A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's (PBGC) single-employer insurance program insures the pension benefits of over 34 million participants in almost 29,000 private sector defined benefit pension plans. The increase in PBGC's probable claims has raised questions about PBGC's monitoring and financial disclosure practices, including whether the information that PBGC discloses is sufficient for interested parties to understand the effect on PBGC's financial condition. GAO examined (1) the steps that PBGC takes to monitor and ensure the accuracy of its probable claims, (2) how PBGC's financial liability reporting compares with those of publicly traded companies, and (3) the steps PBGC has taken to improve the transparency of its financial reporting and whether additional improvement is needed."

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We summarize the observations of unusual optical properties of shocked liquid deuterium (D{sub 2}) that led to proposing spectroscopic measurements. The apparatus built for the measurements is briefly described, along with some representative results in a test material. Unfortunately, spectroscopic measurements were not performed in shocked D{sub 2} during the course of the project. Some reasons are noted.

This report summarizes the issues with reauthorizing the Higher Education Act (HEA) and highlights accreditation in particular. One consideration the report contains is the possibility of Congress changing the role accreditation plays in reference to financial aid for students. Moreover, the report considers the place of accreditation in reference to the overall quality of an academic institution.

This report provides basic eligibility rules, recipient numbers, and FY2002-FY2004 expenditure data for 80 programs that have provided cash or non-cash benefits to low-income persons.

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The purpose of this DOE-funded effort is to develop continuous processes for solvent extraction of coal for the production of carbon products. These carbon products include materials used in metals smelting, especially in the aluminum and steel industries, as well as porous carbon structural material referred to as ''carbon foam'' and carbon fibers. During this reporting period, efforts have focused on the development of continuous processes for hydrogenation as well as continuous production of carbon foam and coke.

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This is a technical report prepared for Oregon Sustainable Energy, LLC, under Agreement 06-19 with PNNL's Office of Small Business Programs. The request was to perform a review of the toxicity and safe handling of guanidine. The request was later amended to add urea. This report summarizes the toxicity data available in the scientific literature and provides an interpretation of the results and recommendations for handling these compounds.

The authors present a measurement of the branching fraction of the decay B{sup 0} {yields} a{sub 1}{sup {+-}}(1260){pi}{sup {-+}} with a{sub 1}{sup {+-}}(1260) {yields} {pi}{sup {-+}}{pi}{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {+-}}. The data sample corresponds to 218 x 10{sup 6} B{bar B} pairs produced in e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation through the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance. The authors measure the branching fraction {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} a{sub 1}{sup {+-}}(1260){pi}{sup {-+}}){Beta}(a{sub 1}{sup {+-}}(1260){yields} {pi}{sup {-+}}{pi}{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {+-}})=(16.6 {+-} 1.9 {+-} 1.5) x 10{sup -6}, where the first error quoted is statistical and the second is systematic.

An accelerated alpha-decay damage study of a glass-bonded sodalite ceramic waste form has recently been completed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the physical and chemical durability of the waste form after significant exposure to alpha decay. This accelerated alpha-decay study was performed by doping the ceramic waste form with {sup 238}Pu which has a much greater specific activity than {sup 239}Pu that is normally present in the waste form. The alpha-decay dose at the end of the four year study was approximately 1 x 10{sup 18} alpha-decays/gram of material. An equivalent time period for a similar dose of {sup 239}Pu would require approximately 1100 years. After four years of exposure to {sup 238}Pu alpha decay, the investigation observed little change to the physical or chemical durability of the ceramic waste form (CWF). Specifically, the {sup 238}Pu-loaded CWF maintained it's physical integrity, namely that the density remained constant and no cracking or phase de-bonding was observed. The materials chemical durability and phase stability also did not change significantly over the duration of the study. The only significant measured change was an increase of the unit-cell lattice parameters of the plutonium oxide and sodalite phases of the material and …

This report discusses the status and current issues regarding animal agriculture that is being transformed by rapid advances in biotechnology. This report will be updated as significant developments in agricultural biotechnology occur and as Congress develops legislation addressing emerging agricultural biotechnology issues.

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In the 108th Congress, debate over energy efficiency programs has focused on budget, oil, natural gas, and electricity issues, and provisions in the omnibus energy policy bill, S. 2095, H.R. 6, and S. 14/S. 1149. The Bush Administration’s FY2005 budget request for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy Efficiency Program sought $875.9 million, including $543.9 for R&D and $332.0 million for grants. In the first session, the omnibus energy bill (H.R. 6) had several significant tax and regulatory measures for energy efficiency. It did not pass the Senate due to concerns about cost and an MTBE “safe harbor” provision.

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