A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Department of Defense (DOD) installations have about 2,600 electric, water, wastewater, and natural gas utility systems valued at about $50 billion. In 1997, DOD decided that privatization was the preferred method for improving utility systems, and Congress approved legislative authority for privatizing DOD's utility systems with Public Law No. 105-85. DOD estimates that some utility privatization contracts will cost over $100 million. In a May 2005 report, GAO identified several management weaknesses in DOD's implementation of the program. The Fiscal Year 2006 National Defense Authorization Act required GAO to evaluate and report on changes to the utility privatization program since May 2005. Accordingly, this report updates the status of the program and discusses the effect of DOD's changes on the concerns noted last year. To conduct this review, GAO summarized program status and costs, assessed DOD's changes to program guidance and in other areas, and reviewed the services' implementation of the changes."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal contractors and state Medicaid agencies are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE programs. Because these entities may contract with vendors to perform services involving the use of personal health data, outsourcing and privacy protections are of interest. GAO surveyed all federal Medicare and TRICARE contractors and all state Medicaid agencies (a combined total of 378 entities) to examine whether they (1) outsource services--domestically or offshore--and (2) must notify federal agencies when privacy breaches occur. Survey response rates ranged from 69 percent for Medicare Advantage contractors to 80 percent for Medicaid agencies. GAO interviewed officials at the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, and the Department of Defense's TRICARE Management Activity (TMA), which oversees TRICARE."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As part of the Army's ongoing transformation efforts, in October 1999 the Army announced the Stryker brigade concept. The Stryker brigade is a unit designed to provide the Army with a rapidly deployable force that is capable of operating against the full spectrum of military threats. To meet the Army's requirements for being rapidly deployable and combat capable, the Stryker brigade relies on new sustainment concepts, such as minimizing the number of personnel and spare parts within the brigade and reaching back to assets outside the brigade for support, which are not found in other existing Army brigades. In a span of 6 years, the Army announced its intention to create a new brigade, chose a vehicle, tested the operational concept, and deployed three brigades in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Army is also sending one Stryker brigade for a second rotation to Iraq and is developing four additional Stryker brigades. To support the accelerated development and deployment timeline, the Army relied on contractors to support some equipment within the Stryker brigade, such as the Stryker vehicle and computer and communication systems. The largest group of contractor …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Between January 2004 and December 2005, more than 30,000 mass layoffs involving 50 or more workers occurred in the United States, causing more than 3.4 million workers to lose their jobs. National emergency grants expand services to laid-off workers when other state and federal programs are insufficient to meet their needs. GAO assessed (1) whether Labor has shortened grant award times since GAO's 2004 report and was meeting own timeliness goal, (2) the uniformity of the program data that Labor now collects, and (3) Labor's oversight of national emergency grant projects. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed information for program year 2004 and the first 2 quarters of 2005 and compared it with data collected for program years 2000- 2002."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the war on terrorism has dominated the global security environment. Ongoing overseas operations and heavy reliance on reservists have raised concerns about how the Department of Defense (DOD) will continue to meet its requirements using an all-volunteer force. The Army, in particular, has faced continuing demand for large numbers of forces, especially for forces with support skills. GAO was mandated to examine the extent of DOD's reliance on personnel with high-demand skills and its efforts to reduce or eliminate reliance on these personnel. Accordingly, GAO assessed (1) the combat support and combat service support skills that are in high demand and the extent to which DOD officials have visibility over personnel who are available for future deployment and (2) the extent to which DOD has conducted a comprehensive, data-driven analysis of alternatives for providing needed skills."

For ICF applications, the temperatures are hot enough that materials can transition to an atomic state or plasma. If we are simulating an ICF capsule, then either thru ALE, physical diffusion, transmutation by nuclear reactions, a mix model, or numerical diffusion (if we are running an Eulerian code), we will generate zones that contain multiple materials. It may be desired to treat certain mixtures of materials or mixed zones as atomic mixtures rather than as chunk mixtures. For example, suppose we have a deuterated material that is initially separated from a tritiated material. As these quantities come into contact at the atomic level, high energy neutrons will be generated from the D + T reaction. However, if we had a chunk of deuterium and a chunk of tritium in the same computational zone, then the D + T reaction would not take place. In dealing with atomic mixtures, two topics that immediately come to mind are mixed equations of state and mixed opacities. This report will only focus on the equation of state (EOS) aspect and its implementation in the Kull code. Imagine we have a zone that contains an atomic mixture of plastic and steel. If we know the …

Characterization of transuranic waste is needed to makedecisions about waste site remediation. Soil-gas sampling for xenonisotopes can be used to define the locations of spent fuel andtransuranic wastes. Radioxenon in the subsurface is characteristic oftransuranic waste and can be measured with extreme sensitivity usinglarge-volume soilgas samples. Measurements at the Hanford Site showed133Xe and 135Xe levels indicative of 240Pu spontaneous fission. Stablexenon isotopic ratios from fission are distinct from atmospheric xenonbackground. Neutron capture by 135Xe produces an excess of 136Xe inreactor-produced xenon providing a means of distinguishing spent fuelfrom separated transuranic materials.

We present the first collective x-ray scattering measurements of plasmons in solid-density plasmas. The forward scattering spectra of a laser-produced narrow-band x-ray line from isochorically heated beryllium show that the plasmon frequency is a sensitive measure of the electron density. Dynamic structure calculations that include collisions and detailed balance match the measured plasmon spectrum indicating that this technique will enable new applications to determine the equation of state and compressibility of dense matter.

We present a comprehensive wavelength survey of Fe L-shell X-ray lines between 7 and 11 {angstrom} measured using flat crystal spectrometers and the EBIT-I and EBIT-II electron beam ion traps at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This survey includes all significant emission lines produced by over 200 n {yields} 2 transitions in Fe XIX-XXIV, with n = 4-10. The identification and assignment of transitions are made with the help of detailed theoretical modeling using the Flexible Atomic Code (FAC).

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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

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; Annexation of territory by a junior college district (RQ-0446-GA)

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; Procedures for an election to approve the annexation of territory by a junior college district (RQ-0474-GA)

This report discusses the primary civil, criminal, and immigration related penalties associated with immigration related document fraud.

Background: The distribution of the chromatin-associatedproteins plays a key role in directing nuclear function. Previously, wedeveloped an image-based method to quantify the nuclear distributions ofproteins and showed that these distributions depended on the phenotype ofhuman mammary epithelial cells. Here we describe a method that creates ahierarchical tree of the given cell phenotypes and calculates thestatistical significance between them, based on the clustering analysisof nuclear protein distributions. Results: Nuclear distributions ofnuclear mitotic apparatus protein were previously obtained fornon-neoplastic S1 and malignant T4-2 human mammary epithelial cellscultured for up to 12 days. Cell phenotype was defined as S1 or T4-2 andthe number of days in cultured. A probabilistic ensemble approach wasused to define a set of consensus clusters from the results of multipletraditional cluster analysis techniques applied to the nucleardistribution data. Cluster histograms were constructed to show how cellsin any one phenotype were distributed across the consensus clusters.Grouping various phenotypes allowed us to build phenotype trees andcalculate the statistical difference between each group. The resultsshowed that non-neoplastic S1 cells could be distinguished from malignantT4-2 cells with 94.19 percent accuracy; that proliferating S1 cells couldbe distinguished from differentiated S1 cells with 92.86 percentaccuracy; and showed no significant difference between the variousphenotypes of T4-2 …

In order to stabilize the beams at the interaction point, the X-band linear collider proposes to use a combination of techniques: inter-train and intra-train beam-beam feedback, passive vibration isolation, and active vibration stabilization based on either accelerometers or laser interferometers. These systems operate in a technologically redundant fashion: simulations indicate that if one technique proves unusable in the final machine, the others will still support adequate luminosity. Experiments underway for all of these technologies have already demonstrated adequate performance.

Saturated alluvium is expected to serve as an important natural barrier to radionuclide transport at Yucca Mountain, the proposed geological repository for disposal of high-level nuclear wastes. {sup 237}Np(V) (half-life = 2.4 x 10{sup 5} years) has been identified as one of the radionuclides that could potentially contribute the greatest dose to humans because of its relatively high solubility and weak adsorption to volcanic tuffs under oxidizing conditions. The previous studies suggested that the mineralogical characteristics of the alluvium play an important role in the interaction between Np(V) and the alluvium. The purpose of this study is to further evaluate the mineralogical basis for Neptunium (V) sorption by saturated alluvium located down-gradient of Yucca Mountain.

Adenosine deaminases that act on RNA (ADARs) catalyze the site-specific conversion of adenosine to inosine in primary mRNA transcripts. These re-coding events affect coding potential, splice-sites, and stability of mature mRNAs. ADAR is an essential gene and studies in mouse, C. elegans, and Drosophila suggest its primary function is to modify adult behavior by altering signaling components in the nervous system. By comparing the sequence of isogenic cDNAs to genomic DNA, we have identified and experimentally verified 27 new targets of Drosophila ADAR. Our analyses lead us to identify new classes of genes whose transcripts are targets of ADAR including components of the actin cytoskeleton, and genes involved in ion homeostasis and signal transduction. Our results indicate that editing in Drosophila increases the diversity of the proteome, and does so in a manner that has direct functional consequences on protein function.

A survey conducted in 1995 by the American Petroleum Institute (API) found that the U.S. exploration and production (E&P) segment of the oil and gas industry generated more than 149 million bbl of drilling wastes, almost 18 billion bbl of produced water, and 21 million bbl of associated wastes. The results of that survey, published in 2000, suggested that 3% of drilling wastes, less than 0.5% of produced water, and 15% of associated wastes are sent to offsite commercial facilities for disposal. Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) collected information on commercial E&P waste disposal companies in different states in 1997. While the information is nearly a decade old, the report has proved useful. In 2005, Argonne began collecting current information to update and expand the data. This report describes the new 2005-2006 database and focuses on the availability of offsite commercial disposal companies, the prevailing disposal methods, and estimated disposal costs. The data were collected in two phases. In the first phase, state oil and gas regulatory officials in 31 states were contacted to determine whether their agency maintained a list of permitted commercial disposal companies dedicated to oil. In the second stage, individual commercial disposal companies were interviewed to determine …

Using 230.2 fb{sup -1} of e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation data collected with the BABAR detector at and near the peak of the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance, 489 {+-} 55 events containing the pure leptonic decay D{sub s}{sup +} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{nu}{sub {mu}} have been isolated in charm-tagged events. The ratio of partial widths {Lambda}(D{sub s}{sup +} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{nu}{sub {mu}})/{Lambda}(D{sub s}{sup +} {yields} {phi}{pi}{sup +}) is measured to be 0.143 {+-} 0.018 {+-} 0.006 allowing a determination of the pseudoscalar decay constant f{sub D{sub 2}} = (283 {+-} 17 {+-} 7 {+-} 14) MeV. The errors are statistical, systematic, and from the D{sub s}{sup +} {yields} {phi}{pi}{sup +} branching ratio, respectively.

None

The bonded-particle model for rock (Potyondy and Cundall, 2004) represents rock by a dense packing of non-uniform-sized circular or spherical particles that are bonded together at their contact points and whose mechanical behavior is simulated by the distinct-element method using the two- and three-dimensional programs PFC2D and PFC3D. A bonded-particle model of lithophysal tuff has been used to study the effect of lithophysae (hollow, bubble-like voids) on the mechanical properties (Young's modulus and unconfined compressive strength) of this rock, and to quantify the variability of these properties. The model reproduces the failure mechanisms observed in the laboratory and exhibits a reduction of strength and modulus with increasing lithophysal volume fraction. The effect of void shape on mechanical properties is studied by inserting randomly distributed voids of simple shape (circle, triangle and star) and by inserting voids corresponding with lithophysal cavities identified in panel maps of the walls of a tunnel through this material. These studies address tunnel-stability issues associated with mechanical degradation of planned emplacement drifts at Yucca Mountain, which is the designated site for the proposed US high-level nuclear waste repository.

A presentation for the end of the year following the League of Professional Women. There are pictures from the events, including speakers and the tables set up for luncheons.

The accurate measurement of neutron-capture cross sections of the Eu isotopes is important for many reasons including nuclear astrophysics and nuclear diagnostics. Neutron capture excitation functions of {sup 151,153}Eu targets were measured recently using a 4{pi} {gamma}-ray calorimeter array DANCE located at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center for E{sub n} = 0.1-100 keV. The progress on the data analysis efforts is given in the present paper. The {gamma}-ray multiplicity distributions for the Eu targets and Be backing are significantly different. The {gamma}-ray multiplicity distribution is found to be the same for different neutron energies for both {sup 151}Eu and {sup 153}Eu. The statistical simulation to model the {gamma}-ray decay cascade is summarized.