Income, ethnicity, education, and occupation are examples of socio-economic factors associated with the occurrence of disease, whether an investigation focuses on an individual or on an aggregation of individuals. In this study, data aggregated to the county level are used to explore two issues - geographic variation and geographic covariation of ten selected causes of death in the United States. The counties of the United States are characterized by 15 socio-economic variables and age-adjusted mortality rates for the ten selected causes of death. The observed variation among the US counties, as measured by the socio-economic variables, is first assessed, then the geographic variation and covariation are described for each cause of death and, finally, the covariation among causes of death is analyzed after adjusting for the influences of the measured sources of county variation.

This document contains excerpts from the proceedings of the conference on Technology-based Confidence Building: Energy and the Environment.'' It contains the agenda for the conference and a document on Global Warming and Energy Use;'' a presentation on from Militarism to Environmentalism: a New Focus of US-Soviet Relations;'' a workshop on environmental challenges; a summary address on Science, Technology, and World Affairs;'' an address entitled Energy: the Coin of International Understanding;'' and concluding remarks.

The objective for the Winter Validation Study was to gather field data for validation of the Terrain-Responsive Atmospheric Code (TRAC) under winter time meteorological conditions. Twelve tracer tests were conducted during a two-week period in February 1991. Each test lasted 12 hours, with releases of SF{sub 6} tracer from the Rocky Flats Plant near Golden, Colorado. The tests included ground-based and airborne sampling to 16 km from the release point. This presentation summarizes meteorological conditions during the testing period. Forty six viewgraphs are included.

This report presents data compiled on the estimated energy conservation achieved by programs included in the Illinois Energy Conservation Plan. Summaries are given for the following areas: thermal and lighting standards; state and local procurement standards; carpooling, vanpooling, and public transit; right turn on red; energy data information system; Homeowner's Extension Program; agricultural resource applications; Farm Energy Conservation Program; Commercial Industrial Program; Public Utilities Program; School Energy Management Program; energy management assistance to local government; Administration of State Plan; energy conservation information; energy management for state buildings; solar energy; waste to energy and resource recovery; intergovernmental coordination; community technology assistance.

Two types of direct converters at up to 100 keV were tested. A beam direct converter was tested on a reduced area TFTR source at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL). After surface conditioning and outgassing, the efficiency was over 60% at the beginning of a pulse. During a pulse, the efficiency decreased as the gas density built up. A single-stage plasma direct converter with immersed grids is being tested on a steady-state ion beam with 6 kW of beam power. The power density at the grids can be varied by adjusting the beam focus. Recovery efficiencies over 70% are measured and we are now studying various loss mechanisms.

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.

This presentation reviews the market growth, DOE Programs, efficiency - cost- reliability, NREL Industry's Partner, thin films, concentrators, silicon, and technlogies for future generations.

This compliance demonstration document provides an analysis of the Idaho CERCLA Disposal Facility (ICDF) Complex compliance with DOE Order 435.1. The ICDF Complex includes the disposal facility (landfill), evaporation pond, administration facility, weigh scale, and various staging/storage areas. These facilities were designed and constructed to be compliant with DOE Order 435.1, Resource Conservation and Recovery act Subtitle C, and Toxic Substances Control Act polychlorinated biphenyl design and construction standards. The ICDF Complex is designated as the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) facility for the receipt, staging/storage, treatment, and disposal of INL Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) waste streams.

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Two-dimensional fully kinetic simulations are performed using global boundary conditions relevant to model the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) [M. Yamada et al., Phys Plasmas 4, 1936 (1997)]. The geometry is scaled in terms of the ion kinetic scales in the experiment, and a reconnection layer is created by reducing the toroidal current in the flux cores in a manner similar to the actual experiment. The ion-scale features in these kinetic simulations are in remarkable agreement with those observed in MRX, including the reconnection inflow rate and quadrupole field structure. In contrast, there are significant discrepancies in the simulated structure of the electron layer that remain unexplained. In particular, the measured thickness of the electron layers is 3�5 times thicker in MRX than in the kinetic simulations. The layer length is highly sensitive to downstream boundary conditions as well as the time over which the simulation is driven. However, for a fixed set of chosen boundary conditions, an extrapolation of the scaling with the ion to electron mass ratio implies that at realistic mass ratio both the length and width will be too small compared to the experiment. This discrepancy implies that the basic electron layer physics may differ significantly between …

In September 2005, periodic sampling of groundwater was initiated by the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) in the vicinity of a grain storage facility formerly operated by the CCC/USDA at Centralia, Kansas. The sampling at Centralia is being performed on behalf of the CCC/USDA by Argonne National Laboratory, in accord with a monitoring program approved by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). The objective is to monitor levels of carbon tetrachloride contamination identified in the groundwater at Centralia (Argonne 2003, 2004, 2005a). Under the KDHE-approved monitoring plan (Argonne 2005b), the groundwater is being sampled twice yearly (for a recommended period of two years) for analyses for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as measurement of selected geochemical parameters to aid in the evaluation of possible natural contaminant degradation (reductive dechlorination) processes in the subsurface environment. The sampling is presently conducted in a network of 10 monitoring wells and 6 piezometers (Figure 1.1), at locations approved by the KDHE (Argonne 2006a). The results of groundwater sampling and VOCs analyses in September-October 2005, March 2006, September 2006, March 2007, and September 2007 were documented previously (Argonne 2006a,b, 2007a, 2008). The results have demonstrated the presence …

In this paper a method is developed, using higher order statistics, to identify the type and degree of neutron and gamma ray cross talk between detectors that are placed in proximity to one another. A set of measurements was performed using the Nuclear Materials Identification System (NMIS) to acquire the time-dependent bicovariance of the pulses in fast plastic scintillating detectors. These signatures were analyzed to infer the degree and type of false coincidences (cross talk) in relation to true coincidences.

The RadRelay effort developed small, field appropriate, portable prototype devices that allow radiological spectra to be downloaded from field radiological detectors, like the identiFINDER-U, and transmitted to land based experts. This communications capability was designed for the U. S. Coast Guard (USCG) but is also applicable to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel working in remote locations. USCG Level II personnel currently use the identiFINDER-U Hand-Held Radioisotope ID Devices (HHRIID) to detect radiological materials during specific boarding operations. These devices will detect not only radiological emissions but will also evaluate those emissions against a table of known radiological spectra. The RadRelay has been developed to significantly improve the functionality of HHRIID, by providing the capability to download radiological spectra and then transmit them using satellite or cell phone technology. This remote wireless data transfer reduces the current lengthy delay often encountered between the shipboard detection of unknown radiological material and the evaluation of that data by technical and command personnel. That delay is reduced from hours to minutes and allows the field located personnel to remain on station during the inspection and evaluation process.

NREL researchers work on advancing power electronics and electric machines for many applications including advanced vehicles.

A plasma-based resonant backward Raman amplifier/compressor for high power amplification of short laser pulses might, under ideal conditions, convert as much as 90% of the pump energy to the seed pulse. While the theoretical highest possible efficiency of this scheme has not yet been achieved, larger efficiencies than ever before obtained experimentally (6.4%) are now being reported, and these efficiencies are accompanied by strong pulse compression. Based on these recent extensive experiments, it is now possible to deduce that the experimentally realized efficiency of the amplifier is likely constrained by two factors, namely the pump chirp and the plasma wavebreaking, and that these experimental observations may likely involve favorable compensation between the chirp of the laser and the density variation of the mediating plasma. Several methods for further improvement of the amplifier e�ciency in current experiments are suggested.

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Successful theories of phase transformation processes include classical nucleation theory (CNT), which envisions a local equilibrium between coexisting phases, and non--equilibrium kinetic cluster theories. Using computer simulations of the magnetization reversal of the Ising model in three different ensembles we make quantitative connections between these physical pictures. We show that the critical nucleus size of CNT is strongly correlated with a dynamical measure of metastability, and that the metastable phase persists to thermodynamic conditions previously thought of as unstable.

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This compliance demonstration document provides an analysis of the Idaho CERCLA Disposal Facility (ICDF) Complex compliance with DOE Order 435.1. The ICDF Complex includes the disposal facility (landfill), evaporation pond, administration facility, weigh scale, and various staging/storage areas. These facilities were designed and constructed to be compliant with DOE Order 435.1, Resource Conservation and Recovery act Subtitle C, and Toxic Substances Control Act polychlorinated biphenyl design and construction standards. The ICDF Complex is designated as the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) facility for the receipt, staging/storage, treatment, and disposal of INL Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) waste streams.

The 100-D-50:5 subsite encompasses the southern process sewers formerly servicing the 183-DR coagulation and sedimentation basins and proximate surface runoff collection drains. The results of confirmatory sampling of pipeline sediments and underlying soils at the 100-D-50:5 subsite demonstrated that residual contaminant concentrations do not preclude any future uses and allow for unrestricted use of shallow zone soils. The results also showed that residual contaminant concentrations are protective of groundwater and the Columbia River.

The primary gaseous pollutants (excluding CO{sub 2}) produced by combustion of low-sulfur diesel fuel oxides of nitrogen (NO{sub x}), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrocarbons (C{sub y}H{sub z}). The last two of these can be readily ameliorated by an oxidation catalyst in the O{sub 2}-rich environment of diesel exhaust but NO{sub x} can not.[1] For this reason NO{sub x} remediation strategies such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR) [2, 3] and the lean NO{sub x} trap (LNT) [4, 5] are being actively pursued. The ideal implementation of these strategies would employ NO{sub x} sensors to control reagent injection in the case of SCR and trap regeneration in the case of LNT. Two different NO{sub x} sensors for this application are at or near commercialization: An amperometric NO{sub x} sensor developed by NGK [6] and a 'mixed potential' NO{sub x} sensor developed by Riken [7]. The NGK sensor works by passing the sampled exhaust through a series of two chambers. In the first chamber O{sub 2} is pumped from the exhaust and in the second, NO{sub x} is decomposed electrochemically and the current from this decomposition is measured in order to determine [NO{sub x}]. Since the NO{sub x} concentrations can be small, on …

This paper provides guidance in applying the requirements of DOE O 413.3A to Deactivation and Decommissioning (D&D) projects. A list of 41 engineering and design activities relevant to D&D projects was generated. For several activities in this list, examples of the level of development and/or types of deliverables that might be expected at the completion of the conceptual, preliminary and final project design phases described in the Order are provided.

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Development of the All Particle Method, a project to simulate the transport of particles via the Monte Carlo method, has proceeded on two fronts: data collection and algorithm development. In this paper we report on the status of the data libraries. The data collection is nearly complete with the addition of electron, photon, and atomic data libraries to the existing neutron, gamma ray, and charged particle libraries. The contents of these libraries are summarized.