Determination of the strains in a polycrystalline materialusing 4-D XRD reveals sub-grain and grain-to-grain behavior as a functionof stress. Here 4-D XRD involves an experimental procedure usingpolychromatic micro-beam X-radiation (micro-Laue) to characterizepolycrystalline materials in spatial location as well as with increasingstress. The in-situ tensile loading experiment measured strain in a modelaluminum-sapphire metal matrix composite using the Advanced Light Source,Beam-line 7.3.3. Micro-Laue resolves individual grains in thepolycrystalline matrix. Results obtained from a list of grains sorted bycrystallographic orientation depict the strain states within and amongindividual grains. Locating the grain positions in the planeperpendicular to the incident beam is trivial. However, determining theexact location of grains within a 3-D space is challenging. Determiningthe depth of the grains within the matrix (along the beam direction)involved a triangulation method tracing individual rays that producespots on the CCD back to the point of origin. Triangulation wasexperimentally implemented by simulating a 3-D detector capturingmultiple diffraction images while increasing the camera to sampledistance. Hence by observing the intersection of rays from multiple spotsbelonging to the corresponding grain, depth is calculated. Depthresolution is a function of the number of images collected, grain to beamsize ratio, and the pixel resolution of the CCD. The 4DXRD methodprovides grain morphologies, strain …

From Introduction: "This report provides a review of the 9/11 Commission recommendations and the status of their implementation at the end of the 109th Congress. The discussions herein are organized on the basis of policy themes that are core of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, rather than a review of every numbered item set out in the Commission's final report."

This report contains rainfall climatology and analyses during the period from 1958 to 2006 for the two sites of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: the Livermore site and Site 300. The measurement sites are described, a regional climatology overview is provided, and the effect of topography on regional precipitation is discussed. Rainfall statistics are presented including monthly normals (30-year means) and medians; percentages of time that rainfall is less than or equal to specified amounts for given months, years, and seasons; and mean, median, and maximum numbers of days of precipitation for specified amounts by month, year, and season. The rainfall pattern is demonstrated to be typical of Mediterranean climates, with most rain falling during the cold season. Nearly 80% of seasonal rainfall occurs during November through March, with the average annual rainfall equaling 13.62 and 10.64 inches at the Livermore site and Site 300, respectively. Precipitation frequency and extreme value analyses for durations ranging from 15 minutes to 24 hours, month, and rainfall season are shown in order to estimate rainfall amounts for return periods of two to 100 years at both sites. This analysis determined 100-year return periods for largest 24-hour rainfalls of 2.49 and 2.22 inches at the …

The Student Apartments Fuel Cell Island Project consists of three (3) 200 kW phosphoric acid fuel cells located in conjunction with three (3) student apartment buildings, each housing 200 students. The Final Report contains limited data because the fuel cells were started up November 2005 and shutdown March 2006. The price of natural gas, which is the primary fuel for the fuel cells, escalated by 200% following hurricane Katrina in August 2005. This escalation in natural gas price made operation of the fuel cells economically unviable, i.e., the cost to produce electricity with the fuel cells far exceeded the cost to purchase electricity from the utility. The College intends to restart the fuel cells once the cost of natural gas stabilizes. The natural gas futures market is currently overpriced even though fundamentally the physical inventory is a five year high. We believe the natural gas market will eventually correct to the fundamentals and drive the cost down. Once this occurs we will restart the fuel cells.

Several outstanding research activities in the Physics and Advanced Technologies Directorate in 2005 were featured in ''Science and Technology Review'', the monthly publication of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Reprints of those articles accompany this report. Here we summarize other science and technology highlights, as well as the awards and recognition received by members of the Directorate in 2005. As part of the World Year of Physics commemorating the 100th anniversary of Einstein's ''miraculous year'', we also highlight ongoing physics research that would not be possible without Einstein's pioneering accomplishments.

This report provides the results of a random survey of adult Texas residents aged 18 and older to measure the citizen participation rates, the distribution and frequency of play, and the demographic profiles of the past-year players and the non-players.

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This is Appendix 2 of GAO's 2006 Performance and Accountability Report. Section 6 of the GAO Personnel Flexibilities Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-303 (2000), and section 11 of the GAO Human Capital Reform Act of 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-271 (2004), require GAO to report to the Congress regarding its use of certain of the provisions of these acts."

From Summary: "This report addresses one of several approaches to the issue of rising gasoline prices put forward in the 109th Congress."

This dissertation presents the highest four-momentum transfer, Q^2,quasielastic (x_Bj = 1) results from Experiment E01-020 which systematically explored the 2He(e,e'p)n reaction ("Electro-disintegration" of the deuteron) at three different four-momentum transfers, Q^2 = 0.8, 2.1, and 3.5 GeV^2 and missing momenta, P_miss = 0, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 GeV including separations of the longitudinal-transverse interference response function, R_LT, and extractoin of the longitudinal-transverse asymmetry, A_LT. This systematic approach will help to understand the reaction mechanism and the deuteron structure down to the short range part of the nucleon-nucleon interaction which is one of the fundamental missions of nuclear physics. By studying the very short distance structure of the deuteron, one may also determine whether or to what extent the description of nuclei in terms of nucleon/meson degrees of freedom must be supplemented by inclusion of explicit quark effects. The unique combination of energy, current, duty factor, and control of systematics for Hall A at Jefferson Lab made Jefferson Lab the only facility in the world where these systematic studies of the deuteron can be undertaken. This is especially true when we want to understand the short range structure of the deuteron where high energies and high luminosity/duty factor are …

This report describes a robust and generalized method for the clustering of various human breast cell lines in 3D and describes the preparation of cellular extracts from these cultures for molecular analysis.

We investigate jet formation in black-hole systems using 3-D General Relativistic Particle-In-Cell (GRPIC) and 3-D GRMHD simulations. GRPIC simulations, which allow charge separations in a collisionless plasma, do not need to invoke the frozen condition as in GRMHD simulations. 3-D GRPIC simulations show that jets are launched from Kerr black holes as in 3-D GRMHD simulations, but jet formation in the two cases may not be identical. Comparative study of black hole systems with GRPIC and GRMHD simulations with the inclusion of radiate transfer will further clarify the mechanisms that drive the evolution of disk-jet systems.

The purpose of this study was to examine a set of user acceptance criteria for autonomous biological detection systems for application in high-traffic, public facilities. The test case for the acceptance criteria was the Autonomous Pathogen Detection System (APDS) operating in high-traffic facilities in New York City (NYC). However, the acceptance criteria were designed to be generally applicable to other biological detection systems in other locations. For such detection systems, ''users'' will include local authorities (e.g., facility operators, public health officials, and law enforcement personnel) and national authorities [including personnel from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the BioWatch Program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)]. The panel members brought expertise from a broad range of backgrounds to complete this picture. The goals of this document are: (1) To serve as informal guidance for users in considering the benefits and costs of these systems. (2) To serve as informal guidance for developers in understanding the needs of users. In follow-up work, this framework will be used to systematically document the APDS for appropriateness and readiness for use in NYC.

The purpose of this report is to provide a more concrete discussion of access to wireline broadband networks. To that end, this report provides a discussion of what broadband networks look like; how both consumers and independent applications providers gain access to these networks; and the parameters available to network providers (such as their choices about network architecture, overall bandwidth capacity, bandwidth reserved for their own use, traffic prioritization, the terms and rates for access to their networks and for their retail services) that can affect end users’ and independent applications providers’ access to those networks.

This report summarizes the critiques the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Supervision (OFHEO) made of accounting practices at Fannie Mae. The OFHEO's two main issues are under the domains of: amortization of discounts, premiums, fees involved in the purchase of home mortgages, and the other being accounting for financial derivatives contracts. The report emphasizes that these discrepancies created a false image of the company's earnings and in one case was the cause of the company's executives to receive bonuses.

The objective of this project was to demonstrate the use of an Integrated Combustion Optimization System to achieve NO{sub X} emission levels in the range of 0.15 to 0.22 lb/MMBtu while simultaneously enabling increased power output. The project plan consisted of the integration of low-NO{sub X} burners and advanced overfire air technology with various process measurement and control devices on the Holcomb Station Unit 1 boiler. The plan included the use of sophisticated neural networks or other artificial intelligence technologies and complex software to optimize several operating parameters, including NO{sub X} emissions, boiler efficiency, and CO emissions. The program was set up in three phases. In Phase I, the boiler was equipped with sensors that can be used to monitor furnace conditions and coal flow to permit improvements in boiler operation. In Phase II, the boiler was equipped with burner modifications designed to reduce NO{sub X} emissions and automated coal flow dampers to permit on-line fuel balancing. In Phase III, the boiler was to be equipped with an overfire air system to permit deep reductions in NO{sub X} emissions. Integration of the overfire air system with the improvements made in Phases I and II would permit optimization of boiler performance, …

The purpose of this report is to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Climate Research Facility instrumentation status. The report is divided into four sections: (1) new instrumentation in the process of being acquired and deployed, (2) existing instrumentation and progress on improvements or upgrades, (3) proposed future instrumentation, and (4) Small Business Innovation Research instrument development.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has had a longstanding goal of introducing uncertainty into the analysis it routinely conducts in compliance with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and for strategic management purposes. The need to introduce some treatment of uncertainty arises both because it would be good general management practice, and because intuitively many of the technologies under development by EERE have a considerable advantage in an uncertain world. For example, an expected kWh output from a wind generator in a future year, which is not exposed to volatile and unpredictable fuel prices, should be truly worth more than an equivalent kWh from an alternative fossil fuel fired technology. Indeed, analysts have attempted to measure this value by comparing the prices observed in fixed-price natural gas contracts compared to ones in which buyers are exposed to market prices (see Bolinger, Wiser, and Golove and (2004)). In addition to the routine reasons for exploring uncertainty given above, the history of energy markets appears to have exhibited infrequent, but troubling, regime shifts, i.e., historic turning points at which the center of gravity or fundamental nature of the system appears to have abruptly shifted. Figure 1 below …

As part of a study of the effect of particle size on reactivity of hematite to aqueous metal ions, the sorption of Zn(II) on hematite nanoparticles and microparticles was examined over a wide range of Zn(II) concentrations using Zn K-edge EXAFS. When reacted with nanoparticles at pH 5.5 and low Zn(II) sorption densities (0.04 {le} {Lambda} < 2.76 imol/m{sup 2}), Zn(II) formed five-coordinated or a mixture of four- and six-coordinated surface complexes with an average Zn-O distance of 2.04({+-}0.02){angstrom}. At pH 5.5 and high Zn(II) sorption densities (2.76 {ge} {Lambda} {le} 3.70 mol/m{sup 2}), formation of surface precipitates is suggested based on the presence of second-shell Zn and multiple scattering features in the Fourier transform (FT) of the EXAFS spectra. EXAFS fitting of these high {Lambda} samples yielded an average first-shell Zn-O distance of 2.10({+-}0.02){angstrom}, with second-shell Zn-Fe and Zn-Zn distances of 3.23({+-}0.03){angstrom} and 3.31({+-}0.03){angstrom}, respectively. Qualitative comparison between the EXAFS spectra of these sorption samples and that of amorphous zinc hydroxide and Zn-bearing hydrotalcite indicates the development of surface precipitates with increasing {Lambda}. EXAFS spectra of Zn(II) sorbed on hematite microparticles under similar experimental conditions showed no evidence for surface precipitates even at the highest Zn surface coverage ({Lambda} …

Gold is a highly valuable metal that can concentrate in iron-rich exogenetic horizons such as laterites. An improved knowledge of the retention mechanisms of gold onto highly reactive soil components such as iron oxyhydroxides is therefore needed to better understand and predict the geochemical behavior of this element. In this study, we use EXAFS information and titration experiments to provide a realistic thermochemical description of the sorption of trivalent gold onto iron oxy-hydroxides. Analysis of Au L{sub III}-edge XAFS spectra shows that aqueous Au(III) adsorbs from chloride solutions onto goethite surfaces as inner-sphere square-planar complexes (Au(III)(OH,Cl){sub 4}), with dominantly OH ligands at pH > 6 and mixed OH/Cl ligands at lower pH values. In combination with these spectroscopic results, Reverse Monte Carlo simulations were used to constraint the possible sorption sites on the surface of goethite. Based on this structural information, we calculated sorption isotherms of Au(III) on Fe oxy-hydroxides surfaces, using the CD-MUSIC (Charge Distribution--Multi Site Complexation) model. The various Au(III)-sorbed species were identified as a function of pH, and the results of these EXAFS+CD-MUSIC models are compared with titration experiments. The overall good agreement between the predicted and measured structural models shows the potential of this combined approach …

A fuel cycle economic analysis was performed on four fuel cycles to provide a baseline for initial cost comparison using the Gen IV Economic Modeling Work Group G4 ECON spreadsheet model, Decision Programming Language software, the 2006 Advanced Fuel Cycle Cost Basis report, industry cost data, international papers, the nuclear power related cost study from MIT, Harvard, and the University of Chicago. The analysis developed and compared the fuel cycle cost component of the total cost of energy for a wide range of fuel cycles including: once through, thermal with fast recycle, continuous fast recycle, and thermal recycle.

The goal of this project was to develop an improved understanding of factors governing performance and degradation of mixed-conducting SOFC cathodes. Two new diagnostic tools were developed to help achieve this goal: (1) microelectrode half-cells for improved isolation of cathode impedance on thin electrolytes, and (2) nonlinear electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (NLEIS), a variant of traditional impedance that allows workers to probe nonlinear rates as a function of frequency. After reporting on the development and efficacy of these tools, this document reports on the use of these and other tools to better understand performance and degradation of cathodes based on the mixed conductor La{sub 1-x}Sr{sub x}CoO{sub 3-{delta}} (LSC) on gadolinia or samaria-doped ceria (GDC or SDC). We describe the use of NLEIS to measure O{sub 2} exchange on thin-film LSC electrodes, and show that O{sub 2} exchange is most likely governed by dissociative adsorption. We also describe parametric studies of porous LSC electrodes using impedance and NLEIS. Our results suggest that O{sub 2} exchange and ion transport co-limit performance under most relevant conditions, but it is O{sub 2} exchange that is most sensitive to processing, and subject to the greatest degradation and sample-to-sample variation. We recommend further work that focuses on …

The objective of the project is to build a multi-product ash beneficiation plant at Kentucky Utilities 2,200-MW Ghent Generating Station, located in Carroll County, Kentucky. This part of the study includes an investigation of the secondary classification characteristics of the ash feedstock excavated from the lower ash pond at Ghent Station. The market study for the products of the processing plant (Subtask 1.6), conducted by Cemex, is reported herein. The study incorporated simplifying assumptions and focused only on pozzolan and ultra fine fly ash (UFFA). It found that the market for pozzolan in the Ghent area was oversupplied, with resultant poor pricing structure. Reachable export markets for the Ghent pozzolan market were mostly locally served with the exception of Florida. It was concluded that a beneficiated material for that market may be at a long term disadvantage. The market for the UFFA was more complex as this material would compete with other beneficiated ash and potential metakaolin and silica fume as well. The study concluded that this market represented about 100,000 tons of sales per year and, although lucrative, represented a widely dispersed niche market.

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a high power density and high neutron flux research reactor operating in the United States. Powered with highly enriched uranium (HEU), the ATR has a maximum thermal power rating of 250 MWth with a maximum unperturbed thermal neutron flux rating of 1.0 x 1015 n/cm2–s. Because of these operating parameters, and the large test volumes located in high flux areas, the ATR is an ideal candidate for assessing the feasibility of converting an HEU driven reactor to a low-enriched core. The present work investigates the necessary modifications and evaluates the subsequent operating effects of this conversion. A detailed plate-by-plate MCNP ATR 1/8th core model was developed and validated for a fuel cycle burnup comparison analysis. Using the current HEU U 235 enrichment of 93.0 % as a baseline, an analysis can be performed to determine the low-enriched uranium (LEU) density and U-235 enrichment required in the fuel meat to yield an equivalent K-eff between the HEU core and the LEU core versus effective full power days (EFPD). The MCNP ATR 1/8th core model will be used to optimize the U-235 loading in the LEU core, such that the differences in K-eff and heat profile …

This report summarizes the results of a three-year program that addressed key scientific and technical aspects related to natural and enhanced attenuation of chlorinated organics. The results from this coordinated three-year program support a variety of technical and regulatory advancements. Scientists, regulators, engineers, end-users and stakeholders participated in the program, which was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC). The overarching objective of the effort was to examine environmental remedies that are based on natural processes--remedies such as Monitored Natural Attenuation (MNA) or Enhanced Attenuation (EA). A key result of the recent effort was the general affirmation of the approaches and guidance in the original U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chlorinated solvent MNA protocols and directives from 1998 and 1999, respectively. The research program did identify several specific opportunities for advances based on: (1) mass balance as the central framework for attenuation based remedies, (2) scientific advancements and achievements during the past ten years, (3) regulatory and policy development and real-world experience using MNA, and (4) exploration of various ideas for integrating attenuation remedies into a systematic set of ''combined remedies'' for contaminated sites. These opportunities are summarized herein and are …