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A technique is developed to construct bulk hydroxyapatite (HAp) with different cellular structures. The technique involves the initial synthesis of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite powder from an aqueous solution using water-soluble compounds and then followed by spray drying into agglomerated granules. The granules were further cold pressed and sintered into bulks at elevated temperatures. The sintering behavior of the HAp granules was characterized and compared with those previously reported. Resulting from the fact that the starting HAp powders were extremely fine, a relatively low activation energy for sintering was obtained. In the present study, both porous and dense structures were produced by varying powder morphology and sintering parameters. Porous structures consisting of open cells were constructed. Sintered structures were characterized using scanning electron microscopy and x-ray tomography. In the present paper, hydroxyapatite coatings produced by magnetron sputtering on silicon and titanium substrates will also be presented. The mechanical properties of the coatings were measured using nanoindentation techniques and microstructures examined using transmission electron microscopy.

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We present a method for accelerating time dependent Monte Carlo radiative transfer calculations by using a discretization of the diffusion equation to calculate probabilities that are used to advance particles in regions with small mean free path. The method is demonstrated on problems with on 1 and 2 dimensional orthogonal grids. It results in decreases in run time of more than an order of magnitude on these problems, while producing answers with accuracy comparable to pure IMC simulations. We call the method Implicit Monte Carlo Diffusion, which we abbreviate IMD.

The carbon aerogel/carbon paper composites have physical properties similar to those of monolithic carbon aerogels but do not require supercritical extraction during fabrication. The resorcinol-formaldehyde based carbon aerogel phase is intertwined between the fibers of a commercial carbon paper. The resulting composites have variable densities (0.4-0.6 g/cc), high surface areas (300-600 m{sup 2}/g), and controllable pore sizes and pore distribution. The effects of the resorcinol-formaldehyde concentrations (50-70% w/v) and the pyrolysis temperature (600-1050 C) were studied in an attempt to tailor the aerogel microstructure and properties. The composite physical properties and structure were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and multipoint-BET analyses and related to electrochemical capacitive data in 5M KOH. These thin carbon aerogel/carbon paper composite electrodes are used in experiments with electrochemical double-layer capacitors and capacitive deionization.

We report on the raw disk i/o performance of a set of Compaq StorageWorks RAID arrays connected to our cluster of Compaq ES40 computers via Fibre Channel. The best cumulative peak sustained data rate is l17MB/s per node for reads and 77MB/s per node for writes. This value occurs for a configuration in which a node has two Fibre Channel interfaces to a switch, which in turn has two connections to each of two Compaq StorageWorks RAID arrays. Each RAID array has two HSG80 RAID controllers controlling (together) two 5+p RAID chains. A 10% more space efficient arrangement using a single 1l+p RAID chain in place of the two 5+P chains is 25% slower for reads and 40% slower for writes.

Performance assessment and design evaluation require a modeling tool that simultaneously accounts for processes occurring at a scale of a few tens of centimeters around individual waste packages and emplacement drifts, and also on behavior at the scale of the mountain. Many processes and features must be considered, including non-isothermal, multiphase-flow in rock of variable saturation and thermal radiation in open cavities. Also, given the nature of the fractured rock at Yucca Mountain, a dual-permeability approach is needed to represent permeability. A monolithic numerical model with all these features requires too large a computational cost to be an effective simulation tool, one that is used to examine sensitivity to key model assumptions and parameters. We have developed a multi-scale modeling approach that effectively simulates 3D discrete-heat-source, mountain-scale thermohydrologic behavior at Yucca Mountain and captures the natural variability of the site consistent with what we know from site characterization and waste-package-to-waste-package variability in heat output. We describe this approach and present results examining the role of infiltration flux, the most important natural-system parameter with respect to how thermohydrologic behavior influences the performance of the repository.

The Inner and Outer modules of the Central Solenoid Model Coil (CSMC) were built by US and Japanese home teams in collaboration with European and Russian teams to demonstrate the feasibility of a superconducting Central Solenoid for ITER and other large tokamak reactors. The CSMC mass is about 120 t, OD is about 3.6 m and the stored energy is 640 MJ at 46 kA and peak field of 13 T. Testing of the CSMC and the CS Insert took place at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) from mid March until mid August 2000. This paper presents the main results of the tests performed.

The 3-D nonlinear toroidal gyrokinetic simulation code PG3EQ is used to study toroidal ion temperature gradient (ITG) driven turbulence--a key cause of the anomalous transport that limits tokamak plasma performance. Systematic studies of the dependence of ion thermal transport on various parameters and effects are presented, including dependence on {rvec E} x {rvec B} and toroidal velocity shear, sensitivity to the force balance in simulations with radial temperature gradient variation, and the dependences on magnetic shear and ion temperature gradient.

In biomineralized tissue, Nature often uses a single crystal system to form tools with widely varied form and functionality. To accomplish this, organisms have developed methods to deterministically modify and control crystal habit, commonly creating shapes with lower symmetry than is possessed by the pure crystal. In this paper we use atomic force microscopy to investigate the effect of chiral amino acids on calcite growth. We show that the atomic steps and resultant macroscopic shape exhibit a lower symmetry that reflects the chirality of the amino acid. We use this result to constrain the possible stereospecific binding sites. We argue that the change in morphology is not due to the incorporation of the amino acid, but rather that it acts like a surfactant changing the energetics of the interface. These results suggest that the conventional paradigm for understanding the geometrical and chemical aspects of biomineralization in terms of stereochemical recognition should be expanded to capture the energetic controls that determine the mechanisms of mineral modification by biomolecules.

The authors have completed a set of gamma-ray pulse height benchmark experiments using a high purity germanium detector to measure absolute counting rate spectra from {sup 60}Co, {sup 137}Cs and {sup 57}Co isotopic sources. The detector was carefully shielded and collimated so that the geometry of the system was completely known. The measured absolute pulse height spectrum counting rates as a function of detector position relative to the source are compared to energy deposit spectra calculated using the Monte Carlo radiation transport code COG. They present here a small subset of our results. The agreement between the calculated and measured spectra and known sources of discrepancies will be discussed.

Room temperature (RT) pulsed operation of blue nitride based multi-quantum well (MQW) laser diodes grown on c-plane sapphire substrates was achieved. Atmospheric pressure MOCVD was used to grow the active region of the device which consisted of a 10 pair In{sub 0.21}Ga{sub 0.79}N (2.5nm)/In{sub 0.07}Ga{sub 0.93}N (5nm) InGaN MQW. The threshold current density was reduced by a factor of 2 from 10 kA/cm{sup 2} for laser diodes grown on sapphire substrates to 4.8 kA/cm{sub 2} for laser diodes grown on lateral epitaxial overgrowth (LEO) GaN on sapphire. Lasing wavelengths as long as 425nm were obtained. LEDs with emission wavelengths as long as 500nm were obtained by increasing the Indium content. These results show that a reduction in nonradiative recombination from a reduced dislocation density leads to a higher internal quantum efficiency. Further research on GaN based laser diodes is needed to extend the wavelength to 490nm which is required for numerous bio-detection applications. The GaN blue lasers will be used to stimulate fluorescence in special dye molecules when the dyes are attached to specific molecules or microorganisms. Fluorescein is one commonly used dye molecule for chemical and biological warfare agent detection, and its optimal excitation wavelength is 490 nm. InGaN …

A comprehensive investigation of natural and manmade silicate glasses, and nuclear melt glass was undertaken in order to derive an estimate of glass reactive surface area. Reactive surface area is needed to model release rates of radionuclides from nuclear melt glass in the subsurface. Because of the limited availability of nuclear melt glasses, natural volcanic glass samples were collected which had similar textures and compositions as those of melt glass. A flow-through reactor was used to measure the reactive surface area of the analog glasses in the presence of simplified NTS site ground waters. A measure of the physical surface area of these glasses was obtained using the BET gas-adsorption method. The studies on analog glasses were supplemented by measurement of the surface areas of pieces of actual melt glass using the BET method. The variability of the results reflect the sample preparation and measurement techniques used, as well as textural heterogeneity inherent to these samples. Based on measurements of analog and actual samples, it is recommended that the hydraulic source term calculations employ a range of 0.001 to 0.01 m{sup 2}/g for the reactive surface area of nuclear melt glass.