This report covers the progress made on the title project for the project period. Four major areas of inquiry are being pursued. Advanced solid state NMR methods are being developed to assay the distribution of the various important functional groups that determine the reactivity of coals. Special attention is being paid to methods that are compatible with the very high magic angle sample spinning rates needed for operation at the high magnetic field strengths available today. Polarization inversion methods utilizing the difference in heat capacities of small groups of spins are particularly promising. Methods combining proton-proton spin diffusion with {sup 13}C CPMAS readout are being developed to determine the connectivity of functional groups in coals in a high sensitivity relay type of experiment. Additional work is aimed a delineating the role of methyl group rotation in the proton NMR relaxation behavior of coals.

This project is divided into four tasks. The Management Plan was developed in task 1. Task 2, Evaluation of Mechanisms in FGD Sorbent and Ash Interactions, focuses on the characteristics of binary mixtures of these distinct powders. Task 3, Evaluation of Mechanisms in Conditioning Agents and Ash, is designed to examine the effects of various conditioning agents on fine ash particles to determine the mechanisms by which these agents alter the physical properties of the ash. Tasks 2 and 3 began with an extensive literature search and the assembly of existing theories. This phase of the project is now complete. During the past quarter, initial preparations of laboratory equipment for laboratory testing have been made. A plan for initial laboratory tests has been submitted to the Project Manager for review. Laboratory testing will commence once these laboratory plans have been formally approved. The results of the work performed under task 2 and 3 will be included in a Flue Gas Conditioning Model that will be issued under task 4. The Final Report for the project will also be prepared under task 4.

The ability of a country to follow sustainable development paths is determined to a large extent by the capacity or capabilities of its people and its institutions. Specifically, capacity-building in the UNCED terminology encompasses the country's human, scientific, technological, organizational, institutional, and resource capabilities. A fundamental goal of capacity-building is to enhance the ability to pose, evaluate and address crucial questions related to policy choices and methods of implementation among development options. As a result the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Agenda 21 planning process has identified the need for better methods by which information can be transferred between industrialized nations and developing nations. The reasons for better methods of information transfer include facilitating decisions related to sustainable development and building the capacity of developing nations to better plan their future in both an economical and environmentally sound manner. This paper is a discussion on mechanisms for providing information and technologies available for presenting the information to a variety of cultures and levels of technical literacy. Consideration is given to access to information technology as well as to the cost to the user. One concept discussed includes an Engineering Partnership'' which brings together the talents and resources …

Statistical and probabilistic methods for estimating the probability that a fracture is nonconductive (or equivalently, the conductive-fracture frequency) and the distribution of the transmissivities of conductive fractures from transmissivity measurements made in single-hole injection (well) tests were developed. These methods were applied to a database consisting of over 1,000 measurements made in nearly 25 km of borehole at five sites in Sweden. The depths of the measurements ranged from near the surface to over 600-m deep, and packer spacings of 20- and 25-m were used. A probabilistic model that describes the distribution of a series of transmissivity measurements was derived. When the parameters of this model were estimated using maximum likelihood estimators, the resulting estimated distributions generally fit the cumulative histograms of the transmissivity measurements very well. Further, estimates of the mean transmissivity of conductive fractures based on the maximum likelihood estimates of the model's parameters were reasonable, both in magnitude and in trend, with respect to depth. The estimates of the conductive fracture probability were generated in the range of 0.5--5.0 percent, with the higher values at shallow depths and with increasingly smaller values as depth increased. An estimation procedure based on the probabilistic model and the maximum likelihood …

I am pleased to speak at the Fortieth Gordon Conference on Nuclear Chemistry. I served as Chairman of the first Gordon Conference on Nuclear Chemistry held June 23--27, 1952, at New Hampton, New Hampshire. In my remarks, during which I shall quote from my journal, I shall describe some of the background leading up to the first Gordon Conference on Nuclear Chemistry and my attendance at the first seven Gordon Conferences during the period 1952 through 1958. I shall also quote my description of my appearance as the featured speaker at the Silver Anniversary of the Gordon Research Conferences on December 27, 1956 held at the Commodore Hotel in New York City. I shall begin with reference to my participation in the predecessor to the Gordon Conferences, the Gibson Island Research Conferences 45 years ago, on Thursday, June 20, 1946, as a speaker. This was 15 years after the start of these conferences in 1931. Neil Gordon played a leading role in these conferences, which were named (in 1948) in his honor -- the Gordon Research Conferences -- soon after they were moved to Colby Junior College, New London, New Hampshire in 1947. W. George Parks became Director in 1947, …

The objectives of the study are to: Develop a baseline design for indirect liquefaction using advanced Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) technology. Prepare the capital and operating costs for the baseline design. Develop a process flowsheet simulation (PFS) model. The baseline design, the economic analysis, and the computer model will be the major research planning tools that Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center will use to plan, guide, and evaluate its ongoing and future research and commercialization programs relating to indirect coal liquefaction for the manufacture of synthetic liquid fuels from coal.

This project is designed to develop methods for pre-combustion coal remediation by implementing recent advances in enzyme biochemistry. The novel approach of this study is incorporation of hydrophilic oxidative enzymes in reverse micelles in an organic solvent. Enzymes from commercial sources or microbial extracts are being investigated for their capacity to remove organic sulfur from coal by oxidation of the sulfur groups, splitting of C-S bonds and loss of sulfur as sulfuric acid. Dibenzothiophene (DBT) and ethylphenylsulfide (EPS) are serving as models of organic sulfur-containing components of coal in initial studies.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) computing environment, focusing on its policies, procedures, and techniques designed to detect, respond to, and report on incidents of computer intrusion and misuse."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the use of the disaster recovery funds provided for Yosemite National Park, following the January 1997 flood, focusing on whether: (1) planned and actual expenditures are consistent with the park's planning documents; (2) the costs of the disaster recovery projects appear reasonable; and (3) there is any merit to the allegations about the misuse of some of the disaster recovery funds."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) use of funds for its brownfield-related initiatives, focusing on the: (1) amount of funds that EPA actually obligated in fiscal years (FY) 1997-1999; (2) amount it plans to obligate in FY 2000; and (3) number of grants and agreements that EPA awarded or plans to award with these funds, along with the recipients of these awards."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal and state efforts to prevent telephone slamming, which involves switching a consumer's telephone service from one telephone company to another, and cramming, which involves placing unauthorized charges on a consumer's telephone bill for services and products, focusing on the: (1) number of complaints about slamming and cramming received by state and federal authorities; (2) types of protections implemented by state and federal authorities to increase consumers' ability to protect themselves against slamming and cramming; and (3) state and federal enforcement actions taken against slamming and cramming violations since 1996, including the names of the companies or individuals most frequently subject to such actions."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on personnel management in the District of Columbia (D.C.) courts, focusing on: (1) staffing and workload levels for the courts from 1989 through 1998; (2) how the courts evaluate the sufficiency of the levels of nonjudicial staff who work on processing and disposition of cases; and (3) a comparison of the D.C. courts' staffing methodology to other available methodologies."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) policies and practices regarding intrusion detection and response capabilities in the federal government."

A letter 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) efforts to reduce the costs associated with civilian personnel management, focusing on: (1) how DOD determines the number and locations for civilian personnel regional service centers and why is there a wide disparity in the number of regional centers among the services; (2) whether DOD is applying the investment principles of the Clinger-Cohen Act in overseeing, managing, and developing the Defense Civilian Personnel Data System (DCPDS); (3) whether DCPDS duplicates the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Employee Express System: (4) whether DOD leadership is aware of the extent and cost of the needed modifications to the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software applications; and (5) whether DOD identified and mitigated the risks associated with the major COTS modifications."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the preparedness of the federal food safety regulatory agencies to respond to acts or threats of deliberate food contamination, including those by terrorists, focusing on the: (1) extent to which food has been deliberately contaminated with a biological agent (bacteria, virus, or toxin) or threatened to be contaminated with such an agent; and (2) plans and procedures that federal food safety regulatory agencies have for responding to threats and acts of deliberate food contamination with a biological agent."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Non Commissioned Officers Association, Incorporated, for the years ended December 31, 1997 and 1996, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Former Members of Congress for the years ended December 31, 1997 and 1996, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission's authority to compensate an executive level IV Export-Import Bank employee that it would like detailed to it to serve as its executive director. The Commission's statute provides authority to appoint staff without regard to civil service laws and regulations, but it limits the compensation the Commission may pay to executive schedule level. To detail the employee under the Economy Act with full reimbursement to the Bank would violate the pay limitation. However, the Commission's statute also provides authority for any federal employee to be detailed to the Commission without reimbursement and without loss of civil service status or privilege. To avoid violating the compensation limitation, the Commission proposes to reimburse the Bank for the employee's compensation at the level V rate, with the Bank providing the amount over level V. Since this arrangement appears to satisfy the language and intent of the pay limitation and the detail provisions, GAO has no objection."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's progress toward its goal of fielding a digitized division by the end of 2000, focusing on: (1) the high-priority systems needed to accomplish the digitization fielding goal; (2) the acquisition status of these high-priority systems; and (3) any performance uncertainties that could confront the Army after its first digitized division is fielded."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Air Force's selection of a source of repair for depot maintenance work at the closing San Antonio Air Logistics Center, focusing on whether: (1) the Air Force's procedures for conducting the San Antonio competition provided a substantially equal opportunity for the public and private offerors to compete for the work without regard to performance location; (2) procedures for conducting the competition were in compliance with 10 U.S.C. 2469a and other applicable laws and regulations; (3) appropriate consideration was given to factors other than cost; and (4) the award resulted in the lowest total cost to the Department of Defense (DOD) for performance of the work."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined for the 1992, 1994, 1996, and 1998 elections the total amount of contributions from gambling interests to: (1) federal candidates, including the total number of federal candidates that accepted those contributions; and (2) national political party committees, as well as separate totals for the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Commodity Credit Corporation's (CCC) new rule on the 1998 Single-Year and Multi-Year Crop Loss Disaster Assistance Program. GAO noted that: (1) the rule sets forth the terms and conditions of the 1998 Single-Year and Multi-Year Crop Loss Disaster Assistance Program; (2) the purpose of the program is to provide payments to eligible producers who suffered losses because of an eligible disaster in crop year 1998, or in at least three of the crop years from 1994 through 1998; and (3) CCC complied with the applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed: (1) states' implementation of welfare reform; (2) the status of children and families leaving welfare; and (3) key issues involved in assessing the success of welfare reform."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the financial condition of the National Flood Insurance Program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Federal Insurance Administration, focusing on the: (1) financial results of the program's operations since fiscal year 1993; (2) major factors contributing to the financial difficulties faced by the program; and (3) actions taken by and plans of the Federal Insurance Administration that may affect the program's financial health."