A description of the DOE Radionuclide Aerosol Sampler/Analyzer for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

Radionuclide monitoring, though slower than vibrational methods of explosion detection, provides a basic and certain component of Comprehensive Test Ban treaty (CTBT) verification. Measurement of aerosol radioactive debris, specifically a suite of short-lived fission products, gives high confidence that a nuclear weapon has been detonated in or vented to the atmosphere. The variable nature of wind-borne transport of the debris requires that many monitoring stations cover the globe to insure a high degree of confidence that tests which vent to the atmosphere will be detected within a reasonable time period. To fulfill the CTBT aerosol measurement requirements, a system has been developed at PNNL to automatically collect and measure radioactive aerosol debris, then communicate spectral data to a central data center. This development has proceeded through several design iterations which began with sufficient measurement capability (<30 μBq/m^{3 140}Ba) and resulted in a system with a minimal footprint (1 m×2 m), minimal power requirement (1600W), and support of network infrastructure needs. The Mark IV prototype (Fig. 1) is currently the subject of an Air Force procurement with private industry to partially fulfill US treaty obligations under the CTBT. It is planned that the system will be available for purchase from a manufacturer in late 1997.     

A theory for the numerical analysis of compound branching

Zusammenfassung Eine allgemeine Theorie zur numerischen Berechnung eines konservativen Systems mitn Freiheitsgraden undm überlagerten Verzweigungspunkten wird dargestellt. Im Unterschied zu früheren Arbeiten wird kein Diagonalisierungsschema der totalen potentiellen Energie benötigt. Ein Störungsschema wird angegeben, umn–m verallgemeinerte Koordinaten mit Hilfe vonn–m Gleichgewichtsbedingungen zu eliminieren. Anschließend wird ein zweites Störungsschema angegeben, um die Ableitungen der 2 ^m –1 möglichen Äste der Last-Verformungskurven, die im kritischen Punkt entspringen, zu bestimmen. Anschließend wird die Theorie auf zweifache kritische Punkte angewendet, die beim Ausbeulen der durch gleichmäßigen Außendruck belasteten vollständigen Kugelschale auftreten.     

Synthesis of the ladybug defensive agents (±)-hippodamine, (±)-convergine, (±)-hippocasine and (±)-hippocasine oxide

The total syntheses of the ladybug defensive agents (±)-hippodamine, (±)-convergine, (±)-hippocasine, and (±)-hippocasine oxide are described starting from perhydroboraphenalene.     

Preliminary investigation of fungal bioprocessing of wheat straw for production of straw-thermoplastic composites

Straw utilization for composites is limited by poor resin and polymer penetration, and excessive resin consumption owing to the straw cuticle, fines, and lignin-hemicellulose matrix. White-rot fungi degrade these components of straw and could, therefore, potentially be used to improve resin penetration and resin binding without the use of physical or chemical pretreatments. Although long treatment times and large footprints the limit use of fungal treatments on a large scale, distributed fungal pretreatments could alleviate land requirements. In this article, we present progress toward the development of a passive fungal straw upgrading system utilizing whiterot fungi.     

The inverse problem of the calculus of variations: The use of geometrical calculus in Douglas's analysis

The main objective of this paper is to work out a full-scale application of the integrability analysis of the inverse problem of the calculus of variations, as developed in recent papers by Sarlet and Crampin. For this purpose, the celebrated work of Douglas on systems with two degrees of freedom is taken as the reference model. It is shown that the coordinate-free, geometrical calculus used in Sarlet and Crampin's general theoretical developments provides effective tools also to do the practical calculations. The result is not only that all subcases distinguished by Douglas can be given a more intrinsic characterization, but also that in most of the cases, the calculations can be carried out in a more efficient way and often lead to sharper conclusions.