A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The nation has experienced vast losses from natural hazards. The potential for future events, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, demonstrates the importance of hazard mitigation--actions that reduce the long-term risks to life and property from natural hazard events. GAO was asked to examine (1) natural hazards that present a risk to life and property in the United States, areas that are most susceptible to them, factors that may be increasing these risks, and mitigation activities that reduce losses; (2) methods for encouraging and impediments to implementing mitigation activities; and (3) collaborative efforts of federal agencies and other stakeholders to promote mitigation. To address these objectives, GAO collected and analyzed hazard data, reviewed population information, conducted site visits to locations with comprehensive mitigation programs, and collected information from relevant agencies and officials."

Round wire Bi 2212 is emerging as a viable successor ofNb3Sn in High Energy Physics and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, to generatemagnetic fields that surpass the intrinsic limitations of Nb3Sn. Ratherbold claims are made on achievable magnetic fields in applications usingBi 2212, due to the materials' estimated critical magnetic field of 100 Tor higher. High transport currents in high magnetic fields, however, leadto large stress on, and resulting large strain in the superconductor. Theeffect of strain on the critical properties of Bi-2212 is far fromunderstood, and strain is, as with Nb3Sn, often treated as a secondaryparameter in the design of superconducting magnets. Reversibility of thestrain induced change of the critical surface of Nb3Sn, points to anelectronic origin of the observed strain dependence. Record breaking highfield magnets are enabled by virtue of such reversible behavior. Straineffects on the critical surface of Bi-2212, in contrast, are mainlyirreversible and suggest a non-electronic origin of the observed straindependence, which appears to be dominated by the formation of cracks inthe superconductor volumes. A review is presented of available results onthe effects of strain on the critical surface of Bi-2212, Bi-2223 andYBCO. It is shown how a generic behavior emerges for the (axial) straindependence of the critical …

This summer I had the privilege of working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the Nonproliferation, Homeland and International Security Directorate in the Chemical and Biological Countermeasures Division. I worked exclusively on the Viral Identification and Characterization Initiative (VICI) project focusing on the development of multiplexed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays. The goal of VICI is to combine several disciplines such as molecular biology, microfluidics, and bioinformatics in order to detect viruses and identify them in order to effectively and quickly counter infectious disease, natural or engineered. The difficulty in such a countermeasure is that little is known about viral diversity due to the ever changing nature of these organisms. In response, VICI is developing a new microfluidic bioanalytical platform to detect known and unknown viruses by analyzing every virus in a sample by isolating them into picoliter sized droplets on a microchip and individually analyzing them. The sample will be injected into a channel of oil to form droplets that will contain viral nucleic acids that will be amplified using PCR. The multiplexed PCR assay will produce a series of amplicons for a particular virus genome that provides an identifying signature. A device will then detect whether or not …

Many different materials are used in the National Ignition Facility, NIF, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, LLNL. Some of these are exposed to significant doses of ionizing radiation. Two elastomers are of special interest because they are used in sealing applications with long expected lifetimes. These are LPU4, a polyurethane formulated at LLNL, and Dow Corning DC93-500, a silicone RTV elastomer. In 2004 a program to determine the impact of ionizing radiation on the stress relaxation and compression set characteristics of these two elastomers was undertaken. Since the materials are used in continuous compression and must reliably seal, the primary test utilized was a stress relaxation test. This test provides insight into the ability of a seal to remain functional in a static seal. The test determines how much residual force remains after a certain period of time under compression. The temperature and absorbed radiation dose can dramatically impact this property. In this study the only independent environmental variable studied is the effect of radiation at ambient temperatures. Two levels of radiation exposure were studied, 1 MRad, and 10 MRad. One of the independent test parameters is the compression deflection during storage and in this test the value used …

Pressed-powdered crystallites of intrinsically anisotropic materials have been shown to undergo irreversible volume expansion when subjected to repeated cycles of heating and cooling. We develop a coarse-grained (micron-scale) interaction Hamiltonian for this system and perform molecular dynamics simulations, which quantitatively reproduce the experimentally observed irreversible growth. The functional form and values of the interaction parameters at the coarse-grained level are motivated by our knowledge at the atomic/molecular scale, and allows a simple way to incorporate the effect of polymeric binder. We demonstrate that irreversible growth happens only in the presence of intrinsic crystalline anisotropy of the powder material, is mediated by particles much smaller than the average crystallite size, and can be significantly reduced in the presence of high-strength polymeric binder with elevated glass transition temperatures.

This procedure provides instructions forassembling the following CH packaging payload: Drum payload assembly Standard Waste Box (SWB) assembly Ten-Drum Overpack (TDOP)

Corrosion rates using supernatant samples retrieved from near the top of the liquid layer were determined for the tanks. Corrosion rates using settled solids (saltcake) were determined. The supernatant samples were tested as received without argon sparging. The settled solid sample segments were extruded under anaerobic condition and kept under a sweep of humidified argon gas during 'the electrochemical corrosion testing. The class of steel used to construct the tank in question was used, and test coupons were allowed to equilibrate for a minimum of 18 hours before a Tafel scan was initiated. The coupons were scanned from -250 mV to +250 mV from the rest or open circuit potential. The corrosion rate is reported along with the corrosion current measurement, open circuit potential, and a chi-square statistic generated by the instrument controlling and analysis algorithm.

In the near future, the United States will be facing constraints on energy availability due to the heightened demand for both energy and water, especially during droughts and summers. Increasing stress on the inextricably linked resource availability of both water and energy can be mitigated with integrated planning. Exchanging data is an important component to current and future mitigation approaches within the Energy-Water Nexus. We describe the types of relationships that are formed in the United States EWN, and address the data sharing obstacles within. Approaches to removing the obstacles of data sharing are presented, based on case studies.

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

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The paper reviews the results from tokamak experiments for the line ratios x/w, y/w, and z/w from helium-like ions with Z in the range from 14 to 28. With exception of the DITE experiments, where these line ratios were found to be in agreement with theoretical predictions, all other tokamak experiments yielded values that were significantly larger than predicted. The reasons for these discrepancies are not yet understood. It is possible that radial profile effects were not properly taken into account in the majority of the tokamak experiments. The paper also gives a short historical review of the X-ray diagnostic developments and also presents very recent data from a new type of X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer, which records spatially resolved spectra with a spatial resolution of about 1 cm in the plasma. These new data can be Abel inverted, so that it will be possible to determine line ratios at each radial position in the plasma. Effects of radial profiles, which may have affected the chord-integrated measurements of the past, will thus be eliminated in the future.

Laser-driven acceleration holds great promise for significantly improving accelerating gradient. However, scaling the conventional process of structure-based acceleration in vacuum down to optical wavelengths requires a substantially different kind of structure. We require an optical waveguide that (1) is constructed out of dielectric materials, (2) has transverse size on the order of a wavelength, and (3) supports a mode with speed-of-light phase velocity in vacuum. Photonic crystals---structures whose electromagnetic properties are spatially periodic---can meet these requirements. We discuss simulated photonic crystal accelerator structures and describe their properties. We begin with a class of two-dimensional structures which serves to illustrate the design considerations and trade-offs involved. We then present a three-dimensional structure, and describe its performance in terms of accelerating gradient and efficiency. We discuss particle beam dynamics in this structure, demonstrating a method for keeping a beam confined to the waveguide. We also discuss material and fabrication considerations. Since accelerating gradient is limited by optical damage to the structure, the damage threshold of the dielectric is a critical parameter. We experimentally measure the damage threshold of silicon for picosecond pulses in the infrared, and determine that our structure is capable of sustaining an accelerating gradient of 300 MV/m at 1550 …

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

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

This report discusses the alternative minimum tax (AMT), which was enacted to ensure everyone pays a minimum of federal taxes.

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This report provides an overview of the congressional franking privilege, its cost, and regulations on Member use of the frank.

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This report provides information about The Kyoto Protocol and International Actions of Climate Change. The United Nations was one of the first nations to sign and ratify this treaty.

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