Putting things in places: Developmental consequences of linguistic typology

This study explores how adults and children describe placement events (e.g., putting a book on a table) in a range of different languages (Finnish, English, German, Russian, Hindi, Tzeltal Maya, Spanish, and Turkish). Results show that the eight languages grammatically encode placement events in two main ways (Talmy, 1985, 1991), but further investigation reveals fine-grained crosslinguistic variation within each of the two groups. Children are sensitive to these finer-grained characteristics of the input language at an early age, but only when such features are perceptually salient. Our study demonstrates that a unitary notion of 'event' does not suffice to characterize complex but systematic patterns of event encoding crosslinguistically, and that children are sensitive to multiple influences, including the distributional properties of the target language, in constructing these patterns in their own speech

Decommissioning the Brookhaven National Laboratory Building 830 Gamma Irradiation Facility.

The Building 830 Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) was decommissioned because its design was not in compliance with current hazardous tank standards and its cobalt-60 sources were approaching the end of their useful life. The facility contained 354 stainless steel encapsulated cobalt-60 sources in a pool, which provided shielding. Total cobalt-60 inventory amounted to 24,000 Curies when the sources were shipped for disposal. The decommissioning project included packaging, transport, and disposal of the sources and dismantling and disposing of all other equipment associated with the facility. Worker exposure was a major concern in planning for the packaging and disposal of the sources. These activities were planned carefully according to ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principles. As a result, the actual occupational exposures experienced during the work were within the planned levels. Disposal of the pool water required addressing environmental concerns, since the planned method was to discharge the slightly contaminated water to the BNL sewage treatment plant. After the BNL evaluation procedure for discharge to the sewage treatment plant was revised and reviewed by regulators and BNL's Community Advisory Council, the pool water was discharged to the Building 830 sanitary system. Because the sources were sealed and the pool water contamination levels were low, most of the remaining equipment was not contaminated; therefore disposal was straightforward, as scrap metal and construction debris

THE MURMANSK INITIATIVE - RF: 1994-1999 NEARING THE FINISH LINE.

''The Murmansk Initiative - RF'' is a tri-lateral project developed to support Russia's ability to meet the London Convention's prohibition on ocean disposal of radioactive waste. The Initiative, under a tripartite agreement, has upgraded an existing low-level liquid radioactive waste treatment facility, increasing capacity from 1,200 m{sup 3}/year to 5,000 m{sup 3}/year, and expanded capability to treat liquids containing salt (up to 10 g/L). The three parties to the agreement, the Russian Federation, Norway, and the United States, have all contributed the project. All construction has been provided by Russia. Construction of mechanical systems (piping and valves, pumps, sorbent columns, settling tanks, and surge tanks) is nearing completion, with instrumentation and control (I&C) systems currently being installed. Delays to the I&C installation have occurred because changes in system specifications required additional U.S. supplied computer control equipment to be purchased, and clearance through customs (both U.S. and Russian) has been slow. Start-up testing has been limited to testing of isolated sub-systems because of the delays in the I&C installation. The current state of the Russian economy and completion of a cementation unit, which was not part of the original tri-partite agreement, have hampered final construction activities. Russian regulatory authorities have stated that final licensing for expanded capacity (5,000 m{sup 3}/year) would not be given until the cementation unit was on-line. Completion of the project is now scheduled for August 1999

Decommissioning the Brookhaven National Laboratory Building 830 Gamma Irradiation Facility

The Building 830 Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) was decommissioned because its design was not in compliance with current hazardous tank standards and because its cobalt-60 sources were approaching the end of their useful life. The facility contained 354 stainless steel encapsulated cobalt-60 sources in a pool, which provided shielding. Total cobalt-60 inventory amounted to 24,000 Curies (when the sources were shipped for disposal). The decommissioning project included packaging, transport and disposal of the sources and dismantling and disposing of all other equipment associated with the facility. Worker exposure was a major concern in planning for the packaging and disposal of the sources. These activities were planned carefully according to ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principles. As a result, the actual doses experienced during the work were lower than anticipated. Because the sources were sealed, most of the remaining equipment was not contaminated; therefore disposal was straightforward, as scrap metal and construction debris. However, disposal of the pool water involved addressing environmental concerns, since the planned method was to discharge the slightly contaminated water to the BNL sewage treatment plant

The retreat from locative overgeneralisation errors : a novel verb grammaticality judgment study

Whilst some locative verbs alternate between the ground- and figure-locative constructions (e.g. Lisa sprayed the flowers with water/Lisa sprayed water onto the flowers), others are restricted to one construction or the other (e.g. *Lisa filled water into the cup/*Lisa poured the cup with water). The present study investigated two proposals for how learners (aged 5–6, 9–10 and adults) acquire this restriction, using a novel-verb-learning grammaticality-judgment paradigm. In support of the semantic verb class hypothesis, participants in all age groups used the semantic properties of novel verbs to determine the locative constructions (ground/figure/both) in which they could and could not appear. In support of the frequency hypothesis, participants’ tolerance of overgeneralisation errors decreased with each increasing level of verb frequency (novel/low/high). These results underline the need to develop an integrated account of the roles of semantics and frequency in the retreat from argument structure overgeneralisation

Building 830 Gamma Irradiation Facility Evaluation of Options for its Future Disposition

In the spring of 1997, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services audited the BNL site, and identified the Building 830 Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF) as an underground tank regulated under Suffolk County Health Code, Article 12. As a result of this audit, a project was initiated to review the GIF and to collect information to develop an options list for its future disposition. The overall objective of this task was to evaluate the decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of the GIF, including the proper disposal of the cobalt-60 sources currently located in the GIF. This objective was accomplished through the performance of the following subtasks. (1) Characterize the GIF and the cobalt-60 sources: (a) Compile available data on the physical and radiological characteristics of the gamma sources; (b) Conduct underwater surveys to verify visually the physical state of the sources, and if possible, their activity levels (curie content); and (c) Prepare the pool, to the extent possible, for removal of the sources. (2) Identify options for future disposition: (a) Contact other gamma facilities and find out their experiences with recycling, disposal, and D&D; and (b) Contact vendors for the disposal or recycling of the cobalt-60 sources. Identify options and factors affecting them, such as costs, regulatory issues, health and safety requirements, equipment availability. This report summarizes the results of these subtasks. The remainder of this introductory section gives a description of the GIF, provides a brief history of the facility, and discusses the applicable Article 12 requirements. Section 2 focuses on the sources themselves, and the current facility configuration. Contacts with other gamma facilities are summarized in Section 3. Section 4 presents the options developed from these contacts and from BNL experience, and their estimated costs. Costs are tabulated and compared in Section 5, and Section 6 presents conclusions

DHS Regional Reachback: Rapid Expert Radiation Alarm Assistance.

Following assessments that attacks with radiological and nuclear weapons are possible, detection system deployments are being supported at national and local levels. Detection systems include both, highly sensitive but non-discriminating detectors, as well as detectors and algorithms capable of distinguishing and identifying gamma rays by energy. The latter systems, usually handheld systems based on sodium iodide detectors, also provide analysis of the specific radionuclides present and are referred to as radioisotope identifiers (RIIDs). Studies have shown that sodium iodide based RIIDs fall far short of 100% accurate identifications. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiated the Regional Reachback (RRB) Program in 2006 to provide rapid expert interpretation of gamma spectroscopic data from radiation alarms from detection systems deployed by state and local authorities. With expert specialists on call 24/7, RRB provides an avenue for local and state authorities to verify routine results, interpret unknown identifications, and notify national response assets if needed. This paper will provide details of the RRE3 program, an outline of the analysis process, a description of the drills and training systems used to maintain specialists response performance, and examples of drills and incidents from the first full year of operation

The BNL ASTD Field Lab - Near - Real - Time Characterization of BNL Stockpiled Soils to Accelerate Completion of the EM Chemical Holes Project

As of October 2001, approximately 7,000 yd{sup 3} of stockpiled soil remained at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) after the remediation of the BNL Chemical/Animal/Glass Pits disposal area. The soils were originally contaminated with radioactive materials and heavy metals, depending on what materials had been interred in the pits, and how the pits were excavated. During the 1997 removal action, the more hazardous/radioactive materials were segregated, along with, chemical liquids and solids, animal carcasses, intact gas cylinders, and a large quantity of metal and glass debris. Nearly all of these materials have been disposed of. In order to ensure that all debris was removed and to characterize the large quantity of heterogeneous soil, BNL initiated an extended sorting, segregation, and characterization project directed at the remaining soil stockpiles. The project was co-funded by the Department of Energy Environmental Management Office (DOE EM) through the BNL Environmental Restoration program and through the DOE EM Office of Science and Technology Accelerated Site Technology Deployment (ASTD) program. The focus was to remove any non-conforming items, and to assure that mercury and radioactive contaminant levels were within acceptable limits for disposal as low-level radioactive waste. Soils with mercury concentrations above allowable levels would be separated for disposal as mixed waste. Sorting and segregation were conducted simultaneously. Large stockpiles (ranging from 150 to 1,200 yd{sup 3}) were subdivided into manageable 20 yd{sup 3} units after powered vibratory screening. The 1/2-inch screen removed almost all non-conforming items (plus some gravel). Non-conforming items were separated for further characterization. Soil that passed through the screen was also visually inspected before being moved to a 20 yd{sup 3} ''subpile.'' Eight samples from each subpile were collected after establishing a grid of four quadrants: north, east, south and west, and two layers: top and bottom. Field personnel collected eight 100-gram samples, plus quality assurance (QA) duplicates for chemical analysis, and a 1-liter jar of material for gamma spectroscopy. After analyses were completed and reviewed, the stockpiles were reconstructed for later disposal as discrete entities within a disposal site profile. A field lab was set up in a trailer close to the stockpile site, equipped with instrumentation to test for mercury, RCRA metals, and gamma spectroscopy, and a tumbler for carrying out a modified Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) protocol. Chemical analysis included X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to screen for high (>260 ppm) total mercury concentrations, and modified TCLP tests to verify that the soils were not RCRA hazardous. The modified TCLP tests were 1/10th scale, to minimize secondary (leachate) waste and maximize tumbler capacity and sampler throughput. TCLP leachate analysis was accomplished using a Milestone Direct Mercury Analyzer (DMA80). Gamma spectroscopy provided added assurance of previously measured Am-241, Cs-137, and Co-60 contamination levels

A Human Development Framework for CO2 Reductions

Although developing countries are called to participate in CO2 emission reduction efforts to avoid dangerous climate change, the implications of proposed reduction schemes in human development standards of developing countries remain a matter of debate. We show the existence of a positive and time-dependent correlation between the Human Development Index (HDI) and per capita CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Employing this empirical relation, extrapolating the HDI, and using three population scenarios, the cumulative CO2 emissions necessary for developing countries to achieve particular HDI thresholds are assessed following a Development As Usual approach (DAU). If current demographic and development trends are maintained, we estimate that by 2050 around 85% of the world's population will live in countries with high HDI (above 0.8). In particular, 300Gt of cumulative CO2 emissions between 2000 and 2050 are estimated to be necessary for the development of 104 developing countries in the year 2000. This value represents between 20% to 30% of previously calculated CO2 budgets limiting global warming to 2{\deg}C. These constraints and results are incorporated into a CO2 reduction framework involving four domains of climate action for individual countries. The framework reserves a fair emission path for developing countries to proceed with their development by indexing country-dependent reduction rates proportional to the HDI in order to preserve the 2{\deg}C target after a particular development threshold is reached. Under this approach, global cumulative emissions by 2050 are estimated to range from 850 up to 1100Gt of CO2. These values are within the uncertainty range of emissions to limit global temperatures to 2{\deg}C.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl