This letter report has been prepared to provide the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington State Department of Ecology, and Hanford Site contractors with logistical information pertaining to the use of certain environmental monitoring sites. Although the distribution is not limited, It is not intended for general distribution beyond that audience.

Several outstanding research activities in the Physics and Advanced Technology Directorate in 2004 were featured in ''Science & Technology Review'', the monthly publication of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Reprints of those articles accompany this report. Here we summarize other science and technology highlights, as well as the awards and recognition received by members of the Directorate in 2004.

On July 6, 2005, the Habitat Evaluation Procedure (HEP) was used to determine baseline habitat suitability on the North Eaton Lake property, an acquisition completed by the Kalispel Tribe of Indians in November 2004. Evaluation species and appropriate models include bald eagle, black-capped chickadee, Canada goose, mallard, muskrat, and white-tailed deer. Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) values were visually estimated and agreed upon by all HEP team members. The North Eaton Lake Project provides a total of 235.05 Habitat Units (HUs) for the species evaluated. Open water habitat provides 9.38 HUs for Canada goose, mallard and muskrat. Emergent wetland habitat provides 11.36 HUs for Canada goose, mallard and muskrat. Forested wetland provides 10.97 HUs for bald eagle, black-capped chickadee, mallard and white-tailed deer. Conifer forest habitat provides 203.34 HUs for bald eagle, black-capped chickadee, mallard, and white-tailed deer. The objective of using HEP at the North Eaton Lake Project and other protected properties is to document the quality and quantity of available habitat for selected wildlife species. In this way, HEP provides information on the relative value of the same area at future points in time so that the effect of management activities on wildlife habitat can be quantified. When combined …

Over the past 15 years, basic photonic crystals operating in optical wavelengths have been theoretically investigated and experimentally realized. New directions must now be set to understand fundamental photon-matter interactions and thus realize active photonic components for integrated and silicon-based photonic applications. This proposal aims at two key areas to study. They are: (1) Thermal emission and silicon photonic crystal lasers--an aspect of photon-phonon interaction. (2) Optical interconnects--an aspect of photonic transport and mutual interaction. Understanding the underlining photon-phonon interaction, blackbody radiation can be altered, and wasted thermal energy recycled. Furthermore, we intend to build SOI based optical components, and study their mutual interaction for achieving complex optical functionality. Two examples are waveguide-cavity and cavity-cavity interaction for channel dropping filter applications. Indeed, the next challenge in photonic crystal research is in material integration, in on-chip integration of photonic components, and lastly the realization of silicon lasers.

In order to optically vary the magnification of an imaging system, continuous mechanical zoom lenses require multiple optical elements and use fine mechanical motion to precisely adjust the separations between individual or groups of lenses. By incorporating active elements into the optical design, we have designed and demonstrated imaging systems that are capable of variable optical magnification with no macroscopic moving parts. Changing the effective focal length and magnification of an imaging system can be accomplished by adeptly positioning two or more active optics in the optical design and appropriately adjusting the optical power of those elements. In this application, the active optics (e.g. liquid crystal spatial light modulators or deformable mirrors) serve as variable focal-length lenses. Unfortunately, the range over which currently available devices can operate (i.e. their dynamic range) is relatively small. Therefore, the key to this concept is to create large changes in the effective focal length of the system with very small changes in the focal lengths of individual elements by leveraging the optical power of conventional optical elements surrounding the active optics. By appropriately designing the optical system, these variable focal-length lenses can provide the flexibility necessary to change the overall system focal length, and …

Polymers and fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composites play an important role in many Defense Program applications. Recently an advanced nonlinear viscoelastic model for polymers has been developed and incorporated into ADAGIO, Sandia's SIERRA-based quasi-static analysis code. Standard linear elastic shell and continuum models for fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composites have also been added to ADAGIO. This report details the use of these models for advanced adhesive joint and composites simulations carried out as part of an Advanced Simulation and Computing Advanced Deployment (ASC AD) project. More specifically, the thermo-mechanical response of an adhesive joint when loaded during repeated thermal cycling is simulated, the response of some composite rings under internal pressurization is calculated, and the performance of a composite container subjected to internal pressurization, thermal loading, and distributed mechanical loading is determined. Finally, general comparisons between the continuum and shell element approaches for modeling composites using ADAGIO are given.

The original LDRD proposal was to use a nonlinear diffusion solver to compute estimates for the material temperature that could then be used in a Implicit Monte Carlo (IMC) calculation. At the end of the first year of the project, it was determined that this was not going to be effective, partially due to the concept, and partially due to the fact that the radiation diffusion package was not as efficient as it could be. The second, and final year, of the project focused on improving the robustness and computational efficiency of the radiation diffusion package in ALEGRA. To this end, several new multigroup diffusion methods have been developed and implemented in ALEGRA. While these methods have been implemented, their effectiveness of reducing overall simulation run time has not been fully tested. Additionally a comprehensive suite of verification problems has been developed for the diffusion package to ensure that it has been implemented correctly. This process took considerable time, but exposed significant bugs in both the previous and new diffusion packages, the linear solve packages, and even the NEVADA Framework's parser. In order to manage this large suite of problem, a new tool called Tampa has been developed. It is …

The FY2006 budget resolution (H.Con.Res. 95, H.Rept. 109-62) contains reconciliation instructions that require authorizing committees to report legislation to reduce spending on mandatory programs within each committee’s jurisdiction. The resolution instructed the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to report legislation reducing spending on USDA mandatory programs by $173 million in FY2006 and $3.0 billion over five years (FY2006-FY2010). The House and Senate Agriculture Committees have completed action on their recommendations ($3.7 billion in the House and $3.0 billion in the Senate). The two measures would reduce spending on farm commodity and conservation programs in varying ways. The House measure also eliminates funding for various rural development programs and reduces food stamp spending. The Senate extends authority for a dairy income support program, which would require an offset of its projected cost. Reconciliation floor action is expected in November.

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) provided support to Vanderbilt University and Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) in their activites, supported by the Department of Energy (DOE), to assess the impact of past nuclear testing at Amchitka Island on the ecosystem of the island and surrounding ocean. INL participated in this project in four phases. INL support in the first three phases is documented in Report # INL/EXT-05-00361. The details of INL participation in Phase 4 (sample results, Quality Control (QC) results, and other related quality assurance documents) are included in this report.

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This report talks about Analysis of Tank 43H Suspended Solids Sample and Sludge Level Meter Testing

There are many interesting phenomena in extended-MHD such as anisotropic transport, mhd, 2-fluid effects stellarator and hot particles. Any one of them challenges numerical analysts, and researchers are seeking for higher order methods, such as higher order finite difference, higher order finite elements and hp/spectral elements. It is true that these methods give more accurate solution than their linear counterparts. However, numerically they are prohibitively expensive. Here we give a successful solution of this conflict by applying mass lumped higher order finite elements. This type of elements not only keep second/third order accuracy but also scale closely to linear elements by doing mass lumping. This is especially true for second order lump elements. Full M3D and anisotropic transport models are studied.

This report discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not to approve energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Current law forbids energy leasing in the Refuge. This report addresses several legislative options on the issue, as well as policymakers' arguments for and against development, especially in the wake of increasing terrorism since 2000-2001.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules represent Nature's genetic database, encoding the information necessary for all cellular processes. From a materials engineering perspective, DNA represents a nanoscale scaffold with highly refined structure, stability across a wide range of environmental conditions, and the ability to interact with a range of biomolecules. The ability to mass-manufacture functionalized DNA strands with Angstrom-level resolution through DNA replication technology, however, has not been explored. The long-term goal of the work presented in this report is focused on exploiting DNA and in vitro DNA replication processes to mass-manufacture nanocomposite materials. The specific objectives of this project were to: (1) develop methods for replicating DNA strands that incorporate nucleotides with ''chemical handles'', and (2) demonstrate attachment of nanocrystal quantum dots (nQDs) to functionalized DNA strands. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and primer extension methodologies were used to successfully synthesize amine-, thiol-, and biotin-functionalized DNA molecules. Significant variability in the efficiency of modified nucleotide incorporation was observed, and attributed to the intrinsic properties of the modified nucleotides. Noncovalent attachment of streptavidin-coated nQDs to biotin-modified DNA synthesized using the primer extension method was observed by epifluorescence microscopy. Data regarding covalent attachment of nQDs to amine- and thiol-functionalized DNA was generally inconclusive; alternative …

The formation and functions of living materials and organisms are fundamentally different from those of synthetic materials and devices. Synthetic materials tend to have static structures, and are not capable of adapting to the functional needs of changing environments. In contrast, living systems utilize energy to create, heal, reconfigure, and dismantle materials in a dynamic, non-equilibrium fashion. The overall goal of the project was to organize and reconfigure functional assemblies of nanoparticles using strategies that mimic those found in living systems. Active assembly of nanostructures was studied using active biomolecules to drive the organization and assembly of nanocomposite materials. In this system, kinesin motor proteins and microtubules were used to direct the transport and interactions of nanoparticles at synthetic interfaces. In addition, the kinesin/microtubule transport system was used to actively assemble nanocomposite materials capable of storing significant elastic energy. Novel biophysical measurement tools were also developed for measuring the collective force generated by kinesin motor proteins, which will provide insight on the mechanical constraints of active assembly processes. Responsive reconfiguration of nanostructures was studied in terms of using active biomolecules to mediate the optical properties of quantum dot (QD) arrays through modulation of inter-particle spacing and associated energy transfer interaction. …

In this investigation, we conduct a literature study of the best experimental and theoretical data available for thin and thick atmospheres on THz radiation propagation from 0.1 to 10 THz. We determined that for thick atmospheres no data exists beyond 450 GHz. For thin atmospheres data exists from 0.35 to 1.2 THz. We were successful in using FASE code with the HITRAN database to simulate the THz transmission spectrum for Mauna Kea from 0.1 to 2 THz. Lastly, we successfully measured the THz transmission spectra of laboratory atmospheres at relative humidities of 18 and 27%. In general, we found that an increase in the water content of the atmosphere led to a decrease in the THz transmission. We identified two potential windows in an Albuquerque atmosphere for THz propagation which were the regions from 1.2 to 1.4 THz and 1.4 to 1.6 THz.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining whether controls within Texas Tech's financial system ensure that financial data and reports are accurate, and whether security controls within the University's financial system are adequate to protect critical data from unauthorized alteration, loss, or improper use.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining whether controls within the University of Houston's financial system ensure that financial data and reports are accurate, and whether security controls within the University's financial system are adequate to protect critical data from unauthorized alteration, loss, or improper use.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining whether the Office of the Secretary of State has effective controls for receiving revenue, ensuring expenditures are made for valid purposes, and maintaining accurate and complete accounting and record keeping of revenue and expenditures.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining whether the Department of Banking is accurately reporting its performance measures to ABEST and has adequate control systems in place over the collection and reporting of its performance measures.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining whether the Department of Information Resources and the TexasOnline Authority protect the State's financial interests.

The Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership, led by Montana State University, is comprised of research institutions, public entities and private sectors organizations, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Nez Perce Tribe. Efforts under this Partnership in Phase I fall into four areas: evaluation of sources and carbon sequestration sinks that will be used to determine the location of pilot demonstrations in Phase II; development of GIS-based reporting framework that links with national networks; designing an integrated suite of monitoring, measuring, and verification technologies and assessment frameworks; and initiating a comprehensive education and outreach program. The groundwork is in place to provide an assessment of storage capabilities for CO2 utilizing the resources found in the Partnership region (both geological and terrestrial sinks), that would complement the ongoing DOE research agenda in Carbon Sequestration. The region has a diverse array of geological formations that could provide storage options for carbon in one or more of its three states. Likewise, initial estimates of terrestrial sinks indicate a vast potential for increasing and maintaining soil C on forested, agricultural, and reclaimed lands. Both options include the potential for offsetting economic benefits to industry and society. Steps have been taken to assure …

The budget reconciliation process is one of the chief tools used by Congress during the past quarter-century to implement major changes in budget policy. Following a brief overview of the budget reconciliation process and the current budget policy context, this report provides information on the consideration of budget reconciliation legislation in 2005, during the first session of the 109th Congress.

Negative ions of hydrogen and oxygen have been used to calibrate the DARHT electron spectrometer over the momentum range of 2 to 20 MeV/c. The calibration was performed on September 1, 3, and 8, 2004, and it is good to 0.5% absolute, provided that instrument alignment is carefully controlled. The momentum in MeV/c as a function of magnetic field (B in Gauss) and position in the detector plane (X in mm) is: P = (B-6.28)/(108.404-0.1935*X)