A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "More than 10,000 U.S. military servicemembers, including National Guard and Reserve members, have been injured in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those with serious injuries are likely to be discharged from the military and return to civilian life with disabilities. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers vocational rehabilitation and employment (VR&E) services to help these injured servicemembers in their transition to civilian employment. GAO has noted that early intervention--the provision of rehabilitation services as soon as possible after the onset of a disability--is a practice that significantly facilitates the return to work. GAO examined how VA expedites VR&E services to seriously injured servicemembers and the challenges VA faces in its efforts to do so."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A high-performance organization relies on a dynamic workforce with the requisite talents, multidisciplinary knowledge, and up-to-date skills to ensure that it is equipped to accomplish its mission and achieve its goals. Such organizations typically (1) foster a work environment in which people are enabled and motivated to contribute to mission accomplishment and (2) provide both accountability and fairness for all employees. To accomplish these objectives, high-performance organizations are inclusive, drawing on the strengths of employees at all levels and of all backgrounds--an approach consistent with diversity management. For purposes of our review, diversity management is defined as a process intended to create and maintain a positive work environment where the similarities and differences of individuals are valued, so that all can reach their potential and maximize their contributions to an organization's strategic goals and objectives. As part of a request that GAO report on the federal government's performance in managing its diverse workforce, GAO was asked to identify (1) leading diversity management practices and (2) examples of the identified practices in the federal government. This report contains no recommendations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the past two decades, the number of acres burned by wildland fires has surged, often threatening human lives, property, and ecosystems. Past management practices, including a concerted federal policy in the 20th century of suppressing fires to protect communities and ecosystem resources, unintentionally resulted in steady accumulation of dense vegetation that fuels large, intense, wildland fires. While such fires are normal in some ecosystems, in others they can cause catastrophic damage to resources as well as to communities near wildlands known as the wildland-urban interface. In 1999, GAO recommended that the Forest Service develop a cohesive strategy for responding to wildland fire threats. As a follow-up, 5 years later, GAO was asked to identify the (1) progress the federal government has made in responding to wildland fire threats and (2) challenges it will need to address within the next 5 years."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Seaports are a critical vulnerability in the nation's defense against terrorism. They are potential entry points for bombs or other devices smuggled into cargo ships and ports' often-sprawling nature presents many potential targets for attack. To assess the response procedures that would be implemented in an attack or security incident, officials conduct port-specific exercises. Many federal, state, and local agencies may potentially be involved. The Coast Guard has primary responsibility for coordinating these exercises and analyzing the results. GAO examined (1) the emerging framework for coordinating entities involved in security responses, (2) legal and operational issues emerging from exercises conducted to date, and (3) Coast Guard management of reports analyzing exercises. GAO reviewed reports on 82 exercises from fiscal year 2004 and observed 4 exercises as they were being conducted."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Strategy for Homeland Security sets forth a plan to improve homeland security through the cooperation of federal, state, local, and private sector organizations on an array of functions. These functions are organized into the six distinct "critical mission areas" of (1) intelligence and warning, (2) border and transportation security, (3) domestic counterterrorism, (4) protecting critical infrastructures and key assets, (5) defending against catastrophic threats, and (6) emergency preparedness and response. Within each of these mission areas, the strategy identifies "major initiatives" to be addressed. In all, the strategy cites 43 initiatives across the six mission areas. GAO reviewed the strategy's implementation to (1) determine whether its initiatives are being addressed by key departments' strategic planning and implementation activities, whether the initiatives have lead agencies identified for their implementation, and whether the initiatives were being implemented in fiscal year 2004 by such agencies and (2) identify ongoing homeland security challenges that have been reflected in GAO products since September 11, 2001, by both mission area and issues that cut across mission areas."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to the Autism Society of America, about 1.5 million Americans are currently living with some form of autism. This figure includes over 100,000 school-aged children diagnosed with autism served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the primary federal legislation that addresses the educational needs of children with disabilities. As the number of children diagnosed with autism has increased, interest in understanding how children diagnosed with autism are being served under IDEA has grown. In this report we are describing the tend in the number of children diagnosed with autism served under IDEA, the services provided to these children, the estimated per pupil expenditures for educating children with autism, and approaches to their education."

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

An overview of the physical and mathematical foundations of radiation transport is given. Emphasis is placed on how the diffusion approximation and its transport corrections arise. An overview of the numerical handling of radiation diffusion coupled to matter is also given. Discussions center on partial temperature and grey methods with comments concerning fully implicit methods. In addition finite difference, finite element and Pert representations of the div-grad operator is also discussed

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

The aim of this work was to assess issues of cost, and performance associated with the production and storage of hydrogen via following three feedstocks: sub-quality natural gas (SQNG), ammonia (NH{sub 3}), and water. Three technology areas were considered: (1) Hydrogen production utilizing SQNG resources, (2) Hydrogen storage in ammonia and amine-borane complexes for fuel cell applications, and (3) Hydrogen from solar thermochemical cycles for splitting water. This report summarizes our findings with the following objectives: Technoeconomic analysis of the feasibility of the technology areas 1-3; Evaluation of the hydrogen production cost by technology areas 1; and Feasibility of ammonia and/or amine-borane complexes (technology areas 2) as a means of hydrogen storage on-board fuel cell powered vehicles. For each technology area, we reviewed the open literature with respect to the following criteria: process efficiency, cost, safety, and ease of implementation and impact of the latest materials innovations, if any. We employed various process analysis platforms including FactSage chemical equilibrium software and Aspen Technologies AspenPlus and HYSYS chemical process simulation programs for determining the performance of the prospective hydrogen production processes.

Recent studies of heterogeneous reburning, i.e., reburning involving a coal-derived char, have elucidated its variables, kinetics and mechanisms that are valuable to the development of a highly efficient reburning process. Young lignite chars contain catalysts that not only reduce NO, but they also reduce HCN that is an important intermediate that recycles to NO in the burnout zone. Gaseous CO scavenges the surface oxides that are formed during NO reduction, regenerating the active sites on the char surface. Based on this mechanistic information, cost-effective mixed fuels containing these multiple features has been designed and tested in a simulated reburning apparatus. Remarkably high reduction of NO and HCN has been observed and it is anticipated that mixed fuel will remove 85% of NO in a three-stage reburning process.

The present paper presents the {sup 36}Cl measurement effort in the US. A large number of {sup 36}Cl measurements have been made in both granite and concrete samples obtained from various locations and distances in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These measurements employed accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to quantify the number of atoms of {sup 36}Cl per atom of total Cl in the sample. Results from these measurements are presented here and discussed in the context of the DS02 dosimetry reevaluation effort for Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic-bomb survivors. The production of {sup 36}Cl by bomb neutrons in mineral samples from Hiroshima and Nagasaki was primarily via the reaction {sup 35}Cl(n,{gamma}){sup 36}Cl. This reaction has a substantial thermal neutron cross-section (43.6 b at 0.025 eV) and the product has a long half-life (301,000 y). hence, it is well suited for neutron-activation detection in Hiroshima and Nagasaki using AMS more than 50 years after the bombings. A less important reaction for bomb neutrons, {sup 39}K(n,{alpha}){sup 36}Cl, typically produces less than 10% of the {sup 36}Cl in mineral samples such as granite and concrete, which contain {approx} 2% potassium. In 1988, only a year after the publication of the DS86 final report (Roesch 1987), it …

A coupled model of groundwater flow, reactive solute transport and microbial processes for a fracture zone of the Aspo site at Sweden is presented. This is the model of the so-called Redox Zone Experiment aimed at evaluating the effects of tunnel construction on the geochemical conditions prevailing in a fracture granite. It is found that a model accounting for microbially-mediated geochemical processes is able to reproduce the unexpected measured increasing trends of dissolved sulfate and bicarbonate. The model is also useful for testing hypotheses regarding the role of microbial processes and evaluating the sensitivity of model results to changes in biochemical parameters.

The proposed Yucca Mountain repository is anticipated to be the first facility for long-term disposal of commercial spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in the United States. The facility, located in the southern Nevada desert, is currently in the planning stages with initial exploratory excavations completed. It is an underground facility mined into the tuffaceous volcanic rocks that sit above the local water table. The focus of the work described in this paper is the development of radionuclide absorbers or ''getter'' materials for neptunium (Np), iodine (I), and technetium (Tc) for potential deployment in the repository. ''Getter'' materials retard the migration of radionuclides through sorption, reduction, or other chemical and physical processes, thereby slowing or preventing the release and transport of radionuclides. An overview of the objectives and approaches utilized in this work with respect to materials selection and modeling of ion ''getters'' is presented. The benefits of the ''getter'' development program to the United States Department of Energy (US DOE) are outlined.

We have developed effective nanoparticle incorporated heterogeneous F-T catalysts starting with the synthesis of Fe, Co, Cu nanoparticles using Fe(acac){sub 3}, Co(acac){sub 2}, and Cu(acac){sub 2} precursors and incorporating the nanoparticles into alumina sol-gel to yield higher alkanes production. SEM/EDX, XRD, BET, VSM and SQUID experimental techniques were used to characterize the catalysts, and GC/MS were used for catalytic product analysis. The nanoparticle oxide method gave the highest metal loading. In case of mixed metals it seems that Co or Cu interferes and reduces Fe metal loading. The XRD pattern for nanoparticle mixed metal oxides show alloy formation between cobalt and iron, and between copper and iron in sol-gel prepared alumina granules. The alloy formation is also supported by DTA and VMS data. The magnetization studies were used to estimate the catalyst activity in pre- and post-catalysts. A lower limit of {approx}40% for the reduction efficiency was obtained due to hydrogenation at 450 C for 4 hrs. About 85% of the catalyst has become inactive after 25 hrs of catalytic reaction, probably by forming carbides of Fe and Co. The low temperature (300 K to 4.2 K) SQUID magnetometer results indicate a superparamagnetic character of metal nanoparticles with a wide …

Yeasts were engineered to increase rates for fermentation of xylose (a common biomass derived sugar) to lactic acid or ethanol.

We have attempted to fabricate some 0.5 mm diameter D{sub 2}-gas-filled Be shells by coating gas-filled PVA-coated GDP mandrels with Cu-doped Be. We find that during the coating all (or most) of the gas leaks out. This is likely due to either small cracks or holes in the coating that are formed at the earliest points and are maintained during the thickness build-up of the coating, and/or to some level of intrinsic porosity in the coating. This memo documents our efforts.

Newspaper from Rose State College in Midwest City, Oklahoma that includes national, local, and campus news along with advertising.