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The Aspen Global Change Institute (AGCI) successfully organized and convened six interdisciplinary meetings over the course of award NNG04GA21G. The topics of the meetings were consistent with a range of issues, goals and objectives as described within the NASA Earth Science Enterprise Strategic Plan and more broadly by the US Global Change Research Program/Our Changing Planet, the more recent Climate Change Program Strategic Plan and the NSF Pathways report. The meetings were chaired by two or more leaders from within the disciplinary focus of each session. 222 scholars for a total of 1097 participants-days were convened under the auspices of this award. The overall goal of each AGCI session is to further the understanding of Earth system science and global environmental change through interdisciplinary dialog. The format and structure of the meetings allows for presentation by each participant, in-depth discussion by the whole group, and smaller working group and synthesis activities. The size of the group is important in terms of the group dynamics and interaction, and the ability for each participant's work to be adequately presented and discussed within the duration of the meeting, while still allowing time for synthesis

This conference's focus was the peaceful uses of the atom and their implications for nuclear science, energy security, nuclear medicine and national security. The conference also provided the setting for the presentation of the prestigious Enrico Fermi Prize, a Presidential Award which recognizes the contributions of distinguished members of the scientific community for a lifetime of exceptional achievement in the science and technology of nuclear, atomic, molecular, and particle interactions and effects. An impressive group of distinguished speakers addressed various issues that included: the impact and legacy of the Eisenhower Administration’s “Atoms for Peace” concept, the current and future role of nuclear power as an energy source, the challenges of controlling and accounting for existing fissile material, and the horizons of discovery for particle or high-energy physics. The basic goal of the conference was to examine what has been accomplished over the past fifty years as well as to peer into the future to gain insights into what may occur in the fields of nuclear energy, nuclear science, nuclear medicine, and the control of nuclear materials.

The Department of Energy Organization Act, which created DOE, was enacted in 1977 and DOE officially came into existence in October of that year. That law brought together for the first time, not only most of the government’s energy programs, but also science and technology programs and defense responsibilities that included the design, construction, and testing of nuclear weapons. Over its history, DOE has shifted its emphasis and focus as the energy and security needs of the Nation have changed. Today, DOE stands at the forefront of helping the Nation meet our energy, scientific, environmental, and national security goals. These include developing and deploying new energy technologies, reducing our dependence on foreign energy sources, protecting our nuclear weapons stockpile, and ensuring that America remains competitive in the global marketplace. To help achieve these goals, President Bush has launched two key initiatives: the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) and the Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI). The President launched these initiatives recognizing that science, technology, and engineering hold the answers to many of the critical challenges our world faces. These new initiatives to spur scientific innovation and technology development expand DOE’s continuing support for the competitive energy markets, both domestically and internationally, and of …

Because the ASME Codes do not cover environmental issues that are crucial in the design and construction of VHTR system, investigation of long-term impure helium effects on metallurgical stability and properties becomes very important. The present report describes the development of centralized environmental creep testing facility, its close collaborations with the experiments in low velocity helium recirculation loop, important lessons learned, upgrades in system design in FY06, and current status of the development.

Policymakers have been talking for years about measures to cut back how much petroleum we use. Interest has spiked recently, with government and private companies coming together to push forward scientific research and development of alternative fuel products such as ethanol. Biotechnology is helping make alternative energy sources easier - and more affordable - to produce. Most of the world's energy needs are met with oil and natural gas, which come from fossil fuel. No one knows how long the supply can last. Biobased fuels come from natural sources that can be replaced quickly. Along with corn, there are many other grains, grasses, trees, and even agricultural wastes being investigated for their usefulness and environmental friendliness as alternative fuel sources. Careers in this emerging new field emphasize chemistry and engineering. Look into it for a potential career - it's definitely a job full of energy.

Two different topics of Grade 91 steel are investigated for Gen IV nuclear reactor pressure vessel application. On the first topic, negligible creep of Grade 91 is investigated with the motivation to design the reactor pressure vessel in negligible creep regime and eliminate costly surveillance programs during the reactor operation. Available negligible creep criteria and creep strain laws are reviewed, and new data needs are evaluated. It is concluded that modifications of the existing criteria and laws, together with their associated parameters, are needed before they can be reliably applied to Grade 91 for negligible creep prediction and reactor pressure vessel design. On the second topic, effects of off-normal welding and heat treatment on creep behavior of Grade 91 are studied with the motivation to better define the control over the parameters in welding and heat treatment procedures. The study is focused on off-normal austenitizing temperatures and improper cooling after welding but prior to post-weld heat treatment.

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This paper addresses design principles and best practices regarding the implementation and operation of Wireless LAN (WLAN) communication networks based on the 802.11i security standard. First, a general overview of WLAN technology and standards is provided in order to ground the discussion in the evolution of WLAN standards and security approaches. This is followed by a detailed explanation of the 802.11i standard for securing WLAN networks. Principles for designing secure WLAN networks are then presented, followed by a list of specific best practices that can be used as a guideline for organizations considering the deployment of WLAN networks for non-critical control and monitoring applications. Finally, a section on technical issues and considerations for deploying WLAN networks in critical environments is presented.

The purpose of the Micropulse Lidar (MPL) Cloud Optical Depth (MPLCOD) Value-Added Product (VAP) is to retrieve the visible (short-wave) cloud optical depth for optically thin clouds using MPL. The advantage of using the MPL to derive optical depth is that lidar is able to detect optically thin cloud layers that may not be detected by millimeter cloud radar or radiometric techniques. The disadvantage of using lidar to derive optical depth is that the lidar signal becomes attenuation limited when τ approaches 3 (this value can vary depending on instrument specifications). As a result, the lidar will not detect optically thin clouds if an optically thick cloud obstructs the lidar beam.

Dielectric, adhesion-promoting, moisture barriers comprised of silicon oxynitride thin film materials (SiOxNy with various material stoichiometric compositions x,y) were applied to: 1) bare and pre-coated soda-lime silicate glass (coated with transparent conductive oxide SnO2:F and/or aluminum), and polymer substrates (polyethylene terephthalate, PET, or polyethylene napthalate, PEN); plus 2) pre- deposited photovoltaic (PV) cells and mini-modules consisting of amorphous silicon (a-Si) and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film PV technologies. We used plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process with dilute silane, nitrogen, and nitrous oxide/oxygen gas mixtures in a low-power (< or = 10 milliW per cm2) RF discharge at ~ 0.2 Torr pressure, and low substrate temperatures < or = 100(degrees)C, over deposition areas ~ 1000 cm2. Barrier properties of the resulting PV cells and coated-glass packaging structures were studied with subsequent stressing in damp-heat exposure at 85(degrees)C/85% RH. Preliminary results on PV cells and coated glass indicate the palpable benefits of the barriers in mitigating moisture intrusion and degradation of the underlying structures using SiOxNy coatings with thicknesses in the range of 100-200 nm.

I'm writing at the request of the Pit River Tribe to offer my professional opinion as a geochemist regarding the origin of groundwater discharge at the Fall River Springs, Shasta Co., California. In 1997, I conducted a study of the large volume cold springs associated with the Cascade Volcanoes in northern California, in collaboration with one of my colleagues. This work was published as a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory report (Davisson and Rose, 1997). The Fall River Springs emerge from the distal end of the Giant Crater Lava Field, a laterally extensive basalt flow that stretches from the southern flank of Medicine Lake Volcano southward for a distance of 40 km. Both Medicine Lake Volcano and the Giant Crater Lava Field have virtually no surface water drainages. Precipitation that falls in these areas is inferred to seep into fractures in the rock, where it is carried down gradient under the force of gravity. Mean annual precipitation rates on Medicine Lake Volcano and the Giant Crater Lava field are adequate to account for the {approx}1200 ft{sup 3}/sec discharge of the Fall River Springs. To evaluate the origin of the springs using geochemical methods, water samples were collected from the Fall River …

In this document we discuss specific implementations for gamma-ray imaging instruments including the principle of operation and describe systems which have been built and demonstrated as well as systems currently under development. There are several fundamentally different technologies each with specific operational requirements and performance trade offs. We provide an overview of the different gamma-ray imaging techniques and briefly discuss challenges and limitations associated with each modality (in the appendix we give detailed descriptions of specific implementations for many of these technologies). In Section 3 we summarize the performance and operational aspects in tabular form as an aid for comparing technologies and mapping technologies to potential applications.

The epidemiological and economic modeling of livestock diseases requires knowing the size, location, and operational type of each livestock facility within the US. At the present time, the only national database of livestock facilities that is available to the general public is the USDA's 2002 Agricultural Census data, published by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, herein referred to as the 'NASS data.' The NASS data provides facility data at the county level for various livestock types (i.e., beef cows, milk cows, cattle on feed, other cattle, total hogs and pigs, sheep and lambs, milk goats, and angora goats). However, the number and sizes of facilities for the various livestock types are not independent since some facilities have more than one type of livestock, and some livestock are of more than one type (e.g., 'other cattle' that are being fed for slaughter are also 'cattle on feed'). In addition, any data tabulated by NASS that could identify numbers of animals or other data reported by an individual respondent is suppressed by NASS and coded with a 'D.'. To be useful for epidemiological and economic modeling, the NASS data must be converted into a unique set of facility types (farms having similar …

Given a large-scale time-evolving multi-modal and multi-relational complex network (a.k.a., a large-scale dynamic semantic graph), we want to implement algorithms that discover patterns of activities on the graph and learn predictive models of those discovered patterns. This document outlines the application programming interface (API) requirements for fast prototyping of feature extraction, learning, and prediction algorithms on large dynamic semantic graphs. Since our algorithms must operate on large-scale dynamic semantic graphs, we have chosen to use the graph API developed in the CASC Complex Networks Project. This API is supported on the back end by a semantic graph database (developed by Scott Kohn and his team). The advantages of using this API are (i) we have full-control of its development and (ii) the current API meets almost all of the requirements outlined in this document.

Brochure describes the Tribal Energy Program, which provides American Indian tribes with financial and technical assistance for developing renewable energy projects on tribal land.

In the highly technological aerospace world paper is still widely used to document space system integration and test (I&amp;T) operations. E-Logbook is a new technology designed to substitute the most commonly used paper logbooks in space system I&amp;T, such as the connector mate/demate logbook, the flight hardware and flight software component installation logbook, the material mix record logbook and the electronic ground support equipment validation logbook. It also includes new logbook concepts, such as the shift logbook, which optimizes management oversight and the shift hand-over process, and the configuration logbook, which instantly reports on the global I&amp;T state of the space system before major test events or project reviews. The design of E-Logbook focuses not only on a reliable and efficient relational database, but also on an ergonomic human-computer interactive (HCI) system that can help reduce human error and improve I&amp;T management and oversight overall. E-Logbook has been used for the I&amp;T operation of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). More than 41,000 records have been created for the different I&amp;T logbooks, with no data having been corrupted or critically lost. 94% of the operators and 100% of …

This document is a final report for DOE grant DE-FG02-00ER41147. The research described herein was funded in large part by this grant with additional support from the National Science Foundation. The primary focus of Averett's research effort is centered around the polarized {sup 3}He target in Hall A at Jefferson Lab. The close proximity of the College of William and Mary to Jefferson Lab has provided an outstanding opportunity to maintain a very active research program which still satisfying the demands of the college. Our research group includes four faculty, two post-doctoral fellows and eight graduate students. Averett also maintains a fully functional polarized {sup 3}e target lab at William and Mary which allows him to support the research program at Jefferson Lab while also doing research on polarized targets themselves. Since 1998, seven experiments using polarized {sup 3}He have been completed by the Jefferson Lab Hall A Polarized {sup 3}He Collaboration. Ten publications have been produced on this research and analysis of the two most recently completed experiments is underway. A description of the recent experiments and results is given below. In addition to target expertise, Averett has remained one of the most active collaborators in the data analysis …

We use the Chandra X-ray Observatory to study the dark matter halos of 34 massive, dynamically relaxed galaxy clusters, spanning the redshift range 0.06 &lt; z &lt; 0.7. The observed dark matter and total mass (dark-plus-luminous matter) profiles can be approximated by the Navarro Frenk & White (hereafter NFW) model for cold dark matter (CDM) halos; for {approx} 80 percent of the clusters, the NFW model provides a statistically acceptable fit. In contrast, the singular isothermal sphere model can, in almost every case, be completely ruled out. We observe a well-defined mass-concentration relation for the clusters with a normalization and intrinsic scatter in good agreement with the predictions from simulations. The slope of the mass-concentration relation, c {infinity} M{sub vir}{sup a}/(1 + z){sup b} with a = -0.41 {+-} 0.11 at 95 percent confidence, is steeper than the value a {approx} -0.1 predicted by CDM simulations for lower mass halos. With the slope a included as a free fit parameter, the redshift evolution of the concentration parameter, b = 0.54 {+-} 0.47 at 95 percent confidence, is also slower than, but marginally consistent with, the same simulations (b {approx} 1). Fixing a {approx} -0.1 leads to an apparent evolution that …

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The authors report recent measurements of charmless B decays to the final states K{sup +}K{sup +}K{sup -}, {phi}{phi}K, {eta}'{eta}'K, M{sub S}{sup 0}K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sub L}{sup 0}, {bar {Lambda}}p{pi}{sup +}, K*{sup +}h{sup +}h{sup -} and KX(inclusive). The results were obtained using a data sample of up to 288.5 fb{sup -1} recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B factory at SLAC.

Fact sheet introduces the utility audience to the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar America Initiative (SAI) and describes how utilities can benefit from and contribute to the SAI.

Two high performance prototype houses were built in Carbondale, Colorado, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Building America (BA) Program. Each prototype was a 1256 ft2 (117 m2), 1-story, 3-bedroom house, and met the local requirements for affordable housing. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) performed short-term field testing and DOE-2.2 simulations in support of this project at the end of December 2004. We also installed long-term monitoring equipment in one of the houses, and are currently tracking the performance of key building systems under occupied conditions. One of the houses (designated H1) included a package of cost-effective energy efficiency features that placed it well above the Energy Star level, targeting a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) score of 88-89. The other (designated H2) was a BA research house, targeting a HERS score of 94-95, and 45% whole-house energy savings compared to the BA Benchmark. Preliminary results from the field evaluation indicate that the energy savings for both houses will exceed the design targets established for the project, although the performance of certain building systems, including the ventilation and foundation systems, leave some room for improvement.

This work was performed as part of a broader effort to automate analytical methods for determining plutonium and other radioisotopes in environmental samples. The work described here represented a screening study to evaluate the effect of applying ultrasonic irradiation to dissolve high-fired plutonium oxide. The major findings of this work can be summarized as follows: (1) High-fired plutonium oxide does not undergo measurable dissolution when sonicated in nitric acid solutions, even at a high concentration range of nitric acid where the calculated thermodynamic solubility of plutonium oxide exceeds the ?g/mL level. (2) Applying organic complexants (nitrilotriacetic acid) and reductants (hydroxyurea) in 1.5 M nitric acid does not significantly increase the dissolution compared with digestion in nitric acid alone. Nearly all (99.5%) of the plutonium oxide remains undissolved under these conditions. (3) The action of a strong inorganic reductant, titanium trichloride in 25 wt% HCl, results in 40% dissolution of the plutonium oxide when the titanium trichloride concentration is ?1 wt% under sonication. (4) Oxidative treatment of plutonium oxide by freshly dissolved AgO ({approx}20 mg/mL) in 1.5 M nitric acid with sonication resulted in 95% plutonium oxide dissolution. However, the same treatment of plutonium oxide mechanically mixed with 50 mg of …