None

Baryon stopping and particle production in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon are studied as a function of the collision centrality using new proton, antiproton, charged kaon and charged pion production data measured with the NA49 experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). Stopping, which is measured by the shift in rapidity of net protons or baryons from the initial beam rapidity, increases in more central collisions. This is expected from a geometrical picture of the collisions. The stopping data are quantitatively compared to models incorporating various mechanisms for stopping. In general, microscopic transport calculations which incorporate current theoretical models of baryon stopping or use phenomenological extrapolations from simpler systems overestimate the dependence of stopping on centrality. Approximately, the yield of produced pions scales with the number of nucleons participating in the collision. A small increase in yield beyond this scaling, accompanied by a small suppression in the yield of the fastest pions, reflects the variation in stopping with centrality. Consistent with the observations from central collisions of light and heavy nuclei at the SPS, the transverse momentum distributions of all particles are observed to become harder with increasing centrality. This effect is most pronounced for the heaviest particles. This …

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the personnel management policies and practices of the District of Columbia Courts, focusing on whether: (1) D.C. Courts' applicable policies for six basic personnel activities or functions--performance evaluation, competitive and noncompetitive promotions, corrective actions, training, classification, and equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies--were consistent with commonly accepted personnel management principles; and (2) D.C. Courts generally adhered to its policies when implementing the six personnel activities or functions."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the fiscal year (FY) 2001 budget for the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, focusing on determining the status of the Board's: (1) organization; (2) operations; and (3) efforts to update and develop plans, policies, and procedures for accomplishing the Board's mission."

This report addresses the compensation issues related to Chinese Embassy bombing in Belgrade.

None

None

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the financial statements of the Senate Restaurants Revolving Fund for the period ended September 30, 1999 and 1998. GAO contracted with the independent public accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick LLP to conduct the audit."

Microfabrication technology has been applied to the development of a miniature, multi-channel gas phase chemical laboratory that provides fast response, small size, and enhanced versatility and chemical discrimination. Each analysis channel includes a sample preconcentrator followed by a gas chromatographic separator and a chemically selective surface acoustic wave detector array to achieve high sensitivity and selectivity. The performance of the components, individually and collectively, is described.

The attached Geothermal (Ground-Source) Heat Pump (GHP) Guide Specifications have been developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with the intent to assist federal agency sites and engineers in the preparation of construction specifications for GHP projects. These specifications have been developed in the industry-standard Construction Specification Institute (CSI) format and cover several of the most popular members of the family of GHP systems. These guide specifications are applicable to projects whether the financing is with conventional appropriations, arranged by GHP specialty ESCOs under the U.S. Department of Energy's Technology-Specific GHP Super ESPCs, arranged by utilities under Utility Energy Service Contracts (UESCs) or arranged by generalist ESCOs under the various regional ESPCs. These specifications can provide several benefits to the end user that will help ensure successful GHP system installations. GHP guide specifications will help to streamline the specification development, review, and approval process because the architecture and engineering (AE) firm will be working from the familiar CSI format instead of developing the specifications from other sources. The guide specifications help to provide uniformity, standardization, and consistency in both the construction specifications and system installations across multiple federal sites. This standardization can provide future benefits to the federal sites in …

Over the years that radioactive material (RAM) transportation risk estimates have been calculated using the RADTRAN code, demand for improved geographic resolution of route characteristics, especially density of population neighboring route segments, has led to code improvements that provide more specific route definition. With the advent of geographic information systems (GISs), the achievable resolution of route characteristics is theoretically very high. The authors have compiled population-density data in 1-kilometer increments for routes extending over hundreds of kilometers without impractical expenditures of time. Achievable resolution of analysis is limited, however, by the resolution of available data. U.S. Census data typically have 1-km or better resolution within densely-populated portions of metropolitan areas but census blocks are much larger in rural areas. Geographic resolution of accident-rate data, especially for heavy/combination trucks, are typically tabulated on a statewide basis. These practical realities cause one to ask what level(s) of resolution may be necessary for meaningful risk analysis of transportation actions on a state or interstate scale.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Brady Act's phase I (interim Brady) and phase II (permanent Brady) provisions in preventing the sale of firearms to prohibited individuals, focusing on: (1) how the permanent Brady compares with the interim Brady; (2) under permanent Brady, the advantages and disadvantages of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System's (NICS) background checks conducted by a designated state agency versus by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); (3) under permanent Brady, the extent to which default proceeds resulted in firearms being sold to prohibited individuals; and (4) the options policymakers have in preventing or minimizing such transfers."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) management and disposal of its low-level radioactive wastes, focusing on: (1) the factors that influence DOE's decisions about the treatment, storage, and disposal of the wastes; and (2) DOE's costs to treat, store, and dispose of these wastes and the cost-effectiveness of DOE's disposal decisions."

This report discusses estimates of food stamp program eligibility and participation in the U.S. armed services. Related legislation and policy considerations are also addressed.

The authors have developed a model for the probabilistic behavior of a rechargeable battery acting as the energy storage component in a photovoltaic power supply system. Stochastic and deterministic models are created to simulate the behavior of the system components. The components are the solar resource, the photovoltaic power supply system, the rechargeable battery, and a load. One focus of this research is to model battery state of charge and battery capacity as a function of time. The capacity damage effect that occurs during deep discharge is introduced via a non-positive function of duration and depth of deep discharge events. Because the form of this function is unknown and varies with battery type, the authors model it with an artificial neural network (ANN) whose parameters are to be trained with experimental data. The battery capacity loss model will be described and a numerical example will be presented showing the predicted battery life under different PV system use scenarios.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the: (1) dental health status of Medicaid beneficiaries and other vulnerable populations; and (2) extent to which these groups have dental coverage and use dental services."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the implementation of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), focusing on: (1) the changes in federal paperwork burden since last year's hearing, with particular attention to changes at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); (2) IRS burden-relief initiatives that are directed at small businesses; and (3) PRA violations."

PFP's Standby Power System consists of the diesel generators, the generator control system, Rm 308 UPS, switchgear batteries, and the electrical equipment used to distribute this power. Due to the nature of the equipment and its use throughout general industry, the majority of the system falls within the CGI definition HNF-PRO-268, ''Control of Purchased Items and Services'' and HNF-PRO-1819, ''PHMC Engineering Requirements'' require that the critical characteristics of CGI-procured equipment be established in an engineering document prior to placing the order. HNF-5043 established these critical characteristics for the Standby Power System. This modification adds several items to the document.

The 1999 Oil & Gas Conference was cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Fossil Energy, Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC) and National Petroleum Technology Office (NPTO) on June 28 to 30 in Dallas, Texas. The Oil & Gas Conference theme, Technology Options for Producer Survival, reflects the need for development and implementation of new technologies to ensure an affordable, reliable energy future. The conference was attended by nearly 250 representatives from industry, academia, national laboratories, DOE, and other Government agencies. Three preconference workshops (Downhole Separation Technologies: Is it Applicable for Your Operations, Exploring and developing Naturally Fractured Low-Permeability Gas Reservoirs from the Rocky Mountains to the Austin Chalk, and Software Program Applications) were held. The conference agenda included an opening plenary session, three platform sessions (Sessions 2 and 3 were split into 2 concurrent topics), and a poster presentation reception. The platform session topics were Converting Your Resources Into Reserves (Sessions 1 and 2A), Clarifying Your Subsurface Vision (Session 2B), and High Performance, Cost Effective Drilling, Completion, Stimulation Technologies (Session 3B). In total, there were 5 opening speakers, 30 presenters, and 16 poster presentations.

None

In this note, the authors present the recipe recommended by the Search Limits Committee for the construction of confidence intervals for the use of D0 collaboration. In another note, currently in preparation, they present the rationale for this recipe, a critique of the current literature on this topic, and several examples of the use of the method. This note is intended to fill the need of the collaboration to have a reference available until the more complete note is finished. Section 2 introduces the notation used in this note, and Section 3 contains the suggested recipe.

This contribution provides Sandia's strawballot comments for the Security Version l.l specification, STR-SEC-02.01. Two major comments are addressed here that pertain to potential problems with the use of the Security Association Section digital signature, and potential inconsistencies with the allocation of relative identifiers in the initiating security agent.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the County Purchasing Act, TEX. LOC. GOV’T CODE ANN. §§ 262.021-.035 (Vernon 1999 & Supp. 2000), applies to the purchases of a local government corporation created by a county under subchapter D, chapter 431 of the Transportation Code (RQ-0139-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a school district may charge tuition for students attending a prekindergarten program, and related question (RQ-0107-JC)