Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1986, the United States entered into a Compact of Free Association with the Pacific Island nations of the Federated States of Micronesia, or FSM, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, or RMI. The Compact provided about $2.1 billion in U.S. funds, supplied by the Department of the Interior, over 17 years (1987-2003) to the FSM and the RMI. These funds were intended to advance economic development. In a past report, GAO found that this assistance did little to advance economic development in either country, and accountability over funding was limited. The Compact also established U.S. defense rights and obligations in the region and allowed for migration from both countries to the United States. The three parties recently renegotiated expiring economic assistance provisions of the Compact in order to provide an additional 20 years of assistance (2004-2023). In addition, the negotiations addressed defense and immigration issues. The House International Relations and Resources Committees requested that GAO report on Compact negotiations. This testimony discusses negotiated changes to the levels and structure of future assistance, including the potential cost to the U.S. government. Further, it reviews accountability, defense, and …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Wildland fires burned over 8 million acres during the 2000 wildfire season, making it one of the worst in the past 50 years. As a result, a National Fire Plan was implemented beginning in 2001 to better prevent, prepare for, respond to, and repair damage caused by wildland fires. In fiscal years 2001 through 2003, Congress provided $4.9 billion to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Forest Service to implement the National Fire Plan on land that it manages. Of this amount, Congress earmarked $212 million to fund the rehabilitation of land burned by wildland fires. In general, rehabilitation covers long-term efforts to improve lands unlikely to recover naturally from wildland fire damage. In some cases, rehabilitation may include removing timber from burnt land to, among other things, reduce hazardous fuels. Questions have been raised, however, about whether it is appropriate to use rehabilitation funds for removing such timber, which can be sold. Trees that are removed from National Forest System land can be either green and healthy or dead or dying as a result of disease or wildland fire. Depending on their value, the trees may be …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In June 2002, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a 3-year, $14.8 million contract for a business analysis plan to support three key management areas at the foundation: its business processes, human capital, and information technology. The contract is to be completed by September 30, 2005, and is to result in seven deliverables, including a project plan to guide the contractor's work. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies, asked us to obtain information on (1) the status of contract funds budgeted to the key management areas and contract deliverables, and overall plans for the contract; (2) the extent to which the contract will address management issues previously reported by audit and oversight bodies; and (3) NSF's management of the contract and plans for integrating any recommendations made by the contractor."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "DOE is the largest civilian-contracting agency in the federal government, and relies primarily on contractors to operate its sites and carry out its diverse missions. For fiscal year 2003, DOE will spend about 90 percent of its total annual budget, or $19.8 billion, on contracts, including $9.4 billion to operate 16 of its research laboratories (called federally funded research and development centers). Since 1990, GAO has identified DOE's contract management as high-risk for fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. In 1994, DOE began reforming its contracting practices to, among other things, improve contractor performance and accountability. As part of that effort, DOE has at times used competition in awarding contracts to manage and operate its research laboratories. In September 2002, GAO reported on the status of contract reform efforts in DOE. (Contract Reform: DOE Has Made Progress, but Actions Needed to Ensure Initiatives Have Improved Results) (Sep. 2002, GAO-02-798) This testimony discusses some of the findings in that report. GAO was asked to testify on DOE's rationale for deciding whether to compete a laboratory research contract, the extent to which DOE has competed these contracts, and the role of …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1936, the Social Security Administration (SSA) established the Social Security Number (SSN) to track worker's earnings for social security benefit purposes. However, the SSN is also used for a myriad of non-Social Security purposes. Today, the SSN is used, in part, as a verification tool for services such as child support collection, law enforcement enhancements, and issuing credit to individuals. Although these uses of SSNs are beneficial to the public, SSNs are also a key piece of information in creating false identities. Moreover, the aggregation of personal information, such as SSNs, in large corporate databases, as well as the public display of SSNs in various public records, may provide criminals the opportunity to commit identity crimes. SSA, the originator of the SSN, is responsible for ensuring SSN integrity and verifying the authenticity of identification documents used to obtain SSNs. Although Congress has passed a number of laws to protect an individual's privacy, the continued use and reliance on SSNs by private and public sector entities and the potential for misuse underscores the importance of identifying areas that can be strengthened. Accordingly, this testimony focuses on describing (1) …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A primary goal in establishing Medicaid's statutory formula, whereby states with lower per capita incomes (PCI) receive higher rates of federal reimbursement for program costs, was to narrow differences among states in their ability to fund Medicaid services. States' ability to fund services depends on their financial resources in relation to their number of and costs to serve people in poverty. GAO and others have testified before Congress that the current formula does not address wide differences among states in their ability to fund their Medicaid programs and that the formula's reliance on PCI is the primary cause. GAO was asked to determine the extent to which the formula narrows these differences and to identify factors that impede further narrowing of differences. To evaluate the extent to which the formula narrows differences in states' funding ability, GAO used an alternative to PCI that more directly measures states' resources, number of people in poverty, and cost of providing services to this population. Using this measure, GAO determined the effect of the current formula by comparing states' funding ability before and after receiving their federal matching aid. If …

The initial step in the remediation of nuclear waste stored at Hanford and the Savannah River Site (SRS) involves the retrieval and transfer of the waste to another tank or to a treatment facility. The retrieved waste can range from a filtered supernatant to a slurry. Nearly all of the recent solid formation problems encountered during waste transfers and subsequent treatment steps have involved decanted or filtered supernatants. Problems with slurry transfers have not yet surfaced, because tank farm operations at Hanford and the SRS have focused primarily on supernatant transfers and treatment. For example, the interim stabilization program at Hanford continues to reduce the level of supernatants and interstitial liquids in its single-shell tanks through saltwell pumping of filtered liquid. In addition, at present, the cross-site transfer lines at Hanford can be used only to transfer liquids. Another reason for fewer problems with slurry transfers involves the additions of large quantities of dilution water prior to the transfer. When the waste is transferred, a drop in temperature is expected because most transfer lines are not heated. However, the dilution water reduces or eliminates solid formation caused by this temperature drop. In sharp contrast, decanted or filtered supernatants are near …

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives granting each chamber permission to adjourn from July 3 to July 8, 2003.

Weekly newspaper from Albany, Texas that includes local, county, and state news along with extensive advertising.

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

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The US Department of Energy (DOE) has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) DOE/EA-1455, evaluating continued and enhanced operations of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory-East, Argonne, Illinois. Based on the analysis in the EA, DOE has determined that the proposed action does not constitute a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).

A comparison of n-GaSb and n-GaInAsSb epilayers for ohmic contacts in GaSb-based devices is studied. The epilayers were grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy and doped with Te. At similar electron concentrations, the atomic Te concentration, as determined by secondary ion mass spectroscopy, is more than 2 times higher in n-GaSb compared to n-GaInAsSb. In addition, the electron mobility is lower in n-GaSb than n-GaInAsSb at similar electron concentrations. The electron concentration saturates at about 1.3 x 10{sup 18} cm{sup -3} for n-GaSb, but linearly increases for n-GaInAsSb. Pd/Ge/Au/Pt/Au metallization was studied for ohmic contacts. A specific contact resistivity of 1 x 10{sup -5}{Omega}-cm{sup 2} for n-GaSb was measured. The specific contact resistivity can be greatly improved by contacting n-GaInAsSb, and a significantly lower specific contact resistivity of 2 x 10{sup -6} {Omega}-cm{sup 2} for n-GaInAsSb was measured.

The NSTX spherical torus (ST) provides a unique platform to investigate magnetic confinement in auxiliary-heated plasmas at low aspect ratio. Auxiliary power is routinely coupled to ohmically heated plasmas by deuterium neutral-beam injection (NBI) and by high-harmonic fast waves (HHFW) launch. While theory predicts both techniques to preferentially heat electrons, experiment reveals the electron temperature is greater than the ion temperature during HHFW, but the electron temperature is less than the ion temperature during NBI. In the following we present the experimental data and the results of transport analyses.

A variety of scenarios are considered which shed light upon the uses and limitations of classical geometric and topological notions in string theory. The primary focus is on situations in which D-brane or string probes of a given classical space-time see the geometry quite differently than one might naively expect. In particular, situations in which extra dimensions, non-commutative geometries as well as other non-local structures emerge are explored in detail. Further, a preliminary exploration of such issues in Lorentzian space-times with non-trivial causal structures within string theory is initiated.

This report describes the results made in fulfillment of contract DE-FG26-02NT15451, ''Multicomponent Seismic Analysis and Calibration to Improve Recovery from Algal Mounds: Application to the Roadrunner/Towaoc Area of the Paradox Basin, Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, Colorado''. Optimizing development of highly heterogeneous reservoirs where porosity and permeability vary in unpredictable ways due to facies variations can be challenging. An important example of this is in the algal mounds of the Lower and Upper Ismay reservoirs of the Paradox Basin in Utah and Colorado. It is nearly impossible to develop a forward predictive model to delineate regions of better reservoir development, and so enhanced recovery processes must be selected and designed based upon data that can quantitatively or qualitatively distinguish regions of good or bad reservoir permeability and porosity between existing well control. Recent advances in seismic acquisition and processing offer new ways to see smaller features with more confidence, and to characterize the internal structure of reservoirs such as algal mounds. However, these methods have not been tested. This project will acquire cutting edge, three-dimensional, nine-component (3D9C) seismic data and utilize recently-developed processing algorithms, including the mapping of azimuthal velocity changes in amplitude variation with offset, to extract attributes that relate …

The Savannah River Site's KAMS facility was designed for the receipt and storage of incoming SNM shipments. MC and A requires confirmation and verification on these items. These items normally arrive packaged in a 9975. The KAMS facility has a Neutron Multiplicity Counter (NMC) and a Gamma Isotopic System (GIS) to support these measurements. This report will discuss the qualification of the NMC and GIS for KAMS receipts. The task was made significantly more difficult as the items contain a whole host of materials from Pu metal to mixed Pu/EU and from items relativity free from impurities to items containing significant amounts of impurities as they affect NMC assay. The 9975 container itself has proved to be a challenge for NDA work as it contains at least a 1/2 inches of heavy metal shielding as well as hydrogenous materials.

A 3-D elastic wave propagation finite difference model, including effects of attenuation, has been implemented and compared with other existing modeling codes for validation. Models of seismic scattering from discrete large-scale fractures as well as equivalent anisotropic medium representations of small-scale fractures have been generated and used to develop data analysis methods for applications to seismic field data. An inversion scheme has been developed to estimate fracture orientation and fracture density from amplitude variations with offset and azimuth (AVOA). The method has been tested on synthetic data and field data from an offshore fractured carbonate reservoir with promising results. Spectral characteristics of the numerical model data of the seismic wavefield scattered from aligned fractures with different spacing between fracture zones have been analyzed. Results indicate that the spacing of these large, open fracture zones can be estimated from the wavenumber spectra of the scattered wave amplitude as a function of offset in pre-stack data. Two approaches for converting seismically derived fracture parameters into fluid-flow parameters for use in reservoir simulators have been identified. The first is the numerical modeling of Stoke's flow in fracture networks, and the second uses a statistical model of a fracture distribution that allows for the …

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

Funeral program for Sis. Lillie M. Shandy, born August 15, 1919 and died July 3, 2003. The funeral was held Thursday, July 10, 2003 at Mount Zion First Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Kenneth A. Allen, Sr. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home and she was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.

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

Weekly newspaper from Rio Grande City, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.