Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Press accounts in 2009 indicated that some federal agencies had issued directives to their staff discouraging them from choosing certain locations for conferences. This was because of the perception by some that the locations were resort areas and would not be the best use of taxpayers' money. Noting that government travel for meetings, conferences, and seminars is an important source of economic activity for many communities throughout the United States, Congress asked us to review agencies' policies for selecting conference locations, in view of these concerns."

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Port Aransas, Texas on Mustang Island that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Application of constitutionality of section 5.017(b) of the Texas Property Code with respect to restrictive covenants that were in existence and recorded in a county's public records prior to the statute's effective date (RQ-0843-GA)

The speciation of Tc(VII) in 12 M sulfuric acid was studied by NMR, UV-visible and XAFS spectroscopy, experimental results were supported by DFT calculation and were in agreement with the formation of TcO{sub 3}OH(H{sub 2}O){sub 2}. In summary, the speciation of heptvalent technetium has been investigated in sulfuric acid. In 12 M H{sub 2}SO{sub 4}, a yellow solution is observed, and its {sup 99}Tc NMR spectrum is consistent with a heptavalent complex. The yellow solution was further characterized by EXAFS spectroscopy, and results are consistent with the formation of TcO{sub 3}(OH)(H{sub 2}O){sub 2}. No technetium heptoxide or sulfato- complexes were detected in these conditions. The molecular structure of TcO{sub 3}(OH)(H{sub 2}O){sub 2} has been optimized by DFT techniques, and the structural parameters are well in accordance with those found by XAFS spectroscopy. The experimental electronic spectra exhibit ligand-to-metal charge transfer transitions that have been assigned using TDDFT methods. Calculations demonstrate the theoretical electronic spectrum of TcO{sub 3}(OH)(H{sub 2}O){sub 2} to be in very good agreement with the experimental one. Recent experiments in 12 M H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} show the yellow solution to be very reactive in presence of reducing agents presumably forming low valent Tc species. Current spectroscopic works focus …

Email from Daniel Graney to Erin Moore, Kaye Gooch, Al Daniels on June 10, 2010 discussing State Representative Kristi Thibaut's financial support.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The Western Renewable Energy Zone (WREZ) initiative brings together a diverse set of voices to develop data, tools, and a unique forum for coordinating transmission expansion in the Western Interconnection. In this paper we use a new tool developed in the WREZ initiative to evaluate possible renewable resource selection and transmission expansion decisions. We evaluate these decisions under a number of alternative future scenarios centered on meeting 33percent of the annual load in the Western Interconnection with new renewable resources located within WREZ-identified resource hubs. Our analysis finds that wind energy is the largest source of renewable energy procured to meet the 33percent RE target across nearly all scenarios analyzed (38-65percent). Solar energy is almost always the second largest source (14-41percent). We find several load zones where wind energy is the least cost resource under a wide range of sensitivity scenarios. Load zones in the Southwest, on the other hand, are found to switch between wind and solar, and therefore to vary transmission expansion decisions, depending on uncertainties and policies that affect the relative economics of each renewable option. Further, we find that even with total transmission expenditures of $17-34 billion these costs still represent just 10-19percent of the total …

This presentation summarizes biological systems for hydrogen photoproduction.

Our previously developed finite-element/ discrete variable representation in prolate spheroidal coordinates is extended to two-electron systems with a study of double ionization of H$_2$ with fixed-nuclei. Particular attention is paid to the development of fast and accurate methods for treating the electron-electron interaction. The use of exterior complex scaling in the implementation offers a simple way of enforcing Coulomb boundary conditions for the electronic double continuum. While the angular distributions calculated in this study are found to be completely consistent with our earlier treatments that employed single-center expansions in spherical coordinates, we find that the magnitude of the integrated cross sections are sensitive to small changes in the initial-state wave function. The present formulation offers significant advantages with respect to convergence and efficiency and opens the way to calculations on more complicated diatomic targets.

The 2010 Conference on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Chlamydomonas was held June 6-10 near Boston, MA, and attracted a record 273 participants, 146 from US labs, 10 from Canada, and the remainder from 18 other countries. The single-celled algal protist Chlamydomonas is a key research organism for many investigators, including those who study photosynthesis, cell motility, adaptation to environmental stresses, the evolution of multicellularity, and the production of biofuels. Chlamydomonas researchers gather every two years at a research conference to exchange methods, develop collaborative efforts, disseminate recent findings, and plan large-scale studies to improve the usefulness of this unique research organism. This conference provides the only opportunity for Chlamydomonas scientists who work on different research problems to meet face to face, and greatly speeds progress in their respective fields. An important function of these Chlamydomonas conferences is to promote and showcase the work of younger scientists, and to attract new investigators into the Chlamydomonas community. DOE award SC0004085 was used to offset the travel and registration costs for 18 young investigators, 9 of whom were women, including one African American. Most of these scientists would not have been able to attend the conference without DOE support. A total …

Most searches for ultra-high energy (UHE) astrophysical neutrinos look for radio emission from the electromagnetic and hadronic showers produced in their interactions. The radio frequency spectrum and angular distribution depend on the shower development, so are sensitive to the interaction cross sections. At energies above about 1016 eV (in ice), the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect significantly reduces the cross sections for the two dominant electromagnetic interactions: bremsstrahlung and pair production. At higher energies, above about 1020 eV, the photonuclear cross section becomes larger than that for pair production, and direct pair production and electronuclear interactions become dominant over bremsstrahlung. The electron interaction length reaches a maximum around 1021 eV, and then decreases slowly as the electron energy increases further. In this regime, the growth in the photon cross section and electron energy loss moderates the rise in nu e shower length, which rises from ~;;5 m at 1016 eV to ~;;40 m at 1019 eV and ~;;100 m at 1020 eV, but only to ~;;300 m at 1024 eV. In contrast, without photonuclear and electronuclear interactions, the shower length would be over 10 km at 1024 eV.

This presentation summarizes controlled hydrogen fleet & infrastructure analysis undertaken for the DOE Fuel Cell Technologies Program.

The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is developing a second generation Marx-type modulator for the ILC, the P2-Marx. The modulator is expected to operate reliably in excess of 10{sup 5} hours with minimum downtime. A prognostic system is being implemented with the development of the P2-Marx to monitor and track the health of key high voltage components. This paper discusses the way in which the prognostic system will be implemented and used to monitor the health of the P2-Marx modulator.

The project began March 13, 2006, allocated for three years, and received a one year extension from March 13, 2009 to March 12, 2010. It has now completed 48 of 48 total months. The project was focused on using ab initio methods to gain insights into radiation induced segregation (RIS) in Ni-Fe-Cr alloys. The project had the following key accomplishments • Development of a large database of ab initio energetics that can be used by many researchers in the future for increased understanding of this system. For example, we have the first calculations showing a dramatic stabilization effect of Cr-Cr interstitial dumbbells in Ni. • Prediction of both vacancy and interstitial diffusion constants for Ni-Cr and Ni-Fe for dilute Cr and Fe. This work included generalization of widely used multifrequency models to make use of ab initio derived energetics and thermodynamics. • Prediction of qualitative trends of RIS from vacancy and interstitial mechanisms, suggesting the two types of defect fluxes drive Cr RIS in opposite directions. • Detailed kinetic Monte Carlo modeling of diffusion by vacancy mechanism in Ni-Cr as a function of Cr concentration. The results demonstrate that Cr content can have a significant effect on RIS. • Development …

The central objective of the proposed work was to develop a genomic approach (nucleic acid-based) that elucidates the mechanistic basis for the observed impacts of experimental soil warming on forest soil respiration. The need to understand the mechanistic basis arises from the importance of such information for developing effective adaptation strategies for dealing with projected climate change. Specifically, robust predictions of future climate will permit the tailoring of the most effective adaptation efforts. And one of the greatest uncertainties in current global climate models is whether there will be a net loss of carbon from soils to the atmosphere as climate warms. Given that soils contain approximately 2.5 times as much carbon as the atmosphere, a net loss could lead to runaway climate warming. Indeed, most ecosystem models predict that climate warming will stimulate microbial decomposition of soil carbon, producing such a positive feedback to rising global temperatures. Yet the IPCC highlights the uncertainty regarding this projected feedback. The uncertainty arises because although warming-experiments document an initial increase in the loss of carbon from soils, the increase in respiration is short-lived, declining to control levels in a few years. This attenuation could result from changes in microbial physiology with temperature. …

The report presents the results of testing MICE spectrometer magnet current leads on a test apparatus that combines both the copper leads and the high temperature superconducting (HTS) leads with a single Cryomech PT415 cooler and liquid helium tank. The current is carried through the copper leads from 300 K to the top of the HTS leads. The current is then carried through the HTS leads to a feed-through from the vacuum space to the inside of a liquid helium tank. The experiment allows one to measure the performance of both cooler stages along with the performance of the leads. While the leads were powered we measured the voltage drops through the copper leads, through the HTS leads, through spliced to the feed-through, through the feed-through and through the low-temperature superconducting loop that connects one lead to the other. Measurements were made using the leads that were used in spectrometer magnet 1A and spectrometer magnet 2A. These are the same leads that were used for Superbend and Venus magnets at LBNL. The IL/A for these leads was 5.2 x 10{sup 6} m{sup -1}. The leads turned out to be too long. The same measurements were made using the leads that …

The formation of high sludge strength agglomerates is a key concern to the Sludge Treatment Project (STP) to ensure the sludge can be retrieved after planned storage for up to 10 years in Sludge Transport and Storage Containers (STSC) at T Plant. This report addresses observations of agglomerate formation, conditions that the data shows lead to agglomeration, the frequency of agglomerate formation and postulated physiochemical mechanisms that may lead to agglomeration. Although the exact underlying chemistry of K Basin sludge agglomerate formation is not known, the factors that lead to agglomeration formation, based on observations, are as follows: (1) High Total Uranium Content (i.e., sample homogeneity and influence from other constituents); (2) Distribution of Uranium Phases (i.e., extent of conversion from uraninite to uranium oxide hydroxide compounds); (3) Sample Dry-out (loss of cover water); (4) Elevated temperature; (5) Solubility ofU(IV) phases vs. U(VI) phases; and (6) Long storage times. Agglomerated sludge has occurred infrequently and has only been observed in four laboratory samples, five samples subjected to hydrothermal testing (performed for 7 to 10 hours at {approx}185 C and 225 psig), and indirectly during six sampling events in the KE Basin. In the four laboratory samples where agglomerates were observed, …

Results from single photon vacuum ultraviolet photoionization of astrophysically relevant CnN clusters, n = 4 - 12, in the photon energy range of 8.0 eV to 12.8 eV are presented. The experimental photoionization efficiency curves, combined with electronic structure calculations, provide improved ionization energies of the CnN species. A search through numerous nitrogen-terminated CnN isomers for n=4-9 indicates that the linear isomer has the lowest energy, and therefore should be the most abundant isomer in the molecular beam. Comparison with calculated results also shed light on the energetics of the linear CnN clusters, particularly in the trends of the even-carbon and the odd-carbon series. These results can help guide the search of potential astronomical observations of these neutral molecules together with their cations in highly ionized regions or regions with a high UV/VUV photon flux (ranging from the visible to VUV with flux maxima in the Lyman- region) in the interstellar medium.

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