A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Problems with management oversight and control of DOD's purchase card program led to concerns that similar issues exist for DOD's vendor payments. As a result, this report focuses on the Navy's telecommunication program and whether (1) the Navy has the basic cost and inventory information needed to oversee and manage these purchases and (2) selected Navy sites have adequate control to provide reasonable assurance that goods and services are purchased cost effectively and payments are made only for valid charges."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 2002, the Coast Guard began its $17 billion, 20-year Integrated Deepwater System acquisition program to replace or modernize its cutters, aircraft, and communications equipment for missions generally beyond 50 miles from shore. During fiscal years 2002-03, Deepwater received about $125 million less than the Coast Guard had planned. In fiscal year 2004, Congress appropriated $668 million, $168 million more than the President's request. GAO has raised concern recently about the Coast Guard's initial management of Deepwater and the potential for escalating costs. GAO was asked to review the status of the program against the initial acquisition schedule and determine the impact of the additional $168 million in fiscal year 2004 funding on this schedule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In their efforts to reduce hazardous fuels and the risk of wildfire on the nation's public lands, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) expect that stewardship contracting will play a major role. Stewardship contracting involves the use of contracting authorities--such as the exchange of goods for services--first authorized in 1998 and intended to help the agencies achieve land management goals that meet community needs. GAO was asked, among other things, to determine (1) the contracting and financial controls the agencies use to ensure accountability in managing stewardship contracting projects and (2) the steps the agencies have taken to involve communities in the projects."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For the past 50 years, the federal government has had a metropolitan area program designed to provide a nationally consistent set of standards for collecting, tabulating, and publishing federal statistics for geographic areas in the United States and Puerto Rico. Before each decennial census, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviews the standards to ensure their continued usefulness and relevance and, if warranted, revises them. While designed only for statistical purposes, various federal programs use the statistical areas to determine eligibility and to allocate federal funds. OMB advises agencies to carefully review program goals to ensure that appropriate geographic entities are used in making these decisions. GAO was asked to examine the process used for developing the OMB standards issued in 2000 and their effects on certain federal programs. Specifically, GAO agreed to report on (1) the process used to develop the 2000 standards, (2) how the 2000 standards differed from the 1990 standards, (3) how the application of the standards affected the geographic distribution of counties into statistical areas, and (4) the effect of standards on the eligibility and funding allocations for four federal …

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Texas Military Facilities Commission may make a lump sum payment for accumulated sick leave to an individual whose state employment has been terminated (RQ-0149-GA).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether, under section 22.0512 of the Education Code, a school district may bring a disciplinary proceeding against a professional employee of the district for violating the district’s corporal punishment policy, although the employee’s use of force was justified under section 9.62 of the Penal Code (RQ-0150-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether, in accordance with an order from the board of county court at law judges, a county clerk may redact Social Security numbers from documents available on the county clerk’s website, although the numbers are not redacted from the hard copies of the same documents filed in the clerk’s office (RQ-0154-GA)

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This report was prepared by the Pacific Northwest National Lab., Richland, Washington, BAE Systems, Inc., a subcontractor to the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Vicksburg, Mississippi. This study examined the effect of gatewell modifications on the proportion of fish lost through the gap between the top of submerged traveling screens (STSs) and the ceilings of intakes in one un-modified and two modified turbine units at Bonneville Dam Second Powerhouse (B2). Combined modifications reduced the proportion of flow through the gap from 44% to 16% and increased the proportion moving up the gatewell from 56% to 84%. We used a Dual-Frequency Identification Sonar (DIDSON) acoustic camera to record proportions of juvenile salmonids moving up into the gatewell and through the gap. The acoustic camera was used to record images of fish passing up into the gatewell and through the gap for 8-h on three successive nights in every intake of units 13, 15, and 17 (i.e., 9 intakes x 3 nights = 27 nights each season). Only 28.6% of the objects detected in spring and 12.9% in summer were determined to be fish. Other objects included sticks and debris. Although the true magnitude of STS gap-loss is unknown, …

Texas Daily Newspaper Associations' 2004 Elections for 2005 Board of Directors document. The document states that the nomination committee must elect 3/4 new people depending on who is elected treasurer to fill their unexpired term if they're nominated to change positions.

Pseudomonas putida strain AJ and Ochrobactrum strain TD were isolated from hazardous waste sites based on their ability to use vinyl chloride (VC) as a sole source of carbon and energy under aerobic conditions. Strains AJ and TD also use ethene and ethylene oxide as growth substrates. Strain AJ contained a linear megaplasmid (approximately 260 kb) when grown on VC or ethene, but no circular plasmids. While growing on ethylene oxide, the size of the linear plasmid in strain AJ decreased to approximately 100 kb, although its ability to use VC as a substrate was retained. The linear plasmids in strain AJ were cured and its ability to consume VC, ethene, and ethylene oxide was lost following growth on a rich substrate (Luria-Bertani broth) through at least three transfers. Strain TD contained three linear plasmids, ranging in size from approximately 100 kb to 320 kb, when growing on VC or ethene. As with strain AJ, the linear plasmids in strain TD were cured following growth on Luria -Bertani broth and its ability to consume VC and ethene was lost. Further analysis of these linear plasmids may help reveal the pathway for VC biodegradation in strains AJ and TD and explain …

The focus of our work is direct detection of DNAPLs, specifically chlorinated solvents, via material property estimation from surface ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data. We combine sophisticated GPR processing methodology with quantitative attribute analysis and material property estimation to determine the location and extent of residual and/or pooled DNAPL in both the vadose and saturated zones. An important byproduct of our research is state-of-the-art imaging which allows us to pinpoint attribute anomalies, characterize stratigraphy, identify fracture zones, and locate buried objects. Implementation and verification of these methodologies will be a significant advance in GPR research and in meeting DOE's need for reliable in-situ characterization of DNAPL contamination. Chlorinated solvents have much lower electric permittivity and conductivity than water. An electrical property contrast is induced when solvents displace water in the sediment column resulting in an anomalous GPR signature. To directly identify zones of DNAPL contamination, we focus on three aspects of reflected wave behavior--propagation velocity, frequency dependent attenuation, and amplitude variation with offset (AVO). Velocity analysis provides a direct estimate of electric permittivity, attenuation analysis provides a measure of conductivity, and AVO behavior is used to estimate the permittivity ratio at a reflecting boundary. Areas of anomalously low electric permittivity and …

One of the biggest challenges in cell biology is the imaging of living cells. For this purpose, the most commonly used visualization tool is fluorescent markers. However, conventional labels, such as organic fluorescent dyes or green fluorescent proteins (GFP), lack the photostability to allow the tracking of cellular events that happen over minutes to days. In addition, they are either toxic to cells (dyes), or difficult to construct and manipulate (GFP). We report here the use of a new class of fluorescent labels, silanized CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal-peptide conjugates, for imaging the nuclei of living cells. CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals, or so called quantum dots (qdots), are extremely photostable, and have been used extensively in cellular imaging of fixed cells. However, most of the studies about living cells so far have been concerned only with particle entry into the cytoplasm or the localization of receptors on the cell membrane. Specific targeting of qdots to the nucleus of living cells ha s not been reported in previous studies, due to the lack of a targeting mechanism and proper particle size. Here we demonstrate for the first time the construction of a CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal-peptide conjugate that carries the SV40 large T antigen nuclear localization signal (NLS), …

In modeling complex environmental problems, we often fail to make precise statements about inputs and outcome. In this case the fuzzy logic method native to the human mind provides a useful way to get at these problems. Fuzzy logic represents a significant change in both the approach to and outcome of environmental evaluations. Risk assessment is currently based on the implicit premise that probability theory provides the necessary and sufficient tools for dealing with uncertainty and variability. The key advantage of fuzzy methods is the way they reflect the human mind in its remarkable ability to store and process information which is consistently imprecise, uncertain, and resistant to classification. Our case study illustrates the ability of fuzzy logic to integrate statistical measurements with imprecise health goals. But we submit that fuzzy logic and probability theory are complementary and not competitive. In the world of soft computing, fuzzy logic has been widely used and has often been the ''smart'' behind smart machines. But it will require more effort and case studies to establish its niche in risk assessment or other types of impact assessment. Although we often hear complaints about ''bright lines,'' could we adapt to a system that relaxes these …

Urban population density can influence transportation demand, as expressed through average daily vehicle-kilometers traveled per capita (VKT). In turn, changes in transportation demand influence total passenger vehicle emissions. Population density can also influence the fraction of total emissions that are inhaled by the exposed urban population. Equations are presented that describe these relationships for an idealized representation of an urban area. Using analytic solutions to these equations, we investigate the effect of three changes in urban population and urban land area (infill, sprawl, and constant-density growth) on per capita inhalation intake of primary pollutants from passenger vehicles. The magnitude of these effects depends on density-emissions elasticity ({var_epsilon}{sub e}), a normalized derivative relating change in population density to change in vehicle emissions. For example, if urban population increases, per capita intake is less with infill development than with constant-density growth if {var_epsilon}{sub e} is less than -0.5, while for {var_epsilon}{sub e} greater than -0.5 the reverse is true.

This paper informally speculates on the challenges of determining the atomic-scale surface and interface structure of nanomaterials. The relative capabilities of different techniques are compared. This includes discussion of theoretical methods needed to interpret experimental techniques.

The objective of this research is to widen the application of foam to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by investigating fundamental mechanisms of foams in porous media. This research will lay the groundwork for more applied research on foams for improved sweep efficiency in miscible gas, steam and surfactant-based EOR. Task 1 investigates the pore-scale interactions between foam bubbles and polymer molecules. Task 2 examines the mechanisms of gas trapping, and interaction between gas trapping and foam effectiveness. Task 3 investigates mechanisms of foam generation in porous media. Significant progress was made during this period on all three Tasks. Regarding Task 1, we continued comparisons of foam behavior in sandpacks with and without polymer and oil. As in our previous results, decane was moderately destabilizing to foam. Xanthan polymer did not stabilize foam in the presence of decane in this case. Rather, it appears to have destabilized foam, so that pressure gradient decreased in spite of the increase in aqueous-phase viscosity. Research on Task 2 included the first shake-down experiments with our new apparatus for gas-phase tracer tests for direct measurement of trapped-gas saturation with foam. In addition, we began to analyze CT images of gas-phase tracer in foam displacements, which …

Although materials that exhibit nearest-neighbor-only antiferromagnetic interactions and geometrical frustration theoretically should not magnetically order in the absence of disorder, few such systems have been observed experimentally. One such system appears to be the pyrochlore Tb{sub 2}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7}. However, previous structural studies indicated that Tb{sub 2}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7} is an imperfect pyrochlore. To clarify the situation, we performed neutron powder diffraction (NPD) and x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurements on samples that were prepared identically to those that show no magnetic order. The NPD measurements show that the long-range structure of Tb{sub 2}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7} is well ordered with no structural transitions between 4.5 and 600 K. In particular, mean-squared displacements (u{sup 2}'s) for each site follow a Debye model with no offsets. No evidence for Tb/Ti site interchange was observed within an upper limit of 2%. Likewise, no excess or deficiency in the oxygen stoichiometry was observed, within an upper limit of 2% of the nominal pyrochlore value. Tb L{sub III} and Ti K-edge XAFS measurements from 20-300 K similarly indicate a well-ordered local structure. Other aspects of the structure are considered. We conclude that Tb{sub 2}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7} has, within experimental error, an ideal, disorder-free pyrochlore lattice, …

In this report, the major results and conclusions of the research over the last two years and five months is considered. The report discusses the mechanistic aspects of oxygen quenching of solid-matrix phosphorescence (SMP), mechanistic aspects of moisture quenching of SMP, interactions and methodology to investigate phosphors in glucose glasses, new methods for coating filter paper for solid-phase microextraction with solid-matrix fluorescence (SMF) and SMP detection, mechanistic consideration of the heavy-atom quenching of the SMF and the enhancement of SMP of benzo[a]pyrene-DNA adducts, and new developments in liquid-liquid-liquid microextraction.

The mechanisms responsible for noble gas concentrations, abundance patterns, and strong retentivity in sedimentary lithologies remain poorly explained. Diffusion-controlled fractionation of noble gases is modeled and examined as an explanation for the absolute and relative abundances of noble gases observed in sediments. Since the physical properties of the noble gases are strong functions of atomic mass, the individual diffusion coefficients, adsorption coefficients and atomic radii combine to impede heavy noble gas (Xe) diffusion relative to light noble gas (Ne) diffusion. Filling of lithic grains/half-spaces by diffusive processes thus produces Ne enrichments in the early and middle stages of the filling process with F(Ne) values similar to that observed in volcanic glasses. Emptying lithic grains/half-spaces produces a Xe-enriched residual in the late (but not final) stages of the process producing F(Xe) values similar to that observed in shales. 'Exotic but unexceptional' shales that exhibit both F(Ne) and F(Xe) enrichments can be produced by incomplete emptying followed by incomplete filling. This mechanism is consistent with literature reported noble gas abundance patterns but may still require a separate mechanism for strong retention. A system of labyrinths-with-constrictions and/or C-, Si-nanotubes when combined with simple adsorption can result in stronger diffusive separation and non-steady-state enrichments …

The rotary microfilter is an alternative filter technology that offers increased filter flux over conventional filtration technologies. The filter system combines centrifugation with membrane filtration. Solids are removed from the liquid at the membrane surface, and the centrifugal force acts to keep the surface clean, minimizing the formation of a filter cake. The centrifugal force minimizes solids buildup, allowing more flow through the filter membrane. The effect is the same as increasing the axial velocity of a crossflow filter without increasing system pressure requirements. Centrifugal filter systems are commercially available and have been used in radioactive service both at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) (for Low-Level Waste) and in Russia (for High-Level Waste). The technology has been tested with actual SRS High-Level Waste at the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) Shielded Cells. SRTC researchers tested the rotary microfilter as an alternative to the crossflow filters in the current baseline of the Salt Waste Processing Project and the Actinide Removal Project (ARP). The data show significant improvement in filter flux with the rotary microfilter over the crossflow filter. As part of the development of the rotary microfilter, the author investigated the impact of the technology on the Savannah River Site High …

The objectives of the overall collaborative EMSP effort (with which this project is associated) are to characterize sorption and desorption processes of U(VI) on pristine and contaminated Hanford sediments over a range of sediment facies and materials properties and to relate such characterization both to fundamental molecular-scale understanding and fieldscale models of geochemistry and mass transfer. The research is intended to provide new insights on the mechanisms of U(VI) retardation at Hanford, and to allow the development of approaches by which laboratory-developed geochemical models can be upscaled for defensible field-scale predictions of uranium transport in the environment.

Fouling problems are perhaps the single most important reason for relatively slow acceptance of ultrafiltration in many areas of chemical and biological processing. To overcome the losses in permeate flux associated with concentration polarization and fouling in cross flow membrane filtration, we investigated the concept of flow reversal as a method to enhance membrane flux in ultrafiltration. Conceptually, flow reversal prevents the formation of stable hydrodynamic and concentration boundary layers at or near the membrane surface. Further more, periodic reversal of the flow direction of the feed stream at the membrane surface results in prevention and mitigation of membrane fouling. Consequently, these advantages are expected to enhance membrane flux significantly. A crossflow membrane filtration unit was designed and built to test the concept of periodic flow reversal for flux enhancement. The essential elements of the system include a crossflow hollow fiber membrane module integrated with a two-way valve to direct the feed flow directions. The two-way valve is controlled by a controller-timer for periodic reversal of flow of feed stream. Another important feature of the system is that with changing feed flow direction, the permeate flow direction is also changed to maintain countercurrent feed and permeate flows for enhanced mass …

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