This report is on the Anti-Corruption Standards of the International Financial Institutions.

Operating and improving the understanding of the Fermilab Accelerator Complex for the colliding beam experiments requires advanced software methods and tools. The Shot Data Acquisition and Analysis (SDA) has been developed to fulfill this need. The SDA takes a standard set of critical data at relevant stages during the complex series of beam manipulations leading to {radical}(s) {approx} 2 TeV collisions. Data is stored in a relational database, and is served to programs and users via Web based tools. Summary tables are systematically generated during and after a store. Written entirely in Java, SDA supports both interactive tools and application interfaces used for in-depth analysis. In this talk, we present the architecture and described some of our analysis tools. We also present some results on the recent Tevatron performance as illustrations of the capabilities of SDA.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has previously reported on the Department of Defense's (DOD) financial management and business related problems and key elements necessary for successful reform. Although the underlying conditions remain fundamentally unchanged, DOD continues to be confronted with pervasive problems related to its systems, processes (including internal controls), and people (human capital). These problems impede DOD's ability to operate its numerous business operations in an efficient and effective manner. Congress asked GAO to provide its views on (1) the impact that long-standing financial management and related business process weaknesses continue to have on DOD, (2) the underlying causes of DOD business transformation challenges, and (3) DOD's business transformation efforts. The GAO report released today highlights the challenges and impediments facing the department as it continues to transform its financial and business management operations. In addition, GAO reiterates the key elements to successful reform: (1) an integrated business management transformation strategy, (2) sustained leadership and resource control, (3) clear lines of responsibility and accountability, (4) results-oriented performance, (5) appropriate incentives and consequences, (6) an enterprise architecture to guide reform efforts, and (7) effective monitoring and oversight."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This is the fifth consecutive year that we have reviewed the District of Columbia's performance accountability report as mandated by the Federal Payment Reauthorization Act of 1994. The act requires the Mayor of the District of Columbia to submit to the Congress a performance accountability plan containing a statement of measurable and objective performance goals for the coming fiscal year for all significant activities of the District government. After the end of the fiscal year, the District is to submit a performance accountability report on the extent to which the District achieved these goals. This requirement for the District government is similar to the requirements for executive branch federal agencies under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA). GAO's report focuses on the continued progress the District has made in performance reporting. Specifically, the objectives of this report were to (1) examine the extent to which the performance accountability report is in compliance with statutory requirements, and (2) summarize some of the District's other significant performance management initiatives and identify additional opportunities for improvement."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Gasoline is subject to dramatic price swings. A multitude of factors cause volatility in U.S. gasoline markets, including world crude oil costs, limited refining capacity, and low inventories relative to demand. Since the 1990s, another factor affecting U.S. gasoline markets has been a wave of mergers in the petroleum industry, several of them between large oil companies that had previously competed with each other. For example, in 1999, Exxon, the largest U.S. oil company, merged with Mobil, the second largest. This testimony is based primarily on Energy Markets: Effects of Mergers and Market Concentration in the U.S. Petroleum Industry (GAO-04-96, May 17, 2004). This report examined mergers in the U.S. petroleum industry from the 1990s through 2000, the changes in market concentration (the distribution of market shares among competing firms) and other factors affecting competition in the U.S. petroleum industry, how U.S. gasoline marketing has changed since the 1990s, and how mergers and market concentration in the U.S. petroleum industry have affected U.S. gasoline prices at the wholesale level. To address these issues, GAO purchased and analyzed a large body of data and developed state-of-the art econometric models …

Geophysical models constitute an important component of calibration for nuclear explosion monitoring. We will focus on four major topics: (1) a priori geophysical models, (2) surface wave models, (3) receiver function derived profiles, and (4) stochastic geophysical models. The first, a priori models, can be used to predict a host of geophysical measurements, such as body wave travel times, and can be derived from direct regional studies or even by geophysical analogy. Use of these models is particularly important in aseismic regions or regions without seismic stations, where data of direct measurements might not exist. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has developed the Western Eurasia and North Africa (WENA) model which has been evaluated using a number of data sets, including travel times, surface waves, receiver functions, and waveform analysis (Pasyanos et al., 2004). We have joined this model with our Yellow Sea - Korean Peninsula (YSKP) model and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) East Asia model to construct a model for all of Eurasia and North Africa. Secondly, we continue to improve upon our surface wave model by adding more paths. This has allowed us to expand the region to all of Eurasia and into Africa, increase the …

None

None

One of the critical challenges facing planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology is the need for reliable sealing technology. Seals are required for long-term stability and integrity in the high temperature SOFC environment during normal and transient operations. Several different approaches for sealing SOFC stacks are under development, including glass or glass-ceramic seals, metallic brazes, and compressive seals. Compressive seals potentially offer a significant and unique advantage over the other approaches by providing a means of mechanically ''de-coupling'' adjacent stack components, thereby minimizing the need for closely matching the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of the various SOFC stack components. In an attempt to help the SOFC industry overcome sealing challenges, PNNL is developing mica-based hybrid compressive seals which exhibit leak rates 2 to 3 orders of magnitude lower than obtained with simple mica gasket seals.

Detailed STRUCT simulations are performed on beam loss rates in the vicinity of the BTeV detector in the Tevatron CO interaction region due to beam-gas nuclear elastic interactions and out-scattering from the collimation system. Corresponding showers induced in the machine components and background rates in BTeV are modeled with the MARS14 code. It is shown that the combination of a steel collimator and concrete shielding wall located in front of the detector can reduce the accelerator-related background rates in the detector by an order of magnitude.

Depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF{sub 6}) is stored in over 60,000 steel cylinders at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) in Paducah, Kentucky, and at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) in Portsmouth, Ohio. The cylinders range in age from 4 to 53 years. Although when new the cylinders had wall thicknesses specified to within manufacturing tolerances, over the years corrosion has reduced their actual wall thicknesses. The UF{sub 6} Cylinder Project is managed by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to safely maintain the UF{sub 6} and the cylinders containing it. This report documents activities that address UF{sub 6} Cylinder Project requirements and actions involving forecasting cylinder wall thicknesses. These requirements are delineated in the System Requirements Document (LMES 1997a), and the actions needed to fulfill them are specified in the System Engineering Management Plan (LMES 1997b). The report documents cylinder wall thickness projections based on models fit to ultrasonic thickness (UT) measurement data. UT data is collected at various locations on randomly sampled cylinders. For each cylinder sampled, the minimum UT measurement approximates the actual minimum thickness of the cylinder. Projections of numbers of cylinders expected to …

This report includes background, issues, and legislation regarding safe drinking water.

This report provides details of the characterization of Tank 38H saltcake and supernate samples pulled in September 2003. The core sample HTF-E-03-114 contained approximately 4 inches of saltcake, which was soupy and brown with white chunks, and contained less than 15 mL of cloudy free liquid. The undrained bulk saltcake had a water content of 16.8 percentage weight and a bulk density that was approximately 1.94 g/cm3 at full saturation. The 137Cs activity of the bulk saltcake in sample HTF-E-03-114 was 3.72E+7 pCi/g, which corresponds to 0.3 Ci per gallon of saltcake. The 238Pu activity of the bulk saltcake was 3.62E+6 pCi/g. The filtered free liquid in sample HTF-E-03-114 had a density of 1.430 g/cm3, a 137Cs activity of 0.73 Ci/gal., and a 238Pu activity of 5.78E+3 pCi/mL. The solids filtered from the HTF-E-03-114 free liquid were primarily composed of salts (sodium nitrate and sodium carbonate monohydrate) and sodium aluminosilicates. The Tank 38H supernate samples (HTF-E-03-122 and 123) had a density of 1.45 g/cm3, a 137Cs activity of 0.65 Ci/gal, a 238Pu activity of 2.2E4 pCi/mL, and contained no visible insoluble solids. The viscosity of supernate samples HTF-E-03-122 and 123 was determined at 25 degrees Celsius, 35 degrees Celsius, and …

This report provides analyses of the samples from Tank 41H. The characterization also includes supernate samples pulled from the surface (347 inch) and 250 inch levels of the salt supernate. The three saltcake samples (HTF-E-03-145, 146, and 147) were filled to nearly their capacity with saltcake and free liquid, with an average saltcake bulk density of 2.06 g/cm3. The undrained saltcake from the bottom of the middle sample (HTF-E-03-146) had a water content of 4.1 percentage weight, a 137Cs activity of 0.14 Ci per gallon of saltcake, and an alpha content of 1.4E+4 pCi/g. The undrained saltcake from the bottom of the bottom sample (HTF-E-03-147) had a water content of 8.5 percentage weight, a 137Cs activity of 0.17 Ci per gallon of saltcake, and an alpha content of 3.0E+4 pCi/g. Interstitial liquid drained from the middle sample (HTF-E-03-146) had a density of 1.43 g/cm3, a soluble solids content of 45.4 percentage weight, a 137Cs activity of 0.78 Ci per gallon of interstitial liquid, a nd an alpha content of 1.1E+4 pCi/mL. An analysis of material from the top of the top sample (HTF-E-03-145) is provided in support of Nuclear Criticality Safety Evaluations. The as-received saltcake and the residual insoluble solids …

In support of Low-Curie Salt (LCS) process validation at the Savannah River Site (SRS), Liquid Waste Disposition (LWD) has undertaken a program of tank waste characterization, including salt sampling. As part of this initiative, they sampled the surface of the saltcake in Tank 3F and Tank 2F using approximately 12-inch long sample tubes. A series of three saltcake samples were taken of the upper crust in Tank 3F and a single saltcake sample was taken from the bottom of a liquid-filled well in Tank 2F. In addition to analysis of the solid saltcake samples, the liquid contained in the Tank 3F samples and a separate supernate sample from Tank 2F were studied. The primary objective of the characterization is to gather information that will be useful to the selection and processing of the next waste tanks. Most important is the determination of the 137Cs concentration and liquid retention properties of Tank 3F and Tank 2F saltcake to enable projection of drained, dissolved salt composition. Additional information will aid in refining the waste characterization system (WCS) and could assist the eventual salt treatment or processing.

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 abortion facilities that are exempts from licensing under section 245.004 of the Health and Safety Code are subject to regulation by the Texas Department of Health under chapter 245 (RQ-0158-GA)

None

As part of the vibration budget study for the NLC Main Linac components, the vibration sources in the NLC modules (Girder) are under investigation. The activity is focused on the effect of cooling water flow on the structures (FXB type) stability, the transmission of vibrations to the adjacent components, and the effect of different materials of construction used for the supports. Experimental data and ANSYS simulations have been compared. This paper reports on the ongoing work.