Weekly newspaper from Electra, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Presentation for the 2005 University Scholars Day at the University of North Texas discussing research on electrical stimulation of nerve cell networks growing on microelectrode arrays and stimulation efficiency and entrainment.

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The Endangered Species Act (ESA)1 receives significant congressional attention. The associated power and reach of its comprehensive protection for species identified as endangered or threatened with extinction has ignited concern that there be appropriate bounds on this power. The following discussion provides an overview and background on the various features of the ESA that contribute to its stature and yet spark an ongoing debate over its implementation.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA)1 receives significant congressional attention. The associated power and reach of its comprehensive protection for species identified as endangered or threatened with extinction has ignited concern that there be appropriate bounds on this power. The following discussion provides an overview and background on the various features of the ESA that contribute to its stature and yet spark an ongoing debate over its implementation.

In May 2002, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) signed Assistance Instrument Number DE-FC09-02CH11109 with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to support the Environmental Biosciences Program (EBP). This funding instrument replaces DOE Assistance Instrument Number DE-FC02-98CH10902. EBP is an integrated, multidisciplinary scientific research program, employing a range of research initiatives to identify, study and resolve environmental health risks. These initiatives are consistent with the MUSC role as a comprehensive state-supported health sciences institution and with the nation's need for new and better approaches to the solution of a complex and expansive array of environment-related health problems. The intrinsic capabilities of a comprehensive health sciences institution enable MUSC to be a national resource for the scientific investigation of environmental health issues. EBPs success as a nationally prominent research program is due, in part, to its ability to task-organize scientific expertise from multiple disciplines in addressing these complex problems Current research projects have focused EBP talent and resources on providing the scientific basis for risk-based standards, risk-based decision making and the accelerated clean-up of widespread environmental hazards. These hazards include trichloroethylene (TCE), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and low-dose ionizing radiation. A project is also being conducted in the use of …

A dozen major statutes form the legal basis for the programs of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Many of these have been amended several times. The current provisions of each are briefly summarized in this report. The Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) seeks to prevent pollution through reduced generation of pollutants at their point of origin. The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires EPA to set mobile source limits, ambient air quality standards, hazardous air pollutant emission standards, standards for new pollution sources, and significant deterioration requirements; and to focus on areas that do not attain standards.

Theories of evolving quintessence are constructed that generically lead to deviations from the w = -1 prediction of non-evolving dark energy. The small mass scale that governs evolution, m_\phi \approx 10^-33 eV, is radiatively stable, and the"Why Now?'' problem is solved. These results rest crucially on seesaw cosmology: in broad outline, fundamental physics and cosmology can be understood from only two mass scales, the weak scale, v, and the Planck scale, M. Requiring a scale of dark energy \rho_DE^1/4 governed by v^2/M, and a radiatively stable evolution rate m_\phi given by v^4/M^3, leads to a distinctive form for the equation of state w(z) that follows from a cosine quintessence potential. An explicit hidden axion model is constructed. Dark energy resides in the potential of the axion field which is generated by a new QCD-like force that gets strong at the scale \Lambda \approx v^2/M \approx \rho_DE^1/4. The evolution rate is given by a second seesaw that leads to the axion mass, m_\phi \approx \Lambda^2/f, with f \approx M.

Thermodynamic calculations based on Gibbs free energy in the magnetization-magnetic intensity-temperature (M-H-T) magnetic equation of state space demonstrate that significantly different phase equilibria may result for those material systems where the product and parent phases exhibit different magnetization responses. These calculations show that the Gibbs free energy is changed by a factor equal to -MdH, where M and H are the magnetization and applied field strength, respectively. Magnetic field processing is directly applicable to a multitude of alloys and compounds for dramatically influencing phase stability and phase transformations. This ability to selectively control microstructural stability and alter transformation kinetics through appropriate selection of the magnetic field strength promises to provide a very robust mechanism for developing and tailoring enhanced microstructures (and even nanostructures through accelerated kinetics) with superior properties for a broad spectrum of material applications. For this Industrial Materials for the Future (IMF) Advanced Materials for the Future project, ferrous alloys were studied initially since this alloy family exhibits ferromagnetism over part of its temperature range of stability and therefore would demonstrate the maximum impact of this novel processing mechanism. Additionally, with these ferrous alloys, the high-temperature parent phase, austenite, exhibits a significantly different magnetization response from the potential …

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

In spent nuclear fuel (SNF), the micron- to submicron-sized epsilon phase (Mo-Ru-Pd-Tc-Rh) is an important host of {sup 99}Tc which has a long half life (2.13 x 10{sup 5} years) and can be an important contributor to dose in safety assessments of nuclear waste repositories. In addition, Tc is predominantly present as TcO{sub 4}{sup -} under oxidizing conditions at wide range of pH, weakly adsorbed onto mineral surfaces, and unlikely to be incorporated into alteration uranyl minerals. In the Oklo natural reactor (2.0 Ga), essentially all of the {sup 99}Tc has decayed to {sup 99}Ru. Thus, this study focuses on Ru and the other metals of the epsilon phase in order to investigate the occurrence and the fate of the epsilon phase during the corrosion of this natural SNF. Samples from reactor zone (RZ)-10 (836, 819, 687); from RZ-13 (864, 910); were investigated using TEM (transmission electron microscopy). Within the UO{sub 2} matrix, a Bi-Pd particle (40-60 nm), fioodite, PdBi{sub 2}, was observed with trace amounts of As, Fe, and Te surrounded by an amorphous Pb-rich area. (Pd,Rh){sub 2}As, palladodymite or rhodarsenide, was observed (400-500 nm in size). Ruthenarsinite, (Ru,Ni)As, was identified in most samples: with a representative composition of …

The originally funded project was geared to pursue research on regulation of photosystem II (PSII) in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. We characterized a locus, psfR, (psbA stimulating factor) that affects expression of the psbAI gene, which encodes the PSII protein D1. Over-expression of psfR, which encodes a protein with receiver and pseudo-receiver domains, acts at the promoter region to elevate expression of psbAI and a subset of other loci. We reoriented the remainder of the funding to make a greater impact through completion of a functional genomics project that had been initiated with funding from another agency. The goal is inactivation of each gene individually in the S. elongatus genome, and completion of the entire genome sequence. At the end of the project we will have screened all loci for involvement in circadian rhythms of gene expression and assembled an archived set of clones that can be used to create the mutations to screen for any other phenotype. During the project period we: (1) prepared a functional genomics website for S. elongatus PCC 7942 that posts sequences prior to GenBank release, and presents the strategy and progress for the genomics project (http://www.bio.tamu.edu/synecho/); (2) determined the sequence of and …

Corrosion of tubing used in black-liquor recovery boilers is a major concern in all pulp and paper mills. Extensive corrosion in recovery boiler tubes can result in a significant safety and environmental hazard. Considerable plant resources are expended to inspect recovery boiler tubing. Currently, visual and ultrasonic inspections are primarily used during the annual maintenance shutdown to monitor corrosion rates and cracking of tubing. This Department of Energy, Office of Industrial Technologies project is developing guided acoustic waves for use on recovery boiler tubing. The feature of this acoustic technique is its cost-effectiveness in inspecting long lengths of tubes from a single inspection point. A piezoelectric or electromagnetic transducer induces guided waves into the tubes. The transducer detects fireside defects from the cold side or fireside of the tube. Cracking and thinning on recovery boiler tubes have been detected with this technique in both laboratory and field applications. This technique appears very promising for recovery boiler tube application, potentially expediting annual inspection of tube integrity.

The forest products industry consumes large amounts of energy. Understanding how genetic variation in trees actually controls the characteristics of wood, the major raw material utilized by the industry, is an opportunity for energy savings. For companies that are vertically integrated (i.e., have both tree production and processing operations), energy savings can accrue for both production and processing. Tree production demands nitrogen fertilizers, the manufacture of which is highly energy intensive. Wood processing for paper product manufacturing requires digestion and bleaching, both of which are more efficient when the lignin content of wood is reduced. This project identified genes involved in utilization of nitrogen from fertilizer, and the coupling of nitrogen demand to lignin content, establishing a framework for reducing tree nitrogen demand per unit carbon gained. This creates opportunities for genetic manipulation of trees for greater energy efficiency.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO audited the expenditures of two offices of independent counsel and one office of special counsel for the 6 months ended September 30, 2004."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Fiscal year 2004 marked the first year that federal agencies governmentwide were required to report improper payment information under the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA). The increasing scope of reporting over the past several years has demonstrated that improper payments are a significant and widespread problem in federal agencies, and in the past a limited number of agencies reported in their Performance and Accountability Reports (PAR) annual payment accuracy rates and estimated improper payment amounts. Because of your continued interest in addressing the governmentwide improper payments issue, you asked GAO to report on (1) the extent to which agencies have performed the required assessments to identify programs and activities that are susceptible to significant improper payments and (2) the annual amount estimated for improper payments by the agencies."

A photograph of four young women seated at a table during the 2005 Women of Color Conference. They have cups, bags, and materials in front of them and there are purple booklets placed at each seat.

Weekly newspaper from Garber, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Turbo diesel engine use in passenger cars in Europe has resulted in 30-50% improvement in fuel economy. Diesel engine application is particularly suitable for US because of vehicle size and duty cycle patterns. Adopting this technology for use in the US presents two issues--emissions and driveability. Emissions reduction technology is being well addressed with advanced turbocharging, fuel injection and catalytic aftertreatment systems One way to address driveability is to eliminate turbo lag and increase low speed torque. Electrically assisted turbocharging concepts incorporated in e-Turbo{trademark} designs do both The purpose of this project is to design and develop an electrically assisted turbocharger, e-Turbo{trademark}, for diesel engine use in the US. In this report, early design and development of electrical assist technology is described together with issues and potential benefits. In this early phase a mathematical model was developed and verified. The model was used in a sensitivity study. The results of the sensitivity study together with the design and test of first generation hardware was fed into second generation designs. In order to fully realize the benefits of electrical assist technology it was necessary to expand the scope of work to include technology on the compressor side as well as electronic …

Presentation for the 2005 University Scholars Day at the University of North Texas discussing research on lipids in Caenorhabditis elegans exposed to oxygen deprivation.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.