A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) most recent data indicate that 95 percent of all Americans face an increased likelihood of developing cancer as a result of breathing air toxics--pollutants such as benzene and asbestos that may cause cancer or other serious health problems. Sources of air toxics include large industrial facilities, smaller facilities such as dry cleaners, and cars and trucks. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments required EPA to regulate 190 pollutants from these sources through a multifaceted regulatory program. While EPA issues federal standards, state and local agencies generally administer these standards, and some develop their own rules to complement the federal standards. In this context, GAO was asked to assess (1) EPA's progress and challenges in implementing the air toxics program, (2) available information on the program's costs and benefits, and (3) practices of state and local air toxics programs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Decennial census data need to be as accurate as possible because the population counts are used for, among other purposes, allocating federal grants to states and local governments. The U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) used statistical methods to estimate the accuracy of 1990 and 2000 Census data. Because the Bureau considered the estimates unreliable due to methodological uncertainties, they were not used to adjust the census results. Still, a key question is how sensitive are federal formula grants to alternative population estimates, such as those derived from statistical methods? GAO was asked to identify (1) the top 20 formula grant programs based on the amount of funds targeted by any means, and (2) the amount of money allocated for Medicaid and Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), and the prospective impact of estimated population counts from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses on state allocations for these two programs. Importantly, as agreed, GAO's analysis only simulates the formula grant reallocations. We used fiscal year 2004 Medicaid state expenditure and 2005 SSBG state allocation data, the most recent data available."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Coast Guard has been pursing a replacement vessel for its aging and deteriorating patrol boats as part of the Integrated Deepwater System (or Deepwater) acquisition. Originally, all 49 of the Coast Guard's 110-foot patrol boats were to be converted into 123-foot patrol boats as a bridging strategy until a replacement vessel, the 140-foot Fast Response Cutter (FRC) came on line beginning in 2018. The initial conversions of the 110-foot patrol boats proved unsuccessful, though, and this prompted the Coast Guard to cancel further patrol boat conversions and accelerate the design and delivery of the FRC from 2018 to 2007. Early design efforts called for the FRC's hull, decks, and bulkheads to be made from composite materials rather than steel. Recently, design problems with the FRC's hull shape and weight have raised questions about the viability of the FRC design and use of composite materials. This report examines (1) the factors that went into the decision to use composite materials for the FRC hull, (2) the types of composite materials that have been selected for the FRC hull, (3) the extent of contingency plans developed for …

Energy modeling and analysis often relies on data collected for other purposes such as census counts, atmospheric and air quality observations, and economic projections. These data are available at various spatial and temporal scales, which may be different from those needed by the energy modeling community. If the translation from the original format to the format required by the energy researcher is incorrect, then resulting models can produce misleading conclusions. This is of increasing importance, because of the fine resolution data required by models for new alternative energy sources such as wind and distributed generation. This paper addresses the matter by applying spatial statistical techniques which improve the usefulness of spatial data sets (maps) that do not initially meet the spatial and/or temporal requirements of energy models. In particular, we focus on (1) aggregation and disaggregation of spatial data, (2) imputing missing data and (3) merging spatial data sets.

The radionuclides {sup 14}C and {sup 3}H may both be released from nuclear facilities. These radionuclides differ from most others in that they are isotopes of macro-elements which form the basis of animal tissues, feed and, in the case of {sup 3}H, water. There are few published values describing the transfer of {sup 3}H and {sup 14}C from feed to animal derived food products. Approaches are described which enable the prediction of {sup 14}C and {sup 3}H transfer parameter values from readily available information on the stable H or C concentration of animal feeds, tissues and milk, water turnover rates, and feed intakes and digestibilities. It is recommended that the concentration ratio between feed and animal product activity concentrations be used as it is less variable than the transfer coefficient (ratio between radionuclide activity concentration in animal milk or tissue to the daily intake of a radionuclide).

Over the summer of 2005, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Computer Applications and Research Department conducted a small project that examined whether Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards might be useful in meeting program mission requirements more effectively. OGC standards are intended to facilitate interoperability between geospatial processing systems to lower development costs and to avoid duplication of effort and vendor lock-in. Some OGC standards appear to be gaining traction in the geospatial data community, the Federal government, Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and so an evaluation was deemed appropriate.

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS*) is an accelerator-based neutron source currently nearing completion at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. When completed in 2006, the SNS will provide a 1 GeV, 1.44 MW proton beam to a liquid mercury target for neutron production. SNS is a collaborative effort between six U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories and offered a unique opportunity for the mechanical engineers to work with their peers from across the country. This paper presents an overview of the overall success of the collaboration concentrating on the accelerator ring mechanical engineering along with some discussion regarding the relative merits of such a collaborative approach. Also presented are a status of the mechanical engineering installation and a review of the associated installation costs.

Previously it was shown that by crystallizing each of the two counter-circulating beams, a much larger beam-beam tune shift can be tolerated during the beam-beam collisions; thus a higher luminosity can be reached for colliding beams [1]. On the other hand, crystalline beams can only be formed at energies below the transition energy ({gamma}{sub T}) of the accelerators [2]. In this paper, we investigate the formation of crystals in a high-{gamma}{sub T} lattice that also satisfies the maintenance condition for a crystalline beam [3].

Gantries in the proton/carbon cancer therapy machines represent the major cost and are of the largest size. This report explains a new way to the gantry design. The size and cost of the gantries are reduced and their use is simplified by using the fixed magnetic field. The ''new'' gantry is made of a very large momentum acceptance non-scaling Fixed Field Alternating Gradient (FFAG) quarter and half arc beam lines. The gantry is made of combined function magnets with a very strong focusing and small dispersion function. Additional magnets with a fast response are required to allow adjustments of the beam position for different energies at the beginning of the gantry. Additional strong focusing magnets following the gantry have also to be adjustable to provide required spot size and radial scanning above the patients. The fixed field combined function magnets could be made of small permanent magnets for the proton machine, or of the high temperature superconductors or superconductors for the carbon machine, reducing dramatically the size.

Rapid cycling synchrotrons are used to accelerate high-intensity proton beams to energies of tens of GeV for secondary beam production. After primary beam collision with a target, the secondary beam can be collected, cooled, accelerated or decelerated by ancillary synchrotrons for various applications. In this paper, we first present a lattice for the main synchrotron. This lattice has: (a) flexible momentum compaction to avoid transition and to facilitate RF gymnastics (b) long straight sections for low-loss injection, extraction, and high-efficiency collimation (c) dispersion-free straights to avoid longitudinal-transverse coupling, and (d) momentum cleaning at locations of large dispersion with missing dipoles. Then, we present a lattice for a cooler ring for the secondary beam. The momentum compaction across half of this ring is near zero, while for the other half it is normal. Thus, bad mixing is minimized while good mixing is maintained for stochastic beam cooling.

In this paper, I study the feasibility of making a turn-by-turn spin measurement to extract the spin tune from a polarized beam injected perpendicular to the stable spin direction. For the ideal case of a zero-emittance beam with no spin-tune spread, there would be no spin decoherence, and a measurement of the spin tune could easily be made by collecting turn-indexed polarization data over several million turns. However, in a real beam there is a momentum spread which provides a spin-tune spread. With a coasting beam the tune spread can cause decoherence of the spins resulting in a fast depolarization of the beam in as few as a thousand turns. With synchrotron oscillations the decoherence time can be greatly increased, so that a measurement becomes feasible with summation of the turn-by-turn data from a reasonable number of bunches ({approx}< 100). Three cases of 1, 2, and 2 1/2, Siberian snakes are considered. By using spin tune measurements for both the single and double snake cases, we could vastly improve the calibration of the optimum settings for the RHIC snakes.

The BSNS extraction system takes use one of the four dispersion-free straight sections. Five vertical kickers and one Lambertson septum magnet are used for the one-turn extraction. The rise time of less 250 ns and the total kicking angle of 20 mrad are required for the kickers that are grouped into two tanks. The design for the kicker magnets and the PFN is also given. To reduce the low beam loss in the extraction channels due to large halo emittance, large apertures are used for both the kickers and septum. Stray magnetic field inside and at the two ends of the circulating path of the Lambertson magnet and its effect to the beam has been studied.

Many applications of modeling spatial dynamic systems focus on a single system and a single process, ignoring the geographic and systemic context of the processes being modeled. A solution to this problem is the coupled modeling of spatial dynamic systems. Coupled modeling is challenging for both technical reasons, as well as conceptual reasons. This paper explores the benefits and challenges to coupling or linking spatial dynamic models, from loose coupling, where information transfer between models is done by hand, to tight coupling, where two (or more) models are merged as one. To illustrate the challenges, a coupled model of Urbanization and Wildfire Risk is presented. This model, called Vesta, was applied to the Santa Barbara, California region (using real geospatial data), where Urbanization and Wildfires occur and recur, respectively. The preliminary results of the model coupling illustrate that coupled modeling can lead to insight into the consequences of processes acting on their own.

Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) is a key component of Beijing Spallation Neutron Source (BSNS). It accumulates and accelerates protons to design energy of 1.6 GeV, and extracts high energy beam to the target. As a high beam density and high beam power machine, low beam loss is also a basic requirement. An optimal lattice design is essential for the cost and the future operation. The lattice design of BSNS is presented, and the related dynamics issues are discussed. The injection/extraction scheme and the beam collimation system design are introduced.

We present a novel method to characterize the e{sup {+-}} phase space at the IP of the SLAC B-factory, that combines single-beam measurements with a detailed mapping of luminous-region observables. Transverse spot sizes are determined in the two rings with synchrotron-light monitors and extrapolated to the IP using measured lattice functions. The specific luminosity, which is proportional to the inverse product of the overlap IP beam sizes, is continuously monitored using radiative/Bhabha events. The spatial variation of the luminosity and of the transverse-boost distribution of the colliding e{sup {+-}}, are measured using e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -} events reconstructed in the BABAR detector. The combination of these measurements provide constraints on the emittances, horizontal and vertical spot sizes, angular divergences and {beta} functions of both beams at the IP during physics data-taking. Preliminary results of this combined spot-size analysis are confronted with independent measurements of IP {beta}-functions and overlap IP beam sizes at low beam current.

Density functional theory (DFT), in conjunction with the fixed-spin-moment (FSM) method, spin-orbit coupling (SO), and orbital polarization (OP), is shown to retain key features of the conventional DFT treatment of {delta}-Pu while at the same time not producing the substantial net magnetic moments commonly predicted by this theory. It is shown that when a small adjustment of the spin moment (less than 20%) is allowed, a complete spin- and orbital-moment cancellation occurs which results in a zero net magnetic moment in {delta}-Pu. This minor modification, accomplished by the FSM method, is shown to have a very small effect on the calculated total energy as well as the electron density-of-states (DOS). The photoemission spectra (PES), obtained from the DOS of the present model, compares equal or better to measured spectra, than that of two other recent non-magnetic models for {delta}-Pu.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Installation of cameras on state highway rights-of-way to enforce compliance with traffic-control signals (RQ-0427-GA)

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The goal of this work was to optimize and evaluate LLNL's in-bed amplification technology to improve the level of detection for suspensions containing trace amounts of anthracis DNA. The binding/cleaning performance of the packed bed is compared to the conventional commercial approach; Qiagen column cleanup and elution, followed by detection through an ex-situ amplification process. Five liquid suspensions were spiked with B.anthracis DNA in concentration series. These suspensions were: (1) water, (2) water with EDTA, (3) dirty water from carpet extraction, (4) dirty carpet extraction with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) plus 0.1% Tween 20 plus 0.1% gelatin, and (5) a subway aerosol collected in water. Each suspension matrix was spiked with DNA and injected (in replicate) into either Qiagen Microcolumns (using the kit processing instructions) or LLNL's packed bed (using the LLNL in-bed purification and amplification protocol). The process output was assayed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR). Table ES-1 shows the level of DNA (pg per 100 uL of input suspension) that resulted in successful amplification for all reactions (X=Y), and the level for which at least one of the reactions was successful (X>0). For each suspension and DNA concentration, there were Y QPCR assays of which X showed …

We discuss nuclear data resources of the National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) of relevance to nuclear astrophysics applications. These resources include databases, tools and powerful web service at www.nndc.bnl.gov. Our objective is to provide an overview of nuclear databases, related products and demonstrate nuclear astrophysics potential of the ENDF/B-VII beta2 library. A detailed discussion on the Maxwellian neutron capture cross sections obtained from the ENDF/B-VII beta2 library is presented.

Sustained progress in nanocrystal synthesis has enabled recent use of these materials as inorganic, macromolecular precursors that can be chemically transformed into new nanostructures. The literature now contains several cases with chemical transformations being accompanied by varying degrees of modification of properties, including crystal structure and particle shape. As a recent example, we demonstrated that as-synthesized metallic nanocrystals yield, upon oxidation, nanostructures with modified morphologies such as hollow particles. This morphological change derives from directional material flows due to differing diffusivities for the reacting atomic species, in a nanoscale version of the well-known Kirkendall Effect. This general methodology has since been extended by other groups to produce nanostructures with various compositions and shapes. We demonstrate that performing a replacement reaction on single crystalline Ag nanospheres of {approx}10 nm in diameter in an organic solvent produces hollow Au nanocrystals with an octahedral shape. Different from those Au shells made by starting with Ag particles about one order of magnitude larger, which largely reproduce that of the sacrificial Ag counterparts, the hollow nanocrystals obtained in this work show significant changes in the external morphology from the spherical Ag precursors. This evolution of a faceted external morphology during chemical transformation is made possible …