Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is an Internet-based system run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect and record information on foreign students, exchange visitors, and their dependents--before they enter the United States, when they enter, and during their stay. GAO has reported (GAO-04-690) that although the system had a number of performance problems during the first year that its use was required, several SEVIS performance indicators were positive at that time (June 2004). Nonetheless, some problems were still being reported by educational organizations. In addition, concerns have been raised that the number of international students and exchange visitors coming to the United States has been negatively affected by the U.S. visa process. Accordingly, the Congress asked GAO to testify on its work on SEVIS and related issues. This testimony is based on its June 2004 report, augmented by more recent GAO work, reports that we issued in February 2004 and 2005 on student and visiting scholar visa processing, and related recent research by others."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Unemployment Insurance (UI) program, administered by the U.S. Department of Labor in partnership with states, plays a critical role in ensuring the financial security of America's workforce. Established in 1935, UI serves two primary objectives: (1) to temporarily replace a portion of earnings for workers who become unemployed through no fault of their own and (2) to help stabilize the economy during recessions by providing unemployed workers money for basic needs, which helps boost demand for goods and services. In fiscal year 2004, approximately 8.8 million workers received UI benefits, totaling $41.3 billion across all UI programs. To gain a better understanding of the UI program, we asked the following questions: (1) How many people ever receive UI benefits during their early working lives, and how many receive UI benefits more than once? and (2) Does UI benefit receipt change over time, and does receipt vary by industry or occupation?"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) is the federal government's largest purchaser of contractor services, spending $118 billion in fiscal year 2003 alone--an increase of 66 percent since fiscal year 1999. DOD is expected to rely increasingly on contractors to carry out its mission. In recent reports, DOD has identified inadequate surveillance on service contracts. This report examines how DOD manages service contract surveillance. It looks at the extent of DOD's surveillance on a selection of service contracts, reasons why insufficient surveillance occurred, and efforts to improve surveillance."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "More than 10,000 U.S. military servicemembers, including members of the National Guard and Reserve, have been injured in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those with serious physical and psychological injuries are initially treated at the Department of Defense's (DOD) major military treatment facilities (MTF). The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has made provision of services to these servicemembers a high priority. This testimony focuses on the steps VA has taken and the challenges it faces in providing services to the seriously injured and highlights findings from three recent GAO reports that addressed VA's efforts to provide services to the seriously injured. These services include vocational rehabilitation and employment (VR&E) and health care for those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Coast Guard's budget has steadily increased in recent years, reflecting the agency's need to address heightened homeland security responsibilities while also addressing traditional programs such as rescuing mariners in distress and protecting important fishing grounds. The fiscal year 2006 budget request, which totals $8.1 billion, reflects an increase of $570 million over the previous year. GAO has conducted reviews of many of the Coast Guard's programs in recent years, and this testimony synthesizes the results of these reviews as they pertain to three priority areas in the Coast Guard's budget: (1) implementing a maritime strategy for homeland security, (2) enhancing performance across missions, and (3) recapitalizing the Coast Guard, especially the Deepwater program--an acquisition that involves replacing or upgrading cutters and aircraft that are capable of performing missions far out at sea. GAO's observations are aimed at highlighting potential areas for ongoing congressional attention."

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Report from Betty Jane Williams relaying news and events within WASP Region 3. She discusses Janet Hargrave's memorial service, the recent discovery of artifacts at Marie Robinson's crash site, a new large-format film about fighter pilots, and the Women Military Aviators conference.

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

Quarterly publication of the Texas Comptroller's Office regarding sales and use tax in the state of Texas, including an analysis by county, analysis by industry, and related notes.

Britain's Prime Minister Blair assumed the rotating presidency of the G8 group of nations (see text box) in January 2005, and he intends to use the July 2005 G8 summit, which he will chair, to push his Africa development initiative. Climate change will be the second focus of the G8 meeting, being called the "Gleneagles summit." The purpose of this report is to provide background on Africa, the G8, and the Gleneagles meeting. It outlines the British proposals and the U.S. reaction to them to date. In addition, it briefly reviews the problems that have inhibited African development and the response to those problems at previous G8 meetings. For additional information, see CRS Report RL32489, Africa: Development Issues and Policy Options, and CRS Issue Brief IB95052, Africa: U.S. Foreign Assistance Issues.

A novel system has been deployed to obtain geochemical samples of water and gas, at in situ pressure, during a geologic CO2 sequestration experiment conducted in the Frio brine aquifer in Liberty County, Texas. Project goals required high-frequency recovery of representative and uncontaminated aliquots of a rapidly changing two-phase (supercritical CO2-brine) fluid from 1.5 km depth. The datasets collected, using both the liquid and gas portions of the downhole samples, provide insights into the coupled hydro-geochemical issues affecting CO2 sequestration in brine-filled formations. While the basic premise underlying the U-Tube sampler is not new, the system is unique because careful consideration was given to the processing of the recovered two-phase fluids. In particular, strain gauges mounted beneath the high-pressure surface sample cylinders measured the ratio of recovered brine to supercritical CO2. A quadrupole mass spectrometer provided real-time gas analysis for perfluorocarbon and noble gas tracers that were injected along with the CO2. The U-Tube successfully acquired frequent samples, facilitating accurate delineation of the arrival of the CO2 plume, and on-site analysis revealed rapid changes in geochemical conditions.

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

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This paper presents an evaluation of robotics and remote handling technologies that have the potential to increase the efficiency of handling waste packages at the proposed Yucca Mountain High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository. It is expected that increased efficiency will reduce the cost of operations. The goal of this work was to identify technologies for consideration as potential projects that the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Office of Science and Technology International Programs, could support in the near future, and to assess their ''payback'' value. The evaluation took into account the robotics and remote handling capabilities planned for incorporation into the current baseline design for the repository, for both surface and subsurface operations. The evaluation, completed at the end of fiscal year 2004, identified where significant advantages in operating efficiencies could accrue by implementing any given robotics technology or approach, and included a road map for a multiyear R&D program for improvements to remote handling technology that support operating enhancements.

Brayton Point Unit 1 was successfully tested for applicability of activated carbon injection as a mercury control technology. Test results from this site have enabled a thorough evaluation of the impacts of future mercury regulations to Brayton Point Unit 1, including performance, estimated cost, and operation data. This unit has variable (29-75%) native mercury removal, thus it was important to understand the impacts of process variables and activated carbon on mercury capture. The team responsible for executing this program included: (1) Plant and PG&E National Energy Group corporate personnel; (2) Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI); (3) United States Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE/NETL); (4) ADA-ES, Inc.; (5) NORIT Americas, Inc.; (6) Apogee Scientific, Inc.; (7) TRC Environmental Corporation; (8) URS Corporation; (9) Quinapoxet Solutions; (10) Energy and Environmental Strategies (EES); and (11) Reaction Engineering International (REI). The technical support of all of these entities came together to make this program achieve its goals. Overall, the objectives of this field test program were to determine the impact of activated carbon injection on mercury control and balance-of-plant processes on Brayton Point Unit 1. Brayton Point Unit 1 is a 250-MW unit that fires a low-sulfur eastern bituminous coal. Particulate …

The depth profiles of intentional or intrinsic constituents of a sample provide valuable information for the characterization of materials. For example, the subtle differences in spatial distribution and composition of many chemical species in the near surface region and across interfacial boundaries can significantly alter the electronic and optical properties of materials. A number of analytical techniques for depth profiling have been developed during the last two decades. neutron Depth Profiling (NDP) is one of the leading analytical techniques. The NDP is a nondestructive near surface technique that utilizes thermal/cold neutron beam to measure the concentration of specific light elements versus their depth in materials. The depth is obtained from the energy loss of protons, alphas or recoil atoms in substrate materials. Since the charged particle energy determination using surface barrier detector is used for NDP, the depth resolution is highly dependent on the detectors an d detection instruments. The depth resolutions of a few tens of nm are achieved with available NDP facilities in the world. However, the performance of NDP needs to be improved in order to obtain a few A depth resolutions.

The calculations contained in this document were developed by the ''Mining Group of the Design & Engineering Organization'' and are intended solely for the use of the ''Design & Engineering Organization'' in its work regarding the subsurface repository. Yucca Mountain Project personnel from the ''Mining Group'' should be consulted before use of the calculations for purposes other than those stated herein or use by individuals other than authorized personnel in the ''Design & Engineering Organization''. The purpose of this calculation is to provide design inputs that can be used to develop an as-built drawing of the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) for the planning and development of the subsurface repository. This document includes subsurface as-built surveys, recommendation to complete as-built surveys, and Management and Operating Contractor (M&O) Subsurface Design Drawings as inputs. This calculation is used to provide data and information for an as-built ESF subsurface drawing and is not used in the development of results or conclusions, therefore all inputs are considered as indirect.

Nucleation-growth kinetic expressions are derived for thermal decomposition of HMX from a variety of types of data, including mass loss for isothermal and constant rate heating in an open pan, and heat flow for isothermal and constant rate heating in open and closed pans. Conditions are identified in which thermal runaway is small to nonexistent, which typically means temperatures less than 255 C and heating rates less than 1 C/min. Activation energies are typically in the 140 to 165 kJ/mol regime for open pan experiments and about 150-165 kJ/mol for sealed-pan experiments. The reaction clearly displays more than one process, and most likely three processes, which are most clearly evident in open pan experiments. The reaction is accelerated for closed pan experiments, and one global reaction fits the data fairly well. Our A-E values lie in the middle of the values given in a compensation-law plot by Brill et al. (1994). Comparison with additional open and closed low temperature pyrolysis experiments support an activation energy of 165 kJ/mol at 10% conversion.

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Describes general synthetic strategies developed under this grant to control interchain electronic communications within conjugated polymers (CPs). Novel chemical architectures built on iptycenes, metallorotaxanes, and canopied pyrroles restrict the dimensionality of electronic structures responsible for excition and charge transport. Structure-property relationships emerging from studies of selected systems are discussed, focusing on their implications for the sensitivity of these materials as sensors.

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