This report was prepared by PNNL for DOE's Building America program and is intended as a guide that energy performance contractors can share with homeowners to describe various insulation options for improving the energy performance and comfort of existing homes. The report provides descriptions of many common insulation types, including their advantages and disadvantages, R-values, characteristics, and typical uses. The report also describes potentially hazardous products such as asbestos and formaldehyde and safety issues when conducting energy-efficient upgrades including radon. The guide is available for download at the DOE Building America website, www.buildingamerica.gov.

The Navajo Hopi Land Commission Office (NHLCO), a Navajo Nation executive branch agency has conducted activities to determine capacity-building, institution-building, outreach and management activities to initiate the development of large-scale renewable energy - 100 megawatt (MW) or larger - generating projects on land in Northwestern New Mexico in the first year of a multi-year program. The Navajo Hopi Land Commission Renewable Energy Development Project (NREP) is a one year program that will develop and market a strategic business plan; form multi-agency and public-private project partnerships; compile site-specific solar, wind and infrastructure data; and develop and use project communication and marketing tools to support outreach efforts targeting the public, vendors, investors and government audiences.

For elastically noninteracting vertical-fracture sets at arbitrary orientation angles to each other, a detailed model is presented in which the resulting anisotropic fractured medium generally has orthorhombic symmetry overall. Some of the analysis methods and ideas of Schoenberg are emphasized, together with their connections to other similarly motivated and conceptually related methods by Sayers and Kachanov, among others. Examples show how parallel vertical-fracture sets having HTI (horizontal transversely isotropic) symmetry transform into orthotropic fractured media if some subsets of the vertical fractures are misaligned with the others, and then the fractured system can have VTI (vertical transversely isotropic) symmetry if all of the fractures are aligned randomly or half parallel and half perpendicular to a given vertical plane. An orthotropic example having vertical fractures in an otherwise VTI earth system (studied previously by Schoenberg and Helbig) is compared with the other examples treated and it is finally shown how fluids in the fractures affect the orthotropic poroelastic system response to seismic waves. The key result is that fracture-influence parameters are multiplied by a factor of (1-B), where 0 {le} B < 1 is Skempton's second coefficient for poroelastic media. Skempton's B coefficient is itself a measurable characteristic of fluid-saturated porous …

In the last decade, domestic terrorists-people who commit crimes within the homeland and draw inspiration from U.S.-based extremist ideologies and movements-have killed American citizens and damaged property across the country. Not all of these criminals have been prosecuted under terrorism statutes. This report discusses domestic terrorism's significance to policymakers per five topics: level of activity, use of nontraditional tactics, exploitation of the internet, decentralized nature of the threat, and prison radicalization. The report also discusses three areas that Congress may consider the federal role of combating such activities: the issue of definitions, adequacy of domestic terrorism intelligence collection efforts, and the value of community outreach driven efforts to quell terrorism related radicalization in the United States.

This report examines reform priorities from the perspective of several key actors, including Members of Congress, the Obama Administration, selected member states, the U.N. Secretary-General, and a cross-section of groups tasked with addressing U.N. reform. It also discusses congressional actions related to U.N. reform and mechanisms for implementing reform, as well as possible challenges facing U.S. policy makers as they consider existing and future U.N. reform efforts.

Report that describes the growth of the wildland-urban interface, wildfire suppression efforts, post-fire responses, and especially the programs and options for protecting the interface before the next wildfire strikes.

The research conducted in this work package is aimed at taking advantage of the long term thermodynamic stability of crystalline ceramics to create more durable waste forms (as compared to high level waste glass) in order to reduce the reliance on engineered and natural barrier systems. Durable ceramic waste forms that incorporate a wide range of radionuclides have the potential to broaden the available disposal options and to lower the storage and disposal costs associated with advanced fuel cycles. Assemblages of several titanate phases have been successfully demonstrated to incorporate radioactive waste elements, and the multiphase nature of these materials allows them to accommodate variation in the waste composition. Recent work has shown that they can be successfully produced from a melting and crystallization process. The objective of this report is to explain the design of ceramic host systems culminating in a reference ceramic formulation for use in subsequent studies on process optimization and melt property data assessment in support of FY13 melter demonstration testing. The waste stream used as the basis for the development and testing is a combination of the projected Cs/Sr separated stream, the Trivalent Actinide - Lanthanide Separation by Phosphorous reagent Extraction from Aqueous Komplexes (TALSPEAK) …

Through an inter-disciplinary effort, DOE is addressing a need to advance monitoring approaches from sole reliance on cost- and labor-intensive point-source monitoring to integrated systems-based approaches such as flux-based approaches and the use of early indicator parameters. Key objectives include identifying current scientific, technical and implementation opportunities and challenges, prioritizing science and technology strategies to meet current needs within the DOE complex for the most challenging environments, and developing an integrated and risk-informed monitoring framework.

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Clemson University with Chevron as an industry partner developed and applied treatment technology using constructed wetland systems to decrease targeted constituents in simulated and actual produced waters to achieve reuse criteria and discharge limits. Pilot-scale and demonstration constructed wetland treatment system (CWTS) experiments led to design strategies for treating a variety of constituents of concern (COCs) in produced waters including divalent metals, metalloids, oil and grease, and ammonia. Targeted biogeochemical pathways for treatment of COCs in pilot-scale CWTS experiments included divalent metal sulfide precipitation through dissimilatory sulfate reduction, metal precipitation through oxidation, reduction of selenite to insoluble elemental selenium, aerobic biodegradation of oil, nitrification of ammonia to nitrate, denitrification of nitrate to nitrogen gas, separation of oil using an oilwater separator, and sorption of ammonia to zeolite. Treatment performance results indicated that CWTSs can be designed and built to promote specific environmental and geochemical conditions in order for targeted biogeochemical pathways to operate. The demonstration system successfully achieved consistent removal extents even while inflow concentrations of COCs in the produced water differed by orders of magnitude. Design strategies used in the pilot-scale and demonstration CWTSs to promote specific conditions that can be applied to designing full-scale CWTSs include plant and …

Clemson University with Chevron as an industry partner developed and applied treatment technology using constructed wetland systems to decrease targeted constituents in simulated and actual produced waters to achieve reuse criteria and discharge limits. Pilot-scale and demonstration constructed wetland treatment system (CWTS) experiments led to design strategies for treating a variety of constituents of concern (COCs) in produced waters including divalent metals, metalloids, oil and grease, and ammonia. Targeted biogeochemical pathways for treatment of COCs in pilot-scale CWTS experiments included divalent metal sulfide precipitation through dissimilatory sulfate reduction, metal precipitation through oxidation, reduction of selenite to insoluble elemental selenium, aerobic biodegradation of oil, nitrification of ammonia to nitrate, denitrification of nitrate to nitrogen gas, separation of oil using an oilwater separator, and sorption of ammonia to zeolite. Treatment performance results indicated that CWTSs can be designed and built to promote specific environmental and geochemical conditions in order for targeted biogeochemical pathways to operate. The demonstration system successfully achieved consistent removal extents even while inflow concentrations of COCs in the produced water differed by orders of magnitude. Design strategies used in the pilot-scale and demonstration CWTSs to promote specific conditions that can be applied to designing full-scale CWTSs include plant and …

Clemson University with Chevron as an industry partner developed and applied treatment technology using constructed wetland systems to decrease targeted constituents in simulated and actual produced waters to achieve reuse criteria and discharge limits. Pilot-scale and demonstration constructed wetland treatment system (CWTS) experiments led to design strategies for treating a variety of constituents of concern (COCs) in produced waters including divalent metals, metalloids, oil and grease, and ammonia. Targeted biogeochemical pathways for treatment of COCs in pilot-scale CWTS experiments included divalent metal sulfide precipitation through dissimilatory sulfate reduction, metal precipitation through oxidation, reduction of selenite to insoluble elemental selenium, aerobic biodegradation of oil, nitrification of ammonia to nitrate, denitrification of nitrate to nitrogen gas, separation of oil using an oilwater separator, and sorption of ammonia to zeolite. Treatment performance results indicated that CWTSs can be designed and built to promote specific environmental and geochemical conditions in order for targeted biogeochemical pathways to operate. The demonstration system successfully achieved consistent removal extents even while inflow concentrations of COCs in the produced water differed by orders of magnitude. Design strategies used in the pilot-scale and demonstration CWTSs to promote specific conditions that can be applied to designing full-scale CWTSs include plant and …

The work in this dissertation presents the synthesis of two mixed metal oxides for biofuel applications and NMR characterization of silica materials. In the chapter 2, high catalytic efficiency of calcium silicate is synthesized for transesterfication of soybean oil to biodisels. Chapter 3 describes the synthesis of a new Rh based catalyst on mesoporous manganese oxides. The new catalyst is found to have higher activity and selectivity towards ethanol. Chapter 4 demonstrates the applications of solid-state Si NMR in the silica materials.

This report details the information related to the California drought conditions. It also gives an overview of Water Supply and Conveyance issues.

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This report provides background information and analysis on U.S. foreign trade in services. The focus of the report is an analysis of the policy challenges that the United States confronts, especially the challenge of negotiating a set of international disciplines on trade in services and dealing with the complexity of measuring trade in services. The report also focuses on emerging issues and current negotiations, especially those pertaining to the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and the Translantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement.

This project was a collaboration between researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Irvine to investigate the utility of a global field-aligned mesh and gyrokinetic field solver for simulations of the tokamak plasma edge region. Mesh generation software from UC Irvine was tested with specific tokamak edge magnetic geometry scenarios and the quality of the meshes and the solutions to the gyrokinetic Poisson equation were evaluated.

A resolution of inquiry is a simple resolution making a direct request or demand of the President or the head of an executive department to furnish the House with specific factual information in the Administration's possession. Under the rules and precedents of the U.S. House of Representatives, such resolutions, if properly drafted, are given a privileged parliamentary status. This means that, under certain circumstances, a resolution of inquiry can be brought up on the House floor even if the committee to which it was referred has not reported it and the majority party leadership has not scheduled it for consideration. This report discusses the background, purpose, and efficiency of these inquiries.

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The Supreme Court decided four search and seizure cases during its October 2012 term: Florida v. Jardines, Florida v. Harris, Bailey v. United, and Missouri v. McNeely. This report discusses the prior precedents in each case as well as the decision reached by the Court.

This report provides the results of the comprehensive annulus visual inspection for tanks 241- AZ-101 and 241-AZ-102 performed in fiscal year 2013. The inspection established a baseline covering about 95 percent of the annulus floor for comparison with future inspections. Any changes in the condition are also included in this document.

The effects of partial ionization (ni/nn ≤ 1%) on magnetic reconnection in the Hall regime have been studied systematically in the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX). It is shown that, when neutrals are added the Hall quadrupole field pattern and thus electron flow is unchanged while the ion outflow speed is reduced due to ion-neutral drag. However, in constrast to theoretical predictions, the ion diffusion layer width does not change appreciably. Therefore, the total ion outflow flux and the normalized reconnection rate are reduced.

The Langevin equations describing the average collisional dynamics of suprathermal particles in nonstationary plasma remarkably admit an exact analytical solution in the case of recombining plasma. The current density produced by arbitrary particle fluxes is derived including the effect of charge recombination. Since recombination has the effect of lowering the charge density of the plasma, thus reducing the charged particle collisional frequencies, the evolution of the current density can be modified substantially compared to plasma with fixed charge density. The current drive efficiency is derived and optimized for discrete and continuous pulses of current, leading to the discovery of a nonzero "residual" current density that persists indefinitely under certain conditions, a feature not present in stationary plasmas.

This report examines campaign finance law in the context of political party committee expenditures. It discusses relevant Supreme Court precedent and recent legislative activity.