A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Education's Migrant Education Program (MEP) and the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Migrant Head Start Program (MHS), focusing on: (1) the goals of the MEP and MHS programs, how they operate, who they serve, and what services they provide; (2) the extent to which Education and HHS facilitate the coordination of MEP and MHS services within each of their programs and between the two programs; and (3) how well Education and HHS determine whether MEP and MHS achieve their goals and objectives."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the effects of laws in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, focusing on: (1) the rationale behind selected reforms states have made to their medical malpractice tort law; (2) whether selected tort reforms have reduced malpractice insurance costs and the costs associated with defensive medicine; (3) the extent to which the District, Maryland, and Virginia have adopted selected tort reforms; and (4) comparing malpractice claim payments, insurance premiums, and numbers of physicians in the District; Baltimore, Maryland; and Richmond, Virginia."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on how the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) considers mobility improvements as it evaluates proposed new starts projects, focusing on: (1) how a proposed project's rating for mobility improvements affects its likelihood for selection; and (2) FTA's proposed changes in how it will evaluate mobility improvements."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's report on the proliferation of depot maintenance-type activities at non-depot facilities for completeness and adequacy, focusing on the: (1) the total amount of depot maintenance-type work conducted at local maintenance facilities and the cost efficiency of such work in view of the Army's overall requirements; and (2) plans for consolidating fragmented maintenance operations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined some of the key issues involving vaccine availability for children in developing countries, focusing on the: (1) locations where shortfalls in immunization coverage are most prevalent; and (2) factors that impede vaccine availability in these locations."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed efforts to improve the management and performance of the federal government."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) new rule on the threatened status for two chinook salmon evolutionarily significant units (ESU) in California. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would list two additional ESUs as a threatened species; and (2) NOAA complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

'The HSV in storage in MTF has been monitored during FY99, and its overpressure has been sampled and analyzed. The HSV''s internal pressure continues to rise slowly, and the overpressure still analyzes as 100 percent 3He. The titanium tritide sample that was to be monitored annually and which had developed a leak last year has been repaired and isotherms measured. Unfortunately the sample was showing significant unexpected 3He release, so the isotherm data is corrupted by unknown levels of 3He. This release has disqualified this sample for future use, as it is now seriously divergent from the HSV material. A different sample must be selected for subsequent studies.The unexpected 3He releases of the Ti-3 sample and the possible release in other Ti samples have raised a serious issue. It should be determined why this release is occurring, so that an unexpected release of 3He during HSV unloading can be assessed as unlikely.'

This document summarizes the status of sample fabrication and analysis in the Form Development Sample Test Matrix. Since its publication in the ''Baseline Formulation'' report (UCRL-ID- 133089, PIP-99-O 12) and in the ''Complete Single-Phase Sample Fabrications that Support the Licensing Application and Complete Process and Compositional Extreme Sample Fabrications that Support the Licensing Application'' report (PIP-99-078), the Sample Test Matrix has been updated and expanded. This version is current though September 30, 1999.

'The HSV in storage in MTF has been monitored during FY99, and its overpressure has been sampled and analyzed. The HSV''s internal pressure continues to rise slowly, and the overpressure still analyzes as 100 percent 3He. The titanium tritide sample that was to be monitored annually and which had developed a leak last year has been repaired and isotherms measured. Unfortunately the sample was showing significant unexpected 3He release, so the isotherm data is corrupted by unknown levels of 3He. This release has disqualified this sample for future use, as it is now seriously divergent from the HSV material. A different sample must be selected for subsequent studies.The unexpected 3He releases of the Ti-3 sample and the possible release in other Ti samples have raised a serious issue. It should be determined why this release is occurring, so that an unexpected release of 3He during HSV unloading can be assessed as unlikely.'

This report includes a review of the progress made in ACTF Flow Loop development and research during 90 days pre-award period (May 15-July 14, 1999) and the following three months after the project approval date (July15-October 15, 1999) The report presents information on the following specific subjects; (a) Progress in Advanced Cuttings Transport Facility design and development, (b) Progress report on the research project ''Study of Flow of Synthetic Drilling Fluids Under Elevated Pressure and Temperature Conditions'', (c) Progress report on the research project ''Study of Cuttings Transport with Foam Under LPAT Conditions (Joint Project with TUDRP)'', (d) Progress report on the research project ''Study of Cuttings Transport with Aerated Muds Under LPAT Conditions (Joint Project with TUDRP)'', (e) Progress report on the research project ''Study of Foam Flow Behavior Under EPET Conditions'', (f) Progress report on the instrumentation tasks (Tasks 11 and 12) (g) Activities towards technology transfer and developing contacts with oil and service company members.

Effective seismic interrogation of the near subsurface requires that measured parameters, such as compressional and shear velocities and attenuation, be related to important soil properties. Porosity, composition (clay content), fluid content and type are of particular interest. The ultrasonic (100-500 kHz) pulse transmission technique was used to collect data for highly attenuating materials appropriate to the vadose zone. Up to several meters of overburden were simulated by applying low uniaxial stress of 0 to about 0.1 MPa to the sample. The approach was to make baseline measurements for pure quartz sand, because the elastic properties are relatively well known except at the lowest pressures. Clay was added to modify the sample microstructure and ultrasonic measurements were made to characterize the effect of the admixed second phase. Samples were fabricated from Ottawa sand mixed with a swelling clay (Wyoming bentonite). The amount of clay added was 1 to 40% by mass. Compressional (P) velocities are low (228-483 m/s), comparable to the sound velocity in air. Shear (S) velocities are about half of the compressional velocity (120-298 m/s), but show different sensitivity to microstructure. Adding clay increases the shear amplitude dramatically with respect to P, and also changes the sensitivity of the …

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the activities of the National Fish Hatchery System, focusing on: (1) the funding level for the National Fish Hatchery System since 1992 and the funding level's impact on operations; (2) the production level at federal hatcheries; (3) the portion of production that is used for recovery and restoration efforts; (4) the distribution of total hatchery production into federal, state, and other waters; and (5) the issues related to health and disease problems at these hatcheries that pose problems for introducing their fish into the wild."

Iodine-129 has the lowest Performance Assessment derived inventory limit in SRS disposal facilities. Because iodine is concentrated in the body to one organ, the thyroid, it has been thought that dilution with stable iodine would reduce the dose effects of 129I.Examination of the dose model used to establish the Dose conversion factor for 129I shows that, at the levels considered in performance assessments of low-level waste disposal facilities, the calculated 129I dose already accounts for ingestion of stable iodine. At higher than normal iodine ingestion rates, the uptake of iodine by the thyroid itself decrease, which effectively cancels out the isotopic dilution effect.

This report describes the technology, system, and process that has been developed and tested. It also discusses the technology''s advantages, disadvantages, system performance, and its effectiveness. A comparison to the baseline technologies as well as other competing technologies will be presented. This report will include a brief discussion of commercial availability and technology readiness for implementation and recommendations for its use.

The matrix elements of the four quark operators needed to predict many weak interaction processes can be evaluated using the large N{sub c} limit of quantum chromodynamics. At leading order in the large N{sub c} expansion, the weak matrix elements of four quark operators factorize into independent matrix elements of two quark operators, a common approximation being used today. At the next leading order, the weak matrix elements acquire the leading scale and scheme dependence expected for these matrix elements in full QCD. They discuss methods to evaluate these matrix elements which involve matching perturbative QCD calculations at short distance to non-perturbative hadronic matrix elements at long distance.

One problem facing many scientists is not the absence of tools to analyze data, but rather a shortage of interrelated diagnostic software that is consistent, flexible, portable, adaptable, efficient, sharable, and easy to use. Consequently, many scientists are writing their own programs to ingest, manipulate and display data. Debugging and enhancing special purpose software diverts time that otherwise would be spent on research. The result is often not ''friendly'', reusable, or portable, nor does it promote standards within the research community. In response to the needs of the scientific community, PCMDI has developed a suite of software tools for the storage, diagnosis, and visualization of data. PCMDI's principal tools are the Climate Data Analysis Tool (CDAT), the Climate Database Management System (CDMS), and the Visualization and Computation System (VCS). The design goal of this suite of software is to reduce the redundancy encountered so often in scientific analysis and to allow researchers to concentrate on their science. One obstacle to sharing analysis software is the wide variety of data file formats that are in use. Programs must be written to convert data to a user's preferred file format and conventions. This data conversion requires additional expenditure of efforts on testing …

Annual report documenting statistics and analysis of contracts awarded to historically underutilized business (HUBs) by Texas state agencies, including expenditures and awards.

The Administration requested $78.242 billion for research and development (R&D) in FY2000, 1.3% below the FY1999 estimated level of $79.267 billion. As with past proposals, the Administration requested an increase for civilian R&D, 3% to $39.761 billion, while overall defense R&D would decline 5.3% to $38.481 billion.

This report discusses two Clean Air Act provisions that can result in denial of federal highway funding to local areas: sanctions and the lapse of what is called "conformity." Under the Clean Air Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is required to impose highway fund or other sanctions on areas that have not submitted or not implemented adequate plans to attain air quality standards. In addition, federal agencies may not provide financial support to transportation improvements in areas that have not attained air quality standards, unless the improvements conform with the State Implementation Plan for achieving air quality. This report provides information concerning the authority to impose sanctions and to make conformity determinations, lists the areas that have been subject to sanctions determinations since 1990, describes their current status, and discusses the role of sanctions and alternatives under the Act. This report will be updated as developments warrant.

The Diesel Emission Control-Sulfur Effects (DECSE) is a joint government/industry program to determine the impact of diesel fuel sulfur levels on emission control systems whose use could lower emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) from on-highway trucks in the 2002--2004 model years. Phase 1 of the program was developed with the following objectives in mind: (1) evaluate the effects of varying the level of sulfur content in the fuel on the emission reduction performance of four emission control technologies; and (2) measure and compare the effects of up to 250 hours of aging on selected devices for multiple levels of fuel sulfur content. This interim report discusses the results of the DECSE test program that demonstrates the potential of NOx adsorber catalyst technology across the range of diesel engine operation with a fuel economy penalty less than 4%.

Laser spectroscopy experiments on autoionizing states of alkaline earth atoms allow the inverse process, dielectronic recombination, to be studied in great detail under controlled and variable conditions. The research is also relevant to problems in physical chemistry involving excited molecules, and it has helped to clarify the physical processes of zero kinetic energy electron spectroscopy and coherent control.

The twelfth international workshop on inelastic ion surface collisions was held at the Bahia Mar Resort and Conference Center on South Padre Island, Texas (USA) from January 24-29, 1999. The workshop brought together most of the leading researchers from around the world to focus on both the theoretical and experimental aspects of particle - surface interactions and related topics.