A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Goods imported into the United States under trade preference programs, which extend unilateral tariff reductions to over 130 developing countries to assist their economies, totaled approximately $92 billion in 2006. The United States offers four primary trade preference programs--the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Some economists and others have raised concerns about the programs; for example, because the beneficiaries may lose interest in reciprocal multilateral or bilateral trade liberalization. In addition, the global trade context in which the programs operate is changing. Most U.S. trade preference programs will need to be renewed over the next several years. As a result, Congress needs to reexamine the programs and explore options for improvement. To provide information for such a reexamination, at your request we (1) identified and compared key features of U.S. preference programs, (2) analyzed use of U.S. preference programs by beneficiaries, and (3) examined U.S. agency administrative reviews of preference programs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 64-million-acre Prairie Pothole Region in the north-central United States provides breeding grounds for over 60 percent of key migratory bird species in the United States. During much of the 20th century, the draining of wetlands and the conversion of prairie to cropland has reduced bird habitat. Under the Small Wetlands Acquisition Program, the Department of the Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) aims to sustain remaining migratory bird populations by permanently protecting high-priority habitat. Some habitat is temporarily protected under the Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program. In this context, GAO examined (1) the status of the Service's acquisition program in the region, (2) the Service's habitat protection goals for the region, and (3) challenges to achieving these goals. To answer these objectives, GAO examined Service land acquisition data and projected rates of habitat loss."

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Energy issued the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition (ENLC) funding to implement ecological restoration in Gleason Creek and Smith Valley Watersheds. This project was made possible by congressionally directed funding that was provided through the US Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of the Biomass Program. The Ely District Bureau of Land Management (Ely BLM) manages these watersheds and considers them priority areas within the Ely BLM district. These three entities collaborated to address the issues and concerns of Gleason Creek and Smith Valley and prepared a restoration plan to improve the watersheds’ ecological health and resiliency. The restoration process began with watershed-scale vegetation assessments and state and transition models to focus on restoration sites. Design and implementation of restoration treatments ensued and were completed in January 2007. This report describes the restoration process ENLC undertook from planning to implementation of two watersheds in semi-arid Eastern Nevada.

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The purpose of this report is to document the status of revegetation projects and natural resources mitigation efforts that have been conducted for remediated waste sites and other activities associated with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) cleanup of National Priorities List waste sites at Hanford. This report documents the results of revegetation and mitigation monitoring conducted in 2007 and includes 11 revegetation/restoration projects, one revegetation/mitigation project, and 3 bat habitat mitigation projects.

The authors goal is to solve the ODE: dy/dt = f(t,y(t)) where we are to advance the independent variables y by marching forward in time t using a step size h. Here time levels are denoted by subscripts. The 'modified Euler' method (e.g., [1,2]) uses a forward-Euler step as a predictor to yield a provisional estimate {tilde y}{sub i+1} of the dependent variables at the advanced time level: {tilde y}{sub i+1} = y{sub i} + hf(t{sub i},y{sub i}).

This document describes the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hanford Site environment. It is intended to provide a consistent description of the Hanford Site for the many environmental documents being prepared by DOE contractors concerning the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). No statements regarding significance or environmental consequences are provided. This year’s report is the eighteen revision of the original document published in 1988 and is (until replaced by the nineteenth revision) the only version that is relevant for use in the preparation of Hanford NEPA, State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) documents. Two chapters are included in this document (Chapters 4 and 6), numbered to correspond to chapters typically presented in environmental impact statements (EISs) and other Hanford Site NEPA or CERCLA documentation. Chapter 4.0 (Affected Environment) describes Hanford Site climate and meteorology; air quality; geology; hydrology; ecology; cultural, archaeological, and historical resources; socioeconomics; noise; and occupational health and safety. Sources for extensive tabular data related to these topics are provided in the chapter. When possible, subjects are divided into a general description of the characteristics of the Hanford Site, followed by site-specific information, where available, for the 100, 200, 300 …

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This report provides a context for evaluating legislative proposals through examples of how science has been used in selected cases, a discussion of the nature and role of science in general, and its role in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) process in particular, together with general and agency information quality requirements and policies, and a review of how the courts have viewed agency use of science.

Ultrasonic (UT) nondestructive examinations (NDE) were performed on waste storage tanks 35, 36, 37, 38 and 15 at the Savannah River Site as a part of the 'In-Service Inspection (ISI) Program for High Level Waste Tanks.' 1 The inspections were performed from the annular space of the waste storage tanks. The inspections included thickness mapping and crack detection scans on specified areas of the tanks covering all present and historic interface levels and selected welds with particular emphasis on the vapor space regions. Including the tanks in this report, all of the 27 Type III tanks at SRS have been inspected in accordance with the ISI plan. Of the four Type III tanks examined this year, all had areas of reportable thickness in either the Primary or Secondary tank. All of these areas on the primary tank are attributed to fabrication artifacts. None of the four Type III tanks examined this year showed evidence of service induced thinning on the primary wall. All four tanks had secondary wall and/or floor plates where the remaining thickness measured below the 10% wall loss criteria. Tank 15, a Type II, non-stress relieved, waste tank was also inspected this fiscal year as part of …

Annual Site Environmental Report for the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) for Calendar Year 2006. The report summarizes calendar year (CY) 2006 environmental monitoring data so as to describe the performance of the WVDP’s environmental management system (EMS), confirm compliance with standards and regulations, and highlight important programs that protect public health and safety and the environment.

The acoustic force exerted on a solid particle was evaluated to develop a fundamental understanding of the critical physical parameters or constraints affecting particle motion and capture in a collecting device. The application of an acoustic force to the collection of a range of submicron-to-micron particles in a highly turbulent airflow stream laden with solid particles was evaluated in the presence of other assisting and competing forces. This scoping estimate was based on the primary acoustic force acting directly on particles in a dilute aerosol system, neglecting secondary interparticle effects such as agglomeration of the sub-micron particles. A simplified analysis assuming a stable acoustic equilibrium with an infinite sound speed in the solid shows that for a solid-laden air flow in the presence of a standing wave, particles will move toward the nearest node. The results also show that the turbulent drag force on a 1-{micro}m particle resulting from eddy motion is dominant when compared with the electrostatic force or the ultrasonic acoustic force. At least 180 dB acoustic pressure level at 1 MHz is required for the acoustic force to be comparable to the electrostatic or turbulent drag forces in a high-speed air stream. It is noted that particle …

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This report discusses the opportunities and barriers related to increasing U.S. cooperation with other countries in the hemisphere on biofuels development, focusing on the U.S.-Brazil agreement.

This report provides information on the Issues for the 110th Congress with Cuba.U.S policy of Cuba has consisted largely of isolating the communist nation's economic sanctions, which the Bush administration has tightened significantly.

This report is categorized into seven categories: (I) Background, (II) Female Members, (III) Relationship, (IV) Oldest and Youngest Black Members, (V) Black Members in Leadership Position, (VI) Tables and Data and (VII) Alphabetical Listening of Black Members, Selecetd Biographical Information, and Committee Assignments during Their Tenure in Office.

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A computational evaluation of a particle collector design was performed to evaluate the behavior of aerosol particles in a fast flowing gas stream. The objective of the work was to improve the collection efficiency of the device while maintaining a minimum specified air throughput, nominal collector size, and minimal power requirements. The impact of a range of parameters was considered subject to constraints on gas flow rate, overall collector dimensions, and power limitations. Potential improvements were identified, some of which have already been implemented. Other more complex changes were identified and are described here for further consideration. In addition, fruitful areas for further study are proposed.

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