A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The fiscal year 2002 Conference Report for the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act directed GAO to study the benefits and effects of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (Corps) dredge fleet. GAO examined the characteristics and changing roles of the Corps and industry in hopper dredging; the effect of current restrictions on the Corps' hopper dredge fleet; and whether existing and proposed restrictions on the fleet, including the proposal to place the McFarland in ready reserve, are justified. In addition, GAO identified concerns related to the government cost estimates the Corps prepares to determine the reasonableness of industry bids."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Dietary supplements containing ephedra, such as Metabolife 356, have been associated with serious adverse health-related events. In a February 28, 2003, announcement, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed that dietary supplements containing ephedra include a statement on their label warning that "Heart attack, stroke, seizure, and death have been reported after consumption of ephedrine alkaloids." GAO was asked to review health-related call records that Metabolife International--the manufacturer of Metabolife 356--collected from consumers from May 1997 through July 2002. Most of the records were from calls to a consumer phone line the company maintained. Metabolife International voluntarily provided the call records to GAO. Specifically, GAO (1) examined the extent to which consumer information in the call records was comprehensive, interpretable, and consistently recorded, (2) counted the number of call records reporting types of adverse events that FDA had identified in 1997 as serious or potentially serious, and (3) compared GAO's findings to those of six other reviews of the call records, including one by Metabolife International."

A staff study issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In this time of emphasis on performance and results, federal agencies and congressional committees can benefit from knowing the full range of social science methods that can help them improve the programs they oversee. Among the methods they might consider are those of ethnography, derived from anthropology. However, information about the past and present uses of ethnography to improve federal programs has not been systematically gathered or analyzed. Therefore, the potential for program improvement may be overlooked. Ethnography can fill gaps in what we know about the community whose beliefs and behavior affect how federal programs operate. This can be especially useful when such beliefs or behavior present barriers to a program's objectives. Ethnography helps build knowledge of a community by observing its members and by interviewing them in their natural setting. Although many people associate ethnography with lengthy anthropological research aimed at cultures remote from our own, it can be used to inform public programs and has a long history of application in the federal government."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense's (DOD) management of its business systems modernization program has been an area of longstanding concern to Congress and one that GAO has designated as high risk since 1995. Because of this concern, GAO was requested to testify on (1) DOD's current inventory of existing and new business systems and the amount of funding devoted to this inventory; (2) DOD's modernization management capabilities, including weaknesses and DOD's efforts to address them; and (3) GAO's collective recommendations for correcting these weaknesses and minimizing DOD's exposure to risk until they are corrected. In developing this testimony, GAO drew from its previously issued reports on DOD's business systems modernization efforts, including one released today on four key Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) projects."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government spent more than $230 billion through contracts with private industry in fiscal year 2001. Ten Executive Branch agencies account for almost 95 percent of this spending. Past reviews by Executive Branch agency inspectors general, military-department audit agencies, and the General Accounting Office (GAO) have created an extensive body of reports on the procedures and practices that federal agencies use to plan, award, and administer contracts. These reviews identified weaknesses in the contracting processes of individual agencies and contracting challenges these agencies have in common. Consequently, to facilitate literate searches of the reports concerning federal contracting matters, we compiled a catalogue of information from reports and testimonies by the 10 agencies' inspectors general, military department audit agencies, and GAO. Such a catalogue could be useful to the oversight community and others in determing (1) common contracting issues identified across multiple agencies and (2) the potential contracting-risk areas and gaps in contracting oversight across these agencies."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The services have billions of dollars worth of outdated and obsolete automatic test equipment (ATE) used to test components on military aircraft or weapon systems. Department of Defense (DOD) policy advocates the development and acquisition of test equipment that can be used on multiple types of weapon systems and aircraft and used interchangeably between the services. At the request of the Subcommittee's Chairman, GAO examined the problems that the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps are facing with this aging equipment and their efforts to comply with DOD policy."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Making sure systems can work effectively together (interoperability) has been a key problem for the Department of Defense (DOD) yet integral to its goals for enhancing joint operations. Given the importance of being able to share intelligence data quickly, we were asked to assess DOD's initiative to develop a common ground-surface-based intelligence system and to particularly examine (1) whether DOD has adequately planned this initiative and (2) whether its process for testing and certifying the interoperability of new systems is working effectively."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Responding to many of the nation's critical challenges--such as meeting the health care needs of the poor or countering terrorist threats--has been the joint responsibility of all levels of government. The effectiveness of federal programs has increasingly become dependent on state and local management and resources, as well as constructive interactions between federal, state, and local actors, including private or nonprofit actors who are joining with government officials to carry out national policies and programs. This increased interdependence among levels of government presents many challenges. While many policy areas have been nationalized and federally funded, greater responsibility has been devolved to state and local governments for implementing programs to achieve national goals. The intergovernmental system is facing the complexity of managing programs involving numerous actors, and the flexibility and capacity of the federal system to respond to unique local needs is challenged by long-term national and international trends. On November 20, 2002, GAO convened a symposium to identify and discuss the key policy and fiscal issues facing the intergovernmental system. The invited participants represented federal, state, and local governments, national associations, public interest groups, and research …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO audited the expenditures of four independent counsels for the 6 months ended September 30, 2002."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A stable and highly skilled child welfare workforce is necessary to effectively provide child welfare services that meet federal goals. This report identifies (1) the challenges child welfare agencies face in recruiting and retaining child welfare workers and supervisors, (2) how recruitment and retention challenges have affected the safety and permanency outcomes of children in foster care, and (3) workforce practices that public and private child welfare agencies have implemented to successfully confront recruitment and retention challenges."

The Senate of United States Committee and Subcommittee Assignments for the 108th Congress.

This proposal addresses the national need to develop a high efficiency light source for general illumination applications. The goal is to perform research that would lead to the fabrication of a unique solid state, white-emitting light source. This source is based on an InGaN/GaN UV-emitting chip that activates a luminescent material (phosphor) to produce white light. White-light LEDs are commercially available which use UV from a GaN chip to excite a phosphor suspended in epoxy around the chip. Currently, these devices are relatively inefficient. This research will target one technical barrier that presently limits the efficiency of GaN based devices. Improvements in efficiencies will be achieved by improving the internal conversion efficiency of the LED die, by improving the coupling between the die and phosphor(s) to reduce losses at the surfaces, and by selecting phosphors to maximize the emissions from the LEDs in conversion to white light. The UCSD research team proposes for this project to develop new phosphors that have high quantum efficiencies that can be activated by the UV-blue (360-410 nm) light emitted by the GaN device. The main goal for the UCSD team was to develop new phosphor materials with a very specific property: phosphors that could …

In October, 2000, the U.S. Department of Energy, through contractor Advanced Resources International, launched a multi-year government-industry R&D collaboration called the Coal-Seq project. The Coal-Seq project is investigating the feasibility of CO{sub 2} sequestration in deep, unmineable coalseams, by performing detailed reservoir studies of two enhanced coalbed methane recovery (ECBM) field projects in the San Juan basin. The two sites are the Allison Unit, operated by Burlington Resources, and into which CO{sub 2} is being injected, and the Tiffany Unit, operating by BP America, into which N{sub 2} is being injected (the interest in understanding the N{sub 2}-ECBM process has important implications for CO{sub 2} sequestration via flue-gas injection). The purposes of the field studies are to understand the reservoir mechanisms of CO{sub 2} and N{sub 2} injection into coalseams, demonstrate the practical effectiveness of the ECBM and sequestration processes, an engineering capability to simulate them, and to evaluate sequestration economics. In support of these efforts, laboratory and theoretical studies are also being performed to understand and model multi-component isotherm behavior, and coal permeability changes due to swelling with CO{sub 2} injection. This report describes the results of an important component of the overall project, applying the findings from the …

Letter from Nancy and Jerry to Sterling Houston, prominent San Antonio playwright. They send their praises for Cameoland, a stage musical written by Houston. As a token of their admiration, they offer him a free dinner.

Monthly report written by the Texas Daily Newspaper Association's (TDNA's) office manager, Darla Thompson, to Phil Berkebile providing a summary of revenues and account balances, programs, meetings, and other activities in the office during the previous month.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether section 550.065(d) of the Transportation Code requires a governmental body to use the guidelines established by the Texas Building and Procurement Commission when calculating the "actual cost" of making a noncertified copy of an accident report.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Auditing of certain accounts held by a criminal district attorney.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether, "in the case of emergency and imperative public necessity and with a four-fifths vote of the total membership of each House," the legislature may, pursuant to article III, section 49a of the Texas Constitution, authorize expenditures in excess of the amount of cash and anticipated revenues certified by the Comptroller of Public Accounts.

This project was awarded under U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Program Solicitation DE-PS26-00NT40769 and specifically addresses Technical Topical Area 4 - Testing Novel and Less Mature Control Technologies on Actual Flue Gas at the Pilot Scale. The project team includes the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) as the main contractor; W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., as a technical and financial partner; and the Big Stone Plant operated by Otter Tail Power Company, host for the field testing portion of the research. Since 1995, DOE has supported development of a new concept in particulate control called the advanced hybrid particulate collector (AHPC). The AHPC has been licensed to W.L. Gore and Associates, Inc., and is now marketed as the Advanced Hybrid{trademark} filter by Gore. The AHPC combines the best features of electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) and baghouses in a unique configuration, providing major synergism between the two collection methods, both in the particulate collection step and in the transfer of dust to the hopper. The AHPC provides ultrahigh collection efficiency, overcoming the problem of excessive fine-particle emissions with conventional ESPs, and it solves the problem of reentrainment and re-collection of dust in conventional baghouses. The AHPC …

Faculty and students from five universities--the University of Kentucky, University of Pittsburgh, University of Utah, West Virginia University, and Auburn University--are collaborating in a research program to develop C1 chemistry processes to produce ultra-clean liquid transportation fuels and hydrogen, the zero-emissions transportation fuel of the future. The feedstocks contain one carbon atom per molecular unit. They include synthesis gas (syngas), a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen produced by coal gasification or reforming of natural gas, methane, methanol, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. An important objective is to develop C1 technology for the production of transportation fuel from domestically plentiful resources such as coal, coalbed methane, and natural gas. An Industrial Advisory Board with representatives from Chevron-Texaco, Eastman Chemical, Conoco-Phillips, Energy International, the Department of Defense, and Tier Associates provides guidance on the practicality of the research. The current report presents results obtained in this research program during the first six months of the subject contract (DE-FC26-02NT-4159), from October 1, 2002 through March 31, 2003.

This semi-annual technical progress report describes work performed at Morehouse College under DOE Grant No. DE-FG26-02NT15447 during the period October 01, 2002 to April 01, 2003 which covers the first six months of the project. Presently work is in progress to characterize phase and emulsion behavior for condensate/water/ethanol system. Temperature and salinity scans are planned to identify the optimal salinity and temperature, and the temperature and salinity intervals in which all three phases coexist for this system. Test matrix to perform salinity and temperature scans has been established. Supply requests to obtain hydrocarbons, surfactant, etc., were processed and supplies obtained. Current literature in the subject area, and modeling efforts that were established in our previous studies to predict electrical conductivities and inversion phenomena were reviewed. Based on the review a computer model to predict electrical conductivities of the ethylbenzene (that has the equivalent carbon number of the condensate)/water/ethanol system is being developed. These activities resulted in one published conference abstract during this reporting period.

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This report on documents the results of the single-building-operator, on-line, demonstration of the Whole-Building Diagnostician, conducted at the Symphony Towers building in San Diego, California. The on-line test was designed to evaluate the Outdoor-Air Economizer (OAE) diagnostic module’s capabilities to automatically and continually diagnose operational problems with air-handling units (AHUs). As part of this demonstration, all four AHUs at Symphony Towers were monitored. The measured data that were collected on a continuous basis included: 1) outdoor-air temperature, 2) return-air temperature, 3) mixed-air temperature, 4) supply-air temperature, 5) chilled-water valve position, 6) supply-fan status, 7) outdoor-air relative humidity, and 8) return-air relative humidity.

The University of Missouri-Rolla will identify materials that will permit the safe, reliable and economical operation of combined cycle gasifiers by the pulp and paper industry. The primary emphasis of this project will be to resolve the materials problems encountered during the operation of low-pressure high-temperature (LFHT) and low-pressure low-temperature (LPLT) gasifiers while simultaneously understanding the materials barriers to the successful demonstration of high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) black liquor gasifiers. This study will define the chemical, thermal and physical conditions in current and proposed gasifier designs and then modify existing materials and develop new materials to successfully meet the formidable material challenges. Resolving the material challenges of black liquor gasification combined cycle technology will provide energy, environmental, and economic benefits that include higher thermal efficiencies, up to three times greater electrical output per unit of fuel, and lower emissions. In the near term, adoption of this technology will allow the pulp and paper industry greater capital effectiveness and flexibility, as gasifiers are added to increase mill capacity. In the long term, combined-cycle gasification will lessen the industry's environmental impact while increasing its potential for energy production, allowing the production of all the mill's heat and power needs along with surplus electricity …