Article on heterodimeric geranyl(geranyl)diphosphate synthase from hop (Humulus lupulus) and the evolution of monoterpene biosynthesis.

State utility commissions and utilities themselves are actively developing and revising their procedures for the interconnection and net metering of distributed generation. However, the procedures most often used by regulators and utilities as models have not been updated in the past three years, in which time most of the distributed solar facilities in the United States have been installed. In that period, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) has been a participant in more than thirty state utility commission rulemakings regarding interconnection and net metering of distributed generation. With the knowledge gained from this experience, IREC has updated its model procedures to incorporate current best practices. This paper presents the most significant changes made to IREC’s model interconnection and net metering procedures.

In this paper, wintertime precipitation from a variety of observational datasets, regional climate models (RCMs), and general circulation models (GCMs) is averaged over the state of California (CA) and compared. Several averaging methodologies are considered and all are found to give similar values when model grid spacing is less than 3{sup o}. This suggests that CA is a reasonable size for regional intercomparisons using modern GCMs. Results show that reanalysis-forced RCMs tend to significantly overpredict CA precipitation. This appears to be due mainly to overprediction of extreme events; RCM precipitation frequency is generally underpredicted. Overprediction is also reflected in wintertime precipitation variability, which tends to be too high for RCMs on both daily and interannual scales. Wintertime precipitation in most (but not all) GCMs is underestimated. This is in contrast to previous studies based on global blended gauge/satellite observations which are shown here to underestimate precipitation relative to higher-resolution gauge-only datasets. Several GCMs provide reasonable daily precipitation distributions, a trait which doesn't seem tied to model resolution. GCM daily and interannual variability is generally underpredicted.

Results are presented on event-by-event fluctuations of transverse momenta p{sub T} in central Pb+Pb interactions at 20A, 30A, 40A, 80A, and 158A GeV. The analysis was performed for charged particles at forward center-of-mass rapidity (1.1 < y*{sub {pi}} < 2.6). Three fluctuation measures were studied: the distribution of average transverse momentum M(p{sub T}) in the event, the {phi}{sub p{sub T}} fluctuation measure, and two-particle transverse momentum correlations. Fluctuations of p{sub T} are small and show no significant energy dependence in the energy range of the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. Results are compared with QCD-inspired predictions for the critical point, and with the UrQMD model. Transverse momentum fluctuations, similar to multiplicity fluctuations, do not show the increase expected for freeze-out near the critical point of QCD.

This paper presents information and data collected during 2008 on PV workforce needs by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council for the U.S. Department of Energy. The data was collected from licensed contractors, PV practitioners, educators and expert instructors at training sessions, and at focus group and advisory committee meetings. Respondents were primarily from three states: Florida, New York and California. Other states were represented, but to a lesser extent. For data collection, a 12-item questionnaire was developed that addressed key workforce development issues from the perspectives of both the PV industry and training institutions. A total of 63 responses were collected, although not every respondent answered every question. Industry representatives slightly outnumbered the educators, although the difference in responses was not significant.

It is important to control outdoor airflow rates into HVAC systems in terms of energy conservation and healthy indoor environment. Technologies are being developed to measure outdoor air (OA) flow rates through OA intake louvers on a real time basis. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the airflow characteristics through an OA intake louver numerically in order to provide suggestions for sensor installations. Airflow patterns are simulated with and without electronic air velocity sensors within cylindrical probes installed between louver blades or at the downstream face of the louver. Numerical results show quite good agreements with experimental data, and provide insights regarding measurement system design. The simulations indicate that velocity profiles are more spatially uniform at the louver outlet relative to between louver blades, that pressure drops imposed by the sensor bars are smaller with sensor bars at the louver outlet, and that placement of the sensor bars between louver blades substantially increases air velocities inside the louver. These findings suggest there is an advantage to placing the sensor bars at the louver outlet face.

For continued use of coal for power generation, there are needs to: –Improve efficiency –Decrease emissions (esp. CO2) –Use alternate fuels or fuel mixes

Large-volume cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) radiation detectors would greatly improve radiation detection capabilities and, therefore, attract extensive scientific and commercial interests. CZT crystals with volumes as large as hundreds of centimeters can be achieved today due to improvements in the crystal growth technology. However, the poor performance of large-volume CZT detectors is still a challenging problem affecting the commercialization of CZT detectors and imaging arrays. We have employed Pockels effect measurements and synchrotron X-ray mapping techniques to investigate the performance-limiting factors for large-volume CZT detectors. Experimental results with the above characterization methods reveal the non-uniform distribution of internal electric field of large-volume CZT detectors, which help us to better understand the responsible mechanism for the insufficient carrier collection in large-volume CZT detectors.

We report on a reflection microscope that operates at 13.2-nm wavelength with a spatial resolution of 55{+-}3 nm. The microscope uses a table-top EUV laser to acquire images of photolithography masks in 20 seconds.

We validated one year of Global Forecast System (GFS) predictions of surface meteorological variables (wind speed, air temperature, dewpoint temperature, air pressure) over the entire planet for forecasts extending from zero hours into the future (an analysis) to 36 hours. Approximately 12,000 surface stations world-wide were included in this analysis. Root-Mean-Square- Errors (RMSE) increased as the forecast period increased from zero to 36 hours, but the initial RMSE were almost as large as the 36 hour forecast RMSE for all variables. Typical RMSE were 3 C for air temperature, 2-3mb for sea-level pressure, 3.5 C for dewpoint temperature and 2.5 m/s for wind speed. Approximately 20-40% of the GFS errors can be attributed to a lack of resolution of local features. We attribute the large initial RMSE for the zero hour forecasts to the inability of the GFS to resolve local terrain features that often dominate local weather conditions, e.g., mountain- valley circulations and sea and land breezes. Since the horizontal resolution of the GFS (about 1{sup o} of latitude and longitude) prevents it from simulating these locally-driven circulations, its performance will not improve until model resolution increases by a factor of 10 or more (from about 100 km to …

We tested the ability of eddy covariance (EC) to detect, locate, and quantify surface CO{sub 2} flux leakage signals within a background ecosystem. For 10 days starting on 07/09/2007, and for seven days starting on 08/03/2007, 0.1 (Release 1) and 0.3 (Release 2) t CO{sub 2}d{sup -1}, respectively, were released from a horizontal well {approx}100 m in length and {approx}2.5 m in depth located in an agricultural field in Bozeman, MT. An EC station measured net CO{sub 2} flux (F{sub c}) from 06/08/2006 to 09/04/2006 (mean and standard deviation = -12.4 and 28.1 g m{sup -2} d{sup -1}, respectively) and from 05/28/2007 to 09/04/2007 (mean and standard deviation = -12.0 and 28.1 g m{sup -2} d{sup -1}, respectively). The Release 2 leakage signal was visible in the F{sub c} time series, whereas the Release 1 signal was difficult to detect within variability of ecosystem fluxes. To improve detection ability, we calculated residual fluxes (F{sub cr}) by subtracting fluxes corresponding to a model for net ecosystem exchange from F{sub c}. F{sub cr} had reduced variability and lacked the negative bias seen in corresponding F{sub c} distributions. Plotting the upper 90th percentile F{sub cr} versus time enhanced the Release 2 leakage signal. …

Study of solar water heaters by using surface temperature data of solar storage tanks to diagnose proper operations.

In 2008, the “20/20 Vision for the Future” background report by the IAEA Director General identified the possibility of integrating certain activities related to safeguards, safety, and security. Later in the year, the independent Commission report prepared at the request of the IAEA Director General noted that the Agency’s roles in nuclear safeguards, safety, and security (3S) complement and can mutually reinforce each other. Safeguards-by-design (SBD) is a practical measure that strengthens 3S integration, especially for the stage of nuclear facility design and construction, but also with ramifications for other stages of the facility life-cycle. This paper describes the SBD concept, with examples for diverse regulatory environments, being developed in the U.S under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Next Generation Safeguards Initiative and the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative. This is compared with related international SBD work performed in the recent IAEA workshop on “Facility Design and Plant Operation Features that Facilitate the Implementation of IAEA Safeguards”. Potential future directions for further development of SBD and its integration within 3S are identified.

'Study the past--what is past is prologue'. These words appear as the motto on a pair of statues at the National Archives Building in Washington DC. They are also the opening sentence in the preface of a document written in August of 1956 entitled 'A Summary of Accidents and Incidents Involving Radiation in Atomic Energy Activities--June 1945 thru December 1955'. This document, one of several written by D.F. Hayes of the Safety and Fire Protection Branch, Division of Organization and Personnel, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Washington DC, and many others are often forgotten even though they contain valuable glovebox fire protection lessons for us today.

Experimental results on diffraction from the Fermilab Tevatron collider obtained by the CDF experiment are reviewed and compared. We report on the diffractive structure function obtained from dijet production in the range 0 < Q{sup 2} < 10,000 GeV{sup 2}, and on the |t| distribution in the region 0 < |t| < 1 GeV{sup 2} for both soft and hard diffractive events up to Q{sup 2} {approx} 4,500 GeV{sup 2}. Results on single diffractive W/Z production, forward jets, and central exclusive production of both dijets and diphotons are also presented.

Functional rotaxanes are one of the representative nanoscale molecular machines that have found applications in many areas, including molecular electronics, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), photo controllable smart surfaces, and nanovalves. With the advent of molecular recognition and self-assembly, such molecular compounds can now be obtained efficiently through template-directed synthesis. One of the common strategies of making [2]rotaxanes involves the clipping of a macrocycle around a preformed dumbbell-shaped template in a [1+1] or [2+2] manner. While early examples were based on irreversible kinetic pathway through covalent bond formation, recent advances on reversible dynamic covalent chemistry (DCC) has attracted great attention to this field. By virtue of thermodynamically controlled equilibria, DCC has provided highly efficient and versatile synthetic routes in the selection of specific products from a complex system. Among the several reversible reactions in the category of DCC reactions, the imine formation has proven to be very versatile in macrocyclization to give complex interlocked molecular compounds. Cryptands are three dimensional bicyclic hosts with preorganized cavities capable of inclusion of ions and small molecules. Replacing the nitrogen bridgeheads in common cryptands with aromatic ring systems gives cyclophane-based macrobicycles. The introduction of aromatic ring systems into a preorganized cage-like geometry facilitates ion-{pi} interactions and …

The Open Science Grid usage has ramped up more than 25% in the past twelve months due to both the increase in throughput of the core stakeholders - US LHC, LIGO and Run II - and increase in usage by nonphysics communities. It is important to understand the value collaborative projects, such as the OSG, contribute to the scientific community. This needs to be cognizant of the environment of commercial cloud offerings, the evolving and maturing middleware for grid based distributed computing, and the evolution in science and research dependence on computation. We present a first categorization of OSG value and analysis across several different aspects of the Consortium's goals and activities. And lastly, we presents some of the upcoming challenges of LHC data analysis ramp up and our ongoing contributions to the World Wide LHC Computing Grid.

A variety of junction capacitance-based characterization methods were used to investigate alloys of Ag into Cu(In1-xGax)Se2 photovoltaic solar cells over a broad range of compositions. These alloys show encouraging trends of increasing VOC with increasing Ag content, opening the possibility of wide-gap cells for use in tandem device applications. Drive level capacitance profiling (DLCP) has shown very low free carrier concentrations for all Ag-alloyed devices, in some cases less than 1014 cm-3, which is roughly an order of magnitude lower than that of CIGS devices. Transient photocapacitance spectroscopy has revealed very steep Urbach edges, with energies between 10 meV and 20 meV, in the Ag-alloyed samples. This is in general lower than the Urbach edges measured for standard CIGS samples and suggests a significantly lower degree of structural disorder.

We report on results of a Time-of-Flight, TOF, counter prototype in beam tests at SLAC and Fermilab. Using two identical 64-pixel Photonis Microchannel Plate Photomultipliers, MCP-PMTs, to provide start and stop signals, each having a 1 cm-long quartz Cherenkov radiator, we have achieved a timing resolution of {sigma}{sub Single{_}detector} {approx} 14 ps.

A summary of the most recent results on top quark physics obtained at Fermilab's Tevatron proton-antiproton collider, operating at a centre of mass energy of 1.96 TeV, is presented. Measurements of the top pair and single top quark production cross sections, the investigation of top quark decay properties, the precision measurement of the top quark mass as well as searches for physics beyond the standard model are discussed.

Multilateral mechanisms for the fuel cycle are seen as a potentially important way to create an industrial infrastructure that will support a renaissance and at the same time not contribute to the risk of nuclear proliferation. In this way, international nuclear fuel cycle centers for enrichment can help to provide an assurance of supply of nuclear fuel that will reduce the likelihood that individual states will pursue this sensitive technology, which can be used to produce nuclear material directly usable nuclear weapons. Multinational participation in such mechanisms can also potentially promote transparency, build confidence, and make the implementation of IAEA safeguards more effective or more efficient. At the same time, it is important to ensure that there is no dissemination of sensitive technology. The Russian Federation has taken a lead role in this area by establishing an International Uranium Enrichment Center (IUEC) for the provision of enrichment services at its uranium enrichment plant located at the Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Complex (AECC). This paper describes how the IUEe is organized, who its members are, and the steps that it has taken both to provide an assured supply of nuclear fuel and to ensure protection of sensitive technology. It also describes the …

The radiological consequence of interest for a documented safety analysis (DSA) is the centerline Total Effective Dose Equivalent (TEDE) incurred by the Maximally Exposed Offsite Individual (MOI) evaluated at the 95th percentile consequence level. An upgraded version of HotSpot (Version 2.07) has been developed with the capabilities to read site meteorological data and perform the necessary statistical calculations to determine the 95th percentile consequence result. These capabilities should allow HotSpot to join MACCS2 (Version 1.13.1) and GENII (Version 1.485) as radiological consequence toolbox codes in the Department of Energy (DOE) Safety Software Central Registry. Using the same meteorological data file, scenarios involving a one curie release of {sup 239}Pu were modeled in both HotSpot and MACCS2. Several sets of release conditions were modeled, and the results compared. In each case, input parameter specifications for each code were chosen to match one another as much as the codes would allow. The results from the two codes are in excellent agreement. Slight differences observed in results are explained by algorithm differences.

A brief article on the impact of coyotes to deer populations.

The goal of this laboratory / university collaboration of coupled computational and experimental studies is the improvement of predictive methods for supercritical-pressure reactors. The general objective is to develop supporting knowledge needed of advanced computational techniques for the technology development of the concepts and their safety systems.