On February 18, 2007, the Washington Post published the first in a series of articles describing problems with outpatient medical care and other services provided at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The series noted, among other things, concerns about the processes used to evaluate disability in injured military servicemembers. This report is intended as a primer to describe disability evaluation in general, including evaluations used by the Department of Defense and the Veterans Affairs administration, as well as evaluations used by the Social Security Administration and by workers' compensation program.

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Recent tax reductions reduce the effective tax rate on capital income in several different ways. Taxes on capital arise from individual taxes on dividends, interest, capital gains, and income from non-corporate businesses. This report contains data on the distribution of income by type and class, shifting the incidence of taxes, the effect of the savings response, and related information.

The analysis of actinides in animal tissue samples is very important for environmental monitoring. There is a need to measure actinide isotopes with very low detection limits in animal tissue samples, including fish, deer, hogs, beef and shellfish. A new, rapid actinide separation method has been developed and implemented that allows the measurement of plutonium, neptunium, uranium, americium, curium and strontium isotopes in large animal tissue samples (100-200 g) with high chemical recoveries and effective removal of matrix interferences. This method uses stacked TEVA Resin{reg_sign}, TRU Resin{reg_sign} and DGA-Resin{reg_sign} cartridges from Eichrom Technologies (Darien, IL, USA) that allows the rapid separation of plutonium (Pu), neptunium (Np), uranium (U), americium (Am), and curium (Cm) using a single multi-stage column combined with alpha spectrometry. Sr-90 is collected on Sr Resin{reg_sign} from Eichrom Technologies (Darien, IL, USA). After acid digestion and furnace heating of the animal tissue samples, the actinides and Sr-89/90 are separated using column extraction chromatography. This method has been shown to be effective over a wide range of animal tissue matrices. By using vacuum box cartridge technology with rapid flow rates, sample preparation time is minimized.

Annual maintenance of the Columbia River navigation channel requires the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to dredge sediment from the river and dispose of the sediment in coastal areas at the mouth of the Columbia River. Some of these disposal areas can be as shallow as 12 m deep in waters off the coastal beaches, and dredged material disposal activities have therefore raised concerns of impacts to local razor clam (Siliqua patula) populations that are prevalent in the area. The Corps’ Portland District requested that the Marine Sciences Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory conduct laboratory experiments to evaluate the potential impacts of burial by dredged material to razor clams during disposal. Prior modeling of disposal events indicates three stresses that could have an impact on benthic invertebrates: convective descent and bottom encounter (compression forces due to bottom impact), dynamic collapse and spreading (surge as material washes over the bottom), and mounding (burial by material). Because the razor clam is infaunal, the effects of the first two components should be minimal, because the clams should be protected by substrate that is not eroded in the event and by the clams’ rapid digging capabilities. The …

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We describe the use of a flow-focusing microfluidic reactorto measure the kinetics of theCdSe-to-Ag2Se nanocrystal cation exchangereaction using micro-X-ray absorption spectroscopy (mu XAS). The smallmicroreactor dimensions facilitate the millisecond mixing of CdSenanocrystal and Ag+ reactant solutions, and the transposition of thereaction time onto spatial coordinates enables the in situ observation ofthe millisecond reaction with mu XAS. XAS spectra show the progression ofCdSe nanocrystals to Ag2Se over the course of 100 ms without the presenceof long-lived intermediates. These results, along with supporting stoppedflow absorption experiments, suggest that this nanocrystal cationexchange reaction is highly efficient and provide insight into how thereaction progresses in individual particles. This experiment illustratesthe value and potential of in situ microfluidic X-ray synchrotrontechniques for detailed studies of the millisecond structuraltransformations of nanoparticles and other solution-phase reactions inwhich diffusive mixing initiates changes in local bond structures oroxidation states.

This report details the legal side of importation of prescription drugs as well as the sale of prescription drugs online. Updated May 7, 2007.