March report of the U.S. Congressional Oversight Panel describing their activities and findings regarding the current state of mortgage performance across the country, including sections on foreclosures and current government policy.

February report of the U.S. Congressional Oversight Panel describing their activities and findings regarding the valuation of the U.S. Treasury's policy of investing capital in financial institutions through the Troubles Asset Relief Program (TARP).

November report of the U.S. Congressional Oversight Panel describing their activities and findings regarding the U.S. Treasury's Guarantee Program, including an overview of Guarantees in general, and the effectiveness and impacts of the Treasury's programs.

We present a novel synchrotron endstation with a flow-through liquid cell designed to study the electronic structure of liquids using soft x-ray spectroscopies. In this cell, the liquid under study is separated from the vacuum by a thin window membrane, such that the sample liquid can be investigated at ambient pressure. The temperature of the probing volume can be varied in a broad range and with a fast temperature response. The optimized design of the cell significantly reduces the amount of required sample liquid and allows the use of different window membrane types necessary to cover a broad energy range. The liquid cell is integrated into the solid and liquid spectroscopic analysis SALSA endstation that includes a high-resolution, high-transmission x-ray spectrometer and a state-of-the-art electron analyzer. The modular design of SALSA also allows the measurement of solid-state samples. The capabilities of the liquid cell and the x-ray spectrometer are demonstrated using a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering map of a 25 wt percent NaOD solution.

The project objective is to demonstrate high efficiency white emitting OLED devices with a target luminous efficiency between 100 1m/W and 150 1m/W with integrated microcavity structure and down conversion phosphors. The main focus of this work will be on three areas: (1) demonstration of a 2X reduction in OLED device operating voltage by employing the appropriate dopants in the carrier transporting layers; (2) demonstration of a 3X light out-coupling efficiency enhancement by incorporating microcavity structure in the OLED devices; and (3) demonstration of a 2X down-conversion efficiency enhancement (from blue to white) using phosphors.

Western Research Institute in conjunction with Sierra West Consultants, Inc., Tetra Tech, Inc., and the U.S. Department of Energy conducted laboratory and field studies to test different approaches to enhance degradation of hydrocarbons and associated contaminants. WRI in conjunction with Sierra West Consultants, Inc., conducted a laboratory and field study for using ozone to treat a site contaminated with MTBE and other hydrocarbons. Results from this study demonstrate that a TOD test can be used to resolve the O{sub 3} dosage problem by establishing a site-specific benchmark dosage for field ozone applications. The follow-up testing of the laboratory samples provided indications that intrinsic biodegradation could be stimulated by adding oxygen. Laboratory studies also suggests that O3 dosage in the full-scale field implementation could be dialed lower than stoichiometrically designed to eliminate the formation of Cr(VI). WRI conducted a study involving a series of different ISCO oxidant applications to diesel-contaminated soil and determined the effects on enhancing biodegradation to degrade the residual hydrocarbons. Soils treated with permanganate followed by nutrients and with persulfate followed by nutrients resulted in the largest decrease in TPH. The possible intermediates and conditions formed from NOM and TPH oxidation by permanganate and activated persulfate favors microbial …

Report including the background, reserach and recommendations to expand the current DHS HS-STEM Career Development Program.

FY08 annual report for project the "Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence Imaging" project. Reviews accomplishments of last 3 years, including U-235 signature search, comparison of different photon sources, and examination of NRF measurements using monochromatic photon source.

A LIFE laser driver needs to be designed and operated which meets the rigorous requirements of the NIF laser system while operating at high average power, and operate for a lifetime of >30 years. Ignition on NIF will serve to demonstrate laser driver functionality, operation of the Mercury laser system at LLNL demonstrates the ability of a diode-pumped solid-state laser to run at high average power, but the operational lifetime >30 yrs remains to be proven. A Laser Technology test Facility (LTF) has been designed to specifically address this issue. The LTF is a 100-Hz diode-pumped solid-state laser system intended for accelerated testing of the diodes, gain media, optics, frequency converters and final optics, providing system statistics for billion shot class tests. These statistics will be utilized for material and technology development as well as economic and reliability models for LIFE laser drivers.

The interaction between slow highly-charged ions (SHCI) of different charge states from an electron-beam ion trap and highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surfaces is studied in terms of modification of electronic states at single-ion impact nanosizeareas. Results are presented from AFM/STM analysis of the induced-surface topological features combined with Raman spectroscopy. I-V characteristics for a number of different impact regions were measured with STM and the results argue for possible formation of diamond-like nanoscale structures at the impact sites.

Phase change heat transfer is notorious for increasing the irreversibility of, and therefore decreasing the efficiency of, geothermal power plants. Its significant contribution to the overall irreversibility of the plant makes it the most important source of inefficiency in the process. Recent studies here have shown the promotion of drop wise condensation in the lab by means of increasing the surface energy density of a tube with nanotechnology. The use of nanotechnology has allowed the creation of surface treatments which discourage water from wetting a tube surface during a static test. These surface treatments are unique in that they create high- contact angles on the condensing tube surfaces to promote drop wise condensation.

New single-family home construction represents a significant and important market for the introduction of energy-efficient gas-fired space heating and water-heating equipment. In the new construction market, the choice of furnace and water-heater type is primarily driven by first cost considerations and the availability of power vent and condensing water heaters. Few analysis have been performed to assess the economic impacts of the different combinations of space and water-heating equipment. Thus, equipment is often installed without taking into consideration the potential economic and energy savings of installing space and water-heating equipment combinations. In this study, we use a life-cycle cost analysis that accounts for uncertainty and variability of the analysis inputs to assess the economic benefits of gas furnace and water-heater design combinations. This study accounts not only for the equipment cost but also for the cost of installing, maintaining, repairing, and operating the equipment over its lifetime. Overall, this study, which is focused on US single-family new construction households that install gas furnaces and storage water heaters, finds that installing a condensing or power-vent water heater together with condensing furnace is the most cost-effective option for the majority of these houses. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the new construction residential …

Two different cobaltites, LaCoO{sub 3} and La{sub 0.5}Sr{sub 0.5}CoO{sub 3-{delta}}, have been prepared and characterized by means of high energy Co K-edge and low energy O K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The partial substitution of La(III) by Sr(II) species induces important changes in the reactivity and electronic state of the perovskite, while little or no changes can be detected in the formal oxidation state of cobalt atoms. The presence of strontium cations induces two main effects in the chemical and electronic behavior of the perovskite. The charge balance with Sr(II) species is reached by the formation of oxygen vacancies throughout the network, which increases the reactivity of the perovskite, now more reducible than the original LaCoO{sub 3} perovskite. O K-edge XAS experiments indicate that the Sr(II) species cause d electrons of cobalt cations to change from low to high spin configuration. Our data allow us to propose that this change in spin multiplicity is induced by the bigger size of Sr(II) cations, which aligns the Co-O-Co atoms, and favors the overlapping of {pi}-symmetry cobalt and oxygen orbitals, reducing the splitting energy of e{sub g} and t{sub 2g} levels.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) wrote the 'Fisheries Mitigation Plan for Losses Attributable to the Construction and Operation of Hungry Horse Dam' in March 1991 to define the fisheries losses, mitigation alternatives and recommendations to protect, mitigate and enhance resident fish and aquatic habitat affected by Hungry Horse Dam. On November 12, 1991, the Northwest Power Planning Council (NPPC) approved the mitigation plan with minor modifications, called for a detailed implementation plan, and amended measures 903(h)(1) through (7). A long-term mitigation plan was submitted in August 1992, was approved by the Council in 1993, and the first contract for this project was signed on November 11, 1993. The problem this project addresses is the loss of habitat, both in quality and quantity, in the Flathead Lake and River basin resulting from the construction and operation of Hungry Horse Dam. The purpose of the project is to both implement mitigation measures and monitor the biological responses to those measures including those implemented by Project Numbers 9101903 and 9101904. Goals and objectives of the 1994 Fish and Wildlife Program (Section 10.1) addressed by this project are the rebuilding to sustainable levels weak, but …

We present the history and analysis of different wake field effects throughout the operational life of the PEP-II SLAC B-factory. Although the impedance of the high and low energy rings is small, the intense high current beams generated a lot of power. The effects from these wake fields are: heating and damage of vacuum beam chamber elements like RF seals, vacuum valves , shielded bellows, BPM buttons and ceramic tiles; vacuum spikes, vacuum instabilities and high detector background; beam longitudinal and transverse instabilities. We also discuss the methods used to eliminate these effects. Results of this analysis and the PEP-II experience may be very useful in the design of new storage rings and light sources.

Summary of this report is: (1) aggressive implementation of metadata; (2) higher confidence in spatial data and organizational structure; (3) improved data sharing between Hanford and neighboring government agencies; and (4) improved data sharing and management reduce unnecessary cost to DOE and the American taxpayer.

Fields induced by a beam and penetrated outside the beam pipe can be used for a beam diagnostic. Wires placed in longitudinal slots in the outside wall of the beam pipe can work as a beam pickup. This has very small beam-coupling impedance and avoids complications of having a feed-through. The signal can be reasonably high at low frequencies. We calculate the beam-coupling impedance due to a long longitudinal slot in the resistive wall and the signal induced in a wire placed in such a slot and shielded by a thin screen from the beam. We present a field waveform at the outer side of a beam pipe, obtained as a result of calculations and measurements. Such kind of diagnostic can be used in storage rings, synchrotron light sources, and free electron lasers, like LINAC coherent light source.

The environmentally benign, non-toxic, non-flammable fluids water and carbon dioxide (CO2) are the two most abundant and inexpensive solvents on earth. Emulsions of these fluids are of interest in many industrial processes, as well as CO2 sequestration and enhanced oil recovery. Until recently, formation of these emulsions required stabilization with fluorinated surfactants, which are expensive and often not environmentally friendly. In this work we overcame this severe limitation by developing a fundamental understanding of the properties of surfactants the CO2-water interface and using this knowledge to design and characterize emulsions stabilized with either hydrocarbon-based surfactants or nanoparticle stabilizers. We also discovered a new concept of electrostatic stabilization for CO2-based emulsions and colloids. Finally, we were able to translate our earlier work on the synthesis of silicon and germanium nanocrystals and nanowires from high temperatures and pressures to lower temperatures and ambient pressure to make the chemistry much more accessible.

We show that there exists an exponentially large discretuum of vacua in G{sub 2}-compactifications of M-theory without flux. In M-theory-inspired G{sub 2}-MSSM, quantities relevant for particle physics remain virtually insensitive to large variations of the vacuum energy across the landscape. The purely non-perturbative vacua form a special subset of a more general class of vacua containing fractional Chern-Simons contributions. The cosmological constant can be dynamically neutralized via a chain of transitions interpolated by fractional gauge instantons describing spontaneous nucleation of M2-brane domain walls. Each transition is generically accompanied by a gauge symmetry breaking in some sector of the theory. In particular, the visible sector GUT symmetry breaking can likewise be triggered by a spontaneous nucleation of an M2-brane.

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Highly mobile incandescent dust particles are routinely observed on NSTX using two fast cameras operating in the visible region. An analysis method to reconstruct dust particle trajectories in space using two fast cameras is presented in this paper. Position accuracies of a few millimeters depending on the particle's location have been achieved and particle velocities between 10 and 200 m/s have been observed. 2008 American Institute of Physics. __________________________________________________

We give an overview of wake fields and impedances in a proposed Super B project, which is based on extremely low emittance beams colliding at a large angle with a crab waist transformation. Understanding the effects that wake fields have on the beam is critical for a successful machine operation. We use our combined experience from the operation of the SLAC B-factory and DA{Phi}NE {Phi}-factory to eliminate strong HOM sources and minimize the chamber impedance in the Super B design. Based on a detailed study of the wake fields in this design we have developed a quasi-Green's function for the entire ring that is used to study bunch lengthening and beam stability. In particular, we check the stability threshold using numerical solutions of the Fokker-Plank equation. We also make a comparison of numerical simulations with the bunch lengthening data in the B- factory.

The single-well injection withdrawal (SWIW) test, a tracer test utilizing only one well, is proposed as a useful contribution to site characterization of fractured rock, as well as providing parameters relevant to tracer diffusion and sorption. The usual conceptual model of flow and solute transport through fractured rock with low matrix permeability involves solute advection and dispersion through a fracture network coupled with diffusion and sorption into the surrounding rock matrix. Unlike two-well tracer tests, results of SWIW tests are ideally independent of advective heterogeneity, channeling and flow dimension, and, instead, focus on diffusive and sorptive characteristics of tracer (solute) transport. Thus, they can be used specifically to study such characteristics and evaluate the diffusive parameters associated with tracer transport through fractured media. We conduct simulations of SWIW tests on simple and complex fracture models, the latter being defined as having two subfractures with altered rock blocks in between and gouge material in their apertures. Using parameters from the Aspo site in Sweden, we calculate and study SWIW tracer breakthrough curves (BTCs) from a test involving four days of injection and then withdrawal. By examining the peak concentration C{sub pk} of the SWIW BTCs for a variety of parameters, we …

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