A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since fiscal year 1995, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Center) has been responsible and received federal funding for implementing capital improvement projects and operations and maintenance activities. The Kennedy Center's Comprehensive Building Plan identifies capital projects needed to renovate the Center and bring it into compliance with current life safety and accessibility codes. The Kennedy Center currently is planning to construct, with private funds, two new buildings to open in 2013 on a new plaza to be built adjacent to the existing facility. The Kennedy Center expects federal funding to operate and maintain these buildings. GAO was asked to examine (1) how much the Center has received in federal appropriations for capital projects, (2) the status of the Comprehensive Building Plan and updates, and (3) the potential impact of the Center's plaza project on the need for future operations and maintenance funding."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The nation's social welfare system has been transformed into a system emphasizing work and personal responsibility, primarily through the creation of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program has expanded policies to help recipients improve self-sufficiency. Given that SSA data indicate an overlap in the populations served by TANF and SSI, and the changes in both programs, this report examines (1) the extent that TANF recipients with impairments are encouraged to apply for SSI and what is known about how SSI caseload growth has been affected by such TANF cases, (2) the extent that work requirements are imposed on TANF recipients applying for SSI, and the range of services provided to such recipients, and (3) the extent that interactions exist between the SSI and TANF programs to assist individuals capable of working to obtain employment."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over 335,000 reserve members have been involuntarily called to active duty since September 11, 2001, and the Department of Defense (DOD) expects future reserve usage to remain high. This report is the second in response to a request for GAO to review DOD's mobilization and demobilization process. This review specifically examined the extent to which (1) DOD's implementation of a key mobilization authority and personnel polices affect reserve force availability, (2) the Army was able to execute its mobilization and demobilization plans efficiently, and (3) DOD can manage the health of its mobilized reserve forces."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "International trade in wildlife is a multibillion-dollar industry that, in some cases, has taken species to the brink of extinction. To address the problem, several countries, including the United States, created an international treaty--the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora--that took effect in 1975. The United States also has domestic laws, such as the Endangered Species Act, that protect species. The protections provided by the Convention and domestic laws can differ. For example, in some cases, U.S. laws afford more stringent protections to species than the Convention does; such stricter protections can prevent U.S. interests from participating in trade that is permitted by the Convention. The Convention's member countries meet periodically to discuss implementation of the Convention and are scheduled next to meet in Thailand in October 2004. In anticipation of this meeting, GAO was asked to report on (1) how implementation of the Convention has changed over the years, (2) U.S. funding and other resources spent on Convention-related activities, and (3) the relationship between the Convention and some domestic laws. The Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As requested, GAO reviewed coordination practices in various metropolitan areas to find regional programs with lessons learned that could be applied in the National Capital Region (NCR) and elsewhere. We addressed the following questions: (1) In selected metropolitan areas, what factors enhance regional coordination? (2) What features of federal programs enhance regional emergency preparedness coordination? (3) How does regional coordination for emergency preparedness in the NCR incorporate features from other areas and federal programs? For detailed analysis, we selected Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Tampa-St. Petersburg--considered by DHS to be high-threat urban areas because of their population and critical infrastructure, among other factors. We also analyzed regional coordination in the planning and implementation of transportation and environmental programs because of their history of requiring such collaboration. DHS and the District of Columbia's Deputy Mayor/City Administrator generally agreed with our report regarding the characteristics of regional coordination and that the NCR's Urban Area Security Initiative governance structure was relatively advanced."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since September 11, 2001, National Guard and Reserve personnel have served, and will continue to serve, a critical role in the Global War on Terrorism. As a consequence, Congress has focused attention on the fair treatment of reservists and directed GAO to review, among other things, the Department of Defense's (DOD) reserve retirement system. Currently, five legislative proposals exist that would lower the age when eligible reservists can receive their annuities. GAO assessed (1) DOD's reserve retirement system as compared to certain aspects of the active duty retirement system, (2) the extent to which DOD data suggest that changes to the reserve retirement system may be warranted, and (3) the potential costs and effects of the five legislative proposals."

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Decommissioning of the Haddam Neck Nuclear Power Plant operated by Connecticut Yankee is in progress. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the Containment Building and Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) Building. Consideration is being given to leaving some subsurface concrete from the Containment, Spent Fuel and certain other buildings in place following NRC license termination. Characterization data of most of these structures show small amounts of residual contamination. The In-Core Sump area of the Containment Building has shown elevated levels of tritium, Co-60, Fe-55, and Eu-152 and lesser quantities of other radionuclides due to neutron activation of the concrete in this area. This analysis is provided to determine levels of residual contamination that will not cause releases to the groundwater in excess of the acceptable dose limits. The objective is to calculate a conservative relationship between the radionuclide concentration of subsurface concrete and the maximum groundwater concentration (pCi/L) for the concrete that may remain following license termination at Connecticut Yankee.

This report discusses three 108th Congress tort reform bills: the Volunteer Pilot Organization Protection Act (H.R. 1084), the Good Samaritan Firefighter Assistance Act of 2003 (H.R. 1787), and the Nonprofit Athletic Organization Protection Act of 2003 (H.R. 3369).

This report considers the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) use of stationary sources to reduce air pollutant emissions. Specifically, when these technologies reduce pollutants that they were not necessarily designed for which creates cobenefits.

Endosperm is a storage tissue in the angiosperm seed that is important both biologically and agriculturally. Endosperm is biologically important because it provides nutrients to the embryo during seed development and agriculturally important because it is a significant source of food, feed, and industrial raw materials. Approximately two-thirds of human calories are derived from endosperm, either directly or indirectly through animal feed. Furthermore, endosperm is used as a raw material for numerous industrial products including ethanol. A major event in endosperm development is the transition between the syncytial phase, during which the endosperm nuclei undergo many rounds of mitosis without cytokinesis, and the cellularized phase, during which cell walls form around the endosperm nuclei. Understanding how the syncytial-cellular transition is regulated is agriculturally important because it influences seed size, seed sink strength, and grain weight. However, the molecular processes controlling this transition are not understood. This project led to the identification of the AGL62 gene that regulates the syncytial-cellular transition during endosperm development. AGL62 is expressed during the syncytial phase and suppresses endosperm cellularization during this period. AGL62 most likely does so by suppressing the expression of genes required for cellularization. At the end of the syncytial phase, the FIS …

This project addresses the energy efficiency and productivity of solids manufacturing and separation processes that use crystallization. The overall objective is to develop crystallization simulation technology and software tools that significantly improve industry's ability to predict and control product quality and optimize process and equipment performance while reducing energy use. This project addresses both levels of simulation models of importance to industry: (1) Process flowsheet models, and (2) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models of process components. The project results are delivered in commercial software products that allow industry to predict and optimize the performance of real industrial crystallization processes.

This study used DOE ARM data and facilities to: (1) study macroscopic properties of continental stratus clouds at SGP and the factors controlling these properties, (2) develop a scientific basis for understanding the processes responsible for the formation of boundary layer clouds using ARM observations in conjunction with simple parametric models and LES, and (3) evaluate cumulus cloud characteristics retrieved from the MMCR operating at TWP-Nauru. In addition we have used high resolution 94 GHz observations of boundary layer clouds and precipitation to: (1) develop techniques for using high temporal resolution Doppler velocities to study large-eddy circulations and turbulence in boundary layer clouds and estimate the limitations of using current and past MMCR data for boundary layer cloud studies, (2) evaluate the capability and limitations of the current MMCR data for estimating reflectivity, vertical velocities, and spectral under low- signal-to-noise conditions associated with weak no n-precipitating clouds, (3) develop possible sampling modes for the new MMCR processors to allow for adequate sampling of boundary layer clouds, and (4) retrieve updraft and downdraft structures under precipitating conditions.

In this quarter, the field, theoretical and programming works have been performed toward achieving the research goals set in the proposal. The main accomplishments in this quarter included: (1) two more sets of field tests have been conducted in an underground coal mine, (2) optimization studies of the control parameters have been conducted, (3) method to use torque to thrust ratio as indicator of rock relative hardness has also been explored, and (3) about 97% of the development work for the roof geology mapping program, MRGIS, has completed, (4) A special version of the geology mapping program for a limestone mine has been developed. The field test for the software and hardware has been successfully finished.

A review of historical documents has been conducted to identify potential sources of contamination to the P Area Reactor Groundwater Operable Unit. Both classified and unclassified documents repositories at the Savannah River Site were searched. The results of the historical document review indicated the principal sources of groundwater contamination are associated with routine operating practices over the operating life of the P Reactor facilities. The document search did not find any major abnormal release events/accidents that would have caused a substantial release to the ground surface or surface water bodies. Steel Creek and the Reactor Seepage Basins were the primary discharge points of radioactive contamination. Potential organic solvent sources could be associated with the 704-P maintenance shop and reactor operations. Review of geologic investigations prior to construction of the reactor, indicate zones of potential preferential flow in the Lower Aquifer Zone of the Upper Three Runs Aquifer. Contaminated water intersecting these zones would potentially be transported at a faster rate than the surrounding formation.

In May 2000, the Cerro Grande fire burned about 7400 acres of mixed conifer forest on the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and much of the 10,000 acres of mountainside draining onto LANL was severely burned. The resulting burned landscapes raised concerns of increased storm runoff and transport of contaminants by runoff in the canyons traversing LANL. The first storms after the fire produced runoff peaks that were more than 200 times greater than prefire levels. Total runoff volume for the year 2000 increased 50% over prefire years, despite a decline in total precipitation of 13% below normal and a general decrease in the number of monsoonal thunderstorms. The majority of runoff in 2000 occurred in the canyons at LANL south of Pueblo Canyon (70%), where the highest runoff volume occurred in Water Canyon and the peak discharge occurred in Pajarito Canyon. This report describes the observed effects of the Cerro Grande fire and related environmental impacts to watersheds at and near Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for the first four runoff seasons after the fire, from 2000 through 2003. Spatial and temporal trends in radiological and chemical constituents that were identified as being associated with the Cerro Grande fire …

This report describes elastic finite-difference simulations of ground motion resulting from explosions and earthquakes for use in a Laboratory Directed Research and Development Feasibility Study (LDRD-FS). The results will be used to as input into further simulations of various spaced-based remote-sensing techniques, such as laser ranging and radar systems. The ground motion calculations involve two types of sources: shallow fully-coupled explosions at relatively shallow depth (1 km) and strike-slip earthquakes at 5 km depth. The event sizes vary from M{sub W} 3.3 to 5.5 to capture a broad range of possible surface motion. The simulations are presented as densely sampled full-field images of ground velocity and displacement as well as peak ground motion versus distance from the event. The resulting peak displacements in the near source region (0-40 km) range from centimeters (10{sup -2} m) for the largest events at short ranges to microns (10{sup -6} m) for the smallest events at longer ranges. Peak velocities range from centimeters/second (10{sup -2} m/s) to micron/second (10{sup -6} m/s).

Radioactive sealed sources are used extensively throughout the world in different field and various activities such as medicine, agriculture, industry, research, education military applications, as well as nuclear facilities. The International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation sources [1] defines a sealed source as ''radioactive material that is (a) permanently sealed in capsule or (b) closely bounded and in a solid form. The capsule or material of sealed source shall be strong enough to maintain remain leak free under the conditions of use and wear for which the source was designed, also under foreseeable mishaps''. When a radioactive sealed source is no longer needed, or becomes unfit for the intended application it is considered spent. A spent sealed source is not necessarily a waste because it can be used in other applications. If for any technical or economic reason (decay, obsolete equipment and technique, worn out equipment) no further use is foreseen, the spent sealed source is considered spent and becomes radioactive waste [2] [3]. In addition, a source may be taken out of service temporarily or indefinitely. In this case the source is out of used (''disused'') but not considered spent …

This report contains the black lung excise on coal.

This report discusses the anxieties within Congress in the wake of the Enron scandal. Moreover, the report notes that the 108th Congress is not likely to pass legislative reform as extreme as the 107th Congress, but will still confront issues of accounting reform. The report also highlights what the 108th Congress plans to reform.

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Fission of heavy nuclides is accompanied by the birth of neutron rich fragment nuclei born in highly excited states. Following emission of prompt neutrons and {gamma}-rays, these fragments are typically left with atomic numbers that are 3-4 units smaller than stable nuclei with the same mass number. As these nuclides undergo {beta} decay to reach stability, a large number of {gamma}-rays are emitted. Figure 1 illustrates some of the processes leading to emission of {beta} delayed photons. A variety of applications (most notably those concerned with the detection and identification of clandestine fissile material) would benefit from a clear description of the spectral and temporal evolution of these {gamma}-rays. This proposal describes formats for representing emission of delayed photons and is based on the analysis presented in. At the present time, no single evaluated data set exists that directly provides for the temporal evolution of {gamma} rays from the decay of the fission products. However, evaluated data sets containing all of the physical parameters required for such calculations have been prepared. These include estimates of the independent and cumulative fission yields of all fission products, branching ratios in the decay of ground and isomeric states, lifetimes of these states, and …

Limitations in current isotopic labeling methods present a substantial bottleneck for the application of advanced structural techniques to many important biochemical problems. New tools are required to efficiently produce the necessary labeling patterns in biochemical precursors and incorporate them into protein molecules for structural studies. This project proposed involved one aspect of this problem, the development of expression vectors for a methylotrophic bacterium, Methylobacterium extorquens AM1. If high-level, efficient expression could be obtained in such a bacterium, it would be possible to use low-cost {sup 2}H- and/or {sup 13}C-labeled substrates such as methanol to label proteins. The Lidstrom laboratory at the University of Washington worked closely with the collaborators at Los Alamos National Laboratories in the development and use of these vectors. (1) Overexpression of a target gene, bacterial dehalogenase--This enzyme was expressed in Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 using a high level methanol-inducible promoter, the mxaF promoter. High expression was achieved, but most was in an insoluble form. They expressed this protein in a mutant lacking polybetahydroxybutyrate granules, and high expression was achieved, up to 10% of the total soluble protein. The recombinant protein was purified and shown to be active, with characteristics similar to the enzyme produced in E. coli. …