A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "DODIG has taken multiple steps, in collaboration with the service IGs in some instances, to improve DOD’s ability to process military whistleblower reprisal cases in a timely manner. Timeliness is important to ensure the reliability of evidence and appropriate resolution of reprisal allegations. However, DODIG has generally not met statutory requirements to report on investigations within 180 days, or to provide alternative notification. DODIG has undertaken efforts to improve timeliness by, for example, eliminating a time-consuming phase of its investigative process. However, DOD’s efforts are hampered by unreliable and incomplete data. For instance, GAO found that DODIG has not consistently or accurately recorded key dates to track how long investigations take to complete. Without key timeliness data, DODIG may have difficulty in identifying process areas requiring improvement and evaluating the impact of reforms. Further, the absence of this information limits congressional decision makers’ ability to provide oversight of DOD’s whistleblower reprisal investigative program."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As the responsible DOD agency for leading, advocating, and coordinating all DOD efforts to defeat improvised explosive devices (IED) the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) was directed to develop DOD’s counter-IED strategic plan in February 2006 under DOD Directive 2000.19E. As previously recommended by GAO, JIEDDO has made several attempts to develop such a plan, but its strategic-planning actions have not followed leading strategic-management practices or have since been discontinued. For example, JIEDDO’s 2007 strategic plan did not contain a means of measuring its performance outcomes—a leading strategic-management practice. In addition, JIEDDO’s 2009–2010 strategic plan contained performance measures, but JIEDDO discontinued using these measures because it later determined that the measures were not relevant to the organization’s goals. Although DOD tasked JIEDDO to develop its counter-IED strategic plan, DOD has not translated DOD’s counter-IED general mission objective of eliminating IEDs as a weapon of strategic influence into actionable goals and objectives. JIEDDO issued a new counter-IED strategic plan in January 2012; however, the new plan does not apply to all other counter-IED efforts departmentwide, only to those managed by JIEDDO. Consequently, JIEDDO’s new strategic plan alone …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The SNS contains supportive care items for thermal burns, such as bandages, pain medications, intravenous fluids, and topical antimicrobial cream needed for the immediate treatment of burn injuries to reduce the risk of infection and stabilize injured individuals. HHS officials told us that the goal of the SNS is to supplement state and local supplies used for immediate care in the initial response—identified as within 72 hours of sustaining injury. CDC compiled supplies needed for the immediate treatment of burn injuries into kits in 2002 and 2003, based on information provided at that time by burn experts about needed items. Because most medical countermeasures for thermal burns can be found in local hospitals, countermeasures in the SNS would be used to supplement local supplies and inventories, with kits deployed within 24 to 48 hours of notification. The SNS does not contain other countermeasures that may be available for both the immediate care and the longer-term treatment of burn injuries. However, HHS is currently considering whether to acquire some additional countermeasures, including those for longer-term treatment of burn injuries."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

We studied the reaction of phenyl radicals (C6H5) with propylene (C3H6) exploiting a high temperature chemical reactor under combustion-like conditions (300 Torr, 1,200-1,500 K). The reaction products were probed in a supersonic beam by utilizing tunable vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation from the Advanced Light Source and recording the photoionization efficiency (PIE) curves at mass-to-charge ratios of m/z = 118 (C9H10+) and m/z = 104 (C8H8+). Our results suggest that the methyl and atomic hydrogen losses are the two major reaction pathways with branching ratios of 86 10 percent and 14 10 percent. The isomer distributions were probed by fitting the recorded PIE curves with a linear combination of the PIE curves of the individual C9H10 and C8H8 isomers. Styrene (C6H5C2H3) was found to be the exclusive product contributing to m/z = 104 (C8H8+), whereas 3-phenylpropene, cis-1-phenylpropene, and 2-phenylpropene with branching ratios of 96 4 percent, 3 3 percent, and 1 1 percent could account for signal at m/z = 118 (C9H10+). Although searched for carefully, no evidence of the bicyclic indane molecule could be provided. The reaction mechanisms and branching ratios are explained in terms of electronic structure calculations nicely agreeing with a recent crossed molecular beam study on this …

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This note provides details of the 5th Extremely Large Databases Conference and Invitational Workshop that were held in 2011 on 18-19 October and 20 October, respectively, at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California. The main goals of the conference were: (1) Encourage and accelerate the exchange of ideas between users trying to build extremely large databases worldwide and database solution providers; (2) Share lessons, trends, innovations, and challenges related to building extremely large databases; (3) Facilitate the development and growth of practical technologies for extremely large databases; and (4) Strengthen, expand, and engage the XLDB community.

This project provides educational opportunities creating both a teaching facility and center for public outreach. The facility is the largest solar array in Nebraska. It was designed to allow students to experience a variety of technologies and provide the public with opportunities for exposure to the implementation of an alternative energy installation designed for an urban setting. The project integrates products from 5 panel manufacturers (including monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin film technologies) mounted on both fixed and tracking structures. The facility uses both micro and high power inverters. The majority of the system was constructed to serve as an outdoor classroom where panels can be monitored, tested, removed and replaced by students. As an educational facility it primarily serves students in the Creighton University and Metropolitan Community College, but it also provides broader educational opportunities. The project includes a real-time “dashboard” and a historical database of the output of individual inverters and the corresponding meteorological data for researcher and student use. This allows the evaluation of both panel types and the feasibility of installation types in a region of the country subject to significant temperature, wind and precipitation variation.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative Thermodevices (BEETIT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses air conditioning that has increased electrical efficiency as part of the "Cascade Reverse Osmosis and the Absorption Osmosis Cycle" project.

We study the buildup of magnetic fields during the formation of Population III star-forming regions, by conducting cosmological simulations from realistic initial conditions and varying the Jeans resolution. To investigate this in detail, we start simulations from identical initial conditions, mandating 16, 32 and 64 zones per Jeans length, and studied the variation in their magnetic field amplification. We find that, while compression results in some amplification, turbulent velocity fluctuations driven by the collapse can further amplify an initially weak seed field via dynamo action, provided there is sufficient numerical resolution to capture vortical motions (we find this requirement to be 64 zones per Jeans length, slightly larger than, but consistent with previous work run with more idealized collapse scenarios). We explore saturation of amplification of the magnetic field, which could potentially become dynamically important in subsequent, fully-resolved calculations. We have also identified a relatively surprising phenomena that is purely hydrodynamic: the higher-resolved simulations possess substantially different characteristics, including higher infall-velocity, increased temperatures inside 1000 AU, and decreased molecular hydrogen content in the innermost region. Furthermore, we find that disk formation is suppressed in higher-resolution calculations, at least at the times that we can follow the calculation. We discuss the …

This thesis reports the analysis of the e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -}K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}} and e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -}K{sup +}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0} processes using the final dataset of the BABAR experiment located at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. From previous measurements, the K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}} final state is known to show a clear signal from the {eta}{sub c}(2S) particle. This c{bar c} state escaped detection for almost twenty years and its properties are still not well established on the experimental ground, while accurate predictions exist on the theoretical side. The e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -}K{sup +}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0} process is first studied in this thesis. An accurate determination of the {eta}{sub c}(2S) properties is obtained in the K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}} decay mode. We also report the first observation of {eta}{sub c}(2S) and other charmonium states to the K{sup +}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0} final state. The results of this thesis have been published in Physical Review D, and will be useful to test theoretical models describing the charmonium system. The thesis is organized in four chapters. The first one gives a brief introduction …

The ability of atomic nuclei to emit and absorb photons with energy E{sub {gamma}} is known as the photon strength function f(E{sub {gamma}}). It has direct relevance to astrophysical element formation via neutron capture processes due to its central role in nuclear reactions. Studies of f(E{sub {gamma}}) have benefited from a wealth of data collected in neutron capture and direct reactions but also from newly commissioned inelastic photon scattering facilities. The majority of these experimental methods, however, rely on the use of models because measured {gamma}-ray spectra are simultaneously sensitive to both the nuclear level density and f(E{sub {gamma}}). As excitation energy increases towards the particle separation energies, the level density increases rapidly, creating the quasi-continuum. Nuclear properties in this excitation energy region are best characterized using statistical quantities, such as f(E{sub {gamma}}). A point of contention in studies of the quasi-continuum has been an unexpected and unexplained increase in f(E{sub {gamma}}) at low {gamma}-ray energies (i.e. below E{sub {gamma}} {approx}3 MeV) in a subset of light-to-medium mass nuclei. Ideally, a new model-independent experimental technique is required to address questions regarding the existence and origin of this low-energy enhancement in f(E{sub {gamma}}). Here such a model-independent approach is presented for …

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This tool provides a one-page technical report that assesses the comparability of a PM₂₅ continuous monitor when collocated with an FRM Sampler.

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

Student newspaper from St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas that includes campus news along with advertising.

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

Webpage from McKinney TXSSAR website containing photographs from a flag presentation event on February 22, 2012.

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

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