A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Appellants and others have been concerned about the length of time it takes for a decision on the appeal of a denied Medicare claim. In December 2000, the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA), required, among other things, shorter decision time frames. BIPA's provisions related to Medicare appeals were to be applied to claims denied after October 1, 2002, but many of the changes have not yet been implemented. GAO was asked to evaluate whether the current Medicare appeals process is operating consistent with BIPA's requirements and to identify any barriers to meeting the law's requirements."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Military lands provide habitat for more than 300 species that must be protected under the Endangered Species Act and many other species that may become endangered. In some cases, military installations provide some of the finest remaining habitat for these species. However, Department of Defense (DOD) officials stated that protection of endangered species may result in land-use restrictions that reduce the military's flexibility to use land for training. GAO was asked to examine the (1) extent to which DOD and other nearby federal land managers in the region are managing cooperatively for endangered species affecting military training ranges and (2) factors that can limit cooperative management for endangered species on military training ranges."

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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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Redistricting of trustee districts for the Dallas Independent School District (RQ-0042-GA)

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Meaning of the phrase "in the custody of a peace officer" for the purposes of article 49.18, Code of Criminal Procedure (RQ-0047-GA)

Experiments were conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to evaluate potential incorporation of radionuclides in secondary mineral phases that form from weathering vitrified nuclear waste glasses. These experiments were conducted as part of the Immobilized Low-Activity Waste-Performance Assessment (ILAW-PA) to generate data on radionuclide mobilization and transport in a near-field environment of disposed vitrified wastes. The results of these experiments demonstrated that radionuclide sequestration can be significantly enhanced by promoting the formation of cage structured minerals such as sodalite from weathering glasses. These results have important implications regarding radionuclide sequestration/mobilization aspects that are not currently accounted for in the ILAW PA. Additional studies are required to confirm the results and to develop an improved understanding of the mechanisms of sequestration of radionuclides into the secondary and tertiary weathering products of the ILAW glass to help refine how contaminants are released from the near-field disposal region out into the accessible environment. Of particular interest is to determine whether the contaminants remain sequestered in the glass weathering products for hundreds to thousands of years. If the sequestration can be shown to continue for long periods, another immobilization process can be added to the PA analysis and predicted risks should be lower than …

This report covers the first year of this three-year research grant under the University Coal Research program. The overall objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive kinetic model for slurry phase Fischer-Tropsch synthesis on iron catalysts. This model will be validated with experimental data obtained in a stirred tank slurry reactor (STSR) over a wide range of process conditions. The model will be able to predict concentrations of all reactants and major product species (H{sup 2}O, CO{sub 2}, linear 1- and 2-olefins, and linear paraffins) as a function of reaction conditions in the STSR. During the reporting period we have completed one STSR test with precipitated iron catalyst obtained from Ruhrchemie AG (Oberhausen-Holten, Germany). This catalyst was initially in commercial fixed bed reactors at Sasol in South Africa. The catalyst was tested at 13 different sets of process conditions, and had experienced a moderate deactivation during the first 500 h of testing (decrease in conversion from 56% to 50% at baseline process conditions). The second STSR test has been initiated and after 270 h on stream, the catalyst was tested at 6 different sets of process conditions.

The objective of this project is to design, construct and field demonstrate a membrane system to recover natural gas liquids (NGLs) and remove water from raw natural gas. To convince industry users of the efficiency and reliability of the process, we plan to conduct an extended field test to demonstrate system performance under real-world conditions. The membrane system has been designed and fabricated by Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR). The MTR membrane system and the compressor are now onsite at BP's Pascagoula, MS plant. The plant is undergoing a very significant expansion and the installation of the membrane unit into the test location is being implemented, albeit at a slower rate than we expected. The startup of the system and conducting of tests will occur in the next six months, depending on the availability of the remaining budget. In the interim, significant commercial progress has been made regarding the introduction of the NGL membrane and systems into the natural gas market.

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

The Eighth International Conference on Synchrotron Radiation (SRI 2003) ended its August 25-28 run at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco with almost as many in attendance as at the beginning. The steady attendance was surely a tribute to the quality of the program and the excitement it generated among the more than 700 registrants who gathered for four days of plenary talks, parallel sessions, and posters, as well as facility tours of the ALS and SSRL on August 29.

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

This plan provides updates the ongoing RCRA interim status groundwater monitoring program for the U-12 crib and provides a proposed RCRA final status post-closure groundwater monitoring program.

For many years now, spin physics has played a very prominent role in QCD. The field has been carried by the hugely successful experimental program of polarized deeply-inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering (DIS), and by a simultaneous tremendous progress in theory. This talk summarizes some of the interesting new developments in spin physics in the past roughly two years. As we will see, there have yet again been exciting new data from polarized lepton-nucleon scattering, but also from the world's first polarized pp collider, RHIC. There have been very significant advances in theory as well. It will not be possible to cover all developments. The author will select those topics that may be of particular interest to the attendees of a conference in the ''DIS'' series. The author briefly reviews some of the recent developments in QCD spin physics.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) array signal processing has the distinct advantage in that it is possible to illuminate or focus on ''spots'' at distant points in space, as opposed to just illuminating or steering at certain directions for narrowband array processing. The term ''spotforming'' is used to emphasize the property that point-focusing techniques with UWB waveforms can be viewed as a generalization of the well-known narrowband beamforming techniques. Because methods in spotforming can lead to powerful applications for UWB systems, in this paper we derive, simulate and experimentally verify UWB spot size as a function of frequency, bandwidth and array aperture.

A laser ablation/ionization mass spectrometer system is described for the direct analysis of solids, particles, and fibers. The system uses a quadrupole ion trap operated in an ion-storage (IS) mode, coupled with a reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS). The sample is inserted radially into the ring electrode and an imaging system allows direct viewing and selected analysis of the sample. Measurements identified trace contaminants of Ag, Sn, and Sb in a Pb target with single laser-shot experiments. Resolution (m/{micro}m) of 1500 and detection limits of approximately 10 pg have been achieved with a single laser pulse. The system configuration and related operating principles for accurately measuring low concentrations of isotopes are described.

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This report summarizes the arbitration procedure used when an investor from one NAFTA party believes that another NAFTA party has breached an obligation under Chapter 11, and the investor suffered loss as a result. This report also examines one of the two most-debated Chapter 11 obligations imposed on the parties: the "fair and equitable treatment" of foreign investors. Additionally, it describes the roughly 20 claims filed so far under NAFTA Chapter 11, including the six against the U.S.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with George Baugh. Baugh joined the Merchant Marine in 1944. He shares details of his training. He served as Messman in the Steward Department aboard a T2 tanker, the SS Mobile Bay. In early 1945, they deployed to England to deliver fuel. Baugh shares details of the ship and general life aboard. He later joined the union and worked aboard a merchant ship, delivering cargo to Panama, Venezuela and Columbia. After the war ended, Baugh continued his service in the union for an additional 23 years.

The objective of this research program is to improve high temperature piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) sensor technology to make it useful for instrumentation and health monitoring of current and future electrical power generation equipment. The program will extend the temperature range of the sensor from approximately 700 C to above 1000 C, and ultrasonic coupling to objects at these temperatures will be investigated and tailored for use with the sensor. The chemical vapor deposition (CVD) AlN deposition process was successfully transferred from film production on tungsten carbide substrates to titanium alloy and silicon carbide (SiC) substrates. Further evaluation of the piezoelectric films on titanium caused it to be discarded as a candidate material due to an excessive thermal expansion coefficient mismatch, causing film failure upon reheating from room temperature. Deposition on SiC is proceeding well, with a highly conductive grade of silicon carbide required for practical use. Additional substrate materials, including refractory metals and conductive ceramics, have been considered but are generally not promising in light of the experience with titanium. Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) was investigated as an alternate means of creating the films as an alternative to CVD. A concurrent effort has focused on investigation of means of …

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

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with George Baugh. Baugh joined the Merchant Marine in 1944. He shares details of his training. He served as Messman in the Steward Department aboard a T2 tanker, the SS Mobile Bay. In early 1945, they deployed to England to deliver fuel. Baugh shares details of the ship and general life aboard. He later joined the union and worked aboard a merchant ship, delivering cargo to Panama, Venezuela and Columbia. After the war ended, Baugh continued his service in the union for an additional 23 years.

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

This article discusses nanoparticle-assisted microwave absorption by single-wall carbon nanotubes.

Faculty recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall.