A test stand for the investigation of 1+-n+ charge boosting using an ECR ion sources is currently being assembled at the Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute. The ultimate goal is to relate the charge-boosting of ions of stable species to possible charge-boosting of ions of radioactive species extracted from the diverse, low-charge-state ion sources developed for radioactive ion beams.

Newspaper from Rose State College in Midwest City, Oklahoma that includes national, local, and campus news along with advertising.

This report discusses a number of issues affecting U.S. agriculture have been or are being addressed by the 109th Congress. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171), enacted in February 2006, included a net reduction in spending on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) mandatory programs of $2.7 billion over five years, and the reauthorization of a dairy income support program. Other issues of importance to agriculture during the second session of the 109th Congress include the consideration of emergency farm disaster assistance; multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations; concerns about agroterrorism, food safety, and animal and plant diseases (e.g., “mad cow” disease and avian flu); high energy costs; environmental issues; agricultural marketing matters; the reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; and farm labor issues.

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

This article explores the interaction between a monochromatic plane wave laser beam and a relativistic electron in the presence of a thin dielectric transparent boundary. It is found that the sign of the interaction between the laser and the electron in the downstream space is determined by the optical phase delay of the laser caused by the boundary, and that it can add to or cancel the interaction in the upstream space. Both the inverse-transition radiation picture and the electric field path integral method show this result.

This report summarizes a parametric analysis performed to determine the effect of varying the percent on-cell reformation (OCR) of methane on the thermal and electrical performance for a generic, planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack design. OCR of methane can be beneficial to an SOFC stack because the reaction (steam-methane reformation) is endothermic and can remove excess heat generated by the electrochemical reactions directly from the cell. The heat removed is proportional to the amount of methane reformed on the cell. Methane can be partially pre-reformed externally, then supplied to the stack, where rapid reaction kinetics on the anode ensures complete conversion. Thus, the thermal load varies with methane concentration entering the stack, as does the coupled scalar distributions, including the temperature and electrical current density. The endotherm due to the reformation reaction can cause a temperature depression on the anode near the fuel inlet, resulting in large thermal gradients. This effect depends on factors that include methane concentration, local temperature, and stack geometry.

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

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This report opens with a discussion on the federal authority to enforce immigration law at the border and some U.S. Border Patrol operations that have affected illegal migration patterns along the southwest border. Next, the report provides a history of civilian border patrol groups, with a particular focus on the “Minuteman Project” and other groups operating along the southwest border. It then highlights issues of authority that might arise, and includes, as an appendix, a table that sets forth various state laws that may be useful to civilians performing immigration-related enforcement activities. The report also addresses some of the legal and policy issues, as mentioned above, that have surfaced from civilian involvement in immigration enforcement at the border. The report concludes with summaries of legislation introduced in the 109th Congress that address the use of civilian border patrols.

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

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Companies form the basis of most commercial and entrepreneurial activities in market-based economies; however, "shell" companies, which have no operations, can be used for illicit purposes such as laundering money. Some states have been criticized for requiring minimal ownership information to form a U.S. company, raising concerns about the ease with which companies may be used for illicit purposes. In this report, GAO describes (1) the kinds of information each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and third party agents collect on companies, (2) law enforcement concerns about the use of companies to hide illicit activity and how company information from states and agents helps or hinders investigations, and (3) implications of requiring states or agents to collect company ownership information."

Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Military personnel, as well as civilian public safety officers (PSO), risk their lives and face the prospect of incurring disabilities as they protect and defend the general public on a daily basis. To help assess the appropriateness of disability benefits available to military personnel, Congress mandated that GAO study the disability benefits available to federal, state, and local government employees who serve the public in high-risk occupations and are injured in the line of duty. In response, GAO compared the disability benefits available to military personnel with the disability benefits available to civilian PSOs at the federal level, and in six states and six cities that were selected to illustrate the range of benefits provided. This study focuses on benefits provided to law enforcement officers and firefighters at the federal level, to state police at the state level, and to firefighters at the local level. For each program included in the review, GAO identified the benefits available for temporary disability, permanent partial disability, and permanent total disability, and then calculated the lifetime present value of the benefits provided to various hypothetical individuals in different circumstances. Cognizant …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal policy requires that small businesses receive the maximum practicable opportunity for providing goods and services to federal agencies through prime contracts--direct contracts between the government and a contractor. The Department of Energy (DOE) buys more than $20 billion in goods and services annually. GAO was asked to (1) discuss DOE's key efforts to increase small business prime contracting opportunities and (2) identify the management challenges DOE faces in improving its small business prime contracting performance. In addition to these objectives GAO is providing information on the management of small business programs by other federal agencies that either share certain characteristics with DOE's largest program offices or that have components that share certain characteristics with these offices."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The narrow margin of victory in the 2000 presidential election raised concerns about the extent to which members of the military, their dependents, and U.S. citizens living abroad were able to vote via absentee ballot. In September 2001, GAO made recommendations to address variances in the Department of Defense's (DOD) Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP). Along with the military services and the Department of State (DOS), FVAP is responsible for educating and assisting military personnel and overseas citizens in the absentee voting process. Leading up to the 2004 presidential election, Members of Congress raised concerns about efforts under FVAP to facilitate absentee voting. Because of broad Congressional interest, GAO initiated a review under the Comptroller General's authority to address three questions: (1) How did FVAP's assistance efforts differ between the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections? (2) What actions did DOD and DOS take in response to prior GAO recommendations on absentee voting? and (3) What challenges remain in providing voting assistance to military personnel and overseas citizens? This review is one of several GAO reviews related to various aspects of the 2004 election. GAO provided DOD …

Opera performed at the UNT College of Music Lyric Theatre

Salvador Espino gives a speech while Robert Rivera stands along side of him.

Head shots of Salvador Espino speaking into a microphone while Robert Rivera looks at him.

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

Salvador Espino is seen from a distance addressing an audience.

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The nature of the progenitors of short duration, hard spectrum, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has remained a mystery. Even with the recent localizations of four short-hard GRBs, no transient emission has been found at long wavelengths that directly constrains the progenitor nature. Instead, as was the case in studying the different morphological subclasses of supernovae and the progenitors of long-duration GRBs, we suggest that the progenitors of short bursts can be meaningfully constrained by the environment in which the bursts occur. Here we present the discovery spectra of the galaxies that hosted three short-hard GRBs and the spectrum of a fourth host. The results indicate that these environments, both at the galaxy scale and galaxy-cluster scale, differ substantially from those of long-soft GRBs. The spatial offset of three bursts from old and massive galaxy hosts strongly favors an origin from the merger of compact stellar remnants, such as double neutron stars or a neutron-star black hole binary. The star-forming host of another GRB provides confirmation that, like supernovae of Type Ia, the progenitors of short-hard bursts are created in all galaxy types. This indicates a class of progenitors with a wide distribution of delay times between formation and explosion.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "There has been much debate about specialty hospitals--short-term acute care hospitals with physician owners or investors that primarily treat patients who have specific medical conditions or need surgical procedures--and the competitive effects they may have on general hospitals. Advocates of specialty hospitals contend that competition from these physician-owned facilities can prompt general hospitals to implement efficiency, quality, and amenity improvements, thus favorably affecting the overall health care delivery system. Critics of specialty hospitals are concerned that general hospitals may respond to such competition by making changes that do not necessarily increase efficiency or benefit patients or communities, for example, by adding services already available in the community. The appropriateness of physicians' financial interests in specialty hospitals has also been questioned. GAO was asked to provide information on the competitive response of general hospitals to specialty hospitals. GAO surveyed approximately 600 general hospitals in markets with and without specialty hospitals to provide information on the extent to which these two groups of general hospitals reported implementing operational and clinical service changes to remain competitive. GAO received responses from 401 general hospitals."

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