A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the early 2000s, the Forest Service, within the Department of Agriculture, centralized the operations of three major business services: (1) budget and finance, (2) human resources management, and (3) information technology. The agency's goals in centralizing these services, which were previously delivered by staff in field units throughout the country, were to streamline and improve operations and reduce costs. Congressional committees directed GAO to independently analyze whether centralization had achieved intended efficiencies and cost savings. Accordingly, this report examines the (1) types of effects centralization has had on the Forest Service and its employees, particularly in field units; (2) actions the agency has taken to assess its delivery of its centralized business services and to address identified shortcomings; and (3) extent to which the agency can demonstrate that it achieved intended cost savings. GAO examined agency reports, performance studies, cost estimates, and other documentation and interviewed and conducted focus groups with employees across the agency."

This report discusses Omnibus appropriations acts, which have become a significant feature of the legislative process in recent years as Congress and the President have used them more frequently to bring action on the regular appropriations cycle to a close. Following a discussion of pertinent background information, this report reviews the recent enactment of such measures and briefly addresses several issues raised by their use.

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LaserFest was the yearlong celebration, during 2010, of the 50th anniversary of the demonstration of the first working laser. The goals of LaserFest were: to highlight the impact of the laser in its manifold commercial, industrial and medical applications, and as a tool for ongoing scientific research; to use the laser as one example that illustrates, more generally, the route from scientific innovation to technological application; to use the laser as a vehicle for outreach, to stimulate interest among students and the public in aspects of physical science; to recognize and honor the pioneers who developed the laser and its many applications; to increase awareness among policymakers of the importance of R&D funding as evidenced by such technology as lasers. One way in which LaserFest sought to meet its goals was to encourage relevant activities at a local level all across the country -- and also abroad -- that would be identified with the larger purposes of the celebration and would carry the LaserFest name. Organizers were encouraged to record and advertise these events through a continually updated web-based calendar. Four projects were explicitly detailed in the proposals: 1) LaserFest on the Road; 2) Videos; 3) Educational material; and 4) …

The Costilla County Biodiesel Pilot Project has demonstrated the compatibility of biodiesel technology and economics on a local scale. The project has been committed to making homegrown biodiesel a viable form of community economic development. The project has benefited by reducing risks by building the facility gradually and avoiding large initial outlays of money for facilities and technologies. A primary advantage of this type of community-scale biodiesel production is that it allows for a relatively independent, local solution to fuel production. Successfully using locally sourced feedstocks and putting the fuel into local use emphasizes the feasibility of different business models under the biodiesel tent and that there is more than just a one size fits all template for successful biodiesel production.

This report summarizes the activities of the Baylor University Experimental High Energy Physics (HEP) group on the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experiment from August 15, 2005 to May 31, 2012. Led by the Principal Investigator (Dr. Jay R. Dittmann), the Baylor HEP group has actively pursued a variety of cutting-edge measurements from proton-antiproton collisions at the energy frontier.

The Saltstone Facility is designed and permitted to immobilize and dispose of low-level radioactive and hazardous liquid waste (salt solution) remaining from the processing of radioactive material at the Savannah River Site. Low-level waste (LLW) streams from the Effluent Treatment Project (ETP), H-Canyon, the DDA (Deliquification, Dissolution, and Adjustment) process, and the decontaminated salt solution product from the Actinide Removal Process/Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX) Unit (ARP/MCU) process are stored in Tank 50 until the LLW can be transferred to the Saltstone Facility for treatment and disposal. The LLW must meet the specified waste acceptance criteria (WAC) before it is processed into saltstone. The specific chemical and radionuclide contaminants and their respective WAC limits are listed in the current Saltstone WAC. Waste Solidification Engineering (WSE) requested that Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) perform quarterly analysis on saltstone samples. The concentrations of chemical and radionuclide contaminants are measured to ensure the saltstone produced during each quarter is in compliance with the current WAC. This report documents the concentrations of chemical and radionuclide contaminants for the 2011 Second Quarter samples collected from Tank 50 on April 4, 2011 and discusses those results in further detail than the previously issued results report. …

The use of fillers in printing and writing papers has become a prerequisite for competing in a global market to reduce the cost of materials. Use of calcium carbonates (ranging from 18% to 30%) as filler is a common practice in the paper industry but the choices of fillers for each type of papers vary widely according to its use. The market for uncoated digital printing paper is one that continues to introduce exciting growth projections. and it is important to understand the effect that new manufacturing methods of calcium carbonates have on the energy efficiency and paper production. Research conducted under this award showed that the new fiber filler composite material has the potential to increase the paper filler content by up to 5% without losing mechanical properties. Benefits of the technology can be summarized as follows for a 1% filler increase per metric ton of paper produced: (i) production cost savings over $12, (ii) Energy savings of 100,900 btu, (iii) CO{sub 2} emission savings of 33 lbs, and additional savings for wood preparation, pulping, recovery of 203593 btu with a 46lbs of CO{sub 2} emission savings per 1% filler increase. In addition the technology has the potential to …

The degradation and failure of cast-coil epoxy windings within 13.8kV control power transformers and metering potential transformers has been shown to be dangerous to both equipment and personnel, even though best industrial design practices were followed. Accident scenes will be examined for two events at a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory. Failure modes will be explained and current design practices discussed with changes suggested to prevent a recurrence and to minimize future risk. New maintenance philosophies utilizing partial discharge testing of the transformers as a prediction of end-of-life will be examined.

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While scientists at CERN and other particle accelerators around the world explore the boundaries of high energy physics, the Majorana project investigates the other end of the spectrum with its extremely sensitive, low background, low energy detector. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR aims to detect neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ), a rare theoretical process in which two neutrons decay into two protons and two electrons, without the emission of the two antineutrinos that are a product of a normal double beta decay. This process is only possible if – and therefore a detection would prove — the neutrino is a Majorana particle, meaning that it is its own antiparticle [Aaselth et al. 2004] . The existence of such a decay would also disprove lepton conservation and give information about the neutrino's mass.

We summarize the accomplishments over the last renewal period in a broad program of research in experimental and theoretical High Energy Physics, conducted at the University of Michigan, and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Proposed budget for University of Texas at Brownsville outlining projected income and expenditures, with supporting documentation for fiscal year 2012.

This report presents information and references to aid in the selection of 99Tc sorption media for feasibility studies regarding the removal of 99Tc from Hanford's low activity waste. The report contains literature search material for sorption media (including ion exchange media) for the most tested media to date, including SuperLig 639, Reillex HPQ, TAM (Kruion), Purolite A520E and A530E, and Dowex 1X8. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of River Protection (ORP) is responsible for management and completion of the River Protection Project (RPP) mission, which comprises both the Hanford Site tank farms and the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The RPP mission is to store, retrieve and treat Hanford's tank waste; store and dispose of treated wastes; and close the tank farm waste management areas and treatment facilities in a safe, environmentally compliant, cost-effective and energy-effective manner.

Selected recent results on measurements of form factors by the BaBar Collaboration are reviewed, including e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} {eta}{prime}{gamma}, leptonic and semileptonic charm decays from data collected at or near the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance.

Users of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) are being affected by diurnal motion of the synchrotron's storage ring, which undergoes structural changes due to outdoor temperature fluctuations. In order to minimize the effects of diurnal temperature fluctuations, especially on the vertical motion of the ring floor, scientists at SSRL tried three approaches: painting the storage ring white, covering the asphalt in the middle of the ring with highly reflective Mylar and installing Mylar on a portion of the ring roof and walls. Vertical motion in the storage ring is measured by a Hydrostatic Leveling System (HLS), which calculates the relative height of water in a pipe that extends around the ring. The 24-hr amplitude of the floor motion was determined using spectral analysis of HLS data, and the ratio of this amplitude before and after each experiment was used to quantitatively determine the efficacy of each approach. The results of this analysis showed that the Mylar did not have any significant effect on floor motion, although the whitewash project did yield a reduction in overall HLS variation of 15 percent. However, further analysis showed that the reduction can largely be attributed to a few local changes rather than an …

Shortages of {sup 99}Mo, the most commonly used diagnostic medical isotope, have caused great concern and have prompted numerous suggestions for alternate production methods. A wide variety of accelerator-based approaches have been suggested. In this paper we survey and compare the various accelerator-based approaches.

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.

Connection of electric storage technologies to smartgrids or microgrids will have substantial implications for building energy systems. In addition to potentially supplying ancillary services directly to the traditional centralized grid (or macrogrid), local storage will enable demand response. As an economically attractive option, mobile storage devices such as plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) are in direct competition with conventional stationary sources and storage at the building. In general, it is assumed that they can improve the financial as well as environmental attractiveness of renewable and fossil based on-site generation (e.g. PV, fuel cells, or microturbines operating with or without combined heat and power). Also, mobile storage can directly contribute to tariff driven demand response in commercial buildings. In order to examine the impact of mobile storage on building energy costs and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a microgrid/distributed-energy-resources (DER) adoption problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear program with minimization of annual building energy costs applying CO2 taxes/CO2 pricing schemes. The problem is solved for a representative office building in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2020. By using employees' EVs for energy management, the office building can arbitrage its costs. But since the car battery lifetime is reduced, a business model …

One of the options for future particle accelerators are photonic band gap (PBG) fiber accelerators. PBG fibers are specially designed optical fibers that use lasers to excite an electric field that is used to accelerate electrons. To improve PBG accelerators, the basic parameters of the fiber were tested to maximize defect size and acceleration. Using the program CUDOS, several accelerating modes were found that maximized these parameters for several wavelengths. The design of multiple defects, similar to having closely bound fibers, was studied to find possible coupling or the change of modes. The amount of coupling was found to be dependent on distance separated. For certain distances accelerating coupled modes were found and examined. In addition, several non-periodic fiber structures were examined using CUDOS. The non-periodic fibers produced several interesting results and promised more modes given time to study them in more detail.

Massive stars influence their surroundings through radiation, winds, and supernova explosions far out of proportion to their small numbers. However, the physical processes that initiate and govern the birth of massive stars remain poorly understood. Two widely discussed models are monolithic collapse of molecular cloud cores and competitive accretion. To learn more about massive star formation, we perform simulations of the collapse of rotating, massive, cloud cores including radiative heating by both non-ionizing and ionizing radiation using the FLASH adaptive mesh refinement code. These simulations show fragmentation from gravitational instability in the enormously dense accretion flows required to build up massive stars. Secondary stars form rapidly in these flows and accrete mass that would have otherwise been consumed by the massive star in the center, in a process that we term fragmentation-induced starvation. This explains why massive stars are usually found as members of high-order stellar systems that themselves belong to large clusters containing stars of all masses. The radiative heating does not prevent fragmentation, but does lead to a higher Jeans mass, resulting in fewer and more massive stars than would form without the heating. This mechanism reproduces the observed relation between the total stellar mass in the cluster …