None

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

On May 1, 2004, 10 states joined the European Union (EU), enlarging the Union to 25 members. The EU views the enlargement process as an historic opportunity to promote stability in Europe and further the integration of the continent by peaceful means. In addition to the 10 new members (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia), three other states — Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia — hope to accede to the EU by 2007. Turkey is also a candidate and is expected to begin accession negotiations in 2005. Macedonia has also applied for EU membership.

None

This report discusses intelligence issues for Congress including terrorism, conflicts between Israel and Palestine, in Iraq, and among the former Yugoslav states, and North Korean missile capabilities. Updated December 22, 2004.

In this report is described the work effort to develop and demonstrate a software framework to support advanced process simulations to evaluate the performance of advanced power systems. Integrated into the framework are a broad range of models, analysis tools, and visualization methods that can be used for the plant evaluation. The framework provides a tightly integrated problem-solving environment, with plug-and-play functionality, and includes a hierarchy of models, ranging from fast running process models to detailed reacting CFD models. The framework places no inherent limitations on the type of physics that can be modeled, numerical techniques, or programming languages used to implement the equipment models, or the type or amount of data that can be exchanged between models. Tools are provided to analyze simulation results at multiple levels of detail, ranging from simple tabular outputs to advanced solution visualization methods. All models and tools communicate in a seamless manner. The framework can be coupled to other software frameworks that provide different modeling capabilities. Three software frameworks were developed during the course of the project. The first framework focused on simulating the performance of the DOE Low Emissions Boiler System Proof of Concept facility, an advanced pulverized-coal combustion-based power plant. The …

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This Report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on the District of Columbia Appropriations.

This report summarizes the general provisions of the District of Columbia Appropriations Act for FY2004 and the District of Columbia Appropriations Act for FY2005.

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

Daily newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Perry, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma 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.

This project initiates an integrated-landscape conservation approach within the Northern Cumberlands Project Area in Tennessee and Kentucky. The mixed mesophytic forests within the Cumberland Plateau and Mountains are among the most diverse in North America; however, these forests have been impacted by and remain threatened from changes in land use across this landscape. The integrated-landscape conservation approach presented in this report outlines a sequence of six conservation steps. This report considers the first three of these steps in two, successive stages. Stage 1 compares desired future conditions (DFCs) and current prevailing conditions (CPCs) at the landscape-scale utilizing remote sensing imagery, remnant forests, and descriptions of historical forest types within the Cumberland Plateau. Subsequently, Stage 2 compares DFCs and CPCs for at-risk forest types identified in Stage 1 utilizing structural, compositional, or functional attributes from USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis data. Ecological indicators will be developed from each stage that express the gaps between these two realizations of the landscape. The results from these first three steps will directly contribute to the final three steps of the integrated-landscape conservation approach by providing guidance for the generation of new conservation strategies in the Northern Cumberland Plateau and Mountains.

This report provides a legal analysis of issues related to prescription drug sales on the Internet, including issues involving online pharmacies and physicians who prescribe medications over the Internet. Specifically, this report provides an overview of the various federal and state laws that regulate this field, including laws and regulations covering prescription drugs, controlled substances, doctors, and pharmacies.

This report provides the results of a preliminary phase of a project supporting the Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycle Technology Initiative at ANL. The project targets the Generation IV nuclear energy systems, particularly the area of reducing the cost of sodium-cooled fast-reactors by utilizing innovative materials. The main goal of the project is to provide the nuclear heat exchanger designers a simplified means to quantify the cost advantages of the recently developed high strength and heat resistant ferritic steels with 9 to 13% chromium content. The emphasis in the preliminary phase is on two steels that show distinctive advantages and have been proposed as candidate materials for heat exchangers and also for reactor vessels and near-core components of Gen IV reactors. These steels are the 12Cr-2W (HCM12A) and 9Cr-1MoVNb (modified 9Cr-1Mo). When these steels are in tube form, they are referred to in ASTM Standards as T122 and T91, respectively. A simple thermal-hydraulics analytical model of a counter-flow, shell-and-tube, once-through type superheated steam generator is developed to determine the required tube length and tube wall temperature profile. The single-tube model calculations are then extended to cover the following design criteria: (i) ratio of the tube stress due to water/steam pressure to …

As a part of the non-wires solutions effort, BPA in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is exploring the use of two distributed energy resources (DER) technologies in the City of Richland. In addition to demonstrating the usefulness of the two DER technologies in providing peak demand relief, evaluation of remote direct load control (DLC) is also one of the primary objectives of this demonstration. The concept of DLC, which is used to change the energy use profile during peak hours of the day, is not new. Many utilities have had success in reducing demand at peak times to avoid building new generation. It is not the need for increased generation that is driving the use of direct load control in the Northwest, but the desire to avoid building additional transmission capacity. The peak times at issue total between 50 and 100 hours a year. A transmission solution to the problem would cost tens of millions of dollars . And since a ?non wires? solution is just as effective and yet costs much less, the capital dollars for construction can be used elsewhere on the grid where building new transmission is the only alternative. If by using DLC, the …

None

Weekly newspaper from Pawhuska, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The warm density matter regime of high energy density physics [1, 2, 3] has a high scientific discovery potential for the properties of plasmas at high densities and pressures and at moderate temperatures (kT) in which the Coulomb interaction energy between plasma particles exceed kT. This leads to correlations in the plasma characterized by the dimensionless ''coupling'' parameter {Lambda} > 1, where {Lambda} is defined by {Lambda} = q{sup 2}n{sup 1/3}/kT. Here q is the effective ion charge and n the ion density. Strongly-coupled plasmas with {Lambda} > 1 are difficult to study analytically and by numerical simulation. Many astrophysical systems (e.g., brown dwarfs, and giant planets) and inertial fusion plasmas in the beginning stages of compression fall into this regime. There is an opportunity to develop improved understanding and models through accurate measurements of properties in the large parameter space of temperature and density where data is currently limited or non-existent. X-ray free-electron lasers (Fourth generation light sources), ultra-short pulse and high energy optical lasers, pulsed-power z-pinch x-ray sources, and high explosives are all capable of producing warm dense matter conditions at various temperatures, pressures, and sample sizes. Therefore, the challenge is not how to create warm dense matter …

Saturated internal kink modes have been observed in many of the highest toroidal beta discharges of the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). These modes often cause rotation flattening in the plasma core, can degrade energy confinement, and in some cases contribute to the complete loss of plasma angular momentum and stored energy. Characteristics of the modes are measured using soft X-ray, kinetic profile, and magnetic diagnostics. Toroidal flows approaching Alfvenic speeds, island pressure peaking, and enhanced viscous and diamagnetic effects associated with high-beta may contribute to mode nonlinear stabilization. These saturation mechanisms are investigated for NSTX parameters and compared to experimental data.

Saturated internal kink modes have been observed in many of the highest toroidal {beta} discharges of the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). These modes often cause rotation flattening in the plasma core, can degrade energy confinement, and in some cases contribute to the complete loss of plasma angular momentum and stored energy. Characteristics of the modes are measured using soft X-ray, kinetic profile, and magnetic diagnostics. Toroidal flows approaching Alfvenic speeds, island pressure peaking, and enhanced viscous and diamagnetic effects associated with high-{beta} may contribute to mode nonlinear stabilization. These saturation mechanisms are investigated for NSTX parameters and compared to experimental data.

The performance of parallel Monte Carlo transport calculations which use both spatial and particle parallelism is increased by dynamically assigning processors to the most worked domains. Since the particle work load varies over the course of the simulation, this algorithm determines each cycle if dynamic load balancing would speed up the calculation. If load balancing is required, a small number of particle communications are initiated in order to achieve load balance. This method has decreased the parallel run time by more than a factor of three for certain criticality calculations.

None