Gathering from 33 countries around the world, 408 registrants and a number of local drop-in participants descended on the Clark Kerr Campus of the University of California, Berkeley, from Monday, August 7 through Saturday, August 12, 2000 for the Eighth International Conference on Electronic Structure and Spectroscopy (ICESS8). At the conference, participants benefited from an extensive scientific program comprising more than 100 oral presentations (plenary lectures and invited and contributed talks) and 330 poster presentations, as well as ample time for socializing and a tour of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the nearby Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Some of the highlights of the 14th International Symposium on Spin Physics are presented with emphasis on recent and planned progress in experimental tools and tools and facilities.

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has been creating a special-purpose software-engineering tool to support research and development of spectrum-output-type [chemical] sensors. The modular software system is called SAGE, the Sensor Algorithm Generation Environment and includes general-purpose signal conditioning algorithms (GP/SAGE) as well as intelligent classifiers, pattern recognizes, response accelerators, and sensitivity analyzers. GP/SAGE is an implementation of an approach for delivering a level of encapsulated intelligence to a wide range of sensors and instruments. It capitalizes on the genene classification and analysis needed to process most profile-type data. The GP/SAGE native data format is a generalized one-dimensional vector, signature, or spectrum. GP/SAGE modules form a computer-aided software engineering (CASE) workbench where users can experiment with various conditioning, filtering, and pattern recognition stages, then automatically generate final algorithm source code for data acquisition and analysis systems. SAGE was designed to free the [chemical] sensor developer from the signal processing allowing them to focus on understanding and improving the basic sensing mechanisms. The SAGE system's strength is its creative application of advanced neural computing techniques to response-vector and response-surface data, affording new insight and perspectives with regard to phenomena being studied for sensor development.

The recent progress in polarized ion source development is reviewed. In dc operation a 1.0 mA polarized H{sup -} ion current is now available from the Optically-Pumped Polarized Ion Source (OPPIS) . In pulsed operation a 10 mA polarized H{sup -} ion current was demonstrated at the TRIUMF pulsed OPPIS test bench and a 3.5 mA peak current was obtained from an Atomic Beam Source (ABS) at the INR Moscow test bench. The possibilities for future improvements with both techniques are discussed. A new OPPIS for RHIC spin physics is described. The OPPIS reliably delivered polarized beam for the polarized run at RHIC. The results obtained with a new pulsed ABS injector for the IUCF Cooler Ring are also discussed.

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The abstraction model used for seepage into emplacement drifts in recent TSPA simulations has been presented. This model contributes to the calculation of the quantity of water that might contact waste if it is emplaced at Yucca Mountain. Other important components of that calculation not discussed here include models for climate, infiltration, unsaturated-zone flow, and thermohydrology; drip-shield and waste-package degradation; and flow around and through the drip shield and waste package. The seepage abstraction model is stochastic because predictions of seepage are necessarily quite uncertain. The model provides uncertainty distributions for seepage fraction fraction of waste-package locations flow rate as functions of percolation flux. In addition, effects of intermediate-scale flow with seepage and seep channeling are included by means of a flow-focusing factor, which is also represented by an uncertainty distribution.

The recent progress in polarized ion source development is reviewed. In dc operation a 1.0 mA polarized H{sup -} ion current is now available from the Optically-Pumped Polarized Ion Source (OPPIS). In pulsed operation a 10 mA polarized H{sup -} ion current was demonstrated at the TRIUMF pulsed OPPIS test bench and a 3.5 mA peak current was obtained from an Atomic Beam Source (ABS) at the INR Moscow test bench. The possibilities for future improvements with both techniques are discussed. A new OPPIS for RHIC spin physics is described. The OPPIS reliably delivered polarized beam for the polarized run at RHIC. The results obtained with a new pulsed ABS injector for the IUCF Cooler Ring are also discussed.

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A strategy has been developed to computationally accelerate the response time of a generic electronic sensor. The strategy can be deployed as an algorithm in a control system or as a physical interface (on an embedded microcontroller) between a slower responding external sensor and a higher-speed control system. Optional code implementations are available to adjust algorithm performance when computational capability is limited. In one option, the actual sensor signal can be sampled at the slower rate with adaptive linear neural networks predicting the sensor's future output and interpolating intermediate synthetic output values. In another option, a synchronized collection of predictors sequentially controls the corresponding synthetic output voltage. Error is adaptively corrected in both options. The core strategy has been demonstrated with automotive oxygen sensor data. A prototype interface device is under construction. The response speed increase afforded by this strategy could greatly offset the cost of developing a replacement sensor with a faster physical response time.