Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the number of Haitian nationals who have applied and been approved to adjust their status to legal permanent residence under the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 1998."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO modelled the impact of constraining, through various limits, home health agency (HHA) costs that are not directly related to patient care, focusing on the: (1) variation in total and non-patient-care costs across agencies; and (2) effect on Medicare payments if constraints were imposed on payments for non-patient-care costs."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program's current guaranteed loan systems requirements, including statutory and regulatory changes, technological changes, and documentation changes. This document is intended for guaranteed loan program financial analysts, system accountants, and others who design, develop, implement, operate, and maintain financial management systems."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program's (JFMIP) current grant financial systems requirements, including statutory and regulatory changes, technological changes, and JFMIP documentation changes. This document is intended to assist systems analysts, systems accountants, and others who design, develop, implement, operate, and maintain financial management systems."

Terminological requirements in information management was but one of the principal themes of the 2nd Congress on Terminology and Knowledge Engineering. The traveler represented the American Society for Testing and Materials' Committee on Terminology, of which he is the Chair. The traveler's invited workshop emphasized terminology standardization requirements in databases of material properties as well as practical terminology standardizing methods. The congress included six workshops in addition to approximately 82 lectures and papers from terminologists, artificial intelligence practitioners, and subject specialists from 18 countries. There were approximately 292 registrants from 33 countries who participated in the congress. The congress topics were broad. Examples were the increasing use of International Standards Organization (ISO) Standards in legislated systems such as the USSR Automated Data Bank of Standardized Terminology, the enhanced Physics Training Program based on terminology standardization in Physics in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, and the technical concept dictionary being developed at the Japan Electronic Dictionary Research Institute, which is considered to be the key to advanced artificial intelligence applications. The more usual roles of terminology work in the areas of machine translation. indexing protocols, knowledge theory, and data transfer in several subject specialties were also addressed, along with numerous …

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Tantalum experiences severe intergranular attack (IGA) when in contact with molten plutonium. This IGA of tantalum has produced part failures in crucibles used during Trident and molten salt extraction (MSE) runs and in two stirring rods used in MSE runs. These parts were used at temperatures ranging from 750{degrees}C to 900{degrees}C for a minimum time of 12 hours to a maximum time of 20 hours. 5 refs., 22 figs.

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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Denton County Bail Bond Board is authorized to set a limit on the value amount of bonds which a corporate surety may provide, and related questions under article 2372p-3 V.T.C.S. (RQ-191)

Letter opinion 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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether one individual may serve on both the Horizon City Town Council and the El Paso County Water Authority at the same time (ID# 16376)

Letter opinion 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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether an independent school district may award scholarships out of its general fund to its top graduates based solely on academic ranking (RQ-601)

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This report discusses the following topics: US Nuclear Data Network Meeting; TUNL A=3--20 Data Project Activity Report 1993; INEL Mass-chain Evaluation Project Activity Report for 1993; 1993 Isotopes; Nuclear Data Project Activity Report; The NNDC Activity Report Parts A and B; Minutes of the Formats and Procedures Subcommittee; Evaluation of High-spin Nuclear Data for ENSDF and Table of Superdeformed Nuclear Bands; Proposal for Support of a Experimental High-spin; Data File/Data-Network Coordinator; Radioactive Decay and Applications; A Plan for a Horizontal Evaluation of Decay Data; ENSDF On-line System; The MacNuclide Project Expanding the Scope of the Nuclear Structure Reference File; ENSDAT: Evaluated Nuclear Structure Drawings and Tables; Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) and CSEWG Strategy Session; A Draft Proposal for a USNDN Program Advisory Council; Recommendations of Focus Group 1; Recommendations of Focus Group 2; Recommendations of Focus Group 3; Recommendations of Focus Group 4; The Table of Isotopes; The Isotopes CD-ROM; Electronic Table of Isotopes (ETOI); and Electronic Access to Nuclear Data.

This study identifies possible flammable gas monitoring and ventilation system alternatives to ensure adequate removal of flammable gases from the Double-Contained Receiver Tank (DCRT) primary tanks during temporary storage of small amounts of waste. The study evaluates and compares these alternatives to support closure of the Flammable Gas Unreviewed Safety Question (USQ TF-96-04330).

We have begun building the ''Mercury'' laser system as the first in a series of new generation diode-pumped solid-state lasers for inertial fusion research. Mercury will integrate three key technologies: diodes, crystals, and gas cooling, within a unique laser architecture that is scalable to kilojoule energy levels for fusion energy applications. The primary performance goals include 10% electrical efficiencies at 10 Hz and 100 J with a 2-10 ns pulse length at 1.047 pm wavelength. When completed, Mercury will allow rep-rated target experiments with multiple target chambers for high energy density physics research.

This paper describes a work in progress on using multiple sets of input features for robust real-time object tracking in image sequences. Traditional approaches to tracking relied mostly on segmentation of the intensity data using motion or appearance data. Recent availability of real-time range data allows us to use it as an additional unrivaled source of information. We propose a combination of intensity- and range-based input features. Range data enables localized search for' specific features which improves tracking reliability and speed. Proposed approach was successfully tested for the face and gesture tracking application.

An experimental modal analysis was performed on PATHFINDER, a 450-lb, 100-ft wing span, flying-wing-design aircraft powered by solar/electric motors. The aircraft was softly suspended and then excited using random input from a long-stroke shaker. Modal data was taken from 92 measurement locations on the aircraft using newly designed, lightweight, tri-axial accelerometers. A conventional PC-based data acquisition system provided data handling. Modal parameters were calculated, and animated mode shapes were produced using SMS STARStruct{trademark} Modal Analysis System software. The modal parameters will be used for validation of finite element models, optimum placement of onboard accelerometers during flight testing, and vibration isolation design of sensor platforms.

The growth of Cu Layers deposited on Ru(0001) substrates at temperatures between 500 K and 850 K was studied using surface x-ray diffraction. Results are consistent with a Stransky-Krastanov growth mode with a two layer critical thickness.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Contract Reform Initiative in 1994 in order to improve the effectiveness and effkiency of managing major projects and programs. The intent of this initiative is to help DOE harness both technical and market forces to reduce the overall cost of accomplishing DOE's program goals. The new approach transfers greater risk to private contractors in order to develop incentives that align contractor performance with DOE's objectives. In some cases, this goal can be achieved through public-private partnerships wherein the govermhent and the contractor share risks associated with a project in a way that optimizes its economics. Generally, this requires that project risks are allocated to the party best equipped to manage and/or underwrite them. While the merits of privatization are well documented, the question of how privatized services should be financed is often debated. Given the cost of private sector equity and debt, it is difficult to ignore the lure of the government's "risk free" cost of capital. However, the source of financing for a project is an integral part of its overall risk allocation, and therefore, participation by the government as a financing source could alter the allocation of risks in the …

Phonon drag on dislocations is the dominant process which determines the flow stress of metals at elevated temperatures and at very high plastic deformation rates. The dependence of the phonon drag on pressure or density is derived using a Mie-Grueneisen equation of state. The phonon drag is shown to increase nearly linearly with temperature but to decrease with density or pressure. Numerical results are presented for its variation for shock-loaded copper and aluminum. In these cases, density and temperature increase simultaneously, resulting in a more modest net increase in the dislocation drag coefficient. Nevertheless, phonon drag increases by more than an order of magnitude during shock deformations which approach melting. Since the dependencies of elastic moduli and of the phonon drag coefficient on pressure and temperature are fundamentally different, the effect of pressure on the constitutive law for plastic deformation can not simply be accounted for by its effect on the elastic shear modulus.

Normal form analysis and tracking results show that both normal and skew resonances are driven strongly by the nonlinear fields of the IR quadrupoles. We report here on the possibility of improving the dynamic aperture by compensating these resonances with the use of correctors placed in the IRs. The effectiveness of local correction schemes in the presence of beam-beam interactions is also studied.

Silicon Vertex tracks are of fundamental importance for reconstructing B meson decays at a hadron collider. The upgraded CDF detector will deploy an online Silicon Vertex Tracker in the level 2 trigger. We have studied how this new device exploits the Tevatron large B meson production to select hadronic B decays fundamental for measuring CP violation and B{sub s} mixing.

Grain growth experiments and simulations exhibit self-similar grain size distributions quite different from that derived via a mean field approach by Hillert [ 1]. To test whether this discrepancy is due to insufficient anneal times, two different two-dimensional grain structures with realistic topologies and Hillert grain size distributions are generated and subjected to grain growth via the Monte Carlo Potts Model (MCPM). In both cases, the observed self-similar grain size distributions deviate from the initial Hillert form and conform instead to that observed in MCPM grain growth simulations that start from a random microstructure. This suggests that the Hillert grain size distribution is not an attractor.

Uranium alloys are candidates for the fuel phase in aluminum matrix dispersion fuels requiring high uranium loading. Certain uranium alloys have been shown to have good irradiation performance at intermediate burnup. Previous studies have shown that acceptable fission gas swelling behavior and fuel-aluminum interaction is possible only if the fuel alloy can be maintained in the high temperature body-centered-cubic {gamma}-phase during fabrication and irradiation, i.e., at temperatures at which {alpha}-U is the equilibrium phase. Transition metals in Groups V through VIII are known to allow metastable retention of the gamma phase below the equilibrium isotherm. These metals have varying degrees of effectiveness in stabilizing the gamma phase. Certain alloys are metastable for very long times at the relatively low fuel temperatures seen in research reactor operation. In this paper, the existing data on the gamma stability of binary and ternary uranium alloys is analyzed. The mechanism and kinetics of decomposition of the gamma phase are assessed with the help of metal alloy theory. Alloys with the highest possible uranium content, good gamma-phase stability, and good neutronic performance are identified for further metallurgical studies and irradiation tests. Results from theory will be compared with experimentally generated data.