Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1983, the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia; the District of Columbia; the Chesapeake Bay Commission; and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have partnered to protect and restore the deteriorated Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The partners established the Chesapeake Bay Program (Bay Program) to manage and coordinate a variety of restoration activities and in their most recent agreement, Chesapeake 2000, which was signed in June 2000, they established 102 commitments for the Chesapeake Bay, which were organized under five broad restoration goals to be achieved by 2010. In October 2005, we issued a report in which we reviewed the management, coordination, and reporting mechanisms used by the Bay Program. Our review found that the Bay Program had (1) developed more than 100 measures of restoration but lacked an integrated approach for measuring the progress being made in restoring the bay, (2) reported on individual species and pollutants but lacked independent and credible mechanisms to report on overall bay health, and (3) developed numerous plans for accomplishing its restoration commitments but lacked a comprehensive strategy that could provide a roadmap for accomplishing the goals outlined in Chesapeake 2000, and …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Increasingly, U.S. consumers are recycling their old electronics to prevent the environmental harm that can come from disposal. Concerns have grown, however, that some U.S. companies are exporting these items to developing countries, where unsafe recycling practices can cause health and environmental problems. Items with cathode-ray tubes (CRT) are particularly harmful because they can contain 4 pounds of lead, a known toxin. To prevent this practice, since January 2007 EPA began regulating the export of CRTs under its CRT rule, which requires companies to notify EPA before exporting CRTs. In this context, GAO examined (1) the fate of exported used electronics, (2) the effectiveness of regulatory controls over the export of these devices, and (3) options to strengthen federal regulation of exported used electronics. Among other things, GAO reviewed waste management surveys in developing countries, monitored e-commerce Web sites, and posed as foreign buyers of broken CRTs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As part of its most recent estimate of the tax gap, for tax year 2001, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimated that individuals underreported taxes related to their rental real estate activities by as much as $13 billion. Given the magnitude of underreporting, even small improvements in taxpayer compliance could result in substantial revenue. GAO was asked to provide information on rental real estate reporting compliance. This report (1) provides information on the extent and primary types of taxpayer misreporting of rental real estate activities and (2) identifies challenges IRS faces in ensuring compliance and assesses options for increasing compliance. For estimates of taxpayer misreporting, GAO analyzed a probability sample of examination cases for tax year 2001 from IRS's most recent National Research Program (NRP) study of individual taxpayer compliance."

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has undertaken a program to lay the technical foundation for defining proactive actions so that future degradation of materials in light water reactors (LWRs) is limited and, thereby, does not diminish either the integrity of important LWR components or the safety of operating plants. This technical letter report was prepared by staff at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in support of the NRC Proactive Management of Materials Degradation (PMMD) program and relies heavily on work that was completed by Dr. Joseph Muscara and documented in NUREG/CR-6923. This report concisely explains the basic principles of PMMD and its relationship to prognostics, provides a review of programs related to PMMD being conducted worldwide, and provides an assessment of the technical gaps in PMMD and prognostics that need to be addressed. This technical letter report is timely because the majority of the U.S. reactor fleet is applying for license renewal, and many plants are also applying for increases in power rating. Both of these changes could increase the likelihood of materials degradation and underline, therefore, the interest in proactive management in the future.

We report the results of {\em ab initio} calculations on dissociative electron attachment (DEA) to water that demonstrate the importance of including three-body breakup in the dissociation dynamics. While three-body breakup is ubiquitous in the analogous process of dissociative recombination, its importance in low-energy dissociative electron attachment to a polyatomic target has not previously been quantified. Our calculations, along with our earlier studies of DEA into two-body channels, indicate that three-body breakup is a major component of the observed O- cross section. The local complex potential model provides a generally accurate picture of the experimentallyobserved features in this system, reproducing some quantitatively, others qualitatively, and one not at all.

The 2006-2007 investigation of carbon tetrachloride and chloroform contamination at Barnes, Kansas, was conducted at the request of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). The Environmental Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory implemented the investigation on behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA). The overall goal of the investigation was to establish criteria for monitoring leading to potential site reclassification. The investigation objectives were to (1) determine the hydraulic gradient near the former CCC/USDA facility, (2) delineate the downgradient carbon tetrachloride plume, and (3) design and implement an expanded monitoring network at Barnes (Argonne 2006a).

The Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) operated a grain storage facility at Barnes, Kansas, during most of the interval 1949-1974. Carbon tetrachloride contamination was initially detected in 1986 in the town's public water supply wells. In 2006-2007, the CCC/USDA conducted a comprehensive targeted investigation at and near its former property in Barnes to characterize this contamination. Those results were reported previously (Argonne 2007). In November 2007, the CCC/USDA began quarterly groundwater monitoring at Barnes. The monitoring is being conducted on behalf of the CCC/USDA by Argonne National Laboratory, in accord with the recommendations made in the report for the 2006-2007 targeted investigation (Argonne 2007). The objective is to monitor the carbon tetrachloride contamination identified in the groundwater at Barnes. The sampling is presently conducted in a network of 28 individual monitoring wells (at 19 distinct locations), 2 public water supply wells, and 1 private well (Figure 1.1). The results of the 2006-2007 targeted investigation (Argonne 2007) and the initial monitoring in November 2007 (Argonne 2008) demonstrated the presence of carbon tetrachloride contamination in groundwater at levels slightly exceeding the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Tier 2 risk-based screening level (RBSL) of 5.0 {micro}g/L …

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) was tasked to provide an assessment of the downstream impacts to the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) of decisions regarding the implementation of Al-dissolution to support sludge mass reduction and processing. Based on future sludge batch compositional projections from the Liquid Waste Organization's (LWO) sludge batch plan, assessments have been made with respect to the ability to maintain comparable projected operating windows for sludges with and without Al-dissolution. As part of that previous assessment, candidate frits were identified to provide insight into melt rate for average sludge batches representing with and without Al-dissolution flowsheets. Initial melt rate studies using the melt rate furnace (MRF) were performed using five frits each for Cluster 2 and Cluster 4 compositions representing average without and with Al-dissolution. It was determined, however, that the REDOX endpoint (Fe{sup 2+}/{Sigma}Fe for the glass) for Clusters 2 and 4 resulted in an overly oxidized feed which negatively affected the initial melt rate tests. After the sludge was adjusted to a more reduced state, additional testing was performed with frits that contained both high and low concentrations of sodium and boron oxides. These frits were selected strictly based on the ability to ascertain …

Our work combines and extends techniques from high-performance scientific data management and visualization to enable scientific researchers to gain insight from extremely large, complex, time-varying laser wakefield particle accelerator simulation data. We extend histogram-based parallel coordinates for use in visual information display as well as an interface for guiding and performing data mining operations, which are based upon multi-dimensional and temporal thresholding and data subsetting operations. To achieve very high performance on parallel computing platforms, we leverage FastBit, a state-of-the-art index/query technology, to accelerate data mining and multi-dimensional histogram computation. We show how these techniques are used in practice by scientific researchers to identify, visualize and analyze a particle beam in a large, time-varying dataset.

The objective of this study was to experimentally measure the properties and performance of a series of glasses with compositions that could represent Sludge Batch 5 (SB5) as processed at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). The data was used to provide recommendations to the Liquid Waste Organization (LWO) regarding blending and washing strategies in preparing SB5 based on acceptability of the glass compositions. These data were also used to guide frit optimization efforts as the SB5 composition was finalized. Glass compositions for this study were developed by combining a series of SB5 composition projections with a group of frits. Three composition projections for SB5 were developed using a model-based approach at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). These compositions, referred to as SB5 Cases B, C and D, projected removal of 25, 50 and 75% (respectively) of the aluminum in Tank 51 through the low temperature aluminum dissolution process. The frits for this study (Frits 530 through 537) were selected based on their predicted operating windows (i.e., ranges of waste loadings over which the predicted properties of the glasses were acceptable) and their potential (based on historical trends) to provide acceptable melt rates for SB5. Six additional glasses were designed …

Semileptonic {bar B} decays to DX{ell}{bar {nu}} ({ell} = e or {mu}) are selected by reconstructing D{sup 0}{ell} and D{sup +}{ell} combinations from a sample of 230 million {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} decays recorded with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e{sup +}e{sup -} collider at SLAC. A global fit to these samples in a 3-dimensional space of kinematic variables is used to determine the branching fractions {Beta}(B{sup -} {yields} D{sup 0}{ell}{bar {nu}}) = 2.36 {+-} 0.03 {+-} 0.12% and {Beta}(B{sup -} {yields} D*{sup 0}{ell}{bar {nu}}) = (5.37 {+-} 0.02 {+-} 0.21)% where the errors are statistical and systematic, respectively. The fit also determines form factor parameters in a HQET-based parameterization, resulting in {rho}{sub D}{sup 2} = 1.22 {+-} 0.04 {+-} 0.07 for {bar B} {yields} D{ell}{bar {nu}} and {rho}{sub D*}{sup 2} = 1.21 {+-} 0.02 {+-} 0.07 for {bar B} {yields} D*{ell}{bar {nu}}. These values are used to obtain the product of the CKM matrix element |V{sub cb}| times the form factor at the zero recoil point for both {bar B} {yields} D{ell}{bar {nu}} decays, G(1)|V{sub cb}| = (43.8 {+-} 0.8 {+-} 2.3) x 10{sup -3}, and for {bar B} {yields} D*{ell}{bar {nu}} decays, F(1)|V{sub cb}| = (35.7 {+-} …

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Port Aransas, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

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

Weekly Jewish newspaper from Fort Worth, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Bastrop, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Canadian, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with some 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: Whether a county policy prohibiting the rehire of an individual within one year after terminating an employment relationship with the county applies to the hiring of a deputy constable (RQ-0681-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; Whether all school districts and charter schools must offer the elective course described in Education Code section 28.011(a) in grades 9 through 12 each school year (RQ-0683-GA)

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Weekly newspaper from Albany, Texas that includes local, county, and state news along with extensive advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.