A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the past two decades, provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985, among others, have allowed the Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency in partnership with the Department of the Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to add farmlands found to have important resources to the National Wildlife Refuge System. The Farm Service Agency transferred such farmlands to the Service through outright ownership ("fee simple") or through conservation easements. Individual farmlands are managed by the nearest refuge office. GAO was asked to examine (1) the extent of farmland received by the Service, (2) the extent to which the Service is currently managing its farmlands, and (3) alternatives for managing these lands. To answer these objectives, GAO visited five refuges and surveyed managers responsible for a random sample of 98 farmlands."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) recent 4-year anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on the progress DHS has made. The creation of DHS was one of the largest federal reorganizations in the last several decades, and GAO has reported that it was an enormous management challenge and that the size, complexity, and importance of the effort made the challenge especially daunting and critical to the nation's security. Our prior work on mergers and acquisitions has found that successful transformations of large organizations, even those faced with less strenuous reorganizations than DHS, can take at least 5 to 7 years to achieve. This testimony is based on our August 2007 report evaluating DHS's progress since March 2003. Specifically, it addresses DHS's progress across 14 mission and management areas and key themes that have affected DHS's implementation efforts."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) is responsible for addressing the threat of nuclear smuggling. Radiation detection portal monitors are key elements in our national defenses against such threats. DHS has sponsored testing to develop new monitors, known as advanced spectroscopic portal (ASP) monitors. In March 2006, GAO recommended that DNDO conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the new portal monitors were worth the additional cost. In June 2006, DNDO issued its analysis. In October 2006, GAO concluded that DNDO did not provide a sound analytical basis for its decision to purchase and deploy ASP technology and recommended further testing of ASPs. DNDO conducted this ASP testing at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) between February and March 2007. GAO's statement addresses the test methods DNDO used to demonstrate the performance capabilities of the ASPs and whether the NTS test results should be relied upon to make a full-scale production decision."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs have long supported beginning farmers. USDA generally defines a beginning farmer or rancher as one who has operated a farm or ranch for 10 years or less--without regard for age--and who materially and substantially participates in its operation. USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) makes and guarantees loans for farmers who cannot obtain commercial credit, including beginning farmers. FSA also reserves funds for beginning farmers within its loan programs. USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides higher conservation payments for beginning farmers through two of its conservation programs. GAO reviewed the key steps USDA has taken to help beginning farmers and assessed the department's actions to measure the effectiveness of these steps.."

Presentation outlines industry trends and statistics revolving around the use and production of ethanol and biodiesel.

A high-throughput multiplexed assay (Multiplex Version 1.0) was developed for the differential laboratory diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) from viruses which cause clinically similar diseases of livestock. This assay simultaneously screens for five RNA and two DNA viruses using multiplexed reverse transcription PCR (mRT-PCR) amplification coupled with a microsphere hybridization array and flow-cytometric detection. Two of the seventeen primer-probe sets included in this multiplex assay were adopted from previously characterized real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) assays for FMDV. The diagnostic accuracy of the mRT-PCR was evaluated using 287 field samples, including 248 (true positive n= 213, true negative n=34) from suspect cases of foot-and-mouth disease collected from 65 countries between 1965 and 2006 and 39 true negative samples collected from healthy animals. The mRT-PCR assay results were compared with two singleplex rRT-PCR assays, using virus isolation with antigen-ELISA as the reference method. The diagnostic sensitivity of the mRT-PCR assay for FMDV was 93.9% [95% C.I. 89.8-96.4%], compared to 98.1% [95% C.I. 95.3-99.3%] for the two singleplex rRTPCR assays used in combination. In addition, the assay could reliably differentiate between FMDV and other vesicular viruses such as swine vesicular disease virus and vesicular exanthema of swine virus. Interestingly, the mRT-PCR detected parapoxvirus …

Argonne National Laboratory is providing support to the US Department of Energy in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) in certification of an advanced, sodium-cooled fast reactor. The reactor is to be constructed as a prototype for future commercial power reactors that will produce electricity while consuming actinides recovered from light water reactor spent fuel. This prototype reactor has been called the Advanced Burner Reactor, or ABR, and is now often referred to as the advanced recycle reactor. As part of its activities, Argonne is providing technical services to assist definition of a safety and licensing strategy for the ABR prototype, and to further implementation of the strategy. In FY06, an organizational meeting was held for DOE and its laboratory contractors to discuss licensing alternatives and review previous licensing experience for the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) and the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant (CRBRP). Near the end of FY06, a report summarizing the discussions and conclusions was written. One of the top-level conclusions recorded in the report was a recommendation to follow a licensing strategy that included the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as the regulatory review and licensing authority. In FY07, activities ar Argonne to support safety and …

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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.

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

This report discusses the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which are standards that define what EPA considers to be clean air. Their importance stems from the long and complicated implementation process that is set in motion by their establishment.

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The wave nature of particles is rarely seen in nature. One reason is their very short de Broglie wavelengths in most situations. However, even with wavelengths close to the size of their surroundings, they couple to their environment, e.g. by gravity, Coulomb interaction, or thermal radiation. These couplings shift the phase of the waves, often in an uncontrolled way, hence yielding varying amounts of decoherence i.e. loss of phase integrity. Decoherence is thought to be a main cause of the transition from quantum to classical behavior. How much interaction is necessary and how big an environment is needed to induce the onset of classical behavior? Here we show that a photoelectron and two protons form a minimum particle/slit system, and that a minimum environment can be no more than a single additional electron. We observe interference 'fringes' in the angular distribution of a single electron and the loss of fringe visibility caused by its Coulomb interaction with a second electron. While, at the same time, the correlated momenta of the entangled electron pair continue to exhibit quantum interference.

This report discusses the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which are standards that define what EPA considers to be clean air. Their importance stems from the long and complicated implementation process that is set in motion by their establishment.

A search for the decay of the {tau} lepton to rare multi-pion final states is performed using the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. The analysis uses 232 fb-1 of data at center-of-mass energies on or near the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance. In the search for the {tau}- {yields} 3{pi}-2{pi}+2{pi}{sup 0}{nu}{sub {tau}} decay, we observe 10 events with an expected background of 6.5{sup +2.0}{sub -1.4} events. In the absence of a signal, we calculate the decay branching ratio upper limit {beta}({tau}- {yields} 3{pi}-2{pi}+2{pi}{sup 0}{nu}{sub {tau}}) < 3.4 x 10{sup -6} at the 90% confidence level. This is more than a factor of 30 improvement over the previously established limit. In addition, we search for the exclusive decay mode {tau}- {yields} 2{omega}{pi}-{nu}{sub {tau}} with the further decay of {omega} {yields} {pi}-{pi}+{pi}{sup 0}. We observe 1 event, expecting 0.4{sup +1.0}{sub -0.4} background events, and calculate the upper limit {beta}{tau}-{yields} 2{omega}{pi}-{nu}{sub {tau}} < 5.4 x 10{sup -7} at the 90% confidence level. This is the first upper limit for this mode.

This thesis describes a measurement of a CP violating asymmetry in neutral B meson decays, B{sup 0} yields D{sup *0}h{sup 0}, where D{sup *0} is a charmed meson and h{sup 0} is a light meson, performed on data collected by the BABAR experiment at the SLAC asymmetric-energy electron-positron collider PEP-II.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As the Department of Defense (DOD) has expanded its involvement in overseas military operations, it has grown increasingly reliant on its federal civilian workforce to support contingency operations. GAO was asked to discuss DOD's (1) force health protection and surveillance policies, (2) medical treatment policies that cover federal civilians while they are deployed to support contingency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and (3) differences in special pays and benefits provided to DOD's deployed federal civilian and military personnel. For this statement, GAO primarily drew on its September 2006 report that addressed these objectives. For its report, GAO analyzed over 3,400 deployment-related records at eight component locations for deployed federal civilians and policies related to defense health care, reviewed claims filed under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA); and examined major provisions of special pays and disability and death benefits provided to DOD's deployed federal civilians and military personnel."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Six years after the attack on the World Trade Center (WTC), concerns persist about health effects experienced by WTC responders and the availability of health care services for those affected. Several federally funded programs provide screening, monitoring, or treatment services to responders. GAO has previously reported on the progress made and implementation problems faced by these WTC health programs. This testimony is based on and updates GAO's report, September 11: HHS Needs to Ensure the Availability of Health Screening and Monitoring for All Responders (GAO-07-892, July 23, 2007). In this testimony, GAO discusses the status of (1) services provided by the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) WTC Federal Responder Screening Program, (2) efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to provide services for nonfederal responders residing outside the New York City (NYC) area, and (3) NIOSH's awards to WTC health program grantees for treatment services."

Funeral program for Mrs. Dorothy Brown, born October 18, 1931 and died September 11, 2007. The funeral was held Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at Childress Memorial Church of God in Christ, officiated by Superintendent Willie Williams. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home.

Funeral program for Mr. Horace L. Stigger, born December 8, 1923 and died September 10, 2007. The funeral was held September 18, 2007 at Second Baptist Church, officiated by Reverend Robert Jemerson. Funeral arrangements were made through Sutton-Sutton Mortuary, Inc. and he was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.

This report contains a brief overview of Canada's World Trade Organization (WTO) case against U.S. agricultural support.