Fused silica micro-structural changes associated with localized 10.6 {micro}m CO{sub 2} laser heating are reported. Spatially-resolved shifts in the high-frequency asymmetric stretch transverse-optic (TO) phonon mode of SiO{sub 2} were measured using confocal Raman microscopy, allowing construction of axial fictive temperature (T{sub f}) maps for various laser heating conditions. A Fourier conduction-based finite element model was employed to compute on-axis temperature-time histories, and, in conjunction with a Tool-Narayanaswamy form for structural relaxation, used to fit T{sub f}(z) profiles to extract relaxation parameters. Good agreement between the calculated and measured T{sub f} was found, yielding reasonable values for relaxation time and activation enthalpy in the laser-modified silica.

The average Industrial Hygienist (IH) loves a challenge, right? Okay, well here is one with more than a few twists. We start by going through the basics of a risk assessment. You have some chemical agents, a few workers, and the makings of your basic exposure characterization. However, you have no occupational exposure limit (OEL), essentially no toxicological basis, and no epidemiology. Now the real handicap is that you cannot use sampling pumps, cassettes, tubes, or any of the media in your toolbox, and the whole concept of mass-to-dose is out the window, even at high exposure levels. Of course, by the title, you knew we were talking about nanomaterials (NM). However, we wonder how many IHs know that this topic takes everything you know about your profession and turns it upside down. It takes the very foundations that you worked so hard in college and in the field to master and pulls it out from underneath you. It even takes the gold standard of our profession, the quantitative science of exposure assessment, and makes it look pretty darn rusty. Now with NM there is the potential to get some aspect of quantitative measurements, but the instruments are generally very …

Various methods exist for fabrication of micron and submicron sized waveguide structures. However, most of them include expensive and time consuming semiconductor fabrication techniques. An economical method for fabricating waveguide structures is introduced and demonstrated in this thesis. This method is established based on previously well-developed photonic crystal fabrication method called two-polymer microtransfer molding. The waveguide in this work functions by a coupler structure that diffracts the incident light into submicron polymer rods. The light is then guided through the rods. Characterization is done by collecting the light that has been guided through the waveguide and exits the end of these submicron polymer bars. The coupling and waveguiding capabilities are demonstrated using two light sources, a laser and white light.

Goethite({alpha}-FeOOH), an abundant and highly reactive iron oxyhydroxide mineral, has been the subject of numerous stud-ies of environmental interface reactivity. However, such studies have been hampered by the lack of experimental constraints on aqueous interface structure, and especially of the surface water molecular arrangements. Structural information of this type is crucial because reactivity is dictated by the nature of the surface functional groups and the structure or distribution of water and electrolyte at the solid-solution interface. In this study we have investigated the goethite(100) surface using surface diffraction techniques, and have determined the relaxed surface structure, the surface functional groups, and the three dimensional nature of two distinct sorbed water layers. The crystal truncation rod (CTR) results show that the interface structure consists of a double hydroxyl, double water terminated interface with significant atom relaxations. Further, the double hydroxyl terminated surface dominates with an 89% contribution having a chiral subdomain structure on the(100) cleavage faces. The proposed interface stoichiometry is ((H{sub 2}O)-(H{sub 2}O)-OH{sub 2}-OH-Fe-O-O-Fe-R) with two types of terminal hydroxyls; a bidentate (B-type) hydroxo group and a monodentate (A-type) aquo group. Using the bond-valence approach the protonation states of the terminal hydroxyls are predicted to be OH type (bidentate hydroxyl …

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We have successfully fabricated (PrBa)Co{sub 2}O{sub 5+{delta}} and (LaBa)Co{sub 2}O{sub 5+{deleta}} epitaxial thin film on various single crystal substrates. Physical and electrochemical properties characterizations were carried out. Highly conductive oxygen-deficient double perovskite LnBaCo2O5+? thin films were grown on single crystal (001) SrTiO{sub 3} (STO), (001) MgO, (001) LaAlO{sub 3} and (110) NdGaO{sub 3} substrate by pulsed laser deposition. Microstructure studies from synchrotron X-ray diffraction and Transmission electron microscopy. High temperature transport properties was carried in different atmosphere (O{sub 2},Air, N{sub 2}) up to ~900K. Resistance response of (LaBa)Co{sub 2}O{sub 5+{delta}} epitaxial thin film was characterized in oxygen, nitrogen and 4% hydrogen over a wide range of temperature from 400�C up to 800�C. To determine the electrode performance and oxygen exchange kinetics of PrBaCo{sub 2}O{sub 5+{delta}}, multi-layered thin film based half cell was deposited on LaAlO{sub 3}(001) substrate. The temperature dependence of the resistance of this half ?cell structure was characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) within different temperature and gas environments. Anode supported fuel cells, with GCO:YSZ multilayer thin film as electrolyte and PBCO thin film as electrode, are fabricated on tape casted NiO/YSZ substrate. Full cell performance is characterized up to 800�C.

X-ray Emission Spectroscopy (XES) and Resonant Inverse Photoelectron Spectroscopy (RIPES) have been used to investigate the photon emission associated with the Ce3d5/2 and Ce3d3/2 thresholds. Strong resonant behavior has been observed in the RIPES of Ce Oxide near the 5/2 and 3/2 edges. Inverse Photoelectron Spectroscopy (IPES) and its high energy variant, Bremstrahlung Isochromat Spectroscopy (BIS), are powerful techniques that permit a direct interrogation of the low-lying unoccupied electronic structure of a variety of materials. Despite being handicapped by counting rates that are approximately four orders of magnitude less that the corresponding electron spectroscopies (Photoelectron Spectroscopy, PES, and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, XPS) both IPES and BIS have a long history of important contributions. Over time, an additional variant of this technique has appeared, where the kinetic energy (KE) of the incoming electron and photon energy (hv) of the emitted electron are roughly the same magnitude as the binding energy of a core level of the material in question. Under these circumstances and in analogy to Resonant Photoelectron Spectroscopy, a cross section resonance can occur, giving rise to Resonant Inverse Photoelectron Spectroscopy or RIPES. Here, we report the observation of RIPES in an f electron system, specifically the at the 3d{sub …

The homogeneity constraint was implemented in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) Product Composition Control System (PCCS) to help ensure that the current durability models would be applicable to the glass compositions being processed during DWPF operations. While the homogeneity constraint is typically an issue at lower waste loadings (WLs), it may impact the operating windows for DWPF operations, where the glass forming systems may be limited to lower waste loadings based on fissile or heat load limits. In the sludge batch 1b (SB1b) variability study, application of the homogeneity constraint at the measurement acceptability region (MAR) limit eliminated much of the potential operating window for DWPF. As a result, Edwards and Brown developed criteria that allowed DWPF to relax the homogeneity constraint from the MAR to the property acceptance region (PAR) criterion, which opened up the operating window for DWPF operations. These criteria are defined as: (1) use the alumina constraint as currently implemented in PCCS (Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} {ge} 3 wt%) and add a sum of alkali constraint with an upper limit of 19.3 wt% ({Sigma}M{sub 2}O < 19.3 wt%), or (2) adjust the lower limit on the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} constraint to 4 wt% (Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} …

The document is the final report of the DOE Computational Nanoscience Project DE-FG02-03ER46096: Integrated Multiscale Modeling of Molecular Computing Devices. It included references to 62 publications that were supported by the grant.

The NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) are a suite of parallel computer performance benchmarks. They were originally developed at the NASA Ames Research Center in 1991 to assess high-end parallel supercomputers. Although they are no longer used as widely as they once were for comparing high-end system performance, they continue to be studied and analyzed a great deal in the high-performance computing community. The acronym 'NAS' originally stood for the Numerical Aeronautical Simulation Program at NASA Ames. The name of this organization was subsequently changed to the Numerical Aerospace Simulation Program, and more recently to the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Center, although the acronym remains 'NAS.' The developers of the original NPB suite were David H. Bailey, Eric Barszcz, John Barton, David Browning, Russell Carter, LeoDagum, Rod Fatoohi, Samuel Fineberg, Paul Frederickson, Thomas Lasinski, Rob Schreiber, Horst Simon, V. Venkatakrishnan and Sisira Weeratunga. The original NAS Parallel Benchmarks consisted of eight individual benchmark problems, each of which focused on some aspect of scientific computing. The principal focus was in computational aerophysics, although most of these benchmarks have much broader relevance, since in a much larger sense they are typical of many real-world scientific computing applications. The NPB suite grew out of the …

A major concern in the development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) is achieving and maintaining adequate injectivity, while avoiding the development of preferential short-circuiting flow paths such as those caused by thermally-induced stress cracking. Past researches have tended to focus primarily on thermal and hydraulic stimulation. Recent studies suggest that chemical stimulation may improve the performance of EGS reservoirs. Geothermal injection wells are often drilled into formations containing reactive minerals such as calcite. Injecting aqueous chemical agents such as mineral acids, could be effective for mineral dissolution and porosity enhancement at distances of several meters around a well. An alternative to treatment with strong acids is the use of supercritical (SC) CO{sub 2} as stimulation agent for an aqueous-based EGS. Reactive transport modeling is used to investigate the effectiveness of this method. We used the thermal condition and mineralogical composition from a well of Desert Peak EGS site, to examine ways in which mixtures of water and CO{sub 2} can be injected to enhance porosity.

The focus of this task is to optimize the form and placement of a controller comprising the Grid Friendly™ appliance (GFA) controller, power supply and power relay (and/or a solid-state power electronic switch) that would command a domestic water heater to shed its load in response to stress on the electric power grid. The GFA controller would disconnect the water heater from its supply circuit whenever it senses a low voltage signal or other indicators of system stress communicated via the electric power distribution system. Power would be reconnected to the appliance when the GFA controller senses the absence of these signals. This project has also considered more frequent cycling of this controller’s relay switch to perform demand-side frequency regulation. The principal criteria considered in this optimization are reliability, cost and life expectancy of the GFA components. The alternative embodiments of the GFA equipment under consideration are: Option 1- installation inside the insulation space of the water heater between the tank and jacket Option 2 containment in a separate nearby electrical enclosure Option 3 - as a modification or adjunct to the distribution panel housing and/or the breaker that protects the water heater supply circuit.

The Department of Defense Technical Support Working Group (DoD TSWG) investment in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Security Assessment Simulation Toolkit (SAST) research planted a technology seed that germinated into a suite of follow-on Research and Development (R&D) projects culminating in software that is used by multiple DoD organizations. The DoD TSWG technology transfer goal for SAST is already in progress. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the Defense-wide Information Assurance Program (DIAP), the Marine Corps, Office Of Naval Research (ONR) National Center For Advanced Secure Systems Research (NCASSR) and Office Of Secretary Of Defense International Exercise Program (OSD NII) are currently investing to take SAST to the next level. PNNL currently distributes the software to over 6 government organizations and 30 DoD users. For the past five DoD wide Bulwark Defender exercises, the adoption of this new technology created an expanding role for SAST. In 2009, SAST was also used in the OSD NII International Exercise and is currently scheduled for use in 2010.

Development of cellulosic biofuels from non-food crops is currently an area of intense research interest. Tailoring depolymerizing enzymes to particular feedstocks and pretreatment conditions is one promising avenue of research in this area. Here we added a green-waste compost inoculum to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and simulated thermophilic composting in a bioreactor to select for a switchgrass-adapted community and to facilitate targeted discovery of glycoside hydrolases. Small-subunit (SSU) rRNA-based community profiles revealed that the microbial community changed dramatically between the initial and switchgrass-adapted compost (SAC) with some bacterial populations being enriched over 20-fold. We obtained 225 Mbp of 454-titanium pyrosequence data from the SAC community and conservatively identified 800 genes encoding glycoside hydrolase domains that were biased toward depolymerizing grass cell wall components. Of these, {approx}10% were putative cellulases mostly belonging to families GH5 and GH9. We synthesized two SAC GH9 genes with codon optimization for heterologous expression in Escherichia coli and observed activity for one on carboxymethyl cellulose. The active GH9 enzyme has a temperature optimum of 50 C and pH range of 5.5 to 8 consistent with the composting conditions applied. We demonstrate that microbial communities adapt to switchgrass decomposition using simulated composting condition and that full-length genes can …

Increases in the dimensions of strike-slip faults including fault length, thickness of fault rock and the surrounding damage zone collectively provide quantitative definition of fault growth and are commonly measured in terms of the maximum fault slip. The field observations indicate that a common mechanism for fault growth in the brittle upper crust is fault lengthening by linkage and coalescence of neighboring fault segments or strands, and fault rock-zone widening into highly fractured inner damage zone via cataclastic deformation. The most important underlying mechanical reason in both cases is prior weakening of the rocks surrounding a fault's core and between neighboring fault segments by faulting-related fractures. In this paper, using field observations together with effective medium models, we analyze the reduction in the effective elastic properties of rock in terms of density of the fault-related brittle fractures and fracture intersection angles controlled primarily by the splay angles. Fracture densities or equivalent fracture spacing values corresponding to the vanishing Young's, shear, and quasi-pure shear moduli were obtained by extrapolation from the calculated range of these parameters. The fracture densities or the equivalent spacing values obtained using this method compare well with the field data measured along scan lines across the faults …

Arsenic is a naturally occurring trace element that poses a threat to human and ecosystem health, particularly when incorporated into food or water supplies. The greatest risk imposed by arsenic to human health results from contamination of drinking water, for which the World Health Organization recommends a maximum limit of 10 {micro}g L{sup -1}. Continued ingestion of drinking water having hazardous levels of arsenic can lead to arsenicosis and cancers of the bladder, skin, lungs and kidneys. Unfortunately, arsenic tainted drinking waters are a global threat and presently having a devastating impact on human health within Asia. Nearly 100 million people, for example, are presently consuming drinking water having arsenic concentrations exceeding the World Health Organization's recommended limit (Ahmed et al., 2006). Arsenic contamination of the environment often results from human activities such as mining or pesticide application, but recently natural sources of arsenic have demonstrated a devastating impact on water quality. Arsenic becomes problematic from a health perspective principally when it partitions into the aqueous rather than the solid phase. Dissolved concentrations, and the resulting mobility, of arsenic within soils and sediments are the combined result of biogeochemical processes linked to hydrologic factors. Processes favoring the partitioning of As …

Analysis of compression wave propagation in a poroelastic medium predicts a peak of reflection from a high-permeability layer in the low-frequency end of the spectrum. An explicit formula expresses the resonant frequency through the elastic moduli of the solid skeleton, the permeability of the reservoir rock, the fluid viscosity and compressibility, and the reservoir thickness. This result is obtained through a low-frequency asymptotic analysis of Biot's model of poroelasticity. A review of the derivation of the main equations from the Hooke's law, momentum and mass balance equations, and Darcy's law suggests an alternative new physical interpretation of some coefficients of the classical poroelasticity. The velocity of wave propagation, the attenuation factor, and the wave number, are expressed in the form of power series with respect to a small dimensionless parameter. The absolute value of this parameter is equal to the product of the kinematic reservoir fluid mobility and the wave frequency. Retaining only the leading terms of the series leads to explicit and relatively simple expressions for the reflection and transmission coefficients for a planar wave crossing an interface between two permeable media, as well as wave reflection from a thin highly-permeable layer (a lens). Practical applications of the obtained …

Individual raw data streams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) fixed and mobile sites are collected and sent to the Data Management Facility (DMF) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for processing in near real-time. Raw and processed data then are sent approximately daily to the ACRF Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by 1) individual data stream, site, and month for the current year and 2) site and fiscal year (FY) dating back to 1998.

A continuing goal in catalysis is the transformation of processes from homogeneous to heterogeneous. To this end, nanoparticles represent a new frontier in heterogeneous catalysis, where this conversion is supplemented by the ability to obtain new or divergent reactivity and selectivity. We report a novel method for applying heterogeneous catalysts to known homogeneous catalytic reactions through the design and synthesis of electrophilic platinum nanoparticles. These nanoparticles are selectively oxidized by the hypervalent iodine species PhICl{sub 2}, and catalyze a range of {pi}-bond activation reactions previously only homogeneously catalyzed. Multiple experimental methods are utilized to unambiguously verify the heterogeneity of the catalytic process. The discovery of treatments for nanoparticles that induce the desired homogeneous catalytic activity should lead to the further development of reactions previously inaccessible in heterogeneous catalysis. Furthermore, our size and capping agent study revealed that Pt PAMAM dendrimer-capped nanoparticles demonstrate superior activity and recyclability compared to larger, polymer-capped analogues.

We have conducted experiments on both the Vulcan and Titan laser facilities to study hot electron generation and transport in the context of fast ignition. Cu wires attached to Al cones were used to investigate the effect on coupling efficiency of plasma surround and the pre-formed plasma inside the cone. We found that with thin cones 15% of laser energy is coupled to the 40{micro}m diameter wire emulating a 40{micro}m fast ignition spot. Thick cone walls, simulating plasma in fast ignition, reduce coupling by x4. An increase of prepulse level inside the cone by a factor of 50 reduces coupling by a factor of 3.

Many perceive the implementation of environmental regulatory policy, especially concerning non-point source pollution from irrigated agriculture, as being less efficient in the United States than in many other countries. This is partly a result of the stakeholder involvement process but is also a reflection of the inability to make effective use of Environmental Decision Support Systems (EDSS) to facilitate technical information exchange with stakeholders and to provide a forum for innovative ideas for controlling non-point source pollutant loading. This paper describes one of the success stories where a standardized Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) methodology was modified to better suit regulation of a trace element in agricultural subsurface drainage and information technology was developed to help guide stakeholders, provide assurances to the public and encourage innovation while improving compliance with State water quality objectives. The geographic focus of the paper is the western San Joaquin Valley where, in 1985, evapoconcentration of selenium in agricultural subsurface drainage water, diverted into large ponds within a federal wildlife refuge, caused teratogenecity in waterfowl embryos and in other sensitive wildlife species. The fallout from this environmental disaster was a concerted attempt by State and Federal water agencies to regulate non-point source loads of the trace …

The evaporator recycle streams contain waste in a chemistry and temperature regime that may be outside of the current waste tank corrosion control program, which imposes temperature limits to mitigate caustic stress corrosion cracking (CSCC). A review of the recent service history (1998-2008) of Tanks 30 and 32 showed that these tanks were operated in highly concentrated hydroxide solution at high temperature. Visual inspections, experimental testing, and a review of the tank service history have shown that CSCC has occurred in uncooled/un-stress relieved F-Area tanks. Therefore, for the Type III/IIIA waste tanks the efficacy of the stress relief of welding residual stress is the only corrosion-limiting mechanism. The objective of this experimental program is to test carbon steel small scale welded U-bend specimens and large welded plates (12 x 12 x 1 in.) in a caustic solution with upper bound chemistry (12 M hydroxide and 1 M each of nitrate, nitrite, and aluminate) and temperature (125 C). These conditions simulate worst-case situations in Tanks 30 and 32. Both as-welded and stress-relieved specimens have been tested. No evidence of stress corrosion cracking was found in the U-bend specimens after 21 days of testing. The large plate test is currently in progress, …

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A numerical experiment was carried out to test whether the patchy CO{sub 2} emission patterns observed at the ZERT release facility are caused by the presence of packers that divide the horizontal injection well into six CO2-injection zones. A three-dimensional model of the horizontal well and cobble-soil system was developed and simulations using TOUGH2/EOS7CA were carried out. Simulation results show patchy emissions for the seven-packer (six-injection-zone) configuration of the field test. Numerical experiments were then conducted for the cases of 24 packers (23 injection zones) and an effectively infinite number of packers. The time to surface breakthrough and the number of patches increased as the number of packers increased suggesting that packers and associated along pipe flow are the origin of the patchy emissions. In addition, it was observed that early breakthrough occurs at locations where the horizontal well pipe is shallow and installed mostly in soil rather than the deeper cobble. In the cases where the pipe is installed at shallow depths and directly in the soil, higher pipe gas saturations occur than where the pipe is installed slightly deeper in the cobble. It is believed this is an effect mostly relevant to the model rather than the field …