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68
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4,170 Matching Results
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Heat Pump Water Heaters and American Homes: A Good Fit?
Heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) are over twice as energy-efficient as conventional electric resistance water heaters, with the potential to save substantial amounts of electricity. Drawing on analysis conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy's recently-concluded rulemaking on amended standards for water heaters, this paper evaluates key issues that will determine how well, and to what extent, this technology will fit in American homes. The key issues include: 1) equipment cost of HPWHs; 2) cooling of the indoor environment by HPWHs; 3) size and air flow requirements of HPWHs; 4) performance of HPWH under different climate conditions and varying hot water use patterns; and 5) operating cost savings under different electricity prices and hot water use. The paper presents the results of a life-cycle cost analysis of the adoption of HPWHs in a representative sample of American homes, as well as national impact analysis for different market share scenarios. Assuming equipment costs that would result from high production volume, the results show that HPWHs can be cost effective in all regions for most single family homes, especially when the water heater is not installed in a conditioned space. HPWHs are not cost effective for most manufactured home and multi-family installations, …
Date:
May 14, 2010
Creator:
Franco, Victor; Lekov, Alex; Meyers, Steve & Letschert, Virginie
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
HIGH-LEVEL WASTE FEED CERTIFICATION IN HANFORD DOUBLE-SHELL TANKS
The ability to effectively mix, sample, certify, and deliver consistent batches of High Level Waste (HLW) feed from the Hanford Double Shell Tanks (DST) to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) presents a significant mission risk with potential to impact mission length and the quantity of HLW glass produced. DOE's River Protection Project (RPP) mission modeling and WTP facility modeling assume that individual 3785 cubic meter (l million gallon) HLW feed tanks are homogenously mixed, representatively sampled, and consistently delivered to the WTP. It has been demonstrated that homogenous mixing ofHLW sludge in Hanford DSTs is not likely achievable with the baseline design thereby causing representative sampling and consistent feed delivery to be more difficult. Inconsistent feed to the WTP could cause additional batch-to-batch operational adjustments that reduce operating efficiency and have the potential to increase the overall mission length. The Hanford mixing and sampling demonstration program will identify DST mixing performance capability, will evaluate representative sampling techniques, and will estimate feed batch consistency. An evaluation of demonstration program results will identify potential mission improvement considerations that will help ensure successful mission completion. This paper will discuss the history, progress, and future activities that will define and mitigate the …
Date:
January 14, 2010
Creator:
MG, THIEN; BE, WELLS & DJ, ADAMSON
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Hohlraum Target Alignment from X-ray Detector Images using Starburst Design Patterns
National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a high-energy laser facility comprised of 192 laser beams focused with enough power and precision on a hydrogen-filled spherical, cryogenic target to initiate a fusion reaction. The target container, or hohlraum, must be accurately aligned to an x-ray imaging system to allow careful monitoring of the frozen fuel layer in the target. To achieve alignment, x-ray images are acquired through starburst-shaped windows cut into opposite sides of the hohlraum. When the hohlraum is in alignment, the starburst pattern pairs match nearly exactly and allow a clear view of the ice layer formation on the edge of the target capsule. During the alignment process, x-ray image analysis is applied to determine the direction and magnitude of adjustment required. X-ray detector and source are moved in concert during the alignment process. The automated pointing alignment system described here is both accurate and efficient. In this paper, we describe the control and associated image processing that enables automation of the starburst pointing alignment.
Date:
December 14, 2010
Creator:
Leach, R. R.; Conder, A.; Edwards, O.; Kroll, J.; Kozioziemski, B.; Mapoles, E. et al.
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Homeland Security: Federal Protective Service's Use of Contract Guards Requires Reassessment and More Oversight
Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To accomplish its mission of protecting about 9,000 federal facilities, the Federal Protective Service (FPS) currently has a budget of about $1 billion, about 1,225 full-time employees, and about 15,000 contract security guards. FPS obligated $659 million for guard services in fiscal year 2009. This testimony is based on our report issued on April 13, 2010, and discusses challenges FPS continues to face in (1) managing its guard contractors and (2) overseeing guards deployed at federal facilities, and (3) the actions FPS has taken to address these challenges. To address these objectives, GAO conducted site visits at 6 of FPS's 11 regions; interviewed FPS officials, guards, and contractors, and analyzed FPS's contract files. GAO also reviewed new contract guard program guidance issued since our July 2009 report and observed guard inspections and penetration testing done by FPS."
Date:
April 14, 2010
Creator:
United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Homeland Security: Preliminary Observations on the Federal Protective Service's Workforce Analysis and Planning Efforts
Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "We have identified several workforce related challenges faced by the Federal Protective Service (FPS) since its transfer to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, including low morale among staff, increased attrition, and the loss of institutional knowledge. Our prior work has found that FPS continues to face challenges in identifying the optimal number of staff needed to adequately conduct its mission. In response to Congress's mandate in the House Report, which accompanied the DHS fiscal year 2009 Appropriations Act requiring GAO to evaluate the adequacy of FPS's workforce size, this report includes preliminary observations on the following questions: (1) What is the current status of FPS's efforts to determine its workforce requirements? (2) To what extent do FPS's efforts align with commonly used workforce analysis and planning practices? (3) What, if any, challenges may impede implementation of FPS's efforts?"
Date:
June 14, 2010
Creator:
United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Homelessness: Targeted Federal Programs and Recent Legislation
This report contains information on the federal response to homelessness, including programs within different federal agencies, current issues relating to homelessness that are being considered by Congress, legislation enacted in the 111th Congress, and federal funding.
Date:
May 14, 2010
Creator:
Perl, Libby
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Housing and Community Grants: HUD Needs to Enhance Its Requirements and Oversight of Jurisdictions' Fair Housing Plans
A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to the Fair Housing Act, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulations require grantees, such as cities, that receive federal funds through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) to further fair housing opportunities. In particular, grantees are required to prepare planning documents known as Analyses of Impediments (AI), which are to identify impediments to fair housing (such as restrictive zoning or segregated housing) and actions to overcome them. HUD has oversight responsibility for AIs. This report (1) assesses both the conformance of CDBG and HOME grantees AIs' with HUD guidance pertaining to their timeliness and content and their potential usefulness as planning tools and (2) identifies factors in HUD's requirements and oversight that may help explain any AI weaknesses. GAO requested AIs from a representative sample of the nearly 1,200 grantees, compared the 441 AIs received (95 percent response based on final sample of 466) with HUD guidance and conducted work at HUD headquarters and 10 offices nationwide."
Date:
September 14, 2010
Creator:
United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Human Capital: Status of Actions Needed to Improve the Timely and Accurate Delivery of Compensation and Medical Benefits to Deployed Civilians
Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) and other executive agencies increasingly deploy civilians in support of contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior GAO reports show that the use of deployed civilians has raised questions about the potential for differences in policies on compensation and medical benefits. When these civilians are deployed and serve side by side, differences in compensation or medical benefits may become more apparent and could adversely impact morale. This statement is based on GAO's 2009 congressionally requested report, which compared agency policies and identified any issues in policy or implementation regarding (1) compensation, (2) medical benefits, and (3) identification and tracking of deployed civilians. GAO reviewed laws, policies, and guidance; interviewed responsible officials at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM); and conducted a survey of civilians deployed from the six agencies between January 1, 2006 and April 30, 2008. GAO made ten recommendations for agencies to take actions such as reviewing compensation laws and policies, establishing medical screening requirements, and creating mechanisms to assist and track deployed civilians. Seven of the agencies--including DOD-- generally agreed with these recommendations; U.S. Agency for International Development did not. …
Date:
April 14, 2010
Creator:
United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Hurricane Intensity, Sea Surface Temperature, and Stochastic Variation
None
Date:
July 14, 2010
Creator:
Bogen, K. T.; Fischer, L. E. & Jones, E. D.
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Hybrid Parallelism for Volume Rendering on Large, Multi-core Systems
This work studies the performance and scalability characteristics of"hybrid" parallel programming and execution as applied to raycasting volume rendering -- a staple visualization algorithm -- on a large, multi-core platform. Historically, the Message Passing Interface (MPI) has become the de-facto standard for parallel programming and execution on modern parallel systems. As the computing industry trends towards multi-core processors, with four- and six-core chips common today and 128-core chips coming soon, we wish to better understand how algorithmic and parallel programming choices impact performance and scalability on large, distributed-memory multi-core systems. Our findings indicate that the hybrid-parallel implementation, at levels of concurrency ranging from 1,728 to 216,000, performs better, uses a smaller absolute memory footprint, and consumes less communication bandwidth than the traditional, MPI-only implementation.
Date:
June 14, 2010
Creator:
Howison, Mark; Bethel, E. Wes & Childs, Hank
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
IDENTIFYING IMPURITIES IN SURPLUS NON PIT PLUTONIUM FEEDS FOR MOX OR ALTERNATIVE DISPOSITION
This report provides a technical basis for estimating the level of corrosion products in materials stored in DOE-STD-3013 containers based on extrapolating available chemical sample results. The primary focus is to estimate the levels of nickel, iron, and chromium impurities in plutonium-bearing materials identified for disposition in the United States Mixed Oxide fuel process.
Date:
July 14, 2010
Creator:
Allender, J & Moore, E
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Implications of NSTX Lithium Results for Magnetic Fusion Research
Lithium wall coating techniques have been experimentally explored on NSTX for the last five years. The lithium experimentation on NSTX started with a few milligrams of lithium injected into the plasma as pellets and it has evolved to a lithium evaporation system which can evaporate up to ~ 100 g of lithium onto the lower divertor plates between lithium reloadings. The unique feature of the lithium research program on NSTX is that it can investigate the effects of lithium in H-mode divertor plasmas. This lithium evaporation system thus far has produced many intriguing and potentially important results; the latest of these are summarized in a companion paper by H. Kugel. In this paper, we suggest possible implications and applications of the NSTX lithium results on the magnetic fusion research which include electron and global energy confinement improvements, MHD stability enhancement at high beta, ELM control, H-mode power threshold reduction, improvements in radio frequency heating and non-inductive plasma start-up performance, innovative divertor solutions and improved operational efficiency.
Date:
January 14, 2010
Creator:
M. Ono, M.G. Bell, R.E. Bell, R. Kaita, H.W. Kugel, B.P. LeBlanc, J.M. Canik, S. Diem, S.P.. Gerhardt, J. Hosea, S. Kaye, D. Mansfield, R. Maingi, J. Menard, S. F. Paul, R. Raman, S.A. Sabbagh, C.H. Skinner, V. Soukhanovskii, G. Taylor, and the NSTX Research Team
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Intelligence Issues for Congress
To address the challenges facing the U.S. intelligence community in the 21st century, congressional and executive branch initiatives have sought to improve coordination among the different agencies and to encourage better analysis. This report discusses these challenges and efforts the current and previous Administrations and Congresses have taken and are taking to address them. The report includes criticism of the intelligence community's efforts regarding Iraq, Iran, and other areas. Improved analysis remains a key goal in these discussions.
Date:
October 14, 2010
Creator:
Best, Richard A., Jr.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Interferometric adaptive optics for the National Ignition Facility
None
Date:
January 14, 2010
Creator:
Baker, K.; Homoelle, D.; Stappaerts, E.; Siders, C. & Barty, C.
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
International Criminal Court Cases in Africa: Status and Policy Issues
This report provides background on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its investigations in Africa, with an overview of cases currently before the Court. The report also examines issues raised by the ICC's actions in Africa, including the potential deterrence of future abuses and the potential impact on African peace processes.
Date:
July 14, 2010
Creator:
Arieff, Alexis; Margesson, Rhoda; Browne, Marjorie Ann & Weed, Matthew C.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
International Trade: Rules of Origin
This report deals with rules of origin (ROO) in three parts. First, we describe in more detail the reasons that country of origin rules are important and briefly describe U.S. laws and methods that provide direction in making these determinations. Second, we discuss briefly some of the more controversial issues involving rules of origin, including the apparently subjective nature of some CBP origin determinations, and the effects of the global manufacturing process on ROO. Third, we conclude with some alternatives and options that Congress could consider that might assist in simplifying the process.
Date:
May 14, 2010
Creator:
Jones, Vivian C. & Martin, Michael F.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Internet Domain Names: Background and Policy Issues
The Domain Name System (DNS) is the distributed set of databases residing in computers around the world that contain address numbers mapped to corresponding domain names, making it possible to send and receive messages and to access information from computers anywhere on the Internet. Many of the technical, operational, and management decisions regarding the DNS can have significant impacts on Internet-related policy issues such as intellectual property, privacy, ecommerce, and cybersecurity. The expiration of the JPA (Joint Project Agreement), the implementation of the Affirmation of Commitments, and the continuing U.S. authority over the DNS root zone remain issues of interest to the 112th Congress, the Administration, foreign governments, and other Internet stakeholders worldwide.
Date:
December 14, 2010
Creator:
Kruger, Lennard G.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Investigating Chemical and Molecular Changes in Uranium Oxyfluoride Particles using NanoSIMS and Micro-Raman Spectroscopy
None
Date:
September 14, 2010
Creator:
Kips, R.; Kristo, M. J.; Crowhurst, J.; Hutcheon, I. D.; Stefaniak, E. A. & Aregbe, Y.
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Job Creation Programs of the Great Depression: the WPA and the CCC
This report first describes the social policy environment in which the 1930s job creation programs were developed and examines the reasons for their shortcomings then and as models for current-day countercyclical employment measures. It then provides a brief overview of the two job creation programs of the Depression-era that Members of Congress have asked about most frequently: the Works Progress or Projects Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
Date:
January 14, 2010
Creator:
Levine, Linda
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Jordan: Background and U.S. Relations
This report provides an overview of Jordanian politics and current issues in U.S.-Jordanian relations. It provides a brief discussion of Jordan's government and economy and of its cooperation in promoting Arab-Israeli peace and other U.S. policy objectives in the Middle East.
Date:
October 14, 2010
Creator:
Sharp, Jeremy M.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Jurisprudence of Justice John Paul Stevens: Selected Opinions on Intellectual Property Law
This report briefly surveys decisions of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens in intellectual property cases. An examination of Justice Stevens' written opinions relating to intellectual property law reveals a strong desire to ensure that the rights of intellectual property creators are balanced with the rights of the public to access creative and innovative works.
Date:
May 14, 2010
Creator:
Yeh, Brian T.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
LHC Beam Diffusion Dependence on RF Noise: Models And Measurements
Radio Frequency (RF) accelerating system noise and non-idealities can have detrimental impact on the LHC performance through longitudinal motion and longitudinal emittance growth. A theoretical formalism has been developed to relate the beam and RF loop dynamics with the bunch length growth [1]. Measurements were conducted at LHC to validate the formalism, determine the performance limiting RF components, and provide the foundation for beam diffusion estimates for higher energies and intensities. A brief summary of these results is presented in this work. During a long store, the relation between the energy lost to synchrotron radiation and the noise injected to the beam by the RF accelerating voltage determines the growth of the bunch energy spread and longitudinal emittance. Since the proton synchrotron radiation in the LHC is very low, the beam diffusion is extremely sensitive to RF perturbations. The theoretical formalism presented in [1], suggests that the noise experienced by the beam depends on the cavity phase noise power spectrum, filtered by the beam transfer function, and aliased due to the periodic sampling of the accelerating voltage signal V{sub c}. Additionally, the dependence of the RF accelerating cavity noise spectrum on the Low Level RF (LLRF) configurations has been predicted …
Date:
September 14, 2010
Creator:
Mastorides, T.; Rivetta, C.; Fox, J. D.; Van Winkle, D.; Baudrenghien, P.; Butterworth, A. et al.
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
LHC RF System Time-Domain Simulation
Non-linear time-domain simulations have been developed for the Positron-Electron Project (PEP-II) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These simulations capture the dynamic behavior of the RF station-beam interaction and are structured to reproduce the technical characteristics of the system (noise contributions, non-linear elements, and more). As such, they provide useful results and insight for the development and design of future LLRF feedback systems. They are also a valuable tool for the study of diverse longitudinal beam dynamics effects such as coupled-bunch impedance driven instabilities and single bunch longitudinal emittance growth. Results from these studies and related measurements from PEP-II and LHC have been presented in multiple places. This report presents an example of the time-domain simulation implementation for the LHC.
Date:
September 14, 2010
Creator:
Mastorides, T. & Rivetta, C.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
List of Contractors to Support Anthrax Remediation
This document responds to a need identified by private sector businesses for information on contractors that may be qualified to support building remediation efforts following a wide-area anthrax release.
Date:
May 14, 2010
Creator:
Judd, Kathleen S. & Lesperance, Ann M.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library