A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Charitable choice provisions require states and localities to allow religious organizations to compete for federal funding on the same basis as other social service providers, without impairing the religious character of such organizations. Congress has been considering legislation to expand charitable choice provisions to other government programs. At least 19 states have contracted with faith-based organizations (FBOs) to provide some welfare services. Moreover, states are using various approaches to implement charitable choice legislation. For example, some states have created state faith-based liaisons to promote greater awareness of charitable choice provisions or removed barriers to contracting with FBOs. Several factors have limited the establishment of collaborations between FBOs and states, including some FBOs' lack of awareness and understanding of charitable choice provisions, their reluctance to partner with government, and the limited financial and administrative capacity of some FBOs. Once collaborations have occurred, some small FBOs have had problems (1) covering ongoing costs while awaiting government reimbursement or (2) managing the performance-based contracts because of limited technological and management systems. GAO found no information with which to assess the effectiveness of FBOs as providers of social services. Although …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Research and Development (R&D) Centers, Regional Labs, and Comprehensive Centers support the Department of Education's research agenda to various degrees. Because statutes define different missions and activities for these programs, the amount and focus of the research and other research-based activities they support varies. Education shapes the priorities that guide the research done by the R&D Centers and targets the technical assistance provided by the Comprehensive Centers through requirements in agreements with these entities. However, Education has little control over the activities of the Regional Labs because, unlike most federal education programs, neither federal nor state governments have oversight responsibility for their programs. The R&D Centers, Regional Labs, and Comprehensive Centers reported collaborating and coordinating with each other and Education and cited various factors that have either facilitated or hindered such activities. They said that they were most likely to engage in these activities when they shared a common interest in a specific student population, such as English language learners, or in a specific topic, such as assessment. Current evaluation practices for assessing the R&D Centers, Regional Labs, and Comprehensive Centers have provided only limited information …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO studied several leading companies in the private sector that have made dramatic changes to their process for acquiring services. GAO found that these changes generally began with a corporate decision to pursue a more strategic approach to acquiring services--from developing a better picture of what the company was actually spending on services to developing new ways of doing business. The Defense Department (DOD), the government's largest purchaser of services, already has some elements in place that are essential to such a strategic approach, such as a commitment by top management to adopting best practices. However, DOD has yet to conduct a comprehensive analysis of its spending on services or thoroughly assess it's current structure, processes, and roles. DOD's size, the range and complexity of the services that it acquires, the capacity of its information and financial systems, and the unique requirements of the federal government are among the factors that DOD will need to consider as it tailors a strategic approach to its diverse needs."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since GAO issued its November 2001 report (GAO-02-182R) on the new Washington Convention Center, the Washington Convention Center Authority (WCCA) and the construction manager have made significant progress in their negotiations to reset the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP). The two parties have agreed on the two most critical components of the GMP proposal: price and time frames for completing the new convention center. A special meeting of WCCA's board of directors has been scheduled for early to mid-February to review and officially act on the proposed GMP agreement. The revised GMP amount of $590.7 million represents a $71.3 million, or 13.7 percent, increase over the estimated GMP amount of $519.4 million cited in GAO's report."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Recent legislation requires that, beginning in October 2001, the Defense Department (DOD) collect procurement data on purchases of information technology (IT) products and services worth more than $100,000. DOD is required to issue its first annual report to Congress by March 2001. GAO found that DOD is making good progress in meeting the requirements of the legislation. DOD has modified data collection systems to enable them to collect and report mandated data. DOD officials see no obstacles to issuing their first report on IT data collection efforts by the March 2002 deadline."

Metallic films are grown with a sponge-like morphology in the as-deposited condition using planar magnetron sputtering. The morphology of the deposit is characterized by metallic continuity in three dimensions with continuous porosity on the sub-micron scale. The stabilization of the metallic sponge is directly correlated with a limited range for the sputter deposition parameters of working gas pressure and substrate temperature. This sponge-like morphology augments the features as generally understood in the classic zone models of growth for physical vapor deposits. Nickel coatings are deposited with working gas pressures up to 4 Pa and for substrate temperatures up to 1100 K. The morphology of the deposits is examined in plan and in cross-section with scanning electron microscopy. The parametric range of gas pressure and substrate temperature (relative to absolute melt point) for the deposition processing under which the metallic sponges are produced appear universal for many metals, as for example, including gold, silver, and aluminum.

High-level nuclear waste is being vitrified, i.e., converted to a durable glass that can be stored in a safe repository for hundreds of thousands of years. Waste vitrification is accomplished in reactors called melters to which the waste is charged together with glass-forming additives. The mixture is electrically heated to a temperature as high as 1150?C (or even higher in advanced melters) to create a melt that becomes glass on cooling. This process is slow and expensive. Moreover, the melters that are currently in use or are going to be used in the U.S. are sensitive to clogging and thus cannot process melt in which solid particles are suspended. These particles settle and gradually accumulate on the melter bottom. Such particles, most often small crystals of spinel (a mineral containing iron, nickel, chromium, and other minor oxides), inevitably occur in the melt when the content of the waste in the glass (called waste loading) increases above a certain limit. To avoid the presence of solid particles in the melter, the waste loading is kept rather low, in average 15% lower than in glass formulated for more robust melters.

Emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field.

Under CO atmosphere, between 80 and 120 C, a glyme solution of PtCl{sub 4} forms a carbonyl compound that promotes hydration of internal as well as terminal alkynes to give aldehyde-free ketones. The catalytic process depends strongly on the electronic and steric nature of the substrates. Part of the carbonyl functions of the catalyst can be replaced by phosphine ligands. Chiral DIOP reacts with the PtCl{sub 4}-CO compound to give a catalyst that promotes partial kinetic resolution of a racemic alkyne. Replacement of part of the CO by polystyrene-bound diphenylphosphine enables to attach the catalyst to the polymeric support. Upon entrapment of the platinum compound in a silica sol-gel matrix, it reacts as a partially recyclable catalyst. A reformulated mechanism for the PdCl{sub 4}-CO catalyzed hydration is suggested on the basis of the present study.

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The Current Drive Experiment-Upgrade (CDX-U) device at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a spherical torus (ST) dedicated to the exploration of liquid lithium as a potential solution to reactor first-wall problems such as heat load and erosion, neutron damage and activation, and tritium inventory and breeding. Initial lithium limiter experiments were conducted with a toroidally-local liquid lithium rail limiter (L3) from the University of California at San Diego. Spectroscopic measurements showed a clear reduction of impurities in plasmas with the L3, compared to discharges with a boron carbide limiter. The evidence for a reduction in recycling was less apparent, however. This may be attributable to the relatively small area in contact with the plasma, and the presence of high-recycling surfaces elsewhere in the vacuum chamber. This conclusion was tested in subsequent experiments with a fully toroidal lithium limiter that was installed above the floor of the vacuum vessel. The new limiter covered over ten times the area of the L3 facing the plasma. Experiments with the toroidal lithium limiter have recently begun. This paper describes the conditioning required to prepare the lithium surface for plasma operations, and effect of the toroidal liquid lithium limiter on discharge performance.

The interaction between circularly polarized (CP) radiation and charged particles can lead to generation of magnetic field through an inverse Faraday effect. The spin of the circularly polarized electromagnetic wave can be converted into the angular momentum of the charged particles so long as there is dissipation. We demonstrate this by considering two mechanisms of angular momentum absorption relevant for laser-plasma interactions: electron-ion collisions and ionization. The precise dissipative mechanism, however, plays a role in determining the efficiency of the magnetic field generation.

The low aspect ratio spherical torus (ST) configuration requires that the center stack design be optimized within a limited available space, using materials within their established allowables. This paper presents center stack design methods developed by the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) Project Team during the initial design of NSTX, and more recently for studies of a possible next-step ST (NSST) device.

Internal radial redistribution of MeV energy ICRF-driven hydrogen minority ions was inferred from neutral particle analyzer measurements during large amplitude MHD activity leading to internal reconnection in Shear Optimized plasmas in the Joint European Torus (JET). A theory is developed for energetic ion redistribution during a reconnection driven by an m=2/n=1 internal kink mode. Plasma motion during reconnection generates an electric field which can change the energy and radial position of the energetic ions. The magnitude of ion energy change depends on the value of the safety factor at the plasma core from which the energetic ions are redistributed. A relation is found for corresponding change in canonical momentum. P(subscript phi), which leads to radial displacement of the ions. The model yields distinctive new features of energetic ion redistribution under such conditions. Predicted characteristics of ion redistribution are compared with the NPA measurements, and good correlation is found. Sometimes fast ions were transported to the plasma edge due to interaction with a long-lived magnetic island which developed after the reconnection and had chirping frequency in the laboratory frame. Convection of resonant ions trapped in a radially moving phase-space island is modeled to understand the physics of such events.

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The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) capability with a Neutral Beam Injector (NBI) capable of 80 kiloelectronvolt (keV), 5 Megawatt (MW), 5 second operation. This 5.95 million dollar upgrade reused a previous generation injector and equipment for technical, cost, and schedule reasons to obtain these specifications while retaining a legacy capability of 120 keV neutral particle beam delivery for shorter pulse lengths for possible future NSTX experiments. Concerns with NBI injection included power deposition in the plasma, aiming angles from the fixed NBI fan array, density profiles and beam shine through, orbit losses of beam particles, and protection of the vacuum vessel wall against beam impingement. The upgrade made use of the beamline and cryo panels from the Neutral Beam Test Stand facility, existing power supplies and controls, beamline components and equipment not contaminated by tritium during DT [deuterium-tritium] experiments, and a liquid Helium refrigerator plant to power and cryogenically pump a beamline and three ion sources. All of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) ion sources had been contaminated with tritium, so a refurbishment effort was undertaken on selected TFTR sources to rid the three sources destined for the NSTX NBI of as much tritium as possible. An interconnecting …

DOE matching grant funds are used for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, equipment, and student recruitment.

A significant industrial hygiene concern during the Decontamination and Decommissioning (D and D) of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) was the oxidation of the lead bricks' surface, which were utilized for radiation shielding. This presented both airborne exposure and surface contamination issues for the workers in the field removing this material. This paper will detail the various protection and control methods tested and implemented to protect the workers, including those technologies deployed to decontaminate the work surfaces. In addition, those techniques employed to recycle the lead for additional use at the site will be discussed.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

We have developed equipment and technology for fabricating submicron pitch, high-efficiency diffraction gratings over meter-scale apertures that are used for pulse compression in ultrafast systems around the world. We have also developed wet-etch figuring (WEF) to generate arbitrary continuous contours on ultrathin glass substrates in a closed loop process. The current and future states of these technologies will be discussed.

Generation of surface meshes is the first step in many grid generation processes. For the generation of block-structured meshes, structured surface meshes have to be generated first. This paper investigates the problem of generating a structured surface mesh across multiple surface patches on an object with the boundary representation and relates the problem to other commonly encountered issues in CAD/CAM. It describes a method for solving the problem. This method is based on initial surface construction, point projection and a mixed model-space and parameter-space based elliptic smoothing.

Electrical resistance measurements were used to monitor several releases of brine from the Mock Tank Test site at the 200 East Area. Three different methods were used to analyze the data: (1) a simple average of the raw data was used as an indicator of the presence/absence of a leak, (2) tomography of the region beneath the tank using data from steel-cased borehole, and (3) tomography of the region beneath the tank using data from vertical electrode arrays. Each of these methods was able to detect the presence of what appeared to be conductive plumes forming beneath the tank. The results suggest the following: (1) The minimum detectable leak volume is of the Order of a few hundred gallons. (2) procedure involving the use of reciprocal data can be used to evaluate the reliability of the results and minimize the potential for false-positive and false-negative conclusions; (3) The dry wells may be used as long electrodes to obtain 2D images of the plume under the tank. (4) 3D electrical resistance tomography (ERT) images provide information that can be used to determine the released volume, the speed and direction of plume movement, the regions of the soil that are being contaminated, …