This project concerned the application of a catalytic combustion system that has been married to a micro-turbine device. The catalytic combustion system decomposes the VOC's and transmits these gases to the gas turbine. The turbine has been altered to operate on very low-level BTU fuels equivalent to 1.5% methane in air. The performance of the micro-turbine for VOC elimination has some flexibility with respect to operating conditions, and the system is adaptable to multiple industrial applications. The VOC source that was been chosen for examination was the emissions from coal upgrading operations. The overall goal of the project was to examine the effectiveness of a catalytic combustion based system for elimination of VOCs while simultaneously producing electrical power for local consumption. Project specific objectives included assessment of the feasibility for using a Flex-Microturbine that generates power from natural gas while it consumes VOCs generated from site operations; development of an engineering plan for installation of the Flex-Microturbine system; operation of the micro-turbine through various changes in site and operation conditions; measurement of the VOC destruction quantitatively; and determination of the required improvements for further studies. The micro-turbine with the catalytic bed worked effectively to produce power on levels of fuel …

Patent relating to the composition of epoxy resin, aliphatic amine curing agent and halogenated amine.

This report provides background information on the UAE nuclear program, reviews developments to date, analyzes proposed nuclear cooperation with the United States, and discusses relevant legislative proposals and options.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Carpenter Technology Corporation (CarTech) participated in an in-kind cost share cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) effort under the auspices of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Technology Maturation Program to explore the feasibility for scale up of developmental ORNL alumina-forming austenitic (AFA) stainless steels by conventional casting and rolling techniques. CarTech successfully vacuum melted 301b heats of four AFA alloy compositions in the range of Fe-(20-25)Ni-(12-14)Cr-(3-4)Al-(l-2.5)Nb wt.% base. Conventional hot/cold rolling was used to produce 0.5-inch thick plate and 0.1-inch thick sheet product. ORNL subsequently successfully rolled the 0.1-inch sheet to 4 mil thick foil. Long-term oxidation studies of the plate form material were initiated at 650, 700, and 800 C in air with 10 volume percent water vapor. Preliminary results indicated that the alloys exhibit comparable (good) oxidation resistance to ORNL laboratory scale AFA alloy arc casting previously evaluated. The sheet and foil material will be used in ongoing evaluation efforts for oxidation and creep resistance under related CRADAs with two gas turbine engine manufacturers. This work will be directed to evaluation of AFA alloys for use in gas turbine recuperators to permit higher-temperature operating conditions for improved efficiencies and reduced …

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

Radiocarbon dating is typically an archaeological tool rather than a forensic one. Recently however, we have shown that the amount of radiocarbon present in tooth enamel, as a result of nuclear bomb testing during the cold war, is a remarkably accurate indicator of when a person is born. Enamel isolated from human teeth is processed to form graphite and carbon-14 ({sup 14}C) levels are measured using accelerator mass spectrometry. Since there is no turnover of enamel after it is formed, {sup 14}C levels in the enamel represent {sup 14}C levels in the atmosphere at the time of its formation. In this paper we describe the strategy used to determine the date of birth of an individual based on radiocarbon levels in tooth enamel, focusing on the methodology of this strategy. Year of birth information can significantly assist police investigators when the identity of a deceased individual is unknown. In such cases police will try to match particulars of the unidentified individual (which is often only gender and/or an estimate of age), with particulars from missing persons lists.

Handwritten notes on Dimasa phonology with special focus on vowel quality and final glottals. Includes partial index of examples across multiple Dimasa notebooks.

Assimilate partitioning refers to the systemic distribution of photoassimilate from sites of primary assimilation (source tissue) to import-dependent tissues and organs (sinks). One of the defining questions in this area is how plants balance source productivity with sink demand. We discovered a sucrose-sensing signal transduction pathway that controls the activity of BvSUT1, a proton-sucrose symporter in sugar beet leaf tissue. Sucrose symporters are responsible for sucrose accumulation in the phloem of many plants and, therefore, they mediate the pivotal step in the long-distance transport of photoassimilate to non-photosynthetic tissues, such as roots and seed. We previously showed that sucrose transport activity is directly proportional to the transcription rate of BvSUT1 and that symporter mRNA and protein have high rates of turnover with half-lives on the order of 2 h. We further demonstrated that symporter transcription is regulated by sucrose levels in the leaf and that sucrose-dependent regulation of BvSUT1 transcription is mediated, at least in part, by a protein phosphorylation relay pathway. The goal of the experiments during this current grant were to use genetic and molecular approaches to identify essential components of this vital regulatory system. The initial objectives were to: (1) to characterize Arabidopsis mutants we've isolated that …

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

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This report provides an overview of Medicare, the nation's federal insurance program, which pays for covered health care services of qualified beneficiaries.

Epitaxial films of LiTi{sub 2}O{sub 4} on single crystalline substrates of MgAl{sub 2}O{sub 4}, MgO, and SrTiO{sub 3} provide model systems to systematically explore the effects of lattice strain and microstructural disorder on the superconducting state. Lattice strain that affects bandwidth gives rise to variations in the superconducting and normal state properties. Microstructural disorder, such as antiphase boundaries that give rise to Ti network disorder, reduces the critical temperature, and Ti network disorder combined with Mg interdiffusion lead to a much more dramatic effect on the superconducting state. Surface sensitive X-ray absorption spectroscopy has identified Ti to retain site symmetry and average valence of the bulk material regardless of film thickness.

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

MINOS is an accelerator neutrino oscillation experiment at Fermilab. An intense high energy neutrino beam is produced at Fermilab and sent to a near detector on the Fermilab site and also to a 5 kTon far detector 735 km away in the Soudan mine in northern Minnesota. The experiment has now had several years of running with millions of events in the near detector and hundreds of events recorded in the far detector. I will report on the recent results from this experiment which include precise measurement of |{Delta}m{sup 2}{sub 32}|, analysis of neutral current data to limit the component of sterile neutrinos and the search for {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub e} conversion. The focus will be on the analysis of data for {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub e} conversion. Using data from an exposure of 3.14 x 10{sup 20} protons on target, we have selected electron type events in both the near and the far detector. The near detector is used to measure the background which is extrapolated to the far detector. We have found 35 events in the signal region with a background expectation of 27 {+-} 5(stat) {+-} 2(syst). Using this observation we set a 90% C.L. limit …

One of the activities associated with cleanup throughout the Department of Energy (DOE) complex is packaging radioactive materials into storage containers. Much of this work will be performed in high-radiation environments requiring fully remote operations, for which existing, proven systems do not currently exist. These conditions require a process that is capable of producing acceptable (defect-free) welds on a consistent basis; the need to perform weld repair, under fully-remote operations, can be extremely costly and time consuming. Current closure-welding technologies (fusion welding) are not well suited for this application and will present risk to cleanup cost and schedule. To address this risk, Fluor and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are proposing that a new and emerging joining technology, Friction Stir Welding (FSW), be considered for this work. FSW technology has been demonstrated in other industries (aerospace and marine) to produce near flaw-free welds on a consistent basis. FSW is judged capable of providing the needed performance for fully-remote closure welding of containers for radioactive materials for the following reasons: FSW is a solid-state process; material is not melted. FSW does not produce the type of defects associated with fusion welding, e.g., solidification-induced porosity, cracking, and distortion due to weld …

This fact sheet tracks the current heads of government in Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. It provides the dates of the last and next elections for the head of government and the national independence date for each country.

The objective of this DOE NERI program sponsored project was to assess the feasibility of improving the plutonium (Pu) and minor actinide (MA) recycling capabilities of pressurized water reactors (PWRs) by using hydride instead of oxide fuels. There are four general parts to this assessment: 1) Identifying promising hydride fuel assembly designs for recycling Pu and MAs in PWRs 2) Performing a comprehensive systems analysis that compares the fuel cycle characteristics of Pu and MA recycling in PWRs using the promising hydride fuel assembly designs identified in Part 1 versus using oxide fuel assembly designs 3) Conducting a safety analysis to assess the likelihood of licensing hydride fuel assembly designs 4) Assessing the compatibility of hydride fuel with cladding materials and water under typical PWR operating conditions Hydride fuel was found to offer promising transmutation characteristics and is recommended for further examination as a possible preferred option for recycling plutonium in PWRs.

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

The competition between the addition of polar, oxygen-containing functional groups (functionalization) and the cleavage of C-C bonds (fragmentation) has a governing influence on the change in volatility of organic species upon atmospheric oxidation, and hence on the loading of tropospheric organic aerosol. However the branching between these two channels is generally poorly constrained for oxidized organics. Here we determine functionalization/fragmentation branching ratios for organics spanning a range of oxidation levels, using the heterogeneous oxidation of squalane (C30H62) as a model system. Squalane particles are exposed to high concentrations of OH in a flow reactor, and measurements of particle mass and elemental ratios enable the determination of absolute elemental composition (number of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen atoms) of the oxidized particles. At low OH exposures, the oxygen content of the organics increases, indicating that functionalization dominates, whereas at higher exposures the amount of carbon in the particles decreases, indicating the increasing importance of fragmentation processes. Once the organics are moderately oxidized (O/C~;;0.4), fragmentation completely dominates, and the increase in O/C ratio upon further oxidation is due to the loss of carbon rather than the addition of oxygen. These results suggest that fragmentation reactions may be key steps in the atmospheric formation …

In September 2005, the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) initiated periodic sampling of groundwater in the vicinity of a grain storage facility formerly operated by the CCC/USDA at Morrill, Kansas. The sampling at Morrill is being performed on behalf of the CCC/USDA by Argonne National Laboratory, in accord with a monitoring program approved by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE 2005), to monitor levels of carbon tetrachloride contamination identified in the groundwater at this site (Argonne 2004, 2005a). This report provides results for the most recent monitoring event, in October 2008. Under the KDHE-approved monitoring plan (Argonne 2005b), groundwater was initially sampled twice yearly for a period of two years (in fall 2005, in spring and fall 2006, and in spring and fall 2007). The samples were analyzed for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as for selected geochemical parameters to aid in the evaluation of possible natural contaminant degradation (reductive dechlorination) processes in the subsurface environment. During the two-year period, the originally approved scope of the monitoring was expanded to include vegetation sampling (initiated in October 2006) and surface water and stream bed sediment sampling (initiated in March 2007, after a visual …

This report provides information on current vacancies in the Senate, the constitutional origins of the Senate vacancy clause, the appointment process by which most vacancies are filled, and related contemporary issues.

This report begins with an overview of the fundamental choices involved between a cost (tax) and a quantity (cap) control instrument. This includes a discussion of policy tools that could be employed to bridge the gap between a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade program. Following this overview, the report analyzes the potential advantages and disadvantages of a carbon tax. In many cases, carbon tax attributes are compared with those of a cap-and-trade program. The next section discusses implementation issues for a carbon tax, including where to apply the tax, at what level to set the tax, and options for distributing the tax revenues. The final section provides conclusions.

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

This report discusses the legal issues and addresses policy considerations related to the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI). The CNCI establishes a multi-pronged approach the federal government plans to take in identifying current and emerging cyber threats; shoring up current and future telecommunications and cyber vulnerabilities; and responding to, or proactively addressing, entities that wish to steal or manipulate protected data on secure federal systems.