This report provides information about A Brief History and Summary of Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Flag Protection.This report is divided into two reports.The first report gives a brief history of the flag protection issue and the other summarizes the two decisions of the United States supreme court.

This report is divided into two parts. The first gives a brief history of the flag protection issue, from the enactment of the Flag Protection Act in 1968 through current consideration of a constitutional amendment. The second part briefly summarizes the two decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman, that struck down the state and federal flag protection statutes as applied in the context punishing expressive conduct.

The concept for Electron Fast Ignition Inertial Confinement Fusion demands sufficient laser energy be transferred from the ignitor pulse to the assembled fuel core via {approx}MeV electrons. We have assembled a suite of diagnostics to characterize such transfer. Recent experiments have simultaneously fielded absolutely calibrated extreme ultraviolet multilayer imagers at 68 and 256eV; spherically bent crystal imagers at 4 and 8keV; multi-keV crystal spectrometers; MeV x-ray bremmstrahlung and electron and proton spectrometers (along the same line of sight); nuclear activation samples and a picosecond optical probe based interferometer. These diagnostics allow careful measurement of energy transport and deposition during and following laser-plasma interactions at extremely high intensities in both planar and conical targets. Augmented with accurate on-shot laser focal spot and pre-pulse characterization, these measurements are yielding new insight into energy coupling and are providing critical data for validating numerical PIC and hybrid PIC simulation codes in an area that is crucial for many applications, particularly fast ignition. Novel aspects of these diagnostics and how they are combined to extract quantitative data on ultra high intensity laser plasma interactions are discussed, together with implications for full-scale fast ignition experiments.

This report outlines the shifts in the South Korean polity since the election of 2002 which exposed the generational divide in South Korea with younger people more apt to criticize the United States, particularly on matters pertaining to North Korea and US military presence on the Korean Peninsula. The report also discusses these developments, particularly the rise in anti-Americanism and how it impacts American policy towards North Korea.

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Processes during laser plasma experiments typically have time scales that are less than 100 ps. The measurement of these processes requires X-ray detectors with fast temporal resolution. We have measured the temporal responses and linearity of several different X-ray sensitive Photoconductive Detectors (PCDs). The active elements of the detectors investigated include both diamond (natural and synthetic) and GaAs crystals. The typical time responses of the GaAs PCDs are approximately 60 ps, respectively. Some characterizations using X-ray light from a synchrotron light source are presented.

This report addresses the components of federal support for public broadcasting, as well as briefly describing those issues facing public television and public ratio.

The clinical and functional significance of RNA interference (RNAi) machinery, Dicer and Drosha, in ovarian cancer is not known and was examined. Dicer and Drosha expression was measured in ovarian cancer cell lines (n=8) and invasive epithelial ovarian cancer specimens (n=111) and correlated with clinical outcome. Validation was performed with previously published cohorts of ovarian, breast, and lung cancer patients. Anti-Galectin-3 siRNA and shRNA transfections were used for in vitro functional studies. Dicer and Drosha mRNA and protein levels were decreased in 37% to 63% of ovarian cancer cell lines and in 60% and 51% of human ovarian cancer specimens, respectively. Low Dicer was significantly associated with advanced tumor stage (p=0.007), and low Drosha with suboptimal surgical cytoreduction (p=0.02). Tumors with both high Dicer and Drosha were associated with increased median patient survival (>11 years vs. 2.66 years for other groups; p<0.001). In multivariate analysis, high Dicer (HR=0.48; p=0.02), high-grade histology (HR=2.46; p=0.03), and poor chemoresponse (HR=3.95; p<0.001) were identified as independent predictors of disease-specific survival. Findings of poor clinical outcome with low Dicer expression were validated in separate cohorts of cancer patients. Galectin-3 silencing with siRNA transfection was superior to shRNA in cell lines with low Dicer (78-95% vs. …

An Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA) system based on the technique of laser manipulation of neutral atoms is being developed to count individual {sup 41}Ca atoms present in natural samples with an isotopic abundance of 10{sup -15}. Trapping of all stable calcium isotopes has been demonstrated and single-atom counting has been realized. For the most abundant isotope, {sup 40}Ca (97% isotopic abundance), a magneto-optical trap (MOT) loading rate of 2 x 10{sup 10} atoms/s has been reached at the overall capture efficiency of 1 x 10{sup -4}. System improvements could increase the efficiency by at least an order of magnitude.

The nation’s health, wealth, and security rely on the production and distribution of certain goods and services. The array of physical assets, processes and organizations across which these goods and services move are called critical infrastructures (e.g. electricity, the power plants that generate it, and the electric grid upon which it is distributed). Computers and communications, themselves critical infrastructures, are increasingly tying these infrastructures together. This report aims to address the concern that this reliance on computers and computer networks raises the vulnerability of the nation’s critical infrastructures to “cyber” attacks.

Helix structures have been proposed [1] for accelerating low energy ion beams using MV/m fields in order to increase the coupling efficiency of the pulsed power system and to tailor the electromagnetic wave propagation speed with the particle beam speed as the beam gains energy. Calculations presented here show the electromagnetic field as it propagates along the helix structure, field stresses around the helix structure (for voltage breakdown determination), optimizations to the helix and driving pulsed power waveform, and simulations showing test particles interacting with the simulated time varying fields.

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Two approaches for driving an induction acceleration using a number of stacked Blumlein lines are evaluated and compared. The matched or balanced Blumlein utilizes a single switch and two transmission line sections incorporating identical dielectric materials to drive a beam load. The matched Blumlein line system further requires ferro-magnetic isolation to prevent the accelerating electric field from appearing on the external structure of the system. The Slow-Fast Blumlein line power system utilizes two transmission line sections, with different dielectric materials and two switches, one on each line. The two dielectric materials result in different wave velocities in the respective transmission line sections, thus the slow and fast lines. The Slow-Fast Blumlein system does not require ferro-magnetic isolation since the closure of both switches trap the accelerating electric field within the accelerating structure. This paper discusses two arrangements of dielectrics and conductors to form the Blumlein transmission lines and evaluates and compares the energy density and accelerating performance of these two systems.

Boiler owners and operators who need additional generating capacity face a number of legal, political, environmental, economic, and technical challenges. Their key to success requires selection of an adequately sized low-emission boiler and combustion equipment that can be operated in compliance with emission standards established by state and federal regulatory agencies. Recognizing that many issues are involved in making informed selection decisions, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) sponsored efforts at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop a guide for use in choosing low-emission boilers and combustion equipment. To ensure that the guide covers a broad range of technical and regulatory issues of particular interest to the commercial boiler industry, the guide was developed in cooperation with the American Boiler Manufacturers Association (ABMA), the Council of Industrial Boiler Owners (CIBO), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The guide presents topics pertaining to industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) boilers. Background information about various types of commercially available boilers is provided along with discussions about the fuels that they burn and the emissions that they produce. Also included are discussions about emissions standards and compliance issues, technical details related to emissions control techniques, and …

Deletion of 11q23-q24 is frequent in a diverse variety of malignancies, including breast and colorectal carcinoma, implicating the presence of a tumor suppressor gene at that chromosomal region. We show here that LARG, from 11q23, has functional characteristics of a tumor suppressor. We examined a 6-Mb region on 11q23 by high-resolution deletion mapping, utilizing both loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analysis and microarray comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). LARG (also called ARHGEF12), identified from the analyzed region, was underexpressed in 34% of primary breast carcinomas and 80% of breast cancer cell lines including the MCF-7 line. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification on 30 primary breast cancers and six breast cancer cell lines showed that LARG had the highest frequency of deletion compared to the BCSC-1 and TSLC1 genes, two known candidate tumor suppressor genes from 11q. In vitro analysis of breast cancer cell lines that underexpress LARG showed that LARG could be reactivated by trichostatin A, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, but not by 5-Aza-2{prime}-deoxycytidine, a demethylating agent. Bisulfite sequencing and quantitative high-throughput analysis of DNA methylation confirmed the lack of CpG island methylation in LARG in breast cancer. Restoration of LARG expression in MCF-7 cells by stable transfection resulted in reduced proliferation and …

Resonance-transition alkali-vapor lasers have only recently been demonstrated [1] but are already attracting considerable attention. Alkali-atom-vapor gain media are among the simplest possible systems known, so there is much laboratory data upon which to base performance predictions. Therefore, accurate modeling is possible, as shown by the zero- free-parameter fits [2] to experimental data on alkali-vapor lasers pumped with Ti:sapphire lasers. The practical advantages of two of the alkali systems--Rb and Cs--are enormous, since they are amenable to diode-pumping [3,4]. Even without circulating the gas mixture, these lasers can have adequate cooling built-in owing to the presence of He in their vapor cells. The high predicted (up to 70%) optical-to-optical efficiency of the alkali laser, the superb (potentially 70% or better) wall-plug efficiency of the diode pumps, and the ability to exhaust heat at high temperature (100 C) combine to give a power-scalable architecture that is lightweight. A recent design exercise [5] at LLNL estimated that the system ''weight-to-power ratio'' figure of merit could be on the order of 7 kg/kW, an unprecedented value for a laser of the 100 kW class. Beam quality is expected to be excellent, owing to the small dn/dT value of the gain medium. There is …

Mercury TMDLs (Total Maximum Daily Loads) are a regulatory instrument designed to reduce the amount of mercury entering a water body and ultimately to control the bioaccumulation of mercury in fish. TMDLs are based on a BAF (bioaccumulation factor), which is the ratio of methyl mercury in fish to dissolved methyl mercury in water. Analysis of fish tissue and aqueous methyl mercury samples collected at a number of locations and over several seasons in a 118 km reach of the Savannah River demonstrated that species specific BAFs varied by factors of three to eight. Factors contributing to BAF variability were location, habitat and season related differences in fish muscle tissue mercury levels and seasonal differences in dissolved methyl mercury levels. Overall (all locations, habitats, and seasons) average BAFs were 3.7 x 106 for largemouth bass, 1.4 x 106 for sunfishes, and 2.5 x 106 for white catfish. Inaccurate and imprecise BAFs can result in unnecessary economic impact or insufficient protection of human health. Determination of representative and precise BAFs for mercury in fish from large rivers necessitates collecting large and approximately equal numbers of fish and aqueous methyl mercury samples over a seasonal cycle from the entire area and all …

This paper is about a web-based ''virtual lighting simulator,'' which is intended to allow architects and lighting designers to quickly assess the effect of key parameters on the daylighting and lighting performance in various space types. The virtual lighting simulator consists of a web-based interface that allows navigation through a large database of images and data, which were generated through parametric lighting simulations. At its current form, the virtual lighting simulator has two main modules, one for daylighting and one for electric lighting. The daylighting module includes images and data for a small office space, varying most key daylighting parameters, such as window size and orientation, glazing type, surface reflectance, sky conditions, time of the year, etc. The electric lighting module includes images and data for five space types (classroom, small office, large open office, warehouse and small retail), varying key lighting parameters, such as the electric lighting system, surface reflectance, dimming/switching, etc. The computed images include perspectives and plans and are displayed in various formats to support qualitative as well as quantitative assessment. The quantitative information is in the form of iso-contour lines superimposed on the images, as well as false color images and statistical information on work plane …

An energy analyzer system is being built for the DARHT-II accelerator similar to the energy analyzer used on the Astron accelerator. This system consists of a scattering wire, magnetic bend, and null signal detector. The wire thickness of 40 mil carbon and the scattering angle of 11 degrees is chosen for good signal to noise ratio. The dipole bend angle is 60 degrees, with a 30 cm radius of curvature. The image-plane focal distance is chosen for the required energy resolution. The energy resolution and acceptance are 0.1% and {+-}5% with a time response of 10 nsec. The wire must survive the 2{micro}sec 2kA, 18.4 MeV DARHT-II beam. The MCNP code was used to study the wire scattered properties. The scattered beam fills the available 1x2 cm dipole aperture. The dispersion normal to the beam direction is 0.43 cm%. The detector is a PIN diode array which determines the beam position on the chip. This array consists of 40 2.5x0.1x0.25 mm bins with a gain in excess of 10000. The system will be installed in the space between the debris blocker and the cruncher solenoid up-stream from the shuttle dump.

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.

Shack-Hartmann based Adaptive Optics system with a point-source reference normally use a wave-front sensing algorithm that estimates the centroid (center of mass) of the point-source image 'spot' to determine the wave-front slope. The centroiding algorithm suffers for several weaknesses. For a small number of pixels, the algorithm gain is dependent on spot size. The use of many pixels on the detector leads to significant propagation of read noise. Finally, background light or spot halo aberrations can skew results. In this paper an alternative algorithm that suffers from none of these problems is proposed: correlation of the spot with a ideal reference spot. The correlation method is derived and a theoretical analysis evaluates its performance in comparison with centroiding. Both simulation and data from real AO systems are used to illustrate the results. The correlation algorithm is more robust than centroiding, but requires more computation.

The entry into force, on January 1, 1994, of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has eliminated the advantage that the beneficiaries of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) and related provisions of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) had enjoyed in trade with the United States relative to Mexico, and gave Mexico an increasingly significant competitive edge over the CBERA countries. The scheduled further implementation of the NAFTA would have resulted in a substantial advantage to Mexico over the CBERA countries and vitiate in part the purpose of the CBERA.