A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 significantly changed Medicare's home health care payments to home health agencies (HHAs). Under a prospective payment system (PPS), HHAs are paid a fixed amount, adjusted for beneficiary care needs, for providing up to 60 days of care---termed a "home health episode." The act also imposed new interim payment limits to moderate spending until the PPS could be implemented. Although PPS was designed to lower Medicare spending below what it was under the interim system, GAO found that Medicare's payments for full home health care episodes were 35 percent higher than estimated in the first six months of 2001. These disparities indicate that Medicare's PPS overpays for services actually provided, although some HHAs facing extraordinary costs not accounted for by the payment system may be financially disadvantaged."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The District of Columbia Family Court Act of 2001 was enacted to (1) redesignate the Family Division of the Superior Court 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 and the courts actions and proceedings. The act requires the chief judge of the Superior Court to submit a transition plan outlining the proposed operation of the Family Court. The plan shows that the Superior Court has made progress transitioning its Family Division to a Family Court, but challenges remain. The transition plan addresses most, but not all, of the act's required elements. For example, the plan identifies the number of judges and magistrate judges needed and outlines an approach for closing or transferring cases from other divisions to the Family Court. However, the plan does not include (1) a request that the Judicial Nomination Commission recruit and the president nominate the additional judges the court believes are necessary, (2) the number of nonjudicial staff needed for the Family Court, (3) information on the …

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 certain uses of driver’s license information violate the Federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2721-2725 (2000) (RQ-0464-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: Constitutionality of racial profiling statute under article III, section 35 of the Texas Constitution (RQ-0467-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 the governor is authorized to increase and appropriate state motor vehicle registration fees (RQ-0475-JC)

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A beam profile monitor for H-beams based on laser photoneutralization is being developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) for use on the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) [l]. An H ion has a first ionization potential of 0.75eV and can be neutralized by light from a Nd:YAG laser (h=1064nm). To measure beam profiles, a narrow laser beam is passed through the ion beam neutralizing a portion of the H-beam struck by the laser. The laser trajectory is stepped across the ion beam. At each laser position, the reduction of the beam current caused by the laser is measured. A proof-of-principle experiment was done earlier at 750keV. This paper reports on measurements made on 200MeV beam at BNL and with a compact scanner prototype at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab on beam from the SNS RFQ.

Boiler owners and operators who need additional generating capacity face a number of legal, political, environmental, economic, and technical challenges. Their key to success requires selection of an adequately sized low-emission boiler and combustion equipment that can be operated in compliance with emission standards established by state and federal regulatory agencies. Recognizing that many issues are involved in making informed selection decisions, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) sponsored efforts at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop a guide for use in choosing low-emission boilers and combustion equipment. To ensure that the guide covers a broad range of technical and regulatory issues of particular interest to the commercial boiler industry, the guide was developed in cooperation with the American Boiler Manufacturers Association (ABMA), the Council of Industrial Boiler Owners (CIBO), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The guide presents topics pertaining to industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) boilers. Background information about various types of commercially available boilers is provided along with discussions about the fuels that they burn and the emissions that they produce. Also included are discussions about emissions standards and compliance issues, technical details related to emissions control techniques, and …

The SNS to be built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will provide a high average intensity 1 GeV beam to produce spallation neutrons. Loss of a even small percentage of this intense beam would result in high radiation. The Beam Loss Monitor (ELM) system must detect such small, long term losses yet be capable of measuring infrequent short high losses. The large dynamic range presents special problems for the system design. Ion chambers will be used as the detectors. A detector originally designed for the FNAL Tevatron, was considered but concerns about ion collection times and low collection efficiency at high loss rates favor a new design. The requirements and design concepts of the proposed approach will be presented. Discussion of the design and testing of the ion chambers and the analog j-Point end electronics will be presented. The overall system design will be described.

A design methodology for the lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) spallation target has been developed and applied for the accelerator-driven test facility (ADTF) target. This methodology includes the target interface with the subcritical multiplier (SCM) of the ADTF and the different engineering aspects of the target design, physics, heat-transfer, hydraulics, structural, radiological, and safety analyses. Several design constrains were defined and utilized for the target design process to satisfy different engineering requirements and to minimize the time and the cost of the design development. Interface requirements with the subcritical multiplier were defined based on target performance parameters and material damage issues to enhance the lifetime of the target structure. Different structural materials were considered to define the most promising candidate based on the current database including radiation effects. The developed target design has a coaxial geometrical configuration to minimize the target footprint and it is installed vertically along the SCM axis. LBE is the target material and the target coolant with ferritic steel (HT-9 alloy) structural material. The proton beam has 8.33-mA current uniformly distributed and 8.14-cm beam radius resulting in a current density of 40 {micro}A/cm{sup 2}. The beam power is 5 MW and the proton energy is 600 MeV. The …

This paper is about a web-based ''virtual lighting simulator,'' which is intended to allow architects and lighting designers to quickly assess the effect of key parameters on the daylighting and lighting performance in various space types. The virtual lighting simulator consists of a web-based interface that allows navigation through a large database of images and data, which were generated through parametric lighting simulations. At its current form, the virtual lighting simulator has two main modules, one for daylighting and one for electric lighting. The daylighting module includes images and data for a small office space, varying most key daylighting parameters, such as window size and orientation, glazing type, surface reflectance, sky conditions, time of the year, etc. The electric lighting module includes images and data for five space types (classroom, small office, large open office, warehouse and small retail), varying key lighting parameters, such as the electric lighting system, surface reflectance, dimming/switching, etc. The computed images include perspectives and plans and are displayed in various formats to support qualitative as well as quantitative assessment. The quantitative information is in the form of iso-contour lines superimposed on the images, as well as false color images and statistical information on work plane …

An Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA) system based on the technique of laser manipulation of neutral atoms is being developed to count individual {sup 41}Ca atoms present in natural samples with an isotopic abundance of 10{sup -15}. Trapping of all stable calcium isotopes has been demonstrated and single-atom counting has been realized. For the most abundant isotope, {sup 40}Ca (97% isotopic abundance), a magneto-optical trap (MOT) loading rate of 2 x 10{sup 10} atoms/s has been reached at the overall capture efficiency of 1 x 10{sup -4}. System improvements could increase the efficiency by at least an order of magnitude.

The Spallation Neutron Source Ring accumulates about 1060 pulses of 38mA peak current IGeV H-minus particles from the Linac thru the HEBT line, then delivers this accumulated beam in a single pulse to the mercury target via the RTBT line. Bunching frequency of beam in the HEBT line is 402.5MHz, and about 1MHz in the Ring and RTBT. Position monitor electrodes in HEBT are of the shorted stripline type, with apertures of 12cm except in the dispersive bend, where the aperture is 21cm. Ring and RTBT electrodes are open striplines, with apertures of 21, 26, 30, and 36cm. All pickups are dual plane. The electronics will be PC-based with the Analog/Digital Front End passing data and receiving control and timing thru a custom PC1 interface developed by LANL[l]. LabVIEW will be used to direct the acquisition, process the data, and transfer results via Ethernet to the EPICS control system. To handle the dynamic range required with well over 60dB variation in signal size, the Ring and RTBT electronics will employ a fast gain switching technique that will take advantage of the 300ns tail-to-head gap to provide position measurement during the entire accumulation cycle. Beam-based alignment will be utilized as part …

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Two approaches for driving an induction acceleration using a number of stacked Blumlein lines are evaluated and compared. The matched or balanced Blumlein utilizes a single switch and two transmission line sections incorporating identical dielectric materials to drive a beam load. The matched Blumlein line system further requires ferro-magnetic isolation to prevent the accelerating electric field from appearing on the external structure of the system. The Slow-Fast Blumlein line power system utilizes two transmission line sections, with different dielectric materials and two switches, one on each line. The two dielectric materials result in different wave velocities in the respective transmission line sections, thus the slow and fast lines. The Slow-Fast Blumlein system does not require ferro-magnetic isolation since the closure of both switches trap the accelerating electric field within the accelerating structure. This paper discusses two arrangements of dielectrics and conductors to form the Blumlein transmission lines and evaluates and compares the energy density and accelerating performance of these two systems.

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We present an introduction to the operating principles of free-electron lasers, discussing the amplification process, and the requirements on the electron beam necessary to achieve desired performance.

Newsletter of the Texas Department of Health discussing the news, activities, and events of the organization and other information related to health in Texas.

Ion chambers are in common use as beam loss monitors at many accelerators. A unit designed and used at FNAL and later at BNL was proposed for the SNS. Concerns about the ion collection times and low collection efficiency at high loss rates led to improvements to this unit and the design of an alternate chamber with better characteristics. Prototypes have been tested with pulsed beams. The design and test results for both detectors will be presented.

This paper will discuss the present electronics design for the beam current monitor system to be used throughout the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) under construction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The beam is composed of a micro-pulse structure due to the 402.5MHz RF, and is chopped into mini-pulses of 645ns duration with a 300ns gap, providing a macro-pulse of 1060 mini-pulses repeating at a 60Hz rate. Ring beam current will vary from about 15ma peak during studies, to about 50Amps peak (design to 100 amps). A digital approach to droop compensation has been implemented and initial test results presented.

This report documents the validation and comparison of KENO V.a and KENO-VI using the SCALE 27-group ENDF/B-IV and 238-group ENDF/B-V cross-section libraries against critical experiments. Experiments considered were primarily high- or low-enriched uranium systems. The results indicate that KENO V.a and KENO-VI Monte Carlo Criticality Programs accurately calculate a broad range of critical experiments. A number of the calculations showed a positive or negative bias in excess of 1 1/2% in k-effective (k{sub eff}). Classes of criticals that show a bias include 3% enriched green blocks, highly-enriched uranyl fluoride slab arrays, and highly-enriched uranyl nitrate arrays. If these biases are properly taken into account, KENO V.a and KENO-VI can be used with confidence for the design and criticality safety analysis of uranium-containing systems. KENO V.a and KENO-VI calculate the same k{sub eff} for a system within statistics and thus may be used interchangeably as long as the geometry of the problem can be modeled.

Sampling residual waste after tank cleaning and analysis for analytes of concern to support closure and cleaning targets of large underground tanks used for storage of legacy high level radioactive waste (HLW) at Department of Energy (DOE) sites has been underway since about 1995. The DOE Tanks Focus Area (TFA) has been working with DOE tank sites to develop new sampling plans, and sampling methods for assessment of residual waste inventories. This paper discusses regulatory analytes of concern, sampling plans, and sampling methods that support closure and cleaning target activities for large storage tanks at the Hanford Site, the Savannah River Site (SRS), the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), and the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP).

This is one report in the series of reports that discuss the campaign finance practices and related issues. Concerns over financing federal elections have become a seemingly perennial aspect of our political system, centered on the enduring issues of high campaign costs and reliance on interest groups for needed campaign funds. The report talks about the today’s paramount issues such as perceived loopholes in current law and the longstanding issues: overall costs, funding sources, and competition.

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