Iowa\u27s Changing Forest Resources

After a period of decline in area extending from the 1850s to 1974, Iowa\u27s forest area increased between 1974 and 1990. Although the area increase is encouraging, it may be fleeting. In addition, changes in forest stand structure and forest ownership patterns along with other pressures may make it difficult to maintain healthy forest ecosystems in the future. Notes from the original land survey in Iowa coupled with information from U.S. Forest Service forest inventories make it possible to look at changes in forest area and forest tree types. Unfortunately, similar long-term data do not exist to make possible a comparison of changes in other species associated with the forest. For that reason, this paper looks primarily at those commercial and non-commercial tree species that have been assessed during U.S. Forest Service inventories conducted in Iowa

Impact of increased electric vehicle use on battery recycling infrastructure

State and Federal regulations have been implemented that are intended to encourage more widespread use of low-emission vehicles. These regulations include requirements of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and regulations pursuant to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and the Energy Policy Act. If the market share of electric vehicles increases in response to these initiatives, corresponding growth will occur in quantities of spent electric vehicle batteries for disposal. Electric vehicle battery recycling infrastructure must be adequate to support collection, transportation, recovery, and disposal stages of waste battery handling. For some battery types, such as lead-acid, a recycling infrastructure is well established; for others, little exists. This paper examines implications of increasing electric vehicle use for lead recovery infrastructure. Secondary lead recovery facilities can be expected to have adequate capacity to accommodate lead-acid electric vehicle battery recycling. However, they face stringent environmental constraints that may curtail capacity use or new capacity installation. Advanced technologies help address these environmental constraints. For example, this paper describes using backup power to avoid air emissions that could occur if electric utility power outages disable emissions control equipment. This approach has been implemented by GNB Technologies, a major manufacturer and recycler of lead-acid batteries. Secondary lead recovery facilities appear to have adequate capacity to accommodate lead waste from electric vehicles, but growth in that capacity could be constrained by environmental regulations. Advances in lead recovery technologies may alleviate possible environmental constraints on capacity growth

Electrochemical characteristics of lithium-ion cells

The authors describe below the electrochemical performance characteristics, including charge-discharge characteristics at different rates, of cylindrical 18650 (18 mm diameter, 65 mm high) and prismatic lithium ion cells at ambient and sub-ambient temperatures. Ragone plots of power and energy data for these cells are compared and indicate that at room temperature the prismatic lithium ion cells (approx. 500 mAh) exhibit higher specific power and power density than the 18650 cells (approx. 1,100 mAhr). The cell impedance was measured between 35 C and {minus}40 C at three open circuit voltages: 4.1 v (fully charged), 3.6 v (partially discharged), and 3.1 v (almost completely discharged). Over the temperature range from 35 C to {minus}20 C, the cell impedance is nearly constant for both cell types and increases by 2 to 3 times at {minus}40 C. The impedance doesn`t vary significantly with open circuit voltage (OCV). These cells show very little voltage drop at room temperature for current pulses up to 1 A. The charge-discharge characteristics of the cells are being studied at different rates as a function of temperature to compute the power, energy, and capacity outputs. This will not only broaden the database on lithium ion cells, but will also allow us to evaluate the suitability of the cells as power sources for low temperature applications. Other electrochemical characteristics of these cells including pulse response are being evaluated. Impedance measurements of the cells under load are planned to make meaningful correlations between the voltage drop and the current pulse amplitude

Assessment of utility side cost savings from battery energy storage

A method of determining the dynamic operating cost benefits of energy storage systems for utility applications is presented. The production costing program DYNASTORE is used to analyze economic benefits for ``utility B,`` an isolated island utility, using heuristic unit commitment algorithms. The unit commitment is done using chronologic load data and a detailed model of the utility characteristics. Several unit commitment scenarios are run for utility B, and the results are presented. Comparisons between various Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) applications, as well as cases with and without battery storage, are shown. Results show that for utility B, a BESS of 300 MW size used for either load leveling or spinning reserve provides the greatest economic benefit

Vanadium (β-(Dimethylamino)ethyl)cyclopentadienyl Complexes with Diphenylacetylene Ligands

Reduction of the V(III) (β-(dimethylamino)ethyl)cyclopentadienyl dichloride complex [η5:η1-C5H4(CH2)2NMe2]VCl2(PMe3) with 1 equiv of Na/Hg yielded the V(II) dimer {[η5:η1-C5H4(CH2)2NMe2]V(µ-Cl)}2 (2). This compound reacted with diphenylacetylene in THF to give the V(II) alkyne adduct [η5:η1-C5H4(CH2)2NMe2]VCl(η2-PhC≡CPh). Further reduction of 2 with Mg in the presence of diphenylacetylene resulted in oxidative coupling of two diphenylacetylene groups to yield the diamagnetic, formally V(V), bent metallacyclopentatriene complex [η5:η1-C5H4(CH2)2NMe2]V(C4Ph4).

Quarkonium production in high energy proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions

We present a brief overview of the most relevant current issues related to quarkonium production in high energy proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions along with some perspectives. After reviewing recent experimental and theoretical results on quarkonium production in pp and pA collisions, we discuss the emerging field of polarisation studies. Thereafter, we report on issues related to heavy-quark production, both in pp and pA collisions, complemented by AA collisions. To put the work in a broader perspective, we emphasize the need for new observables to investigate quarkonium production mechanisms and reiterate the qualities that make quarkonia a unique tool for many investigations in particle and nuclear physics.Comment: Overview for the proceedings of QUARKONIUM 2010: Three Days Of Quarkonium Production in pp and pA Collisions, 29-31 July 2010, Palaiseau, France; 34 pages, 30 figures, Late

Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections for Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel at s√=8 TeV with ATLAS

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. The analysis is performed in the H → γγ decay channel using 20.3 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp → H → γγ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 ±9.4(stat.) − 2.9 + 3.2 (syst.) ±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations