A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of State is in the early stages of a proposed multibillion dollar program to build secure new embassies and consulates around the world. Under the proposed Capital Security Cost-Sharing Program, all agencies with staff assigned to overseas diplomatic missions would share in construction costs. This report describes (1) the rationale for and development of the program, (2) agency concerns about the program, and (3) the influence of the program on agencies' overseas staff levels."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Presented is GAO's performance and accountability report for fiscal year 2004. In the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, this annual report informs the Congress and the American people about what we have achieved on their behalf. Importantly, GAO received a clean opinion from independent auditors on our financial statements for the 18th consecutive year. The financial information and the data measuring GAO's performance contained in this report are complete and reliable."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents our opinion on the financial statements of the Congressional Award Foundation for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2003, and 2002. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Congressional Award Foundation. This report also presents (1) our opinion on the effectiveness of the Foundation's related internal control as of September 30, 2003, and (2) our conclusion on the Foundation's compliance in fiscal year 2003 with selected provisions of laws and regulations we tested. We conducted our audit pursuant to section 8 of the Congressional Award Act, as amended (2 U.S.C. 807), and in accordance with U.S. generally accepted government auditing standards."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Most taxpayers have their only contact with IRS during the filing season, with tens of millions filing their returns, getting refunds, and seeking assistance by calling or visiting IRS's offices or Web site. GAO was asked to assess IRS's performance in 2004 relative to goals and prior years' performance as well as initiatives or other factors that significantly affected performance for the following areas: (1) the processing of paper and electronic returns, (2) telephone service, (3) walk-in service, and (4) Web site service."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Chairman and Ranking Minority Member, Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, asked GAO to assist the committee in its oversight of the Veterans Benefits Administration's (VBA) disability compensation and pension programs. This report examines (1) VBA's determination and justification of claims processing staffing levels, and the role of productivity in such determinations, and (2) VBA's projections of future claims workload and complexity."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Research has shown that many Americans lack the knowledge of basic personal economics they need to make informed financial judgments and manage their money effectively. Yet financial literacy is increasingly important in a world where consumers must choose from an array of complicated financial products and services and employees must take on more responsibility for their retirement savings. Title V of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, known as the Financial Literacy and Education Improvement Act, created the Financial Literacy and Education Commission, comprised of 20 federal agencies, and charged it with coordinating federal efforts and developing a national strategy to promote financial literacy. The act also mandated that GAO report on recommendations for improving financial literacy among consumers. To help in developing our work, on July 28, 2004, GAO hosted a forum on the role of the federal government in improving financial literacy. Forum participants included experts in financial literacy and education from federal and state agencies, the financial industry, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions. Participants discussed the topics federal efforts should cover, populations that should be targeted, methods of delivering information, …

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The Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) issued a statement of need for FY01 titled Statistical Sampling for Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) Site Characterization that solicited proposals to develop statistically valid sampling protocols for cost-effective, practical, and reliable investigation of sites contaminated with UXO; protocols that could be validated through subsequent field demonstrations. The SERDP goal was the development of a sampling strategy for which a fraction of the site is initially surveyed by geophysical detectors to confidently identify clean areas and subsections (target areas, TAs) that had elevated densities of anomalous geophysical detector readings that could indicate the presence of UXO. More detailed surveys could then be conducted to search the identified TAs for UXO. SERDP funded three projects: those proposed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) (SERDP Project No. UXO 1199), Sandia National Laboratory (SNL), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The projects were closely coordinated to minimize duplication of effort and facilitate use of shared algorithms where feasible. This final report for PNNL Project 1199 describes the methods developed by PNNL to address SERDP's statement-of-need for the development of statistically-based geophysical survey methods for sites where 100% surveys are unattainable or cost prohibitive.

The Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State has been used extensively to produce nuclear materials for the U. S. strategic defense arsenal by the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE). A large inventory of radioactive and mixed waste has accumulated in 177 single- and double-shell tanks. Liquid waste recovered from the tanks will be pre-treated to separate the low-activity fraction from the high-level and transuranic wastes. Currently, the DOE Office of River Protection (ORP) is evaluating several options for immobilization of low-activity tank wastes for eventual disposal in a shallow subsurface facility at the Hanford Site. A significant portion of the waste will be converted into immobilized low-activity waste (ILAW) glass with a conventional Joule-heated ceramic melter. In addition to ILAW glass, supplemental treatment technologies are under consideration by the DOE to treat a portion of the low activity waste. The reason for using this alternative treatment technology is to accelerate the overall cleanup mission at the Hanford site. The ORP selected Bulk Vitrification (BV) for further development and testing. Work in FY03 on engineered and large scale tests of the BV process suggested that approximately 0.3 to as much as 3 wt% of the waste stream 99Tc inventory would …

RM-04-BR, a mock material for the plastic-bonded HMX-based explosive LX-04, is characterized after being thermally damaged at 140 C and 190 C. We measured the following material properties before and after the thermal experiments: sample volume, density, sound speed, and gas permeability in the material. Thermal treatment of the mock material leads to de-coloring and insignificant weight loss. Sample expanded, resulting in density reductions of 1.0% to 2.5% at 140 C and 190 C, respectively. Permeability in the mock samples was found to increase from 10{sup -15} to 10{sup -16} m{sup 2}, as the porosity increased. The permeability measurements are well represented by the Blake-Kozeny equation for laminar flow through porous media. The results are similar to the gas permeability in PBX-9501 obtained by other researchers.

A report intended to inform Congress, the Administration, and the public about how the principal U.S. government agency involved in foreign assistance has responded to the major crises in the developing world, such as reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, averting famine in Ethiopia, and helping hurricane victims in Haiti.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) operates a number of Research & Development (R&D) facilities for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the Hanford Site. Facility effluent monitoring plans (FEMPs) have been developed to document the facility effluent monitoring portion of the Environmental Monitoring Plan (DOE 2000) for the Hanford Site. Three of PNNL’s R&D facilities, the 325, 331, and 3720 Buildings, are considered major emission points for radionuclide air sampling, and individual FEMPs were developed for these facilities in the past. In addition, a balance-of-plant (BOP) FEMP was developed for all other DOE-owned, PNNL-operated facilities at the Hanford Site. Recent changes, including shutdown of buildings and transition of PNNL facilities to the Office of Science, have resulted in retiring the 3720 FEMP and combining the 331 FEMP into the BOP FEMP. This version of the BOP FEMP addresses all DOE-owned, PNNL-operated facilities at the Hanford Site, excepting the Radiochemical Processing Laboratory, which has its own FEMP because of the unique nature of the building and operations. Activities in the BOP facilities range from administrative to laboratory and pilot-scale R&D. R&D activities include both radioactive and chemical waste characterization, fluid dynamics research, mechanical property testing, dosimetry research, and molecular …

The purpose of this report is to document the 19-unit, hydrogeologic framework model (19-layer version, output of this report) (HFM-19) with regard to input data, modeling methods, assumptions, uncertainties, limitations, and validation of the model results in accordance with AP-SIII.10Q, Models. The HFM-19 is developed as a conceptual model of the geometric extent of the hydrogeologic units at Yucca Mountain and is intended specifically for use in the development of the ''Saturated Zone Site-Scale Flow Model'' (BSC 2004 [DIRS 170037]). Primary inputs to this model report include the GFM 3.1 (DTN: MO9901MWDGFM31.000 [DIRS 103769]), borehole lithologic logs, geologic maps, geologic cross sections, water level data, topographic information, and geophysical data as discussed in Section 4.1. Figure 1-1 shows the information flow among all of the saturated zone (SZ) reports and the relationship of this conceptual model in that flow. The HFM-19 is a three-dimensional (3-D) representation of the hydrogeologic units surrounding the location of the Yucca Mountain geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The HFM-19 represents the hydrogeologic setting for the Yucca Mountain area that covers about 1,350 km2 and includes a saturated thickness of about 2.75 km. The boundaries of the conceptual model were primarily …

This is the Final Report for two solar cooling projects under this Cooperative Agreement. The first solar cooling project is a roof-integrated solar cooling and heating system, called the Power Roof{trademark}, which began operation in Raleigh, North Carolina in late July 2002. This system provides 176 kW (50 ton) of solar-driven space cooling using a unique nonimaging concentrating solar collector. The measured performance of the system during its first months of operation is reported here, along with a description of the design and operation of this system. The second solar cooling system, with a 20-ton capacity, is being retrofit to a commercial office building in Charleston, South Carolina but has not yet been completed.

Mineral carbonation is a promising concept for permanent CO{sub 2} sequestration due to the vast natural abundance of the raw minerals, the permanent storage of CO{sub 2} in solid form as carbonates, and the overall reaction being exothermic. However, the primary drawback to mineral carbonation is the reaction kinetics. To accelerate the reaction, aqueous carbonation processes are preferred, where the minerals are firstly dissolved in solution. In aqueous carbonation, the key step is the dissolution rate of the mineral, where the mineral dissolution reaction is likely to be surface controlled. In order to accelerate the dissolution process, the serpentine can be ground to very fine particle size (<37 {micro}m), but this is a very energy intensive process. Alternatively, magnesium could be chemically extracted in aqueous solution. Phase I showed that chemical surface activation helps to dissolve the magnesium from the serpentine minerals (particle size {approx}100 {micro}m), and furthermore, the carbonation reaction can be conducted under mild conditions (20 C and 650 psig) compared to previous studies that required >185 C, >1850 psig and <37 {micro}m particle size. Phase I also showed that over 70% of the magnesium can be extracted at ambient temperature leaving amorphous SiO{sub 2} with surface areas …

The original proposal described the construction and operation of a 1 MMscfd treatment system to be operated at a Butcher Energy gas field in Ohio. The gas produced at this field contained 17% nitrogen. During pre-commissioning of the project, a series of well tests showed that the amount of gas in the field was significantly smaller than expected and that the nitrogen content of the wells was very high (25 to 30%). After evaluating the revised cost of the project, Butcher Energy decided that the plant would not be economical and withdrew from the project. Since that time, Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) has signed a marketing and sales partnership with ABB Lummus Global, a large multinational corporation. MTR will be working with the company's Randall Gas Technology group, a supplier of equipment and processing technology to the natural gas industry. Randall's engineering group has found a new site for the project at a North Texas Exploration (NTE) gas processing plant. The plant produces about 1 MMscfd of gas containing 24% nitrogen. The membrane unit will bring this gas to 4% nitrogen for delivery to the pipeline. The membrane skid is being built by ABB. NTE has ordered the …

A review of recent research involving isotopically controlled semiconductors is presented. Studies with isotopically enriched semiconductor structures experienced a dramatic expansion at the end of the Cold War when significant quantities of enriched isotopes of elements forming semiconductors became available for worldwide collaborations. Isotopes of an element differ in nuclear mass, may have different nuclear spins and undergo different nuclear reactions. Among the latter, the capture of thermal neutrons which can lead to neutron transmutation doping, can be considered the most important one for semiconductors. Experimental and theoretical research exploiting the differences in all the properties has been conducted and will be illustrated with selected examples. Manuel Cardona, the longtime editor-in-chief of Solid State Communications has been and continues to be one of the major contributors to this field of solid state physics and it is a great pleasure to dedicate this review to him.

The authors present the results of a search for doubly-charged Higgs bosons (H{sup {+-}}{sup {+-}}) decaying to dileptons (ll') using {approx} 240 pb{sup -1} of p{bar p} collision data collected by the CDF II experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron. In the search region, given by same-sign ll' mass m{sub ll'} > 80 GeV/c{sup 2} (100 GeV/c{sup 2} for ee channel), they observe no evidence for H{sup {+-}}{sup {+-}} production. They set limits on {sigma}(p{bar p} {yields} H{sup ++}H{sup --} {yields} l{sup +}l'{sup +}l{sup -}l'{sup -}) as a function of the mass of the H{sup {+-}}{sup {+-}} and the chirality of its couplings. Assuming exclusive same-sign dilepton decays, they derive lower mass limits on H{sub L}{sup {+-}}{sup {+-}} of 133 GeV/c{sup 2}, 136 GeV/c{sup 2}, and 115 GeV/c{sup 2} in the ee, {mu}{mu}, and e{mu} channels, respectively, and a lower mass limit of 113 GeV/c{sup 2} on H{sub R}{sup {+-}}{sup {+-}} in the {mu}{mu} channel, all at the 95% confidence level.

The main objective of this project is to measure heat of dissolution of CO{sub 2} in carefully selected mixed alkanolamine solvent systems, and provide such directly measured data that might be used for efficient design of CO{sub 2} capture processes, or for better understanding of thermodynamics of CO{sub 2}-alkanolamine systems. Carbon dioxide is one of the major greenhouse gases, and the need for stabilization of its composition in earth's atmosphere is vital for the future of mankind. Although technologies are available for capture and storage of CO{sub 2}, these technologies are far too expensive for economical commercialization. Reduction of cost would require research for refinement of the technology. For more economical CO{sub 2} capture and regeneration, there is a need for development of more efficient solvent systems. In this project we will extend the thermodynamic database by measuring heat of solution data of CO{sub 2} in mixed solvents made of MEA (monoethanolamine), MDEA (methyldiethanolamine), piperazine, and water. Mixed solvents of different compositions will be selected and in each case data will be measured at temperatures 40 and 80 C and various partial pressures of CO{sub 2}. At the end of the project, observations, conclusions, and recommendations will be derived for …

In our second paper on long-term quasar variability, we employ a much larger database of quasars than in de Vries, Becker & White. This expanded sample, containing 35,165 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2, and 6,413 additional quasars in the same area of the sky taken from the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey, allows us to significantly improve on our earlier conclusions. As before, all the historic quasar photometry has been calibrated onto the SDSS scale by using large numbers of calibration stars around each quasar position. We find the following: (1) the outbursts have an asymmetric light-curve profile, with a fast-rise, slow-decline shape; this argues against a scenario in which micro-lensing events along the line-of-sight to the quasars are dominating the long-term variations in quasars; (2) there is no turnover in the Structure Function of the quasars up to time-scales of {approx}40 years, and the increase in variability with increasing time-lags is monotonic and constant; and consequently, (3) there is not a single preferred characteristic outburst time-scale for the quasars, but most likely a continuum of outburst time-scales, (4) the magnitude of the quasar variability is a function of wavelength: variability increases toward the blue part …

This report is a guide to appropriations of Military Construction for FY2005.

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The local structure of KH{sub 2}PO{sub 4} crystals (so-called KDP) at laser-induced damage sites created by irradiation with {approx} 3-ns, 355-nm laser pulses is studied by a combination of Raman scattering and photoluminescence spectroscopies. We compare spectra from pristine material, surface and bulk laser-induced damage sites, as well as from KPO{sub 3} references. Results show that irradiation with uences above the laser-induced breakdown threshold leads to stoichiometric changes at surface damage sites but not at bulk damage sites. New spectroscopic features are attributed to dehydration products. For the laser irradiation conditions used in this study, the decomposed near-surface layer absorbs photons at {approx} 3.4 eV (364 nm). These results may help explain the recently reported observation that surface laser damage sites in KDP crystals tend to grow with subsequent exposure to high-power laser pulses, while bulk damage sites do not.

Hopper is a powerful interactive tool that allows users to transfer and manipulate files and directories by means of a graphical user interface. Users can connect to and manage resources using the major file transfer protocols. Implemented in Java, Hopper can be run almost anywhere: from an individual's desktop machine to large production machines. In a high-performance computing environment, managing files can become a difficult and time-consuming task that distracts from scientific work. Users must deal with multiple file transfer protocols, transferring enormous amounts of files between computer platforms, repeated authentication, organizing massive amounts of data, and other detailed but necessary tasks. This is often accomplished with a set of several different tools, each with its own interface and idiosyncrasies. Our goal is to develop tools for a more automated approach to file management that substantially improves users' ability to transfer, organize, search, and operate on collections of files. This paper describes the Hopper tool for advanced file management, including the software architecture, the functionality, and the user interface.