The Jefferson Lab Angular Momentum (JAM) Collaboration is a new initiative to study the angular momentum dependent structure of the nucleon. First results on the determination of spin-dependent parton distribution functions at intermediate and large x from world data on polarized deep-inelastic scattering are presented. Different aspects of global QCD analysis are discussed, including the effects of nuclear structure of deuterium and {sup 3}He targets, target mass corrections and higher twist contributions to the g{sub 1} and g{sub 2} structure functions.

We present studies of double longitudinal spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering using a new dedicated Monte Carlo generator, which includes quark intrinsic transverse momentum within the generalized parton model based on the fully differential cross section for the process. Additionally we employ Bessel-weighting to the MC events to extract transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions and also discuss possible uncertainties due to kinematic correlation effects.

This report addresses frequently asked questions about Ex-Im Bank, grouped in the following categories: congressional interest and the Ex-Im Bank reauthorization debate; market context; international context; organizational structure and management; programs; statutory requirements and policies; risk management; budget and appropriations; implications of a sunset in authority; and historical and current approaches to reauthorization.

This report addresses frequently asked questions about Ex-Im Bank, grouped in the following categories: congressional interest and the Ex-Im Bank reauthorization debate; market context; international context; organizational structure and management; programs; statutory requirements and policies; risk management; budget and appropriations; implications of a sunset in authority; and historical and current approaches to reauthorization.

We present a global re-analysis of recent experimental data on azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering, from the HERMES and COMPASS Collaborations, and in e{sup +}e{sup -} --> h_1h_2X processes, from the Belle Collaboration. The transversity distribution and the Collins functions are extracted simultaneously, in a revised analysis which also takes into account a new parameterization of the unknown functions.

Single spin asymmetries, A{sub N} , for inclusive particle production in pp collisions are considered within a generalized parton model with inclusion of spin and tranverse momentum effects. We consider the potential role of the Sivers effect in A{sub N} , as extracted from a careful analysis of azimuthal asymmetries in SIDIS, and discuss its phenomenological consequences in connection with a recently updated study of the Collins effect.

This report examines the evolution of counterterrorism cooperation between the United States and the European Union (EU), particularly since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It includes a discussion of U.S.-EU cooperation progress and ongoing challenges, as well as perspectives and issues for Congress.

In recent years parton distributions, describing longitudinal momentum, helicity and transversity distributions of quarks and gluons, have been generalized to account also for transverse degrees of freedom. Two new sets of more general distributions, Transverse Momentum Distributions (TMDs) and Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) were introduced to describe transverse momentum and spatial distributions of partons. Great progress has been made since then in measurements of different Single Spin Asymmetries (SSAs) in semi-inclusive and hard exclusive processes, providing access to TMDs and GPDs, respectively. Studies of TMDs and GPDs are also among the main driving forces of the JLab 12 GeV upgrade project.

The addition of insulation to the exterior of buildings is an effective means of increasing the thermal resistance of both wood framed walls as well as mass masonry wall assemblies. For thick layers of exterior insulation (levels greater than 1.5 inches), the use of wood furring strips attached through the insulation back to the structure has been used by many contractors and designers as a means to provide a convenient cladding attachment location (Straube and Smegal 2009, Pettit 2009, Joyce 2009, Ueno 2010). The research presented in this report is intended to help develop a better understanding of the system mechanics involved and the potential for environmental exposure induced movement between the furring strip and the framing. BSC sought to address the following research questions: 1. What are the relative roles of the mechanisms and the magnitudes of the force that influence the vertical displacement resistance of the system? 2. Can the capacity at a specified deflection be reliably calculated using mechanics based equations? 3. What are the impacts of environmental exposure on the vertical displacement of furring strips attached directly through insulation back to a wood structure?

Production cost models are often used for planning by simulating power system operations over long time horizons. The simulation of a day-ahead energy market can take several weeks to compute. Tractability improvements are often made through model simplifications, such as: reductions in transmission modeling detail, relaxation of commitment variable integrality, reductions in cost modeling detail, etc. One common simplification is to partition the simulation horizon so that weekly or monthly horizons can be simulated in parallel. However, horizon partitions are often executed with overlap periods of arbitrary and sometimes zero length. We calculate the time domain persistence of historical unit commitment decisions to inform time domain partitioning of production cost models. The results are implemented using PLEXOS production cost modeling software in an HPC environment to improve the computation time of simulations while maintaining solution integrity.

A device has been developed with moveable liquid nitrogen and liquid helium volumes that is capable of reaching over two meters into the coldest regions of a cryostat or dilution refrigerator and reliably extracting or installing a target of solid, polarized hydrogen deuteride (HD). This Transfer Cryostat incorporates a cylindrical neodymium rare-earth magnet that is configured as a Halbach dipole, which is maintained at 77 K and produces a 0.1 T field around the HD target. Multiple layers provide a hermetic 77 K-shield as the device is used to maintain a target at 2 K during a transfer between cryostats. Tests with frozen-spin HD show negligible polarization loss for either H or D over typical transfer periods. Multiple target transfers with this apparatus have shown an overall reliability of about 95% per transfer, which is a significant improvement over earlier versions of the device.

A variety of performance tests are described relating to: Material Transfers; Emergency Evacuation; Alarm Response Assessment; and an Enhanced Limited Scope Performance Test (ELSPT). Procedures are given for: nuclear material physical inventory and discrepancy; material transfers; and emergency evacuation.

PROTEUS is a zero-power research reactor based on a cylindrical graphite annulus with a central cylindrical cavity. The graphite annulus remains basically the same for all experimental programs, but the contents of the central cavity are changed according to the type of reactor being investigated. Through most of its service history, PROTEUS has represented light-water reactors, but from 1992 to 1996 PROTEUS was configured as a pebble-bed reactor (PBR) critical facility and designated as HTR-PROTEUS. The nomenclature was used to indicate that this series consisted of High Temperature Reactor experiments performed in the PROTEUS assembly. During this period, seventeen critical configurations were assembled and various reactor physics experiments were conducted. These experiments included measurements of criticality, differential and integral control rod and safety rod worths, kinetics, reaction rates, water ingress effects, and small sample reactivity effects (Ref. 3). HTR-PROTEUS was constructed, and the experimental program was conducted, for the purpose of providing experimental benchmark data for assessment of reactor physics computer codes. Considerable effort was devoted to benchmark calculations as a part of the HTR-PROTEUS program. References 1 and 2 provide detailed data for use in constructing models for codes to be assessed. Reference 3 is a comprehensive summary of …

The neutron radiography (NRAD) reactor is a 250 kW TRIGA (registered) (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics) Mark II , tank-type research reactor currently located in the basement, below the main hot cell, of the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). It is equipped with two beam tubes with separate radiography stations for the performance of neutron radiography irradiation on small test components. The interim critical configuration developed during the core upgrade, which contains only 62 fuel elements, has been evaluated as an acceptable benchmark experiment. The final 64-fuel-element operational core configuration of the NRAD LEU TRIGA reactor has also been evaluated as an acceptable benchmark experiment. Calculated eigenvalues differ significantly (approximately +/-1%) from the benchmark eigenvalue and have demonstrated sensitivity to the thermal scattering treatment of hydrogen in the U-Er-Zr-H fuel.

In its deployment as a pebble bed reactor (PBR) critical facility from 1992 to 1996, the PROTEUS facility was designated as HTR-PROTEUS. This experimental program was performed as part of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on the Validation of Safety Related Physics Calculations for Low Enriched HTGRs. Within this project, critical experiments were conducted for graphite moderated LEU systems to determine core reactivity, flux and power profiles, reaction-rate ratios, the worth of control rods, both in-core and reflector based, the worth of burnable poisons, kinetic parameters, and the effects of moisture ingress on these parameters. One benchmark experiment was evaluated in this report: Core 4. Core 4 represents the only configuration with random pebble packing in the HTR-PROTEUS series of experiments, and has a moderator-to-fuel pebble ratio of 1:1. Three random configurations were performed. The initial configuration, Core 4.1, was rejected because the method for pebble loading, separate delivery tubes for the moderator and fuel pebbles, may not have been completely random; this core loading was rejected by the experimenters. Cores 4.2 and 4.3 were loaded using a single delivery tube, eliminating the possibility for systematic ordering effects. The second and third cores differed slightly …

Research and development (R&D) activities on advanced, higher performance Light Water Reactor (LWR) fuels have been ongoing for the last few years. Following the unfortunate March 2011 events at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, the R&D shifted toward enhancing the accident tolerance of LWRs. Qualitative attributes for fuels with enhanced accident tolerance, such as improved reaction kinetics with steam resulting in slower hydrogen generation rate, provide guidance for the design and development of fuels and cladding with enhanced accident tolerance. A common set of technical metrics should be established to aid in the optimization and down selection of candidate designs on a more quantitative basis. “Metrics” describe a set of technical bases by which multiple concepts can be fairly evaluated against a common baseline and against one another. This report describes a proposed technical evaluation methodology that can be applied to evaluate the ability of each concept to meet performance and safety goals relative to the current UO2 – zirconium alloy system and relative to one another. The resultant ranked evaluation can then inform concept down-selection, such that the most promising accident tolerant fuel design option(s) can continue to be developed toward qualification.

For new nuclear reactor system designs to be approved by regulatory agencies like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the details of system operation must be validated with respect to standards of safety, control, and output. A scaled experiment that replicates certain properties of the system can be used to validate compliance with regulatory standards, while avoiding the prohibitive cost and labor required to develop a fully functional prototype system; therefore, designing such an experiment is of special interest to current efforts to develop hybrid energy systems (HES) that integrate small modular reactors (SMRs), renewable energy systems, and industrial process applications such as hydrogen production and desalination. In addition, a scaled experiment can be an economical method of analyzing the interconnections between HES components and understanding the time constants associated between inter-component energy and information flows. This report discusses the results of a preliminary scaling analysis done for the primary loop of a 300 MWth Fluoride-Salt-Cooled High Temperature Reactor (FHR) that is coupled with a High-Temperature Steam Electrolysis system (HTSE), as well as the basic control logic that governs the primary components and the necessary hardware to achieve optimal functionality. The scaled facility will be a 1 MWth system that uses …

Recent advances in the study of excited nucleons are discussed. Much of the progress has been achieved due to the availability of high precision meson production data in the photoproduction and electroproduction sectors, the development of multi-channel partial wave analysis techniques, and advances in Lattice QCD with predictions of the full excitation spectrum.

The inclusion of interlinked temporal and spatial elements within integrated sensor data enables a tremendous degree of flexibility when analyzing multi-component datasets. The presentation illustrates how to warehouse, process, and analyze high-resolution integrated sensor datasets to support complex system analysis at the entity and system levels. The example cases presented utilizes in-vehicle sensor system data to assess vehicle performance, while integrating a map matching algorithm to link vehicle data to roads to demonstrate the enhanced analysis possible via interlinking data elements. Furthermore, in addition to the flexibility provided, the examples presented illustrate concepts of maintaining proprietary operational information (Fleet DNA) and privacy of study participants (Transportation Secure Data Center) while producing widely distributed data products. Should real-time operational data be logged at high resolution across multiple infrastructure types, map matched to their associated infrastructure, and distributed employing a similar approach; dependencies between urban environment infrastructures components could be better understood. This understanding is especially crucial for the cities of the future where transportation will rely more on grid infrastructure to support its energy demands.

The Technology Readiness Level (TRL) process is used to quantitatively assess the maturity of a given technology. The TRL process has been developed and successfully used by the Department of Defense (DOD) for development and deployment of new technology and systems for defense applications. In addition, NASA has also successfully used the TRL process to develop and deploy new systems for space applications. Advanced nuclear fuels and materials development is a critical technology needed for closing the nuclear fuel cycle. Because the deployment of a new nuclear fuel forms requires a lengthy and expensive research, development, and demonstration program, applying the TRL concept to the advanced fuel development program is very useful as a management and tracking tool. This report provides definition of the technology readiness level assessment process as defined for use in assessing nuclear fuel technology development for the Advanced Fuel Campaign (AFC).

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This report briefly discusses Japan's Gender Gap and the Japanese government's current strategies to help women stay and advance in the workplace as a means of improving the economy.

This report provides background information on the historical circumstances that led to the adoption of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), a summary of its major provisions, and a brief discussion of the U.S. Supreme Court decision and related legislation in the 113th Congress.

This report provides background on energy for facilities that treat and deliver water to end users and also dispose of and discharge wastewater. Energy use for water is a function of many variables, including water source (surface water pumping typically requires less energy than groundwater pumping), treatment (high ambient quality raw water requires less treatment than brackish or seawater), intended end-use, distribution (water pumped long distances requires more energy), amount of water loss in the system through leakage and evaporation, and level of wastewater treatment (stringency of water quality regulations to meet discharge standards).