A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 2000, Congress required the Department of Defense (DOD) to report quarterly on the services' expenditures for consultants in support of the military family housing privatization programs. GAO was asked to review the costs of the consultants DOD used to support privatizing housing for servicemembers and their families. This report discusses (1) the number of family housing units the services have privatized, particularly newly constructed or renovated units, and project to be privatized by fiscal year 2005; (2) the portion of privatization support costs used for consultants; (3) the services' consistency in the definition for privatization support and consultant costs; and (4) factors that limit an evaluation of how consultant fees for the military housing initiative compare among the services."

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives relating to extending condolences to the family of A. W. "Bud" Riter, Jr., who died on September 23, 2003, at the age of 79.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives relating to praising the work of the Sisters of Mercy for their work on behalf of the citizens of South Texas.

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Weekly newspaper from Albany, Texas that includes local, county, and state news along with extensive advertising.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Livingston, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Archer City, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Hondo, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.

The Safety and Health Monitoring (SHM) System technical basis document for the Waste Solidification Building (WSB) was developed by the Westinghouse Savannah River Company design team. The WSB is being designed and built to support the waste disposal needs of the Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility (PDCF) and the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. The main mission of the WSB is to process the radiological liquid waste streams from the PDCF and the MFFF into a solid waste form. The solid waste form, concrete encased waste, is acceptable for shipment and disposal as transuranic (TRU) waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and as Low Level Waste (LLW) at on-site disposal areas. The SHM System will also handle the job control waste from the PDCF, the MFFF, and the WSB. The SHM System will serve the WSB by monitoring personnel radiation exposure and environmental releases. The WSB design used HPT design support in determining the air monitoring equipment required for the WSB. The Systems Engineering (SE) process was applied to define the functions and requirements necessary to design and operate the SHM System. The SE process is a proven …

Analytical expressions for three P-wave attenuation mechanisms in sedimentary rocks are given a unified theoretical framework. Two of the models concern wave-induced flow due to heterogeneity in the elastic moduli at mesoscopic scales (scales greater than grain sizes but smaller than wavelengths). In the first model, the heterogeneity is due to lithological variations (e.g., mixtures of sands and clays) with a single fluid saturating all the pores. In the second model, a single uniform lithology is saturated in mesoscopic ''patches'' by two immiscible fluids (e.g., air and water). In the third model, the heterogeneity is at ''microscopic'' grain scales (broken grain contacts and/or micro-cracks in the grains) and the associated fluid response corresponds to ''squirt flow''. The model of squirt flow derived here reduces to proper limits as any of the fluid bulk modulus, crack porosity, and/or frequency is reduced to zero. It is shown that squirt flow is incapable of explaining the measured level of loss (10{sup -2} < Q{sup -1} < 10{sup -1}) within the seismic band of frequencies (1 to 10{sup 4} Hz); however, either of the two mesoscopic scale models easily produce enough attenuation to explain the field data.

Ion dynamics in a field-reversed configuration (FRC) are explored for a highly elongated device, with emphasis placed on ions having positive canonical angular momentum. Due to angular invariance, the equations of motion are that of a two degree of freedom system with spatial variables rho and xi. As a result of separation of time scales of motion, caused by large elongation, there is a conserved adiabatic invariant, J(sub)rho, which breaks down during the crossing of the phase-space separatrix. For integrable motion, which conserves J(sub)rho, an approximate one-dimensional effective potential was obtained by averaging over the fast radial motion. This averaged potential has the shape of either a double or single symmetric well centered about xi = 0. The condition for the approach to the separatrix and therefore the breakdown of the adiabatic invariance of J(sub)rho is derived and studied under variation of J(sub)rho and conserved angular momentum, pi(sub)phi. Since repeated violation of J(sub)rho results in chaotic motion, this condition can be used to predict whether an ion (or distribution of ions) with given initial conditions will undergo chaotic motion.

The Aqueous PUREX waste stream from Tanks 33 and 35, which have been blended in Tank 34, has been identified for possible processing through the Saltstone Processing Facility for disposal in the Saltstone Disposal Facility.

The consequences of beam conditioning in four example cases (VISA, a Soft X-Ray FEL, LCLS and a ''Greenfield'' FEL) are examined. It is shown that in emittance limited cases, proper conditioning reduces sensitivity to the transverse emittance, and allows stronger focusing in the undulator. Simulations show higher saturation power, with gain lengths reduced up to a factor of two. The beam dynamics in a general conditioning system are studied, with ''matching conditions'' derived for achieving conditioning without growth in effective emittance. Various conditioners are considered, and expressions derived for the amount of conditioning provided in each case when the matching conditions are satisfied. We discuss the prospects for conditioners based on laser and plasma systems.

DbAccess is an X-windows application, written in IDL{reg_sign}, meeting many specialized statistical and graphical needs of NSTX [National Spherical Torus Experiment] plasma physicists, such as regression statistics and the analysis of variance. Flexible ''views'' and ''joins,'' which include options for complex SQL expressions, facilitate mixing data from different database tables. General Atomics Plot Objects add extensive graphical and interactive capabilities. An example is included for plasma confinement-time scaling analysis using a multiple linear regression least-squares power fit.

The dependence of H-mode access on the poloidal location of the gas injection source has been investigated in the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). We find that gas fueling from the center stack midplane area produces the most reproducible H-mode access with generally the lowest L-H threshold power in lower single-null configuration. The edge toroidal rotation velocity is largest (in direction of the plasma current) just before the L-H transition with center stack midplane fueling, and then reverses direction after the L-H transition. Simulation of these results with a 2-D guiding-center Monte Carlo neoclassical transport code is qualitatively consistent with the trends in the measured velocities. Double-null discharges exhibit H-mode access with gas fueling from either the center stack midplane or center stack top locations, indicating a reduced sensitivity of H-mode access on fueling location in that shape.

Weekly newspaper from Stamford, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Canadian, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with some advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Rio Grande City, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Transformation, which alters the genetic makeup of an individual, is a concept that intrigues the human imagination. In Streptococcus pneumoniae such transformation was first demonstrated. Perhaps our fascination with genetics derived from our ancestors observing their own progeny, with its retention and assortment of parental traits, but such interest must have been accelerated after the dawn of agriculture. It was in pea plants that Gregor Mendel in the late 1800s examined inherited traits and found them to be determined by physical elements, or genes, passed from parents to progeny. In our day, the material basis of these genetic determinants was revealed to be DNA by the lowly bacteria, in particular, the pneumococcus. For this species, transformation by free DNA is a sexual process that enables cells to sport new combinations of genes and traits. Genetic transformation of the type found in S. pneumoniae occurs naturally in many species of bacteria (70), but, initially only a few other transformable species were found, namely, Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria meningitides, Neisseria gonorrheae, and Bacillus subtilis (96). Natural transformation, which requires a set of genes evolved for the purpose, contrasts with artificial transformation, which is accomplished by shocking cells either electrically, as in electroporation, or …

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Kenton Hall.

Article discussing solubility in binary solvent mixtures and anthracene dissolved in alcohol + carbon tetrachloride mixtures at 298.2 K.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles W. Kunkler. Kunkler was born in Los Angeles on 5 August 1925. He joined the Navy and was sent to Farragut, Idaho for six weeks of boot training. He was then sent to Pearl Harbor. Upon his arrival he was one of five seaman selected by Commander Hal Lamar to serve on the Admiral Nimitz’s barge. After serving for a period of time in Pearl Harbor the crew was assigned to a newly constructed barge that was sent to Admiral Nimitz’s new headquarters on Guam. Kunkler tells of the purpose of the barge and describes his assigned duties. He also comments on the personalities of Commander Lamar and of Admiral Nimitz. Following his leave after returning to the United States in 1945, he was placed in a hospital in Rhode Island for treatment of an injury he received en route to Guam. Soon after being discharged from the hospital, he was discharged from the Navy.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joe Fields. He was born in Benton, Kentucky on 29 June 1926. Upon graduation from high school in May, 1944, he enlisted in the Navy and was sent to basic training at Great Lakes, Illinois. Fields describes several of his experiences while in boot camp. He attended Radio Operator’s School and was assigned as a member of the commissioning crew of USS LSM-96. The vessel sailed to Pearl Harbor, embarked a radar intercept squadron (8th Air Warning Squadron) and landed them on a small island off of Okinawa on 1 April 1945. He describes the efforts made by his crew in assisting several American ships in distress over the ensuing days, including evacuating patients from the hospital ship USS Pinkney (APH-2), which had been hit by a kamikaze. Fields’ ship remained in the area over the ensuing months preparing for the invasion of Japan. In September 1945, his ship was diverted to northern China to deliver two companies of Marines and returned in March 1946 to Portland, Oregon where the vessel was decommissioned. He changed his rating from Radioman Second Class to Radarman Second Class near the end …