The 1990 Clean Air Act amendments established an operating permit system that is affecting many new and existing sources of air emissions, as well as state and local air pollution control agencies. After delays and early missteps, the operating permit program is moving ahead. All state and local programs have received interim or full approval, and permits are being issued, although at a slower rate than anticipated. However, a number of issues exist. These include the effect of key federal regulations, not yet promulgated, on permit programs and regulated sources; adequacy of state resources; gaining full approval for those permit programs that now have interim approval; and oversight.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the role of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in shaping the national drug control budget that the President ultimately proposes to Congress to implement the National Drug Control Strategy, focusing on: (1) whether the process ONDCP followed to certify federal agencies' drug control budgets for fiscal year (FY) 1999 was consistent with statutory requirements; and (2) the system ONDCP has developed to assess the extent to which drug control agencies and programs achieve intended results."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on whether actions taken by employees of the Forest Service to implement a Communication Plan for the Forest Service Natural Resource Agenda violated section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act, which prohibited the expenditure of funds for certain lobbying activities undertaken by covered federal officials. GAO noted that: (1) expenditure of funds by the Forest Service for certain activities undertaken to implement a Forest Service Natural Resource Agenda Communication Plan violated section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act; and (2) activities included: (a) urging members of the public during a meeting and to contact Congress in support of road funding initiatives in legislation and in the budget; and (b) a campaign to promote public support for a budget proposal seeking to change the way certain payments to states from Forest Service revenues are calculated."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on community-based, long-term care for severely disabled adults, focusing on: (1) the number and characteristics of adults with severe disabilities; (2) the federal assistance available to such individuals; (3) Medicaid coverage of personal care and related services; and (4) how a sample of selected states have implemented Medicaid policies that allow consumers to select their own caregivers, an approach called consumer direction."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on wind and photovoltaic technologies, focusing on: (1) how much the Department of Energy (DOE) has spent on research and development; (2) how DOE's objectives for its programs have changed over time; and (3) the characteristics of the markets for these technologies."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the financial statements of the Congressional Award Foundation for the fiscal years ended September 30, 1998 and 1997, focusing on: (1) the Foundation management's assertions regarding the effectiveness of its internal controls as of September 30, 1998; and (2) GAO's evaluation of the Foundation's compliance with selected provisions of laws and regulations during fiscal year 1998."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed a benchmark study conducted by a contractor comparing the Small Business Administration's (SBA) loan monitoring business processes to those of selected public and private sector organizations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the implementation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), focusing on states': (1) initial SCHIP design choices, including the use of the statutory flexibility to design their programs; (2) pursuit of statutory options, particularly extending coverage to adults in families with children; (3) development of innovative outreach strategies to enroll eligible children; and (4) tailoring of strategies to avoid the crowd out of both private insurance and Medicaid coverage by SCHIP."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the National Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, Incorporated, for the fiscal year ended August 31, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) fiscal year (FY) 1998 financial audit report."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the National Society Daughters of the American Colonists for the fiscal year ended February 28, 1998, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

The trivariate tensor-product B-spline solid is a direct extension of the B-spline patch and has been shown to be useful in the creation and visualization of free-form geometric solids. Visualizing these solid objects requires the determination of the boundary surface of the solid, which is a combination of parametric and implicit surfaces. This paper presents a method that determines the implicit boundary surface by examination of the Jacobian determinant of the defining B-spline function. Using an approximation to this determinant, the domain space is adaptively subdivided until a mesh can be determined such that the boundary surface is close to linear in the cells of the mesh. A variation of the marching cubes algorithm is then used to draw the surface. Interval approximation techniques are used to approximate the Jacobian determinant and to approximate the Jacobian determinant gradient for use in the adaptive subdivision methods. This technique can be used to create free-form solid objects, useful in geometric modeling applications.

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We show that, in the heavy quark limit, the hadronic matrix elements that enter B meson decays into two light mesons can be computed from first principles, including ''non-factorizable'' strong interaction corrections, and expressed in terms of form factors and meson light-cone distribution amplitudes. The conventional factorization result follows in the limit when both power corrections in 1/m{sub b} and radiative corrections in {alpha}{sub s} are neglected. We compute the order-{alpha}{sub s} corrections to the decays B{sub d} {r_arrow} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup {minus}}, B{sub d} {r_arrow} {pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0} and B{sup +} {r_arrow} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup 0} in the heavy quark limit and briefly discuss the phenomenological implications for the branching ratios, strong phases and CP violation.

The main objective of this research is to develop an analysis program which can accurately simulate ratcheting in piping components subjected to seismic or other cyclic loads. Ratcheting is defined as the accumulation of deformation in structures and materials with cycles. This phenomenon has been demonstrated to cause failure to piping components (known as ratcheting-fatigue failure) and is yet to be understood clearly. The design and analysis methods in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code for ratcheting of piping components are not well accepted by the practicing engineering community. This research project attempts to understand the ratcheting-fatigue failure mechanisms and improve analysis methods for ratcheting predictions. In the first step a state-of-the-art testing facility is developed for quasi-static cyclic and seismic testing of straight and elbow piping components. A systematic testing program to study ratcheting is developed. Some tests have already been performed an d the rest will be completed by summer'99. Significant progress has been made in the area of constitutive modeling. A number of sophisticated constitutive models have been evaluated in terms of their simulations for a broad class of ratcheting responses. From the knowledge gained from this evaluation study two improved models are developed. These models …

During calendar year (CY) 1998, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) performed its customary radiological protection support services in support of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Richland Operations OffIce (RL) and the Hanford contractors. These services included: 1) external dosimetry, 2) internal dosimetry, 3) in vivo measurements, 4) radiological records, 5) instrument calibra- tion and evaluation, and 6) calibration of radiation sources traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (MST). The services were provided under a number of projects as summarized here.

This report covers work performed under Order No. FA0000020 AN Contract DE-AC12-76SN00052 for deposition of refractory pure metals and alloys using the Directed Light Fabrication (DLF) process and represents the progress in depositing these materials through September 1998. In extending the DLF process technology to refractory metals for producing fully dense, structurally sound deposits, several problems have become evident. 1. Control of porosity in DLF-deposited refractory metal is difficult because of gases, apparently present in commercially purchased refractory metal powder starting materials. 2. The radiant heat from the molten pool during deposition melts the DLF powder feed nozzle. 3. The high reflectivity of molten refractory metals, at the Nd-YAG laser wavelength (1.06{micro}m), produces damaging back reflections to the optical train and fiber optic delivery system that can terminate DLF processing. 4. The current limits on the maximum available laser power to prevent back reflection damage limit the parameter range available for densification of refractory metals. The work to date concentrated on niobium, W-25Re, and spherodized tungsten. Niobium samples, made from hydride-dehydride powder, had minimal gas porosity and the deposition parameters were optimized; however, test plates were not made at this time. W-25Re samples, containing sodium and potassium from a precipitation …

The effects on electrochemical performance of the nitrogen content of disordered carbons derived from polymethacryonitrile (PMAN)-divinylbenzene (DVB) copolymers were examined in galvanostatic cycling tests between 2 V and 0.01 V vs. Li/Li+ in lM LiPF₆/ethylene carbonate (EC)-dimethyl carbonate (DMC). The first-cycle reversible capacities and coulombic efficiencies increased with increase in the level of nitrogen for samples prepared at 700°C. However, the degree of fade also increased. Similar tests were performed on materials that were additionally heated at 1,000° and 1,300°C for five hours. Loss of nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen occurred under these conditions, with none remaining at the highest temperature in all cases but one. The pyrolysis temperature dominated the electrochemical performance for these samples, with lower reversible and irreversible capacities for the first intercalation cycle as the pyrolysis temperature was increased. Fade was reduced and coulombic efficiencies also improved with increase in temperate. The large irreversible capacities and high fade of these materials makes them unsuitable for use in Li-ion cells.

Thermite mixtures, intermetallic reactants, and metal fuels have long been used in pyrotechnic applications. Advantages of these systems typically include high energy density, high combustion temperature, and a wide range of gas production. They generally exhibit high temperature stability and possess insensitive ignition properties. For the specific applications of humanitarian demining and disposal of unexploded ordnance, these pyrotechnic formulations offer additional benefits. The combination of high thermal input with low brisance can be used to neutralize the energetic materials in mines and other ordnance without the "explosive" high-blast-pressure events that can cause extensive collateral damage to personnel, facilities, and the environment. In this paper, we review the applications, benefits, and characteristics of thermite mixtures, intermetallic reactants, and metal fuels. Calculated values for reactant density, heat of reaction (per unit mass and per unit volume), and reaction temperature (without and with consideration of phase changes and the variation of specific heat values) are tabulated. These data are ranked in several ways, according to density, heat of reaction, reaction temperature, and gas production.

A Generic Distributed Simulation Architecture is described that allows a simulation to be automatically distributed over a heterogeneous network of computers and executed with very little human direction. A prototype Framework is presented that implements the elements of the Architecture and demonstrates the feasibility of the concepts. It provides a basis for a future, improved Framework that will support legacy models. Because the Framework is implemented in Java, it may be installed on almost any modern computer system.

The overall objective of this program is to develop structural silicide-based materials with optimum combinations of elevated temperature strength/creep resistance, low temperature fracture toughness, and high temperature oxidation and corrosion resistance for applications of importance to the US processing industry. A further objective is to develop silicide-based prototype industrial components. The ultimate aim of the program is to work with industry to transfer the structural silicide materials technology to the private sector in order to promote international competitiveness in the area of advanced high temperature materials and important applications in major energy-intensive US processing industries. The program presently has a number of industrial connections, including a CRADA with Johns Manville Corporation targeted at the area of MoSi{sub 2}-based high temperature materials for fiberglass melting and processing applications. The authors are also developing an interaction with the Institute of Gas Technology (IGT) to develop silicides for high temperature radiant gas burner applications, for the glass and other industries. With the Exotherm Corporation, they are developing advanced silicide powders for the fabrication of silicide materials with tailored and improved properties for industrial applications. In October 1998, the authors initiated a new activity funded by DOE/OIT on ``Molybdenum Disilicide Composites for Glass Processing …

Several techniques to predict pad failure during tungsten CMP were investigated for a specific consumable set. These techniques include blanket polish rate measurements and metrics derived from two endpoint detection schemes. Blanket polish rate decreased significantly near pad failure. Metrics from the thermal endpoint technique included change in peak temperature, change in the time to reach peak temperature, and the change in the slope of the temperature trace just prior to peak temperature all as a function of pad life. Average carrier motor current before endpoint was also investigated. Changes in these metrics were observed however these changes, excluding time to peak process temperature, were either not consistent between pads or too noisy to be reliable predictors of pad failure.

Cooperative monitoring holds the promise of utilizing many technologies from conflicts of the past to implement agreements of peace in the future. Important approaches to accomplish this are to develop the framework for assessing monitoring opportunities and to provide education and training on the technologies and experience available for sharing with others. The Cooperative Monitoring Center (CMC) at Sandia National Laboratories is working closely with agencies throughout the federal government, academics at home and abroad, and regional organizations to provide the technical tools needed to assess, design, analyze, and implement these cooperative agreements. In doing so, the goals of building regional confidence and increasing trust and communication can be furthered.