The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) initiated processing of Sludge Batch 4 (SB4) in May 2007. SB4 was the first DWPF sludge batch to contain significant quantities of HM or high Al sludge. Initial testing with SB4 simulants showed potential negative impacts to DWPF processing; therefore, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) performed extensive testing in an attempt to optimize processing. SRNL's testing has resulted in the highest DWPF production rates since start-up. During SB4 processing, DWPF also began incorporating waste streams from the interim salt processing facilities to initiate coupled operations. While DWPF has been processing SB4, the Liquid Waste Organization (LWO) and the SRNL have been preparing Sludge Batch 5 (SB5). SB5 has undergone low-temperature aluminum dissolution to reduce the mass of sludge for vitrification and will contain a small fraction of Purex sludge. A high-level review of SB4 processing and the SB5 preparation studies will be provided.

Biweekly, comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Biweekly, comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

List of Primary Care Case Management program approved primary care providers, hospitals, specialists, and family planning providers, located in the Northwest Texas area.

This book outlines the findings of the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, established to build on the work of the 9/11 Commission. The Commission's report examines the government's current policies and programs, identifies gaps in prevention strategy and recommends ways to close them. It sets forth the possible threats to the United States if terrorists acquire weapons of mass destruction and provides thirteen recommendations for unilateral and international actions that could increase worldwide safety.

This report is based on research in West Texas to serve as a field guide to identify, document, and evaluate historic-age adobe buildings in the state. It provides a description of historic context, a narrative of common building types, a framework for evaluating the significance of adobe buildings, a list of resources, and a step-by-step guide to conducting field research.

Biweekly, comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Reference guide for information about the Texas legislature including the legislative process, relevant websites, publications, and relevant services. "The purpose of this publication is to help legislators, other state officials and employees, and interested citizens in researching the work of past legislatures and in tracking the work of the current legislature" (p. v).

Recent developments in the field of anisotropic flow in nuclear collision are reviewed. The results from the top AGS energy to the top RHIC energy are discussed with emphasis on techniques, interpretation, and uncertainties in the measurements.

Revised report submitted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality containing background information on the commission, and summaries of requests for appropriations and expenditures for the fiscal years 2010 and 2011 with supporting documentation.

We will provide a review of some of the physics which can be addressed by studying fluctuations and correlations in heavy ion collisions. We will discuss Lattice QCD results on fluctuations and correlations and will put them into context with observables which have been measured in heavy-ion collisions. Special attention will be given to the QCD critical point and the first order co-existence region, and we will discuss how the measurement of fluctuations and correlations can help in an experimental search for non-trivial structures in the QCD phase diagram.

An antibody that recognizes a chelated form of hexavalent uranium was used in the development of two different immunosensors for uranium detection. Specifically, these sensors were utilized for the analysis of groundwater samples collected during a 2007 field study of in situ bioremediation in a aquifer located at Rifle, CO. The antibody-based sensors provided data comparable to that obtained using Kinetic Phosphorescence Analysis (KPA). Thus, these novel instruments and associated reagents should provide field researchers and resource managers with valuable new tools for on-site data acquisition.

Biweekly, comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Biweekly, comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Biweekly, comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Report submitted by Texas State Technical College Harlingen to the Texas 81st regular legislature requesting appropriations to fund programming and activities. It includes an overview of the institution's goals, summaries of appropriations requests for fiscal years 2010 and 2011, and supporting documentation.

Report submitted by Texas State Technical College West Texas in Sweetwater to the Texas 81st regular legislature requesting appropriations to fund programming and activities. It includes an overview of the institution's goals, summaries of appropriations requests for fiscal years 2010 and 2011, and supporting documentation.

Traditionally, knowledge in heterogeneous catalysis has come through empirical research. Nowadays, there is a clear interest to change this since millions of dollars in products are generated every year in the chemical and petrochemical industries through catalytic processes. To obtain a fundamental knowledge of the factors that determine the activity of heterogeneous catalysts is a challenge for modern science since many of these systems are very complex in nature. In principle, when a molecule adsorbs on the surface of a heterogeneous catalyst, it can interact with a large number of bonding sites. It is known that the chemical properties of these bonding sites depend strongly on the chemical environment around them. Thus, there can be big variations in chemical reactivity when going from one region to another in the surface of a heterogeneous catalyst. A main objective is to understand how the structural and electronic properties of a surface affect the energetics for adsorption processes and the paths for dissociation and chemical reactions. In recent years, advances in instrumentation and experimental procedures have allowed a large series of detailed works on the surface chemistry of heterogeneous catalysts. In many cases, these experimental studies have shown interesting and unique phenomena. Theory …

Functional gene arrays (FGA) are microarrays that contain probes for genes encoding proteins or enzymes involved in functions of interest and allow for the study of thousands of genes at one time. The most comprehensive FGA to date is the GeoChip, which contains ~;;24,000 probes for ~;;10,000 genes involved in the geochemical cycling of C, N, P, and S, as well as genes involved in metal resistance and reduction and contaminant degradation. This chapter details the methods necessary for GeoChip analysis. Methods covered include preparation of DNA (whole community genome amplification and labeling), array setup (prehybridization steps), hybridization (sample and hybridization buffers), and post hybridization steps (slide washing and array scanning).

The interaction of metal ions and oxyanions with nanoscale mineral phases has not yet been extensively studied despite the increased recognition of their prevalence in natural systems as a significant component of geomedia. A combination of macroscopic uptake studies to investigate the adsorption behavior of As(V), Cu(II), Hg(II), and Zn(II) onto nanoparticulate goethite ({alpha}-FeOOH) as a function of aging time at elevated temperature (75 C) and synchrotron-based X-ray studies to track changes in both the sorption mode and the rate of nanoparticle growth reveal the effects that uptake has on particle growth. Metal(loid) species which sorb quickly to the iron oxyhydroxide particles (As(V), Cu(II)) appear to passivate the particle surface, impeding the growth of the nanoparticles with progressive aging; in contrast, species that sorb more slowly (Hg(II), Zn(II)) have considerably less impact on particle growth. Progressive changes in the speciation of these particular metals with time suggest shifts in the mode of metal uptake with time, possibly indicating structural incorporation of the metal(loid) into the nanoparticle; this is supported by the continued increase in uptake concomitant with particle growth, implying that metal species may transform from surface-sorbed species to more structurally incorporated forms. This type of incorporation would have implications …

Sulfate, one of the inorganic constituents that could be present in the nuclear waste repository, forms complexes with U(VI) and affects its migration in the environment. Results show that the complexation of U(VI) with sulfate is enhanced by the increase in temperature. The effect of temperature on the complexation and speciation of U(VI) in sulfate solutions is discussed.

For better or worse, natural gas has become the fuel of choice for new power plants being built across the United States. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), natural gas-fired units account for nearly 90% of the total generating capacity added in the U.S. between 1999 and 2005 (EIA 2006b), bringing the nationwide market share of gas-fired generation to 19%. Looking ahead over the next decade, the EIA expects this trend to continue, increasing the market share of gas-fired generation to 22% by 2015 (EIA 2007a). Though these numbers are specific to the US, natural gas-fired generation is making similar advances in many other countries as well. A large percentage of the total cost of gas-fired generation is attributable to fuel costs--i.e., natural gas prices. For example, at current spot prices of around $7/MMBtu, fuel costs account for more than 75% of the levelized cost of energy from a new combined cycle gas turbine, and more than 90% of its operating costs (EIA 2007a). Furthermore, given that gas-fired plants are often the marginal supply units that set the market-clearing price for all generators in a competitive wholesale market, there is a direct link between natural gas prices and wholesale …

Biweekly, comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Releases of acutely toxic airborne contaminants in or near a building can lead to significant human exposures unless prompt response measures are identified and implemented. Commonly, possible responses include conflicting strategies, such as shutting the ventilation system off versus running it in a purge (100percent outside air) mode, or having occupants evacuate versus sheltering in place. The right choice depends in part on quickly identifying the source locations, the amounts released, and the likely future dispersion routes of the pollutants. This paper summarizes recent developments to provide such estimates in real time using an approach called Bayesian Monte Carlo updating. This approach rapidly interprets measurements of airborne pollutant concentrations from multiple sensors placed in the building and computes best estimates and uncertainties of the release conditions. The algorithm is fast, capable of continuously updating the estimates as measurements stream in from sensors. The approach is employed, as illustration, to conduct two specific investigations under different situations.