August 2012 story tips

(Press-News.org) DATA -- Straight to the source . . .

Data archived at Oak Ridge National Laboratory can now be more effectively discovered, used and tracked through a new research resource from Thompson Reuters. The data citation index allows researchers to better gauge the impact of their data by readily tracking the number of times those data are used in papers. In addition, the new index will facilitate the sharing of researchers' results in the scientific community. Similar to traditional citation indices that credit papers in scientific journals, the new index will attribute the originally published datasets. ORNL's Distributed Active Archive Center, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center and Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Data Archive will be part of the index, which is scheduled for release later this year. [Contact: Morgan McCorkle, (865) 574-7308; mccorkleml@ornl.gov]

RENEWABLES – Boost for biofuels . . .

U.S. dependence on foreign oil could be further reduced with the introduction of a patented technology that efficiently converts biomass-derived alcohols to fuels that can power gasoline, diesel and jet engines. "Our Z-CAT-B catalysts represent a disruptive technology," said Chaitanya Narula, a co-developer, "meaning that this has the potential to create a new market for biofuels." This allows current bioethanol from starch, sugar or biomass to be made into a "drop-in" fuel that utilizes existing fuel refinery and distribution infrastructure. This renewable fuel performed as well as gasoline in engine tests without modification to the engine or components. A techno-economic analysis suggests that the price of blend-stock produced from biomass-derived ethanol is cost-effective. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]

BIOSURVEILLANCE – Filling the gaps . . .

Experts from universities, labs, industry and first responders will gather in Washington, D.C., this month to share ideas and develop strategies to protect against biological attacks. Delivering the keynote address at the National Defense Industrial Association 2012 Biosurveillance Conference will be Pulitzer Prize winner Laurie Garrett. Richard Stouder of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Global Security Directorate will serve as the moderator of the event, scheduled for Aug. 27-28 at the Washington Court Hotel on Capitol Hill. More information is available at http://www.ndia.org/meetings/2320/Pages/default.aspx. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]

SUPERCOMPUTING -- Ramping up realism . . .

A special report (see link below) shows speedups of 1.5- to 3-fold for most scientific application codes running on extreme-scale hybrid supercomputers using code accelerators largely developed for the video game industry. The addition of graphics processing units to today's fastest central processing units promises significant increases in supercomputing capacity. Scientists, engineers and computing experts presented the findings recently in Washington, D.C., at the Accelerating Computational Science Symposium 2012, which the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility co-hosted with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, Cray Inc. and NVIDIA. Code acceleration promises increased realism of simulations and decreased time to results in such hybrid supercomputers as Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Titan, in which GPUs will be installed by year's end to deliver 20 petaflops of peak performance. Advances now possible with hybrid supercomputers include deeper understanding of phenomena from earthquakes to supernovas and faster innovations of materials and devices. The report is available at http://www.olcf.ornl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/ACSS_Final_v3.pdf. [Contact: Dawn Levy, (865) 576-6448; levyd@ornl.gov]

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