A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In January 2007 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported the results of its study that assigned the fiscal year 2005 costs of its Air Traffic Organization (ATO) to users. FAA used this study to support the President's proposal to replace many current excise taxes with cost-based fees for commercial aviation users and higher fuel taxes for general aviation users. GAO assessed (1) the consistency of FAA's cost assignment methodology with established standards and guidance, (2) the support for selected cost assignment assumptions and methods, and (3) the impact of including budgeted capital costs in the cost baseline. GAO compared FAA's methodology to federal accounting standards and international guidance, reviewed available documents and analyses supporting FAA's assumptions and methods, and interviewed FAA officials and consultants."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1988, the Department of State (State) has ordered over 270 evacuations from overseas posts due to civil strife, terrorist incidents, natural disasters, conventional war threats, and disease outbreaks. To prepare for evacuation, overseas posts rely on a variety of guidance, plans, and training, such as Emergency Action Plans (EAP). GAO was asked to assess State's (1) guidance and plans to prepare for evacuation, (2) training and exercises to prepare post staff for crisis, and (3) efforts to collect, analyze, and incorporate evacuation lessons learned into guidance and training. GAO examined State and Department of Defense (DOD) documents, spoke with State and DOD officials, conducted a survey of 243 overseas posts, and completed 22 structured interviews with State personnel."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Prices for four energy commodities--crude oil, heating oil, unleaded gasoline, and natural gas--have risen substantially since 2002. Some observers believe that higher energy prices are the result of changes in supply and demand. Others believe that increased futures trading activity has also contributed to higher prices. This report, conducted under the Comptroller General of the United States' authority, examines (1) trends and patterns in the physical and energy derivatives markets, (2) the scope of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) regulatory authority over these markets, and (3) the effectiveness of CFTC's monitoring and detection of market abuses and enforcement. For this work, GAO analyzed futures and large trader data and interviewed market participants, experts, and officials at six federal agencies."

Soft X-ray imager mirrors have been designed, calibrated and fabricated at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and characterized at the Advanced Light Source for their performance between 200 and 1300 eV. The mirrors are coated with a multilayer coating consisting of 70 bilayers of W/ SiC. The mirrors are to reflect at 22.5 deg from grazing angle at 1.50 nm wavelength and the width of the reflectivity peak should be at least 1.3%. Also, the mirrors should be non-reflective elsewhere. Our multilayer design was optimized to satisfy these requirements. The coating is very challenging since the individual layer thicknesses need to be less than 1 nm thick and reproducibility from layer to layer is crucial. To minimize the second harmonic peak we designed a multilayer with {Gamma} = 0.5 (W and SiC layer thicknesses are the same). This way we end up with a mirror that has only the 1st and 3rd harmonic peak as shown in Figure 1. To suppress reflectivity outside the first peak we used our novel approach, an antireflective coating. Modeling predicted substantial reduction in reflectivity, especially for lower energies as shown in Figure 1. The experimental results of the soft x-ray imager mirror as measured at …

In the Sustained Spheromak Physics Experiment, (SSPX) ['Improved operation of the SSPX spheromak', R.D. Wood, D.N. Hill, E.B. Hooper, S. Woodruff1, H.S. McLean and B.W. Stallard, Nucl. Fusion 45 1582-1588 (2005)], plasmas with core electron temperatures reaching up to 500 eV at densities of 10{sup 20}/m{sup 3} have been sustained for several milliseconds, making them suitable as targets for neutral beam injection. High performance and further progress in understanding Spheromak plasma physics are expected if neutral beams are injected into the plasma. This paper presents the results of numerical 1.5 D modeling of the plasma to calculate neutral beam current drive and ion and electron heating. The results are presented for varying initial conditions of density, temperatures and profiles and beam energy, injection angle and power. Current drive efficiency (Ampere/Watt of absorbed power) of up to 0.08 can be achieved with best performance SSPX shots as target. Analyses of neutral beam heating indicate that ion temperatures of up to 1.5 keV and electron temperatures of up to 750 eV can be obtained with injection of about 1 MW of neutral beam for 5-10 ms and with diffusivities typically observed in SSPX. Injection targeting near the magnetic axis appears to be …

High energy density science (HEDS), as a discipline that has developed in the United States from National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA)-sponsored laboratory research programs, is, and will remain, a major component of the NNSA science and technology strategy. Its scientific borders are not restricted to NNSA. 'Frontiers in High Energy Density Physics: The X-Games of Contemporary Science' identified numerous exciting scientific opportunities in this field, while pointing to the need for a overarching interagency plan for its evolution. Meanwhile, construction of the first x-ray free-electron laser, the Office-of-Science-funded Linear Coherent Light Source-LCLS: the world's first free electron x-ray laser, with 100-fsec time resolution, tunable x-ray energies, a high rep rate, and a 10 order-of-magnitude increase in brightness over any other x-ray source--led to the realization that the scientific needs of NNSA and the broader scientific community could be well served by an LCLS HEDS endstation employing both short-pulse and high-energy optical lasers. Development of this concept has been well received in the community. NNSA requested a workshop on the applicability of LCLS to its needs. 'High Energy Density Science at the LCLS: NNSA Defense Programs Mission Need' was held in December 2006. The workshop provided strong support for the relevance …

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Weekly magazine edition of the daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus 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.

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Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Washington Savannah River Company (WSRC) operates the Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, SC under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). SRS had the need to ship 227 drums of low enriched uranium oxide (LEUO) to a disposal site. The LEUO had been packaged nearly 25 years ago in U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) 17C 55-gallon drums and stored in a warehouse. Since the 235U enrichment was just above 1 percent by weight (wt%) the material did not qualify for the fissile material exceptions in 49 CFR 173.453, and therefore was categorized as 'fissile material' for shipping purposes. WSRC evaluated all existing Type AF packages and did not identify any feasible packaging. Applying for a new Type AF certificate of compliance was considered too costly for a one-time/one-way shipment for disposal. Down-blending the material with depleted uranium (to reduce enrichment below 1 wt% and enable shipment as low specific activity (LSA) radioactive material) was considered, but appropriate blending facilities do not exist at SRS. After reviewing all options, WSRC concluded that seeking a DOT Special Permit was the best option to enable shipment of the material for permanent disposal. WSRC submitted the Special Permit application to the DOT, …

In 2004, the Department of Energy (DOE) directed Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC) to develop a Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX) process at the Savannah River Site (SRS) capable of removing cesium from 1 million gallons a year of dissolved salt solution. This facility would provide interim processing for cesium containing salt solution until the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) comes on-line. The DOE design inputs1 were to utilize contactors similar in design to those to be used in the SWPF, assume class C waste with less than 0.5 Ci/gal Cs-137, achieve a Decontamination Factor (DF) greater than 12, include the ability to clean the contactors in place, and assume an operating life of three years. WSRC embarked on a design, test, and build program to achieve these criteria as described in the following text. All DOE design criteria have been met or exceeded by WSRC.

We present the new and updated BABAR measurements of CP-violation studies for many b{yields}s penguin decay modes. We report the first observation of mixing-induced CP-violation in B{sup 0}{yields}{eta}{prime}K{sup 0} with a significance (including systematic uncertainties) of 5.5{sigma}. We also present the first observation of the decay B{sup 0} {yields} {rho}{sup 0}K{sup 0}. Using the time-dependent Dalitz plot analysis of B{sup 0} {yields} K{sup +}K{sup -}K{sup 0} decay, the CP-parameters A{sub CP} and {beta}{sub eff} are measured with 4.8{sigma} significance, and we reject the solution near {pi}/2 -- {beta}{sub eff} at 4.5 {sigma}. We also present the update measurements of CP-violating parameters for B{sup 0} {yields} K{sup 0}{sub S}{pi}{sup 0}, K{sup 0}{sub S}K{sup 0}{sub S}K{sup 0}{sub S} and {pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0}K{sup 0}{sub S} decays. An updated measurements of the CP-violating charge asymmetries for B{sup {+-}} {yields} {eta}{prime}K{sup {+-}}, {eta}K{sup {+-}} {omega}{eta}K{sup {+-}} decays are also presented. The measurements are based on the data sample recorded at the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance with BABAR detector at the PEP-II B-meson Factory at SLAC.

The Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT) Dark Matter and New Physics Working group has been developing approaches for the indirect detection of in situ annihilation of dark matter. Our work has assumed that a significant component of dark matter is a new type of Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) in the 100GeV mass range. The annihilation of two WIMPs results in the production of a large number of high energy gamma rays (>1GeV) that can be well measured by the GLAST LAT. The cold dark matter model implies a significant number of as yet unobserved dark matter satellites in our galaxy. The spectra of these galactic satellites are considerably harder than most, if not all, astrophysical sources, have an endpoint at the mass of the WIMP, and are not power laws. We describe a preliminary feasibility study for the indirect detection of dark matter satellites in the Milky Way using the GLAST LAT.

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This document presents selected results of GAO's survey of all 243 Emergency Action Committees (EAC) at State embassies and consulates (posts) worldwide. EACs are responsible for crisis management at post and are therefore best qualified to discuss crisis management activities, including preparing for and implementing evacuations. The survey consisted of 49 questions covering a range of topics on how posts plan, prepare for, and implement evacuations, as well as how lessons learned are reported. The survey was sent to the principal officer at each post (typically the deputy chief of mission or consul general). GAO requested that the survey be completed collectively by members of a post's EAC, and completed surveys were intended to reflect the views of the EAC as a whole. We received 210 completed surveys, for an overall response rate of 86 percent. We did not include responses for all survey questions; specifically, this document does not include narrative responses that we received. The percentages in each survey response may not sum to 100 in all cases, due to rounding. A more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology is contained in our …

Funeral program for Mrs. Josephine Lolita Allen Mathis, born September 27, 1954 and died October 12, 2007. The funeral was held Friday, October 19, 2007 at St. Joseph AME Church, officiated by Rev. Napoleon Williams. Funeral arrangements were made through Carter-Taylor-Williams Mortuary and she was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.

Funeral program for Bonny Jean Weston Williams, born December 31, 1959 and died October 11, 2007. The memorial service was held October 19, 2007 at Calvary Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Kevin Nelson.

This report provides a brief overview of the climate change issue as well as other Clean Air Act issues the 110th Congress may consider.

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Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Winspear Performance Hall.

This article discusses performance of the correlation consistent composite approach for transition states.