A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal adoption tax credit, established in 1996, was amended in 2010. These amendments included making the credit refundable (meaning taxpayers could receive payments in excess of their tax liability) and increasing the maximum allowable credit to $13,170 of qualified adoption expenses for tax year 2010. As of August 20, 2011, taxpayers filed just under 100,000 returns, claiming about $1.2 billion in adoption credits. Following these changes, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) developed a strategy for processing adoption credit claims. GAO was asked to (1) describe IRS's strategy for ensuring compliance with the adoption credit for the 2011 filing season, (2) assess IRS's related communication with taxpayers and stakeholders, and (3) assess its processing and audit of claims. To conduct its analysis, GAO analyzed IRS data and documents, interviewed IRS officials, observed IRS examiners, and interviewed other stakeholders."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On June 28, 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was detained by his country's military and flown to Costa Rica. Zelaya's removal from Honduras followed several months of political polarization within Honduras in response to a number of controversial actions taken by Zelaya, including efforts to hold a national poll on June 28, 2009. Zelaya's stated purpose for the poll was to ask Hondurans if there should be a referendum on whether the country should convoke a national constituent assembly to approve a new constitution. However, Honduran officials from other government institutions stated that they believed Zelaya would use the results of the poll to suspend the Honduran constitution. Immediately following the removal of Zelaya, the Honduran National Congress voted in Roberto Micheletti, President of the National Congress at the time, to replace Zelaya as President of Honduras. U.S. policy toward Honduras in the months preceding Zelaya's removal was to support the rule of law and the Honduran constitution, and to encourage Honduras' political actors to resolve their differences consensually and within Honduran law. In response to Zelaya's removal, U.S. officials characterized the events of June 28, 2009, as …

A publication issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The United States Postal Service (USPS) is in a serious financial crisis and has not generated sufficient revenue to cover its expenses and financial obligations as mail volume continues to decline. Congress requested that we examine how much additional revenue could result from the increased use of voting by mail--that is, more registered voters receiving and casting ballots through the mail. Currently, all states use voting by mail to some degree, most commonly in the form of absentee ballots mailed to registered voters who cannot, or choose not to, vote in person on Election Day. However, Oregon and Washington now administer elections solely through mail voting. According to a 2009 U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) study, about 23.7 million ballots, or 17.7 percent of all votes, were cast by mail in the 2008 presidential election. This report documents information on the revenue potential of increased use of voting by mail that we presented to your office on August 17, 2011."

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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

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We have successfully developed and commercialized a soot particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SP-AMS) instrument to measure mass, size, and chemical information of soot particles in ambient environments. The SP-AMS instrument has been calibrated and extensively tested in the laboratory and during initial field studies. The first instrument paper describing the SP-AMS has been submitted for publication in a peer reviewed journal and there are several related papers covering initial field studies and laboratory studies that are in preparation. We have currently sold 5 SP-AMS instruments (either as complete systems or as SP modules to existing AMS instrument operators).

Motion along joints and fractures in the rock has been proposed as one of the sources of near-source shear wave generation, and demonstrating the validity of this hypothesis is a focal scientific objective of the source physics experimental campaign in the Climax Stock granitic outcrop. A modeling effort has been undertaken by LLNL to complement the experimental campaign, and over the long term provide a validated computation capability for the nuclear explosion monitoring community. The approach involves performing the near-field nonlinear modeling with hydrodynamic codes (e.g., GEODYN, GEODYN-L), and the far-field seismic propagation with an elastic wave propagation code (e.g., WPP). the codes will be coupled together to provide a comprehensive source-to-sensor modeling capability. The technical approach involves pre-test predictions of each of the SPE experiments using their state of the art modeling capabilities, followed by code improvements to alleviate deficiencies identified in the pre-test predictions. This spiral development cycle wherein simulations are used to guide experimental design and the data from the experiment used to improve the models is the most effective approach to enable a transition from the descriptive phenomenological models in current use to the predictive, hybrid physics models needed for a science-based modeling capability for nuclear …

The International Linear Collider (ILC) will require two dipole cavities to 'crab' the electron and positron bunches prior to their collision. It is proposed to use two 9 cell SCRF dipole cavities operating at a frequency of 3.9 GHz, with a transverse gradient of 3.8MV/m in order to provide the required transverse kick. Extensive numerical modelling of this cavity and its couplers has been performed. Aluminium prototypes have been manufactured and tested to measure the RF properties of the cavity and couplers. In addition single cell niobium prototypes have been manufactured and tested in a vertical cryostat. The International Collider (ILC) [1] collides bunches of electrons and positrons at a crossing angle of 14 mrad. The angle between these bunches causes a loss in luminosity due to geometric effects [2]. The luminosity lost from this geometric effect can be recovered by rotating the bunches into alignment prior to collision. One possible method of rotating the bunches is to use a crab cavity [3]. A crab cavity is a transverse defecting cavity, where the phase of the cavity is such that the head and tail of the bunch receive equal and opposite kicks. As the bunches are only 500 nm wide …

Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) is extremely resistant to gamma irradiation, caustic solution, and dilute nitric acid. PPS is the material of construction for the coalescers used in the Modular Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction Unit (MCU). After applying the equivalent of 16 years of gamma irradiation and several months of exposures to caustic solution, no dimensional changes nor chemical changes were detected in PPS whether the PPS was in fiber form or in a composite with E-glass fibers. However, PPS acts as a media for heterogeneous nucleation. In particular, PPS appears to favor aluminosilicate formation in saturated solutions of aluminum and silicon in caustic environments. Parallel testing, in progress, is examining the stability of PPS when exposed to the new solvent formulation under development for MCU. Preliminary data, after two months of exposure, PPS is remarkably stable to the new solvent.

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.

A key component for the accelerated implementation and operation of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is the recovery of Tank 48H. Tank 48H is a type IIIA tank with a maximum capacity of 1.3 million gallons. Video inspection of the tank showed that a film of solid material adhered to the tank internal walls and structures between 69 inch and 150 inch levels. From the video inspection, the solid film thickness was estimated to be 1mm, which corresponds to {approx}33 kg of TPB salts (as 20 wt% insoluble solids) (1). This film material is expected to be easily removed by single-rinse, slurry pump operation during Tank 48H TPB disposition via aggregation processing. A similar success was achieved for Tank 49H TPB dispositioning, with slurry pumps operating almost continuously for approximately 6 months, after which time the tank was inspected and the film was found to be removed. The major components of the Tank 49H film were soluble solids - Na{sub 3}H(CO{sub 3}){sub 2} (Hydrated Sodium Carbonate, aka: Trona), Al(OH){sub 3} (Aluminum Hydroxide, aka: Gibbsite), NaTPB (Sodium Tetraphenylborate), NaNO{sub 3} (Sodium Nitrate) and NaNO{sub 2} (Sodium Nitrite) (2). Although the Tank 48H film is expected to be primarily soluble solids, …

In this Phase I project we have extended the BOUT++ code to solve edge fluid equations. We added a simple neutral fluid model, created a mesh generator as well as collected a set of difficult test problems for benchmarking edge codes. The work in this project should be useful as a starting point to build a complete set of edge fluid equations in BOUT++ that would enhance its ability to not only perform edge turbulence calculations, but also allow the coupled transport-turbulence equations evolved in an efficient manner.

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

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

Minutes for the October 20th meeting of the Dallas Way including members in attendance and various topics discussed.

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

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.