A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In calendar year 2001, the Social Security Administration (SSA) paid cash benefits of $60 billion to more than six million working-age adults with disabilities and eligible family members under its Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program, and $20 billion to more than 3.5 million working-age adults with disabilities under the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. Some beneficiaries, known as concurrent beneficiaries, receive cash and medical benefits from both programs. Concurrent beneficiaries comprised about 14 percent of SSA's disability population; 58 percent have mental impairments, and about 53 percent are female. Eleven percent of concurrent beneficiaries worked and earned a median income of approximately $250 per month. There is little coordination between SSI and DI program rules for individuals who work and receive benefits from both programs concurrently. Because most field office staff specialize in one program, they may not be sufficiently knowledgeable of the procedures for the other program to ensure that concurrent beneficiaries who work are paid the appropriate benefit amount under both programs. Applying both SSI and DI program rules to concurrent beneficiaries may make it difficult for them to make informed decisions about …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 made sweeping changes to federal employment and training programs. The act sought to unify previously fragmented programs and create a more comprehensive workforce investment system by bringing together most federally funded employment and training services into a single service delivery system known as the one-stop center system. The administration has twice proposed reducing the program's budget, citing the large amounts of unexpended funds that states carried over from the prior year. State and local workforce officials, however, have requested more funding in light of current economic conditions. GAO found that the Department of Labor lacks accurate information on states' WIA spending because of reporting inconsistencies--all states do not report expenditures or commitments in the same way. To determine how states manage their spending, Labor has established its own spending benchmarks, using them to access whether states are on track with their spending, to target technical assistance, and to formulate budget requests. Several factors affect when expenditures occur or are reported. State officials said that cumbersome processes to get spending approval, lengthy contract procurement procedures, and untimely billing by key …

This engineering note documents air velocity measurements taken on September 5, 2002 for the D-Zero collision hall. These measurements were done after changes were made to the building dampers, DM-1, DM-2, and DM-14 such that the collision hall would be at a slight positive pressure. Measurements were made by Pete Simon and Mike Sarychev. They systematically took velocity measurements across the duct cross sections. Their raw measurements are included.

Density functional theory was used to investigate the mechanism and kinetics of methanol oxidation to formaldehyde over vanadia supported on silica, titania, and zirconia. The catalytically active site was modeled as an isolated VO{sub 4} unit attached to the support. The calculated geometry and vibrational frequencies of the active site are in good agreement with experimental measurements both for model compounds and oxide-supported vanadia. Methanol adsorption is found to occur preferentially with the rupture of a V-O-M bond (M = Si, Ti, Zr) and with preferential attachment of a methoxy group to V. The vibrational frequencies of the methoxy group are in good agreement with those observed experimentally as are the calculated isobars. The formation of formaldehyde is assumed to occur via the transfer of an H atom of a methoxy group to the O atom of the V=O group. The activation energy for this process is found to be in the range of 199-214 kJ/mol and apparent activation energies for the overall oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde are predicted to lie in the range of 112-123 kJ/mol, which is significantly higher than that found experimentally. Moreover, the predicted turnover frequency (TOF) for methanol oxidation is found to be essentially …

The flavor structure of the nucleon as revealed in parton distributions (PDF's) is central to understanding the partonic structure of the nucleon. Recent data on unpolarized PDF's and their implications for the flavor-dependent quark helicity distributions are discussed. Results are presented for spin asymmetries in inclusive and semi-inclusive cross sections for production of pions, and kaons measured by the HERMES experiment in deep-inelastic scattering of polarized positrons on proton and deuterium Targets. A full 5 component extraction of polarized quark distributions for u, d, {bar u}, {bar d}, and (s + {bar s}) is reported. Resulting valence quark distributions conform to results of earlier experiments. There is no evidence for a significant polarization of the light sea. In contrast to the conclusions inferred from studies of polarized inclusive scattering, a leading order analysis of the HERMES data suggests a zero or slightly positive polarization of the strange sea. There is no evidence for a measurable flavor asymmetry in the polarized distributions for the light sea.

Semidefinite programming (SDP) is an extension of linear programming, with vector variables replaced by matrix variables and component wise nonnegativity replaced by positive semidefiniteness. SDP's are convex, but not polyhedral, optimization problems. SDP is well on its way to becoming an established paradigm in optimization, with many current potential applications. Consequently, efficient methods and software for solving SDP's are of great importance. During the award period, attention was primarily focused on three aspects of computational semidefinite programming: General-purpose methods for semidefinite and quadratic cone programming; Specific applications (LMI problems arising in control, minimizing a sum of Euclidean norms, a quantum mechanics application of SDP); and Optimizing matrix stability.

RF cavities are among the most complex components of a particle accelerator. They perform optimally when all electrical, mechanical and vacuum requirements are fully integrated. This paper focuses on the mechanical design features of the new 53MHz room-temperature RF cavities (including their ancillary components) for the X-ray Ring at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). Differences between the new and previous designs of the RF cavities, input couplers, Higher-Order-Mode (HOM) dampers, and cooling and vacuum systems are reviewed. Thus far, two out of four units have already been constructed, tested, and installed into the X-Ray ring, and two additional RF cavities are planned. The features incorporated into the new all-copper RF cavities have already demonstrated superior performance over the original copper-plated steel design. The operating performance results along with some of manufacturing challenges are presented.

The mechanical design considerations are discussed with respect to the currently installed X-13 and future X-29 MGU. Comparisons to the previous 2 generations of variable small-gap undulator evolution in the NSLS X-ray ring are made and design improvements noted. The design requirements and mechanical difficulties for holding, positioning and driving the magnetic arrays are explored. Structural, thermal and electrical considerations which influenced the design are then analyzed. The mechanical performance of the MGU currently installed at X-13 is examined and future installations and enhancements are presented.

Complexity Theory is the study of order within otherwise chaotic systems (Holland, 1999). Complexity Theory often focuses on Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). A CAS is a system of components that interact and reproduce while adapting to their environment. A CAS consists of large numbers of components that are diverse in both form and capability. A CAS exhibits unstable coherence in spite of constant disruptions and a lack of central planning. Large-scale, interconnected infrastructures such as communication networks are CAS. These infrastructures are vastly more dynamic than their predecessors. Such infrastructures consist of a large number of components and participants that are diverse in both form and capability. Furthermore, these infrastructures exhibit unstable coherence in spite of constant disruptions and a lack of central planning. Viewing large-scale, interconnected infrastructures with complex physical architectures, such as communication networks, as CAS can provide many new insights (Bower and Bunn, 2000; North, 2000a, 2000b, and 2001). The CAS approach emphasizes the specific evolution of integrated infrastructures and their participants' behavior, not just simple trends or end states. The adaptation of the infrastructure participants to changing conditions is paramount. Also, the effects of random events and uncertainty are explicitly considered. One powerful computational approach to …

The BSW series wells are located in the Mixed Waste Management Facility and are part of the groundwater monitoring program at Savannah River Site. These wells have had persistent problems that prevent successful sampling that dates back to their installation. Only thirty-two of the fifty-three BSW wells were successfully sampled during 4th quarter, 2001. These problems were previously investigated by looking at field sampling logbooks from 4th quarter 2001 and other background information to try to identify causes for the high rate of sampling failure. Several possible causes were identified and reported in memorandum, SRT-EST-2002-00059. The memorandum recommended that an evaluation be performed on each well to identify problems and their causes and to correct them when possible. Environmental Restoration Division followed up on this recommendation and requested Savannah River Technology Center to perform an evaluation. This report includes the results of the evaluation performed on the BSW wells.

Electricity systems are a central component of modern economies. Many electricity markets are transitioning from centrally regulated systems to decentralized markets. Furthermore, several electricity markets that have recently undergone this transition have exhibited extremely unsatisfactory results, most notably in California. These high stakes transformations require the introduction of largely untested regulatory structures. Suitable tools that can be used to test these regulatory structures before they are applied to real systems are required. Multi-agent models can provide such tools. To better understand the requirements such as tool, a live electricity market simulation was created. This experience helped to shape the development of the multi-agent Electricity Market Complex Adaptive Systems (EMCAS) model. To explore EMCAS' potential, several variations of the live simulation were created. These variations probed the possible effects of changing power plant outages and price setting rules on electricity market prices.

This report evaluates MTI-derived surface water temperature near the tropical Pacific island of Nauru. The MTI sea-surface temperatures were determined by the Los Alamos National Laboratory based on the robust retrieval.

SuperLig(R) 639 elutable, organic resin has been selected for technetium (as pertechnetate ion) removal from Hanford Site radioactive waste samples as part of the River Protection Project - Waste Treatment Plant (RPP-WTP) design. In support of the RPP-WTP flow sheet development, column tests have been performed at the Savannah River Technology Center with SuperLig(R) 639 resin using actual Hanford Site tank waste samples. The resin was shown to be highly effective at pertechnetate removal from these caustic, high-sodium, aqueous waste samples. Pertechnetate ion was subsequently eluted from the columns with water. An additional column test conducted on a Savannah River Site waste sample revealed exceptional performance, presumably due to the fact that lower concentrations of competing anions (primarily nitrate) were present in the sample.

The long-term objective of research has been to perform the enabling materials research necessary for the development of a battery oriented to the consumer market with special requirements in terms of safety, cycling life, and high specific energy and power. We have discovered novel processing of V{sub 2}O{sub 5} gels that leads to aerogel (ARG) and xerogel (XRG) films with specific energy and Li insertion capacity that are much higher than for other amorphous or crystalline forms of V{sub 2}O{sub 5}. We have also found that the new materials will host Mg{sup +2} and other cations which should be the basis for novel high-energy, high-power consumer battery systems. The investigation has examined (1) low-temperature synthesis of V{sub 2}O{sub 5} aerogel host materials, (2) characterization of insertion of Mg{sup 2+}, Zn{sup 2+}, and Al{sup 3+} into the V{sub 2}O{sub 5} hosts, (3) anode materials for the new systems, and alternate anode materials to replace the intrinsically unsafe lithium metal for lithium batteries, and (4) the feasibility of safer, nonaqueous, high-performance battery designs.

Theoretical models for heating, evaporation, material flow, and stress and strain generation accompanying CO{sub 2} laser damage mitigation and surface treatment of fused silica are developed to aid understanding of scaling with process parameters. We find that lateral nonlinear heat transport is an important cooling mechanism, more significant than evaporative cooling. Scaling laws relating experiments with different set of parameters are presented. Transverse conduction, together with the increased thermal conductivity at high temperatures, allows a gentle evaporation regime at low laser intensity in which the rate can be controlled via laser fluence. For higher laser intensity, recoil momentum imparted by rapid evaporation generates pressure, which can lead to transverse flow of the melted material. Only a very thin layer can flow because viscosity increases rapidly with depth. Evaporation and flow are subject to instabilities that can impact surface quality, especially surface flatness, if large areas are processed. Also material flow can heal cracks and improve material quality. Analysis of stress indicates that maximal tensile stresses of order 0.1 GPa, comparable to the tensile strength, can be generated.

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P.L. 104-193 (the 1996 welfare reform legislation) made major changes to the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program. Some of the changes include requiring states to increase the percentage of fathers identified, establishing an integrated, automated network linking all states to information about the location and assets of parents, and requiring states to implement more enforcement techniques to obtain collections from debtor parents. Additional legislative changes were made in 1997, 1998, and 1999, but not in 2000 or 2001. This report describes several aspects of the revised CSE program and discusses three issues that probably will be reexamined by the 107th Congress — CSE financing, parental access by noncustodial parents, and distribution of support payments.

The DARHT accelerator will deliver several intense relativistic electron beam pulses to an x-ray conversion target during a few microseconds. Plasma from the target can cause a partial neutralization of the vacuum self-Er field resulting in an unacceptably large beam radius at the target. The Livermore group has been developing barrier foils to block the plasma from moving upstream. Positive ions accelerated upstream from the foil in the self-Ez field during a single pulse could defocus the beam. In May, 2001 LANL used a sensitive ''two foil'' experiment to search for such effects. They measured significant time dependent effects using conducting foils (1). In January, 2002, the Livermore group repeated the experiment using the ETA II accelerator. We expected to see similar effects and planned to collect data that we could model. We saw no significant effect from conducting foils unless the beam radius was small enough to damage the foil. The reason for the different results has not been explained and is still being investigated. Possibilities have to do with the longer pulse length at LANL, (60 ns compared to 40) or with the higher energy at LANL, (20 Mev compared to 5.7) We also did some tests on …

The end of the Cold War seemed to create a more peaceful international environment. September 11 reminded us of the dangers of complacency. Indeed, even before September 11 US forces had intervened in a number of wars and crises, including Panama, the Persian Gulf War, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, several Taiwan Straits crises, the North Korea nuclear weapons crisis, and most recently Afghanistan. US ability to intervene in remote areas of the world is often dependent on the Navy's ability to project power ashore. As a result, US ability to influence events in crisis situations, especially between or among nuclear powers, may become more difficult along with our ability to conduct littoral warfare. Although the numbers of potentially hostile submarines have declined with the end of the Cold War, US anti-submarine warfare capabilities have also declined. Moreover, foreign submarines and related technologies are likely to diffuse globally. New technologies like Air Independent Propulsion (AIP), improved weapons and sensors will make conventional submarines more dangerous, and the spread of nuclear submarines even to a few more countries raise political, military, environmental, and safety concerns. Submarines are one of the key weapon systems used alone or in combination with other weapon systems …

A method of producing holograms of three-dimensional optical pulses is proposed. It is shown that both the amplitude and the phase profile of three-dimensional optical pulse can be stored in dynamic perturbations of a Raman medium, such as plasma. By employing Raman scattering in a nonlinear medium, information carried by a laser pulse can be captured in the form of a slowly propagating low-frequency wave that persists for a time large compared with the pulse duration. If such a hologram is then probed with a short laser pulse, the information stored in the medium can be retrieved in a second scattered electromagnetic wave. The recording and retrieving processes can conserve robustly the pulse shape, thus enabling the recording and retrieving with fidelity of information stored in optical signals. While storing or reading the pulse structure, the optical information can be processed as an analogue or digital signal, which allows simultaneous transformation of three-dimensional continuous images or computing discrete arrays of binary data. By adjusting the phase fronts of the reference pulses, one can also perform focusing, redirecting, and other types of transformation of the output pulses.

The Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability (HPAC) has been re-engineered from a Windows application with tight binding between computation and a graphical user interface (GUI) to a new distributed object architecture. The key goals of this new architecture are platform portability, extensibility, deployment flexibility, client-server operations, easy integration with other systems, and support for a new map-based GUI. Selection of Java as the development and runtime environment is the major factor in achieving each of the goals, platform portability in particular. Portability is further enforced by allowing only Java components in the client. Extensibility is achieved via Java's dynamic binding and class loading capabilities and a design by interface approach. HPAC supports deployment on a standalone host, as a heavy client in client-server mode with data stored on the client but calculations performed on the server host, and as a thin client with data and calculations on the server host. The principle architectural element supporting deployment flexibility is the use of Universal Resource Locators (URLs) for all file references. Java WebStart{trademark} is used for thin client deployment. Although there were many choices for the object distribution mechanism, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) was chosen to support HPAC client …

A portable assembly containing a vertical-bend dipole magnet has been designed and installed immediately down-beam of the Compton electron-laser interaction chamber on beamline 1 of the Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The water-cooled magnet designed with field strength of up to 0.7 Tesla will be used as a spectrometer in the Thompson scattering and vacuum acceleration experiments, where field-dependent electron scattering, beam focusing and energy spread will be analyzed. This magnet will deflect the ATF's 60 MeV electron-beam 90{sup o} downward, as a vertical beam dump for the Compton scattering experiment. The dipole magnet assembly is portable, and can be relocated to other beamlines at the ATF or other accelerator facilities to be used as a spectrometer or a beam dump. The mechanical and shielding calculations are presented in this paper. The structural rigidity and stability of the assembly were studied. A square lead shield surrounding the assembly's Faraday Cup was designed to attenuate the radiation emerging from the 1 inch-copper beam stop. All photons produced were assumed to be sufficiently energetic to generate photoneutrons. A safety evaluation of groundwater tritium contamination due to the thermal neutron capturing by the deuterium in water was performed, using …

Literature values and estimated data for the thermodynamics of the actinide oxides and fission products are applied to explain the chemical behavior in gas-cooled-reactor fuels. Emphasis is placed on the Am-O-C and Pu-O-C systems and the data are used to plot the oxygen chemical potential versus temperature of solid-solid and solid-gas equilibria. These results help explain observations of vaporization in Am oxides, nitrides, and carbides and provide guidance for the ceramic processing of the fuels. The thermodynamic analysis is then extended to the fission product systems and the Si-C-O system. Existing data on oxygen release (primarily as CO) as a function of burnup in the thoria-urania fuel system is reviewed and compared to values calculated from thermodynamic data. The calculations of oxygen release are then extended to the plutonia and americia fuels. Use of ZrC not only as a particle coating that may be more resistant to corrosion by Pd and other noble-metal fission products, but also as a means to getter oxygen released by fission is discussed.

This report provides information about the Human Resources Management of Homeland Security. It discusses the provisions as they related to federal labor resources management relations.