Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO, answering a request from the House Committee on Ways and Means, compiled information concerning amounts charged by the White House for Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) events attended by President George W. Bush and charged to any department within HHS."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The cost of a ship's crew is the single largest incurred over the ship's life cycle. One way to lower personnel costs, and thus the cost of ownership, is to use people only when it is cost-effective--a determination made with a systems engineering approach called human systems integration. GAO was asked to evaluate the Navy's progress in optimizing the crew size in four ships being developed and acquired: the DD(X) destroyer, T-AKE cargo ship, JCC(X) command ship, and LHA(R) amphibious assault ship. GAO assessed (1) the Navy's use of human systems integration principles and goals for reducing crew size, and (2) the factors that may impede the Navy's use of those principles."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The fees and other costs that investors pay as part of owning mutual fund shares can significantly affect their investment returns. As a result, questions have been raised as to whether the disclosures of mutual fund fees and other practices are sufficiently transparent. GAO reviewed (1) how mutual funds disclose their fees and related trading costs and options for improving these disclosures, (2) changes in how mutual funds pay for the sale of fund shares and how the changes in these practices are affecting investors, and (3) the benefits of and the concerns over mutual funds' use of soft dollars."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to legislative direction, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), now part of the Department of Homeland Security, plans to acquire and deploy an entry exit system to assist in monitoring the flow of foreign nationals in and out of the United States. By separate legislative direction, INS must submit to the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations a plan for this system that meets certain conditions, including being reviewed by GAO, before funds can be obligated. This report satisfies GAO's mandated review obligation by (1) addressing whether the plan submitted by INS, along with related INS documentation and plans, meets required conditions and (2) providing observations about the plan and INS's management of the system."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Department of Defense (DOD) spending on service contracts approaches $100 billion annually, but DOD's management of services procurement is inefficient and ineffective and the dollars are not always well spent. Recent legislation requires DOD to improve procurement practices to achieve savings. Many private companies changed management practices based on analyzing spending patterns and coordinating procurement in order to achieve major savings. This report evaluates five companies' best practices and their conduct and use of "spend analysis" and the extent that DOD can pursue similar practices."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA) has focused national attention on increasing accountability for states and school districts to improve student achievement. While increasing accountability, NCLBA also provided states and school districts with additional flexibility. The act established two flexibility demonstration programs--State- and Local-Flex--which allow up to 7 states and 80 school districts to redirect up to 100 percent of certain NCLBA program funds. GAO was asked to determine factors that affect states' and districts' decisions whether or not to apply for the demonstration programs and to determine the extent to which the U.S. Department of Education publicized, provided guidance, and established a process to review and award flexibility demonstration programs. To address these questions, GAO conducted a study, using telephone interviews with officials in 22 states and 37 school districts, and site visits to 2 of the four applicants."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This letter is in response to the Secretary of Education's May 2, 2003, letter requesting that we make a commitment to reconsider by early this summer our high-risk designation of the Department of Education's Student Financial Aid (SFA) programs. In that letter, the Secretary of Education outlined how the department has addressed many of the concerns we have identified and the plans it has underway for continued improvements, as well as its plans to update Federal Student Aid's (FSA) Five-Year Performance Plan. In order to help ensure that planned and completed actions address the issues raised in our recent High-Risk and Performance and Accountability reports, Education offered to provide a series of briefings to our key managers on: plans and progress for sustaining the clean opinion on the department's financial statements; FSA progress on its modernization efforts and FSA Data Strategies Framework; FSA program integrity initiatives, including FSA default prevention and collection strategies; and progress on One-ED (the department's human capital planning initiative)."

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; Whether, under section 542.007 of the Transporation Code, a county commisioners court may extend state traffic laws to roads in a private subdivision and, if so, whether it may except from the laws thus extended statutes restricting all-terrain vehicle use on public roads (RQ-0008-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; Budget amendment process in Denton County (RQ-0013-GA)

We demonstrate a technique for detecting magnetically-labeled Listeria monocytogenes and for measuring the binding rate between antibody-linked magnetic particles and bacteria. This assay, which is both sensitive and straightforward to perform, can quantify specific bacteria in a sample without the need to immobilize the bacteria or wash away unbound magnetic particles. In the measurement, we add 50 nm diameter superparamagnetic particles, coated with antibodies, to a liquid sample containing L. monocytogenes. We apply a pulsed magnetic field to align the magnetic dipole moments and use a high transition temperature Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID), an extremely sensitive detector of magnetic flux, to measure the magnetic relaxation signal when the field is turned off. Unbound particles randomize direction by Brownian rotation too quickly to be detected. In contrast, particles bound to L. monocytogenes are effectively immobilized and relax in about 1 s by rotation of the internal dipole moment. This Neel relaxation process is detected by the SQUID. The measurements indicate a detection limit of (5.6 {+-} 1.1) x 10{sup 6} L. monocytogenes for a 20 {micro}L sample volume. If the sample volume were reduced to 1 nL, we estimate that the detection limit could be improved to 230 {+-} 40 …

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The objective of this project is to develop a 3 dimensional measurement system for the domestic forging industry based on HotEye{trademark}. This technology will allow high definition camera to accurately image a red hot object. The project marries conventional Coordinate Measurement Machine ''CMM'' technology to HotEye{trademark} technology to permit the accurate measurement of forged parts while they are at high temperature. Being able to take such measurements will dramatically reduce the amount of scrap produced by the domestic forging industry. This industry wastes a significant amount of energy because of the high rate of scrap it produces. OGT will: (1) Develop a 3D measurement sensor head that will work on a part at a temperature up to 1,450 C with an accuracy of 0.1mm or better and with a scanning speed of less than 10 seconds for an area of 100mm x 100mm. (2) Develop a Virtual-Fixturing software package to alleviate the need of precise hard fixturing. (3) Integrate the 3D measurement sensor head and the Virtual-Fixturing software into a standard CMM, both hardware (replacing the probes) and software (data format and user interface match) so that the system can automatically perform a complete preprogrammed measurement of a hot product. …

Self-organized superlattices are observed in GaInAsSb epilayers grown lattice matched to vicinal GaSb substrates. The natural superlattice (NSL) is oriented at a slight angle of about 4{sup o} with respect to the vicinal (001) GaSb substrate. This vertical composition modulation is detected at the onset of growth. Layers in the NSL are continuous over the lateral extent of the substrate. Furthermore, the NSL persists throughout several microns of deposition. The NSLs have a period ranging from 10 to 30 nm, which is dependent on deposition temperature and GaInAsSb alloy composition. While the principle driving force for this type of phase separation is chemical, the mechanism for the self-organized microstructure is related to local strains associated with surface undulations. By using a substrate with surface undulations, the tilted NSL can be induced in layers with alloy compositions that normally do not exhibit this self-organized microstructure under typical growth conditions. These results underscore the complex interactions between compositional and morphological perturbations.

The overall objective of this project is the three phase development of an Early Entrance Coproduction Plant (EECP) which produces at least one product from at least two of the following three categories: (1) electric power (or heat), (2) fuels, and (3) chemicals. The objective is to have these products produced by technologies capable of using synthesis gas derived from coal and/or other carbonaceous feedstocks. The objectives of Phase I were to determine the feasibility and define the concept for the EECP located at a specific site; develop a Research, Development, and Testing (RD&T) Plan for implementation in Phase II; and prepare a Preliminary Project Financing Plan. The objective of Phase II is to implement the work as outlined in the Phase I RD&T Plan to enhance the development and commercial acceptance of coproduction technology that produces high-value products, particularly those that are critical to our domestic fuel and power requirements. The project will resolve critical knowledge and technology gaps on the integration of gasification and downstream processing to coproduce some combination of power, fuels, and chemicals from coal and/or other carbonaceous feedstocks. The objective of Phase III is to develop an engineering design package and a financing and testing …

The dynamics due to the long-range beam-beam interactions depends on several beam parameters such as tunes, coupling, chromaticities, beam separations, intensities and emittances. They have developed analytical tools to calculate, for example, amplitude dependent tune shifts and chromaticities, beam-beam induced coupling, and betatron and synchro-betatron resonance widths. They report on these calculations and dynamic aperture calculations with long-term tracking. These theoretical results are compared with observations at collision energy and used to predict performance at design values of beam intensities and emittances.

The Fermilab Tevatron, operating at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV, provides a rich environment for the study of the bottom and charmed hadrons and for searches of other bound states. Presented here are recent measurements of the masses of the following states using fully reconstructed events: B{sup +}, B{sup 0}, B{sub s}, {Lambda}{sub b}, and the neutral B**. Lifetimes from both CDF and D0 in exclusive decays for all of these modes are also presented (sans the B**). A search was conducted at CDF for the {Xi}{sup 2} and {Xi}{sup 0} pentaquark states in the decay {Xi}(1860) {yields} {Xi}{sup -} {pi}{sup {+-}} setting a limit on their production in p-{bar p} collisions relative to the number of {Xi}(1530) baryons seen.

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This meeting is the sixteenth oilheat industry technology meeting held since 1984 and the third since the National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) was formed. This year's symposium is a very important part of the effort in technology transfer, which is supported by the Oilheat Research Fuel Flexibility Program under the United States Department of Energy, Distributed Energy and Electricity Reliability Program (DEER). The foremost reason for the conference is to provide a platform for the exchange of information and perspectives among international researchers, engineers, manufacturers, service technicians, and marketers of oil-fired space-conditioning equipment. The conference provides a conduit by which information and ideas can be exchanged to examine present technologies, as well as helping to develop the future course for oil heating advancement. These conferences also serve as a stage for unifying government representatives, researchers, fuel oil marketers, and other members of the oil-heat industry in addressing technology advancements in this important energy use sector. The specific objectives of the conference are to: (1) Identify and evaluate the current state-of-the-art and recommend new initiatives for higher efficiency, a cleaner environment, and to satisfy consumer needs cost effectively, reliably, and safely; (2) Foster cooperative interactions among federal and industrial representatives for …

The authors compare the Tevatron luminosity as measured by the CDF and D0 experiments with that computed from machine characteristics. They also compare the CDF measurements for the size of the interaction region with that predicted by machine parameters. Although these results are still preliminary, they show promise as a useful crosscheck of the instrumentation and our understanding of the Tevatron machine characteristics.

In this research project we made fundamental advances in a number of problems arising in statistical equilibrium theories of turbulence. Here are the highlights. In most cases the mathematical analysis was supplemented by numerical calculations. (a) Maximum entropy principles. We analyzed in a unified framework the Miller-Robert continuum model of equilibrium states in an ideal fluid and a modification of that model due to Turkington. (b) Equivalence and nonequivalence of ensembles. We gave a complete analysis of the equivalence and nonequivalence of the microcanonical, canonical, and mixed ensembles at the level of equilibrium macrostates for a large class of models of turbulence. (c) Nonlinear stability of flows. We refined the well known Arnold stability theorems by proving the nonlinear stability of steady mean flows for the quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity equation in the case when the ensembles are nonequivalent. (d) Geophysical application. The theories developed in items (a), (b), and (c) were applied to predict the emergence and persistence of coherent structures in the active weather layer of the Jovian atmosphere. This is the first work in which sophisticated statistical theories are synthesized with actual observations data from the Voyager and Galileo space missions. (e) Nonlinear dispersive waves. For a class …

The long-range beam-beam interactions limit the achievable luminosity in the Tevatron. During the past year several studies ere performed on ways of removing the limitations at all stages of the operational cycle. The authors report here on some of these studies, including the effects of changing the helical orbits at injection and collision, tune and chromaticity scans and coupling due to the beam-beam interactions.

Level densities and radiative strength functions in {sup 171}Yb and{sup 170}Yb nuclei have been measured with the {sup 171}Yb({sup 3}He, {sup 3}He{prime}{gamma}){sup 171}Yb and {sup 171}Yb({sup 3}He,{alpha}{gamma}){sup 170}Yb reactions. A simultaneous determination of the nuclear level density and the radiative strength function was made. The present data adds to and is consistent with previous results for several other rare earth nuclei. The method will be briefly reviewed and the result from the analysis will be presented. The radiative strength function for {sup 171}Yb is compared to previously published work.

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

The earned income tax credit began in 1975 as a temporary program to return a portion of the social security taxes paid by lower-income taxpayers, and was made permanent in 1978. In the 1990s, the program became a major component of federal efforts to reduce poverty, and is now the largest anti-poverty entitlement program. This report contains information on the earned income tax credit, policy and legislative issues, compliance, and more.