On July 26, 2005, the Senate Finance Committee approved S. 219, the “National Employee Savings and Trust Equity Guarantee (NESTEG) Act of 2005,” a bill to reform federal pension laws. This report summarizes the major provisions of the bill, as approved by the Committee.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Power plants emit pollutants that have been linked to various negative health effects. In 2003, two new power plants, owned by Sempra Energy and Intergen, began operations 3 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border near Imperial County, California. The county does not meet some federal and state air quality standards and may be further impacted by the emissions from these plants. Although these plants export most of the electricity they produce to the United States, they are not currently required to meet any U.S. or California emissions standards. GAO was asked to determine (1) how emissions from the two plants compare with emissions from recently permitted plants in California and emissions from sources in Imperial County, and what emissions standards they would be subject to if they were located in Imperial County; (2) the health impacts of emissions from the plants on Imperial County residents; and (3) options available to U.S. policymakers to ensure that emissions from these plants do not adversely affect the health of Imperial County residents. In commenting on a draft of this report, DOE disagreed with our characterization of the limitations of …

The smoothness of a beam line refers to the quality of the relative positioning of a number of adjacent beam guiding components. The fact that smoothness is of highest priority when positioning magnets can be seen in the local tolerances imposed by the beam optics. In the past, smoothing has been done by separating horizontal and vertical misalignments and then applying some sort of analytical or manual ''feathering'' technique. The Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) did not easily lend itself to this sort of smoothing because of the highly coupled nature of its pitched and rolled beam line. This paper will discuss an attempt to develop a repeatable method which is independent of the inconsistencies of human judgment and can simultaneously smooth in two or more dimensions. Four major goals were defined for the smoothing algorithm used on the SLC alignment. The first, was to simultaneously model errors for both horizontal and vertical directions. Secondly, a smooth curve whose shape was suggested by the data and not by a predetermined model was implied by the fact that unknown systematic errors were being eliminated. Thirdly, this curve must be a reproducibly fit, independent of the inconsistent nature of human judgment. Fourth, the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Three agencies of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have primary responsibility for securing the nation's borders--the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Together, they enforce security across 7,500 miles of land border between the United States and Mexico and Canada, and protect more than 361 seaports and 95,000 miles of coastline. To fulfill their missions, these agencies deploy a variety of valuable air and marine assets. In this report, GAO analyzed (1) what efforts DHS has undertaken to facilitate coordination of the air and marine assets of the three agencies and (2) how the agencies' local air and marine units have, in selected areas, coordinated the use of assets and what challenges they faced."

The use of the Kern Me5000 as a ''stand alone'' instrument is restricted to a minimum measurement distance of approximately 20m (Kern internal ''low range'' program), with 2 display readout to the nearest 100{micro}m. Using an external program, it is possible to extend both, the display resolution to 10{micro}m, 2nd the range down to distances well below 20m. This paper attempts to explain Kern's reasoning behind the original limitation of approximately 20m, and presents the results from testing three Mekometer Me5000 instruments. Their similarities, differences, and accuracies are assessed for distances below 25m providing a comparison against the use of invar wires.

This report presents the cost of the center, the most extensive addition to the Capitol since the Civil War, and the largest in the structure’s more than 200-year history, is now estimated to be at least $555 million. The project is being financed with appropriated funds, and a total of $65 million from private donations and revenue generated by the sale of commemorative coins.

To incorporate symmetry properties of second-order differential equations into finite difference equations, the concept of differential-difference invariants is introduced. This concept is applied to discretizing homogeneous eigenvalue problems and inhomogeneous two-point boundary value problems with various combinations of Dirichlet, Neumann, and Robin boundary conditions. It is demonstrated that discretizations constructed with differential-difference invariants yield exact results for eigenvalue spectra and superconvergent results for numerical solutions of differential equations.

This report provides an overview about Digital Television.Digital Television is a new telivision service representing the most significant development in telivision technology since the advent of color telivision.

Congressional policymakers are seeking a way to accelerate the nation’s transition to digital television and to expedite the transfer of radio frequency channels from the broadcast industry to public safety and commercial users no later than 2009. Broadcasters are holding spectrum in the 700MHz band (channels 52-69) that they would be required to relinquish after the transition to digital television (DTV) is achieved. Without a hard deadline, the transition to digital television has been postponed. Meanwhile, public safety officials want 700 MHz spectrum that has been assigned to them, but not delivered, in order to build new interoperable networks, while the commercial wireless industry would like access to the spectrum for new services.

The papermaking industry uses an abundance of chemicals to control the process of papermaking. These chemicals are used to control everything from paper strength to brightness. Due to the natural variability of products used in papermaking, the chemistry of the process is heavily monitored. Cationic (charge) demand is one of the most important parameters in process control of papermaking. High variations in cationic demand result in off-spec final product or paper breaks resulting in wasted production and downtime. Both of these results are costly for papermakers due to high energy consumption and loss of revenue. Currently, cationic demand is measured off-line in a laboratory setting with a heavily diluted specimen taking up to hours for results. The industry need is for an on-line, real-time measurement of cationic demand at higher consistencies to provide control feedback for the addition of cationic demand at higher consistencies to provide control feedback for the addition of cationic polymers for finely-tuned control of the paper process. Electrokinetic sonic amplitude (ESA) is a method for measuring particle charge and size, which has been employed in the semiconductor industry for several years. While this technology is generally geared for smaller particles (micron size) instead of paper fibers …

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Interim Staff Guidance 8 (ISG-8) for burnup credit covers actinides only, a position based primarily on the lack of definitive critical experiments and adequate radiochemical assay data that can be used to quantify the uncertainty associated with fission product credit. The accuracy of fission product neutron cross sections is paramount to the accuracy of criticality analyses that credit fission products in two respects: (1) the microscopic cross sections determine the reactivity worth of the fission products in spent fuel and (2) the cross sections determine the reaction rates during irradiation and thus influence the accuracy of predicted final concentrations of the fission products in the spent fuel. This report evaluates and quantifies the importance of the fission product cross sections in predicting concentrations of fission products proposed for use in burnup credit. The study includes an assessment of the major fission products in burnup credit and their production precursors. Finally, the cross-section importances, or sensitivities, are combined with the importance of each major fission product to the system eigenvalue (k{sub eff}) to determine the net importance of cross sections to k{sub eff}. The importances established the following fission products, listed in descending order of priority, that …

This is the second aquatic biological monitoring report generated by Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL's) Water Quality and Hydrology Group. The study has been conducted to generate impact-based assessments of habitat and water quality for LANL waterways. The monitoring program was designed to allow for the detection of spatial and temporal trends in water and habitat quality through ongoing, biannual monitoring of habitat characteristics and benthic aquatic macroinvertebrate communities at six key sites in Los Alamos, Sandia, Water, Pajarito, and Starmer's Gulch Canyons. Data were collected on aquatic habitat characteristics, channel substrate, and macroinvertebrate communities during 2001 and 2002. Aquatic habitat scores were stable between 2001 and 2002 at all locations except Starmer's Gulch and Pajarito Canyon, which had lower scores in 2002 due to low flow conditions. Channel substrate changes were most evident at the upper Los Alamos and Pajarito study reaches. The macroinvertebrate Stream Condition Index (SCI) indicated moderate to severe impairment at upper Los Alamos Canyon, slight to moderate impairment at upper Sandia Canyon, and little or no impairment at lower Sandia Canyon, Starmer's Gulch, and Pajarito Canyon. Habitat, substrate, and macroinvertebrate data from the site in upper Los Alamos Canyon indicated severe impacts from the Cerro …

The basic characteristics of a self-sustaining chain reaction were demonstrated with the Chicago Pile in 1943, but it was not until early 1945 that sufficient enriched material became available to experimentally verify fast-neutron cross-sections and the kinetic characteristics of a nuclear chain reaction sustained with prompt neutrons alone. However, the demands of wartime and the rapid decline in effort following the cessation of hostilities often resulted in the failure to fully document the experiments or in the loss of documentation as personnel returned to civilian pursuits. When documented, the results were often highly classified. Even when eventually declassified, the data were often not approved for public release until years later.2 Even after declassification and approval for public release, the records are sometimes difficult to find. Through a fortuitous discovery, a set of handwritten notes by ''ORF July 1945'' entitled ''Dragon - Research with a Pulsed Fission Reactor'' was found by William L. Myers in an old storage safe at Pajarito Site of the Los Alamos National Laboratory3. Of course, ORF was identified as Otto R. Frisch. The document was attached to a page in a nondescript spiral bound notebook labeled ''494 Book'' that bore the signatures of Louis Slotin and …

DNA Damage Recognition and Repair (DDR&R) proteins play a critical role in cellular responses to low-dose radiation and are associated with cancer. We have performed a systematic, genome-wide computational analysis of genomic data for human genes involved in the DDR&R process. The significant achievements of this project include: 1) Construction of the computational pipeline for searching DDR&R genes, building and validation of 3D models of proteins involved in DDR&R; 2) Functional and structural annotation of the 3D models and generation of comprehensive lists of suggested knock-out mutations; and the development of a method to predict the effects of mutations. Large scale testing of technology to identify novel small binding pockets in protein structures leading to new DDRR inhibitor strategies 3) Improvements of macromolecular docking technology (see the CAPRI 1-3 and 4-5 results) 4) Development of a new algorithm for improved analysis of high-density oligonucleotide arrays for gene expression profiling; 5) Construction and maintenance of the DNA Damage Recognition and Repair Database; 6) Producing 15 research papers (12 published and 3 in preparation).

Large-scale reconstruction assistance programs are being undertaken by the United States following the war with Iraq. To fund such programs, in April 2003, Congress approved a $2.48 billion Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) in the FY2003 Supplemental Appropriation. In November 2003, the FY2004 Supplemental Appropriation provided an additional $18.4 billion for the IRRF. The FY2005 Emergency Supplemental signed into law in May 2005 provides $5.7 billion in a new Iraqi Security Forces Fund for the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces.

The next generation of linear colliders will require more stringent alignment tolerances than those for the SLC with regard to the accelerating structures, quadrupoles, and beam position monitors. New techniques must be developed to achieve these tolerances. A combination of mechanical-electrical and beam-based methods will likely be needed.

None

Magnets in accelerator beamlines have, for the most part, been made with ferromagnetic poles and traditionally these pole surfaces have been used as the references for external alignment aids, tooling balls, CERN sockets and so on. This practice assumes that the magnetic field is well-defined by the poles (which fails in the presence of saturation). It also fails in the case of superconducting magnets, which have no tangible poles. Other difficulties are well-known to those working in the field: the poles of an iron dipole magnet are never perfectly flat, or perfectly parallel. Where, then, is the magnetic mid-plane? The corresponding problem for iron quadrupoles, sextupoles etc, is that there is no unique inscribed circle that is tangent to more than three of these poles. The magnetic axis is then difficult to define. The greater the precision that is sought in the alignment, the more apparent these problems become. The answer, I believe, is to use magnetic field measurements to establish the references. Most magnets undergo some magnetic measurement before use--they certainly should--and so the opportunity is there to combine fiducialization with magnetic field definition. A substantial part of the Final Focus Test Beam program at SLAC will address this …

This report is a guide to locating individual service records and military unit histories from the American Revolution to the present. This guide provides referral information for locating individual service records of discharged and deceased veterans. It includes information regarding locating and obtaining active service records. Also included are relevant addresses and websites of government agencies, historical associations, and a select bibliography. This report will be updated as needed.

None

None

Progress report for 2005.

The AE-8 trapped electron and the AP-8 trapped proton models are used to examine the L-shell variation of phase-space densities for sets of transverse (or 1st) invariants, {mu}, and geometrical invariants, K (related to the first two adiabatic invariants). The motivation for this study is twofold: first, to discover the functional dependence of the phase-space density upon the invariants; and, second, to explore the global structure of the radiation belts within this context. Variation due to particle rest mass is considered as well. The overall goal of this work is to provide a framework for analyzing energetic particle data collected by instruments on Global Positioning System (GPS) spacecraft that fly through the most intense region of the radiation belt. For all considered values of {mu} and K, and for 3.5 R{sub E} < L < 6.5 R{sub E}, the AE-8 electron phase-space density increases with increasing L; this trend--the expected one for a population diffusing inward from an external source--continues to L = 7.5 R{sub E} for both small and large values of K but reverses slightly for intermediate values of K. The AP-8 proton phase-space density exhibits {mu}-dependent local minima around L = 5 R{sub E}. Both AE-8 and …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Concierge care is an approach to medical practice in which physicians charge their patients a membership fee in return for enhanced services or amenities. The recent emergence of concierge care has prompted federal concern about how the approach might affect beneficiaries of Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the aged and some disabled individuals. Concerns include the potential that membership fees may constitute additional charges for services that Medicare already pays physicians for and that concierge care may affect Medicare beneficiaries' access to physician services. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 directed GAO to study concierge care and its relationship to Medicare. Using a variety of methods, including a nationwide literature search and telephone interviews, GAO identified 146 concierge physicians and surveyed concierge physicians in fall 2004. GAO analyzed responses from 112 concierge physicians. GAO also reviewed relevant laws, policies, and available data on access to physician services and interviewed officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and representatives of Medicare beneficiary advocacy groups."