The investigation of two poorly understood but technologically important physical properties of silicate glasses and related materials is described. The use of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance to investigate the nature of radiation-induced damage in glasses exposed to a variety of high-energy radiation sources is discussed first. Second, the measurement of the nonlinear index of refraction coefficient in a variety of optical materials related to the design of high-power laser systems is described. The radiation damage investigations rely heavily on the comparison of experimental results for different experimental situations. The comparison of EPR lineshapes, absolute spin densities and power saturation behavior is used to probe a variety of microscopic and macroscopic aspects of radiation damage in glasses. Comparison of radiation damage associated with exposure to gamma rays and fast neutrons (and combinations thereof) are interpreted in terms of the microscopic damage mechanisms which are expected to be associated with the specific radiations. Comparison of radiation damage behavior in different types of glasses is also interpreted in terms of the behavior expected for the specific materials. The body of data which is generated is found to be internally self-consistent and is also generally consistent with the radiation damage behavior expected for specific situations. …

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The Stockpile Stewardship Program is an initiative to maintain the nuclear deterrent of the United States in the post-Cold War era. It is based on the maintenance of our stockpile through an ongoing process of surveillance, assessment, refurbishment, and recertification, without nuclear testing. At the heart of the SSP is an attempt to bring advanced experimental and computational tools to bear on the evaluation and certification of the stockpile itself; these advanced scientific capabilities are necessary because of the cessation of nuclear testing. This science-based approach requires new tools: advanced computers for more detailed 3-D simulations, multi-axis hydrodynamic facilities and plutonium research facilities for physics measurements of primaries, and the National Ignition Facility for fusion burn and high-energy-density science. The science basis requires summing up the pieces we can measure and simulate, which cannot be done without a complete set of tools. Refurbishing weapons with confidence, without testing, is a difficult challenge. Only with high-quality scientists and a complete set of tools, can the US accomplish this program. NIF is a unique element of the Stockpile Stewardship Program because it is the only facility that will allow the experimental study of thermonuclear burn and important regimes of high-energy-density science. Understanding …

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will have many uses besides its primary mission in the US Department of Energy's Stockpile Stewardship Program. It will provide a broad array of applications to basic science, and will also play an important role in the development of commercial fusion energy.

The Department of Energy`s program for disposing of nuclear High-Level Waste (HLW) and transuranic (TRU) waste has been impeded by overwhelming political opposition fueled by public perceptions of actual risk. Analysis of these perceptions shows them to be deeply rooted in images of fear and dread that have been present since the discovery of radioactivity. The development and use of nuclear weapons linked these images to reality and the mishandling of radioactive waste from the nations military weapons facilities has contributed toward creating a state of distrust that cannot be erased quickly or easily. In addition, the analysis indicates that even the highly educated technical community is not well informed on the latest technology involved with nuclear HLW and TRU waste disposal. It is not surprising then, that the general public feels uncomfortable with DOE`s management plans for with nuclear HLW and TRU waste disposal. Postponing the permanent geologic repository and use of Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) would provide the time necessary for difficult social and political issues to be resolved. It would also allow time for the public to become better educated if DOE chooses to become proactive.

The Cloudy Quark Bag Model is extended from S-wave to P- and D-wave. The parameters of the model are determined by K{sup {minus}}p scattering cross section data, K{sup {minus}}p {yields}{Sigma}{pi}{pi}{pi} production data, K{sup {minus}}p threshold branching ratio data, and K{sup {minus}}p {yields}{Lambda}{pi}{pi}{pi} production data. The resonance structure of the {Lambda}(1405), {Sigma}(1385), and {Lambda}(1520) are studied in the model. The shift and width of kaonic hydrogen are calculated using the model.

In the United States we generate greater than 500 million tons of toxic waste per year which pose a threat to human health and the environment. Some of the most toxic of these wastes are those that are radioactively contaminated. This thesis explores the need for permanent disposal facilities to isolate radioactive waste materials that are being stored temporarily, and therefore potentially unsafely, at generating facilities. Because of current controversies involving the interstate transfer of toxic waste, more states are restricting the flow of wastes into - their borders with the resultant outcome of requiring the management (storage and disposal) of wastes generated solely within a state`s boundary to remain there. The purpose of this project is to study nuclear waste storage issues and public perceptions of this important matter. Temporary storage at generating facilities is a cause for safety concerns and underscores, the need for the opening of permanent disposal sites. Political controversies and public concern are forcing states to look within their own borders to find solutions to this difficult problem. Permanent disposal or retrievable storage for radioactive waste may become a necessity in the near future in Colorado. Suitable areas that could support - a nuclear storage/disposal …

Results are presented here from several two dimensional numerical calculations of events in Type II supernovae. A new 2-D hydrodynamics and neutrino transport code has been used to compute the effect on the supernova explosion mechanism of convection between the neutrinosphere and the shock. This convection is referred to as exterior convection to distinguish it from convection beneath the neutrinosphere. The model equations and initial and boundary conditions are presented along with the simulation results. The 2-D code was used to compute an exterior convective velocity to compare with the convective model of the Mayle and Wilson 1-D code. Results are presented from several runs with varying sizes of initial perturbation, as well as a case with no initial perturbation but including the effects of rotation. The M&W code does not produce an explosion using the 2-D convective velocity. Exterior convection enhances the outward propagation of the shock, but not enough to ensure a successful explosion. Analytic estimates of the growth rate of the neutron finger instability axe presented. It is shown that this instability can occur beneath the neutrinosphere of the proto-neutron star in a supernova explosion with a growth time of {approximately} 3 microseconds. The behavior of the …

This report follows the studies on the interactions of antiproton with ordinary matter.

A thesis, Assessing Student Achievement in Art, A Study of The Feasibility of Achievement Testing in Art. Submitted to: The Getty Center for Education in the Arts, The J. Paul Getty Trust by Ralph Hoepfner, Ph.D. The report on feasibility of developing curriculum-fair achievement tests the art on both positive and negative notes. During the 1983-84 school year an achievement test was developed to assess the school children's knowledge.

The inelastic interactions of negative pi mesons with protons at 374, 417, and 454 Mev incident pi kinetic energy are studied by measuring the differential distributions of finalstate neutrons. The pi source is an internal target of the Berkeley 184-inch synchrocyclotron. A magnetic beamtransport system momentum-anaiyzes and focuses the pi beam at a liquid hydrogen target located in an adjacent shielded experimental area. The time-of- flight distribution of neutral particles is measured at various laboratorysystem angles between 10 and 65 deg. Neutral particles are detected by observing the charged products of their interactions in plastic scintillator. The time-of- flight information is determined electronically by time-to-height conversion and pulse-height analysis. The time resolution of the total system is 1.0 nsec. Detected neutral particles accompanied by charged particles are separated by the electronic system from those not accompanied by charged particles. Analysis presuming the principal inelastic reactions to be pi /sup -/p yields pi /sup +/ pi /sup -/n and pi /sup -/p yields pi /sup 0/ pi /sup 0/n separates the time-of-flight spectra into gamma rays, neutrons from the reaction pi /sup -/p yields pi /sup 0/n, and inelastic neutrons. Calculated values of the neutron- detection efficiency are used in the …

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This thesis describes the design, selection and scale model test results of a contour design for a convectively-cooled, ground test nozzle extension which originates at an area ratio of 5:1 (termination point of main nozzle).

The work in this dissertation presents the synthesis of two mixed metal oxides for biofuel applications and NMR characterization of silica materials. In the chapter 2, high catalytic efficiency of calcium silicate is synthesized for transesterfication of soybean oil to biodisels. Chapter 3 describes the synthesis of a new Rh based catalyst on mesoporous manganese oxides. The new catalyst is found to have higher activity and selectivity towards ethanol. Chapter 4 demonstrates the applications of solid-state Si NMR in the silica materials.

The magnetic flux structures in the intermediate state of bulk, pinning-free Type-I superconductors are studied using a high resolution magneto-optical imaging technique. Unlike most previous studies, this work focuses on the pattern formation of the coexisting normal and superconducting phases in the intermediate state. The influence of various parameters such as sample shape, structure defects (pinning) and applied current are discussed in relation to two distinct topologies: flux tubes (closed topology) and laminar (open topology). Imaging and magnetization measurements performed on samples of different shapes (cones, hemispheres and slabs), show that contrary to previous beliefs, the tubular structure is the equilibrium topology, but it is unstable toward defects and flux motion. Moreover, the application of current into a sample with the geometric barrier can replace an established laminar structure with flux tubes. At very high currents, however, there exists a laminar 'stripe pattern.' Quantitative analysis of the mean tube diameter is shown to be in good agreement with the prediction proposed by Goren and Tinkham. This is the first time that this model has been confirmed experimentally. Further research into the flux tube phase shows a direct correlation with the current loop model proposed in the 1990's by Goldstein, Jackson …

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization(MALDI) mass spectrometry(MS) has been widely used for analysis of biological molecules, especially macromolecules such as proteins. However, MALDI MS has a problem in small molecule (less than 1 kDa) analysis because of the signal saturation by organic matrixes in the low mass region. In imaging MS (IMS), inhomogeneous surface formation due to the co-crystallization process by organic MALDI matrixes limits the spatial resolution of the mass spectral image. Therefore, to make laser desorption/ionization (LDI) MS more suitable for mass spectral profiling and imaging of small molecules directly from raw biological tissues, LDI MS protocols with various alternative assisting materials were developed and applied to many biological systems of interest. Colloidal graphite was used as a matrix for IMS of small molecules for the first time and methodologies for analyses of small metabolites in rat brain tissues, fruits, and plant tissues were developed. With rat brain tissues, the signal enhancement for cerebroside species by colloidal graphite was observed and images of cerebrosides were successfully generated by IMS. In addition, separation of isobaric lipid ions was performed by imaging tandem MS. Directly from Arabidopsis flowers, flavonoids were successfully profiled and heterogeneous distribution of flavonoids in petals was observed for …

Surface sensitive synchrotron X-ray scattering studies were performed to obtain the distribution of monovalent ions next to a highly charged interface at room temperature. To control surface charge density, lipids, dihexadecyl hydrogen-phosphate (DHDP) and dimysteroyl phosphatidic acid (DMPA), were spread as monolayer materials at the air/water interface, containing CsI at various concentrations. Five decades in bulk concentrations (CsI) are investigated, demonstrating that the interfacial distribution is strongly dependent on bulk concentration. We show that this is due to the strong binding constant of hydronium H3O+ to the phosphate group, leading to proton-transfer back to the phosphate group and to a reduced surface charge. Using anomalous reflectivity off and at the L3 Cs+ resonance, we provide spatial counterion (Cs+) distributions next to the negatively charged interfaces. The experimental ion distributions are in excellent agreement with a renormalized surface charge Poisson-Boltzmann theory for monovalent ions without fitting parameters or additional assumptions. Energy Scans at four fixed momentum transfers under specular reflectivity conditions near the Cs+ L3 resonance were conducted on 10-3 M CsI with DHDP monolayer materials on the surface. The energy scans exhibit a periodic dependence on photon momentum transfer. The ion distributions obtained from the analysis are in excellent agreement …

This study was undertaken to determine if strontium chloride could be used to create a trans-generational otolith mark in steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss). I completed two strontium injection trials and a survey of juvenile steelhead from various steelhead hatcheries. The two trials measured Sr:Ca ratios in otoliths in response to injections and the survey measured the natural variation in Sr:Ca ratios in otoliths of juvenile hatchery steelhead in response to the natural variation. In 2003, adult female Wallowa River, Oregon O. mykiss, were captured at the hatchery and evenly divided between a control group and two treatment groups. These females received an intraperitoneal injection of 1cc/500 g of body weight of a physiologically isotonic solution (0.9% saline) containing concentrations of 0 (control), 1000, or 5000 parts per million (ppm) of strontium chloride hexahydrate (SrCl{sub 2}* 6H{sub 2}O). Females were housed in a single outdoor tank until spawned artificially, and a distinct external tag identified each female within each treatment group. In 2004, female steelhead were captured throughout the duration of the adult returns to the Umatilla River basin and injected with 0, 1000, 5000, or 20,000-ppm strontium. In both trials, progeny of fish treated with strontium had significantly higher Sr:Ca ratios …

This work focuses on the design and evaluation of the inverted-F, meandering-monopole, and loop antenna geometries. These printed antennas are studied with the goal of identifying which is suitable for use in a miniaturized transceiver design and which has the ability to provide superior performance using minimal Printed Circuit Board (PCB) space. As a result, the main objective is to characterize tradeoffs and identify which antenna provides the best compromise among volume, bandwidth and efficiency. For experimentation purposes, three types of meandering-monopole antenna are examined resulting in five total antennas for the study. The performance of each antenna under study is evaluated based upon return loss, operational bandwidth, and radiation pattern characteristics. For our purposes, return loss is measured using the S11-port reflection coefficient which helps to characterize how well the small antenna is able to be efficiently fed. Operational bandwidth is measured as the frequency range over which the antenna maintains 2:1 Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) or equivalently has 10-dB return loss. Ansoft High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) is used to simulate expected resonant frequency, bandwidth, VSWR, and radiation pattern characteristics. Ansoft HFSS simulation is used to provide a good starting point for antenna design before actual prototype …

Optimization techniques are finding their inroads into the field of nuclear physics calculations where the objective functions are very complex and computationally intensive. A vast space of parameters needs searching to obtain a good match between theoretical (computed) and experimental observables, such as energy levels and spectra. Manual calculation defies the scope of such complex calculation and are prone to error at the same time. This body of work attempts to formulate a design and implement it which would integrate the ab initio nuclear physics code MFDn and the VTDIRECT95 code. VTDIRECT95 is a Fortran95 suite of parallel code implementing the derivative-free optimization algorithm DIRECT. Proposed design is implemented for a serial and parallel version of the optimization technique. Experiment with the initial implementation of the design showing good matches for several single-nucleus cases are conducted. Determination and assignment of appropriate number of processors for parallel integration code is implemented to increase the efficiency and resource utilization in the case of multiple nuclei parameter search.

Various single-molecule techniques were utilized for ultra-sensitive early diagnosis of viral DNA and antigen and basic mechanism study of enzymatic reactions. DNA of human papilloma virus (HPV) served as the screening target in a flow system. Alexa Fluor 532 (AF532) labeled single-stranded DNA probes were hybridized to the target HPV-16 DNA in solution. The individual hybridized molecules were imaged with an intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD) in two ways. In the single-color mode, target molecules were detected via fluorescence from hybridized probes only. This system could detect HPV-16 DNA in the presence of human genomic DNA down to 0.7 copy/cell and had a linear dynamic range of over 6 orders of magnitude. In the dual-color mode, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was employed to achieve zero false-positive count. We also showed that DNA extracts from Pap test specimens did not interfere with the system. A surface-based method was used to improve the throughput of the flow system. HPV-16 DNA was hybridized to probes on a glass surface and detected with a total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscope. In the single-probe mode, the whole genome and target DNA were fluorescently labeled before hybridization, and the detection limit is similar to the flow …

Remarkable advances have been made since rapid solidification was first introduced to the field of materials science and technology. New types of materials such as amorphous alloys and nanostructure materials have been developed as a result of rapid solidification techniques. While these advances are, in many respects, ground breaking, much remains to be discerned concerning the fundamental relationships that exist between a liquid and a rapidly solidified solid. The scope of the current dissertation involves an extensive set of experimental, analytical, and computational studies designed to increase the overall understanding of morphological selection, phase competition, and structural hierarchy that occurs under far-from equilibrium conditions. High pressure gas atomization and Cu-block melt-spinning are the two different rapid solidification techniques applied in this study. The research is mainly focused on Al-Si and Al-Sm alloy systems. Silicon and samarium produce different, yet favorable, systems for exploration when alloyed with aluminum under far-from equilibrium conditions. One of the main differences comes from the positions of their respective T{sub 0} curves, which makes Al-Si a good candidate for solubility extension while the plunging T{sub 0} line in Al-Sm promotes glass formation. The rapidly solidified gas-atomized Al-Si powders within a composition range of 15 to 50 …

The utility of the TDR as an instrument in the study of magnetically ordered materials has been expanded beyond the simple demonstration purposes. Results of static applied magnetic field dependent measurements of the dynamic magnetic susceptibility, ?, of various ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials showing a range of transition temperatures (1-800 K) are presented. Data was collected primarily with a tunnel diode resonator (TDR) at different radio-frequencies ({approx}10-30 MHz). In the vicinity of TC local moment ferromagnets show a very sharp, narrow peak in ? which is suppressed in amplitude and shifted to higher temperatures as the static bias field is increased. Unexpectedly, critical scaling analysis fails for these data. It is seen that these data are frequency dependent, however there is no simple method whereby measurement frequency can be changed in a controllable fashion. In contrast, itinerant ferromagnets show a broad maximum in ? well below TC which is suppressed and shifts to lower temperatures as the dc bias field is increased. The data on itinerant ferromagnets is fitted to a semi-phenomenological model that suggests the sample response is dominated by the uncompensated minority spins in the conduction band. Concluding remarks suggest possible scenarios to achieve frequency resolved …

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