A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For more than 60 years, the United Services Organization (USO), in partnership with the Department of Defense (DOD), has provided support and entertainment to U.S. armed forces, relying heavily on private contributions and on funds, goods, and services from DOD. To assist USO, Congress, beginning in fiscal year 2000, provided a total of $23.8 million in grants to be awarded through DOD as seed money for an endowment fund. The availability of these funds to USO, along with DOD's ongoing support funded in its regular annual appropriations, represents a substantial financial commitment. GAO determined (1) the source and amount of DOD's support to USO in fiscal years 2000-2002 and (2) the sufficiency of internal controls to provide reasonable assurance that federal funds are used in an appropriate manner. GAO focused its audit on USO World Headquarters' activities and audited a limited selection of USO transactions for the 3 fiscal years."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) matches information returns filed by third parties, including federal agencies, with taxpayers' income tax returns to determine whether taxpayers have filed a return and/or reported all of their income. A correct taxpayer identification number (TIN) is necessary to enable IRS to match these returns. Prior GAO reviews have shown that federal agency payment records often include invalid TINs, particularly for vendors. GAO was asked to study federal agencies' compliance with filing information returns for service payments made to vendors, IRS's efforts to improve agencies' compliance, and whether additional measures could improve their compliance."

Assessments were performed to evaluate compliance with the airborne radionuclide emission monitoring requirements in the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP - U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 40, Part 61, Subpart H) and Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 246-247: Radiation Protection - Air Emissions. In these assessments, potential unabated offsite doses were evaluated for emission locations at facilities owned by the U.S. Department of Energy and operated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on the Hanford Site. This report describes the inventory-based methods and provides the results for the assessment performed in 2003.

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Superovulation of female mice with exogenous gonadotrophins is routinely used for increasing the number of eggs ovulated by each female in reproductive and developmental studies. We report an unusual effect of superovulation on fertilization in mice. In vivo matings of superovulated T-stock females with B6C3F1 males resulted in a 2-fold reduction (P<0.001) in the frequencies of fertilized eggs compared to control B6C3F1 matings. In addition, {approx}22 hr after mating only 15% of fertilized eggs recovered in T-stock females had reached the metaphase stage of the first cleavage division versus 87% in B6C3F1 females (P < 0.0001). Matings with T-stock males did not improve the reproductive performance of T-stock females. To investigate the possible cause(s) for the impaired fertilization and zygotic development, the experiments were repeated using in vitro fertilization. Under these conditions, the frequencies of fertilized eggs were not different in superovulated T-stock and B6C3F1 females (51.7% {+-} 6.0 and 64.5% {+-}3.8, P=0.10). There was a 7-fold increase in the frequencies of fertilized T-stock eggs that completed the first cell cycle of development after in vitro versus in vivo fertilization. These results rule out an intrinsic deficiency of the T-stock oocyte as the main reason for the impaired fertility after …

We have designed and built a six-band multi-spectral NIR imaging system used in clinical testing on cancer patients. From our layered tissue model, we create blood volume and blood oxygenation images for patient treatment monitoring.

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

The Advanced Light Source (ALS) saw first light on October 5, 1993, not quite to the day but close to 10 years before the 2003 ALS Users Association meeting, held October 6-8. Fittingly, the proceedings included retrospectives from two of the key players in the early history of the ALS, David Attwood and Jay Marx, and a display of photographs chronicling its construction and commissioning. Science highlights, highlights from young researchers, and posters constituted the meat of the program on Monday and Tuesday morning, while workshops took over Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday.

The decay of {sup 154}Eu {yields} {sup 154}Gd has been studied by {gamma}-ray singles and {gamma}-{gamma} coincidence spectroscopy using an array of 20 Compton-suppressed Ge detectors. The primary goal of the work was to confirm or refute a large number of questionable features in the decay scheme: the outcome is the removal of 8 levels from the previously adopted scheme, with the result that a new type of collective band is revealed. Many weak decay branches for the decay are clarified. These results are critical for understanding the structure of {sup 154}Gd and the N = 90 isotones; and the improved completeness of the decay scheme contributes to the use of {sup 154}Eu as a metrological standard.

Neural networks were used to calibrate an online ash analyzer at the Usibelli Coal Mine, Healy, Alaska, by relating the Americium and Cesium counts to the ash content. A total of 104 samples were collected from the mine, with 47 being from screened coal, and the rest being from unscreened coal. Each sample corresponded to 20 seconds of coal on the running conveyor belt. Neural network modeling used the quick stop training procedure. Therefore, the samples were split into training, calibration and prediction subsets. Special techniques, using genetic algorithms, were developed to representatively split the sample into the three subsets. Two separate approaches were tried. In one approach, the screened and unscreened coal was modeled separately. In another, a single model was developed for the entire dataset. No advantage was seen from modeling the two subsets separately. The neural network method performed very well on average but not individually, i.e. though each prediction was unreliable, the average of a few predictions was close to the true average. Thus, the method demonstrated that the analyzers were accurate at 2-3 minutes intervals (average of 6-9 samples), but not at 20 seconds (each prediction).

The AP2 beamline transports anti-protons from the production target to the Debuncher ring. For many years the observed aperture has been smaller than that estimated from linear, on-energy optics. We have investigated possible reasons for the aperture restriction and have identified several possible sources, including residual vertical dispersion from alignment errors and chromatic effects due to very large chromatic lattice functions. We discuss the possible sources, suggest some remedies, and propose specific studies, where needed, to evaluate suspected problems.

ProteinShop Gives Researchers a Hands-On Tool for Manipulating, Visualizing Protein Structures. The Human Genome Project and other biological research efforts are creating an avalanche of new data about the chemical makeup and genetic codes of living organisms. But in order to make sense of this raw data, researchers need software tools which let them explore and model data in a more intuitive fashion. With this in mind, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Davis, have developed ProteinShop, a visualization and modeling program which allows researchers to manipulate protein structures with pinpoint control, guided in large part by their own biological and experimental instincts. Biologists have spent the last half century trying to unravel the ''protein folding problem,'' which refers to the way chains of amino acids physically fold themselves into three-dimensional proteins. This final shape, which resembles a crumpled ribbon or piece of origami, is what determines how the protein functions and translates genetic information. Understanding and modeling this geometrically complex formation is no easy matter. ProteinShop takes a given sequence of amino acids and uses visualization guides to help generate predictions about the secondary structures, identifying alpha helices and flat beta strands, and the …

This document is a final report covering work performed under Contract No. DE-FG02-99ER82911 from the Department of Energy under a SBIR Phase II Program. Wear resistant, hard coatings can play a vital role in many engineering applications. The primary goal of this project was to develop coatings containing boron and carbon with hardness greater than 30 GPa and evaluate these coatings for machining applications. UES has developed a number of carbon and boron containing coatings with hardness in the range of 34 to 65 GPa using a combination of filtered cathodic arc and magnetron sputtering. The boron containing coatings were based on TiB2, TiBN, and TiBCN, while the carbon containing coatings ere TiC+C and hydrogen free diamond-like-carbon. Machining tests were performed with single and multilayer coated tools. The turning and milling tests were run at TechSolve Inc., under a subcontract at Ohio State University. Significant increases in tool lives were realized in end milling of H-13 die steel (8X) and titanium alloy (80%) using the TiBN coating. A multilayer TiBN/TiN performed the best in end-milling of highly abrasive Al-Si alloys. A 40% increase in life over the TiAlN benchmark coating was found. Further evaluations of these coatings with commercialization partners …

This renewal proposal outlines our current progress and future research plans for ion exchangers: novel metal niobate and silicotitanate ion exchangers and their ultimate deployment in the DOE complex. In our original study several forms (including Cs exchanged) of the heat treated Crystalline Silicotitanates (CSTs) were fully characterized by a combination of high temperature synthesis and phase identification, low temperature synthesis and phase identification, and thermodynamics. This renewal proposal is predicated on work completed in our current EMSP program: we have shown preliminary data of a novel class of niobate-based molecular sieves (Na/Nb/M/O, M = transition metals), which show exceptionally high selectivity for divalent cations under extreme conditions (acid solutions, competing cations), in addition to novel silicotitanate phases which are also selective for divalent cations. Furthermore, these materials are easily converted by a high temperature in-situ heat treatment into a refractory ceramic waste form with low cation leachability. The new waste form is a perovskite phase, which is also a major component of Synroc, a titanate ceramic waste form used for sequestration of HLW wastes from reprocessed, spent nuclear fuel. These new niobate ion exchangers also shown orders of magnitude better selectivity for Sr2+ under acid conditions than any other …

Newspaper from Rose State College in Midwest City, Oklahoma that includes national, local, and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Dell City, 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.

We developed a technique to locate wireless network nodes using multiple time-of-flight range measurements in a position estimate. When used with communication methods that allow propagation through walls, such as Ultra-Wideband and 802.11, we can locate network nodes in buildings and in caves where GPS is unavailable. This paper details the implementation on an 802.11a network where we demonstrated the ability to locate a network access point to within 20 feet.

Since the collapse of Enron Corp. in late 2001, there has been a series of scandals involving major U.S. corporations. Recurring elements in the scandals include improper or fraudulent accounting, self-enrichment by corporate officers, stock trading on inside information, and the destruction or falsification of business records. This report tracks post-Enron criminal charges.

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

Tri-weekly student newspaper from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

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.

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

This report is about the Broadband Internet Access, The Background and analysis of Broadband. It's importance, and about broadband technologies like Cable, Satellite and other technologies. The status of Broadband Deployment and Development Issues.