Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission's authority to compensate an executive level IV Export-Import Bank employee that it would like detailed to it to serve as its executive director. The Commission's statute provides authority to appoint staff without regard to civil service laws and regulations, but it limits the compensation the Commission may pay to executive schedule level. To detail the employee under the Economy Act with full reimbursement to the Bank would violate the pay limitation. However, the Commission's statute also provides authority for any federal employee to be detailed to the Commission without reimbursement and without loss of civil service status or privilege. To avoid violating the compensation limitation, the Commission proposes to reimburse the Bank for the employee's compensation at the level V rate, with the Bank providing the amount over level V. Since this arrangement appears to satisfy the language and intent of the pay limitation and the detail provisions, GAO has no objection."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on federal and state efforts to assess the conditions of the nation's highways, focusing on: (1) the uses the Federal Highway Administration (FHwA), the states, and others make of the International Roughness Index to assess highway conditions; (2) the consistency and accuracy of state-reported data on highway roughness; and (3) FHwA's efforts to improve the data across states."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) progress in addressing its year 2000 computing challenges."

A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation (Contractor) and Gene Logic, Inc., (Participant) was carried out to evaluate the technical feasibility study of the application of the flowthrough genosensor for gene expression (transcriptional) profiling, over the current industry practice of using flat surface hybridization arrays to monitor the relative abundance of individual mRNA species in a cell. Various parameters, including substrate preparation, flow rates, hybridization conditions and sample concentrations, were evaluated on the flowthrough genosensor. The superiority of the flowthrough genosensor, in terms of hybridization rate and sensitivity were established.

This document provides a Computer Software Documentation for a new Honeywell Modular Automation System (MAS) being installed in the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP). This system will be used to control new thermal stabilization furnaces in HA-211 and vertical denitration calciner in HC-230C-2.

A practical test method for determining the mode I fracture toughness of adhesive joints with dissimilar substrates will be discussed. The test method is based on the familiar Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) specimen geometry, but overcomes limitations in existing techniques that preclude their use when testing joints with dissimilar substrates. The test method is applicable to adhesive joints where the two bonded substrates have different flexural rigidities due to geometric and/or material considerations. Two specific features discussed are the use of backing beams to prevent substrate damage and a compliance matching scheme to achieve symmetric loading conditions. The procedure is demonstrated on a modified DCB specimen comprised of SRIM composite and thin-section, e-coat steel substrates bonded with an epoxy adhesive. Results indicate that the test method provides a practical means of characterizing the mode I fracture toughness of joints with dissimilar substrates.

The use of natural gas as an alternative fuel in automotive applications is not widespread primarily because of the high cost and durability of the composite storage tanks. Tanks manufactured using carbon fiber are desirable in weight critical passenger vehicles because of the low density of carbon fiber. The high strength of carbon fiber also translates to a weight reduction because thinner wall designs are possible to withstand the internal pressure loads. However, carbon fiber composites are prone to impact damage that over the life of the storage tank may lead to an unsafe condition for the vehicle operator. A technique that potentially may be a reliable indication of developing hazardous conditions in composite fuel tanks is imbedded fiber optics. The applicability of this technique to onboard inspection is discussed and results from preliminary lab testing indicate that fiber optic sensors can reliably detect impact damage.

Current hexahedral mesh generation techniques rely on a set of meshing tools, which when combined with geometry decomposition leads to an adequate mesh generation process. Of these tools, sweeping tends to be the workhorse algorithm, accounting for at least 50% of most meshing applications. Constraints which must be met for a volume to be sweepable are derived, and it is proven that these constraints are necessary but not sufficient conditions for sweepability. This paper also describes a new algorithm for detecting extruded or sweepable geometries. This algorithm, based on these constraints, uses topological and local geometric information, and is more robust than feature recognition-based algorithms. A method for computing sweep dependencies in volume assemblies is also given. The auto sweep detect and sweep grouping algorithms have been used to reduce interactive user time required to generate all-hexahedral meshes by filtering out non-sweepable volumes needing further decomposition and by allowing concurrent meshing of independent sweep groups. Parts of the auto sweep detect algorithm have also been used to identify independent sweep paths, for use in volume-based interval assignment.

The purpose of the water drainage model presented in this AMR is to assess the ability of the EBS to drain water that may enter the EBS.

The problem in triggering on jets in hadron colliders is that the largest background in the trigger is also a jet. Therefore, we must strive to trigger as incisively as possible. Since the basic physics resides in the transverse momentum, Pt, of the jet, this means to trigger with as sharp a Pt discriminant as possible. The basic problem is different for electrons or photons, where the backgrounds are typically jets. For heavy quarks, like b, the backgrounds are mismeasured secondary vertices. The situation is similar to that for muons, where the largest background is due to real muons from pion decays in particle cascades or from heavy flavor semi-leptonic decays arising from gluon splitting in ordinary QCD jets. As with jets, the issue for the muon trigger is to make as sharp a Pt cut as possible since the background muons dominate at low Pt.

Physics analyses have been performed to characterize the performance of the cold neutron source to be installed in the High Flux Isotope Reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the near future. This paper provides a description of the physics models developed, and the resulting analyses that have been performed to support the design of the cold source. These analyses have provided important parametric performance information, such as cold neutron brightness down the beam tube and the various component heat loads, that have been used to develop the reference cold source concept.

We present selected results on strong interaction physics from the SLD experiment at the SLAC Linear Collider. We report on several new studies of 3- and 4-jet hadronic Z{sup 0} decays, in which jets are identified as quark, antiquark or gluon. The 3-jet Z{sup 0} --> b anti-bg rate is sensitive to the b-quark mass; prospects for measuring m{sub b} are discussed. The gluon energy spectrum is measured over the full kinematic range, providing an improved test of QCD and limits on anomalous b anti-bg couplings. The parity violation in Z{sup 0} --> b anti-bg decays is consistent with electroweak theory plus QCD. New tests of T- and CP-conservation at the bbg vertex are performed. A new measurement of the rate of gluon splitting into b anti-b pairs yields g{sub b anti-b} = 0.0031 {+-} 0.0007 (stat.){+-} 0.0006 (syst.) (Preliminary). We also present a number of new results on jet fragmentation into identified hadrons. The B hadron energy spectrum is measured over the full kinematic range using a new, inclusive technique, allowing stringent tests of predictions for its shape and a precise measurement of (xB) = 0.714 {+-} 0.005(stat.) {+-} 0.007(syst.) (Preliminary). A detailed study of correlations in rapidity y …

We present a new shape measure for tetrahedral elements that is optimal in the sense that it gives the distance of a tetrahedron from the set of inverted elements. This measure is constructed from the condition number of the linear transformation between a unit equilateral tetrahedron and any tetrahedron with positive volume. We use this shape measure to formulate two optimization objective functions that are differentiated by their goal: the first seeks to improve the average quality of the tetrahedral mesh; the second aims to improve the worst-quality element in the mesh. Because the element condition number is not defined for tetrahedral with negative volume, these objective functions can be used only when the initial mesh is valid. Therefore, we formulate a third objective function using the determinant of the element Jacobian that is suitable for mesh untangling. We review the optimization techniques used with each objective function and present experimental results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the mesh improvement and untangling methods. We show that a combined optimization approach that uses both condition number objective functions obtains the best-quality meshes.

The current status of the silicon tracker for the D0 upgrade project for Run II at the Tevatron is presented. After reviewing the design considerations the status of delivery and testing of the different silicon sensors is presented. The ladder production and assembly process is also discussed.

The existing parallel algorithms in the TORT discrete ordinates were updated to function in a UNI-COS environment. A performance model for the parallel overhead was derived for the existing algorithms. The largest contributors to the parallel overhead were identified and a new algorithm was developed. A parallel overhead model was also derived for the new algorithm. The results of the comparison of parallel performance models were compared to applications of the code to two TORT standard test problems and a large production problem. The parallel performance models agree well with the measured parallel overhead.

This b-roll video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas covers an unknown news story, featuring flooded streets and a submerged automobile. This footage was broadcast at 10pm.

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

Monthly newsletter discussing news and activities related to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, articles about weather and atmospheric phenomena, and other related topics.

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

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

The existing parallel algorithms in the TORT discrete ordinates code were updated to function in a UNICOS environment. A performance model for the parallel overhead was derived for the existing algorithms. The largest contributors to the parallel overhead were identified and a new algorithm was developed. A parallel overhead model was also derived for the new algorithm. The results of the comparison of parallel performance models were compared to applications of the code to two TORT standard test problems and a large production problem. The parallel performance models agree well with the measured parallel overhead.

Experimental performance analysis is a necessary first step in input/output software tuning and real-time environment code performance prediction. We measure the performance and scalability of IBM's General Parallel File System (GPFS) under a variety of conditions. The measurements are based on a set of benchmark codes that allow us to vary block sizes, access patterns, etc., and to measure aggregate throughput rates. We use the data to give performance recommendations for application development and as a guide to the improvement of parallel file systems.

Impacts due to nearby installations and operations were determined in the Preliminary MGDS Hazards Analysis (CRWMS M&O 1996) to be potentially applicable to the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain. This determination was conservatively based on limited knowledge of the potential activities ongoing on or off the Nevada Test Site (NTS). It is intended that the Industrial/Military Activity-Initiated Accident Screening Analysis provided herein will meet the requirements of the ''Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants'' (NRC 1987) in establishing whether this external event can be screened from further consideration or must be included as a design basis event (DBE) in the development of accident scenarios for the Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR). This analysis only considers issues related to preclosure radiological safety. Issues important to waste isolation as related to impact from nearby installations will be covered in the MGR performance assessment.

In 1982, the Small Business Innovation Development Act (P.L. 97-219) established small business innovation research (SBIR) programs within the major federal research and development (R&D) agencies. The intent of the effort was to increase government funding of small, high technology companies for the performance of R&D with commercial potential. Each federal department with an R&D budget of $100 million or more is required to set aside part of this amount to finance the SBIR activity. From its inception in FY1983 through FY1998, approximately $8.6 billion in awards have been made for 50,468 projects. The original program has been extended several times and is now scheduled to sunset October 1, 2000. H.R. 2392, as reported from the House Committee on Small Business and discharged from the House Committee on Science, would reauthorize the SBIR activity through September 30, 2007.