A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To prevent pollutants from entering storm water runoff, the Clean Water Act's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Storm Water Program requires controls for construction activities that disturb land. Phase I of this program requires permitting for construction activities that disturb 5 acres or more, while Phase II requires permitting for activities disturbing between 1 and 5 acres. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended the Phase II compliance date for discharges associated with oil and gas construction activities until March 2005 to analyze the impact of Phase II on the oil and gas industry. GAO was asked to provide information about oil and gas construction activities--such as well drilling and pipeline construction--affected by Phase I and likely to be affected by Phase II, as well as Phase II's financial and environmental implications."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1998, the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) E-rate program has committed more than $13 billion to help schools and libraries acquire Internet and telecommunications services. Recently, however, allegations of fraud, waste, and abuse by some E-rate program participants have come to light. As steward of the program, FCC must ensure that participants use E-rate funds appropriately and that there is managerial and financial accountability surrounding the funds. GAO reviewed (1) the effect of the current structure of the E-rate program on FCC's management of the program, (2) FCC's development and use of E-rate performance goals and measures, and (3) the effectiveness of FCC's oversight mechanisms in managing the program."

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In recent assessments of climate forcing, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lists aerosol as one o f the most important anthropogenic agents that influence climate. Atmospheric aerosols directly affect the radiative fluxes at the surface and top of the Earth's atmosphere by scattering and/or absorbing radiation. Further, aerosols indirectly change cloud microphysical properties (such as cloud drop effective radius) that also affect the radiative fluxes. However, the estimate of the magnitude of aerosol climatic effect varies widely, and aerosol/cloud interactions remain one of the most uncertain aspects of climate models today. The Atmospheric Sciences Division has formulated a plan to enhance and expand our modeling expertise in aerosol/cloud/climate interactions. Under previous LDRD support, we successfully developed a computationally efficient version of IMPACT to simulate aerosol climatology. This new version contains a compact chemical mechanism for the prediction of sulfate and also predicts the distributions of organic carbon (OC), black carbon (BC), dust, and sea salt. Furthermore, we implemented a radiation package into IMPACT to calculate the radiative forcing and heating/cooling rates by aerosols. This accomplishment built the foundation of our currently funded projects under the NASA Global Modeling and Analysis Program as well as the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Program. …

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This report includes background and analysis of war powers resolutions. Actions of the United Nations, Haiti, and issues for Congress are among topics discussed in this report.

This report details the feasibility of a field deployable DNA analyzer. Steps for swabbing cells from surfaces and extracting DNA in an automatable way are presented. Since enzymatic amplification reactions are highly sensitive to environmental contamination, sample preparation is a crucial step to make an autonomous deployable instrument. We perform sample clean up and concentration in a flow through packed bed. For small initial samples, whole genome amplification is performed in the packed bed resulting in enough product for subsequent PCR amplification. In addition to DNA, which can be used to identify a subject, protein is also left behind, the analysis of which can be used to determine exposure to certain substances, such as radionuclides. Our preparative step for DNA analysis left behind the protein complement as a waste stream; we determined to learn if the proteins themselves could be analyzed in a fieldable device. We successfully developed a two-step lateral flow assay for protein analysis and demonstrate a proof of principle assay.

Previous pre-conceptual core neutronics and system thermal hydraulics calculations initiated the investigation of viability of a Small Secure Transportable Autonomous Reactor (SSTAR) lead-cooled small modular fast reactor concept.1 The calculations indicated that a single-phase natural circulation SSTAR reactor concept with good core reactor physics performance, good system thermal hydraulics performance, and a high Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle efficiency of 40 % may be viable at an electrical power of 18 MWe (45 MWt). Pre-conceptual studies of SSTAR viability have continued with the objective of improving the system thermal hydraulic performance and raising the plant efficiency as well as extending the neutronics analysis. This effort has been motivated by several considerations. First, the initial Pre-conceptual studies were focused upon a ''pancake'' core having a height-to-diameter of 0.5. It was found that a compact core with high average burn up could be realized with a height-to-diameter ratio of 0.8. Second, the initial assumed reactor vessel height of 12.2 meters limited the height of the Pb-to-CO{sub 2} in-reactor heat exchangers (HXs) which reduced the efficiency of supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton cycle power converter. It was found that by increasing the reactor vessel height to 18 meters, the greater driving …

The present research program is centered on the experimental and numerical study of two instabilities that develop at the interface between two different fluids when the interface experiences an impulsive or a constant acceleration. The instabilities, called the Richtmyer-Meshkov and Rayleigh-Taylor instability, respectively, adversely affect target implosion in experiments aimed at the achievement of nuclear fusion by inertial confinement by causing the nuclear fuel contained in a target and the shell material to mix, leading to contamination of the fuel, yield reduction or no ignition at all. The laboratory experiments summarized in this report include shock tube experiments to study a shock-accelerated bubble and a shock-accelerated 2-D sinusoidal interface; and experiments based on the use of magnetorheological fluids for the study of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Computational experiments based on the shock tube experimental conditions are also reported.

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This paper evaluates the accuracy of two methods to forecast natural gas prices: using the Energy Information Administration's ''Annual Energy Outlook'' forecasted price (AEO) and the ''Henry Hub'' compared to U.S. Wellhead futures price. A statistical analysis is performed to determine the relative accuracy of the two measures in the recent past. A statistical analysis suggests that the Henry Hub futures price provides a more accurate average forecast of natural gas prices than the AEO. For example, the Henry Hub futures price underestimated the natural gas price by 35 cents per thousand cubic feet (11.5 percent) between 1996 and 2003 and the AEO underestimated by 71 cents per thousand cubic feet (23.4 percent). Upon closer inspection, a liner regression analysis reveals that two distinct time periods exist, the period between 1996 to 1999 and the period between 2000 to 2003. For the time period between 1996 to 1999, AEO showed a weak negative correlation (R-square = 0.19) between forecast price by actual U.S. Wellhead natural gas price versus the Henry Hub with a weak positive correlation (R-square = 0.20) between forecasted price and U.S. Wellhead natural gas price. During the time period between 2000 to 2003, AEO shows a moderate …

Primary and secondary metabolism intersect in the one-carbon (C1) area. Primary metabolism supplies most of the C1 units and competes with secondary metabolism for their use. This competition is potentially severe because secondary products such as lignin, alkaloids, and glycine betaine (GlyBet) require massive amounts of C1 units. Towards the goal of understanding how C1 metabolism is regulated at the metabolic and gene levels so as to successfully engineer C1 supply to match demand, we have: (1) cloned complete suites of C1 genes from maize and tobacco, and incorporated them into DNA arrays; (2) prepared antisense constructs and mutants engineered with alterations in C1 unit supply and demand; and (3) have quantified the impacts of these alterations on gene expression (using DNA arrays), and on metabolic fluxes (by combining isotope labeling, MS, NMR and computer modeling). Metabolic flux analysis and modeling in tobacco engineered for GlyBet synthesis by expressing choline oxidizing enzymes in either the chloroplast or cytosol, has shown that the choline biosynthesis network is rigid, and tends to resist large changes in C1 demand. A major constraint on engineering enhanced flux to GlyBet in tobacco is a low capacity of choline transport across the chloroplast envelope. Maize and …

The inventory of dust in next-step magnetic fusion devices will be regulated for safety reasons, however diagnostics to measure in-vessel dust are still in their infancy. Advances in dust particle detection on remote surfaces are reported. Two grids of interlocking circuit traces with spacing in the range 125 mu m to 25 mu m are biased to 30 V. Impinging dust creates a short circuit and the result current pulse is recorded. The detector response was measured with particles scraped from a carbon fiber composite tile and sorted by size category. The finest 25 mu m grid showed a sensitivity more than an order of magnitude higher than the 125 mu m grid. The response to the finest particle categories (5 –30 mu m) was two orders of magnitude higher than the largest (125 –250 mu m) category. Longer duration current pulses were observed from the coarser particles. The results indicate a detection threshold for fine particles below 1 mu g/cm^2.

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This report focuses on the 12.4 million students enrolled as undergraduates in the fall of 2000, describing key attributes of the population. It also analyzes current rates at which different socioeconomic groups participate in postsecondary education and considers the future composition of the postsecondary student population.

This report examines the historical issue of child labor in America and carries it through the 108th Congress.

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This report reviews available data on these populations and attempts to measure the extent to which high school graduates from these groups go on to college. This report is intended as a supplement to CRS Report RL31622, TRIO and Gear Up Programs: Status and Issues.

This report provides details about the Industry,its workforce and the labor standards of the Funeral Services.It examines both the professional and categorical approaches and their policy implications.

This report provides a legal analysis of the recent Court ruling as well as background information on the federal sentencing guidelines. The report then discusses legislation enacted in 1984 that created the current federal sentencing structure. The report concludes with an analysis of possible policy options the 109th Congress may wish to consider if it chooses to address this issue.

This reports surveys selected provisions that have been of interest to past congresses that have considered comparable legislation.

The purpose of this technical feasibility study was to develop and evaluate robust microgenomic tools for investigations of genome-wide expression of very small numbers of cells isolated from whole tissue sections. Tissues contain large numbers of cell-types that play varied roles in organ function and responses to endogenous and exogenous toxicants whether bacterial, viral, chemical or radiation. Expression studies of whole tissue biopsy are severely limited because heterogeneous cell-types result in an averaging of molecular signals masking subtle but important changes in gene expression in any one cell type(s) or group of cells. Accurate gene expression analysis requires the study of specific cell types in their tissue environment but without contamination from surrounding cells. Laser capture microdissection (LCM) is a new technology to isolate morphologically distinct cells from tissue sections. Alternative methods are available for isolating single cells but not yet for their reliable genome-wide expression analyses. The tasks of this feasibility project were to: (1) Develop efficient protocols for laser capture microdissection of cells from tissues identified by antibody label, or morphological stain. (2) Develop reproducible gene-transcript analyses techniques for single cell-types and determine the numbers of cells needed for reliable genome-wide analyses. (3) Validate the technology for epithelial …

This report compares the provisions of the final regulations with similar provisions from title 5, chapter 71 of the U.S. Code.

In the 108th Congress, two workhours flexibility bills have been introduced. This report contains information on the issue of comp time.