A 15kJoule, Flash Lamp Power Conditioning Unit has been successfully designed, developed, and deployed in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) Preamplifier Modules (PAM). The primary design philosophy of this power conditioning unit (PCU) is safety, reliability, and manufacturability. Cost reduction over commercially equivalent systems was also achieved through an easily manufactured packaging design optimized to meet NIF requirements. While still maintaining low cost, the PCU design includes a robust control system, fault diagnostic system, and safety features. The pulsed power design includes 6 PFN modules, each including a dual series injection trigger transformer, that drive a total of 12 flash lamp loads. The lamps are individually triggered via a 20kV pulse produced by a 1kV, MCT switched capacitive discharge unit on the primary side of the trigger transformer. The remote control interface includes an embedded controller that captures flash lamp current wave forms and fault status for each shot. The embedded controller provides the flexibility of remotely adjusting both the main drive voltage from 1.6 to 2.5 kV and the trigger voltage from 0 to 20 kV.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives granting the legislature permission to adjourn for more than three days during the period beginning on Wednesday, April 4, 2007, and ending on Tuesday, April 10, 2007.

This report summarizes the extent of accounting and management problems at Freddie Mac. The report highlights the issues of selecting policies to report constant earnings, and undertaking certain transactions for the sake of creating a facade of reported earnings. Finally, the report discusses the consequences of these problems by stating that many of the Freddie Mac's executives have been replaced, fines were issued, and a lawsuit occurred.

Radioactive material packages used for transportation of plutonium-bearing materials often contain multiple O-ring seals for containment. Packages such as the Model 9975 are also being used for interim storage of Pu-bearing materials at the Savannah River Site (SRS). One of the seal materials used in such packages is Viton{reg_sign} GLT fluoroelastomer. The aging behavior of containment vessel O-rings based on Viton{reg_sign} GLT at long-term containment term storage conditions is being characterized to assess its performance in such applications. This paper summarizes the program and test results to date.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO performed the agreed-upon procedures Congress requested related to receipt and disbursement processing and related procedures applicable to the Office of Public Records Revolving Fund (the Fund) for fiscal years 2006 and 2007. In summary, the procedures we agreed with Congress to perform related to supporting documentation for Fund-related receipt and disbursement activities processed through the Office of Public Records (OPR) and Senate Disbursing Office (SDO) and reconciliation procedures performed by OPR. We conducted our work in accordance with U.S. generally accepted government auditing standards, which incorporate the attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. These standards also provide guidance on performing and reporting on the results of agreed-upon procedures. By specifying the procedures we agreed to perform, OPR, SDO, and the Office of the Secretary of the Senate were responsible for ensuring that the procedures were sufficient to meet Congressional purposes, and we make no representation in that respect. The enclosure contains the agreed-upon procedures we performed and the results we obtained."

This report discusses federal programs on agriculture-based renewable energy and how people associated with agriculture have reacted. Moreover, the report discusses how this reaction has been positive and taken the form of an increase in ethanol production along with wind energy.

The Lansing Community College Alternative Energy Center was created with several purposes in mind. The first purpose was the development of educational curricula designed to meet the growing needs of advanced energy companies that would allow students to articulate to other educational institutions or enter this growing workforce. A second purpose was the professional development of faculty and teachers to prepare them to train tomorrow's workforce and scholars. Still another purpose was to design, construct, and equip an alternative energy laboratory that could be used for education, demonstration, and public outreach. Last, the Center was to engage in community outreach and education to enhance industry partnerships, inform decision makers, and increase awareness and general knowledge of hydrogen and other alternative energy technologies and their beneficial impacts on society. This project has enabled us to accomplish all of our goals, including greater faculty understanding of advanced energy concepts, who are now able to convey this knowledge to students through a comprehensive alternative energy curriculum, in a facility well-equipped with advanced technologies, which is also being used to better educate the public on the advantages to society of exploring alternative energy technologies.

The most common analytical method of identifying and quantifying non-radioactive isotopic species of hydrogen is mass spectrometry. A low mass, high resolution mass spectrometer with adequate sensitivity and stability to identify and quantify hydrogen isotopes in the low ppm range is an expensive, complex instrument. A new analytical technique has been developed that measures both total protium (H) and total deuterium (D) in a gas mixture containing H{sub 2}, D{sub 2}, and HD using an inexpensive micro gas chromatograph (GC) with two molecular sieve columns. One column uses D{sub 2} as the carrier gas and the other uses H{sub 2} as the carrier gas. Laboratory tests have shown that when used in this configuration the GC can measure both total protium and total deuterium each with a detection and quantification limit of less than 20 ppm.

An archaeological survey within the central park of the City of Azle for the proposed construction of two soccer fields, two basketball courts, a parking lot, and a narrow trail.

This report provides data on the distribution of assets i estates as reported on estate tax returns filed in 2005. This report finds that farm and business assets represents a small share of the total value of taxable estates that file tax returns in 2005.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (referred to hereafter as the Reform Act) included provisions to better inform individuals who file for personal bankruptcy about their options for reaffirming debt--whereby filers may voluntarily agree to pay certain creditors in an effort to retain assets, such as an automobile. Reaffirmation agreements between debtors and creditors are required, by law, to formally disclose to debtors the terms of the agreement, such as the amount of debt reaffirmed. Some requirements differ for credit unions, such as an exemption for reporting debtor financial information when the debtor's attorney signs the agreement. The Reform Act required GAO to study the bankruptcy reaffirmation process. This report discusses (1) the extent to which required Reform Act disclosures and other information have been incorporated into reaffirmation agreements, (2) the types of debts reaffirmed and the percent this debt comprised of debtors' overall debt burden, and (3) how reaffirmed and original interest rates compare. GAO reviewed a representative sample of bankruptcy files with agreements in five bankruptcy courts (in AL, CA, IL, TX, and WV) selected by, among other things, filing …

The instability in the PEP-II electron ring has been observed while reducing the clearing gap in the bunch train. We study the ion effects in the ring summarizing existing theories of the beam-ion interaction, comparing them with observations, and estimating effect on luminosity in the saturation regime. Considering the gap instability we suggest that the instability is triggered by the beam-ion instability, and discuss other mechanisms pertinent to the instability.

This report is about Broadband Internet Access and the Digital Divide: Federal Assistance Programs.

It is desirable to monitor the cross sections of each positron bunch in the Low Energy Ring (LER) storage rings of the Positron Electron Project II (PEP-II) located at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. One method is to pass the x-rays given off by each bunch through a scintillator, thereby studying a visible image. A rotating x-ray mask with three slots scans the beam image in three different orientations, allowing us to mechanically collect data to characterize and profile each image. Progress was made in designing the x-ray mask, researching and procuring parts, as well as advancing project plans. However, due to time constraints and difficulties in procuring special parts, the full system was not completed. A simpler setup was built to test the hardware as well as the feasibility of characterizing a circular image with a rotating mask. A blinking green light emitting diode (LED) simulated a single positron bunch stored in the LER ring. The selected hardware handled this simulation setup well and produced data that led to a reasonable estimation of the LED image diameter.

The PEP II lattices are unique in their detector solenoid field compensation scheme by utilizing a set of skew quadrupoles in the IR region and the adjacent arcs left and right of the IP. Additionally, the design orbit through this region is nonzero. This combined with the strong local coupling wave makes it very difficult to calculate IP tuning knobs which are orthogonal and closed. The usual approach results either in non-closure, not being orthogonal or the change in magnet strength being too big. To find a solution, the set of tuning quads had to be extended which resulted having more degrees of freedom than constraints. To find the optimal set of quadrupoles which creates a linear, orthogonal and closed knob and simultaneously minimizing the changes in magnet strength, the method using Singular Value Decomposition, Response Matrices and an Adapted Moore Penrose method had to be extended. The results of these simulations are discussed below and the results of first implementation in the machine are shown.

This report provides background on both the U.S. and Canadian corn sectors as well as the historical development of their corn trade dispute.In addition, it discusses the potential implications of the case for U.S. farm policy.

Nanolipoprotein particles (NLPs) are small 10-20 nm diameter assemblies of apolipoproteins and lipids. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), they have constructed multiple variants of these assemblies. NLPs have been generated from a variety of lipoproteins, including apolipoprotein Al, apolipophorin III, apolipoprotein E4 22K, and MSP1T2 (nanodisc, Inc.). Lipids used included DMPC (bulk of the bilayer material), DMPE (in various amounts), and DPPC. NLPs were made in either the absence or presence of the detergent cholate. They have collected electron microscopy data as a part of the characterization component of this research. Although purified by size exclusion chromatography (SEC), samples are somewhat heterogeneous when analyzed at the nanoscale by negative stained cryo-EM. Images reveal a broad range of shape heterogeneity, suggesting variability in conformational flexibility, in fact, modeling studies point to dynamics of inter-helical loop regions within apolipoproteins as being a possible source for observed variation in NLP size. Initial attempts at three-dimensional reconstructions have proven to be challenging due to this size and shape disparity. They are pursuing a strategy of computational size exclusion to group particles into subpopulations based on average particle diameter. They show here results from their ongoing efforts at statistically and computationally subdividing NLP populations …

This report talks about Characterization of Spatial Heterogenieties in Detector Grade CdZnTe.

This report summarizes the results from the characterization of the second quarter April 2007 sampling of Tank 50H for the Saltstone Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC). Six one liter samples were taken in polyethylene bottles to analyze for the WAC contaminants and a 200 mL sample was taken in a steel container for analysis of volatile organic compounds. The information from this characterization will be given to Waste Solidification Engineering personnel to qualify the transfer of aqueous waste to the Saltstone Facility. The following conclusions are drawn from the analytical results found in this report: (1) All six of the one liter samples taken in April 2007 from the mixed slurry in Tank 50 have the same compositions within the experimental uncertainty of the analyses. (2) Of the ninety-one process, chemical, and radioactive WAC target or limit contaminants listed in Revision 7 of the 'Waste Acceptance Criteria for Aqueous Waste sent to the Z-Area Saltstone Production Facility', eighty-nine had concentrations that were unequivocally less than the WAC limit or target. (3) The two contaminants whose concentrations could not be shown to be less than their WAC targets were methanol and radioactive Nb-93m. Currently the AD Section of SRNL does not have …

AKPiX is a prototype front-end readout chip designed for the Silicon Detector Design Concept for the International Linear Collider (ILC). It is targeted at readout of the outer tracker and the silicon-tungsten calorimeter and is under consideration for the hadronic calorimeter and muon systems. This chip takes advantage of the ILC timing structure by implementing pulsed-power operation to reduce power and cooling requirements and buffered readout to minimize material. Successful implementation of this chip requires optimal noise performance, of which there are two measures. The first is the noise on the output signal, previously measured at 1500e{sup -}, which is much larger than the anticipated 500e{sup -}. The other is the noise on the trigger logic branch, which determines where thresholds must be set in order to eliminate noise hits, thus defining the smallest signals to which the chip can be sensitive. A test procedure has been developed to measure the noise in the trigger branch by scanning across the pedestal in trigger threshold and taking self-triggered data to measure the accept rate at each threshold. This technique measures the integral of the pedestal shape. Shifts in the pedestal mean from injection of known calibration charges are used to normalize …

We report recent results of the Dalitz plot analyses of D and D{sub S} decays performed by the BABAR collaboration, and point out some of the important applications of these results.

On June 1, 200, the European Union (EU) began to implement a new law governing chemicals in EU commerce: Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). It is intended to protect human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals while at the same time protecting the competitiveness of European industry. This report contains information on the background, how each part of the REACH law are implemented, and related materials.

Concern has grown in Congress and elsewhere about China's military modernization. The topic is an increasing factor in discussions over future required U.S. Navy capabilities. The issue for Congress addressed in this report is: How should China's military modernization be factored into decisions about U.S. Navy programs?

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Climate change has implications for the vast land and water resources managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Forest Service (FS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and National Park Service (NPS). These resources generally occur within four ecosystem types: coasts and oceans, forests, fresh waters, and grasslands and shrublands. GAO obtained experts' views on (1) the effects of climate change on federal resources and (2) the challenges managers face in addressing climate change effects on these resources. GAO held a workshop with the National Academies in which 54 scientists, economists, and federal resource managers participated, and conducted 4 case studies."