Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were a dramatic reminder of the importance of cultivating a better understanding of the United States and its policies with overseas audiences. U.S. public diplomacy activities include the efforts of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees all nonmilitary U.S. international broadcasting by the Voice of America (VOA) and several other broadcast entities. Such broadcasting helps promote a better understanding of the United States and serves U.S. interests by providing overseas audiences with accurate and objective news about the United States and the world. GAO has issued three reports over the past 4 years examining the organizational, marketing, resource, and performance reporting challenges faced by the Board. Our recommendations to the Board have included the need to address the long-standing issue of overlapping language services (i.e., where two services broadcast in the same language to the same audience) and to strengthen the Board's strategic planning and performance by placing a greater emphasis on results. The Board has taken significant steps to respond to these and other recommendations."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As a result of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and launch of the Global War on Terrorism, the National Guard has experienced the largest activation of its forces since World War II. The Guard consists of 350,000 Army Guard soldiers and 107,000 Air Guard members. With its unique dual status, it performs state missions under the governor and federal missions at home and overseas under the President. Since September 11, the Guard's missions have expanded, raising concerns about its ability to simultaneously perform all of these functions. The Department of Defense (DOD) funds the Army Guard for partial readiness to accomplish mission requirements assuming that there will be time to supply additional personnel and equipment in an extended conflict. In contrast, the Air Guard is funded to be an operational reserve ready on short notice. Today's testimony addresses GAO's observations on (1) the extent and purpose of the National Guard's use since September 11, (2) the effects of that use on Guard forces' readiness for future missions, and (3) the challenges that DOD, the states, and Congress face in organizing and equipping the Guard to support both …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In a letter dated April 15, 2004, the Ranking Minority Member, House Committee on Government Reform, requested a monthly breakdown of all expenditures from October 2002 through September 2003 by Independent Counsel David M. Barrett. Under 28 U.S.C 596(c)(1) and (2) (2000), independent counsels are required to report on their expenditures from the permanent, indefinite appropriation established to fund independent counsel activities semiannually. We are required to audit these expenditures and report our findings to appropriate congressional committees. The request letter cited our two most recent semiannual reports, which covered the period in question on independent counsel expenditures."

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful technique for studying bi-molecular interactions at the atomic scale. Our NMR lab is involved in the identification of small molecules, or ligands that bind to target protein receptors, such as tetanus (TeNT) and botulinum (BoNT) neurotoxins, anthrax proteins and HLA-DR10 receptors on non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer cells. Once low affinity binders are identified, they can be linked together to produce multidentate synthetic high affinity ligands (SHALs) that have very high specificity for their target protein receptors. An important nanotechnology application for SHALs is their use in the development of robust chemical sensors or biochips for the detection of pathogen proteins in environmental samples or body fluids. Here, we describe a recently developed NMR competition assay based on transferred nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (trNOESY) that enables the identification of sets of ligands that bind to the same site, or a different site, on the surface of TeNT fragment C (TetC) than a known ''marker'' ligand, doxorubicin. Using this assay, we can identify the optimal pairs of ligands to be linked together for creating detection reagents, as well as estimate the relative binding constants for ligands competing for the same site.

This report documents results from a study carried out by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville for the Office of Public Transportation, Tennessee Department of Transportation. The study team was tasked with developing a process and a supporting methodology for estimating the benefits accruing to the State from the operation of state supported public transit services. The team was also tasked with developing forecasts of the future demands for these State supported transit services at five year intervals through the year 2020, broken down where possible to the local transit system level. Separate ridership benefits and forecasts were also requested for the State's urban and rural transit operations. Tennessee's public transit systems are subsidized to a degree by taxpayers. It is therefore in the public interest that assessments of the benefits of such systems be carried out at intervals, to determine how they are contributing to the well-being of the state's population. For some population groups within the State of Tennessee these transit services have become essential as a means of gaining access to workplaces and job training centers, to educational and health care facilities, as well as to shops, social functions and recreational sites.

We have performed two sets of experiments looking at laser-driven radiating blast waves. In one set of experiments the effect of a drive laser's passage through a background gas on the hydrodynamical evolution of blast waves was examined. It was found that the laser's passage heats a channel in the gas, creating a region where a portion of the blast wave front had an increased velocity, leading to the formation of a bump-like protrusion on the blast wave. The second set of experiments involved the use of regularly spaced wire arrays to induce perturbations on a blast wave surface. The decay of these perturbations as a function of time was measured for various wave number perturbations and found to be in good agreement with theoretical predictions.

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

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

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

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

Venoco Inc, intends to re-develop the Monterey Formation, a Class III basin reservoir, at South Ellwood Field, Offshore Santa Barbara, California. Well productivity in this field varies significantly. Cumulative Monterey production for individual wells has ranged from 260 STB to 8,700,000 STB. Productivity is primarily affected by how well the well path connects with the local fracture system and the degree of aquifer support. Cumulative oil recovery to date is a small percentage of the original oil in place. To embark upon successful re-development and to optimize reservoir management, Venoco intends to investigate, map and characterize field fracture patterns and the reservoir conduit system. State of the art borehole imaging technologies including FMI, dipole sonic and cross-well seismic, interference tests and production logs will be employed to characterize fractures and micro faults. These data along with the existing database will be used for construction of a novel geologic model of the fracture network. Development of an innovative fracture network reservoir simulator is proposed to monitor and manage the aquifer's role in pressure maintenance and water production. The new fracture simulation model will be used for both planning optimal paths for new wells and improving ultimate recovery. In the second phase …

We show that CP asymmetries in b {yields} s hadronic decays are potentially affected by the presence of massive color-octet particles strongly coupled to the third generation quarks. Theories with warped extra dimensions provide natural candidates in the Kaluza-Klein excitations of gluons in scenarios where flavor-breaking by bulk fermion masses results in the localization of fermion wave-functions. Topcolor models, in which a new gauge interaction leads to top-condensation and a large top mass, also result in the presence of these color-octet states with TeV masses. We find that large effects are possible in modes such as B {yields} {phi}K{sub s}, B {yields} {eta}{prime}K{sub s} and B {yields} {pi}{sup 0}K{sub s} among others.

The effects of growth interruption on the quality of GaInAsSb/AlGaAsSb heterostructures grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy are reported. In-situ reflectance monitoring and ex-situ characterization by high-resolution x-ray diffraction, 4K photoluminescence (PL), and time-resolved PL indicate that GaInAsSb is extremely sensitive to growth interruption time as well as the ambient atmosphere during interruption. By optimizing the interruption sequence, surface recombination velocity as low as 20 cm/s was achieved for GaInAsSb/AlGaAsSb double heterostructures.

Grain refinement behavior of copper alloys cast in permanent molds was investigated. This is one of the least studied subjects in copper alloy castings. Grain refinement is not widely practiced for leaded copper alloys cast in sand molds. Aluminum bronzes and high strength yellow brasses, cast in sand and permanent molds, were usually fine grained due to the presence of more than 2% iron. Grain refinement of the most common permanent mold casting alloys, leaded yellow brass and its lead-free replacement EnviroBrass III, is not universally accepted due to the perceived problem of hard spots in finished castings and for the same reason these alloys contain very low amounts of iron. The yellow brasses and Cu-Si alloys are gaining popularity in North America due to their low lead content and amenability for permanent mold casting. These alloys are prone to hot tearing in permanent mold casting. Grain refinement is one of the solutions for reducing this problem. However, to use this technique it is necessary to understand the mechanism of grain refinement and other issues involved in the process. The following issues were studied during this three year project funded by the US Department of Energy and the copper casting …

Heat treatment practices used by steel foundries have been carefully studied as part of comprehensive heat treatment procedure qualification development trials. These studies highlight the relationships between critical heat treatment process control parameters and heat treatment success. Foundry heat treatment trials to develop heat treatment procedure qualifications have shed light on the relationship between heat treatment theory and current practices. Furnace load time-temperature profiles in steel foundries exhibit significant differences depending on heat treatment equipment, furnace loading practice, and furnace maintenance. Time-temperature profiles of furnace control thermocouples can be very different from the time-temperature profiles observed at the center of casting loads in the furnace. Typical austenitization temperatures and holding times used by steel foundries far exceed what is required for transformation to austenite. Quenching and hardenability concepts were also investigated. Heat treatment procedure qualification (HTPQ) schema to demonstrate heat treatment success and to pre-qualify other alloys and section sizes requiring lesser hardenability have been developed. Tempering success is dependent on both tempering time and temperature. As such, furnace temperature uniformity and control of furnace loading during tempering is critical to obtain the desired mechanical properties. The ramp-up time in the furnace prior to the establishment of steady state heat …

Head-tail asymmetry has been observed in the longitudinal beam profiles in the Fermilab Recycler Ring where protons or antiprotons are stored in rf barrier buckets. The asymmetry is caused by the distortion of the rf potential well in the presence of resistive impedance. Gaussian energy distribution can fit the observed asymmetric beam profile but not without discrepancy. It can also fit the measured energy distribution. On the other hand, generalized elliptic distribution gives a better fit to the beam profile. However, it fails to reproduce the observed energy distribution.

The original objectives of the present program consisted of two specific nucleation-related research activities; (1) to provide a set of experimental data that will enable the quantitative examination of classical nucleation theory, and (2) to describe the phenomenon of nucleation by developing general expressions of nucleation that include both the thermal and athermal components and that correctly consider and incorporate the transient effects that arise from the nonstationary cluster distribution profile.

The dual-continuum random-walk particle tracking approach is an attractive simulation method for simulating transport in a fractured porous medium. In order to be truly successful for such a model, however, the key issue is to properly simulate the mass transfer between the fracture and matrix continua. In a recent paper, Pan and Bodvarsson (2002) proposed an improved scheme for simulating fracture-matrix mass transfer, by introducing the concept of activity range into the calculation of fracture-matrix particle-transfer probability. By comparing with analytical solutions, they showed that their scheme successfully captured the transient diffusion depth into the matrix without any additional subgrid (matrix) cells. This technical note presents an expansion of their scheme to cases in which significant water flow through the fracture-matrix interface exists. The dual-continuum particle tracker with this new scheme was found to be as accurate as a numerical model using a more detailed grid. The improved scheme can be readily incorporated into the existing particle-tracking code, while still maintaining the advantage of needing no additional matrix cells to capture transient features of particle penetration into the matrix.

The efficiency of thermophotovoltaic (TPV) energy conversion is dependent on efficient spectral control. An edge pass filter (short pass) in series with a highly doped, epitaxially grown layer has achieved the highest performance of TPV spectral control. Front surface, tandem filters have achieved the highest spectral efficiency and represent the best prospect for even higher spectral efficiency for TPV energy conversion systems. Specifically, improvements in the physical vapor deposition process, identification of other materials with a high index of refraction and a low absorption coefficient, and more efficient edge filter designs could provide higher TPV spectral performance.

Weekly newspaper from Archer 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.

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

Funeral program for Mrs. Ethel L. Lawson, born April 7, 1906 and died April 20, 2004. The funeral was held Thursday, April 29, 2004 at Mt. Zion First Baptist Church, officiated by Reverend Kenneth A. Allen, Senior Pastor. Funeral arrangements were made through La Paz All Faith Funeral Chapels and she was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

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