Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Transportation Administration's (FTA) New Starts Program helps pay for designing and constructing rail, bus, and trolley projects through full funding grant agreements. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), authorized $6.1 billion in "guaranteed" funding for the New Starts program through fiscal year 2003. Although the level of New Starts funding is higher than ever, the demand for these resources is also extremely high. Given this high demand for new and expanded transit facilities across the nation, communities need to examine approaches that stretch the federal and local dollar yet still provide high quality transit services. Although FTA has been faced with an impending transit budget crunch for several years, it is likely to end the TEA-21 authorization period with $310 million in unused New Starts commitment authority if its proposed fiscal year 2003 budget is enacted. Bus Rapid Transit is designed to provide major improvements in the speed and reliability of bus service through barrier-separated busways, buses on High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes, or improved service on arterial streets. GAO found that Bus Rapid Transit was a less expensive and more flexible approach than …

19th Edition of TOP500 List of World's Fastest Supercomputers Released MANNHEIM, Germany; KNOXVILLE, Tenn.;&BERKELEY, Calif. In what has become a much-anticipated event in the world of high-performance computing, the 19th edition of the TOP500 list of the worlds fastest supercomputers was released today (June 20, 2002). The recently installed Earth Simulator supercomputer at the Earth Simulator Center in Yokohama, Japan, is as expected the clear new number 1. Its performance of 35.86 Tflop/s (trillions of calculations per second) running the Linpack benchmark is almost five times higher than the performance of the now No.2 IBM ASCI White system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (7.2 Tflop/s). This powerful leap frogging to the top by a system so much faster than the previous top system is unparalleled in the history of the TOP500.

MPH version 2 combines all features of MPH version 1, unifies the interfaces, and provides more flexible components integration/execution modes. In a distributed multi-component environment, each executable resides on a set of SMP nodes. Components within an executable may overlap on different nodes or processors. MPH Version 2 contains the following functionality: component name registration; resource allocation; multi-component single executable, multi-component multi-executable, etc.; inter-component communication; inquiry on the multi-component environment; and standard in/out redirect.

High-energy collisions of heavy ions provide a means to study QCD in a regime of high parton density, and may provide insight into its phme structure. Results from the four experiments at RHIC (BRAHMS, PHENIX, PHOBOS and STAR) are presented, and placed in context with the lower energy data from the AGS and SPS accelerators. The focus is on the insights these measurements provide into the time history of the collision process. Taken together, the data point to the creation of a deconfined state of matter that forms quickly, expands rapidly and freezes out suddenly. With the new RHIC data, systematic data now exists for heavy ion collisions as a function of {radical}s over several orders of magnitude and as a function of impact parameter. These data test the interplay between hard and soft processes in a large-volume system where nucleons are struck multiple times. The data is consistent with creating a deconfined state (jet quenching) that forms quickly (saturation models), expands rapidly (radial and elliptic flow) and freezes out suddenly (single freezeout and blast wave fits). There are also intriguing connections with particle production in elementary systems, which point to the role of the energy available for particle production …

The purpose of this Statement of Basis/Proposed Plan is to describe the preferred remedial alternative for the R-Area Acid/Caustic Basin (RAACB) Operable Unit (OU) and to provide for public involvement in the decision-making process.

MPH version 2 combines all features of MPH version 1, unifies the interfaces, and provides more flexible components integration/execution modes. In a distributed multi-component environment, each executable resides on a set of SMP nodes. Components within an executable may overlap on different nodes or processors. MPH Version 2 contains the following functionality: component name registration; resource allocation; multi-component single executable, multi-component multi-executable, etc.; inter-component communication; inquiry on the multi-component environment; and standard in/out redirect.

The purpose of this Statement of Basis/Proposed Plan (SB/PP) is to describe the preferred remedial alternative(s) for the West of Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) Georgia Fields Site (631-19G) Operable Unit (GFS) and to provide for public involvement in the decision-making process.

A review of the scientific literature regarding boron- and lithium-containing compounds was completed. Information such as Debye temperature, heat capacity, superconductivity properties, physical and chemical characteristics, commercial availability, and recipes for synthesis was accumulated and evaluated to develop a list of neutron-sensitive materials likely to perform properly in the spectrometer. The best candidate borides appear to be MgB{sub 2} (a superconductor with T{sub c} = 39 K), B{sub 6}Si, B{sub 4}C, and elemental boron; all are commercially available. Among the lithium compounds are LiH, LiAl, Li{sub 12}Si{sub 7}, and Li{sub 7}Sn{sub 2}. These materials have or are expected to have high Debye temperatures and sufficiently low heat capacities at 100 mK to produce a useful signal. The responses of {sup 10}B and {sup 6}Li to a fission neutron spectrum were also estimated. These demonstrated that the contribution of scattering events is no more than 3% in a boron-based system and 1.5% in a lithium-based system. This project is concerned with the development of materials for use in a cryogenic neutron spectrometer and is complementary to work in progress by Labov at LLNL to develop a cryogenic gamma ray spectrometer. Refrigeration to 100 mK lowers the heat capacity of these materials …

This documents provides implementation of the selected remedial action established in the Record of Decision for the K-Area Burning/Rubble Pit and Rubble Pile Operation Unit.

''Spin-transfer'' torque is created when electric current is passed through metallic ferromagnets and may have interesting applications in spintronics. So far it was experimentally studied in ''collinear'' geometries, where it is difficult to predict whether magnetization will coherently rotate or spin-waves will be generated. Here we propose an easy modification of existing experiment in which the spin-polarization of incoming current will no longer be collinear with magnetization and recalculate the switching behavior of the device. We expect that a better agreement with the magnetization rotation theory will be achieved. That can be an important step in reconciling alternative points of view on the effect of spin-transfer torque.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 requires GAO to review various aspects of the Department of Defense (DOD) policy that allows Defense Working Capital Fund activities to carry over a 3-month level of work from one fiscal year to the next. The DOD 3-month carryover standard applies to all DOD activity groups except for the contract portion of the Air Force depot maintenance activity group, for which DOD established a 4.5-month carryover standard because of the additional administrative functions associated with awarding contracts. Reported carryover balances for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 were inaccurate and, therefore, the balances were not reliable for decision-making or budget review purposes. The reported carryover balances were not accurate due to (1) faulty assumptions used in calculating work-in-process and (2) records not accurately reflecting work that was actually completed by year-end. As a result, the amount of carryover reported by the Air Force was understated by tens of millions of dollars and customers' funds were idle that could have been used for other purposes during the fiscal year. Even though the carryover was understated, Air …

Established by Congress in 1991, the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program provides the Department of Energy (DOE)/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratories, like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL or the Laboratory), with the flexibility to invest up to 6% of their budget in long-term, high-risk, and potentially high payoff research and development (R&D) activities to support the DOE/NNSA's national security missions. By funding innovative R&D, the LDRD Program at LLNL develops and extends the Laboratory's intellectual foundations and maintains its vitality as a premier research institution. As proof of the Program's success, many of the research thrusts that started many years ago under LDRD sponsorship are at the core of today's programs. The LDRD Program, which serves as a proving ground for innovative ideas, is the Laboratory's most important single resource for fostering excellent science and technology for today's needs and tomorrow's challenges. Basic and applied research activities funded by LDRD enhance the Laboratory's core strengths, driving its technical vitality to create new capabilities that enable LLNL to meet DOE/NNSA's national security missions. The Program also plays a key role in building a world-class multidisciplinary workforce by engaging the Laboratory's best researchers, recruiting its future scientists and engineers, …

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From 1994 to 2001, Dow Corning studied a waste recycling process to recover direct process residues (DPR) resulting from the production of silicone precursors. Over the course of eight years, Dow Corning constructed and operated a pilot plant, a small scale commercial plant, and a full scale plant. The process reacts DPR with hydrogen and chlorosilane monomers at high temperature and high pressure. The process converted 85% of the DPR to valuable chlorosilane monomers such as dimethyldichlorosilane and methyldichlorosilane. When feeding methyltrichlorosilane, the process converted 30% of the MeSiCl3 to other monomers. Alternate co-feed monomers were tested. By converting waste DPR to valuable intermediates, the technology significantly reduces waste from the basic silicones manufacturing process.

This Post-Construction Report (PCR) provides a summary of construction activities performed in accordance with the approved CMI/RDR/RAWP and provides a brief description of the operable unit (OU) background, including a brief statement on remedial action requirements and objectives, completed events related to remediation of the OU, waste disposal, drawings, and project costs.

This report provides a brief overview of Internet privacy issues and tracks pending legislation.

In recent years conflicting budget priorities and divided political control have accentuated the institutional tensions between the executive and legislative branches inherent in the federal budget process. President Clinton, like his two predecessors, called for an item veto, or possibly expanded impoundment authority, to provide him with greater control over federal spending. This report provides a brief history of impoundment and discusses the debate surrounding the line item veto.

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This report briefly discusses programs designed to provide income support, price support, and/or supply management for approximately 20 specified agricultural commodities. It specifically addresses the proposed farm bill legislation, meant to expand existing services and add new programs, in part to avert ad hoc measures to fill gaps.

This report discusses global climate change and the market-based strategies to reduce greenhouse gases.

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This report provides an overview of the Cuban economy. Recent congressional interest in Cuba has centered on the partial lifting of trade sanctions on agricultural products and medicine. The 107th Congress may consider further easing of sanctions or other alterations to the trade embargo in effect since 1962. The paper first presents a brief historical overview of the Cuban economy. This history is characterized by dependence on major powers: first Spain, then the United States, and then the Soviet Union. The report then charts the different, and often conflicting, economic policy courses that Fidel Castro has pursued since his rise to power in 1959.