Under anaerobic conditions and at circumneutral pH, cells of the widely-distributed, obligate chemolithoautotrophic bacterium Thiobacillus denitrificans oxidatively dissolved synthetic and biogenic U(IV) oxides (uraninite) in nitrate-dependent fashion: U(IV) oxidation required the presence of nitrate and was strongly correlated to nitrate consumption. This is the first report of anaerobic U(IV) oxidation by an autotrophic bacterium.

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This report surveys the econemetric literature on oil shocks to provide quantitative estimates of how large an effect oil price changes have on economic activity.

Understanding and predicting the behavior of high-Z non-LTE plasmas is important for developing indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion. Extending earlier work from the Nova laser, we present results from experiments using the Omega laser to study the ionization balance of gold as a function of electron and radiation temperature. In these experiments, gold samples embedded in Be disks expand under direct laser heating to n{sub e} {approx} 10{sup 21} cm{sup -3}, with T{sub e} varying from 0.8 to 2.5 keV. An additional finite radiation field with effective temperature T{sub r} up to 150 eV is provided by placing the gold-Be disks inside truncated 1.2 mm diameter tungsten-coated cylindrical hohlraums with full laser entrance holes. Densities are measured by imaging of plasma expansion. Electron temperatures are diagnosed with either 2 {omega} or 4 {omega} Thomson scattering, and also K-shell spectroscopy of KCl tracers co-mixed with the gold. Hohlraum flux and effective radiation temperature are measured using an absolutely-calibrated multichannel filtered diode array. Spectroscopic measurements of the M-shell gold emission in the 2.9-4 keV spectral range provide ionization balance and charge state distribution information. The spectra show strong variation with T{sub e}, strong variation with the applied T{sub r} at T{sub e} below …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Members of the Congress and governmental experts have expressed repeated interest in examining the overlapping and fragmented functions and activities of the federal government. As a first-level look at potential overlap and fragmentation, the Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization, House Committee on Government Reform, asked GAO to present information on which federal agencies spend funds in which federal mission areas. This report examines federal spending through two commonly used analytical approaches--budget functions and object classifications."

This report provides information related to the fishery, aquaculture, and marine mammal legislation in the 108th Congress.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "From 1993 through 2002, the Department of Defense (DOD) delivered over $150 billion in services and defense articles, including classified and controlled items, to foreign countries through foreign military sales programs administered by the military. Foreign countries may request items using blanket orders, which are for a specific dollar value and are used to simplify supply actions on certain types of items. GAO was asked to review whether the Navy's key internal controls restricted blanket orders for (1) classified spare parts and (2) controlled items sold to foreign countries. Also, GAO was asked to determine if periodic tests were conducted to ensure that the Navy's system is working as intended."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Established in March 2002, the Homeland Security Advisory System was designed to disseminate information on the risk of terrorist acts to federal agencies, states, localities, and the public. However, these entities have raised questions about the threat information they receive from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the costs they incurred as a result of responding to heightened alerts. This report examines (1) the decision making process for changing the advisory system national threat level; (2) information sharing with federal agencies, states, and localities, including the applicability of risk communication principles; (3) protective measures federal agencies, states, and localities implemented during high (codeorange) alert periods; (4) costs federal agencies reported for those periods; and (5) state and local cost information collected by DHS."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Human capital offices have traditionally used alternative service delivery (ASD)--the use of other than internal staff to provide a service or to deliver a product--as a way to reduce costs for transaction-based services. GAO was asked to identify which human capital activities agencies were selecting for ASD, the reasons why, how they were managing the process, and some of the lessons they had learned. Eight agencies were selected to provide illustrative examples of ASD use."

This report describes a signal processing algorithm and MATLAB software for improving spatial resolution in ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) imaging of materials. Given a measured reflection signal and an associated reference signal, the algorithm produces an optimal least-squares estimate of the impulse response of the material under test. This estimated impulse response, when used in place of the raw reflection signal, enhances the spatial resolution of the ultrasonic measurements by removing distortion caused by the limited-bandwidth transducers and the materials under test. The theory behind the processing algorithms is briefly presented, while the reader is referred to the bibliography for details. The main focus of the report is to describe how to use the MATLAB software. Two processing examples using actual ultrasonic measurements are provided for tutorial purposes.

This account of the beginning of the program on laser fusion at Livermore in 1962, and its subsequent development during the decade ending in 1972, was originally prepared as a contribution to the January 1991 symposium 'Achievements in Physics' honoring Professor Keith Brueckner upon his retirement from the University of San Diego at La Jolla. It is a personal recollection of work at Livermore from my vantage point as its scientific leader, and of events elsewhere that I thought significant. This period was one of rapid growth in which the technology of high-power short-pulse lasers needed to drive the implosion of thermonuclear fuel to the temperature and density needed for ignition was developed, and in which the physics of the interaction of intense light with plasmas was explored both theoretically and experimentally.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) and subsequent legislation authorized about $8.3 billion in guaranteed funding for the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) New Starts program, which funds fixed guideway transit projects, such as rail and trolley projects, through FFGAs. GAO assessed the New Starts process for the fiscal year 2005 cycle. GAO identified (1) the number of projects that were evaluated, rated, and proposed for new FFGAs and how recent changes to the process were reflected in ratings; (2) the proposed funding commitments in the administration's budget request and legislative reauthorization proposals; and (3) the extent to which amounts appropriated since 1998 fulfilled FFGAs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Medicare covers about 90 percent of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), the permanent loss of kidney function. Most ESRD patients receive regular hemodialysis treatments, a process that removes toxins from the blood, at a dialysis facility. A small percentage dialyzes-at home. From 1991 through 2001, the ESRD patient population more than doubled, from about 201,000 to 406,000. As the need for services grows, so do concerns about beneficiary access to and Medicare payment for dialysis services. The Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 directed GAO to study beneficiaries' access to dialysis services. In this report, GAO (1) assessed the supply of dialysis facilities and the services they provide, overall and relative to beneficiary residence, and (2) assessed the extent to which Medicare payments for dialysis services are adequate and the methodology is appropriate. In order to assess the supply of dialysis facilities, GAO used Facility Surveys collected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and outpatient claims, the bills submitted to Medicare by providers of certain outpatient services from 1998 through 2001. To assess the adequacy of Medicare …

A semi-empirical model was used to explain why the measured melting curves of molybdenum, and the other bcc transition metals, have an unusually low slope (dT/dP{approx}0). The total binding energy of Mo is written as the sum of the repulsive energy of the ions and sp-electrons (modeled by an inverse 6th power potential) and the d-band cohesive energy described by the well known Friedel equation. Using literature values for the Mo band width energy, the number of d-electrons and their volume dependence, we find that a small broadening of the liquid d-band width ({approx}1%) leads to an increase in the stability of the liquid relative to the solid. This is sufficient to depress the melting temperature and lower the melting slope to a value in agreement with the diamond-anvil cell measurements. Omission of the d-band physics results in an Al-like melting curve with a much steeper melt slope. The model, when applied to the f-electrons of the light actinides (Th-Am), gives agreement with the observed fall and rise in the melting temperature with increasing atomic number.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The fiscal year 2004 National Defense Authorization Act directed GAO to assess the special pays and allowances for servicemembers who are frequently deployed for less than 30 days, and to specifically review the family separation allowance. GAO's objectives were to assess (1) the rationale for the family separation allowance eligibility requirements, including the required duration of more than 30 consecutive days away from a member's duty station; (2) the extent to which DOD has identified short-term deployments as a family separation allowance issue; and (3) what special pays and allowances, in addition to basic military compensation, are available to compensate members deployed for less than 30 days."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a separately organized agency within the Department of Energy (DOE), is responsible for the management and security of the nation's nuclear weapons, nonproliferation, and naval reactor programs. NNSA oversees contractors that operate its facilities to ensure that activities are effective and in line with departmental policy. In December 2002, NNSA began implementing a major reorganization aimed at solving important long-standing organizational issues. GAO reviewed NNSA's overall reorganization efforts to assess (1) the extent to which it is addressing in practice the past problems concerning the unclear delineation of authority and responsibility, (2) workforce planning, and (3) its impact on federal oversight of contractor activities."

This report examines the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), which is a proposed small surface combatant for the Navy. For FY2005, the Navy is requesting $107.7 million to begin building the first LCS, and an additional $244.4 million for research and development for the LCS program. The issue for Congress is whether to approve, modify, or reject the Navy's plan for the LCS program.

CH2MHill Hanford Group, Inc. (CHG) is designing and assessing the performance of an Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF) to receive immobilized low-activity waste (ILAW), Low-Level and Mixed Low-Level Wastes (LLW/MLLW), and the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) melters used to vitrify the ILAW. The IDF Performance Assessment (PA) assesses the performance of the disposal facility to provide a reasonable expectation that the disposal of the waste is protective of the general public, groundwater resources, air resources, surface water resources, and inadvertent intruders. The PA requires prediction of contaminant migration from the facilities, which is expected to occur primarily via the movement of water through the facilities and the consequent transport of dissolved contaminants in the pore water of the vadose zone. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) assists CHG in its performance assessment activities. One of PNNL’s tasks is to provide estimates of the physical, hydraulic, and transport properties of the materials comprising the disposal facilities and the disturbed region around them. These materials are referred to as the near-field materials. Their properties are expressed as parameters of constitutive models used in simulations of subsurface flow and transport. In addition to the best-estimate parameter values, information on uncertainty in the parameter values and …

In a new mode of measurement, the amplitude of a tearing mode rotating at frequencies of up to tens of KHz has been obtained using the spectral features of high frequency MSE data. A formulation has been developed to calculate the pitch angle oscillations associated with these instabilities, from the MSE spectrum. Density fluctuations can be simultaneously obtained from MSE measurements if the intensity response to density variation can be calibrated. Examples of observations are given and detection limits are explored.

We are developing high-current ion sources for Heavy Ion Fusion applications. Our proposed RF plasma source starts with an array of high current density mini-beamlets (of a few mA each at {approx}100 mA/cm{sup 2}) that are kept separated from each other within a set of acceleration grids. After they have gained sufficient kinetic energy (>1.2 MeV), the mini-beamlets are allowed to merge together to form a high current beam (about 0.5 A) with low emittance. Simulations have been done to maximize the beam brightness within the physical constraints of the source. We have performed a series of experiments on an RF plasma source. A 80-kV 20-{micro}s source has produced up to 5 mA of Ar{sup +} in a single beamlet and we measured the emittance of a beamlet, its energy spread, and the fraction of ions in higher charge states. We have also tested a 50-kV 61-hole multi-beamlet array. Two upcoming experiments are being prepared: the first experiment will test full-gradient extraction and transport of 61 beamlets though the first four electrodes, and the second experiment will converge 119 beamlets into an ESQ channel at one-quarter scaled voltage of a 1.6 MV HIF injector.

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A distributed memory message-passing parallel implementation of a finite-volume discretization of the primitive equations in the Community Atmosphere Model is presented. Due to the data dependencies resulting from the polar singularity of the latitude-longitude coordinate system, it is necessary to employ two separate domain decompositions within the dynamical core. Data must be periodically redistributed between these two decompositions. In addition, the domains contain halo regions that cover the nearest neighbor data dependencies. A combination of several techniques, such as one-sided communication and multithreading, are presented to optimize data movements. The resulting algorithm is shown to scale to very large machine configurations, even for relatively coarse resolutions.

The Advanced Tokamak plasma configuration has significant potential for the economical production of fusion power. Research on various tokamak experiments are pursuing these plasmas to establish high {beta}, high bootstrap current fraction, 100% noninductive current, and good energy confinement, in a quasi-stationary state. One candidate is the flat q discharge produced in DIII-D, where the safety factor varies from 2.0 on axis, to slightly below 2.0 at the minimum, and then rises to about 3.5 at the 95% surface. This plasma is prototypical of those studied for power plants in the ARIES tokamak studies. The plasma is produced by ramping up the plasma current and ramping down the toroidal field throughout the discharge. The plasma current reaches 1.65 MA, and the toroidal field goes from 2.25 to 1.6 T. The q{sub min} remains high and at large radius, {rho} {approx} 0.6. The plasma establishes an internal transport barrier in the ion channel, and transitions to H-mode. The free-boundary Tokamak Simulation Code (TSC) is being used to model the discharge and project the impact of changes in the plasma current, toroidal field, and injected power programming.