Growth rates and the ability to date an organism can greatly contribute to understanding its population biology and community dynamics. 1n 1954, Andreev proposed a method to date Cladina, a fruticose lichen, using total thallus length and number of internodes. No research, however, has demonstrated the reliability of this technique or compared its estimates to those derived by other means. In this study, we demonstrate the utility of {sup 14}C/C ratios to determine lichen age and growth rate in Cladina stygia (Fr.) Ahti collected from northwestern Alaska, USA. The average growth rate using {sup 14}C/C ratios was 6.5 mm {center_dot} yr{sup -1}, which was not significantly different from growth rates derived by Andreev's internode method (average = 6.2 mm {center_dot} yr{sup -1}); thus, suggesting the reliability of Andreev's simple field method for dating lichens. In addition, we found lichen growth rates appeared to differ with geographic location, yet did not seem related to ambient temperature and total precipitation.

The Constitution of the United States makes no specific allowance for any one of the co-equal branches to have access to information held by the others and contains no provision expressly establishing a procedure for, or a right of, public access to government information. Nonetheless, Congress has legislated various public access laws. These include two records access statutes — the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act — and two meetings access statutes — the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the Government in the Sunshine Act. This report provides background on the issue of government transparency and examines relevant litigation.

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This report is on China’s 17th Communist Party Congress, 2007: Leadership and Policy Implications.

Each of the hypothetical accident test cases for the 9977 prototypes was included in the battery of finite element structural analyses performed for the package. Comparison of the experimental and analytical results provides a means of confirming that the analytical model correctly represents the physical behavior of the package. The ability of the analytical model to correctly predict the performance of the foam overpack material for the crush test is of particular interest. The dissipation of energy in the crushing process determines the deceleration of the package upon impact and the duration of the impact. In addition, if the analytical model correctly models the foam behavior, the predicted deformation of the package will match that measured on the test articles. This study compares the deformations of the test packages with the analytical predictions. In addition, the impact acceleration and impact duration for the test articles are compared with those predicted by the analyses.

This report compares only the major provisions in the House-and Senate-passed versions of the 2007 farm bill with each other and with current law.

This report provides information about the Data Mining and Homeland Security. Data mining has become one of the key features of the homeland security initiatives. Data mining can be a potential means to identify terrorist activities such as money transfer etc.

This report provides the results of a random survey of adult Texas residents aged 18 and older to measure the citizen participation rates, the distribution and frequency of play, and the demographic profiles of the past-year lottery players and non-players.

The epidemiological and economic modeling of poultry diseases requires knowing the size, location, and operational type of each poultry type operation within the US. At the present time, the only national database of poultry operations that is available to the general public is the USDA's 2002 Agricultural Census data, published by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, herein referred to as the 'NASS data'. The NASS data provides census data at the county level on poultry operations for various operation types (i.e., layers, broilers, turkeys, ducks, geese). However, the number of farms and sizes of farms for the various types are not independent since some facilities have more than one type of operation. Furthermore, some data on the number of birds represents the number sold, which does not represent the number of birds present at any given time. In addition, any data tabulated by NASS that could identify numbers of birds or other data reported by an individual respondent is suppressed by NASS and coded with a 'D'. To be useful for epidemiological and economic modeling, the NASS data must be converted into a unique set of facility types (farms having similar operational characteristics). The unique set must not double count …

In the thermal analysis of the 9977 package, it was found that calculated temperatures, determined using a typical thermal analysis code, did not match those measured in the experimental apparatus. The analysis indicated that the thermal resistance of the overpack in the experimental apparatus was less than that expected, based on manufacturer's reported value of thermal conductivity. To resolve this question, the thermal conductivity of the installed foam was evaluated from the experimental results, using a simplified analysis. This study confirmed that the thermal resistance of the experimental apparatus was lower than that which would result from the manufacturer's published values for thermal conductivity of the foam insulation. The test package was sectioned to obtain samples for measurement of material properties. In the course of the destructive examination a large uninsulated region was found at the bottom of the package, which accounted for the anomalous results. Subsequent measurement of thermal conductivity confirmed the manufacturer's published values. The study provides useful insight into the use of simplified, scoping calculations for evaluation of thermal performance of packages.

The first observation of e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation into states of positive C parity, {rho}{sup 0}{rho}{sup 0} and {phi}{phi}{sup 0} is reported. It is shown that these final states are produced through two-virtual-photon annihilation. this is based on the distributions of cos{theta}*, where {theta}* is the center-of-mass polar angle of {phi} or {rho}{sup 0}. The cross sections for the |cos{theta}*| < 0.8 are measured. In addition, the observation of another channel, e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} {phi}{eta} near {radical}s = 10.58 Gev with a significance of 6.5{sigma} is discussed. The cross section of the later channel for |cos{theta}*| < 0.8 is measured, where {theta}* is the center-of-mass polar angle of {phi} meson.

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This report provides a brief overview of federal law with respect to six selected advertising issues: alcohol advertising, tobacco advertising, the federal trade commission act, advertising by mail, advertising by telephone, and commercial e-mail.

These results are from the continuing Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics runs on BG/L. These results are from the Ferrenberg-Swendsen analysis [?] of the combined data from LLNL and NYBlue BG/L runs for 32{sup 3} x 8 runs with the p4rhmc v2.0 QMP-MPI.X (semi-optimized p4 code using qmp over mpi). The jobs include beta values ranging from 3.525 to 3.535 with an alternate analysis extending to 3.540. The NYBlue data sets are from 9k trajectories from Oct 2007, and the LLNL data are from two independent streams of {approx}5k each, taking from the July 2007 runs. The following outputs are produced by the fs-2+1-chiub.c program. All outputs have had checksums produced by addCks.pl and checked by the checkCks.pl perl script after scanning.

This report presents historical development and options for change related to Franking Privilege.

The purpose of this annual monitoring report is to evaluate the conditions of and identify trends for groundwater beneath the ERDF and to report leachate results in fulfillment of the requirements specified in the ERDF ROD.

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The primary goal of the BaBar and Belle experiments is to overconstrain the CKM Unitarity Triangle. Measurements of the angles of this triangle, known as {beta}, {alpha}, and {gamma} (or {phi}{sub 1}, {phi}{sub 2}, and {phi}{sub 3}) give insight into the Standard Model description of CP violation in the quark sector. BaBar and Belle have recorded almost 1 ab{sup -1} combined, and have measured {beta} to high precision. Measurements of {alpha} and {gamma} are less precise at present, but both experiments are rapidly accumulating data and developing new analysis techniques, and measurements of these angles will continue to provide useful constraints on the Standard Model description of CP violation in the years to come.

The parameter kappa was defined by Anderson and Hough (1984) to describe the high-frequency spectral roll-off of the strong motion seismic spectrum. In the work of Su et al., (1996) the numerical value of kappa estimated for sites near Yucca Mountain was small (~20 ms). The estimate obtained from these events has been applied through a rigorous methodology to develop design earthquake spectra with magnitude over 5.0. Smaller values of kappa lead to higher estimated ground motions in the methodology used by the Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) for Yucca Mountain. An increase of 10 ms in kappa could result in a substantial decrease in the high frequency level of the predicted ground motions. Any parameter that plays such a critical role deserves close examination. Here, we study kappa and its associated uncertainties. The data set used by Su et al (1996) consisted of 12 M 2.8 to 4.5 earthquakes recorded at temporary stations deployed after the June 1992 Little Skull Mountain earthquake. The kappa elements of that study were revisited by Anderson and Su (MOL.20071203.0134) and substantially confirmed. One weakness of those studies is the limited data used. Few of these stations were on tuff or on Yucca Mountain …

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