The automated production of maps of human settlement from recent satellite images is essential to detailed studies of urbanization, population movement, and the like. Commercial satellite imagery is becoming available with sufficient spectral and spatial resolution to apply computer vision techniques previously considered only for laboratory (high resolution, low noise) images. In this project, we extracted the boundaries of human settlements from IKONOS 4-band and panchromatic images using spectral segmentation together with a form of generalized second-order statistics and detection of edges and corners.

This report provides basic information on congressional salaries and allowances. First, the report briefly summarizes the current salary of Members of Congress, limits on their outside earned income and honoraria, and applicable health insurance and retirement benefits.

In 1999, the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a Cooperative Agreement to Texaco Energy Systems Inc. to provide a preliminary engineering design of an Early Entrance Coproduction Plant (EECP). Since the award, continuous and diligent work has been undertaken to achieve the design of an economical facility that makes strides toward attaining the goal of DOE's Vision 21 Program. The objective of the EECP is to convert coal and/or petroleum coke to power while coproducing transportation fuels, chemicals, and useful utilities such as steam. This objective is being pursued in a three-phase effort through the partnership of the DOE with prime contractor Texaco Energy Systems, LLC. (TES), the successor to Texaco Energy Systems, Inc. The key subcontractors to TES include General Electric (GE), Praxair, and Kellogg Brown and Root. ChevronTexaco provided gasification technology and Rentech Inc.'s Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) technology that has been developed for non-natural gas sources. GE provided gas turbine technology for the combustion of low energy content gas. Praxair provided air separation technology and KBR provided engineering to integrate the facility. A conceptual design was completed in Phase I and the report was accepted by the DOE in May 2001. The Phase I work identified risks …

The overall objective of this project is the three phase development of an Early Entrance Coproduction Plant (EECP) which uses petroleum coke to produce at least one product from at least two of the following three categories: (1) electric power (or heat), (2) fuels, and (3) chemicals. The objective is to have these products produced by technologies capable of using synthesis gas derived from coal and/or other carbonaceous feedstocks. The objectives of Phase I were to determine the feasibility and define the concept for the EECP located at a specific site; develop a Research, Development, and Testing (RD&T) Plan for implementation in Phase II; and prepare a Preliminary Project Financing Plan. The objective of Phase II is to implement the work as outlined in the Phase I RD&T Plan to enhance the development and commercial acceptance of coproduction technology that produces high-value products, particularly those that are critical to our domestic fuel and power requirements. The work performed under Phase II will resolve critical knowledge and technology gaps on the integration of gasification and downstream processing to coproduce some combination of power, fuels, and chemicals from coal and/or other carbonaceous feedstocks. The objective of Phase III is to develop an …

This note reports results from a simulation of 100k events for one example of a minimal SUGRA supersymmetry case at the LHC using full simulation of the ATLAS detector. It was carried out as part ATLAS Data Challenge 1.

While numerous techniques exist for remediation of contaminant plumes in groundwater or near the soil surface, remediation methods in the deep vadose zone are less established due to complex transport dynamics and sparse microbial populations. There is a lack of knowledge on how physical and hydrologic features of the vadose zone control microbial growth and colonization in response to nutrient delivery during bioremediation. Yet pollution in the vadose zone poses a serious threat to the groundwater resources lying deeper in the sediment. While the contaminants may be slowly degraded by native microbial communities, microbial degradation rates rarely keep pace with the spread of the pollutant. It is crucial to increase indigenous microbial degradation in the vadose zone to combat groundwater contamination.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Over the last decade, the Congress has made significant changes in numerous federal programs that support low-income families, including changes that have shifted program emphases from providing cash assistance to providing services that promote employment and economic independence. As a result of some of the federal policy changes, the support system is more decentralized than before. This heightens the importance of understanding policy choices and practices at the state and local levels as well as those at the federal level. To provide the Congress with information on this system, GAO agreed to address the following questions: (1) To what extent do states provide supports for lowincome families? (2) How have states structured programs to support low-income families? (3) What changes have states made to supports for low-income families in recent years? Our review focused primarily on supports for which states make many of the key decisions about eligibility, benefit amounts, and service provision. To obtain this information, GAO conducted a mail survey of the social service directors in the 50 states and the District of Columbia; conducted site visits in New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington, …

In order to perform quantitative gamma spectroscopy, it is necessary to know the sample-specific detection efficiency for photons as a function of energy. The detection efficiency, along with the branching ratio for the isotope and gamma ray of interest, is used to convert observed counts/second to actual disintegrations/second, and, hence, has a large effect on the accuracy of the measurement. In cases where the geometry of the source is simple and reproducible, such as a point source, small vial of solid, or jar of liquid, geometry-specific standards may be counted to determine the detection efficiency. In cases where the samples are large, irregular, or unique, this method generally cannot be used. For example, it is impossible to obtain a NIST-traceable standard glovebox or 55-gallon drum. In these cases, a combination of measured absolute detector efficiency and calculated sample-specific correction factors is commonly used. The correction factors may be calculated via Monte Carlo simulation of the item (the method used by Canberra's ISOCS system), or via semi-empirical calculation of matrix and container attenuations based on the thickness and composition of the container and radioactive matrix (ISOTOPIC by EG&G Ortec uses this method). The accuracy of these correction factors for specific geometries …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Distance education--that is, offering courses by Internet, video, or other forms outside the classroom--has changed considerably in recent years and is a growing force in postsecondary education. More than a decade ago, concerns about fraud and abuse by some correspondence schools led to federal restrictions on, among other things, the percentage of courses a school could provide by distance education and still qualify for federal student aid. Given the recent changes in distance education, GAO was asked to review the extent to which the restrictions affect schools' ability to offer federal student aid and the Department of Education's assessment of the continued appropriateness of the restrictions. Additionally, GAO was asked to look at the extent to which accrediting agencies evaluate distance education programs, including their approach for assessing student outcomes."

This report provides the regulations and policies and changes by the Bureau of Land Management.

The purpose of this calculation is to analyze the stability of repository non-emplacement drifts during the preclosure period, and to provide a final ground support method for non-emplacement drifts for the License Application (LA). This calculation will provide input for the development of LA documents. The scope of this calculation is limited to the non-emplacement drifts including access mains, ramps, exhaust mains, turnouts, intersections between access mains and turnouts, and intersections between exhaust mains and emplacement drifts, portals, TBM launch chambers, observation drift and test alcove in the performance confirmation (PC) facilities, etc. The calculation is limited to the non-emplacement drifts subjected to a combined loading of in-situ stress, seismic stress, and/or thermal stress. Other effects such as hydrological and chemical effects are not considered in this analysis.

This report provides Head Start issues on the 108th congress, a federal program that has provided comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children since 1965.

This report discusses significant legislative provisions in the two principal bills that are likely to be the subject of congressional discussion in the coming weeks and months to reauthorize federal highway, highway safety, and transit programs.

The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, inhabited by the Arikara, Mandan and Hidatsa Tribes (now united to form the Three Affiliated Tribes) covers a total area of 1530 mi{sup 2} (980,000 acres). The Reservation is located approximately 15 miles east of the depocenter of the Williston basin, and to the southeast of a major structural feature and petroleum producing province, the Nesson anticline. Several published studies document the widespread existence of mature source rocks, favorable reservoir/caprock combinations, and production throughout the Reservation and surrounding areas indicating high potential for undiscovered oil and gas resources. This technical assessment was performed to better define the oil exploration opportunity, and stimulate exploration and development activities for the benefit of the Tribes. The need for this assessment is underscored by the fact that, despite its considerable potential, there is currently no meaningful production on the Reservation, and only 2% of it is currently leased. Of particular interest (and the focus of this study) is the area under the Lake Sakakawea (formed as result of the Garrison Dam). This 'reservoir taking' area, which has never been drilled, encompasses an area of 150,000 acres, and represents the largest contiguous acreage block under control of the Tribes. Furthermore, …

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 required GAO to study the potential effects of requiring public companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to periodically rotate the public accounting firms that audit their financial statements. On November 21, 2003, GAO issued its report entitled Public Accounting Firms: Required Study on the Potential Effects of Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation (GAO-04-216). This supplemental report contains a copy of each questionnaire used in our study, annotated to show summary responses for each question and selected comments from respondents. GAO is issuing this supplemental report to provide additional detail on the responses to our surveys on the potential effects of mandatory audit firm rotation and to facilitate future research efforts in performing studies related to these matters."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In August 2000, the Defense Department's (DOD) Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), made 50 recommendations on a test program for a system to defeat long-range ballistic missile threats against the United States. DOD's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to begin fielding the system by September 2004. GAO examined (1) how MDA addressed DOT&E's recommendations and (2) what is known about the effectiveness of the system to be fielded by September 2004. GAO issued a classified report on this subject in June 2003. This unclassified, updated version reflects changes in MDA's test schedule."

The River Protection Project -Waste Treatment Plant (RPP-WTP) will be performing cesium removal from Hanford tank waste supernatants using SuperLig 644 resin. These elutable resins will be used multiple times to process large volumes of radioactive waste samples and will be subjected to chemical and radiation degradation during use at the waste treatment plant (WTP). The RPP-WTP process design assumes that resin batches can be used a minimum of 10 cycles before the resin must be replaced due to degradation. The effects of radiation and chemical degradation on SuperLig 644 and 639 resins were separately studied in the past under static conditions, i.e., in contact with air, water, and simulated waste solutions. To determine the chemical degradation effects under dynamic or column conditions, Battelle, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and IBC Advanced Technologies conducted multiple load/elute/regenerate cycles with simulated Hanford waste samples. Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) was contracted to demonstrate the performance of SuperLig 644 and 639 resins to treat repetitively radioactive waste solutions. Six cycles of loading, elution, and regeneration were performed to remove cesium from a Hanford waste sample. Five load/elute/regenerate cycles were carried out to remove technetium from cesium-depleted effluent solutions. The multiple load/elute/regenerate cycles demonstrated …

The National Research Council [1] identified the entrapment of contaminants in fine-grained clay-bearing soils as a major impediment to the timely and cost-effective remediation of groundwater to regulatory standards. Contaminants trapped in low-permeability, low-diffusivity, high-sorptivity clays are not accessible to advective flushing by treatment fluids from permeable zones, and slowly diffuse out to recontaminate previously cleaned permeable strata. We propose to overcome this barrier to effective remediation by exploiting the ability of certain nontoxic EPA-approved chemicals (e.g., ethanol) to shrink and alter the fabric of clays, and thereby create macro-porosity and crack networks in fine-grained sediments. This would significantly reduce the distance and time scales of diffusive mass transport to advectively flushed boundaries, to yield orders of magnitude reduction in the time required to complete remediation. Given that effective solutions to this central problem of subsurface remediation do not yet exist, the cost and time benefits of successful deployment of this novel concept, both as a stand-alone technology and as an enabling pre-treatment for other remedial technologies that rely on advective delivery, is likely to be very large. This project, funded as a 1-year feasibility study by LLNL's LDRD Program, is a multi-directorate, multi-disciplinary effort that leverages expertise from the …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In its fiscal year 2004 budget request to Congress, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (the Board) proposed the elimination of 17 Central and Eastern European language services managed by the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in order to free resources for higher-priority initiatives such as the war on terrorism. GAO was asked to examine (1) how the Board determines which language services should be proposed for reduction or termination and (2) the extent to which local media conditions are considered before a termination proposal is made. In addition, GAO's report provides summary analysis and conclusions relating to the media conditions in three countries impacted by the Board's language service termination decisions."

There has been superb progress in understanding the neutrino sector of elementary particle physics in the past few years. It is now widely recognized that the possibility exists for a rich program of measuring CP violation and matter effects in future accelerator {nu} experiments, which has led to intense efforts to consider new programs at neutrino superbeams, off-axis detectors, neutrino factories and beta beams. However, the possibility of measuring CP violation can be fulfilled only if the value of the neutrino mixing parameter {theta}{sub 13} is such that sin{sup 2} (2{theta}{sub 13}) greater than or equal to on the order of 0.01. The authors of this white paper are an International Working Group of physicists who believe that a timely new experiment at a nuclear reactor sensitive to the neutrino mixing parameter {theta}{sub 13} in this range has a great opportunity for an exciting discovery, a non-zero value to {theta}{sub 13}. This would be a compelling next step of this program. We are studying possible new reactor experiments at a variety of sites around the world, and we have collaborated to prepare this document to advocate this idea and describe some of the issues that are involved.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is currently one of the most active electric utility companies in deploying fuel cell technology. Fuel cells offer many benefits and are now used as an alternative to traditional internal combustion engines in power generation. In continuing it's role as the leader in fuel cell deploying, LADWP installed a Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell (PAFC) in February 2002 at its Main Street service center. The goal of this project is to evaluate the PAFC's performance and cost benefits. This will provide LADWP an insight for future deployment of fuel cell technology. The fuel cell ran smoothly through the first year of operation with very high efficiency and availability, and only with some minor setbacks. The Main street fuel cell project is funded by LADWP with partial grant funding from the Department of Defense's Climate Change Fuel Cell Buydown Program. The technical evaluation and the benefit-cost evaluation of the Main Street fuel cell are both examined in this report.

This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and three territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each profile identifies the more significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. This report focuses on the state of Colorado.

OAK-B135 Flow-induced vibration in heat exchangers has been a major cause of concern in the nuclear industry for several decades. Many incidents of failure of heat exchangers due to apparent flow-induced vibration have been reported through the USNRC incident reporting system. Almost all heat exchangers have to deal with this problem during their operation. The phenomenon has been studied since the 1970s and the database of experimental studies on flow-induced vibration is constantly updated with new findings and improved design criteria for heat exchangers. In the nuclear industry, steam generators are often affected by this problem. However, flow-induced vibration is not limited to nuclear power plants, but to any type of heat exchanger used in many industrial applications such as chemical processing, refrigeration and air conditioning. Specifically, shell and tube type heat exchangers experience flow-induced vibration due to the high velocity flow over the tube banks. Flow-induced vibration in these heat exchangers leads to equipment breakdown and hence expensive repair and process shutdown. The goal of this research is to provide accurate measurements that can help modelers to validate their models using the measured experimental parameters and thereby develop better design criteria for avoiding fluid-elastic instability in heat exchangers. The …