The issue of women’s rights in Iraq has taken on new relevance, following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, efforts to reconstruct Iraq, and recent elections for a Transitional National Assembly (TNA). Over the past three years, the Bush Administration has reiterated its interest in ensuring that Iraqi women participate in politics and ongoing reconstruction efforts in Iraq. There has also been a widening debate regarding the extent to which the U.S.-led reconstruction efforts have been able to enhance women’s rights in Iraq and encourage their participation in Iraq’s governing institutions.

Nucleation-growth kinetic expressions are derived for thermal decomposition of HMX from a variety of types of data, including mass loss for isothermal and constant rate heating in an open pan, and heat flow for isothermal and constant rate heating in open and closed pans. Conditions are identified in which thermal runaway is small to nonexistent, which typically means temperatures less than 255 C and heating rates less than 1 C/min. Activation energies are typically in the 140 to 150 kJ/mol regime for open pan experiments and about 160 kJ/mol for sealed pan experiments. Our activation energies are about 10% lower than those derived from data supplied by the University of Utah, which we consider the best previous work. The reaction clearly displays more than one process, and most likely three processes, which are most clearly evident in open pan experiments. The reaction is accelerated for closed pan experiments, and one global reaction appears to fit the data well.

Precipitation scavenging can effectively remove particulates from the atmosphere. Therefore, this process is of importance in the real-time modeling of atmospheric transport for hazardous materials. To account for the rainfall effect in LLNL operational dispersion model, a modified version of a standard below-cloud aerosol scavenging model has been developed to handle the emergency response in this scenario (Loosmore and Cerdewall, 2003, hereafter referred to as LC). Two types of rain data can be used to incorporate precipitation scavenging in the dispersion model; realtime measurements (rain gauge and radar), and model prediction. The former approach has been adopted in LC's study for the below-cloud scavenging problem based on the surface rain measurements. However, the in-cloud scavenging effect remains unresolved as a restriction of available real-time measurements in providing the vertical structure of precipitation systems. The objective of this study is to explore the possibility to incorporate three-dimensional precipitation structure of forecast data into the dispersion model. Therefore, both in-cloud and below-cloud scavenging effects can be included in LLNL aerosol scavenging model. To this end, a mesoscale model (Naval Research Laboratory 3-D weather forecast model, COAMPS) is used to demonstrate this application using a mid-west severe storm case occurring on July 18, …

The Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility Structure of the United States is charged with implementing Public Law 108-132 Sec. 128 by conducting a thorough study of matters relating to the overseas military facility structure of the United States. See also the Commission's Amended Charter and the Original Charter.

Exocyclic ethano DNA adducts are saturated etheno ring derivatives formed mainly by therapeutic chloroethylnitrosoureas (CNUs), which are also mutagenic and carcinogenic. In this work, we report that two of the ethano adducts, 3,N{sup 4}-ethanocytosine (EC) and 1,N{sup 6}-ethanoadenine (EA), are novel substrates for the Escherichia coli mismatch-specific uracil-DNA glycosylase (Mug) and 3-methyladenine DNA glycosylase II (AlkA), respectively. It has been shown previously that Mug excises 3,N{sup 4}-ethenocytosine ({var_epsilon}C) and AlkA releases 1,N{sup 6}-ethenoadenine ({var_epsilon}A). Using synthetic oligonucleotides containing a single ethano or etheno adduct, we found that both glycosylases had a {approx}20-fold lower excision activity toward EC or EA than that toward their structurally analogous {var_epsilon}C or {var_epsilon}A adduct. Both enzymes were capable of excising the ethano base paired with any of the four natural bases, but with varying efficiencies. The Mug activity toward EC could be stimulated by E. coli endonuclease IV and, more efficiently, by exonuclease III. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations showed similar structural features of the etheno and ethano derivatives when present in DNA duplexes. However, also as shown by MD, the stacking interaction between the EC base and Phe 30 in the Mug active site is reduced as compared to the {var_epsilon}C base, which could account …

In this reporting period, we continued full disc prototype manufacturing. The vacuum offgas system no longer leaks and was modified to include a vapor condenser and a by-pass for argon purge. Two sand molds were made with an oxidation prevention agent and steel mandrels inserted in the center holes to reduce shrinkage restriction. A copper coating was applied between H13 and WC inserts. The two sand molds are ready to be HIPped and examined next quarter.

Summary of Recent Field Testing: Extensive in situ (in ground) field testing using the push-pull method has demonstrated that indigenous microorganisms in the shallow (< 8 m) aquifer in FRC Areas 1 and 2 are capable of coupling the oxidation/fermentation of injected ethanol, glucose, or acetate to the reduction of U(VI) and Tc(VII). Despite highly variable initial (prior to testing) contaminant concentrations (pH: 3.3-7.2; Nitrate: 0.1-140 mM; U(VI): 1-12 uM; Tc(VII): 200-15000 pM), sequential donor additions resulted in increased rates of microbial activity (Denitrification: 01.-4.0 mM/hr; sulfate reduction: 0- 0.03 mM/hr; U(VI) reduction: 10-4 to 10-3 uM/hr; Tc(VII) reduction: 4-150 pM/hr) in all wells tested. Tc(VII) reduction and denitrification proceeded concomitantly in all tests. U(VI) reduction was concomitant with Fe(II) production in Area 1 but little Fe(II) was detected under sulfate reducing conditions in Area 2. Reoxidation of U(IV) (precipitated in the vicinity of the wells during previous tests) but not Tc(IV) was observed when injected test solutions contained initial nitrate concentrations > {approx} 20 mM. Field data and laboratory studies suggest that U(IV) is likely oxidized by Fe(III) minerals produced by enzymatic Fe(II) oxidation or by Fe(II) oxidation by nitrite. U(IV) reoxidation rates (10-3 to 10-2 uM/hr) were somewhat …

Management of surface water quality is often complicated by interactions between surface water and groundwater. Traditional Land-Surface Models (LSM) used for numerical weather prediction, climate projection, and as inputs to water management decision support systems, do not treat the lower boundary in a fully process-based fashion. LSMs have evolved from a leaky bucket to more sophisticated land surface water and energy budgets that typically have a so-called basement term to depict the bottom model layer exchange with deeper aquifers. Nevertheless, the LSM lower boundary is often assumed zero flux or the soil moisture content is set to a constant value; an approach that while mass conservative, ignores processes that can alter surface fluxes, runoff, and water quantity and quality. Conversely, models for saturated and unsaturated water flow, while addressing important features such as subsurface heterogeneity and three-dimensional flow, often have overly simplified upper boundary conditions that ignore soil heating, runoff, snow and root-zone uptake. In the present study, a state-of-the-art LSM (CLM2.0) and a variably-saturated groundwater model (ParFlow) have been coupled as single model, in single-column and distributed form. An initial set of single column simulations based on data from the Project for Intercomparison of Land-surface Parameterization Schemes (PILPS) and …

If the narrow exotic baryon resonances {Theta}{sup +}(1540) and {Xi}{sub 3/2} are members of the J{sup P} = 1/2{sup +} antidecuplet with N*(1710), the octet-antidecuplet mixing is required not only by the mass spectrum but also by the decay pattern of N*(1710). This casts doubt on validity of the {Theta}{sup +} mass prediction by the chiral soliton model. While all pieces of the existing experimental information point to a small octet-decuplet mixing, the magnitude of mixing required by the mass spectrum is not consistent with the value needed to account for the hadronic decay rates. The discrepancy is not resolved even after the large experimental uncertainty is taken into consideration. We fail to find an alternative SU(3) assignment even with different spin-parity assignment. When we extend the analysis to mixing with a higher SU(3) multiplet, we find one experimentally testable scenario in the case of mixing with a 27-plet.

The thermal pressure inside molecular clouds is insufficient for maintaining the pressure balance at an ablation front at the cloud surface illuminated by nearby UV stars. Most probably, the required stiffness is provided by the magnetic pressure. After surveying existing models of this type, we concentrate on two of them: the model of a quasi-homogeneous magnetic field and the recently proposed model of a ''magnetostatic turbulence''. We discuss observational consequences of the two models, in particular, the structure and the strength of the magnetic field inside the cloud and in the ionized outflow. We comment on the possible role of reconnection events and their observational signatures. We mention laboratory experiments where the most significant features of the models can be tested.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) system, implemented in 1998 and subsequently revised, is used to update Medicare's physician fees and moderate the growth in Medicare spending for physician services. SGR, and a predecessor system implemented in 1992, were designed to reduce physician fee updates if spending growth exceeded a specified target. Although spending growth slowed substantially under both systems, concerns about SGR arose when the system caused fees to decline by 5.4 percent in 2002. GAO was asked to discuss (1) Medicare physician spending trends both before and after the implementation of spending targets and (2) the evolution and mechanics of the SGR system. This statement is largely based on GAO's previous work on Medicare spending trends and the SGR system."

This report summarizes the work done on the project over the duration of the project, from October 1, 2002 through December 31, 2003, which includes a three month no-cost extension. Effort was directed in the following areas: (1) Fabrication of Sr-doped LaCoO3 (LSC) dense and porous samples. (2) Design and construction of a conductivity relaxation apparatus for the estimation of surface exchange coefficient, k{sub chem}, which depends on adsorption, and oxygen chemical diffusion coefficient, {tilde D}{sub 0}, the parameters which are thought to describe the cathodic activation polarization (overall charge transfer) in mixed ionic electronic conducting (MIEC) cathodes. (3) The measurement of and K{sub chem} and {tilde D}{sub 0} on LSC by conductivity relaxation, as a function of temperature and oxygen partial pressure, p{sub O{sub 2}}. (4) Fabrication of YSZ electrolyte discs with patterned LSM and LSC electrodes with three-phase boundary (TPB) length, l{sub TPB}, varying between 50 and 1200 cm{sup -1}. (5) The measurement of charge transfer resistance, R{sub ct}, and estimation of the charge transfer resistivity, {rho}{sub ct}, as a function of temperature and p{sub O{sub 2}}, and the incorporation of the adsorption step in the analysis. (6) Preliminary cell tests with oxidants having different inert gas diluents; …

We explore how nuclear modifications to the nucleon parton distributions affect production of high transverse momentum hadrons in deuteron-nucleus collisions. We calculate the charged hadron spectra to leading order using standard fragmentation functions and shadowing parameterizations. We obtain the d+Au to pp ratio both in minimum bias collisions and as a function of centrality. The minimum bias results agree reasonably well with the BRAHMS data while the calculated centrality dependence underestimates the data and is a stronger function of p{sub T} than the data indicate.

The memory consistency model in a language defines the order in which the results of write operations maybe observed through read operations. The behavior of a UPC program may depend on the timing of accesses to shared variables, so a program defines a set of possible executions, rather than a single execution. The memory consistency model constrains the set of possible executions for a given program; the user may then rely on properties that are true of all of those executions. The memory consistency model is defined in terms of the read and write operations issued by each thread in naive translation of the code, i.e., without any code transformations by the compiler, with each thread issuing operations as defined by the abstract machine defined in ISO C 5.1.2.3. A UPC compiler or run time system may perform various code transformations to improve performance, so long as they are not visible to the programmer - i.e., provided the set of externally-visible behaviors (the input/output dynamics and volatile behavior defined in ISO C 5.1.2.3) from any execution of the transformed program are identical to those of the original program executing on the abstract machine and adhering to the consistency model defined …

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