This presentation gives an overview of the URL Nominating TOOL project and defines some of the associated key concepts. It explores the entity attribute value data model, URL's and SURTs, and batch imports.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The five Army depot maintenance activities support combat readiness by providing services to keep Army units operating worldwide. From fiscal years 2004 through 2007, the amount of new orders received to perform work increased 100 percent from $2.6 billion to $5.2 billion. The number of new orders is a factor in the amount of work the depots carry over from one fiscal year to the next. While past congressional defense committees recognize the need for carryover, the committees have raised concerns that carryover may be more than needed. GAO was asked to determine (1) the growth in reported total carryover from fiscal years 2004 through 2007 and the actions the Army is taking to reduce the carryover, (2) whether reported carryover amounts exceeded carryover ceilings for fiscal years 2006 and 2007 and adjustments made to reduce those amounts, and (3) the primary reasons for the increased carryover at the five Army depots. GAO analyzed reported carryover and related data at the five depots."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Public safety concerns require that criminal history records and the systems that maintain them be accurate, complete, and accessible. Such records and systems enable local, state, and federal authorities, among other things, to identify individuals prohibited from purchasing firearms or ineligible to hold positions of responsibility involving children, the elderly, or disabled; enable criminal justice agencies to make decisions prosecuting and sentencing offenders; assist in completing background checks; and assist law enforcement officials in criminal investigations. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) administers the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP). The goal of the NCHIP grant program is to improve the nation's safety and security by enhancing the quality, completeness, and accessibility of criminal history record information and by ensuring the nationwide implementation of criminal justice and noncriminal justice background check systems. This report responds to a provision in the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, which requires us to review certain grant funding related to criminal history records. Specifically, this report provides information on grant funds awarded by BJS, updates certain information from our 2004 report on progress made in improving national criminal …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Afghan government, the United States, and other donors consider road reconstruction a top development priority for Afghanistan. Almost 20 percent of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) $5.9 billion in assistance to Afghanistan has been for roads. The Department of Defense (Defense) has committed about $560 million for roads, of which Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) funds account for over half. GAO examined (1) the status of road reconstruction and challenges affecting project implementation, (2) U.S. agencies' efforts to evaluate the impact of road projects, and (3) efforts to develop a sustainable road maintenance program. GAO reviewed U.S. and Afghan governments' planning, evaluation, and funding documents and interviewed relevant stakeholders in Afghanistan."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony is based on our review of schedules and financial reports for the CVC project and related records maintained by AOC and its construction management contractor, Gilbane Building Company; our observations on the progress of work at the CVC construction site; and our discussions with the CVC team (AOC and its major CVC contractors) and AOC's Chief Fire Marshal. We also reviewed AOC's construction management contractor's periodic schedule assessments."

The Siemens Advanced Quantra Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometer was evaluated as an alternative instrument to large double focusing mass spectrometers for gas analysis. High resolution mass spectrometers capable of resolving the common mass isomers of the hydrogen isotopes are used to provide data for accurate loading of reservoirs and to monitor separation of tritium, deuterium, and helium. Conventional double focusing magnetic sector instruments have a resolution that is limited to about 5000. The Siemens FTICR instrument achieves resolution beyond 400,000 and could possibly resolve the tritium ion from the helium-3 ion, which differ by the weight of an electron, 0.00549 amu. Working with Y-12 and LANL, SRNL requested Siemens to modify their commercial Quantra system for low mass analysis. To achieve the required performance, Siemens had to increase the available waveform operating frequency from 5 MHz to 40 MHz and completely redesign the control electronics and software. However, they were able to use the previous ion trap, magnet, passive pump, and piezo-electric pulsed inlet valve design. NNSA invested $1M in this project and acquired four systems, two for Y-12 and one each for SRNL and LANL. Siemens claimed a $10M investment in the Quantra systems. The …

The main goal of the project was to study analytically and experimentally the condensation heat transfer for the passive condenser system such as GE Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR). The effect of noncondensable gas in condenser tube and the reduction of secondary pool water level to the condensation heat transfer coefficient was the main focus in this research. The objectives of this research were to : 1) obtain experimental data on the local and tube averaged condensation heat transfer rates for the PCCS with non-condensable and with change in the secondary pool water, 2) assess the RELAP5 and TRACE computer code against the experimental data, and 3) develop mathematical model and ehat transfer correlation for the condensation phenomena for system code application. The project involves experimentation, theoretical model development and verification, and thermal- hydraulic codes assessment.

Uraninite (UO2) and metaschoepite (UO3·2H2O) are the uranium phases most frequently observed in K Basin sludge. Uraninite arises from the oxidation of uranium metal by anoxic water and metaschoepite arises from oxidation of uraninite by atmospheric or radiolytic oxygen. Studies of the oxidation of uraninite by oxygen to form metaschoepite were performed at 21°C and 50°C. A uranium oxide oxidation state characterization method based on spectrophotometry of the solution formed by dissolving aqueous slurries in phosphoric acid was developed to follow the extent of reaction. This method may be applied to determine uranium oxide oxidation state distribution in K Basin sludge. The uraninite produced by anoxic corrosion of uranium metal has exceedingly fine particle size (6 nm diameter), forms agglomerates, and has the formula UO2.004±0.007; i.e., is practically stoichiometric UO2. The metaschoepite particles are flatter and wider when prepared at 21°C than the particles prepared at 50°C. These particles are much smaller than the metaschoepite observed in prolonged exposure of actual K Basin sludge to warm moist oxidizing conditions. The uraninite produced by anoxic uranium metal corrosion and the metaschoepite produced by reaction of uraninite aqueous slurries with oxygen may be used in engineering and process development testing. A rapid …

The superconducting magnets and absorbers for MICE will be cooled using PT415 pulse tube coolers. The cooler 2nd stage will be connected to magnets and the absorbers through a helium or hydrogen re-condensing system. It was proposed that the coolers be connected to the magnets in such a way that the cooler can be easily installed and removed, which permits the magnets to be shipped without the coolers. The drop-in mode requires that the cooler 1st stage be well connected to the magnet shields and leads through a low temperature drop demountable connection. The results of the PT415 drop-in cooler tests are presented.

A pair of coupling solenoids is used in MICE experiment to generate magnetic field which keeps the muons within the iris of thin RF cavity windows. The coupling solenoids have a 1.5-meter inner diameter and will produce 7.4 T peak magnetic field. Three types of AC losses in coupling solenoid are discussed. The affect of AC losses on the temperature distribution within the cold mass during charging and rapid discharging process is analyzed also. The analysis result will be further confirmed by the experiment of the prototype solenoid for coupling solenoid, which will be designed, fabricated and tested at ICST.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The report documents recent changes in wetland acres. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its most recent periodic survey of changes in wetland acreage nationwide in March 2006. Covering 1998 to 2004, it concluded that during this time period there was a small net gain in overall wetland acres for the first time that this survey has been conducted. Others caution, however, that much of this gain was in ponds, rather than natural wetlands.

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 creation of a county court of law and the related divestiture of the constitutional county court's probate, juvenile, civil, and criminal jurisdiction stripped a county judge of his own powers as "magistrate" (RQ-0669-GA)

The Jarzynski equality and the fluctuation theorem relate equilibrium free energy differences to nonequilibrium measurements of the work. These relations extend to single-molecule experiments that have probed the finite-time thermodynamics of proteins and nucleic acids. The effects of experimental error and instrument noise have not been considered previously. Here, we present a Bayesian formalism for estimating free energy changes from nonequilibrium work measurements that compensates for instrument noise and combines data from multiple driving protocols. We reanalyze a recent set of experiments in which a single RNA hairpin is unfolded and refolded using optical tweezers at three different rates. Interestingly, the fastest and farthest-from-equilibrium measurements contain the least instrumental noise and, therefore, provide a more accurate estimate of the free energies than a few slow, more noisy, near-equilibrium measurements. The methods we propose here will extend the scope of single-molecule experiments; they can be used in the analysis of data from measurements with atomic force microscopy, optical, and magnetic tweezers

Scalar field dark energy evolving from a long radiation- or matter-dominated epoch has characteristic dynamics. While slow-roll approximations are invalid, a well defined field expansion captures the key aspects of the dark energy evolution during much of the matter-dominated epoch. Since this behavior is determined, it is not faithfully represented if priors for dynamical quantities are chosen at random. We demonstrate these features for both thawing and freezing fields, and for some modified gravity models, and unify several special cases in the literature.

The UEDGE edge plasma transport code is used to model the effect of the reduced recycling provided by the Liquid Lithium Divertor (LLD) module that will be installed in NSTX. UEDGE's transport coefficients are calibrated against an existing NSTX shot using midplane and divertor diagnostic data. The LLD is then incorporated into the simulations as a reduction in the recycling coefficient over the outer divertor. Heat transfer calculations performed using the resulting heat flux profiles indicate that lithium evaporation will be negligible for pulse lengths < 2 s at low (∼ 2 MW) input power. At high input power (∼ 7 MW), the pulse length may have to be restricted.

This report discusses issues related to peace in the Middle East, including post-Gulf War negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon; U.S. interest in these and continuing negotiations and peacetalks between Middle Eastern countries; and the role of the U.S., the U.N., the European Union, and Russia in Middle Eastern relations.

This report highlights key past proposals for the establishment of an interagency cadre of national security professionals, including their rationales; describes and assesses the emergence and operations to date of the Administration's National Security Professional Development (NSPD) program; and raises a series of issues that might help inform congressional debates about a possible permanent interagency cadre requirement.

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The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frank Lowry. Lowry attended Northern Illinois University until August 1942, when he enlisted in the Coast Guard. He was initially stationed in Baltimore as an apprentice seaman, where he guarded foreign merchant ships overnight, armed only with an empty pistol. He later attended Duke University through the Navy College Training Program. After small boats training, he was assigned to the patrol craft USS PC-819 in Adak. As the communications officer, he supervised the radio shack and decoded messages while the patrol craft searched for submarines, but he often felt that both he and his crew were woefully inexperienced. Amidst a revolving door of five different captains within two years, Lowry quickly made engineering officer, executive officer, and finally captain, which was a lonely job. When the war ended, Lowry turned down an opportunity for full lieutenancy, choosing instead to return to school.

Article discussing linear response and fluctuation dissipation theorem for non-Poissonian renewal processes.