Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since May 2000, California's restructured electricity market has experienced rapidly rising prices and uncertain reliability. In response to disruptions in service, or blackouts, the state has taken steps to increase electricity supplies and to reduce demand through conservation. The California Independent System Operator, the agency in charge of balancing electricity supply with demand, expects high prices and disruptions to persist, and perhaps even worsen, in the summer of 2001. This report reviews (1) the condition of California's electricity market, including changes in demand, supply, and prices; (2) the extent to which the Department of Defense (DOD) can help enhance western electricity supplies during the summer of 2001; and (3) available private backup generation resources and any benefits and problems associated with their deployment. GAO found that electricity demand has risen sharply in recent years while supply has not kept up with the demand, causing higher prices. DOD could help augment western electricity supplies by generating an estimated 90 megawatts of electricity and implementing conservation initiatives. The use of private generation is limited because of business and environmental risks."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Visitor centers at the national parks are among the most important facilities run by the National Park Service. As existing visitor centers age and new parks are created, renovated or new facilities are needed. This report discusses (1) the number, the status, and the reasons for Park Service visitor center projects; (2) whether the projects involve new construction or the renovation of existing buildings; (3) whether these projects were designated priorities by the Park Service or by Congress; (4) the costs and functions of the projects; and (5) the funding sources for the projects. GAO found that from 1996 through 2005, the Park Service has completed or planned 80 projects to renovate or build new visitor centers. The renovations and new construction are intended to replace aging facilities and exhibits, to provide more space, and to handle rising numbers of visitors. Of the 80 projects, 53 were a priority of the Park Service and 27 were a priority of Congress. The Park Service estimates that the total cost of the 80 projects will be $542 million. The visitor center projects are funded primarily by the Park Service's appropriated …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the results of GAO's investigation of health care billing consultants whose seminars and workshops advise health care providers on how to boost revenue and avoid audits. Consultants at two workshops that GAO attended provided in-depth discussions of regulations on billing for health care services and compliance with health care laws and regulations. Some of this advice was inconsistent with federal law and guidance provided by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General. Such advice could result in violations of both civil and criminal statutes. Some consultants urged health care providers to not report or refund overpayments from insurance carriers after they were discovered. The consultants also encouraged the performance of unnecessary tests and procedures to generate documentation that would support bills for evaluation and management services at a higher level of complexity than actually confronted during patients' office visits. This testimony summarizes a June report (GAO-01-818)."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Health care providers' difficulties in recruiting and retaining nurses may worsen as the demand for nurses rises with the aging of the population. Demographic changes are widening the gap between the numbers of people needing care and available caregivers. Moreover, the current high levels of job dissatisfaction among nurses because of management decisions to restructure health care delivery and staffing may play a crucial role in the extent of future nurse shortages. Efforts to improve the workplace environment may reduce the likelihood that nurses will leave or consider leaving the profession. More data on the exact scope and nature of the problem are needed to help plan and target corrective measures. Providers, states, and the federal government have the opportunity to collect and analyze critical information on changes in the supply of and demand for nurses."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and the states have taken steps to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse in the Food Stamp Program. GAO's past work has found that FNS and the states need to make better use of electronic data to track individuals and storeowners who may be trafficking in food stamps. GAO also found that financial sanctions and enhanced funding have been at least partially successful in focusing states' attention on minimizing payment errors. However this "carrot and stick" approach can accomplish only so much. Food stamp regulations for determining eligibility and benefits are extremely complex and their application is inherently error-prone and costly to administer. Furthermore, this approach, carried to extremes, can create incentives for states to take actions that may inhibit achievement of one of the agency's basic missions--providing food assistance to needy persons. For example, requiring recipients to report income changes more frequently could decrease errors, but it could also have the unintended effect of discouraging participation by the eligible working poor. This would run counter not only to FNS' basic mission but also to an overall objective of welfare reform--helping people move …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Spare parts shortages on the three Air Force systems GAO reviewed have undermined the performance of assigned missions and the economy and efficiency of maintenance activities. Specifically, the Air Force did not meet its mission-capable goals for the E-3 or C-5 aircrafts during fiscal years 1996-2000, nor did it have enough F-100-220 engines to meet peacetime and wartime goals during that period. These shortages may also affect personnel retention. GAO recently reported that the lack of parts and materials to successfully complete daily job requirements was one of six major factors causing job dissatisfaction among military personnel. Item managers at the maintenance facilities often indicated that spare parts shortages were caused by the inventory management system underestimating the need for spare parts and by delays in the Air Force's repair process as a result of the consolidation of repair facilities. Other reasons included difficulties with producing or repairing parts, reliability of spare parts, and contracting issues. The Air Force and the Defense Logistics Agency have planned or begun many initiatives to alleviate shortages of the spare parts for the three systems GAO reviewed."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report investigates health care consultants who conduct seminars or workshops that offer advice to health care providers on ways to enhance revenue and avoid audits or investigations. GAO attended several seminars and workshops offered by these consultants. GAO sought to determine whether the consultants were providing advice that could result in improper or excessive claims to Medicare, Medicaid, other federally funded health plans, and private health insurance carriers. GAO found that some advice was inconsistent with guidance provided by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General (OIG). Such advice could result in violations of both civil and criminal statutes."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Hydropower projects generate about 10 percent of all electricity produced in the United States. Federally owned and operated hydropower projects generate about half of this amount, while about 1,000 nonfederally owned and operated hydropower projects, which are licensed by the federal government, generate the rest. Some licensees and other participants in the licensing process have expressed concern that obtaining a license takes too long and costs too much. In response, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) established an alternative licensing process, and other federal agencies undertook reforms to streamline the licensing process. However, these reforms did not quell the concerns. In November 2000, Congress directed FERC to review the policies, procedures, and regulations on the licensing of nonfederal hydropower projects to determine how to reduce the time and costs associated with obtaining a license. This testimony discusses (1) the process used by FERC to issue licenses to build and to operate nonfederal hydroelectric power projects and (2) FERC's congressionally mandated report on hydroelectric licensing policies, procedures, and regulations."

The Inductrack magnetic levitation system, developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was studied for its possible use for launching rockets. Under NASA sponsorship, a small model system was constructed at the Laboratory to pursue key technical aspects of this proposed application. The Inductrack is a passive magnetic levitation system employing special arrays of high-field permanent magnets (Halbach arrays) on the levitating cradle, moving above a ''track'' consisting of a close-packed array of shorted coils with which are interleaved with special drive coils. Halbach arrays produce a strong spatially periodic magnetic field on the front surface of the arrays, while canceling the field on their back surface. Relative motion between the Halbach arrays and the track coils induces currents in those coils. These currents levitate the cradle by interacting with the horizontal component of the magnetic field. Pulsed currents in the drive coils, synchronized with the motion of the carrier, interact with the vertical component of the magnetic field to provide acceleration forces. Motional stability, including resistance to both vertical and lateral aerodynamic forces, is provided by having Halbach arrays that interact with both the upper and the lower sides of the track coils. At present, a 7.8 meter track …

The appearance of denuded zones following low stress creep in particle-containing crystalline materials is both a microstructural prediction and observation often cited as irrefutable evidence for the Nabarro-Herring mechanism of diffusional creep. The denuded zones are predicted to be at grain boundaries that are orthogonal to the direction of the applied stress. Furthermore, their dimensions should account for the accumulated plastic flow. In the present paper, the evidence for such denuded zones is critically examined. These zones have been observed during creep of magnesium, aluminum, and nickel-base alloys. The investigation casts serious doubts on the apparently compelling evidence for the link between denuded zones and diffusional creep. Specifically, denuded zones are clearly observed under conditions that are explicitly not diffusional creep. Additionally, the denuded zones are often found in directions that are not orthogonal to the applied stress. Other mechanisms that can account for the observations of denuded zones are discussed. It is proposed that grain boundary sliding accommodated by slip is the rate-controlling process in the stress range where denuded zones have been observed. It is likely that the denuded zones are created by dissolution of precipitates at grain boundaries that are simultaneously sliding and migrating during creep.

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

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

Using computer simulations, the performance of several CdTe based photovoltaic structures has been studied. The advantages and disadvantages of band gap grading, through the use of (Zn, Cd)Te, have also been investigated in these structures. Grading at the front interface between a CdS window layer and a CdTe absorber layer, can arise due to interdiffusion between the materials during growth or due to the intentional variation of the material composition. This grading has been shown to improve certain performance metrics, such as the open-circuit voltage, while degrading others, such as the fill factor, depending on the amount and distance of the grading. The presence of a Schottky barrier as the back contact has also been shown to degrade the photovoltaic performance of the device, resulting in a characteristic IV curve. However, with the appropriate band gap grading at the back interface, it has been shown that the performance can be enhanced through more efficient carrier collection. These results were then correlated with experimental observations of the performance degradation in devices subjected to light and heat stress.

A neutron star in binary orbit with a low-mass non-degenerate companion becomes a source of x-rays with millisecond variability when mass accretion spins it up. Centrifugally driven changes in density profile may initiate a phase transition in a growing region of the core parallel to what may take place in an isolated millisecond pulsar, but in reverse. Such a star will spend a longer time in the spin frequency range over which the transition occurs than elsewhere because the change of phase, paced by the spinup rate, is accompanied by a growth in the moment of inertia. The population of accreters will exhibit a clustering in the critical frequency range. A phase change triggered by changing spin and the accompanying adjustment of moment of inertia has its analogue in rotating nuclei.

Over the last ten years, photonic band gap (PBG) theory and technology have become an important area of research because of the numerous possible applications ranging from high-efficiency laser diodes to optical circuitry. This research concentrates on reducing the length scale in the fabrication of layered photonic band gap structures and developing procedures to improve processing consistency. Various procedures and materials have been used in the fabrication of layered PBG structures. This research focused on an economical micro transfer molding approach to create the final PBG structure. A poly dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) rubber mold was created from a silicon substrate. It was filled with epoxy and built layer-by-layer to create a 3-D epoxy structure. This structure was infiltrated with nanoparticle titania or a titania sol-gel, then fired to remove the polymer mold, leaving a monolithic ceramic inverse of the epoxy structure. The final result was a lattice of titania rolds that resembles a face-centered tetragonal structure. The original intent of this research was to miniaturize this process to a bar size small enough to create a photonic band gap for wavelengths of visible electro-magnetic radiation. The factor limiting progress was the absence of a silicon master mold of small enough dimensions. …

Semiweekly newspaper from Levelland, 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.

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

This report contains the changing composition of the federal research and development portfolio.

Interview with Albert Bouley, a U. S. Marine during World War II. He discusses his enlistment in the Marines just after Pearl Harbor; his assignment to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division; the battle of Guadalcanal; malaria and dysentery; the battle of Cape Gloucester; the use of Pavuvu as a base; the battle of Peleliu; his return to the United States; guard duty at the Brooklyn Naval Yard and his service as an instructor in a heavy weapons school before the end of the war. He joined the Air Force 2 1/2 years later to be able to fly and work on planes, then retire to become a teacher in California, and finally settled in Texas.

Transcript of an oral interview with Albert Bouley. He discusses joining the Marines just after Pearl Harbor, being in the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division, the battle of Guadalcanal, getting malaria and dysentery, the battle of Cape Gloucester, using Pavuvu as a base, the battle of Peleliu, shipping back to the States, doing guard duty at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, becoming an instructor in a heavy weapons school before then end of the war. He joined the Air Force 2 1/2 years later to be able to fly and work on planes, then retiring and becoming a teacher in California before settling in Texas.

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.

Transcript of an oral interview with Albert Bouley. He discusses joining the Marines just after Pearl Harbor, being in the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division, the battle of Guadalcanal, getting malaria and dysentery, the battle of Cape Gloucester, using Pavuvu as a base, the battle of Peleliu, shipping back to the States, doing guard duty at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, becoming an instructor in a heavy weapons school before then end of the war. He joined the Air Force 2 1/2 years later to be able to fly and work on planes, then retiring and becoming a teacher in California before settling in Texas.