A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In June 2006, GAO reported a number of concerns about the level of U.S. tsunami preparedness. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) leads U.S. efforts through three key programs: the Tsunami Program, which focuses on detection and warning activities; the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP), which is a partnership with federal and state agencies focusing on hazard assessment and mitigation; and TsunamiReady, which is a partnership with at-risk communities focusing on education and emergency planning. The Tsunami Warning and Education Act of 2006 directed improvements in NOAA's warning and mitigation efforts and mandated GAO to report on its progress. This report addresses (1) the extent to which NOAA developed effective strategic plans for its tsunami programs and (2) the status of NOAA's efforts to strengthen and expand the programs and move tsunami research to application. GAO analyzed NOAA documents and interviewed federal, state, and local officials responsible for tsunami planning and preparedness efforts."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As the life expectancy of Americans continues to increase, the risk that retirees will outlive their assets is a growing challenge. Today, couples both aged 62 have a 47 percent chance that at least one of them will live to their 90th birthday. In addition to the risk of outliving ones' assets, the sharp declines in financial markets and home equity during the last few years and the continued increase in health care costs have intensified workers' concerns about having enough savings and how to best manage those savings in retirement. Congress asked us to examine (1) options retirees have for drawing on financial assets to replace preretirement income and options retirees choose, and (2) how pensions, annuities and other retirement savings vehicles are regulated."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To assist law enforcement agencies in their efforts to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes, the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requires financial institutions to file suspicious activity reports (SAR) to inform the federal government of transactions related to possible violations of law or regulation. Depository institutions have been concerned about the resources required to file SARs and the extent to which SARs are used. The Subcommittee asked GAO to discuss our February 2009 report on suspicious activity reporting. Specifically, this testimony discusses (1) factors affecting the number of SARs filed, (2) actions agencies have taken to improve the usefulness of SARs, (3) federal agencies' use of SARs, and (4) the effectiveness of the process used to revise SAR forms. To respond to the request, GAO relied primarily on the February 2009 report titled Bank Secrecy Act: Suspicious Activity Report Use Is Increasing, but FinCEN Needs to Further Develop and Document Its Form Revision Process (GAO-09-226), and updated it with additional information provided by FinCEN. In that report, GAO recommended that FinCEN work to further develop a strategy that fully incorporates certain GAO-identified practices to enhance …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal and state governments share responsibility for ensuring that nursing homes provide quality care in a safe environment for vulnerable elderly or disabled individuals who can no longer care for themselves. States survey nursing homes annually under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency responsible for ensuring the effectiveness of state surveys. To evaluate state surveyors' performance, CMS conducts federal comparative surveys in which federal surveyors independently resurvey a home recently inspected by state surveyors and compare and contrast the deficiencies identified during the two surveys. Federal comparative surveys can find two types of understatement: (1) missed deficiencies, which can occur when a state surveyor fails to cite a deficiency altogether, or (2) cases where state surveyors cite deficiencies at too low a level. In May 2008, we reported that a substantial proportion of federal comparative surveys conducted from fiscal years 2002 through 2007 identified missed deficiencies that either had the potential to or did result in harm, death, or serious injury to nursing home residents."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2007, GAO reported significant deficiencies in internal control over certain contracts the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). This Subcommittee and others in Congress asked GAO to perform an in-depth review of CMS's contract management practices. This testimony is based on GAO's October 2009 report on these issues and summarizes GAO's findings on the extent to which CMS (1) implemented effective control procedures over contract actions, (2) established a strong contract management control environment, and (3) implemented GAO's 2007 recommendations. GAO used a statistical random sample of 2008 CMS contract actions to assess CMS internal control procedures. The results were projected to the population of 2008 CMS contract actions. GAO reviewed contract file documentation and interviewed senior acquisition management officials."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses our most recent report on military and civilian pay comparisons and the challenges associated with those types of comparisons. The Department of Defense's (DOD) military compensation package, which is a myriad of pays and benefits, is an important tool for attracting and retaining the number and quality of active duty servicemembers DOD needs to fulfill its mission. Since DOD transitioned to an all-volunteer force in 1973, the amount of pay and benefits that servicemembers receive has progressively increased. When it is competitive with civilian compensation, military compensation can be appropriate and adequate to attract and retain servicemembers. However, comparisons between the two involve both challenges and limitations. Specifically, as we have previously reported, no data exist that would allow an exact comparison between military and civilian personnel with the same levels of work experience. Also, nonmonetary considerations complicate such comparisons, because their value cannot be quantified. For example, military service is unique in that the working conditions for active duty service carry the risk of death and injury during wartime and the potential for frequent, long deployments, unlike most civilian jobs. In addition, there is …

Bi-weekly student newspaper from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Rusk, 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 student newspaper from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas that includes campus and local news along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas that includes campus and local news along with advertising.

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Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Qualification simulant testing was completed to determine appropriate processing conditions and assumptions for the Sludge Batch 6 (SB6) Shielded Cells demonstration of the DWPF flowsheet using the qualification sample from Tank 51 for SB6 after SRNL washing. It was found that an acid addition window of 105-139% of the DWPF acid equation (100-133% of the Koopman minimum acid equation) gave acceptable Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT) and Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME) results for nitrite destruction and hydrogen generation. Hydrogen generation occurred continuously after acid addition in three of the four tests. The three runs at 117%, 133%, and 150% stoichiometry (Koopman) were all still producing around 0.1 lb hydrogen/hr at DWPF scale after 42 hours of boiling in the SRAT. The 150% acid run reached 110% of the DWPF SRAT limit of 0.65 lb H{sub 2}/hr, and the 133% acid run reached 75% of the DWPF SME limit of 0.223 lb H{sub 2}/hr. Conversely, nitrous oxide generation was subdued compared to previous sludge batches, staying below 25 lb/hr in all four tests or about a fourth as much as in comparable SB4 testing. Two other processing issues were noted. First, incomplete mercury suspension impacted mercury stripping from the SRAT …

The YALINA facility is a zero-power, sub-critical assembly driven by a conventional neutron generator. It was conceived, constructed, and put into operation at the Radiation Physics and Chemistry Problems Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus located in Minsk-Sosny, Belarus. This facility was conceived for the purpose of investigating the static and dynamic neutronics properties of accelerator driven sub-critical systems, and to serve as a neutron source for investigating the properties of nuclear reactions, in particular transmutation reactions involving minor-actinide nuclei. This report provides a detailed description of this facility and documents the progress of research carried out there during a period of approximately a decade since the facility was conceived and built until the end of 2008. During its history of development and operation to date (1997-2008), the YALINA facility has hosted several foreign groups that worked with the resident staff as collaborators. The participation of Argonne National Laboratory in the YALINA research programs commenced in 2005. For obvious reasons, special emphasis is placed in this report on the work at YALINA facility that has involved Argonne's participation. Attention is given here to the experimental program at YALINA facility as well as to analytical investigations aimed at …

Quantum phase is not a direct observable and is usually determined by interferometric methods. We present a method to map complete electron wave functions, including internal quantum phase information, from measured single-state probability densities. We harness the mathematical discovery of drum-like manifolds bearing different shapes but identical resonances, and construct quantum isospectral nanostructures possessing matching electronic structure but divergent physical structure. Quantum measurement (scanning tunneling microscopy) of these 'quantum drums' [degenerate two-dimensional electron states on the Cu(111) surface confined by individually positioned CO molecules] reveals that isospectrality provides an extra topological degree of freedom enabling robust quantum state transplantation and phase extraction.

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We address quantum invisibility in the context of electronics in nanoscale quantum structures. In analogy with metamaterials, we use the freedom of design that quantum corrals provide and show that quantum mechanical objects can be hidden inside the corral, with respect to inelastic electron scattering spectroscopy in combination with scanning tunneling microscopy, and we propose a design strategy. A simple illustration of the invisibility is given in terms of an elliptic quantum corral containing a molecule, with a local vibrational mode, at one of the foci. Our work has implications to quantum information technology and presents new tools for nonlocal quantum detection and distinguishing between different molecules.

We describe measurements of spin dynamics in the two-dimensional electron gas in GaAs/GaAlAs quantum wells. Optical techniques, including transient spin-grating spectroscopy, are used to probe the relaxation rates of spin polarization waves in the wavevector range from zero to 6 x 10{sup 4} cm{sup -1}. We find that the spin polarization lifetime is maximal at nonzero wavevector, in contrast with expectation based on ordinary spin diffusion, but in quantitative agreement with recent theories that treat diffusion in the presence of spin-orbit coupling.

The ultimate miniaturization of electronic devices will likely require local and coherent control of single electronic wavefunctions. Wavefunctions exist within both physical real space and an abstract state space with a simple geometric interpretation: this state space - or Hilbert space - is spanned by mutually orthogonal state vectors corresponding to the quantized degrees of freedom of the real-space system. Measurement of superpositions is akin to accessing the direction of a vector in Hilbert space, determining an angle of rotation equivalent to quantum phase. Here we show that an individual atom inside a designed quantum corral1 can control this angle, producing arbitrary coherent superpositions of spatial quantum states. Using scanning tunnelling microscopy and nanostructures assembled atom-by-atom we demonstrate how single spins and quantum mirages can be harnessed to image the superposition of two electronic states. We also present a straightforward method to determine the atom path enacting phase rotations between any desired state vectors. A single atom thus becomes a real-space handle for an abstract Hilbert space, providing a simple technique for coherent quantum state manipulation at the spatial limit of condensed matter.

Phase III simulant flowsheet testing was completed using the latest composition estimates for SB6/Tank 40 feed to DWPF. The goals of the testing were to determine reasonable operating conditions and assumptions for the startup of SB6 processing in the DWPF. Testing covered the region from 102-159% of the current DWPF stoichiometric acid equation. Nitrite ion concentration was reduced to 90 mg/kg in the SRAT product of the lowest acid run. The 159% acid run reached 60% of the DWPF Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT) limit of 0.65 lb H2/hr, and then sporadically exceeded the DWPF Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME) limit of 0.223 lb H2/hr. Hydrogen generation rates peaked at 112% of the SME limit, but higher than targeted wt% total solids levels may have been partially responsible for rates seen. A stoichiometric factor of 120% met both objectives. A processing window for SB6 exists from 102% to something close to 159% based on the simulant results. An initial recommendation for SB6 processing is at 115-120% of the current DWPF stoichiometric acid equation. The addition of simulated Actinide Removal Process (ARP) and Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit (MCU) streams to the SRAT cycle had no apparent impact on the …

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

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

The centroid and envelope dynamics of a high-intensity charged particle beam are investigated as a beam smoothing technique to achieve uniform illumination over a suitably chosen region of the target for applications to ion-beam-driven high energy density physics and heavy ion fusion. The motion of the beam centroid projected onto the target follows a smooth pattern to achieve the desired illumination, for improved stability properties during the beam-target interaction. The centroid dynamics is controlled by an oscillating "wobbler", a set of electrically-biased plates driven by RF voltage. __________________________________________________