Strongly alkaline fluidized bed combustion ash is commonly used to control acid mine drainage in West Virginia coal mines. Objectives include acid neutralization and immobilization of the primary AMD pollutants: iron, aluminum and manganese. The process has been successful in controlling AMD though doubts remain regarding mobilization of other toxic elements present in the ash. In addition, AMD contains many toxic elements in low concentrations. And, each mine produces AMD of widely varying quality. So, predicting the effect of a particular ash on a given coal mine's drainage quality is of particular interest. In this chapter we compare the results of a site-specific ash leaching procedure with two large-scale field applications of FBC ash. The results suggested a high degree of predictability for roughly half of the 25 chemical parameters and poor predictability for the remainder. Of these, seven parameters were successfully predicted on both sites: acidity, Al, B, Ba, Fe, Ni and Zn while electrical conductivity, Ca, Cd, SO4, Pb and Sb were not successfully predicted on either site. Trends for the remaining elements: As, Ag, Be, Cu, Cr, Hg, Mg, Mn, pH, Se Tl and V were successfully predicted on one but not both mine sites.

Dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) pose a significant threat to soil and groundwater at Department of Energy (DOE) sites. Evidence suggests that subsurface wettability variations are present at many of these sites as a result of spatical and temporal variations in aqueous phase chemistry, contaminant aging, mineralogy and organic matter. The presence of such heterogeneity may significantly influence DNAPL migration and entrapment in the saturated zone.

We report on a search for Standard Model t-channel and s-channel single top quark production in p{bar p} collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV. We use a data sample corresponding to 162 pb{sup -1} recorded by the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab. We find no significant evidence for electroweak top quark production and set upper limits at the 95% confidence level on the production cross section, consistent with the Standard Model: 10.1 pb for the t-channel, 13.6 pb for the s-channel and 17.8 pb for the combined cross section of t- and s-channel.

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The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Integrated Safety Management (ISM) System Description (LLNL 2002) and the Task Plan for the Preparation of Authorization Basis Documentation for the proposed Biosafety Level 3 Laboratory at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (DOE 2002a) require a PABD be prepared for the proposed BSL-3 Facility. NNSA-OAK approval is required prior to its construction. This Preliminary Authorization Basis Documentation (PABD) formalizes and documents the hazard evaluation and its results for the Biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) facility. The PABD for the proposed BSL-3 facility provides the following information: (1) BSL-3 facility's site description; (2) general description of the BSL-3 facility and its operations; (3) identification of facility hazards; (4) generic hazard analysis; (5) identification of controls important to safety; and (6) safety management programs. The PABD characterizes the level of intrinsic potential hazard associated with a facility and provides the basis for its hazard classification. The hazard classification determines the level of safety documentation required and the level of review and approval for the safety analysis. The hazards of primary concern associated with the BSL-3 facility are biological. The hazard classification is determined by comparing facility inventories of biological materials and activities with the BSL-3 threshold established by the …

Mobile manipulator systems used by emergency response operators consist of an articulated robot arm, a remotely driven base, a collection of cameras, and a remote communications link. Typically the system is completely teleoperated, with the operator using live video feedback to monitor and assess the environment, plan task activities, and to conduct the operations via remote control input devices. The capabilities of these systems are limited, and operators rarely attempt sophisticated operations such as retrieving and utilizing tools, deploying sensors, or building up world models. This project has focused on methods to utilize this video information to enable monitored autonomous behaviors for the mobile manipulator system, with the goal of improving the overall effectiveness of the human/robot system. Work includes visual servoing, visual targeting, utilization of embedded video in 3-D models, and improved methods of camera utilization and calibration.

This report discusses the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA — 20 U.S.C. §1400 et seq.), which is both a grants statute and a civil rights statute. It provides federal funding for the education of children with disabilities and requires, as a condition for the receipt of such funds, the provision of a free appropriate public education (FAPE). The statute also contains detailed due process provisions to ensure the provision of FAPE. Originally enacted in 1975, the act responded to increased awareness of the need to educate children with disabilities, and to judicial decisions requiring that states provide an education for children with disabilities if they provided an education for children without disabilities.

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Report which discusses issues related to the North Atlantic Trade Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) including the level of involvement of the entities in using political and military actions to defend against terrorism and proliferation, the types of military forces necessary, the role of the EU in crisis management, the appropriateness of decision-making procedures to respond to emerging threats, and the role of other international institutions.

This paper presents a case study of the potential market for the dual-service residential integrated water heater/dehumidifier (WHD). Its principal purpose is to evaluate the extent to which this integrated appliance might penetrate the residential market sector, given current market trends, producer and consumer attributes, and technical parameters. The report's secondary purpose is to gather background information leading to a generic framework for conducting market analyses of technologies. This framework can be used to assess market readiness as well as factor preferred product attributes into the design to drive consumer demand for this product. This study also supports analysis for prototype design. A full market analysis for potential commercialization should be conducted after prototype development. The integrated WHD is essentially a heat-pump water heater (HPWH) with components and controls that allow dedicated dehumidification. Adequate residential humidity control is a growing issue for newly constructed residential homes, which are insulated so well that mechanical ventilation may be necessary to meet fresh air requirements. Leveraging its successful experience with the energy-efficient design improvement for the residential HPWH, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL's) Engineering Science and Technology Division's (ESTD's) Building Equipment Group designed a water-heating appliance that combines HPWH efficiency with dedicated …

The Bulk Vitrification System is being pursued to assist in immobilizing the low-activity tank waste from the 53 million gallons of radioactive waste in the 177 underground storage tanks on the Hanford Site. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the bulk vitrification process, a research and development facility known as the Demonstration Bulk Vitrification System (DBVS) is being built to demonstrate the technology. Specific performance requirements for the final packaged bulk vitrification waste form have been identified. In addition to the specific product-performance requirements, performance targets/goals have been identified that are necessary to qualify the waste form but do not lend themselves to specifications that are easily verified through short-term testing. Collectively, these form the product requirements for the DBVS. This waste-form qualification (WFQ) strategy document outlines the general strategies for achieving and demonstrating compliance with the BVS product requirements. The specific objectives of the WFQ activities are discussed, the bulk vitrification process and product control strategy is outlined, and the test strategy to meet the WFQ objectives is described. The DBVS product performance targets/goals and strategies to address those targets/goals are described. The DBVS product-performance requirements are compared to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant immobilized low-activity waste product specifications. …

In the January 2002 edition of SIAM News, Nick Trefethen announced the '$100, 100-Digit Challenge'. In this note he presented ten easy-to-state but hard-to-solve problems of numerical analysis, and challenged readers to find each answer to ten-digit accuracy. Trefethen closed with the enticing comment: 'Hint: They're hard! If anyone gets 50 digits in total, I will be impressed.' This challenge obviously struck a chord in hundreds of numerical mathematicians worldwide, as 94 teams from 25 nations later submitted entries. Many of these submissions exceeded the target of 50 correct digits; in fact, 20 teams achieved a perfect score of 100 correct digits. Trefethen had offered $100 for the best submission. Given the overwhelming response, a generous donor (William Browning, founder of Applied Mathematics, Inc.) provided additional funds to provide a $100 award to each of the 20 winning teams. Soon after the results were out, four participants, each from a winning team, got together and agreed to write a book about the problems and their solutions. The team is truly international: Bornemann is from Germany, Laurie is from South Africa, Wagon is from the USA, and Waldvogel is from Switzerland. This book provides some mathematical background for each problem, and …

A reflection mode fiber optic oxygen sensor that can operate at high temperatures for power plant applications is being developed. The sensor is based on the {sup 3}O{sub 2} quenching of the red emission from hexanuclear molybdenum chloride clusters. One of the critical materials issues is to demonstrate that the luminescent cluster immobilized in the sol-gel porous support can withstand high temperature. At the same time the sol-gel matrix must have a high permeability to oxygen. Using a potassium salt of the molybdenum clusters, K{sub 2}Mo{sub 6}Cl{sub 14}, we have established the conditions necessary for deposition of optical quality sol-gel films. From spectroscopic measurements of the film we have shown that the cluster luminescence is stable following heat cycling of 1 hour at 250 C. Quenching of a factor of 4X between pure nitrogen and 21% oxygen was observed for films cured directly at 200 C. These are promising results for a high temperature fiber optical oxygen sensor based on molybdenum chloride clusters.

While introduction of energy legislation in the 109th Congress is pending, it remains unclear what its course may be. Some believe that the results of the fall 2004 election have heightened prospects for opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas development, and the Republican leadership has indicated that ANWR is to be included in the budget resolution that will come before Congress. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici has indicated that the committee will mark up a comprehensive bill in February. However, Senator Domenici also expressed openness to considering individual bills; he and others are interested in legislation to establish a long-term leasing plan for natural gas resources.

Working within the context of the Southern States Biobased Alliance (SSBA) and with officials in each state, the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) is identifying bioenergy-related policies and programs within each state to determine their impact on the development, deployment or use of bioenergy. In addition, SSEB will determine which policies have impacted industry's efforts to develop, deploy or use biobased technologies or products. As a result, SSEB will work with the Southern States Biobased Alliance to determine how policy changes might address any negative impacts or enhance positive impacts. In addition to analysis of domestic policies and programs, this project will include the development of a U.S.-Brazil Biodiesel Pilot Project. The purpose of this effort is to promote and facilitate the commercialization of biodiesel and bioenergy production and demand in Brazil.

This report summarizes the work performed as part of a one-year LDRD project, 'Evolutionary Complexity for Protection of Critical Assets.' A brief introduction is given to the topics of genetic algorithms and genetic programming, followed by a discussion of relevant results obtained during the project's research, and finally the conclusions drawn from those results. The focus is on using genetic programming to evolve solutions for relatively simple algebraic equations as a prototype application for evolving complexity in computer codes. The results were obtained using the lil-gp genetic program, a C code for evolving solutions to user-defined problems and functions. These results suggest that genetic programs are not well-suited to evolving complexity for critical asset protection because they cannot efficiently evolve solutions to complex problems, and introduce unacceptable performance penalties into solutions for simple ones.

During this last quarter of the ''Seismic Evaluation of Hydrocarbon Saturation in Deep-Water Reservoirs'' project (Grant/Cooperative Agreement DE-FC26-02NT15342), we have moved forward on several fronts, including data acquisition as well as analysis and application. During this quarter we have: (1) Completed our site selection (finally); (2) Measured fluid effects in Troika deep water sand sample; (3) Applied the result to Ursa ''fizz gas'' zone; (4) Compared thin layer property averaging on AVO response; (5) Developed target oriented NMO stretch correction; (6) Examined thin bed effects on A-B crossplots; and (7) Begun incorporating outcrop descriptive models in seismic forward models. Several factors can contribute to limit our ability to extract accurate hydrocarbon saturations in deep water environments. Rock and fluid properties are one factor, since, for example, hydrocarbon properties will be considerably different with great depths (high pressure) when compared to shallow properties. Significant over pressure, on the other hand will make the rocks behave as if they were shallower. In addition to the physical properties, the scale and tuning will alter our hydrocarbon indicators. Reservoirs composed of thin bed effects will broaden the reflection amplitude distribution with incident angle. Normal move out (NMO) stretch corrections based on frequency shifts can …

With the passage of P.L. 103-322, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the federal death penalty became available as a possible punishment for a substantial number of new and existing civilian offenses. On April 24, 1996, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 made further modifications and additions to the list of federal capital crimes. On June 25, 2002, P.L. 107-197, the Terrorist Bombings Convention Implementation Act of 2002, added another capital crime to the United States Code. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, P.L. 108-458, enacted December 17, 2004, included provisions which impacted or expanded some of the existing death penalty provisions. This report lists the current federal capital offenses and summarizes the procedures for federal civilian death penalty cases.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as passed in 1978, provided a statutory framework for the use of electronic surveillance in the context of foreign intelligence gathering. In doing so, Congress sought to strike a balance between national security interests and personal privacy rights. Subsequent legislation expanded federal laws dealing with foreign intelligence gathering to address physical searches, pen registers and trap and trace devices, and access to certain business records.

The Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) is an agreement among member states to provide assistance after disasters overwhelm a state’s capacity to manage the consequences. The compact, initiated by the states and coordinated by the National Emergency Management Association, provides a structure for requesting emergency assistance from party states. EMAC also resolves some, but not all, potential legal and administrative obstacles that may hinder such assistance. EMAC also enhances state preparedness for terrorist attacks by ensuring the availability of resources for fast response and facilitating multi-state cooperation in training activities and preparedness exercises. Congress approved EMAC as an interstate compact in 1996 (P.L. 104-321).

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A number of issues affecting U.S. agriculture could receive attention during the 109th Congress. Some are related to new initiatives or to unfinished legislation from the 108th Congress; others have been the focus of ongoing congressional oversight. Although the current (2002) farm bill (P.L. 107-171) generally does not expire until 2007, the agriculture committees could begin hearings on a new measure as early as 2005. The farm bill spells out the types and levels of benefits provided to producers and landowners under commodity price support and conservation programs, both of which could receive close scrutiny in the coming year as lawmakers seek ways to control federal spending. Other concerns include agroterrorism, food safety, and animal and plant diseases (e.g., “mad cow” disease); interest in multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations; the rising cost of energy on farms; environmental issues; and a number of agricultural marketing matters.

This report is an overview of the hog trade dispute from Canada. U.S. officials initiated antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations, and have issued preliminary determinations for each.