A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the past several years, GAO has reported that federal agencies are not well positioned to meet requirements of the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA). For fiscal year 2005, estimated improper payments exceeded $38 billion but did not include some of the highest risk programs, such as Medicaid with outlays exceeding $181 billion for fiscal year 2005. Overall, state-administered programs and other nonfederal entities receive over $400 billion annually in federal funds. Thus, federal agencies and states share responsibility for the prudent use of these funds. GAO was asked to determine actions taken at the state level to help federal agencies estimate improper payments for state-administered federal programs and assistance needed from the federal level to support the respective federal agencies' implementation of IPIA."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a three phase program that increases the use of small businesses to meet federal research needs and encourages commercialization of this research. Venture capital is one source of funding to help commercialize SBIR projects. To receive an award firms must meet ownership and other criteria and awards may exceed dollar guidelines. In 2002, the Small Business Administration (SBA) clarified that majority owners of firms that receive awards must be individuals rather than corporations. Since 2002, controversy has arisen over the extent to which venture capital firms may own SBIR firms. GAO was asked to provide information on SBIR for fiscal years 2001 - 2004. For NIH and DOD, we determined the (1) number and characteristics of awards, (2) number and characteristics of awards above the guidelines, (3) changes in award characteristics after 2002, and (4) factors agencies consider, and data they collect on, SBIR awards. NIH, DOD, and SBA provided technical comments that were incorporated, as appropriate. DOD said our findings were not surprising in light of differences in the markets for SBIR projects. SBA said our findings, …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In December 2004, an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia caused a tsunami that left more than 230,000 people killed or missing and presumed dead and an estimated $10 billion in damage in 12 countries. In May 2005, Congress appropriated $908 million for relief and reconstruction. U.S. emergency relief efforts budgeted at $327 million were nearly completed in December 2005. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) plans to spend $496 million on longer-term reconstruction, focusing on Indonesia and Sri Lanka, with the remaining $85 million allocated to other U.S. agencies. GAO has been mandated to monitor USAID's reconstruction efforts. In this report, GAO describes USAID's (1) progress in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, (2) financial and technical oversight measures, and (3) implementation challenges."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) is planning to invest $1.3 trillion between 2005 and 2009 in researching, developing, and procuring major weapon systems. How DOD manages this investment has been a matter of congressional concern for years. Numerous programs have been marked by cost overruns, schedule delays, and reduced performance. Over the past 3 decades, DOD's acquisition environment has undergone many changes aimed at curbing cost, schedule, and other problems. In order to determine if the policy DOD put in place is achieving its intended goals, we assessed the outcomes of major weapons development programs initiated under the revised policy. Additionally, we assessed whether the policy's knowledge-based, evolutionary principles are being effectively implemented, and whether effective controls and specific criteria are in place and being used to make sound investment decisions."

In heated tunnels such as those designated for emplacementof radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, axial temperature gradients maycause natural convection processes that can significantly influence themoisture conditions in the tunnels and in the surrounding fractured rock.Large-scale convection cells would provide an effective mechanism foraxial vapor transport, driving moisture out of the formation away fromthe heated tunnel section into cool end sections (where no waste isemplaced). To study such processes, we have developed and applied anenhanced version of TOUGH2 (Pruess et al., 1999) adding a new module thatsolves for natural convection in open cavities. The new TOUGH2 simulatorsimultaneously handles (1) the flow and energy transport processes in thefractured rock; (2) the flow and energy transport processes in thecavity; and (3) the heat and mass exchange at the rock-cavity interface.The new module is applied to simulate the future thermal-hydrological(TH) conditions within and near a representative waste emplacement tunnelat Yucca Mountain. Particular focus is on the potential for condensationalong the emplacement section, a possible result of heat outputdifferences between individual waste packages.

Nephtys longosetosa is a carnivorous polychaete worm that lives in the intertidal and subtidal zones with worldwide distribution (pleijel&rouse2001). Its mitochondrial genome has the characteristics typical of most metazoans: 37 genes; circular molecule; almost no intergenic sequence; and no significant gene rearrangements when compared to other annelid mtDNAs (booremoritz19981995). Ubiquitous features as small intergenic regions and lack of introns suggested that metazoan mtDNAs are under strong selective pressures to reduce their genome size allowing for faster replication requirements (booremoritz19981995Lynch2005). Yet, in 1996 two type I introns were found in the mtDNA of the basal metazoan Metridium senile (FigureX). Breaking a long-standing rule (absence of introns in metazoan mtDNA), this finding was later supported by the further presence of group I introns in other cnidarians. Interestingly, only the class Anthozoa within cnidarians seems to harbor such introns. Although several hundreds of triploblastic metazoan mtDNAs have been sequenced, this study is the first evidence of mitochondrial introns in triploblastic metazoans. The cox1 gene of N. longosetosa has an intron of almost 2 kbs in length. This finding represents as well the first instance of a group II intron (anthozoans harbor group I introns) in all metazoan lineages. Opposite trends are observed within …

Heterogeneous high-energy explosives are morphologically, mechanically and chemically complex. As such, their ab-initio modeling, in which well-characterized phenomena at the scale of the microstructure lead to a rationally homogenized description at the scale of observation, is a subject of active research but not yet a reality. An alternative approach is to construct phenomenological models, in which forms of constitutive behavior are postulated with an eye on the perceived picture of the micro-scale phenomena, and which are strongly linked to experimental calibration. Most prominent among these is the ignition-and-growth model conceived by Lee and Tarver. The model treats the explosive as a homogeneous mixture of two distinct constituents, the unreacted explosive and the products of reaction. To each constituent is assigned an equation of state, and a single reaction-rate law is prescribed for the conversion of the explosive to products. It is assumed that the two constituents are always in pressure and temperature equilibrium. The purpose of this paper is to investigate in detail the behavior of the model in situations where a detonation turns a corner and undergoes diffraction. A set of parameters appropriate for the explosive LX-17 is selected. The model is first examined analytically for steady, planar, 1-D …

In two separate shallow field experiments, at two distancescales, we have used continuous monitoring to estimate the effect ofbarometric pressure on crosswell travel time and thereby calibrated thestress sensitivity of the rock volume between the wells. In a 3 mexperiment we found a stress sensitivity of 10-6/Pa while in a 30 mexperiment the sensitivity was 5 x 10-8 /Pa. Results from a deeper (1km), 2 month experiment at the San Andreas fault observation boreholeswill be presented if analysis is completed.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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

Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

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Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

During the contract period, absolute cross sections for projectile ionization, and in some cases for target ionization, were measured for energetic (MeV/u) low-charge-state heavy ions interacting with gases typically found in high and ultra-high vacuum environments. This information is of interest to high-energy-density research projects as inelastic interactions with background gases can lead to serious detrimental effects when intense ion beams are accelerated to high energies, transported and possibly confined in storage rings. Thus this research impacts research and design parameters associated with projects such as the Heavy Ion Fusion Project, the High Current and Integrated Beam Experiments in the USA and the accelerator upgrade at GSI-Darmstadt, Germany. Via collaborative studies performed at GSI-Darmstadt, at the University of East Carolina, and Texas A&M University, absolute cross sections were measured for a series of collision systems using MeV/u heavy ions possessing most, or nearly all, of their bound electrons, e.g., 1.4 MeV/u Ar{sup +}, Xe{sup 3+}, and U{sup 4,6,10+}. Interactions involving such low-charge-state heavy ions at such high energies had never been previously explored. Using these, and data taken from the literature, an empirical model was developed for extrapolation to much higher energies. In order to extend our measurements to much …

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We describe a model of damage in rf cavities and show how this damage can limit cavity operation. We first present a review of mechanisms that may or may not affect the ultimate fields that can be obtained in rf cavities, assuming that mechanical stress explains the triggers of rf breakdown events. We present a method of quantifying the surface damage caused by breakdown events in terms of the spectrum of field enhancement factors, Beta, for asperities on the surface. We then model an equilibrium that can develop between damage and conditioning effects, and show how this equilibrium can determine cavity performance and show experimental evidence for this mechanism. We define three functions that quantify damage, and explain how the parameters that determine this performance can be factored out and measured. We then show how this model can quantitatively explain the dependence of cavity performance on material, frequency, pulse length, gas, power supply and other factors. The examples given in this paper are derived from a variety of incomplete data sets, so we outline an experimental program that should improve these predictions, provide mechanisms for comparing data from different facilities, and fill in many gaps in the existing data.

Three two body and two resonance decays of the B mesons have been measured using data from the BABAR detector: B{sup 0} {yields} {pi}{sup {+-}}, K{sup {-+}}, K{sup +}K{sup -}, K{sub S}{sup 0}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} and B{sup 0} {yields} a{sub 1}{sup +}(1260){pi}{sup -}. The branching ratio and that of some intermediate resonances are presented along with the Cp asymmetry of the decay B{sup 0} {yields} K*{sup +}{pi}{sup -}.

The wavefront control strategy for the proposed Gemini Planet Imager, an extreme adaptive optics coronagraph for planet detection, is presented. Two key parts of this strategy are experimentally verified in a testbed at the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics, which features a 32 x 32 MEMS device. Detailed analytic models and algorithms for Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor alignment and calibration are presented. It is demonstrated that with these procedures, the spatially filtered WFS and the Fourier Transform reconstructor can be used to flatten to the MEMS to 1 nm RMS in the controllable band. Performance is further improved using the technique of modifying the reference slopes using a measurement of the static wavefront error in the science leg.

We present a direct measurement of the quenching of nonlocal heat transport in a laser produced plasma by high external magnetic fields. Temporally resolved measurements of the electron temperature profile transverse to a high power laser beam were obtained using imaging Thomson scattering. The results are simulated with the 2D hydrodynamic code LASNEX with a recently included magnetic field model that self-consistently evolves the fields in the plasma.

We present BABAR experiment studies to measure the CKM angle {alpha} of the Unitarity Triangle. The measurements are based on the B meson decays into the two-body state ({pi}{pi}), the quasi two-body state ({rho}{rho}), and the three-body state ({pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0}). The results are obtained from data samples of about 230 million {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} decays collected between 1999 and 2004 with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC.

This project had two major tasks: Task 1. The construction of a new air/helium facility to collect detailed measurements of Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) mixing at high Atwood number, and the distribution of these data to LLNL, LANL, and Alliance members for code validation and design purposes. Task 2. The collection of initial condition data from the new Air/Helium facility, for use with validation of RT simulation codes at LLNL and LANL. This report describes work done in the last twelve (12) months of the project, and also contains a summary of the complete work done over the three (3) life of the project. As of April 1, 2006, the air/helium facility (Task 1) is now complete and extensive testing and validation of diagnostics has been performed. Initial condition studies (Task 2) is also comp lete. Detailed experiments with air/helium with Atwood numbers up to 0.1 have been completed, and Atwood numbers of 0.25. Within the last three (3) months we have been able to successfully run the facility at Atwood numbers of 0.5. The progress matches the project plan, as does the budget. We have finished the initial condition studies using the water channel, and this work has been accepted for …

Based on a 87 fb{sup -1} dataset, a search for D{sup 0}-{bar D}{sup 0} mixing is made using the semileptonic decay modes D*{sup +} {yields} {pi}{sup +} D{sup 0}, D{sup 0} {yields} [K/K*]e{nu} (+c.c.) at the B-Factory facility at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. These modes offer unambiguous initial and final-state charm flavor tags, and allow the combined use of the D{sup 0} lifetime and D*{sup +}-D{sup 0} mass difference ({Delta}M) in a global likelihood fit. The high-statistics sample of reconstructed unmixed semileptonic D{sup 0} decays is used to model both the {Delta}M distribution and the time-dependence of mixed events directly from the data. Neural networks are used both to select events and to fully reconstruct the D{sup 0}. A result consistent with no charm mixing has been obtained, R{sub mix} < 0.0047 (95% C.L.) and R{sub mix} < 0.0043 (90% C.L.). The lowest current published limit on semileptonic charm mixing is 0.005 (90% C.L.) (E791, E.M. Aitala et al. Phys.Rev.Lett. 77 2384 (1996)). The current best published limit using any analysis technique on the total rate of charm mixing is 0.0016 (95% C.L.) (Bab K{pi} mixing, B. Aubert et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 171801 (2003)).

A piece by T. D. Jakes titled "Let it Go for 2006!" about the new year and moving forward.