A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Recent congressional initiatives seek to focus funds for certain federal social programs on interventions for which randomized experiments show sizable, sustained benefits to participants or society. The private, nonprofit Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy undertook the Top Tier Evidence initiative to help federal programs identify interventions that meet this standard. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to examine (1) the validity and transparency of the Coalition's process, (2) how its process compared to that of six federally supported efforts to identify effective interventions, (3) the types of interventions best suited for assessment with randomized experiments, and (4) alternative rigorous methods used to assess effectiveness. GAO reviewed documents, observed the Coalition's advisory panel deliberate on interventions meeting its top tier standard, and reviewed other documents describing the processes the federally supported efforts had used. GAO reviewed the literature on evaluation methods and consulted experts on the use of randomized experiments. The Coalition generally agreed with the findings. The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services provided technical comments on a draft of this report. The Department of Justice provided no comments."

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; Validity of appropriation of a one-time payment to the annuitants of the Teacher Retirement Ssytem and the Employees Retirement System (RQ-0801-GA)

It has been suggested that dark matter particles which scatter inelastically from detector target nuclei could explain the apparent incompatibility of the DAMA modulation signal (interpreted as evidence for particle dark matter) with the null results from CDMS-II and XENON10. Among the predictions of inelastically interacting dark matter are a suppression of low-energy events, and a population of nuclear recoil events at higher nuclear recoil equivalent energies. This is in stark contrast to the well-known expectation of a falling exponential spectrum for the case of elastic interactions. We present a new analysis of XENON10 dark matter search data extending to E{sub nr} = 75 keV nuclear recoil equivalent energy. Our results exclude a significant region of previously allowed parameter space in the model of inelastically interacting dark matter. In particular, it is found that dark matter particle masses m{sub x} {approx}> 150 GeV are disfavored.

The UK National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) has developed a remote, non-electrical, radiation-mapping device known as RadBall (patent pending), which offers a means to locate and quantify radiation hazards and sources within contaminated areas of the nuclear industry. To date, the RadBall has been deployed in a number of technology trials in nuclear waste reprocessing plants at Sellafield in the UK. The trials have demonstrated the successful ability of the RadBall technology to be deployed and retrieved from active areas. The positive results from these initial deployment trials and the anticipated future potential of RadBall have led to the NNL partnering with the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to further underpin and strengthen the technical performance of the technology. RadBall consists of a colander-like outer shell that houses a radiation-sensitive polymer sphere. It has no power requirements and can be positioned in tight or hard-to reach places. The outer shell works to collimate radiation sources and those areas of the polymer sphere that are exposed react, becoming increasingly less transparent, in proportion to the absorbed dose. The polymer sphere is imaged in an optical-CT scanner which produces a high resolution 3D map of optical attenuation coefficients. Subsequent analysis of the optical …

The spurious drift in pitch angle of order several degrees measured by the Motional Stark Effect (MSE) diagnostic in the Alcator C-Mod tokamak1 over the course of an experimental run day has precluded direct utilization of independent absolute calibrations. Recently, the underlying cause of the drift has been identified as thermal stress-induced birefringence in a set of in-vessel lenses. The shot-to-shot drift can be avoided by using MSE to measure only the change in pitch angle between a reference phase and a phase of physical interest within a single plasma discharge. This intra-shot calibration technique has been applied to the Lower Hybrid Current Drive (LHCD) experiments and the measured current profiles qualitatively demonstrate several predictions of LHCD theory such as an inverse dependence of current drive efficiency on the parallel refractive index and the presence of off-axis current drive.

This report discusses the problem of progressive technological change on current and future access to web archives using the PANDORA web archive as a primary case study.

The goal of this program was to design, build, test, and characterize a flight qualified calibration source and monitor for a Dark Energy related experiment: ACCESS - 'Absolute Color Calibration Experiment for Standard Stars'. This calibration source, the On-board Calibration Monitor (OCM), is a key component of our ACCESS spectrophotometric calibration program. The OCM will be flown as part of the ACCESS sub-orbital rocket payload in addition to monitoring instrument sensitivity on the ground. The objective of the OCM is to minimize systematic errors associated with any potential changes in the ACCESS instrument sensitivity. Importantly, the OCM will be used to monitor instrument sensitivity immediately after astronomical observations while the instrument payload is parachuting to the ground. Through monitoring, we can detect, track, characterize, and thus correct for any changes in instrument senstivity over the proposed 5-year duration of the assembled and calibrated instrument.

The Packaging Certification Program (PCP) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management (EM), Office of Packaging and Transportation (EM-14), has developed a radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking and monitoring system for the management of nuclear materials during storage and transportation. The system, developed by the PCP team at Argonne National Laboratory, consists of hardware (Mk-series sensor tags, fixed and handheld readers, form factor for multiple drum types, seal integrity sensors, and enhanced battery management), software (application programming interface, ARG-US software for local and remote/web applications, secure server and database management), and cellular/satellite communication interfaces for vehicle tracking and item monitoring during transport. The ability of the above system to provide accurate, real-time tracking and monitoring of the status of multiple, certified containers of nuclear materials has been successfully demonstrated in a week-long, 1,700-mile DEMO performed in April 2008. While the feedback from the approximately fifty (50) stakeholders who participated in and/or observed the DEMO progression were very positive and encouraging, two major areas of further improvements - system integration and web application enhancement - were identified in the post-DEMO evaluation. The principal purpose of the MiniDemo described in this report was to verify these two specific improvements. The …

Highly coupled Boron plasma has been probed by spectrally resolving an x-ray source scattered by the plasma. Electron density was inferred from the inelastic feature in the collective scattering regime. In addition, the mass density inferred from the non-collective X-ray Thomson scattering has been tested with independent characterization using X-ray radiography in the same drive condition. High-intensity laser produced K-alpha radiation was used as a backlighter for these dynamically compressed plasma experiments providing a high temporal resolution of the measurements. Mass density measurements from both methods are in good agreement. The measurements yield a compression of 1.3 in agreement with detailed radiation-hydrodynamic modeling. From the charge state measured in the non-collective regime and the electron density measured in the collective regime the mass density can then be constrained to 3.15 {+-} 0.16.

We have investigated hydroxylation and water adsorption on {alpha}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0001) at water vapor pressures up to 2 Torr and temperatures ranging from 277 to 647 K (relative humidity (RH) {<=} 34%) using ambient-pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Hydroxylation occurs at the very low RH of 1 x 10{sup -7}% and precedes the adsorption of molecular water. With increasing RH, the OH coverage increases up to one monolayer (ML) without any distinct threshold pressure. Depth profiling measurements showed that hydroxylation occurs only at the topmost surface under our experimental conditions. The onset of molecular water adsorption varies from {approx}2 x 10{sup -5} to {approx}4 x 10{sup -2}% RH depending on sample temperature and water vapor pressure. The coverage of water reaches I ML at {approx} 15% RH and increases to 1.5 ML at 34% RH.

A novel method to detect and correct inaccuracies in a set of unconstrained dense correspondences between two images is presented. Starting with a robust, general-purpose dense correspondence algorithm, an initial pose estimate and dense 3D scene reconstruction are obtained and bundle-adjusted. Reprojection errors are then computed for each correspondence pair, which is used as a metric to distinguish high and low-error correspondences. An affine neighborhood-based coarse-to-fine iterative search algorithm is then applied only on the high-error correspondences to correct their positions. Such an error detection and correction mechanism is novel for unconstrained dense correspondences, for example not obtained through epipolar geometry-based guided matching. Results indicate that correspondences in regions with issues such as occlusions, repetitive patterns and moving objects can be identified and corrected, such that a more accurate set of dense correspondences results from the feedback-based process, as proven by more accurate pose and structure estimates.

This report focuses on the potential implications of China's naval modernization for future required U.S. Navy capabilities. This report is based on unclassified open-source information, such as the annual Department of Defense (DOD) report to Congress on China's military power, an August 2009 report from the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), and published reference sources such as Jane's Fighting Ships.

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The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Leonard Kliff. Kliff enlisted in the Army Air Forces in August of 1943. He trained as a bombardier in the AT-7. After graduation he went to Biggs Field near El Paso for additional training in B-17s. He served as a flight officer. He was sent to an air base in Lincoln, Nebraska, and while at the base the war ended. In October of 1945 he went to Traux Field in Madison, Wisconsin and was discharged.

Early music concert presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Jazz concert presented at the UNT College of Music Kenton Hall.

This brief discusses the costs related to the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Leonard Kliff. Kliff enlisted in the Army Air Forces in August of 1943. He trained as a bombardier in the AT-7. After graduation he went to Biggs Field near El Paso for additional training in B-17s. He served as a flight officer. He was sent to an air base in Lincoln, Nebraska, and while at the base the war ended. In October of 1945 he went to Traux Field in Madison, Wisconsin and was discharged.

The successful operation (with {beta} {le} 60%, classical ions and electrons with Te = 250 eV) of the Gas Dynamic Trap (GDT) device at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP) in Novosibirsk, Russia, extrapolates to a 2 MW/m{sup 2} Dynamic Trap Neutron Source (DTNS), which burns only {approx}100 g of tritium per full power year. The DTNS has no serious physics, engineering, or technology obstacles; the extension of neutral beam lines to steady state can use demonstrated engineering; and it supports near-term tokamaks and volume neutron sources. The DTNS provides a neutron spectrum similar to that of ITER and satisfies the missions specified by the materials community to test fusion materials (listed as one of the top grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering) and subcomponents (including tritium-breeding blankets) needed to construct DEMO. The DTNS could serve as the first Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF), called for by ReNeW, and could provide the data necessary for licensing subsequent FSNFs.

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

This report discusses issues Congress faces regarding the Navy's proposed FY2010 budget, particularly as relating to destroyer procurement plans and programs.

This report discusses the history of a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty, and addresses nuclear weapon issues in the annual National Defense Authorization Act and the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act. Congress is considering the Stockpile Stewardship Program (listed as Weapons Activities), which seeks to maintain nuclear weapons without testing.

This report summarizes the FY2010 budget request for research & development (R&D) funding, including comparisons to R&D funding requests in the FY2009 budget. This report breaks down in detail the various aspects of the President's FY2010 R&D funding request.

Daily newspaper from Sweetwater, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.