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The Biosafety Protocol to the 1992 Convention on biological Diversity, adopted in early 2000, addresses the safe handling, transfer, and trade of biological organisms. The Protocol sets forth procedures and rules concerning trade in biological products, including genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that have engendered controversy, especially when they are used as agricultural crops. These rules are of key importance to U.S. economic interests in agriculture as well as those dealing in other genetically modified organisms. This report provides a brief summary of the key provisions of the Protocol and the major issues associated with them.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) coverage to tribal contractors under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, focusing on: (1) the process for implementing FTCA coverage for tribal self-determination contracts; (2) the FTCA claims history for tribal self-determination contracts for fiscal years (FY) 1997 through 1999; and (3) FTCA coverage issues that are unique to tribal contractors."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) and the Durable Medical Equipment Regional Carriers' (DMERC) actions to implement a final rule for processing Medicare payments, focusing on whether: (1) it was proper for HCFA to issue its inherent reasonableness regulations as an interim final rule, and whether HCFA is authorized to delegate responsibility for making payment adjustments to the DMERCs; (2) the DMERCs' survey methods were adequate to support the proposed payment reductions; and (3) the proposed payment reductions will reduce patient access to the affected medical products."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Comptroller General's final certification of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Liability Fund's payment of claims and administrative expenses."

In this paper some of the results of a recent computer search [CoLy99] for optimal three- and four-dimensional lattice rules of specified trigonometric degree are discussed. The theory is presented in a general frame emphasizing the special nature of lattice rules among the rules of specified trigonometric degree.

The authors present the Sequential Access Model (SAM), which is the data handling system for D0, one of two primary High Energy Experiments at Fermilab. During the next several years, the D0 experiment will store a total of about 1 PByte of data, including raw detector data and data processed at various levels. The design of SAM is not specific to the D0 experiment and carries few assumptions about the underlying mass storage level; its ideas are applicable to any sequential data access. By definition, in the sequential access mode a user application needs to process a stream of data, by accessing each data unit exactly once, the order of data units in the stream being irrelevant. The units of data are laid out sequentially in files. The adopted model allows for significant optimizations of system performance, decrease of user file latency and increase of overall throughput. In particular, caching is done with the knowledge of all the files needed in the near future, defined as all the files of the already running or submitted jobs. The bulk of the data is stored in files on tape in the mass storage system (MSS) called Enstore[2] and also developed at Fermilab. …

In 1999, soil gas samples for helium-3 measurements were collected at two locations on the Hanford Site. Eight soil gas sampling points ranging in depth from 1.5 to 9.8 m (4.9 to 32 ft) below ground surface (bgs) in two clusters were installed adjacent to well 699-41-1, south of the Hanford Townsite. Fifteen soil gas sampling points, ranging in depth from 2.1 to 3.2 m (7 to 10.4 ft) bgs, were installed to the north and east of the 100 KE Reactor. Gas phase soil moisture samples were collected using silica gel traps from all eight sampling locations adjacent to well 699-41-1 and eight locations at the 100 K Area. No detectable tritium (<240 pCi/L) was found in the soil moisture samples from either the Hanford Townsite or 100 K Area sampling points. This suggests that tritiated moisture from groundwater is not migrating upward to the sampling points and there are no large vadose zone sources of tritium at either location. Helium-3 analyses of the soil gas samples showed significant enrichments relative to ambient air helium-3 concentrations with a depth dependence consistent with a groundwater source from decay of tritium. Helium-3/helium-4 ratios (normalized to the abundances in ambient air) at …

Single-shot spectrum measurements of the radiation emitted by an electron bunch provide a novel way to characterize the bunch shape. Shot noise fluctuations in the longitudinal beam density result in radiation with a spectrum that consists of spikes with width inversely proportional to the bunch length. The variance of the Fourier transform of the spectrum is proportional to the convolution function of the beam current averaged over many bunches. After the convolution function is found, the phase retrieval technique can be applied to recover the bunch shape. This technique has been used to analyze the shape of the 4-ps-long bunches at the Low-Energy Undulator Test Line at the Advanced Photon Source.

The author shows how to construct a second order achromatic (T{sub ij6} = 0, i, j {element_of} {l_brace}1,2{r_brace}) beamline with a total phase advance of 450{degree} (360{degree} + 90{degree}). The goal is to construct a 90{degree} cell which is achromatic to second order. One possible way to do this is to construct a 360{degree} sector followed by a 90{degree} cell; put dipoles and sextupoles in the 360{degree} sector; and throw the aberrations into the 90{degree} cell such that the final transformation is achromatic. The author expresses the aberrations in the 360{degree} sector in terms of the 90{degree} cell and determine whether any combination of sextupoles gives the correct cancellation.

The superhistory method is incorporated, in different implementations, into two versions of MONK. In this paper the authors intercompare the efficiencies of these implementations via the Figure Of Merit (FOM), and compare the efficiencies of each with that of conventional Monte Carlo (MC). Finally, they suggest preferred versions of MC for eigenvalue calculations. Here, FOM {approx} 1/N{sigma}{sup 2}, where N is the number of histories, and {sigma} is the variance of a quantity of interest. In the criticality-safety version MONK, fission is simulated as suggested in Ref. 1 (Method-1). Every absorption site is a potential fission site, with weight W = {sigma}{sub f}/kx{sigma}{sub a}, where {sigma}{sub f} and {sigma}{sub a} are fission and absorption cross sections, and k is an estimate of the eigenvalue. If W < 1, W is taken as pf, the fission probability. A Method-1 fission produces, on average, {nu} offspring at each site. The reactor-physics MONK uses the standard MC fission treatment (Method-0), i.e. {nu}xW is the average number of neutrons born in a fission, and pf = 1. For consistency, they take absorption sites as potential fission sites in both methods. For v = 1 and a single generation per supergeneration, conventional and superhistory methods …

A single-pass, high-gain free-electron laser (FEL) x-ray amplifier was simulated using the 3D, polychromatic simulation code MEDUSA. The seed for the system is a table-top, soft x-ray laser. The simulated fundamental and nonlinear harmonic x-ray output wavelengths are discussed.

The specifications of presently proposed x-ray free electron lasers (FELs) are for machines that will provide x-ray pulses as short as 100 fs with a photon energy as high as 12.3 keV. Since the pulse will contain as much as 5 mJ of energy, these devices will present the experimenter with an opportunity to expose matter to an unprecedented x-ray energy density. This high concentration of energetic x-rays presents both a promising frontier in energy-matter interaction, as well as a technological crevasse to be crossed by the experimenter attempting to use the FEL beam. The authors shall look at three possible problems confronting the experimenter: (1) synchronization of a detector, laser pulse, etc., to the FEL pulse; (2) radiation damage to the target sample; and (3) the presence of an electromagnetic pulse that could damage sensitive electronics located in the experimental area.

Measurements of self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) at 530 nm were made at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) low-energy undulator test line facility (LEUTL). Exponential growth of the optical signal as a function of distance was measured and compared to theoretical estimates. SASE was first observed using a beam generated from a photocathode rf gun system. It was later repeated using beam from a thermonic rf gun system. Following a brief description of the LEUTL facility, they present their results and initial analysis.

The authors reviewed the current status of a proposed KAMI (Kaon at Main Injector) experiment at Fermilab to measure the direct CP-violating K{sub L} {r_arrow} {pi}{sup 0}{nu}anti-{nu} decay. Good progress and encouraging results have been made in the past two years for measuring the required photon veto inefficiencies for both CsI and lead-scintillator detectors in a test beam at INS-KEK Japan. New beam test with 150 GeV Main Injector protons has also been scheduled in January 2000 at Fermilab using the existing KTeV detector with two new beam calorimeters. Prospects of a feasible KAMI experiment in the future is discussed here.

The CDF detector at the Tevatron Collider (Fermilab) has collected data from 1992 to 1995. During these years they performed several measurements by using B hadronic decays. All the analysis exploited lepton triggers. The new measurements the authors present here are on radiative B decays B {r_arrow} K{sup 0*} {gamma}, B {r_arrow} {var_phi}{gamma} and {Lambda}{gamma}. They show also preliminary study for the determination of the branching ratios B {r_arrow} J/{psi}K{sup +}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup {minus}} and B {r_arrow} {chi}{sub c} (1P) K{sup +}. In view of Run II they discuss CDF reaches using fully reconstructed B hadronic decays. This is done by scaling the number of events and the efficiencies found in Run I without rely on Monte Carlo simulation whenever it is possible.

Future upgrades at Fermilab possibly include installation of a third detector in the Tevatron at the C0 straight section. The front-running contender for this site is currently the BTeV heavy quark program. A significant fraction of proposed BTeV detector R and D calls for installation of a new low-luminosity interaction region at C0 early in Run II. New magnets will not be available during the interim period and any medium {beta}{sup *} IR insert must therefore be designed solely from Tevatron spares. This paper discusses some of the IR optics design issues related specifically to this magnet restriction and, more generally, issues affecting the Tevatron and its operation that will arise with the installation of any low-{beta}{sup *} IR at C0. The results of several attempts (and subsequent failures) to find a viable C0 IR optics solution using existing magnets are presented.

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In 1999, eight soil gas sampling points ranging in depth from 4.9 ft to 32 ft below ground surface (bgs) in two clusters were installed adjacent to well 699-41-1, south of the Hanford Townsite. Fifteen soil gas sampling points, ranging in depth from 7.0 ft to 10.4 ft bgs, were installed to the north and east of the 100-K East Reactor facility. Gas phase soil moisture samples were collected using silica gel traps from all eight sampling locations adjacent to well 699-41-1 and eight locations at the 100-K Area. Soil gas samples for helium-3 measurements were collected at all sampling points. No detectable tritium (<240 pCi/L) was found in the soil moisture samples from either the Hanford Townsite or 100-K Area sampling points. This behavior suggests that tritiated moisture from groundwater is not migrating upward to the sampling points and there are no large vadose zone sources of tritium at either location. Helium-3 analyses of the soil gas samples showed significant enrichments relative to ambient air helium-3 concentrations with a depth dependence consistent with a groundwater source from decay of tritium. Helium-3/helium-4 ratios (normalized to the abundances in ambient air) at the Hanford Townsite ranged from 1.012 at 5 feet …

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Several proposals are being developed around the world for an e+e- linear collider with an initial center of mass energy of 500 GeV. In this paper, we will discuss why a project of this type deserves priority as the next major initiative in high energy physics.

The overall project objective is the development and validation of an innovative combustion system, based on a novel coal preheating concept prior to combustion, that can reduce NO{sub x} emissions to 0.15 lb/million Btu or less on utility pulverized coal (PC) boilers. This NO{sub x} reduction should be achieved without loss of boiler efficiency or operating stability, and at more than 25% lower levelized cost than state-of-the-art SCR technology. A further objective is to make this technology ready for full-scale commercial deployment by 2002-2003 in order to meet an anticipated market demand for NO{sub x} reduction technologies resulting from the EPA's NO{sub x} SIP call.

In string-inspired semi-realistic heterotic orbifolds models with an anomalous U(1){sub X},a nonzero Kobayashi-Masakawa (KM) phase is shown to arise generically from the expectation values of complex scalar fields, which appear in nonrenormalizable quark mass couplings. Modular covariant nonrenormalizable superpotential couplings are constructed. A toy Z{sub 3} orbifold model is analyzed in some detail. Modular symmetries and orbifold selection rules are taken into account and do not lead to a cancellation of the KM phase. We also discuss attempts to obtain the KM phase solely from renormalizable interactions.