This report discusses the federal use of technology transfer, a process by which technology developed in one organization, in one area, or for one purpose is applied in another organization, in another area, or for another purpose.

As immigration reform and the illegal alien population have gained congressional and public attention in the past several years, the issue of unauthorized employment has come to the fore. It is widely accepted that most unauthorized aliens enter and remain in the United States in order to work. This report discusses options for addressing the issue of unauthorized employment in the United States.

We discuss a spectroscopic method to determine the character of chemical bonding and for the identification of metal ligands in coordination and bioinorganic chemistry. It is based on the analysis of satellite lines in X-ray emission spectra that arise from transitions between valence orbitals and the metal ion 1s level (valence-to-core XES). The spectra, in connection with calculations based on density functional theory (DFT), provide information that is complementary to other spectroscopic techniques, in particular X-ray absorption (XANES and EXAFS). The spectral shape is sensitive to protonation of ligands and allows ligands, which differ only slightly in atomic number (e.g., C, N, O...), to be distinguished. A theoretical discussion of the main spectral features is presented in terms of molecular orbitals for a series of Mn model systems: [Mn(H2O)6]2+, [Mn(H2O)5OH]+, [Mn(H2O)5NH2]+, and [Mn(H2O)5NH3]2+. An application of the method, with comparison between theory and experiment, is presented for the solvated Mn2+ ion in water and three Mn coordination complexes, namely [LMn(acac)N3]BPh4, [LMn(B2O3Ph2)(ClO4)], and [LMn(acac)N]BPh4, where L represents 1,4,7-trimethyl-1,4,7-triazacyclononane, acac stands for the 2,4-pentanedionate anion, and B2O3Ph2 represents the 1,3-diphenyl-1,3-dibora-2-oxapropane-1,3-diolato dianion.

Clouds exert major influences on both shortwave and longwave radiation as well as on the hydrological cycle. Accurate representation of clouds in climate models is a major unsolved problem because of high sensitivity of radiation and hydrology to cloud properties and processes, incomplete understanding of these processes, and the wide range of length scales over which these processes occur. Small changes in the amount, altitude, physical thickness, and/or microphysical properties of clouds due to human influences can exert changes in Earth's radiation budget that are comparable to the radiative forcing by anthropogenic greenhouse gases, thus either partly offsetting or enhancing the warming due to these gases. Because clouds form on aerosol particles, changes in the amount and/or composition of aerosols affect clouds in a variety of ways. The forcing of the radiation balance due to aerosol-cloud interactions (indirect aerosol effect) has large uncertainties because a variety of important processes are not well understood precluding their accurate representation in models.

This report summarizes results of a literature review, a workshop, and many meetings with demand response and thermostat researchers and implementers. The information obtained from these resources was used to identify key issues of thermostat performance from both energy savings and peak demand perspectives. A research plan was developed to address these issues and activities have already begun to pursue the research agenda.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has identified the Department of Defense's (DOD) management of its inventory as a high-risk area since 1990 due to ineffective and inefficient inventory systems and practices. Management of inventory acquisition lead times is important in maintaining cost-effective inventories, budgeting, and having material available when needed, as lead times are DOD's best estimate of when an item will be received. Under the Comptroller General's authority to conduct evaluations on his own initiative, GAO analyzed the extent to which (1) DOD's estimated lead times varied from actual lead times, and (2) current management actions and initiatives have reduced lead times as compared to past years. To address these objectives, GAO computed the difference between the components' actual and estimated lead times, and compared component initiatives to reduce lead times for 1994-2002 to 2002-2005."

This report provides information about the The Department of Housing and Urban Development for FY2007 Budget.

To identify emerging basic science and engineering research needs and opportunities that will require major advances in electron-scattering theory, technology, and instrumentation.

This report provides an overview about Global Environment Facility (GEF) which was established in 1991, has served since then as a primary source of funding for several major international environmental concern.

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This report provides a summary of the results on the properties of cementitious waste forms obtained as part of the International Program. In particular, this report focuses on the results of Task 4 of the Program that was initially entitled ''Improved Retention of Key Contaminants of Concern in Low Temperature Immobilized Waste Forms''. Task 4 was a joint program between Khlopin Radium Institute and the Savannah River National Laboratory. The task evolved during this period into a study of cementitious waste forms with an expanded scope that included heat of hydration and fate and transport modeling. This report provides the results for Task 4 of the International Program as of the end of FY06 at which time funding for Task 4 was discontinued due to the needs of higher priority tasks within the International Program. Consequently, some of the subtasks were only partially completed, but it was considered important to capture the results up to this point in time. Therefore, this report serves as the closeout report for Task 4. The degree of immobilization of Tc-99 within the Saltstone waste form was measured through monolithic and crushed grout leaching tests. An effective diffusion coefficient of 4.8 x 10{sup -12} (Leach …

The IPP/DOE program office has finished its evaluation of the alpha-emitting isotope work with Kurchatov Institute and IPPE, and they have made an important decision about the future of this work. IPP/DOE has directed us to re-program the work and add more funds, so the emphasis will be on production of Th228. By making this re-direction of the isotope work, IPPE will see several important benefits: (a) the payments will be made faster to IPPE by using the ISTC Agreement; (b) a larger amount of money will be paid to IPPE; and (c) a profitable future business opportunity for IPPE is more probable.

We present a scheme to solve the nonlinear multigroup radiation diffusion (MGD) equations. The method is incorporated into a massively parallel, multidimensional, Eulerian radiation-hydrodynamic code with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). The patch-based AMR algorithm refines in both space and time creating a hierarchy of levels, coarsest to finest. The physics modules are time-advanced using operator splitting. On each level, separate 'level-solve' packages advance the modules. Our multigroup level-solve adapts an implicit procedure which leads to a two-step iterative scheme that alternates between elliptic solves for each group with intra-cell group coupling. For robustness, we introduce pseudo transient continuation ({Psi}tc). We analyze the magnitude of the {Psi}tc parameter to ensure positivity of the resulting linear system, diagonal dominance and convergence of the two-step scheme. For AMR, a level defines a subdomain for refinement. For diffusive processes such as MGD, the refined level uses Dirichet boundary data at the coarse-fine interface and the data is derived from the coarse level solution. After advancing on the fine level, an additional procedure, the sync-solve (SS), is required in order to enforce conservation. The MGD SS reduces to an elliptic solve on a combined grid for a system of G equations, where G is the …

This project examined the possibility of extending the recently demonstrated radoptic detection approach to gamma imaging. Model simulations of the light scattering process predicted that expected signal levels were small and likely below the detection limit of large area, room-temperature detectors. A series of experiments using pulsed x-ray excitation, modulated gamma excitation and optical pump-probe methods confirmed those theoretical predictions. At present the technique does not appear to provide a viable approach to volumetric radiation detection; however, in principal, orders of magnitude improvement in the SNR can result by using designer materials to concentrate and localize the radiation-absorption induced charge, simultaneously confining the optical mode to increase 'fill' factor and overlap of the probe beam with the affected regions, and employing high speed gated imaging detectors to measure the scattered signal.

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Annual report of the Texas Racing Commission describing goals, activities, and accomplishments during fiscal year 2005.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

This report discusses the American disabilities act (ADA) and also deals with The Americans with Disabilities Act: Supreme Court Decisions.

The LLNL Target Fabrication Team (TFT) asked the Center for Non-Destructive Characterization (CNDC) to use CNDC's KCAT or Xradia's Micro computed tomography (CT) system to collect three-dimensional (3D) tomographic data of a set of double-shell targets and determine, among other items, the following: (1) the concentricity of the outer surface of the inner shell with respect to the inner surface of the outer shell with an accuracy of 1-2 micrometers, and (2) the wall thickness uniformity of the outer shell with an accuracy of 1-2 micrometers. The CNDC used Xradia's Micro CT system to collect the data. Bill Brown performed the concentricity analysis, and John Sain performed the wall thickness uniformity analysis. Harry Martz provided theoretical guidance, and Dan Schneberk contributed technical (software) support. This document outlines the analysis procedures used in each case. The double-shell targets, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, consist of an inner shell (or capsule), a two-piece spherical aerogel intermediary shell, and a two-piece spherical outer shell. The three elements are designed and fabricated to be concentric--with the aerogel shell acting as a spacer between the inner shell and outer shell--with no to minimum air gaps in the final assembly. The outer diameters of …

Western Research Institute (WRI) in conjunction with the University of Wyoming, Department of Renewable Resources and the U.S. Department of Energy, under Task 35, conducted a laboratory-scale study of hydrocarbon biodegradation rates versus a variety of physical and chemical parameters to develop a base model. By using this model, biodegradation of Petroleum hydrocarbons in heterogeneous soils can be predicted. The base model, as developed in this study, have been tested by both field and laboratory data. Temperature, pH, and nutrients appear to be the key parameters that can be incorporate into the model to predict biodegradation rates. Results to date show the effect of soil texture and source on the role of each parameter in the rates of hydrocarbon biodegradation. Derived from the existing study, an alternative approach of using CO{sub 2} accumulation data has been attempted by our collaborators at the University of Wyoming. The model has been modified and fine tuned by incorporating these data to provide more information on biodegradation.

Two-particle interferometry, a second-order interferenceeffect, is explored as another possible tool to distinguish betweenmassive Dirac and Majorana neutrinos. A simple theoretical framework isdiscussed in the context of several gedanken experiments. The method canin principle provide both the mass scale and the quantum nature of theneutrino for a certain class of incoherent left-handed sourcecurrents.

Work in radiation areas can occasionally result in accidental wounds containing radioactive materials. When a wound is incurred within a radiological area, the presence of radioactivity in the wound needs to be confirmed to determine if additional remedial action needs to be taken. Commonly used radiation area monitoring equipment is poorly suited for measurement of radioactive material buried within the tissue of the wound. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) In Vivo Measurement Facility has constructed a portable wound counter that provides sufficient detection of radioactivity in wounds as shown in Fig. 1. The LLNL wound measurement system is specifically designed to measure low energy photons that are emitted from uranium and transuranium radionuclides. The portable wound counting system uses a 2.5cm diameter by 1mm thick NaI(Tl) detector. The detector is connected to a Canberra NaI InSpector{trademark}. The InSpector interfaces with an IBM ThinkPad laptop computer, which operates under Genie 2000 software. The wound counting system is maintained and used at the LLNL In Vivo Measurement Facility. The hardware is designed to be portable and is occasionally deployed to respond to the LLNL Health Services facility or local hospitals for examination of personnel that may have radioactive materials within a …

The goal of the Phase I research was to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a high performance SPECT/CT detector module based on a combination of microcolumnar CsI(Tl) scintillator coupled to an EMCCD readout. We are very pleased to report that our Phase I research has demonstrated the technical feasibility of our approach with a very high degree of success. Specifically, we were able to implement a back-thinned EMCCD with a fiberoptic window which was successfully used to demonstrate the feasibility of near simultaneous radionuclide/CT using the proposed concept. Although significantly limited in imaging area (24 x 24 mm{sup 2}) and pixel resolution (512 x 512), this prototype has shown exceptional capabilities such as a single optical photon sensitivity, very low noise, an intrinsic resolution of 64 {micro}m for radionuclide imaging, and a resolution in excess of 10 lp/mm for x-ray imaging. Furthermore, the combination of newly developed, thick, microcolumnar CsI and an EMCCD has shown to be capable of operating in a photon counting mode, and that the position and energy information obtained from these data can be used to improve resolution in radionuclide imaging. Finally, the prototype system has successfully been employed for near simultaneous SPECT/CT imaging using both, …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO is required to annually audit the financial statements of the Bank Insurance Fund (BIF), Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF), and FSLIC Resolution Fund (FRF), which are administered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). GAO is responsible for obtaining reasonable assurance about whether FDIC's financial statements for BIF, SAIF, and FRF are presented fairly in all material respects, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, and whether FDIC maintained effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance. Also, GAO is responsible for testing FDIC's compliance with selected laws and regulations. Created in 1933 to insure bank deposits and promote sound banking practices, FDIC plays an important role in maintaining public confidence in the nation's financial system. In 1989, legislation to reform the federal deposit insurance system created three funds to be administered by FDIC: BIF and SAIF, which protect bank and savings deposits, and FRF, which was created to close out the business of the former Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation."