A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "New resources for education come at a time when states are struggling to address budget shortfalls. Two provisions in Title I--maintenance of effort (MOE) and supplement not supplant (SNS)--are designed to limit the extent to which federal funds could be used to replace state and local resources. To assess the quality of oversight of these provisions, GAO determined (1) how 6 states--Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, and Massachusetts--conducted oversight of the MOE and SNS provisions and what factors affected their ability to do so; (2) what efforts were made by the U.S. Department of Education to enforce MOE and SNS; and (3) in the 6 states, what changes have occurred in the federal share of education funding from school year 1999-2000 to 2000-2001."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In accordance with 36 U.S.C. 2103, we are responsible for conducting audits of the agencywide financial statements of the American Battle Monuments Commission. We audited the financial statements of the Commission for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2002, and 2001. The audits were done to determine whether, in all material respects, (1) the Commission's financial statements were reliable, (2) Commission management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations, and (3) Commission management complied with applicable laws and regulations. The American Battle Monuments Commission was created in 1923 to commemorate the sacrifices and achievements of U.S. Armed Forces where they have served overseas since April 6, 1917, and locations within the United States as directed by Congress. The Commission designs, administers, operates, and maintains 24 American military cemeteries on foreign soil and 25 federal memorials, monuments, and markers, 22 of which are on foreign soil. The Commission is also responsible for designing and constructing the national World War II Memorial on the Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C., and for maintaining 3 nonfederal memorials with funds provided by those memorials' sponsors."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Army's Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) trains soldiers and develops doctrine and future warfighting concepts to fight the battles of today and tomorrow. As such, the Command has been designated as the lead in the Army's transformation from a Cold War-oriented force into a rapidly deployable and responsive force better able to meet the diverse challenges of the future. Concerns have been raised at congressional hearings about TRADOC's readiness to perform its mission, particularly within the context of Army transformation and associated funding priorities. GAO assessed the impact of budget, workload, and personnel changes, as well as ongoing transformation plans, on TRADOC's ability to perform its mission and deliver well-trained soldiers to the combat forces."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO prepared this report in response to its basic legislative responsibilities. Its objectives are threefold: (1) to examine the historical funding trends and their impact on the condition of the active forces' facilities, (2) to evaluate the consistency of the services' information on facility conditions, and (3) to assess the Department of Defense's (DOD) long-term strategic plan and objectives to improve facility conditions."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks exposed the vulnerability of U.S. financial markets to wide-scale disasters. Because the markets are vital to the nation's economy, GAO's testimony discusses (1) how the financial markets were directly affected by the attacks and how market participants and infrastructure providers worked to restore trading; (2) the steps taken by 15 important financial market organizations to address physical security, electronic security, and business continuity planning since the attacks; and (3) the steps the financial regulators have taken to ensure that the markets are better prepared for future disasters."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Much has changed since the Congress enacted the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR-21) 3 years ago--the downturn in the nation's economy and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have taken a heavy toll on aviation. Competition for federal funding has also grown. The reauthorization of AIR-21 provides an opportunity for the Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to focus on several challenges to improving the national airspace system. These challenges include (1) funding planned airport capital development, (2) increasing capacity and efficiency, (3) implementing human capital and procurement reforms, and (4) ensuring aviation safety. This testimony is based on ongoing and published GAO work. The information on funding and development, obtained from FAA and the Airport Council International (ACI), a key organization representing the airport industry, is preliminary and therefore subject to change."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Coast Guard is one of 22 agencies being placed in the new Department of Homeland Security. With its key roles in the nation's ports, waterways, and coastlines, the Coast Guard is an important part of enhanced homeland security efforts. But it also has non-security missions, such as search and rescue, fisheries and environmental protection, and boating safety. GAO has conducted a number of reviews of the Coast Guard's missions and was asked to testify about the Coast Guard's implementation challenges in moving to this newly created Department."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Customs Service is conducting a multiyear, multibillion dollar project, the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), a new trade processing system that is planned to support effective and efficient movement of goods into the United States. By congressional mandate, Customs' expenditure plans for ACE must meet certain conditions, including being reviewed by GAO. This study addresses whether Customs' latest plan satisfies these conditions and provides observations about the plan and Customs' efforts to implement GAO's open recommendations for improving ACE management."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, the challenges of aging populations have become a topic of increasing concern to the developed nations. These challenges range from the fiscal imbalance in national pension systems caused by fewer workers having to provide benefits for greater numbers of retirees, to potential economic strains due to shortages of skilled workers. Part of the solution to these challenges could be greater older worker labor force participation. GAO identified three nations--Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom--that had displayed high levels of older worker labor force participation in the past and were now implementing policy reforms that continued to emphasize the importance of older workers. The experiences of these nations suggest that the nature of the reforms, the public availability and transparency of information on the reforms, and the strength of the national economy play key roles in extending older worker labor force participation."

Society has and will continue to generate hazardous wastes whose risks must be managed. For exceptionally toxic, long-lived, and feared waste, the solution is deep burial, e.g., deep geological disposal at Yucca Mtn. For some waste, recycle or destruction/treatment is possible. The alternative for other wastes is storage at or near the ground level (in someone’s back yard); most of these storage sites include a surface barrier (cap) to prevent migration of the waste due to infiltration of surface water. The design lifespan for such barriers ranges from 30 to 1000 years, depending on hazard and regulations. In light of historical performance, society needs a better basis for predicting barrier performance over long time periods and tools for optimizing maintenance of barriers while in service. We believe that, as in other industries, better understanding of the dynamics of barrier system degradation will enable improved barriers (cheaper, longer-lived, simpler, easier to maintain) and improved maintenance. We are focusing our research on earthen caps, especially those with evapo-transpiration and capillary breaks. Typical cap assessments treat the barrier’s structure as static prior to some defined lifetime. Environmental boundary conditions such as precipitation and temperature are treated as time dependent. However, other key elements …

Hundreds of contaminated facilities and sites must be cleaned up. “Cleanup” includes decommissioning, environmental restoration, and waste management. Cleanup can be complex, expensive, risky, and time-consuming. Decisions are often controversial, can stall or be blocked, and are sometimes re-done - some before implementation, some decades later. Making and keeping decisions with long time horizons involves special difficulties and requires new approaches, including: • New ways (mental model) to analyze and visualize the problem, • Awareness of the option to shift strategy or reframe from a single decision to an adaptable network of decisions, and • Improved tactical processes that account for several challenges. These include the following: • Stakeholder values are a more fundamental basis for decision making and keeping than “meeting regulations.” • Late-entry players and future generations will question decisions. • People may resist making “irreversible” decisions. • People need “compelling reasons” to take action in the face of uncertainties. Our project goal is to make cleanup decisions easier to make, implement, keep, and sustain. By sustainability, we mean decisions that work better over the entire time-period—from when a decision is made, through implementation, to its end point. That is, alternatives that can be kept “as is” or …

We discuss the question of equilibration in heavy ion collisions and how it can be addressed in experiment.

Society has and will continue to generate hazardous wastes whose risks must be managed. For exceptionally toxic, long-lived, and feared waste, the solution is deep burial, e.g., deep geological disposal at Yucca Mtn. For some waste, recycle or destruction/treatment is possible. The alternative for other wastes is storage at or near the ground level (in someone’s back yard); most of these storage sites include a surface barrier (cap) to prevent downward water migration. Some of the hazards will persist indefinitely. As society and regulators have demanded additional proof that caps are robust against more threats and for longer time periods, the caps have become increasingly complex and expensive. As in other industries, increased complexity will eventually increase the difficulty in estimating performance, in monitoring system/component performance, and in repairing or upgrading barriers as risks are managed. An approach leading to simpler, less expensive, longer-lived, more manageable caps is needed. Our project, which started in April 2002, aims to catalyze a Barrier Improvement Cycle (iterative learning and application) and thus enable Remediation System Performance Management (doing the right maintenance neither too early nor too late). The knowledge gained and the capabilities built will help verify the adequacy of past remedial decisions, …

This report presents the work that followed the CSSX model development completed in FY2002. The developed cesium and potassium extraction model was based on extraction data obtained from simple aqueous media. It was tested to ensure the validity of the prediction for the cesium extraction from actual waste. Compositions of the actual tank waste were obtained from the Savannah River Site personnel and were used to prepare defined simulants and to predict cesium distribution ratios using the model. It was therefore possible to compare the cesium distribution ratios obtained from the actual waste, the simulant, and the predicted values. It was determined that the predicted values agree with the measured values for the simulants. Predicted values also agreed, with three exceptions, with measured values for the tank wastes. Discrepancies were attributed in part to the uncertainty in the cation/anion balance in the actual waste composition, but likely more so to the uncertainty in the potassium concentration in the waste, given the demonstrated large competing effect of this metal on cesium extraction. It was demonstrated that the upper limit for the potassium concentration in the feed ought to not exceed 0.05 M in order to maintain suitable cesium distribution ratios.

Visible light-photocatalysis could provide a cost-effective route to recycle CO{sub 2} to useful chemicals or fuels. Research is planned to study the reactivity of adsorbates, their role in the photosynthesis reaction, and their relation to the nature of surface sites during photosynthesis of methanol and hydrocarbons from CO{sub 2}/H{sub 2}O over four types of MCM-41/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-supported TiO{sub 2} and CdS catalysts: (1) ion-exchanged metal cations, (2) highly dispersed cations, (3) monolayer sites, and (4) modified monolayer catalysts. TiO{sub 2} was selected since it has exhibited higher activity than other oxide catalysts; CdS was selected for its photocatalytic activity in the visible light region. Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} provides excellent hydrothermal stability. MCM-41 offers high surface area (more than 800 m{sup 2}/g), providing a platform for preparing and depositing a large number of active sites per gram catalyst. The unique structure of these ion exchange cations, highly dispersed cations, and monolayer sites provides an opportunity to tailor their chemical/coordination environments for enhancing visible-light photocatalytic activity and deactivation resistance. The year one research tasks include (1) setting up experimental system, (2) preparing ion-exchanged metal cations, highly dispersed cations, monolayer sites of TiO{sub 2} and CdS, and (3) determination of the dependence of …

During robot path planning and control the equations that describe the robot motions are determined and solved. Historically these expressions were derived analytically off-line. For robots that must adapt to their environment or perform a wide range of tasks, a way is needed to rapidly re-derive these expressions to take into account the robot kinematic changes, such as when a tool is added to the end-effector. The JFKengine software was developed to automatically produce the expressions representing the manipulator arm motion, including the manipulator arm Jacobian and the forward kinematic expressions. Its programming interface can be used in conjunction with robot simulation software or with robot control software. Thus, it helps to automate the process of configuration changes for serial robot manipulators. If the manipulator undergoes a geometric change, such as tool acquisition, then JFKengine can be invoked again from the control or simulation software, passing it parameters for the new arm configuration. This report describes the automated processes that are implemented by JFKengine to derive the kinematic equations and the programming interface by which it is invoked. Then it discusses the tree data structure that was chosen to store the expressions, followed by several examples of portions of expressions …

We employ a novel, ultrafast terahertz probe to investigatethe dynamical interplay of optically-induced excitons and unboundelectron-hole pairs in GaAs quantum wells. Resonant creation ofheavy-hole excitons induces a new low-energy oscillator linked totransitions between the internal exciton degrees of freedom. The timeresolved terahertz optical conductivity is found to be a probe wellsuited for studies of fundamental processes such as formation, relaxationand ionization of excitons.

Roadmapping is a powerful tool to manage technical risks and opportunities associated with complex problems. Roadmapping identifies technical capabilities required for both project- and program-level efforts and provides the basis for plans that ensure the necessary enabling activities will be done when needed. Roadmapping reveals where to focus further development of the path forward by evaluating uncertainties for levels of complexity, impacts, and/or the potential for large payback. Roadmaps can be customized to the application, a “graded approach” if you will. Some roadmaps are less detailed. We have called these less detailed, top-level roadmaps “mini-roadmaps”. These miniroadmaps are created to tie the needed enablers (e.g., technologies, decisions, etc.) to the functions. If it is found during the mini-roadmapping that areas of significant risk exist, then those can be roadmapped further to a lower level of detail. Otherwise, the mini-roadmap may be sufficient to manage the project / program risk. Applying a graded approach to the roadmapping can help keep the costs down. Experience has indicated that it is best to do mini-roadmapping first and then evaluate the risky areas to determine whether to further evaluate those areas. Roadmapping can be especially useful for programs / projects that have participants from …

NERI Project No.2000-0109 began in August 2000 and has three tasks. The first project year addressed Task 1, namely development of nonlinear prognostication for critical equipment in nuclear power facilities. That work is described in the first year's annual report (ORNLTM-2001/195). The current (second) project year (FY02) addresses Task 2, while the third project year will address Tasks 2-3. This report describes the work for the second project year, spanning August 2001 through August 2002, including status of the tasks, issues and concerns, cost performance, and status summary of tasks. The objective of the second project year's work is a compelling demonstration of the nonlinear prognostication algorithm using much more data. The guidance from Dr. Madeline Feltus (DOE/NE-20) is that it would be preferable to show forewarning of failure for different kinds of nuclear-grade equipment, as opposed to many different failure modes from one piece of equipment. Long-term monitoring of operational utility equipment is possible in principle, but is not practically feasible for the following reason. Time and funding constraints for this project do not allow us to monitor the many machines (thousands) that will be necessary to obtain even a few failure sequences, due to low failure rates (<10{sup …

Railroads are important to the U.S. economy. They transport freight efficiently, requiring less energy and emitting fewer pollutants than other modes of surface transportation. While the railroad industry has steadily improved its fuel efficiency--by 16% over the last decade--more can, and needs to, be done. The ability of locomotive manufacturers to conduct research into fuel efficiency and emissions reduction is limited by the small number of locomotives manufactured annually. Each year for the last five years, the two North American locomotive manufacturers--General Electric Transportation Systems and the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors--have together sold about 800 locomotives in the United States. With such a small number of units over which research costs can be spread, outside help is needed to investigate all possible ways to reduce fuel usage and emissions. Because fuel costs represent a significant portion of the total operating costs of a railroad, fuel efficiency has always been an important factor in the design of locomotives and in the operations of a railroad. However, fuel efficiency has recently become even more critical with the introduction of strict emission standards by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to be implemented in stages (Tiers 0, 1, and 2) between 2000 and …

A 3-dimensional coal structural model for the Argonne Premium Coal Pocahontas No. 3 has been generated. The model was constructed based on the wealth of structural information available in the literature with the enhancement that the structural diversity within the structure was represented implicitly (for the first time) based on image analysis of HRTEM in combination with LDMS data. The complex and large structural model (>10,000 carbon atoms) will serve as a basis for examining the interaction of gases within this low volatile bituminous coal. Simulations are of interest to permit reasonable simulations of the host-guest interactions with regard to carbon dioxide sequestration within coal and methane displacement from coal. The molecular structure will also prove useful in examining other coal related behavior such as solvent swelling, liquefaction and other properties. Molecular models of CO{sub 2} have been evaluated with water to analyze which classical molecular force-field parameters are the most reasonable to predict the interactions of CO{sub 2} with water. The comparison of the molecular force field models was for a single CO{sub 2}-H{sub 2}O complex and was compared against first principles quantum mechanical calculations. The interaction energies and the electrostatic interaction distances were used as criteria in the …

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The report presents the results of laboratory measurements performed on The Watt Stopper's LS-201 photosensor at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in January 2003. The purpose of these measurements was to characterize the spatial and spectral response function of the LS-201 photosensor. Sample results of the spectral response and spatial response are shown.

Previously reported stress corrosion cracking (SCC) rates for Alloy 82H gas-tungsten-arc welds tested in 360 C water showed tremendous variability. The excessive data scatter was attributed to the variations in microstructure, mechanical properties and residual stresses that are common in welds. In the current study, however, re-evaluation of the SCC data revealed that the large data scatter was an anomaly due to erroneous crack growth rates inferred from crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) measurements. Apparently, CMOD measurements provided reasonably accurate SCC rates for some specimens, but grossly overestimated rates in others. The overprediction was associated with large unbroken ligaments that often form in welds in the wake of advancing crack fronts. When ligaments were particularly large, they prevented crack mouth deflection, so apparent crack incubation times (i.e. period of time before crack advance commences) based on CMOD measurements were unrealistically long. During the final states of testing, ligaments began to separate allowing the crack mouth to open rather quickly. This behavior was interpreted as a rapid crack advance, but it actually reflects the ligament separation rate, not the SCC rate. Revised crack growth rates obtained in this study exhibit substantially less scatter than that previously reported. The effects of crack …