Develop and test advanced near vertical to wide-angle seismic methods for structural imaging and material properties estimation of the shallow subsurface for environmental characterization efforts.

The United States and its allies are helping Afghanistan emerging from more than 22 years of warfare, although substantial risk to Afghan stability remains. Before the U.S. military campaign against the orthodox Islamist Taliban movement began on October 7, 2001, Afghanistan had been mired in conflict since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The defeat of the Taliban has enabled the United States and its coalition partners to send forces throughout Afghanistan to search for Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters and leaders that remain at large, including Osama bin Laden. As the war against remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban elements winds down, the United States is shifting its military focus toward stabilizing the interim government, including training a new Afghan national army, and supporting the international security force (ISAF) that is helping the new government provide security.

This report discusses the issue of U.S. economic assistance to sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the importance of continued assistance in light of U.S. national security and also various U.S.-led efforts to promote reform amongst African citizens themselves. U.S. assistance finds its way to Africa through a variety of channels, including the USAID-administered DA program, food aid programs, and indirect aid provided through international financial institutions and the United Nations.

This report discusses how U.S. Airways filed bankruptcy in 2002. This called for a reorganization of the company's assets which are mostly leased including land, planes, and equipment.

Recent advances in the development and practical implementation of the Lattice-Boltzmann (LB) method as applied to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have spurred much interest. A simple literature search of this area yielded well over 200 articles published in the open literature since 1997. The key advantage of the LB method is the time-accurate simulation of complex flow phenomena that are intractable with traditional methods. Analysis of flow in a parallel confined jet (PCJ) has been performed using the commercial LB-based CFD code PowerFLOW (Exa Corporation, Lexington, MA, USA). Results are compared to both experimental data and numerical results given in the literature, and it was observed that PowerFLOW does very well in accurately emulating the PJC experimental data as compared to Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes schemes. In addition, the inherently transient nature of the LB method allowed the analysis of time-dependent aspects of jet flows (e.g., flapping).

This report discusses President Bush's 2002 requests for new funding and additional authority to provide assistance to Colombia and six regional neighbors in a continuation of the Andean Regional Initiative (ARI) launched in 2001.

On December 4, 1991, President George Bush signed into law the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) to counter illicit drug production and trade in Latin America. For ten years, it has provided preferential, mostly duty-free, treatment of selected U.S. imports from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The goal of ATPA is to encourage increased exports, thereby promoting development and providing an incentive for Andean farmers and other workers to pursue economic alternatives to the drug trade. This report discusses the ATPA, its background, and issues regarding its potential reauthorization.

This report is on Anticircumvention under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Universal Studios v. Corley.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the appropriateness of a termination of a 1997 request by the Indian Health Services (IHS) for proposals to provide computed tomographic scanning services for the Blackfeet and Crow Service Units in Montana. GAO found no indication that IHS negotiated in bad faith. GAO's Office of Special Investigations had looked into the case in December 1998. GAO determined that the case was not within the scope of ongoing work and referred the case to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG). A June 1999 report by the OIG concluded that the allegations were unwarranted."

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittees.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, consolidated, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittees.

The goal of this study was to select one or more commercially available aqueous sorbents to solidify the zinc bromide solution stored in C-Area, identify the polymer to zinc bromide solution ratio (waste loading) for the selected sorbents, and identify processing issues that require further testing in pilot-scale testing.

K Basin sludge contains metallic uranium and uranium oxides that will corrode and hydrate during storage. The end-state (final) corrosion products will have a lower particle density and a higher void fraction (or volume fraction of sludge occupied by water) than the starting-state sludge at the beginning of storage. As the particle density and void fraction change, the volume occupied by a given mass of sludge will also change. The purpose of this report is to quantify how the various types and sources of K Basin sludge will react and volumetrically expand (or contract) between the time the sludge is first loaded into the storage containers (starting state) and the time all major volume-changing reactions have been completed (end state). The results from this report will be used in design and safety basis calculations for sludge management systems and will be incorporated into the sludge technical basis documents.

Atomic properties of multiply charged ions have been investigated using excitation of energetic heavy ion beams. Spectroscopy of excited atomic transitions has been applied from the visible to the extreme ultraviolet wavelength regions to provide accurate atomic structure and transition rate data in selected highly ionized atoms. High-resolution position-sensitive photon detection has been introduced for measurements in the ultraviolet region. The detailed structures of Rydberg states in highly charged beryllium-like ions have been measured as a test of long-range electron-ion interactions. The measurements are supported by multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock calculations and by many-body perturbation theory. The high-angular-momentum Rydberg transitions may be used to establish reference wavelengths and improve the accuracy of ionization energies in highly charged systems. Precision wavelength measurements in highly charged few-electron ions have been performed to test the most accurate relativistic atomic structure calculations for prominent low-lying excited states. Lifetime measurements for allowed and forbidden transitions in highly charged few-electron ions have been made to test theoretical transition matrix elements for simple atomic systems. Precision lifetime measurements in laser-excited alkali atoms have been initiated to establish the accuracy of relativistic atomic many-body theory in many-electron systems.

One of the least controversial provisions of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (P.L. 94-163) established corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for new passenger cars. This report presents a brief background and analysis regarding the price of crude oil that brought into sharp focus the fuel inefficiency of U.S. automobiles. The report also discusses the previous issues and the most recent developments regarding CAFE.

Between the accelerator and fusion chamber the heavy ion beams are subject to a dramatic but vital series of manipulations, some of which are carried out simultaneously and involve large space charge forces. The beams' quality must be maintained at a level sufficient for the fusion application; this general requirement significantly impacts beam line design, especially in the considerations of momentum dispersion. Immediately prior to final focus onto a fusion target, heavy ion driver beams are compressed in length by typically an order of magnitude. This process is simultaneous with bending through large angles to achieve the required target illumination configuration. The large increase in beam current is accommodated by a combination of decreased lattice period, increased beam radius, and increased strength of the beamline quadrupoles. However, the large head-to-tail momentum tilt (up to 5%) needed to compress the pulse results in a very significant dispersion of the pulse centroid from the design axis. General design features are discussed. A principal design goal is to minimize the magnitude of the dispersion while maintaining approximate first order achromaticity through the complete compression/bend system. Configurations of bends and quadrupoles, which achieve this goal while simultaneously maintaining a locally matched beam-envelope, are analyzed.

This report is an Overview of Procedural Developments Budget Enforcement for FY2002.

The Senate “pay-as-you-go,” or PAYGO, rule generally requires that any legislation increasing direct spending or reducing revenues be offset. A motion to waive the rule requires an affirmative vote of three-fifths of the membership (i.e., 60 Senators if no seats are vacant). Beginning in 1993, six points of order under the PAYGO rule have been raised against an entire bill or an amendment. Of these six points of order, four were sustained and two fell upon the adoption of a waiver motion.

As a follow-on to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) effort to calibrate the LLNL passive-active neutron drum (PAN) shuffler for measurement of highly enriched uranium (HEU) oxide, a method has been developed to extend the use of the PAN shuffler to the measurement of HEU in mixed uranium-plutonium (U-Pu) oxide. This method uses the current LLNL HEU oxide calibration algorithms, appropriately corrected for the mixed U-Pu oxide assay time, and recently developed PuO{sub 2} calibration algorithms to yield the mass of {sup 235}U present via differences between the expected count rate for the PuO{sub 2} and the measured count rate of the mixed U-Pu oxide. This paper describes the LLNL effort to use PAN shuffler measurements of units of certified reference material (CRM) 149 [uranium (93% Enriched) Oxide - U{sub 3}O{sub 8} Standard for Neutron Counting Measurements] and CRM 146 [Uranium Isotopic Standard for Gamma Spectrometry Measurements] and a selected set of LLNL PuO{sub 2}-bearing containers in consort with Monte Carlo simulations of the PAN shuffler response to each to (1) establish and validate a correction to the HEU calibration algorithm for the mixed U-Pu oxide assay time, (2) develop a PuO{sub 2} calibration algorithm that includes the effect …

This report lists the current federal capital offenses and summarizes the procedures for federal civilian death penalty cases. Several laws are relevant to the topic including: P.L. 103-322, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994; the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996; and P.L. 107-197, the Terrorist Bombings Convention Implementation Act of 2002.

The entry into force, on January 1, 1994, of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has eliminated the advantage that the beneficiaries of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) and related provisions of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) had enjoyed in trade with the United States relative to Mexico, and gave Mexico an increasingly significant competitive edge over the CBERA countries. The scheduled further implementation of the NAFTA would have resulted in a substantial advantage to Mexico over the CBERA countries and vitiate in part the purpose of the CBERA.

In contrast to standard reflection ultrasound (US), transmission US holds the promise of more thorough tissue characterization by generating quantitative acoustic parameters. We compare results from a conventional US scanner with data acquired using an experimental circular scanner operating at frequencies of 0.3 - 1.5 MHz. Data were obtained on phantoms and a normal, formalin-fixed, excised breast. Both reflection and transmission-based algorithms were used to generate images of reflectivity, sound speed and attenuation.. Images of the phantoms demonstrate the ability to detect sub-mm features and quantify acoustic properties such as sound speed and attenuation. The human breast specimen showed full field evaluation, improved penetration and tissue definition. Comparison with conventional US indicates the potential for better margin definition and acoustic characterization of masses, particularly in the complex scattering environments of human breast tissue. The use of morphology, in the context of reflectivity, sound speed and attenuation, for characterizing tissue, is discussed.

A series of laser welds were performed using a high-power diode-pumped continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser welder. In a previous study, the experimental results of those welds were examined, and the effects that changes in incident power and various welding parameters had on weld geometry were investigated. In this report, the fusion zones of the laser welds are compared with those predicted from a laser keyhole weld simulation model for stainless steels (304L and 21-6-9), vanadium, and tantalum. The calculated keyhole depths for the vanadium and 304L stainless steel samples fit the experimental data to within acceptable error, demonstrating the predictive power of numerical simulation for welds in these two materials. Calculations for the tantalum and 21-6-9 stainless steel were a poorer match to the experimental values. Accuracy in materials properties proved extremely important in predicting weld behavior, as minor changes in certain properties had a significant effect on calculated keyhole depth. For each of the materials tested, the correlation between simulated and experimental keyhole depths deviated as the laser power was increased. Using the model as a simulation tool, we conclude that the optical absorptivity of the material is the most influential factor in determining the keyhole depth. Future work will …

Traditionally, the 'Apterygota' has been thought to consist of five orders of wingless hexapods (Protura, Collembola, Diplura, Microcoryphia and Zygentoma) believed to be collectively basal to insects (i.e., the Pterygota). However, some studies have questioned this affinity with insects (Dallai, Abele, Spears, Nardi). Further, within these groups are hotly debated issues, including the monophyly of Entognata (Koch, 1997; Kukalova Peck, 1987), the monophyly of Diplura (Bilinski, 1993; Stys and Bilinski, 1990), the affinity between Collembola and Protura (Dallai, 1994; Kristensen, 1981) and the position of Lepidotrichidae (below). In fact, these relationships constitute one of the most debated issues in hexapod phylogeny. The family Lepidotrichidae was first described by (Silvestri, 1912) (1912: 'Lepidothricinae') from a Baltic Amber fossil (Lepidothrix pilifera Menge). The only living representative of this family is Tricholepidion gertschi Wygodzinski. Since this species was first described (Wygodzinsky, 1961) its phylogenetic position has been difficult to establish, due to an 'array of unique characters' that are difficult to interpret in a phylogenetic framework. Tricholepidion (and therefore the whole family Lepidotrichidae) has been considered either as belonging to the order Zygentoma (Kristensen, 1997; Wygodzinsky, 1961), or basal to the rest of the Zygentoma plus the Pterygota (Beutel, 2001; Bitsch and Bitsch, …