Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site in Washington State stores 56 million gallons of untreated radioactive and hazardous wastes resulting from decades of nuclear weapons production. DOE is constructing facilities at the site to treat these wastes before permanent disposal. As part of meeting health, safety, and other standards, work at the site has sometimes been suspended to address safety or construction quality issues. This report discusses (1) work stoppages from January 2000 through December 2008 and what is known about them, (2) the types of costs associated with work stoppages and who paid for them, and (3) whether more effective regulation or oversight could have prevented the work stoppages. GAO interviewed knowledgeable DOE and contractor officials about these events. When documentation was available, GAO obtained DOE and contractor accident and safety incident reports, internal DOE and independent external evaluations, and costs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In March 2004, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) launched the financial management line of business (FMLOB) initiative, in part, to reduce the cost and improve the quality and performance of federal financial management systems by leveraging shared service solutions and implementing other reforms. In March 2006, GAO reported that OMB's approach did not fully integrate certain fundamental system implementation-related concepts and recommended OMB take specific actions. This report discusses (1) OMB's progress in addressing GAO's prior FMLOB recommendations and implementation challenges and (2) the effectiveness of OMB's monitoring of financial management system modernization projects and their costs. GAO's methodology included reviewing OMB's FMLOB-related guidance and reports and interviewing OMB and Financial Systems Integration Office (FSIO) staff."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Millions of federal taxpayers receive billions of dollars in income tax refunds every year. Many of these refunds are paid to taxpayers who owe money to the federal government or to their state or local government. The law allows certain types of debts to be collected through offsets of federal income tax refunds before payments are issued to taxpayers--in calendar year 2008, over $5 billion was deducted from income tax refunds and used instead to pay other federal agency nontax debt, state income tax debt, and overdue child support payments. Due in part to the current economic downturn and the financial problems of state and local governments, interest has grown in potential expansion of the refund offset program Congressional request, this letter's objectives are to describe (1) recent proposals to expand the refund offset program, and (2) challenges and design issues that would need to be addressed by policymakers and program administrators in the event of program expansion, including the implications of eliminating the current requirement that tax refund offsets for state income tax debts are allowed only when the affected taxpayer lives in the state seeking the …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2008, GAO issued two reports on hedge funds--pooled investment vehicles that are privately managed and often engage in active trading of various types of securities and commodity futures and options contracts--highlighting the need for continued regulatory attention and for guidance to better inform pension plans on the risks and challenges of hedge fund investments. Hedge funds generally qualified for exemption from certain securities laws and regulations, including the requirement to register as an investment company. Hedge funds have been deeply affected by the recent financial turmoil. But an industry survey of institutional investors suggests that these investors are still committed to investing in hedge funds in the long term. For the first time hedge funds are allowed to borrow from the Federal Reserve under the Term-Asset Backed Loan Facility. As such, the regulatory oversight issues and investment challenges raised by the 2008 reports still remain relevant. This testimony discusses: (1) federal regulators' oversight of hedge fund-related activities; (2) potential benefits, risks, and challenges pension plans face in investing in hedge funds; (3) the measures investors, creditors, and counterparties have taken to impose market discipline on hedge funds; …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, questions have been raised about the capacity of the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Division of Enforcement (Enforcement) to manage its resources and fulfill its law enforcement and investor protection responsibilities. This testimony focuses on (1) the extent to which Enforcement has an appropriate mix of resources; (2) considerations affecting penalty determinations, and recent trends in penalties and disgorgements ordered; and (3) the adoption, implementation, and effects of recent penalty policies. The testimony is based on the GAO report, Securities and Exchange Commission: Greater Attention Needed to Enhance Communication and Utilization of Resources in the Division of Enforcement (GAO-09-358, March 31, 2009). For this work, GAO analyzed information on resources, enforcement actions, and penalties; and interviewed current and former SEC officials and staff, and others."

This report discusses the emerging development of nationwide alert systems to recover missing adults, such as those with mental impairment (such as Alzheimer's disease), developmental disabilities, or suicidal tendencies. This report provides an overview of such alert systems in 11 states: Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia. This report also provides a discussion of issues for Congress to consider with respect to the federal role, if any, in developing state alert programs for missing adults.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Port Aransas, Texas on Mustang Island that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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

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

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

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

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The results of the environmental surveillance program conducted at Site A/Plot M in the Palos Forest Preserve area for Calendar Year 2008 are presented. Based on the results of the 1976-1978 radiological characterization of the site, a determination was made that a surveillance program be established. The characterization study determined that very low levels of hydrogen-3 (as tritiated water) had migrated from the burial ground and were present in two nearby hand pumped picnic wells. The current surveillance program began in 1980 and consists of sample collection and analysis of surface and subsurface water. The results of the analyses are used to (1) monitor the migration pathway of hydrogen-3 contaminated water from the burial ground (Plot M) to the hand-pumped picnic wells, (2) establish if other buried radionuclides have migrated, and (3) monitor for the presence of radioactive materials in the environment of the area. Hydrogen-3 in the Red Gate Woods picnic wells was still detected this year, but the average and maximum concentrations were significantly less than found earlier. Hydrogen-3 continues to be detected in a number of wells, boreholes, dolomite holes, and a surface stream. Analyses since 1984 have indicated the presence of low levels of strontium-90 in …

We report measurements of the CKM angles {beta}/{phi}{sub 1} and {alpha}/{phi}{sub 2} done by the BABAR and Belle experiments. Both experiments have collected large data samples, corresponding to a total of more than 1 billion of B{bar B} pairs, at the e{sup +}e{sup -} asymmetric-energy colliders PEP-II (SLAC) and KEK-B (KEK), respectively.

The 1-MW High Voltage Converter Modulators [1] have operated in excess of 250,000 hours at the Spallation Neutron Source. Increased demands on the accelerator performance require increased modulator reliability. An effort is underway at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to redesign the modulator H-bridge switch plate with the goals of increasing reliability and performance [2]. The major difference between the SLAC design and the existing design is the use of press-pack IGBTs. Compared to other packaging options, these IGBTs have been shown to have increased performance in pulsed-power applications, have increased cooling capability, and do not fragment and disassemble during a fault event. An overview of the SLAC switch plate redesign is presented. Design steps including electrical modeling of the modulator and H-bridge, development of an integrated IGBT clamping mechanism, and fault tests are discussed. Experimental results will be presented comparing electrical performance of the SLAC switch plate to the existing switchplate under normal and fault conditions.

Pacific lamprey Lampetra tridentata have received little attention in fishery science until recently, even though abundance has declined significantly along with other anadromous fish species in Idaho. Pacific lamprey in Idaho have to navigate over eight lower Snake River and Columbia River hydroelectric facilities for migration downstream as juveniles to the Pacific Ocean and again as adults migrating upstream to their freshwater spawning grounds in Idaho. The number of adult Pacific lamprey annually entering the Snake River basin at Ice Harbor Dam has declined from an average of over 18,000 during 1962-1969 to fewer than 600 during 1998-2006. Based on potential accessible streams and adult escapement over Lower Granite Dam on the lower Snake River, we estimate that no more than 200 Pacific lamprey adult spawners annually utilize the Clearwater River drainage in Idaho for spawning. We utilized electrofishing in 2000-2006 to capture, enumerate, and obtain biological information regarding rearing Pacific lamprey ammocoetes and macropthalmia to determine the distribution and status of the species in the Clearwater River drainage, Idaho. Present distribution in the Clearwater River drainage is limited to the lower sections of the Lochsa and Selway rivers, the Middle Fork Clearwater River, the mainstem Clearwater River, the South …

Bunch compressors, designed to increase the peak current, can lead to a microbunching instability with detrimental effects on the beam quality. This is a major concern for free electron lasers (FELs) where very bright electron beams are required, i.e. beams with low emittance and energy spread. In this paper, we apply our self-consistent, parallel solver to study the microbunching instability in the first bunch compressor system of FERMI{at}Elettra. Our basic model is a 2D Vlasov-Maxwell system. We treat the beam evolution through a bunch compressor using our Monte Carlo mean field approximation. We randomly generate N points from an initial phase space density. We then calculate the charge density using a smooth density estimation procedure, from statistics, based on Fourier series. The electric and magnetic fields are calculated from the smooth charge/current density using a novel field formula that avoids singularities by using the retarded time as a variable of integration. The points are then moved forward in small time steps using the beam frame equations of motion, with the fields frozen during a time step, and a new charge density is determined using our density estimation procedure. We try to choose N large enough so that the charge density …

This is the first report of Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope observations of the quasar 3C 454.3, which has been undergoing pronounced long-term outbursts since 2000. The data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT), covering 2008 July 7-October 6, indicate strong, highly variable {gamma}-ray emission with an average flux of {approx} 3 x 10{sup -6} photons cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}, for energies > 100 MeV. The {gamma}-ray flux is variable, with strong, distinct, symmetrically-shaped flares for which the flux increases by a factor of several on a time scale of about three days. This variability indicates a compact emission region, and the requirement that the source is optically thin to pair-production implies relativistic beaming with Doppler factor {delta} > 8, consistent with the values inferred from VLBI observations of superluminal expansion ({delta} {approx} 25). The observed {gamma}-ray spectrum is not consistent with a simple power-law, but instead steepens strongly above {approx} 2 GeV, and is well described by a broken power-law with photon indices of {approx} 2.3 and {approx} 3.5 below and above the break, respectively. This is the first direct observation of a break in the spectrum of a high luminosity blazar above 100 MeV, and it is likely direct …

The Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model is used to estimate the value an Oakland nursing home, a Riverside high school, and a Sunnyvale data center would need to put on higher electricity service reliability for them to adopt a Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions Microgrid (CM) based on economics alone. A fraction of each building's load is deemed critical based on its mission, and the added cost of CM capability to meet it added to on-site generation options. The three sites are analyzed with various resources available as microgrid components. Results show that the value placed on higher reliability often does not have to be significant for CM to appear attractive, about 25 $/kWcdota and up, but the carbon footprint consequences are mixed because storage is often used to shift cheaper off-peak electricity to use during afternoon hours in competition with the solar sources.

In this report, the PI summarizes the results and achievements obtained in the sponsored project. Overall, the project has been very successful and produced both research results in massive data-intensive computing and data management for large scale supercomputers today, and in open-source software products. During the project period, 14 conference/journal publications, as well as two PhD students, have been produced due to exclusive or shared support from this award. In addition, the PI has recently been granted tenure from NC State University.