1,3-Propanediol is one of two ingredients used in producing polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT), a polymer which can be used in polyester and nylon applications. Researchers are developing a process to ferment biomass feedstock to malonic acid using filamentous fungi and then catalytically convert malonic acid to 1,3-propanediol.

This CRADA supports the objective of selecting appropriate ceramic materials for manufacturing several diesel engine components and addressing critical manufacturing issues associated with these components. Materials that were evaluated included several varieties of silicon nitride and stabilized zirconia. The critical manufacturing issues that were addressed included evaluation of the effect of grain size and the effect of the grinding process on mechanical properties, mechanical performance, reliability, and expected service life. The CRADA comprised four tasks: (1) Machining of Zirconia and Silicon Nitride Materials; (2) Mechanical Properties Characterization and Performance Testing; (3) Tribological Studies; and (4) Residual Stress Studies. Using instrumented equipment at the High Temperature Materials Laboratory (HTML) Machining and Inspection Research User Center (MIRUC), zirconia and silicon nitride materials were ground into simulated component geometries. These components were subsequently evaluated for mechanical properties, wear, and residual stress characteristics in tasks two, three, and four.

This report discusses congress and its broad interests in human rights issues in china's far western region. It also points out implication for U.S. Policy and Political and Economic Issues.

Clean Fractionation is a new technology that enables energy-efficient and environmentally-clean separation of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin from lignocellulosic biomass.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal computer systems are riddled with weaknesses that continue to put critical operations and assets at risk. New information security provisions introduced by Congress will be a major catalyst for federal agencies to improve their security program management. To help maintain the momentum that the new information security reform provisions have generated, federal agencies must act quickly to implement strong security program management. A key element of the strategy outlined in Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 63 was establishing the National Infrastructure Protection Center as "a national focal point" for gathering information on threats and facilitating the federal government's response to computer-based incidents. The center has begun critical infrastructure protection efforts to establish a foundation for future governmentwide efforts. However, the analytical and information-sharing capabilities that PDD 63 asserts are needed to protect the nation's critical infrastructures have not yet been achieved."

The frictional properties of interfaces are of interest in a broad range of applications. We have formulated a new plasticity model for interface friction and applied it to represent the frictional characteristics of A16111-T4 sheet against D2 tool steel for sheet forming applications.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Education relies heavily on the central automated processing system (EDCAPS) to support its core financial management information functions, including general ledger and funds management, grant planning and payment processing, and purchasing and contract management. Education's Inspector General (IG) has reported serious information system control weaknesses in this system. These weaknesses increase the risk of unauthorized access or disruption of services and make Education's sensitive grant and loan data vulnerable to misuse, fraud, improper disclosure, or destruction, which could go undetected. Education is making progress in correcting security weaknesses identified by the IG, and the department has taken other steps to improve security. However, GAO identified weaknesses that place critical financial and sensitive grant information at risk of unauthorized access and disclosure and key operations at risk disruption. Specifically, Education did not adequately protect its network from unauthorized users, effectively manage user IDs and passwords, appropriately limit access to unauthorized users, effectively maintain system software controls, or routinely monitor user access activity. Furthermore, Education did not provide adequate physical security for its computer resources, appropriately segregate all key operations and computer functions, effectively control …

The Department of Energy launched the Education Initiative in 1999 to promote the establishment of multi-disciplinary, graduate-level education and research programs.

The Pennsylvania State University, under contract to the US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory will establish, promote, and manage a national industry-driven Stripper Well Consortium (SWC) that will be focused on improving the production performance of domestic petroleum and/or natural gas stripper wells. the consortium creates a partnership with the US petroleum and natural gas industries and trade associations, state funding agencies, academia, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. This report serves as the third quarterly technical progress report for the SWC. During this reporting period the SWC entered into a co-funding arrangement with the New York State Energy Development Authority (NYSERDA) to provide an additional $100,000 in co-funding for stripper well production-orientated projects.The SWC hosted its first meeting in which members proposed research projects to the SWC membership. The meeting was held on April 9-10, 2001 in State College, Pennsylvania. Twenty three proposals were submitted to the SWC for funding consideration. Investigators of the proposed projects provided the SWC membership with a 20 minute (15 minute technical discussion, 5 minute question and answer session) presentation. Of the 23 proposals, the Executive Council approved $921,000 in funding for 13 projects. Penn State then immediately started the process of …

A test program has been conducted in which the use of pilot-scale centrifugal solvent extraction contactors for cesium removal from an alkaline waste stream has been successfully demonstrated. The program was designed specifically to evaluate the use of centrifugal contactors having 5-cm-diam rotors for the removal of cesium from alkaline high-level waste (HLW) that was generated and is being stored at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS). The removal of cesium from this waste is highly desirable because it will reduce the volume of waste that must be treated and disposed of as HLW. The parameters applied in the test effort are those that have been established for the Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX) process, a multistage extraction operation that has been designed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). In the CSSX process, cesium is extracted by calix(4)arene-bis-(fert-octylbenzo-crown-6), commonly referred to as BOBCalixC6. The extract is scrubbed with dilute (0.05 M) nitric acid, both to remove coextracted elements (primarily potassium and sodium) and to adjust the pH of the extract to facilitate recovery of the cesium. The scrubbed solvent is contacted with 0.001 M HNO{sub 3}, which results in the stripping …

It is well established that Al-Zn-Mg-(Cu) aluminum alloys are susceptible to hydrogen environment assisted cracking (HEAC) when exposed to aqueous environments. In Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys, overaged tempers are commonly used to increase HEAC resistance at the expense of strength. Overaging has little benefit in low copper alloys. However, the mechanism or mechanisms by which overaging imparts HEAC resistance is poorly understood. The present research investigated hydrogen uptake, diffusion, and crack growth rate in 90% relative humidity (RH) air for both a commercial copper bearing Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy (AA 7050) and a low copper variant of this alloy in order to better understand the factors which affect HEAC resistance. Experimental methods used to evaluate hydrogen concentrations local to a surface and near a crack tip include nuclear reaction analysis (NRA), focused ion beam, secondary ion mass spectroscopy (FIB/SIMS) and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). When freshly bared coupons of AA 7050 are exposed to 90 C, 90% RH air, hydrogen ingress follows inverse-logarithmic-type kinetics and is equivalent for underaged (HEAC susceptible) and overaged (HEAC resistant) tempers. However, when the native oxide is allowed to form (24 hrs in 25 C, 40% RH lab air) prior to exposure to 90 C, 90% RH air, underaged …

Vegetable oils such as soybean oil will be converted to novel polymers using hydroformylation and other catalytic processes. These polymers can be used in the construction, automotive, packaging, and electronic sectors.

Improved membrane filtration and separation technologies reduce energy use, capital and maintenance costs of separation and purification systems for biomass sugars. Other areas of application include waste treatment, and chemical and food processing.

This report includes information regarding intelligence issues for Congress. The CIA and the Israel-Palestinian Accord, Kosovo/Operation Allied Force, and counterintelligence are among topics discussed in this report.

A test program has been conducted to determine the extent to which irradiation of a calixarene-based cesium extractant affects-separation of the organic (solvent) phase from aqueous solutions with which it is contacted in a prototype extraction flowsheet. A caustic-side solvent extraction process, known as CSSX, has been developed for the selective removal of cesium from wastes generated by the processing of irradiated nuclear reactor fuels. This process consists of a cascade of mass transfer stages in which cesium is transferred from an aqueous feed into the CSSX extractant (BOBCalixC6), the extract is scrubbed with 0.05 M nitric acid to remove coextracted elements, and the solvated cesium is stripped (or back-extracted) into 0.001 M HNO{sub 3}. Removal of cesium from stored waste supernatants is desirable as a means of segregating high-activity cesium-137 ({sup 137}Cs) from the solution, thereby reducing the volume of material that must be processed and disposed of as high-level waste. The CSSX process is one of three cesium removal technologies currently being considered for deployment for treatment of wastes that are stored at the U. S. Department of Energy's (USDOE's) Savannah River Site (SRS). The irradiation tests described in this report were designed to simulate the effect of …

Despite their simplicity, diatomic molecules of first row elements can exhibit very complex phase diagrams. Determination of the phase diagrams can be further complicated by the existence of hysteretic molecular phases that can be observed over large regions of coexistence. Here we present evidence for a previously unreported molecular phase of nitrogen existing at room temperature at least over the range of 33-74 GPa. Our measurements show that sample history may have a significant impact on the thermodynamic states accessed by the molecular nitrogen solid and, by extension, also on the established phase diagram.

Isosorbide is a new polymer additive derived from corn (via sorbitol) that when copolymerized with polyethylene terephthalate (PET), increases the strength and rigidity of the plastic. This project will develop an economically-viable, continuous catalytic process to convert sorbitol to isosorbide.

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The BTeV hybrid pixel detector is constructed of readout chips and sensor arrays which are developed separately. The detector is assembled by flip-chip mating of the two parts. This method requires the availability of highly reliable, reasonably low cost fine-pitch flip-chip attachment technology. We have tested the quality of two bump-bonding technologies; indium bumps (by Advanced Interconnect Technology Ltd. (AIT) of Hong Kong) and fluxless solder bumps (by MCNC in North Carolina, USA). The results have been presented elsewhere[1]. In this paper we describe tests we performed to further evaluate these technologies. We subjected 15 indium bump-bonded and 15 fluxless solder bump-bonded dummy detectors through a thermal cycle and then a dose of radiation to observe the effects of cooling, heating and radiation on bump-bonds.

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Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) offer the potential to increase propulsion system efficiency and decrease pollutant emissions relative to conventional vehicles. The US Department of Energy (DOE) and the auto industry are developing HEV technology as part of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) program. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) supports the DOE in this program by contributing to technical target setting and evaluating new technologies in a vehicle systems context. In this role, ANL has developed a unique set of interrelated tools and facilities to analyze, develop, and validate components and propulsion systems in a vehicle environment.

High-angular-momentum states in {sup 108}Cd were populated via the {sup 64}Ni({sup 48}Ca,4n) reaction at a beam energy of 207 MeV. Gamma rays were detected using the Gammasphere array. A rotational band has been observed with a dynamic moment of inertia and deduced lower limit of the quadrupole moment suggesting a major-to-minor axis ratio larger than 1.8:1, placing it among the most deformed structures identified in any nucleus, to date.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Recognizing that the country's fragmented employment and training programs were not serving job seekers or employers well, Congress enacted the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) in 1988. One of WIA's goals was to create a one-stop center system to help unify the services provided by many programs and give states the flexibility to design services better suited to local workforce needs. Veterans' employment and training programs, administered by the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS), are mandatory program partners in this new one-stop center system. VETS administers two grants programs--the Disabled Veterans' Outreach Program (DVOP) and the Local Veterans' Employment Representative (LVER) program--that fund staff offering services for veterans. Although veterans receive priority employment services at one-stop centers, VETS does not collect appropriate data for determining the effectiveness of these services, including subsequent job retention and wages. VETS requires states to collect information on the number and type of employment services provided to veterans relative to nonveterans. This information showed that veterans received more intensive services, and received these services more readily, than did nonveterans seeking services through states' employment service offices or one-stop …

Revisions to the USNRC Regulatory Guides and Standard Review Plan Sections devoted to earthquake engineering practice are currently in process. The intent is to reflect changes in engineering practice that have evolved in the twenty years that have passed since those criteria were originally published. Additionally, field observations of the effects of the Northridge (1994) and Kobe (1995) earthquakes have inspired some reassessment in the technical community about certain aspects of design practice. In particular, questions have arisen about the effectiveness of basing earthquake resistant designs on resistance to seismic forces and, then evaluating tolerability of the expected displacements. Therefore, a research effort was undertaken to examine the implications for NRC's seismic practice of the move, in the earthquake engineering community, toward using expected displacement rather than force (or stress) as the basis for assessing design adequacy. The results of the NRC sponsored research on this subject are reported in this paper. A slow trend toward the utilization of displacement based methods for design was noted. However, there is a more rapid trend toward the use of displacement based methods for seismic evaluation of existing facilities. A document known as FEMA 273, has been developed and is being used as …