Surveys above 10 keV represent one of the the best resources to provide an unbiased census of the population of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We present the results of 60 months of observation of the hard X-ray sky with Swift/BAT. In this timeframe, BAT detected (in the 15-55 keV band) 720 sources in an all-sky survey of which 428 are associated with AGN, most of which are nearby. Our sample has negligible incompleteness and statistics a factor of {approx}2 larger over similarly complete sets of AGN. Our sample contains (at least) 15 bona-fide Compton-thick AGN and 3 likely candidates. Compton-thick AGN represent a {approx}5% of AGN samples detected above 15 keV. We use the BAT dataset to refine the determination of the LogN-LogS of AGN which is extremely important, now that NuSTAR prepares for launch, towards assessing the AGN contribution to the cosmic X-ray background. We show that the LogN-LogS of AGN selected above 10 keV is now established to a {approx}10% precision. We derive the luminosity function of Compton-thick AGN and measure a space density of 7.9{sub -2.9}{sup +4.1} x 10{sup -5} Mpc{sup -3} for objects with a de-absorbed luminosity larger than 2 x 10{sup 42} erg s{sup -1}. …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Plan sponsors and participants paid a range of fees for services, though smaller plans typically paid higher fees as a percentage of plan assets. For example, the average amount sponsors of small plans reported paying for recordkeeping and administrative services was 1.33 percent of assets annually, compared with 0.15 percent paid by sponsors of large plans. Larger plans were more likely to pass recordkeeping fees along to participants, but when fees were passed along to participants in small plans, those in large plans paid lower fees than those in small plans. Participants also paid for investment and plan consulting fees—through fees deducted from their plan assets—in more instances than sponsors."

On January 19-21, 2011, The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) successfully convened its 11th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment: Our Changing Oceans in Washington, DC at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Over 1,247 participants attended the conference, representing federal, state and local governments, university and colleges across the US, civil society organizations, the business community, and international entities. In addition, the conference was webcast to an audience across several states. The conference provided a forum to examine the profound changes our ocean will undergo over the next 25-50 years and share various perspectives on the new research, tools, and policy initiatives to protect and sustain our ocean. Conference highlights and recommendations are available to the public on NCSE's conference website, www.OurChangingOceans.org.

A covariant spectator quark model is applied to study the {gamma}N {yields} N*(1535) reaction in the large Q{sup 2} region. Starting from the relation between the nucleon and N*(1535) systems, the N*(1535) valence quark wave function is determined without the addition of any parameters. The model is then used to calculate the {gamma}N {yields} N*(1535) transition form factors. A very interesting, useful relation between the A{sub 1/2} and S{sub 1/2} helicity amplitudes for Q{sup 2} > GeV{sup 2}, is also derived.

This document provides a detailed description of NREL's levelized cost of wind energy equation, assumptions and results in 2010, including historical cost trends and future projections for land-based and offshore utility-scale wind.

During the 2008 calendar year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provided health physics support for the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Transparency Program for external and internal radiation protection. They also provided technical expertise related to BDMS radioactive sources and Russian radiation safety regulatory compliance. For the calendar year 2008, there were 158 person-trips that required dose monitoring of the U.S. monitors. Of the 158 person-trips, 148 person-trips were SMVs and 10 person-trips were Transparency Monitoring Office (TMO) trips. There were 6 monitoring visits by TMO monitors to facilities other than UEIE and 8 to UEIE itself. There were three monitoring visits (source changes) that were back-to-back with a total of 24 monitors. LLNL's Hazard Control Department laboratories provided the dosimetry services for the HEU Transparency monitors. In 2008, the HEU Transparency activities in Russia were conducted in a radiologically safe manner for the HEU Transparency monitors in accordance with the expectations of the HEU Transparency staff, NNSA and DOE. The HEU Transparency now has thirteen years of successful experience in developing and providing health and safety support in meeting its technical objectives.

From its founding in 1952 until today, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has made significant strategic investments to develop high performance computing (HPC) and its application to national security and basic science. Now, 60 years later, the Computation Directorate and its myriad resources and capabilities have become a key enabler for LLNL programs and an integral part of the effort to support our nation's nuclear deterrent and, more broadly, national security. In addition, the technological innovation HPC makes possible is seen as vital to the nation's economic vitality. LLNL, along with other national laboratories, is working to make supercomputing capabilities and expertise available to industry to boost the nation's global competitiveness. LLNL is on the brink of an exciting milestone with the 2012 deployment of Sequoia, the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA's) 20-petaFLOP/s resource that will apply uncertainty quantification to weapons science. Sequoia will bring LLNL's total computing power to more than 23 petaFLOP/s-all brought to bear on basic science and national security needs. The computing systems at LLNL provide game-changing capabilities. Sequoia and other next-generation platforms will enable predictive simulation in the coming decade and leverage industry trends, such as massively parallel and multicore processors, to run petascale applications. …

This document by the EPA's Office of Water presents data on the concentrations of drinking water contaminants.

Single molecule techniques are rapidly occupying a central role in biological research at all levels. This transition was made possible by the availability and dissemination of robust techniques that use fluorescence and force probes to track the conformation of molecules one at a time, in vitro as well as in live cells. Single-molecule approaches have changed the way many biological problems are studied. These novel techniques provide previously unobtainable data on fundamental biochemical processes that are essential for all forms of life. The ability of single-molecule approaches to avoid ensemble averaging and to capture transient intermediates and heterogeneous behavior renders them particularly powerful in elucidating mechanisms of the molecular systems that underpin the functioning of living cells. Hence, our conference seeks to disseminate the implementation and use of single molecule techniques in the pursuit of new biological knowledge. Topics covered include: Molecular Motors on the Move; Origin And Fate Of Proteins; Physical Principles Of Life; Molecules and Super-resolution Microscopy; Nanoswitches In Action; Active Motion Or Random Diffusion?; Building Blocks Of Living Cells; From Molecular Mechanics To Physiology; Tug-of-war: Force Spectroscopy Of Single Proteins.

We summarize and combine the results on the direct measurements of the mass of the W boson in data collected by the Tevatron experiments CDF and D0 at Fermilab. Earlier results from CDF Run-0 (1988-1989), D0 and CDF Run-I (1992-1995) and D0 results from 1 fb{sup -1} (2002-2006) of Run-II data are now combined with two new, high statistics Run-II measurements: a CDF measurement in both electron and muon channels using 2.2 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity collected between 2002 and 2007, and a D0 measurement in the electron channel using 4.3 fb{sup -1} collected between 2006 and 2009. As in previous combinations, the results are corrected for inconsistencies in parton distribution functions and assumptions about electroweak parameters used in the different analyses. The resulting Tevatron average for the mass of the W boson is M{sub W} = 80,387 {+-} 16 MeV and a new world average including data from LEP II is M{sub W} = 80,385 {+-} 15 MeV.

This is the standard operating procedure used by the Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry Group of the Chemical Sciences Division at LLNL for the preparation of a sample of uranium oxide or uranium metal for {sup 230}Th-{sup 234}U age-dating. The method described here includes the dissolution of a sample of uranium oxide or uranium metal, preparation of a secondary dilution, spiking of separate aliquots for uranium and thorium isotope dilution measurements, and purification of uranium and thorium aliquots for mass spectrometry. This SOP may be applied to uranium samples of unknown purity as in a nuclear forensic investigation, and also to well-characterized samples such as, for example, U{sub 3}O{sub 8} and U-metal certified reference materials. The sample of uranium is transferred to a quartz or PFA vial, concentrated nitric acid is added and the sample is heated on a hotplate at approximately 100 C for several hours until it dissolves. The sample solution is diluted with water to make the solution approximately 4 M HNO{sub 3} and hydrofluoric acid is added to make it 0.05 M HF. A secondary dilution of the primary uranium solution is prepared. Separate aliquots for uranium and thorium isotope dilution measurements are taken and spiked with …

Density-functional formalism is applied to study the ground state properties of {gamma}-U-Zr and {gamma}-U-Mo solid solutions. Calculated heats of formation are compared with CALPHAD assessments. We discuss how the heat of formation in both alloys correlates with the charge transfer between the alloy components. The decomposition curves for {gamma}-based U-Zr and U-Mo solid solutions are derived from Ising-type Monte Carlo simulations. We explore the idea of stabilization of the {delta}-UZr{sub 2} compound against the {alpha}-Zr (hcp) structure due to increase of Zr d-band occupancy by the addition of U to Zr. We discuss how the specific behavior of the electronic density of states in the vicinity of the Fermi level promotes the stabilization of the U{sub 2}Mo compound. The mechanism of possible Am redistribution in the U-Zr and U-Mo fuels is also discussed.

As we pursue efforts to lower the capital and installation costs of parabolic trough solar collectors, it is essential to maintain high optical performance. While there are many optical tools available to measure the reflector slope errors of parabolic trough solar collectors, there are few tools to measure the absorber alignment. A new method is presented here to measure the absorber alignment in two dimensions to within 0.5 cm. The absorber alignment is measured using a digital camera and four photogrammetric targets. Physical contact with the receiver absorber or glass is not necessary. The alignment of the absorber is measured along its full length so that sagging of the absorber can be quantified with this technique. The resulting absorber alignment measurement provides critical information required to accurately determine the intercept factor of a collector.

For this study, hydrogen getter materials (Zircaloy-4 and pure zirconium) that have a high affinity for hydrogen (and low overpressure) have been investigated to determine the hydrogen equilibrium pressure on Zircaloy-4 and pure zirconium. These materials, as with most getter materials, offered significant challenges to overcome given the low hydrogen equilibrium pressure for the temperature range of interest. Hydrogen-zirconium data exists for pure zirconium at 500 C and the corresponding hydrogen overpressure is roughly 0.01 torr. This manuscript presents the results of the equilibrium pressures for the absorption and desorption of hydrogen on zirconium materials at temperatures ranging from 400 C to 600 C. The equilibrium pressures in this temperature region range from 150 mtorr at 600 C to less than 0.1 mtorr at 400 C. It has been shown that the Zircaloy-4 and zirconium samples are extremely prone to surface oxidation prior to and during heating. This oxidation precludes the hydrogen uptake, and therefore samples must be heated under a minimum vacuum of 5 x 10{sup -6} torr. In addition, the Zircaloy-4 samples should be heated at a sufficiently low rate to maintain the system pressure below 0.5 mtorr since an increase in pressure above 0.5 mtorr could possibly …

This slide-show discusses weapons dismantlement and disposal, issues related to classified waste and their solutions.

This report presents the results of an evaluation of juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) behavior at Cougar Dam on the south fork of the McKenzie River in Oregon in 2010. The study was conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The overall goal of the study was to characterize juvenile salmonid behavior and movement patterns in the immediate forebay of the Water Temperature Control (WTC) tower of the dam for USACE and fisheries resource managers use in making decisions about bioengineering designs for long-term structures and/or operations to facilitate safe downstream passage for juvenile salmonids. We collected acoustic imaging (Dual-Frequency Identification Sonar; DIDSON) data from March 1, 2010, through January 31, 2011. Juvenile salmonids (hereafter, called 'fish') were present in the immediate forebay of the WTC tower throughout the study. Fish abundance index was low in early spring (<200 fish per sample-day), increased in late April, and peaked on May 19 (6,039 fish). A second peak was observed on June 6 (2904 fish). Fish abundance index decreased in early June and remained low in the summer months (<100 fish per sample-day). During the fall and winter, fish numbers varied with a peak …

This thesis presents a two-grid algorithm based on Smoothed Aggregation Spectral Element Agglomeration Algebraic Multigrid (SA-{rho}AMGe) combined with adaptation. The aim is to build an efficient solver for the linear systems arising from discretization of second-order elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs) with stochastic coefficients. Examples include PDEs that model subsurface flow with random permeability field. During a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation process, that draws PDE coefficient samples from a certain distribution, the PDE coefficients change, hence the resulting linear systems to be solved change. At every such step the system (discretized PDE) needs to be solved and the computed solution used to evaluate some functional(s) of interest that then determine if the coefficient sample is acceptable or not. The MCMC process is hence computationally intensive and requires the solvers used to be efficient and fast. This fact that at every step of MCMC the resulting linear system changes, makes an already existing solver built for the old problem perhaps not as efficient for the problem corresponding to the new sampled coefficient. This motivates the main goal of our study, namely, to adapt an already existing solver to handle the problem (with changed coefficient) with the objective to achieve …

Owners, contractors, engineers, and architects can easily achieve significant energy savings by leveraging the complex analyses and expertise captured in these guides.

The Advanced High-Temperature Reactor (AHTR) is a large-output fluoride-salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (FHR). An early-phase preconceptual design of a 1500 MW(e) power plant was developed in 2011 [Refs. 1 and 2]. An updated version of this plant is shown as Fig. 1. FHRs feature low-pressure liquid fluoride salt cooling, coated-particle fuel, a high-temperature power cycle, and fully passive decay heat rejection. The AHTR is designed to be a “walk away” reactor that requires no action to prevent large off-site releases following even severe reactor accidents. This report describes the development of dynamic system models used to further the AHTR design toward that goal. These models predict system response during warmup, startup, normal operation, and limited off-normal operating conditions. Severe accidents that include a loss-of-fluid inventory are not currently modeled. The scope of the models is limited to the plant power system, including the reactor, the primary and intermediate heat transport systems, the power conversion system, and safety-related or auxiliary heat removal systems. The primary coolant system, the intermediate heat transport system and the reactor building structure surrounding them are shown in Fig. 2. These systems are modeled in the most detail because the passive interaction of the primary system with the …

The Used Fuel Disposition (UFD) Campaign within the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Fuel Cycle Technology (FCT) program has been tasked with investigating the disposal of the nation's spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW) for a range of potential waste forms and geologic environments. The planning, construction, and operation of a nuclear disposal facility is a long-term process that involves engineered barriers that are tailored to both the geologic environment and the waste forms being emplaced. The UFD Campaign is considering a range of fuel cycles that in turn produce a range of waste forms. The UFD Campaign is also considering a range of geologic media. These ranges could be thought of as adding uncertainty to what the disposal facility design will ultimately be; however, it may be preferable to thinking about the ranges as adding flexibility to design of a disposal facility. For example, as the overall DOE-NE program and industrial actions result in the fuel cycles that will produce waste to be disposed, and the characteristics of those wastes become clear, the disposal program retains flexibility in both the choice of geologic environment and the specific repository design. Of course, other factors …

In 2007, An Ultra High Injection Pressure (UHIP) fueling method has been demonstrated by Caterpillar Fuel Systems - Product Development, demonstrating ability to deliver U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Tier 4 Final diesel engine emission performance with greatly reduced emissions handling components on the engine, such as without NOx reduction after-treatment and with only a through-flow 50% effective diesel particulate trap (DPT). They have shown this capability using multiple multi-cylinder engine tests of an Ultra High Pressure Common Rail (UHPCR) fuel system with higher than traditional levels of CEGR and an advanced injector nozzle design. The system delivered better atomization of the fuel, for more complete burn, to greatly reduce diesel particulates, while CEGR or high efficiency NOx reduction after-treatment handles the NOx. With the reduced back pressure of a traditional DPT, and with the more complete fuel burn, the system reduced levels of fuel consumption by 2.4% for similar delivery of torque and horsepower over the best Tier 4 Interim levels of fuel consumption in the diesel power industry. The challenge is to manufacture the components in high-volume production that can withstand the required higher pressure injection. Production processes must be developed to increase the toughness of the injector …

During the Phase I program, CCR completed several major building blocks for a 3D large signal, inductive output tube (IOT) code using modern computer language and programming techniques. These included a 3D, Helmholtz, time-harmonic, field solver with a fully functional graphical user interface (GUI), automeshing and adaptivity. Other building blocks included the improved electrostatic Poisson solver with temporal boundary conditions to provide temporal fields for the time-stepping particle pusher as well as the self electric field caused by time-varying space charge. The magnetostatic field solver was also updated to solve for the self magnetic field caused by time changing current density in the output cavity gap. The goal function to optimize an IOT cavity was also formulated, and the optimization methodologies were investigated.

This is a report for public consumption, for the AVTA website, detailing the testing and analysis of the benchmark testing conducted on the Chevrolet Volt on-board charger.

A look at government agencies spending on advertising.