We have presented the nuclear spin statistics of the novel extended aromatic C{sub 48}N{sub 12} azafullerene. The nuclear spin multiplets and statistical weights of {sup 14}N spin-1 bosons are provided. In addition we have also provided the {sup 13}C nuclear spin species and spin statistical weights of {sup 13}C{sub 48}N{sub 12}. The spin statistical weights and spin species show that the presence of {sup 14}N nuclei in the aromatic fullerene can provide unique experimental opportunity to investigate the nuclear spin species.

Geometries and energy separations of the various low-lying electronic states of Nb{sub n} and Nb{sub n}{sup -} (n = 4, 5) clusters with various structural arrangements have been investigated. The complete active space multi-configuration self-consistent field (CASMCSCF) method followed by multi-reference singles and doubles configuration interaction (MRSDCI) calculations that included up to 52 million configuration spin functions have been used to compute several electronic states of these clusters. The ground states of both Nb{sub 4} ({sup 1}A', pyramidal) and Nb{sub 4}{sup -} ({sup 2}B{sub 3g}, rhombus) are low-spin states at the MRSDCI level. The ground state of Nb{sub 5} cluster is a doublet with a distorted trigonal bipyramid (DTB) structure. The anionic cluster of Nb{sub 5} has two competitive ground states with singlet and triplet multiplicities (DTB). The low-lying electronic states of these clusters have been found to be distorted due to Jahn-Teller effect. On the basis of the energy separations of our computed electronic states of Nb{sub 4} and Nb{sub 5}, we have assigned the observed photoelectron spectrum of Nb{sub n}{sup -}(n = 4, 5) clusters. We have also compared our MRSDCI results with density functional calculations. The electron affinity, ionization potential, dissociation and atomization energies of Nb{sub 4} …

The mixing of atomic and macroscopic processes taking place in non-terrestrial objects creates complex, dynamic, and intriguing environments. High-resolution x-ray spectra from these sources measured by satellites such as Chandra, XMM-Newton, and the Solar Maximum Mission provide a means for understanding the physics governing these sources. Laboratory measurements of the atomic processes have proved crucial to the interpretation of these spectra. For example using the LLNL electron beam ion traps EBIT-I and EBIT-II a detailed study of the x-ray spectrum of Fe XVII has been conducted addressing the large ratio predicted by theory compared to observations of considerably smaller values of the relative intensity of the 2p-3d {sup 1}P{sub 1} resonant to the {sup 3}D{sub 1} intercombination line. The difference was often attributed to opacity effects. However, laboratory measurements in the optically thin limit agree with observations demonstrating that the prediction is too large and opacity need not be invoked. The laboratory results thus provide a benchmark in the optically thin limit for accurate estimates of opacity effects. To uncover the source of the discrepancy between theory and observation, we have performed a series of experiments that successively uncovered more details about the Fe XVII lines produced in coronal plasmas. …

This study is the initial stage of further investigation into the dynamics of injury to fish during passage through a turbine runner. As part of the study, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) estimated the probability of blade strike, and associated injury, as a function of fish length and turbine operating geometry at two adjacent turbines in Powerhouse 1 of Bonneville Dam. Units 5 and 6 had identical intakes, stay vanes, wicket gates, and draft tubes, but Unit 6 had a new runner and curved discharge ring to minimize gaps between the runner hub and blades and between the blade tips and discharge ring. We used a mathematical model to predict blade strike associated with two Kaplan turbines and compared results with empirical data from biological tests conducted in 1999 and 2000. Blade-strike models take into consideration the geometry of the turbine blades and discharges as well as fish length, orientation, and distribution along the runner.

This letter report documents the results of a computer model to quantify the travel time of tritium (radioactive hydrogen) from an underground nuclear detonation in 1969 toward a proposed producing gas well located 1,500 feet (457 meters) away.

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This report provides information about The 2003 Treaty on Extradition Between the United States and Great Britain where the treaty proved controversially before the senate would give its contest it insisted upon modifications, some quite unusual.

Wind River Resources Corporation (WRRC) received a DOE grant in support of its proposal to acquire, process and interpret fifteen square miles of high-quality 3-D seismic data on non-allotted trust lands of the Uintah and Ouray (Ute) Indian Reservation, northeastern Utah, in 2000. Subsequent to receiving notice that its proposal would be funded, WRRC was able to add ten square miles of adjacent state and federal mineral acreage underlying tribal surface lands by arrangement with the operator of the Flat Rock Field. The twenty-five square mile 3-D seismic survey was conducted during the fall of 2000. The data were processed through the winter of 2000-2001, and initial interpretation took place during the spring of 2001. The initial interpretation identified multiple attractive drilling prospects, two of which were staked and permitted during the summer of 2001. The two initial wells were drilled in September and October of 2001. A deeper test was drilled in June of 2002. Subsequently a ten-well deep drilling evaluation program was conducted from October of 2002 through March 2004. The present report discusses the background of the project; design and execution of the 3-D seismic survey; processing and interpretation of the data; and drilling, completion and production …

This report describes the sampling and analysis PNNL will conduct on ALE to characterize concentrations of radionuclides present in soil and demonstrate compliance with DOE-EM approved Authorized Limits.

About one-third of the carbon dioxide (2 Pg C/yr of 6 Pg C/yr) we emit into the atmosphere is already being sequestered naturally by the ocean by the process of CO{sub 2} gas transfer across the air-sea interface. Over twenty years ago Brewer (1978) and Chen and Millero (1979) presented the first fundamental estimates of anthropogenic CO{sub 2} in the ocean based the hypothesis of CO{sub 2} penetration along isopycnal surfaces and observations of total inorganic carbon (TCO2) and total alkalinity (TA). At that time the anthropogenic CO{sub 2} signal was not as large as today and given the uncertainty of the approach, the uncertainties of the results were generally regarded as relatively large. However, since then, variations of this approach have been used to estimate anthropogenic CO{sub 2} in many areas of the world ocean. A recent modeling study using the DOCS model, confirms that penetration along isopycnal surfaces is the dominate mode of natural carbon sequestration by the ocean.

The focus of elastic-wavefield seismic stratigraphy research shifted from onshore prospects to marine environments during this report period. Four-component ocean-bottom-cable (4-C OBC) seismic data acquired in water depths of 2400 to 2500 feet across Green Canyon Block 237 in the Gulf of Mexico were processed and analyzed. The P-P and P-SV images of strata immediately below the seafloor exhibit amazing differences in P-P and P-SV seismic facies. These data may be one of the classic examples of the basic concepts of elastic-wavefield seismic stratigraphy.

Our ongoing investigation of how 'Pillars' and other structure form in molecular clouds irradiated by ultraviolet (UV) stars has revealed that the Rayleigh-Taylor instability is strongly suppressed by recombination in the photoevaporated outflow, that clumps and filaments may be key, that the evolution of structure is well-modeled by compressible hydrodynamics, and that directionality of the UV radiation may have significant effects. We discuss a generic, flexible set of laboratory experiments that can address these issues.

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To significantly improve the simulation of climate by general circulation models (GCMs), systematic errors in representations of relevant processes must first be identified, and then reduced. This endeavor demands that the GCM parameterizations of unresolved processes, in particular, should be tested over a wide range of time scales, not just in climate simulations. Thus, a numerical weather prediction (NWP) methodology for evaluating model parameterizations and gaining insights into their behavior may prove useful, provided that suitable adaptations are made for implementation in climate GCMs. This method entails the generation of short-range weather forecasts by a realistically initialized climate GCM, and the application of six-hourly NWP analyses and observations of parameterized variables to evaluate these forecasts. The behavior of the parameterizations in such a weather-forecasting framework can provide insights on how these schemes might be improved, and modified parameterizations then can be tested in the same framework. In order to further this method for evaluating and analyzing parameterizations in climate GCMs, the U.S. Department of Energy is funding a joint venture of its Climate Change Prediction Program (CCPP) and Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program: the CCPP-ARM Parameterization Testbed (CAPT). This article elaborates the scientific rationale for CAPT, discusses technical aspects of …

The capability to image single microbial cell surfaces at nanometer scale under native conditions would profoundly impact mechanistic and structural studies of pathogenesis, immunobiology, environmental resistance and biotransformation. We report here that advances in atomic force microscopy (AFM) have allowed us to directly visualize high-resolution native structures of bacterial endospores, including the exosporium and spore coats of four Bacillus species in air and water environments. The dimensions of individual Bacillus atrophaeus spores were found to decrease reversibly by 12% in response to a change in the environment from aqueous to aerial phase. Intraspecies spore size distribution analyses revealed that spore length could vary by a factor of 2 while the absolute deviation is 7 - 13% in length and 4 - 6 % in width. AFM analysis also demonstrated that the mechanisms of spore coat self-assembly are similar to those described for inorganic and macromolecular crystallization. These results establish AFM as a powerful new tool for the analysis of molecular architecture and variability as a function of spatial, temporal and developmental organizational scales.

The Energy Technology (ET) Division provides materials and engineering technology support to a wide range of programs important to the US Department of Energy (DOE). The Division's capabilities are generally applied to technical issues associated with energy systems, biomedical engineering, transportation, and homeland security. Research related to the operational safety of commercial light water nuclear reactors (LWRs) for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) remains another significant area of interest for the Division. The pie chart below summarizes the ET sources of funding for FY 2004.

Significant improvements in the properties ofsuperconducting materials have occurred recently. These improvements arebeing incorporated into the latest generation of wires, cables, and tapesthat are being used in a broad range of prototype devices. These devicesinclude new, high field accelerator and NMR magnets, magnets for fusionpower experiments, motors, generators, and power transmission lines.These prototype magnets are joining a wide array of existing applicationsthat utilize the unique capabilities of superconducting magnets:accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider, fusion experiments suchas ITER, 930 MHz NMR, and 4 Tesla MRI. In addition, promising newmaterials such as MgB2 have been discovered and are being studied inorder to assess their potential for new applications. In this paper, wewill review the key developments that are leading to these newapplications for superconducting materials. In some cases, the key factoris improved understanding or development of materials with significantlyimproved properties. An example of the former is the development of Nb3Snfor use in high field magnets for accelerators. In other cases, thedevelopment is being driven by the application. The aggressive effort todevelop HTS tapes is being driven primarily by the need for materialsthat can operate at temperatures of 50 K and higher. The implications ofthese two drivers for further developments will …

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This report provides information about the Implications of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit for Dual Eligibles and State Medicaid Programs. The report states the changes to eligibility for dual eligibles, changes to the scope of prescription coverage of the drugs.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Because of increased awareness of threats to national security and efforts to privatize federal jobs, the demand for security clearances for government and industry personnel has increased. Industry personnel are taking on a greater role in national security work for the Department of Defense (DOD) and other federal agencies. Because many of these jobs require access to classified information, industry personnel need security clearances. As of September 30, 2003, industry workers held about one-third of the approximately 2 million DOD-issued security clearances. Terrorist attacks have heightened national security concerns and underscored the need for a timely, high-quality personnel security clearance process. However, GAO's past work found that DOD had a clearance backlog and other problems with its process. GAO was asked to review the clearance eligibility determination process and backlog for industry personnel. This testimony presents our preliminary observations on the security clearance process for industry personnel and describes (1) the size of the backlog and changes in the time needed to issue eligibility determinations, (2) the impediments to reducing the backlog and delays, and (3) some of the initiatives that DOD is considering to eliminate the backlog …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The availability of child pornography has dramatically increased in recent years as it has migrated from printed material to the World Wide Web, becoming accessible through Web sites, chat rooms, newsgroups, and now the increasingly popular peer-to-peer file sharing programs. These programs enable direct communication between users, allowing users to access each other's files and share digital music, images, and video. GAO was requested to determine the ease of access to child pornography on peer-to-peer networks; the risk of inadvertent exposure of juvenile users of peerto- peer networks to pornography, including child pornography; and the extent of federal law enforcement resources available for combating child pornography on peer-to-peer networks. Today's testimony is based on GAO's report on the results of that work (GAO- 03-351). Because child pornography cannot be accessed legally other than by law enforcement agencies, GAO worked with the Customs Cyber- Smuggling Center in performing searches: Customs downloaded and analyzed image files, and GAO performed analyses based on keywords and file names only."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1996, the Congress authorized an experimental initiative called the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program that provides funds to increase the quality of visitor experience and enhance resource protection. Under the program, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service--all within the Department of the Interior--and the Forest Service--within the U.S. Department of Agriculture--are authorized to establish, charge, collect, and use fees at a number of sites to, among other things, address a backlog of repair and maintenance needs. Also, sites may retain and use the fees they collect. The Congress is now considering, through H.R. 3283, whether to make the program permanent. Central to the debate is how effectively the agencies are using the revenues that they have collected. This testimony focuses on the potential effect of H.R. 3283 on the issues GAO raised previously in its work on the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program. Specifically, it examines the extent to which H.R. 3283 would affect (1) federal agencies' deferred maintenance programs, (2) the management and distribution of the revenue collected, and (3) interagency coordination on fee collection and use."

This report summarizes the results of work done during the performance period on this project, between October 1, 2002 and December 31, 2003, with a three month no-cost extension. The principal objective of this work was to develop a low-cost process for the synthesis of sinterable, fine powder of YSZ. The process is based on molecular decomposition (MD) wherein very fine particles of YSZ are formed by: (1) Mixing raw materials in a powder form, (2) Synthesizing compound containing YSZ and a fugitive constituent by a conventional process, and (3) Selectively leaching (decomposing) the fugitive constituent, thus leaving behind insoluble YSZ of a very fine particle size. While there are many possible compounds, which can be used as precursors, the one selected for the present work was Y-doped Na{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3}, where the fugitive constituent is Na{sub 2}O. It can be readily demonstrated that the potential cost of the MD process for the synthesis of very fine (or nanosize) YSZ is considerably lower than the commonly used processes, namely chemical co-precipitation and combustion synthesis. Based on the materials cost alone, for a 100 kg batch, the cost of YSZ made by chemical co-precipitation is >$50/kg, while that of the MD …

This paper discusses progress in the preparation of mid-IR GaSb-based III-V materials grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE). The growth of these materials is complex, and fundamental and practical issues associated with their growth are outlined. Approaches that have been explored to further improve the properties and performance are briefly reviewed. Recent materials and device results on GaInAsSb bulk layers and GaInAsSb/AlGaAsSb heterostructures, grown lattice matched to GaSb, are presented. State-of-the-art GaInAsSb materials and thermophotovoltaic devices have been achieved. This progress establishes the high potential of OMVPE for mid-IR GaSb-based devices.