Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The District of Columbia Family Act of 2001 was enacted to (1) redesignate the Family Division of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia as the Family Court of the Superior Court, (2) recruit trained and experienced judges to serve in the Family Court, and (3) promote consistency and efficiency in the assignment of judges to the Family Court and in its consideration of actions and proceedings. GAO found the Superior Court made progress in planning the transition of its Family Division to a Family Court, but some challenges remain. The transition requires the timely completion of a series of interdependent plans to obtain and renovate physical space for the court and its functions. Adequate space may not be available to support the additional judges the Family Court needs. Furthermore, the development of the Integrated Justice Information System will be critical for the Family Court's operational effectiveness, its ability to evaluate its performance, and to meet the judicial goals mandated by the Family Court Act."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses GAO's fiscal year 2001 performance and results, current challenges and future plans, and GAO's budget request for fiscal year 2003."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "By law, married persons who file joint tax returns are each fully responsible for the accuracy of the tax return and for the full tax liability. This is true even though only one taxpayer may have earned the wages or income shown on the tax return. Under the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Innocent Spousal Program, IRS can relieve taxpayers of tax debts on the basis of equity considerations, such as not knowing that their spouse failed to pay taxes due. Since passage of the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, IRS has received thousands of requests from taxpayers for innocent spouse relief. IRS's inability to provide timely responses to such requests has generated concerns among taxpayers, Congress, and other stakeholders. IRS reached decisions on 21 percent more cases than it received in fiscal year 2001, reducing some of its backlog from previous years. The agency accomplished this through a variety of initiatives, including a substantial staffing commitment, centralization and specialization, automated tools, and routine estimating of future workload and staffing needs. IRS's procedures conform to applicable guidance for transferring tax liabilities from joint tax accounts …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Housing Affordability for America Act of 2002 establishes risk-based capital requirements for the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Through the fund, FHA operates a single-family insurance program that helps millions of Americans buy homes. The Fund's estimated value rose dramatically in 1999, prompting proposals to spend current resources or reduce net cash flows into the Fund. The value of the Fund at the end of fiscal year 1999 was $15.8 billion. This capital ratio of 3.20 percent of the unamortized insurance-in-force exceeded the minimum required capital ratio of two percent. A two-percent capital ratio appears sufficient to withstand moderately severe economic downturns that could lead to worse-than-expected loan performance. Determining an appropriate capital ratio depends on the level of risk Congress wishes the Fund to withstand. FHA faces the failure of borrowers to perform, or credit risk, and the risk of managerial shortcomings, or operational risk. By defining the risk that the Fund must withstand, the act will define actuarial soundness and help FHA manage the Fund."

Researchers at the Timken Company conceived a project to develop an on-line instrument for wall thickness measurement of steel seamless mechanical tubing based on laser ultrasonic technology. The instrument, which has been installed and tested at a piercing mill, provides data on tube eccentricity and concentricity. Such measurements permit fine-tuning of manufacturing processes to eliminate excess material in the tube wall and therefore provide a more precisely dimensioned product for their customers. The resulting process energy savings are substantial, as is lowered environmental burden. The expected savings are $85.8 million per year in seamless mechanical tube piercing alone. Applied across the industry, this measurement has a potential of reducing energy consumption by 6 x 10{sup 12} BTU per year, greenhouse gas emissions by 0.3 million metric tons carbon equivalent per year, and toxic waste by 0.255 million pounds per year. The principal technical contributors to the project were the Timken Company, Industrial Materials Institute (IMI, a contractor to Timken), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Timken provided mill access as well as process and metallurgical understanding. Timken researchers had previously developed fundamental ultrasonic analysis methods on which this project is based. IMI developed and fabricated the laser ultrasonic generation and …

The basis of this study was the hypothesis that the physical and chemical properties of hypersaline tank waste could lead to wetting from instability and fingered flow following a tank leak. Thus, the goal of this project was to develop an understanding of the impacts of the properties of hypersaline fluids on transport through the unsaturated zone beneath Hanford's Tank Farms. There were three specific objectives (i) to develop an improved conceptualization of hypersaline fluid transport in laboratory (ii) to identify the degree to which field conditions mimic the flow processes observed in the laboratory and (iii) to provide a validation data set to establish the degree to which the conceptual models, embodied in a numerical simulator, could explain the observed field behavior. As hypothesized, high ionic strength solutions entering homogeneous pre-wetted porous media formed unstable wetting fronts atypical of low ionic strength infiltration. In the field, this mechanism could for ce flow in vertical flow paths, 5-15 cm in width, bypassing much of the media and leading to waste penetration to greater depths than would be predicted by current conceptual models. Preferential flow may lead to highly accelerated transport through large homogeneous units, and must be included in any …

It is shown that the operation of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) storage ring at 6 GeV will (1) deliver higher brilliance at x-ray energies used by a majority of users due to natural reduction in electron beam emittance at lower storage ring energy, and (2) lower the total power produced by insertion devices thus permitting stored currents up to 300 mA with minimal changes in accelerator or beamline hardware. While higher brilliance x-ray beams can be realized from the APS undulators by only increasing the stored current for the present modes of operation, this however leads to serious high heat load concerns. This report includes detailed analyses of radiation brilliance, undulator tunability, power, power density, and total and coherent flux as a function of x-ray energy from various harmonics of undulator-A, for operation at 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0 GeV with 100, 140, 200 and 300 mA currents. A discussion of a smaller period (2.7 cm) undulator's spectral performance is also presented. It is shown that the APS can be immediately operated at 6 GeV with 200-300 mA current to benefit user science in the x-ray energy range below 35 keV. This may not require any hardware change either in …

Describes linear optical activity which studies non linear optical activity of dimer-like chiral molecules.

The following work was performed: (1) collected reconnaissance micro-magnetic data and background field data for Area 1, (2) identified and collected soil sample data in three anomalous regions of Area 1, (3) sampled soils in Northwest Poplar Oil Field, (4) graphed, mapped, and interpreted all data areas listed above, (5) registered for the AAPG Penrose Conference on Hydrocarbon Seepage Mechanisms and Migration (postponed from 9/16/01 until 4/7/02 in Vancouver, B.C.). Results include the identification and confirmation of an oil and gas prospect in the northwest part of Area 1 and the verification of a potential shallow gas prospect in the West Poplar Area. Correlation of hydrocarbon micro-seepage to TM tonal anomalies needs further data analysis.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office (NNSA/NV) initiated the UGTA Project to characterize the risk posed to human health and the environment as a result of underground nuclear testing activities at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The UGTA Project investigation sites have been grouped into Corrective Action Units (CAUs) in accordance with the most recent version of the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. The primary UGTA objective is to gather data to characterize the groundwater aquifers beneath the NTS and adjacent lands. The investigations proposed under the UGTA program may involve the drilling and sampling of new wells; recompletion, monitoring, and sampling of existing wells; well development and hydrologic/ aquifer testing; geophysical surveys; and subsidence crater recharge evaluation. Those wastes generated as a result of these activities will be managed in accordance with existing federal and state regulations, DOE Orders, and NNSA/NV waste minimization and pollution prevention objectives. This Waste Management Plan provides a general framework for all Underground Test Area (UGTA) Project participants to follow for the characterization, storage/accumulation, treatment, and disposal of wastes generated by UGTA Project activities. The objective of this waste management plan is to provide guidelines to …

Is this EMSP program we investigated the key fundamental issues involved in the use of simple and safe methods for the removal of radioactive contamination from equipment and facilities using hydroxycarboxylic acids. Specifically, we investigate (i) the association of uranium with various iron oxides commonly formed on corroding plain carbon steel surfaces, (ii) the association of uranium with corroding metal coupons under a variety of conditions, and (iii) the decontamination of the uranium contaminated metal coupons by citric acid or citric acid formulations containing oxalic acid and hydrogen peroxide.

The basis of this study was the hypothesis that the physical and chemical properties of hypersaline tank waste could lead to wetting from instability and fingered flow following a tank leak. Thus, the goal of this project was to develop an understanding of the impacts of the properties of hypersaline fluids on transport through the unsaturated zone beneath Hanford's Tank Farms. There were three specific objectives (i) to develop an improved conceptualization of hypersaline fluid transport in laboratory (ii) to identify the degree to which field conditions mimic the flow processes observed in the laboratory and (iii) to provide a validation data set to establish the degree to which the conceptual models, embodied in a numerical simulator, could explain the observed field behavior. As hypothesized, high ionic strength solutions entering homogeneous pre-wetted porous media formed unstable wetting fronts a typical of low ionic strength infiltration. In the field, this mechanism could force flow in vertical flow paths, 5-15 cm in width, bypassing much of the media and leading to waste penetration to greater depths than would be predicted by current conceptual models. Preferential flow may lead to highly accelerated transport through large homogeneous units, and must be included in any …

This report is categorized into six categories: (I) Recent Political Developments, (II) U.N. Role in Angola, (III) Human Rights and Civil Liberties, (IV) Angolan Economy, (V) U.S. Policy and (VI) Appendix I.

The purpose of this report is to describe and discuss the provisions for providing abortion services to military personnel, their dependents, and other military health care beneficiaries at military medical facilities. The report describes the history of these provisions, with particular emphasis on legislative actions. Finally, this report discusses a number of proposals to modify the law, as well as other related legislative and administrative actions.

Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management (SLURM) is an open source, fault-tolerant, and highly scalable cluster management and job scheduling system for Linux clusters of thousands of nodes. Components include machine status, partition management, job management, and scheduling modules. The design also includes a scalable, general-purpose communication infrastructure. Development will take place in four phases: Phase I results in a solid infrastructure; Phase II produces a functional but limited interactive job initiation capability without use of the interconnect/switch; Phase III provides switch support and documentation; Phase IV provides job status, fault-tolerance, and job queuing and control through Livermore's Distributed Production Control System (DPCS), a meta-batch and resource management system.

A synchrotron radiation-based X-ray scattering facility for materials research on complex fluids has been completed on Sector 09 at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. It consists of a beamline on an undulator magnet source with doubly focusing X-ray optics and endstation spectrometers for both small angle X-ray scattering and liquid surface X-ray scattering.

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Using an X-ray computerized tomography (CT) scanner, and a novel, CT-compatible core holder, performed a series of experiments to study air and oil expulsion from rock samples by capillary imbibition of water in a three-dimensional geometry. The air-water system was useful in that a relatively large number of experiments can be conducted to delineate physical processes. Different injection rates and fracture apertures were utilized. Two different fracture flow regimes were identified. The ''filling-fracture'' regime shows a plane source that grows in length due to relatively slow water flow through fractures. In the second, ''instantly-filled fracture'' regime, the time to fill the fracture is much less than the imbibition time. Here, imbibition performance scales as the square root of time. In the former regime, the mass of water imbibed scales linearly with time.

Hydrogen production from water splitting at high temperatures has been studied with novel mixed oxygen ion-electron conducting cermet membranes. Hydrogen production rates were investigated as a function of temperature, water partial pressure, membrane thickness, and oxygen chemical potential gradient across the membranes. The hydrogen production rate increased with both increasing moisture concentration and oxygen chemical potential gradient across the membranes. A maximum hydrogen production rate of 4.4 cm{sup 3}/min-cm{sup 2} (STP) was obtained with a 0.10-mm-thick membrane at 900 C in a gas containing 50 vol.% water vapor in the sweep side. Hydrogen production rate also increased with decreasing membrane thickness, but surface kinetics play an important role as membrane thickness decreases.

The purpose of this report is to describe and discuss the provisions for providing abortion services to military personnel, their dependents and other military health care beneficiaries at military medical facilities. The report describes the history of these provisions, with particular emphasis on legislative actions. Finally, this report discusses a number of proposals to modify the Clinton Administration provisions, as well as recently enacted legislation.

This report provides information on and analysis of the current situation in Afghanistan, taking into consideration the country’s essential characteristics and political developments since about the time of the overthrow of the last Afghan King, Zahir Shah, in 1973, and sketches out four possible scenarios for Afghanistan’s future. Finally, the report identifies and analyzes factors that will influence Afghanistan’s political future, and discusses three policy areas in particular in which actions by the United States could be crucial to the achievement of the U.S. goal of a peaceful, stable, democratic, and terrorist-free Afghanistan. An appendix contains key documents relating to the December 2001 Bonn Agreement, which is the framework for current efforts to create a stable and democratic Afghanistan.

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