The concept of using low swirl to stabilize lean premixed turbulent flame was introduced in 1992. Since then, the low-swirl burner (LSB) has become a useful laboratory tool for the study of detailed flame structures as well as turbulent burning speeds. Its main attribute is that the flame is freely propagating and is locally normal to the turbulent approach flow (Figure 1). Therefore, the turbulent flame brush is not influence by physical boundaries. The capability of LSB to support very lean flames and very turbulent flames [1, 2] was further exploited in recent studies to test the validity of the flame regime concept. Using 2D imaging diagnostics (e.g. planar laser induced fluorescence, PLIF, and planar laser induced Rayleigh scattering) our analysis showed that the wrinkled flame regime to be valid at a turbulence intensity level much higher than previously thought [3-5]. This provided experimental verification of a new 'thin reaction zone' regime for the Kalovitz number range of 1 < Ka < 10 (Ka = (u{prime}/s{sub L}){sup 3/2} (l{sub x}/d{sub L}){sup 1/2}) proposed by Peters. Due to its freely propagating nature, modeling and simulations of LSB flames are non-trivial. The flame position cannot be specified a priori because it is …

The proposed SuperNova/Acceleration Probe (SNAP) mission will have a two-meter class telescope delivering diffraction-limited images to an instrumented 0.7 square degree field in the visible and near-infrared wavelength regime. The requirements for the instrument suite and the present configuration of the focal plane concept are presented. A two year R&D phase, largely supported by the Department of Energy, is just beginning. We describe the development activities that are taking place to advance our preparedness for mission proposal in the areas of detectors and electronics.

We use a minimalist protein model, in combination with a sequence design strategy, to determine differences in primary structure for proteins L and G that are responsible for the two proteins folding through distinctly different folding mechanisms. We find that the folding of proteins L and G are consistent with a nucleation-condensation mechanism, each of which is described as helix-assisted {beta}-1 and {beta}-2 hairpin formation, respectively. We determine that the model for protein G exhibits an early intermediate that precedes the rate-limiting barrier of folding and which draws together misaligned secondary structure elements that are stabilized by hydrophobic core contacts involving the third {beta}-strand, and presages the later transition state in which the correct strand alignment of these same secondary structure elements is restored. Finally the validity of the targeted intermediate ensemble for protein G was analyzed by fitting the kinetic data to a two-step first order reversible reaction, proving that protein G folding involves an on-pathway early intermediate, and should be populated and therefore observable by experiment.

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Geophysical models are increasingly recognized as an important component of regional calibrations for seismic monitoring. The models can be used to predict geophysical measurements, such as body wave travel times, and can be derived from direct regional studies or even by geophysical analogy. While empirical measurements of these geophysical parameters might be preferred, in aseismic regions or regions without seismic stations, this data might not exist. In these cases, models represent a 'best guess' of the seismic properties in a region, which improves on global models such as the PREM (Preliminary Reference Earth Model) or the IASPEI (International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior) models. The model-based predictions can also serve as a useful background for the empirical measurements by removing trends in the data. To this end, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has developed the WENA model for Western Eurasia and North Africa. This model is constructed using a regionalization of several dozen lithospheric (crust and uppermost mantle) models, combined with the Laske sediment model and 3SMAC upper mantle. We have evaluated this model using a number of data sets, including travel times, surface waves, receiver functions, and waveform analysis. Similarly, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) …

The authors present measurements of the angular cross-correlation between luminous red galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the cosmic microwave background temperature maps from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. They find a statistically significant achromatic positive correlation between these two data sets, which is consistent with the expected signal from the late Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect. they do not detect any anti-correlation on small angular scales as would be produced from a large Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, although they do see evidence for some SZ effect for their highest redshift samples. Assuming a flat universe, their preliminary detection of the ISW effect provides independent physical evidence for the existence of dark energy.

A theoretical model of afterburning in explosions created by turbulent mixing of the detonation products from fuel-rich charges with air is described. It contains three key elements: (i) a thermodynamic-equilibrium description of the fluids (fuel, air, and products), (ii) a multi-component gas-dynamic treatment of the flow field, and (iii) a sub-grid model of molecular processes of mixing, combustion and equilibration.

Prevention of the introduction of fissile materials into international shipping, and hence into a given country, is a complex problem. Some pieces of the solution to the puzzle are conceptually well defined, but lack definition of a technical pathway and/or operational implementation. Other elements are a little more fuzzy, and some elements are probably undefined at this point in time. This paper reviews the status of the more well-defined elements, and suggests needed additional measures to enhance the probability that fissile materials are not illicitly introduced into distant countries. International commerce proceeds through a number of steps from point of origin to final destination. Each step offers the possibility of a well-defined choke point to monitor and interdict the illicit shipment of fissile materials. However, because there are so many potential points and venues of entry into a large country such as the United States (e.g., air cargo, shipping containers, truck and rail transport, private vehicles, boats and planes, commercial passenger travel), it behooves the world to ensure that fissile material does not illicitly leave its point of origin.

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A research effort was undertaken to determine the need for any changes to USNRC's seismic regulatory practice to reflect the move, in the earthquake engineering community, toward using expected displacement rather than force (or stress) as the basis for assessing design adequacy. The research explored the extent to which displacement based seismic design methods, such as given in FEMA 273, could be useful for reviewing nuclear power stations. Two structures common to nuclear power plants were chosen to compare the results of the analysis models used. The first structure is a four-story frame structure with shear walls providing the primary lateral load system, referred herein as the shear wall model. The second structure is the turbine building of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The models were analyzed using both displacement based (pushover) analysis and nonlinear dynamic analysis. In addition, for the shear wall model an elastic analysis with ductility factors applied was also performed. The objectives of the work were to compare the results between the analyses, and to develop insights regarding the work that would be needed before the displacement based analysis methodology could be considered applicable to facilities licensed by the NRC. A summary of the research …

The production of a Higgs boson in association with a pair of t{bar t} or b{bar b} quarks plays a very important role at both the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider. The theoretical prediction of the corresponding cross sections has been improved by including the complete next-to-leading order QCD corrections. After a brief introduction, we review the results obtained for both the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider.

Irradiation embrittlement in nuclear reactor pressure vessel steels results from the formation of a high number density of nanometer sized copper rich precipitates and sub-nanometer defect-solute clusters. We present positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) results to characterize the compositions and magnetic character of these defects in model A533B reactor pressure vessel steels. The results confirm the presence of copper-rich precipitates after irradiation. The measured orbital electron momentum spectra indicate the precipitates are alloyed with Mn and Ni. The copper precipitates larger than R {approx} 1.2 nm (from SANS measurements) are non-magnetic, which limits the possible Fe content of the precipitates to at most a few %. Notably, large vacancy clusters observed in neutron irradiated Fe-Cu alloys were not observed in the steels after irradiation.

The following is an overview of results from ROA01-32 that focuses on an empirical method of calibrating stable seismic source moment-rate spectra derived from regional coda envelopes using broadband stations. The main goal was to develop a regional magnitude methodology that had the following properties: (1) it is tied to an absolute scale and is thus unbiased and transportable; (2) it can be tied seamlessly to the well-established teleseismic and regional catalogs; (3) it is applicable to small events using a sparse network of regional stations; (4) it is flexible enough to utilize S{sub n}-coda, L{sub g}-coda, or P-coda, whichever phase has the best signal-to-noise ratio. The results of this calibration yield source spectra and derived magnitudes that were more stable than any other direct-phase measure to date. Our empirical procedure accounted for all propagation, site, and S-to-coda transfer function effects. The resultant coda-derived moment-rate spectra were used to provide traditional band-limited magnitude (e.g., M{sub L}, m{sub b} etc.) as well as an unbiased, unsaturated magnitude (moment magnitude, M{sub w}) that is tied to a physical measure of earthquake size (i.e., seismic moment). We validated our results by comparing our coda-derived moment estimates with those obtained from long-period waveform modeling. …

Our identification research for the past several years has focused on the problem of correctly discriminating small-magnitude explosions from a background of earthquakes, mining tremors, and other events. Small magnitudes lead to an emphasis on regional waveforms. The goal is to reduce the variance within the population of each type of event, while increasing the separation between the explosions and the other event types. We address this problem for both broad categories of seismic waves, body waves, and surface waves. First, we map out the effects of propagation and source size in advance so that they can be accounted for and removed from observed events. This can dramatically reduce the population variance. Second, we try to optimize the measurement process to improve the separation between population types. For body waves we focus on the identification power of the short-period regional phases Pn, Pg, Sn and Lg, and coda that can often be detected down to very small magnitudes. It is now well established that particular ratios of these phases, such as 6- to 8-Hz Pn/Lg, can effectively discriminate between closely located explosions and earthquakes. To extend this discrimination power over broad areas, we developed a revised Magnitude and Distance Amplitude …

We present novel approach to discover the rules that govern gene regulation mechanisms. The method is based on supervised machine learning and is designed to reveal relationships between transcription factors and gene promoters. As the representation of the gene regulatory circuit we have chosen a special form of IF-THEN rules associating certain features (a generalized idea of a Transcription Factor Binding Site) in gene promoters with specific gene expression profiles.

The objective of this project is to calibrate regional travel-times and propagation characteristics of seismic waves in Turkey and surrounding areas in the Middle East in order to enhance detection and location capabilities in the region. Important data for the project will be obtained by large calibration shots in central and eastern Turkey. The first, a two-ton shot, was fired in boreholes near Keskin in central Anatolia on 23 November 2002. The explosives were placed in 14 holes, each 80 m deep, arranged in concentric circular arrays. Ninety temporary seismic stations were deployed within a 300 km radius around the shot. The permanent stations of the Turkish National Seismic Network provided a good azimuthal coverage as well as three radial traverses. Most stations within a radius of 200 km recorded the shot. Travel-time data have been analyzed to obtain a detailed crustal model under the shot and along the profiles. The model gives a 35 km thick crust, characterized by two layers with velocities of 5.0 and 6.4 km/s. The P{sub n} velocity was found to be 7.8 km/s. The crustal thickness decreases to the north where the profile crosses the North Anatolian fault. There is a slight increase in …

Pathological detonation waves with velocities greater than Chapman-Jouguet (C-J) have been proposed theoretically but never observed experimentally in gaseous, liquid or solid explosives. Two types of pathological chemical reaction zones have been identified within the Zeldovich-von Neumann-Doring (ZND) model: an exothermic chemical decomposition with a mole decrease during from the von Neumann spike state to the C-J state and an exothermic reaction followed by an endothermic reaction (eigenvalue detonation). The high temperatures reached in detonation reaction zones cause sufficient radial and atom formation to insure overall mole increases in gaseous H{sub 2} + O{sub 2} detonations. Aluminized explosives exhibit a slight mole decrease when the solid aluminum particles are oxidized, but this does not negate the large mole increase that occurs during explosive decomposition. Porous solid explosives whose products form with more cold compression energy than that of the solid are an unlikely possibility for pathological detonation. Eigenvalue detonations have been postulated for H{sub 2} + Cl{sub 2} gas phase detonations and for plastic bonded solid explosives if endothermic binder decomposition follows exothermic explosive decomposition. Chemical kinetic and physical arguments are presented to eliminate these possible pathological detonations. In the case of H{sub 2} + Cl{sub 2}, highly vibrationally excited …

We have previously demonstrated and reported on the use of sub-field speckle processing for the enhancement of both near and far-range surveillance imagery of people and vehicles that have been degraded by atmospheric turbulence. We have obtained near diffraction-limited imagery in many cases and have shown dramatic image quality improvement in other cases. As it is possible to perform only a limited number of experiments in a limited number of conditions, we have developed a computer simulation capability to aid in the prediction of imaging performance in a wider variation of conditions. Our simulation capability includes the ability to model extended scenes in distributed turbulence. Of great interest is the effect of the isoplanatic angle on speckle imaging performance as well as on single deformable mirror and multiconjugate adaptive optics system performance. These angles are typically quite small over horizontal and slant paths. This paper will begin to explore these issues which are important for predicting the performance of both passive and active horizontal and slant-path imaging systems.

Current plans for Extreme Adaptive Optics systems place challenging requirements on wave-front control. This paper focuses on control system dynamics, wave-front sensing and wave-front correction device characteristics. It may be necessary to run an ExAO system after a slower, low-order AO system. Running two independent systems can result in very good temporal performance, provided specific design constraints are followed. The spatially-filtered wave-front sensor, which prevents aliasing and improves PSF sensitivity, is summarized. Different models of continuous and segmented deformable mirrors are studied. In a noise-free case, a piston-tip-tilt segmented MEMS device can achieve nearly equivalent performance to a continuous-sheet DM in compensating for a static phase aberration with use of spatial filtering.

Recent technical advances have made it possible to obtain very useful spectroscopic information about simple molecules at temperatures and pressures exceeding 2000K and 10 GPa inside a diamond-anvil cell, which is well above any melting point for such systems. This is accomplished by obtaining vibrational spectra via Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy in conjunction with CW laser heating using a tungsten toroid as a laser target. By the simultaneous use of these techniques, vibrational spectra with relatively high signal to noise can be obtained despite the enormous thermal background generated by the incandescence of extremely hot laser heated material. Temperatures can be measured not only by fitting the Planck radiation to a graybody, but by the spectroscopic evidence of a Boltzmann distribution of molecules in their vibrationally excited quantum levels. Additionally, this technique allows for obtaining data at pressures and temperatures outside the region between the shock hugoniot and isentrope, complementing shock wave experiments.

This paper focuses on a numerical procedure that addresses the difficulties of dealing with large, finite arrays while preserving the generality and robustness of full-wave methods. We present a fast method based on approximating interactions between sufficiently separated array elements via a relatively coarse interpolation of the Green's function on a uniform grid commensurate with the array's periodicity. The interaction between the basis and testing functions is reduced to a three-stage process. The first stage is a projection of standard (e.g., RWG) subdomain bases onto a set of interpolation functions that interpolate the Green's function on the array face. This projection, which is used in a matrix/vector product for each array cell in an iterative solution process, need only be carried out once for a single cell and results in a low-rank matrix. An intermediate stage matrix/vector product computation involving the uniformly sampled Green's function is of convolutional form in the lateral (transverse) directions so that a 2D FFT may be used. The final stage is a third matrix/vector product computation involving a matrix resulting from projecting testing functions onto the Green's function interpolation functions; the low-rank matrix is either identical to (using Galerkin's method) or similar to that for …

This project has built a unique historic database of regional distance nuclear explosion, earthquake, and mine-related digital broadband seismograms for the western United States (US). The emphasis is on data from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)-managed stations MNA, ELK, KNB and LAC that recorded many nuclear tests and nearby earthquakes in broadband digital form since 1980, along with a small number of earlier events that were digitized from tapes. Through the generous cooperation of Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) we have also included waveforms from their Leo Brady network (BMN, DWN, LDS, NEL,TON). In addition we include data from other open broadband stations in the western US with long operating histories and/or ties to the International Monitoring System (IMS) (e.g. PFO, YKA, CMB, NEW, DUG, ANMO, TUC). These waveforms are associated with a reconciled catalog of events and station response information to facilitate analysis. The goal is to create a high-quality database that can be used in the future to analyze fundamental regional monitoring issues such as detection, location, magnitude, and discrimination. In the first stage of the project, we collected six different regional network catalogs from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), to provide accurate independent location information for events …

The production of a Higgs boson in association with a pair of t{bar t} or b{bar b} quarks plays a very important role at both the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider. The theoretical prediction of the corresponding cross sections has been improved by including the complete next-to-leading order QCD corrections. After a brief description of the most relevant technical aspects of the calculation, we review the results obtained for both the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider.

The need for cryogenic cooling has been critical issue that has kept superconducting electronic devices from reaching the market place. Even though the performance of the superconducting circuit is superior to silicon electronics, the requirement for cryogenic cooling has put the superconducting devices at a disadvantage. This report will talk about the various methods for refrigerating superconducting devices. Cryocooler types will be compared for vibration, efficiency, and cost. Some solutions to specific problems of integrating cryocoolers to superconducting devices are presented.