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We numerically construct black hole solutions corresponding to the deconfined, chirally symmetric phase of strongly coupled cascading gauge theories at various temperatures. We compute the free energy as a function of the temperature, and we show that it becomes positive below some critical temperature, indicating the possibility of a first order phase transition at which the theory deconfines and restores the chiral symmetry.

This report evaluates the results of the annual U.S.-EU summit on April 30, 2007, in Washington, DC.

Air pollution arising from the emission of nitrogen oxides as a result of combustion taking place in boilers, furnaces and engines, has increasingly been recognized as a problem. New methods to remove NOx emissions significantly and economically must be developed. The current technology for post-combustion removal of NO is the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO by ammonia or possibly by a hydrocarbon such as methane. The catalytic decomposition of NO to give N2 will be preferable to the SCR process because it will eliminate the costs and operating problems associated with the use of an external reducing species. The most promising decomposition catalysts are transition metal (especially copper)-exchanged zeolites, perovskites, and noble metals supported on metal oxides such as alumina, silica, and ceria. The main shortcoming of the noble metal reducible oxide (NMRO) catalysts is that they are prone to deactivation by oxygen. It has been reported that catalysts containing tin oxide show oxygen adsorption behavior that may involve hydroxyl groups attached to the tin oxide. This is different than that observed with other noble metal-metal oxide combinations, which have the oxygen adsorbing on the noble metal and subsequently spilling over to the metal oxide. This observation leads one …

The focus of this contract was to investigate selected aspects of the atmospheric chemistry of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted into the atmosphere from energy-related sources as well as from biogenic sources. The classes of VOCs studied were polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nitro-PAHs, the biogenic VOCs isoprene, 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol and cis-3-hexen-1-ol, alkenes (including alkenes emitted from vegetation) and their oxygenated atmospheric reaction products, and a series of oxygenated carbonyl and hydroxycarbonyl compounds formed as atmospheric reaction products of aromatic hydrocarbons and other VOCs. Large volume reaction chambers were used to investigate the kinetics and/or products of photolysis and of the gas-phase reactions of these organic compounds with hydroxyl (OH) radicals, nitrate (NO3) radicals, and ozone (O3), using an array of analytical instrumentation to analyze the reactants and products (including gas chromatography, in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and direct air sampling atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry). The following studies were carried out. The photolysis rates of 1- and 2-nitronaphthalene and of eleven isomeric methylnitronaphthalenes were measured indoors using blacklamp irradiation and outdoors using natural sunlight. Rate constants were measured for the gas-phase reactions of OH radicals, Cl atoms and NO3 radicals with naphthalene, 1- and 2-methylnaphthalene, 1- and 2-ethylnaphthalene …

COMcheck provides an optional way to demonstrate compliance with commercial and high-rise residential building energy codes. Commercial buildings include all use groups except single family and multifamily not over three stories in height. COMcheck was originally based on ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-1989 (Standard 90.1-1989) requirements and is intended for use with various codes based on Standard 90.1, including the Codification of ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-1989 (90.1-1989 Code) (ASHRAE 1989a, 1993b) and ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-1999 (Standard 90.1-1999). This includes jurisdictions that have adopted the 90.1-1989 Code, Standard 90.1-1989, Standard 90.1-1999, or their own code based on one of these. We view Standard 90.1-1989 and the 90.1-1989 Code as having equivalent technical content and have used both as source documents in developing COMcheck. This technical support document (TSD) is designed to explain the technical basis for the COMcheck software as originally developed based on the ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-1989 (Standard 90.1-1989). Documentation for other national model codes and standards and specific state energy codes supported in COMcheck has been added to this report as appendices. These appendices are intended to provide technical documentation for features specific to the supported codes and for any changes made for state-specific codes that differ from the standard features that …

In order to understand how high performance computing (HPC) programs are developed, a series of experiments, using students in graduate level HPC classes and various research centers, were conducted at various locations in the US. In this report, we discuss this research, give some of the early results of those experiments, and describe a web-based Experiment Manager we are developing that allows us to run studies more easily and consistently at universities and laboratories, allowing us to generate results that more accurately reflect the process of building HPC programs.

This report tracks the Children's Health Reauthorization of Act of 2007 in both the Senate and the House, while also providing a summary of the bill. The report lists each title of the bill. what they do, and their implications. The report also examines costs by analyzing the immediate outlay and future outlay, starting at 28.6 billion and potentially increasing to 35.2 billion over time.

This report briefly outlines three issues and touches upon some of the perspectives reflected in the ongoing debate. These issues include the inherent and often dynamic tension between national security and civil liberties, particularly rights of privacy and free speach.

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Elastic constants for tantalum single crystals have been calculated by Orlikowski, et al. [1] for a broad range of temperatures and pressures. These moduli can be utilized directly in continuum crystal simulations or dislocation dynamics calculations where the individual grains of the polycrystalline material are explicitly represented. For simulations on a larger size scale, the volume of material represented by the quadrature points of the simulation codes includes many grains, and average moduli are needed. Analytic bounding and averaging schemes exist, but since these do not account for nonuniform stress and strain within the interacting grains, the upper and lower bounds tend to diverge as the crystal anisotropy increases. Local deformation and stress equilibrium accommodate the anisotropic response of the individual grains. One method of including grain interactions in shear modulus averaging calculations is through a highly-descretized finite element model of a polycrystal volume. This virtual test sample (VTS) can be probed to determine the average response of the polycrystal. The desire to obtain isotropic moduli imposes attributes on the VTS. The grains should be equiax and the crystal orientation distribution function should be random. For these simulations, a cube, 300 {micro}m on a side, was discretized with 1 million …

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This report provides current statistical information, profiles the Afghanistan narcotics trade's participants, explores linkages between narcotics, insecurity, and corruption, and reviews U.S. and international policy responses since late 2001. The report also considers ongoing policy debates regarding the counternarcotics role of coalition military forces, poppy eradication, alternative livelihoods, and funding issues for Congress.

This report describes the Federal Reservoir and Species Management of Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) Drought.

This month's issue has the following articles: (1) The Edward Teller Centennial--Commentary by George H. Miller; (2) Edward Teller's Century: Celebrating the Man and His Vision--Colleagues at the Laboratory remember Edward Teller, cofounder of Lawrence Livermore, adviser to U.S. presidents, and physicist extraordinaire, on the 100th anniversary of his birth; (3) Quark Theory and Today's Supercomputers: It's a Match--Thanks to the power of BlueGene/L, Livermore has become an epicenter for theoretical advances in particle physics; and (4) The Role of Dentin in Tooth Fracture--Studies on tooth dentin show that its mechanical properties degrade with age.

SLAC is in the privileged position of being the site for the world's first 4th generation light source as well as having a premier accelerator research staff and facilities. Operation of the world's first x-ray free electron laser (FEL) facility will require innovations in electron injectors to provide electron beams of unprecedented quality. Upgrades to provide ever shorter wavelength x-ray beams of increasing intensity will require significant advances in the state-of-the-art. The BESAC 20-Year Facilities Roadmap identifies the electron gun as ''the critical enabling technology to advance linac-based light sources'' and recognizes that the sources for next-generation light sources are ''the highest-leveraged technology'', and that ''BES should strongly support and coordinate research and development in this unique and critical technology''.[1] This white paper presents an R&D plan and a description of a facility for developing the knowledge and technology required to successfully achieve these upgrades, and to coordinate efforts on short-pulse source development for linac-based light sources.

This report provides information about the Elections Reform. HAVA created a new federal agency.set requirements for voting, voter- registration system and other aspects of election administration.

Laboratory management requires that the controls specified in this Facility Safety Plan (FSP) be applied to efficiently and safely perform operations within these facilities. Any operation conducted in these facilities that involves activities not commonly performed by the public, requires an Integrated Work Sheet to determine the appropriate level of safety documentation.

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This report provides information about the Implementation and Issues of Clean Air Permitting. It also describes the statutory background of Title V and the status of implementation, in terms of federal approval and local permitting authorities.

The Conservation Reserve Program, enacted in 1985, provides payments to farmers to take highly erodible or environmentally sensitive cropland out of production for ten years or more to conserve soil and water resources. It is the federal government's largest private land retirement program. This report contains information on how the program was made, enrolling in the program, program costs and benefits, and current issues.

A saltstone waste form was prepared in the Savannah River National Laboratory from a Tank 50H sample and Z-Area premix material. After the prescribed 28 day cure, samples of the saltstone were collected, and the waste form was shown to meet the South Carolina Hazardous Waste Management Regulations (SCHWMR) R.61-79.261.24 requirements for a nonhazardous waste form with respect to RCRA metals. These analyses met all quality assurance specifications of USEPA SW-846.

This report shows the distribution of House seats based on the 2000 census for 435 seats and for 437 seats as specified in the proposal. The report also examines the impact of using the 2006 estimated population to allocate the 437 seats, including the single seat provided to the District.

Immobilized organometallic catalysts, in principle, can give high rates and selectivities like homogeneous catalysts with the ease of separation enjoyed by heterogeneous catalysts. However, the science of immobilized organometallics has not been developed because the field lies at the interface between the homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis communities. By assembling an interdisciplinary research team that can probe all aspects of immobilized organometallic catalyst design, the entire reacting system can be considered, where the transition metal complex, the complex-support interface and the properties of the support can all be considered simultaneously from both experimental and theoretical points of view. Researchers at Georgia Tech and the University of Virginia are studying the fundamental principles that can be used to understand and design future classes of immobilized organometallic catalysts. In the framework of the overall collaborative project with Georgia Tech, our work focused on (a) the X-ray absorption spectroscopy of an immobilized Pd-SCS-O complex (b) the mode of metal leaching from supported Pd catalysts during Heck catalysis and (c) the mode of deactivation of Jacobsen’s Co-salen catalysts during the hydrolytic kinetic resolution of terminal epoxides. Catalysts containing supported Pd pincer complexes, functionalized supports containing mercapto and amine groups, and oligomeric Co-salen catalysts were synthesized …