Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its recent reports regarding the operational uncertainties of the status of the 2000 Census, focusing on: (1) achieving the Bureau of the Census' mail response rate objective; (2) collecting accurate and timely data from nonrespondents; and (3) conducting data capture operations."

The 2001 Wastewater Land Application Site Performance Reports for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory describe site conditions for the facilities with State of Idaho Wastewater Land Application Permits. Permit-required monitoring data are summarized, and any permit exceedences or environmental impacts relating to the operation of any of the facilities during the 2001 permit year are discussed. Additionally, any special studies performed at the facilities, which related to the operation of the facility or application of the wastewater, are discussed.

Emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses entitlement and other mandatory spending programs in light of our nation's long-term fiscal outlook and the challenges it poses for the budget and oversight processes. In our report entitled 21st Century Challenges: Reexamining the Base of the Federal Government, we presented illustrative questions for policy makers to consider as they carry out their responsibilities. These questions look across major areas of the budget and federal operations including discretionary and mandatory spending, and tax policies and programs. We hope that this report, among other things, will be used by various congressional committees as they consider which areas of government need particular attention and reconsideration. Congress will also receive more specific proposals, some of them will be presented within comprehensive agendas. Our report provides examples of the kinds of difficult choices the nation faces with regard to discretionary spending; mandatory spending, including entitlements; as well as tax policies and compliance activities."

A new cryostat cooled by a closed-cycle Cryomech GB-37 cryocooler for superconductor measurements at temperatures down to 20 K is described. The sample is conductively coupled to the cold stage so as to minimize vibration and thermal stresses. AC losses have been measured calorimetrically in several HTSC coils that have been wound to simulate sub-scale transformer winding pairs. Stable temperatures down to 20 K were reached on these coils, allowing measurements at practical levels of ac current and I{sub c}. By using short ac current pulses, losses on individual turns could be resolved. Results are reported mainly to showcase the apparatus, measurement procedure and analytical approach.

This report discusses the new rules the 110th Congress adopted for the House of Representatives in regard to the receipt of gifts from lobbyists, foreign agents, and most of their private clients. There were also new rules placed on travel paid by outside private sources. These rules are designed to provide further transparency in the House.

Crosswell seismic acquisition provides an ideal geometry for monitoring travel time changes in the subsurface. Analysis of delay time in terms of a characteristic frequency allows us to estimate optimal acquisition parameters (frequency and distance). We have deployed standard data acquisition equipment for continuous monitoring of crosswell travel time in two separate field experiments, with well spacing of 3 and 30 m. The acquisition hardware used for the field experiments is described, along with environmental effects (such as temperature) that influence the measurements. Two field experiments are described that correlate changes in travel time (and therefore velocity) with changes in barometric pressure. The results from the two field sites show a pressure sensitivity for velocity of 10{sup -6}/Pa to 10{sup -8}/Pa.

The purpose of this report is to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility instrumentation status. The report is divided into the following five sections: (1) new instrumentation in the process of being acquired and deployed, (2) field campaigns, (3) existing instrumentation and progress on improvements or upgrades, (4) proposed future instrumentation, and (5) Small Business Innovation Research instrument development.

This report considers the debate on the efficacy of U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. Moreover, the report discusses how the Bush Administration's review of the progress resulted as inadequate, and thus ways of changing progress are being considered. The report also discusses the political transition of the government from Taliban power, and examines the progress of Pakistan.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) task force's recommendations to strengthen the Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) programs and facilities, focusing on: (1) the actions ARS has taken to close and consolidate laboratories; (2) the task force report's major recommendations designed to, among other things, improve operational efficiencies; and (3) ARS' reaction to the task force report."

Colloids have the potential to transport strongly sorbing radionuclide contaminants in soils and groundwater aquifers. Recent studies from the Nevada Test Site have indicated the enhanced mobility plutonium, albeit in minute quantities, associated with various silicate minerals (Kersting et al., 1999); however, significant colloidal transport of thorium (Th) and rare earths (RE) in nature, considered to be chemical analogs for plutonium, is rare. Yet, the current Yucca Mountain model for colloids would have predicted extensive Th- and RE migration, given these phases' association with clay minerals. Several studies have pointed to the effect of water flow rate on colloid and particulate migration. In this paper, we examine the benefit of relating water flow rate and the wasteform alteration structure to colloid release.

During FY99, we have explored and analyzed a combined passive/active sensor concept to support the advanced discrimination requirements for various missile defense scenario. The idea is to combine multiple IR spectral channels with an imaging LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) behind a common optical system. The imaging LIDAR would itself consist of at least two channels; one at the fundamental laser wavelength (e.g., the 1.064 {micro}m for Nd:YAG) and one channel at the frequency doubled (at 532 nm for Nd:YAG). two-color laser output would, for example, allow the longer wavelength for a direct detection time of flight ranger and an active imaging channel at the shorter wavelength. The LIDAR can function as a high-resolution 2D spatial image either passively or actively with laser illumination. Advances in laser design also offer three color (frequency tripled) systems, high rep-rate operation, better pumping efficiencies that can provide longer distance acquisition, and ranging for enhanced discrimination phenomenology. New detector developments can enhance the performance and operation of both LIDAR channels. A real time data fusion approach that combines multi-spectral IR phenomenology with LIDAR imagery can improve both discrimination and aim-point selection capability.

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Over the past half-century, the Applied Mathematics program in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research has made significant, enduring advances in applied mathematics that have been essential enablers of modern computational science. Motivated by the scientific needs of the Department of Energy and its predecessors, advances have been made in mathematical modeling, numerical analysis of differential equations, optimization theory, mesh generation for complex geometries, adaptive algorithms and other important mathematical areas. High-performance mathematical software libraries developed through this program have contributed as much or more to the performance of modern scientific computer codes as the high-performance computers on which these codes run. The combination of these mathematical advances and the resulting software has enabled high-performance computers to be used for scientific discovery in ways that could only be imagined at the program's inception. Our nation, and indeed our world, face great challenges that must be addressed in coming years, and many of these will be addressed through the development of scientific understanding and engineering advances yet to be discovered. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will play an essential role in providing science-based solutions to many of these problems, particularly those that involve the energy, …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO examined the underlying records for the net excise tax revenue distributed to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF) for fiscal year 2001. GAO (1) did a detailed test of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to AATF, (2) reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) quarterly AATF certifications, (3) reviewed the Department of the Treasury Financial Management Service adjustments to AATF for fiscal year 2001, (4) reviewed procedures in the Office of Tax Analysis' process for estimating amounts to be distributed to AATF for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2001, (5) compared net excise tax distributions to AATF during fiscal year 2001 and amounts reported in the financial statements prepared by the Bureau of the Public Debt for AATF and the Federal Aviation Administration's consolidated financial statements, and (6) reviewed key reconciliations of IRS records to Treasury records."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO performed detailed tests of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to the Unemployment Trust Fund (UTF) and reviewed key reconciliations of the Internal Revenue Service records to the Department of the Treasury records. GAO found that the net federal unemployment tax revenue distributed to UTF for fiscal year 2001 is supported by the underlying records."

Small animal SPECT imaging systems have multiple potential applications in biomedical research. Whereas SPECT data are commonly interpreted qualitatively in a clinical setting, the ability to accurately quantify measurements will increase the utility of the SPECT data for laboratory measurements involving small animals. In this work, we assess the effect of photon attenuation, scatter and partial volume errors on the quantitative accuracy of small animal SPECT measurements, first with Monte Carlo simulation and then confirmed with experimental measurements. The simulations modeled the imaging geometry of a commercially available small animal SPECT system. We simulated the imaging of a radioactive source within a cylinder of water, and reconstructed the projection data using iterative reconstruction algorithms. The size of the source and the size of the surrounding cylinder were varied to evaluate the effects of photon attenuation and scatter on quantitative accuracy. We found that photon attenuation can reduce the measured concentration of radioactivity in a volume of interest in the center of a rat-sized cylinder of water by up to 50percent when imaging with iodine-125, and up to 25percent when imaging with technetium-99m. When imaging with iodine-125, the scatter-to-primary ratio can reach up to approximately 30percent, and can cause overestimation of …

This report addresses the then recent developments in Asylum Law and Female Genital Mutilation.

Achievement of atomic-resolution electron-beam tomography will allow determination of the three-dimensional structure of nanoparticles (and other suitable specimens) at atomic resolution. Three-dimensional reconstructions will yield ''section'' images that resolve atoms overlapped in normal electron microscope images (projections), resolving lighter atoms such as oxygen in the presence of heavier atoms, and atoms that lie on non-lattice sites such as those in non-periodic defect structures. Lower-resolution electron microscope tomography has been used to produce reconstructed 3D images of nanoparticles [1] but extension to atomic resolution is considered not to be straightforward. Accurate three-dimensional reconstruction from two-dimensional projections generally requires that intensity in the series of 2-D images be a monotonic function of the specimen structure (often specimen density, but in our case atomic potential). This condition is not satisfied in electron microscopy when specimens with strong periodicity are tilted close to zone-axis orientation and produce ''anomalous'' image contrast because of strong dynamic diffraction components. Atomic-resolution reconstructions from tilt series containing zone-axis images (with their contrast enhanced by strong dynamical scattering) can be distorted when the stronger zone-axis images overwhelm images obtained in other ''random'' orientations in which atoms do not line up in neat columns. The first demonstrations of 3-D reconstruction to …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Reducing aviation noise is important to the efficient operation and expansion of the National Airspace System because community opposition to aviation noise is a major obstacle to airport and runway development. Such development is needed to help address congestion and meet the nation's rapidly growing demand for air travel. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have the primary federal responsibility for research and development (R&D) on aviation noise. FAA focuses on the impacts of aviation noise on communities, while NASA focuses on noise at its source--aircraft engines and airframes. Both FAA and NASA have set noise reduction goals. This congressionally requested report on aviation noise addresses (1) FAA's and NASA's R&D plans for addressing aviation noise and the extent to which they are aligned and (2) FAA's and NASA's noise reduction goals and the likelihood that these goals will be achieved. To conduct its work, GAO reviewed FAA's and NASA's R&D planning documents, coordinating mechanisms, and research plans and interviewed agency officials. In addition, aviation industry representatives reviewed and commented on a draft of this report. A draft was …

The Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative (BMENA) is a multilateral development and reform plan aimed at fostering economic and political liberalization in a wide geographic area of Arab and non-Arab Muslim countries. In December 2004, the first BMENA meeting took place in Rabat, Morocco and was called the “Forum for the Future.”At the forum, foreign ministers and finance ministers of the countries in the region stretching from Morocco to Pakistan as well as from the countries of the G8 pledged to create several new development programs and committed $60 million to a regional fund for business development. Critics of BMENA contend that the initiative focuses too heavily on economic issues instead of political reform and does little to strengthen non-governmental organizations and civil society groups in Arab and non- Arab Muslim countries.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Business Systems Modernization (BSM) program is a multibillion-dollar, high-risk, highly complex effort that involves the development and delivery of a number of modernized information systems that are intended to replace the agency's aging business and tax processing systems. As required by law, IRS submitted its fiscal year 2007 expenditure plan, in September 2006, to congressional appropriations committees, requesting $167.3 million from the BSM account. GAO's objectives in reviewing the plan were to (1) determine whether it satisfied the conditions specified in the law, (2) determine IRS's progress in implementing prior GAO recommendations, and (3) provide any other observations about the plan and IRS's BSM program. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed the plan, reviewed related documentation, and interviewed IRS officials."

Revision 1 of this document presented a method of calculating the CFF explosive firing zones that was based upon the peak average pressure on the various elements of the firing chamber as explosive weights and locations are changed. That document was reviewed internally at LLNL and reviewed by the design contractor of the facility. The contractor's responses generally confirmed the validity of the peak average pressure method, but noted that the shearing stresses at haunches may exceed the design values when explosive charges are moved towards comers. The concept of a dynamic load factor is introduced in the dynamic analysis section of Reference 5. A method is shown there whereby the response of the major elements of construction can be calculated from the knowledge of the peak average blast pressure averaged over the surface considered. the length of the pulse, and the natural period of vibration of the element. Quazi Hossain also suggested this method of analysis in Reference 2. The major elements of the Firing Chamber are the four walls, floor, roof slab, camera room overlay structure, inclined plate, bullnose, and the two doors. Except for the bullnose, their response has been calculated for a number of explosive weights …

Measurements of circular dichroism (CD) in the UV and vacuum UV have used photoelastic modulators (PEMs) for high sensitivity (to about 10{sup -6}). While a simple technique for wavelength calibration of the PEMs has been used with good results, several features of these calibration curves have not been understood. The authors have calibrated a calcium fluoride PEM and a lithium fluoride PEM using the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory as a light source. These experiments showed calibration graphs that are linear bit do not pass through the graph origin. A second ''multiple pass'' experiment with laser light of a single wavelength, performed on the calcium fluoride PEM, demonstrates the linearity of the PEM electronics. This implies that the calibration behavior results from intrinsic physical properties of the PEM optical element material. An algorithm for generating calibration curves for calcium fluoride and lithium fluoride PEMs has been developed. The calibration curves for circular dichroism measurement for the two PEMs investigated in this study are given as examples.