A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Carbon offsets--reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from an activity in one place to compensate for emissions elsewhere--are a way to address climate change by paying someone else to reduce emissions. To be credible, an offset must be additional--it must reduce emissions below the quantity emitted in a business-as-usual scenario--among other criteria. Assessing credibility is inherently challenging because it is difficult to make business-as-usual projections. Outside the U.S., offsets may be purchased on compliance markets to meet requirements to reduce emissions. In the U.S., there are no federal requirements and offsets may be purchased in the voluntary market. GAO was asked to examine (1) the scope of the U.S. voluntary carbon offset market, including the role of the federal government; (2) the extent to which mechanisms for ensuring the credibility of offsets are available and used and what, if any, related information is shared with consumers; and (3) trade-offs associated with increased oversight of the U.S. market and including offsets in climate change mitigation policies. This report is based on analysis of literature and data, interviews with stakeholders, and GAO's purchase of offsets."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2006, the subcommittee concluded there was a need for increased accountability and transparency for unspent funds in federal programs and agencies, and requested GAO review the status of balances not drawn down by grantees by the time the grants' period of availability had ended. GAO was asked to answer these questions: (1) to what extent are there undisbursed grant balances in expired grant accounts and do they share any program characteristics?; and (2) do these expired grants share grant management challenges and how have federal agencies improved grant closeout and diminished undisbursed balances? To do this, GAO analyzed grant balance data from the largest federal grant payment system; reviewed grant management problems and corrective actions from more than 150 audit reports; and reviewed guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Code of Federal Regulations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, Congress directed the Department of Defense (DOD) to establish a comprehensive policy to prevent and respond to sexual assaults involving servicemembers. Though not required to do so, the Coast Guard has established a similar policy. In response to congressional requests and Senate Report No. 110-77, GAO evaluated the extent to which DOD and the Coast Guard (1) have developed and implemented policies and programs to prevent, respond to, and resolve sexual assault incidents involving servicemembers; (2) have visibility over reports of sexual assault involving servicemembers; and (3) exercise oversight over reports of sexual assault involving servicemembers. To conduct this review, GAO reviewed legislative requirements and DOD and Coast Guard guidance; analyzed sexual assault incident data; and obtained through surveys and interviews the perspective on sexual assault matters of more than 3,900 servicemembers."

It is argued that the key difference of the cylindrical Hall thruster (CHT) as compared to the end-Hall ion source cannot be exclusively attributed to the magnetic field topology [Tang et al. J. Appl. Phys., 102, 123305 (2007)]. With a similar mirror-type topology, the CHT configuration provides the electric field with nearly equipotential magnetic field surfaces and a better suppression of the electron cross-field transport, as compared to both the end-Hall ion source and the cylindrical Hall ion source of Tang et al.

This report documents the laboratory results of RPP-PLAN-35958, Test Plan for the Effluent Treatment Facility to Reduce Chrome (VI) to Chrome (III) in the Secondary Waste Stream With the exception of the electrochemical corrosion scans, all work was carried out at the Center for Laboratory Science (CLS) located at the Columbia Basin College. This document summarizes the work carried out at CLS and includes the electrochemical scans and associated corrosion rates for 304 and 316L stainless steel.

This report describes efforts carried out during early 2008 to determine some of the science drivers for the"NERSC-6" next-generation high-performance computing system acquisition. Although the starting point was existing Greenbooks from DOE and the NERSC User Group, the main contribution of this work is an analysis of the current NERSC computational workload combined with requirements information elicited from key users and other scientists about expected needs in the 2009-2011 timeframe. The NERSC workload is described in terms of science areas, computer codes supporting research within those areas, and description of key algorithms that comprise the codes. This work was carried out in large part to help select a small set of benchmark programs that accurately capture the science and algorithmic characteristics of the workload. The report concludes with a description of the codes selected and some preliminary performance data for them on several important systems.

We investigate the magnetic coupling at the Co/NiO interface using soft x-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD) and circular dichroism taking explicitly into account the recently observed angular dependence of the XMLD with respect to the crystallographic axes. We find that the Co moments are aligned perpendicular to the NiO moments. We discuss the impact of the anisotropic XMLD on the intensity ratio of the two peaks at the Ni L{sub 2} edge, which is commonly employed to determine the spin orientation in antiferromagnets using XMLD.

Shock waves passing through a metal sample can produce ejecta particulates at a metal-vacuum interface. Holography records particle size distributions by using a high-power, short-pulse laser to freeze particle motion. The sizes of the ejecta particles are recorded using an in-line Fraunhofer holography technique. Because the holographic plate would be destroyed in an energetic environment, a high-resolution lens has been designed to relay the interference fringes to a safe environment. Particle sizes within a 12-mm-diameter, 5-mm-thick volume are recorded onto holographic film. To achieve resolution down to 0.5 μm, ultraviolet laser (UV) light is needed. The design and assembly of a nine-element lens that achieves >2000 lp/mm resolution and operates at f/0.89 will be described. To set up this lens system, a doublet lens is temporarily attached that enables operation with 532-nm laser light and 1100 lp/mm resolution. Thus, the setup and alignment are performed with green light, but the dynamic recording is done with UV light. During setup, the 532-nm beam provides enough focus shift to accommodate the placement of a resolution target outside the ejecta volume; this resolution target does not interfere with the calibrated wires and pegs surrounding the ejecta volume. A television microscope archives images of …

In this paper, a quasipotential approach along with conformal mapping is used to model the diffusion media of a polymer-electrolyte fuel cell. This method provides a series solution that is grid independent and only requires integration along a single boundary to solve the problem. The approach accounts for nonisothermal phenomena, two-phase flow, correct placement of the electronic potential boundary condition, and multilayer media. The method is applied to a cathode diffusion medium to explore the interplay between water and thermal management and performance, the impact of the rib-to-channel ratio, and the existence of diffusion under the rib and flooding phenomena.

This document describes the methodology for determining the saturation temperature in waste tanks. The saturation temperature is used to calculate neutral buoyancy ratio.

This report presents the results of laboratory characterization and testing of two samples (designated 20406 and 20407) of residual waste collected from tank S-112 after final waste retrieval. These studies were completed to characterize the residual waste and assess the leachability of contami¬nants from the solids. This is the first report from this PNNL project to describe the composition and leach test data for residual waste from a salt cake tank. All previous PNNL reports (Cantrell et al. 2008; Deutsch et al. 2006, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c) describing contaminant release models, and characterization and testing results for residual waste in single-shell tanks were based on samples from sludge tanks.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Bi-weekly student newspaper from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

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

Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Maximum distance that a county may require that a sexually oriented business be located from a residence, church, elementary school, and other designated facilities (RQ-0680-GA)

This report discusses about requiring Government Procurements to come from Domestic Sources related to The Buy American Act of 2007.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

In 2008, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory evaluated the Hofer Dam fish screen and provided technical assistance at two other fish passage sites as requested by the Bonneville Power Administration, the Walla Walla Watershed Council, or the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Evaluation of new sites such as Hofer Dam focuses on their design, construction, operation, and maintenance to determine if they effectively provide juvenile salmonids with safe passage through irrigation diversions. There were two requests for technical assistance in 2008. In the first, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation requested an evaluation of the Nursery Bridge fish screens associated with the fish ladder on the east side of the Walla Walla River. One set of brushes that clean the screens was broken for an extended period. Underwater videography and water velocity measurements were used to determine there were no potential adverse effects on juvenile salmonids when the west set of screens was clean enough to pass water normally. A second request, received from the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Walla Walla Watershed Council, asked for evaluation of water velocities through relatively new head gates above and adjacent to the Eastside Ditch fish screens on the …

Image acquisition with a CCD camera is a single-press-button activity: after selecting exposure time and adjusting illumination, a button is pressed and the acquired image is perceived as the final, unmodified proof of what was seen in the microscope. Thus it is generally assumed that the image processing steps of e.g., 'dark-current correction' and 'gain normalization' do not alter the information content of the image, but rather eliminate unwanted artifacts. Image quality therefore is, among a long list of other parameters, defined by the dynamic range of the CCD camera as well as the maximum allowable exposure time depending on sample drift (ignoring sample damage). Despite the fact that most microscopists are satisfied with present, standard image quality we found that it is a relatively easy to improve on existing routines in at least two aspects: (1) Suppression of lateral image drift during acquisition by using significantly shorter exposure times with a plurality of exposures (3D-data set); and (2) Improvement in the Signal/Noise ratio by averaging over a given data set by exceeding the dynamic range of the camera.

This report provides background information and recent developments in Russia-Georgia conflict in South Ossetia. The report discusses renewed conflict in South Ossetia, implications for Georgia and Russia, and international and U.S. responses.

This report focuses on the foreign policy of Turkey, a long-time valued U.S. NATO ally, and examines the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) recalculation of the country's approach to foreign affairs and its possible effects on relations with the United States. This report surveys Turkish foreign policy issues that are of critical interest to U.S. officials and Members of Congress.

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