A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress recognizes that the DOD needs some flexibility to adjust research and development program levels. A key mechanism--below threshold reprogramming (BTR)--enables DOD to adjust program funding levels without seeking prior congressional approval as long as a certain dollar amount or percentage threshold is not exceeded. In response to a mandate by the appropriations committees, this report addresses (1) the quality of the information available about DOD's use of BTRs and withheld funds in fiscal years 2002 and 2003 and (2) the amount and volume of BTRs and temporarily withheld funds for those years. The report also addresses recent congressional direction on providing information on funding adjustments. DOD disagreed that its recent reports to Congress provide BTR information of limited quality but noted that the issues GAO raised in this regard can be addressed and that DOD was open to suggestions and will gladly work with committee staff to satisfy their needs. DOD also offered suggestions to clarify language on certain issues and to put its use of BTRs more in context. DOD's willingness to work with Congress is a constructive response that can lead to reporting …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS), hospitals receive a temporary additional payment for certain new drugs and devices while data on their costs are collected. In 2003, these payments expired for the first time for many drugs and devices. To incorporate these items into OPPS, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) used its rate-setting methodology that calculates costs from charges reported on claims by hospitals. At that time, some drug and device industry representatives noted that payment rates for many of these items decreased and were concerned that hospitals may limit beneficiary access to these items if they could not recover their costs. GAO was asked to examine whether the OPPS rate-setting methodology results in payment rates that uniformly reflect hospitals' costs for providing drugs and devices, and other outpatient services, and if it does not, to identify specific factors of the methodology that are problematic."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A key information systems challenge in homeland security is ensuring that essential information is shared in a timely and secure manner among disparate parties in federal, state, and local governments, and in the private sectors. This requires communications networks that provide information-sharing capabilities between the various levels of government--federal, state, and local. GAO's objective was to identify and describe, through agency reporting, major networks and examples of applications that the agencies considered important in supporting their homeland security functions. (For purposes of this review, GAO defined networks as "the data communication links that enable computer systems to communicate with each other.") GAO corroborated agency-provided information about networks used by multiple agencies. While agencies verified the accuracy of the data about their networks, GAO cannot ensure that agencies provided data on all applicable networks. In commenting on a draft of this report, seven of the nine agencies generally concurred with the facts contained in this report. Technical comments were incorporated as appropriate. Two agencies declined to comment."

An efficient inversion algorithm has been developed forthree-dimensional (3D) interpretations for single-hole electromagnetic(EM) logging data based on a modified extended Born approximation (MEBA)scheme. The single-hole data was collected at an oil field undergoing CO2injection in southern California using a tool, Geo-BILT, developed byElectromagnetic Instruments, Inc (EMI). The tool is equipped with amulti-component source, and an array of multi-component receivers atdifferent separations. The inversion result provides a reasonableelectrical conductivity image to a distance of 10 m from the well, andillustrates several zones with lateral conductivity variations that couldnot be resolved with traditional induction logging tools. The computercost of the inversion processes can be further reduced using a trivialmulti-grid methodology.

Quarterly publication of the Texas Comptroller's Office regarding sales and use tax in the state of Texas, including an analysis by county, analysis by industry, and related notes.

We have developed NADS (Nuclear and Atomic Data System), a web-based graphical interface for viewing pointwise and grouped cross-sections and distributions. Our implementation is a client / server model. The client is a Java applet that displays the graphical interface, which has interactive 2-D, 3-D, and 4-D plots and tables. The server, which can serve and perform computations the data, has been implemented in Python using the FUDGE package developed by Bret Beck at LLNL. Computational capabilities include algebraic manipulation of nuclear evaluated data in databases such as LLNL's ENDL-99, ENDF/B-V and ENDF/B-VI as well as user data. Processed data used in LLNL's transport codes are accessible as well. NADS is available from http://nuclear.llnl.gov/

Habitat use has been shown to be an important factor in the bioaccumulation of contaminants in striped bass. This study examines migration in striped bass as part of a larger study investigating bioaccumulation and maternal transfer of xenobiotics to progeny in the San Francisco Estuary system. Habitat use, residence time and spawning migration over the life of females (n = 23) was studied. Female striped bass were collected between Knights Landing and Colusa on the Sacramento River during the spawning runs of 1999 and 2001. Otoliths were removed, processed and aged via otolith microstructure. Subsequently, otoliths were analyzed for strontium/calcium (Sr/Ca) ratio using an electron-microprobe to measure salinity exposure and to distinguish freshwater, estuary, and marine habitat use. Salinity exposure during the last year before capture was examined more closely for comparison of habitat use by the maternal parent to contaminant burden transferred to progeny. Results were selectively confirmed by ion microprobe analyses for habitat use. The Sr/Ca data demonstrate a wide range of migratory patterns. Age of initial ocean entry differs among individuals before returning to freshwater, presumably to spawn. Some fish reside in freshwater year-round, while others return to more saline habitats and make periodic migrations to freshwater. …

This report summarizes the accomplishments toward project goals during the first twelve months of the project to assess the properties and performance of coal based products. These products are in the gasoline, diesel and fuel oil range and result from coal based jet fuel production from an Air Force funded program. Specific areas of progress include generation of coal based material that has been fractionated into the desired refinery cuts, acquisition and installation of a research gasoline engine, and modification of diesel engines for use in evaluating diesel produced in the project. The desulfurization of sulfur containing components of coal and petroleum is being studied so that effective conversion of blended coal and petroleum streams can be efficiently converted to useful refinery products. Equipment is now in place to begin fuel oil evaluations to assess the quality of coal based fuel oil. Coal samples have procured and are being assessed for cleaning prior to use in coking studies.

Although the concept of the photon as a quantum particle is sharpened by the quantization of the energy of the classical radiation field in a cavity, the photon's spin has remained a classical degree of freedom. The photon is considered a spin-1 particle, although only two classical polarization states transverse to its direction of propagation are allowed. Effectively therefore the photon is a spin-1/2 particle, although it still obeys Bose-Einstein statistics because the photon-photon interaction is zero. Here they show that the two polarization states of the photon can be quantized using Pauli's spin vector, such that a suitable equation of motion for the photon is Dirac's relativistic wave equation for zero mass and zero charge. Maxwell's equations for a free photon are inferred from the Dirac-field formalism and thus provide proof of this claim. For photons in the presence of electronic sources for electromagnetic fields we posit Lorentz-invariant inhomogeneous photonic equations of motion. Electro-dynamic operator equations are inferred from this modified Dirac-field formalism which reduce to Maxwell's equations if spin-dependent terms in the radiation-matter interaction are dropped.

Weekly student newspaper from San Antonio College in San Antonio, Texas that includes campus news along with advertising.

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

We report on an ongoing study on modular Heavy Ion Fusion drivers. The modular driver is characterized by 10 to 20 nearly identical induction linacs, each carrying a single high current beam. In this scheme, the Integrated Research Experiment (IRE) can be one of the full size induction linacs. Hence, this approach offers significant advantages in terms of driver development path. For beam transport, these modules use solenoids which are capable of carrying high line charge densities, even at low energies. A new injector concept allows compression of the beam to high line densities right at the source. The final drift compression is performed in a plasma, in which the large repulsive space charge effects are neutralized. Finally, the beam is transversely compressed onto the target, using either external solenoids or current-carrying channels (in the Assisted Pinch Mode of beam propagation). We will report on progress towards a self-consistent point design from injector to target. Considerations of driver architecture, chamber environment as well as the methodology for meeting target requirements of spot size, pulse shape and symmetry will also be described. Finally, some near-term experiments to address the key scientific issues will be discussed.

We use the High Current Experiment (HCX) to study three mitigation measures: a rough surface to reduce electron emission and gas desorption from ions striking walls near grazing incidence, a suppressor electrode after the magnets to block beam-induced electrons off the end structures from drifting upstream, and clearing electrodes to remove electrons from drift regions between magnets. We find that each technique performs as intended.

This program evaluated the effects of common manufacturing variables on spike-tempering effectiveness. The investigation used design-of-experiment (DOE) techniques, and examined both dual-phase and martensitic grades of high-strength steels (HSS). The specific grades chosen for this project were: Dual-phase (DP) 600, galvannealed (GA), 1.55 mm (DP) 600; Dual-phase (DP) 980 (uncoated), 1.55 mm (DP) 980; and Martensitic (M) 1300, 1.55 mm (M) 1300. Common manufacturing conditions of interest included tempering practice (quench and temper time), button size, simulated part fitup (sheet angular misalignment and fitup), and electrode wear (increased electrode face diameter). All of these conditions were evaluated against mechanical performance (static and dynamic tensile shear). Weld hardness data was also used to examine correlations between mechanical performance and the degree of tempering. Mechanical performance data was used to develop empirical models. The models were used to examine the robustness of weld strength and toughness to the selected processing conditions. This was done using standard EWI techniques. Graphical representations of robustness were then coupled with metallographic data to relate mechanical properties to the effectiveness of spike tempering. Mechanical properties for all three materials were relatively robust to variation in tempering. Major deviations in mechanical properties were caused by degradation of the …

The vadose zone is an extremely important zone that recharges our subsurface water resources and also serves as the repository for municipal, industrial and government waste. It acts as a buffer and filter for contaminants introduced by agricultural activities, and also serves as a reservoir for many agricultural crops. As safe and effective use of the vadose zone environment is a major challenge facing our society, there is a great need to improve our understanding of processes, their dynamics and their spatial and temporal patterns. With an increasing demand for investigation methods that have both high accuracy and high resolution across a variety of spatial scales, a new discipline ''hydrogeophysics'' has evolved, which aims at combining knowledge from various disciplines such as hydrogeology, soil physics, biogeochemistry, and geophysics to improve subsurface hydrogeological characterization and monitoring. Geophysical methods offer the advantage of being able to measure subsurface structures and to estimate flow and transport properties in a minimally or non-invasive manner. The discipline of hydrogeophysics is expanding rapidly, and studies are being performed using a wide range of standard geophysical methods as well as new methods that have been developed specifically for hydrologic applications. Time-lapse imaging has illustrated the potential of …

The Alfven continuum (AC) in the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) is investigated with the AC code COBRA. The resonant interaction of Alfven eigenmodes and the fast ions produced by neutral beam injection is analyzed. Alfven eigenmodes residing in one of the widest gaps of the NCSX AC, the ellipticity-induced gap, are studied with the code BOA-E.

Weekly newspaper from Dell City, 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.

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

Funeral program for Mr. Herbert Lee Smith, born August 25, 1937 and died September 11, 2004. The funeral was held September 17, 2004 at Calvary Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Kevin Nelson. Funeral arrangements were made through the Lewis Funeral Home and he was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

This report examines the alternative minimum tax for individuals (AMT), which was originally enacted to ensure that high-income taxpayers paid a fair share of the federal income tax.

A new thermodynamically consistent material model for large deformation has been developed. It describes quasistatic loading of limestone as well as high-rate phenomena. This constitutive model has been implemented into an Eulerian shock wave code with adaptive mesh refinement. This approach was successfully used to reproduce static triaxial compression tests and to simulate experiments of blast loading and damage of limestone. Results compare favorably with experimentally available wave profiles from spherically-symmetric explosion in rock samples.

A new continuum model for directional tensile failure has been developed that can simulate weakening and void formation due to directional tensile failure. The model is developed within the context of a properly invariant nonlinear thermomechanical theory. A second order damage tensor is introduced which allows simulation of weakening to tension applied in one direction, without weakening to subsequent tension applied in perpendicular directions. This damage tensor can be advected using standard methods in computer codes. Porosity is used as an isotropic measure of volumetric void strain and its evolution is influenced by tensile failure. The rate of dissipation due to directional tensile failure takes a particularly simple form, which can be analyzed easily. Specifically, the model can be combined with general constitutive equations for porous compaction and dilation, as well as viscoplasticity. A robust non-iterative numerical scheme for integrating these evolution equations is proposed. This constitutive model has been implemented into an Eulerian shock wave code with adaptive mesh refinement. A comparison of experimental results and computational simulations of spherical wave propagation in Danby marble was made. The experiment consisted of a 2-cm-diameter explosive charge detonated in the center of a cylindrical rock sample. Radial particle velocity histories were …

The effective stress model is used to model the stress-strain, volumetric, and strength behavior in saturated materials under shock loading. The effective stress concept provides a predictive model of the behavior of wet porous materials based on the dry material properties. An effective stress model that allows for arbitrary fluid and solid equations of state and varying levels of saturation is incorporated into an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) Eulerian shock physics hydrocode. Good agreement is found between simulation results and experimental data for saturated materials, even at moderately high pressures.