Catalysis for Mixed Alcohol Synthesis from Biomass Derived Syngas: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-08-292

The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) developed and tested catalysts for production of mixed alcohols from synthesis gas (syngas), under research and development (R&D) projects that were discontinued a number of years ago. Dow possesses detailed laboratory notebooks, catalyst samples, and technical expertise related to this past work. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is conducting R&D in support of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to develop methods for economically producing ethanol from gasified biomass. NREL is currently conducting biomass gasification research at an existing 1/2 ton/day thermochemical test platform. Both Dow and NREL believe that the ability to economically produce ethanol from biomass-derived syngas can be enhanced through collaborative testing, refinement, and development of Dow's mixed-alcohol catalysts at NREL's and/or Dow's bench- and pilot-scale facilities. Dow and NREL further agree that collaboration on improvements in catalysts as well as gasifier operating conditions (e.g., time, temperature, upstream gas treatment) will be necessary to achieve technical and economic goals for production of ethanol and other alcohols

Mechanism and kinetics of aging in Inconel 718

Age hardening in Inconel 718 is investigated using Brinell hardness measurements. Formation of a precipitate causes an increase in hardness

Continued fraction digit averages an Maclaurin's inequalities

A classical result of Khinchin says that for almost all real numbers $\alpha$, the geometric mean of the first $n$ digits $a_i(\alpha)$ in the continued fraction expansion of $\alpha$ converges to a number $K = 2.6854520\ldots$ (Khinchin's constant) as $n \to \infty$. On the other hand, for almost all $\alpha$, the arithmetic mean of the first $n$ continued fraction digits $a_i(\alpha)$ approaches infinity as $n \to \infty$. There is a sequence of refinements of the AM-GM inequality, Maclaurin's inequalities, relating the $1/k$-th powers of the $k$-th elementary symmetric means of $n$ numbers for $1 \leq k \leq n$. On the left end (when $k=n$) we have the geometric mean, and on the right end ($k=1$) we have the arithmetic mean. We analyze what happens to the means of continued fraction digits of a typical real number in the limit as one moves $f(n)$ steps away from either extreme. We prove sufficient conditions on $f(n)$ to ensure to ensure divergence when one moves $f(n)$ steps away from the arithmetic mean and convergence when one moves $f(n)$ steps away from the geometric mean. For typical $\alpha$ we conjecture the behavior for $f(n)=cn$, $0<c<1$. We also study the limiting behavior of such means for quadratic irrational $\alpha$, providing rigorous results, as well as numerically supported conjectures.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figures. Substantial additions were made to previous version, including Theorem 1.3, Section 6, and Appendix

Retrieval Guide: Kentucky Soils Data System

The Kentucky Soils Data System is an extensive data file of the physical properties and characteristics of soils as determined by field and laboratory testing. Site locations are available for most samples. Since Kentucky has been mapped geologically (scale 1:24,000), the bedrock at each of these sample locations can be determined, providing better opportunities for studying soil-bedrock (parent material) relationships. A complimentary report covers data input. This report is divided into two sections: data availability and data retrieval. The first section is designed to show the quantity and types of data available and how the data are distributed geographically. The second section consists of example problems showing how the data may be retrieved in the form of various lists or tables

Psychosocial Correlates of Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents in a Rural Community Setting

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationships between selected psychosocial factors and the physical activity behaviors of children (grade 4-8) and adolescents (grades 9-12) in a rural community setting. The Children’s Physical Activity Scale (CPAC)was used to measure the psychosocial factors of physical activity, The Physical Activity Questionnaire-Children (PAQ-C), and Physical Activity Questionnaire-Adolescents (PAQ-A) were used to measure the physical activity behaviors of the 167 participants. Results indicated that male and female physical activity behaviors were not significantly different. However, physical activity declined with age [F(8,147) = 5.44, p \u3c 0.05, ES = 0.23]. All psychosocial factors were significantly correlated with physical activity in youth with the single highest correlation for males being “liking of exercise” (r = .61) and the highest correlation for females was “liking of games and sports”(r = .44). Stepwise regression analyses identified three subscales (liking of games and sport, liking of exercise, and parental support) in a significant prediction model of physical activity in both genders. The results indicate that children\u27s physical activity is associated with a variety of psychosocial variables that represent import predisposing and reinforcing factors

An Imprint of the Galactic Magnetic Field in the Diffuse Unpolarized Dust Emission

It is well known that aligned, aspherical dust grains emit polarized radiation and that the degree of polarization depends on the angle ψ between the interstellar magnetic field and the line of sight (LOS). However, anisotropy of the dust absorption cross sections also modulates the total intensity of the radiation as the viewing geometry changes. We report a detection of this effect in the high Galactic latitude Planck data, finding that the 353 GHz dust intensity per N_(H I) is smaller when the Galactic magnetic field is mostly in the plane of the sky and larger when the field is mostly along the LOS. These variations are of opposite sign and roughly equal magnitude as the changes in polarized intensity per N_(H I) with ψ, as predicted. In principle, the variation in intensity can be used in conjunction with the dust polarization angle to constrain the full 3D orientation of the Galactic magnetic field