Combined heat and power (CHP) or cogeneration is the sequential production of two forms of useful energy from a single fuel source. In most CHP applications, chemical energy in fuel is converted to both mechanical and thermal energy. The mechanical energy is generally used to generate electricity, while the thermal energy or heat is used to produce steam, hot water, or hot air. Depending on the application, CHP is referred to by various names including Building Cooling, Heating, and Power (BCHP); Cooling, Heating, and Power for Buildings (CHPB); Combined Cooling, Heating, and Power (CCHP); Integrated Energy Systems (IES), or Distributed Energy Resources (DER). The principal technical advantage of a CHP system is its ability to extract more useful energy from fuel compared to traditional energy systems such as conventional power plants that only generate electricity and industrial boiler systems that only produce steam or hot water for process applications. By using fuel energy for both power and heat production, CHP systems can be very energy efficient and have the potential to produce electricity below the price charged by the local power provider. Another important incentive for applying cogeneration technology is to reduce or eliminate dependency on the electrical grid. For …

Tracing vitamin kinetics at physiologic concentrations has been hampered by a lack of quantitative sensitivity for chemically equivalent tracers that could be used safely in healthy people. Instead, elderly or ill volunteers were sought for studies involving pharmacologic doses with radioisotopic labels. These studies fail to be relevant in two ways: vitamins are inherently micronutrients, whose biochemical paths are saturated and distorted by pharmacological doses; and while vitamins remain important for health in the elderly or ill, their greatest effects may be in preventing slow and cumulative diseases by proper consumption throughout youth and adulthood. Neither the target dose nor the target population are available for nutrient metabolic studies through decay counting of radioisotopes at high levels. Stable isotopic labels are quantified by isotope ratio mass spectrometry at levels that trace physiologic vitamin doses, but the natural background of stable isotopes severely limits the time span over which the tracer is distinguishable. Indeed, study periods seldom ranged over a single biological mean life of the labeled nutrients, failing to provide data on the important final elimination phase of the compound. Kinetic data for the absorption phase is similarly rare in micronutrient research because the phase is rapid, requiring many consecutive …

The authors describe the current status of the research within the Muon Collaboration towards realizing a Neutrino Factory. The authors describe briefly the physics motivation behind the neutrino factory approach to studying neutrino oscillations and the longer term goal of building the Muon Collider. The benefits of a step by step staged approach of building a proton driver, collecting and cooling muons followed by the acceleration and storage of cooled muons are emphasized. Several usages of cooled muons open up at each new stage in such an approach and new physics opportunities are realized at the completion of each stage.

Far scrape-off layer (SOL) and near-wall plasma parameters in DIII-D depend strongly on the discharge parameters and confinement regime. In L-mode discharges cross-field transport increases with the average discharge density and flattens far SOL profiles, thus increasing plasma-wall contact. In H-mode between edge localized modes (ELMs), plasma-wall contact is generally weaker than in L-mode. During ELMs plasma fluxes to the wall increase to, or above the L-mode levels. Depending on the discharge conditions ELMs are responsible for 30-90% of the ion flux to the outboard chamber wall. Cross-field fluxes in far SOL are dominated by large amplitude intermittent transport events that may propagate all the way to the outer wall and cause sputtering. A Divertor Material Evaluation System (DiMES) probe containing samples of several ITER-relevant materials including carbon, beryllium and tungsten was exposed to a series of upper single null (USN) discharges as a proxy to measure the first wall erosion.

In keeping with the Open Source tradition, we want our Babel 1.0 release to indicate a certain level of capability, maturity, and stability. From our first release (version 0.5.0) in July of 2001 to our current (18th) release (version 0.9.6) we have continued to add capabilities in response to customer feedback, our observations in the field, and a consistent vision for interoperability. The key to our maturity is without a doubt the ever-increasing demands of our growing user base... both in terms of sheer size and sophistication with the underlying technology. Stability is a special challenge for any research project. With our 1.0 release, we will branch and maintain a stable Babel 1.0 code line for at least a full year. This means no new features and no backward incompatible changes, only bug fixes. All continuing R&D will be performed on a separate development tree. Currently, Babel has a quarterly release cycle with no guarantee for backward compatibility from one release to the next (though we certainly try to make migration as painless as possible). Now is the time where we can see a good point for a Babel 1.0 release. But, seeing that point is different from being there. …

The full nature of chemistry and physics cannot be captured by static calculations alone. Dynamics calculations allow the simulation of time-dependent phenomena. This facilitates both comparisons with experimental data and the prediction and interpretation of details not easily obtainable from experiments. Simulations thus provide a direct link between theory and experiment, between microscopic details of a system and macroscopic observed properties. Many types of dynamics calculations exist. The most important distinction between the methods and the decision of which method to use can be described in terms of the size and type of molecule/reaction under consideration and the type and level of accuracy required in the final properties of interest. These considerations must be balanced with available computational codes and resources as simulations to mimic ''real-life'' may require many time steps. As indicated in the title, the theme of this thesis is dynamics. The goal is to utilize the best type of dynamics for the system under study while trying to perform dynamics in the most accurate way possible. As a quantum chemist, this involves some level of first principles calculations by default. Very accurate calculations of small molecules and molecular systems are now possible with relatively high-level ab initio …

The January-March 2004 Quarter was dedicated to tree planting activities in two locations in Kentucky. During year one of this project there was no available mine land to plant in the Hazard area so 107 acres were planted in the Martin county mine location. This year 120 acres was planted in the Hazard area to compensate for the prior year and an additional 57 acres was planted on Peabody properties in western Kentucky. An additional set of special plots were established on each of these areas that contained 4800 seedlings each for special carbon sequestration determinations. Plantings were also conducted to continue compaction and water quality studies on two newly established areas as well as confirmed measurements on the first years plantings. Total plantings on this project now amount to 357 acres containing 245,960 tree seedlings.