The next generation of forming elements based on acoustic excitation to increase drainage and enhances formation both with on-line control and profiling capabilities has been investigated in this project. The system can be designed and optimized based on the fundamental experimental and computational analysis and investigation of acoustic waves in a fiber suspension flow and interaction with the forming wire.

The purpose of this report is to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) instrumentation status. The report is divided into the following four sections: (1) new instrumentation in the process of being acquired and deployed, (2) existing instrumentation and progress on improvements or upgrades, (3) proposed future instrumentation, and (4) SBIR instrument development.

This report documents the determination of the cause of pressurization that led to bulging deformation of a 55 gallon wastewater drum stored in L-Area. Drum samples were sent to SRNL for evaluation. The interior surface of these samples revealed blistering and holes in the epoxy phenolic drum liner and corrosion of the carbon steel drum. It is suspected that osmotic pressure drove permeation of the water through the epoxy phenolic coating which was weakened from exposure to low pH water. The coating failed at locations throughout the drum interior. Subsequent corrosion of the carbon steel released hydrogen which pressurized the drum causing deformation of the drum lid. Additional samples from other wastewater drums on the same pallet were also evaluated and limited corrosion was visible on the interior surfaces. It is suspected that, with time, the corrosion would have advanced to cause pressurization of these sealed drums.

Autonomous and semi-autonomous control is a key element of space reactor design in order to meet the mission requirements of safety, reliability, survivability, and life expectancy. Interrestrial nuclear power plants, human operators are avilable to perform intelligent control functions that are necessary for both normal and abnormal operational conditions.

Area G is a 25.5-hectare (63-acre), fenced, low-level radioactive solid waste processing and disposal area located on the east end of Mesa del Buey at Technical Area 54 at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This disposal area has been in existence since 1957 and is expected to be filled by the year 2015. Thus, a new area, located adjacent to Area G on the west side, has been proposed for the expansion of disposal activities. Since 1994 to the present, baseline levels of several radionuclides and nonradionuclides have been collected in soils, vegetation, and small mammals (field mice and rock squirrels). These data will be used to assess potential impacts, if any, at the expanded site once operations begin. Baseline statistical reference levels (BSRLs) (mean plus three standard deviations = 99% confidence level) of radionuclides and nonradionuclides in these media were calculated and compared with regional statistical reference levels (RSRLs). RSRLs are calculated from regional areas away from the influence of the Laboratory and represent natural and worldwide fallout sources. BSRLs in most media, with the exception of field mice (mostly Peromyscus spp.), compare very well with RSRLs. Field mice, probably because they are mobile and may have spent time within …

The Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) Facility Mitigation Action Plan specifies the comparison of baseline conditions in biotic and abiotic media with those collected after operations have started. Operations at DARHT at Los Alamos National Laboratory started in 2000. In this study, the abundance and composition of birds collected near the DARHT facility from 2003 through 2006 were determined and compared to a preoperational period (1999). In addition, the levels of radionuclides and other inorganic chemicals in birds were compared to regional statistical reference levels (RSRLs). The number and diversity of bird species generally increased over preoperational levels with the greatest number of birds (412) and species (46) occurring in 2005. The most common bird species collected regardless of time periods were the chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina), the Virginia's warbler (Vermivora virginiae), the western bluebird (Sialia mexicana), the broad-tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus), the sage sparrow (Amphispiza belli), and the western tanager (Piranga ludoviciana). Most radionuclides, with the exception of uranium-234 and uranium-238, in (whole body) birds collected after operations began were either not detected or below RSRLs. Uranium-234 and uranium-238 concentrations in a few samples were far below screening levels and do not pose a potential unacceptable dose to the …

The Brownfields Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to award grants for the assessment and cleanup of sites that pose a less serious threat to human health and the environment than sites addressed by the Superfund program. The authorization expired on September 30, 2006. In the 109th Congress, a reauthorization bill, H.B. 5810, was reported from the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on July 28, 2006, but went no further. This report contains information on the EPA's involvement in the program, EPA appropriations, Housing and Urban Development's involvement in the program and appropriations, other federal Brownfield programs, and Congressional actions of the 109th and 110th Congresses as related to the programs.

BG28 and KG3 filter glasses were tested for use as attenuators in the NIF drive diagnostic (DrD) systems. Tests were performed in the Optical Sciences Laser facility with a 351 nm, 2-step, 3-nsec pulse at fluences ranging up to {approx} 1 J/cm{sup 2}. Single-shot measurements showed no solarization when the samples were allowed to relax for a week after exposure. KG3 filters exhibited no luminescence and no transient pulse distortion. BG28 filters luminesced appreciably and imposed a 'droop' (similar to 'square-pulse distortion') on the signals. The droop parameter is estimated at 0.50 {+-} 0.11 cm{sup 2}/J. Droop is explained in terms of known copper-doped-glass spectroscopy and kinetics (buildup of triplet-state populations, with excited-state absorption). Simulation of the distortion ({approx}1.6%) expected on a 1.8 MJ Haan pulse led to a minor redesign of the Drive Diagnostic with reduced fluence on the BG28 filters to reduce the droop distortion to 0.5%.

Testing was performed to determine the chloride (Cl-) removal capabilities of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) designed and built Cl- washing equipment intended for HB-Line installation. The equipment to be deployed was tested using a cerium oxide (CeO2) based simulant in place of the 3013 plutonium oxide (PuO2) material. Two different simulant mixtures were included in this testing -- one having higher Cl- content than the other. The higher Cl- simulant was based on K-Area Interim Surveillance Inspection Program (KIS) material with Cl- content approximately equal to 70,000 ppm. The lower Cl- level simulant was comparable to KIS material containing approximately 8,000-ppm Cl- content. The performance testing results indicate that the washer is capable of reducing the Cl- content of both surrogates to below 200 ppm with three 1/2-liter washes of 0.1M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution. Larger wash volumes were used with similar results - all of the prescribed test parameters consistently reduced the Cl- content of the surrogate to a value below 200 ppm Cl- in the final washed surrogate material. The washer uses a 20-micron filter to retain the surrogate solids. Tests showed that 0.16-0.41% of the insoluble fraction of the starting mass passed through the 20-micron …

This report examines policy issues the Davis-Bacon Act has sparked through the years and which remain a part of the Davis-Bacon debate of the 1990s. These include such questions as: wage rate determination procedures, reporting requirements under the Copeland Act, an appropriate threshold for activation of the statute, interagency relationships with respect to Davis-Bacon enforcement and compliance activity, administrative or judicial appeals procedures, the use of "helpers" and other low-skilled workers on covered projects, and the right of a President to suspend the statute as well as the conditions under which such a suspension may occur. That the fundamental premise of the Act remains in contention after 60 years may be, itself, part of the public policy debate.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To regulate the export of billions of dollars worth of arms to foreign governments and companies, the Department of State's (State) Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) reviews and authorizes export licenses and other arms export cases. While such reviews require time to consider national security and foreign policy interests, the U.S. defense industry and some foreign government purchasers have expressed concern that the U.S. export control process is unnecessarily time-consuming. In 2005, GAO reported that processing times for arms export cases had increased despite State efforts to streamline its process. GAO was asked to (1) describe recent trends in the processing of arms export cases and (2) identify factors that have contributed to these trends. To conduct its work, GAO obtained and analyzed State arms export case data for fiscal year 2003 through April 30, 2007; reviewed relevant laws, regulations, and guidelines, as well as DDTC funding and staffing information; and interviewed State and Department of Defense officials and selected arms exporters."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 48-year U.S. embargo on Cuba aims to deny resources to the Castro regime by prohibiting most trade, travel, and financial transactions with Cuba. The departments of Commerce, Homeland Security (DHS), Justice, and the Treasury are responsible for enforcing the embargo as well as protecting homeland and national security. Since 2001, U.S. agencies have changed the embargo's rules in response to new laws and policies. GAO was asked to examine (1) the rule changes in 2001-2005 and their impact on U.S. exports, travel, cash transfers, and gifts to Cuba; (2) U.S. agencies' embargo-related activities and workloads; and (3) factors affecting the embargo's enforcement. GAO analyzed laws, regulations, and agency data, interviewed agency officials, and observed agency activities at Port Everglades and Miami International Airport, Florida."

The purpose of this Techbase was to reduce to practice the tiled 4-8 texture hierarchy for the display of video imagery (i.e. sequences of frames). The immediate intent was to demonstrate its use in the analysis and display of sensor imagery. As sensors are increasing in resolution the physical amount of imagery that needs to be displayed can quickly overwhelm most display systems. For example, a sensor with a horizontal resolution of over 8000 pixels would generate an image over 10 feet wide on a standard 72 DPI display. Breaking an image into tiles, and then decomposing each tile into a multiresolution hierarchy, allows a user (or software) to efficiently select and display only those parts of the image that are of interest to the user. The originator of the idea of 4-8 Texture Hierarchies was Dr. Mark Duchaineau, and we consulted with him in much of our work. We also consulted with Dan Knight, from SequoiaTek Corp., who is a contractor responsible for implementing the viewers for our applications. Most of the code for actual 4-8 Texture Hierarchy generation already existed; a large focus of the Techbase was to determine how to best use what was available for video …

The Grant DE-FG-02-00ER54712, ?Experimental Studies of Collisionless Reconnection Processes in Plasmas?, financed within the DoE/NSF, spanned a period from September , 2003 to August, 2007. It partly supported an MIT Research scientist, two graduate students and material expenses. The grant enabled the operation of a basic plasma physics experiment (on magnetic reconnection) at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center and the MIT Physics Department. A strong educational component characterized this work throughout, with the participation of a large number of graduate and undergraduate students and interns to the experimental activities. The study of the collisionless magnetic reconnection constituted the primary work carried out under this grant. The investigations utilized two magnetic configurations with distinct boundary conditions. Both configurations were based upon the Versatile Toroidal Facility (VTF). The first configuration is characterized by open boundary conditions where the magnetic field lines interface directly with the vacuum vessel walls. The reconnection dynamics for this configuration has been methodically characterized and it has been shown that kinetic effects related to trapped electron trajectories are responsible for the high rates of reconnection observed [7]. This type of reconnection has not been investigated before. Nevertheless, the results are directly relevant to observations by the …

In order to anticipate the effects of global change on ecosystem function, it is essential that predictive relationships be established linking ecosystem function to global change scenarios. The Mojave Desert is of considerable interest with respect to global change. It contains the driest habitats in North America, and thus most closely approximates the world’s great arid deserts. In order to examine the effects of climate and land use changes, in 2001 we established a long-term manipulative global change experiment, called the Mojave Global Change Facility. Manipulations in this study include the potential effects of (1) increased summer rainfall (75 mm over three discrete 25 mm events), (2) increased nitrogen deposition (10 and 40 kg ha-1), and (3) the disturbance of biological N-fixing crusts . Questions addressed under this grant shared the common hypothesis that plant and ecosystem performance will positively respond to the augmentation of the most limiting resources to plant growth in the Mojave Desert, e.g., water and nitrogen. Specific hypotheses include (1) increased summer rainfall will significantly increase plant production through an alleviation of moisture stress in the dry summer months, (2) N-deposition will increase plant production in this N-limited system, particularly in wet years or in concert …

Questions addressed under this grant shared the common hypothesis that plant and ecosystem performance will positively respond to the augmentation of the most limiting resources to plant growth in the Mojave Desert, e.g., water and nitrogen. Specific hypothesis include (1) increased summer rainfall will significantly increase plant production thorugh an alleviation of moisture stress in the dry summer months, (2) N-deposition will increase plan production in this N-limited system, particularly in wet years or in concert with added summer rain, and (3) biological crust disturbance will gradually decrease bio-available N, with concomitant long-term reductions in photosynthesis and ANPP. Individual plan and ecosystem responses to global change may be regulated by biogeochemical processes and natural weather variability, and changes in plant and ecosystem processes may occur rapidly, may occur only after a time lag, or may not occur at all. During the first PER grant period, we observed changes in plant and ecosystem processes that would fall under each of these time-response intervals: plant and ecosystem processes responded rapidly to added summer rain, whereas most processes responded slowly or in a lag fashion to N-deposition and with no significant response to crust disturbance. Therefore, the primary objectives of this renewal grant …

The goal of this program was to generate information on the utility of soybean germplasm that produces oil, high in oleic acid and low in saturated fatty acids, for its use as a biodiesel. Moreover, data was ascertained on the quality of the derived soybean meal (protein component), and the agronomic performance of this novel soybean germplasm. Gathering data on these later two areas is critical, with respect to the first, soybean meal (protein) component is a major driver for commodity soybean, which is utilized as feed supplements in cattle, swine, poultry and more recently aquaculture production. Hence, it is imperative that the resultant modulation in the fatty acid profile of the oil does not compromise the quality of the derived meal, for if it does, the net value of the novel soybean will be drastically reduced. Similarly, if the improved oil trait negative impacts the agronomics (i.e. yield) of the soybean, this in turn will reduce the value of the trait. Over the course of this program oil was extruded from approximately 350 bushels of soybean designated 335-13, which produces oil high in oleic acid (>85%) and low in saturated fatty acid (<6%). As predicted improvement in cold flow …

The work described in this report was performed under the direction of the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) at University of Texas at Arlington. The IAC at The University of Texas at Arlington is managed by Rutgers University under agreement with the United States Department of Energy Office of Industrial Technology, which financially supports the program. The objective of the IAC is to identify, evaluate, and recommend, through analysis of an industrial plant’s operations, opportunities to conserve energy and prevent pollution, thereby reducing the associated costs. IAC team members visit and survey the plant. Based upon observations made in the plant, preventive/corrective actions are recommended. At all times we try to offer specific and quantitative recommendations of cost savings, energy conservation, and pollution prevention to the plants we serve.

This report summarizes the results of literature reviews conducted to support the selection of a cesium removal technology for application in a small column ion exchange (SCIX) unit supported within a high level waste tank. SCIX is being considered as a technology for the treatment of radioactive salt solutions in order to accelerate closure of waste tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS) as part of the Modular Salt Processing (MSP) technology development program. Two ion exchange materials, spherical Resorcinol-Formaldehyde (RF) and engineered Crystalline Silicotitanate (CST), are being considered for use within the SCIX unit. Both ion exchange materials have been studied extensively and are known to have high affinities for cesium ions in caustic tank waste supernates. RF is an elutable organic resin and CST is a non-elutable inorganic material. Waste treatment processes developed for the two technologies will differ with regard to solutions processed, secondary waste streams generated, optimum column size, and waste throughput. Pertinent references, anticipated processing sequences for utilization in waste treatment, gaps in the available data, and technical comparisons will be provided for the two ion exchange materials to assist in technology selection for SCIX. The engineered, granular form of CST (UOP IE-911) was the …

This white paper addresses the needs, options, current practices of load monitoring. Recommendations on load monitoring applications and future directions are also presented.

Cryo electron tomography (cryo-ET) is the primary method for obtaining 3D reconstructions of intact bacteria, viruses, and complex molecular machines ([7],[2]). It first flash freezes a specimen in a thin layer of ice, and then rotates the ice sheet in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) recording images of different projections through the sample. The resulting images are aligned and then back projected to form the desired 3-D model. The typical resolution of biological electron microscope is on the order of 1 nm per pixel which means that small imprecision in the microscope's stage or lenses can cause large alignment errors. To enable a high precision alignment, biologists add a small number of spherical gold beads to the sample before it is frozen. These beads generate high contrast dots in the image that can be tracked across projections. Each gold bead can be seen as a marker with a fixed location in 3D, which provides the reference points to bring all the images to a common frame as in the classical structure from motion problem. A high accuracy alignment is critical to obtain a high resolution tomogram (usually on the order of 5-15nm resolution). While some methods try to automate the …

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Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I), which operates under Multi-National Forces-Iraq, leads the Coalition effort to train, equip, and organize the ISF. Previously, once Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) units were trained and equipped, operational responsibility for their employment was turned over to Multi-National Corps-Iraq. As of June 2007, the Iraqi Ground Forces Command has assumed operational control of 8 of the 10 extant Iraqi Army divisions, and the Ministry of Interior has assumed operational control of the National Police. Overall, the number of Iraqi military and police personnel the Coalition has trained and equipped increased from over 171,000 in July 2005 to about 359,600 in September 2007. The Iraqi Ministry of Defense forces consist of the Joint Headquarters; the Iraqi Ground Forces Command, which commands the Army and the Iraqi Special Operations Forces; the Air Force; and the Navy (including Marines). The Iraqi Ministry of Interior forces consist of the Iraqi Police Service, the National Police, the Directorate of Border Enforcement, and other, smaller forces. According to the September 2007 Department of Defense (DOD) report to Congress, as of September 3, 2007, the Coalition has trained approximately 165,400 Iraqi …