In response to the foreign challenge in the global marketplace, the United States Congress has explored ways to stimulate technological advancement in the private sector. The government has supported various efforts to promote cooperative research and development activities among industry, universities, and the federal R&D establishment designed to increase the competitiveness of American industry and to encourage the generation of new products, processes, and services.

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In response to the foreign challenge in the global marketplace, the United States Congress has explored ways to stimulate technological advancement in the private sector. The government has supported various efforts to promote cooperative research and development activities among industry, universities, and the federal R&D establishment. Among the issues before Congress are whether joint ventures contribute to industrial competitiveness and what role, if any, the government has in facilitating such agreements. Collaborative ventures are intended to accommodate the strengths and responsibilities of all sectors involved innovation and technology development. Given the increased popularity of cooperative programs, questions might be raised as to whether they are meeting expectations. These include questions about the emphasis on collaborative ventures in research rather than in technology development; cooperative manufacturing; defense vs. civilian support; and access by foreign companies.

The government spends approximately one third of the $83 billion federal R&D budget for intramural research and development to meet mission requirements in over 700 government laboratories. Congress has established a system to facilitate the transfer of technology to the private sector and to state and local governments. Despite this, use of federal R&D results has remained restrained, although there has been a significant increase in private sector interest and activities over the past several years. At issue is whether incentives for technology transfer remain necessary, if additional legislative initiatives are needed to encourage increased technology transfer, or if the responsibility to use the available resources now rests with the private sector.

There is ongoing interest in the pace of U.S. technological advancement due to its influence on U.S. economic growth, productivity, and international competitiveness. Because technology can contribute to economic growth and productivity increases, congressional interest has focused on how to augment private-sector technological development. Congressional action has mandated specific technology development programs and obligations in federal agencies that did not initially support such efforts. Some legislative activity, beginning in the 104th Congress, has been directed at eliminating or significantly curtailing many of these federal efforts. Questions have been raised concerning the proper role of the federal government in technology development and the competitiveness of U.S. industry. As the 109th congress continues to develop its budget priorities, how the government encourages technological process in the private sector again may be explored and/or redefined.

Programs for implementing network-centric warfare (NCW) in the Navy include the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC), the IT-21 program, and FORCEnet. A related program is the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI). Congress has expressed concern for some of these programs, particularly NMCI.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In accordance with Public Law 108-324, GAO is required to audit the reimbursement of up to $70 million of appropriated funds to the American Red Cross (Red Cross) for disaster relief associated with 2004 hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. The audit was performed to determine if (1) the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) established criteria and defined allowable expenditures to ensure that reimbursement claims paid to the Red Cross met the purposes of the law, (2) reimbursement funds paid to the Red Cross did not duplicate funding by other federal sources, (3) reimbursed funds assisted only eligible states and territories for disaster relief, and (4) reimbursement claims were supported by adequate documentation. The 2004 hurricane season was one of the most destructive in U.S. history. Fifteen named storms resulted in 21 federal disaster declarations. Four hurricanes affecting 19 states and 2 U.S. territories from August 13 through September 26, 2004, triggered the nation's biggest natural-disaster response up to that time. Over 150 deaths and $45 billion of estimated property damage are attributed to hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne in the United States alone. Through …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Wildland fires burn millions of acres each year, requiring substantial investments of firefighting assets. Since 2000, federal suppression costs alone have averaged more than $1 billion annually. Wildland fires can burn or threaten both federal and nonfederal lands and resources, including homes in or near wildlands, an area commonly called the wildland-urban interface. Cooperative agreements between federal and nonfederal firefighting entities provide the framework for working together and sharing costs. GAO was asked to (1) review how federal and nonfederal entities share the costs of suppressing wildland fires that burn or threaten both of their lands and resources and (2) identify any concerns that these entities may have with the existing cost-sharing framework."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As part of its Disability Compensation program, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides Individual Unemployability (IU) benefits to veterans of any age who are unemployable because of service-connected disabilities. Over the last decade, the number of IU beneficiaries and benefit costs have more than tripled. In 2005, about 220,000 veterans received an estimated $3.1 billion in IU benefits. In response to a congressional request, GAO assessed VA's management of IU benefits. This report (1) examines the added value of IU benefits for veterans of selected ages and disability ratings, (2) assesses the criteria, guidance, and procedures used for initial decision making, (3) assesses VA's ongoing eligibility enforcement procedures, and (4) compares VA's decision-making and enforcement procedures with those used by other disability programs."

The dollar exchange rate rose substantially in 2005, halting a three-year decline and moving counter to the expectations of many observers. This report discusses potential reasons for the dollar's appreciation.

This report tracks post-Enron criminal charges. Companies are listed alphabetically, and individuals who have been charged, indicted, or have placed guilty are identified.

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This report discusses the President's fiscal year (FY) 2007 budget (February 2006) included a revised FY2006 deficit estimate of $423 billion, $72 billion larger than its previous estimate (July 2005) and $53 billion larger than its original deficit estimate in February 2005.

For two decades, extensive hydrologic investigations have been conducted for geologic disposal of high-level radioactive waste in fractured volcanic tuffs at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Extensive field and laboratory geologic, hydrologic, and geochemical testing has provided a large amount of data for developing the conceptual understanding of these processes and parameters for quantifying these processes. A suite of sophisticated numerical models has been developed to assess the long-term performance of the natural barrier of unsaturated zone (UZ) and saturated zone (SZ) to flow of groundwater and transport of radionuclides released from the repository. This work focuses on characterizing surface and subsurface processes of climate change, infiltration, percolation in the UZ and groundwater flow in the SZ, as well as on predicting hydrologic responses of the natural system to the emplacement of waste packages in drifts, including seepage of water into emplacement drifts and radionuclide transport in the UZ and SZ. These models are then abstracted into a total system performance assessment (TSPA) model. The TSPA integrates these natural attributes with features of engineered systems, and through systematic stochastic analyses involving Monte Carlo simulations, predicts the dose consequences and groundwater concentrations for at least 10,000 years for various future climate conditions, waste …

This research is carried out as part of the Gas Phase Molecular Dynamics group program in the Chemistry Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory. High-resolution spectroscopic tools are developed and applied to problems in chemical dynamics. Recent topics have included the state-resolved studies of collision-induced electronic energy transfer, dynamics of barrierless unimolecular reactions, and the kinetics and spectroscopy of transient species.

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This work represents the collaborative effort between American Air Liquide and Physical Sciences, Inc. for developing a sensor based on near-IR tunable diode lasers (TDL). The multi-species capability of the sensor for simultaneous monitoring of CO, O2, and H2O concentration as well as gas temperature is ideal for in-situ monitoring on industrial furnaces. The chemical species targeted are fundamental for controlling the combustion space for improved energy efficiency, reduced pollutants, and improved product quality, when coupling the measurement to a combustion control system. Several add-on modules developed provide flexibility in the system configuration for handling different process monitoring applications. For example, the on-Demand Power Control system for the 1.5 ?m laser is used for high particle density exhaust streams where laser transmission is problematic. For long-distance signal collection a fiber optic communication system is used to reduce noise pick-up. Finally, hardened modules to withstand high ambient temperatures, immune to EMF interference, protection from flying debris, and interfaced with pathlength control laser beam shielding probes were developed specifically for EAF process monitoring. Demonstration of these different system configurations was conducted on Charter Steel's reheat furnace, Imco Recycling, Inc. (now Aleris International, Inc.) aluminum reverberatory furnace, and Gerdau Ameristeel's EAF. Measurements on …

The two best Z pole determinations of sin{sup 2} {theta}{sub W} (m{sub z}){sub {ovr MS}} differ by 3 sigma, a feature lost in global fits and averaging. Individually, sin{sup 2} {theta}{sub W}(m{sub Z}){sub {ovr MS}} = 0.2307(3) obtained from A{sub LR}, taken together with m{sub W} = 80.410(32) GeV, points to a very light Higgs boson, m{sub H} {approx_equal} 12-63 GeV, already ruled out experimentally. it is, however, easily redeemed by low mass scale supersymmetry or models with (effectively) S {approx_equal} -0.12 and T {approx_equal} +0.06. Alternatively, sin{sup 2} {theta}{sub W} (m{sub Z}){sub {ovr MS}} {approx_equal} 0.2320(3) obtained from A{sub FB}(Z {yields} {ovr bb}), suggests a very heavy Higgs, m{sub H} {approx} 500 GeV, along with S {approx_equal} +0.45 which is suggestive of Technicolor models. Future ways to resolve this discrepancy are briefly discussed.

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We have carried out density functional based tight binding (DFTB) molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to study energetic reactions of solid Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN) at conditions approximating the Chapman-Jouguet (CJ) detonation state. We found that the initial decomposition of PETN molecular solid is characterized by uni-molecular dissociation of the NO{sub 2}groups. Interestingly, energy release from this powerful high explosive was found to proceed in several stages. The large portion of early stage energy release was found to be associated with the formation of H{sub 2}O molecules within a few picoseconds of reaction. It took nearly four times as long for majority of CO{sub 2} products to form, accompanied by a slow oscillatory conversion between CO and CO{sub 2}. The production of N{sub 2} starts after NO{sub 2} loses its oxygen atoms to hydrogen or carbon atoms to form H{sub 2}O or CO. We identified many intermediate species that emerge and contribute to reaction kinetics, and compared our simulation with a thermo-chemical equilibrium calculation. In addition, a detailed chemical kinetics of formation of H{sub 2}O, CO, and CO{sub 2} were developed. Rate constants of formations of H{sub 2}O, CO{sub 2} and N{sub 2} were reported.

Seismic surveys successfully imaged a small scale C02injection (1,600 tons) conducted in a brine aquifer of the Frio Formationnear Houston, Texas. These time-lapse bore-hole seismic surveys,crosswell and vertical seismic profile (VSP), were acquired to monitorthe C02 distribution using two boreholes (the new injection well and apre-existing well used for monitoring) which are 30 m apart at a depth of1500 m. The crosswell survey provided a high-resolution image of the C02distribution between the wells via tomographic imaging of the P-wavevelocity decrease (up to 500 mls). The simultaneously acquired S-wavetomography showed little change in S-wave velocity, as expected for fluidsubstitution. A rock physics model was used to estimate C02 saturationsof 10-20 percent from the P-wave velocity change. The VSP survey resolveda large (-70 percent) change in reflection amplitude for the Friohorizon. This C02 induced reflection amplitude change allowed estimationof the C02 extent beyond the monitor well and on 3 azimuths. The VSPresult is compared with numerical modeling of C02 saturations and isseismically modeled using the velocity change estimated in the crosswellsurvey.

Special instruments were deployed at Crystal Geyser, Utah, in August 2005 creating a contiguous 76-day record of eruptions from this cold geyser. Sensors measured temperature and fluid movement at the base of the geyser. Analysis of the time series that contains the start time and duration of 140 eruptions reveals a striking bimodal distribution in eruption duration. About two thirds of the eruptions were short (7-32 min), and about one third were long (98-113 min). No eruption lasted between 32 and 98 min. There is a strong correlation between the duration of an eruption and the subsequent time until the next eruption. A linear least-squares fit of these data can be used to predict the time of the next eruption. The predictions were within one hour of actual eruption time for 90% of the very short eruptions (7-19 min), and about 45% of the long eruptions. Combined with emission estimates from a previous study, we estimate the annual CO{sub 2} emission from Crystal Geyser to be about 11 gigagrams (11,000 tons).

Foster Wheeler has completed work under a U.S. Department of Energy cooperative agreement to develop a gasification equipment module that can serve as a building block for a variety of advanced, coal-fueled plants. When linked with other equipment blocks also under development, studies have shown that Foster Wheeler's gasification module can enable an electric generating plant to operate with an efficiency exceeding 60 percent (coal higher heating value basis) while producing near zero emissions of traditional stack gas pollutants. The heart of the equipment module is a pressurized circulating fluidized bed (PCFB) that is used to gasify the coal; it can operate with either air or oxygen and produces a coal-derived syngas without the formation of corrosive slag or sticky ash that can reduce plant availabilities. Rather than fuel a gas turbine for combined cycle power generation, the syngas can alternatively be processed to produce clean fuels and or chemicals. As a result, the study described herein was conducted to determine the performance and economics of using the syngas to produce hydrogen for sale to a nearby refinery in a hydrogen-electricity co-production plant setting. The plant is fueled with Pittsburgh No. 8 coal, produces 99.95 percent pure hydrogen at a …

Obtaining a high-resolution image of an object or scene from a long distance away can be very problematic, even with the best optical system. This is because atmospheric blurring and distortion will limit the resolution and contrast of high-resolution imaging systems with substantial sized apertures over horizontal and slant paths. Much of the horizontal and slant-path surveillance imagery we have previously collected and successfully enhanced has been collected at visible wavelengths where atmospheric effects are the strongest. Imaging at longer wavelengths has the benefit of seeing through obscurants or even at night, but even though the atmospheric effects are noticeably reduced, they are nevertheless present, especially near the ground. This paper will describe our recent work on enhanced infrared (IR) surveillance using bispectral speckle imaging. Bispectral speckle imaging in this context is an image postprocessing algorithm that aims to solve the atmospheric blurring and distortion problem of imaging through horizontal or slant path turbulence. A review of the algorithm as well as descriptions of the IR camera and optical systems used in our data collections will be given. Examples of horizontal and slant-path imagery before and after speckle processing will also be presented to demonstrate the resolution improvement gained by …