The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996, P.L. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009- 26, added a definition of “child pornography” that include visual depictions of what appears to be a minor engaging in explicit sexual conduct, even if no actual minor was used in producing the depiction. On April 16, 2002, in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, the Supreme Court held this provision unconstitutional to the extent that it prohibited pictures that were not produced with actual minors. (This case is discussed under “Section 2256,” below.) In response to Ashcroft, bills were introduced in the House and Senate that would continue to ban some child pornography that was produced without an actual minor; on June 25, 2002, the House passed one such bill: H.R. 4623, 107th Congress.

This report summarizes the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory internal assessment of Laboratory operational and administrative performance in key support functions for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003. The report provides documentation of ongoing performance-based management and oversight processes required by the Department of Energy (DOE) to monitor, measure, and evaluate Berkeley Lab work.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Testifying before Congress in 2002, military beneficiary groups and civilian managed care support contractors described problems with the processing of TRICARE claims for civilian-provided care. These problems included slow payments and procedures that made claims processing inefficient. The Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act of 2003 required GAO to review improvements to TRICARE claims processing and continuing impediments to claims processing efficiency. Specifically, GAO describes (1) efforts to improve claims processing and changes in processing timeliness and (2) Department of Defense (DOD) procedures and data that continue to affect claims processing efficiency. To identify improvements to claims processing and impediments to processing efficiency, GAO analyzed 1999 and 2002 claims data for changes in processing timeliness. GAO also interviewed and analyzed claims processing documentation from DOD officials, managed care support contractors, and claims processors."

The {sup 193}Ir(n,n'){sup 193m}Ir cross section for the production of the 80-keV isomer in {sup 193}Ir is evaluated using a combination of experimental data and nuclear reaction modeling, from threshold to about 20 MeV. Four discrete {gamma} lines feeding the isomer were recently observed with the GEANIE {gamma}-ray detector at LANSCE. Theoretical calculations of the nuclear reaction mechanisms in play are then carried out to evaluate the contributions not accounted for in the experimental setup (direct population; fraction of {gamma}-lines not observed in the experiment; etc). Experiment and modeling are then combined to provide a total cross section for the production of the Iridium isomer. We finally compare our result with activation measurement data available for a few energy points.

Time-varying magnetic fields of magnets in booster accelerators induce substantial eddy currents in the vacuum chambers. The eddy currents in turn act to produce various multipole fields that act on the beam. These fields must be taken into account when doing a lattice design. In the APS booster, the relatively long dipole magnets (3 meters) are linearly ramped to accelerate the injected 325 MeV beam to 7 GeV. Substantial dipole and sextupole fields are generated in the elliptical vacuum chamber from the induced eddy currents. In this note, formulas for the induced dipole and sextupole fields are derived for elliptical and rectangular vacuum chambers for a time-varying dipole field. A discussion is given on how to generalize this derivation method to include eddy-current-induced multipole fields from higher multipole magnets (quadrupole, sextupole, etc.). Finally, transient effects are considered.

This quarterly report documents significant achievements in the Enhanced Practical Photosynthetic CO{sub 2} Mitigation project during the period from 7/2/2003 through 10/01/2003. As indicated in the list of accomplishments below we are preparing for the final tests necessary to meet our project goals. Specific results and accomplishments for the third quarter of 2003 include: (1) Bioreactor support systems and test facilities: (A) The solar collector used in the light delivery system showed signs of degradation and hence had to be replaced by ORNL. A set of light readings were taken after the new solar collector was installed. The readings showed an acceptable light profile. (B) The CRF-2 test system has undergone major improvements to produce the high flow rates needed for harvesting (as determined by previous experiments). The main changes to the system are new stainless steel header/frame units with increased flow capacity and a modified pipe end sealing method to improve flow uniformity, and installation and plumbing for a new high flow harvesting pump. The improvements have been completed and the system is ready for testing. (C) The pilot scale bioreactor is ready for testing pending some information from the CRF-2 tests. (2) Organisms and Growth Surfaces: (A) The …

The problem that convection over land is overactive during warm-season daytime in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Atmosphere Model CAM2 and its previous version (CCM3) has been found both in its single-column model (SCM) simulations (Xie and Zhang 2000; Ghan et al. 2000; Xie et al. 2002) and in its full general circulation model (GCM) short-range weather forecasts (Phillips et al. 2003) and climate simulations (Dai and Trenberth 2003). These studies showed that this problem is closely related to the convection triggering mechanism used in its deep convection scheme (Zhang and McFarlane 1995), which assumes that convection is triggered whenever there is positive convective available potential energy (CAPE). The positive CAPE triggering mechanism initiates model convection too often during the day because of the strong diurnal variations in the surface isolation and the induced CAPE diurnal change over land in the warm season. To reduce the problem, Xie and Zhang (2000) introduced a dynamic constraint, i.e., a dynamic CAPE generation rate (DCAPE) determined by the large-scale advective tendencies of temperature and moisture, to control the onset of deep convection. They showed that positive DCAPE is closely associated with convection in observations and the dynamic constraint could largely …

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) laboratory tests have been conducted, (2) with the added trendline analysis method, the accuracy of the data interpretation methodology will be improved, (3) method to use torque to thrust ratio as indicator of rock relative hardness has also been explored, and (3) about one half of the development work for the roof geology mapping program, MRGIS, has completed.

Extremophiles are nearly always defined with singular characteristics that allow existence within a singular extreme environment. The bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans qualifies as a polyextremeophile, showing remarkable resistance to a range of damage caused by ionizing radiation, dessication, ultraviolet radiation, oxidizing agents, and electrophilic mutagens. D. radiodurans is most famous for its extreme resistance to ionizing radiation; it not only can grow continuously in the presence of chronic radiation (6,000 rad per hour), but it can survive acute exposures to gamma radiation that exceed 1,500,000 rads without lethality or induced mutation. These characteristics were the impetus for sequencing its genome. We completed an extensive comparative sequence analysis of the Deinococcus radiodurans (strain R1) genome. Deinococcus is the first representative with a completely sequenced genome from a bacterial branch of extremophiles - the Thermus/Deinococcus group. Phylogenetic tree analysis, combined with the identification of several synapomorphies between Thermus and Deinococcus, support that it is a very ancient branch localized in the vicinity of the bacterial tree root. Distinctive features of the Deinoccoccus genome as well as features shared with other free-living bacteria were revealed by comparison of its proteome to a collection of Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins (COGs). Analysis of paralogs …

The goal of this DOE Vision-21 project work scope was to develop an integrated suite of software tools that could be used to simulate and visualize advanced plant concepts. Existing process simulation software did not meet the DOE's objective of ''virtual simulation'' which was needed to evaluate complex cycles. The overall intent of the DOE was to improve predictive tools for cycle analysis, and to improve the component models that are used in turn to simulate equipment in the cycle. Advanced component models are available; however, a generic coupling capability that would link the advanced component models to the cycle simulation software remained to be developed. In the current project, the coupling of the cycle analysis and cycle component simulation software was based on an existing suite of programs. The challenge was to develop a general-purpose software and communications link between the cycle analysis software Aspen Plus{reg_sign} (marketed by Aspen Technology, Inc.), and specialized component modeling packages, as exemplified by industrial proprietary codes (utilized by ALSTOM Power Inc.) and the FLUENT{reg_sign} computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code (provided by Fluent Inc). A software interface and controller, based on an open CAPE-OPEN standard, has been developed and extensively tested. Various test runs …

This report is a list of books and web addresses which is intended to help students locate financial aid.

The current status of Run II at the Tevatron is covered. Upgrades of both the CDF and D0 detectors are presented, along with many illustrations of the performance and potential for significant physics measurements.

This report mainly discusses about the FY2004 Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terrorism: Military Operations. Bill Young has recently said that he hopes to have conference report on supplemental appropriations.

This report mainly discusses about the FY2004 Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terrorism: Military Operations. Bill Young has recently said that he hopes to have conference report on supplemental appropriations.

The spontaneous decay of the K{sup {pi}} = 16{sup +}, 31-year {sup 178m2}Hf isomer has been investigated with a 15 kBq source placed at the center of a 20-element {gamma}-ray spectrometer. High-multipolarity M4 and E5 transitions, which represent the first definitive observation of direct {gamma}-ray emission from the isomer, have been identified, together with other low-intensity transitions. Branching ratios for these other transitions have elucidated the spin dependence of the mixing between the two known K{sup {pi}} = 8{sup -} bands. The M4 and E5 {gamma}-ray decays are the first strongly K-forbidden transitions to be identified with such high multipolarities, and demonstrate a consistent extension of K-hindrance systematics, with an inhibition factor of approximately 100 per degree of K forbiddenness. Some unplaced transitions are also reported.

We have shown that cell lethality actually measured after exposure to low-doses of low-LET radiation, is markedly enhanced relative to the cell lethality previously expected by extrapolation of the high-dose cell-killing response. Net cancer risk is a balance between cell transformation and cell kill and such enhanced lethality may more than compensate for transformation at low radiation doses over a least the first 10 cGy of low-LET exposure. This would lead to a non-linear, threshold, dose-risk relationship. Therefore our data imply the possibility that the adverse effects of small radiation doses (<10 cGy) could be overestimated in specific cases. It is now important to research the mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of low-dose hypersensitivity to cell killing, in order to determine whether this can be generalized to safely allow an increase in radiation exposure limits. This would have major cost-reduction implications for the whole EM program.

Two biodegradation models are developed to represent natural attenuation of fuel-hydrocarbon contaminants as observed in a comprehensive natural-gradient tracer test in a heterogeneous aquifer on the Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, USA. The first, a first-order mass loss model, describes the irreversible losses of BTEX and its individual components, i.e., benzene (B), toluene (T), ethyl benzene (E), and xylene (X). The second, a reactive pathway model, describes sequential degradation pathways for BTEX utilizing multiple electron acceptors, including oxygen, nitrate, iron and sulfate, and via methanogenesis. The heterogeneous aquifer is represented by multiple hydraulic conductivity (K) zones delineated on the basis of numerous flowmeter K measurements. A direct propagation artificial neural network (DPN) is used as an inverse modeling tool to estimate the biodegradation rate constants associated with each of the K zones. In both the mass loss model and the reactive pathway model, the biodegradation rate constants show an increasing trend with the hydraulic conductivity. The finding of correlation between biodegradation kinetics and hydraulic conductivity distributions is of general interest and relevance to characterization and modeling of natural attenuation of hydrocarbons in other petroleum-product contaminated sites.

None

This report outlines recent developments and pending issues regarding obscenity, child pornography, and indecency. The First Amendment provides that "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..." The First Amendment applies, with two exceptions, to pornography and indecency, with those terms being used to refer to any words or pictures of a sexual nature. The two exceptions are obscenity and child pornography; because these are not protected by the First Amendment, they may be, and have been, made illegal.

A method for reducing excessive constant-fraction-discriminator walk that utilizes experimental data in the off-line analysis stage is introduced. Excessive walk is defined here as any walk that leads to an overall timing resolution that is much greater than the intrinsic timing resolution of the detection system. The method is able to reduce the contribution to the overall timing resolution from the walk that is equal to or less than the intrinsic timing resolution of the detectors. Although the method is explained in the context of a neutron time-of-flight experiment, it is applicable to any data set that satisfies two conditions. (1) A measure of the signal amplitude for each event must be recorded on an event-by-event basis; and (2) There must be a distinguishable class of events present where the timing information is known a priori.

None

This is the final report for DOE DE-FG02-89ER45384. An overview of the operational history and status of beamline X-11A at the end of the contract period, and a brief review of the core science program at NCSU and the scientific results of X-11A since the last progress report is also presented.

Incomplete or sparse information on types of data such as geologic or formation characteristics introduces a high level of risk for oil exploration and development projects. ''Expert'' systems developed and used in several disciplines and industries have demonstrated beneficial results. A state-of-the-art exploration ''expert'' tool, relying on a computerized database and computer maps generated by neural networks, is being developed through the use of ''fuzzy'' logic, a relatively new mathematical treatment of imprecise or non-explicit parameters and values. Oil prospecting risk can be reduced with the use of a properly developed and validated ''Fuzzy Expert Exploration (FEE) Tool.'' This FEE Tool can be beneficial in many regions of the U.S. by enabling risk reduction in oil and gas prospecting as well as decreased prospecting and development costs. In the 1998-1999 oil industry environment, many smaller exploration companies lacked the resources of a pool of expert exploration personnel. Downsizing, low oil prices, and scarcity of exploration funds have also affected larger companies, and will, with time, affect the end users of oil industry products in the U.S. as reserves are depleted. The FEE Tool will benefit a diverse group in the U.S., leading to a more efficient use of scarce funds, …

Rotational bands in {sup 175}Lu have been extended through investigation with the (n,n{prime}{gamma}) reaction. Spallation neutrons bombarded Lu samples, and the resulting {gamma} rays were detected in a large-scale Compton-suppressed Ge detector array. Prompt- and delayed-{gamma}{gamma} coincidences have been used to extend most of the existing known bands, and to tentatively assign a new band, based on the 7/2{sup -}[523] configuration, from its band head to spin 13/2. The 3-quasiparticle K{sup {pi}} = 19/2{sup +} isomer is confirmed and its half life determined to be 984 {+-} 13(stat.) {+-} 30(sys.) {micro}s, in agreement with previous results.