This report covers the progress made in Afghan stabilization immediately following the war that brought the 2004 government to power. The report discusses decreased levels of insurgency, the lack of Al Qaeda's presence, and the increased amounts of freedom Afghan citizens are now enjoying under the new government. Moreover, the report summarizes the remaining obstacles to stability in the region.

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

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

This report documents the non-proprietary research and development conducted on the Aluminum Carbothermic Technology (ACT) project from contract inception on July 01, 2000 to termination on December 31, 2004. The objectives of the program were to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of a new carbothermic process for producing commercial grade aluminum, designated as the ''Advanced Reactor Process'' (ARP). The scope of the program ranged from fundamental research through small scale laboratory experiments (65 kW power input) to larger scale test modules at up to 1600 kW power input. The tasks included work on four components of the process, Stages 1 and 2 of the reactor, vapor recovery and metal alloy decarbonization; development of computer models; and economic analyses of capital and operating costs. Justification for developing a new, carbothermic route to aluminum production is defined by the potential benefits in reduced energy, lower costs and more favorable environmental characteristics than the conventional Hall-Heroult process presently used by the industry. The estimated metrics for these advantages include energy rates at approximately 10 kWh/kg Al (versus over 13 kWh/kg Al for Hall-Heroult), capital costs as low as $1250 per MTY (versus 4,000 per MTY for Hall-Heroult), operating cost reductions of over …

Research is being conducted under United States Department of Energy (DOE) Contract DE-FC26-03NT41865 to develop a new technology to achieve very low levels of NOx emissions from pulverized coal fired boiler systems by employing a novel system level integration between the PC combustion process and the catalytic NOx reduction with CO present in the combustion flue gas. The combustor design and operating conditions will be optimized to achieve atypical flue gas conditions. This approach will not only suppress NOx generation during combustion but also further reduce NOx over a downstream catalytic reactor that does not require addition of an external reductant, such as ammonia.

Presentation for the 2005 University Scholars Day at the University of North Texas discussing research on the characteristics of blue elliptical galaxies. This presentation explores star-forming systems, blue galaxies, and the origin of ellipticals.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In September and October 2001, letters laced with Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) spores were sent through the mail to two U.S. senators and to members of the media. These letters led to the first U.S. cases of anthrax disease related to bioterrorism. In all, 22 individuals, in four states and Washington, D.C., contracted anthrax disease; 5 died. These cases prompted Congress to ask GAO to describe and assess federal agencies' activities to detect anthrax in postal facilities, assess the results of agencies' testing, and assess whether agencies' detection activities were validated."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was required by the Drug Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 (21 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.) to conduct a national media campaign to reduce and prevent drug use among America's youth. Since 1998, Congress has appropriated over $1 billion for the media campaign. However, a 2003 report by the Senate Committee on Appropriations expressed some concerns about the media campaign, including concern that a large portion of the campaign's budget had been used for consulting services rather than the direct purchase of media time and space. The report, therefore, directed GAO to review the use of consultants to support the media campaign. This report describes the services provided by consultants (defined by GAO as the prime contractors and their subcontractors) in support of the media campaign, along with the estimated award amounts for these services."

Presentation for the 2005 University Scholars Day at the University of North Texas. This presentation discusses research on the hybrid Arab and Hispanic culture in the United States, understanding the customs and traditions of the two separate cultures respectively, and how the two cultures blend together socially, culturally, and linguistically.

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

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

This report briefly discusses the political and economic conditions of Argentina, as well as its relationship with the U.S.

Description. Individual raw data streams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Climate Research Facility (ACRF) fixed and mobile sites are collected and sent to the Data Management Facility (DMF) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for processing in near real time. Raw and processed data are then sent daily to the ACRF Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by (1) individual data stream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year dating back to 1998. The United States Department of Energy requires national user facilities to report time-based operating data. The requirements concern the actual hours of operation (ACTUAL); the estimated maximum operation or uptime goal (OPSMAX), which accounts for planned downtime; and the VARIANCE [1 – (ACTUAL/OPSMAX)], which accounts for unplanned downtime. The OPSMAX time for this second quarter for the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site is 2052 hours (0.95 × 2,160 hours this quarter). The annual OPSMAX for the North Slope Alaska (NSA) site is 1944 hours (0.90 × …

The principal research effort for Year 2 of the project is the determination of the burial and thermal maturation histories and basin modeling and petroleum system identification of the North Louisiana Salt Basin. In the first six (6) to nine (9) months of Year 2, the research focus is on the determination of the burial and thermal maturation histories and the remainder of the year the emphasis is on basin modeling and petroleum system identification. No major problems have been encountered to date, and the project is on schedule.

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

Poster presentation for the 2005 University Scholars Day at the University of North Texas. This poster analyzes and identifies the poetic elements of The Beatles' lyrics from 1965 to 1970. The primary goal is to demonstrate that the band's lyrics are serious poetry, not merely performance.

The budget report of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2006-2015 (January 25, 2005), included baseline estimates (assuming current policies) for FY2005 through FY2015. Under the baseline assumptions, CBO estimated a FY2006 deficit of $295 billion (2.3% of gross domestic product [GDP]). This is smaller than CBO’s FY2005 baseline deficit estimate ($368 billion, 3.0% of GDP). CBO’s baseline estimates do not include assumptions about possible future legislation that may increase or decrease spending or receipts and therefore change the deficit. The baseline assumptions assume the continuation of current law, including that laws changing the level of future revenues or outlays will go into effect as scheduled.

Faculty and students from five universities--the University of Kentucky, University of Pittsburgh, University of Utah, West Virginia University, and Auburn University--are collaborating in a research program to develop C1 chemistry processes to produce ultra-clean liquid transportation fuels and hydrogen, the zero-emissions transportation fuel of the future. The feedstocks contain one carbon atom per molecular unit. They include synthesis gas (syngas), a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen produced by coal gasification or reforming of natural gas, methane, methanol, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. An important objective is to develop C1 technology for the production of liquid transportation fuel and hydrogen from domestically plentiful resources such as coal, coalbed methane, and natural gas. An Industrial Advisory Board with representatives from Chevron-Texaco, Eastman Chemical, Conoco-Phillips, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the U.S. Army National Automotive Center (Tank & Automotive Command--TACOM), and Tier Associates provides guidance on the practicality of the research. The current report presents results obtained in this research program during the six months of the subject contract from October 1, 2002 through March 31, 2003. The results are presented in thirteen detailed reports on research projects headed by various faculty members at each of the five CFFS Universities. Additionally, an …

In conjunction with Baker Atlas Inc. Michigan Technological University devised a system capable of recording the earth motion and pressure due to downhole and surface seismic sources. The essential elements of the system are 1) a borehole test site that will remain constant and is available all the time and for any length of time, 2) a downhole sonde that will itself remain constant and, because of its downhole digitization feature, does not require the wireline or surface recording components to remain constant, and 3) a set of procedures that ensures that the amplitude and frequency parameters of a wide range of sources can be compared with confidence. This system was used to record four seismic sources, three downhole sources and one surface source. A single activation of each of the downhole sources was not seen on time traces above the ambient noise, however, one sweep of the surface source, a small vertical vibrator, was easily seen in a time trace. One of the downhole sources was seen by means of a spike in its spectrum and a second downhole source was clearly seen after correlation and stacking. The surface vibrator produced a peak to peak particle motion signal of …

The term "soft money" generally refers to unregulated funds for election related activities that are not subject to the Federal Election Campaign Act's (FECA) source restrictions, contribution limits, and disclosure requirements. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which amended FECA and became effective on November 6, 2002, restricts the raising and spending of soft money. This report contains information on a summary of campaign financing, recent developments, background and analysis, definitions of Hard and Soft money in federal elections, political party soft money, soft money spent on issue advocacy, corporate and labor union soft money, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, and additional related materials.

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

The report is divided into two sections. The first section deals with Equilibrium Analysis and Fill Pattern Reasoning for Die Casting Process. The second section covers Graphical User Interface for Cooling Line Functions and Surface Rendering.

This report describes a study conducted by PNNL for the Bonneville Power Administration to characterized the conditions fish experience when entrained in pump flow at the Grand Coulee Dam. PNNL used the Sensor Fish to measure the acceleration and pressure conditions that might be experienced by fish who are pulled through the pumps and turbines at Grand Coulee Dam's pump generation station and transported up into the feeder canal leading to Banks Lake. The probability that fish would be struck by the pump generating plant's new 9-bladed turbines was also calculated using Monte Carlo simulations. Our measurements showed relatively low turbulence except in the immediate vicinity of the runner environment. The highest pressure experienced by the Sensor Fish was estimated at 157 psi (the pressure gauge saturated at 155 psi). The probability of strike was also calculated, based on the average length of hatchery-reared juvenile kokanee (land-locked sockeye). Strike probabilities ranged from 0.755 for 2.36-inch fish to 0.3890 for 11.8-inch fish. The probability of strike estimates indicate that the majority (77%) of kokanne would be carried through the pump without being struck and most likely without injury resulting from pressure and turbulence exposure. Of the 23% that might be struck …

A photograph of Cheylon Brown and a guest at the 2005 Women of Color Conference. They are seated at a table in one of UNT's conference rooms.