A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government must overcome several major challenges before public key infrastructure (PKI) technology can be widely and effectively used. These challenges include providing interoperability among agency PKIs, ensuring that PKI implementations can support a potential large scale of users, reducing the cost of building PKI systems, setting policies to maintain trust levels among agencies, and establishing training programs for users at all levels. Although such challenges are difficult to overcome in the near term, the federal government can take steps to better assist agencies develop and implement PKIs that may eventually be interconnected into a federal governmentwide system. The recent effort to develop a Federal Bridge Certification Authority (FBCA) is an excellent first step in this direction, but this effort lacks the context of a well-defined program plan for the government as well as key policy and technical standards. Establishing a federal PKI management framework could facilitate and accelerate participation in the FBCA as well as overall federal adoption of key technology for enabling electronic government."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO performed procedures to determine whether the net federal unemployment tax revenue distributed to the Unemployment Trust Fund for fiscal year 2000 is supported by the underlying records. The procedures GAO agreed to perform include (1) detailed tests of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to the UTF and (2) a review of key reconciliations of the Internal Revenue Service records to those of the Department of the Treasury."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO assisted the Department of Transportation determine whether the net excise tax revenue distributed to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF) for fiscal year 2000 was supported by the underlying records. GAO agreed to (1) perform detailed tests of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to AATF, (2) review the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) quarterly AATF certifications, (3) review the Department of the Treasury Financial Management Service adjustments to AATF for FY 2000, (4) review the Office of Tax Analysis process for estimating amounts to be distributed to AATF for the fourth quarter of FY 2000, (5) compare net excise tax distributions to AATF during FY 2000 and amounts reported in the financial statements prepared by the Bureau of the Public Debt for AATF and the Federal Aviation Administration's consolidated financial statements, and (6) review key reconciliations of IRS records to Treasury records."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO assisted the Department of Transportation determine whether the net excise tax revenue distributed to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) for the fiscal year 2000 was supported by the underlying records. GAO agreed to (1) perform detailed tests of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to HTF, (2) review the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) quarterly HTF certifications, (3) review the Financial Management Service adjustments to HTF for FY 2000, (4) review the Office of Tax Analysis process for estimating amounts to be distributed to HTF for the fourth quarter of FY 2000, (5) compare net excise tax distributions to the HTF during FY 2000 and amounts reported in the financial statements prepared by the Bureau of Public Debt for HTF and HTF's financial statements, and (6) review key reconciliations of IRS records to Treasury records."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report identifies civilian nondefense agency capital projects with estimated costs of $175.6 billion, based on agency budget justifications and other data. Costs for incrementally funded and high technology civilian projects are estimated at $154.7 billion. Of this amount, $78.5 billion in budget authority has been provided through fiscal year 2000, leaving $76.2 billion of budget authority still required after fiscal year 2000 to complete these projects, a requirement that constitutes a claim on discretionary spending in future years. About half of the $154.7 billion is for high technology projects. Because some capital projects have unknown funding requirements beyond the fiscal year 2001 request, the remaining budget authority needed to complete all projects exceeds the $76.2 billion identified and assumes no further cost growth. This budget authority relates only to civilian projects. Department of Defense spending for capital acquisitions is generally fully funded; its fiscal year 1999 capital spending totaled almost $53 billion. If the Navy shipbuilding and conversion account were to be moved from full to incremental funding for a given period of time, this would not allow the Navy to procure more ships for a given …

Email correspondence about an article on museums housing historic flags across Texas that was published in the March 2002 issue of Texas Highways magazine.

The gas conditioning issues involved with coal gasification streams are very complex and do not have simple solutions. This is particularly true in view of the fact that the gas conditioning system must deal with tars, high moisture contents, and problems with NH{sub 3} without affecting low ppb levels of Hg, low levels (low ppm or less) of HCl, or the successful operation of conditioner components and analytical systems. Those issues are far from trivial. Trying to develop a non-chemical system for gas conditioning was very ambitious in view of the difficult sampling environment and unique problems associated with coal gasification streams. Although a great deal was learned regarding calibration, sample transport, instrumentation options, gas stream conditioning, and CEM design options, some challenging issues still remain. Sample transport is one area that is often not adequately considered. Because of the gas stream composition and elevated temperatures involved, special attention will need to be given to the choice of materials for the sample line and other plumbing components. When using gas stream oxidation, there will be sample transport regions under oxidizing as well as reducing conditions, and each of those regions will require different materials of construction for sample transport. The …

We have begun building the ''Mercury'' laser system as the first in a series of new generation diode-pumped solid-state lasers for target physics research. Mercury will integrate three key technologies: diodes, crystals, and gas cooling, within a unique laser architecture that is scalable to kilojoule and megajoule energy levels for fusion energy applications. The primary near-term performance goals include 10% electrical efficiencies at 10 Hz and 100 J with a 2-10 ns pulse length at 1.047 {micro}m wavelength. Currently, this review concentrates on the critical development and production of Yb:S-FAP crystals. After solving many defect issues that can be present in the crystals, reproducibility is the final issue that needs to be resolved. We have enlisted the help of national experts and have strongly integrated two capable commercial crystal growth companies (Litton-Airton/Synoptics and Scientific Materials) into the effort, and have solicited the advice of Robert Morris (retired from Allied Signal), a recognized international expert in high temperature oxide growth.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC 5 television station in Fort Worth, Texas, covering a news story.

Remote detection of chemicals using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) utilizing DIAL (Differential Absorption LIDAR) is now a standard detection technique for both military and civilian activities. We have developed a novel nonlinear optical phase conjugation system that can reduce the effects of speckle noise and atmospheric turbulence on DIAL remote detection systems. We have shown numerically and experimentally that it is possible to increase the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio for LIDAR systems under certain conditions using optical phase conjugation. This increase in S/N can result in more accurate detection of chemical effluents while simultaneously reducing the time necessary to acquire this information.

This report discusses veterans' pensions, which are monthly cash payments made to qualified veterans or survivors so that their total income from all countable sources reach specified annual levels and are administered by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).

The Southern Hemisphere is an important and unique region of the world's oceans for water-mass formation and mixing, upwelling, nutrient utilization, and carbon export. In fact, one of the primary interests of the oceanographic community is to decipher the climatic record of these processes in the source or sink terms for Southern Ocean surface waters in the CO{sub 2} balance of the atmosphere. Current coupled ocean-atmosphere modeling efforts to trace the input of CO{sub 2} into the ocean imply a strong sink of anthropogenic CO{sub 2} in the southern ocean. However, because of its relative inaccessibility and the difficulty in directly measuring CO{sub 2} fluxes in the Southern Ocean, these results are controversial at best. An accepted diagnostic of the exchange of CO{sub 2} between the atmosphere and ocean is the prebomb distribution of radiocarbon in the ocean and its time-history since atmospheric nuclear testing. Such histories of {sup 14}C in the surface waters of the Southern Ocean do not currently exist, primarily because there are few continuous biological archives (e.g., in corals) such as those that have been used to monitor the {sup 14}C history of the tropics and subtropics. One of the possible long-term archives is the scallop …

A new technology for ultrahigh-spatial resolution mapping of the isotopic, molecular, and chemical compositions of complex, multi-dimensional objects, in semiconductor, archaeological, paleontological, biological and materials R&D.

The determination of the three dimensional structures at high resolution of biomolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, enables us to understand their function at the molecular level. At the present time, there are only two methods available for determining such structures, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Compared to well-established X-ray diffraction techniques, NMR methodology is relatively new and has many areas in which improvement can still be attained. In this project, we focused on the development of new NMR probes and pulse sequences that were tailored to tackle specific problems that are not adequately addressed by current technology. Probes are the hardware that contain the radio frequency (RF) circuitry used to both excite and detect the NMR signals. Pulse sequences are composed of a series of RF pulses and delays, which are applied to the sample held within the magnetic field by the probe, so as to manipulate the nuclear spins. Typically, a probe is developed for a specific set of nuclei and types of experiments and the pulse sequences are then written to use the probe in an optimal manner. In addition, the inter-development of instrumentation and methods are determined by the specific biological question …

Large, high-power laser systems are often designed as reimaging multipass cavities to maximize the extraction of energy from the amplifiers. These multipass cavities often have vacuum spatial filters that suppress the growth of beam instability via B-integral effects. These spatial filters also relay images of laser damage, often nearly superimposing these images in common planes. Also, the fluence damage threshold limits the minimum size of the optics. When used as vacuum barriers in the spatial filters, these large optics present a safety hazard from the risk of implosion if the laser damage were sufficiently large. The objective of the project was to develop algorithms and methods for optical detection and characterization of laser-induced damage of optics. The system should detect small defects (about 5% of the critical size), track their growth over multiple laser shots, and characterize the defects accurately so that the optic can be replaced (at 25% of the critical size) and, hence, minimize the risk of implosion. The depth of field must be short enough to isolate the damaged vacuum barrier from other damaged optics in the beamline, and the system should also be capable of inspecting other optics in the beamline, since damage on one optic …

Video recording from The Black Academy of Arts and Letters recorded during their "Succeeding Beyond the Limits" event in 2001. This video features a theatrical comedy performance of "Succeeding Beyond the Limits," by Teresa Coleman-Wash. Performed live on the Naomi Bruton Main Stage.

Student newspaper of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma that includes national, local, and campus news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, 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.

B-roll video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story about storm damages in Carrolton.

Newsletter of the Texas Department of Health discussing the news, activities, and events of the organization and other information related to health in Texas.

This issue brief discusses the Airport Improvement Program and its complement, the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC). After a brief history of federal support for airport construction and improvement, the report describes AIP funding, its source of revenues, the impact of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (FAIR21, P.L. 106-181), funding distribution, the types of projects the program funds, and AIP and PFC policy issues.