Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The General Services Administration (GSA) awarded FTS2001 contracts to Sprint and MCI Worldcom to provide long distance telecommunications services to federal agencies. The federal government began the sizable and complex effort of switching from the existing FTS 2000 contracts to FTS2001 in June 1999. Several implementation issues have delayed this transition. One of these issues concerns the billing problems experienced by GSA and its contractors. GAO found that the billing problems often arose from changes in contracts and services. According GSA, these issues also arose from the differences between contractors' commercial billing practices and the government's practices. Because these billing problems were not promptly resolved, they had an adverse effect on the transition progress. GSA is taking steps to resolve current billing problems. It is tracking issues as they arise, and it is now trying to resolve 12 issues still outstanding with Sprint and MCI WorldCom, including the problem of commercial billing. In addition, GSA's Office of Inspector General recently began a review of the FTS2001 billing area, which might also identify ways to prevent future billing problems. Another issue that affected the transition progress concerns the databases …

This home movie excerpt documents Lauren Lindsey wearing a sombrero in front of a television.

The properties of currently available NbTi superconductor and carbon-fiber structural materials enable the possibility of constructing a magnetically levitated space elevator from the earth's surface up to an altitude of {approx} 200 km. The magnetic part of the elevator consists of a long loop of current-carrying NbTi, composed of one length that is attached to the earth's surface in an east-west direction and a levitated-arch portion. The critical current density of NbTi is sufficiently high that these conductors will stably levitate in the earth's magnetic field. The magnetic self-field from the loop increases the levitational force and for some geometries assists levitational stability. The 200-km maximum height of the levitated arch is limited by the allowable stresses of the structural material. The loop is cryogenically cooled with helium, and the system utilizes intermediate pumping and cooling stations along both the ground and the levitated portion of the loop, similar to other large terrestrial cryogenic systems. Mechanically suspended from the basic loop is an elevator structure, upon which mass can be moved between the earth's surface and the top of the loop by a linear electric motor or other mechanical or electrical means. At the top of the loop, vehicles may …

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Funeral program for Maurice Michael Sistrunk, born December 31, 1958. The funeral was held Monday, July 2, 2001 at Hardy's Mortuary Chapel, officiated by Reverend L. O. Perry. Funeral arrangements were made through Hardy's Mortuary and he was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.

Funeral program for Sister Elva M. Mayberry, born May 6, 2941 and died June 25, 2001. The funeral was held Monday, July 2, 2001 at Lilly of the Valley Missionary Baptist Church, officiated by Pastor Steven R. Owens, Sr. Funeral arrangements were made through Sutton-Sutton Mortuary and she was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

The Linux kernel version 2.2.19 lacks UNIX-style raw disk support, and its SCSI layer is optimized for small transfer sizes. This report describes kernel patches to add raw disk support and enhance performance in the SCSI layer and QLA2x00 Fibre Channel device driver for large transfer sizes. Benchmarks demonstrate raw disk performance of 191 megabytes/second write, 176 megabytes/second read for one megabyte random I/O on a Compaq ES40 computer system with two QLogic QLA2200F Fibre Channel host bus adapters, each connected to two Ciprico RF7010 arrays on arbitrated loop.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Alvin, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is being studied as a potential site for disposal of high-level radioactive waste. The site has been the subject of an extensive site-characterization effort, and a series of total-system performance assessments (TSPAs) has been conducted over the past decade, with increasing complexity and detail in the models used for the assessments. The general approach for conducting a TSPA is to (1) identify and screen potentially relevant features, events, and processes to develop scenarios, (2) develop models, (3) estimate parameter ranges and uncertainties, (4) perform calculations, and (5) interpret results. Some of these steps can be carried out in parallel, and the procedure generally must be repeated iteratively as knowledge is gained. The TSPA model for Yucca Mountain includes numerous submodels for natural systems, engineered systems, and the interactions between them. Disruptive events are also modeled (primarily igneous activity, but with consideration of other possible disruptive events as well). As implied by step (3), we use a probabilistic approach, in which uncertainties are propagated through the system so that the effects of uncertainties on the final results can be analyzed. The most recent TSPA analyses have been conducted in support of a preliminary site-suitability evaluation. If the site …

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

In a nuclear waste repository in basalt, the groundwater will have a low redox potential (Eh) which may affect the leach rate of SRP waste glass. Accurate laboratory simulations of conditions in a basalt reposition must maintain low Eh values throughout the course of the experiment. In this report, important parameters affecting the ability of basalt to maintain appropriate Eh-pH conditions are examined, in particular basalt type and groundwater simulation.

Calculations for reactivity held in control rods have underpredicted the observed Mark 22 reactivity. Reactivity predictions by charge designers have accounted for this by including large biases which change with exposure and reactor region. The purpose of this study was to thoroughly investigate the methods and data used in the reactivity calculations. The goal was to identify errors and improvements and make necessary corrections.

The core length in an extruded tube depends on the weight of powder in the billet core. In the past, the amount of aluminum powder needed to give a specified core length was determined empirically. This report gives a technique for calculating the weight of aluminum powder for the P/M core. An equation has been derived which can be used to determine the amount of aluminum needed for P/M billet core charge weights. Good agreement was obtained when compared to Mark 22 tube extrusion data. From the calculated charge weight, the elastomeric bag can be designed and made to compact the U3O8-Al core.

Head-on and long-range induced tunespread of about 0.025 in the Tevatron collider at Run II (together with the increased strength of the resonances) can significantly deteriorate the {bar p} lifetime and the collider luminosity. It was proposed to employ the so-called Tevatron Electron Lenses (TEL) to compress the beam-beam footprint and eliminate completely the bunch-to-bunch tunespread (PACMAN effect) for small amplitude particles. The first lens has been recently installed and tested [1]. This report presents results of analytical studies and tracking simulations of the linear beam-beam compensation (elimination of the bunch-to-bunch tune variation). Compression of the beam-beam footprint (nonlinear compensation) is discussed in [2].

A conceptual framework is developed that is based on a behavioral model for organizations that rely upon innovation and adaptability for their survival in the market place. The model supports the assertion that change efforts aimed at performance improvement need a systems approach because contributions to an organization's performance cross functional lines and are systemic in nature. The model implies four conclusions for a unit trying to effectuate change within a greater bureaucracy. First, the desired behaviors are currently neither evaluated nor rewarded enough by either the enterprise or the local unit. Second, the model has to be applied to the local unit, treating the unit as a distinct enterprise itself. Third, a misalignment between the unit's new form and that of the rest of the enterprise will invariably be created. Fourth, this misalignment has to be minimized enough by the local unit to avoid the larger enterprise from responding negatively to the change effort. The mode l results in a change approach that constrains localized behavior modification by the need to remain aligned with the overall structure of the complete enterprise. The conceptual framework is used to develop a proposal for effectuating behavioral change within the High-Level Waste (HLW) …

Since October 1999 we carry out continuous measurements of the slow ground motion on and nearby Fermilab site with a primary goal to provide experimental data for the Very Large Hadron Collider (VLHC) and Next Linear Collider (NLC) projects. Here we give a general description of the experimental set-up, present main results and discuss consequences for the colliders.

The preparation of this technical report has two objectives. The first objective is to discuss the base case concepts of waste transport, emplacement, and retrieval operations and evaluate these operations relative to a lower-temperature repository design. Aspects of the operations involved in waste transport, emplacement and retrieval may be affected by the lower-temperature operating schemes. This report evaluates the effects the lower-temperature alternatives may have on the operational concepts involved in emplacing and retrieving waste. The second objective is to provide backup material for the design description, in a traceable and defensible format, for Section 2 of the Waste Emplacement/Retrieval System Description Document.

Hydrazine nitrate-nitric acid solutions are used in the ion exchange process for separating Pu-238 and Np-237 and have been found to dissolve plutonium metal in a manner advantageous to SRP metal recovery operations. Laboratory tests on the stability of hydrazine in nitric acid solutions were performed to obtain accurate data, and the results of these tests are reported here. These tests provide sufficient information to specify temperature control for hydrazine-nitric acid solutions in plant processes.

Improvements in the Fermilab operating 400-MeV linear accelerator injector are required to achieve the beam intensity and emittance requirement of the Proton Driver design study [5]. It has been determined that these requirements can be achieved by replacing the components in the Linac below 10 MeV. An improved H{sup {minus}} ion source with an electrostatic transport to a two-section Radio-Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator, with the RFQ sections separated by a magnetic five-dimensional phase-space imaging system as used in an earlier Fermilab/SAIC PET Project, and a new 10-MeV drift-tube linac cavity have been studied. It appears possible that an H{sup {minus}} intensity of 4.5 x 10{sup 13} ions per pulse with an improvement in beam emittance from the present system can be achieved with the proposed changes.

The Tevatron in Run IIa will operate with three trains of twelve bunches each. The impact of the long-range interactions on beam stability will be more significant compared to Run I. We study these beam-beam interactions (head-on and long-range) with particle tracking using two different codes. The model includes machine nonlinearities such as the field errors of the Interaction Region quadrupoles and the chromaticity sextupoles. Tune footprints and dynamic apertures are calculated for different bunches in a train.

Management of the High Level Waste Program Office at the Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory has projected oscillating future employment levels. A simple computer model was created to help convince management that qualitative modeling of ''soft'' variables can provide appreciable insight into the consequences and performance of alternative staffing policies. Advocacy of the model underlying the simulation or a particular strategy did not motivate the study, but rather a desire to instill enthusiasm and elicit new and improved conceptual models from management. Six qualitative and three quantitative generic insights to managing staffing levels are gained from the simulations. These insights in their generic form should be familiar to those knowledgeable of system dynamics or computer/instrument process control. Their potential usefulness to developing staffing strategies is stressed. The two primary overarching assertions that flow from the simulation results are: (1) the presence of multiple feedbacks, time delays, and continuous flows introduce instability into a personnel system that complicates the management of staffing levels. Many times ''soft'' variables, such as morale, productivity, and efficiency are the sources of such influences; and (2) such influences can be successfully modeled. In the case of the simple model used in these simulations, for example, …

The relative release rates of nitrate, cesium, strontium, and technetium have been measured from saltstone and soilcrete (salt-stone containing soil) under saturated conditions. These are the first measurement of radionuclide release rates from saltstone, and confirm the assumptions used earlier in mathematical modeling. Both saltstone and saltcrete have comparable leach rates for nitrate and pertechnetate anions. Cesium and strontium are more strongly held in both materials, but show differences between the two matrices. These data fully support the assumption that no species leaches more rapidly than nitrate.