfactor is facilitated by remote detection. In the second experiment, MRIinformation encoded in a very low field magnet (4-7mT) is transferred toa high field magnet (4.2 T) in order to be detected under optimizedconditions. Furthermore, remote detection allows the utilization ofultra-sensitive optical or superconducting detection techniques, whichbroadens the horizon of NMR experimentation.

We observe that by conditioning DKDP using 500 ps laser pulses, the bulk damage threshold becomes essentially equivalent to the surface damage threshold. We report here the findings of our study of laser initiated output surface damage on 500 ps laser conditioned DKDP for test pulses at 351 nm, 3 ns. The relation between surface damage density and damaging fluence (r(f)) is presented for the first time and the morphologies of the surface sites are discussed. The results of this study suggest a surface conditioning effect resulting from exposure to 500 ps laser pulses.

As multiprocessors scale to unprecedented numbers of cores in order to sustain performance growth, it is vital that these gains are not nullified by high energy consumption from inter-core communication. With recent advances in 3D Integration CMOS technology, the possibility for realizing hybrid photonic-electronic networks-on-chip warrants investigating real application traces on functionally comparable photonic and electronic network designs. We present a comparative analysis using both synthetic benchmarks as well as real applications, run through detailed cycle accurate models implemented under the OMNeT++ discrete event simulation environment. Results show that when utilizing standard process-to-processor mapping methods, this hybrid network can achieve 75X improvement in energy efficiency for synthetic benchmarks and up to 37X improvement for real scientific applications, defined as network performance per energy spent, over an electronic mesh for large messages across a variety of communication patterns.

We apply our recent analytic solutions to the radiation diffusion equation to problems of interest for ICF hohlraums. The solutions provide quantitative values for absorbed energy, which are of use for generating a desired radiation temperature vs. time within the hohlraum. In particular we use analytic fits to the Rosseland mean opacity and to the specific heat of combinations of materials (''cocktails'') designed to maximize the former while minimizing the latter. By doing so we find good agreement with numerical simulations and with experimental results. In particular we find that the wall loss savings of cocktails vs. the standard gold walled hohlraums have both pulse-length and temperature dependencies. Due to those dependencies we predict that NIF cocktail hohlraums will perform better than present day cocktail experiments. In addition, we apply our solutions to finding that density of foam hohlraum walls which minimizes wall loss by being of sufficiently low density to be supersonic, thus reducing kinetic energy losses, yet high enough density to not unduly suffer from enhanced specific heat capacity.

The authors wish to minimize ICF hohlraum wall loss, E, in order to operate the National Ignition Facility (NIF) far from its damage threshold and still provide the capsule with the drive it requires to reach ignition. In this paper they consider cocktail walls--a mixture of materials that can improve on the conventional pure Au walls. they use Hammer and Rosen (HR) (2003) which solved the radiation diffusion/hydrodynamics problem analytically. They take Au's T, {rho} dependencies of {kappa} (opacity) and e (specific heat) to be: {kappa} = {kappa}{sub 0} {rho}{sup 0.2}/T{sup 1.5} and e = e{sub 0}T{sup 1.6}/{rho}{sup 0.14}.

Identification of transfer RNAs in animal mitochondrial genomes is important for many areas of genome analysis including phylogenetic reconstruction, understanding inheritance of disease, and identifying forensic materials. Animal mitochondrial tRNAs differ from the canonical tRNAs in both their secondary structure and level of conservation of nucleotide sequence and therefore, conventional tRNA or general RNA searching software cannot be used for identification and custom methods are required. Here we present the results of an experimental analysis of four different methods tested on a large dataset consisting of 5,720 tRNAs extracted from the entire set of complete animal mitochondrial genomes in GenBank. Methods were evaluated based on number of false negatives and false positives. Additionally, we present a new scoring scheme customized for animal mitochondrial tRNAs.

This article focuses on an esoteric but practical use of automated reasoning that may indeed be new to many, especially those concerned primarily with verification of both hardware and software. Specifically, featured are a discussion and some methodology for taking an existing design -- of a circuit, a chip, a program, or the like--and refining and improving it in various ways. Although the methodology is general and does not require the use of a specific program, McCune's program OTTER does offer what is needed. OTTER has played and continues to play the key role in my research, and an interested person can gain access to this program in various ways, not the least of which is through the included CD-ROM in [3]. When success occurs, the result is a new design that may require fewer components, avoid the use of certain costly components, offer more reliability and ease of verification, and, perhaps most important, be more efficient in the contexts of speed and heat generation. Although the author has minimal experience in circuit design, circuit validation, program synthesis, program verification, and similar concerns, (at the encouragement of colleagues based on successes to be cited) he presents materials that might indeed …

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Stockpile Technology (NNSA/NA-123) chartered a risk assessment of the Tritium Readiness (TR) Subprogram to identify risks and to develop handling strategies with specific action items that could be scheduled and tracked to completion in order to minimize program failures. This assessment was performed by a team of subject matter experts (SMEs) comprised of representatives from various organizations participating in the TR Subprogram. The process was coordinated by Savannah River Site, Systems Engineering (SRS/SE) with support from Subprogram Team. The Risk Management Process steps performed during this risk assessment were: Planning, Identification, Grading, Handling, and Impact Determination. All of the information captured during the risk assessment was recorded in a database. The team provided estimates for the cost and schedule impacts of implementing the recommended handling strategies and facilitated the risk based cost contingency analysis. The application of the Risk Management Practices to the NNSA Tritium Readiness Subprogram resulted in: (1) The quarterly review and update of the Risk Management Database to include an evaluation of all existing risks and the identification/evaluation of any potential new risks. (2) The risk status and handling strategy action item tracking mechanism that has visibility and buy-in …

The Westinghouse Savannah River Company, a contractor to the Department of Energy, has compared Revisions 1 and 2 of NUREG-0700-Human System Interface Design Review Guideline, from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Nuclear Regulatory Guide. The comparison has been made with respect to which guidelines remained the same, the guidelines that were reformatted or reworded, additional guidelines, and deleted guidelines. This comparison was made in preparation of revising the previously developed Human Factors Engineering Analysis Tool for automating the review, analysis, and evaluation of human system interface designs. This tool has been described at previous conferences on human factors and the merits and benefits of the tool described. The tool has been successfully applied to over eight facilities at WSRC. This paper describes the methodology and results of the comparison and the plans to enhance the already successful automation tool. The number of criteria in NUREG-0700 increased from approximately 1650 in Revision 1 to almost 2200 in Revision 2. Approximately 1600 criteria remained the same, though they were significantly reorganized; while about 100 were reworded or reformatted to clarify or expand the guidance provided. Around 600 guidelines were added and approximately 70 deleted. The majority of the changes and additions …