This project focuses on the use of the Prompt Gamma-ray Activation Analysis (PGAA) technique available at the Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory of the University of Texas at Austin to precisely determine the hydrogen (proton) contents in layered oxide cathode samples obtained by chemical lithium extraction in order to obtain a better understanding of the factors limiting the practical capacities and overall performance of lithium ion battery cathodes. The project takes careful precautionary experimental measures to avoid proton contamination both from solvents used in chemical delithiation and from ambient moisture. The results obtained from PGAA are complemented by the data obtained from other techniques such as thermogravimetric analysis, redox titration, atomic absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and mass spectroscopic analysis of the evolved gas on heating. The research results broaden our understanding of the structure-property-performance relationships of lithium ion battery cathodes and could aid the design and development of new better performing lithium ion batteries for consumer (portable and electric vehicles), military, and space applications.

The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, in collaboration with Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), developed a series of seminars, ''The New Biology: Challenges and Opportunities'', to stimulate dialogue between leaders in science, medicine, law, biotechnology and senior government policymakers on matters that will shape much of the genomic revolution's impact on individuals and institutions in this country.

This report is about Quantum Control of Light and Matter Gordon Research Conference

The first Gordon Research Conference on Multiphoton Processes, was held in 1982. The meeting continues to evolve as it embraces both the rapid technological and intellectual growth in the field as well as the multi-disciplinary expertise of the participants. Current areas of interest include: (1) Ionization/Dissociation of Atoms and Molecules in Intense Laser Fields; (2) Frequency Domain Multi-Photon and Multiple-Resonance Spectroscopies of Molecules; (3) Time-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy; (4) Ultrafast Pump-Probe Spectroscopy; (5) Coherent Strong-Field Manipulation of Atoms and Molecules; (6) High-Harmonic Generation; (7) Attosecond Pulse Generation and Measurement; and (8) Super-Intense Laser-Matter Interactions. In developing the program, the conference organizers will strive to blur traditional disciplinary boundaries, involving chemists, physicists, and optical engineers, representing both experiment and theory, as presenters and discussion leaders. The broad range of expertise and different perspectives of attendees should provide a stimulating and unique environment for solving problems and developing new ideas in this rapidly evolving field.

The Department of Energy Organization Act, which created DOE, was enacted in 1977 and DOE officially came into existence in October of that year. That law brought together for the first time, not only most of the government’s energy programs, but also science and technology programs and defense responsibilities that included the design, construction, and testing of nuclear weapons. Over its history, DOE has shifted its emphasis and focus as the energy and security needs of the Nation have changed. Today, DOE stands at the forefront of helping the Nation meet our energy, scientific, environmental, and national security goals. These include developing and deploying new energy technologies, reducing our dependence on foreign energy sources, protecting our nuclear weapons stockpile, and ensuring that America remains competitive in the global marketplace. To help achieve these goals, President Bush has launched two key initiatives: the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) and the Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI). The President launched these initiatives recognizing that science, technology, and engineering hold the answers to many of the critical challenges our world faces. These new initiatives to spur scientific innovation and technology development expand DOE’s continuing support for the competitive energy markets, both domestically and internationally, and of …

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One of the greatest societal challenges over the next decade is the production of cheap, renewable energy for the 10 billion people that inhabit the earth. This will require the development of various energy sources which will likely include fuels derived from methane, coal, and biomass and alternatives sources such as solar, wind and nuclear energy. One approach will be to synthesize gasoline and other fuels from simpler hydrocarbons such as CO derived from methane or other U.S. based sources such as coal. Syngas (CO and H{sub 2}) can be readily converted into higher molecular weight hydrocarbons through Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis involves the adsorption and the activation of CO and H{sub 2}, the subsequent propagation steps including hydrogenation and carbon-carbon coupling, followed by chain termination reactions. The current commercial catalysts are supported Co and Co-alloys particles. This project set out with the following objectives in mind: (1) understand the reaction mechanisms that control FT kinetics, (2) predict how the intrinsic metal-adsorbate bond affects the sequence of elementary steps in FT, (3) establish the effects of the reaction environment on catalytic activity and selectivity, (4) construct a first-principles based algorithm that can incorporate the detailed atomic surface structure and …

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The United States and its allies are helping Afghanistan emerging from more than 22 years of warfare, although substantial risk to Afghan stability remains. Before the U.S. military campaign against the orthodox Islamist Taliban movement began on October 7, 2001, Afghanistan had been mired in conflict since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The defeat of the Taliban has enabled the United States and its coalition partners to send forces throughout Afghanistan to search for Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters and leaders that remain at large, including Osama bin Laden. As the war against remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban elements winds down, the United States is shifting its military focus toward stabilizing the interim government, including training a new Afghan national army, and supporting the international security force (ISAF) that is helping the new government provide security.

We report the first significant detection of an X-ray cluster associated with a powerful (L{sub bol} {approx} 10{sup 47} erg sec{sup -1}) radio-loud quasar at high redshift (z=1.06). Diffuse X-ray emission is detected out to {approx} 120 kpc from the CSS quasar 3C 186. A strong Fe-line emission at the z{sub rest} = 1.06 confirms its thermal nature. We find that the CSS radio source is highly overpressured with respect to the thermal cluster medium by 2-3 orders of magnitude. This provides direct observational evidence that the radio source is not thermally confined as posited in the ''frustrated'' scenario for CSS sources. Instead, the radio source may be young and at an early stage of its evolution. This source provides the first detection of the AGN in outburst in the center of a cooling flow cluster. Powerful radio sources are thought to be triggered by the cooling flows. The evidence for the AGN activity and intermittent outbursts comes from the X-ray morphology of low redshift clusters, which usually do not harbour quasars. 3C186 is a young active radio source which can supply the energy into the cluster and potentially prevent its cooling. We discuss energetics related to the quasar activity …

This report considers the issues the 110th Congress was confronted with in relation to agriculture and the issues inherited from the 109th Congress. The report also includes details about the upcoming farm bill and the usual problems that are examined with the creation of a new farm bill.

This report discusses a plan announced by EPA in January 2005, called the Air Compliance Agreement, that would produce air quality monitoring data on animal agriculture emissions from a small number of farms, while at the same time protecting all participants (including farms where no monitoring takes place) through a “safe harbor” from liability under certain provisions of federal environmental laws.

We present dimensional and density changes in an aging plutonium alloy enriched with 7.3 at.% of {sup 238}Pu and reference alloys of various ages. After 45 equivalent years of aging, the enriched alloys at 35 C have swelled in volume by 0.14 to 0.16% and now exhibit a near linear volume increase, without void swelling. Based on X-ray diffraction measurements, the lattice expansion by self-irradiation appears to be the primary cause for dimensional changes during the initial 2-3 years of aging. Following the initial transient, the density change is primarily cause by a constant helium in-growth rate as a result of {alpha}-particle decay.

Recently, X-ray astronomy has been used to investigate objects such as galaxies, clusters of galaxies, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), quasars, starburst superbubbles of hot gas, X-ray binary systems, stars, supernova remnants, and interstellar and intergalactic material. By studying the x-ray emission patterns of these objects, we can gain a greater understanding of their structure and evolution. We analyze X-ray emission from the galaxy NGC 4945 using data taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations (CIAO) software package was used to extract and fit energy spectra and to extract light curves for the brightest off-nuclear sources in two different observations of NGC 4945 (January, 2000 and May, 2004). A majority of sources were closely fit by both absorbed power law and absorbed bremsstrahlung models, with a significantly poorer {chi}{sup 2}/dof for the absorbed blackbody model, and most sources had little variability. This indicates that the sources are accreting binary systems with either a neutron star or black hole as the compact object. The calculated luminosities were about 10{sup 38} erg/s, which implies that the mass of the accreting object is close to 10 solar masses and must be a black hole.

The harmonic generation process in a harmonic cascade (HC) FEL is subject to noise degradation which is proportional to the square of the total harmonic order. In this paper, we study the shot noise evolution in the first-stage modulator and radiator of a HC FEL that produces the dominant noise contributions. We derive the effective input noise for a modulator operating in the low-gain regime, and analyze the radiator noise for a density-modulated beam. The significance of these noise sources in different harmonic cascade designs is also discussed.

Corrosion resistant materials under atmospheric conditions can suffer from localized corrosion (e.g., pitting, crevice, stress-corrosion cracking). The stability of such a localized corrosion site requires that the site (anode) must dissolve at a sufficiently high rate to maintain the critical chemistry and that it be coupled to a wetted surrounding area (cathode) that can provide a matching cathodic current. The objectives of this study were to computationally characterize the stability of such a local corrosion system and to explore the effects of physiochemical and electrochemical parameters. The overall goal of the work is to contribute to the establishment of a scientific basis for the prediction of the stabilization of localized attack. An analytical method is presented for evaluating the stability of localized corrosion of corrosion-resistant alloys under thin-layer (or atmospheric) conditions. The method requires input data that are either thermodynamic in nature or easily obtained experimentally. The maximum cathode current available depends on the cathode geometry, temperature, relative humidity, deposition density of salt (i.e., mass of salt per unit area of cathode), and interfacial electrochemical kinetics. The anode demand depends on the crevice geometry, the position of attack within the crevice, and the localized corrosion stability product. The localized corrosion …

The time-dependent CP asymmetries in fully reconstructed B{sup 0} {yields} D{sup (*){+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}}/{rho}{sup {-+}} decays (new preliminary result), and in partially reconstructed B{sup 0} {yields} D{sup (*){+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}} decays, are measured with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B factory at SLAC, using 232 million {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} decays. We combine the above results and, using other measurements and theoretical assumptions, they interpret them in terms of the angles of the unitarity triangle describing the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. They find |sin(2{beta} + {gamma})| > 0.64(0.42) at 68%(90%) confidence level using a frequentistic approach and |2{beta}+ {gamma}| = (90 {+-} 43){sup o} using a Bayesian approach.

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Base Input Fort Belvoir, VA Army Team Wes Hood. Night Vision Lab Briefing

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