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We conduct a comparative experimental analysis of three well known media access protocols: 802.11, CSMA, and MACA for wireless radio networks. Both fixed and ad-hoc networks are considered. The experimental analysis was carried out using GloMoSim: a tool for simulating wireless networks. The main focus of experiments was to study how (i) the size of the network, (ii) number of open connections, (iii) the spatial location of individual connections, (iv) speed with which individual nodes move and (v) protocols higher up in the protocol stack (e,g. routing layer) affect the performance of the media access sublayer protocols. The performance of the protocols was measured w.r.t. three important parameters: (1) number of received packets, (2) average latency of each packet, and (3) throughput. The following general qualitative conclusions were obtained; some of the conclusions reinforce the earlier claims by other researchers. (1) Although 802.11 performs better than the other two protocols with respect to fairness of transmission, packets dropped, and latency, its performance is found to (i) show a lot of variance with changing input parameters and (ii) the overall performance still leaves a lot of room for improvement. (2) CSMA does not perform too well under the fairness criteria, however, …

Actual regulations while designing of new fuel cycles for nuclear power installations comprise a calculational justification to be performed by certified computer codes. It guarantees that obtained calculational results will be within the limits of declared uncertainties that are indicated in a certificate issued by Gosatomnadzor of Russian Federation (GAN) and concerning a corresponding computer code. A formal justification of declared uncertainties is the comparison of calculational results obtained by a commercial code with the results of experiments or of calculational tests that are calculated with an uncertainty defined by certified precision codes of MCU type or of other one. The actual level of international cooperation provides an enlarging of the bank of experimental and calculational benchmarks acceptable for a certification of commercial codes that are being used for a design of fuel loadings with MOX fuel. In particular, the work is practically finished on the forming of calculational benchmarks list for a certification of code TVS-M as applied to MOX fuel assembly calculations. The results on these activities are presented.

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Mobile Enforcement Team Program. GAO found that since the program was established in 1995, DEA has enhanced its management of the program and provided for greater headquarters oversight and monitoring. In implementing the program and carrying out deployments, the field division METs generally complied with some of the pertinent requirements and guidelines that GAO reviewed. However, some DEA headquarters files did not contain adequate documentation, GAO could not determine whether the METs consistently and adequately assessed the requesting local law enforcement agencies' abilities to address, on their own, the drug and related violence problems for which DEA's program assistance was requested. DEA expects the program to focus on specific, targeted gangs in the areas in which the METs are deployed and that deployments will generally continue until the targeted individuals are arrested and the targeted drug gangs have been disrupted or dismantled. Consistent with the nature and objectives of the program, investigators focused primarily on street-level drug dealers and were mostly local and regional in scope. DEA collects data on various performance measures to assess the results of …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report describes the financial and management impact of increasing physician reimbursement rates in TRICARE -- the military's managed health care program. GAO found that changing the TRICARE reimbursement rate nationally to the 70th percentile of billed charges would be costly, inflationary, and largely unnecessary. Such an increase could cost the Defense Department (DOD) and its beneficiaries an additional $604 million annually with DOD paying most of this. In addition, an across-the-board increase is unnecessary because the vast majority of military beneficiaries are getting the care they need from military and civilian doctors who accept TRICARE's reimbursement rates. Nevertheless, access is impaired in some remote and rural areas. DOD's use of its existing authority to increase reimbursement rates in one of those areas--rural Alaska--has not encouraged civilian physicians to treat TRICARE beneficiaries."

Microfluidic chips incorporating a semiporous glass filter were used to electrokinetically concentrate proteins on-chip prior to injection and electrophoretic analysis. Signal enhancements of >100-fold could be achieved for the microchip analysis of both native and SDS-denatured proteins using this technique.

This report briefly examines federal statutes which set out the authority which various federal agencies may have in a proposed merger or acquisition of electric utilities.

Lighting design involves the consideration of multiple performance criteria, from the earliest stages of conceptual design, through various stages of controls and operation in a project's life cycle. These criteria include: (1) the quantitative analysis of illuminance and luminance distribution due to daylighting and electric lighting; (2) qualitative analysis of the lighting design with photometrically accurate renderings of the designed environment; (3) analysis of energy implications of daylighting and electric lighting design and operation;, and (4) analysis of control strategies and sensor placement for maximizing energy savings from lighting control while providing visual comfort. In this paper we describe the development of an integrated decision-making environment that brings together several different tools, and provides the data management and process control required for a multi-criterion support of the design and operation of daylighting and electric lighting systems. The result is a powerful design and decision-making environment to meet the diverse and evolving needs of lighting designers and operators.

This Annual Report provides an overview of the FY2000 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and presents a summary of the results achieved by each project during the year.

Laboratory soil column experiments were conducted to investigate the migration of plutonium in soils from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site.

Tax cuts have been one of the principal issues Congress has addressed in the first part of 2001. In part, this issue continues a debate that occurred through 1999 and 2000, as the federal budget began to register surpluses for the first time in nearly 30 years.

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Traditional estimates of health risk are typically inflated, particularly if cancer is the dominant endpoint and there is fundamental uncertainty as to mechanism(s) of action. Risk is more realistically characterized if it accounts for joint uncertainty and interindividual variability within a systematic probabilistic framework to integrate the joint effects on risk of distributed parameters of all (linear as well as nonlinear) risk-extrapolation models involved. Such a framework was used to characterize risks to potential future residents posed by trichloroethylene (TCE) in ground water at an inactive landfill site on Beale Air Force Base in California. Variability and uncertainty were addressed in exposure-route-specific estimates of applied dose, in pharmacokinetically based estimates of route-specific metabolized fractions of absorbed TCE, and in corresponding biologically effective doses estimated under a genotoxic/linear (MA{sub G}) vs. a cytotoxic/nonlinear (MA{sub c}) mechanistic assumption for TCE-induced cancer. Increased risk conditional on effective dose was estimated under MA{sub G} based on seven rodent-bioassay data sets, and under MA{sub c} based on mouse hepatotoxicity data. Mean and upper-bound estimates of combined risk calculated by the unified approach were <10{sup -6} and 10{sup -4}, respectively, while corresponding estimates based on traditional deterministic methods were >10{sup -5} and 10{sup -4}, respectively. It …

This report discusses issues for the United States regarding Palestinians and peace in the Middle East. Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, U.S. policy towards Palestinians, and the peace problem are among topics discussed in this report.

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The design and simulated performance of a second feasibility study are presented. The efficiency of producing muons is {approx} 0.17 {micro}/p with 24 GeV protons. This study was sponsored by the BNL Director, with BNL site specific driver and layout. It was a follow on to the First Study sponsored by the Fermilab Director, with Fermilab site specific driver and layout, and was the main US collaboration conceptual effort during the past year. Other studies, and technical work by the collaboration is reported in other papers.