Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its review of the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) financial management activities for Medicare, focusing on challenges HCFA faces in establishing an adequate foundation for control and accountability over the Medicare program's financial operations."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed federal agencies' compliance with the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act, which directs federal agencies to use voluntary consensus standards, focusing on: (1) the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) and the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) activities in carrying out their oversight responsibilities under the act; (2) federal agencies' efforts in reporting their standards activities; and (3) progress made specifically by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in complying with the act."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges that the Coast Guard faces in its fiscal year 2001 and future budget requests, focusing on: (1) the Coast Guard's progress in justifying and managing its Deepwater Capability Replacement Project; and (2) opportunities for improving the Coast Guard's operating efficiencies."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed proposed changes and improvements to the military health system (MHS), focusing on: (1) the various proposals to expand the military health care benefit, especially those for older retirees, including describing the nature of the enhancement, the present or potential challenges in implementing these proposals, and overall cost implications; (2) the broader perspective of the appropriate size and structure of the military health system; and (3) the obstacles that impede improvements in the TRICARE program, particularly in terms of accessing appointments and claims processing."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its recent reports on the Air Force's Ranch Hand study, which was designed to investigate whether exposure to herbicides in Vietnam led to or would lead to adverse health effects, focusing on: (1) what impact the study has had on veterans' compensation decisions; and (2) how the study disseminated results and data, communicated its limitations, and implemented measures to ensure that it was conducted with scientific independence and appropriate outside scientific oversight."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the National Railroad Passenger Corporation's (Amtrak) use of Taxpayer Relief Act (TRA) funds, focusing on: (1) how much Amtrak has spent in TRA funds and what types of activities it has funded; (2) whether Amtrak used the funds in accordance with the act; (3) to what extent the Amtrak Reform Council and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have overseen Amtrak's use of TRA funds; and (4) observations on Amtrak's capital needs, its progress toward reaching operational self-sufficiency, and the administration's fiscal year 2001 budget request for Amtrak."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO evaluated the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) financial management activities to determine if they are sufficient to resolve financial management weaknesses identified through annual financial statement audits and other management-type reviews of HCFA's Medicare activities."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Water Quality Inventory, focusing on whether: (1) the information in EPA's National Water Quality Inventory is reliable and representative of water quality conditions nationwide; and (2) available data are sufficient to allow state officials to make key decisions about activities required by the Clean Water Act, such as identifying waters that do not meet water quality standards and developing strategies to address those waters."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) calendar years 1997 and 1998 accounting reports for the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, which provides assistance to the former Soviet Union, focusing on each report's: (1) compliance with its respective deadline for submission to Congress; and (2) accuracy and completeness."

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

Weekly Czech and English language newspaper from Temple, Texas published as the official organ of the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas that includes news of interest to members along with advertising.

The authors have designed and assembled two generations of integrated micro-optical systems that deliver pump light and detect broadband laser-induced fluorescence in micro-fluidic chemical separation systems employing electrochromatography. The goal is to maintain the sensitivity attainable with larger, tabletop machines while decreasing package size and increasing throughput (by decreasing the required chemical volume). One type of micro-optical system uses vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) as the excitation source. Light from the VCSELs is relayed with four-level surface relief diffractive optical elements (DOEs) and delivered to the chemical volume through substrate-mode propagation. Indirect fluorescence from dye-quenched chemical species is collected and collimated with a high numerical aperture DOE. A filter blocks the excitation wavelength, and the resulting signal is detected as the chemical separation proceeds. Variations of this original design include changing the combination of reflective and transmissive DOEs and optimizing the high numerical aperture DOE with a rotationally symmetric iterative discrete on-axis algorithm. The authors will discuss the results of these implemented optimizations.

Two types of tests, dipping tests and dip-coating tests were carried out on small steel cylinders using pure aluminum and 380 alloy to investigate the mechanism of die soldering during aluminum die casting. Optical and scanning electron microscopy were used to study the morphology and composition of the phases formed during soldering. A soldering mechanism is postulated based on experimental observations. A soldering critical temperature is postulated at which iron begins to react with aluminum to form an aluminum-rich liquid phase and solid intermetallic compounds. When the temperature at the die surface is higher than this critical temperature, the aluminum-rich phase is liquid and joins the die with the casting during the subsequent solidification. The paper discusses the mechanism of soldering for the case of pure aluminum and 380 alloy casting in a steel mold, the factors that promote soldering, and the strength of the bond formed when soldering occurs. conditions, an aluminum-rich soldering layer may also form over the intermetallic layer. Although a significant amount of research has been conducted on the nature of these intermetallics, little is known about the conditions under which soldering occurs.

The simple formula, {l_angle}P{sub r}{r_angle}=(E{sub o}{sup 2}/{eta})({lambda}{sup 2}/8{pi}), for the received power of an antenna with a matched load in an over-moded cavity actually holds for an antenna of any shape and size. This can be seen from the close connection between the correlation tensor of the cavity field at two different points and the imaginary part of the free-space dyadic Green's function.

The authors have investigated the properties of GaAsSb/InGaAs type-II bilayer quantum well structures grown by molecule beam epitaxy for use in long-wavelength lasers on GaAs substrates. Structures with layer, strains and thicknesses designed to be thermodynamically stable against dislocation formation exhibit room-temperature photoluminescence at wavelengths as long as 1.43 {mu}m. The photoluminescence emission wavelength is significantly affected by growth temperature and the sequence of layer growth (InGaAs/GaAsSb vs GaAsSb/InGaAs), suggesting that Sb and/or In segregation results in non-ideal interfaces under certain growth conditions. At low injection currents, double heterostructure lasers with GaAsSb/InGaAs bilayer quantum well active regions display electroluminescence at wavelengths comparable to those obtained in photoluminescence, but at higher currents the electroluminescence shifts to shorter wavelengths. Lasers have been obtained with threshold current densities as low as 120 A/cm{sup 2} at 1.17 {mu}m, and 2.1 kA/cm{sup 2} at 1.21 {mu}m.

The State Energy Program was created in 1996 by an act of Congress through the consolidation of the State Energy Conservation Program (SECP) and the Institutional Conservation Program (ICP). Formerly, SECP provided funding for a variety of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, and ICP assisted schools and hospitals with technical analysis and installation of energy conservation measures. Through these programs, more than 8,000 specific State conservation projects have been implemented since 1983 and more than 69,000 buildings have been made more energy efficient since 1979. The Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy recognized the value of delivering programs through the States and created Special Projects in 1996. This report is an overview of State Energy Program operations, strategic focus, activities and accomplishments.

The Demand Activated Manufacturing Architecture (DAMA) project during the last five years of work with the U.S. Integrated Textile Complex (retail, apparel, textile, and fiber sectors) has developed an inter-enterprise supply chain collaboration development methodology. The goal of this methodology is to enable a supply chain to work more efficiently and competitively. The outcomes of this methodology include: (1) A definitive description and evaluation of the role of business cultures and supporting business organizational structures in either inhibiting or fostering change to a more competitive supply chain; (2) ``As-Is'' and proposed ``To-Be'' supply chain business process models focusing on information flows and decision-making; and (3) Software tools that enable and support a transition to a more competitive supply chain, which results form a business driven rather than technologically driven approach to software design. This methodology development will continue in FY00 as DAMA engages companies in the soft goods industry in supply chain research and implementation of supply chain collaboration.

A process for depositing CVD mullite coatings on SiC fibers for enhanced oxidation and corrosion, and/or act as an interfacial protective barrier has been developed. Process optimization via systematic investigation of system parameters yielded uniform crystalline mullite coatings on SiC fibers. Structural characterization has allowed for tailoring of coating structure and therefore properties. High temperature oxidation/corrosion testing of the optimized coatings has shown that the coatings remain adherent and protective for extended periods. However, preliminary tests of coated fibers showed considerable degradation in tensile strength.

Colloidal suspensions near 100 {micro}g/L can be pumped from below ground. Designing injection solutions that optimally mobilize colloids in the field also promotes desorption processes. As an example, in manipulating chromium-containing colloids, injected sorbate also served to displace the ion exchangeable chromate load in that subsurface region.

Alumina has been joined at 1150 degrees C and 1400 degrees C using multilayer copper/niobium/copper interlayers. Four-point bend strengths are sensitive to processing temperature, bonding pressure, and furnace environment (ambient oxygen partial pressure). Under optimum conditions, joints with reproducibly high room temperature strengths (approximately equal 240 plus/minus 20 MPa) can be produced; most failures occur within the ceramic. Joints made with sapphire show that during bonding an initially continuous copper film undergoes a morphological instability, resulting in the formation of isolated copper-rich droplets/particles at the sapphire/interlayer interface, and extensive regions of direct bonding between sapphire and niobium. For optimized alumina bonds, bend tests at 800 degrees C-1100 degrees C indicate significant strength is retained; even at the highest test temperature, ceramic failure is observed. Post-bonding anneals at 1000 degrees C in vacuum or in gettered argon were used to assess joint stability and to probe the effect of ambient oxygen partial pressure on joint characteristics. Annealing in vacuum for up to 200 h causes no significant decrease in room temperature bend strength or change in fracture path. With increasing anneal time in a lower oxygen partial pressure environment, the fracture strength decreases only slightly, but the fracture path shifts from …

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During Phase I the feasibility of fabricating high-performance, low bandgap (0.58ev)PV cells by thermally diffusing p-n junctions in GaSb based quaternary materials was established. During phase II, bandgap engineered thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells were optimized, development of a low-cost build source material for quaternary devices was investigated, and a diesel-fueled, TPV test-bed was built and tested allowing its performance to be characterized.

At the 29th International Annual Conference of ICT (1998), the authors described the results of laboratory-scale process development studies for a new synthesis of 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB). This new synthesis approach--which uses vicarious nucleophilic substitution (VNS) methodology--converts picramide to TATB in high yield, and potentially at lower cost and with few environmental effects than existing synthetic approaches. In this report they describe results of their work on producing TATB by the VNS method at the pilot plant scale. They will discuss structure and control of impurities, changes in yield/quality with reaction conditions, choice of solvents, workup and product isolation, safety, and environmental considerations. Product characterization (particle size, DSC, HPLC, etc.) as well as small-scale safety and performance testing is also discussed.

Coal beneficiation is achieved by suspending coal fines in a colloidal suspension of microscopic gas bubbles in water under atmospheric conditions to form small agglomerates of the fines adhered by the gas bubbles. The agglomerates are separated, recovered and resuspended in water. Thereafter, the pressure on the suspension is increased above atmospheric to deagglomerate, since the gas bubbles are then re-dissolved in the water. During the deagglomeration step, the mineral matter is dispersed, and when the pressure is released, the coal portion of the deagglomerated gas-saturated water mixture reagglomerates, with the small bubbles now coming out of the solution. The reagglomerate can then be separated to provide purified coal fines without the mineral matter.