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

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

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.

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

Predictions of increasing levels of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) and the specter of global warming have intensified research efforts to identify ways to sequester carbon. A number of novel avenues of research are being considered, including bioprocessing methods to promote and accelerate biosequestration of CO{sub 2} from the environment through the growth of organisms such as coccolithophorids, which are capable of sequestering CO{sub 2} relatively permanently. Calcium and magnesium carbonates are currently the only proven, long-term storage reservoirs for carbon. Whereas organic carbon is readily oxidized and releases CO{sub 2} through microbial decomposition on land and in the sea, carbonates can sequester carbon over geologic time scales. This proposal investigates the use of coccolithophorids--single-celled, marine algae that are the major global producers of calcium carbonate--to sequester CO{sub 2} emissions from power plants. Cultivation of coccolithophorids for calcium carbonate (CaCO{sub 3}) precipitation is environmentally benign and results in a stable product with potential commercial value. Because this method of carbon sequestration does not impact natural ecosystem dynamics, it avoids controversial issues of public acceptability and legality associated with other options such as direct injection of CO{sub 2} into the sea and ocean fertilization. Consequently, cultivation of coccolithophorids could be carried …

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

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

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.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Last year, GAO reported that the demilitarization liability for excess ammunition was not reflected in the Department of Defense's (DOD) financial statements although required by federal financial accounting standards. The Army, as the single manager for conventional ammunition, calculated a liability of $1.2 billion and prepared a voucher recognizing this amount. Although consistent with GAO's recommendation that DOD include the total liability for demilitarizing excess ammunition in its annual financial statements, this amount does not reflect the full extent of future costs. Specifically, the Army does not recognize a liability for costs associated with the demilitarization of (1) excess ammunition overseas or (2) excess Army-owned war reserve ammunition, excess retail ammunition, and excess ammunition not stored at an Army installation. GAO found that the total liability that should be reflected in fiscal year 2002 financial statements could amount to $3 billion, or $1.8 billion more than the Army's calculation. The Army needs to submit an additional voucher and include in its and DOD's fiscal year 2002 consolidated balance sheets the future liability associated with the demilitarization of excess Army ammunition at overseas and military storage locations."

The purpose of this study is to identify options and issues for aging commercial spent nuclear fuel received for disposal at the Yucca Mountain Mined Geologic Repository. Some early shipments of commercial spent nuclear fuel to the repository may be received with high-heat-output (younger) fuel assemblies that will need to be managed to meet thermal goals for emplacement. The capability to age as much as 40,000 metric tons of heavy metal of commercial spent nuclear he1 would provide more flexibility in the design to manage this younger fuel and to decouple waste receipt and waste emplacement. The following potential aging location options are evaluated: (1) Surface aging at four locations near the North Portal; (2) Subsurface aging in the permanent emplacement drifts; and (3) Subsurface aging in a new subsurface area. The following aging container options are evaluated: (1) Complete Waste Package; (2) Stainless Steel inner liner of the waste package; (3) Dual Purpose Canisters; (4) Multi-Purpose Canisters; and (5) New disposable canister for uncanistered commercial spent nuclear fuel. Each option is compared to a ''Base Case,'' which is the expected normal waste packaging process without aging. A Value Engineering approach is used to score each option against nine technical …

Powder Metallurgy (PM) Alloy 690N{sub 2}, the PM derivative of Inconel 690 (IN 690), has been shown to have a higher elevated temperature yield strength and superior stress corrosion cracking (SCC) resistance than conventionally processed IN 690. The property improvements seen in Alloy PM 690N{sub 2} are due to interstitial nitrogen strengthening and precipitation hardening resulting from the formation of fine Titanium/Chromium-nitrides. The application of Alloy PM 690N{sub 2} has had limited use due to the high costs involved in producing wrought products from powder. Laser Powder Deposition (LPD) offers another technique to take advantage of PM 690N{sub 2} properties. Three different variations of the Alloy 690 chemistry have been deposited, PM chemistry-nitrogen atomized (PM 690N{sub 2}), Ingot Metallurgy (IM) chemistry--nitrogen atomized (IM 690N{sub 2}), and IM chemistry--argon atomized (IM 690Ar). The microstructural and mechanical property variations of these LPD deposited materials are reported. Alloy PM 690N{sub 2} powder was laser deposited at rates from .1 to over 12 cubic inches per hour at laser input powers ranging from 250 to 5000 watts using both CO{sub 2} and Nd:YAG lasers. in all cases a fully dense material has been produced. There is a question however of how the properties of …

Among the current issues in U.S.-Egyptian relations are the shared concerns over the terrorist attacks against Egyptian police, religious, government, and tourist facilities, and what those attacks maysignal for Egypt’s domestic stability. The two nations may disagree over Egypt’s interpretation of applying human rights practices to Islamic terrorists. The two countries disagree over the speed and depth, but not the need for some of Egypt’s economic reforms. Egypt and the United States agree on the importance of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the need to continue current Arab-Israel peace talks, and the need for regional stability. The two nations agree on Egypt’s determination to introduce democratic reforms to Egypt.

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Extensive markup language (XML) is a flexible, nonproprietary set of standards designed to facilitate the exchange of information among disparate computer systems using Internet protocols. Although XML's technical standards, such as specifications for tagging, exchanging, and displaying information, have largely been worked out by commercial standards setting organizations and are in use, equally important business standards are not as mature and may complicate near-term implementation. Standards are not yet complete for (1) identifying potential business partners for transactions, (2) exchanging precise technical information about the nature of proposed transactions that partners can agree to, and (3) executing agreed-upon transactions in a formal, legally binding manner. The federal government faces many challenges as it attempts to gain the most from XML's potential. First, no explicit governmentwide strategy for XML adoption has been defined to guide agency implementation efforts and ensure that agency enterprise architectures address XML incorporation. Second, federal agencies have not yet identified and consolidated their needs for effective representation before key standards setting bodies. Third, the government has yet to establish a registry of government-unique XML data structures for systems developers to consult when building …

Omnibus energy legislation (H.R. 4) that is now in conference would expand energy tax incentives significantly. The House passed the bill on August 2, 2001, and the Senate approved its version April 25, 2002. Several energy tax issues are addressed in these bills: 1) tax incentives to increase the supply of oil and gas, and the demand for coal; 2) energy tax issues relating to energy conservation and energy efficiency; 3) energy tax issues relating to alternative fuels; 4) selected issues relating to electricity restructuring; and 5) expiring energy tax provisions.

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

We implemented a secure prototype for collaborative tool for code development.

We have developed a prototype for remote HEP data selection.

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

This report summarizes the highlights of the research performed under the 2-year NEER grant from the Department of Energy. The primary outcome of the work was a new Monte Carlo code, MCMIS-DS, for Monte Carlo for Mammography Image Simulation including Differential Sampling. The code was written to generate simulated images and dose distributions from two different new digital x-ray imaging modalities, namely, synchrotron imaging (SI) and a slot geometry digital mammography system called Fisher Senoscan. A differential sampling scheme was added to the code to generate multiple images that included variations in the parameters of the measurement system and the object in a single execution of the code. The code is to serve multiple purposes; (1) to answer questions regarding the contribution of scattered photons to images, (2) for use in design optimization studies, and (3) to do up to second-order perturbation studies to assess the effects of design parameter variations and/or physical parameters of the object (the breast) without having to re-run the code for each set of varied parameters. The accuracy and fidelity of the code were validated by a large variety of benchmark studies using published data and also using experimental results from mammography phantoms on both …

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Article about Johnny Gimble, a western swing fiddler from East Texas, written for the Austin Chronicle.

This report summarizes the highlights of the research performed under the 1-year NEER grant from the Department of Energy. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the effects of certain design changes in the Fisher Senoscan mammography system and in the degree of breast compression on the discernability of microcalcifications in calcification clusters often observed in mammograms with tumor lesions. The most important design change that one can contemplate in a digital mammography system to improve resolution of calcifications is the reduction of pixel dimensions of the digital detector. Breast compression is painful to the patient and is though to be a deterrent to women to get routine mammographic screening. Calcification clusters often serve as markers (indicators ) of breast cancer.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Justice (DOJ) recovered more than $1.2 billion in health care fraud cases in fiscal year 2001. The False Claims Act bolstered DOJ's recoveries and enabled the government to seek damages and penalties against providers who knowingly submitted fraudulent bills to Medicare, Medicaid, or other government programs. In the late 1990s, industry representatives voiced concerns that DOJ had over zealously pursued hospitals, conducted unwarranted investigations, and demanded large penalties for unintentional errors. In response, DOJ issued guidance that emphasized the importance of using the act in a fair and even-handed manner and introduced new procedures for national initiatives. DOJ requires all U.S. Attorneys' Offices that pursue civil health care fraud to annually certify their compliance with the guidance. DOJ appears to be conducting its three national initiatives consistent with the guidance. U.S. Attorneys' Offices that GAO visited had coordinated their activities with the national initiative working groups and, as the guidance requires, took each hospital's unique circumstances into consideration in resolving these matters. Representatives from the American Hospital Association and the state hospital associations GAO spoke to were generally satisfied that U.S. Attorneys' Offices …