Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Recent legislation increased funding for food stamp employment and training programs from fiscal year 1998 through fiscal year 2002, when the Food Stamp Program is scheduled to be reauthorized. To qualify for these additional federal funds, states must maintain their state-funded expenditures for employment and training at a level no lower than in fiscal year 1996; these additional funds are referred to as maintenance-of-efforts funds. The act requires that at least 80 percent of all employment and training funds be spent on able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWD). The law also gives the states the option to exempt from the work requirement up to 15 percent of their ABAWD population not residing in a waived area or otherwise exempted from the work requirement. GAO examined (1) the trends in ABAWD participation in the Food Stamp Program, including recent data on ABAWDs who are living in waived areas, exempted from work requirements, participating in qualifying employment and training activities, or working, and (2) the extent to which the states have used employment and training program funding. GAO found that ABAWD participation in the Food Stamp Program has dropped rapidly since …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed steps taken by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to strengthen its information technology (IT) investment management and acquisition capabilities. The Bureau took these actions to address recommendations made in an earlier report on the failure of the Automated Land and Mineral Record System (ALMRS) to meet BLM's business needs. GAO found that since 1999, BLM has been working to implement GAO recommendations to determine the usefulness of ALMRS and to assess and strengthen its IT investment management and acquisition capabilities. Although the bureau has not yet finished these efforts, it has begun to apply improved management strategies for selecting IT investments, develop processes and practices for controlling and evaluating investments, and build a more mature systems acquisition capability. However, before completing and institutionalizing new investment control processes, the Bureau has begun moving forward with an IT acquisition. As a result, BLM's efforts may be subject to the same project management and management oversight risks that adversely affected the ALMRS/Modernization."

Email correspondence about an article on the presence of the Chautauqua movement in Waxahachie, Texas that was written for the June 2001 issue of Texas Highways magazine.

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This report discusses funding and policy issues regarding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for ensuring the safety of foods, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, and other products.

The University of California and California Institute of Technology are currently studying the feasibility of building a 30-m segmented ground based optical telescope called the California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT). The early ideas for this telescope were first described by Nelson and Mast and more recently refined by Nelson. In parallel, concepts for the fabrication of the primary segments were proposed by Mast, Nelson and Sommargren where high risk technologies were identified. One of these was the surface figure metrology needed for fabricating the aspheric mirror segments. This report addresses the advanced interferometry that will be needed to achieve 15nm rms accuracy for mirror segments with aspheric departures as large as 35mm peak-to-valley. For reasons of cost, size, measurement consistency and ease of operation we believe it is desirable to have a single interferometer that can be universally applied to each and every mirror segment. Such an instrument is described in this report.

Hanford Seismic Monitoring provides an uninterrupted collection of high-quality raw and processed seismic data from the Hanford Seismic Network (HSN) for the U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors. Hanford Seismic Monitoring also locates and identifies sources of seismic activity and monitors changes in the historical pattern of seismic activity at the Hanford Site. The data are compiled, archived, and published for use by the Hanford Site for waste management, Natural Phenomena Hazards assessments, and engineering design and construction. In addition, the seismic monitoring organization works with the Hanford Site Emergency Services Organization to provide assistance in the event of a significant earthquake on the Hanford Site. The HSN and the Eastern Washington Regional Network (EWRN) consist of 41 individual sensor sites and 15 radio relay sites maintained by the Hanford Seismic Monitoring staff. For the HSN, there were 477 triggers during the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2001 on the data acquisition system. Of these triggers, 176 were earthquakes. Forty-five earthquakes were located in the HSN area; 1 earthquake occurred in the Columbia River Basalt Group, 43 were earthquakes in the pre-basalt sediments, and 1 was earthquakes in the crystalline basement. Geographically, 44 earthquakes occurred in swarm areas, …

The Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR) Waste Package Department of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System Management & Operating Contractor (CRWMS M&O) performed calculations to provide input for disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from the N Reactor, a graphite moderated reactor at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site (ref. 1). The N Reactor core was fueled with slightly enriched (0.947 wt% and 0.947 to 1.25 wt% {sup 235}U in Mark IV and Mark IA fuels, respectively) U-metal clad in Zircaloy-2 (Ref. 1, Sec. 3). Both types of N Reactor SNF have been considered for disposal at the proposed Yucca Mountain site. For some WPs, the outer shell and inner shell may breach (Ref. 3) allowing the influx of water. Water in the WP will moderate neutrons, increasing the likelihood of a criticality event within the WP; and the water may, in time, gradually leach the fissile components from the WP, further affecting the neutronics of the system. This study presents calculations of the long-term geochemical behavior of WPs containing two multi-canister overpacks (MCO) with either six baskets of Mark IA or five baskets of Mark IV intact N Reactor SNF rods (Ref. 1, Sec. 4) and two high-level waste …

This report provides a summary of the cold tests performed on the equipment to be used in the Gunite and Associated Tanks Treatability Study. The testing was performed from June 1996 to May 1997 at the Tanks Technology Cold Test Facility located at the 7600 complex at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Testing of specific equipment grouped into the following sections: (1) Modified Light-Duty Utility Arm Testing, (2) Remotely Operated Vehicle Testing, (3) Waste Dislodging and Conveyance System and Balance of Plant Equipment Testing, (4) Camera and Lighting System Testing, and (5) Characterization End-Effector Testing. Each section contains descriptions of a series of tests that summarize the test objectives, testing performed, and test results. General conclusions from the testing are also provided.

The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab or LBNL) is a multi-program national research facility operated by the University of California for the Department of Energy (DOE). As an integral element of DOE's National Laboratory System, Berkeley Lab supports DOE's missions in fundamental science, energy resources, and environmental quality. Berkeley Lab programs advance four distinct goals for DOE and the nation: (1) To perform leading multidisciplinary research in the computing sciences, physical sciences, energy sciences, biosciences, and general sciences in a manner that ensures employee and public safety and protection of the environment. (2) To develop and operate unique national experimental facilities for qualified investigators. (3) To educate and train future generations of scientists and engineers to promote national science and education goals. (4) To transfer knowledge and technological innovations and to foster productive relationships among Berkeley Lab's research programs, universities, and industry in order to promote national economic competitiveness. Annual report on Laboratory Directed Research and Development for FY2000.

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Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

We introduce a new Condensed History algorithm for the Monte Carlo simulation of electron transport. To obtain more accurate simulations, the new algorithm preserves the mean position and the variance in the mean position exactly for electrons that have traveled a given path length and are traveling in a given direction. This is accomplished by deriving the zeroth-, first-, and second-order spatial moments of the Spencer-Lewis equation and employing this information directly in the Condensed History process. Numerical calculations demonstrate the advantages of our method over standard Condensed History methods.

Current trends in high performance computing suggest that users will soon have widespread access to clusters of multiprocessors with hundreds, if not thousands, of processors. This unprecedented degree of parallelism will undoubtedly expose scalability limitations in existing applications, where scalability is the ability of a parallel algorithm on a parallel architecture to effectively utilize an increasing number of processors. Users will need precise and automated techniques for detecting the cause of limited scalability. This paper addresses this dilemma. First, we argue that users face numerous challenges in understanding application scalability: managing substantial amounts of experiment data, extracting useful trends from this data, and reconciling performance information with their application's design. Second, we propose a solution to automate this data analysis problem by applying fundamental statistical techniques to scalability experiment data. Finally, we evaluate our operational prototype on several applications, and show that statistical techniques offer an effective strategy for assessing application scalability. In particular, we find that non-parametric correlation of the number of tasks to the ratio of the time for individual communication operations to overall communication time provides a reliable measure for identifying communication operations that scale poorly.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will require spherical ignition capsules approximately 2 mm in diameter with a 120- to 150-pm-thick ablator. Beryllium-based alloys are promising candidates for an ablator material due to their combination of low opacity and relatively high density (compared to polymer coatings). For optimum performance, the Be-coated capsules require a smooth surface finish, uniform thickness, microscopic homogeneity, and preferably high strength. The coatings must contain on the order of 1 at.% of a high-Z dopant (such as Cu) and permit the capsule to be filled with fuel, which will be a mixture of hydrogen isotopes. These demanding requirements can be met through a synthesis method with a focus on the control of microstructure. In our experiments, the sputter deposition process has been manipulated so as to decrease the grain size, thereby reducing roughness and improving homogeneity. The material properties of sputter-deposited coatings are sensitive to their microstructure and growth morphology. To meet the requirements for Be coated capsules, the goal of this project was to optimize the microstructure and growth morphology through the control of deposition process parameters. Prior experimental studies of evaporation and sputter deposition revealed that the grain size of 99.8 at.% pure Be can …

A model is presented for determining the hyper-resistivity coefficient that arises due to the presence of magnetic structures that appear in plasma configurations such as the reversed field pinch and spheromak. Emphasis is placed on modeling cases where magnetic islands pass from non-overlap to overlap regimes. Earlier works have shown that a diffusion-based model can give realistic transport scalings when magnetic islands are isolated, and this formalism is extended to apply to the hyper-resistivity problem. In this case electrons may either be in long or short mean-free-path regimes and intuitively-based arguments are presented of how to extend previous theories to incorporate this feature in the presence of magnetic structures that pass from laminar to moderately chaotic regimes.

This final report summarizes the work and accomplishments of our three-year project. We have pursued the concept of a Vadose-Zone Observatory (VZO) to provide the field laboratory necessary for carrying out the experiments required to achieve the goals of this research. Our approach has been (1) to carry out plume release experiments at a VZO allowing the acquisition of several different kinds of raw data that (2) are analyzed and evaluated with the aid of highly detailed, diagnostic numerical models. The key feature of the VZO constructed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is the variety of plume-tracking techniques that can be used at a single location. Electric resistance tomography (ERT) uses vertical arrays of electrodes across the vadose zone that can monitor electrical resistance changes in the soil as a plume moves downward to the water table. These resistance changes can be used to provide ''snapshots'' of the progress of the plume. Additionally, monitoring wells have been completed at multiple levels in the vicinity of a central infiltration site. Sensors emplaced at different levels include electrically conducting gypsum blocks for detecting saturation changes, thermistors for monitoring temperature changes and pressure transducers for observing barometric changes at different levels in …

The results of five decades of experimental investigations of open-ended and closed magnetic confinement geometries are examined to see if intrinsic topology-dependent differences in their cross-field transport can be discerned. The evidence strongly supports a picture in which closed systems (stellarators, tokamaks, reversed-field pinches, etc.) are in all cases studied to date characterized by some level of plasma turbulence, leading to substantial deviations from purely classical cross-field transport. This transport is often describable as a Bohm-like scaling with plasma temperature and magnetic field intensity. By contrast, open systems have in many significant examples been able to approach closely to classically predicted cross-field transport, including cases where the transport appeared to be more than five orders of magnitude slower than the Bohm-diffusion rate. To explain these differences the following tentative hypothesis is put forward: The differences arise from two sources: (1) differences in the instability driving terms arising from free-energy sources, such as current flow along the field lines, etc. and, (2) differences in the nature of the boundary conditions for the various unstable waves that may be stimulated by these free energy sources within the plasma. By analogy with a laser, closed systems, with their flux tubes returning on themselves, …

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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

The Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center (RMOTC) has recently completed two tests of a high-energy gas fracturing system being developed by Western Technologies of Crossville, Tennessee. The tests involved the use of two active wells located at the Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3 (NPR-3), thirty-five miles north of Casper, Wyoming (See Figure 1). During the testing process the delivery and operational system was enhanced by RMOTC, Western Technologies, and commercial wireline subcontractors. RMOTC has assisted an industrial client in developing their technology for high energy gas fracturing to a commercial level. The modifications and improvements implemented during the technology testing process are instrumental in all field testing efforts at RMOTC. The importance of well selection can also be critical in demonstrating the success of the technology. To date, significant increases in well productivity have been clearly proven in well 63-TPX-10. Gross fluid production was initially raised by a factor of three. Final production rates increased by a factor of six with the use of a larger submersible pump. Well productivity (bbls of fluid per foot of drawdown) increased by a factor of 15 to 20. The above results assume that no mechanical damage has occurred to the casing or cast …