A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Authorization for several conservation programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) expires in 2007, raising questions about how these programs may be modified, including how they can better support conservation of threatened and endangered species. Private landowners receive funding under these programs to implement conservation projects directed at several resource concerns, including threatened and endangered species. In this report, GAO discusses (1) stakeholder views on the incentives and disincentives to participating in USDA programs for the benefit of threatened and endangered species and their suggestions for addressing identified disincentives and (2) coordination efforts by USDA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to benefit threatened and endangered species. In performing this work, GAO conducted telephone surveys with a nonprobability sample of over 150 federal and nonfederal officials and landowners."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO previously testified that federal contractors abused the tax system with little consequence. While performing those audits, GAO noted that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) records sometimes contained inaccurate or outdated tax information that prevented IRS from taking appropriate collection actions against those contractors, including submitting their tax debt to the Federal Payment Levy Program (FPLP) for collection. As a result, GAO was asked to review IRS's coding of tax debt excluded from the FPLP to determine whether (1) IRS tax records contain inaccurate status or transaction codes that exclude tax debt from the FPLP, (2) IRS's monitoring could be strengthened to ensure the accuracy of its status and transaction codes, and (3) other opportunities exist to increase the amount of tax debt included in the FPLP."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. law authorizes aid for nonviolent democratic change in Cuba. From 1996-2005, the Department of State (State) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded grants totaling $74 million to support such change. A presidential commission recently recommended increasing funding for these efforts. This report examines (1) agency roles in implementing this aid and selection of grantees; (2) types of aid, recipients, and methods of delivery reported in 2005; (3) oversight of grantees; and (4) data about the impact of this aid. To address these objectives, we analyzed the activities and internal controls, and USAID's oversight and management of, 10 grantees with about 76 percent (in dollars) of total active awards for Cuba democracy aid. Our review focused on USAID because State's first awards were not made until mid-2005."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Established in 1934 to enforce the securities laws and protect investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plays an important role in maintaining the integrity of the U.S. securities markets. Pursuant to the Accountability of Tax Dollars Act of 2002, the SEC is required to prepare and submit to Congress and the Office of Management and Budget audited financial statements. GAO agreed, under its audit authority, to perform the audit of SEC's financial statements. GAO's audit was done to determine whether, in all material respects, (1) SEC's fiscal year 2006 financial statements were reliable and (2) SEC's management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations. GAO also tested SEC's compliance with certain laws and regulations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2006, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) spent about 38 percent of its $10.8 billion budget on processing returns and providing taxpayer assistance. GAO was asked to (1) assess IRS's 2006 filing season performance processing paper and electronically filed tax returns and providing telephone, Web site, and face-to-face assistance relative to 2006 goals and prior years' performance; (2) identify potential cost savings or other improvements; and (3) report on the status of IRS's Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint (TAB). To address these issues, GAO collected relevant information from IRS and other sources, reviewed performance measures and past filing season assessments, and interviewed officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The prevalence of opium poppy cultivation and drug trafficking in Afghanistan imperils the stability of its government and threatens to turn the conflict-ridden nation once again into a safe haven for traffickers and terrorists. To combat the drug trade, the U.S. government developed a counternarcotics strategy consisting of five pillars--alternative livelihoods, elimination and eradication, interdiction, law enforcement and justice, and public information. The Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2005 directed GAO to examine the use of all fiscal year 2005 funds administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Department of State (State) for Afghan counternarcotics programs. To comply with this mandate, we examined progress under each counternarcotics pillar, challenges faced, and efforts to ensure that funds were used for intended purposes. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed pertinent USAID and State documents and met with cognizant U.S. and international officials in Washington, D.C., and Afghanistan. GAO makes no recommendations in this report. USAID, State, Department of Defense, and Department of Justice were provided a draft of this report, but did not provide formal comments."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "We are pleased to assist the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch in monitoring progress on the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) project. Our remarks will focus on (1) the Architect of the Capitol's (AOC) construction progress and problems since the Subcommittee's September 21, 2006, hearing and their impact on the project's schedule; and (2) the project's expected cost at completion and funding situation. As part of this discussion, we will address a number of key challenges and risks that continue to face the project as well as actions AOC has recently taken, and plans or needs to take, to meet its currently scheduled completion date."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal statistical information is used to make appropriate decisions about budgets, employment, and investments. GAO was asked to (1) describe selected characteristics of federally funded statistical or research surveys, (2) describe agencies' and Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) roles in identifying and preventing unnecessary duplication, (3) examine selected surveys to assess whether unnecessary duplication exists in areas with similar subject matter, and (4) describe selected agencies' efforts to improve the efficiency and relevance of surveys. GAO reviewed agency documents and interviewed officials. Using this information and prior GAO work, GAO identified surveys with potential unnecessary duplication."

We present the first direct study of charge density wave(CDW) formation in quasi-2D single layer LaTe2 using high-resolutionangle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and low energy electrondiffraction (LEED). CDW formation is driven by Fermi surface (FS)nesting, however characterized by a surprisingly smaller gap (~;50 meV)than seen in the double layer RTe3 compounds, extending over the entireFS. This establishes LaTe2 as the first reported semiconducting 2D CDWsystem where the CDW phase is FS nesting driven. In addition, the layerdependence of this phase in the tellurides and the possible transitionfrom a stripe to a checkerboard phase is discussed.

Advanced neutron interrogation systems for the screening ofsea-land cargo containers for shielded special nuclear materials (SNM)require a high-yield neutron source to achieve the desired detectionprobability, false alarm rate, and throughput. An accelerator-drivenneutron source is described that produces a forward directed beam ofhigh-energy (up to 8.5 MeV) neutrons utilizing the D(d,n)3He reaction atdeuteron beam energies of up to 6 MeV. The key components of the neutronsource are a high-current RFQ accelerator and an innovative neutronproduction target. A microwave-driven deuteron source is coupled to anelectrostatic LEBT that injects a 40 mA D+-beam into a 6 MeV, 5.1meter-long, 200 MHz RFQ. The RFQ is based on an unusual beam dynamicsdesign and is capable of operating at a duty factor that produces morethan 1.2 mA timeaverage beam current. The beam is transported to a2-atmosphere deuterium gas target with a specially-designed, thinentrance window. A high-frequency dipole magnet is used to spread thebeam over the long dimension of the 4 by 35 cm target window. The sourcewill be capable of delivering a neutron flux of ~;2 x 107 n/(cm2 x s) tothe center of a sea-land cargo container and is expected t o satisfy therequirements for full testing and demonstration of advanced neutroninterrogation techniques based on …

In-situ, high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry (ISGRS) measurements were conducted at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) field laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The purpose of these tests was to provide analytical data for assessing how “fit for use” this technology is for detecting discrete particles in soil.

A high-yield D-T neutron generator has been developed for neutron interrogation in homeland security applications such as cargo screening. The generator has been designed as a sealed tube with a performance goal of producing 5 {center_dot} 10{sup 11} n/s over a long lifetime. The key generator components developed are a radio-frequency (RF) driven ion source and a beam-loaded neutron production target that can handle a beam power of 10 kW. The ion source can provide a 100 mA D{sup +}/T{sup +} beam current with a high fraction of atomic species and can be pulsed up to frequencies of several kHz for pulsed neutron generator operation. Testing in D-D operation has been started.

On July 18, 2001, a freight train carrying hazardous (non-nuclear) materials derailed and caught fire while passing through the Howard Street railroad tunnel in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC), one of the agencies responsible for ensuring the safe transportation of radioactive materials in the United States, undertook an investigation of the train derailment and fire to determine the possible regulatory implications of this particular event for the transportation of spent nuclear fuel by railroad. Shortly after the accident occurred, the USNRC met with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB, the U.S. agency responsible for determining the cause of transportation accidents), to discuss the details of the accident and the ensuing fire. Following these discussions, the USNRC assembled a team of experts from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses (CNWRA), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to determine the thermal conditions that existed in the Howard Street tunnel fire and analyze the effects of this fire on various spent fuel transportation package designs. The Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) code, developed by NIST, was used to determine the thermal environment present in the Howard Street tunnel during the …

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

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas that includes campus and local news along with advertising.

This report discusses the national security problem of China's role in weapons proliferation and issues related to the U.S. policy response, including legislation, since the mid-1990's.

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Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The authors report the first observation of an excited singly-charmed baryon {Omega}*{sub c} (css) in the radiative decay {Omega}{sub c}{sup 0}{gamma}, where the {Omega}{sub c}{sup 0} baryon is reconstructed in the decays to the final states {Omega}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}, {Omega}{sup -} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup 0}, {Omega}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}, and {Xi}{sup -} K{sup -} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup +}. This analysis is performed using a dataset of 230.7 fb{sup -1} collected by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The mass difference between the {Omega}*{sub c} and the {Omega}{sub c}{sup 0} baryons is measured to be 70.8 {+-} 1.0(stat) {+-} 1.1(syst) MeV/c{sup 2}. They also measure the ratio of inclusive production cross sections of {Omega}*{sub c} and {Omega}{sub c}{sup 0} in e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation.

This report describes an application of the recently developed H{sup 1}-auxiliary space preconditioner for H(curl) problems to the Maxwell eigenvalue problem. The auxiliary space method based on the new (HX) finite element space decomposition introduced in [7], was implemented in the hypre library, [10, 11] under the name AMS. The eigensolver considered in the present paper, referred to as the AME, is an extension of the AMS. It is based on the locally optimal block eigensolver LOBPCG [9] and the parallel AMG (algebraic multigrid) solver BoomerAMG [2] from the hypre library. AME is designed to compute a block of few minimal nonzero eigenvalues and eigenvectors, for general unstructured finite element discretizations utilizing the lowest order Nedelec elements. The main goal of the current report is to document the usage of AME and to illustrate its parallel scalability.

Synchrotron radiation (SR)-based techniques provide unique capabilities to address scientific issues underpinning environmental remediation science and have emerged as major research tools in this field. The high intensity of SR sources and x-ray photon-in/photon-out detection allow noninvasive in-situ analysis of dilute, hydrated, and chemically/structurally complex natural samples. SR x-rays can be focused to beams of micron and sub-micron dimension, which allows the study of microstructures, chemical microgradients, and microenvironments such as in biofilms, pore spaces, and around plant roots, that may control the transformation of contaminants in the environment. The utilization of SR techniques in environmental remediation sciences is often frustrated, however, by an ''activation energy barrier'', which is associated with the need to become familiar with an array of data acquisition and analysis techniques, a new technical vocabulary, beam lines, experimental instrumentation, and user facility administrative procedures. Many investigators find it challenging to become sufficiently expert in all of these areas or to maintain their training as techniques evolve. Another challenge is the dearth of facilities for hard x-ray micro-spectroscopy, particularly in the 15 to 23 KeV range, which includes x-ray absorption edges of the priority DOE contaminants Sr, U, Np, Pu, and Tc. Prior to the current program, …