This report is the second in a series detailing the procedures used and the results obtained from studies designed to determine the impacts of erosion control structures on fish habitat at Willapa Bay, Washington. The erosion control structure, consisting of a 1600-ft rock groin and an attached 930-ft underwater dike was placed on Washaway Beach in 1998 to protect State Route (SR) 105 from erosion. The objectives of the study are to develop an understanding about whether groin-type structures on the outer coast can alter migratory movement or predation pressure on juvenile and adult salmon. Field surveys in this report were conducted from October 14-21, 2001, and consisted of gillnetting, passive drifter surveys, diver surveys, interviews with fishers and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) personnel, bird and mammal surveys, and split beam hydroacoustic surveys. Field sampling activities were begun on October 14 and were suspended during the commercial gillnet season from October 16-18. Interviews with fishers and WDFW were conducted during that period, and field sampling recommenced on October 19. The hydroacoustic surveys were conducted from October 19-21. The migration pattern of fish, presumed to be salmon, was documented relative to the tidal phase. Fish were observed to …

The U.S. is developing fusion energy based on inertial confinement of the burning fusion fuel, as a complement to the magnetic confinement approach. DOE's Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) program within the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) is coordinated with, and gains leverage from, the much larger Inertial Confinement Fusion program of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Advanced plasma and particle beam simulations play a major role in the IFE effort, and the program is well poised to benefit from an Earth Simulator-class resource. Progress in all key physics areas of IFE, including heavy-ion ''drivers'' which impart the energy to the fusion fuel, the targets for both ion- and laser-driven approaches, and an advanced concept known as fast ignition, would be dramatically accelerated by an Earth Simulator-class resource.

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This report provides data on federal employee unions and employees who will be potentially affected by the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

This report offers an overview of the availability of intellectual property rights for plants, focusing upon the seed industry. It initially offers an introduction to seed innovation. The report then reviews the three intellectual property regimes applicable to plant innovation: utility patents, plant patents and plant variety protection certificates. It then details a 2001 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, J.E.M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., which held that sexually reproducing plants may be subject to utility patents.

In 1962, several satellites were lost following high altitude nuclear tests by the United States and the Soviet Union. These satellite failures were caused by energetic electrons injected into the earth's radiation belts from the beta decay of bomb produced fission fragments and neutrons. It has been 40 years since the last high altitude nuclear test; there are now many more satellites in orbit, and it is important to understand their vulnerability to radiation belt pumping from nuclear explosions at high altitude or in space. This report presents the results of a calculation of the contribution of neutron beta decay to artificial belt pumping. For most high altitude nuclear explosions, neutrons are expected to make a smaller contribution than fission products to the total trapped electron inventory, and their contribution is usually neglected. However, the neutron contribution may dominate in cases where the fission product contribution is suppressed due to the altitude or geomagnetic latitude of the nuclear explosion, and for regions of the radiation belts with field lines far from the detonation point. In any case, an accurate model of belt pumping from high altitude nuclear explosions, and a self-consistent explanation of the 1962 data, require inclusion of the …

This report discusses the statutory and regulatory requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), judicial decisions, and the concept of mediation as it applies to special education.

This report includes information regarding U.S. relations and bilateral issues within Syria. External relations, Syria's role in Lebanon, and U.S. aid are among topics discussed in this report.

P.L. 104-193 (the 1996 welfare reform legislation) made major changes to the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program. Some of the changes include requiring states to increase the percentage of fathers identified, establishing an integrated, automated network linking all states to information about the location and assets of parents, and requiring states to implement more enforcement techniques to obtain collections from debtor parents. Additional legislative changes were made in 1997, 1998, and 1999, but not in 2000, 2001, or 2002. This report describes several aspects of the revised CSE program and discusses three issues that probably will be reexamined by the 108th Congress — CSE financing, parental access by noncustodial parents, and distribution of support payments.

Void swelling in structural materials used for nuclear reactors is characterized by an incubation period whose duration largely determines the usefulness of the material for core components. Significant evolution of the dislocation and void microstructures that control radiation-induced swelling can occur during this period. Thus, a theory of incubation must treat time-dependent void nucleation in combination with dislocation evolution, in which the sink strengths of voids and dislocations change in concert. We present theoretical results for void nucleation and growth including the time-dependent, self-consistent coupling of point defect concentrations to the evolution of both void populations and dislocation density. Simulations show that the incubation radiation dose is a strong function of the starting dislocation density and of the dislocation bias factors for vacancy and interstitial absorption. Irradiation dose rate and temperature also affect the duration of incubation. The results are in general agreement with experiment for high purity metals.

Support utilization of the RINSC reactor for student and faculty instructions and research

A collection of 6,000 mutant yeast strains spanning nearlyevery gene offers new promise for identifying human genes involved incellular responses to drugs, radiation and other treatments.

Research into indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and itseffects on health, comfort, and performance of occupants is becoming anincreasing priority as interest in high performance buildings andorganizational productivity advances. Facility managers are interested inIEQ's close relationship to energy use in facilities and employers wantto enhance employee comfort and productivity, reduce absenteeism andhealth costs, and reduce or even eliminate litigation by providingexcellent indoor environments to employees. The increasing interest inthis field as architects, engineers, facility managers, buildinginvestors, health officials, jurists, and the public seek simple andgeneral guidelines on creating safe, healthy, and comfortable indoorenvironment, has put additional pressure on the research community. Inthe last twenty years, IEQresearchers have advanced our understanding ofthe influence of IEQ on health and productivity, but many uncertaintiesremain. Consequently, there is a critical need to expand research in thisfield, particularly research that is highly multidisciplinary. Inaddition, there is a strong need to better communicate knowledgecurrently documented in research publications to building professionalsin order to encourage implementation of designs and practices thatenhance health and productivity. Against this background, the IndoorHealth and Productivity (IHP) project aims to develop a fullerunderstanding of the relationships between physical attributes of theworkplace (e.g. thermal, lighting, ventilation, and air quality) innon-residential and non-industrial buildings and …

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This project seeks to improve the basic understanding of the role of colloids in facilitating the transport of contaminants in the vadose zone. We focus on three major thrusts: (1) thermodynamic stability and mobility of colloids formed by reactions of sediments with highly alkaline tank waste solutions, (2) colloid-contaminant interactions, and (3) in situ colloid mobilization and colloid-facilitated contaminant transport occurring in both contaminated and uncontaminated Hanford sediments. The specific objectives that will be addressed are: (1) Determine the liability and thermodynamic stability of colloidal materials, which form after reacting Hanford sediments with simulated Hanford Tank Waste. (2) Determine the potential of Hanford sediments for in situ mobilization of colloids for different types of sediments and different leaching scenarios. (3) Characterize the interactions between initially-formed colloids, their dissolution/alteration products, and native colloidal particles with contaminants in batch experiments under various ionic strength and pH conditions. (4) Evaluate colloid-facilitated radionuclide transport through sediments under different degrees of water saturation in packed and undisturbed sediment columns. (5) Implement colloid-facilitated contaminant transport mechanisms and thermodynamic stability constants into a reactive chemical transport model, and verify model simulations with experimental transport data. Results of this project will help to understand the fundamental mechanisms of …

Mid-rapidity transverse mass spectra and multiplicity densities of charged and neutral kaons are reported for Au+Au collisions at {radical}s{sub NN}=130 GeV at RHIC. The spectra are exponential in transverse mass, with an inverse slope of about 280 MeV in central collisions. The multiplicity densities for these particles scale with the negative hadron pseudo-rapidity density. The charged kaon to pion ratios are K{sup +}/{pi}{sup -} = 0.161 {+-} 0.002(stat) {+-} 0.024(syst) and K{sup -}/{pi}{sup -} = 0.146 {+-} 0.002(stat) {+-} 0.022(syst) for the most central collisions. The K{sup +}/{pi}{sup -} ratio is lower than the same ratio observed at the SPS while the K{sup -}/{pi}{sup -} is higher than the SPS result. Both ratios are enhanced by about 50% relative to p+p and {bar p}+p collision data at similar energies.

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The author presents the status of the long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment MINOS at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). He also summarizes the status of the detector and beam construction, the expected event rates and sensitivity to physics. He also comments on possible future plans to improve the performance of the experiment.

We have studied double K-shell photoionization of Ne and Mo (Z = 10 and 42) at the Advanced Photon Source. Double K-vacancy production in Ne was observed by recording the KK-KLL Auger hypersatellite spectrum. Comparison is made with calculations using the multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock method. For Mo, double K-vacancy production was observed by recording the K{alpha}, {beta} fluorescence hypersatellite and satellite x rays in coincidence. From the intensities of the Auger or x-ray hypersatellites relative to diagram lines, the probabilities for double K-vacancy production relative to single K-vacancies were determined. These results, along with reported measurements on other atoms, are compared with Z-scaling calculations of the high-energy limits of the double-to-single K-shell photoionization ratio.

A solvent was developed at Oak Ridge National laboratory (ORNL) for a caustic-side solvent extraction (CSSX) process that removes cesium from Savannah River Site (SRS) tank waste. After treatment, a small fraction of the solvent is entrained in the caustic raffinate at a level of 100-300 ppm, well above the solubilities for the various solvent components. Recovery of this solvent can produce a potential cost saving in excess of $5M per annum based on a processing rate of 20 gpm. In this study we examined the issues associated with the use of a coalescer for solvent recovery and measured the physical properties of the solvent and simulant. The density, surface, and interfacial tension, and viscosity of the optimized solvent and a full-component SRS waste simulant were determined as a function of temperature. The entrainment of the solvent components in the SRS waste simulant during the operation of a four-stage 4-cm contactor unit was quantified based on chemical and volumetric analysis. The chemical stabilities of several candidate commercial coalescing media in the caustic simulant were examined. Stainless steel media showed little degradation over a 30-day test; polymer media tended to be coated by the organic. A laboratory-scale coalescer was operated in …

Over 7000 events containing a fully reconstructed D{bar D} pair have been extracted from data recorded by the FOCUS photoproduction experiment at Fermilab. Preliminary results from a study of correlations between D and {bar D} mesons are presented. Correlations are used to study perturbative QCD predictions and investigate non-perturbative effects. We also present a preliminary result on the production of {psi}(3770).

The precision analytical technique known as MESERAN Analysis permits quantitative measurement of the level of preexisting nonvolatile organic residue (NVOR) on a substrate from <1 nanogram (ng)/cm{sup 2} to > 100 micrograms ({micro}g)/cm{sup 2} in 2 minutes. MESERAN Analysis is also applicable to determining NVOR in solvents and solvent extracts. The MESERAN method is able to quantify organic contamination levels down to and below 1 ng by depositing as little as 10 microliters ({micro}L) of solvent containing a known amount of contamination on a clean substrate, allowing it to evaporate, and measuring the evaporated residue. The method will be described in detail and NVOR measurements determined from MESERAN data will be presented.