The Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) is a recognized third-party certification of worker safety and health program excellence, based on industry best practices that focus on management leadership and employee involvement, as well as other safety and health program elements. This Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) VPP Program Evaluation is the FY-2008 report of the PNNL VPP Steering Committee regarding the status of VPP at PNNL. It is an update of the previous annual report dated January, 2007 and was completed in January 2008. An annual evaluation of the status of VPP is required of all sites that participate in the DOE-VPP. This report provides a detailed summary of the PNNL VPP Steering Committee’s evaluation of program performance and documents both strengths and improvement opportunities related to the various aspects of the VPP model.

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We report the complete genome of Thermofilum pendens, a deep-branching, hyperthermophilic member of the order Thermoproteales within the archaeal kingdom Crenarchaeota. T. pendens is a sulfur-dependent, anaerobic heterotroph isolated from a solfatara in Iceland. It is an extracellular commensal, requiring an extract of Thermoproteus tenax for growth, and the genome sequence reveals that biosynthetic pathways for purines, most amino acids, and most cofactors are absent. In fact T. pendens has fewer biosynthetic enzymes than obligate intracellular parasites, although it does not display other features common among obligate parasites and thus does not appear to be in the process of becoming a parasite. It appears that T. pendens has adapted to life in an environment rich in nutrients. T. pendens was known to utilize peptides as an energy source, but the genome reveals substantial ability to grow on carbohydrates. T. pendens is the first crenarchaeote and only the second archaeon found to have a transporter of the phosphotransferase system. In addition to fermentation, T. pendens may gain energy from sulfur reduction with hydrogen and formate as electron donors. It may also be capable of sulfur-independent growth on formate with formate hydrogenlyase. Additional novel features are the presence of a monomethylamine:corrinoid methyltransferase, …

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has developed a spreadsheet model to provide insight as to how its research activities can impact of cost of producing power from geothermal energy. This model is referred to as GETEM, which stands for “Geothermal Electricity Technologies Evaluation Model”. Based on user input, the model develops estimates of costs associated with exploration, well field development, and power plant construction that are used along with estimated operating costs to provide a predicted power generation cost. The model allows the user to evaluate how reductions in cost, or increases in performance or productivity will impact the predicted power generation cost. This feature provides a means of determining how specific technology improvements can impact generation costs, and as such assists DOE in both prioritizing research areas and identifying where research is needed.

This report presents the 2007 groundwater monitoring results collected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management (LM) at the Project Shoal Area (PSA) Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 447 located in Churchill County, Nevada. Responsibility for the environmental site restoration of the PSA was transferred from the DOE Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) to DOE-LM on October 1, 2006. Requirements for CAU 447, as specified in the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO 2005) entered into by DOE, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), and the State of Nevada, includes groundwater monitoring in support of site closure. This is the first groundwater monitoring report prepared by DOE-LM for the PSA.

This document provides general guidance for the design and analysis of bolted joint connections. An overview of the current methods used to analyze bolted joint connections is given. Several methods for the design and analysis of bolted joint connections are presented. Guidance is provided for general bolted joint design, computation of preload uncertainty and preload loss, and the calculation of the bolted joint factor of safety. Axial loads, shear loads, thermal loads, and thread tear out are used in factor of safety calculations. Additionally, limited guidance is provided for fatigue considerations. An overview of an associated Mathcad{copyright} Worksheet containing all bolted joint design formulae presented is also provided.

Environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site and surrounding areas is conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy. Sampling is conducted to evaluate levels of radioactive and nonradioactive pollutants in the Hanford environs, as required in DOE Order 450.1, "Environmental Protection Program," and DOE Order 5400.5, "Radiation Protection of the Public and the Environment." The environmental surveillance sampling design is described in the "Hanford Site Environmental Monitoring Plan, United States Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office." This document contains the calendar year 2008 schedule for the routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project and Drinking Water Monitoring Project. Each section includes sampling locations, sampling frequencies, sample types, and analyses to be performed. In some cases, samples are scheduled on a rotating basis. If a sample will not be collected in 2008, the anticipated year for collection is provided. Maps showing approximate sampling locations are included for media scheduled for collection in 2008.

For heat-loss testing on two Solel UVAC3 parabolic trough receivers, a correlation developed predicts receiver heat loss as a function of the difference between avg absorber and ambient temperatures.

We study constraint satisfaction problems on the so-called planted random ensemble. We show that for a certain class of problems, e.g., graph coloring, many of the properties of the usual random ensemble are quantitatively identical in the planted random ensemble. We study the structural phase transitions and the easy-hard-easy pattern in the average computational complexity. We also discuss the finite temperature phase diagram, finding a close connection with the liquid-glass-solid phenomenology.

We present an algorithmic framework for hierarchical image segmentation and feature extraction. We build a successive fine-to-coarse hierarchy of irregular polygonal partitions of the original image. This multiscale hierarchy forms the basis for object-oriented image analysis. The framework incorporates the Gestalt principles of visual perception, such as proximity and closure, and exploits spectral and textural similarities of polygonal partitions, while iteratively grouping them until dissimilarity criteria are exceeded. Seed polygons are built upon a triangular mesh composed of irregular sized triangles, whose spatial arrangement is adapted to the image content. This is achieved by building the triangular mesh on the top of detected spectral discontinuities (such as edges), which form a network of constraints for the Delaunay triangulation. The image is then represented as a spatial network in the form of a graph with vertices corresponding to the polygonal partitions and edges reflecting their relations. The iterative agglomeration of partitions into object-oriented segments is formulated as Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) construction. An important characteristic of the approach is that the agglomeration of polygonal partitions is constrained by the detected edges; thus the shapes of agglomerated partitions are more likely to correspond to the outlines of real-world objects. The constructed partitions …

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We have proposed and demonstrated MEMS switching devices that take advantage of the dynamic behavior of the MEMS devices to provide lower voltage actuation and higher switching speeds. We have explored the theory behind these switching techniques and have demonstrated these techniques in a range of devices including MEMS micromirror devices and in-plane parallel plate MEMS switches. In both devices we have demonstrated switching speeds under one microsecond which has essentially been a firm limit in MEMS switching. We also developed low-loss silicon waveguide technology and the ability to incorporate high-permittivity dielectric materials with MEMS. The successful development of these technologies have generated a number of new projects and have increased both the MEMS switching and optics capabilities of Sandia National Laboratories.

Algorithms for subtype classification and breakpoint detection of HIV-I sequences are based on a classification system of HIV-l. Hence, their quality highly depend on this system. Due to the history of creation of the current HIV-I nomenclature, the current one contains inconsistencies like: The phylogenetic distance between the subtype B and D is remarkably small compared with other pairs of subtypes. In fact, it is more like the distance of a pair of subsubtypes Robertson et al. (2000); Subtypes E and I do not exist any more since they were discovered to be composed of recombinants Robertson et al. (2000); It is currently discussed whether -- instead of CRF02 being a recombinant of subtype A and G -- subtype G should be designated as a circulating recombination form (CRF) nd CRF02 as a subtype Abecasis et al. (2007); There are 8 complete and over 400 partial HIV genomes in the LANL-database which belong neither to a subtype nor to a CRF (denoted by U). Moreover, the current classification system is somehow arbitrary like all complex classification systems that were created manually. To this end, it is desirable to deduce the classification system of HIV systematically by an algorithm. Of course, …

The Tevatron Run-II began in March 2001. To date, both the CDF and D0 experiments have collected 1 fb{sup -1} of data each. The results obtained from this data set were summarized at this conference in 39 parallel session presentations covering a wide range of topics. The author summarizes the most important of those results here and comments on some of the prospects for the future.

Human APOBEC3G (hA3G) is an innate virus restriction factor that induces deamination of specific cytidine residues in single-stranded human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) DNA. Whereas destructive hA3G editing leads to a profound loss of HIV-1 infectivity, more limited editing could be a source of adaptation and diversification. Here we show that the presence of hA3G in T-cells can drive the development of diversity in HIV-1 populations and that under selection pressure imposed by the nucleotide analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor 3TC ((-)2',3'-dideoxy-3'-thiacytidine), a single point mutation that confers 3TC resistance, methionine 184 to isoleucine (M1841), emerges rapidly and reaches fixation. These results provide strong evidence that mutation by hA3G is an important source of genetic variation on which natural selection acts to shape the structure of the viral population and drive the tempo of HIV-1 evolution.

One of the current major challenges in scientific modeling and simulation, in particular in the infrastructure-analysis community, is the development of techniques for efficiently and automatically coupling disparate tools that exist in separate locations on different platforms, implemented in a variety of languages and designed to be standalone. Recent advances in web-based platforms for integrating systems such as SOA provide an opportunity to address these challenges in a systematic fashion. This paper describes Hydra, an integrating architecture for infrastructure modeling and simulation that defines geography-based schemas that, when used to wrap existing tools as web services, allow for seamless plug-and-play composability. Existing users of these tools can enhance the value of their analysis by assessing how the simulations of one tool impact the behavior of another tool and can automate existing ad hoc processes and work flows for integrating tools together.

The alarming rate at which atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are increasing due to the burning of fossil fuels will have incalculable consequences if disregarded. Fuel cells, a source of energy that does not add to carbon dioxide emissions, have become an important topic of study. Although signifi cant advances have been made related to fuel cells, the problem of cheap and renewable hydrogen production still remains. The cyanobacterium Plectonema boryanum has demonstrated potential as a resolution to this problem by producing hydrogen under nitrogen defi cient growing conditions. Plectonema boryanum cultures were tested in a series of experiments to determine the effects of light intensity, initial nitrate concentration, and photosystem II inhibitor DCMU (3-(3,4- dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea) upon hydrogen production. Cultures were grown in sterile Chu. No. 10 medium within photobioreactors constantly illuminated by halogen lights. Because the enzyme responsible for hydrogen production is sensitive to oxygen, the medium was continuously sparged with argon/CO2 (99.7%/0.3% vol/vol) by gas dispersion tubes immersed in the culture. Hydrogen production was monitored by using a gas chromatograph equipped with a thermal conductivity detector. In the initial experiment, the effects of initial nitrate concentration were tested and results revealed cumulative hydrogen production was maximum at an initial …

We calculate the exclusion region in the parameter space of {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub e} oscillations of the LSND type using a combined fit to the reconstructed energy distributions of neutrino candidate samples from the MiniBooNE data obtained with two different particle identification methods. The two {nu}{sub e} candidate samples are included together with a high statistics sample of {nu}{sub {mu}} events in the definition of a {chi}{sup 2} statistic which includes the correlations between the energy intervals of all three samples and handles the event overlap between the {nu}{sub e} samples. The {nu}{sub {mu}} sample is introduced to constrain the effect of systematic uncertainties. This analysis increases the exclusion limit in the region {Delta}m{sup 2} {approx}< 1eV{sup 2} when compared with the result previously published by the collaboration, which used a different technique.

Accurate classification of HIV and the identification of recombinants, including precise breakpoint definitions, is of crucial importance for epidemiological monitoring and the design of potential drugs. Recently we developed jpHMM, a new method to detect recombinations in HIV-l genomes. jpHMM predicts phylogenetic recombination breakpoints in a query sequence and assigns to each segment of the sequence one of the major HIV-l subtypes. For the user the reliability of the predicted breakpoint positions and parental subtypes is most important. For this reason we extended the output of jpHMM to include the information on regions where the model is 'uncertain' about the parental subtype and an interval estimate of the breakpoint. This information is determined using the posterior probabilities of the subtypes at each query sequence position.

A preliminary measurement is presented of the inclusive jet production cross section in p{bar p} collisions at a center-of-mass energy of {radical}s = 1960GeV: The data was taken with the D0 detector and represents an integrated luminosity of {approx} 900 pb{sup -1} of Tevatron RunII data. The cross section is studied as a function of jet transverse momentum (p{sub T}) and rapidity (y) and compared to perturbative QCD predictions in next-to-leading order including two-loop threshold corrections.

We propose to search for the spin resonance in URu{sub 2}Si{sub 2} at {omega}{sub res} = 4-6meV at the incommensurate wavector Q* = (1 {+-} 0.4, 0, 0). We expect that this spin resonance will set in at temperatures below HO transition and the intensity of this peak will scale as {approx} {Delta}{sub HO} {approx} (T{sub HO} - T). The resonance peak is know to occur in the states with superconducting gap and results in the gapping of the electronic spectrum add ref on SrruO and cel 15. In the case of HO the gap {Delta}{sub HO} results in the partially gapped electron spectrum. That appears to be a sufficient condition, as shown by Wiebe et al to produce a gap in spin excitation spectrum. In addition, we predict a peak in the spin excitation spectrum, as spectral weight redistribution produces the resonance feature. To the best of our knowledge, if the predicted resonance peak indeed occurs, it would be the first case where the spin resonance occurs at an incommensurate vector Q*.

Chinese/English brochure on the Save Energy Now process for DOE Industrial Energy Efficiency Partnership with China.

We define the ability of a quantum channel to simulate another by means of suitable encoding and decoding operations. While classical channels have only two equivalence classes under simulation (channels with non-vanishing capacity and those with vanishing capacity), we show that there are an uncountable infinity of different equivalence classes of quantum channels using the example of the quantum erasure channel. Our results also imply a kind of 'Matthew principle' for error correction on certain channels.