Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) has been unable to meet the obligation to its special education students under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). By 1998, DCPS was experiencing serious problems in conducting timely hearings requested by parents under IDEA and in issuing final decisions within the required timelines. This resulted in many complaints and law suits by parents. The amount of attorneys' fees awarded to parties who prevailed in the IDEA cases was costly to the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia Appropriations Acts for fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001 limited the amount of appropriated funds that could be paid to an attorney representing a prevailing party in an action brought against DCPS under IDEA. GAO reviewed DCPS's IDEA awards and payments for fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001 to determine if they exceeded the acts' limitations. GAO found that the limitations had little impact on the total amount awarded by the courts for the attorney's fees. The limitations apply only to the amount that the District of Columbia could pay to a prevailing party under IDEA and not the amount that …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) characterizes an abusive tax scheme as any plan or arrangement created and used to obtain tax benefits not allowable by law. According to IRS, abusive tax schemes fall into four categories: frivolous returns, frivolous refunds, abusive domestic trusts, and offshore schemes. IRS estimates the potential revenue loss from abusive tax schemes to be in the tens of billions of dollars annually. Developing accurate estimates is difficult because of the limited numbers of cases examined and investigated. IRS identifies and examines abusive tax scheme promoters and participants through its Small Business and Self-Employed Division and Criminal Investigation. In fiscal year 2000, IRS created a program that focuses on false and frivolous schemes. IRS has also created new offices that focus exclusively on abusive tax schemes that use legal structures like domestic and offshore trusts and partnerships. IRS coordinates with federal agencies to identify, monitor, and prosecute promoters and participants in abusive tax schemes. These activities range from sharing information and detection techniques with agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to assisting in the prosecution of …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For several years, Congress and others have been concerned about declines in the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) compliance and collection programs. Taxpayers' willingness to voluntarily comply with the tax laws depends in part on their confidence that their friends, neighbors, and business competitors are paying their share of taxes. GAO found large and pervasive declines in five of the six compliance programs and in both collection programs between fiscal years 1996 and 2001. Factors contributing to the declines in the program and in collection coverage include declines in IRS staffing, increased workloads, and increased procedural controls mandated by Congress to better safeguard taxpayer interests. The declines in IRS's compliance and collection programs had several impacts. The likelihood that taxpayer noncompliance would be detected and pursued by IRS declined and the length of time that taxpayers owed back taxes at the time that they were assigned to collection increased between 1996 and 2001. The amount of penalties and interest continued to accumulate on deferred collection cases, making future payment increasingly demanding if subsequently pursued by IRS. Strategic assessments, which were prepared to provide a basis for decisions …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), now called the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), became concerned that some suppliers were improperly billing Medicare for items that attach to wheelchairs and other equipment. Some suppliers were billing for such items using codes for orthodic devices, including arm, back, and neck braces that provide support for or immobilize weak or injured limbs, while others were billing using codes for durable medical equipment, which includes equipment such as wheelchairs and crutches that can withstand repeated use and is appropriate for home use. Whether an item is billed as an orthotic or DME device can affect whether such claims are paid. To clarify Medicare's payment policy on orthotics, HCFA issued a ruling stating that Medicare considered such items to be durable medical equipment rather than orthotics. HCFA issued Ruling 96-1 to clarify the circumstances under which certain items would be classified as orthotics or as DME for Medicare part B payment purposes. A federal appellate court found that HFCA had followed appropriate procedures to issue the rule as an interpretation of …

Weekly newspaper from Mannford, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Rusk, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Insulated pressure vessels are cryogenic-capable pressure vessels that can be fueled with liquid hydrogen or ambient-temperature compressed hydrogen. This flexibility results in multiple advantages with respect to compressed hydrogen tanks or low-pressure liquid hydrogen tanks. Our work is directed at verifying that commercially available aluminum-lined, fiber-wrapped pressure vessels can be safely used to store liquid hydrogen. A series of tests have been conducted, and the results indicate that no significant vessel damage has resulted from cryogenic operation. Future activities include a demonstration project in which the insulated pressure vessels will be installed and tested on two vehicles. A draft standard will also be generated for certification of insulated pressure vessels.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Seminole, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The Source Injector Program for the US Heavy Ion Fusion Virtual National Laboratory is currently exploring the feasibility of using RF gas plasma sources for a HIF driver. This source technology is presently the leading candidate for the multiple aperture concept, in which bright millimeter size beamlets are extracted and accelerated electrostatically up to 1 MeV before the beamlets are allowed to merge and form 1 A beams. Initial experiments have successfully demonstrated simultaneously high current density, {approx} 100 mA/cm{sup 2} and fast turn on, {approx} 1 {micro}s. These experiments were also used to explore operating ranges for pressure and RF power. Results from these experiments are presented as well as progress and plans for the next set of experiments for these sources.

Radioactive wastes are contained in 48 underground storage tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The materials and structures of the tanks provide a confinement function by maintaining leak integrity and structural stability. It is essential that the potential changes in properties of the structural materials due to service environment be evaluated and that conditions that can cause significant (active) degradation be avoided or mitigated. Aging mechanisms are those which cause changes in the materials including degradation of the materials. Degradation is either a reduction of the mechanical properties (e.g., loss of toughness or ductility), or a loss of net section of materials (e.g., cracking, pitting, thinning), or both which reduces the level of confinement inherent in the original installed condition and could lead to failure of confinement.

This, as the title implies, is a summary report of the price trends for heating oil, propane and kerosene heating fuels for the heating season.

The purpose of this project was to assess poultry grower residue, or litter (manure plus absorbent biomass), as a fuel source for Community Power Corporation's small modular biopower system (SMB). A second objective was to assess the poultry industry to identify potential ''on-site'' applications of the SMB system using poultry litter residue as a fuel source, and to adapt CPC's existing SMB to generate electricity and heat from the poultry litter biomass fuel. Bench-scale testing and pilot testing were used to gain design information for the SMB retrofit. System design approach for the Phase II application of the SMB was the goal of Phase I testing. Cost estimates for an onsite poultry litter SMB were prepared. Finally, a market estimate was prepared for implementation of the on-farm SMB using poultry litter.

Acetonitrile (CH{sub 3}CN) is formed from the thermal decomposition of a variety of cyclic, noncyclic, and polymeric nitrogen-containing compounds such as pyrrole and polyacrylonitrile. The pyrolysis and combustion of acetonitrile have been studied over the past 30 years to gain a more detailed understanding of the complex mechanisms involved in the release of nitrogen-containing compounds such as hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in fires and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in coal combustion. This report reviews the literature on the formation of HCN and NOx from the pyrolysis and combustion of acetonitrile and discusses the possible products found in an acetonitrile fire.

In oxidizing environments, the toxic and radioactive element uranium is most soluble and mobile in the hexavalent oxidation state. These processes also affect the biological availability of U(VI) species toward reduction and precipitation as the less soluble U(IV) species by metal-reducing bacteria. The results provide compelling evidence of U incorporation within the hematite structure.

To enable collaboration on the daily tasks involved in scientific research, collaborative frameworks should provide lightweight and ubiquitous components that support a wide variety of interaction modes. We envision a collaborative environment as one that provides a persistent space within which participants can locate each other, exchange synchronous and asynchronous messages, share documents and applications, share workflow, and hold videoconferences. We are developing the Pervasive Collaborative Computing Environment (PCCE) as such an environment. The PCCE will provide integrated tools to support shared computing and task control and monitoring. This paper describes the PCCE and the rationale for its design.

The Office of Space and Defense Power Systems of the Department of Energy (DOE) provides Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) for applications where conventional power systems are not feasible. For example, radioisotope thermoelectric generators were supplied by the DOE to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for deep space missions including the Cassini Mission launched in October of 1997 to study the planet Saturn. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been involved in developing materials and technology and producing components for the DOE for more than three decades. For the Cassini Mission, for example, ORNL was involved in the production of carbon-bonded carbon fiber (CBCF) insulator sets, iridium alloy blanks and foil, and clad vent sets (CVS). This report has been divided into three sections to reflect program guidance from the Office of Space and Defense Power Systems for fiscal year (FY) 2002. The first section deals primarily with maintenance of the capability to produce flight quality (FQ) CBCF insulator sets, iridium alloy blanks and foil, and CVS. In all three cases, production maintenance is assured by the manufacture of limited quantities of FQ components. The second section deals with several technology activities to improve the manufacturing processes, characterize materials, …

This program was aimed at reducing barriers to the widespread use of gelled polymer treatments by (1) developing methods to predict gel behavior during placement in matrix rock and fractures, (2) determining the persistence of permeability reduction after gel placement, and (3) developing methods to design production well treatments to control water production.

Several technologies are being developed to convert coal into clean fuel for use in power generation. From the standpoint of component materials in these technologies, the environments created by coal conversion and their interactions with materials are of interest. Coal is a complex and relatively dirty fuel that contains varying amounts of sulfur and a substantial fraction of noncombustible mineral constituents, commonly called ash. Corrosion of metallic and ceramic structural materials is a potential problem at elevated temperatures in the presence of complex gas environments and coal-derived solid/liquid deposits. This paper discusses the coal-fired systems currently under development, identifies several modes of corrosion degradation that occur in many of these systems, and suggests possible mechanisms of metal wastage. Available data on the performance of materials in some of the environments are highlighted, and the research needed to improve the corrosion resistance of various materials is presented.

The First Community Consultation on the Responsible Collection and Use of Samples for Genetic Research was held in Bethesda, Maryland, on September 25-26, 2000. The consultation was convened by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Approximately 120 individuals participated in the consultation, half from a broad range of communities and populations, and half from government. The participants shared their views and concerns about population- and community-based genetic research, expanding the focus of the meeting from the collection and use of blood or other tissue samples for genetic research to broader issues and concerns about the conduct of genetic research in general with populations and communities.

This is a multiyear experimental research program that focuses on improving relevant material properties of high-T{sub c} superconductors (HTSs) and developing fabrication methods that can be transferred to industry for production of commercial conductors. The development of teaming relationships through agreements with industrial partners is a key element of the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) program. Technical Highlights are the capabilities and performance of a new pulsed laser deposition system (PLD2) are described. Using PLD2, a YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub x} (YBCO) film with critical current density (J{sub c}) of 5.3 MA/cm{sup 2} was prepared on single-crystal SrTiO{sub 3} (STO). Study of a RABiTS{trademark} sample from Oak Ridge National Laboratory showed new effects of magnetic history on grain boundary transport in YBCO. The critical current (I{sub c}) of melt-textured YBCO rings was measured under pulsed current conditions.

The project Production Scale Implementation of a Petroleum Contaminated Soils Bioreactor was launched in FY00 and showed that bioremediation can be performed under strictly controlled conditions. Initial results showed a 50 percent reduction of total petroleum hydrocarbon concentration in soil from the Czechowice-Dziedzice refinery. It was determined that changes in the design and construction of the bioreactor could improve system performance.

We describe the analysis and preliminary design of a high-gradient, high-duty factor RF photocathode gun. The gun is designed to operate at high repetition rate or CW, with high gradient on the cathode surface to minimize emittance growth due to space charge forces at high bunch charge. The gun may also be operated in a solenoidal magnetic field for emittance compensation. The design is intended for use in short-pulse, high-charge, and high-repetition rate applications such as linac based X-ray sources. We present and compare the results of gun simulations using different codes, as well as RF and thermal analysis of the structure.

The microstructure of materials, i.e. the size, shape and arrangement of grains, determines essentially the material properties such as mechanical strength, toughness, electrical conductivity and magnetic susceptibility. In general the desirable property of materials can be controlled and improved by understanding of microstructure evolution processes in grain growth controlled by grain boundary migration, and grain boundary diffusion. The process of grain growth involves both grain boundary migration (moving interfaces) and topological changes of grain boundary geometry, and it can not be effectively modeled by Lagrangian, Eulerian, or Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian finite element method when in addition the stress effect is considered. A double-grid method is proposed for modeling grain boundary migration under stress. In this approach, the material grid carries kinematic and kinetic material variables, whereas the grain boundary grid carries only grain boundary kinematic variables. The material domain is discretized by a reproducing kernel approximation with strain discontinuity enrichment across the grain boundaries. The grain boundaries, on the other hand, are discretized by the standard finite elements. This approach allows modeling of arbitrary evolution of grain boundaries without remeshing.