A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Coast Guard's 110-foot patrol boats are used for a number of missions, such as enforcement of fisheries laws, and the interdiction of migrants and illicit drugs. As part of the Coast Guard's initial plans to replace many of its vessels, it intended to convert its 110-foot patrol boats into 123-foot patrol boats with increased capabilities until the replacement vessel, the Fast Response Cutter (FRC), became operational. However, structural problems on the eight converted 123-foot boats led the Coast Guard to remove these boats from service. Faced with a loss of operational hours, especially in the Coast Guard's Florida-based District 7 where these boats operated, the Coast Guard implemented mitigation strategies to recover lost operational hours. This report provides information on Coast Guard patrol boat operations and, in particular, addresses: (1) operational challenges created by the removal from service of the 123-foot patrol boats and the Coast Guard's strategies for mitigating their loss; (2) effects these mitigation strategies have had on overall Coast Guard operational hours, as well as operating and maintenance costs, patrol boat crews, and mission performance; and (3) issues that could affect the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), created by title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, promotes equal opportunity in the workplace and enforces federal laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, and disability. As the nation's primary enforcer of civil rights employment laws, EEOC investigates charges of employment discrimination from the public, litigates major cases, and reaches out to federal agencies and the public to educate and prevent discrimination. EEOC serves every industry, every segment of the population, and every part of the country. While its core mission has not changed since the agency was established more than 40 years ago, EEOC continues to face a range of new challenges in the 21st century, including long-term fiscal constraints, changing demographics, and rapid advances in technology. The federal government overall faces significant human capital challenges, including a retirement wave that will lead to the loss of leadership and institutional knowledge at all levels. EEOC is not immune from this trend. EEOC estimates that within 4 years, all of its current senior executives and senior managers will …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2001, Congress has appropriated about $640 billion for the global war on terrorism, the majority of this for operations in Iraq. In January 2007, the President announced The New Way Forward to stem violence in Iraq and enable the Iraqi government to foster national reconciliation. This new strategy established goals and objectives to achieve over 12 to 18 months, or by July 2008. GAO discusses progress in meeting key goals in The New Way Forward: (1) improve security conditions; (2) develop capable Iraqi security forces; and help the Iraqi government (3) enact key legislation, (4) spend capital budgets, and (5) provide essential services. GAO also discusses U.S. strategies for Iraq. GAO reviewed documents and interviewed officials from U.S. agencies, the United Nations, and the Iraqi government. GAO also had staff stationed in Baghdad. Since May 2003, GAO has issued over 130 Iraq-related audits, which provided baseline information for this assessment. GAO prepared this report under the Comptroller General's authority."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since fiscal year 2003, Congress has appropriated more than $46 billion dollars for relief and reconstruction efforts in Iraq. The Department of Defense (DOD) is one of several U.S. agencies that administer U.S.-funded relief and reconstruction programs in Iraq. In particular, DOD manages the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP), which is designed to enable local commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan to respond to urgent humanitarian relief and reconstruction requirements within their areas of responsibility by carrying out programs that will immediately assist the indigenous population. Thus far, Congress has appropriated more than $3 billion for CERP in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the program's inception, DOD has steadily increased its funding requests in response to theater conditions, and reported obligations have also grown substantially. DOD's funding requests have increased by more than a billion dollars from fiscal years 2004 through 2008. For fiscal year 2008, DOD requested $1.2 billion to fund CERP projects in Iraq and Afghanistan and plans to request an additional $507 million, primarily for CERP in Iraq. Furthermore, DOD's reported obligations for Iraq and Afghanistan have grown from about $179 million in fiscal year 2004 to …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The transition to adulthood can be difficult for young adults who suffer from a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. When these individuals are unsuccessful, the result can be economic hardship, social isolation, and in some cases suicide, all of which can pose substantial costs to society. Due to concerns about young adults with serious mental illness transitioning into adulthood, GAO was asked to provide information on (1) the number of these young adults and their demographic characteristics, (2) the challenges they face, (3) how selected states assist them, and (4) how the federal government supports states in serving these young adults and coordinates programs that can assist them. To do this work, GAO analyzed data based on national surveys, including the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), and administrative data from the Social Security Administration (SSA). GAO also reviewed published research; interviewed federal, state, and local officials, as well as mental health providers, experts, and advocacy groups; and conducted site visits in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Mississippi --four states that focus on this population. GAO did not make any recommendations. HHS made comments …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Traditionally, federal agencies made benefit payments by paper check, but they faced increased pressure to reduce costs and increase the convenience, security, and timeliness of payment delivery. In response to a 1996 congressional mandate, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Stamp Program implemented Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) to distribute food stamps. According to agency evaluations, EBT has reduced program costs and fraud and offered recipients a quick, secure way to receive payment. These results spurred interest in using electronic payment methods for other benefit programs. GAO was asked to report on (1) the extent to which federal benefit programs are using electronic payments, and factors agencies consider for their use and (2) options for increasing the use of electronic payments, particularly the Department of the Treasury's (Treasury) actions to that end. GAO surveyed federal benefit programs identified from two federal databases; reviewed documents, reports, and studies on electronic payments; and interviewed federal and state agency, industry, and consumer representatives."

Asian Pacific Americans have served in both houses of Congress representing California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Oregon, Virginia, American Samoa, and Guam. They have served in leadership positions, including committee and subcommittee chairmanships. This report presents information on Senators, Representatives, and Delegates, including party affiliations, length and dates of service, and committee assignments.

The FY2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 110-161) maintains SSBG funding at $1.7 billion and maintains states' authority to transfer up to 10% of their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants to the SSBG. The $1.7 billion in regular funds mirrors funding included in both the FY2007 and FY2006 laws, but exceeds the $1.2 billion that the President proposed for FY2008, and most recently, for FY2009. The FY2009 budget also includes a proposal to eliminate the SSBG in FY2010. This report provides SSBG background information and tracks relevant legislation and appropriations measures.

Laser ion source (LIS) produces ions by irradiating pulsed high power laser shots onto the solid state target. For the low charge state ion production, laser spot diameter on the target can be over several millimeters using a high power laser such as Nd:YAG laser. In this case, a damage to the target surface is small while there is a visible crater in case of the best focused laser shot for high charge state ion production (laser spot diameter can be several tens of micrometers). So the need of target displacement after each laser shot to use fresh surface to stabilize plasma is not required for low charge state ion production. We tested target lifetime using Nd:YAG laser with 5 Hz repetition rate. Also target temperature and vacuum condition were recorded during experiment. The feasibility of a long time operation was verified.

To compensate the effects from the head-on beam-beam interactions in the polarized proton operation in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), an electron lens (elens) is proposed to collide head-on with the proton beam. We used an extended version of SixTrack for multiparticle beam-beam simulation in order to study the effect of the e-lens on the stochastic boundary and also on diffusion. The stochastic boundary was analyzed using Lyapunov exponents and the diffusion was characterized as the increase in the rms spread of the action. For both studies the simulations were performed with and without the e-lens and with full and partial compensation. Using the simulated values of the diffusion an attempt to calculate the emittance growth rate is presented.

High brilliance in the 3GeV new light source NSLS II is obtained from the high magnetic fields in insertion devices (ID). The beam lifetime is limited to 3h by single Coulomb scattering in the Bunch (Touschek effect). This effect occurs everywhere around the circumference and there is unavoidable beam loss in the adjacent low aperture insertion devices. This raises the issue of degradation and damage of the permanent magnetic material by irradiation with high energy electrons and corresponding shower particles. It is expected that IDs, especially those in-vacuum, would experience changes resulting from exposure to gamma rays, x-rays, electrons and neutrons. By expanding an on-going material radiation damage study at BNL the demagnetization effect of irradiation consisting primarily of neutrons, gamma rays and electrons on a set of NdFeB magnets is studied. Integrated doses ranging from several Mrad to a few Grad were achieved at the BNL Isotope Facility with a 112 MeV, 90 {micro}A proton beam. Detailed information on dose distributions as well as on particle energy spectra on the NdFeB magnets was obtained in realistic simulations with the MARS15 Monte-Carlo code. This paper summarizes the results of this study.

The NSLS-II is a new ultra-bright 3rd generation 3 GeV light source that will be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Its design is well under way. The requirements for the compact injector complex, which will continuously provide 3 GeV electrons for top-off injection into the storage ring, are demanding: high reliability, relatively high charge and low losses. The injector consists of a linear accelerator, a full-energy booster, as well as transport lines, and an injection straight section. In this paper we give an overview of the NSLS-II injector, discuss its status, specifications, and the design challenges.

New techniques for the production of polarized electron, H{sup -} (proton), D (D+) and {sup 3}H{sup ++} ion beams are discussed. Feasibility studies of these techniques are in progress at BNL. An Optically Pumped Polarized H{sup -} Ion Source (OPPIS) delivers beam for polarization studies in RHIC. The polarized deuteron beam will be required for the deuteron Electron Dipole Moment (EDM) experiment, and the {sup 3}H{sup ++} ion beam is a part of the experimental program for the future eRHIC (Electron Ion) collider.

This year (2008) deuterons and gold ions were collided in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) for the first time since 2003. The setup and performance of the collider for the 2008 run is reviewed with a focus on improvements that have led to an order of magnitude increase in luminosity over that achieved in the 2003 run.

State-of-the-art tracking tools were recently developed at CERN to study the cleaning efficiency of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collimation system. In order to estimate the prediction accuracy of these tools, benchmarking studies can be performed using actual beam loss measurements from a machine that already uses a similar multistage collimation system. This paper reviews the main results from benchmarking studies performed with specific data collected from operations at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).

A particular section of the electron beam transport line, to be used in the e-cooling project [l] of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), is constrained to displace the trajectory with both horizontal and vertical offsets so that the outgoing beamline is parallel to the incoming beamline. We also require that section be achromatic in both planes. This mixed horizontal and vertical achromatic Sbend is accomplished by rotating the two dipoles and the quadrupoles of the line, about the longitudinal axis of the incoming beam. However such a rotation of the magnetic elements may couple the transported beam through the first order beam transfer matrix (linear coupling). In this paper we study a sufficient condition, that the first order transport matrix (R-matrix) can satisfy, so that this section of beam transfer line is both achromatic and linearly uncoupled. We provide a complete solution for the beam optics which satisfies both conditions.

Construction and magnetic field measurement of dipole magnets for RHIC-EBIS HEBT line have completed. These magnets will be used to guide highly charged ion beams ranging from proton to Uranium provided by a new injector toward the Booster ring in BNL. In this paper, overview of the magnetic design of the dipoles and results of magnetic field measurement are summarized.

After a number of years of operation at nominal parameters, the LHC will be upgraded for higher luminosity. This paper discusses the possibility of using a limited number of Nb{sub 3}Sn quadrupoles for hybrid optics layouts for the LHC Phase I luminosity upgrades with both NbTi and Nb{sub 3}Sn quadrupoles. Magnet parameters and issues related to using Nb{sub 3}Sn quadrupoles including aperture, gradient, magnetic length, field quality, operation margin, et cetera are discussed.

The total energy loss of coasting gold ion beams was measured at RHIC at two energies, corresponding to a gamma of 75.2 and 107.4. We describe the experiment and observations and compare the measured total energy loss with expectations from ionization losses at the residual gas, the energy loss due to impedance and synchrotron radiation. We find that the measured energy losses are below what is expected from free space synchrotron radiation. We believe that this shows evidence for suppression of synchrotron radiation which is cut off at long wavelength by the presence of the conducting beam pipe.

During Run-8, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provided collisions of spin-polarized proton beams at two interaction regions. Helical spin rotators at these two interaction regions were used to control the spin orientation of both beams at the collision points. Physics data were taken with different orientations of the beam polarization. We present recent developments and improvements as well as the luminosity and polarization performance achieved during Run-8.

Cooling intense high-energy hadron beams is a major challenge in modern accelerator physics. Synchrotron radiation is too feeble and two common methods--stochastic and electron cooling--are not efficient in providing significant cooling for high energy, high intensity proton colliders. In this paper they discuss a practical scheme of Coherent Electron Cooling (CeC), which promises short cooling times (below one hour) for intense proton beams in RHIC at 250 GeV or in LHC at 7 TeV. A possibility of CeC using various microwave instabilities was discussed since 1980s. In this paper, they present first evaluation of specific CeC scheme based on capabilities of present-day accelerator technology, ERLs, and high-gain Free-Electron lasers (FELs). They discuss the principles, the main limitations of this scheme and present some predictions for Coherent Electron Cooling in RHIC and the LHC operating with ions or protons, summarized in Table 1.

As the first hadron accelerator and collider consisting of two independent superconducting rings RHIC has operated with a wide range of beam energies and particle species. After a brief review of the achieved performance the presentation will give an overview of the plans, challenges and status of machine upgrades, that range from a new heavy ion pre-injector and beam cooling at 100 GeV to a high luminosity electron-ion collider.

During the RHIC polarized proton run in N 2006 it became evident that the luminosity performance is limited by the beam-beam effect. With a working point between 213 and 7/10, and the necessity to mirror the tunes of the two RHIC rings at the diagonal, the beam with a horizontal tune closest to 213 showed poor lifetime. To overcome this limitation, a near-integer working point has been proposed. Tracking studies performed at both working points showed a larger dynamic aperture near the integer tune than above 2/3. In Run-8, this new working point was commissioned in one ring of RHIC, while the other ring was operated at the same working point as in Run-6. In this paper we report the commissioning process and operational experience with this new working point.

The NSLS-II Light Source, which is planned to be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory, provides users with ultra-bright synchrotron radiation sources and is designed for horizontal beam emittances < 1 nm. Full utilization of the very small emittances and beam sizes requires sub-micron orbit stability in the storage ring. This can be provided by means of a wide bandwidth orbit feedback system. Traditional approach is to utilize a uniform set of fast correctors or use two separate systems with strong slow and weaker fast correctors. In the latter case two systems needed to communicate to suppress transients associated with different update rates of corrector settings. In this paper they consider an integrated system with two types of correctors. Its main feature is that setpoints of slow correctors are updated with the same rate as fast correctors; however the bandwidth is limited in order to stay in linear regime. Possible architectures and technical solutions as well as achievable performance are discussed.