This report discusses several opinions Judge Samuel Alito has written regarding federalism.

Report on the issue of how to protect employees who are willing to alert Congress about agency wrongdoing.

This report presents a brief overview of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) programs for veterans as well as some of the issues that have been or likely will be subjects of congressional attention during the 109th Congress. In particular, it outlines the veterans benefits provisions that have seen legislative action. Issues concerning the Veterans Health Administration and health care issues are discussed in a companion report, CRS Report RL32961, Veterans’ Health Care Issues in the 109th Congress, by Sidath Viranga Panangala.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Roughly 700,000 veterans have been unemployed in recent months, a figure that could swell considerably with the anticipated increase in the number of people leaving active duty. Congress passed the Jobs for Veterans Act in 2002 to improve employment and training services for veterans and to encourage employers to hire them. As mandated by law, GAO reviewed progress to date in its implementation, including the development of new staff roles and responsibilities, performance accountability system, incentive awards, and priority of service to veterans. GAO examined (1) implementation status of the key provisions and any associated challenges, (2) what is known about services and outcomes since the law's enactment, and (3) changes in program accountability."

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

The objective of this study was to develop the Automated Steel Cleanliness Analysis Tool (ASCATTM) to permit steelmakers to evaluate the quality of the steel through the analysis of individual inclusions. By characterizing individual inclusions, determinations can be made as to the cleanliness of the steel. Understanding the complicating effects of inclusions in the steelmaking process and on the resulting properties of steel allows the steel producer to increase throughput, better control the process, reduce remelts, and improve the quality of the product. The ASCAT (Figure 1) is a steel-smart inclusion analysis tool developed around a customized next-generation computer controlled scanning electron microscopy (NG-CCSEM) hardware platform that permits acquisition of inclusion size and composition data at a rate never before possible in SEM-based instruments. With built-in customized ''intelligent'' software, the inclusion data is automatically sorted into clusters representing different inclusion types to define the characteristics of a particular heat (Figure 2). The ASCAT represents an innovative new tool for the collection of statistically meaningful data on inclusions, and provides a means of understanding the complicated effects of inclusions in the steel making process and on the resulting properties of steel. Research conducted by RJLG with AISI (American Iron and Steel …

Final Report of On-Board Vehicle, Cost Effective Hydrogen Enhancement Technology for Transportation PEM Fuel Cells. The objective of this effort was to technologically enable a compact, fast start-up integrated Water Gas Shift-Pd membrane reactor for integration into an On Board Fuel Processing System (FPS) for an automotive 50 kWe PEM Fuel Cell (PEM FC). Our approach was to: (1) use physics based reactor and system level models to optimize the design through trade studies of the various system design and operating parameters; and (2) synthesize, characterize and assess the performance of advanced high flux, high selectivity, Pd alloy membranes on porous stainless steel tubes for mechanical strength and robustness. In parallel and not part of this program we were simultaneously developing air tolerant, high volumetric activity, thermally stable Water Gas Shift catalysts for the WGS/membrane reactor. We identified through our models the optimum WGS/membrane reactor configuration, and best Pd membrane/FPS and PEM FC integration scheme. Such a PEM FC power plant was shown through the models to offer 6% higher efficiency than a system without the integrated membrane reactor. The estimated FPS response time was < 1 minute to 50% power on start-up, 5 sec transient response time, 1140 W/L …

In 2002, Gnomon, Inc., entered into a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) for a project entitled, Adaptive Management and Planning Models for Cultural Resources in Oil and Gas Fields in New Mexico and Wyoming (DE-FC26-02NT15445). This project, funded through DOE’s Preferred Upstream Management Practices grant program, examined cultural resource management practices in two major oil- and gas-producing areas, southeastern New Mexico and the Powder River Basin of Wyoming (Figure 1). The purpose of this project was to examine how cultural resources have been investigated and managed and to identify more effective management practices. The project also was designed to build information technology and modeling tools to meet both current and future management needs. The goals of the project were described in the original proposal as follows: Goal 1. Create seamless information systems for the project areas. Goal 2. Examine what we have learned from archaeological work in the southeastern New Mexico oil fields and whether there are better ways to gain additional knowledge more rapidly or at a lower cost. Goal 3. Provide useful sensitivity models for planning, management, and as guidelines for field investigations. Goal 4. Integrate management, investigation, and …

Rolling resistance, a measure of the energy lost as a tire rotates while moving, is a significant source of power and fuel loss. Recently, low rolling resistant tires have been formulated by adding silica to tire tread. These "Green Tires" (so named from the environmental advantages of lower emissions and improved fuel economy) have seen some commercial success in Europe, where high fuel prices and performance drive tire selection. Unfortunately, the higher costs of the silica and a more complicated manufacturing process have prevented significant commercialization - and the resulting fuel savings - in the U.S. In this project, TDA Research, Inc. (TDA) prepared an inexpensive alternative to silica that leads to tire components with lower rolling resistance. These new tire composite materials were processed with traditional rubber processing equipment. We prepared specially designed nanoparticle additives, based on a high purity, inorganic mineral whose surface can be easily modified for compatibility with tire tread formulations. Our nanocomposites decreased energy losses to hysteresis, the loss of energy from the compression and relaxation of an elastic material, by nearly 20% compared to a blank SBR sample. We also demonstrated better performance than a leading silica product, with easier production of our final …

Our work will fucus on developing higher temperature MEAs based on SPEKK polymer blends. Thse MEAs will be designed to operatre at 120 degrees C Higher temperatures, up to 200 degrees C will also be explored. This project will develop Nafion-free MEAs using only SPEKK blends in both membrane and catalytic layers.

This document analyzes lighting technology opportunities with high return on investment energy savings for the Federal sector.

A new approach has been developed by modifying a conventional gradient elution liquid chromatograph for the high throughput screening of biological samples to detect the presence of regulated intoxicants. The goal of this work was to improve the speed of a gradient elution screening method over current approaches by optimizing the operational parameters of both the column and the instrument without compromising the reproducibility of the retention times, which are the basis for the identification. Most importantly, the novel instrument configuration substantially reduces the time needed to re-equilibrate the column between gradient runs, thereby reducing the total time for each analysis. The total analysis time for each gradient elution run is only 2.8 minutes, including 0.3 minutes for column reequilibration between analyses. Retention times standard calibration solutes are reproducible to better than 0.002 minutes in consecutive runs. A corrected retention index was adopted to account for day-to-day and column-to-column variations in retention time. The discriminating power and mean list length were calculated for a library of 47 intoxicants and compared with previous work from other laboratories to evaluate fast gradient elution HPLC as a screening tool.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in very low fields isfundamentally limited by untruncated concomitant gradients which causesevere distortions in image acquisition and volume selection if thegradient fields are strong compared to the static field. In this paper,it is shown that gradient fields oscillating in quadrature can be usedfor spatial encoding in low fields and provide substantial improvementsover conventional encoding methods using static gradients. In particular,cases where the gradient field is comparable to or higher than theexternal field, Gmax/B0>1, are examined. It is shown thatundistorted slice selection and image encoding is possible because ofsmaller geometric phase errors introduced during cyclic motions of theHamiltonian. In the low field limit (Gmax/B_0 ->infinity) sliceselection is achieved with a combination of soft pulse segments and acoherent train of hard pulses to average out concomitant fields over thefast scale of the rf Hamiltonian.

The power industry in the U.S. is faced with meeting new regulations to reduce the emissions of mercury compounds from coal-fired plants. These regulations are directed at the existing fleet of nearly 1,100 boilers. These plants are relatively old with an average age of over 40 years. Although most of these units are capable of operating for many additional years, there is a desire to minimize large capital expenditures because of the reduced (and unknown) remaining life of the plant to amortize the project. Injecting a sorbent such as powdered activated carbon into the flue gas represents one of the simplest and most mature approaches to controlling mercury emissions from coal-fired boilers. This is the final site report for tests conducted at Laramie River Station Unit 3, one of five sites evaluated in this DOE/NETL program. The overall objective of the test program is to evaluate the capabilities of activated carbon injection at five plants: Sunflower Electric's Holcomb Station Unit 1, AmerenUE's Meramec Station Unit 2, Missouri Basin Power Project's Laramie River Station Unit 3, Detroit Edison's Monroe Power Plant Unit 4, and AEP's Conesville Station Unit 6. These plants have configurations that together represent 78% of the existing coal-fired …

Product life-cycle optimization addresses the reduction ofenvironmental burdens associated with the production, use, andend-of-life stages of a product s life cycle. In this paper, we offer anevaluation of the opportunities related to product life-cycleoptimization in California for two key products: personal computers (PCs)and concrete. For each product, we present the results of an explorativecase study to identify specific opportunities for greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions reductions at each stage of the product life cycle. We thenoffer a discussion of the practical policy options that may exist forrealizing the identified GHG reduction opportunities. The case studiesdemonstrate that there may be significant GHG mitigation options as wellas a number of policy options that could lead to life-cycle GHG emissionsreductions for PCs and concrete in California.

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The two year feasibility project was conducted to determine if the Makah reservation wind resource is viable for commercial generation and to investigate the viability and implementaiton of a tribal utility company capable of conducting energy business on the reservation.

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The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) operates millimeter wavelength cloud radars (MMCRs) in several climatological regimes. The MMCRs, are the primary observing tool for quantifying the properties of nearly all radiatively important clouds over the ACRF sites. The first MMCR was installed at the ACRF Southern Great Plains (SGP) site nine years ago and its original design can be traced to the early 90s. Since then, several MMCRs have been deployed at the ACRF sites, while no significant hardware upgrades have been performed. Recently, a two-stage upgrade (first C-40 Digital Signal Processors [DSP]-based, and later the PC-Integrated Radar AcQuisition System [PIRAQ-III] digital receiver) of the MMCR signal-processing units was completed. Our future MMCR related goals are: 1) to have a cloud radar system that continues to have high reliability and uptime and 2) to suggest potential improvements that will address increased sensitivity needs, superior sampling and low cost maintenance of the MMCRs. The Traveling Wave Tube (TWT) technology, the frequency (35-GHz), the radio frequency (RF) layout, antenna, the calibration and radar control procedure and the environmental enclosure of the MMCR remain assets for our ability to detect the profile of …