A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Very little is known about sexual abuse among children that are regularly cared for by more than 1.3 million child care providers every week in the United States. In this context, GAO was asked to (1) provide an overview of federal and state laws related to the employment of sex offenders at child care facilities and (2) examine cases where individuals who were convicted of serious sexual offenses were subsequently employed or present at child care facilities. To provide an overview of selected laws, GAO searched for prohibitions against offenders being present at child care facilities, requirements for conducting criminal-history checks, and penalties for violating these requirements. The cases GAO examined focus only on individuals who were convicted of serious sexual offenses and cannot be generalized to all child care facilities. To identify the cases, GAO reviewed open-source information from 2000 to 2010. GAO also compared the years 2007 to 2009 in employment databases from 20 states and the District of Columbia to data in the National Sex Offender Registry. GAO ultimately selected 10 cases from eight states and the District of Columbia for review. For …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The President issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) -9 in 2004 to establish a national policy to defend the food and agriculture systems against terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. HSPD-9 assigns various emergency response and recovery responsibilities to the Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), Homeland Security (DHS), and others. In addition, Emergency Support Function (ESF) -11 addresses the federal food and agriculture response during emergencies and is coordinated by USDA. GAO was asked to evaluate (1) the extent to which there is oversight of federal agencies' overall progress in implementing HSPD-9; (2) the steps USDA has taken to implement its HSPD-9 responsibilities for response and recovery and challenges, if any; and (3) the circumstances under which USDA has coordinated an ESF-11 response and challenges it faces, if any. GAO reviewed key documents; surveyed states; and interviewed agency, state, and industry officials."

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers attracts congressional attention because its projects can have significant local and regional economic benefits and environmental effects, in addition to their water resource development purposes. This report provides an overview of the Corps civil works program. It covers the congressional authorization and appropriation process, the standard project development process, and other Corps activities and authorities. It also includes an Appendix on the evolution of Corps civil works missions and authorities and a description of the limits on the Corps' role in levee accreditation and improvements for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

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.

Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

In a linear accelerator, it is important to achieve a good alignment between all of its components (such as quadrupoles, RF cavities, beam position monitors et al.), in order to better preserve the beam quality during acceleration. After the survey of the main linac components, there are several beam-based alignment (BBA) techniques to be applied, to further optimize the beam trajectory and calculate the corresponding steering magnets strength. Among these techniques the most simple and straightforward one is the one-to-one (1-to-1) steering technique, which steers the beam from quad center to center, and removes the betatron oscillation from quad focusing. For a future linear collider such as the International Linear Collider (ILC), the initial beam emittance is very small in the vertical plane (flat beam with {gamma}{epsilon}{sub y} = 20-40nm), which means the alignment requirement is very tight. In this note, we evaluate the emittance growth with one-to-one correction algorithm employed, both analytically and numerically. Then the ILC main linac accelerator is taken as an example to compare the vertical emittance growth after 1-to-1 steering, both from analytical formulae and multi-particle tracking simulation. It is demonstrated that the estimated emittance growth from the derived formulae agrees well with the results …

Alternative chicane-type beam lines are proposed for exact emittance exchange between horizontal phase space (x; x{prime}) and longitudinal phase space (z; {delta}). Methods to achieve exact phase space exchanges, i.e. mapping x to z, x{prime} to {delta}, z to x and {delta} to x{prime} are suggested. Methods to mitigate the thick-lens effect of the transverse cavity on emittance exchange are discussed. Some applications of the phase space exchanger and the feasibility of an emittance exchange experiment with the proposed chicane-type beam line at SLAC are discussed.

The discovery and exploration of Supersymmetry in a model-independent fashion will be a daunting task due to the large number of soft-breaking parameters in the MSSM. In this paper, we explore the capability of the ATLAS detector at the LHC ({radical}s = 14 TeV, 1 fb{sup -1}) to find SUSY within the 19-dimensional pMSSM subspace of the MSSM using their standard transverse missing energy and long-lived particle searches that were essentially designed for mSUGRA. To this end, we employ a set of {approx} 71k previously generated model points in the 19-dimensional parameter space that satisfy all of the existing experimental and theoretical constraints. Employing ATLAS-generated SM backgrounds and following their approach in each of 11 missing energy analyses as closely as possible, we explore all of these 71k model points for a possible SUSY signal. To test our analysis procedure, we first verify that we faithfully reproduce the published ATLAS results for the signal distributions for their benchmark mSUGRA model points. We then show that, requiring all sparticle masses to lie below 1(3) TeV, almost all(two-thirds) of the pMSSM model points are discovered with a significance S > 5 in at least one of these 11 analyses assuming a 50% …

Photonic band gap (PBG) dielectric fibers with hollow cores are being studied both theoretically and experimentally for use as laser driven accelerator structures. The hollow core functions as both a longitudinal waveguide for the transverse-magnetic (TM) accelerating fields and a channel for the charged particles. The dielectric surrounding the core is permeated by a periodic array of smaller holes to confine the mode, forming a photonic crystal fiber in which modes exist in frequency pass-bands, separated by band gaps. The hollow core acts as a defect which breaks the crystal symmetry, and so-called defect, or trapped modes having frequencies in the band gap will only propagate near the defect. We describe the design of 2-D hollow-core PBG fibers to support TM defect modes with high longitudinal fields and high characteristic impedance. Using as-built dimensions of industrially-made fibers, we perform a simulation analysis of the first prototype PBG fibers specifically designed to support speed-of-light TM modes.

We provide an analytic formula for the (rescaled) one-loop scalar hexagon integral {tilde {Phi}}{sub 6} with all external legs massless, in terms of classical polylogarithms. We show that this integral is closely connected to two integrals appearing in one- and two-loop amplitudes in planar N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory, {Omega}{sup (1)} and {Omega}{sup (2)}. The derivative of {Omega}{sup (2)} with respect to one of the conformal invariants yields {tilde {Phi}}{sub 6}, while another first-order differential operator applied to {tilde {Phi}}{sub 6} yields {Omega}{sup (1)}. We also introduce some kinematic variables that rationalize the arguments of the polylogarithms, making it easy to verify the latter differential equation. We also give a further example of a six-dimensional integral relevant for amplitudes in N = 4 super-Yang-Mills.

A fast solid-state beam kicker modulator is under development at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The program goal is to develop a modulator that will deliver 4 ns, {+-}5 kV pulses to the ATF2 damping ring beam extraction kicker. The kicker is a 50 {Omega}, bipolar strip line, 60 cm long, fed at the downstream end and terminated at the upstream end. The bunch spacing in the ring is 5.6 ns, bunches are removed from the back end of the train, and there is a gap of 103.6 ns before the next train. The modulator design is based on an opening switch topology that uses Drift Step Recovery Diodes as the opening switches. The design and results of the modulator development are discussed. There are many applications that benefit from very fast high power switching. However, at MW power levels and nanosecond time scales, solid state options are limited. One option, the Drift Step Recovery Diode (DSRD) has been demonstrated as capable of blocking thousands of volts and switching in nanosecond to sub-nanosecond ranges. When used as an opening switch, the DSRD exhibits a very fast turn off transient. The process is described in detail by its pioneers in [5,6]. …

In conventional superconductors, a gap exists in the energy absorption spectrum only below the transition temperature (T{sub c}), corresponding to the energy price to pay for breaking a Cooper pair of electrons. In high-T{sub c} cuprate superconductors above T{sub c}, an energy gap called the pseudogap exists, and is controversially attributed either to pre-formed superconducting pairs, which would exhibit particle-hole symmetry, or to competing phases which would typically break it. Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) studies suggest that the pseudogap stems from lattice translational symmetry breaking and is associated with a different characteristic spectrum for adding or removing electrons (particle-hole asymmetry). However, no signature of either spatial or energy symmetry breaking of the pseudogap has previously been observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). Here we report ARPES data from Bi2201 which reveals both particle-hole symmetry breaking and dramatic spectral broadening indicative of spatial symmetry breaking without long range order, upon crossing through T* into the pseudogap state. This symmetry breaking is found in the dominant region of the momentum space for the pseudogap, around the so-called anti-node near the Brillouin zone boundary. Our finding supports the STM conclusion that the pseudogap state is a broken-symmetry state that is distinct from homogeneous …

We present an alternative approach to identifying and characterizing jet substructure. An angular correlation function is introduced that can be used to extract angular and mass scales within a jet without reference to a clustering algorithm. This procedure gives rise to a number of useful jet observables. As an application, we construct a top quark tagging algorithm that is competitive with existing methods. In preparation for the LHC, the past several years have seen extensive work on various aspects of collider searches. With the excellent resolution of the ATLAS and CMS detectors as a catalyst, one area that has undergone significant development is jet substructure physics. The use of jet substructure techniques, which probe the fine-grained details of how energy is distributed in jets, has two broad goals. First, measuring more than just the bulk properties of jets allows for additional probes of QCD. For example, jet substructure measurements can be compared against precision perturbative QCD calculations or used to tune Monte Carlo event generators. Second, jet substructure allows for additional handles in event discrimination. These handles could play an important role at the LHC in discriminating between signal and background events in a wide variety of particle searches. For …

The vast majority of the world's energy needs are met by combustion of fossil fuels. Optimum utilization of limited resources and control of emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases demand sustained improvement of combustion technology. This task can be satisfied only by detailed knowledge of the underlying physical and chemical processes. Non-intrusive laser diagnostics continuously contribute to our growing understanding of these complex and coupled multi-scale processes. The GRC on Laser Diagnostics in Combustion focuses on the most recent scientific advances and brings together scientists and engineers working at the leading edge of combustion research. Major tasks of the community are developing and applying methods for precise and accurate measurements of fluid motion and temperatures; chemical compositions; multi-phase phenomena appearing near walls, in spray and sooting combustion; improving sensitivities, precision, spatial resolution and tracking transients in their spatio-temporal development. The properties and behaviour of novel laser sources, detectors, optical systems that lead to new diagnostic capabilities are also part of the conference program.

Composite dark matter is a natural setting for implementing inelastic dark matter - the O(100 keV) mass splitting arises from spin-spin interactions of constituent fermions. In models where the constituents are charged under an axial U(1) gauge symmetry that also couples to the Standard Model quarks, dark matter scatters inelastically off Standard Model nuclei and can explain the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal. This article describes the early Universe cosmology of a minimal implementation of a composite inelastic dark matter model where the dark matter is a meson composed of a light and a heavy quark. The synthesis of the constituent quarks into dark hadrons results in several qualitatively different configurations of the resulting dark matter composition depending on the relative mass scales in the system.

We study the effect of the surface adsorption of a variety of common laboratory solvents on the conductivity at the interface between LaAlO{sub 3} and SrTiO{sub 3}. This interface possesses a range of intriguing physics, notably a proposed connection between the surface state of the LaAlO{sub 3} and the conductivity buried in the SrTiO{sub 3}. We show that the application of chemicals such as acetone, ethanol, and water can induce a large change (factor of three) in the conductivity. This phenomenon is observed only for polar solvents. These data provide experimental evidence for a general polarization-facilitated electronic transfer mechanism.

Results on beam tests of 3D silicon pixel sensors aimed at the ATLAS Insertable-B-Layer and High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrades are presented. Measurements include charge collection, tracking efficiency and charge sharing between pixel cells, as a function of track incident angle, and were performed with and without a 1.6 T magnetic field oriented as the ATLAS Inner Detector solenoid field. Sensors were bump bonded to the front-end chip currently used in the ATLAS pixel detector. Full 3D sensors, with electrodes penetrating through the entire wafer thickness and active edge, and double-sided 3D sensors with partially overlapping bias and read-out electrodes were tested and showed comparable performance. Full and partial 3D pixel detectors have been tested, with and without a 1.6T magnetic field, in high energy pion beams at the CERN SPS North Area in 2009. Sensors characteristics have been measured as a function of the beam incident angle and compared to a regular planar pixel device. Overall full and partial 3D devices have similar behavior. Magnetic field has no sizeable effect on 3D performances. Due to electrode inefficiency 3D devices exhibit some loss of tracking efficiency for normal incident tracks but recover full efficiency with tilted tracks. As expected due …

Recent observations of cosmic ray electrons from several instruments have revealed various degrees of deviation in the measured electron energy distribution from a simple power-law, in a form of an excess around 0.1 to 1 TeV energies. An even more prominent deviation and excess has been observed in the fraction of cosmic ray positrons around 10 and 100 GeV energies. These observations have received considerable attention and many theoretical models have been proposed to explain them. The models rely on either dark matter annihilation/decay or specific nearby astrophysical sources, and involve several additional assumptions regarding the dark matter distribution or particle acceleration. In this paper we show that the observed excesses in the electron spectrum may be easily reproduced without invoking any unusual sources other than the general diffuse Galactic components of cosmic rays. The model presented here assumes a power-law injection of electrons (and protons) by supernova remnants, and evaluates their expected energy spectrum based on a simple kinetic equation describing the propagation of charged particles in the interstellar medium. The primary physical effect involved is the Klein-Nishina suppression of the electron cooling rate around TeV energies. With a very reasonable choice of the model parameters characterizing the local …

Polycrystalline copper electrocatalysts have been experimentally shown to be capable of reducing CO{sub 2} into CH{sub 4} and C{sub 2}H{sub 4} with relatively high selectivity, and a mechanism has recently been proposed for this reduction on the fcc(211) surface of copper, which was assumed to be the most active facet. In the current work, we use computational methods to explore the effects of the nanostructure of the copper surface and compare the effects of the fcc(111), fcc(100) and fcc(211) facets of copper on the energetics of the electroreduction of CO{sub 2}. The calculations performed in this study generally show that the intermediates in CO{sub 2} reduction are most stabilized by the (211) facet, followed by the (100) facet, with the (111) surface binding the adsorbates most weakly. This leads to the prediction that the (211) facet is the most active surface among the three in producing CH{sub 4} from CO{sub 2}, as well as the by-products H{sub 2} and CO. HCOOH production may be mildly enhanced on the more close-packed surfaces ((111) and (100)) as compared to the (211) facet, due to a change in mechanism from a carboxyl intermediate to a formate intermediate. The results are compared to experimental …

We report on the first Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) measurements of the so-called 'extra-galactic' diffuse {gamma}-ray emission (EGB). This component of the diffuse {gamma}-ray emission is generally considered to have an isotropic or nearly isotropic distribution on the sky with diverse contributions discussed in the literature. The derivation of the EGB is based on detailed modelling of the bright foreground diffuse Galactic {gamma}-ray emission (DGE), the detected LAT sources and the solar {gamma}-ray emission. We find the spectrum of the EGB is consistent with a power law with differential spectral index {gamma} = 2.41 {+-} 0.05 and intensity, I(> 100 MeV) = (1.03 {+-} 0.17) x 10{sup -5} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} sr{sup -1}, where the error is systematics dominated. Our EGB spectrum is featureless, less intense, and softer than that derived from EGRET data.

A key problem in making precise perturbative QCD predictions is the uncertainty in determining the renormalization scale {mu} of the running coupling {alpha}{sub s}({mu}{sup 2}): The purpose of the running coupling in any gauge theory is to sum all terms involving the {beta} function; in fact, when the renormalization scale is set properly, all non-conformal {beta} {ne} 0 terms in a perturbative expansion arising from renormalization are summed into the running coupling. The remaining terms in the perturbative series are then identical to that of a conformal theory; i.e., the corresponding theory with {beta} = 0. The resulting scale-fixed predictions using the 'principle of maximum conformality' (PMC) are independent of the choice of renormalization scheme - a key requirement of renormalization group invariance. The results avoid renormalon resummation and agree with QED scale-setting in the Abelian limit. The PMC is also the theoretical principle underlying the BLM procedure, commensurate scale relations between observables, and the scale-setting method used in lattice gauge theory. The number of active flavors nf in the QCD {beta} function is also correctly determined. We discuss several methods for determining the PMC/BLM scale for QCD processes. We show that a single global PMC scale, valid at leading …

An ultra-short bunch is required by different applications in many aspects. In this paper, the condition to achieve a minimum bunch length at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) [1] bunch compressor one (BC1) is analyzed analytically and evaluated by simulation. The space charge, wake field and coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) effects are not discussed here.