The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) was established in 1969 and began operations in 1971 as a development agency to promote and assist U.S. business investment in developing nations. Today, OPIC is a U.S. government agency that provides project financing, investment insurance, and other services for U.S. businesses in over 150 developing nations and emerging economies. To date, OPIC has funded, guaranteed, or insured over $180 billion in investments.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

This report provides a history and overview of the the Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA) and examines spending patterns in the 109th Congress (2005 and 2006), the two most recent years for which all billing is complete and spending amounts have been finalized, since late-arriving bills may be paid for up to two years following the end of the MRA year.

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Initial delivery for mathematical analysis of the Omega Ontology. We provide an analysis of the hierarchical structure of a version of the Omega Ontology currently in use within the US Government. After providing an initial statistical analysis of the distribution of all link types in the ontology, we then provide a detailed order theoretical analysis of each of the four main hierarchical links present. This order theoretical analysis includes the distribution of components and their properties, their parent/child and multiple inheritance structure, and the distribution of their vertical ranks.

Electromigration-induced hydrostatic elastic stress in Pb-free SnCu solder joints was studied by in situ synchrotron X-ray white beam microdiffraction. The elastic stresses in two different grains with similar crystallographic orientation, one located at the anode end and the other at the cathode end, were analyzed based on the elastic anisotropy of the Beta-Sn crystal structure. The stress in the grain at the cathode end remained constant except for temperature fluctuations, while the compressive stress in the grain at the anode end was built-up as a function of time during electromigration until a steady state was reached. The measured compressive stress gradient between the cathode and the anode is much larger than what is needed to initiate Sn whisker growth. The effective charge number of Beta-Sn derived from the electromigration data is in good agreement with the calculated value.

The Distromet disdrometer model RD-80 and NovaLynx tipping bucket rain gauge model 260-2500E-12 are two devices deployed a few meters apart to measure the character and amount of liquid precipitation. The main purpose of the disdrometer is to measure drop size distribution, which it does over 20 size classes from 0.3 mm to 5.4 mm. The data from both instruments can be used to determine rain rate. The disdrometer results can also be used to infer several properties including drop number density, radar reflectivity, liquid water content, and energy flux. Two coefficients, N0 and Λ, from an exponential fit between drop diameter and drop number density, are routinely calculated. Data are collected once a minute. The instruments make completely different kinds of measurements. Rain that falls on the disdrometer sensor moves a plunger on a vertical axis. The disdrometer transforms the plunger motion into electrical impulses whose strength is proportional to drop diameter. The rain gauge is the conventional tipping bucket type. Each tip collects an amount equivalent to 0.01 in. of water, and each tip is counted by a data acquisition system anchored by a Campbell CR1000 data logger.

This report describes method development and preliminary evaluation for analyzing castor samples for signatures of purifying ricin. Ricin purification from the source castor seeds is essentially a problem of protein purification using common biochemical methods. Indications of protein purification will likely manifest themselves as removal of the non-protein fractions of the seed. Two major, non-protein, types of biochemical constituents in the seed are the castor oil and various carbohydrates. The oil comprises roughly half the seed weight while the carbohydrate component comprises roughly half of the remaining “mash” left after oil and hull removal. Different castor oil and carbohydrate components can serve as indicators of specific toxin processing steps. Ricinoleic acid is a relatively unique fatty acid in nature and is the most abundant component of castor oil. The loss of ricinoleic acid indicates a step to remove oil from the seeds. The relative amounts of carbohydrates and carbohydrate-like compounds, including arabinose, xylose, myo-inositol fucose, rhamnose, glucosamine and mannose detected in the sample can also indicate specific processing steps. For instance, the differential loss of arabinose relative to mannose and N-acetyl glucosamine indicates enrichment for the protein fraction of the seed using protein precipitation. The methods developed in this project …

An email correspondence between Daniel Graney and Allen J. Daniels discussing the next Treasurer of the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus.

Email between Daniel Graney to Al Daniels on December 1, 2009 discussing Shaun Nelson's contact information.

Email correspondence between Daniel Graney, Kaye Gooch, Erin Moore, and Al Daniels on December 1, 2009, discussing Shaun Nelson as a candidate for TSDC Treasurer.

A novel neutron source comprising of a deuterium beam (energy of about 100 KeV) injected into a tube filled with tritium gas and/or tritium plasma that generates D-T fusion reactions, whose products are 14.06 MeV neutrons and 3.52 MeV alpha particles, is described. At the opposite end of the tube, the energy of deuterium ions that did not interact is recovered. Beryllium walls of proper thickness can be utilized to absorb 14 MeV neutrons and release 2-3 low energy neutrons. Each ion source and tube forms a module. Larger systems can be formed from multiple units. Unlike currently proposed methods, where accelerator-based neutron sources are very expensive, large, and require large amounts of power for operation, this neutron source is compact, inexpensive, easy to test and to scale up. Among possible applications for this neutron source concept are sub-critical nuclear breeder reactors and transmutation of radioactive waste.

This thesis presents a measurement of the top quark mass obtained from p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron using the CDF II detector. The measurement uses a matrix element integration method to calculate a t{bar t} likelihood, employing a Quasi-Monte Carlo integration, which enables us to take into account effects due to finite detector angular resolution and quark mass effects. We calculate a t{bar t} likelihood as a 2-D function of the top pole mass m{sub t} and {Delta}{sub JES}, where {Delta}{sub JES} parameterizes the uncertainty in our knowledge of the jet energy scale; it is a shift applied to all jet energies in units of the jet-dependent systematic error. By introducing {Delta}{sub JES} into the likelihood, we can use the information contained in W boson decays to constrain {Delta}{sub JES} and reduce error due to this uncertainty. We use a neural network discriminant to identify events likely to be background, and apply a cut on the peak value of individual event likelihoods to reduce the effect of badly reconstructed events. This measurement uses a total of 4.3 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity, requiring events with a lepton, large E{sub T}, and exactly four …

Document features photos and specs on the model year 2010 alternative fuel vehicles.

This paper compares the performance of the Active Well Coincidence Counter (AWCC) with the performance of high resolution gamma spectrometry using an HPGe detector to nondestructively assay highly enriched (HEU) oxide. Traditionally the AWCC was considered to be the more appropriate instrument for this measurement. Although the AWCC had a high degree of precision, the HPGe provided the more accurate measurement of this material. The AWCC determines mass of U-235 from the coincident pairs of neutron detections, or doubles rate. The HPGe determines the mass of both U-235 and U238, the enrichment, and the quantity of other radioisotopes. The Tl-208 gamma rays were used to verify the amount of attenuation for the HPGe analysis. Fifty-four cans of enriched U3O8 were shipped to the Y-12 National Security Complex from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) under Scrap Declaration LANL-45. The declared values for net weight, mass of uranium, mass of U-235, and enrichment (percent mass of U-235 to total uranium) are shown in Table A-1. The masses of U-235 range from 104g to 2404g and the enrichment varies from 20% to 98%.

The Jobs and Economic Development Impact (JEDI) models are user-friendly tools that estimate the economic impacts of constructing and operating power generation and biofuel plants at the local (usually state) level. First developed by NREL's Wind Powering America program to model wind energy jobs and impacts, JEDI has been expanded to biofuels, concentrating solar power, coal, and natural gas power plants. Based on project-specific and default inputs (derived from industry norms), JEDI estimates the number of jobs and economic impacts to a local area (usually a state) that could reasonably be supported by a power generation project. For example, JEDI estimates the number of in-state construction jobs from a new wind farm. This fact sheet provides an overview of the JEDI model as it pertains to wind energy projects.

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December 2009 update report offered by the Interagency Sustainability Working Group (ISWG). This report is updated bi-annually.

Case study overview of the U.S. Army Fort Huachuca water awareness practice as part of FEMP's water efficiency best management practice series.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was enacted on February 17, 2009, to jumpstart the economy by creating or saving millions of jobs, spurring technological advances in health and science, and investing in the Nation's energy future. The Department of Energy received over $32.7 billion in Recovery Act funding for various science, energy, and environmental programs and initiatives. As of November 2009, the Department had obligated $18.3 billion of the Recovery Act funding, but only $1.4 billion had been spent. The Department's Offices of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fossil Energy, Environmental Management, Science, and Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability received the majority of funding allocated to the Department, about $32.3 billion. Obligating these funds by the end of Fiscal Year 2010, as required by the Recovery Act, and overseeing their effective use in succeeding years, represents a massive workload increase for the Department's programs. The effort to date has strained existing resources. As has been widely acknowledged, any effort to disburse massive additional funding and to expeditiously initiate and complete projects increases the risk of fraud, waste and abuse. It is, therefore, important for the Department's program offices to assess and mitigate these risks to …

This test was conducted as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Independent Testing project. It is a power performance test that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted on the Gaia-Wind 11-kW small wind turbine.

The purpose of this paper is to (1) document the definition of defense-in-depth and the pproach that will be used to assure that its principles are satisfied for the NGNP project and (2) identify the specific questions proposed for preapplication discussions with the NRC. Defense-in-depth is a safety philosophy in which multiple lines of defense and conservative design and evaluation methods are applied to assure the safety of the public. The philosophy is also intended to deliver a design that is tolerant to uncertainties in knowledge of plant behavior, component reliability or operator performance that might compromise safety. This paper includes a review of the regulatory foundation for defense-in-depth, a definition of defense-in-depth that is appropriate for advanced reactor designs based on High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) technology, and an explanation of how this safety philosophy is achieved in the NGNP.