Impact of Groundwater Flow on Permafrost Degradation and Transportation Infrastructure Stability

INE/AUTC 13.0

Advanced Large Area Plastic Scintillator Project (ALPS): Final Report

The advanced Large-Area Plastic Scintillator (ALPS) Project at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory investigated possible technological avenues for substantially advancing the state-of-the-art in gamma-ray detection via large-area plastic scintillators. The three predominant themes of these investigations comprised the following: * Maximizing light collection efficiency from a single large-area sheet of plastic scintillator, and optimizing hardware event trigger definition to retain detection efficiency while exploiting the power of coincidence to suppress single-PMT "dark current" background; * Utilizing anti-Compton vetoing and supplementary spectral information from a co-located secondary, or "Back" detector, to both (1) minimize Compton background in the low-energy portion of the "Front" scintillator's pulse-height spectrum, and (2) sharpen the statistical accuracy of the front detector's low-energy response prediction as impelmented in suitable energy-windowing algorithms; and * Investigating alternative materials to enhance the intrinsic gamma-ray detection efficiency of plastic-based sensors

Mercury release and speciation in chemical looping combustion of coal

In the in situ Gasification Chemical Looping Combustion of coal (iG-CLC), the fuel is gasified in situ in the fuel reactor and gasification products are converted to CO2 and H2O by reaction with the oxygen carrier. This work is the first study on mercury release in Chemical Looping Combustion of coal. The fraction of the mercury in coal vaporized in the fuel reactor depended mainly on the fuel reactor temperature and the coal type. In the fuel reactor, mercury was mainly emitted as Hg0 in the gas phase and the amount increased with the temperature. In the air reactor, mercury was mostly emitted as Hg2+. In a real CLC system, mercury emissions to the atmosphere will decrease compared to conventional combustion as only mercury released in the air reactor will reach the atmosphere. However, measures should be taken to reduce Hg0 in the CO2 stream before the purification and compression steps in order to avoid operational problems.The authors thank the Government of Aragón and La Caixa (2012-GA-LC-076 project) and the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation (ENE2010-19550 project) for the financial support. P. Gayán thanks CSIC for the financial support of the project 201180E102. The authors also thank to Alcoa Europe-Alúmina Española S.A. for providing the Fe-enriched sand fraction used in this work. G. Galo is acknowledged for his contribution to the experimental results.Peer reviewe

Galantamine improves olfactory learning in the Ts65Dn mouse model of Down syndrome

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common form of congenital intellectual disability. Although DS involves multiple disturbances in various tissues, there is little doubt that in terms of quality of life cognitive impairment is the most serious facet and there is no effective treatment for this aspect of the syndrome. The Ts65Dn mouse model of DS recapitulates multiple aspects of DS including cognitive impairment. Here the Ts65Dn mouse model of DS was evaluated in an associative learning paradigm based on olfactory cues. In contrast to disomic controls, trisomic mice exhibited significant deficits in olfactory learning. Treatment of trisomic mice with the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor galantamine resulted in a significant improvement in olfactory learning. Collectively, our study indicates that olfactory learning can be a sensitive tool for evaluating deficits in associative learning in mouse models of DS and that galantamine has therapeutic potential for improving cognitive abilities

Stability transitions for weakly coupled van der Pol oscillators

http://archive.org/details/stabilitytransit00sli

Atomic Energy Commission Reports

Study conducted for the U. S. Army Reactors Branch of reactors for the irradiation of food

Communication through Boundary Objects in Distributed Agile Teams

Personal communication between User-Centered Design (UCD) specialists and developers is important for communicating user needs and design solutions in agile development. In distributed projects where opportunities for personal communication are limited, the design documentation is an important surrogate. This study has investigated the perceived effectiveness of boundary objects in a distributed agile team, and their role in communicating target user needs. Six in-depth interviews with UCD specialists showed that the boundary objects rarely communicate underlying needs of the users but rather focus on interaction with the system that is being developed. The used boundary objects also do not work as stand-alone deliverables; they need to be explained and elaborated. Making the boundary objects comprehensive enough to be stand-alone is seen as too time consuming and not worth the effort. For agile projects with distributed teams, this creates hand-over and follow-up problems