Memorandum of Meeting at which Mr. H. T. Johnson, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Installations and Environment (ASN (I&E)), met with Mr. Chris Paul, Military Legislative Advisor to Senator John McCain (R. Ariz.), at 1315 in Room 4E523 at the Pentagon. Commander Edward W. Brown, USN, Legislative Liaison; Commander Fred Latrash, USN, Office of Senator John McCain (R. Ariz); Commander Robert E. Vincent 11, JAGC, USN, IAT Recorder; and Captain James A. Noel, USMC, IAT Recorder, were present as well.

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2002, the federal government spent nearly $100 billion on capital investments intended to yield long-term benefits for its own operations. Interested in ensuring that good investment decisions are made, the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Government Efficiency and Financial Management, House Committee on Government Reform, asked GAO to evaluate agency experiences with the capital planning principles embodied in the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Capital Programming Guide and GAO's Executive Guide on leading state, local, and private sector capital investment practices. This report examines selected agencies' implementation of this guidance and OMB's use of long-term capital planning data."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Over the years, the traveling public, flight attendants, and the medical community have raised questions about how airliner cabin air quality contributes to health effects, such as upper respiratory infections. Interest in cabin air quality grew in 2003 when a small number of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) infections may have occurred on board aircraft serving areas that were experiencing outbreaks of the disease. In 2001, a National Research Council report on airliner cabin air quality and associated health effects recommended that additional research be done on the potential health effects of cabin air. GAO reviewed what is known about the health effects of cabin air, the status of actions recommended in the 2001 National Research Council report, and whether available technologies should be required to improve cabin air quality."

BRAC 2005 Intelligence Joint Cross-Service Group Meeting Minutes of January 16, 2004. The document is redacted and includes the BRAC 2005 Military Value Analysis Training Module brief (PowerPoint slides).

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

This report explores in broad terms the relationship between the production of intelligence and the making of policy as reflected in the period prior to the war against Iraq in March 2003 and the implications for Congress.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The goal of this project was to make a first assessment of the major carbon stocks and fluxes and their climatic determinants in a lowland neotropical rain forest, the La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. Our research design was based on the concurrent use of several of the best available approaches, so that data could be cross-validated. A major focus of our effort was to combine meteorological studies of whole-forest carbon exchange (eddy flux), with parallel independent measurements of key components of the forest carbon budget. The eddy flux system operated from February 1998 to February 2001. To obtain field data that could be scaled up to the landscape level, we monitored carbon stocks, net primary productivity components including tree growth and mortality, litterfall, woody debris production, root biomass, and soil respiration in a series of replicated plots stratified across the major environmental gradients of the forest. A second major focus of this project was on the stocks and changes of carbon in the soil. We used isotope studies and intensive monitoring to investigate soil organic stocks and the climate-driven variation of soil respiration down the soil profile, in a set of six 4m deep soil shafts stratified across the …

Two-dimensional full-wave time-dependent simulations in full plasma geometry are presented which show that conventional reflectometry (without a lens) can be used to synthetically image density fluctuations in fusion plasmas under conditions where the parallel correlation length greatly exceeds the poloidal correlation length of the turbulence. The advantage of synthetic imaging is that the image can be produced without the need for a large lens of high optical quality, and each frequency that is launched can be independently imaged. A particularly simple arrangement, consisting of a single receiver located at the midpoint of a microwave beam propagating along the plasma midplane is shown to suffice for imaging purposes. However, as the ratio of the parallel to poloidal correlation length decreases, a poloidal array of receivers needs to be used to synthesize the image with high accuracy. Simulations using DIII-D relevant parameters show the similarity of synthetic and optical imaging in present-day experiments.

(B204)The fundamental motivation for our work is that supernovae are not well understood. Recent observations have clarified the depth of our ignorance, by producing observed phenomena that current theory and computer simulations cannot reproduce. Such theories and simulations involve, however, a number of physical mechanisms that have never been studied in isolation. We perform experiments, in compressible hydrodynamics and radiation hydrodynamics, relevant to supernovae and supernova remnants. These experiments produce phenomena in the laboratory that are believed, based on simulations, to be important to astrophysics but that have not been directly observed in either the laboratory or in an astrophysical system. During the period of this grant, we have focused on the scaling of an astrophysically relevant, radiative-precursor shock, on preliminary studies of collapsing radiative shocks, and on the multimode behavior and the three-dimensional, deeply nonlinear evolution of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability at a decelerating, embedded interface. These experiments required strong compression and decompression, strong shocks (Mach {approx}10 or greater), flexible geometries, and very smooth laser beams, which means that the 60-beam Omega laser is the only facility capable of carrying out this program.

This report describes how Learning-by-Doing (LBD) is implemented endogenously in the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) for generating plants. LBD is experiential learning that correlates to a generating technology's capacity growth. The annual amount of Learning-by-Doing affects the annual overnight cost reduction. Currently, there is no straightforward way to integrate and make sense of all the diffuse information related to the endogenous learning calculation in NEMS. This paper organizes the relevant information from the NEMS documentation, source code, input files, and output files, in order to make the model's logic more accessible. The end results are shown in three ways: in a simple spreadsheet containing all the parameters related to endogenous learning; by an algorithm that traces how the parameters lead to cost reductions; and by examples showing how AEO 2004 forecasts the reduction of overnight costs for generating technologies over time.

Resonant magnetic x-ray scattering from dense self-assemblies of 9-nm diameter epsilon-Co and hcp-Co particles is reported. For lower anisotropy epsilon-Co we find remanent magnetic scattering that is significantly enhanced, indicating preferred inter-particle moment orientations of both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic character. This interaction-mediated collective behavior is consistent with dipolar fields and exists well above the isolated particles blocking temperature where thermal activation is operative, suggesting that magnetostatic super-spin waves exist in such systems.

We present a summary of recent progress on the development and application of adaptive mesh refinement algorithms for low Mach number reacting flows. Our approach uses a form of the low Mach number equations based on a general equation of state that discretely conserves both mass and energy. The discretization methodology is based on a robust projection formulation that accommodates large density contrasts. The algorithm supports modeling of multicomponent systems and incorporates an operator-split treatment of stiff reaction terms. The basic computational approach is embedded in an adaptive projection framework that uses structured hierarchical grids with subcycling in time that preserves the discrete conservation properties of the underlying single-grid algorithm. We present numerical examples illustrating the application of the methodology to turbulent premixed combustion and nuclear flames in type Ia supernovae.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation) was created to help meet community needs and expand educational opportunity by providing education awards to participants. The Corporation oversees and funds the AmeriCorps program as well as the National Service Trust (the Trust), which pays the education awards. From November 2002 to March 2003 the Corporation suspended AmeriCorps enrollments because there would not have been sufficient funds in the Trust to pay education awards. GAO was asked to determine (1) if all AmeriCorps enrollments were accurately recorded, (2) how the Corporation estimated its funding needs, and (3) if the Corporation made changes to prevent another enrollment suspension and to address requirements established in the Strengthen AmeriCorps Program Act. GAO analyzed laws, reviewed documents, interviewed officials, assessed the reliability of the Trust database, examined the model used to estimate funding needs, and surveyed Americorps grantees."

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

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

Funeral program for Mr. Sylvester Jones, Jr., born January 25, 1918. The funeral was held Friday, January 16, 2004 at St. Paul United Methodist Church, officiated by Rev. Terrence Hayes, Pastor. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home and he was buried in Southern Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

Neutron-induced fission cross sections on targets of {sup 236,236m,237,238}Np, {sup 237,237m}Pu, and {sup 240,241,242,242m,243,244,244m}Am have been estimated for incident neutron energies of up to 6 MeV, using the ''surrogate'' technique and the ({sup 3}He,df) and ({sup 3}He,tf) reactions on stable targets to measure fission probabilities. In isotopes where low-lying isomeric states are known to exist, the (n,f) cross section on the corresponding isomeric targets has been estimated, using the surrogate technique. For targets of {sup 237}Np, {sup 241}Am, {sup 242m}Am, {sup 243}Am, measurements of the (n,f) cross section exist, and comparison with the surrogate-method results suggests that the (n,f) cross sections estimated by the surrogate technique are reliable to within 10% for incident neutron energies E{sub n}{approx}>2 MeV. Tabulated values of the estimated (n,f) cross sections are given in an appendix.

Nitrate is the number one drinking water contaminant in the United States. It is pervasive in surface and groundwater systems, and its principal anthropogenic sources have increased dramatically in the last 50 years. In California alone, one third of the public drinking-water wells has been lost since 1988 and nitrate contamination is the most common reason for abandonment. Effective nitrate management in groundwater is complicated by uncertainties related to multiple point and non-point sources, hydrogeologic complexity, geochemical reactivity, and quantification of dentrification processes. In this paper, we review an integrated experimental and simulation-based framework being developed to study the fate of nitrate in a 25 km-long groundwater subbasin south of San Jose, California, a historically agricultural area now undergoing rapid urbanization with increasing demands for groundwater. The modeling approach is driven by a need to integrate new and archival data that support the hypothesis that nitrate fate and transport at the basin scale is intricately related to hydrostratigraphic complexity, variability of flow paths and groundwater residence times, microbial activity, and multiple geochemical reaction mechanisms. This study synthesizes these disparate and multi-scale data into a three-dimensional and highly resolved reactive transport modeling framework.

This report is a guide to the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act (P.L. 108-83).

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The microstructural evolution of high purity steel under irradiation is modeled including a dislocation density that evolves simultaneously with void nucleation and growth. The predicted void swelling trends versus temperature, flux, and time are compared to experiment and to earlier calculations with a fixed dislocation density. The behavior is further analyzed within a simplified picture of segregation of irradiation defects to microstructural sinks. Agreement with experimental swelling behavior improves when dislocations co-evolve with the void content versus simulations with a fixed dislocation density. The time-dependent dislocation content dictates the rate of void nucleation and shapes the overall void size distribution so as to give steady swelling behavior over long times.

Despite the rapid combustion typically experienced in Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), components in fuel mixtures do not ignite in unison or burn equally. In our experiments and modeling of blends of diethyl ether (DEE) and ethanol (EtOH), the DEE led combustion and proceeded further toward completion, as indicated by {sup 14}C isotope tracing. A numerical model of HCCI combustion of DEE and EtOH mixtures supports the isotopic findings. Although both approaches lacked information on incompletely combusted intermediates plentiful in HCCI emissions, the numerical model and {sup 14}C tracing data agreed within the limitations of the single zone model. Despite the fact that DEE is more reactive than EtOH in HCCI engines, they are sufficiently similar that we did not observe a large elongation of energy release or significant reduction in inlet temperature required for light-off, both desired effects for the combustion event. This finding suggests that, in general, HCCI combustion of fuel blends may have preferential combustion of some of the blend components.

Networks have recently emerged as a unifying theme in complex systems research [1]. It is in fact no coincidence that networks and complexity are so heavily intertwined. Any future definition of a complex system should reflect the fact that such systems consist of many mutually interacting components. These components are far from being identical as say electrons in systems studied by condensed matter physics. In a truly complex system each of them has a unique identity allowing one to separate it from the others. The very first question one may ask about such a system is which other components a given component interacts with? This information system wide can be visualized as a graph, whose nodes correspond to individual components of the complex system in question and edges to their mutual interactions. Such a network can be thought of as a backbone of the complex system. Of course, system's dynamics depends not only on the topology of an underlying network but also on the exact form of interaction of components with each other, which can be very different in various complex systems. However, the underlying network may contain clues about the basic design principles and/or evolutionary history of the complex …