This report presents research on information systems, information retrieval, and optical character recognition. (CBS)

This report presents completed sealed tube stability test results for the R-123/mineral oil mixture and preliminary results for seven of the eighteen contracted refrigerant-lubricant mixtures. The R-123 mixture was tested at 105, 150, and 175{degrees}C. The results obtained indicate that prolonged exposure to temperatures of about 150{degree}C and higher will lead to rapid chemical deterioration of the R-123/mineral oil system. Chlorotrifluoroethane (R-133a) and trifluoroethane (R-143a) have been identified as decomposition products of R-123. Testing at 150 and 175{degrees}C have been completed for the HCFC refrigerants R-22, R-124, and R-142b with either mineral oil or alkylbenzene lubricants. These mixtures were very stable at the indicated temperatures. Testing at a higher temperature level will be necessary to define their upper temperature limits. Similarily, partial test results are available for HFC refrigerants R-32, R-125, R-134a (two esters), and R-143a with pentaerythritol ester lubricants at the 150 and 175{degrees}C temperature levels. Again, all five mixtures were found to be extremely stable at the test temperatures and additional testing will be needed to establish their upper temperature limits.

We have obtained convincing evidence for localization of the optical electron on a single-ring fragment of a chelated bipyridine-like'' ligand (ie., pyridylpyrazine or 4-Methyl-bipyridine). In addition we have completed studies of Ru(bipyrazine){sub 3}{sup 2+} in aqueous sulfuric acid (0--98% by weight) and find clear evidence for sequential addition of six-protons to the six peripheral nitrogen atoms. Studies of zeolite-entrapped complexes are continuing and a series of homo- and heteroleptic complexes have been prepared and characterized. Finally, the synthesis of zeolite-entrapped metallophthalocyanines has now been developed and the copper and cobalt analogues synthesized. The characterization of these materials is now in progress.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO presented the results of its audits of expenditures reported by seven offices of independent counsel for the 6 months ended September 30, 1998, focusing on whether the statements of expenditures complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to develop future warfighting capability, focusing on the: (1) status of DOD's efforts to implement its joint experimentation program; (2) factors that GAO believes contribute to the success of a joint experimentation program; and (3) extent of DOD's support for future warfighting."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the status of efforts to implement personnel reductions in the Army Materiel Command (AMC) that were directed by the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), focusing on: (1) AMC's plans and timeframe for achieving the reductions; (2) the projected cost savings from such reductions; and (3) the cited impacts the reductions will have on workload and readiness."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the capital structure of the Federal Home Loan Bank System."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed an independent audit of the District of Columbia Public Schools' (DCPS) enrollment counts, which is required by the District of Columbia School Reform Act of 1995, focusing on whether the: (1) audit methodology was reasonable; and (2) audit report's presentation was clear and complete."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the project approval process the Postal Service used in proposing to relocate postal operations for the Antelope Valley, California, area from the Main Post Office in Mojave, California, to a new facility in Lancaster, California."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) program to audit income tax returns through correspondence, focusing on: (1) the number, results, and duration of correspondence audits as well as the characteristics of the audited returns; and (2) processes and requirements that IRS has had for years to govern correspondence audits."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed selected aspects of the Navy's management procedures for controlling items in transit, focusing on the: (1) reported value and types of inventory in transit within and between storage and repair activities, vendors, and end users that were unaccounted for (or lost); and (2) Navy's adherence to procedures for controlling such in-transit inventory."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) programs to develop laser weapons for missile defense, focusing on: (1) what laser weapons are being considered for missile defense and the coordination among the program offices developing the systems; (2) the status and cost of each system; and (3) the technical challenges each system faces as determined by DOD program managers and analysts and other laser system experts."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the status of federal agencies' research activities on indoor environmental air quality."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the annual audited financial statements for 24 major departments and agencies of the U.S. government."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the effectiveness of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) fee collection activities, focusing on: (1) FCC's controls for ensuring that required regulatory and application fees are paid; and (2) the extent to which FCC is collecting the civil monetary penalties resulting from its enforcement actions against entities that have violated its regulations."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO discussed its report on the U.S. government's financial statements for fiscal year 1998, focusing on the importance of improving how federal departments and agencies manage the finances of the national government."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) implementation of the Taxpayer Browsing Protection Act, focusing on: (1) actions IRS has taken to implement the law; and (2) the number of potential and proven incidents of unauthorized access by IRS employees that IRS has identified since enactment of the law, as well as penalties imposed in cases where unauthorized access was proven."

Microbubble column flotation (MCF) was developed at the Virginia Center for Coal and Minerals Processing (VCCMP) for the selective recovery of fine particles. Bench-scale test work conducted at VCCMP, largely under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), showed that the technology worked well for both coal and mineral applications. For the technology to be commercially successful, however, a full-scale demonstration of the MCF technology was deemed necessary. This report summarizes the results of work performed under the DOE project entitled In-plant Testing of Microbubble Column Flotation.'' The objectives of this research and development effort were to duplicate the bench-scale performance of the MCF process in a full-scale unit, to verify the scale-up procedure developed in an earlier project, and to demonstrate the applicability of the MCF technology to the coal industry.

An introduction to the noncommutative differential calculus on quantum groups. The invariant group average is also discussed.

Development of the liquid carbon dioxide process for the cleaning of coal was performed in batch, variable volume (semi-continuous), and continuous tests. Continuous operation at feed rates up to 4.5 kg/hr (10-lb/hr) was achieved with the Continuous System. Coals tested included Upper Freeport, Pittsburgh, Illinois No. 6, and Middle Kittanning seams. Results showed that the ash and pyrite rejections agreed closely with washability data for each coal at the particle size tested (-200 mesh). A 0.91 metric ton (1-ton) per hour Proof-of-Concept Plant was conceptually designed. A 181 metric ton (200 ton) per hour and a 45 metric ton (50 ton) per hour plant were sized sufficiently to estimate costs for economic analyses. The processing costs for the 181 metric ton (200 ton) per hour and 45 metric ton (50 ton) per hour were estimated to be $18.96 per metric ton ($17.20 per ton) and $11.47 per metric ton ($10.40 per ton), respectively for these size plants. The costs for the 45 metric ton per hour plant are lower because it is assumed to be a fines recovery plant which does not require a grinding circuit of complex waste handling system.

We discuss the physics of matter that is relevant to the structure of compact stars. This includes nuclear, neutron star matter and quark matter and phase transitions between them. Many aspects of neutron star structure and its dependance on a number of physical assumptions about nuclear matter properties and hyperon couplings are investigated. We also discuss the prospects for obtaining constraints on the equation of state from astrophysical sources. Neuron star masses although few are known at present, provide a very direct constraint in as much as the connection to the equation of state involves only the assumption that Einstein's general of theory of relativity is correct at the macroscopic scale. Supernovae simulations involve such a plethora of physical processes including those involved in the evolution of the precollapse configuration, not all of them known or understood, that they provide no constraint at the present time. Indeed the prompt explosion, from which a constraint had been thought to follow, is now believed not to be mechanism by which most, if any stars, explode. In any case the nuclear equation of state is but one of a multitude on uncertain factors, and possibly one of the least important. The rapid rotation …

I have designed a correction scheme for energy losses in passive material in front of a calorimeter based on the massless gap'' idea. I use a flexible geometry model of a calorimeter design for SDC outside of a solenoidal coil made of aluminium cylinders of adjustable thickness. The signal from the first radiation length of active calorimetry is scaled dependent on the incoming and observed energies of the shower. A reasonable recovery of the resolution of an unobstructed calorimeter is achieved using correction factors that depend only upon the total thickness of passive material. Thus a useful correction may be built into the hardware by increasing the amount of scintillator in the first radiation length of the active calorimeter. The distribution of correction factors determined event-by-event indicate that an additional dependence on the observed signal in the massless gap and total incident energy is clearly present.

Depolymerization of coals at low temperatures may offer advantages over thermal bond cleavage. Because bond cleavage energies of radical cations are lower than the corresponding homolytic bond cleavage energies of the same bond, generation of radical cations in coal may make possible depolymerization at lower temperatures. We seek to investigate the above possibility using single molecules containing functional groups common in coals. Since the generation of a radical cation requires the removal of an electron from a neutral molecule, a primary focus of the study will be finding oxidants that will remove an electron from compounds with structural similarity to those typically found in coals. The study must also be concerned with the decomposition of radical cations and the products formed as a result of the decomposition.

The purpose of this plan is to document the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention Awareness Program. The plan specifies those activities and methods that are or will be employed to reduce the quantity and toxicity of wastes generated at the site. The intent of this plan is to respond to and comply with (DOE's) policy and guidelines concerning the need for pollution prevention. The Plan is composed of a LLNL Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention Awareness Program Plan and, as attachments, Program- and Department-specific waste minimization plans. This format reflects the fact that waste minimization is considered a line management responsibility and is to be addressed by each of the Programs and Departments. 14 refs.