A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In accordance with 36 U.S.C. 2103, we are responsible for conducting audits of the agencywide financial statements of the American Battle Monuments Commission. We audited the financial statements of the Commission for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2003, and 2002. The audits were done to determine whether, in all material respects, (1) the Commission's financial statements were reliable, (2) Commission management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations, and (3) Commission management complied with applicable laws and regulations. The American Battle Monuments Commission was created in 1923 to commemorate the sacrifices and achievements of U.S. Armed Forces where they have served overseas since April 6, 1917, and locations within the United States as directed by Congress. The Commission designs, administers, operates, and maintains 24 American military cemeteries on foreign soil and 25 federal memorials, monuments, and markers, 22 of which are on foreign soil. The Commission is also responsible for designing and constructing the national World War II Memorial on the Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C., and for maintaining 4 nonfederal memorials with funds provided by those memorials' sponsors."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has been relying increasingly on computer software to introduce or enhance performance capabilities of major weapon systems. To ensure successful outcomes, software acquisition requires disciplined processes and practices. Without such discipline, weapon programs encounter difficulty in meeting cost and schedule targets. For example, in fiscal year 2003, DOD might have spent as much as $8 billion to rework software because of quality-related issues. GAO was asked to identify the practices used by leading companies to acquire software and to analyze the causes of poor outcomes of selected DOD programs. GAO also was asked to evaluate DOD's efforts to develop programs for improving software acquisition processes and to assess how those efforts compare with leading companies' practices."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication supersedes AIMD-10.1.23, Information Technology Investment Management: A Framework for Assessing and Improving Process Maturity (Exposure Draft), May 2000. In 2000, GAO published an exposure draft of Information Technology Investment Management: A Framework for Assessing and Improving Process Maturity (ITIM). Built around the select/control/evaluate approach described in the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996--which establishes statutory requirements for IT management--the framework provides a method for evaluating and assessing how well an agency is selecting and managing its IT resources. The exposure draft reflected current accepted or best practices in IT investment management, as well as the reported experience of federal agencies and other organizations in creating their own investment management processes. This new version updates the exposure draft to take into account comments that GAO has received; GAO's experiences in evaluating several agencies' implementations of investment management processes and the lessons learned by these agencies; and the importance of enterprise architecture (EA) as a critical frame of reference in making IT investment decisions. Using the framework to analyze an agency's IT investment management processes provides: (1) a rigorous, standardized tool for internal and external evaluations of these processes; (2) …

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication supersedes GAO-03-893G, Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic Training and Development Efforts in the Federal Government (Exposure Draft), July 2003. As part of our ongoing review of agencies' efforts to address their human capital challenges, we saw the need for a framework to serve as a flexible and useful guide in assessing how agencies plan, design, implement, and evaluate effective training and development programs that contribute to improved organizational performance and enhanced employee skills and competencies. This guide was developed in response to that need. GAO has used and will continue to rely on the framework presented in this guide to analyze and report on training and development issues both within specific agencies and programs as well as across the federal government. The framework outlined in this guide summarizes attributes of effective training and development programs and presents related questions concerning the components of the training and development process. This guide is intended to help managers assess an agency's training and development efforts and make it easier to determine what, where, and how improvements may be implemented. Managers and analysts can use the guide to …

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This is a supplemental report to GAO-04-534SP. These supplements to GAO's strategic plan provide greater detail on how the agency intends to fulfill its strategic objectives. For each strategic objective, a supplement provides a brief discussion of the significance of each related qualitative performance goal and its potential outcomes and also lists each performance goal's key efforts. The key efforts lay out the work GAO plans to do in fiscal years 2004 and 2005 to help achieve GAO's strategic goals and objectives. GAO will assess whether it achieved the qualitative performance goals at the end of fiscal year 2005."

A key factor in our ability to produce and predict the stability of metal-based macro- to nano-scale structures and devices is a fundamental understanding of the localized nature of corrosion. Corrosion processes where physical dimensions become critical in the degradation process include localized corrosion initiation in passivated metals, microgalvanic interactions in metal alloys, and localized corrosion in structurally complex materials like nanocrystalline metal films under atmospheric and inundated conditions. This project focuses on two areas of corrosion science where a fundamental understanding of processes occurring at critical dimensions is not currently available. Sandia will study the critical length scales necessary for passive film breakdown in the inundated aluminum (Al) system and the chemical processes and transport in ultra-thin water films relevant to the atmospheric corrosion of nanocrystalline tungsten (W) films. Techniques are required that provide spatial information without significantly perturbing or masking the underlying relationships. Al passive film breakdown is governed by the relationship between area of the film sampled and its defect structure. We will combine low current measurements with microelectrodes to study the size scale required to observe a single initiation event and record electrochemical breakdown events. The resulting quantitative measure of stability will be correlated with metal …

Geothermal water must be injected back into the reservoir after it has been used for power production. Injection is critical in maximizing the power production and lifetime of the reservoir. To use injectate effectively the direction and velocity of the injected water must be known or inferred. This information can be obtained by using chemical tracers to track the subsurface flow paths of the injected fluid. Tracers are chemical compounds that are added to the water as it is injected back into the reservoir. The hot production water is monitored for the presence of this tracer using the most sensitive analytic methods that are economically feasible. The amount and concentration pattern of the tracer revealed by this monitoring can be used to evaluate how effective the injection strategy is. However, the tracers must have properties that suite the environment that they will be used in. This requires careful consideration and testing of the tracer properties. In previous and parallel investigations we have developed tracers that are suitable from tracing liquid water. In this investigation, we developed tracers that can be used for steam and mixed water/steam environments. This work will improve the efficiency of injection management in geothermal fields, lowering …

In many strategic systems, the choice combinator provides a powerful mechanism for controlling the application of rules and strategies to terms. The ability of the choice combinator to exercise control over rewriting is based on the premise that the success and failure of strategy application can be observed. In this paper we present a higher-order strategic framework with the ability to dynamically construct strategies containing the choice combinator. To this framework, a combinator called hide is introduced that prevents the successful application of a strategy from being observed by the choice combinator. We then explore the impact of this new combinator on a real-world problem involving a restricted implementation of the Java Virtual Machine.

After the permit to conduct a field experiment in Norway was revoked on August 22, 2002, we started executing our contingency plan to conduct a cruise at the Loihi Seamount in Hawaii in December 2002. After a few intense months of preparation, the cruise took place on December 3-13, 2002. In total, eight dives were made with the Pisces V submarine. The primary goal of the experiment was to assess the effect of CO{sub 2} on marine organisms. Studies were done using scavenger traps, as well as collecting water samples and surveying the natural CO{sub 2} plume at the Loihi Seamount. This report documents the experiment in more detail as summarized by the various participants. The data was still being analyzed at the end of this reporting period, so no results are reported here. Both papers and a video on the experiment are being prepared. Some related modeling work is presented in an Appendix in the form of a paper submitted to the Journal of Marine Environmental Engineering. The main goal of our work during this reporting period (August 23, 2002-August 23, 2003) was to conduct an experimental cruise at the Loihi Seamount in the Hawaiian Islands. The work included …

The LIGA spring is a recently designed part for defense program applications. The Sandia California LIGA team has produced an initial group build of these nickel alloy parts. These are distinctive in having a macroscopic lateral size of about 1 cm, while requiring microscopic dimensional precision on the order of a few micrometers. LIGA technology capabilities at Sandia are able to manufacture such precise structures. While certain aspects of the LIGA process and its production capabilities have been dimensionally characterized in the past, [1-6] the present work is exclusive in defining a set of methods and techniques to inspect and measure final LIGA nickel alloy parts in large prototype quantities. One hundred percent inspection, meaning that every single LIGA part produced needs to be measured, ensures quality control and customer satisfaction in this prototype production run. After a general visual inspection of the parts and an x-ray check for voids, high precision dimensional metrology tools are employed. The acquired data is analyzed using both in house and commercially available software. Examples of measurements illustrating these new metrology capabilities are presented throughout the report. These examples furthermore emphasize that thorough inspection of every final part is not only essential to characterize …

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) Industries of the Future (IOF) Forest Products research program, two different laser diagnostic techniques have been implemented in pulp mill recovery boilers to provide important information on entrained particles. One technique, based on single-particle scattering of a low-power, continuous-wave (cw) laser source, measures the velocity, concentration, and size distribution of particles within the furnace flow, over a predetermined range of particle sizes. For application to recovery boilers, this technique was designed to measure the range of particle sizes known as intermediate size particles (ISPs), roughly from 2-100 {micro}m in diameter. The other diagnostic technique, known as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), uses a pulsed, high-power laser beam to create a localized plasma spark in the flow, allowing the measurement of the elemental composition of the entrained particles. This technique is most sensitive for particles less than 10 {micro}m in diameter. Implementing these laser diagnostic techniques in recovery boilers proved to be challenging. For the particle scattering measurement, the use of a narrow aperture for measurement of the forward scattered light was postulated and later confirmed to be effective in minimizing background signals associated with the dense sodium …

This report is broken down into the following 3 sections: (1) Chemical Cross-linking and Mass Spectrometry Applied to Determination of Protein Structure and Dynamics; (2) Computational Modeling of Membrane Protein Structure and Dynamics; and (3) Studies of Toxin-Membrane Interactions using Single Molecule Biophysical Methods.

A tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy probe was used to measure in situ soot properties and species concentrations in a two-meter diameter JP-8 pool fire. Thirty-five tests were performed at the Lurance Canyon Burn Site operated by Sandia in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The axial profile of the fire was characterized with a series of tests with the probe located on the centerline at heights ranging from 0.5 m to 2.0 m in 0.25 m increments. The radial profile of the fire was characterized with a series of tests with the probe 1.0 m above the fuel surface at radial positions ranging from 0.0 m to 0.6 m, in 0.1 m increments. Experiments were also performed with variation of the air flow into the facility. Soot concentration was determined using a light extinction measurement based on the transmission of a solid-state red laser (635 nm) through the 3.7 cm long probe volume. Soot temperature and a second estimate of soot concentration were measured using two-color optical pyrometry at 850 nm and 1000 nm. The effective data rate for these measurements was 10 kHz. Finally, tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy was used to estimate the concentrations of water vapor, acetylene, and methane. …

The finding of algorithms for factoring and data base search that promise substantially increased computational power, as well as the expectation for efficient simulation of quantum systems have spawned an intense interest in the realization of quantum information processors [1]. Solid state implementations of quantum computers scaled to >1000 quantum bits ('qubits') promise to revolutionize information technology, but requirements with regard to sources of decoherence in solid state environments are sobering. Here, we briefly review basic approaches to impurity spin based qubits and present progress in our effort to form prototype qubit test structures. Since Kane's bold silicon based spin qubit proposal was first published in 1998 [2], several groups have taken up the challenge of fabricating elementary building blocks [3-5], and several exciting variations of single donor qubit schemes have emerged [6]. Single donor atoms, e. g. {sup 31}P, are 'natural quantum dots' in a silicon matrix, and the spins of electrons and nuclei of individual donor atoms are attractive two level systems for encoding of quantum information. The coupling to the solid state environment is weak, so that decoherence times are long (hours for nuclear spins, and {approx}60 ms for electron spins of isolated P atoms in silicon …

The measurement of B{sub s}{sup 0} mixing is one of the flagship analyses for the Run II B physics program. The sensitivity of the measurement to the frequency of B{sub s}{sup 0} oscillations strongly depends on the number of reconstructed B{sub s}{sup 0} mesons. They present the measurement of the ratio of branching fractions Br(B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} D{sub s}{sup -}{pi}{sup +})/Br(B{sup 0} {yields} D{sup -}{pi}{sup +}), which directly influences the number of B{sub s}{sup 0} events available for the measurement of B{sub s}{sup 0} mixing at CDF-II. They analyze 115 pb{sup -1} of data collected with the CDF-II detector in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using a novel displaced track trigger. They reconstruct 78 {+-} 11 B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} D{sub s}{sup -}{pi}{sup +} decays at 1153 {+-} 45 B{sup 0} {yields} D{sup -}{pi}{sup +} decays with good signal to background ratio. This is the world's largest sample of fully reconstructed B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} D{sub s}{sup -}{pi}{sup +} decays. They find the ratio of production fractions multiplied by the ratio of branching fractions to be: f{sub s}/f{sub d} {center_dot} Br(B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} D{sub s}{sup -}{pi}{sup +})/Br(B{sup 0} {yields} D{sup -}{pi}{sup +}) = 0.325 {+-} …

This report provides appropriations of Transportation, Treasury, Postal Service, Executive Office of the President, General Government, and Related Agencies for FY2004

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The authors performed a search for the pair production of first-generation leptoquarks using 191 pb{sup -1} of proton-antiproton collision data recorded by the CDF experiment during Run II of the Tevatron. The leptoquarks are sought via their decay into a neutrino and quark, which yields missing transverse energy and several high-E{sub T} jets. Several control regions were studied to check the background estimation from Standard Model sources, with good agreement observed in data. In the leptoquark signal region, 124 events were observed with 118.3 {+-} 14.5 expected from background. Therefore, no evidence for leptoquark production was observed, and limits were set on the cross section times the squared branching ratio. Using the next-to-leading order cross section for leptoquark production, they excluded the mass interval 78 to 117 GeV/c{sup 2} at the 95% confidence level for 100% branching ratio into neutrino plus quark.

The Higgs mechanism preserves the gauge symmetries of the Standard Model while giving masses to the W, Z bosons. Supersymmetry, which protects the Higgs boson mass scale from quantum corrections, predicts at least 5 Higgs bosons, none of which has been directly observed. This thesis presents a search for neutral Higgs bosons, produced in association with bottom quarks. The production rate is greatly enhanced at large values of the Supersymmetric parameter tan {beta}. High-energy p{bar p} collision data, collected from Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron using the D0 detector, are analyzed. In the absence of a signal, values of tan {beta} > 80-120 are excluded at 95% Confidence Level (C.L.), depending on the (CP-odd) neutral Higgs boson mass (studied from 100 to 150 GeV/c{sup 2}).

We present the first detection of orbital motion in the cataclysmic variable EX Hydrae based on X-ray data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The large collecting area of the telescope and the high resolution of the HETG spectrometers allow for an unprecedented velocity accuracy of {approx}km s{sup -1} in the X-ray wavelength regime. We find an emission line velocity amplitude of 58.2{+-}3.7 km s{sup -1} and infer a white dwarf mass of 0.49{+-}0.13 M{sub {circle_dot}}, in good agreement with previous studies using optical, ultraviolet, and far ultraviolet data.

This report addresses the development of automated video-screening technology to assist security forces in protecting our homeland against terrorist threats. A threat of specific interest to this project is the covert placement and subsequent remote detonation of bombs (e.g., briefcase bombs) inside crowded public facilities. Different from existing video motion detection systems, the video-screening technology described in this report is capable of detecting changes in the static background of an otherwise, dynamic environment - environments where motion and human activities are persistent. Our goal was to quickly detect changes in the background - even under conditions when the background is visible to the camera less than 5% of the time. Instead of subtracting the background to detect movement or changes in a scene, we subtracted the dynamic scene variations to produce an estimate of the static background. Subsequent comparisons of static background estimates are used to detect changes in the background. Detected changes can be used to alert security forces of the presence and location of potential threats. The results of this research are summarized in two MS Power-point presentations included with this report.

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