A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress has appropriated billions of dollars for equipment repair, replacement, and recapitalization, collectively known as equipment reset. Because of the potential for equipment reset costs to affect the Department of Defense's (DOD) future budget requirements and related readiness concerns, GAO initiated this review under the Comptroller General's authority. GAO's objectives were to determine the extent to which the Army and Marine Corps (1) track and report equipment reset expenditures in a way that confirms that funds appropriated for reset are expended for that purpose and (2) can be assured that their reset strategies will sustain equipment availability while meeting ongoing operational requirements. GAO reviewed equipment reset policies and analyzed related budget data."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Alaska Native corporations (ANC) were created to settle land claims with Alaska Natives and foster economic development. In 1986, legislation passed that allowed ANCs to participate in the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 8(a) program. Since then, Congress has extended special procurement advantages to 8(a) ANC firms, such as the ability to receive sole-source contracts for any dollar amount and to own multiple subsidiaries in the 8(a) program. We were asked to testify on an earlier report where we identified (1) trends in the government's 8(a) contracting with ANC firms, (2) the reasons agencies have awarded 8(a) sole-source contracts to ANC firms and the facts and circumstances behind some of these contracts, and (3) how ANCs are using the 8(a) program. GAO also evaluated SBA's oversight of 8(a) ANC firms. GAO made recommendations aimed at improving SBA's oversight of 8(a) ANC contracting activity and ensuring that procuring agencies properly oversee 8(a) contracts they award to ANC firms. SBA has either taken action or plans to take action on the recommendations. The procuring agencies generally agreed with our recommendation to them. We believe implementation of our recommendations will provide better …

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The nation's economic vitality and the quality of life of its citizens depend significantly on the security, availability, and dependability of its transportation network. The nation's transportation network presents particularly complex policy challenges, because it encompasses many modes on systems owned, funded, and operated by both the public and the private sectors. As the August collapse of a bridge span in Minneapolis illustrated, policymakers currently face the challenge of maintaining the safety and condition of the transportation network--in a time of increasing fiscal constraint. Addressing these challenges requires a fundamental reexamination and transformation of the nation's transportation policies and programs. This forum brought together government, academic, and transportation industry experts, along with GAO's own transportation specialists. The discussion addressed (1) the appropriate goals for the nation's transportation policy, (2) the role of the federal government in achieving transportation goals, (3) how transportation goals might be financed, and (4) next steps in transforming transportation policy for the 21st century. These highlights do not necessarily represent the views of any one participant or the organizations that these participants represent, including GAO."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The South Florida ecosystem covers about 18,000 square miles, and is home to the Everglades, one of the world's unique environmental resources. Historic efforts to redirect the flow of water through the ecosystem have jeopardized its health and reduced the Everglades to about half of its original size. In 1993, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Committee (WHC) added Everglades National Park (Park) to its List of World Heritage in Danger sites. In 2000, a strategy to restore the ecosystem was set; the effort was expected to take at least 40 years and cost $15.4 billion. It comprises 222 projects, including 60 key projects known as the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), to be undertaken by a multiagency partnership. This testimony is based on GAO's May 2007 report, South Florida Ecosystem: Restoration Is Moving Forward, but Is Facing Significant Delays, Implementation Challenges, and Rising Costs, and a review of WHC decision documents relating to the Park's listing. This statement addresses the (1) status of projects implemented (2) status of projects key to improving the health of the Park, (3) project sequencing factors, and (4) …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government is accountable for how its agencies and grantees spend more than $2 trillion of taxpayer dollars and is responsible for safeguarding those funds against improper payments as well as for recouping those funds when improper payments occur. The Congress enacted the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA) and the Recovery Auditing Act to address these issues. Fiscal year 2006 marked the third year that agencies were required to report improper payment and recovery audit information in their Performance and Accountability Reports. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported limited information during these 3 years. GAO was asked to (1) determine the extent to which DHS has implemented the requirements of IPIA, (2) identify actions DHS has under way to improve IPIA compliance and reporting, and (3) determine what efforts DHS has in place to recover improper payments. To accomplish this, GAO analyzed DHS's internal guidance and action plans, and reviewed information reported in its Performance and Accountability Reports."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) provides people with disabilities the legal right to access transportation and public rights-of-way, including sidewalks and street crossings. The Department of Transportation (DOT) and Department of Justice (DOJ) share responsibility for overseeing ADA compliance. GAO was asked to review federal oversight and enforcement of ADA compliance, including (1) what is known about compliance, (2) difficulties the federal government faces in overseeing and enforcing compliance, and (3) the sources of federal help and any gaps in that help. GAO's work encompassed a wide range of federal agencies and other entities, such as industry associations, transportation providers, and disability advocacy groups, as well as detailed reviews in eight cities across the country."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Defense (DOD) activities, U.S. defense companies may export defense items. The Department of State (State) controls such exports through its International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which provides for some exemptions from export licensing requirements. For a limited number of these exemptions, DOD may confirm--or certify--that the export activity qualifies for the use of an ITAR exemption. As part of an initiative, DOD is to make more effective use of ITAR exemptions, but little is known about the extent to which this is done. This report (1) describes DOD's approach for certifying exporters' exemption use in support of defense activities, (2) summarizes the use of selected DOD-certified exemptions, and (3) examines State and DOD's oversight of exemption use. GAO's findings are based on its review of export control law, regulation, and DOD guidelines; interviews with State, DOD, and defense industry officials; and a GAO-developed database of DOD certification letters."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Unemployment Insurance (UI) program has been a key component in ensuring the financial security of America's workforce. In the 72 years since the UI program began, the nature of work has changed in fundamental ways. In recent decades the number of low-wage jobs, the average duration of unemployment, and the number of women in the workforce have all increased. This testimony addresses: (1) the overall trend in the usage of UI; (2) the likelihood that low-wage workers will be unemployed and receive UI benefits, especially when compared to higher-wage workers; and (3) the likelihood that part-time workers receive UI benefits. This testimony is based primarily on GAO's September 2007 report (GAO-07-1147) on the same topic as well additional analyses. In that report, GAO made no recommendations and the Department of Labor generally agreed with the findings. For that report, GAO analyzed data on UI regular program recipiency rates provided by Labor, and GAO examined data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a national database maintained by the Bureau of the Census. For GAO's purposes, SIPP data were available for the periods 1992 through 1995, …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) depends on information technology (IT) to effectively serve our nation's veterans, with an IT budget of about $1 billion annually. However, it has encountered numerous challenges in managing its IT programs and initiatives. To address these challenges, VA is realigning its IT organization and management to a centralized model founded on a defined set of improved management processes. Begun in October 2005, the realignment is planned to be complete by July 2008. In this testimony, GAO discusses its recent reporting on VA's realignment effort and its management of other IT programs and initiatives, including ongoing systems development efforts and work to share electronic health information with the Department of Defense (DOD). To prepare this testimony, GAO reviewed its past work in these areas."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On February 17, 2009, federal law requires all full-power television stations in the United States to cease analog broadcasting and broadcast digital-only transmissions, often referred to as the digital television (DTV) transition. Federal law also requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to create a program that subsidizes consumers' purchases of digital-to-analog converter boxes. After the transition, households with analog sets that rely on over-the-air broadcast signals must take action or they will lose television service, but some households might not be aware of this potential disruption. This testimony provides preliminary information on (1) the consumer education efforts currently underway, (2) education efforts being planned, (3) difficulties with the implementation of consumer education programs, and (4) ongoing GAO work on consumer education and awareness regarding the transition. GAO interviewed officials with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and NTIA. Further, GAO met with a wide variety of industry and other stakeholders involved with the transition, including members of the DTV Transition Coalition--a group of public and private stakeholders, and experts on strategic communications. GAO discussed this testimony with FCC and NTIA officials and incorporated their comments."

A introduction to particle filtering is discussed starting with an overview of Bayesian inference from batch to sequential processors. Once the evolving Bayesian paradigm is established, simulation-based methods using sampling theory and Monte Carlo realizations are discussed. Here the usual limitations of nonlinear approximations and non-gaussian processes prevalent in classical nonlinear processing algorithms (e.g. Kalman filters) are no longer a restriction to perform Bayesian inference. It is shown how the underlying hidden or state variables are easily assimilated into this Bayesian construct. Importance sampling methods are then discussed and shown how they can be extended to sequential solutions implemented using Markovian state-space models as a natural evolution. With this in mind, the idea of a particle filter, which is a discrete representation of a probability distribution, is developed and shown how it can be implemented using sequential importance sampling/resampling methods. Finally, an application is briefly discussed comparing the performance of the particle filter designs with classical nonlinear filter implementations.

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The evolution of dense aluminum and carbon plasmas produced by laser irradiation of 500 {micro}m diameter semi-cylindrical targets was studied using soft x-ray laser interferometry. Plasmas created heating the cavity walls with 120 picosecond duration optical laser pulses of {approx} 1 x 10{sup 12} W cm{sup -2} peak intensity were observed to expand and converge on axis to form a localized high density plasma region. Electron density maps were measured using a 46.9 nm wavelength tabletop capillary discharge soft x-ray laser probe in combination with an amplitude division interferometer based on diffraction gratings. The measurements show that the plasma density on axis exceeds 1 x 10{sup 20} cm{sup -3}. The electron density profiles are compared with simulations conducted using the hydrodynamic code HYDRA, which show that the abrupt density increase near the axis is dominantly caused by the convergence of plasma generated at the bottom of the groove during laser irradiation.

Soft x-ray interferometry was used to measure the evolution of dense converging plasmas created by laser irradiation of 500 {micro}m diameter semi-cylindrical carbon targets. Optical laser pulses with an intensity of {approx} 1 x 10{sup 12} W cm{sup -2} and 120 ps duration were used to heat the surface of the cavities. The dense plasma formed expands from the walls converging slightly off the semi-cylinder's axis, giving rise to a bright localized high density plasma region. A sequence of electron density maps were measured using a 46.9 nm wavelength tabletop capillary discharge soft x-ray laser probe and a amplitude division interferometer based on diffraction gratings. The measured density profiles are compared with simulations conducted using the multi-dimensional hydrodynamic code HYDRA. The benchmarked model was then used to simulate particle trajectories which reveal that the increase in electron density near the axis is mainly the result of the convergence of plasma that originated at the bottom of the groove during laser irradiation.

Amine nitrogen inversion, difficult to observe in aqueous solution, is followed in a chiral, supramolecular host molecule with purely-rotational T-symmetry that reduces the local symmetry of encapsulated monoprotonated diamines and enables the observation and quantification of {Delta}G{double_dagger} for the combined hydrogen-bond breaking and nitrogen inversion rotation (NIR) process. Free energies of activation for the combined hydrogen-bond breaking and NIR process inside of the chiral assembly were determined by the NMR coalescence method. Activation parameters for ejection of the protonated amines from the assembly confirm that the NIR process responsible for the coalescence behavior occurs inside of the assembly rather than by a guest ejection/NIR/re-encapsulation mechanism. For one of the diamines, N,N,N{prime},N{prime}-tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA), the relative energy barriers for the hydrogen-bond breaking and NIR process were calculated at the G3(MP2)//B3LYP/6-31++G(d,p) level of theory, and these agreed well with the experimental data.

The electrochemical performance of LiFePO4/C composites in lithium cells is closely correlated to pressed pellet conductivities measured by AC impedance methods. These composite conductivities are a strong function not only of the amount of carbon but of its structure and distribution. Ideally, the amount of carbon in composites should be minimal (less than about 2 wtpercent) so as not to decrease the energy density unduly. This is particularly important for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle applications (PHEVs) where both high power and moderate energy density are required. Optimization of the carbon structure, particularly the sp2/sp3 and disordered/graphene (D/G) ratios, improves the electronic conductivity while minimizing the carbon amount. Manipulation of the carbon structure can be achieved via the use of synthetic additives including ironcontaining graphitization catalysts. Additionally, combustion synthesis techniques allow co-synthesis of LiFePO4 and carbon fibers or nanotubes, which can act as"nanowires" for the conduction of current during cell operation.

The definition of what makes an article interesting varies from user to user and continually evolves even for a single user. As a result, for news recommendation systems, useless document features can not be determined a priori and all features are usually considered for interestingness classification. Consequently, the presence of currently useless features degrades classification performance [1], particularly over the initial set of news articles being classified. The initial set of document is critical for a user when considering which particular news recommendation system to adopt. To address these problems, we introduce an improved version of the naive Bayes classifier with online feature selection. We use correlation to determine the utility of each feature and take advantage of the conditional independence assumption used by naive Bayes for online feature selection and classification. The augmented naive Bayes classifier performs 28% better than the traditional naive Bayes classifier in recommending news articles from the Yahoo! RSS feeds.

New corrosion-resistant, iron-based amorphous metals have been identified from published data or developed through combinatorial synthesis, and tested to determine their relative corrosion resistance. Many of these materials can be applied as coatings with advanced thermal spray technology. Two compositions have corrosion resistance superior to wrought nickel-based Alloy C-22 (UNS No. N06022) in some very aggressive environments, including concentrated calcium-chloride brines at elevated temperature. Two Fe-based amorphous metal formulations have been found that appear to have corrosion resistance comparable to, or better than that of Ni-based Alloy C-22, based on breakdown potential and corrosion rate. Both Cr and Mo provide corrosion resistance, B enables glass formation, and Y lowers critical cooling rate (CCR). SAM1651 has yttrium added, and has a nominal critical cooling rate of only 80 Kelvin per second, while SAM2X7 (similar to SAM2X5) has no yttrium, and a relatively high critical cooling rate of 610 Kelvin per second. Both amorphous metal formulations have strengths and weaknesses. SAM1651 (yttrium added) has a low critical cooling rate (CCR), which enables it to be rendered as a completely amorphous thermal spray coating. Unfortunately, it is relatively difficult to atomize, with powders being irregular in shape. This causes the powder to be …

The multi-institutional High Performance Corrosion Resistant Materials (HPCRM) Team is cosponsored by the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Science Office (DSO) and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), and has developed new corrosion-resistant, iron-based amorphous metals that can be applied as coatings with advanced thermal spray technology. Two compositions have corrosion resistance superior to wrought nickel-based Alloy C-22 (UNS No. N06022) in very aggressive environments, including concentrated calcium-chloride brines at elevated temperature. Corrosion costs the Department of Defense billions of dollars every year, with an immense quantity of material in various structures undergoing corrosion. For example, in addition to fluid and seawater piping, ballast tanks, and propulsions systems, approximately 345 million square feet of structure aboard naval ships and crafts require costly corrosion control measures. The use of advanced corrosion-resistant materials to prevent the continuous degradation of this massive surface area would be extremely beneficial. The Fe-based corrosion-resistant, amorphous-metal coatings under development may prove of importance for applications on ships. Such coatings could be used as an 'integral drip shield' on spent fuel containers, as well as protective coatings that could be applied over welds, thereby preventing exposure to environments that might cause …

The Hanford Seismic Assessment Program (HSAP) provides an uninterrupted collection of high-quality raw and processed seismic data from the Hanford Seismic Network for the U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors. The Hanford Seismic Assessment Team locates and identifies sources of seismic activity and monitors changes in the historical pattern of seismic activity at the Hanford Site. The data are compiled, archived, and published for use by the Hanford Site for waste management, Natural Phenomena Hazards assessments, and engineering design and construction. In addition, the seismic monitoring organization works with the Hanford Site Emergency Services Organization to provide assistance in the event of a significant earthquake on the Hanford Site. The Hanford Seismic Network and the Eastern Washington Regional Network consist of 41 individual sensor sites and 15 radio relay sites maintained by the Hanford Seismic Assessment Team. For the Hanford Seismic Network, 16 local earthquakes were recorded during the third quarter of fiscal year 2007. The largest event (magnitude 2.0) occurred on April 16, 2007 and was located 4 km southwest of the 400 Area in the Columbia River basalts at a depth of approximately 3 km. Stratigraphically, 7 earthquakes occurred in the Columbia River basalts (approximately 0-5 km …

In this work we present a NIDS cluster as a scalable solution for realizing high-performance, stateful network intrusion detection on commodity hardware. The design addresses three challenges: (i) distributing traffic evenly across an extensible set of analysis nodes in a fashion that minimizes the communication required for coordination, (ii) adapting the NIDS's operation to support coordinating its low-level analysis rather than just aggregating alerts; and (iii) validating that the cluster produces sound results. Prototypes of our NIDS cluster now operate at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley. In both environments the clusters greatly enhance the power of the network security monitoring.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

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

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