A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program aims to increase the participation of small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals--known as DBEs--in highway contracting. In 2009, U.S. DOT awarded, through state and local governments, about $4 billion to DBEs nationwide. State DOTs are required to establish DBE programs and implement them on federal-aid highway projects. This report responds to a congressional request to examine U.S. DOT's Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) oversight of state DOT DBE programs. It examines how FHWA (1) oversees state DOTs to ensure they implement their DBE programs according to applicable regulations, (2) assesses whether state DOTs have met their DBE goals, and (3) oversees organizations that certify businesses as DBEs. GAO analyzed FHWA data; reviewed relevant laws and regulations; and interviewed FHWA, and state DOT officials from five states, selected to obtain variation in, among other things, the methods state DOTs use to meet DBE goals.."

A publication issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is responsible for administering the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), including the United States Postal Service (USPS) CSRS benefits. Two independent agencies--USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC)--have issued reports stating that OPM's current method of allocating responsibility for CSRS benefits allocates a disproportionately large share to USPS. The USPS OIG and the PRC proposed alternate methodologies that they estimate would shift responsibility for from $56 billion to $85 billion in CSRS benefits from USPS to the federal government. GAO's objectives were to comment on (1) whether OPM's current methodology for allocating responsibility for CSRS benefits between USPS and the federal government is consistent with the law, (2) the analysis used by the USPS OIG and PRC to conclude that OPM should refund the CSRS contributions in question, (3) the potential impacts such a refund would have on the CSRS fund and CSRS stakeholders, and (4) the potential impacts that such a refund would have on USPS's financial outlook. GAO reviewed legislation regarding the allocation of responsibility for CSRS benefits and methodologies used in all three reports. …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Following a 2007 disputed election and widespread violence, Kenya reformed its constitution, which its voters approved in August 2010. The United States has provided over $18 million to support this process to date. GAO was asked to (1) describe any involvement that U.S. officials have had in Kenya's constitutional reform process relating to abortion; (2) describe any support that U.S.-funded award recipients and subrecipients have provided in Kenya's constitutional reform process relating to abortion; and (3) assess the extent to which agencies have developed and implemented guidance on compliance with the Siljander Amendment, which prohibits using certain assistance funds to lobby either for or against abortion. GAO analyzed documents and interviewed officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of State (State), award recipients and subrecipients, and the Kenyan government, and conducted an extensive media search."

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Weekly newspaper from Port Aransas, Texas on Mustang Island that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

This report discusses issues regarding the Presidential Nomination Process including information about the 2008 election, calendar changes from 1988 to 2008, changes to national party rules for 2012, an evaluation of the primary system, reform proposals, and legislative considerations.

This report presents a distributed electrochemistry (DEC) model capable of investigating the electrochemistry and local conditions with the SOFC MEA based on the local microstructure and multi-physics. The DEC model can calculate the global current-voltage (I-V) performance of the cell as determined by the spatially varying local conditions through the thickness of the electrodes and electrolyte. The simulation tool is able to investigate the electrochemical performance based on characteristics of the electrode microstructure, such as particle size, pore size, electrolyte and electrode phase volume fractions, and triple-phase-boundary length. It can also investigate performance as affected by fuel and oxidant gas flow distributions and other environmental/experimental conditions such as temperature and fuel gas composition. The long-term objective for the DEC modeling tool is to investigate factors that cause electrode degradation and the decay of SOFC performance which decrease longevity.

The project was completed along the lines of the original proposal, with additional elements arising as new results were obtained. The originally proposed three thrusts were expanded to include an additional, fourth one. (i) The e#11;ffects of stochastic perturbations on climate models have been examined at the fundamental level by using the theory of deterministic and random dynamical systems, in both #12;nite and in#12;nite dimensions. (ii) The theoretical results have been implemented #12;first on a delay-diff#11;erential equation (DDE) model of the El-Nino/Southern-Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. (iii) More detailed, physical aspects of model robustness have been considered, as proposed, within the stripped-down ICTP-AGCM (formerly SPEEDY) climate model. This aspect of the research has been complemented by both observational and intermediate-model aspects of mid-latitude and tropical climate. (iv) An additional thrust of the research relied on new and unexpected results of (i) and involved reduced-modeling strategies and associated prediction aspects have been tested within the team's empirical model reduction (EMR) framework. Finally, more detailed, physical aspects have been considered within the stripped-down SPEEDY climate model. The results of each of these four complementary e#11;fforts are presented in the next four sections, organized by topic and by the team members concentrating on the topic …

An increasing number of energy efficient appliances operate on direct current (DC) internally, offering the potential to use DC from renewable energy systems directly and avoiding the losses inherent in converting power to alternating current (AC) and back. This paper investigates that potential for net-metered residences with on-site photovoltaics (PV) by modeling the net power draw of the ‘direct-DC house’ with respect to today’s typical configuration, assuming identical DC-internal loads. Power draws were modeled for houses in 14 U.S. cities, using hourly, simulated PV-system output and residential loads. The latter were adjusted to reflect a 33% load reduction, representative of the most efficient DC-internal technology, based on an analysis of 32 electricity end-uses. The model tested the effect of climate, electric vehicle (EV) loads, electricity storage, and load shifting on electricity savings; a sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine how future changes in the efficiencies of power system components might affect savings potential. Based on this work, we estimate that net-metered PV residences could save 5% of their total electricity load for houses without storage and 14% for houses with storage. Based on residential PV penetration projections for year 2035 obtained from the National Energy Modeling System (2.7% for the …

Under this program, Aspen Aerogels has developed an industrial insulation called Pyrogel HT, which is 4-5 times more thermally efficient than current non-aerogel technology. Derived from nanoporous silica aerogels, Pyrogel HT was specifically developed to address a high temperature capability gap not currently met with Aspen Aerogels{trademark} flagship product, Pyrogel XT. Pyrogel XT, which was originally developed on a separate DOE contract (DE-FG36-06GO16056), was primarily optimized for use in industrial steam processing systems, where application temperatures typically do not exceed 400 C. At the time, further improvements in thermal performance above 400 C could not be reasonably achieved for Pyrogel XT without significantly affecting other key material properties using the current technology. Cumulative sales of Pyrogel HT into domestic power plants should reach $125MM through 2030, eventually reaching about 10% of the total insulation market share in that space. Global energy savings would be expected to scale similarly. Over the same period, these sales would reduce domestic energy consumption by more than 65 TBtu. Upon branching out into all industrial processes in the 400 C-650 C regime, Pyrogel HT would reach annual sales levels of $150MM, with two-thirds of that being exported.

A testing program for the superconducting electron gun cavity that has been designed for the Energy Recovery LINAC is being planned. The goal of the testing program is to characterize the RF properties of the gun cavity at superconducting temperatures and, in particular, to study multipacting that is suspected to be occurring in the choke joint of the cavity where the vertical test cathode is inserted. The testing program will seek to understand the nature and cause of this multipacting and attempt to eliminate it, if possible, by supplying sufficient voltage to the cavity. These efforts are motivated by the multipacting issues that have been observed in the processing of the fine-grain niobium gun cavity. This cavity, which is being processed at Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory for Brookhaven, has encountered multipacting at a gradient of approximately 3 MV/m and, to date, has resisted efforts at elimination. Because of this problem, a testing program is being established here in C-AD that will use the large-grain niobium gun cavity that currently resides at Brookhaven and has been used for room-temperature measurements. The large-grain and fine-cavities are identical in every aspect of construction and only differ in niobium grain size. Thus, it is …

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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

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

Email from Robert Emery to Buddy Mullino discussing the new meeting schedule for the Dallas Way.

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

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

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

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

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