Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Recent scandals involving corporations, company executives, and accounting, law, and investment banking firms heightened awareness of abusive tax shelters and highlighted the importance of the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) addressing them. During 1999, Treasury issued a report indicating that abusive shelters were a large and growing problem, involving billions of dollars of tax reductions. Treasury was concerned that abusive shelters could ultimately undermine the integrity of the voluntary compliance tax system. GAO's statement today is based on work done at the request of the Chairman and the Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Committee on Finance to examine IRS's strategy for dealing with abusive tax shelters. In reporting on abusive shelters, GAO is describing (1) their nature and scope; (2) IRS's strategy and enforcement mechanisms to combat them and the performance goals and measures IRS uses to track its major effort in that area; and (3) the decision-making process IRS used and the plans it has to devote more resources to addressing abusive shelters."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revisions to the New Source Review (NSR) program--a key component of the federal government's plan to limit harmful industrial emissions--have been under scrutiny by the Congress, environmental groups, state and local air quality agencies, the courts, and several industry groups. The revisions more explicitly define when companies can modify their facilities without needing to obtain an NSR permit or install costly pollution controls, as NSR requires. GAO was asked to determine (1) whether EPA and the Department of Justice (DOJ) assessed the potential impact of the revisions on the ongoing enforcement cases against coal-fired utilities and, if so, what the assessments indicated; and (2) what effect, if any, the revisions might have on public access to information about facility changes and their resulting emissions."

The factory approach (a.k.a. virtual constructor) hides the details of the class implementing the TSTT from TSTT users. In version 0.5 of TSTT.sidl, the client hard codes the name of the implementing class into their code. The client is forced to choose from the small set of possible concrete classes defined in TSTT.sidl. This approach makes it impossible to support multiple implementations of the TSTT in a single process because each implementation has to implement the same class. The factory approach hides the details of mesh creation from the client. The client does not need to know the name of the implementing class, and the client can dynamically determine which interfaces are supported by the new mesh. A factory can support multiple TSTT implementation because each implementation defines its own concrete classes to implement. The factory approach does require the TSTT compliant mesh packages to implement a MeshFactory interface, and everyone needs to link against an implementation of the Registry. The Registry only has 7 methods that are fairly easy to implement, and everyone can share one implementation of the Registry.

It is known that high energy radiation can have numerous effects on materials. In metals and alloys, the effects include, but may not be limited to, mechanical property changes, physical property changes, compositional changes, phase changes, and dimensional changes. Metals and alloys which undergo high energy self-irradiation are also susceptible to these changes. One of the greatest concerns with irradiation of materials is the phenomenon of void swelling which has been observed in a wide variety of metals and alloys. Irradiation causes the formation of a high concentration point defects and microclusters of vacancies and interstitials. With the assistance of an inert atom such as helium, the vacancy-type defects can coalesce to form a stable bubble. This bubble will continue to grow through the net absorption of more vacancy-type defects and helium atoms, and upon reaching a certain critical size, the bubble will begin to grow at an accelerated rate without the assistance of inert atom absorption. The bubble is then said to be an unstably growing void. Depending on the alloy system and environment, swelling values can reach in excess of 50% !V/Vo where Vo is the initial volume of the material. Along with dimensional changes resulting from the …

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

The six coal fired power plants located in the Colorado Plateau and southern Rocky Mountain region of the U.S. produce 100 million tons of CO{sub 2} per year. Thick sequences of colocated sedimentary rocks represent potential sites for sequestration of the CO{sub 2}. Field and laboratory investigations of naturally occurring CO{sub 2}-reservoirs are being conducted to determine the characteristics of potential seal and reservoir units and the extent of the interactions that occur between the host rocks and the CO{sub 2} charged fluids. The results are being incorporated into a series of two-dimensional numerical models that represent the major chemical and physical processes induced by injection. During reporting period covered here (July 1 to September 30, 2003), the main achievements were: Preparation for Project Review visit in Salt Lake City by new Project Manager; Submittal of two scientific papers to a special issue of ''Chemical Geology'' on CO{sub 2} sequestration; Set-up of website reporting results of this project; and Publication of summary article in Utah Geological Survey ''Survey Notes'' (circulation of 3000).

Field and laboratory investigations of naturally occurring CO{sub 2}-reservoirs are being conducted to determine the characteristics of potential seal and reservoir units and the extent of the interactions that occur between the host rocks and the CO{sub 2} charged fluids. Efforts have focused on the Farnham Dome field, located in central Utah, and the Springerville-St. Johns field in Arizona and New Mexico. The Springerville-St. Johns field is particularly significant because of the presence of extensive travertine deposits that document release of CO{sub 2} to the atmosphere. CO{sub 2} accumulations at both fields occur in sedimentary rocks typical of CO{sub 2} reservoirs occurring on the Colorado Plateau. The main achievements during this quarter were: (1) a soil gas flux survey at the Springerville-St Johns field, (2) collection of some soil gas for chemical and isotopic analysis from this field, and (3) collection of travertine samples from an elevation range of over 1000 feet (330 m) for dating the time span of carbonate-saturated spring outflow at this field. Analytical results and interpretations are still in progress. When available they will allow contrast with soil gas measurements from Farnham Dome natural CO{sub 2} field in central Utah, which were reported in the previous …

Field and laboratory investigations of naturally occurring CO{sub 2}-reservoirs are being conducted to determine the characteristics of potential seal and reservoir units and the extent of the interactions that occur between the host rocks and the CO{sub 2} charged fluids. Efforts have focused on the Farnham Dome, located in central Utah, and the Springer-St. Johns field in Arizona and New Mexico. The Springer-St. Johns field is particularly significant because of the presence of extensive travertine deposits that document release of CO{sub 2} to the atmosphere. CO{sub 2} accumulations at both fields occur in sedimentary rocks typical of CO{sub 2} reservoirs occurring on the Colorado Plateau. The main achievements were: (1) to assess the possibility of CO{sub 2} leakage from the Farnham Dome of central Utah; and (2) prepare a paper for presentation at the 3rd Annual Conference on Carbon Sequestration.

Several issues related to the manufacture of precision meso-scale assemblies have been identified as part of an effort to fabricate an assembly consisting of machined polymer hemispherical shells and machined aerogel. The assembly, a double shell laser target, is composed of concentric spherical layers that were machined on a lathe and then assembled. This production effort revealed several meso-scale manufacturing techniques that worked well, such as the machining of aerogel with cutting tools to form low density structures, and the development of an assembly manipulator that allows control of the assembly forces to within a few milliNewtons. Limitations on the use of vacuum chucks for meso-scale components were also identified. Many of the lessons learned in this effort are not specific to double shell targets and may be relevant to the production of other meso-scale devices.

We present a formulation of ab initio electronic structure calculations in a finite magnetic field, which retains the simplicity and efficiency of techniques widely used in first principles molecular dynamics simulations, based on plane-wave basis sets and Fourier transforms. In addition we discuss results obtained with this method for the energy spectrum of interacting electrons in quantum wells, and for the electronic properties of dense fluid deuterium in a uniform magnetic field.

This report discusses the nature and scope of the Chinese space program. The People's Republic of China launched its first astronaut, or "taikonaut," Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, on October 15, 2003 Beijing time (October 16 Eastern Daylight Time). China thus became only the third country, after Russia and the United States, able to launch humans into orbit. Lt. Col. Yang landed on October 16 Beijing time (October 15 EDT) after making 14 orbits (21 hours and 23 minutes).

This report discusses various proposed changes to the military retirement system, which includes benefits for retirement after an active or reserve military career, disability retirement, and survivor benefits for eligible survivors of deceased retirees. Major issues include whether some or all military retirees should be allowed to receive both military retired pay and any VA disability compensation to which they are otherwise entitled -- referred to as "concurrent receipt" -- whether some military personnel should be entitled to military retired pay with less than 20 years of service, and whether many more personnel should serve well past the 20-year point before retiring.

Carboxyl terminated Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs) are commonly used in a variety of applications, with the assumption that the molecules form well ordered monolayers. In this work, NEXAFS verifies well ordered monolayers can be formed using acetic acid in the solvent. Disordered monolayers with unbound molecules present in the result using only ethanol. A stark reorientation occurs upon deprotonation of the endgroup by rinsing in a KOH solution. This reorientation of the endgroup is reversible with tilted over, hydrogen bound carboxyl groups while carboxylate-ion endgroups are upright. C1s photoemission shows that SAMs formed and rinsed with acetic acid in ethanol, the endgroups are protonated, while without, a large fraction of the molecules on the surface are carboxylate terminated.

Prediction of the plastic deformation behavior of single crystals based on the collective dynamics of dislocations has been a challenge for computational materials science for a number of years. The difficulty lies in the inability of existing dislocation dynamics (DD) codes to handle a sufficiently large number of dislocation lines, to establish a statistically representative model of crystal plasticity. A new massively-parallel DD code is developed that is capable of modeling million-dislocation systems by employing thousands of processors. We discuss an important ingredient of this code--the mobility laws dictating the behavior of individual dislocations. They are materials input for DD simulations and are constructed based on the understanding of dislocation motion at the atomistic level.

Recent ignition target design effort has emphasized systematic exploration of the parameter space of possible ignition targets, providing as specific as possible comparisons between the various targets. This is to provide guidance for target fabrication R&D, and for the other elements of the ignition program. Targets are being considered that span 250-300 eV drive temperatures, capsule energies from 150 to 600 kJ, cocktail and gold hohlraum spectra, and three ablator materials (Be[Cu], CH[Ge], and polyimide). Capsules with graded doped beryllium ablators are being found to be very stable with respect to short-wavelength Rayleigh-Taylor growth. Sensitivity to ablator roughness, ice roughness, and asymmetry is being explored, as it depends on ablator material, drive temperature, and absorbed energy. Special features being simulated include fill holes, fill tubes, and capsule support tents. Three-dimensional simulations are being used to ensure adequate radiation symmetry in 3D, and to ensure that coupling of 3D asymmetry and 3D Rayleigh-Taylor does not adversely affect planned performance. Integrated 3D hohlraum simulations indicate that 3D features in the laser illumination pattern affect the hohlraums' performance, and the hohlraum is being redesigned to accommodate these effects.

This report gives an overview of China's Space program and the contents include launch activities, principles, funding, military space activities, international cooperation

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Glen Holder. Holder joined the Army Air Forces in August of 1940. Beginning August of 1943, Holder served as a P38 pilot with the 35th Fighter Squadron, 8th Fighter Group, completing 153 missions in the Pacific. He completed combat missions over New Guinea, Cape Gloucester, the Philippines and Morotai. He recalls Charles Lindbergh flying with his squadron, teaching them methods to double their fuel over water. He returned to the US and was discharged in mid-1945. Holder continued his service after the war, retiring from the reserves around 1972.

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

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Glen Holder. Holder joined the Army Air Forces in August of 1940. Beginning August of 1943, Holder served as a P38 pilot with the 35th Fighter Squadron, 8th Fighter Group, completing 153 missions in the Pacific. He completed combat missions over New Guinea, Cape Gloucester, the Philippines and Morotai. He recalls Charles Lindbergh flying with his squadron, teaching them methods to double their fuel over water. He returned to the US and was discharged in mid-1945. Holder continued his service after the war, retiring from the reserves around 1972.

Emails regarding creating programs for expanding inclusiveness on the campuses of Hollins University and Oklahoma City University.

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

As directed by ''Technical Work Plan For: Engineered Barrier System Department Modeling and Testing FY03 Work Activities'' (BSC 2003 [165601]), the In-Drift Precipitates/Salts (IDPS) model is developed and refined to predict the aqueous geochemical effects of evaporation in the proposed repository. The purpose of this work is to provide a model for describing and predicting the postclosure effects of evaporation and deliquescence on the chemical composition of water within the proposed Engineered Barrier System (EBS). Application of this model is to be documented elsewhere for the Total System Performance Assessment License Application (TSPA-LA). The principal application of this model is to be documented in REV 02 of ''Engineered Barrier System: Physical and Chemical Environment Model'' (BSC 2003 [165601]). The scope of this document is to develop, describe, and validate the IDPS model. This model is a quasi-equilibrium model. All reactions proceed to equilibrium except for several suppressed minerals in the thermodynamic database not expected to form under the proposed repository conditions within the modeling timeframe. In this revision, upgrades to the EQ3/6 code (Version 8.0) and Pitzer thermodynamic database improve the applicable range of the model. These new additions allow equilibrium and reaction-path modeling of evaporation to highly concentrated brines …

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall.