A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Defense Department (DOD) encourages the reuse of excess property, including vehicles, weapons, hand tools, lumber, medical equipment, and furniture. DOD components, civilian federal agencies, and "special programs" have equal priority and first rights to excess property. This report discusses excess property issued to three of 12 special programs--the Military Affiliate Radio System, the Civil Air Patrol, and the 12th Congressional Regional Equipment Center. Between 1995 and 2000, these programs obtained $34 million worth of items that they were not eligible to receive. The three programs were able to obtain the items because the DOD facilities that store the property are not required to verify which items the programs are eligible to receive, and because program officials do not consistently follow applicable guidelines. GAO also noted that the programs' lists of property they are allowed to obtain are not comprehensive because the lists exclude mission-related items similar to those already permitted. Furthermore, these programs did not have reliable records for more than three-quarters of their excess property. Together, the three special programs obtained more than 80,000 hazardous supplies. In many cases, program officials were unaware that …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, has been found in cattle in 23 countries. Countries with BSE have suffered large economic losses because of declines in both beef exports and domestic beef sales. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have primary responsibility for preventing the introduction of BSE-contaminated cattle, beef, and cattle-derived products into the United States. GAO found that FDA has not acted promptly to force firms to keep prohibited proteins out of cattle feed and to label animal feed that cannot be fed to cattle. FDA's data on inspections are severely flawed, and FDA is unaware of the full extent of industry compliance. If BSE was discovered in U.S. cattle, many consumers might refuse to buy domestic beef; beef exports could decline dramatically as could sales in related industries, such as hamburger chains and frozen dinner manufacturers. Furthermore, some people might develop mad cow disease if infected cattle were to enter the food supply. The United States acted as many as five years earlier than did other countries to impose controls over imports …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Defense Department (DOD), the Coast Guard, and the Customs Service all interdict illegal drugs--primarily cocaine--from South America. DOD is the lead agency, but all three agencies play a role in monitoring and detecting shipments of illegal drugs. The Coast Guard is the lead agency for apprehending ships that are smuggling drugs, with Customs providing help as needed. The Coast Guard and Customs share responsibility for apprehending aircraft involved in drug-smuggling. GAO could not identify the funds obligated and the number of flight hours and ship days used for drug interdiction in the drug transit zone because the three agencies do not routinely track this information. The results tracked by the three agencies to demonstrate their effectiveness of their drug interdiction efforts in the transit zone varied according to whether they focused on drug seizures or results of detection and monitoring and whether they were specific to the transit zone. Agencies can use several controls to ensure the accuracy of their own cocaine seizure data, such as assigning unique identification numbers to each seizure and headquarters review of data from field units. Although two interagency data …

Activities for this first quarter include continued effort in simulating the experiments performed in the NASA 7-ft x 10-ft wind tunnel with the GTS geometry using both LLNL's advanced computational tools and NASA's Overflow code. Along with this analysis effort, we continue to implement advanced algorithms in LLNL's models to improve simulation speed and accuracy and to verify and validate these advanced simulation tools.

We have conducted an experiment in which the temperature and the wavelength dependent emissivity of a shocked surface has been measured. In the past, only the thermal emission from the shocked surface has been measured. The lack of knowledge of the emissivity as a function of wavelength leads to uncertainty in converting the measured emission spectrum into a surface temperature. We have developed a technique by which we are able to calculate both the emissivity of the shocked surface over a range of relevant wavelengths and the temperature of the surface. We use a multi-channel spectrometer in combination with a pulsed light source having a known spectrum of infrared radiation. Two separate techniques using a pulse of reflected radiation are employed and described. Both give the same result: An initially polished molybdenum surface that is shocked and partially released has a temperature of 1040 degrees Kelvin and a wavelength ({lambda}) dependent emissivity of 0.16 ({lambda}=1.2{micro}m), 0.10 ({lambda} =1.6 {micro}m), and 0.20 ({lambda} =2.3 {micro}m).

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The authors extend chiral perturbation theory to include linear dependence on the lattice spacing a for the Wilson action. The perturbation theory is written as a double expansion in the small quark mass m{sub q} and lattice spacing a. They present formulae for the mass and decay constant of a flavor-non-singlet meson in this scheme to order a and m{sub q}{sup 2}. The extension to the partially quenched theory is also described.

Throughout the utility industry, there is high interest in subsurface imaging of plastic, ceramic, and metallic objects because of the cost, reliability, and safety benefits available in avoiding impacts with the existing infrastructure and in reducing inappropriate excavations. Industry interest in locating plastic pipe has resulted in funding available for the development of technologies that enable this imaging. Gas Technology Institute (GTI) proposes to develop a compact and inexpensive capacitive tomography imaging sensor that takes the form of a flat plate or flexible mat that can be placed on the ground to image objects embedded in the soil. A compact, low-cost sensor that can image objects through soil could be applied to multiple operations and will produce a number of cost savings for the gas industry. In a stand-alone mode, it could be used to survey an area prior to excavation. The technology would improve the accuracy and reliability of any operation that involves excavation by locating or avoiding buried objects. An accurate subsurface image of an area will enable less costly keyhole excavations and other cost-saving techniques. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been applied to this area with limited success. Radar requires a high-frequency carrier to be injected into …

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

The focal length of the spatial filter and final focus lenses for the National Ignition Facility are measured to < {+-} 0.01% using a combination of master lenses and production-oriented techniques for relative focal length.

This report addresses the Legal Background of the Boy Scouts Amendment to P.L. 107-110, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

This report summarizes the provisions of all four parts of IDEA-Parts A through D and to discuss selected issues, especially regarding selected provisions of Part B-the most often discussed part of the act.

Measurements of bomb-pulse {sup 36}Cl and chloride concentrations in soils from the Pit 7 Complex basin, LLNL Site 300, combined with a demonstration model of moisture flux and infiltration rate, indicate that the bomb-pulse can be an extremely useful tool for the characterization of the unsaturated hydrology at Site 300. Bomb-pulse {sup 36}Cl is readily identifiable in the soil column, and exhibits moisture infiltration-related variations at different locations. It can be used to calibrate chloride accumulation models of unsaturated flow. In the continuing investigation of the origin and development of the Pit 7 Complex tritium plume, bomb-pulse {sup 36}Cl will provide a useful mechanism for hydrologic characterization.

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The Hanford Site Groundwater Monitoring Project at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) investigated selected isotopic signature techniques to aid interpretation of contaminant plumes in Hanford Site groundwater. The main approach was to select groundwater samples expected to exhibit a variety of contaminant characteristics and then develop inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analytical methods for the groundwater matrix. Initial broad scans were used to identify interferences and to focus the method development on isotopes showing the greatest promise of practical application. In addition, earlier work characterizing chlorine-36 in Hanford Site groundwater by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) will be discussed.

Project Gasbuggy was the first of three joint government-industry experiments conducted to test the effectiveness of nuclear explosives to fracture deeply buried, low-permeability natural gas reservoirs to stimulate production. The scope of this work plan is to document the environmental objectives and the proposed technical site investigation strategies that will be utilized for the site characterization of the Project Gasbuggy Site. Its goal is the collection of data in sufficient quantity and quality to determine current site conditions, support a risk assessment for the site surfaces, and evaluate if further remedial action is required to achieve permanent closure of the site that is both protective of human health and the environment. The Gasbuggy Site is located approximately 55 air miles east of Farmington, New Mexico, in Rio Arriba County within the Carson National Forest in the northeast portion of the San Juan Basin. Historically, Project Gasbuggy consisted of the joint government-industry detonation of a nuclear device on December 10, 1967, followed by reentry drilling and gas production testing and project evaluation activities in post-detonation operations from 1967 to 1976. Based on historical documentation, no chemical release sites other than the mud pits were identified; additionally, there was no material buried …

Florida International University's (FIU) Hemispheric Center for Environmental Technology (HCET) evaluated five saws for their effectiveness in cutting specially prepared fiberglass-reinforced plywood crates. These crates were built as surrogates for crates that presently hold radioactively contaminated gloveboxes at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Los Alamos facility. The Evolution 180 circular saw was assessed on August 14, 2001. During the FIU test of efficacy, a team from the Operating Engineers National Hazmat Program (OENHP) evaluated the occupational safety and health issues associated with this technology. The Evolution 180 is a portable, metal cutting circular saw with a 7-inch diameter blade. The blade is contained within the main housing and has a retractable lower blade guard to prevent operator access to the blade during operation and shutdown. The saw is equipped with a chip collector. The maximum cutting thickness for metal is one-quarter inch and can cut steel tubing and pipe 2 inches in diameter. The unit is operated with an on/off guarded trigger switch and is supported with the hand guide mounted to the side of the saw. An adjustable lever sets the depth of the cut. The machine's circuitry will automatically shut the saw motor off if excessive overload is …

This final report of DOE Grant DE-FG02-86ER45229 summarizes the work performed over the life of the grant, from 1 December 86 to 28 February 99. The first part of the grant concerned several topics on strength and damage in 3 steels. A technique using anomalous small angle X-ray scattering (ASAXS) was developed to separate out the contribution of a particular species of scattering entity in a material and quantify its number density and size. The measurements were applied to the large Cr23C6 carbides in Fe9C1Mo+(V,Nb). Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and TEM were used to follow the nucleation and growth of M2C carbides in AF1410, an ultra-high strength, high toughness steel. These carbides are important in giving the steel its favorable properties, so it is of interest to determine the optimum composition and heat treatment to produce a large number of very small M2C carbides. The mechanism responsible for a compression hold time being more damaging than an analogous tensile hold time during elevated temperature fatigue in some steels was elucidated. It was found that the behavior of the oxide film following a compressive hold time can hasten crack initiation. The second part of the grant was devoted to the …

Soft money is a major issue in the campaign finance reform debate because these generally unregulated funds are perceived as resulting from a loophole in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Generally, soft money is funds that are raised and spent according to applicable state laws, which FECA prohibits from being spent directly on federal elections, but that may have an indirect influence on federal elections. This Issue Brief discusses three major types of soft money: political party soft money, corporate and labor union soft money, and soft money used for issue advocacy communications.

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This report provides an overview and policy analysis of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group in the Philippines and the recently announced Philippine-U.S. program of military cooperation against it. It examines the origins and operations of Abu Sayyaf, the efforts of the Philippine government and military to eliminate it, and the implications of a greater U.S. military role in attempts to suppress it. The report will be updated periodically.

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