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This report briefly discusses the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities by places of public accommodation. This report specifically discusses a common question of whether or not the ADA requires medical doctors and hospitals to provide an interpreter when they have a patient with a hearing disability.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Views on defense offsets range from beliefs that they are both positive and an unavoidable part of doing business overseas to beliefs that they negatively affect the U.S. industrial base. Defense offsets are often viewed as the key to foreign sales and thus increased business on the prime contractor level. They can also result in reduced unit costs to the U.S. military because of the increased size of production runs. However, the use of a foreign supplier by a U.S. prime contractor as a result of an offset may lead to decreased business opportunities for U.S. suppliers. Additionally, U.S. prime contractors may develop long-term relationships with foreign suppliers, which may lead to the transfer of capability from the U.S. defense industrial base. As a result of congressional concerns about emerging trends in defense offsets, GAO conducted a number of reviews and issued multiple reports. Because of GAO's work in this area, Congress asked us to provide our observations on offset issues. Specifically, GAO is providing observations on (1) what constitutes offsets and how they are used in defense trade, (2) how that use has changed over time, and …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO is required to annually audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government. Proper accounting and reporting practices are essential in the public sector. The U.S. government is the largest, most diverse, most complex, and arguably the most important entity on earth today. Its services--homeland security, national defense, Social Security, mail delivery, and food inspection, to name a few--directly affect the well-being of almost every American. But sound decisions on the future direction of vital federal government programs and policies are made more difficult without timely, accurate, and useful financial and performance information. Until the problems discussed in GAO's audit report on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements are adequately addressed, they will continue to (1) hamper the federal government's ability to accurately report a significant portion of its assets, liabilities, and costs; (2) affect the federal government's ability to accurately measure the full cost as well as the financial and nonfinancial performance of certain programs while effectively managing related operations; and (3) significantly impair the federal government's ability to adequately safeguard certain significant assets and properly record various transactions."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Homeland Security Act of 2002 brought together 22 agencies to create a new cabinet-level department focusing on reducing U.S. vulnerability to terrorist attacks, and minimizing damages and assisting in recovery from attacks that do occur. GAO has previously reported on the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) financial management challenges and key elements necessary for reform. DHS continues to be faced with significant financial management challenges, including addressing existing internal control weaknesses and integrating redundant inherited financial management systems. Additionally, DHS is the largest entity in the federal government that is not subject to the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 or the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) of 1996. In light of these conditions, Congress asked GAO to testify on the financial management challenges facing DHS."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Telework has received significant attention in Congress and the executive branch and is an increasingly popular flexibility among federal employees. In July 2003 GAO reported on the use of telework in the federal government (GAO-03-679). Not only is telework an important flexibility from the perspective of employees, it has also become a critical management tool for coping with potential disruptions in the workplace, including terrorism. This statement highlights key practices GAO research identified as important to implementing successful telework initiatives. The statement then discusses efforts to coordinate and promote telework, and concludes with a review of OPM's May 2004 telework report."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO discussed its perspective on the process for establishing accounting standards for private-sector entities and then, more specifically, the current proposals for accounting for stock options. We recognize that accounting for stock options is a complex and controversial issue on which reasonable people can and do disagree. As a result, in light of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB) current proposed standard for accounting for stock options and other share-based compensation, there has been a renewed interest for the Congress to possibly legislate accounting rules for stock options. FASB is a non-governmental organization empowered to establish financial accounting and reporting standards for private-sector entities. Although this function legally resides with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for public companies as part of its mandate to administer and enforce the provisions of the federal securities laws, the SEC has traditionally relied on FASB since 1973 to fulfill this function. The U.S. capital markets depend on a system of continuously improving financial information about the underlying economic activities of companies. This information is fostered and framed by independently established financial accounting and reporting standards, collectively referred to as generally accepted …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has previously reported on the Department of Defense's (DOD) financial management and business related problems and key elements necessary for successful reform. Although the underlying conditions remain fundamentally unchanged, DOD continues to be confronted with pervasive problems related to its systems, processes (including internal controls), and people (human capital). These problems impede DOD's ability to operate its numerous business operations in an efficient and effective manner. Congress asked GAO to provide its views on (1) the impact that long-standing financial management and related business process weaknesses continue to have on DOD, (2) the underlying causes of DOD business transformation challenges, and (3) DOD's business transformation efforts. In addition, GAO reiterates the key elements to successful reform: (1) an integrated business management transformation strategy, (2) sustained leadership and resource control, (3) clear lines of responsibility and accountability, (4) results-oriented performance measures, (5) appropriate incentives and consequences, (6) an enterprise architecture to guide reform efforts, and (7) effective monitoring and oversight."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Oil for Food program was established by the United Nations and Iraq in 1996 to address concerns about the humanitarian situation after international sanctions were imposed in 1990. The program allowed the Iraqi government to use the proceeds of its oil sales to pay for food, medicine, and infrastructure maintenance. The program appears to have helped the Iraqi people. From 1996 through 2001, the average daily food intake increased from 1,300 to 2,300 calories. From 1997-2002, Iraq sold more than $67 billion of oil through the program and issued $38 billion in letters of credit to purchase commodities. GAO (1) reports on our estimates of the illegal revenue acquired by the former Iraqi regime in violation of U.N. sanctions and provides some observations on the administration of the program and (2) suggests areas for additional analysis and summarizes the status of several ongoing investigations."

The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) Engineering requested characterization of three glass samples that were taken from Melter number 2 after the waste loading had been increased, e.g. after the new quasicrystalline liquidus model had been implemented and after DWPF switched from processing with Frit 200 to Frit 320. These samples were taken after DWPF observed very rapid buildup of deposits in the upper pour spout bore and on the pour spout insert while processing the high waste loading (approximate 38 wt percent feedstock). Rapid deposition in these locations had not occurred prior to this and, in turn, stopped after waste loading decreased. These samples were evaluated at SRTC using various analytical techniques for potential impacts on pouring problems recently experienced by the DWPF.

Regardless of the form of restructuring, deregulated electricity industries share one common feature: the absence of any significant, rapid demand-side response to the wholesale (or, spotmarket) price. For a variety of reasons, electricity industries continue to charge most consumers an average cost based on regulated retail tariff from the era of vertical integration, even as the retailers themselves are forced to purchase electricity at volatile wholesale prices set in open markets. This results in considerable price risk for retailers, who are sometimes forbidden by regulators from signing hedging contracts. More importantly, because end-users do not perceive real-time (or even hourly or daily) fluctuations in the wholesale price of electricity, they have no incentive to adjust their consumption in response to price signals. Consequently, demand for electricity is highly inelastic, and electricity generation resources can be stretched to the point where system stability is threatened. This, then, facilitates many other problems associated with electricity markets, such as market power and price volatility. Indeed, economic theory suggests that even modestly price-responsive demand can remove the stress on generation resources and decrease spot prices. To test this theory, we use actual generator bid data from the New York control area to construct supply …

By taking advantage of recent developments in millimeter wave imaging technology, an Electron Cyclotron Emission Imaging (ECEI) instrument, capable of simultaneously measuring 128 channels of localized electron temperature over a 2-D map in the poloidal plane, has been developed for the TEXTOR tokamak. Data from the new instrument, detailing the MHD activity associated with a sawtooth crash, is presented.

Although the fundamental microbiological and geochemical processes underlying the potential use of dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria (DMRB) to create subsurface redox barriers for immobilization of uranium and other redox-sensitive metal/radionuclide contaminants are well-understood (Lovley et al., 1991; Gorby and Lovley, 1992; Lovley and Phillips, 1992; Lovley, 1995; Fredrickson et al., 2000; Wielinga et al., 2000; Wielinga et al., 2001), several fundamental scientific questions need to be addressed in order to understand and predict how such treatment procedures would function under in situ conditions in the subsurface. These questions revolve around the dynamic interactions between hydrologic flux and the coupled microbial-geochemical processes which are likely to occur within a redox barrier treatment zone. A brief summary of such questions includes the following: (1) What are the kinetic limitations to the efficiency of microbial U(VI) scavenging in subsurface sediments? (2) Is U(VI) sorbed to Fe(III) oxide and other solid-phase surfaces subject to enzymatic reduction? If so, what are the relative kinetics of aqueous vs. sorbed U(VI) reduction? (3) What are the relative kinetics of direct, enzymatic U(VI) reduction vs. abiotic reduction of U(VI) by surface-bound biogenic Fe(II)? (4) Can coupled Fe(III) oxide/U(VI) reduction be sustained long-term in subsurface environments? What are the kinetic …

Laser driven accelerators, in which particles are accelerated by the electric field of a plasma wave driven by an intense laser, have demonstrated accelerating electric fields of hundreds of GV/m. These fields are thousands of times those achievable in conventional radiofrequency (RF) accelerators, spurring interest in laser accelerators as compact next generation sources of energetic electrons and radiation. To date however, acceleration distances have been severely limited by lack of a controllable method for extending the propagation distance of the focused laser pulse. The ensuing short acceleration distance results in low energy beams with 100% electron energy spread, limiting applications. Here we demonstrate that a relativistically intense laser can be guided by a preformed plasma density channel and that the longer propagation distance can result in electron beams of percent energy spread with low emittance and increased energy, containing >10{sup 9} electrons above 80 MeV. The preformed plasma channel technique forms the basis of a new class of accelerators, combining beam quality comparable to RF accelerators with the high gradients of laser accelerators to produce compact tunable high brightness electron and radiation sources.

Fermilab is considering a 8 GeV superconducting linac whose primary mission is to serve as an intense H{sup -} injector for the main injector. This accelerator is also planned to be used for accelerating various other species (e.g. electrons, protons and muons). In the present paper we investigate the possibility of such a linac to accelerate high-brightness electron beam up to {approx} 7 GeV. We propose a design for the electron front end based on a photoinjector and consider the electron beam dynamics along the linac. Start-to-end simulations of the full accelerator for electrons are presented. Finally the potential applications of such an electron beam are outlined.

The primary goal was to enter Phase 2 by analyzing geophysical logs and sidewall cores from a verification well drilled into the Trenton/Black River section along lineaments. However, the well has not yet been drilled; Phase 2 has therefore not been accomplished. Secondary goals in Phase I were also completed for the last reporting period. Thus, no new data were collected for this reporting period, and only soil gas surveys were reanalyzed and re-displayed in the region of the Trenton/Black River wells. The soil gas profiles in the region of the Trenton/Black River wells show that individual large-magnitude soil gas anomalies (spikes) are rarely wider than 50 m. Even clusters of soil gas spikes are only on the order of 200-250 m wide. Thus, widely-spaced sampling will not necessarily represent the actual number and location of soil gas seeps. The narrowness of the anomalies suggests that the seeps result from single fractures or narrow fracture intensification domains (FIDs). Many of the lineaments from EarthSat (1997) and straight stream segments coincide (or are very close to) soil gas spikes, but we collected many more soil gas spikes than lineaments. Among some of the soil gas box surveys, a possible ENE-trend of …

This report presents findings from tests investigating the dissolution of simulated and radioactive Savannah River Site sludges with 4 per cent oxalic acid and mixtures of oxalic and citric acid previously recommended by a Russian team from the Khlopin Radium Institute and the Mining and Chemical Combine (MCC). Testing also included characterization of the simulated and radioactive waste sludges. Testing results showed the following: Dissolution of simulated HM and PUREX sludges with oxalic and citric acid mixtures at SRTC confirmed general trends reported previously by Russian testing. Unlike the previous Russian testing six sequential contacts of a mixture of oxalic acid citric acids at a 2:1 ratio (v/w) of acid to sludge did not produce complete dissolution of simulated HM and PUREX sludges. We observed that increased sludge dissolution occurred at a higher acid to sludge ratio, 50:1 (v/w), compared to the recommended ratio of 2:1 (v/w). We observed much lower dissolution of aluminum in a simulated HM sludge by sodium hydroxide leaching. We attribute the low aluminum dissolution in caustic to the high fraction of boehmite present in the simulated sludge. Dissolution of HLW sludges with 4 per cent oxalic acid and oxalic/citric acid followed general trends observed with …

This task examines the potential of the treated waste feed blends to form sodium-aluminum silicate precipitates when evaporated using the zeolite database. To investigate the behavior of the blended pretreated waste feed, an OLI Environmental Simulation Package Software (OLI ESP) model of the treated low activity waste (LAW) evaporator was built. A range of waste feed compositions representative of Envelope A, B, and C were then fed into the OLI model to predict various physical and chemical properties of the evaporator concentrates. Additional runs with treated LAW evaporator were performed to compare chemical and physical property model predictions and experimental results for small-scale radioactive tests of the treated feed evaporation process.

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) produces plasmas with aspect ratio A {triple_bond} R/a = 0.85m/0.68m {approx} 1.25, at plasma currents up to 1.5 MA with vacuum toroidal magnetic field up to 0.6 T on axis. The plasmas are heated by up to 6 MW of High-Harmonic Fast Waves (HHFW) at a frequency 30 MHz and by 7 MW of deuterium Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) at an energy up to 100 keV. Since January 2004, NSTX has been operating, routinely at toroidal fields up to 0.45 T, with a new central conductor bundle in the toroidal field coil.

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The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities by places of public accommodations. A common question concerning the ADA is whether this prohibition requires medical doctors and hospitals to provide an interpreter when they have a patient with a hearing disability. This requirement varies depending upon the situation presented but situations may arise where there is an obligation to provide an interpreter. Updated as appropriate.