Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter responds to Congress's May 10, 2007, request that we address questions submitted for the record related to the May 9, 2007, hearing entitled The Future of Air Traffic Control Modernization."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On March 29, 2007, we testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security Subcommittee at a hearing entitled, "Eliminating and Recovering Improper Payments." At the hearing, we discussed federal agencies' progress in addressing key requirements of the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA) and Section 831 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002, commonly known as the Recovery Auditing Act. Our review and testimony focused on (1) trends in agencies' reporting under IPIA from fiscal years 2004 through 2006, (2) challenges in reporting improper payment information and improving internal control, and (3) agencies' reporting of recovery auditing efforts. This letter responds to Congress's April 18, 2007, request to provide answers to follow-up questions relating to our March 29, 2007, testimony. The responses are based on work associated with previously issued GAO products and data reported in agencies' performance and accountability reports (PAR)."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH), an independent executive branch entity, operates two continuing care retirement communities (CCRC). It provides care in three settings--independent living, assisted living, and a nursing home--and also operates a health and dental clinic for residents. The responsibilities of a CCRC generally include (1) appropriately transitioning residents from independent living to other settings as their care needs increase, (2) ensuring the availability of appropriate health services as residents progress to higher-level settings, and (3) ensuring residents' access to community-based or on-site health care. The law establishing AFRH sets forth the framework for its oversight and management. The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2006 required GAO to assess the regulatory oversight and monitoring of health care and nursing home care services provided by AFRH. As discussed with the committees of jurisdiction, we focused our review on (1) the standards that could be used to monitor health care provided by AFRH and (2) the adequacy of DOD oversight of AFRH health care. To address these issues, we (1) identified existing standards applicable to health services in the three settings at AFRH and similar facilities; (2) discussed accreditation …

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This report provides a brief analysis of Haiti's development needs. It examines the current situation in Haiti, Haiti's development needs, and what is being done by the Haitian government, the United States, and foreign donors to meet those needs.

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The 232-Z facility at Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant operated as a plutonium scrap incinerator for 11 years. Its mission was to recover residual plutonium through incinerating and/or leaching contaminated wastes and scrap material. Equipment failures, as well as spills, resulted in the release of radionuclides and other contamination to the building, along with small amounts to external soil. Based on the potential threat posed by the residual plutonium, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued an Action Memorandum to demolish Building 232-2, Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation, and Liability Act (CERC1.A) Non-Time Critical Removal Action Memorandum for Removal of the 232-2 Waste Recovery Process Facility at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (04-AMCP-0486).

Next generation nuclear power systems, high-power particle accelerators and space technology will inevitably rely on higher performance materials that will be able to function in the extreme environments of high irradiation, high temperatures, corrosion and stress. The ability of any material to maintain its functionality under exposure to harsh conditions is directly linked to the material structure at the nano- and micro-scales. Understanding of the underlying processes is key to the success of such undertakings. This paper presents experimental results of the effects of radiation exposure on several unique alloys, composites and crystals through induced changes in the physio-mechanical macroscopic properties.

A small number of double-lobed radio galaxies are found with an additional pair of extended low surface brightness 'wings' of emission giving them a distinctive 'X'-shaped appearance. One popular explanation for the unusual morphologies posits that the central supermassive black hole (SMBH)/accretion disk system underwent a recent realignment; in a merger scenario, the active lobes mark the post-merger axis of the resultant system (e.g., Merritt & Ekers 2002). However, this and other interpretations are not well tested on the few (about one dozen) known examples. In part to remedy this deficiency, a large sample of winged and X-shaped radio sources is being compiled for a systematic study. An initial sample of 100 new candidates is described as well as some of the follow-up work being pursued to test the different scenarios.

Yield point elongation (YPE) is considered undesirable in surface critical applications where steel is formed since "strain lines" or Luders bands are created during forming. This project will examine in detail the formation of luders bands in industrially relevant strain states including the influence of substrate properties and coatings on Luders appearance. Mechanical testing and surface profilometry were the primary methods of investigation.

Jets, paving their way outward through the inner regions of active nuclei, Compton-interact with the UV radiation from an accretion disc and broad emission line region. We calculate the predicted properties of the resulting spectral signatures of this bulk-Compton process, noting that they are independent on the fractional proton content or kinetic power of the jet, and use the presence or absence of such signatures to put constraints on the structure of jets near their bases.

This technical basis document was developed to support RPP-23429, Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis for the Demonstration Bulk Vitrification System (PDSA) and RPP-23479, Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis for the Contact-Handled Transuranic Mixed (CH-TRUM) Waste Facility. The main document describes the risk binning process and the technical basis for assigning risk bins to the representative accidents involving the release of dried radioactive waste materials from the Demonstration Bulk Vitrification System (DBVS) and to the associated represented hazardous conditions. Appendices D through F provide the technical basis for assigning risk bins to the representative dried waste release accident and associated represented hazardous conditions for the Contact-Handled Transuranic Mixed (CH-TRUM) Waste Packaging Unit (WPU). The risk binning process uses an evaluation of the frequency and consequence of a given representative accident or represented hazardous condition to determine the need for safety structures, systems, and components (SSC) and technical safety requirement (TSR)-level controls. A representative accident or a represented hazardous condition is assigned to a risk bin based on the potential radiological and toxicological consequences to the public and the collocated worker. Note that the risk binning process is not applied to facility workers because credible hazardous conditions with the potential for significant facility worker …

The purpose of this annual monitoring report is to evaluate the conditions of and identify trends for groundwater beneath the ERDF and to report leachate results in fulfillment of the requirements specified in the ERDF ROD.

We correlate the positions of 13,240 Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) with 0.1 {le} z {le} 0.3 from the maxBCG catalog with radio sources from the FIRST survey to study the sizes and distributions of radio AGN in galaxy clusters. We find that 19.7% of our BCGs are radio-loud, and this fraction depends on the stellar mass of the BCG, and to a lesser extent on the richness of the parent cluster (in the sense of increasing radio loudness with increasing mass). The intrinsic size of the radio emission associated with the BCGs peaks at 55 kpc, with a tail extending to 200 kpc. The radio power of the extended sources places them on the divide between FR I and FR II type sources, while sources compact in the radio tend to be somewhat less radio-luminous. We also detect an excess of radio sources associated with the cluster, instead of with the BCG itself, extending out to {approx} 1.4 kpc.

Boreal summer intraseasonal (30-50 day) variability (BSISV) over the Asian monsoon region is more complex than its boreal winter counterpart, the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO), since it also exhibits northward and northwestward propagating convective components near India and over the west Pacific. Here we analyze the BSISV in the CMIP3 and two CMIP2+ coupled ocean-atmosphere models. Though most models exhibit eastward propagation of convective anomalies over the Indian Ocean, difficulty remains in simulating the life cycle of the BSISV, as few represent its eastward extension into the western/central Pacific. As such, few models produce statistically significant anomalies that comprise the northwest to southeast tilted convection which results from the forced Rossby waves that are excited by the near-equatorial convective anomalies. Our results indicate that it is a necessary, but not sufficient condition, that the locations the time-mean monsoon heat sources and the easterly wind shear be simulated correctly in order for the life cycle of the BSISV to be represented realistically. Extreme caution is needed when using metrics, such as the pattern correlation, for assessing the fidelity of model performance, as models with the most physically realistic BSISV do not necessarily exhibit the highest pattern correlations with observations. Furthermore, diagnostic latitude-time …

The fully nonlinear (full-f) 4D TEMPEST gyrokinetic continuum code produces frequency, collisionless damping of GAM and zonal flow with fully nonlinear Boltzmann electrons for the inverse aspect ratio {epsilon}-scan and the tokamak safety factor q-scan in homogeneous plasmas. The TEMPEST simulation shows that GAM exists in edge plasma pedestal for steep density and temperature gradients, and an initial GAM relaxes to the standard neoclassical residual, rather than Rosenbluth-Hinton residual due to the presence of ion-ion collisions. The enhanced GAM damping explains experimental BES measurements on the edge q scaling of the GAM amplitude.

This report documents numerical flow and transport simulations performed that establish initial waste acceptance criteria for the potential waste streams that may be safely sequestered in the 221-U Building and similar canyon structures. Specifically, simulations were executed to identify the maximum loading of contaminant mass (without respect to volume) that can be emplaced within the 221-U Building with no more than 1 pCi/m2 of contaminant migrating outside the structure within a 1,000 year time period. The initial scoping simulations were executed in one dimension to assess important processes, and then two dimensions to establish waste acceptance criteria. Two monolithic conditions were assessed: (1) a grouted canyon monolith; and (2) a canyon monolith filled with sand, both assuming no cracks or fissures were present to cause preferential transport. A three-staged approach was taken to account for different processes that may impact the amount of contaminant that can be safely sequestered in canyon structure. In the first stage, flow and transport simulations established waste acceptance criteria based on a linear (Kd) isotherm approach. In the second stage, impacts on thermal loading were examined and the differences in waste acceptance criteria quantified. In the third stage of modeling, precipitation/dissolution reactions were considered on …

A fusion reactor is described in which a moving string of mutually repelling compact toruses (alternating helicity, unidirectional Btheta) is generated by repetitive injection using a magnetized coaxial gun driven by continuous gun current with alternating poloidal field. An injected CT relaxes to a minimum magnetic energy equilibrium, moves into a compression cone, and enters a conducting cylinder where the plasma is heated to fusion-producing temperature. The CT then passes into a blanketed region where fusion energy is produced and, on emergence from the fusion region, the CT undergoes controlled expansion in an exit cone where an alternating poloidal field opens the flux surfaces to directly recover the CT magnetic energy as current which is returned to the formation gun. The CT String Reactor (CTSTR) reactor satisfies all the necessary MHD stability requirements and is based on extrapolation of experimentally achieved formation, stability, and plasma confinement. It is supported by extensive 2D, MHD calculations. CTSTR employs minimal external fields supplied by normal conductors, and can produce high fusion power density with uniform wall loading. The geometric simplicity of CTSTR acts to minimize initial and maintenance costs, including periodic replacement of the reactor first wall.

The Advanced Integrated Microturbine Systems (AIMS) project was kicked off in October of 2000 to develop the next generation microturbine system. The overall objective of the project was to develop a design for a 40% electrical efficiency microturbine system and demonstrate many of the enabling technologies. The project was initiated as a collaborative effort between several units of GE, Elliott Energy Systems, Turbo Genset, Oak Ridge National Lab and Kyocera. Since the inception of the project the partners have changed but the overall direction of the project has stayed consistent. The project began as a systems study to identify design options to achieve the ultimate goal of 40% electrical efficiency. Once the optimized analytical design was identified for the 40% system, it was determined that a 35% efficient machine would be capable of demonstrating many of the advanced technologies within the given budget and timeframe. The items that would not be experimentally demonstrated were fully produced ceramic parts. However, to understand the requirements of these ceramics, an effort was included in the project to experimentally evaluate candidate materials in representative conditions. The results from this effort would clearly identify the challenges and improvement required of these materials for the full …