A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program features multiple new systems linked by a first-of-a-kind information network. The Army contracted with a lead systems integrator (LSI) for FCS that could serve in a more expansive role than a typical prime contractor would. In response to a congressional mandate, this report addresses (1) why the Army decided to employ an LSI for the FCS program; (2) the nature of the LSI's working relationship with the Army; and (3) how FCS contract fees, provisions, and incentives work. In conducting its work, GAO reviewed extensive program documentation and held discussions with key officials at DOD and throughout the FCS program."

I will review the role that Monte Carlo methods play in the physical sciences. They are very widely used for a number of reasons: they permit the rapid and faithful transformation of a natural or model stochastic process into a computer code. They are powerful numerical methods for treating the many-dimensional problems that derive from important physical systems. Finally, many of the methods naturally permit the use of modern parallel computers in efficient ways. In the presentation, I will emphasize four aspects of the computations: whether or not the computation derives from a natural or model stochastic process; whether the system under study is highly idealized or realistic; whether the Monte Carlo methodology is straightforward or mathematically sophisticated; and finally, the scientific role of the computation.

We further investigate the dimensional duality (D-duality) proposed in arXiv: 0705.0550 by mainly focusing on the properties of D-branes in this background. We derive the world-sheet correspondence of static D-branes, and discuss the fate of non-static D-branes from the world-sheet viewpoint. The quantum string production with or without D-branes is also studied fromthe time-like Liouville theory. We find that the closed string production from the background is much larger than that from D-branes decaying into nothing.

Isopiestic vapor pressure measurements were made for {l_brace}yMgCl{sub 2} + (1-y)MgSO{sub 4}{r_brace}(aq) solutions with MgCl{sub 2} ionic strength fractions of y = 0, 0.1997, 0.3989, 0.5992, 0.8008, and (1) at the temperature 298.15 K, using KCl(aq) as the reference standard. These measurements for the mixtures cover the ionic strength range I = 0.9794 to 9.4318 mol {center_dot} kg{sup -1}. In addition, isopiestic measurements were made with NaCl(aq) as reference standard for mixtures of {l_brace}xNa{sub 2}SO{sub 4} + (1-x)MgSO{sub 4}{r_brace}(aq) with the molality fraction x = 0.50000 that correspond to solutions of the evaporite mineral bloedite (astrakanite), Na{sub 2}Mg(SO{sub 4}){sub 2} {center_dot} 4H{sub 2}O(cr). The total molalities, m{sub T} = m(Na{sub 2}SO{sub 4}) + m(MgSO{sub 4}), range from m{sub T} = 1.4479 to 4.4312 mol {center_dot} kg{sup -1} (I = 5.0677 to 15.509 mol {center_dot} kg{sup -1}), where the uppermost concentration is the highest oversaturation molality that could be achieved by isothermal evaporation of the solvent at 298.15 K. The parameters of an extended ion-interaction (Pitzer) model for MgCl2(aq) at 298.15 K, which were required for an analysis of the {l_brace}yMgCl{sub 2} + (1-y)MgSO{sub 4}{r_brace}(aq) mixture results, were evaluated up to I = 12.025 mol {center_dot} kg{sup -1} from published isopiestic …

An IAEA Technical Meeting on Techniques for IAEA Verification of Enrichment Activities identified 'smart tags' as a technology that should be assessed for tracking and locating UF6 cylinders. Although there is vast commercial industry working on RFID systems, the vulnerabilities of commercial products are only beginning to emerge. Most of the commercially off-the-shelf (COTS) RFID systems operate in very narrow frequency bands, making them vulnerable to detection, jamming and tampering and also presenting difficulties when used around metals (i.e. UF6 cylinders). Commercial passive RFID tags have short range, while active RFID tags that provide long ranges have limited lifetimes. There are also some concerns with the introduction of strong (narrowband) radio frequency signals around radioactive and nuclear materials. Considering the shortcomings of commercial RFID systems, in their current form, they do not offer a promising solution for continuous monitoring and tracking of UF6 cylinders. In this paper, we identify the key challenges faced by commercial RFID systems for monitoring UF6 cylinders, and introduce an ultra-wideband approach for tag/reader communications that addresses most of the identified challenges for IAEA safeguards applications.

Thermal degradation of a filled, crosslinked siloxane material synthesized from PDMS chains of three different average molecular weights and with two different crosslinking species has been studied by {sup 1}H Multiple Quantum (MQ) NMR methods. Multiple domains of polymer chains were detected by MQ NMR exhibiting Residual Dipolar Coupling (<{Omega}{sub d}>) values of 200 Hz and 600 Hz, corresponding to chains with high average molecular weight between crosslinks and chains with low average molecular weight between crosslinks or near the multifunctional crosslinking sites. Characterization of the <{Omega}{sub d}> values and changes in <{Omega}{sub d}> distributions present in the material were studied as a function of time at 250 C and indicates significant time dependent degradation. For the domains with low <{Omega}{sub d}>, a broadening in the distribution was observed with aging time. For the domain with high <{Omega}{sub d}>, increases in both the mean <{Omega}{sub d}> and the width in <{Omega}{sub d}> were observed with increasing aging time. Isothermal Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) reveals a 3% decrease in weight over 20 hours of aging at 250 C. Degraded samples also were analyzed by traditional solid state {sup 1}H NMR techniques and offgassing products were identified by Solid Phase MicroExtraction followed …

It was desired to assemble thick-walled Al alloy 2219 pressure vessels by bobbin-tool friction-stir welding. To develop the welding-process, mechanical-property, and fitness-for-service information to support this effort, extensive friction-stir welding-parameter studies were conducted on 2.5 cm. and 3.8 cm. thick 2219 Al alloy plate. Starting conditions of the plate were the fully-heat-treated (-T62) and in the annealed (-O) conditions. The former condition was chosen with the intent of using the welds in either the 'as welded' condition or after a simple low-temperature aging treatment. Since preliminary stress-analyses showed that stresses in and near the welds would probably exceed the yield-strength of both 'as welded' and welded and aged weld-joints, a post-weld solution-treatment, quenching, and aging treatment was also examined. Once a suitable set of welding and post-weld heat-treatment parameters was established, the project divided into two parts. The first part concentrated on developing the necessary process information to be able to make defect-free friction-stir welds in 3.8 cm. thick Al alloy 2219 in the form of circumferential welds that would join two hemispherical forgings with a 102 cm. inside diameter. This necessitated going to a bobbin-tool welding-technique to simplify the tooling needed to react the large forces generated in friction-stir …

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to improvement projects in certain counties.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to homeland security and protection of the public, including protections against human trafficking; providing penalties.

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This study applies a set of indicators to assess the peaceful nature of a state’s nuclear program. Evaluation of a country’s nuclear program relative to these indicators can help the international community to take appropriate actions to ensure that the growth of the global nuclear energy industry proceeds peacefully and to minimize nuclear proliferation risks.

The GLAST Large Area Telescope will provide unprecedented opportunities to detect cosmic GeV gamma rays, thanks to its large effective area, field of view and angular resolution compared with earlier telescopes. We present here the possibility of detecting GeV gamma rays produced by interactions of accelerated protons (or hadrons) with surrounding ambient material. Sources where such detection could be made include local galaxies, such as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), molecular clouds and other extended sources. We have calculated the expected gamma-ray spectrum for an isotropic distribution of protons in the LMC and simulated a one-year GLAST-LAT observation.

This report summarizes the results from the characterization of deposits from the inlets of the primary off-gas Quencher and Steam Atomized Scrubber (SAS) in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), as requested by a technical assistance request. DWPF requested elemental analysis and compound identification to help determine the potential causes for the substance formation. This information will be fed into Savannah River National Laboratory modeling programs to determine if there is a way to decrease the formation of the deposits. The general approach to the characterization of these samples included x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and chemical analysis. The following conclusions are drawn from the analytical results found in this report: (1) The deposits are not high level waste glass from the DWPF melt pool based on comparison of the compositions of deposits to the composition of a sample of glass taken from the pour stream of the melter during processing of Sludge Batch 3. (2) Chemical composition results suggest that the deposits are probably a combination of sludge and frit particles entrained in the off-gas. (3) Gamma emitters, such as Co-60, Cs-137, Eu-154, Am-241, and Am-243 were detected in both the Quencher and SAS samples with Cs-137 …

Open Access to particle physics literature does not sound particularly new or exciting, since particle physicists have been reading preprints for decades, and arXiv.org for 15 years. However new movements in Europe are attempting to make the peer-reviewed literature of the field fully Open Access. This is not a new movement, nor is it restricted to this field. However, given the field's history of preprints and eprints, it is well suited to a change to a fully Open Access publishing model. Data shows that 90% of HEP published literature is freely available online, meaning that HEP libraries have little need for expensive journal subscriptions. As libraries begin to cancel journal subscriptions, the peer review process will lose its primary source of funding. Open Access publishing models can potentially address this issue. European physicists and funding agencies are proposing a consortium, SCOAP3, that might solve many of the objections to traditional Open Access publishing models in Particle Physics. These proposed changes should be viewed as a starting point for a serious look at the field's publication model, and are at least worthy of attention, if not adoption.

We examine recent evidence from the luminosity-redshift relation of Type Ia Supernovae for the {approx} 3 {sigma} detection of a ''Hubble bubble'' -- a departure of the local value of the Hubble constant from its globally averaged value. By comparing the MLCS2k2 fits used in that study to the results from other light-curve fitters applied to the same data, we demonstrate that this is related to the interpretation of SN color excesses (after correction for a light-curve shape-color relation) and the presence of a color gradient across the local sample. If the slope of the linear relation ({beta}) between SN color excess and luminosity is fit empirically, then the bubble disappears. If, on the other hand, the color excess arises purely from Milky-Way like dust, then SN data clearly favors a Hubble bubble. We demonstrate that SN data give {beta} {approx} 2, instead of the {beta} {approx} 4 one would expect from purely Milky-Way-like dust. This suggests that either SN intrinsic colors are more complicated than can be described with a single light-curve shape parameter, or that dust around SN is unusual. Disentangling these possibilities is both a challenge and an opportunity for large-survey SN Ia cosmology.

The following report contributes to our knowledge of how to economically produce wildlife-friendly grass mixtures for future fuel feedstocks in the northern plains. It investigates northern-adapted cultivars; management and harvest regimes that are good for yields, soils and wildlife; comparative analysis of monocultures and simple mixtures of native grasses; economic implications of growing grasses for fuel feedstocks in specific locations in the northern plains; and conversion options for turning the grasses into useful chemicals and fuels. The core results of this study suggest the following:  Native grasses, even simple grass mixtures, can be produced profitably in the northern plains as far west as the 100th meridian with yields ranging from 2 to 6 tons per acre.  Northern adapted cultivars may yield less in good years, but have much greater long-term sustainable yield potential than higher-yielding southern varieties.  Grasses require very little inputs and stop economically responding to N applications above 56kg/hectare.  Harvesting after a killing frost may reduce the yield available in that given year but will increase overall yields averaged throughout multiple years.  Harvesting after a killing frost or even in early spring reduces the level of ash and undesirable molecules like K which …

Coordinated sliding of microtubule doublets, driven by dynein motors, produces periodic beating of the axoneme. Recent structural studies of the axoneme have used cryo-electron tomography to reveal new details of the interactions among some of the multitude of proteins that form the axoneme and regulate its movement. Connections among the several sets of dyneins, in particular, suggest ways in which their actions may be coordinated. Study of the molecular architecture of isolated doublets has provided a structural basis for understanding the doublet's mechanical properties that are related to the bending of the axoneme, and has also offered insight into its potential role in the mechanism of dynein activity regulation.

The fast beam-ion instability and the single bunch electron-cloud instability are substantially nonlinear phenomena and can be analyzed in a similar way. The initial exponential growth of the amplitudes known for both instabilities takes place only in the linear approximation. Later, in the nonlinear regime, amplitudes grow according to a power law or even decrease. We analyze the nonlinear regime describing the growth of amplitudes in time and along the train of bunches. Analytic analysis is compared with simulations.

We present constraints on the mean matter density, {Omega}{sub m}, dark energy density, {Omega}{sub DE}, and the dark energy equation of state parameter, w, using Chandra measurements of the X-ray gas mass fraction (fgas) in 42 hot (kT > 5keV), X-ray luminous, dynamically relaxed galaxy clusters spanning the redshift range 0.05 < z < 1.1. Using only the fgas data for the 6 lowest redshift clusters at z < 0.15, for which dark energy has a negligible effect on the measurements, we measure {Omega}{sub m}=0.28{+-}0.06 (68% confidence, using standard priors on the Hubble Constant, H{sub 0}, and mean baryon density, {Omega}{sub b}h{sup 2}). Analyzing the data for all 42 clusters, employing only weak priors on H{sub 0} and {Omega}{sub b}h{sup 2}, we obtain a similar result on {Omega}{sub m} and detect the effects of dark energy on the distances to the clusters at {approx}99.99% confidence, with {Omega}{sub DE}=0.86{+-}0.21 for a non-flat LCDM model. The detection of dark energy is comparable in significance to recent SNIa studies and represents strong, independent evidence for cosmic acceleration. Systematic scatter remains undetected in the f{sub gas} data, despite a weighted mean statistical scatter in the distance measurements of only {approx}5%. For a flat cosmology …

Most of optical gravitational lenses recently discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Lens Search (SQLS) have two-images rather than four images, in marked contrast to radio lenses for which the fraction of four-image lenses (quad fraction) is quite high. We revisit the quad fraction among optical lenses by taking the selection function of the SQLS into account. We find that the current observed quad fraction in the SQLS is indeed lower than, but consistent with, the prediction of our theoretical model. The low quad fraction among optical lenses, together with the high quad fraction among radio lenses, implies that the quasar optical luminosity function has a relatively shallow faint end slope.

In this volume (III), all P-wave measurements are presented that were performed in Borehole C4997 at the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) with T-Rex as the seismic source and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) 3-D wireline geophone as the at-depth borehole receiver. P-wave measurements were performed over the depth range of 390 to 1220 ft, typically in 10-ft intervals. However, in some interbeds, 5-ft depth intervals were used. Compression (P) waves were generated by moving the base plate of T-Rex for a given number of cycles at a fixed frequency as discussed in Section 2. This process was repeated so that signal averaging in the time domain was performed using 3 to about 15 averages, with 5 averages typically used. In addition to the LBNL 3-D geophone, called the lower receiver herein, a 3-D geophone from Redpath Geophysics was fixed at a depth of 40 ft (later relocated to 27.5 ft due to visibility in borehole after rain) in Borehole C4997, and a 3-D geophone from the University of Texas was embedded near the borehole at about 1.5 ft below the ground surface. This volume is organized into 12 sections as follows: Section 1: Introduction, Section 2: Explanation of Terminology, …

The containment vessels for the Model 9975 radioactive material shipping packaging employ a cone-seal closure. The possibility of a metal-to-metal seal forming between the mating conical surfaces, independent of the elastomer seals, has been raised. It was postulated that such an occurrence would compromise the containment vessel hydrostatic and leakage tests. The possibility of formation of such a seal has been investigated by testing and by structural and statistical analyses. The results of the testing and the statistical analysis demonstrate and procedural changes ensure that hydrostatic proof and annual leakage testing can be accomplished to the appropriate standards.

We present a combined measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |V{sub cb}| and of the parameters {rho}{sup 2}, R{sub 1}(1), and R{sub 2}(1), which fully characterize the form factors for the B{sup 0} {yields} D*-{ell}+?{sub {ell}} decay in the framework of HQET. The results, based on a selected sample of about 52,800 B{sup 0} {yields} D*-{ell}+?{sub {ell}} decays, recorded by the BABAR detector, are {rho}{sup 2} = 1.156 {+-} 0.094 {+-} 0.028, R{sub 1}(1) = 1.329{+-}0.131{+-}0.044, R{sub 2}(1) = 0.859{+-}0.077{+-}0.022, and F(1)|V{sub cb}| = (35.0{+-}0.4{+-}1.1)x10-3. The first error is the statistical and the second is the systematic uncertainty. Combining these measurements with the previous BABAR measurement of the form factors, which employs a different ?t technique on a partial sample of the data, we improve the statistical precision of the result, {rho}{sup 2} = 1.179 {+-} 0.048 {+-} 0.028,R{sub 1}(1) = 1.417 {+-} 0.061 {+-} 0.044,R{sub 2}(1) = 0.836 {+-} 0.037 {+-} 0.022, and F(1)|V{sub cb}| = (34.7 {+-} 0.3 {+-} 1.1) x 10-3. Using lattice calculations for the axial form factor F(1), we extract |V{sub cb}| = (37.7{+-}0.3{+-}1.2{+-}{sup 1.2}{sub 1.4})x10{sup -3}, where the third error is due to the uncertainty in F(1). We also present a measurement of the …

Velocity measurements in shallow sediments from ground surface to approximately 370 to 400 feet bgs were collected by Redpath Geophysics using impulsive S- and P-wave seismic sources (Redpath 2007). Measurements below this depth within basalt and sedimentary interbeds were made by UTA between October and December 2006 using the T-Rex vibratory seismic source in each of the three boreholes. Results of these measurements including seismic records, wave-arrival identifications and interpreted velocity profiles are presented in the following six volumes: I. P-Wave Measurements in Borehole C4993 II. P-Wave Measurements in Borehole C4996 III. P-Wave Measurements in Borehole C4997 IV. S-Wave Measurements in Borehole C4993 V. S-Wave Measurements in Borehole C4996 VI. S-Wave Measurements in Borehole C4997 In this volume (VI), all S-wave measurements are presented that were performed in Borehole C4997 at the WTP with T-Rex as the seismic source and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) 3-D wireline geophone as the at-depth borehole receiver.