A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For moving services, the primary responsibility for consumer protection lies with consumers to select a reputable household goods carrier, ensure that they understand the terms and conditions of the contracts, and understand and pursue the remedies that are available to them when problems arise. Available information indicates that consumer complaints in the household goods industry are increasing. In addition, there was widespread agreement among the government, industry, and consumer organizations GAO contacted that the Department of Transportation's lack of action has contributed to the growth of problems. The Department contends that safety activities are the primary focus of its motor carrier efforts. However, the Department has not taken steps to understand the nature and extent of problems in the industry--and therefore to determine whether its limited approach to oversight and enforcement is appropriate. Nor has it made more than minimal efforts to provide information to consumers that would assist them in making more informed choices. Consumer education as a preventive tool takes on increased importance if the motor carrier administration is to pursue its course of limited oversight and enforcement. The motor carrier administration has recently …

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board has authority to spend appropriated funds to inform the general public of its activities and accomplishments and of the opportunities it provides (RQ-0292-JC)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the City of Anson is a home-rule municipality (RQ-0295-JC)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether Government Code section 551.125 permits absent members of a governmmental body to participate in a meeting by telephone conference call when a quorum of the governmental body has convened in one location, and related questions (RQ-0297-JC)

This report is about Basic Federal Dudgeting Terminology.

Optical coatings are a crucial part of the pulse trapping and extraction in the NIF multipass amplifiers. Coatings also steer the 192 beams from four linear arrays to four converging cones entering the target chamber. There are a total of 1600 physical vapor deposited coatings on NIF consisting of 576 mirrors within the multipass cavity, 192 polarizers that work in tandem with a Pockels cell to create an optical switch, and 832 transport mirrors. These optics are of sufficient size so that they are not aperture-limiting for the 40-cm x 40 cm beams over an incident range of 0 to 56.4 degrees. These coatings must withstand laser fluences up to 25 J/cm{sup 2} at 1053 nm (1 {omega}) and 3-ns pulse length and are the 1{omega} fluence-limiting component on NIF. The coatings must have a minimal impact on the beam wavefront and phase to maintain beam focusability, minimize scattered loss, and minimize nonlinear damage mechanisms. This is achieved by specifications ranging from <50 MPa coating stress, <1% coating nonuniformity, <4{angstrom} RMS surface roughness, and a PSD specification to control the amplitude of periodic spatial frequencies. Finally, the primary mission of optical coatings is efficient beam steering so reflection and transmission …

This report describes how the government enforces budget resolutions using the Congressional Budget Act (C.B.A.) of 1974.

The Drift Scale Test (DST) now underway at Yucca Mountain has been simulated using a Drift Scale Distinct Element (DSDE) model. Simulated deformations show good agreement with field deformation measurements. Results indicate most fracture deformation is located above the crown of the Heated Drift. This work is part of the model validation effort for the DSDE model, which is used to assess thermal-mechanical effects on the hydrology of the rock mass surrounding a potential repository.

In today's competitive and highly litigious world, it is critical that any laboratory generating data for the environmental and allied industries have a world-class Quality Assurance Program. This Plan must conform to the requirements of every agency and client with whom the lab does business. The goal of such a program is data defensibility; i.e., data validity. Data (usually qualitative analyte [compound or element] identifications and quantitative numerical results) are the end results of nearly all analytical laboratory processes, and the source of revenue. Clients pay for results. The clients expect the results to be accurate, precise, and repeatable. If their data has to go to court, the laboratory will be called upon to defend the accuracy and precision of their work. Without a strong QA program, this will be impossible. The potential implications and repercussions of non-defensible lab data are far-reaching and very costly in terms of loss of future revenues and in legal judgments.

Development of a microwave-regenerated particulate filter system has evolved from bench scale work to actual diesel engine experimentation. The filter system was initially evaluated on a stationary mounted 1.2-L diesel engine and was able to remove a significant amount of carbon particles from the exhaust. The ability of the microwave energy to regenerate or clean the filter was also demonstrated on this engine under idle conditions. Based on the 1.2-L experiments, improvements to the filter design and materials were implemented and the system was re-evaluated on a vehicle equipped with a 7.3-L diesel engine. The 7.3-L engine was selected to achieve heavy filter loading in a relatively short period of time. The purpose of these experiments was to evaluate filter-loading capacity, power requirements for regeneration, and filter regeneration efficiency. A more detailed evaluation of the filter was performed on a stationary mounted 1.9-L diesel engine. The effect of exhaust flow rate, loading, transients, and regeneration on filter efficiency was evaluated with this setup. In addition, gaseous exhaust emissions were investigated with and without an oxidation catalyst on the filter cartridge during loading and regeneration. (SAE Paper SAE-2001-01-0903 © 2001 SAE International. This paper is published on this website with permission …

Clusters in the three-dimensional Ising model rigorously obey reducibility and thermal scaling up to the critical temperature. The barriers extracted from Arrhenius plots depend on the cluster size as B {proportional_to} A{sup {sigma}} where {sigma} is a critical exponent relating the cluster size to the cluster surface. All the Arrhenius plots collapse into a single Fisher-like scaling function indicating liquid-vapor-like phase coexistence and the univarian equilibrium between percolating clusters and finite clusters. The compelling similarity with nuclear multifragmentation is discussed.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The ultra-filtration process for milk, developed in the 1970s, removes most of the fluid components, leaving a high concentration of milk protein that allows cheese and other manufacturers to produce their products more efficiently. No specific data on amount of ultra-filtered milk imports exists because these imports fall under the broader U.S. Customs Service classification of milk protein concentrate. Exporters of milk protein concentrates face minimal U.S. import restrictions, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) believes the milk protein concentrates pose minimal safety risks. Similarly, there is little data on the amount and use of domestically produced ultra-filtered milk in U.S. cheese making plants. According to the Department of Agriculture and state sources, a total of 22 dairy plants nationwide and five large dairy farms in New Mexico and Texas produce ultra-filtered milk. The plants primarily produce and use ultra-filtered milk in the process of making cheese. The five farms transport their product primarily to cheese-making plants in the Midwest, where most is used to make standardized cheeses. FDA relies on its own inspections, and those it contracts with 37 states, to enforce its standards …

The inverse free-electron laser (IFEL) interaction is studied both theoretically and numerically in the case where the drive laser intensity approaches the relativistic regime, and the pulse duration is only a few optical cycles long. We show that by using an ultrashort, ultrahigh-intensity drive laser pulse, the IFEL interaction bandwidth and accelerating gradient are increased considerably, thus yielding large energy gains. Using a chirped pulse and negative dispersion focusing optics allows one to take further advantage of the laser optical bandwidth and produce a chromatic line focus maximizing the gradient. The combination of these novel ideas results in a compact vacuum laser accelerator capable of accelerating picosecond electron bunches with a high gradient (GeV/m) and very low energy spread. A computer code which takes into account the three-dimensional nature of the interaction is currently in development and results are expected this Spring.

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

The Drift Scale Test (DST) now underway at Yucca Mountain has been simulated using a Drift Scale Distinct Element (DSDE) model. Simulated deformations show good agreement with field deformation measurements. Results indicate most fracture deformation is located above the crown of the Heated Drift. This work is part of the model validation effort for the DSDE model, which is used to assess thermal-mechanical effects on the hydrology of the rock mass surrounding a potential repository.

Objective--In this paper the photothermal design aspects of novel shape memory polymer (SMP) microactuators for treating stroke are presented. Materials and Methods--A total of three devices will be presented: two interventional ischemic stroke devices (coil and umbrella) and one device for releasing embolic coils (microgripper). The optical properties of SMP, methods for coupling laser light into SMP, heating distributions in the SMP devices and the impact of operating the thermally activated material in a blood vessel are presented. Results--Actuating the devices requires device temperatures in the range of 65 C-85 C. Attaining these temperatures under flow conditions requires critical engineering of the SMP optical properties, optical coupling into the SMP, and device geometries. Conclusion--Laser-activated SMP devices are a unique combination of laser-tissue and biomaterial technologies. Successful deployment of the microactuator requires well-engineered coupling of the light from the diffusing fiber through the blood into the SMP.

This report lists the different functional and subfunctional categories that represents the major purposes of the federal government.

This report provides information about the Consideration of the Budget Resolution.

This report discusses the Development and Consideration related to Budget Reconciliation Legislation.

This report provides information about the Congressional Budget Act Points of Order. Budget Act Points of Order are not self-enforcing. In order to enforce a congressional budget rule, a member must raise a point of order against the legislation violating it.

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Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.