A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) Capital Investment Grant program funds, among other things, projects for fixed-guideway systems--often called New Starts projects. In 2005, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act-A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) established a category of lower-cost projects--Small Starts--which expands project eligibility and offers streamlined requirements. FTA subsequently created the Very Small Starts category with a further streamlined process for very low-cost projects. Exempt projects, those receiving under $25 million and typically designated by Congress, also have a simplified process. As part of GAO's annual mandate to review New Starts, this report describes (1) the history of Small Starts and Very Small Starts and the type of projects FTA recommended for funding; (2) the project development requirements for Small Starts and Very Small Starts and what stakeholders identify as the advantages and disadvantages of the requirements; and (3) the project development requirements for exempt projects, the projects selected to receive funding, and what stakeholders identify as the advantages and disadvantages of this category. Among other things, GAO analyzed laws, regulations, and agency guidance, and interviewed FTA headquarters staff and stakeholders from 7 FTA …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Developing capable Iraqi and Afghan security forces is a key component of the U.S. military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan and, in 2009, the Army began augmenting brigade combat teams (BCT) with advisor personnel to advise the host nation security forces in these countries. House Armed Services Committee report 111-491 directed GAO to report on the Army's plans to augment BCTs to perform advising missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. This report (1) identifies the key characteristics of the augmented BCT concept; (2) assesses the extent to which the Army has provided augmented BCTs, and what challenges, if any, these units have faced; and (3) assesses the extent to which requirements for augmented BCTs have impacted overall Army personnel requirements, including the Army's ability to provide advisor personnel. GAO examined augmented BCT doctrine and guidance, analyzed advisor requirements, reviewed after- action reviews and lessons learned from augmented BCTs, and interviewed Army, theater command, and augmented BCT officials."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses state oversight of health insurance premium rates in 2010 and changes that states that received Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rate review grants have begun making to enhance their oversight of premium rates. In 2009, about 173 million nonelderly Americans, about 65 percent of the U.S. population under the age of 65, had private health insurance coverage, either through individually purchased or employer-based private health plans. The cost of this health insurance coverage continues to rise. In a 2010 survey, over three-quarters of U.S. consumers with individually purchased private health plans reported health insurance premium increases. Of those reporting increases, the average premium increase was 20 percent. A separate survey found that premiums for employerbased coverage more than doubled from 2000 to 2010. Policymakers have raised questions about the extent to which these increases in health insurance premiums are justified and could adversely affect consumers. Oversight of the private health insurance industry is primarily the responsibility of individual states. This includes oversight of health insurance premium rates, which are actuarial estimates of the cost of providing coverage over a period of time to …

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

This report, updated as warranted, discusses U.S. security assistance to Taiwan, or Republic of China (ROC), including policy issues for Congress and legislation.

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: Authority of a county judge to order a municipal recall election (RQ-0945-GA)

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The purpose of this report is to evaluate the potential dose distribution resulting from surface radioactivity, using occupational radiation exposure scenarios. The surface radioactivity clearance values considered in this analysis may ultimately replace those currently specified in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requirements and guidance for radiological protection of workers, the public and the environment. The surface contamination values apply to radioactive contamination deposited on a surface (i.e., not incorporated into the interior of the material). For these calculations, the dose coefficients for intake of radionuclides were taken from ICRP Publication 68 (ICRP 1994), and external exposure dose coefficients were taken from the compact disc (CD) that accompanied Federal Guidance Report (FGR) 13 (Eckerman et al. 1999). The ICRP Publication 68 dose coefficients were based on ICRP Publication 60 (ICRP 1990) and were used specifically for worker dose calculations. The calculated dose in this analysis is the 'effective dose' (ED), rather than the 'effective dose equivalent' (EDE).

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CdZnTe (CZT) semiconducting crystals are of interest for use as room temperature X- and {gamma}-ray spectrometers. Several studies have focused on understanding the various electronic properties of these materials, such as the surface and bulk resistivities and the distribution of the electric field within the crystal. Specifically of interest is how these properties are influenced by a variety of factors including structural heterogeneities, such as secondary phases (SPs) and line defects as well as environmental effects. Herein, we report the bulk current, surface current, electric field distribution and performance of a spectrometer-grade CZT crystal exposed to above band-gap energy illumination.

Understanding the structure of the nucleon is of fundamental importance in sub-atomic physics. Already the experimental studies on the electro-magnetic form factors in the 1950s showed that the nucleon has a nontrivial internal structure, and the deep inelastic scattering experiments in the 1970s revealed the partonic substructure of the nucleon. Modern research focuses in particular on the spin and the gluonic structure of the nucleon. Experiments using deep inelastic scattering or polarized p-p collisions are carried out in the US at the CEBAF and RHIC facilities, respectively, and there are other experimental facilities around the world. More than twenty years ago, the European Muon Collaboration published their first experimental results on the proton spin structure as revealed in polarized deep inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering, and concluded that quarks contribute very little to the proton's spin. With additional experimental and theoretical investigations and progress in the following years, it is now established that, contrary to naive quark model expectations, quarks and anti-quarks carry only about 30% of the total spin of the proton. Twenty years later, the discovery from the polarized hadron collider at RHIC was equally surprising. For the phase space probed by existing RHIC experiments, gluons do not seem to …

Photograph of the completed Business Leadership Building on the UNT campus. There is landscaping and trees done in the area in front of it and the tower of the Administration Building is visible to the right.

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The Small Column Ion Exchange (SCIX) process is being developed to remove cesium, strontium, and actinides from Savannah River Site (SRS) Liquid Waste using an existing waste tank (i.e., Tank 41H) to house the process. Following strontium, actinide, and cesium removal, the concentrated solids will be transported to a sludge tank (i.e., monosodium titanate (MST)/sludge solids to Tank 42H or Tank 51H and crystalline silicotitanate (CST) to Tank 40H) for eventual transfer to the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) is conducting pilot-scale mixing tests to determine the pump requirements for mixing MST, CST, and simulated sludge. The purpose of this pilot scale testing is to determine the pump requirements for mixing MST and CST with sludge in a sludge tank and to determine whether segregation of particles occurs during settling. Tank 40H and Tank 51H have four Quad Volute pumps; Tank 42H has four standard pumps. The pilot-scale tank is a 1/10.85 linear scaled model of Tank 40H. The tank diameter, tank liquid level, pump nozzle diameter, pump elevation, and cooling coil diameter are all 1/10.85 of their dimensions in Tank 40H. The pump locations correspond to the current locations in Tank 40H (Risers B2, …

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

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

In the International Linear Collider, two linear accelerators will accelerate bunches of positrons and electrons to over a hundred billion electron volts and collide them in a central detector. In order to obtain useful collision rates, the bunches, each containing twenty billion particles, must be compressed to a cross section of a few nanometers by a few hundred nanometers. In order to prepare these ultra high density bunches, damping rings (DRs) are employed before the linear accelerators. The DRs take the high emittance bunches that are provided by the electron and positron sources and, through the process of radiation damping, squeeze them into ultra low emittance beams that are ready for the main linear accelerators. In the damping rings, a number of effects can prevent the successful preparation of the beams. In the electron ring, an effect known as the fast ion instability can lead to beam growth and, in the positron ring, the build-up of an electron cloud (EC), which interacts with the circulating bunches, can produce the same effect. EC build-up and the subsequent interaction of the cloud with the positron beam in the DR have been identified as major risks for the successful construction of a linear …

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The bioproduction of nano-scale magnetite by Fe(III)-reducing bacteria offers a potentially tunable, environmentally benign route to magnetic nanoparticle synthesis. Here, we demonstrate that it is possible to control the size of magnetite nanoparticles produced by Geobacter sulfurreducens, by adjusting the total biomass introduced at the start of the process. The particles have a narrow size distribution and can be controlled within the range of 10-50 nm. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that controlled production of a number of different biominerals is possible via this method including goethite, magnetite and siderite, but their formation is strongly dependent upon the rate of Fe(III) reduction and total concentration and rate of Fe(II) produced by the bacteria during the reduction process. Relative cation distributions within the structure of the nanoparticles has been investigated by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism and indicates the presence of a highly reduced surface layer which is not observed when magnetite is produced through abiotic methods. The enhanced Fe(II)-rich surface, combined with small particle size, has important environmental applications such as in the reductive bioremediation of organics, radionuclides and metals. In the case of Cr(VI), as a model high-valence toxic metal, optimised biogenic magnetite is able to reduce and sequester the toxic …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Gene Scribner. Scribner joined the Navy in 1942 and received basic training in San Diego. He then received electrical and gyrocompass training in California. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Alabama (BB-60). He was on call 24 hours a day to maintain the gyrocompass as well as other instruments across the entire ship. From his battle station on the third deck, he was able to wander freely, watching pilots bail out and be rescued by neighboring ships. He also witnessed a kamikaze strike on a carrier beside the Alabama. He tended to stay below during particularly rough combat, such as at Iwo Jima, because he did not want to see the carnage. Scribner was in Tokyo Bay for the signing of the surrender and enjoyed liberty in Japan. He returned home in January 1946 and was discharged soon after.

The role of dissipative effects, such as viscosity, in the ignition of high explosive pores is investigated using a coupled chemical, thermal, and hydrodynamic model. Chemical reactions are tracked with the Cheetah thermochemical code coupled to the ALE3D hydrodynamic code. We perform molecular dynamics simulations to determine the viscosity of liquid TATB. We also analyze shock wave experiments to obtain an estimate for the shock viscosity of TATB. Using the lower bound liquid-like viscosities, we find that the pore collapse is hydrodynamic in nature. Using the upper bound viscosity from shock wave experiments, we find that the pore collapse is closest to the viscous limit.

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