This project examined the internal architecture of delta front sandstones at two locations within the Turonian-age Wall Creek Member of the Frontier Formation, in Wyoming. The project involved traditional outcrop field work integrated with core-data, and 2D and 3D ground penetrating radar (GPR) imaging from behind the outcrops. The fluid-flow engineering work, handled through a collaborative grant given to PI Chris White at LSU, focused on effects on fluid flow of late-stage calcite cement nodules in 3D. In addition to the extensive field component, the work funded 2 PhD students (Gani and Lee) and resulted in publication of 10 technical papers, 17 abstracts, and 4 internal field guides. PI Bhattacharya also funded an additional 3 PhD students that worked on the Wall Creek sandstone funded separately through an industrial consortium, two of whom graduated in the fall 2006 ((Sadeque and Vakarelov). These additional funds provided significant leverage to expand the work to include a regional stratigraphic synthesis of the Wall Creek Member of the Frontier Formation, in addition to the reservoir-scale studies that DOE directly funded. Awards given to PI Bhattacharya included the prestigious AAPG Distinguished Lecture Award, which involved a tour of about 25 Universities and Geological Societies in …

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Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report stems from the recognition that the Congress faces a daunting challenge: the need to bring government and its programs in line with 21st century realities. This challenge has many related pieces: addressing the nation's large and growing long-term fiscal gap; deciding on the appropriate role and size of the federal government--and how to finance that government--and bringing the panoply of federal activities into line with today's world. The reexamination questions discussed in this report are drawn primarily from the work GAO has done for the Congress over the years. Many of these questions do not represent immediate crises, however many pose important longer-term threats to the country's fiscal and economic, and national security as well as the quality of life for our children and grandchildren."

The design of integrated photonic structures poses considerable challenges. 3D-Time-Domain design tools are fundamental in enabling technologies such as all-optical logic, photonic bandgap sensors, THz imaging, and fast radiation diagnostics. Such technologies are essential to LLNL and WFO sponsors for a broad range of applications: encryption for communications and surveillance sensors (NSA, NAI and IDIV/PAT); high density optical interconnects for high-performance computing (ASCI); high-bandwidth instrumentation for NIF diagnostics; micro-sensor development for weapon miniaturization within the Stockpile Stewardship and DNT programs; and applications within HSO for CBNP detection devices. While there exist a number of photonics simulation tools on the market, they primarily model devices of interest to the communications industry. We saw the need to extend our previous software to match the Laboratory's unique emerging needs. These include modeling novel material effects (such as those of radiation induced carrier concentrations on refractive index) and device configurations (RadTracker bulk optics with radiation induced details, Optical Logic edge emitting lasers with lateral optical inputs). In addition we foresaw significant advantages to expanding our own internal simulation codes: parallel supercomputing could be incorporated from the start, and the simulation source code would be accessible for modification and extension. This work addressed Engineering's Simulation …

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives granting the legislature permission to adjourn for more than three days during the period beginning on Wednesday, February 7, 2007, and ending on Monday, February 12, 2007.

This report presents perspectives on African economic trends and provides an overview of U.S. trade and investment flows with sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It discusses the provisions of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the changes that have occurred since its enactment. It concludes with a brief discussion of issues of congressional interest.

This report summarizes the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and its creation. According to the report, the ATP was created to insure competitive technologies with broad applications throughout multiple industries. The report also covers information surrounding the budget of the program and its funding.

This report discusses the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which are standards that define what EPA considers to be clean air. Their importance stems from the long and complicated implementation process that is set in motion by their establishment.

Technology fact sheet on sealing air leaks to save energy in your home.

This report

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Monthly newsletter discussing news and activities related to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, articles about weather and atmospheric phenomena, and other related topics.

Technology fact sheet on installing insulation coverage and air sealing for the access between living space and the unconditioned attic.

Radiation induces the formation of DNA damages via direct ionization or through the production of reactive oxygen intermediates that chemically modify DNA. Radiation is thought to elicit its cytotoxicity by inducing the formation of lethal DNA damage, including modified bases, baseless sites and strand breaks. To avert the deleterious effects of radiation and chromosomal modifications, cells are equipped with DNA repair systems and cellular responses that function to amend genetic imperfections and to prevent the replication of damaged DNA. The focus of this proposal is to develop a novel, function-based technology for isolating inhibitors of proteins involved in radiation-protection. Such inhibitor molecules represent potential radiosensitizing agents, which could be used to increase the biological effectiveness of a given radiation dose in anti-cancer treatment schemes. This project combines unique laboratory expertise in robotics, computational modeling, combinatorial chemistry, and DNA repair enzymology from the Biology & Biotechnology Research Program and the Chemistry and Material Science Directorate. The screening technique will utilize a simple flow-based filter system operated by robotics. Commercial laboratory instrumentation and automation are available for creating a nearly hands-off system for inhibitor molecule screening. Specifically, a general purpose dispensing instrument (i.e. the Packard Multiprobe II), using opaque, filter-backed microtiter plates, …

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For many years, the commercial nuclear business has remained relatively stable in many ways. The introduction of new plants, the spread to new countries, and the development of key elements of the fuel cycle such as enrichment, reprocessing and waste disposal have been quite modest. That is unlikely to be the case in the coming years. A number of events and trends are becoming increasingly apparent and are cause for both opportunity and caution: (1) New nuclear power plant orders are likely to grow and spread, particularly in the developing world, e.g. China and India. (2) The growing recognition that the developing world will be a major competitor for limited energy resources is raising awareness in the developed world regarding concerns for future energy security. (3) Clearer evidence of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on global warming, largely from the burning of fossil fuels, is creating more attention on the environmental benefits of nuclear power. (4) The last decade has shown unequivocal evidence of countries lying, cheating on their NPT obligation, and covertly carrying out nuclear weapons-related activities. Some have suggested their presumed need for a domestic nuclear fuel cycle as a rationale to pursue enrichment and/or reprocessing capabilities, …

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As in the last two Congresses, campaign finance reform will be a major issue in the 107th Congress, with attention again centered on the Senate McCain-Feingold and House Shays-Meehan bills. S. 27 (Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2001), introduced on January 22, 2001, will be considered by the Senate in March 2001; H.R. 380 (Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2001) was introduced January 31. Both bills ban the raising of soft money by national parties and the spending of it by state and local parties on federal election-related activities (as defined). But on the other key provision–issue advocacy–they differ notably. H.R. 380 offers a broad new definition of express advocacy, subjecting activity meeting that standard to all aspects of federal election law regulation. S. 27 classifies some messages as electioneering communications, requiring their disclosure and banning their funding by unions or for-profit corporations. This report summarizes and compares these two measures, according to various categories.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "At the last Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) hearing, GAO reported that our assessment of the project's schedule and expected cost at completion was somewhat constrained because the CVC team was still analyzing the impact on the project's schedule and cost of recently identified changes required for certain components of the fire protection and security systems. The impact of these changes on the project is not yet fully known. Therefore, GAO could not thoroughly assess the project's schedule or estimated cost at completion and are basing our views on the information available as of February 5, 2007, including the Architect Of the Capitol's (AOC) December 2006 schedule. To assist the Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, House Committee on Appropriations in monitoring progress on the CVC project, GAO's remarks will focus on (1) the AOC construction progress since the last CVC hearing on November 15, 2006; and (2) the project's expected cost at completion and status of funding."

The goal of the Castle project was to provide a parallel programming environment that enables the construction of high performance applications that run portably across many platforms. The authors approach was to design and implement a multilayered architecture, with higher levels building on lower ones to ensure portability, but with care taken not to introduce abstractions that sacrifice performance.

The project would (1) compare new FK-800 with old Kel-F 800 and KF-800 lots currently available at LLNL, (2) compare and characterize new TATB with old TATB, (3) formulate new FK-800 with wet-aminated TATB and new TATBs in according to HAAP slurry coating procedure into LX-17-2, and (4) evaluate the mechanical and detonation performance characteristics of this insensitive high explosive (IHE). Priorities will be to prove that these new materials can be formulated, pressed to density and machined; and that they contain no impurities which might cause compatibility issues. Since 3M [1, 2], LANL [7], Pantex [8] and AWE [9, 10] are currently evaluating the new FK-800, we plan to share data rather than repeating their work. Our effort is briefly described: Task 1--Evaluation of newer characterization methods to identify structural variations between old and new Kel-F 800 including: Rheological and mechanical properties, copolymer content, degree of crystallinity, and interfacial interactions with TATB. Task 2--Evaluate TATBs using scattering techniques to replace sieving operations called out in the specification [12] for particle size distribution measurements. Use SEM and OM for morphological differences between the old and new explosives. Evaluate the compaction characteristics of new TATB. Task 3--Formulation of new LX-17-2 (with …

This report provides information about the Regulation and Issues for Congress in Chemical Facility Security. The proposed security regulations will preempt local and facility submission.

Chromaticity measurements are usually done by changing the energy of the beam by a known amount and measuring the change in betatron tune with a spectrum analyzer. The energy change is done by adjusting the RF frequency. The change in RF frequency is made large enough so that the change in betatron tune can be seen. If synchrotron motion is present in the beam, then measuring the change in betatron tune can be difficult. This note will outline a method to measure the change in betatron tune by phase-modulating the RF and measuring the phase modulated betatron spectrum Extremely small resolution bandwidths are available on modern vector signal analyzers. A small resolution bandwidth is equivalent to measuring the chromaticity many times and averaging the results. This would permit much smaller shifts in betatron tunes to be measured. The phase-modulated signal consists of sidebands whose amplitudes are given by Bessel functions. The complication of the Bessel functions can be removed if the vector signal analyzer is capable of phase demodulation. The sign of the chromaticity can be determined by observing the modulation spectrum at both betatron sidebands.

This report contains a background information and the reauthorization of the Community Services Block Grants (CSBG).