A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) information management systems, focusing on: (1) recent initiatives designed to help EPA improve the accuracy, completeness, and compatibility of its data; (2) the impact of data gaps and inconsistencies on EPA's ability to evaluate and report on the results of its programs under the Government Performance and Results Act; and (3) the major management challenges facing EPA's new central information office."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on several issues that the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Policy Development and Research is studying in connection with the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, focusing on: (1) the number of properties and households that received rental assistance through the program; (2) the characteristics of households that received tenant-based rental assistance, property-based rental assistance, and no rental assistance; and (3) properties in which at least one household received tenant-based rental assistance."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the: (1) overall effectiveness of federal agencies' reconciliation processes for Fund Balances with Treasury accounts; and (2) Department of the Treasury's actions to improve its assistance to agencies in their reconciliaiton efforts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the training provided to active Army units at the National Training Center (NTC) in Fort Irwin, California, the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) in Fort Polk, Louisiana, and the Combat Maneuver Training Center in Hohenfels, Germany, focusing on: (1) whether units training at the centers are adequately prepared for the exercises; (2) whether training exercises are realistic in terms of expected battlefield conditions; (3) whether pre-positioned equipment adequately supports the training mission; (4) how units use lessons learned at the centers; and (5) how the Army uses the results of the exercises to help revise training and improve the Army's training doctrine."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the status of the management and disposal of commercially generated low-level radioactive wastes, including the progress of states and compacts of states in developing new disposal facilities."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how states design and monitor Medicaid mental health programs, and how, at the federal level, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) exercises its oversight of the Medicaid program, focusing on: (1) the extent of beneficiary choice in capitated mental health carveouts, the range of covered mental health services, and access to these services; (2) the states' approaches to monitoring the quality of care in their Medicaid mental health carveouts; and (3) HCFA's oversight of states' mental health carveouts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the export sales of five Department of Defense (DOD) weapon systems--the Hellfire missile, Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), Black Hawk Helicopter, and Aegis Weapon System, focusing on whether: (1) export sales reduced the price of the five weapon systems; (2) DOD waived the requirement to recover nonrecurring research and development and production costs associated with the sales; and (3) DOD included this information when notifying Congress about the sales or requesting budgetary authority to purchase weapon systems."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on interagency coordination on satellite exports."

Fermilab is a basic research high-energy physics laboratory operated by Universities Research Association, Inc. under contract to the U.S. Department of Energy. Fermilab researchers utilize the Tevatron particle accelerator (currently the worlds most powerful accelerator) to better understand subatomic particles as they exist now and as they existed near the birth of the universe. A collection review of the Fermilab Library monographs was conducted during the summers of 1998 and 1999. While some items were identified for deselection, the review proved most fruitful in highlighting some of the strengths of the Fermilab monograph collection. One of these strengths is history of physics, including biographies and astrophysics. A bibliography of the physics history books in the collection as of Summer, 1999 follows, arranged by author. Note that the call numbers are Library of Congress classification.

Weekly student newspaper from San Antonio College in San Antonio, Texas that includes campus news along with advertising.

Student newspaper of Harper Independent School District in Harper, Texas that includes school news and information along with advertising.

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

Semi-weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Preliminary design concepts for the proposed Subsurface Repository at Yucca Mountain indicate extensive reliance on modern, computer-based, digital control technologies. The purpose of this analysis is to investigate the degree to which the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has accepted and approved the use of digital control technology for safety-related applications within the nuclear power industry. This analysis reviews cases of existing digitally-based control systems that have been approved by the NRC. These cases can serve as precedence for using similar types of digitally-based control technologies within the Subsurface Repository. While it is anticipated that the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) will not contain control systems as complex as those required for a nuclear power plant, the review of these existing NRC approved applications will provide the YMP with valuable insight into the NRCs review process and design expectations for safety-related digital control systems. According to the YMP Compliance Program Guidance, portions of various NUREGS, Regulatory Guidelines, and nuclear IEEE standards the nuclear power plant safety related concept would be applied to some of the designs on a case-by-case basis. This analysis will consider key design methods, capabilities, successes, and important limitations or problems of selected control systems that have …

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 letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO examined the impact of legislative proposals to increase the number of flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on two other area airports-Washington Dulles International (BWI) Airport and Baltimore/Washington International Airport, focusing on: (1) the most prominent proposals that would allow an increased number of takeoffs and landings at Reagan National and create exemptions to the perimeter rule; (2) the extent to which Reagan National could safely accommodate more takeoffs and landings; and (3) whether adding flights at Reagan National to and from destinations beyond the current perimeter would cause passengers to shift their travel from Dulles or BWI."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Food and Nutrition Service's (FNS) new rule on the food stamp provisions of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. GAO noted that: (1) the interim rule would provide: (a) state agencies the authority to exempt from the food stamp time-limit at section 6(0)(2) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 up to 15 percent of the state's caseload that is subject to the requirement; and (b) additional funding for administration of Food Stamp Employment and Training Programs; and (2) FNS complied with the applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Between 1992 to 1996, the CDF and D0 detectors each collected data samples exceeding 100 pb{sup {minus}1} of p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. These data sets led to a large number of precision measurements of the properties of B hadrons including lifetimes, masses, neutral B meson flavor oscillations, and relative branching fractions, and to the discovery of the B{sub 0} meson. Perhaps the most exciting result was the first look at the CP violation parameter sin ({vert_bar}2{beta}){vert_bar} using the world's largest sample of fully reconstructed B{sup 0}/{bar B}{sup 0} {r_arrow} J/{psi}K{sub s}{sup 0} decays. A summary of this result is presented here. In the year 2000, the Tevatron will recommence p{bar p} collisions with an over order of magnitude expected increased in integrated luminosity (1 fb{sup {minus}1} per year). The CDF and D0 detectors will have undergone substantial upgrades, particularly in the tracking detectors and the triggers. With these enhancements, the Tevatron B physics program includes precision measurements of sin(2{beta}) and B{sub s}{sup 0} flavor oscillations, as well as studies of rare B decays that are sensitive to new physics. The studies of B{sub s}{sup 0} mesons will be particularly interesting as this …

Mention the words ''stress voiding'', and everyone from technology engineer to manager to customer is likely to cringe. This IC failure mechanism elicits fear because it is insidious, capricious, and difficult to identify and arrest. There are reasons to believe that a damascene-copper future might be void-free. Nevertheless, engineers who continue to produce ICs with Al-alloy interconnects, or who assess the reliability of legacy ICs with long service life, need up-to-date insights and techniques to deal with stress voiding problems. Stress voiding need not be fearful. Not always predictable, neither is it inevitable. On the contrary, stress voids are caused by specific, avoidable processing errors. Analytical work, though often painful, can identify these errors when stress voiding occurs, and vigilance in monitoring the improved process can keep it from recurring. In this article, they show that a methodical, forensics approach to failure analysis can solve suspected cases of stress voiding. This approach uses new techniques, and patiently applies familiar ones, to develop evidence meeting strict standards of proof.

A number of fluoro-carbonate solvents were evaluated as electrolytes for Li-ion cells. These solvents are fluorine analogs of the conventional electrolyte solvents such as dimethyl carbonate, ethylene carbonate, diethyl carbonate in Li-ion cells. Conductivity of single and mixed fluoro carbonate electrolytes containing 1 M LiPF{sub 6} was measured at different temperatures. These electrolytes did not freeze at -40 C. We are evaluating currently, the irreversible 1st cycle capacity loss in carbon anode in these electrolytes and the capacity loss will be compared to that in the conventional electrolytes. Voltage stability windows of the electrolytes were measured at room temperature and compared with that of the conventional electrolytes. The fluoro-carbon electrolytes appear to be more stable than the conventional electrolytes near Li voltage. Few preliminary electrochemical data of the fluoro-carbonate solvents in full cells are reported in the literature. For example, some of the fluorocarbonate solvents appear to have a wider voltage window than the conventional electrolyte solvents. For example, methyl 2,2,2 trifluoro ethyl carbonate containing 1 M LiPF{sub 6} electrolyte has a decomposition voltage exceeding 6 V vs. Li compared to <5 V for conventional electrolytes. The solvent also appears to be stable in contact with lithium at room temperature.

The thermal stability of Li-ion cells with intercalating carbon anodes and metal oxide cathodes was measured as a function of state of charge and temperature for two advanced cell chemistries. Cells of the 18650 design with Li{sub x}CoO{sub 2} cathodes (commercial SONY cells) and Li{sub x}Ni{sub 0.8}Co{sub 0.2}O{sub 2} cathodes were measured for thermal reactivity in the open circuit cell condition. Accelerating rate calorimetry (ARC) was used to measure cell thermal runaway as a function of state of charge (SOC). Microcalorimetry was used to measure the time dependence of heat generating side reactions also as a function of SOC. Components of cells were measured using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to study the thermal reactivity of the individual electrodes to determine the temperature regimes and conditions of the major thermal reactions. Thermal decomposition of the SEI layer at the anodes was identified as the initiating source for thermal runaway. The cells with Li{sub x}CoO{sub 2} cathodes showed greater sensitivity to SOC and higher accelerating heating rates than seen for the cells with Li{sub x}Ni{sub 0.8}Co{sub 0.2}O{sub 2}cathodes. Lower temperature reactions starting as low as 40 C were also observed that were SOC dependent but not accelerating. These reactions were also measured …

Funeral program for Mrs. Ray Etta Broady Bruce, born August 5, 1931 and died September 12, 1999. The funeral was held Friday, September 17, 1999 at St. Paul United Methodist Church, officiated by Rev. Terrence K. Hayes, Pastor. Funeral arrangements were made through Sutton-Sutton Mortuary and she was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.