Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Reliable information is critical to informed decision making and to oversight of the procurement system. The Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) has been the federal government's central database of information on federal procurement actions since 1978. Congress and executive branch agencies rely on FPDS to assess the impact that governmentwide acquisition policies and processes are having on the system generally, as well as with respect to specific geographical areas, markets, and socio-economic goals. Yet despite the importance of the data, we continue to find that FPDS data are inaccurate and incomplete. Although we have not fully assessed the extent of reporting errors, we have found sufficient problems to warrant concern about the current reliability of FPDS information."

Shelter-in-place has found increasing acceptance as an effective protective action option for communities participating in the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. Studies have confirmed that it can provide optimum protection under certain accident conditions. However, emergency managers and planners, as well as the public, continue to be troubled by the need to end sheltering when the plume has passed in order to avoid sustained exposure to the small amount of agent that has penetrated the shelter. One of the concerns posed by this necessity is uncertainty regarding what hazards will then be faced in the environment outside the shelter and what actions can be taken to avoid those hazards. This report attempts to address those uncertainties. It recognizes that there is an extremely low probability that the environment outside the shelter will be contaminated with chemical agent residue. However, as people comply with an official recommendation to leave their shelters, they probably can't be certain that the environment is free from contamination. Therefore, this report identifies and explains specific and simple actions they can take to avoid the possibility of exposure to chemical agent hazards outside their shelters. It addresses such issues as the actions people should take upon ending …

This report provides information key sources of information on government and private grants for state and community projects. Constituents who know their project best , may search for grant information on the internet and in printed reference sources.

Studies conducted by the Missouri Department of Conservation in the late 1980s found high levels of PCBs and chlordane in fish from the Blue River near the Kansas City Plant (KCP). Follow-on biomonitoring studies by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) staff from 1991-1993 (Southworth et al. 1992, Ashwood et al. 1993, Ashwood and Peterson 1994), and again on a more limited basis in 1998 (Ashwood 1998), were conducted for the KCP. The studies in the early 1990s characterized concentrations of PCBs and chlordane in fish from Indian Creek, Boone Creek, and the Blue River. These studies concluded that the KCP appears to be one of multiple sources of PCBs to both Indian Creek and the Blue River. There continues to be interest in the potential role of KCP discharges on PCB concentrations in local fish. Elevated PCB concentrations in Indian Creek fish have consistently been found at the location downstream of the NPDES-permitted 002 discharge, which drains a section of the KCP complex. A risk evaluation conducted during 2001 found that some local fish exceeded risk-based guidelines for PCBs. It has been nearly a decade since intensive sampling of fish was conducted within all waters near the KCP (the 1998 …

Cellulose and hemicellulose from plants and other biomass can be hydrolyzed to produce sugars (i.e. glucose and xylose). Once these sugars are separated from other impurities, they can serve as feedstock in fermentation to produce ethanol (as fuels), lactic acid, or other valuable chemicals. The need for producing fuels and chemicals from renewable biomass has become abundantly clear over the last decade. However, the cost of producing fermentable sugars from biomass hydrolyzate using existing technology is relatively high and has been a major obstacle. The objective of this project is to develop an efficient and economical simulated moving bed (SMB) process to recover fermentable sugars from biomass hydrolyzate. Sulfuric acid can hydrolyze the cellulose and hemicellulose in biomass to sugars, but this process can generate byproducts such as acetic acid, and can lead to further degradation of the xylose to furfural and glucose to hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF). Also, lignin and other compounds in the biomass will degrade to various phenolic compounds. If the concentrations of these compounds exceed certain threshold levels, they will be toxic to the downstream fermentation, and will severely limit the usefulness of the derived sugars. Standard post-hydrolysis processing involves neutralization of sulfuric acid, usually with lime …

Furnaces are the most crucial components in the glass and metallurgical industry. Like any other components in an industry, furnaces require periodic maintenance and repair. Today, furnaces are being operated at higher temperatures and for longer periods of time thus increasing the rate of wear and tear on the furnace refractory lining. As a result of the competitive market facing these industries, longer furnace lifetime with shorter maintenance downtime are increasingly required. Higher fuel consumption, low production and safety are issues that accompany delayed maintenance. Consequently, there is a need to know the state of a refractory wall to prevent premature or unnecessary maintenance shutdowns. For many years the observation skills of an experienced operator has been the primary source of evaluating the wear associated with a refractory wall. The rate of regression of a refractory lining depends on the type of the refractory lining, the materials Monitoring of Refractory Wall Recession Using Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FM-CW) Radar Techniques: A Proof-of-Concept Study, Final Report, Submitted to the Department of Energy (DOE), September 2003. being melted, seepage, mechanical stresses, and temperature. Moreover, the regression of a refractory lining is also not uniform throughout a furnace and it is more prominent at the …

This final report summarizes a 3-phase program performed from March 2000 through September 2003 with a particular focus on Phase III. The overall program studied TMI's reversible solid oxide stack, system concepts, and potential applications. The TMI reversible (fuel cell-electrolyzer) system employs a stack of high temperature solid-oxide electrochemical cells to produce either electricity (from a fuel and air or oxygen) or hydrogen (from water and supplied electricity). An atmospheric pressure fuel cell system operates on natural gas (or other carbon-containing fuel) and air. A high-pressure reversible electrolyzer system is used to make high-pressure hydrogen and oxygen from water and when desired, operates in reverse to generate electricity from these gases.

This report summarizes the progress made in Phase I of Stuart's Personal Fueling Appliance Program. Phase I concluded in March 2002 with the demonstration and deployment of several working models. As proposed in the original project plan, working models of the PFA were built to prove feasibility and technically market the concept. Future follow up phases of the project, Phase II and III, will take the concept through prototyping development to pre-production of commercially viable product. The Phase I program successfully demonstrate a home fueling system capable of running on a household circuit, 220V/40 Amp/single phase or equivalent. Connected to a source of ''drinking water'' the system has all the functions necessary to convert water and electricity to high-pressure hydrogen fuel. Pressures of up to 3600 psig were achieved on demonstration systems and higher pressures up to 5000 psig were achieved in the lab. The development program spanned building 3 series of prototypes: White Box (1 unit built 1998), PFA Series 100 (4 units built 1999-2000), and Series 200 (6 units built 2000-02). Advanced in controls and process learned in the PFA program have been embodied in Stuart's larger fuel appliances.

In {rho}{sup 0} photoproduction in ultra-peripheral heavy ion collisions, either ion can be the photon emitter or the target. The two possibilities are indistinguishable, and they should be able to interfere, reducing {rho}{sup 0} production at low transverse momentum, p{sub T} < {h_bar}/<b>, where <b> is the median impact parameter. The two {rho}{sup 0} production points are separated by <b> {approx} 18-46 fm, while the {rho}{sup 0} decay before travelling 1 fm. The two decay points are well separated in spacetime, so the decays proceed independently and any interference must involve the final state {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}. This requires a non-local wave function.

For several years, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been supporting the Defense Logistics Agency-Defense National Stockpile Center with stewardship of a thorium nitrate (ThN) stockpile. The effort for fiscal year 2002 was to prepare a sampling and analysis plan and to use the activities developed in the plan to characterize the ThN stockpile. The sampling was performed in June and July 2002 by RWE NUKEM with oversight by ORNL personnel. The analysis was performed by Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, Texas, and data validation was performed by NFT, Inc., of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Of the {approx} 21,000 drums in the stockpile, 99 were sampled and 53 were analyzed for total metals composition, radiological constituents (using alpha and gamma spectrometry), and oxidizing characteristics. Each lot at the Curtis Bay Depot was sampled. Several of the samples were also analyzed for density. The average density of the domestic ThN was found to be 1.89 {+-} 0.08 g/cm{sup 3}. The oxidizer test was performed following procedures issued by the United Nations in 1999. Test results indicated that none of the samples tested was a Division 5.1 oxidizer per Department of Transportation definition. The samples were analyzed for total metals following the …

The objective of this program was to develop and test a system that would detect and image buried plastic and ceramic pipe. The system is designed to detect variations in the electric permeability of soil corresponding to the presence of a buried plastic pipe. The Gas Technology Institute (GTI) proposed to develop a compact and inexpensive capacitive tomography-imaging sensor that can be placed on the ground to image objects embedded in the soil. The system provides a coarse image, which allows the operator to identify a buried object's location both horizontally and vertically.

This research project is to develop a novel approach that fully utilized the current breeding materials and genetic test information available from the NCSU-Industry Cooperative Tree Improvement Program to identify major genes that are segregating for growth and disease resistance in loblolly pine. If major genes can be identified in the existing breeding population, they can be utilized directly in the conventional loblolly pine breeding program. With the putative genotypes of parents identified, tree breeders can make effective decisions on management of breeding populations and operational deployment of genetically superior trees. Forest productivity will be significantly enhanced if genetically superior genotypes with major genes for economically important traits could be deployed in an operational plantation program. The overall objective of the project is to develop genetic model and analytical methods for major gene detection with progeny test data and accelerate the development of genetically superior loblolly pine. Specifically, there are three main tasks: (1) Develop genetic models for major gene detection and implement statistical methods and develop computer software for screening progeny test data; (2) Confirm major gene segregation with molecular markers; and (3) Develop strategies for using major genes for tree breeding.

This report provides a preliminary assessment of the potential for use in gas turbines and reciprocating gas engines of gases derived from biomass by pyrolysis or partial oxidation with air. Consideration was given to the use of mixtures of these gases with natural gas as a means of improving heating value and ensuring a steady gas supply. Gas from biomass, and mixtures with natural gas, were compared with natural gas reformates from low temperature partial oxidation or steam reforming. The properties of such reformates were based on computations of gas properties using the ChemCAD computational tools and energy inputs derived from known engine parameters. In general, the biomass derived fuels compare well with reformates, so far as can be judged without engine testing. Mild reforming has potential to produce a more uniform quality of fuel gas from very variable qualities of natural gas, and could possibly be applied to gas from biomass to eliminate organic gases and condensibles other than methane.

GUIRR conducted several projects in the area of national competitiveness, including a workshop on DOE National Laboratories and Universities Collaboration.

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

Funeral program for Frances Gainer, born December 23, 1922 and died December 24, 2003. The funeral was held December 30, 2003 at St. Paul United Methodist Church, officiated by Terrence K. Hayes. Funeral arrangements were made through Castillo Mission funeral Home, Inc. and she was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

In practical applications, the thermodynamic state relations of partially ionized gas mixtures are usually approximated in terms of the state relations of the pure partially ionized constituent gases or materials in isolation. Such approximations are ordinarily based on an artificial partitioning or separation of the mixture into its constituent materials, with material k regarded as being confined by itself within a compartment or subvolume with volume fraction {alpha}k and possessing a fraction {beta}k of the total internal energy of the mixture. In a mixture of N materials, the quantities {alpha}k and {beta}k constitute an additional 2N--2 independent variables. The most common procedure for determining these variables, and hence the state relations for the mixture, is to require that the subvolumes all have the same temperature and pressure. This intuitively reasonable procedure is easily shown to reproduce the correct thermal and caloric state equations for a mixture of neutral (non-ionized) ideal gases. Here we wish to point out that (a) this procedure leads to incorrect state equations for a mixture of partially ionized ideal gases, whereas (b) the alternative procedure of requiring that the subvolumes all have the same temperature and free electron density reproduces the correct thermal and caloric state …

The authors present a measurement of the branching fraction for the decay B{sup -} {yields} D{sup 0} K{sup *-} using a sample of approximately 86 million B{bar B} pairs collected by the BABAR detector from e{sup +}e{sup -} collisions near the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance. The D{sup 0} is detected through its decays to K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}, K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup 0} and K{sup -} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}, and the K{sup *-} through its decay to K{sub S}{sup 0} {pi}{sup -}. They measure the branching fraction to be {Beta}(B{sup -} {yields} D{sup 0}K{sup *-}) = (6.3 {+-} 0.7(stat.){+-}0.5(syst.)) x 10{sup -4}.

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

In November 1997, a permeable iron reactive barrier trench was installed at the S-3 Ponds Pathway 2 Site located at the Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The overall goal of the project is to evaluate the ability of permeable reactive barrier technology to remove uranium, nitrate, and other inorganic contaminants in groundwater and to assess impacts of biogeochemical interactions on long-term performance of the treatment system. Zero-valent iron (Fe0) was used as the reactive medium, which creates a localized zone of reduction or low oxidation reduction potential (ORP), elevated pH, and dissolved H{sub 2} as Fe{sup 0} corrodes in groundwater. These conditions favor the removal of metals and radionuclides (such as uranium and technetium) through redox-driven precipitation and/or sorption to iron corrosion byproducts, such as iron oxyhydroxides. The technology is anticipated to be economical and low in maintenance as compared with conventional pump-and-treat technology. Groundwater monitoring results indicate that the iron barrier is effectively removing uranium and technetium, the primary contaminants of concern, as anticipated from our previous laboratory studies. In addition to uranium and technetium, nitrate, sulfate, bicarbonate, calcium, and magnesium are also found to be removed, either partially or completely by the iron barrier. Elevated concentrations of ferrous …

North Dakota has an outstanding resource--providing more available wind for development than any other state. According to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) studies, North Dakota alone has enough energy from good wind areas, those of wind power Class 4 and higher, to supply 36% of the 1990 electricity consumption of the entire lower 48 states. At present, no more than a handful of wind turbines in the 60- to 100-kilowatt (kW) range are operating in the state. The first two utility-scale turbines were installed in North Dakota as part of a green pricing program, one in early 2002 and the second in July 2002. Both turbines are 900-kW wind turbines. Two more wind turbines are scheduled for installation by another utility later in 2002. Several reasons are evident for the lack of wind development. One primary reason is that North Dakota has more lignite coal than any other state. A number of relatively new minemouth power plants are operating in the state, resulting in an abundance of low-cost electricity. In 1998, North Dakota generated approximately 8.2 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, largely from coal-fired plants. Sales to North Dakota consumers totaled only 4.5 million MWh. In addition, the average retail …

Recently, realistic theories of electroweak symmetry breaking have been constructed in which the electroweak symmetry is broken by boundary conditions imposed at a boundary of higher dimensional spacetime. These theories have equivalent 4D dual descriptions, in which the electroweak symmetry is dynamically broken by non-trivial infrared dynamics of some gauge interaction, whose gauge coupling {tilde g} and size N satisfy {tilde g}{sup 2}N {approx}> 16{pi}{sup 2}. Such theories allow one to calculate electroweak radiative corrections, including the oblique parameters S, T and U, as long as {tilde g}{sup 2}N/16{pi}{sup 2} and N are sufficiently larger than unity. We study how the duality between the 4D and 5D theories manifests itself in the computation of various physical quantities. In particular, we calculate the electroweak oblique parameters in a warped 5D theory where the electroweak symmetry is broken by boundary conditions at the infrared brane. We show that the value of S obtained in the minimal theory exceeds the experimental bound if the theory is in a weakly coupled regime. This requires either an extension of the minimal model or departure from weak coupling. A particularly interesting scenario is obtained if the gauge couplings in the 5D theory take the largest possible …

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

In an effort to expand the energy savings programs within the State, the Wisconsin Division of Energy obtained funding through the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), with additional funding assistance through the Rebuild America Program (RBA) to install the Whole Building Diagnostician (WBD) software program as a test bed project in two of the State’s facilities in Wisconsin. This report discusses the results of this effort.