This report provides a brief description of the substantive criminal law and procedures provisions of the House-passed version of H.R. 10 and Senate passed S.2845.

A new approach to the study of material strength of metals at extreme pressures has been developed on the Omega laser, using a ramped plasma piston drive. The laser drives a shock through a solid plastic reservoir that unloads at the rear free surface, expands across a vacuum gap, and stagnates on the metal sample under study. This produces a gently increasing ram pressure, compressing the sample nearly isentropically. The peak pressure on the sample, inferred from VISAR measurements of velocity, can be varied by adjusting the laser energy and pulse length, gap size, and reservoir density, and obeys a simple scaling relation. In an important application, using in-flight x-ray radiography, the material strength of solid-state samples at high pressure can be inferred by measuring the reductions in the growth rates (stabilization) of Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) unstable interfaces. This paper reports the first attempt to use this new laser-driven, quasi-isentropic technique for determining material strength in high-pressure solids. Modulated foils of Al-6061-T6 were accelerated and compressed to peak pressures of 200 kbar. Modulation growth was recorded at a series of times after peak acceleration and well into the release phase. Fits to the growth data, using a Steinberg-Guinan (SG) constitutive strength …

We present a proposal for lowering the overhead of interface contract checking for science and engineering applications. Run-time enforcement of assertions is a well-known technique for improving the quality of software; however, the performance penalty is often too high for their retention during deployment, especially for long-running applications that depend upon iterative operations. With an efficient adaptive approach the benefits of run-time checking can continue to accrue with minimal overhead. Examples from scientific software interfaces being developed in the high performance computing research community will be used to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of this approach.

Horizontal path correction of optical beam propagation presents a severe challenge to adaptive optics systems due to the short transverse coherence length and the high degree of scintillation incurred by propagation along these paths. The system presented operates with nearly monochromatic light. It does not require a global reconstruction of the phase, thereby eliminating issues with branch points and making its performance relatively unaffected by scintillation. The systems pixel count, 1024, and relatively high correction speed, in excess of 800 Hz, enable its use for correction of horizontal path beam propagation. We present results from laboratory and field tests of the system in which we have achieved Strehl ratios greater than 0.5.

Dr. Dragt of the University of Maryland is one of the Institutional Principal Investigators for the SciDAC Accelerator Modeling Project Advanced Computing for 21st Century Accelerator Science and Technology whose principal investigators are Dr. Kwok Ko (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) and Dr. Robert Ryne (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory). This report covers the activities of Dr. Dragt while at Berkeley during spring 2002 and at Maryland during fall 2003.

This report discusses the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which seeks to spur economic development and help integrate Africa into the world trading system by granting trade preferences and other benefits to Sub-Saharan African countries that meet certain criteria relating to market reform and human rights.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) multibillion-dollar effort to modernize the nation's air traffic control (ATC) system has resulted in cost, schedule, and performance shortfalls for over two decades and has been on GAO's list of high-risk federal programs since 1995. According to FAA, performance shortfalls were due, in part, to restrictions imposed by federal acquisition and personnel regulations. In response, Congress granted FAA exemptions in 1995 and directed it to develop a new acquisition management system. In this report, GAO compared FAA's AMS with (1) the FAR and (2) commercial best practices for major acquisitions, and (3) examined FAA's implementation of AMS and its progress in resolving problems with major acquisitions."

Ophir Corporation was awarded a contract by the U. S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory under the Project Title ''Airborne, Optical Remote Sensing of Methane and Ethane for Natural Gas Pipeline Leak Detection'' on October 14, 2002. The third six-month technical report contains a summary of the progress made towards finalizing the design and assembling the airborne, remote methane and ethane sensor. The vendor has been chosen and is on contract to develop the light source with the appropriate linewidth and spectral shape to best utilize the Ophir gas correlation software. Ophir has expanded upon the target reflectance testing begun in the previous performance period by replacing the experimental receiving optics with the proposed airborne large aperture telescope, which is theoretically capable of capturing many times more signal return. The data gathered from these tests has shown the importance of optimizing the fiber optic receiving fiber to the receiving optic and has helped Ophir to optimize the design of the gas cells and narrowband optical filters. Finally, Ophir will discuss remaining project issues that may impact the success of the project.

Aluminum can promote formation or dissolution of networks in hydroxide solid solutions. When present in large amounts it will act as a network former increasing both the viscosity and the surface tension of melts. This translates into poor free flow properties that affect pour rate of glass production in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). To mitigate this situation, DWPF operations limit the amount of aluminum contained in sludge. This study investigated the leaching of aluminum compounds from archived sludge samples. The conclusions found boehmite present as the predominant aluminum compound in sludge from two tanks. We did not identify an aluminum compound in sludge from the third tank. We did not detect any amorphous aluminum hydroxide in the samples. The amount of goethite measured 4.2 percentage weight while hematite measured 3.7 percentage weight in Tank 11H sludge. The recommended recipe for removing gibbsite in sludge proved inefficient for digesting boehmite, removing less than 50 per cent of the compound within 48 hours. The recipe did remove boehmite when the test ran for 10 days (i.e., 7 more days than the recommended baseline leaching period). Additions of fluoride and phosphate to Tank 12H archived sludge did not improve the aluminum …

Various large-scale neutron sources already build or to be constructed, are important for materials research and life science research. For all these neutron sources, neutron detectors are very important aspect. However, there is a lack of a high-performance and low-cost neutron beam monitor that provides time and temporal resolution. The objective of this SBIR Phase I research, collaboratively performed by Midwest Optoelectronics, LLC (MWOE), the University of Toledo (UT) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), is to demonstrate the feasibility for amorphous silicon based neutron beam monitors that are pixilated, reliable, durable, fully packaged, and fabricated with high yield using low-cost method. During the Phase I effort, work as been focused in the following areas: 1) Deposition of high quality, low-defect-density, low-stress a-Si films using very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (VHF PECVD) at high deposition rate and with low device shunting; 2) Fabrication of Si/SiO2/metal/p/i/n/metal/n/i/p/metal/SiO2/ device for the detection of alpha particles which are daughter particles of neutrons through appropriate nuclear reactions; and 3) Testing of various devices fabricated for alpha and neutron detection; As the main results: · High quality, low-defect-density, low-stress a-Si films have been successfully deposited using VHF PECVD on various low-cost substrates; · …

LOCO is a code for analysis of the linear optics in astorage ring based on the closed orbit response to steering magnets. Theanalysis provides information on focusing errors, BPM gain and rotationerrors,and local coupling. Here, we report the results of an applicationof LOCO to the KEK-ATF. Although the analysis appears to have provideduseful information on the optics of the machine, it appears that one ofthe main aims of the study to reduce the vertical emittance by correctingthe local coupling was not successful, and we discuss some possiblereasons for this.

This report is on Anti-Tax-Shelter and Other revenue-raising Tax Proposals.

This report is a guide to appropriations of Department of Homeland Security for FY2004.

This report discusses the accomplishments of the environmental protection program at Argonne National Laboratory-East (ANL-E) for calendar year 2003. The status of ANL-E environmental protection activities with respect to compliance with the various laws and regulations is discussed, along with the progress of environmental corrective actions and restoration projects. To evaluate the effects of ANL-E operations on the environment, samples of environmental media collected on the site, at the site boundary, and off the ANL-E site were analyzed and compared with applicable guidelines and standards. A variety of radionuclides were measured in air, surface water, on-site groundwater, and bottom sediment samples. In addition, chemical constituents in surface water, groundwater, and ANL-E effluent water were analyzed. External penetrating radiation doses were measured, and the potential for radiation exposure to off-site population groups was estimated. Results are interpreted in terms of the origin of the radioactive and chemical substances (i.e., natural, fallout, ANL-E, and other) and are compared with applicable environmental quality standards. A U.S. Department of Energy dose calculation methodology, based on International Commission on Radiological Protection recommendations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's CAP-88 (Clean Air Act Assessment Package-1988) computer code, was used in preparing this report.

This report discusses the accomplishments of the environmental protection program at Argonne National Laboratory-East (ANL-E) for calendar year 2003. The status of ANL-E environmental protection activities with respect to compliance with the various laws and regulations is discussed, along with the progress of environmental corrective actions and restoration projects. To evaluate the effects of ANL-E operations on the environment, samples of environmental media collected on the site, at the site boundary, and off the ANL-E site were analyzed and compared with applicable guidelines and standards. A variety of radionuclides were measured in air, surface water, on-site groundwater, and bottom sediment samples. In addition, chemical constituents in surface water, groundwater, and ANL-E effluent water were analyzed. External penetrating radiation doses were measured, and the potential for radiation exposure to off-site population groups was estimated. Results are interpreted in terms of the origin of the radioactive and chemical substances (i.e., natural, fallout, ANL-E, and other) and are compared with applicable environmental quality standards. A U.S. Department of Energy dose calculation methodology, based on International Commission on Radiological Protection recommendations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's CAP-88 (Clean Air Act Assessment Package-1988) computer code, was used in preparing this report.

This report covers the creation of the Asian Development Bank and it's relationship with the United States government.

The purpose of this model report is to provide documentation of the conceptual and mathematical model (ASHPLUME) for atmospheric dispersal and subsequent deposition of ash on the land surface from a potential volcanic eruption at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This report also documents the ash (tephra) redistribution conceptual model. The ASHPLUME conceptual model accounts for incorporation and entrainment of waste fuel particles associated with a hypothetical volcanic eruption through the Yucca Mountain repository and downwind transport of contaminated tephra. The ASHPLUME mathematical model describes the conceptual model in mathematical terms to allow for prediction of radioactive waste/ash deposition on the ground surface given that the hypothetical eruptive event occurs. This model report also describes the conceptual model for tephra redistribution from a basaltic cinder cone. Sensitivity analyses and model validation activities for the ash dispersal and redistribution models are also presented. Analyses documented in this model report will improve and clarify the previous documentation of the ASHPLUME mathematical model and its application to the Total System Performance Assessment (TSPA) for the License Application (TSPA-LA) igneous scenarios. This model report also documents the redistribution model product outputs based on analyses to support the conceptual model.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Securing commercial aviation is a daunting task--with hundreds of airports and thousands of flights daily carrying millions of passengers and pieces of baggage. In an effort to strengthen the security of commercial aviation, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created and charged with making numerous enhancements to aviation security, including federalizing passenger and baggage screening and screening checked baggage using explosive detection systems. To assess the progress of passenger and baggage screening operations, GAO was asked to describe TSA's efforts to (1) hire and deploy passenger and baggage screeners, (2) train the screening workforce, (3) measure screener performance in detecting threat objects, and (4) leverage and deploy screening equipment and technologies."

We report the first observations of the fourth harmonic (v{sub 4}) in the azimuthal distribution of particles at RHIC. The measurement was done taking advantage of the large elliptic flow generated at RHIC. The integrated v{sub 4} is about a factor of 10 smaller than v{sub 2}. For the sixth (v{sub 6}) and eighth (v{sub 8}) harmonics upper limits on the magnitudes are reported.

The Fermilab Tevatron (p{bar p}), operating at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV, is a rich source of B hadrons. The large acceptance in terms of rapidity and transverse momentum of the charged particle tracking system and the muon system make the upgraded Run II D0 detector an excellent tool for B physics. In this article, we report on selected physics results based on the first 250 pb{sup -1} of Run II data. This includes results on the X(3872) state, semileptonic B decays, B hadron lifetimes, flavour oscillations, and the rare decay B{sub s} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -}.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 2002, the United States experienced one of the worst wildland fire seasons in the past 50 years--almost 7 million acres burned. These fires included the largest and costliest fire in Oregon in the past century--the Biscuit Fire. Following a lightning storm, five fires were discovered in the Siskiyou National Forest over a 3- day period beginning July 13. These fires eventually burned together to form the Biscuit Fire, which burned nearly 500,000 acres in southern Oregon and Northern California and cost over $150 million to extinguish. GAO evaluated (1) whether policies and procedures were in place for acquiring needed firefighting resources during the initial days of the Biscuit Fire, and the extent to which these policies and procedures were followed when the fire was first identified; (2) what resource management issues, if any, affected the ability of personnel to fight the fire; and (3) what differences, if any, existed in key certification standards for personnel among federal and state agencies and whether these differences affected efforts to respond to the fire. In commenting on a draft of this report, the Forest Service stated that the …

Four new Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) groundwater monitoring wells were installed at the single-shell tank farm Waste Management Area (WMA) C in fiscal year 2003 to fulfill commitments for well installations proposed in the draft Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order milestone M-24-00. Well 299-E27-22, installed upgradient, was drilled through the entire uppermost unconfined aquifer to the basalt and wells 299-E27-4, 299-E27-21 and 299-E27-23 were drilled approximately 40 feet into the uppermost unconfined aquifer and installed downgradient of the WMA. Specific objectives for these wells include monitoring the impact, if any, that potential releases from inside the WMA may have on current groundwater conditions (i.e., improved network coverage) and differentiating upgradient groundwater contamination from contaminants released at the WMA. This report supplies the information obtained during drilling, characterization, and installation of the four new groundwater monitoring wells. This document also provides a compilation of hydrogeologic and well construction information obtained during drilling, well development, aquifer testing, and sample collection/analysis activities.

The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) January 2004 budget report for FY2005 (the Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2005-2014) estimated the FY2005 baseline deficit at $362 billion. CBO’s report provided estimates of the costs of selected alternative policies (measured from the baseline), such as estimates of the cost of extending the tax cuts, reforming the AMT, and discretionary spending growing at various rates.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been grappling with modernizing its computer systems for many years. IRS's current program, commonly referred to as Business Systems Modernization (BSM), began in fiscal year 1999; about $1.4 billion has been reported spent on it to date. While progress has been made, the program continues to face significant challenges and risks. In recognition of these risks, IRS and a contractor recently completed several comprehensive assessments of BSM, including one of its Customer Account Data Engine (CADE) project, which is to modernize the agency's outdated data management system. At the request of the Subcommittee on Oversight, House Committee on Ways and Means, GAO's testimony will summarize (1) GAO's prior findings and recommendations, along with those of the recent assessments; and (2) actions IRS has taken or plans to take to address these issues."