A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Millions of U.S. households have invested in mutual funds whose value exceeds $6 trillion. The fees and other costs that these investors pay as part of owning mutual funds can significantly affect their investment returns. Recent press reports suggest that mutual fund fees have increased during the market downturn in the last few years. In addition, questions have been raised as to whether the disclosures of these fees and other costs, such as brokerage commissions, are sufficiently transparent. GAO updated its analysis from its June 2000 report, which showed the trends in mutual fund fees from 1990 and 1998 for large funds by collecting data on how these 76 funds' fees changed between 1998 to 2001. GAO also reviewed the Securities and Exchange Commission's recent rule proposal on fee disclosure as well as studies by industry."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since the late 1990s, many funding changes have been made to the Food Stamp E&T Program. In 1997, legislation required states to spend 80 percent of their funds on participants who lose their food stamp benefits if they do not meet work requirements within a limited time frame. The legislation also increased funds by $131 million to help states serve these participants. But spending rates for the program declined until, in 2001, states spent only about 30 percent of the federal allocation. In 2002, the Congress reduced federal funds to $110 million a year. While it is too soon to know the impact of these changes, GAO was asked to determine whom the program serves, what services are provided, and what is known about program outcomes and effectiveness."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO testified that constructing and operating buildings requires enormous amounts of energy, water, and materials and creates large amounts of waste. How agencies manage their facilities, along with the vehicles they use to accomplish their missions, has significant cost implications and greatly affects the environment. According to the Department of Energy, energy management is one of the most challenging tasks facing today's federal facilities manager, and sound energy management includes using energy efficiently, ensuring reliable supplies, and reducing costs whenever possible. The federal role in energy conservation was also highlighted in the President's National Energy Policy, in which the President directed heads of executive departments and agencies to "take appropriate actions to conserve energy use at their facilities to the maximum extent consistent with the effective discharge of public responsibilities.""

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "One of the primary missions of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) focuses on border control--preventing the illegal entry of people and goods into the United States. Part of this mission is controlling the passage of travelers through official ports of entry into the United States. Facilitating the flow of people while preventing the illegal entry of travelers requires an effective and efficient process that authenticates a traveler's identity. Generally, identifying travelers at the ports of entry is performed by inspecting their travel documents, such as passports and visas, and asking them questions. Technologies called biometrics can automate the identification of individual travelers by one or more of their distinct physiological characteristics. Biometrics have been suggested as a way of improving the nation's ability to determine whether travelers are admissible to the United States."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In its 2003 performance and accountability report on the Department of Education, GAO identified challenges in, among other areas, student financial aid programs and financial management. The information GAO presents in this testimony is intended to assist Congress in assessing Education's progress in addressing and overcoming these challenges."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The September 11th attacks decidedly changed the Coast Guard's priorities and markedly increased its scope of activities. Homeland security, a long-standing but relatively small part of the Coast Guard's duties, took center stage. Still, the Coast Guard remains responsible for many other missions important to the nation's interests, such as helping stem the flow of drugs and illegal migration, protecting important fishing grounds, and responding to marine pollution. For the past several years, the Coast Guard has received substantial increases in its budget to accommodate its increased responsibilities. GAO was asked to review the Coast Guard's most recent level of effort on its various missions and compare them to past levels, analyze the implications of the proposed 2004 budget for these levels of effort, and discuss the challenges the Coast Guard faces in balancing and maximizing the effectiveness of all its missions."

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

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This report describes the interpolation package in the Livermore Equation of State (LEOS) system. It is an updated and expanded version of report [1], which described the status of the package as of May 1998, and of [2], which described its status as of the August 2001 release of the LEOS access library, and of [3], which described its status as of library version 7.02, released April 2002. This corresponds to library version 7.11, released March 2003. The main change since [3] has been the addition of the monotone bicubic Hermite (bimond) interpolation method. Throughout this report we assume that data has been given for some function f({rho},T) on a rectangular mesh {rho} = {rho}{sub 0}, {rho}{sub 1}, ..., {rho}{sub nr-1}; T = T{sub 0}, T{sub 1}, ..., T{sub nt-1}. Subscripting is from zero to be consistent with the C code. (Although we use this notation throughout, there is nothing in the package that assumes that the independent variables are actually density and temperature.) The data values are f{sub ij} = f({rho}{sub j},T{sub i}). (This subscript order is historical and reflects the notation used in the program.) There are nr x nt data values, (nr-1) x (nt-1) mesh rectangles (boxes). …

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

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

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

OAK-B135 On March 12-13, 2002, the National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC), in cooperation with regional stakeholders, held a two-day workshop: Planning for Electrical Transmission Needs in the Upper Midwest. The workshop was the outgrowth of an effort to develop a forum and process for consideration of transmission options that strives for equitable allocation of benefits and impacts among all affected parties. The goal of this workshop was to provide a catalyst for an enhanced, inclusive process for transmission planning with participation of and acceptance by all affected stakeholders. Participants in the meeting included representatives of state and regional regulatory agencies, utilities and power generators, the wind industry, environmental and landowner interests, and other interested parties (see Attachment A for a list of meeting participants).

Electricity markets in the United States have witnessed unprecedented instability over the last few years, with substantial volatility in wholesale market prices, significant financial distress among major industry organizations, and unprecedented legal, regulatory and legislative activity. These events demonstrate the considerable risks that exist in the electricity industry. Recent industry instability also illustrates the need for thoughtful resource planning to balance the cost, reliability, and risk of the electricity supplied to end-use customers. In balancing different supply options, utilities, regulators, and other resource planners must consider the unique risk profiles of each generating source. This paper evaluates the relative risk profiles of renewable and natural gas generating plants. The risks that exist in the electricity industry depend in part on the technologies that are used to generate electricity. Natural gas has become the fuel of choice for new power plant additions in the United States. To some, this emphasis on a single fuel source signals the potential for increased risk. Renewable generation sources, on the other hand, are frequently cited as a potent source of socially beneficial risk reduction relative to natural gas-fired generation. Renewable generation is not risk free, however, and also imposes certain costs on the electricity sector. …

The objective of the project was to examine how seismic and geologic data could be used to improve characterization of small-scale heterogeneity and their parameterization in reservoir models. Performed a theoretical and numerical study to examine which subsurface features the surface seismic method actually resolves.

The purpose of the ''Criticality Model Report'' is to validate the MCNP (CRWMS M&O 1998h) code's ability to accurately predict the effective neutron multiplication factor (k{sub eff}) for a range of conditions spanned by various critical configurations representative of the potential configurations commercial reactor assemblies stored in a waste package may take. Results of this work are an indication of the accuracy of MCNP for calculating eigenvalues, which will be used as input for criticality analyses for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) storage at the proposed Monitored Geologic Repository. The scope of this report is to document the development and validation of the criticality model. The scope of the criticality model is only applicable to commercial pressurized water reactor fuel. Valid ranges are established as part of the validation of the criticality model. This model activity follows the description in BSC (2002a).

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The synthesis of sodium aluminosilicate solids phases precipitated from NO{sub 2}/NO{sub 3}-free and NO{sub 2}/NO{sub 3}-rich liquors has been performed. Four sodium aluminosilicate precipitation products were formed. These are (1) X-ray/electron diffraction-indifferent amorphous phase; (2) crystalline zeolite A; (3)NO{sub 2}/NO{sub 3}-rich crystalline sodalite; and (4) NO{sub 2}/NO{sub 3}-rich crystalline cancrinite phase. Characterization of the physicochemical properties for these phases has been performed under conditions simulating Westinghouse Savannah River Company liquid waste processing.

The objective of the project was to examine how seismic and geologic data could be used to improve characterization of small-scale heterogeneity and their parameterization in reservoir models. The study was performed at West Coalinga Field in California.

Hydrogen is the lightest element. At ambient conditions on a volume basis it stores the least amount of energy compared to other fuel carriers such as natural gas and gasoline. For hydrogen to become a practical fuel carrier, a way must be found to increase its volumetric energy density to a practical level. Present techniques being developed include compressed gas, cryogenic liquid and absorbed solid. Each of these techniques has its advantages and disadvantages. And none of them appears to be satisfactory for use in a hydrogen economy. In the interim all of them are used for demonstration purposes. Metal hydrides store hydrogen in a solid form under moderate temperature and pressure that gives them a safety advantage. They require the least amount of energy to operate. Their stored hydrogen density is nearing that of liquid hydrogen. But they are heavy and the weight is their main disadvantage. Current usable metal hydrides can hold no more than about 1.8 percent hydrogen by weight. However much effort is underway to find lighter materials. These include other solid materials other than the traditional metal hydrides. Their operation is expected to be similar to that of metal hydride and can use the technology …

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.

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