Yucca Mountain licensing will require estimation of ground motions from probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHA) with annual probabilities of exceedance on the order of 10{sup -6} to 10{sup -7} per year or smaller, which correspond to much longer earthquake return periods than most previous PSHA studies. These long return periods for the Yucca Mountain PSHA result in estimates of ground motion that are extremely high ({approx} 10 g) and that are believed to be physically unrealizable. However, there is at present no generally accepted method to bound ground motions either by showing that the physical properties of materials cannot maintain such extreme motions, or the energy release by the source for such large motions is physically impossible. The purpose of this feasibility study is to examine recorded ground motion and rock property data from nuclear explosions to determine its usefulness for studying the ground motion from extreme earthquakes. The premise is that nuclear explosions are an extreme energy density source, and that the recorded ground motion will provide useful information about the limits of ground motion from extreme earthquakes. The data were categorized by the source and rock properties, and evaluated as to what extent non-linearity in the material has …

A Service Class Description (SCD) is an effective meta-data based approach for discovering Deep Web sources whose data exhibit some regular patterns. However, it is tedious and error prone to create an SCD description manually. Moreover, a manually created SCD is not adaptive to the frequent changes of Web sources. It requires its creator to identify all the possible input and output types of a service a priori. In many domains, it is impossible to exhaustively list all the possible input and output data types of a source in advance. In this paper, we describe machine learning approaches for automatic generation of the data types of an SCD. We propose two different approaches for learning data types of a class of Web sources. The Brute-Force Learner is able to generate data types that can achieve high recall, but with low precision. The Clustering-based Learner generates data types that have a high precision rate, but with a lower recall rate. We demonstrate the feasibility of these two learning-based solutions for automatic generation of data types for citation Web sources and presented a quantitative evaluation of these two solutions.

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In this project we developed a suite of progressive visualization algorithms and a data-streaming infrastructure that enable interactive exploration of scientific datasets of unprecedented size. The methodology aims to globally optimize the data flow in a pipeline of processing modules. Each module reads a multi-resolution representation of the input while producing a multi-resolution representation of the output. The use of multi-resolution representations provides the necessary flexibility to trade speed for accuracy in the visualization process. Maximum coherency and minimum delay in the data-flow is achieved by extensive use of progressive algorithms that continuously map local geometric updates of the input stream into immediate updates of the output stream. We implemented a prototype software infrastructure that demonstrated the flexibility and scalability of this approach by allowing large data visualization on single desktop computers, on PC clusters, and on heterogeneous computing resources distributed over a wide area network. When processing terabytes of scientific data, we have achieved an effective increase in visualization performance of several orders of magnitude in two major settings: (i) interactive visualization on desktop workstations of large datasets that cannot be stored locally; (ii) real-time monitoring of a large scientific simulation with negligible impact on the computing resources available. …

The objective of this LDRD project was to develop one or more models for the production of {beta}-delayed {gamma} rays following neutron-induced fission of a special nuclear material (SNM) and to define a standardized formatting scheme which will allow them to be incorporated into some of the modern, general-purpose Monte Carlo transport codes currently being used to simulate inspection techniques proposed for detecting fissionable material hidden in sea-going cargo containers. In this report, we will describe a Monte Carlo model for {beta}-delayed {gamma}-ray emission following the fission of SNM that can accommodate arbitrary time-dependent fission rates and photon collection histories. The model involves direct sampling of the independent fission yield distributions of the system, the branching ratios for decay of individual fission products and spectral distributions representing photon emission from each fission product and for each decay mode. While computationally intensive, it will be shown that this model can provide reasonably detailed estimates of the spectra that would be recorded by an arbitrary spectrometer and may prove quite useful in assessing the quality of evaluated data libraries and identifying gaps in the libraries. The accuracy of the model will be illustrated by comparing calculated and experimental spectra from the decay …

Experiments have been performed to study the propagation of intense laser pulses to high plasma densities. The issue of self-focusing and filamentation of the laser pulse as well as developing predictive capability of absorption processes and x-ray conversion efficiencies is important for numerous programs at the Laboratory, particularly Laser Program (Fast Ignitor and direct-drive ICF) and D&NT (radiography, high energy backlighters and laser cutting). Processes such as resonance absorption, profile modification, linear mode conversion, filamentation and stimulated Brillouin scattering can occur near the critical density and can have important effects on the coupling of laser light to solid targets. A combination of experiments have been used to study the propagation of laser light to high plasma densities and the interaction physics of intense laser pulses with solid targets. Nonparaxial fluid codes to study nonstationary behavior of filamentation and stimulated Brillouin scattering at high densities have also been developed as part of this project.

Arrays of lasers are often considered when a need exists to increase laser optical output power, for a variety of purposes. Similarly, individual semiconductor laser-diodes, generating 0.01-1.0 W each, are commonly placed in arrays in order to increase total optical power onto targeted objects. Examples of such usage are diode-laser pump arrays for solid-slab heat-capacity lasers, laser arrays for heat-treating materials, and arrays for efficient solid state laser systems. The commercial and defense communities also use such arrays for many applications from laser range-finders, laser designators, to laser machining systems, etc. However, the arraying process does not automatically increase ''focusable'' light on target (i.e., intensity/steradian). For those applications requiring the highest focusability, it is necessary that the collective output beam from arrays of individual lasers be phase-coherent. Under this condition, the individual laser-element optical outputs are ''fused together'' into a larger area, phase coherent (i.e., all wavefronts are ''in step''), high-power combined beam. The process of joining multiple laser beams together to produce a single coherent wave, is in general very difficult and seldom accomplished. Thus joining together many hundreds to thousands of beams from individual laser-diodes, in large arrays, is still an unsolved problem. There are 2 major reasons …

Environmental Surveillance of the Hanford Site and surrounding areas is conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Document contains CY03 schedules for the routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP) and Drinking Water Monitoring Project.

Marine cables under low tension and torsion on the sea floor can undergo a dynamic buckling process during which torsional strain energy is converted to bending strain energy. The resulting three-dimensional cable geometries can be highly contorted and include loops and tangles. Similar geometries are known to exist for supercoiled DNA and these also arise from the conversion of torsional strain energy to bending strain energy or, kinematically, a conversion of twist to writhe. A dynamic form of Kirchhoff rod theory is presented herein that captures these nonlinear dynamic processes. The resulting theory is discretized using the generalized-method for finite differencing in both space and time. The important kinematics of cross-section rotation are described using an incremental rotation ''vector'' as opposed to traditional Euler angles or Euler parameters. Numerical solutions are presented for an example system of a cable subjected to increasing twist at one end. The solutions show the dynamic evolution of the cable from an initially straight element, through a buckled element in the approximate form of a helix, and through the dynamic collapse of this helix through a looped form.

Detailed knowledge of how materials respond to strong shocks or other extreme conditions on rapid timescales (such as laser heating) are required to support LLNL missions of national security and stockpile stewardship. This project started in FY01 to develop and demonstrate a new pump-probe characterization capability for investigating ultrafast changes in the chemical and electronic structure of materials under extreme conditions with picosecond time resolution. The LLNL COMET (Compact Multipulse Terawatt) [1] is a compact 15 TW laser facility operating at 1054 nm wavelength, and utilizes the technique of chirped pulse amplification to produce two high power beams at a rate of 1 shot every 4 minutes. A short pulse length varied from 500 fs to 25 ps and a long 600 ps (FWHM) pulse is focused in a high intensity line focus with a traveling wave geometry to generate an intense Ni-like Pd ion 4d-4p x-ray laser (XRL) line at 14.7 nm (84.5 eV). Total energy in the two beams is of order 3-7 J to produce lasing where the peak-to-peak delay between the laser pulses is found to be optimal at 700 ps with the short pulse arriving after the long pulse. Typical COMET x-ray laser characteristics are …

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) uses the Cost-Effective Sampling (CES) program for reviewing groundwater data and optimizing the site's groundwater monitoring plan. The CES program produces a data assessment sheet and a lowest-frequency sampling schedule for each groundwater monitoring location. The assessment sheet and recommended sampling schedule greatly streamline the data review process and provide useful information for regulatory and remedial decision-making. The determination of sampling frequency for a given location is based on trend, variability, and magnitude statistics. The underlying principle is that a location's schedule should be determined primarily by the rate of change in concentrations observed there in the recent past. The larger the rate of change, whether upward or downward, the greater the need for frequent sampling. Conversely, where little change is observed, less sampling is recommended. In 1992, CES was approved by the U.S. EPA - Region IX and the local regulators for use at LLNL, and became part of the LLNL's approved compliance monitoring plan (Lamarre et al. 1996). Applying the CES methodology produced, initially, a 40% reduction in the annual number of required groundwater samples, and with recent optimization of the program a 55% reduction has been produced. This reduction saves LLNL $530,000 …

Prior studies of evaporation and sputter deposition show that the grain size of pure beryllium can be dramatically refined through the incorporation of metal impurities. Recently, the addition of boron at a concentration greater than 11% is shown to serve as a glassy phase former in sputter deposited beryllium. Presently, thermally induced crystallization of the beryllium-boron metallic glass is reported. The samples are characterized during an in-situ anneal treatment with bright field imaging and electron diffraction using transmission electron microscopy. A nanocrystalline structure evolves from the annealed amorphous phase and the crystallization temperature is affected by the boron concentration.

The focus of this review is on trace-element quantitation of microstructures in solids. This review is aimed at the non-specialist who wants to know how SIMS quantitation is achieved. Despite 35 years of SIMS research and applications, SIMS quantitation remains a fundamentally empirical enterprise and is based on standards. The most used standards are ''bulk standards''--solids with a homogeneous distribution of a trace element--and ion-implanted solids. The SIMS systematics of bulk standards and ion-implanted solids are reviewed.

The complexity of modern scientific simulations combined with the complexity of the high-performance computer hardware on which they run places an ever-increasing burden on scientific software developers, with clear impacts on both productivity and performance. We argue that raising the level of abstraction of the programming model/environment is a key element of addressing this situation. We present examples of two distinctly different approaches to raising the level of abstraction of the programming model while maintaining or increasing performance: the Tensor Contraction engine, a narrowly-focused domain specific language together with an optimizing compiler; and Extended Global Arrays, a programming framework that integrates programming models dealing with different layers of the memory/storage hierarchy using compiler analysis and code transformation techniques.

Work is presented which allows flaw characteristics to be quantified from the transient IR NDE signature. The goal of this effort was to accurately determine the type, size and depth of flaws revealed with IR NDE, using sonic IR as the example IR NDE technique. Typically an IR NDE experiment will result in a positive qualitative indication of a flaw such as a cold or hot spot in the image, but will not provide quantitative data thereby leaving the practitioner to make educated guesses as to the source of the signal. The technique presented here relies on comparing the transient IR signature to exact heat transfer analytical results for prototypical flaws, using the flaw characteristics as unknown fitting parameters. A nonlinear least squares algorithm is used to evaluate the fitting parameters, which then provide a direct measure of the flaw characteristics that can be mapped to the imaged surface for visual reference. The method uses temperature data for the heat transfer analysis, so radiometric calibration of the IR signal is required. The method provides quantitative data with a single thermal event (e.g. acoustic pulse or flash), as compared to phase-lock techniques that require many events. The work has been tested …

The study of the electrochemical behavior of wrought and welded Alloy 22 was carried out in 5 M CaC12 at various temperatures. Comparisons were made between the electrochemical behaviors of the wrought and welded forms of Alloy 22 Multiple Crevice Assembly (MCA) specimens. The susceptibility to corrosion was found to increase with increase in temperature in both the wrought and the welded forms of the alloy: Nevertheless, the measure critical breakdown potential E{sub crit} was found to be Similar for the wrought and welded specimens.

We introduce TLHaar, an n-bit to n-bit reversible transform similar to the Haar IntegerWavelet Transform (IWT). TLHaar uses lookup tables that approximate the Haar IWT, but reorder the coefficients so they fit into n bits. TLHaar is suited for lossless compression in fixed-width channels, such as digital video channels and graphics hardware frame buffers.

This document examines the potential use of Thomson-Radiated Extreme X-ray (T-REX) sources for Fluorescence Imaging in the Nuclear Domain (FIND) of special nuclear materials. A back-of-the-envelope, relative comparison of T-REX sources vs. Bremsstrahlung sources for this application is presented. It is estimated that use of T-REX for FIND could be as much as 5 x 10{sup 12} more effective than the use of anode based sources. Furthermore it is estimated that illumination of samples of dimension 1 cm on a side could produce up to {approx}10{sup 9} detectable photons per second.

An early warning system to counter bioterrorism, the Autonomous Pathogen Detection System (APDS) continuously monitors the environment for the presence of biological pathogens (e.g., anthrax) and once detected, it sounds an alarm much like a smoke detector warns of a fire. Long before September 11, 2001, this system was being developed to protect domestic venues and events including performing arts centers, mass transit systems, major sporting and entertainment events, and other high profile situations in which the public is at risk of becoming a target of bioterrorist attacks. Customizing off-the-shelf components and developing new components, a multidisciplinary team developed APDS, a stand-alone system for rapid, continuous monitoring of multiple airborne biological threat agents in the environment. The completely automated APDS samples the air, prepares fluid samples in-line, and performs two orthogonal tests: immunoassay and nucleic acid detection. When compared to competing technologies, APDS is unprecedented in terms of flexibility and system performance.

The scope of the project was to conduct experimental and computer modeling studies of the launching, flight characteristics and impacts of thin flyer plates driven by laser ablation under drive conditions where the plate remains a solid and retains its strength. Motivation for the work was to provide the scientific underpinnings for advanced development work on new detonators that will be needed within the next ten years for use in the Laboratory's national security mission. Areas of study were to be coupling of laser energy into the flyer plate during the launch phase, melting and instability growth in the flyer during launch, and an explosive-grain-scale understanding of the shock-to-detonation transition when the flyer plate impacts an explosive target. Knowledge and modeling capability, developed from this study, were to enable us to tailor the launching and acceleration conditions of thin flyer plates to produce an optimum impact for initiating high explosives. Experimental and computational studies of the shock-to-detonation transition were to aid us in developing more efficient initiating explosives for use in future detonators.

This project developed ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation techniques based on guided and bulk waves in multilayered structures using arrays. First, a guided wave technique was developed by preferentially exciting dominant modes with energy in the layer of interest via an ultrasonic array. Second, a bulk wave technique uses Fermat's principle of least time as well as wave-based properties to reconstruct array data and image the multilayered structure. The guided wave technique enables the inspection of inaccessible areas of a multilayered structure without disassembling it. Guided waves propagate using the multilayer as a waveguide into the inaccessible areas from an accessible position. Inspecting multi-layered structures with a guided wave relies on exciting modes with sufficient energy in the layer of interest. Multilayered structures are modeled to determine the possible modes and their distribution of energy across the thickness. Suitable modes were determined and excited by designing arrays with the proper element spacing and frequency. Bulk wave imaging algorithms were developed to overcome the difficulties of multiple reflections and refractions at interfaces. Reconstruction algorithms were developed to detect and localize flaws. A bent-ray algorithm incorporates Fermat's principle to correct time delays in the ultrasonic data that result from the difference in wave speeds …

The goal of the Plutonium Immobilization Program is the immobilization of surplus weapons usable plutonium in a ceramic form. The ceramic will then be encapsulated in high level waste glass using the can-in-can configuration. In the ceramic line of the immobilization plant, surplus plutonium oxide of less than 100 micron particle size will be received for immobilization. The plutonium oxide must be sized reduced and intimately blended with uranium oxide and the other ceramic forming materials containing neutron poisons to allow for complete interaction during sintering. Once properly blended, the formulation will be pressed into the desired ceramic form and then sintered to produce the targeted mineral phases. The equipment of choice for the size reduction of the actinides and the blending with the precursor materials is the Union Process attritor mill. The attritor mill is best described as a stirred ball mill and consists of a stationary tank filled with grinding media that is agitated by a shaft with stirring arms. The rotational shaft stirs the media at high-speed causing shearing and impact forces on the material resulting in size reduction and dispersion. Speeds over 1000 rpm can be reached by the stirring shaft. The high-speed of the attritor …

This paper presents DynaBot, a domain-specific web service discovery system. The core idea of the DynaBot service discovery system is to use domain-specific service class descriptions powered by an intelligent Deep Web crawler. In contrast to current registry-based service discovery systems--like the several available UDDI registries--DynaBot promotes focused crawling of the Deep Web of services and discovers candidate services that are relevant to the domain of interest. It uses intelligent filtering algorithms to match services found by focused crawling with the domain-specific service class descriptions. We demonstrate the capability of DynaBot through the BLAST service discovery scenario and describe our initial experience with DynaBot.

A new method that combines staggered grid arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) techniques with structured local adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) has been developed for solution of the Euler equations. The novel components of the methods are driven by the need to reconcile traditional AMR techniques with the staggered variables and moving, deforming meshes associated with Lagrange based ALE schemes. We develop interlevel solution transfer operators and interlevel boundary conditions first in the case of purely Lagrangian hydrodynamics, and then extend these ideas into an ALE method by developing adaptive extensions of elliptic mesh relaxation techniques. Conservation properties of the method are analyzed, and a series of test problem calculations are presented which demonstrate the utility and efficiency of the method.