Interaction Between Metal Fission Products and TRISO Coating Materials: A Study of Chemical Bonding and Interdiffusion: 2nd Quarter Report, 2005

The goal of our project is to investigate interface corrosion processes in TRISO nuclear fuel particles. For this purpose, we are undertaking a detailed study of the interface formation between potential candidates for metallic fission products (Pd, Ag, and Cs), likely to diffuse from the kernel of the TRISO particles, with the TRISO coating layers. As a starting point, we are investigating the Pd/SiC interface and will extend our studies to Ag/SiC during our current summer research campaign. The experimental approach comprises the preparation of metal/SiC interfaces in-situ in our ultra-high vacuum system by electron-beam deposition. In order to understand the impact of the SiC surface on the interface formation properties, we employ a variety of surface preparation and modification schemes. In the past quarter, we were able to obtain a specialized low-energy ion source as a long-term loan from the Hahn-Meitner-Institute, Berlin, Germany. Accomplishments this quarter include: • Further optimization of the experimental set-up: commissioning and optimization of the UPS mode, installation of a low-energy ion source, optimization of communication between electron spectrometer and measurement electronics • Experimental campaign at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (3 graduate students, one undergraduate student, PI) • Implementation of fit routines for data analysis, in particular the Doniach-Sunjic line profile for metal photoemission peaks • Presentation of results at two conferences (G. Gajjala) and one international symposium (PI

Interaction Between Metal Fission Products and TRISO Coating Materials: A Study of Chemical Bonding and Interdiffusion: 1st Quarterly Report, 2006

This project is devoted to an in-depth study of the chemical and electronic impact of metal fission products on the coating layers in TRISO nuclear fuel. In particular, there is a focus on the investigation of Pd, Cs, and Ag and their interface formation with SiC and carbon-based substrates. A variety of surface and near-surface bulk sensitive probes that investigate the occupied and unoccupied electronic states of the substrate and the metal overlayer have been utilized. By a controlled and stepwise deposition of the metal overlayer, it is possible to gain substantial insight into the formation of interfaces and their intermixing behavior. In the past quarter, there has been a focus on a detailed analysis and description of the Pd/SiC interface formation process

Interaction Between Metal Fission Products and TRISO Coating Materials

This project focuses on the chemical bonding and interface formation of metal fission products with the coating materials used in tri-isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles for gas-cooled reactors. By combining surface- and bulk-sensitive spectroscopic and microscopic methods, intermediate chemical phases at the interface, intermixing/diffusion behavior, and the electronic interface structure for different coating materials and metals are examined. In detail, the project studies the interface formation of Pd, Cs, and Ag with SiC and pyrolytic carbon. Using SiC single crystals and highly-ordered pyrolytic carbon (HOPG) as substrates, interfaces are prepared under controlled conditions in an ultra-high vacuum environment and are studied with a combination of experimental methods, including Photoelectron Spectroscopy, Auger Electron Spectroscopy, X-Ray Emission Spectroscopy, and X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy. In the past year, emphasis was placed on a detailed analysis and description of the Cs/SiC and Cs/HOPG interface formation processes

Interaction Between Metal Fission Products and TRISO Coating Materials

The goal of this project is to elucidate the chemical bonding and interface formation of metal fission products with the coating materials used in state-of-the-art TRISO fuel particles. Particular emphasis is placed on an analysis of intermediate chemical phases at the interface, the intermixing/diffusion behavior, and the electronic interface structure as a function of material choice (metal and coating materials), temperature, and external stress. Furthermore, the chemical state of some of the metal fission products will be assessed. This project studies the interface formation of Pd, Ag, and Cs with SiC and pyrolytic carbon. Using the TRISO coating materials (and single crystal references) as substrates, interfaces will be prepared under controlled conditions in an ultra-high vacuum environment and will be studied with a variety of different spectroscopic and (when applicable) structural methods. In addition, realistic microstructures will be studied. The research objectives of this project are as follows: To give valuable information about failure mechanisms of TRISO particles and fission product transport. To give, through simulating experiments, indications for optimized irradiation testing and post-irradiation examinations within the AFCI effort at ORNL. To derive strategies to tailor the interface properties for an optimization of TRISO particles in terms of, e.g., chemical and long-term stability

Value added, employment and capital expenditures in the East German Industry, 1950-2000: data, methods, comparisons ; an introduction

Industry was the most important economic sector in the GDR. Of all the countries within the Eastern Bloc (Comecon), only the USSR achieved higher added value per capita than the GDR’s industrial sector. The quantitative description of industrial output in the GDR nevertheless continues to be characterized by significant data gaps and a lack of comparable, long-term time series for im-portant performance and expenditure values calculated in accordance with contemporary statistical standards. This HSR Focus presents new calculations for added value, employment and capital expenditures which close these gaps at both an overall industrial level and branch level between 1950 and 1989. The calculations take the form of backward projections carried out in accordance with the current conceptual and methodological principles of national ac-counting (ESA95). The incorporation of current data for the new German federal states from 1991 onwards into the data base facilitates the extension of the time horizon for the time series. This yields a comparable reflection of the development of economic indicators for the industrial sector in Eastern Germany over a 50-year period (1950-2000). The time series determined pave the way for a new, fact-based assessment of the real results achieved by the GDR economy. The presentation of the data assessed is accompanied by a thorough description of the methods and sources used. This paper serves as an outline for the entire HSR Focus

Inconsumable Realities: Documenting Warfare, Britain 1914-1920

The concept of mimetic realism—how it functions in literature and its representational value—comes into sharp relief during the period when the First World War ensues. This dissertation proposes that the magnitude of atrocities caused by the First World War presents a crisis of representation such that the classic theory of realist representation comes into question. In response to the ultimate dystopia created by trench warfare, a variety of writers attempt to produce realistic portraits of the war while photography is widely used to show readers the allegedly most authentic version of the war front. In the study of those writing practices by journalists, novelists, and soldiers and of visual media by photojournalists, some key questions arise about the authorial discourse of war: who constructs it, how is it constructed, and by which means do these discourses secure the survival and longevity of one version of a war’s history and not another? I concentrate on texts produced by journalists, British literary writers—exemplified primarily by Virginia Woolf—and soldiers, who were prolific in their correspondence with family members on the home front, the chronicling of their experiences in diaries, and in reflections recorded in postwar memoirs. In all cases, I provide close-readings of texts to discern the ways each player is documenting the experience of war and in which ways each negotiates his or her writing practices within the lens of classic literary realism. I find that discursive practices become distinct according to a writer’s geographical proximity to the war front and are distinguished from the classic style of realism. I observe that journalism produces objective realism, the modern novelist produces mytho-synaesthetic realism, and soldiers produce synaesthetic realism. An examination of photography’s ocular realism in the context of war introduces the concept of the documentary record. A documentary photograph stretches the concept of realism as a literary style such that the commensurability of the real and its representational media comes to depend upon acknowledging the ability and willingness of a public to read the inconsumable, such as the horrific and traumatizing outcomes of mechanized warfare on the human body

Grants: Band-Aids on a Bullet Wound

Kenneth Boulding maintains that the economy is comprised not just of an exchange system (twoway transfers), but also of a grants system (one-way transfers), where the latter arises to bridge gaps in the former. This paper uses Boulding’s unconventional framework to analyze the modern economy of the United States. I investigate grants issued by the government, by families, and by private entities, and reveal their respective inabilities to adequately mitigate inequality and unemployment in the exchange economy. I show that the current grants system is unable to bridge the gaps in exchange, and that the grants expansion that would be necessary to accomplish this is ill-advised. I conclude that rather than using a basic income guarantee to expand grants, the US should strengthen its exchange system with a job guarantee. While this would not eradicate gaps in exchange completely, it would reduce them to a scope that grants can safely bridge

Raccoon (Procyon lotor) Activity is Better Predicted by Water Availability than Land Cover in a Moderately Fragmented Landscape

Citation: Heske, E. J., & Ahlers, A. A. (2016). Raccoon (Procyon lotor) Activity is Better Predicted by Water Availability than Land Cover in a Moderately Fragmented Landscape. Northeastern Naturalist, 23(3), 352-363. doi:10.1656/045.023.0302Citation: Heske, E., and Ahlers, A. (2016). Raccoon (Procyon lotor) Activity is Better Predicted by Water Availability than Land Cover in a Moderately Fragmented Landscape. Northeastern Naturalist, 23(3), 352-363. https://doi.org/10.1656/045.023.0302Procyon lotor (Raccoon) is a habitat and dietary generalist that reaches its greatest population densities in heterogeneous, moderately fragmented landscapes. Even within such landscapes, a variety of natural and anthropogenic habitat variables can influence the local activity of Raccoons, and therefore their potential impact as nest predators. We examined Raccoon activity at 34 baited track-stations over 3 summers in forested ravines in the Shawnee National Forest (SNF), IL. We found that the dependability of water at a survey site was the best predictor of Raccoon activity, overshadowing any potential influences of land cover in the surrounding landscape. Landscape-level effects on Raccoon population size and density are likely widespread throughout moderately fragmented regions like the SNF, but variation in local activity can be predicted by the distribution of critical resources (e.g., water, den sites)

Bruttoinlandsprodukt, Verbrauch und Erwerbstätigkeit in Ostdeutschland 1970-2000: neue Ergebnisse einer volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnung

'Die Indikatoren der volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnung sind wichtige Instrumente zur Quantifizierung und Analyse der kurz- und langfristigen Wirtschaftsabläufe. In diesem Heft werden erstmalig für den gesamten Zeitraum von 1970 bis 2000 vergleichbare Daten über die ökonomische Entwicklung in Ostdeutschland auf der Basis der Methodik des Europäischen Systems der volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnungen (ESVG) vorgestellt. Einbezogen wurden dabei das Bruttoinlandsprodukt, die Wertschöpfung der Wirtschaftsbereiche, die Erwerbstätigkeit und der volkswirtschaftliche Verbrauch nach den Hauptverwendungen. Im Unterschied zu den bisher vorliegenden Daten wird damit durchgängig eine vergleichbare Untersuchung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung in Ostdeutschland vor und nach der Wiedervereinigung für eine Periode von 30 Jahren möglich. Eine ausführliche Methoden- und Quellenbeschreibung unterstützt die sachgemäße Interpretation der Daten. Damit wird eine vorhandene Lücke in den Zeitreihen geschlossen, die bisher keine Vergleiche für Ostdeutschland zwischen den neunziger Jahren und der Periode der ehemaligen DDR bis 1989 ermöglichten.' (Autorenreferat)Inhaltsverzeichnis: A) Allgemeine Fragen der Rückrechnung von VGR-Daten für Ostdeutschland: 1. Sicherung und Rückrechnung von Daten der DDR-Statistik; 2. Konzepte und methodische Grundlagen der Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnung für Ostdeutschland 1970 bis 2000; 3. Bisherige Vergleiche und Rückrechnungen der VGR für die DDR nach marktwirtschaftlichen Konzepten; 4. Aufgaben und Anforderungen aus dem Systemwechsel der VGR für die vergleichbare Darstellung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung in Ostdeutschland von 1970 bis 2000. B) Einige Ergebnisse der Rückrechnung: 5. Entstehung und Verwendung des Bruttoinlandsprodukts für die DDR von 1970 bis 1989; 6. Entstehung und Verwendung des Bruttoinlandsprodukts in den Neuen Ländern von 1989 bis 2000; 7. Entstehung und Verwendung des Bruttoinlandsprodukts für Deutschland von 1970 bis 2000. C) Methodenbeschreibung und Datenquellen für die VGR-Rückrechnung: 8. Methoden und Datenquellen für die Rückrechnung der VGR der DDR 1970 bis 1989 zu jeweiligen DDR-Preisen;9. Methoden und Datenquellen der Rückrechnung der VGR der DDR zu DDR-Preisen eines Basisjahres; 10. Währungsumrechnung von Mark der DDR in DM; 11. Ermittlung von regional und wirtschaftssystematisch vergleichbaren Reihen der VGR von 1970 bis 2000 sowie Umrechnung von DM 91 in Euro 95; 12. Rückrechnung der Erwerbstätigen