Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO exists to support the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. To accomplish its mission, GAO depends on a diverse and knowledge-based workforce comprising individuals with a broad spectrum of technical and program skills and institutional memory. This workforce represents GAO's human capital--its greatest asset--and is critical to the agency's success in serving the Congress and the nation. This strategic human capital plan is a key step in continuing GAO's progress to build a highly effective, performance-based organization by attracting, retaining, motivating, and rewarding a high-performing, top-quality workforce. GAO believes that strategic human capital management must be the centerpiece of any serious change management initiative and effort to transform the culture and operations of any large organization, including government agencies. This plan extends and builds upon what GAO has already accomplished by using existing administrative authorities and by pursuing incremental additional tools and flexibilities legislatively. From the demonstrated results that GAO has achieved, it is clear that we have been a leader in human capital …

This report is a collection of documents written by the group members of the Engineering Sciences Research Foundation (ESRF), Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project titled 'A Robust, Coupled Approach to Atomistic-Continuum Simulation'. Presented in this document is the development of a formulation for performing quasistatic, coupled, atomistic-continuum simulation that includes cross terms in the equilibrium equations that arise due to kinematic coupling and corrections used for the calculation of system potential energy to account for continuum elements that overlap regions containing atomic bonds, evaluations of thermo-mechanical continuum quantities calculated within atomistic simulations including measures of stress, temperature and heat flux, calculation used to determine the appropriate spatial and time averaging necessary to enable these atomistically-defined expressions to have the same physical meaning as their continuum counterparts, and a formulation to quantify a continuum 'temperature field', the first step towards constructing a coupled atomistic-continuum approach capable of finite temperature and dynamic analyses.

Waste characterization is probably the most costly part of radioactive waste management. An important part of this characterization is the measurements of headspace gas in waste containers in order to demonstrate the compliance with Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) or transportation requirements. The traditional chemical analysis methods, which include all steps of gas sampling, sample shipment and laboratory analysis, are expensive and time-consuming as well as increasing worker's exposure to hazardous environments. Therefore, an alternative technique that can provide quick, in-situ, and real-time detections of headspace gas compositions is highly desirable. This report summarizes the results obtained from a Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) project entitled 'Potential Application of Microsensor Technology in Radioactive Waste Management with Emphasis on Headspace Gas Detection'. The objective of this project is to bridge the technical gap between the current status of microsensor development and the intended applications of these sensors in nuclear waste management. The major results are summarized below: {sm_bullet} A literature review was conducted on the regulatory requirements for headspace gas sampling/analysis in waste characterization and monitoring. The most relevant gaseous species and the related physiochemical environments were identified. It was found that preconcentrators might be needed in order for …

As part of DARPA Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) Software for Distributed Robotics (SDR) Program, Sandia National Laboratories has developed analysis and control software for coordinating tens to thousands of autonomous cooperative robotic agents (primarily unmanned ground vehicles) performing military operations such as reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition; countermine and explosive ordnance disposal; force protection and physical security; and logistics support. Due to the nature of these applications, the control techniques must be distributed, and they must not rely on high bandwidth communication between agents. At the same time, a single soldier must easily direct these large-scale systems. Finally, the control techniques must be provably convergent so as not to cause undo harm to civilians. In this project, provably convergent, moderate communication bandwidth, distributed control algorithms have been developed that can be regulated by a single soldier. We have simulated in great detail the control of low numbers of vehicles (up to 20) navigating throughout a building, and we have simulated in lesser detail the control of larger numbers of vehicles (up to 1000) trying to locate several targets in a large outdoor facility. Finally, we have experimentally validated the resulting control algorithms on smaller numbers of autonomous vehicles.

Contaminant dispersal models for use at scales ranging from meters to miles are widely used for planning sensor locations, first-responder actions for release scenarios, etc. and are constantly being improved. Applications range from urban contaminant dispersal to locating buried targets from an exhaust signature. However, these models need detailed data for model improvement and validation. A small Sandia National Laboratories Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program was funded in FY04 to examine the feasibility and usefulness of a scale-model capability for quantitative characterization of flow and contaminant dispersal in complex environments. This report summarizes the work performed in that LDRD. The basics of atmospheric dispersion and dispersion modeling are reviewed. We examine the need for model scale data, and the capability of existing model test methods. Currently, both full-scale and model scale experiments are performed in order to collect validation data for numerical models. Full-scale experiments are expensive, are difficult to repeat, and usually produce relatively sparse data fields. Model scale tests often employ wind tunnels, and the data collected is, in many cases, derived from single point measurements. We review the scaling assumptions and methods that are used to relate model and full scale flows. In particular, we …

When residual range migration due to either real or apparent motion errors exceeds the range resolution, conventional autofocus algorithms fail. A new migration-correction autofocus algorithm has been developed that estimates the migration and applies phase and frequency corrections to properly focus the image.

With increased terrorist threats in the past few years, it is no longer feasible to feel confident that a facility is well protected with a static security system. Potential adversaries often research their targets, examining procedural and system changes, in order to attack at a vulnerable time. Such system changes may include scheduled sensor maintenance, scheduled or unscheduled changes in the guard force, facility alert level changes, sensor failures or degradation, etc. All of these changes impact the system effectiveness and can make a facility more vulnerable. Currently, a standard analysis of system effectiveness is performed approximately every six months using a vulnerability assessment tool called ASSESS (Analytical Systems and Software for Evaluating Safeguards and Systems). New standards for determining a facility's system effectiveness will be defined by tools that are currently under development, such as ATLAS (Adversary Time-line Analysis System) and NextGen (Next Generation Security Simulation). Although these tools are useful to model analyses at different spatial resolutions and can support some sensor dynamics using statistical models, they are limited in that they require a static system state as input. They cannot account for the dynamics of the system through day-to-day operations. The emphasis of this project was to …

Located in the northern Willamette River basin, Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge) was established in 1992 with an approved acquisition boundary to accommodate willing sellers with potentially restorable holdings within the Tualatin River floodplain. The Refuge's floodplain of seasonal and emergent wetlands, Oregon ash riparian hardwood, riparian shrub, coniferous forest, and Garry oak communities are representative of remnant plant communities historically common in the Willamette River valley and offer an opportunity to compensate for wildlife habitat losses associated with the Willamette River basin federal hydroelectric projects. The purchase of the Oleson Units as additions to the Refuge using Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) funds will partially mitigate for wildlife habitat and target species losses incurred as a result of construction and inundation activities at Dexter and Detroit Dams. Lands acquired for mitigation of Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) impacts to wildlife are evaluated using the Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP) methodology, which quantifies how many Habitat Units (HUs) are to be credited to BPA. HUs or credits gained lessen BPA's debt, which was formally tabulated in the FCRPS Loss Assessments and adopted as part of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Fish and Wildlife Program as a BPA obligation (NWPCC, …

This study investigates the factors that lead countries into conflict. Specifically, political, social and economic factors may offer insight as to how prone a country (or set of countries) may be for inter-country or intra-country conflict. Largely methodological in scope, this study examines the literature for quantitative models that address or attempt to model conflict both in the past, and for future insight. The analysis concentrates specifically on the system dynamics paradigm, not the political science mainstream approaches of econometrics and game theory. The application of this paradigm builds upon the most sophisticated attempt at modeling conflict as a result of system level interactions. This study presents the modeling efforts built on limited data and working literature paradigms, and recommendations for future attempts at modeling conflict.

The conventional vibrating machines used in processing plants have had undesirable high noise and vibration levels. They also have had unsatisfactorily low screening efficiency, high energy consumption, high maintenance cost, low productivity, and poor worker safety. These conventional vibrating machines have been used in most every processing plant. Most of the current material separation technology uses heavy and inefficient electric motors with an unbalance rotating mass to generate the shaking. In addition to being excessively noisy, inefficient, and high-maintenance, these vibrating machines are often the bottleneck in the entire process. Furthermore, these motors, along with the vibrating machines and supporting structure, shake other machines and structures in the vicinity. The latter increases maintenance costs while reducing worker health and safety. The conventional vibrating fine screens at taconite processing plants have had the same problems as those listed above. This has resulted in lower screening efficiency, higher energy and maintenance cost, and lower productivity and workers safety concerns. The focus of this work is on the design of a high performance screening machine suitable for taconite processing plants. SmartScreens{trademark} technology uses miniaturized motors, based on smart materials, to generate the shaking. The underlying technologies are Energy Flow Control{trademark} and Vibration Control …

The effects of ionizing and neutron radiation on the characteristics and performance of laser diodes are reviewed, and the formation mechanisms for nonradiative recombination centers, the primary type of radiation damage in laser diodes, are discussed. Additional topics include the detrimental effects of aluminum in the active (lasing) volume, the transient effects of high-dose-rate pulses of ionizing radiation, and a summary of ways to improve the radiation hardness of laser diodes. Radiation effects on laser diodes emitting in the wavelength region around 808 nm are emphasized.

This report describes both a general methodology and some specific examples of passive radio receivers. A passive radio receiver uses no direct electrical power but makes sole use of the power available in the radio spectrum. These radio receivers are suitable as low data-rate receivers or passive alerting devices for standard, high power radio receivers. Some zero-power radio architectures exhibit significant improvements in range with the addition of very low power amplifiers or signal processing electronics. These ultra-low power radios are also discussed and compared to the purely zero-power approaches.

Weekly newspaper from Mannford, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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

Letter from Adrien-Alice Hansel, literary manager of the Actors Theatre of Louisville, to Sterling Houston, prominent San Antonio playwright. The letter informs Mr. Houston that his plays - Le Griffon and The Ballad of Henry Brown/Miz Johnson & Mr. Jones - have not been selected for production at an upcoming festival.

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 Hidalgo County deputy district clerks are subject to the provisions of the Hidalgo County civil service plan, and if not, whether the Hidalgo County commissioners court may amend the civil service plan to include deputy district clerks (RQ-0196-GA)

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 judge of the Kerr County constitutional county court must hear certain matters at the Kerrville State Hospital and is entitled to a salary supplement for doing so (RQ-0197-GA)

Weekly student newspaper from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas that includes campus and local news along with advertising.

A computerized method has been developed to aid in the preliminary design of composite wind turbine blades. The method allows for arbitrary specification of the chord, twist, and airfoil geometry along the blade and an arbitrary number of shear webs. Given the blade external geometry description and its design load distribution, the Fortran code uses ultimate-strength and buckling-resistance criteria to compute the design thickness of load-bearing composite laminates. The code also includes an analysis option to obtain blade properties if a composite laminates schedule is prescribed. These properties include bending stiffness, torsion stiffness, mass, moments of inertia, elastic-axis offset, and center-of-mass offset along the blade. Nonstructural materials-gelcoat, nexus, and bonding adhesive-are also included for computation of mass. The code includes an option to format the output properties that can be directly input to advanced aeroelastic codes. This report summarizes the structural layout of composite laminates within the blade, the design approach, and the computational process. Finally, we present the results of two composite blades designed using this code in support of a project covering comparison of two- and three-blade rotors for a hypothetical turbine.

A large solar thermal system installed at the Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in 1998 heats water for the prison and costs less than buying electricity to heat that water. This renewable energy system provides 70% of the facility's annual hot water needs. The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not incur the up-front cost of this system because it was financed through an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC). The ESPC payments are 10% less than the energy savings so that the prison saves an average of$6,700 per year, providing an immediate payback. The solar hot water system produces up to 50,000 gallons of hot water daily, enough to meet the needs of 1,250 inmates and staff who use the kitchen, shower, and laundry facilities.

This factsheet provides an overview of the current state of electrolytic hydrogen production technologies and an economic analysis of the processes and systems available as of December 2003. The operating specifications and hydrogen production costs of commercially available electrolyzers from five manufacturers, i.e., Stuart, Teledyne, Proton, Norsk Hydro, and Avalence, are compared.

Observations of dead raptors at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area triggered concerns on the parts of regulatory agencies, environmental/conservation groups, wildlife resource agencies, and wind and electric utility industries about possible impacts to birds from wind energy development. Bird fatality rates observed at most wind projects are not currently considered significant to individual bird species populations. Although many bird species have observed fatalities, raptors have received the most attention. The primary objective of this study was to estimate and compare bird utilization, fatality rates, and collision risk indices among factors such as bird taxonomic groups, turbine types, and turbine locations within the operating wind plant in the Tehachapi Pass WRA, in south-central California between October 1996 and May 1998.

In a ''green roof,'' a layer of vegetation (e.g., a roof garden) covers the surface of a roof to provide shade, cooler indoor and outdoor temperatures, and effective storm-water management to reduce runoff. The main components are waterproofing, soil, and plants. There are two basic kinds: intensive and extensive. An intensive green roof often features large shrubs and trees, and it can be expensive to install and maintain. An extensive green roof features shallow soil and low-growing, horizontally spreading plants that can thrive in the alpine conditions of many rooftops. These plants do not require a lot of water or soil, and they can tolerate a significant amount of exposure to the sun and wind. This Federal Technology Alert focuses on the benefits, design, and implementation of extensive green roofs and includes criteria for their use on federal facilities.

The recently proposed backward Raman laser amplification scheme utilizes the stimulated Raman backscattering in plasma of a long pumping laser pulse to amplify a short, frequency downshifted seed pulse. The output intensity for this scheme is limited by the development of forward Raman scattering (FRS) or modulational instabilities of the highly amplified seed. Theoretically, focused output intensities as high as 1025 W/cm{sup 2} and pulse lengths of less than 100 fs could be accessible by this technique for 1 {micro}m lasers--an improvement of 10{sup 4}-10{sup 5} in focused intensity over current techniques. Simulations with the particle-in-cell (PIC) code Zohar are presented which investigate the effects of FRS and modulational instabilities and of Langmuir wave breaking on the output intensity for Raman amplification. Using the intense seed pulse to photoionize the plasma simultaneous with its amplification (and hence avoid plasmas-based instabilities of the pump) is also investigated by PIC simulations. It is shown that both approaches can access focused intensities in the 1025 W/cm{sup 2} range.