This report described the work conducted at the National Institute of Standards and Technology under an interagency agreement signed in September 1992 between DOE and NIST for 5 years. The interagency agreement envisions continual funding from DOE to support the development of fuel efficient, low emission engine technologies in terms of lubrication, friction, and wear control encountered in the development of advanced transportation technologies. However, in 1994, the DOE office of transportation technologies was reorganized and the tribology program was dissolved. The work at NIST therefore continued at a low level without further funding from DOE. The work continued to support transportation technologies in the development of fuel efficient, low emission engine development. Under this program, significant progress has been made in advancing the state of the art of lubrication technology for advanced engine research and development. Some of the highlights are: (1) developed an advanced high temperature liquid lubricant capable of sustaining high temperatures in a prototype heat engine; (2) developed a novel liquid lubricant which potentially could lower the emission of heavy duty diesel engines; (3) developed lubricant chemistries for ceramics used in the heat engines; (4) developed application maps for ceramic lubricant chemistry combinations for design purpose; …

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The authors describe a theoretical model to study the transmission of relativistic H{sup {minus}} ions through thin carbon foils. The approach is based on a Monte Carlo solution of the Langevin equation describing electronic excitations of the atoms during the transport through the foil. Calculations for the subshell populations of outgoing hydrogen atoms are found to be in good agreement with recent experimental data on an absolute scale and show that there exists a propensity for populating extreme Stark states.

This report provides an overview of the financial outlook for social security and medicare programs.

This report provides an overview of the financial outlook for Social Security and Medicare programs.

The National Ignition Facility, currently under design and construction at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will be the world`s largest laser when complete. The NIF will use about 8,000 large optics of 26 different types to focus up to 192 laser beams on a dime-size target. Given the constraints of the NIF operating environment, the tasks associated with optics transport and handling require a novel, versatile transport system. The system will consist of a computer system containing guidance, traffic management and order entry functions, and four or more automated laser-guided vehicles. This transport system will transport optics enclosures that are essentially portable clean rooms and will lift, align, and position them as needed to contact and engage mating points on the laser support structure.

We have built monitors for use as beam diagnostics in the narrow gap of an undulator for an FEL experiment. They utilize an intercepting screen of doped YAG scintillating crystal to make light that is imaged through a periscope by conventional video equipment. The absolute position can be ascertained by comparing the electron beam position with the position of a He:Ne laser that is observed by this pop-in monitor. The optical properties of the periscope and the mechanical arrangement of the system mean that beam can be spatially determined to the resolution of the camera, in this case approximately 10 micrometers. Our experience with these monitors suggests improvements for successor designs, which we also describe.

Amorphous carbon films are used as protective coatings on magnetic media to protect the magnetic layer from wear and abrasion caused by the read/write head during hard disk drive start-up and operation. A key requirement in increasing the storage capacity and reliability of hard-disk drives is improving the performance of these coatings. This cooperative agreement used optical characterization techniques developed at LBNL to study thin-film hard disk media produced by Seagate Technology, major US hard drive manufacturer. The chief scientific goal was relating quantitatively the results of the optical characterization to the underlying chemical structure of the overcoat. In a collaboration with Seagate, LBNL, and Cambridge University, optical and electron-based characterization were used to evaluate the chemical structure of overcoats. The sp3 fraction of the sputtered amorphous carbon films was measured quantitatively for the first time and related to the optical spectroscopy results. This work and other selected aspects of the research performed under the agreement were presented at technical meetings and published in the open literature. The chief technical goal was designing manufacturing processes for the protective carbon overcoat for use in new generations of Seagate disk drives. To this end, joint research carried out under this agreement enabled …

Temperature measurements have been made on HSLA-100 steel confinement vessel number 6-2-3-1. These measurements are intended to give a view of the vessel temperature response under conditions similar to operational conditions, starting from worst case. The vessel`s temperature must be above the minimum operating temperature when used to contain an explosive event to ensure that the vessel material has the desired crack arrest properties. Several series of temperature measurements have been conducted over 24 and 48 hour periods during February 1998. These tests were intended to demonstrate that after running the heaters in the environmental shelter for some time, (1) the vessel warms up to temperatures well above the minimum operating temperature, (2) that through-thickness temperature gradients are negligible, and (3) that the temperature differences from one part of the vessel to another are small.

This report is a guide to basic sources useful in tracking federal legislation and regulations. It has been prepared primarily for the use of constituents who wish to follow the federal government's legislative or regulatory activities at the local level. Brief annotations for the selected printed, telephone, electronic, and related sources describe their scope, focus, and frequency, include publisher contact information, and provide Internet addresses where available.

This report is a guide to basic sources useful in tracking federal legislation and regulations. It has been prepared primarily for the use of constituents who wish to follow the federal government's legislative or regulatory activities at the local level. Brief annotations for the selected printed, telephone, electronic, and related sources describe their scope, focus, and frequency, include publisher contact information, and provide Internet addresses where available.