The goal of this work was to study the behavior of the angular distribution of the electron form the decay of the W boson in a specific rest-frame of the W, the Collins-Soper frame. This thesis consists of four major divisions, each dealing with closely related themes: (a) Physics Background, (b) Description of the Hardware and General Software Tools, (c) Description of the Analysis and Specific Tools, and (d) Results and Conclusions. Each division is comprised of one or more chapters and each chapter is divided into sections and subsections.

Femtosecond lasers are a powerful tool for a wealth of applications in physics, chemistry and biology. In most cases, however, their use is fundamentally restricted to a rather narrow spectral range. This thesis deals with the construction and characterization of a femtosecond light source for spectroscopic applications which overcomes that restriction. It is demonstrated how the output of a continuously pumped Ti:sapphire femtosecond oscillator is amplified to the {mu}J level,while the pulse duration remains below 100 fs. A combination of continuous pumping, acousto-optic switching and Ti:Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} as a gain medium allows amplification at high repetition rates. By focusing the high energy pulses into a sapphire crystal, a broad-band continuum can be generated, extended in wavelengths over several hundred nanometers. To accomplish amplification of three orders of magnitude while maintaining the pulse length, a regenerative multipass amplifier system was built. The thesis describes theoretical design, realization and characterization of the system. Theoretical calculations and preliminary measurements were carried out and allow a critical evaluation of the final performance.

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A methodology for nondestructive assay of drum packaged radioactive waste materials is investigated using Emission Computed Tomography procedures. A requirement of this method is accurate gamma attenuation correction. This is accomplished by the use of a constant density distribution for the drum content, thereby requiring the need for a homogeneous medium. The current predominant NDA technique is the use of the Segmented Gamma Scanner. Tomographic Gamma Scanning improves upon this method by providing a low resolution three-dimensional image of the source distribution, yielding both spatial and activity information. Reconstruction of the source distribution is accomplished by utilization of algebraic techniques with a nine by six voxel model with detector information gathered over scanning intervals of ninety degrees. Construction of a linear system to describe the scenario was accomplished using a point-source response function methodology, where a 54 {times} 120 matrix contained the projected detector responses for each source-detector geometry. Entries in this matrix were calculated using the point-kernal shielding code QAD-CGGP. Validation was performed using the MCNP photon transport code. Solutions to the linear system were determined using the Non-Negative Least Squares (NNLS) algorithm and the LSMOD algorithm. A series of four scans were performed, each reconstructing the source distribution …

This thesis examines and confirms the feasibility of using non-uranium fuel in a pressurized water reactor (PWR) radial blanket to eliminate plutonium of both weapons and civilian origin. In the equilibrium cycle, the periphery of the PWR is loaded with alternating fresh and once burned non-uranium fuel assemblies, with the interior of the core comprised of conventional three batch UO{sub 2} assemblies. Plutonium throughput is such that there is no net plutonium production: production in the interior is offset by destruction in the periphery. Using this approach a 50 MT WGPu inventory could be eliminated in approximately 400 reactor years of operation. Assuming all other existing constraints were removed, the 72 operating US PWRs could disposition 50 MT of WGPu in 5.6 years. Use of a low fissile loading plutonium-erbium inert-oxide-matrix composition in the peripheral assemblies essentially destroys 100% of the {sup 239}Pu and {ge}90% {sub total}Pu over two 18 month fuel cycles. Core radial power peaking, reactivity vs EFPD profiles and core average reactivity coefficients were found to be comparable to standard PWR values. Hence, minimal impact on reload licensing is anticipated. Examination of potential candidate fuel matrices based on the existing experience base and thermo-physical properties resulted in …

International environmental accords frequently contain obligations that may be easily satisfied by their signatories. Observers have speculated why it is in a state`s interests to sign agreements that lack strict conditions, but policy analysts lack a coherent model explaining how such agreements are formalized. Knowledge, values, and authority are key forces that elucidate how environmental accords are developed with provisions that are easily executable. This dissertation examines the formulation of Helsinki Commission recommendations to reduce emissions of organochlorines from Nordic kraft pulp mills. The kraft pulp industry, the largest industrial pollution emitter to the Baltic Sea, is also a crucial foreign exchange earner for both Sweden and Finland. Hence, Swedes and Finns were the most active participants in regional negotiations to reduce organochlorine emissions. Key variable analysis explains how obstacles in various regional negotiations were overcome, and how parties constructed a recommendation with obligations that could be easily accommodated. The two sides never agreed about the level of risk posed by organochlorines in the marine environment. This problem influenced the strictness of pollution limits specified in the final agreement. But, the parties overcame formidable obstacles in the negotiations, including: (1) concerns about costs to industry and competitive disadvantages in the …

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the addition of an air scrubber to an already existing delay line and whether it would scrub {sup 11}CO{sub 2}. There were three main objectives of this study. The first objective was to determine the scrubbing efficiency of the scrubber. The scrubbing efficiency was then used to predict the dose rates in the scrubber area and compare those values with measurements from radiological surveys. The third objective was to determine if the shield blocks were effective in reducing the dose rates in the scrubber area. The activities were measured before and during scrubber operation and this information was used to calculate the scrubbing efficiency and the efficiency of {sup 11}CO{sub 2} removal was determined to be around 50%. Microshield was then used to predict dose rates and compared those values with measurements from radiological surveys. This was also used to determine the that the shield blocks around the scrubber were effective in reducing the dose rates from the radiation field produced by the radionuclides in the scrubber.

High energy particle accelerators are now the primary means of discovering the basic building blocks of matter and understanding the forces between them. In order to minimize the cost of building these machines, superconducting magnets are used in essentially all present day high energy proton and heavy ion colliders. The cost of superconducting magnets is typically in the range of 20--30% of the total cost of building such machines. The circulating particle beam goes through these magnets a large number of times (over hundreds of millions). The luminosity performance and life time of the beam in these machines depends significantly on the field quality in these magnets. Therefore, even a small error in the magnetic field shape may create a large cumulative effect in the beam trajectory to throw the particles of the magnet aperture. The superconducting accelerator magnets must, therefore, be designed and constructed so that these errors are small. In this thesis the research and development work will be described 3which has resulted in significant improvements in the field quality of the superconducting magnets for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The design and the field quality improvements in the prototype of the main collider dipole magnet for …

The field quality in superconducting magnets has been improved to a level that it does not appear to be a limiting factor on the performance of RHIC. The many methods developed, improved and adopted during the course of this work have contributed significantly to that performance. One can not only design and construct magnets with better field quality than in one made before but can also improve on that quality after construction. The relative field error ({Delta}B/B) can now be made as low as a few parts in 10{sup {minus}5} at 2/3 of the coil radius. This is about an order of magnitude better than what is generally expected for superconducting magnets. This extra high field quality is crucial to the luminosity performance of RHIC. The research work described here covers a number of areas which all must be addressed to build the production magnets with a high field quality. The work has been limited to the magnetic design of the cross section which in most cases essentially determines the field quality performance of the whole magnet since these magnets are generally long. Though the conclusions to be presented in this chapter have been discussed at the end of each …

Synchrotron small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) has been applied to the structural study of several biological systems, including the nitrogenase complex, the heat shock cognate protein (hsc70), and lysozyme folding. The structural information revealed from the SAXS experiments is complementary to information obtained by other physical and biochemical methods, and adds to our knowledge and understanding of these systems.

Many studies have been conducted in the area of job satisfaction. Its necessary attributes sor components have been studied, analyzed, validated, standardized, and normed, onpredominantly white male populations. Few of these studies have focused on people of color, specifically African-Americans, and fewer still on those African-Americans working in a high-tech, scientific and research environments. The researchers have defined what is necessary for the current dominent culture`s population, but are their findings applicable and valid for our nation`s other cultures and ethnic groups? Among the conclusions: the subjects felt that there was no real difference in job satisfiers from their white colleagues; however the subjects had the sense of community (African-American) and the need to give back to it. Frustrations included politics, funding, and lack of control.

In the leukemia case the unseparated B and T lymphocytes had a high translocation frequency even after 0.0014, respectively. After purging all clones from the data, the translocation frequencies for Bio 8 and Bio 23 were 0.00750.0014 and 0.0073 metaphases were scored for chromosomal aberrations,, specifically reciprocal translocations, using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Metaphase spreads were used from two healthy, unexposed individuals (not exposed to radiation, chemotherapy or radiotherapy) and one early B- precursor acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) patient (metaphase spreads from both separated T lymphocytes and unseparated B and T lymphocytes were scored). All three individuals had an abnormally high translocation frequency. The high translocation frequencies resulted from clonal expansion of specific translocated chromosomes. I show in this thesis that by purging (discounting or removing) clones from the data of unexposed individuals, one can obtain true background translocation frequencies. In two cases, Bio 8 and Bio 23, the measured translocation frequency for chromosomes 1, 2 and 4 was 0.0124 purging all of the clones from the data. This high translocation frequency may be due to a low frequency of some clones and may not be recognized. The separated T lymphocytes had a higher translocation frequency than expected.

Atmospheric iron (Fe) is thought to play an important role in cloudwater chemistry (e.g., S(IV) oxidation, oxidant production, etc.), and is also an important source of Fe to certain regions of the worlds oceans where Fe is believed to be a rate-limiting nutrient for primary productivity. This thesis focuses on understanding the chemistry, speciation and abundance of Fe in cloudwater and aerosol in the troposphere, through observations of Fe speciation in the cloudwater and aerosol samples collected over the continental United States and the Arabian Sea. Different chemical species of atmospheric Fe were measured in aerosol and cloudwater samples to help assess the role of Fe in cloudwater chemistry.

This doctoral dissertation is presented as three self-contained papers. An introductory chapter considers traditional spatio-temporal statistical methods used in the atmospheric sciences from a statistical perspective. Although this section is primarily a review, many of the statistical issues considered have not been considered in the context of these methods and several open questions are posed. The first paper attempts to determine a means of characterizing the semiannual oscillation (SAO) spatial variation in the northern hemisphere extratropical height field. It was discovered that the midlatitude SAO in 500hPa geopotential height could be explained almost entirely as a result of spatial and temporal asymmetries in the annual variation of stationary eddies. It was concluded that the mechanism for the SAO in the northern hemisphere is a result of land-sea contrasts. The second paper examines the seasonal variability of mixed Rossby-gravity waves (MRGW) in lower stratospheric over the equatorial Pacific. Advanced cyclostationary time series techniques were used for analysis. It was found that there are significant twice-yearly peaks in MRGW activity. Analyses also suggested a convergence of horizontal momentum flux associated with these waves. In the third paper, a new spatio-temporal statistical model is proposed that attempts to consider the influence of both …

Quantum mechanical methods are developed to describe the dynamics of bimolecular chemical reactions. We focus on developing approaches for directly calculating the desired quantity of interest. Methods for the calculation of single matrix elements of the scattering matrix (S-matrix) and initial state-selected reaction probabilities are presented. This is accomplished by the use of absorbing boundary conditions (ABC) to obtain a localized (L{sup 2}) representation of the outgoing wave scattering Green`s function. This approach enables the efficient calculation of only a single column of the S-matrix with a proportionate savings in effort over the calculation of the entire S-matrix. Applying this method to the calculation of the initial (or final) state-selected reaction probability, a more averaged quantity, requires even less effort than the state-to-state S-matrix elements. It is shown how the same representation of the Green`s function can be effectively applied to the calculation of negative ion photodetachment intensities. Photodetachment spectroscopy of the anion ABC{sup -} can be a very useful method for obtaining detailed information about the neutral ABC potential energy surface, particularly if the ABC{sup -} geometry is similar to the transition state of the neutral ABC. Total and arrangement-selected photodetachment spectra are calculated for the H{sub 3}O{sup -} …

Real time monitoring of toxic metallic effluents in confined gas streams can be accomplished through use of Microwave Induced Plasmas to perform atomic emission spectroscopy, For this diagnostic to be viable it is necessary that it sample from the flowstream of interest in an isokinetic manner. A method of isokinetic sampling was established for this device for use in the exhaust system of a plasma hearth vitrification furnace. The flow and entrained particulate environment were simulated in the laboratory setting using a variable flow duct of the same dimensions (8-inch diameter, schedule 40) as that in the field and was loaded with similar particulate (less than 10 {mu}m in diameter) of lake bed soil typically used in the vitrification process. The flow from the furnace was assumed to be straight flow. To reproduce this effect a flow straightener was installed in the device. An isokinetic sampling train was designed to include the plasma torch, with microwave power input operating at 2.45 GHz, to match local freestream velocities between 800 and 2400 ft/sec. The isokinetic sampling system worked as planned and the plasma torch had no difficulty operating at the required flowrates. Simulation of the particulate suspension was also successful. Steady …

Various hydrogenation reactions on transition metals are important commercially whereas certain hydrogenolysis reactions are useful from fundamental point of view. Understanding the hydrogen mobility and kinetics of adsorption-desorption of hydrogen is important in understanding the mechanisms of such reactions involving hydrogen. The kinetics of hydrogen chemisorption was studied by means of selective excitation NMR on silica supported Pt, Rh and Pt-Rh catalysts. The activation energy of hydrogen desorption was found to be lower on silica supported Pt catalysts as compared to Rh and Pt-Rh catalysts. It was found that the rates of hydrogen adsorption and desorption on Pt-Rh catalyst were similar to those on Rh catalyst and much higher as compared to Pt catalyst. The Ru-Ag bimetallic system is much simpler to study than the Pt-Rh system and serves as a model system to characterize more complicated systems such as the K/Ru system. Ag was found to decrease the amounts of adsorbed hydrogen and the hydrogen-to-ruthenium stoichiometry. Ag reduced the populations of states with low and intermediate binding energies of hydrogen on silica supported Ru catalyst. The rates of hydrogen adsorption and desorption were also lower on silica supported Ru-Ag catalyst as compared to Ru catalyst. This report contains introductory …

Studies have shown that the presence of microbial growth correlates with health complaints associated with sick building syndrome. Microbial growth may be found in damp places within a building, and may be dispersed to other areas if present in the HVAC system. Certain individuals may be especially sensitive to the presence of these microorganisms, and may experience adverse reactions at extremely low concentrations. Unfortunately, the source of the problem may not be discovered because many times the microbial growth is not visible. However, there are some volatile organic compounds that are given off by certain microorganisms which may be used to determine the presence of microbial contamination. 3-Methylfuran is an excellent indicator of growing fungi. It is produced by a majority of fungi, and can be used as an indicator of ongoing growth. 1-Octen-3-ol is also produced by a number of fungi, and has been used in the past as an indicator of such. These two compounds and many other volatiles given off by microorganisms have been termed microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs). Many of these compounds are commonly found in indoor air, and thus, may be present even when there is not microbial contamination.

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The photodissociation spectroscopy and dynamics of free radicals is studied by the technique of fast beam photofragment translational spectroscopy. Photodetachment of internally cold, mass-selected negative ions produces a clean source of radicals, which are subsequently dissociated and detected. The photofragment yield as a function of photon energy is obtained, mapping out the dissociative and predissociative electronic states of the radical. In addition, the photodissociation dynamics, product branching ratios, and bond energies are probed at fixed photon energies by measuring the translational energy, P(E{sub T}), and angular distribution of the recoiling fragments using a time- and position-sensitive detector. Ab initio calculations are combined with dynamical and statistical models to interpret the observed data. The photodissociation of three prototypical hydrocarbon combustion intermediates forms the core of this work.

The beam impedance and wakefield are quantities which describe the stability of charged particles in their trajectory within an accelerator. The stretched wire measurement technique is a method which estimates the beam impedance and wakefield. Definitions for the beam impedance, the wakefield, and the stretched wire measurement are presented. A pillbox resonator with circular beampipes is studied for its relatively simple profile and mode structure. Theoretical predictions and measurement data are presented for the interaction of various charged particle beams and center conductor geometries between the cavity and beampipe. Time domain predictions for the stretched wire measurement and wakefield are presented and are shown to be a linear interaction.

Fe-K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) has been used to investigate the electronic and geometric structure of the iron active site in non-heme iron enzymes. A new theoretical extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis approach, called GNXAS, has been tested on data for iron model complexes to evaluate the utility and reliability of this new technique, especially with respect to the effects of multiple-scattering. In addition, a detailed analysis of the 1s{yields}3d pre-edge feature has been developed as a tool for investigating the oxidation state, spin state, and geometry of iron sites. Edge and EXAFS analyses have then been applied to the study of non-heme iron enzyme active sites.

Reservoir engineering is performed to predict the future performance of a reservoir based on its current state and past performance and to explore other methods for increasing the recovery of hydrocarbons from a reservoir. Reservoir simulations are routinely used for these purposes. A reservoir simulator is a sophisticated computer program which solves a system of partial differential equations describing multiphase fluid flow (oil, water, and gas) in a porous reservoir rock. This document describes the use of a reservoir simulator version of BOAST which was developed by the National Institute for Petroleum and Energy Research in July, 1991.