Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This correspondence provides information on GAO's efforts to obtain access to executive branch records needed to complete its study of United Nations (U.N.) peacekeeping operations. GAO's experience in trying to obtain these records has impaired its ability to conduct meaningful oversight work for Congress that is timely, independent, objective, fact-based, accurate, and complete. Specifically (1) unreasonable delays in obtaining access to the executive branch records have prevented GAO from sending a timely report to Congress, (2) GAO does not have reasonable assurance that it has had independent access to all executive branch records that may have a material bearing on its study, and (3) denying GAO access to records has impaired its ability to conduct a complete and accurate assessment of U.N peacekeeping operations."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The sharing of regulatory and criminal history data among financial services regulators can reduce fraudulent activities. GAO recently reported on several instances in which unscrupulous brokers moved from one financial industry to another. This testimony focuses on (1) systems used by financial regulators for tracking regulatory history data, (2) regulatory history data needed to help prevent rogue migration and limit fraud, (3) criminal history data needs among financial regulators, and (4) challenges and considerations for implementing an information-sharing system among financial regulators."

This report outlines the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and related legislation. The report discusses a comprehensive test ban treaty, which is the oldest item on the nuclear arms control agenda.

This paper reviews our current understanding of the relative advantages of direct drive (DD) and indirect drive (ID) for a 1 GWe inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant driven by a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL). This comparison is motivated by a recent study (1) that shows that the projected cost of electricity (COE) for DD is actually about the same as that for ID even though the target gain for DD can be much larger. We can therefore no longer assume that DD is the ultimate targeting scenario for IFE, and must begin a more rigorous comparison of these two drive options. The comparison begun here shows that ID may actually end up being preferred, but the uncertainties are still rather large.

VSP is an easy to use, visual and graphic software tool being developed to select the right number and location of environmental samples so that the results of statistical tests performed to provide input to environmental decisions have the required confidence and performance. It is a significant help for implementing the 6th and 7th steps of the Data Quality Objectives (DQO) planning process ("Specify Tolerable Limits on Decision Errors" and "Optimize the Design for Obtaining Data," respectively).

Brochure for the Women's History Month celebration, "Women of Courage and Vision," hosted by the Third Infantry Division (Mechanized) at the Hunter Army Airfield serving Fort Stewart in Savannah, Georgia on March 6, 2001. The front cover displays the Third Infantry Division shoulder sleeve insignia, a small crest, and a portrait of Helen W. Snapp surrounded by six smaller images of women in the military, including Rosie the Riveter and women wearing service uniforms. The Sequence of Events listed on the second page includes the names of the speakers for each event: Welcome by Sargent Pandy, National Anthem (stand) by Sargent Requita Williams, Invocation (stand) by Apostle Wilhelmenia Brown, a Video Presentation, Introduction of Speaker by Colonel Betson, Guest Speaker speech by Miss Helen Wyatt Snapp, Unveiling by Third Infantry Soldiers, Presentation by Colonel Betson, Benediction (stand) by Miss Lillian Shun, and finally the Marne Song and the Army Song sung by all. It contains a military biography of Helen Snapp, and the last two pages contain the lyrics for the Marne and Army songs. The back cover displays a crest with the words "Nous Resterons La."

The bunch train cavity interaction is an accelerator physics problem, for which a system-theoretic model is lacking. Modal analysis has been used to characterize the system dynamics, exploiting the system's symmetry. Correspondingly, control design has been done using classical frequency-domain-based control. Several shortcomings of these methods are highlighted, all of which are remedied by a new time-domain, system-theoretic model presented herein. The new formulation is a periodic, discrete-time system, amenable to state-space control-design methods.

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

Predictions of the properties of nuclides near the extreme limits of nuclear stability provide a measure of our understanding of the fundamental properties of matter and the fission process. Predictions of an ''island of stability'' of long-lived superheavy elements beyond the limits of the known nuclides date back more than 30 years; during this time, there have been many unsuccessful searches for these nuclei. During the last decade, there has been a large effort by our group and others to systematically discover and characterize the properties of the intervening unstable nuclei. Starting 10 years ago, in an on-going collaboration with Russian scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) at Dubna, Russia, we observed the decays of previously unknown isotopes of elements 106, 108, and 110 whose properties are determined by subtleties in the nuclear structure caused by the shell effects that are predicted to result in the island of stability in the still-heavier elements. The resulting data have been successfully reproduced by the theoreticians, whose refined predictions of the decay modes and production rates of the superheavy elements have enabled us to design experiments with the sensitivity to locate these elusive nuclides.

A superconducting tunnel junction (STJ) in combination with a superconducting absorber of radiation may function as a highly resolving x-ray spectrometer. Electronic excitations, or quasiparticles, are created when a superconductor absorbs an x ray and are detected as an excess tunnel current through the junction. The number of quasiparticles created and the magnitude of the excess current is proportional to the energy of the absorbed x ray. This is similar to existing semiconductor-based spectrometers that measure electron-hole pairs, but with 1000 times more excitations. The energy measurement therefore can be up to 30 times more precise with a superconducting detector than with a semiconductor detector. This work describes the development and testing of an STJ spectrometer design for x-ray fluorescence applications. First, the basic principles of the STJ spectrometer are explained. This is followed by detailed simulations of the variance in the number of quasiparticles produced by absorption of an x ray. This variance is inherent in the detector and establishes an upper limit on the resolving power of the spectrometer. These simulations include effects due to the materials used in the spectrometer and to the multilayer structure of the device. Next, the spectrometer is characterized as functions of operating …

In many of the multiphysics simulations performed at LLNL, transport calculations can take up 30 to 50% of the total run time. If Monte Carlo methods are used, the percentage can be as high as 80%. Thus, a significant core competence in the formulation, software implementation, and solution of the numerical problems arising in transport modeling is essential to Laboratory and DOE research. In this project, we worked on developing scalable solution methods for the equations that model the transport of photons and neutrons through materials. Our goal was to reduce the transport solve time in these simulations by means of more advanced numerical methods and their parallel implementations. These methods must be scalable, that is, the time to solution must remain constant as the problem size grows and additional computer resources are used. For iterative methods, scalability requires that (1) the number of iterations to reach convergence is independent of problem size, and (2) that the computational cost grows linearly with problem size. We focused on deterministic approaches to transport, building on our earlier work in which we performed a new, detailed analysis of some existing transport methods and developed new approaches. The Boltzmann equation (the underlying equation to …

This LDRD project addressed both bulk and surface damage induced by UV-laser exposure. The primary objectives were (1) to complete our understanding of the factors leading to bulk damage, including growth conditions and orientational direction, and (2) to identify mechanisms of surface damage initiation and growth leading to mitigation methods. Due to the more advanced state of knowledge in bulk damage, a greater portion of that work was completed during the one-year term of this project. Three papers were presented at the 32nd Boulder Damage Symposium on Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials, and the three resulting manuscripts submitted to the Proceeding are attached: An important result from this work is that it established a dependence of obscuration from bulk damage on fluence and pulse length, which is shown.

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

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Raymond Heller. Heller joined the Army in September 1944 and received basic training at Camp Hood. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 40th Infantry Division as a rifleman. In March 1945 he travelled to Leyte and was camped beside survivors of the Bataan Death March. He made patrols along various islands, to protect villagers from Japanese raids. While in the Philippines, he bought fresh fruits from natives. He recalls that although his unit prepared for a full-scale landing on Mindanao, it was unopposed, save for a lone Japanese soldier who charged with a sword. At Panay, Heller was treated by a medic for jungle rot. He then survived a typhoon on the way to Inchon. On V-J Day he saw USS Missouri (BB-63) break away from his convoy to celebrate by firing ammunition. Heller patrolled the 38th parallel, opposite the Russians. Heller returned home and was discharged in October 1946.

Student newspaper of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma that includes national, local, and campus news along with advertising.

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

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Raymond Heller. Heller joined the Army in September 1944 and received basic training at Camp Hood. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 40th Infantry Division as a rifleman. In March 1945 he travelled to Leyte and was camped beside survivors of the Bataan Death March. He made patrols along various islands, to protect villagers from Japanese raids. While in the Philippines, he bought fresh fruits from natives. He recalls that although his unit prepared for a full-scale landing on Mindanao, it was unopposed, save for a lone Japanese soldier who charged with a sword. At Panay, Heller was treated by a medic for jungle rot. He then survived a typhoon on the way to Inchon. On V-J Day he saw USS Missouri (BB-63) break away from his convoy to celebrate by firing ammunition. Heller patrolled the 38th parallel, opposite the Russians. Heller returned home and was discharged in October 1946.

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

This paper reviews our current understanding of the relative advantages of direct drive (DD) and indirect drive (ID) for a 1 GWe inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant driven by a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL). This comparison is motivated by a recent study (1) that shows that the projected cost of electricity (COE) for DD is actually about the same as that for ID even though the target gain for DD can be much larger. We can therefore no longer assume that DD is the ultimate targeting scenario for IFE, and must begin a more rigorous comparison of these two drive options. The comparison begun here shows that ID may actually end up being preferred, but the uncertainties are still rather large.

Preliminary experiments using a long pulse laser generated X-ray source to back-light a short pulse laser heated thin foil have been performed at the Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses (LULI) at Ecole Polytechnique in France. In this experiment, a 2 J, 300 ps, 532 nm laser was used to create the X-ray back-lighter. The primary diagnostic was a von Hamos spectrograph coupled to a 500 fs X-ray streak camera (TREX-VHS) developed at LLNL. This diagnostic combines high collection efficiency ({approx} 10{sup -4} steradians) with fast temporal response ({approx} 500 fs), allowing resolution of extremely transient spectral variations. The TREX-VHS was used to determine the time history, intensity, and spectral content of the back-lighter. The second diagnostic, Fourier Domain Interferometry (FDI), provides information about the position of the critical density of the target and thus the expansion hydrodynamics, laying the ground work for the plasma characterization. The plasmas were determined to be moderately to strongly coupled, resulting in absorption measurements that provide insight into bound states under such conditions.

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

This report contains the results of a wind resource analysis and mapping study for the Philippine archipelago. The study's objective was to identify potential wind resource areas and quantify the value of those resources within those areas. The wind resource maps and other wind resource characteristic information will be used to identify prospective areas for wind-energy applications.

VSP is an easy to use, visual and graphic software tool being developed to select the right number and location of environmental samples so that the results of statistical tests performed to provide input to environmental decisions have the required confidence and performance. It is a significant help for implementing the 6th and 7th steps of the Data Quality Objectives (DQO) planning process (''Specify Tolerable Limits on Decision Errors'' and ''Optimize the Design for Obtaining Data,'' respectively).

Coarsening of solder microstructures dramatically affects fatigue lifetimes. This paper presents a study of microstructural evolution due to thermal cycling and aging of small solder joints.