A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In its role as the nation's tax collector, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a demanding responsibility in collecting taxes, processing tax returns, and enforcing the nation's tax laws. Since GAO's first audit of IRS's financial statements in fiscal year 1992, a number of weaknesses in IRS's financial management operations have been identified. In related reports, GAO has recommended corrective action to address those weaknesses. Each year as part of the annual audit of IRS's financial statements, GAO not only makes recommendations to address any new weaknesses identified but also follows up on the open weaknesses GAO identified in previous years' audits. The purpose of this report is to assist IRS management in tracking the status of audit recommendations and actions needed to address them."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides federal disaster assistance to help those in need respond to, prepare for, and recover from disasters. As the costs for disaster assistance have risen, FEMA has made disaster mitigation a primary goal in its efforts to reduce the long-term cost of disasters and minimize risk to property and individuals from natural or man-made hazards. Previous FEMA mitigation grant programs were formula-based and provided funds both prior to and after a disaster occurred. Fiscal Year 2003, marks the first-time FEMA has implemented a grant program that awards funds for mitigation activities on a competitive basis. This report presents information on (1) FEMA's processes and criteria for awarding planning and competitive pre-disaster mitigation grants to states and localities, and (2) the status of FEMA's efforts to implement the Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) emerged in southern China in November 2002 and spread rapidly along international air routes in early 2003. Asian countries had the most cases (7,782) and deaths (729). SARS challenged Asian health care systems, disrupted Asian economies, and tested the effectiveness of the International Health Regulations. GAO was asked to examine the roles of the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. government, and Asian governments (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) in responding to SARS; the estimated economic impact of SARS in Asia; and efforts to update the International Health Regulations."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Oil for Food program was established by the United Nations and Iraq in 1996 to address concerns about the humanitarian situation after international sanctions were imposed in 1990. The program allowed the Iraqi government to use the proceeds of its oil sales to pay for food, medicine, and infrastructure maintenance. The program appears to have helped the Iraqi people. From 1996 through 2001, the average daily food intake increased from 1,300 to 2,300 calories. From 1997 to 2002, Iraq sold more than $67 billion of oil through the program and issued $38 billion in letters of credit to purchase commodities. However, over the years numerous allegations have surfaced concerning potential fraud and program mismanagement. GAO (1) reports on its estimates of the illegal revenue acquired by the former Iraqi regime in violation of U.N. sanctions, (2) provides observations on program administration; (3) describes the challenges facing the CPA and the Iraqi government in administering remaining contracts, and (4) discusses potential issues for further investigation."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, insurance coverage for terrorism largely disappeared. Congress passed the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) in 2002 to help commercial property-casualty policyholders obtain terrorism insurance and give the insurance industry time to develop mechanisms to provide such insurance after the act expires on December 31, 2005. Under TRIA, the Department of Treasury (Treasury) caps insurer liability and would process claims and reimburse insurers for a large share of losses from terrorist acts that Treasury certified as meeting certain criteria. As Treasury and industry participants have operated under TRIA for more than a year, GAO was asked to describe how TRIA affected the terrorism insurance market."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "From 1994 to 2003, the use of government purchase cards increased from $1 billion to $16 billion. During this time, agencies primarily focused on ways to increase the use of purchase cards. Beginning in 2001, GAO testified and reported that significant weaknesses in internal controls made agencies vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse, and inefficient purchasing actions. In response to increased use of purchase cards and serious control weaknesses in the purchase card program, GAO was asked to summarize the growth of the purchase card program, the control weaknesses that led to fraud and misuse of the cards, actions taken to tighten controls and discipline cardholders, and agency actions to leverage the government's buying power when using the purchase card."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Medicare spending for power wheelchairs, one of the program's most expensive items of durable medical equipment (DME), rose 450 percent from 1999 through 2003, while overall Medicare spending rose by about 11 percent for the same period, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This spending growth has raised concerns that Medicare made improper payments and has payment rates that are out of line with market prices. In May 2003, the Department of Justice indicted power wheelchair suppliers in Texas alleged to have fraudulently billed Medicare. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) contains provisions regarding DME, such as changing payment setting methods. GAO was asked to examine (1) steps taken by CMS and its contractors to identify and respond to improper payments for power wheelchairs and (2) how MMA will affect CMS's ability to set payment rates for DME. To examine these issues, GAO analyzed claims data reports for CMS's four DME regions, reviewed applicable legislation, regulations, and CMS and contractor documents, and interviewed CMS and contractor officials, DME suppliers and manufacturers, DME industry representatives, and beneficiary advocacy groups. GAO …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation (No FEAR) Act, which took effect October 1, 2003, requires agencies to repay discrimination settlements and judgments paid on their behalf. The No FEAR Act is similar to the Contract Disputes Act (CDA) of 1978, which holds agencies accountable for payment in contract disputes. Under both laws, federal agencies must reimburse the Judgment Fund, which is administered by the Treasury Department. Before the No FEAR Act, agencies did not have to repay the fund. The No FEAR Act requires GAO to review the financial impact on Treasury of administering that law and CDA. Based on this requirement, this report provides information on (1) Treasury's estimates of its costs to process discrimination claim payments and CDA payments in fiscal year 2003 and its costs to process and seek reimbursement for claim payments under lawsuits covered by the No FEAR Act beginning in fiscal year 2004, (2) differences in claims processing and reimbursement efforts under CDA and the No FEAR Act, and (3) the extent of federal agency compliance with CDA's reimbursement requirements and Treasury's view of how effective its …

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We advocate the idea that proton decay may probe physics at the Planck scale instead of the GUT scale. This is possible because supersymmetric theories have dimension-5 operators that can induce proton decay at dangerous rates, even with R-parity conservation. These operators are expected to be suppressed by the same physics that explains the fermion masses and mixings. We present a thorough analysis of nucleon partial lifetimes in models with a string-inspired anomalous U(1)_X family symmetry which is responsible for the fermionic mass spectrum as well as forbidding R-parity violating interactions. Protons and neutrons can decay via R-parity conserving non-renormalizable superpotential terms that are suppressed by the Planck scale and powers of the Cabibbo angle. Many of the models naturally lead to nucleon decay near present limits without any reference to grand unification.

This paper presents a consequence analysis for a postulated fire accident on a building containing plutonium when the resulting outside release is partly through the ventilation/filtration system and partly through other pathways such as building access doorways. When analyzing an accident scenario involving the release of radioactive powders inside a building, various pathways for the release to the outside environment can exist. This study is presented to guide the analyst on how the multiple building leak path factors (combination of filtered and unfiltered releases) can be evaluated in an integrated manner starting with the source term calculation and proceeding through the receptor consequence determination. The analysis is performed in a two-step process. The first step of the analysis is to calculate the leak path factor, which represents the fraction of respirable radioactive powder that is made airborne that leaves the building through the various pathways. The computer cod e of choice for this determination is MELCOR. The second step is to model the transport and dispersion of powder material released to the atmosphere and to estimate the resulting dose that is received by the downwind receptors of interest. The MACCS computer code is chosen for this part of the analysis. …

In the first year of this project, we have established our experimental and theoretical methodologies for studies of the catalytic decarboxylation process. We have developed both glass and stainless steel micro batch type reactors for the fast screening of various catalysts with reaction substrates of model carboxylic acid compounds and crude oil samples. We also developed novel product analysis methods such as GC analyses for organic acids and gaseous products; and TAN measurements for crude oil. Our research revealed the effectiveness of several solid catalysts such as NA-Cat-1 and NA-Cat-2 for the catalytic decarboxylation of model compounds; and NA-Cat-5{approx}NA-Cat-9 for the acid removal from crude oil. Our theoretical calculations propose a three-step concerted oxidative decarboxylation mechanism for the NA-Cat-1 catalyst.

The design of a silicon detector for a p{bar p} collider experiment will be described. The detector uses a carbon fiber support structure with sensors positioned at small radius with respect to the beam. A brief overview of the mechanical design is given. The emphasis is on the electrical characteristics of the detector. General principles involved in grounding systems with carbon fiber structures will be covered. The electrical characteristics of the carbon fiber support structure will be presented. Test results imply that carbon fiber must be regarded as a conductor for the frequency region of interest of 10 to 100 MHz. No distinction is found between carbon fiber and copper. Performance results on noise due to pick-up through the low mass fine pitch cables carrying the analogue signals and floating metal is discussed.

An evaporator is used on liquid waste from processing facilities to reduce the volume of the waste through heating the waste and allowing some of the water to be separated from the waste through boiling. This separation process allows for more efficient processing and storage of liquid waste. Commonly, the liquid waste consists of an aqueous solution of chemicals that over time could induce corrosion, and in turn weaken the tubes in the steam tube bundle of the waste evaporator that are used to heat the waste. This chemically induced corrosion could escalate into a possible tube leakage and/or the severance of a tube(s) in the tube bundle. In this paper, analyses of a waste evaporator system for the processing of liquid waste containing corrosive chemicals are presented to assess the system response to this accident scenario. This accident scenario is evaluated since its consequences can propagate to a release of hazardous material to the outside environment. It is therefore important to ensure that the evaporator system component structural integrity is not compromised, i.e. the design pressure and temperature of the system is not exceeded during the accident transient. The computer code used for the accident simulation is RELAP5-MOD31. The …

Two novel methods for synthesis of the title compound directly from metal nitrates are described. Phase-pure materials are produced when precursors are calcined between 600 and 1000 C, with little to no ion mixing exhibited for products heated to 900 C or above. The electrochemical characteristics of these materials depended upon calcination temperature and synthesis method, with results comparable to a commercial sample for the materials made at high temperatures in a one-step process without combustion. The sample prepared by combustion also exhibited very stable capacity retention upon cycling.

This is the fourteenth Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No: DE-FC26-00NT41047. The goal of the project is to develop and demonstrate a Virtual Engineering-based framework for simulating the performance of Advanced Power Systems. Within the last quarter, good progress has been made on all aspects of the project. Software development efforts have focused primarily on completing a prototype detachable user interface for the framework and on integrating Carnegie Mellon Universities IECM model core with the computational engine. In addition to this work, progress has been made on several other development and modeling tasks for the program. These include: (1) improvements to the infrastructure code of the computational engine, (2) enhancements to the model interfacing specifications, (3) additional development to increase the robustness of all framework components, (4) enhanced coupling of the computational and visualization engine components, (5) a series of detailed simulations studying the effects of gasifier inlet conditions on the heat flux to the gasifier injector, and (6) detailed plans for implementing models for mercury capture for both warm and cold gas cleanup have been created.

These four lectures constitute a gentle introduction to what may lie beyond the standard model of quarks and leptons interacting through SU(3){sub c} {direct_product} SU(2){sub L} {direct_product} U(1){sub Y} gauge bosons, prepared for an audience of graduate students in experimental particle physics. In the first lecture, I introduce a novel graphical representation of the particles and interactions, the double simplex, to elicit questions that motivate our interest in physics beyond the standard model, without recourse to equations and formalism. Lecture 2 is devoted to a short review of the current status of the standard model, especially the electroweak theory, which serves as the point of departure for our explorations. The third lecture is concerned with unified theories of the strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions. In the fourth lecture, I survey some attempts to extend and complete the electroweak theory, emphasizing some of the promise and challenges of supersymmetry. A short concluding section looks forward.

The purpose of this collaborative project was to develop a standard practice for obtaining and archiving quantitative steel transformation kinetic data and thermal strain data. Two families of dilatometric equipment were employed to develop this standard practice for testing bar product steels. These include high-speed quenching and deformation dilatometers and Gleeble{reg_sign} thermomechanical simulation instruments. Standard measurement, data interpretation and data reporting methods were developed and defined by the cross-industry QMST Consortium members consisting of steel-manufacturers, forgers, heat-treaters, modelers, automotive and heavy vehicle OEMs along with team expert technologists from the National Labs and academia. The team designed phase transformation experiments on two selected steel grades to validate the standard practices--a medium carbon grade SAE 1050 and an alloy steel SAE 8620. A final standard practice document was developed based on the two dilatometry methods, and was submitted to and approved by ASTM (available as A1033-04). The standard practice specifies a method for measuring austenite transformation under no elastic stress or plastic deformation. These methods will be an enabler for the development and electronic archiving of a quantitative database for process modeling using computer simulation software, and will greatly assist endusers in developing accurate process and product simulations during the thermo-mechanical …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Advances in technology have led to more organizations making information available over the Internet and the World Wide Web rather than through print, significantly changing the nature of printing and information dissemination. Government Printing Office (GPO) management recognizes that the new environment in which it operates requires that the agency modernize and transform itself and the way it does business. To assist in this transformation, GAO has been performing a comprehensive review of government printing and information dissemination and of GPO's operations. In this testimony, GAO summarizes the result of its work to date, for which GAO convened a panel of experts on printing and dissemination (assembled with the help of the National Academy of Sciences) to develop options for GPO to consider in its transformation, and surveyed executive branch customers regarding their practices and preferences for printing and dissemination, as well as on their interactions with GPO. The testimony reports on how changes in the technological environment are presenting challenges to GPO and on its progress in addressing actions that GAO's work indicates could advance its transformation effort."

A new opacity code, TOPAZ, which explicitly includes configuration term structure in the bound-bound transitions is being developed. The goal is to extend the current capabilities of detailed term accounting opacity codes such as OPAL that are limited to lighter elements of astrophysical interest. At present, opacity calculations of heavier elements use statistical methods that rely on the presence of myriad spectral lines for accuracy. However, statistical approaches have been shown to be inadequate for astrophysical opacity calculations. An application of the TOPAZ code will be to study the limits of statistical methods. Comparisons of TOPAZ to other opacity codes as well as experiments are presented.

The objectives of this work include automatic recovery and visualization of a 3D chromosome structure from a sequence of 2D tomographic reconstruction images taken through the nucleus of a cell. Structure is very important for biologists as it affects chromosome functions, behavior of the cell and its state. Chromosome analysis is significant in the detection of deceases and in monitoring environmental gene mutations. The algorithm incorporates thresholding based on a histogram analysis with a polyline splitting algorithm, contour extraction via active contours, and detection of the 3D chromosome structure by establishing corresponding regions throughout the slices. Visualization using point cloud meshing generates a 3D surface. The 3D triangular mesh of the chromosomes provides surface detail and allows a user to interactively analyze chromosomes using visualization software.

This Corrective Action Decision Document (CADD) identifies and rationalizes the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office's selection of a recommended corrective action alternative appropriate to facilitate the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 516: Septic Systems and Discharge Points, Nevada Test Site (NTS), Nevada, under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. Located in Areas 3, 6, and 22 on the NTS, CAU 516 includes six Corrective Action Sites (CASs) consisting of two septic systems, a sump and piping, a clean-out box and piping, dry wells, and a vehicle decontamination area. Corrective action investigation activities were performed from July 22 through August 14, 2003, with supplemental sampling conducted in late 2003 and early 2004. The potential exposure pathways for any contaminants of concern (COCs) identified during the development of the DQOs at CAU 516 gave rise to the following objectives: (1) prevent or mitigate exposure to media containing COCs at concentrations exceeding PALs as defined in the corrective action investigation plan; and (2) prevent the spread of COCs beyond each CAS. The following alternatives have been developed for consideration at CAU 516: Alternative 1 - No Further Action; Alternative 2 - Clean Closure; and Alternative …

This report provides an overview of the international developments of the insurance regulation.

The attacks of September 11, 2001, have increased interest in the authority under statute to detain noncitizens (aliens) in the United States. Under the law there is broad authority to detain aliens while awaiting a determination of whether the noncitizen should be removed from the United States. The law also mandates that certain categories of aliens are subject to mandatory detention (i.e., the aliens must be detained).