Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the anthrax incidents during the fall of 2001, Hurricane Katrina, and concerns about the possibility of an influenza pandemic have raised public awareness and concerns about the nation's public health and medical systems' ability to respond to bioterrorist events and other public health emergencies. From 2002 to 2006, the Congress appropriated about $6.1 billion to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support activities to strengthen state and local governments' emergency preparedness capabilities under the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (Preparedness and Response Act). HHS has distributed funds annually to 62 recipients, including all 50 states and 4 large municipalities, through cooperative agreements under two programs--the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Public Health Emergency Preparedness Program, and the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program. The common goal of CDC's and HRSA's preparedness programs is to improve state and local preparedness to respond to bioterrorism and other large-scale public health emergencies, such as natural disasters or outbreaks of infectious disease. Annually, both CDC and HRSA develop and issue …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO was asked to review the Department of State Office of Inspector General (State IG) including its (1) organization, budget levels, and accomplishments; (2) audit and inspection coverage of the department; (3) role of inspections in the oversight of the department; (4) quality assurance process including assurance of independence; and (5) coordination of State IG investigations with the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. GAO obtained information from State IG reports, interviews, and documentation for a sample of inspections."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Exon-Florio amendment to the Defense Production Act of 1950, enacted in 1988, authorized the President to suspend or prohibit foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies that pose a threat to national security. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States--chaired by the Department of Treasury with 11 other members, including the Departments of Commerce, Defense, and Homeland Security--implements Exon-Florio through a four-step review process: (1) voluntary notice by the companies of pending or completed acquisitions; (2) a 30-day review to determine whether the acquisition could pose a threat to national security; (3) a 45-day investigation period to determine whether concerns require possible action by the President; and (4) a presidential decision to permit, suspend, or prohibit the acquisition. Over the past decade, GAO has conducted several reviews of the Committee's process and has found areas where improvements were needed. GAO's most recent work, conducted in 2005, indicated concerns remained."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA) focused attention on the academic achievement of more than 5 million students with limited English proficiency. Obtaining valid test results for these students is challenging, given their language barriers. This testimony describes (1) the extent to which these students are meeting annual academic progress goals, (2) what states have done to ensure the validity of their academic assessments, (3) what states are doing to ensure the validity of their English language proficiency assessments, and (4) how the U.S. Department of Education (Education) is supporting states' efforts to meet NCLBA's assessment requirements for these students. This testimony is based on a July 2006 report (GAO-06-815). To collect the information for this report, we convened a group of experts and studied five states (California, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, and Texas). We also conducted a state survey and reviewed state and Education documents."

We present results from an extensive spectroscopic survey, carried out with FORS on the ESO Very Large Telescope, and from an extensive multi-wavelength imaging data set from the Advanced Camera for Surveys and ground based facilities of the cluster of galaxies RDCS J1252.9-2927. We have spectroscopically confirmed 38 cluster members in the redshift range 1.22 < z < 1.25. The distribution in velocity of these spectroscopic members yields a cluster median redshift of z = 1.237 and a rest-frame velocity dispersion of 747{sub -84}{sup +74} km s{sup -1}. Star-forming members are observed to mainly populate the outskirts of the cluster while passive galaxies dominate the central cluster region. Using the 38 confirmed redshifts, we were able to resolve, for the first time at z > 1, kinematic structure. The velocity distribution, which is not Gaussian at the 95% confidence level, is consistent with two groups that are also responsible for the projected elongation of the cluster in the East-West direction. The groups are composed of 26 and 12 galaxies and have velocity dispersions of 486{sub -85}{sup +47} km s{sup -1} and 426{sub -105}{sup +57} km s{sup -1}, respectively. The elongation is also seen in the intracluster gas (from X-ray observations) …

This report describes FY 2005 technical studies conducted by the Chemical Biology and Nuclear Science Division (CBND) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in support of the Hydrologic Resources Management Program (HRMP) and the Underground Test Area Project (UGTA). These programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Nevada Site Office (NNSA/NSO) through the Defense Programs and Environmental Restoration Divisions, respectively. HRMP-sponsored work is directed toward the responsible management of the natural resources at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), enabling its continued use as a staging area for strategic operations in support of national security. UGTA-funded work emphasizes the development of an integrated set of groundwater flow and contaminant transport models to predict the extent of radionuclide migration from underground nuclear testing areas at the NTS. The report is organized on a topical basis and contains five chapters that highlight technical work products produced by CBND. However, it is important to recognize that most of this work involves collaborative partnerships with the other HRMP and UGTA contract organizations. These groups include the Energy and Environment Directorate at LLNL (LLNL-E&E), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Stoller-Navarro …

Curved lipid membranes are ubiquitous in living systems and play an important role in many biological processes. To understand how curvature and lipid composition affect membrane formation and fluidity we have assembled and studied mixed 1,2-Dioleoyl-sn-Glycero-3-Phosphocholine (DOPC) and 1,2-Dioleoyl-sn-Glycero-3-Phosphoethanolamine (DOPE) supported lipid bilayers on amorphous silicon nanowires with controlled diameters ranging from 20 nm to 200 nm. Addition of cone-shaped DOPE molecules to cylindrical DOPC molecules promotes vesicle fusion and bilayer formation on smaller diameter nanowires. Our experiments demonstrate that nanowire-supported bilayers are mobile, exhibit fast recovery after photobleaching, and have low concentration of defects. Lipid diffusion coefficients in these high-curvature tubular membranes are comparable to the values reported for flat supported bilayers and increase with decreasing nanowire diameter.

Steady-state dissolution rates of diopside are measured as a function of solution saturation state using a titanium flow-through reactor at pH 7.5 and temperature ranging from 125 to 175 C. Diopside dissolved stoichiometrically under all experimental conditions and rates were not dependent on sample history. At each temperature, rates continuously decreased by two orders of magnitude as equilibrium was approached and did not exhibit a dissolution plateau of constant rates at high degrees of undersaturation. The variation of diopside dissolution rates with solution saturation can be described equally well with a ion exchange model based on transition state theory or pit nucleation model based on crystal growth/dissolution theory from 125 to 175 C. At 175 C, both models over predict dissolution rates by two orders of magnitude indicating that a secondary phase precipitated in the experiments. The ion exchange model assumes the formation of a Si-rich, Mg-deficient precursor complex. Lack of dependence of rates on steady-state aqueous calcium concentration supports the formation of such a complex, which is formed by exchange of protons for magnesium ions at the surface.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified 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: Counties’ alternatives for disposing of seized gambling contraband (RQ-0536-GA)

None

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

RADSRC is a library for calculating gamma ray distributions. An initial material specification is aged and the daughter isotopes calculated to create the complete spectrum. RADSRC can be linked into, initialized, and called from other programs. This document specifies how to do this in GEANT4, COG and MCNP(X).

ENERGY STAR(R) is a voluntary labeling program designed toidentify and promote energy-efficient products, buildings and practices.Operated jointly by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and theU.S. Department of Energy (DOE), ENERGY STAR labels exist for more thanthirty products, spanning office equipment, residential heating andcooling equipment, commercial and residential lighting, home electronics,and major appliances. This report presents savings estimates for a subsetof ENERGY STAR labeled products. We present estimates of the energy,dollar and carbon savings achieved by the program in the year 2006, whatwe expect in 2007, and provide savings forecasts for two marketpenetration scenarios for the periods 2007 to 2015 and 2007 to 2025. Thetarget market penetration forecast represents our best estimate of futureENERGY STAR savings. It is based on realistic market penetration goalsfor each of the products. We also provide a forecast under the assumptionof 100 percent market penetration; that is, we assume that all purchasersbuy ENERGY STAR-compliant products instead of standard efficiencyproducts throughout the analysis period.

None

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Laboratory currently does not have on site facilities for handling radioactive evidentiary materials and there are no established FBI methods or procedures for decontaminating highly radioactive fire debris (FD) evidence while maintaining evidentiary value. One experimental method for the isolation of FD residue from radionuclide metals involves using solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibers to remove the residues of interest. Due to their high affinity for organics, SPME fibers should have little affinity for most (radioactive) metals. The focus of this research was to develop an examination protocol that was applicable to safe work in facilities where high radiation doses are shielded from the workers (as in radioactive shielded cells or ''hot cells''). We also examined the affinity of stable radionuclide surrogate metals (Co, Ir, Re, Ni, Ba, Cs, Nb, Zr and Nd) for sorption by the SPME fibers. This was done under exposure conditions that favor the uptake of FD residues under conditions that will provide little contact between the SPME and the FD material (such as charred carpet or wood that contains commonly-used accelerants). Our results from mass spectrometric analyses indicate that SPME fibers show promise for use in the room temperature head …

This Groundwater Monitoring Plan describes the objectives, activities, and assessments that will be performed to support the on-going groundwater monitoring requirements at the Reactor Technology Complex, formerly the Test Reactor Area (TRA). The requirements for groundwater monitoring were stipulated in the Final Record of Decision for Test Reactor Area, Operable Unit 2-13, signed in December 1997. The monitoring requirements were modified by the First Five-Year Review Report for the Test Reactor Area, Operable Unit 2-13, at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory to focus on those contaminants of concern that warrant continued surveillance, including chromium, tritium, strontium-90, and cobalt-60. Based upon recommendations provided in the Annual Groundwater Monitoring Status Report for 2006, the groundwater monitoring frequency was reduced to annually from twice a year.

None

Funeral program for Earnest Kuykendall, born April 5, 1924 and died March 17, 2007. The funeral was held Friday, March 23, 2007 at Second Baptist Church, officiated by Dr. Robert L. Jemerson, Pastor. Funeral arrangements were made through Sutton-Sutton Mortuary and he was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.

This report describes the activities and research performed at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy national scientific user facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, during Fiscal Year 2006.

This report focuses on the financial condition of the PBGC and the effects of the Pension Protection Act.

None