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

We have developed interatomic potentials for Pt-Ni and Pt-Re alloys within the modified embedded atom method (MEAM). Furthermore, we applied these potentials to study the equilibrium structures of Pt75Ni25 and Pt75Re25 nanoparticles at T=600 K using the Monte Carlo method. In this work, the nanoparticles are assumed to have disordered fcc cubo-octahedral shapes (terminated by {l_brace}111{r_brace} and {l_brace}100{r_brace} facets) and contain from 586 to 4033 atoms (corresponding to a diameter from 2.5 to 5 nm). It was found that, due to surface segregation, (1) the Pt75Ni25 nanoparticles form a surface-sandwich structure: the Pt atoms are enriched in the outermost and third atomic shells, while the Ni atoms are enriched in the second atomic shell; (2) the equilibrium Pt75Re25 nanoparticles adopt a core-shell structure: a Pt-enriched shell surrounding a Pt-deficient core.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The security of the nation's commercial aviation system has been a long-standing concern. Following the events of September 11, 2001, Congress enacted numerous aviation security improvements designed to strengthen aviation security, including the development of a passenger prescreening system and the federalization of airport screeners. Despite these changes, challenges continue to face the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) efforts to improve aviation security. GAO was asked to summarize the results of previous and ongoing aviation security work. These include: (1) the development of CAPPS II to assist in identifying high-risk passengers, (2) the management of passenger and baggage screening programs, (3) the operations of the Federal Air Marshal Service, and (4) other aviations security related efforts, such as cargo, that remain a concern."

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas 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.

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

Dimensionality is an important factor to govern the electronic structures of semiconductor nanocrystals. The quantum confinement energies in one-dimensional quantum wires and zero-dimensional quantum dots are quite different. Using large-scale first-principles calculations, we systematically study the electronic structures of semiconductor (including group IV, III-V, and II-VI) surface-passivated quantum wires and dots. The band-gap energies of quantum wires and dots have the same scaling with diameter for a given material. The ratio of band-gap-increases between quantum wires and dots is material-dependent, and slightly deviates from 0.586 predicted by effective-mass approximation. Highly linear polarization of photoluminescence in quantum wires is found. The degree of polarization decreases with the increasing temperature and size.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Computerized control systems perform vital functions across many of our nation's critical infrastructures. For example, in natural gas distribution, they can monitor and control the pressure and flow of gas through pipelines. In October 1997, the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection emphasized the increasing vulnerability of control systems to cyber attacks. At the request of the House Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census, this testimony will discuss GAO's March 2004 report on potential cyber vulnerabilities, focusing on (1) significant cybersecurity risks associated with control systems (2) potential and reported cyber attacks against these systems (3) key challenges to securing control systems, and (4) efforts to strengthen the cybersecurity of control systems."

Modular Pebble Bed Reactor (MPBR) is a high temperature gas-cooled nuclear power reactor currently under study as a next generation reactor system. In addition to its inherently safe design, a unique feature of this reactor is its multi-pass fuel circulation in which the fuel pebbles are randomly loaded and continuously cycled through the core until they reach their prescribed End-of-Life burn-up limit. Unlike the situation with a conventional light water reactor, depending solely on computational methods to perform in-core fuel management for MPBR will be highly inaccurate. An on-line measurement system is needed to accurately assess whether a given pebble has reached its End-of-Life burn-up limit and thereby provide an on-line, automated go/no-go decision on fuel disposition on a pebble-by-pebble basis. This project investigated approaches to analyzing fuel pebbles in real time using gamma spectroscopy and possibly using passive neutron counting of spontaneous fission neutrons to provide the speed, accuracy, and burn-up range required for burnup determination of MPBR. It involved all phases necessary to develop and construct a burn-up monitor, including a review of the design requirements of the system, identification of detection methodologies, modeling and development of potential designs, and finally, the construction and testing of an operational …

Paper describing a plan of work to develop and test an alternative approach for interoperability testing. This approach builds on the conceptual and technical infrastructure developed during the Z-Interop Project.

This report describes the results of a research project to develop and evaluate the performance of new Automated Demand Response (Auto-DR) hardware and software technology in large facilities. Demand Response (DR) is a set of activities to reduce or shift electricity use to improve electric grid reliability, manage electricity costs, and ensure that customers receive signals that encourage load reduction during times when the electric grid is near its capacity. The two main drivers for widespread demand responsiveness are the prevention of future electricity crises and the reduction of electricity prices. Additional goals for price responsiveness include equity through cost of service pricing, and customer control of electricity usage and bills. The technology developed and evaluated in this report could be used to support numerous forms of DR programs and tariffs. For the purpose of this report, we have defined three levels of Demand Response automation. Manual Demand Response involves manually turning off lights or equipment; this can be a labor-intensive approach. Semi-Automated Response involves the use of building energy management control systems for load shedding, where a preprogrammed load shedding strategy is initiated by facilities staff. Fully-Automated Demand Response is initiated at a building or facility through receipt of …

We have developed a method of calculation of the dielectrophoretic force on a nanoparticle in a fluid environment where variations in the electric field and electric field gradients are on the same nanoscale as the particle. The Boundary Element Dielectrophoretic Force (BEDF) method involves constructing a solvent-accessible or molecular surface surrounding the particle, calculating the normal component of the electric field at the surface boundary elements and then solving a system of linear equations for the induced surface polarization charge on each element. Different surface elements of the molecule may experience quite different polarizing electric fields, unlike the situation in the point dipole approximation. A single 100 Angstrom radius ring test configuration is employed to facilitate comparison with the well-known point dipole approximation (PDA). We find remarkable agreement between the forces calculated by the BEDF and PDA methods for a 1 Angstrom polarizable sphere. However, for larger particles, the differences between the methods become qualitative as well as quantitative; the character of the force changes from attractive at the origin of the ring for a 50 Angstrom sphere, to repulsive for a 75 Angstrom sphere. Equally dramatic differences are found in a more complex electrical environment involving two sets of …

The DVD based integrated pulser combines the storage capacity and simplicity of DVD technology with commonly available electronic components to build a relatively inexpensive yet highly capable testing instrument. DVD technology has matured to the mass consumer level and has found widespread acceptance in many scientific, industrial, and consumers sectors. Coupling the removable media and relatively large data capacity with a simple electronic readout allows this device to be easy to build, export and authenticate. Since there are few parts and the heart of the device is a mass consumer item the duplication cost is very low.

Atomistic semiempirical pseudopotential method is used to study the effects of stacking faults in a wurtzite structure quantum rod. It is found that a single stacking fault can cause a 10-50 meV change in the conduction state eigen energy, and a localization in the electron wave function. However, the effects on the hole eigen energies and wave functions are very small.

Data Center facilities, prevalent in many industries and institutions are essential to California's economy. Energy intensive data centers are crucial to California's industries, and many other institutions (such as universities) in the state, and they play an important role in the constantly evolving communications industry. To better understand the impact of the energy requirements and energy efficiency improvement potential in these facilities, the California Energy Commission's PIER Industrial Program initiated this project with two primary focus areas: First, to characterize current data center electricity use; and secondly, to develop a research ''roadmap'' defining and prioritizing possible future public interest research and deployment efforts that would improve energy efficiency. Although there are many opinions concerning the energy intensity of data centers and the aggregate effect on California's electrical power systems, there is very little publicly available information. Through this project, actual energy consumption at its end use was measured in a number of data centers. This benchmark data was documented in case study reports, along with site-specific energy efficiency recommendations. Additionally, other data center energy benchmarks were obtained through synergistic projects, prior PG&E studies, and industry contacts. In total, energy benchmarks for sixteen data centers were obtained. For this project, a …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy (Energy) and its predecessor agencies and contractors have employed thousands of people in the nuclear weapons production complex. Some employees were exposed to toxic substances, including radioactive and hazardous materials, during this work, and many subsequently developed illnesses. Subtitle D of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 allows Energy to help its contractor employees file state workers' compensation claims for illnesses determined by a panel of physicians to be caused by exposure to toxic substances in the course of employment at an Energy facility. Congress mandated that GAO study the effectiveness of the benefit program under Subtitle D of this Act. This testimony is based on GAO's ongoing work on this issue and focuses on four key areas: (1) the number, status, and characteristics of claims filed with Energy; (2) the extent to which Energy policies and procedures help employees file timely claims for these state benefits; (3) the extent to which there will be a "willing payer" of workers' compensation benefits, that is, an insurer who--by order from or agreement with Energy--will not contest these claims; and (4) a …

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

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

The work performed during the UCR Innovative Concepts phase I program was designed to demonstrate the chemical sensing capabilities of nano-cermet SPR bands at solid oxide fuel cell operating conditions. Key to this proposal is that the materials choice used a YSZ ceramic matrix which upon successful demonstration of this concept, will allow integration directly onto the SOFC stack. Under the Innovative Concepts Program the University at Albany Institute for Materials (UAIM)/UAlbany School of NanoSciences and NanoEngineering synthesized, analyzed and tested Pa, and Au doped YSZ nano-cermets as a function of operating temperature and target gas exposure (hydrogen, carbon monoxide and 1-dodecanethiol). During the aforementioned testing procedure the optical characteristics of the nano-cermets were monitored to determine the sensor selectivity and sensitivity.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The safety of the U.S. food supply is governed by a highly complex system of more than 30 laws administered by 12 agencies. In light of the recent focus on government reorganization, it is time to ask whether the current system can effectively and efficiently respond to today's challenges. At the request of the Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization, we reviewed and summarized our work on the safety and security of the food supply regarding (1) the fragmented legal and organizational structure of the federal food safety system, (2) the consequences of overlapping and inconsistent inspection and enforcement, and (3) options for consolidating food safety functions."

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A charge patching method and an idealized surface passivation are used to calculate the single electronic states of IV-IV, III-V, II-VI semiconductor quantum dots up to a thousand atoms. This approach scales linearly and has a 1000 fold speed-up compared to direct first principle methods with a cost of eigen energy error of about 20 meV. The calculated quantum dot band gaps are parametrized for future references.

This report examines the effects of an Alaska natural gas pipeline on the U.S. current account balance.