A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) provided over $600 million to states in fiscal year 2005 to support over 1,000 local antipoverty agencies. The Department of Health and Human Services's (HHS) Office of Community Services (OCS) is primarily responsible for overseeing this grant; states have oversight responsibility for local agencies. At the request of Congress, GAO is providing information on (1) HHS's compliance with federal laws and standards in overseeing states, (2) five states' efforts to monitor local agencies, and (3) federal CSBG training and technical assistance funds targeted to local agencies with problems and the results of the assistance. States were selected based on varying numbers of local agencies and grant amounts and recommendations from associations, among other criteria."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In our role as principal auditor of the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government (CFS), we plan to use the work of the inspectors general and contracted independent public accountants who audit the agency-level financial statements. The development of the joint PCIE/GAO Financial Audit Manual (FAM) has provided a common framework and methodology for federal financial statement auditing. Adherence to the FAM will enable us to readily review the work of other auditors as a basis for using that work under auditing standards. We want to all be on the same page so that we are in the position to use the work of the inspectors general. Certain CFS line items that will be subject to our concurrent review because of their significance, such as the federal employee and veteran benefits payable line item, involve federal agencies' significant actuarial estimations. Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 57, Auditing Accounting Estimates applies to such estimations. In addition, Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standard (SFFAS) No. 5 requires that federal agencies disclose specific information in their financial statements for pensions, other retirement benefits, and other postemployment benefits. Additional related …

This cleanup verification package documents completion of removal actions for the 105-H Reactor Ancillary Support Areas, Below-Grade Structures, and Underlying Soils (subsite 118-H-6:2); 105-H Reactor Fuel Storage Basin and Underlying Soils (118-H-6:3); and Fuel Storage Basin Deep Zone Side Slope Soils. This CVP also documents remedial actions for the following seven additional waste sties: French Drain C (100-H-9), French Drain D (100-H-10), Expansion Box French Drain E (100-H-11), Expansion Box French Drain F (100-H-12), French Drain G (100-H-13), Surface Contamination Zone H (100-H-14), and the Polychlorinated Biphenyl Surface Contamination Zone (100-H-31).

A fracture within a porous background is modeled as a thin porous layer with increased compliance and finite permeability. For small layer thickness, a set of boundary conditions can be derived that relate particle velocity and stress across a fracture, induced by incident poroelastic waves. These boundary conditions are given via phenomenological parameters that can be used to examine and characterize the seismic response of a fracture. One of these parameters, here it is called membrane permeability, is shown through several examples to control the scattering amplitude of the slow P waves for very low-permeability fractures, which in turn controls the intrinsic attenuation of the waves.

This paper investigates how critical-peak pricing (CPP)affects households with different usage and income levels, with the goalof informing policy makers who are considering the implementation of CPPtariffs in the residential sector. Using a subset of data from theCalifornia Statewide Pricing Pilot of 2003-2004, average load changeduring summer events, annual percent bill change, and post-experimentsatisfaction ratings are calculated across six customer segments,categorized by historical usage and income levels. Findings show thathigh-use customers respond significantly more in kW reduction than dolow-use customers, while low-use customers save significantly more inpercentage reduction of annual electricity bills than do high-usecustomers results that challenge the strategy of targeting only high-usecustomers for CPP tariffs. Across income levels, average load and billchanges were statistically indistinguishable, as were satisfaction ratesresults that are compatible with a strategy of full-scale implementationof CPP rates in the residential sector. Finally, the high-use customersearning less than $50,000 annually were the most likely of the groups tosee bill increases about 5 percent saw bill increases of 10 percent ormore suggesting that any residential CPP implementation might considertargeting this customer group for increased energy efficiencyefforts.

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Presented by Dan Arvizu at the 10th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference on June 29, 2006 in Washington, D.C.

I define in detail the model used to sample the number of prompt neutrons emitted in fission; this description is based on publications defining the model [1] as well as publications comparing the model to experimental measurements [2]. The model described in these publications is exactly what the TART [3] Monte Carlo transport code uses. Based on comparisons between TART [3] and MCNPX [4], it is obvious that at the time this report was published these two computer codes are not using the same model, and the results significantly differ. It is my hope that this report will contribute toward better understanding of this model, and hopefully eventually to agreement between TART and MCNPX results. Partial success has already been achieved in the sense that based upon reading a preliminary version of this report, John Hendrichs [5], one author of MCNPX, acknowledged that the sources of differences as described in this report demonstrate an error in MCNPX (John even offered me the traditional $20 reward for reporting an error in MCNPX; I declined to accept). John is presently updating MCNPX to eliminate these sources of differences; hopefully in the not too distant future this correction will be available in MCNPX, …

An overview of the Pulse Line Ion Accelerator (PLIA) concept and its development is presented. In the PLIA concept a pulse power driver applied to one end of a helical pulse line creates a traveling wave pulse that accelerates and axially confines a heavy ion beam pulse The motivation for its development at the IFE-VNL is the acceleration of intense, short pulse, heavy ion beams to regimes of interest for studies of High Energy Density Physics and Warm Dense Matter. Acceleration scenarios with constant parameter helical lines are described which result in output energies of a single stage much larger than the several hundred kilovolt peak voltages on the line, with a goal of 3-5 MeV/meter acceleration gradients. The main attraction of the concept is the very low cost it promises. It might be described crudely as an ''air core'' induction linac where the pulse-forming network is integrated into the beam line so the accelerating voltage pulse can move along with the ions to get voltage multiplication.

This milestone is the direct result of work that started seven years ago with the planning for a 100 Teraflop platform and will be satisfied when 100 Teraflops is placed in operation and readied for Stockpile Stewardship Program simulations. The end product of this milestone, code named Purple, will be a production high-performance computing system designed to be used to solve the most demanding stockpile stewardship problems, that is, the large-scale application problems at the edge of our understanding of weapon physics. This fully functional 100 TeraOP/s system must be able to serve a diverse scientific and engineering workload. It must also have a robust code development and production environment both of which facilitate the workload requirements. This multi-year effort includes major activities in contract management, facilities, infrastructure, system software, and user environment and support. Led by LLNL, the Tri-labs defined the statement of work for a 100 Teraflop system that resulted in a contract with IBM known as the Purple contract. LLNL worked with IBM throughout the contract period to resolve issues and collaborated with the Program to resolve contractual issues to ensure delivery of a platform that best serves the Program for a reasonable cost. The Purple system …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has deployed two types of baggage screening equipment: explosive detection systems (EDS), which use X-rays to scan bags for explosives, and explosive trace detection systems (ETD), in which bags are swabbed to test for chemical traces of explosives. TSA considers screening with EDS to be superior to screening with ETD because EDS machines process more bags per hour and automatically detect explosives without direct human involvement. In March 2005, GAO reported that while TSA had made progress in deploying EDS and ETD machines, it had not conducted a systematic, prospective analysis of the optimal deployment of these machines to achieve long-term savings and enhanced efficiencies and security. GAO's testimony today updates our previous report and discusses TSA's (1) deployment of EDS and ETD systems and the identified benefits of in-line systems, and (2) planning for the optimal deployment of checked baggage screening systems and efforts to identify funding and financing options."

The LLNL Computational Nuclear Physics (CNP) Group announces the release of translated ENDF/BVI, ENDF/B-VII, JEFF-3.1, JENDL-3.3 and other neutron incident evaluated reaction data libraries to LLNL users.

The homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine is an attractive technology because of its high efficiency and low emissions. However, HCCI lacks a direct combustion trigger making control of combustion timing challenging, especially during transients. To aid in HCCI engine control we present a simple model of the HCCI combustion process valid over a range of intake pressures, intake temperatures, equivalence ratios, and engine speeds. The model provides an estimate of the combustion timing on a cycle-by-cycle basis. An ignition threshold, which is a function of the in-cylinder motored temperature and pressure is used to predict start of combustion. This model allows the synthesis of nonlinear control laws, which can be utilized for control of an HCCI engine during transients.

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This report provides information about the Issues for Congress on FCC Media Ownership Rules. The media ownership rules strongly influences both the structure of the media sector and the relative negotiating power of individual companies and entire sector.

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This award was for partial support for the renovation of space to house research laboratories and moveable scientific equipment for genomics/functional geonomics at New York University.

The laboratory immersion test system built and operated at ORNL was found to successfully screen samples from numerous refractory suppliers, including both commercially available and experimental materials. This system was found to provide an accurate prediction of how these materials would perform in the actual gasifier environment. Test materials included mullites, alumino-silicate bricks, fusion-cast aluminas, alumina-based and chrome-containing mortars, phosphate-bonded mortars, coated samples provided under an MPLUS-funded project, bonded spinels, different fusion-cast magnesia-alumina spinels with magnesia content ranging from 2.5% to about 60%, high-MgO castable and brick materials, spinel castables, and alkali-aluminate materials. This testing identified several candidate material systems that perform well in the New Bern gasifier. Fusion-cast aluminas were found to survive for nearly one year, and magnesia-alumina spinels have operated successfully for 18 months and are expected to survive for two years. Alkali-aluminates and high-MgO-content materials have also been identified for backup lining applications. No other material with a similar structure and chemical composition to that of the fusion-cast magnesium-aluminum spinel brick currently being used for the hot-face lining is commercially available. Other materials used for this application have been found to have inferior service lives, as previously discussed. Further, over 100 laboratory immersion tests have been …

In today's world, the use of parallel programming and architectures is essential for simulating practical problems in engineering and related disciplines. Remarkable progress in CPU architecture, system scalability, and interconnect technology continues to provide new opportunities, as well as new challenges for both system architects and software developers. These trends are paralleled by progress in parallel algorithms, simulation techniques, and software integration from multiple disciplines. ParSim brings together researchers from both application disciplines and computer science and aims at fostering closer cooperation between these fields. Since its successful introduction in 2002, ParSim has established itself as an integral part of the EuroPVM/MPI conference series. In contrast to traditional conferences, emphasis is put on the presentation of up-to-date results with a short turn-around time. This offers a unique opportunity to present new aspects in this dynamic field and discuss them with a wide, interdisciplinary audience. The EuroPVM/MPI conference series, as one of the prime events in parallel computation, serves as an ideal surrounding for ParSim. This combination enables the participants to present and discuss their work within the scope of both the session and the host conference. This year, eleven papers from authors in nine countries were submitted to ParSim, and …

An important applied technology is a tunable mono-energetic photon source [1]. These sources are made of relativistic electron accelerators coupled to low-energy lasers, which produce high-energy, mono-energetic-rays. One challenge associated with systems such as this is a continuum of bremsstrahlung background created when an electron beam passes through an aperture of some sort and the electron bunch or its halo impinges on the aperture pictured in figure 1. For instance, in the current T-REX [1] design for the interaction point between the laser- and electron-beam, the electron-beam passes through the center of a mirror used to reflect the laser. There is a potential with this design that bremsstrahlung radiation may be produced at the edges of the mirror openings and contaminate the mono-energetic photon beam. Certain applications [2] may be sensitive to this contamination. To reduce the bremsstrahlung contaminate a collimator (thickness {approx}24in. (calculated from XCOM database [3]) to attenuate by a factor of 10{sup -3} the 112MeV photons expected in the T-REX demonstration [1]) is situated between the aperture and target. To maximize the brightness of the photon-beam, the collimator opening must be no less than the size of the photon-beam spot size expected to be about 1mm. This …

Along the remote shores of the Columbia River in southeast Washington state, a race is on. Fluor Hanford, a prime cleanup contractor to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) at the Hanford Site, is managing a massive, multi-faceted project to remove contaminants from the groundwater before they can reach the Columbia. Despite the daunting nature and size of the problem--about 80 square miles of aquifer under the site contains long-lived radionuclides and hazardous chemicals--significant progress is being made. Many groups are watching, speaking out, and helping. A large. passionate, diverse, and geographically dispersed community is united in its desire to protect the Columbia River--the eighth largest in the world--and have a voice in Hanford's future. Fluor Hanford and the DOE, along with the US. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) interact with all the stakeholders to make the best decisions. Together, they have made some remarkable strides in the battle against groundwater contamination under the site.

Furnace designers and refractory engineers recognize that optimized furnace superstructure design and refractory selection are needed as glass production furnaces are continually striving toward greater output and efficiencies. Harsher operating conditions test refractories to the limit, while changing production technology (such as the conversion to oxy-fuel from traditional air-fuel firing) can alter the way the materials perform [1-3]. Refractories for both oxy- and air-fuel fired furnace superstructures (see Fig. 1) are subjected to high temperatures that may cause them to creep excessively or subside during service if the refractory material is not creep resistant, or if it is subjected to high stress, or both. Furnace designers can ensure that superstructure structural integrity is maintained if the creep behavior of the refractory material is well understood and well represented by appropriate engineering creep models. Several issues limit the abilities of furnace designers to (1) choose the optimum refractory for their applications, (2) optimize the engineering design, or (3) predict the service mechanical integrity of their furnace superstructures. Published engineering creep data are essentially nonexistent for almost all commercially available refractories used for glass furnace superstructures. The limited data that do exist are supplied by the various refractory suppliers. Unfortunately, the suppliers …

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