A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The number of contracts under Medicare's managed care program--Medicare+Choice (M+C)--fell from 340 to 180 between 1998 and 2001. The reduction reflected decisions by some managed care organizations (MCOs) to terminate selected contracts or to discontinue service in some covered areas. Although nearly all MCOs renewed at least some of their Medicare contracts over this period, many reduced the geographic areas served. As a result, 1.6 million beneficiaries had to switch MCOs or return to Medicare's traditional fee-for-service program. Other MCOs plan either to terminate or reduce their participation in M+C at the end of 2001. Concerned about MCO withdrawals, Congress sought to make participation in the program more attractive. As a result of the Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000, aggregate Medicare+Choice payments in 2001 are estimated to have increased by $1 billion. The act permitted three basic uses for the higher payment. MCOs could (1) improve their health plans' benefit packages, (2) set aside money for future years in a benefit stabilization fund, or (3) stabilize or enhance beneficiary access to providers. Most MCOs reported that additional money would be used to stabilize or …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "All military services routinely use cannibalization to maintain aircraft. The adverse effects of cannibalizations include (1) higher maintenance costs due to increased mechanics' workloads, (2) morale and personnel retention problems, and (3) taking expensive aircraft out of service for long periods of time. The services have many reasons for cannibalizing aircraft and strong incentives for continuing to do so. In the broadest sense, cannibalizations are done because of pressures to meet readiness and operational needs and because of shortcomings in the supply system. Although the services have undertaken steps to address logistics shortfalls, few specific strategies have been developed to reduce cannibalizations and the associated maintenance hours."

Weekly student newspaper from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.

Funeral program for Sonya Yvette Burton, born May 29, 1960 and died November 14, 2001. The funeral was held Wednesday, November 21, 2001 at Mt. Zion First Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Kenneth A. Allen, Pastor. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home.

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; Determination of "actual costs" a hospital district must charge nonindigent district residents and related questions: clarification of Attorney General Opinion JC-0220 (2000) (RQ-0369-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 Texas Ethics Commission is precluded from promptly providing public access to electronic copies of certain reports by section 254.0401(b) of the Election Code (RQ-0412-JC)

This report consists of eight focus groups in order to assess the environmental understanding of the general public as related to nonpoint source pollution.

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

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

The objective of this study is to evaluate the life cycle costs and market barriers associated with using reflective paving materials in streets and parking lots as a way to reduce the urban heat island effect. We calculated and compared the life cycle costs of conventional asphalt concrete (AC) pavements to those of other existing pavement technologies with higher reflectivity-portland cement concrete (PCC), porous pavements, resin pavements, AC pavements using light-colored chip seals, and AC pavements using light-colored asphalt emulsion additives. We found that for streets and parking lots, PCC can provide a cost-effective alternative to conventional AC when severely damaged pavements must be completely reconstructed. We also found that rehabilitating damaged AC streets and intersections with thin overlays of PCC (ultra-thin white topping) can often provide a cost-effective alternative to standard rehabilitation techniques using conventional AC. Chip sealing is a common maintenance treatment for low-volume streets which, when applied using light-colored chips, could provide a reflective pavement surface. If the incremental cost of using light-colored chips is low, this chip sealing method could also be cost-effective, but the incremental costs of light-colored chips are as of yet uncertain and expected to vary. Porous pavements were found to have higher …

A field investigation of unsaturated flow through a lithophysal unit of fractured welded tuff containing lithophysal cavities has been initiated. To characterize flow in this spatially heterogeneous medium, a systematic approach has been developed to perform tests in boreholes drilled at regular intervals in an underground tunnel (drift). In this paper, we describe the test equipment system that has been built for this purpose. Since the field-scale measurements, of liquid flow in the unsaturated, fractured rocks, require continuous testing for periods of days to weeks, the control of test equipment has been fully automated, allowing operation with no human presence at the field site. Preliminary results from the first set of tests are described. These tests give insight into the role of the matrix (perhaps also lithophysal cavities) as potential storage during the initial transient flow prior to the breakthrough of water at the drift crown, as well as the role of connected fractures that provide the subsequent quasi-steady flow. These tests also reveal the impact of evaporation on seepage into the drift.

The purpose of this calculation is to quantify previously unquantified uncertainties associated with the Drift Degradation Analysis (BSC 2001b). The results from this calculation will support the development of a technical report to document supplemental science and performance analyses. This calculation has been developed according to the guidance provided by the ''Technical Work Plan for EBS Department Modeling FY 01 Work Activities'' (BSC 2001a). The specific objective of this calculation is to perform sensitivity studies to assess the impact of the following parameters on rock fall results: (1) parameter M, a multiplier of fracture trace lengths sampled from field data; (2) Terzaghi correction factor for subhorizontal fractures; and (3) number of Monte Carlo simulations. The scope of this calculation includes using the fracture data inputs from the ''Drift Degradation Analysis'' (BSC 2001b) as input to the Discrete Region Key Block Analysis (DRKBA) numerical code. Outputs from this program includes the expected quantities and size distributions of failed rock blocks. This calculation is applicable to unsupported drifts without backfill. This calculation is associated with the engineering and performance analysis activities of the Engineered Barrier System Department, and was developed in accordance with AP-3.12Q, ''Calculations''.

This Corrective Action Investigation Plan contains the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office's approach to collect data necessary to evaluate corrective action alternatives appropriate for the closure of Corrective Action Unit 168 under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. Corrective Action Unit 168 consists of a group of twelve relatively diverse Corrective Action Sites (CASs 25-16-01, Construction Waste Pile; 25-16-03, MX Construction Landfill; 25-19-02, Waste Disposal Site; 25-23-02, Radioactive Storage RR Cars; 25-23-18, Radioactive Material Storage; 25-34-01, NRDS Contaminated Bunker; 25-34-02, NRDS Contaminated Bunker; CAS 25-23-13, ETL - Lab Radioactive Contamination; 25-99-16, USW G3; 26-08-01, Waste Dump/Burn Pit; 26-17-01, Pluto Waste Holding Area; 26-19-02, Contaminated Waste Dump No.2). These CASs vary in terms of the sources and nature of potential contamination. The CASs are located and/or associated wit h the following Nevada Test Site (NTS) facilities within three areas. The first eight CASs were in operation between 1958 to 1984 in Area 25 include the Engine Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly Facility; the Missile Experiment Salvage Yard; the Reactor Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly Facility; the Radioactive Materials Storage Facility; and the Treatment Test Facility Building at Test Cell A. Secondly, the three CASs located in …

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story. This story aired at 10 PM.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although the current economic situation and the challenges of combating terrorism will cause federal deficits in the short term, the budget may again return to surpluses. Surpluses will be needed in the future to prepare for the retirement and health care needs of the baby boom era. GAO studied five nations--Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom-- whose recent experiences with debt management in times of surpluses might be relevant to the United States. The countries GAO studied experienced both budget surpluses and deficits from 1988 through 2000. Recent budget surpluses contributed to falling public debt levels in absolute terms and as a share of the economy in these countries. Whether government debt is increasing or decreasing, debt managers' objectives are (1) to ensure that the government's financing needs are met, (2) to minimize the government's cost of financing, (3) to promote efficient markets, and (4) to keep risk at an acceptable level. However, tradeoffs among these objectives are not always compatible. During budget deficits, a primary consideration is making government securities more attractive to potential investors. On the other hand, periods of surpluses …

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

The use of sprayed flammable fluids as solvents in dissolution and cleaning processes demand detailed understanding of ignition and fire hazards associated with these applications. When it is not feasible to inert the atmosphere in which the spraying process takes place, then elimination of all possible ignition sources must be done. If operators are involved in the process, the potential for human static build-up and ultimate discharge is finite, and it is nearly impossible to eliminate. The specific application discussed in this paper involved the use of heated Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) to dissolve high explosives (HE). Search for properties of DMSO yielded data on flammability limits and flash point, but there was no published information pertaining to the minimum energy for electrical arc ignition. Due to the sensitivity of this procedure, The Hazards Control Department of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was tasked to determine the minimum ignition energy of DMSO aerosol and vapor an experimental investigation was thus initiated. Because there were no electrical sources in spray chamber, Human Electro-Static Discharge (HESD) was the only potential ignition source. Consequently, the electrostatic generators required for this investigation were designed to produce electrostatic arcs with the defined voltage and current pulse …

Currently, data of interest to microbial researchers is spread across hundreds of web-accessible data sources, each with a unique interface and data format. Researchers interact with a few of these sites when they analyze their data, but are not able to utilize the majority of them on a regular basis. There are two significant challenges that must be overcome to integrate this environment and allow researchers to efficiently perform data analysis across the entire set of relevant data, or at least a significant portion of it. The first is to provide consistent access to the large numbers of distributed, heterogeneous data sets that are currently distributed over the web. The second is to define the semantics of the data provided by the individual sites in such a way that semantic conflicts can be identified and, ideally, resolved. The first step in establishing any integrated environment, from a data warehouse to a multi-database system, is provide consistent access to all of the relevant sources. While the type of access required will vary based on the integration strategy chosen--for example federated systems use query-based access while warehouses may prefer access to the underlying database--the essence of this challenge remains the same. Thus, …

Significant changes in materials properties of siloxane based polymers can be obtained by the addition of inorganic fillers. In silica-filled polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based composites the mechanism of this reinforcing behavior is presumably hydrogen bonding between surface hydroxyls and backbone siloxane species. We have chosen to investigate in detail the effect of chemisorbed and physisorbed water on the interfacial structure and dynamics in silica-filled PDMS based composites. Toward this end, we have combined molecular dynamics simulations and experimental studies employing DMA and Nh4R analysis. Our results suggest that the polymer-silica contact distance and the mobility of interfacial polymer chains significantly decreased as the hydration level at the interface was reduced. The reduced mobility of the PDMS chains in the interfacial domain reduced the overall, bulk, motional properties of the polymer, thus causing an effective ''stiffening'' of the polymer matrix. The role of the long-ranged Coulombic interactions on the structural features and chain dynamics of the polymer were also examined. Both are found to be strongly influenced by the electrostatic interactions as identified by the bond orientation time correlation function and local density distribution functions. These results have important implications for the design of nanocomposite silica-siloxane materials.

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

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

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.