A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses management shortcomings at the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) in such areas as strategic planning, organizational alignment, strategic human capital, financial management, and information technology. AOC has demonstrated a commitment to change through ongoing management improvements. It is also revisiting its strategic planning efforts, working with a consultant to implement best practices, and implementing a new financial management system. AOC recognizes that change will not come quickly or easily. AOC must ensure that it has the policies, procedures, and people in place to effectively implement the needed changes. GAO believes that AOC must ensure top leadership commitment to change; identify long-term, mission-critical goals through a re-invigorated strategic planning process tied to serving the Congress; develop annual goals and a system for measuring progress; and establish individual accountability and commensurate authority for achieving results."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal programs in the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Rural Housing Service (RHS) promote mortgage financing for low-income, first-time, minority, veteran, and rural home buyers. Congress has also chartered private corporations--Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--to provide mortgage lending and to promote homeownership opportunities. Many homeowners fall behind in their mortgage payments each year due to unemployment, health problems, or the death of a provider. To avoid high cost foreclosure proceedings when home buyers fall behind on their obligations, FHA, VA, and RHS instruct mortgage servicers, typically large financial institutions, to assist the home buyers in bringing their mortgage payments current. Despite these efforts, in 118,000 cases in 2000 the mortgage servicers engaged in various foreclosure proceedings under the direction of the organizations. FHA procedures delay the initiation of critical steps necessary to preserve the value of foreclosed properties and to sell them quickly. Although Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, VA, and RHS designate one entity as responsible for the custody, maintenance, and sale of foreclosed properties, FHA divides these responsibilities between its mortgage servicers and management and marketing contractors, which …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Transportation's (DOT) Job Access and Reverse Commute (Job Access) Program, has presented implementation challenges for the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). In November 1999, DOT's process for selecting Job Access grantees was inconsistent and the basis for some selections was unclear. In response, DOT took steps to improve its process for selecting grantees by developing a standard format for reviewing proposals and providing more detailed guidance to its reviewers. Grantees reported problems in meeting standard grant requirements for obtaining Job Access funding. Half of the respondents GAO surveyed said that it took too long to satisfy standard FTA grant requirements--on average, about nine months from the time an applicant had been selected for a grant until the time the applicant had satisfied the requirements and received its grant. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century required DOT to evaluate the Job Access program and issue a report by June 2000. However, DOT reportedly has no estimated date for issuing the report. DOT developed a plan and selected an increase in access to employment sites as the sole measure of program success. The use of employment …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The lack of outpatient prescription drug coverage may leave Medicare's most vulnerable beneficiaries with high out-of-pocket costs. Recent estimates suggest that, at any given time, more than a third of Medicare beneficiaries lack prescription drug coverage. The rest have some coverage through various sources--most commonly employer-sponsored health plans. Recent evidence indicates that this coverage is beginning to erode. The short- and long-term cost pressures facing Medicare will require substantial financing and programmatic reforms to put future Medicare on a sustainable footing. In the absence of a drug benefit, many Medicare beneficiaries obtain coverage through health plans, public programs, and the Medigap insurance market. The price, availability, and level of such coverage varies widely, leaving substantial gaps and exposure to high out-of-pocket costs for thousands. Despite pressures to adopt a prescription drug benefit, the rapidly rising cost of current obligations argues for careful deliberation and extreme caution in expanding benefits. GAO's long-term simulations show that the aging of the baby boomers and rising per capita health care spending will, absent meaningful reform, lead to massive fiscal challenges in future years."

Semiweekly newspaper from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas that includes local, national, and campus news along with advertising.

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

Weekly student newspaper from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.

It is peculiar that in situ hybridization (ISH), a technique with many similarities to immunohistochemistry (IHC), has not enjoyed the phenomenal growth in both basic research and clinical applications as has its sister technique IHC. Since the late 1970s, when immunoperoxidase techniques began to be applied to routine diagnostic material and to numerous research applications, there has been a natural evolution of the IHC procedure. Namely, only a few primary antibodies were available commercially at the onset, and only one indirect and the peroxidase-antiperoxidase (PAP) technique detection systems were in place. With the advent of avidin-biotin detection systems and monoclonal antibodies, and a viable commercial market, extraordinary growth of the procedure's applications in clinical research and diagnostic pathology occurred during the subsequent two decades. Today, IHC is automated and widely used for research purposes and, to a large extent, has become a routine diagnostic ''special stain'' in most clinical laboratories. During the same period, ISH enjoyed very little growth in both research and diagnostic applications. What has accounted for this lack of maturation of the technique? The success of IHC is part of the reason measuring a gene's encoded protein routinely and inexpensively, particularly as automation evolved, rendered IHC a …

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

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

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This report summarizes a research and development program that produced a stand-alone active desiccant module (ADM) that can be easily integrated with new or existing packaged cooling equipment. The program also produced a fully integrated hybrid system, combining the active desiccant section with a conventional direct expansion air-conditioning unit, that resulted in a compact, low-cost, energy-efficient end product. Based upon the results of this investigation, both systems were determined to be highly viable products for commercialization. Major challenges--including wheel development, compact packaging, regeneration burner development, control optimization, and low-cost design--were all successfully addressed by the final prototypes produced and tested as part of this program. Extensive laboratory testing was completed in the SEMCO laboratory for each of the two ADM system approaches. This testing confirmed the performance of the ADM systems to be attractive compared with that of alternate approaches currently used to precondition outdoor air, where a return air path is not readily available for passive desiccant recovery or where first cost is the primary design criterion. Photographs, schematics, and performance maps are provided for the ADM systems that were developed; and many of the control advantages are discussed. Based upon the positive results of this research and development …

Burnable poisons are used in all modern nuclear reactors to permit higher loading of fuel without the necessity of an overly large control rod system. This not only permits a longer core life but can also be used to level the power distribution. Commercial nuclear reactors commonly use B{sub 4}C in separate non-fueled rods and more recently, zirconium boride coatings on the fuel pellets or gadolinium oxide mixed with the fuel. Although the advantages are great, there are problems with using these materials. Boron, which is an effective neutron absorber, transmutes to lithium and helium upon absorption of a neutron. Helium is insoluble and is eventually released to the interior of the fuel rod, where it produces an internal pressure. When sufficiently high, this pressure stress could cause separation of the cladding from the fuel, causing overly high centerline temperatures. Gadolinium has several very strongly absorbing isotopes, but not all have large cross sections and result in residual burnable poison reactivity worth at the end of the fuel life. Even if the amount of this residual absorber is small and the penalty in operation small, the cost of this penalty, even if only several days, can be very high. The …

The authors present results from a parameter study investigating the stability of underground structures in response to ground shock. Direct simulation requires detailed knowledge of both the facility itself and the surrounding geology. In practice, however, key details (joint spacing, joint stiffness, reinforcement) may not be available. Thus, in order to place bounds upon the predicted behavior of a given facility, an extensive series of simulations representing different realizations may be required. They will discuss the distinct element method (DEM) with particular emphasis on techniques for achieving improved computational efficiency, including the handling of contact detection and approaches to parallelization. Some continuum approaches to the simulation of underground facilities are discussed along with results from underground explosions. Finally, their DEM code is used to simulate dynamic loading of several generic subterranean facilities in hard rock for a range of joint properties and sources, demonstrating the suitability of the DEM for this application.

This Corrective Action Decision Document/Closure Report (CADD/CR) has been prepared for Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 405, Area 3 Septic Systems, in accordance with the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. Located on the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) approximately 235 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada, CAU 405 consists of three Corrective Action Sites (CASs): 03-05-002-SW03, Septic Waste System (aka: Septic Waste System [SWS] 3); 03-05-002-SW04, Septic Waste System (aka: SWS 4); 03-05-002-SW07, Septic Waste System (aka: SWS 7). The CADD and CR have been combined into one report because no further action is recommended for this CAU, and this report provides specific information necessary to support this recommendation. The CAU consists of three leachfields and associated collection systems that were installed in or near Area 3 for wastewater disposal. These systems were used until a consolidated sewer system was installed in 1990. Historically, operations within various buildin gs in and near Area 3 of the TTR generated sanitary and industrial wastewaters. There is a potential that contaminants of concern (COCs) were present in the wastewaters and were disposed of in septic tanks and leachfields. The justification for closure of this CAU without further action is based on process knowledge and …

This report provides recommended durability-based design properties and criteria for a quasi-isotropic carbon-fiber composite for possible automotive structural applications. The composite, which was made by a rapid molding process suitable for high-volume automotive applications, consisted of continuous Thornel T300 fibers (6K tow) in a Baydur 420 IMR urethane matrix. The reinforcement was in the form of four {+-}45{sup o} stitch-bonded mats in the following layup: [0/90{sup o}/{+-}45{sup o}]{sub S}. This material is the second in a progression of three candidate thermoset composites to be characterized and modeled as part of an Oak Ridge National Laboratory project entitled Durability of Carbon-Fiber Composites. The overall goal of the project, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Advanced Automotive Technologies and is closely coordinated with the industry Automotive Composites Consortium, is to develop durability-driven design data and criteria to assure the long-term integrity of carbon-fiber-based composite systems for large automotive structural components. This document is in two parts. Part I provides the design criteria, and Part 2 provides the underlying experimental data and models. The durability issues addressed include the effects on deformation, strength, and stiffness of cyclic and sustained loads, operating temperature, automotive fluid environments, and low-energy impacts …

The purpose of this work was to provide chemical- and physical-property data addressing the technical risks of the Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX) process as applied specifically to the removal of cesium from alkaline high-level salt waste stored at the US Department of Energy Savannah River Site. As part of the overall Salt Processing Project, this effort supported decision-making in regards to selecting a preferred technology among three alternatives: (1) CSSX, (2) nonelutable ion-exchange with an inorganic silicotitanate material and (3) precipitation with tetraphenylborate. High risks, innate to CSSX, that needed specific attention included: (1) chemical stability of the solvent matrix, (2) radiolytic stability of the solvent matrix, (3) proof-of-concept performance of the proposed process flowsheet with simulated waste, and (4) performance of the CSSX flowsheet with actual SRS high-level waste. This body of work directly addressed the chemical-stability risk and additionally provided supporting information that served to plan, carry out, and evaluate experiments conducted by other CSSX investigators addressing the other high risks. Information on cesium distribution in extraction, scrubbing, and stripping served as input for flowsheet design, provided a baseline for evaluating solvent performance under numerous stresses, and contributed to a broad understanding of the effects of expected process …

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of the Interior has cut its aviation accident rate in half since 1975--from 18.8 accidents to 8.7 per 100,000 flight hours. The department's lower accident rate can be attributed to the implementation of a standard aviation operating policy and to aviation safety standards that exceed the Federal Aviation Administration's requirements. The Office of Aircraft Services (OAS) has not fully recovered aviation program costs. From fiscal years 1999 to 2000, OAS has charged bureaus about $4 million less than actual costs, representing an undercharge of about two percent. OAS set rates that were based on flight hour projections of actual usage that turned out to be low, and OAS did not include all the cost elements that needed to be considered. Periodic monitoring of the rates and actual costs would ensure that all costs are recovered. OAS has yet to develop a more cost-effective approach for using aircraft. To cut costs, OAS has reduced its staffing levels by 24 percent since 1992."

Semiweekly newspaper from Levelland, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC 5 television station in Fort Worth, Texas, covering a news story.

For many applications, silver salt-based autometallography (often also called silver enhancement or silver development) is required to visualize colloidal gold (1-5 nm in diameter) or the small 1.4 nm Nanogold{reg_sign} particles (Nanoprobes, Yaphank, NY, USA). Although even Nanogold may be seen directly by scanning-transmission electron microscopy (STEM), by transmission EM (TEM; in thin sections without stain or ice-embedded cryo-EM samples), energy filtered TEM, and scanning EM (SEM), silver enhancement makes viewing in the EM more facile since the particles are enlarged to approximately 10 to 20 nm, convenient for most specimens. Autometallographic (AMG) enhancement is required in order to visualize smaller gold particles such as Nanogold for light microscopy (LM) or in blots or gels. This chapter includes the following protocols: Protocol for HQ silver enhancement of Nanogold; Protocols for use of silver-enhanced Nanogold with osmium tetroxide--(A) Procedure using reduced concentration of OsO{sub 4}; (B) Procedures for gold toning; Protocol for HQ silver enhancement of Nanogold in pre-embedding immunocytochemistry for cell cultures; Protocol for gold enhancement of Nanogold for EM; Protocol for gold enhancement of Nanogold for LM; Protocol for staining blots with Nanogold and silver enhancement; and Protocol for staining gels with Nanogold and silver enhancement.

Experimental tests have been undertaken to determine safe levels of laser exposure on bare high explosive (HE) samples and on common metals used in intimate contact with HE. Laser light is often focused on bare HE and upon metals in contact with HE during alignment procedures and experimental metrology experiments. This paper looks at effects caused by focusing laser beams at high energy densities directly onto the surface of various bare HE samples. Laser energy densities (fluence) exceeding 19 kilowatts/cm{sup 2} using a 5-milliwatt, 670 nm, cw laser diode were generated by focusing the laser down to a spot size diameter of 4 microns. Upon careful inspection, no laser damage was observed in any of the HE samples illuminated at this fluence level. Direct laser exposure of metals directly contacting HE surfaces was also tested. Laser energy densities (fluence) varying from 188 Watts/cm{sup 2} to 12.7 KW/cm{sup 2} were generated using an 11-Watt, 532 nm frequency-doubled Nd:YAG cw laser with focal spot size diameters as small as 100 microns. These measurements look at the temperature rise of the surface of the metal in contact with HE when laser energy is incident on the opposite side of the metal. The temperature …