We determined the complete mtDNA sequences of the millipedes Narceus annularus and Thyropygus sp. (Arthropoda: Diplopoda) and identified in both genomes all 37 genes typical for metazoan mtDNA. The arrangement of these genes is identical in the two millipedes, but differs from that inferred to be ancestral for arthropods by the location of four genes/gene clusters. This novel gene arrangement is unusual for animal mtDNA, in that genes with opposite transcriptional polarities are clustered in the genome and the two clusters are separated by two non-coding regions. The only exception to this pattern is the gene for cysteine tRNA, which is located in the part of the genome that otherwise contains all genes with the opposite transcriptional polarity. We suggest that a mechanism involving complete mtDNA duplication followed by the loss of genes, predetermined by their transcriptional polarity and location in the genome, could generate this gene arrangement from the one ancestral for arthropods. The proposed mechanism has important implications for phylogenetic inferences that are drawn on the basis of gene arrangement comparisons.

Alloy 22 (UNS N06022) and Ti Grade 7 (UNS R52400) have been proposed as the corrosion resistant materials for fabricating the waste package outer barrier and the drip shield, respectively for the proposed nuclear waste repository Yucca Mountain Project. In this work, the susceptibility of welded and annealed Alloy 22 (N06022) and Ti Grade 7 (UNS R52400) to crevice corrosion was studied by the Multiple Crevice Assembly (ASTM G78) method combined with surface morphological observation after four and eight weeks of exposure to the Basic Saturated Water (BSW-12) in a temperature range from 60 to 105 C. The susceptibility of the materials to crevice corrosion was evaluated based on the appearance of crevice attack underneath the crevice formers and the weight loss data. The results showed that, after exposed to BSW-12 for four and eight weeks, no obvious crevice attack was observed on these materials. The descaled weight loss increased with the increase in temperature for all materials. The weight loss, however, is believed to be caused by general corrosion, rather than crevice corrosion. There was no significant difference between the annealed and welded materials either. On the other hand, to conclude that these materials are immune to crevice corrosion …

The end of the Cold War and its impact on defense spending has created a strong need to reform Department of Defense’s (DOD) acquisition system. With procurement spending down, DOD expects to depend on savings from acquisition reform to help finance future force modernization. Policymakers believe that DOD should use more commercial products because, in many instances, they cost less and their quality is comparable to products built according to DOD military specifications. Many such reform proposals are based on recognition that DOD regulatory barriers and a Cold War acquisition “culture” have inhibited the introduction of commercial products.

On June 27, the Bush Administration released an amended FY2002 budget for the Department of Defense (DOD). The amended budget requests a total of $328.9 billion for DOD, an additional $18.4 billion above the Administration’s “Blueprint” budget released in April. The amended budget included an additional $5.6 billion for DOD’s Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) program. This raises the FY2002 RDT&E request to $47.4 billion, $6.3 billion above the total obligational authority available for RDT&E in FY2001.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen used to enhance the explosive yield of every thermonuclear weapon. Tritium has a radioactive decay rate of 5.5% per year and has not been produced in this country for weapons purposes since 1988. To compensate for decay losses, tritium levels in the existing stockpile are being maintained by recycling and reprocessing it from dismantled nuclear weapons. To maintain the nuclear weapons stockpile at the level called for in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) II (not yet in force), however, a new tritium source would be needed by the year 2011. If the START I stockpile levels remain the target, as is now the case, tritium production would be needed by 2005.

Recent proposals have been made to enact either a temporary or a permanent capital gains tax cut. The former would probably gain revenue in the first 2 years but lose that revenue and more, most likely within the following 3 years. H.R. 3090, passed by the House, would lower the top tax rate from 20% to 18% for assets held at least a year. The Senate Finance Committee version of H.R. 3090, does not reduce capital gains taxes. A capital gains tax cut appears the least likely of any permanent tax cut to stimulate the economy in the short run; a temporary capital gains tax cut is unlikely to provide any stimulus. Permanently lower capital gains taxes can contribute to economic efficiency in some ways and detract from it in others. Capital gains tax cuts would favor high income individuals, with about 80% of the benefit going to the top 2% of taxpayers.

The ''point design'' studied this year shows that a staged VLHC (40, {approx} 200 TeV) is feasible, with no insurmountable challenges. Further work can provide a more optimized design, by studying various alternative field strengths (e.g., superferric magnets for Stage 1) for improvements to vacuum, wall impedance, and other major performance parameters. It may be that a ''single-stage'' scenario for accessing higher energies sooner is the correct approach. A next-step design study should be considered to look at the two cases near to and complementary to the 2001 VLHC Design Study. The effectiveness of photon stops and their engineering design need to be addressed in the near future to truly determine if these devices can lead this effort to even higher luminosities and energies. The superbunch approach should continue to be studied, as well as IR designs, new instrumentation and diagnostics, and beam dynamics issues. Finally, a well organized VLHC-motivated beam studies effort should become part of the national program.

This report describes the research program intended to expand, enhance, and accelerate knowledge and capabilities for developing high-performance, two-terminal multijunction amorphous silicon (a-Si) alloy cells, and modules with low manufacturing cost and high reliability. United Solar uses a spectrum-splitting, triple-junction cell structure. The top cell uses an amorphous silicon alloy of {approx}1.8-eV bandgap to absorb blue photons. The middle cell uses an amorphous silicon germanium alloy ({approx}20% germanium) of {approx}1.6-eV bandgap to capture green photons. The bottom cell has {approx}40% germanium to reduce the bandgap to {approx}1.4-eV to capture red photons. The cells are deposited on a stainless-steel substrate with a predeposited silver/zinc oxide back reflector to facilitate light-trapping. A thin layer of antireflection coating is applied to the top of the cell to reduce reflection loss. The major research activities conducted under this program were: (1) Fundamental studies to improve our understanding of materials and devices; the work included developing and analyzing a-Si alloy and a-SiGe alloy materials prepared near the threshold of amorphous-to-microcrystalline transition and studying solar cells fabricated using these materials. (2) Deposition of small-area cells using a radio-frequency technique to obtain higher deposition rates. (3) Deposition of small-area cells using a modified very high frequency technique …

This paper develops a clear procedure for solving the nonlinear Vlasov-Maxwell equations for a one-component intense charged particle beam or finite-length charge bunch propagating through a cylindrical conducting pipe (radius r = r(subscript)w = const.), and confined by an applied focusing force. In particular, the nonlinear Vlasov-Maxwell equations are Lorentz-transformed to the beam frame ('primed' variables) moving with axial velocity relative to the laboratory. In the beam frame, the particle motions are nonrelativistic for the applications of practical interest, already a major simplification. Then, in the beam frame, we make the electrostatic approximation which fully incorporates beam space-charge effects, but neglects any fast electromagnetic processes with transverse polarization (e.g., light waves). The resulting Vlasov-Maxwell equations are then Lorentz-transformed back to the laboratory frame, and properties of the self-generated fields and resulting nonlinear Vlasov-Maxwell equations in the laboratory frame are discussed.

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1980, the Winter and Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games hosted in the United States have increased in size and magnitude, as have the total direct costs to plan and stage them. The reported direct costs to plan and stage the games discussed in this report ranged from $363 million to more than $2.4 billion. Although the total dollar amount of federal funding and support has increased, the total federal share of the reported total direct costs to plan and stage the games has decreased. Since 1980, the amount of funding and support provided by state and local governments has increased. Generally, federal funding and support for the total direct costs of each of these games was either specifically designated by Congress or approved by the federal agencies."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress, law enforcement, and others have expressed concern about the misuse of Social Security numbers (SSNs). Death information collected by the Social Security Administration (SSA), including the SSN, generally reaches financial institutions and other entities within one to two months of a person's death. SSA and the National Technical Information Service could improve the timeliness of the distribution of the Death Master File. Improving the timeliness of death information to the financial services industry would help to narrow the window of time that a criminal has to open new accounts using a deceased individual's identity. Additional education for the financial services industry about the availability and contents of the Death Master File would also be helpful. Providing timely death information and making financial institutions more aware of a reliable source of such information could deter criminals from using deceased individuals' social security numbers to obtain false identities for fraudulent activities."

Nonlinear, kinetic simulations of Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) for laser-fusion-relevant conditions present a bursting behavior. Different explanations for this regime has been given in previous studies: Saturation of SRS by increased nonlinear Landau damping [K. Estabrook et al., Phys. Fluids B 1 (1989) 1282] and detuning due to the nonlinear frequency shift of the plasma wave [H.X. Vu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 (2001) 4306]. Another mechanism, also assigning a key role to the trapped electrons, is proposed here: The break-up of the plasma wave through the trapped-particle instability.

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The purpose of this report is to identify the potential for on-site power generation in the U.S. industrial sector with emphasis on nine industrial groups called the ''Industries of the Future'' (IOFs) by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Through its Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT), the DOE has teamed with the IOFs to develop collaborative strategies for improving productivity, global competitiveness, energy usage and environmental performance. Total purchases for electricity and steam for the IOFs are in excess of $27 billion annually. Energy-related costs are very significant for these industries. The nine industrial groups are (1) Agriculture (SIC 1); (2) Forest products; (3) Lumber and wood products (SIC 24); (4) Paper and allied products (SIC 26); (5) Mining (SIC 11, 12, 14); (6) Glass (SIC 32); (7) Petroleum (SIC 29); (8) Chemicals (SIC 28); and (9) Metals (SIC 33): Steel, Aluminum, and Metal casting. Although not currently part of the IOF program, the food industry is included in this report because of its close relationship to the agricultural industry and its success with on-site power generation. On-site generation provides an alternative means to reduce energy costs, comply with environmental regulations, and ensure a reliable power supply. On-site generation can …

We have measured the Ag and Pd M{sub 5}VV Auger spectrum in coincidence with Ag and Pd 4d{sub 5/2} photoelectrons for the Ag/Cu(100) and Pd/Cu(100) systems, respectively, as a function of admetal coverage. These systems form surface alloys (i.e. random substitutional alloys in the first atomic layer) for impurity concentrations in the 0.1 monolayer range. For these systems, the centroid of the impurity 4d levels is expected to shift away from the Fermi level by {approx}1 eV [Ruban et al., Journal of Molecular Catalysis. A 115 (1997) 421], an effect that should be easily seen in coincidence core-valence-valence Auger spectra. We find that the impurity Auger spectra of both systems shift in a manner that is consistent with d-band moving away from EF. However, the shift for Pd is considerably smaller than expected, and a shift almost absent for Ag. The disagreement between theory and experiment is most likely caused by the neglect of lattice relaxations in the calculations.

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Newsletter of the Texas Department of Health discussing the news, activities, and events of the organization and other information related to health in Texas.

SensIDA and IDA are general-purpose codes for solving differential-algebraic equation (DAE) initial value problems. SensIDA is a variant of IDA that includes options for simultaneously computing the DAE solution together with its first-=order sensitivity coefficients with respect to model parameters. SensIDA is written in ANSI-standard C and it is mainly based on IDA, DASPK3.0, and SensPVODE. IDA is based on DASPK2.0. DASPK3.0 is a Fortran77 code for the sensitivity analysis of DAE initial value problems. SensPVODE is a sensitivity analysis variant of the parallel ordinary differential equation solver PVODE. SensIDA can be compiled to run on serial or parallel computers. This is accomplished by specifying that the serial or parallel version of the vector module NVECTOR is used when compiling SensIDA. The parallel version of SensIDA uses MPI (Message-Passing Interface) to achieve parallelism, and is intended for a distributed Single Program Multiple Data environment in which all vectors are identically partitioned across processors. The idea is for each processor to solve a certain fixed subset of the DAEs that describe the model problem and the first-order sensitivity coefficients of the solution.

The most frequent complaint of operators in modern computer-based control rooms is that there just are not enough video display units (VDUs). In this paper we examine the basis for this concern and try to understand the technical and historical reasons for this complaint, and its implications for the design of complex human-machine systems, including the number of VDUs in the control room. The overall aim of our work is to develop human factors guidance for the review of computer-based and modernized control rooms in nuclear power plants. As part of these efforts we have conducted literature reviews and studies using both simulators and actual systems in a broad range of industries, including process control, aerospace, medical, and others. Our findings reflect the general complaint of operators across all these industries: there just are not enough VDUs in the control room. We conclude that there are three primary reasons for this complaint. First, as part of a workload management strategy, operators frequently avoid interface management tasks and do not access all the information available, preferring instead to use a fixed set of familiar displays that provide much (but not all) of the information needed. Performance thereby becomes data limited and …

We consider an interior penalty discontinuous approximation for symmetric elliptic problems of second order on non-matching grids in this paper. The main result is an almost optimal error estimate for the interior penalty approximation of the original problem based on the partition of the domain into a finite number of subdomains. Further, an error analysis for the finite element approximation of the penalty formulation is given. Finally, numerical experiments on a series of model second order problems are presented.

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) budgets billions of dollars each year to purchase and repair the spare parts needed to maintain its weapons systems and support equipment. The quality of the spare parts can greatly determine if the Department's investment of funds is effective, efficient, and economical. This report examines the Navy's Product Quality Deficiency Reporting Program and the extent to which the program has gathered the data needed for the analysis, correction, and prevention of deficiencies in spare parts. GAO found that data on parts defects identified at the time of installation were underreported. Data on parts that failed after some operation but before their expected design life were not collected as part of this program. In the quality reports GAO reviewed, some key information was omitted on the cause of the parts' failures and some reports did not identify who was responsible for the defects. To a large extent, the program's ineffectiveness can be attributed to lack of management, limited training and incentives to report deficiencies, and competing priorities for the staff resources needed to carry out the program."