A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Public demand and federal funding for transit have grown in recent years, yet most of this funding is not tied to performance. As Congress prepares for reauthorization of the federal surface transportation programs, GAO was asked to report on (1) the extent to which federal transit programs use performance information in making decisions about funding distribution and in evaluating the programs' effectiveness; (2) mechanisms for making these programs more performance based, and strategies for supporting their successful implementation; and (3) how selected U.S. and foreign transit agencies have used performance measurement in their planning and decisions, and their views on the federal role in transit. To do so, GAO analyzed legislation, federal documents, and literature; interviewed federal officials and transit experts; and conducted semistructured interviews with selected transit agencies using criteria that, for U.S. agencies, covered a variety of regions and population sizes and, for foreign agencies, multiple transit modes and English language capability."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Telemedicine offers a way to improve health care access for patients in rural areas. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Rural Health Care Program, established in 1997, provides discounts on rural health care providers' telecommunications and information services (primary program) and funds broadband infrastructure and services (pilot program). GAO was asked to review (1) how FCC has managed the primary program to meet the needs of rural health care providers, and how well the program has addressed those needs; (2) how FCC's design and implementation of the pilot program affected participants; and (3) FCC's performance goals and measures for both the primary program and the pilot program, and how these goals compare with the key characteristics of successful performance goals and measures. GAO reviewed program documents and data, interviewed program staff and relevant stakeholders, and surveyed all 61 pilot program participants with recent participation in the program."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 directed the Department of Defense (DOD) to submit a report to congressional defense committees on improvements to the governance and execution of its health information management and information technology (IT) programs to support medical care within the military health system. DOD submitted its report to the appropriate House and Senate committees in June 2010. The act also directed GAO to assess the report and DOD's plan of action to achieve its goals and mitigate risks in the management and execution of health information management and IT programs. Specifically, GAO's objective was to determine whether DOD addressed the reporting requirements specified in the defense authorization act. To do this, GAO reviewed the report submitted by DOD, and analyzed it against the reporting requirements, prior GAO work examining DOD's health IT issues, DOD guidance, and industry best practices."

This report briefly discusses the procedure in the House of Representatives for rules committee hearings on special rules.

A special rule is a House resolution intended to regulate floor consideration of a specific legislative measure named in the resolution. This report describes the two key functions of special rules. The second of these two functions involves waivers, which are also discussed.

A special rule is a House resolution intended to regulate floor consideration of a specific legislative measure named in the resolution. This report briefly describes the two key functions of special rules, as well as the most common kinds of modifications recommended by the Rules Committee in terms used by the committee.

This report explores the President's State of the Union Address, in which the President reports to Congress on the current conditions of the United States and provides policy proposals for the upcoming legislative year. This report also discusses the State of the Union's considerable evolution over time.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Bi-weekly student newspaper from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state, and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas that includes campus and local news along with advertising.

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

Weekly student newspaper from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas that includes campus and local news along with advertising.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a 310-square-mile United States Department of Energy nuclear facility located along the Savannah River (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina. Nuclear weapons material production began in the early 1950s, utilizing five production reactors. In the early 1990s all SRS production reactor operations were terminated. The first reactor closure end state declaration was recently institutionalized in a Comprehensive Environmental Response and Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) Early Action Record of Decision. The decision for the final closure of the 318,000 square foot 105-P Reactor was determined to be in situ decommissioning (ISD). ISD is an acceptable and cost effective alternative to off-site disposal for the reactor building, which will allow for consolidation of remedial action wastes generated from other cleanup activities within the P Area. ISD is considered protective by the regulators, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), public and stakeholders as waste materials are stabilized/immobilized, and radioactivity is allowed to naturally decay, thus preventing future exposure to the environment. Stakeholder buy-in was critical in the upfront planning in order to achieve this monumental final decision. Numerous public meetings and workshops were held in …

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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

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

Recent experience indicates that the LCLS undulator segments must not, at any time following tuning, be allowed to change temperature by more than about {+-}2.5 C or the magnetic center will irreversibly shift outside of acceptable tolerances. This vulnerability raises a concern that under fault conditions the ambient temperature in the Undulator Hall might go outside of the safe range and potentially could require removal and retuning of all the segments. In this note we estimate changes that can be expected in the Undulator Hall air temperature for three fault scenarios: (1) System-wide power failure; (2) Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system shutdown; and (3) HVAC system temperature regulation fault. We find that for either a system-wide power failure or an HVAC system shutdown (with the technical equipment left on), the short-term temperature changes of the air would be modest due to the ability of the walls and floor to act as a heat ballast. No action would be needed to protect the undulator system in the event of a system-wide power failure. Some action to adjust the heat balance, in the case of the HVAC power failure with the equipment left on, might be desirable but is not …

An investigation was conducted to compare and evaluate contaminant transport results of two model codes, GoldSim and Porflow, using a simple 1-D string of elements in each code. Model domains were constructed to be identical with respect to cell numbers and dimensions, matrix material, flow boundary and saturation conditions. One of the codes, GoldSim, does not simulate advective movement of water; therefore the water flux term was specified as a boundary condition. In the other code, Porflow, a steady-state flow field was computed and contaminant transport was simulated within that flow-field. The comparisons were made solely in terms of the ability of each code to perform contaminant transport. The purpose of the investigation was to establish a basis for, and to validate follow-on work that was conducted in which a 1-D GoldSim model developed by abstracting information from Porflow 2-D and 3-D unsaturated and saturated zone models and then benchmarked to produce equivalent contaminant transport results. A handful of contaminants were selected for the code-to-code comparison simulations, including a non-sorbing tracer and several long- and short-lived radionuclides exhibiting both non-sorbing to strongly-sorbing characteristics with respect to the matrix material, including several requiring the simulation of in-growth of daughter radionuclides. The …

The possibility of increasing the apertures of the LCLS gas attenuator/gas detector system is considered. It is shown that increase of the apertures from 3 to 6 mm, together with 4-fold reduction of the operation pressure does not adversely affect the vacuum conditions upstream or downstream. No change of the pump speed and the lengths of the differential pumping cells is required. One minor modification is the use of 1.5 cm long tubular apertures in the end cells of the differential pumping system. Reduction of the pressure does not affect performance of the gas attenuator/gas detector system at the FEL energies below, roughly, 2 keV. Some minor performance degradation occurs at higher energies.

A test was performed to determine whether transporting and handling the undulators makes any changes to their properties. This note documents the test. No significant changes to the test undulator were observed. After the LCLS undulators are tuned and fiducialized in the Magnetic Measurement Facility (MMF), they must be transported to storage buildings and transported to the tunnel. It has been established that the undulators are sensitive to temperature. We wish to know whether the undulators are also sensitive to the vibrations and shocks of transportation. To study this issue, we performed a test in which an undulator was measured in the MMF, transported to the tunnel, brought back to the MMF, and re-measured. This note documents the test and the results.

The temperature of the LCLS undulators has not been controlled during storage. The effects of the temperature excursions are documented in this note. After a number of LCLS undulators were tuned, fiducialized, and placed in storage anticipating their use, a test was made to ensure that their properties had not changed. The test revealed, however, that indeed the undulators had changed. Detailed study of this problem followed. We now believe that the gap of the undulators changes permanently when the undulators go through temperature excursions. We have tested the other possible cause, transportation, and do not see gap changes. In this note, we document how the undulators have changed since they were originally tuned. The undulators were tuned and fiducialized in the Magnetic Measurement Facility (MMF). Afterward, many of them (approximately 18) were taken to building 750 for storage during summer and fall 2007. Building 750 had no temperature control. The undulator temperatures went from 20 C, used for tuning, down to approximately 11 C during the winter. In January 2008, three of the undulators were brought back to the MMF for a check. All three undulators showed similar changes. Trajectories, phases, and most undulator properties stayed the same, but …

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