These presentation visuals define local polynomial approximations, give formulas for bias and random components of the error, and express bias error in terms of the Peano kernel. They further derive constants that give figures of merit, and show the figures of merit for 3 common weighting functions. The Peano kernel theorem yields estimates for the bias error for local-polynomial-approximation smoothing that are superior in several ways to the error estimates in the current literature.

A premier applied-science laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has earned the reputation as a leader in providing science and technology solutions to the most pressing national and global security problems. The LDRD Program, established by Congress at all DOE national laboratories in 1991, is LLNL's most important single resource for fostering excellent science and technology for today's needs and tomorrow's challenges. The LDRD internally directed research and development funding at LLNL enables high-risk, potentially high-payoff projects at the forefront of science and technology. The LDRD Program at Livermore serves to: (1) Support the Laboratory's missions, strategic plan, and foundational science; (2) Maintain the Laboratory's science and technology vitality; (3) Promote recruiting and retention; (4) Pursue collaborations; (5) Generate intellectual property; and (6) Strengthen the U.S. economy. Myriad LDRD projects over the years have made important contributions to every facet of the Laboratory's mission and strategic plan, including its commitment to nuclear, global, and energy and environmental security, as well as cutting-edge science and technology and engineering in high-energy-density matter, high-performance computing and simulation, materials and chemistry at the extremes, information systems, measurements and experimental science, and energy manipulation. A summary of each project was submitted by the principal investigator. …

Micro-Raman spectroscopy has been demonstrated to be a viable tool for nondestructive determination of the crystal phase of relevant minerals. Collecting spectra on particles down to 5 microns in size was completed. Some minerals studied were weak scatterers and were better studied with the other techniques. A decent graphical software package should easily be able to compare collected spectra to a spectral library as well as subtract out matrix vibration peaks. Due to the success and unequivocal determination of the most common mineral false positive (zircon), it is clear that Raman has a future for complementary, rapid determination of unknown particulate samples containing actinides.

Cloud data centers are projected to be the fastest growing segment of the server market through 2015, according to IDC. Increasingly people and businesses rely on the Cloud to deliver digital content quickly and efficiently. Recovery Act funding from the Department of Energy has helped SeaMicro's technologies enhance the total cost of operation, performance and energy efficiency in large data center and Cloud environments. SeaMicro's innovative supercomputer fabric connects thousands of processor cores, memory, storage and input/output traffic. The company's fabric supports multiple processor instruction sets. Current systems featuring SeaMicro technology typically use one quarter the power and take one sixth the space of traditional servers with the same compute performance, yet deliver up to 12 times the bandwidth per core. Mozilla and eHarmony are two customers successfully using SeaMicro's technology. Numerous non-public customers have been successfully using the SeaMicro product in test and production facilities. As a result of the Recovery Act funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 50 direct jobs were created at SeaMicro. To date, they primarily have been high-value, engineering jobs. Hardware, software and manufacturing engineering positions have been created, as well as sales and sales engineering. The positions have allowed SeaMicro to …

Theoretical calculations were carried out to search for lightweight alloys that can be used to reversibly store hydrogen in mobile applications, such as automobiles. Our primary focus was on magnesium based alloys. While MgH{sub 2} is in many respects a promising hydrogen storage material, there are two serious problems which need to be solved in order to make it useful: (i) the binding energy of the hydrogen atoms in the hydride is too large, causing the release temperature to be too high, and (ii) the diffusion of hydrogen through the hydride is so slow that loading of hydrogen into the metal takes much too long. In the first year of the project, we found that the addition of ca. 15% of aluminum decreases the binding energy to the hydrogen to the target value of 0.25 eV which corresponds to release of 1 bar hydrogen gas at 100 degrees C. Also, the addition of ca. 15% of transition metal atoms, such as Ti or V, reduces the formation energy of interstitial H-atoms making the diffusion of H-atoms through the hydride more than ten orders of magnitude faster at room temperature. In the second year of the project, several calculations of alloys …

This project provides educational opportunities creating both a teaching facility and center for public outreach. The facility is the largest solar array in Nebraska. It was designed to allow students to experience a variety of technologies and provide the public with opportunities for exposure to the implementation of an alternative energy installation designed for an urban setting. The project integrates products from 5 panel manufacturers (including monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin film technologies) mounted on both fixed and tracking structures. The facility uses both micro and high power inverters. The majority of the system was constructed to serve as an outdoor classroom where panels can be monitored, tested, removed and replaced by students. As an educational facility it primarily serves students in the Creighton University and Metropolitan Community College, but it also provides broader educational opportunities. The project includes a real-time “dashboard” and a historical database of the output of individual inverters and the corresponding meteorological data for researcher and student use. This allows the evaluation of both panel types and the feasibility of installation types in a region of the country subject to significant temperature, wind and precipitation variation.

None

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative Thermodevices (BEETIT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses air conditioning that has increased electrical efficiency as part of the "Cascade Reverse Osmosis and the Absorption Osmosis Cycle" project.

None

This note provides details of the 5th Extremely Large Databases Conference and Invitational Workshop that were held in 2011 on 18-19 October and 20 October, respectively, at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California. The main goals of the conference were: (1) Encourage and accelerate the exchange of ideas between users trying to build extremely large databases worldwide and database solution providers; (2) Share lessons, trends, innovations, and challenges related to building extremely large databases; (3) Facilitate the development and growth of practical technologies for extremely large databases; and (4) Strengthen, expand, and engage the XLDB community.

HB-Line will begin processing Pu solutions during FY2012 that will involve the recovery of Pu using oxalate precipitation and filtration. After the precipitation and filtration processes, the filtrate solution will be transferred from HB-Line to H-Canyon. The presence of excess oxalate and unfiltered Pu oxalate solids in these solutions create a criticality safety issue if they are sent to H-Canyon without controls in H-Canyon. One approach involves H-Canyon receiving the filtrate solution into a tank that is poisoned with soluble gadolinium (Gd). Decomposition of the oxalate will occur within a subsequent H-Canyon vessel. The receipt of excess oxalate into the H-Canyon receipt tanks has the potential to precipitate a portion of the Gd poison in the receipt tanks. Because the amount of Gd in solution determines the maximum amount of Pu solids that H-Canyon can receive, H-Canyon Engineering requested that SRNL determine the solubility of Gd in aqueous solutions of 4-10 M nitric acid (HNO{sub 3}), 4-12 g/L Gd, and 0.15-0.25 M oxalic acid (H{sub 2}C{sub 2}O{sub 4}) at 25 C. The target soluble Gd concentration is 6 g/L. The data indicate that the target can be achieved above 6 M HNO{sub 3} and below 0.25 M H{sub 2}C{sub 2}O{sub …

We study the buildup of magnetic fields during the formation of Population III star-forming regions, by conducting cosmological simulations from realistic initial conditions and varying the Jeans resolution. To investigate this in detail, we start simulations from identical initial conditions, mandating 16, 32 and 64 zones per Jeans length, and studied the variation in their magnetic field amplification. We find that, while compression results in some amplification, turbulent velocity fluctuations driven by the collapse can further amplify an initially weak seed field via dynamo action, provided there is sufficient numerical resolution to capture vortical motions (we find this requirement to be 64 zones per Jeans length, slightly larger than, but consistent with previous work run with more idealized collapse scenarios). We explore saturation of amplification of the magnetic field, which could potentially become dynamically important in subsequent, fully-resolved calculations. We have also identified a relatively surprising phenomena that is purely hydrodynamic: the higher-resolved simulations possess substantially different characteristics, including higher infall-velocity, increased temperatures inside 1000 AU, and decreased molecular hydrogen content in the innermost region. Furthermore, we find that disk formation is suppressed in higher-resolution calculations, at least at the times that we can follow the calculation. We discuss the …

The ability of atomic nuclei to emit and absorb photons with energy E{sub {gamma}} is known as the photon strength function f(E{sub {gamma}}). It has direct relevance to astrophysical element formation via neutron capture processes due to its central role in nuclear reactions. Studies of f(E{sub {gamma}}) have benefited from a wealth of data collected in neutron capture and direct reactions but also from newly commissioned inelastic photon scattering facilities. The majority of these experimental methods, however, rely on the use of models because measured {gamma}-ray spectra are simultaneously sensitive to both the nuclear level density and f(E{sub {gamma}}). As excitation energy increases towards the particle separation energies, the level density increases rapidly, creating the quasi-continuum. Nuclear properties in this excitation energy region are best characterized using statistical quantities, such as f(E{sub {gamma}}). A point of contention in studies of the quasi-continuum has been an unexpected and unexplained increase in f(E{sub {gamma}}) at low {gamma}-ray energies (i.e. below E{sub {gamma}} {approx}3 MeV) in a subset of light-to-medium mass nuclei. Ideally, a new model-independent experimental technique is required to address questions regarding the existence and origin of this low-energy enhancement in f(E{sub {gamma}}). Here such a model-independent approach is presented for …

This thesis reports the analysis of the e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -}K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}} and e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -}K{sup +}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0} processes using the final dataset of the BABAR experiment located at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. From previous measurements, the K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}} final state is known to show a clear signal from the {eta}{sub c}(2S) particle. This c{bar c} state escaped detection for almost twenty years and its properties are still not well established on the experimental ground, while accurate predictions exist on the theoretical side. The e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -}K{sup +}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0} process is first studied in this thesis. An accurate determination of the {eta}{sub c}(2S) properties is obtained in the K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}} decay mode. We also report the first observation of {eta}{sub c}(2S) and other charmonium states to the K{sup +}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0} final state. The results of this thesis have been published in Physical Review D, and will be useful to test theoretical models describing the charmonium system. The thesis is organized in four chapters. The first one gives a brief introduction …

We studied the reaction of phenyl radicals (C6H5) with propylene (C3H6) exploiting a high temperature chemical reactor under combustion-like conditions (300 Torr, 1,200-1,500 K). The reaction products were probed in a supersonic beam by utilizing tunable vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation from the Advanced Light Source and recording the photoionization efficiency (PIE) curves at mass-to-charge ratios of m/z = 118 (C9H10+) and m/z = 104 (C8H8+). Our results suggest that the methyl and atomic hydrogen losses are the two major reaction pathways with branching ratios of 86 10 percent and 14 10 percent. The isomer distributions were probed by fitting the recorded PIE curves with a linear combination of the PIE curves of the individual C9H10 and C8H8 isomers. Styrene (C6H5C2H3) was found to be the exclusive product contributing to m/z = 104 (C8H8+), whereas 3-phenylpropene, cis-1-phenylpropene, and 2-phenylpropene with branching ratios of 96 4 percent, 3 3 percent, and 1 1 percent could account for signal at m/z = 118 (C9H10+). Although searched for carefully, no evidence of the bicyclic indane molecule could be provided. The reaction mechanisms and branching ratios are explained in terms of electronic structure calculations nicely agreeing with a recent crossed molecular beam study on this …

The project validated the use of stainless steel flexible substrate coated with silicone-based resin dielectric, developed by Dow Corning Corporation, for Cu(InGa)Se2 based photovoltaics. The projects driving force was the high performance of Cu(InGa)Se2 based photovoltaics coupled with potential cost reduction that could be achieved with dielectric coated SS web substrate.

A large microgrid project is nearing completion at Alameda County’s twenty-two-year-old 45 ha 4,000-inmate Santa Rita Jail, about 70 km east of San Francisco. Often described as a green prison, it has a considerable installed base of distributed energy resources (DER) including an eight-year old 1.2 MW PV array, a five-year old 1 MW fuel cell with heat recovery, and considerable efficiency investments. A current US$14 M expansion adds a 2 MW-4 MWh Li-ion battery, a static disconnect switch, and various controls upgrades. During grid blackouts, or when conditions favor it, the Jail can now disconnect from the grid and operate as an island, using the on-site resources described together with its back-up diesel generators. In other words, the Santa Rita Jail is a true microgrid, or μgrid, because it fills both requirements, i.e. it is a locally controlled system, and it can operate both grid connected and islanded. The battery’s electronics includes Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology (CERTS) Microgrid technology. This enables the battery to maintain energy balance using droops without need for a fast control system.

The Department of Energy Office of Nonproliferation Policy (NA-241) is supporting the project 'Coincidence Counting With Boron-Based Alternative Neutron Detection Technology' at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for development of an alternative neutron coincidence counter. The goal of this project is ultimately to design, build and demonstrate a boron-lined proportional tube based alternative system in the configuration of a coincidence counter. This report, providing background information for this project, is the deliverable under Task 1 of the project.

None