Efficient Separations and Processing Crosscutting Program: Develop and test sorbents. Fiscal year 1996 annual progress report, October 1, 1995--September 30, 1996

Ion exchange removal of Cs, Sr, Tc, TRU, etc. has been proposed for minimizing the amount of HLW at Hanford. Purpose of this project is to test sequestering agents and substrates in representative physical/chemical/radiation environments. A small pilot-scale skid system was built. 7 ion exchange materials (CS-100, R-F, SuperLig 644, IE-911, TIE-96, NaTi) were evaluated for pretreatment of actual/simulated Hanford DSSF tank waste. An onsite technology demonstration was done at Hanford 100-N Area N-Springs. A second PADU test demonstrated the 3M web technology for radioactive Cs and Sr decontamination of 105-N-Reactor basin. Other collaborative efforts between PNNL and industry/university participants are reported

Managing rapport in intercultural business interactions: a comparison of two Chinese-British welcome meetings

This paper explores the management of rapport in intercultural business interactions. It compares two Chinese-British business welcome meetings that were held by the same British company. Despite many similarities between the two meetings, both the British and the Chinese were very satisfied with the first meeting, while the Chinese were very annoyed by the second. This paper describes the similarities and differences between the two meetings, and explores why they were evaluated so differently. It argues that research into the management of relations in intercultural communication needs to use a broader analytic framework than is typical of intercultural discourse research, and that it needs to gather a wider range of data types

Soil Quality and Region Influence Performance and Ranking of Switchgrass Genotypes

Development of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) as a dedicated bioenergy feedstock requires intensive and extensive breeding programs that include careful and thoughtful consideration of appropriate target populations of environments (TPEs). The purpose of this study was to evaluate region (climate), soil quality, and N fertilization level as potential factors influencing the choice of TPE. A total of 45 switchgrass genotypes were evaluated in uniform field studies at six field sites defined as prime or marginal soils in New Jersey, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Region and soil quality had strong interactions with genotype, but N fertilization had little impact on genetic variation or ranking of genotypes. Lowland genotypes were considerably more sensitive than upland genotypes to interactions with environmental factors, probably due to these field sites being outside of the traditional lowland adaptation zones. Genotype rankings were highly inconsistent across regions and soil types, indicating that breeding programs that target marginal soils should be located on soils that represent the appropriate TPE. Furthermore, interactions across the three regions suggest that breeding programs for the lowland ecotype should be subdivided into different sets of TPEs, which are largely a function of hardiness zone and annual precipitation. Lastly, even with negligible interactions involving N fertilization level, future definitions of TPEs should be based on minimal or no N fertilizer applications to allow breeders to select plants with greater N-use efficiency, N-scavenging ability, and N-recycling efficiency

Amplitude Zeros in Radiative Decays of Scalar Particles

We study amplitude zeros in radiative decay processes with a photon or a gluon emission of all possible scalar particles(e.g. scalar leptoquarks) which may interact with the usual fermions in models beyond the standard model. For the decays with a photon emission, the amplitudes clearly exhibit the factorization property and the differential decay rates vanish at specific values of a certain variable which are determined only by the electric charges of the particles involved and independent of the particle masses and the various couplings. For the decays with a gluon emission, even though the zeros are washed away, the differential decay rates still have distinct minima. The branching ratios as a function of leptoquark masses are presented for the scalar leptoquark decays. We also comment on the decays of vector particles into two fermions and a photon.Comment: Revtex, 17 pages + 6 figures (available upon request), Preprint, OITS559. Several typos with tex file were correcte

Semi-leptonic decays of heavy mesons and the Isgur-Wise function in quenched lattice QCD

The form factors for the semi-leptonic B->D and B->D* decays are evaluated in quenched lattice QCD at two different values of the coupling, beta=6.0 and 6.2. The action and the operators are fully O(a) non-perturbatively improved. The slope of the Isgur-Wise function is evaluated, and found to be rho^2=0.83^{+15+24}_{-11-1} (quoted errors are statistical and systematic respectively). Ratios of form factors are evaluated and compared to experimental determinations.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figure

The Fall of Stringy de Sitter

Kachru, Kallosh, Linde, & Trivedi recently constructed a four-dimensional de Sitter compactification of IIB string theory, which they showed to be metastable in agreement with general arguments about de Sitter spacetimes in quantum gravity. In this paper, we describe how discrete flux choices lead to a closely-spaced set of vacua and explore various decay channels. We find that in many situations NS5-brane meditated decays which exchange NSNS 3-form flux for D3-branes are comparatively very fast.Comment: 35 pp (11 pp appendices), 5 figures, v3. fixed minor typo

Chemical derivation to enhance the chemical/oxidative stability of resorcinol-formaldehyde (R-F) resin

Tank wastes at Hanford and SRS contain highly alkaline supernate solutions of conc. Na, K nitrates with large amounts of {sup 137}Cs. It is desirable to remove and concentrate the highly radioactive fraction for vitrification. One candidate ion exchange material for removing the radiocesium is R-F resin. This report summarizes studies into synthesis and characterization of 4-derivatized R-F resins prepared in pursuit of more chemically/oxidatively robust resin. 85% 4-fluororesorcinol/15% phenol formaldehyde resin appears to have good stability in alkaline solution, although there may be some nucleophilic displacement reaction during synthesis; further studies are needed

The trans-activation domain of the sporulation response regulator Spo0A revealed by X-ray crystallography

Sporulation in Bacillus involves the induction of scores of genes in a temporally and spatially co-ordinated programme of cell development. Its initiation is under the control of an expanded two-component signal transduction system termed a phosphorelay. The master control element in the decision to sporulate is the response regulator, Spo0A, which comprises a receiver or phosphoacceptor domain and an effector or transcription activation domain. The receiver domain of Spo0A shares sequence similarity with numerous response regulators, and its structure has been determined in phosphorylated and unphosphorylated forms. However, the effector domain (C-Spo0A) has no detectable sequence similarity to any other protein, and this lack of structural information is an obstacle to understanding how DNA binding and transcription activation are controlled by phosphorylation in Spo0A. Here, we report the crystal structure of C-Spo0A from Bacillus stearothermophilus revealing a single alpha -helical domain comprising six alpha -helices in an unprecedented fold. The structure contains a helix-turn-helix as part of a three alpha -helical bundle reminiscent of the catabolite gene activator protein (CAP), suggesting a mechanism for DNA binding. The residues implicated in forming the sigma (A)-activating region clearly cluster in a flexible segment of the polypeptide on the opposite side of the structure from that predicted to interact with DNA. The structural results are discussed in the context of the rich array of existing mutational data

A Comparison of Cognitive Function in Former Rugby Union Players Compared with Former Non-Contact-Sport Players and the Impact of Concussion History

Aim: This study investigated differences in cognitive function between former rugby and non-contact-sport players, and assessed the association between concussion history and cognitive function. Methods: Overall, 366 former players (mean ± standard deviation [SD] age 43.3 ± 8.2 years) were recruited from October 2012 to April 2014. Engagement in sport, general health, sports injuries and concussion history, and demographic information were obtained from an online self-report questionnaire. Cognitive functioning was assessed using the online CNS Vital Signs neuropsychological test battery. Cohen’s d effect size statistics were calculated for comparisons across player groups, concussion groups (one or more self-reported concussions versus no concussions) and between those groups with CNS Vital Signs age-matched norms (US norms). Individual differences within groups were represented as SDs. Results: The elite-rugby group (n = 103) performed worse on tests of complex attention, processing speed, executive functioning, and cognitive flexibility than the non-contact-sport group (n = 65), and worse than the community-rugby group (n = 193) on complex attention. The community-rugby group performed worse than the non-contact group on executive functioning and cognitive flexibility. Compared with US norms, all three former player groups performed worse on verbal memory and reaction time; rugby groups performed worse on processing speed, cognitive flexibility and executive functioning; and the community-rugby group performed worse on composite memory. The community-rugby group and non-contact-sport group performed slightly better than US norms on complex attention, as did the elite-rugby group for motor speed. All three player groups had greater individual differences than US norms on composite memory, verbal memory and reaction time. The elite-rugby group had greater individual differences on processing speed and complex attention, and the community-rugby group had greater individual differences on psychomotor speed and motor speed. The average number of concussions recalled per player was greater for elite rugby and community rugby than non-contact sport. Former players who recalled one or more concussions (elite rugby, 85 %; community rugby, 77 %; non-contact sport, 23 %) had worse scores on cognitive flexibility, executive functioning, and complex attention than players who did not recall experiencing a concussion. Conclusions: Past participation in rugby or a history of concussion were associated with small to moderate neurocognitive deficits (as indicated by worse CNS Vital Signs scores) in athletes post retirement from competitive sport

The effects of counterion exchange on charge stabilization for anionic surfactants in nonpolar solvents.

HYPOTHESIS: Sodium dioctylsulfosuccinate (Aerosol OT or NaAOT) is a well-studied charging agent for model poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) latexes dispersed in nonpolar alkane solvents. Despite this, few controlled variations have been made to the molecular structure. A series of counterion-exchanged analogs of NaAOT with other alkali metals (lithium, potassium, rubidium, and cesium) were prepared, and it was expected that this should influence the stabilization of charge on PMMA latexes and the properties of the inverse micelles. EXPERIMENTS: The electrophoretic mobilities of PMMA latexes were measured for all the counterion-exchanged AOT analogs, and these values were used to calculate the electrokinetic or ζ potentials. This enabled a comparison of the efficacy of the different surfactants as charging agents. Small-angle scattering measurements (using neutrons and X-rays) were performed to determine the structure of the inverse micelles, and electrical conductivity measurements were performed to determine the ionized fractions and Debye lengths. FINDINGS: Sodium AOT is a much more effective charging agent than any of the other alkali metal AOTs. Despite this, the inverse micelle size and electrical conductivity of NaAOT are unremarkable. This shows a significant non-periodicity in the charging efficiency of these surfactants, and it emphasizes that charging particles in nonpolar solvents is a complex phenomenon