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The authors report the first observation of B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} {psi}(2S){phi} decay in p{bar p} collisions {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using 360 pb{sup -1} of data collected by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. They observe 20.2 {+-} 5.0 and 12.3 {+-} 4.1 B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} {psi}(2S){phi} candidates, in {psi}(2S) {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -} and {psi}(2S) {yields} J/{psi}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} decay modes, respectively. They present a measurement of the relative branching fraction {Beta}(B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} {psi}(2S){phi})/{Beta}(B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} J/{psi}{phi}) = 0.52 {+-} 0.13(stat.) {+-} 0.04(syst.) {+-} 0.06(BR) using the {psi}(2S) {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -} decay mode.

The authors search Z{prime} bosons in dielectron events produced in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV, using a 0.45 fb{sup -1} dataset accumulated with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. To identify the Z{prime} {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -} signal, both the dielectron invariant mass distribution and the angular distribution of the electron pair are used. No evidence of a signal is found, and 95% confidence level lower limits are set on the Z{prime} mass for several models. Limits are also placed on the mass and gauge coupling of a generic Z{prime}, as well as on the contact interaction mass scales for different helicity structure scenarios.

The authors describe a measurement of the top quark mass from events produced in p{bar p} collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV, using the Collider Detector at Fermilab. They identify t{bar t} candidates where both W bosons from the top quarks decay into leptons (e{nu}, {mu}{nu}, or {tau}{nu}) from a data sample of 360 pb{sup -1}. The top quark mass is reconstructed in each event separately by three different methods, which draw upon simulated distributions of the neutrino pseudorapidity, t{bar t} longitudinal momentum, or neutrino azimuthal angle in order to extract probability distributions for the top quark mass. For each method, representative mass distributions, or templates, are constructed from simulated samples of signal and background events, and parameterized to form continuous probability density functions. A likelihood fit incorporating these parameterized templates is then performed on the data sample masses in order to derive a final top quark mass. Combining the three template methods, taking into account correlations in their statistical and systematic uncertainties, results in a top quark mass measurement of 170.1 {+-} 6.0(stat.) {+-} 4.1(syst.) GeV/c{sup 2}.

From a public health perspective, developing a detailed mechanistic understanding of the well-known increase in fracture risk of human bone with age is essential. This also represents a challenge from materials science and fracture mechanics viewpoints. Bone has a complex, hierarchical structure with characteristic features ranging from nanometer to macroscopic dimensions; it is therefore significantly more complex than most engineering materials. Nevertheless, by examining the micro-/nano-structural changes accompanying the process of aging using appropriate multiscale experimental methods and relating them to fracture mechanics data, it is possible to obtain a quantitative picture of how bone resists fracture. As human cortical bone exhibits rising ex vivo crack-growth resistance with crack extension, its fracture toughness must be evaluated in terms of resistance-curve (R-curve) behavior. While the crack initiation toughness declines with age, the more striking finding is that the crack-growth toughness declines even more significantly and is essentially absent in bone from donors exceeding 85 years in age. To explain such an age-induced deterioration in the toughness of bone, we evaluate its fracture properties at multiple length scales, specifically at the molecular and nanodimensions using pico-force atomic-force microscopy, nanoindentation and vibrational spectroscopies, at the microscale using electron microscopy and hard/soft x-ray computed …

Planetary objects have preserved various amounts of oxygen issued from isotopically different oxygen reservoirs reflecting their origin and physico-chemical history. An {sup 16}O-rich component is preserved in refractory inclusions (CAIs) whereas meteorites matrices are enriched in an {sup 16}O-poor component. The origin of these components is still unclear. The most recent models are based on isotope selective photodissociation of CO in a {sup 16}O-rich nebula/presolr cloud resulting in a {sup 16}O-poor gas in the outer part of the nebula. However because most meteorite components are thought to be formed in the inner 3AU of the solar nebula, the precise isotopic composition of outer solar system components is yet unknown. In that respect, the oxygen isotopic composition of cometary dust is a key to understand the origin of the solar system. The Stardust mission will bring back to the Earth dust samples from comet Wild2, a short period comet from the Jupiter family. A precise determination of the oxygen isotope composition of Wild2 dust grains is essential to decipher the oxygen reservoirs of the outer solar system. However, Stardust samples may be extremely fragmented upon impact in the collector. In addition, interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) collected in the stratosphere are likely …

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The coplanar-grid (CPG) and other electron only detection techniques have made possible the use of CdZnTe-based detectors for gamma-ray spectroscopy when high efficiency, good energy resolution, and near room temperature operation are required. Despite the demonstrated potential of the technologies, widespread use remains hampered in part by the limited availability of the highly uniform CdZnTe material required for high-resolution spectroscopy. However, it has been recently shown that mild cooling of CdZnTe CPG detectors can result in a significant improvement in the energy resolution of the detectors thereby allowing a wider range of material to be used for high-resolution applications. In this paper, we show that improved spectroscopic performance can consistently be achieved through a combination of detector cooling and increased detector bias. Energy resolutions of about 1 % FWHM at 662 keV for detector volumes up to 2.3 cm{sup 3} have been obtained at -20 C. With the electronic noise subtracted, this amounts to an intrinsic resolution of 0.76 %. We also show that further cooling of the detectors to -30 C leads to field polarization and a loss of spectroscopic performance.

The nucleation and coalescence of silver islands on coated glass was investigated by in-situ measurements of the sheet resistance. Sub-monolayer amounts of transition metals (Nb, Ti, Ni, Cr, Zr, Ta, and Mo) were deposited prior to the deposition of silver. It was found that some, but not all, of the transition metals lead to coalescence of silver at nominally thinner films with smoother topology. The smoothing effect of the transition metal at sub-monolayer thickness can be explained by a thermodynamic model of surface energies.

The status of the analysis of e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation using the radiative return technique at BaBar is presented. Cross sections for the processes e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0}, {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}, {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}K{sup +}K{sup -}, K{sup +}K{sup -}K{sup +}K{sup -}, 3({pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}), {pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0}2({pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}), K{sup +}K{sup -}2({pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}) and p{bar p} are measured in the energy range from threshold up to 4.5 GeV. Studies on resonant structures involved in these processes have been performed. We present also new precise measurements of the effective proton form factor and of the ratio of the electric to magnetic proton form factor, |G{sub E}/G{sub M}|. In addition, the J/{psi} and {psi}(2S) branching fractions to all these final states have been measured.

For atomic and molecular quantum Monte Carlo calculations, most of the computational effort is spent in the evaluation of the local energy. We describe a scheme for reducing the computational cost of the evaluation of the Slater determinants and correlation function for the correlated molecular orbital (CMO) ansatz. A sparse representation of the Slater determinants makes possible efficient evaluation of molecular orbitals. A modification to the scaled distance function facilitates a linear scaling implementation of the Schmidt-Moskowitz-Boys-Handy (SMBH) correlation function that preserves the efficient matrix multiplication structure of the SMBH function. For the evaluation of the local energy, these two methods lead to asymptotic linear scaling with respect to the molecule size.

In 2005, the US Department of Energy (DOE) launched the third generation of closure contracts, including the River Corridor Closure (RCC) Contract at Hanford. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made on cleaning up the river shore that bordes Hanford. However, the most important cleanup challenges lie ahead. In March 2005, DOE awarded the Hanford River Corridor Closure Contract to Washington Closure Hanford (WCH), a limited liability company owned by Washington Group International, Bechtel National and CH2M HILL. It is a single-purpose company whose goal is to safely and efficiently accelerate cleanup in the 544 km{sup 2} Hanford river corridor and reduce or eliminate future obligations to DOE for maintaining long-term stewardship over the site. The RCC Contract is a cost-plus-incentive-fee closure contract, which incentivizes the contractor to reduce cost and accelerate the schedule. At $1.9 billion and seven years, WCH has accelerated cleaning up Hanford's river corridor significantly compared to the $3.2 billion and 10 years originally estimated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Predictable funding is one of the key features of the new contract, with funding set by contract at $183 million in fiscal year (FY) 2006 and peaking at $387 million in FY2012. …

A geophysical characterization project was conducted at the BC Cribs and Trenches Area, located south of 200 East at the Hanford Site. The area consists of 26 waste disposal trenches and cribs, which received approximately 30 million gallons of liquid waste from the uranium recovery process and the ferrocyanide processes associated with wastes generated by reprocessing nuclear fuel. Waste discharges to BC Cribs contributed perhaps the largest liquid fraction of contaminants to the ground in the 200 Areas. The site also includes possibly the largest inventory of Tc-99 ever disposed to the soil at Hanford with an estimated quantity of 400 Ci. Other waste constituents included high volumes of nitrate and U-238. The geophysical characterization at the 50 acre site primarily included high resolution resistivity (HRR). The resistivity technique is a non-invasive method by which electrical resistivity data are collected along linear transects, and data are presented as continuous profiles of subsurface electrical properties. The transects ranged in size from about 400-700 meters and provided information down to depths of 60 meters. The site was characterized by a network of 51 HRR lines with a total of approximately 19.7 line kilometers of data collected parallel and perpendicular to the trenches …

Phytoplasmas (Candidatus Phytoplasma, Class Mollicutes) cause disease in hundreds of economically important plants, and are obligately transmitted by sap-feeding insects of the order Hemiptera, mainly leafhoppers and psyllids. The 706,569-bp chromosome and four plasmids of aster yellows phytoplasma strain witches broom (AY-WB) were sequenced and compared to the onion yellows phytoplasma strain M (OY-M) genome. The phytoplasmas have small repeat-rich genomes. The repeated DNAs are organized into large clusters, potential mobile units (PMUs), which contain tra5 insertion sequences (ISs), and specialized sigma factors and membrane proteins. So far, PMUs are unique to phytoplasmas. Compared to mycoplasmas, phytoplasmas lack several recombination and DNA modification functions, and therefore phytoplasmas probably use different mechanisms of recombination, likely involving PMUs, for the creation of variability, allowing phytoplasmas to adjust to the diverse environments of plants and insects. The irregular GC skews and presence of ISs and large repeated sequences in the AY-WB and OY-M genomes are indicative of high genomic plasticity. Nevertheless, segments of {approx}250 kb, located between genes lplA and glnQ are syntenic between the two phytoplasmas, contain the majority of the metabolic genes and no ISs. AY-WB is further along in the reductive evolution process than OY-M. The AY-WB genome is {approx}154 …

What is common among electronic structure calculation, design of MEMS devices, vibrational analysis of high speed railways, and simulation of the electromagnetic field of a particle accelerator? The answer: they all require solving large scale nonlinear eigenvalue problems. In fact, these are just a handful of examples in which solving nonlinear eigenvalue problems accurately and efficiently is becoming increasingly important. Recognizing the importance of this class of problems, an invited minisymposium dedicated to nonlinear eigenvalue problems was held at the 2005 SIAM Annual Meeting. The purpose of the minisymposium was to bring together numerical analysts and application scientists to showcase some of the cutting edge results from both communities and to discuss the challenges they are still facing. The minisymposium consisted of eight talks divided into two sessions. The first three talks focused on a type of nonlinear eigenvalue problem arising from electronic structure calculations. In this type of problem, the matrix Hamiltonian H depends, in a non-trivial way, on the set of eigenvectors X to be computed. The invariant subspace spanned by these eigenvectors also minimizes a total energy function that is highly nonlinear with respect to X on a manifold defined by a set of orthonormality constraints. In …

A unique electronics system has been built and tested for reading signals from the silicon-strip detectors of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope mission. The system amplifies and processes signals from 884,736 36-cm strips using only 160 W of power, and it achieves close to 100% detection efficiency with noise occupancy sufficiently low to allow it to self trigger. The design of the readout system is described, and results are presented from ground-based testing of the completed detector system.

We investigate the enhancement of the resistive wall impedance of a round, metallic beam pipe with longitudinal grooves.

A numerical method is described for inviscid, compressible, multi-material flow in two space dimensions. The flow is governed by the multi-material Euler equations with a general mixture equation of state. Composite overlapping grids are used to handle complex flow geometry and block-structured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) is used to locally increase grid resolution near shocks and material interfaces. The discretization of the governing equations is based on a high-resolution Godunov method, but includes an energy correction designed to suppress numerical errors that develop near a material interface for standard, conservative shock-capturing schemes. The energy correction is constructed based on a uniform pressure-velocity flow and is significant only near the captured interface. A variety of two-material flows are presented to verify the accuracy of the numerical approach and to illustrate its use. These flows assume an equation of state for the mixture based on Jones-Wilkins-Lee (JWL) forms for the components. This equation of state includes a mixture of ideal gases as a special case. Flow problems considered include unsteady one-dimensional shock-interface collision, steady interaction of an planar interface and an oblique shock, planar shock interaction with a collection of gas-filled cylindrical inhomogeneities, and the impulsive motion of the two-component mixture in …

In earlier work, planar graphs of massless {phi}{sup 3} theory were summed with the help of the light cone world sheet picture and the mean field approximation. In the present article, the same methods are applied to the problem of summing planar bosonic open strings. They find that in the ground state of the system, string boundaries form a condensate on the world sheet, and a new string emerges from this summation. Its slope is always greater than the initial slope, and it remains non-zero even when the initial slope is set equal to zero. If they assume the initial string tends to a field a theory in the zero slope limit, this result provides evidence for string formation in field theory.

We present studies of accelerator-induced backgrounds in the BaBar detector at the SLAC B-Factory, carried out using LPTURTLE, a modified version of the DECAY TURTLE simulation package. Lost-particle backgrounds in PEP-II are dominated by a combination of beam-gas bremstrahlung, beam-gas Coulomb scattering, radiative-Bhabha events and beam-beam blow-up. The radiation damage and detector occupancy caused by the associated electromagnetic shower debris can limit the usable luminosity. In order to understand and mitigate such backgrounds, we have performed a full program of beam-gas and luminosity-background simulations, that include the effects of the detector solenoidal field, detailed modeling of limiting apertures in both collider rings, and optimization of the betatron collimation scheme in the presence of large transverse tails.

We report on our progress in the development of a fully self-consistent Vlasov treatment of coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) effects on particle bunches traveling on arbitrary planar orbits. First we outline our Vlasov approach and the approximation we are currently studying. Then we discuss recent numerical results for a benchmark model studied extensively with codes by several authors.

A major challenge in the recently awarded River Corridor Closure (RCC) Contract at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site is decontaminating and demolishing (D&D) facilities in the 300 Area. Located along the banks of the Columbia River about one mile north of Richland, Washington, the 2.5 km{sup 2} (1 mi{sup 2})300 Area comprises only a small part of the 1517 km{sup 2} (586 mi{sup 2}) Hanford Site. However, with more than 300 facilities ranging from clean to highly contaminated, D&D of those facilities represents a major challenge for Washington Closure Hanford (WCH), which manages the new RCC Project for DOE's Richland Operations Office (RL). A complicating factor for this work is the continued use of nearly a dozen facilities by the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Most of the buildings will not be released to WCH until at least 2009--four years into the seven-year, $1.9 billion RCC Contract. The challenge will be to deactivate, decommission, decontaminate and demolish (D4) highly contaminated buildings, such as 324 and 327, without interrupting PNNL's operations in adjacent facilities. This paper focuses on the challenges associated with the D4 of the 324 Building and the 327 Building.

A simple replication of developed country applianceefficiency labels and standards is unlikely to be feasible in Ghana andmany other countries in Africa. Yet by creatively modifying the developedcountry appliance efficiency market transformation model, it should bepossible to achieve dramatic energy use reductions. As was true indeveloped countries in the previous two decades, refrigeration efficiencyimprovements provide the greatest energy savings potential in theresidential electricity sector in Ghana. Although Ghana, like manyAfrican countries may impose standards on imports since Ghana does nothave manufacturing facilities for appliances in country. This approachmay hurt some consumers who patronize a very diverse market of usedappliances imported from Europe. We discuss how meeting the challenges ofthe Ghanaian market will require modification of the usual energyefficiency labeling and standards paradigm. But once a refrigeratormarket transformation is accomplished in Ghana, we estimate an averageenergy savings potential of 550 kWh/refrigerator/year, and a monetarysavings of more than $35/refrigerator/year. We discuss how this modifiedrefrigerator efficiency market transformation may occur in the Ghanaiancontext. If successful, this market transformation is likely to be anexample for many other African countries.

By the time students are ready to enter the workforce they have been exposed to up to 20 years of ergonomics risk factors. As technology evolves, it provides more opportunities for intensive repetitive motion and with computers, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and electronic games. The average student engages in fewer active physical activities, sit stationary in mismatched furniture in schools for hours and carry heavy backpacks. While long-term effects remain to be identified, increasingly ergonomists and others concerned with musculoskeletal health and wellness, see a need for early ergonomics education. This interactive session provides a hands-on approach to introducing ergonomics to students. Although different approaches may effectively introduce ergonomics at even early stages of development, this program was designed for youth at the middle to high school age. Attendees will participate in four activities designed to introduce ergonomics at an experiential level. The modules focus on grip strength, effective breathing, optimizing your chair, and backpack safety. The workshop will include presentation and worksheets designed for use by teachers with minimal ergonomics training. Feedback from the participants will be sought for further refining the usability and safety of the training package.