This report explores the United States' relationship with the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the context of law and civil society programs that promote democratic change in China, discussions of human rights, and public diplomacy programs. This report explores in particular the economics of said relationship, including U.S.-funded programs to promote democratic-leaning policy changes. This report also discusses the opinions of analysts and other experts who both defend and oppose such efforts.

This report discusses recent (2008-2009) pirate attacks on vessels, including United States vessels, in the waters off the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa is sometimes called the Somali Peninsula and includes the nations of Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somalia. This report explores reasons behind the increased number of pirate attacks in recent years, as well as what efforts are being taken to combat said attacks, including those by the 111th Congress and President Obama and his Administration.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Bi-weekly student newspaper from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The Reduced Enrichment Research and Test Reactor (RERTR) Program uses the REBUS-PC computer code to provide reactor physics and core design information such as neutron flux distributions in space, energy, and time, and to track isotopic changes in fuel and neutron absorbers with burnup. REBUS-PC models the complete fuel cycle including shuffling capability. REBUS-PC evolved using the neutronic capabilities of multi-group diffusion theory code DIF3D 9.0, but was extended to apply the continuous energy Monte Carlo code MCNP for one-group fluxes and cross-sections. The linkage between REBUS-PC and MCNP has recently been modernized and extended, as described in this manual. REBUS-PC now calls MCNP via a system call so that the user can apply any valid MCNP executable. The interface between REBUS-PC and MCNP requires minimal changes to an existing MCNP model, and little additional input. The REBUS-MCNP interface can also be used in conjunction with DIF3D neutronics to update an MCNP model with fuel compositions predicted using a DIF3D based depletion.

WIND-TO-HYDROGEN ENERGY PILOT PROJECT: BASIN ELECTRIC POWER COOPERATIVE In an effort to address the hurdles of wind-generated electricity (specifically wind's intermittency and transmission capacity limitations) and support development of electrolysis technology, Basin Electric Power Cooperative (BEPC) conducted a research project involving a wind-to-hydrogen system. Through this effort, BEPC, with the support of the Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota, evaluated the feasibility of dynamically scheduling wind energy to power an electrolysis-based hydrogen production system. The goal of this project was to research the application of hydrogen production from wind energy, allowing for continued wind energy development in remote wind-rich areas and mitigating the necessity for electrical transmission expansion. Prior to expending significant funding on equipment and site development, a feasibility study was performed. The primary objective of the feasibility study was to provide BEPC and The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with sufficient information to make a determination whether or not to proceed with Phase II of the project, which was equipment procurement, installation, and operation. Four modes of operation were considered in the feasibility report to evaluate technical and economic merits. Mode 1 - scaled wind, Mode 2 - scaled wind with off-peak, Mode …

The objective of the verification activities was to provide independent radiological surveys and data for use by the Department of Energy (DOE) to ensure that the building satisfies the requirements for release without radiological controls.

An experiment was designed to test the theory that biased electrodes can affect the local scrape-off layer (SOL) width by creating a strong radial ExB drift [Cohen, R.H. and Ryutov, D.D, Nucl. Fusion 37, 621 (1997)]. These electrodes were located near the outer midplane in the SOL of the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). The electrodes were biased at up to �100 Volts, and the radial profile of the plasma between them was measured by an array of Langmuir probes. The biasing caused large changes in the local SOL profiles at least qualitatively consistent with this theory.

We report time-resolved studies of hydrogen bonding in liquid H2O, in response to direct excitation of the O-H stretch mode at 3 mu m, probed via soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy at the oxygen K-edge. This approach employs a newly developed nanofluidic cell for transient soft x-ray spectroscopy in liquid phase. Distinct changes in the near-edge spectral region (XANES) are observed, and are indicative of a transient temperature rise of 10K following transient laser excitation and rapid thermalization of vibrational energy. The rapid heating occurs at constant volume and the associated increase in internal pressure, estimated to be 8MPa, is manifest by distinct spectral changes that differ from those induced by temperature alone. We conclude that the near-edge spectral shape of the oxygen K-edge is a sensitive probe of internal pressure, opening new possibilities for testing the validity of water models and providing new insight into the nature of hydrogen bonding in water.

Active neutron interrogation has been demonstrated to be an effective method of detecting shielded fissile material. A fast fall-time/fast pulsing neutron generator is needed primarily for differential die-away technique (DDA) interrogation systems. A compact neutron generator, currently being developed in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, employs an array of 0.6-mm-dia apertures (instead of one 6-mm-dia aperture) such that gating the beamlets can be done with low voltage and a small gap to achieve sub-microsecond ion beam fall time and low background neutrons. Arrays of 16 apertures (4x4) and 100 apertures (10x10) have been designed and fabricated for a beam extraction experiment. The preliminary results showed that, using a gating voltage of 1200 V and a gap distance of 1 mm, the fall time of extracted ion beam pulses is approximately 0.15 mu s at beam energies of 1000 eV.

Metallic interconnect acts as a gas separator and a gas distributor and therefore, it needs to function adequately in two widely different environments. The interconnect material will be exposed to air on one side and natural gas or coal-derived synthesis gas on the other side. The viable material for the interconnect application must be resistant not only to oxidation but also carburization in hydrocarbon containing low-oxygen environments. In addition, the scales that develop on the exposed surfaces must possess adequate electrical conductivity for them to function as current leads over long service life of the fuel cell. This report addresses five topics of interest for the development of metallic interconnects with adequate performance in fuel cells for long service life. The research conducted over the years and the conclusions reached were used to identify additional areas of research on materials for improved performance of components, especially metallic interconnects, in the complex fuel cell environments. This report details research conducted in the following areas: measurement of area specific electrical resistivity, corrosion performance in dual gas environments by experiments using alloy 446, long term corrosion performance of ferritic and austenitic alloys in hydrogen and methane-reformed synthesis fuel-gas environments, approaches to reduce the …

The atomic-scale restructuring of hex-Pt(100) induced by carbon monoxide with a wide pressure range was studied with a newly designed chamber-in-chamber high-pressure STM and theoretical calculations. Both experimental and DFT calculation results show that CO molecules are bound to Pt nanoclusters through a tilted on-top configuration with a separation of {approx}3.7-4.1 {angstrom}. The phenomenon of restructuring of metal catalyst surfaces induced by adsorption, and in particular the formation of small metallic clusters suggests the importance of studying structures of catalyst surfaces under high pressure conditions for understanding catalytic mechanisms.

Interesting discharge phenomena are observed that have to do with the interaction between the magnetized Hall thruster plasma and the neutralizing cathode. The steadystate parameters of a highly ionized thruster discharge are strongly influenced by the electron supply from the cathode. The enhancement of the cathode electron emission above its self-sustained level affects the discharge current and leads to a dramatic reduction of the plasma divergence and a suppression of large amplitude, low frequency discharge current oscillations usually related to an ionization instability. These effects correlate strongly with the reduction of the voltage drop in the region with the fringing magnetic field between the thruster channel and the cathode. The measured changes of the plasma properties suggest that the electron emission affects the electron cross-field transport in the thruster discharge. These trends are generalized for Hall thrusters of various configurations.

Scientific computing makes use of very large, multidimensional numerical arrays - typically, gigabytes to terabytes in size - much larger than can fit on even the largest single compute node. Such arrays must be distributed across a "cluster" of nodes. Global Arrays is a cluster-based software system from Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that enables an efficient, portable, and parallel shared-memory programming interface to manipulate these arrays. Written in and for the C and FORTRAN programming languages, it takes advantage of high-performance cluster interconnections to allow any node in the cluster to access data on any other node very rapidly. The "numpy" module is the de facto standard for numerical calculation in the Python programming language, a language whose use is growing rapidly in the scientific and engineering communities. numpy provides a powerful N-dimensional array class as well as other scientific computing capabilities. However, like the majority of the core Python modules, numpy is inherently serial. Our system, GAiN (Global Arrays in NumPy), is a parallel extension to Python that accesses Global Arrays through numpy. This allows parallel processing and/or larger problem sizes to be harnessed almost transparently within new or existing numpy programs.

Project Objectives: 1. Promote energy efficiency concepts in undergraduate and graduate education. 2. Stimulate and interest in pulp and paper industrial processes, which promote and encourage activities in the area of manufacturing design efficiency. 3. Attract both industrial and media attention. Background and executive Summary: In 1997, the Institute of Paper Science and Technology in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy developed a university design competition with an orientation to the Forest Products Industry. This university design competition is in direct alignment with DOE’s interests in instilling in undergraduate education the concepts of developing energy efficient processes, minimizing waste, and providing environmental benefits and in maintaining and enhancing the economic competitiveness of the U.S. forest products industry in a global environment. The primary focus of the competition is projects, which are aligned with the existing DOE Agenda 2020 program for the industry and the lines of research being established with the colleges comprising the Pulp and Paper Education and Research Alliance (PPERA). The six design competitions were held annually for the period 1999 through 2004.

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide, ZnO:Al or AZO, is a well-known n-type transparent conducting oxide with great potential in a number of applications currently dominated by indium tin oxide (ITO). In this study, the optical and electrical properties of AZO thin films deposited on glass and silicon by pulsed filtered cathodic arc deposition are systematically studied. In contrast to magnetron sputtering, this technique does not produce energetic negative ions, and therefore ion damage can be minimized. The quality of the AZO films strongly depends on the growth temperature while only marginal improvements are obtained with post-deposition annealing. The best films, grown at a temperature of about 200?C, have resistivities in the low to mid 10-4 Omega cm range with a transmittance better than 85percent in the visible part of the spectrum. It is remarkable that relatively good films of small thickness (60 nm) can be fabricated using this method.

We evaluate the accuracy of density functional theory quantum calculations of biomolecular subsystems using a simple electrostatic embedding scheme. Our scheme is based on dividing the system of interest into a primary and secondary subsystem. A finite difference discretization of the Kohn-Sham equations is used for the primary subsystem, while its electrostatic environment is modeled with a simple one-electron potential. Force-field atomic partial charges are used to generate smeared Gaussian charge densities and to model the secondary subsystem. We illustrate the utility of this approach with calculations of truncated dipeptide chains. We analyze quantitatively the accuracy of this approach by calculating atomic forces and comparing results with fullQMcalculations. The impact of the choice made in terminating dangling bonds at the frontier of the QM region is also investigated.

This report focuses on the implications that certain elements of China's military modernization may have for future required U.S. Navy capabilities. This report is based on unclassified open-source information.

This report focuses on the potential implications of China's naval modernization for future required U.S. Navy capabilities. This report is based on unclassified open-source information, such as the annual Department of Defense (DOD) report to Congress on China's military power, and published reference sources such as Jane's Fighting Ships.

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