A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Growing ecological challenges ranging from wildland fires to climate change have revived interest in moving the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Forest Service into the Department of the Interior (Interior). The Forest Service manages almost a quarter of the nation's lands but is the only major land management agency outside Interior. GAO was asked to report on the potential effects of moving the Forest Service into Interior and creating a new bureau equal to Interior's other bureaus, such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). GAO was also asked to identify factors that should be considered if such a move were legislated and management practices that could facilitate a move. GAO analyzed five historical proposals to reorganize federal land management agencies; interviewed USDA, Interior, and other officials and outside experts; and studied joint Forest Service- BLM programs to assess efforts to integrate the agencies' work."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For fiscal year 2003, the Department of Defense (DOD) asked for about $185 billion to develop, procure, operate, and maintain its weapon systems. This request represents an increase of 18 percent since 2001 for the total ownership costs of DOD weapon systems. Often, DOD systems need expensive spare parts and support systems after they are fielded to meet required readiness levels. DOD has been increasingly concerned that the high cost of maintaining systems has limited its ability to modernize and invest in new weapons. This report examines the best practices of leading commercial firms to manage a product's total ownership costs and determines if those practices can be applied to DOD."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agencies can directly purchase more than 8 million commercial products and services through the General Services Administration's (GSA) multiple award schedules (MAS) contracts. Over the past 10 years, MAS contract sales have increased dramatically--with sales jumping from $4 billion to $32 billion. In addition to simplifying the procurement process, the MAS program is designed to take advantage of the government's significant aggregate buying power. While GSA seeks to negotiate best pricing for its MAS contracts by analyzing vendor-provided information--such as discounts given to other customers and recent sales data for the same or similar items--past reports have found that GSA has not always used pricing tools effectively and that management controls for better ensuring fair and reasonable pricing had been reduced. This report discusses GSA's process for negotiating most favored customer prices for MAS contracts and its efforts to improve the overall quality of negotiations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has long-standing problems with its information technology (IT) systems supporting military personnel and pay. To address these problems, DOD initiated the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System (DIMHRS) program, which is to provide a joint, integrated, standardized military personnel and pay system across all military components. In November 2004, DOD accepted the design for the first of three phases, DIMHRS (Personnel/Pay). GAO reviewed DOD's management of the requirements definition for the system as well as the program's management structure."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Many developing countries have expressed concern about their inability to take advantage of global trading opportunities. The United States considers this ability a key factor in reducing poverty, achieving economic growth, raising income levels, and promoting stability. U.S. trade capacity building assistance is designed to address these concerns. GAO (1) identified the nature and extent of U.S. trade capacity building; (2) described how agencies implement such assistance, including coordination; and (3) assessed whether agencies evaluate its effectiveness."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO is required to annually audit the financial statements of the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) and FSLIC Resolution Fund (FRF), which are administered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). GAO is responsible for obtaining reasonable assurance about whether FDIC's financial statements for DIF and FRF are presented fairly in all material respects, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, and whether FDIC maintained effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations. Also, GAO is responsible for testing FDIC's compliance with selected laws and regulations. Created in 1933 to insure bank deposits and promote sound banking practices, FDIC plays an important role in maintaining public confidence in the nation's financial system. In 1989, legislation to reform the federal deposit insurance system created three funds to be administered by FDIC: the Bank Insurance Fund (BIF) and the Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF), which protect bank and savings deposits, and FRF, which was created to close out the business of the former Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. In accordance with subsequent legislation passed in 2006, FDIC merged the BIF and SAIF into …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO is required to annually audit the financial statements of the Bank Insurance Fund (BIF), Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF), and FSLIC Resolution Fund (FRF), which are administered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). GAO is responsible for obtaining reasonable assurance about whether FDIC's financial statements for BIF, SAIF, and FRF are presented fairly in all material respects, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, and whether FDIC maintained effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance. Also, GAO is responsible for testing FDIC's compliance with selected laws and regulations. Created in 1933 to insure bank deposits and promote sound banking practices, FDIC plays an important role in maintaining public confidence in the nation's financial system. In 1989, legislation to reform the federal deposit insurance system created three funds to be administered by FDIC: BIF and SAIF, which protect bank and savings deposits, and FRF, which was created to close out the business of the former Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), through its Federal Housing Administration (FHA), insures billions of dollars in home mortgage loans made by private lenders. FHA insures low down payment loans and a number of parties have made proposals to either eliminate or otherwise change FHA's borrower contribution requirements. GAO was asked to (1) identify the key characteristics of existing low and no down payment products, (2) review relevant literature on the importance of loan-to-value (LTV) ratios and credit scores to loan performance, (3) report on the performance of low and no down payment mortgages supported by FHA and others, and (4) identify lessons for FHA from others in terms of designing and implementing low and no down payment products."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The United Nations (U.N.) Security Council authorized or maintained 33 peacekeeping operations in 28 countries between fiscal years 1996 and 2001. Fifteen operations were ongoing as of January 2002. Although U.N. member countries are directly assessed for the cost of these operations, some countries, including the United States, implement programs or activities that provide indirect support to peacekeeping operations. The United States directly contributed an estimated $3.45 billion to support U.N. peacekeeping from fiscal years 1996 through 2001. U.S. contributions that indirectly benefited U.N. peacekeeping are estimated at $24.2 billion during this period. GAO defined indirect contributions as U.S. programs and activities that are located in the same area as an ongoing U.N. peacekeeping operation, have objectives that help the peacekeeping operation achieve its mandated objectives, and are not an official part of the U.N. operation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the progress towards achieving the goals of the Energy Policy Act's petroleum replacement programs, focusing on the: (1) progress made in acquiring alternative fuel vehicles and using alternative fuels to meet the act's fuel replacement goals; (2) impediments to using alternative fuel vehicles; and (3) measures that can be taken to address those impediments to using alternative fuel vehicles and alternative fuels to help reach the act's replacement goals."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Workforce Investment Act, local workforce areas are likely to offer dislocated workers services that are tailored to local needs and that emphasize a quick return to employment. Nine of the local workforce areas that GAO visited emphasized a quick return to work and enrolled fewer dislocated workers into training than were enrolled under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Five local areas enrolled into training an equal or greater number of dislocated workers than were enrolled under JTPA. States used the act's flexibility to decide how much of their set-aside funds to spend on rapid response for dislocated workers and how much to spend on other statewide activities. Most of the 50 states that responded to a GAO survey on rapid response activities said that their state unit provided services when layoffs and plant closings involved 50 or more workers and that the state generally relied on local workforce area officials to provide rapid response services for layoffs affecting fewer workers. Workforce officials in several states expressed concern that the act's dislocated worker funding formula causes dramatic fluctuations in funding that are unrelated to …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense's (DOD) Medicare subvention demonstration tested alternate approaches to health care coverage for military retirees. Retirees could enroll in new DOD-run Medicare managed care plans, known as TRICARE Senior Prime, at six sites. The demonstration plan offered enrollees the full range of Medicare-covered services as well as additional TRICARE services, with minimal copayments. During the demonstration period, the program parameters were changed, allowing military retirees age 65 and older to become eligible for TRICARE coverage as of October 1, 2001, and Senior Prime was extended for one year. The demonstration showed that retirees were interested in enrolling in low-cost military health plans and that DOD was able to satisfy its Senior Prime enrollees. By the close of the initial demonstration period, about 33,000 retirees were enrolled in Senior Prime, and more were on waiting lists. When nonenrollees were asked why they did not join Senior Prime, more than 60 percent said that they were satisfied with their existing health coverage; few said that they disliked military care. Although the demonstration had positive results for enrollees, it also highlighted three challenges confronting the military …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Nonresponse follow-up--in which Census Bureau enumerators go door-to-door to count individuals who have not mailed back their questionnaires--was the most costly and labor intensive of all 2000 Census operations. According to Bureau data, labor, mileage, and administrative costs totaled $1.4 billion, or 22 percent of the $6.5 billion allocated for the 2000 Census. Several practices were critical to the Bureau's timely competition of nonresponse follow-up. The Bureau (1) had an aggressive outreach and promotion campaign, simplified questionnaire, and other efforts to boost the mail response rate and thus reduce the Bureau's nonresponse follow-up workload; (2) used a flexible human capital strategy that enabled it to meet its national recruiting and hiring goals and position enumerators where they were most needed; (3) called on local census offices to identify local enumeration challenges, such as locked apartment buildings and gated communities, and to develop action plans to address them; and (4) applied ambitious interim "stretch" goals that encouraged local census offices to finish 80 percent of their nonresponse follow-up workload within the first four weeks and be completely finished by the end of the eighth week, as opposed …

Heterogeneous processes hold the key to understanding many problems in biology and atmospheric science. In particular, recent experiments have shown that heterogeneous chemistry at the surface of sea-salt aerosols plays a large role in important atmospheric processes with far reaching implications towards understanding of the fate and transport of aerosolized chemical weapons (i.e. organophosphates such as sarin and VX). Unfortunately, the precise mechanistic details of the simplest surface enhanced chemical reactions remain unknown. Understanding heterogeneous processes also has implications in the biological sciences. Traditionally, it is accepted that enzymes catalyze reactions by stabilizing the transition state, thereby lowering the free energy barrier. However, recent findings have shown that a multitude of phenomena likely contribute to the efficiency of enzymes, such as coupled protein motion, quantum mechanical tunneling, or strong electrostatic binding. The objective of this project was to develop and validate a single computational framework based on first principles simulations using tera-scale computational resources to answer fundamental scientific questions about heterogeneous chemical processes relevant to atmospheric chemistry and biological sciences.

The Soils and Groundwater – EM-20 Science and Technology Roadmap Project is a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management-funded initiative designed to develop new methods, strategies and technology for characterizing, modeling, remediating, and monitoring soils and groundwater contaminated with metals, radionuclides, and chlorinated organics. This Quality Assurance Project Plan provides the quality assurance requirements and processes that will be followed by EM-20 Roadmap Project staff.

None

In the current hybrid vehicle market, the Toyota Prius drive system is considered the leader in electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing innovations. It is a significant accomplishment that Toyota is able to manufacture and sell the vehicle for a profit. The Toyota Prius traction motor design approach for reducing manufacturing costs and the motor s torque capability have been studied and tested. The findings were presented in two previous Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) reports. The conclusions from this report reveal, through temperature rise tests, that the 2004 Toyota Prius (THSII) motor is applicable only for use in a hybrid automobile. It would be significantly undersized if used in a fuel cell vehicle application. The power rating of the Prius motor is limited by the permissible temperature rise of the motor winding (170 C) and the motor cooling oil (158 C). The continuous ratings at base speed (1200 rpm) with different coolant temperatures are projected from test data at 900 rpm. They are approximately 15 kW with 105 C coolant and 21 kW with 35 C coolant. These continuous ratings are much lower than the 30 kW specified as a technical motor target of the U.S. Department of Energy FreedomCAR Program. …

Beryllium films are synthesized by a magnetron sputtering technique incorporating in-situ residual stress measurement. Monitoring the stress evolution in real time provides quantitative through-thickness information on the effects of various processing parameters, including sputtering gas pressure and substrate biasing. Specimens produced over a wide range of stress states are characterized via transmission and scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy, in order to correlate the stress data with microstructure. A columnar grain structure is observed for all specimens, and surface morphology is found to be strongly dependent on processing conditions. Analytical models of stress generation are reviewed and discussed in terms of the observed microstructure.

Based on Melt Rate Furnace (MRF) testing for the Sludge Batch 5 (SB5) projected composition and assessments of the potential frits with reasonable operating windows, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) recommended Slurry Fed Melt Rate Furnace (SMRF) testing with Frits 418 and 550. DWPF is currently using Frit 418 with SB5 based on SRNL's recommendation due to its ability to accommodate significant sodium variation in the sludge composition. However, experience with high boron containing frits in DWPF indicated a potential advantage for Frit 550 might exist. Therefore, SRNL performed SMRF testing to assess Frit 550's potential advantages. The results of SMRF testing with SB5 simulant indicate that there is no appreciable difference in melt rate between Frit 418 and Frit 550 at a targeted 34 weight % waste loading. Both batches exhibited comparable behavior when delivered through the feed tube by the peristaltic pump. Limited observation of the cold cap during both runs showed no indication of major cold cap mounding. MRF testing, performed after the SMRF runs due to time constraints, with the same two Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME) dried products led to the same conclusion. Although visual observations of the cross-sectioned MRF beakers indicated differences in the …

The transfer of liquid salt solution from Tank 26 to an evaporator is to be accomplished by activating the evaporator feed pump, located approximately 72 inches above the sludge layer, while simultaneously turning on the downcomer. Previously, activation of the evaporator feed pump was an isolated event without any other components running at the same time. An analysis of the dissolved solution transfer has been performed using computational fluid dynamics methods to determine the amount of entrained sludge solids pumped out of the tank to the evaporator with the downcomer turned on. The analysis results showed that, for the maximum and minimum supernate levels in Tank 26 (252.5 and 72 inches above the sludge layer, respectively), the evaporator feed pump will entrain between 0.03 and 0.1 wt% sludge undissolved solids weight fraction into the eductor, respectively, and therefore are an order of magnitude less than the 1.0 wt% undissolved solids loading criteria to feed the evaporator. Lower tank liquid levels, with respect to the sludge layer, result in higher amounts of sludge entrainment due to the increased velocity of the plunging jets from the downcomer and evaporator feed pump bypass as well as decreased dissipation depth. Revision 1 clarifies the …

The last ten years have brought rapid growth in the development and use of three-dimensional (3D) seismic models of earth structure at crustal, regional and global scales. In order to explore the potential for 3D seismic models to contribute to important societal applications, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) hosted a 'Workshop on Multi-Resolution 3D Earth Models to Predict Key Observables in Seismic Monitoring and Related Fields' on June 6 and 7, 2007 in Berkeley, California. The workshop brought together academic, government and industry leaders in the research programs developing 3D seismic models and methods for the nuclear explosion monitoring and seismic ground motion hazard communities. The workshop was designed to assess the current state of work in 3D seismology and to discuss a path forward for determining if and how 3D earth models and techniques can be used to achieve measurable increases in our capabilities for monitoring underground nuclear explosions and characterizing seismic ground motion hazards. This paper highlights some of the presentations, issues, and discussions at the workshop and proposes a path by which to begin quantifying the potential contribution of progressively refined 3D seismic models in critical applied arenas.

The objective of this task was to study permanent magnet (PM) radial-gap traction drive systems that could meet the U.S. Department of Energy FreedomCAR Program's 2010 goals to expose weaknesses or identify strengths. Initially, the approach was to compare attributes such as physical deformations during operation, performance (torque, power, efficiency versus speed), material requirements (strength), material costs, manufacturability, weight, power density, specific power, reliability, and drivability for specific motors. Three motors selected were the commercially available 60-kW radial-gap surface-mounted PM motor manufactured by UQM Technologies, Inc.; a hypothetical PM motor with rotor-supported magnets similar to the Honda MCF-21; and Delphi's automotive electric machine drive motor, whose rotor is a ferromagnetic cylinder, held at one end by a shaft that supports the magnets on its inner surface. Potential problems have appeared related to PM motors, such as (1) high no-load spin losses and high operational power losses, probably from eddy current losses in the rotor; (2) the undemonstrated dual mode inverter control (DMIC) for driving a brushless dc motor (BDCM) (UQM and Delphi motors); (3) uncertainty about the potential for reducing current with DMIC; and (4) uncertainty about the relation between material requirements and maximum rotor speed. Therefore, the approach was …

None

Results from the SSPX spheromak experiment provide strong motivation to add neutral beam injection (NBI) heating. Such auxiliary heating would significantly advance the capability to study the physics of energy transport and pressure limits for the spheromak. This LDRD project develops the physics basis for using NBI to heat spheromak plasmas in SSPX. The work encompasses three activities: (1) numerical simulation to make quantitative predictions of the effect of adding beams to SSPX, (2) using the SSPX spheromak and theory/modeling to develop potential target plasmas suitable for future application of neutral beam heating, and (3) developing diagnostics to provide the measurements needed for transport calculations. These activities are reported in several publications.