A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the: (1) distribution of Medicare home health agencies' (HHA) closures across urban and rural counties and the characteristics of closed agencies; and (2) effect of closures on beneficiary access to home health services."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Bureau of Reclamation's sources and uses of funds at federal water projects, focusing on: (1) the Bureau's legal authorities and policies and procedures for obtaining, using, and accounting for funds, the types and amounts of funding obtained, and how funds were spent; (2) controls that were established to ensure that funds are properly obtained, used, and accounted for; (3) operations and maintenance (O&M) activities, expenses, and policies and procedures; and (4) other issues, such as the repayment of O&M and construction costs at the Central Valley Project (CVP)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Forest Service's and the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) efforts to implement two ecosystem-based studies--the Northwest Forest Plan and the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project, focusing on: (1) the extent to which each effort has addressed long-standing planning deficiencies; (2) whether the agencies encountered the delays and significant costs that have been characteristic of previous planning efforts; and (3) the effect that the plans have had, or are expected to have, on the quantity and quality of timber sold from federal lands covered by the plans."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Energy's (DOE) efforts to implement GAO's recommendations to improve the deployment of innovative cleanup technologies, focusing on whether DOE: (1) established coordination between technology developers and users; (2) modified completed technologies to meet site-specific needs; (3) provided technical assistance to sites; and (4) improved the quality of deployment data."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the secondary markets for 7(a) small business loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA), focusing on: (1) the benefits and risks of secondary loan markets to participants; (2) primary benefits and risks to participants in the guaranteed 7(a) secondary market and the unguaranteed 7(a) secondary market; and (3) a comparison of the guaranteed 7(a) secondary market with the secondary market for federally guaranteed residential mortgages, and the unguaranteed 7(a) secondary market with the secondary market for residential mortgages without a federal guarantee."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed efforts to reform the Medicare program, focusing on: (1) a conceptual framework for considering the various possible combinations of reform options; and (2) lessons about implementing reforms learned from recent Medicare experience."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the labeling requirements for fresh produce, focusing on: (1) the potential costs associated with the compliance and enforcement of a mandatory country-of-origin labeling requirement at the retail level for fresh produce; (2) the potential trade issues associated with such a requirement; (3) the potential impact of such a requirement on the ability of the federal government and the public to respond to outbreaks of illness caused by contaminated fresh produce; and (4) consumers' views of country-of-origin labeling."

This report contains analytical data for samples taken during First Quarter 1999 from wells of the LFW series located at the Sanitary Landfill at the Savannah River Site (SRS). This report presents monitoring results that equaled or exceeded the Safe Drinking Water Act final Primary Drinking Water Standards or screening levels, established by the U.S. Environmental Proteciton Agency, the South Carolina final Primary Drinking Water Standard for lead, or the SRS flagging criteria.

Quarterly publication of the Texas Comptroller's Office regarding sales and use tax in the state of Texas, including an analysis by county, analysis by industry, and related notes.

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a bond pricing attended by less than a quorum of the Texas Public Finance Authority Board of Director constitutes a meeting subject to the Open Meetings Act (RQ-0016)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Brewster County Attorney may simultaneously serve as an attorney for the City of Alpine (RQ-0041)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Harris Couty Auditor must audit the Harris County Department of Education; reconsideration of Letter Opinion No. 93-83 (1993) concerning reimbursement of county efor expenses of audit (RQ-991)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a constable may execute service of process to enforce the compulsory school attendance provisions of the Education Code (RQ-1147)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Notice requirements apllicable to executive session held to allow a governmental body to consult with its attorney under section 551.071 of the Government Code (RQ-1208)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; The effect of two 1997 amendments to section 34.06(b) of the Tax Code (RQ-0031)

Experiments were performed to understand laser-induced back-ablation of Al film targets with picosecond laser pulses. Al films deposited on the back surface of BK-7 substrates are ablated by picosecond laser pulses propagating into the Al film through the substrate. The ablated Al plume is transversely probed by a time-delayed, two-color sub-picoseond (500 fs) pulse, and this probe is then used to produce self-referencing interferograms and shadowgraphs of the Al plume in flight. Optical emission from the Al target due to LIBA is directed into a time-integrated grating spectrometer, and a time-integrating CCD camera records images of the Al plume emission. Ablated Al plumes are also redeposited on to receiving substrates. A post-experimental study of the Al target and recollected deposit characteristics was also done using optical microscopy, interferometry, and profilometry. In this high laser intensity regime, laser-induced substrate ionization and damage strongly limits transmitted laser fluence through the substrate above a threshold fluence. The threshold fluence for this ionization-based transmission limit in the substrate is dependent on the duration of the incident pulse. The substrate ionization can be used as a dynamic control of both transmitted spatial pulse profile and ablated Al plume shape. The efficiency of laser energy transfer …

The development and demonstration of inertial fusion is incredibly challenging because it requires simultaneously controlling and precisely measuring parameters at extreme values in energy, space, and time. The challenges range from building megajoule (10{sup 6} J) drivers that perform with percent-level precision to fabricating targets with submicron specifications to measuring target performance at micron scale (10{sup {minus}6} m) with picosecond (10{sup {minus}12} s) time resolution. Over the past 30 years in attempting to meet this challenge, the inertial fusion community around the world has invented new technologies in lasers, particle beams, pulse power drivers, diagnostics, target fabrication, and other areas. These technologies have found applications in diverse fields of industry and science. Moreover, simply assembling the teams with the background, experience, and personal drive to meet the challenging requirements of inertial fusion has led to spin-offs in unexpected directions, for example, in laser isotope separation, extreme ultraviolet lithography for microelectronics, compact and inexpensive radars, advanced laser materials processing, and medical technology. The experience of inertial fusion research and development of spinning off technologies has not been unique to any one laboratory or country but has been similar in main research centers in the US, Europe, and Japan. Strengthening and broadening …

''Save with Solar'' is a quarterly bulletin produced under the Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program for all those who are planning or working on installations of solar and other renewable energy technologies in the Federal government's facilities. Contents include technical information about today's solar technologies and information about the programs, policies, procurement practices, and incentives that support the deployment of renewable energy in the Federal sector. Among the topics covered in this issue is a two-page article about how solar energy is being used by the National Science Foundation in NSF outposts in Antarctica. The newsletter also describes projects that meet the goals of the President's Million Solar Roofs Initiative.

A comprehensive interpretation of the fast-neutron interaction with elemental and isotopic molybdenum at energies of {le} 30 MeV is given. New experimental elemental-scattering information over the incident energy range 4.5 {r_arrow} 10 MeV is presented. Spherical, vibrational and dispersive models are deduced and discussed, including isospin, energy-dependent and mass effects. The vibrational models are consistent with the ''Lane potential''. The importance of dispersion effects is noted. Dichotomies that exist in the literature are removed. The models are vehicles for fundamental physical investigations and for the provision of data for applied purposes. A ''regional'' molybdenum model is proposed. Finally, recommendations for future work are made.

The long-term success of the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) provides several insights into fundamental characteristics and design features of a nuclear generating station that enhance safety, operability, and maintainability. Some of these same characteristics, together with other features, offer the potential for operational lifetimes well beyond the current licensing time frame, and improved reliability that could potentially reduce amortized capital costs as well as overall operation and maintenance costs if incorporated into advanced plant designs. These features and characteristics are described and the associated benefits are discussed.

ELEMENTAL ABAREX is an extended version of the spherical optical-statistical model code ABAREX, designed for the interpretation of neutron interactions with elemental targets consisting of up to ten isotopes. The contributions from each of the isotopes of the element are explicitly dealt with, and combined for comparison with the elemental observables. Calculations and statistical fitting of experimental data are considered. The code is written in FORTRAN-77 and arranged for use on the IBM-compatible personal computer (PC), but it should operate effectively on a number of other systems, particularly VAX/VMS and IBM work stations. Effort is taken to make the code user friendly. With this document a reasonably skilled individual should become fluent with the use of the code in a brief period of time.

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The purpose of the Tanks Focus Area (TFA) Midyear Review was to improve the quality and responsiveness of TFA technical solutions to identified user needs. This review goal was achieved through executing a multi-phased review approach. The first phase of the midyear review focused on the subset of FY99 work identified by Department of energy users as having continuing benefit in FY00-01. The TFA FY00-02 Technical Responses identified FY99 work that had continued applicability based on the most current set of site user needs. Each TFA FY00-02 Technical Response which included FY work scope was reviewed by the TFA Technical Advisory Group (TAG), in a meeting held in February 1999. Made up of technical experts from across the country, the TAG provides high-quality, short-turnaround, independent technical reviews for the TFA.

This Corrective Action Decision Document has been prepared for the Nevada Test Site's Area 23 Mercury Fire Training Pit (Corrective Action Unit 342) in accordance with the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO, 1996). Corrective Action Unit 342 is comprised of Corrective Action Site 23-56-01. The purpose of this Corrective Action Decision Document is to identify and provide a rationale for the selection of a recommended corrective action alternative for Corrective Action Unit 342. The scope of this document consists of the following: Develop corrective action objectives; Identify corrective action alternative screening criteria; Develop corrective action alternatives; Perform detailed and comparative evaluations of corrective action alternatives in relation to corrective action objectives and screening criteria; and Recommend and justify a preferred corrective action alternative for the Corrective Action Unit.