The relationship between charge transport and mechanical properties of alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAM) on Au(111) films has been investigated using an atomic force microscope with a conductive tip. Molecular tilts induced by the pressure applied by the tip cause stepwise increases in film conductivity. A decay constant {beta} = 0.57 {+-} 0.03 {angstrom}{sup -1} was found for the current passing through the film as a function of tip-substrate separation due to this molecular tilt. This is significantly smaller than the value of {approx} 1 {angstrom}{sup -1} found when the separation is changed by changing the length of the alkanethiol molecules. Calculations indicate that for isolated dithiol molecules S-bonded to hollow sites, the junction conductance does not vary significantly as a function of molecular tilt. The impact of S-Au bonding on SAM conductance is discussed.

This Strategic Plan for Sustainable Energy Management and Environmental Stewardship states goals, measures progress toward goals and how actions are monitored to achieve continuous improvement for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

This month's issue has the following 3 articles: (1) Kathy Yelick is the new director for the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); (2) Head of the Class--A cray XT4 named Franklin passes a rigorous test and becomes an official member of the NERSC supercomputing family; and (3) Model Comparisons--Fusion research group published several recent papers examining the results of two types of turbulence simulations and their impact on tokamak designs.

Hydrologic analyses are commonly based on a single conceptual-mathematical model. Yet hydrologic environments are open and complex, rendering them prone to multiple interpretations and mathematical descriptions. Considering conceptual model uncertainty is a critical process in hydrologic uncertainty assessment. This study assesses recharge and geologic model uncertainty for the Climax mine area of the Nevada Test Site, Nevada. Five alternative recharge models have been independently developed for Nevada and the Death Valley area of California. These models are (1) the Maxey-Eakin model, (2 and 3) a distributed parameter watershed model with and without a runon-runoff component, and (4 and 5) a chloride mass-balance model with two zero-recharge masks, one for alluvium and one for both alluvium and elevation. Similarly, five geological models have been developed based on different interpretations of available geologic information. One of them was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey for the Death Valley Regional Flow System (DVRFS) model; the other four were developed by Bechtel Nevada for the Yucca Flat Corrective Action Unit (CAU). The Climax mine area is in the northern part of the Yucca Flat CAU, which is within the DVRFS. A total of 25 conceptual models are thus formulated based on the five recharge …

GIT and IEC developed thin-film Si bottom cell and showed that deposition of top cell in tandem device did not reduce bottom cell performance.

The market for photovoltaics in the United States remains small relative to the nation's solar resource potential. Nonetheless, annual grid-connected PV installations have grown from just 4 MW in 2000 to over 100 MW in 2006, fast enough to the catch the attention of the global solar industry. The state of California deserves much of the credit for this growth. The State's historical rebate programs resulted in roughly 75% of the nation's grid-connected PV additions from 2000 through 2006 being located in California, and the $3 billion California Solar Initiative will ensure that the State remains a mainstay of the US solar industry for years to come. But California is not the only market for solar in the US; other states have recently developed policies that may rival those of the western state in terms of future growth potential. In particular, 25 states, as well as Washington, D.C., have established renewables portfolio standards (RPS), sometimes called quota systems in Europe, requiring electricity suppliers in those states to source a minimum portion of their need from renewable electricity. (Because a national RPS is not yet in place, my focus here is on state policies). Under many of these state policies, solar …

A process model of syngas production using high temperature electrolysis and biomass gasification is presented. Process heat from the biomass gasifier is used to improve the hydrogen production efficiency of the steam electrolysis process. Hydrogen from electrolysis allows a high utilization of the biomass carbon for syngas production. Based on the gasifier temperature, 94% to 95% of the carbon in the biomass becomes carbon monoxide in the syngas (carbon dioxide and hydrogen). Assuming the thermal efficiency of the power cycle for electricity generation is 50%, (as expected from GEN IV nuclear reactors), the syngas production efficiency ranges from 70% to 73% as the gasifier temperature decreases from 1900 K to 1500 K.

The dual issues of energy security and climate change mitigation are driving a renewed debate over how to best provide safe, secure, reliable and environmentally responsible electricity to our nation. The combination of growing energy demand and aging electricity generation infrastructure suggests major new capacity additions will be required in the years ahead.

Time-synchronized measurements provide rich information for estimating a power-system's electromechanical modal properties via advanced signal processing. This information is becoming critical for the improved operational reliability of interconnected grids. A given mode's properties are described by its frequency, damping, and shape. Modal frequencies and damping are useful indicators of power-system stress, usually declining with increased load or reduced grid capacity. Mode shape provides critical information for operational control actions. This project investigated many advanced techniques for power system identification from measured data focusing on mode frequency and damping ratio estimation. Investigators from the three universities coordinated their effort with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Significant progress was made on developing appropriate techniques for system identification with confidence intervals and testing those techniques on field measured data and through simulation. Experimental data from the western area power system was provided by PNNL and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for both ambient conditions and for signal injection tests. Three large-scale tests were conducted for the western area in 2005 and 2006. Measured field PMU (Phasor Measurement Unit) data was provided to the three universities. A 19-machine simulation model was enhanced for testing the system identification algorithms. Extensive simulations were run with this model …

None

A detailed chemical kinetic modeling approach is used to examine the phenomenon of suppression of sooting in diesel engines by addition of oxygenated hydrocarbon species to the fuel. This suppression, which has been observed experimentally for a few years, is explained kinetically as a reduction in concentrations of soot precursors present in the hot products of a fuel-rich diesel ignition zone when oxygenates are included. Oxygenates decrease the overall equivalence ratio of the igniting mixture, producing higher ignition temperatures and more radical species to consume more soot precursor species, leading to lower soot production. The kinetic model is also used to show how different oxygenates, ester structures in particular, can have different soot-suppression efficiencies due to differences in molecular structure of the oxygenated species.

The CH-TRU Waste Content Codes (CH-TRUCON) document describes the inventory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) CH-TRU waste within the transportation parameters specified by the Contact-Handled Transuranic Waste Authorized Methods for Payload Control (CH-TRAMPAC). The CH-TRAMPAC defines the allowable payload for the Transuranic Package Transporter-II (TRUPACT-II) and HalfPACT packagings. This document is a catalog of TRUPACT-II and HalfPACT authorized contents and a description of the methods utilized to demonstrate compliance with the CH-TRAMPAC. A summary of currently approved content codes by site is presented in Table 1. The CH-TRAMPAC describes "shipping categories" that are assigned to each payload container. Multiple shipping categories may be assigned to a single content code. A summary of approved content codes and corresponding shipping categories is provided in Table 2, which consists of Tables 2A, 2B, and 2C. Table 2A provides a summary of approved content codes and corresponding shipping categories for the "General Case," which reflects the assumption of a 60-day shipping period as described in the CH-TRAMPAC and Appendix 3.4 of the CH-TRU Payload Appendices. For shipments to be completed within an approximately 1,000-mile radius, a shorter shipping period of 20 days is applicable as described in the CH-TRAMPAC and Appendix 3.5 …

This project is the first application of a completely different approach to climate modeling, in which new prognostic equations are used to directly compute the evolution of two-point correlations. This project addresses three questions that are critical for the credibility of the science base for climate prediction: (1) What is the variability spectrum at equilibrium? (2) What is the rate of relaxation when subjected to external perturbations? (3) Can variations due to natural processes be distinguished from those due to transient external forces? The technical approach starts with the evolution equation for the probability distribution function and arrives at a prognostic equation for ensemble-mean two-point correlations, bypassing the detailed weather calculation. This work will expand our basic understanding of the theoretical limits of climate prediction and stimulate new experiments to perform with conventional climate models. It will furnish statistical estimates that are inaccessible with conventional climate simulations and likely will raise important new questions about the very nature of climate change and about how (and whether) climate change can be predicted. Solid progress on such issues is vital to the credibility of the science base for climate change research and will provide policymakers evaluating tradeoffs among energy technology options and …

The top quark was discovered in 1995 at the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). One way to confirm if the observed top quark is really the top quark posited in the Standard Model (SM) is to measure its electric charge. In the Standard Model the top quark is the isospin partner of the bottom quark and is expected to have a charge of +2/3. However, an alternative 'exotic' model has been proposed with a fourth generation exotic quark that has the same characteristics, such as mass, as our observed top but with a charge of -4/3. This thesis presents the first CDF measurement of the top quark's charge via its decay products, a W boson and a bottom quark, using {approx} 1 fb{sup -1} of data. The data were collected by the CDF detector from proton anti-proton (p{bar p}) collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV at Fermilab. We classify events depending on the charges of the bottom quark and associated W boson and count the number of events which appear 'SM-like' or 'exotic-like' with a SM-like event decaying as t {yields} W{sup +}b and an exotic event as t {yields} W{sup -}b. We find the p-value under the Standard Model …

We explore multi-component dark matter models where the dark sector consists of multiple stable states with different mass scales, and dark forces coupling these states further enrich the dynamics. The multi-component nature of the dark matter naturally arises in supersymmetric models, where both R parity and an additional symmetry, such as a Z{sub 2}, is preserved. We focus on a particular model where the heavier component of dark matter carries lepton number and annihilates mostly to leptons. The heavier component, which is essentially a sterile neutrino, naturally explains the PAMELA, ATIC and synchrotron signals, without an excess in antiprotons which typically mars other models of weak scale dark matter. The lighter component, which may have a mass from a GeV to a TeV, may explain the DAMA signal, and may be visible in low threshold runs of CDMS and XENON, which search for light dark matter.

It is the policy of the Department of Energy (DOE) that sustainable energy and transportation fuels management will be integrated into DOE operations to meet obligations under Executive Order (EO) 13423 "Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management," the Instructions for Implementation of EO 13423, as well as Guidance Documents issued in accordance thereto and any modifcations or amendments that may be issued from time to time. In furtherance of this obligation, DOE established strategic performance-based energy and transportation fuels goals and strategies through the Transformational Energy Action Management (TEAM) Initiative, which were incorporated into DOE Order 430.2B "Departmental Energy, Renewable energy, and Transportation Management" and were also identified in DOE Order 450.1A, "Environmental Protection Program." These goals and accompanying strategies are to be implemented by DOE sites through the integration of energy and transportation fuels management into site Environmental Management Systems (EMS).

Property-based testing is a testing technique that evaluates executions of a program. The method checks that specifications, called properties, hold throughout the execution of the program. TASpec is a language used to specify these properties. This paper compares some attributes of the language with the specification patterns used for model-checking languages, and then presents some descriptions of properties that can be used to detect common security flaws in programs. This report describes the results of a one year research project at the University of California, Davis, which was funded by a University Collaboration LDRD entitled ''Property-based Testing for Cyber Security Assurance''.

In 2000, a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) was undertaken between the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Special Metals Corporation (SMC) to determine the mechanical property response of the IN740 alloy to help establish thermo-mechanical processing parameters for the use of this alloy in supercritical and ultra-critical boiler tubes with the potential for other end uses. SMC had developed an alloy, commercially known as INCONEL alloy 740, which exhibited various beneficial physical, mechanical, and chemical properties. As part of SMC's on-going efforts to optimize this alloy for targeted boiler applications there was a need to develop an understanding of the thermo-mechanical response of the material, characterize the resulting microstructure from this processing, and possibly, utilize models to develop the appropriate processing scheme for this product.

Long-range as well as head-on beam-beam effects are expected to limit the LHC performance with design parameters. They are also important consideration for the LHC upgrades. To mitigate long-range effects current carrying wires parallel to the beam were proposed. Two such wires are installed in RHIC where they allow studying the effect of strong long-range beam-beam effects, as well as the compensation of a single long-range interaction. The tests provide benchmark data for simulations and analytical treatments. To reduce the head-on beam-beam effect electron lenses were proposed for both RIDC and the LHC. We present the experimental long-range beam-beam program at RHIC and report on head-on compensations studies based on simulations.

Over a decade ago, the electricity consumption associated with home electronics and other small appliances emerged onto the global energy policy landscape as one of the fastest growing residential end uses with the opportunity to deliver significant energy savings. As our knowledge of this end use matures, it is essential to step back and evaluate the degree to which energy efficiency programs have successfully realized energy savings and where savings opportunities have been missed.For the past fifteen years, we have quantified energy, utility bill, and carbon savings for US EPA?s ENERGY STAR voluntary product labeling program. In this paper, we present a unique look into the US residential program savings claimed to date for EPA?s ENERGY STAR office equipment, consumer electronics, and other small household appliances as well as EPA?s projected program savings over the next five years. We present a top-level discussion identifying program areas where EPA?s ENERGY STAR efforts have succeeded and program areas where ENERGY STAR efforts did not successfully address underlying market factors, technology issues and/or consumer behavior. We end by presenting the magnitude of ?overlooked? savings.

The Pierre Auger Observatory is designed to study cosmic rays with energies greater than 10{sup 19} eV. Two sites are envisaged for the observatory, one in each hemisphere, for complete sky coverage. The southern site of the Auger Observatory, now approaching completion in Mendoza, Argentina, features an array of 1600 water-Cherenkov surface detector stations covering 3000 km{sup 2}, together with 24 fluorescence telescopes to record the air shower cascades produced by these particles. The two complementary detector techniques together with the large collecting area form a powerful instrument for these studies. Although construction is not yet complete, the Auger Observatory has been taking data stably since January 2004 and the first physics results are being published. In this paper we describe the design features and technical characteristics of the surface detector stations of the Pierre Auger Observatory.

BackgroundIncreasing energy costs and environmental concerns have motivated engineering microbes for the production of ?second generation? biofuels that have better properties than ethanol.Results& ConclusionsSaccharomyces cerevisiae was engineered with an n-butanol biosynthetic pathway, in which isozymes from a number of different organisms (S. cerevisiae, Escherichia coli, Clostridium beijerinckii, and Ralstonia eutropha) were substituted for the Clostridial enzymes and their effect on n-butanol production was compared. By choosing the appropriate isozymes, we were able to improve production of n-butanol ten-fold to 2.5 mg/L. The most productive strains harbored the C. beijerinckii 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase, which uses NADH as a co-factor, rather than the R. eutropha isozyme, which uses NADPH, and the acetoacetyl-CoA transferase from S. cerevisiae or E. coli rather than that from R. eutropha. Surprisingly, expression of the genes encoding the butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase from C. beijerinckii (bcd and etfAB) did not improve butanol production significantly as previously reported in E. coli. Using metabolite analysis, we were able to determine which steps in the n-butanol biosynthetic pathway were the most problematic and ripe for future improvement.

Water injection has been recognized as a powerful techniquefor enhancing energy recovery from vapor-dominated geothermal systemssuch as The Geysers. In addition to increasing reservoir pressures,production well flow rates, and long-term sustainability of steamproduction, injection has also been shown to reduce concentrations ofnon-condensible gases (NCGs) in produced steam. The latter effectimproves energy conversion efficiency and reduces corrosion problems inwellbores and surface lines.This report reviews thermodynamic andhydrogeologic conditions and mechanisms that play an important role inreservoir response to water injection. An existing general-purposereservoir simulator has been enhanced to allow modeling of injectioneffects in heterogeneous fractured reservoirs in three dimensions,including effects of non-condensible gases of different solubility.Illustrative applications demonstrate fluid flow and heat transfermechanisms that are considered crucial for developing approaches to insitu abatement of NCGs.

Dynamic mechanical analysis has been used to characterize the effects of tritium gas (initially 1 atm. pressure, ambient temperature) exposure over times up to 2.3 years on several thermoplastics-ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), and Vespel{reg_sign} polyimide, and on several formulations of elastomers based on ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM). Tritium exposure stiffened the elastic modulus of UHMW-PE up to about 1 year and then softened it, and reduced the viscous response monotonically with time. PTFE initially stiffened, however the samples became too weak to handle after nine months exposure. The dynamic properties of Vespel{reg_sign} were not affected. The glass transition temperature of the EPDM formulations increased approximately 4 C. following three months tritium exposure.