Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This project investigates and collects fundamental partitioning data for a variety of sparingly soluble subsurface contaminants (e.g., TCE, etc.) between vapor, aqueous phase, and matrices containing substantial quantities of biomass and biomass components. Due to the difficulty of obtaining these measurements, environmental models have generally used solubility constants of chemicals in pure water or, in a few rare cases, simple linear models. Our prior EMSP work has shown that the presence of biological material can increase effective solubilities by an order of magnitude for sparingly soluble organics; therefore, the previous simple approaches are not valid and are extremely poor predictors of actual bio-influenced partitioning. It is likely that environmental contaminants will partition in a similar manner into high-biomass phases (e.g. biobarriers and plants) or humic soils. Biological material in the subsurface can include lipids, fatty acids, humic materials, as well as the lumped and difficult-to-estimate 'biomass'. Our measurements include partition into these biological materials to allow better estimation. Fundamental data collected will be used in mathematical models predicting transport and sorption in subsurface environments, with the impacts on bioremediation being evaluated based on this new information. Our 2-D Win95/98/XP software program, Biofilter 1.0, developed as a part of our prior …

In this CRADA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) assisted nLine Corporation of Austin, TX in the development of prototype semiconductor wafer inspection tools based on the direct-to-digital holographic (DDH) techniques invented at ORNL. Key components of this work included, testing of DDH for detection of defects in High Aspect Ratio (HAR) structures, development of image processing techniques to enhance detection capabilities through the use of both phase and intensity, and development of methods for autofocus on the DDH tools.

The objectives of this project are (a) to synthesize new ionic liquids tailored for the extractive separation of Cs + and Sr 2+; (b) to select optimum macrocyclic extractants through studies of complexation of fission products with macrocyclic extractants and transport in new extraction systems based on ionic liquids; (c) to develop efficient processes to recycle ionic liquids and crown ethers; and (d) to investigate chemical stabilities of ionic liquids under strong acid, strong base, and high-level-radiation conditions.

Semi-monthly newspaper from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

Numerical simulation of geothermal reservoirs is useful and necessary in understanding and evaluating reservoir structure and behavior, designing field development, and predicting performance. Models vary in complexity depending on processes considered, heterogeneity, data availability, and study objectives. They are evaluated using computer codes written and tested to study single and multiphase flow and transport under nonisothermal conditions. Many flow and heat transfer processes modeled in geothermal reservoirs are expected to occur in anthropogenic thermal (AT) systems created by geologic disposal of heat-generating nuclear waste. We examine and compare geothermal systems and the AT system expected at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and their modeling. Time frames and spatial scales are similar in both systems, but increased precision is necessary for modeling the AT system, because flow through specific repository locations will affect long-term ability radionuclide retention. Geothermal modeling experience has generated a methodology, used in the AT modeling for Yucca Mountain, yielding good predictive results if sufficient reliable data are available and an experienced modeler is involved. Codes used in geothermal and AT modeling have been tested extensively and successfully on a variety of analytical and laboratory problems.

Microorganisms have the capacity to modify iron oxides during anaerobic respiration. When the dissimilatory sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio desulfuricans G20 respires soluble sulfate during colonization of the solid-phase iron oxide hematite, the sulfide product reacts with the iron to produce the insoluble iron sulfide, pyrrhotite. When soluble uranium is present as uranyl ion, these microorganisms reduce the U(VI) to U(IV) as insoluble uraninite on the hematite surface. There is also evidence that a stable form of U is produced under these conditions that displays an oxidation state between U(VI) and U(iv). The dissimilatory iron reducing bacterium, Shewanella oneidensis MR1 can utilize insoluble hematite as the sole electron acceptor for anaerobic respiration during growth and biofilm development on the mineral. The growth rate, maximum cell density and detachment rate for this bacterium are significantly greater on hematite than on magnetite (111) and (100). The difference could not be attributed to iron site density in the iron oxide. A gene (ferA) encoding a c-tyoe cytochrome involved in dissimulatory iron reduction in the bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens was completed sequenced and characterized. The sequence information was used to develop an in-situ reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay that could detect expression of the gene during …

This project serves to fill information gap through the development of a novel surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy to selectively and sensitively monitor and characterize the chemical speciation of radionuclides at trace levels. The SERS technique permits both of these measurements to be made simultaneously, and results in significant improvement over current methods in reducing time of analysis, cost, and sample manipulation. Our overall goal is (a) to develop a scientific basis for this new methodology to detect radionuclides via SERS and (b) to rationally synthesize and evaluate novel sol-gel based SERS substrates tailored to sensitively detect and characterize inorganic radionuclides such as TcO4 -, actinyl ions (e.g. UO2 2+, NpO2 +, and PuO2 2+) and other chemical compounds of interest.

Video recording from The Black Academy of Arts and Letters recorded during their Pig Foot and a Bottle of Beer event in 2002. This video features a musical revue performance starring artists Martha Burks and Liz Mikel live on stage at Clarence Muse Café Theatre. This video is Part 1 of 2 of the event.

Video recording from The Black Academy of Arts and Letters recorded during their Pig Foot and a Bottle of Beer event in 2002. This video features a musical revue performance starring artists Martha Burks and Liz Mikel live on stage at Clarence Muse Café Theatre. This video is Part 2 of 2 of the event.

We report on the development of new methods for the computation of spectral bandpass properties of photonic crystals and for the electromagnetic wave propagation in second order nonlinear optical waveguides. The former is based on a generalization of characteristic matrices while the latter is based on path integrals. Accurate and efficient propagation methods and algorithms form the basis for the construction of design tools for integrated optics.