Argonne National Laboratory (the Contractor) entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the following Participants: Vehicle Recycling Partnership, LLC (VRP, which consists of General Motors [GM], Ford, and Chrysler), and the American Chemistry Council - Plastics Division (ACC-PD). The purpose of this CRADA is to provide for the effective recycling of automotive materials. The long-term goals are to (1) enable the optimum recycling of automotive materials, thereby obviating the need for legislative mandates or directives; (2) enable the recovery of automotive materials in a cost-competitive manner while meeting the performance requirements of the applications and markets for the materials; and (3) remove recycling barriers/reasons, real or perceived, to the use of advanced lightweighting materials or systems in future vehicles. The issues, technical requirements, and cost and institutional considerations in achieving that goal are complex and will require a concerted, focused, and systematic analysis, together with a technology development program. The scope and tasks of this program are derived from 'A Roadmap for Recycling End-of-Life Vehicles of the Future,' prepared in May 2001 for the DOE Office of Energy, Efficiency, and Renewable Energy (EERE)-Vehicle Technologies Program. The objective of this research program is to enable the maximum recycling …

This report discusses issues and provides solutions for dealing with fault current contributions from inverter-based distributed energy resources.

Wind Powering America program launched the New England Wind Forum (NEWF) in 2005 to provide a single comprehensive source of up-to-date, Web-based information on a broad array of wind energy issues pertaining to New England. The NEWF newsletter provides New England stakeholders with updates on wind energy development in the region. In addition to regional updates, Issue #5 offers an interview with Angus King, former governor of Maine and co-founder of Independence Wind.

This report articulates nine mechanisms by which the smart grid can reduce energy use and carbon impacts associated with electricity generation and delivery. The quantitative estimates of potential reductions in electricity sector energy and associated CO2 emissions presented are based on a survey of published results and simple analyses. This report does not attempt to justify the cost effectiveness of the smart grid, which to date has been based primarily upon the twin pillars of cost-effective operation and improved reliability. Rather, it attempts to quantify the additional energy and CO2 emission benefits inherent in the smart grid’s potential contribution to the nation’s goal of mitigating climate change by reducing the carbon footprint of the electric power system.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Bioinformatics group has recently taken on a role in DTRA's Transformation Medical Technologies Initiative (TMTI). The high-level goal of TMTI is to accelerate the development of broad-spectrum countermeasures. To achieve those goals, TMTI has a near term need to conduct analyses of genomic shift and drift trends of emerging pathogens, with a focused eye on select agent pathogens, as well as antibiotic and virulence markers. Most emerging human pathogens are zoonotic viruses with a genome composed of RNA. The high mutation rate of the replication enzymes of RNA viruses contributes to sequence drift and provides one mechanism for these viruses to adapt to diverse hosts (interspecies transmission events) and cause new human and zoonotic diseases. Additionally, new viral pathogens frequently emerge due to genetic shift (recombination and segment reassortment) which allows for dramatic genotypic and phenotypic changes to occur rapidly. Bacterial pathogens also evolve via genetic drift and shift, although sequence drift generally occurs at a much slower rate for bacteria as compared to RNA viruses. However, genetic shift such as lateral gene transfer and inter- and intragenomic recombination enables bacteria to rapidly acquire new mechanisms of survival and antibiotic resistance. New technologies such …

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management conducted annual sampling at the Rulison, Colorado, Site for the Long-Term Hydrologic Monitoring Program (LTHMP) on May 11 and 12, 2009. Samples were analyzed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Radiation&Indoor Environments National Laboratory in Las Vegas, Nevada. Samples were analyzed for gamma-emitting radionuclides by high-resolution gamma spectroscopy and for tritium using the conventional and enriched methods.

The Project Gnome site in southeastern New Mexico was the location of an underground nuclear detonation in 1961 and a hydrologic tracer test using radionuclides in 1963. The tracer test is recognized as having greater radionuclide migration potential than the nuclear test because the tracer test radionuclides (tritium, 90Sr, 131I, and 137Cs) are in direct contact with the Culebra Dolomite aquifer, whereas the nuclear test is within a bedded salt formation. The tracer test is the topic here. Recognizing previous analyses of the fate of the Gnome tracer test contaminants (Pohll and Pohlmann, 1996; Pohlmann and Andricevic, 1994), and the existence of a large body of relevant investigations and analyses associated with the nearby Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site (summarized in US DOE, 2009), the Gnome Site Characterization Work Plan (U.S. DOE, 2002) called for a Data Decision Analysis to determine whether or not additional characterization data are needed prior to evaluating existing subsurface intrusion restrictions and determining long-term monitoring for the tracer test. Specifically, the Work Plan called for the analysis to weigh the potential reduction in uncertainty from additional data collection against the cost of such field efforts.

This dissertation focuses on the development of facile and rapid quantitative Raman spectroscopy measurements for the determination of conversion products in producing bioethanol from corn stover. Raman spectroscopy was chosen to determine glucose, xylose and ethanol in complex hydrolysis and fermentation matrices. Chapter 1 describes the motives and main goals of this work, and includes an introduction to biomass, commonly used pretreatment methods, hydrolysis and fermentation reactions. The principles of Raman spectroscopy, its advantages and applications related to biomass analysis are also illustrated. Chapter 2 and 3 comprise two published or submitted manuscripts, and the thesis concludes with an appendix. In Chapter 2, a Raman spectroscopic protocol is described to study the efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose by measuring the main product in hydrolysate, glucose. Two commonly utilized pretreatment methods were investigated in order to understand their effect on glucose measurements by Raman spectroscopy. Second, a similar method was set up to determine the concentration of ethanol in fermentation broth. Both of these measurements are challenged by the presence of complex matrices. In Chapter 3, a quantitative comparison of pretreatment protocols and the effect of enzyme composition are studied using systematic methods. A multipeak fitting algorithm was developed to …

A sample of Sludge Batch 5 (SB5) was pulled from Tank 40 in order to obtain radionuclide inventory analyses necessary for compliance with the Waste Acceptance Product Specifications (WAPS). This sample was also analyzed for chemical composition including noble metals. Prior to radionuclide inventory analyses, a final sample of the H-canyon Np stream will be added to bound the Np addition anticipated for Tank 40. These analyses along with the WAPS radionuclide analyses will help define the composition of the sludge in Tank 40 that is currently being fed to DWPF as SB5. At the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) the 3-L Tank 40 SB5 sample was transferred from the shipping container into a 4-L high density polyethylene vessel and solids allowed to settle overnight. Supernate was then siphoned off and circulated through the shipping container to complete the transfer of the sample. Following thorough mixing of the 3-L sample, a 239 g sub-sample was removed. This sub-sample was then utilized for all subsequent analytical samples. Eight separate aliquots of the slurry were digested, four with HNO{sub 3}/HCl (aqua regia) in sealed Teflon{reg_sign} vessels and four in Na{sub 2}O{sub 2} (alkali or peroxide fusion) using Zr crucibles. Due to the …

Newsletter published by the Texas Department of Transportation for TxDOT employees including information about the organization, projects throughout the state, and other topics related to transportation in Texas.

Biweekly, comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

This report discusses possible paths toward the modernization of the 911 infrastructure. Efforts to splice newer, digital technologies onto the aging infrastructure have created points of failure where a call can be dropped or misdirected, sometimes with tragic consequences.

The complicated physical phenomena in complex transition-metal oxides (TMO), such as high T_c superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistivity, metal-insulator transitions, etc., have long been the focus of intense inquiry and debate in condensed matter science, since they are related to strong electronic correlations and cannot be explained within the 'standard model' of solid state physics. These novel functionalities of the correlated electron systems have a wide range of potential for applications in industry, such as information storage, energy transportation, and so on. The charge-ordering (CO) transition is very common in TMO and there is a specific CO transition temperature, TCO. Above TCO, the charge is not ordered, which means that the electrons in a compound are itinerant and the positions of the electrons are not fixed. Below TCO, the charge is ordered, which means that the electrons are localized and the positions of the electrons are settled. Hence, the electrical conductivity of a material is changed at TCO and this transition is classified as metal-insulator transition. Usually the CO with commensurate hole doping in TMO is thought to play an important role in various cases, including the superconducting cuprates, where the spin/charge stripe formation competes with superconducting states, colossal magnetoresistive manganites, where …

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.