A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Restoration of the South Florida ecosystem is a significant federal and state priority, requiring the development and use of extensive scientific information. GAO was asked to report on the funds spent on scientific activities for restoration, the gaps that exist in scientific information, and the extent to which scientific activities are being coordinated."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Supporting democracy abroad is a major U.S. foreign policy objective. To better understand how this assistance has been implemented in Latin America, GAO was asked to review programs in six countries--Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Peru--that have been of particular importance to U.S. interests in Central and South America. Between fiscal years 1992 and 2002, U.S. agencies have funded more than $580 million in democracy-related programs in these countries. This report discusses the impact of and factors affecting this assistance and the overarching management issues that have affected program planning and implementation."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Federal Procurement Policy's (OFPP) plan to increase federal contracting opportunities for small business is aimed at eliminating unnecessary contract bundling and mitigating the effects of necessary contract bundling. Specifically it calls for a series of actions to (1) hold federal agency managers accountable for improving small business contracting opportunities, (2) strengthen the Federal Acquisition Regulation and Small Business Administration (SBA) regulations governing contract bundling, and (3) use SBA and agency small business resources to improve oversight and mitigate the effects of bundling. This testimony focuses on two implementation concerns: (1) the measures and information that will be used to monitor agencies' progress in eliminating unnecessary contract bundling and mitigating the effects of necessary bundling and (2) the ability of SBA's Procurement Center Representatives and agencies' Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization offices to meet the added responsibilities laid out in the plan."

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to in memory of Robert O. "Bob" Schnell of Borger.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to recognizing March 4, 2003, as Ellis County Day at the State Capitol.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to recognizing 2003 as the sesquicentennial year for Hill County and the City of Hillsboro.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to recognizing GENCO Federal Credit Union on its 50th anniversary.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to recognizing March 5, 2003, as Eagle Pass Day at the State Capitol.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to relating to honoring the Longview Partnership's Leadership Tomorrow program.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to congratulating Tony Hills, Jr., of Alief Elsik High School on his athletic achievements.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives relating to authorizing the burial of Steven Leslie Martin in the State Cemetery.

Mentions the trade barriers and trade relations between the United States and Australia. Gives a short summary on Australia's economy over the past few years and provides some history and statistics on trade between the two countries and how to further boost economic ties.

We give an effective field theory derivation, based on the running of Planck brane gauge correlators, of the large logarithms that arise in the predictions for low energy gauge couplings in compactified AdS}_5 backgrounds, including the one-loop effects of bulk scalars, fermions, and gauge bosons. In contrast to the case of charged scalars coupled to Abelian gauge fields that has been considered previously in the literature, the one-loop corrections are not dominated by a single 4D Kaluza-Klein mode. Nevertheless, in the case of gauge field loops, the amplitudes can be reorganized into a leading logarithmic contribution that is identical to the running in 4D non-Abelian gauge theory, and a term which is not logarithmically enhanced and is analogous to a two-loop effect in 4D. In a warped GUT model broken by the Higgs mechanism in the bulk,we show that the matching scale that appears in the large logarithms induced by the non-Abelian gauge fields is m_{XY}^2/k where m_{XY} is the bulk mass of the XY bosons and k is the AdS curvature. This is in contrast to the UV scale in the logarithmic contributions of scalars, which is simply the bulk mass m. Our results are summarized in a set …

Single chain FV constructs of anti-ganglioside GD2 antibodies for radioimaging

With the aid of a DOE grant (No. DE-FC26-01NT41050), Stolar Research Corporation (Stolar) developed the Horizon Sensor (HS) to distinguish between the different layers of a coal seam. Mounted on mining machine cutter drums, HS units can detect or sense the horizon between the coal seam and the roof and floor rock, providing the opportunity to accurately mine the section of the seam most desired. HS also enables accurate cutting of minimum height if that is the operator's objective. Often when cutting is done out-of-seam, the head-positioning function facilitates a fixed mining height to minimize dilution. With this technology, miners can still be at a remote location, yet cut only the clean coal, resulting in a much more efficient overall process. The objectives of this project were to demonstrate the feasibility of horizon sensing on mining machines and demonstrate that Horizon Sensing can allow coal to be cut cleaner and more efficiently. Stolar's primary goal was to develop the Horizon Sensor (HS) into an enabling technology for full or partial automation or ''agile mining''. This technical innovation (R&D 100 Award Winner) is quickly demonstrating improvements in productivity and miner safety at several prominent coal mines in the United States. In …

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The objective of this project is to develop ceramic membranes for hydrogen separation from fuel gas or synthesis gas at temperatures 400-500 C. The membrane chosen for this purpose consists of a dense silica layer coated on a porous support by chemical vapor depositrion (CVD). The support used during the reporting period was zeolite silicalite grown on macroporous alumina tubes. Chemical vapor deposition was carried out using alternating exposure of the support to silicon tetrachloride (SiCl{sub 4}) and water vapor at 400-500 C. Under these conditions it takes about twenty-five reaction cycles to narrow down the pores of the zeolite support sufficiently for separation of hydrogen from other gases. The membranes were characterized by gas adsorption for pore size distribution, scanning electron microscopy, and EDAX for elemental composition. The permeance of H{sub 2}, N{sub 2}, CO{sub 2}, n-C{sub 4}H{sub 10}, and i-C{sub 4}H{sub 10} was measured in the temperature range 100-250 C. At 150 C, the H{sub 2}:N{sub 2} permeance ratio was in the range 100-200 at a hydrogen permeance of 5-10x10{sup -8} mol/m{sub 2}-s-Pa.

LiCoO2 is the most common lithium storage material for lithium rechargeable batteries, used widely to power portable electronic devices such as laptop computers. Lithium arrangements in the CoO2 framework have a profound effect on the structural stability and electrochemical properties of LixCoO2 (0 < x < 1), however, probing lithium ions has been difficult using traditional X-ray and neutron diffraction techniques. Here we have succeeded in simultaneously resolving columns of cobalt, oxygen, and lithium atoms in layered LiCoO2 battery material using experimental focal series of LiCoO2 images obtained at sub-Angstrom resolution in a mid-voltage transmission electron microscope. Lithium atoms are the smallest and lightest metal atoms, and scatter electrons only very weakly. We believe our observations of lithium to be the first by electron microscopy, and that they show promise to direct visualization of the ordering of lithium and vacancy in LixCoO2.

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

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An initiator device structure consisting of an energetic metallic nano-laminate foil coated with a sol-gel derived energetic nano-composite has been demonstrated. The device structure consists of a precision sputter deposition synthesized nano-laminate energetic foil of non-toxic and non-hazardous metals along with a ceramic-based energetic sol-gel produced coating made up of non-toxic and non-hazardous components such as ferric oxide and aluminum metal. Both the nano-laminate and sol-gel technologies are versatile commercially viable processes that allow the ''engineering'' of properties such as mechanical sensitivity and energy output. The nano-laminate serves as the mechanically sensitive precision igniter and the energetic sol-gel functions as a low-cost, non-toxic, non-hazardous booster in the ignition train. In contrast to other energetic nanotechnologies these materials can now be safely manufactured at application required levels, are structurally robust, have reproducible and engineerable properties, and have excellent aging characteristics.

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

The fifteen years of DOE support have encompassed two different projects, electron-transfer reactions of metal carbonyl anions and water-soluble organometallic complexes. Each of these is related to homogeneous catalysis and will be described in separate sections. Electron Transfer--Twenty-one manuscripts resulted from our studies of electron-transfer reactions of metal carbonyl anions and acknowledge DOE support. Construction of an infrared stopped-flow system allowed us to measure rates of reactions for the extremely air-sensitive metal carbonyl anions. As for carbanions, both one-electron and two-electron processes occur for metal carbonyl anions. The most unexpected feature was examples of a very rapid two-electron process, followed by a much slower one-electron back transfer. The two-electron processes were accompanied by transfer of a ligand between two metals, M-X + M{prime}{sup -} {yields} M{sup -} + M{prime}-X with X groups of CO{sup 2}, H{sup +}, CH{sub 3}{sup +} and Br{sup +}. These transfers, which can be considered nucleophilic displacements, occurred when M{prime}{sup -} was more nucleophilic than M{sup -}. The 21 published manuscripts explore one- and two-electron processes for many such organometallic complexes. Water-Soluble Organometallic Complexes--The potential of water-soluble organometallic complexes in ''green chemistry'' intrigued us. Sixteen manuscripts acknowledging DOE support have appeared thus far in this field. …

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