Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government runs an incentive awards program, consisting of monetary and nonmonetary awards, to recognize individual employees or teams for outstanding contributions that enhance government operations. Congress has placed prohibitions on cash awards to political appointees. Overall, 32 of the 46 agencies reported that 297 political appointees received 373 monetary awards from September 1999 through April 2001. The remaining 14 agencies reported that they did not provide any awards to political appointees during that period. Political appointees in each of the government's pay groups received both monetary and time-off awards less frequently than did regular federal employees, but at a larger mean dollar value. The mean dollar value of all monetary awards to political appointees exceeded that of awards to regular federal employees. The number, rates, and mean dollar value of awards to political and regular federal employees also varied by type of award. Individual political appointees and regular federal employees often received more than one award. Agencies reported that 46 political appointees, or about 17 percent of the appointees who received monetary awards, received multiple awards from September 1999, through May 2000. Six departments--the Departments of …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Andean region continues to cultivate, produce, and export almost all of the world's cocaine as well as an increasing amount of heroin, according to the State Department. Colombia is the source of 90 percent of the cocaine entering the United States and about two-thirds of the heroin found on the East Coast. Although coca cultivation estimates have fallen by about two-thirds in Bolivia and Peru since 1996, increases in coca cultivation in Colombia have offset much of these successes. Under State's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the Office of Aviation, through a contract with DynCorp Aerospace Technology, supports foreign governments' efforts to locate and eradicate illicit drug crops in the Andean region. In recent years, DynCorp has maintained and operated aircraft to locate and eradicate drug crops in Colombia, trained pilots and mechanics for the Colombian Army Aviation Brigade, and provided logistical and training support for the aerial eradication programs of the Colombian National Police and manual eradication programs in Bolivia and Peru. The Office of Aviation met both State's overall contracting oversight requirements and more specific oversight and evaluation requirements in …

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) routinely acquires new information systems and enhancements to manage and support its various programs and operations. GAO has designated HUD's major program areas as high risk, in part because the department's information and financial management systems are poorly integrated, ineffective, and generally unreliable. HUD has been trying to improve its systems to better support its missions and management reforms. HUD did not fully satisfy the requirements for any of the "repeatable" key process areas GAO reviewed. Although HUD's software acquisition process has several strengths, GAO found weaknesses in all key software process areas evaluated: requirements development and management, project management, contract tracking and oversight, and software evaluation. As a result, HUD's processes for acquiring software are immature and ad hoc, sometimes chaotic, and not repeatable across projects. HUD acknowledges these weaknesses, is committed to improving its software and system acquisition processes, and will soon begin a process improvement effort."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Children diagnosed with attention deficit disorders are often treated with stimulant medications, such as Ritalin or Adderall. These drugs are controlled substances under federal law because of their high potential for abuse. Many of these stimulant drugs must be taken several times a day to be effective, so children need medication during the school day. Concern has arisen that the increasing use of these medications in school might provide additional opportunities for drug abuse. No data exists on the extent to which attention disorder drugs have been diverted or abused at school, or the extent to which state laws or regulations guide local school officials in safely administering these drugs. Middle and high school principals reported little diversion or abuse of attention disorder drugs. For the first seven to nine months of school year 2000-2001, about eight percent of principals in public middle and high schools reported that attention disorder drugs had been diverted or abused at their school. Most of the principals reported that school officials administer attention disorder medications, with about two percent of the school's students on average being administered attention disorder drugs …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "People are the federal government's most valuable asset. Studies of private and public sector organizations have shown that high-performing organizations value and invest in their employees--human capital--and align their "people policies" to support organizational performance goals. In the federal government, however, strategic human capital management is a pervasive challenge. GAO has included human capital on its high-risk list. The Administration's emphasis on workforce planning and restructuring will require federal agencies to flatten their organizational hierarchy and improve their work processes. To optimize the services provided to citizens, federal employees must understand the link between their daily work and the results their organization seeks to achieve. For the initiatives GAO reviewed, agencies had to overcome organizational and cultural barriers, including a lack of trust, resistance to change and lack of buy-in from front-line employees and managers, and various implementation issues, such as workload demands. The agencies developed strategies to address these barriers, such as maintaining open communication and reassigning and hiring personnel. In implementing the practices to empower and involve employees, agencies identified a range of examples to demonstrate the performance improvements these efforts have accomplished."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. dairy farmers produced 167.7 billion pounds of unprocessed, raw milk in 2000. Federal and state dairy programs influence the minimum prices paid to farmers for raw milk. These prices are based on how the raw milk is to be used. Minimum prices set for raw milk to be used for making drinking milk (fluid milk) are higher than those for milk used for manufacturing cheese, butter, and other dairy products. About 70 percent of the raw milk produced in the United States is regulated under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) federal milk marketing order program. The 1996 farm bill established another pricing program -- the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact (NEDC) -- which is run by a commission that sets a minimum price for raw milk sold as fluid milk in six New England states. The NEDC works in conjunction with federal and state dairy programs to establish an alternative minimum price for raw milk in the Compact states. When the monthly NEDC minimum price exceeds the federal marketing order or state minimum price, the NEDC price becomes the minimum price. Congress is now considering …

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a hospital district board of managers may appoint its own members to the board of a health maintenance organization created by the district and whether the health maintenance organization's board of directors is subject to the Open Meetings Act.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether section 39.9048 of the Utilities Code Requires the Railroad Commission to initiate "a program to keep the costs of fuel, such as natural gas used for generating electricity low "(RQ-0372-JC).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Furnishing of a social security number as a requirement for Texas driver's license(RQ-0343-JC).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether an emergency communication district may expend funds for an item that is not "attributable to designing a 9-1-1 system and to all equipment and personnel necessary to establish and operate a public safety answering point and other related answering points" (RQ-0365-JC)

Many observers have raised doubts about the accuracy and reliability of China's energy statistics, which show an unprecedented decline in recent years, while reported economic growth has remained strong. This paper explores the internal consistency of China's energy statistics from 1990 to 2000, coverage and reporting issues, and the state of the statistical reporting system. Available information suggests that, while energy statistics were probably relatively good in the early 1990s, their quality has declined since the mid-1990s. China's energy statistics should be treated as a starting point for analysis, and explicit judgments regarding ranges of uncertainty should accompany any conclusions.

A review of division progress reports noting significant events and findings of the Applied Nuclear Physics, Neutron Physics, Engineering Physics, and then Engineering Physics and Mathematics divisions from 1955 to 1993 was prepared for use in developing a history of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in celebration of its 50th year. The research resulted in an accumulation of historic material and photographs covering 38 years of effort, and the decision was made to publish a brief history of the division. The history begins with a detailed account of the founding of the Applied Nuclear Physics Division in 1955 and continues through the name change to the Neutron Physics Division in the late 1950s. The material thereafter is presented in decades--the sixties, seventies, and eighties--and ends as we enter the nineties.

A test that involves immersion of the potential mod materials for permanent molds has been developed that provides a thermal cycle that is similar to the experienced during casting of aluminum in permanent molds. This test has been employed to determine the relative thermal fatigue resistance of several different types of mold materials. Four commercial mold coatings have been evaluated for their insulating ability, wear resistance and roughness. The results indicate that composition and structure of the mold materials have considerable effect on their thermal fatigue cracking behavior. Irons with a gray iron structure are the most prone to thermal fatigue cracking followed by compacted graphite irons with the least thermal fatigue cracking of the cast irons experienced by ductile iron. The composition of these various irons affects their behavior.

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 includes information regarding Pakistan. Information including historical background, Pakistan and U.S. relations, and U.S. aid to Pakistan is detailed in this report.

The collateral damage caused by fallout from shallow-buried nuclear devices is of considerable interest. In this paper, we present results for ''standard'' calculations using the KDFOC4 fallout computer code. Results are presented for a parametric range of yields from 0.1 kt to 1 Mt in equally-spaced logarithmic increments and for emplacement depths of 5 meters in hard, dry rock and 20 meters in moist soil. We will see that for low yields, this emplacement depth has a marked influence on the shape of the fallout patterns but for the highest yields, the fallout patterns are insensitive to the emplacement medium and depth. We look at two categories of doses: (1) Those for which health effects begin to be serious and range upward to lethal, and (2) Doses that are politically very sensitive but for which any deleterious health effects are difficult to prove.

Absolute partial {gamma}-ray cross sections for production of discrete {gamma} rays in the {sup 239}Pu(n,2n{gamma}i){sup 238}Pu reaction have been measured. The experiments were performed at LANSCE/WNR on the 60R flight line. Reaction {gamma}-rays were measured using the large-scale Compton-suppressed array of Ge detectors, GEANIE. The motivation for this experiment, an overview of the partial {gamma}-ray cross-section measurement, and an introduction to the main experimental issues will be presented. The energy resolution of the Ge detectors allowed identification of reaction {gamma} rays above the background of sample radioactivity and fission {gamma} rays. The use of planar Ge detectors with their reduced sensitivity to neutron interactions and improved line shape was also important to the success of this experiment. Absolute partial {gamma}-ray cross sections are presented for the 6{sub 1}{sup +} {yields} 4{sub 1}{sup +} member of the ground state rotational band in {sup 238}Pu, together with miscellaneous other {gamma}-ray partial cross sections. The n,2n reaction cross section shape and magnitude as a function of neutron energy was extracted from these partial cross sections using nuclear modeling (enhanced Hauser-Feshbach) to relate partial {gamma}-ray cross sections to the n,2n cross section. The critical nuclear modeling issue is the ratio of a partial cross …

T*e, which is an elastic-plastic fracture parameter based on incremental theory of plasticity, was determined numerically and experimentally. The T*e integral of a tunneling crack in 2024-T3 aluminum, three point bend specimen was obtained through a hybrid analysis of moire interferometry and 3-D elastic-plastic finite element analysis. The results were verified by the good agreement between the experimentally and numerically determined T*e on the specimen surface.

This application focuses on the development of appropriate computation tools and parameters for the de novo design of selective metal ligands. We have developed a successful suite of tools for computer-aided design of ligands for receptors of known three-dimensional structure (structure-based design), including the prediction of affinity. Adaptation of the algorithms to place donor atoms at appropriate geometrical locations surrounding the metal of interest, rather than filling up a cavity with donor/acceptor atoms placed optimally to interact with a protein active site, is straightforward. Appropriate geometrical parameters for metals can be derived from crystal structures and force constants adapted from recent advances in theories of metal-ligand interactions. The practical goal is computer-aided design of ligands which would be selective for one metal over another with a predicted selectivity ratio and affinity.

DOE has a strong commitment to the efficient and safe remediation of waste (high level radioactive waste, mixed waste, and hazardous waste) present in underground waste storage tanks. Safety issues arise from the presence of organic chemicals and oxidizers and concerns are raised about the flammability, explosivity, and the possible corrosion of storage tanks due to presence of nitrates and nitrites. Knowledge of the physical parameters and chemical and radioactive composition of waste is necessary for effective and safe tank remediation. New and improved characterization and monitoring of waste present in storage tanks is necessary. The overall goal of this project has been to develop and demonstrate novel multi-parameter micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) sensors based on Si and SiNx microcantilever (MC) structures that are robust and can be used to simultaneously detect the presence of target chemicals (analytes) in a mixture, radiation emitted from radioactive materials, an d the heat generated by the absorption of photons of specific wavelength by the target analytes. The mechanisms by which adsorption, photophysical, photothermal processes cause stress in MC surfaces are better understood. Methods of applying a wide variety of chemically selective coatings have been developed specifically for miniaturized MC surfaces, and the response characteristic …

A new broad-group cross-section library with the DABL69 energy group structure and based on ENDF/B-VI Release 3 data has been created. This new library was prepared using the standard weighting function in the VITAMIN-B6 fine-group cross-section library. The new broad-group library was prepared as a requisite for a project in which various factors in estimated doses to surviving Nagasaki factory workers are being investigated. This report documents the procedure used in creating the new library and provides specifications and limitations of the data which determine the usefulness of the library for problem-specific applications. The published neutron and photon source terms for the Nagasaki calculations have been interpolated to the energy group structure of the new library and are also presented within this report.

Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) contamination has complicated the remediation of gasoline contaminated sites. Many sites are using biological processes for ground water treatment and would like to apply the same technology to MTBE. However, the efficiency and reliability of MTBE biological treatment is not well documented. The objective of this study was to examine the operational and environmental variables influencing MTBE biotreatment. A fluidized bed reactor was installed at a fuel transfer station and used to treat ground water contaminated with MTBE and gasoline hydrocarbons. A complete set of chemical and operational data was collected during this study and a statistical approach was used to determine what variables were influencing MTBE treatment efficiency. It was found that MTBE treatment was more sensitive to up-set than gasoline hydrocarbon treatment. Events, such as excess iron accumulation, inhibited MTBE treatment, but not hydrocarbon treatment. Multiple regression analysis identified biomass accumulation and temperature as the most important variables controlling the efficiency of MTBE treatment. The influent concentration and loading of hydrocarbons, but not MTBE, also impacted MTBE treatment efficiency. The results of this study suggest guidelines for improving MTBE treatment. Long cell retention times in the reactor are necessary for maintaining MTBE treatment. The …

The Pennsylvania State University, under contract to the US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory will establish, promote, and manage a national industry-driven stripper Well Consortium (SWC) that will be focused on improving the production performance of domestic petroleum and/or natural gas stripper wells. The consortium creates a partnership with the US petroleum and natural gas industries and trade associations, state funding agencies, academia, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. This report serves as the four quarterly technical progress report for the SWC. During this reporting period, Penn State primary focus was on finalizing all subcontracts, planning the SWC technology transfer meeting and two workshops in the southern US, and preparing the next SWC newsletter. Membership in the SWC now stands at 49.

We discuss the use of tapered undulators to enhance the performance of free-electron lasers (FELs) based upon self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE), where the radiation tends to have a relatively broad bandwidth, limited temporal phase coherence, and large amplitude fluctuations. Using the polychromatic FEL simulation code GINGER, we numerically demonstrate the effectiveness of a tapered undulator for parameters corresponding to the existing Argonne low-energy undulator test line (LEUTL) FEL. We also study possible tapering options for proposed x-ray FELs such as the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS).