Human biospecimens are subjected to collection, processing, and storage that can significantly alter their molecular composition and consistency. These biospecimen preanalytical factors, in turn, influence experimental outcomes and the ability to reproduce scientific results. Currently, the extent and type of information specific to the biospecimen preanalytical conditions reported in scientific publications and regulatory submissions varies widely. To improve the quality of research that uses human tissues, it is crucial that information on the handling of biospecimens be reported in a thorough, accurate, and standardized manner. The Biospecimen Reporting for Improved Study Quality (BRISQ) recommendations outlined herein are intended to apply to any study in which human biospecimens are used. The purpose of reporting these details is to supply others, from researchers to regulators, with more consistent and standardized information to better evaluate, interpret, compare, and reproduce the experimental results. The BRISQ guidelines are proposed as an important and timely resource tool to strengthen communication and publications on biospecimen-related research and to help reassure patient contributors and the advocacy community that their contributions are valued and respected.

This report is associated with the project of Implementation of Building Energy Codes in China (55793). The report aims to give Chinese audience a brief introduction on training and public information activities of building energy codes in the U.S. The report contains four sections: Section One is about the development history and implementation of building energy codes in the U.S. Section Two is about the organizations of training and public information activities, mainly focused on ASHRAE, ICC, federal and state government. Policy implication, which is Section Three, addresses the role of federal government and on-line training and public information activities in promoting training and public information (the current China training system lacks strong support of central government and on-line training activities). Conclusions are made in Section Four. This report will be uploaded to an upcoming Chinese website which is devoted to provide first-time free on-line training and public information of building energy codes in China.

This document completes the requirements of Milestone 1-2, PNNL Draft Literature Review, discussed in the scope of work outlined in the EM-31 Support Project task plan WP-2.3.6-2010-1. The focus of task WP 2.3.6 is to improve the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) understanding of filtration operations for high-level waste (HLW) to enhance filtration and cleaning efficiencies, thereby increasing process throughput and reducing the sodium demand (through acid neutralization). Developing the processes for fulfilling the cleaning/backpulsing requirements will result in more efficient operations for both the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) and the Savannah River Site (SRS), thereby increasing throughput by limiting cleaning cycles. The purpose of this document is to summarize Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL’s) literature review of historical filtration testing at the laboratory and of testing found in peer-reviewed journals. Eventually, the contents of this document will be merged with a literature review by SRS to produce a summary report for DOE of the results of previous filtration testing at the laboratories and the types of testing that still need to be completed to address the questions about improved filtration performance at WTP and SRS. To this end, this report presents 1) a review of …

This report summarizes the most important results of our effort to develop a new class of infrared spectrometers based on a novel broadband heterodyne design. Our results indicate that this approach could lead to a near-room temperature operation with performance limited only by quantum noise carried by the incoming signal. Using a model quantum-well infrared photodetector (QWIP), we demonstrated key performance features of our approach. For example, we directly measured the beat frequency signal generated by superimposing local oscillator (LO) light of one frequency and signal light of another through a spectrograph, by injecting the LO light at a laterally displaced input location. In parallel with the development of this novel spectrometer, we modeled a new approach to reducing detector volume though plasmonic resonance effects. Since dark current scales directly with detector volume, this ''photon compression'' can directly lead to lower currents. Our calculations indicate that dark current can be reduced by up to two orders of magnitude in an optimized ''superlens'' structure. Taken together, our spectrometer and dark current reduction strategies provide a promising path toward room temperature operation of a mid-wave and possibly long-wave infrared spectrometer.

Builders generally use a 'spec and purchase' business management system (BMS) when implementing energy efficiency. A BMS is the overall operational and organizational systems and strategies that a builder uses to set up and run its company. This type of BMS treats building performance as a simple technology swap (e.g. a tank water heater to a tankless water heater) and typically compartmentalizes energy efficiency within one or two groups in the organization (e.g. purchasing and construction). While certain tools, such as details, checklists, and scopes of work, can assist builders in managing the quality of the construction of higher performance homes, they do nothing to address the underlying operational strategies and issues related to change management that builders face when they make high performance homes a core part of their mission. To achieve the systems integration necessary for attaining 40% + levels of energy efficiency, while capturing the cost tradeoffs, builders must use a 'systems approach' BMS, rather than a 'spec and purchase' BMS. The following attributes are inherent in a systems approach BMS; they are also generally seen in quality management systems (QMS), such as the National Housing Quality Certification program: Cultural and corporate alignment, Clear intent for quality …

IBACOS researched the constructability and viability issues of using high performance windows as one component of a larger approach to building houses that achieve the Building America 70% energy savings target.

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This report talks about the company Insight Homes. Insight homes is a builder company that helps make one research processes as easy as possible.

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This report summarizes an extensive effort made to understand how to effectively use the various diagnostic technologies to establish the condition of medium voltage underground cable circuits. These circuits make up an extensive portion of the electric delivery infrastructure in the United States. Much of this infrastructure is old and experiencing unacceptable failure rates. By deploying efficient diagnostic testing programs, electric utilities can replace or repair circuits that are about to fail, providing an optimal approach to improving electric system reliability. This is an intrinsically complex topic. Underground cable systems are not homogeneous. Cable circuits often contain multiple branches with different cable designs and a range of insulation materials. In addition, each insulation material ages differently as a function of time, temperature and operating environment. To complicate matters further, there are a wide variety of diagnostic technologies available for assessing the condition of cable circuits with a diversity of claims about the effectiveness of each approach. As a result, the benefits of deploying cable diagnostic testing programs have been difficult to establish, leading many utilities to avoid the their use altogether. This project was designed to help address these issues. The information provided is the result of a collaborative effort …

This report contains the groundwater and surface water monitoring data that were obtained during calendar year (CY) 2009 at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Y-12 National Security Complex (hereafter referenced as Y-12) on the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The CY 2009 monitoring data were obtained from wells, springs, and surface water sampling locations in three hydrogeologic regimes at Y-12. The Bear Creek Hydrogeologic Regime (Bear Creek Regime) encompasses a section of Bear Creek Valley (BCV) between the west end of Y-12 and the west end of the Bear Creek Watershed (directions are in reference to the Y-12 grid system). The Upper East Fork Poplar Creek Hydrogeologic Regime (East Fork Regime) encompasses the Y-12 industrial facilities and support structures in BCV. The Chestnut Ridge Hydrogeologic Regime (Chestnut Ridge Regime) encompasses a section of Chestnut Ridge directly south of Y-12. Section 2 of this report provides background information pertinent to groundwater and surface water quality monitoring in each hydrogeologic regime, including the topography and bedrock geology, surface water drainage, groundwater system, and extent of groundwater contamination. The CY 2009 groundwater and surface water monitoring data in this report were obtained from sampling and analysis activities implemented …

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IFE target designers must consider several engineering requirements in addition to the physics requirements for successful target implosion. These considerations include low target cost, high manufacturing throughput, the ability of the target to survive the injection into the fusion chamber and arrive in a condition and physical position consistent with proper laser-target interaction and ease of post-implosion debris removal. This article briefly describes these considerations for the Laser Inertial Fusion-based Energy (LIFE) targets currently being designed.

High-level nuclear waste produced from fuel reprocessing operations at the Savannah River Site (SRS) requires pretreatment to remove {sup 134,137}Cs, {sup 90}Sr, and alpha-emitting radionuclides (i.e., actinides) prior to disposal onsite as low level waste. An inorganic sorbent, monosodium titanate (MST), is currently used to remove {sup 90}Sr and alpha-emitting radionuclides, while a caustic-side solvent extraction process is used for removing {sup 134,137}Cs. A new peroxotitanate material, modified MST, or mMST, has recently been developed and has shown increased removal kinetics and capacity for {sup 90}Sr and alpha-emitting radionuclides compared to the current baseline material, MST. This paper describes recent results focused on further characterization of this material.

Implementation and adoption of efficient end-use technologies have proven to be one of the key measures for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout the industries. In many cases, implementing energy efficiency measures is among one of the most cost effective investments that the industry could make in improving efficiency and productivity while reducing CO2 emissions. Over the years, there have been incentives to use resources and energy in a cleaner and more efficient way to create industries that are sustainable and more productive. With the working of energy programs and policies on GHG inventory and regulation, understanding and managing the costs associated with mitigation measures for GHG reductions is very important for the industry and policy makers around the world. Successful implementation of emerging technologies not only can help advance productivities and competitiveness but also can play a significant role in mitigation efforts by saving energy. Providing evaluation and estimation of the costs and energy savings potential of emerging technologies is the focus of our work in this project. The overall goal of the project is to identify and select emerging and under-utilized energy-efficient technologies and practices as they are important to reduce energy consumption in industry while maintaining economic …

The CHARM 2010 meeting had over 30 presentations of experimental results, plus additional future facilities talks just before this summary talk. Since there is not enough time to even summarize all that has been shown from experiments and to recognize all the memorable plots and results - tempting as it is to reproduce the many clean signals and data vs theory figures, the quantum correlations plots, and the D-mixing plots before and after the latest CLEO-c data is added. So, this review will give only my personal observations, exposing my prejudices and my areas of ignorance, no doubt. This overview will be at a fairly high level of abstraction - no re-showing individual plots or results. I ask the forgiveness of those who will have been slighted in this way - meaning all the presents.

We present a study of the D{sup +}{pi}{sup -}, D{sup 0}{pi}{sup +}, and D*{sup +}{pi}{sup -} systems in inclusive e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} c{bar c} interactions in a search for new excited D meson states. We use a dataset, consisting of {approx}454 fb{sup -1}, collected at center-of-mass energies near 10.58 GeV by the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-energy collider. We observe, for the first time, candidates for the radial excitations of the D{sup 0}, D*{sup 0}, and D*{sup +}, as well as the L = 2 excited states of the D{sup 0} and D{sup +}, where L is the orbital angular momentum of the quarks.

Penguin transitions play a key role in the search of New Physics hints in the heavy flavor sector. During the last decade CDF has been exploring this opportunity with a rich study of two-body charmless decays of neutral B mesons into charged final-state particles. After briefly introducing the aspects of this physics peculiar to the hadron collision environment, I report on two interesting results: the first polarization measurement of the B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} {phi}{phi} decay and the update of the B{sub (s)}{sup 0} {yields} h{sup +}h{prime}{sup -} decays analysis.

Task 1 was to design study for fuel-efficient system configuration. The objective of task 1 was to perform a system design study of locomotive engine configurations leading to a 5% improvement in fuel efficiency. Modeling studies were conducted in GT-Power to perform this task. GT-Power is an engine simulation tool that facilitates modeling of engine components and their system level interactions. It provides the capability to evaluate a variety of engine technologies such as exhaust gas circulation (EGR), variable valve timing, and advanced turbo charging. The setup of GT-Power includes a flexible format that allows the effects of variations in available technologies (i.e., varying EGR fractions or fuel injection timing) to be systematically evaluated. Therefore, development can be driven by the simultaneous evaluation of several technology configurations.

Fact sheet describing Clean Cities, a DOE program that deploys alternative and advanced fuels and vehicles to displace petroleum in the transportation sector. It includes the contact information for its 87 active coalitions.

This report takes a broad look at the status of local clean energy policies in the United States to develop a better understanding of local clean energy policy development and the interaction between state and local policies. To date, the majority of clean energy policy research focuses on the state and federal levels. While there has been a substantial amount of research on local level climate change initiatives, this is one of the first analyses of clean energy policies separate from climate change initiatives. This report is one in a suite of reports analyzing clean energy and climate policy development at the local, state, and regional levels.

Forestry is one of the most important sectors in the context of climate change. It lies at the center-stage of global mitigation and adaptation efforts. Yet, it is one of the least understood sectors, especially in tropical zones, which constitute a significant portion of the global forests. Recently, there has been a growing interest in forests in addressing global climate change. The IPCC Assessment Report 4 (2007) Chapters related to forests have highlighted the limited number of studies on the impact of climate change on forests at the regional, national and sub-national level, while policy makers need information at these scales. Further, implication of projected climate change on mitigation potential of forest sector is only briefly mentioned in the IPCC report, with limited literature to support the conclusions. India is one among the top ten nations in the world in terms of forest cover. It is also sixth among the tropical countries in terms of forested area. As IPCC Assessment Report 5 work is about to be initiated soon, studies on the impact of climate change on forests as well as the mitigation potential of the forest sector, particularly at regional and national level, will be of great interest to …

To address public concerns regarding the consequences of climate change from anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) emissions, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE/NETL) is actively funding a CO{sub 2} management program to develop technologies capable of mitigating CO{sub 2} emissions from power plant and industrial facilities. Over the past decade, this program has focused on reducing the costs of carbon capture and storage technologies. Recently, DOE/NETL launched an alternative CO{sub 2} mitigation program focused on beneficial CO{sub 2} reuse to support the development of technologies that mitigate emissions by converting CO{sub 2} into valuable chemicals and fuels. RTI, with DOE/NETL support, has been developing an innovative beneficial CO{sub 2} reuse process for converting CO{sub 2} into substitute natural gas (SNG) by using by-product hydrogen (H{sub 2)-containing fuel gas from petrochemical facilities. This process leveraged commercial reactor technology currently used in fluid catalytic crackers in petroleum refining and a novel nickel (Ni)-based catalyst developed by RTI. The goal was to generate an SNG product that meets the pipeline specifications for natural gas, making the SNG product completely compatible with the existing natural gas infrastructure. RTI's technology development efforts focused on demonstrating the technical feasibility of this novel …

For X-ray Free-Electron Lasers such as LCLS and TESLA FEL, a change in the electron energy while amplifying the FEL radiation can shift the resonance condition out of the bandwidth of the FEL. The largest sources of energy loss is the emission of incoherent undulator radiation. Because the loss per electron depends only on the undulator parameters and the beam energy, which are fixed for a given resonant wavelength, the average energy loss can be compensated for by a fixed taper of the undulator. Coherent radiation has a strong enhancement proportional to the number of electrons in the bunch for frequencies comparable to or longer than the bunch dimension. If the emitted coherent energy becomes comparable to that of the incoherent emission, it has to be included in the taper as well. However, the coherent loss depends on the bunch charge and the applied compression scheme and a change of these parameters would require a change of the taper. This imposes a limitation on the practical operation of Free-Electron Lasers, where the taper can only be adjusted manually. In this presentation we analyze the coherent emission of undulator radiation and transition undulator radiation for LCLS, and estimate whether the resulting …