Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On April 8, GAO testified before the Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Reform, House Committee on Government Reform and the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs at a hearing on "The Human Capital Challenge: Offering Solutions and Delivering Results". This letter responds to requests from Chairman Voinovich, Chairwoman Davis, and Senator Carper that we provide answers to follow-up questions from the hearing."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) spent about $93 billion in fiscal year 2002 to acquire various types of services, such as base operations, logistical support, and information technology. To achieve greater cost savings and better outcomes when agencies acquire these and other services, Congress and the executive branch have encouraged greater use of performance-based contracting. Performance-based contracts specify the desired outcomes and allow the contractors to determine how best to achieve those outcomes, rather than prescribe the methods contractors should use. In October 2000, Congress sought to provide an incentive for the use of performance-based contracts through legislation giving DOD temporary authority to treat certain performance-based service contracts as contracts for commercial items. Contracts for commercial items may be awarded using streamlined procedures under Part 12 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). This authority is scheduled to expire in October 2003. As required by the October 2000 legislation, we reviewed DOD's implementation of the temporary authority, including the interim and final implementing regulations, public comments on the interim regulation, and other DOD documents. We also discussed with DOD officials the extent to which the authority had been used. …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the results of our review and assessment of bankruptcy court-weighted case filings, the workload measure the Judicial Conference first considers in assessing the need for additional bankruptcy judgeships. Weighted filings are a statistical measure of the estimated judge time that specific types of bankruptcy cases are expected to take. Congress asked us to assess whether weighted case filings are a reasonable means of measuring bankruptcy judges' case-related workload and to assess the methodology of any proposal to update the current case weights."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "With the aging of the veteran population, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is likely to see a significant increase in long-term care need. VA uses noninstitutional long-term care services, such as home health care and adult day health care, and institutional care to meet this need. GAO identified limits in veterans' access to six noninstitutional long-term care services and factors that contribute to these limitations in its report VA Long-Term Care: Service Gaps and Facility Restrictions Limit Veterans' Access to Noninstitutional Care (GAO-03-487, May 9, 2003). The report is based, in part, on a survey of all 139 VA facilities. Today's testimony discusses conclusions and highlights recommendations GAO made in the report to improve access to VA noninstitutional long-term care services."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "District officials have recently reported both a budget gap and a more permanent structural imbalance between costs and revenue raising capacity. They maintain that the structural imbalance largely stems from the federal government's presence and restrictions on the District's tax base. Accordingly, at various times District officials have asked the Congress for additional funds and other measures to enhance revenues. In a preliminary September 2002 report, GAO concluded that the District had not provided sufficient data and analysis to discern whether, or to what extent, it is facing a structural imbalance. At that time, GAO also agreed to perform a more comprehensive analysis and was asked to (1) determine whether, or to what extent, the District faces a structural imbalance between its revenue capacity and its public service responsibilities, (2) identify any significant constraints on the District's revenue capacity, (3) discuss factors beyond the control of District officials that influence the District's spending in key program areas as well as factors within its control, such as management problems, and (4) report on the District's deferred infrastructure projects and outstanding debt service and related expenses that might …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "From 1975 through 2002, annual traffic fatalities decreased from 44,525 to 42,850, while the rate of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled decreased from 3.35 to 1.51. However, decreases in fatalities have leveled off since the early 1990s. Since 1999, the number of alcohol-related fatalities has risen. In 1998, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century funded a series of highway safety programs. These programs, administered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), increased funding to the states for activities designed to encourage, among other things, the use of seat belts and to prevent drinking and driving. The states establish highway safety goals and initiate projects to help reach those goals. NHTSA provides advice, training, and technical assistance to states and can use management reviews and improvement plans as tools to help monitor and strengthen the states' performance. This testimony is based on two recent GAO reports that discuss the causes of motor vehicle crashes and related research, provide highway saftey trend data and information on federal highway safety funds and the states' uses of those funds, and review NHTSA's oversight of state highway safety …

This report describes the non CRADA-protected results of the project performed between Nova Measuring Systems, Ltd., and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to test and prototype defect signature analysis method for potential incorporation into an in-situ wafer inspection microscope. ORNL's role in this activity was to collaborate with Nova on the analysis and software side of the effort, wile Nova's role was to build the physical microscope and provide data to ORNL for test and evaluation. The objective of this project was to adapt and integrate ORNL's SSA and ADC methods and technologies in the Nova imaging environment. ORNL accomplished this objective by modifying the existing SSA technology for use as a wide-area signature analyzer/classifier on the Nova macro inspection tool (whole-wafer analysis). During this effort ORNL also developed a strategy and methodology for integrating and presenting the results of SSA/ADC analysis to the tool operator and/or data management system (DMS) used by the semiconductor manufacturer (i.e., the end-user).

Distributed energy resources (DER) offer many benefits, some of which are readily quantified. Other benefits, however, are less easily quantifiable because they may require site-specific information about the DER project or analysis of the electrical system to which the DER is connected. The purpose of this study is to provide analytical insight into several of the more difficult calculations, using the PJM power pool as an example. This power pool contains most of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. The techniques used here could be applied elsewhere, and the insights from this work may encourage various stakeholders to more actively pursue DER markets or to reduce obstacles that prevent the full realization of its benefits. This report describes methodologies used to quantify each of the benefits listed in Table ES-1. These methodologies include bulk power pool analyses, regional and national marginal cost evaluations, as well as a more traditional cost-benefit approach for DER owners. The methodologies cannot however determine which stakeholder will receive the benefits; that must be determined by regulators and legislators, and can vary from one location to another.

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Employees Retirement System and the Teacher Retirement System must pay a share of the state employee workers' compensation claims costs allocated under Labor Code section 412.0123 (RQ-0001-GA)

Relocatable classrooms (RCs) are commonly used by school districts with changing demographics and enrollment sizes. We designed and constructed four energy-efficient RCs for this study to demonstrate technologies with the potential to simultaneously improve energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Two were installed at each of two school districts, and energy use and IEQ parameters were monitored during occupancy. Two RCs (one per school) were finished with materials selected for reduced emissions of toxic and odorous volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Each had two HVAC systems, operated on alternate weeks, consisting of a standard heat-pump system and an indirect-direct evaporative cooling (IDEC) system with gas-fired hydronic heating. The IDEC system provides continuous outside air ventilation at {sup 3}15 CFM (7.5 L s-1) person-1, efficient particle filtration while using significantly less energy for cooling. School year long measurements included: carbon dioxide (CO2), particles, VOCs, temperature, humidity, thermal comfort, noise, meteorology, and energy use. IEQ monitoring results indicate that important ventilation-relevant indoor CO2 and health-relevant VOC concentration reductions were achieved while average cooling and heating energy costs were simultaneously reduced by 50 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

A record luminosity of 4.2 10{sup 31}has been reached at the Fermilab p-{bar p} collider. The lifetime of this luminosity at the beginning of the store is about 10 hours. This lifetime can be explained by the measured loss of anti-protons and protons due to collisions and emittance growths. We report on transverse emittance growth rates based on our Synchrotron Light Monitor. Longitudinal emittance growth rate measurements are based on the TeV Sampled Bunch Display data. It is shown that Intra Beam Scattering is a significant source of emittance growth rates. We comment on other possible factors for these observed emittance growth rates. Finally, we comment on future luminosity lifetimes, as we hope to further increase our peak luminosity.

In a four month study, a design for a Proton Driver was developed as a possible replacement for Fermilab's Booster. Its optical properties are summarized briefly.

Project activities were focused on the design and construction the sub-scale hybrid Direct Fuel Cell/turbine (DFC/T{reg_sign}) power plant and modification of a Capstone Simple Cycle Model 330 microturbine. The power plant design work included preparation of system flow sheet and performing computer simulations based on conservation of mass and energy. The results of the simulation analyses were utilized to prepare data sheets and specifications for balance-of-plant equipment. Process flow diagram (PFD) and piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID) were also completed. The steady state simulation results were used to develop design information for modifying the control functions, and for sizing the heat exchangers required for recuperating the waste heat from the power plant. Line and valve sizes for the interconnecting pipes between the microturbine and the heat recuperators were also identified.

The usual expression for the longitudinal wake field in terms of the impedance is exact only for the model in which the source of the field is a rigid bunch. To account for a deforming bunch one has to invoke the complete impedance, a function of both wave number and frequency. A computation of the corresponding wake field would be expensive, since it would involve integrals over frequency and time in addition to the usual sum over wave number. We treat the problem of approximating this field in an example of current interest, the case of coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) in the presence of shielding by the vacuum chamber.

The Chemical Engineering Division is one of eight engineering research divisions within Argonne National Laboratory, one of the U.S. government's oldest and largest research laboratories. The University of Chicago oversees the laboratory on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Argonne's mission is to conduct basic scientific research, to operate national scientific facilities, to enhance the nation's energy resources, and to develop better ways to manage environmental problems. Argonne has the further responsibility of strengthening the nation's technology base by developing innovative technology and transferring it to industry. The Division is a diverse early-stage engineering organization, specializing in the treatment of spent nuclear fuel, development of advanced electrochemical power sources, and management of both high- and low-level nuclear wastes. Although this work is often indistinguishable from basic research, our efforts are directed toward the practical devices and processes that are covered by Argonne's mission. Additionally, the Division operates the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory; Environment, Safety, and Health Analytical Chemistry services; and Dosimetry and Radioprotection services, which provide a broad range of analytical services to Argonne and other organizations. The Division is multidisciplinary. Its people have formal training as ceramists; physicists; material scientists; electrical, mechanical, chemical, and nuclear engineers; and chemists. …

The data from RHIC have produced many unanticipated results. I will describe a few of the surprises that occur in the soft spectra while my colleagues at this conference will summarize the hard spectra. One particularly important discovery is that properties of the initial state have an impact on the final state in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Another important discovery is that the collision zone is opaque to the passage of hadrons and perhaps even partons. And finally, the data tell us very precisely where the colliding systems hadronize on the phase diagram for nuclear matter.

Transcript of the second public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States held May 22, 2003 at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. This hearing addresses four topics, which include the commission mandate and objectives, intelligence oversight and the joint inquiry, affected constituencies, and the state of civil aviation security on September 11th.

None

The ENDF/B data library has recently been updated and is now freely available through the National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC), Brookhaven National Laboratory. This most recent library is identified as ENDF/B-VI, Release 8. Release 8 completely supersedes all preceding releases. Release 8 will be the last release of ENDF/B-VI; the next release of ENDF/B data will be for the new ENDF/B-VII library. As distributed the ENDF/B-VI, Release 8 data includes cross sections represented in the form of a combination of resonance parameters and/or tabulated energy dependent cross sections, nominally at 0 Kelvin temperature. For use in applications this library has been processed into the form of temperature dependent cross sections at eight temperatures between 0 and 2100 Kelvin, in steps of 300 Kelvin. At each temperature the cross sections are tabulated and linearly interpolable in energy. All results are in the computer independent ENDF/B-VI character format [1], which allows the data to be easily transported between computers. In its processed form this library is approximately 1.6 gigabyte in size and is distributed on three CDs.

On June 26, 2000, in a special ceremony at the White House, the completion of the "rough draft" of the human genome was announced. This milestone, which has been compared to the discoveries of Galileo, and other advances in genetics have created novel legal issues relating to genetic information. This report discusses current federal law, state statutes, and legislation related to these issues.

Recording of the second public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 22, 2003 at the Hart Office Senate Building in Washington, D.C. This hearing addresses four topics, which include the commission mandate and objectives, intelligence oversight and the joint inquiry, affected constituencies, and the state of civil aviation security on September 11th. This section includes the second panel on intelligence oversight and the joint inquiry with testimony from Senators Bob Graham and Richard Shelby and Representatives Porter Goss and Jane Harman.

Recording of the second public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States on May 22, 2003 at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. This hearing addresses four topics, which include the commission mandate and objectives, intelligence oversight and the joint inquiry, affected constituencies, and the state of civil aviation security on September 11th. This section includes the first panel on the commission mandate and objectives, with testimony from Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Senator John McCain, and Senator Joseph Lieberman.

Recording of the second public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 22, 2003 at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. This hearing addresses four topics, which include the commission mandate and objectives, intelligence oversight and the joint inquiry, affected constituencies, and the state of civil aviation security on September 11th. This section contains the third panel on affected constituencies with testimony from Senators Schumer, Clinton, Corzine and Lautenberg, and Representatives Nadler, Shays, and Smith.

Recording of the second public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States on May 22, 2003 at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. This hearing addresses four topics, which include the commission mandate and objectives, intelligence oversight and the joint inquiry, affected constituencies, and the state of civil aviation security on September 11th. This section includes the panel on civil aviation security with testimony from representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation, the Air Transport Association of America, and the Transportation Security Agency.