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In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will publish its Fourth Assessment Report of the Scientific Basis of Climate Change (AR4). A significant portion of the AR4 will be the analysis of coupled general circulation model (GCM) simulations of the climate of the past century as well as scenarios of future climates under prescribed emission scenarios. Modeling groups worldwide have contributed to AR4, including three from the U.S., the Community Climate System Model (CCSM) project, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Sciences, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL). This collection of model results is providing a wealth of new information that will be used to examine the state of climate science, the potential impacts from climate changes, and the policy consequences that they imply. Our focus here is on the CCSM project. Although it is centered at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the CCSM version 3 (CCSM3) was designed, developed, and applied in a uniquely distributed fashion with participation by many institutions. This model has produced some of the most scientifically complete and highest resolution simulations of climate change to date, thanks to the …

Nanoporous metals have recently attracted considerable interest fueled by potential sensor and actuator applications. From a material science point of view, one of the key issues in this context is the synthesis of nanoporous metals with both high tensile and compressive strength. Nanoporous gold (np-Au) has been suggested as a candidate material for this application due to its monolithic character. The material can be synthesized by electrochemically-driven dealloying of Ag-Au alloys, and exhibits an open sponge-like structure of interconnecting ligaments with a typical pore size distribution on the nanometer length scale. However, besides the observation of a ductile-brittle transition very little is known about the mechanical behavior of this material. Here, we present our results regarding the mechanical properties and the fracture behavior of np-Au. Depth-sensing nanoindentation reveals that the yield strength of np-Au is almost one order of magnitude higher than the value predicted by scaling laws developed for macroscopic open-cell foams. The unexpectedly high value of the yield strength indicates the presence of a distinct size effect of the mechanical properties due to the sub-micron dimensions of the ligaments, thus potentially opening a door to a new class of high yield strength--low density materials. The failure mechanism of …

Heavy metals including lead (Pb) are released continually into the environment as a result of industrial, recreational, and military activities. Lead ranked number two on the CERCLA Priority List of Hazardous Substances and was identified as a major hazardous chemical found on 47% of USEPA's National Priorities List sites (Hettiarachchi and Pierzynski 2004). In-situ remediation of lead (Pb) contaminated soils may be accomplished by changing the soil chemistry and structure with the application of microbial and phosphate amendments. Soil contaminated with lead bullets was collected from the surface of the berm at Savannah River Site (SRS) Small Arms Training Academy (SATA) in Aiken, SC. While uncontaminated soils typically have Pb levels ranging from 2 to 200 mg/kg (Berti et al. 1998), previous analysis show Pb levels of the SATA berm to reach 8,673 mg/kg. Biosurfactants are surface-active compounds naturally produced by soil bacteria that can bind metals. Biosurfactants have a wide variety of chemical structures that reduce interfacial surface tensions (Jennings and Tanner 2000) and have demonstrated efficient metal complexion (Lin 1996). Biosurfactants also have the potential to change the availability of natural organic matter (Strong-Gunderson 1995). Two types of bacteria, Alcaligenes piechaudii and Pseudomonas putida, were employed as amendments …

This report addresses the concerns over financing federal elections campaign in the aspect of the political system. It discusses campaign finance practices and related issues.

Letter from Sheldon Cohen to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC). He urged the individual commissioners to cancel the recommendation to relocate the hearing offices of the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals to Fort Meade, Maryland.

One potential benefit of distributed generation (DG) is a net reduction in air emissions. While DG will produce emissions, most notably carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the power it displaces might have produced more. This study used a system dispatch model developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to simulate the 2012 Texas power market with and without DG. This study compares the reduction in system emissions to the emissions from the DG to determine the net savings. Some of the major findings are that 85% of the electricity displaced by DG during peak hours will be simple cycle natural gas, either steam or combustion turbine. Even with DG running as baseload, 57% of electricity displaced will be simple cycle natural gas. Despite the retirement of some gas-fired steam units and the construction of many new gas turbine and combined cycle units, the marginal emissions from the system remain quite high (1.4 lb NO{sub x}/MWh on peak and 1.1 lb NO{sub x}/MWh baseload) compared to projected DG emissions. Consequently, additions of DG capacity will reduce emissions in Texas from power generation in 2012. Using the DG exhaust heat for combined heat and power provides an even greater benefit, since it eliminates …

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We report the first observation of stimulated emission of terahertz radiation from internal transitions of excitons. The far-infrared electromagnetic response of Cu{sub 2}O is monitored via broadband terahertz pulses after ultrafast resonant excitation of three-dimensional 3p excitons. Stimulated emission from the 3p to the energetically lower 2s bound level occurs at a photon energy of 6.6 meV, with a cross section of {approx} 10{sup 14} cm{sup 2}. Simultaneous excitation of both exciton levels, in turn, drives quantum beats which lead to efficient terahertz emission sharply peaked at the difference frequency.

This field trip guide was prepared for the 2005 Goldschmidt Conference held in Moscow, Idaho. The field trip guide provides a two day introduction to the features of the Columbia River Basalt Group in eastern Washington.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are driven by at least two prime energy sources, such as an internal combustion engine (ICE) and propulsion battery. For a series HEV configuration, the ICE drives only a generator, which maintains the state-of-charge (SOC) of propulsion and accessory batteries and drives the electric traction motor. For a parallel HEV configuration, the ICE is mechanically connected to directly drive the wheels as well as the generator, which likewise maintains the SOC of propulsion and accessory batteries and drives the electric traction motor. Today the prime energy source is an ICE; tomorrow it will very likely be a fuel cell (FC). Use of the FC eliminates a direct drive capability accentuating the importance of the battery charge and discharge systems. In both systems, the electric traction motor may use the voltage directly from the batteries or from a boost converter that raises the voltage. If low battery voltage is used directly, some special control circuitry, such as dual mode inverter control (DMIC) which adds a small cost, is necessary to drive the electric motor above base speed. If high voltage is chosen for more efficient motor operation or for high speed operation, the propulsion battery voltage must …

The author argues that the physics of the scattering of very high energy strongly interacting particles is controlled by a new, universal form of matter, the Color Glass Condensate. I motivate the existence of this matter and describe some of its properties.

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The international research community has lately focused efforts on interior permanent magnet (IPM) motors to produce a traction motor for hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). One of the beneficial features of this technology is the additional torque produced by reluctance. The objective of this report is to analytically describe the role that reluctance plays in permanent magnet (PM) motors, to explore ways to increase reluctance torque without sacrificing the torque produced by the PMs, and to compare three IPM configurations with respect to torque, power, amount of magnet material required (cost), and percentage of reluctance torque. Results of this study will be used to determine future research directions in utilizing reluctance to obtain maximum torque and power while using a minimum amount of magnet material.

This report provides information about the FY2006 Appropriations for State and Local Homeland Security. This report is a preliminary overview of the administration FY2006 budget request and congress proposed appropriations for selected programs of homeland security.

In this letter we report a clear and unambiguous observation of the out-of-plane quadrupole magnetic field suggested by numerical simulations in the reconnecting current sheet in the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX). Measurements show that the Hall effect is large in collisionless regime and becomes small as the collisionality increases, indicating that the Hall effect plays an important role in collisionless reconnection.

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The microinstability properties of seven distinct magnetic geometries corresponding to different operating and planned stellarators with differing symmetry properties are compared. Specifically, the kinetic stability properties (linear growth rates and real frequencies) of toroidal microinstabilities (driven by ion temperature gradients and trapped-electron dynamics) are compared, as parameters are varied. The familiar ballooning representation is used to enable efficient treatment of the spatial variations along the equilibrium magnetic field lines. These studies provide useful insights for understanding the differences in the relative strengths of the instabilities caused by the differing localizations of good and bad magnetic curvature and of the presence of trapped particles. The associated differences in growth rates due to magnetic geometry are large for small values of the temperature gradient parameter n identical to d ln T/d ln n, whereas for large values of n, the mode is strongly unstable for all of the different magnetic geometries.

Groundwater is monitored in hundreds of wells at the Hanford Site to fulfill a variety of requirements. Separate monitoring plans are prepared for various purposes, but sampling is coordinated and data are shared among users. DOE manages these activities through the Hanford Groundwater Performance Assessment Project, which is the responsibility of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The groundwater project integrates monitoring for various objectives into a single sampling schedule to avoid redundancy of effort and to improve efficiency of sample collection.This report documents the purposes and objectives of groundwater monitoring at the DOE Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State.

Planar samples of varying thicknesses of both CH and CD glow discharge polymer have been measured with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy before and after exposure to deuterium-tritium (DT) gas at elevated temperature and pressure. Planar samples of polyimide films made from both hydrogenated and deuterated precursors have also been examined by FTIR before and after DT exposure. The post-exposure FTIR spectra demonstrated no measurable exchange of hydrogen with deuterium or tritium for either polymer. Evidence for oxidation of the glow discharge polymer due to atmospheric oxygen was the only chemical change indicated by the FTIR data.

In November 2003, the Bush Administration announced that it intended to begin negotiations on a free-trade agreement (FTA) with these nations, which would reduce and eliminate foreign barriers to trade and investment, support democracy, and fight drug activity. This report briefly discusses this announcement, as well as the major issues and concerns relating to negotiation, and the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), the FTA's predecessor.

Renewable energy is derived from resources that are generally not depleted by human use, such as the sun, wind, and water movement. This report discusses various aspects of policy regarding renewable energy including tax credits and budget legislation.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the designation of portions of Interstate Highway 20 inside Dallas and Tarrant Counties as the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to showing the manner of death on the death certificate of an inmate of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice who is lawfully executed.