This final report describes the research effort focusing on the nature of charge transfer and localized electronic structure at semiconductor interfaces, one of the most fundamental issues in the solid state. The basic charge exchange between two materials in general is directly connected with the systematic atomic bonding changes and redistribution that occurs at the nanoscale interface. Our programhas extended our understanding of the atomic-scale nature of electrostatic barrier formation, heterojunction band offsets, and the optical and electronic features of impurity confinement in a set of model materials systems, including nanometer-scale wide band gap semiconductor and insulator structures. This fundamentally new class of materials investigation utilizes a powerful and unique combination of techniques that are revealing the atomic-scale movement, chemical bonding, and resultant charge transfer across well-defined model interfaces.

The primary focus this year was to operate the system with two amplifiers populated with and pumped by eight high power diode arrays. The system was operated for extended run periods which enabled average power testing of components, diagnostics, and controls. These tests were highly successful, with a demonstrated energy level of over 55 joules for 4 cumulative hours at a repetition rate of 10 Hz (average power 0.55 kW). In addition, high average power second harmonic generation was demonstrated, achieving 227 W of 523.5 nm light (22.7 J, 10 Hz, 15 ns, 30 minutes) Plans to achieve higher energy levels and average powers are in progress. The dual amplifier system utilizes a 4-pass optical arrangement. The Yb:S-FAP slabs were mounted in aerodynamic aluminum vane structures to allow turbulent helium gas flow across the faces. Diagnostic packages that monitored beam performance were deployed during operation. The laser experiments involved injecting a seed beam from the front end into the system and making four passes through both amplifiers. Beam performance diagnostics monitored the beam on each pass to assess system parameters such as gain and nearfield intensity profiles. This year, an active mirror and wavefront sensor were procured and demonstrated in …

Major- and trace-element concentrations and strontium isotope ratios (strontium-87/strontium-86) in samples of ground water potentially can be useful in delineating flow paths in the complex ground-water system in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Water samples were collected from boreholes to characterize the lateral and vertical variability in the composition of water in the saturated zone. Discrete sampling of water-producing intervals in the saturated zone includes isolating borehole sections with packers and extracting pore water from core obtained by sonic drilling. Chemical and isotopic stratification was identified in the saturated zone beneath southern Fortymile Wash.

Various methods have been proposed to condition an electron beam in order to reduce its emittance effect and to improve the short-wavelength free electron laser (FEL) performance. In this paper, we show that beam conditioning does not result in a complete elimination of the emittance effect in an alternating-gradient focusing FEL undulator. Using a one-dimensional model and a three-dimensional simulation code, we derive a criteria for the emittance limitation of a perfectly conditioned beam that depends on the focusing structure.

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This dissertation presents a measurement of the CKM matrix element |V{sub ub}| made with a sample of 64 million B{bar B} events collected with the BABAR detector. Using Heavy Quark theory, we combine the observed yield of leptons from semileptonic B decay in the electron energy interval 2.1-2.6 GeV with a recent CLEO measurement of the B {yields} X{sub s}{gamma} photon spectrum to find |V{sub ub}| = (4.25 {+-} 0.35 {+-} 0.45 {+-} 0.20) x 10{sup -3}, where the first uncertainty is experimental and the last two are from theory.

The powerful earthquake struck northern Pakistan and India damaged the homes of as many as three million people, forcing many of them to search for alternative means of shelter. The full extent of the destruction remains unknown because government authorities and relief organizations continue to have difficulty accessing some remote locations. As of the date of this report, the United States government (USG) has pledged $410 million toward the relief effort, almost all of it to assisting Pakistan, which remains a key U.S. ally in the war against terror. So far, about 35% of this pledge has been committed. Some aid agencies are saying that the country needs a great deal more aid than it is getting, and warn that the economic impact of the disaster will surpass $5.2 billion. This burden may contribute toward long-term instability in an area perceived to be of critical importance to the United States in the war on terror.

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The initial multi-mode interfacial velocity and density perturbations present at the onset of a small Atwood number, incompressible, miscible, Rayleigh-Taylor instability-driven mixing layer have been quantified using a combination of experimental techniques. The streamwise interfacial and spanwise interfacial perturbations were measured using high-resolution thermocouples and planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF), respectively. The initial multi-mode streamwise velocity perturbations at the two-fluid density interface were measured using particle-image velocimetry (PIV). It was found that the measured initial conditions describe an initially anisotropic state, in which the perturbations in the streamwise and spanwise directions are independent of one another. The evolution of various fluctuating velocity and density statistics, together with velocity and density variance spectra, were measured using PIV and high-resolution thermocouple data. The evolution of the velocity and density statistics is used to investigate the early-time evolution and the onset of strongly-nonlinear, transitional dynamics within the mixing layer. The early-time evolution of the density and vertical velocity variance spectra indicate that velocity fluctuations are the dominant mechanism driving the instability development. The implications of the present experimental measurements on the initialization of Reynolds-averaged turbulent transport and mixing models and of direct and large-eddy simulations of Rayleigh-Taylor instability-induced turbulence are discussed.

Preventing and protecting against catastrophic terrorism is a complex and dynamic challenge. Small groups or individuals can use advanced technology to cause massive destruction, and the rapid pace of technology and ease of information dissemination continually gives terrorists new tools. A 100% defense is not possible. It's a numbers problem--there are simply too many possible targets to protect and too many potential attack scenarios and adversaries to defend against. However, science and technology (S&T) is a powerful force multiplier for defense. We must use S&T to get ahead of the game by making terrorist attacks more difficult to execute, more likely to be interdicted, and less devastating in terms of casualties, economic damage, or lasting disruption. Several S&T areas have potential to significantly enhance homeland security efforts with regard to detecting radiation, pathogens, explosives, and chemical signatures of weapons activities. All of these areas require interdisciplinary research and development (R&D), and many critically depend on advances in materials science. For example, the science of nuclear signatures lies at the core of efforts to develop enhanced radiation detection and nuclear attribution capabilities. Current radiation detectors require cryogenic cooling and are too bulky and expensive. Novel signatures of nuclear decay, new detector …

Report on immigration with a focus on border security and related legislation, considered by the 109th Congress.

Sonoma offers the first cost-effective, broad-area, high-resolution, real-time motion imagery system for surveillance applications. Sonoma is unique in its ability to provide continuous, real-time video imagery of an area the size of a small city with resolutions sufficient to track 8,000 moving objects in the field of view. At higher resolutions and over smaller areas, Sonoma can even track the movement of individual people. The visual impact of the data available from Sonoma is already causing a paradigm shift in the architecture and operation of other surveillance systems. Sonoma is expected to cost just one-tenth the price of comparably sized sensor systems. Cameras mounted on an airborne platform constantly monitor an area, feeding data to the ground for real-time analysis. Sonoma was designed to provide real-time data for actionable intelligence in situations such as monitoring traffic, special events, border security, and harbors. If a Sonoma system had been available in the aftermath of the Katrina and Rita hurricanes, emergency responders would have had real-time information on roads, water levels, and traffic conditions, perhaps saving many lives.

A large number of volatile chemicals have been identified in the headspaces of tanks used to store mixed chemical and radioactive waste at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site, and there is concern that vapor releases from the tanks may be hazardous to workers. Contractually established occupational exposure limits (OELs) established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) do not exist for all chemicals of interest. To address the need for worker exposure guidelines for those chemicals that lack OSHA or ACGIH OELs, a procedure for assigning Acceptable Occupational Exposure Limits (AOELs) for Hanford Site tank farm workers has been developed and applied to a selected group of 57 headspace chemicals.

The report briefly describes the activities carried out in the course of the project. A first line of research was the development of systematic closure relations for averaged equations for disperse multiphase flow. A second line was the development of efficient numerical methods for the simulation of Navier-Stokes flows with many suspended particles. The report also lists the 21 journal articles in which this work is more fully decsribed.

Facilities handling large amounts of potentially hazardous chemical (i.e., chemical facilities) might be of interest to terrorists, either as targets for direct attacks meant to release chemicals into the community or as a source of chemicals for use elsewhere. For any individual facility, the risk is very small, but the risks may be increasing -- with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment. Congress might choose to rely on existing efforts in the public and private sectors to improve chemical site security over time. Alternatively, Congress could expand existing environmental planning requirements for chemical facilities to require consideration of terrorism. Congress might also enact legislation to reduce risks, either by "hardening" defenses against terrorists or by requiring industries to consider use of safer chemicals, procedures, or processes.

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This report reviews the status of energy efficiency and renewable energy legislation introduced during the 109th Congress. Action in the second session has focused on appropriations bills; the first session focused on omnibus energy policy bill H.R. 6 and several appropriations bills. this report describes several major pieces of legislation, including the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Transportation Equity Act. For each bill listed in this report, a brief description and a summary of action are given, including references to committee hearings and reports. Also, a selected list of hearings on renewable energy is included.

An informal, revised lithostratigraphic framework for the southern Yucca Mountain area, Nevada has been developed to accommodate new information derived from subsurface investigations of the Nye County Early Warning Drilling Program. Lithologies penetrated by recently drilled boreholes at locations between Stagecoach Road and Highway 95 in southern Nye County include Quaternary and Pliocene alluvium and alluvial breccia, Miocene pyroclastic flow deposits and intercalated lacustrine siltstone and claystone sequences, early Miocene to Oligocene pre-volcanic sedimentary rocks, and Paleozoic strata. Of the 37 boreholes currently drilled, 21 boreholes have sufficient depth, spatial distribution, or traceable pyroclastic flow, pyroclastic fall, and reworked tuff deposits to aid in the lateral correlation of lithostrata. Medial and distal parts of regional pyroclastic flow deposits of Miocene age can be correlated with the Timber Mountain, Paintbrush, Crater Flat, and Tram Ridge Groups. Rocks intercalated between these regional pyroclastic flow deposits are substantially thicker than in the central part of Yucca Mountain, particularly near the downthrown side of major faults and along the southern extent of exposures at Yucca Mountain.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

BASE REDEVELOPMENT AND REALIGNMENT MANUAL. March 1, 2006. OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE(INSTALLATIONS AND ENVIRONMENT)

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 1997, the National Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology formed the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) to boost federal agencies' and consumers' confidence in information security products manufactured by vendors. To facilitate this goal, NIAP developed a national program that requires accredited laboratories to independently evaluate and validate the security of these products for use in national security systems. These systems are those under control of the U.S. government that contain classified information or involve intelligence activities. GAO was asked to identify (1) the governmentwide benefits and challenges of the NIAP evaluation process on national security systems, and (2) the potential benefits and challenges of expanding the requirement of NIAP to non-national security systems, including sensitive but unclassified systems."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) estimated that the Medicare program paid approximately $20 billion (net) in error for fee-for-service (FFS) claims in fiscal year 2004. CMS established two programs--the Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) Program and the Hospital Payment Monitoring Program (HPMP)--to measure the accuracy of claims paid. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 directed GAO to study the adequacy of the methodology that CMS used to estimate the Medicare FFS claims paid in error. GAO reviewed the extent to which CMS's methodology for estimating the fiscal year 2004 error rates was adequate by contractor type for (1) the CERT Program, (2) the HPMP, and (3) the combined national error rate (including both the CERT Program and the HPMP). GAO reviewed relevant CMS documents and reports related to the CERT Program and the HPMP. In addition, GAO reviewed work performed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) and its contractor that evaluated CMS's fiscal year 2004 statistical methods and other aspects of the error rate estimation process. GAO also conducted interviews with …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On November 17, 2005, the Comptroller General testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at a hearing entitled: "From Proposed to Final: Evaluating the Regulations for the National Security Personnel System." The Comptroller General responded to questions regarding labor relations for unique segments of the workforce, employee involvement and representation, system evaluation, impact on veterans, safeguarding of teamwork and fairness, pay and performance standards, and safeguards against abuse."