Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO was asked to identify the core financial systems used at each of the CFO Act agencies as of September 30, 2002, and the status of any agency plans to update core financial systems. Core financial systems, as defined by the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program, include managing general ledger, funding, payments, receivables, and certain basic cost functions. The core financial systems receive data from other financial and feeder systems, such as acquisition, grant, and personnel systems, as well as from direct user input, and provide data for financial performance measurement and analysis and for financial statement preparation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Prior reports and studies have identified major risks in the Department of Defense's (DOD) management, funding, and reporting of spare parts spending programs. Spare parts shortages adversely affect the U.S. Army's operations and can compromise the readiness of weapon systems. To address these issues, Congress has fully funded DOD's requests for spare parts spending and in some instances increased funding for additional spare parts. Yet, the Army continues to experience spare parts shortages. Congress requested that GAO evaluate (1) the Army's strategic plans for reducing spare parts shortages, (2) the likelihood that key initiatives will reduce such shortages, and (3) the Army's capability to identify the impact on readiness of increased investments for spare parts."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) accomplishments in the 5 years since the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 was past. Specifically, GAO determined (1) how much money IRS has spent on upgrading its security, (2) whether the challenges associated with ensuring information security are technological or managerial, and (3) if IRS is taking sufficient steps to eliminate overpayments to the Earned Income Credit (EIC)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "While four previous base closure rounds have afforded the Department of Defense (DOD) the opportunity to divest itself of unneeded property, it has, at the same time, retained more than 350,000 acres and nearly 20 million square feet of facilities on enclaves at closed or realigned bases for use by the reserve components. In view of the upcoming 2005 base closure round, GAO undertook this review to ascertain if opportunities exist to improve the decision-making processes used to establish reserve enclaves. Specifically, GAO determined to what extent (1)specific infrastructure needs for reserve enclaves were identified as part of base realignment and closure decision making and (2) estimated costs to operate and maintain enclaves were considered in deriving net estimated savings for realigning or closing bases."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1990, GAO has identified DOD inventory management as high risk because of long-standing management weaknesses. In fiscal years 2001 and 2002, Congress provided the Navy with more than $8 billion in operations and maintenance funds to purchase spare parts in support of the service's operations. Nevertheless, spare parts availability has fallen short of the Navy's goals in recent years. GAO examined the extent to which Navy strategic plans address mitigation of critical spare parts shortages, the likelihood that key supply system improvement initiatives will help mitigate spare parts shortages and enhance readiness, and the Navy's ability to identify the impact on readiness of increased spare parts investments."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Leading public organizations here and abroud have found that strategic human capital management must be the centerpiece of any serious change management initiative and effort to transform the culture of government agancies. GAO is not immune to these challenges facing the federal government. Over the past 3 years, however, we have made considerable progress toward addressing a number of our major human capital challenges through various initiatives. While many of the initiatives were administrative in nature, the additional flexibilities that the Congress authorized in Public Law 106-303 have helped to ensure that we have the right staff, with the right skills, in the right locations to better meet the needs of the Congress and the American people."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Law enforcement use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) as a tool to fight crime and terrorism has become more prevalent over time. Civil liberties advocates have raised privacy concerns about its use. This report describes (1) the Metropolitan Police Department's and the United States Park Police's implementation of CCTV to monitor public spaces in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area such as the National Mall and (2) the management controls they established to address privacy concerns. GAO also identified experiences of selected CCTV users that provide insights to help ensure the proper CCTV use."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense's (DOD) annual appropriation totals billions of dollars for spare parts. In addition, it has received supplemental funding totaling $1.5 billion since fiscal year 1999 to increase the availability of spare parts. However, DOD continues to experience critical spare parts shortages that impact military readiness. GAO examined whether (1) DOD's logistics strategic plan addresses the mitigation of critical spare parts shortages that adversely affect readiness, (2) DOD's logistics initiatives are likely to mitigate spare parts shortages that affect readiness, and (3) DOD has the ability to identify the effect of increased investments for spare parts on readiness."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Over the past several years, large increases in medical malpractice insurance premium rates have raised concerns that physicians will no longer be able to afford malpractice insurance and will be forced to curtail or discontinue providing certain services. Additionally, a lack of profitability has led some large insurers to stop selling medical malpractice insurance, furthering concerns that physicians will not be able to obtain coverage. To help Congress better understand the reasons behind the rate increases, GAO undertook a study to (1) describe the extent of the increases in medical malpractice insurance rates, (2) analyze the factors that contributed to those increases, and (3) identify changes in the medical malpractice insurance market that might make this period of rising premium rates different from previous such periods."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Despite reporting $10.5 billion in appropriations spent on spare parts since fiscal year 2000, the Air Force continues to report shortages of spare parts. The service has taken numerous actions to address these shortages. GAO examined whether the Air Force's strategic plan addresses the mitigation of spare parts shortages, whether key initiatives are likely to mitigate the shortages, and the impact on readiness identified from increased investments for spare parts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "More than 4.6 million residential households in the U.S., many with low incomes, rely on propane to heat their homes. Unfortunately, propane prices have been subject to major price spikes in two of the last three winters. Responding to congressional concern caused by these price spikes, GAO undertook a study to address the (1) factors that affect residential propane price volatility, (2) options available to propane consumers to mitigate price volatility, and (3) federal role in the propane market."

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the City of San Antonio may impose right-of-way fees against a metropolitan transit authority created under chapter 451 of the Transporation Code (RQ-0020-GA)

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Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This analysis report is one of the technical reports documenting the Environmental Radiation Model for Yucca Mountain Nevada (ERMYN), a biosphere model supporting the total system performance assessment (TSPA) for the geologic repository at Yucca Mountain. A graphical representation of the documentation hierarchy for the ERMYN is presented in Figure 1-1. This figure shows relationships among the reports developed for biosphere modeling and biosphere abstraction products for the TSPA, as identified in the ''Technical Work Plan: for Biosphere Modeling and Expert Support'' (TWP) (BSC 2003 [163602]). Some documents in Figure 1-1 may be under development and not available when this report is issued. This figure provides an understanding of how this report contributes to biosphere modeling in support of the license application (LA), but access to the listed documents is not required to understand the contents of this report. This report is one of the reports that develops input parameter values for the biosphere model. The ''Biosphere Model Report'' (BSC 2003 [160699]) describes the conceptual model, the mathematical model, and the input parameters. The purpose of this analysis is to develop biosphere model parameter values related to radionuclide transport and accumulation in the environment. These parameters support calculations of radionuclide …

This analysis report is one of the technical reports containing documentation of the Environmental Radiation Model for Yucca Mountain Nevada (ERMYN), a biosphere model supporting the Total System Performance Assessment (TSPA) for the geologic repository at Yucca Mountain. A graphical representation of the documentation hierarchy for the ERMYN is presented in Figure 1-1. This figure shows relationships among the products (i.e., analysis and model reports) developed for biosphere modeling and biosphere abstraction products for TSPA, as identified in the ''Technical Work Plan: for Biosphere Modeling and Expert Support'' (TWP) (BSC 2003). Some documents identified in Figure 1-1 may be under development and not available at the time this report is issued. This figure is included to provide an understanding of how this analysis report contributes to biosphere modeling in support of the license application, and access to the listed documents is not required to understand the contents of this report. This report is one of the reports that develop input parameter values for the biosphere model. The ''Biosphere Model Report'' (BSC 2003), describes the conceptual model as well as the mathematical model and its input parameters. The purpose of this analysis report is to define values for biosphere model parameters …

This final report draws together the research carried from February, 1986 through January, 2003 concerning a series of topics in chemical dynamics. The specific areas of study include molecular collisions, chemical kinetics, data inversion to extract potential energy surfaces, and model reduction of complex kinetic systems.

Two critical issues in the amplification of laser pulses by backward Raman scattering in plasma slabs are the saturation mechanism of the amplification effect (which determines the maximum attainable output intensity of a Raman amplifier) and the optimal plasma density for amplification. Previous investigations [V.M. Malkin, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 82 (22):4448-4451, 1999] identified forward Raman scattering and modulational instabilities of the amplifying seed as the likely saturation mechanisms and lead to an estimated unfocused output intensities of 10{sup 17}W/cm{sup 2}. The optimal density for amplification is determined by the competing constraints of minimizing the plasma density so as to minimize the growth rate of the instabilities leading to saturation but also maintaining the plasma sufficiently dense that the driven Langmuir wave responsible for backscattering does not break prematurely. Here, particle-in-cell code are simulations presented which verify that saturation of backward Raman amplification does occur at intensities of {approx}10{sup 17}W/cm{sup 2} by forward Raman scattering and modulational instabilities. The optimal density for amplification in a plasma with the representative temperature of T(sub)e = 200 eV is also shown in these simulations to be intermediate between the cold plasma wave-breaking density and the density limit found by assuming a water …

New observations of sub-cyclotron frequency instability in low aspect ratio plasma in National Spherical Torus Experiments (NSTX) are reported. The frequencies of observed instabilities correlate with the characteristic Alfven velocity of the plasma. A theory of localized Compressional Alfven Eigenmodes (CAE) and Global shear Alfven Eigenmodes (GAE) in low aspect ratio plasma is presented to explain the observed high frequency instabilities. CAE's/GAE's are driven by the velocity space gradient of energetic super-Alfvenic beam ions via Doppler shifted cyclotron resonances. One of the main damping mechanisms of GAE's, the continuum damping, is treated perturbatively within the framework of ideal MHD. Properties of these cyclotron instabilities ions are presented.

Bursting modes are observed on the National Spherical Torus Experiment [M. Ono et al., Nucl. Fusion 40 (2000) 557], which are identified as bounce-precession-frequency fishbone modes. They are predicted to be important in high-current, low-shear discharges with a significant population of trapped particles with a large mean-bounce angle, such as produced by near-tangential beam injection into a large aspect-ratio device. Such a distribution is often stable to the usual precession-resonance fishbone mode. These modes could be important in ignited plasmas, driven by the trapped-alpha-particle population.

This Corrective Action Investigation Plan contains the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office's approach to collect the data necessary to evaluate corrective action alternatives (CAAs) appropriate for the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 536: Area 3 Release Site, Nevada Test Site, Nevada, under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. Corrective Action Unit 536 consists of a single Corrective Action Site (CAS): 03-44-02, Steam Jenny Discharge. The CAU 536 site is being investigated because existing information on the nature and extent of possible contamination is insufficient to evaluate and recommend corrective action alternatives for CAS 03-44-02. The additional information will be obtained by conducting a corrective action investigation (CAI) prior to evaluating CAAs and selecting the appropriate corrective action for this CAS. The results of this field investigation are to be used to support a defensible evaluation of corrective action alternatives in the corrective action decision document. Record of Technical Change No. 1 is dated 3-2004.

By using the amplifying laser pulse in a plasma-based backward Raman laser amplifier to generate the plasma by photo-ionization of a gas simultaneous with the amplification process, possible instabilities of the pumping laser pulse can be avoided. Particle-in-cell simulations are used to study this amplification mechanism, and earlier results using more elementary models of the Raman interaction are verified [D.S. Clark and N.J. Fisch, Phys. Plasmas, 9 (6): 2772-2780, 2002]. The effects (unique to amplification in ionizing plasmas and not included in previous simulations) of blue-shifting of the pump and seed laser pulses and the generation of a wake are observed not significantly to impact the amplification process. As expected theoretically, the peak output intensity is found to be limited to I {approx} 10{sup 17} W/cm{sup 2} by forward Raman scattering of the amplifying seed. The integrity of the ionization front of the seed pulse against the development of a possible transverse modulation instability is also demonstrated.

Interview with postmaster and Army veteran J.D. Bradley. The interview includes Bradley's personal experiences about being a guard during the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo after World War II, enlisting in the army, basic training, various assignments, guard duty in the court docks during the tribunal, and guarding Hideki Tojo. Bradley talks about rules and regulations for Military Police guards, steps taken to prevent suicides among the prisoners, the physical description of the interior of the courtroom of the War Ministry Building, checks for hidden weapons in the courtroom, courtroom procedures, various security procedures, steps taken to impress the Japanese people, living quarters and conditions at the War Ministry Building, relations with Japanese civilians, black market activities, his relationship with a Japanese correspondent and trading cigarettes for photographs of the proceedings, Sugamo Prison, and his commanding officer, Lt. Col. Aubrey S. Kenworthy. The interview includes an appendix with photographs.