A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the process used by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to identify foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies, focusing on current identification process used by the Committee and the effectiveness of the Committee's follow-up on acquisitions identified by its member agencies."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the General Services Administration's (GSA) on-line ordering system, GSA Advantage, focusing on: (1) vendor concerns; and (2) the Federal Supply Service's (FSS) views on the concerns and the actions it is taking to improve Advantage."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the cost increases in the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 program, focusing on: (1) how much costs have increased and the reasons for those increases; (2) whether additional cost increases are expected; (3) what is being done to control costs; and (4) whether the Army's requirement will be met by planned missile procurements."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), focusing on: (1) difficulties in developing WAAS; (2) actions FAA is taking to get the system on track; and (3) next steps for FAA to take to help mitigate future delays in implementing WAAS."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the: (1) status of efforts by the Forest Service to become more accountable for what it accomplishes with appropriated funds; and (2) actions still needed for the agency to provide Congress and the public with a better understanding of its performance."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the: (1) American Fisheries Act's impact on the production of pollock fillets and the price paid for them; and (2) act's positive and negative impacts on fishing operations in the pollock fishery and other fisheries in Alaska."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the: (1) Department of the Treasury's process for allocating highway user tax receipts to the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund; (2) Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) process for estimating motor fuel usage and the contributions to the account that are attributable to highway users in each state; and (3) impact of these processes on the amount of highway program funds distributed to each state."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) described the specific noise abatement procedures at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport; (2) determined whether the airlines comply with these procedures; and (3) assessed whether local citizen groups believe that existing noise abatement procedures and penalties are effective."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the integration of services at one-stop centers provided under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, focusing on: (1) the status of states' efforts to implement WIA and the extent to which TANF services are integrated into the new workforce investment system; (2) the challenges states and localities have encountered in establishing their integrated systems under WIA; and (3) service delivery approaches that show promise in integrating and streamlining services in the one-stop centers."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the issuance of visas for religious workers entering the United States, focusing on: (1) the extent and nature of any fraud the Department of State and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) have identified in the religious worker visa program; and (2) any steps these two agencies have taken or plan to take to change the visa screening process."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) oversight of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lenders."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the prices of genetically modified seeds, focusing on : (1) the prices of Roundup Ready soybeans and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn seeds in the United States and Argentina; and (2) major reasons for any identified price differences between the two countries."

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 State Board for Educator Certification's Internet website may serve as a portal for distance-learning courses developed and offered by other entities, and related questions (RQ-0179-JC)

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 state has a right to a jury trial in a juvenile proceeding (RQ-0180-JC)

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; Constitutionality of section 255.001(a) Texas Election Code, in light of the United States Supreme Court's decision in McIntyre v.Ohio Elections Commission, 514 U.S. 334 (1995) (RQ-0181-JC)

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 legislative appropriation for scholarships for architectural examinmation applicants established by section 7A of article 249a of the Revised Civil Statutes comports with article III, section 44 of the Texas Constitution, and related questions (RQ-0207-JC)

The Monitored Geologic Repository Operations Monitoring and Control System provides supervisory control, monitoring, and selected remote control of primary and secondary repository operations. Primary repository operations consist of both surface and subsurface activities relating to high-level waste receipt, preparation, and emplacement. Secondary repository operations consist of support operations for waste handling and treatment, utilities, subsurface construction, and other selected ancillary activities. Remote control of the subsurface emplacement operations, as well as, repository performance confirmation operations are the direct responsibility of the system. In addition, the system monitors parameters such as radiological data, air quality data, fire detection status, meteorological conditions, unauthorized access, and abnormal operating conditions, to ensure a safe workplace for personnel. Parameters are displayed in a real-time manner to human operators regarding surface and subsurface conditions. The system performs supervisory monitoring and control for both important to safety and non-safety systems. The system provides repository operational information, alarm capability, and human operator response messages during emergency response situations. The system also includes logic control to place equipment, systems, and utilities in a safe operational mode or complete shutdown during emergency response situations. The system initiates alarms and provides operational data to enable appropriate actions at the local level …

Ceramics are being considered for a wide range of structural applications due to their low density and their ability to retain strength at high temperatures. The inherent brittleness of monolithic ceramics requires a departure from the deterministic design philosophy utilized to analyze metallic structural components. The design program ''Ceramic Analysis and Reliability Evaluation of Structures Life'' (CARES/LIFE) developed by NASA Lewis Research Center uses a probabilistic approach to predict the reliability of monolithic components under operational loading. The objective of this study was to develop an understanding of the theories used by CARES/LIFE to predict the reliability of ceramic components and to assess the ability of CARES/LIFE to accurately predict the fast fracture behavior of monolithic ceramic components. A finite element analysis was performed to determine the temperature and stress distribution of a silicon carbide O-ring under diametral compression. The results of the finite element analysis were supplied as input into CARES/LIFE to determine the fast fracture reliability of the O-ring. Statistical material strength parameters were calculated from four-point flexure bar test data. The predicted reliability showed excellent correlation with O-ring compression test data indicating that the CARES/LIFE program can be used to predict the reliability of ceramic components subjected …

Effect of extrusion temperatures on the microstructural development of a powder metallurgy (PM) Ti-47Al-2Cr-1Nb-1Ta (at. %) alloy has been investigated. Microstructure of the PM alloy extruded at 1150 C consists of a fine-grained ({gamma} + {alpha}{sub 2}) two-phase structure in association with coarse grains of metastable B2 (ordered bcc) phase. In addition, fine {omega} (ordered hexagonal) particles are also found within some B2 grains. The PM alloy containing the metastable B2 grains displays a low-temperature superplastic behavior, in which a tensile elongation of 310% is obtained at 800 C under a strain rate of 2 x 10{sup -5} s{sup -1}. It is suggested that the decomposition of metastable B2 phase and microstructural evolution during the deformation play a crucial role in the low-temperature superplasticity of the PM TiAl alloy. A refined fully-lamellar (FL) microstructure with alternating {gamma} and {alpha}{sub 2} lamellae is developed within the PM alloy extruded at 1400 C. The creep resistance of the refined FL-TiAl alloy is found to be superior to those of the TiAl alloys fabricated by conventional processing techniques. Creep mechanisms for the PM alloy with a refined FL microstructure are critically discussed according to TEM examination of deformation substructure.

The purpose of the tests is to seismically qualify the Safety Class Process Hood Components in the Cold Vacuum Drying Facility (CVDF).

Gamma rays are ideal probes for the determination of information about the special nuclear material that is in the transparency regime. Gamma rays are good probes because they interact relatively weakly with the containers that surround the SNM under investigation. In addition, gamma rays carry a great deal of information about the material under investigation. We have leveraged these two characteristics to develop three technologies that have proven useful for the measurements of various attributes of plutonium. These technologies are Pu-300, Pu-600 and Pu-900. These technologies obtain the age, isotopics and presence/absence of oxide of a plutonium sample, respectively. Pu-300 obtains the time since the last {sup 241}Am separation for a sample of plutonium. This is accomplished by looking at the {sup 241}Am/{sup 241}pu ratio in the energy region from 330-350 keV, hence the name Pu-300. Pu-600 determines the isotopics of the plutonium sample under consideration. More specifically, it determines the {sup 240}Pu/{sup 239}Pu ratio to determine if the plutonium sample is of weapons quality or not. This analysis is carded out in the energy region from 630-670 keV. Pu-900 determines the absence of PuO{sub 2} by searching for a peak at 870.7 keV. If this peak is absent then …

The purpose of this Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) Program Description (PD) is to describe the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Richland Operations Office (RL) ISMS as implemented through the RL Integrated Management System (RIMS). This PD does not impose additional requirements but rather provides an overview describing how various parts of the ISMS fit together. Specific requirements for each of the core functions and guiding principles are established in other implementing processes, procedures, and program descriptions that comprise RIMS. RL is organized to conduct work through operating contracts; therefore, it is extremely difficult to provide an adequate ISMS description that only addresses RL functions. Of necessity, this PD contains some information on contractor processes and procedures which then require RL approval or oversight.

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) assessed whether the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) is likely to free up resources for poverty reduction and achieve the goal of debt sustainability; (2) described the strategy to strengthen the link between debt relief and poverty reduction and how this strategy is to be implemented; and (3) described the challenges creditors face in fully funding the enhanced initiative."

This report describes federal child care initiative during World War II, and briefly traces the evolution of federal child care policy from the postwar period until today.