A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) proposal to restructure its regional operations, focusing on: (1) FTC's rationale for proposing the regional restructuring; (2) the process FTC followed in developing its restructuring proposal; (3) factors FTC used and could have used in deciding how to restructure; (4) other options to the proposed restructuring identified in prior FTC studies or by Boston and Denver regional officials; and (5) the views of selected stakeholders regarding the impact the proposed restructuring could have in the areas covered by the Boston and Denver regional offices."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed how the social security number (SSN) is used, focusing on: (1) federal laws and regulations requiring or restricting SSN use; (2) how extensively the private and public sectors use SSNs for purposes not required by federal law; and (3) what businesses and governments believe the impact would be if federal laws limiting the use of SSNs were passed."

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Ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation is an extremely powerful tool for characterizing materials and detecting defects. A majority of the ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation is performed with piezoelectric transducers that generate and detect high frequency acoustic energy. The liquid needed to couple the high frequency acoustic energy from the piezoelectric transducers restricts the applicability of ultrasonics. For example, traditional ultrasonics cannot evaluate parts at elevated temperatures or components that would be damaged by contact with a fluid. They are developing a technology that remotely generates and detects the ultrasonic pulses with lasers and consequently there is no requirement for liquids. Thus the research in laser-based ultrasound allows them to solve inspection problems with ultrasonics that could not be done before. This technology has wide application in many Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory programs, especially when remote and/or non-contact sensing is necessary.

This document provides individual summaries of some 200 photovoltaics research projects performed in house and by subcontractors to Department of Energy national laboratories and field offices, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Golden Field Office, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Albuquerque Field Office, and Boston Support Office. The document is divided into the following sections: research and development, technology development, and systems engineering and applications. Three indexes are included: performing organizations by name, performing organizations by state, and performing organizations by technology area.

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A Run II D0 Inter Cryostat Detector tile array will be composed of 16 identical modules. Each module contains 12 optically isolated scintillating tile elements, each with dimension of 0.1 x 0.1 in {eta} and {phi} in the pseudora-pidity region from 1.1 to 1.4. The 12 tiles in a module are formed by routing grooves in a single piece of scintillator - optical isolation is achieved by fill-ing the grooves with a white re ective epoxy. The procedure for filling these isolation grooves is described here.

This Record of Technical Change provides updates to the technical information provided in ''Corrective Action Investigation Plan for Corrective Action Unit 321: Area 22 Weather Station Fuel Storage, Nevada Test Site, Nevada,'' Revision 0. The change specified is in Table 3-1 on page 11. The total lead analyte should specify a Minimum Reporting Limit for soil of 1.0 mg/kg instead of 0.3 mg/kg. The EMAX laboratory cannot meet the 0.3 mg/kg limit.

The project objective was to develop the technologies necessary to prototype a dedicated compressed natural gas (CNG) powered, mid-size automobile with operational capabilities comparable to gasoline automobiles. A system approach was used to design and develop the engine, gas storage system and vehicle packaging. The 2.4-liter DOHC engine was optimized for natural gas operation with high-compression pistons, hardened exhaust valves, a methane-specific catalytic converter and multi-point gaseous injection. The chassis was repackaging to increase space for fuel storage with a custom-designed, cast-aluminum, semi-trailing arm rear suspension system, a revised flat trunk sheet-metal floorpan and by equipping the car with run-flat tires. An Integrated Storage system (ISS) was developed using all-composite, small-diameter cylinders encapsulated within a high-strength fiberglass shell with impact-absorbing foam. The prototypes achieved the target goals of a city/highway driving range of 300 miles, ample trunk capacity, gasoline vehicle performance and ultra low exhaust emissions.

We report on measurements of quantum electrodynamic processes in an intense electromagnetic wave, where nonlinear effects (both multiphoton and vacuum polarization) are prominent. Nonlinear Compton scattering and electron-positron pair production have been observed in collisions of 46.6 GeV and 49.1 GeV electrons of the Final Focus Test Beam at SLAC with terawatt pulses of 1053 nm and 527 nm wavelengths from a Nd:glass laser. Peak laser intensities of approximately 0.5 x 10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2} have been achieved, corresponding to a value of approximately 0.4 for the parameter {eta} = eE{sub rms}/m{omega}{sub 0}c, and to a value of approximately 0.25 for the parameter {Upsilon}{sub e} = E{sub rms}/E{sub crit} = eE{sub rms}{h_bar}/m{sup 2}c{sup 3}, where E{sub rms} is the rms electric field strength of the laser in the electron rest frame. We present data on the scattered electron spectra arising from nonlinear Compton scattering with up to four photons absorbed from the field. A convolved spectrum of the forward high energy photons is also given. The observed positron production rate depends on the fifth power of the laser intensity, as expected for a process where five photons are absorbed from the field. The positrons are interpreted as arising from the …

This report talks about Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Surveys in Upper Three Runs Creek and Pen Branch (Task Order 181).

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