A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Encouraging a clearer and closer link between budgeting, planning, and performance is essential to improving federal management and instilling a greater focus on results. Through work at various levels within the organization, this report on the Administration for Children and Families (ACF)--and its two companion studies on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (GAO-03-258) and the Veterans Health Administration (GAO-03-10)--records (1) what managers considered successful efforts at creating linkages between planning and performance information to influence resource choices and (2) the challenges managers face in creating these linkages."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is in the midst of a massive effort to reorganize its structure and modernize its technology. To help with this effort, IRS obtains services through task orders under its Treasury Information Processing Support Services (TIPSS-2) contracting program. In this study, GAO reviewed the 6 largest competitive task orders that IRS awarded between July 1, 2001 and December 31, 2001 to determine if IRS used price or cost as a selection factor in the award of these task orders."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Encouraging a clearer and closer link between budgeting and planning is essential to improving federal management and instilling a greater focus on results. Through work at various levels within the organization, this report on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)--and its two companion studies on the Administration for Children and Families (GAO-03-09) and the Veterans Health Administration (GAO-03-10)--documents (1) what managers considered successful efforts at creating linkages between planning and performance information to influence resource choices and (2) the challenges managers face in creating these linkages."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Encouraging a clearer and closer link between budgeting and planning is essential to improving federal management and instilling a greater focus on results. Through work at various levels within the organization, this report on the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)--and its two companion studies on the Administration on Children and Families (GAO-03-09) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (GAO-03-258)--documents (1) what managers considered successful efforts at creating linkages between planning and performance information to influence resource choices and (2) the challenges managers face in creating these linkages."

Newspaper clipping of an article about a WASP member, Frances L. Cisternino, who went skydiving for her 90th birthday, briefly describing her experience as service pilot in WWII. The article includes several photos of Cisternino preparing for and floating down from her sky-dive. The article is continued on the back of the clipping, with a photograph of the onlookers at the event, along with some obituaries and part of another article.

As the Hanford Site transitions into remediation of contaminated soil waste sites and tank farm closure, more information is needed about the transport of contaminants as they move through the vadose zone to the underlying water table. The hydraulic properties must be characterized for accurate simulation of flow and transport. This characterization includes the determination of soil texture types, their three-dimensional distribution, and the parameterization of each soil texture. This document describes a method to estimate the soil hydraulic parameter using the parameter scaling concept (Zhang et al. 2002) and inverse techniques. To this end, the Groundwater Protection Program Science and Technology Project funded vadose zone transport field studies, including analysis of the results to estimate field-scale hydraulic parameters for modeling. Parameter scaling is a new method to scale hydraulic parameters. The method relates the hydraulic-parameter values measured at different spatial scales for different soil textures. Parameter scaling factors relevant to a reference texture are determined using these local-scale parameter values, e.g., those measured in the lab using small soil cores. After parameter scaling is applied, the total number of unknown variables in hydraulic parameters is reduced by a factor equal to the number of soil textures. The field-scale values …

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We have recently proposed an alternative picture for the physics at the scale of gauge coupling unification, where the unified symmetry is realized in higher dimensions but is broken locally by a symmetry breaking defect. Gauge coupling unification, the quantum numbers of quarks and leptons and the longevity of the proton arise as phenomena of the symmetrical bulk, while the lightness of the Higgs doublets and the masses of the light quarks and leptons probe the symmetry breaking defect. Moreover, the framework is extremely predictive if the effective higher dimensional theory is valid over a large energy interval up to the scale of strong coupling. Precise agreement with experiments is obtained in the simplest theory --- SU(5) in five dimensions with two Higgs multiplets propagating in the bulk. The weak mixing angle is predicted to be sin^2theta_w = 0.2313 \pm 0.0004, which fits the data with extraordinary accuracy. The compactification scale and the strong coupling scale are determined to be M_c \simeq 5 x 10^14 GeV and M_s \simeq 1 x 10^17 GeV, respectively. Proton decay with a lifetime of order 10^{34} years is expected with a variety of final states such as e^+pi^0, and several aspects of flavor, including …

This white paper introduces evaluation concepts and describes outcome-based evaluation. The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) logic model is described in the context of developing a program evaluation plan. Four case studies illustrate how outputs, outcomes and indicators can be used to produce programs results.

Final report on the US DOE CARAT program describes innovative R & D conducted by Superior Graphite Co., Chicago, IL, USA in cooperation with researchers from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and defines the proper type of carbon and a cost effective method for its production, as well as establishes a US based manufacturer for the application of anodes of the Lithium-Ion, Lithium polymer batteries of the Hybrid Electric and Pure Electric Vehicles. The three materials each representing a separate class of graphitic carbon, have been developed and released for field trials. They include natural purified flake graphite, purified vein graphite and a graphitized synthetic carbon. Screening of the available on the market materials, which will help fully utilize the graphite, has been carried out.

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

The primary objective is to perform a fundamental study of filtration of nanoparticles, and to obtain filtration knowledge necessary to design particle collection devices/systems for nanoparticle processing and for preventing nanoparticle emissions into the environment. The research covered a wide area relevant to nanoparticle filtration, under these main topics: (1) nanoparticle filtration and molecular dynamics simulation, (2) nanoparticle virtual impactor, (3) particle transport under low pressure, and (4) development of a high-throughput nanoparticle generator. A number of novel tools and numerical models have been developed under the DOE support.

We review some of the latest results on Supersymmetry searches at the Fermilab tevatron Collider. The final states for supersymmetric processes are preferably described in terms of the physical signatures produced by the particles involved. Accordingly we look at: missing transverse energy, E{sub T}, related to the presence of neutral and stable supersymmetric particles; jets, from the decay of squarks or gluinos; leptons, coming for instance from gaugino decays; photons, predicted in gauge-mediated models. We discuss here some of the most recent results on SUSY searches performed at the Fermilab Tevatron by the CDF and D0 collaborations. The CDF and D0 detectors[1, 2] collected, during the 1992-96 period (Run I), about 100 pb{sup -1} of p{bar p} collisions. The most relevant up-grades for the current run (Run II, started in March 2001) refer mainly to the tracking and trigger system, with minor improvements to the calorimetry and muon systems.

Progress in particle physics has been tightly related to technological advances during the past half century. Progress in technologies has been driven in many cases by the needs of particle physics. Often, these advances have benefited fields beyond particle physics: other scientific fields, medicine, industrial development, and even found commercial applications. The particle physics and technology working group of Snowmass 2001 reviewed leading-edge technologies recently developed or in the need of development for particle physics. The group has identified key areas where technological advances are vital for progress in the field, areas of opportunities where particle physics may play a principle role in fostering progress, and areas where advances in other fields may directly benefit particle physics. The group has also surveyed the technologies specifically developed or enhanced by research in particle physics that benefit other fields and/or society at large.

Muon acceleration is one of the more difficult stages to develop for a Neutrino Factory or Muon Collider. The large transverse and longitudinal admittances which must be designed into the system and the rapidity with which acceleration must take place because of muon decay preclude the use of conventional synchrotron design. The approach here employs fixed-field architectures for muon acceleration; specifically, a fixed-field alternating gradient or FFAG accelerator. This paper explores the FFAG option, in particular addressing an adjustment in the rf phase which, although characteristic of fixed-field machines, becomes problematic in the context of rapid acceleration.

Fixed target experimentation remains a vigorous and important tool. In many cases it provides the best technique to study elementary physics. Here the authors explore several areas, where, in the near future, fixed target experiments have the potential to alter the understanding of physics. These include, but are clearly not limited to, high precision tests of CP violation in the Kaon sector, ultra-precise determination of the weak mixing angle and its evolution, and lepton flavor violation.

BTeV is a new Fermilab beauty and charm experiment designed to operate in the CZero region of the Tevatron collider. Critical to the success of BTeV is its pixel detector. The unique features of this pixel detector include its proximity to the beam, its operation with a beam crossing time of 132 ns, and the need for the detector information to be read out quickly enough to be used for the lowest level trigger. This talk presents an overview of the pixel detector design, giving the motivations for the technical choices made. The status of the current R&D on detector components is also reviewed. Additional Pixel 2002 talks on the BTeV pixel detector are given by Dave Christian[1], Mayling Wong[2], and Sergio Zimmermann[3]. Table 1 gives a selection of pixel detector parameters for the ALICE, ATLAS, BTeV, and CMS experiments. Comparing the progression of this table, which I have been updating for the last several years, has shown a convergence of specifications. Nevertheless, significant differences endure. The BTeV data-driven readout, horizontal and vertical position resolution better than 9 {micro}m with the {+-} 300 mr forward acceptance, and positioning in vacuum and as close as 6 mm from the circulating beams …

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Flavor physics has recently made striking advances. The Snowmass Flavor Physics Working Group has attempted to identify the important open questions in this field, and to describe the diverse future program that would address them.

Solar Neutrinos from the decay of {sup 8}B have been detected at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) by charged current (CC) and neutral current (NC) interactions on deuterium and elastic scattering (ES) of electrons. The SNO data indicate that with the assumption of undistorted {sup 8}B shape, the flux for v{sub e} is {phi}{sub e} = 1.76{sub -0.05}{sup +0.05}(stat.){sub -0.09}{sup +0.09}(syst.) x 10{sup 6} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} for a kinetic energy threshold of 5 MeV. The non-v{sub e} flux is {phi}{sub {mu}{tau}} = 3.41{sub -0.45}{sup +0.45}(stat.){sub -0.45}{sup +0.48}(syst.) x 10{sup 6} cm{sup -2}s{sup -1}. This provides strong evidence for solar v{sub e} flavor transformation. The day and night solar neutrino energy spectra and rates have also been measured. For CC events, the v{sub e} asymmetry is 14.0% {+-} 6.3%{sub -1.4}{sup +1.5}%. By additionally constraining the total (NC) flux of active neutrinos to have no asymmetry, the v{sub e} asymmetry becomes 7.0% {+-} 4.9%{sub -1.2}{sup +1.3}%. A global solar neutrino analysis strongly favors the Large Mixing Angle (LMA) solution in a two-flavor neutrino oscillation model.

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

Chemical sensors using interactive sorptive materials typically involve a ''two-step'' response mechanism. While the sorptive material collects and concentrates gas phase molecules, the device on which it has been applied transduces the presence of these sorbed molecules into an analytical signal. Usually, the sorptive material is a thin film and the device is a microfabricated structure, although other configurations exist. The film of a sorptive material is often referred to as the ''selective layer''. This general concept for gas phase chemical sensing is shown. The selective layer on a gas phase chemical microsensor plays a critical role in the sensitivity and selectivity of the sensor's response. Polymers can rapidly and reversibly absorb vapor molecules. As sorptive layers on chemical sensors, polymers are useful for a variety of chemical microsensor types and transduction mechanisms, either as is or as composites with conductive particles or dyes. The performance requirements for polymers are described in terms of their chemical and physical properties. A versatile synthetic approach for preparing sensing polymers has been developed using hydrosilylation chemistry to prepare carbosiloxane polymers. Polymers with diverse chemical selectivities have been prepared by this method. Furthermore, sorptive polymer materials can be photopatterned into defined areas on surfaces …

Understanding nuclear level densities and radiative strength functions is important for pure and applied nuclear physics. Recently, the Oslo Cyclotron Group has developed an experimental method to extract level densities and radiative strength functions simultaneously from the primary {gamma} rays after a light-ion reaction. A primary {gamma}-ray spectrum represents the {gamma}-decay probability distribution. The Oslo method is based on the Axel-Brink hypothesis, according to which the primary {gamma}-ray spectrum is proportional to the product of the level density at the final energy and the radiative strength function. The level density and the radiative strength function are fit to the experimental primary {gamma}-ray spectra, and then normalized to known data. The method works well for heavy nuclei. The present measurements extend the Oslo method to the lighter mass nuclei {sup 56}Fe and {sup 57}Fe. The experimental level densities in {sup 56}Fe and {sup 57}Fe reveal step structure. This step structure is a signature for nucleon pair breaking. The predicted pairing gap parameter is in good agreement with the step corresponding to the first pair breaking. Thermodynamic quantities for {sup 56}Fe and {sup 57}Fe are derived within the microcanonical and canonical ensembles using the experimental level densities. Energy-temperature relations are considered using …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Joseph Russo. Russo joined the Army around 1942. He deployed to New Delhi, India, and worked for the supervisor of the Signal Corps, and in the radio room. He later joined the New Delhi Photography Society processing photographs and working with correspondents from LIFE Magazine. He returned to the US and was discharged in late 1945.